"General! Master! I'm back!"

  "What's all the fuss about? You're already an old grandfather, how can you still be so reckless? When will you change this temper of yours!" Xu Da felt helpless towards his own family member Xu Sheng. From being a low-ranking officer to being promoted by him nearly thirty years ago, this careless and arrogant attitude had not changed one bit.

  "Haha...can't change it, after so many years, General, how come you still haven't gotten used to it?!" Xu Sheng laughed and joked, his own general always said that about him, but he had a thick skin and could always muddle through with some clever words.

  "General! I'm telling you! This time I've found a treasure for you!"

  "Oh? Another savage like that mute one from before?"

  "What's so special about him, anyway? He's just a stable boy at best." Although he was belittling Meng Ran with his words, Xu Sheng's smug expression couldn't be more obvious.

  Xu Da smiled slightly and ignored him, instead focusing intently on the book in his hand. This made Xu Sheng feel embarrassed, as he tried to get Xu Da's attention by moving around, but Xu Da deliberately didn't look at him.

  "General, don't you want to know what treasure it is?" Xu Sheng couldn't help but ask.

  "Hmph, don't think I don't know about you. If I didn't ask, would you not speak up? Alright, stop holding back and say it out loud, let me hear what kind of treasure this is."

  "This time it's really a treasure, absolutely not like before when I misjudged, really! This person is absolutely a talent, just talking about martial arts alone is far above me!" Xu Sheng was eager to introduce Zhang Feng to Xu Da.

  "Stop! Is this really a treasure?" Xu Da was actually quite curious this time. In the past, his family would always find some kind of strange and unusual so-called "treasure" to give to him, but in the end, they were all just ordinary things. Over time, Xu Da had become immune to Xu Sheng's use of the word "treasure", and he thought that mentioning it was just a joke, but unexpectedly, this time the treasure really did make him guess correctly...

  The army's camp, with strict precautions, Xu Da's scouts and patrols were scattered all around, observing the surroundings at every moment. Although they had already detected the enemy's position earlier, they still couldn't let their guard down now. If the enemy made any unusual move, it would be immediately reported to the top.

  "Look! The dust is flying in front, it seems like a large army is marching! Could it be the Yuan army's troops?"

  "Let's go, we'll sneak up and take a look at where this group of people came from!" The leader of the scouting party narrowed his eyes and gave the order. The group circled around and quietly approached them.

  In the not-too-distant dusty smoke, they dismounted and walked on foot, cautiously scouting around them along the way. As veteran scouts, they all knew that this distance was the critical point, and going further forward would likely lead to an encounter with the reconnaissance troops of this army. If it were friendly forces, then so be it; but if it were the Yuan army, a fierce battle would be hard to avoid.

  "Third son, your eyes are good, take a look at the big flag over there and see what's written on it. This damn grassland is full of dirt, blocking my view so much that I can't even see their armor."

  The three of them had been concentrating and staring at the ground with their eyes narrowed, and finally they could only see a slit before they vaguely made out that it was the flag of Ming Jun's army. "Ah! I can see clearly now, it's our own people!"

  The captain let out a sigh of relief, fortunately it wasn't Yuan's army. "Alright, nothing happened, everyone hurry back to report."

  "Whoosh!" An arrow flew right in front of the captain's eyes, scaring him so much that his legs almost gave out. He glared fiercely at San'er, "You little brat said it was a friendly army, how could they be shooting arrows?!"

  San'er shrugged his shoulders in frustration, he was confident that he hadn't misjudged the situation, but couldn't understand why their own people were shooting arrows at them. San'er specifically looked down at his clothes and saw that he wasn't wearing the wrong uniform, this was indeed the uniform of the Great Ming army.

  The sound of horseshoes reminded him, and soon three riders came running towards him from a distance. The squad leader saw clearly that they were wearing the uniform of the Ming army, but it was different from theirs, and he couldn't think of which unit they belonged to for a while; however, it didn't matter, since they were their own people, there was no need to escape, and the squad leader remained calm and waited for them to come over and ask why they had shot arrows at him.

  The three riders suddenly appeared before them, and the leader was none other than Ding Wu of the Sinister Camp. The squad leader took a closer look at their attire, but his expression grew increasingly unsightly as he did so. He thought to himself that he had been blind earlier, for this was clearly the uniform of the Sinister Camp, and he couldn't believe he had forgotten. It was all because they hadn't drafted any soldiers from the Sinister Camp on this expedition due to their large numbers, and in his momentary lapse, he had overlooked these people.

  "Are you Ming army scouts?" Ding Wu asked indifferently.

  The squad leader wiped the sweat from his forehead and lowered his head, saying: "Yes, we are scouts of the Western Route Army. We came to investigate because we found that the dust here was rising abnormally."

  Ding Wu didn't say a word, he just gave him a cold glance and led his men to leave on horseback. They had originally come out today just to get used to the horses they were assigned, but unexpectedly discovered that someone was spying on the army. If it weren't for seeing that the other person was wearing Ming military clothes, Ding Wu's arrow would not have been shot into the ground, but rather at his head.

  Watching Ding Wu and the three of them leave without a word, the squad leader hastily led his men to return to the camp to report. Since the guilty camp had appeared, it was clear that this group of people was undoubtedly the Northern Expedition's Eastern Route Army. It was just unknown how the infantry guilty camp usually managed to get horses this time.

  The scouts sent by Tang He arrived at Xu Da's camp one after another, and when they learned that Tang He's main force was about to arrive, Xu Da hastily ordered his generals to go and greet them. At this time, he had already planned to take advantage of the Northern Yuan army's incomplete forces to launch a surprise attack, first defeating Nayanbuhe and then eliminating the remaining three Ping Zhang Zhengshi people and horses. By then, his northern expeditionary army would march northward without anyone being able to stop them.

  But the news brought by the scouts on another road made Xu Da's efforts in vain. The allied forces of the three Pingzhangs who had been destroyed by Tang He's cavalry were now also approaching Nair Buhe's camp, and they were not far from Tang He's troops. This was still under the circumstances that Tang He hastened his journey, otherwise it might have been Xu Da who was first to be annihilated by the four Northern Yuan Pingzhangs.

  But since both sides have gathered their troops, now it's just a matter of preparing for a big battle. Someday in the future will be the day of their decisive battle; if Xu Da wins, the Ming army will advance northward unimpeded, but if the Yuan army wins, they will march south and attack the border, causing worry. It's just that it hasn't happened yet, so who will win or lose is still unknown...

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