Great Han Empire

Chapter 390 Blood-stained Khotan River
"The Journey to the West"

Author: Scarlet Coral
Chapter 25 Blood Stains the Khotan River
Fifty miles east of Wensu, there is a forest on the west bank of the Khotan River.

The 5000 warriors of the big man were like tigers hiding in the grass, staring at the Guishuang army preparing to cross the river on the other side, quietly waiting for the moment of surprise attack.At this moment, there is only one voice in the hearts of the [-] people: completely destroy the enemy in front of them and end this Western Expedition.

Holding the spear in one hand, Zhao Guang comforted the excited and restless horses around him with the other. He stared at the Guishuang Army who was busy like ants on the opposite side, his face flushed with excitement.

The countries in the Western Regions go west to the Central Plains for thousands of miles. In the traditional Chinese thinking, they are places outside China and are not valued. There is a saying in the Han Dynasty: "(The Western Regions) is isolated from the Han, and the road is far away. It is not worthwhile to get it. benefit, and abandoning it is not a loss.” But in the Han Dynasty, the Western Regions became a symbol of the strength of the dynasty.

During the reign of Emperor Xiaoxuan and Emperor Xiaohe, the Great Han Dynasty established its rule in the Western Regions twice, but then lost it again-these two repetitions just reflected the rise and fall of the imperial court's strength.Therefore, after the rejuvenation of the Han Dynasty, the emperor Liu Shuo inherited the ambition of the Marquis of Jinyang and attached great importance to the conquest of the Western Regions, even more than cleaning up the remnants of the South.Regardless of the voices of opposition from the court, he invested a lot of manpower and material resources for this western expedition, and mobilized the most elite troops in the army.And after this battle, there will be no enemies in the Western Regions that can resist the mighty Han Tianwei, and this vast land will eventually return to the Han's control again—and it will be more thorough and stronger than the previous two times. Will those who participate in this battle be full of pride?
But this battle can be said to have taken a great risk.

Two days ago, at the foot of Tianshan Mountain, there was a large tent of the Han army.

Under torture to extract a confession, the Han army finally obtained the exact information from the officers of Guishuang captured by Zhao Guang's team-the Guishuang army was indeed defeated!After the last round of feint attack, the remaining nearly [-] troops spent the night abandoning his camp outside Gancheng, the Severe Wound, and even large siege equipment, and began to retreat westward.The army plans to stop at Gumo City on the east bank of the Khotan River and start crossing the Khotan River the day after tomorrow.After Gao Shun learned about it, he immediately gathered all the officers above Yamen general in the army to discuss the battle.

After conveying the information to the generals, Gao Shun straight to the point put forward the plan he had considered for a long time - when the main force of the Guishuang army was crossing the river, hit the crossing, completely break up the organization of its [-] troops, and then break them down one by one. Keep the main force of Guishuang people here.As soon as this plan came out, all the generals, who had been depressed for a long time in the mountains, all agreed and called for a fight loudly, eager to fight. Even Guan Ping, who had become more and more calm since leading the army alone, nodded, thinking that it was feasible.

"The lower officials think it's wrong. The enemy is returning to the west, and my morale is available. I will wait for work with ease. I will attack the unprepared, and I will benefit from it. The Guishuang people are not 5000 livestock waiting to be slaughtered. You must know The trapped beast is still fighting! But our army has only [-] people." Liao Hua, an experienced cavalry captain, pointed to the battle map, and sang a different tune with a group of impassioned young generals, "Although their troops retreated, there was no chaos! Our army The number of people is too small, and there are many cavalry, it is reasonable to let the enemy go first, and then attack the rear, pursue and kill them all the way to Shule City, and kill as many enemies as possible, it is safe."

Liao Hua's words made the atmosphere in the tent tense. Although most of the generals in the tent are young, they have all experienced the training in the martial arts hall and the baptism of the battlefield, and they are not without schemes.The difficulty of the blocking war is obvious, and the benefits of the pursuit war cannot be ignored.Not long after, some generals echoed Liao Hua's suggestion.

"Yuan Jian (Liao Hua's word), what you mentioned is indeed an old-fashioned and prudent proposal, but we will not be able to achieve the goal of a complete victory!" Gao Shun insisted on his plan, and punched the representative of Guishuang's army. on a thick arrow. "The commander-in-chief of the Guishuang people is a very clever man. They retreated so hastily, and their troops did not panic! But after a long battle, the morale of the Guishuang soldiers has dropped to the lowest level. As long as our army finds the right opportunity to beat them hard, they will be able to Disrupt them completely and block the Guishuang people at the east of Khotan! In this way, when Pang Shuai leads the army up, the enemy can be completely wiped out! If we let them go and fight again, our army can indeed fight with a smaller force. The casualties won the victory, but as long as they resolutely abandon their rear army, most of them may retreat into Shule City smoothly, so that we will fight another tough battle in the future. Just imagine, gentlemen, how difficult will it be? Can the supplies of our Western Expeditionary Army be supported? As a general, we should not only see the gains and losses in front of us, but also command the overall situation; the surprise soldiers waiting behind the enemy should not only think about how to make some cheap money, but to establish Fantastic work!"

Gao Shun has commanded the army for many years, and he is always the first to win every battle. He is like a god of war in his own camp, and even among the rest of the Han army, his prestige is extremely high.Hearing his tone so resolute, all the generals in the tent had no objection, even if some people didn't quite agree with it in their hearts, they couldn't say anything more.Seeing this situation, Liao Hua no longer persisted, and decided on a blocking strategy.

"The outcome depends on it!" Gao Shun, like all the soldiers, lowered his body in the bushes, calmly observing the enemy's movements.At this time, the Guishuang people had already crossed the river with a team of [-] light infantry, scattered on the bank to rest, and more troops and supplies were crossing the river.Gao Shun raised his mouth slightly and stood up.He stretched his arms first, and ordered Guan Ping and several other leaders of the teams to be invited immediately, and then quickly assigned the combat tasks to everyone.After the generals took their orders and left, he solemnly said to the flag and drum officer:
"Order to blow the trumpets and beat the drums!"

Within a few breaths, the sound of drums and trumpets in the woods shook the sky and the earth.Three thousand cavalry rushed out of the bushes like a gust of wind.Immediately, there was the sound of horseshoes, shouts of killing, and the sound of war drums, and a few clouds of smoke and dust rolled towards the Guishuang army by the river.

The Guishuang army was eager to return to the west and lacked ferries and rafts. Fortunately, although the Khotan River was wide and fast-flowing, it could not be submerged in the deepest part. Therefore, except for important luggage, ordinary soldiers waded across the river hand in hand.After crossing the river, most of the soldiers were exhausted. Many of them took off their armor and exposed themselves to the sun. They lay or sat on the ground to rest by themselves. They scattered a defensive position and were completely unprepared for the battle.The cavalry of the Han army came quickly and attacked fiercely. After a few rounds of arrow rain, they cut towards the troops of the Guishuang army who landed first like blades.

This cavalry rushed into the middle of the Guishuang infantry, galloped and slashed, causing these troops to be confused first, and then affected the subsequent landing troops, affecting the entire line.Zhao Guang, the forward, took advantage of the wavering of the enemy's formation, took the lead, stabbed three enemy generals to death, opened a gap, and rushed into Guishuang's formation.Although the vanguard cavalry he personally led was small in number, once they rushed into the enemy's line, this cavalry of hundreds of people became a very terrifying and irresistible great force, smashing the nobles like a hammer. Frostman's line of defense.These Guishuang light infantry on the shore lacked sufficient protection and long weapons, and also lacked the courage to fight against the cavalry, so organized and orderly resistance quickly disappeared, followed by chaos, scrambling to escape and trampling each other.Guishuang's ten-thousand chief, Morodo, beheaded several soldiers, but still couldn't stop the terrible situation of the collapse of the whole line. He had no choice but to stop caring about the lives of his soldiers, and had no time to consider the prestige of his general, the coach Jipu Nada, etc. Asking questions about crimes and so on, he fled with dozens of soldiers.

Jipinada hadn't crossed the river at this time, and seeing the fierce chaos ahead, although he was surprised by the appearance of the Han army on the way back, he was not very flustered.Seeing that there were not many people in the Han army, he urged the troops to cross the river quickly, and at the same time ordered the people who landed on the shore not to rest, and immediately participated in blocking the Han army.He also strictly ordered that when crossing the river, you must fight the enemy with all your might, and you are not allowed to flee in panic, otherwise all the generals will be beheaded.The men and horses crossing the river got this order, and knew that there was no way for him to retreat except to break through the blocking of the Han army in front of him.

As more and more troops landed, the battlefield also fell into a stalemate: in the narrow space, the impact of the cavalry of the Han army gradually became difficult, and the troops began to suffer casualties under the fighting of each other.Hou Cheng, Zhou Cang, Zhang Bao and other main generals took the lead and died in the chaotic army, but they still fought bravely.Seeing this, Guan Ping, the cavalry leader, roared again and again, and fought more and more fiercely, like a furious lion, slashing wildly with a huge green dragon knife, and shouting to all the cavalry to get closer to him.An enemy general had just arrived in front of him, and suddenly heard him roar, he was startled, and before he had time to parry, he was knocked down in two pieces.Guan Ping's hands and cuffs were stained with blood, and the horse's hooves had already been splattered with the blood of the dead and wounded.However, there are many soldiers and horses in Guishuang, and they are well-trained.When he reached the east, the enemies in the east retreated one after another, but the formation was not chaotic, so that he could not break through. At the same time, the enemies in the west rushed in like a tide.When he returned to his horse to kill the enemies in the west, the enemies in the east came back.He suffered a few minor wounds, and more than a dozen soldiers around him were lost, but finally the cavalry who rushed into the enemy's formation gradually gathered together.

Under the leadership of Guan Ping, this cavalry was invincible in the Guishuang army, which had an absolute superiority in numbers. They turned left and right, broke out of the encirclement, and entered the core, looking for the enemy's main general.Most of the Guishuang army is infantry. Although they resisted desperately and tried to encircle and eat this group of people several times, they always collapsed under its impact like a flood.Their horses often trampled and pranced over the dead and the living, who crawled for their lives bleeding on the ground.Although the charge of the Han cavalry is still unstoppable, the Guishuang people can continue to use their numerical advantage to plug the gap, and the battlefield situation begins to slowly develop in a direction that is beneficial to the Guishuang people.

In the woods, Gao Shun, the chief general of the Han army, was still standing on his horse with his sword on his back, as steady as a pillar, carefully observing the situation on the battlefield.Now the enemy's momentum seems to have recovered, the battle is at a critical moment, and victory or defeat depends on breathing. He knows that there should be no delay, and he must take advantage of the Guishuang people's defense before it is fully formed, and make the final blow!When he saw Zhao Guang leaping to the bank with a spear again, his heart was overjoyed, but in an instant he was retreated by the enemies who were placed like a copper wall, which made his heart suddenly chill.At this moment, he took off his cloak and threw it back, and then he heard him raise his long knife and roar like a thunderbolt, and then the drums and trumpets sounded again, and the infantry trapped in the camp finally began to attack. go ahead.

At this time, the soldiers of Guishuang suddenly found that several terrifying black banners appeared in front of them again, and several heavy infantry phalanxes under the banners were advancing firmly and neatly to the shore.Although the Han army's reinforcements this time were only a few thousand people, the Guishuang army was already struggling to support them. Suddenly, seeing that the Han army had added more troops, and it looked so murderous, their spirits suddenly collapsed, and they could no longer resist. , Like a landslide, many people threw away their flags and turned to flee for their lives.The cavalry of the Han army took the opportunity to break away from the battle line, separated the two sides, and began to harvest the enemy's life with bows and arrows.The infantry of the trapped camp began to charge [-] steps away from the river bank, shouting "Falling! Falling! Falling!" Like a mountain torrent and a tsunami, they broke through the fragile river bank line of the Guishuang people and pushed the Guishuang army directly into the river.The bank was quickly filled with dead and wounded Guishuang men and horses, and the survivors were still struggling. Seeing this, the cavalry who landed in the rear did not dare to resist, and jumped into the river one after another, trampling, crowding, and Hack and kill.Those who had no chance to escape back to the river, some were captured in the melee, some knelt down and surrendered by themselves, some were shot in the wilderness, and some fled.At first, the Guishuang elite infantry who landed later could still support them, but then as the friendly troops fled more and more panicked, the more panicked and chaotic, their front was forced to break through by the trapped camp, and they also began to escape separately.When they saw Han infantry, they avoided it, thinking that other directions were the way out, but in fact, Han cavalry surrounded and killed them in other directions.As long as the cavalry of the Han army shouted after encountering them, these elites of the Guishuang army dropped their weapons and armor, frightened the birds and animals, and there was no resistance.

Looking at the corpses floating in the river, the river dyed red, and the broken soldiers struggling in the river, Jipinada closed his eyes in pain. Finally, he could not bring this army back to Guishuang. (Due to the characteristics of history and geography, in addition to Buddhism, Guishan people also believe in various gods of Greece, Wojiao, and Hinduism). This time, they sided with the powerful Han people.He recalled that half a year ago, he was full of ambition and led an army of [-] to the east. People in the country said that the army was unprecedentedly magnificent, but in the end it ended in annihilation of the entire army.When the veteran thought of this, all thoughts were lost for a moment, he took out the treasured sword handed down from his family and wiped it on his neck, but a few soldiers around him hurriedly blocked him, but they also cut a hole, and everyone rushed him away.As soon as the commander was lost, the Guishuang army on the east bank suddenly became chaotic. Fortunately, the Han army on the opposite side had no intention of crossing the river to fight except for constantly shooting and killing the defeated army in the river. , Back to Gumo City.

"Victory! We have won! Dahan Tianwei! With me, there will be no barbarians! With me, there will be no barbarians!" Seeing that the Guishuang army on the other side retreated, the Han army on the west bank raised their weapons and shouted loudly.The setting sun, the bloody river, and the ecstatic warriors all interweave a magnificent picture for a while.

In this battle, 450 Han soldiers defeated the main force of Guishuang, beheaded [-] people, and captured more than [-] people. In addition to the enemies who drowned and washed away in the river, they wiped out nearly [-] enemies.The accumulation of corpses of Guishan troops almost stopped the Khotan River.

(End of this chapter)