Just when Xu Youchang led his 3,000 pioneer battalion soldiers to wander around the ghost desert in Western Xinjiang all the way, inquiring about finding his good brother Li Jiangyao, Li Jiangyao was setting off from Metasequoia City to Daban, where the enemy army gathered.

Lin Feng and Du Jian both wanted to go with him before, but they were forced by Li Jiangyao to stay and guard Metasequoia. At present, Metasequoia City is a valuable base area, and there is absolutely no room for failure, and only when the two of them are firmly guarded here, can Li Jiangyao go outside to investigate the enemy situation with peace of mind. Helpless, Lin Feng and Du Jian had no choice but to obey the captain's order and stay temporarily.

However, out of consideration for Li Jiangyao's safety, they still risked being scolded by the captain and specially selected 500 soldiers from the troops at hand to escort them.

And half of these people are from the Pegasus Scout Camp.

The elite scouts, who have followed Captain Li Jiangyao for a long time, are impeccable in terms of loyalty and combat effectiveness.

The other half of the centaurs are the best ones selected from the Metasequoia garrison.

They are all Metasequoia natives with clean family backgrounds. After many battles, especially after witnessing Li Jiangyao leading his troops and horses into the company camp, they all regarded him as a god. This time as his personal soldier, everyone feels honored.

Li Jiangyao originally did not plan to take so many people to set off, after all, this time he was going to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, not to fight, and it was really inconvenient for a team of 500 people to move. But Lin Feng resolutely said: Either let this group of elites follow, or seal the city gate, and no one will want to go to Daban City.

Facing this subordinate with a delicate appearance and a very tough temper, Li Jiangyao also felt helpless. There was no way, he had no choice but to set off with the largest scout cavalry team in the history of the Zhenjiang Protectorate.

A soldier is an elite soldier and will be a good general.

Whether it was the Pegasus scouts or the local soldiers trained by Lin Feng, the whole team showed a high degree of combat quality, they followed Li Jiangyao all the way to sneak and tiptoe, fast horses like the wind, and it only took a few days to secretly approach the Chechi town of Dabancheng.

When he arrived at the place, Li Jiangyao first chose a hidden mountain and forest area to let the troops settle down, and at the same time sent guard posts in all directions. Then the seven best Pegasus scouts and three local warriors formed a reconnaissance team and followed Li Jiangyao to spy on the enemy.

However, they never expected that their careful operation was actually completely unnecessary.

The reason is simple, the enemy's army has already left Daban by this time.

According to the local people, from noon four days ago, the various legions gathered in Daban Castle began to march north one after another.

First, the Turkic Iron Pigeon Army and the Ghost League horse bandits opened the way, and then the 80,000 Shule army that had just arrived here. waited until the early morning of the next day, and the 100,000 troops of the Loulan Kingdom also set off on the road.

The size of the enemy army is very staggering, with swords and guns like a forest, flags and flags, and the troops marching on the road can stretch for dozens of miles, and they can't see the end at a glance when they stand on a high place.

Hearing the news, Li Jiangyao couldn't help frowning, he thought for a while against the map in his hand, roughly judged the direction of the enemy's march, and immediately decided to lead 500 cavalry to chase the enemy by taking a shortcut.

These actions of the other party obviously indicate a larger plan, and he must gather more valuable information as soon as possible so that he can timely report to the top of the Metropolitan Protectorate or nearby friendly forces to assist them in counterinsurgency operations.

-

Xu Youchang's pioneer battalion marched west for two or three days, seeing that the food borrowed a few days ago was about to run out, and everyone was facing the crisis of running out of cooking.

At this time, the ghosts of Western Xinjiang are cold and frozen, and they can't even see a small beast, even if they want to hunt to satisfy their hunger.

With the rise of rebels in various places, more and more countries and towns in Western Xinjiang have gradually fallen into a state of disorder, and people who have escaped the scourge of war have either sneaked into the ghost desert to hide, or moved to Liangzhou to save their lives.

Xu Youchang and his subordinates were already sleepy at this time, and they didn't know what to do next.

Just as he was hurrying aimlessly, a sound of screams for help suddenly came from not far in front of the team.

Although everyone was tired, the Xuanjia Army was the top elite of the Saint Tang after all, and when they heard something unusual, the soldiers immediately reacted. The spearhead in charge of pathfinding did not wait for the order of the commander, and immediately set up his position and was on full alert, while two squads galloped out from the left and right to outflank him.

Before they got closer, they saw clearly that it was a group of fleeing civilians who had unfortunately encountered horse bandits.

Those thieves were obviously not the regular troops of the rebels, but stragglers of unknown origin, who were planning to take advantage of the rare opportunity of the chaos in Western Xinjiang to run out to kill people and steal goods. At this moment, they suddenly saw a large number of Shengtang officers and soldiers appearing here, how could they have the courage to draw their swords and face each other, immediately abandon the refugees in front of them, and flee in a hurry.

Xu Youchang ordered his subordinates not to chase after the thieves, but to seize the time to treat the wounded.

To his surprise, among the refugees who escaped death, he met an acquaintance.

A person who makes Xu Youchang think about it and can't sleep at night.

Anya!

Or to be precise, the Turkic Empire's Eagle Yang Princess Hesijia!

Xu Youchang looked at his beloved girl in disbelief, and He Sijia also looked at General Xu, who was scrambled and had a vicissitudes of life, in disbelief.

The two exclaimed in unison, "Why are you here?!" ”

It turned out that the last time Shen Lie and the Reverse Scale Division exchanged hostages with the Turkic Kunli Mingtai at Zijin Pass, He Sijia was left in the woods not far from the exchange place as the princess's maid.

At that time, Shen Lie didn't know the true details of He Sijia, but because Inas cared too much about the safety of his little maid, which caused Shen Lie's doubts, so as a backhand, he temporarily separated the two daughters.

Later, the two sides found out about the misunderstanding of the fake princess and fought on the spot, Shen Lie chased Lao Jianhua all the way and disappeared, while the Reverse Scale Flying Rider threw himself into dealing with the Turkic Blood Guard, trying to snatch Inas back, so no one cared about paying attention to how the little maid was doing.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the quick-witted Hirsjia broke free of the rope and fled the grove.

Since she couldn't ride a horse, she could only rely on two legs to escape on foot, and because her vision was difficult to see at night, the little girl stumbled, and she didn't know what direction it was.

Two days later, the hungry and tired He Sijia finally couldn't support his body anymore, passed out on the side of the road, and was rescued by kind villagers.

She did not dare to reveal her identity, so she had to lie that she was the daughter of a Turkic merchant, and was separated from her family because she was robbed by horse bandits. The villagers saw that she was pitiful, so they took her in for the time being, thinking that after a while, they would meet the Turks who came here to do business, and then let Hesijia go back with them to find her family.

Later, it was the rebels in Western Xinjiang who rebelled on a large scale.

Shache was swept away by the Shule army, and the villagers fled one after another, and He Sijia could only move with everyone, but he didn't expect to encounter horse bandits halfway. Fortunately, Xu Youchang's pioneer battalion passed by here, otherwise this catastrophe would definitely be difficult to escape.

Xu Youchang had already learned of He Sijia's true identity from Shen Lie at this time, so he bluntly told the other party about his sad experience, and at the same time asked He Sijia if the situation was really as Shen Lie said.

He Sijia didn't expect that the General Xu in front of her was so unlucky that she was almost killed by her boss, and she didn't expect that her situation had been mastered by the other party. The matter has come to this point, and He Sijia has no intention of concealing it anymore, so he told Xu Youchang frankly about the whole thing.

Xu Youchang sighed lightly after hearing this: Princess, we are both fallen people at the end of the world, it seems that God is destined to let the two of us come together, all of them are fate.

He Sijia's face flushed, and at the same time he glanced at him: General, you are really poor, and your lust is rising again. What else is fate, let's save my life first.

Xu Youchang nodded helplessly and asked where the refugees planned to flee. The villagers who led the group replied that they were going to Metasequoia City. It is said that the city is still in the hands of the Protectorate of Shengtang Town, and many people in the vicinity have taken refuge there.

Hearing this, Xu Youchang immediately lifted his spirits, and hurriedly ordered the team to take the refugees and quickly march towards Metasequoia.

The whole team drove day and night for seven or eight days, and at the last moment of hunger and collapse, they finally saw the city that they had been thinking about for a long time.

Due to the sudden appearance of a large number of unidentified cavalry troops outside the city, the entire city of Metasequoia was immediately put on alert.

The alarm bell rang at the head of the city, as if it were facing a great enemy.

In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, Xu Youchang hurriedly ordered to blow the unique contact horn of the Shengtang army to show his identity to the defending army.

After a while, a team of soldiers and horses galloped out of the city, and in a blink of an eye, they rushed to the front of the vanguard camp of the Xuanjia Army.

Xu Youchang fixed his eyes and saw that the leader of the team of soldiers and horses was none other than Du Jian, the junior colonel of the Pegasus Scout Battalion of the Zhenjiang Metropolitan Protectorate. At the beginning, because of snatching the spoils, Lao Du had a fight with the Xuanjia Army, and in the end, Xu Youchang came forward to calm down, so Xu Youchang knew that the other party was Li Jiangyao's subordinate.

"General Xu?! What are you doing here? ”

Xu Youchang almost hugged Du Jian and kissed him twice, and said tremblingly: "You are the ...... That one...... What's that? ”

"It's Du Jian, have you forgotten?"

"Yes, yes, Du Jian," Xu Youchang burst into tears with excitement and spoke incoherently: "You are Li Jiangyao's subordinate, I love you to death!" ”

Du Jian was slightly embarrassed: "Don't, General Xu, it's not good to be lowly." ”

Xu Youchang ignored him and asked anxiously: "What about your family?" Is this place under his control? ”

"Yes, my lord is the supreme military commander of Metasequoia." Du Jian explained: "But the lord is not in the city now, he has gone to investigate the enemy's situation. ”

Xu Youchang nodded happily: "It's okay, it's okay." I'll wait for him slowly, let's go to the city and talk about it. Lao Du, you don't know, these days can make me hungry! ”

Du Jian hesitated for a moment, didn't rush to move the place, just stretched out his big hand in front of Xu Youchang: "General Xu, please show the military orders, military talismans, and marching festivals of your department!" ”

-

In the City Guard Mansion of Metasequoia City, Lin Feng and Du Jian were arguing, while Ma Mu and Situ Wushou were sitting on the sidelines, watching.

Xu Youchang's troops did not have a military order, nor did they march to the festival, Du Jian did not dare to let them into the city immediately, but specially ran back to discuss with Lin Feng.

According to his original intention, can he let the Xuanjia army enter the city and settle down first, and everything will wait for Li Jiangyao to come back.

But Lin Feng resolutely disagreed with this idea.

Now that Western Xinjiang is in a special period, the situation of the entire ghost desert is extremely complicated, and it is too dangerous to let an army of unknown origin enter the city at this time.

What's more, this is also not in line with the military system of Shengtang.

"How can it be said that the origin is unknown? That General Xu is the sworn brother of our captain, you do this, beware of the lord coming back to make you look good! Du Jian snorted angrily.

Lin Feng snorted coldly,-for-tat: "I'm not afraid!" If an adult wants to be punished, then let him punish him. ”

Ma Mu hurriedly played a round: "I said that you two are discouraged, don't quarrel yet." It doesn't matter if you punish or not, what matters is how to place it most appropriately. To be honest, it's not a matter that the 3,000 ironclad army has been hanging there all the time. ”

Situ Wushou smiled: "Brother Lin, Brother Du, it's not difficult to say this." In any case, that General Xu is also our own person. Isn't that good? Only let him take his own soldiers into the city to rest, and the rest of the team will stay outside the city for the time being, so let's hurry up and provide them with some food and grass. Look at the way those people look, they're so hungry that they're about to eat people! ”