Chu Huaiqing was well aware of this, but a true man should protect his country and not allow the people to suffer. His father had always taught them that the safety of the people was of utmost importance.

"We must avenge our grievances and seek justice, but we cannot leave, at least not now." Chu Huaiqing gazed into the distance, his face showing suppressed pain.

Zhou Tong said with concern, "But young master, they have already framed the prince, and they will certainly not let you go. They need you now, which is why they haven't dealt with you as well. Once the Turks withdraw their troops, they will definitely try to take away your military power."

"Since we're going to have to fight this battle sooner or later, we might as well march back to Chang'an now. Since they're so ruthless, they can't blame us for being ruthless. Let's make ourselves emperors."

Chu Huaiqing shook his head: "Zhou Tong, as long as there is one person left in our Xuanjia Army, we will never let the Turks set foot on our land, and we will never let them steal a single sheep from our people. I cannot retreat at this time and give the Turks an opportunity to take advantage of us."

"Young Master, this is their conspiracy. We cannot fall into their trap. If we don't go back, what will happen to the Third Young Master?"

Because of Zhou Tong's question, Chu Huaiqing's pain became even more pronounced, and his chest heaved twice.

"Third brother..." He closed his eyes and exhaled from his lungs, "No matter what, the Xuanjia Army must not regret even the slightest thing except death."

Although Zhou Tong was anxious and unwilling, he always followed all of Chu Huaiqing's decisions: "Alright, then let's kill the Turkic barbarians first, then march back to Chang'an to avenge the Prince and Princess!"

Chu Huaiqing forced a smile: "Yes, kill the Turkic barbarians first, then march back to Chang'an!"

Winter comes very early in the northern desert, and the extreme cold gradually leads to food shortages in the army, which is extremely fatal for the large army.

As the saying goes, "an army marches on its stomach," and since the weather was already cold, how could an army have the strength to march and fight if they were hungry?

Chu Huaiqing sent messages several times, requesting the court to send grain. But Chang'an kept telling them to wait. After waiting and waiting, just when they were about to despair, they finally received dozens of cartloads of grain.

"That's great, young general! If the grain supplies from Chang'an don't arrive soon, we'll really be eating tree bark to fill our stomachs. We can hold out for a few days, but the horses can't."

"Yes, yes, that's great! Once we've filled our stomachs, we'll fight the Turks to the death! Then we'll march back to Chang'an!"

Someone shouted first, and the others echoed, "Charge back to Chang'an!" "Charge back to Chang'an!" "Charge back to Chang'an!"...

Aside from Zhou Tong, Chu Huaiqing didn't tell anyone about what happened at the Duan Prince's residence. Firstly, he was afraid of undermining morale, and secondly, he was afraid that everyone would get emotional and do something rash.

The Xuanjia Army had followed Prince Duan through thick and thin, so if they heard news of something happening to the prince, it would inevitably cause a huge uproar in the army.

But many people in the army already knew the news. Although they were far away in the northern desert, they never stopped corresponding with their families, and news from Chang'an kept coming in.

However, everyone tacitly refrained from mentioning it to Chu Huaiqing.

At this moment, the belated supplies brought them hope. In their excitement, someone let slip that they had all dropped their pretense and were brandishing their swords and spears, shouting and weeping.

Chu Huaiqing felt hatred and resentment. He tilted his head back slightly, closed his eyes to calm the turmoil and struggle in his heart, and when he opened his eyes, his tone was low: "Let's go, let's check the grain first."

Previously, they had deliberately delayed supplying provisions because they were afraid that the court would distrust the Xuanjia Army due to the Prince Duan's treason case. Now they were finally relieved.

Under everyone's eager gaze, the first cartload of provisions was opened—

"How... how could this happen?!" The soldiers at the very front were pale-faced, staring in disbelief at the grain carts in front of them.

Before them lay a cartload of rotten, moldy grain.

By this point, many people already had their own guesses, but some still clung to a sliver of hope: "Let's see what the others are like!"

The second cart was opened, and it still contained a pile of rotten and moldy grain.

The third car...

The fourth car...

They opened each of the grain transport trucks, and among the five trucks full of grain, they couldn't find a single piece of good dried meat. Most of it was so moldy that it was impossible to tell what it was.

The fodder for warhorses consisted of dry grass and branches, which were simply not suitable for them.

The remaining dozens of carts weren't even loaded with grain or fodder; they were all filled with...stones.

The heavy stones were transported all the way from Chang'an to the northern desert, dragging the 100,000 Xuanjia soldiers into an abyss of no return.

Hunger, hatred, despair... all sorts of negative emotions enveloped the army. The soldiers were well aware that the court did not trust them and that they had been abandoned.

Or perhaps, the imperial court never intended to let them go back alive; they simply wanted to drag them to their deaths here.

After their last bite of food was eaten, everyone was left with nothing but grass roots and tree bark to stave off hunger. Even the warhorses collapsed from hunger one after another.

Chu Huaiqing took it upon himself to have everyone kill their warhorses and share them as food.

Warhorses are the closest companions; humans and horses share life and death on the battlefield. Now, to eat warhorses is something many people cannot accept.

But they only had two paths before them: either eat the warhorses or starve to death.

They cannot die, because if they die, the border will be left undefended, and the six border cities will fall into the hands of the Turks.

They could only eat the horse meat with tears in their eyes. But the horse meat would eventually run out, so before each charge into battle, everyone would joke that if they died, their comrades would bring their bodies back and eat them.

The Xuan family army will never admit defeat and will fight to the last man.

In this state, although the Xuanjia Army was unwilling to give up, they were still unable to contend with the Turks. The Turks could wear them down day by day.

Another month passed, and Dayan's invincible army was completely annihilated under the attack of the Turks.

Zhou Tong would never forget the day of the great battle. The Turks' arrows were aimed at his heart. He was so hungry that his stomach was practically sticking to his back, and he had no strength to dodge. It was Chu Huaiqing who mustered all his strength to pounce on him and pin him down.

The man, his face covered in blood, gently touched his face with trembling fingertips, then smiled at him: "You...you must live...go see the peach blossoms in Jiangnan for me..."

This was a promise the two had made long ago. Chu Huaiqing was stationed in the northern desert, where all he could see was desolation and bitter cold. So the two made a promise that when the war ended, they would ride horses all the way from the northern desert to the south of the Yangtze River to see the ten miles of peach blossoms in the south.

Zhou Tong didn't really care where they were. Whether it was Jiangnan or Mobei, he was willing to go anywhere as long as he was with Chu Huaiqing.

The peach blossoms were something Chu Huaiqing wanted to see. His desire to see the peach blossoms stemmed solely from his desire to be with Chu Huaiqing.