confirmed Zou Zhenyuan's identity as a traverser, and figured out his experience in the past few years after separating from Zhao Min'an, and the relevant inquiries and tests about him came to an end. Except for Zhao Min'an who continued to stay and catch up with Zou Zhenyuan, Liang Ziyue and Muttel withdrew after chatting for a few words.

After leaving Zou Zhenyuan's residence, Liang Ziyue went to send a telegram to the committee to make a report on the situation here. And Muttel first removed the guards who were in charge of guarding Zou Zhenyuan's room, and then brought in the subordinates who had been serving Zou Zhenyuan for the past two days and the military doctors who had been treating him, and told them to take good care of the people inside, and neither to make any mistakes in the diagnosis and treatment of injuries, nor to treat them slowly, otherwise they would have to ask a few of them. Although everyone didn't quite understand that Weishenme Mutr would suddenly change his attitude towards this Khitan captive, since the master gave the order, then he did it himself, in short, it would not be wrong to obey the order and obey the command.

Soon after Liang Ziyue's telegram was sent, he received a reply from the committee. In addition to affirming the work of Liang Ziyue and others, the telegram also mentioned the arrangements for Zou Zhenyuan in the recent stage - to leave Gubeikou Pass as soon as possible to recuperate. After all, Zou Zhenyuan is now seriously injured, although the military doctor said that his life will not be in danger, but he is not afraid of 10,000, just in case, the committee is absolutely unwilling to risk the loss of a traverser just based on the words of the military doctor. Moreover, the conditions of Gubeikou Pass are very limited, and it is by no means a good place to recuperate, and staying here is not conducive to Zou Zhenyuan's recuperation. Therefore, as long as Zou Zhenyuan's body can bear it, he must be transferred to a place with more conditions to recuperate and recover. As for the place to recuperate, it is naturally best to return to the "Liangyuan" with Liang Ziyue and Zhao Min'an. If their physical condition does not allow them to travel long distances, then at least they must be transferred from Gubeikou Pass to the nearest state and county.

Regarding the committee's arrangement, Liang Ziyue and others and Zou Zhenyuan himself naturally had no objections. As for the place of recuperation, after comprehensively considering the living conditions, the distance of the journey, Zou Zhenyuan's physical condition, and his own opinions, he finally settled on a house under the name of "Datong Commercial Company" in the city of Danzhou, about 100 miles away from Gubeikou Pass. In addition, in order to ensure Zou Zhenyuan's safety, in addition to the four personal guards arranged by Mutel's side, Liang Ziyue also ordered the local "Dark Feather" branch to provide peripheral security guards for the house.

After everything was arranged, the next day, on the morning of the 19th day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, Zou Zhenyuan, accompanied by Liang Ziyue and Zhao Min'an, left Gubeikou Pass in a wide and comfortable four-wheeled carriage and went out of the south gate to Danzhou. At the same time, Mutel personally led the cavalry troops that had completed their rest and recuperation, out of the north gate of Gubeikou Pass, and galloped towards Juyong Pass, which was more than 200 miles away, preparing to cooperate with Xu Shao'an's troops to solve the Khitan army's Zuihou Liliang - Yelu Tart Lie Department on the edge of the Great Wall.

According to the brothers of the committee and the military department, the battle of Juyongguan should be regarded as a large-scale battle in the battle of Youyun. After dealing with the more than 50,000 people of Yelu Tart's Lie's department, the Khitans no longer have a large-scale Liliang within the range of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun that can compete with the crossing team. At that time, not only will the eight states in front of the mountain be in control, but also the eight states behind the mountain can also be passed on.

Since it may be the Zuihou battle of the Battle of the Clouds, Muttel feels very honored to be able to participate in it, and he very much hopes to be able to fight this battle well and draw a perfect end to his performance in the Battle of the Clouds. However, as the so-called "eight or nine times out of ten things are unsatisfactory in the world", when Mutel, who was full of longing and confidence and was ready to do a big job at Juyong Pass, led his army to the left side of the Yelu Tart Lie camp, he looked at the Khitan army camp that was not far away from his own side - the artillery under Mutel and the artillery under Xu Shao'an in Juyong Pass - under the bombardment of artillery fire, billowing smoke, but he felt very wrong. …,

In previous battles, after such artillery fire, the enemy either collapsed and fled from the camp; Either fight to the death and send soldiers who are not afraid of death to storm through the positions of the team's armed forces. The Khitan army in front of him was completely different, neither the rout escaped, nor the death squads rushing into battle. No matter how fierce the artillery fire was here, there was no reaction, and such an unusual situation made Mutel puzzled. In the end, after repeated discussions with Xu Shao'an, who was also full of doubts, the two decided to suspend the artillery attack, and each sent a capable force to launch a tentative attack from the north and south of the Khitan army camp at the same time, in order to find out what tricks the Khitan army in the camp was playing and what kind of medicine was sold in the other party's gourd.

The result of the tentative attack greatly surprised Xu Shao'an and Muter, in addition to a few elite guards who served as a façade at the gate of the camp, there were only a few hundred old and weak soldiers who only buried pots and cooked every day and still had tens of thousands of people in the camouflage camp to eat and drink, as well as more than 2,000 wounded who were seriously injured and inconvenient to move, and there was no more elite Khitan soldier, let alone its commander Yelu Tartlie. Surprised, Muttel immediately led his troops into the Khitan army camp to check.

Muttel took the people around the Khitan camp and found that the situation in the camp was indeed the same as reported by his previous soldiers. He hurriedly sent a report to Xu Shaoan to explain the situation, and at the same time ordered someone to find those old and weak soldiers in the camp to ask what was going on.

Those Khitan soldiers who stayed behind were very cooperative, and whatever Mutel asked here, they would answer honestly, and there was no sign of concealment or fabrication - these Khitan soldiers were detained and interrogated separately, and even if someone lied, they could find out immediately. It turned out that as early as two days before Mutel arrived outside Juyong Pass, that is, on the night of Mutel's departure from Gubeikou Pass, Yelu Tart Lie led the main force of his department to quietly withdraw from the camp in the darkness of the night, leaving only a few hundred old and weak soldiers in charge of the suspicious array and more than 2,000 seriously wounded people who were unable to move. On the one hand, because the other party was retreating in the dark at night, and the retreat process was very tightly organized, Juyongguan, who was several miles away, did not find this situation. On the other hand, due to the previous encounters, Yelu Tart's side suffered setbacks one after another, and in recent days, it has only carried out one or two symbolic attacks every day, so the defenders of Juyong Pass, including Xu Shaoan, have also become a little slack. In addition, Xu Shao'an was bent on waiting for the arrival of the army led by Muttle, and then attacked from both sides in two strokes, and took the Khitan army outside the pass in one fell swoop, in order to prevent his own side from scaring the Khitan army away because of too much action, so not only did he not take the initiative to launch an attack on the Khitan army, but he also did not even send out daily scouts and spies, so that the Khitan tens of thousands of people retreated at night but did not feel it at all.

As for the reason for Yelu Tartlie's sudden retreat, these Khitan captives have different opinions, some say that they got a secret report from the meticulous work, some say that they got the will of the imperial court, and some say that Yelu Dashuai was warned by the gods in his sleep and knew that he was in danger, so he withdrew overnight. Although the Khitan captives are inconsistent, after careful consideration, Mutel still prefers that Yelu Tart Lie has received the news that the Khitan army in Shanhaiguan and Gubeikou has been defeated, and he knows that he is already lonely, and if he insists on it under Juyong Pass, he is afraid that he will eventually get the same fate as the two Khitan armies. Only then did he ignore his own tasks and did not wait for the will of the Khitan court, he made his own ideas and led his subordinates to withdraw overnight, leaving only a few old and weak soldiers and seriously wounded who could not move to stay in their own camp to fill up, confusing the crossing team and arming them, and winning enough time for their retreat. …,

After figuring out this section, Mutel naturally regretted it, he was annoyed that he did not stick to his own opinion at the beginning, and still accepted the advice of the committee and the military department when a large number of Khitan troops fled outside the Gubeikou Pass, and led the cavalry troops to rest in the Gubeikou Pass for more than two days, thus providing conditions for these Khitan troops to spread the news of the Gubeikou Pass to the Juyong Pass, and providing the impetus for Yelu Tartlie's sudden withdrawal.

It's a pity that there is no "regret medicine" to take in this world. There is no excuse for miscalculation is miscalculation, negligence is negligence, and underestimating the enemy is underestimating the enemy. Therefore, when Xu Shaoan took Tang Chao, Xin Feiyu and other brothers from the military department in Juyongguan to gallop into the Khitan army camp, and discussed it with Mutel, the brothers decided to take responsibility, report the situation at Juyongguan to the committee truthfully, review their mistakes and mistakes in this battle, and are willing to accept any sanctions and punishments from the committee.

Regarding the review telegram of Xu Shaoan and others, the other three members of the committee, except for Xu Shaoan, did not give any criticism or accusation in the reply, but affirmed their achievements in this campaign while calming their emotions. The reason why the other three committee members replied this way was not because Xu Shaoan was a member of the committee himself, and they needed to consider his face. Rather, it was because in the eyes of the other three committee members, on the one hand, the escape of Yelu Tart's troops would not affect the development of the entire battle situation in the Battle of Youyun, let alone the final result. After all, in the previous battles, the Khitan army that had been annihilated by the group armed forces had exceeded 200,000, of which the real Khitan was estimated to be no less than 100,000. This is definitely a heavy loss for the Khitans, whose total population is less than one million. Although the loss of 100,000 people will not cause the Khitans to be wiped out, it will take a long time for them to recover to their previous population, and it is estimated that the Khitans will not invade the Youyun region again in a few years.

On the other hand, the heavy losses of the Khitan army, especially the Khitan army, in the Battle of Youyun are likely to cause internal instability, especially when Yelujing's throne itself is not very secure. Once there is internal turmoil among the Khitans, it is bound to weaken their already greatly reduced strength. In addition, it has just experienced a fiasco in the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, and in the face of a Khitan court with declining strength and extremely low military morale, it is difficult to ensure that those who originally belonged to the Shili range of the Khitan people will not make any moves against other tribes controlled by the Khitans. In particular, some ambitious and thoughtful tribes are likely to take advantage of the weakening of the Khitans and intend to replace them. As the saying goes, "take advantage of your illness and want your life", the founding of the Liao State at this time was not long, and it had not yet undergone the great development of the Liaojingzong and Shengzong eras, and its ability to resist attacks was far less powerful than that in the middle and late stages. Therefore, no one can guarantee that it will not fall apart under internal and external troubles. And for the current crossing team, a large but weak Liao state, which has just been defeated by itself, and is familiar to everyone who travels through it, is far more in its interests than a new regime that may be smaller in size than the current Liao state, but it is stronger and more vibrant, but it is not known to the crosser. In Zhang Weixin's words, it is a stupid big man who is weak, has weak legs and feet, has exposed all his weaknesses in front of him, and has just been beaten by himself, which is far easier to deal with than a small man with a strong physique, agile skills, who he doesn't know at all, and has a spirit of "newborn calves are not afraid of tigers".

Although Yelu Tart's troops had suffered some losses before, they were not injured, and their combat effectiveness was still quite strong for the army of this era. And Yelu Tart Lie himself has always been loyal to Yelu Jing, with a strong army like him in hand, plus Ye Lu Jing's own royal tent army, even if there are some internal instability, Ye Lu Jing can effectively control it. As long as the Khitans themselves can maintain stability and not tear themselves apart in internal strife, other tribes will not have the opportunity or courage to challenge the hegemony of the Khitans in the north. As a result, at least before the Khitan people recover, the crossing team will have time to free up their hands and strive for a broader development space and more ambitious development prospects for themselves without worries.

Therefore, although the Battle of Juyongguan itself had some shortcomings, it failed to achieve the results expected by the brothers participating in the battle. But it is precisely this kind of shortcoming that does not affect the final result, but makes the battle of the clouds more complete and more beneficial to the future development of the crossing team.

It is precisely on the basis of these reasons that the other three members of the committee not only did not blame Xu Shaoan and others for their mistakes, but at the same time tried their best to appease them, fully affirmed their achievements in this battle, and encouraged them to make persistent efforts and cooperate with other brothers in order to successfully complete the Jihua of the first stage of the "Zhuji No. 1 Operation" and draw a successful end to the battle of Youyun.