Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 393 Black Hair and Red Hair (Special thanks to book friend Posuo Nianhua for 8 monthly tickets!)

Zhang Yongdao:
"May I ask what the King of Wei means by this?"

Fu Zhaoshou said:

"Yesterday, the spy lurking in Xiagos sent back information that somehow this thief Li Jiqian knew half a month ago that Your Majesty had sent Commander Zhang and his entourage to Xiagos.

After Li Jiqian's various activities over the past half month, many princes and ministers of the Khitan Kingdom advised their king Sol not to accept the envoys from the Great Zhou.

After hesitating for a few days, Thor issued an order three days ago: Commander Zhang and other envoys were not allowed to enter the country, and 100,000 heavy troops were stationed at the border to attack any envoys from the Great Zhou Dynasty on sight.

This thief Li also wanted to instigate Sol to send troops to attack our Great Zhou and invade Zubu, but Sol rejected this idea because we have 60,000 Longxiang troops stationed in Zubu Prefecture and it is not easy to attack. "

After hearing this, Zhang Yong pondered for a while. He never expected that Li Jiqian was so powerful in Khitan that he could persuade King Sol to refuse to send envoys from the Great Zhou Dynasty abroad.

Fu Zhaoyuan said:

"Commander Zhang, did you come with His Majesty's secret order?

If the 60,000 Longxiang troops stationed in Zhubuzhou were to go into action, it would not be difficult to defeat the 100,000-strong army on the border of Khitan and escort Commander Zhang and other envoys into the country. However, I am afraid that it would trigger a full-scale war between the two countries.

Under the current circumstances, we must obtain your Majesty's approval."

Zhang Yong thought:

"If it were possible to fight the Khitans, Your Majesty would have sent the Longxiang Army to attack long ago. Why would you need to send us as envoys to do this?"

Zhang Yong immediately shook his head and said:

"Your Majesty has ordered that our Great Zhou must now fully engage in the wars in Central and West Asia with the countries of the Star Religion world to ensure victory.

That is why I ordered my ministers to go on a diplomatic mission to Khitan and act according to the circumstances.

In this case, although the thief Li Jiqian can persuade Sol to send troops to stop him, the border between the two countries is full of wilderness and mountains. It is very easy for this commander to lead his brothers to sneak into the Khitans, so there is no need to trouble the King of Wei and the governor Fu to escort them. "

After the three men discussed it, it was decided that Zhang Yong would lead his troops to camp in Zhubu Prefecture to rest and replenish military supplies, while at the same time sending the Longxiang Guard to explore the border areas suitable for infiltrating the territory of Khitan.

After ten days of preparation, Zhang Yong led 3,000 Longxiang Guards from the capital and more than ten Longxiang Guards stationed in Buzhou who were familiar with the situation of the Kyrgyzstan. In the early morning of May 1, the 30th year of Kaixi, they sneaked into the Kyrgyzstan from the mountain path of Sayanling at the border between the two countries.

In order to conceal their tracks, Zhang Yong and his companions put on merchant robes over their fine armor, and their horses were loaded with many high-end goods of the Great Zhou that the King of Wei and Governor Fu had collected in Zubuzhou, disguising themselves as merchants of the Great Zhou.

The Khitans were founded in the Tang Dynasty. In the mid-to-late eighth century, they defeated the Uighur Khanate and dominated the steppes. At its peak, the population was over 8 million, including 800,000 armored soldiers.

After the rise of Liao Taizu Yelü Abaoji, he sent troops to defeat the Kyrgyz who occupied the prairie and retreated back to the Yenisei River basin. The current population is about 5 million.

The Khitan people were mainly Dingling people, but there were also a small number of Han people, who were said to be descendants of Li Ling, a surrendered Han general.

After leaving Sayan Mountains, Zhang Yong and his companions traveled northwards towards Jiankun City, the capital of the Kyrgyz Empire, for more than an hour. They arrived at a grassland and it was already dawn.

Zhang Yong saw that the Dragon Guards had been walking all night and were a little tired, so he ordered the entire army to camp by the river to rest and have a good meal before continuing their journey.

After the order was given, half of the Longxiong Guards took down the tents on their horses and set up camp and made a bonfire, while about the other half rode out on horseback to hunt game.

In less than half an hour, the camp was set up, and the Longxiang Guards who had been away brought back thousands of gazelles, hares, elks and the like, which they roasted over the campfire.

After a while, the aroma of barbecue on dozens of bonfires wafted out, and the sergeant in charge of the barbecue quickly sprinkled salt and seasoning on it, then cut the meat with a short knife and shared it with his comrades. Camping barbecue is a special kind of deliciousness, and all the sergeants ate it with great pleasure, but without the wine to go with the meal, it was not as enjoyable as before.

When the Dragon Guards were wolfing down their food, they suddenly felt a slight shaking sound coming from the ground of the grassland. They immediately stood up and picked up the divine arm bows on their horses to prepare for battle.

Zhang Yong also stood up. He estimated that judging from the shaking of the ground, a large number of troops and horses were coming from more than ten miles away.

A few breaths later, a scout came galloping from the northeast. When he was about ten feet in front of Zhang Yong, he dismounted and ran over, saluted and said:

"Commander Zhang, two tribes of warriors are fighting each other in the northeast and are heading towards our camp.

The tribe in front of us was at a disadvantage, with a population of about 2,000 people; the tribe chasing us from behind had a population of about 4,000 people.

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. They had not expected that as soon as they entered the territory of Khitan, they would encounter a war between local tribes.

Zhang Yongdao:
"Can you tell which tribes these two belong to?"

The scout said:
“The tribesmen chasing us from behind all have red hair and black faces, they should be Dingling people.

The people of the tribe fleeing ahead have black hair and yellow skin, and are more like the Han Chinese."

Zhang Yong pondered for a moment, waved his hand, and said:

"All troops, mount your horses! Follow this commander to see the battle situation and act accordingly."

The soldiers responded loudly, and more than 3,000 of them mounted their horses and surrounded Zhang Yong, galloping towards the northeast.

After running for more than a quarter of an hour, Zhang Yong and the others could already see the tribesmen running away on the prairie ahead:

All of them had black hair and yellow skin, very similar to the Han people. In addition to the horses, there were also many women, children and the elderly.

The more than a thousand soldiers at the rear would turn around from time to time and shoot at the pursuers a hundred meters away, and almost every shot hit the target.

However, there were nearly 5,000 red-haired and black-skinned Dingling people chasing from behind, and they were also shooting wildly at the people from the fleeing tribes in the front.

With so many bows and arrows, although his hit rate was not as good as the black-haired man, every round he shot was able to hit dozens of fleeing enemies.

Both sides saw Zhang Yong and other Longxiang Guards coming from the south.

Seeing that Zhang Yong and his men were all holding bows and arrows, the Black Hair Tribe didn't know whether they were friends or foes. For safety reasons, their leader, who was over 30 years old, whistled on his horse, turned his horse's head, and led his people to flee to the west.

When the people of the Red Hair Tribe who were chasing them saw that Zhang Yong and his men were only about 3,000 in number, far fewer than their own nearly 5,000 people, they immediately did not take it seriously and ordered their men to turn to the west in pursuit.

With every round of shooting from the Red-haired Tribe, dozens of people from the Black-haired Tribe were shot and fell off their horses. If this continued, all 2,000 warriors of the Black-haired Tribe would be killed or wounded before noon.

At that time, the women, children, the elderly and the weak of the Black Hair Tribe would be slaughtered at will, and many Dragon Guards would want to help the weak and fight against the strong.

"Commander Zhang, should we rescue these black-haired Khitans? If this continues, I'm afraid the Black-haired Tribe will be completely slaughtered in less than three hours!"

"I heard that the black-haired people of Khitan are descendants of Han general Li Ling, so they are related to our Great Zhou!"

Zhang Yong pondered for a moment, and seeing that the people from the black-haired and red-haired tribes were about to fly away, he finally decided to intervene in the matter.

(End of this chapter)