On the plateau, the north wind is flying, sand and dust are everywhere, occasionally strong winds are blowing, and the earth and rocks are flying, and the eyes cannot see it.

However, for the Turkic people who are accustomed to the desert climate, they do not suffer this, and the speed of traveling does not slow down.

After several days of trekking, the Turkic brigade had left Yuanzhou and entered the territory of Qingzhou. As it gradually got farther away from Yuanzhou, Mochu's heartstrings, which had been tense, gradually relaxed, and even let the team gradually move forward by the river.

The northwest is drought all year round, with vast land and sparse populations, and only the rivers are mostly crowded. In order not to be traced by the Tang people's pursuers, Mochu and his party did not even dare to get too close to the water source. Instead, they had to rely on cavalry and pack horses to get water back and forth to satisfy the needs of people and animals.

After a few days, hundreds of horses were killed in order to get water alone. But such caution was not ineffective. During the journey for a few days, some Hu people from Yuanzhou were tracking the back, but gradually even those Hu people who were chasing behind were thrown away.

Even if the reinforcements from the Tang State had entered Yuanzhou at this moment, it would take a lot of time to lock in the Turkic troops along the way. After all, in the northwest states, the control of the Tang State was not as tight as that of the inner states.

"As long as you pass Malingchuan, you will be smooth and the army will enter Yanzhou. Yanzhou has many salt ponds, and the Hu people in the six prefectures have been traveling around the territory all year round. The Tang people mainly gather in Wuyuan City. At that time, all the troops will be dispatched to raid Yanzhou and lead the Wuyuan army away, and the team can pass through the border calmly. After passing Yanzhou, you will enter the territory of the six prefectures. At that time, the Khan strong dragons enter the abyss, and even if the Tang army wants to track them again, there is no way to start!"

The person who spoke was a Turkic young man in his twenties, with golden thread wrapped around his hair, his face had a beard, and he looked like a standard Turkic nobleman.

Mochuo rushed to Yuanzhou for a long road, and with his cautious personality, he naturally made careful preparations. Although this young man who has been following his tent has a low sense of existence, his identity is quite good.

The young man also came from the surname of Asina, named Ye Gong, and belonged to the Turkish tribe of the Mihun Governor's Office where Xiazhou was located. His father was the governor of the Mihun Governor's Office of the Tang Dynasty, but because Gu Duluo invaded Hequ in the past year, he was beheaded by Wang Benli, the then commander of Shuofang. Therefore, Asina Ye Gong surrendered to Mochuo, who was in charge of Hesha City, Nanya at that time.

Because he lived in Heshuo for a long time, Asano Gong knew the situation of the six states of Hequ. Moreover, his troops were not weak in Hequ’s six states. Mochu was very happy to have such a person surrendered.

But even though Mochuo had a desire for the remnants of the six prefectures of Hequ, he did not dare to interfere with his power. Now he can inherit his brother Khan's position, and has always been with him since he regards Ye Gong as an important arm to penetrate Hequ.

While biting the dry and hard cake, Mo Chuo listened carefully to Ye Gong's story and said with emotion: "The remaining people of the six states are also Khan's people, but because of the obstruction of the Tang State, they cannot return to their hometown. This time, taking advantage of the chaos in the Tang Dynasty, I personally entered the country to inspect and recruit them. Half of the wealth I obtained in Yuanzhou were prepared for them. But they have been alienated from Khan's reputation for many years. At that time, I will rely on Ye Gong to lobby them and preach the current growth of the Khanate!"

After hearing this, Ye Gong nodded repeatedly. As a child of the Ashin family, who did not repeat the beautiful dream of his ancestors in his heart? What's more, he had a grudge against the Tang people to kill his father. Now that he is in the command of Xin Khan, he naturally has to do his best to assist him.

According to Ye Gong, the army will be able to officially enter the six states of Hequ in half a month at the latest. The so-called six states of Hequ are Feng, Sheng, Ling, Xia, Shuo and Dai in the Huijiao area of ​​the Yellow River.

The many Hu tribes conquered by the Tang Dynasty were mainly placed within these prefectures, and the descendants of Eastern Turkic residents were naturally also listed here, and the proportion was quite large.

Because of the large number of Hu tribes, the situation between the six states was quite complicated. The Tang Dynasty garrisoned here mainly for balance. As for the original Hu tribe chiefs, Guiyizhou Prefecture was set up under the six states. The chiefs each took the title of governor and governor and continued to lead the old subordinates to live on this land.

Mochu was still discussing with Ye Gong about specific methods to recruit survivors after entering the six states later. Luo Teqin, who had been discharged from military service, came forward with a cold expression: "Report to Khan, the scouts sent by Qianlu and East Road have been gone twice over time..."

After hearing this, Mochu's face changed and he said in a deep voice: "Continue to send two additional groups, two hundred people as a team. You must not fight after discovering the enemy. Repay immediately! Especially for the way forward, you go in person!"

Although he was relieved of Luo Teqin's military position, Mochu still attaches great importance to his bravery, otherwise Luo Teqin would not become the commander of the elite wolf cavalry. Luo Teqin personally led the scouts and probes, and even if he encountered a powerful enemy, he could at least bring the news back.

When walking in the strange wilderness, it is especially good to be deaf. Those who can be selected as scouts are all first-class soldiers in the army. Ye Gong also said that there is no powerful tribal distribution near this realm, and it is naturally not a vulgar species that can solve the Turkic scouts. Therefore, Mochu became nervous again.

While sending a scout to continue investigating, he quickly ordered another group of people to investigate and find suitable camps. Although it was still a while before dark, and most of the camp sites in the next two or three days had been selected in advance, Mochu still did not dare to neglect this unexpected situation.

Not to mention Mo Chuo and his party were nervously looking for a place to camp. Luo Teqin, who led his scouts out to investigate, galloped on the plateau. After rushing more than ten miles away, there were still no traces of people.

The plateau is crisscrossed with ditches and crisscrossing paths, which are easy to lurk but not easy to check in detail. The terrain is much more complicated than in desert. Luo Teqin ordered each scout to whistle and whirlpool arrows, and advance in the fan shape with him as the center. He led more than a hundred light cavalry to slowly move forward to expand the scale of the investigation.

Every once in a while, Luo Teqin would send someone to shoot a whistle into the sky, and then a response came from all over the four fields. When the ten whistle were used up, the fan-shaped area they spread was already huge. If it was far away, it would be difficult to contact each other. So Luo Teqin would make someone sound the horn and summon the scouts back.

However, when the scouts returned, Luo Teqin was shocked. He dispatched a hundred scouts, each of which was a small team, advancing forward and left and right, so as to avoid being surrounded and killed by the enemy to the greatest extent.

Moreover, during the investigation just now, there were no more and no less whistles, but when the scouts retreated, more than thirty people were missing, and they were in different directions!

This shows that the enemy has lurked in this wilderness, with a large number and amazing combat power, at least with extremely long-range lethality.

"It's the Tang army, it must be the Tang army! The Tang people are here... Special service, let's go back to Khan quickly!"

After losing so many companions, the Turkic scouts also changed their faces for a moment. When they thought that if they were accidentally assigned to those roads, they might be the ones who died, and their hearts were filled with fear.

Since the restoration of the Turks, due to their strong mobility, flexible combat, and the high-level turmoil within the Tang Dynasty, which affected border affairs and defense, the rise process was quite smooth.

However, the disaster of the destruction of the country cannot be easily forgotten. The entire Turkic tribe was filled with a fear of the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, the nobles led by Khan Gu Dulu of the above generation would not have given up plundering the Tang Dynasty and instead plundered the former land of the Western Turkic region.

Seeing that the companions who had been together and chatting and laughing had been separated for a short time, they were not seen in person or corpses. So in the eyes of these Turkic scouts, the wilderness in front of them seemed like a silent beast that was chosen to devour, filled with a terrifying atmosphere.

"Shut up! I don't know the enemy's armor and number of soldiers, nor who it is, how can I tell Khan like this!"

Luo Teqin also frowned, and his heart was trembling, but after thinking about it, he still gritted his teeth and shouted: "Continue to follow me and grab a few ears, eyes, eyes, and tongues!"

He was brave and brave, and hundreds of elite scouts followed him. As long as he remained undispersed, he was confident that even if he encountered any opponent, he could look at it and retreat.

So Luo Teqin led the horses to rush towards the direction where several teams of scouts disappeared. There was no sound of a large number of people moving in the wilderness. Moreover, he also observed that the birds in the sky did not linger in the sky and dared not land. It was not a sign of the lurking team, so he was so brave.

After they rushed along the road for a distance, Luo Teqin keenly noticed a trace of bloody smell in the air, so he made a gesture backward, and there were Turkic knights behind him dismounted and climbed up, occupying the commanding heights to attract bows to the enemy.

After that, Luo Teqin and his party continued to move forward and turned over a large piece of soil. The scene they saw immediately made them gasp.

The five scouts along the way were stripped of their clothes and gathered in a pit. They each had different blood holes on them. They should have been dug by the enemy after they died of an arrow. The blood hole in the corpse scar has not yet condensed and blood is still leaking out. At the same time, their scalp behind the skull was stripped, revealing a pale periosteum, making the entire corpse look ferocious and weird.

"Who is it? Who is it?"

Seeing that the tribal warriors were so tortured and thrown away from the body, Luo Teqin's eyes were suddenly broken, and he drew his sword in his hand and shouted loudly: "Since we kill the warriors of our troops, why don't we show up to fight? The Tang people are so timid, ridiculous, and shameful!"

However, no matter how angry Luo Teqin roared, there was no sound in the four fields. When the scouts scattered and searched around, they found some traces of movement left by the enemy, which clearly had been evacuated.

"Secret Service, there are handwriting here!"

While looking through the body of a companion, a scout pulled out a wooden board with blood smeared with handwriting from below and quickly turned around and presented it. As for what was written on the board, they didn't know, because no one, including Luo Teqin, knew the handwriting of Tangren.

"Silently sip the bone burying place..."

Mochu, who was moving to the temporarily selected camp, took the wooden signs that the scouts searched for, looked at them and threw them on the ground, sneering: "The Tang people are weak and poor in their skills. They really lost all the faces of their ancestors! In previous years, the army directly attacked Mobei, and they were both heroic and brave, but now they only dare to lurk in the dark, fearing that our army is majestic and dare not come forward to fight!"

Even though he said that, Mochu's heart suddenly fell. It should be noted that those who were hunted were not ordinary tribes. Those who could be selected as scouts were all elites in their tribes and had the best armed forces, but they still had unstoppable killings by the Tang people. It can be seen that the Tang army lurking in the dark was absolutely extraordinary, far from comparable to those ordinary guards in Yuanzhou.

What's even more terrifying is that the Tang people were able to accurately hunt down the scouts he sent, but they never exposed their own strength. This shows that even if the Tang army on this road knew their whereabouts well, they would have followed for a while!

"how so?"

Although he spoke of the Tang army, Mochuo had already felt a turbulent heart, because the appearance of the Tang army along the way was really contrary to his ideas.

It should be noted that in order to plan this raid on Yuanzhou, Mochuo has been planning since last year. He first invaded the border prefectures of the Tang Kingdom on a small scale in the southern part of the desert, luring the army of the Tang Kingdom Dai North Road to gather in the southern part of the desert near the Shanyu Protectorate, and he himself led the elite tribes back to Yu Dujun Mountain to compete for the Khan position.

After becoming a Khan, Mochu ordered Ashide Yuanzhen to lead his troops to gather near Fengzhou, attracting troops from Hequ such as Yinzhou, Xiazhou and Lingzhou around Hetao, which created a state of emptiness in Guannei Prefectures and counties that were almost defenseless.

Moreover, there was a turmoil in Chang'an, Tang State, and the capital of Luoyang was not to mention. The various chaos in Tang State were simply encouraging Mochu to use troops within him. He once thought that this was an opportunity given by God, so he came to the south boldly. No matter from any aspect, there shouldn't be such an elite Tang army that ambushed him in Qingzhou at this time, which was as simple as killing a chicken!

Although Mochu was cunning and resourceful and had good intelligence, he couldn't figure out why it was like this, because he had too little information about the enemy, and he had almost no survivors when he encountered their scouts. Mochu became more and more nervous because he thought too much.

The temporary camping site was chosen to transfer a river near Malingchuan. It was surrounded by rivers on three sides and had many silt beaches, which greatly alleviated the pressure of garrisoning on the spot. However, the only drawback is that the camp here is located at the bottom of Maling slope and has no high momentum. Once it is despaired by the enemy, it is at the disadvantage of being attacked from the back.

But in a hurry, it was already good to be able to choose such a campsite. Although the army could reach the campsite they had originally planned to be today after moving forward for more than ten miles, the sudden enemy trace still made Mochu not dare to take risks.

Cars gathered in the valley to form a wall, while Mochu led two thousand elite troops to climb the slope not far away, and divided into two camps, echoing each other, which could be considered as controlling a certain commanding height. Although the slope was bare and brave, it was not suitable for camping, but now it was only suitable.

While the troops set up camp, Mochu sent scouts to swear to the wilderness within a dozen miles of surrounding the camp. Such insults are by no means simple emotional venting, and can effectively impact the morale of the enemy. It is naturally the best if the enemy can be directly fought fiercely, after all, the invisible enemy is the most terrifying.

At this time, it is located in a valley slightly far from the Poling here, where Li Ge led more than a thousand forwards gathered.

Their army traveled lightly and simply, and arrived at this territory two days earlier than the Mochu army. Now the chief manager Qibi Ming Zheng led the main force to take charge of Maling Fort further north, while Li Ge and his party were responsible for disturbing the enemy before the decisive battle.

The elite scouts of the Turks were naturally not easy to kill, but the Tang army vanguard was both home and waiting for it. Especially the complex terrain of the staggered valleys and ridges on the plateau was simply the best place for a small group of elite troops to ambush the enemy.

Li Ge and his many brave soldiers were the essence of the soldiers in the inner palace. They also trained in Qinling, Longyou and other places for a long time. Relying on the long-range advantages of bows and crossbows, any Turkic scouts they encountered could rarely escape their ambush.

"Report to General, the Turkic thieves are cursing again, and they are cursing very badly. Should we go out and kill them for a while and kill them?"

Several forward soldiers who were lying on the ridge to watch the love of the thief said in resentment.

After hearing this, Li Ge sneered and said, "The thief is panicked, just use this to boost courage. Our department's responsibility is to bother the thief. As long as they are unable to move forward, even if the task is completed, the army is still thirty miles away, so they can scold them. The scolding is dry and they will regret it later."

After hearing this, the vanguards and soldiers all laughed. There was naturally a reason why they chose to show their heads to attack the Turks. One of the most important factors in the army camp was the water source. Even if a person could withstand thirst for a while, the horse could not stand it.

The water of the Malingchuan River is strange, and its source is divided into two places. The water quality on the east side is salty and bitter, while the water quality on the west side is clear and sweet. Li Ge and others ambushed this area in order to force the Turks to temporarily choose to camp in the river valley on the east side.

The Turks came from the southwest and naturally walked through the Gansu River on the west side. They must subconsciously believe that the two hydrants combined, and the same must be true on the east side. But when they camped and used water, they could feel the full malice of the Tang Dynasty's mountains and rivers towards them.

The facts were as Li Ge expected. While the Turkic cabin was entering the river bay to prepare the land and camp, some of them were also responsible for leading the horses to drink water near the river. However, although the horses were already sweating profusely, when the words were not in the river, they all refused to bow their heads.

"Silly beast, why not drink it!"

The grooms didn't understand why, and after seeing this, they just slapped their horses and asked them to drink water as soon as possible.

The entire team of pack horses and war horses had a total of 10,000 or 20,000 yuan. Previously, because they were far away from water sources, they had insufficient drinking water, and they had to give priority to satisfying war horses. Many pack horses had dehydration and weakness to varying degrees. Today, they were surrounded by rivers, so they naturally needed to replenish water.

But soon the grooms also discovered something wrong. It would be fine if one or two horses were like this, but there was a strange thing about hundreds of horses that were touched by water and kept resisting drinking water.

Someone tried to scooped up a handful of water and put it to his mouth and licked it with his tongue. He was immediately beaten by the bitter braised manure, and then shouted in a sad and shocked tone: "Tangren poisoned the water!"

As soon as this said, everyone around was shocked. Some were frightened and retreated continuously. Some were looking at the river that was smooth but wide on the river surface, and subconsciously didn't believe it. How many poisons did the Tang people need to put in such a wide river to maintain the properties of poisoning people?

But whether they believed it or not, when they tried it, they all changed their expressions and became frightened and became anxious. Soon a saying came out that the Tang people had issued a forbidden curse on the entire river and wanted to poison them here!

On the slope, when Mochu licked some river water, his face became extremely ugly, and he quickly asked, "Dig a well beside the river, how is the water quality?"

“It’s all salty and bitter.”

The servant replied with a bitter face, and said with great trepidation: "Everyone said, yes, it was because our servants had offended the Tang Kingdom, so this was the case..."

"Nonsense! Isn't it because of the unkind and righteousness of the Tang Kingdom that women took over the national industry!"

Although Mochuo was suspicious, he subconsciously paused his feet and scolded him after hearing this, and shouted: "Continue to explore the water source around you. The river flows, how can there be no water available!"

"In fact, some of the rivers in Qingzhou are coming from near the salt pond, so the rivers are inevitably salty and bitter... But, I really don't know that Ma Lingchuan is like this..."

Seeing that Khan's face was gloomy, Nokyo quickly explained.

After hearing this, Mochu waved his hand and said, "It's not your fault. Tangren himself could not fully understand their mountains and rivers."

Of course, it does not include the Tang army ambushed in the dark. Mochuo quickly realized this problem and said hurriedly: "Although we form a water intake team again, turn back along the way, and pass by the river last night. We must transport the water back before sunset!"

The enemy was unknown in the field, so the water intake team sent more than twice this time, with nearly 3,000 people and more than 200 large trucks set off at the same time. After the water intake team set off, the Turkic soldiers who stayed here were not enough to separate the troops, especially the camp under the slopes and ridges were even more panicked due to the bitter water problem, so Mochu could only temporarily retreat to the river bay to guard and wait for the water transport team to return.

However, shortly after Mochu retreated to the river beside, a team of elite Tang army cavalry rushed up the slope and directly swept away the Turkic soldiers who were staying on the slope to guard the Khan's tent, and swooped down all the way, traveling across the river beside.

"The fugitive of Nu Mochuo, the Protectorate of the Shanyu, is the place where you die!"

Li Ge and others held in the valley near the vicinity for a long time before finally waiting for Mochu to divide his troops to get water. The defense of the camp was weak, so they naturally wanted to rush out to show off their power and revenge for the revenge of being polluted by the noise of the Turkic army just now.

"The wolf cavalry comes out of the camp and attack and kill these Tang people!"

Mochuo was very upset when he heard this. Seeing that there were only a few hundred enemies invading, he ordered the wolf cavalry to attack. So soon, hundreds of elite wolf cavalrymen rushed out of the camp and rushed straight to the Tang army who were clamoring around the camp.

However, before they could contact each other, Li Ge and other Tang soldiers had already stepped on crossbow machines and shot towards each other, directly shooting dozens of wolf cavalry rushing in front, and then turned around and flew back.

At the same time, Mochu keenly noticed that the birds were flying in the other direction, and the smoke and dust were flying, as if an ambush was approaching quickly. This was also caused by his loss of vision after retreating to the slope. If he was still on the slope, he would see that there were only a few hundred Tang soldiers running back and forth with horses, dragging the trunks and branches of the tree, and constantly putting the birds in the bird cage into the sky.

"Don't chase the enemy from afar, return to defense, return to defense!"

Mochuo suspected that an ambush was coming, and he was afraid that the camp would be vacant in defense, so he hurriedly asked his troops to sound the trumpet and recall the attacking wolf cavalry.

The wolf cavalry had no choice but to retreat, and Li Ge and others also returned, following the wolf cavalry and continued to shoot with bows or crossbows. In the round trip, seventy or eighty wolf cavalry soldiers died on their way.
Chapter completed!