The July sun is extremely harsh; prolonged exposure can cause sunburn.

Han Zhiyong used his Thousand-Mile View to see groups of people appearing below the hillside in front of him.

He led over a hundred men and had been lying in wait in this area for more than half a month.

He traveled all over the area from Beifu to Heishui City.

Once it was confirmed that the barbarians had indeed come south, Han Zhi immediately ordered his men to spread the news back to Blackwater City, as well as Xingqing Prefecture, Liangzhou, Xuanhua Prefecture, and other places.

Zhe Keqiu has been somewhat lonely these past few years.

He was unable to participate in several key battles fought by the Song Dynasty against foreign powers.

His last military achievement dates back to the war to destroy Xia, but he was not the one who made the greatest contribution in that war.

As a long-established military family in Northwest China, the Zhe family is now living off its past glory.

Compared to the rising stars of the past decade or so, the Zhe family is like a fallen aristocrat.

Blackwater City is suitable for retirement. After all, facing the barbarians of the grasslands, the imperial court has invested heavily in building a northern prefecture and is gradually transferring the troops from Blackwater City there.

In this way, like peeling back layers of an onion, Blackwater City gradually lost its military strategic position, just as the Zhe clan lost its former glory.

But when he heard that Ibahai had led a large army around the Northern Prefecture and headed south to Blackwater City, Zhekeqiu was overjoyed.

He was so excited he wanted to set off firecrackers to welcome my son's arrival.

The boy who was being pursued by Zhe Keqiu, whom he had been longing for, was leading a large group of people from the south. As far as the eye could see, there were grasslands and deserts.

Occasionally, you can see a few abandoned villages.

Once that happens, the soldiers will rush over like madmen, digging out every single hair inside.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a single hair inside.

Occasionally, if you're lucky, you might find a few bones that a dog has gnawed on, but there aren't enough to go around!

This could lead to a fight.

Anbahai angrily cursed, "Isn't Song Gou known for its wealth? Why is this whole road desolate!"

Halfway through, the other tribal leaders simply couldn't take it anymore.

Therefore, everyone proposed to split up and head south, so that the sweep could cover a wider area and be faster.

Previously on the grasslands, with Yelü Dashi's strong support, Anbahai was the most prestigious among all the tribes, and everyone listened to him.

But things are different now.

You tricked us into going south to fight, and we got utterly defeated right from the start.

How dare they act so arrogantly here?

Although I, Ba Hai, am against splitting up the troops, what I said is basically no longer effective.

In fact, Merkit Khan, Balas Khan, Hanila Khan, and Jadaran Khan divided their respective armies and sent them off in the directions that pleased them.

The remaining 200,000 troops of my Bahai.

As a result, in the following days, soldiers of the nomadic tribes continued to appear hundreds of miles away from Blackwater City.

They surrounded all the villages they encountered, then went in and looted them, taking everything they could find.

If you can't take it, smash it.

In fact, they went in empty-handed and came out empty-handed as well.

Thus, the journey from where the troops split up to Blackwater City, which should have taken only a day and a night, took them half a month.

They gradually arrived in Blackwater City after that.

However, several teams still haven't arrived.

Zhe Keqiu was always looking forward to the arrival of the barbarians at home, so that he could kill a few more enemies and make his presence known in the Song army.

Unexpectedly, the strange phenomena mentioned in Ya Hanzhi's intelligence were actually true.

These people traveled for a full half month!

They were all riding on horseback!

How did they manage to do that?

Standing atop the walls of Blackwater City, seeing the barbarian flags askew, Zhe Keqiu concluded that the outcome of this battle was a foregone conclusion.

However, he is getting on in years and is no longer as hot-tempered as he used to be, where he would just come and do whatever he wanted.

He thought that if he could win this battle, he would also leave some credit for the next generation.

At first glance, Blackwater City's defenses are indeed inferior to those of the newly built Northern Prefecture.

The city wall is much shorter and looks rather old.

Next, as is customary, Ibahai sent men to hurl insults, and then sent men to attack the city.

Then, the situation became exactly the same as in the Northern Prefecture; it was practically a carbon copy.

Killed! Killed! Killed!

The area below the city gate was littered with corpses, each one riddled with arrows.

Zhe Keqiu also experienced the whole process of Lu Zai showing off.

The commander could stand atop the city wall and simply nod, and a volley of arrows would be unleashed, pinning any barbarians who dared to approach to the ground.

This feeling is just wonderful.

Zhe Keqiu felt he was ready to begin drafting the victory report.

He ordered his men to find the most eloquent man in Blackwater City and pile up all the words that could describe famous generals and heroes.

Then leave blank the entries for the number of people beheaded or killed.

Once the killing is complete, fill in the information directly.

This is so convenient and effortless!

After attacking for several days, Ibahai discovered that Blackwater City was also very difficult to conquer.

This couldn't go on, so they sent another 30,000 people to their deaths here.

They gathered together again to discuss the matter in a state of extreme contradiction.

Merkit Khan felt that the Song army was now playing the scorched earth game and that they should retreat back to the grasslands as soon as possible; they could not fight any longer.

However, Jadaran Khan believed that the Song army's scorched-earth policy must have left behind a lot of food, which could be found to sustain the army's rations. After eating their fill, they could then search for a direct route into the Hetao region.

Jadaran Khan's explanation seemed more plausible, so the group decided to adopt this approach.

After gathering and sending 30,000 heads, Anbahai once again announced that he would evacuate Blackwater City first.

In order to stabilize morale and inspire the soldiers' passion for fighting the enemy.

Anbahai lied, claiming that we disdained attacking Blackwater City, and that we had plenty of food, women, and treasure in the heart of the Hetao region.

We should continue south to plunder the women and wealth of the Song Dynasty.

Indeed, a few villages are scattered a little south of Blackwater City, but like those to the north, not a single hair can be found among them.

On the Emunagale River next to Khara-Khoto, not a single boat could be hit by a musket.

In the past, caravans came and went here in an endless stream, but now it is deserted.

As for the highways from Heishui City to Xuanhua and Xingqing Prefecture, they were absolutely quiet.

Forget about finding food, we couldn't even catch those two ghosts.

Fortunately, we continued south and rushed into some abandoned villages as if we were insane.

Thus, a very strange phenomenon occurred: hundreds of thousands of barbarian troops, unsatisfied in the Hetao region, looked for opportunities everywhere.

Far away in Tokyo, after reading the battle reports from the Northwest and the secret reports from the Imperial City Guard, Zhao Huan couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Is this kid here to be cute and funny?

What exactly is in his head?

After being turned away many times, the Song army began its counterattack.

The Song army's counterattack method was very special; they did not launch a direct assault.

Instead, they always strike from the shadows, attacking everywhere.

They fled quickly without striking back.