"Master, someone is coming." Li Chunfeng heard footsteps from the trees not far behind him, and said softly. He temporarily suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his head and turned back to meet him.

After a while, Li Chunfeng came back with a few people, "Master, the county lord wants to know about the situation of the flying pigeons?" "Since Li Xiuning had already left before Li Yuan became king, the title of Li Xiuning's Pingyang County Lord was only sealed after Xia Xian's convergence. However, Li Chunfeng, who has always paid attention to etiquette, also changed his name to call her the county lord, even though he already knew that her father Tang Wang was at the end of his rope and fled to the deep mountains and old forests, but after all, Li Yuan is still the Tang king, so he still calls her the county lord.

Yuan Tiangang turned around, turned away from the precipice, and his face was as plain as ever, "Let's go over and meet the county lord together." ”

The two turned back to the mountains and forests one after the other, although Yuan Tiangang also held Li Tang's official position like Li Chunfeng, but he was still wearing a Taoist uniform. The many days of fugitive life in the mountains made him even thinner. The robe had been stained and torn in many places, and the beard on his chin had not been repaired for a long time, and the unkempt handfuls made him look as if he was forty or fifty years old, but he looked more like a master than the previous image.

"See the county lord, let the county lord wait for a long time." Yuan Tiangang stepped forward and saluted.

Li Xiuning came with a small group of guards, all of whom were dressed in light armor, neatly and solemnly, all sturdy women. And Li Xiuning under the moonlight was also wearing a red leather armor, and under the long red silk cloak was the slender and upright body. Her hair was tightly tied up like that of a handsome man, and with a faint smile on her face, she pressed the long sword at her waist and stepped forward to support her.

"Sir, I would like to ask if there are any carrier pigeons back?" Although Li Xiuning had a smile on her face, the worry and anxiety in her words still revealed her mood at the moment. Yuan Tiangang's master and apprentice's Taoist skills are very famous, especially Yuan Tiangang's astrological prediction technique is even more famous. After entering Hedong, Li Yuan worshipped him as the volcano order, specializing in astronomy, astrology, and forecasting. On this expedition, he was also responsible for observing the stars, forecasting the weather, and being in charge of the transmission of pigeons.

Li Xiuning sent a letter to Chen Pojun when he heard about it, thinking that he could reunite with Chen Kefu immediately. Unexpectedly, she learned that her father Fenhe was defeated, although she hated her father and brothers like that to her at the beginning, but when her father was in a desperate situation, she still resolutely rushed to the rescue with all the horses in the cottage. However, although his father and brothers were rescued from Yang Yin's siege that day, they are still trapped in the mountains.

After a long time, she became more and more worried about Chen Kefu's return, worried that Chen Kefu sent someone to smell Xi, but she couldn't find her person. However, after retreating into the Zhongtiao Mountain, they can only rely on the dense forest to survive, but it is impossible to get out. The only ones who could communicate with the outside world were the carrier pigeons that the army brought with them at the beginning. However, the carrier pigeon had already been released with the letter, but so far none of the carrier pigeons had returned, which made her more and more uneasy.

Li Chunfeng shook his head and said apologetically, "County Lord, there are no carrier pigeons back yet." Maybe it's too cold now, maybe in a few days they'll be flying back with good news. His words made Li Xiuning's smile no longer maintain, and his entire brow was furrowed. When she lost her smile, she was like Nakajo Mountain at this time. Zhongtiao Mountain is a continuous mountain range in the southwesternmost part of the river, which runs parallel to the Yellow River in the south until it is connected to Wangwu Mountain in the east. Endless deep mountains and dense forests, damp, cold and dark, all year round entrenched by all kinds of wild beasts, walking in the forest, sometimes not a single ray of sunlight can be seen all day. Li Tang soldiers who retreated into the mountain, although they relied on this mountain to survive, but none of them liked this mountain. …,

"County Lord, you should rest so late, maybe after dawn, we will set off again from camp." Yuan Tiangang looked at the county lord with a worried face and said quietly. Although the mountains are high and dense, which can help hide their whereabouts, but now Yang Jun has no intention of letting them go, and there are still many soldiers and horses following their footsteps into the deep mountains to find them. They basically never stay in one place for two days, at most they have to leave after a night's rest. On several occasions, they were even only more than ten miles away from Yang Yin's search soldiers and horses, and they had to flee overnight.

"I just had a nightmare about my father and the people of the world being chased by a lion." Li Xiuning frowned and said with an uneasy face, "It's a golden lion, and it seems to be chasing the people in this mountain, and it wants to eat them." ”

Yuan Tiangang's heart moved, thinking of the stars he had observed before and his prediction. He thought of the rumors that when Chen Pojun was in Liaodong, his symbol on the army was a golden lion.

"It's just a dream, Lord of the Counties. Although Zhongtiao Mountain is a deep mountain with tigers, leopards and wolves, this lion is not a thing of the Central Plains, but a species only found in the country of the extreme west. In my Central Plains Huaxia, only in the royal garden, there are only a few lions paid tribute by the feudal states, they are either in Xijing Chang'an or in the eastern capital Luoyang, how can they appear in Zhongtiao Mountain. He smiled faintly, trying to dissipate her uneasiness, "So, it's just a dream, don't worry." ”

Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng accompanied Li Xiuning to slowly return to the camp, and kept comforting her along the way. Looking at the heroic Li Xiuning, Yuan Tiangang also sighed secretly, who would have thought that Miss Li, who is extremely rich and noble in the world, would actually become a female cottage owner before. Thinking of her previous experiences, he couldn't help but sigh that in troubled times, even if he was from a rich background, he was not stable.

The former horse servant of the Li family, and now Ma Sanbao, the general of Li Xiuning's subordinates, walked in, "County Lord, please forgive me for the small interruption." ”

"Sambo, why are you here?" Li Xiuning looked at this loyal retainer and asked with some surprise.

"County Lord, just now Qin Guogong came back, I heard that a team of strangers arrived, and now many people in the camp are talking about this matter, and the little one hurriedly came over to report it after he knew about it."

"Jiro is back? And brought back a team of strangers? He just came back, so where is he now? ”

"I have gone to the camp of the king of Tang, and the king of Tang has convened all the ministers of civil and military affairs, and they are discussing it overnight."

If it was before, whenever there was something, her father would definitely come and ask her to participate in the discussion, attend the hearing, and provide advice. "Why didn't my father send someone to inform me, Erlang is coming back now, there must be something important." Li Xiuning was a little anxious, she turned around and saluted Yuan Tiangang and the others, "Sir, I want to go to see my father immediately, and I will leave here, I was disturbed a lot just now." ”

As soon as Li Xiuning finished speaking, he turned around, and ran towards Li Yuan's big tent like a gust of wind, and Ma Sanbao and several other female guards trotted all the way to follow.

The Tang army's camp was located on a halfway mountainside in Zhongtiao Mountain, where the dense forest was covered, which could hide its whereabouts well. And his father Li Yuan's tent is in a natural stone cave, in this biting cold February, the dry cave is no different from the palace jade, sitting in the cave that can accommodate hundreds of people, a few fires are regenerated, and it is immediately warm like spring.

Li Xiuning led the guards all the way to the cave, and along the way, the entire camp could be seen clearly. A large clearing had already been cut out of the dense forest, and the Tang army and her women's army who had fled here were stationed on the left and right. They fled in a hurry, without any logistical baggage, nor a tent, so they took local materials, cut down trees and built small wooden houses. …,

By this time, it was almost dawn, and the hazy morning light could already be seen through the tips of the trees. In the camp, the thousands of remnants of the soldiers, who were worried and frightened, survived another long cold night. In the morning mist of the camp, the soldiers had already risen. Many soldiers were arranged to hunt, and many soldiers were sharpening wooden spears and arrows with knives to supplement the lack of weapons. The rest of the non-commissioned officers, under the supervision of some low-ranking officers, were standing in the camp, stretching their bows and pulling arrows, and the archers were following the "Arrows!" Draw the bow! Put! The command was fired at the target, and the sound of the arrows was like a flock of birds spreading their wings. Spear-wielding soldiers patrolled the perimeter of the camp, peering through the cracks in the trees in the forest. Campfires were smoking, the morning sky was foggy, and thousands of soldiers sat under tattered flags eating a breakfast of all kinds of animal meat.

Beyond this simple camp, on the other side was the stable, and under the rows of hastily erected branches were thousands of horses owned by the remnants of this army of less than three thousand men. It was with these horses that they were able to escape all the way from Yang Yong's encirclement. However, when they fled to the mountains, they could hunt, but the precious horses could not adapt to this kind of life. Without fine horse material, it didn't take long for these horses to be thin and long, and they didn't have half of the brilliance of the horses.

Li Shimin's mount, Telebiu, is a real horse that can travel thousands of miles a day, originally a Turkic tribute horse obtained by Emperor Yang Guang of Sui, and Yang Guang rewarded Li Shimin in the Battle of Yanmen. He once rode a telecarpus to charge the enemy's formation, engaged dozens of rounds in a day and night, fought eight tough battles in a row, and established great feats. Li Shimin cherished this horse very much, and once praised: should be taken off in the air, and the voice is half a man; Destroy the enemy in danger, take advantage of the danger to help the difficulty, such a sixteen-character saying.

However, the Tellehuss Maxima, who should have had a slight white yellow hair, only saw the dry and dull yellow hair at this time, and his body was still full of mud, and even the horse's hair was extremely messy, standing there, his eyes were incomparable, chewing a bunch of dead grass, and he was weak. Mixed in with those thin war horses, he was actually unexpectedly unexpected, and he could no longer see that kind of brilliant divine horse.

Li Yuan's close guards, who were guarding dozens of steps in front of the stone cave, recognized Li Xiuning's identity at a glance, and without the slightest obstruction, they bowed and let them pass.

Thirty steps in front of the stone cave, Li Xiuning turned to Ma Sanbao and his personal guards and said, "You guys are waiting for me here, and I'll go in by myself." Walking all the way to the stone cave, Li Xiuning kept guessing in his heart who the stranger Shimin brought back was.

When she was still about ten steps away from the stone cave, she heard the sound of her boots stepping on the stones, and she looked up, only to see that her second brother Shimin had just walked out of the stone cave.

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