Zhang Chong quickly figured out what happened.
Zhang Dan had previously ordered Wu Yan of Wuhuan's right Beiping tribe to send three noble sons of the tribe to Lulongsai on the grounds of detaining protons.
Wu Yan understood that this was the tradition of the Han Dynasty, so he sent his three nephews, all of whom had grown up.
After these three Wuhuan nobles came to Lulong Fortress, they were quickly bribed by Zhang Dan. All three were willing to serve as guides to lead the Taishan Army deep beyond the fortress.
The road from Lulongsai to Pinggang and then to Liucheng has always been in the hands of the Wuhuan people. Without the leadership of the Wuhuan people, the Taishan Army would not be able to find the route at all.
Therefore, even though Wu Yan of the Right Beiping tribe was forced to join Zhang Dan due to Taton oppression, he still did not tell Zhang Dan about this route, in order to monopolize this trade route, between the Han people and the grassland people on both sides. Profit.
Of course, Zhang Dan could also threaten Wu Yan and ask him to hand over the road out of the fortress to Liucheng. But doing so will inevitably expose the Taishan Army's war intentions against the Wuhuan people.
Even though Wu Yan was probably happy that Taton's strength was compromised, Zhang Dan was still unwilling to take the risk. Who knows whether Wu Yan will use this to sell the Taishan Army to gain Taton's trust?
That's why Zhang Dan built the plank road openly and secretly visited Chen Cang.
Moreover, Zhang Dan did not place all his hopes on the three guides. Even if he placed the three people separately from the beginning, it would be difficult for them to collude.
Zhang Dan also intended to find some Han people in Youbeiping who had been going to the fortress all year round to see if they knew this route.
In this regard, the Hejian Zhen family played a role. They used the past business network to contact a person named Xing Yong in Hejian.
This man once fled to Xu Wushan to escape the chaos.
Xu Wushan is outside the Xu Wu Barrier, where a group of Hu Han exiles gathered. They said they gathered in the mountain to avoid chaos, but in fact they formed their own group, whether they were civilians or bandits.
When Xing Yong was recommended to Zhang Dan, he said that when he was fleeing chaos in Xu Wushan, someone really knew the road to Liucheng.
So Zhang Dan hurriedly gave Xing Yong a hundred gold and asked him to go to Xu Wushan to find this man.
And now, Xing Yong has been gone for ten days and has not returned yet.
Zhang Dan estimated in his mind that this person had either run away or been robbed and killed on the road, so he stopped thinking about it and decided to rely on the three Wuhuan guides to lead the way.
Until, early this morning, the three Wuhuan guides were found dead indoors.
After Zhang Chong heard the whole story, he realized the seriousness of the situation.
That is, whoever killed these three Wuhuan guides must have known the role of these three people behind them. Therefore, it is obvious that the Taishan Army's intention to attack the Wuhuan people has probably been exposed.
Next to him, Zhang Dan also meant the same thing.
Zhang Dan couldn't help but said:
"The murderer must not be one person. According to the authors' analysis, the three guides were stabbed to death with daggers at almost the same time, without even a slight struggle. Therefore, the perpetrators must be multiple people, and they are lurking now. In Louronce ”
Zhang Chong rolled his eyes, looked at Zhang Dan, and couldn't help but curse:
"You have been leading troops for many years, how could you make such a mistake? Is your right army a sieve that can hide a group of spies?"
Zhang Dan was stunned and didn't dare to say a word.
Afterwards, Zhang Chong did not continue to accuse Zhang Dan. He also knew that the Taishan Army had expanded too aggressively and had absorbed a large number of Han soldiers after the Zhongrenting Battle. This kind of thing was inevitable.
After all, the Taishan Army really didn't have the ability to conduct detailed investigations on every surrendered soldier, and could only rely on identifying each other.
But this method can only catch the big fish of the Han army, and has no effect at all on those military officials who come from the grassroots but have not exposed their identities.
So now Zhang Chong wants to figure out how to solve this matter.
Now that the guide died, two problems were immediately exposed.
One is what to do on the way out of the blockade, and the other is the exposure of the intention to get out of the blockade.
The last question is easy to answer, because thanks to Zhang Dan's timely response, the gate was closed as soon as the murder was discovered. With the Taishan Army's strict access order, the murderers had no chance to get out.
So most of the Wuhuan people in Liucheng probably don't know about it now. And as long as he can lead his army out of the fortress in time and go straight to Liucheng, it can still cause tactical surprise.
But the problem is back to the beginning, that is, how to get out of the jam.
Even though there were thousands of Wuhuan people accompanying the Taishan Army, these people generally came from the city. They had lived in the fortress for generations and had long been cut off from the outside world.
So they, like the Han people, had a black eye.
The matter was stuck here. In the end, Zhang Dan, who was at a loss what to do, could only mutter:
"Your Majesty, food has been prepared in Senei, please eat some first."
Zhang Dan clearly saw a big blood blister on the corner of the king's mouth. He didn't know whether it was caused by the north wind or because he was anxious about it.
Thinking of this, Zhang Dan's guilt became even deeper. A person as straightforward as him would now become violent and secretly hate:
"Don't let Mr. Nai catch those thieves, otherwise you will have to die."
Looking at Zhang Dan's look, Zhang Chong knew that he might be blaming himself now, and he didn't want to say anything more. He could only pat Zhang Dan on the shoulder and prepare to go in with him.
Just when Zhang Dan and Zhang Chong were about to enter the fortress, four men with halberds suddenly rushed out from the passage inside the fortress. They strode over without saying a word.
Because Zhang Chong and Zhang Dan had just been chatting in private, all the powerful generals gathered around, and because they were just outside Lulong Wall, they were a little off guard.
So when the four halberd warriors came closer, Cai Que from outside scolded:
"Stop, which one are you from?"
Until now, Cai Que still thought that the four soldiers were from the right army.
But as soon as Cai Que finished speaking, the four soldiers pulled out crossbow arrows from under their cloaks and aimed them at Zhang Chong, who was patting Zhang Dan on the shoulder.
When Cai Que sent the four soldiers down, he already roared:
"Stop and don't move."
Zhang Chong was also reminded by Cai Que's tiger roar and was looking back.
Then Cai Que rushed forward to block the arrow.
Unfortunately, the crossbow was fired too fast. Cai Que was a step too late, and four armor-piercing arrows grazed Cai Que's cheek and shot out.
At this time, Cai indeed did not dare to look back.
Due to concurrent employment, the king was not wearing his mirror-collared armor at this time. Cai Que did not dare to look back, fearing that he would see the king fall, which would cause Cai Que to collapse even more than the sky falling.
He could only vent all his uneasiness and anger on the four soldiers.
Cai Que rubbed his body and hit one man on the jaw with just one swing of his fist. Then he grabbed a soldier and threw him out. Finally, he kicked the one who was drawing a sword, and then withstood the sword of the last person. Then Cai Que threw himself on him and punched him in the cheek.
Cai Que's fist was filled with blood until it was hit, and the soldier's face collapsed, but Cai Que did not stop.
Until a familiar voice came from behind him:
"Ah Que, you have beaten everyone to death, why don't you see if the other three are alive?"
Just this sentence made Cai Que, an iron beast and an arrogant man, cry. He turned back tremblingly and saw the king looking at him like this, smiling.
And just now, where Cai Que couldn't see, when the four crossbow arrows shot at the unarmored Zhang Chong, everyone present was as worried as Cai Que.
But what did they see?
Just when the four iron arrows were about to hit Zhang Chong, Zhang Chong held down Zhang Dan with one hand to stop him from rushing over to block him. He held the scabbard in one hand and then shot the four arrows with one horizontal swing. All the arrows fell down.
Seeing the arrows falling on the ground, everyone including Zhang Dan was stunned.
Zhang Chong ignored the astonishment of everyone and walked up to Cai Que and pulled him up.
Later, Zhang Chong squatted on the ground again and slapped the first soldier who was hit in the jaw by Cai Que to wake up.
As soon as the soldier fell into a baby-like sleep, he was woken up by Zhang Chong. Still dazed, he saw the real master he wanted to assassinate on this trip.
He was about to stand up and draw the knife, but then Zhang Chong pinned him to the ground again with one hand.
Zhang Chong took off the man's epaulette, took a look, and asked:
"Your name is Yang Zhong? That's not your real name."
The soldier named Yang Zhong was pressed to the ground by the iron hand and struggled desperately, but the iron hand still held him down like a mountain bearing down on him.
He glanced at the inhuman in despair, spit out sand mixed with blood foam from his mouth, and cursed:
"Bitch thief, if you have the guts, kill me, and I will become a ghost and kill you!"
Zhang Chong glanced at this person unexpectedly and knew that this was the so-called dead soldier. It was impossible to ask such people.
So Zhang Chong first removed his chin, then called Dong Zhao, who was in charge of the internal guard, and ordered:
"These people should be the group who assassinated the guide. Let's interrogate them first."
Dong Zhao wiped the sweat from his forehead and hurriedly led several Feijun internal guards to drag Yang Zhong down.
Cai Que's flurry of attacks just now, and when Dong Zhao led his men to deal with it, two of the four were dead and two injured.
Among them, the one who was thrown out by Cai Que had his neck smashed to the ground. The other one who died was the one who was beaten to death by Cai Que. It was really beyond recognition, how could it be described as tragic.
When Dong Zhao, who felt he had neglected his duty, took the assassins for interrogation, Ju Shou, who had been deep in thought beside him, suddenly said to Zhang Chong:
"Your Majesty, the behavior of these assassins is very strange."
Zhang Chong also nodded, he also saw it.
These four people are obviously dead soldiers. It would be such a crazy idea to assassinate Zhang Chong on the battlefield in the midst of thousands of troops. Regardless of success or failure, these four people will inevitably die.
But in the end, despite the heroic shouting of the man named Yang Zhong just now, Zhang Chong could actually tell from this man at a glance that he was not the kind of soldier who was trained to die.
Do dead men who fail to commit suicide as soon as they wake up deserve to be called dead men?
That's why Zhang Chong had this doubt.
But since they are not dead soldiers, then these people are assassinated on a temporary basis?
Is it really because he saw Zhang Chong and felt that the opportunity was rare? But wasn't the crossbow prepared in advance?
Just when Zhang Chong was thinking about this issue, another loud roar came from Guo Zu on the other side.
The generals in Hengchang were so confused by what happened to the assassin just now. When they saw that someone who didn't know whether they were dead or alive wanted to break the ban, they immediately took cruel measures.
In a moment, two ragged Han men dressed as tourists were dragged in front of Zhang Chong.
Both of them had bruises on their noses and swollen faces, and they were indistinguishable.
Zhang Dan, on the other hand, looked more and more familiar to one of them, and finally resisted asking:
"Xing Yong?"
This shout made the man with the swollen face and the head of a pig suddenly cry.
He hugged Zhang Dan's thigh and cried:
"Commander, I finally see you, wuwuwu, they are really not good people. They beat me up when they came up. I said my name was Xing Yong, and they beat me up. Wuwu, they are really bullying me, old Xing! Commander, you have to make the decision for Lao Xing!”
Zhang Chong was stunned. Is this the Xing Yong whom Zhang Chong sent to find the guide? So, Zhang Chong glanced at Cheng Pu and Han Dang who had just dragged him over.
The two colliding generals also realized that they might have beaten the wrong person, and they both lowered their heads silently, not daring to look directly at the king.
Zhang Chong finally turned his attention to the other person and saw that although he was messy, he hadn't been beaten much and he could still maintain some grace.
Could this person be the guide?
Seeing Zhang Chong looking at him, the man reluctantly stood up from the ground, then bowed deeply to Zhang Chong and said:
"Tian Chou, husband of Wu Zhongshan Village, has met the Taiwang!"
After hearing this name, Zhang Chong couldn't help but laugh.
Until this time, Zhang Chong finally realized that he was really lucky!
……
Ping Gang.
This was originally the seat of Youbeiping County, protruding beyond the border wall. This alone demonstrates the arrogance and arrogance of the former Han Dynasty.
After all, one is protruding outside the Great Wall to pacify the barbarians, while the other is shrinking inside the Great Wall to defend the country. The gap between the two is really too big.
But now, all the heroes of the former Han Dynasty have gone, and this Pinggang has also changed its owner, and it has become the place where Wu Yan, who is now Wuhuan Youbeiping, spends the winter.
The name Ping Gang perfectly explains the terrain here.
It is located at the intersection of Yanshan Mountain and Daxinganling Mountains. Because it is located on a large piece of flat land between the two mountains, it is also called Pinggang.
Also because this place is bounded by the Xianbei Plateau on the left and the Liaosong Plain on the right, which is the transition zone between the two geographical units, it has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. In later generations, this was the location of Daningwei in the Ming Dynasty. I don’t know how many stories were staged here.
But now, this is just a place where Wuhuan people spend the winter.
Because it is high in the west and low in the east, it can block the early wind blowing from the plateau, and there is the Laoha River flowing all day long as drinking water. It can be said to be a rare place to spend the winter.
At this time, behind an unknown slope, there were five or six hundred grassland tents scattered at random.
Among them, on the middle one, there is a totem pole carved out of round wood, with some colorful brocades tied on it and the heads of cows and sheep hanging on it. From time to time, some goshawks stop to eat.
In this big tent, Wu Yan, the leader of Wu Huan's right Beiping tribe, happily enjoyed the wine given by Zhang Dan, shook his head and said to the warriors below:
"We are guarding Ping Gang. Isn't it more comfortable than that couch? Can he have the Han people's fine wine to drink? Can he let the warriors of the tribe have iron tools? Can he let our wives wear silk and satin? Can the elders of the tribe have a shelter from the wind? Survive this cold winter? ”
Every time Wu Yan said something, all the little chiefs in the tent shouted, pushing the atmosphere to the highest level.
But when Wuyan was indulging in the warmth of the moment, he didn't know that winter was coming.