"Rest the horse first," Xiao Tachi pointed ahead with his horsewhip and sneered, "Let these men play the strikers first." ”

The commander of the thousand, Huo Tu, looked over along the horsewhip, and on the wilderness outside the city, there were countless strong men gathered, and he couldn't help but exclaim: "There are so many people, there are more cattle and sheep than Mobei." ”

Xiao Tachi took the order of the Liao Imperial Court to recruit all the Hannu Ding Zhuang from nearby states and counties here, with a total of nearly 100,000 people, and couldn't help laughing when he heard this: "Aren't these just sheep?" He shook his head and looked contemptuously at the slaves who bowed their heads in fear, not daring to look up. Xiao Tachi originally thought that such a large-scale conscription and signing army would probably provoke the dissatisfaction of the local Khitan people and the revolt of the Han slaves. Who knew that under the threat of the Song Dynasty's army, the Khitan nobles in the states behind the mountains cooperated very well, and the slaves did not resist at all, and they seemed to have long been accustomed to this kind of animalistic situation. looked at those "sheep" with dishes on their faces, numb expressions, and submissiveness. Temuge shook his head, accelerated his horse, and led the thousand-man team into the camp.

There were about 75,000 troops stationed in the camp, including 30,000 Erbo and Khitan cavalry, another 10,000 Xi infantry, 10,000 Jurchen infantry, 5,000 artillery craftsmen, and 20,000 Khitan cavalry from Xijing Province. Unlike the Song army, which divided troops to defend prefectures and counties, Xiao Tachi did not divide his troops to garrison any prefectures and counties except for releasing cavalry scouts hundreds of miles away to avoid being attacked by the Song army. The Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun are different from other places in the Liao State, precisely because of the large number of Han children, and the precautions of the Liao court are also extremely strict. Except for a small number of Han generals and subordinate soldiers who were attached to the Liao State, almost all of them were assigned to the Khitan households as slaves, and the Khitans kept their soldiers in charge of the people, and practiced bows and horses from time to time to suppress a large number of slaves. When the sturdy slaves were evacuated by Xiao Tachi, although farming and grazing were delayed, the pressure on the Khitan Northern Yuan army in the prefectures and counties of Xijing Province was less, after all, the army of the Southern Dynasty had already captured the five states behind the mountains in a row, and no one knew if these usually docile Han slaves would suddenly rebel. Originally, I always felt that there were not enough slaves, but under the current situation, the number of Han'er seems to be too much, and a small number of Khitans will inevitably feel uneasy.

Outside the camp of the Liao army, there are grass huts of the signing army one after another. In a dilapidated shed, Su Meng knelt on the ground, holding a bowl of herbal soup, and fed it to the old man's mouth tremblingly, but the potion flowed down the corner of his mouth, the old man's eyes rolled to look at him, and a cloudy teardrop slipped out of his dry eye socket, and then became no longer bright, and he looked at the sky in a daze.

"Dad-" The broken bowl in Su Meng's hand fell to the ground with a "clang". His cry was held in his chest, and tears were streaming down his face. Su Meng could only grab handfuls of soil mixed with horse manure from the ground and stuff them in his mouth, so that he would not cry, otherwise he would be killed by the Khitan troops patrolling around him as resistance.

It wasn't until the evening that the Khitan army found that there was one less Han'er to sign the army, and they quarreled for a while, before someone opened the tent where Su Meng's father and son were located, and the Khitans saw Han'er kneeling next to his father's corpse, roared and rushed over, kicked him down, and then the knife-backed horsewhip came down with a head. Su Meng squatted on the ground with his head in his hands, he could only watch his father's body being dragged away, the Khitans would boil the corpse of the slave out of a kind of grease, in countless punches and kicks, Su Meng bit his lip tightly, and he must not faint, so as not to be killed as a dead person or a weak waste. His face was covered in blood, and he was trampled deep into the muddy water by his felt boots, almost choking to death, and his misty eyes revealed hatred that was more fiery than fire.

The Khitan people were tired of fighting, and they probably didn't think it was interesting, so they scolded and walked away, and Su Meng got up slowly, limping back to his shed like a wounded wild dog, his face was covered with blood and mud, and his eyes were no different from those of a dead man. The surrounding Han'er soldiers did not dare to approach him. Su Meng didn't eat dinner and didn't feel hungry, so he hugged his knees and worked in the grass hut all night, the sky was just dawning, he heard the loud shouts outside, he knew Khitan nonsense, knew that it was an order to sign the army to prepare to go, he stood up with difficulty, endured the pain all over his body, and walked out.

The signatories had to step forward in turn, some people picked up shovels and pickaxes, others carried heavy wicker baskets, and the Liao army was about to enter the city of Yunzhou, and they wanted to build a camp for the Khitans. Su Meng also picked up a shovel, the edge of the shovel was ground a little white by the earth and stone, at this moment, Su Meng's eyes seemed to flash, as if the spark had not yet flickered, and it was extinguished before others could notice it. He walked in the middle of the crowd with his head down, unlike others who had fear and cringe in their eyes, Su Meng's face was expressionless, he just followed others. The team of more than 20,000 signed troops marched for a whole day between the mountains on the north and south sides, and there were only two Khitan hundred-man guards next to them, because the cavalry horses were fast, and no one dared to leave the team and flee. The 10,000 Khitan cavalry followed the signing army far behind, not to guard the signing army, but as the vanguard of the army, to guard against the surprise attack of the Song cavalry. Ten miles away from the forward battalion, Fang is the main force of the Liao army led by Xiao Tachi.

That night, the signatories camped in the wilderness, and 200 Liao soldiers camped in the middle of the signatories. Khitan people roast meat on fire, and the fragrance spreads far away. The signatories had never even tasted meat in their lives, and they only chewed the vegetable dough they brought with them in small bites, and no one dared to make a loud noise. In the middle of the night, Su Meng heard a burst of horses' hooves in the distance, the sound of hooves was sometimes far and near, sometimes sparse and sometimes dense, he put his ears close to the ground, when he listened carefully, but he couldn't hear clearly, after a while, the sound of hooves roared again, this time it seemed to be more dense and intense, and it seemed to be divided into several groups of people and horses chasing. Su Meng's heart was pounding, but he could only lie down like everyone else, and in the entire signing camp, only the Khitans could stand up at will at night. Soon, the sound of the horse's hooves gradually disappeared, and Su Meng couldn't hear any sound when he listened carefully, but the crickets in the grass were crying very happily, he took a breath, and gradually fell asleep. In the early morning of the next day, the eyes of many of the signatories were red, but the Khitans did not pay attention to this, and only urged the signatories to set off again.

Su Meng followed the signing army for two hours, the mountains on both sides became more and more gentle, seeing that the sun in the sky was becoming more and more poisonous, and the sun was smoking, and the shadow of a big city appeared vaguely above the horizon in front of him. "Is this the city of the Song Kingdom?" Su Meng wondered in his heart. Since he was born, he has never left the manor of the Khitan master, the Khitan people only regard slaves as talking animals, how the outside world is, are all told to him little by little by his father, and his father also taught him to write a kind of Chinese characters that were only used in the Southern Dynasties, so that he could not forget his surname Su Wu Su, whose name is Meng of Meng's mother three moves, the ancestral home of the Su family is in Wuzhou, but it is not the "Baole" that the master calls one by one.

"What are you doing in a daze, hurry up, dig the soil, and build a camp!"

The Khitan soldiers raised their horsewhips and shouted viciously, and the Zhongqi army had to hurriedly handle all kinds of guys, under the command of the Khitan soldiers, digging trenches around the camp in sections, and building walls with the soil taken out. Under the midday sun, the scrawny signers seemed to be roasted as if they were going to be dried up, and under the watchful eye of the Liao cavalry, the signatories who drew water from a small river in the distance always had to put their mouths on the river first, drinking water like cows and horses. At this time, the Khitans in the distance were laughing. Those who were called out to fetch water were all pleasing to the eyes of the Khitans, and those slaves who stayed in place could only drink the water of a water bladder for a hundred people.

Su Meng was also very thirsty, but he didn't sweat as much as others, and the sun on his head was so hot that it seemed to roast his skin apart, but his heart was like a piece of ice, and he didn't feel warm at all. At this time, a cavalry suddenly rushed out of the Song city in the distance and rushed towards this killing, causing a panic in the signing army, however, after the Khitan soldiers guarding it scolded loudly, the signing army buried their heads in work again, and only a few people dared to sneak a glimpse of the situation in the distance. A Khitan cavalry in the rear greeted it, just between the Song city and the camp of the Liao army, the two cavalry staggered and fought for a while, the armor of the Liao army and the Song army are not much different, the difference is that the fur fur outside the iron armor of the Liao army not only did not remove the hair, but also turned the hairy side out. The Song army's iron armor was covered with glossy leather armor. The cavalry of the Song army was about more than 2,000 cavalry, and they did not entangle with the Liao army that was fighting, but went straight to the more than 20,000 troops who were building camps.

"Run!" "Run!" "Run for your life!"

Most of the signatories stood in place in panic, while the Liao soldiers who were mixed in with the signatories were terrified and loud threatened. The shouts of the Song cavalry had a thick Hedong accent, which reminded Su Meng of the Song caravans that came to the Grange every year, and the guests of the Khitan masters spoke with the same accent as the Song cavalry, who looked at Baole with contempt like the Khitans, and enjoyed the slave girls who slept with them like the Khitans. Su Meng felt his heart suffocated, and buried his head and ignored these Song cavalry.

The cavalry of the Song army ran through the camp of the Liao army, which had not yet been built, went around in a circle, and before the Liao army had time to encircle and intercept it, they ran back. The few soldiers who kicked the camp were useless, although Yang Yanqing had 20,000 cavalry under his account, he couldn't fight with the Khitans in this array. Of the more than 20,000 signed troops who had built a camp, only a few 100 people wavered and fled, and before they could escape a hundred paces, they were caught up by the Khitan cavalry and fell into the dust with arrows.

At the head of Yunzhou City, Yang Yanqing looked at this scene, his face was heavy, and he didn't speak for a long time. The fourth general of Hedong slapped his palm on the city bricks, and said indignantly: "These men, how can they not even be as good as cattle and sheep, and they can't drive them away!" "The sky was clear, and the gusts of wind shook the flag, making a whining sound, as if countless souls were crying.