Sour jujube is not a single city, but a group of cities. It is centered on several small-scale earth and stone cities, surrounded by a slightly simple bamboo and wood camp.

Several of the camps and Tucheng also have fresh traces left by the activities of strangers, while others have been damaged to varying degrees. Several camps have been completely knocked down, and the land has been tilled and some crops such as beans and sucklings have been planted.

Outside the city, there are all plains with almost no obstacles. Only in the north, there are some artificial mounds of different heights. Those mounds have long been covered by weeds and trees, and have existed for a very long time.

The cavalry of the Huainan Army were stationed in the southwest corner of the city of Soyzao. More than a thousand cavalry and even more powerful war horses were occupied, but they only occupied three or four of them. As for other places, they only arranged some whistles to ensure that they did not sneak in quietly.

At this time, Xiao Yuandongji was sitting on the Tucheng City Tower, holding a green grass stem in his mouth and throwing his neck to one side. Although his posture was a little lazy, his eyes and slightly frown brows looked out of the distance and his slightly frown brows showed that he was not feeling relaxed.

Under the city tower, soldiers were driving hundreds of war horses that had been put into drinks back to Tucheng. The soldiers were in a relaxed and happy mood at this moment. While restraining the horses into the city, they waved their horse whips and howled and joked.

Xiao Yuandong was initially happy about the fact that he was picking up sour jujubes. Although he was just the master of the cavalry, the status of the cavalry commander in the Huainan Army was higher than that of the ordinary Buwu, and the master of the cavalry was one level higher than that of the master of the Bujian camp. Therefore, Xiao Yuandong was also very clear about the plan of the governor's war to go north.

The jujube radiates many Yellow River ferries here, which is an extremely important and even necessary stronghold in the next step. It is also the base camp where the Huainan army gathers together to launch a major battle with the Shikan army along the Yellow River. The original plan was to invest tens of thousands of people ahead, but now it was taken down by thousands of cavalrymen under Xiao Yuandong's troops on an outing.

Although there was no fierce battle, a great achievement was inevitable. Xiao Yuandong was also helpless about this. He really came in as he was doing it and then occupied this empty camp.

But after being happy, Xiao Yuandong began to struggle. His troops were all light cavalry, and this time he came to the east just to disturb the enemy and block the news. He had no intention of attacking and defending, and he walked lightly, and his supplies were limited. After occupying this city, he fell into a dilemma.

It's okay to use grain. The enemy's retreat here should be extremely hasty. When Xiao Yuandong led his men into the city, he collected a lot of missing food and grass in some places. Although it was not much, it was still 300 to 500 hu. In addition, the military rations and horse materials carried by the team itself were more than enough to support it for five or six days.

Now the governor is leading his troops to Huting. After receiving the letter, he will definitely lead the crowd to help. Even if he is moving a little slower, he can reach the jujube at most four or five days. Before that, if he wants to defend the city, he can only rely on his thousands of troops to fight alone.

As for the use of machinery, as a light cavalry unit, the demand is not great, and the heavy weapons of infantrymen do not need, the main thing that is lacking is arrows. Now there are only more than 6,000 arrows in the team, evenly reaching the heads of people, each person is less than a pot, and a charge can be used up completely.

Although Xiao Yuandong could not guess why the enemy's chief general retreated, even if he used the city as bait, he could not ignore this empty city that he had planned to take down. He would not pass the city and take it down first.

But now he is facing a dilemma. If the enemy makes a comeback, will his troops be in the city or go out of the city to fight?

As a cavalry general trained by the Huainan Army, Xiao Yuandong naturally knew the strength of the cavalry field battle. If both men and horses were blocked in the city, the city might not be able to be defended, and it might be possible to lose both men and horses. However, if he led his troops out of the city to fight, he would have mobility. He was afraid that he would not be able to defeat the enemy in the field, and instead let the enemy rush into the city, so that the city would be lost again.

"It's really a difficult situation!"

Xiao Yuandong sighed with melancholy, but he didn't know that if his melancholy and distress were seen by other fellow comrades in the Huainan Army, he would be even more disgusted with him. He picked up a great achievement for nothing, but he still looked frowning. He was simply shameless!

At this moment, a group of people of considerable size appeared in the plains in the distance, approaching here. Seeing this, Xiao Yuandong hurriedly picked up his head and held it on his head. The city was more than 100 feet high and jumped down. Then he turned over and summoned more than a dozen cavalrymen, and drove out of the city with his horse spears and rushed out of the city toward the crowd.

Halfway through the journey, we could see clearly that the group of people were a group of ragged refugees, with about 300 people. The refugee team was surrounded by more than a dozen Huainan army knights, one of which was the leader of Xiao Yuandong's military command Fan Li, who came up and reported: "General, his subordinates were ordered to patrol north and investigate. This group of people were found in the forest on the hill twenty miles ahead, so they drove back..."

After hearing this, Xiao Yuandong nodded, and his horse reins swayed, and the war horse trotted around the refugee team. His horse spear was crossing in front of him and said loudly: "Can there be a town leader in the team? Let's go out and answer!"

The refugees were throbbing for a moment, and the team contracted even more, lowering their heads and shivering one by one, and no one dared to respond. This was the normal attitude of refugees, but Xiao Yuandong felt something was wrong, because this team of refugees was mostly strong, but there were young women, children, and elderly and weak. This was a bit different from ordinary refugees who often had to take their families and escape from military disasters.

Xiao Yuandong frowned and pondered for a moment, suddenly urged his horse to rush towards the refugees, and his horse spear shook his hand and turned to the refugees. Seeing this, the refugees suddenly let out a desperate howl, and they ran backwards in panic, but ended up colliding and falling down.

"General..."

Fan Li was also shocked when he saw this scene. He didn't know why the owner of the banner wanted to kill, so he roared. Then he saw that Xiao Yuandong had already strangled his war horses. He looked at the panicked refugees and raised his head and laughed, as if he was just a joke that was occasionally interesting just now.

Not to mention those refugees who were staggering and unbearable, Fan Li rode his horse to Xiao Yuandong and whispered: "General, our troops are weak and difficult to stick to. There are still many war horses to cook, which consumes a lot of manpower. With these foods as a means of food, you can also share the burden..."

After hearing this, Xiao Yuandong nodded. They were lightly cavalrying forward, and there were not many soldiers in the team. During the day, the soldiers were not only alert to the enemy, but also had to raise large number of war horses with drinks. They were really exhausted. Being able to find this group of refugees in the wild can help them to relieve their lack of strength.

So the group of refugees were driven to the bank of the stream outside the city, took off their clothes and jumped into the cool stream water to wash them, and then put on their original old shirts and were allowed to enter one of the camps to settle down.

Since this group of refugees did not have a leader, Xiao Yuandong directly assigned them to divide them into woes, selected more than a dozen leaders, and selected mostly thin and thin people, and even appointed a lame man who was quite old as the temporary camp leader.

After settling down, the Huainan army moved out dozens of hu of grain and ordered these refugees to build stoves and cook. Of course, surveillance and interrogation were inevitable. However, the refugees were so scared that they could not ask anything. Even when asked about their hometowns, they answered in a mess. This is not a strange thing nowadays. They fought endlessly, and many refugees wandered around since they were born, not knowing where they were or where they were born.

In addition to the grain collected in the empty city, the Huainan Army itself also carried military rations, which were much richer. In addition to the cooked rice, there were also meat such as jerky, fish and croaker, which had enough oil and salt. It was stewed in a pot with a strong aroma. When the refugees were cooking, they kept twitching their noses and smelling the delicious food, and they felt even more hungry. However, there were Huainan soldiers staring at them and did not dare to try them privately.

In the evening, the Huainan army finished eating. At this time, it was the turn of the refugees to eat in the leftover soup in the big pot. Just as the refugees were about to rush forward, the Huainan army soldiers who were watching rushed in and waved their horse whips and scolded them. When these people were settled, they ordered the leader Wu Shi and the camp to share the meal.

Those leaders naturally would not be polite when they got such an opportunity. They ignored everything else and filled their stomachs first. Especially the lame old camp leader drank three big bowls alone, and licked the remaining oil flowers along the bowl cleanly. As for others, they were inevitably short of drinking, and even picked up the water from the pot to drink a few bowls.

After eating, they had to work. Under the knowledge of the Huainan Army, these refugees began to cut horse materials, dig ditches, repair camp walls, etc. Their work was naturally light and heavy, and they were all assigned by the leaders. So these pale and thin faces were originally bullied characters in the team, but now they became arrogant. Anyway, they were supported by the Huainan Army soldiers, and anyone who dared to object would be beaten.

This busyness was not until late at night when the refugees dragged their tired bodies back to the camp, while the Huainan Army only sent a dozen soldiers to guard outside the camp.

After returning to the lodge, their lodges were different. The beds covered with straw felt were soft and hard. After a day of work, the leaders had established some authority and naturally subconsciously treated themselves. First, they chose soft beds and quickly fell asleep.

As for the other refugees, some of them fell asleep now, while others were angry at the sleeping leaders, with fierce light flashing in their eyes in the night, but nothing happened that night.

After another day, the refugees lived and worked the same as before. However, when the night was at its deepest point before dawn, a strange noise suddenly came out in the camp. The old lame leader who snored like thunder was sleeping soundly, suddenly his neck was strangled by someone. He struggled and woke up. Then he saw more than a dozen strong men standing next to the bed, each with ferocious expressions.

"This old dog really regarded himself as the camp leader and completely forgot what happened here!"

One person tightly clamped the throat of the camp leader, and his other hand covered his mouth, leaned against his ear and said in a low voice: "Drinking horses tomorrow, you have to choose carefully. If you miss the lord's big business, you will break your old bone tomorrow night. Do you understand?"

When the old camp leader heard this, he had already had a fine cold sweat on his forehead and blinked frequently to show that he understood.

After a while, the white of the Eastern Fish White gradually became revealed, and the sound of the Huainan army shouting out of the camp was already heard. The mere rest in the middle of the night was not enough to completely replenish the exhausted physical strength, but these refugees did not dare to neglect them. They dragged their heavy bodies to get up, and went out of the camp to start a new day of work.

The old camp leader finally walked out, his right hand was still rubbing his still painful throat. After he got out, he found that many cold eyes in the team fell on him, and he couldn't help but fight a cold war. Only after seeing the Huainan soldiers standing silently outside the camp, a trace of hope appeared in his turbid eyes.

"Old Yu, today we will repair the Tucheng on the north side. The task is heavy. If you can't finish it, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

A Huainan soldier came over and said with a smile, then raised his hand and patted the old camp leader on the shoulder.

"If you can finish it, you will definitely finish it..."

The old camp leader bent his waist and said with a smile, then he stepped aside with a limp and assigned work to the powerful servants. When everyone took the orders and dispersed, he fell to the end and walked slowly, his lips opened as if he was giggling foolishly, but he kept muttering in his mouth: "General, save me, save me..."

However, the two Huainan soldiers behind him seemed to be unaware of anything, just talking to themselves and gradually moving away. Then one of the leaders found that the old camp leader was behind, so they turned back and pulled him to ask for instructions.

Until the evening, the old camp leader had no chance to be alone again, and there were always people around him, so he was worried all day long. When he needed to choose someone to drink horses in the evening, more than a dozen people in the team clenched their fists and stared at the old camp leader with sharp eyes. In the end, these dozen people finally got the opportunity to drink horses as they wished.

These dozen people walked to the stable as usual. Although they had only been working for two or three days, many matters of the Huainan Army were very organized and they had become accustomed to it. After the stable was opened, seven or eight war horses had just been pulled out. Suddenly, a knight rushed over on the other side and shouted, "After drinking the horse, add horse materials again at night."

Hearing this, the soldiers guarding the stable frowned and said, "Why do you need to add horse materials? The camp storage has long stopped..."

At this point, the soldier suddenly stopped his voice and waved his hand to urge the dozen powerful soldiers and said, "Go quickly and go quickly, drink these horses first."

The expressions of those people changed slightly. Several of them were used as Ma Song to untied his chest belt and fell a few steps behind. Then they heard two soldiers behind him whisper: "The food has been used up, and the reinforcements have not arrived. The owner of the pavilion is ready to abandon the guards and retreat at dawn..."

A dozen people led a few war horses away from the camp and walked to the stream. Seven or eight Huainan soldiers stood on the grass with bows on their backs. Suddenly, a strong man shouted and quickly attracted people's attention. Then several Huainan soldiers walked slowly over to investigate.

At this time, several strong men took the war horses and walked in the opposite direction. After leaving a certain distance, they suddenly turned over and ran away to the horse, and then rode their horses to the distance.

"Someone steals the horse!"

"court death!"

After those people escaped, the strong men shouted beside them, and the soldiers of Huainan army also roared loudly, but they did not move their feet while roaring. They just held their bows and strings to shoot all the remaining strong men on the grass to death.

At the same time, an accident also occurred in the camp. Outside the camp of the powerful servants, Xiao Yuandong suddenly led hundreds of heavily armed Huainan soldiers to surround the camp. Then, two leaders suddenly jumped out of the powerful servants and pointed at the men in the crowd and shouted: "He, he... these are all traitors who intend to cause trouble!"

When the old camp leader saw this scene, he was stunned. It turned out that he was not the only one who planned to inform, or even the first one.
Chapter completed!