Hou Junji brought an army of 50,000 people from Luoyang to pick up 40,000 war horses. Looking at the black crowd of horses, even though Hou Junji had seen a big scene, he couldn't help but get excited at this time. Good horses, all good horses...
After gathering Fang Yiai, Chai Zhewei and others, Hou Junji realized that it turned out that the Turks' 50,000 pursuing troops could catch up with them in two days, but the cavalry had not yet arrived in Luoyang, so they were in danger.
"You continue to march towards Luoyang. I will go to Hebei to meet the Turkic cavalry." Hou Junji said proudly.
Li Shengnan, who was escorting Wei Yanran, was the eldest among them and seemed to be the backbone of the juniors. He asked worriedly: "General Hou, didn't you bring 50,000 soldiers and horses to meet us? Without soldiers and horses to escort, these four I’m afraid it’s not safe for thousands of war horses.”
Hou Junji laughed loudly, "Don't worry, it's safe. As long as you are within our territory of the Tang Dynasty, you will be absolutely safe. The threat of 40,000 war horses comes from the 50,000 pursuers behind me. I will deal with the pursuers right away. Let’s pull something out of the cauldron. The harder I kill, the safer you will be. Don’t worry and go to Chang’an..."
After saying that, he laughed and led the troops into Hebei.
Fang Er muttered: "He has 50,000 infantry. If he can't defeat the 50,000 cavalry behind him, wouldn't we be doomed?"
Li Shengnan hurriedly shouted to stop this guy, "Don't talk nonsense if you don't understand. General Hou Junji is a famous general in the world, and one of the few people in the Tang Dynasty who is proficient in the art of war. The Turkic cavalry shows off its majesty on the grassland. This is not an endless grassland with complex terrain. , and the enemy is not acclimated to the local environment. It is no problem for General Hou to face a hundred thousand with fifty thousand.
Hiss...so powerful? A group of people continued on their way with doubts.
Everyone only knows that Hou Junji is a famous general, but they really have no idea how powerful he is. Only Li Shengnan knew this because Hou Junji consulted his grandfather Li Jing on the art of war. His grandfather once commented that Hou Junji was extremely talented and decisive in killing, and would become a great weapon in the future.
Two days later, Hou Junji looked at the messy official road, his face full of disappointment and depression.
Didn't he say that Jie Li made a big show of vowing to recover these war horses? Why did you end up turning around here? What happened? My military exploits! If you run away, how can I kill the enemy and make meritorious deeds?
"If we explore further, even if we trace it to Anle City on the border, we will definitely find traces of the Turkic cavalry. If they bypass it and catch up with the cavalry, we will be in trouble."
Hou Junji knew it was impossible, but his words were deliberately irritating his scouts. He led a large group of troops and rushed to the gate of Youzhou City. When he saw Chai Shao who had returned victoriously, he realized that Jie Li had actually retreated?
"I'm so frustrated. The alliance under Chang'an City and on the banks of the Weishui River was a great shame! I was still thinking that today I could finally recover some interest from Jie Li, but I let him run away. Is it because I was afraid that you and I would attack from the north and the south and scare him away? "Hou Junji sat arrogantly on the Taishi chair in the conference hall. This kind of chair was invented by Xiao Rui. Now the Xiao family's furniture store is popular in Chang'an City. It is available here in Chaishao, Youzhou. It is not unusual at all.
Chai Shao was not so relaxed and contented, and looked to the northwest with a worried look on his face, "No, they don't know that you led troops to respond. You withdrew your troops two days ago, very decisively. It should be Xiao Rui's strategy of removing salary from the bottom of the cauldron and taking effect."
Poof... Hou Junji spurted out the tea he just drank. What? Pulling fire under the cauldron? Is Xiao Rui taking the heat out of the cauldron? Not mine?
"What's going on?" Hou Junji looked puzzled.
Chai Shao sighed: "Alas... Xiao Rui led a group of boys and three thousand elite cavalry and marched into the grassland alone. The plan was to attack the Turkic royal court and force Jie Li to return to his home base to relieve the siege of Youzhou."
Hiss...good! A good move to win in danger. Sure enough, this is a plan to draw fire from the bottom of the cauldron, Xiao Rui is brave. Hou Junji's eyes shone brightly. Even though he had seen the world, he couldn't help but praise loudly at this time.
He was not familiar with Xiao Rui and had no friendship, but this time it was for state affairs. When facing the enemy, Xiao Rui did not hesitate to take risks alone to help Youzhou rescue the siege. Hou Junji thought to himself that if it were him, he might not have this young man. Dare to think and dare to do.
The better Xiao Rui is, the more worried and sad Chai Shao becomes.
"Sigh... I hope they are lucky and can return safely. If something goes wrong, I don't know how to tell Song Guogong."
Hou Junji nodded, patted Chai Shao's shoulder and said comfortingly: "Don't worry, although I'm not familiar with Xiao Rui, I heard from General Yuchi that Xiao Rui's martial arts is the best in Chang'an, and he can't be hurt easily. Chang'an Xingbing 50,000, and Li Ji from Shanxi also sent 50,000 troops. A total of 100,000 troops have surrounded Dingxiang City. You can capture Jie Li's son with just a wave of your hand, and Xiao Rui will be fine by then."
Chai Shao counted the days on his fingers, "No, according to our calculations, when Jieli sent out troops, you didn't know we had war horses, how could you react so quickly? If I had known you were prepared, I wouldn't have let you Xiao Rui and a group of children went into danger."
Hou Junji rolled his eyes and said angrily: "Isn't it your fault? We won a great victory and captured 10,000 Turkic cavalry. Why didn't you send military reports? If it weren't for the family letters of several children and the insight of Prime Minister Du Decision-making almost made things go wrong.”
Later, Hou Junji repeated Chang'an's reasoning, and Chai Shao held his chest and breathed a long sigh of relief, "God bless me, this time it was my dereliction of duty. After waiting for a while, I will go back to apologize to Your Majesty in person. By the way, I have to visit Prime Minister Du to thank him. I heard that Prime Minister Du likes calligraphy?"
Hou Junji thought for a while, shook his head and said: "If you really want to thank me, I have a suggestion. You may not know it because you have been in Youzhou for a long time. Du Xiang's second son seems to have had a problem with Xiao Rui and was repaired by Xiao Rui once. Xiao Rui is the nemesis of the Dandy in Chang'an, even the prince is afraid of him."
After clicking the button, Chai Shao understood instantly.
"Okay, now that you are safe here, I will repair it, walk around the border and lead the troops back. Forty thousand war horses, haha, well done!"
Hou Junji was very good at doing things. He deliberately brought 50,000 soldiers and horses across the border to show off, letting everyone in the grassland take a look at the reinforcements from the Tang Dynasty, and then turned around and went back. In this way, in a short period of time, no one will dare to come to Youzhou again without a long-term view.
In the direction of Chang'an, the urgent report from Youzhou was sent back to Chang'an. Li Er almost lost his temper when he saw the line "Xiao Rui and a group of young generals want to imitate the champion and chase north" in the letter!
"Bastard, bastard... Isn't this nonsense? Isn't this a suicide? Who is the champion? Anyone can imitate him?" Li Er roared hysterically.
Xiao Yu and others looked puzzled until Li Er asked someone to circulate the military report. Xiao Yu passed out and said: It's over, my son! Isn't this a suicide?
The other ministers were full of admiration.
Xiao Rui, everyone is an official in the same court. Although this kid doesn't understand the rules, he is very unpleasant and even offended most of the people in the court. But at this moment, in order for Datang to gain 40,000 cavalry, he had the courage to sacrifice himself. Even though he was dissatisfied with Xiao Rui before, he had to admire him now! Bravo!
The chamberlain Lao Gao took out an ordinary letter from his arms and handed it to the emperor quietly, "Your Majesty, this is sent privately by the messenger, saying it is a private message from General Chai to you."
Private letter? Is there a secret?
Li Er quickly opened it, and all the think tanks in the small study were paying attention.
Private messages are private matters. In fact, it was Chai Shao who interceded for Xiao Rui. Xiao Rui and Wei Zheng's daughter, Wei Yanran, had a private life-long engagement, and Wei Yanran was pregnant. After all, Xiao Rui was the one who was engaged to the princess. This was not in line with etiquette, and he wanted to make meritorious deeds and come back to redeem his merits.
Now Xiao Rui's life and death are uncertain, so Chai Shao wrote a letter to explain the cause and effect, and at the same time interceded for Xiao Rui, asking the emperor to be lenient and at least leave a bloodline for Xiao Rui.
If it were normal times, Li Er would definitely have the intention to kill Xiao Rui. But now, he doesn't have any resentment at all, but only cherishes his talent.
With a sigh, he handed the letter to Wei Zheng.
"Wake up Song Guogong and ask him to help Xiao Rui prepare the betrothal gift for Xuancheng. I will issue an order to grant the marriage. In addition, Li Junxian will be sent to lead a thousand Xuanjia troops and President Wang of Tai Hospital to personally escort Xiao Rui's family. The family members returned to Chang'an and were sent directly to the farm outside the city for recuperation and protection."
Wei Zheng looked at the letter in his hand with a very complicated expression. He didn't know whether he was happy or worried at this time. It seems to be a happy event that his daughter gets what she wants, but Xiao Rui, who is both a student and son-in-law, may never come back. His daughter is about to be widowed, can it be a happy event?
Xiao Yu was woken up and read the letter. He didn't faint again, but he felt so sad that he couldn't help but burst into tears. A group of colleagues helped to persuade him and sent him out of the palace gate.
Li Er looked north and sighed: "Inform the pharmacist in Dingxiang and make sure to capture Jieli's son alive. Alas... I hope it's not too late."
At this time, he didn't know that Xiao Rui had already stirred up a hornet's nest in the grassland. Jie Li's eldest son was not worth Xiao Rui's life.
