Chapter 214
Give Li Yao a sentence to make things right.
In the vast Daling Country, can’t even a few hundred people be pulled out?
“This is definitely not my father's intention,” Liu Yun continued, “What my father worries most about is the food supply issue. In order to give the soldiers on the frontier a little more food, the imperial palace has been economizing on food and clothing.”
“Then who is preventing the transport of food?”
“I don't know,” Liu Yun said, “But there are only two people, the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister.”
Li Yao was even more confused.
The Crown Prince is the future emperor, and in the future the whole of Daling will be his. The Prime Minister is also second only to one person above tens of thousands of people. Why do they specifically want to be at odds with the generals on the front line?
As expected, the affairs of the imperial family are the most incomprehensible.
But now was not the time to think about this. Since the emperor did not send anyone to receive the food, Liu Yun meant to send someone to the capital city.
"What if when it arrives in the capital city, still no one receives it, or after receiving it they simply don't send it to the northern border?" Li Yao asked.
"This..." Liu Yun clenched his fists, revealing a resolute look in his eyes, "I will go with them! If it comes down to it, I'll take it to the northern border myself!"
"No."
The prince could not leave his fiefdom without reason, let alone take an army to the capital city.
Liu Yun had just taken one step out of Yi Prefecture on one side, and on the other side there would be a large number of troops waiting to hold him down directly.
"But I don't feel at ease about others going."
"Let me go," Li Yao decided to take a trip to the vast northern grasslands.
Liu Yun naturally disagreed, because the trip still had some danger: “According to the news received in the past few days, small groups of barbarians are becoming more and more rampant behind our great army.”
What am I still afraid of a few small barbarians?
Li Yao said: "I have to go for a reason. My son Wang San’er is still there. As his mother I have to go see him. And I plan to bypass the capital city and head directly to the northern border." In order to ensure Li Yao and the food's safety, Liu Yun dispatched two thousand local troops, posing as cart drivers.
These two thousand people were led by Zhang Shun and Liu Hu respectively, and they were all old acquaintances with Li Yao. The soldiers under them were also selected from among the original local troops.
On Zhang Shun’s side were experienced veterans, while the ones led by Liu Hu were rising stars, young and daring.
With these two thousand people around, Li Yao believed that even if they encountered small groups of barbarians, they would be beaten to the point of retreating in defeat.
After two days of careful preparation, the long grain convoy left Yi Prefecture and set off for the distant northern border.
Since they used ox carts, the speed was not very fast. But after leaving Yi Prefecture, most of the terrain was flat, and Zhang Shun let the convoy take turns resting while travelling most of the time each day.
Twenty days later, the convoy arrived near a frontier fortress.
Beyond the high earthen walls was the vast grassland. At this time, it was already early winter, and the cold wind cut people's faces so they couldn't open their eyes.
Standing on the tattered earthen wall and looking at the boundless sea of withered yellow grass, Li Yao seemed to return to her previous life again, wanting to ride a fast horse and gallop freely.
“Miss Li,” Zhang Shun came up behind her and said, "We encountered some trouble getting out of the pass."
“Don’t they even let us go out?”
"It's not that they don't let us, they said to wait for a while," Zhang Shun said, "The excuse is that they are afraid we will collude with foreigners and deliver food to the barbarians. So we must be questioned clearly, and let the deputy general in charge make the decision."
“Even Liu Yun’s letters don’t work?”
“If there were no letters, I'm afraid this food would have been confiscated,” Zhang Shun said. “The other party just wants to delay us for a while. It will take at least ten days.”
It was about to snow soon.
These generals hiding behind the walls were quite comfortable, completely ignoring whether the soldiers fighting outside were dead or alive. And they still had to stop at this time.
"Miss Li, why don't I go alone and let General Xu send someone back to meet us," Liu Hu said. “It would only take a few days to go back and forth.”
“How could you know where the main troops are in such a vast grassland?”
“Well...I don't know.”
"I'll go," Li Yao tightened her clothes and said.
“Miss Li, you can't!” Liu Hu said, “How could we let you take this risk alone? If someone is going, I will go with you.”
“Then do your best to get ten fast horses for less than ten people at most.”
On the grassland without any cover, the more people there were, the easier it was to expose the target. Liu Hu moved very quickly. With Li Yao's silver bills paving the way, ten fast horses and rations for a few days were prepared before nightfall. Taking advantage of the night, ten people entered the vast grassland.
Although it was already dark, the moonlight penetrated the thin cloud layer, making the entire grassland a vast expanse.
Apart from the sound of hoofbeats, there was only the whistling wind.
At this time of year, the temperature on the grassland at night had already dropped to around zero degrees. The cold wind slashed at everyone's faces like knives.
Liu Hu was indeed the best among the Yi Prefecture army. The people he chose were also strong and good at fighting. The team of ten people was like a small arrow, inserted into the grassland at an extremely fast speed.
Li Yao was naturally at the forefront. With her superb hearing, she distinguished the faint movements around her from the hoofbeats and wind sounds.
After galloping for more than two hours, a faint but very urgent hoofbeat sound came from the right front.
Li Yao decisively ordered a halt, then concentrated and held her breath: "Thirty-plus people ahead to the right, less than two li away."
“Are they barbarians?”
“Most likely.”
They hadn't gone very far from the pass yet, and they had already encountered barbarians. It could only be said that the rear of the Daling army had been infiltrated like a sieve.
Judging from the direction they were rushing straight towards, Li Yao felt that their whereabouts were very likely leaked out in advance.
“Miss Li, you should go back,” Liu Hu said. “I’ll stay behind with my brothers!”
“No!”
Although Liu Hu and his men were brave, unfortunately they didn't have much actual combat experience. Facing a small group of elite barbarians with an absolute disadvantage in numbers, they would only be completely wiped out.
“Then let's go back together!”
“Our horses are tired and can’t outrun them,” Now that things had come to this, Li Yao said decisively, “Liu Hu, listen, I will lure them away. You take your men back quickly and be sure to tell Zhang Shun that there may be spies within the pass. No matter what, he must protect the food. Especially my carriage, the things inside are extremely important and must be protected.”
“But...”
“That’s an order!” Li Yao shouted, “Leave another horse for me. With two horses I can lure them away. When I find the main camp, I will naturally send someone back to escort the food.”
Liu Hu gave his warhorse to Li Yao: “Miss Li, you must take good care of yourself, otherwise I won’t be able to explain to the Prince of Yi Prefecture and Wang San’er.”
Having said that, he also turned around without hesitation and led his men away.
After they had run two hundred meters, Li Yao drove her horse forward towards the left front.
In a moment, the barbarian squad ahead noticed something wrong. A barbarian leader stopped his mount and carefully distinguished the direction of the two teams.
Finally he also decisively turned his horse and chased after Li Yao.
“There are only two or maybe one of them. We must intercept them!"