Chapter 250 Ambush
Jie Li Khan then ordered the entire army to advance, and as expected, the Tang army in the woods once again fled on their own initiative, and the tense nerves of the Turkic soldiers relaxed a little.

But the news from the rear army made them terrified again. The pursuers had appeared one after another.
So the Turks once again abandoned some unnecessary things, although the two Khans strictly prohibited the discarding of necessary supplies such as armor and food.

But many people still did this because running fast is more important than anything else during evacuation.

The repeated bluffing in the mountains and valleys made Jie Li Khan begin to believe that the Tang Dynasty's military strength was indeed insufficient. Faced with the mountains and valleys where it seemed that not many troops could be hidden at a glance, no matter how many flags were raised, they would just lead their troops forward.

The Tang army was frightened and fled each time, and the cavalry that had been harassing them on the left and right wings were also seen through and could not threaten the army at all, they were just quite annoying.

Tong Yehu advised: "The people of the Central Plains are the most cunning. I think they are mostly hiding in one place. They are using these false ambush to reduce our defenses. Be careful."

Jie Li Khan nodded and smiled, "Don't worry, I have already thought about it. I predict that their elite troops will be ambushed in the forest ahead. That is the most dangerous place on this road. If the Tang army ambushes on the mountain and attacks from top to bottom, we will definitely be defeated.

So we didn’t bypass the previous ones, but we must bypass this one. We must not take any risks! "

So after advancing for a distance, the Turkic army decisively took a detour, and Li Jing, who was standing on the top of the hill with only dozens of cavalry, watched them quietly.

As they gradually left the heartland of the Central Plains, the pressure on the Turks was greatly reduced. After passing through several dangerous places, even the Tang cavalry that had been harassing them all the time disappeared.

There was no urgent external pressure, but the Turks had problems with food and fodder. Originally, the food supply was enough, but in order to bypass the most dangerous mountains and forests, the army traveled through mountains and rivers, which consumed a lot of physical energy, so they naturally ate more.

The horses in particular began to fall down one after another, either because they were starving, sick, or had injured their hooves. These animals are much more delicate than humans.

But in this situation, these animals were not allowed to rest, so they were simply killed and eaten for meat, which also alleviated the problem of food shortage.

More and more cavalrymen were transformed into infantry. Originally, even if they could not ride horses due to road conditions, they could at least put weapons, armor, food and other supplies on horseback. Now they can only carry them on their own, and the morale of the entire army is low.

Jie Li and Tong Yehu tried their best to appease the people, and finally they were getting closer and closer to returning to the grassland, but the Tang army's deployment became more and more hasty and perfunctory. Sometimes when they arrived, the flags in the dense forests in the valley had just been raised.

Soon they arrived at an ordinary sparse forest, neither big nor small, where they could vaguely see hundreds of people moving around. The Turkic army approached as usual, and soon the Tang army on the other side fled in panic.

Jie Li led his troops into the forest. The scattered flags on the ground were toppled here and there. The Tang army uniforms supported by tree branches were trampled on with contempt as usual. The soldiers talked about how far they had to go to return to the grassland.

But suddenly, there was a roar from the scouts in the front, and before they could react, shouts and cries like a tsunami resounded, and countless branches and leaves in the forest were shaken off.

The team that had not yet entered the forest was about to retreat when they were surprised to find that the elite cavalry of the Tang army that had disappeared for several days appeared again and galloped towards them. Arrows rained down like rain, and they had to fight back hastily.

The forest was filled with Tang army infantry, and cavalry was completely useless here. Jie Li and Tong Yehu naturally wanted to withdraw first, but the rear army was attacked by cavalry, and they instinctively wanted to enter the forest to avoid the cavalry.

As a result, the order was lost and the Turkic army was in chaos, but after all, they had the advantage in terms of military strength, and after being trapped in a desperate situation, the Turkic soldiers who did not flee were extremely fierce.

When they were preparing to counterattack and break out from the front, the Tang army took the initiative to give way and let them rush forward. After a large number of troops escaped, they set up a siege again and slowly devoured the remaining Turkic soldiers.

Jie Li and Tong Yehu were in no mood to turn back to rescue. They gathered their troops and continued to flee. They were ambushed one after another and suffered continuous losses. More importantly, morale had reached a very dangerous level. People were constantly breaking away from the army and fleeing in other directions.

But the two of them no longer cared and charged forward. It didn't matter if they lost their soldiers and horses, they could just return to the territory and recruit them again.

Li Jing watched from afar the Turkic army of 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers going away. His arrangements had been used up, and the rest depended on the King of Qin.

It was precisely because of the King of Qin that Li Jing did not put in all his efforts. Otherwise, if he had taken some risks, he might have had a chance to keep them, or make them even more miserable.

But if that happened, there would definitely be only a few soldiers left under his command, and it wouldn't be like now, with basically no major losses.

Li Jing issued the final order, asking all the cavalry under his command to follow and lend a helping hand to the King of Qin, and then he would return to Chang'an to take charge.

Jie Li Khan, who had thought he had escaped, then received news of the incident in Dali City. He also learned that Li Shimin was waiting at the front with more than 100,000 troops. It was truly a bolt from the blue.

Not to mention Jie Li, even Tong Yehu almost fell off his horse after hearing it.

Jie Li Khan trembled and gave orders to the generals around him who heard the news: "If the news is blocked and a mutiny is provoked, we will all die.

Now there is only one last obstacle left ahead, we must charge forward at all costs!"

All the generals nodded in agreement with grim expressions. Even they couldn't bear it, let alone the people below.

The two Khans did not care about anything else and made some big promises, asking the generals to take them down to show the soldiers. As long as they escorted the Khan back to the grassland, they would have as much gold, silver, cattle, sheep, pastures and women as they wanted!
After all, they were not far from the grassland, and the pursuers were still some distance away, so their morale was obviously boosted.

Jie Li and Tong Yehu secretly summoned their confidants and integrated the real elite troops together. The rest of the troops were baits for the Tang army. If the Turks really wanted to return to the territory, it would depend on the Khan's personal guards.

But what they didn't know was that at this time, the King of Qin no longer had more than 100,000 soldiers under his command, but a full 200,000. Tuli was about to transfer the Turkic army that was fighting against the Bingzhou troops back to Dali City.

The Bingzhou commander led part of the troops to continue guarding against the Turks, but sent all his cavalry to reinforce the King of Qin.

The reinforcements arranged by Jie Li did not arrive, but the reinforcements from Bingzhou did.

They cut off the supply of the Turks. If the Turks dared to continue to detour without food and fodder, they would starve themselves to death without the need for a large-scale military fight.

The two hundred thousand strong army opened their mouths wide and bared their fangs, waiting for Jie Li and Tong Yehu.

...............

(End of this chapter)