In late February, the rivers and lakes of the grassland have thawed, the Kulun Lake in the east has reappeared, some migratory birds from the south have gradually returned, and flocks of swans and geese frolic and forage on the lake, presenting a vibrant scene everywhere. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

After merging with several small tribes in the south in the past two years, the Baye Gukulun tribe has become the largest tribe among the nine tribes of Bayegu, and at the beginning of the previous year, the great chief of the Baye Gubu Chamu unfortunately passed away, and the chief of the Kulun tribe Tule was unanimously elected by all the ministries as the new chief of the Baye Gubu.

Tule also lived up to expectations, he gave full play to his advantages of good relations with the Northern Sui, and established a strategic mutual market with the Zhongdu court, which was manifested in the fact that the Baye Ancient Department broke through the Turkic ban and sold a large number of high-quality war horses to the Northern Sui army, and the Northern Sui also released the ban on pig iron on the grassland, and the Baye Ancient Department began to get the coveted pig iron from the Northern Sui.

With pig iron, the number of Bayegu's armor increased rapidly, the number of troops increased from 10,000 to 40,000, and at the same time, the allies of the Servant Bone Department and the Uighur Department also benefited from Bayegu's armor, and the strength of the two tribes also increased rapidly, and the strength of the three tribes has reached 100,000 people, once they are united, it will be a powerful force that the Turks dare not ignore.

On this morning, a cavalry galloped from a distance to the tent of the great chief by the lake, and the centurion of the cavalry turned over and dismounted, and said to the guards in front of the big tent: "Please report to the chief of the army, there is an urgent military situation!" ”

The guards went in, and after a moment came out and said, "The Great Chief let you in!" ”

The centurion walked quickly into the big tent, inside the big tent, Tulle was talking about something with his son Tongtai, although Tulle had several sons, and Tongtai was not born to his wife, but because Tongtai's sister Xin Yu married Zhang Xuan, Tongtai was also very valued by Tulle, and he was already beginning to train him as his heir.

Tulle knew very well in his heart that if the Baye Ancient Department wanted to get the full support of the Northern Sui, he had to let Tongtai inherit his career, and Tongtai himself also had a strong ability, which was not worse than his other sons at all.

The reason why Tongtai came to his father was because Thule made a very disturbing decision, sending 5,000 troops to the Turkic court to participate in the southern expedition to the Central Plains, which made Tongtai emotionally unacceptable, and he was also worried about angering Zhang Xuan.

Tule smiled slightly: "I can understand your concerns, to be honest, I also hesitated for a long time to make this decision, and I sent someone to Hebei last autumn to explain the matter to Zhang Xuan, he expressed his understanding and did not object to me sending a small number of troops to participate." ”

"But why do we have to send troops, we can unite the servants and the Hui, and the three families will not send troops to participate, what can the Turks do with us?"

"This is not a question of what the Turks can do with us, the Turkic Khan is the master of the steppe after all, and we are still subject to the Turkic tent, the Turkic Khan took out the golden wolf head order, and even the Turkic internal opponents have to send troops, with the strength of the Turks, we have not yet reached the point where we dare to disobey the golden wolf head order, you have to understand this, one day we will rebel against the Turks, but not yet."

Tong Tai also knew that his father was reasonable, but he was depressed in his heart, once his army and the Northern Sui army had a fierce battle, how would he face Zhang Xuan in the future?

At this time, the centurion walked in quickly, knelt down on one knee and said, "Great Chief, there is an urgent military report!" ”

"What emergency military intelligence?"

"An eagle message came from the Kent department, and a Turkic army of 50,000 men was coming in a southeastern direction."

The Kent tribe was the westernmost tribe of the ancient tribe of Baye, inhabiting the southern part of the Kent Mountains, about a thousand miles from Lake Kulun, and despite the long distance, the news came as a surprise to Thule.

He immediately realized that this must be the Turks preparing to attack the Northern Sui from the east, and he promised Zhang Xuan last autumn that he would immediately inform the Northern Sui as soon as the Turkic invasion of the south began.

At this time, Tongtai also understood the Turkic army's intentions, so he whispered: "Father, let me deliver the letter!" ”

Thule shook his head, "You can send a message to anyone, if the Turks know that you appear in the south, it will attract unnecessary risks, it is better to let others go, and you must lead the army to prepare for defense to prevent the Turkic army from turning around and sneaking up on us." ”

Hearing that his father was reasonable, Tongtai stopped insisting, and Thule immediately wrote a letter and handed it to one of his guards: "You immediately lead a few brothers south to the North Tiger Valley, and ask them to immediately forward this letter to the King of Qi, and tell them that the Turkic army has been slaughtered to the east, and let them prepare for defense at once." ”

As soon as the guards saluted, they left quickly, and Tule thought for a moment and ordered: "Pass my order, and the whole tribe will move north to the big pasture." ”

Tulle had a wealth of life experience, and he knew that when the war came, the best way was to stay away from the war, and the large ranch was about a thousand miles away from their current Kulun Lake Ranch, which was also the traditional pasture of the Baye Ancient Tribe, and they did not intend to abandon Kulun Lake, but to return south after the war was over.

Two days later, hundreds of thousands of Kulun herders left the lake and migrated to the northern pastures.

.........

All the fortifications of Hugu Pass were completed half a month ago, and the thousands of people who participated in the construction of the fortifications were responsible for transporting grain to the pass, and 30,000 troops were stationed in Hugu Pass, which was about 30 miles away from Yanle County, and a large amount of grain was consumed every day, so the logistics support of Hugu Pass became an extremely important matter.

But Hugu Pass was only the front line, and Zhang Xuan ordered Yuwen Chengdu to lead 80,000 troops to be stationed in Zhuo County, as the general support of the east and west fronts, no matter whether the war on the eastern front or the western front was tight, the army of Zhuo County could support in time.

At this time, the more than 400,000 troops of the Northern Sui had been fully mobilized, and as many as 200,000 troops were deployed in the three northern counties alone.

In addition, Lu Longsai also stationed 15,000 troops at Linyu Pass, and Liaodong deployed 30,000 troops, and Zhang Xuan appointed Wang Wei as the second governor of Goguryeo, and transferred Xu Shiji to Liaodong to lead the army to prevent the Turkic army from attacking Liaodong.

However, the 50,000 garrisons in Zhongdu could not be moved, and no matter how fierce the war in the north was, the safety of the capital was always the first priority.

As the time gradually came to the end of February, the Northern Sui army had completed its full military deployment and was waiting for the Turkic army to move south.

On this morning, the bell rang on the outer wall of Hugu Pass, and the two thousand soldiers in charge of defending the outer wall immediately became vigilant, watching the situation in the valley in the distance.

Su Dingfang, who had just arrived at the outer wall, asked, "What happened?" ”

The patrol soldier at the head reported loudly: "The great chief of the ancient tribe of Baye has sent someone to deliver the letter. ”

Su Dingfang was taken aback, and hurriedly ordered: "Let the cage go down!" ”

The outer wall of Hugu Pass is the one-zhang high city wall three miles away from the city, it is the first defense of Hugu Pass, because there is no city gate, the patrol soldiers from the north can only rely on the ladder to go up to the city, and the war horse is pulled up to the city with a cage.

After a short time, the herdsman who sent the letter went up to the city, bowed down, took out Tulle's letter and handed it to Su Dingfang, "This is a handwritten letter from the chief of my family to the king of Qi, please send someone to send him to the king of Qi immediately." ”

"I'll send someone to deliver the letter at once, but you're going to tell me, what's going on?"

"General, the Turkic army is coming, it is only more than five hundred miles away from here, and it will be killed in two days at the latest, I hope you will defend immediately."

Su Dingfang nodded, and sure enough, he asked again, "How many Turkic troops are there?" ”

"About 50,000 people."

It was only 50,000 people, which was a bit unexpected and much less than they expected, but Su Dingfang immediately understood that the Turkic army must be attacking on both the eastern and western fronts at the same time.

He couldn't help but sneer, did the Turks still think they could sneak attack Hebei? (To be continued.) )