On the evening of the day when Li Jing defeated the Turkic army, more than a hundred miles east of Yancheng, Li Chengqian and others were riding their horses. After leaving Yancheng, they did not stop for a moment and rode their horses toward the east!

Until the sky gradually darkened, everyone had to stop. It was too dangerous to travel at night. Now, unlike later generations, the wilderness is still the territory of wild beasts, especially in the vast and sparsely populated land of the Western Regions. At night, the wilderness is the world of wild wolves. Not to mention that Li Chengqian and his party are only twenty people in total. Even if the number of people is ten times more, they will not dare to travel around the wild at night!

Moreover, in this vast wilderness, there is still danger of getting lost when traveling at night. Once you really lose your direction, you will definitely waste a lot of time. Now what Li Chengqian and others lack the most is time!

I found a cave that was recessed into the mountain near the mountainside to use as a temporary tent tonight! Because of the hasty departure and in order to reduce the load, they did not bring tents, and there was not even much food or water.

Chewing the dry and hard jerky and dough cakes in their mouths, everyone was silent and didn't say anything, and the atmosphere seemed a little solemn!

"Brother... Is it really going back to Yizhou like this?" After a long time, Li Ke rang out with a slightly hesitant voice.

Tightening the cloak on his body, Li Chengqian said in a cold voice: "What about that?"

Li Ke was stunned, yes, otherwise? What else can they do besides returning to Yizhou or even directly returning to Chang'an? Summon defenders from all cities along the way to support Yancheng?

This is not realistic at all. After all, the total number of defenders sent by the Tang Dynasty, including Yanqi and Gaochang, did not exceed 20,000, not to mention that they were all government troops with low combat power!

"But..." The hand holding the branches unconsciously exerted force, and the branches broke into two pieces with a "click". "Just just running away like this... I'm really unwilling to give up!"

"So what if we are unwilling to give up? If we are just ordinary soldiers, it is no big deal to stay and fight with the Turks, but we are not ordinary people, I am the prince, you are the prince..." Li Chengqian's tone was also full of bitterness.

Everything was going very smoothly, but when Li Jing defeated the Turkic army, the entire Western Regions would not be determined, and this Western Expedition would also achieve a phased victory.

However, because of the leak of my identity, there was a lot of uncertainty in the entire Western Expedition Strategy!

Li Chengqian knew very well that even if he successfully escaped from Yancheng, he would be able to return to Yizhou smoothly, but...

In this era when transportation is basically based on travel, communication is basically based on yelling, and public security is basically based on dogs, information dissemination is seriously lagging, which will inevitably bring great trouble to Li Jing and the Tang army on the front line!

He didn't believe that since Yu Gushe sent a large army around the front battlefield to Yanqi to find him, he still kept the secret when facing Li Jing's army and chose to fight to the death with the Tang army! Therefore, it is certain that at this moment, Li Jing, who was hundreds of miles away, must have known that the 50,000 troops missing from the Turks were already in Yanqi!

Even if he has 100% confidence in Li Jing's military talent, he would not think that Li Jing would ignore his safety for the sake of victory!

"Oh..." A long sigh expressed the complex feelings in Li Chengqian's heart at this moment!

...

There was nothing to say all night, just as the day was dawn the next day, everyone set out again. After another two days of urgent journey, they finally entered Yizhou!

Without having to rest, Li Chengqian directly found the commander of the Tang army stationed in Yizhou, showed his identity, and ordered him to lead his army to quickly support Yancheng!

It was not until he personally watched the 30,000 troops disappear on the western horizon that Li Chengqian took a deep breath!

"Hope...it's still time!"

Whether it was the safety of Shi Wannian and the 3,000 Tang soldiers in Yancheng, or the variables he brought to the entire Western Expedition strategy, Li Chengqian felt deeply guilty!

Because he may have hundreds, even thousands, or tens of thousands, and completely lost his life because he is alone. This heavy pressure makes him feel suffocated from time to time!

...

Yancheng, the Turkic army has been besieging the city for two days. Except for trying to attack the city when they first arrived at Yancheng City, but failed to be blocked by Shi Wannian and led his men to attack, the Turkic army did not continue to attack the city, and just surrounded Yancheng!

Shi Wannian, who was standing on the city wall, felt relieved when he saw this! Although he knew clearly that the reason why the Turkic army outside the city did not continue to attack the city was because the food and water diversion in Yancheng were very limited. As long as it was siege for about ten days, the city could surrender without fighting without attack!

However, as long as Li Chengqian is safe, neither he nor Li Jing nor the 200,000 Tang army will have no worries...

Moreover, he did not think that the siege of the Turkic army could last for ten days!

Long before the Turkic army besieged the city, they had sent messengers to pass the news here to Li Jing in the north! I believe that reinforcements will arrive soon!

Speaking of this, Shi Wannian was also full of doubts. He couldn't understand why the Turks were so confident that they would naively think that they were storming Yancheng without knowing it. Yancheng was unaware of their raids, and thought that as long as Yancheng was siege, the news would not be conveyed...

Shi Wannian didn't know that the reason why the Turkic army was full of confidence was entirely because they judged from their past experience that the Western Regions would not send spies out at all when there was no war, and would pay attention to the surrounding situation at any time. Even during the war, spies would not send hundreds of miles away, and pay attention to the surrounding situation at any time!

Therefore, along the way, except for deliberately avoiding the scouts sent by the Tang army at the beginning, they did not hide any traces after entering Yanqi, and they did not pay attention to whether there were spies or scouts! Even after the siege, they did not send spies to explore the surroundings!

Empiricism kills people - this is nothing more!

Therefore, when Niu Jinda led 30,000 cavalry to launch an attack on the Turkic army, the Turkic army, from the leading generals to ordinary soldiers, were confused and shocked, and they did not expect the Tang army to appear here. Didn’t they fight the Khan’s army at the foot of Langshan?

Thirty thousand to fifty thousand, a battle with nearly twice the number difference ended with a complete victory of the Tang army. The final number of casualties of the 30,000 cavalry was less than one-third! The 50,000 Turkic army was eventually destroyed. Except for more than 10,000 people who died in battle and thousands of people who fled, the remaining nearly 20,000 people surrendered!

When Niu Jinda learned that the prince had left Yanqi and returned to the Tang Dynasty, the big rock in his heart fell to the ground, and he couldn't wait to check his harvest - nearly 30,000 war horses!

This is a huge wealth, and it was his greatest gain since the Western Expedition! Although he led a large army to capture many cities in Gaochang and Yanqi, he did not encounter much resistance at all, and the harvest was even less. He could not even be self-sufficient in the food and grass of the army... He had complained to the head coach Li Jing more than once about the barrenness of the Western Regions, and there was not even a decent spoil!
Chapter completed!