Inadvertently, the rain suddenly stopped.
Some people looked up at the sky and saw dense clouds. They thought to themselves: Could it be that God stopped the rain on purpose just for the tens of thousands of troops on both sides to fight?
This idea is so hellish that it makes people shudder.
At dawn, the direction of Guangwu Ancient City becomes lively.
The huge golden tent began to be dismantled, and various items such as pillars, beams, felt cloth, furniture, etc. were all loaded up, and hundreds of cars were packed into it.
The women carefully squeezed the morning milk from the cows and goats, put it into barrels and skin bags, and placed it on the car.
On the bank of the river are big, round-waisted men, shirtless, shouting slogans, and dragging fishing nets up from the river.
Whenever he caught a big fish, he would turn around and show off, making the group of women burst into laughter.
Children picked up wild vegetables and mushrooms on the hillside and put them into baskets. Some people carried bundles of firewood on their backs and staggered down the mountain.
The dull sound of horse hooves sounded all around.
The knights galloped among the sea of ​​horses, driving group after group of horses, and disappeared into the southern horizon.
After they left, one column after another of cavalry holding lances passed quickly. The leader's lance was hung with a pennant flag, flying in the wind.
The old man with white beard and hair sat on the wooden pier, holding the wooden cup tightly with his hands like dry tree bark, and his eyes were deep.
After taking the last sip of milk, he sighed.
This is fate.
When he was young, he liked to fight on the battlefield and fought several battles for the Jin Dynasty. Even nine years ago, he fought for the Jin Dynasty for the last time, defeating the Xiongnu in the Blue Valley and chasing Baili.
Now he doesn't like this anymore.
He just wanted to lie under the stars in the sky on a summer night, listen to the sound of the wind, and watch his grandson sleeping soundly in the tent.
This Chanyu and that king only brought endless suffering.
The blood will never run out.
The majestic and deep sound of the trumpet sounded, as if coming from all directions, touching the soul.
A tall and wide chariot appeared on the muddy land in the north, and the curtain was lifted, revealing the serious face of the prairie Chan Yu.
Groups of warriors carrying bucklers on their backs and bows and swords hanging at their waists followed the chariot, with flags connected to each other, overwhelming the sky.
The servants gathered in groups, holding ceremonial guards in their hands.
The old man fell to the ground as soon as his sight came into contact with the chariot.
The wheels ran over the puddle, pouring muddy water on the old man.
It wasn't until the sound of wheels could no longer be heard that the old man slowly stood up and wiped the mud and grass stems from his forehead.
He returned to his temporary residence, picked up his bow, sword, and riding crop, took out the horse, and climbed up.
He drove the cattle and sheep forward. When they climbed a hillside, he couldn't help but stop and look back, taking in the panoramic view of the northern scenery.
The south wind blew strongly, causing fine ripples to appear on the river surface.
On both sides of the Hutuo River, among the waves of green grass blown up by the wind, there are snow-white sheep everywhere.
The herdsmen rode their horses for a stroll, whips cracking from time to time, driving the cattle and sheep forward.
The song echoed repeatedly in the deserted valley.
Its voice is rough, sad, desolate and wild, just like the birch tree in the snowstorm, with a lonely back but growing tenaciously.
Bloody killing and love for life are contradictory and unified in everyone.
This is Xianbei, this is the grassland.
The old man took off the leather bag from his waist and took a sip of kumiss.
The Xianbei, Wuhuan, Huns, Jie, and Han people surged southward, ready to fight.
When will they become one like the milk and wine in their hands?
Maybe never, because this is fate.
****
The Yellow Head Army slowly gathered in Jinyang.
Smoke rises from the kitchen in the morning.
There are rows and rows of earthen jars placed at the base of the city wall, gurgling with steam, making it a spectacular sight.
Zeng Yi held the scabbard in his arms and closed his eyes tightly.
He didn't really fall asleep, but he was homesick.
He was afraid that the flash of tenderness in his eyes would be seen by others, causing ridicule and ruining his cold and fierce image.
Should the wheat at home be harvested?
I don’t know what she would do if she was alone. Would she have time to stop? It was raining a while ago.
The leeks planted after the beginning of spring should have been harvested for several crops. You can sell them when the market starts. Will you get more money from selling them?
Did you plant melons after the Qingming Festival? He remembered telling her, but he didn’t know if she understood.
Many high-ranking officials came to Pingyang, and melons and fruits were sold well in the summer, which could subsidize the household income.
There was something wrong with the hoof of a sheep in the pen. He wanted to kill it and sell it for money, but the woman hesitated.
How stupid. The sheep's hooves will rot sooner or later. How long can it survive?
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 a pure vegetable soup, but a soup made with wild vegetables and dried meat.
He's almost tired of drinking this lately, but the biggest shortage in the army is all kinds of millet. What can be done?
There was a piece of bone at the bottom of the bowl. Zeng Yi was not afraid of burning it, so he picked it up with his fingers. He first gnawed away the rotten meat on the bone, then took a look at it, and then began to suck the bone marrow.
"Team leader, 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 it up after you finish it," the sergeant said again.
"This thing will be gone before noon as soon as you pee. It's useless." Zeng Yi was disgusted and drank sweetly.
Pancakes, corn and other meals can be eaten by the Silver Spear Army, the Volunteer Army, and the Pro-Army Army, but they cannot eat them. Who makes the food insufficient?
The difference between strength and weakness in the army is so obvious that there is nothing we can do about it.
"Team leader, take me with you when we fight. I'll go wherever you go, okay?" the sergeant said softly as he served the second bowl of soup.
"Why? If a team advances and retreats at the same time, how can we say whether we should take it or not?" Zeng Yi asked.
"If it's a battle in the field, I have nothing to say." The sergeant said, "But if you capture the enemy camp and fight in the mountains, if I follow you, I can survive and maybe gain something."
"Are you concerned?" Zeng Yi lowered his head to drink the soup so that no one could see his expression.
The sergeant was silent for a long time and said: "The one at home is pregnant. I want to go back alive. It's best to earn some money."
Zeng Yi was silent.
The sergeant sighed again: "Actually, when I was floating in the water holding a piece of wood, death or not was no longer so scary to me. King Liang saved me, so what if I gave my life back to him? I just thought I
The child will survive and grow up safely, even if his surname is not mine. It would be great if he could take a few pieces of cloth home with him."
When he said the last sentence, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, as if he had thought of something beautiful.
"I hold the sword and shield, you hold the gun. Follow me closely and don't go too far." Zeng Yi suddenly said.
"Okay." The sergeant said with a happy face.
"After surviving this battle, we will live." Zeng Yi said: "Don't worry, the battle won't last long. If we fight for one more month, the Silver Spear Army will have to drink wild vegetable soup with us, and they will be able to return to the army in July at the latest
.”
While the two were talking, the troops who had eaten breakfast had already packed their bags and started to set off.
A mighty force of nearly 20,000 people left Jinyang and headed straight for Shiling.
****
After the main force of the Jin army arrived in Jinyang, there was a large-scale retreat in Yangqu and other places.
Within a few days, all the tents that once covered the ground were demolished, and people, cattle and sheep headed north, across the stone ridge, to Xinxing. Only pure warriors were left, herding horses and monitoring the direction of Jinyang.
From this point of view, the Xianbei people know how to fight.
They are obsessed with going south, but they will not fight for every inch of territory. They will fight as they want. If they cannot win, they will run away. If they win, they will chase them north and eliminate the enemy into an organized armed force.
This is a smart approach, a strategy passed down from ancient times, and a strategy that fits their production and lifestyle.
At the end of May in the fifth year of the Divine Turtle (321), they once again launched a test to go south.
This was a "humble" temptation, because since ancient times, no Hu people had occupied the main areas of Han Dynasty, and no Hu people had ever been emperors, not even one.
Although since the establishment of the Later Han Dynasty, the balance of power between the two sides has been changing in favor of the grassland. They have become more civilized, their rules and regulations have been improved, their iron production has increased sharply, and their cavalry's tactical innovations have been changing with each passing day. Now a thousand cavalry can easily defeat them.
In the Pre-Han Dynasty, there were five thousand or even ten thousand horsemen in the Xiongnu era...
They are confident.
Tanshihuai's attempt to unify the grasslands was a great attempt, but it turned out that the Han army was no match for them. Tens of thousands of cavalrymen were beaten by the Xianbei cavalry and almost all of them were wiped out. Seventy-eight out of ten were killed.
Unfortunately, Tan Shihuai died in his forties, and Xianbei fell into pieces and became a thug of the Central Plains princes.
But this attempt still has positive significance.
Perhaps, if the grasslands are unified now, their strength will be far greater than when the Xiongnu unified the grasslands, because they have sophisticated weapons made by blacksmiths, and the quality and quantity are far superior to those of the Xiongnu era.
They have armored cavalry, and their number far exceeds that of the Huns.
They have roughly trained infantry, and their combat effectiveness is much stronger than the pitiful infantry of the Huns.
The scale of their farming also far exceeded that of the Huns.
The most important thing is that with the high bridge saddle and the bilateral stirrups, it is extremely convenient whether it is marching, riding, shooting or melee charging. It can fully utilize the strength of the whole body and use more skills.
The Huns' cavalry, who wore blankets and rode on bare horses, holding the horse's belly with only their legs, making ridiculous and clumsy movements, hardly deserved to be called cavalry, just like the difference between adults and children...
Now maybe we can make a second attempt after Tanshihuai.
The new masters of the Central Plains will certainly not allow them to make such an attempt, and collision is already a doomed fate.
On May 27th, the cavalry of the General's Mansion led Yin Xi and two thousand rebel troops out of the Fenshui River Valley and attacked Yangqu.
Of course the Xianbei people who stayed here responded.
In the afternoon, the sky is high and the clouds are clear.
The majestic horse, carrying the brave knight, trotted quickly on the dry grass.
They snorted and their hooves made a rhythmic thumping sound.
Gradually, the speed became faster and faster, and the horse's back became more and more bumpy.
The wind carries the fragrance of grass, occasionally mixed with the smell of cattle and sheep dung.
In my ears came the sound of flags hooting, trumpets, whistles, and shouts.
The knights' faces were serious, even ferocious.
When the opponent's increasingly taller figure appeared in his eyes, as well as the cold light of swords and guns flashing in the sun, the sense of depression disappeared in an instant.
There is no hiding, no avoiding. Today, there is only death.
The first battle broke out in Yangqu territory with thousands of riders from both sides.
Twenty miles south of Yangqu, countless cavalry were marching.
Shao Xun looked at the pale Xianbei envoy and said only one sentence: "It's too late!"
Chapter completed!