patrol
Chapter 27: Patrol
As December approaches, the annual patrol is about to begin. Chu Huaibei has already arranged matters for her after leaving the camp with the generals, and she will set off tomorrow to begin a one-month patrol.
This time, the generals who would patrol together would no longer be on rotation. Chu Huaibei simply prepared lots and asked them to draw them. Those who drew the word "patrol" would go on patrol, and those who drew the word "guard" would stay in the barracks.
The generals accompanying the tour this time were General Xue Zhan of Shangyingqitun, Deputy General Qin Feng, and General Xuanwei Yang Sui. The remaining three, General Zhongwu Song Shoujie, General Guide Li Guyan, and General Huaihua Guo Jun, were stationed in the military camp.
According to the original rotation system, those who should accompany the patrol this time should be: General Li Guyan of Guide, General Xue Zhan of Yunhui, and General Song Shoujie of Zhongwu.
Because Chu Huaibei didn't find any useful information last time, he started to make arrangements for this patrol. Since he couldn't find anyone, he simply disrupted everything and notified them before leaving so that the spies had no time to make arrangements.
Moreover, it was decided by drawing lots, which was fair and just, and these people didn't even have a chance to refute.
This actually brought some inconvenience to Chu Huaibei. Xue Zhan and Qin Feng were on patrol together, so there were no one left in the military camp. After careful consideration, Chu Huaibei left behind a thousand personal soldiers and only took a thousand away. According to the past, two thousand personal soldiers would follow on every patrol.
He arranged his personal soldiers and asked Lu Shun to cooperate with the messenger officer in the camp, using carrier pigeons for small matters and Saker Falcon for big matters, and keeping an eye on the movements of everyone in the camp.
The night before leaving, Chu Huaibei entrusted his entire family to Sun Mingsi. After all, he would be gone for a month. He had not thought too much about it in the past and was not afraid of anything. But now, someone was secretly watching the palace. How could Chu Huaibei feel at ease?
Sun Mingsi assured her that nothing would happen to the palace, and insisted that Jin Shiyi accompany her on patrol. She repeatedly assured him that Shiyi would do nothing but protect her. The rules prohibited bringing someone with her, and it was inappropriate to bring a stranger along on such an important patrol.
However, he could not resist Hu Zhi's entreaties, and remembering that he was just a passerby in the original novel and should have no connection, he agreed and asked Eleven to wear his personal armor and accompany him.
The six states in the north are arranged in sequence along the grassland line. Yingzhou is at the westernmost end near Taihang Mountain, Qizhou is at the easternmost end near the sea, and Youzhou is in the middle. It is the only way for the Mongolian army to enter Daxia.
The patrol started from Youzhou and went east to Qizhou, then west along the grassland border to Yingzhou, and then returned to Youzhou. The patrol route was generally an ellipse.
They walked peacefully all the way to Qizhou. The checkpoints on the road were strict and solemn, the soldiers on the beacon towers were also in high spirits, and the military and political affairs of the state were running smoothly. Chu Huaibei nodded with satisfaction.
From Qizhou to the west, you have to be alert, as Mongolian troops often appear on the border. The first time he was injured was 300 miles from Qizhou, and the second time was on the grassland line near Youzhou in Lizhou.
When they reached the border of Qizhou and Lizhou, heavy snow began to fall on the grassland. Chu Huaibei asked everyone to rest on the spot, set up tents and cook. A total of 10,000 people were on patrol.
Chu Huaibei divided the patrolling soldiers into six groups, with each group guarding for four hours, which is two hours in total, to try to maintain the soldiers' physical strength as much as possible.
After the snow stopped, they continued to move out of the tents and patrol. During this period, 10,000 people ate and lived together, and even went to the toilet at the location designated by Chu Huaibei. He asked his personal soldiers and the centurions and thousand-household officers led by Xue Zhan and Qin Feng to supervise the entire army, and no suspicious people were found for the time being.
The journey was peaceful, encountering no Mongol soldiers until they reached the border of Chuzhou and Yingzhou, where a large number of steppe wolves suddenly appeared. Once the patrol army crossed the grassland border of Yingzhou and returned to Yingzhou City, they could rest easy the rest of the way. Unless the Mongols were ruthless, they wouldn't penetrate the city to ambush them. That wouldn't be called ambush; that would be sending people to their deaths.
Facing at least a thousand prairie wolves, Chu Huaibei calmly directed his soldiers, working in groups of three, to surround and kill the wolves. Chu Huaibei himself drew his bow and aimed an arrow at the leader, who was clearly twice the size of an average wolf.
The arrow shot out like a meteor. The wolf king turned his body sideways in alarm. The arrow missed his left eye and hit his left front shoulder blade instead. This arrow aroused the wolf king's ferocity. He howled to the sky, and the wolves below attacked even more fiercely.
Theoretically, these thousands of wolves would never attack an army of ten thousand men. The wolves' wisdom would not allow them to do something that would obviously put them at a disadvantage, but this is the situation now.
It was early morning, and the wolves had chosen a good time. Suddenly thinking of something, Chu Huaibei ordered the remaining 5,000 soldiers to go out and kill the wolves quickly, and everyone was on alert.
Sure enough, after killing the last wolf, an army appeared in everyone's eyes in the depths of the dark night.
Chu Huaibei shouted, "Form!" and the soldiers quickly formed an attacking formation. A general rode out from the opposing army. In the moonlight, his distinctive, multicolored braids were visible, and he recognized it as Na Hai, a fierce general in the Mongolian army. It seemed his injuries had fully healed.
The Hai Daxia official language could only speak three words: "King of the North!" The words were pronounced in a clear and round voice. As soon as he finished speaking, the Mongolian cavalry charged.
"Meet the enemy!" Chu Huaibei was at the front of the formation, leading his personal soldiers to engage in close combat with the enemy.
Na Hai raised his pair of meteor hammers and faced Chu Huaibei. Chu Huaibei pointed his spear at Na Hai's throat. Na Hai raised the meteor hammer with his right hand and pressed it against the spear tip. He hit the spear body with his left hand in an attempt to break it. Chu Huaibei retracted the spear tip and stabbed it downwards. Na Hai blocked it with his right hand and swung the meteor hammer with his left hand, aiming directly at the head of Chu Huaibei's horse.
Chu Huaibei retracted the tip of his gun, wrapped the meteor hammer along the iron chain, and lifted it up with force. The meteor hammer flew backwards. Na Hai opened his left hand to catch the meteor hammer, and rode forward to entangle Chu Huaibei again.
The number of Mongolian soldiers this time was definitely less than 10,000. Chu Huaibei looked around the entire battlefield during the fight. It took two or three Zhenbei soldiers to deal with one Mongolian soldier. It must be that the spies conveyed incomplete information, which led to the other side bringing fewer troops.
When Na Hai arrived, he realized he was short on men. However, since they were already facing off, there was no way he could mount his horse and flee. That would be courting death. He had thought the previous batch of Prairie Wolves would cost them some, but it was clear that the quality of the soldiers brought by the Zhenbei Army this time was much better than in previous battles.
I had no choice but to go ahead. The damned Daxia people were so cunning. They added more men but didn't even leave a message, making him think there were only 5,000 troops like before. I must have a proper talk with the Third Prince about this when I get back.
Jin Shiyi had been protecting Chu Huaibei when suddenly an arrow flew out from the crowd, aiming directly at the back of the Zhenbei King. The darkness affected his vision, and by the time he saw it, it was already close. Shiyi was unable to block it, so he had to fly to protect him, and the arrow hit Shiyi's shoulder armor.
Eleven calmly cut off the arrow shaft with a sword, continued to protect Chu Huaibei from behind, and stared at the direction where the cold arrow had flown from.
The two sides fought until the dawn. Seeing that less than one-third of the troops he brought were left, Na Hai decisively ordered a retreat and disappeared from the grassland in an instant.
Chu Huaibei counted the troops and found that 965 Zhenbei soldiers were killed, 728 were seriously injured, and the rest were in good condition and could move freely. Over 2,300 enemies had been killed, and over 1,000 were wounded and captured. Xue Zhan asked what to do with the prisoners.
Chu Huaibei uttered two words expressionlessly: "Kill him." Xue Zhan was startled but quickly came to his senses and accepted the order, then led his men to finish him off.
Those Mongolian soldiers who were less seriously injured mumbled a lot, but no one could understand them, and even if someone understood, they would not be let go.
"You can't kill us. The Third Prince will come and redeem us." A Mongolian soldier, speaking broken Chinese, warned sternly. Mongolian soldiers who could speak a few words of Chinese were generally of high status. He recalled the Zhenbei Army's previous practice, which was both a plea for mercy and a deterrent.
But this time, what awaited him was a cold blade.
After dealing with these Mongolian soldiers, Chu Huaibei directly ordered his men to build a giant pavilion for the enemy troops and plant the flag of the Zhenbei Army on the top.
It was the first time that Xue Zhan saw the prince use such tough measures to deal with the Mongolian army. In the past, he would exchange captives for Mongolian horses and bury the dead, but he would not build such a provocative giant pavilion.
After registering the fallen soldiers, they dug a pit to bury them, packed up their belongings, and returned to Yingzhou City.
"Thank you, Eleven. I'm sorry you got hurt because of me." Chu Huaibei specially allocated a tent for Eleven, sat beside Eleven's bed, and thanked him sincerely.
"Your Highness is too polite. I have been ordered to protect you, and this is what I should do. Please take a look at this arrow." Eleven handed the arrow aside to Chu Huaibei.
Chu Huaibei recognized it immediately; it was the same arrowhead that had injured him the last time. Daxia arrowheads all had sharp barbs. If they hit the target, without a good doctor, pulling the arrow out could tear out a large piece of flesh and blood, further exacerbating the injury. The one in his hand was a triangular Mongolian arrowhead, barbless, because Mongolia's overall smelting level was low, and with such a high demand for arrows, they didn't have the energy to craft barbs.
"Your Highness, I have always felt that this arrowhead was somewhat unusual, but it was indeed a Mongolian arrow. That night, by the moonlight, I could only make out its general direction, which was towards the Mongolian side, but at that time, the two armies were already engaged in a melee. I am not sure who fired this arrow."
Eleven paused for a moment before continuing, "My subordinates are good at tracking. This time, the wolves were deliberately lured here by poison. Starting from Lizhou, every time they go to the toilet, there is always a strange smell that is different from normal excrement. Most people can't distinguish it."
"There are usually only a few hundred wolves in the grasslands. The sudden appearance of so many this time is clearly out of character. Furthermore, wolves, as you know, are incredibly intelligent animals. How could they rashly attack when there's such a clear disparity in strength? I suspect the wolves were initially drawn to the army by these distinctive scents, and the Mongolian army found us by following the wolves."
"Your analysis makes sense. The person who spread the medicine is right next to us. It is also possible that the person who spread the medicine is the one who shot the arrow. I will take the arrowhead first. You have a good rest." Chu Huaibei walked out of Eleven's tent and came to the tent of Deputy General Qin Feng. Qin Feng had some skin injuries and Xue Zhan was bandaging him.
"Your Majesty."
"No need to be polite, just continue bandaging him." After Qin Feng finished, Chu Huaibei spoke, "This is the arrow that Eleven blocked for me. What do you think of this arrow?"
Xue Zhan took the arrow, examined it carefully, and handed it to Qin Feng. He then stood up and walked to the corner of the tent, pulled out an arrow, and handed it to Chu Huaibei. "Your Highness, this arrowhead is not made in Mongolia. Please look at it."
Chu Huaibei took the arrow and carefully compared the two arrowheads.
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