end song

The Hetao Grassland is dark and wild, and it is difficult to cover up the tracks when marching on the grassland.

Therefore, Li Xia did not intend to hide his tracks, and simply marched in the direction of retreating to Xingqing Mansion, neither fast nor slow.

It's like an elk walking on the grass, being stared at by a jackal, following it, and encircling it from the north, but it seems to have not noticed all this, and is still grazing with its head down.

On the third day of the march, it was already the second day of October, and the weather suddenly became cold.

The cold wind from the north blows in, and autumn suddenly turns into winter. It is good to have the sun during the day, but at night, sleeping on the frost-covered grass can be cold to the bone.

Tang Jun chased Tachaer's troops from Xingqing Mansion and killed them. They didn't bring much baggage, only some felts, leather jackets, and tents that they had seized, barely enough for them to keep warm, but they wanted to increase their marching speed with these things. However, it is impossible to get rid of the Yuan army's pursuit.

As for the food, the Tang army was also a cavalry soldier, imitating the Mongolians to eat dried meat, cheese, and even raw meat, which should be enough to feed Xingqing Mansion.

Fortunately, the grass on the grassland has not withered yet, and the horses can survive if they have something to eat.

At night, they explored the horses and returned to camp.

"Report, Zhang Hongfan's department is still twenty miles away from us to the east."

"What about the north? You say."

"There is a Yuan army in the north, about [-], one man and three horses. According to the banner, the commander is called 'Hu Lanji'. It has marched along the Wujia River to the northwest of us, more than [-] miles away from us."

Yang Ben asked again: "Already to the west of us?"

"Yes, to our northwest." Tan Ma had no choice but to repeat.

Li Xia asked a few more questions, looked at the map, marked it, and pondered: "Is Hu Lanji here right? It's the corner of Yinshan Mountain."

What's interesting is that Yinshan Mountain is located in Houtao area, almost parallel to the Yellow River, and they are both like the upper left corner of the character "ji".

"Yes, there is a small lake here, the Mongols call it 'Nalin Lake'."

Yang Ben couldn't help becoming anxious, and said: "It seems that in two days, Hu Lanji will be able to kill us. Your Majesty, do you want to speed up the march?"

"Don't worry."

Li Xia first ordered Tan Ma to go down to rest, and said: "After the battle with Zhang Hongfan, you are a little impetuous."

Yang Ben was taken aback for a moment, obviously not aware of this.

In Li Xia's view, fighting is as much about mentality as competition is, and he is very sensitive to changes in mentality in this regard. He can be sure that Yang Ben needs to readjust his mentality now, otherwise it will be easy to lose again and again.

He is not as good at instructing his generals as Li Zengbo, what he can do is to give them the bottom line and help them adjust.

If Yang Ben can grow into a real famous player in the future, it may be because he has experienced failure but was not destroyed, but received advice and help.

"Our enemies are like hyenas on the prairie. The more frightened you are and the faster you run in front of the hyena, the more daring it will be to attack and bite. The soldiers are not in good condition. We cannot speed up the march. Let the soldiers Rest up and rebuild their confidence."

Having said that, Li Xia glanced at Yang Ben and said, "You too, have confidence, you won't lose to Zhang Hongfan."

"Yes!" Yang Ben straightened his back.

Li Xia looked at the map again, frowning slightly in thought, as if there were still some uncertainties.

After thinking like this for a while, Tanma finally came back again.

"Your Majesty, Marshal Li Zengbo has sent someone here."

"please come in."

After a while, the generals of the Ningxia army rushed in.

"The last general, Pang Pei, was ordered by Marshal Li to deliver these two letters of military information."

Li Xia took the letter and asked, "Kublai Khan has personally conscripted, can Xingqing Mansion get the news?"

"The last general traveled to Dengkou and found out about Kublai Khan's personal conquest only when he met the fast horse sent by His Majesty. I think the commander-in-chief will get the news in two days. However, when the last general left, the commander-in-chief had already obtained Gansu Lian Gong The news has already been cleared in Xingqing Mansion."

"You came from Dengkou, but you met Yuan Jun?"

"I met a team of Red Army Exploring Horses. After the battle, the general lost three people..."

Li Xia opened the two received military reports and saw that they were from Li Zengbo and Lian Xixian respectively.

He carefully read Lian Xixian's letter many times, and then stared at the map again.

Only he knows how much pressure he will bear at the moment of making a decision.

In the eyes of Yang Ben and Pang Pei, Li Xia nodded calmly and said, "Do you still have the energy to hurry back to Xingqing Mansion?"

"Have!"

"I wrote a few letters, can you guarantee that they will be delivered without fail?"

Li Xia's scrutiny eyes fell, Pang Pei first lowered his head slightly, then raised it again, and said firmly: "The last general is dead, and he must send the letter to Marshal Li before he dies!"

"Okay, you go and rest for an hour..."

An hour later, a knight ran towards Xingqing Mansion again from the darkness.

Li Xia stood on the grass and glanced west, and said to himself, "The sloppy preparations are complete, let's start..."

~~
It was dawn.

Zhang Hongfan got up from the tent, while putting on his armor, he opened the curtain and said, "Have all the Tan Ma come back?"

"Marshal, there are still eighteen riders who have not returned to the camp."

Zhang Hongfan stopped putting on the armor for a moment, realizing that the battlefield was going to change a lot, but after only a few breaths, he regained his composure, put on his helmet, and said, "Let the scouts returning to the camp come to see me."

After a while, he was already listening to Tan Ma's report on the situation in Li Xia's camp.

"Tang Jun didn't drive us away at first. Recently, we rushed two hundred paces away from their camp. But before the fourth watch, it seems that soldiers in their camp started to rise. The little ones didn't have time to watch. Tang Jun's Tanma has already come out to shoot our people, and the little one tried several times but couldn't get closer to the Tang army camp..."

"Report!" A detective who had just returned to the camp came to report: "Tang Jun is no longer in the camp last night!"

Zhang Hongfan frowned, and said to himself, "Li Xia really moved."

"Marshal." Li Ting stepped forward and asked, "Do you want to catch up now?"

"Have you determined which direction they are marching?"

"Of course it's going to Xingqing Mansion."

"Continue to send scouts to determine the location of the Tang army... pass on an order to let the soldiers eat immediately and leave the camp at any time."

"Yes."

Zhang Hongfan looked up and looked ahead, only seeing the vast grassland.

There was also nervousness and worry in his eyes, but he still tried his best to maintain his composure, reminding himself not to be chaotic, only chaos will make mistakes, and let Li Xia find a chance to break the situation.

Half an hour later, the soldiers and horses set off to continue marching, but the Tan horses that had dispersed had not yet returned.

"Haven't you found Tang Jun yet?" Zhang Hongfan sat astride his horse and murmured, "This shouldn't be, the rear cover is so big, as long as Tang Jun goes west, he will definitely be spotted by our scouts."

"The commander-in-chief is saying that Li Xia must either smuggle across the Yellow River to the south, or attack Hulanji from the north?"

"Don't jump to conclusions." Zhang Hongfan took out the map from his pocket, sat on his horse and began to read it.

Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something, and he recruited soldiers and asked, "Is there a pass in the western section of Yinshan Mountain?"

This cannot be seen on the map. The map of the Yuan Army is simple, and a stroke on the Yellow River in a few characters indicates Yinshan.

All the soldiers and horses under his command were conscripted from the Central Plains, and he was not familiar with the terrain, so he had to bring the guide who was leading the way here before he got the answer.

"Return to the commander, there is a pass in front of it, called 'Chicken Deer Fort', which is the pass leading to Saibei in the Han Dynasty."

"Where is it?!" Zhang Hongfan said, "Point it out to me."

"Here, there is a canyon in the southwestern section of Langshan Mountain, which is called 'Halong Ge Nai' in Mongolian. It is adjacent to the Yinshan Great Wall in the north and Tushenze in the east. There is a fortress in the west of the canyon, which is Jilusai. The traffic throat. However, it was built in the Han Dynasty, and it has been abandoned after the Tang Dynasty.”

The guide was a member of the Wanggu tribe, and he was quite knowledgeable. He was also proficient in Chinese and Mongolian, and told all about the origin of the stuffed chicken and deer.

"During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Huo Qubing went to the north from Beidi County, passed through the Yinchuan Plain, traveled north along the Yellow River, and went out of Jilusai to the land of the Xiongnu. Wang Zhaojun and the Xiongnu Shanyu went out of the fortress, also from Jilusai via Halong Ge Nai Canyon to Mobei..."

"Mobei?" Zhang Hongfan murmured: "Is Li Xia going to Mobei? What does he want to do? Is he looking for a change?"

Li Ting reminded: "Don't worry, Marshal, Marshal Hulanji is just north of Li Xia."

"No." Zhang Hongfan interrupted: "Hulanji marched too fast, and has already captured Li Xia's northwest."

"This means……"

"That is to say, Li Xia doesn't need to face Hulanji's main force, as long as he attacks the rear army, he can grab the chicken and deer plug."

At this point, Zhang Hongfan had already made up his mind, and ordered: "The whole army turns around and stuffs the chickens and deer!"

"Marshal, but the Tang army has nowhere to escape if they go north. Could it be that they just shot a feint, but they actually want to sneak across the Yellow River south?"

"No." Zhang Hongfan said: "One is that they don't have boats, and the other is that Li Xia crossing the Yellow River is tantamount to giving up the northwest and defending Guanzhong. I assert that he still wants to fight to defend the northwest, and he won't just leave... Send me another Hurry up and remind Hu Lanji that Li Xia is not retreating westward, but is going to sneak attack him!"

~~
Hu Lanji is a member of the Baru Lasi tribe in Mongolia. His ancestor was Kubilai, one of Genghis Khan's four mastiffs.

He can be regarded as the son of the founder of the country.

On the third day of October, he set off from the shore of Nalin Lake and led his troops southward, preparing to block Li Xia in the direction of Dengkou.

At this time, he had marched to the front of Li Xia and completed the outflank.

From here, we have almost left the Houtao Plain, and then go south to Xingqing Mansion. There are a lot of deserts and wastelands that cannot be marched. Only along the Yellow River and there are water sources to march.

This is the only way for Li Xia to escape.

Hu Lanji only needs to wait, restore the physical strength and horsepower of the soldiers, wait to fight with the Tang army, drag the Tang army with superior forces, and encircle with Zhang Hongfan.

By dawn the next day, Tan Ma hadn't come back to report Tang Jun's trace.

Hu Lanji waited eagerly for a long time, and finally saw Tan Ma galloping towards him.

"Report! The Tang army has gone to Yinshan and attacked our rear army. Please ask the marshal to support him!"

"Yin Mountain?" Hu Lanji was puzzled, and asked in surprise, "What did Li Xia escape to Yin Mountain?"

"Marshal, order Bi Qianhu to ask for help!"

"Exiut."

Hu Lanji cursed, but what he was thinking about was that even if Li Xia crossed the Yin Mountain and went to Mobei, he would be more likely to be surrounded or starve to death.

It's more like trying to divert the tiger away from the mountain and trick him into leaving Dengkou.

After all, Dengkou, where he was stationed, was the only way to escape to Xingqing Mansion.

Therefore, Hu Lanji only ordered a thousand households to rescue Yubi, and ordered him to confirm the strength of the Tang army and see if it was a bluff...

~~
Li Xia did not bluff.

Just beside Tu Shenze, he seemed to have thrown away his grace and nobility as an emperor, and returned to the stinky battlefield covered in blood.

The long lance in his hand pointed to the banner of Qianhu of the Yuan army, and he urged the horses.

"Follow Your Majesty to kill the enemy!"

The soldiers of the Tang army shouted loudly, and everyone scrambled to be the first.

After Kublai Khan's personal conquest put great pressure on the Tang army, Li Xia began to feel a little like returning to the years when he was fighting in Sichuan and Shu.

He is still far from the point where he can start to show off and enjoy himself.

Still want to kill.

Blood spurted wildly from the chest pierced by the long lance, and sprinkled on the loess.

To the northwest of the battlefield, there is a fortress of the Han Dynasty standing on the edge of the canyon.

If you let your sight follow the canyon to the north and pass through the Yin Mountains, you will see the vast Mobei.

Yuan Jun didn't even understand what Li Xia was going to do in Mobei...