From Emperor Wu to today's son, and then to Emperor Shengyuan, Sima Qian, who recorded the major events of the Three Dynasties Empire, has a deep memory of the "Battle of Liushakou" that he witnessed in the spring of this year, and poured special feelings into his pen.

Although the duties of a historian require that they should not be mixed with any personal emotions, between the lines, it is still easy for later generations to understand the surging passion of the narrator when they read this period of history.

If you carefully subdivide it, the battle of Liushakou, which is in the annals of history, is divided into three stages. From start to finish, it took a total of seven days.

And the first stage was the emergency deployment of Changle Hou Yuanzhao, who was the commander of the Western Expedition at that time, to block the Persian army in order to rescue the Flying Dragon Army.

The location of the blockade is the quicksand mouth area within a radius of 100 miles. For the Persian legions, this place would be a huge trap for them, and a permanent nightmare for them.

If the Persians could get the information in a timely manner, or they could pay more attention to the Han army on the other side. Then maybe we will avoid losing too badly, and the war may go on for a longer time.

However, the Persian warriors, who had always swept everything by brute force, never paid attention to the collection of intelligence from top to bottom, let alone detailed analysis and judgment.

Even if they have heard of the saying in the Central Plains Art of War, "know yourself and know your enemy, you will not be defeated in a hundred battles", and the Persians, who only believe in absolute power, have always been dismissive. Overconfident and arrogant, in front of those Western continental countries with huge disparities in strength, they can do whatever they want and bully everything, but if they don't know how to work around, if they still have this contemptuous attitude in the face of the military strength of the Han Empire, the tragic ending they are waiting for seems to have been doomed a long time ago.

The vanguard of the Persian army, which pursued the Persian army under the orders of the king of Persia, had already caught up with the shadow of the Han cavalry, and believed that as long as they breathed a little tighter, they could catch up with them. When the time comes, arrows will rain and scimitars will kill them, and no one will be able to escape under the hooves of their horses.

However, with such a breath of effort, they lost this opportunity to kill as much as they wanted. Not only that, but the first batch of the most elite Persian cavalry, with nearly 50,000 people, plunged headlong into the ambush circle set up by the Han army, and could never get out again.

Quicksand, as the name suggests, is a place with extremely special topography. Thousands of miles of quicksand, thousands of years of sedimentation, I don't know what caused the change of the earth's crust, here formed a natural sand valley landform.

Hundreds of sand dunes are made up of quicksand and are undulating. And because it is at the tuyere, the wind has blown for thousands of years, forming a wide area in the shape of a fan. It is like a natural barrier, with Dunhuang City and Yumen Pass to the east, and Wuwei County to the west, leading to the wider rest of the Western Regions.

The Persians were not familiar with the terrain, and although their scouts had surveyed the area west of Dunhuang several times, the rough maps and their own locations certainly made the generals make very different judgments.

I saw that the Han cavalry did not continue to run along the flat area in the middle, but fled to the high slope on the left in a hurry. Strange as it may seem, the Persian general, who commanded the vanguard, did not think much of it. It's no surprise that these lost dogs make any choice when they are panicking.

It's just that you think that you can escape the fate of being killed by such stubborn resistance? It's wishful thinking. The three Persian generals who led more than 50,000 elite cavalry to catch up in one go immediately made a division of labor, divided the troops into three routes, outflanked on both sides and pursued in the middle at the same time, so that this hillside would become the final burial place of the Han army!

The strength of 50,000 cavalry is enough to surround this place. Although the pursuers who came after were still twenty or thirty miles apart, they would soon arrive. They didn't want the credit to be taken away by the other generals. This is the enemy that the king of Persia himself ordered to kill, and bring back all their heads, even if they do not get a heavy reward, they can make amends, at least they will not bear the wrath of the king of Persia again.

Without the slightest delay, the Persian cavalry, which was divided into three lines, immediately began to attack. The two generals in charge of flanking the flanks and their men quickly entered the valley of the sand to cut off their rear path. And the Persians, who followed closely after the Han army from the middle, under the leadership of their general, all raised their cold scimitars, and their faces showed a cruel sneer, and the next moment they could taste the blood.

It was a little strange that the Persian general, who was riding his horse and rushing up the slope to the front, raised his head, and vaguely saw that the Han cavalry had dismounted and began to sit down to rest.

"These damn Han troops are exhausted, they are no longer capable of fighting! Obey my orders, rush up, and cut off the heads of all of them, leaving not a single ...... Yes! ”

The Persian general shouted loudly, but before he could finish his order, an iron arrow with a whistling sound came into the air and pierced his throat directly. The burly body like a hill fell upside down on the horse's back, and without even snorting, it died and could not die again.

The Persian warriors who had already launched the attack, although some of them had already noticed the general's fall, but they could not care about it at this time. Except for a few warriors who hurriedly checked the situation and treated them, the others still rushed over with frantic shouts.

At the top of the hillside, Gongsun Rongnu, who had killed the enemy's chief with an arrow, threw away his bow and arrows, and some ostentatious handles slammed the big lance in his hand, the rocks shattered, and the war horse neighed.

"Master Hou! Can you charge and kill the enemy? ”

"Go ahead! Don't be merciful. ”

Yuan Zhao nodded in agreement. He has always been very important to Gongsun Rongnu such a brave and bold and careful general, since Li Dang died, Gongsun Rongnu succeeded as the main general of the Red Fire Army, this time he took the 20,000 cavalry of the Red Fire Army who had finished recuperating in Chang'an, and followed Yuan Zhao to the Western Regions again to fight. Needless to say, the mood is agitated.

"The last will be ordered! Red Fire Army...... Sortie! ”

The Red Fire Army of the Han Dynasty, with the determination of a snow before the shame, galloped out with the war horse of Gongsun Rongnu like a dragon and a tiger. They were condescending, like red fire, and in the blink of an eye the two armies collided, killing the psychologically unsuspecting Persians and turning them on their backs.

Gongsun Rongnu's arms have the strength of a thousand jun, and the halberd is in his hand, and the tiger is vigorous. Even in the entire Han Army, he is also a famous general in the front row. He was given a heavy responsibility this time, and Yuan Zhao made an exception to promote him to the main general of the Red Fire Army, which was already the most important. Whether it is for the honor of the Red Fire Army, or in order not to be surpassed by the rising star Flying Dragon Army, this fierce general with unstoppable courage will do his best to win the first battle beautifully!

Yuan Zhao calmly watched the warriors of the tiger descending the mountain, and he had no doubts about victory. Now what he has to consider is how to use the most drastic and straightforward means to achieve the greatest results in this battle.

Looking at the approaching smoke and dust in the distance, Yuan Zhao began to issue combat orders for each standby unit. The herald beside him immediately waved different flags and moved the long-awaited combat troops in different directions according to the order. A big game of chess has been arranged, now we are waiting to line up to kill, slay the dragon and subdue the tiger!

The Persian army, which was the first to shoot the general, was already at a disadvantage. And what they didn't expect was that what was waiting for them was not the cavalry that was waiting to be killed, but one of the most elite armies of the Han Dynasty, the Red Fire Army!

The 20,000 Red Fire Army is enough to sweep everything in front of them, and in front of these well-equipped and incomparably strong Han troops, no matter how powerful the individual combat ability of the Persian warriors is, they have absolutely no ability to resist. Soon, they were completely routed. And there was not even a chance to escape. Those who were near were killed with swords, those who were far away were killed by crossbows and arrows, and half of the hillside was covered with their corpses.

At the same time, the two Persian armies, who had penetrated deep into the valley and tried to flank them, suffered the same fate. The Han cavalry corps, which has been waiting for a long time...... The Persians, who had been cut off from the valley, did not understand what was going on, and they fell into a total encirclement, and the fate can be imagined.

The 50,000 Persian army was wiped out in less than half an hour. With such a number of troops, if they charge and fight elsewhere, there will naturally be an evenly matched fight. It's just a pity that these most elite cavalry in the Persian base camp stepped into the dead unsuspectingly.

A total of 130,000 elite soldiers of the Han Dynasty who were mobilized in two organizations for the Western Expedition have been deployed by Yuan Zhao in this area called Liushakou today. It was the first time in his military career that he commanded such a heavy force to fight.

The reason why he pulled out all his family funds at all costs was because after finally determining the success of the Flying Dragon Army's surprise attack, Yuan Zhao already had a full chance of winning. He wanted to settle the situation in one battle, so as to create the most favorable situation for the subsequent westward expedition.

Only a quarter of an hour after the end of the first battle, the more than 100,000 Persian troops who arrived after them lined up in an endless array to the west of the mouth of the quicksand. The two sides confronted each other.

Hearing the urgent military situation from the front, although I was not sure what was going on with the Persian vanguard army now, it was certain that there were Han soldiers and horses ambushing in the undulating sand dunes on the opposite side. Several Persian generals frowned, and after a long day of deliberation, they decided to stop the pursuit first, and rode the sudden situation to the base camp, and informed the Persian king that it was not too late to attack after waiting for his latest order to arrive.

The reply order of the king of Persia came quickly. Before it got dark, a member of the royal family came with a large group of men. The order was concise and harsh.

"The army doesn't have to stay, destroy all the enemies in front of you, and go straight to the Han army camp in Dunhuang!"

Thus, the most important second stage of the Battle of Liushakou began a fierce collision in the bloody sunset of this evening.