Chapter 633 Login Login (Please vote and subscribe)

It was You Zhi who told Luo Chong that Maodun might rob the caravan of white salt, so he actually got the news earlier than Luo Chong. With so much time to prepare, You Zhi certainly couldn't just wait to be robbed.

But Maodun's guess was not wrong. You Zhi did use the caravan to attract them and buy time for the real salt transport team.

Just when You Fu's army was divided into three groups to search for this batch of white salt, a small and inconspicuous nomadic tribe just passed by Maodun's team. The young leader of the tribe rode on a horse, waving a lasso in his hand to drive the herd, pretending to be an honest herder. However, after Maodun's horse team ran away, he suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead due to nervousness.

"Saren, they have passed, should we leave now?" The nervous little leader asked the man next to him.

"Ge Sang, you have to stay calm and don't take any action. We will continue to transport goods when they go further away. Now we are just ordinary herdsmen. We are grazing. You have to understand this." The young man called Sarin calmly comforted.

But the young leader Ge Sang was still a little uneasy. He asked again in confusion, "Saren, didn't you say that the Han tribe is very powerful? As long as we can join the Han tribe, we will no longer be oppressed and all the tribesmen will live a good life? But why do we have to hide now? Can't even the Han tribe beat Maodun?"

Sarin laughed unceremoniously when he heard him say this, and said very confidently, "Ge Sang, you should know the strength of the Han tribe. In this world, no tribe is stronger than the Han tribe. The reason we need to hide this time is that we are too short of manpower now. Moreover,

we have fewer horses in the Han tribe, and we don't have many cavalry for the time being, but our infantry is very elite. Even Maodun dare not provoke us easily. It's just because most of our soldiers can't ride horses, so there is no We have no way to pursue him, otherwise how could Maodun be so proud? You see, Maodun will not be able to jump for much longer.

This time our leader recruited many herdsmen, intending to punish Maodun who disturbed the order. By then, with us herdsmen who can ride horses as warriors, equipped with iron armor that is invulnerable to swords and guns, horn bows and iron arrows, what can Maodun do? He will have to give up the most fertile pasture to us obediently. "

Ge Sang nodded after listening, and agreed with Sarin who claimed to be a member of the Han tribe caravan. He had seen various vehicles made by the Han tribe, as well as cloth, white salt, ceramic utensils, and iron pots sold by the Han tribe. The most exciting thing, of course, was Sarin's steel knife that could directly chop off a bull's head. It was a pity that the Han tribe never sold such a fierce weapon to the outside world.

Gesang had never been to the Han tribe. All his knowledge of the Han tribe came from the caravan. It was a powerful tribe that was good at making all kinds of good things. Whether it was the things for the people's daily life, the tools for labor, or the weapons for war, the Han tribe produced the best. They used these magical things to exchange a large number of cattle and horses from the grassland, and their people lived very well because of this. It was a very happy tribe.

But this time, receiving the invitation from Sarin still made him a little surprised. Sarin said that the higher-ups invited a small tribe like them to join, and they could be given the best grasslands, so that they could also live a good life, and they didn't have to migrate to the mountains to farm, because the Han tribe would soon have a city on the grassland, and they could still live the same grazing life as before. This made Gesang very excited. After thinking for a few days, he finally decided to join the Han tribe.

But what he didn't expect was that he encountered trouble on the way to the Han tribe, because Gesang's tribe was a little far away from the grassland new city of the Han tribe, and had been squeezed to the coastal area by other powerful tribes, but was closer to the caravan's stationing point, so Sarin took them directly to the caravan's camp.

As a result, Saren's unintentional move was also a coincidence. When Youzhi got the news that Maodun was going to rob the goods, he was worried about how to transport the white salt. It happened that Saren brought Gesang's tribe with him at this time. Unfortunately, Gesang's tribe had a small population, with less than a thousand men, women, old and young. It was a bit unrealistic to travel with the caravan and be responsible for protecting the safety of the caravan. According to the intelligence Youzhi had, Maodun would at least dispatch three or four thousand people. At this time, even if Gesang was pulled up, it would be useless for their safety.

Finally, after thinking about it, Youzhi made a decision. He led the caravan, called all the vehicles of the caravan, and pulled the sacks of soil to attract Maodun's attention. The two thousand cattle and horses delivered by the Xin tribe, as well as the white salt, were all handed over to Gesang for stealth transportation.

Cattle and horses are originally livestock. They will not be conspicuous at all when they are handed over to Gesang and other herdsmen to drive and take care of them. Youzhi was very relieved about this. A large amount of white salt was directly transported by livestock. There was no car in the whole team, which also reduced the risk of being discovered.

Sure enough, the three salt-seeking teams sent by Maodun saw that they were just a group of ordinary herdsmen, and did not see a cargo truck or a person from the Han tribe. They ran away without even searching. The leader had already given a death order that they must rush to the camp of the Han tribe caravan on the seashore as quickly as possible, as the salt might not have been sent back yet.

In this way, Gesang, who was responsible for smuggling white salt, and Sarin, who was responsible for leading the way, both escaped by luck. They kept grazing until dusk, and when it was just dark, they moved all the salt bags onto the backs of the livestock, and then used compass positioning and stargazing to identify the direction, and began to move overnight.

Maodun's three troops completely lost their original goals. One team was still madly chasing the caravan led by Youzhi, and the other two teams went straight to the Han tribe camp on the seashore. The remaining team was looking for possible "another caravan" along other routes, while Maodun himself stayed in the temporary camp where he was ambushed and sulked. The loss this time was too great.

During the pursuit of the caravan yesterday alone, his team suffered more than 200 casualties due to the tripwires dropped by You Zhi. This was of course nothing compared to the total number of nearly 5,000 people in the army, but he felt aggrieved because the Han tribe's caravan had never fought with his warriors, and he suffered such a huge loss just by relying on despicable means. Of course, he was unwilling to accept this.

The horses and warriors who were tripped were basically beyond rescue. All of them fell headfirst due to the horses' slipping hooves. The horses' necks were basically broken on the spot, and the people were not much better. The lucky ones only broke their arms and legs, and there was still a possibility of recovery, but even if they recovered, they would be disabled and could no longer ride horses or shoot arrows. Most of the unlucky ones died on the spot, some of them broke their cervical vertebrae like the horses, and some were only slightly injured, but were trampled into a pile of rotten meat by the friendly troops behind them, and they could not even recognize who they were.

Maodun wanted revenge, but he also knew that now was not the right time. Finding the white salt was the most urgent task. However, what he didn't know was that while he was robbing the Han tribe caravan, Luo Chong was also planning to take over his hometown.

The Tiger Guards had been on the boat for two days. In order to avoid being discovered by the enemy, they did not dare to sail along the lakeshore. Fortunately, the Jinwu Guard scouts who were responsible for leading the way knew the enemy's exact location. They followed the designated direction, calculated the speed of the sailboat, and estimated that when they were about to reach the destination, they would first let the fleet drop anchor and stop, and then send a small boat to the lakeshore to scout the situation.

On the evening of the second day after departure, the fleet arrived at the anchor point. Xue Tu immediately sent out more than a dozen single-person reconnaissance boats to conduct close reconnaissance. Under the cover of night, more than a dozen small boats came to the lake, but they did not dare to get too close, let alone land. They only identified the number of people in the camp by the fire on the lake surface.

When it was completely dark, bonfires were lit one by one, and the livestock were driven back to the temporary pens by the herdsmen. The tents not far from the lake were lit up like lanterns. The scouts carefully counted the number of tents and estimated the number of enemies. Others checked the terrain to confirm whether it was the target location. Everything was carried out in silence and in an orderly manner.

Soon, these scouts began to go back and report the situation. Everyone reported the results of their own reconnaissance. Xue Tu then verified these data with each other and finally came up with a more reliable result.

According to the terrain and the number of people, this is indeed Maodun's lair, that is, the spring and summer grazing ground of Maodun's tribe. Generally, his tribe will stay here in this season. The garrison is not far from the shore. The number of people is enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people. There are indeed six or seven thousand tents, and the stars of fire are continuous for miles.

However, according to the comprehensive intelligence of Jinwuwei, there are not so many warriors here.

Maodun's alliance army can gather tens of thousands of young and strong people, but that is the total number of the alliance. His own headquarters has about more than 10,000 households, but it is impossible for them to live together. This tribe with six or seven thousand tents is only his largest one, and the young and strong forces that can be mobilized are basically more than 6,000.

But yesterday, we received a report from You Zhi, saying that there were about 5,000 people chasing them, and tens of thousands of horses. Of course, it was impossible to draw so many people from one camp. They must have been drawn from several camps. According to this estimate, as the largest headquarters of Maodun, at least half of the young and strong would be left behind, so the possible force here was about 3,000 people. If a few women were counted, or there were more young and strong people left behind, then the estimated defense force here was about 4,000 people.

The Tiger Guards only dispatched 2,000 people this time. They were not superior in numbers, but the gap was not too big. The advanced equipment of the Han tribe was enough to make up for the lack of numbers. What's more, the proportion of archers in the army set up by Luo Chong was very high, reaching half, which means that more than 1,000 of their 2,000 people were archers. This advantage was even more obvious. Xue Tu was also very confident in this battle, so he immediately decided that the whole army would rest on the ship and launch a landing attack before dawn.

However, the soldiers could sleep, but he could not. At this time, Xue Tu and the military commander Xue Dongliang had to consider tactics and coordinate the food and supplies, and calculate the food for the army, and the scouts could not rest.

When the moon was at its zenith, more than a dozen small boats approached the shore again under the cover of night. The scouts on them took plumb bobs to measure the water depth everywhere, looking for a suitable landing point and the place where the sunken cargo ship could be closest to the shore. These people worked for more than two hours before finding a suitable landing area and placed several sealed water buckets painted red and white in this area as buoys. They were extremely professional.

When the fish belly was about to show in the east, Xue Tu gave an order to let all the soldiers get up and eat, ready to launch an attack. The breakfast that day was very rich. The porridge every morning became a more hunger-resistant dry rice. Usually only a few slices of sausage were seen, but today each person had one, and there were some pickled and refreshing vegetables to go with the rice. The clear stewed fish soup was enough, and it was no problem to drink it as water, so that all the soldiers filled their stomachs.

Around 4:30 in the morning, the soldiers went to the toilet for the last time, and then began to help each other put on armor and check their weapons and equipment. In addition, according to the tactical requirements of this time, they were likely to conduct a fire attack. Military Sima Xue Dongliang also prepared a large number of torches and tung oil in bamboo tubes, and gave these things to the spearmen with the least weight.

Around 5 o'clock in the morning, the eastern sky gradually turned white, and the sky was getting bright. The herdsmen stationed in the pasture also started their day's activities. The men had basically not gotten up yet, but the women had already entered the animal pens with large and small pottery jars or wooden barrels, and squeezed some milk to make cheese in the cool morning. Some people carried pottery to the lake to fetch water for washing clothes or cooking.

But at this time, someone suddenly found several red and white wooden barrels floating not far from the shore. In a natural environment, these two colors were very prominent, and it was hard not to notice them.

"What is that?" A female herdsman who was fetching water asked in surprise.

"I haven't seen it, but it looks like something made by humans. Look, they all look exactly the same." A woman next to him speculated.

"It looks like a container, made of wood. Only the Han tribe can make such a thing." Another person speculated.

"Containers from the Han tribe? How did they appear here?"

"Who knows? Maybe they sold it to another tribe, and then those people accidentally dropped it into the water and floated here. But since it's here, it's ours. Wait, I'll go back and get a pole to fish it out."

But just as a group of women were about to attack these buoys, the half-round red sun that was slowly rising from the water in the distance was blocked by some strange black shadows, and someone immediately asked in doubt.

"Look, what's over there? Something is blocking the red sun!"

"It seems to be getting bigger and bigger."

While the women were pointing and talking, more than 30 sailboats were rushing towards the lakeshore with the easterly wind. The decks were already filled with elite soldiers sitting cross-legged, and their weapons had been placed in the landing craft first.

The women on the shore screamed in fear as they watched the monsters grow bigger and bigger. However, when they were about a hundred meters away from the shore, the monsters finally stopped. However, before they could breathe a sigh of relief, the huge fleet suddenly sounded the deafening sound of war drums. Countless red flags pointed diagonally towards the shore. The commanders on all the ships issued orders in unison.

"Everyone, get on the landing craft, the archers will fire to cover, the sword and shield soldiers will land on the beach, and the battle array will cover the archers' landing. The whole army will attack, quickly, quickly"

(End of this chapter)