Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 227 The End of the Thugs
"hiss……"

"Xilulu!!"

In early August, when the neighing of military horses echoed in the Sangke grassland, thousands of elite cavalry would hunt there, targeting Lun Kongre on the grassland.

"Xu..."

"Brother! Feed the military horses and the riding horses some beans first to restore their horse power."

"Otherwise, even if Kongre runs away, we may not be able to catch up with him."

While Li Ji was resting, Cao Mao first spoke to dissuade him, and Chen Ying also bowed and said:

"Li, please listen to Lieutenant General Cao. Even if our horses don't eat, Shangdu Hu and his horses need to rest."

The two tried to dissuade him, but Li Ji, who had reined in his horse and looked into the distance, did not respond immediately. Instead, he looked into the distance for a long time before nodding: "Okay!"

Faced with Li Ji's approval, the two men breathed a sigh of relief and immediately spread the military order throughout the three armies.

Three days ago, after gathering 3,000 elite cavalry from Hezhou, they, led by Li Ji, galloped out of Fenglin Pass and marched towards Sangke grassland.

At the same time, Shang Moyan in Michuan, Guzhou, also sent troops to Sangke grassland. The two armies encountered and merged yesterday afternoon and arrived at Sangke grassland today.

In the myths passed down orally in Tubo, Sangke Grassland was the place where the hero King Gesar performed sacrifices to heaven, and it was also the place where he won the throne through horse racing.

The Tibetans have been engaged in semi-agriculture and semi-pastoral living here for thousands of years and have very close relations with the Central Plains.

As early as more than 2,000 years ago, the Qiang people living south of the Qilian Mountains were subjects of one of the "Four States" of the Shang Dynasty.

Later, the Qiang people joined the coalition forces of King Wu of Zhou and overthrew the Shang Dynasty. They were then called Di Qiang by the Zhou Dynasty.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas states: "Bo Yi's father gave birth to Xiyue, Xiyue gave birth to Xianlong, Xianlong gave birth to Diqiang. Diqiang's surname is Qi."

Later, the Di and Qiang became the Di and Qiang tribes, and the Qiang tribe was further divided into various ethnic groups.

The Han and Qiang people have the same origin, but the Qiang people are divided into dozens of ethnic groups, large and small, with their footprints spread across the plateau and most of the Indochina Peninsula.

Of course, this so-called common origin has long been unaccepted by many literati today.

After all, there were too many grievances between Tubo and Tang, and both sides looked down on each other.

Even in Hexi and Longyou, where Han and Fan people live together, people cannot say that they can cooperate harmoniously.

Li Ji's attitude towards the Tibetans has never been very friendly. After all, for him, all the sufferings in his youth were brought by the Tibetans.

Even though Liu Jilian taught him literacy, spread his knowledge, and made him understand what class struggle was, he still could not be friendly to the Tibetans.

Of course, he would not deliberately make things difficult for the Tibetans. After all, there were quite a few Tibetans in the Longyou Army. But everyone could feel that he cared more about the Han people.

"Sangke Grassland is the best place for water and grass in the Mochan River."

"If Lun Kongre didn't migrate, he should be herding horses here now, waiting for the second invasion in autumn."

Li Ji spoke in a deep voice, and then explained to Cao Mao and Chen Ying: "Cao Mao, you lead the front army to investigate, Chen Ying, you lead the rear army to supervise Shang Moyan."

"We must be on guard against others. If we make a mistake and are ambushed by them, the loss of reputation will be a minor matter, but the loss of our brothers will be a major one."

"Yes!" The two agreed, but they both felt that Li Ji was a little too vigilant.

Shang Moyan had known them for several years, and the hatred between him and Lun Kongre had already reached the point of no return.

Although Longyou wanted to seize Guzhou, they were not left without a way out, and Shang Moyan and his men would not conspire with Lun Kongre.

Li Ji didn't care what they thought. When he was leading troops outside, he never trusted any allies. He only trusted himself.

An hour later, regardless of whether the horsepower of Shang Moyan and other more than a thousand cavalrymen had recovered, Li Ji directly ordered to go deep into the Sangke grassland to search for Lun Kongre's trace.

Although he had no grudge against Lun Kongre, what Lun Kongre did in Longyou and Hexi was really not worthy of being called a human being.

The ultimate goal of Li Ji's expedition was to take this opportunity to kill Lun Kongre and avenge the hundreds of thousands of people who died at his hands.

In order to prevent the situation from going wrong, Li Ji also sent a message to Shang Duoluo who was stationed in Taozhou, asking Shang Duoluo in Taozhou and Cuoben in Diezhou to support him at any time.

The Sangke grassland is not very big, and with the search of four thousand elite cavalry, Lun Kongre's traces were soon exposed under Li Ji's eyes.

He was stationed on the southern edge of the Sangko steppe, close to the river and on higher ground, making it easier to escape.

When Li Ji's troops appeared in the east, Lun Kongre immediately abandoned the looted herds and fled southward towards the Yellow River and Tao River with less than a thousand elite cavalry.

"Chase!"

Seeing Lun Kongre so alert, Li Ji chose to chase him without hesitation.

They brought enough military rations to last for half a month. As Kongre was fleeing in the south, if they could not be caught up, they could go to Songzhou and Diezhou to replenish food and grass without having to worry about running out of food.

On the way to escape south, Lun Kongre deliberately took Li Ji and his men through many small tribes, intending to use the small tribes to consume them.

However, faced with the 4,000 elite cavalry under the command of Li Ji and Shang Moyan, these small tribes, with a few hundred to several thousand people, were frightened and surrendered directly.

Not only them, but the entire tribe of Mochanchuan, after learning that Liu Jilian had sent troops to encircle and suppress Lun Kongre, rushed to surrender to Li Ji and provided information about Lun Kongre's escape.

In less than two days, Lun Kongre crossed the upper reaches of the Tao River, fled towards Gahai Lake, and escaped into Duomai.

"Governor, they crossed the river and fled from here. There are still horse hooves here!"

On the fifth day of August, Chen Ying on the north bank of the Tao River reported the situation to Li Ji. Li Ji rode his horse to the river, dismounted, checked the horseshoe prints on the ground, and then looked at the depth of the Tao River.

This place is the upper reaches of the Tao River. The water is no more than four meters wide and five feet deep, but the altitude is very high and the temperature is very low.

Although the Tao River had not yet frozen, Li Ji and others who were pursuing them had already changed into winter clothes.

If we rashly wade across the river and enter the Duomai area, we will easily be besieged by the Tubo tribe in the Duomai area.

Duomai has large tribes with tens of thousands of people and small and medium-sized tribes with thousands of people. Although they cannot gather many elite cavalry, if they are entangled, even the elite cavalry of Longyou will lose some flesh.

"Brother, more than 400 of our Shang Moyan troops fell ill and fell behind. Now there are only more than 3,500 of them. Should we still chase them?"

Cao Mao rode forward to ask Li Ji, but Li Ji nodded without hesitation:
"The commander-in-chief asked us to take Lun Kongre's head. Even if Lun Kongre escapes to Luoshui City, we have to chase him!"

His words were an exaggeration, but they also expressed his attitude.

Seeing this, Cao Mao began to call on the army to cross the river, and Shang Moyan did not show any other thoughts along the way. He basically did whatever Li Ji told him to do.

After wading through the freezing cold Tao River and reaching the south bank, Li Ji did not rush into pursuit. Instead, he cut down the bushes on the south bank mountain, preparing to dry his clothes before heading south in pursuit.

While waiting, Li Ji summoned Chen Ying and Cao Mao and told them:

"According to the instructions of the commander, the altitude here is a bit high. If anyone gets sick, send another person to escort them to Taozhou and Diezhou for recuperation."

"If the number of soldiers left behind is less than 3,000, we will retreat to Diezhou and consult the commander-in-chief before deciding whether to pursue them."

In front of the army, Li Ji naturally had to show a tougher attitude.

But now that he had summoned the two of them alone, he didn't need to hide anything and just told them what was in his mind.

Seeing this, Cao Mao and Chen Ying breathed a sigh of relief. What they were most worried about was that Li Ji would ignore the soldiers who had fallen behind and keep chasing them.

Now that Li Ji had said this, they both felt much more at ease.

When Li Ji saw them bowing, he immediately let them go down and rest.

Two hours later, as the soldiers who crossed the river dried their wet clothes, Li Ji ordered to continue the pursuit southwards.

Although they were delayed for two hours, they were already too hot to run any longer.

Li Ji led his troops to pursue to the shore of Gahai Lake, where he saw a small tribe that had been massacred.

More than a hundred people were slaughtered, women were raped and killed, cattle, sheep, young and strong people, the elderly and children had their limbs chopped off and their bodies abandoned.

"The charcoal is still a little warm, so it should have been less than an hour."

"Keep chasing!"

In response to Chen Ying's report, Li Ji nodded and ordered a pursuit.

Soon, they met Lun Kongre's scouts, and when the scouts saw them, they began to flee south.

Li Ji and his men followed closely behind, but their speed was definitely not as fast as the lightly equipped scouts.

After chasing for half an hour, the scout disappeared in the valley ahead, but Li Ji could be sure that the two sides were not too far apart.

At the same time, Lun Kongre also learned about the pursuers from behind.

He was in a very miserable state at this moment. Although he still had a big belly, his face was haggard and his hair and beard were gray.

"Damn that Han dog, he chased me for almost three hundred miles!"

"It seems that they are determined to kill me. In this case, I wonder if they dare to enter Duomi!"

Lun Kongre spoke fiercely, and then directed the two officers beside him: "Tell the army to enter Tongqia Prefecture and head towards Duomiwei."

"I want to see if Xima will let this army pursue me on his territory!"

Tongqia Prefecture was a prefecture established by Tubo in the north of Duomai, where the Duomi Guard was stationed. The guard was located on the north bank of the Yellow River bend and was guarded by the Mako Dong clan, one of the six tribes of the Nine Prefectures.

Xima is the current Qiliben of Duomiwei Prefecture, and he has at least tens of thousands of troops under his command.

If Xima ignores the Longyou Army in his territory, his prestige in the local area will be destroyed.

Lun Kongre wanted to shift the blame to someone else, but Li Ji, who was behind him, also learned about Tong Qia and Duomi's situation from Shang Moyan's explanation.

"Li, I think we should stop for now and send someone to Diezhou to pass the message to Cuoben, and ask Liu Jieshuai whether to pursue."

Shang Moyan loudly put forward his suggestions on the galloping and undulating horseback.

In his opinion, driving Lun Kongre out of Mochanchuan would have achieved their goal. In response, Li Ji just glanced at him, and while riding his horse to chase him, he said coldly: "The commander asked me to take Lun Kongre's head."

Seeing him say this, Shang Moyan continued: "Then I will lead the army to Duomiwei Prefecture to negotiate with the local Qilibenxima and ask him to hand over Lunkongre."

Li Ji did not stop after hearing this, and after a moment he slowly said: "I will only give you half a day."

"Yes!" Shang Moyan did not feel looked down upon, but ordered more than ten elite cavalrymen to hand over the food, fresh water and other loads to others, and then galloped to Duomiwei Mansion with light luggage.

Duomiwei Prefecture was located on the north bank of the Yellow River, roughly near the later Maqu County.

To get from Gahai Lake to Duomiwei Prefecture, you need to cross Xiqing Mountain, which is more than 20 miles long.

Lun Kongre rushed into Xiqing Mountain regardless of anything, while Li Ji had to conduct careful reconnaissance to avoid being ambushed by the foreigners from Duomiwei Mansion.

Originally they were about to catch up with Lun Kongre, but now they were delayed for half an hour because of Xiqing Mountain.

After Lun Kongte's soldiers walked out of Qingshan, they immediately approached Duomiwei Mansion.

Duomiwei Prefecture was a small city built of stones, more than 400 steps from east to west and more than 300 steps from north to south, and could accommodate a very small population.

Because of this, outside the Duomiwei Palace there is a wooden fence that is two miles long from east to west and more than two miles long from north to south. Tens of thousands of people live between the city walls and the fences, and tens of thousands of cattle and sheep are grazed in the river bend.

This place is about 200 miles away from Hechuan County, Diezhou, which is neither far nor near, so there are still scouts outside the city for reconnaissance.

Before Lun Kongre and his companions got close to Duomiwei Mansion, they were discovered by scouts and a smoke signal was lit.

Soon, more than 4,000 soldiers and horses rushed out of Duomiwei Prefecture and waited for the arrival of the enemy on the hills on the north bank of the Yellow River.

When Lun Kongre led more than 900 elite cavalrymen to this place, his original solemnity instantly turned into contempt.

Among the more than 4,000 soldiers of the Duomi Guard, only less than 2,000 were wearing iron armor, and the rest were wearing leather armor or leather jackets. They were not as powerful as he had imagined.

The barley in the distance has been harvested, but the cattle and sheep on the grassland stretch for miles, making people drool.

"The Great Theory..."

Two young men came up, greedy looks on their faces.

Lun Kongre also knew what they were thinking, and said with a cruel smile: "Wait a little longer, until they and the Longyou troops fight to the death, then we will defeat them from behind and occupy this place!"

Hearing him say this, the two young men smiled, their eyes full of desire.

In the distance, a general rode out on horseback with more than a thousand armored soldiers, and Lun Kongre also led his men to approach.

After the two sides met, Xima of Duomiwei Mansion scolded: "Shang Kongre, how dare you come to Duomiwei Mansion!"

The "Lun" in "Lun Kongre" was added by himself, so in the eyes of Qiliben in various parts of Tubo, he was nothing more than a clown who "proclaimed himself as Lun".

In the past, when he had tens of thousands of soldiers, no one dared to go against him.

But now he has been a stray dog in Mochanchuan for several years, and even Xima from Duomiwei Mansion dares to scold him directly.

Xima's attitude made Lun Kongre feel a little uncomfortable, but in order to repel the pursuers behind him, he still flattered him:

"I was going to Lhasa to admit my mistake to the Zamp, but the pursuers behind me refused to let me go."

"They are chasing me from Diezhou and Taozhou. They not only want to kill me, but also take over Duomi and Mochanchuan!"

"I came here to tell you out of kindness, but I didn't expect you to say that to me."

Lun Kongre lied without blushing or beating his heart. Seeing this, Xima frowned and asked, "Are you telling the truth?"

"Of course!"

Lun Kongre said quickly: "If you don't believe me, you can wait. In two hours at most, the pursuers behind us will definitely catch up."

"Okay, I'll trust you for now." Xima nodded, and then instructed the person next to him:
“Bring a hundred sheep here and let them eat first.”

"Yes!" Du Mi's protector agreed and then took people to lead the sheep.

Their conversation was quite loud. After listening to it, Lun Kongre's two eyes, which were as big as soybeans, rolled around and around, thinking that Xima was really terribly stupid.

Soon, a hundred sheep were brought to the front of the two armies and handed over to Lun Kongre and his men.

Duomiwei Prefecture is close to Xiqing Mountain and has no shortage of tree resources, so Lun Kongre's elite cavalry quickly dealt with the one hundred sheep.

During this period they did not take off their armor, and after Xima sent the sheep, he led his troops to retreat several miles, leaving enough distance for both sides.

A roasted leg of lamb was sprinkled with coarse salt, rubbed twice, and then brought in front of Lun Kongre.

Seeing this, the guy immediately grabbed the whole leg of lamb and started eating it.

Time passed little by little. Two hours later, dust appeared in the north, and Xima, who was originally three miles away in the west, also led his troops to approach Lun Kongre and his men.

Lun Kongre and his 900-odd elite cavalry were well fed and well-drinking, so they took no notice when they saw Xima and his men approaching.

Lun Kongre called two of his men and said with a cruel smile, "We will attack the Han dogs in Longyou first, and don't give Xima a chance to negotiate."

"We'll start, Xima will have no choice but to follow suit. Once Xima starts, you will lead your men back and let them fight each other."

"When the Han dogs in Longyou withdraw their troops, we will attack Xima and seize Duomiwei Mansion!"

"Yes!" The two young men could not hide their excitement, and Lun Kongre also turned his attention to the battlefield.

Xima led more than 3,000 soldiers and horses and stopped half a mile behind Lun Kongre and his more than 900 elite cavalry, making an gesture to let Lun Kongre serve as a vanguard.

In response, Lun Kongre sneered, and felt even less burdened about scheming against Xi Ma.

While he was waiting, Xiaojieer beside him suddenly said, "Why is there dust in the south?!"

"Hmm?" Lun Kongre looked and saw a large amount of dust rising in the south.

"Calm down!"

Although Lun Kongre was also very panicked, he remained calm, which calmed the originally chaotic team down.

At the same time, a large number of elite cavalry appeared in the northeast and south.

The number of elite cavalry in the northeast direction is the largest, no less than three thousand people, while there seems to be less than a thousand elite cavalry in the south direction.

"Three thousand armored soldiers against four thousand armored soldiers, there is a chance of victory!"

Lun Kongre calmed everyone down, and Li Ji, who was chasing them, was surprised to see that there were soldiers under his banner in the south.

Fortunately, at this time a group of elite cavalry broke away from the southern team and approached them.

Soon, they appeared in front of Li Jijun holding handwritten letters.

"General Fengjie ordered the three states of Tao, Die, and Song to send out 800 elite cavalry to cut off Lun Kongre's retreat to the south."

"Governor Shang asks Governor Li to mobilize the troops to attack. Don't worry about the thousands of people of Naduomi!"

The captain's words made Li Ji's eyes light up. He immediately drew his sword and swung it towards Duomi: "Charge!"

"Uuuuuu——"

The horn sounded, and more than 3,000 elite cavalry launched a charge without a moment's rest.

At the same time, Shang Duoluo and others in the south also launched a charge.

Seeing this, Lun Kongre, who was the target, was preparing to mobilize his troops but heard a sudden commotion in the rear.

They saw that Xima, led by more than 4,000 soldiers, actually charged towards them.

For a moment, Lun Kongre was in a dead end.

"Break out to the south!"

Lun Kongre reacted in time and prepared to break out to the south. However, his elite cavalry were already in chaos facing such a situation.

There were less than five hundred cavalrymen who followed his orders to break out to the south, while there were as many as seven or eight thousand soldiers and horses that surrounded them.

"kill!!"

"Bam—"

The soldiers and horses from three directions were attacking from both sides, horses were neighing, and flesh and blood were colliding.

After just one encounter, Lun Kongre and his elite cavalry were defeated.

"Xima! How dare you lie to me! I will kill you!"

Seeing Xima's big banner, Lun Kongre roared and rushed towards the banner.

Seeing this, Xima stabbed the elite cavalry under Lun Kongre's command and said contemptuously: "Do you think you can survive?!"

His words seemed to announce the end of Lun Kongre, because in the chaos, Hu Siguang led more than ten cavalrymen to rush towards Lun Kongre's banner.

Lun Kongre watched helplessly as Hu Siguang defeated several of his elite cavalrymen and charged towards him.

He tried to break out, but was blocked by the troops led by Li Ji, Shang Duoluo, Cuoben, Shang Moyan and Xima, leaving him with no way out.

Huke Siguang rushed up to him, jumped on his horse and charged towards him with a spear in hand, his face full of anger.

He tried to resist, but the two sides fought for only three rounds before Hukui Guang knocked the long sword out of his hand and stabbed the horse under his crotch with a spear.

As the world spun, he fell off his horse, and Hu Siguang clamped his legs around the horse's belly, raised the horse's hooves high, and brought them down fiercely under Lun Kongre's desperate gaze.

"Bam—"

(End of this chapter)