The weather in December is really not ordinarily cold.

Due to the low temperature, although there has been no snow in the past few days, the snow has not yet melted away a few days ago, and the sky and the earth are still icy and snowy.

The army led by Liu Yi walked in the front of the entire marching procession, with more than 20,000 men and horses led by Li Zhishi, the general of the right guard, followed by the left and right Chinese troops led by Pei Xingjian himself.

The army that set out from Chang'an this time was 180,000, a huge number, carrying a large amount of heavy grain and grass, moving slowly, and marching only a few dozen miles a day.

Such a slow marching speed made Liu Yi a little anxious, originally the front army he led could move faster than this, but the speed of the march was not up to him, and he had to follow Pei Xingjian's orders.

More than half a month after departing from Chang'an, the army arrived near Fenzhou.

According to the time, this day was already Chinese New Year's Eve, and Pei Xingjian, the commander of the army, ordered the whole army to rest in Yanzhou for two days, and ordered the whole army to be rewarded well, so that these soldiers who went out before the year ago could have a good year in the army.

Pei Xingjian's order was issued, and after the army set up camp, for a while, the camp was very lively, with noisy noises one after another, killing cattle and sheep, the laughter of the soldiers, and the tragic cry of cattle and sheep before they were slaughtered, mixed together, and could be heard from afar.

After settling in the post-military affairs, Liu Yi, who was about to have a good time with his sergeants, received an order from Pei Xingjian, asking him to go to his tent after placing his subordinate soldiers.

Liu Yi did not dare to delay, so he ordered Huan Yanfan and Jinghui to temporarily preside over the affairs of the front army, and he took his guards to Pei Xingjian's big tent nearly two miles away.

These days since the departure from Chang'an, after Pei Xingjian sent a herald to convey his orders, he did not ask Liu Yi to go to his account to discuss matters or report things.

Liu Yi came to Pei Xingjian's big tent, which also made him a little surprised, there was no need to report, Pei Xingjian's personal guards who were guarding outside the big tent directly let Liu Yi enter the tent.

Liu Yi strode into the tent and saw that Pei Xingjian's big tent was empty, only Pei Xingjian was sitting alone, reading by the light, there was some food on the side of the table, it was still steaming, and a pair of wine glasses were placed on each side.

"I've seen the big handsome!" Liu Yi saluted, and he was even more puzzled in his heart.

Pei Xingjian put down the book, stood up, pointed to the table with wine and food, and said to Liu Yi with a smile: "Virtuous nephew, here, sit!"

Pei Xingjian said that he would sit down on the main seat first, and Liu Yi also sat down on the other side as he said.

Pei Xingjian poured the cup in front of Liu Yi full of wine: "Virtuous nephew, today is Chinese New Year's Eve, your first time leaving home to fight, you must be a little unaccustomed, and there is just something to order you, so let someone pass you over, have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with you, and talk about some things!" Come and have a toast first!"

Although there are some alcoholic beverages in the army in case necessary, it is strictly forbidden to drink alcohol in peacetime according to military orders. Today is Chinese New Year's Eve, and Pei Xingjian also issued a special order, the soldiers can drink a small amount of wine, but not drunk.

There was very little alcohol in the army, and even if someone wanted to, it was impossible.

Pei Xingjian toasted to himself, and Liu Yi hurriedly raised his glass, "Thank you for your care!" As he spoke, he drank all the wine in his glass.

"Virtuous nephew, it's the first time I've drunk with you, and I used to drink and talk with your father together!" Pei Xingjian said a little subconsciously, and suddenly found that it was a little inappropriate to mention Liu Xianli, who had died of illness, at such a time today, so he hurriedly changed the topic, "Virtuous nephew, you have good martial arts, and you must have a good amount of alcohol, so drink a little more today!"

"The last general won't dare to drink too much, and if you drink too much, you will make a mistake," Liu Yi hurriedly replied. Although Pei Xingjian is the commander of hundreds of thousands of troops, Liu Yi is also relatively familiar with him, and there is no one else in the big tent, Pei Xingjian is talking so casually, Liu Yi does not feel any nervous.

Pei Xingjian smiled and said, "It's okay, just don't get drunk!" poured a lot of wine for Liu Yi again!

Liu Yi raised his wine glass and saluted Pei Xingjian and said: "The last general respects the marshal, I hope that this expedition can follow the marshal to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions," said that he had done his own work first, and when he watched Pei Xingjian drink, he also thought of a question of his own, and asked Pei Xingjian at the moment: "Dashuai, the speed of the march is too slow, right?" This trip has been for many days, and it is only six or seven hundred miles away from Chang'an, can you speed it up? ”

"The speed of marching like this is already extremely fast," Pei Xingjian took a sip of wine, looked at Liu Yi and said with a smile, "Virtuous nephew, you haven't led the troops to the battle, you don't know the marching situation, the march of the brigade, the grain and grass, and the baggage are important to keep up, it takes time to set up camp and pull out the camp, you can't be anxious, the number of troops we are leading now is not small, and the weather is not good, such a march speed is already very fast, in case of wind and snow, the speed will be even slower!" However, if there is an enemy situation, an army must also advance according to the situation, and the speed of the army will definitely not be as fast as it is now!"

"Oh! I see!" Liu Yi thought about it for a while, and also understood, now the way of travel and transportation is still very backward, the army carries supplies, it is impossible to travel as fast as a light horse, coupled with the hard journey, in order to ensure that the soldiers and the war horses they ride have the physical strength to enter the battle when they encounter the enemy, there is only such a speed of marching, no wonder Pei Xingjian has issued several orders to keep the department he led to maintain such a speed, not too fast.

"Virtuous nephew, judging from the situation of your department during the march during this time, the situation is still quite good, some generals who have gone on expeditions are not as familiar with military affairs as you," Pei Xingjian had already drunk the wine in his cup, put a piece of beef in his mouth and chewed it, "So I didn't have too many instructions with you, but ah, if you go north, there are more things to pay attention to, the weather may become worse, and the enemy situation may also appear..."

Now it is still in the hinterland of the Tang Dynasty, in addition to the possible bad weather affecting the march of the army, it is basically impossible to change the direction and mode of the army due to the enemy situation, but further north, the situation is different, when it comes to the border with the Turkic forces, it may encounter the enemy situation at any time, and the layout of the various departments of the army must be changed, especially the various departments of the front army must be arranged according to the wartime situation, including the vanguard led by Liu Yi must also be strictly guarded and put into battle at any time.

As the vanguard of Pei Xingjian's headquarters, Liu Yi's department is in front of the Chinese army led by Pei Xingjian, and there are several armies in front of Liu Yi in the marching sequence, but the distance is not far away, and it is spread out in a fan, which can respond to each other.

"The last general set out for the first time, and the marshal was entrusted with a heavy position, and the last general must not dare to slack off in the slightest," Liu Yigong saluted, "After the last general was given the art of war, he also read it very carefully several times, but there are still many places that are not clear, and there are still some gaps between the things in the book and the reality, and some military affairs, please take the time to give me more guidance..."

Liu Yi is modest, although it is said that leading the army in this era is not the same as that of later generations, but Liu Yi also studied systematically in the military academy for a period of time before joining the secret service, coupled with the study of the art of war given by Pei Xingjian, he is no stranger to the current way of leading troops, but he is just a little uncomfortable.

"Of course," Pei Xingjian poured a full bottle of wine for Liu Yi and poured himself full, "But a certain still tells you that many times the victory of the war requires the ability of the generals to make decisions on the spot, and some people do not have this talent, even if they tell him more theories about the use of troops, no matter how much they read the military books, it is useless, this is a matter of talent, I have listened to you several times about the concept of rapid attack and surprise attack on the enemy, and you have shown good command ability when you lead the polo team to play with the Tubo polo team, which is a very good thing, If you can give full play to your abilities in actual combat, you will definitely be able to win the battle when fighting the enemy, this is the talent of a general!"

The game of polo is a sport that is tempered into the bravery and command ability of the general, and the many aspects of a samurai's talent can be seen in it.

"The last general understands!" The ability to make decisions on the spot is very strong, which is one of Liu Yi's most confident places, he never panics when he encounters problems, and can come up with a solution in the fastest time. Even if he led thousands of people to kill the enemy immediately, Liu Yi was confident and could make the most favorable contingency measures according to the battlefield situation.

Pei Xingjian put down his chopsticks and looked at Liu Yi, "Our army has been newly defeated, and the morale has not yet recovered. I hope that the first battle can be won under your leadership!"

"If the commander can hand over the first battle task to the last general, the last general will definitely bring victory to the commander!" Liu Yi is full of confidence!

"It's good to have such confidence," Pei Xingjian praised, put down the wine glass as he spoke, but sighed, "I think that Xiao Siye is also a fierce general, and he has defeated his opponent many times in the battle with the Turkic rebels, but he is proud of this and neglects to take precautions, this time our army turned from victory to defeat, the most important reason is that our sergeants transporting the baggage were attacked by the Turks, although the baggage team is only a few hundred people, and the loss of troops is not large, but hundreds of carts of grain, grass, and winter clothes were taken away by the Turkic army. At that time, it was the time of severe winter, and the loss of grain and grass in the ice and snow was a very serious matter, and the morale of the army had fluctuated at that time, and the Turks actually took advantage of the night to sneak attack our army camp, and Xiao Siye did not strengthen his defense after the grain and grass were intercepted... When they were attacked again, they fled in a hurry, but it was a pity that although Li Jingjia and Hua Dazhi resisted bravely, they still inevitably lost and suffered with Xiao Siye... Turkic Kouding Prefecture, fortunately, King Huo deceived the Turks with an empty city, and the Turks were afraid of an ambush and did not dare to attack the city, otherwise..."

Hearing Pei Xingjian's words, Liu Yi's heart moved, "It's still cold now, and the spring grass hasn't germinated yet, the Turks will definitely come to rob us of our heavy grain and grass again, Dashuai, we must strengthen our precautions!"

"Well, I already have a countermeasure," Pei Xingjian said with a smile.

Liu Yi looked at Pei Xingjian, as if he understood or not.

"Virtuous nephew, when you arrive in Shuozhou, I will tell you about the arrangement of the war! You'll understand!" Pei Xingjian had an unfathomable expression.

"Yes, Dashuai!" Liu Yi originally wanted to talk to Pei Xingjian about Wu Zetian's instructions when he summoned him before the expedition, as well as the special edict, but after thinking about it, he still didn't speak, the war had not started yet, and he felt that it was not the right time.

(To be continued)