The soldiers who were dragged away by the wolf were more auspicious and less auspicious, everyone knew it, but in this way, it would be troublesome, if these people died in battle, their families could still get pensions, but now they were dragged away by the wolf, and according to the law of the Great Liang, they could only report that they were lost.

Wang Xiaoming and Wang Xiaokuang were about to lead people to search for the whereabouts of these soldiers, but the third minister on the left stopped them, "I have entered the wolf's mouth, there is no way to live, and I am also very sad about the death of these brothers." Just report your death in battle and get some for their families! ”

"General Zhengxi, no! This is a false report of war exploits, and it is to be questioned! Gong Cao engaged in Xiao and immediately stepped forward to stop it

"Ask me about sin! False reporting of war exploits? You said? These brothers fought bravely to kill the enemy and died tragically, why did it become a false report to you? ”

"General Zhengxi, forgive me for not obeying my orders! The court has its own laws! ”

Zuo Sanxiang smiled slightly, "Very good, okay, tonight Xiao Gongcao will lead people to resist the wolves, presumably if Xiao Gongcao comes out, the wolves will be afraid of the imperial court law and retreat on their own!" ”

Xiao Sui's face changed greatly, "General Zhengxi, you are using your power to oppress people, and you have a personal vendetta!" ”

"Lao Tzu is the general of Zhengxi, and Lao Tzu has the final say here! Tonight, you will lead people to patrol the battalions, and your commanders will probably have no opinions! ”

"General Zhengxi is wise!"

"I have no opinion, I want to see Xiao Gong and Cao Yong retreat from the wolves!"

Xiao Sui pointed to everyone, and his face turned white, "Okay, okay, I admit it, okay, General Zhengxi can report it as he wants!" ”

"Well, yes, Nian is Xiao Gongcao is weak and sick, so I don't want him to lead the team to patrol!"

Everyone laughed, and Xiao left with hatred.

Zuo Sanxiang snapped his fingers and ordered his subordinates to keep an eye on this Xiao Sui, "Go and protect Xiao Gongcao, so as not to be taken away by wolves at night!" ”

The wolves really came again, and it lasted for several days, and as Zuo Sanxiang said, the wolves fought to the last one.

The threat of wolves had just been lifted, and the Loulan people and some Di people followed.

However, people are always afraid of death, and the sneak attack failed to succeed, so the Loulan people and the Di people ran away.

Over the next month, the sneak attack of the Loulan and Di people, as well as some of the Fire Dragons, killed nearly 100 Liang soldiers.

There is only one advantage to being attacked every day, that is, no matter how good the oasis and stone fort are, they will not stay one more day, so they will rush to Gaochang five days earlier than planned.

No one mentioned the matter of the walled city before, and it was necessary to march during the day and guard against the sneak attack of wolves and enemies at night, and there may be no time to think about other things.

Seven days before the grain was cut off, Zuo Sanxiang sent 50 people to Gaochang to report to the Changping Protectorate, asking the Changping Protectorate to send someone to bring grain and grass to respond.

Count the days, and it should be the second day of the eighth month.

The lack of food would have made people panic, because the various bones and dried wild vegetables prepared by Liu Jingchuan, plus it was only a hundred miles away from Gaochang, and it would be possible to arrive in four or five days at most, so everyone was not afraid.

From the day of the food shortage, the sneak attacks of the Loulan people, Di people, and fire dragon people all disappeared.

Everyone was happy that they could finally rest, but Zuo Sanxiang frowned after asking Ju Yongwen a few questions.

Ju Yongwen told Zuo Sanxiang that now the place of the army is called Zhejian Slope, and the road ahead will not be as flat as it is now, with many deep valleys and ditches crisscrossing it.

It will take at least ten days to walk from Zhejian Slope to Gaochang, and Ju Yongwen also reminded Zuo Sanxiang

, be sure to divide the troops over the mountain to ensure that no one is ambushed in front.

Along the way, Ju Yongwen never asked about military affairs, and Zuo Sanxiang immediately became alert.

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, as far as I know, you are brilliant in literature and have quite attainments in calligraphy, painting, piano and chess in the Central Plains, why are you suddenly interested in military affairs today?"

Ju Yongwen smiled bitterly, "I just want to return to Gaochang alive, and you know, without your protection, even if I return to Gaochang, I can't be the king of Gaochang!" And in the eyes of Gaochang people, we are just the lackeys of Daliang, which you and I know very well! ”

"His Royal Highness the Prince is a cheerful person, rest assured, we will definitely respect you as a prince, and you will be King Gaochang in a few days!" Zuo will not treat you as a puppet, Zuo will treat you as a friend! ”

"Friends?" Ju Yongwen's face was full of doubts, he had never had friends in Luoyang for several years

"Yes, I am glad to have you today, otherwise I would have lost badly! I always thought that out of Yumen Pass, there was an endless desert and wasteland, but today I realized that there is such a dangerous terrain here. ”

"General Zhengxi, there are still peaks that are difficult to climb to the west of Gaochang, but for now, we still have to find a way to rush to Gaochang as soon as possible to repair!"

Zuo Sanxiang suddenly thought of one thing, "Prince, is everyone thinking so, rush to Gaochang early!" ”

Ju Yongwen was surprised: "Isn't General Zhengxi thinking like this?" Arrive early and be safe! ”

Zuo Sanxiang nodded, "I understand, when we arrive at this Arrow Slope, they will no longer attack us, just to paralyze us, let our army only care about the march and neglect our precautions, and then take us by surprise in the most dangerous place, or somewhere closest to Gaochang!" Okay, I'm going to have to fall into this trap! ”

Ju Yongwen's face changed slightly, "General Zhengxi, do you mean that those Loulan people and Di people are going to ambush us on the road we must pass?" ”

"Exactly, I want to raise the account, and His Royal Highness the Prince must also participate!"

"I'm afraid I'm embarrassed."

"No, you're the only one here who has walked this road, and we can't handle it without you!"

After the account was raised, the commanders were all happy, and only Liu Jingchuan, the grain and grass official, had a sad face.

"General Zhengxi, is it almost time to Gaochang, you are here to give you a lecture today?" Wang Xiaoming asked first

Zuo Sanxiang shook his head, "No, we will have at least seven more days, and the road ahead is not easy to walk, and we have to beware of enemy sneak attacks." And as you know, from today we will run out of food! ”

Everyone looked at each other, and Ma Hua patted his chest, "In the past month, when did the enemy who fought with us not leave a pile of corpses and flee in a hurry, even if this kind of enemy has an ambush, what is there to fear?" ”

Zuo Sanxiang glared at him, "Commander Ma, did you pick up the enemy's arrows when you were cleaning the battlefield with your brothers?" ”

Ma Hua touched his head, "I haven't picked it up, it's all made of sharpened wooden sticks, and there are also stone-throwers!" But I didn't pick up any of their arrows, and I didn't have a lot of knives! ”

"Your other battalions may have captured enemy weapons?" The third phase on the left glanced at everyone

"No, I've picked up two scimitars in the past month."

"All our battalion seized were bone spurs wrapped around wooden sticks!"

"Our battalion has picked up a broken knife!"

The replies of the battalions gradually made everyone silent, and the third minister on the left asked Ju Yongwen, "Your Royal Highness, as you know, these Loulan people, Di people, and fire dragon people can't even afford to use knives and arrows now?" ”

Ju Yongwen shook his head, "No, the Loulan people are very good at striking iron, so they will not be reduced to the point that they have no knife to use, and the Di people are good at using their own bones to make arrows, and they are not short of arrows!" ”

"Now you understand? In the past month, the enemy has been paralyzing us, deliberately killing a few people, but in fact they are not even willing to let go of arrows, why? In order to wait for us to shoot all our arrows at our army in some extremely unfavorable place! Still don't you feel afraid? Proud soldiers will be defeated, everyone remember! ”

Zu Nayan looked at Ju Yongwen, "Prince, is there any other way from here to Gaochang, can we take a detour?" ”

Ju Yongwen shook his head, "The detour will take an extra five hundred miles, and it will take over the snowy mountains, with the current grain and grass of our army, I am afraid that they will all die halfway!" ”

Zuo Sanxiang smiled, "It seems that there are high-ranking soldiers in this Loulan people, and it is expected that our army will not be able to go over the snow mountain, and our army can only take the route they designed!" It seems that there is no solution! ”

Zuo Sanxiang could still laugh, everyone else realized the seriousness of the problem at this time, they all came here, it is absolutely impossible to retreat, and it is impossible to detour, the only way out is to break into the enemy's ambush.

Liu Jingchuan rubbed his hands together, "Your Royal Highness, will it suddenly snow in the desert, if the sky changes in the fall, your joints will itch!" ”

Everyone laughed, it's August, how can it snow, not to mention that it's still in this somewhat hot desert.

Ju Yongwen nodded, "It's not impossible to fly snow in August, if it really snows, I'm afraid we don't need the enemy to fight, our army doesn't have winter clothes!" ”

Zuo Sanxiang's face trembled, "Well, by the way, we only talked about our own difficulties, don't Loulan people and Di people need to eat to protect themselves from the cold?" By the way, Prince, do you know if there are caves in those valleys ahead? ”

Ju Yongwen nodded again, "General Zhengxi is powerful, there are many caves on the cliffs on both sides of these valleys, some are connected to hundreds of caves, and some are dead ends,"

"That's right, if they want to ambush us, they must find a good place in advance, and they must also prepare weapons and food, obviously there is no better place than these caves!"

Everyone laughed, "It's still General Zhengxi, so let's take down these caves one by one and run to the caves to find people?" ”

"No, no, no, according to the prince's description, there are at least tens of thousands of caves in this hundred miles, and by the time we find out one by one, we will already starve to death on the road! However, when Zuo was a child, in order to get the badger out of the hole, he set fire to smoke with wet grass, but it worked, hehe, this time, you might as well give it a try! Each battalion sent men and horses to set fire to the caves, and if they encountered an enemy ambush, they formed a shield formation, set fire to smoke with wet cloth masks, and alternately covered the retreat! ”

This arrangement of the third phase of the left, everyone admired, but Ju Yongwen bowed to him, "General Zhengxi, there is something to ask for in the future, this time, please also ask the general's subordinates to be merciful, those who escaped from the cave, let them live!" ”

Zuo Sanxiang wanted to refuse, but hesitated, "Since it is the prince's intercession, then the general will definitely not be killed, as long as they can escape from the hole and no longer attack our army, we will definitely no longer pursue!" ”

Everything was as Zuo Sanxiang expected, the Loulan people and the Di people and the fire dragon people united and hid in the cave, although they were not killed, but Zuo Sanxiang secretly ordered his soldiers to sprinkle wolf dung in the firewood prepared by each battalion, and those who escaped from the cave alive either fell outside or became blind, and most of them died in the cave.