Yaji cried: "It's not that the villain doesn't draw, it's really that the villain can't draw, we Turks have always relied on memorizing the terrain, and the villain in that place knows it at a glance, but he can't draw it!" ”

"What?!" Su Dingfang was furious, and kicked his foot: "That's not what you said just now!" ”

Yaji hugged his head and wailed: "Don't worry, Master Hou, the villain will be able to find it when he arrives, and he will definitely be able to find ......."

Su Dingfang beat him again, Yaji still didn't draw the picture, Li Mu stopped Su Dingfang from continuing to commit violence, he was beaten into a pig's head, and he couldn't draw it, maybe this guy was illiterate.

asked someone to take the pig's head and Yaji down, and Li Mu and Su Dingfang discussed.

Su Dingfang said: "Master Hou, there is no exact location of the oasis now, only an approximate range. He frowned slightly and continued: "Our army must go deep into the desert for at least more than 100 miles, and if we don't send someone to verify it, the last general will not approve of rashly sending troops." ”

"There's no need to worry," Li Mu shook his head slightly, "The scouts I sent are all Jinyi Guards, they are strong in martial arts, and they are better at concealing their figures, and if they go deep into the desert, they will not alarm the enemy." ”

"That's great!" Su Dingfang was overjoyed when he heard this, he knew that there were several powerful characters around Li Mu. Guarding Li Muzhou openly and secretly, these people never talk to them, and they don't communicate with each other, just like shadows. But their skills are beyond the reach of the dust. They never left Li Mu's side, but they didn't expect Li Mu to send them out.

"If these people go out, they will be able to lock the exact location of the oasis and hit it with one hit!"

Now that we have a plan, we have begun to implement it.

Li Mu sent secret guards and took Yaji deep into the desert to investigate, while the army camped on the edge of the grassland to rest. After continuous and high-intensity conquests, both men and horses are tired, and they must rest and adjust. What's more, the army is short of food and grass and urgently needs to be replenished. It was necessary to stop and wait for the baggage troops to bring up the rations.

……

At this time, in Dingxiang City, a cart of grain and grass is being loaded, this is the second batch of grain and grass requested by Li Mu, the first batch has arrived in Qiuzi for a long time, and it is being transported to the edge of the desert where Li Mu is located, this is the second batch, it is worried that Li Mu will not be able to prepare enough.

Because of the bumper harvest of potatoes, the grain and grass in Dingxiang City, not to mention some of them, are enough to eat for at least a year and a half. Li Siwen is Li Mu's brother, he supervised the transportation of grain and grass, he must be doing his best, the first batch of grain and grass transported, theoretically enough, but he had to transport another batch, and said that even if the former army can't eat it, it can also be eaten by the people of Qiuzi, of course, if it is really eaten by the people of Qiuzi, Moham will definitely have to pay.

Until the third pole of the sun, all the grain and grass were ready, and the person responsible for escorting the grain and grass was about 3,000 soldiers to escort a thousand carts of grain and grass to set off.

Although there are not many people of 3,000 people, according to the news from the front, the Turks have been wiped out, and the remnants have also taken refuge in the desert. As for those scattered small tribes, it would be good if the Tang Army didn't mess with them, where would they dare to seek their own death.

Although there was no danger on the grassland, the officers and soldiers who escorted the grain and grass were still very cautious in inspecting the chariots, horses and weapons, and the victory of the army was imminent, and no one wanted chaos at this time. Before leaving the city, the commander of the team leader instructed his subordinates to strictly follow the regulations, scouts first, and the army behind, marching fifty miles a day, stopping the advance before dark, surrounding the grain wagons into a car formation, and the army was on duty in shifts at night.

In this way, it will be implemented according to the plan, and nothing will be delayed, and you can arrive at Qiuci two days in advance to complete the grain and grass escort.

With a creak, the gate opened, and the escort team slowly drove out of the city gate.

Dingxiang City, which had been busy all morning, finally stopped, Li Siwen stood at the head of the city, watching the team escorting grain and grass disappear on the horizon in the north, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief, except for the soldiers on duty, the rest of the people were ready to go back to sleep.

Suddenly, someone exclaimed, pointing in the direction where the army had disappeared and screaming, "Look! There is a case! ”

Everyone at the head of the city raised their heads one after another, and looked in the direction that the man pointed, only to see that at this time, a long line of black pressure appeared on the horizon in the northeast, and in the midst of the smoke and dust, it was actually a large group of cavalry galloping towards Dingxiang City......

The urgent alarm bell sounded at the head of Dingxiang City!

Three days later, the city of Qiuzi.

According to the agreement, today is the day when the second batch of grain and grass supplies arrives. However, Usman, who was preparing to respond in front of the battalion, waited left and right, but there was no sign of the baggage soldiers. Just in case, he was planning to send scouts out.

But the alarm bell sounded from the watchtower, and the sentry shouted, "There are more than 100 horsemen coming from the east!" ”

The officer on duty hurriedly climbed the watchtower, looked at it with the telescope left by Li Mu, and first breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Look at the costume, it should be your own person." Send someone to answer the ......" and then as if he thought of something, his expression became frightened, and he hurried to find Usman to report!

When they got to the camp gate, the quartermaster recognized that they were clearly the troops responsible for escorting grain and grass!

The non-commissioned officers of the garrison apparently recognized these men as well, and they began to talk nervously. At this time, a baggage officer led by him turned over and dismounted, staggered and shouted: "I have an emergency military situation!" "After all, the man has fainted!

Finally rescued the person to wake up, Wu Si was full of coldness, and listened to the heavy officer crying: "Two days ago, we just went north with grain and grass, and we were surrounded by tens of thousands of cavalry!" Without saying a word, they began to attack the convoy, although we fought to the death, but the enemy army was too strong to fight hard, not only the grain and grass were taken by the enemy, but most of the brothers were killed on the spot......" Speaking of this, the officer couldn't hold back any longer, and burst into tears, crying and sobbing: "The hateful robe of Dingxiang is not rescued even if it is so close, what is wrong with them, how can they bear to watch us being killed!" ”

In the officer's cry, the atmosphere in the big tent froze to the extreme, and everyone looked sad and indignant to the extreme, fighting against the Western Turks until now, the number of injured soldiers is not as large as the number of dead in this battle!

"Can you see how many people there are and which tribe? Is it Turkic? Or is it the ninth surname Tieler? Although Usman's eyes were full of anger, he also understood that there must be a demon when things went wrong, so he asked the officer in a deep voice: "Also, what about the situation in Dingxiang City?" ”

"There were at least 30,000 cavalrymen attacking the grain convoy, and there was no banner to see where it was coming from." The officer stopped his tears, paused and said: "Now that I think about it, it may not be that Dingxiang's robe did not save us, maybe it was they who took care of themselves, and it was a large group of men and horses that attacked us, and the real main force went straight to Dingxiang City...... It's not good, there are less than 30,000 people in Dingxiang now, and the prince is still in Dingxiang! The officer became agitated, and cried out to be killed, but Usman restrained him, and asked for some details, and when the officer had said all he knew, he raised a knife and knocked the man unconscious, and let him go down to rest.

There are generals of the Tang Dynasty in the tent, and before Li Mu left, he left 5,000 soldiers and horses for Qiuci, otherwise Usman, the general stationed in Qiuci, would be a bare-bones commander. These officers were all recruited by Li Xiaogong after he came to Dingxiang and recruited the troops trained by the displaced people. They have a very deep affection for Dingxiang, and they are people who completely regard Dingxiang as their home. Seeing that Dingxiang is besieged by a large army, who can still sit still? They all asked for war and wanted to rush to Dingxiang.

When Usman was annoyed, he couldn't help it anymore when he heard the noise of these people, and scolded the generals: "All scare and shout! Do you know how many enemy troops there are, and what are the origins, and they will take revenge with their armies? There are 30,000 people attacking the grain team, this is still a branch, how many people are in the team? Thousands of us have passed, and we are not enough to stuff our teeth! Is it revenge, or is it death?! ”

Although Usman has only only become their leader, this guy has been a bandit before, and his momentum is enough. The generals all obediently shut up and gradually calmed down. This calmness doesn't matter, it's just a lot of scary thought......

30,000 is just a branch, so the main force must have at least ...... 100,000 people? In the vast grassland, where did this force come from?

Soon, they thought of who it was, and Usman said slowly, "It's Xue Yantuo." ”

"There is no one else but them." Everyone echoed: "In the previous two wars, the Turks have already died, and the remaining scattered tribes are all old, weak, sick and disabled, and it is impossible for there to be so many people." Now on the grassland, there can be so many people's forces, only Xue Yantuo in the north, as early as when we learned that the Western Turks were advancing eastward, we found out that the Xue Yantuo tribe had moved, but we didn't expect that they had so many people. ”

The crowd fell silent, and if that were the case, it would be a big trouble. Xue Yantuo, originally one of the Tiele tribes, was formed by the merger of Xue and Yantuo. Originally in the Tula River valley in Mobei, the army belonged to the Turks. They were originally slaves of the Turkic tribes, but after the Turks split into two khanates, the East and the West, attacking each other, Xue Yantuo took the opportunity to move north and escape control. Later, the Eastern Turks were overthrown, and some of the remnants fled to the north and were absorbed by Xue Yantuo, who gradually grew stronger, claiming that the tribe had 300,000 people.

Unexpectedly, it is still said that it is less, seeing that now that an army of 100,000 can be mobilized, its tribe is afraid that there are at least five or six hundred thousand people.

"It is said that Xue Yantuo and the Turks have a feud, and the friction between the two sides is not small, and it is almost like fire and water." A general asked strangely: "How could they risk offending the Tang Dynasty and send a large army to help the Turks?" ”

Contrary to common sense, nomads are not family. This is not difficult to understand, the Han people attacked them, and when they were done, they withdrew, and they did not annex their steppes, nor did they look down on their people. However, the war between the nomadic tribes is aimed at annexing each other's territory and people, and naturally it will not end.

"It depends on whether the benefits are big enough!" Usman has been in the steppe for half his life, and he has a very thorough understanding of the thinking of the steppe tribes: "The tribes on the steppe are all hungry wolves, they don't bite, they don't have a chance, they bite if they have the opportunity!" ”

"Whether it's impossible or not, they're already there." Usman said in a deep voice: "We must immediately decide how to deal with it, and we can't delay for a moment!" ”

The generals nodded one after another, indeed they can't delay for a moment, now Dingxiang is in danger, if Dingxiang is broken, Xue Yantuo will kill directly to Chang'an City, and if Dingxiang resists, the angry Xue Yantuo will definitely turn the spearhead and pounce on the countries of the Western Regions that have just been devastated by the war.

The city wall of Qiuci is dilapidated, there are few intact buildings in the city, just sent away the Turks, and then come to Xue Yantuo, there are only 5,000 defenders, even if there is artillery blessing, it will definitely not be able to withstand it.

"It's really not good, let's go?" One of the generals said tentatively; "Let's also go west, let's go to Hou Ye. Hou Ye must have a way...... The more he talked...... the more he became more and more unconfident, obviously in such a situation, he couldn't think of anything Li Mu could do.

"Nonsense!" Wu Siman glared and said: "We don't know the situation over there, besides, there is only so much grain in the first batch, let's go over again, can we eat it?" Besides, there are so many people here, you send them all to death? ”

"Yes. Aren't we helpless?! "Usually, after being reprimanded, basically no one dares to say anything more. At this time, the general stubbornly said: "Xue Yantuo's people can only be more than the Turks, and they will definitely not be less than the Turks, we don't need to fight any people, they just need to besiege us, and they will starve us to death!" ”

"Look at your cowardice!" Wu Siman spit a mouthful of thick phlegm on the general, and scolded: "When Lao Tzu was defending the city, he never thought about this in your head!" Saying that, his stern gaze swept over the generals, and shouted: "The head has a big scar off the bowl, whoever wants to go will go, anyway, I won't go!" I want to defend Qiuzi City, so that if the battle is unfavorable on the front line, there is still a way to retreat, if Qiuzi City is gone, when Hou Ye retreats from the desert, he will face more than 100,000 Xue Yantuo troops, it will be a dead end. Master Hou treats me well, even if I give him back this life, it will be worth it! ”

Everyone was provoked by him, they were all bloody men, where could they stand it, they all shouted: "Which one is afraid of death?" Defend the city and defend the city, and the big deal is that the jade is burned. We still have gunpowder, and we're going to pull a cushion on our backs when we die! ”

"Yes, and gunpowder!" Wu Siman's eyes lit up and said: "There is also gunpowder in Dingxiang City, and if you have this thing, you may not be able to hold it." Maybe Xue Yantuo suffered heavy casualties and couldn't bear it, so they retreated by themselves. ”

"Yes, the Turks have all retreated, Xue Yantuo has many birds?"

Everyone cheered each other on, as if the people of Xue Yantuo were local chickens and dogs. But in fact, everyone knew in their hearts that even if there was gunpowder, as long as Xue Yantuo was released, the remaining gunpowder would not be enough to repel the enemy. It's a pity that they don't know the formula of gunpowder and can't make gunpowder, otherwise there are enough Huzun cannons, and they are really not afraid of the enemy attacking the city.