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While the Shatuo people were packing their luggage and preparing to evacuate, the imperial army arrived.

Li Siyuan reported to Li Keyong that his patrol cavalry found traces of the scouts of the Tang army fifty miles away from Daluo Town south of Jincheng. They followed the scouts of the Tang army and discovered the camp of the Tang army, and there were 10,000 infantry garrisons in the La River Valley.

The La River Valley is still seventy miles away from Jincheng, and Li Keyong was not too worried. On the 18th day of the first lunar month, the first group of Shatuo soldiers and families were escorted by Li Siyuan and Li Sizhao and advanced northwest. The family members of this group were more than 30,000 elderly, weak, women and children, and Li Guochang and Liu were among them.

The retreat direction chosen by Li Keyong was northwest. Since the Yunzhou Qing ramp in the north had been occupied by Zhenzhan, and the way to go to Weizhou to the east was also because not only did Zhenzhan soldiers guard Weizhou, but also Youzhou soldiers guard Guizhou. He had sent troops to Guizhou before and wanted to capture this retreat passage, but unfortunately he was defeated by Li Keju's Youzhou soldiers.

Now there is only one road left in the northwest direction. Go to the northwest and enter the Shanyu Protectorate of the Zhenwu Army from the northwest corner of Shuozhou. The Shanyu Protectorate was in the Sui Dynasty, and it was also called Dingxiang County. The Shanyu Protectorate was Dali City. Crossing the Jin River northward is the famous Baidao passage over Yin Mountain.

Although Zhenwu Army has fallen into the hands of officers and soldiers, Zhenwu Jieduo and Tiande Army Jieduo have led their troops to come. The Shanyu Protectorate Mansion is far away on the frontier, and there are few people in the land, so breaking through from here is undoubtedly the best.

After the first batch of more than 30,000 people left the city, Li Keyong sent his adopted son Li Sien. Li Siben led the newly recruited 10,000 old and weak troops along the Sanggan River to the northeast and then to Weizhou. The main purpose of this route of troops was to serve as chess pieces, supporting and covering the real retreat route of the West Road to confuse the Tang army. Secondly, advancing to Yunzhou was to prevent the towns of Yunzhou and Weizhou from coming to Shuozhou.

These ten thousand old men and weak are baits, but they are dead chess. Basically, there is no return. Li Sien and Li Siben understand this in their hearts, but they finally accepted the task. After the two groups of soldiers and horses left, Li Keyong persisted for three days before he began to lead the last 20,000 troops to evacuate.

Although there are 20,000 soldiers and horses, the real Jingrui is only 5,000 Shatuo Cavalry, and there are 7,000 infantrymen who have been stationed in Sangang and four towns of Jincheng, which has been training for a year. The remaining 8,000 infantrymen are completely recruited by the Liu family during this period. Compared with the ten thousand taken away by Li Sien and Li Siben, although they are young and strong, they do not have much combat experience. These people are the seeds of the Shatuo people's comeback. When necessary, these people will also be cannon fodder behind the Tang army.

Li Ke used 20,000 troops to move westward. At this time, 12,000 cavalry of the five tribes of the Tang army suddenly appeared and quickly approached Li Ke Yong's troops. The distance between the two sides was less than thirty miles.

The Shatuo army stopped advancing and began to unfold its formations on the spot, preparing to fight. But when they unfolded their formations, they quietly left the mountain from the morning until dusk, and the five tribes' cavalry did not intend to attack. The five tribes' cavalry continued to advance slowly, thirty miles away, and the 12,000 cavalry had actually walked for a whole day. At noon, they saw their whistle cavalry in front, but at dusk, they still only saw their far-distance formation.

Li Keyong was very angry and took the initiative to order an attack. Five thousand infantrymen unfolded a huge steel square formation in the middle, and the five thousand cavalry wings spread out, slowly advancing like five tribe cavalry.

To be honest, Li Keyong did not want to fight with the Tang soldiers here, and he wasted his troops in vain. He set up a formation to fight, mainly because he wanted to scare away the five tribe cavalry with his momentum before the Tang infantry arrived. If these cavalry wanted to fight, he didn't have to worry. He was not too worried about the five tribe cavalry without the infantry coordination. Maybe he could defeat this cavalry unit in one fell swoop.

Sure enough, the cavalry of the Five Tribes were not sure whether they were afraid of the reputation of the Crow Army under Li Keyong, or were worried about the 5,000 infantry carried by Li Keyong. When the Shatuo Army slowly pressed on, the cavalry of the Five Tribes began to slowly retreat.

After advancing for a while, Li Keyong ordered a turn around and continue to move westward. But after they walked less than ten miles, the cavalry of the five tribes once again chased him from a distance and hung him four or five miles away.

Li Keyong ordered another order to turn around to face the enemy, and they turned around and retreated.

This process happened repeatedly. For three days, Li Keyong was as if he had been put on a dog skin plaster, and he could not be removed no matter how he was. Anyway, these cavalry were like rogues. When Shatuo army advanced, they followed. Shatuo army turned around and they retreated. After walking for three days, Li Keyong only advanced a hundred miles, and even had not even left Shuozhou.

In fact, Li Keyong had already realized on the first day that these were definitely not the style of the cavalry of the five tribes. They were all Hu people, and they fought for each other countless times for the Tang Dynasty, and they knew each other very well.

The Hu cavalry were very brave in fighting, but their style was closer to fighting and rushing hard, and what was lacking was formation strategy. But now, these cavalrymen were sticking like dog skin plaster. This was definitely their style. This was the command of the Tang army generals behind.

He has met the most difficult opponent, and the other party has seen through his eagerness to return. Their pursuits are not intended to fight with him, but to hold him back. It can be imagined that there must be more soldiers coming later, and they are trying to surround him.

Looking at the mountains, rivers and rivers on the map, Li Keyong had almost guessed the intentions of the enemy.

The Shatuo army was going to cross Yin Mountain to Baidao, and first of all, it was the Zhenwu Army territory. On their way forward, there were two big rivers, one was the Zihe and the other was the Jinhe. The enemy generals were definitely preparing to ambush themselves in the Zihe River. When their troops crossed the river halfway, they would attack at that time and attack halfway, which would be fatal.

Military experts all know that an army is the most vulnerable moment when crossing the river: not only the army is divided into two ends of the river bank and cannot be looked at each other, but the soldiers' psychology is also the most vulnerable at this time. If they are attacked by the enemy at this time, the entire army must be in chaos. If Shatuo Army wants to cross the river safely, it must first remove the threat behind.

Gai Yu looked at the map carefully and said after a long time: "Liuhou, the current situation must be solved before reaching Zihe. I have an idea. There is a dense forest not far ahead. After Liuhou tonight, Liuhou leads three thousand cavalry ambushed in the forest. Tomorrow I will lead a large army by. After the enemy cavalry catches up, the general will come out from behind. Then we will attack each other in front and back, and the enemy will be defeated."

Li Keyong was very happy and led 3,000 cavalry to hide in the roadside forest that night. The next day, Gaiyu led his army by, and the enemy cavalry indeed chased after him. After Li Keyong waited for the other side, he led his army out from behind, and Gaiyu also led the army back to attack.

A melee broke out between the two sides, but the cavalry of the five tribes was not in love with the battle. After discovering that they were in a vassal, they quickly left the battlefield. Although Li Keyong was victorious, he killed less than a thousand cavalry. When Li Keyong rushed to the road, the cavalry behind him were hanging far away. However, after a loss, he learned a lot of lessons this time. They followed behind, but sent countless scouts and cavalry to search along the way. Li Keyong's ambush was discovered several times.

Li Keyong was anxious and angry. It was not that he could not defeat the cavalry of the five tribes, but that the other party knew that he was eager to travel west, so he grasped his weakness. There was also a key point. Since the withdrawal of troops, he had only seen the five tribes of the Tang army, and did not find other troops.

The Tang army had a total of 80,000 troops in the eight towns. After the last battle, the Tang army lost about 30,000 people. In addition, Li Jing still had 15,000 people in Yunwei Prefectures. In total, there were more than 40,000 people. Now there are only 12,000 tribal cavalry, and the opponent still had at least about 20,000 infantry and cavalry, including Li Jing who captured Shanyang City.

The sound of the cavalry's hooves surprised Li Ke from his sleep. He touched the horizontal knife and pulled it out of his sheath, "What happened?"

Behind him was a cavalry of tens of thousands of people, which made Li Keyong unable to sleep well in the middle of the night.

"After staying, a team of messengers arrived and were discovered by the Tang army scouts behind them. When a battle broke out, our cavalry went up to support and had rescued several people." The guards reported loudly.

"Where did the messenger come from?" At this time, the messenger must have brought important news.

"From the east!" the guard replied.

Hearing that it was not from the west, Li Keyong breathed a sigh of relief. "Bring people."

When the messenger came in, he was covered in blood and injured in many places. When he saw Li Keyong, he immediately excitedly wanted to go forward to salute. Li Keyong held him, "You are injured, you don't have to salute. Where did you come from and what news do you bring?"

Xin pressed his left shoulder tightly with his hand, which was pierced by a scout of Tang Qi. Now the blood has not stopped completely. The blood is constantly soaked through the fingers pressed on the wound. In addition to this wound, there are several wounds on his body, and a thick layer of blood scab is formed on half of his face.

After a few breaths, he calmed himself a little, and the messenger said, "I am the personal soldiers of General Li Sien. We follow the intention of Liu Hou. Ten thousand soldiers and horses heading east. But after passing Huanghualiang, we entered Yunzhou, but in Qingdaopo, there were already a large army lying there. Our army was ambushed. General Li Sien and Li Sien led their brothers to fight bloody battles for a night, and they were never allowed to break through. On the afternoon of the second, all 10,000 troops in the army were wiped out."

When Li Keyong heard the news, he gritted his teeth, but did not make any noise. When he sent this army, he had already thought of this result, but now the result is a bit too fast.

"Where is Sien and Siben?" Li Keyong remembered his two adopted sons.

"The two generals led more than a hundred cavalry out of the siege. We returned to Shuozhou, but Jincheng and Sangang and four towns were occupied by the Tang army. The two generals were seriously injured and now hid in the Shenwuchuan Mountains. The two generals sent me to come. There was an important news to tell Liu Hou. The ambushed us in Yunzhou was Li Jing's town**, but it was not the cavalry he led, but the troops of Yunzhou and Weizhou that had been stationed. There were only a few Tang troops stationed in Jincheng. We captured several scouts of the Tang army. After interrogating, we learned that Li Jing and Zheng Cong-sei and other Tang troops entered Yunzhou several days ago and passed the Jingbian Army."
Chapter completed!