Xue Shao sent several capable subordinates to follow Xue Rengui with carrier pigeons, keeping in touch at any time and exchanging military information between the two sides. After arriving in Shuozhou, Xue Shao built countless beacons in the vicinity of the Great Wall, and many sentry horses patrolled around the day. The scout spies who were secretly deployed in the dark extended their reconnaissance activities to a large area around thirty miles.

Compared with other generals of the same era, Xue Shao paid more attention to intelligence gathering on the battlefield, which may be a habit developed by years of special operations experience in his previous life. This habit made him invincible in the war of the Tang Dynasty, which is in line with the ancient art of war, "knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent is invincible".

The role of scouts was brought into full play by Xue Shao.

Especially in this battle to reinforce Hebei, the hundreds of new scouts brought out by the original twenty old scouts under Guo An grew rapidly in actual combat, and some even shined and became unique talents. and the Xue family's cousins are also quite excellent, they are actually scouts in essence, but they are only subordinate to Xue Shao's private in terms of identity, not real nominal soldiers.

Seven days after arriving in Shuozhou, news finally came from Xue Rengui's side, saying that after Xue Rengui led the main force to Guliang Xiaoyi, he found that the Turkic enemy army had not fulfilled its contract to fight. On the contrary, they gave up Yunzhou - the soles of their feet were oiled and they slipped away!

Xue Rengui was furious, and led the army to chase into Yunzhou in one go, and found that the enemy had indeed run away without a single person. At the same time, the entire Yunzhou City has become a sea of fire and ruins, and the people and property have all been swept away. Xue Rengui had no choice but to temporarily station his army in the open space between Yunzhou City and the Great Wall Pass, so that the rear could transport grain and grass to supply the army. At the same time, he sent a letter to Xue Shao, asking him to go to Yunzhou to discuss the next military plan.

Receiving this news, Xue Shao was both shocked and angry. I didn't expect the Turks to play such a play, it seems that the evaluation of the Turkic Hu people that was circulated in the world was "untrustworthy and deceitful", which is really not groundless.

Xue Shao guessed that the Turks' cool retreat was due to two reasons:

One is that they didn't want a decisive battle at all, and the reason why they took the initiative to come down to fight was to divert the attention of the Tang army, delay the timing of the Tang army's troops, and buy time for their safe retreat. If they really drove to Guliang Xiaoyi to fight a decisive battle with the Tang army, even if Xue Shao did not capture Yunzhou by surprise, it was possible for the Youzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to do so. Once the Yunzhou behind them is cut off, they may fall into a siege and cannot get out.

The second is that they did make a plan to divert the tiger from the mountain, but they found that Shuozhou was heavily defended by Xue Shao and could not start, and there was no oil and water to fish on the left and right, so they simply left. In any case, a head-on decisive battle is by no means what the Turks are good at and expect, and it is useless for them to take the city of Yunzhou. They have never been rare in the cities of the Tang Dynasty, they only need the wealth, food and population in the cities.

Xue Shao replied to Xue Rengui, informing Lao Shuai of his speculation and analysis first, so that he could have more lessons to learn from. Afterwards, Xue Shao led the jumping army out of the city and went to Yunzhou to meet Xue Rengui to discuss the next military plan. The heavy responsibility of guarding Shuozhou was handed over to his deputy Tang Xiujing and the main force of more than 20,000 Shuofang cavalry.

Three days later, Xue Shao led his troops to Yunzhou. As far as the eye can see, there are scorched earth ruins.

Xue Rengui's subordinates were working hard to clear the embers of the city and bury the bodies of civilians and soldiers. But a few days passed, and there were still a large number of corpses in the city that had not been buried. Among them, there are many old people and children who are helpless, and most of the corpses are missing arms and legs, and it is difficult to see a complete set. Many of the women were stripped naked and hung from trees, covered in blood, enough to show that they had been stabbed to death by the Turks after being humiliated. Among them were several pregnant women, whose bellies had been dissected to reveal the dead fetus in their wombs......

All kinds of miserable appearances made Xue Shao and his subordinates grit their teeth and be furious.

A general in charge of burying the body found Xue Shao and invited him to the government office of the Yunzhou Governor's Mansion and invited him to come in to take a look. After Xue Shao entered, he saw that there was a large number of heads neatly placed in the main hall of the Governor's Mansion, and the names and official positions were marked with notes on each head.

The dead here are all the officials and generals of Yunzhou. The head of Li Wenji, the governor of Yunzhou, had been burned to a blackened black and was also placed in it.

And next door to the main hall, there are still traces of a wine banquet. It can be seen that after the Turks killed a group of officials and generals of the Tang Dynasty here, they held a celebration banquet.

The plaque of the main residence of the official of the Governor's Mansion has been removed, and it has been replaced by a large silk banner tens of meters long, with a line of words written on it-

"I would like to sacrifice the lives of the city in Yunzhou to the martyrs of my Turkic Khanate who died in the two states of the Shuo Dynasty! Today, in this move, the clan swears - the Turks will kill Xue Shao, a snow country shameful blood feud! ”

Xue Shao looked at this picture of words, his eyes were full of murder, and his teeth were clenched.

"Young Marshal Xue, our people found a few Yunzhou people who survived in the city." The generals who led the way said to Xue Shao, "They said that after the Turks captured Yunzhou, they began to search for officials and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty in the city, wantonly looting property and raping women. Soon after, they began to carry out massacres in the city. Except for a few craftsmen with strange skills and beautiful young women, the rest were killed. Moreover, when the Turks killed people, they also declared to the soldiers and civilians of Yunzhou that if they wanted to complain, they would complain that Xue Shao had killed too many of them in Shuodai Erzhou, and they were avenging their compatriots. All the hatred and all the grievances must be blamed on Xue Shao alone! ”

As soon as the general's words were finished, the soldiers behind Xue Shao all scolded angrily.

"What a clever word, shameless!" Zhang Renyuan shouted loudly, "There is no selfish enmity on the battlefield, each is the master of each other, how can the hatred be extended to the defenseless people?" The Turks are so cruel and unkind, even if the earth does not remove them, the heavens will also remove them! ”

"It's a brute!"

"The next time you see a Turk, it doesn't matter who he is, kill all of them without leaving one!"

"Kill! Kill them all!! ”

"We must avenge the blood hatred of the fathers, villagers, and robes of Yunzhou!!"

……

"Shut up!" Xue Shao shouted, "Are you all shrews in the market, actually scolding the street here?" ”

Everyone was silent, but everyone gritted their teeth, and the remaining anger could not be eliminated.

"We are soldiers, and the weapons in our hands are our language." Xue Shao said, "No matter how much hatred you have, let me go to the battlefield to vent, and stop talking nonsense and farts less on weekdays!" ”

"Yes!!"

"Let's go, follow me to see the old handsome!"

Not long after, Xue Shao entered the camp and met Xue Rengui.

"Has the young marshal seen the scene in the city?" Xue Rengui's face turned pale.

"I also went to the Governor's Mansion and saw the banner." Xue Shao said, "The Turks vented their hatred on the common people, and Xue Shao couldn't bear it!" ”

"Isn't the old man?" Xue Rengui gritted his teeth and said hatefully: "I only hate that thief Kou is very slippery, and he escaped from Yunzhou immediately after slaughtering the city." I sent a number of scouts to investigate, and learned that their men had not been completely withdrawn. ”

"Oh?" Xue Shao was a little curious, "It's not completely withdrawn, how can you say it?" ”

Xue Rengui replied: "As far as I know, after the Turks withdrew from Yunzhou, about half of the Turks fled into the desert with their people and wealth, but the other half of the men and horses stopped on the Gobi Desert in the north, about a hundred miles away from Yunzhou, as if they had other plans. ”

"That's weird." Xue Shao also felt a little surprised, "The Turks have already slaughtered Yunzhou City, so there is no reason to stay." Could it be that there is a disagreement within them? ”

"For a moment, I don't know." Xue Rengui said, "The old man was supposed to lead the army to pursue, but he was afraid that the enemy's situation was unknown and fell into an ambush. It was just when the young marshal came, and the old man wanted to hear the young marshal's high opinion - that enemy, kill or not? ”

Xue Shao pondered for a moment and said, "As the old marshal said, the enemy situation is not clear, and you should not act rashly. For the sake of today's plan, we can only send additional scouts to find out the enemy's situation and then make a decision. I still have a few capable scouts under my command, and if the old general can be trusted, I will send them on a journey. ”

"Very good." Xue Rengui smiled slightly, "What the old man is waiting for is the young marshal's words - the scouts under the young marshal's command have already impressed the old man." Now is the time for them to use force! ”

Xue Shao immediately called Guo An and assigned the task.

When Guo An took the promise and left, Xue Rengui praised repeatedly, "The old man has never seen such a capable scout in his life. The young marshal has trained his troops well! ”

"The old general has won the award!" Xue Shao smiled and said in his heart that I used modern special operations experience to train scouts, which is naturally unique.

The next day, the scouts sent by Xue Shao had not yet reported back to the enemy, but a messenger came to the rear and the governor's office.

It turned out that Wu Chengsi was very happy to learn that Yunzhou was "returning without a fight", and sent someone to congratulate Xue Rengui and Xue Shao, and at the same time, "please ask the two military marshals to report the success to the imperial court." ”

Wu Chenghei, this is in a hurry to ask the court for credit.

Xue Shao and Xue Rengui hated to kill the messenger on the spot.

"You hurry up and go back to Bingzhou and say to Wu Chenghe!" Xue Rengui angrily shouted at his messenger, "Yunzhou has recovered without a fight, but it has completely become a deserted city, a human purgatory full of corpses and blood, and all the soldiers and civilians have been slaughtered by the Turks!" In this situation, where do we still have the face to ask the court for credit? It's too late to please! ”

"Yes, yes! ...... "Where can the messenger parry Xue Rengui's tiger might, his legs are frightened, and he wants to flee in a hurry."

"Wait!" Xue Shao stopped him, invited Xue Rengui aside, and whispered, "The old general is angry, now our logistics supplies and grain and grass transportation are all supported by the state, and we still need Wu Chenghe." The restoration of Yunzhou is not only not a military achievement, but once the imperial court investigates it, it will be a great sin. Since Wu Chengsi is now bent on defrauding the imperial court for his military exploits, why don't we just count it and give him all the credit for recovering Yunzhou? ”

Xue Rengui suddenly smiled, "Since the dog can't change his eating, let's feed him a lump of good dung mixed with arsenic|frost!" ”

Arsenic|Frost good manure?

Xue Shao couldn't help but smile, the old general is quite talented!