Big man: I am the Champion Marquis!

Chapter 159 This time and that time

Seeing the Han army approaching, the Cheshi people naturally panicked, but they had no choice.

Because the Han troops had been grazing everywhere before and had already robbed the Cheshi people's pastures, their livelihood had been affected.

In addition, because it was too close to the Xiongnu, Cheshi had been firmly controlled by the Xiongnu for so many years. When the pressure from the Xiongnu came, Cheshi had to consider some things.

They were naturally afraid of becoming the next Luntai, and also afraid of becoming the previous Loulan. The lesson of Dayuan was still vivid in their minds.

But what can they do? The Cheshi people naturally don't want to offend the Han Dynasty. But they have no choice. If they choose to get close to the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu will come and kill them immediately.

As for the Han Dynasty, even if they tried to rush back, they would still have to cross the desert and travel thousands of miles. The threat posed by the Huns was naturally smaller than that posed by the Huns.

If you want to learn the Wusun's "holding both ends", you need a certain level of strength.

After all, after the Wusun defeated the Yuezhi and moved to the Ili River basin, their military and economic strength became increasingly stronger.

Although it still maintained its dependence on the Xiongnu in form, it had actually gotten rid of the Xiongnu's military control and economic plunder. The Wusun had long refused to attend court meetings, and the Xiongnu did not dare to push the Wusun too hard.

Cheshi naturally envied its neighbor Wusun, but unfortunately its own strength was not strong enough, so it was controlled by the Xiongnu both economically and militarily, and did not have much choice.

Huo Xian seemed extremely calm, just waiting for Che Shi to make some reaction. It was estimated that many soldiers were also eager to make a move, eager to kill the enemy and gain merit.

The Cheshi people began to take action, and arrows kept falling from the city walls, trying to prevent the Han army from getting closer to the city.

Li Ling had anticipated this. Some infantrymen were defending with shields, while the rest were busy filling the trenches. They would definitely not be frightened by such a small attack.

The Han army obviously has more experience in sieges and so on. The defensive ability of the Cheshi people is not enough to be relied upon, and will not pose much threat to the Han army.

"My Lord, it's time to prepare." Zhao Anguo began to mobilize his men and said, "How about I follow you and charge into battle together!"

Huo Xian, wearing the armor, smiled and said, "You take command. If the Cheshi people march out of the city in large numbers, it will be fine. If there is only a small group of people, it is not worth our efforts. I will lead the army to charge and kill them."

The tightly closed gate of Jiaohe City slowly opened, and a team of Cheshi cavalry rushed out of the city, apparently trying to repel Li Ling's vanguard troops.

But the next moment, the ground began to shake, and Li Ling's vanguard troops pushed through a path. Huo Xian, riding a tall horse, raised his horse spear and led the armored heavy cavalry to charge towards the Cheshi cavalry.

The tip of the spear pierced a Cheshi cavalryman, but Huo Xian did not put away his spear at all. He continued to urge his horse forward. The charging heavy cavalry was also unstoppable.

In just a moment of confrontation, the Cheshi people left behind nearly a hundred corpses and then retreated into the city in a hurry.

Arrows fell again, which was to cover the defeated soldiers' retreat and to hold off the enemy. However, these arrows could not pose any threat to Huo Xian and others.

The heavy cavalry slowly turned around and returned to the main camp. Huo Xian said with regret, "These people didn't come suddenly, but they fled quickly."

Zhao Anguo was not surprised at all. "The Xiongnu people are afraid of us, let alone these Cheshi people. I just saw you killing the enemy. It was really refreshing. These people with incomplete armor can't do anything to us!"

Once the Cheshi people left the city, they would basically never come back. The armor of the Xiongnu people was not only one level lower than that of the Han people, let alone the Cheshi people. Many of the Cheshi cavalry did not even have leather armor.

The elite troops of the Han Dynasty already had armor, but the only question was the quality of the armor, or whether it could cover the whole body. But no matter what, the Cheshi could not hope for such a fully armored troop.

Huo Xian looked at Zhao Anguo and said, "These people are not stupid. Most of them know that our Han Dynasty has heavy cavalry. I just saw quite a few of them holding blunt weapons. They really put a lot of thought into it."

Ordinary swords, guns, etc. are difficult to break the defense of heavy cavalry, so blunt weapons are the best weapons at this time.

Although iron tools and other items are in short supply, some stone tools, bone tools, etc. can come in handy at this time.

Huo Xian also promoted the development of cold weapons. In the past, they were all sharp weapons. But now more blunt and heavy weapons are needed to better resist the charge of these heavy cavalry.

Zhao Anguo also noticed this phenomenon and said, "We have been on several expeditions and the Xiongnu have suffered great losses at our hands. It would be strange if they were not prepared!"

Maybe the Huns are now beginning to abandon some of their "ancestral methods" and may also be able to concentrate some resources to train a group of heavy cavalry. This is indeed possible.

However, Huo Xian was not particularly worried about this. The Han Dynasty did not lack some heavy weapons, especially its heavy cavalry. Many people were armed with spears and swords, which were all heavy weapons. For example, the horse lance in Huo Xian's hand was obviously a heavy weapon, which was prepared to deal with heavy cavalry.

After a brief rest, Huo Xian said, "These people still won't give up. The closer we get to the city, the more panic they become."

Even a rabbit will bite when it is angry, let alone this is a human. Even if Cheshi is just a "small country", it has thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of people. How could it really not resist at all?

Zhao Anguo said quickly, "In the past few days, some people have escaped from the wall. We followed the orders of the Lord and killed most of them, but we also allowed a few of them to escape."

We still need to let the outside world know about the situation of Cheshi. They are constantly fleeing and asking for reinforcements. This is what we should do. Perhaps before the Han army besieged the city, several groups of people went to ask for help!

Huo Xian smiled and said jokingly, "I still hope that the reinforcements will come soon, otherwise if I really break into this city, what will I do then?"

Zhao Anguo smiled and said, "If the city is really breached, we should kill as many people as possible, so that the people outside won't come to help once they know the city has been breached. Let's fight for a few more days to scare these people."

It was not only to scare the Cheshi people, but also to scare them so that when the main force went out to attack the reinforcements, the Cheshi people would not launch a counterattack, and they would be attacked from both sides.

Pressure must be applied when it is necessary. The current offensive is nothing, and the current achievements are not worth mentioning. We need to continue killing and wounding. We must kill until the Cheshi people are terrified, until they dare not and have no power to resist. Only then can Huo Xian focus on attacking the troops rushing to support the Cheshi.

Since we are surrounding the point and attacking the reinforcements, we must not let these people escape, and we must not let them have the strength to resist.

"Tell Li Ling to be prepared to prevent the Cheshi people from attacking at night." Seeing that it was getting dark, Huo Xian said, "These people are at the end of their rope, so they have to take risks."

Naturally, there are messengers to convey these things to avoid sneak attacks by the enemy, etc. This is also something that must be guarded against when going out on an expedition. Many battles that seem to be sure of success may very likely be lost due to underestimating the enemy and negligence.

Huo Xian failed to predict the future. He expected the enemy to launch a surprise attack, but nothing happened from that night until dawn.

Perhaps it was because the Han army's defense was good, which prevented the Cheshi people from seeing any chance of a sneak attack, so they naturally stopped and did not make unnecessary sacrifices.

It is also possible that they are frightened. Now these Cheshi people are in constant fear. Only hiding in the city can give them some sense of security. Naturally, they will not easily leave the city to do something risky.

At the beginning of a new day, the army once again deployed its troops, still preparing to attack the city and still ready to keep putting pressure on the Cheshi people.

Suddenly, a message came from the front, "Grand Sima, Cheshi sent an envoy!"

Huo Xian thought for a moment before saying, "Let's bring it here."

The war must continue, there is naturally nothing to say about this, but it is also acceptable to meet with the envoys of Cheshi to see what they have to say.

An envoy wearing a pointed hat was brought over. It was obvious that he was dressed like a Hun. It was no wonder that Sichuan was one of the Western Regions countries most influenced by the Huns.

The envoy did not show any toughness, he knelt down and said, "Han army's Grand Marshal, we Cheshi have no intention of offending the Han army's majesty. The previous incident was just a misunderstanding, and we are willing to hand over the culprit."

Huo Xian was somewhat amused by this. "I heard that this was a good deed done by a relative of your Cheshi nobles. Are you just going to hand it over like this?"

The messenger quickly explained, "Grand Marshal, the king was unaware of the incident before, and has since been punished. If you withdraw your troops, our king is willing to offer ten beauties and five hundred horses."

The price is neither low nor high. Although Cheshi's horses are not as good as the Arabian horses, they are not worse than the Wusun horses. Five hundred is not a lot, but it is not worth mentioning either.

This amount of tribute from an ordinary small country would indeed make Liu Che very happy, and he would naturally give more rewards.

Huo Xian smiled and said, "I have come here with tens of thousands of troops, just for such a small thing? If your king has any regrets, why didn't he write a memorial to defend himself before? It's just that my army is approaching, it's too late to beg for mercy now!"

It seemed that there was no room for negotiation, but the envoy had not given up yet. "Grand Marshal, our lord is willing to surrender, hand over the criminals, and pay compensation. As long as you withdraw your troops, our lord is willing to marry a daughter of the Han clan!"

This trick would have been very useful a dozen or twenty years ago, because the Han Dynasty at that time needed to stabilize the Western Regions and wanted to form an alliance with the countries in the Western Regions, preferably to attack the Huns together.

But to offer such conditions now is obviously not enough, because the weight of the driver is not important enough, this is the fact!
"It's just dawn, and you're already dreaming!" Huo Xian laughed. "Since you dare to attack my Han army, you should surrender. I can withdraw my troops, and I'll send you the head of the Cheshi king at noon!"

The price is sky-high, and it is impossible to reach. This battle must be fought!
(End of this chapter)