Fengzhou is the top of the "Yellow River" shape. The Yellow River is divided into two parts here, each flowing for hundreds of miles and then merged into one, forming a rope loop shape, which is the Loop.
Of course, the Hetao is composed of three areas in total, including the upper section of Lingzhou, the middle section of Fengzhou and the back section of Yulin, forming three fertile Hetao plains.
"The Yellow River is full of dangers, but only one is profitable." The three fertile lands in the Hetao Plain have always attracted the prying eyes of all major forces.
As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial court moved hundreds of thousands of people to reclaim the Hetao and build counties. However, the wheel of history soon entered the dark Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties era. The Han people in the north were almost wiped out, and the Hetao area was also deserted.
Desolate, collapsed, and gradually buried by the sands of history.
The rise of Lingzhou in the Tang Dynasty led to the establishment of the Shuofang Army, and the Hetao area experienced a brief period of prosperity. After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the Hetao area was once again occupied by nomads. Various forces came and went like a revolving lantern, and finally became the ZTE of the Dangxiang people.
This land has been occupied for more than a hundred years.
The Tangut people's Xixia had perished. Chen Qing resettled Lingxia Road and stationed 50,000 troops. However, the Fengzhou Hetao area was still occupied by the Tata tribe and the Kle tribe from the grassland.
Because Chen Qing launched the Shandong Road and Hebei Road battles, he adopted a forbearance strategy against the fall of Fengzhou. In the spring of this year, after the Western Army captured Hebei Road, they began to counterattack Hetao.
It was already early February, and the Hetao Plain was still a snowy world. The ice and snow had not melted yet, and it was difficult to ride a horse in the thick snow. However, the Tata tribe and the Kle tribe already had supply tribes in Fengzhou, with tens of thousands of soldiers.
Squatting in the tent, you can survive the winter with food and drink.
That morning, a group of small black dots appeared on the vast snowfield. If you look closer, you can see that they are all Western Army scout soldiers riding camels. Each person is equipped with two camels, one for riding and one for carrying supplies.
The team has been exploring the Fengzhou area for half a month and has gained a lot of information. They are preparing to return to Lingzhou.
The leader of the scouts was a deputy commander named Zhou Honglie, who was from Yan'an Prefecture. He led thirty of his men to explore the enemy's equipment and the snowmelt conditions in Fengzhou.
The team currently has one last task, which is to understand the melting situation of the snow. It is best to determine when the snow and ice will melt?
Everyone came to the South Yellow River. To understand the melting of ice and snow, it is best to start with the Yellow River. From the thawing and melting of the Yellow River, it can be judged that the snow in the entire Hetao has melted.
"Head! The bottom layer of ice has been half dissolved."
With a few hits of pickaxes, everyone broke a big hole in the ice, causing the river to surge up.
"Half a month ago, the ice layer was three inches thick, but now there is only one inch left. In another twenty days at most, the water in the Yellow River will be completely thawed."
Judging from the thawing time of the Yellow River water, the snow in Fengzhou should also completely melt in twenty days.
Zhou Honglie nodded and said: "I sent the eagle letter back and said that it will be possible to ride horses around February 20th. The snow will all melt by the end of the month. The snow in Fengzhou will melt about half a month later than in Lingzhou."
At this time, a soldier pointed to the east and shouted: "It seems like someone is coming over there!"
Everyone looked to the east and saw hundreds of small black dots running towards this side. "It's a war horse!" Deputy Commander Zhou Honglie's heart sank. They made a mistake in judgment. The war horse was already ready to run.
"This is the enemy's patrol cavalry, let's cross the river!"
Thirty soldiers immediately led the camels and walked cautiously toward the ice. The ice was so thin that they could barely walk on it. They could only hear the creaking of the ice and fell into the river if they were not careful.
"Watch out ahead!"
Zhou Honglie pointed in front of a soldier and shouted. The soldier was startled and found signs of water seepage on the ice ahead. He was so frightened that he quickly led the camel and took a detour.
"Everyone goes west and is not allowed to cross the river!"
Zhou Honglie lay on the river and looked ahead. He saw water seeping on the ice in the south. The ice was too thin and he could not move forward.
Everyone turned around and headed west in unison, walking with difficulty.
At this time, although war horses could already run on the ground, the resistance from the ice and snow was still great, and the patrol cavalry was not running very fast, but they were still getting closer and closer to the Western Army.
"There is no water seepage in front!" the soldier responsible for observing the ice shouted.
Zhou Honglie threw a roll of rope over, "Tie the rope around your waist and walk over to take a look!"
The soldier tied the rope around his waist and moved forward carefully step by step. Finally, he jumped onto the south bank.
Zhou Honglie was overjoyed and shouted quickly: "People go first, camels last!"
The soldiers went up to the south bank one by one, and finally Zhou Honglie led a long camel team towards the south bank. Sixty camels got on and more than forty camels got on. Suddenly, there was a sound of "Haha!" and the ice cracked.
More than a dozen camels fell into the water instantly and disappeared without a trace.
The soldiers were sad. These camels had been following them for a long time and had deep feelings for them, but they were swallowed up by the river.
"Wang Ping and Liu Shun take the camels away, and the rest of the brothers are ready to shoot with crossbows!" Zhou Honglie ordered loudly.
The pursuing patrol cavalry also climbed onto the ice and walked toward the south bank. The Western soldiers took action immediately. Two soldiers took away the camels, and the remaining 28 soldiers each looked for bunkers and raised their crossbows.
At this time, the pursuing nomadic cavalry shouted, and dozens of them, including men and horses, stepped into the thin ice area, fell into the water, and were swallowed by the river water.
The other patrolling cavalry were frightened. They hesitated for a moment, and then used the method of the Western Army's scouts to head west, looking for ice where they could cross the river.
"Shoot an arrow!" Zhou Honglie gave the order.
Twenty-eight scouts fired arrows at the same time, and the powerful divine arm crossbow shot two hundred paces away. The eight nomadic soldiers were caught off guard and were hit by the crossbow arrows, and fell to the ground one after another.
The other soldiers were so frightened that they lay down on the ice. For a moment, the cold air on the ice was unbearable. They got up one after another, shouting and running. The second round of crossbow bolts roared in, this time more accurate, twenty-eight arrows.
Arrows, sixteen soldiers fell down with arrows.
Hundreds of nomadic soldiers also fired arrows to fight back, but unfortunately their bows and arrows did not have enough range to hurt the Western soldiers.
Zhou Honglie watched the ice crunching, and suddenly he had a bold idea in his mind.
"Stop shooting!"
The soldiers stopped shooting arrows, and the nomadic cavalry chased them with shouts.
Zhou Honglie ordered his men to get the firearms bag. After a moment, three soldiers carried the big bag and took out five wooden barrel fire mines. Each fire mine weighed about five kilograms.
Zhou Honglie left four of his men behind, and the other soldiers withdrew first.
Five Western Army scouts were lying in ambush behind the soil, watching the nomadic cavalry getting closer and closer. This was a patrol cavalry of 300 people. After excluding the soldiers who fell into the water and were hit by arrows, there were still more than 240 people.
The patrol cavalry was only fifty steps away from them. They also found the ice surface where they could go ashore and began to approach the south bank.
Zhou Honglie made a gesture to his four men, and they simultaneously lit the match ropes of the wooden barrel fire thunder and threw it towards the cavalry on the ice.
Five wooden barrel fire thunders slid on the ice and slid into the enemy's ranks. 'Boom! Boom! Boom!' The five wooden barrel fire thunders exploded continuously, poisonous nails flew everywhere, and the soldiers and horses neighed miserably.
The real crisis came from the ice. The ice began to crack rapidly and over a large area. The captain was shocked and shouted: "Retreat!"
It was too late. More than a dozen ice surfaces broke almost simultaneously. Most of the soldiers and horses fell into the water. They struggled in the water for a moment before being swept away by the underwater rapids.
There were only about 70 soldiers left out of more than 240 soldiers, including the captain, who was also swept away by the rapids. The remaining soldiers were so frightened that they turned around and fled towards the north bank, not daring to pursue them any longer.
Not only were they frightened by the broken ice, but they were also shocked by the thunder of barrel fire.
Zhou Honglie laughed loudly and waved his hand, "Let's go!"
He took a few of his men with him and chased the team in the distance.
