Everyone took the water route first and then the land route, and arrived at Zhuti County within a few days.
"Your Majesty, from here we can walk southwest for half a day and cross Wutong Mountain in front of us, which is the boundary of Nanguang."
Chen Zhong pointed to a green mountain in the northeast of the road while introducing the itinerary to His Majesty.
"I heard what Huo Ge said a few days ago that Jiang Wei is here to suppress bandits. I don't know if he is still here now."
Chen Zhong urged his horse forward. After catching up with His Majesty, he bowed his head and said:
"How about the general leading a team of flying guards to rush to Nanguang Walled City to investigate for His Majesty?"
Li Shimin saw that the soldiers behind him looked tired, so he nodded and said:
"That's fine. Let the troops and horses find a place to rest in the lee of the wind. You can bring the flying guards to explore first."
Chen Zhong took the order and waved forward. A flying cavalry commander understood and led his ten cavalrymen to ride behind Chen Zhong.
Chen Zhong turned his horse's head and led everyone to gallop towards Nanguang County.
When Li Shimin saw Chen Zhong walking away, he also ordered the three generals to find places to camp and rest. He took Zhang Yan with him to inspect the terrain nearby.
Behind him were more than a dozen personal guards, each armed with swords and crossbows.
Arriving on a low hill beside the road, Li Shimin suddenly heard the sound of fighting coming from behind the hill.
Zhang Yan also heard the sound. Zhang Yan, who was still a little boring at first, instantly became alert.
"Brother Adou will stay and wait for my little sister to come forward to check. If there is any danger, brother Adou will just lead his guards to the camp, and my little sister will block the rest!"
Li Shimin also became energetic at this time, thinking that he, the "General Tiance", was about to conquer the emperor of the world, how could he let a woman be in danger alone?
"My little sister and I are going together, just in time to test whether the sword given by the late emperor is sharp!"
While Li Shimin was talking, he did not forget to signal one of the guards behind him to send a message to the camp.
"Brother Adou, please don't be so scared that you dare not move and hold your little sister back."
Zhang Yan smiled mischievously, drew out the long sword from behind, and took the first step towards the short hill.
Li Shimin shrugged, pulled out the sword from his waist, and called on several personal guards to follow Zhang Yan.
As soon as she reached the highest point of the hillock, Zhang Yan hid behind a tree, with only half of her head exposed, and quietly looked under the hillock.
Li Shimin followed closely behind, hiding under another tree not far from Zhang Yan, and also leaned out half of his body to look down.
I saw a general in green robes and silver armor, about ten or thirty years old, holding a sword and fighting with about fifty or seventy barefoot barbarians.
There were only three or five soldiers beside the general, and most of the horses he rode fell on the roadside, seemingly injured by crossbow arrows.
Zhang Yan was slightly surprised when she saw the scene below, then quickly came to Li Shimin's side and whispered:
"Brother Adou, those soldiers are all wearing my Han soldiers' armor. The general's little sister is very kind-faced. She should be someone I know."
Li Shimin also noticed that the armor of the soldiers below seemed to be ordinary soldiers guarding the city.
"There are so many barbarians that the general may not be able to handle them. My little sister, lead a few men to charge head-on and save the general's life first.
I took the remaining personal guards and shouted in the mountains and fields to increase my momentum. The barbarians were so smart that they thought the official army had arrived.
When the barbarians are surprised and undecided, I will lead the remaining soldiers to fight out from behind the barbarians. If we attack from both sides, we will definitely win! "
Seeing that His Majesty asked her to rush to kill, Zhang Yan didn't care to listen to His Majesty's words behind her. She stood up with her sword and rushed down.
Seeing Zhang Yan rushing far away, Li Shimin shook his head helplessly and ordered his three or five personal guards to follow Zhang Yan and charge together.
When Zhang Yan and others met the enemy, Li Shimin ordered his bodyguard to hold a weapon in one hand and a branch in the other, and run to both sides with a bow.
Several personal guards received the order and shouted "kill" loudly while mopping the ground with branches to raise dust.
Li Shimin was lying under a tree with a crossbow in hand, waiting for an opportunity to kill the enemy.
As soon as Zhang Yan got closer, she discovered that the silver-armored general was none other than Jiang Wei, whom His Majesty was looking for.
While excited, Zhang Yan did not forget to shout:
"Brother Jiang Wei, don't worry, the imperial army is coming and they will kill all these barbarians today!"
Jiang Wei stabbed a barbarian who came up to him with a sword, and then quickly jumped to Zhang Yan's side, helping each other with Zhang Yan.
"Since Miss Zhang Er is here, your Majesty must be here too, right?"
After Zhang Yan chopped down a barbarian with her sword, she looked back at the low hill.
"That's natural. Brother Adou is coming with tens of thousands of troops!"
Jiang Wei couldn't help but curl his lips when he heard Zhang Yan's exaggerated words, and continued to kill the enemy with his sword.
At this time, Li Shimin couldn't hear clearly what Zhang Yan said below, but he could see Zhang Yan chatting with the general while killing enemies, looking relaxed and comfortable.
"It seems that I was overly worried. I didn't expect that Zhang Yan cooperated with the general and gathered a dozen people to kill the barbarians so that they did not dare to come near."
Thinking of this, Li Shimin called a few of his bodyguards who were building momentum, threw down the branches in their hands, and just charged in.
Several personal guards received the order, each holding weapons, and rushed down to join the battle.
Li Shimin felt itchy in his heart and wanted to rush forward to kill him. Then I thought about it, Liu Chan's small body probably wouldn't allow him to kill the enemy as he pleased.
So Li Shimin just stayed where he was, holding the crossbow and practicing aiming...
The battle below gradually became one-sided. The barbarian weapons were lagging behind and the battle formations were scattered. After being attacked several times by Zhang Yan and the general, they were already on the verge of defeat.
Seeing that the barbarians were about to retreat, the general sheathed his sword, found his white horse, got on his horse, and charged into the enemy group with his spear.
Seeing this, Zhang Yan was not willing to lag behind. She found an uninjured horse and jumped on it to attack the defeated army.
Seeing that the overall situation was decided, Li Shimin put down his crossbow and wanted to go down the mountain to meet the two men.
At this time, a group of generals behind him were leading a team of 100 people to come for support.
With a wave of his hand, Li Shimin commanded the troops to divide into two groups, one to block the barbarians' retreat, and the other to encircle and suppress the barbarians from the side.
After the command was completed, when Li Shimin looked up, he saw that the silver-armored general had already entered the center of the defeated barbarian army.
Seeing that there was no hope of escape, the barbarians wanted to engage in a fight between trapped beasts. They armed themselves with weapons and fought back, hoping to surround and kill the silver-armored general.
This move of the barbarians seemed to be what the silver-armored general wanted to see. The silver-armored general held a rein in one hand and a spear in the other, clashing among the enemy group, and in an instant he overturned seven or eight people.
The silver-armored general is getting ready to fight, and the surrounding guards have arrived.
Seeing that there were so many officers and soldiers, the barbarians had no chance of turning defeat into victory, so they all knelt down and surrendered.
Li Shimin quickly walked down the mound, hoping to join the crowd.
When the silver-armored general saw His Majesty coming in person, he quickly put down his weapon, dismounted, knelt down on one knee and bowed to His Majesty.
"General Jiang Wei is here to see your majesty, long live my emperor!"
Li Shimin was overjoyed when he saw it was Jiang Wei.
First he helped Jiang Wei up, and then he grabbed Jiang Wei's shoulders with both hands and looked up and down.
Jiang Wei was seen to be more than eight feet long, wearing a green robe and a bright silver chainmail coat. He had a strong figure, sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, red lips and white teeth.
It is true that "talent and martial arts are supported by each other, silver spear and white horse are courageous, the heroes of ancient and modern times are the only king, and he is the Qilin'er of Tianshui"
When Li Shimin saw Jiang Wei being so heroic and heroic, he couldn't help but think of Xue Li, the "good minister who responded to orders" in his previous life, and he felt even more fond of him.
"Ah! Boyue, I have seen you! Were you injured in the battle just now?"
Jiang Wei was flattered to see His Majesty personally checking whether there were any injuries on his body. He quickly stopped His Majesty, knelt down and said:
"Thank you for your love and care, Your Majesty! Everything is fine, General. This time, General, I was unable to greet Your Majesty in person. I hope Your Majesty is not surprised!"
Li Shimin helped Jiang Wei up again and said happily:
"Boyue doesn't have to be so open-minded. You are my father's beloved disciple, and you are my confidant and beloved general. With Boyue here, I will be like a tiger with added wings. When I launch the Northern Expedition in the future, I will definitely be able to conquer everything!"
When Zhang Yan saw the two of them chatting endlessly, she curled her lips and complained:
"Two grown men, in public, are so verbose, aren't they afraid of being laughed at?"
Seeing Zhang Yan's impatience, the two men shrugged at the same time, and then began to direct everyone to tie up all the barbarians and escort them back to the camp.
Seeing that the two of them were like a young couple reunited after a long separation, Zhang Yan avoided the two of them in disgust, walked at the front, and led everyone towards the camp.
Arriving at the camp, Li Shimin called the soldiers who were proficient in the barbarian language to ask about the origin of this wave of barbarians.
After negotiation, Li Shimin learned that this wave of barbarians were all Puxi from the Yelang Kingdom.
The Bamboo King of Yelang State was in a confrontation with the official army and was unable to control it, so he sent several small tribes of Puxi who were attached to Yelang State to King Dingchupammu of Yueyong County to ask for help.
These people were one of them. Seeing that Jiang Wei had few people on the road, they wanted to kill the officers and soldiers to grab some supplies. Only then did they ambush Jiang Wei and others in the low hills and forests.
After understanding the situation, Li Shimin sent people to Yueyong County to inform Wang Ping and others to closely monitor the movements of King Dingchipanmu, and at the same time ordered Jiang Wei to properly deal with these barbarian captives.
After everything happened here, Li Shimin and Jiang Wei went straight to Nanguang Walled City.
"Boyo, in addition to motivating the soldiers, I have something to explain to you alone.
When we enter Nanguang Walled City later, we will first sit down and drink with all the soldiers. Then you can find a quiet place and I will talk to you again. "
Jiang Wei accepted the order and followed His Majesty on horseback to the southwest.
