Also in the early morning, a hundred miles away from Usha Castle.
The soldiers, led by Zhao Xuan, held a simple funeral.
Yesterday morning, Zhao Xuan led his men and had a fight with the Kangli cavalry who were pursuing them. The two sides had never fought before, and Zhao Xuan lacked understanding of the Kangli cavalry tactics, let alone expected them.
The tall horses from the Western Regions ridden by the Kangli people are so capable of sprinting over short distances.
His battlefield command inevitably made mistakes, so the soldiers suffered a lot of losses. More than forty people were killed on the spot. Later, when they retreated in a hurry, more than a dozen seriously injured people died.
When the soldiers were in a trance, it was impossible to bring the bodies back to Jinshan intact. So when they camped that night, the soldiers gathered firewood, built a fire, burned the bodies of the sacrificed soldiers, and then collected the bones and put them in special pottery.
A seal with your name should be affixed to the jar and carried by a designated person.
The military Chinese scribes wrote letters home in advance before the soldiers went off to war, and the relics of the fallen soldiers were also kept together.
Before the bodies of some soldiers could be collected, they burned the clothes and belongings they had with them and sealed them in clay pots for sustenance.
Among the soldiers who died, there were Shi Moye's subordinates, so he was also busy in front and back.
Sukhbaru, Bilig and other Mongolian officers accompanied him quietly, looking a little ashamed, a little embarrassed, and a little confused.
These six thousand households were the first group of people to rebel against the Mongolian Uluth, and they were usually treated favorably by the Zhou Dynasty as role models. After they purged the wavering people, they were generally confident and felt that they could at least compete with the gold
Thousands of households directly under the family would try to do it. Maybe they could unscrew Belgutai's head with one hand, who knows.
After the two sides fought, they did have the advantage at first. But later, they discovered that the Gold Family was still very confident, and the troops transferred from the Western Regions were even stronger.
Those cavalry from the Western Regions were severely beaten by Genghis Khan thousands of miles away. After being transferred to the grassland, they had no way out. They were probably holding back their energy to show off in front of their new masters. They simply didn't care about casualties and frequently launched offensives with the scale of ten thousand cavalry.
However, Sukhbalu and others' financial resources were very limited and they were gradually unable to support themselves.
As the leader of the army, Zhao Xuan should not have personally led his troops to fight with others. Yesterday, it was entirely because the Mongols failed to intercept the heavy cavalry of the Kangli people that crossed diagonally, which put Zhao Xuan in danger for a time. Later,
The retreat was also somewhat embarrassing.
However, in order to dispose of the remains of the soldiers, Zhao Xuan lit many fires in the field, which will definitely attract the attention of the pursuers. If Kangli's cavalry comes in hot pursuit, how should they deal with it tomorrow?
Sukhbalu and others thought that although the war was unfavorable, they had nothing to worry about with the Zhou Dynasty at their back. As long as they slowly went south to join the army launched by His Majesty the Emperor, the battle would still be easy to fight. Look at Zhao Xuan
In the past two days, the command had traveled eastward along the boundary trench for more than two hundred miles.
Go east, what's there?
It's a bit far to get closer to Taizhou from that direction. The only ones available for support are the Zhou troops in the Jinlianchuan area. In addition, I heard that the emperor's brother-in-law is gathering Han slaves in Wusha Castle. And there are many thousands of households in the eastern part of the grassland.
The tribes are also moving closer to Usha Castle, vowing to recapture the escaped slaves and lost livestock.
Most of the thousands of households in the eastern part of the grassland are not among the 95,000 households when Mongolia was founded, but they have more or less strength. If they are twenty or thirty households together, there may be tens of thousands of men and women! We bump into them head-on.
What to do?
Let's get closer, and the Western Region cavalry will arrive immediately. The situation will only become more dangerous!
Sukhbalu struggled with this matter for several days, but Zhao Xuan always seemed confident and not worried about it at all. Everyone was inevitably a little confused, but they didn't dare to ask.
This time Sukhbalu wanted to ask clearly, but Zhao Xuan was busy with the funeral affairs of the soldiers who died in the war, and he did not dare to disturb him. He could only find something to talk about and praised the Zhou court's compensation for the dead in the war to his companions.
Rich, by the way, let’s find out what the legendary Han family temple is like where sacrifices have been made for generations.
He felt that Zhao Xuan's subordinates had suffered considerable losses, but their morale was still high, and no one became depressed due to fatigue from the long journey or unfavorable conditions in the war. This was obviously inseparable from the benefits such as pensions and sacrifices.
In comparison, the morale of the Mongols was a bit low.
After several fierce battles, the two sides often continued to fight, charge, move, and mobilize for a day, a night, or even longer. The horses could take turns to rest, but the people could not relax at all. When the horses were tired, they had to lead the horses for a walk. When they were hungry,
I can't eat or drink properly when I'm thirsty.
These are the daily lives of the Mongols. Even if they surrender to the Central Plains court, they will not lose their instinct of tenacity and resistance to war. However, they cannot withstand the waves of enemies rushing out from the depths of the grassland. After continuous battles, they still show slack.
.
At this time, hundreds of cavalrymen were left behind. Some were injured and could not hold on, and some had lost their fighting spirit. On the vast and sparsely populated grasslands, a single Mongolian could make a living simply by hunting, so there was no need to worry about them.
All you need to do is return to the camp before it snows in winter. The problem is that some of them may have wavered again and left the team to return to the grassland!
Bilige murmured: "Actually, I can't blame them. It's just a war, but there is no chance of looting. After all, it's not the same as before."
"Does the imperial court need a group of thieves?"
Sukhbalu would not make a mistake in this matter. He immediately said sternly: "The imperial court will not let the Mongols use their force. Those who are truly useful will be admitted into the army sooner or later, and they will fight for their lives with military pay! Now is just the beginning!"
Bilige frowned and was about to argue when he suddenly saw light flashing deep in the wilderness.
"There's fire!"
He yelled, jumped up and pointed in the direction. Several people around him followed his instructions and saw that they were all moved.
They were obviously the Kangli cavalry spies who were following! They may have thought that the fire was dazzling here and they couldn't notice the situation in the distance, so they were not too careful when lighting the torch in their hands and raised it a little higher.
In this way, his whereabouts are exposed.
So, why was the spy so anxious to raise the fire? To whom was he raising the fire?
Don't think too much, the cavalry from the Western Regions are not far behind!
Sukhbalu didn't care to disturb Zhao Xuan, and rushed over with his horse: "Defense envoy, the Kangli people's spies have caught up with them, and they even lit torches! I will send people back to investigate, and everyone quickly prepares to go."
Bar!"
"The soldiers are all tired."
Zhao Xuan raised his eyes and looked in the direction of the fire. His face was inevitably haggard, and his eyes were bloodshot, but he said calmly: "The Kangli people can't do one person and two horses. Their large group of people can't act like this."
Come on. Let’s rest for another hour.”
"An hour?" Bilige shouted: "Half an hour? No more!"
Shi Mo also said first: "Further east, there are two small rivers to cross, and there may be swamps. The pursuers may take the opportunity to approach... The defenders, the horses from the Western Regions charged at short distances very fast and fiercely.
It's better to stay far apart so that everyone can deal with it calmly."
"Hmm..." Zhao Xuan followed suit: "Then just half an hour."
On the third day, they crossed two small rivers and crossed a salt marsh. The two families fought several more times on the road, but the pursuers were still hanging behind.
Sukhbalu sent hunters to the bushes behind the salt marsh to catch badgers and goats of all sizes for barbecue. Many knights rolled off their horses to rest. Some were injured and lacked energy due to excessive blood loss.
, half lying on the ground and immediately fell asleep.
This sense of exhaustion is also related to the frustration caused by continuous retreat and escape.
Those spies from Kangli probably felt they had the upper hand and didn't even hide their presence.
They reined up their horses on the high ground and looked around carelessly. It was not until Shi Mo also personally led people to drive them away that they left leisurely.
Shi Mo also sent dozens of extra horses to drive the spies as far away as possible. He came back angrily and suggested that he could lead some elite subordinates to set up an ambush, but Zhao Xuan stopped him.
"It's best if they follow us like this."
"Just let them follow you? They are waiting for an opportunity!" Bilige rarely spoke to Zhao Xuan in such a loud voice, and he was a little impatient.
"That's natural."
Zhao Xuan smiled and said: "We fought hard for the past few days and gave them several hard blows. In terms of casualties, they had many more casualties than us. I guess they were eager for revenge, so they would never let go."
"Defense envoy, we can't go on like this." Bilige frowned and said: "My subordinates, ahem...after all, they are not as good as the imperial government's masters. Hundreds of people have been separated in the past few days. Many of them have lost their lives.
I’m asking, what are we going to do if we keep going east?”
Zhao Xuan pondered for a while, stared at Bilige and said: "These separated people don't know what they have given up. They will regret it, and they will regret it for the rest of their lives."
Bilige took a deep breath, not knowing what to say for a moment.
Zhao Xuan turned to look at Sukhbaru and the other Mongolian officers behind him: "Even if some of your subordinates escape, why should you care? Those who escape are not worthy of serving me, the Great Zhou Dynasty."
"But……"
"I'm so tired that I'll rest for half an hour as usual." Zhao Xuan waved his hand: "Then the ministries continued to set off, leading this group of pursuers to Usha Castle! Go ahead, let's all rest now!"
Half an hour later, several exceptionally strong Mongolian horses had eaten their fill and were led to the pond, where they were carefully rinsed and rested for enough time. The spirituality of the war horses told them that they were about to go on a long journey. The horses indulged themselves.
The instinct to run makes them very excited about this.
Several Zhou army scout knights under Tian Xiong's command jumped on their horses. The horses snorted non-stop and stamped on the grass with their front hooves.
Zhao Xuan pulled the reins and said in a deep voice: "I will take those Kangli people around twice more, and the main force of the Mongolian Golden Family will definitely arrive... Tell Tian Xiong, see you in Wushabao in two days!"
The scout cavalry nodded solemnly, urged their horses and left.
The horse's hooves flew, and the knight's figure disappeared into the shallow ditch behind the bushes. The sound of hoofbeats went from heavy to light and was soon lost. A group of birds in the shallow ditch were frightened and hovered for a long time.