The Turkic camp is stationed on the east bank of Fenshui, about ten miles away from the Sui army camp, the whole camp is a concentric circle structure, the outer circle is the general Turkic tribe, the middle circle is the 30,000 guards of the Turkic Khan, and the innermost is the 5,000 Khan's henchmen and guards, and the core is the royal tent of the Turkic Khan. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The Turkic army still has more than 400,000 cattle and sheep, which can be eaten by the Turkic army for about ten days, in order to prevent the Sui army from sneaking up on the sheep and horse city, Chu Luo Khan simply canceled the sheep and horse city, and directly placed the more than 400,000 cattle and sheep in the military camp.

The whole camp had no walls or fences, but the Turkic army sent 5,000 outlying guards, which was also the tradition of nomadic armies, relying on patrols rather than fences, and over time, they gradually formed a complete patrol system.

In the endless grassland area, this kind of patrol system will not have problems and is very tight, but when it comes to the Central Plains with complex terrain, it is easy to have loopholes, for example, the garrison in Zihe was broken through by the Sui army by taking advantage of the loopholes in the mountains.

Moreover, there was enough flat land in the steppe for the Turkic army to garrison, and their large camps occupied a very large area, often covering an area of hundreds of miles, and each dome was far apart, and even if one dome caught fire, it would never spread to the other big tents.

However, in the Central Plains, especially in the northern part of the mountainous region, there was not so much open space for the Turkic army to camp, and they had to reduce the area of the camp, and the big tent and the big tent were also close together, and the completely different camp environment made the traditional defense of the Turkic army have many loopholes and more dangerous.

Therefore, for the Turkic army, the garrison is a very headache, they did not master the Central Plains army's wall building and grid technology, can only strengthen their original defense system, such as doubling the patrol soldiers, from the original 1,000 to 5,000 people, which effectively consolidated the security of the Turkic camp.

Moreover, the Turkic army also learned a lot of lessons, such as the large battalion could not be directly leaned against the river, otherwise it would be attacked by the enemy from the water, and for example, the sentry no longer set up a single outpost, at least a team of ten people, so that the possibility of being killed by the Sui army was greatly reduced.

Although Chu Luo Khan put a lot of thought into the defense and built the camp as solid as gold, the threat he now faces is no longer the sneak attack of the Sui army on the camp, but the problem of food becoming increasingly scarce.

All the people north of Taiyuan County have been moved, the grain particles are not left, the northern retreat route has also been cut off, the Turkic army has not been able to get food supplies, can only sit and eat empty, and the consumption of 100,000 troops is amazing, originally more than 1 million cattle and sheep, half a month later, there are only more than 400,000 heads, according to this consumption, at most ten days, the Turkic army will be cut off from food, at that time they can only rely on killing horses to survive, but the Turkic army that has lost its war horses will be far from the destruction of the whole army?

In the camp, the Khan was riding a horse to inspect the soldiers' meals, watching the soldiers drinking and eating meat wildly, and the ground was full of bones that had only eaten half of the meat, which made the Khan's brows furrow more and more tight.

When did Luo Khan ever care about the food and drink of his soldiers? In the past, he only hated the soldiers for eating too little and not having enough physical strength, but now that the whole army only had ten days of food left, the mentality of the Chuluo Khan has changed, and he is more and more unable to tolerate this waste.

At this time, a drunken soldier suddenly scolded: "This is yesterday's meat, and it was actually given to us to eat, when we are dogs?" Lao Tzu doesn't eat this kind of meat! ”

The more the soldier scolded, the more ruthless he became, he was still angry, and flew up a few more times, kicking several large plates of freshly roasted mutton into the fire, "Lao Tzu wants to eat fresh mutton, not this kind of dog food!" ”

Enraged, the Khan pulled out his sword and slashed at the soldier's neck, and the soldier screamed and fell into the fire, struggling a few times before not moving.

The sudden scene stunned thousands of Turkic soldiers around them, and everyone looked at this scene in amazement, wondering why their khan was furious.

Chu Luo Khan gritted his teeth and said: "From tomorrow, the mutton milk wine will be cooperative, and each person will only have their own portion, and if you don't want to eat, you will starve to death!" ”

He whipped his horse and turned back to the king's tent.

..........

In the face of the garrison of the Turkic army, the Sui army, in addition to sending hundreds of scouts, once again strengthened the defense of the Sui army's camp.

At night, dozens of small trebuchets were scattered on the outer walls of the Sui army camp, which had also been used in Shanyang County, Mayi County, and were not trebuchets in the true sense of the word, but a special thrower specially made to spread thistle.

The soldiers, all wearing deerskin gloves, carefully poured bags of quenched tribulus thorns into the iron pockets of the droppers, and as the long poles swung out, hundreds of small, sharp thistles were evenly thrown onto the grass within a hundred paces of the high wall.

Different from the combat ideas in Shanyang County and Zihe Pass, the commander Zhang Xuan paid more attention to containment within a hundred steps, and with the threat of bows and crossbows overhead, even if the Turkic soldiers came to eliminate the tribulus thorns, they could not do it.

Of course, the Turkic army can still drive cattle and sheep to eliminate thistle thorns as before, but at a time when food is becoming increasingly scarce, it is debatable how much capital the Turks can invest.

Secondly, the cattle and sheep herd only rudely eliminated the tribulus thorns, and finally had to use manpower to carefully remove them, which may be okay for a few miles, but it is completely impossible to do it within a hundred steps of the Sui camp.

In fact, even if it is done, there is no point, if it is cleared, the Sui army will spread it again.

From the deployment of thistle thorns, it can be seen that Zhang Xuan expects the enemy to be higher than Chu Luo Khan, Zhang Xuan knows that Chu Luo Khan will definitely send troops to test the Sui army, so he is not in a hurry to deploy, but after the trial, he will take advantage of the night to deploy this tribulus thorn, so that he can kill them by surprise when the enemy army is attacking, which will seriously shake the enemy's morale, which is much better than dealing with the enemy army who is tempting.

At this time, a team of men and horses slowly walked along the high wall, this is the Sui army commander Zhang Xuan and the general Pei Xingyan to inspect the Sui army's preparations, from the commander to the soldiers know that there will be a fierce battle tomorrow.

Zhang Xuan stood at the top of the wall, looking at the Turkic camp in the moonlight from a distance, and asked in a deep voice: "Yuanqing, you tell the truth, if we and the Turks are in battle in the wilderness, who is stronger?" ”

Pei Xingyan hesitated and said, "I think that this question will be answered in stages." ”

"What do you mean by that?" Zhang Xuan was a little puzzled.

"If it was a previous battle, as the marshal said during the day, we had just come from Shiai County, our foothold was not stable, and the logistics were not continuous, if the Turkic army pressed with all our strength at that time, with the advantage of their more than 100,000 cavalry, we were indeed not opponents, but the Turkic Khan hesitated and missed the opportunity in vain."

Zhang Xuan said with a smile: "He is actually not hesitant, but he adopted the strategy of sneak attack instead of pouring troops to suppress it, which can only be said that he made a mistake in decision-making." ”

"Yes! I guess he should wake up by now. ”

"And now?"

Zhang Xuan smiled again and asked, "If our two armies line up against each other in the wilderness, what will be the outcome or defeat?" ”

Pei Xingyan bit his lip and said: "Now I really can't say, the victory or defeat should be five or five points, our morale is high, well-equipped, and although the Turkic army is demoralized, there are still many cavalry, and they have no way to retreat, the food will be cut off, and it will also form a backwater battle, if the commander commands effectively, and the soldiers fight to the death, they still have a chance to win." ”

After a pause, Pei Xingyan said again: "But the commander's response is very good, the strong wall does not fight, this is just like when Lian Po fought against Wang Di, the Qin army ran for a long time, the labor division was tired, and the food and grass were insufficient, and the Zhao army insisted on not fighting, the defeat of the Qin army was inevitable, and the Turkic army was the same, as long as we insisted on ten days and half a month without fighting, the Turkic army would be defeated." ”

Zhang Xuan smiled slightly, "Maybe the Turks will also go to Zhongdu to use the counter-strategy, and a Zhao Kuo who talks on paper will replace me, and history will repeat itself." ”

Pei Xingyan was stunned, he suddenly realized that the example he gave was inappropriate, and hurriedly said: "The humble position is not well considered, please forgive me." ”

Zhang Xuan laughed, he was in a good mood, and he began to speak without scruples.

"Yuanqing, do you think that I am presiding over the battle here and depriving you of the fun of being the main general?"

Pei Xingyan hurriedly shook his head and said, "Maybe I would have had this idea two years ago, but now I don't." ”

"Why?" Zhang Xuan glanced at Pei Xingyan and asked.

"Wait a minute! The other party is a Turkic Khan, of course, it should be a marshal to deal with it, if the other party is just a commander of ten thousand people, then there is no need for the marshal to bother, I can deal with it. ”

Zhang Xuan laughed, "This reason is quite interesting, is there any other reason?" ”

"And! If this battle is lost, then the responsibility is not mine. ”

Zhang Xuan laughed, Pei Xingyan scratched his head, and couldn't help laughing, he has been following Zhang Xuan for a long time, and he knows Zhang Xuan's temper very well, he knows that the coach was not angry just now, and he is in a good mood, so it doesn't hurt to joke at this time.

Zhang Xuan slowly retracted his smile and asked him with concern, "By the way, how is your father?" ”

Zhang Xuan also heard that Pei Xingyan's father Pei Renji is currently serving as the Taishou of Wuwei County and has stayed away from Chang'an officialdom.

Pei Xingyan shook his head and said with a wry smile: "I also received a letter from my father last month, in which he complained a lot, saying that his name is Taishou, but in fact he has no power, and the power is in the hands of Li Daoli, the governor of Liangzhou, Li Daoli is too young, and the government affairs of Liangzhou have been handed over to Changshi An Xiuren, in fact, everything is An Xiuren's final say, and the county and Sima of Wuwei County do not buy their father's accounts, and it can be seen that his father is disheartened, and he said in the letter that he wants to sue the old man and return to his hometown. ”

"Didn't your father mention me?" Jang Hyun asked with a smile again.

"It's just indirectly mentioned, let me persuade the marshal to become emperor as soon as possible, so that I will have the merit of supporting it."

Zhang Xuan patted Pei Xingyan on the shoulder, he has always liked Pei Xingyan's honesty and honesty, and he can say this kind of thing casually, which shows that he does not have this kind of thought in his heart.

"Persuade your father well, if he is willing to come back, I will let him be the Taishou of Mayi County, he is actually still very talented, but his ears were too soft back then, and he was confused by Li Yuan's rhetoric."

Pei Xingyan was very moved in his heart, he knew that Dashuai was a person who missed his old love, not to mention that his father was still Dashuai's boss back then, Pei Xingyan nodded silently, he was going to persuade his father.

At this moment, a soldier rushed over, knelt down on one knee and saluted: "Marshal Qiqi, the military advisor has an invitation, saying that there is an important military situation to discuss." ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, asked Pei Xingyan to continue his inspection, and then he got off the camp wall and walked quickly towards the Chinese army's tent........ (To be continued.) )