When Xin You arrived at Zebian, dawn had not yet broken, and only the morning light spread faintly in the east.

Under the dim skylight, the waves of the lake lapped gently on the shore, and the trees stood silently at different distances. Their leaves had fallen off, but they did not look desolate. The thin-ridged branches were full of spirit.

He left the accompanying knights and led his horse to an old poplar tree surrounded by several people. He raised his eyes and looked up at its towering crown. This tree might have existed when there were no Chiloudan and other tribes here. Look. After a while, the sun shone into his eyes.

The sun came out. The surrounding fields became brighter. The light jumped among the trees and covered the surface of the lake. It was like thousands of snakes dancing.

With the arrival of morning, the subordinates under the supervision came one after another.

This is the gathering point that Xin You made an appointment with them last night.

Tu Lianfan was the first to arrive, Qi Dali was the second, Lan Baozhang was the fourth, and the last two Xiao Sui didn't arrive until three poles above the sun.

They brought more Hu Mu than Xin You estimated, about seven to eight hundred horsemen, nearly half of their respective tribes were ready to fight. This also shows that they were very confident in Xin You's robbery plan.

Xin You called his subordinates to come forward and said: "I made an appointment with you to gather early in the morning, and it is almost midnight. You two came late, which made everyone wait for a long time. You should be punished, but we are about to send troops. If we punish you two It will delay everyone's schedule, please forgive me for now."

Lan Baozhang arrived neither early nor late. He had already been waiting impatiently for the two little ones, and complained: "Don't be late next time! What's the point of asking the big guys to wait for you two!"

The two little ones, who had caused a lot of resentment, didn't dare to tell the difference, so they said: "Yes, yes."

Xin You got on his horse, looked down at them, and asked: "The two military orders last night will be counted from now on. What should I do if there are those who violate them?"

Everyone said in unison: "Behead him!"

"good!"

Xin You had already told Linghu Feng last night that there was no need to report the plunder today. The people and horses were already assembled. He whipped the horses and rode ahead. Five Tang people and eight barbarians followed, urging the horses to follow. .

The subordinates each greeted the herdsmen of their own group, all mounted their stirrups, and shouted to ride their horses to follow.

Everyone had a second horse, and more than a thousand war horses galloped like clouds, entering the meadow from the edge of the pond. The dry and empty grassland was covered with snow, and the horses' hooves splashed the snow powder, making a rushing sound when they stepped on the hard ground. Most of the Hu tribe's herdsmen were unaware of their actions today. They were disturbed by the thunderous sound of horse hooves. Many people came to take a look, but only saw their retreating figures.

After leaving the oasis, under the leadership of Xin You, more than a thousand Hu Mu headed west along the branch of Gushui. They kept eating and drinking while traveling. They only took a break every seventy or eighty miles when their mounts were tired. Change horses and continue moving forward.

Although they cannot compare with the elite troops of the Hu people with three or four sets of horses, these Hu Mu people have fully demonstrated the flexibility and speed of the Hu people's march. They marched into the night and set up camp to rest; early the next morning, they continued to gallop. After marching like this for three days, we have reached our destination.

It was just after noon when Xin Nei called the subordinates and asked them to order their subordinates to reorganize and lead them to a high place to look ahead.

The snow stopped the day before yesterday. On the endless yellow desert, a turbid river flows northward, and there is an oasis a few miles away.

Xinyou raised his whip and pointed in the distance, saying: "That's the place I took the trouble to select for you to borrow grain." He looked at the sky and then said, "Let's fight quickly. We'll send our troops in later at dusk. Today We'll start later." He asked everyone, "Do you have any opinions?"

No one has any objection.

Xin You then assigned tasks to the subordinates, and ordered Tu Lianfan and another subordinate from Chi Loudan to lead troops to the south of the oasis. Ling He cadre's two subordinates led troops to the north of the oasis, and ordered Qi Dali and Lan Bao to lead troops to the south.

Zhang followed him and led his troops to the east of the oasis. When there was a fire in the oasis at night, they all attacked together.

Everyone promised.

Although the snow had not stopped for a long time, the desert was still dry. After several days of marching, Xin You's lips became chapped. He drank a large amount of water and finally said: "Let the people rest quickly. After nightfall, you will separate your troops to ambush.

Wait for the fire to attack!"

After getting off the high ground, Xin You asked the selected agents to get ready. A total of seven people were selected, five men and two women.

In essence, Hu Mu is still a civilian, and he is not responsible for such things as using knives and guns. Apart from Chilou Dan and He Qian's firefight last time, the large-scale troop battle was the looting in the spring three years ago.

The Tang people, and because they robbed and left that time, they didn't have much fighting with the Tang people's troops. Now that the war is about to begin, not to mention the herdsmen, even Tu Lianfan and other Xiaosui are nervous and excited.

After the herdsmen were ordered to make repairs on the spot, a few small groups gathered together to talk about the last time they robbed the Tang people; some tuned their bows and tried their strings.

After Lan Baozhang fed the war horse, he took off the sharpening stone from the hook on the saddle and sharpened the knife with all his strength. Qi Dali sucked his stomach first and put on the leather armor he just got from Xin'er, and ordered his subordinates to sharpen the knife.

The openings on both sides of the ribs were tied tightly, and then a layer of strong leather jacket was added to the outside of the armor. He pressed it, held the dagger upside down, and stabbed it a few times. After confirming that the jacket could not be pierced, after the armor's double layer of defense, he let out a sigh of relief.

.

Xin'er inspected the herdsmen.

The herdsmen had similar reactions to the little ones. Some gathered together to chat, and some prepared their weapons and mounts. When they saw Xin You passing by, they all saluted respectfully. Through these various actions, Xin You had already passed by.

He gained quite a bit of their closeness and support.

The eight servants had already put on their armor and drawn their bows, and were ready. Their armor and bows were all given by Xin You. After being raised by Xin You for a long time, they learned some combat skills from the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. They were all eager to try it and eagerly

Looking forward to the arrival of night, eager to gain praise from the crowd through heroic fighting, and at the same time, use it to fight back against those tribesmen who say they are useless.

In order to reduce the load on the war horses, the five armored cavalry were not wearing armor during the march, and their mounts were not equipped with uniforms. At this time, they were all taking care of the horses, and when they were about to attack, they would armor themselves and the war horses.

After the inspection, Xin Er thought to himself: "The morale of the army is in order and the morale is usable."

When reading history books in his previous life, he sometimes saw terms such as military morale and morale. He could only guess what he read on paper, but now that he was in the army and saw it with his own eyes, he knew what it meant. Whether military morale or morale, it was actually what soldiers said about them.

The commander's attitude and spirit, his attitude of respect, and his high spirit are the military morale that can be used.

If you plan carefully in advance, set advance and retreat orders, keep your morale ready, and be prepared to attack the unprepared, the next battle will go smoothly.

In the evening, seven people went into the island to seek shelter. When night fell, three groups of soldiers and horses sneaked into the ambush. Around the second watch, a fire broke out in the island. There was a small flame at first, and then quickly, with the help of the wind, the fire spread.

Opening, startled the people of the island into noisy panic, sheep and horses running around and shouting. Xin You ordered the cavalry to beat the drums. Amidst the sound of the drums, three groups of soldiers and horses rose up, and hundreds of cavalry rushed into the island with shouts. It was quiet.

The night is broken.

Hu Bu in Zhouzhong didn't take any precautions and was stunned.

Just as Qili thought, the large and small tribes had no chance to organize a defense. Under the three-way siege, the entire tribal camp fell in less than half an hour.

Xin'er was the first to attack the camp.

The fire spread among the tents. From time to time, the supports were burned, and the tents fell to the ground with flying fire particles.

Without much effort, the mount took the initiative to avoid the fire. Five fully armored cavalry rushed in front of him in a fan shape, and eight subordinate cavalry firmly guarded his sides and rear. On Thirteen

Under the reliable protection of the rider, Xin You galloped calmly and shot.

Qi Dali was on Xin'er's left, urging his men to attack fiercely; Lan Baozhang led the troops on the right. Unlike Qi Dali, he took the lead bravely. He did not use bows and arrows, and slashed with swords. His subordinates, Hu Mu, fought hard

Ran Congjin. Many of the Hu Mu from the two tribes charged while pressing their tongues with their fingers to blow loud and sharp sounds. This is called lip blowing, and the Hu people often used it in battle to enhance their reputation.

In the dense night, the fire, the ferocious intruders, mixed with the harsh sound of blowing lips, although the warriors in the continent launched a small and medium-sized resistance, they were finally drowned by the enemy that was ten times or a hundred times their size.

, all the remaining members of the Hu tribe were driven into the river.

Xin You, Tu Lianfan and other three groups of soldiers and horses met at the river.

The small leaders each separated some of their tribesmen to collect the frightened livestock, while other herdsmen galloped back and forth along the river bank, whipping their whips, or shooting arrows into the river to prevent the losers who could not stand the cold from crawling back from the river.

.

"Sir! It's done!"

Tu Lianfan, Qi Dali, Lan Baozhang and others arranged their subordinates and came to see Xin You.

Xin'er jumped off the horse, spread out his arms, and two knights pulled the arrows stuck in his armor for him. Xin'er was wearing iron armor, which had excellent defense, and the enemy didn't make any decent resistance, so

Although he fought on the front line from beginning to end, he remained unscathed.

He took the rough towel, wiped off the sweat, and asked Qi Dali and others: "How many casualties have there been among the people?"

"There shouldn't be much material."

Xin You frowned and said: "Why do you say there is not much material? Haven't you counted the numbers yet?" He was about to instruct the servants to count the injured. Then he thought about it and changed his mind. He thought to himself: "Rather than letting the servants go, what should I do?"

Come in person? I can learn from Wu Qi who sucked sores on soldiers."

As soon as he thought of it, he went down to the tribesmen, applied medicine and bandages to the wounded with his own hands, expressed condolences, wrote down the names of the dead, and promised the herdsmen: "I will take out the sheep from the seizures allotted to me."

Hundreds of horses for their families."

The herdsmen were all grateful. From the deployment to the end of the battle, the soldiers obeyed his orders, leaving him no chance to use the prescribed military laws, but he could use this to win over the morale of the army.

There were not many casualties among the herdsmen, only dozens in total, most of them were only slightly injured, and less than ten people died.

"Sir, can you ask those in the river to come up? Don't freeze to death too much." Just after the battle, Qi Dali took off the two layers of protection that were suffocating him, and he was a little anxious now.

said.

Xin You knew that he was worried that if too many people froze to death, then there would be fewer prisoners for him, so he agreed to his request and ordered: "When they come up from the river, gather them in piles by men and women, and wait until dawn."

Then everyone will share it equally." After looking at the fire in the camp, he added, "Divide some people to put out the fire, and take out all the useful things in the tent and place them in piles, and wait for distribution at dawn."

Except for those captured by individuals in advance during the battle, the remaining spoils were evenly distributed after the war. This was the practice of the Hu people.

When daybreak, livestock, captives, and all kinds of things, Xin You divided into seven parts fairly, one part was his own, and six parts were given to the subordinates, who then distributed them to their subordinates. Although Xin You did not care about the things outside him.

, available people, but need these things, such as raising the eight servants, such as the pension he just mentioned in public for the fallen, so he will not pretend to be generous and don't want it.

With very few casualties, thousands of sheep, horses, camels and oxen were obtained, and forty or fifty carts were filled with two to three hundred strong prisoners, weapons, and belongings. The huge harvest made everyone smile.
Chapter completed!