Accepting Yang Guang's lesson, Liu Ziqiu's Northern Expedition army did not take the shortcut of Dadou Bagu, but made a detour to Xiping, crossed the Haolan River, and arrived at Fanhe County through Baishan and the Fifth Mountain. Along the way, Liu Ziqiu issued a notice in advance through the post horse, so the people did not panic. On the contrary, many people heard that it was the brutal Turks of the Northern Expedition organized by Liu Ziqiu, and they spontaneously came to reward the soldiers of the expedition with all kinds of food. These soldiers had also raided the borders of the Great Sui in the past, and the people of the Great Sui hated them. Now seeing the cheering appearance of these people, the soldiers are also deeply moved, and they are proud to be a member of the Great Sui.

Zhuang Xuejing, the commander of Fanhe County, heard that Liu Ziqiu's army had arrived, and took the officials and elders out of the city for ten miles to greet them. He was originally the commander of Fanhe County, and after Liu Ziqiu captured Wuwei, he was also a prisoner for a few days. Unexpectedly, Liu Ziqiu did not pursue him at all, but let him continue to serve as the commander of Fanhe County, and his salary was twice as high as in the past, he was grateful to Liu Ziqiu, and when he heard that Liu Ziqiu was here, how could he not take the initiative to greet him.

Liu Ziqiu didn't want to disturb the place, but he had to soothe him with kind words, and asked: "Zhuang County Order, how much do you know about Gao Yue's situation?" ”

Zhuang Xuejing's face was full of pain, and he sighed: "Back to the lord, Xia Guan only learned the news from some people who fled two days ago. After the lower officials got the news, they didn't dare to slack off, and sent someone to report to the lord on the one hand, and sent someone to Gaoyue to inspect on the other. ”

"Oh." Liu Ziqiu was quite surprised, "You sent someone to Gaoyue?" ”

Zhuang Xuejing nodded and said, "Xia Guan originally wanted to go in person, but he had the responsibility to guard the land, so he didn't dare to leave without permission, so he could only send a few catchers to ......."

Liu Ziqiu waved his hand and said, "Pick up the key points!" ”

Zhuang Xuejing said so much nonsense, of course, to show himself in front of Liu Ziqiu. Hearing Liu Ziqiu's words, Zhuang Xuejing blushed and hurriedly said: "Back to the lord, when the few guards sent by the lower officials came to Gaoyue County, the Turks had already withdrawn. The city was a mess, full of dead bodies, and many female corpses were unclothed and miserable. Please rest assured, the lower officials have dispatched the people yesterday to bury all the dead bodies in the city. ”

Liu Ziqiu nodded and said, "Lord Zhuang, you have done a good job. Gu Zang, did you notify me? ”

"Xia Guan has already reported Gao Yue's situation to Gu Taishou, but, it's just ......" Zhuang Xuejing suddenly swallowed.

Wu Wei Taishou Gu Wangquan also stayed in office after being captured, but after he received Zhuang Xuejing's briefing, he did not react, but put all the responsibility on Zhuang Xuejing's head. Zhuang Xuejing has a lot of complaints about this, but Gu Wangquan is his superior. According to the rules of officialdom, he can't just count the officials in front of Liu Ziqiu, so he is a little embarrassed in the back.

Liu Ziqiu didn't have so many twists and turns, waved his hand, and said: "As an official, you should benefit one party." Gao Yue is under the jurisdiction of Wu Wei, but Gu Wangquan doesn't care about the life and death of Gao Yue's soldiers and civilians, and there is no need for him, the Taishou, to continue to do it. Zhuang Xuejing, from now on, you are Wuwei Taishou! ”

Zhuang Xuejing was stunned for a moment, and then arched his hand and said: "Thank you, the lord, the lower official still has something to report." ”

Liu Ziqiu nodded.

Zhuang Xuejing said: "The catchers have carefully surveyed in Gaoyue County, and they have not found any traces of siege. The lower officials suspected that there were Turkic spies in the city, which allowed the Turks to infiltrate the city. Otherwise, with the walls of Gaoyue City, the Turks, who were not good at siege warfare, would not have attacked so easily. Of course, this is just a guess by the lower officials, if the guess is wrong, please forgive me. ”

For Zhuang Xuejing's words, Liu Ziqiu had to pay attention to it. It's just that the entire Gaoyue City has been destroyed in the war, and even if you know that there are spies, you can't find out. However, in order to prevent it from happening, Liu Ziqiu passed down an order to transfer Gui Haiqiu as a border patrol envoy, commanding 5,000 elite soldiers to inspect the city defense of the Great Wall of Dunhuang, Zhangye, and Wuwei.

After a short stop in Fanhe County, Liu Ziqiu led the army across the Great Wall and came to Saiwai. In the evening of the same day, the team arrived in the county seat of Gaoyue. The county town of Gaoyue, which had experienced the catastrophe, was almost reduced to scorched earth, with many houses burned down and some blood stains still on the streets. The people of Hefan County, organized by Zhuang Xuejing, had just finished burying the bodies of the victims, because it was too late to return to Senei, and they were resting in the city, and some people were left there to be on guard.

Seeing Liu Ziqiu's brigade of cavalry, the people who stayed in the city rang the gong. The most fearful thing for these people was that the Turkic cavalry would go and return, and when they heard the warning, they panicked, and some people opened the city gate and tried to flee south at the risk of death, only to find that the cavalry had come from the south. It wasn't until it became clear that the cavalry was playing the banner of the Great Sui that the people in the city calmed down a little.

Although Liu Ziqiu already has the ambition to overthrow the rule of the Great Sui, he still needs to use the banner of the Great Sui in the name of the Great Sui.

Some brave men rushed out of the city and came forward to inquire about the purpose of this cavalry. When they heard that this cavalry had come to fight against the brutal Turks, the city immediately boiled. Although they are from Sene, many of them have relatives and friends who live outside the Great Wall. For a whole day and a night, they were cleaning the bodies of the people killed in the city, who may not have loved ones, but the tragic scene kept them awake at night.

In fact, in the early days of Yang Guang's rule, the military strength of the Great Sui was still very strong, and just last year, the Eastern Turkic Qimin Khan was forced to weed Yang Guang. Many of these are the credit of Changsun Sheng, but if the Great Sui army is weakened, how can the Turks be willing to submit. Now, the Great Sui is divided and has different intentions, and these border people no longer expect the imperial court to send troops to seek justice for them. At this time, they saw an army of the imperial court, and the border people were excited.

There were about 600 of these border people, and they were actually forced to come by Zhuang Xuejing. If they were unwilling to bury the corpses in Gaoyue City, Zhuang Xuejing would punish them for refusing to serve labor and other crimes. Since ancient times, the people did not fight with the officials, and the border people had to risk their lives to come to the outside of the Saiwai. Now that they finally saw the imperial army, they were safe, and after relaxing, many people couldn't help but cry and release their depressed feelings.

Liu Ziqiu has always opposed free labor for the people, for example, the county residents he now recruited to smelt steel in Xihai can receive corresponding remuneration according to the workload. In front of them, these border people not only paid for their labor, but also took the huge risk of sacrificing their lives at any time, Liu Ziqiu couldn't bear to let them work in vain, waved his hand, and said: "Come on, reward each of them with a war horse!" ”

The border people cheered. They may not be as good as the nomadic tribes who grew up on horseback, but horseback riding is no special skill for them. However, horses are more expensive, the price of raising is also very high, and war horses are worth hundreds of gold, and ordinary border people have never had the luxury of owning a war horse. Now, Liu Ziqiu rewarded each of them with a war horse, which was equivalent to rewarding them with a large sum of money. Even if they can't afford to keep these horses, they can sell them to other people. In fact, if Liu Ziqiu had money with him, he would rather reward them with money than a war horse.

After resting overnight in Gaoyue County, Liu Ziqiu led the army to continue north, and several small villages along the way were burned to the ground, and Liu Ziqiu couldn't help frowning. Although he had not experienced the invasion of nomadic tribes, he knew a lot about it. Under normal circumstances, nomadic tribes do not exterminate everything, they will sweep away what they can to take away, and take away young women and boys and girls, but they will not set fire to villages, and the villagers will not be slaughtered as long as they do not resist. After all, they also knew very well that if the villages outside the Saiwai were destroyed by them, they would have to go deeper into the territory of the Great Sui if they wanted to plunder in the coming year.

There are only two explanations for the brutal massacre of villages by these Turks. The first is that they are angered by the villagers, and the second is that their target is no longer limited to these villages outside the Saiwai, but also to the Central Plains. Judging from their move to capture Gaoyue County, Liu Ziqiu was more inclined to the second possibility.

No matter which possibility it is, seeing such a scene, Liu Ziqiu is already angry, and he wants to launch a crazy revenge.

With a wave of Liu Ziqiu's long knife, the army bypassed Juyanze and stepped into the Mobei grassland. The grasslands that have just fallen a light snow are green and white, and the diligent herdsmen are still seizing the last chance to make their cattle and sheep fatter and stronger.

There is a small tribe not far away, the herdsmen of the tribe have gathered from the scattered pastures to this settlement camp, the cattle and sheep are still grazing the grass on the grass around the camp, the shepherd girls wearing sheepskin felt hats sing unrestrained songs, and the men are around the fire in the tents, drinking the mare's milk wine. Suddenly, the earth trembled, and thousands of troops and horses outflanked the camp from three directions.

Seeing the movement, the sturdy herdsmen picked up their bows and arrows and rushed out of their tents. The horses were their companions since childhood, tethered to their tents. Soon, Turkic cavalry, consisting of several hundred herdsmen, appeared outside the camp. However, they were greeted by a team of horses that numbered dozens or hundreds of times their number. The most important feature of nomadic cavalry fighting on the steppe is that no matter how fierce the battle is, the casualties are extremely limited. Seeing that they were invincible, the Turkic cavalry, who knew the time and were handsome, immediately left their families, cattle and sheep behind, and fled in all directions.

However, there were too many cavalry from the south, and from the very beginning they were outlanched. There were still two arrows away, and the sound of "whooshing" breaking the sky was endless, and countless iron arrows attacked like flying locusts. The Turkic cavalry, which was scattering and fleeing, was defenseless and fell from their horses. Countless war horses trampled over them, and the grass was littered with flesh, and the grass must grow more luxuriant by this time next year.