Xie Tong wanted to talk to King Wu, but he couldn't stay up, so he went to rest.

In desperation, Xie Tong had to wait alone.

Waiting was a very painful thing, Xie Tong waited from early morning until late afternoon before seeing the nightingale and others returning.

Compared with the time of departure, the troops are completely different, and just looking at their dejected appearance, you can see that the result is not good.

Sure enough, Nightingale's party brought back a group of wounded soldiers, apparently after a vicious battle.

Xie Tong hurriedly greeted him and said, "What about the old man!"

The nightingale spat out a few words from his mouth and said, "He's hurt."

Xie Tong looked behind him and saw several soldiers carrying a stretcher, and the old man on the stretcher was unconscious.

Xie Tong stepped forward and saw that Lao Lai's body was covered with wounds, and the fatal wound came from the knife in the vest, which almost killed him. He stretched out his fingers to put his fingers on Lao Lai's pulse, only to feel that he was short of breath and breathless, and the situation was very critical.

Xie Tong hurriedly asked someone to lift Lao Lai to the camp, and he wanted to personally treat Lao Lai's injuries.

Nightingale said, "I'm sorry, I'm late."

Xie Tong knew that she was not to blame for this, if she hadn't gone to help, it was likely that Lao Lai would not have come back.

Xie Tong put Lao Lai An in his tent, took off his shirt, and saw more than a dozen scars on his body, all wrapped in cloth and bandaged, the knife injury on Lao Lai's back was concentrated, almost piercing the heart, Xie Tong was in no mood to think about anything else, and was busy preparing hot water and towels for gold sore medicine.

The others did not dare to disturb and waited outside the tent.

Lao Lai was unconscious, and his qi was very weak, so he was busy transporting his true qi and transporting it to Lao Lai's heart.

What puzzled Xie Tong was that there was a trace of feminine power in Lao Lai's meridians, and he had always protected his dantian, this was by no means Lao Lai's true qi, it should be the internal force of a female master, thinking about it, only the nightingale had such ability. Xie Tong didn't expect that the nightingale would desperately save the old man.

Xie Tong had no time to pay attention to these, he slowly channeled the domineering Huang Tianzhen Qi into Lao Lai's body, and steadily protected his heart.

When Xie Tong felt that his internal strength was exhausted, Lao Lai's face finally improved, and although he was unconscious, his life was no longer in danger.

Xie Tong finished everything, and it was already dark.

He tiredly walked out of the camp and ordered the guards to take care of Lao Lai and strengthen the guards. Then, he went straight to the nightingale to find out what was going on.

Before Xie Tong reached the nightingale's tent, the guards came to call him and said that the prince had an invitation.

Xie Tong had no choice but to dare to go to Li Zheng's handsome camp, surprisingly, the nightingale happened to be there, and there were four daughters of Hong Shan in the handsome camp.

Li Zheng motioned for Xie Tong to sit down, and asked with concern, "How is General Lai?"

Xie Tong said, "There is no danger to life for the time being, but the injury is quite serious, and it is still unknown when I will be able to wake up!"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Xie Tong asked, "Nightingale girl, what happened!"

Nightingale had a painful look in her eyes, and she recalled, "Before the nightingale and his men arrived at Jingfang, they found General Lai and their troops fighting hard with the enemy. “

Li Zheng asked, "Is it a horse thief?"

Nightingale said thoughtlessly, "It doesn't look like a horse thief, but a Khitan?"

"What?" Li Zheng said in surprise, "It's actually a Khitan? I have always been at peace with the Khitan, why did I attack our army?"

Hong Shan didn't wait for the nightingale to answer, she wondered, "Why does the nightingale girl dare to be a Khitan!"

When Xie Tong heard this, he suddenly understood what Hong Shan meant, the nightingale is a person who has lived in Chang'an for a long time, although he has been to the grassland, but why can he know so much about this place! This is unreasonable, he also wants to know the answer to the question, and a pair of eyes look straight at the nightingale.

The nightingale did not say timidly at all, "As a singer, the nightingale loves the songs of Mobei, so she has some understanding of the various ethnic groups outside the Saiwai, including clothing, culture, etc., and here is a piece of clothing stripped from the enemy, which is the costume of the Khitan tribe." Nightingale was just skeptical, not sure."

Li Zheng ordered someone to take the clothes and said, "Take them out and check them."

Shi Jianing suddenly said, "No need to check it, there is no doubt that it is the clothes of the Khitans", her words are the best evidence, and no one has a suspicious attitude.

Hong Shan continued to ask, "Why did the Khitans attack us? We didn't provoke them!"

Xie Tong said thoughtfully, "Maybe it's not the Khitans who provoked us, but we provoked them." The army passed through the territory of the Khitan clan and did not greet them in advance, and being attacked may be just the beginning. ”

They didn't know what he meant, but they all stared at him with wide eyes.

Xie Tong turned his gaze to Wang Shi Jianing, and said, "Dare to ask the princess, is it true that all the ethnic groups outside the Cypriot are very hostile to the people of the Tang Empire?"

After all, since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the soldiers of the Han nationality have been under the banner of expelling the Hulu, and they have continued to march north, which has made all the tribes in the grassland complain. ”

Xie Tong said, "In this case, it is not far away! If my guess is correct, our whereabouts have spread all over the grassland as early as half a month ago, and all ethnic groups know that there is a Tang army going to Murowei to welcome relatives, in the face of this enemy, they may be well prepared, just waiting to take us to the knife, and the leak of this news is undoubtedly Taiwei Sima Xuan, the prince robbed him of his happy event, he held a grudge, so he came up with this poisonous plan, first, to make this peace and relatives return in vain, and second, if the prince died in Mobei, the Tang Empire has no one to compete with. It's a win-win. He paused and said, "For other ethnic groups outside the Saiwai, it is not permissible for the things to happen, the re-rise of the Tang Empire, and the marriage with the powerful Murowei clan, will re-dominate the grassland, and then there will be a bloody storm on the grassland, therefore, Sima Xuan betrayed us, and the grassland tribes attacked us, which is a win-win situation for them."

As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked into a cold sweat, the possibility of Xie Tong's words was too high, so high that people couldn't find any fault with it.

Xie Tong continued, "This is a plan against us, including Xue Yantuo's horse thieves, they are only part of the plan, their purpose is to let me wait to be buried outside the plug. ”

Li Zheng slapped the table violently and said, "Okay! I dare to play yin with this king, and when this king goes back, I must clean up this old fox." “

Shi Jianing said, "Li Zheng, Li Zheng, Miss Ben didn't have so much to do when she came, how could she go with you, and she would have encountered so much trouble, otherwise, let's send someone to Mobei first! ”

Li Zheng showed hesitation, according to Xie Tong's analysis, what they have to face this time is the attack of the entire Saiwai nation, not the horse thieves fleeing everywhere, just 20,000 Tang troops, it is really not enough to see, if they want to fight all the way to Mobei, I am afraid that few people will survive.

He suddenly laughed wildly, and said, "Jia Ning may really overestimate the warriors of the Tang Army and Murwei, this time facing the entire grassland, the military deployment of dozens of ethnic groups, even if the strength of the entire Murwei clan is raised, it will be difficult to win this war." This time, it is necessary to combine wisdom and courage, and it is useless to fight hard. “

Shi Jianing thought for a moment and slowly realized the meaning of Li Zheng's words.

Cai Wei said: "Then what should we do now! The top priority is that the water source is insufficient, and if it cannot be solved as soon as possible, I am afraid that it will cause panic in less than two days." ”

Li Zheng asked, "Nightingale girl, can you still find the dry well mentioned by General Lai? If you can, this king hopes that you can be a guide to guide us."

The nightingale looked embarrassed, and finally arrived, "If you go back to the prince, it's not that the nightingale doesn't want to go, but that Jingfang has been blocked by the Khitans, this is what the Tang army who survived last night said personally, we have no other possibility than to borrow from the Khitan clan?"

Li Zheng was silent instantly, he didn't want to go to the Khitan clan to get water, but under the current situation, the two sides have just clashed, if they send people and horses to rush, I am afraid that a larger military conflict will be formed, they are currently at a disadvantage, inferior to the other party in terms of numbers and troops, I am afraid that this time I will provoke the anger of the other party. He let out a long sigh and was silent.

Xie Tong said, "Lord, in the face of the upcoming offensive of the various tribes on the grassland, gnawing off a hard bone, there may be unexpected results, and the Khitan clan is this hard bone, as long as we force them to submit, or cooperate with us, it will greatly increase our strength, this time to open up the trade of Mobei, the Khitan clan may benefit more than Muwei, after all, they are neighbors with us, and it is the road to Mobei after all, I believe that their leader will not be so stupid." The general thinks it's okay to give it a try. ”

Li Zheng finally nodded, and said, "Okay, the gains will outweigh the losses after all, so let's use the blood of the Khitan people to pay tribute to those brothers who died in vain, and open the way to Mobei!"

Xie Tong got up and said, "The last general!"

Li Zheng said solemnly: "This king allows you to lead 10,000 troops, set off at dawn tomorrow, and approach the lair of the Khitans." This king leads the others to be your royal high!"

Xie Tong said, "I have the order, and the general will have one more thing to ask for"

Li Zheng said, "Let's talk about it!"

Xie Tong said, "The last general asks the princess to accompany him, after all, the Khitan is a clan outside the Saiwai, and our army has difficulties in communication, and the princess is from the outside of the Saiwai, and she knows a lot about the affairs outside the Saiwai, and she can solve many problems, and the last general can use her life to ensure the safety of the princess." “

Li Zheng looked at Shi Jianing and said with a smile, "Yes"

Xie Tong turned to the nightingale again and said, "If there is something I still bother, please ask the girl for help, I will take Lao Lai to the Khitan, and ask the girl to take care of him more!"

Nightingale smiled and said, "It is incumbent upon me to take care of my family, General Xie is serious"

Xie Tong smiled and said to Hong Shan's three daughters, "You follow the prince and press for me."

There was an extremely confident look in his eyes, and he said, "Khitan, Lao Tzu and you play a salute before the soldier, see how you parry!"

Xie Tong led 10,000 troops to set off first, and this time he went to the lair of the Khitans, using a two-pronged strategy. With Li Zheng's permission, he separated silk, porcelain and precious stones from the dowry, loaded a carriage, and galloped towards the grassland.

Two hours later, they arrived at the city of Ezina.

Ezina City is not so much a city, but rather a small city-state, the scale is far from comparable to Chang'an, Luoyang and other world-class cities, even Yangzhou can not be compared, at best it is the scale of Yibin, but such a city, but it is one of the few cities on the grassland, Xie Tong couldn't help but sigh, no wonder for hundreds of years, the people on the grassland have always invaded and plundered south, which is too big a cultural gap with Middle Earth. The splendid civilization of Middle-earth was on full display at this moment.

The Khitans had already discovered this powerful Tang army, and before the army approached, they had assembled and issued a warning to Xie Tong and others.

Xie Tong and Shi Jianing drove the horse forward, he didn't understand Khitan, so he could only trouble Shi Jianing to communicate.

Xie Tong said, "Please translate the princess, just say that we have no other malice, this time passing by Mobei, I came to say hello to the Khitan clan!"

Shi Jianing muttered for a while, and the Khitan people on the opposite side also wowed for a long time, Xie Tong couldn't understand a word, he looked at Shi Jianing blankly.

Shi Jianing said, "They said that they had to consult the patriarch before they could give an answer!"

Sure enough, the person who was talking to Shi Jianing reflexively entered Eqina City.

Xie Tong said, "Dare to ask, is the princess proficient in the languages of all the peoples on the grassland?"

Shi Jianing smiled dumbly and said, "That's not the case, in the grassland, Turkic is the most common language, almost every ethnic group can speak it, and some people who admire the culture of Middle-earth, or the patriarchs of various ethnic groups also use Chinese. ”

Xie Tong's curiosity was aroused, and he asked, "Why did Turkic become a universal language!"

Shi Jia glanced at him and said, "In the past few hundred years, and even now, the Turks are the most powerful people in the steppe, their army is invincible, their population is all over the place, of course other ethnic groups have to rely on the Turks, how can they not speak Turkic dialect!"

Xie Tong suddenly realized and asked, "Then why do you want to learn Chinese, is it because the Han people are strong?"

Shi Jianing said angrily, "Learning Chinese is not because of how powerful the children of the Han people are, but because the culture, military, and science and technology of the Han people are at the top level, and the people of every race do not want to fight over the Great Wall, rule and enslave you, so learning Chinese is to admire your civilization and have nothing to do with being strong." ”

Xie Tong was speechless, and he was just about to refute, Shi Jianing continued, "The impression of the Han people on the grassland people is that they are timid, weak, selfish and greedy, as well as insidious, so after going in to negotiate for a while, try not to put on an arrogant appearance, or be humble!"

Xie Tong wanted to ask her, since she looked down on Han people so much, why did she marry Li Zheng!

Without waiting for him to ask, Shi Jianing smiled and said, "Li Zheng is an exception, he is a real hero!"

While the two were talking, there was a commotion within the Khitan army, and an old man with gray hair and dressed in a gorgeous costume walked out surrounded by everyone. (To be continued.) )