Tibet.

Chapter 1353 A Crucial Battle (Part )
Thirty thousand cavalrymen were charging at them, and they had entered the 200-step line. Guo Ziyi gave the order: "Fire the arrows and torpedoes!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Drums beat loudly, and five thousand large crossbows were fired at the same time. Five thousand arrow torpedoes were shot out at the same time, disappearing in the air in an instant, and shot towards the rear of the enemy cavalry in a black mass.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" There was a huge explosion where the bombs hit the ground, which was extremely spectacular. It was not the explosion of fifty bombs, but the explosion of five thousand bombs. If one bomb killed two people, that would be ten thousand people, not to mention that it was far more than two people.

There were violent explosions one after another, the sound of the explosions covered the screams, and thick smoke filled the air.

The cavalry in front were so frightened that they pulled at the reins one after another. The cavalry behind charged forward, shouting and neighing, and the battlefield was in chaos.

Ten thousand heavy crossbow soldiers quickly coordinated to string the bows, loaded the second arrow torpedo, lit the fuse, and fired again.

Five thousand arrow torpedoes were fired again at the dense group of cavalry. After the first round of explosions, the smoke of the battlefield had not yet dissipated and the Khitan cavalry were still in shock. As a result, the second round came, and again there were large groups of violent explosions among the crowd.

The commander-in-chief of the Modao Army, Xu Zongran, could not help but let out a long sigh. In this battle, their Modao Army had no chance.

Like all the Khitan soldiers, Yelu Salad was stunned by the explosion. When the smoke cleared, he saw thousands of cavalrymen rushing back desperately. In just two rounds of explosions, more than 25,000 people were killed or injured.

This frightened the remaining 60,000 Khitan troops.

At this time, the Tang army horn sounded, and Xi Wanli led 30,000 cavalrymen out, followed by 10,000 spearmen.

Yelu Salad knew that his army had lost all morale, but he did not dare to retreat. Once he retreated, the infantry would cause the entire army to be defeated.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and shout, "All troops, go and fight!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The 60,000 Khitan troops had to fight with all their might, with 20,000 cavalry in the front and 40,000 infantry in the back.

The two armies gradually approached each other, and the Tang cavalry drew out explosive arrows, drew their bows and shot at the enemy cavalry.

They used old-style explosive arrows, which were easy to explode. They would explode whether they hit the enemy's armor or touched the ground. Since their introduction, they have caused hundreds of Tang army casualties.

To this end, the Firearms Bureau made another improvement, replacing the small pottery jar at the front end of the explosive arrow with a small porcelain jar, making it less fragile and would only explode when hitting hard objects such as stone slabs and wooden boards.

Although the safety was greatly improved, its practicality was greatly reduced, so it was not as popular among the Tang army soldiers as it was initially.

Under the strong appeal of the majority of officers and soldiers, the Privy Council made improvements, allowing the two types of explosive arrows to be used at the same time, and distinguished by color, red for old and black for new. At the same time, the scope of use was restricted. For example, the old explosive arrows were not allowed to be used during training. In addition, the special quivers were improved. Most accidents were caused by soldiers accidentally causing explosions when drawing arrows.

With a series of targeted improvements and the soldiers' increasingly skilled operations, the number of explosion accidents has dropped rapidly, and no explosion has occurred in the past two months.

At this time, the Tang army soldiers used red-feathered explosive arrows, which were old-style explosive arrows that would explode regardless of whether they hit the enemy or not.

Thirty thousand Tang cavalrymen shot tens of thousands of explosive arrows in an instant, which rained down on the enemy's twenty thousand cavalrymen, causing a series of crackling explosions. Countless Khitan soldiers screamed and fell off their horses, and more than five thousand people were killed or injured by the arrows.

The rest of the cavalry had already been frightened out of their wits and turned around to flee, with 3,000 Tang cavalry chasing after them.

The rout of 20,000 cavalry triggered the desperate escape of 40,000 infantrymen behind them. The Khitan army was defeated. Yelu Salad’s repeated calls to stop them failed. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, he could only sigh and ride his horse to escape.

The 30,000 cavalrymen of the Tang army chased for nearly 40 miles in one breath. The 20,000 cavalrymen led by Xi Wanli were extremely powerful. They did not rush to kill the enemy soldiers, but stabbed them with a spear and continued to chase, leaving the 10,000 cavalrymen and 10,000 infantrymen who came from the back door to finish off the enemy. This was extremely efficient, and tens of thousands of Khitan troops eventually could not escape death.

Of the 90,000 Khitan troops, only Yelu Salad and several thousand cavalry escaped the pursuit of the Tang army, while the rest of the 90,000 troops were completely wiped out.

But the Tang army did not stop the pursuit. Zhang Dian led 10,000 cavalrymen all the way north to pursue. According to the order given to them by the emperor, Yelu Salad must be killed and none of his descendants were allowed to be spared.

This is a red edict and also the highest edict of the Liaodong Campaign. Although he didn't know why, Guo Ziyi still carried out the order without fail.

This task fell on Zhang Dian. At dawn the next day, there were faint shouts of killing ahead, and Zhang Dian immediately led the cavalry to follow.

All they saw were corpses of Khitan cavalrymen lying all over the ground. They were the thousands of Khitan troops that they had chased for more than eighty miles. They were intercepted by Nan Jiyun's army, and after a fierce battle, almost the entire army was wiped out.

When Nan Jiyun heard that Zhang Dian was going to pursue Yelu Salad, he hurriedly ordered the entire army to search for the body, but they did not find the target.

At this time, a Langjiang said: "General Nan, I saw about a hundred cavalry guards breaking out to the northeast."

Zhang Dian was very anxious and wanted to lead his troops to chase after them immediately. Nan Jiyun quickly prepared two horses for Zhang Dian and gave him a month's worth of dry food.

Zhang Dian then led 500 elite cavalrymen to chase in the northwest direction.

Among the three armies heading north, Guo Ziyi had to fight against the main force of the Khitan. His troops did not dare to move too fast, for fear that the team would be stretched too long and be ambushed by the enemy. Nan Jiyun's army had to cooperate with Guo Ziyi, so they also could not move too fast.

Only Ma Lin's army had a clear mission, which was to sweep through the Khitan's lair. The 50,000-strong army had no worries and marched quickly all the way, entering the Xidi a few days ago.

The army marched northward. That morning, a river suddenly appeared in the distance. They set up endless tents on both sides of the river and found the Khitan's lair.

Ma Lin drew his sword and shouted, "Charge in, and kill all the men without mercy!"

Fifty thousand troops rushed towards the Khitan's lair.
Three days later, Guo Ziyi's army also arrived at the Khitan's lair. At this time, the 50,000 Tang troops had combed the entire Khitan tribe several times like combing hair with a comb.

Like the Xi people in the south, all the Khitan nobles were slaughtered, regardless of gender, age or status. The remaining young and strong men who dared to resist were also killed by the Tang army. Only a small number of older men and more than 200,000 women and children were left, all of whom were ordinary people.

Of course, although the Khitan tribe was large, with a population of nearly one million, the core tribe was not populated by a large number of people, only a few hundred thousand, and the rest were dependent tribes, such as the Xun tribe with a population of more than 200,000, a part of the Xi people, the Shiwei people, the Mohe people, the Bohai people, and so on.

These dependent tribes basically left more than ten days ago, each going to find places to make a living or to rely on other tribes.

The Khitan had been fighting for more than 20 years without stopping, and the army had suffered heavy losses. This time, the Tang army launched the final decisive battle against the Khitan.
Except for the nobles, the rest of the Khitan young and strong men were all equipped and they put together an army of 90,000. Now all the young and strong men were gone, leaving only middle-aged and elderly men. In addition, the average life expectancy of the Khitans was very short, with most people only living to over 40 years old, and the nobles could live to 50 or 60 years old.

After killing all the nobles, there were basically not many adult men left, less than 10,000, and the rest were children under the age of fourteen.

Guo Ziyi was always prudent and calm. He did not allow his soldiers to violate these Khitan women. Instead, he gathered them together, put them on large carts, swept away all the Khitan's wealth, and marched towards Yingzhou in a mighty procession.

Guo Ziyi was thoughtful. Many of his soldiers did not have wives, so he considered selecting tens of thousands of young women to be wives for his soldiers.

To preserve their innocence is actually to preserve the reputation of their own soldiers.

He told his men his idea, and his generals unanimously agreed not to indulge the soldiers.

The soldiers were also required to register and those who were willing to marry these Khitan women were required to register, and selection and pairing would take place in Yingzhou.

The Khitan nation had been destroyed, but there was still one last detail, which was Zhang Dian's pursuit of Yelu Salad.

Zhang Dian was known as the number one scout in the Tang Dynasty. He had rich experience and strong tracking ability. He kept a close eye on the enemy based on the traces and smells left by his horse's hooves.

In the hilly mountains in the north, Zhang Dian had been tracking the enemy for three days. Yelu Salad tried several methods but failed to get rid of Zhang Dian. Instead, his men continued to decrease, from 120 at the beginning to more than 50. Some of them were sent out by him, and some secretly left him.

At this time, they had entered the territory of the Shiwei tribe. Yelu Salad had a good relationship with the Shiwei tribe and he was determined to find the Shiwei tribe. They had been out of food for two days, and if they continued to endure, they would eventually starve to death.

At noon, after crossing a hill, Yelu Salad suddenly saw hundreds of large tents at the foot of the mountain. He was overjoyed and ran towards the tents with the last fifty of his men.

Two hours later, Zhang Dian and his men also discovered the group of tents.

At the same time, he found the horse hooves that had been tracking him all the way outside the tent group and disappeared among the tent group.

(End of this chapter)