Before Yan Laosan arrived, Qi Zihao had repeatedly received news from spies about encountering Xirong people in Juzhou.
He was originally considering whether to take people to find out in person.
Just in time for Yan Laosan to arrive, Qi Zihao immediately stopped hesitating, ordered five hundred elite soldiers, and personally led the team, intending to see what these northwest barbarians wanted to do.
It had just rained the night before, and the moist air in the morning was mixed with the smell of earth.
Qi Zihao was riding on a horse, looking at the situation in the distance with his clairvoyance. Except for the endless grassland, there was no one in front of him.
The spy responsible for investigating the enemy's situation in the front reported that he had found signs of human activity half a day's walk ahead.
Although most of the traces have been artificially destroyed and covered up, it can still be roughly determined that this group of people does not have too many people, and only a hundred or so people can support the sky.
But Qi Zihao and his men chased him in this direction for two hours, but they didn't see a single person.
Looking at the increasingly difficult mountain road ahead, Qi Zihao picked up his clairvoyance and wanted to observe the distance.
But there was no longer an unobstructed view of the grassland ahead, and layers of leaves blocked his view.
He turned around and asked Yan San who was following behind him: "How long have we been walking?"
Yan San lowered his head to look at the map, then took out his pocket watch and looked at the time, and said, "It has been more than an hour. Not to mention people, not even a ghost was seen. Could it be that the spies went in the wrong direction?"
"Although my spies here are not as good as you, they are all well-trained and should not make such low-level mistakes." Qi Zihao shook his head and said, "Why don't you ask them to fix things on the spot first, and then you and I can work it out together?"
total."
Yan San took the clairvoyant from his hand and began to observe his surroundings.
He has been trained as a secret guard since he was a child, so his perspective of observing things is very different from that of Qi Zihao, a person with a real military background.
"Although the mountains in front of us are not high and the slopes are very gentle, the thick bushes are not conducive to the passage of cavalry, and the vegetation grows vigorously, making it a natural shelter.
"Within the area we can see, it's easy to hide three to five hundred people."
One of the two relied on intuition, the other relied on observation. In the end, they arrived at the same destination through different routes and got similar answers - if the spies' information was correct, there was probably an ambush ahead.
I didn't dare to move forward rashly, but I wasn't willing to just go back empty-handed.
Qi Zihao thought for a moment and ordered everyone to find a safe place to rest for a while.
He found a leeward place by himself, took Yan San to sit down, spread out the map and carefully studied the location and landform features.
"This area is dominated by hills and mountains, which is very suitable for hiding. We have more than 500 people..."
"My subordinates." Qi Zihao corrected him.
"What?" Yan San was suddenly interrupted and looked up at him inexplicably.
"I mean these people are my subordinates, not ours..."
"Are you childish?" Yan San was speechless at him and rolled his eyes.
Qi Zihao took the opportunity to snatch the map from his hand and said: "I took a closer look just now, maybe it's not that the spies sent the wrong news, but that we deviated from the direction.
"You see, if we continue to move forward like this, it won't be long before we are out of the confines of Juzhou.
Yan San looked at the map and thought to himself, this journey was too smooth, and he accidentally ran too far.
"Should we go back, or should we correct the direction and go have a look?"
"We've come out of the capital, so naturally we have to check it out." Qi Zihao rolled up the map in his hand, got up and mounted his horse, raised his finger in the direction and called for everyone to set off.
It took more than a day for Qi Zihao to return to the original direction with his hands, and soon found traces of people passing by, and even traces of life in some places.
"It's right this time!" Qi Zihao was a little excited, "Look, grandpa will catch you a big one this time!"
Yan San was too lazy to pay attention to his childish behavior of taking advantage. He spread out the map and looked at it carefully, mentally estimating the distance to the base camp and how long it would take to bring in reinforcements if something went wrong. Then he persuaded: "In the information sent by the spies,
, and did not say how many people there were in Xirong.
"Look at the traces of life on the ground, there should be a lot of people. We don't have many people brought out this time. There is really no need to take risks. It is better to think about it later after we go back."
"Third brother, I know what you are worried about. Aren't you just afraid of Li Zian? What does it matter if I don't let you go back? Wouldn't it be better for you to stay here with me?" Qi Zihao said, "There is no reason or possibility for Xirong to send a large force here.
.Since we have already tracked it here, what’s the point of fearing the wolf before and the tiger behind?”
"Zi Hao, I know you want to make meritorious deeds, but after all, this is not the territory of Daqi. In addition to the Xirong, Wuman people, and many other small forces exist.
"The reason why I feel I should return is not because of His Majesty's instructions, but because of my own judgment.
The risk of continuing to move forward is extremely high. It is safest to go back and use multiple sources of intelligence to figure it out."
Qi Zihao's eyes darkened slightly, and he fell into a complicated and tangled mood.
Returning the way you came is indeed the safest approach.
But his intuition seems to have been tempting him. If he just goes a little further, he might get an unexpected surprise.
Qi Zihao's eyes were fixed on the map for a long time, then he suddenly stood up and said: "Well, you wait for me here, I will bring some people over to check the situation. If we don't meet the Xirong people after walking for another day, we will go back."
Yan San quickly stood up and said: "Are you kidding? I don't agree!"
Qi Zihao said, "Third brother, you have forgotten that these soldiers are all my subordinates, and they only listen to me."
Yan San was really pissed off by his bad temper. He was about to put on a show of argument with him, but found that the scouts he had sent out earlier had returned.
"Reporter, we went southwest for nearly a mile and found traces of someone's life. This time it was not temporary. Judging from the traces, someone must have lived here for a long time.
"Quick, lead the way, I'll go over and take a look."
Seeing that Qi Zihao insisted on going, Yan San said helplessly: "What if the traces you see are just traces of the lives of some refugees? Or, what if this is an ambush deliberately set by the Xirong people?"
"That at least proves that the direction we chose is not wrong, right?" After Qi Zihao finished speaking, he laughed and patted Yan San on the shoulder and said, "Third brother, don't be so restrained all the time, marching and fighting secretly with you.
Wei's work is different. He pays attention to a big opening and a big closing. It is impossible to calculate everything in advance every time he sends out troops.
"But don't worry, I'm not going out alone to show off. A hundred people will come out and follow me."
Since returning from Juzhou, Qi Zihao's original willfulness has indeed improved.
Although most of the manpower is still left to Yan San, at least he knows to take people with him when he goes out to show off, which can be considered a big improvement.
"Take half the men and leave!"
"One hundred and fifty is enough, please leave more!"
"You take two hundred, I'll keep three hundred, that's it. If you don't agree, don't go." After some haggling, Yan San finally made the decision.
Qi Zihao set out with two hundred people. The journey went very smoothly. Not to mention the Xirong people, they didn't even see any living creature bigger than a rabbit. They walked for less than two hours and found the place mentioned by the spies.
But after walking around twice and observing carefully, Qi Zihao couldn't help but look disappointed.
The traces here look like they have been there for some time, and are not fresh traces left recently at all.
And judging from the burnt marks left behind, they are not the habits of the Xirong people, but should be the marks left by the refugees around Juzhou.
"Okay, now that we've figured it out, let's go back."
On the way back, Qi Zihao even had time to kill two pheasants, planning to rush back and ask someone to cook pheasant soup to improve the food.
Who would have thought that when he and his people returned to the starting point, they found that Yan San and the remaining 300 people had disappeared out of thin air, without even leaving any traces of the fight at the scene.