Shuozhou.

More than 30,000 troops of the Northern Expeditionary Army, which had run out of ammunition and food almost half a year ago, gathered here one after another.

The people who were slaughtered in the city, they silently piled them together and burned them with a fire.

The strong stench and burning smell permeated the sky over Shuozhou for more than a month.

It was more than a month before Shuozhou returned to the signs of depression of an empty city.

But they still catch the smell of rancid smell from time to time, and many people who survive the catastrophe can only drag their wounds and hide at home, and finally die of despair.

Gradually, the rancid smell wafted out and was captured by the Northern Expeditionary Army that had gathered in Shuozhou one after another.

The Turkic barbarians who did not dare to invade the Zhou State, although they failed to loot more cities in the Qi State, after all, they also looted five border states and dozens of affiliated counties.

The northern part of Yanshuo, which is already like a no-man's land, has become a no-man's land in the eyes of the Turks, and it is indeed a no-man's land, and no one dares to gather in these border cities anymore.

Some of the nomadic tribes attached to the Tuobo Khan occasionally graze once in a month or two to cross the border.

At the beginning, when the 30,000 Northern Expeditionary Army still had some ammunition, because of their hatred for the Turkic barbarians, they saw that these Turkic tribes dared to cross the border repeatedly, and they attacked twice with the last ammunition!

The little tribes were frightened away by the sound of firecrackers, leaving calves and lambs running all over the ground.

The unattended farmland is overgrown with weeds, which can also be used to herd these calves and lambs.

In the days when they were waiting for reinforcements to arrive, more than half of them were from the government soldiers, and they waited for the fields that seemed fertile and were reluctant to be so barren.

In short, they can't be hungry, even if they have exhausted their strength to make ends meet, they can't afford to go south back to Chang'an.

You can only wait for reinforcements to come.

If there were no reinforcements coming, after a long time, they even had the idea of living here.

This is the case in the Central Plains, where wildfires are inexhaustible, and spring breezes blow and regenerate.

An empty city that was slaughtered, gradually, there will be people left to live in one after another.

Over time, if no historian writes down what happened here, gradually, the disaster will be forgotten by future generations.

Then the disasters began again and again, and so did the smoke of the re-rising settlements.

……

Early the next morning, Yuwen Shihong and Tang Yong and their entourage were the first to arrive at Hequ.

Zu Wenyuan parked the boat in the middle of the Yellow River, and when the guards confirmed that there was no one stationed along the meander, Zu Wenyuan slowly docked his precious thousand-mile boat.

It's just that most of the back are boats that rely on manpower to paddle, and it will take half a day to arrive.

As soon as the impatient Tang Yong came ashore, he said to Yuwen Shihong:

"Your Majesty, the last general will go to Shuozhou first, bring the news over, and let them rush to the river meanders one after another, and return to Luozhou by boat!"

Yuwen Shihong thought to himself, as long as one person passes, just to go back and forth between Hequ and Shuozhou, there are nearly 200 miles between it, and I am afraid it will take a whole day to walk.

"Tang Yong, you bring some money and buy a horse nearby, so it's faster."

As Yuwen Shihong spoke, he took out both himself and Zu Wenyuan.

Because of the haste of coming out, Yuwen Shihong was full of things that symbolized his identity, only Zu Wenyuan had a money bag hanging on his body.

But it was full of heavy treasures, and Qi couldn't use Zhou Guo's money.

Turning his mind, Yuwen Shihong stopped Tang Yong and said to Zu Wenyuan:

"I've left five guards here, watching the ship with you."

After saying goodbye to Zu Wenyuan, Yuwen Shihong looked at the other fifteen guards:

"The guards obeyed the order, each carried a stone of polished rice, and marched to Shuozhou!"

gave the order, Yuwen Shihong didn't care that he was the lord of a country, and immediately picked up a stone of polished rice from the cabin, gritted his teeth and set foot on the road.

Tang Yong was stunned......

"Your Majesty......"

"Don't talk nonsense, hurry up, polished rice is hard currency no matter where it is," Yuwen Shihong was weighed by a sack of polished rice weighing 100 catties, and his face was hideous:

"According to the price of rice in Qi State, it costs thirty yuan a liter to say the least, and seventeen stone polished rice can be sold for at least fifty thousand yuan."

"It should be enough to buy a donkey."

"Hurry up, hurry up."

Tang Yong had mixed feelings in his heart, but he also knew that he couldn't delay the time with more nonsense.

His Majesty, like him, was anxious to bring the lost Northern Expeditionary Army back to Chang'an.

After walking for more than an hour, when I finally came to a place called Wuzhai County, seventeen stone polished rice, plus a trouser belt of Tang Yong, narrowly changed a donkey with the locals.

Tang Yong rode a donkey and galloped towards Shuozhou, while Yuwen Shihong and his entourage turned back and waited for him to come back on the shore.

About two hours later, Tang Yong finally arrived in Shuozhou.

But I saw that the west gate of Shuozhou was not closed, and I couldn't even see the figure of a city defender.

After riding a donkey inside, the Shuozhou City that came into view was a depressed empty city, and there was no one.

But Tang Yong soon noticed the clue-

Depressed and clean, it means that someone has cleaned up Shuozhou City.

Otherwise, when he came over this time, he should see white bones all over the ground.

"Where is the Northern Expeditionary Army!"

"I am the commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army! Tang Yong! ”

"I'm here to pick you up and take you back to Chang'an!"

Tang Yong's slightly trembling voice echoed in the empty Shuozhou City.

Soon, in a corner, one after another probing heads finally poked out.

The people who were vigilant to probe were all dressed in rough cloth clothes, and there was no such thing as the brave appearance of the forbidden army.

It can be seen how much unnecessary suffering the Northern Expeditionary Army that was abandoned here.

"General? It's really General Don......"

One after another, people who came out boldly came out one after another.

Before long, there were dozens of people, standing in front of Tang Yong with excited faces, because of excitement, they couldn't even speak, and they didn't know how to say it well.

What makes Tang Yong even more unacceptable is-

The Northern Expeditionary Army sent earlier, the wounded were all excluded, and the soldiers who came were strong, capable and healthy.

However, in front of him, at least thirty percent of the soldiers were either deformed from injuries to their hands and feet, or their faces were covered with several deep knives like ravines.

Although the wound had scabbed over, the ravine was still glaring.

"I thought I would stay in Shuozhou for the rest of my life, but I didn't expect to see the general again......"

"General, we are not doing well, and we have failed to stop the Turkic barbarians from slaughtering Shuozhou......"

"More than 30 counties and nearly 200 counties north of Shuozhou have been murdered, such as Hengzhou, Yanzhou, Youzhou, ......"

During the report, the soldiers who were not lightly stimulated, as soon as they recalled the tragedy, they were stimulated and couldn't even speak.

Tang Yong listened silently, and only then did he speak:

"Your Majesty has personally come to pick you up and return to Beijing, and he is waiting for you by the Yellow River."

"Woo woo...... a young soldier with shallow eye sockets raised his hand and rubbed his eyes, and said in a trembling voice:

"There are only more than 9,000 colleagues in Shuozhou, and there are many colleagues in Changli City and White Wolf City in the northeast of Qi State, I came from White Wolf City, and I wanted to go back to ......."

"But I have no choice but to run out of food and grass, and I really can't afford to travel long distances anymore."