Blood trickled from the corpse into the grass, where it was quickly absorbed by the sand.
In addition to such corpses, there was only horse dung on the ground.
A boot stepped hard on a pile of horse dung, crushing it.
It didn't stick to the sole of the boot because it was already somewhat dry and the horse that left it had been driven away for some time.
"A Nang is dead!"
Huo Chihaer cursed angrily, turned his head and looked around, his face gloomy.
He followed He Dan's arrangement to besiege Ali Buge's men, who also had two or three horses per person. He left the horses and baggage here during the war, but he did not expect that they would be robbed by the Song army.
Song Jun is a very distant name.
Huo Chihaer had never seen the Song army in his life. He only heard people say that the Song people did not know how to fight, but only gathered in the city. They had countless wealth and were the best objects to plunder.
But today I met them for the first time, and the Song people were as cunning as weasels.
Taking a deep breath, letting the smell of horse manure and sand fill his nose, Huo Chihaer asked: "How many people are there in the Song army?"
"There are only two to three hundred people at most. The number of people is too small. We walked around at night and our scouts didn't notice them."
"Two or three hundred people? Are they also exploring horses? How brave." Huo Chihaer quickly made a judgment.
"Not too bold. They fled to the east. Yumen Pass is more than 150 miles to the east."
Huo Chihaer ordered a thousand-man captain and ordered: "Take your thousand-man team to catch up. They are not good at riding and cannot run too far. Moreover, the horses that were driven away were our horses. They came back after blowing the whistle.
It can also disrupt their front line."
"Don't worry, Protector Yi, we will definitely defeat the Song army..."
Huo Chiha'er ordered another Tanma and said, "Go and tell King Hedan that Brother Alibu is probably in alliance with Li Xia."
"yes."
"Calling all the troops we have around us..."
Huo Chihaer actually has more than 20,000 troops, distributed among the oases and rivers on the eastern front to prevent Ali Buge's main force from breaking through. He himself led 3,000 people to guard the main road leading to Yumen.
.
Sure enough, we met Ali Buge's vanguard troops and horses, and at the same time they also met the Song Army's exploration horses.
Arrangements were still being made here, when suddenly another fast horse came galloping towards us.
"It's bad! There are a thousand rebels fighting out from the west!"
Huo Chihaer was a little surprised.
He originally thought that there would always be a group of people to the south and north that would be the main force of the rebels, but he did not expect that the other party would actually use a thousand people as bait.
Moreover, the rebels should run to the east. Yumen Pass is only more than 150 miles to the east, and Ali Buge's main force is still 500 miles to the west.
This is also the reason why Huo Chihaer sent an entire team of thousands to the east.
Unexpectedly, the rebels went west. Does this mean that Brother Ali has not yet formed an alliance with Li Xia?
"They can't run away..."
Because a thousand-man team was sent to pursue the Song army and recapture the horses and baggage, Huo Chihaer's troops became stretched thin.
Although he still had 2,000 men left, he not only had to seal off the Wind Erosion Valley, but he also had to pursue Tuolifa.
Fortunately, many rebels were killed and wounded in today's battle. Presumably the rebels left in the Wind-eroded Valley are no longer strong.
So he left 500 people behind, and Huo Chihaer personally led 1,500 people to the west to bite the hairless people.
He is in no hurry for a decisive battle, his troops are coming from all directions...
~~
The hair loss finally broke through.
Using the Uighurs recruited from the foot of the Tianshan Mountains as arrow fodder, he was able to temporarily get rid of Huo Chiha'er's troops.
"Swallowing the Starry Sky: Sign in to Become a God"
He wanted to go back to Lop Nur and tell Brother Alibaba that there were Kublai Khan's troops in the east, so it was best to continue moving westward and pursue Aluhu along Tarim Lake.
This thousand-man team has lost all its baggage, and the cattle and sheep have also been left in the Wind Erosion Valley. They can't even bring out the spare horses, so they can't bring enough cheese and dried meat.
In the middle of the night, Tuolifa had to order a rest.
At this time, his soldiers and horses were hungry and thirsty, so Tuolifa ordered the horses to be killed.
It would be fine if you just stab the horse to drink blood. Based on the experience of the Mongols, the horse can recover even if it loses one-third of its blood.
But Tuolifa had a vague premonition of the war and decided to let the soldiers satisfy their hunger and thirst.
The experienced Meng soldiers caressed the horse's back, inserted the tube made of animal bones between the fourth and fifth ribs of the horse, and blew air in. Soon, the war horse fell to the ground.
The meat of a horse killed in this way will be very delicious.
One horse had enough meat to feed three hundred people, so only three horses were killed.
They didn't make a fire, they just sat on the Gobi Desert and chewed raw horse meat, then rested and recovered their strength.
A scouting horse came back from the front and whispered to Tuolifa.
"I don't know how many people dared to light so many fires. There must be a lot of people. There was no flag and they couldn't see clearly at night, but they must be Huo Chihaer's people."
Tuolifa thought about it and made a decision.
"Keep resting. Huo Chiha'er will chase him at dawn and fight him decisively..."
~~
At dawn, Huo Xiaolian mounted her horse and followed Li Xia toward the northeast.
Although Huo Xiaolian has a soft name, he is actually a burly man.
The reason why he has such a name is because he has an eldest sister in his family who is in good health. However, the two boys his parents gave birth to later died in infancy.
When he was born, Father Huo heard from the elders in the village that he had to give his baby a name so that he could grow up like his eldest sister. Hence the name.
Although she was often laughed at in the military, Huo Xiaolian did not dislike her name.
His dull and ignorant parents were afraid that he would die young, so they had no other choice but to put their worries and hopes in this name.
Moreover, it really helped him grow stronger and survive several battlefields.
In the third year of Xianding, when he was eighteen years old, he joined the army and guarded Tongguan with Mao Yi'er. In the first three months, he was beheaded five times in a hand-to-hand battle at the top of the city.
In the fourth year of Xianding, the Mongolian army once again attacked Tongguan. Huo Xiaolian went out of the city to attack at night. He killed dozens of people at one time and killed the enemy centurion. He broke into the hinterland of the Mongolian army's camp and burned Dong Wenzhong's tent.
Liu Yuanzhen and Mao Yi'er praised him one after another as the most powerful soldier in the Tongguan army.
In the first month of this year, Huo Xiaolian was very proud when she was transferred to the forward selection camp. But once she was selected into the forward camp, she realized that everyone in the camp was an elite. Even with the dignity of the King of Qin, he trained with them in person.
In more than four months, Huo Xiaolian's pride was shattered and rebuilt.
He is calmer than before, because he knows that he is not the only one in the world who has the ability. But he is also more confident than before, because he knows that the forward selection camp has been tempered.
Where is this calm confidence reflected?
When Hu Legen came back from Chang'an City, he told them that the officials said that King Qin's training of them was to delay the official business and that they were just martial arts.
In the past, Huo Xiaolian would have been really angry and unconvinced. Maybe he would have held back his energy and felt that he should work hard to show those people the credit he had made.
But after these four months, his temperament has changed.
He will make contributions, but not to show those people. He will not be impulsive because he is holding back his energy, leading to making mistakes that he shouldn't make. He has learned to be perseverant and calm...
Therefore, when Hu Legen asked "Aren't you angry?", he just answered calmly.
"We will follow King Qin to establish great achievements. In our great achievements, a few scoldings are nothing..."
This seems to be the character of the selection camp, like a dull but extremely sharp sword.
Today, this sword is unsheathed for the first time...
Li Xia's arrangement was very simple. After quietly arriving at the Wind Erosion Valley, while the troops from both sides were fighting, he looted the camp of Kublai Khan's troops.
He then ordered Hu Legen's 200 Guiyi battalion to drive thousands of war horses back to Yumen Pass, attracting the enemy's attention with the dust and smoke raised by the thousands of war horses.
Li Xia personally led the selection camp westward.
They have fewer people and are less likely to attract the enemy's attention. They also have observation tubes, so they can stay away from the battlefield and grasp the battlefield situation at the same time.
Just like a wolf, stalking around silently while two beasts are fighting.
Finally, the wolf smelled the smell of blood in the air, stepped forward, and began to walk towards the place where the beast was to be fought...
"Report, the Yuan army has caught up with the Mongolian army."
"Report, the two sides have started a war."
"Report, the Yuan army is fighting steadily and has a slight upper hand..."
In total, I only received these three reports. Although I had a telescope, I didn't dare to get any closer.
These three pieces of information were enough for Li Xia to make a judgment and issue an order.
"Surround the rear and attack the Yuan army."
The selection camp has a small number of people and a tacit understanding, so there is no need for more complicated orders.
Going northeast, bypassing a sand dune called Liangkan, a hundred riders made a big circle, turned south, and gradually reached the back of Huo Chihaer, then turned west again.
The killing cries from ahead are getting louder and louder.
"slow!"
Following Li Xia's order, the front camp slowed down, changed horses, and recovered its strength.
They are not in a hurry.
There's nothing to rush.
Huo Xiaolian was in the second row and third column. He sat astride the horse, picked up the water bag and took a sip of water.
He moistened his lips first, then swallowed the water. Then he slowly put the water bag away, took out a crossbow, and began to tune the string.
In the distance, a whistle came.
That was when the Yuan army's detective horses had discovered them.
It doesn't matter.
After waiting for a short while, when Li Xia saw in the lookout tube that the Yuan army's scouting horses had already run for a while, he gave the order again.
"kill!"
The vanguard battalion then drove their horses up and charged towards the high Uighur king's flag above the desert...