Northern Dynasties

Chapter 158
On the plateau, the flames blazed into the sky, and the sound of killing filled the field. Li Tai waved the saber in his hand and slashed down. .

This is already the third time Hu Zu has organized a breakout from the evening to now.Scattered limbs and broken arms were strewn everywhere around Tucheng, and the enemies were mainly strong soldiers at the beginning, and now even Jihu women have joined in.

This time the breakout lasted more than a quarter of an hour, and as the killing sound weakened, seeing that there was no hope of breaking out, these Hu soldiers retreated back into the Tucheng.

"Although the earth wall is not high, it is always an obstacle. Why are these Hu Zu so eager to jump over the wall to die?"

Li Tai was also a little surprised to see so many corpses of Hu Zu added to the battlefield.Since they ascended the plateau, they haven't had time to organize an attack on Tucheng, and they haven't shown much strong ability to attack fortifications. However, these Jihus continue to break through and die as if they expected the city to be difficult to defend.

"What they are afraid of is not only the kings of our department, but the thieves are ferocious. They not only torture the villagers, but also kill their own kind and annex themselves. This beautiful land has a lot of reserves. If the Hu tribe near the left finds out that their power , will also attack in groups. If they stay here, they will die!"

Lu Chuan, who is well aware of the situation of Hu in this area, came forward and explained, pointing to the burning fire on the top of the plateau, he said: "The battle here should have been alarmed by the Hu tribe from the left and near, and they may have been sharpening their swords and horses, preparing to come. Robbery. It’s just that I don’t know the situation of the forces and the battle, so I can’t spy on it.”

"It turns out that this is the case, but it is a bit difficult."

Li Tai frowned when he heard this. The main goal of his trip was to gather Jihu's war horses. The most favorable situation is undoubtedly to attack these tribes quietly through guerrilla warfare. Get enough horses.

A thousand war horses can be said to be too many or too few, and the Hu Ministry of a similar scale can count at least two or three.Exposure too early will add many unpredictable variables to the next action.

What's more, there is also Liu Zhenqiang, a Hu chieftain who returned from a sojourn in the Eastern Wei Dynasty, whose power is unknown. He may have gathered a lot of people secretly.

But having said that, if all the soldiers from the Hu tribe near the left are attracted here to take advantage of the fire, the left behind forces will inevitably be insufficient. If they can intersperse to avoid frontal engagements, the looting will naturally go more smoothly.

In short, this situation is that crises coexist, and risks are definitely there, but it is not worth worrying too much.

After repelling Jihu's attack, the city fell into a dead silence. Presumably there were too many casualties and he was a little discouraged.

But Li Tai didn't want them to be too comfortable. After a short rest, the team began to prepare for the attack.

Outside Tucheng, there are many slaves Jihu hastily assembled, about [-] people. There are not many real Han Chinese, and there are also many Diqiang genus.However, in the eyes of Jihu, there is no difference between these familiar Hu who have been attached to them for many years, and they are all called Han slaves.

His own subordinates still had to maintain their combat effectiveness, and Li Tai didn't display the spirit of boundless love to let the rescued slaves work harder by cutting down trees in the southern plateau and making some simple siege equipment.

These slaves are also very active about this, Jihu doesn't treat them as human beings at all, and has deep hatred in his heart, wishing that all Jihu in the city will die.

What's more, although Li Tai also enslaved them, he would also let them fill their stomachs and eat the cattle and sheep scattered around. Many slaves never dreamed that they would have the opportunity to eat meat for the rest of their lives.

Everyone cut down and built it in a hurry, and soon two long ladders were formed.When the long ladder was built on the top of the earthen wall, it seemed as if the oil spray had collapsed into the fire, and the city suddenly became chaotic, and many pawns gathered here.

After Li Tai saw this, he was no longer in a hurry to attack the city. Taking advantage of the increasing number of pawns gathering here, someone threw torches into the wall, and there was a louder commotion inside the wall, and the burnt smell was clearly audible .

The rescued slaves were overjoyed when they saw this, and without waiting for Li Tai to continue to order, they carried the long ladder and ran to another section of the city wall. When Hu Zu was attracted, they took the initiative to set fire to it.

After several encounters, the Hu soldiers in the city also learned to be smart, and began to pour ointment and set fire to the ladder.For a while, sections of earthen walls were flickering with fire, like daylight illuminating this area.

After Li Tai saw this, he simply asked people to pick up the remains of Jihu's body and throw it into the fire, actively adding fuel to the fire.

Such an approach would have a great blow to the morale of the Tucheng. Seeing the flesh and blood of their relatives being swallowed by the flames, the Jihu in the city were frightened and their hatred surged.

Not long after, another group of Jihu soldiers came out from inside.This time, Li Tai no longer sent his men to fight with them, but sent [-] cavalry in horse armor to kill the bandits.

The twenty knights are like killing gods. They don't need to dodge the Jihu Shidao at all, and swing the horse in their hands as hard as they can. It is no longer a battle, it is a one-sided massacre!

These Jihu soldiers were aroused by resentment and seemed to be fighting to the death, but at this time the bows and knives in their hands were extremely weak, and the desperate slashing did not break the armor, on the contrary, they were injured immediately.

Such a huge disparity makes people despair, and the so-called death of extreme hatred is just death, because what they are facing is no longer the unarmed Han and Hu slaves who are at their mercy, but the real powerful soldiers.

There were quite a few soldiers rushing out this time, but no matter how turbulent the impact of the crowd was, they were just smashed into pieces by the waves, and the twenty armored soldiers were still advancing steadily.

Seeing more and more deaths of their companions, the Hu soldiers began to flee to the left and right, but what greeted them was ruthless killing.Li Tai led the rear, with Gu Jia as the forerunner, and stopped and killed all the fleeing Hu soldiers. For a while, even the ground in front of the city gate became muddy with blood and flesh.

Gu Jia crashed directly into the city gate, and the light cavalry infantry from behind also rushed in, and the Jihu men and women who stayed behind in the city were even more panicked.

"Separate and kill!"

Li Tai led more than a dozen soldiers, rushed directly to a group of pawns who were still gathering to resist, hacked several people, killed them and dispersed them.

After the city was broken, the Hu soldiers were completely desperate. Many people wanted to escape over the wall, and were besieged and killed one by one by the rangers outside the city and the rescued slaves. Few of them could escape from the killing field here.

The flames of warehouses in the city shot up into the sky. This is because some Hu Zu saw that there was no hope of escape and set fire to the supplies.And this flame pointed out the direction of the enemy entering the city. People from all walks of life gathered together, and the bows and knives threatened the remaining Hu people to throw themselves into the flames, preventing the spread of the fire and rescuing some supplies.

Another half an hour passed, the resistance in the city was completely suppressed, and the remnants were gathered together.There were originally a tribe of more than [-] people, but now there are only four to five hundred people left, and most of them are old and weak, women and children, and most of the strong soldiers died in battle.

Jihu's fighting spirit is not so tenacious, but the attack was too sudden and the best time to escape was missed. Li Tai did not try to recruit prisoners at all, leaving them with no escape and no hope of survival.

After fighting in the middle of the night, the men and horses were also exhausted.The rescued slaves were responsible for cleaning the battlefield. Li Taixian and his troops rested for a while, interrogated the information and collected the seizures by the way.

This Jihu tribe is not considered weak. Among the more than [-] people, Ding Zhuang accounts for [-] to [-] people. This is already a very healthy population ratio structure among the Jihu tribe, and it is precisely because of this that they are eligible to occupy Woxiongling. This is a well-resourced resort.

There are also a lot of materials stored in the city. Although part of the city was burned when the city was broken, there are still several large warehouses of important materials such as grain, ointment, and fur.

During the battle just now, Li Tai discovered that those elite Hu strokes had many leather and iron armors, and their combat effectiveness was quite impressive.

The men and horses are strong, plus they have accumulated a lot of supplies this year. If it hadn't been for the unfortunate encounter with Li Tailai in late autumn who attacked and wiped out the tribe, the tribe might usher in a period of rapid development this winter, and even have the potential to grow For an upper-middle-class tribe.

There are no account books in the Jihu tribe, and there is no time to carefully count the supplies. Judging from the size of the stables, there are about three to five thousand cattle and sheep.As for the most important horses, there are nearly [-] horses, and there are also nearly [-] horses with strong teeth and feet that can be used as war horses.

Thinking about how he argued with the county government over dozens of cattle and horses when he entered the countryside last year, Li Tai suddenly felt a sense of elation.Sure enough, fighting to support fighting is the only way to strengthen oneself, he is late!

Although the harvest is gratifying, it is unrealistic to want to take it all away.Right now, he is going deep alone, without the support of his country, nor the cooperation of his allies, being too greedy will only put him in danger.

Horses are naturally required, which can greatly increase transportation capacity and mobility.In addition, there are more than two hundred cans of ointment and some cheese to eat, and some furs and fodder that are easy to carry.The remaining cattle, sheep, grain, etc. are not easy to carry.

But Li Tai also didn't intend to take advantage of Hu Bu who was watching all around, so he first dispatched the horse supplies and [-] tribesmen to settle down nearby, so as to avoid being made dumplings.The remaining materials in Tucheng were carried by cattle and sheep, and they were driven down the plains, allowing these livestock to flee in all directions.

As for the rescued slaves, it was inconvenient for him to give more care, so he could only leave them some horsepower materials and distribute some of the bows and knives collected from Jihu, and let them transfer westward to the Luoshui River.

Those remaining Jihu captives, young and old, all had their thumbs cut off, and distributed them to the Han and Hu people together with women and children. They were free to kill or retain them.

After everything was settled, it was already dawn.After a group of people built a cooker and had breakfast on the plateau, they added more firewood to increase the power of the stove, and then went down to the plateau, where the two met and headed north.

Interrogating the captives last night, I learned that within a radius of tens of miles to the left of Woxiong Ridge, there are still five or six large and small Hu tribes, all nominally under the command of Chief Jihuhao of this territory.Most of these Hu tribes are distributed between the east and south regions of Woxiongling.

However, Jihu has a wandering nature, so these news may not be accurate.Although Li Tai and the others deliberately made a detour, they encountered a Jihu team of more than [-] people when they traveled more than ten miles north.

When the scouts of the two sides met in the wild, they were a little surprised and embarrassed by surprise, and then they reported back.Although Li Tai and his party were short of men and horses, they rode their horses and chased them up with the momentum of losing the battle, but only saw the smoke and dust escaping from the Hu Zuye.

It's annoying to wipe out Jihu. If they can't cover it directly in their lair, they can sneak away their pursuers with half their lives.

"Go back to Woxiong Ridge, let's guard the ditch and fish!"

After pondering for a while, Li Tai gave another order.The purpose of leaving before was to avoid the war and recuperate, but the movements of the Hu soldiers in Zuojinji were so frequent, and they were not familiar with the geography. Instead of passively fighting while wandering, it is better to keep a place and wait for work.

Now his troops are nearly one-man and two-riding, and their mobility has greatly increased. Unless Jihu's tens of thousands of troops surround him on all sides, he can still fight and go.

(End of this chapter)