The speed of the Horse Gang was too slow, much slower than Li An had predicted. The reason for this was not only that the Horse Gang were walking, but also that they were carrying a lot of treasures. With so many treasures, the speed of the Horse Gang was seriously slowed down. As a result, when they set up camp on the first evening, the Tang soldiers and the Horse Gang were far apart from each other.
After a whole night and a whole day's continuous march, the Tang dynasty's soldiers had already traveled more than a hundred miles, while the Horse Gang had only moved forward more than twenty miles when they camped at night. This was a relatively easy road. If it had been this way all the time, the Tang dynasty's soldiers would have been more than three hundred miles away.
When the scout reported the news, both Ang Lee and Lao Guo felt that the Horse Gang was moving too slowly. According to this speed, it would take the Horse Gang ten days to half a month to arrive at their ambush area, or at least a week. In order to reduce the casualties, the Horse Gang had deliberately delayed for so long. Was it right or wrong? Ang Lee even doubted himself.
"Are these Horse Gang crazy? How could they carry so much luggage? Aren't they afraid that the soldiers will catch up with them and kill them at this speed?"
Lao Guo also felt a little surprised. According to the Foal's intelligence, he had already known that the Horse Gang would carry some treasures on the road, but he did not expect them to have so many treasures. After all, the treasures were hidden in the dark. Though the Foal knew there were treasures, he did not know the specific quantity, so he just gave a simple report. Now the situation was clear. The Horse Gang's speed was seriously affected by the excessive amount of treasures they carried, which even the Horse Gang leader himself did not expect.
Sometimes people's feelings were wrong. What they predicted might not be accurate. For example, they predicted that it would cost thirty to fifty thousand yuan to build a small house, but in fact it would cost more than one hundred thousand yuan. There were too many examples of people who thought they could finish a task in one year, but failed to finish it after three to five years. The Horse Gang leader probably did not know the situation along the way, nor how fast his men could move on the dangerous road.
"Lao Guo! These Horse Gang are crazy indeed. They love money more than their lives! The journey to the east of the river was so arduous, and they still had to take a detour around the official road. With so many treasures, how could they still walk? It seems that this Horse Gang leader is also an idiot who loves money so much that he's crazy! "
Ang Lee said.
"Are we still going to set up an ambush in the Lu River Valley as planned?"
Lao Guo said.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Of course. The slower the horse thieves go, the more time we have to prepare. Anyway, there's nothing urgent. Just treat it as a vacation."
Lao Guo said, "Of course I have no problem with that. But the problem is that Assistant Minister Li won't do well if he doesn't contact the imperial court for a long time."
"Old Guo! You don't have to worry about that. I've already made arrangements. The imperial court will receive news of my safety on time. "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
After the army set up camp, they began to cook. Although this location was not easy to be discovered by the Horse Gang, for the sake of safety, all the stoves were smokeless. That was to say, there would be small ditches around the fire pit, and the ditches would be covered with twigs and leaves. In this way, the thick smoke caused by the fire would be evenly dispersed, and the column of smoke could not be seen from a distance. This was equivalent to a good hiding.
In the later war years, in order to avoid the bombing of the enemy's planes, Hua Xia's generals and soldiers adopted this method. They used twigs and leaves to disperse the smoke, so that the enemy's planes could not find the smoke at all. Thus, they could not find the hiding place of our army and could not attack us from the air.
Moreover, in order to confuse and consume the enemy's energy, our army would deliberately light bonfires a few miles away while using the smokeless stoves, so as to mislead the enemy's planes into bombing these fake targets. In this way, we could save our own strength and greatly consume the enemy's ammunition, so that the enemy would use up all their expensive ammunition on the barren hills.
However, the smokeless stoves were not completely smokeless. They just dispersed the thick smoke column. In this way, if the smoke did not form into a column of smoke, it would not be easily discovered by the enemy. But if the smoke persisted for too long, the target would be exposed eventually. Therefore, the cooking time had to be controlled well and not be delayed for too long.
There were more than a thousand people in the army. If they were to prepare for 50 people to each stove, they would need more than 20 stoves. In reality, they might need even more. For a high-ranking official like Li An, they would need to be given special treatment, which would also take up a stove.
The soldiers had marched continuously for a day and a night, so they were really tired. The horse bandits walked too slowly, so there was no need for such a tense march. Especially tonight, the soldiers could rest as much as they wanted and replenish their strength so that they could recover as soon as possible.
Dinner was very well prepared. All the soldiers were given at least one jin of fresh meat, eggs, and various vegetables. All of this had been prepared in advance. Before the army had set out, Li An had already dispatched a team to transport the required food supplies here. There were even more provisions waiting for them further away in the Lu River Valley. This was Ang Lee's wisdom. If they did not prepare in advance, the soldiers would have to carry the supplies themselves. This would slow down the journey, just like the horse bandits. Because there were no supplies along the way, they had to carry all the supplies themselves. This greatly limited their movement speed, so they could only travel 20 to 30 miles a day.
"Assistant Minister Li is so considerate! In order to let the soldiers have a good meal, he even asked people to transport so much fresh meat and vegetables in advance. Look at these vegetables, they are all covered with a finger-thick layer of mud. How fresh they are! Hahaha! "
Looking at the fresh vegetables, Lao Guo said happily.
In order to keep the vegetables fresh, Ang Lee specially asked the people responsible for transporting the vegetables to plant them in the mud and water them on the way. In this way, the vegetables could be kept fresh all the time.
Of course, even if that wasn't the case, the vegetables wouldn't be much of a problem. It was still early spring, and the temperature wasn't high. The highest temperature in a day was only a few degrees, so the vegetables wouldn't go bad quickly. It was just that in order to maintain the freshest and most tender nature of the vegetables, people specially prepared the soil. In this way, the transportation cost had increased by a lot. And these fresh and tender vegetables were obviously the products of the greenhouses, the crystallization of the Tang Dynasty's latest technology. Without the technology of greenhouses, other than radishes and a few other vegetables, no other vegetables could be eaten in winter.
It was the same for fresh meat. However, unlike the transportation of fresh vegetables, which required extra transportation costs, the transportation of fresh meat not only did not cost more transportation costs, but also saved a lot of transportation costs. This was because vegetables were dead, and meat was alive. The so-called fresh meat was living pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, and so on. Chickens and ducks needed to be transported in cages, while pigs, cows, and sheep could be driven away directly. It was much easier to let them go on their own than to kill them and load them on the vehicle.
That was to say, these pigs, cows, and sheep were all freshly killed, which made the soldiers very happy, feeling that they were valued.
Before the main army arrived, the scouts had already arrived. Therefore, there were naturally people who had started preparing in advance. As such, when the soldiers arrived, the pigs, cows, and sheep had already been slaughtered, and all kinds of food had been prepared. The soldiers only needed to set up the tents and they could start eating heartily.
"I've been in the army for decades, but I've never seen such treatment! Good food is served as soon as the army sets up the tents. Haha! "
A lieutenant said happily as he ate the leg of lamb.
"Yes! I was planning to eat dry steamed buns and pickled vegetables for two days. Now, there are so many good dishes. "
"I've heard that Assistant Minister Li is very capable. Now I see that it's true. He's so considerate. But we uncouth men can bear hardships. We don't need such care. It doesn't matter if we eat dry steamed buns for a few days."
"It doesn't matter. But it's always good to eat something good. There's no need to treat ourselves badly. Come on, soldiers, eat more."
"If I follow Assistant Minister Li, wouldn't I be able to eat and drink well every day?"
Several lieutenants chatted together, which was heard by Ang Lee and Lao Guo in the tent.
"Look! The soldiers under my command are all dead set on serving Assistant Minister Li. Sigh! "
Lao Guo looked like a loser, but he was not really sad. Instead, he was sighing with emotion. He felt that he was no match for Li An, even in many aspects.
Ang Lee said complacently, "The soldiers are just talking for fun. You don't have to do that, Lao Guo. Hahaha!"
"Now it seems that it will take the Horse Gang a long time to reach the Lu River Valley. Do we still need to march in a hurry tomorrow?"
Lao Guo suddenly asked.
"That's up to you. But you can tell the soldiers that there are still steamed buns in the Lu River Valley, but there won't be any on the way from here. They can only eat dry steamed buns. What do you think, Lao Guo?"
Ang Lee said.
"Haha! Great! Assistant Minister Li's trick is so cruel! Isn't it forcing the soldiers to march in a hurry? Hahaha! Wait a minute. I'll go out and ask the soldiers if they're willing to eat dry steamed buns. "
While speaking, Lao Guo walked out of the tent and shouted to the soldiers beside him, "Soldiers, be quiet and listen to me."
The soldiers were all eating meat and talking loudly. Seeing Lao Guo come out, they all shut up and turned to look at him.
Seeing that the soldiers stopped talking in an orderly manner, Lao Guo said loudly, "Soldiers, how's the meal today? Is it delicious?"
"Yes, it's delicious."
"It's all delicious!"
"Yummy, yummy."
The soldiers were not very cultured and could not speak too many words. However, what they were trying to express in their hearts was the same. That was that the food was delicious and they were very satisfied. That was enough. The uncouth men only needed to express their thoughts correctly. There was no need to learn too many flowery words.
"Haha! Soldiers, Assistant Minister Li has just told this general that there are such dishes in the Lu River Valley, but the Lu River Valley is rather far from here. If we march at a rapid pace tomorrow morning, we will be able to arrive at night. But if we march at a slow pace, we will only be able to arrive the day after tomorrow. Thus, tomorrow night, we will only be able to eat cold steamed buns. Whether we march at a rapid pace to the Lu River Valley to eat delicious food or march at a slow pace to eat cold steamed buns, I leave this choice to the soldiers.
Lao Guo roared.
"Of course we'll march to the Lu River Valley to eat meat. Haha!"
"General, we don't need to think about it. Tomorrow we'll march to the Lu River Valley to eat meat."
"Meat, we want meat."
"Meat, meat, meat."
The soldiers' opinions were unanimous. All of them wanted to eat meat rather than eat cold steamed buns. As for the hard work of marching in a hurry, they could totally bear it. In their eyes, marching in a hurry was not a big deal. It was just hard work and tiredness. It didn't matter, as long as they could eat good wine and food.
"Well, since you all want to eat meat, we'll work harder tomorrow and march to the Lu River Valley. We must arrive there before dinner. Well, soldiers, let's eat!"
Lao Guo said loudly, and then went back to the tent to drink.
"See, I told you. These bastards only know how to eat meat. Once they hear there's meat, they'll be so happy and full of energy. They're all like little tigers. "
Lao Guo went back to the tent and said proudly.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "These soldiers are all good. With them, the Tang dynasty will never have to worry about foreign enemies and bandits. Lao Guo, let's drink."
"Come on, let's drink."
Lao Guo nodded and said.
"While drunk, I watch swords under the light. In my dream, I blow the horn and encampment. Eight hundred miles away, my men are roasted. Fifty strings are turned over beyond the Great Wall. Soldiers are gathered on the battlefield in autumn.
Horses fly fast. Bows are like thunderbolts. Strings are frightening. I've accomplished everything in the world. I've won fame before and after. Pity happens in vain! "
Li An drank a little too much and unknowingly recited a poem. This was a poem by Xin Qiji of the Great Song Dynasty. It didn't seem to fit the situation, but it also had a sense of heroism. Old Xin's poem didn't say anything else, but it was firm and heroic.
"Assistant Minister Li, did you write this poem for me?"
Lao Guo asked.
"It's just a lament. Don't say it's for you."
Ang Lee said.
Lao Guo said, "Pity happens in vain. Assistant Minister Li is young and doesn't have white hair. He's definitely not talking about himself. More than half of my hair is white. Isn't that referring to me? "
"Well, it's you if you say so. Lao Guo! You've got white hair, but you still haven't become famous. Do you feel sorry? "
Ang Lee asked.
Lao Guo paused and said, "How could that be? So what if I become famous? I still have three meals a day, and I can't eat more than one. "
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