My older brother is Gao Huan.

Chapter 138 The Fall of Huai Shuo

Ta-da-da…

A rapid, dense sound of hooves rang out as warhorses galloped past, kicking up clouds of sand and gravel.

Heba Yue and his men were covered in blood and dirt, looking extremely disheveled. They would occasionally look back warily, but more often they urged their warhorses to gallop wildly, not daring to stop at all.

After a while, his warhorse neighed, exhausted, and refused to run any further no matter what he did.

Heba Yue and the others were forced to stop. After dismounting, they tore off their leather bags from their saddles and gulped down several mouthfuls of water to calm themselves down and relax their tense nerves.

After relaxing, he plopped down on the ground and leaned against the tree trunk to recover his strength.

They also escaped from a desperate situation, carving out a path through the encirclement of tens of thousands of rebels from the east. Fortunately, the rebels in the east had not set up an ambush beforehand, and despite the extreme danger, they still managed to break through.

Heba Yue was lucky and was not seriously injured.

However, his father, Heba Duba, had three arrows stuck in his body, Heba Sheng was also hit in the shoulder by an arrow, and Heba Yun's left arm was cut off. He was currently receiving simple bandaging treatment with the help of his guards.

There are only a few hundred people left around me, and the specific situation afterward is completely unknown.

Hou Mochen Chong also plopped down next to Heba Yue, looking back with worry. Birds flew away from the woods from time to time, startled, and it was unclear whether they were pursuers from the rebel army or comrades who had also fought their way out of the encirclement.

"I wonder what the situation is like on Yuwen Langjun's and Gao Lang's side."

Heba Yue shook his head and remained silent.

The situation on the battlefield was extremely chaotic. The number of rebels outside Wuchuan City was too large, and no one knew what would happen next.

Hebadu gritted his teeth and pulled the arrow out of his body. He also performed simple treatment first. He was old and his body was not as strong as his sons. He looked extremely weak, but he still managed to stand up.

"Adou, quickly gather your troops. This place is not safe to stay. We must head south to Yunzhong immediately. Even if the Grand Commander is not here, a general will be stationed to guard this fortress."

"We will go and report the situation before making a decision."

"Yes."

Heba Yue immediately got up and ordered Hou Mochen Chong and Li Hu to help him gather his remaining troops. In just a short while, dozens more men caught up from behind.

Are there any pursuers approaching?

"I don't know."

Heba Yue shook his head helplessly.

Indeed, everyone was focused on escaping for their lives, fearing being surrounded by the rebels. They had no time to care about what was happening behind them.

He roughly estimated that there were fewer than 500 people gathered, which made him feel somewhat heavy-hearted.

These troops were the lifeblood of the Heba family accumulated over many years, and this time they lost almost all of it. They had been together day and night and had developed deep feelings for each other, especially since many of the troops died while covering their breakout.

But he also knew that now was not the time for sadness.

Even if there might be other troops that managed to escape from the rear, they didn't have enough time to wait here.

Who knows if the rebels will continue to pursue us? If we get bogged down by the rebels, the losses will be even greater.

"Mount up immediately! Prepare for evacuation!"

Everyone mustered their strength, mounted their horses, and prepared to flee south again.

At this moment, dozens more riders caught up from behind, and upon seeing the main force, they immediately shouted loudly.

"Lord Heba, we have important matters to report!"

Heba Duba, who was about to set off, reined in his horse and stopped. When the group rode up in front of him, he asked, "What urgent matter do you have? Are the pursuers approaching?"

The group of people were panting heavily and couldn't utter a word for a long time, but they kept shaking their heads.

After they had caught their breath, he said, "Lord Heba, there is no need to worry. The rebels are in a state of chaos right now and have no intention of pursuing us."

"The rebels are in chaos?"

Heba Yue stepped forward and pressed, "What exactly happened?"

The men shook their heads. “Originally, there were quite a few rebels chasing us, but something happened behind us and the rebels stopped chasing us and instead went back.”

"Is this true?"

"really!"

Hebadu was still somewhat worried. With so few men, if they were caught again, they would surely die.

But then several dozen more riders arrived, bringing more detailed information.

“We were already trapped by the rebels, but we heard that the rebels were in chaos. It seemed that the rebel leader Wei Kegu had died. The rebels who were besieging us abandoned us and hastily withdrew.”

"Wei Kegu is dead?"

Hebaduba and the others were stunned at first, their faces filled with astonishment. After exchanging glances, they were overjoyed.

"died?"

"It seems that Gao Lang and Yuwen Langjun joined forces to kill the bandit leader Wei Kegu!"

"No wonder the rebels didn't pursue us."

"Gao Lang is indeed brave and valiant. If it weren't for his joint efforts with the Yuwen family to kill the bandit leader, we don't know how long we would have been fleeing for our lives."

The death of Wei Kegu makes sense; the rebels clearly had many reserve troops specifically for pursuit, yet these troops were nowhere to be seen.

Without a leader, the rebels naturally couldn't spare the time to pursue this small group of routed soldiers, and who knows how chaotic things would become within the rebel army itself.

After all, Yuwen Luosheng had Yuwen Tai send back a lot of useful information, including that the rebels in the three eastern towns were not affiliated with each other, but all respected Wei Kegu. In other words, Wei Kegu was the leader of the rebels outside Wuchuan City, and his death would naturally cause chaos.

The chaos among the rebels also meant that they were temporarily out of danger.

"Father, why don't we rest here for a while longer?"

Heba Yue suggested.

Hebadu nodded, and the soldiers took out dried meat and flatbread to fill their stomachs. Before leaving the city, each of them had prepared ten days' worth of rations. Those who were not injured went to fetch water nearby and took care of the wounded.

........................

Gao Yu and the others remained vigilant. Even though they knew Wei Kegu was dead, they were still afraid that rebel troops might pursue them.

Like Heba Yue and others who successfully broke through, they all chose to stop and rest only after their warhorses could no longer run.

"Liu Yi, Liu Er, Liu San, Liu Si."

Gao Yu called out, and the others, still there, came forward one after another.

"Each of you take a few men to the outer perimeter to keep watch and stand guard."

"Liu Taozhi, go and take stock of the casualties."

"The rest of you stay put and rest."

After Gao Yu finished explaining and arranging everything, he also tore off his skin to replenish his water before coming to Yuwen Luosheng and the others.

The Yuwen family members were gathered together, with Yuwen Hao's corpse lying on the ground. There was no way to stitch the head back to the body at the moment.

Yuwen Gong's eyes were red, and the pain of losing his son was something that others could hardly understand. After quickly treating his wounds, he suppressed his grief and ordered, "The situation is urgent at the moment. Let's take this as an expedient measure and bury Dalang here. Mark the spot and we'll come back to move the remains later."

Yuwen Luosheng was overcome with grief and eventually broke down in tears.

Gao Yu and Dugu Xin remained silent, and could only step forward to help them dig a large pit. After a simple treatment, they wrapped Yuwen Hao's body in several layers of woolen cloaks, placed it in the earthen bed, and then backfilled it with soil.

Liu Taozhi also reported on the casualties.

Five of the core elites of the Xuanjia Army, namely the armored cavalry, are missing. Mulan's light cavalry has suffered 45 casualties and is missing. Peng Le's capture-the-animal army is missing 31 men.

As for Li Minzhi, Liu Rong's Huai Shuo elite troops suffered more than half their casualties, and Tu Men's Ashina tribe also suffered more than half their casualties.

This was arguably the worst casualty incident for Gao Yu.

The scorching sun made Gao Yu, who was already in a heavy mood, feel even more frustrated, but he knew that he had to calm down right now.

"Let's eat first and continue resting."

The warhorses were allowed to graze to replenish their strength, while the soldiers took out rations such as flatbread and dried meat to stave off hunger.

Gao Yu, along with Mulan and Peng Le, found Yuwen Gong and the others and took the initiative to ask them questions.

"I wonder what your plans are next, my lord and young master?"

Yuwen Gong glanced at him, suppressed his grief, and suggested, "We should head south immediately, inform the Yunzhong garrison commander of the current battle situation, and urge him to send troops to defeat the rebels while they are leaderless."

Gao Yu nodded, but then asked, "What if the garrison commander is unwilling to send troops?"

"This……"

Yuwen Gong really didn't know how to answer.

Dugu Xin frankly stated, "This is a golden opportunity. If we are unwilling to send troops north, and the rebels regroup... Yunzhong will be difficult to defend."

Wuchuan was an empty city; it had money and goods, but not the crucial food supplies.

The rebels could allow their troops to plunder, steal property, rape, and kidnap in order to motivate and reward their soldiers.

But it couldn't produce food.

By then.

They could either continue westward to join forces with Po Liu Han Baling.

Either head south directly.

The latter is more likely, after all, Huai Shuo has been besieged for a long time and there is no extra food in the city.

With the Rouran people not sending troops for the time being, the rebels have no worries about their rear and can march south all the way. Even if they cannot capture Yunzhong, they can besiege it, or even bypass Yunzhong and continue south to plunder Bingzhou, Sizhou, Fenzhou and other places.

It can even go towards Dingzhou and Xiangzhou.

There were no natural defenses over there; it was a flat plain, perfect for light cavalry to take advantage of their high mobility and plunder everywhere.

"Gao Lang, what about you?"

Dugu Xin countered, "Don't tell me you're planning to go back to Huai Shuo?"

Gao Yu didn't speak; he was actually struggling internally.

It is unclear what the situation is in Huai Shuo at the moment, as the two sides have not exchanged messages for several months.

It is known that it is highly likely that it has not yet fallen. After all, if Huai Shuo had fallen, the army of Po Liu Han Baling would have already been heading east to join them.

The best option would definitely be to head south together first, and then slowly send people to gather information and see how Yunzhong Shou would choose before making any further plans.

Otherwise, if he and his men went there rashly with only ten days' worth of rations, they could easily run into trouble.

"Then let's head south together."

Unlike Heba Yue and his group, they couldn't break through from the southeast and take the White Road to Yunzhong.

Gao Yu and his group need to travel west for a while before heading south to Yunzhong.

After two days of travel, Gao Yu and his companions finally arrived at the key passage leading south to Yunzhong.

However, Liu Yi and his men, whom Gao Yu had sent to scout ahead, brought back some astonishing news.

"My lord, a large number of rebel troops have been spotted ahead and appear to be in pursuit."

"There are also many civilians who have fled."

"It seems... they came from the northwest."

Yuwen Luosheng and the others were all taken aback.

Gao Yu's gaze was gloomy, his face as still as water. He immediately and calmly ordered, "All troops, don your armor and draw your bows!"

We're not sure exactly what happened, but it's never wrong to be prepared.

After donning his armor, Gao Yu mounted his horse and looked northwest.

Has Huai Shuo City fallen?
(End of this chapter)