At the beginning of November, the grasslands were bleak, the pastures were yellow, life was bleak, and the endless grasslands became lifeless, even the herders of the grasslands rarely saw such ugly grasslands.

Because in previous years, the grassland at this time was covered with snow, and it was difficult to see the withered grassland.

But this year, the weather is unusually dry, and in November, there is not even a single snow in the north, only two rains in September, which did not alleviate the drought, and the winter drought is extremely unfavorable to soil moisture, which has exacerbated people's fears of spring drought.

But after entering November, another worry swept through the Sui court and the people, that is, the northern Turks might invade the Central Plains, this news came from Mayi County, and there were constantly small groups of Turkic outposts invading the territory of the Sui Dynasty, burning and looting.

In general, the Turkic army consisted of herdsmen, and in normal times, these herdsmen lived a carefree life, and the Turkic army only gathered near the khan's royal tent, and there were no outposts on the border.

At this time, there were Turkic outposts on the border, and there was only one possibility, that is, the Turkic army began to assemble on a large scale, and the appearance of the outposts was actually a signal.

Wolf Claw Mountain, Mayi County, this mountain is named after the mountain like a wolf's claw, located on the border of Sui and Tu, there is a beacon built on the cliff of more than ten zhang high, here is the northernmost beacon of the Sui army, it is called the Wolf Claw Mountain Beacon.

The beacon is three zhang high, divided into three layers, a total of ten soldiers are stationed here, every day is safe, then a pot of beacon smoke is lit, if a small group of sentry attacks, two beacon smoke will be burned, but if a large group of Turkic cavalry appears, it will light three pots of beacon fire.

Although there have been small groups of Turkic outposts coming and going recently, they have also attacked Fengsui. But because the terrain is too high. Fengsui was never breached by the Turkic outposts.

However, the soldiers in the beacon were under tremendous pressure of war, and the rounds of sentry attacks caused five of the ten soldiers in the beacon to be killed. Only five Sui soldiers were left holding on to the northernmost military fortress of the Great Sui.

In the early morning of that day, a series of vibrations woke up the sleeping soldiers in the beacon, and several soldiers turned over one after another. They looked at each other, not knowing what was going on.

At this time, there was a strange sound in the distance, like a muffled thunder before a storm, and the leader of the fire suddenly reacted and shouted, "Not good! He pulled his feet and ran to the third floor.

In the lookout of the third layer of the beacon, the eyes of several Sui soldiers became extremely frightened, and they saw that a black line appeared in the north. It was about a dozen miles long, and it was the main force of the Turkic cavalry that appeared, with experience. They knew that behind this black line, which was more than ten miles long. It will be an endless group of cavalry, at least two or three hundred thousand people.

The fire chief suddenly roared. "Light a beacon fire and escape!"

He and two soldiers climbed to the top of the beacon, lit the torch, and then lit the firewood and wolf dung in the big iron pot, three puffs of wolf smoke rose into the sky, thick smoke billowed, and the news of the Turkic army was coming to the south.

Soon, the boundless Turkic army slaughtered at the foot of the Wolf's Claw Mountain, and the black-pressed Turkic cavalry was like a black ocean, as far as the eye could see, with at least more than 200,000 troops.

The Turks are a country where all the people are soldiers, how many young and strong men they have, there are as many troops, in the last years of the great cause in history, Shibi Khan once led a million armor soldiers to the north, seriously threatening the security of the Central Plains.

The Turks are also a loose tribal alliance, in addition to the Turks themselves thirty-six tribes, but also control more than a dozen Tiele tribes, when the Turks need to start a war, all the Tiele tribes have to send troops to assist, the strength of the Turks, depends on whether it can control the Tiele tribes.

In that year, the Turks suffered a crushing defeat in Fengzhou, although the strength of the Turkic tribes suffered heavy losses, but the loss of the Tiele tribes was not large, but it was precisely because the Turkic strength was weakened and they were unable to call on the Tiele tribes, and the grassland was divided, which made the Turks collapse and decline rapidly.

It is impossible to revive the Turks in just two years, but it can give the Turks a chance, and the internal strife in the Utu tribe is like a gift from the Immortal Heaven to the Turks.

Chuluo Khan quickly seized the opportunity, defeated Uzham, and accepted the surrender of nearly 300,000 Utu tribes, so that the Turks suddenly had a strong confidence.

It was with this strong confidence in defeating the Utu tribe that the Turks once again succeeded in convening the alliance of the Tiele tribes, and almost all the Tiele Khans came to make a pilgrimage to the Great Turkic Khan, making the originally declining Turks strong again.

At this time, Chuluo Khan died of illness, his brother Jieli Khan ascended the throne, and the Tiele tribes again showed signs of centrifugation, putting the Turks in an extremely dangerous but very delicate situation, and the new throne was assigned

Jieli Khan was well aware of the crisis facing the Turks, and he knew what to do?

If you want to save the Tiele tribes from centrifugation, if you want to save the current crisis, there is only one way, with a brilliant victory to establish the supremacy of the Turks in the steppe, Jieli Khan's eyes turned to the south, where the Turks fell, they had to get up.

Jieli Khan saw the civil war in the Central Plains, and he knew that he could take advantage of the discord between the Sui and Tang dynasties to find opportunities, so he sent two envoys to the Sui and Tang dynasties.

But at the same time as he sent his envoys, he began to assemble a large number of troops, and he gathered a large army of 170,000 Turks, including the former Utu tribe, and borrowed 40,000 troops from the Hui and Xue Yantuo tribes, bringing his total strength to 250,000.

Jieli Khan reined in his war horse, squinted his eyes and looked at the beacon of Wolf Claw Mountain not far away, he knew very well what this beacon symbolized, and after crossing this beacon, he also entered the territory of the Great Sui, Jieli Khan waved his hand and stopped the advance of the army.

He turned over and dismounted, knelt on his knees on the grassland, and then put his whole body on the grassland, extremely religious, as if feeling the revelation given to him by the god of the grassland, after a long time, he stood up, turned around and shouted: "Tengger told me that the grassland does not snow, it is he who gave us a chance!" ”

His prophecy instantly spread throughout the whole army, more than 200,000 Turkic troops raised their arms and shouted, cheers resounded throughout the grassland, in a cheer, Jieli Khan's sword waved to the south, and issued an order: "Completely exterminate the Utu Department and sack the Central Plains!" ”

More than 200,000 army horses galloped, like a black tide sweeping the grassland, roaring towards the south of Fu Qibo......

As night shrouded Taiyuan Mansion, Yang Yuanqing sat in his inner study and was writing a letter to Wang Shichong in Luoyang, telling him about some changes in the situation.

Due to the large-scale southern invasion of the Turks, which disrupted the strategic deployment of the Sui Dynasty, he had to make some military adjustments, and the 50,000 Sui troops stationed in the Central Plains would be reduced to 30,000, mainly deployed in Dongjun, Liyangcang and Xingyang Counties, and the Sui army would abandon its garrisons in Yingchuan County, Runan County and Xiangcheng County.

The implication is to tell Wang Shichong that this time the Sui army will not be able to protect his safety, and he can only do it himself, which is actually the Sui Dynasty will be forced to shrink the long front.

Just now, Yang Yuanqing had already written a letter to Xu Shiji and Lai Hu'er, ordering them to move as much of the Central Plains population as possible to Hebei.

As early as ten days ago, Yang Yuanqing issued a war mobilization order to all parts of the Great Sui, ordering Pei Renji, the governor of Fengzhou, to lead 10,000 troops to assist 30,000 households and about 200,000 people to move into Lingwu County, and ordered the population of the Central Plains to be moved to Hebei as much as possible.

At the same time, the rural peasants in the counties north of Taiyuan tried their best to avoid entering the city, and ordered the local government to arrange the evacuation of the villagers.

At present, the total strength of the Sui army is about 250,000 people, but because the Sui Dynasty battle line is too long, the deployment is relatively scattered, there are 20,000 people stationed in Huining County and Lingwu County, 30,000 people stationed in the Central Plains and Liyangcang, 10,000 troops stationed in Zhuo County, Hebei, 10,000 troops stationed in Liaodong, 10,000 people stationed in Dunhuang County, 30,000 people stationed in Hedong County and Hanoi County, and 40,000 people stationed in the capital Taiyuan.

Yang Yuanqing put down his pen and sighed softly, at any time, the impact of war on the people is great, especially the invasion of foreign predatory races, if the preparation is not sufficient, it will bring profound disasters to the people of the Great Sui.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty in history, the Turkic cavalry soldiers came to the city of Taiyuan, wantonly plundered the east of the river, and some soldiers came to the city of Chang'an, sacked the entire Guanzhong, they took advantage of the opportunity of the inability to resist in the Central Plains at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and entered the Central Plains again and again, looting women and property, and ruining the lives of the people, causing extremely heavy losses to the population and property of the Central Plains.

Yang Yuanqing knew very well that this time was very different from Fengzhou, when nearly one million people in Fengzhou moved south to Lingwu County, and there was Hekou City as the last barrier to block the southern invasion of the Turkic army, so that the loss of Fengzhou was not large, and the army could confront hundreds of thousands of Turkic troops by relying on the defense of the strong city.

And this time Hedong is densely populated, after the Turkic army enters Hedong, there is almost no danger to defend, if it is really killed by the Turkic army into Hedong, it will definitely cause heavy losses, and more importantly, the Turkic army will not fight siege warfare again, so that the Sui army does not have the advantage of Fengzhou.

Moreover, at this time, the Turkic bow and arrow combat power was no less than that of the Sui army, and the Sui army had little advantage in other aspects except for the superiority in armor.

On the side, Pei Minqiu silently packed the box for her husband, tomorrow Yang Yuanqing will personally lead the army north, she is very worried, she can feel the heaviness of Yang Yuanqing's heart, even if the Turks attacked Fengzhou in a big way, he was not as preoccupied as today.

"Yuanqing, is the situation very bad this time?" Pei Minqiu finally couldn't help but ask.

Yang Yuanqing glanced at his wife, and saw that his wife was full of worry, so he slowly lay down on the backrest, relaxed his body, and smiled as easily as possible, "It's not that serious, it's just that the time is too short, and the family business is too big, I can't be busy for a while, so I feel a little bit overwhelmed, and the Turks are not a big deal." ”

Pei Minqiu remembered something and hurriedly said, "Asduo asked me to tell you, begging you to save the Utu Department as much as possible and not abandon them." ”

Yang Yuanqing shook his head, "I can only say that as much as possible, this time the Sui army will not go to the grassland to fight a decisive battle with the Turkic army, if the Utu Department can go south in time, then maybe they can protect them, but if they don't retreat south in time, I have no choice." ”

Pei Minqiu sighed, she could understand the helplessness in her husband's heart