The envoy of the Turks disappeared on the horizon of the grassland on horseback, and Fumeng Lingcha turned his head from the battlement of the earthen city wall and said to Li Siye and other generals behind him: "The envoy sent by Mohe to surrender is just a delaying tactic, and he has now begun to actively prepare for war, so not only can we not stop, but we must also speed up our pace and reach the Broken Leaf River as soon as possible to fight a decisive battle with the Mohe Army." ”

In the following days, the Anxi army quickened the pace of marching, marched for nine hours a day, formed a formation of horses at night, slept in the open air with sheep felt pillows and quivers, and ate hard compressed dry food and salty cured meat when hungry. This is the case for the whole army, even Fumeng Lingcha eats these, and the only difference may be that when General Fumeng rests under the scorching sun, there are pro-soldiers behind him holding oil fans, and that's it.

Thunderstorms are rare in the mountain pastures, when everyone has to brave the rain, and the only piece of sheep felt is to cover the bags of dry food on the horses' backs. Once chow mein is moist, they will soon spoil and become inedible.

Fu Meng Lingcha straddled the war horse and encouraged the soldiers behind him: "Everyone hurry up, get out of this rain cloud and see that you can dry your wet clothes on a sunny day!" ”

Li Siye rode the black fat, holding the reins of the green horse, and he also fixed the sheep felt on the back of the green horse to prevent the dry food from getting wet. Because this mountain armor has two layers of tanned skin, the outer layer is used to weave the armor, and there is a shoulder shawl on the pocket, the rain cannot penetrate in, which is equivalent to wearing a raincoat. The armor of ordinary soldiers did not have such waterproofness, and most of them were already wet inside and out.

In fact, the rain lasted for a long time and did not stop until it was completely dark. At this time, there was no dry place in the whole world, and the soldiers trudged to the higher hills, untied the wet sheep felt, spread it on the ground, and fell into a deep sleep in armor. If people are extremely tired, they don't care about any comfort, as long as they have a moment of rest, they can fall asleep.

Broken Leaf City was already in sight, Fumeng Lingcha rode to the high place, just glanced at the city, and concluded that Mohe's sweat tent was not in the city, and ordered everyone to go around the city and go in the direction of Broken Leaf Water.

The Shule army was at the rear of the military column, and Li Siye reached a high place, stopped at the place where Fumeng Zhongcheng had just stopped, and also glanced at the city. I saw a few flags standing on the city wall, and the sky above the city was clear and clear, or there were a few wisps of smoke fluttering. Li Siye couldn't help but be a little puzzled, how did he know that Mohe Dagan was not in the city, could it be a way to hope for qi?

Regardless of whether Mohe Dagan was in the city or not, their tactics should also be to first cripple the enemy forces outside Shattered Leaf City one by one, and then concentrate their forces on besieging the city.

Li Siye rode on a war horse, his hand on a pergola and looked at the mountains in the distance, he had a tangled attitude towards this war, and in the short term, sending troops to kill Mohe Dagan and tame the unruly wild horse of Tuqi Shi would help the Anxi Protectorate consolidate its rule in the Western Regions. But in the long run, the big food is on the side, and this battle consumes its own strength, which is a civil war.

A civil war is also brewing within the Great Eclipse to the west, and the once powerful Umayyad dynasty is coming to an end, replaced by the more powerful Abbasid dynasty, a superpower of the same size as the Tang dynasty.

How to achieve victory at a smaller cost, this is something that Fu Meng Lingcha should consider, Li Siye has not been able to contact a more core level for the time being, and what he thinks about at this time is unfounded.

……

Mohe Dagan had already retreated the tribe to the pastures further north of Shayeshui, and Qingzhuang joined the army, organizing an armed force of 30,000 men to be deployed on both sides of the Kaden Mountain.

He also convened all the ministries in front of the tent and held a military meeting to discuss how to deal with the enemy's menacing Tang army.

The envoy who was driven back by the Tang army knelt on one knee and told the story of the conversation with Fumeng Lingcha with his right hand on his chest, and the three sons of the khan were so angry that they gritted their teeth and stepped forward to show their loyalty and wanted to fight the Tang army to the death.

Mo Heda laughed twice and said, "If Gai Jiayun comes, I may still be afraid, what is his husband's ability to do it?" Ladies and gentlemen, tell me how we can retreat from the enemy. ”

The khan did not know that Gai Zhongcheng, whom he was deeply afraid of, had gone downhill and disappeared in the long river of history.

Some people said that the Tang army should take the initiative to avoid its edge, continue to retreat, and wait until the Tang army is exhausted before engaging it. Other people believed that while the Tang army's doglegs had not yet arrived to join the Tang army, they should preemptively attack and defeat the Tang army, and the other two sides naturally fled with their tails between their legs.

Both sides have a certain amount of truth, but Mo He judged according to his current situation, now that the Tang army has penetrated into the hinterland of the Xiaye River, which is the livestock land of his summer pasture, if further north is the barren tundra, lacking forage, and then starving and thinning the livestock, it is really worth the loss.

After careful consideration, Mohe decided to meet the enemy behind the Broken Leaf River, and used the danger of the river to block his half-crossing, and he was sure to win a great victory. He divided all the organized forces into three branches, one under the command of his eldest son, Du Lu, and the other by his third son, Que Si, and the Chinese army was under his personal command.

After Mo He gave the order, he ordered his sons to disperse the three teams behind the Shiba River, and each sent a patrol to guard the river hundreds of miles long.

At night in late June, the Anxi army continued to march forward, and as it was already close to the Turgish, Fumeng Lingcha ordered the whole army to roll up its flags, not to light torches, and to rely only on the starlight on the night canopy and the phosphorus fire and fireflies in the grass and trees to distinguish the way, but fortunately the visibility was not very low.

The front and rear armies of the left wing led by General Ma Pho were in the vanguard as the vanguard, and after they climbed a gentle slope, they seemed to hear the sound of flowing water, like the rustle of spring silkworms gnawing on mulberry leaves, and like a breeze blowing through the pine forest. The soldiers walking in front were overjoyed, and the river in front of them may be a river, or a wide lake, and they heard their voices before they saw their shadows, and they were full of anticipation.

The team leader was the first to climb to the top of the slope, and at his feet was the winding Shabagawa River, which was more than 30 zhang wide and shimmering in the night. It is this river of life that irrigates the pastures of 3,000 miles north of the Tianshan Mountains, and nourishes the former Western Turks, and is now nurturing the Turkish.

He had not had time to enjoy the beautiful scenery under the starry night, but he had already seen a camp with felt tents on the other side of the river, a group of people patrolling it with torches, and some rangers walking slowly on the bank of the river and walking their horses towards this side.

The soldier who followed behind talked while climbing the slope: "Are you going to the river......?"

The soldier covered his mouth and hurriedly waved to the people behind him, and the soldiers climbed up to the top of the slope, looked at the approaching horses, and crawled back.

"Go to the rear and report that we have reached the edge of the Broken Leaf Water, and there are Turkishes camping on the other side of the river."

Soon General Ma Pho personally climbed to the top of the slope, and after careful observation for a while, he went to the Chinese army to report to Fumeng Lingcha.

Fumeng Lingcha called Gao Xianzhi, Li Siye, Ma Phosphorus, and Wang Zhengjian together, and the five-person group met to discuss.

"The Turgish are stationed on the other side of the river, and they should be trying to attack our army. I want to cross the river tonight, looking for a place where the water is wide and shallow. ”

After Fumon Lingcha gave the order, all the troops sent men to explore the river to the west, and went down to the water to explore the depths, but did not find a single surface of the river that could be crossed.

This can stump people, there is not enough time to cut down trees and rafts, people can swim across, but there are many animals and cannot go into the water.