After Yang Guang lost all the news in Liaodong before, although Yang Jian did not get the news that Yang Guang's body was found, he always thought that Yang Guang had died in battle, after all, it was normal for someone to die on the vast prairie in Liaodong and be eaten by wolves.

Therefore, Yang Jian always thought that Yang Guang had died in Liaodong, coupled with all the unsatisfactory during this time, he was even more dissatisfied with Yang Yong and missed Yang Guang even more, and then he suddenly heard that Yang Guang had escaped safely from Liaodong, which brought him a stronger impact.

At this time, after getting this good news, Yang Jian's condition seemed to have recovered a lot at once, and the whole person was in good spirits.

He even deliberately dressed up and went to the magnificent Zen Temple to thank the gods and Buddhas for blessing his son to return safely, completely forgetting why these gods and Buddhas did not bless the Sui army to win victory in Liaodong.

The news that Yang Guang was going to return safely quickly spread to the ears of many officials and scholars in Chang'an City, and Yang Yongdong's palace, which was originally in Chang'an City, was empty in an instant.

And some officials who originally supported Yang Guang immediately had the backbone and no longer stammered Yang Yong on the pole as before, after all, there was only one prince in the Sui Empire before, and at this time, with Yang Guang, who would be willing to pat Yang Yong's ass.

In such a state of mind, the officials of all factions in the entire Chang'an City are waiting for Yang Guang's return with different attitudes, and Yang Yong is said to be very drunk and crying in such a changing situation, which makes the officials who are not optimistic about him shake their heads.

Soon three days later, a team of scouts quickly rushed to Chang'an to report that Yang Guang, the king of Jin, was coming, and in less than an hour, a huge cavalry suddenly appeared north of Weishui on the other side of Chang'an City, and the Sui army of Chang'an, who had already received the news, knew that this was a large army brought back by Yang Guang, the king of Jin, and did not panic.

After this cavalry came to the north bank of Weishui, it was stationed on the spot, and the prepared Chang'an City quickly sent a large amount of food, wine and meat under the arrangement of Zhongwen, so that these Sui cavalry who had experienced a lot of hardships could rest well, while Yang Guang quickly entered the city and went to the palace under the escort of dozens of cavalry.

Seeing the figure of the King of Jin, whose armor was full of dust and wounds, gradually faded away, a general of the Sui army who came to greet him sighed: "Our army of Liao is not three million, but at least almost two million, who would have thought that it would only take half a year to come back with less than 100,000 cavalry, I can't believe that the Xia Kingdom is so powerful!" ”

One of his colleagues nodded when he heard the sigh, but his topic changed: "If you want to say that the King of Jin is powerful, not only did he withdraw back safely, but he was able to bring back seventy or eighty thousand cavalry, and other generals were left behind by the Xia army in this battle. ”

The soldiers of the Sui army were there to discuss the topics they cared about, but Yang Guang only took Yang Jun, Pei Ju, Yang Siren and other generals to the palace quickly.

"Ahh

As soon as he saw that Yang Guang's armor was full of wounds, which were already in tatters, Yang Jian's heart suddenly became sour, "Ah, you have suffered, it's good to come back, it's good to come back!" ”

At this time, Yang Jian actually lost his former majesty, like a loving father, and his beloved son, who originally thought that he had died, suddenly appeared in front of him again, where could he be majestic.

"Puff"

The first time Yang Guang saw Yang Jian, he actually knelt there and cried bitterly: "Ahh I didn't even get to see my mother for the last time, and my father entrusted me with the important task of attacking Liao, but I actually lost the million army, and my father was so emaciated! ”

Yang Guang kowtowed violently while crying bitterly, and the tears that came out even wet the ground, and even the ministers such as Yang Su, Gao Ying, and Su Wei felt a little sour and shed tears together.

"What's so strange about you," Yang Jian sighed while helping Yang Guang up, "I also understand, the national strength and strength of the Xia Kingdom are not something we can compete with, this war is not a crime of war!" ”

Saying that, Yang Jian looked at Yang Jun, Yang Siren, Pei Ju and others who were kneeling on the ground: "You all get up, although you lost a million troops in this battle, the biggest reason is not your reason, it is said that you almost conquered Liaodong City and captured Wang Ze, the lord of Naxia Kingdom!" It's a good effort! ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!"

After receiving Yang Jian's explicit pardon, Yang Siren, Yang Jun, Pei Ju and more than ten other generals who escaped from thousands of dangers were all happy, it was really not easy to escape this catastrophe, Yang Jian could forgive them so easily It also surprised these people, but after all, it was a good thing.

Next, Yang Guang told in detail, and Yang Jian knew how they dodged the attack of the Xia army.

Yang Guang knew that if he fled straight to the west, he would inevitably encounter the Xia cavalry that was encircling and intercepting, and the Xia cavalry moving south would inevitably lead to the stronger the Xia army was closer to the Sui realm, and if he encountered a huge number of Sui cavalry with only more than 100,000 people, he would definitely not be able to resist, and if he wanted to survive, he would have to go the opposite way.

After some discussion, all the generals agreed to Yang Guang's suggestion to detour northward, this detour to the north was not a detour of dozens of miles or hundreds of miles, but after escaping two hundred miles to the west, this army went north to cross the weak Luoshui, and then walked north along the western foot of the Great Xing'an Mountains for thousands of miles.

In the middle, he was almost encountered by the 200,000 Xia cavalry led by Yang Wu who attacked the Turks, but fortunately, Yang Guang walked farther away in order to escape for his life, so he quietly avoided this southbound army.

After walking thousands of miles to the north, Yang Guang and his entourage actually encountered tens of thousands of Xia cavalry, but it was a large army of the nature of the National Guard, and originally thought it was a soft persimmon and wanted to use it to vent his anger, but a big battle killed and wounded thousands of people, but the Sui army lost more than 10,000 people and nearly 20,000 people.

What's even more terrifying is that the herdsmen on the grasslands of the Xia Kingdom can be mobilized at any time, whether they are young or strong, women and children can pick up the popular muskets to attack the Sui army, this tens of thousands of National Guards are actually invincible under the siege of the herdsmen of the Xia Kingdom within hundreds of miles around, and even the Xia army in the distance has received news to come to support.

Yang Guang and the others had no choice but to flee into the vast desert in a panic under the increasing pursuit of the Xia army, and only then did they avoid the pursuit of the people of the Xia Kingdom and the army of Han Zigao's army who came closely.

Han Zigao was in a hurry to go north to cooperate with the Mobei Xia army to attack the Western Turkic coalition army, so he did not continue the offensive after seeing this Sui army fleeing into the desert, anyway, there was not enough preparation for these people to flee into the desert It was a dead end.

The other people of Xia Kingdom also went home separately at the same time as Han Zigao left, and each went to find his own mother.

The risk in the desert is not something that words can describe, the biggest crisis comes from water and food, food is easy to say, the Sui army set off from the camp in Liaodong with a large amount of grain and jerky, but clean water is the biggest problem in the desert.

In the first day or two, everyone still had the water bladder they carried, but after the third day, the team began to run out of water, especially the amount of drinking water for the war horses was extremely large, so on the fourth day, Yang Guang had to urgently order the killing of the excess war horses.

In this way, not only can there be horse blood to drink, but also horse meat to supplement food, and even the processed horse skin can be used to keep out the cold, and the desert days in spring are better, and at night it is even colder than winter.

There was no charcoal in the desert to keep out the cold, so the Sui soldiers had to find a leeward sand dune, dig a small pit, and then huddle in it to keep warm overnight.

However, the night in the desert was too cold, a large number of Sui troops were frozen to death almost every day, and the number of dead and wounded war horses increased sharply, and Yang Guang no longer had to think about killing war horses.

The big problem of water shortage is even more plaguing the Sui army, if this problem cannot be solved quickly, it is inevitable that they all die in the desert.

At this time, the Sui army had quickly reduced its strength from 130,000 when it fled into the desert to about 100,000, which was very fast, and the originally elite Sui army had already shown signs of collapse.

Fortunately, at the most critical moment, they actually met a small tribe of Turkic people who were nomadic in the desert, they fled here last year to escape the killing of the Xia army, and this vast desert actually became their protective barrier.

Yang Guang did not plunder them, after all, the small tribe of less than 100 people only had so many dozens of camels and hundreds of sheep, which was not enough for the Sui army, and now the Sui army needed a guide who was familiar with the desert.

Under Yang Guang's deliberate pulling, the Turks quickly led them to find an outlet for underground river water, so the problem of lack of water in the army was quickly solved, and after having excellent guides, the Sui army also marched in the desert with a lot of ease, and these Turks taught them a lot of knowledge about survival in the desert.

By the time Yang Guang followed the Turkic guides out of the desert, the Xia army had already begun to fully capture the land of Dingxiang County and Hetao, and was launching an offensive further west.

The more than 80,000 cavalry of the Sui army who walked out of the desert lost all their banners, but this also made the Xia soldiers who occupied the Hetao think that these were their own cavalry from the north of the desert, although they were surprised why these cavalry did not enter the city, but they did not pay too much attention to it.

After all, everyone has their own things to do, and when Yang Wu, who had conquered the West River and joined Han Zigao's army, returned to the Hetao, he discovered the abnormality of that cavalry army, and Yang Wu often felt sorry for it later.

Yang Guang and his entourage of tens of thousands of people were frightened, after all, there were hundreds of thousands of Xia troops gathered in the land of Hetao, but the Xia troops from all walks of life did not find this problem, and it was not until they fled to Diaoyin County on the west bank of the Yellow River that they finally felt at ease, and this escape can be said to be a miracle.

Yang Guang's return not only gave Yang Jian a new successor, but also the more than 80,000 elite Sui cavalry he brought back who had experienced many battles, which is what the Sui Empire lacks now.

However, Yang Jian did not immediately announce his decision, he only lightly ordered to praise the Turkic guide who led Yang Guang and his party to escape, after all, there were only a small tribe of less than 100 people, a thousand silks, 10,000 sheep and 1,000 cattle made them happy and didn't know what their surname was.

The other dozen or so generals who had fled also returned home without any form of persecution, to the surprise of their families, who had long thought they were dead.

Yang Guang's arrival seemed to be very peaceful, but anyone knew that a battle between the open and the dark would continue, and they didn't know if Yang Guang's safe return would be a good thing or a bad thing for the Sui Empire.