After dawn, the team did not set off to head north. In the middle of the night, hundreds of casualties could not be recovered by resting in the middle of the night. So Li Ling decided to stay here for two more days. When the military and civilians recovered, the vehicles and other things were repaired, it would not be too late to continue heading north.

So the men under my command began to get busy after dawn, some were burying pots to make rice, some were comrades who went to the valley to replace the food, and some were going up the mountain to check the traces of the bandits. Since they wanted to stay in Tiger Leaping Gorge, safety was naturally the first priority. After last night, no one dared to be careless.

Of course, Li Ling didn't have to bother with these things. He just conveyed his intentions. The soldiers were busy with their own efforts. As for himself, he was busy appeaseing the injured people and soldiers, and promised many benefits. After setting the morale of the army, he returned to the big tent and attracted several important subordinates to inquire about the situation.

Most of the people naturally fell asleep last night, but there were also those who were busy with the aftermath, such as taking the injured and undead thieves and prisoners to the tent for a stern interrogation. Now Li Ling just needs to know what they asked, which is related to whether the next trip is safe.

"How about it, can these guys confess?" Li Ling asked the Yang brothers straight to the point without going around the circle. As a member of the Imperial City Department, no one here is better at interrogating prisoners than them.

Yang Chen nodded: "The more than ten slightly injured guys have been recruited. They belong to four villages, namely Heihu Village, Qingshan Village, Bawang Village and Beiba Village. It is hard to say whether there are people from other villages."

Chen Daoshou frowned when he heard this: "These villages are quite famous in Jinzhou, and they are divided into mountains in various places. Our border troops have always had no choice but to deal with them. Why did they unite in the same place this time?"

This was exactly what Li Ling felt strange about, so he looked at Yang Chen and waited for him to continue talking. The latter understood and said seriously: "There were also a few low-ranking officials who could see this, so he asked a few more questions. However, these prisoners were not in their own villages, and the highest one was just a small leader, so they didn't know much. They only said that these were all the sudden decisions of the masters of their villages half a month ago. By the way, the second village leader, known as the military advisor, strongly advocated that their boss brought people to him personally, and ended up dead in the valley. "

"Oh? Where is their second village leader?" Li Ling asked with some interest.

"According to that man, their second village lord was all the way when they came, but they disappeared later. Also, the reason why they would set up an ambush here was the idea of ​​the second village lord. He also convinced the leaders of several other villages, so that several families could join forces to achieve such a scale."

Li Ling's expression even more moved: "When did they set up an ambush here?"

"Just four days ago, he said that if he hadn't prepared and brought enough dry food and water, he would have been afraid that he would not be able to survive these days."

Li Ling took a breath: "In other words, they have known our route for a long time and set up an ambush here? No, not only the route, but also our itinerary is under their control, with extremely small deviations!"

As soon as they said this, everyone present changed their faces, which meant that their whereabouts had been exposed long ago, and they were exposed to these bandits who occupied the mountain and became king. This was really hard to accept. They were the official army, and this operation was a major event like escorting food and grass, and they were actually controlled by the bandits outside? Does this mean that there are bandits' spies inside the government?

Especially Chen Daoshou, his face turned cold: "Is it because there are bandits and bandits in the Fengzhou yamen or military camp?"

"No, things are not that simple." Li Ling denied, "Even if they have such a spy, it is impossible for them to have spys everywhere in the villages and know about it at the same time, right? Judging from this incident, it is clear that someone is planning to gather the troops from these villages to deal with us.

"The more important thing is that they had actually started preparing half a month ago. At that time, I was still in Fengzhou. According to this calculation, their news is even more informed than many people in Fengzhou government officials. Is this reasonable?"

"Sir, is someone using these four villages?"

"There are not only everywhere, but at least five. Don't forget that there were thieves along the way on Ma'angang in front of the Tiger Leaping Gorge."

"No matter how many routes, this is something that is difficult to believe. As far as I know, even if there is no hatred among the bandits in Jinzhou, it is difficult to cooperate with each other. But this time, they actually joined forces and dared to gather several villages to rob the logistics food and grass of the official army. This matter itself is very unreasonable."

Several officers expressed their opinions, and the more they spoke, the more they were more shocked. The incident in front of them was indeed indescribable and strange, which they had never encountered or even thought about before.

Li Ling made a summary at this time: "In other words, someone has already set his sights on us during this period, and has mastered our movements early, and then he still has the ability to gather several counterfeit villages to fight for themselves and finally set up an ambush here! When did such a huge force come to Jinzhou?"

Everyone was silent, and no one knew how to reply. Chen Daoshou frowned deeply: "If there was such a force, we would never know nothing."

"What if they had just been hidden in the dark before and had never made any big moves?" Li Ling smiled coldly, and then looked at the thoughtful Yang brothers, "Do you think this approach is quite similar to the opponents we have met before?"

"Sir, are you talking about... Luo Tian Sect?" Yang Chen understood and said the name stiffly.

Yang Zhen even said directly: "After saying this, I really feel a little similar. At the beginning, they were quite insidious in southern Yunnan. They had cloth everywhere early and then started local chaos at the lowest cost."

"Yes, although Jinzhou is not as chaotic as the southwest, the villages everywhere provide them with convenience, especially those bandit leaders who occupy the mountains and become kings. Apart from their military force, they should not be too smart. What such a guy needs most is a think tank subordinate who can help him."

Yang Chen suddenly continued: "Just like the second leader of Bawang Village mentioned just now, he is called a military advisor. In fact, he is the one who really makes the decision, and then he can guide the entire village to use it in a subtle way."

"Snatch control of one force at the lowest cost, and then use them to disrupt the place!" Li Ling snorted, "This is true in the southwest, and in the south of the Yangtze River. Now when they reach the northern border, they still use this trick. He is really there are ten gongs and nine places, and the ghosts are not dispersed. But the power that can obey their dispatch is getting weaker and weaker, so they went from trying to control the southwest, to trying to disrupt the south of the Yangtze River, and to today, just to seize our military rations and disrupt our morale!"

Although he was ridiculed by Luo Tian Sect once and once, the attention he paid was still there. As for the others, they looked even more arrogant, especially the generals of the army such as Chen Daoshou, who were even more vigilant. They had never encountered such an opponent before.

In the past, even if we entered the battlefield, we encountered fights with both swords and guns. How could we play such a conspiracy and deceit? So after being shocked, Chen Daoshou asked naturally: "Mr. Li, then how do you think we should act next and deal with their calculations?"

"This is not difficult. Although they may gather more green forest bandits, as long as we are prepared, it is more than enough to deal with it. After all, after passing the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the road is smooth all the way, and even if they want to set up an ambush, they will never pose a greater threat. So what we need to do next is to be careful and be vigilant at all times." Li Ling said carefully, "In addition, you can also send people to Bazhou to deliver letters first, so that the troops and horses there can be separated to pick them up all the way, so that they can be safe.

"After all, this place is not the southwest. Our imperial army is stationed, so how could the bandits from just a few villages easily make the world come true?"

These words finally boosted everyone's spirits and made everyone's concerns quickly dissipate. Then they each stepped down and were busy arranging the next step of work.

But in the end, Li Ling kept the Yang brothers. The few of them had a secret talk, and seemed to have other arrangements, so they focused on the current resting matters.

In this way, after resting outside the canyon for two days, everything recovered, the team re-dragged and headed towards the north.

The road afterwards was indeed as Li Ling said. There was no longer the complex mountain road that was rugged and difficult to walk, but became a smooth road on the plain, and the official road became much easier. Even the civilians couldn't realize that they were moving faster.

After walking like this for three days, the team finally saw another town, which made everyone's spirits cheer up, and the tense heartstrings that had been along the way could finally relax.

Even a few hundred years later, the northwest land was vast and sparsely populated, and sometimes there were no towns for hundreds of kilometers. However, in Dayue, hundreds of years ago, there were even fewer people in this frontier. These were the three decent towns they saw along the way north. Compared to the first two towns that were more village-like, at least there was a high earthen wall on the north side of the town, which really looked like a few towns.

Moreover, when we arrived at the front of the town, there was a stone tablet several feet square standing on the ground, with three words written on it - "Desheng Town"!
Chapter completed!