Ba Lisu put back his saber and went down to mobilize the troops, while Wu Shufu called for another table of food. He ate it on the stork tower facing the dragon on the opposite side, and then went north in person to meet the living girl.

As the Jin people walked north, on the other side of Pujin, the Song army camp not only did not relax, but became more and more tense... No one knew whether the Jin army was playing hard to get, and no one knew whether they would fight back at night.

However, the Jin army did not come over that night and did not come back the next day. Of course, the beacon smoke planned at Longmen Crossing was not lit.

But at the same time, going upstream along the Yellow River, the straight-line distance is exactly one thousand miles away. The actual distance of the Yellow River is three thousand miles away. A key point in the heart of Xixia is the Xiakou, which is where the Qingtong Gorge will be in later generations.

, the beacon was successfully lit.

Let's say that there were very few troops stationed in Xixia. The Song army used Zhang Xian's troops to detour upstream and successfully raided, and then the entire army successfully crossed. However, due to manpower limitations, they could not prevent the Xixia people from lighting beacons.

Therefore, in the afternoon, there was a beacon fire and smoke rising into the sky. For a time, warnings were issued everywhere along the Yellow River in Xixia.

"Haojiao Jiedu knows that Liu Fa...is Liu Zhengyan's father. He once took the same route and passed through the gorge and arrived in Lingzhou. However, he was defeated by Wei Mingcha Ge at the foot of Lingzhou City. In the end,

When they were about to retreat here, they were surrounded by Cha Ge, and then the whole army was wiped out." By the evening of that day, the Song army crossed the river regardless of the hardships. Hu Hongxiu, who had much less smell of suet on his head, saw that Yue Fei had changed in the distance.

The smoke of a large-scale bonfire was silent, and he moved forward to explain. "After that time, the Xixia people also built beacon towers even in places like this... In fact, passing this gorge is the real hinterland of Xixia."

Yue Fei shook his head slightly, raised his knife and said in a deep voice: "I don't care about this beacon fire. It comes to the hinterland of the Xixia people. This is indispensable... How far is this place from Xingqing Mansion?"

"One hundred and eighty miles." Hu Hongxiu blurted out.

"A rapid march...three days?" Yue Fei thought for a moment and asked again.

Hu Hongxiu immediately shook his head: "At least six days."

Liu Qi hesitated for a moment and then took the initiative to interject and explain: "Yue Jiedu... the Dangxiang people have more tribes than household registrations, and all the people in each tribe are soldiers. Even the core warriors are not in Xingling at this time. With the authority of Li Qianshun as the country's leader for fifty years, A messenger can summon a male from a nearby tribe to come to our aid. They ride a horse, hold a bow, carry a spear, and carry a bag of food and water, which is enough to form an army. But this kind of Fan cavalry came to charge our army, We will definitely die, but if we ignore them, march with abandon, let them harass the march and plunder the logistics, we will die."

Yue Fei nodded immediately: "What do you mean, you two, we can only march steadily, thirty miles a day?"

"Yes." Liu Qi responded.

"How many of those kinds of cavalry will come to help?"

"It's hard to say." Liu Qi continued to talk seriously. "It depends on how fast we go... If we can really make it thirty or forty miles a day, five or six days, by the time we arrive at the gate of Xingqing Mansion, there will probably be 20,000 people there." of."

Hu Hongxiu hesitated for a moment and then gave a little reminder: "Jiedu, the more Fan cavalry gather, the slower our advance will be... And not only the number of tribal Fan cavalry from the other side, but also the strength of our troops must be considered."

"No need to think about it." Yue Fei shook his head in reply. "Vice-General Wang is forty miles behind. It's only a day's journey to hand over the mouth of the gorge to him. Let's not delay. Let's have a good rest today. Tomorrow morning, the whole army will move forward quickly. , grab time, grab distance.”

Liu Qi and Hu Hongxiu thought for a while, and then each nodded heavily. Even Qu Duan, who had just settled down his cavalry, after listening to the previous few conversations, just waved his riding whip and had nothing to say for a while.

Think about it, now that you are here, what else can you do?

The whole night was silent. The next morning, when the sky was just getting light, everyone got up to eat. They found that there was a Buddhist pagoda next to the Yellow River where they rested yesterday. Many soldiers who believed in Buddhism ran there to worship.

The officers did not stop him, and many officers themselves could not help but pay homage. Only Yue and Qu looked at each other coldly and showed no expression.

"Jiedu, the Xixia people are coming!"

In the morning, the entire army was organized, and the baggage was pulled by rafts and marched in the river. The army arrayed along the river according to the commander's personal arrangement. Just as they were about to set off, Li Shifu, who had dispersed in advance, suddenly turned around and reached the central army. Then he turned over and dismounted, heading towards Yue Fei reported a military situation.

"how many people?"

Yue Fei, who was fully armored, looked at him seriously under the banner of the commander who served his country loyally. His eyes were obviously bloodshot.

"Four to five hundred...it must be that the surrounding tribes have taken care of themselves when they see the beacon smoke." Li Shifu responded seriously. "These tribes are all local tribes in Xingling and are direct descendants of the Weiming clan. The general will try to recruit them. As a result, both messengers were killed, so they had no choice but to disperse them... And according to this posture, I am afraid that two to three thousand people will be able to gather tomorrow, and then the general's subordinates will not be able to easily disperse these lightly-armed cavalry for the main army. "

"It doesn't matter." Yue Fei immediately responded on his horse. "Deputy Commander Li, being a scout here is a great achievement."

Li Shifu nodded immediately, but like the surrounding Kansai generals, they could not hide their serious expressions.

In this way, the army finally set off and headed north along the Yellow River.

However, they could not walk more than ten miles, and it was not yet noon. As the army turned around the bend of the Yellow River, the terrain suddenly opened up. Yue Fei naturally noticed something conspicuous to the northwest of the army's formation, and turned to look.

Hu Hongxiu turned to his side:

"Shilang Hu, that mountain is continuous and majestic. It looks like a group of horses galloping, but what kind of mountain is it?"

Although he knew that the journey ahead would determine his life or death, Hu Hongxiu couldn't help but laugh: "Yue Jiedu said that if the peaks of this mountain are like galloping horses, then of course it is Horse Mountain..."

"Just call it Horse Mountain?"

"Of course!" Hu Hongxiu continued to laugh. "The horse is called Helan in the local Tibetan language... Therefore, this mountain is also called Helan Mountain!"

Yue Fei suddenly realized.
Chapter completed!