In the early morning, the snow was clear after the first snow, the Yinling marsh was mottled, and the reed marsh was covered with white areas. Looking up, I couldn't tell where the reeds were or where the snow was accumulated.

However, this is not a problem for Wu Xiaowu. As a hunter, he likes to hunt after the snow the most because it is easy to find traces of prey in the snow.

After the snow, it is the time when wild animals such as hares come out to find food. As long as you have good luck, you will definitely be able to return with a full load.

He and his companions bent over and searched for traces of prey in the snow. After a while, they found a string of hare footprints. Wu Xiaowu looked carefully and found that the footprint had just been left.

Rabbit likes to go back because it believes that the old path it has been taken is the safest, so experienced hunters will take advantage of this, and Wu Xiaowu is of course no exception.

He took out a knife, dug a hole where the hare passed, then took out the small clip he carried with him, carefully laid it, and covered it with some dead grass.

The companions brought some weeds and branches to block the trap.

The so-called road blocking means blocking both sides of the passage so that the rabbits who are eager to escape can only pass through the middle of the passage and step on the small clip in the middle of the passage.

For weeds and branches that are blocked by road, you must use dead grass and dead branches. You cannot use freshly broken grass or branches. When fixing small clips, you cannot tie them to a small stone.

The reason for doing this is that once the rabbit is clamped with a clamp is larger, and if the legs are clamped with a clamp, the legs that are clamped with a clamp will be broken. If the rabbit can run with the clamp, it will not break its legs, but will soon be exhausted by the dragged stone.

Wu Xiaowu quickly set up the clips, then detoured with his companions from left to right. After a while, he suddenly swung his stick to hit the reeds, and shouted loudly at the same time.

A black shadow flashed in the grass. The frightened hare was escaping along the way he came. It was very fast. Wu Xiaowu and his companions had no time to catch up. However, when the hare was escaping along the old road, it was caught by a clip.

The strong desire to survive made the rabbit with its legs clamped and continued to run forward. However, a stone was dragged behind the clip. Although the rabbit could drag it, its speed slowed down.

Wu Xiaowu and his companions followed behind slowly. The hare dragging the stone was easy to find out, so they were not in a hurry. The two followed the hare in the reed marsh for a while. Seeing the hare running slower and slower, they knew that the time had come.

Wu Xiaowu quickly walked forward holding a stick with a fork, and immediately forked the exhausted hare. He was about to bend down to catch the rabbit's ears, but he was stunned.

Among the reeds in front of him, there was a man squatting. He was wearing armor and holding a knife card in his hand, squatting in the grass without moving, as if he was out of courtesy.

Wu Xiaowu's first thought was like this, but then he saw many people squatting among the reeds in front of him, and looked up at the darkness. This was not right.

Wu Xiaowu turned around and wanted to run away, but saw his companion following behind him so scared that his face was pale. Several archers appeared around him and arrows were aimed at him.

"Give me...Give me your life!"

Wu Xiaowu and his companions knelt down and kept kowtowing. They were just ordinary people and had never done anything bad about burning, killing, looting, and now they met this group of official troops, they were afraid that they would be killed by the other party to make good contributions, so they cut off their heads as thieves and used them to receive rewards.

The two of them were pulled up, tied their hands behind their backs, and circled around the grass for a long time. They were taken to another reed and saw a pile of firewood, with many soldiers beside them, squatting or lying.

Among them, there were several general-looking people. When they saw that they were taken over, they asked what had happened to the accompanying soldiers.

When they learned that the two of them had accidentally rushed into the official army's garrison, the general asked about their situation. When they learned that Wu Xiaowu lived in a nearby village, they asked about the situation in the village. They asked countless questions, and finally let him loosen his ties.

But there is no intention of letting anyone go.

Wu Xiaowu, who was worried, learned that the government army was going to garrison here and guard against the Northern Barbarians and cavalry. In order to avoid leaking rumors, the two of them could not leave in the near future and had to do chores for the government army. He couldn't help but complain.

Wu Xiaowu actually wanted to say that there was an old mother and a hungry baby at home, and hoped that the other party would take him as a fart. However, with the shaky knife in the hands of these officials, they could not say anything at all.

The two were tied with thick hemp ropes by soldiers to make shackles and began to do chores, while the officers and soldiers were still squatting in the weeds, as if they set up traps and waited for their prey to fall into the trap.

Wu Xiaowu and his companions were busy in the morning until sunset, but they didn't see any trace of prey in the wilderness. Of course, the hunters were hunting wild animals, while the officials were hunting naturally were enemies.

I heard that the government army was going to spend the night in the wilderness and continued to squat tomorrow. Wu Xiaowu and his companions had a bitter face, but they could do nothing.

Looking at the endless reed marsh, Wu Xiaowu complained: What's this? Who has a brain problem and doesn't walk on the main road?

......

"No traces of the enemy were found? Have you found it clearly?"

"After the festival, the men scattered in the big lake for several days, and they had never seen any trace of the Northern Territory. Not to mention the large cavalry, even a few scattered races were missing."

"Is that..."

After the generals left, Fan Meng was the only one left in the chamber. He looked at the map in front of him and thought about the current situation, and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

As the general of the guard, Fan Meng should have led his troops to guard the Emperor's Palace in Guangling. However, the Zhou State launched a large-scale invasion of the south and the situation was critical. He was ordered by the Empress Dowager to station in Dunqiu, guarding against the Zhou cavalry that might have sneaked into Guangling through the Yinling Daze.

This Dunqiu is not Pidunqiu, and is a county town established in Qiaozhou. It is located nearly 200 miles west of Guangling, just east of Yinling Daze, and about 200 miles away from Zhongli, northwest.

Dunqiu is the western gateway to Guangling. If the enemy really attacks Guangling through Yinling Daze, it will inevitably pass through the territory of Dunqiu.

Will the Zhou army attack Guangling? Maybe, maybe not.

Fan Meng felt that if he was the commander of the Zhou army, with superior forces and no shortage of cavalry, he would definitely not be foolish enough to seize Xuyi, Zhongli, and Shouchun, a strong city like that would inevitably be divided into cavalry to advance, bypass the Chen army in various places, and take Guangling directly.

Considering that the commander of the Zhou army was the famous "Bin Wang Wen", Fan Meng knew that if his side was not careful, he would probably take advantage of loopholes by the other party, so he must not take it lightly.

He was ordered to lead his army to station in Dunqiu, and raised his spirits and sent many troops to scatter in the Great Lakes on guard. Once these troops found something wrong, they immediately ignited the beacon fire to warn Dunqiu.

Fan Meng's brother, Fan Yi, the governor of Northern Xuzhou, sent an envoy to Guangling to warn, saying that there were signs that in the Huaishui section between Zhongli and Shouchun, there were enemy cavalry crossing the Huai River and heading to Yinling Daze.

This is a speculation made by the official army's rangers when patrolling in the field based on some abnormalities found, but it is impossible to determine the specific number of this cavalry, because many of the large number of horseshoe marks left on the ground seemed to be forged.

Therefore, if there were indeed enemy cavalry crossing Huai south, they might just be enemy scouts who came south to deliberately create a large army to move south, misleading the government forces to make wrong responses.

Of course, it may also be that the main force of the Zhou army cavalry who attempted to sneak attack Guangling or a city, misleading the official army in this way, thinking that it was a small group of cavalry bluffing, thus being careless.

But no matter what, from the perspective of ensuring the safety of Guangling, it is better to be careful than to turn a blind eye.

Fan Meng naturally attached great importance to this enemy situation, but the troops he sent were squatting at the east end of the Great Lakes like hunters for several days, but he could not see any trace of his prey.

Is it possible that the enemy had bypassed his eyeliner or even bypassed Dunqiu?

This is impossible.

Fan Meng was very confident about this. He carefully studied the terrain west of Dunqiu and east of Yinling Daze, and sent raft cavalry guards where the enemy might appear. Even if these raft cavalry could not stop the large number of enemy troops, they could always give warnings.

As of today, the troops and horses from all over the country have been in contact with Dunqiu, and no reports of abnormal situations have been found.
Chapter completed!