Start with the humble bridegroom

Chapter 384
Can four hundred cavalry blockade a city with a population of nearly [-]?

The answer is yes!

Kathgar's brother-in-law, Nomka, bravely organized an army of a thousand men to go out of the city to fight.Including [-] guards, [-] Qicheng occupying troops, and [-] men temporarily recruited.

Now part of this army is lying in the wilderness, almost all of the 200 strong men were captured, and only more than [-] people with fast legs fled back to Taoshan City.

Ganxiu led four hundred cavalry for a simple charge, only halfway through the charge, and Nomka took the lead in fleeing.

"I can't believe that these Anmu people were able to stop the Waqiang people for so long?"

Zhang Zhe explained to him with a smile.

"The Huzhuo fortress group in the north of Ammu has been built for more than 100 years. They have never fought field battles with the Waqiang people. Hundreds of thousands of people are guarding the fortress group. The Waqiang people lack siege equipment, so this is not true at all. Strange."

"The envoy sent by Taoshan City to Qicheng Kingdom has protruded?"

"Yes, if I didn't release the water on purpose, how could those three pony horses outrun our cavalry? But, that Kathgar will really raise his entire army to rescue Taoshan City?"

"Who knows, maybe it will, maybe it won't!" Zhang Zhe pointed to the surrounding area, "Taoshan Kingdom, especially the terrain around Taoshan City is the flattest, which is most suitable for our cavalry to fight, so I hope that Kathgar can be bold and Be brave."

"How could our highland horses (pony horses) escape the opponent's big horses? In fact, these messengers were deliberately let go by the opponent and asked them to report to me."

In the palace of Mahan City, the 52-year-old King Kathgar put down the letter of appeal for help.

All the top officials of Qicheng Kingdom were summoned by him to the palace for discussion.

Kathgar on the throne holds a pure gold scepter, on which twelve jujube-sized rubies glisten; the lychee-shaped platinum crown is covered with one hundred and eight diamonds, There is also a golden yellow diamond the size of a pigeon egg dotted on the forehead of the crown, which symbolizes the supreme authority of Kathgar in Qicheng.

"Four questions!" Kathgar stretched out four fingers to his ministers and nobles, and all four fingers except the thumb wore a huge sapphire ring.

"First of all, where do these enemies come from?"

His favorite replied immediately.

"Your Majesty, according to the description of the defenders of Taoshan City, these people have hair like the night, pupils the color of stars in the night sky, and skin the color of the sun's rays. I guess they are from the Eastern Empire?"

Kathgar laughed, and deliberately showed a look of nostalgia.

"Eastern Empire? I haven't heard of this term for a long time."

His favorites immediately began to compliment.

"Back in the day, His Majesty led a hundred warriors out of the Eastern Empire with millions of soldiers. This great achievement shines a light on the past and present of Qicheng Kingdom. A few Easterners are nothing to worry about."

Regarding the flattery of his favorite, Kasgar nodded in satisfaction.Although he knew that he had been running non-stop all the way back then, and finally escaped from Dazheng by pretending to be a slave.

"Then the second question!" Kathgar put down one of his fingers, "How did these Easterners come to our highland?"

All the nobles and ministers began to discuss, and after a long time, they had to come to an incredible conclusion.

"These Orientals came from the mountains of the Northeast!"

Kathgar also nodded in agreement with everyone.

"Then the third question, what are they doing here?"

Hearing the content of the third question, everyone remained silent, because everyone thought of an answer: Could it be that these Easterners came to avenge the king?

"It is to invade the rich and powerful Highland Four Kingdoms, and at the same time avenge the defeat of the Great Majesty many years ago!"

The favorite's answer was quick and caring.

At this moment, only one of the four fingers that Kathgar stretched out remained.

"Last question, how many people can they have?"

This is a very practical question, and the favorites and nobles are silent, this question can only be answered by the king's generals.

The speaker was Marshal Neredo of the Kingdom, a 60-year-old veteran.

"My lord, their numbers should not be many. The insurmountable death ice peak and mountains at least caused more than 300% of their casualties. The 1000-odd cavalry should be all their remaining mobile forces, and Their infantry should be more than their cavalry, but no more than [-] at most. Moreover, I judge their infantry should be hidden behind their cavalry. The Easterners want us to have field battles with them!"

"Very good judgment!" Casca affirmed Neredo's analysis, "I also judge that they should have more than 1000 troops left, and there should be a lot of wounded. This cavalry is actually a decoy. The advantage of war horses has reached a situation where they can advance and retreat. If they really go to attack the city, the losses they will cause will be unbearable!"

Someone immediately suggested: "Maybe we don't care about them, wait until their food is exhausted, and we can win without fighting!"

"Come on!" Someone immediately retorted, "We have lost contact with Luca City and Yashe City. It is obvious that these two cities have been occupied by those Easterners. No wonder they are short of food!"

The arguments of the nobles did not interfere with the speeches of the generals.

"Your Majesty, if our Qicheng Kingdom is alone, it is very likely that we will lose to the Easterners, and it will be cheaper for Baibaluo and Fangdu. Therefore, the old minister's suggestion is to contact Baibaluo and Fangdu immediately. Form a coalition to wipe out the Easterners who are entrenched in Taoshan."

"As expected, it is Neredo!" King Casca raised his scepter, and everyone fell silent, "Immediately send envoys to Baibaluo and Fangdu. Let the envoys tell them that even if it is for Liu Card's copper mine, they should also participate in the counterattack against the invaders!"

Bai Bailuo and Fangdu's reaction was much more positive than Kathgar expected.

The two countries did not expect that an army could cross the snow-capped mountains regardless of casualties and appear behind them.Not only because of the copper mine in Luca City, but also because Bai Bailuo and Fang both became afraid of the oriental obsession.

Both countries are doing their best.

On June [-]th, the first year of Longde in the Dazheng calendar, [-] Bailuo troops and [-] Fangdu troops rushed to the border between Qicheng and Taoshan at the same time, and joined the [-] Qicheng troops.

The [-] coalition army, led by Qicheng King Kasijia, marched mightily towards Taoshan City.

"About 50 heavy infantry and archers of the same size, this is the most noticeable unit. They don't have many regular horses, about [-] horses, which should be the mounts of generals and messengers. The rest are ordinary Of the infantry, no more than [-]% of the soldiers are equipped with leather armor, and there are only a handful of iron armor."

Ganxiu was on the newly built sand table, pointing and explaining to Zhang Zhe and Geng Liang that he had detected the intelligence.

"There are 500 soldiers in the front, 500 in the middle army, and 500 in the rear army. Each army is separated by about three miles, but it looks decent." Ganxiu pointed to a ridge on the sand table, "This Kasijia is very Be cautious, try to walk on narrow terrain, even if it is clearly plains that march fast, he insists on walking on ridges. The few plain battlefields we preset have been successfully bypassed by him."

"If we're going to raid them halfway, there aren't many options left."

"What other places, tell me."

"One is in the middle of the Jincao River. This river is not wide, but to support Taoshan City, it must pass through the area on both sides of the Jincao River. This is a gentle slope more than ten miles wide; and the other is in the gate. The [-]-mile-wide wilderness between Luoshan Hill and Taoshan City. The rest of the terrain is not suitable for our cavalry to fight."

After Zhang Zhe listened to Ganxiu's report, he didn't speak for a while, but just touched his chin and looked at an area on the sand table in a daze.

Both Geng Liang and Gan Xiu followed Zhang Zhe's gaze and found that there was an extremely undulating terrain.

Garland Road.

This trail is also a typical ridge terrain.There is a stream under the east slope of the mountain road, and a dry valley under the gentle slope on the west side of the mountain road. If the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms pass through the ridge, it is easy to see the situation on both sides, not to mention cavalry and even infantry. It is difficult to be effective attack them.

"When will they arrive at Garland Road?"

Zhang Zhe asked.

"They are walking very slowly, and they may pass here the day after tomorrow."

Hearing Ganxiu's answer, Zhang Zhe frowned.

"Are they learning from snails? It only took two days for the messengers from Taoshan City to reach Mahan. But it took ten days for thousands of them to walk halfway from the border!?"

"They are maintaining the physical strength of the soldiers. They will stop to rest after walking ten to fifteen miles, and they can walk up to 40 miles in a day. This is to make the soldiers ready to fight at any time." Geng Liang is an old man. As for the army, he could see the intention of the coalition army to march slowly at a glance.

"The day after tomorrow?"

Zhang Zhe was talking to himself, touched his chin again, and then picked up a few pictures of Huahuan Mountain Road and the two sides taken by Wu Renji and looked at them carefully for a long time.

"Look and see," Zhang Zhe pointed to the photos of the hillsides on both sides of Huahuan Mountain Road, "Can you find any differences between the east slope and the west slope?"

Gan Xiu and Geng Liang also took a closer look.

"Below the west slope is a valley, and the vegetation on the west slope is far less lush than that on the east slope near the stream! Uncle Master, what are you going to do?"

"It's the beginning of June, the sun is getting hotter, and the southeast wind is getting stronger day by day. Do you think that if I cut down all the grass and trees on the east slope, by the time the enemy troops pass the ridge, will the grass and trees become dry and flammable? ?”

"But they also have a lot of spies, so they won't fail to discover such a weird situation." Geng Liang shook his head, not very optimistic about Zhang Zhe's thoughts.

"Then don't cut down the grass, I'll add some combustion accelerant to the grass."

"Master Uncle," Ganxiu patted his head, a little puzzled, "Even if we set fire to Dongpo, with the help of the southeast wind, it will be very difficult to burn the enemy troops on the ridge. Smoke to the west slope."

"No," Geng Liang glanced at the photo again, "there is also a lot of vegetation on the west side of the ridge. When the east wind blows, they can't stay on the west slope, so they can only go into the valley to avoid the fire."

"Patriarch, I'm afraid they will search the hills on both sides of the valley several times during their march. I'm afraid we won't be able to hold down the army horses. Even if we drive them into the valley, we won't be able to wipe them out in time."

Gan Xiu also agreed with Geng Liang's point of view, he pointed to the valley on the sand table: "There are no vegetation in the valley, and they must not be burned."

"Hehehehe," Zhang Zhe laughed complacently, "it's not uncommon for Dongpo to burn for a day or two, and the weather is hot. Once a mountain fire breaks out, the surrounding air pressure and temperature will change, especially because Dongpo The stream below is separated by wildfires, and the area around Huahuan Mountain Road will no longer be suitable for camping. If you were there, where would you choose to set up your village?"

Geng Liang and Gan Xiu looked at each other in surprise, hurriedly explored on the sand table for a long time, and finally came to a conclusion.

"If the mountain fire breaks out, the enemy army can only advance along the valley. In order to ensure the water source of the army, there are only two places to choose to camp. One is the hill fifteen miles northwest of the valley. The mountain is full of red stones. Although the top of the mountain is not big, it also has running water, which is easier to defend and difficult to attack. It is a good place to camp. The second is to leave the valley and go westward, and camp at the river not far from the plain. This place is easy to be attacked by our cavalry. It seems that They can only choose to walk more than ten miles to build a village on Hongshi Mountain."

"In a terrain like Hongshi Mountain, where will you put the military rations?"

Facing Zhang Zhe's question, the two pointed their fingers at the top of the mountain.

In the mountains, the long marching team moved forward slowly.

Although it has entered June, the shade of trees in the mountains brought enough coolness to the coalition soldiers.

Kathgar spread his spies everywhere in the mountains and forests. If those easterners dared to sneak into the mountains and attack his army, he would guarantee that the opponents would come and go.

"If those Easterners really come to attack us, we must give up those [-] horses!" Kathgar mentioned those horses, the greed in his eyes could not be concealed, "Marshal Neredo, if there is an encounter at that time , I need you to lead someone to find and seize those war horses immediately! That is the guarantee that our Qicheng can dominate the entire highland in the future!"

"Your Majesty, please rest assured!" Neredo stroked his chest.

"Neredo, what's ahead?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the Huahuan Mountain Road is ahead, and at the end of the mountain road is our scheduled campsite for tonight."

"Oh! How's the terrain there?"

Regarding the camp of the coalition forces every night, Kasgar never took it lightly, and always asked clearly.

"The terrain at the end of the mountain road is higher. There is a stream below the east slope, where water can be obtained, and a valley below the west. They are all within the range of our bows and arrows."

"Well, that sounds great, Neredo, and trusting your decision is one of my greatest keys to success."

"Thank you for your compliment, my lord."

When the long coalition team walked up the Huahuan Mountain Road, after everyone saw the terrain on both sides, many people secretly breathed a sigh of relief.The ridge terrain where they are located, there is absolutely no need to worry about someone attacking them.

(End of this chapter)