"The smell of blood in the air is getting stronger, but why can't we find our people?"
Su Dingfang said in some surprise that they had already found quite a few tribes and learned the whereabouts of the Tang army from them. The sounding balloons should have been launched near them by now, but because of the cloudy sky, the visibility was unclear.
"Send out double the number of scouts."
Li Xiang was also a little anxious at this time, because he got a message from the captives that the Tang army had suffered heavy losses. Compared with when they just entered the grassland, their army had lost nearly half of its troops. Generally speaking, an army is likely to be defeated when it loses one-third of its troops. This is because they are all the elite of the Tang Dynasty, otherwise they would have collapsed long ago.
Because of the rain, the grassland is now muddy and Li Xiang is having a hard time.
"Your Highness, look, the water in this river is red."
Just when they couldn't find a leader, one of their young men came over to the river. He wanted to fetch water. Although Li Xiang didn't allow them to drink raw water, there was no other way in the emergency. When some blood appeared in the river, he walked upstream. It turned out that the red color upstream was darker. This guy didn't dare to delay and hurried back to report.
"Take the weather balloon and your two thousand cavalrymen and search upstream along the river."
Finally, some information was found. Although there were other tribes around, according to the report from the people on the balloon, those tribes had been burned to ashes. It was obvious that this was a gathering place for Turks in the past, but because of the war, they have all disappeared, cutting off Li Xiang's idea of getting information from them.
Li Xiang had a bad premonition in his heart, a premonition that had never appeared before. If possible, Li Xiang would rather set off a few days earlier. Even if he did not receive Li Shimin's order, he should have set off a few days earlier.
"Your Highness, look, it's just upstream."
A flare rose in the distant sky. This was also temporarily developed by Li Xiang and his team. In fact, it was just a grenade filled with some colored sand. The people on the sounding balloon threw it directly out. The grenade exploded in the sky and could be seen within a dozen kilometers.
"Everyone, break camp and charge!"
Finally, there was news. Li Xiang immediately mounted his warhorse and rushed out with 8,000 cavalrymen. The rest of the people dismantled the tents on the spot. They had to take these things with them. It would be a protracted battle on the grassland, and they could not throw these things away. What's more, there was a large amount of gunpowder behind. It was raining in the sky now, and they had packed up the gunpowder. If they were not careful, the gunpowder would be useless if it got wet.
King Wu Li Ge could no longer hold on. After he killed four people, he saw a knife about to stab into his throat. Fortunately, Li Zhilong rushed over and saved his life. Otherwise, he might have been the first Tang prince to die in battle on the grassland.
The situation around was also very bad. Several lines of defense had been breached. Behind the Tang soldiers, there were some Xueyantuo soldiers rushing in. The entire camp was about to fall into chaos. No matter how hard they tried, the gap in strength was there. King Wu Li Ke closed his eyes helplessly. He no longer had the strength to stand up. Now he could only wait for God's judgment.
"Your Majesty, come and see. Your Majesty, come and see. Our people are our people."
A soldier waved the steel knife in his hand and said that behind the Turkic soldiers, a cavalry rushed in directly. Although the number of people was not large, their impact force was very strong.
"It's our Tang Dynasty army."
Everyone could see clearly that there was a huge Tang character waving in front of them. With such a military flag on the grassland, could it be the Xueyantuo army?
"They finally found us, and our reinforcements finally arrived."
Many soldiers were crying with joy at this moment. They still couldn't hold on any longer, but after seeing our army, they didn't know what was happening, their whole bodies seemed to be full of strength. They picked up their steel knives and chopped down the enemies in front of them. Now the reinforcements are next to us, we can't collapse at the last moment.
The young general only brought two thousand men, but even with only two thousand men, he did not retreat at all. He led his men to rush into the army of the young Turkic king. The two thousand men were holding crossbows in their hands. No matter where they rushed to, the troops in various places fell down in large numbers.
When the ten sleeve arrows were fired, these people also took out the steel knives in their hands. Facing tens of thousands of grasslands, these people were not afraid at all. Under the leadership of the young general, they rushed straight to the center of the Xueyantuo army.
"He is a good man of the Tang Dynasty."
King Wu Li Ke also saw this scene, but he felt a little sad in his heart. These people were all Li Xiang's subordinates. He was just a small general, but he dared to attack the Xueyantuo's central army with two thousand people. In the entire Tang Dynasty army, he could be said to be at the forefront.
"Don't worry about those people. They only have 2,000 men. They can't do anything special. Continue to attack the Tang army in front and make sure to capture their prince."
Xueyantuo Khan was not a fool. He understood very clearly at this moment that if these people bought him time, then there would be no way to capture the King of Wu. The most important thing now was to capture a person of status. Only by capturing a person of status would he have the conditions to negotiate with the Tang Dynasty.
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt some vibration on his left side. They had always lived on the grassland, so they naturally understood what was going on. It should be that a lot of cavalry came from that side.
"Take your cavalry and hold them at bay."
Xueyantuo Khan said loudly that he was ready to lead his troops to charge forward personally. Now they had to capture the King of Wu. If they did not capture the King of Wu, it would mean that his men would be lost in vain. The reinforcements from the Tang Dynasty had arrived, and they would continue to pursue northward with the remaining troops. At that time, Xueyantuo would have to refer to Tuyuhun.
A general under the Xueyantuo army received the order and rushed forward with his 5,000 cavalry. When they saw Li Xiang on a white horse and silver armor, he had only one thought: to flee, to escape as fast as possible...