"The journey to meet the convoy is long, and the Fourth Prince is getting on in years. I'm afraid something might go wrong. I'd better send a different general."

"As a general, I am not old at all. Besides, what I am best at is leading troops into battle. Leading troops to meet the Crown Prince is nothing. Your Majesty, you can rest assured."

“Then let Xue’er go on the expedition with the team and lend a hand to Father,” Li Xue said.

"Xue'er has just returned. She must be exhausted. She should rest well at home and wait for her father's triumphant return."

At this point, the emperor had no other choice but to immediately issue an edict ordering the Fourth Prince to lead three thousand cavalry to the desert to meet the First Prince's convoy.

Upon receiving the imperial edict, the Fourth Prince did not linger. He immediately selected three thousand iron cavalry and set off overnight.

At this time, the eldest prince, Li Hui, had been traveling in the desert for many days and was already suffering greatly.

Li Hui had always lived a life of luxury in the palace, and this long journey of several days had long exceeded his limits.

When he heard that it was still a day's journey to Yuanxi, he felt a little relieved. He gritted his teeth and persevered for a day, finally arriving at Yuanxi City.

The arrival of the eldest prince in Yuanxi was a momentous occasion, and Prefect Jin led all the officials out of the city to greet him.

After entering the city, Li Hui did not immediately deal with affairs, but rested for a few days. Once he had recovered his energy, he planned to have some fun in the city.

However, the original Xicheng was located in a desert and could not be compared with the capital. There was nowhere to play. He had no other choice but to start dealing with related matters.

Dealing with Xiao Taiyuan's affairs is not difficult; the imperial court already has a detailed plan for handling them, and we just need to follow the requirements of the plan.

In less than two days, the affairs here were settled. Next, the Crown Prince inspected the military pay worth 20 million taels of silver that had been seized.

Most of these funds were in the form of banknotes and gold, which were easy to transport and could be loaded into just over ten vehicles.

The rest was all silver, a full two million taels, which filled two thousand boxes. It would take more than two hundred carts to carry all of these boxes.

In addition, the eldest prince, Li Hui, was very fond of jade. When dealing with Xiao Taiyuan's jade mine, he selected some top-quality jade, loaded it into more than ten carts, and prepared to bring these jades back to the capital.

With so many vehicles on the road, the entire stretch is two miles long.

This convoy is enormous, a truly eye-catching sight as it travels through the desert.

Looking at the convoy, Li Hui and Wan Jinda couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Such a large convoy made it seem like they had brought too few people. Even with the dozens of escorts arranged by Yuan Xi, the total number of people was only a little over three hundred.

In the Central Plains region, escorting such a large convoy would only require a hundred or so people, but it's different here.

In the vast desert, such a long caravan would be in serious trouble if attacked. Even if it wasn't all stolen, some of it would be taken. Once the silver was lost, they would be unable to explain themselves.

Xiao Taiyuan, a key figure in the Yuanxi Incident, will also be escorted back to the capital. Several foreigners will accompany him, which greatly increases the difficulty of the escort.

To reduce risks, Wan Jinda divided the convoy into five rows to travel across the desert, placing several prison vans in the middle of the convoy. In case of danger, the vehicles could be quickly brought together, allowing all personnel to concentrate on defending against the enemy without having to worry about the front and rear.

Not long after leaving Yuanxi City, the convoy entered the vast Gobi Desert. Wan Jinda knew that at the current speed of the convoy, it would take them at least ten days to get out of the desert.

Once you leave the desert, you'll be close to the Central Plains, which means you've entered a safe zone.

Therefore, during these ten-plus days, they were in constant danger, and everyone had to remain highly vigilant to deal with any unforeseen circumstances.

The convoy moved quickly, and for the first few days everything went smoothly without any danger; they didn't see a single person in the vast desert.

Gradually, Li Hui and Wan Jinda were no longer as nervous as before. It seemed that the vast desert was not as dangerous as they had imagined.

At noon that day, the convoy stopped to rest. The soldiers seized the time to cook and prepare to continue their journey after lunch.

Just then, four or five people appeared in the distance, all riding warhorses and watching them from afar, which immediately aroused everyone's vigilance.

According to Wan Jinda's assessment, the convoy was likely being watched, and these people were probably there to scout.

This time, he brought out a hundred well-trained archers. If they were to deal with a small group of bandits of a few dozen people, it would be a matter of minutes.

If they encounter a larger number of bandits, they'll be in serious trouble. Once the bandits charge into the convoy and a melee ensues, the archers will lose their advantage.

Under no circumstances should they let their guard down.

The caravan continued on its way, and two hours later, a group of people suddenly appeared from the side.

The group consisted of about a hundred people. They appeared suddenly without any warning and rushed towards the convoy at top speed.

This was clearly a sneak attack. After all, this was a desert, a flat plain, and the convoy had plenty of time to react from the moment the group appeared until they charged out.

The convoy quickly transformed, and more than 300 soldiers soon surrounded the vehicles. One hundred archers took up advantageous positions and began shooting as the convoy approached.

These people chose to attack at this time because they believed that people were most tired and had the weakest defenses at this time, making it the best opportunity to attack.

The bandits in the desert were extremely fierce. Wielding large machetes, they moved like arrows, arriving in front of the convoy in the blink of an eye.

At that very moment, the archers fired their arrows, and the dozens of bandits at the front immediately fell to the ground, while the bandits rushing in from behind were also tripped and knocked down. In an instant, the group was thrown into chaos.

"Kill!" Wan Jinda roared, spurred his horse, drew his sword, and charged forward. The other soldiers immediately followed.

Wan Jinda was indeed a fierce general. His broadsword flashed up and down, and in the blink of an eye, more than a dozen robbers were cut down from their horses.

Since the number of attackers was small, there was no need to worry about the convoy being hijacked. The soldiers who rushed forward slashed and killed the robbers.

The more than one hundred bandits originally intended to launch a surprise attack, but they were caught off guard by the soldiers of the caravan. Dozens of them were shot dead by crossbows in one fell swoop, and many more were killed in the chaos. Only a few men remained and fled in panic.

Looking at the robbers' corpses lying haphazardly on the ground, Wan Jinda frowned even more. He immediately grabbed one of the wounded robbers, wanting to ask him who they were, but the robber refused to speak, which angered Wan Jinda so much that he chopped off his head with a knife.