A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 621 The golden cicada escapes from its shell and cannot be surrounded

Li Ji galloped on his horse, followed by five thousand Bingzhou Qingqi.

The north wind sweeps the military flags hunting,

Four hundred miles northwest of Heicheng, we arrived at Nuozhenshui (Aibugai River). The war horses crossed the ice on the river and reached the north bank. In the wind and snow, a group of Mohe Fan cavalry appeared in front of us, flying the Youzhou military flag.

"Bingzhou Li Ji."

"Wusi Gong of Youzhou Yamen meets the general manager!"

A young soldier in the cavalry came forward. He was wearing a bright brocade robe and a mink fur cloak. He was about sixteen or seventeen years old.

"A descendant of Duke Yiguo's family?"

"Back to Cao Guogong, the son of Fuyuhou, the leader of the Benwu Sugu tribe, is now the adopted son of Yi Guogong, serving in the Youzhou Yameni army."

"You are this?"

"Gong Yi Guo broke down more than a thousand Turkic tents here the day before yesterday, and also captured Zhicheng's troops. When Jinzhi lost his ability, we were ordered to transfer the prisoners, livestock and other materials to Heicheng,"

"Where is Duke Yi?"

"I already went to Tieshan to pursue Jieli early yesterday morning."

Li Ji looked at the long list of Turkic prisoners on the north bank of the Nuozhen River, as well as the herds of cattle and sheep, as well as the carts of supplies, with envy in his eyes.

Come one step later.

Why is this kid Wu Huaiyu so fast? He set out from Youzhou, which was hundreds of miles farther than him to Baidao, but he ended up arriving before him.
And he was always one step ahead of him.

"Mr. Cao Guo, it's cold and snowy. Would you like to take a rest first? We have many cattle and sheep here, as well as a lot of horse meat, and dry manure for fuel. Let's eat some stew and stay one night before leaving."

Li Ji smiled, this guy probably wanted to delay their time so that Wu Huaiyu could take sole responsibility for capturing Jie Li.

"No, I'll rush over to help Duke Yi. You should be careful on the way,"

After speaking, Li Ji waved his hand, and the five thousand Bingzhou cavalry continued towards Tieshan.

Marching all night,

After running another hundred miles despite the severe cold, we finally arrived at Iron Mountain.

"Straight bitch, you're a step late again."

I finally made it to Iron Mountain at dawn. I was tired and exhausted, and half of my body was frozen. But in the end, I arrived too late.

The Youzhou military flag has been flying in Tieshan for a long time, and the Youzhou generals who stayed behind are interrogating the prisoners and packing and confiscating supplies.

"Bingzhou Li Ji!"

"Gao Rong, the Queen of Youzhou Mountain, pays homage to Duke Cao Guo,"

"Where is Lord Yi? Where is Jieli?"

"Gong Yi Guo led us to attack Iron Mountain. Jieli threw away his helmet and armor and fled with his light cavalry."

"Where did you escape?"

"Going northwest,"

"Where is Duke Yi?"

"Gong Yi Guo led his Qingqi to continue the pursuit."

Li Ji sighed,
"Forget it, let's not chase. Let Duke Yi chase after him. We'll wait for good news here."

Li Ji walked around the Tieshan camp, and then asked Gao Rong for meat, fodder, and fuel. "We can borrow it for our camp on the desert road."

"They are all friendly forces, why bother borrowing them." Gao Queer said with a smile, and immediately called an army staff member, "Gao DaDa, come quickly,"

Without warning, Gao Kan ran over and said, "What did the captain call me?"

"This Lord Cao Guo of Bingzhou led his men to bring grain, meat, fodder, etc. to Duke Cao's troops."

Gao Kan agreed, and Li Ji also sent his subordinate Zhang Wenguan to join the army.

There are a lot of supplies in Tieshan Camp.

It is not only an iron mine for the Turks, but also an important iron smelting and forging place. It is also an important winter camp for nearby tribes.

Jieli fled here and sent people to summon nearby tribes to assemble.
As a result, he panicked and fled far away. Many of the unsuspecting Turkic tribes came one after another under orders. As a result, the Youzhou army left here by Wu Huaiyu was ambushed and packed up by one after another, and they were all taken prisoner. The livestock, grain, grass, etc. also benefited the Tang army.

"My cousin Zhang Wende is also under the command of Duke Yi,"

"You are cousins. Zhang Wende joined the army and is now working as a Sima in the Governor's Mansion of Raole."

The two chatted while walking. Zhang Wenguan also asked about the situation of the Youzhou Army this time, why Duke Yi moved so fast, why Su Lie was able to capture Baicheng in advance, how they managed to capture Jie Li all the way, etc. Gao Kan had He responded word by word, but didn't convey too much information.

Gao Kan followed Wu Huaiyu on the expedition. Although he was only fifteen years old, he was not weak at all during the journey. He traveled day and night, braved the wind and snow, and his performance was commendable. Even a scholar who accompanied the army also won several battles with his bow and sword. Two Turkic heads for their military exploits.

Gao Rong, the captain of the school, liked this young man very much and even took the initiative to become his brother.In the ice and snow, a lot of horse meat was frozen in the open air.

They only skinned the horse, took out the internal organs, simply separated into a few pieces and placed them in the snow. Anyway, in a military camp with so many people, there was no fear of attracting wolves.

There is a lot of horse meat, and the Bingzhou army can move it wherever they want.
There is also mutton, not only frozen mutton, but also live mutton.
There are also some other fodder, fuel, and even tea, cheese, etc. The Youzhou Army is very generous. After all, this is deep in the grassland, and it is difficult to take away many things. It is also good to sell friendly troops a favor.

It's a return trip, but you still have to register.

After registering and handing over, Zhang Wenguan sent someone to move it and went to find Li Ji to restore his life.

"What did you find out?" Li Ji asked.

"Then Gao Zuo was very cautious and didn't reveal anything."

Li Ji was not surprised, "Wu Huaiyu is very capable and must be rigorous in running the army. Forget it, let's leave him alone and let the brothers set up tents, light a fire, and quickly stew the meat. It will also make you feel comfortable after taking off your armor."

"Are we really not going to chase anymore?"

"What are you still chasing?" Li Ji shook his head. He knew that they would suffer a big loss in this Northern Expedition.

If he had known this, he might as well have been more honest and just like Li Jing at Bai Dao's place, continuing to surround and capture the collapsed Jieli parts.

There are still about [-] defeated troops there.

And in addition to these defeated troops, there are many Turkic tribes over there. It is so easy to fight at this time. They are leaderless, have no morale, and are in disarray.

Li Jing is still so cool,
I didn't even bother to cross the Yinshan Mountains to chase after him, so I just sat down in Baicheng with peace of mind.

Yuchi Gong, who defeated Dingxiang and defeated Jieli, was his vanguard on the Dingxiang Road in the middle. Although Su Lie was the deputy general of Wu Huaiyu on Heng'an Road in Youzhou, he was also a student of Li Jing.
They accomplished great feats, and that was not all Li Jing's fault. What's more, Li Jing arrived quickly. With more than 1 soldiers and horses in Dingxiang Road, he and Zhang Gongjin swept the battlefield, swept away the remnants, and captured countless people.
He, Li Ji, neither caught up with Po Dingxiang nor caught up with the great victory of Baidao. He chased through the Yinshan Mountains with his light cavalry. In the end, he didn't even catch a hair, and even some frozen horse meat had to be captured by the Youzhou Army.

"It's careless."

"Mr. Cao, don't we still have more than 1 troops behind us when we camp in Bingzhou? We can still get some credit from Baicheng in Dingxiang."

"The more than [-] people who followed were mostly infantry. By the time they arrived at the battlefield, all their bones had been gnawed clean, all the soup had been drunk, and they were moving slowly, step by step. Hey, in this Northern Expedition, we camped on the Tongmo Road in Bingzhou. It was considered a thorough one. Come for nothing,"

The more Li Ji talked, the angrier he became and became very depressed.

Originally he was working hard and wanted to compete with Wu Huaiyu for credit, but he gave up fighting with Li Jing to defeat Dingxiang and planned to capture Jieli alive, so he led [-] light cavalry to throw away the large army and rush all the way. Come on, who knew I got up early and rushed to the late market?

He originally wanted to make a comeback with this, but now it seems that he has to continue to stay in Bingzhou.

"How can Wu Huaiyu be so fast without eating, drinking or resting?"

"At this moment, Jie Li is probably his prisoner and is heading back triumphantly, right?"

Li Ji guessed wrong.

Although Wu Huaiyu pursued many routes, he even guessed that Jieli might not be going to Woye Town, but to Gaoque Fort, and specially sent Shetu, Yuwen Chengdu, and An Lushan to go straight to Gaoque with Turkic light cavalry. It's still a step too late.

And Jie Li also escaped from experience. When he was eating and drinking well and sleeping in the fort, he did not forget to arrange for people to patrol outside the fort.

As a result, they discovered the pursuers in advance, and Jieli ran away immediately. He also asked the tax collector in the fort to run southwest to find Shabalo Khan to move reinforcements. In fact, he deliberately lured the Tang army to pursue them.

They themselves went the opposite direction and ran north, carefully sweeping away the traces and quietly escaping north.

Photographer and others fought their way to Gaoque Fort at night. They left the fort and then followed the footsteps to the southwest. They were lured away by the group of tax collectors.

When they took pictures the next day and captured all the scattered tax collectors, Jie Li and his party were not seen.

Although these tax collectors also said that Jieli was walking behind them, Photographer still realized that Jieli did not go south.

They turned around and returned to Gaoque Castle. After searching carefully, they finally found some clues.

"Damn Jieli, for being so cunning, they went north."

"Xiangbei? Are you going to Mobei?"

"It's very possible." As a Turkic special agent who took the photo, he certainly knows the passage between Monan and Mobei. Generally, there are two passages. The east road starts from Dingxiang, crosses Yinshan from Baidao, then passes through Heicheng and goes north to Qikou. , crossed the vast sea and arrived in Mobei.

The west road starts from Dingxiang, passes through Fengzhou, Hetao, goes north through Huyan Valley and Peiquan, then enters the Gobi, then passes through Lu'er Mountain, Cuo rockery and other places, travels [-] miles to Shanyanzijing, and then northwest through Mi Sushan, Dadanbo, Yemabo, Khanquan, Hengling, Mianquan, Jingbo, and another [-] miles to the old Turkic tent in Dujin Mountain.

"Is it possible that Xie Li is not heading to Mobei, but just heading north first and then west?"

"He should go to Sunisi instead of running to Mobei. After all, it is almost Xue Yantuo's territory now. There is only Yugushe left, and he can't even protect himself."

Photographer thought for a while, "How about we split into two groups and pursue directly along the road to Mobei until we reach Yuquan?
Go all the way west and chase them to the Maitreya River. As long as they escape along these two roads, we should be able to catch up. "

"Should we send passers-by south again, in case he goes to join Yu Sheshe?" Yuwen Chengdu said.

The last few people divided the work,
Photography took a thousand riders to the north, An Lushan took 1000 people to the west, Yuwen Chengdu took 1000 people to the south,
The three of them pursued each other for hundreds of miles, but no one was found at all.

And when they were searching for Jie Li everywhere, what no one expected was that after Jie Li left Gaoqueguan that night, he first headed north, then not to the northwest, but to the northeast. Running on the snowfield,
But he went straight to Qikou,

Jieli did not dare to go west to join Suni and was lost, so he turned around and went to Mobei to join Yugushe.

(End of this chapter)