When a group of sentinel cavalry who were exploring the way entered the Moutaizhuang territory first and wanted to notify the village to prepare to welcome the army, they unexpectedly ran into a wall.
Langya County has always been peaceful, not to mention that it is located near Kaiyang, the prefecture's capital. Even in the war-famine years of the late Han Dynasty, when the heroes were divided, there were very few thieves and robberies nearby.
Therefore, the earthen wall outside Moutai is not very high, only about two or three meters, but now a group of men dressed as villagers are setting up bows and strings on it, their faces are more cautious, and they are pointing directly at the people on the opposite side.
Sentry Cavalry.
And behind a tightly closed wooden door, a young man shouted: "Who is coming? Get off your horse and stop immediately!"
"Otherwise, don't blame us for being rude with our bows and arrows."
"You bastard with no eyesight!"
This group of sentinels, as Kaiyang's officers and soldiers, naturally feel superior to others in Langya County. Even the armies in other places may not look up to them, let alone a group of mud-legged villagers.
What's more, they are the highest and most valuable cavalry in the army?
Now being threatened by these unscrupulous people with some unsightly wooden bows, the sentry rider in charge was so surprised that he doubted his life for the first time.
After regaining consciousness, he immediately became furious.
It's against you!
The leader rolled his eyes and yelled: "Didn't you see the military uniforms and armor we are wearing?"
"I am the uncle of the Han army of Langya Kingdom, and you guys dare to use sharp weapons against each other. Do you know that you are committing a serious crime?"
"Quickly tie yourself up and apologize, don't make any mistakes!"
"If you piss off this general, you won't even have enough heads to chop off the whole village!"
Hearing these stern words, the young man seemed to exclaim in surprise. He was very frightened, and then he poked his head behind the door to look at the group of sentry riders, and then muttered: "Looking at the way you are dressed, you look like that."
"But we can't believe it."
"Just this morning, a group of people dressed in similar clothes to you came running and shouted that they wanted to enter the village."
"But we also heard that there was a thief problem in Linyi before. At that time, we called a few people in the village who have relatives in Linyi who often move around to come out and have a look. But when we answered the call, something didn't feel right."
"Look, that group of officers and soldiers just left, and then you came again under the same banner. This..."
"It's such a coincidence, we really can't believe it."
"So, we really can't and don't dare to let you enter the village."
"What?" Hearing this, the sentry rider was startled: "Have officers and soldiers just come here?"
He frowned and thought for a moment, then asked the young man: "How many people are there, are you sure they came from Linyi? When did they leave?"
"Where else could he come from the west but Linyi?" The young man seemed to recall for a moment, and answered with some uncertainty:
"There are a lot more people than the dozen or so of you anyway. There are probably hundreds of people there."
"They were also very unhappy at the time. When I saw the leader's eyes, he looked fierce, as if he wanted to directly attack our village. It scared me at the time."
As he said that, the young man patted his chest, as if he was in shock: "Fortunately, another general-looking man came from behind. He seemed to have called out a few times in a hurry, and then he called them away."
"It looks like it's turning back to the west."
Several hundred people? They came from Linyi and returned to the west?
Within a few hundred miles, there are currently only three forces with hundreds of troops: Kaiyang, Linyi, and the Yellow Turban Bandits.
I am the Kaiyang Army, so if other troops are mobilized, there is no way they will not know about it.
The whole city of Linyi used to have only a thousand people. Didn't it say that nearly 500 people were wiped out by the Yellow Turban bandits? What's more, now that it is under siege, how can there be any reason for hundreds of people to come and hang out in Moutai?
If the city of Linyi were destroyed now, they would just rush directly to Kaiyang to ask for help.
Thinking of this, Sentry Qiu roughly understood.
This group of "official troops" must be disguised as the group of yellow scarf bandits who besieged Linyi!
They dressed up the Linyi soldiers and just took off the armor and uniforms...
Hundreds of people...
Just the right amount!
Feeling that he had guessed the truth, the Sentinel Rider Dub became excited and shouted to the young man again: "You yellow-mouthed brat, please tell me when they left!"
"We came here in the afternoon, and we just walked not long ago." The young man showed a recalling look again, and said: "They don't have big horses like you to ride on. I guess they only walked a few miles at most."
Hearing this, Uncle Dub was so excited that he no longer bothered to inform the people of Moutai Village to entertain the army. He quickly pulled the reins, turned the horse's head, and shouted to the sentries beside him: "This matter is very important.
, come back with me quickly and report to Colonel Wang."
With that, he said "drive", and a group of people came and went in a hurry.
It's just that they weren't careful enough and didn't find anything weird.
For example, in a big village like Moutai, why is it that a young villager is talking to them?
And the young man spoke very slowly. Although he seemed to have a Linyi accent, he seemed to have a childish tone.
...
"What?"
"Hundreds of people disguised as officers and soldiers came to Moutai at noon?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Ling stood up and his eyes suddenly lit up.
He agreed with the uncle's judgment that this must be a Yellow Turban thief!
He has a very systematic way of running the army. When a large army is dispatched, the sentinels' warning distance is generally within five miles, which is actually much better than the average city defense army.
If calculated based on time, it happened that not long after the Sentinel Cavalry entered the Moutai Realm, the group of thieves and bandits just left, which happened to be a time lag.
"several hundred..."
Wang Ling looked thoughtful and began to ponder.
According to the report from Linyi who came to ask for help, not counting other bandits and refugees who may be lurking nearby, the number of bandits fighting head-on at that time was only a thousand.
Although they had severely damaged Linyi's city defense forces before, they could not escape unscathed. Based on this calculation, these hundreds of "official troops" were probably nearly half of the main force of this group of bandits.
With such strength, he came to Moutai for no reason...
Do you want to pretend to be an official or a soldier and try to deceive someone into entering the village?
Wang Ling slapped his thigh suddenly, looked around, and said confidently: "This must be because the thieves have been unable to attack Linyi for a long time and are running out of baggage, so they want to come to Moutai to plunder grain, clothing, and food."
"They have never attacked a village directly. This shows that they don't have many soldiers who can actually fight!"
"What the young master said is true." The guard on the side agreed with Wang Ling's judgment. After thinking about it, he added a question: "But the thieves all came to Moutai and then suddenly turned back. Why?"
"The villagers said that a general-looking man came to call them back?"
Wang Ling looked at the sentry rider and asked, seeing him nodding in confirmation, he thought for a moment and made a judgment:
"They must have made progress when they stayed to attack Linyi, so they hurriedly called those who came back to rob the supplies to go to support them. I want the whole army to come together and work together in one go."
Seems reasonable...
But it always feels a bit far-fetched.
Although the personal guards did not directly refute Wang Ling's speculation, they did not show any signs of agreement as before.