The barracks of the Western Expeditionary Army is located outside the city, which is a temporary training camp of the Hexi Army, with more than 100 large tents, surrounded by barracks, and two soldiers sentry back and forth in front of the camp gate.

In addition to Guo Chongqing and Li Ji, there are three brigade commanders, Liang Wu, Zhang Jiang, Wu Wanning, and a special sergeant, he is Yang Xiaoyan, the scout team of the Qiuzi Tang Army who came to Chang'an from Anxi to deliver the letter.

Guo Song spread out a map and said to everyone: "Now the situation in Anxi, Beiting and the Hexi Corridor is very complicated, the reason why the Shatuo people withdrew from Ganzhou, there is another important reason is that the Qarlu people, their power has extended into the Beiting, and we go further east is the old nest of the Shatuo people, Yiwu, we can no longer look at the Shatuo people with old eyes, always think that it is a puppet of the Hui people, in fact, they have become their own forces, at the beginning of the year they and the Hui alliance is no longer a father-son alliance, but a brotherly alliance, This is the sign that the Shatuo people have begun to become independent.

In addition to the Shatuo people, the Qarlu people, the Hui people, the Tubo people, and the Tuyuhun people, there are also the armies of various Tu kings, such as the King of Gaochang, the King of Qiuzi, the King of Khotan, the King of Shule, etc., as well as the raging horse bandits. ”

Next to Yang Xiaoyan said: "Guo Changshi is completely right, although our Anxi Tang army has not been annihilated, but its power has been greatly reduced, and it can only defend a few cities alone, and it is shared with the local kings, such as the king of Qiuzi, the king of Shule, and the king of Khotan, they are afraid of being annexed by the Tubo country, so they have formed an alliance with us to resist the invasion of Tubo, in fact, there is another important reason, that is, the main army of Tubo fought west of the Green Mountains and Huifu, so that we can hold on to this day." ”

Guo Song nodded, and continued to say to everyone: "There are two ways to go from Ganzhou to the west, one is to go to Dunhuang, from Dunhuang to the west and end the crossbow branch city, and then from the crossbow branch city north to Qiuzi, the other road is to go to Yiwu, you can go to Beiting first, but you will definitely pass through the nest of the Shatuo people, everyone talk about it!" ”

Li Ji groaned and said: "If we are far away, we are afraid that we will be surrounded by heavy troops, and we will not be able to complete our mission." ”

"What about Changshi's opinion?" Guo Chongqing asked.

Guo Song said lightly: "My thoughts are similar to Li Duwei, although the Dunhuang line is relatively far away, and it is possible to encounter a small group of Tuyuhun people, but it is unlikely to be surrounded by heavy troops, in the final analysis, we are not here to fight in Anxi, I hope you can understand this!" ”

.......

"It's also not safe to go north from Ganzhou, it's easy for you to encounter Shatuo when you go north during the day, but it's easy to encounter horse bandits when you go north at night, so it's up to you to choose."

Zhao Tengjiao told them all the way to send them out of twenty miles, and when they arrived in Yinmu Town, Zhao Tengjiao hugged his fists and said: "I won't send you, take care all the way!" ”

"Zhao Dudu, take care!"

Guo Song hugged his fists and saluted, led the army out of Yinmu Town, and went all the way to the west.......

The five states of the Hexi Corridor, except for Liangzhou and Ganzhou in the hands of the Tang Army, the remaining three states Suzhou, Guazhou and Shazhou were occupied by the Shatuo Army, since Zhu Xie Weiming was shot, the main force of the Shatuo Army has withdrawn from the Hexi Corridor, and the three states currently have only 8,000 garrisons, but there are still more than 1,000 horse bandits, divided into three units, wreaking havoc on the Hexi Corridor.

The expeditionary force marched day and night, and at two o'clock that night, the team arrived at the East Yumen Pass, there are two Yumen Passes, one east and one west, the famous Yumen Pass in history is the West Yumen Pass, located in Guazhou.

The East Yumen Pass that Guo Song and they arrived at is located in Suzhou, it is actually the Yumen Gate of the Tang Army in Suzhou to guard the city, because the appearance is also a pass, everyone habitually calls it the East Yumen Pass.

The Yumen guarding and capturing the city was also valued by the Tang Dynasty, and it has been stationed here with heavy troops, but the Shatuo people abandoned it, and they were not interested in the defensive nature of the city.

I don't know why, Guo Song always had a feeling of unease, he walked more than 700 miles from Zhangye, and he didn't meet a single Shatuo person or horse bandit, maybe because in winter, the Hexi Corridor was also a snowy world, but there was no heavy snow to close the road.

At this time, Li Ji, who went to check the East Yumen Pass, walked up quickly and said in a deep voice: "Something is wrong!" ”

"What's wrong?"

"The wells in the castle have been sealed, which is unconscionable."

As soon as Li Ji's words fell, Guo Song saw four rockets rising from four directions at the same time, and he sneered and said, "You're right, someone has already set up a big banquet to entertain us!" ”

........

As Zhao Tengjiao reminded, the Hexi Corridor is the sphere of influence of the Shatuo people during the day, but it is the world of horse bandits at night.

There are three horse bandits in the Hexi Corridor, with a total of more than 1,000 people, known as the 'Hexi Wild Wolves'.

The composition of the horse bandits is very complicated, there are Shatuo people, Qiang people, Tuyuhun people, and Han people from Longyou, but their leaders are all Shatuo generals, with the support of the Shatuo army, they have ravaged the Hexi Corridor for more than ten years, it can be said that they are actually a ragtag army under the Shatuo army.

Guo Song's team was targeted by the horse bandits from Zhangye, and the horse bandits took a fancy to the weapons, horses, supplies and heads of the Western Expeditionary Army, and the heads of these Tang soldiers were handed over to the Shatuo Army, and each head could be rewarded with ten sheep, and three hundred people were three thousand sheep, so how could they be willing to let them go?

The horse bandits waited until the Dongyumen Pass to start attacking the Tang army, they knew the Tang army very well, with the pass, the Tang army would rely on the pass, and would not think of breaking through to the south, it was like a flock of sheep being locked in a sheepfold.

In the darkness, countless black-clothed horse bandits appeared from all directions, and the three leaders gathered together, these three horse bandit leaders were actually three half-brothers, called Mo Yi, Changyu and Heiguang, they did not have a surname, so they took the Jinshan Department of the tribe as their surname, the three brothers had been in the Shatuo Army, and the boss Mo Yi was also a thousand-commander.

These three horse bandits appeared in the Hexi Corridor, which was synchronized with the Shatuo people's rule in the Hexi Corridor, and they and the Shatuo army were both positive and negative, and many things that the Shatuo army did not come forward to deal with were handed over to the horse bandits.

"Big brother, the three hundred Tang troops have entered Guancheng, are we going to attack or trap them?" The third Jinshan Heiguang asked.

"Try to attack from three directions first, and if you can't attack before dawn, then trap them!"

"Obey!"

The second eldest Changyu and the third eldest black light ran towards their respective teams, waiting for the signal to attack.

The three hundred Tang troops have quickly withdrawn into the Yumen Pass, the Yumen Pass is actually a closed city, which can accommodate five hundred soldiers, surrounded by a two-zhang high wall, the city head is about one zhang wide, there are corner towers and arrow towers, but the city gate is a little dilapidated and decayed, and can not withstand the blow of hitting the wood.

There were originally three wells in Yumen Pass, but now all three wells have been filled with mud and stones, and unless the wells are dug again, the Tang army will not survive for three days.

Three hundred Tang troops have gone to the city one after another, with bows and arrows, ready for battle.

Li Ji stared at the dark snow in the distance from afar, and he said to Guo Song: "Changshi, we can't stay in Yumen Pass, we must evacuate immediately." ”

"Name your reasons!"

"If the horse bandits can't capture Guancheng, after dawn tomorrow, the Shatuo army is likely to kill, once we are surrounded, even if we break out, more than half of the casualties will be killed, while there is cover at night now, the enemy army has not been fully arranged, we will evacuate immediately, we can't rely on Guancheng."

Next to him, Guo Chongqing also said: "I agree with Captain Li's opinion, although our supply can last for half a month, but the water can only last for three days at most, and the sooner we evacuate, the smaller our casualties." ”

Guo Song nodded, "Then pass my order, throw away the supplies, and break through to the north lightly!" ”

The soldiers of the Tang Army moved extremely quickly, they unloaded all the food supplies and water on the prepared horses, and only brought dry food for two days, and turned over one after another.

At this moment, a rocket was fired from the southeast, which was a signal for the enemy's attack.

Guo Song immediately ordered: "Get out of the city!" ”

The gate of the city has been opened, three hundred cavalry riding two horses, rushing to the northwest outside the city, due north just to kill more than 300 horse bandits, they are the army of the old three Jinshan Heiguang, ready to attack the city, but did not expect to collide with the Tang army head-on.

The Tang army seized the opportunity to be prepared against unprepared.

"Shoot!"

Guo Song gave an order, and the Tang army opened their bows and released arrows one after another, and three hundred arrows shot strongly at the other party.

The other party also discovered the enemy's situation, quickly took the bow and drew the arrow, but still a step slower than the Tang army, under the intensive arrow shooting, the horse bandits were shot by arrows and fell off the horse, Guo Song's sharp arrows were even more accurate and powerful, an arrow pierced the helmet of Jinshan Heiguang, Jinshan Heiguang fell from the horse and died.

In a fierce arrow attack, the horse bandits suffered more than 100 casualties, and even the leader died under the arrows, and the rest of the horse bandits were frightened, turned their horses' heads and fled to the northeast.

The Tang army did not pursue, Li Ji ordered the soldiers to pull dozens of horses and continued to gallop westward, and soon disappeared into the vast night......

In just a moment, Jinshan Mo Yi led a large group of cavalry to kill like a whirlwind, he saw corpses all over the ground, and many seriously wounded soldiers lying on the ground groaning in pain, and also saw the body of his third brother, lying face down on the sand, and an arrow shot through his head.

Jinshan Mo Yi shouted angrily, "Chase me!" ”

Nearly 1,000 horse bandits chased towards the west at a gallop.