Chapter 780: Destroying the Nest

Chapter 780: Destroying the Nest

Chapter 780: Destroying the Nest (Part )

"Cows and sheep are stupid, horses are heroes." Juqu Chong said as he peeled off a sheepskin with his own hands on a mountain at the bottom of the trumpet mouth on the southern edge of Caochengchuan.

In his eyes, when the horses ran in groups, they were like lightning, thunder, and rainstorms, which would scatter the enemy in an instant.

The camel is too ugly, the cow is too stupid, the sheep is too greedy, and the donkey is even worse, howling every day.

When he went to the frontier, he only brought horses with him, although there was a serious shortage of horses in Lan Valley.

Before setting off, everyone had a full meal.

After resting for half an hour, a group of horses were delivered from the rear.

Juqu Chong's face turned dark when he saw it.

The old horse was eating grass leisurely, and the foal followed behind its mother, playing around and being very naughty.

This - old horses, mares and foals have all been delivered. Langu County is really poor.

Without saying anything more, he sent someone to take all the horses.

Each person has three horses, one war horse, one riding horse, and one pack horse.

The soldiers began to tie the luggage, mainly equipment and dry food, onto the backs of the pack horses.

Jerky and cheese were the food of the soldiers.

Try not to eat dry rations, and only feed some to the war horses when there is absolutely no other choice.

Normally, let the horses graze as much as possible and let them eat the grass by themselves. No one can carry so much food for you to eat during a long-distance raid on the grassland, unless you follow a logistics convoy, but that has nothing to do with the "raid".

Most of the horses delivered today will not be able to come back alive. Death in battle or death in running are their most likely outcomes.

This was also an extremely risky operation for the soldiers, as they might not be able to return, just like the horses.

After the luggage was tied up, Juqu Chong was still waiting for orders, while more than a thousand light cavalrymen beside him took the lead and marched north, disappearing into the vast wilderness and rushing towards the northeast.

They had no luggage, only two horses each and five days' dry food, and went out to harass the enemy.

Two hours later, the 500 cavalrymen of the Xue family, together with more than 200 light cavalrymen recruited at a high price from the local people of Langu County, advanced again and rushed into Caochengchuan.

After nightfall, everyone had another meal. When the moon was above the willows, everyone led their horses and left the camp. They walked west for a while, then turned north and disappeared into the night.

After they left, Yang Qin ordered the camp to be closed and anyone who made noise or moved around would be executed immediately.

Shao Shen brought more than two thousand government soldiers, one thousand volunteers, and two thousand Luoyan soldiers, totaling more than five thousand cavalry.

It's actually quite adventurous.

The government soldiers only knew how to ride horses, but were not good at mounted combat, which was very different from the cavalry. They were infantrymen who traveled on horseback.

There are only 3,000 men who can actually fight on horseback, and it would be very dangerous if they encountered a large enemy force.

But then again, maybe this is war, everyone is expendable.

Even if all the 5,000 soldiers were wiped out, King Liang would not be too sad. In his heart, the biggest loss might be his nephew, not the 5,000 soldiers.

I can always have five thousand soldiers, but I only have one nephew.

Moreover, this nephew was also very thoughtful and courageous. He felt that Caochengchuan was an area that the Xianbei people focused on monitoring, and that they would face a fierce battle within two days of leaving Caochengchuan. Moreover, if they continued to move forward, the closer they got to Pingcheng, the more dangerous it would be, and the more enemy troops there would be.

In this case, it would be better to take a detour to avoid the enemy's sight. At the same time, let the two light cavalry that advance ahead attract the enemy's attention and attract more bandits to Caochengchuan before making any plans.

This is also a gamble, but it is much more reliable than just rushing out recklessly.

Yang Qin could only wish them success.

He had to hold on to this place. In a few days, the infantry that Shao Shen had led would arrive, including 3,000 Xia Ba, 2,500 Xue's troops, and 2,400 Heiliang's left camp. With such strength, it seemed that they could go out and fight...

******
Huangguadui is a place name, but I don’t know where it came from.

It was located on the north bank of the main stream (Sanggan River) after the confluence of (lěi) Shui (an upper tributary of Sanggan River, now Huangshui River) and Mayichuan (named "Zhishui" in the Han and Wei dynasties, which is the main stream of Sanggan River) - now south of Huairen and northwest of Ying County.

At this time, the river had already been named Sanggan, which was the common name given by the local Hu and Han people. It was said that the river would dry up when mulberries were ripe - but in fact, it was not like that. It was only like that in particularly dry years, and there was water in the center of the riverbed, so it was not completely dry.

From this we can see that Yanmen County had a sericulture industry.

In fact, this is not surprising. At that time, the place with the best silk technology and the highest quality in the world was Hebei, and even Youzhou had sericulture industry.

When Tuoba Yilu was in power, he built Xinping City in Huangguadui for his son Liuxiu to live in. It was located about a hundred miles south of Pingcheng.

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen built Zaoqi City, Rizhong City and Rimo City nearby. The distance between each city was about 20 miles, which was just right for a day trip.

Emperor Daowu also mobilized all the male adults within 500 miles of the eight tribes to gather here and built the Nan Palace on the south bank of the river. It was very grand, with gates more than ten feet high, ditches and ponds, and large gardens. The outer city was twenty miles square.

At this time, there was only one city, Xinping, but it was already an important town in the Dai State.

There are fertile fields everywhere near the Shui, Mayichuan and Sangganshui. Unlike the grasslands north of Pingcheng where millet, a drought-resistant crop, is widely grown, millet is more widely planted in the Pingcheng and Xinpingcheng areas, and some fields even grow spring wheat.

In addition to farmland, there are also hemp fields and mulberry fields, with the former being more numerous and the latter being less numerous.

Because the river often flooded, the Xianbei people did not repair the river embankments very often. These farmlands were a little far from the river and most of them were dry fields.

There are large tracts of lush grassland on both sides of the river, and farm women and children often drive their livestock here to graze on the grass.

This is a typical mixed farming system.

Undoubtedly, this area was already a relatively important area of ​​the Dai Kingdom. Because of the anthropomorphic creature Sima Teng's messing around in Bingzhou, coupled with natural disasters and the war disasters after the rise of the Xiongnu, a large number of Jin people fled north to the border and joined the Xianbei, just like hundreds of thousands of people in Hebei went through Youzhou to join the Murong Xianbei - so many people passed through Youzhou, many of them stayed for a while, and then ran away, it must be said that Wang Jun was also an anthropomorphic creature.

Among the Hu and Han people of Bingzhou who fled north, craftsmen, musicians, and literati were moved to Shengle, and those who did not have any special skills mainly stayed in Pingcheng and Xinping. Therefore, the population here is relatively dense and the products are relatively abundant. It is only worse than Shengle, but better than the Hexi grassland and Yinshan grassland. Otherwise, the Tuoba clan would not have set Pingcheng as the southern capital.

After the King of Dai went south to Xinkou, Xinping City became a logistical hub for transporting food, fodder and equipment, so heavy troops were stationed there.

On that day, the drums on the city walls of Xinping City sounded for a whole day, and messengers traveled to various places, visiting villages and tribes to deliver messages and recruit soldiers.

By evening, some soldiers from nearby villages and tribes had arrived.

Judging from their attire, there are both Hu and Han people.

Among the Hu people, there were countless Xianbei, Xiongnu, Wuhuan and various tribal soldiers.

Some soldiers also poured out of the city, with a number exceeding three thousand.

Some of the strongest and bravest ones began to put on iron armor in pairs.

The horses were brought out one by one and fed hay, beans, and salt water.

As the sun gradually set, more and more people rushed over and began to disperse to various military camps near Xinping City.

When people gather together to eat, some people are bound to chatter.

"The South suffered a defeat?"

"I'm afraid they need to gather people to attack the city. I heard that Jinyang has not been taken yet."

"Attack the city..."

Everyone was silent.

Both the Hu and Han people hated sieges very much.

No matter how good you are at riding, archery, or picking any woman in the tribe, you can still die easily if you are dragged into a siege. And your death is not heroic or brave at all. It may even be ugly - being covered in boiling dung, is there any dignity left for the dead?

"Don't think too much." A young tribal leader came over, the leaves on his armor rustling.

He glanced at the crowd and said, "The Jin bandits may have reinforcements. They are coming out of Caochengchuan and heading towards Mayi with great force."

"They are coming to Xinping!" someone exclaimed.

The others looked at each other in bewilderment, no wonder!
This is one of their most important agricultural areas, with abundant grain, cloth, silk, cattle and sheep. If a large-scale invasion were to occur here, the losses would be enormous.

"Liu Gou, are you telling the truth?" an acquaintance stood up and asked.

The general named "Six Dogs" said, "How could it be true? The vanguard will be dispatched tomorrow, and they may try to attack Lan Valley. If they can capture it, the overall situation will be open."

Liu Gou’s surname is Tuoba.

When he was born, his father named him "Liu Gou" because the female dog in the family gave birth to five puppies.

The six dogs were strong and brave, with excellent archery skills. They could gallop on horseback and fight on foot when dismounted, and they were famous warriors far and wide.

The most important thing is that I am only seventeen years old this year and there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Bu Da once wanted to marry his daughter to him, but Liu Gou refused, saying that he wanted to marry a woman from a Han noble family.

Once this ambition was expressed, people laughed at it, but at the same time they all understood it.

The grasslands are a noble race, but the noble ladies on the grasslands cannot be compared with those in the Central Plains. Liu Gou has great ambitions.

After hearing the news from Liu Gou himself, everyone relaxed.

As long as we don't go to attack the city, there's nothing wrong with field battles, and everyone can accept it.

Tuoba Liugou sat down, took a piece of cheese from someone else, and started to take big bites of it.

From time to time, the sound of hurried hooves could be heard on the road not far away.

Messengers shuttled back and forth, constantly delivering military intelligence.

Liu Gou looked and saw that the messenger came from the west. It was obvious that the battle in Caochengchuan was getting more and more intense. The Jin people were really running around everywhere without stopping for a moment.

On the sixth day of June, the Xianbei army in the direction of Xinping City began to march westward.

Three days later, in a mountain valley hundreds of miles northwest of Xinping City, more than a dozen riders appeared on the hillside, led by Shao Shen.

At the foot of the mountain is the winding source of the Zhongling River, with gurgling water so clear that you can wade across.

According to the guide, there used to be a large tribe here, but no one knew where it had gone. They might have been conscripted. The only ones left were a few old and weak people who were guarding the house.

Thinking of this, Shao Shen felt a little annoyed.

These tribes are really fence-sitters. When my uncle was on a tour in the north, they all came to surrender and sent tribute.

When Tuoba summoned them, they moved away and fought for him.

Isn’t this tiring?
In addition, Shao Shen vaguely felt that although these tribes were wavering between the two sides, deep down, they were actually more inclined towards the Tuoba Xianbei.

They have similar lifestyles, customs, and possible intermarriage. If the main force of the Tuoba Xianbei is not eliminated, leaving them with nowhere to rely on, the fence-sitters will not truly surrender to us.

My uncle is kind-hearted and wants to get him to join us. Shao Shen laughed, lowered the iron armor curtain, raised a horse spear, pointed at the mountain, and said, "Charge!"

(End of this chapter)