Li Xia glanced back, led the horse, and embarked on the return journey.
The injury on his foot has been bandaged and tied with branches to fix it, and he is limping.
But we can only keep moving forward.
Horses were not allowed to be ridden, and the road conditions were not suitable. The horse he was leading also carried the body of the river patrolman and several Mongolian soldiers' heads on its back. The other horses carried the wounded.
In this battle, forty-nine river patrolmen were killed, more than thirty were seriously injured, and almost everyone suffered minor injuries.
Most of the sixty-five levels of beheadings were killed after the Mongolian army fled. In total, only twenty or thirty Mongolian soldiers were killed in the battle formation.
Seventy-three horses were obtained, as well as armor, weapons, etc.
In fact, less than forty people from the Mongolian army actually participated in the battle, and the others were crowded on the trail from beginning to end.
If it had been the elite Song army, with the right time, place, and people, they might have been able to achieve a complete victory without suffering such heavy casualties.
Li Xia's side is mainly new recruits with little experience...
"Li County Lieutenant, we have to walk a little faster." Xiong Shan, who was walking in front of Li Xia, suddenly turned around and said.
"Will the Mongolian army behind catch up?"
"It's possible." Xiong Shan said, "Generally speaking, Tanma is only about one day faster than the large Mongolian army. We fought for half a day and rested for half a day..."
He looked at the cliff getting steeper and steeper, and couldn't help but feel scared.
Each section of this five-foot road is different. In the valley of Baiyangou, we can still open up the terrain to fight the Mongolian army. But if we walked directly yesterday, we reached the tunnel in front and were overtaken by the Mongolian army. This group of them
People may die in the mountains.
Li Xia asked, "Do you think we can still ambush the Mongolian army?"
Xiong Shan was stunned and thought he was crazy.
"No." He said firmly, "Li Xianwei, I can't say, but it really can't be done."
After Li Xia heard this, his eyes fell on the horse in front of him.
It was a Mongolian horse, not tall, with a big head, short neck, broad chest and long mane, and an unattractive appearance.
Although this horse does not look like a horse, it has a strong body, thick skin and thick hair. It is hardworking and has good endurance. It can easily carry three corpses and various heavy objects.
Li Xia also saw that they ate everything, including bamboo leaves and tree bark.
In addition to the Mongolian horses, the Mongolian army also brought other horse breeds. One person had two horses, so people did not have to carry heavy baggage. They could ride in easy-to-travel areas and lead in difficult-to-travel areas, and the marching speed was extremely fast.
Looking at the Mongolian army's leather armor, it was only mixed with a small amount of copper and iron, making it light and strong.
According to Bao San, the defensive capabilities of this kind of leather armor are not inferior to iron armor. On the contrary, iron armor is more likely to damage internal organs when attacked during a charge... Of course, different types of arms and different combat situations require different analyses.
The strong endurance of the horses and the light leather armor all indicate that this Mongolian army's horse-exploring Red Army is good at running long distances.
This time we also captured some Mongolian bows, including the sheep-horned bow, which is three feet long and has a tough string, far better than the Song bow.
After fighting in southern Yunnan for three years, they also learned to climb.
Dali and the Wuman tribes were wiped out, and the high mountain strongholds around Shimen Pass were pulled out one after another by them.
Li Xia had read the information given by Yang Guo and had some understanding of Wu Liang Hetai's fighting style in the southwest... For example, Wu Liang Hetai's son A Shu always "leap under the enemy" and "circle behind"
, often a pioneer.
In other words, as long as Li Xia can climb up, the Mongolian army can also climb up.
Li Xia was able to take advantage of the terrain to deploy two hundred men and defeat thirty or forty Mongolian troops, but in the face of absolute strength, he would not dare to ambush a large group of troops without relying on the terrain... unless he had five hundred elite soldiers.
If there are 500 elite soldiers, they can make preparations in advance, prepare wood and rocks, and build ditches and fortresses, so that they can ambush again.
Thinking of this, Li Xia nodded and said: "You are right, it is not suitable to fight anymore for the time being. Let's speed up and rush to the patrol department to rest first."
Xiong Shan breathed a sigh of relief and secretly thought that Lieutenant Li was not that crazy...
To the northeast of Yanfang Valley is a towering cliff called "Fenshui Cliff", with a Yutou River at the foot of the cliff.
When the Yutou River is in Yanfang Valley, the water is small and slow, and there are river valleys on both sides. But at the water-dividing cliff upstream, it is pinched by the hanging walls on both sides, and the water is very fast.
Going north from Yanshuigou, the road became narrower and narrower, and higher and higher. Finally, we entered a tunnel carved into the cliff.
The chiseled road is different from the plank road. The plank road is to build a road next to the cliff, while the chiseled road is to "gnaw" a road out of the cliff.
The cliff towers straight, with an abyss at your feet and rocks above your head. Turning around, you can see the hanging coffin of the Bo people on the opposite cliff.
This road is certainly very scary, and it is considered the most dangerous section of the Five Feet Road.
Li Xia and his party came here from here, and they will go here again when they return.
…
After walking for another two days, Dong Wa, the river patroller at the end of the team, looked at the abyss under her feet and couldn't help but ask Bao San in front.
"Bao Bantou, can you see the road clearly with your one eye? Don't fall down."
"Mom, when you came here, you had your eyes facing the outside." Bao San covered his lower abdomen without looking back, and said, "If we go back now, I can only see inside, so it's not easy to walk."
Dong Wa asked again: "Why don't we ambush the Mongolian army here?"
"Do you want to die? Let's fight on this tunnel to see who is more ferocious. Can you be more ferocious than the old Mongolian soldiers?"
Dong Wa said "Hey" and said: "Aren't we fierce? Didn't we scare away the Meng Tatars?"
"Han Gua. You can still lay an ambush in Fangyangou, and you can kill two hundred and thirty. Once you get to the cracks in the rocks, you can't get out of the way. You can only trade one life for another, or how many you can exchange."
Dong Wa said: "Then when the Mongolian army comes up, we will shoot him."
"Where do you stand to shoot?"
"When we reach the mountains below, we will stand on the mountain road and spread out. We will block Meng Tatar in the crevices of the rocks."
Bao Sandao: "Then I won't accompany you, so you idiot will stay and shoot with them."
"Anyway, the beating is over, so I just said it casually." Dong Wa scratched her head and said: "Squad leader, do you think there are really military rewards? I have a fellow countryman who joined the army and achieved fourth-class merit. He was awarded three bolts of silk.
Three guan of money. Do you really want the county captain to give me five guan?"
"Can I still lie to you?"
"Is the county captain really going to divide his career among the young men of his brothers who died in the battle?"
"Yeah." Bao Sandao said: "The county captain will be the commander of Shu in the future, and he will be able to run the army and establish trust."
"Boss, do you think I am saving these five pieces to buy a field later, or to give my parents a good year? I wish I could chop off a few more heads."
"Earn whatever you save. When you die in battle, you can also be assigned to the county captain's job."
"Boss, don't make trouble." Dong Wa said, "Say something auspicious."
"Mom, you can't stop nagging. My wound is already split. Come on, give me another prick."
"Okay."
"Be careful, don't fucking fall."
As Bao San spoke, he sat down holding on to the cliff and cursed again: "Damn, this broken road will make my legs weak."
"There aren't many tunnels left," Dong Wa said. "If you turn around this section, you'll see the mountains ahead. You won't be afraid of falling off the cliff."
The two of them squatted down, re-bandaged their wounds, and stood up to move forward.
Suddenly, Bao San asked: "Did you hear that?"
"ah?"
Dong Wa turned her head and looked back, only to see that the cliff in the distance was dark, and she could vaguely see something moving in the tunnel.
"The Mongolian army is coming!"
"Let's go!"
"No, squad leader...did you hear that? How is it possible...how is it possible to ride a horse in this damn place?!"
Bao San was in a daze, squinting his one eye and staring at the tunnel.
"It's impossible...it's impossible to charge on horseback on the tunnel."
But the sound of horse hooves became faster and faster.
"咴lvlv!"
Bao San suddenly shouted: "Go quickly! It's a frightened horse, it's a frightened horse rushing over!"
Dong Wa was already stunned.
He clearly saw a Dali horse charging like crazy through the cliff tunnel.
There was no one on the horse, so the Mongolian army used the frightened horse to knock them down...