Zada Yuanxian retreated to Xiangguo with the remaining more than 3,000 thousand feather troops, and ordered the situation of the battle with the Wu army to be reported to the emperor of Herencheng, Pajaqili.

In Zada Yuanxian's view, this was undoubtedly a defeat, the Thousand Feather Army lost more than 1,800 people, and the right capital Weihu was killed in battle. Although it completely annihilated tens of thousands of former troops of the Wu army, the Qianyu Army was an elite selected one in a thousand miles, wearing iron armor and holding a sharp blade, which was far from being comparable to the Wu army.

And it was a well-designed ambush battle, but instead of killing the chief general of the Wu army with one blow, he was killed by the Wu army, and even Zada Yuanxian himself almost died under the suicide attack of the Wu army.

After the report of the battle reached the city of Herein, Pajaqili was very happy and passed it on to the ministers of civil and military affairs, except for Hu Gao, who sighed again and again, and the rest of them celebrated with each other.

"Your Majesty, our army has won more with less, and this great victory should quickly reward the meritorious soldiers and compensate the families of the fallen soldiers!"

"This time, I was ashamed and avenged General Ju Wuzhi!"

"Our army is still very strong, the loss is only a thousand, but the killing of tens of thousands of enemy troops is amazing"

"It seems that we will cross the Yellow River and march into the south of the Yangtze River just around the corner!"

The situation in the court was very good, only Hu Gao couldn't help it, and put his cane on the ground a few times: "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that now is not the time for us to celebrate." Our Thousand Feather Army was built by spending a lot of money on training, but the Wu Army was a rabble that was temporarily recruited. If we continue to fight like this, we will be exhausted by fighting a few more times, while the enemy army will still be able to collect hundreds of thousands. ”

Pajaqili was suddenly awakened by these words, and hurriedly stood up from the throne: "Be quiet, listen to what the captain has to say!" ”

Everyone hurriedly recovered from the excitement and reluctantly came to listen to Hu Gao's ramblings

Hu Gao shook his head: "Do any of you know how many people we have in our Yu country?" ”

Everyone looked at each other and couldn't answer, but Old Master Lu said unhurriedly: "The whole world is not the king's land, Your Majesty's territory and people are endless, where is the certainty?" ”

Hu Gao didn't pay any attention to his flattery: "The population of my Dayu country is six million people, of which there are three million people from the Central Plains, we have two million people, and the rest of the tribes together have one million people!" Among our two million people, we barely gathered 5,000 elites, and the remaining so-called 100,000 troops are basically one family. There are 40 million people in the Central Plains who are not in our country, everyone, this is 20 times our number, even if they are ten people in exchange for our lives, we fight all the time, they still have 20 million people! ”

"Taiwei is too ambitious for others, and he will destroy his own prestige!"

"Hehe, the people who died in the battle a few months ago are incurable, and the tigers who died in the battle this time will be powerful, which one is not better than you to fight? None of them took advantage of the battlefield, so what are your chances of winning? Hu Gao's rebuttal was so direct that Pajaqili was red-faced

Seeing that the court was about to quarrel again, Pajaqili waved his hand: "Don't fight about who is right and who is wrong, the key question now is how we should act next!" ”

Suddenly there was silence again, Pajaqili had a headache, the debates and quarrels were very strong, and when it came time to deal with specific issues, they were helpless.

Hu Gao wanted to speak and stopped, but Pajaqili looked at him but still turned his head to look at Wang Huizhi, Wang Huizhi straightened his sleeves: "Your Majesty, what the Tai Lieutenant said earlier is very right, our Thousand Feather Army can't be taken out to fight anymore." Now that our treasury is full, we might as well spend money to hire soldiers and horses from tribes such as the Ghost Country to fight. Whoever wins and who loses, it's a good thing for us

！ ”

"It's a good idea, to pay people from other countries to fight and save the lives of our own people!"

"So that no one will object to any more tax increases! What a clever plan! ”

"My Thousand Feather Army can also rest and recuperate, and reorganize their armaments for battle!"

The court was full of voices of approval, only Hu Gao was silent.

Pajaqili knew that Hu Gao would object, so he simply didn't ask Hu Gao, and spoke directly: "The idea is a good idea, but who to send to borrow troops?" Whether this ghost country and those tribes are willing to borrow it or not, you still need your help! ”

Everyone in the palace looked at each other, and they didn't want to take this errand, after all, they were not sure.

Hu Gao stood up: "The minister is willing to send an envoy to the Ghost Country to facilitate this matter!" ”

Pajachili almost ran off the throne, which was too unexpected for him

Pajaqili's hands couldn't stop shaking: "Tai Wei, what Tai Wei said is true?" At the critical moment, the captain is willing to take on the heavy responsibility! ”

Hu Gao said lightly: "The minister is going, one is to borrow troops, and the other is to explore the reality of the countries in the far north, and only by knowing ourselves and knowing the other can we avoid failure, and now we don't even know the reality of the ghost countries, and rashly borrowing troops, in case it is to welcome the tiger and drive the wolf, won't it cause a catastrophe in the future?" ”

This undoubtedly poured cold water on Pajaqili and the others, and Pajaqili hesitated again

At this time, Old Master Lu spoke: "It's okay, our Qianyu army is recuperating, and the hired army will all go to Liyang along the seaside counties and counties, so as not to let them spy on our reality." And if we take precautions, won't we be able to take precautions? ”

When these words came out, there were many people in favor of it, and Pajaqili was also full of confidence: "Okay, so good, then there will be Captain Lao and General Zada Yuanxian to go to the Wandering Ghost Country together!" ”

Hu Gao and Zada Yuanxian took the order together, and took fifty carts of gold and silver cloth and silk all the way to the north.

After walking for more than a month, Zada Yuanxian felt that the time to sleep at night was getting shorter and shorter, but the days were getting longer and longer, and he was listless every day.

Hu Gao ordered the team to travel for a maximum of five hours during the day, and the rest of the time they had to sleep.

Zada Yuanxian asked Hu Gao: "Old man, what's going on?" Can we find this ghost country? I feel like we're no longer here."

"Ancient books say that this ghost country is in the far north, and there are candle dragons engulfing the night, illuminating thousands of miles. As long as we walk to a place infested with white bears, we will almost reach the country of wandering ghosts! ”

As he spoke, a large, three, small and four white bears appeared in front of him, and Zada Yuanxian and everyone became nervous, drawing his sword and opening his bow

Hu Gao waved his hand: "Don't do it, they won't hurt people easily, let them pass!" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, five men with hair and bare feet rushed over to chase the four bears

The big white bear turned around to protect the three little white bears, but was stabbed in the body by five people and let out a scream.

Hu Gao wanted to stop the five people from harming the little white bear, but three of them had already picked up a little white bear and threw it heavily on the rocks beside him.

Hu Gao sighed: "It's too cruel! So slash and kill! It's not good! ”

The five people in front laughed wildly, and Zada Yuanxian waved his hand: "Is this the boundary of the Wandering Ghost Country?" ”

The five of them didn't understand, but fortunately, there were veterans in the convoy who came here to collect fur medicinal materials, so they shouted in the language of the Wandering Ghost Country.

This place has indeed reached the boundary of the Wandering Ghost Country, and Hu Gao and his party followed the five people back to the camp of the Wandering Ghost Country.

In the camp

It was full of low wooden houses and cellars, and most of the people of this ghost country wore fur with their arms and legs exposed, and were not afraid of ice and snow, and their ears and noses were pierced with earrings and nose rings.

Not long after, Hu Gao and others met the lord of the Wandering Ghost Country, but the language was not understood, so they asked the veterans in the team to translate on their behalf.

After three days of difficult conversations, the lord of the Wandering Ghost Country finally knew the purpose of Hu Gao and his party coming with gold and silver cloth.

However, the lord of the Wandering Ghost Country refused, and only accepted the cloth, but returned the gold and silver, because the cloth was too little.

Hu Gao and others couldn't cry or laugh, according to common sense, they should think that gold and silver were not enough, but the lord of this ghost country only needed cloth.

Hu Gao listened to the veteran talk about the winter in the country of wandering ghosts, and he knew the reason.

In the winter of this ghost country, the people of the ghost country spend most of their time in wooden houses and cellars to keep out the cold, but they lack clothes, adults can still endure it, but most babies will freeze to death.

After knowing the reason, Hu Gao asked the veteran to tell the lord of the Wandering Ghost Country that as long as he followed them south, the cloth would be sent over immediately, and everyone in the Wandering Ghost Country would have five copies.

The lord of the Wandering Ghost Country looked at the twenty carts of cloth that had been left, and then ordered five thousand strong men to follow Hu Gao away.

Hu Gao asked Zada Yuanxian to take half of the people to rush back to report the news, and asked Pajaqili to send people to meet the ** team of wandering ghosts in Fanyang, and he took them all the way to the mountain road and slowly walked south.

By the time Hu Gao arrived in Fanyang with 5,000 men and horses from the Ghost Country, Pajaqili had already sent Lu Xuan, the general of Pingnan, to wait outside the city with 10,000 horses.

Lu Xuan is the nephew of Old Master Lu, and this time he was sent to lead 10,000 horses to follow the ** team of wandering ghosts.

But the moment they saw the ** team of the ghosts, these 10,000 soldiers were shocked.

The army of the Wandering Ghost Kingdom wore masks made of animal skeletons, held large sticks with bone spurs inserted inverted into their hands, and the war horses they rode were covered with tiger skin and bear skins, so that the war horses of the Yu Kingdom were all restless.

Lu Xuan was nervous and speechless, the lord of the Wandering Ghost Country was about to enter the city, Lu Xuan didn't know how to deal with it, Hu Gao blocked in front of the lord of the Wandering Ghost Country and asked the veteran to tell him that the city could not enter casually, and that food and cloth could be provided at any time.

The lord of the Wandering Ghost Country deliberately waved the big stick in his hand and shook it in front of Hu Gao, but Hu Gao did not blink, but stared at him deadly.

After settling down the ** team of rogue ghosts, Hu Gao explained the marching route to Lu Xuan.

Lu Xuan stammered and said: "Tai Lieutenant, Tai Tai, Tai Lieutenant, I'm afraid of these savages, let's still, don't march with them, for the sake of it!" ”

"It's better to have someone to follow than to let them go in our Yu country, don't worry, I will ask the emperor to send more troops and horses to support you when I go back. These people are not good people, and you have to march along the seashore to Liyang, and you can't let them find out our various passes and official roads. ”

"Captain, I, I'm afraid I'm not up to the task!"

"Don't worry, they won't offend our army, I will send the most elite fifty thousand feather troops to protect you, now the change of generals in the battle will make people suspicious, and it will also shake the morale of the army! After the army of the Wandering Ghost Kingdom crosses the river, burn the boats and defend them! ”

Lu Xuan saw that he couldn't resign, so he had to follow Hu Gao's arrangement, secretly screamed bitterly, and led the ghost ** team south to attack Liyang.

Lu Xuan led the army of the Wandering Ghost Country all the way along the seaside, and the villages he passed along the way were all looted by the army of the Wandering Ghost Country without exception, but Lu Xuan did not dare to stop him.