Chapter 127 Retreat to Jinwei Mountain
"Hurry." The prefect pulled the yamen runner beside him, "Hurry, whip your horses and chase after them..."
The yamen runner was confused, "Sir, where can we chase him?"
The prefect was also stunned. Yes, where can we chase him?
"Sir, could it be..." The bailiff swallowed, "Did he see a ghost?"
Otherwise, he really couldn't understand how so much food... could disappear out of thin air?
"Well, well..." The prefect glanced around before finally coming up with a solution. "Well, quickly, send someone back to the capital to report this matter."
"Go to the military camp and report..."
"He Yunfu has run out of food. Let them figure it out on their own."
"Yes." The bailiff took the order and left. Without the bailiff's support, the prefect fell to his knees on the ground with a thud.
"Sir." The granary guard came up and helped him up. "Sir, be careful."
"Be careful? What do you mean by careful?" The prefect violently shook off the man's hand. "You're about to die and still need to be careful."
He climbed onto the carriage he had come in. "Seal off the city, go back, seal off the city immediately."
Even if it is too late to lock down the city, we still have to do what we need to do.
The soldiers transporting grain had already left the city and rushed to the military camp.
After Ling Chan took a walk around He Yun's mansion, she also left the city.
The prefect's carriage did not return to He Yun Mansion until an hour later, and the entire He Yun Mansion was then sealed off.
At the same time, the yamen runner sent by the prefect to report the news to the military camp followed Ling Chan.
Ling Chan sped up and soon caught up with Hongdou and the others.
That night, the soldiers did not stop for a moment, and Ling Chan and the others did not stop for a moment either.
By noon the next day, they finally approached the military camp.
Ling Chan had pinched a stone in her hand at some point, and when she saw the right opportunity, she threw it directly at the leg of the horse in front of her.
These horses had been running for a whole day and night and were already tired. When they were hit by Ling Chan's stones, they fell to their knees.
The frame it was pulling tilted forward as it knelt.
"Ah..." The driver on the carriage was caught off guard and fell directly to the ground.
Because the first horse had an accident, the other carriages also stopped, and people around rushed to the first horse to check the situation.
Ling Chan took advantage of this opportunity and said, "I'll go up and take a look. You guys just follow me."
Then, without waiting for Liu Huaiyu to offer any opinion, he rushed directly towards the carriages.
There was no one guarding the horse behind her, so she went straight in and came out after a while.
Then came the other horses...except for the first few horses that were surrounded by a lot of people.
"I've been running non-stop for so long, I'm tired."
"Everyone, take a break."
"Eat something and drink some water."
"yes!"
The soldiers returned to their wagons and took their rations and water bags.
One of the soldiers suddenly felt something was wrong as he got on the carriage.
The carriage was filled with grain and was very heavy. A person sitting on it would not feel any noticeable sinking, but when he sat on it just now...
The suspicious soldiers opened the carriage...
“The food is gone!!”
His words made the other soldiers drop their rations and water bags and open the carriage to check.
“My food is gone too!!!”
"I'm here too."
“We have it here too.”
"What's going on?! I'm missing here too."
"Sir, we're out of food here too!!"
The sounds that came one after another stunned the leading commander.
He walked back in disbelief, looking over as he drove...
Of the fifty horse-drawn carriages, only three had food left, and the food in the other forty-seven carriages had disappeared without anyone noticing.
"Sir, it was clearly there just now, and it's gone in just a moment."
"Yeah, it's not even half a cup of tea."
"What the hell is going on?"
"No, could it be... a ghost?" someone in the crowd said tremblingly.
The commander scolded without thinking, "What nonsense?!"
"Where do ghosts and gods come from in this world?"
But his heart was also beating fast. After all, it was too weird that all this happened right before his eyes.
"Sir? What do we do now?"
"What should we do? Our brothers in the army are still waiting for food."
Although the food in these fifty horse-drawn carts can only provide enough food and water for the soldiers, it is better than nothing.
Now there are only three carts of food left...
"Go back to the army first." The leading commander turned back and gave the order.
It’s not that he didn’t want to investigate, but there were no traces or clues at all.
And they are short-staffed.
After returning to the army, he reported the news to Hailasu and Jiu Hongtu. The two looked at each other and saw shock in each other's eyes.
"You...didn't find anything?" Hailasu asked.
The soldier commander nodded and said, "Reporting to the lieutenant general, we...we haven't found anything."
"It's as if the food disappeared out of thin air."
"There were no footprints around the carriage, nothing was lost, it was completely silent..."
"The soldiers even suspected that it was ghosts..."
Hailasu did not refute immediately, and neither did Jiu Hongtu.
It's so strange that food disappeared twice.
"It can't be a ghost..." Hailasu muttered to himself.
Ju Hongtu's brain was not as sharp as Hailasu's, so he could only look to Hailasu for such brain-intensive tasks.
And Hailasu did think of a possibility.
"There are countless talented people in the Daqi martial arts world. I heard that they can walk on snow without leaving any trace..."
Jiu Hongtu had also heard of this, but… "Even if they were very skilled in Qinggong, how could they carry away so much food without leaving any trace?"
Hailasu looked up at him and said, "That's hard to say."
"Although I haven't had the chance to witness the heroic deeds of the Daqi people, we in Dahe also have heroes. They are agile and can come and go without a trace..."
His eyes rolled back and forth, "Looks like we, the Great He Knights, will have to lend a hand to the court."
Jiu Hongtu asked honestly, "How...how should we do this?"
People in the underworld are not subject to the control of the imperial court.
Hailasu exhaled, "Don't worry about it, I will send a letter to the court immediately."
Before leaving the military camp, the messenger sent by the prefect of Heyun Prefecture arrived.
"General? General?" He clasped his hands together and called out uncertainly.
"What's the matter?" Jiu Hongtu asked first.
The visitor looked at Jiu Hongtu and said, "General, I am a servant from the Heyun Prefecture's yamen. The prefect has sent me to report."
"All the food in the reserve granary of He Yun Mansion disappeared out of thin air!"
"What?!" Even though Hailasu had experienced the shock of food disappearance twice, he still felt shocked.
"There's no clue, no trace? Nobody knows?"
The bailiff nodded, "Yes, General."
Hailasu clenched his fists. This happened again and again...
If it was really done by someone from the Daqi martial arts world, then... it's too bullying.
The yamen runner continued, "Our lord has reported this matter to the court."
"If the barracks need food, the generals can only ask for it from other prefectures and cities."
There are garrisons near every provincial capital, and they also have spare granaries. These granaries are generally managed jointly by the local prefect and the garrison general, but the local prefect is the most powerful.
Because these granaries were filled with taxes from the people in various places, as well as grain collected from official fields in various places, they were all managed by the prefect.
"But the brothers haven't eaten for three days. It takes at least ten days to go back and forth to the nearest capital..." Jiu Hongtu became anxious and raised his voice.
What annoyed Hailasu the most was his loud voice. "What's the point of your loud voice?"
"Hilasu, you!" Jiu Hongtu roared.
"If you're anxious, then take people to Jina Prefecture to transport grain yourself."
Upon hearing this, Jiu Hongtu hesitated, "I, I go to transport the grain? Will they give it to me?"
Hailasu rolled his eyes at him unceremoniously, "The emperor's top priority right now is to attack Daqi, and they dare not neglect this matter."
"My letter has been sent back to the capital. The emperor will definitely send someone to deliver food. Then we can return it to them."
"Jiu Hongtu, you can't even handle such a small matter, right?"
Faced with the provocative words, Jiu Hongtu immediately responded impulsively, "I will do it naturally. I will go right away."
As he spoke, he walked outside the tent and said, "Come here, follow me to Jina Prefecture to transport grain."
Hailasu looked at him like this and sighed again.
The soldiers who went to Heyun Prefecture to transport grain returned but the grain was lost, but the soldiers were unaware of the news.
But when he said this, the soldiers began to speculate.
"Why do we need to transport grain to Jina Prefecture?"
"When we came out, didn't the emperor have already sent food to He Yun Mansion?"
"Yeah, could it be that the food in He Yun Mansion is gone?"
"So that's why we have to go to Jina Prefecture to transport grain?"
Everyone hadn't eaten for three days. "Going to Jina Prefecture to transport food? It would take ten days to go back and forth."
"Then, what are we going to eat for the next ten days?"
They are hungry now and can only drink water. There is nothing left in their stomachs. If they don’t eat for ten days... they will starve to death.
The soldiers began to riot, and the commanders could not resist, so they had to come to Hailasu.
"General, the soldiers are starting to make trouble..." In fact, these commanders were also very depressed. They couldn't survive if they didn't eat for three days and only drank water.
Moreover, during these three days, Daqi soldiers came to launch surprise attacks from time to time.
Daqi had the upper hand in several raids, and no one knew when Daqi would attack them again.
Hailasu had no other options. The food had disappeared, and he couldn't create food out of thin air. "Commanders, do you have any ideas?"
The commanders looked at each other, what could they do?
But with so many people, there will always be people with ideas.
"General, how about we retreat to the vicinity of Jinwei Mountain?"
"Why?" Hailasu asked.
The commander replied, "There are wild vegetables and game on Jinwei Mountain, and there are fish, shrimp, and clams in the nearby Ganwei River."
"Besides, the roads there are narrow, so it would be difficult for Daqi to attack."
The commander in charge of transporting grain back to Heyun Mansion agreed, "Let's go along the Ganwei River. There are indeed a lot of fish in the river, and they are all big fish."
The ecological environment of rivers in this era is good, and there are many types and quantities of fish.
"Alright." Hailasu decided solemnly, "Then pass it on. Retreat in order, all towards the Ganwei River."
They were preparing to retreat, while Ling Chan and the others returned to the Daqi military camp.
The army was very skilled at setting up camp. The camp, which was originally ten miles away, was now firmly set up in the new location.
"These past few days, we've been making surprise attacks from time to time, and each time we've lost a significant number of people." Liu Hong has been in a very high spirits these past three days.
"Then why don't you pursue the victory?" Liu Huaiyu asked.
Liu Hong laughed and said, "You don't understand the principles of marching."
"If we chase too closely, our food and arrows won't keep up, and won't our brothers suffer?"
"So we have to proceed step by step and take our time."
Liu Huaiyu pursed his lips and said, "Well, what if Da He comes to his senses?"
Liu Hong raised his head confidently, "With so much food gone in the Dahe camp, they must ask the imperial court for food."
"How can the imperial grain be delivered so quickly?"
"Even if we were to ask for food from the surrounding prefectures, we would need a letter from the commander-in-chief. But Barhu is dead, so where would the letter come from?"
"Without the commander's letter, the prefects of each city could only give a few dozen carts of food as a token of appreciation."
"But this little bit of food..." Liu Hong shook his head, "It's completely useless."
What he said was the same as what Ling Chan, Liu Huaiyu and the others saw when they went to He Yun Mansion. Now Liu Huaiyu had no doubts.
"Where have you been for the past three days?" Liu Hong asked.
Ling Chan drank tea and said, "I went to He Yun Mansion."
"You went to He Yun Mansion?" Liu Hong opened his mouth slightly and looked at Liu Huaiyu, "Did you go in?"
Liu Huaiyu nodded, "Of course I went in."
The guards at He Yun Mansion are strict, but they can "fly".
"How is the situation in He Yun's mansion?"
Liu Huaiyu was slightly stunned. She was concentrating on the soldiers transporting grain and didn't pay much attention to what was happening in He Yun's mansion.
"Everything is normal in He Yun Mansion." Ling Chan put down her teacup and walked around the mansion. "The people don't seem to be worried about the war affecting them. They are living their normal lives and working in peace and contentment."
"I guess they think Da Hyuk has a sure win this time."
Unlike Dahe, the people of Daqi were terrified of war, especially Wufang County, which was closest to the border.
After so many years of war on the border, there are very few people left in Wufang County, and only the elderly are left.
They have feelings for their hometown and are reluctant to leave, but their descendants are forced to leave this homeland.
These descendants scattered all over Daqi, missing their homeland but finding it difficult to return.
The old man who stayed in Wufang County probably lived every day with the determination to die.
"Continue to encircle and kill the Dahe military camp tomorrow." Liu Hong gave the order with red eyes.
"General Liu." Xiao Jin entered the tent. "The scouts just reported that the Dahe army is retreating."
"Retreat?" Liu Hong stood up suddenly. "Are they planning to retreat back to He Yun Mansion?"
Thinking that Da He couldn't be defeated without a fight, Liu Hong shook his head and denied his thoughts, "Impossible."
"They will not retreat to He Yun Mansion."
Liu Hong flipped open the map and pointed at the area near Jinwei Mountain. "Are they planning to retreat here?"
Ling Chan looked over. She hadn't thought the map was crude before, but after visiting He Yun Mansion and looking at it again...
Not only is it simple, but it also has deviations.
"General Liu, this map is too old. We've been on this trip. I'll draw it tonight."
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