The total number of troops in the hands of Ba Renlu was less than five hundred, two pivotal inscriptions, horses, and the only thing that made the old man feel a little more comfortable in his heart was that Tuoba Yi Yin left him thirty-eight harriers, twice the number of scouts that he should have with the strength he had.

This large-scale attack on Fuzhou caused a lot of controversy within the Tuoba family, and many high-ranking figures of the Tuoba family, including Tuoba Guangxiu, who has always been known as the No. 1 think tank of the Dingyan Army, believed that the development of the situation in Yanzhou had changed the geopolitical pattern around the Dingyan Army. The unexpected rise of the Li Cultural Revolution and the rapid fall of the Gao regime completely changed the regional balance of power that should not have happened in history. Although the newly rising Li Wenge had only a few hundred capable soldiers in his hands at best, the impact was enormous. At present, the Dingyan Army no longer has absolute superiority in strength in the fight against the anti-party coalition led by the Zhejia.

Therefore, a considerable number of people believe that there is no value in continuing to rely on the Northern Han Dynasty, and the only way out is to pay tribute to Bianliang.

However, Tuoba Yi Yin finally decided to give it a go.

The key is not the Han people in the Central Plains, but the folding family in Fuzhou. After fifty years of fighting between the Diggers and the Tuoba Family, the blood feud between the two families could not be resolved in a short period of time. Tuoba Yi Yin understood that even if he belonged to Guo Zhou, Bianliang would not give up the fold family to support him. The Zhi family's hardline attitude towards the Northern Han and Khitan was the fundamental reason why the Han dynasty in the Central Plains had to support them. Geographically speaking, the Tuoba family could not compete with the diggers at this point.

Even if you want to surrender Bianliang. It will also be possible after the destruction of the old base prefecture of Zhejiadi, and even if a party and nation that does not have many bargaining chips in their hands are attached, they will not receive much attention.

For this large-scale military operation, Tuoba Yiyin concentrated 7,000 elite soldiers from eight major tribes, and at the same time 5,000 auxiliary soldiers to provide logistical support for the army and undertake non-combat tasks.

In the history of the party people, except for the time when Tuoba Sigong was ordered to participate in the battle between King Qin and the peasant army of Huangchao. At the same time as Tuoba Yiyin attacked Fuzhou, the Northern Han Ma Infantry Army commanded the commander to lead the army to attack Lanzhou, which had just been conquered by the Broken Family at the beginning of the year, and it was necessary to contain the Yong'an army.

In the direction of Fuzhou, the Dingyan Army and the Northern Han Army on the northern front gathered more than 30,000 military horses, while the strength of the Zhejia coalition army on the northern front was only 3,000 soldiers and horses led by Zhi Deran, and they wanted to garrison the land of Fu, Sheng, and Lanzhou. This Ori Saburo had to defend the three states with only one-tenth of the total strength of the enemy's army, and the situation was almost dangerous.

However on the southern front. However, the Dingyan army had to rely on the old and weak women and children of the four tribes and hundreds of Tuoba soldiers to deal with the 5,000 allied troops led by Zhe Congruan, and the situation was also not optimistic.

At this moment, whether it is guarding Tongwancheng or guarding Suizhou, they are all temporarily recruited slave soldiers, not to mention combat effectiveness, even loyalty cannot be guaranteed. Youzhou, on the other hand, in the west, was not guarded by an army at all. Tuoba Guangxiu, who was in charge of sitting in the center of Xiazhou, after consulting with the old minister Tuoba Renlu, who was left behind, believed that with the current left-behind troops, if he fought head-on with the Zhejia coalition army, the soldiers in his hands would be quickly consumed, and once the main soldiers of these two cardinal names were annihilated, the four states of Yinxia would almost become undefended. Therefore, it is not advisable to stubbornly fight the enemy army with danger, and the only way to lure the enemy army into one's own territory is to gradually lure the enemy army into one's own territory. Relying on the unique terrain of Xiazhou to separate the enemy's front army from the logistics baggage troops, and cut off the enemy's grain route, can we truly hold Tongwan City.

King Arrow was nearly seventy years old, and the great battle more than twenty years ago had left more than a dozen scars on his body, but this old guy did not have the slightest aging and exhaustion at the moment, and he could drink two large bags of wine in one meal. After eating a whole leg of mutton, his body was as strong as a cow, and he rode and tossed for a whole day, but he did not show any fatigue, which made the young men of the Tuoba family who followed him deeply admired. The name of King Arrow has not been called for so many years in vain.

Seeing that the sun was about to set, Tuoba Renlu finally decided not to move the camping site today.

Recently, the scout cavalry of today's Folded Family Coalition Army has relaxed their reconnaissance operations and no longer does everything possible to find their camping location. This made Tuoba Renlu slightly confused. He couldn't figure out what the coalition was trying to do, so he sent his own Harriers more frequently to keep an eye on the coalition's movements.

In the past few days, the coalition scouts have begun to intensify their patrols in groups, providing appropriate intelligence coverage on the left flank of the coalition marching column. Some Harrier formations that were too far forward began to suffer some casualties.

In the past few days, the coalition scout force has launched a killing operation against the Dang Xiang Harrier who has been hovering on the left flank of the marching column, and the scout team is Xi Feng Minda himself led twenty cavalry to form a killing team. In view of the fact that the quality of individual combat on both sides is far apart, the most prudent and effective tactic has been adopted, that is, the killing team only stares at one group of harriers at a time, never greedy for more, and never lets go of the bite when it bites, and the first blow absolutely guarantees the power of the thunderbolt, so as to make a fatal blow.

The Yan'an regiment scouts have been training to fire crossbows immediately for some time, and all the young scouts are required to control their horses with their legs and conduct running and visual shooting training at moving targets.

Therefore, although the cavalry and archery skills of the scouts are far from being compared with the harriers, they are advanced by virtue of their weapons

, there is still a better chance of winning.

The attack tactics of the scout killing team are very simple, after discovering the enemy harrier formation, the fine seal Minda Mingdi sends a signal, and the killer team members immediately run to the army column, follow the direction indicated by the fine seal Minda Mingdi to pursue, as long as they can see the enemy clearly, they have taken off the crossbow that has been wound, and shoots freely at the target. After the shooting, he threw away the crossbow machine, drew his saber, and rushed to hand-to-hand combat.

The crossbow used by the scouts was a new product of the Chambers Corps, and the carpenters and blacksmiths of the battalion called this type of crossbow the B crossbow, which was one size smaller in size than the armor crossbow used by the infantry, but the number of crossbows was the same as the armor crossbow. The crossbow body adopts a composite structure, although the size is shorter than that of the infantry armor crossbow, but the average iron consumption of the crossbow body is higher than that of the armor crossbow, so it has a range that is not inferior to the armor crossbow, and the more revolutionary breakthrough is that after Zu Lin, who is proficient in geometric arithmetic, participated in the design and improvement of this new type of Zhang crossbow. Not only is the scale of Arabic numerals marked on the crossbow blade, but also the position between the lookout mountain and the card slot and the string hanging point is adjusted, and the three points are truly realized into a straight line.

Basically, this modified cavalry crossbow can inflict extremely terrible damage on enemy cavalry within an effective range of 200 paces, and tests have shown that the cavalry armor with leather as the main structure is completely ineffective against crossbows fired at a distance of 200 paces. That is to say, as long as the shot is hit, the enemy cavalry will either be killed or wounded.

The tactics adopted by the fine seal Minda are as soon as the target is found. After the signal is given, if the enemy is within 50 paces, basically all the killers only need to aim at the target and fire the crossbows, and the enemy will definitely die under the fire of more than a dozen crossbows. If the enemy is 50 paces away, he will gallop out after firing the crossbow, and fire his bow and arrow at the enemy horse to attract the attention of the enemy horseman, while the other team members will quickly approach and use the crossbow machine to shoot the enemy horse into a hedgehog.

If the enemy army is 100 paces away, he will lead the killing team to fan or spread out in formation to quickly approach the enemy, and even step forward if the enemy does not move. The effective range of Zhang's crossbow is much higher than that of ordinary bows and arrows, and Fine-sealed Minda can basically snipe the enemy horse first. If the enemy turns around and runs, the killing team will be scattered in formation to chase and kill, and the war horses of the Yan'an regiment eat grain every day, which is much more physically abundant than the party horses that can't eat much food every day and don't have much time to eat grass, within five miles. The distance between the two sides will quickly close to within 100 paces.

Once the enemy had fled five miles away, the killing party ceased to pursue and returned to the marching column to await the next prey.

This tactic is very suitable for dealing with harriers with extremely high individual combat quality, and with advanced weapons and numerical superiority, the extermination team paid the price of two dead and three wounded in three days, and killed 14 harriers in a row who came close to observe, and this loss rate is really too high. From the fourth day onwards, there was no Harrier within a mile radius of the left flank marching column of the coalition forces. At this distance, the scout team successfully achieved information masking.

Therefore, in the past few days, the harriers have reported more and more information to the land of Arrow, and they can basically only know the direction of the enemy's march in a general way, and there is less and less detailed information.

King Arrow was shocked by the speed of the Harrier's loss. Therefore, these scout cavalry were strictly ordered not to get too close to the enemy, which also limited the level of information they could receive. However, fortunately, the enemy's strength situation is basically clear, and it is enough to find out the direction of the enemy's march and the trajectory of his movements.

—

King Arrow's plan was to wait for the whole coalition army to enter the meadow area, and organize two cavalry brigades to attack the infantry on the enemy's left flank for three to seven days. After the attack and harassment made the enemy army relatively tired, the whole army of his side will fully withdraw into the southern mountains, waiting for an opportunity to attack the Yanzhou Xiang soldiers and the Zhijia defenders stationed at Qingling Gate. If you can take the Qingling Gate, it is naturally the best, if you can't take it, you will go around the line north of the Great Wall, ambushing the soldiers who used to transport grain and grass for the army.

King Luo estimated that judging by the number of the coalition army and the speed of its march, the food carried by the army was only enough for half a month at most, which means that the slowest grain in the direction of Luzi Pass should be delivered to the front once every half a month, otherwise the coalition army would run out of food.

From Qinglingmen to here, the coalition army has been out for six days, which means that in another nine days, the first batch of follow-up grain and grass will be transported to Xiazhou through Qinglingmen.

At that time, the harassment was over, and the cavalry made a detour through the hidden valleys of the southern mountainous region, just in time to catch up.

With this batch of grain as the foundation, I have the time and patience to slowly consume the grain transportation troops of the coalition army, as long as it drags on for a month, the coalition army on the front line is afraid that it will collapse.

The most critical point of this tactic is to delay the marching speed of the coalition army as much as possible, so that Tuoba Guangxiu and Tuoba Yiyu can buy time to train soldiers and settle the tribal herdsmen, and every time the marching speed of the coalition army is slowed down by one day, the defense of Tongwancheng will be strengthened by one point, and the possibility of the coalition army conquering Xia Prefecture will be reduced by one point.

Tuoba Renlu set up camp on the northern edge of the southern mountain range. Drive the horses to the meadows to the north to graze, and tomorrow will start the cavalry brigade raid, and the horses must be kept full of strength.

The harriers, who had been monitoring the enemy's movements from afar, turned around and brought with them the vanguard of the enemy

Intelligence on the steppe zone.

At this moment, several distinct columns of smoke rose from the east......

The plume of smoke grew thicker and thicker, as the sun gradually set in the western mountains. The eastern sky began to glow red, and as the firelight became more and more obvious, the party cavalry stared uneasily towards the east.

The fire was raging in the distance, but Tuoba Renlu's heart was getting colder and colder, and the harriers in front of them responded with panicked and angry faces, and the enemy's vanguard scouts threw torches at the meadow where most of the vegetation had turned yellow, and the eastern part of the grassland was already a sea of fire.

The evil alliance of the broken family, they actually set fire to the steppe that means life to the nomads!

Before the frightened and angry King Arrow could react. The firelight in the distance had already become a piece, and the harriers who came back later were all black-faced, some of them had their clothes, eyebrows, beards, and hair burned, and they had some burns on their bodies.

Cheered on by the not strong easterly winds, the fire began to slowly spread westward.

By three o'clock in the evening, the camp of the party cavalry was already extremely hot, and the heat wave was still sweeping in from the east one after another. At this time, the Harriers were completely isolated from the fire to the west, and they had completely lost their ability to detect the coalition forces to the east of the fire. The faces of the party soldiers showed panic and despair.

As a member of the nomadic people, everyone understands what this steppe fire will mean.

The coming winter will be a nightmare for the entire party and ethnic groups.

Countless people will die of cold and hunger.

Tuoba Renlu no longer had the energy to pay attention to the mood of the soldiers at the moment. The battle-hardened old man was engrossed in the expansion of the fire while carefully calculating the wind.

He had less than 500 men at his disposal, and it was impossible to isolate the fire from the untouched grasslands with this amount of manpower. The fire would only take another hour to burn out, which was only enough time for the troops to move, and not enough to establish an open barrier to the west of the fire.

King Aro didn't dare to wait for the wind to stop, it was something that was uncertain, once the wind was getting higher and higher. The speed of the fire will only get faster and faster, and once the southeast wind blows, the five hundred cavalry will not be able to catch up with the speed of the fire even if they shoot their horses and gallop wildly.

Only by retreating to the west, a hundred to two hundred miles, retreating a little farther to the west while the fire is not spreading too quickly, and mobilizing the whole army to mow the grass hard, will it be possible to establish a separation zone before the fire spreads.

If you move fast enough, maybe this grassland can still be saved. Otherwise, the fire will only have to burn until it reaches the Wuding River.

"Get on your horse all - throw away all the tents and the equipment and supplies that could be burdened - take your knives and retreat west——!" The old man gave the order in grief and indignation.

……

"I'm a complete bastard......!"

He looked at the fire that had stained the entire sky red in the west, and his fists were clenched. His body trembled uncontrollably, his face was as pale as a dead man, and his body kept shaking on his horse, as if he was about to fall.

"Master, this is a war - either you die or I live!" Holding the reins in his left hand, he controlled the war horse Dikang Shishi's face was indifferently comforting his party teacher, his eyes were calm, as if the fire that was about to burn most of the grassland had nothing to do with him.

Just when Li Wenge gave this order in person, Xifeng Minda jumped up on the spot and slapped himself, the Han master, so that half of the face of General Zhongwu was swollen like an eggplant in the defense of Yanzhou.

Li Wenge didn't get angry, nor did he deal with Xifeng Minda, he just calmly told Xifeng Minda: "...... This is a war, at the moment when the party members began to decide to go south to Yanzhou to burn and loot, today this result is already doomed, the party people must pay the price for everything they have done in Yanzhou, if you don't carry out the order, I will change someone to carry out this order! ”

At that time, Li Wenge did not have the gentle smile and almost obscene expression that he had when he first met, his eyes were very quiet, but very firm.

Just like the Kang stone now.

"Did you know that thousands of people are going to starve to death because of this...... Most of them are children younger than you......"

Fine Feng Minda gritted his teeth and said to his proud disciple.

“…… A lot of people have already starved to death......" Kang Shishi still said with a blank expression.

"Every year, many of these children in Yanzhou starve to death because they have no food, because their winter rations are snatched away by the party members...... This is nothing but retribution, master! ”

"Retribution?"

Hosophobon Minda smiled bitterly in despair, and for the first time, he, who had always been proud of being a warrior, began to develop an instinctive aversion to combat.

Those who become warriors by killing others will one day be killed by others, and this is war.

He closed his eyes and prayed in his heart, hoping that one day, there would be no more damn wars in this world, and there would be no more so-called warriors......