On the small barren mountain that had just experienced a bloody battle, a fast horse rushed in front of Song He.
"General Song! General Hu has received your Majesty! But now there are Yuan troops chasing you in the northwest. Your Majesty orders you to assemble the army and prepare to cut off the rear."
Song He had already looked to the north and the dust smoke to the west, and had already ordered his soldiers to prepare for battle. After waiting anxiously for a while, he finally saw the big flag coming from the west.
"Your Majesty? His Majesty is really back." Song He was excited and wished he could go to see him now, but then he saw the huge dust smoke from further away like a dark cloud pressing down.
Now is not the time to relax.
He quickly ordered: "Let the army pass!"
The three thousand cavalrymen made way for the flattest col at the foot of the barren mountain, allowing the breaking out team to pass.
The horses' hooves were rolling, and every knight on the horse was covered in blood and disgraced. The horse was thin and the armor was broken. In this way, 20,000 people rode past, and it took less than half an hour.
In the end, Hu Legen's nearly 2,000 men returned to the rear of Song He's team. To the west, the pursuing Yuan army was getting closer.
"Get ready to fight!"
Song He was very calm and did not make a decision rashly because the Yuan army was making a lot of noise. Instead, he observed it calmly for a while and said, "The generals told the soldiers that the enemy cavalry is coming from far away and lacks physical strength. There is no need to be afraid."
Soon, another scouting horse came from the north, attached to Song He's ear, and said: "General, Kublai Khan's banner from the north has moved, as if it is about to press over."
Song He nodded, as if he hadn't heard anything, and continued to give the order naturally. "Two rounds of crossbows and one round of grenades will buy us time, and we will retreat."
"Here!"
~~
A sea turtle began to circle in the sky again.
From its line of sight, it could see that all the soldiers and horses in the wilderness were running wildly in the same direction, which was the southeast. The dust in the sky was stirred up by them, and the earth was also shaking because of these people.
It had circled enough and planned to fly to Helan Mountain, but when it heard a whistle suddenly sounded somewhere, its keen eyes moved and it swooped down somewhere.
It was a marching army.
Hai Dongqing passed over the heads of the cavalry, and finally landed on the shoulders of a Yabaochi, looking around proudly. "Great Khan, King Anxi's male Kuru has also returned."
Kublai Khan was not in a good mood today, so he just said "hmm" when he heard this.
Zhang Yida, who was accompanying him, said: "This is a good omen. Your Majesty has just defeated Li Xia. Now you are taking advantage of the victory to attack. The day of destroying the Tang Dynasty is not far away." Kublai Khan then smiled.
Zhang Yi glanced at the sea turtle with envy.
He, the commander of the Eagle Controlling Guards, was actually the commander of the Yaho Red Guards in name only. It was in this name that he went in and out of the palace and accompanied Kublai Khan to deliver information.
But he didn't care about raising eagles, and the falconers didn't listen to him.
Of course, this is just a trivial matter, and Zhang Yi doesn't care too much. After all, his intelligence agency is much more important than a few birds. "Report! Traces of Li Xia were found more than 20 miles ahead. Thousands of Tang Army cavalry are guarding Li Xia.
"After the flaws are broken"
As the news came, Zhang Yi stepped forward to explain to Kublai Khan the information about the generals under Li Xia's command.
"Your Majesty, the soldiers and horses carrying the banner with the word 'Song' should belong to the Tang general Song He. This man is Li Xia's old tribe in Qingfu County. He is the eldest son of King Kuoduan and the king of Xiliang Miili.
Die by his hands."
"Then whose flag with the character 'Hu' belongs to it?"
Zhang Yi pondered for a while and said: "There seems to be no general named Hu among the Tang generals. There is a Mongolian rebel general named Hu Legen. This is his Mongolian name, not his surname Hu. It is written on the banner. He is just a random person.
"
"Report! We have defeated the Tang army that has been cut off from the rear. The Tang army is still fleeing south. Li Xia has arrived at Kuletugou."
Arrive soon."
After a lot of hard work, some good news came, and then there was another investigation
The horse rushed back and said: "Report to the Great Khan that two thousand Tang Army cavalry were ambushing our army in Kuletugou. Commander Wan Yan Wu Zhen Tu was accidentally hit by a Tang Army grenade and died in the battle."
"ambush?"
"Thanks to the Great Khan, our army's scouting horses did not find any dust and smoke to the west of Kuletugou. General Wanyan wanted to take a detour to stop Li Xia, but he did not expect that a cavalry had been waiting nearby."
Kublai Khan said: "Li Xia has many talented generals under his command." He said this with deep feeling.
Especially in the past few days, after seeing the behavior of the in-laws around me, Tachaer, Aibuhua, Tuohu, Shuzhenbo, Hujianhuer. Each one of them seemed to have been hollowed out by wine and sex.
"I heard today that Li Xia's generals were willing to risk their lives even for a traitor named Mouse. If my generals are like this, why worry about not being able to dominate the world?"
"Great Khan! I am willing to risk my life for the Great Khan!" An Tong shouted quickly.
Kublai Khan waved his hand and said, "You are my cowardly commander. I hope it won't be your turn to go into battle." He was overcome with emotion. He looked at Zhang Yi and said, "Continue talking."
Zhang Yi asked Tan Ma carefully about the characteristics of the Tang troops. After thinking about it, he said: "There are many Uighurs. The general of this cavalry may be Desu Amu, who is originally from the Western Regions. The tribe was originally under the Tianshan Mountains. It is difficult to make Ali."
Brother captured and surrendered to Li Xia."
"Report!"
It was already dusk, and another scout horse arrived. With a look of fear, he reported: "Great Khan, there is another Tang army to join Li Xia, numbering more than 10,000."
There was no need to listen to more specific information. Zhang Yi already said: "The only one who can command such a large number of troops in the west of Helan Mountain today is Bao San, the Gansu defense envoy of the Tang Army. He is a one-eyed man with mediocre abilities. His performance in recent years has not been impressive."
~~
Compared with Kublai Khan who could calmly ask questions to his ministers, Li Xia looked very embarrassed.
After running for a whole day, when he was still less than ten miles away from the main camp of Yingpan Mountain, even the war horse he stepped off suddenly whined and fell to his knees.
Li Xia fell to the ground, but not too hard. He just felt tired when he got up. "Your Majesty, ride this horse and go first."
Li Xia shook his head and saw a hill beside the road, so he climbed up the mountain first. Before walking far, he looked north and could already see the current situation.
The sky was getting dark, and the sun hung slanting in the westernmost desert where the sky met. The Tang army's retreating team was stretched far away, and some soldiers and horses that could not run fell two miles away.
The Yuan army has already caught up. Song He, Hu Legen, Desu Amu and others are leading their troops to break up the rear, fighting and retreating with them. "Ten miles. Two. Miles."
Li Xia murmured, not knowing what he was thinking. "The general's rescue came late, your Majesty, please forgive me."
Suddenly, someone behind me rushed up panting and shouted.
Li Xia looked back and saw Bao San, so she couldn't help but reached out and patted him on the shoulder.
The last time the two met was when Li Xia passed by Gansu when he went to the Western Regions more than three years ago, and this was the only time they met after regaining Longxi.
"Your Majesty." Bao San's one eye was red. He had too much to say, but he said: "Your Majesty, please go back to camp first?" "What is this mountain called?"
"The locals call it Hongshantou."
Li Xia just made sure, nodded when he heard this, and said: "There is still ten miles to go back to the camp, and the Yuan army is already two miles away. Can all our soldiers withdraw?"
"The general will first ensure that His Majesty can withdraw."
"Not enough." Li Xia said, "I still want to win, and I don't want to lose our troops and generals." Bao San was stunned for a moment.
Now of course he can send Li Xia back to the camp, but the soldiers and horses behind him will be easily defeated by the Yuan army. But his main consideration for today's arrangement is Li Xia.
"How many troops do we have?" Li Xia asked again.~~
"How many troops does the Tang army have?"
"According to the Great Khan, there are about 40,000 people. After deducting casualties, deserters and stragglers, Li Xia and Uluru Hunai led less than 20,000 people to break out of the encirclement, and there were only more than 20,000 people in the Tang army's camp. The total strength
There are only about 40,000 in total."
"Great Khan, in real terms, the Tang army only has a fighting strength of 20,000 men." Kublai Khan nodded and glanced to the west.
The sun was about to set, and he was considering whether to attack Li Xia directly today, or to attack slowly and attack the Tang army's camp tomorrow.
"Send the order, tell the warriors not to conserve their power, defeat the Tang army once before the sun sets, and camp at the top of Hongshan Mountain in front."
When the order is given again, there are already detective horses coming over there.
"Report! Great Khan, the Tang army did not continue to flee. They stopped and formed formation at the top of Hongshan Mountain." Kublai Khan was slightly surprised and said to himself: "He is not escaping?"
"Put up the lookout car. I want to take a look for myself." "Yes."
In the last twilight of the day, Kublai Khan climbed up to the observation deck and looked to the southeast. After a long time, he smiled. He understood where Li Xia's courage came from.
~~
"Your Majesty, there are currently only over 20,000 people in our camp." Bao San said: "With the troops and horses brought back by Your Majesty, there are a total of more than 40,000 people."
Li Xia said: "Is this the strength of the troops when you left the camp today?" "Yes."
"How many troops have been added to the camp today?" Li Xia asked again, "If Qing Lian understands my intention, there should be more troops every day, right?" "There are more troops, but the general left the camp early.
I don’t know yet.”
"Give me the order to go down. We won't withdraw anymore. We will guard the top of Hongshan Mountain. I order the camp to come to support immediately if soldiers and horses arrive." Bao San was stunned for a moment, clasped his fists and said, "Yes!"
Soon, the army lit up the smoke, and the camp ten miles away quickly responded with the smoke. When the last afterglow of the day shone, a vanguard army came from a distance with flags raised.
Bao San strode among the troops, boosting morale.
"Soldiers! There is no need to be afraid of the Yuan army. There are 40,000 of us now, 50,000 at night, 60,000 tomorrow, and 70,000 the day after tomorrow! If Kublai Khan still dares to pursue us, let him come."