After resting for two hours and escaping the hottest part of the afternoon, the troops set out again.
Before setting off, Zhang Yanling showed mercy and made the soldiers and horses drink enough water. The soldiers and horses left the edge of the desert and came to the adjacent Gobi desert.
Although the weather was still relatively hot, as the sun set in the west, the high temperature also subsided quickly. In the evening, it was the most suitable time to travel, and everyone began to use this precious time to hurry up.
For more than an hour before dark, the cavalry galloped for more than seventy miles, greatly increasing the speed of the march.
After the sun goes down, the temperature in the desert drops sharply. This is actually a plateau desert area, and it is actually only late April at this moment, not a hot summer. If it were not a desert, it would not be so hot during the day. But after nightfall, the temperature drops.
It's very powerful. Although the wind blowing from the desert still seems to have a warm feeling, when you are really traveling at night, your body feels cold quickly. Especially when you are galloping on horseback, you feel a biting and biting feeling.
While everyone was cursing the horrible weather in the Gobi Desert, they all knew that they could not give up the good time to travel at night. Fortunately, it was still possible to travel in the Gobi Desert at night under the starry sky, and the ground was very flat under the dim light.
, although you cannot gallop at full speed, you can still trot.
That night, the army marched non-stop. From sunset to starlight, from the waning moon in the east to the red sun in the east, they traveled about fifty or sixty miles in one night.
There was an episode during the night march. Since the soldiers and horses could only move forward in the dark, they could not make too much noise. Three thousand cavalry were meandering on the Gobi Desert, and the sound of their hooves attracted a small group of wolves. They might be
The soldiers and horses were regarded as night-walking antelopes or herds of animals on the Gobi Desert.
At first, there were only about a dozen wolves howling nearby, but then a large group came, with hundreds of them. They chased them for more than ten miles. The cavalry couldn't laugh or cry, and they couldn't stop to fight with the wolves, so they had to ignore them.
We continued on our way. As a result, these wild wolves actually tried to start hunting, trying to cut off a small group of cavalry in the rear.
Everyone had no choice but to shoot him with arrows. The wolves realized they had encountered a tough situation and dispersed.
All the soldiers were a little amused. It was a big joke that the dignified soldiers of the Zhenwei Battalion were chased and killed by a group of wild wolves as cattle and sheep prey. Of course, if Zhang Yanling hadn't strictly ordered not to get entangled with these wild wolves and just hurry on,
These wild wolves are afraid of being exterminated.
Everyone was also surprised. In such a desolate Gobi desert, they thought there were no living creatures here. They thought it was a place of death with only gravel and rocks, but there were actually so many wild wolves wandering here. The presence of wild wolves meant that it was a place of death.
There is prey for them to survive. This shows that even in this Gobi Desert that seems to have nothing on the surface, there are many creatures living here.
Where humans cannot survive, these wild wolves and their prey can survive, which shows how tough they are.
After the sun rose, the temperature rose rapidly. Everyone seemed to have suddenly entered the hot season from the harsh winter, and soon they were sweating profusely and the heat was unbearable. Although they had left the desert, the heat in the Gobi Desert was not as hot as in the desert.
How comfortable it is. There is no shade above, so there is only so much sunlight.
The whole land was roasted like a big hot iron pot. All the soldiers were like ants on the iron pot, lingering and gasping for breath. I thought that after yesterday's suffering, today would be much better, but I found that it was not like that at all.
Things are still unbearably hot, with nowhere to escape.
Zhang Yanling did not want to push everyone to the limit. Once attrition or injury occurred, the gains would actually outweigh the losses. Moreover, after marching for a day and a night, he had traveled more than 150 miles. Now he was tired of men and horses, and it would be the same as the first day.
Marching in the scorching heat can really cause serious trouble.
Originally, Zhang Yanling planned to hold on until the afternoon and ordered a rest. However, seeing that the soldiers were in really bad condition, when they arrived near a small mound on the Gobi Desert, Zhang Yanling temporarily decided to stop advancing and rest on the spot. He ordered his troops to avoid the next step.
After a few hours of high temperature, I had to eat and drink to replenish my strength.
The awnings were set up one after another, and the exhausted troops and horses were finally able to rest for a while. The soldiers soon fell asleep, no matter that it was still hot under the tent, or that their bodies ached due to the gravel on the ground. At this time,
Even if you just stare for a while, that is the greatest happiness.
Who would have thought that Zhang Yanling's temporary decision saved everyone's lives. Shortly after settling in, the guards in charge came to report that something strange was happening in the distance, and they were worried that a large group of enemy troops was coming.
Zhang Yanling was startled, a large group of enemy troops were attacking? Encountering the enemy at this time would be fatal. The current condition of the soldiers and horses was not suitable for combat. But he was also confused in his heart, how could there be a large group of soldiers and horses attacking?
Could it be that the Tatars discovered the traces and mobilized the cavalry?
Zhang Yanling quickly climbed to the top of the hill with his generals and looked in the direction pointed by the soldiers. As expected, he saw smoke billowing from the sky in the distance, covering the sky and the sun. It looked like a large number of cavalry galloping in, their horses hooves stirring.
The rising smoke.
"Where did the enemy appear? It's incredible." A general exclaimed in surprise.
Zhang Yanling suddenly shouted: "It's not the enemy, it's a sandstorm. That's the direction of the desert. How can there be an army of cavalry rushing out of the desert? It must be a sandstorm. Damn it."
Everyone was suddenly stunned and felt lucky. Zhang Yanling's next words made everyone nervous again.
"The sandstorm is more terrifying than the enemy. Quickly notify the soldiers to prepare. Surround the lee side of the hillside and prepare masks to cover your face. People and horses lie on the ground in groups and cannot run around. Quick, quick!"
Everyone hurriedly returned to camp and gave orders. All the soldiers woke up from their sleep and began to hurriedly gather their horses together and hide in the lee of the hillside. When they were almost ready, the strong wind from the sandstorm had arrived.
The wind was not strong at first, just whistling. But then it intensified violently. For a while, sand and rocks were flying, and the sky was dark. Yellow clouds were billowing overhead, and rocks were rolling on the ground, as if the end was coming.
Zhang Yanling was tightly surrounded by Chen Shi, Zhang Yin, Zhao Yuancheng and others. She covered her mouth and nose and lay in a recess on the hillside. She glanced around and saw fist-sized rocks rolling and running on the ground.
, I was so shocked that I was stunned. A poem suddenly came to my mind: "The gravel in the river is as big as a bucket, and the rocks are everywhere in the wind."
When I read this poem before, I thought it was an exaggeration by the poet. Now I realized that this was not an exaggeration, it was completely realistic.
Stones were flying all over the sky, and the tarpaulins they had built had already disappeared. The three thousand cavalrymen were all men, and they were upright men. They were usually heroic, bleeding, and tearless existences, but at this moment, each one of them was like an ant crawling on the ground.
The ground was trembling. Some people buried their heads in their hands and prayed for mercy, repenting for the bad things they had done and hoping that God would forgive them.
After the strong wind, the sky was filled with sand and dust. It was noon, but it was as if darkness had suddenly fallen. There was no one visible everywhere, only the yellow sand in the sky whistling, mixed with the cries and neighings of people and horses.
There was the sound of thunder and lightning in the sky, and soon something started to fall. At first, they thought it was gravel falling, but soon everyone discovered that what fell was actually hailstones of different sizes. If not everyone was fully armed with armor.
If it's done neatly, I'm afraid I'll get my head smashed and bleed.
Time seemed to have frozen, and I don’t know how long it had passed. To many people, it seemed like a lifetime. Finally, the wind calmed down, the reports stopped, the yellow sand in the sky dispersed, and the sun slowly became brighter.
.
Everyone got up from the dust, shook off the yellow sand all over their bodies, and stood there blankly like groundhogs emerging from the ground, as if they had had a nightmare.
Zhang Yanling immediately ordered the whole team to count the soldiers and horses. Each battalion quickly counted the soldiers and horses, and found that there were more than 20 soldiers and more than a dozen horses missing. Everyone hurriedly searched around, and soon found a dozen dead bodies hundreds of steps away.
The corpses of soldiers and horses were covered with wounds. They were all scars caused by stones.
But the cause of their death was not that they were stoned to death. Their noses and mouths were full of sand, filling their mouths and nasal cavities. They were drowned to death by sandstorms. Maybe they were blown away by the strong wind and drifted along.
The ground rolled far away. After losing the protection of the hills, they were exposed to the wind and sand. Rocks hit them, and they could not breathe or hide. They eventually inhaled the sand and suffocated to death.
In the sand near the hill, another seven or eight corpses were dug out. They were buried alive by the wind and suffocated to death. Zhang Yanling knew how powerful the sand was. In fact, the recess where he was hiding also gathered a lot of sand.
.If Chen Shi, Zhang Yin and others had not held hands together to create some space, Zhang Yanling and others would have been buried alive by the fine sand.
It was only at this moment that everyone realized what kind of disaster they had escaped. If the Marquis had not ordered them to rest beside this slope, they would have suffered heavy casualties if they were still marching on the Gobi Desert. Such a sandstorm would have hit them.
I'm afraid all three thousand people will die here.
Zhang Yanling himself was still frightened. Although he thought he already knew the cruelty and danger of the Gobi desert, he was completely unaware that he would encounter such a sandstorm. He also did not expect that the sandstorm here would be so ferocious and violent.
In front of nature, what if there are 30,000 and 300,000 troops, not to mention 3,000 soldiers and horses? A small desert storm can cause such consequences, with such a huge momentum. Not to mention those typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.
Already.
The so-called battle to transform nature is actually extremely ridiculous. Man is actually as fragile as a naked baby in front of nature.
More than 20 soldiers died at once, and the atmosphere in the army suddenly became tense. The soldiers of Zhenwei Battalion finally realized that death was so close. For a soldier who had not experienced much actual combat, and had been eating and drinking all day long.
For the soldiers and horses, this shocked them greatly. Although this was not a battle, it was more terrifying than a battle.
Zhang Yanling ordered people to bury the fallen soldiers on the spot and set up tombstones. He did not do much to comfort him, because he knew that this moment would come sooner or later. If a soldier and horse are to become an elite force, the first hurdle must be passed.
It is to ignore matters of life and death.
Zhang Yanling has already hardened his heart after experiencing the bloody battle in Dushi City, and he will not allow his subordinates to cry over it. The deceased will receive generous compensation, his parents, wives and children will be taken care of, and the aftermath will be well dealt with.
This is the best way to comfort the deceased, rather than crying and sensationalizing.
"Assemble the team and set off." Zhang Yanling shouted loudly.
The soldiers shook off the dust, collected themselves and got on their horses. They stepped on the gray ground and galloped northward in the lingering gray dust.