Zhao Junsheng led his army in pursuit for five days, and after five days reached the south bank of a river.

"Your Majesty, according to the scout's investigation, whether it is the traces of the Rouran people, or the traces of Lu Shuang, Yang Lie, and Pei Guangyuan, they have all disappeared by this river!"

On the hill near the river, Zhao Junsheng turned his head and ordered: "Everyone stay where they are, and Li Bao will bring a team of dragon guards to follow!" Nayan, you lead the way! ”

"Yes!"

Dozens of horses ran down the hill to the river, the river water flow is rapid, has been winding to the west, the grass by the river is green and verdant, the water and grass here are abundant, it is really a good place for grazing.

Zhao Junsheng stopped his horse, he jumped off the horse and walked along the river bank with a whip, observing as he went, and all traces had been lost here.

"Your Majesty, the scouts have already checked, except for some horse manure on the hill just now, all other traces have disappeared!" Na Yan followed and said as he walked.

Zhao Junsheng turned his head to look at the other side of the river, "It rained for a day yesterday, and many traces were washed away, and it is normal for their traces to disappear!" By the way, are there herding tribes around here? ”

Na Yan said: "The scouts have investigated, there are two tribes in this vicinity, but they are not big, but they have moved away, and the scouts have found the camp where they used to live and graze, except for some traces of camping, dilapidated domes that have been discarded at will, there is nothing left!" ”

Zhao Junsheng thought for a while and ordered: "Have you sent someone to reconnoiter on the other side of the river?" ”

"It's been sent, but it's not turned back yet!"

"How long have you been there?"

"Half an hour!"

Zhao Junsheng looked at the other side of the river, turned his head and said to Li Bao: "Send someone to tell them that the army will rest in place for half an hour!" ”

"No!" Li Bao agreed, and nodded to a dragon guard cavalryman next to him.

Zhao Junsheng walked back and forth on the nearby riverbank, he was already sure that at least this section of the riverbank is very suitable for crossing the river, the river surface is not very wide, the water is not very deep, the water flow is a little faster, but it is precisely because of the high riverbed that the water here flows fast.

After walking back and forth, Zhao Junsheng felt a little hungry, so he asked Kang Yide to take some beef jerky and chew it in his mouth.

Halfway through the jerky, a few small black dots appeared in the distance across the river, and it didn't take long for the small black dots to turn into knights.

Na Yan shouted: "Your Majesty, look, it's our scout!" ”

A knight crossed the river on horseback, while a few scouts remained on guard on the other side.

A moment later, the knight who had crossed the river ran over and reported: "Your Majesty, General, we have explored within a radius of ten miles near the opposite side, and we have found no trace!" ”

After hearing this, Zhao Junsheng shouted: "Yutu! ”

A dragon guard cavalryman quickly took down a cylinder from the north, took out a scroll of maps from it, and handed it to Zhao Junsheng.

Zhao Junsheng took the map and looked carefully on it, he looked up at the shape of the river in front of him, and then looked around at the surrounding mountains and hills.

"If that's right, this river should be the Ganwei River (Zabhan River), our current location is at the point where the Ganwei River turns from south to west, and if you go about ten miles northeast from here, the river will turn to the north, and the river will come down from that direction!"

Chang Kun asked, "Your Majesty, should we cross the river and go upstream along this Ganwei River to Yanran Mountain (Hangai Mountain), or should we go all the way downstream along the river?" ”

Zhao Junsheng pondered for a moment and said, "The order I gave to Lu Shuang was to search in the direction of Yanran Mountain once they lost the trace of Tuhe Zhen of Rouran Khan, and I thought they should have gone to Tianshan Mountain. Yesterday's heavy rain delayed us for a day, maybe the Rouran people hid somewhere to avoid the rain, but I don't think they can be so delicate, they must have fled in the rain, only then can they get rid of our pursuit! On my order, we continued to pursue westward along the Ganwei River, and the whole army accelerated its march! ”

"No!"

For the next two days, the army continued westward along the south bank of the Ganwei River, and finally found the traces of the Rouran people by the river in the afternoon of the next day.

This discovery thrilled the entire cadre army, including Zhao Junsheng, so Zhao Junsheng ordered the army to continue to pursue west along the river following the traces left by the Rouran people.

After another day of pursuit, the army stopped at the edge of a desert, and the Ganwei River stretched through this endless desert into the distance, and the remnants of the Rouran army led by the Rouran Khan Tuhe Zhen disappeared at the edge of this desert.

In the evening, the cadres had to camp on the edge of the desert on the bank of the river.

After the tent was erected, the ministers and generals gathered here to discuss matters.

Zhao Jun hung up the large map so that everyone involved in the discussion could see it.

Yang Lie was ordered to stand up and explain the current situation of the army to everyone, he walked to the map and pointed to the map with a horsewhip and said: "Your Majesty, please see, this map is left by the previous dynasty, although the map is slightly rough, but the general terrain of mountains and rivers is still drawn, and marked, the map made by my great cadres is accurate, but it has not yet been drawn to the distance here, so for the time being, I can only use the map left by the previous dynasty as a reference!"

The current location of our army should be here, on the edge of this desert, close to the bank of the middle reaches of the Ganwei River. The map shows that if you go another forty or fifty miles, the desert will become a desert!

Generally speaking, deserts and deserts are often ravaged by wind and sand, and the traces of the remnants of the Rouran Khan Tuhe Zhen disappeared here, and the last general thought that it was normal, and their traces should be covered by the wind and sand! So we don't know now whether they crossed the river to the north bank, or went along the south bank towards the desert, or maybe they went southwest along the edge of the desert to the west sea!

Don't get me wrong, this Xihai is not our Xihai County, let alone the Xihai where Tuyuhun is located, but the Xihai that belongs to the jurisdiction of Rouran, in fact, it is a lake between Yanran Mountain (Hangai Mountain) and Jinwei Mountain (Altai Mountains), and the water of Xihai flows north into the Ganwei River.

If we continue the pursuit along the Ganwei River, it will take about five days to reach the West Sea, but if we go around the desert and desert to the West Sea, it may take eight or nine days! ”

After Yang Lie finished speaking, he stepped aside.

Zhao Junsheng looked at the ministers and generals, "Zhuqing, how should our army decide next?" ”

The ministers and generals whispered.

After a while, Minister Xu Yan stood up and asked, "The grain and grass officer is here, how long can our army have the remaining military rations?" ”

"In!" The grain and grass officer stood up, he saluted Zhao Junsheng, and then saluted other ministers, ministers and generals, "Your Majesty, princesses, our army's grain and grass can only last for a month at most!" ”

Zhao Junsheng frowned when he heard this, the consumption rate of this military food is too fast, when the army went out, it brought three months of military rations, and there were supplies from Chang'an to Bigan City along the way, that is to say, the real consumption of military rations started from Bigan City, and it has only been a few days since leaving Bigan City, why is there only one month of military rations left?

Without waiting for Zhao Junsheng to ask, a minister asked the grain and grass officer about this question.

The grain and grass officer replied: "During this period, there were two rains, both of which were caught off guard, and part of the military rations were wet by the rain, and after a long time, they became moldy and inedible; And the last time General Chang led his troops to lure the Rouran people away, he kept abandoning his baggage along the way, and he also lost a lot! ”

After listening to the grain and grass officer, Xu Yan, who asked this question, did not say anything, he just frowned, but Dongfang Chen stood up and said to Zhao Junsheng: "Your Majesty, after fighting for so long, the Rouran people have implemented a strong wall and cleared the wilderness against us, and our side has not captured anything at all, with the current stock of military rations, if we continue to pursue, I am afraid that our army will not have military rations to survive, and the soldiers will not be defeated in the battle with the Rouran people, but will collapse due to the lack of food and grass on the return journey, then it will be a big joke!" ”

Speaking of this, Dongfang Chen paused for a moment and continued: "Your Majesty, whether it is the main force of the army led by the Rouran Khan, or the main force of Princess Tuzhen who stayed in the Khan's court, they were defeated by our army, and they lost nearly 100,000 elite men and horses.

"In view of the current shortage of food and grass in our army, and the soldiers are also sleepy and lacking, the minister suggests that the squad return to the court!"

Xu Yan immediately stood up and said the opposite, "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that at this time, he is only one step away from completely solving the Rouran people, if he gives up halfway, and after ten or twenty years, the Rouran people will definitely make a comeback, and I also ask Your Majesty to order to continue the pursuit, completely solve the great trouble of the Rouran people, and make thousands of people in the north of my Daqian forever free from the suffering of Rouran's invasion!" ”

Dongfang Chen's face was ugly, and he couldn't help but scold: "Xu Yan, you know that our army is short of food and grass and can't support the army to continue chasing, but you still persuade Your Majesty to lead the troops to pursue, what kind of heart do you have?" Do you want Your Majesty and these tens of thousands of horses to starve to death on the desert steppe? ”

Xu Yan knelt down in front of Zhao Junsheng with a sad face: "Your Majesty, the minister is wronged, the minister is thinking about His Majesty and the world!" Your Majesty, please think, when His Majesty and Emperor Taiwu of the previous dynasty led the army to the north to conquer the Rouran people, and in the end, the remnants of Rouran were hidden in the Zhuo Evil Mountain, and the remnants of the Rouran people were only 100 miles away from the remnants of the army. ”

Zhao Junsheng had a calm face and said, "I want to continue the pursuit, but there is not enough food and grass, what can I do?" ”

This problem is always an unavoidable problem, there is not enough grain and grass and can not conjure grain and grass out of thin air, Xu Yan can't think of a good way, and he was speechless for a while.

Zhao Junsheng looked at Zhao Ping and asked, "Can our army still get in touch with Yuan He and Bai Jinguang?" ”

Zhao Ping stood up and said: "Father, I haven't received a message from Yuan He and Bai Jinguang for three days, our current position is one or two thousand miles away from them, and there is a Tianshan Mountain in the middle, the scope of Xinying's search is too large, I'm afraid that I can't catch it!" ”

Zhao Junsheng thought for a while and ordered: "Enable Xinying to contact Lu Shuang and ask him how the situation is on his side, whether he has encountered the tribe of the Rouran people, and whether he has been captured!" ”

Using the only letter eagle to contact Lu Shuang is also a way for Zhao Junsheng to have no way out, if Lu Shuang's side is captured, then as long as the two armies meet in time, the problem of lack of food in the army will be solved.