Chapter 172 Chapter 172 Will you come?

After hearing the report from his brother Yaonian, Shulido frowned and left the tent.

But at this time, Zhao Siwen also rode over from a distance, dismounted from his horse, and said in a deep voice: "Queen, more than ten miles to the north, our scouts have already engaged the royal court's scouts. There is no doubt about it, they are all genuine long-range blockers. They are approaching from three directions, and it is obvious that they are trying to find out our strength."

"How is the battle going?"

"The soldiers blocking us from afar are all riding in pairs of horses, coming and going like the wind. They are not willing to engage in battle easily, but are just trying to find out our size. Looking at their array, there should be more than a hundred cavalrymen, and there may be more behind us. Our men dare not pursue them too far, nor do they dare to fight for a long time, for fear of being trapped in a bitter battle and unable to escape. I will just ask the people below to lead them to another place..."

Zhao Siwen spat and shook his head, his face looking a little grim: "Last year when the king went south, he did not dispatch so many distant guards. I'm afraid Yelu Lage wants to swallow us up in one bite!"

Shuliduo walked towards the main tent, listened calmly, and then asked, "How many soldiers in the camp are ready to fight?"

Zhao Siwen followed closely, but his face was still not looking good. He replied: "The morale of the Mobei army has been somewhat dampened. Many of the generals' tribes are in the royal court, and now they have been in the south for nearly a year, so the army is more or less unstable. However, the Han army can still fight, and the surrendered troops of the Dangxiang, Tatar, and Uighur tribes can also be used."

The queen thought about it carefully and just shook her head.

The Han army had no more than 2,000 men, and the Tangut and other tribes had no more than 3,000 men, all of whom were infantry. How could they fight in the field? The Mobei army was a cavalry army. If they sent infantry to fight in the field and left the cavalry in the camp to guard the stronghold, it would inevitably be a waste of time.

Zhao Siwen said in a deep voice: "At the moment, I'm afraid we can only retreat to Gubeikou."

Shili Qixiang had never been qualified to join in the conversation, so she took the opportunity to offer her advice: "Your Majesty, these distant blockade troops are probably not only trying to find the main camp. Yelu Lage was so afraid of you before, and now that he has the chance, he will probably try to find out where you are. In my opinion, these distant blockade troops are just an appetizer. If they get close to the main camp and cooperate with the vanguard troops behind them to entangle us, we will be in trouble..."

Zhao Siwen nodded in agreement and said, "The most urgent task is to send people to stop Yuan Lanzi and the vanguard army behind him, so as to buy time for the main camp to retreat to Gubeikou. This can be done by sending a general. Although the morale of the Mobei army is unstable, it is still capable of fighting a little. The queen only needs to send 2,000 cavalry to exchange a small part for the large army. As long as they can hold back the vanguard army for a few days, the main army will have enough strength to turn around."

Shulido heard what the two said, but did not answer immediately. Instead, he went into the tent, looked at the map hanging on the wooden frame, and pondered for a moment.

Most of the generals had been sent out to supervise their subordinates, and now there were only a few people in the tent. Seeing that Shuliduo did not say anything, everyone, including Zhao Siwen, just waited for orders.

After a moment, Shuliduo turned around with his hands behind his back, and calmly glanced at the generals, and asked: "If this queen leaves, facing the raging army of the royal court, will the men sent to stop the vanguard army be defeated without a fight?"

"Queen..." Seri Kika was hesitant to speak.

The other generals were silent for a moment.

Indeed, now that the king's court has changed its master, the Mobei Army is able to gather around Shuliduo in panic, because their Queen does have enough majesty and charm to deserve their following. But if Shuliduo is not here, who knows if they will not betray Shuliduo?
Even many of the Mobei generals in the camp now may find it difficult to remain loyal to Shulido when facing the powerful Yelu Lagu, let alone facing tens of thousands of royal troops in the future.

The people on the grasslands don't care much about loyalty. The tribe will follow whoever benefits them, and they will stick to it forever. But now it seems that Shuliduo may not be able to protect their tribe for the time being...

"And more." Shuliduo said calmly, "If I leave, will Yelu Lage chase me all the way to Gubeikou?"

The generals looked at each other, and no one could answer.

Shuliduo had intended to use herself as bait when she left the grasslands. If she had stayed inside the pass, Yelu Lage would have been bored and would have led his troops south. A year ago, Yelu Abaoji dared to lead his troops into Yan because Liu Shouwen cooperated with him. However, Yelu Lage had no allies in Yan. He did not need to go south right after ascending the throne. If he suffered a great defeat like Yelu Abaoji, his throne might have been unstable.

But now, Yelu Lage must have heard that Shuliduo had returned to the grassland to compete with him for power, so he rushed south like a wild dog that had smelled something, for fear that Shuliduo had retreated back to the interior of the country.

But if Shuliduo retreated to Gubeikou, who knew whether Yelulag would follow and attack Gubeikou where a large army was defending? If he retreated to the royal court, Shuliduo would not be able to travel 3,000 miles to the royal court to fight a decisive battle with Yelulag. The royal court was now Yelulag's home ground. She could only lead him here and extend Yelulag's logistics line to have a chance of a decisive battle.

And Xiao Yan would send troops to help, because according to Shuliduo's idea, Xiao Yan would never travel three thousand miles to the royal court to fight for her.

In her opinion, Xiao Yan was not a fool, and there was no need to take the risk of going deep into the grassland. If he was not careful, he might end up in a terrible defeat. She could only lure Yelu Lage to a place only 80 miles away from Gubeikou to lure Xiao Yan to send troops.

The word "cooperation" is full of calculations.

Shuliduo is a rational woman. She never thinks that one or two encounters of affection can make a hero willing to take risks for her. Only when there are enough benefits and Xiao Yan can see that there is considerable reward and hope of winning this battle, can this cooperative relationship be maintained flawlessly.

She didn't want to go back like this.

Only if she really stayed here could she lure Yelu Lage to come all the way over and get that slight chance.

Only by cooperating with Xiao Yan to defeat Yelu Lage in a battle can she regain her power and her royal court.

If she loses this opportunity, how can she know whether Xiao Yan will cooperate with her in sending troops next time?
Everyone in the tent looked at Shuliduo's indifferent face and was speechless for a moment. After a while, Zhao Siwen persuaded them, "Queen, the king's army is not a lie. Our army has 20,000 soldiers and has the advantage of terrain. However, how can we fight if the army is unstable? I dare to say that even if you, the queen, are stationed here in person, I am afraid you can only hold out for less than half a month..."

"Half a month is enough."

Shuliduo turned around and pointed at the map. This was a map of the terrain around the camp, which she had specially arranged after a field survey. According to the map, their camp was located on a mountain range called Hengshan, which was known as "a mountain range that stretches across like a barrier."

She said, "When Yelu Lage knows that the Queen is here, she will surely launch a massive attack. The morale of the Mobei army is unstable, and the Royal Court army is indeed coming aggressively. However, we can rely on the mountain terrain to hold on. The camp has sufficient supplies, food, and equipment. Bei'an Prefecture is poor, and the remaining tribes are not enough to supply the Royal Court army. We can only rely on transportation from the rear. How can we not fight them?"

"But..." Zhao Siwen wanted to persuade him.

"Don't say any more!" Shuliduo glanced at everyone, his eyes were as fast as lightning, and there was only the word "majesty" in them.

"Even if Yelu Lage leads an army of 50,000 or 100,000, what can he do? How can we be afraid without fighting? He usurped the throne, and the eight tribes are only temporarily dependent on him. If he goes south and causes a stalemate here, he will be the one in trouble, not us!"

Everyone in the tent suddenly fell silent and did nothing but obey.

But several Mobei generals who had been silent all this time suddenly said, "According to the queen, we can only stay here. If Yelu Lage insists on letting his men die, this place is indeed dangerous, but it is not a strong city like the Han people. It will eventually be broken by the lives of the people. After half a month, what will happen to us..."

Shuliduo glanced over, her face showing no emotion. With just one glance, she made these people dare not look at her directly. They all said in a stiff manner, "In this case, we can only die with our men to serve the queen..."

"It's not just that." Shuliduo said calmly: "General Xiao in the south will send troops to support me. I believe you all know General Xiao's strength. As long as you can work together to hold on here and help me attract Yelu Lage to stay here, there will naturally be a day for counterattack."

Naturally everyone knew who this General Xiao was. Until now they still had a thousand Mobei cavalrymen under the command of General Xiao. However, they had said a month ago that General Xiao would send troops, but now it was the middle of the month and there was no sign of any troops from the south.

However, at this critical moment, Shuliduo's prestige still could not be doubted by others. All the generals saluted in unison and left the tent one after another to discipline and appease their respective subordinates.

At this time, Zhao Siwen who stayed in the tent said in a deep voice: "According to the information from Gubeikou, Yandi is still in chaos, and there is no news about General Xiao. The information came just two days ago, saying that the Yan army had broken through Youzhou. Excluding the time required for the messenger to deliver the information, Youzhou was only broken four days ago. Even if General Xiao can quickly take back Youzhou, Youzhou is three or four hundred miles away, and it will take nearly ten days to march day and night..." He paused and said, "This is still under a smooth situation. If General Xiao insists on playing with fire and the Yan army is in a state of disarray, the queen ordered us to hold on here. Can we wait for reinforcements from the south?"

Shuliduo said calmly: "Then let's postpone it."

"But Yuan has already stopped him..." Zhao Siwen reminded.

The queen narrowed her eyes and said, "It's just a long-range blockade. Even if there are thousands of vanguards behind them, what's there to be afraid of?"

Without her order, Shiri Qixiang at the side immediately asked for the order.

"Queen, I can go north. Let the chariot follow me, and give me another hundred cavalrymen. I can hold back the vanguard for a few days!"

Unexpectedly, Shuliduo shook her head and said, "You can't."

"slave……"

"Since there is a wizard on the other side and Da He Feng is seriously injured, you and Yao Yan will only die even if you have a hundred riders."

Shuliduo stood with his hands behind his back, looking at a larger map, which was a large map with the entire Hebei Province marked on it.

Her eyes fell on the word "Youzhou". She was silent for a long time, then slowly said, "Go tell Aunt Ao to let her go."

"But Aogu will stay in the camp to protect your safety." Shili Qixiang said anxiously: "I am willing to die, they are just a few wizards. For the queen's cause, I can save their lives even if I die!"

Zhao Siwen on the side was silent. Although this close attendant of Shuliduo was a little arrogant and rude most of the time, he was indeed loyal to Shuliduo.

The queen glanced at Shili Qixiang and said coldly, "I am not afraid of your life, but I am thinking about the overall situation. Tell me the truth, can you really stop those wizards?"

Shirikika was speechless.

"Oh, I know what Yelu Lage is thinking. He saw that Yao Nian and Da He Feng were in Bei'an Prefecture to buy time for me. Now Da He Feng is seriously injured, and he knows that Ao Gu is here. He has sent a group of wizards here. If I want to continue to delay time, I can only send Ao Gu away. He has put in so much effort, but it's just to lure Ao Gu away from me. This is an open conspiracy, and I have no choice but to fall for it."

"But with his brain, I'm afraid he can't think of such a complicated thing." Shuliduo sneered, "As for the person in the royal court who can give him this idea, it's only Yelu Diela. I want to see if he has only learned this trick of luring the tiger away from the mountain after reading Han Chinese articles for so many years."

Shili Qixiang was stunned. How could the queen figure out so many things just from Yaoyan's few words?
Then he became a little panicked. Yelu Diela was the king's third brother. He was said to be very mysterious. He had been learning witchcraft with the old shaman of the Daha family since he was a child. He was also the most knowledgeable person in the entire Yelu family.

But such a rare intellectual in the Yelu family would actually come down on his own to deal with his own niece one day...

"But third brother...Yelü Diela has been practicing witchcraft for decades, and Ao Gu is only fifteen years old this year..." Shili Qixiang said in a low voice.

"Aogu knows what to do."

Shuliduo did not even turn his head and said indifferently: "Since Yelu Diela wants to die, let him do it."

Shirikika didn't refute.

Aogu is a psychic body and the reincarnation of a goddess. She is the contemporary great shaman personally selected by the previous great shaman Dokuohuo in his dream. She has an extremely strong body and has inherited almost all the spells of the previous generation of shamans. No one knows how strong she is, but it is definitely not comparable to Yelu Dieladuo's dozen of years of practice.

As for why she was worried, it was simply because Ao Gu's last defeat in Yuyang left her with a psychological trauma.

But now, it is in the northern desert, the grassland, and outside the Great Wall.

The Central Plains is a vast land with abundant resources and many extraordinary people. It is understandable that they suffered a temporary defeat...

Thinking of this, Shili Qixiang didn't think any more and lowered his head.

"Leader!"

…………

Seeing that the arrangement was safe, Zhao Siwen retreated immediately. In the huge main tent, Shulido was the only one left.

She stood in front of the map with her hands behind her back, her eyes fixed on the word "Youzhou".

When Zhao Siwen spoke just now, she almost refuted it immediately, but even she herself did not say for sure that Xiao Yan would send troops as promised.

Shulido closed her eyes.

Will it come?

Li Jiulang.

------

Danzhou, ten miles east of Hengshan City, in a fortress.

The young and strong men in the fort had already joined the Yan army, and the only ones left in the fort were the old and weak who refused to leave.

But on this day, there were shadowy figures in the fort, all of them were short and strong men riding horses passing by.

At the entrance of the fort, there were still several dead bodies lying on the ground. All the clothes on their bodies had been stripped off, and the corpses were left there naked.

In a house somewhere, Yelu Abaoji shaved his beard clean, looked at himself in the water, and smiled with satisfaction.

"It's time for me, Liu Yi, to serve the Yan army."

(End of this chapter)