Father can be an enemy to the country

Mongolian guide Xu Yelu finally understood why Lan Yu dared to utter wild words, saying that it would take three days to reach Gyeongju.

Lan Yu's men are more like a people on horseback than the Mongolians who retreated to the grasslands.

Xu Yelu heard from the old man that when their ancestors followed Genghis Khan to conquer the world, they often had to travel long distances for raids. When there was time to change horses, they could only rest once after marching for more than ten days. Therefore, all Mongolian men must train themselves to eat and sleep on horseback. If they can survive two days and two nights without dismounting, their endurance is considered qualified.

He always felt that it was a bit exaggerated. At least those of them who returned to the grassland halfway would never be able to do it. But now that he saw Lan Yu's men, he realized that what the old man said was true.

I saw that the Ming army set out before dawn every morning, basically not stopping in the middle, and eating and feeding the horses were all done on horseback. They did not stop to rest until it was completely dark, and marched continuously for at least eight hours.

In just four hours of camping time, they had to take good care of the horses, cut grass and feed them beans, brush and shoe them. If the horse's back is found to be skinned, it must be sheared immediately and the wound cleaned with herbs. It takes an hour to finish the whole set of work, no matter how quick your hands are.

After excluding the time spent digging snow pits and building the camp, they only slept for two hours every day. These are still ordinary soldiers, and the scouts have to be on guard all night. They would set up bunks three to five miles away from the military camp and rest on their pillows made of wild boar skin.

Through the wild boar skin Hulu, the scouts could hear the sound of horse hooves within a radius of thirty miles, providing early warning for the army. They stayed up almost all night, and when marching during the day, they had to take turns guarding the perimeter. Xu Yelu couldn't understand, where did they get such terrifying endurance?

But the Ming army under Lan Yu's command had such terrifying endurance. They relied on extremely long marches, traveling almost two hundred miles every day.

They marched for two and a half days in vain. Although the soldiers were exhausted, no one complained and no one fell behind. They all gritted their teeth silently and persisted.

At dusk that day, the snow had lightened a little. Lan Yu was taking a nap on horseback when she suddenly heard the sound of rapid horse hooves.

He suddenly raised his head, and the Ming army who was taking a nap in the team also raised their heads, and saw the scout captain in front of him galloping over to explore the road.

"Report, a camp was found twenty miles ahead, and there were many signs of human activity inside." The scout captain came to Lan Yu, clasped his fists and said solemnly: "Looking from a distance, there should be thousands of people."

"Oh?" Before Lan Yu could speak, Nanxiong Hou Zhao Yong spoke first: "Has Qingzhou arrived?"

"It's not a city, it's just a camp." The scout captain shook his head.

"Well, this place should be about seventy or eighty miles away from Qingzhou." Lan Yu had been estimating the distance in her mind, and said in a deep voice: "Have you seen clearly whether it is a military camp or an ordinary tribe?"

"It's hard to distinguish." The scout captain shook his head again. All Mongolians were soldiers, and they didn't have uniforms, so it was difficult to distinguish the common people from the army.

"Call Xu Yedonkey." Lan Yu ordered.

After a while, Xu Yelu was brought in. After listening to the scout captain's story, he said with certainty: "That should be the residence of Chagan Mulun Qianhu Station. Ordinary herdsmen will not put their camp next to the road. It’s too dangerous.”

"Chagan Mulun's Thousand Households Office?" Lan Yu's expression perked up after hearing this: "We have already arrived at the outskirts of Qingzhou?!"

"Yes." Xu Yelu nodded and said: "This Qianhu Station was specially set up by Nahachu sixty miles south of Qingzhou to patrol and guard against Ming army raids."

"The old boy is quite vigilant." Zhao Yong spat: "But I didn't meet any of his scouts along the way, which shows that he is not really vigilant."

"Who would have thought that you would brave such heavy snow to attack?" Xu Yelu muttered.

"Okay, you can go." Lan Yu asked about the details of the Qianhu Office again. Seeing that Xu Yelu knew nothing about it, she waved him away.

"I'm going to take over this Thousand Household Office!" After Xu Yelu retreated, he said to Zhao Yong in a deep voice.

"Yes, it is necessary." Zhao Yong nodded in agreement: "If we don't capture it, the plan to raid Qingzhou City will easily go bankrupt. Furthermore, we know nothing about the situation in Qingzhou City, and we need to understand it first."

"That's right." Lan Yu put her hands in her sleeves and said solemnly: "It is not difficult to capture this Qianhusuo, but we must not let anyone go alive."

"Yeah." Zhao Yong agreed.

"Let's divide the work, one goes in to dig out the nest, and the other blocks the way outside." Lan Yu said, "Which one do you want to choose?"

"I'm going to do a simple thing. I'll bring people in." Zhao Yong smiled and said, "Can you please Yushuai to block the way for me outside."

"You're so handsome." Lan Yu scolded angrily: "Then let's leave it like that. The whole army will march another ten miles to rest, and after dark, go and dig out the nest."

"As ordered." Zhao Yong responded in a deep voice.

~~

The soldiers of the Ming army followed Lan Yu's instructions and marched another ten miles, then stopped and took a rest. Let the war horses eat some fodder, and the officers and soldiers also eat something and take a rest to build up enough strength for a big fight in the evening.

However, Lan Yu did not stop to rest. Instead, he quietly took Zhao Yong to the place several miles away and used binoculars to personally detect the enemy's situation.

While he was investigating, he took out the clumped fried noodles from his arms, took a bite of fried noodles and a bite of snow, devouring it as if he was eating a big meal.

It was impossible to light a fire in the ice and snow, and they couldn't light a fire to avoid being exposed. All the soldiers from him down had been eating like this these days.

But Lan Yu enjoyed it very much. War was the greatest enjoyment for him. On the contrary, when there was no war, even if he was well clothed and surrounded by beauties, he was still very irritable.

After finishing today's meal, Lan Yu also completed the investigation and whispered to Zhao Yong on the side: "It is said to be a thousand-household camp, but there are only two to three hundred people in it, not more. There are only two camp gates in the front and back. , surrounded by walls, it shouldn’t be difficult to catch a turtle in an urn.”

"This kind of forward post must have warning objects such as beacons and smoke. Don't let them light them up." He also warned him: "Also, try not to release people. If you are blind, you will run away."

"Yeah, I'll try my best." Zhao Yong nodded.

"..." Lan Yu thought for a moment and said decisively: "I decided to take action as soon as it gets dark, not waiting until midnight."

"Ah? So urgent?" Zhao Yong said in surprise.

"If we start early, we can get to Qingzhou before dawn, and maybe we can have a double ring." Lan Yu explained in a deep voice: "If we start in the middle of the night, we will never be able to reach Qingzhou City before dawn. The night is long and the dream is many. , If we can’t guarantee what will happen tomorrow, we’d better take action as soon as possible!”

"Okay." Zhao Yong quickly ordered his subordinate Qian Hu to bring the troops to his side.