The huge nine-shaped white banner has been removed from Yinshan Mountain and re-erected in the camp.
Kublai Khan marched here and camped here the day before yesterday. He heard about Tacha'er at night and ordered people to move Baihu to a high mountain after hearing about Aibuhua's defeat. Finally, at dawn yesterday, he gathered the defeated army.
Yesterday, the army did not start again. Zhang Hongfan was the vanguard and sent out to explore the situation first.
At night, Heli Huosun went to Zhang Hongfan's camp to deliver news twice, and finally returned to the camp again after dawn...
Two elephants were walking around in the camp. As they moved their strong four legs, their ears flapped and their trunks shook, they looked very powerful. Anyone who came to the Khan tent to report something could not help but feel shocked when they saw it.
Kublai Khan loved elephants very much during his southern expedition to Dali, so he deliberately brought them back. Before leaving, he also asked Dali to pay tribute to the elephants... However, with the death of Wu Liang Hetai in the battle, the elephant tribute matter was discontinued.
A golden-domed sweat tent as big as a palace is in the center of the camp.
The tent is supported by thirty-six gold pillars and fixed by five hundred ropes. It takes more than three hundred steps to walk from one end to the other. It is two stories high, with stairs going up and down. The roof of the tent is covered with gold brocade, and there is a tent at each corner.
The lifelike golden eagle is surrounded by brocades of various colors.
There were two large flags standing in front of the tent, one with "Dayuan" written in Chinese characters, and the other with "Great Mongolia" written in Mongolian. After the country's name was changed to Dayuan, the name of the country of Great Mongolia was not abolished.
This number is still used in documents.
This sweat tent was only inhabited by Kublai Khan. There were several relatively smaller tents behind it, which were the Orudo tents of Queen Chabi, other queens, and concubines.
Heli Huosun led several people onto the soft carpet and walked into the sweat tent.
They arrived not too early, and many people had already gathered in the tent. Many generals smelled strongly of alcohol, sweat, and horse manure, which mixed with the incense in the tent to form a strange smell.
smell.
This taste is like the current situation of the Yuan Dynasty, fusion.
Heli Huosun believes that this fusion is precisely the greatness of his emperor.
In the tent, the Han courtiers stood on one side and the Mongols stood on the other side. After hesitating for a moment, he still stood on the side of the Mongolian courtiers, but he stood closer to the side.
After waiting for a while, Kublai Khan slowly came over from the small tent at the rear.
He was wearing a white robe trimmed with gold and had a tall build. He had a round face and a big beard, and the skin on his face trembled slightly when he walked.
Like an elephant.
But he is more majestic than the two elephants outside the tent.
Finally, Kublai Khan sat down, and Chabi and the other five queens who accompanied him sat on the left and right.
"You are all here."
He started talking nonsense, and everyone quickly listened with bated breath.
In the past, the Mongol Khans discussed affairs like this. Whether it was Ogedai or Meng Ge, the kings always said that you and I kept saying that they regarded the Great Khan as their head of the family, but Kublai Khan was not only the head of the family.
, he is still the emperor.
What he has pursued all his life is the majesty of the emperor, but everyone is afraid of him, and he appears to be kind and kind again.
"I was saying just now that Li Xia, this enemy, is just like me when I was young." Kublai Khan added: "I don't like wine and beauties, I don't like gold, silver and jewelry, I don't do ridiculous things, I just want to conquer him."
A larger territory and the greatest empire in the world."
An interpreter followed and translated for him in Chinese.
"Li Xia is like me when I was young, not fond of wine, sex, and luxury..."
I have to say that Kublai Khan is indeed similar to Li Xia in terms of his boring personality.
He is not like Genghis Khan who likes to snatch the wives and daughters of his enemies, and unlike Ogedai who is addicted to wine and sex, he also does not have the obvious cold, irritable, stubborn and other character traits of Meng Ge.
In the face of grand ambitions, his temperament, preferences, and beliefs can all give way. Believe in Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism? Mongolian, Han, or Semu people? It doesn't matter.
Most of the people in the tent could understand Mongolian, and they took this time to start thinking about Kublai Khan's meaning.
Zhang Wenqian first responded: "Li Xia is far from worthy to be compared with His Majesty."
"No." Kublai Khan said: "I will not be stingy in praising him, just to let you know what a terrible enemy he is."
One sentence set the tone, and everyone responded one after another.
"You can rest assured, Khan, we will not let Li Xia go again."
"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will not despise Li Xia."
Kublai Khan said: "Then let's talk about how to hunt him. Heli Huosun, you have returned from Zhang Hongfan's camp."
Heli Huosun quickly came out of the queue and responded: "Yes, I have conveyed His Majesty's will to Jiubadu."
"Tell them about it too."
A huge cloth map was carried up and hung in the sweat tent.
The mountains, rivers and rivers on the map are relatively simple, but for the Yuan army, it was enough.
In the past, when the Mongolian cavalry marched eastward and westward, it didn't matter whether it was a glacier, grassland or mountain forest, they just stepped over it.
Heli Huosun first said: "Your Majesty, Jiu Batu also found out some military information last night and sent his generals to report."
"explain."
A young general came out from behind Heli Huosun, bowed and said: "The last general, Li Ting, whose courtesy name is Laoshan. The Jurchens, whose real surname is Pucha, changed their surname to Li because they lived in the Central Plains."
If you are lucky, if you report your name like this, you will get a Mongolian name from His Majesty.
But Li Ting was unlucky today. Kublai Khan just asked him to tell him about the military information he had found.
"The general interrogated the prisoners last night and heard that Zhang Jue had crossed the Yellow River. He led more than 20,000 Tang troops and attacked from Yan'an all the way to Hetao. They crossed the Yellow River and were still resting. They should be still there now.
Near Nanhaizi Pier outside Jiuyuan City..."
As he said this, Heli Huosun started marking on the map.
"Zhang Jue is here, and Li Xia is at Wulate Ranch, with seven or eight thousand people."
"I can't believe that such a small number of Tang troops were able to defeat the army of King Tacha'er and Prince Consort Aibuhua."
The speaker was Prince Zong Hu La Hu Er.
He is one of the grandsons of the third brother of Genghis Khan and one of the kings of the host country. He has long been dissatisfied with Tachaer's status. He has endured it for a day and a night, and finally started to become sarcastic.
Tachaer was furious and said, "It's because after the battle between me and Li Xia, he only had seven or eight thousand people left!"
"Then tell me, how many soldiers and horses did you kill Li Xia?"
"I killed at least 20,000 of him!"
Hu La Hu'er said: "I haven't cut off my head yet, I don't believe it..."
"Stop talking." Kublai Khan stopped shouting, glanced at these brothers coldly, and said, "Heli Huosun, I let you say it."
Heli Huosun was just a timid Hanlin candidate who was born in Xue. He was very scared to be caught in the middle of these golden family clan kings, so he continued talking cautiously.
"Your Majesty ordered Marshal Yin Zhu'er of the Datong Army to lead his troops to the south of Yin Mountain to block Li Xia's retreat to the east. But Zhang Jue is here, and the first person Marshal Yin Zhu'er will encounter is Zhang Jue...
"
"Sweat!"
Before I could say a few words, someone else entered the sweat tent, but it was the ancient Mongolian household.
"Great Khan, the military situation in Shanxi has arrived. Ahema ordered people to go to Yunnei Prefecture to send it."
Kublai Khan looked at it, looked up at the large map hanging in the sweat tent, and said slowly: "Yang Wen'an has not been annihilated yet, so he has withdrawn to Qikou Ferry of the Yellow River. Order him to cooperate with Zhu'er from the south to surround Zhang Jue
Department."
It was marked again on the map.
The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly. With the arrival of two pieces of news, it is somewhat different from what Zhang Hongfan saw last night, but the encirclement is still the same.
Heli Huosun started talking again at Kublai Khan's signal.
"Marshal Shi Tianze has marched along the Yinshan Mountains to blockade the north of Li Xia. Marshal Hulanji is bypassing Wuliang Suhai to outflank Li Xia..."
More and more arrows are marked.
On the map, Li Xia and Zhang Jue became two dots, and the arrows pointing to them around them were already airtight.
That’s it for the general situation.
Kublai Khan looked at Zhang Wenqian and said, "You are familiar with the terrain of Xixia, what do you think?"
Zhang Wenqian raised his hand and pointed at the map and replied: "Your Majesty, your Holy Might, has laid out a heaven and earth net, which is enough to ensure Li Xia's defeat."
The conversation changed, and he added: "However, when the emperor first arrived in Hetao and the edict was issued, the dragnet could only be considered opened, but it has not yet been closed. I thought that Li Xia would escape before it was closed.
"
Tachaer stepped forward and looked at the map and said: "Li Xia will definitely run away, but he will not run to the east. He will definitely run to the west and then return to Xingqing Mansion."
Hu Lahu'er immediately sang the opposite tune and said, "How do you know? I think Li Xia will definitely go east to meet Zhang Jue, then cross the Yellow River south and escape back to Chang'an."
"You are so stupid." Tachaer sneered, "The problem is crossing the Yellow River. How many boats does Zhang Jue have? How many people can be crossed at one time? Li Xia had no time to cross the Yellow River, so he had to retreat to Xingqing Mansion."
"I also think Li Xia will return to Xingqing Mansion." Ai Buhua stood up and pointed at the map as well, adding: "If he goes east to join Zhang Jue, the target is too big and he will definitely be surrounded by us. He can only go eastward to join Zhang Jue.
Only by moving west can we spread our troops and create the possibility of escape."
While all the ministers were discussing in this way, only Kublai Khan's very small and majestic eyes revealed a look of doubt.
He raised his hand to stop the discussion and asked, "Why are you so sure that Li Xia will escape?"
"Your Majesty, Li Xia is a young man."
Zhang Wenqian first answered in Chinese, and then explained it again in Mongolian.
"Li Xia was born in the Song Dynasty. He is good at assassins and stealing. He has a little courage and a little wisdom, but he has no great courage! Could he be able to recruit hundreds of thousands of troops and swallow up thousands of miles? He can't do it. Only His Majesty has such great courage.
!”
Maybe he really thought so, maybe he was trying to highlight Kublai Khan, but Zhang Wenqian became more and more eloquent when he talked about it later.
"What Xiaoxiao did was just take advantage of the civil strife in the Yuan Dynasty to instigate, alienate, and incite rebellion. While the Yuan Dynasty army was outside, he sent more than 10,000 people to steal the Loop. This is an act of a thief! Let me ask, a thief was hit by a great hero.
If it’s broken, can you not run away?!”
"Ha ha ha ha!"
All the officials in the Khan tent, whether they were Mongolians, Semu people, or Han people, all laughed one after another.
They felt that what Zhang Wenqian said was on point.
Pointing out Li Xia's petty ambitions to the point.
"Hahahaha, how can a thief not escape?"
"..."
Only Kublai Khan's face became increasingly ugly.
When he met these ministers today, the first thing he said was that Li Xia was very similar to him, in order to remind them not to underestimate the enemy.
But these ministers turned a deaf ear to it.
Talking about Li Xia's petty ambition, mocking Li Xia for not being able to raise an army of hundreds of thousands and swallowing thousands of miles away... But he forgot how the Golden Family was able to raise an army of millions, and how much hardship a hero has to go through to become a hero.
They thought that power and strength were innate, and ignored Li Xia's narrow escape in the past ten years.
That would be tantamount to ignoring the dangers and difficulties that Kublai Khan faced on his journey from an unnoticed sect king to the nine-fifth emperor he is today!
Who initially raised an army of hundreds of thousands, but he almost died on the way to the southern expedition to Dali, and almost died by the sword of his biological brother!
thief?
He is also a thief. He stole the position of Great Khan of Mongolia and the whole world!
The more he thought about it, the angrier Kublai became at these ministers' underestimation of their enemies, and he finally understood why they were defeated by Li Xia again and again.
He almost pointed out that Li Xia should not be underestimated and Li Xia might not withdraw.
The next moment, Zhang Hongfan's messenger arrived.
"Report! Your Majesty, Li Xia has moved his camp to the west..."