In the long border between the Turks and the Central Plains, almost most of them were the territory of the Sui Dynasty, which stretched for thousands of miles from Liaodong to Fengzhou. The border between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks was only in Hexi, with a boundary of hundreds of miles, among which

Most of them are deserts and Gobi, with people completely cut off.

Only the North Zhangye Road was the only business road that entered the Turks in the Tang Dynasty. The North Zhangye Road was also called Juyan Business Road, which was along the Zhangye River and arrived at Juyanze hundreds of miles later. Juyanze was the northernmost border of the Tang Dynasty. After passing

Juyanze is the Turkic territory, with endless grasslands.

Juyan Business Road has a history of hundreds of years. From the Han Dynasty, from the northwest, merchants from Asia Minor walked thousands of miles to Juyanze, and then went south along Zhangye River to enter the Hexi Corridor, and purchased products in Zhangye County, where trade is prosperous.

Silk and porcelain from the Central Plains were then transported back to the distant West to make huge profits.

The exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks also took the northern Zhangye Road. Since Huining County had been occupied by the Sui Dynasty, the Turkic envoys returned to the Turks from Chang'an and could only go to Jincheng County to cross the Yellow River, then enter the Hexi Corridor, and return to the grassland along the northern Zhangye Road.

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Jincheng County was later Lanzhou. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the climate here was mild, the rainfall was abundant, the vegetation was lush, the land was fertile, and the population was relatively dense. Since the Han Dynasty, this place has been the rich Guanlong area, but the population of Jincheng County was mainly concentrated.

To the east of the Yellow River and to the west of the Yellow River, due to the overlapping mountains, there is less arable land, and most of them are distributed with Gobi and grasslands. Nomadic peoples such as Qiang and Di are distributed in this area.

At noon that day, a cavalry team of 300 men arrived from the north at lightning speed. This was obviously the Sui cavalry. Although their armor was basically the same as the Tang army, the eagle on their helmets was fiery red, just like burning on their heads.

A ball of flame, also known as the Red Flame Eagle Helmet, is the biggest difference between it and the Tang army.

Secondly, each of their arms also has a fiery red arm ring, which can be clearly seen from behind, but the more important difference is their battle flag. A red eagle battle flag flutters in the wind. You can recognize that this is the Sui cavalry from afar

, which is very different from the Tang army's red and white flags.

However, since this is the territory of the Tang Dynasty, the Sui army was still relatively low-key and did not show the battle flag. They rode their horses and ran to the south on the vast mountain grasslands. The leader was a nearly forty-year-old.

Veteran, he is Asian general Ma Shao.

Ma Shao has followed Yang Yuanqing, who is still a hot-selling man since he was 20 years old. He is from Zhangye County. He has half of the Hu bloodline. His father was originally a Han martial artist. After accidentally injured someone in the Central Plains, he fled to Zhangye.

Later, he married a Qiang woman in Zhangye and gave birth to Ma Shao. Ma Shao started learning martial arts at the age of eight. Since he was twelve, he followed his father to Hexi Corridor to serve as a guard for merchants to make a living. At the age of eighteen, he joined the army.

In the 19th year of Kaihuang, the twenty-year-old Ma Shao met Yang Yuanqing who had just joined the army and became his first subordinates.

Nearly twenty years have passed in a flash, and Ma Shao gradually became an assistant general from a soldier. He was appointed as the General of Youtun Guard and was awarded the title of Marquis of Zhangye County. He was Yang Yuanqing's loyal confidant.

Ma Shao was originally responsible for the security of the capital, but because the Sui Dynasty seized Huining County, he was renamed the general manager of Huizhou and led 5,000 troops to station in Huining County to protect the security of silver mines. This was also Yang Yuanqing's trust in him, which made him take charge of silver.

Mine safety.

About ten days ago, Yang Yuanqing ordered the general Pei Xingyan to lead a 20,000 army to reinforce Ningjun. Since Pei Xingyan was a general, he was one level higher than Ma Shao's official position and title, so Ma Shao temporarily became the deputy general of Guanbei Army. Three days ago, Yang Yuanqing again

After sending an order, he ordered them to intercept and kill the Turks' envoys to the Tang Dynasty, Ma Shao volunteered to complete the task.

Ma Shao is not very skilled in martial arts. He has a little strength when he uses a 60-pound machete, but his swordsmanship is not good. He is more experienced than his rich experience. He is a scout. After twenty years of military career, his

Extremely experienced.

The three hundred cavalry brought this time were selected from the 25,000 troops. They were all good at riding and shooting, and had excellent martial arts skills. In addition to Ma Shao, there were two very young generals, one of them was ten.

Seven-year-old Xiao Yannian, one is fifteen-year-old Qin Huaiyu.

Xiao Yannian is the son of Yuwen Chengdu, and there is no need to say more about this. Qin Huaiyu is Qin Qiong's eldest son. In fact, he has a brother who died of illness ten years ago, so Qin Huaiyu became the eldest son, with two sisters on it, both of which were already.

When he got married, he had a younger brother.

Qin Huaiyu looks very much like Qin Qiong, with a high tiger's eyes and a pair of big ears, but her eyebrows are more delicate than Qin Qiong, her skin is very white, her figure is six feet two, her body is wide, her shoulders are thin, and her waist is full of heroism.

Qin Huaiyu was both civil and military, practiced martial arts at the age of five and studied at the age of ten. Two years ago, he accompanied Yang You in the palace to study and was also Yang You's palace guard. Three months ago, he turned fifteen years old. Qin Qiong officially agreed to join the army and followed his master Pei Xingyan.

Going to Huining County.

Qin Huaiyu also used a horse spear and took the deadly mace on his back. He obtained the true teachings of his father Qin Qiong and his master Pei Xingyan. He was extremely skilled in martial arts and was the best among the younger generation of the Sui Dynasty. Although Qin Huaiyu was only fifteen years old, he was calm and composed.

He is upright and has a certain shadow of his father.

Xiao Yannian joined the army at the beginning of the year and had experienced several major wars. His experience was much richer than Qin Huaiyu who went to the first expedition. However, he was quite proud and was not willing to teach Qin Huaiyu any experience. Basically, Ma Shao taught Qin Huaiyu some scout experience.

Ma Shao is taciturn, but has a very good heart. He always points Qin Huaiyu at key points and then asks him to consider it himself.

Ma Shao pointed to a forest in front of him, "Resting in the woods ahead!"

Xiao Yannian didn't say anything, but Qin Huaiyu asked curiously: "Uncle Ma, we passed by a forest just now, and rely on the official road to facilitate investigation of the situation. Why don't we rest there?"

"It is easy to be discovered by Tang army patrols by official roads. Exploring intelligence is the matter of the scout team, so we just need to rest."

Ma Shao said simply and ran towards the woods two miles away. Qin Huaiyu thought about it for a while, then suddenly realized that when he was discovered by the Tang army patrol, he would notify the Turkic envoys and make their mission fail.

At this time, Xiao Yannian galloped past him, which aroused Qin Huaiyu's competitive spirit. He also urged the horse to run. His war horse was given by Yang Yuanqing, and it was also a Dayuan horse. He was tall and strong in all fours.

, and immediately caught up with Xiao Yannian.

Xiao Yannian bit his lip and whipped the horse hard. The two of them rushed to the woods, stoking the woods, stirring up smoke and dust. Ma Shao looked at their backs and shook his head and laughed. It would be better to be young!

The two arrived at the woods almost at the same time. They looked at each other and smiled knowingly. At this time, the three hundred cavalry arrived one after another. Everyone entered the woods and looked for a place to rest. They took out the water bags and drank some water and drank the horses.

Take out the Hu cakes that were tied tightly with dried lotus leaves from the bag and chew them on a big mouth.

Ma Shao found a flat stone, spread out the map, and carefully looked for routes on the map. He was very familiar with this area and knew that Turkic envoys would definitely take this path if they wanted to enter the Hexi Corridor.

They received news halfway through the journey that the Turkic envoy crossed the Yellow River yesterday morning, so after a day and a night of travel, they should be approaching this area.

Ma Shao closed his eyes and pondered. At this time, Xiao Yannian walked forward, squatted in front of the map and asked, "Will the Turkic envoy have outposts?"

This sentence is very good. There were eighteen Turkic envoys, but there were more than one hundred Tang troops escorted them. As noon approached, there must be outposts to explore the way, and their mission is to eliminate everyone and destroy the corpses and traces.

Of course, the outpost cannot be let go.

Ma Shao pondered for a moment and said, "There is a small river twenty miles southwest. There should be traces of them there. We can divide the troops into two groups. I will give you twenty people. You are responsible for killing the outpost of the way and the brigade behind you.

I'm responsible."

Qin Huaiyu may still bargain, but Xiao Yannian would not. He knew that this was the order and he had to execute it. He immediately stood up and fisted, "As for the order!"

Xiao Yannian rolled over the horse and led twenty cavalrymen to rush away. Qin Huaiyu was puzzled and ran forward and asked, "Uncle Ma, where is Brother Xiao?"

Ma Shao patted his shoulder and said to him in a deep voice: "Since he is a soldier, he should call me a general, and call him Xiao Zhengwei, remember!"

Qin Huaiyu's face turned red and he quickly bowed and said, "I remember my humble profession."

Ma Shao glanced at the soldiers who were trying hard to drink water and eat dry food, and then said earnestly to Qin Huaiyu: "Study hard from your brothers, hurry up and have lunch, and we will set off in a quarter of an hour."...

Just twenty miles away, five Tang cavalry rushed to the front of the Tang army that guarded the Turkic mission. It was almost noon and they needed to find a place for the mission to rest. This area was just sandwiched between two

In the mountains, there are dense forests on both sides, and they need to find a stream or river.

They ran for another two or three miles, and saw a valley, and a soldier pointed ahead and shouted, "There is a small river!"

There was indeed a small river ahead. They rushed forward and saw that the river was about four or five meters wide, the riverbed was very shallow, the river water was only as strong as the ankles, the water flowed rapidly, splashing a string of white water droplets, which were cold and clear.

They looked around again and saw a maple leaf forest not far away. The leaves were red, and the whole forest burned like fire, which was extremely beautiful and could just rest.

Five Tang Shousings were very happy and turned their horses to run back together. As soon as they ran into the valley, suddenly, the sound of bowstrings sounded, twenty arrows shot from both sides, and four Tang Shousings screamed and fell off their horses.

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Another soldier who was later frightened and turned around the dock and fled, but he escaped less than dozens of steps. An arrow shot in the back of his neck, and the Tang cavalry covered his throat and turned over and fell off his horse.
Chapter completed!