Brother Yelvxiu reported: "If it is not a very important matter, I would never dare to disturb His Majesty's sleep. There is really an urgent military situation to report."

Yelu Shulu bowed his hands impatiently and said: "Since the military situation is urgent, let's talk quickly and don't talk nonsense."

"I have learned that Zhou Guoheng's naval commander Xu Xian has led a large number of cavalry to sneak into the grassland, and is now more than a hundred miles north of Yanshan Mountain."

Yelu Shulu, who was originally drowsy, opened his eyes wide, "No way, there is no way they could have arrived on the grassland silently." He turned around and glared at Xiao Siwen fiercely, "Xiao Siwen, you are as timid as a mouse.

You idiot, how could you let five thousand people sneak out to the grassland under your nose!"

Although Xiao Siwen was Yelv Shulu's biological brother-in-law, he was merciless when he scolded him. Xiao Siwen looked embarrassed and explained with cupped hands: "It was my fault to let the Zhou army push to the Yongding River. I was reprimanded by your majesty."

I felt deeply guilty after that, and I kept on guard with all my heart and never let any Zhou army cross the river."

Brother Yelvxiu said: "Your Majesty, please do not wrongly blame Lieutenant Xiao. Such important news came from the spy he sent to Zhou's army." As he said this, he handed over the note Xiao Siwen gave him.

Yelu Shulu glanced at the note and said, "Then I mistakenly blamed Taiwei Xiao. You should be credited with this matter."

Xiao Siwen glanced at Brother Yelvxiu gratefully, "I will be loyal to Your Majesty, and I dare not take any credit."

"The credit belongs to you. Don't be as hypocritical as the Han people." Yelu Shulu asked seriously: "What do you think the purpose of this Zhou army that sneaked into the grassland is?"

Brother Yelvxiu replied: "I thought that this partial division was to cooperate with the Zhou army to attack our army. It seems that the rumors of Emperor Zhou's illness are true, otherwise they would not have hurriedly withdrawn and left this partial division on the grassland.

.”

"This must be the case. If more than ten thousand cavalry suddenly appeared from behind during the duel between me and Guo Rong, the outcome would be unpredictable. Guo Rong is really insidious." Yelv Shulu patted the table and said: "Brother Yelu Xiu,

I will give you five thousand men and horses... no, I will give you ten thousand! When I leave, you and Xiao Siwen will destroy this partial army of the Zhou Kingdom and build their heads into a Jingguan by the Yongding River. Take a look.

There are still people in the Southern Dynasties who dare to offend the power of the Liao Dynasty!"

"Here!" Brother Yelvxiu and Xiao Siwen accepted the order in unison.

Brother Yelvxiu asked again: "Where are you going, Your Majesty?"

Yelu Shulu replied: "Since the news of Guo Rong's illness has been confirmed to be true, the Zhou army will not come to attack Youzhou in a short time. I have to go back to Beijing. I can't sleep well without the spacious dragon bed."

Comfortable.”

When encountering such an emperor, what should the ministers do? Since it is confirmed that the Zhou emperor is ill, shouldn't we take the opportunity to regain the lost territory?

Brother Yelvxiu begged: "Your Majesty cannot go back to Beijing!"

Yelu Shulu asked displeasedly: "Why, I have already discussed this with the ministers. Do I still need to personally lead the army to annihilate the tens of thousands of Zhou troops?"

"Your Majesty, what I mean is that since the Emperor of Zhou is seriously ill, it is impossible to continue to gather heavy troops at the border between the two countries, otherwise he will be in danger of losing the country. Why doesn't Your Majesty take the opportunity to regain the lost territory!"

Xiao Siwen reciprocated the favor and took the opportunity to admonish: "Brother Yelvxiu is right. Your Majesty should take the opportunity to regain the lost territory..."

"Bold, those city passes were obviously lost in your hands, but it makes no sense to ask me to recover them. If you have the ability, just go and recover them. Anyway, I am going back to Beijing."

Yelu Shulu stood up, stretched and yawned: "Go out immediately, I'm going to sleep!"

Yelu Shulu kept his promise and left Yanshan with his army the next day and returned to the court in great force.

Brother Yelvxiu stayed with 10,000 palace troops, and together with Xiao Siwen, he was responsible for exterminating Xu Xian who had sneaked into the grassland and regaining the lost territory.

After the army left, Brother Yeluxiu looked back helplessly at Xiao Siwen, "I wonder how many soldiers and horses the Taiwei has under his command?"

Xiao Siwen replied: "There are a total of 60,000 Han soldiers under my command, including 18,000 cavalry, and the rest are infantry. Sun Ning doesn't really intend to regain the lost territory, does he?"

"This is His Majesty's will."

Xiao Siwen said: "My troops and horses are more than enough to defend Youzhou, but it is impossible to expect them to regain the lost ground. Your Majesty did not say it casually. Xun Ning must remember not to take it seriously. If the attack on the city is not successful and the Zhou army comes back, it will not be good.

, let’s not provoke them. Just wipe out the partial forces on the grassland, and we will have an account with His Majesty.”

With this attitude, it is no wonder that Xiao Siwen retreated again and again. It is incomparable to think that Zhao Kuangyin dared to attack the city with only thousands of troops in Huainan.

Brother Yelvxiu also knew that Yelu Shulu was deliberately embarrassing the two of them. What Xiao Siwen said was somewhat reasonable, so he said: "Then I will give your Majesty an explanation for annihilating this partial army of Zhou State. My trip will not be in vain. That

Where is the slave? Ask him to lead the scouts to the north of Yanshan Mountain to search for traces of the Zhou army."

——————

Xu Xian was lying on the grass, chewing grass leaves and looking at the blue sky and white clouds above his head. Despite his leisurely appearance, he was extremely anxious in his heart. The scouts who contacted the army had been sent out for a long time, but they still had not returned. He did not think that

Those well-trained scouts will fall into the hands of the Khitans. The most likely reason is that Chai Rong has already withdrawn, and it will be useless for them to come back.

"Your Majesty, why haven't the scouts come back yet? Do you want to send out more groups?"

Hearing Pan Mei's voice, Xu Xian felt a fire of ignorance in his heart. If he hadn't ordered the ships to evacuate, he wouldn't have had any way to retreat. Now if he wanted to return to the Great Zhou Dynasty, he could either pass through Youzhou directly.

Or we can only take a detour to Yunzhou.

As the Liao Kingdom, Youzhou in Nanjing already had heavy troops. At this moment, there are more than 100,000 troops stationed on the side of Yanshan Mountain. Passing through Youzhou is no different from crossing the gate of hell.

The road to Yunzhou was long and unavoidable, and it would inevitably have many obstacles. It also had to pass through the territory of the Later Han Dynasty. If thousands of cavalry were blocked in front of a pass, they might be directly dumped and annihilated.

If Xu Xian was alone, it would not be difficult for him to travel over mountains and ridges on remote roads and return to the Zhou Kingdom with his ability to survive in the wild. But how could he give up so many brothers?

He rolled his eyes and said angrily: "There's no need to send more people. It's useless to send more people."

Pan Mei frowned and said bluntly: "Your Majesty seems to be extremely dissatisfied with your humble position in the past few days. If there is anything wrong with your humble behavior, your Majesty will make it clear."

"Then let me tell you, you have led thousands of us to a dead end, can I still give you any good looks?"

Pan Mei smiled and said: "Your Majesty is actually a stingy person. How could he be angry because his subordinate ordered the ship to leave? Your Majesty need not worry too much. As long as we work together with the army to defeat the Liao army, we will have a way out."

"What if I told you that the army has withdrawn now?"

Pan Mei was startled and then laughed and said: "Your Majesty is joking, don't you understand your Majesty's character? He is a person who will never give up until he achieves his goal. Even if he is temporarily frustrated, he will quickly regroup. Now the soldiers of Zhou Dynasty are strong, and the soldiers of Youzhou are strong.

Ma is by no means an opponent of our army. It is not impossible for various states and counties to decide according to the propaganda like Ningzhou. If the humble position is not bad, your Majesty should have captured the three passes and marched to the Yongding River at this moment. There is absolutely no reason to withdraw the troops.

.”

"Anyway, I can't explain it to you. Supervisor Pan can eat more of whatever he wants these days, so as not to starve to death on the way to hell."

"I'm about to tell you about this. We don't have much food anymore. We can last for another day at most."

"There's nothing I can do about this. If it doesn't work, let's rob and kill another small tribe."

"How this makes it easy to expose the trail."

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" Xiaozi suddenly ran back in a hurry with a man, "Your Majesty, the scout is back."

When Pan Mei heard this, she said happily: "I just said that the army will not withdraw." He then asked the soldiers around Xiaozi, "Have you ever seen your Majesty?"

Xiao Zi laughed and said: "The supervisors made a mistake. This scout was just sent out by the lower official to inspect the Liao army in the morning. Tell your Lordship what you know!"

The scout immediately reported to Xu Xian: "Returning to your Majesty, my subordinates discovered today that the Liao army at the foot of Yan Mountain has withdrawn."

When Pan Mei heard this, her expression suddenly changed. He grabbed the scout's shoulders and asked, "Are you sure the Liao army has withdrawn?"

The scout replied: "My subordinates are sure that the Liao army has withdrawn and is heading northeast."

When Pan Mei heard this, she staggered and almost fell to the ground. The Liao Kingdom would not withdraw its troops without any reason. The only possibility was that the Zhou army also withdrew and there was no possibility of coming back.

Just like what he said just now, Chai Rong had absolutely no reason to withdraw his troops. The only reason he could think of was Chai Rong's death or a mutiny, but he had nowhere to prove it.

At this moment, instead of worrying about Chai Rong, they should worry about themselves. The retreat of Zhou's army means that they are completely alone in the enemy's territory. Just like Xu Xian said, they have reached a dead end.

By the way, why did Xu Xian know that the army would evacuate? Unless he knew about it in advance and even directly participated in the conspiracy, he suddenly turned his head to look at Xu Xian.

Xu Xian suddenly stood up, laughed and shouted: "Brothers, get up, I have something important to tell you."

Many people immediately emerged from the lush grass, and everyone's face was full of red envelopes, all of which were bitten by mosquitoes in the grass.

Dakui threw away the grass leaves on his head and said, "If you have anything to say, please speak directly and I will listen!"

Xu Xian said loudly: "Brothers, do you know what is the purpose of us traveling through mountains and rivers and suffering all the hardships to get here?"

Wu Liang replied: "Aren't you here under His Majesty's military order to lurk and cooperate with the army to attack the Liao army?"

"That's right! We are here under His Majesty's military orders to cooperate with the army to attack the Liao army!" Xu Xian paused, "But just now, Xiaozi found out that the Liao army has withdrawn to Beijing."

All the soldiers laughed loudly after hearing this, and then yelled and cursed, "I heard that the Khitan barbarians are good at fighting, but they ran away before the fight started. What a fucking coward!"

"The Khitan people must be afraid of His Majesty Tianwei, these eggless cowards!"

"Nonsense, you are obviously afraid of your reputation!"

"Your Majesty, why don't you take us to Shangjing and grab a Khitan girl to warm your bed?"

…

Xu Xian snorted heavily, "You only want good things. It seems you don't have many good ideas. You still don't know what it means for Liao to withdraw its troops!"

He turned his head to look at Pan Mei, who looked ashen-faced, and said, "It seems that Supervisor Pan should understand. Please explain it to the brothers."

Pan Mei stood up and looked at the people at the foot of the slope and said: "The withdrawal of the Liao army means that our Zhou army has also withdrawn and will not come back again."

Everyone who was laughing just now fell silent, but soon broke out into hysterical roars. Da Kui rushed forward and grabbed Pan Mei by the collar, "You mean the court left us here! Your Majesty

Abandoned us! Yes and no!"

You can't blame Dakui for getting angry at Pan Mei, because the supervisory army represents the emperor. Pan Mei did not struggle and defended: "There must be a very serious change in the army, and your Majesty has no choice."

Jiubao said: "Even if the court changes the emperor, we can't be left here and run away!"

"That's right, the army has left, and we are just waiting to die here. The court wants to give us an explanation!"

"I'm almost dead, what else do I need to explain!"
To be continued...