Hua Ying and the officers were silent when they heard this, knowing that the general's judgment was correct, although the current situation facing the Zhenbei Army was extremely grim, but the Tang Dynasty was attacked by the enemy, and the Zhennan Army and the Northeast Border Army had their own important tasks, so they could not come to the aid at all.

Guhe is just a very inconspicuous point on the territory of the Tang Empire, and it is still more than 2,000 miles away from Chang'an City, but now it seems that it is the last line of defense before Chang'an City, so Xu Chi decided to stick here, and even the General's Mansion has to go north!

There was silence in the mountains, no one spoke for a long time, the snowflakes were falling slowly, and the temperature and atmosphere became much colder at the same time...... What a terrible price it would pay, and would it really be able to hold on?

They know better than ordinary soldiers that the imperial court has done its best, the government and the opposition have worked together, and the ordinary people have tightened their clothes and food, and continuously supplied the grain and grass needed by the Zhenbei army, and even after a cold winter, the current military camp can still eat fresh pork, and there is no problem in terms of ordnance and armor.

But the topography of the valley is determined...... If the Zhenbei Army wants to stop the Golden Horde Court outside that line, it means that it needs to resist more than 100,000 grassland iron cavalry head-on, and that will inevitably be the last field battle that the current Zhenbei Army wants to face!

In those days, the Zhenbei Army was rampant in the northern part of the continent, and it was not taboo to go in and out of the grasslands, and the most ordinary soldiers were also good at riding and shooting, so how could they have ever been afraid of field battles? But now they had to deliberately avoid field battles, because they had the most fatal problem: the lack of war horses.

Hua Ying broke the silence in the room, and he walked to Xu Chi and knelt down on one knee. Calmly and firmly, he said: "If you can't keep it, you will die." ”

Xu Chi looked at his gray sideburns, looking at his rapidly aging face that had been tortured by the bitter cold weather of the border over the years, his mood was a little heavy, but his face did not show the slightest, and said: "Wrong, even if you die, you have to guard me." ”

Hua Ying did not hesitate and responded: "Obey." ”

Xu Chi helped him up and watched him be silent for a long time, but finally couldn't hold back. said with emotion: "I've worked hard for you all these years. ”

Hua Ying smiled. Didn't say anything.

Since the war with the Golden Horde, he has been guarding the northernmost part of the Tang Dynasty, and as a pioneer, he has undertaken the most important and heaviest tasks. Although his command now has the only remaining cavalry of the Zhenbei Army. But it's still very difficult.

If it weren't for his own martial arts cultivation, he was extremely high. The Tang army was extremely well defended, and even several times he was almost assassinated by the strong men of the steppe.

But Hua Ying never had any complaints, even when Xu Chi wanted to transfer him back to the North Camp to recuperate. He rejected them very strictly.

The whole Zhenbei army actually understands why, and even the nobles in the palace and the bigwigs of the military department in the distant Chang'an City also understand the reason.

Hua Ying's surname is Hua, the Hua of the Hua family, and the Hua of Hua Shanyue.

Hua Shanyue followed Li Yumou to rebel and was defeated and died on the spot, and those officers who secretly rebelled against Beijing from Gushan County with him were sent to Beidaying by Ning Que and exchanged military merits for honor.

Implicated in this incident, the once prestigious Hua family also declined rapidly, and now only Hua Ying still holds an important position in the army.

So Hua Ying is very desperate, he wants to use his life to fight for the Hua family for a thousand years, to spell out a dazzling, and to spell out a high-spirited spell.

Xu Chi said: "Don't work too hard, it's best to live." ”

Hua Ying did not answer this sentence directly, and said, "We will win." ”

......

......

In the first six years of the Tang Dynasty, the three thousand four hundred and fifty-five years of Xiling Dazhi, the end of spring.

The vanguard of the Northern Army of Datang Town, one hundred and seventy miles south of Weicheng, met with the cavalry of the Golden Horde, fought for more than ten days, won and lost, and then the main force of the Northern Army of Zhenzhen all went north, and opened a camp in the area of the Valley River.

The two most powerful military forces in the world officially began to compete, and they fought for more than ten days, winning and losing, but Gu He was still behind the battalion of the Zhenbei Army, and the Golden Horde cavalry failed to move south.

The two sides have temporarily recuperated and re-entered the confrontation, but everyone knows that unlike in the past, this confrontation cannot last for dozens of days or even years, but at most for a day or two, and the flames of war will continue to burn.

The Zhenbei army paid a very heavy price in order to block the cavalry of the Golden Horde court north of the valley river, because they lacked war horses, and even the most skilled veterans with bows and swords, many of them could only hold the Pu sword as a flank cover for the array, and could not go into battle to kill the enemy.

The strongest iron cavalry of the Zhenbei Army, because there is no war horse, can only be used as infantry, no matter in anyone's eyes, this is a tyrannical thing, but who can change this qiē?

From the day when the Xiling Temple forced Tang to sign a peace treaty, Xiang Wanyuan was ceded to the late plains, and the war horse was handed over as a trophy, this angry and helpless scene now is a doomed fact.

The new morning sun rose from the east, and those who had the best eyesight in the army, or Xu Chi who stayed in the general's mansion in the rear, could vaguely see that there was a figure of Minshan in the blood-like morning glow.

Yesterday, the cavalry of the Golden Horde temporarily withdrew northward, returned to the Kaiping set line, did a temporary rest, and also prepared for the final offensive, in the face of the determined Tang Army, in the face of the same tricky infantry and cavalry with the array, the Golden Horde Court was no longer satisfied with the partial victory on the battlefield, and was anxious because of the passage of time, it was obvious that the upcoming field battle would be a storm that the Zhenbei Army had never faced.

Situ Yilan stood on the meadow, holding his waist knife in his hand, looking at the direction of the Golden Horde's cavalry camp, his dusty face was full of calmness and vigilance, and his slightly squinted eyes flashed with a light that was colder than the blade.

As a disciple of the academy and a descendant of the old general, she was as good as she was in the Zhenbei Army, and she had already become the youngest general, and now she is Hua Ying's deputy, and she is deeply loved by the officers and soldiers of Zhenbei.

Dozens of days of fighting, especially in recent days, the Zhenbei army has been under great pressure and has paid a very heavy price, and some of the military doctors in the battalion have not been able to close their eyes for three consecutive days and nights.

When she thought of this, Situ Yilan's expression was very calm, and she didn't let the soldiers beside her see any problems, but the problems still existed, like heavy stones, pressing on her heart.

The Golden Horde court is not retreating, but resting, the general's military order is to defend the valley and not retreat an inch, this field seems destined to become a cemetery for hundreds of thousands of lives, but I don't know which side will be qualified to write the epitaph for the dead in the final posture of a victor.

She has a very high rank in the Zhenbei Army, and can know a lot of military information that ordinary soldiers do not know, yesterday the reinforcements of Gushan County tried to sneak attack a certain part of the Golden Horde Royal Court from the middle foot of Minshan Mountain, but the result was detected in advance, and the tribe quickly moved closer to the Royal Court, thus making the Zhenbei Army lose the best opportunity to disrupt the enemy's roots.

So what else can be done?

Situ Yilan stared at the sand table and was silent for a long time last night, comparing the knowledge taught by Mr. Academy and the seniors of the military department with his own experience in the army, but he couldn't find any way.

The one who decided the strategy of the Zhenbei Army could only be General Xu Chi, or if she looked further south, including the pair of sisters and brothers in the palace and the gentlemen in the academy, but she also wanted to contribute.

Pity......

In addition to the heavy questions like stones, Situ Yilan also had many doubts in his heart.

General Xu Chi's strategy cannot be said to be wrong, whether it is retreating at the beginning or defending to the death in the bloody battle now, the former is to exchange space for time and exhaust the enemy's army, and the latter is because he can't let the defeat show a little, and he must use absolute iron and blood to stabilize the northern frontier of the Tang Dynasty. But it's clear that there are better, or more flexible, or less all-or-nothing ways.

General Xu Chi's current strategy is equivalent to attracting all the main forces of the Golden Horde to the Guhe area, and if he can win, it will be difficult for the opponent's main cavalry to escape even if he wants to.

You must know that in the hundreds of years of war between the Tang Dynasty and the Golden Horde, the most headache for the Tang people was the ability to escape, even if the Tang army won, the royal court cavalry quickly withdrew to the depths of the grassland, and the Tang army could not annihilate its main force at all.

There is a lot of great military wisdom in this strategy, but it needs to be able to be implemented, and the most important thing is that the Tang army must first win before it can talk about how to annihilate the main force of the Golden Horde.

How to win this war? Situ Yilan couldn't think of it now, she didn't think that General Xu Chi could think of it, so she didn't understand more and more what the general or the imperial court was thinking.

She was not a pessimist, let alone a defeatist, she was like the soldiers beside her and the Tang troops in the battalion, she was not afraid of the cavalry of the Golden Horde, but reason told her that victory was really far away.

It stands to reason that the Zhenbei Army is extremely high, backed by the Gu River, and it can be regarded as occupying seven points of geographical advantage, and if you don't mention it, how can it not make her so desperate, but it is still the same old problem......

There are no horses.

There are no war horses.

The Zhenbei army did not have a sufficient number of war horses.

Situ Yilan walked back to the camp with her own soldiers, and the soldiers she met along the way stood up and saluted her, she could clearly tell that although the soldiers saluted almost identically, in fact, there was a big difference, for example, the soldiers who had just arrived in the Zhenbei Army for less than two years had more calm eyes and some last shyness, while those veterans who had been veterans for many years had a sense of indifference in their expressions, as for their eyes...... It was very thief to brush on herself, although it was only a small movement, but she felt it very obviously.

Those veterans reminded her of a person, someone she hadn't seen in a long time, her former classmate, and later the so-called gentleman, the guy who had stood at the top of the world.