"Langya, let the brothers find a few people who can still talk and bring them to my tent, and bury the rest, this hot day will have to be blown up in a while." Don't waste camel meat, find the most tender part of your body, cut it into slices, and roast it at noon. From the end of lunch, food and fresh water are rationed, and maybe we have to keep it for a few more days. Hearing that three tribes had joined forces to attack him, Hong Tao raised the danger level again, and planned to fight for a long time.

There is a small knife in Langya, coupled with Hong Tao's indulgence, what religion is not religious, customs are not customary, and soon the three Bedouins who can still speak will all move, and Said, who is acting as a translator on the side, grinned. Alin didn't react, and he was not surprised that Hong Tao had dealt with the enemy more ruthlessly in the port of Kalamba.

This group of sneak attackers is not three tribes, but five! Each tribe produced more than a hundred of the most elite camel cavalry, and the target was Hong Tao's camel caravan. In addition, they also have a special mission, which is to capture Hong Tao alive and bring him back to one of the tribes. As for why they wanted to arrest Hong Tao, they didn't know, and the sheikh of the tribe didn't say it. They had only received an order to begin assembling around the tribe two days earlier, and the only way to know the reason was to ask the Sheikh and his cronies in the tribe.

"It's also possible that the Bedouins saw the robbery of caravans as part of their lives, but it was not very common to rob caravans of this size." Saeed gave his judgment according to what he knew about the customs of the Arabs.

"I don't think it's that simple, first of all, it's time! These five tribes, as they themselves say, do not live in the same land, but two are on the north side, and there are other tribes in between, if no one has informed them beforehand. How could so many cavalry be assembled in just two days? I calculated the distance, and the farthest tribe would have to travel at least three days to get here, and they would have to travel day and night, and they would be almost twice as far as we did. ”

"Secondly, I listened carefully to your translation just now, and there are actually two couples in these five tribes who don't usually have a good relationship. Without the coordination of external forces, how did they reach a consensus in just three days? And he also sent soldiers over, and he was led by two leaders, which is not ordinary. ”

"In the end, it's still the same sentence, these three people will stay for now, don't rush to conclusions, and when the friends of the Al Yin family come, it is estimated that they will provide us with more information. The people who know the Bedouins best are the Bedouins. ”

In the eyes of Hong Tao, there are N possibilities for anything. In the things he doesn't care much about, these possibilities will be deliberately ignored, but when it comes to big things, especially big things related to life and death, the nature in his bones that would rather kill by mistake than let go dominates. At this time, the calmer and less emotional he is, the more serious the consequences, and the destructive power of reason will always be higher than that of emotion.

"Your Majesty's weapons in the morning are like thunder in the sky. What are they called? Hong Tao analyzed it so comprehensively, Saeed had nothing to add. As soon as the danger passes. His curiosity came to him and he began to ask about the musket.

"Call the hand cannon! Like the ship's cannons, they are all imperial secrets, so don't discuss these things. The empire has laws, even the emperor can't break them, I'll go see the soldiers. This time, Hong Tao replied very politely. When the Arabs attacked the Arabs in their territory, Arin and Saeed, who are also Arabs, are all suspects, and Hong Tao will not trust them much until he understands the full picture of the matter.

The sneak attack in the early hours of the morning caused the enemy to lose about 300 people, and less than 100 people were actually killed. More often than not, they were injured by camels falling or trampling on them. The camels were even more unlucky, as nearly 400 camels were dropped on the spot, and most of the buckshot was stopped by them. When the battlefield was cleared, both men and camels, living and dead, were stabbed twice more by the marines with short knives, and then piled into several large piles, poured mixed oil and burned.

This is not against Hong Tao's orders, as long as these corpses are not allowed to rot, Hong Tao will not be asked. As for the funeral customs of the Arabs, the Marines no longer cared about it, and they no longer trusted the retinue of the Arin family. Ordnance, ammunition, food, and fresh water were to be managed by the Marines themselves, and no one was allowed to approach them, including Ayin and Saeed himself.

Hong Tao turned a blind eye to this situation, this is the most reasonable way at the moment, and Langya did it right. After a battle, eight people were killed and two were seriously wounded, all of which were outposts on the periphery, which was the heaviest loss since the establishment of the Marine Corps. Hong Tao can't ask everyone to think like himself, he can only express his attitude with practical actions, and Arin and Saeed can still go in and out of his tent and eat together.

Three days later, in the morning, another caravan of about two hundred men came from the south, this time not the enemy, but the Bedouin friends of the House of Arin, the Fatim tribe, who came to meet them, and the two sons of the Sheikh of the tribe personally brought the elite of the tribe.

"This tribe is your enemy?" After the re-examination of Fatim's two sons, the information given by the three captives became clearer. The five tribes who participated in the sneak attack and the two little Fatim knew that one of them was their mortal enemy, and the territory of the two families bordered each other, and there had been conflicts for a long time. After all, the Fatim tribe is not a big tribe, and if it were not for the business of trading Arabian horses with Southern Song Dynasty merchants over the years, their strength would be even weaker.

"Enemy! Foe! Fatim Jr. nodded vigorously.

"That's it, you won't be unhappy if I kill them, right? Can you help lead the way? Hong Tao pointed to the map of the vicinity of Musk Harbor that he had relied on the descriptions of everyone in the past few days, and made a request to the two little Fatims.

He didn't want to go sightseeing in the Bedouin tribe anymore, and figuring out who was going to rob him was the number one priority. This kind of thing must be severely punished, if you kill me alone, I will kill your whole village; If you rob me of a cart of goods, I will destroy your whole city, and I will not be soft.

If you want to fight, you should be subdued once, otherwise don't fight, this is not for yourself, but also for the sake of future merchant ships. As Said said, robbery is a factor in the blood of the Bedouins, and if they are not a little afraid of something, then when the Great Song Maritime Merchants come, it will become a meat delivery. Rob if you want, kill if you want, how many troops do you have to protect it?

The two little Fatims did not refuse to be avenged by foreigners to avenge their tribes like Tu, and they did not have the stinky attention of the Indians, so it was a good thing to be able to take down the tribe of the old enemy. Hong Tao could not live here, nor would he rob their pastures and livestock, and the more such reinforcements came, the better. They were even more active than Hong Tao, not only promising to lead the way, but also sending troops to fight with the marines. This is not their righteousness, but their purpose.

According to Bedouin tradition, only those who contribute are eligible to share the spoils, and the more they contribute, the more they should get their share. In their eyes, there were thousands of people in each other's tribes, and sheep, camels, horses, blankets, and tents were all property, and even women and children were property. If you don't make your own efforts, you can't divide the spoils, and you can get a few camels just by leading the way.

"I command, your cavalry listens to me! The flock, the herd, and the captives are all yours, and I only need their sheikh, and ask who is behind them to attack my caravan, and I will take revenge. After Hong Tao understood what the two little Fatim meant, he proposed a new distribution plan.

"Deal!" The little brothers looked at the two piles of burnt bones outside the camp and the brown marks all over the ground, discussed it a little, and reached an agreement with Hong Tao. They didn't know how Hong Tao's people defeated the sneak attackers, but they both thought that the combat effectiveness of Hong Tao's camel team was obvious, and it was not given for nothing.

So the camel cavalry of the Fatim tribe and the marines of Hong Tao became one, changed the direction of travel in the desert, and headed southwest. Fatim's cavalry opened the way in front, and Hong Tao's caravan followed a few hundred meters behind.

If there were only Japanese soldiers and no traitors, the progress of the Japanese invasion of China would not have been so smooth, and this situation would not be the same not only in China, but also in all countries in the world. With the Fatim brothers, who were familiar with the terrain, the marines and cavalry spent five days directly in the southwest direction of the opposing camp, and launched an attack on the village built on a small oasis. The main force of the attack was the marines, and the camel cavalry was responsible for covering the left and right flanks of the marines.

Hong Tao rejected the Fatim brothers' suggestion, and instead of sneaking up at night while the other party was asleep, he chose to ride a camel to approach the village from the front after breakfast in the morning.

Night battles were beneficial for the camel cavalry, who were familiar with the area, but not for the marines. Hong Tao didn't need to be sudden, the other party should have discovered his camel team last night, and the herdsmen roaming on camels on the dunes were lookout posts. However, they only had one night, and the whole village could not be relocated in its entirety. If the other side wants to flee, it will be even better, and rushing with the elderly, children, women, and herds will distract a lot of the opponent's forces and energy.

As Hong Tao thought, this tribe did not flee, and they had a lot of cavalry, in order to defend their homeland, as long as they could ride on a hunchback and pick up a scimitar, they would be cavalrymen. In this sense, the Bedouins are the Mongols of the Arabian Peninsula, and all the people are soldiers. A tribe of more than 1,000 people can muster half or more of their troops in wartime, including old men with white beards and children who are no taller than camel legs.

(To be continued.) )