On the third day of the first month of the fourth year of the Apocalypse, when Chang'an was still immersed in the joyful atmosphere of the New Year, in the world shrouded in ice and snow and cold wind in the northwest, a group of people suddenly got up from the desert, covered with yellow-brown veils and layers of hoarfrost, looking from afar, it was really impossible to see that there were living creatures lurking here. However, as soon as these men got up, dozens of cavalrymen in northwestern costumes galloping in the distance began to turn their horses' heads sharply.

"Kill them all, not a single one." The leader threw down the veil on his body and immediately shot with his gun, the sound of the thud was crisp and pleasant on the moor, but it was accompanied by the cavalry being put down one by one.

This short battle came abruptly and ended quickly, and the dozens of northwest cavalry were all killed on the spot without even having a chance to fight back. The new style of rifle also revealed their identity, the Tiance Army.

"Strip their skins, three-headed, you take a few people to change them and then go to Gaochang City with their urgent mail, there will be people from the secret guards over there to connect with you, and act according to the plan when the time comes." After the leader finished giving the order, a rough-looking man next to him immediately stepped forward with a few people, took off the clothes of those northwest cavalrymen, quickly changed them, and headed north after getting on his horse.

"Let's go, go to the next location, to Datun City, and tell the Uighur leader of Datun that his time of death has come." The man showed a sneer in the cold wind, and with dozens of silent warriors behind him, he quickly disappeared into the cold wind and sand.

Three days later, on the fifth day of the first month of the third year of the Apocalypse, the Uighur consul of Datun was assassinated in his mansion, and his death was extremely miserable.

At the same time, almost the leaders and chiefs of almost 30 Uighur settlements around Datun were slaughtered overnight, and the methods were just as miserable. As a result, throughout the winter, all the Uighurs in the vicinity of Datun fell into a leaderless realm. And the most important thing is that almost all the connections between Datun City and the outer stone city and Boxian Town have been cut off by the Flying Eagle Brigade, which means that the Anxi Uighur base camp has no idea what is happening in Datun City at this time. Moreover, thanks to the fact that Cao Rengui and the Uighurs had cut off the Silk Road, there were very few caravans active in the entire Anxi region throughout the winter, so the news from the people was also transmitted very slowly. Even Cao Rengui, who was in Boxian Town, didn't get any news for a while.

However, at this time, Su Xiaohu, the operator of this plan of "killing one person in ten steps, leaving no one for a thousand miles", did not intend to hide Cao Rengui for a long time, and the current top priority was to find a way to walk the news to Qiuzi, the Uighur base camp of Anxi, before Cao Rengui reacted. Originally, Qiuzi was in the far northwest, the hinterland of Anxi, and it was too difficult for the Flying Eagle Brigade to deliver the news there, but Zhao Si's side almost set all the plans in his own expectations, and there was no problem for the Flying Eagle Brigade to implement this plan, so the secret guard on Qiuci's side directly spread the manuscript they had written before without any news from the rear on the fifth day of the first lunar month, and Datun City was attacked by Cao Rengui's Guiyi Army without authorization. All 39 clan leaders were killed, and their subordinates were also recruited.

At about the same time, spies from Cao Rengui began to be sniped by other units of the Flying Eagle Brigade, but this time the Flying Eagle Brigade was disguised as a Uighur from Gaochang. Even in order to leave enough evidence, the Flying Eagle Brigade took great pains to leave a corpse of a Uighur from Gaochang at one site, and although the body was found frozen and hard, the basic nomadic characteristics were still recognizable.

Originally, such a plan could not hide Cao Rengui's eyes at all, but what could not be stopped was that the Uighur messenger from Gaochang sent by the Flying Eagle Brigade in disguise also braved the wind and cold to arrive in Boxian Town at this time. However, the news brought by the Uighur messengers from Gaochang made Cao Rengui suspicious. The letter was written by the Uighur prince, who is currently the supreme commander of the Uighurs in Qocho. In the letter, Midi also said that according to the current intelligence, the main direction of the Tiance army should really be on the side of the Gaochang Uighurs, that is, the direction of Yizhou, which bears the brunt of the attack. In accordance with the agreement of the anti-Tang alliance, Yemidi asked the Guiyi Army and the Anxi Uighurs to send troops to Yizhou to assist the Gaochang Uighurs in dealing with the Tiance Army. And in order to show his sincerity, he also showed the latest information on the movement of the Tiance Army that he intercepted. Some of the main forces of the Tiance Army have left Shazhou City and began to rush to the northern border of Shazhou to assemble, and there is intelligence that the logistics of the Tiance Army have also begun to move towards the border from Guazhou and other places.

Gao Chang's so-called information is not much of a fallacy, originally the messenger was the Eagle Brigade looking for someone to impersonate, this information was still sent from Xuan Yingwei, in order to win Cao Rengui's trust, naturally there will not be many mistakes, and the current transfer of Wan Yi in the sandbank is indeed the same. But this information is not the case in Cao Rengui's opinion. None of his spies came back after they were sent, which in itself made him feel that there was a problem, at this time, if he sent troops to Yizhou, not to mention a long journey, he said that he had arrived, in case the illusory shot of the army was aimed at Anxi's side, the distance between Boxian Town and the sandbar was not far, wouldn't the troops in his hands be killed by a nest?

Thinking of this, Cao Rengui couldn't help but be a little impatient, he originally thought that if he set up the banner of the anti-Tang alliance in Anxi and get rid of the Uighurs, he would be able to select talents from the descendants of Zhaowu Jiu in the name of righteousness, and it was very easy to gather troops, because since Shazhou was occupied by the Tiance Army, Cao Rengui's army has become the last force of the Guiyi Army, according to the previous status of the Guiyi Army in the hearts of the descendants of Zhaowu Jiu, there will definitely be no problem in recruiting troops now, And the most important thing is that the Uighurs, who had been suppressing the Zhaowu nine surnames, began to loosen their mouths and let go of the suppression of them, and even the Anxi Uighurs had already greeted them in various places along the way, and would assist the descendants of the Zhaowu nine surnames when they went to Boxian Town when necessary. As a result, almost a month has passed, and he has only recruited more than 10,000 people in total, including many outlaws of other races, that is, the unique Shakou in the northwest, and there are not many real Zhaowu nine surnames.

Cao Rengui's face was uncertain for the Uighur messenger of Gaochang to see, but he was regarded as unwilling to send troops, and his face suddenly turned unkind, and he directly spoke in Uighur language: "General Cao, the anti-Tang alliance was proposed by your army, and now that my Uighurs are fighting against the Tiance army on the front line in Yizhou, don't your army plan to go?" If so, I will go back at once and report to the prince, and then draw a clear line with you. ”

"How so? The envoy misunderstood what the general meant, and the general just felt that the Tiance army would not do it in winter, after all, they were not from the northwest, and it was not easy for them to rush out troops under the severe cold. How about a decision on this matter after Ben has found out? Cao Rengui shook his head again and again and said: "If the information of your army is true, I will definitely not be resigned to the righteous army, and I will personally lead the main force of troops and horses to gallop north to aid Yizhou." I beg you to pay more respects to His Royal Highness the Prince on my behalf when I return. ”

Although Cao Rengui's words were categorical, the Uighur messenger's face remained uncertain, and it was not until Cao Rengui ordered someone to send a pair of generous gifts that the other party smiled and revealed the previous incident. The Uighur messengers stayed in the town of Boxian for a day, and then hurried out of the city and returned to Gaochang. As soon as the messenger left, Cao Rengui's face changed, on the one hand, he was depressed that a small Uighur messenger dared to show his face at him, and on the other hand, he intuitively felt that there was something wrong with this.

"Send the order, immediately send someone to contact our own people in Shicheng, and find a way to find out the movement on the other side of the sandbank." Cao Rengui stood alone outside Boxian Town for a long time before returning to the barracks, and immediately after returning to the palace, he sent someone to contact the shadows he had arranged in Shicheng to listen to the movements of the Tiance Army.

"Let's go, let's go to Khotan, leave a team here and wait for San'er to come and take over." After Su Xiaohu saw Cao Rengui go back outside the city, he nodded thoughtfully and said with a smile: "This time, Cao Rengui will be turned around by us even if he is treacherous and ghostly." "The main force of the Flying Eagle Brigade has been lurking in this generation for nearly a month, and has already killed all the people who have a face and even a bit of identity here, as long as there is the slightest hostility to the Tiance Army, almost all of them are the enemies of the Flying Eagle Brigade. In just over a month, Su Xiaohu's Flying Eagle Brigade visited almost all the places along the five towns east of Boxian Town, large and small, and almost all the places along the way. The people of the brigade never moved, but just stared at the leaders and generals led by them, killing batch after batch of these people, and some small military towns did not even dare to choose a leader later. The messengers and heralds sent to report the news outside the city did not return, and all the exchanges between the various military towns were cut off, and they did not know whether the people next to them were still alive.

Originally, some of these people had the courage to gather a large group of men and horses to march forward, but the Flying Eagle Brigade began to fight against the empty garrison shortly after the other side left the stronghold, and those small and rudimentary military towns could not be stopped in front of mortars and grenades, so almost the Uighur troops on the front foot went out of the pass, and the messenger on the back foot who urgently called for help made these troops retreat. It can be said that in the past month or so, the Flying Eagle Brigade has relied on its superb strength to suppress the movements of hundreds of tribes of all sizes in the east of Anxi, trapping them in place and unable to move.

And Su Xiaohu's departure originally made these people take a breath, and Li San'er led more than 5,000 reserve Flying Eagle Brigade soldiers to replace him, and this more powerful force was sprinkled into this place to make all the tribes even more frightened.

However, this gap allowed Cao Rengui to also know the situation in the east, so that Cao Rengui almost immediately understood the purpose of what the Tiance Army was doing. It can be said that Cao Rengui concluded that the Tiance Army on the Yizhou side was just an illusory shot, and the real purpose was only one, that is, the main force to attack Anxi, and after mobilizing his forces to go north to Yizhou, the empty opportunity was to take all the areas east of Boxian Town in one fell swoop, and completely annihilate himself.

Thinking of this, Cao Rengui immediately took measures, on the one hand, he reported the information he had discovered to Gaochang and Yanqi, and on the other hand, he immediately sent people into Khotan, asking the Khotanese army to come to the vicinity of Boxian Town in Anxi as soon as possible and join forces with him to resist the Tiance army.

In order to make the Tiance army think that he had not detected the other party's strategic intentions, Cao Rengui didn't even pay attention to the matter between Datun City and Shicheng, and still took care of his own troops and horses to strengthen his strength.

It's just that what Cao Rengui didn't know was that his two messengers had just walked out of the sphere of influence in Boxian Town, and they were intercepted by the Flying Eagle Brigade, and the messengers who went north to Gaochang and Yanqi to report the news were directly killed, and the letters left behind were quickly taken over by Xuanyingwei's people, and then sent to Xuanyingwei's secret guards in the two places. However, the messenger all the way to Khotan was directly a person from Xuan Yingwei, so he directly joined Su Xiaohu at the border of Khotan.

"You take this letter with you and go to Khotan to see Li Qiming, just say that General Cao has found out the news that the main force of the Tiance army has been concentrated near Yizhou in the north, and asks the Khotanese army to come to the aid of Yizhou as soon as possible." After Su Xiaohu explained, he ordered Xuan Yingwei's people to set off immediately, and there were Xuan Yingwei's people along the way to answer, and the corresponding rhetoric believed that Zhao Si's side was also all ready.

"Let's stay here, let the second child lead people to the main road between Khotan and the Uighurs, and if there are messengers from Khotan, they will be killed on the spot. If the Khotanese army goes, then leave it alone. Su Xiaohu instructed the second captain beside him to immediately lead his troops to set off, and he found a place to settle down and prepare to rest.

"Report, Grand Commander, there is an urgent order from the Xuanyingwei Shazhou Branch, and an urgent order is from the Great Marshal's side, asking the Grand Commander to immediately lead his troops into the capital of Khotan, and cooperate with Qin Kong, the deputy commander of Xuanyingwei." After Su Xiaohu took the order, he smiled and said, "That kid from Qin Kong actually arrived in Khotan quietly, and it seems that the situation has been opened up over there." ”

"Boss, I heard that the lord of Khotan doesn't seem to be named Li Qiming, but our Han people, called Wei Chi or something, but I don't know how someone took away the national ancestry." As soon as Su Xiaohu's words were finished, Luo Minghao, the captain next to him, made Su Xiaohu nod, and it seemed that Qin Kong had really found a flaw.

"What should come is always coming. This time the Tang Dynasty is not only to recover the territory of the previous generation, what the emperor wants is a stable and unified territory that will always belong to my Tang Dynasty, and the Khotanese Buddha Kingdom is only afraid that this time it will be difficult to escape. Su Xiaohu said a rare sigh of emotion to Khotan, stood up and said with a smile: "Immediately gather the brothers, go to the next supply point, and then the whole army enters Khotan, let's also go to observe the big Buddha in Khotan." ”

"Haha, I heard that the big Buddha is made of pure gold, let's transport it back, I'm afraid that the emperor should award us that big medal, right?" A soldier armed with a musket beside Luo Minghao smiled: "I heard that since the emperor promulgated that medal, it has never been issued to anyone?" Let's try to get one. This sentence made everyone forget the fatigue of more than a month and laughed out loud.