Chapter 156: Battle of Xixia Stone Valley (Part )

But when Ma Renjie was about to ride his horse out of the valley, a trip rope suddenly appeared on the ground and tripped the horse.

Ma Renjie flew off the horse due to inertia and fell heavily to the ground.

Then, the snake spirits wearing purple cloaks on both sides quickly stepped forward, tied him up tightly, and sent him out of the valley.

When Ma Renjie was captured and brought to Li Jinzhong and Sun Wanrong outside the valley, he found that Zhang Xuanyu was already waiting for him.

Cao Renshi's body was lying on the ground, blood all over his body. It looked like he died in battle and his blood had not yet coagulated.

Li Jinzhong and Sun Wanrong were riding on fine horses, accompanied by a Han Chinese man on horseback, wearing a purple robe and a bun with a snake-like bun. It was Xiao Jing.

They smiled at each other, their words full of pride: "Ah, we caught another one, General Xiao, it's all thanks to you guys."

Xiao Jing also showed a proud smile: "Khan, now that these two people have been caught, we can proceed according to the plan."

Li Jinzhong nodded in agreement when he heard this.

Seeing that his ally agreed, Xiao Jing gave an order and two men in purple came forward to search Ma Renjie and Zhang Xuanyu. Soon, the general seals of both of them were found.

Then the two men in purple took out two more pieces of paper, one of which had some words on it, and came in front of Zhang Xuanyu and Ma Renjie.

Two other men in purple had their pens and ink ready, waiting for further instructions.

"General Zhang, please copy one!" Xiao Jing said with a sly grin.

Zhang Xuanyu glanced at the words on the paper and read them out: "...the government troops have already defeated the bandits. If they are late in reaching Yingzhou, all the generals will be beheaded and the soldiers will not be awarded honors..."

Ma Renjie suddenly looked up at Li Jinzhong and the others, and said in shock: "Ah? You, you want to lure and kill my rear army soldiers?"

Xiao Jing's eyes were stern, and he drew his knife and pointed it at Zhang Xuanyu and Ma Renjie, threatening them harshly: "Stop talking nonsense, make a copy of the snapshot, and sign your name! Otherwise, I will kill you."

Ma Renjie looked hesitant and was reluctant to take the pen that was handed to him, while Zhang Xuanyu seemed to be frozen in place, like a wooden chicken, with empty eyes and a look of madness and dumbness.

Seeing this, Sun Wanrong rode closer and said in his slightly awkward Chinese: "With your general's seal, it doesn't matter whether you sign your name or not. Don't struggle in vain. He who knows the current situation is a hero!"

Li Jinzhong sneered at the side, his voice as cold as ice: "If you don't want to write, forget it. You will die miserably! Just like this person on the ground."

Upon hearing this, Ma Renjie's breathing suddenly quickened, his eyes involuntarily fell on the body of Cao Renshi, whose eyes were still open in death, and an indescribable fear surged in his heart.

Zhang Xuanyu seemed to be suddenly struck by these words. He suddenly came to his senses, snatched the pen from the purple-clothed man, knelt on the ground without hesitation, and began to copy the documents.

Li Jinzhong and Sun Wanrong couldn't help laughing when they saw this, their laughter was full of pride and ridicule. Ma Renjie was dumbfounded when he saw this.

Soon, Zhang Xuanyu finished copying, and even took the initiative to stamp the general's seal on the paper, and then handed the paper and pen to Ma Renjie.

Ma Renjie smiled bitterly, knowing that it would make no difference whether he wrote it or not, so he signed his name to save his life.

In this way, a Zhou army order that was enough to confuse the public was completed under the surveillance of the Khitans.

Li Jinzhong took the military order from the man in purple, looked at it, nodded with satisfaction, and then handed it to Sun Wanrong.

Sun Wanrong took it, examined it carefully, then handed it to Xiao Jing, and said: "Don't play any tricks. There will always be a few military orders left in the army. If you dare to make any hints or marks, we will know it once we compare them. Then I will kill you first!" Zhang Xuanyu was silent at this time, as if all his strength had been exhausted.

Ma Renjie could only smile helplessly and sighed, "You all worry too much. We have no way out. If the Qing army advances rashly, it will lead to the loss of troops and humiliation of the country. The emperor will not let us go."

Sun Wanrong nodded, and then turned to Xiao Jing: "General Xiao, I'll have to trouble your men to deliver this thing to Zhou's army."

Xiao Jing responded confidently: "Khan and Marshal, please rest assured, it will be foolproof. You should clean up the battlefield and prepare for an ambush as soon as possible!"
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That night, the infantry team led by Yan Feishi and Zong Huaichang marched slowly, and finally stopped to prepare to set up camp. At this time, a military order arrived unexpectedly.

After receiving the order, Yan Fei Shi started cursing and cursed Zhang Xuanyu's entire family and ancestors.

"Zhang Xuanyu and Ma Renjie, these two shameless guys, took their cavalry to grab the credit, leaving us two brothers behind."

"They must have fought a tough battle, with heavy casualties, and they are unable to clean up the mess. And yet they want us to double our efforts and rush to Yingzhou as soon as possible to provide support. Or they want us to execute all the generals and not reward the soldiers. This is shameless! Shameless!"

Zong Huaichang was also angry, but he remained calm and restrained. He consoled him, "Brother Yan, calm down. The general won the battle after all. Military orders are as heavy as a mountain, so just follow them."

"If I had known this would happen, I would have listened to General Li rather than endure the humiliation here!" Yan bandit Shi You was indignant.

Zong Huaichang thought that Zhang Xuanyu had really "defeated the bandits" and reluctantly said, "General Zhang's words were a bit harsh, but he just wanted to urge us to advance as soon as possible."

"We came to Yingzhou, at least we have made some contribution. We are stronger than Yang Xuanji, Zhang Jiujie and the others, and we didn't have to fight hard. We got the credit for free. Isn't that good?"

Yan Feishi took a deep breath and suppressed his anger: "So be it. Give the order, don't eat, throw away all the baggage that can be thrown away, and walk as fast as you can!"

All the generals' seals were there, and even the signatures of Generals Zhang Xuanyu and Ma Renjie were on them. No one would have thought that this military order was "fake". The shamelessness of our commander had simply fallen below the bottom line.

Not to mention how Yan Feishi and Zong Huaichang abandoned their baggage and doubled their speed, Zhao Ji and his cavalry did not gallop at full speed all the way, but maintained a reasonable speed.

During the march, they sent out scouts and sent out scouts on a large scale to prevent sneak attacks, while also maintaining the army's physical strength and being ready for battle at any time.

Taking advantage of this expedition, Zhao Ji borrowed two of the eight military leaders from Di Renjie, who were naturally Shen Tao and Xiao Bao.

"General, since you are worried that the army will encounter an ambush, why are you so stingy with your horsepower?" Xiao Bao asked in confusion.

Zhao Ji was anxious because he had not caught up with Zhang Xuanyu. He said in a bad tone, "If you fight for advantage within 50 miles, you will lose the general. The rule is that half of the troops will arrive. If you fight for advantage within 30 miles, two-thirds of the troops will arrive. What's the point of running fast? Are you rushing to deliver food to the Khitan army?"

At this moment, Shen Tao suddenly rushed over from the front army and reported: "General, we found traces of the army cooking ahead. It seems that it has been a while. We also found a lot of baggage abandoned on the spot!"

Zhao Ji immediately rode forward to check the situation. Looking at the disorderly baggage all over the ground, he knew at a glance that they were going to have to march in a hurry.

"Zhang Xuanyu is such a bastard!" Zhao Ji cursed angrily, "Send a message to the whole army, don't be stingy with your horsepower, advance at full speed! Catch up with the main army as soon as possible!"

Roll up your armor and march forward, do not stop day or night, double your speed and march at the same time, fight for advantage after a hundred miles, then you can capture three generals, the strong ones go first and the tired ones go last, the rule is to arrive in eleven. This is the first sentence of the Art of War mentioned by Zhao Ji.

Yan Fei Shi and Zong Huaichang are facing this situation now. The army is marching day and night without food. Soldiers are falling behind rapidly along the way and the degree of organization is also declining.

What was even worse was that they were attacked as soon as they entered the south entrance of Xixia Stone Valley.

(End of this chapter)