With a guide to lead the way, 5,000 men and horses walked out of the Gobi without danger, and there were only a dozen non-combat attrition along the way, which far exceeded Huang Xuan's expectations. The 5,000 of them were originally pieced together, 3,000 were sent to Anxi to charge the army, and the remaining 2,000 were the tooth soldiers of the Hexi Jiedu envoy.

The prisoners used to be the sons of the powerful and blessed in Chang'an City, and they had a lot of ability to bully honest people. As for those Hexi Jiedu envoys, the tooth soldiers were not much stronger than the soft-footed chicken-like gentlemen, the real elite of the Hexi army was transferred to Guanzhong as early as the fifteenth year of Tianbao, and most of them were lost in Sun Xiaozhe's battle to break through Tongguan. Therefore, those who remained in Hexi were either the old, weak, sick and disabled, or the recruits who had never fought a war.

Zhou Yu, the deputy envoy of Hexi Jiedu, is a very thoughtful person, so he naturally will not treat the elite of Hexi as a meat bun for beating dogs. Huang Xuan poured the last bit of water in his skin into his mouth, the water had a strong smell and was disgusting, but he still forcibly swallowed it into his stomach.

According to their guide's instructions, the nearest water source was less than five miles ahead. At this time, there is no need for a guide to show the way, and everyone can see that the water source is close at hand. Compared with the Gobi and the desert that I have just experienced, this place is simply a paradise on earth, with rippling reeds everywhere in sight, and undulating with the wind like a green ocean. It is hard to imagine that there is such a fertile place of water and grass in the Western Regions, where the wind and sand are bitterly cold.

"The front is Dun Xue Hu, the general can put his heart back in his stomach, and no one will lose his life because of hunger and thirst!"

The chapped lips that he thought of had obviously endured a lot of torture, but the appearance of him swearing to pat his chest still gave people great confidence. The Gobi Desert has finally been left behind, and if you walk for one more day, I am afraid that there will be a large number of non-combat attrition.

A small team of scouts was the first to arrive at the shore of Lake Dunyu, and scattered around the water source for several miles to investigate the terrain, and only sent a message of safety to the group without finding anything abnormal. All the deployments made by Huang Xuan were strictly in accordance with the tactical manual of the Shenwu Army, and his combat experience was mostly as a team leader who rushed to the front line, and it was the first time to command a brigade of 5,000 people, so he could only cross the river by feeling the stones along the way, and he was cautious.

Huang Xuan didn't dare to overestimate this army of 5,000 people, if he encountered horse bandits and bandits, he might still have the ability to fight, and if he really ran into a Turkish or Turkic cavalry, he was afraid that he would only be beaten.

According to the tactical manual of the Shenwu Army, when the two armies face each other and their own strength is far inferior to the enemy, they must take the initiative to find fighters before the enemy, and do their best to offset the enemy's superiority with an active defensive position. In the case of a huge disparity in the strength of the enemy and the enemy, the retreat often turns into a rout, so the best way to deal with it can only be to defend instead of attack according to local conditions. Even if they are defeated, or if they are completely annihilated, they must make the enemy pay a bloody price.

From the very beginning, Huang Xuan was ready to fight to the death at any time, he started from an ordinary good family to join the Shenwu Army, and now it has been four years, although he is only a team, but he clearly knows that above the battle, the gap in strength is like heaven and earth, and the rookie egg is no different from a three-year-old child in front of a veteran soldier, and can only be at the mercy of others.

However, as the so-called newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, the 5,000 people under Huang Xuan's command are just recruited recruits in addition to the well-fed children who have just been recruited, and their cognition is still stuck in the era of * crisscrossing the Western Regions, thinking that the Tuqi Shi people can besiege Qiuzi is just the result of a conspiracy and trickery. This kind of cognition is probably more appropriate to describe the fearlessness of the ignorant.

However, Huang Xuan was glad that he was able to lead a group of ignorant and fearless soldiers at this time, at least so that the entire army could maintain a relatively high morale and not flee before arriving at Qiuzi.

Taking advantage of the fact that the brigade was supplying drinking water, Dugu Yanjing discussed with Huang Xuan to repair it for a day at Dunxu Lake.

Huang Xuan rejected this suggestion after a little thought, they didn't have enough time, and every extra moment of delay made Qiuzi more dangerous. The expressions of the two were very solemn, and after a long time, Dugu Yanjing asked:

"When will the reinforcements from the imperial court arrive? We only have 5,000 people, and they are all recruits who have never fought before, and we dare not hope for the siege to be lifted if we delay it!"

Dugu Yanjing is relatively sober, he also traveled here from Chang'an on foot, and knows how many difficulties and dangers there are along the way, and the army of the imperial court will only take longer than these three thousand prisoners to drive to Anxi. Huang Xuan's brows were also tightened, and he only pondered without speaking, Dugu Yanjing said again:

"Even Hexi is empty, to put it at worst, not only can Hexi not be able to aid the four towns of Anxi nearby, but even the ability to protect itself may not be enough, if the Hu people attack the four towns of Anxi with the momentum of the wind and clouds, wouldn't it be logical to enter Hexi? With Zhou Yu's roe head and rat purpose, can he hold Hexi?"

The imperial court transferred the veteran Wang Sili for political purposes, leaving only a mediocre deputy envoy of Jiedu, and once he encountered an emergency military situation, it was impossible to provoke the whole situation.

Huang Xuan shook his head.

"The imperial court has been operating the four towns of Anxi for a hundred years, and it will not be lost overnight, as long as it can be delayed for three or five months, the imperial court reinforcements will inevitably arrive in ......."

At this point, there was a pause, and then the language was organized.

"Even if the four towns of Anxi are rotten to the bones, our moth-like rescue can't make a splash at all, and we must always make the Hu people taste the pain......"

Regarding the difficult situation they faced, Huang Xuan did not hide Dugu Yanjing, in fact, even if he did not conceal Dugu Yanjing's cleverness, he could see through everything.

Although Dugu Yanjing was a prisoner who fell in the political struggle, he did not have a distorted heart of revenge because of family hatred, but was bent on receiving rewards for meritorious service in Anxi, in order to restore the past glory of the Dugu family.

It was based on this understanding, coupled with his observations along the way, that Huang Xuan reused him when he formed the Shazhou Army in Hexi.

While supplying drinking water, Huang Xuan sent three more exploration horses to Yanqi, and in order to ensure the safety along the way, he had to be cautious step by step. However, the result shocked him. Yanqi City is only more than ten miles away from the water source, and after arriving in Yanqi, Tanma found that the entire city has become a ruin of ruins, and the originally dense settlement area has been burned.

At this point, Huang Xuan couldn't figure out what was going on, in order to find out the specific situation, he had to order all the men and horses to stop advancing, guard on the spot, and then only take hundreds of horsemen to Yanqi City to find out the truth.

When the ruins could be seen from afar, Huang Xuan's nose was filled with the smell of fireworks, and it was obvious that this big city, one of the four towns in Anxi, had just experienced a baptism of fire. Just looking at the situation, it doesn't look like it was attacked by the Hu people, after all, this is the closest town to Hexi in the four towns of Anxi, and it is also the place where problems are least likely to occur. It's a pity that the problem just appeared, and it was unexpected.

"Yanqi is a necessary place for merchants from east to west, and the resident population gathered on weekdays is at least around 50,000, and now that it has escaped, there must have been an extremely terrible disaster!"

The once prosperous Yanqi has turned into a black and gray ruins, only the ruins and broken walls silently show how lively this place was, the guide's eyes are full of fear, he has traveled back and forth to Yanqi at least three times a year on average in half of his life, and has never seen such a tragic situation, even if the Tubo people have attacked and besieged the city in recent years, it is difficult to achieve the tragic scene in front of him.

"It must have been the Turgish people, who attacked the Qiuzi and robbed Yanqi, looting all the goods and people, and then burning Yanqi with a fire...... Yes, it must be like this......"

The guide's words were incoherent, and his spirit was confused by nervousness.

Huang Xuan ignored the guide's fears, and although he didn't know exactly what was going on in Yanqi, at least one thing was certain, and that was that it didn't look like it had been plundered.

"Spread out, search carefully, and bring me to me as soon as you find a live mouth!"

As expected, they didn't find any survivors, this place has become a hell on earth, how can anyone stay?

Yanqi City has been destroyed, and the brigade naturally has no need to enter the city, seeing that there is another hour before the sunset, it is better to camp and rest in place, and then advance westward when the sun rises.

According to the signs on the map, thirty miles west of Yanqi is the Iron Gate Pass, and if it is not destroyed, there must be a *. Conversely, there is no * there, which proves that the situation is worse than previously estimated.

Back to the garrison of the brigade, Huang Xuan and Dugu Yanjing discussed for a while, and the two reached a consensus, and Dugu Yanjing rushed to Tiemen Pass overnight with hundreds of horses, and if there was still * stationed there, he would negotiate with him to understand what happened to Yanqi.

"If the Iron Gate is also destroyed, how should we deal with it?"

Dugu Yanjing asked a question that Huang Xuan was unwilling to face in a low voice. However, this is the cruel reality, and he must face it even if he is unwilling to face it, and he thinks about it for a while before making up his mind.

"Whether it's a blessing or a curse, you have to go through, and you can't ignore the turtle if you're afraid!"

"What if even the turtles are the same as Yanqi?"

Dugu Yanjing's questions are more acute and cruel than the other. Huang Xuan was stunned, it is true, even the closest Yanqi to Hexi has been destroyed, so is the Qiuzi who is still further west of Yanqi already following in the footsteps of Yanqi?

After a long time, Huang Xuancai said:

"Take one step at a time, come and come, you always have to go through some hardships and dangers, so as not to be in vain!"