Tiger Guards

Chapter 657: Deep Love between Father and Son
In Zhang County, Ma Chao woke up in the middle of the night.

While living in the city, where the military was located, Ma Chao simply washed his face with warm water and then led his personal guards to patrol the city walls.

The town of Zhangxian was built against the mountain, and there was a stable camp outside the town.

Therefore, a direct assault on Zhang County was almost impossible for Han Sui.

Only the Jin army, which currently possesses complete siege weapon research, development, production, and transportation capabilities, can use encirclement tactics and siege weapons to wear down the will and strength of the defending troops.

Han Sui's forces were unable to launch a direct assault, lacking the material and popular support necessary for such an attack.

However, Han Sui had an urgent military need to break through Zhang County, so it was inevitable that Han Sui would resort to some unconventional means.

Ma Chao couldn't predict these methods. All he could do was take turns patrolling with his uncle and cousin to minimize the chances of such an accident.

As for Ma Teng, he was not stationed in Zhang County, but rather in Zhongtao City, more than fifty li east of Zhang County, where he was responsible for defense and supervising the military and civilians to repair and expand Zhongtao.

This is where two or three roads intersect, making it a crucial road junction in Longyou.

It leads directly to Tianshui in the east, to Jincheng in the northwest, and to Zhangxian in the west. You can reach Jincheng by taking Didao.

If Zhongtao is lost, the Jin army gathered in the three easternmost counties of Longxi will be divided into two groups.

Previously, the war had not affected Tianshui, and Zhongtao had developed into a small town long ago simply because of its convenient roads.

Currently, both armies have established layers of defense along the road, and within the area controlled by these roads, they can extract various resources. Both sides are like cornered beasts; whoever controls more resources can hold out longer.

In this situation, ceramics become particularly important.

Ma Teng and Han Sui still harbored old and new grudges, and at this moment, he did not trust anyone else and wanted to personally supervise the reinforcement of Zhongtao City.

In fact, in Ma Teng's plan, Zhang County could be abandoned, while Zhongtao was the decisive battleground that would determine the life or death of both sides.

Unfortunately, Han Sui's siege tactics are limited, and he has yet to break through Zhang County, which is defended by Ma Chao.

Just as Ma Chao was inspecting the walls of Zhang County, a scout was lowered up by rope: "Commander, the bandit general Yan Xing is leading nearly 10,000 troops, circling the city and heading east!"

Upon hearing this, Ma Chao turned to look outside the city. He could only see the warning campfires of his own camp nearby, but the fog obscured any view beyond that point. "How many men are there exactly?"

"Nearly ten thousand people."

The scout cautiously replied, "Their troops did not set up torches, and everyone advanced with their mouths gagged. Their horses' hooves were wrapped in cloth and leather, so they made very little noise. I hid in a cave and thus escaped the enemy's search."

"It has passed?"

After estimating the distance and Yan Xing's marching efficiency, Ma Chao immediately turned to his personal guards and shouted, "Signal with beacon fires!"

"Here!"

His personal guards responded loudly and immediately led a dozen or so soldiers away at a trot.

Ma Chao turned to face east, gazing in the direction Yan Xing had gone, his eyes narrowed as he stared intently, wishing he could lead his army out of the city to pursue and annihilate Yan Xing.

Zhangxian County is very important; only by holding Zhangxian County can he complete the task assigned by Zhao Ji.

The safety of his father, Ma Teng, is also very important... At present, Ma Teng has not repaired his relationship with Han Sui due to the drought disaster and political needs. The two sides are still hostile to each other. Therefore, the relationship between Ma Teng and his son Ma Chao still exists.

If Ma Teng were to mend relations with Han Sui, it would be tantamount to ignoring or disregarding the blood feud between his wife and daughters. Only Ma Chao himself would know what he was really thinking.

After all, Ma Teng had too many wives, concubines, and children, and he couldn't let the lives of other living people be disrupted because of his deceased wives and daughters.

The ones who could be killed were Ma Chao's mother and several younger sisters, who were blood relatives and emotional ties who had shared poverty and turmoil with Ma Chao since his childhood.

So the blood feud is there, but the specific feelings between father and son are different, with fundamental differences.

The current Ma Chao... is more like a normal person.

The warning signal, lit in Zizhang County, was relayed through temporary beacon towers built along the rugged mountain peaks on both sides of the road, reaching Ma Teng's army before dawn.

The beacon tower system for transmitting military intelligence is a complex encrypted system. There are multiple beacon towers in Zhang County, and beacon towers in different locations symbolize different military intelligence.

When the beacon towers along the route were built, the field of vision was divided. Only when the beacon fire in the corresponding field of vision was seen would that beacon tower be activated; after it was lit, the next beacon tower in the chain would be lit as well.

When the warning beacon fires were lit in Zhang County, less than half of the beacon towers were actually lit according to the instructions, while the majority remained silent, waiting to be activated.

On the road, Yan Xing glanced sideways at the faint firelight in the distance, which seemed to float in mid-air through the thin mist.

He knew that these beacon towers were not far from him; in a straight line, they were very close.

Without roads, steep mountain paths are difficult to traverse. Especially after winter sets in, the garrison of these military beacon towers would plan their retreat routes in advance and set traps or obstacles along the necessary routes up the mountain.

These temporary beacon towers might have consisted of just a pile of firewood and a military tent, or even no military tent at all, just a wooden hut or thatched cottage built of firewood.

Once the officials stationed here are activated, they will set fire to the houses and then leave. Sending people up the mountain to chase after them now is futile.

Fighting in such harsh terrain would be extremely disadvantageous.

Yan Xing glanced at it a few times, then instructed his men: "Ignore the enemy's beacon fires. Lift all orders and resume normal marching."

"Here."

Upon hearing this, the riders around him split into two groups. One group rode forward along the column, shouting and relaying Yan Xing's military orders as they galloped lightly, while the other group relayed the orders to the rear of the column.

Between Zhang County and Zhongtao, there were no more strongholds or camps of the Jin army, and Yan Xing's journey was unimpeded.

This inevitably left him with some regret. If he found a camp built by hundreds of people based on the terrain, and it was close to the road, affecting normal marching... then he would have no choice but to reluctantly lead his troops to attack it.

Unfortunately, the Jin army did not have this style of military operation of dividing troops and setting up defenses everywhere, which is the fundamental reason why Yan Xing was able to penetrate eastward outside Zhang County.

Ma Chao only strengthened the defenses of the camps near Zhang County and the city, without setting up fences or digging trenches to cut off passable flat ground.

Ma Chao gathered his soldiers to defend Zhang County, abandoning the more expansive, flat lands beyond the city limits.

The advantage is that Zhang County, which Ma Chao defends, is very difficult to breach... As for the disadvantages, they are not so important.

If Ma Chao were to distribute his forces and focus all his efforts on blocking the passage, the flat land near Zhang County would be enough to thin out and drain his forces, rendering the entire defensive line inflexible and unable to launch a counterattack.

As a result, under Han Sui's orders and the urgent needs of the entire Han-Qiang tribal alliance in the Hehuang region, Yan Xing had no choice but to lead his troops eastward, unable to find even enemy strongholds along the way that would waste time.

After traveling for thirty miles along the valley road, we finally arrived at a relatively flat and narrow river valley.

Between the mountains to the north and south lies a well-cultivated agricultural area.

Unfortunately, Ma Teng also adopted a scorched-earth policy, relocating the population of this area to Zhongtao.

In other flat and open areas, troops could be organized to conduct regular hunts.

Because agriculture is plentiful here, there are hardly any prey animals in winter.

The wild animals in the nearby mountains and forests have been hunted by the local residents for generations, but the scale of hunting is not very large.

The sky was bright and the visibility was excellent.

Yan Xing noticed that the officers and soldiers of the entire army were acting perfunctorily and were showing signs of laxity, and were unwilling to continue advancing.

Seeing the officials and soldiers in this state, Yan Xing no longer wanted to advance.

The army was originally marching along the foot of the mountains on the north side of the valley, but now Yan Xing would occasionally turn his head to the south and gaze at the primeval forest seven or eight miles away.

His trusted confidants and the leaders of various departments also turned their heads to look from time to time. After looking at it so many times, they all felt that something was wrong. Even the military supervisor was very suspicious.

Yan Xing raised his spear high in his right hand, and the drumbeats on the drum cart behind him immediately changed. The hundreds of soldiers in the central army stopped, and the ranks in front and behind also stopped.

Yan Xing rode out of the ranks, looking south, and pointed his spear at the western mountains, asking those around him, "Is this Zheyang Mountain?"

The guide rode forward on his old horse and replied, "General, this is the mountain on the east side of Zheyang Mountain, which is opposite Zheyang Mountain to the east and west. The locals call it Guiqing Mountain."

Yan Xing then asked, "So, it's still more than sixty li away from Zhongtao?"

The guide paused for a moment, then replied, "Exactly."

Zhang County was very close to Zhongtao, and the messenger rode a horse to take a shortcut through rugged mountain valleys, covering a distance of no more than fifty li.

However, the army would have to travel more than fifty li to the southwest, and after passing through this flat and wide river valley, it would have to travel more than fifty li to the northeast.

Yan Xing was somber, but his expression was serious: "When I hunted here in previous years, I knew that the mountain gorge to the south was quite deep and could easily conceal troops, so we must be on guard. We should march another ten miles and set up camp in a narrow area. By dividing our troops to guard this area, we can ensure the army's retreat route."

"Here."

The morale of the people around them recovered somewhat, and their nighttime journey failed to attract Ma Chao's ambush from the city.

If someone were to rush straight to Zhongtao now, they would definitely suffer a terrible fate.

(End of this chapter)