On a frosty and windy night, in the desolate mountains in the eastern part of the land of Yanzhao, on the top of a bare hill with only a tall pine tree towering between a few large stones, at the fork in the path, there stood a group of undressed cavalry, about three thousand people. A burly cavalryman with thick eyebrows and big eyes, with sideburns and beard, with a solemn and majestic look, sat motionless on his horse, holding the reins in one hand and holding a large red flag tightly in the other. The banner carries a tassel made of snow-white horsehair and a silver spear with a white glow, and the center of the flag is embroidered with a large character "Xia" in black satin.

In front of the banner stood a particularly tall steed with a snow-white mane and tail cut short, its extremely moist white fur shining silver in the moonlight, a white saddle inlaid with silver ornaments, a white brocade mattress, and a glittering white copper stirrup. The horse's bridle is also white, inlaid with silver ornaments, but it does not appear overly carved and trivial, but shows a harmonious beauty in simplicity and simplicity. The horse raised his head proudly, barked, and kept stepping on his front hooves on the frosty earth.

Riding on it was a beautiful woman of twenty-six or seventeen years old, dressed in red armor, red makeup, fair skin, slender and vigorous body, with a dusty, sunny goose egg face, a beautiful nose and a cherry mouth, a radiant face, big eyes, long eyelashes, and a vigorous heroic spirit between the eyebrows. A pair of big eyes like autumn water with a hint of sadness in them, are staring forward and contemplative, these eyes give people a feeling of softness, perseverance, composure, and wisdom.

She was armed with a red tassel spear, a bow diagonally on her back, a sword and a cowhide quiver with vermilion lacquer and gold painted gold, and a dozen carved arrows stuck in it.

She was clearly waiting for someone, and looked intently south.

This beautiful woman is the wife of the famous Yan Zhao overlord Dou Jiande: the red lady Cao Xiuying.

In recent times, due to the fact that Don. The army encircled and intercepted, and her subordinates suffered heavy casualties, and there were now only more than 3,000 people left of tens of thousands of horses.

To the south, separated by some hills, about ten miles away, there were faint fires. She knew in her heart that it was Don. The campfire of the army is burying pots to cook and roast fires to keep warm. For a few days, they themselves did not rest and put Don. The army dragged on and on in the mountains, valleys, and valleys, and could not rest. But the pursuers are clearly increasing. Countless torches came from the southwest, walking like a fiery dragon on the winding mountain path, sometimes blocked by some hills. She knew that this was the troops of Li Shimin's generals Hou Junji and Li Junxian. Ten days ago, she gave Li Junxian a big setback, and used a trick to get rid of him, and now this Tang army has been replenished and has come back to catch up.

The hill on which she stood, and the north-westerly wind was blowing, which was particularly cold, and the heat of her hair crumbled into ice. Most of the Xia soldiers around her were thinly dressed, dirty and torn, and many of them had patches of dried blood on their clothes, especially on their sleeves, some of which were shed by themselves, and more of them were splashed from the bodies of the enemy. Because they have been standing for a long time, some people clasp their arms together and shrink their necks into the round neckline as much as possible to resist the cold. Some of them staggered and fell asleep, and suddenly they suddenly fell into a slump, their foreheads almost touched their horsehair, and at the same time the weapons on their waists made a slight clattering sound, so they woke up in shock and opened their eyes.

"Dismount, brethren, and rest," said the red lady, who was on the white horse, and then she jumped off her horse with great agility, and the hilt of her sword touched something, making a pleasant metallic sound.

When all the soldiers had dismounted, she glanced at them cordially, and then walked towards the vigorous ancient pine. The terrain was higher, and it was better to see the fires of the pursuers.

The red lady had just walked to the foot of the ancient pine, only to hear a rapid sound of horses' hooves coming from the bottom of the mountain, and then stopped at the fork in the sheep intestine path. There was a horse with a violent temperament, which, after a stop, stubbornly jumped, spun, kicked, stood upright on its hind legs, snorted, and neighed angrily. It was not until the whip was violently drawn from the air that it began to fall silent, but it still scraped and kicked the stone ground with its front and rear hooves with iron palms.

The red lady exchanged a smile with everyone and whispered, "It's here!" ”

Everyone looked down in unison. Then the footsteps of a man came up from the fork in the road, and the ground was shaken, and suddenly a click was heard, and a dry branch was broken on the road, and the sound must have been thicker than a mallet.

The red lady smiled at the bottom of the mountain and said, "Sure enough, unlike others, I haven't seen your shadow yet, so I heard your horse bark first." ”

"It can be seen that my chrysanthemum is really a good horse, and she is full of spirit when she marches and fights every day." A rough voice replied like thunder at the foot of the mountain, followed by a burst of laughter.

With the laughter, a black-faced and bearded general about thirty years old, with a burly body, a broad bony face, blazing eyes, a fierce demeanor, wearing iron armor inside, a half-worn eight-fold purple satin cloak, a bronze helmet, and two swords hanging from his waist, walked up. His cloak carried a cold wind that shook the candles a few feet away, and it flickered a few times before they returned to normal.

The red lady looked at the generals who came up and said, "Brother Heimin, come on, let's take a look at the map, it's not early, we have to discuss it quickly, where to break through?" Where to go next? ”

Liu Heimin looked at the map in the flickering candlelight for a while, tapped his knee with the thick horsewhip in his hand, and said loudly: "Sister Xiuying, I think it's better to break through from the northwest." I just went down the mountain to reconnoitre, and I found that the Tang in the northwest direction. The army is weak and should easily break through. After breaking through from the northwest, we can go to the Monan grassland through the Hexi Corridor to repair for a period of time, wait for the opportunity, and then try to make a comeback. ”

The red lady liked his heroic character very much, who was not depressed under any circumstances, stood up, patted him lightly on the shoulder, and said, "Okay, just act according to the plan you said, and we will fight Tang. The army was caught off guard. ”

The red lady and Liu Heimin let the soldiers eat dry food and drink water, and then rested for half an hour.

The Red Lady bandaged the wounds of several wounded warriors with her own hands. In the past, whenever there was a war and camping, no matter how tired she was, the red lady would always go to the wounded soldiers, ask this, look at that, and sometimes personally dress up the wounds for the color number. Last summer, a brother had a stab wound on his leg that had festered and inflicted maggots. The red lady saw that there were too many injuries, and the doctor was too busy, so she personally squeezed out the pus and blood for this brother, washed the wound, applied Jinchuang detoxification and muscle san, and then bandaged the wound. When she squeezed the blood, even the brothers next to her were moved to tears.

Didn't say that although tens of thousands of Tang. The army surrounded them heavily, but none of the Xia soldiers surrendered, and they all swore to follow this beautiful and strong Mrs. Cao on the battlefield for the rest of their lives, galloping north and south, and going to the soup and fire at any cost.

After the red lady waited for everyone to rest, she and Liu Heimin reorganized their people, quietly descended the mountain, and headed northwest along a canyon.

The valley was dark, littered with stones, large and small. Sometimes, the horse's iron palm hits the stone too hard, and a few sparks burst out. It was about two miles before leaving the canyon and heading up a hill. Walk to the mountainside and see the moonlight again. After a while, they walked into a pine forest, and the moonlight could only leak through the branches and leaves of the pine trees, and the mercury-like flowers were dotted.

There was not a single sound of speech in the canyon, not even the sound of a gentle cough, only the sound of horses' hooves, footsteps, the clashing of guns and swords, all mixed with the endless sound of pine waves on both sides of the canyon.

It took more than ten miles to get out of the canyon, and then there were endless hills. At this time, the men and horses had walked more than fifty miles, and the sky was gradually clear.

The red lady with a group of personal soldiers, rode a horse to cross the brigade from the side, caught up with Liu Heimin, told him to be cautious, beware of ambushes, the well pointed to a hill seven or eight miles away in front of him and said:

"Stop at that hill, let the infantry rest, and if there is water, drink the horses." After saying that, she left the brigade with her own soldiers, and Lema climbed to the high school on the side of the road. Gang, waiting for the Chinese army and the broken rear troops.

The morning sun, as big as a basin, as bright red as molten iron juice, with a thin burst of light, flashed out from the ridge due east, from the mist that was like nothing, it shone on the plateau covered with a layer of white frost, and on the plateau silently, hurried forward, except for the red lady's Zhongjun standard battalion with a red flag, the rest of the battalions, according to the front and back left and right battalions swept different colors of flags. The red, black, white, blue and purple banners, each of their own colors, were waving in the wind among the undulating and winding hills, appearing and disappearing from time to time, and it looked very spectacular.

The sun rose higher. It shines on the hills to the west and the banner with the word "summer" on the head of the hill. The silver light of the flag gun flickered, and the big flag cheered and rolled in the morning wind. It shines on the Red Lady and her big white horse, the Jade Dragon Pony, who is quietly looking forward with her head raised. The extremely moist white fur of the "Jade Dragon Horse" shines silver in the sun, while its lips, nose and eye circles are all pale red, showing the beauty of youth. "Jade Dragon Horse" was turning its ears and listening to the sound of horses' hooves and neighing in the distance, as if it had a premonition that it was about to enter the battle, and excitedly sprayed its nose and let out a long neigh. It was very strange that it neighed and the other horses stopped barking.

Worried that there would be a battle at any time ahead, the red lady waved her whip, led a group of partial generals and personal soldiers to gallop off the post, and advanced with the Chinese military camp. After walking for another two or three miles, he suddenly heard a drum in front of him, and immediately rose from the dense fog in the distance, and there was a shouting of killing and the sound of a dense bowstring.

"It's broken! There are ambushes! She whispered, Liu Mei shrugged slightly, and then whipped the ass of the "Jade Dragon Horse", left the Chinese military camp, and rushed forward.

Three or four hundred battle-hardened Xia cavalry followed her closely. The knives and swords held in their hands gleamed coldly in the sun.

The horses' hooves trampled violently on the rocks and the hard red earth, like the tide of the sea, and like a violent storm.

Liu Heimin supervised the advance of the team while inspecting the terrain in front. Years of combat life have trained him to be very alert and experienced on the battlefield. As soon as he saw that he came to a small river in front of him, the banks were densely wooded and the hills were undulating, which was very conducive to infantry combat, and as soon as his heart moved, he sent a personal soldier Pegasus to inform the red lady: the men and horses were suspended, and scouts were sent to search forward. But it was too late.

The horses walked more than sixty miles in one go, sweating profusely. Once they arrived at the river, they fought for water. The infantrymen were even more sleepy and thirsty, and despite the cold water to the bone, they scrambled to bend down, and took a few sips of water in their hands to moisten their dry and burning throats. At the moment when the formation was chaotic, suddenly a drum sounded, and the Tang soldiers who were ambushed in the woods on the opposite bank jumped up, let out an earth-shaking shout of killing, and rushed towards the river beach. At the same time, a group of crossbowmen stood on the mound and fired fiercely at the Xia army, and in an instant, a group of Xia cavalry and infantry fell, and the blood turned the water of the small river red.

Fortunately, Liu Heimin did not panic under this sudden attack, there was already a scuffle in the river beach thirty zhang away in front of him, his soldiers continued to fall, and sharp arrows flew by his side and overhead, as dense as flying locusts.

The personal soldiers beside Liu Heimin were hit by three arrows in a row, and one arrow was also pierced through his own cloak. But he remained calm and stood still like Tarzan, and the soldiers and generals on the left and right were worried that he would be shot, but no one dared to persuade him to take a step back. He didn't seem to feel that his safety was fearing left and right, but noticing that everyone was impatient to go into battle, he whispered:

"Don't worry. Keep calm. Wait a minute. ”

He continued to ride the riverbank, steady as a pillar, trying his best to see Tang clearly. Who is the commander of the army, and where is it, he is good at using the method of "capturing the thief and capturing the king first" to directly take the enemy's commander. But in the vast, billowing morning fog it was hard to see Tang. The commander of the army is where the banner is, and the enemy's momentum is so fierce, the battle situation is at a moment's notice, and victory or defeat is determined by breath, he can't delay more.

"We must open a bloody road for Xiuyingmei! No matter what it takes! As long as he thought of the beautiful face and delicate heroic posture of the red lady, Liu Heimin felt his blood boiling, and for her, he was willing to go to the soup and take all risks.

He took off his cloak and threw it back, and then he heard him roar, like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and the chrysanthemum rose into the air with this thunderbolt, crossed the river beach like lightning, jumped on the opposite bank, and rushed straight to the most dense place of the enemy, followed by a dozen partial generals and hundreds of cavalry, this force of men and horses in the Tang Dynasty, which had an absolute advantage in numbers. The army was invincible, suddenly to the left, suddenly to the right, suddenly to fight out of the encirclement, and suddenly to the core, looking for the main general of the Tang soldiers. Most of the Tang soldiers were infantry, although they also resisted desperately, and tried to surround and eat this group of men and horses several times, but they always collapsed the walls like a flood under its impact, and they fell down one after another, dodging a bloody path. Their horses often trampled and leaped over those who had lost their breath and those who had not died, who were bleeding and fleeing for their lives.