"Marshal Qiqi, the 15th battalion has urgent information, Khotan City has been successfully taken, and Wuxin's men and horses are now stationed outside the city." Wan Yi received urgent information from Khotan, the news that Khotanese City was successfully taken made Wan Yi relieved, at this time it was the middle of February of the fourth year of the Apocalypse, and the plan had been successfully launched on the sandbank, and all the arrangements of Zhao Si had reached the final moment, and the four thousand candidates of the Flying Eagle Brigade had grown into a qualified Flying Eagle Brigade soldier after a long two-month continuous battle. The number of the Third Brigade of the Flying Eagle Brigade led by Li San'er was more than double that of the entire Flying Eagle Brigade before, so the third brigade was taken by Wang Houchun to arrange his own position.

"In this way, as long as the Khotan side holds on for another ten days or so, and Cao Rengui does not find out, our arrangement on the sandbar has been completed." Wan Yi said to himself, and then said to Liu Xuan, who was busy issuing orders for the troops to attack, "Have you received any news from Xue Yang recently?" ”

Wan Yi shook his head when he saw Liu Xuan and did not continue to ask, Xue Yang's task at this time was whether he could complete the task of attacking the army of the Safavid Dynasty within the specified time, which was related to the stability of Khotan for a considerable period of time, because the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army in the next big war needed to fight on two fronts, and at the same time attract the Uighur coalition army to concentrate in Yizhou, it was necessary to return to Shicheng and other places at any time to attack Cao Rengui first, and then turn around again and join Gao Siji to defeat the main force of the anti-Tang army in the Anxi region, so as to completely stabilize the situation in the northwest, It brought a relatively stable environment for the Tiance army to march into Anxi. Therefore, there is no energy to take care of the Khotanese side at all, so at least before Cao Rengui is eliminated, the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army is unable to support the Third Corps, and even if necessary, the Third Corps needs to go east to contain Cao Rengui to attack the sandbar with all his might.

"The order goes down, the whole army will set off tonight, with great fanfare, and order the Xuanyingwei to release the intelligence blockade of the other party, so that the main force of the Uighur army in Yizhou will understand that the Tiance army has set off for Yizhou." Wan Yi muttered alone for a long time and then began to let Liu Xuan convey the order, the Tiance army began to set off according to their respective orders, and the main force of the vast Tiance Army's Western Expeditionary Group Army rushed towards Yizhou, at this moment the strongest force of the Tang Empire in the northwest let go of the enemy's reconnaissance blockade of itself, so almost when the main force of the army on Wan Yi's side began to leave the border and enter Yizhou, the Uighur sentinels were also urgently heading towards Yizhou.

At this time, when Wan Yi was carrying out the most critical step of the Northwest Plan of the General Staff, the mountain battalion and the third battalion of the Third Corps, which were far away on the border of the Green Ridge, also managed to drill out of the lofty mountains and mountains of the Green Ridge and entered the territory of the Safar Dynasty. This place is almost the highest altitude area in the Green Ridge area, and its altitude even exceeds that of Tibet, so almost all of the Rao Shi Mountain Battalion and the Third Battalion have no altitude sickness, and their skills in high-altitude combat even surpass those Tubo people who live on the plateau, and they are also out of breath and exhausted at this time. Moreover, Xue Yang and Xu Ying are still worried about the physical strength of their subordinate soldiers, for a month and a half, the third battalion and the mountain battalion have almost all traveled long distances in the plateau area, and these soldiers from all over the Central Plains still have the physical strength and energy to face the strong enemy at this time?

"Tell everyone to rest on the spot, let's rest for a while, and then find a way to stabilize the specific situation of whether there is a secret Safar Dynasty garrison on the Xuanying Guard." After Xue Yang led his team out of the Green Ridge Mountain, he decided to let the troops repair on the spot and use the last col in the Green Ridge Mountain to cover it, preparing to find a way to find a way to listen to the reality of the other party while repairing and reserving combat strength. To be honest, Xuan Yingwei does not necessarily have detailed information about the specific situation of protecting secrets at this time, after all, the time that Qin Kong has been arranged in Khotan is too short, if it weren't for the frequent caravans in Khotan and other places before, it is estimated that Xue Yang would know nothing about the Saffar Dynasty at this time.

"Go and tell everyone, take out all the canned meat we have in reserve, treat everyone well, and at the same time order the reconnaissance detachments of all units to go out to investigate and do a good job of secrecy." Xu Ying was not at ease and personally went out to arrange for the reconnaissance detachment to go out to investigate, advanced the search range to fifty miles, and arranged for some troops to take turns to investigate the mountains and plains ahead, so as to prevent a small group of spies and mountain people from passing by. To be honest, Xue Yang's choice of trimming at this time is a positive and dangerous behavior, if it weren't for the fact that this place was sparsely populated in winter, and the mountains were covered by heavy snow, ordinary people would not be able to enter the mountains in this climate, Xue Yang would definitely be discovered by the other party, after all, the two battalions combined with more than 20,000 people, such a large force lurking in the enemy-occupied area is too difficult, and it is even impossible to achieve it without the response of Xuan Yingwei.

Xu Ying led the team out to inspect, while Xue Yang stayed in the temporary tent and ate the broth sent by the guards while pondering how to proceed with the upcoming raid. According to the information brought by the Xuanying Guard from the caravan in the early stage, Humi was actually a large military town, with few inhabitants other than the army. Because the place is not actually suitable for inhabitation, but the geographical location is extremely important, choose one point to overlook the area north of the green ridge, the northern region of Safar, the southwest of Khotan and even the eastward road of the Samanid Dynasty will be threatened by it, facing the danger of being cut off, that is to say, whoever can control the secret will be able to occupy an absolute advantage in the competition between Safard and Khotan. This is also the reason why Xue Yang chose to protect the secret at first glance after reading the information collected by Xuan Yingwei.

The position of the protector is so important, as its master, the Safarid Dynasty naturally understands, so it has been hoarding heavy troops here all the year round, on the one hand, to guard against the threat of Khotan and the shamanic dynasty, on the other hand, the most important thing is that once there is any difference in Khotan, it can quickly transfer troops from the secret protection into the major oases of Khotan in the north, so as to take control of the entire southwest of Khotan in one fell swoop. Therefore, although it was winter at this time, and the garrison of the Protector had been reduced due to supply problems, according to Xuanyingwei's estimates, its strength was at least more than 50,000, and there may even be 100,000, which accounted for almost one-third of the total strength of the Safar Dynasty in the north.

Therefore, although Xue Yang successfully arrived at the periphery of the secret protection and was unaware, the disparity between the enemy and us in the big battle he was about to face was still very large, and the third battalion and the mountain battalion almost had to face two to five times more opponents than him, and the most important thing was that the opponent was under the fortified city, and he had trekked so far, once he made a bad choice, there was almost no chance of winning this battle.

If there is a way to solve these for Xue Yang, then the last remaining problem is to minimize casualties, the Third Corps went to the Western Regions alone, there are not enough reserves to replenish, and there is no way to even get replenishment from the Western Expeditionary Army, so once the casualties are too large, then the Third Corps will be unable to face the follow-up emergencies, once the Safarid Dynasty comes, the Third Corps will not be able to stop it, then Khotan will inevitably be exposed to the iron hooves of the other party.

"Brother, are you back? Have the people of Xuanyingwei arrived? Xue Yang heard footsteps outside the tent and walked in, and then opened the tent door and walked in, knowing that it was Xu Ying who was back, so he didn't raise his head and asked directly.

"It is estimated that it will take three or two hours for the people of Xuanying Guard, and a few of them are still the new secret guards selected from Anxi when Qin Kong first arrived in Khotan, and they disguised themselves as the other party's soldiers to enter the secret guard. However, they have already connected with the secret guards we sent with the army, and I believe that information will come soon. What are you doing? Draw up a secret attack map? Can this still be marked on the map? Xu Ying walked to Xue Yang's side, and when he saw the other party writing and drawing on the map, he couldn't help but shake his head and smile.

"New to the ranks? Is it reliable? If there is a problem with this kind of news, I am afraid that we will fall short. Xue Yang was obviously a little dissatisfied with Xu Ying's answer, so he shook his head and said, "It seems that we need to hurry, in case something goes wrong with these two secret guards, we can attack before the other party reacts." ”

"So what do you mean we should do? We don't know how many people are on the other side now, and we don't know how to make a plan? Xu Ying shook his head and said, "Why don't I take someone to disguise and go to see the truth and reality?" ”

"Actually, it doesn't have to, brother, if our plan was formulated from the beginning in line with the principle of anticipation of the enemy and leniency, then we don't care how many people there are on the other side." Xue Yang said with a smile: "So I don't plan to wait for the news of Xuanying Guard, we will start acting tomorrow evening at the latest, from here to the secret protection is only a hundred miles, now the green mountains are all snow, if the reconnaissance team reconnoiters in advance, we will be able to reach the city of the secret in less than two hours after marching at night." When the time comes, let the Demoman follow the reconnaissance team to secretly touch the secret city to blast, and once the wall is breached, we will rush up. ”

"What about the street fighting after entering the city? We don't have a distribution map in the city, how can we tell if the other party is an army or not? Xu Ying nodded, he recognized Xue Yang's plan, to put it simply, it was easy to attack the city, but if you want to deal a fatal blow to the garrison that protects the secret, it is the most important thing. And at least one thing can be clear, that is, the city here is very different from the kind of square city in the interior of the Central Plains, similar to the castle that Li Xuanqing saw from Europe in his later life, plus the huge stones used as the foundation and material of the city wall when building the city, which led to a great increase in the difficulty of blasting.

"Simple, the other party has solved this point for us." Xue Yang smiled and said: "Humi is an important military town, there are almost no civilians in the city, all of them can be regarded as soldiers, so we don't need too much investigation, after entering the city, we can order the troops to search in a dragnet and then move forward step by step." The opposing side is several times more numerous than we are, so their boss will not give up this important town easily unless it is the last minute, so we can annihilate the opponent in the city. We have a dilemma to solve, we have a limited number of troops and no additional troops, and how to reduce casualties is the biggest problem at the moment. ”

"yes, and the embarrassment we're facing now is that if we emphasize the sacrifice of less firepower, it means that our ammunition supply becomes a problem. But wouldn't it be inconsistent with our original intention to let the soldiers suppress it? "Xu Ying is also worried about this problem, simply put, the capital in his hand is not much, and there is no logistics support far from the mainland, so Xue Yang and Xu Ying must accurately calculate every force and firepower in their hands, otherwise, if there is a supply problem and a problem with the strength of the Third Corps, it will directly affect the battle situation in the entire northwest.

"If it doesn't work, set it on fire." Xu Ying thought about it, and there was really no other way, so he had to say the last trick in his heart and said: "After entering the city, you and I personally lead the personal guards to find the fire in the city and then ignite it, I think that if you add fire attack to the chaos of the battle, the other party will definitely accelerate the collapse." But I just don't know the specific situation in the city at the moment. "Xu Ying's trick is basically a way to do it, because whether this method can work when you don't know anything about the situation in the city depends on whether the secret city can be burned up.

"No matter, so be it. Anyway, it's winter at this time, so there must be a lot of charcoal and firewood in the city for the army to use, right? In addition, the food and grass of their tens of thousands of troops are all in the city, and if we can ignite it, it may not be a good choice to attack with fire. Plus they don't have much water to put out the fire in the winter. This matter is so decided, and I will let the guards prepare the things that will start the fire, and then you and I will lead the fire. Xue Yang thought about it and directly determined this method, but before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Xu Ying, "I will lead the team to this fire attack, although there is not much command needed for street battles after entering the city, but we have no backup plan, once there is an unknown ahead, you need to sit in and make a quick decision, no matter if there is no commander in the army, you may not be my opponent when it comes to fire attack." ”

"It's okay, you hurry up and eat, a bowl of broth is about to freeze and you haven't moved yet, I'll make it hot, and then let the armies start to prepare, and wait until tomorrow night to start." Xu Ying picked up Xue Yang's bowl that had been frozen into ice cubes that night, shook his head, ordered someone to bring in a brazier, and after removing the charcoal inside, he put the bowl next to the brazier and then began to go out to give orders to the two camp leaders to get ready, and at the same time let the captain of the personal guard begin to gather all the fire oil he brought. After Xue Yang and Xu Ying began to command the large corps, the third battalion and the mountain battalion no longer served as their respective commanders, so the two battalions were handed over to other generals.

"It looks like we have to take down the secret quickly, otherwise our supplies will be a problem." After Xu Ying finished collecting the oil and found that almost all the food and cans he had brought this time were almost exhausted, and the charcoal and honeycomb coal for heating were almost exhausted, many soldiers began to cut down the frozen trees on the spot and then brought them back to the camp to add them to the brazier or fire to replenish the lack of fuel.

"Order the reconnaissance detachment to work hard tonight to secretly reconnoiter the situation of the road to protect the secret, and be sure to find a road for the army to march before dawn." Xue Yang personally deployed a reconnaissance detachment to reconnoiter the road to avoid any problems, which saved the whole army many times during the previous snow march of more than a year. In the snow, once the wind and snow pass, it will drown out all the complex terrain such as ravines that you usually don't pay attention to, and it will not be possible to find it without careful screening. And once the ice and snow covering the ravines of the army marched could not withstand the pressure, the losses caused by it were really tearless, and this was the experience that Xuan Yingwei learned from the Tubo people.