Chapter 778 Fate
Chapter 778 Fate
Before I knew it, the rain suddenly stopped.
Some people looked up at the sky and saw dark clouds. They thought to themselves: Could it be that God stopped the rain on purpose to prevent the tens of thousands of troops from fighting on both sides?
The thought is hellish and chilling.
At dawn, the direction of Guangwu Ancient City became lively.
The huge golden tent began to be dismantled, and the pillars, beams, felt, furniture and other items were packed one by one, filling up hundreds of cars.
The women carefully squeezed the morning's milk from the cows and sheep, put it into wooden barrels and leather bags, and placed them on the carts.
On the river bank were burly men with bare upper bodies, shouting slogans as they pulled fishing nets out of the river.
Every time he caught a big fish, he would turn around and show off, making the group of women giggle.
Children were picking wild vegetables and mushrooms on the hillside and putting them in baskets. Some were staggering down the mountain carrying bundles of firewood on their backs.
The dull sound of horse hooves could be heard all around.
The knights galloped in the sea of horses, driving one herd after another, and disappeared into the southern horizon.
After they left, row after row of cavalrymen armed with spears passed by quickly. The leader had a triangular flag hanging on his spear, which fluttered in the wind.
The old man with white hair and beard sat on a wooden stool, his hands like dry tree bark tightly holding a wooden cup, his eyes deep.
After drinking the last sip of milk, he sighed.
This is fate.
When he was young, he loved to fight on the battlefield and had fought several battles for the Jin Dynasty. Nine years ago, he even fought for the Jin Dynasty for the last time, defeating the Huns in Yulan Valley and chasing them for hundreds of miles.
Now he doesn't like that.
He just wanted to lie under the starry sky on a summer night, listening to the sound of the wind and watching his grandson sleeping in the tent.
This Chanyu and that king brought nothing but endless suffering.
The blood will never stop flowing.
The majestic and deep horn sounded, as if coming from all directions, breathtaking.
A tall and wide chariot appeared on the muddy land in the north. The curtain was lifted, revealing the stern face of the grassland Khan.
Teams of warriors carrying round shields and with bows and swords on their waists followed the chariot, with flags linked together, covering the sky and the earth.
The servants came in groups, holding ceremonial objects in their hands.
As soon as the old man's eyes came into contact with the chariot, he fell to the ground.
The wheels ran over the puddle, pouring muddy water over the old man.
Only after the sound of wheels could no longer be heard did the old man slowly stand up and wipe the mud and grass stems off his forehead.
He returned to his temporary residence, picked up his bow, sword and whip, led out his horse, and mounted the horse.
He drove the cattle and sheep forward continuously. When he went over a hillside, he couldn't help but stop his horse and look back, taking in the scenery to the north.
The south wind blew strongly, and ripples appeared on the surface of the river.
On both sides of the Hutuo River, amidst the green grass waves surging in the wind, there are flocks of snow-white sheep everywhere.
The herdsmen rode their horses at a leisurely pace, whips cracking from time to time as they drove the cattle and sheep forward.
The singing echoed again and again in the uninhabited valley.
The sound is rough, sad, desolate and wild, just like the birch trees in a snowstorm, lonely but growing tenaciously.
Bloody killing and love of life, contradictory yet unified, are established in every person.
This is the Xianbei, this is the grassland.
The old man took off the leather bag from his waist and took a sip of kumis.
The Xianbei, Wuhuan, Xiongnu, Jie, and Han peoples marched south in great numbers, ready to fight.
When will they be able to blend into one like the milk and wine in one's hands?
Maybe never, because this is fate.
******
The Yellow-Headed Army slowly gathered in Jinyang.
In the morning, smoke rises.
At the foot of the city wall, there are rows of earthenware jars, bubbling with steam, which is a spectacular sight.
Zeng Yi held the scabbard in his arms and closed his eyes tightly.
He wasn't really asleep, but he was homesick.
He was afraid that the flash of tenderness in his eyes would be seen by others, causing ridicule and destroying his cold and fierce image.
The wheat at home should be harvested, right?
I don't know what she will do alone. Will she have time to collect the crops? It rained a while ago.
The leeks planted after the spring should have been harvested several times and can be sold at the market. Can I make more money?
Did you plant melons after Qingming? He remembered reminding her, but he didn't know if she understood.
Many high-ranking officials came to Pingyang, and fruits and vegetables sold well in the summer, which could help supplement the family income.
One of the sheep in the pen had a problem with its hoof, and he wanted to kill it and sell it, but the woman was hesitant.
How stupid! The sheep's hooves will rot sooner or later. How long can it live?
Alas! After sighing silently in his heart, Zeng Yi opened his eyes.
"Team leader." The sergeant of our team brought a bowl of wild vegetable soup and said with a smile.
Zeng Yi picked up the bowl and drank slowly.
This is not just vegetable soup, but a soup made from wild vegetables and dried meat.
He's been drinking this lately and is getting sick of it, but what the army lacks most is all kinds of millets, so what can he do?
There was a bone at the bottom of the bowl. Zeng Yi was not afraid of the heat and picked it up with his fingers. He first gnawed the rotten meat on the bone, then took a look at it and began to suck the marrow. "Captain, I picked it for you. Isn't it good?" The sergeant smiled.
Zeng Yi glanced at him and said nothing.
"Drink quickly, two bowls per person, and I'll scoop more after you finish drinking." The soldier said again.
"This stuff will be gone in a piss before noon, it's totally useless." Zeng Yi said with disgust while slurping the drink relishingly.
The Silver Spear Army, the Volunteer Army, and the Royal Army can eat meals like cakes and corn rice, but they can't. Who says there's not enough food?
The difference between the upper and lower ranks and the strong and the weak in the army is particularly obvious, there is nothing we can do about it.
"Captain, take me with you when you fight. I'll go wherever you go, okay?" The soldier said softly as he served the second bowl of soup.
"Why? A team advances and retreats together, so how can there be any question of whether to take them with you or not?" Zeng Yi asked.
"If it's a battle in the field, I have no objection," the soldier said, "but if it's an attack on the enemy camp, a fight in the mountains, I'll follow you, I can survive, and maybe even gain something."
"Are you worried about something?" Zeng Yi lowered his head to drink his soup, not wanting anyone to see his expression.
The soldier was silent for a long time, then said, "My daughter is pregnant. I want to go back alive, and it would be best if I could earn some money."
Zeng Yi remained silent.
The soldier sighed again, "In fact, when I was floating in the water holding onto a piece of wood, life or death was not so scary to me. King Liang saved me, so what if I give my life back to him? I just want my child to survive and grow up safely, even if he doesn't have my last name. If he can take a few pieces of cloth home, it would be great."
When he said the last sentence, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, as if he was thinking of something beautiful.
"I'll hold the sword and shield, you hold the gun, follow me closely and don't go too far." Zeng Yi suddenly said.
"Okay." The soldier's face was full of joy.
"If we survive this battle, we can live." Zeng Yi said, "Don't worry, the battle won't last long. If we fight for another month, the Silver Spear Army will have to drink wild vegetable soup with us, and we can return home by July at the latest."
While the two were talking, the troops who had finished breakfast first had already packed their bags and started to set off.
A mighty army of nearly 20,000 people left Jinyang and headed straight for Shiling.
******
Since the main force of the Jin army arrived in Jinyang, a large-scale retreat took place in Yangqu and other places.
Within a few days, the tents that once covered the ground were completely dismantled, and people, cattle and sheep all headed north, crossed the Shiling Mountains and arrived in Xinxing. Only the pure warriors were left, herding horses and monitoring the direction of Jinyang.
From this point of view, the Xianbei people knew how to fight.
They are obsessed with moving south, but they will not fight for an inch of land. They will fight however they should. If they cannot win, they will run away. If they can win, they will chase the enemy and destroy the enemy's organized armed forces.
This is a smart approach and an old strategy that is in line with their production and lifestyle.
At the end of May in the fifth year of the Shengui era (321), they once again attempted to move south.
This was a "humble" test, because since ancient times, no Hu people had ever occupied the main areas of the Han territory, and no Hu people had ever served as emperor, not even one.
Although the balance of power between the two sides has been changing in favor of the grassland since the establishment of the Later Han Dynasty, they have become more civilized, their laws and regulations have been improved, the production of iron has increased dramatically, and the tactics of the cavalry have been changing with each passing day. Now a thousand cavalry can easily defeat the five thousand or even ten thousand cavalry of the Former Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu era...
They are confident.
Tan Shihuai's unification of the grassland was a great attempt, but the results proved that the Han army was no match for them. Tens of thousands of cavalrymen who went out of the border were almost wiped out by the Xianbei cavalry, with seven or eight out of ten killed.
It is a pity that Tan Shihuai died in his forties, and the Xianbei fell apart and became thugs of the princes in the Central Plains.
But this attempt still has positive significance.
Perhaps, if the grasslands are unified now, their strength will far exceed that of the time when the Huns unified the grasslands, because they have sophisticated weapons made by blacksmiths, and their quality and quantity are far beyond that of the Huns era.
They had armored cavalry, and their number far exceeded that of the Xiongnu era.
They had roughly trained infantry, whose combat effectiveness was much stronger than the Huns' pitifully small infantry.
The scale of their farming also far exceeds that of the Xiongnu era.
The most important thing is that with the high-bridge saddle and double-sided stirrups, it is extremely convenient for marching, horseback archery or hand-to-hand combat. It can fully mobilize the strength of the whole body and allow more techniques to be used.
The Huns' cavalry, who wore blankets and rode on bare horses, only clamped their legs against the horse's belly, and made ridiculous and clumsy movements, were hardly worthy of being called cavalry, just like the difference between adults and children...
Now perhaps we can make a second attempt after Tan Shihuai.
However, the new master of the Central Plains would certainly not allow them to make such an attempt. A collision was an inevitable fate.
On May 27, Yin Xi, a cavalry official of the General's Office, led two thousand volunteers out of the Fen River Valley and attacked Yangqu directly.
The Xianbei people who stayed here certainly responded.
In the afternoon, the sky is high and the clouds are light.
The majestic horse carried the brave knight and trotted quickly on the dry grass.
They snorted and their hooves made rhythmic clattering sounds.
Gradually, the speed increased and the horse's back became more and more bumpy.
The wind carried the fragrance of grass, occasionally mixed with the smell of cow and sheep dung.
I could hear the rustling of flags, horns, whistles, and shouts.
The knights' faces were serious, even ferocious.
When he saw the opponent's increasingly tall figure and the cold light of swords and guns flashing in the sunlight, the feeling of depression disappeared in an instant.
There is no escape, no way to avoid it. Today, the only option is death.
Thousands of cavalry from both sides fought the first battle in Yangqu.
Twenty miles south of Yangqu, countless infantry and cavalry were marching.
Shao Xun looked at the pale Xianbei envoy and said only one sentence: "It's too late!"
(End of this chapter)