Zhao Ziliang's plan was to order Zhang Shouyu to divide the left army into several squads to chase and kill the Khitans on the one hand, on the other hand, he led the Chinese army and the right army to put down their heavy equipment, travel lightly, and plunge straight into the Dule River at the fastest speed, blocking the way for the Khitans to flee north, and if they wanted to reach the territory of Datongluo, the Khitans must cross the river, the river is not deep, and the water flow is gentle, which is very beneficial for crossing the river, so Zhao Ziliang must lead the army to rush to the Dule River before the Khitans arrive.

A long and rapid march is a great test for the army, and although it is cavalry, it is much easier for soldiers to ride on horseback than on foot, but after a long time, people will not be able to stand it.

The Hedong Army had never experienced such a rapid march, three days and three nights, without the slightest pause, the horses were tired and the horses were changed, and the people on the horses solved everything by themselves, eating, drinking, and sleeping.

At first, the soldiers were not used to sleeping on horseback, but after two consecutive days, most of the soldiers couldn't stand it, and fell asleep on horseback, letting the war horse carry forward, but fortunately, Zhao Ziliang had arranged for the generals to take turns to lead the way in front, so as not to go in the wrong direction.

Half of the people's initiative is relatively poor, the vast majority are forced out, the Hedong army has never carried out such an intense long-distance rapid march before, only two days, this Hedong cavalry was forced to adapt to this combat rhythm, in order to maintain sufficient physical strength, the soldiers had to force themselves to sleep on horseback, forced themselves to solve all physiological needs on horseback.

Although there were people leading the way, although under Zhao Ziliang's order, the soldiers tied up their horses, so as not to fall behind after people fell asleep, but on this road there are still many people who can't stand the bumps of this kind of long-distance rapid march and die of exhaustion, the number is not a few, after three days of continuous marching, the number of people who died of fatigue once reached 120, which is an extremely terrible number.

Seeing that the soldiers were exhausted to death, Zhao Ziliang had to run back and forth on one side of the team on horseback to cheer up the soldiers.

"Hold on, don't give up! If you are too tired, force yourself to fall asleep on horseback, with a rope on a leash, no one will be separated from the brigade, although you can sleep with peace of mind, if you can't sleep, force yourself to sleep, otherwise you will not be able to support your destination! ”

Zhao Ziliang rode his horse on the side of the road to cheer up the soldiers loudly, but when people are tired, one or two sentences can relieve fatigue, and Zhao Ziliang's can only play a slight role, so that the soldiers can sleep on horseback with confidence.

Gao Xiuyan, who was standing next to him, suggested: "General, the soldiers are too tired, why don't you let the soldiers stop and rest for half a day before going on the road?" ”

Zhao Ziliang immediately vetoed: "No, if you want to rest, you have to rest after arriving at the Dule River!" We must rush to the Dule River before the Khitans, otherwise if they let their brigade cross the Dule River, everything we have done before will be wasted! ”

Gao Xiuyan was quite puzzled by Zhao Ziliang's need to eradicate the Khitans, "General, the last general doesn't understand, why do you have to kill the Khitans?" It's the Xi people who are disrespectful to my Datang, it's enough to subdue them, why did the general kill them to the ground? Is it necessary? ”

Zhao Ziliang looked at the cavalry of the Tang Army who were constantly passing by, and sighed: "There are countless small countries and barbarians around my Tang Dynasty, most of them are submitting to our dynasty, but how many are really surrendering?" Now these small countries and tribes surrender because our dynasty is strong and they are weak, once our dynasty is weak, they will definitely take advantage of the weakness, and there has been no such example in history, hundreds of years ago, Wuhu Chaohua ruined my Central Plains, civilization was almost destroyed, this Khitan people are unruly, our dynasty has to reward them with how much grain, grass and materials every year, they are just not satisfied, and often go south to plunder, is it really when I have no temper in the Tang Dynasty? For this kind of white-eyed wolf that is not well raised, only to exterminate it cleanly and show it to other tribes and small countries, this is the end of violating my Datang, so if they want to invade my Datang in the future, they must consider the consequences! ”

Gao Xiuyan nodded, and his tone had changed, "The general's mind, the last general and the others understand, but the saint and the court may not understand, the general ordered the destruction of the Khitan clan, and he will inevitably be impeached by the official, once the government and the opposition are in an uproar, the situation is difficult to control, and the saint may not be able to hold back, and the general will inevitably ・・・・・・・ at that time."

Zhao Ziliang waved his hand and said: "As long as I am always here, the country and the people are safe, and the people are rich, what is my Zhao Ziliang's personal honor and disgrace?" If it really doesn't work, Zhao and I can't go back to my hometown to farm! Alright, pass it on, keep the march, and be sure to reach the banks of the Dule River by noon tomorrow! ”

Gao Xiuyan's expression was dazed, and he arched his hand and said, "No! ”

At noon on October 22, Zhao Ziliang led his troops to the bank of the Dule River, and when he saw that the soldiers were tired, hungry, and thirsty, he immediately sent his own personal soldiers to take charge of the vigilance and investigation, and ordered the soldiers to go down to the river to bathe, and they were not allowed to drink raw water, and asked the men to immediately prepare a fire to make food.

According to Zhao Ziliang's estimate, the Khitans will not arrive so soon, after all, there are Zhang Shouyu's left army along the way to chase and harass constantly, the Khitans have been dispersed into a number of teams of ten people, these scattered squads have to avoid the Tang army, but also to find water, but also to save horsepower, after all, the Khitans only have one horse per person, can not be like Zhao Ziliang's subordinates almost have more than two horses per person, and most of these horses are captured war horses of various tribes, the horse breed belongs to the Mongolian horse breed, not only hard-working but also hardy, not picky eaters, It is the best vehicle for long-distance high-speed marches, and half of the horses chosen are mares, as it also provides mare's milk for the cavalry.

During this time, the Hedong Tang Army led by Zhao Ziliang almost swept away all the territory of the Khitans, wiped out hundreds of large and small tribes, and captured nearly 40,000 war horses.

In the early morning of 23 October, Zhao Ziliang arranged for the army to replace his own guards at night and take over the investigation and vigilance affairs.

Only an hour later, someone from the reconnaissance cavalry came to report that the Khitan squad had been discovered, and they were crossing the river to the river in more than a dozen places to the west, but the Khitan cavalry squad that was crossing the river was all shot in the river by the Tang Army scouts.

Realizing that the Khitans were about to come, Zhao Ziliang immediately asked Gao Xiuyan's right army to patrol the river in a line on the south bank of the Dule River, and once they found that the Khitans were trying to cross the river, they would be killed immediately.

At mid-afternoon, Zhao Ziliang received a report from Gao Xiuyan's order that more than 300 Khitans had been killed by the river and in the river in a row, and Zhao Ziliang knew that he was afraid that the Khitans would not cross the river easily.

Sure enough, some of the fleeing Khitans fled back to the south, and the Khitans they met along the way soon knew that the Tang Army had sealed the passage for them to flee north, and the scattered Khitan squads gathered one after another, and in the afternoon, Nu Du also got reports and news, and the scattered Khitan squads gathered around Nu Ji again in order to survive, and when it was dark, more than 500 horsemen had been gathered around him.

In order to cross the river as soon as possible and flee to the north bank of the Dule River, Nu led the team to try to break through the Tang army blockade and forcibly cross the river at night, but was soon discovered by the Tang army, after the horn sounded, a large number of Tang troops rushed to have a melee with it, Nu took the great wizard and a dozen slave guards to evacuate south while the chaos, and the remaining hundreds of Khitan cavalry were all killed by the river, until the next morning, the river was still blood-red.

In a poplar forest fifty miles away from the Dule River, more than 1,000 Khitan cavalry gathered around Nu Ji again, and after he learned that he could not cross the river easily, he sent someone to gather the nearby Khitan cavalry squad at the suggestion of the great wizard and gathered them all together to strengthen his own strength.

Nu Jun sat on the ground, his expression miserable, "Great Wizard, are we really cornered?" If we surrender, will the Don Army accept it? ”

The Great Wizard sighed: "If the Tang Army Lord is not Zhao Ziliang, he may accept it, but the Tang Army Lord will be him, and he is afraid that he will not accept our surrender!" ”

When Nu Du heard this, his face turned hideous, and he said fiercely: "There is a roadblock in front, and there are chasing soldiers in the back!" If it's a dead end, why do we sit and wait for death? Pass the order down, and gather all the sons and daughters who can be gathered to fight Zhao Ziliang to the death! ”

"Okay, since you want to die, you will fight to the death with the Tang people!" When the remaining centurions and centurions heard this, they all burst out with the ferocity of primitive beasts, and the trapped beasts were still fighting, let alone people?

On the morning of October 25, Nu led more than 1,600 Khitan cavalry that had been gathered up in two days and marched openly to the Dule River, preparing to fight to the death with the Tang army.

Zhao Ziliang really did not live up to Nu Ji's expectations, this is the last battle with the Khitan, and it is no longer necessary to play any tricks, he has been waiting by the Dule River with 2,500 cavalry of the Chinese army and the right army, Zhang Shouyu also brought more than 1,400 cavalry of the left army from the west to merge with him at this time, Guo Ziyi also took 500 cavalry with the wounded and cattle, sheep and grain and grass at this time in the south hundreds of miles away.

The two sides are two miles away from each other, the Khitans have not undergone strict training, and the formation is scattered, while the Tang army has been trained for more than half a year, the formation is relatively neat and tight, although the Tang army is inferior to the Khitans in riding, but in terms of tactical coordination, the Khitans are unable to catch up.

The two sides had a tacit understanding at the same time, and Zhao Ziliang shouted: "Bow-"

"Brush brush brush ・・・・・・" The cavalry of the Tang Army took out their riding bows one after another, and while riding their horses forward, they opened their bows and waited, after the Khitan cavalry entered the firing range, Zhao Ziliang gave an order: "Release the arrows, scatter freely!" ”

The Khitans secretly purchased a lot of bows and crossbows from the Tang Dynasty, and many of Nuji's subordinates were equipped with Tang army-style bows and crossbows, and the range was comparable to that of the Tang cavalry, so the Khitans also began to release arrows, and two waves of arrows flew up from their hands and shot at each other.

On the way to charge, people kept falling off their horses and being trampled into flesh by arrows, and the arrows never stopped until several rounds of arrows were fired, and both sides pulled out their weapons and rushed towards each other.

The Tang army, which had a dense formation, had an absolute advantage, and the first few rows of the loose Khitan cavalry were instantly knocked out and crushed, and the front row could not be stopped. The back row of the Khitans was even more unbearable, the Khitan horses were constantly knocked to the ground, and the Khitan cavalry on horseback was also constantly knocked out, and the Khitan cavalry formation was quickly killed by the Tang army, and the two sides were entangled together, but in the charge just now, the Khitans lost more than half, and the Tang army had an absolute advantage in strength.

Zhao Ziliang had already noticed Nu Ji, and the golden nail jujube yang lance in his hand didn't know how many people he had killed, he took his own guards to kill a back and forth in the chaotic trembling and just happened to meet Nu Ji, Nu Ji's martial arts were unexpectedly Zhao Ziliang's expectations, this person had a bit of force, and he actually blocked him seven or eight times in a row, but after blocking Zhao Ziliang to practice seven or eight powerful attacks, he was obviously not supported, and his arm faintly couldn't hold the iron spear, and he didn't block the ninth move, and even the people and horses were split in half by Zhao Ziliang. (To be continued.) )