Chapter 262 Cows and Horses
When Liu Bei started to mention horse speed, a thought suddenly popped into his mind:
"These Taishan thieves didn't run away when they saw us?"
That's right, when Liu Bei and others appeared in a burst of smoke, the Taishan Army's baggage team, although panicked, still tried hard to drive the carts horizontally, trying to form a formation.
But it's a pity that it would be fine if they only had five or six large vehicles, but this convoy has fifty vehicles, and there is no time to move sideways and form a circle.
Seeing the Han knights roaring and rushing towards them, they could no longer maintain their composure and got under the cart one after another. The behavior of these Taishan thieves and troops once again shocked Liu Bei. He realized that these people had obviously been trained and knew that being chased by the cavalry in the wilderness would only lead to death.
Liu Bei's mind was racing, and he suddenly looked up at the few inconspicuous hills in the southeast direction. The more he looked, the more something was wrong. He was so excited that he suddenly shouted to both sides while riding on his horse:
"Turn left, turn left."
The cavalrymen were shocked when they heard his order, but their horses had already picked up speed and could no longer turn. They didn't know why Liu Bei gave this order.
But then, they understood.
I saw a wave of cavalry suddenly appearing on the slope in front of me on the right. Before I could take a closer look, I saw more and more cavalry rushing down.
Liu Bei is still shouting:
"Don't slow down your horse and hit them. Just hit them directly."
After saying that, he picked up the speed of his horse again and kept pace with his sworn brother Zhang Fei. The two of them wanted to be the spearhead and pierce through the opposing cavalry.
Liu Bei is worthy of being an old man who can fight in the world in the future. At this time, he has shown the courage that a cavalry commander should have. Since I can't escape, I'll kill him!
This time the cavalry general who led the army to ambush Liu Bei's cavalry was Li Fu.
Since joining the army in Laiwu, the two brothers Li Fu and Li Bi have shown extraordinary military talents. Li Bi was responsible for leading a battalion alone, and Li Fu also became a cavalry general commanding 200 people. If he had not been defeated by the Huya Camp when chasing Huang Wan, the herdsman of Yanzhou, he would at least be a cavalry commander on his own at this time. That's it.
At this time, Li Fu looked at the Han cavalry charging straight from the opposite side. His eyes condensed, and he hunched over the horse's back, with the horse's shaft in his hand flat, ready to face the impact.
But suddenly, Li Fu found that the cavalry on the opposite side began to disintegrate. Some Hu Qi, who were clearly distinguishing their hair, withdrew from the charging formation from behind, and the originally tight charging formation on the opposite side fell into pieces. Li Fu was overjoyed, played the bone flute again, and ordered the cavalry to speed up.
Liu Bei couldn't see behind him, but when he heard the scolding of his own rangers behind him, he knew that the gang of bastards had fled in the face of the battle. At this time, he was panicking to death. He glanced at his sworn brother next to him and saw that he was still so fearless. Settle down.
Finally, before the Han cavalry was about to collide with the Taishan Army cavalry, Liu Bei shouted:
"Youzhou horses, kill, kill, kill!"
The rangers who were following him also got angry and shouted:
"Kill, kill, kill."
Compared with the outbreak of Han cavalry, the Taishan Army cavalry is very calm. After all, they have two hundred cavalry, and the only ones who can charge are twenty cavalry on the opposite side.
But after the impact, Taishan Army realized that he had encountered something cruel.
Amid the shouts of dozens of people, the Han cavalry and the Taishan army collided.
Li Fu, who was also the leader, directly collided with Liu Bei. Before he could react, the cavalryman on the opposite side had his horse on the neck. The horse under his command was hit by this blow, and the hind hooves stood upright in pain, and then fell down.
At this moment, Li Fu seemed to hear Lord Taishan whispering beside him. But Li Fu had his own luck, and his fate should not be cut off. At the moment when the horse stood facing the wind, Li Fu was calm in the face of danger and quickly threw off the stirrup.
Then he pushed the horse's back hard, used it as a support, jumped directly to the side, and then rolled continuously on the ground. Fortunately, the Han cavalry on the opposite side had a loose formation, leaving a large area empty in the middle. Otherwise, Li Fu would be trampled to death by the horse even if he jumped out.
Li Fu landed on the ground, pulled out his Huanshou sword, and started looking for the lone Han cavalry. He happened to meet a man who was stabbing the Taishan Army. He pulled the man down with one hand, and then stabbed the man to death with the force of his Huanshou sword. , then jumped on his horse and started running again. He wanted to return to the team and prepare to attack again.
Li Fu survived the disaster, but many of his subordinates were not as lucky as him. Because what they met was Zhang Fei, a man whose name would go down in history as an enemy of thousands of people.
After Zhang Fei entered the fighting state, he no longer showed his usual escape and was terrifyingly calm. In the first impact, he was faced with a rough warrior with a full beard. Zhang Fei leaned forward and stabbed the horse under his arm. The horse's crown was broken, and the front part of the crown was inserted into the bearded warrior's mouth, piercing it.
Then, Zhang Fei pulled out the iron bone from his waist, bent down and smashed into a moth thief who had fallen off his horse. With the speed of his horse and the torque of his waist, he smashed the man's skull over with great strength.
Zhang Fei's face was also red and white.
But it wasn't over yet. There was a rope loop at the end of Tieguduo. Zhang Fei slipped his hand and put Tieguduo on his wrist. Then he bent down again and picked up two small axes from the bag.
Zhang Fei held a small ax in one hand, sighted the two moth thief knights on the opposite side, and swung them past, causing the two knights to fall off their horses again.
Then he took out the ring-shou sword and held it with his right hand, and tightened the rope on his left wrist. Then he started to swing the ring-shou sword with his right hand to drive away the horse on the opposite side.
On this cruel battlefield, Zhang Fei was at a loss for words, and there was no enemy under his command.
But Zhang Fei suddenly saw that Liu Yan was defeated. This man was the ranger who had a conflict with the Qi people before. He was also a member of the Liu family in Lousangli, and he was still regarded as his brother's nephew.
In fact, the sudden retreat of the Hu cavalry during this charge had something to do with Liu Yan. It was not because he hated Qi Ren, but because of his fuse, which caused Zhang Fei to injure Tadun.
Ordinary bastards would not dare to flee in the face of battle, because when they return, the Han cavalry generals will die in battle, and these people will all die. And if they don't go back, they will be killed by local tyrants or hunted by nearby thieves who are not familiar with the area in the inner county of the Han people, and they will still die. Moreover, their tribesmen, old and young, were still in the hands of the Han, and they did not dare to run away.
But Taton and the others were different. They had no worries at all. They originally joined the army to see the real situation of the Han people. If Taton had not been injured before, he would have followed Liu Bei in this battle. But now that he was injured and with a broken arm, he had no fighting power at all. If he really acted recklessly, he would really be dead.
So, when he saw that the opposite slope was full of bandit riders, he glanced at his companions and ran away decisively. Originally there were only eight people on his side, but his running directly affected other barbarians to follow him. The instinct of survival overwhelms any rational analysis. No matter whether they will die later, they can just live now anyway.
But even though Liu Yan was somewhat responsible for the current situation, Zhang Fei still had no intention of abandoning him. After all, this man was considered half of his nephew.
So he rode over and wanted to pull Liu Yan away.
At this time, Liu Yan stood on the ground and screamed wildly, waving the Huanshou sword everywhere, blindly blocking the spear tips and Huanshou swords of the Taishan Army's sudden cavalry. After Zhang Fei smashed away the moth thieves who surrounded and killed Liu Yan, he slapped away Liu Yan's flailing knife, then threw away the ring-shou knife, picked him up on his horse with one hand, and then broke out of the encirclement again.
Zhang Fei rescued Liu Yan, but lost the Huanshou Sword in his hand. At the same time, he also saw that the boy who led the move had also fallen off his horse, and he was using bows and arrows to fight back against the Taishan Army.
Looking at Liu Yan who was trembling a little, Zhang Fei felt a little regretful. He shouted to Qianzhao:
"Run north, to the ruins."
After that, regardless of whether he could hear the move, he continued to gallop away.
Soon Liu Bei also came closer. At this time, his horse was stained with blood and was stabbed by an unknown weapon. He was breathing heavily.
Zhang Fei was anxious and asked Liu Bei:
"Brother, are you injured?"
Liu Bei was already sweating profusely and had no more energy to speak. He shook his head at Zhang Fei, and then pointed to his horse, indicating that the horse was dying.
Zhang Fei still didn't understand what his brother meant. He wanted to rush out by himself, but he couldn't do it anymore. But how could Zhang Fei be willing to let his brother die here.
He pulled Liu Yan away from the horse, jumped off the horse and left the horse with Liu Bei, letting him go while he stayed behind.
But Liu Bei just shook his head and kept breathing.
Zhang Fei gritted his teeth and was about to pull Liu Bei onto his horse. Suddenly, he saw three cavalry coming from the side. Zhang Fei was so happy that he smashed the head of a knight with the iron bone Duofei in his hand. Then he took the Huanshou Dao from Liu Bei's hand and ran over.
Over there, the remaining two riders suddenly saw their own heads being smashed. They were shocked, but then they were filled with anger. The two looked at each other, one to the left and the other to the right, and at the same time they bent down and slashed Zhang Fei diagonally.
Zhang Fei faced a combined attack from both sides, shouted loudly, and then jumped up like a plucking onion. His left and right hands directly grabbed the two opponents on the opposite side, and then he suddenly exerted force on his arms and smashed the two heads together. The two men bled directly from their orifices and were no longer alive.
In this way, Zhang Fei relied on his own bravery to steal three horses, and then added his own horse. He took Liu Bei and Liu Yan, three of them and four horses, and rode away.
Liu Bei cried and regretted on his horse:
"It's all my fault, everyone, Azhao and Abo, you must live on."
——
The three of Liu Bei rushed out, but more rangers fell off their horses and were stranded on the battlefield. Under the coordination of Qian Zhao and Xia Houbo, they picked up their weapons one after another and formed a small formation to hold on on the battlefield.
No one wanted to surrender, because they knew after joining the Youzhou Cavalry Order that the Han army would not take prisoners. So they knew that once they fell into the hands of those moth thieves who resisted out of despair, they would most likely die.
So they can only accept their fate.
But before that, they wanted to show these Central Plains people the bloody nature of their Northern men. So, they stood next to each other, shoulder to shoulder, and worked hard to lift the picked up horses high, forming a strong formation.
They have to pull a few backers even if they die.
At this time, Li Fu came over on horseback covered in blood. He looked at the eight warriors who were still fighting despite all odds, and he felt a little respect in his heart.
He thought that when he followed Qushuai to fight across the Huaiyi River that year, he also encountered such a general, his name was Liu Yan. He and his battalion soldiers still stood firm in their position in the face of Qushuai's overwhelming rain of arrows.
And now the same goes for these eight people. Their master has passed away, but these people can still be loyal and can be called righteous men.
But Li Fu looked at his cavalry again. In this battle, they lost sixteen cavalry, and eight of them were killed by a warrior with a leopard head and eyes. What kind of combat power is this? It is estimated that Guan Xiaowei, Dian Jun, Li Jun and others have such courage.
The death of his brothers also made Li Fu sad. He decided to give an explanation to his brothers and give the eight people a chance. So he rode forward and said in a deep voice to Qianzhao and others:
"Now I give you a choice. Those who are willing to surrender can live. But those who want to continue fighting, I will satisfy all of you."
After speaking, Li Fu retreated to the formation without saying another word, leaving Qian Zhao and others to make their own decisions.
As soon as Li Fu left, Qianzhao, Xiahou Bo, Gongsun Xian, Li Xiong, Tan Tai, Liu Rong, Liu Li, and Zhuoying started to quarrel.
Gongsun Xian and Li Xiong said:
"It's only right that we fight for our eldest brother. Why should we die if we can live now?"
Their words directly aroused the anger of Liu Rong, Liu Li, and Zhuo Ying. They all scolded the two for being greedy for life and afraid of death. If a man from Youzhou dies, he will die. This loyalty cannot be lost.
Gongsun Xian and Li Xiong turned red after being scolded, and finally turned around and asked Xiahou Bo:
"Abo, tell me. Let's surrender or die."
Xiahou Bo sighed and looked at the direction Liu Bei left, silent. No matter what Gongsun Xian and Li Xiong said, he just didn't say a word, and no one knew what he meant.
Liu Rong is a member of the Liu clan in Lousangli and is the core of Liu Bei. He has some ideas:
"Those moth thieves said that we can survive if we surrender, so why not surrender first and run away when the time comes, so that we can have a chance to see my elder brother again. Otherwise, it is meaningless to waste our lives here."
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Zhuo Ying didn't expect Liu Rong to change his mind when he turned around and cursed:
"What are you talking about? What is meaningless? This is sacrificing one's life for righteousness!"
But another member of the Liu family in Lousangli, Liu Li, suddenly interjected:
"What if those moth thieves cheated us? If we vote, what if we suddenly regret the contract?"
Zhuo Ying looked at Liu Rong and Liu Li, dumbfounded and speechless for a long time.
Finally, everyone looked at Qianzhao to see what he thought.
Qianzhao sighed, put away his sword, and said:
"Those moth thieves won't lie to us. Just a few of us can be shot to death, so why do we need to work in vain?"
After saying this, not only Gongsun Xian and Li Xiong nodded repeatedly, but also Liu Rong and Liu Li smiled. Only Xiahou Bo and Zhuo Ying remained silent while the other cursed.
Lianzhao pointed at Paoze lying on the battlefield outside, and said in pain again:
"These brothers came out with us and are now lost in Xingyang. As their brothers, we must take them back to our hometown and prevent them from becoming lonely ghosts in a foreign land. And if we all die, who will Can we still send our bodies back?”
This paragraph made everyone silent. Yes, death is not terrible, but if you die in a foreign country and can no longer be sacrificed by your family, you will really become a lonely ghost.
As a result, even Zhuo Ying, who was the most determined to seek death, fell silent and acquiesced to surrender along with everyone else.
The seven people discussed it, and then they noticed that Tan Tai had been kneeling over there, facing the north, without saying a word the whole time.
Qianzhao and others were surprised when Zhuo Ying, who was the nearest, touched Tan Tai, and then Tan Tai's body leaned down. Only then did everyone see that Tan Tai had killed himself with a broken blade. The broken blade stabbed straight up from his chin, and he couldn't die any more.
Zhuo Ying was startled, then blushed with embarrassment. Tan Tai's death made the seven of them look so pale no matter how much they said, and even Zhuo Ying's sacrifice of life for justice seemed ridiculous.
In the end, seven people carried Tan Tai and chose to surrender to Li Fu.
In this way, Liu Bei's starting point was wiped out here.
——
When Liu Bei and the other three were fleeing for their lives, there were also many cavalry officers who suffered the same fate as him. In short, this time Youzhou Tuqi chose to believe in Huang Wan's military strategy and launched an attack on the Taishan Army's food road. They could not lose anymore.
This time, a whole thousand-man cavalry regiment was divided into more than twenty groups to launch multiple attacks along the thirty-mile food road of Taishan Army, but they happened to run into the net pocket of Taishan's sudden cavalry. A total of 3,000 cavalrymen lurked, and they killed 72 Han officials, captured 16 general flags, forced 300 cavalrymen from Youzhou to surrender, and captured 800 war horses.
It can be said that this counterattack directly defeated the Youzhou Assault Cavalry and no longer dared to run around on the battlefield. The Taishan Army temporarily gained the initiative on the battlefield.
When these battle reports were delivered to Huang Wan, his whole world was spinning. Attached to the military report is a letter from the commander of the Youzhou Tuqi, Zong Yuan. He had great doubts about Huang Wan's commanding ability. Not only did he impeach Huang Wan, he also said that the remaining Youzhou Tuqi were seriously injured and could no longer fight. To lead the cavalry back to Hebei.
This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to Huang Wan. Without the cooperation of Youzhou's sudden cavalry, it would be a stretch for him to even survive this battle, let alone defeat the Taishan Army on the opposite side.
This matter was already very frustrating, but then another incident happened.
Hedong soldiers made a noise.
When Huang Wan received the news, his face turned pale. His staff said it was not a noise or a mutiny, but Huang Wan didn't even recover.
The reason why the Hedong soldiers were making noise was very ridiculous. It turned out to be because they were not used to eating rice.
Huang Wan immediately wanted to scold these people for being so mean. Isn’t rice more delicious than that millet? You must know that the rice shipped from Taicang is a tribute from the Jianghuai River, which was transferred by His Majesty specifically to show sympathy for the hardships of the soldiers marching to the east.
Now these idiots are making trouble because they are not used to eating good food?
It was so funny.
But no matter how much he laughs, he still has to appease them. Who told him that Huang Wan couldn't live without this Hedong soldier.
In fact, Huang Wan is also suffering. The soldiers of our Han Dynasty can endure hardships naturally. They can survive even if they are given rice, let alone rice. But who told him to meet Hedong Bing? The combat effectiveness of the Hedong soldiers is certainly unparalleled, but precisely because they have strong combat effectiveness, they are the leader of the Three Rivers, and their families are wealthy, they also have the experience of struggling upward.
Moreover, there are still many Liangzhou soldiers among this group of Hedong soldiers. These were placed by Dong Zhuo, the governor of Hedong, when he took office. No one knows why Dong Zhuo placed these people into the army.
If the Hedong soldiers were just arrogant, then under the instigation of the Liangzhou soldiers, they were simply unreasonable. Now that they have caused trouble and surrounded the old commander's camp, they will just keep doing nothing for the past few years. Not only did they propose to provide them with wheat rice, vegetables and meat later, but they also wanted to pay them wages.
Yes, these Hedong soldiers actually asked for pay before the war.
No wonder Huang Wan was surprised, because the Han Dynasty always spent two types of money on raising troops, one was millet and the other was clothing. In non-war times, they were given two stones and six measures of grain per month, three liters of salt per month, and summer clothes were one robe, one suit, one single garment, and one hakama. In wartime, three measures of millet and three measures of millet were given in January, two sets of clothes in summer and winter, and four liters of salt per month.
No money is ever given here. Of course, there are exceptions, that is, military officials are rich, ranging from the lowest-level food-fighting officer, who is paid 900 yuan a month, to the middle and low-level military officials with 200 dan, who are paid 2,000 yuan a month. But these are all issued to military officials. How can everyone in the Hedong soldiers be issued?
In another case, money will be given out, but that is a post-war reward.
Generally, when the army achieves a great victory, the emperor will mint corresponding amounts of gold to reward meritorious soldiers. For example, when Emperor Xiaowu of the former Han Dynasty went out to attack the Xiongnu, all the soldiers under General Wei Qing who beheaded and captured were given gold, with a total reward of more than 200,000 catties. This is also a tradition passed down from the Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, those who had military merits were rewarded with copper materials, and then cast into bronze vessels, and inscriptions corresponding to the deeds of the meritorious deeds were left on the bronze vessels to reward their merits.
But now that the war is not over, what kind of money do these Hedong soldiers want?
Therefore, in Huang Wan's opinion, this is nonsense.
So, Huang Wan asked his staff to talk to those Hedong soldiers again and ask them what they wanted to do.
Soon the staff came back, with Ai Ai's reply to Huang Wan:
"My lord, those Hedong soldiers said that they also knew that they wanted money before the war and were not in compliance with the system. They also understood my lord how difficult it was for you to maintain the current situation. So I just said that after the war, you can give them some cattle, horses, dogs and pigs."
When Huang Wan heard this, his eyes widened and he shook his head again:
"I can't even give you the money. Where can I get the cows, horses, dogs and pigs? Besides, what do such prodigal soldiers need dogs for? For hunting? To feed themselves?"
The staff coughed twice and explained to Huang Wan:
"My lord, this cow and horse are not that cow and horse, and this dog and pig are not that dog and pig."
"What do you mean?"
"The so-called cows and horses often wear the clothes of cows and horses; the so-called dogs and pigs often eat the food of dogs and pigs. And these things all mean the same thing, that is, human beings and slaves."
In the end, the staff stopped beating around the bush and told Huang Wan that they were allowed to take back the prisoners who the Hedong soldiers wanted to divide among themselves after the war.
And he also explained to Huang Wan Hedong Bing's motivation for doing this.
As a descendant of the public clan, Huang Wan didn't know much about the market price of a human slave. The staff told him that each of these slaves could be sold for 40,000 yuan, which was equivalent to 20 acres of land, two healthy oxen, and 40 shi of millet. Although the world was in turmoil and the prices of grain and cattle had gone up, the price of a slave was still high.
So those Hedong soldiers saw the economic value of the moth thieves on the opposite side, and because the Han army frequently killed prisoners, these Hedong soldiers came up with this idea to make a fortune after the war.
But these were seen by the staff themselves. In fact, the reason on the surface of those Hedong soldiers was that their Hedong conscription was too harsh this year, and many places were abandoned, and they were about to take these captives back to their hometowns for farming.
This reason is also true. There are 570,000 Fu people in Hedong, with 93,000 households. The maximum levy can only draw one soldier per four households. Hedong is Yinfu. If drums are used, only 20,000 people can be recruited. However, Huangfu Song previously formed the Three Rivers Knights and took away 5,000. Now he has drawn another 3,000. There are still 3,000 left to garrison in the county. At this time, the Hedong soldiers are indeed at their limit.
After listening to his staff explain this clearly, Huang Wan finally understood the thoughts of these Hedong soldiers. As far as he is concerned, all he needs to do is understand what Hedong Bing wants. Aren't they trying to capture him? Give! Don’t you want wheat and meat dishes? Give!
As long as you win this battle well, give me whatever you want.
As for whether he would be given a reward if he won the battle later, that was another matter, but this empty reward was promised first.
Xiao Chen may have promised a blank check. After the second battle of Xingyang, I will make a register of Taishan Army officers and release it, and then clarify the entire Taishan Army organization for everyone. The previously leaked maps of the Battle of Fengqiu, the Battle of Changshe, the Battle of Yingyang, the route north to Xingyang, and the Battle of Xingyang will also be drawn. These are all owed, Xiao Chen remembers them all.
(End of chapter)