Ouyang Xuan's march was a little different from the past, fifty miles a day, and before each camp, he had to conduct a training according to the requirements, and those who did not obey the order would be killed. Although there was a carriage, it was rarely allowed for the soldiers to ride, and both the cavalry and the foot soldiers marched at a trot. It has been more than a month since the march to the upper valley, and there is no way, if these soldiers are not trained strictly, they will only die on the battlefield.

The upper valley had been looted by the Huns, and there were mutilated corpses everywhere, and the scene was terrible. I could see that Ouyang Xuan's liver fire was rising, and the seven orifices were smoking. He warned the military minister Shan Yu at the beginning, but it seems that he didn't take his words seriously, so he had to return a tooth for a tooth and blood for blood. Send someone to Yuyang to inquire about the news, and the distance is fifty miles, and the close exploration is twenty miles. Ordered all the soldiers to join the corpse collection team and bury the victims in a feng shui treasure at the north gate of the upper valley. The survivors in the city heard and learned that the Xiongnu Zuoxian Wang's troops suddenly attacked Shanggu County in the early night of February, and the defenders of the city resisted bravely, but due to the backwardness of the army, they were finally defeated, causing the Huns to break through Shanggu and plunder deep into the hinterland of Yan State.

Coming to the arsenal to investigate, Ouyang Xuan is not what the liver fire can describe now. The hand holding the hilt of the sword was trembling with anger, and the broken bronze sword broke with a slight break, and the inside was actually white, and the spear head could be broken when it poked the wood, and the gun barrel should have been a wax rod, but now it was actually a poplar branch. The shield was actually just a very thin piece of wood, how could this weapon withstand the wolf-like Huns. When he returned to the camp, he calmed down his emotions and hurriedly drafted a letter of recital, asking the master of the army to report to the court in an urgent manner for 800 li.

In the evening, all parties returned to the horses, and Hu Yande, the king of the Xiongnu Zuoxian, took the Yizhi oblique division of the king of Zuogu Li to loot the Shanggu Yuyang, and then withdrew to the headquarters. Shanggu Yuyang Taishou Lieutenant was killed in battle, and the whole army did not survive. Sima of the Northern Army Arsenal is stationed in Zhuo County, and is now Wang Xin, the younger brother of the current Queen Wang. This news Ouyang Xuan is not strange, it is really not good to dare to withhold military supplies without a little background. Ordering Shantou to bring a hundred guards to arrest him in full gear, Ouyang Xuan's current duty is to be in charge of border defense affairs, including the arsenal of the Northern Army.

Ouyang Xuan did not rush to pursue the Huns, but trained the whole army to prepare for war, and sent his own trained guards to go out hundreds of miles to investigate. The Northern Army's Zhuokusima and Liu Qi's edict arrived together. The edict asked Ouyang Xuan to attack the Xiongnu Zuoxian Wang's department, and as for the military weapons of the Northern Army, the imperial court would send someone to strictly investigate and order Ouyang Xuan not to interfere. Regarding the matter of not allowing interference in weapons, Ouyang Xuan had already prepared. Brought Wang Xin to the tomb outside the north gate, there were no outsiders, only Ouyang Xuan and two guards, not even Shan, Ouyang Xuan was a little suspicious of Shan, and he didn't want too many people to get involved in this matter. "Wang Xin, do you know what crime you have committed?"

"Hmph, what can you do with me? My sister is the queen of the day." "If you don't talk about this matter, I can still consider Your Majesty's will and pressure you to return to Beijing and hand it over to Tingwei for trial. Since I said it, for the sake of 100,000 border people, I will make your life worse than death", he took out a short knife, beat his palm, and circled around Wang Xin, who was bound.

"If you dare, aren't you afraid that Your Majesty will blame you? Destroy your whole people, oh, yes. Your whole clan is just you and Princess Ningling, a demon who can't give birth to babies."

"The mouth is very hard, Ben Hou will give you one last chance, sell your military assets and King Zhao, and write down the shoddy things, Ben Hou will give you a good time. Otherwise, let you know what life is better than death."

"Your Majesty has issued an edict not to participate in this matter. Do you dare to resist the decree? ”

Ouyang Xuan didn't bother to talk nonsense with him, took out a long needle from the bag, and touched Wang Xin's suboccipital fossa. "It's okay not to toast and eat, but to eat and drink." As he spoke, he put the blunt head of the long needle against the handle of the knife, and the pointed end pressed against the occipital fossa, but with a little force, the thin long needle penetrated through the bone and went straight into the skull, leaving only a little tail on the outside. Wang Xin screamed in pain, and his voice was miserable. The two guards had seen dead people and Ouyang Xuan's interrogation, but this was the first time they had seen this way, and they couldn't bear to witness this tragic howl, so they turned their heads.

Ouyang Xuan walked in front of Wang Xin, with an extra glass rod in his hand, and kept wiping it with the outer opening, "Say, this is just the beginning." Wang Xin still has a lot of backbone, "Ouyang Xuan, you are so bold, you actually resisted the order." Do you want to rebel? ”。 Ouyang Xuan didn't say much else, and walked directly to the back and put the glass rod that could absorb the hair after wiping it to expose the tail of the needle. The static electricity released and the severe headache made Wang Xin's scream even more miserable. After repeating it several times, Wang Xin finally wrote down in a trembling voice how to collude with Liu Pengzu, the king of Zhao, to resell military funds, pretend to repair the city wall, and shoddy weapons led to the defeat of the border army, resulting in the death of 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the two counties of Shanggu and Yuyang, and the death of the Xiongnu under the iron hooves. Ouyang Xuan looked at it several times and saw that there was no mistake. He said slowly: "You may not be able to be a person in the next life, I hope you have a good home." Turning behind Wang Xin, let the two soldiers hold his head, and slowly pull out the long needle, which must be pulled out the same way, and if the pool touches the medulla oblongata, Wang Xin's life will be gone.

Ouyang Xuan returned to the barracks with Wang Xin, who was crying wolf, and howling ghosts. ordered the two guards to return to Chang'an overnight, entrusted some matters, handed over Wang Xin's confession to the guards, and then returned to the sleeping tent. The next morning, the staff of the Imperial Governor's Office, who came with the messenger, sent someone to put Wang Xin in a cage and escorted him to Chang'an. Ouyang Xuan was not angry, he had nothing to be angry with a person who was about to die, so he ordered the military chef to make some food, prepare some wine and see him off. looked at Wang Xin, who walked out of the cage, and said with a smile: "Wang Sima, I said that you will not be a person in the next life, I wish you a good life." General Ben is here to see you off, and I hope that the soldiers and civilians of Shanggu Yuyang will serve Sima well." Ouyang Xuan said substantially, hearing that the scalps of everyone present were numb, and then looking at Ouyang Xuan's eyes, they were full of banter. "Don't wait for your heart, this official will definitely show His Majesty and his sister when he goes back, and punish you with death." "Oh? It is better for you to be careful of the punishment of heaven. I can have the life to return to Chang'an." watched Wang Xin gobble up the meal and finish the wine. walked on the prisoner cart and disappeared into the valley before taking everyone back to the account.

More than ten days later, when Wang Xin's prisoner car arrived at Tongguan, it was bombarded by thunder, and his chest was knocked out of a hollow with the mouth of a bowl. The death was extremely tragic, and a confession was found in the unharmed prison car. The Imperial Lieutenant Department searched for clues in many ways to no avail, and finally returned to the Heavenly Thunder and reported to the Imperial Court. The queen wept bitterly and begged Her Majesty to find out the real culprit for her brother. Liu Qi was furious and ordered people to investigate in many ways, but to no avail, he could only blame the punishment of Heaven and tell the world about the matter.

Zhu Shan has been by Ouyang Xuan's side for the past few days, and in addition to sleeping, he has always been by Ouyang Xuan's side. When Liu Qizhao's edict to the world came, Zhu Shancai asked: "Prince, is this really a heavenly punishment?" Without him? ”。“ This is nature, and if you go against the sky, you will be punished by heaven, this is the ancient precept." "I always feel that there must be a mystery in it, and I can know it later?" I don't know, but I know now, you are a spy sent by His Majesty to my side."

Hearing this, he knelt down in front of Ouyang Xuan. "The prince forgives his sins". "Get up, it's going to be easy to kill you. The reason why he never killed you, but taught you the art of fighting and probing, is that you are a good person, and you are entrusted by His Majesty, but you never do anything that is unfavorable to your own wishes." He got up, bowed and said, "I don't know when you will know?" ”。“ Since the time when the Lord Father Hong came to my house, the Lord Father Hong and a certain loyal person have been the same."

"If your subordinates know their mistakes, please punish them." "You are not at fault, and you could have done a certain interrogation of Your Majesty as soon as possible. But he didn't do it, which caused His Majesty to be very angry, so that he could tell the world." "Hu Hou is wise, Your Majesty's expectations are good, and a certain is far from it." "Forget it, just concentrate on doing something in the future. If there are relatives in the family, they can be sent to the fiefdom to provide for their lives. If there is any hijacking, tell me so-and-so, and you will come forward to find out." "My parents have long since died, and after the master passed away, I worked as a guard in the eldest princess's mansion, and a younger sister is now a musician in the eldest princess's mansion." "Well, a certain book is repaired, and the Nie clan and you are sent to settle this matter. Let's go down." Ouyang Xuan said as he spread out the map on the table and ignored the others.

Through the recent marching training, the overall combat strength has recovered by seven or eight percent. To reach the heyday of the Yulin Army, systematic training is also required. At this time, it has entered the middle of March, and it is not the best time to send troops. Ouyang Xuan ordered people to build a base in the mountains of Shanggu that was enough for 50,000 people to train, and all the staff took turns to go to the base for all-round three-dimensional training, starting with reaction speed, personal skills, and battle formation tactical drills, and carried out them in an all-round way. Two lieutenant generals were temporarily promoted, and all Cao Sima were replaced.

This training is two months, Ouyang Xuan knows these nomads of the grassland very well, spring is the transition period of the nomads, the herdsmen are scattered on the road, hit one place, the whole is scattered, and no one can be found in the vast grassland. Only wait, wait until the herdsmen move to the summer pasture, and the Xiongnu tribes concentrate on the period of soldiers and horses sacrifice, and this time is May. The steppe nomads have large-scale sacrifices in May and September every year, with September being the most solemn.

The weather is getting hotter, and Ouyang Xuan takes the white wolf brothers and sisters to the training base every day, sitting on the general platform to supervise the training. With veterans leading new recruits and replacing punishment with encouragement, the quality of training has been qualitatively improved in just two months. When the sun was warm and basking his skin at the beginning of May, Ouyang Xuan ordered the troops to assemble and leave 10,000 vehicles and soldiers as logistics troops to garrison Shanggu and Yuyang.

Before the army could go, the two guards sent by Ouyang Xuan to Chang'an hurried back. report in the account; "Back to the prince, his subordinates live up to their mission. In addition, the Nie clan asked his subordinates to bring a letter, and in April, he and Tianshui collected several stones outside the sky, two of which had the light of luminescence. Please, the prince decides." "Well, you will return to Chang'an later. Tell the Nie clan to bury the stone outside the sky deep in the villa, and wait for a certain person to go back and dispose of it. And so and so and so when I went back." "No!". The two hurriedly went out of the account, brought their guns, and ran to Chang'an only on horseback.

Ouyang Xuan's army of 30,000 had just left the valley of Shanggu County and headed westward, heading straight for the eastern foot of Yinshan Mountain. Ouyang Xuan's destination was the Xiongnu's Zhongwangting (now located in the Four Princes' Banner of Ulanqab City). A group of five people from afar released a hundred miles, a group of two people from close exploration released thirty miles, and when the army did not set off, four Han people who had been doing business with the Xiongnu all year round were found to be guides and interpreters.

The army walked on the vast grassland, and along the way the grass was barren and green, and the grass was deep and thick. Far from being like the dwarf grass of later generations, Ouyang Xuan once again sighed at the ecology of this era. Impromptu chanted a poem on horseback: "The grass is deep, and there are no traces of the road ahead." In early summer, rabbits and insects appeared, and in the middle of winter they were in disarray (mo four sounds). Today's Tu Fei Fei, future generations look forward to the past". "The general is good at resigning, and I don't know if I can give it to the next when I am free." "Haha, Peng Zu is joking, it's just a quatrain, how can it be good or bad. In his spare time, he painted a painting and gave it to Nanpi Hou". This time, the main book of the army is the nephew of the Empress Dowager Dou, Nanpi Hou Dou Pengzu, I don't know why Liu Qi was dismissed from the position of Fengchang, and he was idle at home for two years. Ouyang Xuan was not surprised by the fact that the marquis was the chief secretary of the army, it was normal, it was really unreasonable to lead the emperor on an expedition without a relative to supervise the army.

At noon after a few days of marching, the Yinshan Mountains could already be seen in the distance, and the Malay newspaper was reported from afar: "Report, General, there are only a few mud houses and wooden squares in the front hundred miles, and there are no people." There is a stone tablet seventy miles ahead, I don't know what it means. Special to return". "Probe and report again, and find that the stele returns quickly." "Give the order to hasten the march and set up camp seventy miles ahead." "No!" The herald beside him responded to the promise and went to the battalions to announce the order.

In the evening, the army arrived, and camped according to the wartime march. Ouyang Xuan and Dou Pengzu came to the stele with the tanma, and took a look at it by the light of the setting sun, Ouyang Xuan was happy: "Ha talk, it doesn't take any effort to get it." Go back to the tent and fetch the captain of the horse. "Fate, explore the northwest hills and valleys tonight, and look for the Middle King's Court. Thirty miles away, he was on duty day and night. In the future, the grassland exploration paid attention to stone carvings and stone tablets, and found a newspaper". "No!" Captain Tanma was ordered to exit the tent. "How does the general know that there is something different in the northwest?" Haha, that stele. The nomads call it Deer Rock. It is used for road signs after the transition between winter and summer. There are ten deer, and the direction of the bow and arrow deer head points to the northwest hills. It should be pointing the way, but I don't know the size of the tribe. It is necessary to capture the people of the Xiongnu in order to solve the mystery." Deer stones and stone carvings are common in grasslands, and rock paintings are used in places where there are mountains, and wild stones are used to paint in grasslands without mountains. Wherever there are deer stones, they are all high-ranking tribes, and the deer, sheep, bears and wolves on the petroglyphs have different meanings for each ethnic group. For example, the ancient Kazakh people, the bear represents the king's location, the deer is the location of the leader of the large tribe, if there are horses and deer, it means that the chief of the large tribe is stationed, and the number of animals represents the size of the tribe, etc. These Ouyang Xuan (also himself) were summarized after field investigation in the grassland, comparing data and asking old herdsmen. The deer stones and petroglyphs in Mongolia are now very well preserved, and some of them may have been left over from the Xiongnu period, which have been verified by the field to be very accurate. There is also a kind of grassland stone man, which is a kind of territorial mark. It used to be common in various parts of the country's grasslands, but it was later destroyed. There are still a large number of them in Mongolia today, which will be mentioned later in this book.

According to the comparison of the terrain, Ouyang Xuan judged that the current station should be near the middle banner of the right wing of Chahar in Ulanqab City in the later generations. This is supposed to be a winter pasture, that is, a winter nest, surrounded by hills, which is perfect for winter. There is also a danger factor here, that is, the surrounding area is high and the middle is low, which is suitable for stealing camps and robbing villages. Thinking of this, Ouyang Xuan was in a cold sweat, and almost forgot that along the way, except for a few mud houses and wooden houses, there was no one to see. There should have been some old people here who hadn't seen it, so there must be something wrong. "Someone!"