Shuozhou City is quite small, with a circumference of more than nine miles, slightly larger than Kelan City. However, in Xu Huai's perception, Shuozhou City is not that big, and some extremely magnificent scenes flash through his mind from time to time.
The large-scale killings began at a young age, until the first clear morning light came through the window, and screams, cries, begging, and curses were mixed in with the clash of swords and the sound of galloping horses.
It became sparse, and occasionally there would be one or two ferocious laughter, coming from the alleyway in the distance.
Xu Huai slept with his body curled up and felt very uncomfortable. When he woke up, he stared at the window for a while, then looked at Xiao Yanhan.
Xiao Yanhan turned her head with difficulty.
Although all this was what they had expected, when it really happened, this night brought her nightmares one after another, and she was awakened from time to time by the looming sounds of killing.
Xu Huai heard someone moving in the yard, put on his clothes and got up, opened the door and saw that the yard was covered with hoarfrost.
Xu Xin'an and Tang Pan's eyes were red and their armor was still on. They sat in front of the steps to rest their breath. They turned around and saw Xu Huai coming out.
Xu Xin'an said sadly: "We didn't even fight a single battle, but we caught our own people and executed six of them first. It's so fucking unpleasant!"
Xu Huai sat in front of the steps, talked to Xu Xin'an and Tang Pan for a while, and then asked them to rest first while he and Xu Wukun went to see Zhu Hang.
Only then did Zhu Hang tell them the specific military deployment.
After purging the Khitan officials, Ge Yu sent people to Yangkou Village overnight to deliver the message.
According to the established plan, the Tianxiong Army gathered at Yangkou Village. After receiving the message, the five thousand cavalrymen from Guangwu City set off under the leadership of Ge Huaicong, the third general of the Tianxiong Army, and then marched with the cavalry every ten miles.
We contacted here once, and at this time we were stationed outside Shuozhou City. The Hou'er Fort, formerly controlled by Cao's Qing Shun Army, was resting and recuperating.
Cao Shixiong and Cao Shili have two thousand cavalry under their command. They will be led by Cao Shili to set off directly later today. Taking advantage of the fact that the news from the south has not spread, they will attack Datong as soon as possible and try to control a city in Datong without any effort.
The gate opened the way for Ge Huaicong to lead five thousand cavalry into Datong City.
At this time, another 15,000 infantrymen of the Tianxiong Army should have set out from Yangkou Village and other assembly points and entered Shuozhou according to the established plan.
The infantry marched along the north bank of the Hui River in the direction of Datong, day and night, and were expected to arrive at Datong City in two days at the earliest to meet up with the cavalry troops.
General Yue Hailou and Ge Yu's 500 fine cavalry will go ahead with Cao Shili; the 200 soldiers of the Supervisory Army Envoy will rush to Datong with Ge Huaicong's troops; Cao Shixiong still sends another general to lead 3000 Qing Shun army infantry east
He left only 3,000 infantrymen to guard Shuozhou until Ge Boyi, Wang Fan and others arrived to join them.
Xu Huai was not qualified to comment on such an arrangement, so he took a few people to ride around the city after breakfast.
For a long time, the frequency of wars between Dai Viet and the Khitan people was much lower than that of the Dangxiang people. However, the border quarrels fifteen years ago still caused Shuozhou to suffer a lot of depression, and it has not yet recovered its strength.
There are a total of more than 3,000 households in Shuozhou City, and the Khitan and Zalu population account for less than half. The total population of the Khitan and other Tibetan tribes can only be five to six thousand, and the number of young adults will not exceed 2,000.
Last night's purge was sudden and rapid. It was not delayed until early morning. The goal was to clear out all the Khitan people and all the Tibetan and Han captives in the city.
None of the Khitan people or the Tibetan tribesmen expected that Cao Shixiong would descend south and deal such a ruthless hand.
The city gates were closed, and the city walls were even more heavily guarded. Most of the young Khitan and Tibetan people were awakened from their sleep by the Qing Shun army generals who broke in. They had no time to pick up their swords and bows to resist, but their swords and spears were already reaching their bodies.
When Xu Huai left the governor's office, the sky was bright, but there were only a few places in the city where the Khitan and other Tibetan tribesmen were still resisting; a large number of Qing Shun troops still stayed in the city for the final purge.
Corpses were dragged directly to the streets and exposed one after another, including women and children. The air was filled with a strong smell of blood.
At this time, Ge Yu's troops had returned to the governor's office to rest, but the manhunt in the city was still continuing. A large number of Khitan and Tibetan women and children in shabby clothes were being driven to the barracks to be imprisoned. There was no place for looting, rape or adultery.
Not here.
Most of the Han people had not woken up and were still panicking about last night's incident. However, there were also many young and strong refugees who happily joined the ranks of the Qing Shun Army after hearing the news that the governor of Feng Shuo Prefecture was attached to Dayue in the south.
.
They poured out the hatred and resentment that had been accumulated in their hearts for many years without any scruples on the Khitan and other Tibetan people who usually rode on top to bully and bully them.
The young men of the Khitan and Zalu tribes were almost all gone at night, and those who were still stubbornly resisting were no match for the young men of the ordinary Han people.
They mainly broke into Khitan and Zalu houses and plundered them, assisted in searches and hiding, and even dragged women and children who had escaped the Qing Shun army's attention temporarily into the streets, beaten, killed and raped them.
Two thousand cavalrymen of the Qingshun Army and 500 elite cavalrymen of the Tianxiong Army left Shuozhou City in the afternoon under the leadership of Cao Shili, Yue Hailou, Ge Yu and others. Another 3,000 infantrymen of the Qingshun Army also gathered to prepare for the battle.
Preparation for departure.
Although arriving at Datong from Shuozhou, they had to pass through Jincheng and Huairen on the north bank of the Huihe River. However, when Shuozhou City went on a killing spree last night, the guards in the four cities were specially strengthened. Cao Shixiong and the others believed that the news had not leaked out yet.
Now the Qing Shun army could use reinforcements to Yingzhou as an excuse to deceive the defenders of Jincheng and Huairen as well as the reconnaissance cavalry along the route, and advance eastwards along the north bank of the Huihe River in a swagger.
Xu Huai and others followed Zhu Hang into Hou'er Fort in the afternoon and met up with Ge Huaicong, the third general of the Tianxiong Army and the core figure of the second generation of Ge family. They stayed at Hou'er Fort until late in the evening before regrouping and setting off, walking in the dark.
, heading towards Datong.
It was two hundred miles from Shuozhou to Datong. Although Ge Huaicong's cavalry was also the elite of Tianxiong's army, the march was much more protracted. At dawn, when they marched to a ferry south of Huairen City, they felt exhausted.
For a long time, the Imperial Guards of Vietnam rarely fought long-distance roundabouts, and the cavalry was usually only required to travel hundreds of miles a day.
Once the generals of the Forbidden Army are recruited, they have to stay in the camp until they die of old age.
Although Ge Huaicong's cavalry is said to be the selected elite of Tianxiong's army, at first glance, 20 to 30% of the generals and beards are already gray; a large number of them are refugees and bandits, and they have been galloping for more than 130 years on a starry night.
Here, most people are complaining endlessly.
This is completely different from the five hundred elite guards led by Ge Yu.
The ferry is still nearly seventy miles away from Datong City, and across the Huihe River, Yingzhou City is sixty miles south of the ferry.
Xu Huai stopped his horse by the Hui River and looked at the Hui River, which had not been managed for many years.
The river has long been unconstrained by dams, and it meanders across the grassland. There are many shoals where you can cross the river on horseback. At this time, thin ice has begun to form on the water near the shore, and the weather is getting colder.
They didn't wait long at the ferry. At three o'clock in the morning, Cao Shili and Yue Hailou came to send back the news.
Datong City was completely undefended in the direction of Shuozhou. Cao Shixiong and his two thousand cavalry arrived at the ferry where they set up before dusk yesterday. In order to deal with the defenders of Huairen and other cities, they first pretended to cross the river to reinforce Yingzhou. After nightfall,
Taking advantage of the high wind and dark sky, he sneaked to Datong and hid in the dense forest outside Datong City.
In the early morning, Datong unpreparedly opened the city gate as usual. They first arranged for dozens of dead soldiers to pretend to be business travelers, mixed in with the people who were fleeing to Datong from the south bank of Huihe River, and raided the Shengde Gate in the west city of Datong. Then two thousand cavalry swarmed up.
After defeating the counterattacking defenders, the defenders have now taken control of Jingyu Gate and nearby city walls, and are advancing deeper into the city.
At this time, Ge Huaicong no longer cared about resting or hiding his whereabouts. He immediately mobilized his entire army and quickly rushed towards Datong City for a surprise attack.
Regardless of horse power, five thousand soldiers and horses rushed to the gate of Datong City at noon.
Datong used to be the land of Linhu and Loufan in Beidi. During the Warring States period, it was the state of Dai. It was later merged into Zhao. General Meng Tian of Qin led an army of 300,000 to attack the Xiongnu in the north. He built the Great Wall in the north of Datong and built a fort in the valley ten miles west of Yungang.
Zhou fortress was used to prepare for the enemy, which was the beginning of building the city of Datong.
During the Northern Wei, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhist caves were excavated on a large scale on the Wuzhou Mountain wall with thousands of walls.
At that time, Datong stood in the broad valley at the foot of Wuzhou Mountain. It was a rammed earth city, five miles deep from east to west, north to south, and was a majestic and important town between Yinshan Mountain, Yanshan Mountain, and Taihang Mountain.
In addition to the outer city that is fifteen miles away, Datong also has an inner city that is five to six hundred paces square. The Xijing Road Defense Envoy Department, the Xijing Remaining Department, the Du Deployment Department and other government offices are all in the inner city.
The main force of the Khitan Xijing Road garrison was attracted to Yingzhou south of Huihe River. Only 14,000 to 5,000 garrison troops were left in Datong, and their combat effectiveness was quite limited.
Cao Shili and Ge Yu led more than 2,000 cavalry to raid Shengde Gate. The defenders also tried to counterattack to recapture Shengde Gate. However, after Ge Huaicong led his troops to arrive, the Han army with the weakest will to resist and the largest number was defeated first.
After laying down their weapons and surrendering, the imperial army, which was mainly composed of Khitan people and had relatively strong combat effectiveness, together with the Bohai navy and other Tibetan soldiers, retreated to the inner city, hoping to hold on to the stronger inner city until reinforcements arrived...
