Chapter 168: Fighting for Hetao (33)

The Hetao area is divided into Western Tak, front and back Tak. The Black Eagle Army occupied part of the Western Tak. The Jiedu of the Dazhou Prefecture Zhe from Ruan occupied the southern bank of the Yellow River in the Houtao. The front and other areas of Hetao were occupied by the Khitans. Under the rule of the Khitans, there were also small tribes such as Tongluo and Pugu. These Hu people made a living by grazing. Only the Khitans could farm and grazing in the front Tak area.

After the battle in Lian County ended, Xiduguan, who had been defeated, did not dare to return to Xijing Road. He led more than 400 subordinates to re-engage the horse thieves. Xiduguan used Yinshan as a stronghold and robbed the north of the Yellow River. The grassland that was relatively calm in the past suddenly became lively. Tongluo, although the servants were a small tribe, the clan style was extremely strong. They regarded cattle and horses as their lives. After being robbed by horse thieves, the young and strong men in the tribe picked up the knife bow and searched for the group of horse thieves everywhere.

However, Xi Duguan is a senior horse thief. He is not good at fighting regular battles, sneak attacks, ambush and other stealing tactics. Tongluo and Pugu tribesmen have not yet encountered the hair of the horse thief, but Xi Duguan succeeded several sneak attacks and suffered heavy losses. Tongluo and Pugu tribesmen are all extremely bloody men. They each formed a team of thousands of people and searched for the whereabouts of Xi Duguan at the foot of Yinshan Mountain. However, Xi Duguan hid very tightly. In the past half month, the Thousand People team has traveled through countless pastures, but the horse thief can be found there.

The Thousand-People Team of the Pugu tribe searched for the whereabouts of the horse thief along the foot of Yinshan Mountain. The Thousand-People Team of the Pugu tribe was extremely upset. The horse thief snatched nearly twenty strong horses from the house. If they could not catch the horses, they would be ridiculed by the tribe's people when they returned to the tribe. However, the horse thief was like hiding from the ground. After searching for three days, the Thousand-People Team finally saw clues of the horse thief.

The Thousand People Team climbed over a small hill and saw that the back condom was not far from Xijing Road. This was an area firmly controlled by the Khitans. Although the Thousand Master Viga was bold, he did not dare to compete with the powerful Khitans. He was about to go forward ten miles before returning along the Yinshan original road.

After walking for only two miles, the Thousand-Person forward crossed a small hill. Viaga was born at the foot of Yinshan Mountain and was very familiar with the terrain along Yinshan Mountain. He knew that there was an excellent grass below the hillside. There was also a shallow river on the left side of the grass. Viaga said to the rider behind him: "Send the order, and the people and horses rest by the river."

Before he finished speaking, there was a riot in the forwards of the Thousand People's Team. Several riders ran towards Viga quickly, and the sound of Khitan horns sounded on the grass like a staircase.

Viaga felt tight and rushed up the hillside with his horse tightened. He was shocked.

The grass was densely covered with Khitan tents, and there were a large number of tents. Just like the sky was full of stars in summer, there were a large flag and dozens of small flags in dozens of tents. The flags fluttered in the wind, making people feel that the military camp was built in flowing water. With the sound of trumpets, two Khitan cavalry teams, one left and one right, rushed out of the military camp with great momentum. Each cavalry team was about two thousand people.

The Pugu tribe is also considered a citizen under the Khitans. Several riders behind Viaga took the wolf flag of the Pugu tribe and walked towards the two cavalry. The Pugu tribe riders held the wolf flag and shouted: "We are Pugu people and are chasing horse thieves."

Horse thieves are public nuisance on the grassland. As long as they pursue horse thieves, they will not be embarrassed under normal circumstances. However, these Khitan riders ignored them at all and rushed up quickly. When the Khitan cavalry vanguard team approached the Pugu riders, they suddenly shot a wave of feather arrows. Several riders who were shouting at the Pugu clan were caught off guard. The horse was shot off by dense feather arrows. The left and right cavalry of the Khitan did not stop and penetrated the Pugu riders' retreat.

Viaga was shocked and shouted anxiously: "Get away quickly." After that, he turned his horse's head first and retreated eastward along the foot of Yinshan Mountain.

The Khitan riders chased each other and seemed to be determined to eat this team of 1,000 servants. Vijay was very puzzled by the unusual actions of the Khitans. The pugu people paid tribute to the Khitans every year. Therefore, the two tribes have been in peace for several years, and this time they pressed each other step by step was really contrary to common sense.

The Pugu tribesmen grew up on horseback. They were all born riders. Although they were unwilling to go to war with the Khitan army, they were determined to escape. Even though the Khitan army had strong combat power, they had no choice but to do anything to them.

The Pugu Thousand People Team and the Khitan Army chased each other for a day, but the two sides did not have substantial contact, which was as if they were racing on the grassland. When night fell, the two Khitan troops met together. Although the Khitans knew that the Pugu Army was right in front, they were unable to chase them anymore, so they had to set up camp by a stream.

In the middle of the night, more than a dozen black shadows quietly approached the Khitan military camp. They knew the location of the Khitan sentry and had almost no movement. All the Khitan sentry were solved in the grass.

The Khitans were mainly cavalry, with very little baggage when marching, and the grassland lacked wood. Therefore, the camps generally did not use barriers such as fences and were easily attacked by the enemy. The Khitan troops on Xijing Road were all trained by Yelu Daguang, and the camping methods were unique. The arrangement of tents in the army was like a fish scale formation. When the enemy attacked the camp, they would be blocked by layers of tents, making it difficult to reach the central army. These obstacles could gain valuable time for the central army to welcome the enemy.

The people and horses attacked the Khitan military camp were not in a hurry to attack the camp. They removed the war horses of the chariots. Six soldiers pushed a carriage carriage. In a blink of an eye, sixty carriage cars with the war horses removed gathered on the east side of the Khitan military camp. Behind the carriage were some yellow birch crossbowmen.

Shortly after the carriage was about to stop, a fire suddenly appeared in the northwest corner of the Khitan military camp, and countless rockets shot into the Khitan military camp like locusts. The tent was quickly ignited by the rockets. The Khitan army was attacked and was in chaos at first. The central army tent kept rushing out to send orders. The Khitan army quickly became well organized and slowly moved closer to the central army tent.

Several teams of cavalry rushed towards the place where the rockets were fired. The Khitan cavalry charged very quickly, but the speed of falling off the horse was also fast. Countless crossbows in the dark formed a wall of iron, and like an extremely huge monster, it became an insurmountable obstacle for the Khitan cavalry.

The Khitan generals followed Yelu Daguang to the Central Plains many times and were very familiar with the crossbow arrows of the Central Plains army. Such high and dense crossbow arrows could only appear in the main army of the Central Plains. He looked around and couldn't see how many Central Plains troops were active in the dark.

The Khitan cavalry quickly gave up attacking the crossbowmen's positions, and because the attacking camp did not rush into the Khitan camp, most of the Khitan cavalry rode their own or others' war horses and rushed towards the quiet carriage carriage to the east.

Sixty carriages were all equipped with Western Shu crossbows. Khitan cavalry rushed over, and twenty crossbows, one hundred and eighty huge earth crossbow arrows flew towards the rolling Khitan cavalry like a roar of cows. Because the Khitan cavalry was very dense, a giant crossbow could often penetrate two or three people. However, after the Khitan cavalry launched a charge, they could only move forward and unable to retreat. When all the cavalry who launched the charge died of the giant crossbow, the cavalry who had not had time to charge turned their horses and ran to the north. The Khitan generals could no longer gather their subordinates at this time. He saw that the subordinates were heading north and led dozens of confidant iron guards to the south.

The Khitan cavalry running north quickly encountered trouble. Many horse-rejected horses suddenly appeared on the flat grass, which was not real in the dark. The Khitan cavalry ran wildly were tripped by the horses. When the horses were finally removed, the Khitan cavalry had been trampled to death and died.

After several twists and turns, the Khitan cavalry finally rushed out of the camp with flames. Before they could breathe. Suddenly, the war drums sounded, four thousand dragon and tiger-like iron cavalry rushed towards the Khitan cavalry whose sharpness had been lost. The Khitan cavalry was no longer as strict as before. Seeing the black enemy rushing out from the corner like a monster, they were suddenly filled with souls, like a group of horses in the camp, only escaping and unable to organize a counterattack.

In the camp of the servants' thousand-person team, Vijay was lying in a clothes and covered with a wool blanket. When she was sleeping sounds, she suddenly heard a sound of killing from a distance. He only thought that the Khitans were coming, picked up the bow and knife beside him, jumped up, and rushed out of the tent. Then she realized that there was a very far away when the shouting for killing was still there. There was a faint fire in the distance. Vijay was very surprised: "It seems that the Khitans' tent was attacked. In the Hetao area, the Khitans had an absolute advantage. No clan dared to compete with the Khitans. Although the horse thieves were all strong, they were few and they would never dare to approach the Khitan army. Who would have such courage?"

Viaga's sleepiness was completely gone, and the Khitan army gathered. He would never attack the camp tonight for a team of 1,000 people. The army of the camp must be the enemy of the Khitans. The servants of the Pugu tribe were few and weak, so they would not take over this mixed water. So he urgently ordered the Thousand People to attack the camp at night.

The night attack ended very quickly. In the night sky, the incoming troops could not clean the field. Fortunately, the Khitan army left many tents and was barely available. The incoming troops were camped below the battlefield. A battalion of 500 soldiers guarded the four directions. The periphery of the sergeant was a circular formation placed in chariot boxes. Outside the circular formation was a horse, and there were some open and secret whistles scattered around the periphery, which made the battlefield defend like an iron barrel.

After a big battle, the incoming troops seemed quite tired, and they were quite confident in their defense. Soon, snoring like thunder, and there were some groans of injured soldiers, and the screams of a few Khitan soldiers dying.

As soon as the sky was dawn, the attacking troops began to clean up the battlefield. The main task was to collect the crossbow arrows from the ground. These crossbow arrows were quite laborious to make and could not be replenished in Hetao. If they were not recycled, they would be consumed soon.

Several generals sat in front of the Khitan central tent, silently drinking horse breasts and biting jerky meat. The person in charge was Guo Jiong, the third person in the Black Eagle Army. Sitting beside them were generals such as Shan Zongyuan, He Wulang, and Chen Meng.

After winning the battle, the generals did not have many smiles on their faces, but were a little worried. After a while, Shan Zongyuan said with some concern: "The Khitans are not comparable to ordinary Hu tribes. If this battle leads to the Khitan army going south, we will make a big mistake. If Your Majesty blames us, we will be unable to escape the death penalty."

Guo Jiong bit a few bites of the broken dried meat, and finally bit a large piece and swallowed it into his stomach. Then he replied: "There are many Khitans in the western foot of Helan Mountain. Since the army crossed the river north, I have asked the Jiedushi, what will we do if we meet the Khitan army? You guess what the Jiedushi answers." Guo Jiong paused and said: "The Jiedushi told me that if you can beat me, fight if you can, run away if you can. The Jiedushi told me clearly that when you were sending troops to Helan Mountain, we swept the Western and Front Tails and Front Tails, but we went too far and actually reached the back Tails."

He Wulang's responsibility to block the enemy in the north in this battle has one characteristic, only a big battle, and he will be injured almost every battle. This time is no exception. Just when the war is about to end, He Wulang waves his hand and slashes at a panicked Khitan. When the Khitan cavalry turned over and fell, the mace in his hand was thrown into the sky. When it fell, it fell on He Wulang's calves, dragging He Wulang's calves a big hole.

He Wulang looked down at his blood-seeking calf and said, "This time I went back to Lingzhou, I would like to find a valid temple to ask for a visa, so that I would not see any red every time I fought." Chen Meng smiled and said, "Who made you bold? I got the nickname of Wulang." He Wulang kept shook his head and said, "Wulang just fought for one person's life. It can be considered a brave man. The real bold is the Jiedushi. The Jiedushi actually sent troops deep into the Khitan territory without His Majesty's consent. Think about it, the Khitan army is so powerful that everyone has avoided it for decades. Only the Jiedushi dared to touch the tiger's butt of the Khitan soldiers. This is amazing boldness."

Chen applauded and said, "This is what we say to our hearts. It's great to follow the Jiedushi to march and fight. No matter what Western Shu army, Tubo army, Uighur army, Dangxiang army or Khitan army, the Black Eagle Army destroyed one. Last night we killed 30,000 Khitan soldiers, which shows that the Khitan army is not three heads and six arms, and we will be doomed when we meet our Black Eagle Army."

Shanzong was older than the first year of his life. His mind was naturally heavier than Chen Meng and others. He secretly worried that the Black Eagle Army would easily fight the Khitans and cause big trouble, and he would become a scapegoat. After all, this kind of thing is also an ordinary thing in the army.

While the few people were talking, it was dawn, and the battlefield with broken arms and limbs appeared in front of the generals. There were a lot of Khitan weapons on the ground, and there were also a lot of shot arrows. The military officers of each battalion were arguing fiercely next to the arrows. After the crossbow arrows were shot, many could not be recovered, and some were also damaged. The recycled crossbow arrows were always more than shot. The Black Eagle Army was best at using crossbow arrows. Although there was no fierce battle from Helan Mountain to the back pavilion, the crossbow arrows also consumed a lot. Therefore, the military officers of each battalion had to fight for more crossbow arrows for the base camp. They refused to give in to each other, and their faces were red.

Chen Meng came to Guo Jiong and said, "The Western Shu crossbows damaged four times, and more than half of the crossbow arrows were lost."

The Western Shu crossbow has now become a powerful weapon for Guo Jiong to assault the enemy camp. He is already very skillful in using it. When he heard that the giant crossbow had been damaged by more than half and the food had been more than half, he had the intention to return to Lingzhou.

Guo Jiong pondered for a long time and said to Chen Meng: "I have a problem in my mind that I didn't think clearly. The Khitans fell into our ambush to pursue the Pugu Thousand People Team. The Pugu people are a vassal of the Khitans. I heard that the two tribes have always been peaceful, so why are they chasing each other closely today?"

The two were thinking about this question, and Shan Zongyuan frowned and walked over and said, "These Khitan troops belong to the Xijing Dao Army. Xijing Dao is hundreds of miles away from here. Why are these Khitan cavalry light cavalry? I checked the cavalry's luggage and they only brought dry food that can be eaten for one or two days. What is this?"

"Is this the vanguard of the Khitan Army?" Guo Jiong and Chen Meng shouted out almost at the same time.

Shan Zongyuan nodded with a gloomy face and said, "There must be a large group of people behind him."

Guo Jiong did not hesitate too much and kept ordering: "Immediately send three groups of lion camps to advance westward to investigate the situation." "Come the bodies of the Khitan army together and set fire to the fire, and do not leave any traces of wounds." "Send a group of soldiers to follow the troops behind the large army to clear the traces of the ruts of the war chariots." "The entire army takes a break and prepares to retreat."

After Guo Jiong issued a series of orders, Chen Meng hurried back to his special chariot battalion.

When Guo Jiong saw Shan Zongyuan's face looked ugly, he said, "Don't worry about the war with the Khitans. The governor is fair and has always cherished his tribes. You can be relieved."

Shan Zongyuan rubbed his cheeks with his hands a few times and said, "The wind was strong yesterday, which made my scalp cold and my whole body was not tight." Then he said casually: "Since Cangzhou, I have been following the Jiedushi. Now it has been more than four years. Now, everyone is on the same boat and should work together. No matter what happens in the future, as long as I follow the Jiedushi, I will definitely be safe."

These words were said very abruptly, and Guo Jiong's face also changed, saying: Don't say such words in the future.

Shan Zongyuan knew that Guo Jiong was Hou Dayong's hardcore confidant, and today he took the opportunity to find out his breath. Shan Zongyuan already knew Guo Jiong's attitude and smiled and said, "I'm going to see the chariot."

The Black Eagle Army fought in the northwest and fought against the strong enemies in a row, occupied strategic areas such as Xihuizhou, Tongxin and Jingyuan, and its reputation shook the northwest. The Black Eagle Army also quickly strengthened its strength in the battle, from nearly 5,000 people before the war to the present. The Black Eagle Army's Eighth Battalion has more than 20,000 combat troops and more than 10,000 united soldiers. The Lingzhou united soldiers and the united soldiers are both brave soldiers. Although they have not been trained for a long time, they have already looked like elite soldiers.

In addition to the Eighth Battalion of the Black Diao Army and the Unity Army, there were more than 3,000 logistics supplies camps led by Bai Shuanghua, Dou Tian, ​​Guo Baoyu, Chen Lingxin, Zhang Qinghai and Jian Bufan Equipment Fifth Battalion, which together had more than 34,000 people. If the troops were added to the Hunmo tribe and Dangxiang Fangdun tribe who surrendered to the Black Diao Army, Hou Dayong's tribe should have more than 40,000 people, and his strength continued to increase as the territory expanded.
Chapter completed!