Datang: Acting as a celestial mystery at the beginning

Early the next morning, Li Yi'an left Yuchi Baolin and Li Dejian to garrison in Shuofang. He took a thousand cavalry and two thousand infantry and set off northward. He walked all the way along the Yellow River in the Hetao Plain. After more than a day, he finally entered the Turkic territory. .

"Brother Yuwen, how long will it take to get from here to the Turkic tooth tent?"

Cheng Chumo looked at the endless desert, feeling like he would never end.

"If I go alone, it will take seven or eight days. If our army is together, it should take more than half a month."

Yu Wenzhan said after identifying the location on the map.

"Is it that far away?"

Cheng Chu was shocked.

Going deep into the desert from the Hetao area and finally reaching the Turkic Yazhang is not too far away. It will be farther if you go to Sayan Mountain and other places. Yu Wenzhan is used to it.

Now it's autumn, take down the tooth curtain, it's the deep winter season.

Li Yi'an suddenly thought of one thing. In the third year of Zhenguan, the mountains in the north will be covered with heavy snow, especially in Turkic places. I don't know how many sheep, horses, and even people will die from the cold.

In history, the Tang Dynasty was able to destroy the Eastern Turks, largely because of this snow.

Going deep into the desert now seems a little bad, but Li Yi'an didn't turn back right away.

Yu Wenyan said: "If we were all cavalry, half a month would definitely be fine, but war horses are hard to find."

Now is an important time for the war. The Turkic herdsmen on the border have moved their tribes to the north. It is impossible to snatch war horses. Even if there are still a few tribes here and there, their horses will be requisitioned by the army.

There are [-] infantry around Li Yi'an, and it is very difficult to snatch the [-] cavalry back.

Su Lie said: "Sir, why don't you take the cavalry ahead and let me follow?"

Li Yi'an shook his head and said, "No need, let's go together."

After entering the Turkic territory, they spent a few more days, and they could not even see a tribe staying nearby. They soon came to a place called Dalanzadagad, which is just beside the Hunyi River. south end.

In front of them is a Turkic Tucheng, about ten miles away from their team, and from a distance, only the outline of the Tucheng can be seen.

"Sir, do we want to attack the city?"

Yu Wenzhan asked: "I have a friend in the city. If I want to attack the city, I can ask that friend for help. I can take the city in half an hour."

Li Yi'an said: "There is no need to attack the city."

Su Lie agreed: "We are the Tang army. If we attack the city now, it is equivalent to telling the Turks that we are coming. I propose to go to the northwest to bypass the city and use the nearby hills to cover it, so that the Turks will not be able to find us."

They made a detour and came to the back of a hill on the northwest side, just in the evening, and camped there to rest.

Not long after nightfall, the scouts in front suddenly ran back and said, "General, it's not good! There is a group of people walking towards us from the direction of the Tucheng, and there are about 700 people in the formation."

"Prepare!"

Li Yi'an shouted loudly, and everyone picked up the guy in an instant to be on guard.

Looking out from the top of the hill, I saw a group of people and horses coming towards me. The distance was getting closer and closer, and I had no intention of stopping, and soon came to the edge of the hill.

"Sir, they are a caravan."

Yu Wenyan's sharp eyes had already seen what it was.

After confirming that it was a caravan and not discovered by the Turkic soldiers in the city, they were a little relieved, after all, it was not uncommon for the Tang Dynasty to conduct business with the Turks.

It's just that the caravan continued to walk in their direction, and those who didn't rest in the city in the middle of the night traveled all night, which was very abnormal.

"Stop them!"

As soon as Li Yi'an's order was issued, all the soldiers rushed out immediately.

The people in the caravan were stunned when they saw this scene, and stopped quickly, looking at the surrounding soldiers in fear.

"Sir, it's them!"

Cheng Chumo suddenly exclaimed: "Zhu Wenguang!"

Zhu Wenguang!

Li Yi'an remembered that he was the head of the Zhu family in Hangzhou. How could he be here?

After a while, Cheng Chumo led more than a dozen soldiers, and brought the three of them to Li Yi'an.

"Li...General Li, it's you!"

These three were Zhu Wenguang and his son. They were surprised when they saw Li Yi'an, and then they looked at the many soldiers around them, and they all stuttered.

"It's really you."

Li Yi'an looked left and right, but saw that there were dozens of carts behind Zhu Wenguang, with more than 700 people around him. This caravan was so powerful that ordinary horse thieves would not dare to rob it at will.

Cheng Chumo said: "You are not in Hangzhou, what are you going to do when you come to Turkic?"

Zhu Rong snorted coldly and said, "This is not forced out by you!"

Zhu Wenguang quickly took his hand, and said in a panic: "Don't talk nonsense, Dalang, we just went to Turkic to do business, took out all the remaining capital of our Zhu family, went to Turkic to buy sheepskins and sold them in Datang, I know Sheepskins are selling very well recently, and it is very cheap to buy from Turkic, I hope it can revive our Zhu family.”

He looked very humble, bending over respectfully, Zhu Ming was even more so.

Only Zhu Rong looked displeased with Li Yi'an, with resentful eyes, wishing he could cut Li Yi'an into pieces.

"Sir, it's really all sheepskin."

Su Lie took someone to check, the carts behind were full of sheepskin products.

Li Yi'an said: "Why do you have to drive all night with so many sheepskins? This is not the direction to Datang. What are you going to do here?"

Zhu Wenguang had long since lost the arrogance of the head of the Zhu family, and said with an apologetic smile: "We don't want to, it's because Dalang has a bad temper, and he had a dispute with some Turkic soldiers in the city. There are more than 2000 people in the city, and our Tang Dynasty now The relationship with the Turks is not very good. I was afraid of causing some trouble, so I had to take a detour and leave overnight. I didn’t expect you, the generals, to be here. I... I know that the Tang Dynasty is going to attack the Turks. You are going to Yazhang in this direction, right? "

Regarding the war between the two countries, it is no secret. Seeing Li Yi'an appearing here, it is easy to think of it.

"Sir, we were discovered by them. This is not good for our march. How about killing them all?"

Cheng Chumo suggested.

After hearing this, all the soldiers raised their knives, as if they were about to strike at any time.

"Forgive me, General Li, please forgive me!"

Zhu Ming first bowed and begged for mercy.

"General Li, I am also a citizen of Datang. I will never do anything to hurt Datang. Please let us go."

Zhu Wenguang pleaded.

"Sir, what are they going to do with it?"

Su Lie felt a bit embarrassed now, it was not right to kill these people, it was not right to not kill them.

"Take them to the barracks and take care of them first. I'll make a decision tomorrow."

Li Yi looked at Zhu Wenguang quietly, as if he saw something in that look.

Zhu Wenguang felt a little guilty when he was seen, and quickly lowered his head.