Early the next morning, Xian Jingyue and two hundred soldiers led by Master Zhou set off from Yumen Pass and headed for Jiayu Pass in the east. After Li Liu's persuasion one by one, the remaining Han people on the street also packed up their belongings and evacuated with the sergeants. Due to the widespread infection of the plague caused by glutinous rice, there are only fifty or sixty people left who have not been infected today, although most of them are reluctant to leave this street that they have been operating for many years, in the end their lives are still at stake, so they have to look back three times and reluctantly look at this Xiongguan standing in the desert.

Everyone went out this time, and the whole team was led by Master Zhou and a general surnamed Wang with a hundred sergeants in the front, with Li Liu and the Han people on the street in the middle, and Xian Jingyue and the remaining one hundred sergeants staying in the last formation. Seeing that the fifty or sixty people in the procession were carrying burdens or carts, they were eager to take all their belongings with them, so that the speed of their march was extremely slow, and in this way, it would take four or five days to complete the 800-mile official road to Jiayuguan.

However, the bandits between Yumen Pass and Jiayu Pass have not been eliminated so far, General Lu could not rest assured, and before everyone set off, he ordered the 2,000-strong bandit army to go out again, and take the lead in searching for the traces of bandits in the desert, which is equivalent to opening the way for everyone. In this way, the procession, which consisted of sergeants and civilians, was slow and uneventful, and after two days of day and night, it had covered nearly half of the journey. Until the evening of the third day, everyone buried pots and cooked beside the official road, and rested in the open, but encountered a little accident.

It is said that everyone fell asleep in their clothes next to the official road, leaving only about 20 sergeants to keep vigil, and around the third watch, the sergeant in charge of the vigil suddenly woke everyone up, saying that he had just fallen to the ground and listened to the sound, and noticed that there were eighteen fast horses running in the desert in the north, and listening to the movement was coming to everyone. The general who led the troops, Counselor Wang, did not dare to be careless, and hurriedly ordered two hundred soldiers to line up and protect the people in the ranks. Xian Jingyue also asked Li Liu to take care of the people, and he untied the glaive knife behind his back and stood with the sergeants.

But after a meal, I saw a few horse lanterns faintly lit in the night in the north, and then the sound of horses' hooves sounded, and more than a dozen knights were speeding towards this side. When the other party came closer, only more than 200 steps away from the sergeants' defense line, the general Wang shouted and asked: "The garrison of Yumen Pass is here, who is coming? Stop quickly, or the thief will blame our army for being ruthless under the arrows!"

Unexpectedly, when the horse team in the darkness heard this, instead of stopping at all, they ran faster. Some of them even replied in broken Chinese: "What a joke! A group of fleeing civilians even dare to pretend to be the garrison of Yumen Pass, don't want to bluff your 'dirty-bearded' grandfather!"

You must know that not long ago, Xian Jingyue and Li Liu's thoroughly investigated the eyeliner planted by the bandits in Yumen Pass, and had already figured out the origin of these bandits, but the two teams of "Dirty Beard" and "Curry Magic Knife" who were rampant in the desert were invited by people to spend a lot of money to rob the supplies between Yumen Pass and Jiayu Pass. In the night, these dozen knights called themselves "dirty beards", and naturally they were the team of these bandits. It can be seen from this that most of the 2,000 bandit troops sent by General Lu first were again in vain, and they still failed to get rid of these bandits.

Seeing that the opponent's horse was coming very fast, and in a blink of an eye it was within a hundred paces, General Wang immediately ordered all the troops to release arrows. For a while, when I heard the sound of the bowstring, the rain of arrows pierced the night sky, and five or six people on the other side suddenly rolled off their horses. The remaining dozen or so knights hurriedly reined in their galloping horses, and the man who shouted before he shouted asked even more loudly: "Are you really the garrison of Yumen Pass?"

General Wang Shen coldly shouted: "Get out!" The bandits on the other side were also interested, and without further ado, they picked up the corpses of their companions on the ground and rode away, and disappeared into the night in an instant. You must know that the two hundred sergeants in the team are going to Jiayuguan to borrow food and medicine, and then transport them all the way back to Yumen Pass, plus there are people in the team, so they are all infantry, and the whole team adds up to only a dozen military horses. Therefore, seeing that the thieves knew the difficulty and retreated, all the sergeants were also relieved, and they dared to chase after them.

Xian Jingyue has not made a move, firstly, his internal strength is lost, even if he performs light skills for a short time, he may not be able to catch up with the opponent's fast horse after a long journey; second, the intention of these dozen or so horsemen and bandits tonight is actually a common "stepping on the plate" in the green forest, and first send a team of men and horses to find out the enemy's situation. Since these dozen or so bandits already knew that they were the garrison of Yumen Pass, let them go back to pass the ceremony, so that the main force of the bandits could dispel the idea of coming.

At that moment, everyone had a little total, since there had been traces of bandits, in order to avoid long nights and dreams, they still had to hurry as soon as possible, so they gathered the sergeants and people overnight to continue to move towards Jiayuguan. On the way, Master Zhou fell to the back of the team and discussed the matter of the bandits with Xian Jingyue, and Xian Jingyue asked: "Can you notify the two thousand bandit army and ask them to escort them all the way?" Master Zhou replied: "Don't worry about the first command, I have already sent a sergeant to notify the two generals Zhao Xu of the bandit army to lead the troops to escort them." However, General Lu had given them a strict order, telling them not to set foot within a hundred miles of Jiayu Pass under any circumstances, so as not to make Gong Baisheng suspicious. Therefore, on the last leg of the journey to Jiayuguan, if there are bandits in ambush, I am afraid that there will only be a tough battle. ”

Xian Jingyue was silent, even if he was alone on this trip, hundreds of thieves would not be in his eyes, not to mention Master Zhou's two hundred sergeants. But there are still fifty or sixty weak civilians in the team, and if the bandit brigade attacks, there will be heavy casualties. He couldn't help but ask, "Can you inform Gong Baisheng in advance and ask the sergeant from Jiayuguan to come out to greet him?"

As soon as the words came out, he immediately denied his thoughts. Since the accident in Yumen Pass, Gong Baisheng's series of behaviors in Jiayuguan are clearly to declare personal vendetta and put General Lu and the garrison of Yumen Pass to death, and even boldly guess that this Gong Baisheng may have colluded with the Shenhuo Sect and jointly planned the disaster of Yumen Pass. What's more, at this time, Jiayuguan has long been closed, pursuing the principle of "only going out and not entering", whether Gong Baisheng is willing to let everyone enter the pass, whether he is willing to fund grain, grass and medicinal materials, these are still unknown, how can he send a sergeant out to greet him now?

Master Zhou said: "We don't have to be too pessimistic, the two hundred sergeants who were sent to Jiayuguan to transport back the autumn grain also arrived at Jiayuguan safely, but they were attacked on the way back from transporting grain, and all the grain and grass were robbed by bandits. It can be seen that the intention of the bandits is only to rob the grain, so as to cut off all supplies in Yumen Pass, and I hope this time is the same. As for the dozen or so bandits tonight, most of them are just throwing stones to ask for directions, and the bandits' brigade still wants to wait for us to go to Jiayuguan first to ask for food, and then do something on our way back to Yumen Pass. When the time comes, there will be no drag from the people in the team, and with the ability to do it first, we can give it a go. ”

After saying this, Master Zhou suddenly let out a long sigh, and said: "In fact, the other party's intention is obvious for this series of changes in Yumen Pass, and it is obvious that our army wants to withdraw from Yumen Pass. You must know that this dynasty takes Jiayu Pass as the boundary, and the outside of Jiayu Pass belongs to the boundary of Beshi Bali, including the Yumen Pass, and what is the significance of our army stationed in the territory of another country, desperately guarding a city wall in the desert? However, in order to fulfill the promise he made to the king of Thailand and keep the so-called 'three lines of defense in the northwest,' General Lu would rather die than withdraw his troops. And we have followed the general for many years, and have been admonished many times to no avail, and in the end we can only do our duty loyally. ”

Hearing Master Zhou's words, Xian Jingyue couldn't help but sigh secretly, she couldn't imagine that he was such a military staff member, but there was a bit of blood in his bones, and he had underestimated this Master Zhou before. As they spoke, the two men continued eastward with the procession, but before they had gone far, a commotion broke out in the middle of the procession, and then stopped on the spot. Xian Jingyue and Master Zhou were about to come forward to ask, only to see that Li Liu had already rushed to the back of the team, and said with a frightened face: "Some people in the people are coughing, most of them ...... Most of them were also infected with the plague, and it didn't come out until this moment!"