The vast Badain Jaran Desert is uninhabited, with only endless yellow sand and vultures circling overhead; the depths of the desert are the graveyards of living beings.
Fortunately, the imperial court invested heavily in building a road here, which prevented Anbahai from getting lost in the Gobi Desert and allowed the exhausted barbarian army to travel along the road when they could not tell which way to go.
After being relentlessly harassed by the Song army for half a month, the barbarian army finally broke apart in the Gobi Desert, splitting into more than a dozen units.
The tribal chief is on the verge of losing control of the army.
Some of these dozen or so armies successfully moved south and entered the Hexi Corridor area.
Some were not so lucky.
For example, one army of 30,000 men, whose commander believed that they would encounter Han cavalry if they followed the highway, cleverly left the highway and entered the desolate Gobi Desert.
They ate only what was left over, which was not enough to replenish their energy. After a long march through the Gobi Desert, the barbarian soldiers were exhausted and dizzy with hunger.
Finally, after losing their way, people also became ruthless and insane.
When the first companion fell, someone suggested that instead of letting those damned vultures in the sky get away with it, why not build a fire ourselves?
Dude, we're not after your body, we just can't bear to see you fed to those damn vultures.
Thus, humanity's last line of defense, on the verge of death, was easily breached.
In management, there is a term called the "broken windows theory".
It's about feeling guilty if you throw a piece of trash on the floor in a clean and tidy house.
But when a strong wind breaks a window and shatters glass all over the floor, people feel much more at ease throwing things on the ground.
From the moment the first barbarian soldier who died was stripped naked and roasted over a fire, this army had already fallen into the abyss of madness.
One after another, skeletons still bearing traces of blood were abandoned in the yellow sand, left to be buried by the wind and sand.
Before long, they not only ate those who died from exhaustion, but also, due to hunger, began to draw their swords and kill the weak.
Occasionally, a lone merchant traveling through the desert on a camel carrying small goods would witness this human tragedy and be so frightened that he would whip his camel and run wildly across the desert, not even daring to take back the fallen goods.
The scorched earth policy meant that those relocated to the prefectural capital had no idea what was actually happening in the Gobi Desert.
Merchants who saw it passing by would go back and tell others, but no one believed them; it was just something that was occasionally passed around among the people.
The sun hangs high in the sky, unchanging through the ages.
That army that ventured deep into the Gobi Desert never emerged again.
Many corpses can also be seen on the highway.
The faces of these dead people still retained the weariness and despair of the moment of death.
During this time, the vultures circling in the sky have been eating human flesh until their eyes are red; they have never eaten so much in their lives.
Those barbarian soldiers who marched south to the Hexi Corridor thought they had escaped the desolate desert and entered a rich region. Once they saw villages, they thought they would have food.
So a large group of people rushed into a village, only to find that they couldn't see a single ghost in the village.
In comparison, Ambahai was luckier; his troops, through persistent efforts, found some remaining food in the surrounding villages.
The luckiest one wasn't even Ambahai. After entering Suzhou, Jadaran Khan found many people in a village.
These were people who had previously refused to give up their fertile lands and fled from the imperial army, hiding away from them.
They held onto a sliver of hope, having heard that the barbarians were in Blackwater City to the north, and that Blackwater City was 600 li from here, so the barbarians wouldn't come over.
Unexpectedly, the barbarians really came.
Having not had enough to eat for a month, Jadaran Khan was in a terrible temper. Without saying a word, he killed several people first, then roared, "Hand over all the grain, or I'll kill your whole family!"
The villagers were so frightened that they knelt down and begged for mercy, and had no choice but to bring out all the grain they had hidden.
But a small village was clearly not enough, and so a human tragedy unfolded in this small village called Niujia Village.
About thirty villagers who had fled the imperial court's relocation were all killed, and some of the men and women were roasted and eaten over a fire.
Although the barbarian invasion of the Hetao region did not cause damage to the major cities, it did disrupt the normal development of the region.
While conducting probing guerrilla warfare against the barbarians, the Song army continuously provided comprehensive intelligence.
Throughout July, everyone in the Imperial City Guard in the Northwest slept for less than two hours a day.
They are active between various state capitals, constantly transmitting the latest intelligence.
Take Liu Qi of Suzhou, for example. He was originally ordered by Yue Fei to advance westward.
However, according to the latest intelligence from the Imperial City Guard, nearly 250,000 barbarians have entered the Hexi Corridor area, and villages in Suzhou, Xuanhua Prefecture, Liangzhou, and Pingxi Prefecture may face great pressure.
There must still be many people there who have not been evacuated.
And there must still be food. If we sit idly by, the barbarians will surely recover their strength.
Therefore, Liu Qi wrote a letter to Yue Fei and sent it to Yumen Pass by fast horse.
The reply from Yue Fei was: to launch a full-scale attack on the barbarian forces in Suzhou and Xuanhua Prefecture.
At the end of July, the Chishui Army in Suzhou temporarily halted its westward advance, and Liu Qi's troops emerged from Suzhou City to begin their attack on the barbarian tribes who had entered Hexi.
Liu Qi's strategy was simple: to use cavalry to quickly attack the scattered and exhausted Manchu army.
They then used musketeers and heavy infantry in a mixed formation to sweep through the barbarian army.
Liu Qi was very efficient. His first army was cavalry, and within just a few days, they swept away more than 50,000 barbarian troops in the vicinity.
Among them, Merkit Khan was beheaded.
The war continues, and all intelligence is being rapidly sent to Tokyo.
After reading the latest battle report, Zhao Huan was quite pleased.
That stupid pig of mine has brought all the vital forces of the grassland and exhausted them.
The barbarian army, which started with 620,000 men, dwindled to less than 250,000 when it entered Hexi. Their actions along the way were nothing short of a suicide mission.
Zhao Huan couldn't help but sigh, compared to people like Hebule and Baibuhua, this Anbahai was truly a meritorious official of the Song Dynasty!
If I don't kill him, I'll be letting down his loyal heart for the Song Dynasty.
With a constant stream of good news from the Northwest, the court officials have calmed down considerably.
Those who wanted to drink drank, and those who wanted to go to brothels to talk about life with beautiful women went off to talk about life.
Since Yue Fei had already blocked the western border, news of the Hetao route was also completely blocked.
Bilego's intelligence was still almost entirely based on information from two months ago; he was unaware that Ambahai had become a desperate force being hunted down everywhere.
In his excitement, Billeco began to let loose.
Previously, there was still some apprehension, and I dared not cross the final line.
But now, Billeco has simply stopped trying to control domestic sentiment.
Factional suppression within Gaochang escalated into a massacre of Han Chinese.
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