Early the next morning, Dong Tianxing and his party of twenty-seven people mounted their horses and set off towards the north.
As it was far away from the war, the central and southern areas of Shengtang were relatively peaceful. Everyone had a calm journey along the way. After crossing the Yangtze River and Han River in succession, they finally arrived in the Jingxiang area smoothly.
At this time, a large army had gathered in Jingxiang. The soldiers and horses of King Qin from all walks of life in the south gathered here, a total of half a million people.
Of course, the so-called "king of diligence", which "king" is diligence? Is it Prince Li Bing, King of Huaiyang Li Kuang, or someone else? It's a bit ambiguous at the moment.
Similar to the situation in Yizhou, Jingxiang was also divided into three factions.
The prince faction, the questioning faction, and the neutral faction.
Due to internal disagreements, Li Chenglin, the Generalissimo, the Prince of Shangzhu Kingdom and Anping County, did not dare to easily bring the troops to the battlefield, lest he himself would start a chaos before fighting the Turks.
As for his own position, the old prince is very clever. He agrees with all three factions, but he doesn't fully agree with them either.
In a word, I personally have no opinion and am just waiting for the Yizhou court to speak.
The ball was played so smoothly that Yizhou was so angry that he couldn't help but ask: Wait for us to say something? We are still waiting for your words, okay?
In order to prevent the Turks from suddenly moving south, Li Chenglin was not idle. He ordered all the troops gathered in Jingxiang to mobilize and build a solid defense line that stretched for 300 miles and was five layers deep. At the same time, he issued the "Strengthen the Wall and Clear the Fields Order", allowing The people in the north fled south to escape the disaster, but no one was allowed to go to the north.
Doing this will stump Dong Tianxing.
Even if he showed his identity as a member of the Ministry of War, there was no official document from the Ministry of War to prove that he had a special mission. The soldiers on the defense line still refused to let these strange-looking guys in strange clothes pass.
After trying several passes in succession, Lao Dong finally gave up.
He spread out the map he carried with him, studied it for a long time, and then slapped the table: "Let's take a detour from the northwest!"
Wu Rong was curious: "Why not go east and go around from the lower reaches?"
"Going east, you will either encounter the King of Huaiyang or the Xuanjia Army," Dong Tianxing explained: "Instead of going around like that, it is better to enter the territory of the Turks directly. Maybe we can discover the poisonous soldiers' flaws earlier."
Hearing him speak so firmly, Amenta and Wu Rong both agreed. But they never expected that it was Lao Dong's bad idea that caused them to make a bigger circle in the end and almost died on the road.
The team of twenty-seven people broke away from the Jingxiang defense line, turned around and walked northwest, passed Danjiangkou and entered Shangzhou.
This place is already an area controlled by the Turks.
According to Dong Tianxing's idea, they would pass through Shangzhou, enter Guanzhong, then go north to Huazhou, and then go east, and they would soon reach Luoyi.
However, God's calculations were not as good as those of humans, and something happened just after the team reached the foot of Huashan Mountain.
At first, a Turkic patrol stopped them and prepared to investigate. Those Turks were not the noble Golden Tribe, but were headed by the Tianmu Tribe, mixed with some warriors from small Turkic tribes and soldiers from Western Xinjiang.
A typical motley crew.
With Dong Tianxing's level, it is not difficult to deal with these people. But no one expected that there was a guy with a special identity in this patrol team.
The man's name was Ruan Shiyu, a native of the imperial capital, and he used to be a small official. After the fall of the imperial capital, Ruan Shiyu surrendered to the Turks and has been working for the Turks in the army. The yamen he once served in the court was the Ministry of War.
Ruan Shiyu hugged his shoulders and watched. The more he looked at Dong Tianxing, the more familiar he felt. Until the patrol captain was about to let those people go, he suddenly recognized him: Mr. Dong from the Ministry of War!
Not only Dong Tianxing, but also Amenta and Wu Rong had their identities revealed by Ruan Shiyu.
This is trouble.
Wu Rong didn't say much nonsense, roared angrily, and led his twelve men and women to fight directly. Seeing this, Amonta had no choice but to order his subordinates to take action.
Dong Tianxing secretly screamed something bad.
Of course there is no problem in dealing with patrols, but this is Turkic territory, and there are many reinforcements behind them!
As expected, the miscellaneous patrol team was beaten to the point of crying by the Miao warriors and Yunnan warriors. But not long after, there was the sound of hoofbeats in the distance, and a large number of Turkic troops arrived in an instant.
Dong Tianxing had no choice but to call Wu Rong and Amenta to retreat, and the direction they chose to escape was to the west.
There was no way, the Turkic reinforcements came from the east, they could only run to the west.
According to common sense, no matter how fast Dong Tianxing's horses are, they cannot be faster than the Turkic cavalry. However, there are many capable people in this team, and all of them are masters of poisoning. Running along the road while poisoning made the pursuers behind them miserable.
The Turks couldn't help but become angry when they suffered casualties. In addition, they heard that the leader was a senior official from the Shengtang Military Department, and they were even more unwilling to give up.
The two groups of men and horses chased and beat them for five days and five nights, from the foot of Huashan Mountain to the border of Yongliang.
Dong Tianxing felt that his old bones were about to fall apart, so he lay on the horse and shouted, "Old man, you missed the mark! You go first, I'll take the lead."
"You're going to cut off the rear!" Wu Rong scolded as he rode his horse: "It's hard to kill a chicken, but you still have to cut off the rear? Brother Tusi, why don't we fight with them!"
Amenta looked around, then looked behind him: "There are at least a hundred of them, are you sure?"
Wu Rong was worried: "Whether you are sure or not, you have to do it! If you keep running like this, you will be exhausted!"
Amonta thought the same thing, and quickly reined in the reins and shouted: "Brothers, let's fight with them."
To be honest, although these people are powerful in using poison, in the plains and wilderness, the opponents are all regular Turkic troops. When the two sides fight, it only takes two or three rounds of direct charges, and Dong Tianxing and the others will be wiped out.
Seeing that the people who were running for their lives suddenly stopped running, the Turks also stopped one after another, and at the same time began to form a formation and prepare to attack.
Dong Tianxing was blocked by Wu Rong behind him, and he gasped and said: "No, this is not a success..."
Wu Rong took out the poison dart from his arms and said coldly: "If it hits or misses, that's all it can do now. Otherwise...Old Dong, please withdraw first, report back to Liyang, and ask my sons to take revenge." !”
Amenta looked at the Turks who were splitting into two teams and planned to outflank us, and said solemnly: "Old Dong, I'm afraid I won't be able to escape. They want to encircle us."
Dong Tianxing glanced at the soldiers from Miao and Yunnan. They all had resolute faces, but their eyes were full of worry and fear, especially the girls, whose hands holding the swords were trembling slightly. He couldn't help but sigh secretly, and said apologetically: "I am the one who caused you all harm. Please give me a good time later. Dong is a country favored by the country, and he does not want to be captured alive by them..."
Unexpectedly, before Dong Tianxing finished his "last words", a sharp and piercing whistle suddenly came from the sparse forest area in the distance.
Immediately afterwards, there was a loud sound of hooves!
Hundreds of knights wearing blue shirts and black armor rushed out from the forest.
Dong Tianxing saw a battle flag flying in the wind at the front of the team and was shocked:
Shengtang Zhenjiang Army!
Could it be... our Shengtang's army? !
Before he could react, the cavalry had already roared past, split into three groups and charged towards the Turks.
"Long live my emperor! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
This deafening shout made Dong Tianxing both surprised and happy: This time he was right, it must be the soldiers and horses of Shengtang. Moreover, they still used the battle cry of the Zhenjiang Protectorate.
"Bless the Elephant God!" Amenta looked up to the sky and shouted: "This is a divine weapon descended from heaven, a divine weapon descended from heaven!"
Wu Rong looked confused: "Hey, Old Dong, aren't Guanzhong and northwest all occupied by Turks? Why..."
Dong Tianxing burst into tears with excitement: "I don't know what's going on. Where did they come from?"
The cavalry of the Zhenjiang Army appeared out of nowhere. Their number was far greater than that of the Turks, and they launched a sudden attack, beating the pursuers back steadily in the blink of an eye. Seeing that the situation was not good, the Turks quickly gathered their troops and fled back along the original road.
The Zhenjiang Army did not pursue them relentlessly. After the enemy disappeared, they quickly gathered and formed a neat team. The leading officer rode up to Dong Tianxing and the others and asked kindly: "Everyone, who are you? Why are the Turks chasing you?"
Dong Tianxing responded quickly: "Brother, thank you for your hard work. I am Dong Tianxing, a member of the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of War, this is Wu Rong, the leader of the Miao people in Liyang, and this is Amenta, the chieftain of Nanzhao. These are their two subordinates . The Turks learned our identity and chased us all the way from Huazhou. Thanks to your rescue here, we managed to escape. Haven't you asked for advice?"
"Qin Hao, a humble officer, please see Mr. Dong!" Officer Qin Hao cupped his hands and said, "We are the 11th Qingqi Battalion of the Second Army of the Zhenjiang Army. We are on a guerrilla patrol in the Yongliang area under the orders of the commander-in-chief, Mr. Du Jian."
Dong Tianxing was stunned: "Zhenjiang Army? Is this the Zhenjiang Protectorate?"
Qin Hao smiled slightly when he heard this: "Yes, and no. Our army's predecessor was the Shengtang Zhenjiang Protectorate, but now its official name is the Zhenjiang Army."
"Ah, that's it. I've been admiring you for a long time." Dong Tianxing was confused and nodded confusedly, then asked: "So where is your army stationed now? Is it far from here?"
Qin Hao replied: "My Second Army Corps is currently stationed at Shengyuguan, which is about five hundred miles away from here."
"Shengyuguan?" Dong Tianxing seemed to have heard a myth and couldn't believe it: "Has Shengyuguan returned to the hands of our army?"
"Not only Shengyuguan, Zijin Pass has also been recovered." Qin Hao said with pride: "To the west of the two passes, as far as the borders of Suiye, Yarkand, and Shule, the western frontier of thousands of miles has returned to the territory of the Holy Tang Dynasty. Sir, you still don’t know?”
"My dear mother! God's eyes are open!" Dong Tianxing was so excited that he almost hugged Qin Hao and kissed him: "Little brother, please tell me quickly, who is your commander-in-chief? He is kind to Shengtang. Thank you so much!"
