But he did not sleep peacefully. Even in his dream, danger and fear did not let him go. Tenzin was lying on the ground, his eyes closed, his muscles tensed, and his head covered with cold sweat. He seemed to be fighting with someone in the dream. Nameless things fight to the death.
"Master, Master Tenzin!" A soldier shook his shoulder, waking him up from his dream. Tenzin opened his eyes, but did not speak immediately. He was too tired to talk. After a few minutes, he stood up from the ground, put on his boots, buckled his belt, and asked, "What's the matter?"
"The thieves are moving grass!" The soldier pointed not far away and said: "We shot arrows and threw rocks at the people moving grass. They held up shields to cover, or hid behind the haystacks, which was of little use! In addition, we didn't know what the thieves were thinking. Whatever you do, forget it!"
"Want to attack with fire?" Denzin's tone was a little uncertain. Not far away, the Qiang captives were very busy. They threw bundles of freshly cut hay onto the ground not far from the mound, making it a mess. To be honest, this distance is a bit far for launching a fire attack. What's more important is that the grassland is not completely dry now, so even if it is set on fire, it won't burn very far. How to attack with fire?
"Where are those cavalry?" Tenzin looked and found no trace of those knights, and asked, "Where did they go?"
"Go back and disappear!"
A gust of wind blew bits of cold air into his messy hair, making Tenzin feel a little depressed. If you can't guess what your opponent is going to do next on the battlefield, you will probably be out of luck. But in such a flat land, the cavalry always enjoys absolute initiative. Thinking of this, he subconsciously looked to the northwest. The raised snow-capped mountains shone with holy light in the sun. For a moment, he couldn't help but think of his hometown. Holy snow mountains, flowing snow water, fertile land by the river, and herds of yaks, he subconsciously reached into his arms and stroked the copper jar, which contained the bones of his friends. He knew that he would bring the bones back to his homeland, so he Who will bring back his bones?
After thinking about it, the Qiang prisoners had already moved all the cut hay to a place twenty or thirty steps away from the mound. More than ten people were hit by stone throws, three of them were seriously injured, but no one flinched, and the injured also Just lying on the ground, gritting his teeth, waiting for the signal.
"The grass has been moved! Can we light a fire?" Tuyan Mangjiebo asked nervously.
"Wait a minute!" Acton put his finger deep into his mouth to wet it, then raised it above his head to test the wind speed: "Wait a minute, the wind is too strong!"
"The wind is too strong?" Tu Yanmang asked in confusion, "What does this have to do with it?"
"Didn't I just say that I want to eat wild honey? The wind is too strong and I will be stung by a wild bee so hard that I won't be able to swim!"
"A wild bee stings really hard?" Tuyan Mangjiebo was completely confused by Acton's riddle. She asked several more times, but Acton remained silent and kept silent. He just kept saying what he just said every once in a while. Looks like measuring wind. After trying five or six more times, he finally nodded with satisfaction: "Although it's still a little bit off, it's almost there. Handol, it's time to start!" He shouted loudly.
Hearing Acton's cry, a Mohe knight nearby responded, took out a flint and struck it twice, lit a torch, then used it to light a rocket, and pointed the bow at the distance. Hay, shot out with a whoosh, the arrow pierced the sky, drew a wonderful arc, and landed on the haystack at the bottom of the hill. The flames rose, but they were not strong. There was more white smoke, blowing up the hill with the wind.
"Are you planning to attack with fire?" Tuyan Mangjiebo asked disappointedly: "What's the use of lighting a fire like this? Besides, the grass here is still green grass, so it won't burn well at all. The Tubo people are not fools, how can they stand still?" Burn it for you?"
"No, I plan to use smoke! This kind of semi-dry and semi-moist grass produces the most smoke when burned, and I also asked people to add croton and sulfur to it. The smoke will be even more choking. As long as the Tibetan people stay on the mounds If they go up, they will suffer greatly!"
"Smoke? Then as long as the Tibetan people get off the mound, won't they be fine?"
"It's all flat ground here. They don't have cavalry, but I have one man and two horses here! They don't have antlers barrier. No matter how tenacious and resistant they are, they will be the ones who suffer the consequences!"
The Qiang girl looked at Actun's confident face with suspicion. She certainly hoped that what the knight in front of her said was true, but she had often heard of the Tubo people from her elders. With her ferocity and tenacity, she finally whispered: "I hope you are right and can defeat these Tubo dogs!"
"Cough cough cough cough! Water, give me water!"
"My eyes, my eyes! I can't see anything!"
"What trick did these thieves use to curse my throat?"
There was already chaos on the mound, and Tenzin didn't pay much attention to it at first, because everyone knew that the grass on the grassland had not completely withered yet in this season, and it was impossible for a large-scale wildfire to occur. But soon the billowing smoke came with the wind. To make matters worse, the smoke had an extremely pungent smell. He was so poisonous that his eyes were filled with tears and he could not see anything. Then, I heard crazy shouts filling my ears, as if I was being thrown into the Asura Hell described by the monks. After a while, the shouts turned into howls and moans. He felt the ground beneath his feet disappear, and something poured into his nose and mouth, burning his throat. He was desperate, in pain, and didn't know where he was. In boundless panic, Tenzin struggled blindly until tears filled his eyes. He was finally able to barely see, only to realize that he had rolled down the mound at some point and pulled out of the smoke envelope.
The top of the hill was already a scene of hell. Many people were crawling around on the ground, reaching out and groping around, making desperate roars and pleas. They were suffering from the irritation of their respiratory tracts or throats by the poisonous smoke, and some of them still had Due to the lack of strength, the Tibetan soldiers who mistakenly thought they were blind fell into madness. They waved their weapons in fear, attacked anyone or anything close to them, and fought against imaginary enemies, but most of them just killed their own companions. Or be killed by a companion. Only a few of the most astute or lucky ones left the mound and escaped the attack range of the poisonous smoke.
Tenzin groped for his head and limbs, and was pleasantly surprised to find that he only had some scratches, and the bones of his head and limbs were intact. Even the copper jar containing the bones of his friend was intact in his arms - this It must be Awang who is protecting him secretly! Tenzin said to himself. This cheered up his spirit. He stood up and shouted at the top of his voice: "Don't panic, hold your head and roll under the mound. The area covered by the poisonous smoke is not large. Just leave this area for a while." It’ll be okay!”
Tenzin's shouts had an effect. Those lucky ones who had escaped from the poisonous smoke shouted loudly. The Tibetans on the top of the hillock also dropped their weapons, hugged their heads and rolled down the hillock. Although not everyone is as lucky as Tenzin and does not suffer any major injuries, but as long as they can get rid of this terrible poisonous smoke, a minor injury is nothing!
But soon the sound of horse hooves broke Tenzin's good mood. He realized that the poisonous smoke was just part of the enemy's trick. He looked around and found that most of the people had red and swollen eyes and were in a state of embarrassment. Most importantly, there was no A few had weapons in their hands - most had lost them as they rolled down the mound. Obviously, just a few dozen Qiang slaves armed with wooden sticks could wipe out the entire hundred-man team.
"Do you want to surrender?" Aktun lifted the reins and made his mount turn in a circle. He looked at the Tibetan officer kneeling on the ground with vigilance. He could tell just from his exposed arms, shoulders, and face. Seeing seven or eight scars of various sizes, it was obvious that this was a veteran.
"Yes! We have been defeated. Please spare our lives!" Tenzin did not speak Tang dialect, but Qiang's words were correct. In fact, his mother was a Qiang slave, and he could become a Qiang slave because of his noble father's bloodline. Regular soldiers, and then relying on military merit to become deputy 100 households.
"This Tubo man said that he has been defeated, and I beg you to spare their lives!" Tuyan Mangjiebo angrily translated.
"Sparing them to death?" Actun laughed: "Ask Tuyan Mangjiebo, didn't he say that the Tibetan people are very tenacious? Even if the situation is unfavorable, they would rather fight hard than surrender!"
Tenzin listened to the Qiang girl's translation. He could hear the sarcasm in the girl's mouth, but he was not angry: "You are right. This is true in Tubo. Those who die in hard battle will be given tiger skins. The family members will also be respected; if they are cowardly, the family members will be ordered to wear fox skins as clothes and be laughed at and ridiculed by their peers. But now my men can't even see their eyes, they are just men with wooden sticks. Any woman can kill them. It’s not brave to let them fight like this, and it’s not cowardly to surrender under such circumstances!”
"That makes sense!" Acton nodded: "Come here, tie them up and count the armor, weapons, and stolen property!"
The counting results were soon reported. Sixty-four Tibetans were captured, five or six of whom were seriously injured and unable to walk. They had sixteen pairs of iron armor, more than forty pairs of leather armor, and the rest of the weapons, staffs, and equipment. Actun asked the Tibetans to make stretchers with spears and carried the wounded on the road.
"Akdon, I thought you were a good man, but you are so soft-hearted! Worse than our daughter's family!" Tuyan Mangjiebo sneered.
"Oh, why do you say that?" Acton smiled.
"You asked people to make stretchers for those wounded Tibetan soldiers to carry them back! Why not just kill them with one blow?" Tuyan Mangjiebo sneered: "You won this time. If you lose, The Tubo people will never be so kind, they will definitely understand the problem with one blow!"
"I don't have good intentions!" Actun laughed: "Actually, in the tribe before, I was just like you said. I would kill with one blow when I won. It wasn't that troublesome. These were taught by the teacher in Dinglin Temple. !”
"Teach? Why teach this?"
"Of course we are treating our own wounded soldiers!" Acton said with a smile: "Shifan said that in fact, very few people died immediately on the battlefield. Most of them died because they were injured and did not receive proper care. A battle If a thousand people were killed after the attack, at least three thousand people were injured, and at least half of these three thousand people died later. In fact, as long as most of them are looked after carefully, they will You can’t die!”
"Take careful care? What do you mean?"
"For example, use spears or flagpoles to make a simple stretcher, put the wounded soldiers on it, carry them to the tent, give them hot soup to drink, and keep them out of the rain and wind. In this way, many people can survive; if a doctor comes to help If he cleans and bandages wounds, applies medicine and takes soup, then fewer people will die!"
"Then, why do you do this?" The Qiang girl asked in confusion: "Isn't this very troublesome?"
"There are many benefits!" Acton said with a smile: "The teacher said that one veteran can equal three recruits on the battlefield, and those who have survived a war are veterans. Instead of recruiting new recruits, it is better to Take good care of the injured, and they will become veterans when they recover! And soldiers are also human beings, and they are also afraid of death. If they know that they will be taken care of even if they are injured, do you think they will be braver!"
"That's true!" The Qiang girl nodded: "You know so much!"
"Actually, I heard from Shifan that this was all said by the King Commander!" Actun laughed and said: "When the Commander-in-Chief was in Baekje, he only had 10,000 soldiers alone, but he defeated more than a dozen Baekje and Japanese soldiers in total. Ten thousand people, if he had not treated the wounded soldiers, he would have been defeated by the enemy long ago!"
"But these Tubo people are your enemies! What's the use of curing them? They won't fight for you!" Tuyan Mangjiebo asked.
"I heard you say when I came here that the Tubo people are not afraid of death, just like evil spirits!" Aktun said: "But I just heard the Tibetan named Tenzin say that I think it's not that they are not afraid of death, but that they are afraid of death." Those who are forced have to die. Think about it, according to what he said, if you retreat on the battlefield, not only will you be executed, but your family will also be forced to wear fox skins and be ridiculed for generations. This How terrible!"
"That's true! Listening to what you say, these Tubo people are quite pitiful!" Tuyan Mangjiebo sighed.
"So I want to hand over these injured Tibetans to Governor Wang and let him think about what to do! He is the smartest person in the world, and he will definitely be able to come up with a good solution!" Akdon said with a smile.
In the queue of prisoners, Tenzin lowered his head and walked slowly. The hemp rope around his neck had worn through his skin, and blood soaked the hemp rope, revealing red traces, but he seemed to have no feeling at all. Just lower your head and move forward step by step.
"You guys, yes, you guys, come here to change, go over and carry the stretcher!" The Qiang people pointed at Tenzin and shouted, the fate is so wonderful, just a day ago these Qiang people were prisoners of Tenzin and the others, and Now the wheel of fortune was reversed, with the Tibetans becoming prisoners of war and the Qiang being the escorts.
