Sure enough, she was her biological aunt. Although she didn't have any psychological feelings, Xiao Rui was still touched that the other party could say this.
"Don't worry, aunt. My nephew has already made the calculation. He will definitely return to the Central Plains safe and sound. However, your grandson Yang Zhengdao needs you to discipline him well and not let him have any troubles. Otherwise..."
Empress Xiao glared at her nephew and reprimanded: "What? How can you attack a child? Let him stay with me and he will not provoke you."
Xiao Rui smiled coquettishly, and went out to make arrangements for the journey. Those with enough status would be kidnapped as prisoners, and those with insufficient status would be killed. If they were left behind, they would be a disaster and their whereabouts would definitely be leaked.
"General Su, you lead Huaidao, Huaimo, and Baolin, and divide a thousand soldiers and horses to protect Queen Xiao and a group of prisoners. March westward. Place more scouts along the way. Try to avoid fighting and hide your whereabouts."
When Su Lie and others heard this, they immediately objected: "No, we already have insufficient troops, and it will be more dangerous if we divide our troops. Chang Shi, do you want to distract the pursuers alone? Absolutely not, if you go, you will be the last to go."
"I go!"
"I go!"
Qin Huaidao and others, and several lieutenants spoke one after another.
Xiao Rui waved his hand to stop the quarrel among several people, and said calmly: "Don't worry, I'm not going to die. You go west for two days first, and I'll kill south for a while. I've done enough drama to mislead Jie Li's pursuers, and then I will quietly catch up with you to the west and join you."
Su Lie asked in a low voice: "Chang Shi, we have achieved our goal. We should go south back to Chang'an together before the pursuers catch up. Why go west?"
Xiao Rui glanced at Xiang Nan and sighed: "Well, I also know that the closest home is to Xiang Nan. But as we fought all the way, more and more soldiers were chasing us behind us. Counting the time, Jie Li was probably already on his way back. Now. If we go south now, if we can't reach the border of Datang, we will be blocked by Jieli, and we won't be able to escape by then."
"I just found out that there is civil strife in the Western Turks. The tribe of 70,000 people we met on the road is from the Western Turks. To the west is the weak area ruled by Jieli. We hid our whereabouts and sneaked there quietly, taking advantage of the Western Turks. For a period of time, we finally walked back to Tang Dynasty via Lingwu from Yumen Pass. I would never have guessed that I would come to Jieli."
After everyone listened, they all agreed. As expected of Chang Shi, he was right to listen to him all the way.
After a while, the plan was decided, and Su Lie and others reluctantly watched Xiao Rui divide his troops and go south. They took a group of prisoners, guarded Empress Xiao, and quietly headed west.
One day later, 70,000 Yinan soldiers from the tribe rushed to the royal court and were completely shocked when they saw the tragic scene in the royal court.
Yi Nan couldn't help but click his tongue, these Tang cavalry were so ruthless! When Jie Li comes back and sees this, he wonders if he will be mad to death?
"Chief, there is the sound of horse hooves coming from the north."
Everyone looked back and immediately became alert. They saw 50,000 cavalry from the Tiele tribe, led by the Uighur tribe.
Because Yi Nan was a returnee from the Western Turks, he could not be completely trusted. The tragic image in the royal court now, and the fact that Yi Nan happened to be here, almost led to misunderstanding that it was him. Fortunately, it was the result of yesterday's battle, and there were no traces of fighting on the Yinan cavalry, otherwise the shit basin might have been buttoned wrongly. The two sides almost started fighting.
The scouts came to report that the tribe south of the royal court was attacked not long ago, indicating that the Tang cavalry ran south and wanted to return to Chang'an. So the two groups of men and horses formed one place, and 100,000 people chased south.
Xiao Rui led nearly two thousand cavalry with overwhelming force, heading straight towards Chang'an. After each attack on a tribe, Xiao Rui would have a hundred cavalrymen break away from the team and pretend to be defeated. In fact, this was to prevent anyone from discovering the true intention based on the traces.
It wasn't until two days later that Xiao Rui had wiped out ten small tribes in total, and with less than a thousand people left, he quietly led his people to pursue them westward.
Tiele and Yinan met Jieli Khan who was returning to support Dingxiang in the Hetao area.
Jieli was very puzzled. What did Xin mean? Tie Le and Yi Nan have joined forces? Are you raising 100,000 troops here to intercept and kill me? So tens of thousands of people under his command immediately became vigilant. After several trials, the misunderstanding was resolved. Jie Li summoned the leaders of the two tribes.
"What? Are you chasing Xiao Rui so far? So, Xiao Rui has crossed the Yellow River and escaped back to the Tang Dynasty?" Jie Li was very surprised. If that was the case, it would have been in vain if he had lost his wife and lost his troops.
No, it was not in vain, your home base, the Royal Court, was destroyed.
Yi Nan was puzzled: "Great Khan, the blame lies here. We are only one day away from the enemy. Hurry up and follow his tracks slowly and don't dare to let up. If they want to cross the river, they will have trouble escaping. We will definitely catch up with them." , but, but... we haven't seen even a shadow in the past two days, it's as if they have completely disappeared."
The Uighur leader also echoed: "Yes, Khan, according to the direction they are traveling, they must be fleeing towards Chang'an. We can't chase them, they must be hiding."
Jie Li frowned and said nothing. Zhao Deyan, the military advisor next to him, sensed something was wrong, "You two, you are saying that before, you were only one day away from catching up with them, and you followed their tracks. In the past two days, the tracks have disappeared. No? Are you just chasing them along the path they may be traveling on?"
The two nodded, and that was it.
Zhao Deyan slapped his thigh: "It's broken! Xiao Rui must have changed his marching direction two days ago. He deliberately diverted you all the way south. If I guessed correctly, he must have fled westward."
The two loudly retorted: "Impossible! We kept a close watch and sent out countless scouts, but we found no traces of fleeing in other directions. It is impossible that there are no traces of the movement of three thousand cavalry."
Zhao Deyan couldn't argue, so he turned to Jie Li and said, "Great Khan, please order me to conduct an on-site inspection of the traces left by Xiao Rui."
Jie Li said impatiently: "Military advisor, Dingxiang City has been besieged for many days, and we have sent out several letters asking for help. We'd better support Dingxiang first."
Zhao Deyan insisted: "Great Khan, if we don't capture Xiao Rui, our trip will be completely defeated!"
Jieli pondered for a moment, nodded and said: "Okay, I will send a thousand personal guards to escort the military advisor to survey the scene. Tiele, Yi Nan, you and others will join the Khan's army and let the Tang Dynasty take a look at the strength of our Turks , if you don’t give us an explanation today, I will attack Chang’an again!”
After besieging Dingxiang for many days, it was not that Li Jing was unable to capture the Turkic prince, it was just because he failed to respond to Xiao Rui.
Li Jing and Li Ji joined forces. After discussion, they decided to besiege for the time being and force Jie Li to support Dingxiang.
Otherwise, if he rashly captures the eldest prince, Jieli will not support Dingxiang. It can only provoke him to pursue Xiao Rui with all his strength, and then exchange Xiao Rui for the eldest prince, which is not good for Xiao Rui. After reporting to Chang'an, Li Er approved their plan.
But now Li Jing got news from Xue Li that Xiao Rui had disappeared, as if he had evaporated and disappeared deep into the grassland.
In this way, both the Tang Dynasty and the Turks were confused, how to fight next?
Datang was afraid that Xiao Rui would get into trouble on the grassland, so he didn't dare to fight to the death. Jie Li was also worried that Xiao Rui had secretly returned to the Tang Dynasty, and that he would be defeated in vain, so he was looking forward to finding Xiao Rui so that he could plan the next battle.
Of course, Jieli reunited with Tiele and Yi Nan, and with a large number of soldiers, he directly sent 100,000 to Dingxiang to support, and left 100,000 to spread out in the grassland to find the culprit Xiao Rui.
As a result, Li Jing and others were under great pressure.
