In early October, the climate in the canyon at the foot of Shenyu Mountain is relatively mild, but there is heavy snowfall halfway up the mountain. Under the clear and cold sky, the glacier on the top of Shenyu Mountain shines brightly, and the world calls it "Shenyu".
It really lives up to its name.
Wang Ju and Shi Hu led the main force of the reinforcements, and Shi Xun led the troops who stayed behind in Shanju County. They also arrived at Shenyu Mountain one after another and joined the remnants of the Khitan advance troops stationed here.
According to the original plan, Wang Ju, Shi Hu and others led an armed merchant group, after receiving the Khitan advance troops, they should immediately embark on the return journey, preparing to participate in the battle between Beijing and Xiangzhou to resist the Chihu people's attack from the middle, but there was never a plan.
Changes quickly.
When setting out from Biyang to form an armed merchant group, although they had anticipated that the Khitan tribe's march south from Taoyuan would be extremely difficult, they did not expect that the casualties would be so heavy.
More than half of the Khitan people who migrated south died forever on the way, and after a month of rest and recuperation, the number of guards and horses was reduced by as much as 60%. At this time, less than 1,500 people had regained their fighting strength.
If it weren't for the barren alpine wasteland, if it weren't for the enemy everywhere, there would be no chance of scattering and fleeing, the Khitan tribe going south might have fallen apart on the way south.
.
Even if they rest for a month in the canyon at the foot of Shenyu Mountain, in the Duogansi area where they are surrounded by enemies, the Khitan tribesmen who migrate to the south will not be able to protect themselves at all, let alone recruit more Khitan tribesmen to follow Tao.
The source went south.
And this is the core mission of the Khitan advance troops and armed merchant groups.
The remnants of the Khitan need to survive, and currently it seems they can only find space in the southern part of Duogansi or even in the western part of Dali.
Jingxiang needs an elite combat force to block the passage of the Red Hu people going south through the Tubo Highlands. There is no need to worry that the southwestern rear of Dai Viet will one day be invaded by foreign enemies.
There is another extremely important factor, and that is the war horse.
After the fall of Tianshui, Dai Viet has completely lost the possibility of obtaining war horses from the northwest frontier. The southwest of Dai Viet is located in Jingjiang Prefecture and Yongzhou. It trades salt, iron, horse cloth and other commodities with the Dali caravans, which will become the war horses Dai Viet needs.
the only external source.
In addition to the sales farms in Jingjiang Prefecture and Yizhou, which are currently mainly controlled by the imperial court, the horses used for trading in Dali State actually mainly come from the Duogansi area.
Raising war horses requires large areas of meadows and pastures. Beijing and Xiangzhou have a large population and the most fertile terrain. The open Nanyang Basin and Jingbei Plain are still slightly insufficient for the development of grain and cotton cultivation.
Jingxiang currently relies on mountain meadows and horse farms such as Tongbai Mountain and Funiu Mountain for breeding. Although it can breed three to four thousand new foals every year, it is far from meeting the demand for animal power and the consumption of combat.
In the past, the remnants of the Khitan were stationed in Qinzhou. Although it was difficult for Zhufengtang to maintain the trade route from Qinzhou to Chushan through Hanzhong, it could supplement the supply of two thousand fine war horses every year.
Now that this line is broken, the production company must consider new ways to purchase horses.
Otherwise, if one day Beijing and Xiangzhou have the strength to organize a counterattack, they may be able to capture the Heluo area, which is close at hand and the mountains and rivers are rising, which is conducive to large-scale infantry operations. However, if there is no cavalry force of sufficient size to cover the flanks, how can they attack the area thousands of miles away?
Guanzhong, the Hehuai Plain, and a life-and-death battle with the highly mobile Red Hussars?
The problem is that even if we do not take into account the influence of the sect headed by Buqu Temple and the Tubo tribe in the central and northern areas of Duogansi, the alpine areas in the middle and upper reaches of the Tongtian River are still extremely severe tests for ordinary people and large-scale herd transfers.
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Another point is that Tubo has been divided into dozens of large and small forces for a hundred or two hundred years. So far, no force has been able to rule the entire Tubo Highlands again. But will the remnants of the Khitan forcefully invade the Duogansi area and induce unimaginable changes?
This is something that no one can predict.
Although the Tubo tribes have been divided for a hundred or two hundred years, they had experienced more than two hundred years of rule by the Tubo Dynasty, and their culture and religious beliefs were highly consistent.
Now they are about to blow each other's brains out, but once external forces intervene strongly, it is difficult to say that it will not promote the reintegration of the Tubo tribes.
Any Tibetan force that is relatively divided among the remnants of the Khitan is not considered weak, and even has the power to suppress it, but compared with the tribes living on the entire Tubo Highlands, it is absolutely weak.
"Do you think Prince Xiao can convince the remaining tribal leaders to move south?"
Wang Ju himself is not good at planning. The main reason is that this time he went south to support, and he needed someone to take charge, so he personally took action. This was mainly because Wang Ju usually did not interfere with the busy military and political affairs in the production department, so he could get away;
Along the way, Shi Xun handled most of the business group affairs.
Zhang Xiongshan persuaded Xiao Yanhan to lead the tribesmen heading south to stay in Shenyu Mountain to wait for other Khitan tribesmen to go south, but Wang Ju did not have much confidence.
"This road has been passed at such great sacrifice. I believe it is still persuasive." Zhang Xiongshan was not worried about whether he could convince Xiao Linshi and other Khitan leaders. He was more worried about whether he could make it in time.
At this time, a group of cavalry was slowly heading south from Damuan in the north. It looked like the reconnaissance cavalry they had sent out before.
Sun Yanguan said: "I don't know what kind of trouble Buqu Temple is doing during this time... No, the number of people seems to be more than the single scout we sent out! What new situation may be happening?"
In order to find out the movements of the surrounding Tubo tribes, they dispatched multiple groups of reconnaissance cavalry from Shenyu Mountain. Each group of reconnaissance cavalry consisted of twenty generals and forty horses to conduct search and reconnaissance in different directions.
Encountering Tibetan soldiers may result in attrition, and usually multiple reconnaissance cavalry units will not return at the same time.
The cavalry team coming from the north consisted of thirty-one people, including not only war horses, but also yaks and other livestock. The horses' hoofs were delayed and they looked very tired and even embarrassed.
"We'll find out when we go down and take a look!" Wang Ju said.
When everyone walked down the cliff, their view was blocked by the mountain ridge. After burning incense, they walked to the camp at the mouth of the gorge. At this time, Wu Sanrong led a dozen soldiers and horses to gallop out of the camp.
Zhang Xiongshan stopped Wu Sanrong and asked, "Who is coming?"
"It's General Shi Hai and the Second Young Master!" Wu Sanrong said excitedly, "They must be bringing new orders from Commander Xiao. I will go to greet them right now!"
"That's not right!" Zhang Xiongshan said doubtfully, "Maybe something happened in Taoyuan? Go and fetch General Shi Hai and the Second Young Master!"
Xiao Yanhan only sent a messenger to Taoyuan to report the news after Xu Pang and Su Fu led their troops to defeat the Tibetan soldiers led by Buqu Temple. More than a month had passed, and even if everything went well on the way, the messenger was traveling in a light vehicle.
We may have arrived at Taoyuan just in time.
It was obvious that Shi Hai and his second son, Xiao Chunyu, had already set off south from Taoyuan before receiving their report.
First, Zhang Xiongshan didn't know Xiao Linshi's reasons, so he sent Shi Hai and Xiao Chunyu to lead his troops south again. The second Shi Hai, Xiao Chunyu's guards could not be too few, but at this time, only more than thirty riders arrived at Shenyu Mountain.
, I must have suffered a lot along the way.
Zhang Xiongshan and others first accompanied Wang Ju into the camp to meet Xiao Yanhan. After waiting for half an hour, Wu Sanrong welcomed Shi Hai and Xiao Chunyu, who were exhausted and covered with scars, into the camp.
"What happened in Taoyuan?" Xiao Yanhan couldn't wait for Shi Hai. Xiao Chunyu took a breath and asked anxiously.
"We led two hundred cavalry to go south in August. Everything is going well, but it's hard to say what the situation will be now..." Shi Hai sat down and said worriedly.
Xiao Yanhan took the lead in sending troops. After the clan members went south, they initially sent messengers to contact Taoyuan, but then they really couldn't catch up. Xiao Linshi, Shi Hai
Almost a year later, there was no trace of the advance troops.
Taoyuan was peaceful at the beginning, and the Red Husband's cavalry stationed in Hezhou was limited in scale, so the threat was limited. However, after the spring, the Hexi Capital Governor's Mansion of the Red Husband failed to attack Wuzhou, and they realized that it would be difficult to overcome the natural dangers of the West Qinling Mountains in a short time.
After entering Sichuan and Shu, the focus will be on taking over the Guanzhong area and strengthening the rule of Hexi, Longyou and other places.
At that time, in Hexi and to the south of Longyou, the Tubo tribes and some Qiang tribes in Duosima had been divided for a long time. It was difficult for the Chihu people to occupy Hexi and Longyou. However, there was no way that the Hexi capital general office could ignore the Khitan.
The existence of remnants in the Taoyuan area.
After the summer, the Chihu people began to gather troops and horses in Xizhou, northeast of Taoyuan and north of Minshan Mountain.
Xiao Linshi knew very well at that time that the remnants of the Khitan must face the final cruel choice in this winter and autumn:
Either lead 100,000 tribesmen and head south in panic without knowing the way forward, or hold on to Taoyuan and fight bloody battles with the elite cavalry of the Chihu people, or they can only choose to surrender...
Unable to wait for Xiao Yanhan to send a messenger to contact him, Shi Hai and Xiao Chunyu once again led two hundred cavalry to explore the route south in a hurry.
There were only a few of them, and they were all strong and capable. It only took them two months to arrive at Shenyu Mountain. However, in order to quickly explore the route, they all forced their way in when they were intercepted along the way. The casualties were even more tragic, and only thirty guards were left to follow.
They walked to Shenyu Mountain.
"General Shi Hai, did you come to Shenyu Mountain after encountering the messenger we sent?" Xiao Yanhan asked.
"We didn't meet a messenger. We met the scouts sent by the princess at the mouth of the Yuqu River, which is five days away. Only then did we know that the princess had settled here and defeated thousands of Tibetan soldiers in Buqu Temple.
"Shi Hai said, "Xiao Shuai might have seen the messenger!"
In order to ensure that the message was delivered to Taoyuan, Xiao Yanhan sent six groups of messengers to separate routes. However, the wilderness was too open, and it was normal for Shi Hai and the others to miss the messenger.
Xiao Yanhan is now worried that none of the messengers will be able to reach Taoyuan safely, or that it will be too late by the time they reach Taoyuan...
