Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 8

The patriarch of the Xiongnu sat in the tent, closed his eyes and meditated. Several Han women knelt on the ground, holding Hujia huqin, and bowed their heads to play music.

Perhaps it was frightened, and it was also because of not sleeping well, the girls played a bit messy, only one of them played without any mistakes.

The Xiongnu patriarch thought to himself that this girl is proficient in rhythm, after two months, she has already played Hu Jia as if she has learned it for several years.

If this girl is beautiful, she may be included in his account, but this girl is extremely ugly.

Not to mention his facial features are a little crooked, and the birthmark on his face is black and red, which is extremely scary, and people don't want to take a second look.

According to her own account, she was burned by a charcoal fire when she was a child, which disfigured her appearance.

The patriarch of the Xiongnu once became suspicious and asked someone to wipe her face vigorously. As a result, the woman's face was bleeding from the wet cloth, but the black and red color did not fade at all, so the patriarch gave up angrily.

Hearing the uneven music, he felt a sense of irritability for no reason, and drove the girls out.

He has a noble status, and in order to prove himself to his father and his tribe, he has been plundered in Han all the year round, and his armor is much stronger than that of other Xiongnu tribes.

This time, taking advantage of the civil strife in the Central Plains, he led hundreds of young men to dispatch together. After half a year, he robbed many places and made a fortune.

Now as long as they leave the valley and walk a few hundred miles to Bingzhou, they can return to the tribe and reunite with their wives and daughters!

Everyone is eager to return home, but now the team of hundreds of elite soldiers has been harassed by dozens of hunters who don't know where they came from, making it impossible to advance or retreat!

Not right!
There must be something wrong!
What are the benefits of those hunters doing this?
When he thought of this, he was terrified, stood up and walked out of the tent, shouting: "Move immediately, go north out of the valley!"

Last night the Xiongnu soldiers tossed and tossed all night and didn't sleep well. Now they were woken up after less than an hour of sleep. Everyone had a tired look on their faces, and they dressed slowly.

There was a cavalryman wearing armor and wanted to put the armor on the carriage beside him, but the general came over and shouted: "Why, the enemy will appear at any time, why don't you think about the armor?"

The cavalryman cursed inwardly, reluctantly put on the armor and was about to mount the horse, but the general cursed again: "You want to exhaust the horse to death?"

"What if the enemy army comes and the horse can't run?"

The cavalryman couldn't bear it anymore, and complained: "I didn't sleep last night, I'm already weak, and now I have to walk in armor. If I really want to fight, what should I do if I don't have the strength?"

A few soldiers next to him also echoed the words, and the scene was a bit chaotic for a while.

In fact, the reason why both sides say this is because of the habit of fighting on horseback.

On the battlefield, the factors that determine victory or defeat are the right time, place and people.

Human harmony is the human factor, morale, weapons, armor, formations, strength and weakness are all very important.

Whoever can maximize the strength of soldiers on the battlefield will be able to control the outcome of the battlefield.

In fact, a key factor is the physical strength of the soldiers.

No matter how powerful a soldier is, if he is exhausted when he goes to the battlefield and cannot display all his abilities, it is useless.

Therefore, since ancient times, how to preserve the physical strength of soldiers before going to war, or even during battle, has been the most important thing for generals.

The first is armor weapons.

When the battle is not going on, when the troops are marching, the soldiers have to transport all their weapons and armor on the baggage cart, and they only wear light clothes to accompany them.

In this way, even if they rush for dozens of miles, the soldiers still have the physical strength to fight the enemy.

If it is like in later generations of movies and TV, the soldiers are all marching with weapons in full armor, and after a long time, the soldiers will not be able to lift their hands.

At this time, most people wear straw sandals, and if they walk for a long time with heavy loads, their legs and feet will be ruined.

In this way, I am afraid that within a few days, the soldiers will be abolished.

It took a long time to march forward with heavy loads. Most of the soldiers were already exhausted and paralyzed even if they were not exhausted. How can we fight?
Therefore, it is common practice in the army that soldiers should pack lightly and travel lightly, and if they should carry heavy loads, they should all be handed over to the baggage carts.

This is also the reason why a sneak attack is easy to win a big victory, because whether it is at night or on the march, the raiding party is well-armed, and the raided party is empty-handed and unprotected. After being intruded by the opponent, it is extremely easy to The whole army collapsed.

This is also the reason why General Hu asked the cavalry to wear armor. They were harassed last night and the enemy's situation was unknown, so they naturally needed to be vigilant.

But here comes the problem. Cavalry wear armor. If they ride on horseback, it will greatly increase the burden on the horse.

War horses are more valuable than soldiers. If the horses lose their strength and cannot run on the battlefield, the cavalry is worthless.

In fact, it is difficult for a good warhorse in the Northland to support two or three full-force charges of a full-armored heavy cavalry. In the case of bad terrain, there is even only one chance.

This is also the reason why many times on the battlefield, the cavalry will be defeated by the opponent if they fail to charge at once.

Therefore, when the cavalry marched, they did not ride on the horse, but led the horse on foot, and the horses and men walked side by side. When there was a war ahead, they could take out the armor and weapons on the cart and mount the horse to fight.

In several Liangzhou armies with strict military discipline, the cavalry rode on horses without authorization during the march, and in serious cases they would even be beheaded!
Now the Xiongnu tribe is facing a dilemma.

When cavalry walk in armor, they will lose their physical strength.

If you ride on a horse, the physical strength of the horse can't stand it.

If you don't wear armor, if the enemy comes to make a surprise attack, you won't be able to respond in time.

The noise reached the ears of the patriarch of the Xiongnu. After thinking for a long time, he finally gave the order.

The front army is unarmored light cavalry to explore the road, the rear infantry clears the way, the armored cavalry walks and leads horses in the center, the carts transporting armored weapons are guarded in the center by the cavalry, and the captive woman follows at the end.

This is already the safest method at present. As soon as the order came out, everyone obeyed, and the team began to move slowly.

Yuan Xi stood two hilltops away, and felt a little anxious when he saw the Huns marching forward.

The other party actually left early!
Outside the valley, there are thousands of acres of wheat that are about to be harvested. This is the grain of Beixincheng's hard work this year, and it will be harvested soon.

The Xiongnu will inevitably plunder the wheat fields, and these thousands of acres of wheat will definitely not escape, so this battle cannot be avoided no matter what.

What Yuan Xi had to do was to drag the Xiongnu soldiers in the valley as much as possible, so that Ju Yi could have time to come.

He remembered what Ju Yi said before leaving last night.

"Then Zhao Yun, if he can't wait for a long time, he will definitely realize that the Huns here are caught by us and will come in a hurry."

"Although I am confident enough to win him, in order to reduce the number of variables, I decided to kill all these Hun soldiers before he arrives, and leave none of them to him!"

Yuan Xi hoped so, but now that the Huns are leaving early, I am afraid that Qu Yi's idea will come to nothing.

The Huns' convoy appeared on the road down the valley.

Nearly.

Yuan Xi straightened his arms, and pulled out a feathered arrow from the quiver behind his back, feeling the weight of the arrow.

He began to stretch his arms and draw his bow.

The dozens of archers around him all acted like this.

The bowstring was fully drawn, and dozens of light cavalry in the lead of the Huns below had also entered the range of the arrows.

With a whistle, Yuan Xi let go of his fingers, and the feathered arrow shot out.

The soldiers around him let go of their bowstrings one after another, and dozens of feathered arrows flew out, and the cavalrymen in the lead were hit by the arrows and fell off their horses.

Yuan Xi watched his arrow hit a person's thigh, secretly thought it was a pity, but forgot to squat down, revealing his body shape.

When several Hun cavalry saw it, they immediately shot arrows at Yuan Xi!

With Yuan Xi's dazed effort, a bone arrow flew right in his face!

(End of this chapter)