(Many thanks to ‘Unfaithful Quan Burial 708’ and ‘achelless’ for their generous support and monthly ticket support.)
Qiming Khan thought for a while, and felt that what Chen Ping said was reasonable. He said with a smile: "Yes, you have considered it very carefully. This matter has been settled. Ben Khan immediately sent someone to pass the order to the Tiele tribes. I want to come.
That old thief from Yishubo must be very willing to go south to Yongzhou to harvest grass and valleys."
…
…
Su Changqing woke up early at dawn. The war horse was standing beside him, and the iron spear was inserted beside him. The crossbow and bow were not strung, but the crossbow arrows were already ready. All he had to do was turn over and step on the crossbow.
The crossbow string can be fired immediately.
After they passed through the Qilian Mountains, they still needed to continue to the southwest and pass through the vast West Sea before they could reach the territory of Tuyuhun.
This is a vast wilderness and the Gobi Desert. It takes great courage for an army of three thousand people who are unfamiliar with the place to pass through this inaccessible place.
Jiang Mulang's eyes were red. Just yesterday, he found that he was lost. Now he only knew that if he wanted to reach Tuyuhun's lair, he could only keep walking southwest.
Yesterday evening, he felt extremely guilty and told Su Changqing and Li Xiang that he was responsible for leading the way but had lost his way. The three of them discussed it gloomily for a long time before ordering the entire army to rest.
The dead grass under their feet was very sparse, and they could feel the terrain gradually getting higher, but if they went the wrong way here, it would be a devastating mistake.
"Have you found any locals?"
Su Changqing asked calmly while drinking the porridge.
Jiang Mulang shook his head in despair and said, "No, this place seems to be a dead land with no human habitation."
"What did the Tuyuhun merchant we kidnapped on the road say?"
"They said they had never been here before, and the places all looked the same. People who didn't live here often wouldn't be able to tell the difference."
Li Xiang, who had been silent all this time, suddenly shook his head and said, "Why don't we turn back!"
Su Changqing chuckled and said: "Xiangzi, this is not a joke. We have military orders and we haven't even seen the enemy's face, so you want us to turn back!"
Li Xiang sighed and said: "In the past few days, I have been feeling that something was wrong with that military order. And it seems that our contact with the general was cut off in those days."
Su Changqing and Jiang Mulang looked at each other, then smiled bitterly and said: "I also thought that someone wants to do harm to our general, but with the general's methods, we don't have to worry about his safety at all. What I worry about is that if we fail to complete the military order, someone will
Making excuses about us will only cause trouble for the general."
Li Xiang thought for a moment, sighed, and said: "I understand, so even if we know that there is a problem with the military order, we must try our best to complete this mission."
Jiang Mulang stood up and looked around: "If we had known about this mission in advance, we could have sent a small group of scouts to explore the road in advance and draw a map. But now we have arrived in a hurry, and this ghost place is really strange.
No matter where you look, it looks the same.”
Su Changqing smiled and said: "It can't be the same, there are always differences. Logically speaking, as long as we go southwest, we should reach the territory of the Tuyuhun people!"
Jiang Mulang's mouth moved, but in the end he said nothing.
Li Xiang frowned and said: "We do know the direction to the southwest. The problem is, if we take the wrong road and turn around, God knows where we will end up.
Su Changqing regretfully took out a small wooden box from his arms, opened it, looked at it, pointed to the southwest and said: "That's the southwest... What a pity!"
Li Xiang and Jiang Mulang approached Su Changqing and took a look at the exquisite wooden box in his hand. This thing was made by their general Wang Junlin himself. There were only two of them in Gaotai City. This time they brought out one.
After knowing the route clearly, I dare to cross the Qilian Mountains and rush to the home base of the Tyuhun people.
However, there are some things that are one thing in theory but another in reality. They thought that if they had a compass, they should not get lost. As a result, Wang Junlin built this compass for them. When they trained in the past,
I have never lost my way at any time, and I thought that I would never get lost again in this life, but in fact...
"I suddenly remembered that the general once said that if you only have a compass, you will still get lost when you should get lost. He also said that our understanding of the world is too superficial. In some special places, even a compass is of no help or a guide.
There will be errors in the direction because we don't have what the general calls a standard map."
Jiang Mulang played with the compass, hoping to find some secrets and guide them on a clear path out.
Su Changqing finally sighed and said: "Today, we will send one hundred people to each of the south, west and southwest directions, and let them search a fifty-mile area. The purpose is to find the living people and capture them, and use darkness as the time limit. The army continues to
Let’s make some repairs here. Let’s talk about going to the Tuyuhun people’s territory after we determine the route.”
Jiang Mulang and Li Xiang immediately agreed, and soon the three of them each sent a hundred scouts, one person and three horses, to go out to explore the road.
Seeing the three hundred scouts dispersed into a team of ten and disappeared from sight, Jiang Mulang couldn't help but sigh: "If the general is here, he will definitely find a way out."
Su Changqing snorted coldly and said: "Nonsense, if the general is here, we will never get lost."
Except for the scouts, the 3,000-strong army continued to rest where they were, and the wilderness of Nuoda became quiet again.
Suddenly, a face appeared from behind the hay not far to the north of the three thousand cavalry camp. Seeing that the three hundred scouts had disappeared, he quickly hid his figure and moved away from the camp. There was a horse hidden in the mountain col behind, and he was riding it.
After driving five miles east, he shouted: "Master, they still haven't found the right road today... They sent out scouts to explore the road, but the army is still resting in place."
The place Wu San chose is very hidden. In front of it is a mound without grass, and next to it is a deep ditch washed out by the flood. Between the mound and the deep ditch is a low-lying open space. Hiding here, as long as you don't
If you light a fire, you won't be discovered by the three thousand cavalrymen in Gaotaicheng.
Two thousand stern-looking men each led two horses and were quietly scattered in the open space. Although they were clearly horse thieves from the look of their attire, the discipline they displayed was not much worse than the three thousand Gaotaicheng cavalry on the other side.
Wu San opened his eyes, watched the scout come back, laughed and cursed: "Xiao Shizi, you bastard, after all you are also a special scout trained by the general himself. In the past few months, you have been a horse thief, and now you have no trace of a soldier.
Looks like it."
PS: It may be due to long-term lack of sleep. When I code for a long time, I feel a headache. Sorry, there are only three updates tonight————