The white-armored scholar waved his hand to interrupt Li Yihuan's words, not because he didn't want to take Chen Xun back to Beijing, but because he knew from the beginning that it was almost impossible. The young man who was so stubborn that he sneaked out of the house back then is now so old, and when they meet again, the white-armored scholar can see at a glance that the young man's temperament has not changed in any way, but the young man's sharp temperament has been polished at the border.

In fact, he had some things he wanted to ask Chen Xun in detail, but in the past month, the young man was injured and depressed, so he didn't say much. After all, for him, the affairs of the Northwest Army are of course a big deal, but they are still no bigger than the young man in front of him. Now that the boy seemed to be able to overcome this hurdle, he tried to ask, "What happened in the northwest that day?" ”

Li Yihuan and Liao Chonghai heard the question of the scholar in Baijia, one stopped playing with the iron rod of the coals, and the other put down the wine bowl in his hand, and they all looked up at the somewhat thin young man, they were equally curious, how could the 100,000-strong Northwest Army disappear for no reason.

Chen Xun shook his head again and sighed: "Actually, in the past month, I have been secretly recalling some things before, but I have never found anything unusual. He cupped his forehead, stared at the charcoal fire in the furnace, and said slowly: "It is indeed a rare thing for the army to prepare and camp in the northwest, but it is not something that has never happened before. Before setting off that day, I heard Lao Zhangtou say that spring was about to begin, which meant that before the beginning of spring, the Northwest Army would be pulled to the grassland for training, and in case of encountering the grassland cavalry who were not open-eyed, it could also make the other party suffer a little by the way. ”

Chen Xun saw Li Yihuan staring at him and stopped talking, he paused and added: "Lao Zhangtou is my captain in the Xiao Cavalry Battalion." After listening to the explanation, the three people on the side nodded tacitly.

Chen Xun frowned, as if he was thinking about it while recalling: "When the army was marching out, there was no atmosphere of a big battle, and the robes in the team felt that it was just a joint army drill with a large number of people. ”

Li Yihuan picked up the wine glass in front of him, took a sip, and frowned: "So, this is just an encounter?" Immediately, he denied his doubts: "But it's not right, if it's an encounter, how can it lead to the total annihilation of the Northwest Army?" Li Yannian can't beat him, he can always run away, and he is not a fool, standing there and letting the grassland people cut it. Besides, the encounter of 100,000 people, how terrible is that? After speaking, he first glanced at Chen Xun, and found that the young man was not annoyed by his "open-mouthedness", and then set his eyes on the white-armored scholar, hoping that the boss who had always been wise could give an answer. As for Liao Chonghai, he had already taken advantage of Li Yihuan's participation in the discussion and couldn't take care of the wine jug on the stove, so he poured himself a drink.

The white-armored scholar didn't say anything, he was silent, but Chen Xun seemed to say to Li Yihuan: "What the fourth uncle said makes sense, it's unlikely to be an encounter, but now it looks more like an ambush battle." ”

He immediately said what he had thought of before: "At the beginning of the battle, the enemy first had a frontal charge with our cavalry battalion, but not long after the battle began, our flanks and even the Chinese army were attacked. Moreover, the enemy charged very quickly, almost in less than a quarter of an hour he had penetrated us into the infantry battalion, and as we continued to charge forward, the rear was constantly fighting, and the enemy was almost already in our army, so that we had no chance to react at all. It all seems that the other party is prepared. ”

Hearing this, Liao Chonghai just finished drying the wine in the bowl, and sighed twice, and he didn't know whether to sigh at the wine or the battle: "The grassland is flat, and it is advantageous for the barbarians to rush and kill, and it is too late to set up a horse rejection stake, and let the foot pawn directly harden, then there are really not enough for others to kill."

Although Liao Chonghai is usually reckless, he still has some opinions when it comes to basic combat matters. So Li Yihuan and Chen Xun both nodded silently and agreed with his words.

"But it's still the problem that the fourth child just had, if you can't beat it, you can always retreat to Chaotian Pass first, at most you will lose this battle, there is no reason for the whole army to be wiped out."

Li Yihuan and Chen Xun nodded again in approval of Liao Chonghai's words. The steppe cavalry rushed and killed fiercely, coupled with the ambush in advance, it was inevitable that this battle would suffer a big loss, but it was not impossible to break through and return to Chaotian Pass. The Northwest Army has been dealing with barbarians all year round, and has long known how to take effective measures against the enemy, even if it was ambushed in advance, it is absolutely impossible to even break through. But now the fact is that no one has come back to Chaotianguan except Chen Xun.

At this time, the white-armored scholar, who had been silent from the beginning, finally asked, "On that day, did you receive an order to retreat?" ”

Chen Xun shook his head almost without thinking: "After we clashed with the grassland cavalry, it didn't take long for us to be scattered, and when I followed Lao Zhangtou and Brother Zhu, we didn't see the order to retreat. ”

Chen Xun knew what Master Fu Baijia meant, whether there was a retreat order and whether he could retreat, for the soldiers of the Northwest Army who had already died, these were two different things. If the fact that he was unable to break through and return to the city with a retreat order was regarded as a "natural disaster" that God was about to die in the Northwest Army, then the fact that he did not receive the retreat order until his death was a real "man-made disaster", and I am afraid that the crime of the main general Li Yannian could not be explained by the improper use of troops.

He carefully recalled the situation at that time, he really did not receive the order to retreat, nor did he receive the order to cover the retreat of the rear robe, so he shook his head again: "I really never received it." ”

Hearing this, the Baijia scholar sighed, exhaled lightly, and said, "It seems that the matter in the northwest is not simple. But..."

Before he finished speaking, he looked at Chen Xun expectantly, even though this matter would be difficult to sort out for a while, but the answer to one question was self-evident, and he hoped that the young man in front of him would also be able to realize this.

Chen Xun looked at the Baijia scholar, he had already discovered that question, but he had never answered it: "Master, the large-scale hunting of the grassland people is generally in spring, when the water and grass are the most fertile. However, it is not the early spring it is now, but after March and April. ”

The white-armored scholar smiled knowingly, knowing that Chen Xun had realized the problem. Sure enough, I heard him continue: "In this way, I should be the only one in the Northwest Army who survived." ”

Liao Chonghai didn't know what dumb riddles the Baijia scholar and the old and young boy were playing, but he felt that he was in a fog and his head ached. He has never been willing to do more things that are laborious, so he has to pick up the bowl again and dry two bowls in a row. Li Yihuan vaguely grasped something, but he still didn't have a clue.

Fortunately, it didn't give the two of them a headache for too long, and listened to Chen Xun again: "I have heard about the absurd deeds of that Lord Wu in Wu Youfang's Taishou Mansion before, so from this point of view, the marching warrant at that time was indeed not given by the imperial court, otherwise no matter how much this Lord Wu neglected his duties, he would not know at all." In this way, that person will not be a person in the court. ”

The white-armored scholar smiled approvingly, and motioned for Li Yihuan to pour him a small glass of warm wine: "So, what you just said that there are still people alive in the Northwest Army, I absolutely agree with it." ”

Liao Chonghai was still confused, so he had to go bowl after bowl. But Li Yihuan obviously understood what the two were talking about. He looked at the two people in front of him with wide eyes, his two thin eyebrows bent in an exaggerated amplitude, and he said in disbelief: "Collaboration with the enemy? You say someone is collaborating with the enemy? How is this possible! ”

The white-armored scholar put down the wine glass, sighed lightly, and asked, "What's impossible?" ”

"Daxing... Daxing has been strong for a long time, and for so many years, he has been subduing the small countries in the Western Regions, not to mention, the barbarians in southern Xinjiang and the north are not opponents at all, what reason does that person have to collaborate with the enemy? Combined with the conclusion that they had just been ambushed by the Northwest Army, Li Yihuan had actually figured out this matter in his heart, if it wasn't for someone who collaborated with the enemy to inform the barbarian Northwest Army of the movements, how could the Northwest Army land in such a situation. It's just that he still can't recover from this shocking conclusion for a while, so he subconsciously asks the above words.

Daxing is strong, the four seas are peaceful, and the regions dare not disobey, and the barbarians in the north occasionally dare to harass them, but which time is not the Xingjun beaten back to teach a lesson. Therefore, the Xing people always feel that the Central Plains is blessed with regional orthodoxy, and the rest of the Western Regions and Southern Xinjiang, whether it is the grassland people, are just barbarians who don't even have words.

The pride of Xingren has been deeply engraved into everyone's bones and blood for decades. So at first glance, when he heard that someone was collaborating with the enemy, Li Yihuan was really incomprehensible. Then, he seemed to think of something again, and couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat on his back, "Fang Cai, Fang Cai's boss asked Xun'er if he had received the military order to retreat, he was suspicious..."

He didn't finish speaking, and saw Chen Xun nodded, "The master wants to confirm whether that person is Li Yannian, the defender of the Northwest Army." Li Yihuan had such an expression, but then he asked, "Did Li Yannian die in battle?" ”

Chen Xun had already fallen into deep doubts, and the question of doubt was one of them: "General Li was indeed killed in battle, I saw it with my own eyes." ”

The three of Yanshan's eight horsemen did not speak, they all made a careful appearance, and even Liao Chonghai no longer served the bowl.

Chen Xun continued to recall: "After Brother Zhang and I were scattered by the grassland cavalry, we were killed for a while. By the time we were temporarily out of the encirclement, there were only a dozen people left in the original team of our cavalry battalion. So we turned our horses around and tried to get back to the main battlefield, find the other teams that had been scattered, and gather our strength to give the barbarians a return pistol from behind. ”

The three of them nodded at the same time, appreciating the bravery and kindness of the Northwest Army, only to hear Chen Xun continue: "However, when we arrived at the original battlefield, we found that we had made a mess, and the grassland people and robes had been entangled, so we could only continue to rush and kill. ”

Chen Xun picked up the wine that Li Yihuan had just poured for him, and took a sip: "However, it didn't take long for a group of grassland cavalry to rush out from the center of the battlefield, and the tip of the spear of the person at the front was picking up General Li's head. ”

Li Yihuan breathed a long sigh of relief and rubbed the corners of his eyebrows, only feeling that this matter was too big, so big that Chen Xun really couldn't go back to Beijing with them, otherwise I was afraid that there would be a disaster that could not be dealt with. Li Yannian is dead, and the dead are the easiest to admit guilt, and the least likely to admit guilt. If some adults in the court knew that the entire Northwest Army was gone, but Chen Xun, the son of the General's Mansion, was still alive, it would make those adults ecstatic.