The desertification of the Hexi grassland is relatively serious. Although it has not completely turned into a desert as it was in later generations, the half-sand and half-loess ground is extremely soft. Especially when a heavy rain has just passed, the grassland has almost turned into a mud pond.
exist--
The water that had no time to seep away accumulated in a depression on the grassland. Looking from a distance, it looked like a vast country. When horses stepped on it, mud splashed and water splashed into a curtain. No matter it was Li Xian's troops who were escaping, or they were chasing after them.
The large groups of enemy cavalry are unable to perform as well as in the past.
Li Xian's speed was 30% of what he should have been. At such a slow speed, after nearly a quarter of an hour of chasing, the distance between the two sides never changed much and remained at about 300 steps. This situation made Li Xian feel uneasy.
Some people are getting anxious -
- There are still more than two hours before dark, but the water is seeping out very quickly. Soon after, when the grass dries up, it will be much more difficult to get rid of the pursuit of the large group of enemy cavalry. If it can't be delayed until dawn
Hey, I'm afraid the consequences of this battle won't be much better.
It was impossible to count on reinforcements. Because Li Xian returned to Lanzhou in a hurry, he neither arranged for Gao Gao's troops to escort him nor notified the states and counties along the way of his whereabouts. Therefore, no one would know that Li Xian was here.
Currently being chased by a large group of enemy cavalry, Li Xian can only rely on his own strength to escape, and this is obviously not an easy task. How to deal with this disaster has become Li Xian's first and key consideration -
—I’m willing to run away directly
There is no way to escape. When the horse speeds of both sides are almost the same, after the water subsides, the enemy cavalry with absolute superiority in strength will have countless detours and outflanking tactics to choose from. Fighting? It is a last resort.
Choosing a direct challenge would be tantamount to suicide. If you really want to fight, you have to choose a situation that is beneficial to your own side. In view of this, Li Xian's mind started to work quickly, searching for the terrain along the way.
"Follow me and turn left!"
Li Xian's memory was extraordinary, and he had already made a decision without much thinking. He saw that the puddles on the grass in front of him were getting smaller and smaller, and he did not dare to delay any more, so he roared and said,
He twisted the horse's head, turned sharply, and rushed to the left.
When he went out, the guards who were following Li Xian saw this and did not dare to neglect. They turned their horses and followed Li Xian closely. The large group of cavalry who were chasing after him also turned.
, still insisting on following in the footsteps of Li Xian's troops.
Accelerating, accelerating, accelerating again, as the water dissipated, the horses of both sides increased in speed. Although the distance between them did not change much, the large group of cavalry chasing them had already begun to make circuitous tactical movements.
Each of the two branches has a hundred
The human cavalry squad separated from the main formation, discarding long weapons, shields and other cumbersome things, holding only the horizontal sword in their hands, and started to accelerate crazily from left to right, firing three arrows in an attempt to attack Li Xian.
The whole group formed an encirclement trend.
"Abandon armor!"
Li Xian was always observing the actions of the enemy cavalry while running. When he saw that the enemy cavalry had actually adopted a roundabout tactic, he couldn't help but trembled in his heart. He calculated the time silently and saw that if he continued running like this, he would arrive at the destination.
He was bound to be overtaken by the enemy cavalry, so he did not dare to hesitate, so he waved his hand and shouted decisively. With this order, more than thirty personal guards from Liu Ziming onwards drew their swords and cut off the connections on the armor.
rope
, after a period of chaos, more than thirty armors were thrown on the ground. Under the light armor, the horse's speed suddenly increased by three points, and the distance between the main force of the enemy's cavalry was increased to more than 400 steps in an instant, but it was still unable to do so.
Escape from the two enemy light cavalry on the left and right and pursue them directly. Of course, the two light cavalry can no longer shorten the distance of less than two hundred steps between the two sides. Fundamentally speaking, the situation of pursuit and escape has not changed much.
It can be said.
"Abandon your horse and enter the forest!"
After more than half an hour of chasing, although Li Xian's troops were already lightly armed, they were tired soldiers who had been chasing for several days. Although the people were fine, the horses were extremely tired. The two enemy troops
The Qingqi had already chased Li Xian at a furious pace to a distance of only eighty paces from Li Xian's headquarters. Li Xu was chasing him again, and Li Xian
Even if his troops had wings, they could not escape the danger of being entangled by a large group of enemy cavalry. Fortunately, at this time, Li Xian's troops had successfully rushed to a mountain forest. Seeing that they had arrived at their destination, Li Xian was in a happy mood.
He was a little looser, but he still didn't dare to be careless. He waved his hand, shouted loudly, and took the lead in jumping off the horse with a rolling saddle.
Liu Ziming and others were all elites in the army, and they were all skilled in equestrian skills. When they saw Li Xian dismounting, they did not dare to be negligent. They all jumped into the air and jumped off the horse. As soon as they landed, there was no need to do anything.
After receiving the order, they formed a tight formation, followed Li Xian one after another, and rushed into the woods. At the same time,
However, I heard the lion horse neighing loudly at Zhaoye, letting go of its four hooves, leading more than thirty empty horses to quickly walk around the forest. Without counting the breath, they ran out of sight. Two Qingqi, who were chasing after them, saw
In such a situation, they didn't know whether to chase or not for a moment. They all reined in the galloping horses outside the forest, and some of them stared blankly at the dark dense forest.
"What's going on? Why don't you chase me?"
Just when the two light cavalry were at a loss, the main force of the enemy army had arrived. A burly, masked man rushed forward on horseback and shouted angrily.
"Report, boss, that little thief has taken people to hide in the woods. We are afraid of an ambush, so we don't dare..."
Hearing the scolding, a small leader hurriedly rode forward to meet him. He got off the horse with a rolling saddle, put one knee on the ground, and reported anxiously.
"Damn, what an ambush, that guy ran away in confusion, where did the ambush come from, a bunch of trash!"
Upon hearing the little leader's explanation, the burly man couldn't help but burst into rage. Without waiting for the little leader to finish his words, he cursed and waved his riding crop, and whipped it hard, killing the little leader with just one blow.
He screamed and fell to the ground.
"Ahem."
Before the burly man could continue his attack, he saw two cavalrymen slowly marching out of the cavalry group. The first one was dressed in black and wore a cloak with a mask on his head. He just gave two soft fake coughs, and the burly man stopped.
After his pointless tantrum, he rode his horse back to the cloaked man, bowed slightly in a flattering manner, and said with a sneer: "Mr. Sun, that fellow has fled into the forest. Look at this..."
"Without a horse, he can't escape. A certain family will lead half of its people to wait outside, and you will lead half of its people into the forest. They will see people alive and corpses when they die!"
The man in the cloak did not immediately answer the burly man's question. Instead, he raised his hand and slightly lifted the cloak. His veiled eyes stared at the dense forest insidiously. After a while, he finally squeezed out from between his teeth.
A cold remark.
"Ah, this..."
The burly man was obviously afraid of the cloaked man. Although he was reluctant to lead people into the forest, he did not dare to say the word "no" and was stunned on the spot with his mouth open.
"Um?"
Seeing that the burly man did not follow the order, the cloaked man was obviously very unhappy, but he did not get angry, he just snorted coldly from his nostrils.
"Forget it, Sha can just go, but that guy's martial arts is superb. I'm afraid Sha won't be his match. It would be bad if something goes wrong. Mr. Sun, look..."
Being forced by the cloaked man, the burly man did not dare to hesitate any more, but he obviously lacked confidence in his heart, so he frowned and explained.
"Pop!"
The cloaked man did not directly answer the burly man's words, but raised his hand and clapped his palms twice. Then he saw the figures behind him flashing, and six masked men in black flew through the air and landed in front of the cloaked man's horse, each bowing.
He saluted, but did not speak.
"I'm just going to lead people to search, and if I find anything, I'll alert you immediately. The other six of you will take care of it."
The cloaked man raised his hand to signal the six men in black to stand flat, then turned his head towards the burly man and gave instructions in a cold tone.
"That's very good." The burly man was obviously unwilling to fight with Li Xian in every possible way. Hearing that he only had to be responsible for the search, he calmed down and didn't insist any more. He cupped his fists and received the order. He turned around and faced
He shouted to the two teams of Qingqi in front: "All dismount and follow me into the forest. Listen carefully. Don't take credit for your work. If you find any trace of the thief, call the police immediately!"
"promise!"
As soon as the burly man gave the order, the two hundred light cavalry immediately agreed loudly and got off their horses. Under the leadership of the burly man, they divided into ten teams and dispersed into the dense forest.
"Your Highness, thieves have entered the forest!"
The mountain forest is very large. It is a branch of the Qilian Mountains extending to the west of Hexi. It has lush vegetation and wild animals. It is a good place for Tibetans. Not to mention the dozens of people in Li Xian's party, even thousands of troops can be accommodated. If it is true,
To hide, even if there were ten times more enemy cavalry chasing after them, they would never be able to find Li Xian and others. However, this was not Li Xian’s purpose. It was not because he was afraid of lack of food.
However, Li Xian did not have the time to waste it. If the Lanzhou incident was not resolved, it would be difficult for Li Xian to sleep peacefully. Therefore, after Li Xian led his troops into Lin, he did not go too deep into the forest.
He hid in the edge area, waiting for darkness to come, but what awaited him was not darkness, but the enemy's large-scale search of the forest. This made Li Xian's murderous intention arouse in his heart.
"Ziming, I will lead five men to kill to the left, and I will go to the right alone. Mingwu will lead the rest of the people to set up defenses on the spot. Once we encounter the enemy, we should not be reluctant to fight. If there are even a few casualties, we will retreat a hundred feet to assemble. Hey, how dare the thieves
Come, I will let you come and go!"
Li Xian was murderous, but he had no intention of passively defending, so he gave a cold-faced order in a low voice.
"promise!"
Liu Ziming is a hunter. He has been accustomed to hanging out in the mountains and forests since he was a child. He is not afraid of jungle combat at all, and his answers are very straightforward.
"Your Highness, it is better for you to stay behind. I will ask for orders to lead people to attack and kill the thieves."
Zhang Mingwu had just been transferred to Li Xian's side not long ago. Although he had heard many legends about Li Xian's martial arts skills, he had never seen it with his own eyes. When he heard that Li Xian was going to attack alone, he immediately panicked and hurriedly tried to persuade him.
One sentence.
"No need to say more, Gu Zi has a sense of propriety, Ming Wu just needs to guard this place."
Li Xian waved his hand and stopped Zhang Mingwu's words. In a flash, he disappeared like a ghost.
"Your Highness, alas, this..."
Zhang Mingwu didn't expect that Li Xian would leave as soon as he said so. He was about to shout, but he was afraid of alerting the thieves who were searching in the forest. For a moment, his eyes turned red with anxiety.
"Mingwu, don't worry. No one in this world can keep our highness. Hehe, just wait and see the show. Qi Xuan, Wan Cheng... you will go with me and kill the thief!"
Liu Ziming had absolute faith in Li Xianzhi's abilities. Seeing that Zhang Mingwu was extremely anxious, he persuaded him with a smile. Then, regardless of Zhang Mingwu's expression, he ordered five of his more skilled guards.
He quickly dodged to the left.
"Set up your formation and prepare to kill the thief!"
Seeing that Li Xian and Liu Ziming had left one after another, Zhang Mingwu, although he was full of worries, had no choice but to stamp his feet and issue the general order in a low voice...