A family of loyal martyrs, starting with nine wives to continue the family line.

Huo Qingluan did not sleep that night. When she called the three scouts into the command post, the watchman's drum on the city wall had just struck the second watch.

On the table lay the defensive diagram that Shang Wanqing had drawn all night.

She circled the closed gates, old wells, sand dunes, abandoned post roads, and even the cracks in the city wall with her vermilion pen.

Huo Qingluan stared at the northwest corner of the map, her fingertip hovering over a blank space.

"Get out of here."

The three scouts were all veterans of Yangguan Pass, their faces blackened by the wind and sand. Upon hearing this, none of them uttered a sound.

Huo Qingluan looked up at them.

"Walk northwest for three days. Write down what you see, then return immediately."

She paused, then added another sentence.

"Avoid war."

The lead scout, surnamed Cao, moved his Adam's apple.

"General, the northwest is not a trade route. People used to travel there three years ago, but now even herdsmen don't go anymore."

Huo Qingluan knew.

It is precisely because no one else is going that someone has to go.

The Black Flag Army pinned down 30,000 men outside Yangguan Pass, but instead of attacking the city, they only shouted slogans and sent their own men to their deaths.

Nie Yinniang sent another signal, indicating that there were clues in the west.

But there aren't enough clues.

What she fears most right now is not the 30,000 soldiers outside the city.

She feared she only saw the tip of the knife and not the person holding it.

That's why I sent you.

Huo Qingluan pushed a water bag over.

"Each person should have two water bags and three days' worth of dry rations. Do not ride your horse fast; conserve your energy. If you see the Black Flag Army, go around them. If you cannot get around them, abandon your horse and run."

Huo Qingluan didn't say anything more, but simply rolled up the defense map and pointed to the northwest.

"Remember, don't be reckless. I want information, not your heads."

The three men accepted the order and withdrew.

In the darkness, the small door opened a crack.

Three horses emerged from inside the pass, their hooves wrapped in cloth, making no sound.

Huo Qingluan stood on the city wall, watching them circle around the old sand dunes and gradually disappear into the northwest.

Shang Wanqing walked to her side with the blueprints in her arms.

"Do you think there's something over there?"

"have."

Huo Qingluan answered quickly.

Shang Wanqing asked, "On what grounds?"

Huo Qingluan looked at the low-lying campfires of the Black Flag Army outside the city.

"They're too stable."

She doesn't like this kind of stability.

An army that has come from three thousand miles away should, in theory, be the most anxious.

Food needs to be eaten, water needs to be drunk, camels need to be fed, and people get tired too.

But the Black Flag Army wasn't in a hurry.

After three days of shouting, even though the general's men were shot, there was no chaos.

This stability either stems from the commander-in-chief's ability to maintain control over the entire army, or from their knowledge that there is an even greater reliance behind them.

Huo Qingluan would rather be the former.

If it is the latter, then the wall of Yangguan is too thin.

The Black Flag Army did not attack the city the following day.

Huo Qingluan went up to the city early in the morning to check the camp.

The Black Flag Army's tents were still in the same place, but there were fewer patrol riders than yesterday, and two rows of shield bearers had been replaced in front of the camp gate.

The spot where the white camel stood was empty; the man in the golden crown did not reappear.

This is a good thing.

At least those three arrows yesterday weren't useless.

But after watching for a while, her brows slowly furrowed.

"telescope."

Shang Wanqing handed it over.

Huo Qingluan looked towards the west side of the Black Flag Army.

Two groups of camel riders left the camp, each numbering about a hundred.

There was no water bucket on the hunchback, nor any water bag; only a light knife and a bow were hanging on it.

They were heading in a direction other than the old well where the Black Flag Army drew water.

It's to the west.

More accurately, it's the Northwest.

Huo Qingluan tightened her grip.

Trouble.

She just sent people to the Northwest last night, and today the Black Flag Army is also heading to the Northwest.

If it's a coincidence, then this coincidence is incredibly well-timed.

Shang Wanqing took back the binoculars and looked at them for a moment.

"What are they waiting for? Or are they calling for someone?"

Huo Qingluan did not answer.

Her mind raced through the events of the past few days.

Fang Zhaoru.

Landscape painting.

The Seventeen Tribes of the Western Regions.

Black Flag Army.

And there's that trade route that was buried by sandstorms for three years.

These things, laid out together, resemble an unfinished puzzle.

What's missing now isn't just one piece, but the very middle piece.

She hated this feeling.

The worst thing in war is not knowing what the enemy wants.

If you need grain, burn it.

If you need water, cut off the water supply.

If you need people, hide them.

But if what they want is a map that can command seventeen tribes, and they bring 30,000 men to the gate of Xinwu to interrogate them, then the matter is not as simple as guarding Yangguan Pass.

In the afternoon, the scout returned.

It arrived a day and a half earlier than expected.

When the small gate opened, only two of the three horses returned.

Cao the Scout was helped up the city wall. His lips were split and bleeding, his left arm was in a sling, and he had a scrape on his shoulder.

Another scout, carrying the third man's knife, was deathly pale.

Huo Qingluan went to greet her.

Where are they?

Cao the Scout gritted his teeth.

"The horse got stuck in the sandpit. He pushed us out, but he couldn't get out himself."

Huo Qingluan looked at the knife behind him.

The scabbard was filled with sand, and a red rope was still wrapped around the hilt.

She did not offer condolences.

That's useless.

It's no use saying anything now.

"What did you see?"

Cao the Scout grabbed the water bag, took a sip, and choked, coughing for a long time.

He caught his breath, his voice hoarse.

"General, there is an abandoned ancient city two days' journey to the northwest."

Huo Qingluan's gaze froze.

really.

Cao the scout continued, "The city wall was mostly buried by sandstorms, with only a section showing. We didn't dare get too close and lay prone behind the sand dune in the southeast corner for half an hour."

"Is anyone there?"

"have."

Cao the scout's face turned even paler.

"Unlike the Black Flag Army's camp. The tents were larger and more numerous. It wasn't a monochromatic flag."

Huo Qingluan did not interrupt.

She waited for him to finish speaking.

"There were red flags, yellow flags, and blue flags. The patterns on the flags were too far away to see clearly. But the camp was huge, even more spread out than the Black Flag Army's camp outside the city. We didn't count the number of people, but just looking at the hearths, there were at least tens of thousands."

The deputy general beside him changed his expression.

"How many tens of thousands are left?"

Shang Wanqing also stopped what she was doing.

Huo Qingluan did not scold the deputy general for making a fuss.

Because she herself felt tightness in her back.

It's not fear.

The situation suddenly became much more serious.

The 30,000 Black Flag troops outside the city were already troublesome enough, but now there's another ancient city in the northwest, and there are camps of more than one color flag next to the ancient city.

This shows that the Golden Crown people are not all.

This also shows that the Black Flag Army was not an isolated force.

Behind them were the various tribes of the Western Regions.

There might even be a hastily put-together alliance.

Cao the Scout took out a shard of pottery from his pocket.

"We found this near a collapsed wall when we were evacuating."

The pottery shard is small, with rounded edges, and a wolf's head is carved on it.

The lines are thick, less fierce than the wolf head on the Black Flag Army's bronze plaque, but more ancient.

Huo Qingluan took it and examined it for a long time, turning it over and over in her hands.

She couldn't understand the words on it.

But she could understand military strategy.

The fact that a totem can appear on both the Black Flag Army's token and pottery shards in an abandoned ancient city indicates that the location was not a randomly chosen camp.

That might be their old territory.

Or perhaps, it is the place where the seventeen tribes once met in alliance.

Huo Qingluan handed the pottery shard to Shang Wanqing.

"Golden Crown people are not everything."

Shang Wanqing took it and glanced at it.

"Is there something else to the northwest, something even more troublesome than these 30,000 people?"

Huo Qingluan glanced at her.

"You've learned to interrupt."

"It's written all over your face."

Shang Wanqing frowned as she looked at the pottery shards.

"What is that?"

Huo Qingluan answered very decisively.

"have no idea."

The worst thing is not knowing.

If she knew it was reinforcements, she could calculate the distance.

If she knew it was a grain convoy, she could send someone to burn it.

If she knew it was a tribal alliance, she would have to reassess the boundaries of this battle.

What the sunlight blocked might not have been a Black Flag Army chasing after people.

Rather, it was the first hand that the seventeen tribes of the Western Regions reached out to test Xinwu.

Huo Qingluan placed the pottery shards on the table.

"After daybreak, I wrote a third urgent report to the capital."

"We need to reinforce Yangguan, at least 30,000 troops, and the sooner the better."