Chapter 772 Attack from both sides

Chapter 772 Attack from both sides

Chapter 772 Attack from both sides
The arrival of the Xianbei people caused chaos in Xiurong County.

Qiao Tan looked at the adobe house built last winter and his wife and children leaning against the door looking in, and he couldn't help but burst into tears.

After the heavy rain last year, the imperial court sent some people to teach them how to grow turnips, and many families planted several acres of turnips in the vegetable plots in front of and behind their houses.

This thing grows slowly in winter and is very juicy when picked. Not only is it a delicious treat for people, but livestock love to eat it too, so much so that fewer livestock are slaughtered during the winter.

The animals that were not slaughtered could give birth again in the spring, when the vegetation was lush and lush, so they could be fed in any way.

When they have grown to a certain size, they can be sold directly to merchants from Pingyang in exchange for some utensils to decorate their bare houses.

He even fantasized about saving enough money one day to rebuild this dilapidated mud house, raise a few livestock on this land, and let his grown-up children take the cattle and sheep to the mountains to graze.

After returning in the fall, the whole family harvested and planted turnips together, and tanned leather to sell in the county...

All is gone now.

Why do you guys come to ruin my life?
Jotan wiped his tears, put on his horn bow and quiver, jumped on his horse, and rushed out.

More and more knights gathered in the valley. In a moment, there were no less than three thousand knights, and more people kept coming.

Bursts of drum sounds came from the top of Xiurong City.

Hundreds of young men armed with swords, spears and bows came to the south bank of the wooden bridge on the Kelan River.

The bridge was newly built and still exuded the scent of wood.

Just like the mud and wooden houses that rise from the ground on the south bank of the river; the neatly combed rows of wheat fields; the hay barns built by everyone's joint efforts and the newly planted fruit trees.

The herdsmen of Kelan County were shifting from nomadism to semi-settlement. Their lives were undergoing profound changes, and their identification with the imperial court was growing stronger. Now they suddenly encountered the Tuoba Xianbei, and there was a risk that everything would return to the past, so they were extremely sad and angry.

People can distinguish between good and bad.

As someone who has experienced it, I know exactly what kind of days are good and what kind of days are bad.

Now they are needed to defend their homeland.

"Burn the bridge!" a loud shout came from behind.

Someone looked back and saw more than ten riders riding towards them. The leader was wearing a silver helmet and armor, holding a thick wooden club and shouting at the top of his lungs.

Dozens of people followed behind him, some with gray hair, some with childish faces, all of them holding firewood and quickly stacking it on the wooden bridge.

A moment later, another three hundred people arrived with spears and bows and stood on the south side of the bridge.

Their faces were pale and filled with doubt. They kept staring at the wooden bridge. They only breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the firewood was piled up and someone started pouring oil on it.

The Huns looked at the wooden bridge that was about to be burned down with regret on their faces. But they were not too sad, it was just a wooden bridge, they could just burn it and rebuild it.

This group of newly arrived young men came from a fortress and came here last year with several young men from the Wang family of Langya.

The Wang family's descendants lived in the county town and opened a school to teach students.

The heads of these young men were surnamed Zang and came from Ju County, Dongguan Prefecture. There were more than 400 families in total. They built a fortress with a very rough style on the hillside to live in - it was built of large wood and covered with mud, and it looked very rough.

The Zang family actually came from a noble family, but they obeyed the orders of the Wang family members, which was a bit like a vassal. They were the Wang family members' thugs and guards in Xiurong.

When the Suotou invaded, in order to save their own lives, the Zang clan's troops came out in full force and lined up along the river, trying to block the Xianbei people on the north bank of the river.

The Xianbei people on the other side of the river had obviously noticed the movement here. A moment later, hundreds of cavalrymen rushed over along the river, shooting arrows as they rushed.

Arrows flew across the river, whistling towards us.

The young men stood on the bare river bank, exposed to the elements, and more than ten of them fell down in an instant.

Many people dispersed and ran south, far away from the river.

"Set fire!" The people from Zang's Fort came forward holding simple wooden shields. Several of them held torches, gritted their teeth and lit the firewood, then turned around and ran away.

One person ran slowly and was shot to the ground, screaming in pain.

The fire burned fiercely.

The Xianbei cavalry, who were strong at that, even rushed to the south bank of the river while the fire was still burning, swinging their halberds back and forth, stabbing and wounding one person every time.

"Swoosh!" an arrow flew out.

The powerful arrow went straight into the man's open mouth and went out through his neck.

"Bang!" The knight fell to the ground with a bang, and his horse neighed and ran away for a long distance.

Everyone seemed to have just woken up from a dream. They drew their bows, hid behind their shields, and shot at the Xianbei cavalry who were rushing across the wooden bridge.

The enemy cavalry fell off their horses one after another, and in a short while more than ten of them fell.

"Clang!" More violent sounds of horse hooves clattered were heard, and a knight who had temporarily put on armor, jumped on his horse, and rushed forward.

The first man was hit in the face by an arrow and fell off his horse with a scream.

The second man was shot on his mount and flew out with a scream.

The third person? With a loud bang, the wooden bridge broke and the enemy cavalry, along with their horses, fell into the river.

The young men on the south bank immediately shouted loudly, and their morale was slightly boosted.

The Xianbei people wandered around the north bank of the river in frustration.

Xiurong County is located on the south bank of Lanshui River. There are many houses, hay barns, sheep pens and even several newly opened shops around the city.

There are rows of barns on the hillside behind the city, and there might be food in them.

But they were blocked on the north bank and could not move forward an inch. How could they not be anxious?
Seeing that they could not cross the river, the courage of the young men began to rise steadily.

Holding wooden shields, they slowly moved forward, using the range and power of their bows to aim at the Xianbei cavalry on the opposite bank and call out their names one by one.

Because the enemy was moving and their archers were seriously insufficient to provide covering fire, most of the arrows missed the target. However, there were still some people who, either because of their excellent archery skills or good luck, were able to hit the enemy or the horses they were riding from a distance.

Every time it hit the target, cheers could be heard from the south bank of the river.

After doing this for a while, the morale of the young men became higher and higher, while the Xianbei cavalry were passively beaten, their morale was low, and they soon broke off contact.

Some went upstream and downstream to find a place where the water was shallow enough to wade across, while others shouted from afar: "You are descendants of the Xiongnu, why are you supporting the Jin thieves? Aren't you ashamed of betraying your ancestors? Why don't you rebel? Together we will slaughter the Jin people and seize all their land, houses, wives and daughters. How do you think?"

There was silence on the south bank of the river for a while. Soon, someone stepped forward and yelled, "My Bu family is a prominent and beautiful family in Kelan County. How can we be thieves like you?"

After saying that, he drew out his bow and shot an arrow.

The arrow didn't hit the man, but it knocked the horse over.

The Xianbei man was quick-witted and quick-handed. He jumped off the horse's back, rolled over to relieve the force, then hurriedly got up and retreated backwards.

After seeing the enemy's embarrassed appearance, people on the south bank of the river burst into laughter and their morale was high.

The archer put down his bow, spat, and said, "King Liang found a famous scholar to teach me writing, and found an old farmer to teach me how to farm. Seeing that life is getting better and better, who the hell would follow Suotou to become a horse thief?"

There was another round of cheers from the south bank of the river.

Were the Xiongnu and the Xianbei on good terms? That depends on the region.

The Xiongnu were widely distributed, from the grasslands outside the Great Wall to the heartland of the Central Plains. Generally speaking, the more barbaric they were in the north, the more likely they were to mix with the Tuoba Xianbei; the more civilized they were in the south, and after the founding of the Liu Han Dynasty, they were even enemies of the Tuoba Xianbei.

As for the area in the western part of Taiyuan, there are both types of people, and there are slightly more who are enemies of Tuoba.

Xiongnu nobles like the Xubu clan were listed among the surnames of Kelan County, and were the Ding-class "Kelanbu". They had been assimilated to Han culture for a long time and were naturally unwilling to surrender to the Tuoba Xianbei.

However, just because they "won" here and resisted the fierce attack of the Xianbei people, it didn't mean they could win on the other side of the river...

Nearly a thousand Xianbei cavalrymen have formed their battle formations and are divided into three groups.

The first two hundred knights in iron armor came out with sharp arrows.

Four hundred leather-armored cavalrymen, armed with spears, lagged behind slightly.

At the end were more than 300 shepherds wearing fur coats. They were poorly equipped, but very wild.

The two sides deployed their battle formations on the north bank of the river, slowly accelerated, and collided with each other in an instant.

When they passed each other, many of them fell off their horses.

But overall, the Xianbei people's horsemanship skills were still superior, and their casualties were relatively small.

After the first wave of enemies passed by, the second wave of enemies collided with them. This time, the casualties among the Huns were even more tragic. Then came the third wave...

"Quick! Shoot arrows!" The young men on the south bank of the river hurried along, and when they arrived near the place where the cavalry of both sides were fighting, they lined up along the river bank, drawing their bows and arrows.

The Xianbei cavalry who accidentally approached the river bank were suddenly attacked. They became furious and rode away.

With this, the young men on the south bank slightly blocked the offensive of the Xianbei cavalry, giving their own people on the north bank time to gather together.

But the overall situation in the north has actually been determined.

The Huns who survived the charge were pale and sweating profusely.

There is a river on the right and villages, woods and even mountains on the left. There is not much room for maneuvering, and the horn bow can hardly play a big role. When encountering the Xianbei cavalry who are very strong in hand-to-hand combat, they are almost suppressed.

Three thousand men fought against one thousand men, and were directly defeated, with more casualties than the enemy.

Seeing the Xianbei people slowly forming up, ready to start the second battle.

The Xiongnu cavalry subconsciously dispersed, not daring to take the charge head-on, and tried to keep their distance and shoot from horseback.

Not surprisingly, they were dispersed again.

Some of the Huns fled into the river, crying and shouting.

Some of them rode their horses up the gentle slopes of the hills to escape the pursuit of the Xianbei people.

Looking from the south bank of the river, the northern hillside was filled with densely packed Xiongnu cavalry.

Many men, women, old and young also abandoned their homes and ran up the mountain to avoid the possible killing by Suotou.

The Xianbei people did not pursue them, but instead sent some people to guard against the Huns who had gone up the mountain, while the others calmly collected the supplies left in the village.

Horses, livestock, food, hay, tools and even vehicles, everything is needed.

When the sun was setting, more than 2,000 riders came from the east, came down in a swagger, fed the horses, and slaughtered the cattle and sheep.

The Xianbei people sent out more than a thousand cavalrymen, who went up the gentle slope and fought fiercely with the Xiongnu people, driving them a little further away. Then they went down to the village, washed their horses, ate and drank to their heart's content, and were extremely arrogant.

As it was getting dark, the Xianbei soldiers, who were well fed and full of energy, selected a total of two thousand riders and quietly turned eastward, heading towards the old city of Loufan.

The geography here mainly develops along the flat valleys of the Fen River and its tributaries.

Walking westward from Taiyuan along the Fen River Valley for 240 miles, you will reach the abandoned ancient city of Loufan.

Go west from the ancient city of Loufan and walk along the Lanshui River Valley for 80 miles to reach Xiurong. Go north from Xiurong and you can reach the back of Lan Valley.

Go north from the ancient city of Loufan and walk along the Fen River Valley for seventy miles to reach Jingle.

From Jingle, go west along the mountain valley for 45 miles to the northern border of Xiurong County.

From Jingle, continue walking north along the Fenshui River Valley for another 150 miles to reach Tianchi Lake.

Outside the valley are mountains only, and there are no ready-made roads, making it inconvenient to travel.

If the Xianbei people could capture Jingle, they would be able to reach Tianchi Lake and launch an attack from the south, joining the Xianbei people to the north of Tianchi Lake in a pincer attack from the front and back, which would drastically change the situation on the battlefield.

Xiurong Chang Qiao Yu watched from the top of the city wall and became extremely anxious.

Now he had to find a way to notify the north. He knew that King Liang was still in Tianchi, and it was possible that he had been bypassed by the Xianbei people.

What would they do if they were blocked in that narrow river valley which was 230 miles long from north to south, with the Xianbei army at both the north and south exits?
It is said that Jinyang is the main intersection of the entire Bingzhou, and this is not an exaggeration.

Various roads converge here, and you can start from here to go south to Henan, east to Hebei, west to cross the Yellow River, and north to the Great Wall.

Jinyang was sparsely populated and in ruins. Liu Ling only had 5,000 infantrymen, and he might have lost Jinyang.

The situation was so critical that Qiao Yu couldn't imagine what would happen if King Liang died in the mountains.

Most people in Xiurong City still don't want anything to happen to King Liang, and don't want to surrender to Suo Tou, but there may be some people who are blinded by greed and hope to see chaos in the world.

In fact, it is not only Xiurong who is like this. What about the various tribes in the nearby mountains? They are also treacherous and have different ideas.

Don't test other people's loyalty easily!
(End of this chapter)