After hearing the scout's report, Li Hong immediately called out the strong wind and sand.

The strong wind and sand were the leader of Xianling Qiang in the north and knew the terrain of this area well. He believed that the possibility of crossing the river from Lingzhou City to the north was the most likely. "That was a shortcut that could help them quickly reach Lingwu Valley and cross Helan Mountain."

Without further questions, Li Hong immediately led a large group of troops to Lingzhou.

＝＝＝

Li Hong stood outside Lingzhou City and asked, "Is there any news about General Dong?"

"No." The scout replied, "We have carefully searched the area around thirty miles outside Lingzhou City, but no trace of General Dong was found."

Li Hong looked at Pang De and the strong wind and sand standing beside him, looked at the map again, and said in confusion: "Why haven't General Dong and his 30,000 troops arrived yet?"

"Maybe something happened on the road was delayed," said Pang De cautiously. "He probably didn't expect that we would defeat the Xianbei people so quickly, and it would be normal for him to act a little slow."

"Sir, don't worry about Fatty Dong, let's cross the river immediately and continue chasing." Qianshan said anxiously, "In order to quickly return to the grassland, the Xianbei people have given up the three cities of Fuping, Ding Xi and Lingzhou, and are now running wildly on the north bank of the Yellow River. If He Lian escapes into Helan Mountain, we will not have the chance to kill him. The time is fleeting and we cannot delay it."

Li Hong shook his head and said, "The Xianbei people crossed the river from Gaoting, Shanghe and Lingzhou respectively, while the Dongqiang people simply went east from the Yellow River and went east from Lingzhou City. It seems that their troops were scattered and they could easily defeat them if they caught up with any route. But who can be sure that this is not a trick to lure the enemy? If Helian and Tuoba Feng gathered 40,000 troops to ambush us in Liancheng and Lingwu Valley, what should we do? There is a Yellow River barrier here. Once we are defeated, can we still escape?"

Pang De concentrates and contemplates.

Qianfengsha thought for a while and said, "Sir, it seems that he was too worried. The tribes of Luri and Yanliyou were originally close to Wuwei County. They crossed the river from Gaoting, which was the closest way back. Xu Gui went straight east from Lingzhou City along the Yellow River and could return to Dongqiang in a few days. This was several days faster than crossing Helan Mountain after crossing the river. These two people were already scared and just wanted to escape early and would not listen to Helian's command."

"Now, Lu Ri Deduction and Xu Gui are both on their way home. There are only Helian and Tuoba Feng on the north bank of the Yellow River in the north. They only have 20,000 deserters at most. Even if they are in a vain, we will have the power to fight."

Li Hong nodded and praised: "You're very reasonable."

"Then should we cross the river immediately?" Qianfengsha asked in surprise.

"No, we will meet with the two masters Xu Rong and Qu Yi and cross the river to pursue them again." Li Hong said calmly, "The situation in Western Xinjiang has been settled. Whether he can kill Helian or not, it doesn't matter whether he can wipe out the Xianbei people."

He patted the shoulder of the wind and sand and sighed, "The important thing is that we can't have any more casualties. We killed 50,000 people in one battle. I've lost too much in this battle. I've been thinking about this question these days. Is there a way to avoid such a large casualties but not? I can't let my brothers die in vain, do you know?"

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

Langxiao Valley is located on the southern foot of Helan Mountain. The Yingling tribe of the Qiang people lives in the valley, with about 3,000 people.

He and Nanbeiyun and more than a dozen servants rushed into Langxiao Valley by horses.

Shield Hu, the leader of the Yingling clan, heard that the Xianbei king and Lian were coming, and hurried out to greet him.

For more than ten years, the Xianbei people invaded the northern part of the land almost every year, causing the Qiang people north of the Yellow River to survive. So some of them escaped the Yellow River and attached to the Xianling tribe, some moved to the Eastern Qiang, and some simply bowed to Helian to surrender. The Yingling tribe adopted the method of surrender. When the Xianbei people came, they were subordinates of the Xianbei people, followed the Xianbei people to burn, kill and loot. When the Xianbei people left, they were the Qiang people who belonged to the Han Kingdom and enjoyed the relief of the Han Kingdom.

A few years ago, He Lian led his troops across Helan Mountain and drank the Yellow River. At that time, the Shield Fox of Yingling Qiang tried his best to curry favor with He Lian and wanted to be the leader of Yingling Qiang. He Lian took advantage of others, but he simply found an excuse to kill Yingling Qiang's old coach and let Shield Fox become the new leader. This time, the Shield Fox originally wanted to cross the Yellow River with the Xianbei army, but He Lian left him behind.

"Master, why have you brought so many people?" Shield Fox asked in surprise, "Is something wrong?"

He Lian Xiaoxiao and said, "Yes, something might happen to Danhan Mountain, so I plan to rush back quietly and beat up several rebels in one fell swoop."

The shield fox immediately understood He Lian's intention to arrive at Langxiao Valley. He wanted to borrow troops. He probably was worried about alerting the snake after receiving the news from Danhan Mountain, so he sneaked out of the army. From here, there was a road of thousands of miles, and it was unsafe to have no soldiers escorted along the way.

"It turns out that the king asked me to stay in Wolf Shaw Valley just for..."

"The property I promised to give you will not be less." He Lian waved his hand and interrupted him with a smile, "Lord Tuoba Feng has led the army across Liupan Mountain and will soon reach Guanzhong. The property I will give you will only be more, not less."

The shield fox was overjoyed when he heard this, and complimented He Lian vigorously, and then asked, "How many people do the king want?"

"If you are willing to take all the members of Yinglingqiang to follow me to Danhan Mountain, I will reward you more." He Lian said with a smile, "Ship Qu, are you willing to follow me to Danhan Mountain?"

The shield fox agreed without hesitation.

Following the Xianbei King, you will not suffer any loss.

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

Dong Zhuo led his army to quickly cross Liancheng and headed north quickly.

A scout came to report that the Yingling Qiang people were found in the southwest of Liancheng.

“How many people?”

"About a thousand people." Scout said panting, "and we are also moving towards Helan Mountain at a very fast speed."

Dong Zhuo waved him down and asked him to explore again.

"This Yingling Qiang species is despicable and cunning, especially the Qu Shuai Shield Fox. He licks his feet whoever gives him money. He is born to be a slutty bone." Dong Zhuo stared at his big eyes and cursed hatefully, "I wanted to destroy him a few years ago, but I haven't found a chance. Today, he came to his door by himself."

"Sir, want to eat him in one bite?" Li Ru asked.

Dong Zhuo nodded, pointed at Niu Fu and shouted: "Zi Xiu, bring five thousand cavalry and follow me to meet you."

"Sir..." Li Ru hurriedly advised, "Sir, since we plan to ambush the Xianbei people, we need to hide our traces, but if you kill like this, will our traces be fully exposed?"

Dong Zhuo sneered without saying a word.

"Sir, the most urgent task is to annihilate the deserters of the Xianbei people, rather than attacking Yinglingqiang who was plundering everywhere..."

"Hmph, I want to kill them all, no one left." Dong Zhuo said murderously, "The dead will never tell us, right?"

＝＝＝

Looking at the Han cavalry who were fighting all over the mountains, he turned around and ran to the nearby mountains without even thinking about it. After escaping from Qingshi Mountain last time, he was very confident in the escape in the mountains.

He Lian was very scared. He intuitively thought that the leopard's iron cavalry was chasing him. He was panicked and ran wildly, not even his head, regardless of whether his subordinates were following him.

The shield fox ran faster than Helian. Unpredictable, he was ambushed by an enemy with the advantage of the number of people. If you want to survive, you just need to run away desperately.

When the shield fox saw He Lian running into the deep mountains and forests, he hurriedly called him and asked him to run with him. He was familiar with this place. He Lian was just rushing to escape, but he could not hear his screams. The more the shield fox screamed, the faster he ran. The shield fox had no choice but to turn around and follow him. He Lian died, which caused too much damage to him.

＝＝＝

Dong Zhuo took Niu Fu, Li Jue (pronounced Jue), Guo Si, Fan Chou and five thousand iron cavalry galloped wildly and killed wantonly. More than a thousand people were chased by them in a short time.

"Sir, I didn't see the shield fox, it seemed that he had escaped." Li Jue rode his horse to Dong Zhuo and said with a smile, "Sir, should you send a group of brothers to chase him?"

"Forget it, just move your muscles and bones, there is no need to kill them all." Dong Zhuo smiled, "Save your energy to fight against the Xianbei people."

"Let's go, brothers, I've had enough fun, let's go."

"Sir, will you not deal with this dead body?" Niu Fu pointed to the battlefield where flesh and blood were flying everywhere and said carefully, "Master Sima repeatedly told me not to leave any trace."

"Hmph..." Dong Zhuo sneered, "Leave these dead bodies all over the ground, the Xianbei people will run faster. Will the Xianbei people turn around and cross the Yellow River?"

Li Jue laughed out loud, "Haha..., when it comes to war, there are not many people in the world who are our adult opponents."

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

"King, the Han people are not chasing you anymore, take a break, take a break." The shield fox grabbed He Lian's reins and shouted loudly.

"Leopard, that's a leopard..." He Lian kept stopping at all, waving his horse whip and slashing his war horse, and was about to escape again.

"King, that's Dong Zhuo. Fatty Dong who kills without blinking is not a leopard." The shield fox shouted, "The king has read it wrong. Didn't the king say that the leopard escaped into Guanzhong? How could he appear here?"

When He Lian heard that it was Dong Zhuo, he immediately stopped the war horse.

"Is it true? Is it Dong Zhuo?"

"I have fought a lot of battles with him, of course I am familiar with him." Shield Fox said, "As long as I hear the sound of horse hooves, I know that Dong Zhuo's cavalry is coming. It's just strange, how could he appear here? I remember you said that he went to Hanyang County to fight the kingdom and Han Sui's rebels."

He Lian felt very calm, and ignored what the Shield Fox said, jumped off his horse and asked Nanbeiyun for water to drink.

The more the shield fox thought, the more uneasy he felt. When he looked at He Lian's miserable look, an ominous thought suddenly arose in his mind: Was he wiped out his entire army? Then he smiled mockingly and denied this idea. How could the 120,000 people be wiped out? How could the Han people have this strength?

＝＝＝

"King, the Han soldiers suddenly appeared near Liancheng..." Nanbeiyun looked into He Lian's ear and said in a low voice, "Has our retreat been blocked by them long ago?"

He Lian was shocked, swallowed the water in his mouth hard, and looked at Nanbeiyun with horror.

"The shield fox said that it was Dong Zhuo who attacked us." Nanbeiyun continued, "Dong Zhuo has 30,000 troops. Since he has appeared here, should his 30,000 troops be north of the Yellow River?"

He Lian nodded, but his expression calmed down, and a hint of joy appeared in his eyes.

"King..." Nanbeiyun saw He Lian's face abnormality and asked in surprise, "King, are you okay?"

He Lian thought that his retreat was blocked, and Tuoba Feng who was following him would inevitably be doomed. Hum, if you want to kill me, you should die first. Once Tuoba Feng died, he could take the opportunity to split the Tuoba tribe and cancel the Xianbei tribe in the north. In this way, he could not only gain some of the strength of the Tuoba tribe, but also regain some of the royal power. Want to be hereditary? Hum, I have even destroyed your clan, and see how you can inherit it?

"King, we must notify Lord Tuoba of this matter, otherwise he will be ambushed by the Han people and wiped out the entire army." Nanbeiyun whispered, "Our Xianbei Kingdom suffered heavy losses this time, and its vitality was severely damaged, so it could not be damaged any more."

He Lian glanced at Nanbeiyun and thought to himself, what do you idiot know? If I don’t let these people be wiped out and the vitality of the Xianbei tribes is severely damaged, how many days can I sit like this king?

He looked at the north and clouds and said, "We are not familiar with the terrain here. Once we get lost, we will make a mistake. I asked Dunhu to send his people to find Tuoba Feng."

He Lian walked to the Shield Fox and whispered: "Send someone back to Langxiao Valley and ask your tribe members to quickly go into the mountain to hide, so as not to be killed by Dong Zhuo." Shield Fox suddenly woke up, thanked repeatedly, and then called several subordinates to go back to the valley.

"I will double my compensation for your losses after returning to Danhan Mountain." He Lian patted the shield fox intimately and asked, "Do you know how to bypass Lingwu Valley?"

When the Shield Fox heard He Lian want to compensate for his losses, he was overjoyed and nodded repeatedly. He pointed at more than 30 subordinates behind him and sighed: "But I am the only one. It is probably difficult to send the king back to Shanshan safely."

He Lian Xiaoxiao. As long as Tuoba Feng can't return to the grassland, he can safely return to Danhan Mountain. Thinking that Tuoba Feng was about to be ambushed by the Han people, He Lian couldn't help but feel a hint of pride in the corner of his mouth.

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

Xu Rong and Qu Yi led the cavalry army to Lingzhou, and also brought the emperor's imperial edict.

When they heard that Li Hong was promoted to General of the Anti-Accusation, Xu Rong and Qu Yi were also promoted to General of the Central Army, everyone was very happy and came to congratulate him.

"Sir, your Majesty has given you a mercy and finally made you a general." Lei Zi bowed and smiled, "Sir, you should have been a general after making so many military achievements. But it's not too late now. We are not dead yet, and we can still call you "General as we wish."

Li Hong smiled and felt very sad. Lei Zi's words reminded him of his dead comrades such as Li Song, Zhao Wen, Wu Zhao.

"Where are you? Are you a Sima or a Duwei of another department now?"

"Sima from another department." Lei Chong said happily, "Zhao Yun is already a captain. Since he killed Liuyue Jinglei, he has been promoted much faster than me. How old is he? Isn't he twenty yet? When he was twenty years old, how old is the general?"
To be continued...