Taiping Inn

The Yan family caravan set out on the journey again. What surprised Yan Qing was that their luck along the way was too good. They didn't encounter any horse thieves, which was completely different from the danger described by Uncle Zhang. Zhang Wendun was speechless about this, but his heart was a little heavy. As the saying goes, the cicadas are aware of the autumn wind before it blows, and the wind starts from the end of the green duckweed. These horse thieves are actually the weather vane on the grassland. When the horse thieves disappear one after another, it means that the grassland has changed and something big will happen. But they have no way out and can only bite the bullet and move forward.

However, Li Xuandu knew in his heart that in addition to the fact that something had happened inside the royal court, Ning Yi's deliberate restraint of the horse thieves was also one of the reasons. After all, the old Khan's poor health was a top secret. Even Zhao Zheng had only vaguely guessed it through Qin Xiang's military report and the news sent back by the royal court's spies, but there was no real evidence, so Li Xuandu had to go to the Golden Horde in person.

Li Xuandu mobilized Shi Wuyue and Ning Yi to the royal court this time, not to sneak into the royal court, but to wait outside the royal court, and to pick up Li Xuandu if something happened. As the saying goes, if you want to win, you must first consider the defeat. If Li Xuandu was injured in the royal court, he could leave calmly with the help of two great masters of the heavenly realm. But if Li Xuandu was alone, he would probably lose his life on the grassland.

Although Liaodong and the grassland have snowed several times since the beginning of winter, the grassland is vast, and it is not snowing everywhere, let alone white disasters. After a long snowy road, the caravan entered a road that was not covered with snow. However, after the beginning of winter, the water dried up and the grass turned yellow. If a fire broke out at this time, the wildfire on the grassland would be faster than a horse, so we must be careful.

The caravan stopped at a water source. From here, it went north for more than 300 miles and officially entered the core area of ​​the Golden Horde Royal Court. In the past few days, Li Xuandu rode the wind at night and patrolled the surroundings. He found traces of Liaodong cavalry hundreds of miles away, which surprised him. Could it be that the Liaodong cavalry had turned from defense to offense and entered the territory of the Golden Horde? Or was it that the Khan of the grassland became more and more ill, causing the Golden Horde army to lose its morale and had to retreat, and Qin Xiang took this opportunity to advance in large numbers and take the opportunity to severely damage the Golden Horde army.

After thinking about it, Li Xuandu was more inclined to the latter.

From ancient times to the present, the overall strength of the Central Plains has been stronger than that of the grasslands, but just like fighting in the rivers and lakes, it is not that you can be invincible if you have a high level, so sometimes the grassland army can also invade the Central Plains, and even seize the Central Plains when the Central Plains is weak due to internal strife. However, due to various reasons, the Hu Lu did not have a hundred years of national destiny, and even if they could gain power for a while, they could not last long.

The last time the grasslands went south to seize the world was at the end of the Jin Dynasty, but only about ten years later, Emperor Taizu of Wei rose in the chaos, expelled the Golden Horde army, and established the Wei Dynasty. After that, Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong launched several northern expeditions, forcing the Golden Horde to relocate the royal court several times. The most dangerous one was that only the Khan and dozens of other riders escaped, and the Wei Dynasty captured hundreds of Yanshi, Nayan, and noble women. However, this was also the last few great victories of the Central Plains people. Later, all the guards and dusi established by Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong of Wei on the grasslands were abandoned one by one. In the early years of the Wei Dynasty, the first land was established, starting from Liaodong in the east, Kunlun in the west, Lingnan in the south, and Daqi in the north, 11,750 miles from east to west and 10,940 miles from north to south. Since Renzong abandoned Daning and moved to Dongsheng, Xuanzong moved Kaiping to Dushi, and Shizong abandoned Hami and Hetao again, the east stretches from Liaohai to Xiliang in the west, to Qiongya in the south, and to Yunshuo in the north, covering more than 10,000 miles from east to west and 10,000 miles from north to south. By the reign of Muzong, the Wei Dynasty had completely switched to passive defense, which led to the Golden Horde's march from the northwest to capture Liang and Qin states and approach the city of Xijing. Even when Qin Xiang later recovered Qinzhou and Liangzhou, it was just a recovery, and he was still trapped in the situation at the time and could not counterattack. It can be said that this time the Liaodong cavalry invaded the Golden Horde, more than a hundred years after the last time.

If nothing unexpected happens, Zhao Zheng will report to the court to ask for merit for Qin Xiang, and the court may have to let Qin Xiang return to his post, and in order to check and balance Zhao Zheng, either Qin Xiang will be summoned to Beijing, or he will be promised a high position and generous salary to create opposition within Liaodong. However, if Qin Xiang does not have other ideas, these means will ultimately be useless.

Li Xuandu looked to the north. On this line, there were several guard posts abandoned by the Wei Dynasty. Further north was the old site of the Golden Horde. The reason why it was called the old site was that the Wei Dynasty's general defeated the Golden Horde army and captured the Khan Yanshi here, while the Khan could only flee in a hurry under the protection of the elite Qiexue. For the Golden Horde, this was a place of shame.

Today's old Khan is the great-great-grandson of the Khan. He had come to the old site of the royal court several times to worship his ancestors. In his prime, he was determined to avenge his humiliation, and the Golden Horde army went south several times. Finally, in his twilight years, he attacked the city of Xijing and forced the Central Plains court to seek peace. This was the proudest thing in the life of the old Khan of the Golden Horde, and he also regarded it as a revenge for his ancestors.

At this moment, Li Xuandu suddenly felt a violent fluctuation of the vitality of heaven and earth.

In the Central Plains, a true Heavenly Man Realm Grandmaster rarely makes a big move unless it is a critical moment. This is because in the eyes of other Heavenly Man Realm Grandmasters, this move is like a candle at night, very dazzling, and it is easy to reveal your whereabouts and cause trouble. Therefore, there is an unwritten rule among Heavenly Man Realm Grandmasters that the less ostentatious and the more understated the move, the more brilliant it is.

However, in the Golden Horde, there seems to be no such rule.

Li Xuandu's heart moved, and he looked around to see that no one was paying attention to him, and his figure flashed away.

Hundreds of miles away from the caravan, there was a group of dozens of cavalrymen. In addition to the usual cavalry equipment, these people also carried three-eyed guns. The three-eyed gun is a short firearm cast from fine iron. The appearance is three bamboo-shaped single guns, and there is a small hole on the outside of each gun barrel. When using it, add gunpowder to the gun barrel, and finally load steel balls or cast iron blocks, broken iron sand, etc., add a matchlock to the small hole, ignite the matchlock when using it, detonate the loaded gunpowder to launch the projectile, and the three gun barrels can be fired in turn. There is a handle at the tail of the three-eyed gun, and wooden poles of varying lengths are installed for holding to ensure the safety of the shooter.

The three-eyed gun is very common in the Wei army. The disadvantage is that the range is short, it cannot compare with the crossbow, and the loading speed is too slow. However, it has been improved over the years. Flint is added to the three-eyed gun. It only needs to be struck with a firing pin, and there is no need to burn the matchlock. In addition, the three-eyed gun itself is not light and is made of fine iron. It can be used as a hammer in close combat. With one hammer, the brain splashes. When shooting projectiles at close range, the range is irrelevant. It is a first-class close combat weapon. It is just because it is expensive and there is a risk of bursting if you are not careful. It cannot be made as crudely as swords, so it cannot be equipped in the army on a large scale and is only used by elite cavalry.

At this time, these cavalrymen were covered with dust and blood, and almost everyone was injured, as if they had just experienced a war. Looking at their attire, they should be the Night Warriors in the Liaodong Cavalry.

Not far behind them, it was not the Golden Horde Cavalry who were also riding horses, but a team of Golden Horde masters walking on foot.

There were not many of them, they were dressed in different ways, both men and women, but all of them were masters of superior martial arts, and they caused this team of elite night soldiers to suffer heavy losses.

The so-called night soldiers are scouts in the army, because they are active outside all night, so they are called night soldiers.

In theory, scouts should act separately, but at this time, because the Liaodong army was in the stage of pursuit and counterattack, Qin Xiang reorganized these elite scouts into several elite cavalry of more than 100 people, following behind the Golden Horde Army, like a thorn in the side. The Golden Horde Army suffered terribly. They wanted to wipe out these elite cavalry, but they were delayed and caught up by the Liaodong cavalry. If they did not care, they would suffer continuous losses, and it was very painful when the accumulation of small losses made a big difference.

It was not until this noble guard appeared that these night soldiers fell.

If ordinary servants are the elite in the army, then the night soldiers are the elite among the elite. More than a hundred elite riders were not collected at night. Everyone had the cultivation level of the Divine Realm, and some even had the cultivation level of the Dan Realm. Because they had been in battle for a long time, their real combat power was often higher than their original realm. In addition, they were good at joint attack in the military formation and had tacit cooperation. Even if they encountered a master of the Return to Truth Realm, they could still find a way to surround and kill him. However, they never expected that there was a great master of the Heaven Realm hidden in this team, which caused them heavy losses. However, this great master of the Heaven Realm was not in a hurry to kill. Like a cat playing with a mouse, he followed behind and let his men chase and kill slowly.