Chapter 51: Horn Of The Hexi Cavalry
Soon, the troops of Hexi Fort began to assemble!
After annexing the population of Sanhe Fort and Hou Village, the strength of Hexi Fort had greatly increased.
Plus, part of the young and strong men from Li Erjiang’s group had returned.
Now, Hexi Fort had nearly six hundred men capable of mounting horses to fight.
This time, Li Xiao was preparing to lead four hundred men to Tazhai.
Leaving the Old Master to lead two hundred with combat strength, as well as the numerous elderly, weak, women, and children to guard the home, preventing being lured the tiger away from the mountain.
At the same time, Li Xiao also sent people to notify the people of Gushan Fort and Hedong Fort to head to Tazhai early tomorrow morning.
When the Eastern Capital Army arrived, Li Xiao had to gather more troops.
Not just to relieve the crisis at Tazhai.
But also to show off muscles to the Khitan People, vying for status and initiative.
He believed that if the Eastern Capital Army’s generals were smart, they absolutely would not provoke the Han People’s this force for no reason before dealing with the Geluolu People.
But conversely, if the Han People’s muscles were not hard enough, they would be despised by the Khitan People.
They would indulge the troops of other tribes to plunder the Han People’s Fortifications, thereby incentivizing the enthusiasm of these nomadic tribes.
In short, whoever had stronger strength and greater utilitarian value would have higher status in the eyes of the Khitan People.
“Everyone, three horses per person, check your weapons, and fill your arrow quivers.”
“Each person carry three torches~”
On the grassland outside Hexi Fort, Li Xiao, wearing leather armor, shouted loudly to the crowd.
Beside him were two horses: one carrying Li Xiao’s heavy armor, the other carrying dried meat and ten days’ rations, as well as horse spear, arrows, and other weapons.
The others were similarly equipped, all wearing leather armor, with weapons stowed when not in battle.
“Depart~”
With Li Xiao’s order given, four hundred cavalry charged quickly toward Tazhai against the light of the setting sun in the west.
Before them, Li Xiao had already sent out scouts to reconnoiter the enemy situation ten li ahead.
Tazhai!
With his son’s death, Nie Erdu had gone completely mad.
He sent out all his troops, determined to break through Tazhai at any cost.
“Nie Erdu leader, you are simply mad~”
“Your tribe has already lost many people; what you should do now is immediately stop the attack.”
Outside Tazhai, five hundred troops of the Zhelan Tribe were desperately attacking.
Unfortunately, blocked by the moat and walls, their war horses could hardly charge through.
In the end, they could only leave more and more corpses outside the moat.
Behind these Zhelan cavalry, Nie Erdu watched the front with a serious and gloomy gaze.
Paying no attention to the words of this Khitan man beside him.
“Blood debt must be paid in blood; the Han People killed my son, and their blood must repay it,” Nie Erdu said in a cold, stern voice.
A trace of blood still hung at the corner of his mouth.
Clearly, the death of his most favored son had enraged him greatly.
“As you can see, this Han People’s tribe is not as weak as we imagined; their resistance is very resolute.”
“If you do not want the warriors of the Zhelan Tribe to be exhausted at that moat, then you should calm down, Nie Erdu!”
A thin, short Khitan man with two long locks of hair at his temples shouted angrily at Nie Erdu.
He was from the Eastern Capital Governor’s Mansion, named Kuo Tu!
Because he understood the Zhelan Tribe’s language, he was dispatched to the Zhelan Tribe as supervisor to prevent these Zhelan People from disobeying orders or slacking off.
Previously, when the Zhelan Tribe wanted to seize this Han People’s tribe, Kuo Tu had not paid attention.
It was just grabbing some cattle and sheep and women, killing some Han People; as long as the Zhelan People showed such enthusiasm when attacking the Geluolu People, it was worthwhile.
But he had not expected this Han People’s tribe to be so tenacious, fighting to this point with significant losses on both sides.
Only then did Kuo Tu start to worry.
When the Han People’s strength was weak, it was called ‘wearing down the enemy’; when strong, it became mutual slaughter among their own.
After all, the Eastern Capital Army’s enemy was the Geluolu People.
If the Zhelan People suffered heavy casualties, how could they fight the Geluolu People?
“Enough talk; I will not stop today until I take this Han People’s tribe,” Nie Erdu said, raising his hand.
It was just some tribesmen dying; as long as it did not harm the Zhelan Tribe’s backbone, he could grab slaves from other tribes upon return.
Once those slaves became obedient and earned merit, they would naturally become Zhelan tribesmen.
“You~” Kuo Tu looked at Nie Erdu with fury, but was helpless.
He could only say angrily: “I will report all this to Lord Xiao Simo.”
With that, he stormed off to tattle.
Although Nie Erdu had bribed him with quite a bit of gold and silver usually, this matter was not easy to conceal.
……
The sky grew darker, the sun slowly setting, its last rays quietly disappearing over the land.
At this time, the cavalry from Hexi Fort were less than five li from Tazhai.
The speed was somewhat slow, mainly because Li Xiao was too cautious.
“It seems these nomadic people’s brains are not that sharp,” Li Xiao said softly, shaking his head on horseback.
He had thought there would be ambushes on the road, but these nomadic people’s minds were all single-minded.
Still, being cautious was always good.
Li Xiao turned to look around; the sky was completely dark, unable to see things beyond dozens of meters.
But he could faintly hear the shouts of killing from Tazhai.
The battle was very intense.
While waiting for the scouts to return, Li Xiao ordered the crowd: “Everyone, prepare for battle.”
At this moment, the four hundred cavalry from Hexi Fort silently gripped their spears, making final preparations.
Li Xiao and fifteen heavy cavalry began donning their armor with their companions’ help.
Soon, three scouts returned and reported the situation at Tazhai to Li Xiao.
“Most of the enemies are on the west side of Tazhai, numbering around three or four hundred.”
“No other large forces within ten li around!”
Li Xiao, now in heavy armor, turned to Zhao Dabao and said: “This seems to be the Eastern Capital’s vanguard.”
“Daring to besiege Tazhai with four hundred men—do they think there are no men in Jin Prefecture’s Han Family?”
“Da Long, attack~”
Zhao Dabao gripped a spear, said with fierce aura: “Not a single one of these damned guys gets away.”
Li Xiao nodded, his expression growing even more indifferent.
He had to severely damage this cavalry from the Eastern Capital; otherwise, Jin Prefecture’s Han People would only become fat meat in the eyes of the Eastern Capital Army.
Gathering some backbone forces from Hexi Fort, he ordered: “Sixth Uncle, take a hundred men to circle behind the enemy.”
“Dazhuang, take a hundred men to block the south of Tazhai.”
“The remaining two hundred, I will lead personally in a frontal assault.”
“Yes~”
The crowd began to move; the four hundred Hexi cavalry split into three groups, quickly heading toward Tazhai.
……
Although night had fallen, the intensity of the battle at Tazhai showed no sign of weakening.
The Zhelan People continued their fierce assault, even sneaking to other weakly defended spots in the darkness, attempting to cross the moat and walls to rush into the village.
But fortunately, Zhao Tiezhu was experienced and staunchly kept the Zhelan People out.
“Little bastards, hold on; men from the other three forts will arrive soon.”
“Your women and daughters are behind you; if you don’t want them ravaged by the enemy, hold the line for me.” Zhao Tiezhu, unable to move freely, could only shout loudly from horseback.
His turbid eyes scanned the surroundings, sharp as wolf eyes in the darkness.
Suddenly, he drew his bow and loosed an arrow.
The next second, a scream rang out in the dark; a Zhelan man who had rushed into the village was shot off his horse the moment he showed his head.
At the other end of the village, a Zhelan slave in leather armor was wielding a saber, directing other slaves to work.
“Faster, faster~”
“Fill this moat for me~”
The slave shouted loudly: “Master’s order: whoever is first to rush into the village will be freed from slavery and rewarded with ten sheep.”
“Charge~”
Hearing this, some slaves worked even harder.
They pushed a cart loaded with stones and mud toward the moat under a hail of arrows from Tazhai.
They aimed to fill this section of moat to allow more troops to charge into the village.
Though many slaves were shot dead in the process, as the moat grew shallower, these slaves grew excited.
Becoming a small free herdsman with some assets was their dream.
Now, they finally saw the possibility of realizing it.
“Rush in~”
Seeing the moat nearly filled, the leather-armored slave, unable to contain his excitement, shouted loudly.
An outsider might think he was a Zhelan Tribe noble.
But in reality, he was just a slave.
But even among slaves, there were hierarchies of status.
It mainly depended on whose slave one was.
Just like the Manchu Qing Dynasty’s bondservants, some had status and treatment higher than ordinary banner folk.
This leather-armored slave was the same; as Nie Erdu’s personal slave, his status was even higher than ordinary minor Zhelan nobles.
He enjoyed this status, so he was very loyal to Nie Erdu.
He exerted himself the most in battle.
But just as these Zhelan slaves prepared to cross the moat and launch another large-scale charge.
Nie Erdu suddenly ordered a retreat!
“What’s happening?”
“What happened? Why retreat?”
These Zhelan People were baffled; they were about to break into the Han People’s village—why retreat?
But little did they know, Nie Erdu had his own unspeakable difficulties.
The scouts he sent to reconnoiter the surroundings reported news that enraged him.
Han People’s reinforcements had arrived!
“How many?”
“Too dark to see clearly, but from the sound, their numbers are no fewer than ours,” the scout said in terror.
Originally there were three of them, but as they tried to probe further, they were spotted by the enemy.
Then his two companions were consecutively shot by an archer among the enemy, and he himself barely escaped.
Too terrifying!
“Damn it, retreat~” Nie Erdu was very unwilling but could only leave quickly.
Meanwhile, Li Xiao watched an enemy scout flee and shook his head helplessly.
He had planned a surprise attack while the Zhelan People were unprepared, but clearly the Zhelan People were no pushovers and had been on guard.
Battlefield situations changed in an instant; how could everything go as planned?
But it did not matter; at this point, what could the Zhelan People do even if they discovered it?
Wearing scale armor, he swung his horse spear toward the Zhelan People.
Li Xiao shouted loudly: “Light all the torches~”
“Charge~”
