Li Xia raised the telescope and aimed it at Hai Dongqing hovering in the sky.
This one is all white and looks extremely beautiful against the blue sky. Flying in the sky and overlooking the desert, it really has the majesty of the king among eagles.
"I'm afraid the main force of the Yuan army is within a hundred miles."
"What do you think, Your Majesty?"
"This kind of snow-white Haidongqing is extremely precious and cannot be tamed by the nobles of the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties." Li Xia said: "It can fly sixty or seventy miles a day and will not leave its owner for three days, so it is said that the Yuan army is more than a hundred miles away.
within."
"But Tan Ma hasn't come back yet."
"A general must learn to find truly useful information from all kinds of specious, true and false battle reports. Now that Hai Dongqing has given you a piece of information, do you dare to issue a military order decisively?"
"The last general..."
Yang Ben hesitated for a moment, and finally said: "Dare. I have determined that the Yuan army is most likely within a hundred miles. For one thing, we have received news of Mang Ge's return from the east for nearly two months. They are likely to march here."
Secondly, according to the information given by Lian Gong for the second time, Mang Ge La’s marching route is exactly here... plus this sea turtle, we can basically confirm this matter."
"Send the order and let the soldiers rest on the spot for the night and prepare to ambush the Yuan army."
"yes!"
In fact, no matter whether there is the main force of the Yuan army in front or not, the Tang army's food and grass have been exhausted, and there are not many choices left, so they can only make a decisive decision.
"Shoot it!"
Suddenly a Tang soldier shouted.
But the sea turtle in the sky suddenly swooped down, as if it wanted to snatch away the prey placed by the Tang army on horseback, that is, a bloody wild sheep with arrows from the Tang army stuck in its body.
It is naturally extremely difficult to seize food from the Ten Thousand Army Formation, but this Haidongqing dives very fast, like a white lightning.
The surrounding Tang troops did not react. By the time they raised their crossbows, they had already pounced nearby. If they fired the crossbows again, they would easily injure their comrades.
In the midst of the chaos, a Tang soldier pounced and pushed the wild sheep away, followed by a scream.
"Ouch!"
Hai Dongqing had rushed close by and grabbed the Tang sergeant with his iron-sharp claws, leaving a bloody patch on his back.
It was very angry, and with an earth-shattering eagle cry, it suddenly rushed into the sky again.
When it's in the sky, it doesn't look big, but when it's flying low on the ground, you can see it clearly. Its wings are spread as long as a person as high as a person, and its speed is very fast, which is quite terrifying. In addition, the eagle's chirping is very scary.
The soldiers around him were stunned again.
At this moment, it flew high.
"Dead beast!"
A Tang army general was so angry that he stretched his bow like a full moon, aimed at the sea turtle and shot it.
"Stop cumming!" Yang Ben, who came over, yelled angrily.
It was too late, only a "swish" sound was heard, and the arrow had already shot into the sky.
Yang Ben rushed over on horseback and looked up, waiting for Hai Dongqing to fall, but he saw it flying higher and higher.
After a long while, only two feathers slowly fell down.
"Shot?"
"Where's the arrow?"
"Where's the bird?"
"Your Majesty, I lost an arrow."
"I saw it."
Li Xia looked up, and at the end of his sight, the beautiful eagle had disappeared into the sky, which reminded him of a poem.
Thousands of miles of clouds, thousands of mountains covered with snow.
…
That night, Tang Jun discussed matters.
"There is good news and there is bad news."
Li Xia said: "The good news is that now we can be completely sure that the Yuan army is not too far to the west of us. The sea turtle today is very spiritual and has obviously been domesticated. It can only be a busy brother. Suddenly
Only a person like this can have such a beautiful thing."
"Your Majesty is right, that bird is so beautiful and spiritual, as if it knew it was going back to report the news."
"The bad news is that we lost an arrow. If it is brought back, the enemy general may be alert in advance."
The general who fired the arrow today, Ma Muhe, quickly knelt down and said loudly: "The last general is guilty! Please deal with it, Your Majesty."
This is a Mongolian. After being surrendered by Hu Legen, he stayed in the Reform Camp for a while, and then was transferred to the Ningxia Army, where he was the commander under Yang Ben.
In the northwest, most Han surnames are Ma, Su, Sha, etc. Therefore, there are many generals with the surname Ma in the Ningxia army, and sometimes it is difficult to tell which ethnic group they belong to without speaking.
"Get up, what are you guilty of?" Li Xia smiled and encouraged: "You are a magic archer."
"Hey, thank you, Your Majesty!"
Yang Ben asked: "Your Majesty, is it possible that the little party shot the beast and it couldn't fly back? Or maybe the arrow just got stuck in its feathers and fell off halfway."
"Be prepared for the worst..."
Generally speaking, a proper strategic plan takes a long time. For example, Li Xia spent up to half a year preparing and arranging the reconquest of Longxi.
But this time when faced with Kublai Khan's personal expedition, he made an impromptu decision to turn around and attack Mang Ge La first. After all, even Mong Ge La had an impromptu plan to return eastward, and of course he would not give Li Xia time to prepare.
Therefore, although Li Xia arrived in the desert and even wanted to find Mang Ge La, he had not yet figured out how to fight this battle.
The only thing he knew was that Kublai Khan could not personally take over the 150,000-strong army, otherwise he would probably be destroyed. After confirming this, he followed his intuition and walked all the way here.
In his previous life, he felt that the reason why he was a champion was not only hard work but also genius. The so-called genius is that sometimes an idea flashes and the sword in his hand is thrust out before he can think about it.
But maybe that's just good luck.
People don't always have good luck. Today, he met a bird, which made him feel that his luck was about to run out.
He failed to shoot it.
In Mongolian stories, the eagle is the divine bird messenger that protects the golden family.
In the story of the Jurchens, Wanyan Aguda led his troops to attack the Liao Kingdom. It was with the help of Haidongqing that he defeated more with less, and achieved the incredible victory of the ancient city of Daru and the victory of Dagang.
This time, the comparison in strength between Li Xia and the Yuan army was like the battle in the ancient city of Daru. Unfortunately, the divine eagle was not on his side.
Shaking his head to dispel these boring thoughts, he looked at the map and marked it a few times.
"Even if Mang Ge La and Tuo Hu discovered us in advance, there is still a way to ambush them. You see..."
a long time.
Yang Ben pondered and reminded: "Your Majesty, we may not have such a big place to go around. Zhang Hongfan may be chasing us behind us."
~~
Chicken and deer stuffing.
There was a burst of shouting followed by a loud bang, and the gravel blocking the intersection of the canyon exploded. The soldiers of the Yuan Dynasty went over and shoveled the earth and rocks away.
"The road is open!"
The canyon road ahead was revealed, and a group of cavalry was already riding their horses through the earth and rocks to cross the Yinshan pass.
There were corpses buried under the earth and rocks, some from the Yuan army and some from the Tang army, often entangled with each other. Through their distorted expressions, one can imagine that during the fierce battle, the Tang soldiers were chasing the Yuan army who wanted to cross the canyon.
The soldiers hugged each other tightly, and then the rocks above collapsed, burying them together.
The blood stains have been stuck together with the sand and dried in the air. They don't look bloody, but have a sense of desolation and sadness.
A total of more than 500 riders crossed the pass, and more Yuan army soldiers and horses were still stationed on this side of the canyon.
Zhang Hongfan climbed to the high point of Jiluxai and looked far into the distance.
He could only see the canyon winding towards Mobei, forming a line between the mountains. To the northwest, the line could not be seen, only the Yinshan Mountains stood majestically.
"Zhang Hongfan!"
Shi Gang came on horseback and dismounted from the chicken deer plug. Before anyone arrived, he shouted and asked: "Where is Li Xia?!"
"Lost." Zhang Hongfan replied without hesitation, and at the same time pointed to the Yinshan Mountains in the distance.
"Lost in pursuit? Is this your reward from Jiu Batu to His Majesty?"
"Our opponent is Li Xia." Zhang Hongfan said loudly in the wind, as if he did not notice the hostility in Shi Gang's words, and said in a serious and sincere tone: "This is a man who rose from a prisoner to the throne of God in ten years.
We don’t know why he can do it, but he must be different from ordinary people. When dealing with such an enemy, we cannot expect to succeed easily. Shi Sanlang, you should be more patient."
"Zhang Jiulang, you have too many excuses."
Zhang Hongfan seemed to regard Shi Gang as a friend, and said: "Recently, I remembered that Zhang Hongdao told me many years ago that he was chasing Li Xia in Bozhou. It was really tiring. Without a strong will, Li Xia could easily be killed.
Drag him down. This is my kind reminder. You must be calm, determined, and strong before you can become Li Xia's enemy."
"Stop talking nonsense." Shi Bang said, "Tell me how you got rid of Li Xia."
"He suddenly turned around and attacked Jilusai, passed directly through the Yinshan Mountains, and left a force to break up the rear. He defended it for eight days, and finally blew up the mountain to seal the road."
"Why aren't you chasing?!"
"Have you seen this terrain?" Zhang Hongfan raised his hand and asked, "Do you know how Wang Liangchen died? Li Xia ambushed Qishan Road. I have considered whether Li Xia was ambushing in the canyon and was preparing to ambush him.
I."
"You are too timid."
"I don't need to explain to you. I am the capital marshal, and you only have one thousand households. Just tell Marshal Shi and ask him to send troops from Gaoque Pass to bypass the Yinshan Mountains to search for Li Xia's troops."
Shi Bang was extremely unhappy after hearing this, and his face immediately darkened, but it was true that his official position was far inferior to that of Zhang Hongfan, so he said coldly: "No matter how marshal you are, you can't command my father. He won't go around the Yinshan Mountains to chase after Li Xia."
Run behind, he has led the army back to the camp on His Majesty's orders."
Zhang Hongfan was a little surprised in his heart, but it didn't show on his face.
He pretended not to believe it and said, "Really? Your Majesty ordered Marshal Hulanji to attack Xingqing Mansion first, and ordered me to continue to pursue Li Xia. He has no intention of withdrawing his troops. Is it possible that Marshal Shi is afraid of another defeat?"
Shi Gang glanced at him and refused to answer.
Zhang Hongfan had already guessed it, and said thoughtfully: "They speculate that Li Xia wants to sneak attack on His Majesty's camp?"
This was the news that Shi Gang was ordered to tell Zhang Hongfan today. Since he had guessed it, he didn't have to speak and just sneered.
Zhang Hongfan stopped talking and looked down at the map, marking the positions of several groups of Mongolian troops.
Hu Lan Ji is attacking Xingqing Mansion, and Shi Tianze is waiting in the camp. Only his troops have been shaken off by Li Xia... In this way, Li Xia can pass unimpeded on the other side of Yin Mountain.
Of course, the Tang army had no baggage and would starve to death in a short time.
Moreover, King Anxi’s army is about to return from the Western Regions.
Thinking of this, Zhang Hongfan was stunned, and an idea came to his mind -
Can Li Xia rob King Anxi's baggage? No, unless he is crazy, but...
After a flash of inspiration, a strategic analysis is about to take shape.
He was a little disbelieving, a little surprised, and vaguely admired. Just when he was about to think deeply about this light, a horse came running over.
I don't know who had bad luck this time. The messenger reported: "Trace of the Tang Army was found!"