Chapter 906 Subtle Relationship
Chapter 906 Subtle Relationship
A huge fire broke out outside Mayi City.
Carts loaded with grain were piled up among the firewood and set on fire.
The cattle and sheep were slaughtered on the spot while wailing. The hastily evacuating herders would even pick out the fattest piece of meat from the cattle and sheep, cook and eat it all, then abandon it and storm away.
The people on the city wall were so angry that their eyes were red with anger, and some even burst into tears. But what was the use? Would crying day and night make Suotou die?
There were only more than 3,000 Suotou cavalry outside the city, and there were 4,000 to 5,000 infantry and cavalry inside the city, but they had attacked once before and were defeated, and no one dared to fight again since then - to be honest, the Wuhuan cavalry lost more than a thousand people in that attack, and the Suotou also suffered 600 to 700 casualties, so the gap was not that big, but the Suotou could obviously tolerate casualties better than them.
Hundreds of riders came galloping over the eastern horizon. Most of them passed by, but dozens of them stayed. A nobleman wearing an iron helmet reined in his horse, turned around, and shouted, "Go! Don't stay."
He carried two bows, two quivers, an axe, a wooden club and a spear that could hook a man off a horse. He looked very majestic, but half of his quivers were empty, his body was stained with blood, and his face looked tired. The actual situation might not be so optimistic.
Those who received the order did not hesitate.
Several clan leaders walked over, kicked over the clay pot in which the meat was cooking, and loudly ordered everyone to assemble.
The herdsmen were stunned at first, then they stood up quickly, ran to where the horses were without saying a word, jumped on them, checked their equipment, and followed the main force to head north.
An hour after they left, another five hundred riders arrived, circled outside the city for a while, then turned north and chased after them.
The people on the city wall watched silently, ready to make a move.
Prefect Zhang Tong was extremely conflicted. Facing the gazes directed at him, he opened his mouth but ultimately did not give any order.
Everyone was disappointed.
Not to mention the livestock that were snatched away by the robbers and had not yet been moved, even if they didn't steal anything, do you think there was no loss?
No, there are losses as well.
Forage grass is different from forage grass. May is the key heading and budding period for many high-quality forage grasses. If you trample on them like this, they will definitely not grow well this year. If the forage grass is not thriving enough, the herders will suffer losses.
In addition, the young crops in the farmland were eaten and trampled by the war horses. Isn’t that a loss?
The war has entered its third year. In many cases, the number of people killed directly by the war is not the majority. The number of people killed by famine and epidemics is the majority. In this regard, the Central Plains and the grasslands are the same, the only difference is the degree of death.
Therefore, the Wuhuan, Jin, and Xiongnu people in Mayi were full of hatred towards Suotou, and they had the urge to take revenge on him, but the prefect would not allow it!
At this time, some impatient people started to curse. Their voices were not loud, but they resonated with the others, and the whispers continued. When they reached Zhang Tong's ears, he was particularly annoyed.
Two hours later, another team of three to four hundred people arrived.
Everyone was carrying a bag, obviously returning from a full looting trip. Judging from the small piece of silk that was exposed from the bag, it was probably gold and silver jewelry of considerable value.
The noise got louder now, and some people started to scold loudly.
People on the grassland are like this, they have a bad temper and will explode on the spot if they are unhappy, even if the person in front of them is the prefect or the most powerful family in the county.
Zhang Tong's face turned red and white like a magic trick.
A moment later, just when this group of cavalrymen had determined the direction and were planning to retreat northward, Zhang Tong finally gave the order to attack.
In an instant, the south and north gates of Mayi were opened at the same time, and a total of more than 2,000 Wuhuan cavalry rushed out and encircled from two directions.
The Xianbei people were startled and sped up their horses to retreat.
When the Wuhuan people saw this, their morale soared. It turned out that the enemy was in a hurry to retreat and didn't dare to fight us!
As a result, everyone fought bravely, everyone was superb, and tried their best to chase and intercept.
During the fight, Suotou was also fierce. He broke through the blockade of the Wuhuan people and broke their thin line of defense.
The Wuhuan gathered up the scattered soldiers and continued to follow behind, shooting the slowest running cavalry with their horse bows.
After running for a while, Suotou realized that retreating was a dead end, so he turned back and charged fiercely, defeating the hundreds of Wuhuan cavalry who were chasing him in the front.
When you were about to retreat calmly, you found that more Wuhuan cavalry had dispersed to the sides. They did not charge you head-on, but only used horse and archery.
If you chase him, he will stay away.
If you leave, he will chase you.
By this point in the battle, Suotou had lost more than seventy cavalrymen, and half of the remaining ones were injured. Seeing that the Wuhuan people were gathering in more and more numbers, he finally lost his fighting spirit, turned around and fled, not caring about anything.
Coincidentally, the powerful people in the counties of Mayi also rose up in arms.
Some were unlucky and encountered a larger group of cavalry - for example, more than a thousand people - and were completely stunned. They rolled back home whimpering like defeated dogs.
Some of them were neither lucky nor bad, and fought a fierce battle with the Suotou who was eager to join the main force. They suffered heavy casualties, but they intercepted a lot of horses, cattle, sheep and even weapons that the Suotou had abandoned in a hurry.
Some were extremely lucky and could defeat two or three groups of cavalry in one day, thus venting their anger.
From this we can also see what kind of difficulties we will encounter if we fail or are forced to withdraw from the enemy when fighting in a place without a mass base.
******
On the 26th, the last few groups of soldiers who were trying to block the pursuing troops fled back in panic and were met by 7,000 cavalry led by Qiu Dun near Mayi.
This unit is a fresh force, and has been sweeping up small tribes in the west since its march south.
Later, he was ordered to go south to intercept the light cavalry heading north from Kelan. After defeating them, he was summoned by Helan Aitou to go east to Mayi to meet up with the remaining troops.
They charged several times in succession, fought four battles in one day, killed Xubu Yan, the commander of Puyang Mountain, in battle, and defeated a thousand of his cavalry.
Later, he defeated Feng Long, the chief officer of Feilong Mountain. Feng was wounded and fled, and more than half of the 500 cavalry were lost.
However, seeing that more and more Jin troops were surrounding them, they finally could not hold on any longer and fled to the northwest at night with the remaining soldiers and generals.
Throughout the entire day on the 27th, the cavalry passing through the city of Mayi were as numerous as fish crossing the river, wave after wave, endless.
Most of these people were pursuers, but there were few Xianbei cavalry left. They either fled, surrendered, died, or simply hid. Few dared to appear openly in the wilderness.
Among the large group of cavalry, the Left Cavalry Guard and the Silver Spear Right Camp led by Shao Shen were still marching slowly. The passing cavalry saw that they had many carriages and horses, and occasionally some of them came to ask for some water and horse feed, and then continued to pursue the enemy, simply treating their infantry as a mobile supply station.
Shao Shen was so angry that his face turned red, and the usually arrogant Silver Spear Army soldiers were also stunned.
This is a war with a completely different style from the one fought in the Central Plains.
At this point, we can basically draw the conclusion that both sides are fighting with cavalry or mounted infantry that are faster and can keep up with the pace.
Traditional chariot infantry was too slow.
They may be very strong in combat, but under the constant harassment of the cavalry, they were lucky to walk more than ten miles a day. Sometimes the harassment was so severe that they could only walk a few miles a day.
The Xianbei people had not adapted to Jin Zheng's cavalry infantry tactics. The siege of more than ten thousand cavalrymen on the two thousand people defending the high ground was beyond their control. The mountain road was blocked and they could not rush through.
The Jin army's infantry also felt helpless about not being able to capture the enemy's main force and their own slow movements.
Both sides are adapting and need to have a deeper understanding of the opponent's tactics.
At present, there are still many difficulties in going deep into the uninhabited and flat grassland, and targeted training is still needed.
However, encountering enemies with different combat styles is itself a form of improvement.
Combat effectiveness is improved through repeated learning and improvement.
On the 28th, Shao Shen led his army to Mayi.
After the Silver Spear Right Camp rested for a day, he got rid of the "burden" of the Silver Spear Army and personally led the Left Cavalry Guard northward and attacked Zhonglingyuan directly.
Along the way, there were quite a few of our own cavalry heading north, cautious yet optimistic, and they pursued without stopping.
******
Zhonglingyuan (probably near the present-day Fenghuang town) had become a sea of cavalry.
People come and go every day. It seems messy, but it is actually more organized than before.
On the 28th, Helan Aitou led the largest group of more than 4,000 cavalrymen northward, heading straight for the ancient Great Wall pass northwest of Shanwu, crossing Lianling, entering the Gaoshengyuan River basin, and returning to Shengle.
Nearly a hundred miles to the west of them, Qiu Dunshi led a relatively intact 9,000 cavalry and retreated northward via another route. The mountains separated the two groups, making it difficult to communicate.
Kim Jong-tse also stayed near Sanwu.
The Dou family and their sons had already surrendered, but the Yilou clan's people were everywhere in the mountains and were still negotiating terms.
Jin Zheng waited for several days and became furious.
Early in the morning of the 28th, he led his men to join the army.
More than 8,000 soldiers of Zuo Feilong's guards gathered here. He asked people to count the food and grass with the army, and found that there were more than 70,000 hu, enough for the whole army to eat for a month, so he did not hesitate any more.
In the wilderness, there were rumbling carts and flags like clouds.
Two thousand soldiers lined up in neat rows and marched forward.
Another two thousand people led their troops to the gentle slopes of the hills on both sides to protect the flanks.
Behind them was a row of seven small car formations, each with between a thousand and two thousand people.
The cavalry of the Yiluo tribe hesitated.
They were negotiating surrender, but were not satisfied with the conditions and were actually somewhat reluctant in their hearts - if the war situation was not like this, the Yiluo tribe would be unlikely to consider surrendering to Shiyijian.
While they were hesitating, the soldiers of Zuo Feilong Guard had already shot the first volley of arrows and began to resolutely clear the way ahead.
This was the shocking scene that Lady Wang and Shi Yijian and his mother saw when they arrived at Shanwu.
Jin Zheng was truly fearless, and when he got angry, he even dared to attack the Ten Tribes of Tuoba that he was trying to win over - to be more precise, he would attack anyone who stood in his way.
South of Shanwu City, Liu Runzhong vigilantly gathered the Jie cavalry and watched the Dai people from afar.
Wang's face turned red for a moment.
After a moment, she secretly told herself to be patient and then suppressed her anger.
At the same time, she subconsciously glanced at the generals gathered around her, and secretly reflected: I didn't control my temper again today, I need to change.
"General Dou, send someone to the Yilou tribe's headquarters and tell Yilou Fu that this is the last chance. If he does not surrender, Jin Zheng, the Grand Commander of Jin, will bring all the warriors down." Wang said.
Dou Qin responded and called a few trusted men to pass on the message immediately.
In fact, the Yiluo tribe was very willing to surrender, and it was almost enough to delay until now.
After giving the order, Wang called Wang Chang and asked him to go to Jinzheng’s camp in person to deliver some cattle and sheep to reward the troops.
Wang Chang took the order and left.
When leading the team through the wilderness south of Shanwu City, he subconsciously looked at the thousands of cavalry led by Liu Runzhong.
They stood far away, leading their horses, facing their own side, obviously on guard.
Wang Chang sighed secretly. How could such a good ally become like this?
I don’t know how Changsun Fuxiang is doing.
He brought only a few hundred followers with him, crossed the ancient Great Wall to the north, and entered the Woshui area. With the help of Dou Yuzhen, it was not a problem to pacify the tribes. But the problem was that they also wanted to go to the Yanchi and Chanhexing areas to surrender the tribes grazing there.
Even further, continue to recruit people westward, until Shengle...
(End of this chapter)