Hua Mulan thought that even if she was not dealt with by military law this time, she would definitely lose her official position and be dismissed, but the emperor actually took it lightly with merit and demerits, and she immediately bowed: "The last general, thank Your Majesty for your grace of not sinning!" ”

At this time, a soldier walked in quickly outside, and whispered a word beside Qiu Mu Lingshou.

After hearing this, Qiu Mu Lingshou waved his hand to let the soldiers out, and then turned to Tuoba Tao and hugged his fists and reported: "Your Majesty, this is a city that was originally inhabited and garrisoned by Rouran, but before we arrived, they got the news and quickly fled north, before the last general sent troops to pursue, chasing and killing some of them, but still let them run away for most of them!" ”

Tuobatao's face was a little ugly when he heard this, "Didn't you say that you should act quickly and pay attention to secrecy?" How will they be allowed to run away? ”

Qiu Mu Lingshou, Hedoluo, Hua Mulan and others immediately bowed down and pleaded guilty: "The ministers are guilty!" ”

Cui Hao immediately stood up and played a round: "Your Majesty, the territory is big, it is inevitable that there will be things that cannot be taken into account, and it is impossible not to leak the slightest rumor." Wei Chen thought that this was not the time to blame a few generals, but to quickly gather troops and horses into Mobei, even if Da Tan got the news, but he needed time to gather the soldiers and horses scattered all over the place, as long as we didn't give him enough time, he would be helpless! ”

Tuoba Tao nodded, "What Cui Qing said is right, there is not much time left for us, and our army has a large number of prisoners, captured grain, grass, baggage, and countless cattle, sheep and horses, if we bring all of these, it will definitely slow down the march speed!" I wonder if Cui Qing can solve it? ”

Cui Hao thought about it for a while and couldn't think of any good way.

At this time, the national teacher Kou Qianzhi coughed twice, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, when Huo Qubing was sick in the Han Dynasty, he led an army to attack the Huns, and fought for thousands of miles. ”

"Eat the enemy?" Tuobatao's eyes lit up when he heard this.

A minister next to him immediately came out to stop him: "No! Your Majesty, this move is too dangerous, if you only bring dry food for a few days, if you don't find the Rouran tribe to eat before the dry food is eaten, won't you starve the whole army to disperse? ”

Other ministers and generals also stood up against this practice, saying that it was too dangerous, and now that the news has leaked out, if the worms implement the strategy of fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness, how can our army eat? If it's just a few people, you can hunt and kill a few hares and wolves on the grassland to satisfy your hunger, which is tens of thousands of horses, where to find so much to eat?

"Enough, don't make any noise!" Tuoba Tao scolded, and walked to the map to check.

There are three ways to go to Mobei, the east road is to bypass the great desert and enter from the east, the middle road is to cross the South Bed Mountain from here, and then pass through the vast desert Gobi, the west road is to march in the northwest direction, along the remaining veins of the Jinshan Mountain to the northwest, directly to Zhuo Evil Mountain, and then go north through the boiling pond to the Khanting.

There is no doubt that for the soldiers and horses of Tuoba Tao, they can only take the middle and west roads, and the soldiers and horses led by Tuoba Jian, the king of Yongchang, have already taken the east road.

It's a little farther to take the western road, and if you only bring dry food for a few days, it will be troublesome if the Rouran people along the way hide in the wilderness.

It's not a good idea to take the middle way through the vast desert Gobi, the desert climate is unpredictable, and the slightest mistake can lead to getting lost in the desert or losing a lot of money due to lack of preparation.

Tuoba Tao asked, "Who has ever crossed the desert?" ”

No one answered.

A minister stood up and asked, "Your Majesty won't lead the army across the desert to Mobei, right?" This is too dangerous, the desert is fickle, and people often can't get in and out, and your majesty thinks twice! ”

Cui Hao stood up and said: "Your Majesty, look at this map, it will take at least eight days for our army to cross the desert, even if it is a ten-day march, we will reserve five days to find the Rouran tribe for supplies, everyone only needs to carry fifteen days of dry food, with the carrying capacity of our army, it is not a problem for one person to carry fifteen days of dry food, but the problem of this water source is not easy to solve, after all, no one has crossed the desert······"

Kou Qianzhi reminded at this time: "Your Majesty, didn't you capture a lot of worm captives? Can't you find a few guides from these creeping captives? ”

A word woke up the dreamer, Tuoba Tao was overjoyed, and immediately ordered to go to the captives to find a worm guide who had crossed the desert.

He really found a few worms who had crossed the desert several times, and Tuoba Tao made a heavy promise to them, as long as he could lead the army through the desert, he would be awarded an official title, as well as a large amount of money, cattle, sheep, cloth and other rewards.

Under the heavy reward, these Rouran people also forgot all about their hatred, and told each other their own routes to Tuobatao, where there is an oasis, where there is a Haizi, where there is a Gobi, where can an underground river be found, and so on.

Cui Hao summarized and analyzed the routes spoken by several guides, and specified a recent marching speed, which would take only seven days to get out of the desert and enter the Mobei grassland.

To be on the safe side, Tuoba Tao still ordered everyone to prepare dry food for fifteen days and drinking water for three days.

It's not that they don't want to prepare more water, but in fact, there are no more tools to hold water, unlike the plastic buckets that can be used in later generations, and now the only tools used to hold water in the desert are cowhide water bags, which is still counting the water bags carried by the army itself, and then counting the water captured from the Rouran people, it is only enough to prepare water for everyone for three days.

On the second day of the sixth month, Tuoba Tao ordered the whole army to give up all the baggage, leaving 3,000 men and horses to guard the prisoners and baggage in Bigan City, and led all the horses to set off lightly, each carrying 15 days of dry food and 3 days of drinking water to the north over the South Bed Mountain into the desert.

The desert weather is changeable, the morning is the scorching sun, maybe it doesn't take long to become the wind and sand, blowing people really can't open their eyes, the temperature at night is very low, often freezing people shivering, less than three days there are soldiers constantly sick, hot and cold to swing.

When dealing with sick soldiers, the generals could only order people to take them with them as much as possible, until they could not walk, they could only throw them down and leave them to fend for themselves, just because this time they set off lightly, and there was no military doctor with them, even if they were sick, there was no military doctor to treat them.

Many people have never entered the desert, have no experience in desert marching, do not save on the drinking water they have prepared, and drink all the water before they reach the place where they are scheduled to replenish their drinking water, so they can only endure thirst and hurry, and naturally they will gradually lose their physical strength and consciousness due to lack of water.

Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even Emperor Tuoba Tao couldn't manage enough water, everyone's mouth was not moist during the march, it was always dry, and some people with serious water shortage had cracked their lips.

At the same time, the huge difference in temperature between day and night also makes many people with poor physique unable to adapt, get sick, have a high fever that does not go away, and fall off the horse while sitting on horseback and walking, and can never get up again.

This journey through the desert greatly exceeded everyone's expectations, and the calculation was that Cui Hao did not expect it after calculation before setting off, and the time they needed was two more days than expected, and it took ten days to complete.

By the time they crossed the desert, tens of thousands of horses lost more than 600 people in the desert, and these people either fell ill on the way, or were scattered due to the wind and sand during the march, and many people approached the quicksand and fell into it and never got up, and even more were bitten and poisoned by the poisonous insects in the desert and died.

In order to achieve the goal of attacking them by surprise, on the afternoon of the first day when the army passed through the desert, Tuoba Tao sent a large number of scouts to scatter to investigate, looking for the tribe of the Rouran people.

The Rouran tribe that was attacked always had someone escape, and the news came quickly, and a large number of Rouran people fled with their families and mouths, and they didn't even want livestock, cattle and sheep, and after the Wei army arrived, they actually picked up ready-made.

On the west bank of the upper reaches of Sushui, the place where the Rouran people live.

There are tens of thousands of Rouran people living here, and just a few days ago, Rouran Khan Datan took his own guards to patrol here and declare his authority.

In the dome, in the sound of singing and dancing, Da Tan sat behind the desk with a leg of mutton and shaved the meat with a knife, and his beard was full of grease stains.

"Report-" A Rouran spy panted and ran in and bowed down on one knee: "Qiyu Khan, the big thing is not good, the Xianbei people have been killed!" ”

"The Xianbei people have been killed?" Da Tan was stunned for a moment, and laughed: "Hahaha, the courage of the Xianbei people is really getting bigger and bigger, they even hit me Mobei, let's say, how many people did they come?" ”

"Between thirty thousand and forty thousand!"

With a "clang", the leg of mutton and the meat knife fell on the table and made a smashing sound.

Da Tan lost color and said, "What? You say there are 30,000 to 40,000 people? ”

"Yes!"

Da Tan panicked, he only brought 3,000 cavalry on this patrol, while the Wei army had 30,000 to 40,000 cavalry, and the strength was more than ten times that of him, how could this be fought?

"Where is Wei Jun now?"

"Just two hundred miles south of here, many tribes north of the desert have been bloodied by the Wei army, and more tribesmen have fled in all directions, and cattle, sheep and horses are scattered in the wilderness and no one cares!"

As soon as Da Tan heard that the Wei army was only two hundred miles away from here, he came back to his senses in a panic and immediately ordered: "Quickly, go and summon the national teacher Fa Zhan, Qi Li Fa Wu Hulu, Tu Dou Fa Wu Ti, Qi Li Qi Liegui and all the accompanying marshals and generals to come to discuss the matter!" ”

Needless to say, the Great Tan Khan now believes in Buddhism, so Buddhism is the state religion, but there are also many Rouran people who still believe in shamanism.

Rouran's official position includes the prime minister, which is equivalent to the prime minister of the Central Plains Dynasty, and this time the prime minister did not follow, but stayed in the Khan's court to deal with government affairs.

Tong Lifa, one of Rouran's official positions, is in charge of the military power of one side, which is equivalent to one of the princes, and under it is the marshal. He was the elder brother of Datan Khan, and Princess Tuzhen was his daughter.

Tudoufa, one of the official positions of Rouran, second only to Tong Lifa, is generally held by the Rouran royal family, and is the most powerful candidate for the heir of the Khan. Tudoufa Wu Ti, this person is the second son of Da Tan.

Tong Li: One of the official positions of Rouran, in charge of government affairs, equivalent to the governor. Beggar Liegui, the southern region of Rouran, he is also the eldest son of Da Tan.

After a while, Wu Hulu, Wu Ti, Qi Liegui and the national teacher Fa Zhan, as well as the accompanying marshals and generals, rushed over.

Da Tan said to everyone with a solemn face: "Everyone, I just received the news that Lord Wei Tuoba Tao personally led an army of 40,000 people across the desert and came straight to us and other places, which is less than a hundred miles away from here!" ”

"Ah······h The participants were shocked for a while.

Qi Liegui immediately shouted: "Father Khan, we only have 3,000 cavalry, how can we be the opponent of the 40,000 iron cavalry of the Wei lord?" Let's get out of the way! ”8)