In the big tent, Zhao Dan listened to Zhang Xuan's warning in a daze, as if he had been immobilized, he sat there motionless, his eyes were a little dull, at this time, Chai Shao and Li Shentong also hurried over, and Zhang Xuan also told them about the situation of begging for a place.

"What now?" Li Shentong looked at Zhang Xuan worriedly.

Zhang Xuan glanced at the dark night sky outside the tent, and said decisively to everyone: "Retreat immediately, maybe there is still a glimmer of hope." ”

"Let's go!"

As if he had been unspelled, Zhao Dan jumped up and shouted: "Let's leave immediately, we can't delay any longer!" ”

Once he had regained his senses, he had regained his keen judgment of danger like an old fox, and he knew what to do?

"I'll immediately have someone go and inform the caravans to pack up and leave immediately, and if you don't want to go, I won't persuade you again."

Zhao Dan rushed out of the big tent like a gust of wind, Zhang Xuan, Chai Shao, and Li Shentong looked at each other, nodded together, turned around and ran towards his big tent.

The news of the presence of Turkic troops spread quickly throughout the camp, and the merchants were so frightened that they packed up their goods, and did not even bother to take care of their tents, and put boxes of goods on the backs of their livestock, and all the big tents were busy.

There is no need for Zhang Xuan's orders, Cheng Yanjin has already loaded all the goods on the camel, there are two components of him, he works harder than anyone else, Zhang Xuan also packed his war knife and mount, Chai Shao and Li Shentong brought ten riders together.

At this moment, Liu Wuzhou walked towards this side angrily, followed by Zhao Dan with a helpless face, he was called by Liu Wuzhou just now, and Liu Wuzhou scolded him severely.

"Zhang Gongzi, what do you mean?"

Liu Wuzhou stepped forward and glared at Zhang Xuan angrily and said, "Why don't you retreat without my consent!" ”

Zhang Xuan calmly said to Liu Wuzhou: "General Liu, all the caravans think that it is dangerous to beg for trouble, and everyone agrees to leave, I don't think there is any need for General Liu to agree." ”

His eyes were extremely sharp, as if he had seen through Liu Wuzhou's thoughts, Liu Wuzhou didn't dare to show it too obviously, so he had to snort heavily, and said coldly: "Of course I don't have the right to stop you from leaving, but since you don't obey my arrangement, then I won't be responsible for your safety anymore, you can think about it yourself!" ”

Liu Wuzhou glared at Zhang Xuan fiercely, turned around and strode away, Zhao Shan asked Zhang Xuan nervously, "Zhang Gongzi, what should we do?" ”

Zhang Xuan looked at Liu Wuzhou's distant back, and said to Zhao Dan: "Please ask Uncle Zhao to tell all the caravans, let them decide, if they are willing to go with us, then set off immediately, if they don't want to go with us, you can stay and follow the army!" ”

Zhao Shan sighed, "Okay! I'm going to talk to the people. ”

"Zhao Wudang, time is running out, Lao Tzu won't wait for you!" Cheng Yanjin yelled in the back.

"I know!" Zhao Dan didn't have the heart to get angry with Cheng Yanjin, he turned around and ran towards a big tent in the distance.

After a stick of incense, Zhang Xuan led the people to leave the camp and quickly fled south, this time there were a total of eighteen caravans in the north, five of which were willing to stay and follow Liu Wuzhou, while the remaining thirteen caravans followed Zhang Xuan to retreat south.

Liu Wuzhou stood in front of the camp, looking angrily at the caravan that was getting farther and farther away, he gritted his teeth with hatred, his fists were clenched loudly, but he was helpless.

At the same time, a team of black-clothed cavalry like wolves followed Zhang Xuan's team south in the same silent way, and they finally waited for a chance to attack

The time gradually came to noon the next day, and everyone was finally exhausted, and after most of the night and a morning of running, they were all surprised to see the Xuansha Tomb not far away, and they ran more than a hundred miles under the drive of fear.

Many of the merchants were so tired that they slid off their horses and lay on the grass unable to move, and although they had been trekking for many years, they could not bear the intensity of the escape, and everyone was exhausted.

Zhang Xuan put up a curtain to cover the dazzling sunlight, and looked intently to the west of the grassland, the perennial special forces career made him have a kind of sensitivity and vigilance far beyond ordinary people, especially when danger comes, he can always be the first to perceive.

More than once last night he had felt that someone was following them, and just a few miles away from them, there was a dark shadow that appeared and disappeared.

He suspected that it was a black horse thief, it was impossible for this group of wolves on the steppe to ignore their existence, the reason why they did not dare to attack was because they were afraid of the Turkic army that was begging for a moor, once the caravan was out of the control of the Turkic army, would this group of hungry wolves pounce on their prey?

It was here that Zhang Xuan suddenly noticed that a black dot appeared on the grass knoll a few miles away, followed by the second and third, and more and more, and the black dot had turned into a black ball.

Zhang Xuan was shocked and shouted, "Hurry up, the black horse thief is coming!" ”

The merchants were so frightened that they jumped up from the ground, turned over their horses desperately, beat their horses and fled, and Zhang Xuan saw that everyone refused to abandon the goods, so he was so anxious that he shouted again: "Drop the goods, save your life first!" ”

The merchants shouted: "These goods are our net worth, without the goods, we are better off dead!" ”

Chai Shao also persuaded: "The black horse thieves are ruthless, even if they discard the goods, they will not let the merchants go, and they will definitely kill them all." ”

Zhang Xuan knew that he couldn't run far with the goods, so he had no choice but to point to the Xuansha Tomb not far away and shout: "Go and hide in the Xuansha Tomb!" ”

The crowd turned around and ran towards the Xuansha Mausoleum, miles away, with their healthy mules and camels laden with goods.

The so-called Xuansha Mausoleum, in fact, is a Danxia landform, a sandstone mountain is eroded by the wind all year round, in the desert, this landform is extremely common, but here is the grassland, this Danxia landform is very rare.

At that time, the Turkic leader Rangan was here to worship heaven and earth and the gods, and re-ascended the throne as the Khan of Qimin, and he also left a will after his death, and buried his ashes here, so the Turks changed the original name Xuan** to Xuansha Mausoleum, and regarded it as a holy place.

In the past, there were still troops stationed here, but as the Turkic forces moved north, the coffin of the Qimin Khan was moved back to the north for reburial, and the shrine was gradually abandoned by the Turks.

Xuansha Mausoleum covers an area of about 200 acres, composed of thousands of strange sand stone pillars, everyone quickly hid into the stone pillar forest, and walked to the depths, there is the mausoleum of the Turkic man-made Qimin Khan in the middle of the Xuansha Mausoleum, which is an irregular circular open space of about 20 acres in size.

Stone pillars stand all around, in the middle is a square stone platform two zhang high, this is the mausoleum, there are more than a dozen huge sandstone statues on both sides of the mausoleum, but because no one manages, it is often patronized by tomb robbers here, most of the statues are man-made, and many statues are even smashed into two sections.

The entrance to the mausoleum had been excavated, and the coffin of the Khan of Qimin had been brought back to the Turkic court for reburial, leaving only a swarthy cave with large traces of fire on the stone walls.

At this time, everyone has no master, and all their hopes are pinned on Jang Hyun, who was the first to discover the dark horse thief, and his determination and command ability in times of crisis make him de facto the leader of the group.

Zhang Xuan didn't have time to be modest, he took advantage of the fact that the black horse thieves had not yet killed the Xuansha Tomb, and immediately said to the two Li Shentong's guards: "You two each ride two horses to the Great Wall, please ask the garrison there to come to rescue us!" ”

There are thousands of Sui troops stationed on the Purple River Great Wall, and this Sui army has become Zhang Xuan's only hope, the two guards turned to look at Li Shentong, Li Shentong immediately nodded, "Obey Zhang Gongzi's orders!" ”

He said to the other ten guards: "From now on, everyone must obey Zhang Gongzi's orders, and his orders are my orders!" ”

The guards saluted together, "Obey!" ”

The two messenger guards left the Xuansha Tomb with four horses and galloped south, at this time, Zhao Shan asked Zhang Xuan urgently: "Zhang Gongzi, what should we do now?" ”

Zhang Xuan waved his hand to stop him, he quickly glanced at the black horse thieves in the distance, they were less than two miles away from the Xuansha Tomb, Zhang Xuan hurriedly shouted to everyone: "Everyone block the entrance with boxes of goods to prevent the horse thieves from rushing in!" ”

When their lives were at stake, everyone fought desperately, they obeyed Jang Xuan's orders, blocked large heavy boxes at the entrances of the stone forest, and they also overthrew more than a dozen idols, using these idols to block the main passages.

The Turkic altar helped them, and fearing that wild beasts would come in and destroy it, the Turks built the altar in a semi-closed state, with only four passages to enter, and as long as they blocked these four passages, the black horse thieves would not want to rush in.

Of course, if the black horse thieves abandon their horses, they can also climb in, which can also cause great danger to them.

At this time, two hundred black horse thieves had rushed to the outside of the Xuansha Tomb, and the Liang division did not immediately order a charge, the terrain of the Xuansha Tomb was extremely unfavorable to the cavalry, although it was impossible to charge the horses, and it was also easy to be ambushed.

Liang Shidu ordered the three horse thieves to go first to investigate the situation, and then consider how to kill and rob the goods.

The caution of the black horse thief gave Zhang Xuan a little bit of the most precious time, and when he saw that the entrances were blocked, he shouted: "Everyone come up with all your weapons and listen to my orders!" ”

The caravan consisted of about 300 people, thousands of healthy mules and hundreds of camels, crowded together in a clearing of more than ten acres in the northeast corner, surrounded by high stone walls, which could not be climbed from the outside, and was relatively safe.

As if they knew that danger was coming, the camels lay quietly on the ground, and more than two thousand mules were huddled together, and the goods surrounded the city from all sides, piling up like a wall.

The merchants all carried their own weapons, and although the imperial court strictly forbade the possession of long weapons and crossbows, they still hid a lot of spears, and the crowd gathered around them with various weapons, including spears, swords, bows and arrows, and many even wore fine scale armor, although they were numerous, they were merchants after all, and they had no military training.

Zhang Xuan said to everyone: "At the moment of life and death, we must obey orders, if we get into chaos first, no one will survive, as long as we can hold out until tomorrow night, maybe we still have a glimmer of life, and everyone's goods can be saved." ”

Everyone nodded silently, and Zhao Shan added: "Fight hard with the black horse thief, someone will definitely not survive, I promise everyone, no matter who dies, his goods will be returned to his family, and will never be swallowed up, even if I die, this oath is still valid, everyone please swear together." ”

More than a dozen caravans are actually spontaneously assembled by countless small merchants, the goods are all their property, related to the survival of their families, so they see it more important than life, they would rather die than lose the goods, Zhao Dan's oath said to their hearts, everyone swore that they would never be greedy for other people's goods.

Zhang Xuan and the others finished their oaths, and said: "I want to divide everyone into ten teams, each team has a team leader, everyone must obey the command, if anyone dares to mess around and harm everyone, I will kill whoever first!" ”

Zhang Xuan's majesty made everyone awe-inspiring, time was running out, Zhang Xuan appointed Li Shentong's ten guards as the team, each with thirty people, each two teams were responsible for guarding an entrance, and the other two teams were used as mobile to support the critical place at any time, led by Cheng Yanjin.

Chai Shao and Li Shentong are the deputy commanders, each responsible for two entrances, and Zhang Xuan is in charge of the overall situation.

In just half an hour, more than 300 scattered merchants were quickly organized by Zhang Xuan, guarding the entrances of the four places, and another ten men were sent to be responsible for pacifying the livestock, and Zhang Xuan made it very clear to them that if any livestock was frightened, they would be killed immediately.

It was already afternoon, and the two hundred black horse thieves divided into three teams and entered the Xuansha Tomb silently.