Su Ji led more than 4,000 men and horses to break through successfully and went west, and Xue Huanlong led 400 men to break through half an hour later than him, but they were separated and did not converge.

Xue Huanlong took these 400 people to find Su Ji and them for two days, but did not find Su Ji and the more than 4,000 people he took away, but found Zhao Junsheng and the main army of 30,000.

Su Ji successfully broke through with 4,000 men and camped in a safe area to rest, and after recuperating, he also sent people to look for the main force of the Western Route Army, but they did not find it.

Two days later, the more than 4,000 men and horses retreated to the Junji Mountains under the leadership of Su Ji and disappeared without a trace.

Temporary camp of the main force of the Western Route Army of the Cadre Army.

Na Yan, the commander of the scout battalion, walked into the big tent and hugged his fist at Zhao Junsheng and said: "Your Majesty, a scout sentry cavalry of our side has found a team of more than 400 people thirty miles away in the north, and the leader is Xue Huanlong, the son of General Xue Andu, it seems that they have suffered a big defeat!" ”

Zhao Junsheng's face changed, and he had a bad premonition in his heart, "Go and bring him to see me!" ”

An hour later, Xue Huanlong walked into the camp with more than 400 people who were described as withered and exhausted, and their arrival alarmed the entire camp.

"What's going on? These people ······"

"I don't know!"

"Didn't you lose the battle?"

"It seems that it was General Xue who brought out the people."

Zhao Junsheng walked out of the tent with the generals and ministers, and a tooth general opened the way in front: "Your Majesty is coming, the people in front of you get out of the way, get out of the way!" ”

The generals automatically separated a passage, and Zhao Junsheng and the ministers and generals of the army walked in front of Xue Huanlong and the defeated generals.

"Your Majesty······" Xue Huanlong knelt in front of Zhao Junsheng with a plop.

Zhao Junsheng helped Xue Huanlong up and asked eagerly, "Xue Huanlong, what's going on?" What about your father? What about his 20,000 horses? ”

"Woo woo woo ······" Xue Huanlong couldn't hold back his emotions and cried, and the four hundred remnants of the defeated generals behind him also cried.

When Zhao Junsheng saw this scene, his heart was cold, he knew that Xue Andu had an accident nine times out of ten, and he had this premonition two days ago, because the secret agent who was placed in Xue Andu's army did not send the news on time with the letter eagle, and there has been no news for the past two days.

Zhao Junsheng calmed down and shouted: "Wei Jing, take the other soldiers down to rest and eat, and arrange camps and tents for them!" ”

"No!"

Zhao Junsheng took Xue Huanlong back to the tent, and the generals and ministers of the army stood in two shifts on both sides of the tent.

"Anyway, what happened?"

Xue Huanlong wiped away his tears and intermittently explained what had happened in detail.

After listening to this, Zhao Junsheng asked: "So when you led the troops to break through, your father was still leading the troops to fight with the Rouran people, and you didn't see him killed or captured?" ”

“······ Yes, yes! However, my father was seriously injured at the time."

Zhao Junsheng frowned: "How did he get seriously injured?" ”

"At that time, the minister was by his father's side, and when he broke through, the Rouran army blocking the road in front fired several rounds of arrows in a row, and his father's mount was killed by an arrow, and his father was thrown out, and he didn't know how many horses' hooves had been trampled on, and when he got up, he vomited a few mouthfuls of blood in a row, and the minister estimated that his ribs had been broken at that time, and his internal organs may have been injured!"

Dongfang Chen next to him asked: "You haven't found Su Ji's four thousand men and horses in the past two days?" ”

"No, we didn't dare to go too far, for fear that the sentry riders of the Rouran people would be discovered, so we didn't send a large number of people to search!"

Zhao Junsheng knew that Xue Andu and the cadres and soldiers who stayed behind were likely to be more than lucky, but he pretended to be calm and said to Xue Huanlong: "It's not sure that your father was killed or captured in battle, with your father's martial arts, it won't be so easy to die, I will send someone to search for their whereabouts, you go down to rest first, and I will send someone to inform you when I have news!" ”

"Minister······ Retire! Xue Huanlong clenched his fists and retreated.

There was silence in the big tent, although Xue Huanlong said that Su Ji had brought more than 4,000 horsemen to break out, but until now there was no news, and I didn't know whether it was auspicious or vicious.

Xue Andu has a full 20,000 horses, even if the nearly 4,000 people lost in the first two battles are excluded, there are still 16,000 people, and the more than 4,000 people who took Su Ji away, there are also 10,000 people and nearly 2,000 people, so many people were all finished in the night two days ago, which is uncomfortable in anyone's heart.

Zhao Junsheng thought about it for a moment and ordered: "Na Yan, order the scout battalion to increase the search intensity and expand the search area, and be sure to contact Su Ji!" ”

"Yes!" Na Yan hugged his fists, flicked his cloak and walked out.

Dongfang Chen stood up and saluted Zhao Junsheng: "Your Majesty, it is obvious that General Xue's Zhongfu is carefully designed by the Rouran people, and they dispersed and surrounded the main force of our army this time, on the one hand, they really want to gradually eat us with the wolf pack tactics; On the other hand, it is to lure General Xue's department out, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone! Pity General Xue and the more than 10,000 soldiers······"

Chang Kun exhaled angrily: "Old Dao, are you still pretending to be interesting at this time?" ”

"General Chang, you ······ Lao Dao didn't offend you, did he? Forget it, the old way doesn't argue with you! ”

Zhao Junsheng glanced at Chang Kun, Chang Kun closed his mouth, but glared at Dongfang Chen fiercely.

Zhao Junsheng walked to the map with his hands behind his back and looked at it, and asked, "Can you determine the location of the Rouran Army now?" ”

Yuan He stood up and clasped his fists and said: "Your Majesty, it can be inferred from the location of the scouts that our scout sentry has encountered the Rouran people one after another in the past few days, the direction of the Rouran army should still be the direction of the camp where we were before, but they seem to be approaching this side, the speed is not fast, maybe they can only infer the direction of our army, and they are not sure of the specific location of our army!" ”

Dongfang Chen shook off the dust and saluted Zhao Junsheng and said, "Your Majesty, just ······ General Xue should be blockaded and they should be blocked······ After this news spreads in the battalion, the morale of the soldiers will inevitably be affected! ”

Zhao Junsheng waved his hand: "What can't be hidden, instead of hiding it to make the soldiers suspicious, it is better to let them know, which can arouse their hatred of the same enemy and turn their grief and anger into combat power!" Besides, our officers and men are all highly trained soldiers, and if a defeat in a war can affect their morale, then will our investment and construction of the army over the years be in vain? ”

Dongfang Chen paused and retreated.

Xu Yan stood up and saluted: "Your Majesty, judging from the current situation, the strength of the Rouran people is still at least 20,000 more than ours, or twice as many as ours, they have defeated Xue Andu, and their morale will definitely improve a lot, even if our army resists them head-on, the chances of victory are not great!" Therefore, the minister suggested that a message should be sent to the East Route Army and the Middle Route Army, so that they can hurry to converge, if these two roads of men and horses arrive, our troops will occupy an absolute advantage, with the training level and combat will of our soldiers, as long as there are no major problems in command, the Rouran people have no chance of winning! ”

Zhao Junsheng turned his head and asked Zhao Ping: "Did Bai Jinguang and Wei Jian send a message in the past two days?" ”

"Yes, Father! However, they said in the message that there had been a soft sentinel watching them, and after sending the elite horsemen to pursue them, these soft sentry horses ran away again, and when they withdrew the people, they reappeared! Wei Su and Bai Jinguang were annoyed, and they sent a small group of light horsemen to chase quickly, and after killing a few groups of Rouran sentry horses, they never found the Rouran people who appeared nearby, but they felt that there was always someone following! ”

Zhao Junsheng thought for a while, he wanted to test whether Rouran had a complete response plan for the Qianjun's large-scale northern expedition, so he ordered: "Tell Bai Jinguang and the lieutenants, let them turn to our western route army and move towards Junji Mountain, see how the Rouran people react, if the Rouran people have a move, let them quickly report with a flying eagle!" ”

"No!"

Zhao Junsheng did not put his hope on the Eastern Route Army and the Central Route Army, if the Rouran people were really prepared, they would not fail to consider the possibility that once his Western Route Army could not support it, he would order the Eastern and Central Route armies to come to help, he gave this order just to test it, if someone was really prepared, they would inevitably take action.

Zhao Junsheng looked at the map for a while, and he deduced that the Rouran army would not be more than a day's distance from here, because the distance of the scouts to meet the Rouran sentinels was sixty or seventy miles, and if the Rouran cavalry marched in a hurry, they could arrive and attack in one day.

"Come on, go and call that Yan!"

Na Yan quickly returned to the big tent.

Zhao Junsheng instructed him: "Give the scout camp a task to investigate the terrain within a radius of 300 miles and make a detailed map, and no hills, forests, streams, rivers, or lakes are allowed to be missed." I'm going to use it, I'm going to give you five days, can I do it? ”

Na Yan clenched his fists and agreed: "The minister obeys the order!" The minister has something to report, it is about General Xue! ”

"What? Is there any news of Xue Andu? Say it! ”

"Yes! There was a news from the scouts in front of them that they had encountered a group of Rouran Sentinels, but instead of attacking them, this group of Rouran Sentinels gave them a cart with a coffin on it, which contained a suspected General Xue Andu! ”

Zhao Junsheng was so shocked that he took two steps back, and his face instantly lost its blood, "What, what?" ”

In the afternoon, a group of cavalry pulled back the cart, and there was indeed a coffin on the cart, but this coffin was obviously made temporarily, and there were no good carpenters in the Rouran people, and there was no good wood during the war.

The cart was driven by a cavalryman to the middle of the camp, and the 30,000 officers and soldiers of the army lined up in dozens of phalanxes, and everyone looked at the coffin on the cart.

Zhao Junsheng and the ministers of civil and military affairs walked to the cart with a sad expression, and at Zhao Junsheng's signal, the four soldiers opened the coffin lid.

Zhao Junsheng walked to the side of the coffin and looked down, only to see Xue Andu lying in the coffin, the bottom of the coffin was padded with silk, his appearance had been tidied up, the armor he was wearing had also been cleaned up, and a large number of spices were put in the coffin to drive away the smell, after all, the person had been dead for two or three days, and it was inevitable that there would be a peculiar smell.

Zhao Junsheng closed his eyes, held back his tears, turned around and walked to the side, and silently took off his helmet.

Xue Andu's son, Xue Huanlong, looked at it before he threw himself down the coffin, and his tears couldn't stop dripping.

Xue Andu is the highest-ranking commander of the army to be killed in battle since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

When the soldiers saw the expressions of Zhao Junsheng and Xue Huanlong, they knew that it must be Xue Andu lying in the coffin, and everyone took off their helmets one by one, lowered their heads and mourned in silence.