my wife is mulan

The army rested in Woye Town for a whole day, and the soldiers ate three meals a day, and made dry food for six days to distribute to the soldiers themselves.

In the early morning of this day, He Duoluo, Hua Mulan, Qiu Mulingshou, Daxi Guangliang and others left 2000 troops to garrison Woye Town, and commanded the army to march north to Bigan City to meet the emperor.

Tuoba Tao's military operations were also very fast. He divided his troops to search, and in just a few days, dozens of Rouran tribes in the Monan area were wiped out, and tens of thousands of Rouran people, men, women, old and weak were captured. , millions of cattle and sheep.

When He Duoluo, Hua Mulan and others led the army to Bigan City, Tuoba Tao just arrived with his troops.

Bigan City, called Surrender City in the Han Dynasty, and Bigan City in the Northern Wei Dynasty, is located in the south of Nanbed Mountain. It is a city built by the Han Dynasty to accept the surrender of the Huns.

Most of these areas are Gobi and desert areas. The Jinshan "Altai Mountain" mountain range extends here, and there are many Gobi oases in the vicinity, so the Han Dynasty could build a city here.

It is worth mentioning that Bigan City was not a surrendered city during the Tang Dynasty. Bigan City was outside the Great Wall, while the Tang Dynasty Surrendered City was on the north bank of the Hetao area. Bigan City was built during the Han Dynasty to accept the surrender of the Xiongnu Zuodudu. It is also the only surrendered city that has truly accepted the surrender of the enemy.

Bigan City was originally occupied by Rouran people, but there were not many defenders. Seeing the Northern Wei brigade approaching aggressively, they all abandoned the city. He Duoluo and Hua Mulan sent people to chase after them, while taking over Bigan City to arrange security , To clear away all possible dangers for the emperor's arrival.

Wait for Tuoba Tao to lead his troops to arrive, and arrange the soldiers and horses

After that, He Duoluo, Hua Mulan and others were ordered to go to see him.

"I see you, Your Majesty!"

Tuoba Tao looked at the four of them with a smile on his face, nodded, and said with a smile: "You guys did a good job this time, and you can arrive here faster than me. I am very pleased. Your contributions will be remembered by others." Come down and wait for the end of the battle before rewarding your meritorious deeds!"

"At this time, it is my duty to be a courtier, so I dare not ask for rewards!"

Tuobatao asked about the process of the trip, and Hua Mulan immediately stood up and saluted with fists, "Your Majesty, I have defeated Rouran and captured thousands of people a few days ago, and Lord Hedong had previously promised that the last general would not kill prisoners or slaughter the city. But afterwards, he suddenly regretted that he wanted to slaughter the captives in the middle of the night, and the general had to rush over to stop him immediately, and put a knife on his neck to force him to give up his plan to kill the prisoners! Punishment!"

Tuoba Tao's face was a bit ugly when he heard this, and he looked at He Duoluo, "Is this the case?"

He Duoluo bravely stood up and saluted and replied: "Yes! There are too many prisoners, and it takes a lot of troops to send people to guard them. It is too troublesome to carry them, and you have to worry about them making trouble all the time. I also have to do it for the sake of the overall situation! "

Tuoba Tao knocked on the table: "Since that's the case, you shouldn't have agreed in advance. You are the Duke of Hedong in the imperial court, and you hold a very important position in our Great Wei. Why are you so disregarding your face? You can say so much without faith. ugly?"

"Yes, what His Majesty taught me is that the minister did not think properly!"

Tuoba Tao looked at Hua Mulan, and said in silence for a while: "Hua Mulan, you should have been severely punished for committing the following crimes. I think you have made meritorious service in continuous combat, and your merits and demerits offset each other. I will not pursue it for the time being. Let's see the aftermath!"

Chapter 363 Flying across the desert

Hua Mulan thought that even if she was not dealt with by the military law this time, she would definitely be dismissed from office, but she didn't know that the emperor took it lightly with merits and demerits, and she immediately bowed down: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your innocence!"

At this time, a soldier walked in quickly and whispered beside Qiu Mulingshou.

After hearing this, Qiu Mulingshou waved his hands to let the soldiers go out, then turned around and clasped his fists to Tuoba Tao and reported, "Your Majesty, there were Rouran people who lived and garrisoned this Bigan City, but they got the news before we arrived. And quickly fled to the north, before the last general sent troops to pursue, chased and killed some of them, but still let them escape most of them!"

Tuoba Tao's face turned ugly when he heard the words, "Didn't I tell you to act quickly and keep secret? How could you let them run away?"

Qiu Mulingshou, He Duoluo, Hua Mulan and others immediately bowed down and pleaded guilty: "Your servant is guilty!"

Cui Hao immediately stood up to smooth things over: "Your Majesty, the territory is so big that it is inevitable that there are things that cannot be taken into account. It is impossible not to leak the slightest rumor. I think this is not the time to blame the generals, but to quickly order them together." The soldiers and horses entered Mobei, even if Da Tan got the news, he needs time to gather the soldiers and horses scattered all over the place, as long as we don't give him enough time, he will be helpless!"

Tuoba Tao nodded, "What Cui Qing said is right, we don't have much time left, and our army has captured a large number of prisoners, food, supplies, cattle, sheep and horses, if we take all of these with us, it will definitely slow down the marching speed I wonder if Cui Qing can solve it?"

Cui Hao thought for a while and couldn't think of any good solution.

At this time, the national teacher Kou Qianzhi coughed twice, stood up and bowed and said, "Your Majesty, during the Han Dynasty, Huo Qubing led an army to attack the Xiongnu by surprise and traveled thousands of miles. Before he set off, he only brought dry food for a few days. To the enemy!"

"Just feed on the enemy?" Tuoba Tao's eyes lit up when he heard that.

Immediately, a minister came out to stop him: "No! Your Majesty, this move is too dangerous. If you only bring dry food for a few days, if you can't find the Rouran tribe to eat before the dry food is finished, wouldn't the whole army be starved to collapse?"

Other ministers and generals also stood up to oppose this approach, saying that it is too dangerous to do so. Now that the news has leaked out, if the creepy people implement the strategy of fortifying the wall and clearing the wilderness, how will our army survive?If there are only a few people, that’s all. You can hunt and kill a few hares and wild wolves to satisfy your hunger on the grassland. There are tens of thousands of horses. Where can you find so much food?

"That's enough, stop arguing!" Tuoba Tao scolded, and went to the map to check it.

There are three roads to go to Mobei. The east road is to go around the desert and enter from the east. The middle road is to cross the Nanbed Mountain from here and then pass through the vast desert Gobi. To the northwest, it reaches Zhuoxie Mountain directly, and then goes north to Khan Court via Dibochi.

There is no doubt that for Tuoba Tao's soldiers and horses, they can only take the middle road and the west road. The soldiers and horses led by King Yongchang Tuoba Jian have already gone to the east road.

It's a long way to go west. If you only bring dry food for a few days, it will be troublesome if the Rouran people along the way hide behind walls and clear fields.

It is not a good idea to go through the vast desert Gobi if you take the middle road. The climate in the desert is changeable, and if you are not careful, you will get lost in the desert, or you will suffer heavy losses due to lack of preparation.

Tuoba Tao asked: "Who has crossed the desert?"

No one answered.

A minister stood up and asked: "Your Majesty is not going to lead the army across the desert to Mobei? It's too dangerous. The desert is volatile, and people often come in and out but can't come out. Your Majesty should think twice!"

Cui Hao stood up and said: "Your Majesty, look at this map. It takes at least one day for our army to cross the desert. Even if it takes ten days to march, we reserve five days to find the Rouran tribe for supplies. Dry rations are enough, with our army’s carrying capacity, it’s not a problem for one person to carry dry rations for [-] days, but the problem of the water source is not easy to solve, after all, no one has crossed the desert…”

Kou Qianzhi reminded at this time: "Your Majesty, didn't you capture many creepy prisoners? Could it be that there are not a few guides among these creepy prisoners?"

A word

Waking up the man in the dream, Tuoba Tao was overjoyed, and immediately ordered to search among the captives for a creepy guide who had crossed the desert.

I really found a few creeps who had crossed the desert several times, and Tuoba Tao made a big promise to them, as long as they can lead an army across the desert, they will be granted titles and a lot of money, cattle, sheep, cloth and other rewards .

Under the heavy reward, these Rouran people also forgot their hatred completely, and told each other their own paths to Tuoba Tao, where there is an oasis, where there is a Haizi, where there is a Gobi, and where you can find the underground. river and so on.

Cui Hao summarized and analyzed the routes mentioned by several guides, and designated the nearest marching speed. It only takes seven days to walk out of the desert and enter the Mobei grassland.

To be on the safe side, Tuoba Tao ordered to prepare [-] days of dry food and three days of drinking water for everyone.

It’s not that they don’t want to prepare more water. In fact, they don’t have more tools to hold water. Unlike later generations who can use plastic buckets, the only tools used to hold water when walking in the desert are cowhide water bags. This is still the army’s own water bags Counting it, and the ones seized from the Rouran people, it is only enough to prepare water for each person for three days.

On the second day of June, Tuoba Tao ordered the whole army to give up all the luggage, leaving 3000 men and horses to guard the prisoners and luggage in Bigan City. He led all the horses and horses to set off lightly, and each person carried [-] days of dry food and three days of drinking water to the north. desert.

The weather in the desert is changeable. In the morning, the sun is shining brightly, and it may not be long before it becomes windy and sandy, blowing people's eyes hard, and the temperature at night is very low. Soldiers kept getting sick, fluctuating from hot to cold.

To treat sick soldiers, the generals can only order people to take them away as much as possible, until they can't walk anymore, they can only throw them away, and let them fend for themselves. There is no military doctor to treat him when he is sick.

Many people have never entered the desert, have no experience in desert marching, and the prepared drinking water is not economical. Water gradually loses physical strength and mind.

Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even Emperor Tuoba Tao couldn't manage enough drinking water. Everyone's mouth was never wet during the march, and it was always dry. Some people with severe water shortage had cracked and crusted lips.

At the same time, the huge difference in temperature between day and night also made it difficult for many people with poor physique to adapt. They fell ill and had persistent high fevers.

The journey across the desert was far beyond everyone's expectations. The calculation was done by Cui Hao before he set off. He did not expect that the time they needed was two days longer than expected, and it took a full ten days to complete the journey.

After crossing the desert, tens of thousands of horses actually lost more than 600 people in the desert. These people either fell ill on the way, or were separated by the wind and sand during the march, and many people approached the quicksand and fell into it. Wake up, and some even died of poisoning after being bitten by poisonous insects in the desert.

In order to achieve the purpose of attacking those who were not prepared by surprise, on the afternoon of the first day when the army crossed the desert, Tuoba Tao sent a large number of scouts to scout around to find the tribe of the Rouran people. The Rouran tribes within a hundred miles of time have all suffered devastating blows.

Someone from the Rouran tribe who was attacked always escaped, and the news spread quickly. A large number of Rouran people fled with their families and their families. They didn't even want their livestock, cattle and sheep.

On the west bank of the upper reaches of the millet water, the Rouran people live.