In the Jie tribe's camp, Shi Le sat on the sweat seat in the middle of the camp with his face as sinking as water. The tribal leaders in the audience were all dejected. For them, the overlords on the grasslands, cavalry charges were what they were best at. They were really not good at this kind of siege warfare.
Now they have an army of 100,000 and have lost nearly 40,000 warriors so far. If this style of fighting continues, even if the remaining 60,000 warriors are wiped out, it may be difficult to capture Xiguan.
Shi Le naturally knew this truth, but he was not willing to accept it. He was not willing to be driven out of Hebei Road just like that. He was not willing to let his brother die in Yancheng. Xiguan meant glory and conquest to the people on the grassland! As it was with his fathers, so it is with him.
Wutanjida, the leader of the Wutan tribe, said: "Great Khan, I believe that with your divine martial arts, you will definitely be able to conquer Xiguan! It's just that we don't have enough manpower right now, so why don't we retreat to the grassland first, and wait until the autumn harvest, and then we can attack Xiguan again!"
Utanjida did not dare to mention the withdrawal of troops directly, so he could only express his affirmation to Shi Le in a tactful way.
The first half of Utanjida's sentence was still very pleasant to Shi Le's ears, but the second half left him with a thorn in his back. He gave Utangida a hard look.
"Great Khan, the walls of Xiguan are tall and strong, and the terrain is narrow, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Instead of attacking by force, it is better to attack the Xianbei tribe. As long as the Xianbei are destroyed, we can bypass Xiguan and reach Yancheng!" Da tribe! The leader Sudarte added.
"Yes, Great Khan, why don't we concentrate our forces and destroy these idiots from the Xianbei tribe first! It was the Xianbei people who led a surprise attack on the tribe of leader Sharzhu!" Ousa Chaha said hurriedly.
Shi Le gritted his teeth when he heard the name of the Xianbei people, but he knew that now was not the time to destroy the Xianbei people. To the west of the Jie tribe are the countries in the Western Regions controlled by the Huns, and to the northeast are the Liao people who are gradually becoming stronger. Once the Xianbei people are wiped out, they will have to directly confront the Western Liao people.
Although the Jie people are fully confident in facing the Liao people, in that case, the Jie people will have to defend against two enemies at the same time, the Huns in the west and the Liao people in the northeast. Moreover, the cold and barren land in the northeast is not the goal of the Jie tribe.
Thinking of this, Shi Le no longer hesitated. He calmed down and said: "Xiguan is very important to us. Our first goal is to capture Xiguan City and control Hebei Province, so that we can have more energy. Deal with the Liao people."
"Now you immediately send people back to your respective tribes, and recruit 50,000 warriors to come for support. You must reach Xiguan within a few days!"
Utanjida was the first to speak: "I obey the order of the Great Khan, but Great Khan, I have a worry, I don't know if I should talk about it?"
Shi Le glanced at Utanjida with a blank expression, and said coldly: "Speak!"
"It's the Great Khan. It's okay to send people back to the tribe to recruit warriors. But what if Daxia's reinforcements arrive by then?"
After hearing this, Shi Le showed a trace of hesitation. He knew that what Utanjida said was right. If Daxia's reinforcements arrived, it would be difficult to determine the outcome.
Seeing the hesitation on Shi Le's face, Utanjida continued: "I know that the Great Khan is unwilling to destroy the Xianbei people because he is worried about a direct war with the Liao people, but we believe that as long as the Great Khan promises huge profits and carves up Hebei Road together, I believe that the Liao people will be willing to form an alliance with us and jointly attack Daxia."
The other leaders who heard this couldn't sit still, because whether in Shi Le's eyes or in their eyes, Hebei Road could only belong to the Jie people.
Sudartie said: "It's impossible. Hebei Road must not be given to the Liao people, otherwise it will definitely become a big disaster in the future."
"Yes, Great Khan, we can't give it to the Liao people!"
Shi Le looked at Utanjida and said: "You heard, Hebei Road is the place where our fathers conquered. It can only belong to us Jie people. We will never give the land to others. This is our bottom line."
Utanjida cursed these idiots in his heart, but he still explained patiently: "Great Khan, we are not giving up Hebei Road to others, but we are trying to drag the Liao people into the water and let them help us attack the Great Khan." Xia, once the time is right, we can take advantage of the situation to destroy the Liao people and completely annex them."
Su Da's ear sticker said angrily: "Humph, the Liao people will be so obedient! Khan, as long as we destroy the Xianbei people, I think we can directly destroy the Liao people without so much trouble!"
"The Liao people are in the same place as our Jie people, which is extremely cold. They also yearn for the warm territory in the south. It's just that they are not strong enough yet and do not have the ability to fight Daxia alone," Utanjida continued.
Shi Le thought about Utanjida's words repeatedly. In fact, deep down in his heart, he was unwilling to do this because it would make his warriors appear incompetent, but he had to admit that this was a good method.
While several people were discussing in the camp, a soldier walked in from outside the camp and said: "Report to the Great Khan, a letter has been sent from Xiguan."
Everyone in the camp was stunned. A letter? Everyone was whispering, curious about what the letter contained.
Shi Le took the letter in his hand. He didn't recognize the Chinese characters on it, so he told the soldiers: "Go and find a Daxia slave."
The soldier responded and left the camp. After a while, a middle-aged man with a weathered face and a dirty sheepskin coat was brought into the camp. It has been almost 20 years since he was plundered by the Jie people and brought to the grassland. Judging from his appearance, he no longer looks like a Han Chinese.
Shi Le handed the letter to the middle-aged man: "Tell me what is written here."
The middle-aged man unfolded the letter and scanned it roughly. To be honest, after living on the grassland for so long, he almost didn't recognize Chinese characters.
The middle-aged man read the letter carefully before speaking: "Reporting to the Great Khan, the letter said that they allowed us to recover the bodies of the fallen soldiers."
"It's a joke, what's the use of having corpses? There are no wolves here," Sudarte said.
The middle-aged man said tremblingly: "But they said that if we don't take the body away, they will burn the body with fire."
Hearing this, Sudartie couldn't sit still anymore. He stood up from his seat angrily and cursed: "Assholes, how dare they destroy the bodies of our Jie tribe warriors."
In the eyes of the Jie people, dead people must die naturally. Only those who have committed the most heinous crimes will be burned and their bodies burned. This is an insult and blasphemy to the deceased. The soul of a body burned by fire will continue to be tortured. It is intolerable in the eyes of the Jie people.
If the Xiguan defenders were allowed to do this, it would greatly affect the momentum of the Jie soldiers. Amidst the constant curses, Shi Le ordered someone to collect the bodies of the soldiers.
So on the next day, there was no more siege incident under Xiguan City. Thousands of soldiers came to Xiguan City and began to use horses to carry the bodies of the Jie tribe. One horse could carry four or five people.
The corpses were not transported back to the Jie Clan camp, but were transported directly back to the grassland. These corpses would be discarded on the grassland. It didn't matter whether they were eaten by wolves or eaten by vultures.
In the evening, after the bodies of all the Jie tribesmen under the city were taken away, another letter was delivered to Shi Le's tent.
"What's in the letter?" The middle-aged man was once again brought to the camp for questioning.
"The letter back to the Great Khan said that they wanted to negotiate with the Great Khan. If they surrender, will the Great Khan agree to their terms?"
All the generals in the camp were surprised. Utanjida even exclaimed, "Surrender?"
