Chapter 638 Arslan's Doubts (Please vote and subscribe)
However, at this time, Maodun had not received the news that his old nest was attacked. He was still thinking hard about where the batch of white salt from the Han tribe was. Could it be that the envoy from the Xin tribe did not tell the truth? As soon as this thought came up, Maodun shook his head. The envoy of the Xin tribe would never lie. Although he did not trust the Xin tribe, he absolutely believed in his craftsmanship. No one would make up lies to deceive himself under such torture.
Maodun's three armies were looking everywhere. One team had found the caravan camp on the north bank of the strait, but at this time the camp had long been deserted. The simple courtyard of the camp was empty, leaving only a few adobe huts built by the caravan themselves. This team of thousands of herdsmen rushed into the courtyard, but found nothing. They even sent people to check the only well in the courtyard, but still found nothing.
The angry leader ordered the camp to be burned down, the adobe houses were knocked down, and the camp was demolished into a mess, and finally left unwillingly.
Another group of herders who were looking for trucks along the route also found nothing, but they were still looking. They even forced some small tribes that bought a few carts from the Han tribe to check and plundered their small amount of white salt. They did a lot of bad things in a few days and had to fight with some small tribes repeatedly. Little did they know that Sarin and Gesang, who were actually transporting salt for the Han tribe, did not have a single cart at all. All the white salt was transported by cattle and horses. When the Tiger Guards captured Maodun's old nest, they were already close to the new city of the Han tribe on the lake.
The last group of cavalry responsible for chasing the caravan had been playing a meaningless horse racing game with Youzhi for several days.
The caravan led by You Zhi was full of light cavalry, and even the carriages were now empty. Four horses pulling an empty carriage was no less fast than light cavalry, but it was not as flexible as a single cavalry in turning, so other members of the caravan still needed to escort them.
By the afternoon of the third day of the pursuit, Maodun's men who were following behind were about to give up.
"Brother Arslan, do we still want to continue chasing? If we keep running like this, the horses will be exhausted, and the caravan ahead has no goods. Even if we catch up, we won't get any benefit, right?" A short young man riding a black horse asked the leader Arslan.
Arslan was a brother of Maodun, who was nearly 30 years old and one of Maodun's leaders. He led the team responsible for chasing the caravan this time.
"Bagen, this is the leader's order. Do you dare to disobey the leader?" Arslan said unceremoniously.
The short young man called Bagen immediately shook his head, stroked the galloping horse under his crotch with some heartache, and then continued to persuade.
"Arslan, you know that's not what I mean. I just don't want to fight without results. It's not good for us at all. It doesn't conform to the survival rules of us grassland people." "
But the wolves on the grassland can chase their prey for half a month, and only the sheepdogs in the flock will circle around the tent." Arslan still said stubbornly.
"But..."
"No buts, we must catch up with this caravan today, otherwise we will be too close to the camp of the Han tribe if we continue to chase. I heard from the leader that there are several thousand soldiers of the Han tribe there. We will definitely not be able to defeat them, so we must kill them before they return to the camp." Arslan made a decision.
Bagen sighed after hearing this. He knew that he could not convince the leader, so he could only urge his horse to leave Arslan and call on his brothers to speed up the pursuit. Since there was no way to leave, let's fight and leave. Fortunately, it will only take one or two days.
The two groups chased each other and ran non-stop until the evening. Just when You Zhi was about to let the caravan stop to rest, a red flag suddenly appeared on the horizon in front. This scene immediately excited everyone in the caravan. There was no need to think too much. The only tribe that could bring out such a flag on the entire grassland was the Han tribe.
"Is that our cavalry?"
"It must be the leader who sent someone to pick us up."
"Everyone, don't rest yet, be alert, and prepare to meet up with the troops in front. We may have to fight with those bastards behind us in a while. Damn it, they have been chasing us for several days. We can't just let them go. Being chased and beaten like this is really an insult to the prestige of our Han tribe." When You Zhi saw the support troops coming, he was confident. Now with the support of the reinforcements, their number is no less than that of the herdsmen cavalry led by Arslan behind them. When the fight really breaks out, the Han tribe with sophisticated weapons will definitely have a greater chance of winning. He has no need to be afraid of the herdsmen behind him.
After running for a while, Bagen, who was in the front, suddenly saw that the Han tribe caravan in front stopped running and took a temporary rest, as if they were going to fight to the death with them. This scene surprised him.
Why didn't the caravan run? Could it be that they had reached the sphere of influence of the Han tribe? Thinking of this, he looked around and saw that on the eastern horizon, a horse team was rumbling towards them. Horse teams were not rare on the grassland, but the red flags held high by the other side were different. Only the Han tribe could make them.
The reinforcements of the Han tribe are coming! Bagen was shocked and turned his horse's head and ran to the back to report the situation to Arslan.
"Arslan, it's bad. The reinforcements of the Han tribe are coming. Let's retreat quickly. It will be too late if we are late." Bagen shouted while running towards the large army behind.
Arslan frowned when he heard this. He thought it was a lie made up by Bagen because he didn't want to continue the pursuit. When he was about to scold him, he suddenly saw more than a hundred knights following Bagen. It seemed that they wanted to attack their nearly two thousand people.
Arslan knew these people. They were the members of the Han tribe caravan that they had been chasing for several days. But what was the situation now? Did the Han tribe really have reinforcements? They were stalling for time to tie up their own troops?
Sure enough, in just a moment, Arslan followed the direction of the sunset and saw a large number of Han army flags rushing towards this side. He was also shocked. Was it really the Han tribe reinforcements? !
Without further thought, nor hesitation, he just made a simple comparison in his mind, and then immediately issued the order to retreat. However, Arslan did not go far. He just kept a relatively safe distance from the caravan, and then stopped. After chasing for three or four days, he was really unable to swallow the bitter pill of failure. So he decided to stay for two more days to see the situation, or even stay here for some reconnaissance. Maybe he could find out the whereabouts of the batch of white salt, and give an explanation to Maodun after returning.
On the other side, the Han tribe cavalry regiment, led by the cavalry of the two guards, the Huben Guard and the Qianniu Guard, also quickly connected with Youzhi. The reinforcements were led by Lingfeng and Wuyun. They were originally part of the caravan guards. This time they were just following Youzhi's orders to recruit some small tribes. Now they came with reinforcements, and both sides immediately confirmed their identities.
"Lingfeng, you came at the right time. Those bastards wanted to run away when they saw you. They chased us for several days. They wanted to leave, but it's not that easy. Quickly gather your men and rush over with me to kill them." Seeing that his old subordinates had brought people to support the scene, Youzhi immediately wanted to lead people to rush over, but was immediately stopped by Lingfeng.
"Captain, the leader wants us not to fight too long. We should escort the caravan and the goods back immediately after receiving them. We should avoid fighting if we can. Most of the reinforcements coming this time are native herdsmen from the grassland. They have not been properly trained. They are just for show, but they don't have much advantage in a real fight. I suggest we leave first."
Ling Feng persuaded You Zhi while looking at the caravan's trucks. He found that all the trucks were empty. There was no white salt that the leader asked them to pick up. He was stunned.
You Zhi also patted his forehead helplessly. After all, he was young and hot-tempered. He felt that he had lost face after being chased and beaten for several days. However, since the leader did not let them fight too long, he had to give up. When he saw Ling Feng staring at the empty carts in a daze, he said.
"Don't look. The white salt is not here."
"Ah? Where did it go? If we can't get the white salt, our mission will not be completed." Ling Feng asked directly without thinking too much.
Hearing this, You Zhi said with some pride, "Since we knew that we would definitely be robbed, why would I blatantly put so much white salt on the truck for transportation? We did pull some sacks at the beginning, but they were all fake, filled with soil. The real white salt had already been transported through another route."
Seeing Ling Feng still looking at him in confusion, You Zhi continued to explain.
"Didn't I send you to recruit small tribes that you are familiar with? The one who transported white salt to us was also such a small tribe that was recruited. The leader is called Gesang. I have met this person and feel that he is very loyal and is very willing to join the Han tribe.
In order to confuse Maodun's troops, I asked them to carry the white salt away in advance. I received news from them this morning that they are not far from us." "
Oh, so that's the case. What should we do now? Should we take the initiative to find them or wait here? In short, we must see the salt before we can go back." Ling Feng asked again.
"Of course, at the beginning, we couldn't protect ourselves, so we didn't go together. Now that you have so many people, what should I be afraid of? Let's just camp here and rest. Let's wait for a day or two, and wait until we connect with Gesang's tribe. Then we can go together. Anyway, there are so many people, so there is no need to be afraid of Maodun behind us. They have less than 2,000 people, which is about the same as our current number. But our warriors all have armor, and they are completely better than the bastards on Maodun's side in terms of defense. They dare not take the initiative to attack us now. They just saw the reinforcements led by you coming, and they ran away immediately because of fear."
"That's good. In this case, let's stay here for two days. I hope that Gesang's tribe will be fine." Ling Feng nodded, agreeing with You Zhi's opinion.
"Don't worry, I specially sent Saren, who is most familiar with the grassland conditions, to be their guide, and he will contact me every day to confirm the safety of both parties. They are fine now and will be here soon." You Zhi immediately comforted.
After some arrangements, nearly 200 people in the caravan, together with the newly arrived reinforcements, actually built a tent camp directly on the spot. It seemed that they were prepared for a long-term war. This situation immediately confused Arslan. What exactly did the Han tribe want to do?
He originally thought that the caravan would come to fight them when reinforcements came, but he didn't expect that they would ignore him at all, but built a tent on the spot, as if they were going to fight to the death with them.
Why didn't they fight back? Are they waiting for some secret weapons? Or are they waiting for more reinforcements? Arslan, who didn't understand the situation, began to think wildly.
However, just when they were in a stalemate, a group of defeated soldiers finally escaped from the temporary camp of Maodun's army on the Han tribe's trade road and sent the news that their headquarters was attacked by the Han tribe and the tribe suffered heavy losses.
In Maodun's big tent, more than a dozen people knelt down and cried loudly.
"Chief, you must avenge us. The Han tribe suddenly floated over from the lake at dawn. There were thousands of armored warriors. They also formed a wall with wooden boards and countless spears on it. We couldn't even get close. They hid their archers in that strange wall and shot arrows at our tents, people and livestock. They burned all the tents in our tribe and took away a lot of people and livestock. Chief, you must lead us to avenge."
Among the dozen people kneeling in the big tent, a small leader who was related to Maodun cried hoarsely.
Maodun was shocked by this news. He knew about the thousands of armored soldiers of the Han tribe. He even saw these soldiers training in the distance. At first, he suspected that these soldiers would target him, but they didn't have so many horses and they didn't look like cavalry. If they came to fight him, how could they get through?
Now there is no need to ask this question anymore. They are infantry, but they don't need to march at all. Because their base is near the lake, the Han tribe can just sail along the river and reach their doorsteps by boat.
However, there is one thing he doesn't know. Because his subordinates wanted to shirk responsibility, they exaggerated the number of Han tribe members in the sneak attack. He thought that the "several thousand armored soldiers" mentioned by his subordinates were the more than 4,000 people he saw at the beginning, but in fact there were only 2,000 people in the sneak attack. It was because of such a small detail that Maodun made a wrong judgment for a while.
(End of this chapter)
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