The fire on the plateau was soaring to the sky, and the sound of killing filled the field. Li Tai waved the sword in his hand and slashed it down. The broken arm of the Hu soldier in front of him flew out, but the sword force did not delay for a moment. He flipped his wrist and cut off his head with another slash.
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This is already the third time that the Hu soldiers have organized a breakout from the evening to now. Broken limbs and broken arms are scattered everywhere around Tucheng. The enemies have mainly been strong soldiers at the beginning, and now even Ji Hu women have joined in.
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This breakout lasted for more than a quarter of an hour. As the sound of killings faded away, and seeing that there was no hope of breaking out, the barbarians returned to the Tucheng.
"Although the earthen wall is not high, it is always an obstacle. Why are these barbarians eager to cross the wall to die?"
Li Tai was also a little surprised when he saw that many corpses of Hu soldiers had been added to the battlefield. Since they arrived on the plateau, they had not yet had time to organize an attack on Tucheng, and they did not show much ability to attack fortresses, but these Ji Hu soldiers looked like
It was expected that the city would be difficult to defend, so he kept trying to break through and die.
"What they are afraid of is not just our King Division. They are ruthless and cruel. They not only torture the villagers, but also kill their own kind and annex to enrich themselves. The land here is beautiful and the reserves are rich. If the Hu tribe in the near future discovers that their power will be harmed,
, will also attack in groups. If they stay here, they will definitely die!"
Lu Chuan, who was well aware of the Hu situation in this area, came forward to explain, pointing to the blazing fire on the top of the plateau and said: "The war here must have been alerted by the Hu tribe nearby, and they may have been sharpening their swords and horses, preparing to come.
Tribulation. It’s just that I don’t know the situation of the forces fighting, so I keep a close eye on it.”
"So that's the case, it's a bit difficult to handle."
Li Tai frowned when he heard this. The main goal of his trip was to gather Jihu's war horses. The most advantageous situation was undoubtedly to quietly attack these tribes through guerrilla warfare, leaving them unprepared.
Get enough horses.
A thousand war horses is either more or less. A Hu tribe of similar size would have to handle at least two or three before they could count. Exposing it too early would add many unpredictable variables to the subsequent actions.
What's more, there is also a Hu chief Liu Zhenqiang who has returned from the Eastern Wei Dynasty. The size of his power is unknown. He may have gathered a lot of people secretly. It would be exciting if he bumped into him head-on.
But having said that, if all the Ding Zhuang soldiers from the nearby Hu tribe are attracted here to take advantage of the situation, the remaining forces will inevitably be insufficient. If they can avoid frontal fighting, the looting will naturally be smoother.
In short, this situation is a coexistence of crises. There are definitely risks, but it is not worth worrying about.
After repelling Jihu's attack, the city fell into a dead silence. It seems that there were too many casualties, so he was a little discouraged.
But Li Tai didn't want them to be too comfortable. After the team took a short rest, they began to prepare for the attack.
Outside Tucheng, there were many slaves that Jihu had no time to gather, about 300 people. There were not many real Han people, and there were also many Di and Qiang people. However, in Jihu's eyes, these familiar slaves who had been attached to them for many years did not matter.
There is no difference, they are all called Han slaves.
His own subordinates still wanted to maintain their fighting power, and Li Tai did not show any boundless spirit of love, so he asked the rescued slaves to work harder, felling trees in the southern plateau, and building some simple siege equipment.
These slaves are also very active in this regard. Jihu does not treat them as human beings at all. He has deep hatred in his heart and wishes that all Jihu in the city would die.
What's more, although Li Tai also enslaved them, he also let them fill their bellies and eat freely the cattle and sheep scattered around. Many slaves never dreamed that they would have the opportunity to have meat in their mouths for the rest of their lives.
Everyone cut and built in a hurry, and soon built two long ladders. When the long ladders were set up on the top of the earth wall, it seemed as if oil had fallen into the fire, and the city suddenly became chaotic, with a lot of nonsense.
The soldiers gathered here.
After Li Tai saw this, he no longer rushed to attack the city. Taking advantage of the increasing number of barbarians gathering here, he had people throw torches into the wall. There was a louder commotion inside the wall, and the burnt smell was clearly audible.
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The rescued slaves were overjoyed when they saw this. Without waiting for Li Tai's further instructions, they carried the long ladder and ran to another section of the city wall. When the barbarians were attracted, they took the initiative to set fire to it.
After several encounters like this, the barbarians in the city learned their lesson and began to pour ointment on them and set fire to the ladders. For a while, sections of the earthen walls were covered with flames, lighting up the area like daylight.
After Li Tai saw this, he simply asked people to collect the remaining Jihu corpses and threw them into the fire, actively adding fuel to the fire.
Such an approach had a huge impact on the morale of Tucheng. Seeing the flesh and blood of their loved ones being devoured by tongues of fire, Jihu in the city was frightened and their hatred also surged.
Not long after, another group of Jihu soldiers came out from inside. This time, Li Tai no longer sent people to fight with them, but sent twenty cavalrymen in horse armor to fight directly towards the bandits.
The twenty knights were like gods of death. There was no need to dodge the Jihu Yadou, and they swung the horseshoes in their hands as hard as they could. It was no longer a battle, it was a one-sided massacre!
These Jihu soldiers were originally motivated by resentment and were quite ready to fight to the death. However, the bows and swords in their hands were extremely weak at this time, and their desperate slashes were not enough to break the armor. On the contrary, they themselves were injured when touched.
Such a huge gap makes people despair, and the so-called desperate attempt to die is just a loss of life, because what they are facing is no longer the unarmed Han and Hu slaves who are being slaughtered, but the truly powerful soldiers.
This time there were a lot of barbarians rushing out, but no matter how fierce the crowds were, they were only broken into pieces by the waves hitting the rocks. The twenty armors were still advancing steadily.
Seeing that more and more of his companions were dying, the Hu soldiers began to flee to the left and right, but what greeted them was ruthless killing again. Li Tai led the rear, using armor as the vanguard, and stopped and killed all the fleeing Hu soldiers.
Even the land in front of the city gate has become muddy under the water of flesh and blood.
The armor crashed directly into the city gate, and the light cavalry and infantry from behind also rushed in. The Jihu men and women who were left behind in the city were even more panicked and confused.
"Split up and kill!"
Li Tai led a dozen men and rushed directly to a place where the Hu soldiers were still gathering to resist, slashing several people in succession, killing them and scattering them.
After the city was broken, the barbarian soldiers were completely desperate. Many people tried to escape over the wall, but were surrounded and killed one by one by the rangers outside the city and the rescued slaves. Only a few were able to escape from this killing field.
The fire from the warehouses in the city shot up into the sky. This was because some barbarians saw that there was no hope of escape and set fire to their supplies. The fire also pointed out the direction of the enemies entering the city. People from all sides gathered and used bows and swords to force the remaining barbarians to surrender.
The sea of fire prevented the spread of the fire and rescued some supplies.
Less than half an hour later, the resistance in the city was completely suppressed, and the remaining people were gathered together. There were originally a tribe of more than 3,000 people, but now there are only four to five hundred people left, and most of them are old, weak, women and children.
, most of the strong soldiers died in the battle.
Jihu's fighting spirit was not so tenacious, but the attack was too sudden and he missed the best opportunity to escape. Li Tai also made no attempt to recruit prisoners, leaving them unable to escape and with no hope of survival.
After fighting for most of the night, the men and horses were exhausted. The rescued slaves cleaned the battlefield. Li Taixian and his troops rested for a while, interrogated the intelligence, and counted the seizures.
This Jihu tribe is not considered weak. Among the population of more than 3,000, Dingzhuang accounts for 700 to 800 people. This is considered a very healthy population structure among the Jihu tribe. This is why they are qualified to occupy Woxiong Ridge.
This is a resting place with excellent resources.
There are also a lot of supplies stored in the city. Although part of the city was burned when it was destroyed, several large warehouses of grain, grease, furs and other important supplies were still left.
During the battle just now, Li Tai discovered that the elite Hu soldiers were equipped with leather and iron armor, and their combat effectiveness was also considerable.
The people and horses are strong and strong, and a lot of supplies have been accumulated this year. If Li Tailai hadn't accidentally attacked and wiped out the tribe in late autumn, the tribe would have ushered in a period of rapid development this winter, and might even have grown.
It is an upper-middle-class tribe.
There are no account books in the Jihu tribe, and there is no time to carefully count the materials. Judging from the size of the stables, there are about three to five thousand cattle and sheep. And the most important horses, there are nearly 500. Just as the teeth and feet are strong, they can be used as war horses.
There are nearly three hundred horses.
Thinking about how he fought with the county government over dozens of cattle and horses when he came to the countryside last year, Li Tai suddenly felt proud and proud. Sure enough, the only way to strengthen himself is to feed war with war. He came too late!
Although the harvest is gratifying, it is unrealistic to take it all away. He is currently going deep alone, with no support from the countryside or cooperation from friendly forces. Being too greedy will only put himself in danger.
Naturally, horses must be brought with them, which can greatly increase transportation capacity and mobility. In addition, there are more than two hundred cans of grease and some cheese for food, easy-to-carry furs, and some fodder. The rest
Cattle, sheep, grains, etc. are difficult to carry.
However, Li Tai did not intend to take advantage of the Hu tribe who was surrounded by spies. He first sent the horses, supplies and two hundred tribesmen to settle nearby to avoid being dumped. The remaining supplies in the Tucheng were cattle and sheep.
Carry them and drive them down to the plateau, allowing these animals to escape in all directions.
As for the rescued slaves, he was unable to give them more care. He could only leave them with some horse power supplies, distribute some of the bows and knives collected from Jihu, and let them move west to the Luoshui River.
The remaining Jihu prisoners, young and old, all had their thumbs chopped off and distributed to the Han and Hu people together with women and children. They could kill or keep them as they pleased.
After everything was settled, it was already dawn. After having breakfast on the plateau, the group added more firewood to increase the power of the stove, and then went down to the Piyuan. After the two places met, they headed north.
After interrogating the prisoners last night, we learned that there are five or six Hu tribes, large and small, coexisting within a few dozen miles to the left of Woxiong Ridge. They are all nominally under the command of Chief Huhao of this territory. Most of these Hu tribes are located in the east of Woxiong Ridge.
, between the southern areas.
However, Jihu is a escapist, and these reports may not be accurate. Although Li Tai and others deliberately took a detour, they encountered a Jihu team with more than 300 people after traveling more than ten miles north.
When the scouts from both sides met in the wilderness, they were all a little surprised and embarrassed, and then they went back to report. Although Li Tai and his party were also short of men and horses, in the spirit of losing the enemy, they directly chased them up, but only saw that one person.
The smoke and dust of the soldiers fleeing in the wilderness.
This is one of the more annoying aspects of the Qing Jihu hunt. If they can't be stopped directly at their lair, they will be able to escape half their lives from the pursuers.
"Go back to Woxiong Ridge, let's guard the ditch and fish!"
After pondering for a while, Li Tai gave another order. He left before to avoid the battle and rest, but the activities of the Jihu soldiers in the vicinity were so frequent and they were not familiar with the geography. Instead of passively responding to the battle while fleeing, it was better to stay safe.
A place where leisure awaits work.
Now his troops have nearly one man and two cavalry, and their mobility has been greatly increased. Unless Jihu's thousands of troops surround him on all sides, it is still possible to fight and escape.