Chapter 1351: Walking into a trap
The distance from Fuchun to Wukang is not far, and it only takes a few hours by horseback. However, since Xiao Mohe and his party needed to avoid the scouts of the Tang army, they had to be cautious during the day and night. They also tried their best to choose remote wilderness and avoid the densely populated Dishehangdai, so the time was naturally extended, and it took nearly It took two days to arrive in Wukang.
On the way, Xiao Mohe was also carefully observing the situation of the people in Wuxing. At the same time, he also had doubts in his heart: "Didn't it mean that Wuxing was already starving and people were dying? I didn't see how chaotic it was..."
Not only is there no chaos in the countryside of Wuxing, it can even be said to be quite orderly. Farmers can already be seen plowing and drying the land in the wilderness in preparation for the upcoming spring plowing season.
This alone has greatly surpassed Kuaiji. Nowadays, most of the adult men in Kuaiji have been recruited by Hou Andu to live on the south bank of the Qiantang River. They have either become desperate bandits, and few of them still have the heart to work in agriculture.
However, it may be that my group has not gone to a truly densely populated place, so we have not seen the real chaos in the Wuxing area. After all, the Tang Army was a foreign force, and it would be difficult for them to spread chaos to all areas in a short period of time.
Xiao Mohe guessed this in his mind, but still did not dare to let down his guard. After entering Wukang, the group hid in the reeds near Xitiao River at night, and only sent a few soldiers from Wuxing to pretend to be soldiers. As a pedestrian, we quietly headed towards Shen's Manor in the direction of Xiaxi.
In the Shen family manor, Shen Zhong had long been eager to hear the personnel news from the south. When he learned that the envoy from King Linchuan had finally arrived, he was overjoyed and quickly asked his servants to bring him into the manor. He personally received him in private and asked Lin. The king of Sichuan planned and planned to launch an attack on Wuxing.
When he learned that the divisions and brigades on the south bank of the Qiantang River would still need some time to prepare for war, and that their arrival was just to accommodate the temporary transfer of their relatives to the south, Shen Zhong couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, but he quickly cheered up and said : "It is indeed a good thing to be cautious in using troops. After all, the Tang army is currently arrogant and must be fully prepared to increase its chances of victory. As for temporarily avoiding Kuaiji..."
Speaking of this, Shen Zhong couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. Of course, he also hopes to ensure the safety of himself and his family. Not long ago, his nephew Shen Keqing was sent to the Tang Army's camp by himself. He has heard nothing from him and his life and death are unknown. The Tang Army did not tell them what to do to Shen Keqing. No matter what kind of punishment was given, Shen Zhong was a little worried that Tang Jun's ill will towards his family had not been eliminated, and he might attack his family at some point.
But just abandoning his family and leaving like this made him really uneasy and reluctant to part with such a large fortune that he had worked so hard to accumulate. In particular, the King of Linchuan has not yet given an accurate date for his troops to launch a counterattack. Even if their personal safety is temporarily guaranteed by their departure, it not only exposes their secret contact with the King of Linchuan, but also does not know when they will return in the future. The property at home will inevitably be lost. I can't take too much with me, and I don't know how much will be left when I come back...
After careful consideration, Shen Zhong decided to stay in the village to observe the changes in the situation, so he said to several envoys: "Although my village fell to the captives, we still need someone to stay here to defend the morality and justice of the village. I am dying. Years later, I don’t want to travel to other places for the sake of temporary stability, so I will stay here until the king’s army returns. Please wait for the heroes to return to the king of Linchuan. This hometown has its own loyalty and longs for the triumphant return of the righteous army. At that time, I thought it was difficult to strengthen the army because of the destruction of my family, so I generously donated three thousand dan of rice to help the king feed his army!"
When these envoys heard Shen Zhong's generous and heroic words, they were filled with admiration for a moment, and repeatedly expressed that they would convey his feelings and aspirations to King Linchuan.
But when Shen Zhong stood up to see off the guests, several of them looked a little nervous and bowed their heads in silence for a moment before one of them spoke: "A certain person was ordered to sneak back to his hometown to contact Xiangyi. In order to facilitate the journey, he did not bring too many supplies. , I stayed up day and night and didn’t dare to light a fire to cook. So far, I haven’t had a grain of rice in my stomach for a whole day and night..."
After Shen Zhong heard this, he immediately frowned, turned to look at the sky outside the hall, and said with some embarrassment: "It's hard to live in the country, it's not easy to run a family, and my family's salary will be exhausted. In recent days, we have made a decision The family rule is not to cook after lunch..."
He promised to support King Linchuan with three thousand shi of grain, leaving a hook to attract King Linchuan to come to Wukang quickly after crossing the river, so that his family could escape danger as soon as possible. As for these lackeys who neither brought any good news nor were prominent figures, Shen Zhong was a little stingy about entertaining them.
"There is no need to work on cooking fires. As long as there are any leftovers in the kitchen, sweep them into the urn, let me eat for a while, and have the strength to report to the general, I will be very grateful!"
A few people didn't think that Shen Zhong refused to take care of the food because he was stingy. After all, what he had just said was impassioned, and when they entered the village, they often saw the people in the village looking disheveled, and it didn't look like they were eating. He comes from a wealthy family, but Shen Zhong in front of him only wears a pair of old clothes, with patches on the front of his lapels that are prone to wear and tear. This also shows that his household expenses are very poor.
Therefore, these people felt quite ashamed. If they weren't so hungry that they couldn't bear it, they would be too embarrassed to stay and eat.
Seeing that these people were still a little hard to deal with, Shen Zhong raised his hand impatiently and motioned to the slaves to lead them to the kitchen. It's just that their family eats regularly and rationed food every day, and it's probably not enough. How can there be any leftover?
So when the servant raised this question, Shen Zhong thought about it and then ordered: "Since the Linchuan King's Brigade will not return in the near future, there is no need to feed the cattle and horses. The remaining soybean meal mixed with squid is put away and added to the stove. Light the fire and feed these hungry soldiers."
This approach was indeed a bit harsh, but the Shen family slaves had long been accustomed to their master's behavior. After hearing this, they didn't take it seriously and turned around to make arrangements.
Naturally, those soldiers didn't know that the Shen family's manor was filled with warehouses and stacks of food. They only knew that their family was about to be in danger of running out of food. They also thought that Shen Zhong was actually planning to donate it to the Linchuan King's Brigade in such a poor situation. With thousands of kilograms of food, I felt more admiration and admiration for such a rural elder. He gritted his teeth and ate half a bowl of soybean meal, and then hurriedly said goodbye and left the Shen family manor.
Xiao Mohe had been following Hou Andu's command since Lingnan, and had little contact with Wuzhong Shiliu. He didn't know who Shen Zhong was. After hearing the soldiers' reports, he couldn't help but feel that this old man was really generous and heroic. Since Shen Zhong doesn't want to move to Kuaiji, the next step is to find and contact other targets.
However, Xiao Mohe did not intend to sneak into Wuxing anymore because the risk was too great. While hiding here for a period of time, he secretly saw several cavalry teams of the Tang Army passing by nearby. It shows that the Tang army is also trying to strengthen its control over Wuxing territory.
The main purpose of his trip was to investigate the military situation of the Tang army's retreat, and contacting Xiangyi was just a matter of course. Therefore, Xiao Mohe planned to break up his troops into parts and inspect the vicinity of the Tang Army's military route. If he could find out the route of the Tang Army's transportation of supplies to and from the place where military supplies were stored, it would be far more meaningful than contacting a few people. The righteousness of a village is much greater.
Of course, the risk of doing so is not small, but since you have arrived behind enemy lines, you are already taking risks. After taking such risks, it is naturally more cost-effective to gain more.
So the group of people continued to wait for darkness in the reed swamp, and shared the dry food they had brought with them. Since they didn't dare to make a fire to cook, the group could only gnaw on the wet, cold and hard rice balls, and each one choked until their necks straightened. The experience was not much better than that of several soldiers eating feed in Shen Zhong's mansion.
In the evening, when Xiao Mohe was still lurking in the place assigning the next tasks to the soldiers, suddenly the soldiers on guard outside the reed swamp whispered: "General, there is a situation! A large number of soldiers are coming here. Come!"
After hearing the news, Xiao Mohe also walked to the outside and looked out of the reed swamp. He saw about thousands of cavalry troops coming in this direction in the distance. His brows suddenly furrowed and he whispered: " Or just passing by, not necessarily coming here.”
Having said that, he still signaled the soldiers to put on their armor and weapons and prepare for battle. Previously, their mounts were pulled deeper into the reeds for the sake of privacy, but now they were ordered to be quietly pulled out.
As the team outside came closer, Xiao Mohe also saw the whole team clearly. There were thousands of Tang Army cavalry escorting the same number of Wuzhong villagers. The villagers were carrying ropes, nets and bags in their hands. The sickles and other tools seemed to be here to harvest reeds, and were not deliberately targeted at them.
"Let's wait for a moment. It's best not to engage in combat with the enemy. It's getting late now, and they won't be able to work here for too long!"
When Xiao Mohe saw this, he looked up at the sky again, and then signaled to his men to be calm and retreat slightly into the reed swamp, trying not to expose their whereabouts.
The team stopped a few miles away, and then began to harvest the reeds. Xiao Mohe and others retreated further into the reeds, only raising their ears to listen to what was going on outside.
Those soldiers of the Tang Army were very domineering and kept shouting at the villagers to harvest better quality reeds, so the villagers could only continue to pick and harvest among the reeds. As the scope of their activities expanded, it was inevitable that Increased the chances of Xiao Mohe and others being exposed.
"Wait a minute, it will get dark soon..."
Xiao Mohe then signaled his troops to continue to shrink inward. At this time, their troops had gathered together. Even if they were discovered, they could mount their horses and break out from the north.
However, just as Xiao Mohe was thinking about this, suddenly there was the sound of rapid horse hoofbeats from the northeast. After hearing this sound, Xiao Mohe's face suddenly changed, and at the same time he shouted: "Hurry up and break out from the east. !”
At the same time, the knights of the Tang Army who had been shouting at the villagers to harvest the reeds also laughed loudly and shouted into the depths of the reeds: "You daring thieves, if you don't want to be burned to death by the fierce fire, get out of here!" !”
After Xiao Mohe heard this roar, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. It turned out that the Tang army had always known that they were hiding here. They had deliberately ordered the villagers to harvest reeds, firstly to paralyze them, and secondly to lock their location. Now The goal was achieved, and the two groups of cavalry were separated from two directions to encircle the reeds. Once the fire burned the reeds, they were afraid that no bones would be left!