Deposed Crown Prince: After three years of service on the frontier, the entire court knelt and begge

As night fell, the city gates of Lingxiao City were slowly opened.

Several men and women, bound hand and foot, were thrown out.

Han Da and his men untied them.

These Turkic men and women removed the hoods from their heads.

They saw a group of Xiao soldiers watching them.

They looked grim and dared not say anything.

Because they knew very well that Wu Qimu Gesa, who was originally the most boisterous, had never returned after being captured by these people from the Xiao Kingdom.

They had also heard rumors that they had been tortured to death during the siege!

They automatically huddled together, looking at Han Da and the others with fear on their faces.

Han Da said to them expressionlessly, "Your families are over there. Our King of the Northern Desert is kind-hearted and has allowed you to reunite one last time. Go."

One of the Turkic girls, around fourteen or fifteen years old, spoke tremblingly, "I...can we go now?"

Although she mustered up the courage to say those words, you could tell her voice was trembling.

Han Da nodded.

The fourteen or fifteen-year-old Turkic girl said to the person next to her, "Quick...hurry up!"

The person beside him was terrified: "Atilan Ashid, they must be lying to us. They'll kill us when we run... That's how the Turks treated their prisoners before..."

Atilan Ashid said firmly, "No... if they wanted to kill us, they wouldn't go through all this trouble. Let's run."

As Ashide spoke, the girl led the group on a run.

She also responsibly ran the last race, and didn't forget to tell Handal: "I hope you will keep your promise!"

Han Da said calmly, "We are human beings, and we will not follow you Turks in doing inhuman things!"

Atilan Ashid's face was grim, as if he had thought of something.

"Your king is no human being either; he has also slaughtered many of our compatriots!"

Looking at the resentment in the woman's eyes, Han Da felt an urge to shoot her dead with an arrow.

However, she ultimately held back.

...

The Khans of the Turks drank quite a bit tonight.

When these prisoners from various tribes escaped back to their camps...

These people were all arrested by the guards.

Then he went to inform the various Khan leaders.

When these Khan leaders were notified, they were in a daze.

I heard that it was their wives, daughters, and sons who came here.

At first, these Khans all thought they were in a daze.

They only woke up after the scouts confirmed it several times.

After they pressed for details, they discovered that it wasn't just people from their tribe, but also others.

Instead of rushing to see him, they went to Ashina's camp to assemble.

Ashina watched as the group approached, and everyone shared the information they had received.

Everyone looked like they hadn't woken up yet, and they looked at each other.

"Shouldn't they be behind us right now? Why are they here?"

Have those people's identities been confirmed?

"We're not sure, it was just a scout who reported it. We found the matter suspicious, so we didn't go to see him!" Ashide said.

After listening to everyone's words, Ashina said, "That's right! We need to confirm their identities first..."

Seeing this, Mos Ashina stretched out his hand: "Father Khan, I'll go. I recognize all those people who are coming, if their identities are genuine..."

Ashina nodded: "Be careful!"

Mos Ashina nodded and went out.

At this moment, Ashina, who was in the military tent, said to the anxious people beside him, "Don't be nervous! It's mostly a trick by the people of Xiao. If it really is those people the scouts said are coming, wouldn't that mean our Turkic rear has been wiped out?"

When Ashina said this, the group nodded in agreement.

"Indeed, but if this is their trick... this method is far too clumsy."

Just as the group was discussing their opinions, Mos Ashina hurriedly returned.

He didn't come back alone.

He was accompanied by a group of people.

When the Turks saw these newcomers, they were stunned and stood frozen in place.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, they all walked up to the family members.

The prisoners began to cry and complain.

The entire military tent was immediately filled with weeping as they recounted the situation in the rear of the Turkic territory.

After a while, these Khans, through their rambling accounts, came to understand a reality they were very unwilling to accept.

That is, Xiao Ce had already led his men to utterly defeat their Turkic rear.

Batu Helu, who had always prided himself on his composure, now stood up with bloodshot eyes, ready to leave.

Ashina looked at the agitated Batu Helu and asked, "Batu, what are you going to do?"

Batu Helu practically roared, "They slaughtered our entire Helu clan! I will lead our clan to avenge our people! We will make them pay for what they owe us..."

Gesar stood up: "Helu, I'm with you..."

The tribe of Gesar was one of the tribes that suffered a severe massacre.

"Calm down! Calm down! We need to know the truth of this news! Does Xiao Ce really have this ability?" Ashina's words had barely finished when...

Ashina's wife, her face grim, fiercely confronted Ashina, saying, "Ashina, what do you mean by that? Do you think we're lying to you?"

"We were imprisoned and humiliated by those useless people from the Xiao Kingdom! Do you think we were bought off by Xiao Ce?"

Atilan Ashid said, "I swear to the gods that everything we have said is the truth. If there is even half a lie, I hope the gods will punish me and prevent me from ever being reincarnated!"

The surviving prisoners around him began to swear an oath as well.

Ashide said, "Ashina, haven't you seen it yet? Your intelligence was completely inaccurate! Even now, don't you think that Xiao Ce is a good-for-nothing?"

Gesa chimed in, "Ashina, you've been fooled by that intelligence! Back in Yanbei City, his false intelligence caused us heavy losses. Now he's saying Lingxiao City is short of food, but it turns out they're not short of food at all..."

Tesa's face was equally grim: "That's right! Ashina, you've been tricked! They're just waiting for us to attack so we can go and die! Your intelligence, it wasn't from Xiao Ce's people, was it?"

Ashina watched as they all pushed the blame onto him. He wanted to defend himself, but he had no way to do so.

Because of the many people in front of them, who are core members, they wouldn't be lied to.

At that moment, Ashina suddenly thought of something.

He glared angrily at Mos Ashina and several princes from other families.

"No! Didn't a few people come to inform the Turks that something had happened? Didn't I send Moss, along with your Khans' confidants, to the rear of the Turkic territory to investigate? They clearly said there was no problem at all!"

Mos Ashina looked embarrassed when he realized that his plan had been exposed.

The people nearby immediately betrayed Mos Ashina completely.

“We didn’t get close to look, we just looked from a distance! It was Mos Ashina who advised us not to get too close.”

"That's right. Later we wanted to tell the truth, but Mos Ashina told us to do as he said, otherwise we would be held responsible! We were fooled by him, which is why we didn't tell the truth!"

"Now it seems possible that Xiao Ce sent someone to impersonate us and deceive us!"

Several princes from other tribes all pointed their guns at Mos Ashina.

Mos Ashina's face darkened. "Bullshit! It was a collective decision not to go and check, to avoid causing unnecessary panic and trouble. Damn it, now they're all trying to pin the blame on me? It wasn't to avoid unnecessary panic!"

"Who the hell could have known that Xiao Ce could lead his men and slip past us right under our noses, then go and slaughter the tribes behind us!"

Seeing that an argument was about to break out, Ashina was no fool. Hearing this, he roughly understood what was going on and stepped forward, slapping Mos Ashina across the face.

"Enough! Shut up! Your cover-up has gotten us into serious trouble!"

As he spoke, Ashina drew his whip and was about to lash out at Mos Ashina.

Seeing this, the Khans beside him also stepped forward to stop them.

Ashide advised, "Ashna, now is not the time to beat the child... Even if you beat him to death, it won't change the outcome! Moss is right, this isn't just his problem! What we need to think about now is, what do we do next?"

Gesa's face turned ashen as he said, "What else can we do? There's only one word: fight!"

Tessa regained his composure: "I haven't heard that they have plenty of soldiers and provisions in their city. They're just holding the city, what are we supposed to do?"

Batu Helu's face was grim, and he had lost his composure. "If we retreat like this, not only will our soldiers look down on us, but even those two-legged sheep of Xiao will laugh their heads off! In my opinion, we should explain the situation in the Turkic rear to the soldiers! Let them be filled with anger and fight them to the death!"

Ashina said with an unfriendly expression, "Fight? What can we fight with? The heads of the powerful clans in the four northern prefectures are definitely unaware of this situation. Knowing their personalities, once they find out, they will definitely help Xiao Ce to deal with us. In that case, we will be attacked from both sides. My idea is that we should retreat temporarily and first consolidate our territories in the four northern prefectures. Then, we should eliminate the Xiao people who are part of our Turkic power!"

“Only by securing our rear can we advance further! Otherwise, we will find ourselves in a dilemma! Moreover, if we can now hold onto the thirty cities in the four prefectures of the northern desert, then our efforts will not have been in vain, right?”

Batu Helu's face was sinister: "Ashina, didn't you say that before? If you want to retreat, you retreat, I won't! That good-for-nothing Xiao Ce killed our Helu Manzu. If I don't take his dog's head, I have no face to face my people!"

Gesa's expression was firm: "Batu is right, I won't retreat either! If we retreat now, who knows what the situation will be like? It's better to advance swiftly and wipe out all these two-legged sheep in one fell swoop! If we are caught in a dilemma, neither attacking nor defending, then we will truly be caught in a dilemma!"