At noon on the third day after leaving Lexiang City, Zhou Tai sat on the edge of a higher ground, watching his subordinates line up in long queues, slowly walking around the ditch from a slope, and heading towards Cenping not far south.
The so-called Cenping is located on the south bank of the Cen River, a tributary of the Lishui River. It is an open platform surrounded by many swamps and lakes. It is the time when the water rises in spring. Many waters are connected together, but not very deep, and you can walk by. At present, these soldiers are walking on the edge of the water that is not far behind their calves, making a rustling sound.
In the two days before leaving Lexiang, they had already traveled 80 miles. Everyone was in a hurry to leave, but they were not in high spirits, so they were particularly tired. Today, they gathered together a thousand people who were originally going to cover Jing Man's retreat, and their momentum was slightly restored. However, with the legend of the soldiers, everyone slowly knew that they had returned without success. They were all due to the good intentions of the leader of the Lei Clan in Lujiang to escape... Such a result seemed to be fortunate, but compared to the defeat in the fierce battle, they were full of shame. So more people became depressed, and even Cen Ping was close to them, they could not be energetic.
The same is true for Zhou Tai himself. Every step he took during this embarrassing evacuation was like a sponge, which made the general who had always been as tough as steel fall into a deep mood from time to time. But he had to act with his soldiers to boost morale along the way. Those strange eyes made him even more tired.
At this moment, he listened to the sound of wading water and watched the scattered figures swaying on the water surface, and somehow fell asleep.
He had a horrible nightmare.
When he woke up, his body was soaked with cold sweat. His body was trembling involuntarily. It was clearly in spring, but the blood in his body seemed to be covered with ice, and wherever he went, it brought a biting chill. He couldn't remember what he had dreamed of, but he was still shrouded in a strong sense of fear.
Fear, this very strange emotion, appeared in reality, like something invisible but heavy, pressing heavily on his limbs and bones, making him unable to move or breathe.
He leaned against an old tree and lay halfway down, as if waiting for the end of a long dream, waiting for the final cold ending, until the warm sunshine slowly calmed down.
Fortunately, this is a dream.
Since he came to Jingzhou, Zhou Tai has not slept well. Perhaps because the situation in Jingzhou is too complicated and is not suitable for pure warriors like him, he often has various dreams. Fortunately, those who are just dreams, and the resolute warriors will not be weak because of their dreams. He said to himself: Although there have been too many unsuccessful times during this period, in the end, I will definitely crush all obstacles that block Wu Hou.
Zhou Tai cheered up and turned to look around. He saw the soldiers on the trekking slight commotion. He saw flocks of wild birds flying up in the reed marsh in the distance. This situation gradually accelerated his heartbeat, and then he saw his personal guards hurry up from under the hills.
He sat upright, took the sword from his side, and wanted to match it with him. Then he hesitated for a moment, put the knife horizontally in front of him, and held the handle tightly. Something must have happened. The shameless failure in Lexiang will definitely have consequences, and maybe some trouble.
At this time, the personal guards crossed the green and mottled grassland and came to Zhou Tai.
"General, someone is chasing us. The brothers who broke the rear met them. It was Jing Man."
The strong anger was almost uncontrollable in an instant.
"Jingman?" he asked.
"Yes. They should have set out from Lexiang a little later than us, followed us all the time, and only now have to catch up."
How dare these guys chase and provoke? Are you looking for death? Zhou Tai sneered repeatedly.
The personal guard bent down and said, "In addition, General Huang sent an envoy to report to him, saying that Duke Xuande informed all parts of Jingnan, saying that Jingman caused rebellion, Lexiang, Yidao, Chanling, Zuotang and other places suffered heavy losses. The envoy asked if it was related to us?"
This conflict between each other made Zhou Tai feel upset. The Jingmans were all subjugated by the hateful Lei Xuzhi. Now, where would the Jingman tribe obey the command of the Eastern Wu and attack the prefectures and counties under the rule of Xuande? Huang Gongfu didn't know that he had suffered a tragic failure in Lexiang, so he had this question. The facts were obvious that the Jingmans not only did not attack Lexiang, but followed him and wanted to bite him back to express his loyalty to the new master. Where did Huang Gongfu hear nonsense from... He took it seriously?
The personal guard saw Zhou Tai pondering, so he asked again: "General, do you want to meet General Huang's envoy, tell him... to tell him the truth?"
Zhou Tai glared at his personal guard: "What did you say to the messenger?"
"No...no..." the personal guard said repeatedly.
Zhou Tai stood up with a knife and said irritably: "Then let him wait! Let's talk about it when we kill those Jingman savages!"
Under his order, more than a thousand Eastern Wu soldiers accelerated their pace. They quickly crossed the continuous water and climbed a gentle slope north of the bank of the Censhui River. This gentle slope was high in the south and low in the north, and the terrain gradually widened from south to north. The Wu army leaned against the heights at the southern end of the gentle slope and lined up to the north to wait for the enemy.
These more than a thousand people were brave soldiers who had been following Zhou Tai for a long time to fight against the east and west, half of which came from Dan Yang, who was fierce and fierce. They had participated in countless fierce battles in Xuancheng, Yuzhang, and Jiangxia, and had traveled almost every battlefield in Jiangdong. For a long time, this army even served as the guard of Wuhou. Zhou Tai firmly believed that they were the real elites in the world, and their reputation would not be limited to Jiangdong.
So Zhou Tai had never thought of retreating to Cenping to defend. He was very convinced that with such a force, he would never encounter opponents on the battlefield, and it would be enough to crush those ignorant Jing Man... In this way, perhaps the shame of failure in Lexiang could be slightly restored?
With the shouts of generals and schools at all levels, more than a thousand people quickly formed a combat formation. They stood quietly, without restlessness, nor at all impatience. The distance between people was uniform, and the different corpses were clearly layered, enough to cover each other.
About half an hour later, Zhou Tai stood in the position of the chief general and saw hundreds of Jingman soldiers. They scattered into many small groups across the lake and marsh, crossed the reed marsh, and pressed from the north.
Zhou Tai's cold and hard face was expressionless. He slowly drew his sword, rubbing against the scabbard, making a thick sound. For Zhou Tai, this sound represents the subsequent killing, which gradually restored his emotions.
Barbarians are barbarians. Their team is too loose, like loose soil piled up randomly, and with a light kick, you can stomp it. Such a mob is nothing to be afraid of, not to mention that they are not too many? I really don’t know who gave them the courage to escape from the protection of the Lei clan of Lujiang and chased them all the way here? It’s great. Since you are here to die, kill a group of people first, thinking that those who are later will be warned!
However, he soon felt the ground shaking and even the air was trembling. This was not the momentum that Jing Man could have!
Through Jing Man's loose figure, he saw countless warriors wearing armor appear. Their queues were like unshakable mountains, and the spears held high were like dense forests; as they advanced, they were like undulating waves surging forward. On both sides of their queues, there were also a large group of cavalry teams slowly surrounding them, and the knights were at least wearing leather armor and iron bags.
The people and horses stepped on the rising dust, causing heavy dust to cover their huge team and blocked Zhou Tai's vision. But not long after, the two large crows on the center of the queue were raised high, and the sun shone through the dust on the flying crow. Zhou Tai narrowed his eyes and carefully identified it, and saw two lines of words written on the crow:
"Pinous General Lei".
Chapter completed!