Chapter 13: North Latitude (Three) Along the way, Li Chengzhong led his men to stay about one or two miles behind the Bian army. Zhou Kanjian's eyes turned red several times as he wanted to rush forward, but was stopped by Li Chengzhong each time.

  The Bian army obviously strengthened its vigilance, and there were two good opportunities to take action on the road, both of which were abandoned due to the Bian army's alertness.

  Once, the Bian army entered a small forest, but arranged for two crossbowmen to stand guard outside the forest; once they passed by a riverbank, the Bian army stopped to wash up, but had several soldiers keeping watch by the river.

  Li Chengzhong was also somewhat anxious, he estimated the direction and simply took a detour along the route of the Bian army's southward march, and when they passed through a small forest, he had everyone hide in advance to ambush.

  It's already dusk, the sun is setting westward, and everyone is waiting in the forest. Wang Dalang muttered to himself, asking, "Boss, will the Bian army come? Won't they bypass us?" Li Chengzhong replied in a low voice, "They shouldn't. Looking at the sky, it's time for them to rest. This forest is quite suitable for camping."

  But it's hard to say... let's just see how things go.

  Everyone listened and didn't say a word anymore, they just stared tensely at the outside of the forest.

  After a while, the silhouette of Bian's army indeed appeared outside the forest, driving oxcarts and walking lazily in this direction.

  As they got closer, the ox cart stopped, and the two crossbowmen came towards the woods with their crossbows at the ready.

  Li Chengzhong signaled everyone to hide, and the crowd's hearts were all tight. They leaned against the back of the tree, shrinking their bodies, hiding behind the bushes, lowering their figures, and those who rode on the trees also carefully pulled their legs hanging in mid-air back.

  Those two crossbowmen cautiously came in, took a quick look around, and were about to retreat to call their companions.

  Li Zhongzhong hid in the branches, just where two crossbowmen were retreating back and forth. Seeing the crossbowmen passing right under his feet, he gritted his teeth, let out a loud shout: "Take action!" and pounced down from the tree.

  Originally, according to the previous plan, Li Chengzhong intended to ambush and attack the Bian army from all sides after they entered the forest.

  In the plan, these two crossbowmen were the greatest enemies of You Dou, and they were the key to be eliminated. He specially arranged Zhou Dagou, Zhou Xiaolang, Wang Dalang and another brother Xue Fei to take care of them.

  But at this moment, the situation changed. The Bian army officer arranged for two long-range crossbowmen to enter the forest to explore, and he didn't know what consideration the Bian army officer had made such an arrangement, but how could he let go of such a good opportunity? So he temporarily changed his plan, issued orders, and jumped down first.

  Two Jin army crossbowmen were leaning in close, when they suddenly heard a shout from the tree, and couldn't help but jump in fright, their bodies trembling as they turned to look up, just in time to see a dark figure descending upon them.

  Li Chengzhong's tackle had an unexpectedly good effect, directly knocking down two Bian army crossbowmen to the ground. Immediately afterwards, Zhou Kan and Zhou Xiaolang rushed over and pressed down on the hands and feet of the two Bian army crossbowmen. Wang Dalang and Xue Fei then charged forward with their spears, thrusting into the gap.

  Only a few mournful cries, and the two crossbowmen were done for! Li Chengzhong picked up the two bows and crossbows that the crossbowmen had dropped on the ground, saw that they still had two short crossbow arrows attached to them, ready to be fired at any time, turned around and handed the bows and crossbows over to the two brothers who were good at shooting and rushed over, then called out to everyone to rush out of the forest.

  Before Li Chengzhong had even given the order, Zhou Kan Dao and Zhou Xiao Lang had already charged out of the forest first, rushing towards that group of Bianjun soldiers.

  The soldiers outside the forest had already heard the mournful cries coming from within, and they hastily drew their swords. The leading officer loudly asked a few questions, but before he could hear the response from his companions in the forest, a group of people emerged from the woods, attacking them. In the dim light, it was impossible to tell how many there were.

  The Bian army is indeed a veteran force that has been through many battles. If it were another unit, they would have turned and fled long ago in this situation.

  But these several hundred soldiers did not escape, instead gathering together and forming a semicircular battle array to prepare for the enemy.

  Li Chengzhong hastily ordered the two brothers holding the crossbow to launch an attack.

  These two men were originally wandering knights from outside the pass, especially skilled in archery, with a very high hit rate, and they used crossbows to shoot. At such close range, how could they miss?

  Only two crossbow arrows shot out quickly and accurately knocked down two Bianjun soldiers.

  After shooting the crossbow arrows, the two of them threw the empty crossbows to the ground, took down their bows from behind and loaded feathered arrows again.

  The Bian army saw that this side had good marksmen with long-range shots, and the morale of the army was finally lost. The leading officer shouted loudly and turned to run back first, and the remaining five also followed suit and fled in a hurry.

  Several arrows shot past again, knocking down two of them. The remaining four Bian soldiers had already run out of the range of the bow and arrow.

  Li Chengzhong hastily summoned everyone to pursue and attack, Zhou Kan Dao held his waist knife and roared with anger as he chased after them first.

  He was chasing in the front, but Bian Jun threw down his sword and his body became much lighter, running also became much faster.

  The gap between the two sides gradually widened, and it was impossible to catch up. Zhou Feng's anger surged, and he shouted "Bastard! Thief!" but could only helplessly watch as the enemy army ran further and further away.

  Just as Li Chengzhong thought they couldn't catch up, and was about to call Zhou Dangdao back, seven or eight people suddenly rushed over from the opposite side, blocking the retreat route of the Bianjun army, swinging their swords and thrusting their spears.

  The soldiers of Bian scattered in a hurry and ran around in circles.

  At this time, Li Chengzhong led his men to chase up, and soon surrounded the several Bianjun soldiers from front and back. With swords and guns raised, they were instantly turned into minced meat.

  The leading Bianjun officer begged loudly for mercy, but Zhou Dang didn't listen and hacked at him with his knife more than ten times before stopping.

  The person who came over was not a bystander, but a brother of Zhang Xingchong and his gang.

  Both sides closed in, panting and staring at each other, then suddenly burst out laughing.

  This great victory made everyone's depressed mood of fleeing in defeat disappear, and everyone felt much more relaxed.

  Wang Dalang changed his previous resentment, pointing at Zhang Xingzhong and scolding with a smile: "Good kid, you're coming over to take advantage of the situation now! Your credit will be halved!" Zhou Kan Dao went up and gave Zhang Xingzhong a big bear hug, holding him tightly, without saying a word.

  Zhang Xing patted Zhou Kan's shoulder and said, "Zhou, are you going to strangle him to death? Let go quickly!" He struggled free from Zhou Kan's arms and nodded at Li Chengzhong, opening his mouth as if wanting to explain something.

  Li Chengzhong waved his hand, indicating that Zhang Xingzhong didn't need to say more, and the two of them smiled at each other.

  After covering up all the heads on the ox cart with Zhou Chopper, everyone started counting their spoils.

  This battle did not hurt anyone, and all ten Bian soldiers were killed, avenging the villagers of Zhoujia Village, which can be called a great victory.

  Apart from this, the spoils of war also got everyone excited for a while.

  This group of soldiers is very elite and well-equipped.

  Ten suits of armor, complete with helmets, were distributed, and the troops, who had never been issued armor before, were overjoyed.

  The Light Infantry Battalion hastily formed an army, only the company commander and a few old soldiers had armor, so these ten sets of armor were rare for the brothers of the Light Infantry Battalion.

  But what Li Chengzhong found most precious were those two arm-crossbow skeletons.

  Li Chengzhong had seen such things in the Lu Long army, and the silver gourd had used some during the confrontation with the Wei state city guard, but not many. It is said that more than a hundred years ago when the Tang Dynasty was at its peak, there were large quantities of format crossbows in the military, which were indeed effective in killing enemies.

  At this moment in a chaotic world, the cost of crossbows is too expensive, so there are very few equipped in the Lu Long army.

  Unexpectedly, there were two suits of armor among this group of Bian soldiers. It seems that the Bian soldiers who were beheaded this time should be the elite.

  Ten suits of armor, two arm-mounted crossbows, ten waist knives, and four boxes of crossbow arrows on the ox cart, all these things made You Dou change into a new person.

  Zhao Da swept the battlefield cleanest, even stripping off the clothes on the bodies of the defeated soldiers. Li Chengzhong's scalp felt numb as he watched, and he retreated several steps away from Zhao Da.

  Others seemed to have gotten used to it, Zhou Xiaolang took the Bianjun clothes handed over by Zhao Da, compared them on his own body, and said with satisfaction "it fits", which really left Li Chengzhong speechless.

  Li Chengzhong's prestige rose greatly after this battle, and after the spoils were counted, everyone looked at him with eager eyes, waiting for his orders to distribute them.

  Li Chengzhong pulled out two good archers from outside the pass, equipped them with arm-stretching crossbows, and made them the long-range shooting force of Youdu. He also let Zhao Da return to his old profession, specializing in managing food and other logistical affairs for the Youdu brothers, and was responsible for taking care of the cattle carts.

  He directly commanded Wang Dalang, Zhao Da and two archers under his command.

  The remaining eighteen brothers made some adjustments, mainly with the original team, divided into three groups, still led by Zhang Xingzhong, Zhou Kandao and Jiang Miao.

  Zhang Xingzhong and Jiang Miao each led four men, specially equipped with long spears, wearing leather armor on their bodies. During battles, they formed two spear arrays at the front line; The remaining eight men were led by Zhou Kan Dao, all of whom were re-equipped with waist knives, guarding the spear array during battles, and engaging in close combat when encountering enemies.

  After this adjustment, it was equivalent to reducing the personnel of Zhang Xingzhong and Jiang Miao. Jiang Miao resigned, but Li Chengzhong worried that Zhang Xingzhong had some ideas, just thinking about going over to explain, Zhang Xingzhong rushed him with a smile: "Li Lang, no need to say more, I understand, this deployment is good for both parties."

  Zhou Kan Dao was very grateful to Li Cheng Zhong, and he preferred to be in the front line of battle anyway, so he had no objections at all.

  Thus, another transformation of Youdu was completed smoothly, and Li Chengzhong also breathed a sigh of relief, and rested in the small forest that night.

  The next morning, they continued northward.

  With the empty ox cart, everyone loaded armor, knives and guns and other heavy objects onto it, making their feet feel a bit lighter.

  After yesterday's shoulder-to-shoulder battle, everyone has become much closer, and bursts of laughter can be heard from time to time on the march.

  In the past two days, nothing much happened. We encountered large troops of Bianjun infantry twice, but we managed to avoid them by taking a detour or hiding, and safely arrived at Yongji Canal in the northernmost part of Hebei Province.

  After crossing the Yongji Canal, you will enter the territory of Yingzhou. Continuing north through Mozhou, you can reach Youzhou, and by then, you will have truly returned to a safe place.

  Wang Dalar was very strange, logically speaking, even if the army passed by, the banks of Yongji Canal, which were exceptionally busy in the past, should have had a ferry boat, but after searching for an entire morning, there wasn't even a single sign of human activity.

  So it was suggested that Li Chengzhong continue along the south bank to the east, where there is a ferry crossing, and perhaps he can find a boat. If not, there should be shallow water nearby that can be waded across.

  Wang Dalang is well-informed and also from Dingzhou. As Ji Province is adjacent to Dingzhou, he is quite familiar with this side.

  Li Chengzhong immediately adopted his suggestion after consulting with Zhou Kan Dao and Zhou Xiaolang, both of whom were from the same place as Ji Province.

  They then marched east along the southern bank of the river.

  But the more we walked, the more desolate it felt. The few small villages we passed through were all empty and devoid of people, and everyone's hearts were also filled with anxiety.

  Not far from here, they arrived at the ferry crossing pointed out by Wang Dalang. Before their eyes lay a battlefield after a great battle.

  Countless corpses of Lu Long's soldiers filled the entire field and ditches.