Sleeping in the open on the grassland outside the Saiwai, the night was cold, the Lanzhou army did not have the extravagant leather tents of the palace army, the soldiers smeared the exposed parts of the face and neck with herbs to repel mosquitoes, and a sheepskin blanket wrapped the body and lay on the ground by the bonfire, counting the stars and falling asleep. Wu Yingying shares the joys and sorrows with the soldiers, and naturally the same is true.

The moon is bright and the stars are scarce, Wu Yingying is tightly wrapped in a blanket, the night sky without pollution is particularly deep, the stars are flashing and flashing, and occasionally a meteor crosses the sky, more than 10,000 Han people in the camp are sleeping in the wilderness, although the cold is pressing, but in the camp covered by the Han army, the life of the cattle and horses is as if it was yesterday, and the intuition is peaceful and joyful, and the vision for the future unconsciously enters the dream.

In a deep sleep, Wu Yingying was awakened by a sharp sound of arrows, and immediately grabbed the Mo knife and jumped up. Looking around, the households in the center of the camp were still asleep, but the Lanzhou sergeants were very vigilant, and they all picked up their blades and stood in place waiting for the officer's order.

It was still dark and gloomy outside the camp, but there was a faint tremor on the ground in the distance, and Xin Gu listened to the sound and said: "There are cavalry troops galloping here in the east, west, north and south. ”

At this moment, it is dawn, the dawn is beginning to appear, and there is only a faint morning mist on the grassland, and the view is quite good. After a while, I saw several cavalry in the distance desperately beating their horses and galloping, and on the horizon behind them, several long outpost lines of steppe cavalry slowly emerged.

The cavalry fleeing in front ran closer, and saw that the clothes were the scouts of the palace army, and it was estimated that they were the ones who had issued the alarm just now.

Everyone looked at each other, and Yu Furen immediately said: "The one who comes is not good, my lord, please lead the fat cavalry camp to leave first, and the last general will wait for the oath to die." The rest of the lieutenants also chimed in, and Chase even asked the guards to lead Wu Yingying's Qinghai Chuan to him.

Wu Yingying looked back at the Han people who were waking up from a sound sleep, and shouted: "Are there generals who abandon their subordinates here, and are there soldiers who abandon the people here?"

Seeing that everyone bowed their heads and was silent, Wu Yingying took out his horizontal knife, looked at the surrounding soldiers, and said in a loud voice: "The enemy does not dare to engage in a fair and bright battle, and only picks a sneak attack at dawn, which means that the enemy army must be afraid.

Xin Gu and Yu Fu Renliang drew their swords one after another, and shouted loudly: "Dare to fight!" Other fierce generals and soldiers also shouted one after another, and the people in the camp saw that the officers and soldiers did not mean to abandon the old and weak and flee, although their faces were sad, their hearts were also a little calm.

The army immediately took advantage of the terrain to move rocks and excavate the earth, carefully filling every gap in the outer car formation, and the baggage battalion took out the bed crossbow from the car, put it on the slightly higher board on the inside, and wound the crossbow to aim it in the direction of the enemy's attack. Due to the protection of more than 10,000 people, the Lanzhou military camp is quite large, and the horizontal camp, the mountain pulling battalion, and the baggage battalion infantry assigned to the outer defense line are slightly thin. The infantry of the Jinfan battalion served as a reserve, on the one hand, to monitor the newly redeemed Han people in the battalion, and on the other hand, to prepare to fill the gap in the defensive line, Wu Yingying held the Modao battalion and two battalions of cavalry in his hands to carry out a counter-assault in the defense.

The cavalry cluster in the distance was getting closer and closer, and the momentum of the end was amazing, and Xingu estimated that there were at least 10,000 horsemen. The other party wanted to take advantage of the dawn to sneak attack, so he simply swaggered to the front, and steadily surrounded the 3,500 Lanzhou army and the 1,000 palace army led by Xiao Qin, and was about to attack when he had enough horsepower.

"Brother Xiao, I've bothered you. Wu Yingying sighed to Xiao Qin, who came over to discuss the military aircraft.

Xiao Qin stared at the herald soldiers who kept running back and forth at the foot of the mountain and said, "I'm afraid it may not be like this." ”

He found that it seemed to be the cavalry of the Khitan tribe in Shuozhou below, but he didn't raise the banner, "He couldn't help but sneer: "A group of rabble, also dare to attack the guard palace army." He waved his hand and let his guards ride over and ask which Khitan tribe the other party was, and whether he knew that the palace army was also on the mountain.

The guard held the banner of the palace army, shouted loudly in Khitan, and rode his horse down the mountain, who knew that it was only in the middle of the mountain, and the enemy cavalry array fired arrows randomly, and the guard was killed on the spot, and even the war horse was shot all over like a hedgehog, and fell to the ground softly with a wail.

Seeing this scene, Xiao Qin's face turned pale, it seemed that the cavalry below knew that the palace guards were going to make trouble here, and said to Wu Yingying: "Brother Wu, this group of people is coming at me, I'm afraid you have suffered from the pond fish." Regardless of the enemy's intentions, for the time being, you and I must work together to defeat this formidable enemy. ”

Wu Yingying said: "Exactly." ”

Xiao Qin sighed and said: "Don't hide it from Brother Wu, Xiao Qin is my pseudonym, I am Han Derang, the envoy of the Imperial City of Shangjing of the Great Liao Kingdom, the Han family is an official in the Great Liao, and it has been three generations so far, and he is deeply favored by the country. ”

Wu Yingying nodded, and when Xin Gu told him that Xiao Qin was a Han Chinese, he had been guessing that Xiao Qin was just a pseudonym, so he arched his hand according to Han etiquette and said, "It turned out that Brother Han was in person, and he was polite." ”

Han Derang also arched his hand, pointed at the enemy army who was about to move with his horsewhip and said: "The responsibility for besieging the Great Liao Palace and dividing the army is not small, and the thief can't help but make a move, and rush him first." He casually instructed his subordinates to cavalry in Khitan. The general of the palace division army agreed loudly and immediately reorganized the army and horses to attack.

Han Derang's choice of the timing of the attack was just stuck before the enemy attacked, the enemy army under the mountain was mobilizing military horses back and forth to prepare for the attack, and lost his guard for a while, and did not think that the three hundred elite cavalry of the palace division army on the mountain rushed down condescendingly, the palace division sergeant was brave, the armor was sharp, and all the horses were high-quality horses, and the location was advantageous, this momentum was unstoppable, and it went straight into the depths of the enemy camp, and the tribal cavalry who was preparing to attack was killed on his back, and before the enemy reacted, he had already turned his horse back, and came back to count the number of people, only lost more than a dozen horses.

This battle suddenly made the enemy lose their sharpness, and the cavalry of the palace division army were also proud, joking loudly with each other, and Wu Yingying also laughed: "Brother Han is a good means." ”

Han Derang didn't care, and said: "How can you not win by attacking the rabble with the elite of the palace." However, the enemy is outnumbered, and it will be difficult to leave us behind at the expense of attrition. He said these words in Chinese, and he didn't worry about frustrating the spirit of the Khitan warriors beside him.

Wu Yingying said angrily: "If you are defeated, Brother Han can take his subordinates to go first, and he will swear to protect this group of Han people." ”

Han Derang's eyes flashed, and he seemed to be surprised that Wu Yingying did not try to persuade him to stay and protect the Han people together, and immediately said: "Thank you Brother Wu for your kindness, it's just that the desert cavalry battle, it has always been fast and slow, and more and less, the enemy army is prepared, and the horsepower is sufficient, so it is not so easy for us to break through." He paused, and then sighed: "The southerners have a lot of dislike for us Han people in the Liao Kingdom. There are very few people like Brother Wu who don't care about it!"

Wu Yingying laughed dumbly, he thought that Han Derang refused to say that he was a Han at first, because he regarded himself as a Liao person, but he didn't want to be partly because of the Song people's discrimination against the Liao Han people, and even Han Derang such a high-ranking Liao Han was ashamed to admit that he was a Han in front of the officials of the Southern Dynasty.