If you want to say that the reason why Xue Boren came, it was because of Liu Yan's imperial order, if according to his own intentions, he did not plan to come to help Youzhou.

Xue Boren's reason for thinking this is also very simple, that is, the actions of the Tuqi people are not reasonable enough. If Abicheril intends to officially engage the Silk Country, then it is a very unwise choice to abandon his old nest to attack Liaodong, especially now that his capital has just been successfully attacked by the Silk Country last year.

Although the capture of Dragon City did not have any practical benefits in the end, it was a waste of money and food, which seemed to be harmful and no benefit in the eyes of ordinary people; However, it is undeniable that this result is a great shame for the Turks. The most important thing is to prove that their capital is not a safe place, and the Silk Country is fully capable of breaking through the natural barrier of the desert to complete this strategic attack. Then the next question arises, since Abicheril knew that his expedition to Liaodong might cause the capital to be attacked again, why did he still adopt this strategy? If he just used a small group of cavalry to attack and harass the battle as always, the question is that he is attacking Liaodong with such fanfare, isn't he afraid of the silk country repeating his old tricks?

Of course, the withdrawal of troops from Liaodong is much faster than from the Western Regions, and it is difficult for the country of silk to have a chance to accomplish the same feat as last time, and Liaodong is indeed in a state of weak troops. However, the movement of his main army is controlled by the other party, which is very disadvantageous for Tuqi, because it means telling the Silk Country that its long border is full of insufficient troops, and the Silk Country may launch an attack against these weaknesses and inflict huge losses on the Tuqi.

Therefore, Xue Boren believes that Abicheril's more pragmatic approach should be to choose to break through the line of Taiyuan or Fengzhou and Linzhou. It's a good idea to start from Youzhou, so how could you choose Liaodong? Abicil must have done so for some other purpose.

It's a pity that the emperor Liu Yan doesn't think so. What Liu Yan feared was that Liaodong's connection with Youzhou would be severed. Although this will not result in a complete severance of north-south communications, and by virtue of the superiority in troops. It was also difficult for the Turks to hold on to this area, but the current situation was in the critical period of attacking Goryeo, and the psychology of the soldiers fighting in front was what Liu Yan was really worried about. The expedition, which had to be interrupted by Chang Miao's unexpected death, had dragged on for three years, and if it had been aborted again due to the attack of the Turks, it would have been possible to deal with Goryeo after the scale of the war against the Turks continued to expand. At that time, it is inevitable that he can only make peace with Goryeo to free up his strength to deal with Tuqi, but Goryeo will not really surrender to himself, once the national strength is restored. I'm afraid they'll join forces with Tukhe to deal with the Silk Country. Therefore, Liu Yan was still determined to take the risk, and no matter what, he must stabilize the battle situation in Liaodong and ensure that the battle in Goryeo is resolved.

Xue Boren is also very understanding of the emperor's intentions, but he always feels that Abicheril is deceitful. For this reason, he deliberately sent several secret letters to Chang'an to explain his views, and after a delay of more than ten days between this back and forth, the battle situation really changed - the direction of Tuqi's attack shifted to Youzhou.

Although Xue Boren thought that it was not very reasonable to attack Youzhou, firstly, considering that Abicheril had a special grudge against Yang Lian for the defense of Youzhou, and secondly, Zhu Tianshun, who was in charge of military affairs, rushed to help Liaodong was besieged. The Youzhou army lost its spiritual support, and in order to prevent the situation from developing to the point of being out of control, Xue Boren could only send reinforcements. However, Xue Boren still made some arrangements, and he personally led 35,000 infantry to help. However, he handed over the elite cavalry troops and the Tiger Guard Battalion to the adjutant general Lu Qinghan, and asked him to respond in the rear, in case Abicheril had other tricks. It turned out that it was his move that saved the tide of the war. He also saved his own life.

Xue Boren's army had just entered the Youzhou area when it was intercepted by the Tuqi army. This was expected by Xue Boren, and most of the infantry he led. No matter how swift the action is, there is still a high chance that it will be detected by the Tukchi Rangers and intercepted. Since the other side is a small force. He was quickly dispersed under Xue Boren's command, and there was no power to delay his movements. According to Xue Boren's calculations, as long as he entered the city of Ulju on the south bank of the Sanggan River in the evening of the same day, the flanks of the Tuqi would already be exposed in front of him. After that, the Turks will either divide their forces to deal with themselves, so that their threat to Youzhou will be lighter, and Yang Lian will have more room to restore his defense system; Either attack Youzhou with all your might, then you can use the chariot array to gradually compress the attack points of the Tuqi people, and weaken their attack ability little by little, forcing them to return in vain.

The most important thing now is to enter Ulju City and rest the troops for a while. Xue Boren ordered his subordinates to step up their march and rush to Ulju City faster.

But at this time, the sky was not beautiful, and suddenly a strong wind blew. The wind mixed with the sand and dust in the sky blew so that people couldn't even open their eyes. Soon there was no light of day, it was difficult to distinguish between things, and the whole army had to stop advancing and form a circle to hide from the wind and sand. Xue Boren couldn't stop cursing God in his heart, but there was no way to stop this wind and sand. At present, there is only patience to wait for the wind and sand to pass, Xue Boren confirmed in his heart. Fortunately, such a wind and sand can't go by itself, and neither can the Turks, even if it is delayed for a while, the situation between the two sides should not change much.

Unfortunately, Xue Boren was wrong this time, his troops were unfortunately on the front of this great wind and sand, while the Tuqi army was on the fringes and was much less affected.

By the time we had survived the storm, it was already dark. Xue Boren secretly complained, seeing that it was impossible for him to rush to Ulzhou City today, he could only find a suitable place to set up camp.

Fortunately, Xue Boren did not insist on taking advantage of the night to march hastily, if that was the case, his troops would have suffered a devastating blow that night. That night, his 35,000 men were fiercely attacked by a full 80,000 Tuqi cavalry!

Even Xue Boren couldn't help but be shocked, where did the Tuqi people come from these 80,000 people? According to intelligence, the total strength of the Turks this time was about 100,000. Xue Boren did not believe in the 100,000 cavalry, because according to his estimates, Abicilir should have more than 200,000 troops at his disposal, and at least 170,000 to 180,000 troops in addition to the troops defending the stable frontier in the Western Regions. He will not use all these troops in one direction, if in order to achieve the suddenness of the attack on Youzhou, put 100,000 troops in the direction of Liaodong to attract attention, and then the main force of 50,000 or 60,000 people to raid Youzhou, plus a part of the troops transferred from the battlefield of Liaodong, it is possible to complete the offensive operation against Youzhou. But now he is confused, if Abichilir actually divided an army of 80,000 to attack him, then how many troops do he have to deal with the Youzhou army? Or did he miscalculate the total strength of the Turkic army from the very beginning?

In fact, Xue Boren did not miscalculate, but he missed one factor, that is, Abiciel's personal hatred for him. The forces that Abichilir invested in Liaodong did have an element of bluffing, and the actual number was not as much as 100,000, but the difference was not so great; The strength of the attack on Youzhou was also roughly the same as he expected, but what Xue Boren did not take into account was that the fundamental goal of Abicheril's operation was not any strategic point, but for one person. A man who once captured the capital of the Tuqi king, Dragon City: Xue Boren.

The so-called attack on Liaodong and the transfer to Youzhou, all these seemingly unreasonable moves are just to fish out Xue Boren, and then gather and annihilate him. Abicheril's goal was clear, to kill the enemy general who had defiled Dragon City, and thus announce to his people that anyone who violated Turky would be turned into corpses. Abiciel also values the mental power lost in the Battle of Dragon City. (To be continued......)