Chapter 765 Recovering the Hetao
Chapter 765 Recovering the Hetao
In just a moment, a cavalry force rushed out from both sides of the county town, attacking Liang Shidu's army and the Turkic cavalry with great force.
The Turkic cavalry reacted first. Ashina Danai shouted, "Go and fight!"
"Woo——"
The Turkic cavalry horns sounded, and 8,500 cavalrymen suddenly set out to fight against the Sui cavalry coming from afar.
However, Liang Shidu's army was in chaos. The soldiers had just learned that Lingzhou City had been attacked. Their families were all in the city, which made the soldiers worried. Faced with the powerful attack of the Sui cavalry, they had lost their morale and had no intention of fighting.
The Turkic cavalry on the east suffered a head-on blow. The Sui cavalry fired arrows together, and thousands of arrows shot into the enemy group.
A series of violent explosions caused the Turkic cavalry to fall off their horses. Ashina Danai's horse was hit by a poisonous nail, and the horse stumbled, knocking him to the ground.
"Captain of ten thousand men!"
A cavalryman shouted, and Ashina Danai leaped up and jumped onto the warhorse of his personal soldier. The personal soldier rolled over and got on another ownerless warhorse, giving the horse to Ashina Danai.
Ashina Danai then realized that what Ashina Gai said before was true and not an exaggeration. They encountered terrible sky thunder weapons.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
As expected, Ashina Danai ordered a retreat. Each of their cavalrymen was valuable and there was no need for them to risk their lives for the Han people.
More than 7,000 cavalrymen retreated quickly like the receding tide, and people kept falling off their horses due to the poison.
Li Jing's strategy was to force the Turks to retreat first. As long as the Turkic army was defeated, the Liang army would inevitably be defeated.
Sure enough, when Liang Shidu's army was in chaos, the Turkic cavalry suddenly retreated. Liang Shidu's army was terrified and turned around to flee. The cavalry chased them all the way, shouting: "Those who surrender will not be killed! Those who surrender will not be killed!"
Countless Liang soldiers knelt down and surrendered. At this time, the city gates were wide open, and Li Jing also led 30,000 troops to charge out. Their mission was indeed to collect the surrendered soldiers.
Su Dingfang refused to give up and chased Liang Shidu to a point where he had no way to go up or down. They chased for more than 40 miles in one breath and saw Lingzhou city in front of them. Liang Shidu entered the city and fled north with hundreds of his personal soldiers.
Only then did Su Dingfang stop the pursuit.
In this battle, Liang Shidu's 30,000-strong army was completely destroyed, more than 3,000 people were killed, 26,000 people surrendered, more than 2,000 Turkic cavalry were killed, and only less than 6,000 people escaped.
This is the thousand-year-old habit of the nomadic cavalry on the grasslands, from the Huns to the Turks. If they cannot win, they will run away, using their war horses and riding skills to quickly escape from the battlefield, so their casualties are not heavy.
The more than 2,000 casualties were mainly caused by poison nails. One thousand iron fire mines exploded, and each arrow mine shot out a hundred poison nails, which was equivalent to 100,000 poison nails. Except for a few cavalrymen in the front army, all other cavalrymen were hit. Ashina Danai was one of the very few surviving cavalrymen. His horse was destroyed, but he was fine.
Li Jing led the army to continue northward, and recovered Huaiyuan County, Hongjing County and Lingwu County in one breath, taking back the entire Shuofang Xituo.
But this was not the end. Li Jing ordered Su Dingfang to lead 10,000 cavalry and 10,000 camels north to attack the Zhongtao area of Hetao, which is the top part of the Yellow River's "J" shape.
Hetao was originally the land of the Sui Dynasty. Emperor Yang Jian lent it to the desperate Ashina Rangan. When Ashina Rangan became Qimin Khan and unified the grassland, he never returned Hetao to the Sui Dynasty.
Hetao has always been a wound between the Sui Dynasty and the Turks. The relationship could never be healed and eventually the two countries turned against each other.
At present, there are no Han people in Hetao, only a few nomadic tribes make a living by grazing here. When the army walked on this vast land, they could see artificial canals from time to time. These were irrigation canals built during the Eastern Han Dynasty, which have gradually been submerged by wind and sand.
That morning, the army arrived at Yongfeng County, one of the two counties in Hetao. During the Kaihuang period, there were thousands of households here, all of which were stationed troops and their families. But now it is in ruins, with weeds growing on the city walls and the city gates having disappeared, probably used by nomadic tribes for burning.
When the army entered the city, the county town was completely destroyed, with ruins everywhere, and the ground was covered with weeds as tall as a man. Wild rabbits and wild mice were constantly seen running by. Su Dingfang sighed and turned back and said, "Let's go!"
At this moment, several black shadows suddenly rushed past from the side. Several cavalrymen immediately chased after them. In just a moment, they caught the black shadows. They turned out to be several Turkic teenagers, their faces full of fear.
Su Dingfang looked at them for a moment, then ordered, "Let them go!"
The soldiers released several Turkic teenagers, who then rushed out of the city and fled in panic.
Su Dingfang sneered, "Follow them!"
Several Turkic teenagers became the best guides. Soon, countless tents appeared in front of them. The other side also discovered them and kept blowing horns. Countless herdsmen panicked and fled on horseback. At this time, the Sui cavalry had already rushed up and drove together hundreds of herdsmen who had no time to escape and surrounded them.
There were old people, children and women among the herdsmen, all of whom were terrified. At this time, an old man came forward, knelt down and kowtowed, saying in Chinese: "We are all ordinary people who make a living by herding. I am sure the general will let us go!"
Deputy General Luo Cheng stepped forward and whispered something in Su Dingfang's ear. Su Dingfang sneered and asked, "How many people are there in your tribe?"
"There are nine hundred and thirty of them in total. Most of them are here."
"But you already have more than 400,000 sheep. Can a tribe with less than a thousand people have so many sheep?"
The old man said after a while: "We have very few sheep of our own, only tens of thousands, and the rest are military sheep. We raise sheep for the army, and we will send them a batch every month?"
"Send it to Lingwu County!"
Su Dingfang immediately understood that this was the logistics tribe of the Turkic cavalry.
Su Dingfang asked again: "Apart from you, are there any other tribes in Hetao?"
"There used to be a tribe here, but they went back last fall and didn't come this year. We are the only tribe now."
"Where's the army?"
The old man lowered his head, and Su Dingfang said coldly: "If you want to live, tell the truth, I can spare you and allow you to take your belongings with you."
The old man sighed, "There are still a thousand soldiers in Jiuyuan County!"
"Why is there a garrison in Jiuyuan County, but Yongfeng County is destroyed?"
"Jiuyuan County is being used as a warehouse. Food and other supplies sent from the south are stored in Jiuyuan County and will be transported away in the fall."
"Are there any Han people in Jiuyuan County?"
The old man shook his head, "No, not even one!"
Su Dingfang immediately ordered them to take their property and sheep away. The herdsmen were extremely grateful and packed up their tents and property as quickly as possible. An hour later, a long team moved away, taking away 30,000 sheep and 2,000 cattle, which were their own property.
Su Dingfang also ordered General Hou Junji to lead 3,000 cavalry to drive hundreds of thousands of sheep and tens of thousands of cattle back to Shuofang.
He led 7,000 cavalrymen to attack Jiuyuan County.
(End of this chapter)