Chapter 1197 Weird tacit understanding and balance
Li Lingrui thought that since he pushed the army forward, Jin Feng would definitely rush to Xizhou. However, what disappointed him was that in the past five days, the spies reported back that the speed of the female workers' team was still about the same as before.
"Your Majesty, maybe Jin Feng hasn't received the news yet." The person in charge of intelligence was afraid that Li Lingrui would let his people die again, so he took the initiative to find a reason for Jin Feng.
The party intelligence department has been operating for many years and has secretly raised many carrier pigeons, so it can deliver news so quickly.
The rise of Jinfeng was less than two years ago, and Xizhou had not been taken seriously before. Even the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce only set up a branch and transit warehouse in Xizhou after starting trade with Dangxiang.
In such a short time, there was no time to domesticate homing pigeons on a large scale.
Moreover, the party members also plundered many raptors such as vultures and golden eagles from the territory and sent them to the surrounding areas of Xizhou. Zhang Liang released ten homing pigeons. It would be good to have one or two to spread the news.
What's more, Jin Feng is always on the move, so the possibility of catching the homing pigeon is even slimmer.
Without carrier pigeons, airships cannot be used, and escorts have returned to the days of relying on horses to convey messages.
It has been freezing cold recently, many roads are icy, and the war horses dare not let go and run. In this case, it is indeed possible that Jin Feng has not received the message.
After Li Lingrui thought about it, he felt that what the person in charge of the intelligence said was reasonable, so he stopped worrying about the matter and asked, "Has the Black Cloud Tribe replied to the letter?"
"I just received it this morning. I'm about to report it to the king."
The person in charge of intelligence quickly pulled out a document from the table and handed it to Li Lingrui with both hands.
He would compile important information every day and send it to Li Lingrui for approval.
When I came here just now, I had already brought today's information, but Li Lingrui hadn't had time to read it yet.
Li Lingrui lowered his head and glanced at the document. He did not reach out to take it, but said impatiently: "Didn't you read it? Just tell me."
He has hated studying since he was a child. After taking over the Southern Expeditionary Army, he had to decide many things personally, so he had to approve a large number of official documents every day, which made Li Lingrui irritable when he saw the official documents.
"The Heiyun tribe wrote back and said that they have received the king's order and promised to rush to Luolinggou within half a month!" the person in charge of the intelligence replied quickly.
"Luolinggou is the only way for Jin Feng to pass, right?" Li Lingrui asked again.
"Judging from their current route, yes!" The person in charge of intelligence nodded, but he did not dare to speak too harshly. After thinking for a while, he added: "However, Jin Feng has always used his troops casually, and his subordinates do not
I can guarantee whether he will change the route temporarily!"
"Change the route?" Li Lingrui frowned slightly: "How many roads are there from Jinchuan?"
"There are two large official roads and seven small roads. The most recent official road is Luolinggou. The other official road is more than two hundred miles longer."
The person in charge of intelligence walked to the sand table and pointed out the locations of the two official roads for Li Lingrui: "Even if Jin Feng temporarily changes the route, the Black Cloud tribe will have enough time to get in front of them and ambush them here!"
Zhang Liang sent his scouts to target the Southern Expeditionary Army. Li Lingrui could not directly send people to ambush Jin Feng on the way. However, the party was not limited to the Southern Expeditionary Army. They also had many other tribes.
The Black Cloud Tribe was a relatively powerful tribe in the western part of Dangxiang. They were originally going to come to Xizhou to join Li Lingrui and join the Southern Expedition Army.
However, Li Lingrui sent an order to the Heiyun tribe a few days ago, asking them to change their route into Dakang from the west and ambush Jin Feng's only route.
Zhang Liang could keep an eye on the southern expeditionary army, but he could not keep an eye on the west.
If Jin Feng can be killed halfway, Li Lingrui will have won most of this war. Even if he withdraws his troops now, he can still deal with the new emperor when he returns.
For this reason, Li Lingrui ordered the Black Cloud Tribe to dispatch five thousand elite cavalry!
It is enough to show that Li Lingrui attaches great importance to Jin Feng.
Even so, Li Lingrui was still worried and pointed at the sand table and asked: "Where are those paths?"
"The path is here, here..."
The person in charge of intelligence pointed out a few more places on the sand table: "These paths are difficult to ride on, not to mention unsuitable for large armies to march, and they are not much closer than the official road. The possibility of Jin Feng walking through the paths is very low."
"Then we have to send someone to keep an eye on it!" Li Lingrui said: "Once you find that Jin Feng has changed his route, or if Jin Feng speeds up his march, you must notify me as soon as possible!"
"Yes!" The person in charge of intelligence nodded quickly.
The arrangements have been made, and all that remains is to wait.
But after waiting for six or seven days, the news from the spies was still the same as before, and Jin Feng's team still did not speed up.
Now Li Lingrui was a little angry and couldn't sit still.
"Tomorrow let the camp advance another three miles!"
"Your Majesty, if you push it another three miles, is it too close to Dakang?"
An aide advised: "In this case, if the enemy launches a sneak attack while we are moving camp, I'm afraid there will be trouble!"
Such cases have occurred in Dakang's history.
More than 800 years ago, two vassal states were at war. When one of them was moving camp, the enemy launched a charge.
The side that moved the camp originally had a great advantage, but was caught off guard, resulting in the entire army being annihilated.
"Are you all eating horse dung? Since you know that the enemy may launch a sneak attack when moving camp, can't you take precautions in advance?"
Li Lingrui scolded: "Can't we divide the army into three parts and move the camp in turn?"
Dang Xiang's southern expeditionary army numbered hundreds of thousands. Even if divided into three parts, each part would be enough to crush Zhang Liang.
Li Lingrui wished that Zhang Liang would sneak attack him.
The staff also realized that they had made a mistake and lowered their heads and stopped talking.
The next morning, Dangxiang's southern expeditionary army moved another three miles south. Bayi Chinese website
At this time, the Southern Expeditionary Army was less than three miles away from the Xizhou border, and both sides could clearly see each other's camps and flags.
However, as Li Lingrui expected, Zhang Liang did not dare to sneak attack while the Southern Expeditionary Army was moving camp. Instead, he sent people to repeatedly instruct the escorts at the northernmost end of the camp to exercise restraint and never conflict with the party members.
In fact, not only Zhang Liang and his bodyguards were nervous, but Dang Xiang's Nanzheng army was also nervous.
The distance between the two parties was so close that the party members on the upwind side spoke loudly enough that the escorts on the downwind side could hear them.
In this case, any excessive behavior by both parties may break out into conflict and trigger a decisive battle.
The heavy crossbows and catapults had not yet been delivered, and the Black Cloud tribe had not yet killed Jin Feng. Li Lingrui felt that it was not time for a decisive battle yet, so he ordered the move of the camp just to put pressure on Jin Feng, not really to start a war.
Zhang Liang restrained the bodyguards, and Li Lingrui also restrained the party members.
Although the two parties did not discuss it, they fell into a strange tacit understanding and balance.