Gao Baoning, as a general of the former Qi, naturally knew the waist card that Liu Fang ordered someone to send him.

At first, he heard that his own soldiers had come to report that Shabalu Khan had sent someone to take him to Zihe Town, and he was still highly skeptical of the identity of Liu Fang and others, but when he saw this waist card, he couldn't help but believe it.

Because, those who are eligible to wear this waist card must at least be an official in the Turkic Dynasty (second only to the special service, about equivalent to the Turkic official position of the six Shangshu of the Sui Dynasty). A high-ranking Turkic official with such a high rank personally came to Caochangbao to pick him up and go to Zihe Town, as usual, it shouldn't be a fake.

After Gao Baoning saw the waist card, he didn't dare to slack off at all, and immediately led the strategists and generals around him to personally welcome him out of the gate.

Liu Fang originally wanted to lead Gao Baoning to a secluded place outside the Caochang Fort to capture him back to the Guannei, but from a distance, he saw Gao Baoning coming out of the courtyard with a group of entourage, that is, he pretended to be in a hurry to go back to recover his life, and turned around and instructed a Sui army sergeant: "You, go and tell General Manhan to prepare to return to Zihe Town." Then he urged Gao Baoning, who had already walked in front of him, and said: "General Gao, the military affairs are urgent, please follow me to meet the army outside the grassland fort now, and go with me to see the Great Khan." ”

Gao Baoning saw that Liu Fang and the others were all dressed as ordinary Turkic herdsmen, and couldn't help but be puzzled, and asked Liu Fang with a smile and a fist: "May I ask what is the name of the honorable driver?" Even if the Great Khan summons him, he doesn't have to go in such a hurry. As he spoke, he turned around and glanced at the accompanying generals and soldiers, and one or twenty soldiers surrounded Liu Fang and three Sui soldiers.

Liu Fang was furious, raised his hand and gave a resounding slap to a soldier in front of him, and ordered Gao Baoning sharply: "Didn't you see the waist card?" If you dare to be so disrespectful to us, don't forget where you are now! Let these retinues of yours stay, and you come with me! ”

Gao Baoning was frightened by him for a while, and hurriedly stepped forward, holding the waist card in both hands and returning it to Liu Fang, but he still asked: "Please calm your anger, I don't know why the Great Khan sent Zunjia to summon me to Zihe Town so urgently?" If I go away with him now, I will also have to be informed of your army stationed in this town. ”

Liu Fang saw that the play couldn't go on, so he pretended to approach Gao Baoning, answered the questions he raised, and took advantage of Gao Baoning's unpreparedness to snatch the steel knife from the hand of a personal soldier, and slashed down Gao Baoning's neck.

Everyone present didn't react yet, but seeing the red light splashing in front of him, Gao Baoning's body shook twice, and he fell forward to the ground, and died of exhaustion.

Liu Fang struck a successful blow and hurriedly beckoned the three Sui soldiers who were accompanying him to retreat to the outside of the town, and the four of them ran more than a hundred steps away, and were blocked by a group of patrolling Turkic sergeants in front. Liu Fang let out a loud shout, led the three sergeants to wave their swords, and rushed forward.

At this time, the other seven sergeants scattered throughout the town heard that there was a commotion in the south of the town, and knew that Liu Fang and the others had exchanged hands with Gao Baoning's men, so they set fires all over the town.

The seven Sui soldiers who set the fire slipped out of the Caochang Fort and rushed to a herdsman's felt tent ten miles south of the Caochang Fort according to the place agreed with Liu Fang in advance, waiting to meet Liu Fang and others, and then returned to the Guannei together.

At this time, the seven people waited until the night of the same day to see Liu Fang covered in blood and running alone from the direction of Caochang Fort.

The seven sergeants hurriedly stepped forward, helped Liu Fang into the felt tent, and asked, "Dudu, why did you come back alone?" Did you kill Gao Baoning? ”

Liu Fang was so tired that he couldn't say a word, and he gasped for a long time before he reluctantly replied: "Gao Baoning is dead, and the three of them are also dead." Quickly, I can't stay here, so I immediately set off and returned to the gate. ”

The news that Gao Baoning had been stabbed by an unidentified assassin at Fort Grassland reached the town of Purple River two days later. After the report was received, Shabalu Khan immediately summoned Kehe Dunyuwen Prajna, Tuli Khan Chu Luoyu, Prince Yongyu Lu, and the secret service cave Hezhen and others to the Great Khan's tooth tent for an emergency meeting on the matter.

Two months ago, there was a reason why he took in Gao Baoning, who was driven out by Goguryeo:

First of all, although Gao Baoning has been defeated for many years, and there are only more than 100 personal soldiers left under his command, he is a royal family and general of the former Qi, and he still has considerable appeal and influence in the Hebei area south of the Great Wall, especially for the family Haoyou, and he remains in his own country, and when the strength of the tribe recovers and regains hegemony in the future, he can use Gao Baoning to contain the Sui Dynasty's army in the north, so that it will not be able to deal with him with all his strength;

Secondly, he was interested in establishing the prestige of his Great Khan in his country by taking in Gao Baoning, so as to enhance the confidence and loyalty of the Turks in him, but he also did not want Gao Baoning to bring him too much trouble, so he only placed Gao Baoning and his entourage of more than 100 people in Caochangbao on the eastern border of the Turks, preparing that once the Sui Dynasty learned that Gao Baoning was in Turkic territory and asked him for someone, he could let Gao Baoning flee to other countries, and at the same time falsely claimed to the Sui Dynasty that he did not know anything about this matter, so as not to anger the Sui Dynasty.

But he never expected that Yang Guang did not act according to the convention, and did not even follow the normal process of saluting first and then soldiering, and directly sent assassins to infiltrate his territory and kill Gao Baoning. In this way, not only did his wishful thinking completely fail, but he even caused the hatred of Hebei Shihao right because Gao Baoning died in his country, which really outweighed the loss!

Last year, he sent his nephew Dengan to Chang'an as a hostage, hoping to bypass the tough Jin King Yang Guang, and directly asked Sui Emperor Yang Jian to restore the unity of the Eastern and Western Turks, but so far Dye Gan has not even replied, and it is estimated that this matter will not be fulfilled.

In addition, before this, he used the excuse of going north to prevent the invasion of Tiele, and wanted to move the Great Khan's tooth tent north and gradually get rid of the control of the Sui Dynasty, but Yang Guang made a mistake, and forced him to return to Zihe Town obediently with tens of thousands of Sui troops.

In just half a year, he, the dignified Turkic Great Khan, was planted again and again under the hands of Yang Guang, a hairy boy, how could this so-called photograph swallow this mouthful?

At the same time, what added a bit of confidence to the picture was that after half a year of recovery, the tribe under his command re-organized a powerful cavalry army of up to 80,000 people, which was enough to resist the hundreds of thousands of Sui troops under Yang Guang's command.

The recovery of strength, as well as the resentment accumulated by repeated defeats under Yang Guang, made Xue Tu move to get rid of the Sui Dynasty and return to the idea of being an equal to the Sui Dynasty before.

Today, as soon as he received the news of Gao Baoning's death, he urgently summoned several powerful figures to come, in order to test the attitude of several powerful figures towards the Sui Dynasty and see if the time was ripe to raise troops against the Sui.