"It was all because of my ignorance that I was deceived by the Song people." After waiting for a while, Wuzhu said loudly, "If I had decided to cross the river to see the living girl, or if I had used Qin Xianggong's strategy and directly gave the broken land on the other side of the river to the Xixia people, how could we be in such a predicament today? Even if Tuhesu was attacked and the reinforcements were harassed, it was also the result of my unauthorized urging."
The generals looked at each other in silence, but instead felt respect in their hearts... At this point, everyone knew that Wuzhu and Balisu had not made any mistakes in judgment. It was just that the Song people on the other side were too cunning. However, Wuzhu took the initiative to take the responsibility, which made the generals of the Western Army breathe a sigh of relief.
At this moment, the generals were speechless.
Balisu put back his sword and went down to mobilize the troops. Wuzhu ordered another meal and ate it on the Stork Tower facing the dragon flag opposite. Then he went north in person to meet the living woman.
The Jin army marched north, and on the other side of Puzhou, the Song army camp not only did not relax, but became increasingly tense... No one knew whether the Jin army was playing hard to get, and no one knew whether they would make a surprise attack at night.
However, the Jin army did not come that evening, nor did they return the next day, and the beacon smoke that was set up at Longmen Ferry was certainly not lit.
But at the same time, going upstream along the Yellow River, a full thousand miles in a straight line, and an actual three thousand miles along the Yellow River, at a key location in the heart of Western Xia - the gorge, which is the location of the Qingtong Gorge in later generations, a beacon fire was successfully lit.
Moreover, the Western Xia garrison was very small, and the Song army took advantage of Zhang Xian's troops to bypass the upstream and launched a successful surprise attack. Then the entire army successfully crossed the river, but ultimately due to limited manpower, they were unable to prevent the Western Xia people from lighting the beacon fire.
Therefore, in the afternoon, beacons were lit and smoke rose into the sky, and for a time, warnings were sounded everywhere along the Yellow River in Western Xia.
"Let the governor know that Liu Fa... is Liu Zhengyan's father. He came here once before, but he was defeated by Weiming Cha Ge on the way to the front. When he retreated to this place, he was surrounded by Cha Ge and then his whole army was annihilated." By the evening of that day, the Song army had crossed the river despite the hardships. Hu Hongxiu, who had less sheep fat on his head, saw Yue Fei looking at the smoke from the distant large-scale bonfires without saying a word, so he stepped forward to explain. "After that time, the Xixia people even made beacon towers in places like this... In fact, after passing this gorge, you will reach the real heartland of Xixia."
Yue Fei shook his head slightly, holding his sword, and said in a deep voice: "I am not concerned about this beacon fire. It is inevitable when it comes to the heartland of the Xixia people... How far is this place from Xingqing Prefecture?"
"One hundred and eighty miles." Hu Hongxiu answered without hesitation.
"Forced march... for three days?" Yue Fei thought for a moment and asked again.
Hu Hongxiu immediately shook his head: "At least six days."
Liu Qi hesitated for a moment and took the initiative to interrupt and explain: "Yue Jiedu... The Dangxiang people have more tribes than households, and all the people in each tribe are soldiers. Even the core warriors are not in Xingling at this time. With Li Ganshun's fifty years of authority as the ruler, a messenger can summon a male from a nearby tribe to come to the rescue. They ride a horse, hold a bow, carry a spear, and carry a bag of food and water, which is enough to form an army. If these foreign cavalry rush into our army, they will surely die. But if we ignore them and let them march forward, allowing them to harass the march and plunder the logistics, we will be the ones to die."
Yue Fei nodded immediately: "You two mean that we can only march cautiously, marching thirty miles a day?"
"Yes." Liu Qi responded.
"How many of those foreign cavalry will come to help?"
"It's hard to say." Liu Qi continued to look at him seriously. "It depends on how fast we go... If we can really go thirty or forty miles a day, in five or six days, by the time we reach the city of Xingqing, I'm afraid we'll have at least 20,000 people."
Hu Hongxiu hesitated for a moment and gave a brief reminder: "Jiedu, the more foreign cavalry gather, the slower our advance will be... and it's not just about how many foreign cavalry the enemy has, we also have to consider our military strength."
"Don't worry about it." Yue Fei shook his head. "Vice-Commander Wang is 40 miles behind us, a day's journey, so we will leave the gorge to him. Let's not delay, have a good rest today, and tomorrow morning, the whole army will move forward quickly to save time and distance."
Liu Qi and Hu Hongxiu thought about it and nodded heavily. Even Qu Duan, who had just settled his cavalry, just waved his whip after listening to the previous conversation and was speechless for a while.
Come to think of it, what else can I do now that I’m here?
The whole night was silent. The next morning, when it was light, everyone got up to eat, only to find that there was a Buddhist pagoda forest next to the Yellow River where they had rested yesterday. Many soldiers who believed in Buddhism ran over to worship.
The officers did not stop them, and many of them even couldn't help but bow. Only Yue and Qu looked at each other coldly and did not express anything.
"Jiedu, the Xixia people are coming!"
In the morning, the whole army was ready, and the baggage was pulled by rafts and moved in the river. The army lined up along the river according to the commander's personal arrangement. Just as they were about to set off, Li Shifu, who had been sent out in advance, suddenly turned back, went straight to the center of the army, then dismounted and reported a military situation to Yue Fei.
"How many people?"
Yue Fei, fully armored, asked seriously under the flag of the loyal patriot commander, his eyes obviously bloodshot.
"Four or five hundred... The surrounding tribes must have come on their own after seeing the beacon smoke." Li Shifu replied seriously. "These tribes are all local tribes in Xingling, and are the direct descendants of the Weiming clan. I tried to recruit them, but the two messengers were killed, so I had no choice but to disperse them... And at this rate, I'm afraid they will be able to gather two or three thousand people tomorrow, and then my men will not be able to easily disperse these lightly armed tribe cavalry for the army."
"No problem." Yue Fei immediately responded. "Deputy Governor Li, if you can serve as a scout here, it will be a great achievement."
Li Shifu nodded immediately, but like the surrounding Guanxi generals, he could not hide his serious expression.
In this way, the army finally set off and headed north along the Yellow River.
However, they had only walked about ten miles and it was not yet noon. As the army turned the corner of the Yellow River, the terrain suddenly opened up. Yue Fei naturally noticed a conspicuous thing in the northwest of the army formation, so he turned his head and looked at Hu Hongxiu beside him:
"Minister Hu, that mountain is continuous and majestic, like a group of galloping horses. What kind of mountain is it?"
Although he knew that the journey ahead would determine life or death, and that he was a very straightforward person, Hu Hongxiu, who was wearing a headscarf, could not help but tease: "Emperor Yue said that the peaks of this mountain are like a group of galloping horses, so it must be the Junma Mountain..."
"So it's called Junma Mountain?"
"That's right!" Hu Hongxiu continued to laugh. "However, in the local Tibetan language, the word for horse is pronounced as Helan... Therefore, this mountain can also be called Helan Mountain!"
Yue Fei suddenly realized.
PS: Thanks to the 129th cute one, Xue Qianjian.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
