The Turkic camp was stationed on the east bank of the Fen River, about ten miles away from the Sui army camp. The entire camp was in a concentric circle structure. The outer circle was an ordinary Turkic tribe, the middle circle was the 30,000 guards of the Turkic Khan, and the innermost were the 5,000 guards of the Khans, and the core was the tent of the Turkic Khans.

The Turkic army still had more than 400,000 cattle and sheep, which could be eaten by the Turkic army for about ten days. In order to prevent the Sui army from attacking Yangma City, Chuluo Khan simply canceled Yangma City and directly placed the more than 400,000 cattle and sheep in the military camp.

The entire camp had no walls or camps, but the Turkic army sent 5,000 peripheral patrols, which was also the tradition of nomadic troops. They relied on patrols rather than walls. Over time, they gradually formed a complete patrol system.

In the endless grassland area, this kind of patrol system will not have any problems and is very strict. However, when it comes to the Central Plains with complex terrain, loopholes are prone to occur. For example, the garrison in Zihe was broken through by the Sui army using the loopholes in the mountains.

Moreover, there is enough flat land on the grassland for the Turkic army to station the camps. Their camps occupy a huge area, often covering a hundred miles, and each dome tent is far apart. Even if a dome tent catches fire, it will never affect other large tents.

However, in the Central Plains, especially in the northern part of Bingzhou, where there are many mountains, there are not so many open spaces for the Turkic army to station the camps. They have to reduce the area of ​​the camps, and the large tents are also close together. The completely different camp environment has caused many loopholes in the traditional defense of the Turkic army, which is even more dangerous.

Therefore, for the Turkic army, stationing camps is a very troublesome thing. They did not master the wall building and fence-building techniques of the Central Plains army, and could only strengthen their original defense system, such as doubling the patrol soldiers, from the original one thousand to five thousand, which effectively consolidated the security of the Turkic camp.

Moreover, the Turkic army also learned a lot of lessons, such as the camp cannot lean directly against the river, otherwise it will be attacked by the enemy from the water surface. For example, the sentries no longer set up single sentries, at least one team of ten people, which greatly reduces the possibility of being killed by the Sui army.

Although Chuluo Khan had made some efforts in defense and built the camp as solid as a soup, the threat he faced now was no longer the Sui army's sneak attack on the camp, but the issue of increasing food tension.

All the people north of Taiyuan County were moved away, and the grain was not left, and the retreat route in the north was cut off. The Turkic army could no longer get food supplies and could only eat the whole country. Moreover, the consumption of the 100,000 army was astonishing. Originally, more than one million cattle and sheep were left in half a month. According to this consumption, at most ten days, the Turkic army would cut off the food. At that time, they could only survive by killing horses, but how far would the Turkic army, which had lost the war horses, besides the destruction of the entire army?

In the camp, Chuluo Khan was riding a horse to inspect the soldiers for dinner, watching the soldiers drinking wildly and eating meat. There were bones with only half of the meat everywhere on the ground, which made Chuluo Khan's brows frown tighter and tighter.

When did Chu Luo Khan care about the food and drink of soldiers? In the past, he only regretted that the soldiers ate too little and were not physically strong, but now the entire army has only ten days left to store grain. Chu Luo Khan's mentality has changed and he is increasingly unable to tolerate this kind of waste.

At this time, a drunk soldier suddenly cursed: "This is the meat from yesterday. I actually gave it to us to eat. Do we think we are dogs? I don't eat this kind of meat!"

The soldier became more and more ruthless as he scolded, he still couldn't help but flew up several times and kicked several large plates of freshly roasted lamb into the fire. "I want to eat fresh lamb, not this kind of dog food!"

Chuluo Khan was furious and pulled out his battle knife and slashed the soldier hard on the neck. The soldier screamed and fell into the fire. He struggled for a few times and then there was no movement again.

The sudden scene shocked thousands of Turkic soldiers around him. Everyone stared at this scene in a daze. I wonder why their Khan was furious?

Chuluo Khan gritted his teeth and said, "From tomorrow, the mutton milk wine will be coordinated. Each person only has one of his own. If you don't want to eat it, you will starve to death!"

He whipped the war horse hard and turned back to the tent.

Faced with the Turkic army's camp, the Sui army not only sent hundreds of scouts, but once again strengthened the defense of the Sui army's camp.

In the night, dozens of small trenchers were distributed on the outer wall of the Sui army camp. This small trencher was also used in Shanyang County, Mayi County. It was not a real trencher, but a special thrower specially used to sow caltrops.

The soldiers were wearing deer leather gloves and carefully poured bags of poisoned thorns into the iron pockets of the thrower. As the long pole was swung out, hundreds of tiny and sharp thorns were evenly thrown onto the grass within a hundred steps of the high wall.

Unlike the combat ideas in Shanyang County and Zihe Pass, the head coach Zhang Xuan valued more control within a hundred steps. With the threat of crossbows on his head, even if Turkic soldiers came to eliminate the thorns, they would not be able to do so.

Of course, the Turkic army could still drive cattle and sheep to eliminate thorns like before, but at a time when food is becoming increasingly tight, it is worth discussing how much capital the Turkic can still invest.

Secondly, the cattle and sheep just roughly eliminated the thorns, and finally they had to use manpower to remove them carefully. It might be fine for miles away, but it was completely impossible to do it within a hundred steps from the Sui Camp.

In fact, even if it is done, it doesn’t make sense. If it is cleared, the Sui army will spread it again.

From the deployment of the thorn thorn, it can be seen that Zhang Xuan thought the enemy was better than Chu Luo Khan. Zhang Xuan knew that Chu Luo Khan would definitely send troops to test the Sui army's weaknesses and reality, so he was not in a hurry to deploy. Instead, after the test, he deployed the thorn thorn at night, so that he could kill them unexpectedly when the enemy attacked in large numbers, which would seriously shake the morale of the enemy. This was much better than dealing with the tempted enemy.

At this time, a team of people slowly walked along the high wall. This was the preparations for the Sui army by Zhang Xuan and General Pei Xingyan when inspecting the Sui army's preparations. From the commander to the soldiers, everyone knew that there would be a fierce battle tomorrow.

Zhang Xuan stood on the wall, looking at the Turkic camp under the moonlight from afar, and asked in a deep voice: "Yuan Qing, tell the truth, if we fight the Turks in the wilderness, who is better than that?"

Pei Xingyan hesitated and said, "I think this question is answered in stages."

"How do you say this?" Zhang Xuan was a little puzzled.

"If it was the previous battle, as the general Bai Tian said, we had just come from Shiai County, and had not yet established a stable foothold and had no logistics. If the Turkic army had pushed forward with all their strength, with the advantage of more than 100,000 cavalry, we were indeed not an opponent, but the Turkic Khan hesitated and missed the opportunity in vain."

Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "He was not hesitating, but he adopted a sneak attack strategy and did not overwhelm it. It can only be said that he made a decision mistake."

"Yes! He probably should have awakened now."

"What about now?"

Zhang Xuan asked again with a smile: "If our two armies lined up to face each other in the wilderness, what's the outcome?"

Pei Xingyan bit his lip and said, "I really can't say it right now. The winner should be 55 points. We are very motivated and well-equipped. Although the Turkic army is low, they still have a large cavalry. Moreover, they have no way out and their food is about to be cut off. They will also form a battle against the enemy. If the commander is effective and the soldiers fight to the death, they still have a chance to win."

After pausing, Pei Xingyan said again: "But the general's response is very good, and he will not fight. This is just like when Lian Po fought against Wang Yan when the Qin army rushed forward for a long distance, the troops were exhausted, and the food and supplies were not enough. The Zhao army held on and did not fight. The Qin army was defeated, and the same was true for the Turkic army. As long as we persisted for ten days and half a month, the Turkic army would be defeated."

Zhang Xuan smiled slightly, "Maybe the Turks will also go to Zhongdu to use the counter-espionage strategy. If Zhao Kuo, who talks about war on paper, replaces me, history will repeat itself."

Pei Xingyan was stunned. He suddenly realized that the example he gave was inappropriate and hurriedly said, "I am not considerate in my humble position, please forgive me."

Zhang Xuan laughed. He was in a good mood and began to speak without any scruples.

"Yuanqing, do you think I am hosting the battle here and depriving you of being the chief general?"

Pei Xingyan quickly shook his head and said, "I might have had this kind of thought in the past two years, but now I don't have it."

"Why?" Zhang Xuan looked at Pei Xingyan and asked.

"People are equal! The other party is a Turkic Khan, of course it should be the commander to deal with it. If the other party is just a commander of ten thousand men, then the commander doesn't need to worry about it, I can deal with it."

Zhang Xuan laughed, "This reason is quite interesting. Is there any other reason?"

"What else! If this battle is lost, then the responsibility will not be me."

Zhang Xuan laughed loudly, Pei Xingyan scratched his head, and couldn't help laughing. He had been following Zhang Xuan for a long time and knew Zhang Xuan's temper very well. He knew that the coach was not angry just now, and he was in a good mood. It would be okay to joke at this time.

Zhang Xuan slowly closed his smile and asked him with concern: "By the way, how is your father's situation?"

Zhang Xuan also heard that Pei Xingyan's father Pei Renji is currently the prefect of Wuwei County and has been far away from the Chang'an officialdom.

Pei Xingyan shook his head and said with a wry smile: "I also received a letter from my father last month. In the letter, he complained, saying that he was called the prefect, but in fact he had no power. All power was in the hands of the governor of Liangzhou Li Daoli. Li Daoli was too young and the government affairs of Liangzhou were handed over to the chief of the chief An Xiuren. In fact, everything was decided by An Xiuren. The county magistrate of Wuwei County, Sima, did not buy his father's account. It was obvious that his father was discouraged. He said in the letter that he wanted to retire and return home."

"Didn't your father mention me?" Zhang Xuan asked with a smile.

"It was just mentioned indirectly that I would like to persuade the general to become emperor as soon as possible, so that I can achieve the support of the emperor."

Zhang Xuan patted Pei Xingyan on the shoulder. He always liked Pei Xingyan's honesty and honesty. His ability to say such words casually means that he did not have such thoughts in his mind.

"I advise your father. If he is willing to come back, I will be the prefect of Mayi County. He is actually very talented, but his ears were too soft back then and he was confused by Li Yuan's sweet words."

Pei Xingyan was very moved. He knew that the Marshal was nostalgic person, not to mention that his father was the Marshal's boss back then. Pei Xingyan nodded silently. He wanted to persuade his father.

At this moment, a soldier rushed over quickly, knelt down on one knee and saluted: "Report to the Grand Commander, the military advisor has invited me and said there is important military intelligence discussion."

Zhang Xuan nodded and asked Pei Xingyan to continue patrolling. Then he got off the wall and walked quickly towards the central army's tent (to be continued.)

...
Chapter completed!