Start from the thief

The coalition forces under the city were in a dilemma.

The Tubo army had not received any news from Gampo regarding peace talks and suspected that it was a delaying tactic by the Red Lotus Cult.

From Li Qi's perspective, General Sun was very reluctant to negotiate. If the Tibetans really left, what would Li Qi be?

And what happened to Chang'an?

But except for a few hot-blooded generals who intended to exchange soldiers' lives for military merit, most of them were relatively calm. And the one who could be sent by Ganbu to lead an army alone to guard the retreat must naturally be a calm veteran.

"Send a messenger to Chang'an to ask my Lord's will to set up camp and postpone the siege."

After a brief discussion, the Tibetans decided on a strategy, and then when General Sun came to question them, they gave a directly shameless response, "If you want to fight, we will watch."

General Sun suppressed his anger and returned to his tent. After fighting for so long and with so many people dead, they just stopped fighting? The Red Lotus Cult wanted to negotiate peace? What were they doing before?

But what happened to Gampo in Tubo, and why did the Red Lotus Sect suddenly want to negotiate?

Not long after he sat down, his subordinates came up to report that General Xue had arrived.

General Sun immediately felt uneasy. At this time, General Xue should be stationed at Jianmen Pass. Although Li Qi had a high level of cultivation, he was too young and was far inferior to the Xue family in terms of military strategy.

"Please!"

General Sun was startled to see the look of his old friend. Although the two belonged to different armies in the Southern Yamen, they had always had a good relationship. General Sun himself was considered half a disciple of General Xue. In his impression, this brother Xue was a son of a general. He was always very proud and confident. Wherever he went, he kept his back straight, very much like General Xue.

However, the man who walked in today was dressed in casual clothes, with an untidy beard and bloodshot eyes. He seemed to have lost all his energy and spirit, with only a belief keeping him standing.

General Sun was very familiar with this belief, and it could even be said that it was the most common belief in the military.

Hatred.

"Lao Xue! Lao Xue! Someone, bring some wine! Lao Xue, please sit down first."

General Sun was dazed for only a moment, and hurriedly helped General Xue to sit down. Regardless of the military ban, he asked the doctor for some wine and gave it to General Xue to drink.

"Old Xue, what happened? Did Jianmen Pass fall?"

"Hey, Jianmen Pass, Jianmen Pass is very good."

General Xue took a sip of cold wine and felt much better.

When General Sun heard these words with obvious irony, he felt a chill in his heart. Something really happened at Jianmen Pass.

General Xue handed over a note, which described in concise language the whole story of how General Xue and his wife were forced to leave the city, and then, in order to preserve Chang'an's combat effectiveness, they only took a hundred personal soldiers to die.

"General Sun, can you not avenge your parents?"

General Sun's throat was dry. "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, he acted a little too aggressively."

and many more!

General Sun was shocked. General Xue had already made up his mind to rebel against the Tang Dynasty. So why was he here? Where were the Xue siblings?

"Old Xue, you, you don't believe me so much?"

General Sun understood that General Xue was worried that he had received an order from Li Qi to stop the three of them, so he came alone to fall into the trap, so as to create a gap for the two children to escape possible pursuit.

General Sun suddenly felt weak all over and sat down dejectedly on the chair. Such a court, such an emperor, such a world.

"Old Xue, let's go."

General Sun waved his hand.

"Let's go."

General Xue stood up, solemnly bowed to General Sun as a token of his gratitude, then turned and left with firm steps.

General Sun looked at his back and suddenly his mind became confused.

Next time we meet, will we be enemies or friends?

Gampo of Tubo marched southward in disgrace and defeat, and no one knew how many troops were lost. If the Lord of the Cemetery had not been unable to bear it any longer, he would have ordered the Bodhisattva of Joy to stay behind and then personally turned back to kill more than a hundred pursuing cavalrymen. Gampo would not have even had a chance to catch his breath.

The pursuers had to turn back. A mere Zhao Yushu could kill a team of a thousand men. If Nei Jing didn't have the nerve to kill them, the two thousand cavalrymen would not be able to return even with a single horse's hoof.

Fortunately, the Lord of the Cemetery killed them and then left, bringing this raid that lasted the entire night to an end.

At this point, only more than 20,000 people remained out of the 45,000 troops that followed Tubo Gampo to Chang'an.

Twenty thousand people, what can twenty thousand people do? Can he still keep his position as Ganbu? Or will he become a puppet of some Ruben?

Ganbu wanted to laugh, but his laugh looked a little ugly.

Especially when he saw the three-member delegation who had just returned from the failed negotiations in Songzhou and were looking at the defeated army in confusion, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. After all, there is still a tough battle to fight?

However, before his laughter ended, another wave of messengers came rushing in, arriving right after the previous group.

"You said that the Red Lotus Cult agreed to give up Songzhou?"

"Yes!"

"What about the conditions?"

"Capture Li Qi."

Ganbu took a deep breath and turned his head sharply to look at the two people inside.

Things seem to be back to square one.

The Lord of the Cemetery nodded and looked at the Bodhisattva of Joy. The Bodhisattva of Joy had no expression on his face, but he jumped straight out and quickly disappeared from sight.

In Ganbu's earliest negotiations with Yang He, the condition mentioned was to give up Chang'an to the Red Lotus Sect, and then they would stabilize Songzhou and then use the gap in the number of cultivators to seize Jianmen Pass. In the original plan, Li Qi was also the first to be captured.

As a result, the negotiations failed, several major battles were fought, and tens of thousands of soldiers died. Although the Red Lotus Sect did not take a single wall of Chang'an, Tubo's goals were almost achieved.

Ganbu feels that this world is ridiculous.

Li Qi felt that this world was even more ridiculous.

The three members of the Xue family left, and I did not stop them. No matter how stubborn and stubborn I was, I still had basic conscience and morals.

The Xue family did nothing wrong, so I cannot kill them. If they rise up against the Tang Dynasty, I should defeat them fairly on the battlefield. This is what the academy taught me.

However, just when Li Qi had figured out the Xue family's affairs, General Sun's urgent letter arrived.

The Red Lotus Sect is going to negotiate peace with Tubo.

"Retreat to Jianmen Pass immediately!"

Although Li Qi had not received any news from Chang'an, he was keenly aware that something was wrong and urgently ordered General Sun to withdraw the remaining troops.

It has to be said that although Li Qi is not as good as General Sun in marching and fighting, his sensitivity is definitely worthy of the realm of a seventh-level cultivator.

The Red Lotus Cult and Tubo are in peace talks, and even a fool knows who they are going to deal with next.

Relying on Jianmen Pass, the thousands of troops can be said to be a one-man-block pass against ten thousand, but if they were to fight on flat ground, everyone is an elite and the best exchange ratio they can achieve is only one to two.

This was a failure for the Tang army.

Li Qi's keenness saved the lives of thousands of soldiers and made final atonement for his blind loyalty.

But this sensitivity could not save himself.

Looking at the man in the cassock whose face kept changing, Li Qi slowly drew out his sword, and the white-hoofed crows neighed behind him.