Fenghou

Chapter 511 Horse Bandits
A soldier had rescued the young man a long time ago, and Xu Yuan understood his language. After some inquiries, he hurried back and said, "Qi Dutong, he is a Uighur herdsman. Their tribe encountered horse bandits in front, and he fled here alone. , the tribe is in critical condition, please help us!"

Chen Qing frowned, and said to Zhao Xiaoyi: "Send someone to investigate ahead immediately!"

"As ordered!"

Zhao Xiaoyi personally led more than [-] scouts to the front.

Not long after, several scouts came back to report, "Report to Dutong, there is indeed a scuffle ahead. We found a lot of corpses and cattle and sheep. We found a wounded shepherd. He said that the tribe fled to the hungry wolf valley. The bandits are also chasing after him, he has taken Commander Zhao to Hungry Wolf Valley, Commander Zhao ordered us to send a letter."

Chen Qing asked Xu Yuan, and Xu Yuan nodded, "About twenty miles to the northeast from here, there is a large valley called Hungry Wolf Valley. If the herdsmen are driven there, it will be dangerous. That valley It's a dead end."

Chen Qing immediately took out a command arrow and said to Liu Qiong: "You immediately lead two thousand cavalry to rescue, if you encounter horse bandits, you will be killed without mercy!"

"Follow the order!"

Liu Qiong took the command arrow, asked Xu Yuan to lead the way, and led two thousand cavalry to the northeast.

The Hungry Wolf Valley is a deep valley inlaid in the Qilian Mountains. It is about seven or eight miles deep and becomes narrower as you go in. At this time, a Uighur tribe was hunted down by more than a thousand horse bandits all the way. in the valley.

In the sixth year of Tiansheng Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty, the Xixia army broke through the city of Ganzhou. Most of the Uighurs in Ganzhou fled to the west of Congling, some of them belonged to the Song Dynasty, some were captured by the Xixia people, and some fled to the south of Qilian Mountains, forming the Yellow Head. Uighur.

This Uyghur tribe was part of the captives of the Xixia people. They became sheep slaves for generations, specially raising sheep for the Xixia people, and were exploited just like the mine slaves of the Song people.

This time the [-] Xixia troops were taken away, and the Uyghur tribe had no surveillance, so they decided to flee and join the Yellow-headed Uyghur, but they were discovered by the grassland horse bandits. Nearly a thousand horse bandits chased them all the way, and finally blocked them in the hungry wolf Valley.

Women, children and the elderly of the Uighur tribe were arranged in the innermost part of the Hungry Wolf Valley, and more than [-] young and strong men fought desperately with the horse bandits at the entrance of the valley.

These horse bandits were all dressed up as the Xixia army. Xixia took all the troops away, but these horse bandits were not included. Without the restraint of the army, the horse bandits burned, killed, looted and raped women even more frantically in the Hexi Corridor.

In fact, these horse bandits were secretly assigned a task to monitor the tribes in the grassland and prevent them from escaping.

At this time, the Uyghur tribe wanted to flee to join the Yellow-headed tribe, how could the horse bandits allow it? They gathered from all directions to hunt down this tribe, even if they were killed, they would never be allowed to escape.

The shouts of killing in front of the entrance of the hungry wolf valley were loud, and the horse bandits organized troops to attack again and again, but the opponent resisted desperately, resulting in heavy casualties for the horse bandits. .

The leader of the horse bandit is called Li Shabuckthorn, in his thirties, with a full face and a fierce appearance. He is actually a general of the Xixia Army, and his heart is as vicious and vicious as his appearance.

Seeing that the opponent was desperately resisting and couldn't attack, he snorted coldly, "Go and cut down the pine branches, and burn them with poison. Let's see how long they can last?"

The horse bandits went to cut down pine branches, and there were more than [-] people in front of the valley. At this moment, there was a scream in the pine forest to the west, and the horse bandits who felled the pine branches ran away, and then countless Song soldiers rushed out of the pine forest. The cavalry slashed with swords and stabbed with spears, and the horse bandits in black were stabbed countless times, causing heavy casualties.

"Get on the horse!"

Seeing that the situation was not good, Li Shabuckthorn unexpectedly had Song Jun come out. He didn't care about the other men, so he led [-] men on horseback and fled, but within a hundred steps, there was a storm of arrows in front of him, and the horse bandits rushed out one after another. Immediately fell down, a burst of arrows killed hundreds of people.

'Woo--' the horn sounded.

Ambush soldiers rushed out from all directions, and the leading general was Liu Qiong.

Liu Qiong galloped on his horse, and killed Li Shaji in an instant. The spear in his hand stabbed at his throat like lightning. Li Shaji was shocked. He had never seen such a fast marksmanship before. null.

Li Shaji secretly thought that something was wrong, but it was too late. He felt a sudden unbearable pain in his chest. He looked down and saw that the spear had pierced his chest. Li Shaji screamed heart-piercingly and fell to his death.

The other horse bandits had nowhere to flee, and they were not allowed to surrender. In the end, they were all annihilated by the Song army. The opponent was killed in less than half an hour, and the very few fish that slipped through the net were also caught by Zhao Xiaoyi's scout army.

This is Chen Qing's consistent strategy. The army spared no room and beheaded them all, while the scout army was responsible for capturing the victims and asking for confessions. The division of labor was clear.

Chen Qing's army was stationed on a grassland. At this time, Liu Qiong led the cavalry and brought thousands of Uighur herdsmen to the Song army's garrison. Chen Qing ordered the soldiers to temporarily arrange them to rest.

Liu Qiong stepped forward and replied, "Reporting to Dutong, we wiped out [-] horse bandits, including their chief general. All horse bandits within our control area were killed without any omission."

Chen Qing nodded and said: "Zhao Xiaoyi and the others caught eight people, they are sentinels on the outside, and there should be no fish that slipped through the net."

"Did this battle wipe out all the horse bandits?"

"Most of them have been wiped out, there are still some in Liangzhou, no more than [-] people, Niu Gao and the others may meet them."

At this time, Xu Yuan brought an old man into the big tent, and Xu Yuan introduced: "Emissary Jinglue, this is their chief, Sha Yimu!"

The old man knelt down and paid respects, "Thank you Jinglueshi for saving the lives of our entire clan. We will remember the Jinglueshi's life-saving grace from generation to generation!"

The old man is not exaggerating. The horse bandits are ready to use smoke and fire to attack. This is the most effective weapon against the canyon. Once the horse bandits break through the last line of defense, the fate of this tribe will be very miserable. Except for the young women, the others All will be slaughtered, and even young women will be sold in the end.

The old man was so grateful for Song Jun's timely killing.

Chen Qing asked the soldiers to support him, and asked with a smile, "How many Uighur tribes like yours are there in the Hexi Corridor?"

"There are eleven in total, concentrated in Ganzhou and Liangzhou. We are the third largest tribe. The Xixia people call us sheep slaves, that is, slaves. Seventy percent of the number of sheep raised each year must be handed over free of charge. We only have thirty percent. Being harassed by horse bandits, life is very difficult, this time the army was transferred away, we saw a chance to escape, so we fled with our family, but we didn’t expect to be followed by horse bandits, and we were almost slaughtered.”

Chen Qing nodded, "You guys have a good night's rest. Tomorrow morning, I will send troops to send you to the Yellow-headed Uighur. There will be no more danger. We will not take any of your belongings."

The old man thanked him again and again, and then went down.

Early the next morning, Chen Qing ordered Liu Qiong to lead an army of [-] to escort the Uighur herdsmen to the West Sea. He continued to lead the army northward, and at noon he passed through the Dadouba Valley and entered the Ganzhou prairie.

This is the place where the Song Dynasty dreamed of raising horses. Under the blue sky and white clouds, there is an endless grassland. The grassland is so green that people are enchanted, and there are countless swaying flowers. Chen Qing and all the soldiers are very happy. In the beauty of the prairie.

The next afternoon, the army arrived at Zhangye City. They did not find any signs of the army along the way. When they heard that the Song army had arrived, all the Xixia officials in the city fled ahead of time.

At this moment, countless Han people suddenly poured out of the city. They couldn't believe their eyes. An old man stepped forward and asked timidly, "Excuse me, are you the army of Song Dynasty?"

Chen Qing smiled and nodded, "That's right, we are the Western Army of the Great Song Dynasty!"

The old man turned his head with tears and shouted: "Yes, it is our army!"

Thousands of Han people immediately cheered and hugged each other excitedly.

(End of this chapter)