Several soldiers pointed to the fire in front and said, "General, there is a team of fodder transporting forage in front. It must have accidentally caught fire."

"wrong!"

Zhang Xuan realized that the shouting was wrong, and she was very frightened, and there was a scream. Something must have happened. He immediately ordered: "The army gathers immediately!"

Most of Zhang Xuan's subordinates were awakened. They didn't bother to pack their luggage and stood up to gather. At this time, Zhang Xuan found that more than a dozen black shadows were running towards this side. He didn't have time to wait for the soldiers and turned over and ran towards more than a dozen black shadows. In just a moment, he stopped the dozen black men in black who were running, waved his long halberd, "Stop!"

More than a dozen black shadows swung their swords at him without hesitation. Zhang Xuan was furious and waved his long halberd left and right, and assassinated three people in an instant. The long halberd immediately swept backwards and knocked the two men in black out.

Seeing that he was fierce and fierce, the rest shouted together and ran towards the depths of the forest. But it was too late. Hundreds of Zhang Xuan's subordinates had arrived and surrounded them from all directions. Zhang Xuan shouted loudly: "Catch the alive!"

Hundreds of Sui soldiers rushed forward, knocking the remaining eight people to the ground and tied them up with ropes.

At this time, the fire in the east was getting bigger and bigger, spreading quickly to this side. Seeing that the fire was critical, Zhang Xuan immediately ordered the soldiers to leave the forest and move to the south.

Zhang Xuangang led his army to retreat to the official road, and a subordinate hurried over with him, "Report to General, this is the leader of the food and grass team in front."

The person who came was a middle-aged man wearing a low-ranking official uniform. He looked anxious and bowed to Zhang Xuan: "Below is Qin Ling, the county magistrate of Licheng County, Qi County, and led 800 civil servants to support the Liaodong battle. We are responsible for transporting 500 trucks of fodder. Unexpectedly, they were attacked just now, and three civil servants were unfortunately killed. The fodder was also lit and the fire was not allowed to be handed over. I beg the general to prove to us that it was not a negligent fire, but someone deliberately destroyed it."

Zhang Xuan nodded, "Please rest assured by the county magistrate. We have already caught the fire man. I heard that the accent is not from the Great Sui Dynasty, but it is very likely that he is a spy from Goguryeo. I will prove it for you."

The Qin County Magistrate was overjoyed and hurriedly bowed to thank him. Zhang Xuan asked again: "Have all the civilians escaped?"

"Thank you for your concern to the general. All the living people escaped, but all five hundred large trucks were burned down, and there were still fifty thousand loads of good fodder. Alas! The losses were heavy!"

At this time, the captain Li Shoujie stepped forward to report: "You have reported to the general, and you have already asked clearly that they are indeed Goguryeo spies, who are specifically destroying our food and grass transportation along the way."

Zhang Xuan looked at the raging fire in the distance. He felt that the other party could not have only a dozen people. It was not very meaningful to burn a forage team just because the other party must have other accomplices. At least there should be hundreds of people to destroy the Sui army's food and grass transportation line on a large scale.

Thinking of this, Zhang Xuan instructed again: "They must have accomplices, so go and ask where their camp is?"

"Abide by the order!" Li Shoujie turned around and went again.

The Qin County Magistrate next to him slapped his head and said, "The general is right. I remembered it. I heard that a grain transport team was attacked yesterday, killing more than a hundred people, and thousands of stones of grain were pushed into the White Wolf Water. It must have been done by the same group of people."

Soon after, the captain Li Shoujie came back and reported: "General, they have recruited them. They have more than 2,000 people. They are hiding in Shenlu Town, south of Liaodong City."

"Not bad. The interrogation is very effective!" Zhang Xuan praised.

Li Shoujie was originally a famous brigade commander and from Liucheng, Liaodong. He is only twenty years old this year. He performed outstandingly in training and was promoted to the captain of the First Regiment by Zhang Xuan. He replaced Zhao Tong, the former captain who was unwilling to follow the army to fight in Liaodong. He could speak fluent Goguryeo.

Li Shoujie scratched his head embarrassedly, "Bi Zhi interrogated them separately, then checked the confession, and found that the liar was killed on the spot. Bei Zhi killed four people in a row, so they dared not hide it anymore. They would answer whatever I asked."

"here you go!"

Zhang Xuan immediately ordered: "The army sets off immediately and heads to Liaodong City!"

Liaodong City is south of Huaiyuan Town and is already located in Goguryeo. Zhang Xuan changed his mind and no longer went to Huaiyuan Town to assemble, but went to another assembly point stipulated by the Ministry of War: Wugu City on the banks of the Yalu River.

Since God arranged for him to meet these Goguryeo spies, he was actually giving him a chance to try it out.

Liaodong City was named after it was located east of the Liaoshui River. It was one of the eight eastward routes of the Sui army during the First Goguryeo War. At present, Liaodong City was controlled by the Sui army.

During the first two Eastern Expeditions, Goguryeo, as the side of the war, also suffered heavy losses, with a sharp decline in population and weak national strength. It could no longer support the war with the Sui Dynasty. Goguryeo's army had all retreated to the front line of the capital Pyongyang.

The second battle to conquer Goguryeo last year, if it weren't for Yang Xuangan's rebellion in the Central Plains and forced the Sui army to retreat, perhaps Goguryeo had been completely conquered by the Sui army.

In the third war of expedition to Goguryeo this year, Emperor Yang Guang of Sui judged the situation and no longer used a full-line attack. Instead, the army gathered in Huaiyuan Town and only sent Hu'er to lead 30,000 front-line troops to attack Goguryeo.

In this way, it avoided the unnecessary losses of the army attacking Goguryeo on its entire line, but Goguryeo was not willing to sit and wait for death. Although the army could not go north to fight, they also sent a sentry team composed of elite soldiers to go north to harass the Sui army's food route.

There is a town called Shenlu Town about twenty miles south of Liaodong City. The Daliang River flows through the north of the town like a jade belt and flows into the Liao River. Due to convenient transportation, it was once a place of prosperous commerce and trade, with a maximum population of thousands. However, at this time, the town had been destroyed by war, the population died, and the houses were burned down, leaving only hundreds of ruins.

But in a valley not far from Shenlu Town, there are nearly 3,000 northbound Goguryeo sentry troops, commanded by General Yuan Wuning.

This team is the only Goguryeo army north of the Yalu River. They shoulder two tasks: one is to investigate the deployment and combat attempts of the Sui army, and the other is to destroy the logistics transportation of the Sui army.

As the patrol teams were sent north to destroy the logistics transportation of the Sui army, the Goguryeo barracks hidden in Shenlu Town seemed a bit deserted, with a total number of troops less than 2,000.

That night, a Sui army of unknown origin also sneaked silently into the vicinity of Shenlu Town. This thousand-man army was the third battalion of the 27th Prefecture of the Xiaoguo Army led by Zhang Xuan. However, now they have separated from the Xiaoguo Army and have been organized into the 16th Battalion of the Front Army, and are under the jurisdiction of Zhou Fashang, the right general of the Front Army.

At present, Zhang Xuan has not seen his immediate superior Zhou Fashang. Zhou Fashang led 10,000 troops to be stationed in Wugu City, waiting for other armies to gather. Zhang Xuan's 16th battalion is one of them.

Shenlu Town is also a must-pass way to Wugu City, but Zhang Xuan’s goal for this trip is not just Wugu City, but the Goguryeo Explorer Camp hidden near Shenlu Town.

More than a thousand soldiers were hiding in a dense forest halfway up the mountain. The soldiers looked for their own places to rest, and seized time to drink water and eat dry food, trying to keep quiet. The chief general Zhang Xuan stood on the edge of the woods and silently stared at Shenlu Town in the distance. Under the bright moonlight, the ruins were seen particularly clearly.

Zhang Xuan had already obtained information. The scouts he sent found traces of the Goguryeo army at the entrance of a valley north of the official road in Shenlu Town. Although the specific number of the enemy troops was not yet clear, the enemy must be hiding in this valley.

Although Zhang Xuan participated in several battles, this was his first independent leadership of the army. His opponent was not the dark horse thief or the rioters in Yangjiazhuang, but the elite Goguryeo army, which was two or three times more than his army. Zhang Xuan had no idea whether he could win this battle.

At this time, a soldier stepped forward and whispered to report: "General, the brothers who went to Liaodong City are back."

Zhang Xuan was immediately excited, "Where are you? Come and see me quickly!"

The Sui army had 3,000 troops in Liaodong City. If this army was willing to send troops to help, then they would have a much greater chance of winning. However, this Sui army did not belong to the front army, and Zhang Xuan did not know which general they were.

At present, the Sui army was very chaotic, and the troops of the three Goguryeo Battles were mixed together. Zhang Xuan had met a subordinate of a Mai Tiebob the day before yesterday. Mai Tiebob unfortunately died of illness during the first Goguryeo War. Most of his tens of thousands of troops had fled, but thousands of people were stationed in Liaodong and had no clear ownership so far.

Soon, the soldiers who went to Liaodong to contact were brought up. He stepped forward and knelt down on one knee to report, "See General!"

"Are the army in Liaodong City willing to go to war?" Zhang Xuan asked anxiously.

The soldiers shook their heads, "Report to General, they do not believe that there will be Goguryeo's army nearby. And they said that if they want to go out of the city to fight, they must get the order of General Xue Shixiong or the emperor's will, otherwise they will not leave Liaodong City half a step away."

Zhang Xuan sighed helplessly. This was actually in his expectation. There was no conclusive evidence. How could the Sui army in Liaodong City easily leave the city to fight? There was no way, he could only fight alone.

He resolutely ordered: "Let Chen Xu come to see me!"

After a moment, the brigade commander Chen Xu hurried forward, bowed and said, "See General!"

Zhang Xuan pointed to a mountain that looked like a deer, and said, "There is Shenlu Mountain. The scouts found traces of the enemy on the southern foot of Shenlu Mountain. You can lead fifty subordinates to detour to the back first to see if they can go down from behind and create chaos before dawn to ignite the fire before dawn. I saw the fire light launching an attack."

Chen Xu nodded, "The general will never be disappointed!"

Chen Xu bowed and went quickly. Soon, he led fifty subordinates to leave the Sui army's garrison and detoured to the back of Shenlu Mountain.
Chapter completed!