Three thousand cavalry set off from Chang'an and headed north.
Proceeding along Luoshui, we left Fengyi County on the same day.
They were all cavalry, and they advanced lightly and at high speed.
It was also the first time for Wang Ding to travel long distances. Fortunately, during this period, his riding skills became more and more refined, and his body recovered quickly. He traveled more than 300 miles in one day without feeling tired.
On the horseback, he slept for a while and let the bay horse under him run on its own.
The previous purpose was mainly to train his riding skills. Wang Ding did not use saddles and stirrups. Now he put on stirrups and saddles and rode on the bay red horse. He immediately felt very comfortable.
If your butt hurts from the bump, step on the stirrups and lift your butt up.
When his legs got tired, he sat down and let the bay-red horse run wildly. He also closed his eyes to rest, fearing that the bay-red horse would run astray.
Three thousand riders, a good war horse, will naturally not leave the large army for no reason.
The strong wind passed by my face, my long hair was flying, and my cloak was rustling.
Amid the rumble of horse hooves, three thousand people sang together.
"When the smoke rises, the country looks north..."
Wang Ding's heart was filled with heroic spirit, and it was time for a man to gallop on the battlefield.
"The dignified China wants to send congratulations from all over the world..."
At night, three thousand people lit hundreds of bonfires and sat around the bonfires to keep each other warm. After eating dry food, there was another big chorus.
Finally, each one leaned on his own horse and fell into a deep sleep.
More than thirty cavalrymen, roaming ten miles away, are responsible for tonight's patrol.
Zhang Liao and Xu Huang also took turns on duty in case of emergencies.
They have left Fengyi County and now belong to the territory of the Qiang people.
The Qiang people live in no fixed abode. Wherever Wang Ding and his three thousand cavalry passed, there was also dust flying into the sky, making it difficult to avoid being discovered.
After an uneventful night, everyone woke up early in the morning and fed their horses some fodder, then took a few mouthfuls of hard dry food and boiled water.
Then the three thousand cavalry continued north, but Wang Ding divided a hundred cavalry and spread them out. Some were responsible for guarding the team, while others went to explore the Qiang tribe.
The Qiang people do not have a fixed location, but they will basically stay in one place for a period of time.
Whether you can encounter it on this grassland actually has a big factor.
If the Qiang tribe is not found today, Wang Ding and the others may have to return tomorrow.
They only carried dry food for three days, and they would starve after eating it.
Fortunately, they are lucky.
In the evening, some spies came back and said they had discovered a Qiang tribe in the west.
Wang Ding immediately led three thousand cavalry and headed west.
Within thirty miles, we saw the Qiang tribe.
Zhang Liao said: "Looking at the scale, there are about five hundred Qiang people here."
This is just a small tribe.
It is also very inconspicuous among the Qiang people.
These grassland tribes may have greater combat power than the Han army due to their ability to ride and shoot.
But they are too scattered and their number is small.
Regardless of whether it is the Qiang people, the Hu people, or the Huns, they are all divided now, and there is no great chanyu who can unify the grasslands.
The Han Dynasty was in decline, and so were they.
In contrast, even though the various princes of the Han Dynasty now fight on their own, whether it is Gongsun Zan of Youzhou, Yuan Shao of Jizhou, or Cao Cao, they all have experience fighting the Huns, and almost all of them are the victors. p>
Gongsun Zan's cavalry and Cao Cao's cavalry almost all had horses obtained from the grasslands.
Three thousand cavalry suddenly appeared outside the Qiang tribe, causing countless exclamations.
"They are Han Chinese."
"It's Han, run quickly."
Facing three thousand cavalry, a small Qiang tribe could only escape.
However, there were still some men who mounted war horses and took bows and arrows, rushed out of the camp and attacked the Han army. They wanted to buy time for those behind them to escape.
"Kill."
There is nothing intolerable.
He needs the Loop. Either the Qiang and Hu people will leave, or they will die under his sword.
The Hetao can not only be used as a horse farm, it is also a fertile land thousands of miles away. By occupying the Hetao, Wang Ding can recruit a group of refugees to cultivate fields in the Hetao.
The rain of arrows was sparse, and it seemed very powerless in the face of three thousand cavalry.
But a few cavalrymen were unlucky and protected their vital points, but were shot in the arms and thighs.
Wang Ding broke through a sparse rain of arrows and was already in front of the Qiang people.
The two sides engaged in battle, but the Qiang cavalry of more than a hundred people was instantly overwhelmed by 3,000 cavalry.
It's like a pebble being swept into the bottom of the river by the river and lost in the blink of an eye.
The next moment, Wang Ding took the lead and rushed into the Qiang tribe.
"Those who kneel down and surrender will not be killed." Wang Ding shouted loudly.
At this moment, the Qiang people in the tribe are mostly old, weak, women and children, and they are no longer a threat to them.
"Kneel down and don't kill."
"Kneel down and don't kill."
Three thousand cavalry followed the big man, and the sound shook the sky. Hundreds of Qiang women and children knelt on the ground in a hurry.
The grassland tribes also merged, and they have long been used to it.
It's just that the Han people came today. If another large tribe came, their tribe would still suffer heavy casualties.
In the grassland, winter is really difficult.
If you want your own tribe to have no one starve to death in the winter, you can either plunder the Han people or plunder other tribes.
In a tribe of more than 500 people, more than 100 young and strong men were killed, and some people had already taken advantage of the chaos to escape.
There are more than 200 old, weak, women and children left.
There are very few elderly people, only about ten of them, most of whom are women and children.
Every winter, countless old people die in every tribe.
Winter is cold and unbearable, and food is scarce. Many old people are in poor health and cannot get up when the cold wind blows. In tribes with insufficient food, the old people are the first to starve to death.
Wang Ding did not care about the women and children for the time being, but asked people to count the horses in the tribe first.
After a winter, these war horses have lost some weight, but they are still much better than the horses around Wang Ding and others.
Gather all the war horses, there are more than three hundred in total.
It is still far away from Wang Ding’s goal.
There are also hundreds of cattle and sheep.
Although this Qiang tribe is small, it is still relatively wealthy.
If it had just begun winter, the number of these cattle and sheep should be even more.
In the evening, Wang Ding and the others camped here.
More than a hundred sheep were slaughtered and stewed into soup, which was divided among three thousand cavalrymen.
Wang Ding also drank a bowl of hot mutton soup, but it lacked seasonings and the mutton smell was very strong, which was not delicious.
But after eating dry food for two days, it feels so good to have a hot bowl of mutton soup.
Next to them, the captive women and children watched eagerly as Wang Ding and the others killed the sheep and ate the meat. They were drooling and feeling extremely heartbroken.
Those were all their sheep, and now that they were killed, they couldn’t even eat a bite of the mutton.