Winter in the Northwest Plateau comes earlier than in Chang'an.

There is a vast scene in the sky, but there is no wind blowing grass and seeing cattle and sheep.

After Duan Zhixuan led the army into Tuyuhun, he fought with Fu Yun several times, but they were all separated after a short contact.

In plateau warfare, everyone is basically cavalry, and if one side has no intention of fighting a decisive battle, it is difficult to have a large-scale battle, unless there is a mental calculation or unintentionality, and the other party can be ambushed.

"Chief, the army has pursued for three hundred miles in a row, and not even a single shadow of the Tuyuhun people has been encountered, so it's not a way to go on like this."

Today's Tang army is the strongest period of combat effectiveness, and no one will be afraid of dealing with Tuguhun, let alone worrying that they can't beat it.

However, if you keep chasing you like this, people won't fight you, which is a headache.

Duan Zhixuan was appointed as the head of the Xikaidao march this year, and led the northwest to the border army and some troops and horses such as Qibi and Dangxiang to conquer Tuyuhun.

But Tuyuhun Khan Fu Yun saw that the momentum was not right, and ran away with a large army.

Most of the land in Tuyuhun belongs to Qinghai in later generations, and it is not so easy to find tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in the typical vast and sparsely populated northwest plateau as far as the eye can see.

In this era, there are no satellites to help you scout, and you rely entirely on scouts, although you can barely find the direction of the Tuyuhun army's escape, but it is not so easy to catch up with them.

"Your Majesty ordered us to wait for the crusade against Tuyuhun, how can we run away and return. Tell the army, speed up the journey, try to find Fu Yun's army before the heavy snow comes, and destroy them in one fell swoop. ”

Today's Duan Zhixuan, who is only in his thirties, is already a top martial artist in the Tang Dynasty, and it can be said that he is the most proud time in his life, so he will naturally not put on a military position.

"Subordinates obey!"

……

In the city of Liangzhou, the atmosphere has been a little tense recently.

Some of the defenders had already followed Duan Zhixuan, the head of the Xikaidao march, to attack Tuyuhun, and the troops in the city were actually not sufficient.

And on the Western Turk side, it seems that he is a little nervous recently, even Xue Yantuo, who followed the Tang Dynasty to destroy the Eastern Turks, there seem to be some tribal leaders who have different thoughts.

The situation in the northwest has not been completely stabilized because of a wool and milk powder.

It seems that Li Kuan's grassland strategy still has a long way to go before it is finally completed.

"Ma Changshi, you're finally back."

The station of the northwest trade of Liangzhou City, Ma Zhou had just returned from Chang'an City, and Mountbatten came to see him.

The situation in the northwest is to affect the whole body, and Li Kuan directly wiped out the 20,000 Western Turkic army in the way of dimensionality reduction and strike, which certainly brought a great shock to the surrounding tribes.

However, as time passed, various rumors began to increase.

Many tribes think that this battle is the Tang Dynasty boasting, how can it be possible that more than 1,000 people will destroy 20,000 people?

Standing and letting you cut you can't cut it.

Even the Western Turks, who had just been canonized by the Tang Dynasty last year, died this year, and Ni's younger brother Tong'e set up a successor to the throne, called Sha Bo Luo Lifu Khan, and after that, he began to intentionally or unintentionally cover up the defeat of the year.

The eldest son of the first khan, Abdu, was even entrusted with a new task and began to constantly test the reflection of the Tang Dynasty on the border.

As the center of the storm, the situation in Liangzhou City naturally became weird, and people from all tribes were here to inquire about news, exchange materials, and obtain information.

"Mountbatten, what's wrong, why are you in a hurry."

Ma Zhou had a bearing that Mount Tai pressed on the top and his face did not change, and he did not panic because of Mountbatten's hurried appearance.

"Ma Changshi, in the past month, our caravans that went to various tribes to buy wool have been attacked several times, and dozens of horses have been lost."

"In which tribe's territory were they attacked?"

Ma Zhou was thinking about the situation around Liangzhou, and at the same time thinking about what to do next.

"Tuyuhun has the most, Xue Yantuo also has it, and there have been several accidents on the Dang Xiang and Qiang side."

The Northwest Trade's purchase of wool was basically carried out by contracting to Hu people like Mountbatten, and it can be said that the caravans were attacked, and they were the most direct victims.

Mountbatten felt so painful!

"It's predictable that something will happen to Tuyuhun, after all, Chief Duan is now leading troops to fight them; But how could this Xue Yantuo have tribes that dared to attack the caravan of the Northwest Trade? There are also the Dangxiang and Qiang tribes, they all have tribes that follow Duan to send troops to attack Tuyuhun. ”

Although Ma Zhou is smart, he has been in Liangzhou for a long time.

But in the face of such a complicated situation, it is impossible to figure out the situation for a while.

On the contrary, the local Hu people of Mountbatten have a deeper understanding of the relationship between various tribes and the way the people of the steppe think and act.

"Ma Changshi, this Xue Yantuo, although it seems that he is of the same heart as the Tang Dynasty, but now they occupy a large number of pastures of the former Eastern Turks, and their strength has risen greatly, it is said that there are also some tribes within Xue Yantuo who want to reproduce the majesty of the Turkic Khanate, and some recent actions, I think this is a kind of temptation for them."

"Temptation?"

Ma Zhou frowned, the situation seemed to be more complicated than he imagined.

"That's right, they are testing Datang's bottom line and testing our reflection."

"What about the Dang Xiang and the Qiang tribe? Is it also a temptation? ”

Mountbatten pondered for a while, "I think the situation on the side of the party and the Qiang people is different from Xue Yantuo. This time, my Tang Dynasty conquered Tuyuhun, although some of the Dangxiang tribes and Qiang tribes followed the expedition, but there were also some tribes who were worried that after the Tang Dynasty unified the northwest, they would be annexed, so the internal opinions of the party and the Qiang people were not unified. ”

"What do you mean, the Dangxiang and Qiang people who attacked the Northwest Trade are the forces in their tribe that oppose the Tang Dynasty?"

"Basically, of course, it is not excluded that other tribes that support my Datang on the surface also provide convenience for them secretly."

"Hmph, it seems that we are still too merciful to these tribes."

Ma Zhou sneered, "From today onwards, the size of the escort team of the Northwest Trade will be doubled, and I will bring back a batch of crossbows from Chang'an City, all of which will be equipped for the escort team, but if you encounter a man or a horse who dares to attack the caravan, you will immediately counterattack if you can beat it, and you will retreat first if you can't beat it." ”

Ma Zhou returned from Chang'an this time, and he was also prepared.

Li Kuan originally exchanged a few crossbows from the system, kept one as a sample, and arranged for a craftsman to imitate it.

However, the progress has not been very ideal, mainly because these hand crossbows have relatively high requirements for materials and accuracy.

It wasn't until he was ready to arrange for Ma Zhou to return to Liangzhou that Li Kuan asked him to go back with the first batch of mass-produced two-hundred-handed crossbows.

Of course, these hand crossbows are not as good as what Li Kuan can exchange from the system, but they are best used by cavalry before hand-to-hand combat.

The situation in the northwest looks like a mountain rain is about to come and the wind is full of buildings.

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