On a starry grassland night, Duan Wenzhen had not yet gone to bed. He asked people to move the Hu stool outside the cool tent, and he and Zhao Cai sat at the door to escape the heat and discuss the current situation.
In this battle, although they successfully defeated Xuexecang's army, they also paid the price of more than 2,000 casualties. His army originally only had 20,000, but now it lost more than 10% of its combat strength. The subsequent war against them will be greatly affected.
While they were discussing, the soldiers invited the white-haired Xiao Mohe in. Xiao Mohe was not only a famous general in the Southern Dynasties, but also a member of the first-level Kaifu Yitong Sansi in the Sui Dynasty. Although he had no real power, his status was higher than that of Duan Wen Zhenhe. Zhao Caigao, when the two of them saw him coming, they quickly stood up and saluted: "See you, old general."
Elderly people like young people who are respectful and polite. Xiao Mohe, who was over seventy years old, was very happy when he saw the two people being respectful to him, so he returned the courtesy and said: "I am in a humble position and I don't dare to accept the courtesy of General Manager Duan and Deputy General Manager Zhao." I have heard for a long time that General Manager Duan is a rare Confucian general with both civil and military skills, and today I saw that he truly lives up to his name."
"Old General, you are so complimentary. Please sit down." Duan Wen Zhensu gestured with his hand, asking Xiao Mohe to sit down.
Xiao Mohe did not sit down. He adjusted his position and sat opposite Zhao Cai. After the two of them sat down, he directly stated the purpose of coming: "We are marching outside, so don't waste time." . The old man came here to actually tell Mr. Duan that Ashina Ranqian can no longer be trusted. His current attitude is very ambiguous, and he is obviously in a situation where he wants to take advantage of the Sui Dynasty but also wants to get rid of the Sui Dynasty. "
Duan Wenzhen knew that Qimin Khan was not a good person. He was just struggling with the evidence and did not want to report anything. Now when he heard what Xiao Mohe said, he thought he had caught some evidence and asked very excitedly: "Old General, have you found the evidence?" Is there any conclusive evidence of Rangan’s infidelity?”
"I can't provide any conclusive evidence." Xiao Mohe glanced at Duan Wenzhen and said with a wry smile: "But this man is very cunning. In the name of helping us fight the Sui Dynasty, he sent all the tribal soldiers who were not convinced by him. The tribal chiefs were afraid of the great power of Sui Dynasty, so they had no choice but to obey Rangan's orders and send their most elite soldiers to fight. However, whenever the war was in a stalemate or when victory was about to be won, Rangan would blow the withdrawal horn, in vain. Ruined a great opportunity to defeat the enemy. The old man believed that he did it on purpose to use war to weaken the tribes that disobeyed him. In addition, he did not want to go to Ganzhou to fight. If General Duan hadn't defeated Tiele's army today, I'm afraid he would have continued By procrastinating in this way, he was finally able to avoid Bujia Khan's army and achieve his goal of preserving his strength. However, the old man clearly knew his intentions, but there was nothing he could do against him."
"Junior understands the difficulty of the old general." Although Duan Wenzhen was disappointed, he also understood Xiao Mohe's helplessness and said with a wry smile: "Ranqian has always obeyed the court's orders respectfully, and he has done every detail. It is indeed very good." It's hard to defeat him. Just like this time, he not only obediently brought in an army of 100,000 people, but actually fought, and ended up with huge casualties. In the future, even if he goes to argue in front of a saint, he can still say that he is not good at fighting and is not good at fighting. Understand the command, and then pass the responsibility completely.
"The more this is the case, the more terrifying this person is." Xiao Mohe sighed, and then said: "The second thing I want to say is that Ranqian's control is not very strong, and many chiefs only succumbed to the power of the Sui Dynasty. Under him, his behavior of excluding dissidents has been publicly pointed out by Lao Cheng; these chiefs are now very dissatisfied and taboo against Rangan. Lao Cheng believes that they are also the ones that General Manager Duan can rely on. As for Rangan's headquarters, it is best to stay aside. Take advantage and be on guard at the same time.”
"The old general advised me, I will keep this in mind." Duan Wenzhen finally understood why the remnants of the Turks arranged the camp on his side. At first, he thought they were deceived by the spoils of war. Now it seems that they were frightened by Qimin Khan's trap. . If you use it well, it will be a fierce army.
"With that said, I'll take my leave first." Xiao Mohe knew that the two of them needed to discuss important matters, so he stood up and left.
"Old general, don't you sit around for a while?" Duan Wenzhen stood up quickly and said with a smile, "Junior, there are many things I would like your advice on."
Xiao Mohe said with a smile: "I'm worried about Rangan's scheming, so I have to go and see him. After Bujia Khan is defeated, we can sit down and discuss the truth."
Duan Wenzhen nodded, cupped his hands and said, "The old general is right, state affairs are important right now."
Xiao Mohe was the supervisor of the Qimin Khan. His mission was in the Turkic camp, not here, and Duan Wenzhen did not do much to persuade him to stay.
. . . . . . .
Compared with the lively Sui army camp enjoying the results of the war and the Turkic barracks relying on the Sui camp, Qimin Khan's camp was much quieter. Although they were given a little food and wine after the war, Qimin Khan's soldiers But I felt that I was outmatched by those miscellaneous warriors, and the atmosphere was not uplifting at all.
Qimin Khan's tent was quiet and empty. Only Qimin was thinking silently. He excused himself to be drunk at the celebration banquet held by the Sui army and returned to his tent.
The actions of those miscellaneous troops approaching the Sui army made him feel complicated and frightened. He was afraid that these people would become the "second Qimin" and then break away from him and betray him.
Qimin Khan's current strength is far inferior to that of the same period in history. The main reason is that he has lost his identity as the "Consort of the Great Sui Dynasty".
At first, he regarded the Sui Dynasty and Princess Anyi, who was close to him, as the Sui Dynasty as spies and the god of plague who were spying on him, so after getting married, he kept a distance from her, hoping in his dreams that she would die soon, let alone sleep. However, when the frail Princess Anyi died of illness because she could not bear the grassland climate, he realized the benefits of "the Prince Consort of the Sui Dynasty". This title could help him intimidate and annex various ministries under his rule.
So he took the initiative to propose marriage, hoping that the Sui Dynasty would send him another "mascot". However, the Sui Dynasty refused, and losing the title of "Consort of the Sui Dynasty" also meant that he lost his great killing weapon of pretending to be a tiger.
Although the Sui Dynasty gave him prisoners at the end of each Northern Expedition, he was known as a traitor to the Turkic Khanate and had too few direct descendants. Therefore, after the arrival of these prisoners who were afraid of the Sui Dynasty but not him, they treated him badly. The Great Khan ignored them; when these people settled down and stabilized, they would become a force outside his rule.
He really wanted to annex them by going to war, but the Sui Dynasty needed a stable north and a stable east/Turk. As a result, Qimin Khan could not solve these people by force and could only slowly eat some small tribes. However, this Although the results of this method were good, they were as slow as a snail. Now that he had finally managed to save some wealth, the Sui Dynasty ordered him to fight the powerful Bujia Khan. He wanted to use the war to strengthen himself and take away all those who were obedient. He was going to die, but the supervisors sent by the Sui Dynasty exposed his conspiracy in public. Will these people still listen to him in the future? The answer is obviously no.
What worries him even more is that the Sui Dynasty has already doubted him. If he doesn't try his best to fight, he may be the first to deal with Bujia Khan after his death. If we fight against Bujia Khan, many of his direct troops will definitely die. After this war is over, it will be even more difficult to develop under the nose of Sui Dynasty. He didn't even know what he should do now.
"Great sweat!" The voice of his confidant Shi Shuhu Xi came from outside the tent.
"Come in!" Shi Shu Hu Xi was Qimin Khan's confidant and an important person in contact with Xue Xuecang. He now wanted to hear this person's opinion.
The curtain was opened, and a burly figure walked in. Shi Shuhu was a Sogdian Hu merchant. Qimin Khan found that he was quite resourceful, so he arranged him beside him as the mastermind.
Shi Shuhu Xi was good at calculation and good at weighing the gains and losses of interests. He was not only Qimin Khan's mastermind, but also the trade envoy fully responsible for trade with the Sui Dynasty. When he saw Qimin Khan worried, he asked: "Is the Great Khan worried about sending troops?"
"Yes!" Qimin Khan sighed and said: "I guess the Sui Dynasty heard that I had a large number of troops, and not only became wary, but also prepared to let me and Bujia Khan fight dogs. I wanted to fight with Xue Xuecang Fight and take the opportunity to avoid this bloody battle. Who would have thought that Xiao Mohe saw through our plan. What’s more terrible is that Duan Wenzhen beat Xue Xuecang away. He probably thought I was lying to him before. This feud was finally settled. . The key is that we have lost the enemy Xu Xuecang. I think there is no point in delaying it. If we don’t send troops, it will be tantamount to betraying the Sui Dynasty. And we really can’t afford to offend the Sui army!"
Qimin Khan did not even tell his son about many of his plans, but he did not hide the mastermind. When he saw his arrival, he poured out all his bitterness.
Shi Shuhu came well prepared. He already had a complete plan in mind and suggested: "Great Khan, the troops will definitely be sent out, but it is up to us to decide how to fight. Why don't you let me contact Bujia Khan? Presumably he is also happy to sweat profusely and do nothing."
"How are you going to convince him?" Qimin Khan asked.
Shi Shu Hu Xi said: "It would be better to tell Bujia Khan directly about our situation. As long as he understands our difficulties and understands the Great Khan's ambition, I believe that he will not be willing to fight with his direct troops to death."
Qimin Khan thought for a moment, sighed helplessly, and said: "We can't offend the Sui Dynasty, and this is all we can do now. You go to Ganzhou to find Bujia Khan now."
"Yes!" Shi Shuhu Xi turned around and left.
After Hu Xi of Shishu retreated, Qimin Khan was upset. He knew that Bujia Khan was not a kind person, and he might end up being played by him, but now there was no other way.
At this time, Fu Li's voice came from outside the tent: "Khan is drunk, please come back tomorrow, General Xiao!"
Qimin Khan was shocked when he heard this. He knew that Xiao Maha was discussing sending troops. He hurriedly hid in the back tent. He didn't bother to take off his coat, so he had to pull the blanket to cover himself tightly, even covering his head. Covered.
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