The Turks did not move in Yunzhou, and the Tang army was fully prepared for war in Daizhou, and the two sides fell into a peculiar stalemate.

The Shuofang army under Xue Shao won a valuable period of rest and recuperation. A large number of lightly injured wounded began to return to the team for training, and the seriously injured also received due care and transfer. Xue Shao counted the manpower under his command in detail, and after the two battles, the Shuofang army was reduced by a total of 6,867 people due to death and serious injuries and disabilities.

Xue Shao's liver hurt.

This is the most elite cavalry of the Shuofang Army, and the trump card that he is most proud of!

Xue Rengui seemed to see Xue Shao's thoughts, he took the initiative to find Xue Shao and join him, and gave Xue Shao all the strongest Turkic knights captured in the two battles of the Shuo Dynasty, and he took it away himself. Of course, this "slightly worse" prisoner is also Xue Shao's trophy, Xue Rengui did not take it in vain, he very generously proposed to use the Chinese army under his command Yue Cai (equivalent to Xue Shao's jumping army) and Xue Shao made a "deal", one Yue Cai for three prisoners.

Xue Shao was overjoyed, and agreed decisively without being polite!

The loss of the robe certainly made Xue Shao quite sad, but Xue Rengui's "reciprocating the peach" gave Xue Shao a little comfort. The cavalry under the command of the old marshal is not an ordinary goods, and it has already moved the world in the era of Cheng Wuting, not to mention that he still gives the most elite pro-honor Chinese army Yue cavalry. In addition, Lao Shuai has another advantage of doing this, the captured Turkic captives will be quickly assimilated if they are dispersed into different units, and it will be difficult to gather people in the future.

Because of Xue Rengui's righteousness, the Shuofang army, which had lost Yan zhòng, immediately recovered most of its vitality, and even had more than 2,000 cavalry than before. Although the tacit understanding of the newcomers is not as good as that of the veterans, there are people who can do things easily, and it is nothing more than spending more time and energy on training.

The scouts sent to Yunzhou began to send back frequent news, and the Turks were gathering grain and grass and sending troops to punish the generals, and it seemed that they had no intention of retreating when they saw a good situation, and were ready to continue southward.

A big war is about to break out.

The preparations for the Tang Army in Daizhou have thus entered a more busy and tense stage. The Shuofang Army under Xue Shao was temporarily incorporated into the large army under Xue Rengui, and all Tang troops totaled 120,000 horses, divided into the traditional seven divisions - the front and rear, the left and right, the middle and the left and right Yu Hou army.

Xue Chuyu has not yet woken up and returned to the team, and the jumping army led by Zhang Renyuan was temporarily incorporated into the Chinese army under the command of Lao Shuai, serving as the battle-breaking sharp knife troops. Xue Shao and Tang Xiujing each led half of the troops under their command to serve as the left and right Yu Marquis Army, mainly carrying out mobile tactics such as reconnaissance, plundering formations, surprise attacks, and intercepting roads.

Seeing that the war was about to break out, the Turks actually sent an envoy in front of the army, and Xue Rengui and a group of important generals such as Xue Shao met them in the army. The Turkic envoy said that he was willing to exchange a batch of prisoners with the Don army before the war.

Everyone thought that the Turks had come to make an arrogant war letter, but instead they proposed to exchange prisoners, which was a bit unexpected.

Xue Rengui asked, how to exchange?

The Turkic envoy said that he was willing to exchange the captured 700 Tang people for the chiefs of the seven steppe tribes they had captured. This doesn't sound like a bad idea, it doesn't matter if Datang wants them to be seven little chiefs, it would be a good deed if he could save seven hundred compatriots in advance.

So Xue Rengui agreed. The two sides agreed that five days later, the Turks would take the initiative to send the captives and exchange prisoners at the Jiafeng Ancient Road Twenty miles north of Yanmen Pass.

This time, the Turks showed a rare show of sincerity.

The two armies fought, and the scouts and spies kept going back and forth, and it was impossible to prevent them. Xue Shao is an expert in this area, and at the same time, he does not dare to underestimate the resourceful Yuan Zhen. So he reminded Xue Rengui that he must beware of the Turkic deception. It would be a headache if the 700 captives were mixed with a few spies or assassins.

Xue Rengui heard that it was reasonable, so the two of them privately discussed and decided not to let these 700 captives directly enter Daizhou at that time, but to transfer them to other villages for temporary resettlement, take good care of them and strictly supervise them, and after the end of the war, they will be carefully checked one by one to find out their correct bodies, and they will be dealt with separately.

The matter was not serious, and after the arrangement was made, Xue Shao didn't care about it anymore.

Unexpectedly, after going back, Liu Sheng immediately found Xue Shao and cried at him. Xue Shao asked him why, and Liu Sheng said in a rambling manner that he had just heard about an incident in which Wutai County, which he ruled, had fallen when Daizhou was besieged. His daughter, Guo Yuanzhen's wife, was captured by the Turks!

Xue Shao was taken aback, "Why didn't you say it earlier?" ”

"Xia Guan also just found out!" Liu Sheng burst into tears, "How is this good?" How is it good? ”

Xue Shao anxiously walked around thinking about the good method, and finally became wise in a hurry, "There is no other way, I will immediately send someone to stop the Turkic envoys and put forward a condition to them in private!" ”

"It's all up to Xue Yuma!" Liu Sheng's six gods fell to the ground without a master.

Xue Shao immediately sent his troops to chase the Turkic envoys. So luckily, the luck was not bad, and he caught up with the people. Xue Shao was not good at calling people back to Daizhou, so he personally went out of the city to meet the envoy to negotiate with him.

"You are the famous Xue Concubine?" The Turkic envoy was a middle-aged man, who spoke Chinese very well, and was looking Xue Shao up and down, and said quietly, "Rumors from the steppe, you will be a nightmare for all Turks in the next few decades. Not long ago, you confirmed this rumor again. ”

Xue Shao knew that he was referring to the first battle of the Shuo Dynasty, and he must have hated it in his heart, and he couldn't immediately draw his knife and cut himself. But now is not the time to talk about this kind of thing, so Xue Shao didn't answer his stubble, and only said: "I came to you to talk about the exchange of prisoners." I don't go around the bend, you broke through Wutai County not long ago and kidnapped a lot of people, one of whom is the daughter of Liu Sheng, the county magistrate of Wutai County. I'm going to trade her back. Say, what conditions do you want? ”

"The daughter of the county order?" A hint of cunning flashed in the Turkic emissary's eyes, "I seem to know this woman." ”

"What do you know?" Xue Shao asked.

"She was taken by our deputy commander, silently." The messenger smiled, "She can't be your love concubine, right?" ”

"She's my friend's wife." Xue Shao was blunt and said, "I don't want to go around the bush with you. Whatever conditions you want, you just have to prescribe it, and I will try to meet it. If she is hurt in any way, your chief will not want to go back completely! If you refuse to release her back, Xue Shao dares to swear in the name of the ancestral tomb that he will definitely cut off 10,000 of your heads as a sign of revenge! ”

"You!! ......" The messenger's eyes widened suddenly, and his eyes were full of anger and fear!

"Ten thousand heads", the words that come out of someone else's mouth may be just an arrogant threat or a boring joke. But if it comes out of Xue Shao's mouth, the messenger is convinced that he can do it!

Xue Shao said, "Say, your conditions? ”

"I ...... I'm going back and ask Mosip first! The messenger squeaked.

Xue Shao snorted, "You can't do this kind of trivial matter, what kind of messenger are you going to do?" Go back and let Mo Si come to see me! - Remember, tell him exactly what I said! ”

After that, Xue Shaole picked up the reins of his horse and whipped away, without looking back.

The envoy gritted his teeth and stared at Xue Shao step by step, and finally sighed helplessly, "If you add 10,000 lives because of a woman, it's really not worth it!" …… That's it, I'll tell you the truth! ”

Five days later, the Turks sent 700 captives as promised and stopped at the Jiafeng Ancient Road outside the Yanmen Pass. They didn't seem to be worried at all that Datang would miss the appointment, so there were less than a hundred Turkic soldiers in charge of escorting. They set up an arc-shaped formation outside the Yanmen Pass to enclose the captives, and also set up a makeshift marching tent, in which the leader probably rested.

Xue Shao volunteered to go out of the city to receive the captives, and since the Turks were not afraid of him, there was no need to be afraid, so he only brought thirty subordinates with him, escorting the seven Turkic chieftains.

Xue Shao walked directly into the tent and saw that the messenger was standing outside the tent that day, "I brought the person you wanted." Give me who I want, face to face! ”

"Yes. She's inside the tent, please come in! The messenger agreed very simply, and then walked away.

Xue Shao frowned slightly, I'm not afraid of you playing tricks!

Gripping the hilt of the knife to raise his vigilance, Xue Shao walked into the tent.

There was indeed a woman in the tent, wearing a large purple fur cloak with a collar covering her head, and she was facing Xue Shao with her back.

Xue Shao and the Liu clan were not very familiar with each other, so they couldn't confirm it after looking at it, so they said, "You turn around." ”

The woman didn't move.

Xue Shao couldn't help frowning, his eyes kept staring at the woman's back, and he gradually saw some clues, and a wave gradually stirred up in his heart!

"The seven-foot body has promised the country, and it is difficult to make Xu Qing!" The woman spoke!

Xue Shao's heart was shocked, "Sure enough, it's you!" ”

"Don't come unharmed, Master Xue!"

The woman turned around, her eyes shining like stars and moons, and she looked at Xue Shao fixedly.

- Ai Yan!

After a long absence, Xue Shao saw Ai Yan again and found that she had changed a lot. In the future, she was as agile as a moon slave, and sometimes she was extremely flamboyant and domineering. Now, both her appearance and temperament have changed significantly. She is a little plump and mellow than before, taking off the immaturity of a girl and adding a little mature richness, and her expression is also a little more elegant and confident.

This qiē change has made Ai Yan add a graceful and luxurious atmosphere, and he is no longer the steppe she-wolf who galloped to the Soona people and wanted to fight with the moon slave for three hundred rounds.

"Your expression tells me that you don't want to see me." Ai Yan's tone was very calm, and the corners of his mouth and eyes rose slightly, as if he was smiling.

"I was just surprised." Xue Shao's brows furrowed slightly, "Why did you come here?" ”

"Will you hold me in custody?" Ai Yan turned sideways and pointed her side face at Xue Shao.

"No, it won't." Xue Shao replied very simply.

"Don't you know that now I am the Divine Mother of the Prairie? I live on the Rolling Mountain, which is a spiritual totem of the Turkic worship. Ai Yan's tone was quite flat and calm, as if she was telling something that had nothing to do with her.

"I know." Xue Shao frowned again, "I also know that you have a son named Krakus, who is worshiped by the Turks as the 'son of God'. ”

"That's right. He is my son. Ai Yan turned his face, looked at Xue Shao with burning eyes, and said word by word, "She is the only sustenance and the greatest pride in my life!" ”

Xue Shao slowly took a deep breath, "Every mother is great. Children are her greatest sustenance and pride. ”

"Thank you for the compliment." Ai Yan smiled slightly, and turned his face away, "But, I don't need to!" ”