If you can overlook the Qilian Mountains from the sky, you can see a rather magical scenery.
Qinghai Lake in the southwest is completely blue, the Qilian Mountains in the middle are covered with snow all year round, and in the northeast after crossing the Hexi Corridor, it is a piece of yellow sand.
It seems that God has waved his hand here to paint the green and pale yellow, leaving a little white space in the middle...
It's a pity that people in this vast world cannot feel the wonderful changes in colors and terrain, and are just as busy as ants.
"kill!"
As the killing cries continued, the intersection of green and yellow was splashed with a bright red.
Dong Wenbing was still commanding the Yuan army to besiege Li Xia, but after three days of fierce fighting, they still failed to break through the Tang army's defense line.
His mind has been somewhat shaken.
Because now is not a good time for a decisive battle with Li Xia, the purpose of his trip is to go to Hehuang to rescue King Yan, and he is not prepared for a big battle.
I originally wanted to give it a try to see if I could kill Li Xia, but now it seemed more like I was deliberately hung up by the opponent.
If you continue to fight, you may be annihilated.
Although the Tang army was small in number, it was really possible to do it.
Because there is still a group of Yang Ben's troops in the north. Yang Ben only needs to march out of Heishui City to cut off his retreat. Then his Yuan army will be surrounded and blocked in the desert, and it will be a narrow escape.
At the same time, the physical strength of Yuan soldiers was also exhausted.
With all these scruples, Dong Wenbing had already decided to quit.
…
Li Xia, on the other hand, became more and more eager to fight.
He felt like a dog with a keen sense of smell. He had sensed an opportunity when he was in Chang'an.
Kublai Khan's young son, Zhenjin, took the risk to go to Tubo to hone his skills...sharpening must pay some price and pay some tuition fees.
If Li Xia hadn't come, maybe the real gold tuition fee would have been less. As long as it was within what Dayuan could afford, then this trip would be a success.
But since he is here, it is to maximize the mistakes made by young people when they are just starting out and give Dayuan the worst results.
This approach cannot be said to be graceful. Anyway, he used real money to control Dong Wenbing's mentality, making him unwilling to fight but must fight.
Therefore, Li Xia was able to achieve victory with fewer strikes and more, and continued to weaken the Yuan army despite insufficient money, food and troops.
A fast horse galloped from the northeast, reporting: "Your Majesty, General Yang has set out to attack Heishui City."
"It's almost time." Li Xia said, "Give me the order, the Yuan army will withdraw soon and prepare to pursue!"
"yes."
Generally speaking, if Yang Ben sends someone to deliver a message before setting off, it won't be long before the Yuan army's scouting horses will find traces and report to Dong Wenbing.
Sure enough, after fighting for less than half an hour, Dong Wenbing's army heard the sound of gold, and the Yuan army began to leave the battlefield and retreat to the desert to the north.
The Tang army was well prepared and pursued them in an orderly manner. The purpose was not to cause casualties, but to seize the Yuan army's empty horses.
After losing their horses in the desert, the Yuan army would obviously die a lot.
Even if Dong Wenbing can rush back to Blackwater City, he will be defeated and become a weak and exhausted army.
Near Blackwater City, Yang Ben was waiting for work.
~~
On the pier, Duo Siman stood behind Li Xia holding a bow and arrow. She originally thought that Li Xia would go into battle to kill the enemy in person, so she planned to ride a horse and follow him to protect him.
But the black cloud-like formation of the Yuan army in the north was getting further and further away, and in the end Li Xia didn't even join the battle.
When the world became quiet, Duo Siman couldn't help but hold Li Xia's hand.
"my husband."
"Um?"
"I feel like you want to ride into battle, but why don't you go?"
"How did you know?"
"It's like going out to hunt, but arriving at the hunting ground without shooting an arrow." Duo Siman said, "I saw you had your hair cut yesterday."
Li Xia said: "I do want to go into battle, but there is no need, there are only risks, forget it."
He thought about it when he was watching the battle on the pier. This time, he blocked Dong Wenbing first and gave Song He the opportunity to surround Zhenjin in Hehuang. He also brought down Dong Wenbing's troops and created Yang Ben's attack in Heishui City.
The opportunity to severely defeat the Yuan army... is already well worth it.
As an emperor, the first thing you have to do is to seize the strategic opportunity and hand over what you can to your ministers. This is also a process of cultivating talents.
Even if Yang Ben cannot defeat Dong Wenbing's remnant master, it is still an acceptable result.
~~
West of Helan Mountain.
After transitioning from the grassland at the foot of the mountain to the grazing area, you can see the vastness of the Tengger Desert to the southwest.
"Whoosh!"
A crossbow arrow shot a running Yuan soldier off his horse. A Tang army cavalry caught up with him and struck him hard with his spear.
"Kill them all! No one can escape!"
"kill……"
Less than half an hour later, this group of Tang Army cavalry made a large circle on the grassland and rushed in front of Yang Ben.
"Report to the general! There are 318 Yuan troops in Oru, and no one has escaped!"
"Well done, you guys will camp and rest on the spot... The rest of you will follow orders and set up sentries to the south!"
"yes!"
Yang Ben got off his horse, walked up to the observation platform, stood there leaning on the railing, and looked to the south, thinking that if he could completely defeat Dong Wenbing, he would become famous all over the world.
Two thousand horsemen defeated more than ten thousand Yuan troops in the wild. This was a feat that no general in the world could achieve except the Emperor of Tang Dynasty.
He was also under a lot of pressure.
In addition to the opportunity created by the emperor for him, Xingqing Mansion is still surrounded by the Yuan army, and Li Zengbo is relying on him to support him in order to squeeze out the troops for him to take the initiative.
All of this was to enable him to display his authority and to allow Datang to produce another famous general, who would serve as a deterrent to the enemy.
Not far away, a group of soldiers who were resting were eating dry food and chatting.
"The general is not here. Captain, can you tell us more about the Xixia Kingdom?"
"What's there to say?" Wang Mancang said lazily, "Let you recharge your batteries and prepare for war."
Some soldiers shouted: "Tell me about the Queen Mother of Xixia Kingdom."
Wang Mancang became more energetic, smiled mischievously, and said, "Then let's talk about it? In Xixia, how can we not tell the story of Xixia?"
He had a scar on his face and a straw in his mouth. He had the fierce aura of a veteran, but his eyes were full of lust.
"Let's just say that this woman's surname is 'Wuzang', let's call her 'Wuzang'. She married someone when she was young, and her husband was the brother of the Queen of Xixia. Anyway, his surname was 'Yeli'. Hehe, at that time Li Yuanhao
She fell into the trap of Song Xiangong and killed her husband. Later, when Li Yuanhao thought about it, he felt sorry for his wife, so he found Yeli's family members and found the Wu Zang family. At that time, Li Yuanhao took a closer look and saw
No Zang is so beautiful, those breasts... tsk tsk... the two of them had an affair."
"Why do we need to have an affair? Can we be included in the palace?"
Wang Mancang actually didn't know. He patted his knees with his big hand and said, "Of course a wife is not as good as a concubine, and a concubine is not as good as a thief."
"Tsk tsk." Everyone was excited and shameless after hearing this, and shook their heads, "Hulu is Hulu."
Wang Mancang added: "Empress Yeli couldn't bear to kill the Zang family, so she expelled her from the palace and sent her to the Jietan Courtyard to become a nun. Guess what happened?"
No one responded, and the atmosphere became silent.
But when Wang Mancang was talking about it, he took away the straw in his mouth and said enthusiastically: "Li Yuanhao went to the temple to have an affair with the Mu Zang family and gave birth to a child..."
With a "bang" sound, someone suddenly kicked Wang Mancang on the back, knocking him backwards.
"Ouch, that bastard...general...general."
I saw Yang Ben standing there with a cold face.
His aura was already cold, and now he was so angry that it was even more frightening.
"Who told you to say dirty words here to corrupt the public morals?"
Wang Mancang was scared, but he had some temper, and he bravely responded: "General, I did not violate military rules... I was just talking about the history of Xixia..."
Yang Ben's face became even more grim as he said, "You didn't violate military rules, but you used obscene words to tarnish my iron-clad military authority."
Wang Mancang lowered his head and glanced at the soldiers, feeling quite embarrassed.
Just at this time, a scout horse came running from a distance. The horse was covered in sweat, and the soldiers on the horse were also very tired. Panting, they rushed to Yang Ben and reported an unexpected military situation.
"General, the Yuan army has increased its troops again."
At this point, he still swallowed, and then continued, "Looking at the formation, there are at least 50,000 horses. I stood on Helan Mountain and looked at it for a whole day without stopping. Looking at the flag, which sect king should be in person?
Here we are. Now we have reached Wuhai, only more than two hundred miles away from us..."
Yang Ben felt as if he was frozen.
He took Tanma back to the tent and looked at the map.
The original plan was to ambush Dong Wenbing, who was returning from exhaustion, in the pasture outside Blackwater City, but that was obviously not possible now.
As soon as Tachar's army arrives, they will immediately find his traces, and a good opportunity has been missed.
what to do?
Yang Ben has the right to make decisions.
He was already an independent general, and Li Xia explained his strategic intentions in detail in order to enable him to act according to the situation.
However, there are not many choices available now, other than returning to Xingqing Mansion and holding on.
Not long ago, Li Zengbo earnestly warned the generals not to be arrogant and underestimate the enemy.
Yang Ben was about to give an order when the reluctance suddenly surged up in his heart. It was as if someone was asking himself whether he planned to be a mediocre general all his life, unable to create miracles, and could only admire Huo Qubing's outstanding achievements but knew that he could not do it.
It was difficult to make a decision and he hesitated for a long time. He wanted to order to return to Xingqing Mansion several times, but stopped. Finally, he simply closed his eyes and let his intuition guide him.
"Give me the order." Finally, Yang Ben pointed at the Tengger Desert on the map, "If we ambush Dong Wenbing near Heishui City, we will definitely encounter Tachaer's army, so move the ambush point forward and set up a
When we get to the desert, I don’t believe that Tachaer would dare to go deep into the desert right after arriving.”
"General, this is too risky. If Dong Wenbing cannot be defeated..."
Yang Ben said: "Dong Wenbing traveled more than a thousand miles back and forth in the desert in vain. He is at a vulnerable moment. I would rather die than miss this great opportunity to kill the captives."
Several generals in the tent looked at each other a few times, secretly thinking that it would be better if they won this battle, but if they lost, what General Yang did today would probably be accused of treating his soldiers harshly, greedy for merit, or even more serious.
The consequences don't stop there.
"General, have you ever thought that if you lose this battle, it will affect the war situation in Xingqing Mansion, and may even harm Marshal Li, and even His Majesty."
Yang Ben did not hesitate again, pursed his lips, straightened his back deliberately, and said: "I will bear all the consequences."
"General, I'm afraid... I can't afford it."
"I can't afford this, and I can't afford that." Yang Ben looked around at the generals in the tent. He did not announce rewards loudly to boost morale, but asked in a calm tone: "When will we be able to take up the task of regaining the Central Plains and pacifying the Central Plains?"
The great responsibility of the world?"
~~
Soon, a Tang army of more than 2,000 men went south to the desert, looking for traces of Dong Wenbing.
Yang Ben rode his horse, thinking back to what he said, "I will bear all the consequences", and gradually felt a little weak in his heart.
But he recalled that when he followed Li Xia in Sichuan and Sichuan during those years, he was shocked again and again by his perseverance, which made him understand that in order to achieve anything, he had to withstand pressure and difficulties.
Li Xia is his king and his teacher.
Therefore, although Yang Ben came from a humble background and was just an exiled criminal who served as an assassin and was sent to the army, he still wanted to do his best to accomplish something.
It's time for these once insignificant people to share their worries for their new king...