In the eighteenth year of the Great Qian, on June 25, Zhao Junsheng led an army of 8,000 to set out from Heyun and marched northwest along the west bank of the Ganwei River.

After three days of rapid marching, the commander of the scout battalion, Na Yan, reported: "Your Majesty, there is a river in front of you that comes from the east and joins the Ganwei River and extends to the northwest. The minister guessed that because after the news came that we besieged Heyun and slaughtered the Rouran monarch, the Rouran tribe here received the news, so the tribe migrated! ”

Zhao Junsheng asked, "Can you trace the direction of their migration?" ”

"There was a rain a few days ago, and all the traces were washed away, but the minister thought that there was a good chance that those Rouran people would move along the river, after all, neither people nor livestock could not do without water!"

Zhao Junsheng asked the imperial guard to bring the map, he opened the map and looked at it, the map showed that the Ganwei River began to divert from the river cloud and poured into a large lake to the north, and the section in front of the big lake did meet with a river from the east.

"This river called Hungui River originates from the western foot of Yanran Mountain?"

The birthplace of the Ganwei River is in the Tianshan Mountains, the eastern section of Yanran Mountain, and it flows down to the south at the beginning, and then flows to the north when it reaches the downstream, and the whole river is almost a zigzag.

"Let the scout battalion quickly scout along the river and scout around this lake!"

"No!"

At this time, Zhao Junsheng's army was only thirty miles away from the end of the Ganwei River, the Kyrgyz Lake, and an hour later, the army arrived at the mouth of the Kyrgyz Lake.

Zhao Junsheng rode a horse and stood on a hill at the mouth of the river looking into the distance, "Hiss-this lake is not small, you can't see the end at a glance, you can only see the clouds on the horizon!" ”

A young general of the Long Guard Army galloped from the lake to beat his horse and reported: "Your Majesty, this lake is a freshwater lake, and the water is very sweet!" ”

Zhao Junsheng turned his head and instructed Li Bao: "Order the Long Wei Army to be responsible for guarding, so that the soldiers of the other armies can rest on the spot, and they can go to the lake to wash and feed the horses, but if people want to drink water, they must boil it before they can drink it!" ”

"No!"

After the order was given, the soldiers let out bursts of cheers, beat their horses and rushed to the river, and the waterfowl by the river were so frightened that they soared into the sky, and flew into the blue sky in flocks.

Zhao Junsheng also came to the lake to wash his face, led the horse to the lake to drink water, and washed the horse.

The imperial guards stepped forward to take over the fodder and horse fodder for the horses, Zhao Junsheng sat down on a horse tie, took out the map and looked at it, and saw that the map was not marked with the name of this big lake, and beckoned to Li Song, who was walking over, and asked when he came over: "Do you know what this lake is called?" ”

"Your Majesty, the minister is ashamed, the minister doesn't know!" Li Song pleaded guilty with shame.

Zhao Junsheng frowned and said, "This map is too rough to draw, and most of the mountains and rivers are not named!" Come on, go and find the relevant officials in charge of the map! ”

"No!"

It didn't take long for a junior official to walk over and salute: "Little minister Liu Dan to see Your Majesty!" ”

Zhao Junsheng asked, "I ask you, why are most of the mountains, rivers and lakes on this map not labeled?" ”

Liu Dan replied: "Back to Your Majesty, this map was drawn by the previous dynasty, and the person who drew the map didn't know what the name was, so he just drew the terrain and didn't mark the name!" Your Majesty wants to know the names of these mountains and rivers is very simple, just choose your own names, anyway, for us to see, as for the Rouran people to call them by name at all! ”

Zhao Junsheng threw the map in his hand to the ground and said angrily: "Do you know how many things I have to think about all day long? You let me take the name, if I have the time and energy, what else do I need you to do? Come on, drag it down and cut it! ”

A few soldiers dragged Liu Dan, the unlucky ghost, down, and the miserable begging for mercy came to an abrupt end, and the soldiers and generals who were washing and feeding the horses by the lake all looked back, and then continued to do what they should do.

"That Yan!" Zhao Junsheng shouted.

Na Yan stood up and hugged his fists and promised: "The minister is here!" ”

"Tell the scout sentry who drew the map to give good names to mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts, highlands, plains, etc. Just like the lake in front of us, at this time the sun shines on the surface of the lake and shines golden, it is called Jinguang Lake, if it has a very special shape, it can be named according to its shape characteristics, and it can also be named according to the name of the locals. In short, I don't want to see the terrain on the map with only mountains and rivers in the future, but I can't see a name, what do you want me to think of such a map? ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

A short time later, a man came back from the front sentry.

"Your Majesty, we have explored the area around this lake, there is a trace of human life, and the size of the camp is about three thousand tents, but we have not found a single person, nor have we seen livestock, it should have been moved!"

Zhao Junsheng looked up at the sky and ordered: "It's not early, pass the order, the whole army will camp here today, and continue to march north early tomorrow morning!" ”

The generals and ministers bowed together: "No! ”

The next day, the army, led by Zhao Junsheng, continued its advance in a northwesterly direction, passing through woods, grasslands, hills, and deserts along the way.

A few days later, the army came again to a lake, which was not small, but it was much larger than the previous one, and there was no edge in sight.

It didn't take long for the army to stop at the lake when a few sentry riders approached with a local.

"Your Majesty, there is a small tribe ten miles away on the right side of the lake, there are only a few dozen tents, all of them are some old and weak women and children, this is their patriarch!" The sentry rider who led the team reported.

Zhao Junsheng looked at this patriarch, this person's face was tanned, black and red, about forty or fifty years old.

"Ask him, what is the name of this lake, and are they the only tribe here?"

An interpreter came over and asked a few words in Rouran, and then listened to the Rouran man muttering, and his hands kept gesturing.

After listening to this, the interpreter said to Zhao Junsheng: "Your Majesty, he said that this lake is called Ubusu Lake, and there used to be three tribes living around this lake, they were the youngest one. ”

Zhao Junsheng said: "Ask him, where did the two big tribes and the young men in his clan have moved?" Why didn't the old and weak of his tribe move away? ”

The interpreter relayed it, and after listening to what the Rouran man said, he reported to Zhao Junsheng: "Your Majesty, he said that he didn't know where they went, he only said that they moved all the way to the west, and they didn't know where they would settle down in the end, and it was almost impossible to come back once they moved!" Now there are only some old and weak women and children in his tribe, and they can't walk anymore, and even if they move away, they will die on the way to migrate, so they simply stay! ”

Zhao Junsheng thought about it for a while, and instructed Chang Kun: "Send a team of men and horses to move them to the western foot of Jinwei Mountain and hand them over to Su Ji, and the people sent will stay there, don't follow!" ”

"Yes!"

The army then continued its march northwest along the lake.

Zhao Ping rode up to Zhao Junsheng's side: "Father, just now that Rouran patriarch said that several other tribes have migrated west, don't we pursue them west?" ”

"If they keep moving west, are we going to keep catching up? According to the map, a few days to the west will enter a strange area, even the Rouran people have not been there, there are likely to be a large number of beasts and wild people infested, the map is blank, I can't bring the army into a completely unknown area, this area is still the territory of the Rouran people, we still have a map in our hands to make a reference, if we enter a strange area, and there is no map as a reference, God knows what will happen! ”

Zhao Ping nodded and didn't say anything more.

The army walked along the lake for two days, and at the end of the lake they saw a concave mountain range that jutted out at both ends to the south and bulge to the north in the middle, with no end in sight at both ends.

"This should be the Donnu Mountains!"

Zhao Junsheng said something in his heart, took the map from the guard's hand and looked at it, and said to the generals and ministers: "The map shows that there is a big tribe named Qigu in the area north of this mountain range, which is powerful and submitted to Rouran in the past!" We are now mainly searching for the Rouran people, so we won't go to the trouble of the Qigu people, and it is not easy to climb over this Tangnu Mountain, and it is estimated that it will take a lot of time to find the mountain pass that can be crossed! The order goes down, and the army camps again tonight! ”

"No!"

There was nothing to do overnight, and the next day, Zhao Junsheng climbed to a nearby mountain with several ministers and generals under the escort of some generals.

When everyone climbed to the top of the mountain out of breath, they happened to see a red sun rising from the east.

After watching the sunrise, Zhao Junsheng turned his head and saw a mountain cliff as smooth as a wall, and his heart moved, so he said to Li Song: "Go find someone to engrave on this cliff the deeds of my Great Qian's army to the north to Rouran, and set up a monument next to it, indicating that this is the boundary of my Great Qian, as evidence!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Li Song seemed to be particularly concerned about this matter, and he found some soldiers to cut wood and build scaffolding, which stood high on the cliff wall, and personally climbed up to commemorate the feat of the Northern Expedition with a hammer and chisel.

It took Li Song three days to carve stones on the cliffs of Tangnu Mountain to record the detailed battle process of the Northern Expedition.

In the following days, the army marched eastward along the southern foothills of the Tangnu Mountains, and from time to time encountered some fierce beasts, including bears and wolves, and what was frightening was that the beasts here seemed to be extraordinarily tall, far larger than the beasts in other places.

On the way, they passed through a large desert, and in this strange desert area, the cadres suffered hundreds of casualties for various reasons.

It took five full days to cross the desert, and Zhao Junsheng and others were greatly relieved.