In the big tent, Zhao Dan listened to Zhang Xuan's warning in a daze. He sat there motionlessly, his eyes a little dull. At this time, Chai Shao and Li Shentong also rushed over, and Zhang Xuan also told them about Qi Fubo's situation.

"What should I do now?" Li Shentong looked at Zhang Xuan worriedly.

Zhang Xuan glanced at the dark night sky outside the tent and said decisively to everyone: "Retreat immediately, there may be a glimmer of hope."

"Walk!"

Zhao Dan suddenly jumped up and shouted, "Let's go immediately, you can't delay any more!"

Once he regained his sanity, he restored his keen judgment of danger like an old fox. He knew what to do?

"I immediately asked someone to inform the caravans to pack up their things and leave immediately. If I don't want to leave, I will not persuade them again."

Zhao Shanyi rushed out of the tent like a gust of wind. Zhang Xuan, Chai Shao and Li Shentong looked at each other, nodded together, turned around and ran towards his tent.

News of the Turkic army in Qifubo quickly spread throughout the camp. Without urging, the merchants were so scared that they packed up their goods, and they didn't even care about the tents. They put boxes of goods on the backs of livestock, and all the big tents were busy in front of them.

Without Zhang Xuan's instructions, Cheng Yaojin had already brought all the goods to the camel. There were two of his components in it. He worked harder than anyone else. Zhang Xuan also packed up his sword and mount. Chai Shao and Li Shentong brought ten riders to come.

At this moment, Liu Wuzhou walked towards this side angrily, followed by Zhao Shan with a helpless look on his face. He was just called by Liu Wuzhou, and Liu Wuzhou scolded him fiercely.

"Young Master Zhang, what do you mean?"

Liu Wuzhou walked up to Zhang Xuan and glared at him and said, "Why do you retreat without my consent!"

Zhang Xuan calmly said to Liu Wuzhou: "General Liu, all the caravans think that Qifubo is in danger. Everyone agreed to leave. I don't think it's necessary to not agree with General Liu."

His eyes were extremely sharp, as if he had seen through Liu Wuzhou's thoughts. Liu Wuzhou did not dare to act too obviously, so he had to snort heavily and said coldly: "Of course I have no right to stop you from leaving, but since you don't obey my arrangements, I will no longer be responsible for your safety. You can think about it yourself!"

Liu Wuzhou glared at Zhang Xuan fiercely, turned around and strode away. Zhao Dan asked Zhang Xuan nervously, "Young Master Zhang, what should we do?"

Zhang Xuan looked at Liu Wuzhou's back as he left, and said to Zhao Shan: "Please tell all the caravans and let them decide if they are willing to follow us, then set off immediately. If you don't want to follow us, you can stay and follow the army!"

Zhao Dan sighed, "Okay! I'll talk to everyone."

"Zhao Wudan, there is not much time left, I won't wait for you!" Cheng Yaojin yelled from behind.

"I know!" Zhao Shan had no intention of getting angry with Cheng Yaojin. He turned around and ran towards a large tent in the distance.

After a stick of incense, Zhang Xuan led everyone out of the camp and quickly fled south. This time, there were 18 caravans in Fuqibo, five of which were willing to stay and follow Liu Wuzhou, while the remaining 13 caravans followed Zhang Xuan to retreat south.

Liu Wuzhou stood in front of the camp, staring at the caravan that was walking farther and farther away. He gritted his teeth with hatred, and his fists were clattering loudly, but he could do nothing.

At the same time, a team of black cavalry, like a pack of wolves, also silently followed Zhang Xuan's team south, and they finally had the opportunity to start.

.........

It was gradually noon the next day, and everyone was finally exhausted. After running wildly in the middle of the night and a morning, they were all surprised to see Xuanshaling not far away. Driven by fear, they actually ran for more than a hundred miles.

Many merchants were so tired that they slid down from their horses and lay on the grass and couldn't move. Although they had been traveling around all year round, they could not bear the escaping of their lives and everyone was exhausted.

Zhang Xuan put his hand curtains to cover the dazzling sunshine and looked to the west of the grassland. His years of career as a special forces soldier gave him a sense of keenness and vigilance far beyond ordinary people, especially when danger comes, he can always notice it first.

Last night, he felt more than once that someone was following them, and just a few miles away, dark shadows appeared and disappeared from time to time.

He suspected that it was a dark horse thief. This group of wolves on the grassland could not ignore their existence. The reason why they dared not take action was because they were afraid of Qifubo's Turkic army. Once the caravan escaped from the control of the Turkic army, would these hungry wolves pounce on their prey?

Just here, Zhang Xuan suddenly found a black dot on the grass hill several miles away, followed by the second and third ones, and the black dots had become black.

Zhang Xuan was shocked and shouted: "Go away quickly, the dark horse thief is here!"

The merchants were so scared that they jumped up from the ground, turned over and ran away from the horses, and saw that everyone refused to discard the goods, Zhang Xuan shouted again in a hurry: "Don't discard the goods and save their lives first!"

The merchants shouted: "These goods are our lives. Without goods, we are better than death!"

Chai Shao also advised: "The dark horse thief is cruel and vicious. Even if they throw away the goods, they will not let the merchant go. They will definitely kill them all."

Zhang Xuan knew that he couldn't run far with his goods, so he had no choice but to point at Xuanshaling not far away and shouted: "Go to hide in Xuanshaling!"

Everyone turned around and ran towards the Xuanshaling several miles away with a strong mule and camel loaded with cargo.

The so-called Xuanshaling is actually a Danxia landform. A sandstone mountain is formed by wind for many years. This landform is extremely common in the desert, but it is a grassland, so this Danxia landform is very rare.

The Turkic leader Rangan was here to worship the heaven and earth and the gods, and ascended the throne again as the Khan of Qimin. After his death, he also left his will and buried his ashes here. Therefore, the Turks changed the original name Xuan** to Xuanshaling and regarded it as a holy land.

In the past, there were troops stationed here, but as the Turkic forces moved northward, the ashes of Khan of Qimin were moved back to the north and buried again, and this holy tomb was gradually abandoned by the Turks.

Xuanshaling covers an area of ​​about 200 acres and is composed of thousands of strange sandstone pillars. Everyone quickly hid in the stone pillar forest and walked deeper. In the middle of Xuanshaling, there is the tomb of the Turkic man-made Qimin Khan, which is an irregular circular open space of about twenty acres.

There are many stone pillars around, and in the middle is a square stone platform two meters high. This is the platform. There are more than a dozen huge sandstone statues on both sides of the platform. However, due to no one's management, they are often visited by tomb robbers. Most of the statues are damaged by humans, and many statues are even smashed into two sections.

The entrance to the tomb has been dug up, and the coffin of Qimin Khan was taken back to the Turkic court for re-burial. Only a dark cave entrance was left, and there were large traces of fire on the stone wall.

At this time, everyone was in vain and put all their hopes on Zhang Xuan. Zhang Xuan was the first to discover the dark horse thief. The determination and command ability he showed during the crisis made him actually the leader of everyone.

Zhang Xuan had no time to be modest. Before the dark horse thief could reach Xuanshaling, he immediately said to the two Li Shentong's guards: "You two ride two horses to the Great Wall, and ask the garrison there to come and rescue us!"

There were thousands of Sui troops stationed in the Zihe Great Wall, and this Sui army became Zhang Xuan's only hope. The two guards turned around and looked at Li Shentong, who immediately nodded, "As long as Mr. Zhang's orders!"

He said to the other ten guards: "From now on, everyone will obey Mr. Zhang's orders, and his orders are mine!"

The guards saluted together, "Abide by the order!"

Two guards riding four horses left Xuanshaling and rushed to the south. At this time, Zhao Shan asked Zhang Xuan urgently: "Young Master Zhang, what should we do now?"

Zhang Xuan waved his hand to stop him. He quickly glanced at the black horse thieves in the distance. They were less than two miles from Xuanshaling. Zhang Xuan shouted to everyone anxiously: "Everyone blocks the entrance with boxes and goods, so that the horse thieves will not rush in!"

When their lives were at stake, everyone fought their best. They followed Zhang Xuan's orders and blocked heavy boxes at the entrances of the stone forest. They also overthrew more than a dozen statues of gods and used them to block the main passage.

The Turks' altar helped them. Because they were worried that wild beasts would come in and destroy them, the Turks built the altar into a semi-closed state, with only four passages available. As long as they blocked these four passages, the dark horse thieves would not rush in.

Of course, if the dark horse thieves give up their war horses, they can also climb in, which can also cause great danger to them.

At this time, two hundred black horse thieves had already rushed outside Xuanshaling, and the Liang army did not immediately order a charge. The terrain of Xuanshaling was extremely unfavorable to the cavalry. Although it was impossible to sprint on the horse, it was also prone to ambush.

Master Liang ordered three horse thieves to go in first to investigate the situation, and then consider how to kill and rob the goods.

The caution of the dark horse thief gave Zhang Xuan a little bit of the most precious time. Seeing that the entrances everywhere had been blocked, he shouted: "Everyone brings all the weapons and listen to my orders!"

The caravan had about 300 people, thousands of strong mules and hundreds of camels crowded together in a dozen acres of open space in the northeast corner. It was surrounded by high stone walls and could not climb from outside, which was safer.

The camels seemed to know that the danger was coming, and they all lay quietly on the ground, with more than two thousand mules crowding into a ball, and the goods surrounded them from all over the city, piled up like a city wall.

The merchants all carried their own weapons. Although the court strictly prohibited privately from owning long weapons and military crossbows, they still hid many spears. Everyone surrounded them with various weapons, including spears, swords and bows and arrows. Many people even wore fine scale armor. Although they were numerous, they were merchants after all and had not received military training.

Zhang Xuan said to everyone: "At the critical moment of life and death, we must obey orders. If we get confused first, no one can survive. As long as we can persevere until tomorrow night, perhaps we still have a glimmer of hope and everyone's goods can be saved."

Everyone nodded silently, and Zhao Shan added: "Fighting with the dark horse thief, there will definitely be someone who will not survive. I promise everyone that no matter who is killed, his goods will be returned to his family and will never be swallowed. Even if I die, this vow will still be valid. Please swear together."

More than a dozen caravans were actually spontaneously composed of countless small merchants. The goods were their entire property and were related to the survival of their families. Therefore, they regarded it more important than life. They would rather die than throw away the goods. Zhao Shan's vow came to their hearts, and everyone sweared that they would never be greedy for other people's goods.

Zhang Xuan and others swore that they finished, and said, "I want to divide everyone into ten teams, each team has a team leader. Everyone must obey the command. If anyone dares to do whatever they want and harm everyone, I will kill whom first!"

Zhang Xuan's majesty made everyone feel astonished, and time was no longer waiting for anyone. Zhang Xuan appointed Li Shentong's ten guards as team leaders, each leading 30 people. Each two teams were responsible for guarding one entrance. The other two teams were used as mobile to support critical areas at any time, and were led by Cheng Yaojin.

Chai Shao and Li Shentong are the deputy commanders, each of whom is responsible for two entrances, while Zhang Xuan is in charge of the overall situation.

In just half an hour, more than 300 merchants with a loose sand were quickly organized by Zhang Xuan and kept the entrances everywhere. Ten other men were sent to comfort the livestock. Zhang Xuan explained it very clearly to them. If any livestock were frightened, they would be killed immediately.
Chapter completed!