Chapter 6662: The Suspicion Formation

Chapter 6662: The Suspicion Formation
Zhang Ji had no intention of forcing Masinde. Although Zhang Ji was on guard after being informed by Chang'an that Masinde was a high-ranking Kushan official, the more he was on guard, the more Zhang Ji realized how powerful Masinde was. This man was on the same level as those truly top Han Dynasty wise men in Chang'an.

"It's rare that you didn't ask me directly where Fu Ward went." Masinde poured a bowl of wine, drank it quietly, threw away the bowl, and said to Zhang Ji.

"You will naturally say what you want to say. As for what you don't want to say, at least I can't do anything about it. The longer I stay with you, the more I realize the gap between us. It turns out that there is such a person in Kushan." Zhang Ji replied to Masinde calmly.

"After all, it is a country that was able to develop from a tribal leader being beheaded and expelled to a power with a territory of thousands of miles and a population of tens of millions. If it cannot produce some amazing people at such a scale, is there any need for this country to exist?" Masinde sighed lightly, "The Han Empire is very strong, but this is not the basis for your arrogance."

Zhang Ji nodded after hearing this, "So are you planning to stay in Tibet next?"

"Of course I'm going to Chang'an to enjoy life." Masinde gave a very direct answer. "The price offered by Chen Zichuan is too high, and I can do it. I plan to make up for everything I didn't enjoy in the first 70 years in the next 20 years. Rangarajan already has grandchildren, so it's time for me to be a human being."

Zhang watched Assam escort Masinde as he left. He neither stopped them nor sent anyone to protect them because there was no need. As for what happened next, it would be better for them to leave.

"Can they really break out?" Assam asked with some worry, looking at the Qiang people whose weapons and equipment were not sophisticated but who were obviously united and willing to die.

"Didn't you plan to use Fuward's head as a means of promotion?" Masinde asked with interest. The relationship between Assam and Fuward was not good at all.

"That's because I didn't know that you had prepared a way out, and realized that Fuward was on a different path from us and hadn't left yet." Assam spoke his mind honestly. "Now that you have prepared a way out, and Fuward has left, if I consider this matter as a colleague, after all, we have worked together for so many years."

"We have worked together for so many years." Mashind looked up at the sky. The high, clear blue sky made Mashind's mind open up a lot.

"Although I don't like many of his behaviors, it's more because of his identity and status, as well as my past experiences. To be honest, I don't think I can do it if Fuward tells his soldiers the news and I risk my life to lead the soldiers back to Kushan." Assam said with some regret, "Military Advisor, after watching Fuward leave, I know what I want to do now."

"Until that time comes, no one knows whether they can do it." Masinde said indifferently, "In fact, Fuward, who led these soldiers to Tibet a few years ago, certainly did not think that he would take a gamble and bring these soldiers back."

"Until that time comes, no one knows whether they are heroes or losers." Masinde concluded calmly, "In my opinion, no matter what choice you make, it is not wrong. Dying for one's beliefs is one choice, and living in humiliation is also another choice. Everyone has their own aspirations."

"I guess I'm just living a miserable life." Assam recalled the scene when Fuward left, walked a few steps behind Masinde, and suddenly asked.

"Are you a Dayuezhi noble?" Masinde asked casually.

"No." Assam understood what Mahinde said.

"Then why do you empathize with them? You have risked your life for them, but they don't treat you as their own. Why do you have to be so humble? Live for yourself with your head held high." Masinde withdrew his gaze from the sky and said calmly, "Be an ordinary person. When you don't enjoy the treatment that others have, don't shoulder the responsibilities that others should shoulder."

"Oh, I heard that the Han Dynasty has a large ranch in the north. I wanted to have a large ranch when I was a child. I will go to the north to raise cattle and sheep. I remember you told me that the Sai people are good at herding." Assam spoke with a nostalgic tone. As a Sai person, he had never had the opportunity to herd since he was born in the Beigui mountain area. The Beigui mountain area has never been suitable for grazing.

"That's fine." Masinde nodded to Assam. "Just have something to do. If you don't have any ambitions, that's fine too. Our mission is over, so it's time to take a rest."

Assam nodded and followed Masinde to the Qiang village. He planned to wait for a while. After confirming the news about Fuward and the overall situation, he went to Chang'an, not for anything else, just to tie up the last thread involving Kushan.

"Is Mashind's father-in-law a Kushan?" Yang Pu asked Zhang Ji in surprise after Mashind left. You know, it was he who personally took Mashind to Chang'an during the last court meeting. He didn't expect that the other party was actually a Kushan.

"He is from the Han Dynasty, but he was lurking in Kushan. Now he has retired after completing his mission." Zhang Ji said without hesitation. Yang Pu had no doubts after hearing this.

"Have the investigators found any trace of Fu Ward?" After answering Yang Pu's curious question, Zhang Ji naturally changed the subject.

"It's hard to be sure. The enemy had already led their men to retreat in scattered groups before the Xiangxiong Royal City was captured. Although Fuward was the key target, the enemy seemed to have made preparations early on. The locals we found gave several escape directions, and these people obviously did not lie." Yang Pu said with a headache, "We now suspect that these escape directions may be deliberate."

"With so many of us, why should we worry about his deliberate confusion? We should form teams of a hundred to check all the possible defense lines. Every half hour, each exploring team will send one person back. In this way, if the number of people reporting back from a certain team suddenly stops, we can be sure that the direction is definitely the target, or at least they have been baited." Lin Dai at the side sneered and said, what else is there to think about? The Qiang people have a large population, so of course they should make the most of their human resource advantages.

"In this case, it will easily cause casualties. If the team sent out for reconnaissance really encounters the enemy, they will definitely be wiped out. We have already won a great victory now, and it might be better to leave the rest to the border defense legions." Zhang Ji agreed with Lin Dai's judgment, but considering that even if the resistance of the Kushan soldiers was very weak in this battle, the Qiang people have lost thousands of people so far. Now that we have basically won a great victory, there is really no need to waste human resources.

"It's okay. We have already paid out the resettlement allowance in advance. If someone really dies, we will send out another one. It's not a problem. Fu Ward is more dangerous." Lin Dai said nonchalantly. After all, when it comes to attacking Fu Ward, he doesn't even care about his own life.

Zhang Ji had nothing to say. He only had the right to make suggestions in combat. How to fight still depended on the ideas of the tribal leaders. Now that Lin Dai was so determined, Zhang Ji didn't have any better solution.

As for wanting to avoid losses or something, if the Qiang people themselves don't care about the losses, Zhang Ji really doesn't have any good solutions. Although in Zhang Ji's view, the merit of annihilating Xiangxiong alone is enough for the Qiang people to live on for twenty years, but for the Qiang people, Fu Ward is the biggest enemy.

"Chief, we found traces of a small number of cavalry passing through in the southwest direction." Just when Zhang Ji, Yang Pu, Lin Dai and others were discussing how to deal with the Kushan captives next, what kind of food to arrange for them, and how to let the local army of Yizhou or Xinzhou hand over the captives, the young and strong tribesmen of the Di people in the south came to inform Lin Dai with an urgent battle report.

"Cavalry?" Yang Pu looked at Lin Dai and had some guesses in his mind. He didn't confirm it directly because in the impression of Yang Pu and Lin Dai, Fu Ward's headquarters had been transformed into infantry, and the organized cavalry did not exist at all.

Now the news sent by the Di people in the south is that there are a small number of cavalry, but it is obviously an organized scale, which is somewhat unlikely.

"There are not many horses in Xiangxiong, and Fuward should not have an organized cavalry." Zhang Ji directly told Yang Pu and others the information that Ma Xinde had told him.

"That is to say, Fuward has no organized cavalry, just like we know. They are mainly infantry." Lin Dai lowered his head and thought for a while. "Send a thousand people to chase them and see what's going on. Even if they are not Fuward cavalry, as long as they are organized cavalry, we should pay attention to them. Is there any other force in the Tibetan area here that can provide organized cavalry?"

Before Lin Dai's order was passed on, Agui, the Di chieftain in the south, had already led more than 2,000 young and strong men to chase in the direction of the horse hoof prints.

For Agui, it doesn't matter whether these cavalrymen are Fu Ward's subordinates or third-party forces in Tibet. As long as they are cavalry, he needs to chase them and see what happens, because there are very few horses in Tibet now, and the Di and Qiang people are pure horse-riding peoples. Only with war horses can they exert their due strength. At present, this kind of infantry does not even have half of its combat effectiveness.

It would be best if it's Fu Ward, but if not, we can make plans if we discover a third-party force.

"What is this?" After chasing for a while, Agui's men found a group of dead bodies of their own people in front of them. There were not many, but there were hundreds of them.

"They were killed quickly. The enemy is very strong. Moreover, this is very important." After squatting beside the corpses and checking them, he found that the farthest Qiang brothers were less than two hundred meters away from the battlefield. Although this group of Qiang people were indeed not elite, but with a scale of more than a hundred people, they were easily wiped out and they didn't even run two hundred meters. They were definitely top elite.

"Do you have any other suggestions?" After Agui expressed his judgment, he looked at his soldiers and asked.

"Notify the big boss and have them send elite cavalry to pursue. This direction is most likely the direction that Fuward evacuated. They are not encountering an ordinary elite army." The old soldier under his command spoke cautiously, and then dragged a cold corpse, pried open the other's hand, and showed it to Agui, "This is the Archer, triple smelted, and was killed by two hits."

The Qiang people have very few eagle archers, and they are truly elite. When there was no great change in the world, most of the eagle archers had reached the fourth or fifth level of training. This is why even the super-large tribes such as the Qing Qiang, Fa Qiang, and the Di people who escaped the stranglehold of the Western Liang cavalry have less than fifty eagle archers in total.

The reason why Lin Dai wanted to find fifty archers to kill Sima Lang was because there were only so many archers in the entire Tibetan tribe, and even if Lin Dai wanted to find a few more, there were none.

Later, due to the change in the sky and the influence of the world consciousness curse twice, the Qiang people's archery skills were basically pressed to the third or fourth level. But even the third or fourth level is still very powerful in the current environment. In the end, they only shot once, and then the heart mirror was broken, and the people died on the spot.
"Quick, go and notify the chieftain and ask him to mobilize the elite cavalry to pursue. Everyone else, follow me and continue the pursuit in this direction. Everyone be careful not to get ambushed." Agui thought for just a moment before agreeing with the advice of the old soldier under his command. He quickly asked his fastest veteran to notify the main force of the Qiang people, and then he led his men to continue the pursuit.

As for what to do if they catch up and beat me to death, it's nothing to be afraid of. The successor has been chosen this time, so I die. As long as my death is valuable, the Han Dynasty will really reward me. We can't just wait here. What if it rains ahead and wipes out all traces? What should we do?
As a nomad who has lived in Tibet for nearly ten years, Agui is not blind. Although the sky looks dark blue now, the gray-blue color in the sky has begun to spread. This is the rhythm of rain. In this case, if you chase it and hold the trace, you may be able to search along the trace. If you don't chase it, the heavy rain will pass by, and it will be far away, and you may not be able to find it.

"Chase!" After sending two groups of his men to inform Lin Dai, Agui personally led the young and strong Di people to chase after them. Fu Ward is good at fighting, right? Come, I have more than 2,000 young and strong men. I don't believe you can kill them all within an hour. If you can't kill them all, as long as you entangle them, our Qiang main force will come and avenge all the revenge.

Agui rushed to the front. In such a dangerous situation, only when he rushed to the front could the young and strong Di people fight bravely and fearlessly.

More than thirty miles ahead of Agui, an elite backbone of Fu Ward's troops, led by Sidney, were resting. They had originally planned to take a detour to break through the blockade, but they did not expect to encounter a Qiang search team of a hundred people just as they jumped out of the blockade. In desperation, they could only strike first and spent a lot of effort to eliminate the Qiang search team.

Several of their own soldiers were killed in the battle and a dozen were slightly injured. There was nothing they could do. These Qiang search teams were completely fearless and had no thought of retreating. The only one who ran 200 meters was still on a mission to call for help.

If it weren't for the small-scale battle, the strength of the internal energy leaving the body would have been greatly enhanced, and the small team that Fu Ward separated from the south would not have suffered just the loss of a few people.

In order to eliminate traces, Sidney had to take the brothers who died in the battle and take a detour. However, their mission was to contain the Qiang people and attract their attention, so it didn't matter if they took a detour.

When the news from Agui was delivered to Lindai, Zhang Ji and Lindai had already realized that Fu Ward was trying to break out in different ways, and the seven or eight traces found before were probably left behind by the scattered teams.

"You're actually trying to break out in separate groups. You really don't know how to live or die." Lin Dai said with a grim expression, "Send 5,000 people to each of these areas where the Kushan elite have passed through to pursue them. A team of at most 500 people, right? Fine, let's see how you run!"

The Qiang people really have a lot of troops and now have a complete advantage in military strength. In this case, Fuward's division of troops will only benefit the Qiang people and not harm them.

Fifty thousand Qiang people might lose if they fight against the 5,000 main force led by Fu Ward, and even if they win, it will be difficult to capture Fu Ward. However, if five thousand Qiang people fight against several hundred elite Kushans led by Fu Ward, the probability of winning is extremely high.

Even if Fuward divided his troops into more small groups, with each group consisting of more than a hundred people, the Qiang people would definitely win with their ten to one advantage in military strength.

After all, tactics only make sense when there are more people. Even if the Four Saints and Sun Bin, five of them, fought against Xiang Yu alone, with a force ratio of five to one, they would still be beheaded by Xiang Yu. This is the most clear portrayal of the fact that the number is too small and the tactics lose their significance.

Fifty thousand people rushed out in all directions so quickly. Lin Dai didn't want to use his brain at all, nor was he afraid of falling into Fu Ward's trap. Since the division of troops was real, then Fu Ward would have even fewer troops left no matter what. Even if the other party had some ideas, it would be nonsense without the strength.

"The enemy is actually cavalry." The Qiang people who have not yet caught up with Fu Ward's main force gave a unified judgment of the scouts. There is no doubt that they are cavalry.

"Masinde said before that there were no war horses." Zhang Ji frowned. He still believed in Masinde, and there was really no need for the other party to lie to him.

"Maybe he's riding a yak." Lin Dai said with a sneer.

"How can I not tell the difference between the hoof prints of yaks and war horses?" Yang Pu said dissatisfiedly. He personally participated in the search team and conducted professional research on the traces left by the Kushan elite under Fu Ward's command.

"That's not important. Aren't the traces of investigation by various units now converging in the southwest direction?" Lin Dai had no way to refute this, so he changed the subject.

"Yes, we think they want to take the ancient Quma Mountain Road in the Himalayas. Although it is covered with ice and snow, it was once an ancient road that could lead to Kushan. Now it is estimated to be difficult to pass, but Fuward may have a special way to pass." Yang Pu told Lin Dai the results of his speculation, "So we think Fuward may really be planning to go there."

"It's just a possibility. Then don't mobilize other manpower for now. Let 50,000 people chase these scattered Kushan elites and see what Fuward can do." Lin Dai lowered his head and thought for a while before speaking. He was not sure whether Fuward would take the ancient road of Quma Mountain. The snow line moved down during the Little Ice Age, causing this road to be basically blocked, and it was difficult to determine whether it was passable.

"I've also notified Zhu Zhi, and he means the same thing. We need to be more conservative now. We can only say that we have captured the forces scattered by Fu Ward, but we haven't seen Fu Ward himself. Many things are still uncertain. Maybe these are all baits." Yang Pu nodded and said.

The Qiang people wanted to do their best, but Fu Ward's scattered elite troops were fewer in number and more mobile. The Qiang people under their command were basically infantry, and the only legion of cavalry could not attack at will without determining Fu Ward's position.

Now the Qiang people and Fu Ward are actually competing in their willpower. Before Fu Ward appears, all the means they have used are just tests. Only when Fu Ward actually appears, will the Qiang people attack with all their strength.

"The mobility of the infantry is too slow. The enemy has fewer people, but they are more elite than us and their mobility is obviously much stronger. It is difficult for us to catch up." The tribal leader of the Di people reported to the commander Zhuzhi who was going to eliminate Fu Ward with a very ugly expression.

"Keep chasing, don't stop. Our encirclement is almost formed. Fu Ward's scattered elite troops are also converging in one direction. The time for confirmation is almost here, and Fu Ward will soon appear. Just order all units to get ready." Zhuzhi gave the order with a cold expression.

"It should be Quma Mountain. Now the direction where Fuward's men are fleeing is only through Quma Mountain, which has an ancient road. Other places are impossible to pass. Let's send a team to Quma Mountain first to block the enemy." The Di leader made his own judgment.

"This intention is too direct, so direct that it is unrealistic. Fu Ward is not a fool. He has not enough manpower to fight us to the death." Zhu Zhi shook his head and said, "They can't reach Quma Mountain. Soon Fu Ward's headquarters will reveal their intentions."

If there is still some hope for Fuward with 30,000 people to fight against 120,000 or 130,000 Qiang people, then it is pure nonsense for Fuward with 5,000 people to fight against 120,000 or 130,000 Qiang people. If Fuward dares to fight head-on, he will only have a dead end. Therefore, the obvious route like Quma Mountain is simply impossible.

"Next, we will head north." Sidney, who was obviously a little tired, ordered the elite troops of the headquarters who had successfully gathered two team detachments, with a total of 500 people. "Life and death will depend on this. We need to increase our mobility to the limit and quickly gather the eleven detachments along the way to pass through this possible blockade gap."

"The general is waiting for us in Qiangtang in the north." Sidney said with a firm look.

That's right, Fuward did not go south, but chose to lead half of his men under the cover of Sidney and others to build a false Zhangzhung servant army and head north to the Qaidam grassland. Originally, even the Zhangzhung servant soldiers would not be so easy to escape at the moment, but who could have helped them to have accurate information about the Kushan elite.

I heard that the monthly votes have been reduced this month, and the rankings are back to normal. Please vote for me and give me some room to live. Let me see what my level is. The author will work hard to update.