It is more than 550 miles from Lop Nur to Gaochang City, and there is a desolate desert along the way.

When Hedan was encircling Ali Buge, he marched in no hurry, and it took him half a month to reach Lop Nur.

But after returning from a major defeat this time, he ran more than a hundred miles every day and arrived at the Akyidiltag Mountain south of Gaochang City in only five days.

This mountain can be regarded as the eastern remnant of the Tianshan Mountains. It has no water source and no grassland. From a distance, it can only be seen as gray and white. The name of the mountain is Weiyuan'er's language, which means "White Rock Mountain".

The second day of July.

"Prince Zong! After passing the mountain in front, we are only eighty miles away from Gaochang City..."

Following Tan Ma's shout, the army burst into joy, celebrating their escape from death.

This was a real blessing, because not far behind the army, Dog Song and Dog Widow were chasing them too closely.

At the beginning of the retreat, Hedan had nearly 15,000 men, while Chacha'er's 10,000-man army had only 80,000 men left.

They retreated hastily. Some soldiers remembered to have an extra horse or two, but half of them only had one horse.

After escaping for a hundred miles, many people had fallen behind and the horses were exhausted. He Dan expected that Li Xia would not be able to catch up, so he ordered a rest.

At that time, the whole army was tired, thirsty, and hungry. There was no water source nearby, so they could only drink mare's milk to satisfy their hunger. Fortunately, the Mongolian horses had enough endurance to enable them to cope with this first day.

But on the third day, Li Xia caught up with him.

Moreover, the cavalry under Li Xia's command consisted of one man and four cavalry. They were well fed and well rested.

A small group of fine cavalry caught up with them, and Hedan lost more than 3,000 men in just one round of cover-up. They pursued for another two days, and by the time they reached Baishi Mountain, Hedan and Chachaer had already lost more than 3,000 men.

There are only more than 13,000 people.

As He Dan said before about Li Xia, if you travel a hundred miles a day, you will fall behind half the time.

It is true that his cowardly Xue Army and the Tanma Red Army brought by Jiuyuan City had superb riding skills. In this kind of pursuit battle where there was a lack of water and food, the number of laggards and casualties had not reached half, so they could be said to be elite.

If it were an ordinary army, Li Xia would have defeated them with just one kill two days ago.

Fortunately, Gaochang City is right in front of us.

He Dan drove his horse up the mountain road. He turned around and looked south. He didn't see Li Xia catching up yet, so he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Prince Zong, don't worry! Gaochang City will be here in the blink of an eye. The male and female dogs will definitely not dare to chase!" Cha Cha'er shouted loudly.

It has to be said that the Mongolian generals in Monan are better than those in the hinterland, and Chachaer is the worst on the battlefield in Hexi.

When he arrived on the battlefield in the Western Region, he was the most outstanding among the generals.

At least still alive.

Cha Cha'er has no teeth and He Dan can't hear clearly what he is saying, but his arrogance can still boost morale.

For the Mongolian army, which did not care about the gains and losses of one city or one territory, although it would be depressing if it lost a battle, it would be easier to get out of it.

The captains also began to encourage people, and the more they spoke, the better they felt.

"The Gou Song man didn't dare to chase us! Knowing that our army was ahead, he ran away with his tail between his legs."

"What capabilities can the Gou Song people have? We only managed to win a small battle by using the Chagatai Khanate's main force as a gigolo to the Dog Widow. We are not the main force of the Great Khan..."

There is another scout horse coming back ahead.

He Dan had a smile on his face and waved to Tan Ma to come forward. After hearing a few words, his face suddenly froze.

His mood was like thunder on the ground. One moment it was clear and the sky was clear, and the next moment there was a violent storm.

The riding whip was raised into the air, and He Dan wanted to give the Tan Ma in front of him a whip to punish him for deceiving him. But He Dan finally put down the whip.

Among the third generation of the Golden Family, Batu, Kuo Duan, Meng, even counting Ali and Bu, there are already too many who are good at fighting. He Dan is not outstanding, nor is he the best, but he can restrain himself like this

The mediocre person who whips his subordinates has become a leader among the three generations.

The more you bear, the less temper you have.

"All the troops, head west and station themselves at Ayding Lake." Hedan ordered.

"Prince Zong, what's wrong? Why don't you enter Gaochang City?"

"what happened?"

The generals did not immediately accept the order, but gathered around and asked.

He Dan was not in the mood to explain, so he calmly ordered to station at the shore of Lake Aydin.

He was afraid that the morale of the troops would be lost if he told the news now, so he had better find a water source and let the soldiers rest for a while before talking.

~~

Edin Lake.

This is a salt marsh sixty miles southwest of Gaochang City.

It is surrounded by salt flats, alkaline land, and sand dunes, and the roads are difficult to navigate. But at least there are water sources and prey, so that the soldiers under Hedan Demon can get supplies.

Just after we set up camp, in the evening, a group of knights came from the north.

There were no more than a dozen of them, headed by a young man of about twenty years old. When he saw Tan Ma from a distance, he sent someone to say hello to prevent him from being shot.

"King Hedan, can I ask for an audience with Puyan, the son of the Xuanweishi, on Zhending Road?"

...

There were not many tents in the camp, and the few tents they had were placed on the horses during the retreat.

The tired soldiers sat on the ground, holding their scimitars in their hands and looking at the young people walking through the camp.

"Chacha'er, the captain of ten thousand men, is that Yelu Xiliang?"

"No." Cha Cha'er responded.

He was originally too lazy to care about these things, but now he was a little confused, so he got up and entered the tent first, standing next to He Dan with his knife in hand.

Not long after, Pu Yan walked into the big tent.

"Prince Zong..."

"Did you betray him?" He Dan asked directly, "Did you defect to Li Xia and help him take Gaochang City?"

Chachaer, who was standing aside, was startled and jumped up as if he had been bitten by a dog.

"What?! Gaochang City is lost?!"

He Dan didn't want to hide it from Cha Cha'er, but he didn't know what to say, so he simply closed his eyes and waited for Cha Cha'er to scream.

Afterwards, Pu Yan could continue to talk about what happened.

He originally did not want to betray Kublai Khan, but when he took Lian Xixian to meet his uncle Zongtong, Zongtong quickly made his choice.

And enlightened him.

"My child, you must remember where you come from and where you are going. You are Hui people, not Mongols. We Gaochang Uighurs can submit to Song, Liao, Western Liao and Mongolia, so why can't we submit to others? I

Your father's meritorious service is not important, what is important is the life of Gaochang. Now that chaos has arisen in the Western Regions, the Great Khan is thousands of miles away and the King of Qin is close at hand, it is time for Gaochang to make another choice..."

Puyan's wife and children originally lived at the uncle's house.

When I looked up at that time, I saw that Kaiping and Yanjing were really thousands of miles apart. How could we still report to His Majesty the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty?

"..."

"Please forgive me for Puyan's helplessness. Gaochang is located between the Chagatai Khanate and the King of Qin. If you insist on surrendering to the Yuan Dynasty, destruction is imminent. People who fear my son have no choice but to make a new choice...

.”

"Traitor!" Hedan was furious. He finally couldn't restrain his anger and shouted: "You are like a dog!"

Puyan was stunned.

He is a minister of Dayuan.

What I thought was actually just a mouthful.

The helplessness in his heart dissipated a little, and Puyan's face became colder and said: "Lian Xixian asked me to bring a few words to the prince."

"explain."

"He said that he could have set up an ambush to lead the king into the city; he could also have set up an ambush at Aydin Lake to cut off the water source for the king... In any case, the king was at a dead end."

Yeom Xixian can indeed do this.

Perhaps it can be said that He Dan was lucky to have met Lian Xixian first instead of Li Xia. The two people have different acting styles.

Li Xia would make a sneak attack, annihilate Hedan's troops, and then consider how to use them after capturing the people; Lian Xixian was polite and would not go to war without declaring it, and would always send envoys first to persuade them to surrender.

For example, Lian Xixian would write a letter to Huo Chihaer in advance to persuade him to surrender. This was his tolerance towards his enemies.

This time, he also wrote a letter to Hedan.

As Pu Yan spoke, he took out the letter and handed it to a cowardly Xue Jun from Hedan.

"I'm not at a dead end!"

He Dan was furious. He took the letter and tore it into pieces, shouting: "Gaochang is an isolated city. More than 100,000 Mongolian troops are coming soon. Lian Xixian cannot hold it!"

"I'm not here to argue with Prince Zong, I just give him a message." Puyan watched the shredded paper fall to the ground, not surprised, and said: "Lian Xixian said that the reason why he let Prince Zong go,
To be continued...