The tragedy of the survivors is not only to reflect on their own mistakes, but also to bear the pain of the dead.

The battle was over, the courage of the warriors of the Great Snow Mountain slowly faded, they looked around, their best partners were nowhere to be seen, and the familiar faces were picked out from the pile of corpses, which made people's hearts tremble, deeper than the pain caused by the sharpest knives and guns, and many men who would rather die than give in sat on the ground in a blank mind.

It won't be long before they start thinking: Why didn't this battle be won?

The morale of the Great Snow Mountain was extremely low, and even if the Dragon King himself appeared, he couldn't make up for this huge loss.

Several patriarchs were all seriously injured, and more than a thousand swordsmen from the Great Snow Mountain returned to the sky.

The old swordsman Tuo Nengya had dozens of wounds on his body, almost became a bloody man, his eyes were wide open, he looked at the dragon king, speechless, he did not insult his reputation, but he didn't know if there was a chance to use the Dharma Protector long knife again.

There were less than five hundred swordsmen left in the swordsman team he had worked so hard to build, silently surrounding the leader, as if hoping to convey his life force to him in this way.

In the four offensive and defensive battles, especially the last one, the largest loss, more than 4,000 soldiers of the Great Snow Mountain, but in more than 20 days, only more than 1,600 remained, almost half of them were wounded.

With grief and anger, Gu Shenwei walked in front of each survivor, looking at those familiar or unfamiliar faces, and gradually, the anger disappeared.

He was still convinced that there was a traitor in this team, and that he was one of the five patriarchs, and that the traitor took advantage of the natural bravery and pride of the swordsmen of the Great Snow Mountain to encourage them to launch a suicidal decisive battle.

The simple and irritable swordsman and the old swordsman who values honor can't see through the conspiracy for a while, but Gu Shenwei is crawling through the jungle of intrigue and trickery, but when he understands the general situation, he knows that there is a deception.

But now, finding out the mole is not the most important thing, but it may once again hit the morale of the people who are close to the bottom.

Justice must be done in the right way, otherwise it may backfire.

Gu Shenwei let go of the idea of immediately finding out the traitor, and immediately called a meeting of important people in the whole army.

The five peaks of the Great Snow Mountain are equivalent to five tribes, and under this, there are many valleys, and the leader is called the "head man", according to the convention, everything is decided by the patriarch, and the head person is responsible for transmitting information and carrying out tasks, but this time, Gu Shenwei decided to break with tradition.

The five patriarchs and Tuo Nengya were carried over, and seventy leaders and twenty-three swordsman leaders were also ordered to come to the venue, plus the dragon king, exactly one hundred.

This hundred will decide the fate of all.

The main tent was not big enough, Gu Shenwei chose an open slope, lit a roaring fire, everyone first knelt down on one leg and paid silent tribute to the deceased, and then, everyone sat on the ground, and the dragon king stood on a high place to give a speech, and once again called on everyone to go with him.

This time, he didn't use divination and gorgeous rhetoric, and there was not much time left, so he could only get straight to the point, "I came from the Xiaoyao Sea in the southeast, which is a beautiful and rich place, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the local residents are afraid that the power of Jinpeng Fort will expand to the south, so they invite Daxue Mountain to go and fight the enemy side by side. ”

No one expected the Dragon King to make such a request, and the patriarch and the leaders whispered, "Aren't we going back to the Great Snow Mountain?" The swordsman leaders bowed their heads and were silent, in their opinion, the general trend had gone, and it was best to disperse and hide, waiting for the opportunity to make a comeback.

Gu Shenwei saw the suspicion permeating the venue, so he continued: "The Western Regions have been turned upside down, Jinpeng Fort and Beiting are colluding with the east and west, and their troops are everywhere, I have seen with my own eyes, batch after batch of cavalry are marching towards the Shule country in the west, only the Xiaoyao Sea in the south, with the barrier of the desert, has not yet become the territory of the Dubu King, that is our only chance, only by occupying that land first, can we block the enemy's continuous pursuit and establish a safe foothold." ”

These words were addressed to the swordsman leaders, and Gu Shenwei then persuaded the swordsmen of the Great Snow Mountain, "I am the Dragon King, and I once promised to break through the Jinpeng Castle within three years, this promise is still valid today, I implore you, the people of the sky, the sons of the Great Snow Mountain, don't be depressed by this momentary defeat, please continue to fight with me." Since the Heavenly God has appointed me to reunite the Great Snow Mountain, he will not abandon me when the enemy is at its most rampant and let the Great Snow Mountain be divided again. ”

Gu Shenwei didn't tell the whole truth, but his words did move many people, first the swordsmen, and then the swordsmen, all of whom stood up and chanted in agreement.

At this time, several veteran swordsman leaders suggested whether they should immediately sacrifice and pray for good signs, but the dragon king categorically refused, time was pressing, and there was no time to do this, "Pass the order, everyone is ready, the wounded get on the horse, the others walk, bring more grain, grass and water, don't do anything else, and set off at any time." ”

The army of Jinpeng Fort outside the valley was still surrounded like an iron barrel, but the dragon king's order was very urgent, and many people did not know why, but they still carried out the order quickly.

Gu Shenwei climbed a tower and looked out.

The second watch day has passed, and the Jinpeng Fort military camp is lit with fire, and there is no sign of retreat.

Gu Shenwei has sent a small number of scouts out of the camp to inquire about the situation, but there has been no response so far.

Many things were not expected by him, he asked the two Shangguan brothers to see Dugu Xian at noon, but at that time Dugu Xian was commanding the battle, and he did not collect his troops and return to the camp until the evening, so there was not much time left for the two.

Whether the Jinpeng Fort army can withdraw eastward in the third watch, Gu Shenwei is becoming more and more uncertain, in fact, it doesn't matter if it is later, Gu Shenwei is worried that he has pushed those two cowards too hard, and they may make mistakes in their busy hands and show their feet too early.

Time passed little by little, and the warriors of the Great Snow Mountain were all ready, and the losses of horses were huge, and only the most seriously injured were assigned mounts, but they did not leave a single person who was still panting, and even the unconscious were carried.

This will be a team that is moving very slowly, Gu thought carefully, but he can't give the order to abandon the wounded, this is not Jinpeng Castle, and most of the swordsmen regard the Dragon King as a demigod, and they can't accept that he shows even a little bit of disdain.

There was no leakage of timing in the camp, and Gu Shenwei judged that the third watch had passed according to the position of the stars and the moon in the sky.

The light of the fire in the Jinpeng Fort barracks remained unchanged.

One of the scouts ran back breathlessly, "Dragon King, the army is withdrawing, the army is withdrawing. ”

There is also a possibility that Shangguan Hong and Shangguan Fei want to regain the favor of Duwangbu, set a trap, lure the soldiers of Daxue Mountain out of the camp, and then annihilate them in one fell swoop.

Gu Shenwei personally led five hundred soldiers as the vanguard, walked through the battlefield, and vigilantly entered the Jinpeng Fort military camp.

The tents, the fires, the equipment were still there, and the whole camp was empty.

Gu Shenwei strictly forbade anyone to rummage through the belongings, and quickly left the camp, and the fresh hoof prints on the ground showed that the army of Jinpeng Fort had indeed retreated to the east.

Shangguan Fei and Shangguan Hong, two brothers who hate each other, showed good ability in their first cooperation.

After the 500 men had traveled several miles to the west, and after making sure that there was no ambush, Gu Shenwei sent scouts and messengers to the front and rear to reconnoiter the enemy's situation and summon others to follow.

There were more than 1,600 people, 500 in front, 500 in the back, and in the middle were the wounded and pack animals, led by the dragon king, quietly marching westward.

After dawn, they were already far from the camp, and the bodies of countless comrades were still there, too late to be buried.

As Gu Shen expected, due to the large number of wounded people and the lack of horses, the speed of the team was very slow, and it could only walk dozens of miles a day.

Sooner or later, the army of Jinpeng Fort would find out that the two sons of the Shangguan family had taken refuge in the Dragon King, and the Beiting cavalry had also invaded Shule through this road.

For the first time, Gu Shenwei sincerely prayed silently to the Heavenly God.

This time, luck was on the side of the Great Snow Mountain, and on the third day, the team finally came safely near a burned outpost in Shule Kingdom, where they would change direction and head southeast, crossing the border between the Gobi and the desert, and if all went well, they would reach Xiaoyao Sea in twenty or thirty days.

Gu Shenwei ordered the team to camp in the hilly area for a day of rest, take care of the wounded, and graze the livestock, the next road will be very difficult, and they must be fully prepared.

In the evening of the same day, Shangguan Fei and Shangguan Hong arrived at the agreed time, and also brought a captive: Dugu Xian, the commander of Jinpeng Castle, until he saw the Dragon King, and he didn't understand how he could be plotted by the son of King Dubu.

The brothers were so excited about this successful adventure that they praised each other for the first time.

"Jiu Shao's starring role is too similar, those killers didn't see any flaws at all, and one of the killers also said that he had long seen that Dugu Xian was wrong, and he expected that the king would definitely take away his handsome seal, haha. ”

"Hong Gongzi helped a lot, he lied to those generals, saying that the Beiting cavalry had already laid an ambush in the west, and he was waiting for the snow bandits to escape, so that they could be annihilated in one fell swoop. ”

Gu Shenwei took out two red pills, which were given to him by the lotus girl when he was seriously injured, it was said that it was non-toxic, and the healing effect was miraculous, he was suspicious, and he did not plan to use it on the warriors of the Great Snow Mountain, which happened to be used as an antidote to the broken intestine powder.

"You can go back to Biyu City by yourself. Gu Shenwei said.

The two brothers looked at each other and said in unison, "No, we are going to be with the Dragon King." ”

It was clear that even if the Dubu King had no suitable reason to kill his son publicly, there was no need to hide his anger at this time, and the two of them assisted the Daxue Mountain army to escape from the encirclement, which was enough for them to be publicly hunted and killed as soon as they showed up in Biyu City.

The Western Regions are huge, but the Dragon King is the only protector of the two at present.

After nightfall, the good luck of the Dragon King and the Great Snow Mountain ran out, and the scouts reported that the army of Jinpeng Fort had discovered that they had been deceived, and they followed, and quickly took the shortcut road, blocking the path to the Xiaoyao Sea.

"Don't be afraid. Shang Minfei rarely showed that he was not afraid of danger, "We have hostages." ”

Gu Shenwei looked at Dugu Envy in the corner, doubting whether the weight of this hostage could hold the angry Jinpeng Fort army hostage.

(The Spring Festival is approaching, there is no guarantee of two changes per day, starting tomorrow to the seventh day of the new year, one shift per day, updated around 6 o'clock in the afternoon.) )