Autumn is high and cool, it is the harvest season of the year, and it is also the most pleasant season in the northern grasslands, at this time in the past, the herdsmen are busy fattening the livestock, so that the livestock can survive the cold winter, and at the same time people are also preparing food for the winter, in addition to the output on the grassland, they also often trade through trade, from the Han people in exchange for grain storage, these are necessary for the winter.

However, this year's northern grassland did not have the comfort of autumn, but became murderous, a team of Great Song cavalry galloped from the grassland, and in front of them, there was a tribe of party people who were desperately fleeing, and even in order to escape, they had to throw down the cattle, sheep, chariots and horses in the tribe, hoping that the Song cavalry could stop and pick up these trophies, so as to fight for them a chance to escape.

During this time, the Song army has been sweeping on the grassland, generally speaking, if they encounter the Song army with average military discipline, they will definitely stop and pick up the spoils, after all, it is not easy to kill the party members now, if they are really cornered, the party people can also bring certain casualties to the Song army if they fight back, but if they encounter the elite of the Song army, they have only one goal in their eyes, that is, to kill.

Obviously, the luck of this Dangxiang tribe is not good, it is the elite cavalry of the Song army, this team of about 500 cavalry does not even look at the surrounding booty, and even when they encounter cattle and sheep blocking the road, they simply cut and kill directly, and although the Dangxiang people also ride horses, there are too many old and weak women in the tribe, and they can't escape at all, so they are quickly caught up by this murderous cavalry.

"None of them will be left!" The young general immediately roared, and took the lead in cutting off the head of an old party member, and then rushed into the party to slash and slash, seeing that his own leader was so powerful, and the cavalry behind was also everyone scrambling to take the lead, like a group of hungry wolves killing into the flock, there were tumbling heads and splashing blood everywhere.

The party people also forced out their will to die in this desperate situation, an old party leader roared, and gathered all the people in the tribe who could fight to reflexively kill the Song army, but the number of this tribe was not much, the number of men, women and children together was only a thousand, and the warriors were only two or three hundred, in the face of the Song army armed to the teeth, their counterattack seemed so powerless, just an hour or so, this tribe of about a thousand people was slaughtered.

"Clean up the battlefield!" The young general led by him coldly glanced at the killing field, and then ordered again, only to see that he was covered with blood at this time, almost the entire armor was dyed red, and almost all of this blood was the enemy, after all, the armor on his body was not vegetarian, the armor of the Song army has always been known for its excellence, and it is difficult for ordinary party members to break through the armor.

With the order of the young general, the cavalry of the Song army immediately got busy, and all the valuable things that could be taken away were all scavenged, most of which were found from the dead, and the war horses were also concentrated, and the cattle and sheep and other livestock that were inconvenient to take away were all cut down, but the wild wolves on the grassland were cheapened.

The young general also jumped off the horse at this time, next to a small river, he came to the river to take off his helmet, and then washed his blood-stained hands and face, if Li Zhang was here, he would definitely recognize that this young general was Cao Tong, one of the martial arts graduates, that is, one of the legendary Eight Immortals, but now Cao Tong only has murderous energy, but there is no immortal energy.

After washing his hands and face, Cao Tong took out a burden from the horse, which was dry food, which was actually roasted hard jerky, I don't know if it was beef or mutton, of course, it could also be horse meat, after all, since they defeated the party, there was no shortage of meat in the army, and the dry food had changed from cakes to jerky, and they had also changed from seeing cattle and sheep to kill if they couldn't take them away, after all, if these cattle and sheep were kept, they might be cheaper for other party members.

After a few mouthfuls of dried meat and a few sips of water from the kettle, Cao Tong felt much more comfortable, today in order to chase and kill this tribe, they almost ran hundreds of miles, and finally the horses were almost to the limit before they caught up, fortunately, a lot of war horses were captured, but there was no need to worry about the lack of horsepower.

Cao Tong had made meritorious contributions in the attack on Xingzhou City before, and now he has been promoted to the commander of the battalion, and he is still an elite cavalry battalion, with 500 people, which also makes him a middle-level general in the army, and the chief general is also qualified to express his opinions when deliberating.

It is precisely because of the high position that Cao Tong is more clear about the plan of the imperial court, for example, he knows that the reason why the imperial court continues to send troops to harass the party members is actually a tired enemy's strategy, and the party people cannot leave production, and the Song army has no concerns about this at all, so as long as the weather conditions allow, you can send troops in any season, such as spring and autumn, which is the season when the party people produce, and the successive troops of the Great Song Dynasty have greatly injured the vitality of the party members, and it is said that Li Yuanhao is preparing to ask for help from the Liao State.

However, the situation on the Liao side is not very good, since the Empress Dowager Xiao took power, the Liao State has been in a mess, and even the generals of the army have been cut by her, and then use the house slaves around her as the generals in the army, for a time the Liao people actually competed to be the house slaves of the Empress Dowager Xiao, which is also a great spectacle.

Of course, with Cao Tong's position, he would not have been able to contact these news of the Liao State, but who gave him the surname Cao, Cao Yu is his cousin, and the Cao family is the most prominent family in the Jiangmen, so he can usually inquire about a lot of important news.

"Withdraw!" At this time, the Song army had finished cleaning the battlefield, Cao Tong turned over his horse at the moment, and then led his men to roar away with a loud shout, and the remaining corpses were naturally cleaned by the cleaners on the grassland, that is, the steppe wolf, it generally only takes a few days, and these corpses will become a pile of white bones, and this year there may be another wolf disaster.

After Zhao Zhen led his troops to conquer Xingzhou City last year, he attacked White Horse City again this year near the Black Mountain Weifu Military Division, which is also an important town of the party, but Li Yuanhao does not seem to plan to fight the Song army here, and there are not many troops stationed, so the Song army also easily defeated White Horse City.

So Zhao Zhen moved a large number of cavalry to White Horse City, and from time to time ordered the cavalry in the city to kill the grassland, sweep the party members on the grassland, kill people if they can, and rob things if they can't kill people, anyway, it is to weaken the strength of the party people as much as possible, and this year, although the 20,000 main forces in Li Yuanhao's hands did not have much loss, but the affiliated tribes suffered, and without these tribes, there would be no one to provide Li Yuanhao with food and horses, which also greatly weakened Li Yuanhao's strength.

Cao Tong's cavalry set off from White Horse City, but he did not lead his troops back to the city, because they were too far away from White Horse Road to rush back before dark, but it didn't matter, they often camped on the grassland and did not have any fixed camps, and sometimes even killed a tribe and lived directly in the tribe's camp.

Cao Tong received the order to sweep back and forth along several exact routes, and these routes are also the places where the party is most concentrated, but the closer to the Black Mountain Military Division, the more dangerous it is, because Li Yuanhao also knew the plans of the Great Song Dynasty, so he also sent cavalry to intercept and kill the Song army, and also achieved some results, for example, some time ago, a cavalry encountered the interception of the party army, and the whole army was annihilated.

With the previous lesson, Cao Tong didn't dare to be careless, and immediately led his subordinates to rush in the direction of White Horse City as much as possible, because the tribe they were chasing was already very close to the Black Mountain Military Division, and the closer they got to White Horse City, the safer they were, after all, White Horse City not only sent their battalion of cavalry, but also released several battalions to move freely.

Waited until it was dark, Cao Tong finally came to a hill three hundred miles away from White Horse City, he had also camped here before, although three hundred miles was still a little far, but generally speaking, the party people would not come here, so after coming to this hill, Cao Tong and his soldiers were also relieved.

At the moment, Cao Tong came to the location where he had camped before, this is a mountain col, surrounded by hills, so that the wind on the grassland can not blow in, don't look at it is only autumn now, but the cold wind at night can also freeze people's bones cold, so it is still very necessary to choose a sheltered place.

Without Cao Tong's orders, the soldiers under his command were also immediately busy, and a team of soldiers familiarly found some marks on the ground, and then dragged out a few large boxes from several soil holes, which were stored tents and other things, because these things were too bulky and inconvenient for the cavalry to carry, so they stored these things here, and there were several other storage places, and the cavalry who came out also knew that anyone could use them.

The tent was erected, the fire was raised, and the cattle and sheep brought back before were also skinned and washed, and then cut into large pieces and thrown into a large pot to cook, the army was not so particular, and there were no fishy spices in the pot, which were cooked and fished out, and then brushed in a salt bowl and gnawed directly, and finally drank a bowl of thick broth, and the fatigue of the whole day seemed to disappear.

Other soldiers quickly lay down in the tent and fell asleep after eating, but Cao Tong recorded today's battle under the lamp, he not only wanted to record the merits of today's soldiers, but also recorded the casualties, dozens of soldiers died in battle today, their bodies were also brought back, and some people were wounded, so he will also go back to White Horse City tomorrow to arrange these casualties.

He was busy until midnight, and then Cao Tong would lie down to rest, and he also habitually pillowed the quiver under his head, which was a habit he had developed when he was a scout before, because by doing so, he could hear the sound of horses' hooves running in the distance, so as to warn in advance.

Cao Tong was also tired, and as soon as he lay down, his snoring sounded, but just as he was sleeping, he was suddenly awakened, and then he saw one of his subordinates rushing in and reporting loudly: "General, a large number of cavalry are coming here five miles away in the north!" ”