Now that the Turks have made a comeback, it is natural for Liu Yan and the civil and military ministers to gather together to speculate on the main target of this invasion of the Turks.

Liu Yan and all the civil and military ministers believed that the main direction of attack of Tuqi was none other than Youzhou and Taiyuan: if Abicheril wanted to avenge last year's one-shot attack, then he would definitely choose Youzhou, which Yang Lian guarded; And if he wants to respond to the attempt of Han Kemin and his party, then going south from Taiyuan is the first choice. Of course, there are also a very small number of people who think that he will take the first line of Lingzhou, Fengzhou, and Linzhou in the northwest, but this opinion is not convinced by many people. Because the area from Lingzhou to Linzhou is the northern gate of Chang'an, since the founding of the dynasty, it has attached great importance to the defense of this line, in this area the cities are dense, the fortresses are vertical and horizontal, it is very convenient for each other to help each other, and the war preparation materials are sufficient, the weapons are sophisticated, no matter how strong the Tuqi cavalry is, it is impossible to go south directly from this area, otherwise it will be cut off by the country of silk to form a situation of closing the door and beating the dog. And if they want to break through these dense passes and go south, the Turks will have to suffer at least tens of thousands of casualties, and this loss is something that the Turks cannot afford.

However, the battle reports sent by the border pass became more and more unpredictable about Abicheril's intentions, because almost at the same time, from Liaodong in the east to Lingzhou in the west, almost all the battles that spread for thousands of miles appeared on the front of Tuqi. Although the army of Tuchi is strong, its population is really limited, and if there are enemy troops on such a long front, it means that the enemy forces in any direction are not strong. This leads to the next question, is Tuqi's move that violates the common sense of the use of troops a feint to confuse the Silk Country, or is he really just to deter the Silk Country?

If it's the latter. Then Abicheril is inevitably too pediatric, and this approach cannot shake Liu Yan's determination to start an all-out war with him. But if it's the former, then where is the main direction of attack?

In a long discussion. Liu Yan and the ministers were never able to determine the target of the other party, and from the information they heard, there was no news about the direction of the main attack of the Tuqi, because Abicherier marched in ten directions, and each department took its own way, and even the Tuqi people themselves could not figure out which force was the main force, let alone the spies.

In fact, Liu Yan and Qunchen guessed wrong, this time Abicheril really did not set the main direction of attack.

The reason why Abicilir would do such a thing that violated common sense was not because he wanted to show off his might on the border of the Silk Country, but because he had his own purpose.

First of all. Although he raided the entire border of the Silk Country, his goal was clear, and the Turks would not engage in any siege warfare in any situation. This is the worst way for the Turks to fight, it will only increase the casualties of the Turks, but it will hardly make any real gains. Therefore, Abicheril's orders to his subordinates were to attack only the villages and towns where the Silk Country was weakly defended, and in these areas where the defense was relatively weak, he would quickly capture them with superior forces and bring back to the grasslands everything worth plundering, including treasures and daily necessities. weapons, tools, but also women, children, craftsmen. The proceeds of these raids not only boosted the morale of the Tukchi. It can also strengthen the country, and it will not be difficult to do so.

Secondly, due to the reminder of the sheep's tao. Abicialir understood one thing, that is, the behavior of the Queen Mother's party had long been noticed by Liu Yan. Then the intelligence network that he relied on most before has become worthless. The intelligence network that had been laid out before the war with the Silk Country had been planted during the time of the previous Great Khan Imidi, when the Turki and Silk Kingdoms were still at peace. As a result, these intelligence officers are not satisfactory in terms of quantity and quality. Especially after the start of the war, these intelligence officers have hardly achieved anything, and with the Silk Country vigorously blocking the border passes, the information that Tuqi can obtain is getting less and less, so that Abcilir will not be able to give correct orders based on the information. And building an efficient intelligence network is not something that can be done overnight. For this reason, Abicialir specially instigated this war - plowed the entire border of the Silk Country, which will cause a large number of population loss and escape, which will give the spies a good living space, taking advantage of this combat operation, Abicialir will place a large number of spies into the territory of the Silk Country, as these people gradually migrate and infiltrate, a new intelligence network will soon take shape, if you add a lot of money to buy through and some other extraordinary means to expand, Then there will be an efficient intelligence network to serve the future war against the Silk Country.

Only the ten generals who led the troops and a very small number of spy personnel knew about this matter, and they completed this layout in an orderly and efficient manner under the instruction of Abicheril. Abicheril, who had completed all this, began to mobilize his troops to assemble - he didn't plan to let Liu Yan figure out the truth one day, at least put on a false impression that he had a main direction of attack, so that Liu Yan felt that he had once again thwarted Tuqi's attempt, so as to cover his true intentions. For this reason, he carefully chose the final attack direction of this operation - Shuozhou.

Shuozhou belongs to the jurisdiction of Xue Boren, the envoy of Taiyuan, geographically in the northwest direction of Taiyuan, there is no big river in a radius of several hundred miles until Taiyuan Mansion, which is suitable for cavalry action, and according to the previous battle report, the resistance in all parts of the country of silk is very fierce, but the effect is not obvious, basically led by the nose of the Tuqi cavalry, only the defense in the direction of Shuozhou is orderly, and even the defense of the small mountain village is very tight, so only this road has the heaviest losses and the least gains in Abicheril's ten-way army, This caught Abicheril's attention.

Xue Boren, the envoy of Taiyuan Prefecture, was an unknown figure four years ago, but in just three years, he quickly rose to become a senior official of the fourth grade, and was appointed with the defense of one side, which shows the degree of attention he received from the emperor. In last year's Battle of Youzhou, he could be regarded as fighting with Abiciel, but when the army of the Silk Country was surrounded on all sides, Abicialir did not feel the power of this person. Now that the defense area he is in charge of does not allow the Turchid cavalry to take advantage, Abicheril is beginning to take an interest in this man, since he wants to create a fake main attack direction, then why not find a more interesting direction?

To this end, Abicil gathered four of the ten armies, with a total of 45,000 troops, gathered in the area north of Shuozhou, and after resting for three days, Abiciel personally led the army to begin a rapid southward advance, and in just one day, the Tuqi cavalry crossed a distance of hundreds of miles and killed under the city of Shuozhou. The defenders, who thought that the Tuqi had retreated, were taken aback and hurriedly retreated into the city of Shuozhou, but Abicheril had no intention of attacking the city at all, and directly led the army south along the avenue and went straight to Xinzhou, the gateway to the north of Taiyuan Province.

Abicheril's choice of attack out of sheer interest and conceit led to a large-scale encounter in 803 – the Battle of Ranbong. (To be continued......)