On the plateau, the wind is flying, the sand and dust are all over the sky, occasionally or the wind is swept over, the soil and rocks are flying, and the eyes cannot see.

However, for the Turkic people, who are accustomed to the desert climate, they do not suffer from this, and the speed of the journey does not slow down because of this.

After several days of trekking, the Turkic brigade had left Wonju and entered Gyeongju. As the distance from Wonju grew, Mo Si's heartstrings, which had been tense, gradually relaxed, and even let the team gradually move forward along the river.

The northwest is perennially arid and sparsely populated, and only near the river will there be more people. Previously, in order not to be traced by the Tang pursuers, Mo Si and his party did not even dare to get too close to the water source, but relied on cavalry and pack horses to run back and forth to fetch water to meet the needs of people and animals.

Over the course of a few days, hundreds of horses died of exhaustion just to get water. But such caution is not without effect. In the course of a few days of travel, at first there were some Hu people in Yuanzhou who were following behind, but gradually even those Hu people who were chasing behind were thrown away.

Even if the reinforcements of the Tang State have entered the territory of Yuanzhou at this moment, it will take a lot of effort to lock down the Turkic people along the way, after all, in the northwestern states, the control of the Tang State is not as tight as that of the inner states.

"As long as you cross the Maling River, there is a smooth road all the way back, and the army can enter Yanzhou. There are many salt ponds in Yanzhou, and the Hu people of Liuzhou come and go in the realm all the year round, and the people of the Tang State mainly gather in Wuyuan City. When the time comes, send a group of men and horses to raid Yanchi and lead away the Wuyuan armies, and the team can calmly cross the border. After passing through Yanzhou, it entered the territory of Liuzhou. When the time comes, the Khan strong dragon will enter the abyss, even if the Tang army wants to track it again, there is no way to start! ”

The speaker was a Turkic young man in his twenties, with gold threads wrapped in braids, his face already bearded, and a standard Turkic nobleman's dress.

Mo Si ran a long way to attack Yuanzhou, and with his cautious character, he was naturally well prepared. This young man who has been following him in the tent, although his sense of existence is not high, but his identity is quite good.

The young man was also born in the surname of King Ashina, whose name was Ye Gong, and he belonged to the Turkic tribe of the Mihun Prefecture where Xiazhou was located. His father was the governor of the Mihun Prefecture of the Tang Kingdom, but he was beheaded by Wang Benli, the governor of Shuofang at that time, because of the passive resistance of Gu Dulu when he entered the Kouhe River Meander in the old year, so Ashina Ye Gong took refuge in Mo Si, who was sitting in Nanya Heisha City at that time.

Because he has lived in the land of Heshuo for a long time, Ashina Yegong is well aware of the situation in the six states of Hequ. Moreover, his subordinates are not weak in the six states of Hequ, and it is a great joy to get such a person to take refuge.

But even if Mo Si was quite eager for the remnants of the six states of Hequ, he didn't dare to touch it with his power. Now that he has been able to inherit his brother Khan's throne, he has always taken Ye Gong as an important arm to infiltrate the river meander.

While biting on the dry and hard Hu Biscuit, Mo Si listened carefully to Ye Gong's narration, and said with emotion: "The remnants of the Six Prefectures are also the people of the Khan, but because of the obstruction of the Tang State, they cannot return to their hometown. This time, taking advantage of the civil strife in the Tang Dynasty, I personally entered the country to inspect and recruit them, and half of the wealth I obtained in Wonju was prepared for them. But they have been alienating the prestige of the khan for many years, and when the time comes, they will have to rely on Ye Gong you to lobby them and preach the current growth of the khanate! ”

Ye Gong nodded again and again after hearing this, as a child of the Ashina family, who did not repeat the beautiful dream of the scenery of his ancestors in his heart. What's more, he has a grudge against the Tang people for killing his father, and now that he has taken refuge in the new khan, he naturally has to do his best to assist.

According to Ye Gong, there is still half a month left at the latest, and the army can officially enter the scope of the six states of Hequ. The so-called six states of Hequ are the six prefectures of Feng, Sheng, Ling, Xia, Shuo and Dai in the area of the Yellow River.

The many Hu tribes conquered by the Tang Dynasty were mainly settled in these states, and the Eastern Turkic remnants were naturally included in this list, and the proportion was not small.

Because of the large number of Hu tribes, the situation between the six states is also quite complicated, and the Tang Dynasty garrisoned troops here, mainly to balance. As for the people who really ruled the population of the territory, it was the chiefs of the Hu tribe who originally set up the Guiyi Prefecture under the six states, and the chiefs continued to lead the old tribe to live in this land under the names of Assassin Shi and Governor.

Mo Si was still discussing with Ye Gong about the specific means of recruiting the remnants after entering the territory of the Six Prefectures later, and Luo Teqin, who had been relieved of his military position, stepped forward with a somewhat cold expression: "Yu Khan, the scouts sent by the front road and the east road have not returned twice in time......

After hearing this, Mo Si's face couldn't help but change, and he said in a deep voice: "Continue to send two more roads, two hundred people as a team, and no battle will be fought after discovering the enemy's traces, and report back immediately!" Especially the road ahead, you go in person! ”

Although Luo Teqin was relieved of his military position, he still attached great importance to his bravery, otherwise it would be difficult for Luo Teqin to become the commander of the elite wolf cavalry. With Luo Teqin personally leading the scouts, even if he encounters a powerful enemy, he can at least bring the news back.

Walking in the unfamiliar wilderness, especially avoid deafness. Those who can be selected as scouts are all first-class soldiers in the army, and Ye Gong also said that there is no strong tribal distribution in the left and right of this realm, and it is naturally not a common class to be able to solve the Turkic scouts, so Mo Si became nervous again.

While sending scouts to continue the investigation, he quickly ordered another group of men to investigate in all directions, looking for suitable camps. Although it is still a period of time before it gets dark, and most of the campsites for the next two or three days have actually been explored and selected in advance, Mo Si still does not dare to slack off when this unexpected situation suddenly happens.

Not to mention that Mo Si and his entourage nervously searched for a place to set up camp, and led the scouts to go out to investigate, Luo Teqin Pegasus galloped on the plateau, and after rushing out of a distance of more than ten miles, there was still no trace of human traffic.

The plateau is crisscrossed by ditches and ridges, and there are many herdsmen's trails criss-crossed, which are easy to lurk and not easy to investigate in detail, and the terrain is much more complex than that on the desert. Luo Teqin ordered each scout to be given ten arrows to fan forward with him as the center, and he led more than 100 light horsemen to move slowly forward to expand the scale of the exploration.

Every once in a while, Luo Teqin would let people shoot a chirp into the sky, and then there would be echoes from the four fields. When the ten Ming Dyssis were used up, the fan-shaped area they had spread out was already huge, and it would be difficult to communicate with each other at a distance, so Luo Teqin had the horn sounded to summon the scouts back.

However, when the scouts returned, Luo Teqin was shocked, and he dispatched a hundred scouts, each of whom were in a small team of five, to advance in a staggered manner, so as to avoid being surrounded by the enemy to the greatest extent.

Moreover, in the process of investigation just now, there were no more than twenty beeps, but when the scouts returned, there were more than thirty people missing, and they were in different directions!

This shows that the enemy has lurked in this wilderness, there are quite a few of them, and their combat effectiveness is amazing, at least they have ultra-long-range lethality.

"It's Tang Jun, it must be Tang Jun! The Tang people are coming...... Special service, let's hurry up and return to the Khan! ”

After losing so many companions, those Turkic scouts' faces changed drastically for a while, especially when they thought that if they were not assigned to those roads, they might be the ones who died, and their hearts were full of fear.

Since the restoration of the Turks, because of their strong mobility and flexible operations, coupled with the high-level turmoil within the Tang Dynasty, which has affected the border defense, the process of rising has also been quite smooth.

However, the disaster of the loss of the country is not something that can be easily forgotten, and there is also a fear of Tang in the entire Turkic tribe, otherwise the nobles led by the previous Khan Gu Dulu would not give up attacking the Tang State and plundered the Western Turkic homeland.

Seeing that the companions who had been together to talk and laugh before were separated for a short time, no one was born or dead, so in the eyes of these Turkic scouts, the wilderness in front of them was like a silent beast that chose to devour people, and it was filled with an atmosphere of terror.

"Shut up! I don't know the enemy's armor, the number of soldiers, and I don't know who it is, how can I tell the khan like this! ”

Luo Teqin also frowned, and there was no trembling feeling in his heart, but after thinking about it, he still gritted his teeth and shouted: "Continue to follow me forward and grab a few ears, eyes and tongues!" ”

With hundreds of elite scouts behind him, he was confident that he would be able to retreat even if he was defeated.

So Luo Teqin led the crowd to rush in the direction where several teams of scouts disappeared, and there was no sound of a large number of people and horses moving in the wilderness, and he also observed that the birds in the sky did not dare to land in the sky, and it was not a sign of the brigade of people and horses lurking, so he was so bold.

After their group rushed along the road for a certain distance, Luo Teqin was keenly aware of the slightest smell of blood in the air, so he made a gesture backwards, and the Turkic knights in the rear dismounted and climbed high, occupying the commanding heights and drawing their bows to wait for the enemy.

After that, Luo Teqin and his entourage continued to move forward, and after turning a large piece of soil, the picture they saw suddenly made them gasp.

I saw that the five scouts along the way, all stripped naked and gathered in a pit, each of them had a different number of blood holes on their bodies, which should have been dug up by the enemy after the death of the arrow, and the blood holes of the corpse scars had not yet coagulated, and blood was still oozing outward. At the same time, the scalp at the back of their skull was peeled off, revealing a miserable white periosteum, making the entire corpse look hideous and weird.

"Who is it? Who exactly? ”

Seeing the tribal warriors being tortured and thrown here, Luo Teqin's eyes were suddenly split, and he drew his knife in his hand and shouted loudly: "Since you killed my warriors, why don't you show up to fight?" It's ridiculous and shameful that the Tang people are so cowardly! ”

However, no matter how angry Luo Teqin roared, Siye did not make a sound, and when the scouts scattered to search the surroundings, they found some traces of the enemy's activities, which were clearly evacuated.

"Special agent, there's handwriting here!"

One of the scouts, looking through his companion's corpse, pulled out a wooden board with blood smeared on it from underneath and quickly turned around to present it. As for what was written on the board, they didn't know, because none of them, including Luo Teqin, knew Tang handwriting.

"The Silent Burial of the Bones......"

After Mo Si, who was moving to the temporarily selected campsite, took the wooden card that the scouts had searched, looked at it and threw it on the ground, sneering: "The Tang people are weak and skilled, and they have really lost the face of their ancestors!" In previous years, the army attacked Mobei directly, whether it was victory or defeat, it was heroic, but now it only dared to lurk in the shadows, afraid that our army was strong, and did not dare to come forward to fight! ”

Having said that, Mo Si's heart sank sharply. It must be known that the people who were hunted were not ordinary troops, and all the people who could be selected as scouts were the elites of his department, and they also had the best weapons, but they still did not stop the Tang people from killing, so it can be seen that this Tang army lurking in the shadows is absolutely extraordinary, far from being comparable to those ordinary guards in Yuanzhou.

What's even more terrifying is that the Tang people were able to accurately hunt the scouts he sent, but they never exposed their own strength, which shows that even if the Tang army knows their whereabouts well, at least they have followed them for a distance!

"How so?"

Although he was extremely contemptuous of the Tang Army, Mo Si had already turned the river and the sea in his heart, because the appearance of the Tang Army along the way was really contrary to his assumptions.

It must be known that in order to plan this attack on Yuanzhou, Mo Si began to lay out last year, first invading the border states of Tang State on a small scale in Monan, luring the army of Tang Dynasty Beidao to gather in the Monan area near Shan Yu Duhufu, while he himself led the elite tribes to return to Yu Du Jun Mountain to compete for the Khan position.

After becoming a khan, Mo Si ordered Ashid Yuanzhen to lead the army to gather near Fengzhou, and attract the garrisons near the meander, such as Yinzhou, Xiazhou, and Lingzhou, to the Hetao, which caused the empty state of almost no defense in Guannei Prefecture.

Moreover, turmoil broke out in Chang'an, the Tang State, not to mention Luoyang, the divine capital, and all kinds of chaos in the Tang State were simply encouraging Mo Si to use troops internally. He also thought that this was an opportunity given by God, so he boldly came south, no matter from any point of view, there should not be such an elite Tang army in Gyeongju at this time, which was as simple as killing chickens!

Despite his cunning and intelligence, he couldn't figure out why this was the case, because he had so little information about the enemy that he barely returned alive from his scouts. And because Mo Si thought too much, his mood became more and more worried.

The temporary camping site was selected at a river junction near the Maling River, surrounded by rivers on three sides and with many mudflats, which could greatly relieve the pressure of stationing in place. However, the fly in the ointment is that the camp here is located at the foot of the Maling slope, and there is no high momentum, and once it is diveted by the enemy, it is at a disadvantage of attacking from the back.

But in a hurry, it was good to be able to choose such a campsite. Although the army could advance more than ten miles to reach the camp originally scheduled for today, the sudden appearance of the enemy's trace still made Mo Si dare not take risks.

The river valley gathered into a wall, and Mo Si led 2,000 elite troops to climb the slope not far away, divided into two camps, echoing each other, and controlled a certain commanding height. Although this slope is bare and brave, it is not suitable for camping, but now it can only be used.

While the troops were encamped, Mo Si sent scouts to shout and curse into the wilderness within a dozen miles around the camp. Such insults are by no means simple emotional venting, and can effectively damage the morale of the enemy. It would be best if you could directly bring the enemy into a fierce battle, after all, the invisible enemy is the most terrifying.

At this time, in the valley a little far from the slope here, more than a thousand forwards led by Li Ge were gathering here.

Their army traveled lightly, arriving here two days earlier than the Mosi army, and now the governor Qi Ming Zhengzheng led the main force to sit in Malingbao further north, while Li Ge and his party were responsible for harassing the enemy before the decisive battle.

The elite scouts of the Turks are naturally not easy to kill, but the Tang Army's vanguard is both the home field and the rest of the country, especially the complex terrain of the ditches and ridges on the plateau, which is simply an excellent place for small groups of elites to ambush the enemy.

Li Ge and his group of daring warriors were the essence of the soldiers of the Guannei Prefecture, and they had been training in Qinling, Longyou and other places for a long time, relying on long-range advantages such as bows and crossbows, and the Turkic scouts they encountered were rarely able to escape from their ambush range.

"General, the Turkic thieves are scolding again, and they are still scolding very badly, should we go out and kill them for a while, and kill their arrogance?"

Several forward soldiers who were lying on the ridge watching the thieves said angrily.

Li Ge sneered when he heard this, and only said: "The thieves are panicking, so it's just a matter of emboldening." My duty is to disturb the thieves, and as long as they are stuck, they will complete the task. The army was still thirty miles away, and they were able to scold it. The mouth is dry when they scold, and they will regret it later. ”

When all the forward soldiers heard this, they all laughed one after another. There is naturally a reason why they chose to show their heads here to attack the Turks. One of the most important factors in the barracks is the water source. Even if a man can endure thirst for a while, a horse can't stand it.

The water of the Malingchuan River is strange, and its source is divided into two places, the water on the east side is salty and bitter, and the water quality on the west side is clear and sweet. Li Ge and others ambushed in this realm, precisely in order to force the Turks to temporarily choose to camp in the eastern river valley.

The Turks came from the southwest, and naturally waded through the Ganliu on the west side, and they must subconsciously think that the confluence of the two rivers must be the same on the east side. But when they camped with water, they could feel the full malice of Datang Landscape towards them.

In fact, as Li Ge expected, while the Turkic convoy entered the river bay to prepare the land and set up camp, some of them were also responsible for leading the horses to drink water near the river, but although the horses were already sweating profusely, when their tongues were not in the river, they refused to bow their heads one by one.

"Stupid brute, don't drink yet!"

The horsemen didn't know why, and when they saw this, they just patted their horses and pressed their heads to let them drink as soon as possible.

The whole team of pack horses and war horses is enough to have one or two thousand, before because it is far away from the water source, drinking water is not enough, and priority must be given to meeting the war horses, many pack horses are dehydrated and weak to varying degrees, and today they live by the river, naturally to replenish water.

But soon the grooms also found out that something was wrong, if one or two horses were like this, but hundreds of horses neighed when they were drenched in water, and they refused to drink all the time, which was naturally strange.

Someone tried to take a handful of water to his mouth and lick it with his tongue, and was immediately beaten by the bitter salt, and then shouted in a sad and shocked tone: "The Tang people poisoned the water!" ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone around them was shocked, some people were so frightened that they retreated again and again, while others looked at the river that was gentle but wide, and subconsciously didn't believe it. With such a wide river, how much poison does the Tang people have to put to maintain the medicinal properties that poison people?

But whether they believe it or not, when they each tried, their expressions changed one by one, and they immediately became panicked, and soon a saying spread that the Tang people had placed a forbidden spell on the entire river and wanted to poison them here!

On the slope, when he licked some river water silently, his face became extremely ugly, and he hurriedly asked: "How is the water quality when digging a well near the river?" ”

"It's all salty and bitter."

The subordinate replied with a bitter face, and said with the same apprehension: "Everyone said that yes, it was because our subordinates had the audacity to offend the Tang Kingdom, so there was this kind of ......."

"Nonsense! Isn't it because God blesses the Khanate and the Tang State is not benevolent and righteous that the woman took the national industry! ”

Although there was no lack of suspicion in Mo Si's heart, he still subconsciously reprimanded after hearing the words, and at the same time shouted: "Continue to explore the water source in the surrounding area, the big river flows, how can there be no water available!" ”

"Actually, some of these rivers in Gyeongju come from near the salt pond, so it is inevitable that the river water is salty and bitter...... But、But the servant really doesn't know that Ma Lingchuan is actually like this......"

Seeing that Khan's face was gloomy, Ye Gong hurriedly explained.

After hearing this, he waved his hand and said, "It's not your fault, it's difficult for the Tang people themselves to know their mountains and rivers completely. ”

Of course, it does not include those Don troops who are ambushed in the shadows. Mo Si also quickly realized this problem, and hurriedly said: "Although we will form a team to fetch water, turn back along the road we came, and go to the river that passed last night, we must bring back the water before sunset!" ”

The enemy in the field is unknown, so this time the water collection team was more than doubled, and nearly 3,000 people and more than 200 carts set off at the same time. And when the water team set out, the Turkic soldiers who stayed here were not enough to divide the troops into two places, especially in the camp being built under the slope ridge, because of the bitter water problem, so Mo Si could only temporarily retreat to the river bay to guard, waiting for the water team to return.

However, not long after Mo Si retreated to the river bay, a group of Tang army cavalry soon rushed up the slope ridge, directly swept away the Turkic troops who remained on the slope to guard the Khan's tent, and swooped down all the way, crisscrossing the river bay.

"Shan Yu Fufu fugitive slave silently, this is the place where you died!"

Li Ge and the others held back in the valley near the left for a long time, and finally waited until Mo Si divided his troops to fetch water and the camp defense was weak, so they naturally wanted to rush out to show off their might and avenge the revenge that had just been polluted by the noise of the Turkic army.

"The wolf rode out of the camp and attacked and killed these Tang people!"

Mo Si was very annoyed when he heard this, and saw that the enemy who came to attack was only a few hundred, so he ordered the wolf to ride out. So soon, hundreds of wolf cavalry elites rushed out of the camp and went straight to kill the Tang troops who were shouting around the camp.

However, before they made contact with each other, Li Ge and the other Tang troops had already stepped on the crossbow machine, shot head-on, and directly shot dozens of wolf riders who rushed to the front, and then turned around and flew back.

At the same time, Mo Si was keenly aware of the birds flying in the sky and the smoke and dust flying in the other direction, as if an ambush was rapidly approaching. This is also due to the loss of his vision after retreating down the slope ridge, if he is still on the slope, he will see that there are also only a few hundred Tang troops, running back and forth with horses dragging tree trunks and miscellaneous branches, and constantly releasing the birds contained in the bird cage into the sky.

"Don't chase the enemy far away, go back to defense, back to defense!"

Mo Si suspected that an ambush was coming, and he was afraid that the battalion's air defense was weak, so he hurriedly let his troops blow the horn and summon the attacking wolf horsemen back.

The wolf rider had no choice but to retreat, and Li Ge and the others also turned back, following the wolf rider to shoot with a bow or crossbow, and between the round-trips, seventy or eighty wolf knights were killed on the way.

What's more, after realizing that the layout of the valley had been so frightened that they didn't dare to continue to send troops to attack, Li Ge and the others simply divided their troops and dismounted, and stripped off the armor of those wolf riders and corpses in front of the Turkic camp and cut off the scalp with braids on the back of the skull, all money!