The bandit leader noticed something strange. Tang Jun neither took action nor made any demands. What were they waiting for?
He suddenly turned his head and looked behind him. The caravan had already begun to flee. There was nothing in this empty Gobi that could disturb the Tang army.
He turned around in fear, with drops of cold sweat already flowing down his cheeks. The second cabinet was still in front of him, begging stupidly for mercy. Even if you kneel down now, you will not escape death!
really.
Li Siye waved his hand coldly and ordered: "Draw the bow! Shoot!"
The distance between the Tang army and the bandits was just the right place for an arrow from the horn bow. More than a hundred people pulled the horn bow into a full moon shape, and the bow strings vibrated and were thrown out. There were more than ten sand bandits on horseback.
Fall down.
After a round of volley fire, the Tang army each looked for a target and clicked the string to kill the enemy. Duan Xiu was indeed a sharpshooter. He was an expert in both drawing a bow and playing with a crossbow. The first arrow shot the wide-eyed Ergui through the throat.
The bloody arrowhead pierced the back of his neck and fell under the horse with a plop.
The bandits were swinging their swords and shooting arrows randomly, and their first reaction was to flee on horseback, thinking that they could survive if they escaped from the range of the horn bow.
The leader raised his sword and shouted: "You can't run! You can't escape!"
"Charge! Rush over and kill one to make a profit!"
Most of the fierce bandits let out shouts and rushed toward the Tang Army's cavalry line with their swords in hand.
Li Siye continued to order coldly: "Back fifty steps and keep shooting."
"drive!"
They turned their horses in unison, kept the formation and galloped for more than fifty paces. They tightened the reins and twisted back from the horses. They opened their horned bows and fired again. More than a dozen bandits fell from the horses.
Come down.
On the way to the charge, the bandits also opened their poplar bows and fired at the Tang army. Unfortunately, the enemy was surrounded by iron armor and there were almost no casualties.
The bandit leader had red eyes. He was holding a sword in his right hand and holding the horse's rein in his left hand. He leaned over and almost leaned against the horse's back. There was an arrow stuck in each of his shoulders and blood was flowing like a stream.
He didn't know how many people were following behind him. These were irrelevant. He wanted to risk his life to kill the high-ranking official of the Tang Army, and drag him along as a support to go to hell.
"Ah! Kill!"
Duan Xiushi easily put the arrow on his bow, drew it full, and shot down the bandit who was charging behind the leader.
Yan Xiaosi shot a flurry of arrows, knocking another bandit off his horse and falling to the ground.
The leader's eyes were about to burst, and he held the blade across his right hand. He was the only one left on the charge. Even if he couldn't kill General Tang, he still had to pour his brave blood all over him, making him dizzy.
Li Siye finally frowned and began to stare at the bandit leader who was charging forward. The head of the Mo Dao in his hand was forward, ready to harvest the last head of this battle.
Bai Xiaode suddenly pulled out a short gun from his back, held it in his hand, shook it, and threw it out with a wave of his arm.
Crack!
The head of the gun scratched a deep blood mark on the horse's neck, then stabbed into the leader's belly in a cunning way, directly making a hole in the back. The head and barrel of the gun were covered with plasma.
The horse neighed in pain and turned around, running back, throwing the leader under the horse.
He struggled to crawl forward, seemingly still pursuing the goal that he could not accomplish before his death. He crawled under Li Siye's horse's hooves and breathed his last.
Li Siye turned around and glared at Bai Xiaode, who responded with a chuckle.
He took back the Mo Dao, which was not stained with blood at all, put the blade into the scabbard, looked down at the bandit leader on the ground and said, "This man can be considered a bloody and brave man, what a pity."
He ordered the soldiers: "Clean the battlefield and take back all the arrows that can be used! This place is more than three hundred miles away from the city of Khotan, and we have to wait for more than half a month to get supplies."
"Yan Xiaosi, take ten people to chase the escaped gangsters. Don't chase them too far. If you exceed ten miles, turn back quickly."
Xiaosi crossed his arms on the horse and said, "Here!"
"You guys, follow me!"
Li Siye set an example and led the people to pick up arrows from corpses under the scorching sun. When he encountered someone who was not completely dead, he was too lazy to kill him. In this hundreds of miles of uninhabited Gobi desert, half-dead people are the same as dead people, and they will eventually be exposed in the wilderness.
.
Tian Zhen squatted on the ground and pulled an arrow from the corpse. The corpse gasped and moaned, but he ignored it and sighed.
"I'm a great flying cavalry officer. I can't go to Xiaobolu to make great achievements, but I come to the Gobi desert to clean up you bunch of bastards. How fucking heartbreaking."
After saying that, his action of pulling out the arrow was too hard due to anger. The sand bandit, who was half dead in pain, gritted his teeth and closed his breath.
He threw the arrows into the quiver, stood up and drew out the sword from his waist. He looked at the bandit lying on the ground with pity and chopped it off with his hand.
Li Siye was nearby and heard his complaint and said with a smile: "What's wrong, it would be nice to have a battle, but you are still picky."
Tian Zhen pointed at the corpses on the ground and hummed: "Is this a war? Is this a war? This is chopping firewood."
No wonder Tian Zhen complained that among the more than 100 people Li Siye led, more than 30 were decorated officers. The remaining 70 people were all warriors, otherwise they would not be able to get married.
Meng Lingcha's personal troops are also the best in the Anxi army. Look at Bai Xiaode, Duan Xiushi, Tian Zhen, Yan Xiaosi, and Teng Mu. Although they don't say it with their mouths, they are saying it in their hearts.
Feeling depressed.
People of the same level as us or even lower levels than us are going to open up the Xiaobolu dungeon, but you lead us in the novice village to farm level 1 mobs in the Gobi Desert. No matter whether we have experience or merit, you can't raise it. What do you think this is?
.
Li Siye sighed while holding his Mo Dao, looked around at everyone and said: "Brothers, everything needs people to do it. The annihilation of the bandits is not just for meritorious service, but for the health of the Khotan Road and Post Road, and for the benefit of the Gobi Desert."
The common people of the Tang Dynasty, Zhongxing merchants, are escorting you. Are you coming to Anxi just for meritorious service? What is the responsibility of the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty to guard the land and open borders? Is it just to add to the reputation of the imperial court that you have expanded the territory thousands of miles? "
Duan Xiushi walked up to him and said in a low voice: "We all understand what you said, but we can't get around it. Also, you must not tell others this, lest someone deliberately accuse you of slandering the imperial court.
hat."
Li Siye took a deep breath and said gloomily: "Retreat the troops and go to the nearest post station to rest for a while."
…
During the days when Li Siye led his troops to the Gobi Desert in Khotan, he attacked everywhere and made gains every day. He used the simplest method of fishing and law enforcement. He secretly sent people to follow the caravans entering the Gobi. Once there were bandits surrounding them, they would
Directly take the back route to counter-encircle and catch the opponent by surprise.
In the first month, this method really worked, killing more than 30 groups of bandits active in more than 2,000 miles of Khotan Road, and killing more than 1,000 people. But by September, the remaining bandits were all imitated.
I would rather break up into pieces and hide in a small desert town than go out and take risks.
In the past two months, the traveling merchants on the desert were most at ease. They traveled thousands of miles without hiring swordsmen or bringing any soldiers. The desert has never been so clean since the early years of the Kaiyuan Dynasty. Many large caravans took advantage of this opportunity.
Seizing this opportunity, they left Yangguan in the west without stopping, formed a group of hundreds of merchants to go to Khotan, and crossed the Congling Mountains to the Persian region.
Building a post station in the uninhabited Gobi desert is not an easy task. From finding water sources, digging wells, to building blocks, laying stone and erecting beams, the difficulty doubled. Groups of craftsmen rushed from Yangguan to Qixi, using
The simplest carts were used to transport materials. The creativity of the people of the Tang Dynasty was miraculous. In just three months, most of the stations were completed and put into operation.
Among them was a post station built sixty miles east of Jiandeli River. It was named Shita Station because there was a weathered stone spire nearby.