Saladin, Bob Wynne, and the combined forces of Chuz pursued him in the desert.
Before long, Bobwin realized that Emperor Ammon of Chuz was right; this place was indeed a barren land.
If Lin Mo were foolish enough to set up an ambush here, he would be courting death.
During the pursuit, Saladin ordered that the dead and dying horses be made into jerky to serve as military rations.
By the third day, even some of Saladin's troops, who were accustomed to living in arid regions, had fallen.
He was an old soldier, around forty-seven or forty-eight years old, with dull blue eyes. He fell off his horse, exhausted, and could not get up. He died an hour later.
That night, another of Bobwin's crusaders died.
They all died from the same cause: dehydration.
In the red wasteland, fodder is scarce and drinking water is even scarcer.
This is a dry and desolate land, with low hills and barren fields weathered by wind.
They crossed a riverbed as dry as bones, and the horses survived on the tough, brownish-yellow devil grass, which grew in clumps under rocks and at the base of dead trees.
Saladin sent scouts to investigate, but they found neither a well nor a spring, only a shallow, stagnant pool of bitter water exposed to the scorching sun.
The deeper one ventures into the wilderness, the smaller the pools become, and the greater the distance between them grows.
If there were gods in this boundless wilderness made of rocks, sand, and red soil, they would surely be stern and merciless, turning a deaf ear to prayers for rain.
The water they brought was quickly consumed.
Therefore, Saladin had to send his men with all the buckets to leave the desert, go to Sichuan to fetch water, and then deliver it to the desert.
But it takes a long time to go back and forth.
Death followed one after another.
Soldiers, generals. Saladin's, Bobwin's, Chuz's...
One by one, their lives were taken by the cruel earth.
This situation inevitably aroused suspicion among Saladin and others.
Could the army of the Great Xia people really survive in such an extreme environment?
However, the traces left by the Xia people along the way told them that the Xia army was still in this desolate desert!
"Can you tell how many troops the enemy has?"
Saladin asked when he discovered the Bactrian encampment again.
"According to the Sultan, judging from the enemy's cooking stoves, there should be 170,000 to 180,000 men!"
“Seventeen or eighteen thousand!” Saladin repeated.
The total military strength of the Great Xia Dynasty was around 200,000, and more than 10,000 died in the Battle of Xichuan City.
It is now the fourth day since we fled into the desert.
Nearly 10,000 people starved to death?
This speculation is quite reasonable.
but...
For some reason, Saladin and Bob Win both felt that it was a little "unreasonable"!
"Anything else you found?" Bob Wyn pressed.
"The enemy troops left in a hurry, as if they were retreating overnight!"
Saladin frowned upon hearing this.
"Could it be that they're luring me into pursuit so they can ambush me?" He fell into deep thought.
"All troops, listen up! Set up camp here tonight and wait for the scouts to ascertain the situation before pursuing them!"
That evening, they held another meeting.
At the meeting, voices calling for a halt to the pursuit have emerged.
The reason is simple.
It's impossible for anyone to survive in this desert.
The territory of the Qiuzi people is to the west, but Lin Mo has been heading south.
The impression given is that the people of Daxia seem to have gotten lost!
Rather than accompanying Lin Mo to die in this desolate desert, we should go back and conquer Xichuan City as soon as possible!
However, this suggestion was rejected.
The Xia people still have an army of 170,000 to 180,000. The reason they are heading south now is because a large army is pursuing and intercepting them from the rear. Once the pursuit stops, they will definitely head west and attack the capital of Qiuzi.
So far, they have supply lines and can continuously obtain water supplies from the rear.
Lin Mo was different.
Saladin and others assumed that the Xia army had been without water for several days.
If we keep going, we'll outlive all the people of Daxia!
The meeting concluded with the decision to continue the pursuit, giving the Xia people no chance to turn the tide.
By the next day, Saladin and the others were in much better spirits!
Scouts quickly reported: "Your Majesty the Sultan, the enemy's cooking stoves have been reduced to only 140,000 men!"
So many people have died of thirst!
This kind of development is perfectly reasonable!
I believe that if we can hold on for just a few more days, the thirst will kill all the people of Daxia!
At this moment, the coalition forces of several different regimes even began to celebrate their victory ahead of schedule.
The commanders of Bobwin's two knightly orders even suggested they should pursue and attack Lin Mo's exhausted army with all their might to rack up more victories. Let the Great Xia people die of thirst like this, without a single moment of honor!
Even Bob Wynne found it increasingly difficult to control this kind of thinking.
For some reason, Bob Win found it increasingly strange. The Great Xia people seemed to be in defeat, everything made sense, yet there was something about them that was hard to put into words.
Victory came too easily.
Is the Regent of Great Xia really this stupid?
This is like playing League of Legends and suddenly three opponents disconnect during the final battle.
You say it makes sense, and it certainly does.
But how many times in a lifetime can one encounter this situation?
Just to be on the safe side, Saladin and Bobwin ultimately decided to camp where they were and observe for another day.
By the third day, all the generals could no longer contain themselves.
Because at this time, the Great Xia army only had 100,000 people left to cook.
On the first day, there were 170,000 to 180,000; on the second day, 130,000 to 140,000; and on the third day, only 100,000 remained.
All the generals believed that a large number of soldiers in the Great Xia were dying of thirst every day, and its fighting strength was greatly reduced.
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