Xiao Dilu's four or five thousand horsemen, together with three thousand Bohai, Shiwei, and Han'er slaves, drove a large group of cattle, sheep, chariots and horses, all the way eastward, with great momentum and great momentum.
How should I put it? With so many burdens, I will definitely run slowly.
Moreover, the morale of the slaves is not very good. You see, as we walk, some people desert.
But Xiao Dilu didn't bother to care. Anyway, these low-level slaves didn't know anything and weren't very valuable.
The Xia army, with Yang Hongxin's more than a thousand cavalry as the vanguard and 20,000 Tibetan and Han cavalry as the main force, also headed eastward in hot pursuit.
Just running and chasing like this, the distance between the two sides is getting closer and closer, and the situation is becoming more and more tense.
"Madman! A bunch of madmen!" Xiao Dilu got off his horse, gasped and cursed angrily.
Although he was ready to sacrifice, an ant was still greedy for life, let alone a human being? Before the last moment, Xiao Dilu still wanted to survive.
"It's not a grassland anymore, why the hell are you still chasing me!" Xiao Dilu grabbed the water bag and drank a few mouthfuls.
The cold water made him shiver.
It's frosty in late autumn, and it rains and snows from time to time. Although it's not heavy, it still makes people shiver from the cold, especially these desperate people who have not been able to eat a hot meal for many days.
Xiao Dilu is very helpless now.
We have entered the mountainous area, and there are extensive mountainous areas nearby. Some sections of the road even require horses to be walked. It is so difficult to walk. Why are you chasing after it? Aren't you afraid of death? The situation in the mountainous area is quite complicated, with many valleys and many roads.
It's actually hard for the pursuers to tell which way you will take, not to mention it's easy to set up an ambush here.
Under such circumstances, Xia Ren was still so persistent, which made Xiao Dilu sigh.
Of course - he also had difficulties and couldn't just walk away like an ordinary shepherd.
He wanted to attract the enemy's attention for Abaoji.
Based on this purpose, he was destined not to stop and run away secretly along the way. On the contrary, he had to let the Xia people know his movements, and the more people chasing him, the better.
Now, the consequences are showing.
The Xia people spared no effort in pursuing them with all their strength. Along the way, the herdsmen who could not bear the pursuit fled one after another. Under the leadership of the chiefs and nobles, they rode in a group of several hundred and carried about ten days' worth of water.
The cattle and sheep ignored him and escaped through the mountain path.
Today is the Double Ninth Festival, the ninth day of September. There are only a few hundred people left with Xiao Dilu, and their morale is extremely low.
They were all core members of the Die La tribe, and they firmly guarded Abaoji's full set of honor guards, although everyone knew that Abaoji had long since escaped through the plains and pine forests.
They are all good men, why should they be buried here?
After drinking the water, Xiao Dilu calmed down and climbed up a high slope, looking indifferently at the Xia soldiers who were surrounding him from all directions.
"Yang Hongxin is here, why don't Abaoji come out and fight?" Dozens of horsemen galloped from the river valley. The leading general was holding a big horse spear and looked majestic.
Looking at this young general whose hair had not yet fully grown, Xiao Dilu suddenly felt a little sad.
Throughout the history books, when a country or power is on the rise, many talents will often emerge. Even a young man of fifteen or sixteen years old can become famous if he seizes the opportunity.
But when the country was in a period of decline, these talents rarely emerged. Is it because the people at that time were generally not good enough? Is it because they didn't encounter talents that come only once in a century or once in hundreds of years? Not necessarily.
Maybe I just didn't have the chance.
At the end of the dynasty, even if your talents and abilities are far greater than those of the brilliant people at the founding of the country, you are destined to not get ahead in that world. Even if you get ahead, it will be difficult to achieve outstanding achievements or get high status.
evaluate.
Yang Hongxin finally caught up with the good times and got the opportunity.
But the matter has come to this, and there is nothing more to say. The Khitan has finally achieved such a prosperous situation, so how can it go back?
Being enslaved by the Turks, he couldn't stand it anymore and turned to the Tang people. The Tang people pretended to be a few officials, but when they attacked Goguryeo, they asked the Khitan to supply sheep and horses, and sent out soldiers to fight.
If it only stops here, it is not unbearable. After all, the Turks squeezed them even harder. But the Tang people were good at conspiracy and intrigues, and liked to cultivate the second-ranking figure besides the khan, governor, and county king within the Khitan, so that the two powerful
They stand side by side and fight with each other. They act as outsiders to arbitrate and fight against each other to gain benefits. This is much more sinister than the Turks.
After breaking away from the control of the Tang Dynasty and surrendering to the Turks, the Turks were driven far to the western regions by the Tang Dynasty. Even the ancient Khitan and He clan alliance disintegrated due to heavy casualties.
What followed was more than a hundred years of slavery and oppression by the Uighurs. Finally, when the Uighurs weakened, the remaining forces were wiped out by the Tang vassal towns, and the khan's fate was unknown, and the Khitan regained its freedom.
Now, they have developed rapidly during the period of power in the grassland, and can finally enslave other tribes. Do you want me to go back and live the old life?
How is this possible!
Xiao Dilu asked someone to bring a long and thick mace, got on his horse and said, "Why don't Yili Jin go out into battle? I'll meet you for a while."
As soon as he finished speaking, before Xiao Dilu could say a second sentence, a fierce charge was launched from the opposite side.
The north wind blew snowflakes, covering their heads and faces. The warriors on both sides did not use bows and arrows, but a close combat between hard-core men.
Nearly two thousand knights surged down and started a fierce fight in the narrow valleys and ravines.
Yes, it was tragic, not fierce, because the winner was decided almost instantly.
The Khitan soldiers were already at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, and their close combat strength was not as good as that of the Xia people. They were quickly broken up and chased north.
When Yang Hongxin and Xiao Dilu passed by each other, they directly swept them off their horses with a shovel. At this time, the horse turned around and knocked them to the ground with another shovel.
"Tie him up and take him back to ask for credit!" He was not in a good mood. He used some force when he smashed it, and Xiao Dilu's forehead was covered with blood.
No matter how stupid Yang Hongxin was, he knew that Abaoji was no longer here, and there was a high probability that he had been tricked.
I have been chasing Dingfeng for ten days while sleeping in the open. What is the reason for chasing?
Abaoji was so shameless that he found a scapegoat to escape. If you catch him in the future, you must ask him, are you ashamed?
"The overall situation has been decided." Yang Hongxin slumped to the ground and sighed softly.
On the nearby hillside, there were still more than a hundred people fighting, which was the last embers of Khitan.
The complex mountainous terrain is conducive to the horse archers who can gallop and shoot, but not conducive to the melee cavalry who rely on brave charges to defeat the enemy. But the Khitan only has so many people, and it is only a matter of time that they are all killed sooner or later.
Later, we will allocate some manpower to search the surroundings, and maybe we can seize a large amount of supplies, cattle and sheep.
Since leaving Yuyi Town and heading east to pursue "Abaoji", they have seized about 160,000 cattle, sheep, horses and camels, and hundreds of vehicles. The results are neither big nor small, and they still have to dig deeper.
****
On September 15th, the army on the east route was reorganized.
They pursued them as far as Gu'anle County, and after seizing tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, they saw that the enemy had disappeared and the weather was getting worse, so they stopped advancing and returned to Rouzhou.
More than ten thousand Tibetan soldiers who went north from Yuyi Town came back earlier than them.
Tuoba Jin, the eunuch of Xianyou Palace, looked at the cattle, sheep and captives all over the ground, feeling greatly relieved.
This battle was too difficult for them.
I remember that when I was in Huangshui, I never encountered such a powerful enemy as the Khitan. Occasionally, the Tubo and Qiang people rebelled, sweeping tens of thousands of people. The main force of the enemy was also the heavenly soldiers of the Central Plains, and these tribal soldiers were just to fight.
.
But this time, we are truly facing the enemy's main force.
I fought for two months and it was so arduous that I feel sad every time I think about it.
Yuyi Town, Xianyou Palace, and Sanquan are three old neighbors. At present, it seems that the Tuoba family is the best and the most tenacious.
The Cangcai Wang Clan did not have a city wall, but they retreated in a timely manner and fought harder when fighting head-on. Their performance can be said to be quite satisfactory, not particularly good, but not bad either.
When King Xi went to Zhuzhou, the situation was miserable. The city was attacked and a large number of people, cattle, sheep, and goods were lost. Normally there would be great power and bombing, but now it was so embarrassing.
Tuoba Jin was waiting to see his joke.
After quietly climbing onto the dark and badly damaged city wall, Tuoba Jin glanced at the north again.
The cold wind howls, just like this chilling battlefield, making people feel fearful.
Tuoba Jin knew that from now on, there would be no enemies roaring southward from the north, and there would be nothing to fear there.
After this battle for the Khitans, neither the military morale nor the public opinion among the tribes had any support for them to continue to advance westward or southward.
Sometimes, the opportunity only comes once.
Sometimes, there are always one or two landmark events that indicate a turning point.
The Battle of Rouzhou, the Battle of Xinghe, and the Battle of Dugumen, this series of battles have destroyed the spirit of the Khitan people. Unless they completely annex the Bohai Kingdom and let the Shiwei, Tatar, and Heishui Mohe further north
Only by completely surrendering can it be possible to regroup and gain the confidence to go south again.
But will Daxia give them this opportunity?
During the most difficult period of the battle, a messenger risked his life and rushed into the Xianyou Palace. He heard that the Andong Mansion had repeatedly defeated the Khitans and expanded the territory for hundreds of miles. From then on, Tuoba Jin knew that the Khitans were doomed.
Already.
Attacking from both sides, there is no possibility for them to make a comeback. The only suspense is how long they can hold on.
And just when the Silver Spear Army was returning from chasing the enemy with a full load, the 20,000 infantry and cavalry commanded by Shi Shucong, the commander of Guanbei Province, also marched eastward and defeated the Qing Sai Army, Niupi Pass, Tiancheng Army, and Huai'an County.
, Daning Town.
Most of the soldiers and horses in this area were transferred away by Shi Shanyou and Li Siyuan, leaving a lot of emptiness. Shi Shucong only brought state soldiers and Tibetan people to conquer many strongholds, and then was repulsed by Li Cunxiao at the foot of Wende County in Yizhou.
, only then did he stop his relaxed and comfortable "armed march".
After seeing that it was impossible to continue to advance eastward to pick up bargains, he left Zhang Quan'en to guard Daning and Han Congxun to guard Niupi Pass. He led more than 10,000 troops westward to Yunzhou, preparing to cooperate with Liang Hanyong's main force to encircle and annihilate the Jin army Shi Shanyou and Li Siyuan.
Two major groups.
If tens of thousands of them can be annihilated, the situation in Daibei will be settled.
After the war started, Li Keyong suddenly discovered that he was the biggest enemy.
