The "five hundred horsemen of wolf teeth" sent by Yongyu Lu to meet Yang Guang surrounded Yang Guang and his party of 100 people before and after, and marched all the way to Baidaozhou, an important town in southern desert in the Turkic territory. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Li Che and Yang Guang walked side by side, and when they didn't walk for a long time, they realized that the momentum was a little wrong, so they quietly said to Yang Guang: "Lord Wang, pay more attention. I don't think this 500-strong Turkic cavalry is just there to meet us, but more like they are watching us along the way, not asking us to move around at will. ”

Yang Guang looked around twice, and sure enough, he saw that the hussar camp was surrounded by Turkic cavalry on the front and back, left and right, and strictly limited his group to the route they led, nodded at Li Che, and asked him with a little worry: "Qi Angong, what do the Turks mean?" ”

"Don't worry, Lord Wang, I have heard when I was in Yuguan that there has been a great drought in the Turkic territory, and there has been no rain for nearly a year, and the deaths and injuries of people and animals are not counted, and this is close to Yanmen Pass, Yongyu Lu's move is mostly worried that we will find their secrets along the way. But please pay attention to it, don't worry too much. ”

A distance of more than 100 miles, if Yang Guang and his party were all cavalry, it would not take three or four hours to reach Baidao Prefecture. However, the dozens of cavalry soldiers in the hussar camp of the King of Jin were all lost in the battle of Lingshi Fort, and among the people who escorted Yang Guang to Baidaozhou, except for a few generals such as Li Che and Yujuluo, who rode war horses, even Xian Yuluo, who was the deputy commander of the first battalion of the guards, also led the "iron hoof dragon" and walked in front of Yang Guang's horse.

In this way, a group of hundreds of people walked until it was dark that day, and they only walked less than forty miles, and the Turkic general Zuo who led the team to greet Yang Guang and others did not seem to expect that he would not be able to rush back to Baidaozhou in one day, so he had to order people to find a shelter and set up a tent and camp on the spot, while sending a flying horse back to Baidaozhou to report to Yongyu Lu and explain the situation.

It was nearly 39 years ago, and although the Turks lit piles of bonfires around the tent, they still couldn't resist the biting cold on the vast grassland. Yang Guang put on a mink coat on his body, wrapped two layers of thick cotton socks on his feet, and sat around the fire with Li Che, Yu Juluo and others, still feeling a chill from time to time, which made him snot slip through the cold.

He raised his eyes and saw that not far away, the Turkic cavalry was sitting around the fire in groups of three or five, but they did not have their own embarrassed appearance at all, and they took out the dry food they carried with him and ate happily, and couldn't help but say to Li Che enviously: "The Turks can live in such a cold place for generations, and their physical strength is indeed not comparable to that of our Chinese people!" ”

Li Che looked back at the Turkic cavalry, as if he had seen something flawed, approached Yang Guang, and said in a low voice: "Lord Wang, the Turks have always eaten meat, have you seen it, these guards around Yongyu Lu can only rely on the bread they carry with them to wrap their stomachs, which shows that the Turkic country has indeed encountered a great famine." Although Yong Yulu invited the prince to go to Baidaozhou to meet with him, he was not worried that we would see through the predicament faced by the Turks along the way, so he sent this cavalry army of 'five hundred horsemen with wolf teeth' out of the city for hundreds of miles, obviously to greet us, but in fact to monitor us. ”

Yang Guangzheng took a roasted golden and crispy leg of mutton from Xian Yuluo's hand, and when he heard Li Che's words, he handed the roast leg of mutton to Li Hun who was sitting next to him, blinked his eyes, and asked Li Che rhetorically: "Duke Qi An, is it because of the great disaster encountered in the Turkic country that Yongyu Lu did not hesitate to personally lead the guards cavalry to quietly bypass Yanmen Pass, attack Lingshi Fort at night, and want to come to loot grain, grass and goods?" ”

"It's a possibility. But the prince has thought about it, the Turkic people have lived nomadically for generations, and living in pursuit of water and grass is their living habit for many years. Once their country encounters a catastrophe, will they go south in a big way and invade our Great Sui border? Li Che said with a solemn face.

"In other words, the Turkic war with my Great Sui is now imminent, isn't that so?" Yang Guang was taken aback, and asked Li Che in a hurried tone.

"Sha Bo personally led the main force westward, and it is not yet known where they are going, but as far as I can see tonight, even the most elite guards in the Turkic army will not be able to eat meat, and the day when the Turks will march south is not far off." Li Che looked at the vast night and said slowly.

Thinking about it along the lines of thought reminded by Li Che, Yang Guang couldn't help but feel a little worried about Yong Yulu's real intention of inviting him to Baidaozhou to meet with him this time: since Li Che believed that the Turks would soon invade the south on a large scale, wouldn't it be wrong for him to go out to the border to make an appointment this time, wouldn't it be like seeking the skin of a tiger?

Li Che seemed to see through Yang Guang's thoughts, smiled, and comforted him: "Lord Wang, relax your mind, the main force of Sha Boluo has already advanced westward, at least the direction of Yanmen Pass is not the main direction of the Turks' southward attack this time. Didn't I say it a few days ago, Yongyu Lu is both wise and brave, and he is cool-headed, he will never take risks in person just to get back the child of a Xihu merchant and break into the state at night. Using this move to show favor to the prince, inducing the prince to relax his vigilance against the Turks, and even sending wrong information to the imperial court, may be his real intention. He invited the prince to Baidao Prefecture to meet with him, probably for this purpose. Therefore, he will never hurt the prince. ”

Yang Guang lowered his head, thought about it seriously, and still felt half-convinced of Li Che's words: An Suijia, a child who was only ten years old, was captured by Yujuluo and returned to Bingzhou, and his various performances in front of him fully showed that he was by no means just the son of an ordinary Xihu merchant. Yong Yulu even did not hesitate to propose to himself that he would rather stay in the state in exchange for An Suijia being released as soon as possible, is this just to implement some delaying tactics?

Although he was not undoubted in his heart, Yang Guang did not want to quarrel with Li Che again in the middle of the road, so he only silently buried this question in the bottom of his heart, wanting to wait until he arrived in Baidao Prefecture to ask the answer from the Turks.

After a night without saying a word, after setting off again the next day, Yang Guang rode on horseback and specially observed the scene along the way, and sure enough, he noticed the signs of a great drought in the Turkic country from some subtleties: the further north he went, the withered grass on the grassland withered more and more, and the ground under his feet dried up and cracked into lumps of soil due to the lack of rain for a long time; Along the way, they walked nearly a hundred miles on the grassland, but they never saw herds of cattle and sheep grazing, and only occasionally saw one or two muddy muddy puddles, and whenever they passed by these muddy puddles, the Turkic cavalry couldn't help but let out a burst of cheers, and they all rushed to drink horses, so that the Turkic generals who led the team had to threaten to kill each time, so that they could barely persuade the sergeants who ran to drink horses desperately.

Indeed, due to the extreme shortage of water, the Turks have lost their herds of cattle and sheep for grazing, and if they continue like this, I am afraid that even their most precious war horses will eventually be lost, and in such a situation, can they still be expected to coexist peacefully with the Great Sui?

Just when Yang Guang couldn't help but admire Li Che from these personal discoveries of his own, and realized from him that a general must be able to see and know in order to anticipate the enemy's opportunity and stand on an undefeated opportunity, an excited voice suddenly sounded in his ears: "Bai Daozhou has arrived." ”