It was the burning bonfire in the sweat tent reflected in his boy's hole.
But when he looked away, his eyes were still very calm.
"Great Khan, the Tang army burned Wusui City, which just shows that they are short of troops and cannot cope with such a long front."
The person standing in front of the map analyzing the situation was replaced by a young Mongolian.
His name is Naiyan, and he is the grandson of Tachaer, the leader of the kings of the East.
Since Tachaer died in the battle at Helan Mountain, his fiefdom has been inherited by his son Amulu.
Amulu was mediocre and addicted to wine and sex. This time Kublai Khan once again summoned King Qin from all the feudal lords, and Naiyan led his troops.
Naiyan is only twenty-eight years old this year. She is full of vigor and has a pair of eyes that are a bit slanted, giving people a feeling of being very difficult to mess with.
"The Tang army will definitely defend Baozhou, Zhending and other cities in the south. In addition, they have to deal with Boyan, Song army and Tubo. They will not have many soldiers and horses scattered in various cities."
"How to be sure?"
"We can test it out."
Naiyan turned to look at Brother Yixiang and found that the sect king was standing aside with a sullen face and did not speak, so he replied: "If Brother Yixiang's guess is correct and the Tang army is really stationed in the Central Plains,
You can send the cavalry deep again to steal their food and grass, and see how many more soldiers and horses Baozhou City can send to pursue them."
"Brother Shi Xiang, what do you think?"
When Kublai Khan called his name, Brother Yixiang stood up and said: "I have sent troops south many times before, and it was easy for the Tang army to send troops from various cities to attack. That's why I asked the cavalry to take a detour from Cangzhou."
"It's different." Naiyan said: "This time, we are going to counterattack Baozhou and kill Zhang Rou!"
Young people are more energetic after all.
Brother Yixiang looked around and thought that perhaps what Dahan wanted was Naiyan's vigor, so he nodded and said no more.
~~
After Li Xia left, the Yuan army had been increasing its troops on the Baigou battlefield, so Zhang Rou reduced his defense line and retreated to Baozhou.
With the fall of Wusui City, Baozhou City once again became the front line.
August 16, Zhang Mansion.
There was a rapid knock on the door.
"Father...Father?"
Zhang Rou opened her eyes, and after being stunned for a while, she said: "Come in."
He glanced around with his old eyes and saw that half of the moon cake was still on the eucalyptus and was pressed on a letter. He picked it up and stuffed it into his mouth.
While chewing, he looked up and saw Zhang Twelve Lang and Zhang Hongyi coming.
"I thought that the eldest sister was back, but it turned out that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, even the second sister was not here." Zhang Rou murmured before remembering to ask: "What's the matter?"
"Father, it's not good. Fifth brother and sixth brother have returned!" Zhang Hongyi said in a panic: "I heard that Wu Suicheng was lost!"
Zhang Rou's expression did not change, but she picked up the letter paper on the eucalyptus, folded it, put it in her arms, and said: "The fifth and sixth children are here? Help me to stand up."
Seeing that he was so calm, Zhang Hongyi thought he was an old man and said hurriedly: "Father, I heard that the Yuan army is about to attack Baozhou again. What should I do?"
Zhang Rou snorted coldly and said: "Since you don't want to care about these things, you just want to go sightseeing, why do you ask?"
"My child, aren't you...scared?" Zhang Hongyi was sincere.
Zhang Rou was too lazy to take care of this good-for-nothing son anymore, so she drove him away after leaving the house and headed all the way to the north of the city.
I saw Zhang Honglue holding a lookout tube and looking north at the formation.
"Where's the Goro man?"
"On the tower, the boy helped his father up."
Climbing the tower, I saw Zhang Hongdao, his body covered with wounds, sleeping soundly with his head tilted back on a chair, his face looking very tired.
Zhang Rou stretched out her foot and kicked him, saying: "You can still sleep. My father is almost eighty, and he is more energetic than you."
"Father."
"What's wrong?"
"Tanma reported that the Yuan army has captured it."
Zhang Rou nodded, took out the piece of paper from her arms, and said, "Read it yourself."
"yes."
Zhang Hongdao received Zhang Rou's oral message after entering Wusuicheng, but the more detailed content was still in the letter Zhang Rou received.
After watching it, he didn't say anything about the war, but murmured in surprise.
"Is this my father-in-law here?"
~~
August 20th.
Naiyan's troops have arrived at Baozhou City.
"Report! Maduli Qianhu has led his army to bypass Mancheng and go south!"
"Will Baozhou City send troops?"
"No!"
Naiyan then recruited another group of scouting horses, asked more carefully about the distribution of the garrison on the top of Baozhou City, and finally said to himself: "That's right, the Tang army's troops have all been withdrawn to guard and collect grain. Baozhou
There aren’t many soldiers and horses.”
"Your Majesty, are you ready to attack the city?"
"Why are you anxious? Wait for Maduli to grab the food first." Naiyan ordered: "Surround Baozhou City and cut off Baozhou's supplies."
~~
In the Yuan army camp, Brother Yixiang was also listening to Tan Ma's report.
He frowned and asked: "Is it possible that Zhang Rou released fake news? To trick us into retreating."
"I don't know."
At this moment, Brother Yixiang was holding an urgent letter from the southeast.
It was the Wanhu people he sent to Cangzhou who urgently sent word back, saying that they encountered a small group of Tang troops near Wen'an County and that some Tanma was attacked.
But Brother Yixiang thinks it's impossible. The Tang army's military strength is not enough to defend the front line of Baozhou. Why would they send troops to the east?
Although the Yuan army did not have many troops stationed in the east since Li Fen's Rebellion, with Boyan restraining the army in the south, the Tang army should not be able to spare any effort.
"If it's false news..."
"King!"
Suddenly a shout was heard in the tent.
Brother Yixiang had a premonition that something was wrong, so he got up and left the tent.
I saw a timid Xue running over in a hurry, pointing to the south and saying, "There are cavalry...cavalry...returning to camp."
At this time, dust and smoke can already be seen.
If there is nothing urgent about the cavalry returning to camp, it is obviously not that simple this time.
Brother Yixiang rushed to the south and looked, and sure enough, what he saw was a group of remnants of soldiers.
"Your Majesty! The Tang Army is coming! The Tang Army is coming..."
Some cavalrymen who had thrown off their armor rushed to the edge of the camp, rolled and crawled forward, and shouted: "At least 50,000 Tang troops are coming."
"Exiute."
Brother Yixiang stepped forward, grabbed the soldier by the collar, and shouted: "What Tang army is coming?! Which Tang army has so many people?!"
"Zhang……"
Listening to the soldier speaking out a Chinese surname with difficulty, Brother Yixiang thought it was Zhang Rou.
However, what he heard was another name.
"Zhang Jue? You mean Zhang Jue?"
"Your Majesty, it's Zhang Jue! The one I heard the commander shouting is Zhang Jue."
Brother Shixiang's eyes widened and he couldn't help but be shocked.
He still didn't quite understand why Zhang Jue appeared near Wen'an County.
If so, then...where is Boyan?
At this time, there was no time to think about it, so he rushed to the Khan tent to report the news to Kublai Khan.
Half a day later, fast horses galloped out of the Baigou camp.
"drive!"
"drive!"
They want to pass the news to Naiyan.
~~
"What?!"
It was the next day when Naiyan received the news. His eyes widened with shock and ferocity.
"Exiute, this is Boyan who was promoted to prime minister as soon as he saw the Khan. He is a waste. He is really a waste."
Naiyan cursed in a low voice, not hiding his dissatisfaction.
He has decided that he can no longer surround Baozhou.
The Tang army deliberately concealed the news of the great victory in the south and abandoned Wusui City in order to lure the main force of the Yuan army to go south and annihilate them one by one. He did not want to be the first to fall into the trap.
"Send the fastest scouting horse to catch up with Maduli and tell him not to go any further and to pull back!"
"yes!"
Soon, some Yuan army cavalry flew out of the camp and galloped southward around Baozhou City.
…
More than a hundred miles southwest of Baozhou, a Yuan army was riding up a small hill.
From this position, one can see a team transporting grain on the official road in the distance.
The Tanma watched for a long time, then went down the hill, galloped through the wilderness, and after running for several miles, he saw a Yuan army cavalry resting in front of him.
"Qianhu, the Tang Army's transport team was discovered!"
Maduli, who was sitting on the horse with his eyes closed and concentrating, opened his eyes and said, "Speak carefully."
"There were at least two thousand people, each pushing a wheelbarrow with sacks on it..."
Then the whistle sounded.
The war horses lying on the ground stood up one after another, and the soldiers of the Yuan Dynasty who were sitting on them seemed to be one with the war horses, controlling the horses with great flexibility to run south.
Iron hooves rolled in, and gradually they saw the team transporting grain on the official road.
"kill!"
The Yuan army roared, and while riding their horses, they opened their bows and arrows.
However, what surprised them was that the civilians who were transporting food took their time and began to gather together, even taking out their shields.
"Array up!"
At the same time, those civilians shot something into the air, and with a sharp sound, a red cloud exploded in the sky.
"Swish, swish, swish..."
Under the rain of arrows, the Yuan army rushed within dozens of steps.
But those civilians had already drawn their weapons from the one-wheel formation.
A crossbow was raised and buckled.
The crossbow arrows shot out.
"Swish, swish, swish..."
"Grenade!"
"Peng!"
The horses neighed, and the Yuan army's cavalry array was in chaos.
When they finally rushed to the formation of the civilians, they were greeted by dense spears.
Maduli was taken aback and quickly pulled on the reins. Although he still didn't know why this happened, he realized that he had fallen into a trap.
"withdraw!"
He blew the whistle again, this time to retreat.
"Retreat! Follow up behind me!"
It was easy to charge, but difficult to retreat. With great difficulty, he led some of the cavalry to turn first, and Maduli immediately fled north.
With the rapid sound of horse hooves, they turned around a small mountain called Gushan in front of them.
Suddenly, an arrow shot out with a "swish" and hit a soldier in front of Maduli.
"Hush!"
After a closer look, there was actually a Tang Army cavalry force of several hundred people coming from the front. At the same time, the Tang Army infantry behind them had also caught up.
"Why so fast?" Maduli couldn't help but exclaimed.
He looked around again and realized that he had no way to escape...
~~
"puff."
After a small battle ended, Fan Xueyi chopped off the heads of the Yuan army's Qianhu with one knife.
"Hang!"
He threw his head to Hao Gouer behind him, gasped and wiped the blood from his face.
"General, why didn't you give him a chance to surrender?" Hao Gouer asked.
“Those who lead troops into the country to rob and take captives shall be beheaded as a warning to others.”
After Fan Xueyi gave a simple answer, he strode towards the cavalry in front and said to the one-eyed cavalry general: "Thank you, general!"
"We are all colleagues, no need to thank you." The other party spoke with a strong Gansu accent, clasped his fists and said: "Li Bing, commander of the Xining Army."
"Fan Xueyi, the commander of Fengyi Army, has met Li Tongzhi."
"Let's go, Baozhou is not far away."
"Yanjing is not far away."
"Yes." Li Bing laughed, "Yanjing is not far away..."