Chapter 206: Dispatching to Attack

Chapter 206: Dispatching to Attack

Chapter 206: Dispatching to Attack
In a forest about eighty miles south of Shandan County, fifteen thousand Tuyuhun troops were resting and eating lunch. They took a bite of dry biscuits, stuffed a handful of beef and mutton into their mouths, and drank a few big gulps of mare's milk.

The commander of this army was Murong Baoshu, who ambushed Xue Shixiong in Dadouba Valley. His brother Murong Tianshu was shot dead by Xiao Xia with an arrow.

This time, he followed the order of the Tuyuhun King and led 15,000 troops to launch a surprise attack on Zhangye. Their target was Zhangye Horse Farm and Zhangye City. They came out of Dadouba Valley in the middle of the night and bypassed Dadou City.

The beacon fire of Dadou City was not lit, not because they did not discover the army that quietly emerged from Dadouba Valley, but because the 300 soldiers of Dadou City had already withdrawn to Zhangye.

Frankly speaking, Murong Baoshu wanted to attack Zhangye City and wantonly massacre all the men, women, young and old in the city, especially the Han people. At this time, his heart was full of hatred, and only massacre could alleviate the hatred that was about to explode in his heart.

"General, how do we divide the troops?" asked the deputy general Gamuda.

"According to the original plan!"

Murong Baoshu said sullenly, “You lead 5,000 troops to contain the Sui army in Zhangye, and come over after I take out the horse farm!”

"If there is support in the city, can I charge directly into the city?"

Murong Baoshu was silent for a while and said, "You can enter the city, but don't alert the Sui army outside the city!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

Jiamu Da got up and left. Murong Baoshu immediately called the bandit leader Akan and said to him, "You lead your brothers to attack the horse farm. The Shandan County army will definitely rush out to pursue you. You lead the Sui army to the south. I will set up a trap and wait for them to arrive!"

Akan nodded, "I'll go right away!"

He shouted loudly, and more than 600 horse bandits stood up, jumped on their horses, and followed their leader Akan to gallop towards Shandan County.

Murong Baoshu narrowed his eyes and watched the large group of horse bandits running away. Although the population of Shandan County was not large, they could still barely have a bite to eat.

Although Shandan County is only a small county with a population of less than 10,000, the county town is very large. This is because in order to move war horses into the city in an emergency, the county town was built very large.

The city wall is not only long, but also relatively high, as high as three meters. The same is true for Zhangye City. Both the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty attached great importance to the defense of border cities, and the city walls were generally built tall and solid.

Xiao Xia stood on the city wall, looking at the vast snowfield in the south. It was already dark, but under the bright moonlight, the snowfield was as bright as day. In the distance, there were a dozen small black dots running towards this side.

Du Tianzhao hurriedly said: "Sir, it must be General Xu and his men who have returned!"

The cavalry approached, and the leading general was indeed Xu Min. Xiao Xia nodded, "Open the city and let them in!"

The city gate slowly opened, and Xu Min rushed into the county town with a dozen people.

Soon, Xu Min climbed up the city gate and bowed to Xiao Xia, saying, "Your Excellency, six or seven hundred horse bandits are heading towards the county town. They are less than thirty miles away from here and will arrive soon!"

"Have you discovered the main force of Tuyuhun?"

"Yes! We found an army in the pine forest eighty miles to the south. It is estimated to have about ten thousand people and several thousand camels."

As expected, the Tuyuhun army really came. Xiao Xia immediately said to Du Tianzhao: "According to our original plan, we will completely wipe out this group of horse bandits!"

Half an hour later, hundreds of small black dots came running from a distance. "Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!" The alarm bell on the top of the city wall sounded urgently. It seemed that the horse bandits were discovered by the sentry on the top of the city wall.

But the 650 horse bandits continued to gallop non-stop towards the war horse winter rest area west of the county town.

There are hundreds of greenhouses over there, which is where war horses are fed in the winter.

The purpose of the horse bandits was simple, which was to burn down hundreds of greenhouses so that the 300,000 war horses of the Sui army would either be burned to death or freeze to death.

If the troops in the city rushed out, they would be lured southward and fall into the trap of the Tuyuhun army. More than 600 horse bandits plundered the county town and rushed to the stable camp several miles west.

Less than a mile away from the stable, a clapper sounded suddenly, and arrows were fired in the snow, and dozens of bandits running in the front were shot and fell off their horses.

Suddenly, a cavalry ambush emerged from the snow and charged towards the bandits.

Seeing that the situation was not good and the other side was actually prepared, Akan thought that the Sui army must have received reports from spies. He immediately gave up the idea of ​​burning the stable and began to implement the second plan.

"The whole army retreats! Retreat!"

The bandits on horseback turned around and ran back, but before they had run a hundred steps, they were shot with arrows again. This time, the arrows were even more severe, and hundreds of the bandits were hit by the arrows and fell off their horses.

Immediately afterwards, two Sui troops attacked from the left and right, cutting off the bandits' retreat.

The leading fierce general was none other than Xiao Xia. He brandished the Heaven-shaking Spear and charged into the densest group of horse bandits, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep. He was invincible and killed so many horse bandits that their heads kept rolling. The blood of their blood dyed the snow red. In just a moment, he killed dozens of people and cut a bloody path to the horse bandit leader Akan.

This is of course Xiao Xia's usual tactic. When shooting a person, shoot the horse first. When capturing a thief, capture the leader first. Killing the enemy leader first will make it easy to deal with the rest of the soldiers.

Akan had nowhere to hide, he had no way to retreat, he could only roar, swung his iron spear and stabbed at Xiao Xia, but he was too slow, Xiao Xia dodged his spear, swung the spear, only to see a flash of cold light, "Puff!" A huge head was chopped off.

The leader was killed, and the bandits were in chaos. Xiao Xia shouted, "Kill them! Don't spare any of them."

Fifteen hundred Sui cavalrymen completely surrounded the remaining horse bandits, killing them like a tug of war. The hundreds of horse bandits became fewer and fewer amid their screams, and were eventually all beheaded, without any one spared. The Qilian Gang, which had wreaked havoc in the Hexi Corridor for several years, just disappeared in the long river of history.

Xiao Xia shouted to Du Tianzhao: "General Du, continue to defend the city. We will attack the enemy from the south!"

The Sui army split into two groups. Du Tianzhao led his troops to continue defending the city, while Xiao Xia led a thousand cavalrymen to rush south.
The Tuyuhun army of 10,000 set up a pocket formation about 50 miles south of the county town, but Xiao Xia led a thousand cavalrymen to bypass the pocket formation from the west and headed straight for the pine forest 80 miles south, where there were 3,000 camels loaded with food supplies for the Tuyuhun army.

It was exactly two o'clock in the morning. There were five hundred soldiers guarding the camels in the woods. Each of them was wrapped in a blanket. Most of them had drunk enough wine and were sleeping soundly.

At this moment, Xiao Xia led a thousand cavalrymen and suddenly rushed into the pine forest, and the five hundred remaining soldiers were killed by surprise.

It was already three o'clock in the morning, but there was no sign of the bandits or the Sui army. Although the ambushed Tuyuhun army was accustomed to the cold weather and was relatively resistant to freezing, after two hours of ambush, the soldiers could not stand it anymore.

A general ran up to the main general Murong Baoshu and said, "General, many of our brothers can't stand the cold. If we wait any longer, we will get frostbite."

Another general also advised: "They were probably discovered by the Sui army scouts, and the Sui army defending the city rushed out in time. The two sides have been fighting until now. Anyway, the enemy army is not large, we can just charge at them and break through the city!"

Murong Baoshu was making preparations for both scenarios. If they could lure the defenders to move south, they could surround the Sui army and annihilate them in one fell swoop. If the lure failed, they could use the horse bandits to consume the Sui army's strength and reduce the losses of their own soldiers when attacking the city.

It was estimated that the battle between the two sides was almost over, so Murong Baoshu immediately ordered: "Order the three armies to move out!"

"Woo——"

The sound of horns rang out in the snowy plain, and the Tuyuhun troops ambushed in the snow stood up and assembled.

At this time, several cavalrymen came galloping from the south and reported urgently: "General, our logistics troops were ambushed by the Sui army and suffered heavy losses!"

Murong Baoshu's face turned pale.

He immediately ordered: "Retreat to the pine forest immediately and rescue the logistics team!"

They didn't carry much dry food with them, and if there was a logistics failure, the consequences would be very serious.

(End of this chapter)