Xiao Heng's face was covered with dust, and when he saw Zhang Zhongyao, he bowed down and said: "Lord Qiyu, the Military Intelligence Department has received news that the Governor of Khorasan in the Samanid Kingdom, Ifu Rahim, has formed an alliance with Mahmud, the king of Ghaznavid, and wants to ambush Princess Sangluzhuo and my Daxia envoy team in Khorasan, the situation is urgent, the Military Intelligence Department and the Chengying Battalion ask Lord Zhang to turn to the east, and there will be an army loyal to Utbi, the prime minister of the Samanid Kingdom, to escort your lord to Bukhara." ”

Zhang Zhongyao frowned, and said in a deep voice: "Do Chase and Shi Yuanguang know about this matter? Can't we return to Kerman City, the territory of the Baiyi Dynasty?" Xiao Heng bowed and said: "The Military Intelligence Department in the Samanid Kingdom should get the news and pass it on, and said that Prime Minister Utebi sent an army to escort Princess Sanluzhuo to Bukhara, as soon as I got the news, I and the other ten Chengying Pao Ze came out non-stop to look for the adult, because the distance is far away, the carrier pigeon can not fly over the mountain, and the situation has not yet reached Hexi. However, according to the Ministry of Military Intelligence, when the Lords enter the territory of Khorasan, the Turks will set up an ambush in front of the mountain road that crosses the Pamirs in the northeast, and there is also a cavalry army behind them to cut off the way back, and the only way to survive is to turn around and go southwest, there is a Zoroastrian castle in Yazd, and they will temporarily protect the Lord. Prime Minister Utbi's army will soon arrive there to escort the mission and Princess Sanrudro to Bukhara. ”

Suddenly, Zhang Zhongyao stared at Xiao Heng, this person was the elite he personally selected from the Lingzhou border army, in the past, he was the captain of the Chengying Battalion, and the sergeant assigned to the west of the Western Regions thousands of miles away was not a person who was loyal, brave and resourceful, if it wasn't for this Xiao Heng to report in person, even if he had the waist card mark of the Military Intelligence Division, he would have led the mission back to Kerman desperately.

"Who is in charge of Bukhara and Samarkand now?" Zhang Zhongyao asked with a gloomy face, because of the urgency of the situation, he could arrange a retreat for the mission without Chase and Shi Yuanguang getting the news, and he could also say that Prime Minister Utbi sent an army to protect the princess of the enemy country, and the energy of this internal response was too great, and he had to guard against it.

"It was someone from the Department of Military Intelligence who approached Neiying, and it seems that the Sogdians in the Samanid kingdom, Lord Cai and Captain Shi Yuanguang showed that this person could be trusted. ”

Zhang Zhongyao's brows furrowed even tighter, Shi Yuanguang himself is a Sogdian, and the Sogdian he trusts does not mean that he can also be trusted, he thought for a while, called Ahmod, the commander of the guards of Cai Lang and Princess Sangludro, and explained the matter to them, who knew that Ahmod, who had always given the impression of being brave and ruthless, first agreed to avoid Yazd.

"The Khorasan cavalry was the most elite army of the Samanid dynasty, they had captured the Byzantine emperor, conquered Palestine and Mesopotami, in Egypt, 10,000 Khorasan cavalry defeated 100,000 enemy troops, and now the northern and southern Khorasan governors have joined forces against us, as long as a detachment is sent to cut off our retreat, it will be difficult for the legament carrying many baggage and craftsmen to escape. Ahmod spread his hands, he didn't mean to say anything, if he left behind the baggage, craftsmen, and scholars, the chances of the mission team being able to rush back were also very small, "Yazd is a place where Zoroastrians live, and they built the castle very strong in order to resist the harassment of ***, and it is no problem to rely on resistance to the reinforcements." ”

Zhang Zhongyao pondered for a moment and said in a deep voice: "In this case, we will turn to the southwest and go to Yazd first. The military situation was urgent, and before it was completely dark, the corps of more than 1,500 people turned around and headed straight for Yazd.

Zhang Zhongyao's decision was extremely timely, and after waiting for two days in the Khorasan cavalry in the direction of the original route of the mission, they finally found that the emissary team from the east had been diverted to the west, and immediately rushed to catch up, but it was always a beat late, and it was not until the second half of the day when the mission team entered the fortress of Yazd that the Khorasan cavalry arrived. Two days later, Abbas i Yazd, the leader of the pro-Baiyi Janissary Guard, a slave of Prime Minister Utbi's father, arrived at Yazd with 5,000 Janissaries to escort the Eastern Emissary and Princess Sangludro to Bukhara.

Utby's wishful thinking was to detain both the Chinese mission and the princess Sanrudro in Bukhara, both to blackmail Adulyard Dawlai, the king of kings, and to use the Chinese mission as a card in dealing with the Black Khanate. However, neither the Samanid governor of Khorasan, Ichu Rahim, nor the prime minister Utebi, had any expectation that such a rude act would trigger a thunderous wrath.

"There is no excuse for Zhengchou, so it came up," Wu Yingying sneered, and the general handed the report back to Chase, "Such a coincidence, it can't be deliberately arranged by the Military Intelligence Department, right?" The Samanid Dynasty actually dared to detain the envoy, and also left the princess sent by the Baiyi Dynasty to Bukhara together, which is really a great violation of the majesty of the Xia Kingdom, and the later Temujin, isn't it because the envoy was humiliated that he went west with the strength of the whole country.

Chase hurriedly said, "There is no way," he paused, and hesitated, "Yuanguang is not such an ignorant person, but our strength in the Samanid Nation and the Chengying Battalion is very weak, and we have found out the news, and we will take Zhongyao and them to Bukhara, or do them with Kangquda the lonely sons of their Sogdians." ”

Wu Yingying nodded and said, "Anyway, this is an opportunity." In order to guard against Cao Han's 50,000 forbidden troops in the east, the Zhendong Military Division was established, and Yu Furen was the head of the march, and he was stationed in the east to deal with the Song army. The Lu army that ruled Yinzhou, the Baiyu army of Xiazhou, the galloping hunting army of Liangzhou, and the Jinfan army. He suddenly remembered something and asked, "The war horses sold to the Central Plains, especially those given to Cao Han, are all castrated, right?"

Yu Fu Renliang said with a smile: "Your Majesty, don't worry, if it is not castrated, they will not accept it." "I don't know when the Central Plains became popular with the habit of castrating war horses, because the gelding has a gentle temperament and is convenient for the cavalry to control. In the Xia Kingdom, the situation was reversed, and the sergeants took pride in riding the most violent stallions, even the children who were beginning to ride also used the small stallions, and the geldings were only used for camel transport and meat harvesting, and occasionally some women rode them.

Chase Si, the director of the Military Intelligence Department, added on the side: "The people of the Song Dynasty are not good at raising horses, and the good horses that usually pay tribute from the Western Regions will die in half of them within a few years when they arrive in the Central Plains, and the remaining life span is much shorter than normal." Xin Gu shook his head and said: "What do you say is not suitable for water and soil, but you don't care about feeding." Hearing him say this, all the generals smiled their eyebrows, and the sergeant of the hussars claimed to have two wives, the eldest wife was the child's mother, and the younger wife was the war horse. Here, as in the Central Plains, often the eldest wife wants to eat the vinegar of the younger wife.

Wu Yingying nodded and continued: "The rest of the armies are preparing to march westward, and each army will leave five hundred-man teams to recruit and send Yinhu archers to assist the state regiment training envoys and county lieutenants to guard the place. While preparing to march, he sent envoys to borrow a way from the Uighurs in Gaochang, and if they refused, they would be destroyed first. ”

Xiao Jiu, Xin Gu, Yu Furenliang, Luo Youtong and other generals next to him laughed, and Yu Furenliang laughed even more: "If the Song army comes to attack, I will defend the city with a few sergeants and archers in the shade, and ride around to cut off the grain road of the Song people. ”