A large area of coniferous forest on the northern slope of Yanran Mountain grew extremely densely, and a group of soldiers and horses marched quickly along the northwest direction under the slope.

The horses trotted, the sound of metal grinding between weapons and armor, and the flags rattling in the wind.

Tuoba Fan held the reins in his hand and turned his head and asked, "General Hua, how far is it from the hiding place of the Rouran people?" ”

The sun on the plateau was so strong that in just one day, the skin on Mulan's face was tanned to a wheat color.

She took out her map, looked at it, and then looked at the terrain around her, and replied in a loud voice: "At the current pace of marching, we should be able to reach it in two hours!" ”

"Slow down the march for another hour, and the soldiers and horses will need to recover their strength before they can fight!" After thinking for a while, Tuoba Fan shouted an order to his subordinate general, He Gena.

He Gena promised: "Yes, my lord! ”

After an hour of marching, the army on the right side slowed down, and the horses changed from trotting to brisk walking.

Hua Mulan thought that neither he nor Tuoba Fan, nor Tuoba Fan's generals had ever been to the northern foot of Yanran Mountain, although there was a map as a reference, but the map was too rudimentary, and it was not necessarily accurate, and it seemed necessary to send detectives to explore the road first.

"Lord Wang, this is not the road that the scout rode took when tracking the Rouran people before, I am not familiar with the terrain, should we send scouts to explore the road ahead?"

Tuoba Fan listened to Mulan's suggestion, and after thinking about it, he shook his head and refused: "No need, as long as you know the hiding location of the Rouran people, at this time, it is easy for the Rouran people to detect the reconnaissance horses, and when they are ready, our army will not be able to achieve the purpose of the raid!" ”

Hua Mulan thought for a while and didn't say anything more, the purpose of her coming here was to urge Tuoba Fan to fight against the Rouran people, drag the soldiers and horses on the right wing, try to buy enough time for King Yongchang to come, and at the same time prevent Tuoba Fan from recklessly leading troops back or making trouble after receiving the news.

The army crossed a high hill and was going downhill, and a group of soft soldiers and horses suddenly came out of a valley mouth two miles away, and the two sides inadvertently encountered here.

"Stop—" Tuoba Van Lema stopped and raised his arm with a solemn expression.

Hua Mulan stopped and looked into the distance, and immediately said, "Lord Wang, it should be this Rouran army, it seems that they are preparing to leave!" ”

"The whole army is arrayed—" Tuoba Fan shouted as he looked back.

He Gena and other generals rushed to the rear one after another, galloping and shouting: "The prince ordered, the whole army is arrayed, arrayed!" ”

When the soldiers and horses heard the order, they arranged their formations in units.

The Rouran army outside the mouth of the valley on the opposite side obviously also found the right wing army at this time, and the leader was Princess Tuzhen, she was also taken aback at this time, how could this Wei army be here, but at this time, she could not allow her to think about it carefully, and immediately ordered: "Rouran warriors, line up to meet the enemy!" ”

The soldiers and horses on both sides moved quickly, and there were bursts of shouting and noise, and the tense atmosphere of the approaching battle made many war horses can't help but neigh.

The people of Rouran are a little nervous, they have suffered a defeat when they raided the Wei army's camp and besieged Huangyan Mountain a few days ago, until now they have not eased up, their morale has not fully recovered, and it is inevitable that they will feel uneasy in their hearts when they fight again at this time.

The commanders of both sides are smart people, and they both know that the first attack in this situation will inevitably have an advantage, so they want to attack first without waiting for the opponent to finish their formation.

"Soldiers in the right wing, go out with this king, kill—" Tuoba Fan grabbed his spear and pointed forward, roared and rushed out.

"Warriors of the Rouran Khanate, take up your scimitars and spears, wash away your shame with the blood of the Xianbei people, and kill with this princess—" Princess Tuzhen personally led her troops into battle for the first time.

The two sides launched an attack almost at the same time, thousands of troops and horses galloped on the grassland, the sound of horses' hooves rolled like thunder, like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, the earth and grass clippings were trampled by the horses' hooves and flew up, the dust rose to the sky, the ground kept shaking, the shouts of killing spread in all directions, and the fierce sound of war drums and desolate trumpets inspired the soldiers and horses on both sides.

"Whoosh Whoosh ······" Countless dense arrows flew into the sky from the high-speed moving military formations of the two sides, shooting above each other's heads.

One after another, the soldiers fell off their horses after being hit by arrows, and were drowned by their comrades behind them, and the horses that had lost their masters instinctively avoided danger and fled out of the battlefield.

The arrows on both sides caused a lot of casualties to each other, and after the close sprint, the bows and arrows did not work, and the soldiers abandoned their bows and took out their long and short weapons to fight in close combat.

Scuffles inevitably happened, and this battle was due to the unexpected encounter between the two sides and did not have enough time to deploy other tactics, only simple hedging and cavalry shooting.

On the battlefield where countless people die every second, there is no superfluous action to kill, there is only one move, either you die or I live, one knife lives, one knife dies.

Blood splattered, stumps fell, heads flew up, roars and screams mingled, only the sound of cold weapons ringing in the ring.

The sun set, the night fell, the remnants of the Rouran people took the lead in withdrawing, the Wei army did not pursue, and could not chase, anything could happen in the darkness of the night, this battle Wei army did not occupy too many advantages, killing a thousand enemies was also a self-loss of eight hundred.

After retreating twenty miles overnight, Tuoba Fan ordered to camp and count the losses.

Mulan's injuries had not healed, and after this battle, she was almost out of strength, so tired that she didn't want to move, and went to bed early after eating some food and healing pills.

The next morning, the results of the battle damage came out, the right wing army lost more than 2,000 people, only more than 4,000 people remained, after leading the team to clean up the battlefield sent people back to report, the corpses of the Rouran people left on the battlefield were nearly 3,000, and the losses of the two sides were not much different.

Tuoba Fan called Hua Mulan and said: "This Rouran army has lost nearly 3,000 people, according to the information you provided, they should have less than 1,000 left in this withdrawal, this point of men and horses does not pose much threat to us, and these people are too few, easy to hide, if we have the intention to hide, we really may not find it." The king's idea is to withdraw his troops and return to the camp of Qionglongling, what does General Hua think? ”

Hua Mulan clenched her fists and said to Tuoba Fan: "Lord, we are waiting for the Rouran people by edict, the war is far from over, the losses of the Rouran people are not big, now is the grazing season, they are not concentrated, if we have no harvest, how can we explain to the emperor?" Besides, without the will of the Qionglong Ridge camp, it is a great sin to withdraw without authorization! ”

Tuoba Fan frowned, "Of course the king knows what General Hua means, but now our department has suffered too much loss, 10,000 soldiers and horses have come out, and now there are only more than 4,000 people left, and many people are injured, the arrows are about to run out, and the loss of knives, guns, spears and armor is serious, so it must be replenished!" ”

Hua Mulan insisted on her thoughts, "Lord Wang, there are less than a thousand people left in this Rouran people, if you don't solve them, they will always be a scourge!" The last general can't stop the prince from leading the army back, but please think about how to explain to the emperor after he goes back? If the emperor asks the prince, will he retreat at the slightest setback and difficulty? How does the prince answer? ”

Tuoba Fan struggled in his heart, but he had to give up the idea of leading the army back, and ordered to send scouts to search for the traces of the Rouran people along the northern foot of Yanran Mountain, and while searching, the army moved to the northwest.

At the foot of Huangyan Mountain.

The baggage team finally arrived, a day later than Zhao Junsheng expected.

Zhao Junsheng, Gao Xiu, Gao Xu and others watched as the soldiers unloaded their baggage from the carriage and carried it into a tent.

"Gao Xu, the emperor has died!"

Gao Xu, who had just arrived with the escort, was obviously shocked by the news that Zhao Junsheng said, "Died? Killed in battle? ”

"No, he was assassinated by the Rouran people!"

Gao Xu didn't speak for a while, he needed time to digest the news.

"That'······ Who is in charge of the big picture here now? ”

"The ministers of the army are arguing about who is the new emperor, I ordered the news to be blocked, and the generals of the various armies sent out to search for the Rouran people should not know yet, otherwise they would have returned with their troops a long time ago!"

Speaking of this, Zhao Junsheng said solemnly: "Gao Xu, we can only protect ourselves by supporting King Yongchang and gain benefits, and now you must be on my side at this time!" ”

Gao Xu immediately clenched his fists and said: "The general can rest assured, his subordinates are loyal to the general!" ”

At this time, a soldier came over with a person who looked like an entourage: "General, send someone down from the mountain to ask for a meeting!" ”

Zhao Junsheng turned his head to look at the entourage, and the man bowed his hand: "General, the villain is the entourage of the prince of Taichang Dongjun, my lord has something to ask the general to discuss!" ”

"Good!" Zhao Junsheng agreed, glanced at his entourage and asked, "Why hasn't General Ben seen you?" ”

The attendant replied: "The villain has been staying on the mountain these days to serve my master's diet and daily life, and the general has naturally never seen the villain!" ”

Zhao Junsheng nodded, pulled Gao Xiu aside and whispered a few words, and took Li Bao and six personal soldiers to follow the entourage up the mountain.

When he arrived at the mountain, Zhao Junsheng frowned and asked the entourage who led the way suspiciously: "Hey, this is not the direction to go to Cui Gong's tent!" ”

The entourage smiled: "My lord has changed the meeting place for secrecy, so as not to arouse the suspicion of other ministers!" ”

Zhao Junsheng was thoughtful.

Soon came to a camp tent, but Zhao Junsheng found that it was not Cui Hao in the tent, but the guard commander Pi Loujin.

"Commander Pilokin, didn't you say that Cui Taichang invited Ben in the future? How are you? ”

Pi Loujin got up and said with a smile: "The general wanted to meet General Zhao, but he was worried that the general would not come, so he had to ask the general to come over in the name of Cui Taichang!" I and other ministers intend to support King Le'an to ascend the throne as emperor, I don't know what General Zhao thinks? ”

Zhao Junsheng shook his head and sneered: "That's impossible, this general already belongs to the king of Yongchang!" You are trying your best to plan for King Le'an here, and King Le'an himself doesn't know, if he doesn't want to, won't you take a hot face and stick a cold ass? ”

The smile on Pi Loujin's face gradually disappeared, "General Zhao means that there is no need to talk about it, so the general will have to send General Zhao down to the funeral of Emperor Daxing, come on, kill-"