Most of the dividing lines of territory are based on the naturally formed mountains, rivers and rivers, ranging from the Sui Dynasty and the national lines of Goguryeo, Khitan, Xi, Turks and Western Regions to the small rural boundaries. The borders of the central and southern Great Lakes regions are no exception.
To the west of the intersection between the central and southern parts of the Great Lakes region is the Gobi Altai Mountains. This is a branch of Jinshan Mountain, like an arm extending from Jinshan Mountain. It extends for hundreds of miles from northwest to southeast, and ends at the crossflow of the Zhaer River. In one section, the mountains are covered with lush forests. The Yudujin Mountains to the east of the junction are in the shape of "(", so this grassland is squeezed into a narrow area.
Due to the crossing and collapse of many rivers, the Gobi Altai Mountains have formed dozens of passes of various sizes. These passes have become natural passages for pedestrians. Among them, Altai, Hanshoujiangcheng, and Bayan in the east of the mountains Bu and Zara are the most famous.
Among the many cities and passes that stretch across the grassland, the most worthy of mention is undoubtedly the Han Shoujiang City located east of Altai and west of Bayanbu: This seemingly inconspicuous rammed earth city is a glorious city with a long history. The City of Triumph was built by the Han Dynasty to accept the surrender of the Xiongnu Captain Zuo. After the city was built, Captain Zuo and his subordinates came here to beg for surrender. This also made it one of the many familiar surrender cities. The only surrender city built to accept the enemy's surrender was the farthest surrender city from the Central Plains.
Up to now, the walls of the city where the Han surrendered have long been incomplete, but among the herdsmen tribes within hundreds of miles, there are still some myths and stories related to the Han army; and the glorious deeds of the Han army have been told by the herdsmen for generations. According to legend, it has long been deified.
The remnants of Murong Bei's troops were heading towards the Han Shoujiang City. This area has high mountains and steep slopes, and is dotted with Gobi deserts. All four cities are easy to defend but difficult to attack. After much thought, he seized the surrender city of the Han Dynasty located north of the small grassland to facilitate Ashina Qilifu's army to enter the central Great Lakes region. Although he also knew that Altai, Bayanbu, and Zara in the south were equally important, he was seriously short of troops and did not dare to divide his troops to occupy them, so he could only watch as a small group of Sui troops occupied them one by one.
Murong Bei experienced a series of failures and was deeply hit. In just a few days, he became haggard and haggard. He was sitting in the hall of the city lord's palace in the Han Dynasty, thinking silently. When he thought of the bleak situation, When looking at the prospect, I couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
In total, it has been less than two months since Yang Ji's Northern Expedition, but during this period of time, he was like riding a "roller coaster". Before Yang Ji's Northern Expedition, he dominated the Great Lakes region and was not weak in strength. With Xue Yantuo and Qi Bi Ge Leng, he is only one step away from unifying the Great Lakes region. However, this short-lived glory did not bring him any benefits. Just because he had a thought of disobeying the Sui Dynasty and paying allegiance to the Eastern Turks, he provoked Yang Ji's crusade and revenge.
In just over a month, Yang Ji was able to return to his original form. Murong Bei was too lazy to care about and think about his family members and relatives who had fallen into the hands of the Sui army. However, he had less than four thousand capable soldiers, and their morale was low. The capture of the family members filled the soldiers with pessimism and despair.
Murong Bei's ambition to dominate the Great Lakes area is dead. Now he just wants to keep this army as intact as possible on the premise of guarding the surrendered city of the Han Dynasty, because he knows that as an outsider going to the East Turks, if there is no one It is impossible for soldiers and horses to gain a good foothold.
"Great Khan!" Murong Sheng entered the hall with a serious expression, saluted Murong Bei, and said nervously: "According to the report from the scouts: more than 20,000 elite cavalry led by Li Jing have appeared two hundred miles away; he obviously He was worried that Altai, Bayanbu and Zara would be lost, so he did not rest yesterday but marched all night."
"What?" When Murong Bei heard the news that Li Jing's army was coming, he felt very nervous. He jumped up from his stool and asked anxiously: "Is the news credible?"
"Very credible!" Murong Sheng replied with certainty, and suggested to Murong Bei: "Great Khan, the morale of our army is in turmoil, food is coming, and there are no reinforcements from outside. If we continue to defend, we will definitely be defeated. I I think the best way out is to abandon the city and go south before Li Jing’s army arrives.”
Murong Sheng knew that Altai, Han Shoujiang City, Bayanbu, and Zala were arranged in a "human" shape, and Han Shoujiang City was located at the top of the "human" character; after the other three cities were occupied by a small group of Sui troops, they They were surrounded in Han Shoujiang City. If Li Jing's army came from the north again, they would be unable to fly.
What's more important is that the military rations are only enough for the army for one day. Their best way out is to concentrate all their troops and go south, and then capture Altai in the southwest. In this way, they can not only escape from the encirclement, but also supply the army with Altai food. Otherwise, they would be doomed before Ashina Lifushu's army arrives.
But Murong Bei's idea was different from Murong Sheng's. Although there were not many Sui soldiers from Altai, Bayanbu, and Zala, he could indeed abandon the city and flee south. But if he can't even defend a key strategic location, how will he be able to meet Qimin Khan in the future? How to gain a foothold in Eastern Turkestan? Therefore, for the sake of future glory and wealth, he must not retreat. He must defend here until Ashina is ready to set up an army.
But in this case, he would have to divide his troops to occupy Altai, and then feed the army with Altai's food, while also leaving an escape route for himself.
Murong Bei thought for a while and asked, "How many Sui soldiers are there in Altai?"
"About 1,500 people." The army had been resting here for a day and a half. Murong Sheng knew the surrounding situation very well. After listening to Murong Bei's question, he immediately gave a more accurate answer.
"Fifteen hundred people?" Murong Bei pondered. This place is about forty or fifty miles away from Altai City in the southwest. A round trip is less than a hundred miles away. However, Li Jing's main army is three hundred miles away. , that is to say, they still have time to capture Altai.
Thinking of this, Murong Bei asked again: "By the way, how far is the army of Ashina Qilifushe from here?"
Murong Shengxu replied: "The 30,000 elite soldiers led by Zhi Shihao are already three hundred miles away in the south, and they are almost the same as Li Jing."
Murong Bei's eyes lit up and he quickly ordered: "Have someone hurry him up. And explain to him the importance of Han Shou's surrender. As long as he understands the strategic value of Han Shou's surrender, he will definitely speed up the march."
After hearing this, Murong Sheng knew that Murong Bei was determined to defend the Han Dynasty and surrendered the city. However, in order to get an accurate answer, he couldn't help but ask: "Great Khan, have you decided to defend the Han Dynasty and surrendered the city?"
"Exactly!" Murong Bei nodded and said to his cousin: "The north of this city is the Gobi Desert, which is unfavorable for fighting. No matter how many troops Li Jing has, they will not be able to spread out in the north city. We can definitely defend the Turkic army. Moreover, Li Jing has more troops. Judging from the distance between Li Jing and Zhi Shihao and the marching speed, we only need to fight hard for half a day at most. As long as we defend to the end, it will be a great achievement; if we cannot hold on, we will be nothing after arriving in East Turkestan. "
Murong Sheng was silent for a while, and then said with some embarrassment: "Although the Great Khan's idea is good, we only have enough food for one day. What should we do after eating?"
"So I decided to give you two thousand soldiers. You must capture Altai in the shortest time, and then transport the food in the city here, and at the same time let the herdsmen come to help us defend the city." Murong Bei looked at Murong Sheng and said solemnly : "We, Murong Xianbei, have fought until now, and there are only more than 3,600 people left in the city. Our fate and whether we can rise again depends entirely on you now."
"I understand!" Murong Sheng gritted his teeth and made a serious promise to Murong Bei: "Please don't worry, Khan, I will definitely capture Altai City."
Murong Bei looked at the dim sky and said, "Go and prepare. You will go on the expedition early tomorrow morning."
"Yes!" Murong Sheng exited the hall and ordered two thousand elite cavalry to prepare for the expedition.
. . . . . . . .
The precipitation originates from Jinshan Mountain in the west and is the most important irrigation river for the Han Dynasty and Altai. The southeast of the river is endless pastures and fields. Between Han Shoujiang City and Altai, there were more than 40 small tribes of various sizes and thousands of households. Some people fled to the two cities in advance before the Sui army arrived here. In the past two days, the Sui army's forwards seized the time to mobilize the remaining herdsmen and let them move to Altai City.
In the early morning of the next day, a large group of herdsmen supporting the elderly and young appeared in the white fog. They drove their cattle, sheep and horses towards the Altai City in the south. Among the dense crowds and livestock, there were also trucks loaded with food. Carriage, as time goes by, more and more people join this southbound team.
Next to the long southward migration team was a convoy of thousands of Sui army cavalry. They had received news of Murong Sheng's southward movement last night. They were urging the herdsmen to speed up while watching every move around them vigilantly.
The leader of this Sui army was Xue Ju. He and Achi followed Li Jing's order and each led three thousand elite troops southward. The two rushed here and quickly captured Altai, Bayanbu, and Zala, which were close to the Turkic army. Three hundred soldiers were left in the city to appease the herdsmen.
But what they never dreamed of was that Murong Bei, who had suffered a thousand cuts, would have left the battlefield early in the morning, but because he was hiding in Tibet, he ended up behind them. When Murong Bei arrived, they were unable to rescue him. In the end, Han Shoujiang City fell into the hands of Murong Bei. However, compared to the massive and approaching Turkic army, Murong Bei's remnant army seemed insignificant.
While Xue Ju and A Chi asked Li Jing to send elite troops to annihilate the bastard Murong Bei, they took the time to do two things based on the fact that the Turks were not good at attacking cities: first, they mobilized herdsmen to repair the walls of the three cities and build fortifications; The second was to adopt the tactic of fortifying the walls and clearing the fields, moving all the surrounding herdsmen into the city, forcing the Turkic troops who had plundered nothing to attack the city.
As long as they have a strong city to contain the main force of the Turkic army, the Sui army can allocate sufficient troops to do other things.
Xue Ju considered that Bayanbu and Zala, where Achi was in charge, were far away from the Han surrender city, but closer to the Turkic army and had more arduous tasks, so he assigned half of his troops to Achi, who was in charge of Zala City, while he took the The other half of the troops were stationed in Altai and were tasked with monitoring Murong Bei.
As for the "immigration" in front of them, it was also the largest group migrating south in recent days. In order to prevent Murong Bei from attacking, a thousand fine cavalry were used to protect them. Although they were only more than thirty miles away from Altai City at this time, the southward migration team was dragged down by the slow sheep and moved very slowly.
Looking at the team that was as slow as a snail, a team member said to Xue Ju anxiously: "General, at this rate, it will take us at least a day to reach Altai City. We might as well let the herdsmen abandon their sheep."
"No!" Although Xue Ju was also anxious, he still rejected the team leader's suggestion and explained: "These sheep will be the food for us and the herdsmen to defend the city. We must not give up."
"The general also knows what the general said. It's just that the speed is too slow." Dui Zheng said with a bitter smile: "They dragged us here, which directly affected the construction of Altai city defense. If we abandon the sheep, we will at least have more It takes half a day to repair the city defense,"
Xue Ju nodded in agreement. He looked carefully and found that these herdsmen seemed to be worried about losing their livestock, so the whole team showed that each tribe occupied a section of the road, and each tribe's team showed cattle and horses. In the front, the sheep are in the middle, and the motorcade is behind. In addition, there are many women on horseback driving the livestock forward. He told the team: "Take people to find the leaders and ask them to divide the team into three parts: first let the women drive the cattle and horses forward, and a group of young and strong men, old and young, and grain carts will be in the middle. Once they reach the city, The women and the young men went to build the city defenses. The remaining young men drove the sheep behind."
"The general also has a way!" After thinking about it for a moment, the captain realized the beauty of this method. Women are not as strong as men. Once the grain truck sinks underground, they have to disassemble the goods, which wastes a lot of time; so Xue Ju asked them to drive the fast cattle and horses ahead, and when they arrived in the city, they could carry wood and stones. But the man and the team were different. If a car sank into the ground, they could work together to pull it out and continue moving forward without wasting any time. As for the men responsible for herding sheep, they could also help the Sui army in combat.
"Go!" Xue Ju said.
"Follow your orders!" The team was rushing towards the team with its soldiers, and separately went to lobby the chiefs of each department.
Each chief asked the team to stop and walked separately according to Xue Ju's method. Soon after, the front team and the middle team left, and they soon left the "sheep team" far behind.
Just when Xue Ju breathed a sigh of relief, there was a rumble of horse hooves from the north, and a group of scouts rushed over. The leader Huo Chang shouted from a distance: "General Xue!"
Xue Ju turned his horse's head and asked in a deep voice, "What's the matter?"
Huo Chang came closer and whispered: "General Xue, Murong Bei's army has been discovered in the north!"
Although Xue Ju knew that the enemy army was coming, he was still surprised by how quickly the enemy army came. He quickly asked: "How many people are here, and how far away are they from here?"
The fire chief said quickly: "There are about two thousand cavalry, they are about ten miles away from here."
"Hey!" Xue Ju sneered and said: "Old Gou Murong actually mobilized 60% of the troops. He is really willing to spend money."
A brigade commander said with some worry: "The enemy's entire army will be on horseback, and they will be able to get here very quickly. If they attack, the sheep will really turn into big fat sheep. General, what should we do?"
"What else can we do? Defeat them of course!" Xue Ju said calmly: "Our responsibilities are as heavy as a mountain, and we are worried about heavy losses in the siege, so we let the old thief Murong survive. Otherwise, he would not be allowed to survive until now. ?Since they left the city and came to die, I will give them a ride and uproot this nail in one fell swoop."
A captain asked: "General, how do we fight?"
Xue Ju thought of the news about Murong Bei's food shortage and saw the overwhelming flock of sheep here. He had a plan in mind to defeat the enemy. He asked the scouts: "Are there any enemy scouts approaching here?"
"No!" the scout said quickly, "We have been guarding the Han Shou surrender city. As long as the enemy scouts leave the city, they will be killed and driven back by us."
"That's good!" Xue Ju showed a smile and said to the brigade commander: "You lead your troops to escort the herdsmen south, and leave some big fat sheep for me by the way."
"Here!" The brigade commander responded and ordered the herdsmen to drive the sheep in the front southward. The sheep in the back lost their master's driving and spread out to eat grass.
When Xue Ju saw that there was a lush forest to the west behind the sheep and the precipitation of Taotao Beiliu to the east, he ordered: "All officers and men of the army will follow the regiment and sneak into the forest to listen to my battle order."
"Here!" The order was passed, and nine hundred elite cavalry, led by Xue Ju, five captains, and nine brigade commanders, fled into the mountains one after another.
. . . . . . . .
Murong Bei asked Murong Sheng to seize Altai City for two purposes. The second was to open a road south and leave a way to escape. The main purpose was to supply the army with food from Altai City. However, all the more than ten tribes they encountered were empty of food. The whole army was disappointed and extremely angry. After all, this was the territory of their Xianbei Khanate. However, at the time of "national crisis", whether it was the herdsmen in the north and central part or the herdsmen here, they actually treated them as such. Like poisonous insects and ferocious beasts, they hide when they can. If the herdsmen weren't such bastards, how could they be so poor that they can hardly even eat?
In the white morning mist, two thousand troops passed by another tribe. However, upon closer inspection, they found it was empty again. This made their anger quickly build up.
"General!" A centurion came from the front and said to Murong Sheng with joy: "There are at least hundreds of thousands of sheep in the seven miles ahead. It is said that these are sheep brought to Altai City by nearby tribes. Because After hearing the news of our army's arrival, they had no choice but to abandon their sheep and leave."
"Really?" Murong Shengsheng was overjoyed and asked impatiently: "Are there any Sui soldiers nearby?"
"Yes!" the centurion said quickly: "There are more than a hundred Sui soldiers and some herdsmen fleeing to the south with more sheep, but the sheep are extremely slow, so they are not far enough away from the ownerless sheep. Five miles away, if we go south now, we can definitely catch up."
"Advance at full speed!" Murong Sheng shouted, leading two thousand cavalry to advance at lightning speed.
The whole army marched for several miles, and they saw sheep all over the mountains and fields. They were worried about hurting the sheep, so they stopped.
Murong Shengce immediately stepped forward and said with a wild laugh: "These sheep are all ours. Go and send a team of people to disperse these sheep. When we come back, we can collect them one by one."
"Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo of of of on onwards." At this moment, there was a sound of horns coming from the nearby woods, followed by hundreds of arrows whizzing towards them. The dense arrows shot towards the dense crowd like a storm.
Murong Sheng's troops gathered in front of the sheep to look at the sheep, and they were all happy. They didn't show the slightest bit of caution, and they were all hit by arrows and fell from their horses.
One wave of arrows came after another. In just three rounds, hundreds of people fell off their horses. In an instant, there were screams. The soldiers were suddenly attacked. Everyone was terrified and there was chaos.
Xue Ju in the woods saw that the opponent's team was not in order, and knew that this was the best opportunity. He shouted: "Kill them, no scraps of armor will be left!"
"Woo, woo, woo..." The charging horn sounded loudly, and the Great Sui Jingqi rushed into the chaotic enemy group like a few sharp arrows in an instant, killing more than a thousand chaotic enemy soldiers. Cut into several pieces. They were neat and orderly, charged sharply, and were extremely brave. They cut the enemy troops to pieces in the shortest possible time.
Murong Sheng's cavalry had more people than the Sui army, and their equipment was not much different from that of the Sui army. However, there was a huge gap in training. In addition, they were caught off guard and were in chaos before the battle. What's more, they didn't know about the heavy fog. How many people were there in the Sui army, so they were confused. When the Sui soldiers, who were like wolves and tigers, came and killed them, they were quickly rushed into even more confusion.
Cavalry combat does not waste time and energy on meaningless running, but pays attention to formation and coordination. A neat lineup makes command smoother, and skillful coordination can form a stronger combat power, which ultimately improves combat efficiency and increases the number of enemies killed. .
Murong Sheng's army was killed in the chaos and retreated steadily, crying and crying. They could not hold on for long and fled for their lives.
Murong Sheng roared furiously and led a group of cavalry towards a group of Sui soldiers. He knocked down seven or eight Sui cavalry in a row, and the cavalry behind him also followed him to tear the gap wide.
"Kill with me!" Xue Ju has rich combat experience. He knows that once the foreign army is ambushed, most of them rely on the bravery of the leader to regain the disadvantage. As long as the enemy general is removed, the enemy army will immediately collapse, so he previously One hundred people stayed with him, with the purpose of keeping them to assist him in killing generals.
At this time, seeing that the enemy general had been exposed from the chaos, he led his troops to kill Murong Sheng. He was like a tiger rushing into the flock of sheep, and the flying horses were like a strong wind sweeping away fallen leaves. Heads rolled, broken arms flew across the sky, and blood mist filled the long sky.
Murong Sheng's soldiers were so frightened by Xue Ju's bravery that they turned around and fled for their lives. Xue Ju ignored the defeated enemy troops and continued to launch a fierce attack in the direction of Murong Sheng. Suddenly, screams rang through the sky, turning the land into a The Shura Massacre Field.
Murong Sheng wielded his sword and slashed left and right, killing more than twenty Sui army cavalry. He was so ferocious that the Sui army soldiers were retreated steadily by him.
Xue Ju was furious. He grabbed a spear and threw it at Murong Sheng. The spear stabbed Murong Sheng in the back like a black lightning bolt.
Murong Sheng was desperately killing the enemy when he suddenly felt a sharp murderous aura coming from behind. He had no time to react, and the spear had already passed through his back. The remaining power of the spear did not weaken. After penetrating his side, it continued to attack him. A soldier in front of him had a big hole in his back.
With the death of their main general, the enemy army lost their command and quickly fell into chaos. The personal guards who lost their command only knew how to avenge their main general and swarmed up in disorder. Although there were a large number of people, there was no pattern and they fought randomly. However, the Sui soldiers cooperated tacitly and took advantage of the battle formation to continuously harvest the lives of the enemy.
When Xue Ju led his soldiers to kill Murong Sheng's soldiers, many of the enemy troops turned their horses and fled. The Sui army immediately attacked them and defeated the enemy troops, then fled directly to the Han Shou surrender city.
Murong Bei heard the news and went to the city to wait and see. He saw that the Sui army was like a rainbow and easily used bows and arrows to hunt down his defeated troops. He was so frightened that he did not dare to open the city. He could only watch the Sui army circle the city and kill his own soldiers.
After Xue Ju retreated in a majestic manner, Murong Bei sat down on the ground slumped. When he saw that all the soldiers had earth-colored faces and no intention of fighting, he knew that the Han surrendered city could not be defended. The Sui army only needed to attack once, and his own soldiers would be defeated. They would collapse. In desperation, they had no choice but to let the soldiers take all the food and grass and break out to the south while Achi relaxed his vigilance.
Achi and Xue Ju had discussed before that Xue Ju would supervise Murong Bei, so he and his deputy Li Shimo devoted all their efforts to building city defenses and relocating herdsmen, and ignored the situation of Han Shou surrendering to the city, so when they learned that Murong Bei When running towards the defense area, Murong Bei had already taken advantage of his familiarity with the Great Lakes area to successfully bypass Zala City and fled towards the Turkic army in the south with his small remaining army.
Although Murong Bei's successful escape was regrettable, as the situation changed, he had become a dispensable fish; his departure also gave Xue Ju and A Chi no worries.
