Chapter 1345 Avalanche

Chapter 1345 Avalanche

Chapter 1345 Avalanche
A large group of cavalry passed by the road, raising countless pieces of gravel and grass.

To the east are endless mountains, to the west are dotted tents, and further away are vast white swamps.

The herdsmen knelt on the ground with respectful expressions.

When Murong Ren saw this, he couldn't help but feel very excited.

More and more tribal nobles are following him, which means that the force supporting him is getting stronger and stronger.

What he should do is to go north, north, and north again, and conquer as many tribes as possible.

Suddenly, there was a faint sound of killing coming from the front.

Murong Ren did not panic, but climbed up a high slope and overlooked the entire battlefield.

About a mile away, there is also a mound.

The mound was not small, and there was a flat area on top, where a large number of soldiers and horses gathered.

After careful counting, there were probably more than 3,000 people, stacked up in layers. Even the hillside was filled with people, forming a dense circular spear formation.

The sword and shield men were at the bottom, with spearmen and archers in between. But at the top of the hill, there were almost no sword and shield men, only layers of spearmen.

These are the soldiers of the Flying Dragon Guard. They don't care about the horsepower when they are on the road. They dismount and line up when they reach the destination. At the moment, they have occupied a hill. You can ignore them. After they have rested, they will ride their horses forward again and may catch your elderly, weak, women and children. You can run fast enough on horseback, but the elderly, weak, women and children need to drive carts and livestock, so they can't run fast. They are always being stared at like thorns in their backs, so it is easy for them to collapse while running, after all, they are carrying their families with them.

Just keep on confronting him. Reinforcements will be coming later and you can’t afford it.

There is only one best way, which is to eliminate them in the shortest time possible.

So, the battle broke out.

A few shepherds tried to charge on horseback first, but soon gave up.

There was no other reason. He couldn't get up to speed when climbing a slope, and it was too disadvantageous to shoot arrows from the bottom up. He had no choice but to dismount and fight on foot.

The battle was now in the middle stage. In Murong Ren's eyes, the herdsmen from an unknown tribe in the distance were rushing up the hills like ants, with arrows raining down from the heights, leaving gaps in their already sparse formation.

And when their incomplete line of soldiers, which had been shot to pieces, approached the swords, shields and spears, they were smashed to pieces like waves crashing against a cliff.

Even though he couldn't see clearly, Murong Ren knew that the soldiers of Zuo Feilong Guard were in a completely leisurely posture. They easily used their skilled martial arts to kill the shepherds who approached them one by one with almost no effort.

Occasionally, some shepherds became ruthless and tried their best to break into the formation, causing a little chaos, but they soon disappeared like the waves rushing onto the beach. The Liang people's rear formation moved slightly and soon completed the formation. From the outside, there seemed to be no change at all.

This is really despairing.

There was a crisp sound of horse hooves.

Murong Ren looked for the sound, but saw Murong You riding a horse and shouting from afar: "Brother, the Liang people want us to charge forward on horseback."

Murong Ren pretended not to hear and just looked at the battlefield ahead quietly.

Murong You understood and said no more.

The battle was still going on, but the herdsmen attacking the mountain seemed to be running out of stamina, and the number of manpower involved was greatly reduced, so the casualties caused to the Liang people were negligible.

The soldiers of Zuo Feilongwei even slowly pressed down the mountain, and the shepherds were defeated step by step, suffering heavy casualties.

Murong Ren sighed lightly, knowing that he could not afford to waste many Liang soldiers, so he turned around and gave the order to attack.

A moment later, more than a thousand riders came out first, crossed a mountain range, and then rushed towards the shepherd who was fighting with the Liang people like a tiger descending from the mountain.

Then came the second thousand-man team, the third...

There was nothing worth mentioning about the battle. Three thousand men rushed forward and almost overwhelmed the herdsmen.

They swept up the fleeing soldiers and chased them for several miles with unstoppable momentum, and soon rushed into a tribe that was hastily packing up its equipment.

The war horses trampled the tents, the steel knives reaped lives, and the entire pasture was shattered by them.

The Zuo Feilong Guards on the hill were already bandaging the wounded and giving them some food and water.

Their auxiliary troops appeared from nowhere and distributed the horses one by one.

In the afternoon, more than 3,000 people mounted their horses and headed north again.

Murong Ren began to incorporate tribes and sent messengers everywhere, trying every means to recruit surrenders and rebellions.

After the fifth day of July, the resistance of these tribes, which had originally migrated from the west and whose morale was unstable, was greatly reduced, and more and more leaders contacted Murong Ren.

******
To the west of Wangping, Tong Jian, with his back to the Liao River, defeated an active attack by a group of Xianbei herdsmen.

But they still didn't dare to go deeper.

By the fifth day, after scouts had repeatedly confirmed that the tribes that had been active nearby had withdrawn, they began to set up camp in a circle, crossed the mud, and arrived at the foot of Wangping City on the seventh day.

The county magistrate was from the Gaoyang Sun family. He killed the Xianbei assistant officials and opened the city gate.

There were still more than a thousand Xianbei soldiers trapped in the city, and they were all slaughtered. After they took the county, they did not move east quickly, not because they did not dare, but because they had already found out that there were many quagmires between Wangping and Goguryeo counties, which were not suitable for cavalry combat at all, but very suitable for infantry.

The main reason for the slow progress was that the road was too difficult to walk on. There was always a swamp not far away, so they had to cut down trees and take soil to fill the pits. When they encountered particularly deep pits, they had to sink the baggage carts directly and then cover them with reeds before advancing. The swamp west of Shenyang to the Liaohe River still existed in the late Ming Dynasty. Huang Taiji ordered the construction of a three-foot-high road to facilitate passage, and the roadside was full of mud ponds.

Tong Jian was terrified when he went to the war, and he wrote a suicide note to his family. The Northern Army officers and soldiers also bid farewell to their families in tears, because the Xianbei had always been known for their cavalry, and they thought they would die when they went to the grassland.

But at this moment everyone was overjoyed. Who could have thought that there would be such a large muddy pond in Liao?

This kind of rotten land, apart from swamps, grasslands, and reeds, is also dotted with willow forests that are scattered like bald spots. It is certainly not conducive to infantry marching, but cavalry can forget about charging.

They even unloaded many small boats from the warships and sailed on dry land. When they encountered open water or rivers that were impossible to cross, they ferried across.

On the way, they saw carriages, wooden boats and even bridges abandoned by the Xianbei people, and they laughed at the poor craftsmanship of shipbuilding and bridge building.

But no matter what, this group of people still marched eastward firmly, crossing the mud and heading straight for Xuantu County City.

And at the foot of Gaoxian City in the north, more and more Liang cavalry arrived.

The two sides lined up in the wild, but Ku Li Guan Xi did not abandon the city and flee.

He still had some conscience and mobilized more than 5,000 elite troops to fight against more than 5,000 cavalry who had arrived in Hongcheng, Wuzhou and Gaoliu towns earlier.

In the middle of the battle, the Youzhou cavalry commander led two thousand armored cavalry to rush in and crushed the five thousand Wuhuan troops.

Kuli Guanxi fled back to the pasture in a panic, and the Liang army pursued him. Kuli Guanxi then ran to Gaoxian County. He had just taken his family away when the Liang cavalry appeared on the northern horizon.

In desperation, he could only dispatch messengers to let the clan leaders and their tribes flee separately.

At this point, the distance between the vanguard of the grassland camp that was fighting from north to south and the vanguard of the Donglai camp that was fighting from south to north was less than 200 miles.

In this area of ​​hills, swamps, and plains, the Xianbei people were in a state of chaos. They could have recruited more than 20,000 men, but they were beaten and fled in all directions.

Either they cannot win in a head-on battle, or there are always people who turn against them at the critical moment, or they simply don't want to risk their lives. In the spirit of "a friend's death would rather die than I die", I'll leave first as a respectful decision.

The entire battlefield was like an avalanche.

Murong Jun and Murong Biao were anxious and helpless, and could only try to send messages to Jicheng, Xiandu and other places to see if there was any way to save the defeat.

******
In fact, it was the nobles of various tribes who took action earlier than Murong Jun and Murong Biao. They really could not hold on any longer.

Their messengers had set out several days ago, first to Xiandu and then to Jicheng. By then it was already July 11th and 12th.

They looked haggard and had sad faces, and everyone who saw them couldn't help but feel a pang in their hearts, and then began to talk about them.

The officers no longer had the energy to discipline their troops, and they themselves were also at a loss.

By this time, the siege of Jicheng had already turned into a siege.

A high platform was built in the south and north of the city, and two were built in the west. The Liang army set up crossbow platforms on them and selected many archers. They took turns shooting day and night, causing the casualties of the defenders to increase sharply. The morale was extremely low. Even if there was no news of the battle situation outside, the city could not be held for long.

And when the news came that Xuantu and Liaodong areas were attacked by the Liang army from the north and the south, even though they did not receive any reports of defeat, the tribal nobles' long-stretched nerves finally broke. They rushed into the Yan Palace in a noisy manner, carrying Murong Huang and ready to withdraw.

"Is Xuantu really doomed?" Murong Huang's face turned pale, and he said angrily: "At least they can gather 20,000 cavalry, but they can't even hold out for a month?"

Lan Rong pulled Murong Huang without saying anything and said, "My king, let's go quickly. We can talk on the way."

Qiu Liju said with a gloomy face: "Twenty thousand cavalry is useless. Murong Ren, that villain, won a few battles and recruited surrenders along the way. There are so many surrenders. It's useless. Besides, Yuwen clan and Tuoba clan have sent troops. I'm afraid they have a few 'twenty thousand cavalry'. We can't win, so we should just leave first."

"Yes, my king. Let's retreat from Liaoze first, and then find a way to make peace. If it really doesn't work--" The man stopped talking halfway, but everyone else understood.

Some people wanted to say something, but in the end said nothing.

Some people just sighed, looked away, and were unwilling to look Murong Huang in the eye.

Murong Huang's heart sank. Was he going to take the blame?

At this moment, Chang Bo Liu Mu, who heard the news, was the first to enter the palace. He knelt on the spot and cried, "Your Majesty, you can't leave. If you leave, the army will lose the will to fight and the city will be captured at any time."

"Fuck you!" Lan Rong was furious. He drew out his sword and slashed directly at Liu Mu's neck.

Blood gushed out, Liu Mu fell to the ground in disbelief, his body twitching involuntarily.

Murong Huang was frightened by this and became much more sober. He immediately said, "Wait for me to change into robes and bring my family with me."

At this time, his wide robe with big sleeves was indeed not suitable for riding a horse, and how could he travel alone with his wives, concubines and children all around?

Lan Rong's eyes were wide open with anger, and he wanted to persuade him, but he was stopped and could only shake his head helplessly.

"My king, please don't abandon us!" Noisy shouts suddenly rang out on the street.

Murong Huang was stunned for a moment, and then his face changed.

(End of this chapter)