Night of the 24th of July.
The vanguard battalion quietly withdrew from the northern barracks, and the two battalions of the mixed brigade followed suit.
The next morning, the two battalions of the mixed brigade would go through routine drills in the northern barracks to confuse the Sky Abundant Tribe. The scouts of the Sky Abundant Tribe couldn't get close to the barracks and couldn't find them at all. The soldiers training in the barracks had been secretly changed.
The first battalion of the vanguard battalion left the cyan beetle horses and Radiant Armor in the northern barracks and changed into the spare equipment and mounts. The four cavalry battalions all wore the clothes of roving bandits. These clothes were all contributed by the captured bandits during the siege of the city.
That's right, for this attack, they were dressed as roving bandits.
Because they had to pass through the grasslands and enter the depths of the basin, in order to reduce the risk of exposure, the four battalions would split into four groups and follow different routes towards the western barracks of the Sky Abundant Tribe. The coordination and communication between the battalions would be done by spies from the intelligence department through hummingbirds.
At the same time, the five companies of each battalion would split up, with each company two kilometers apart.
The western barracks were about 160 kilometers away from the Friendship River. As a result, it would take three days just to get there, and this was under the premise that everything went smoothly and there were no accidents.
Because it was in the grasslands, there were no hills or forests. There was no place to hide during the day at all. As a result, the cavalry didn't use the nocturnal method of marching. Instead, they marched normally. Along the way, if they met any lone nomads, they would all be killed.
Lei Xun from the intelligence department led the second group of spies and had already done a lot of preparation work. The four routes chosen by the intelligence department all went around the nomadic tribes' barracks.
Ouyang Shuo went with the army, and his position was between the second and third companies of the first battalion of the vanguard battalion. Following beside him and protecting him was the lord's personal guard that had just been formed not long ago. As for Lin Yi, he led the first company and explored the path ahead.
The twenty-fifth, five in the morning, the sky just brightened.
Two thousand soldiers successfully crossed the Friendship River with the help of the North Sea Fleet under the morning light. After that, the four battalions would go their separate ways until they reached their final destination.
On the first day, because they passed through the territory of the exterminated Tianlian Tribe, everything went smoothly. Although this area had been taken over by the Sky Rich Tribe, there were not many herdsmen stationed here. The Sky Abundant Tribe only used this area as a pasture.
Therefore, on this day, the overall speed of the troops was faster. Coupled with the fact that there were no infantry dragging them down, they had traveled more than 60 kilometers. At seven o 'clock in the evening, the scattered platoons regrouped and rested on the spot.
The military tents and ration pills, the two logistics weapons, began to display their power again.
When they set off in the morning, every soldier took an Army Pill and did not need to eat during the day. There was no need to light a fire to cook at night, which minimized the risk of exposure. As for drinking water, he had already prepared enough water in his backpack for three days. Apart from that, Ouyang Shuo also had a batch of drinking water in his storage pouch.
Tomorrow, the troops would have to pass through the territory of a medium-sized tribe, and the danger level would increase significantly.
At five o 'clock in the morning the next day, all the platoons set off one by one, keeping a distance of two kilometers between them. They wanted to take advantage of the fact that there were fewer people in the early hours of the morning to cover more of the distance.
At noon, Ouyang Shuo rode Black Whirlwind and hurried on with his personal guards. At this moment, a group of about seven or eight herdsmen appeared in front of them. They were herding a flock of sheep and seemed to be herding them.
"Sir?" Wang Feng, the captain of the personal guards, immediately rushed to Ouyang Shuo's side.
Ouyang Shuo naturally understood Wang Feng's meaning and nodded.
Wang Feng understood and made a gesture to the back. Thus, half of the personal guards immediately left the platoon and pounced on the herdsmen like a pack of hungry wolves.
When the herdsmen saw the personal guards pouncing on them, they thought that they had encountered bandits and immediately fled in panic.
The horses that ordinary herdsmen rode were naturally not Green Beetle Horses. Green Beetle Horses were also considered a rare breed in nomadic tribes. They were not so common that even herdsmen could ride them.
The personal guards' attack was very strategic. They did not directly pounce on the herdsmen, but first circled around to form an encirclement around the herdsmen to prevent them from escaping.
The herdsmen who were surrounded were panic-stricken. They were mumbling something that was probably begging for mercy. As they mumbled, they kept pointing at the flock of sheep not far away. What they meant was that they could take the flock of sheep away, and they begged the heroes to spare their lives.
Unfortunately, the people they encountered were not bandits who wanted to rob them, but the Shanhai County's official army.
Which member of the personal guards had not experienced the baptism of blood and fire? They had long cultivated a heart of stone. All of them were expressionless as they rode on horseback and nocked their arrows. With just a volley of arrows, all the herdsmen fell off their horses.
According to Ouyang Shuo's original intention, he naturally did not want to hurt the innocent, especially the civilians. However, this operation was too important, and no accidents could be allowed to happen. His hands were already stained with blood.
The herdsmen looked at the sharp arrows stuck in their chests with shock on their faces. They could not understand why these bandits were not like what the rumors said, that they would rob the herdsmen and not kill them. They were not willing to let them live at all, even if they were captured and taken to the bandit camp as prisoners.
The personal guards did not care about the sheep that fled in all directions. Instead, they rode to the herdsmen's corpses, pulled out their Tang knives, and stabbed each corpse to ensure that nothing went wrong. After that, the personal guards took out the shovels that they had prepared in advance from their backpacks and dug a large pit on the spot. They buried all the herdsmen's corpses and covered them with a layer of weeds to make a simple camouflage.
At night, the relatives of the herdsmen found out that they had gone missing and did not return home. Coupled with the time they spent outside to search, even if they could successfully find a place to bury the corpses, it would probably take one or two days. Even so, it was only determined to be an attack by bandits. It could not attract the attention of the tribe's higher-ups at all.
This was just a small interlude on the march. Similar things happened from time to time on the march of the four cavalry battalions. This set of handling methods was also drafted in advance by the military office and explained in detail to every soldier. This was the value of the military office. They were responsible for formulating very detailed battle plans, and all kinds of small details were taken into consideration as much as possible.
At night, the group stopped again. Tomorrow, they would enter the territory of the Tianji Tribe. The camp in the west of the town was located at the western border of the Tianji Tribe. It was a full 50 kilometers away from the tent next to the Blessed Lake.
After entering the Tianji Tribe, they could clearly feel that there were more herdsmen. Occasionally, they would also encounter the soldiers patrolling the border in the west of the town. At this time, they would try to avoid them as much as possible. If they really could not avoid them, they could only kill them.
However, this way, when the people in the west of the town were doing a headcount at night, they would definitely find that some people were missing, and this would raise the alarm. However, this could not be helped. It was not easy to sneak into the hinterland of the other party, especially with a large army.
At three o 'clock in the afternoon, the various units stopped ten kilometers away from the camp in the west of the town. If they continued to advance, they would enter the core area of the town in the west. Barging in like this during the day was tantamount to seeking death.
In order to hide their tracks, the platoons dispersed again and hid in the herdsmen's homes. As for the original owners of the herdsmen's homes, one could imagine what happened to them. The troops of 2,000 people were like a giant beast, secretly lurking outside the camp in the west of the town, eyeing it covetously.
In the evening, after the centurion in the west of the town did a routine headcount, he found that some of the soldiers patrolling the border did not return to the camp on time. This situation was immediately reported to the chiliarch, who then reported it to the commander-in-chief of the town, Rakshin.
After listening to the chiliarch's report, Rakshin frowned and asked, "Have you sent anyone to investigate?"
"In reply to the general, I have already sent a hundred-man team to the border to investigate. I feel that something is amiss, so I specially rushed here to report to the general. "The chiliarch did not dare to be negligent.
The west of the town had not experienced any battles for many years, so it was rare for soldiers to go missing. Thinking of the Khan's previous request, Rakshin naturally did not dare to let his guard down.
"Pass down the order, the entire camp is to be on alert tonight, and increase the intensity of the sentry patrols." Rakshin decided to be careful.
For some reason, Rakshin had been feeling a little uneasy these past two days. It was as if he was being watched by a ferocious beast, but he could not see any trace of the beast. This made Rakshin very uneasy, and the disappearance of the soldiers today further exacerbated this feeling of unease.
However, in front of his subordinates, Rakshin was as calm as ever.
"Yes!"
…
Ten kilometers away from the camp in the west of the town, there was a very inconspicuous herdsman's tent.
At six o 'clock in the evening, Lei Xun, who was disguised as a herdsman, opened the tent flap and walked in. He said respectfully, "Sir, as expected, the west of the town has indeed increased the security."
It turned out that this was where Ouyang Shuo was staying.
Ouyang Shuo nodded. The enemy's reaction was not out of his expectations. According to Lei Xun, the commander-in-chief of the town, Rakshin, was not a simple person. "Contact all the battalions, tonight we will act according to plan."
"Yes!"
At seven o 'clock in the evening, Ouyang Shuo walked out of the tent and rode on Black Whirlwind. Under the cover of the night, under Lei Xun's guidance, he began to inspect each camp. Every time they stopped at a station, Ouyang Shuo would take out barrel after barrel of Fierce Kerosene from his storage pouch and distribute it to the soldiers.
In the grassland in July, the stars twinkled in the night sky, and the cool monsoon wind blew waves of green. Under the starlight, groups of cavalrymen walked out of the herdsman's tents one after another, and placed barrels of Fierce Fire Oil on the backpacks of the warhorses. The backpacks had been specially modified, and each side could hold two barrels of Fierce Fire Oil. (To be continued.)
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