"County Lieutenant, according to the scout's report, the two Xiongnu armies in the north and south have retreated, and the Xiongnu Dadanghu in the north led 2,000 horsemen to retreat to Shenquan Mountain, two hundred miles away. The two thousand horsemen led by the Marquis of Gudu in the south retreated to the small salt pond a hundred miles away in the southwest, and re-established the camp, lingering! ”

After eating mutton for three days with green salt in Huamachi, the Qin army was full of oil, and the appetite was greatly satisfied.

"Where's the little salt pool?"

Shenquan Mountain Heifu knows, is the only way to go to the river and Helan from Huamachi, half a year ago, Chen Ping had been there, it is a natural barrier on the wilderness, and there are hundreds of steps on the mountain, the Huns attacked Huamachi, and they must drink horses here. But he didn't know where the small salt pond was.

Heifu asked Wu Shiyan to point out for himself on the map, it turned out that this Huama Pond was eighty miles in circumference, and it was the largest saltwater lake in the vicinity, so it was also called the big salt pond, and a hundred miles to the southwest, a salt pond farthest away from the city, the pond was seventeen miles away, and it was called the small salt pond. Although the aquatic plants are not as abundant as those by the Flower Horse Pond, there are also some water streams and springs nearby that can be drunk.

"The Huns are stationed between Huamachi and Xiaoguan, lingering, nothing more than unwilling to accept the defeat a few days ago, and want to continue to wait and see, when our army's grain is exhausted, and the grain team returns south to carry grain, and then wait for the opportunity to attack, it seems that these Huns are not hurt enough by the thistle......

As soon as Heifu said this, all the generals laughed, after a battle a few days ago, even the baggage troops, there was no fear of the Huns, the weapons and equipment of the two sides can already be described as "generation difference", and there is a whole set of tactical formations to deal with cavalry, the Huns can not make up for this gap by riding and shooting alone.

However, the Huns waited by the Huama Pond like scavenging crows, which would also make people feel uneasy, and if they were not driven back to Helan for a day, the army would not be able to withdraw to the interior.

Yiqu White Wolf, Qiang Hua, Fu Zhi and others all asked for battle, thinking that they should use cavalry to go deep into the wilderness and completely wipe out the 2,000 Huns in Xiaoyanchi first, but Heifu vetoed this aggressive tactic.

He has held the flower horse pool, achieved the result of beheading a thousand, after the victory, it is easy to produce the heart of the enemy, the arrogant army will be defeated, if the cavalry is lone deep, maybe it will fall into the trap of the Huns, although the Huns lured the enemy to play away last time, but the black man marched and fought by Wang Jian too deeply, he would rather be a "see the small enemy cowardly" general, rather than the advantage of the waves.

Besides, in war, goals that are tactically difficult to achieve are often easily achieved strategically.

"Within a month, the Huns will retreat."

Once again, Heifu made a prophecy, looking beyond the map of Huamachi to the east and west of the area!

"Don't forget, this time, it's not just my northern county that is fighting against the Huns!"

……

In the second half of the first month of the 29th year of Qin Shi Huang (the tenth month of the lunar calendar), a few days after Heifu issued the prophecy that "the Huns will retreat", in the middle of Shenquan Mountain and Xiaoyanchi, a place called "Shigou", hundreds of Hun horsemen appeared, and Xu Bu invited Huyanlan to meet here to discuss the next move.

The two of them were haunted by the defeat last time, but because they only lost a thousand people, they still had the strength to fight, so they lingered a hundred miles away. The tigers also had a chance mentality, hoping to take advantage of the Qin army's carelessness and raid their grain team, or lure the Qin cavalry to take the initiative to send it to the door.

In addition, they also pinned their hopes on the cavalry from Touman City and Hetao to come to support with the two servant tribes of Lou Fu and Baiyang, as long as they gathered 10,000 horsemen, they would no longer be afraid of the Qin people's armor formation!

But today, Su Busheng told Hu Yanlan that reinforcements would not come......

"Lin Hu has rebelled."

Su Busheng announced the news that the two had been speculating about for a long time, and at the same time told Hu Yanlan: "The Qin army sent tens of thousands of people into Linhu, and a Qin general named Zhang Han took the prisoners and the people to cut down trees to open the way, and built watchtowers and watchtowers in dangerous passes on various major roads. The Qin people's waiting horses went out under the leadership of the Lin Hu people, and even touched the edge of Kujiesha, and there was a tendency to advance towards Loufu. Da Dan had no choice but to make Hetao ten thousand horses enter the building and be stationed to beware of the Qin army. ”

In addition to the military operations of Shangjun to receive Linhu, there were also signs of a large number of Qin army chariots and cavalry movements in Toumancheng and east of Jiuyuan in the Xiongnu headquarters. Under Meng Tian's instructions, the Qin army was repairing the abandoned Zhao Great Wall beacon tower one by one, and Tou Man Shan Yu had to ensure the safety of Shan Yu's royal court, so the main force of the Xiongnu could not move......

Compared with the threatened henchmen, the loss of Huamachi is only an elbow and armpit, and the most important thing for Tou Mandan to consider now is not how to punish the betrayed tribes and raise the prestige of the Xiongnu, but to prepare for the all-out attack that the Qin Dynasty is bound to launch next year.

The so-called "100,000 control strings" is the mobilization of the whole people of the Xiongnu, plus the troops of the four servant tribes, distributed in the vast grassland. But this winter, Tou Manshan can only mobilize 30,000 or 40,000 horses.

Since there were no reinforcements, Xu Busheng and Hu Yanlan lost the possibility of defeating the Qin army in Huamachi, and they were now in a dilemma......

Fortunately, a scout who hurried from Helan gave them a reason to retreat.

Fear was written on the scout's face, and he hurriedly jumped off his horse and bowed before Su Busheng and Hu Yanlan, his voice still hoarse.

"Dadanghu, Guduhou, no, Helan was attacked by the Qin people! On the edge of the big river, several tribes have been destroyed, and the fire has burned all the way to Qingshan Gorge! ”

……

It was as if a month earlier, the Xiongnu's atrocities against Yan Yan had reappeared, wails rang out everywhere, and the peaceful Xiongnu tribes by the big river were terrified after being attacked by the Qin army.

The young and strong people of the tribe were all requisitioned by the big pawns, and only women and half-grown children were left to resist with small bows, but hundreds of cavalry of the Qin people galloped in, and the swords and beryllium in their hands waved at them without hesitation, and the surrounding areas were suddenly full of corpses.

After killing all the people who were still alive, it was the turn of the flock, and thousands of sheep were shot, with arrows stuck in their bodies and their feathers standing on top of the corpses.

After the wanton slaughter, the cavalry turned over and dismounted, lit the torches they carried with them with flint, and threw them at the felt tent, and the dry felt tent met the flames, and the wind helped it, and suddenly it burned, and for a time the whole tribe was in flames, and the billowing smoke rose into the sky, and merged into a dark cloud, which would bring uneasiness to the Huns on the other side of the mountain......

The corpses, the felt tents, the flocks, the fodder, everything was swept away by the fire and turned into char. This means that even if the fleeing herders return, they will face a cold and hungry winter.

In the firelight, only a white-haired general stood on the edge of the battlefield on a white horse and clothed in red, staring ahead at the huge mountain range that made the river flow turbulent and blocked the cavalry's front.

The mountains of these two rivers are called "Qingshan Gorge" by the Huns, which is formed by the remaining veins of Helan Mountain and Niushou Mountain, and the mountains and rivers of the ten-mile long gorge depend on each other, and the cliffs on both sides of the river must go around to the southeast for dozens of miles to avoid it, and then, you can enter the Helan grassland.

But Li Xin knew that he didn't have that much time.

Half a month ago, after receiving the order of Qin Shi Huang to "order Longxi to send troops to help Beidi County attack the Xiongnu", he took a thousand cavalry, set off from the newly built "Golden City" in Longxi County, went down the big river, traveled 800 miles, and killed the place where the big river and Wushui converged, called "Juanjuan".

There are the southernmost tribes of the Huns, and more than 300 Huns are here to raise their animals.

Because the war took place in the east, and the northern county was in the south, the few remaining Xiongnu soldiers all went to the upper reaches of Wushui to graze, but they never thought that the enemy would kill from the upper reaches of the river.

Li Xin led his men to destroy the Xiongnu tribes, killing all their cattle and sheep, burning the hoarded pasture to ashes, and then continued downstream without stopping, destroying seven or eight small tribes along the way, until he came to the foot of Qingshan Gorge, where the horses' hooves were stopped by this natural barrier.

It's time to turn back, Li Xin looked at his subordinates, when he came, there were a thousand horsemen, but now there are only five hundred left, most of them are behind, a few are killed in battle, the Huns are very brave, even women, they can pull out the strong bow and attack them, and many Qin horsemen have suffered.

So Li Xin ordered that all women and children should be killed!

Qin Qi couldn't bear this matter and resisted a little, but Li Xin did not waver easily, the war is ruthless, causing a huge panic behind the enemy line, which is the purpose of his lone army this time, so the means are also exhausted.

But there is a limit to this adventure.

"It's a pity, the distance is too far, the supplies can't be transported at all, my four thousand soldiers can only fall hundreds of miles away, build pavilions along the river, otherwise ......"

If they went any further, they might encounter the consequences of the thousands of cavalry returning from the Huns after hearing the news, and the lone army went deep, as Li Xin had tasted many years ago.

Li Xin held back the idea of crossing this canyon with five hundred cavalry to attack the Helan grassland, and looked at the cavalry general Qiang Huang who had returned with a Hu man - he was the elder brother of Qiang Hua under Heifu, and the two brothers were like half carved out of a mold.

"County Lieutenant, this person resisted stubbornly, and just shot two robes!"

Qiang Huang pressed the Xiongnu youth in front of Li Xin, but this person did not bow his head, stared at Li Xin with his neck stalked, his slender eyes reflected the firelight, he was the son of the tribal chief, he was ordered to stay, he never thought about it, but he suffered the doom of extermination.

"It's a man, don't be embarrassed for him."

Immediately, the Huns heard the words of the white-headed general while asking the Wushi guide to translate.

"I heard people say that the Huns have a saying, Hu Zhe, the son of heaven is also proud!"

"The Xiongnu have the pride of the Xiongnu, you think that only the Xiongnu can bring destruction and pain to the Central Plains, seize the Jiuyuan, plunder Yan and Zhao."

"And the people of the Central Plains will at most repel the Huns at their doorstep, as long as you gallop back to the grassland, you will be helpless? When the horses are fat next autumn, can a new round of looting begin? ”

"But from this day on, everything is different!"

Li Xin gestured and ordered: "Cut out his eyes!" Gouge out the eyes of all the survivors! ”

A painful howl came from behind, but Li Xin was unmoved!

"Tie the ropes in their hands, and wait for the Huns to be found by the returning Huns."

"Let these people who have lost their eyes bring a message to the whole Huns! News of the war! Fearful news! ”

"From today on, even the Huns hiding in the deepest part of the steppe are no longer safe!"

In the midst of blood and fire, Li Xin turned his head, looked at the river that had become turbulent from ease, looked at the towering Qingshan Gorge, and vowed:

"When we come back next year, the horseshoe of the Qin army will be more than that!"