Just when the people of Jicheng were busy with the Dragon Boat Festival, a large army with strong weather left Ningcheng, an important town in the border fortress, and advanced towards the rolling Baishan Mountain in the north.

This was an expedition that would surely go down in history, although the soldiers in the queue were only burying their heads in the road and did not realize it.

In less than five days, it prepared all the necessary weapons, grain and grass, camp tents, medicines, etc. for the 15,000 cavalry guards who went out on the expedition, and at the same time, it also temporarily mobilized a baggage transport team with more than 10,000 people, which was specially responsible for transporting materials behind the army.

There is a saying that "the soldiers and horses are not moving, and the grain and grass go first." This time, the Xiao cavalry guards crossed the White Mountain to find Yan Rou to solve the problem completely, and the team transporting grain and grass naturally did not dare to run in front of the army, otherwise it would be equivalent to transporting supplies to Yan Rou, instead of going out with the army.

Liu Hui was able to do this, as soon as the warehouse of the school captain's mansion was full, he paid attention to the reserve of war materials in peacetime, so he would not be blind after receiving the order temporarily; Second, relying on the team of capable and top-effective officials, if Liu Hui did not have Liu Fang, Han Heng and other capable young people around him to assist him, many things would not be as easy as imagined.

Xiahoulan led the army out of Ningcheng and walked more than forty miles north, then left the boundary of Youzhou and entered the range of power controlled by the Hu people in the north. This vast area close to the north of the upper valley belonged to the territory of the Han Dynasty more than two hundred years ago, when the Han Dynasty's armed forces were at its peak, and a solid defense line was built in the long north, keeping out the Huns, Xianbei and Wuhuan people in the north, so that they did not dare to go south, and they were very domineering and mighty.

Nowadays, the territory of the entire Youzhou is almost half less than that of the Han Dynasty more than two hundred years ago, and only with the help of the cover of the mountains such as Baishan, Yanshan, and Baitan Mountain, can the Hu people be blocked outside the city fortress. If it weren't for Liu Yu's father and son's painstaking management in Youzhou, the hinterland of Youzhou would not have been ruined by the Xianbei and Wuhuan people who were in turmoil in the north over the years.

The Baishan Mountains originate from Quang Ninh to Ninh County. It stretched for hundreds of miles in a southwest-northeast direction, separating the Wuhuan tribe of Shanggu County from the tribe of Yan Rou in the north of the mountain. This time, Xiahoulan led the army from Ningxian County, first marching northwest for a while, bypassing the steep mountains, and then turning northeast, so that it was parallel to the direction of Baishan.

To the east of the dozens of Wuhuan and Xianbei tribes controlled by Yan Rou, there is a river that originates from the White Mountains, called Wet Water. The river first flowed from south to north for about 300 li, then turned east for more than 200 li, and then flowed from north to south for nearly 300 li. After completing a large "several" shape, it winds all the way to the southeast, through the majestic Lulongsai, through the Lingzhi Plain, and finally into the Bohai Sea.

In the past, Yan Rou relied on the Baishan Mountains in the south as a support, occupying a large area of pastures on the west bank of the upper reaches of the Lishui River, and lived a comfortable and happy life. Only this time, Xiahoulan chose a march route parallel to the direction of Baishan Mountain. It seems that he is going to completely drive the large and small forces controlled by Yan Rou out of this area with abundant water and grass with the momentum of plowing and sweeping the holes.

When a team of more than 20,000 people marched on the open grassland, it was impossible to achieve tactical concealment, and could only take the initiative in strategic attack. Two days after the army entered the grassland, Yan Rou learned of the arrival of the Youzhou cavalry.

Yan Rou before the appearance of the army of Xiao Cavalry Guards. I had already received an urgent report from Guangyang, and learned that my father had died, and the entire Yan family had been uprooted by Li Ru, and I was so angry that I wanted to kill people to vent my anger. He knew very well that he couldn't be kind to Liu this time. Therefore, he hurriedly gathered the young people in the tribe to prevent Liu He from sending troops to attack him. Yan Rou deceived the various tribes under his control, saying that Liu He had taken a fancy to this great pasture north of Baishan. is mobilizing a large army to prepare to attack everyone, so it has succeeded in arousing the hatred of the Xianbei and Wuhuan people.

Although Yan Rou had anticipated the seriousness of the situation, he still underestimated the speed of Liu He's troops. When the brightly armored cavalry guards appeared in the north of Baishan, Yan Rou was not ready, but only temporarily gathered more than 20,000 young and strong cavalry.

In a large-scale cavalry duel, the number of people is no longer the key to victory, the important thing is to rely on tactical coordination, and the advantage of equipment is also very important, and in these two points, the Xiao cavalry guard has obviously left behind the Wuhuan and Xianbei people who have been put together temporarily.

There were only 10,000 cavalry guards that appeared in Yan Rou's field of vision, and 3,000 of the other 5,000 cavalry needed to protect the team transporting grain and grass baggage, and 2,000 cavalry had lost their traces.

Yan Rou saw that the Han army only had 10,000 main forces and came to provoke, and his heart became a little more courageous, and he shouted to the soldiers under his command: "Brave sons, the Han people in Youzhou are not honest, they actually started our idea, and dared to ride a horse to the prairie to provoke us, let them see what a real cavalry is today!" ”

The Xianbei and Wuhuan people who followed Yan Rou to fight were all arrogant and laughing, and they didn't look down on the Han cavalry in the distance that was significantly smaller than their own.

Xia Houlan looked at the enemy who surrounded him in a semicircle with a calm face, and after the enemy army drove his horse and ran, he gave a very strange order: "The whole army is westward, fly kites!" ”

Xiahoulan's order was very concise, and the messengers quickly passed it to the left and right, and after a few breaths, the cavalry guard turned his horse and headed west, and began a "panicked retreat" without engaging the enemy.

Yan Rou, who was in the position of the Chinese army, was puzzled in his heart, but he recalled the process of dealing with Xia Houlan in the past, and found that Xia Houlan had always been a guy who was unwilling to suffer easily, and this time it was estimated that he saw that his own strength far exceeded expectations, so he was temporarily timid, thinking about leaving the battlefield quickly.

It is said that the defeat of the army is like a mountain, Yan Rou does not want to let go of this God-given opportunity, he does not believe that any general who commands the army dares to play the trick of fake retreat when the two armies face each other, so he urges the soldiers to speed up and rush forward to kill these Han cavalry who do not know the height of the sky.

The excited Hu people urged the war horses to blow across the grassland like the wind, and the Han cavalry that turned around and retreated west seemed to have difficulty escaping from the vast grassland under the horses' hooves.

At this moment, the Han cavalry suddenly turned around on horseback with a bow and crossbow in hand, and shot at the pursuing Hu people, and shot thousands of warriors who rushed to the front into hedgehogs.

The Hu people suffered a big loss, and while urging the horses to raise their bows and shoot arrows, their bows and arrows were going against the wind, and when the arrows were fired, the Han people in front of them had already jumped forward on horseback. The Han people, on the other hand, picked up the cheap, they could put the range to the maximum when they turned around to shoot the arrow, and when the arrow was fired, the pursuing Hu people happened to hit it head-on, so they were always able to play the maximum range of the bow and crossbow.

Yan Rou, who had suffered a big loss, finally realized that the situation was not right, and hurriedly ordered the army to stop the pursuit, so as not to be dragged to death by the almost rogue tactics of the Han cavalry. The Xianbei and Wuhuan people, who had already killed the red-eyed Xianbei people, finally stopped angrily after being shot to death by hundreds of people.

The Hu people no longer pursued, so the Han army stopped retreating westward, and the two armies stared at each other at a distance not too far.

In the pursuit battle just past, the loss of the Han cavalry was almost less than 100 people, while the Hu people, who had the advantage of the scene, lost more than 2,000 horsemen, which made Yan Rou feel both coarse and aggrieved, but at this time he did not dare to order the army to pursue again.

The two armies were in a stalemate on the grassland for a while, and Yan Rou simply ordered the troops to rest on the spot, he didn't believe that he couldn't survive these Han cavalry on his own territory.

As soon as the Hu people slackened, the Han cavalry suddenly moved, but this time they were no longer retreating westward, but rushing towards the Hu people. Yan Rou knew that she had been calculated by Xiahou Lan again, so she hurriedly ordered the troops to meet the enemy, but the Han cavalry approached and released two rounds of arrows, but then began to turn around and run westward.

The Xianbei and Wuhuan people had never been slapped in the face like this, they no longer listened to Yan Rou's orders, and rushed out to find the Han cavalry desperately, so the bloody pursuit on the grassland began to be staged again.

In the next half a day, the Hu people no longer cared about the lives of their clansmen, ignoring the rain of arrows shot from time to time in front of them, and they had a thought in their hearts: we have more people than the Han people, and when they shoot all the arrows in the pot and the war horses can't run, it should be the time for us to slaughter them one-sidedly.

The two groups of men and horses chased and fled, and finally at dusk, in the process, more than 2,000 Hu people were shot to death on horseback, and the losses of the Han people were still minimal.

This place was only a hundred miles away from Ningcheng, where the Han army was stationed, and Yan Rou was worried that Xiahou Lan was hiding an ambush, so he hurriedly called the soldiers sent by various tribes to stop the pursuit and retreat to the northeast.

The exhausted Hu people, who had been chasing, were never able to catch up with the cunning Han people, the reason was very simple, those Hu people with excellent riding skills and the best war horses must have rushed to the front, and these people bore the brunt of being shot off their horses by the Han cavalry who turned around to shoot arrows, so the Hu people were never able to really catch up with the Han army in front.

The Mangu cavalry tactics created by a generation of Tianjiao once swept across the Eurasian continent, and now the Xiao cavalry guards rely on advanced horse harness, sophisticated bows and crossbows and sturdy armor, and use this "hooligan shameless" tactics more than a thousand years in advance.

The Hu people, who were tortured to the point of life worse than death, had no hope of defeating the Han cavalry at this time, they only hoped that when they retreated to the east this time, those Han people who seemed to be forever tireless would never turn around and catch up again, and keep firing cold arrows like a ghost. If this continues, even if your own troops are more than the Han Chinese, they will not be able to withstand two or three days of attrition and tossing......

Hu Ren retreated to the northeast in a panic, this time Xiahou Lan really did not order a pursuit, but led the army to the west and walked slowly for a while, and came to the place where grain and grass were transported in the rear. (To be continued......)