A meandering river flows quietly into the distance.
By the river, some people scrub their horses, others bathe in the waist-deep middle of the river, and sometimes they stir up the water, tease their companions, and let out bursts of hearty laughter.
By the river are weeping willows, and their branches ripple like a new green lake, and many horses, cattle and sheep can be seen in the forest, and many people are also in and out of the forest.
Suddenly, a horse galloped in the distance, and the ground of white sand splashed with light dust.
Someone by the river put their hands on a canopy and looked at the place where the flying rider had come from, and soon relaxed their vigilance and continued to do their own thing.
There was only one horse coming, and they were wearing the same clothes as them, obviously not the soldiers and horses of the Great Zhou court.
The man rode his horse, and soon came to the green willow bush, and jumped off his horse, and tore off the worn-out sheepskin mattress from the horse, and threw it on the ground, and the horse had no saddle on it, and when he tore off the sheepskin mattress, he was left with only the horse's back.
The man patted the horse on the neck, and let it go on its own in search of fresh weeds, and walked briskly towards the willow forest.
"Supreme Khan, Generalissimo, the Imperial Court has sent troops" The big man who had just run into the willow grove found their leader, and in the middle of the willow grove there were several sheepskin felts, and several big men were sitting cross-legged on the parchment felts and talking something, and when they heard his voice, they all stood up.
An old man with long shins, with a gray beard under his chin and a large gray braid coiled on his head, and it was almost summer, and he was wearing a sheepskin jacket that was already very shabby, and the wool was half bald, and it looked like the skin of a leprosy dog.
This person is Li Qianzhong, the governor of the Songmo Prefecture and the leader of the Khitan Dahe tribal alliance, and now he has rebelled and proclaimed himself the supreme khan.
Next to him, there stood an old man of the same age as him, also in his sixties, this person was a little burder than Li Qianzhong, with a square face, gray hair and beard, thick eyebrows, but still black and messy eyebrows, showing a bit of fierceness, this person was Sun Wanrong, who was appointed as the generalissimo by Li Qianzhong.
The big men next to them were all the leaders of the Khitan tribes attached to them.
Li Qianzhong untied the water bladder on his waist, threw it at the scout and said calmly: "Don't worry, drink saliva first" The scout took the water bladder thrown by Li Qianzhong, wiped his mouth with a bang, and said: "Khan, the Tang people sent 160,000 troops, with Cao Renshi, the general of the Left Eagle Yangwei, Zhang Xuanyu, the general of the Right Jinwuwei, and Ma Renjie, the general of the Right Jinwuwei, as the first route army, leading the forbidden army and recruiting a total of 100,000 troops to advance.
In addition, Yan Bandit Shi was the general manager of the march, and Li Duoluo, the general of Zuo Weiwei, was the deputy marshal, leading the elite of the government army and the baggage troops as the second route army, and the two armies were separated by about two days.
I also learned that their female emperor planned to send Liang Wang Wu Sansi as the ambassador to pacify Yuguan Dao, and Nayan Yao Yi as a deputy envoy, and lead the Third Route Army to respond.
It's just that the Third Route Army has not yet set off, and it is not yet known how many men and horses the Third Route Army is ready to send. ” When the leaders heard that the imperial court was going to send three generals, and there were 160,000 people who arrived in advance, they couldn't help but be a little panicked, and many people showed timidity.
Li Quanzhong saw their reactions in his eyes, but he was not moved at all, just smiled faintly, and said in a solemn manner: "The imperial court really can afford to count us with only 70,000 people lacking clothes and armor, and the weapons are not complete, and the imperial court actually sent so many soldiers and horses."
He turned around, looked at the leaders of the various tribes, and said loudly: "The Tang people don't treat us Khitans as human beings, and they don't treat us as well as their own livestock."
Last winter, we suffered a famine, and what did he Zhao Wenjian do, not only did not give us a grain of grain and rice, but instead took the opportunity to force us to sell our children and uncles.
Our good women who are as handsome as flowers, were raped and bullied by them, used as cattle as horses, our cattle and sheep, and were exchanged by them cheaply, and finally survived the winter, we don't even have enough cattle and sheep to graze this spring, how to deal with this autumn, we have to continue to be squeezed by them, until we squeeze our bone marrow" Li Qianzhong's words made those tribal leaders think of all kinds of oppression they have suffered, and they are full of anger, their chests rise and fall, their breathing is short, and their faces are swollen and red.
Li Qianzhong waved his hand and said: "Our Khitan has attached itself to the Tang Dynasty, but the Tang people have never treated us as their own people, and they don't even treat us as human beings, except for bullying and humiliation, or bullying and humiliation, even if it is the leaders of various departments, in front of their side generals, there is only the share of leading horses and falling stirrups and being slaves and maids, we have endured it, we have endured it again and again, and we have to endure it until we are going to die and have no way to live."
Sun Wanrong said: "What the Khan said is that we can endure it any longer, there is only one way to die, fight hard, maybe there is another way to live the worst, and let the court know, even if we are used as livestock, we have to stutter, rabbits are anxious and bite, let's not be the obedient horses and sheep, if we want to do it, we will be the wolves on the grassland."
Li Qianzhong said loudly: "The imperial court has sent a large army, you are afraid of me, but we are afraid that it will be useful, we will not fight back, it is not a dead end to raise troops, we know in our hearts how powerful the imperial court is, it is not rare to send an army of 160,000, it is an army of millions, and the imperial court can also take our lives, it is like holding a chicken and touching a stone, but we have at least fought hard, our women and children, our children and grandchildren, and future generations will not poke our backbones."
The angry leader and the surrounding clansmen roared angrily: "What the Khan said is to fight to the death, and if you don't fight, you will die to our Khitan men, and we would rather die standing than be slaves."
Li Qianzhong nodded with satisfaction, relaxed his expression, and said with a smile: "Speaking of death, we have to hold the belief of death, but if we really want to fight, we may not necessarily defeat Yingzhou, didn't we fight it, didn't we fight Chongzhou."
A few days ago, he hit Danzhou near present-day Beijing, and Zhang Jiujie, the deputy governor of Qingbian Province, repelled us with the thickness of the high walls of the city, but he only repelled himself, he dared to send a soldier and a pawn to chase after them They sent an army of 160,000, this is 160,000 tigers and wolves or 160,000 sheep to be beaten to know, who wants to be a bad seed, I Li Quanzhong will not stop me, you can go now" The leaders said angrily: "Khan, you can give the order, we Khitans have no bad seed who is afraid of death."
Sun Wanrong called the scout and said, "Come, you tell the leaders the details of the Tang Army, and let's discuss a countermeasure."
The actions of the Tang Army are easy to inquire about.
The Khitans, on the other hand, are nomadic tribes, and they are indefinitely divided and combined, and they are closed to the outside world.
In addition, the Han people in the border areas generally regard them as inferior and have always had little contact with them, so they have limited understanding of them.
The scout recounted in detail what he had learned about the Tang army, and said: "Khan, the female emperor of the generalissimo Tang also ordered to change the name of the khan to Li Duan, and the name of Generalissimo Sun to Sun Wanqi."
Sun Wanrong smiled contemptuously and said to the leaders: "I was a proton when I was a teenager, I lived in Chang'an and Luoyang for a long time, and I know this mother-in-law very well, this mother-in-law has three hobbies, killing people, changing the name of the year, and changing the name and surname of others.
After Queen Wang was killed by her, all the people of the Wang clan changed their surnames to Python, and after the death of Concubine Xiao Shu, all the Xiao family changed their surnames to Xiao.
Li Zhen, the king of Yue, turned against her Li family and begged to be changed by her surname Xu.
This mother-in-law poisoned her sister and niece's daughter, and blamed her four cousins, and after killing the four cousins, she changed their children and grandchildren to the Maggot clan Hey, look, what is the difference between this and those women who have made enemies with others and curse others at home with gritted teeth This is the emperor of the Tang people or a witch Hahalen" Everyone laughed, and Li Quanzhong said with a smile: "Okay, okay, let her say that I Li Quanzhong can't be destroyed, it's not just her mother-in-law who curses a few times."
Whether Sun Wanrong is Sun Wanrong or not, it also depends on whether they can win the battle, let's discuss it now, how to fight this battle. ” Luo Wuquan, the leader of the Khitan, suggested: "The Tang army is overwhelming, so we might as well avoid its edge, retreat into the grassland, and lead them by the nose."
They have an army of 160,000 men, and baggage is a big problem, as long as they drag them for a few months, and then wait for an opportunity to cut off their food routes, they will collapse without a fight. ” Li Qianzhong shook his head and said, "After the famine last winter, and being blackmailed by those god-killing border generals, our cattle and sheep are no longer enough to ensure the survival of the clansmen.
If the Tang army arrives, they will be stationed in various cities and passes, and they will not follow us around the grassland, so we will only survive until winter, we have nothing to eat, and we will not be able to capture their city, and then we will not need to be killed by the Tang army, we will freeze and starve to death. ” Another Khitan leader, He Axiao, pondered for a moment, drew the terrain on the ground with willow branches, and said, "If this is the case, then we might as well gather our forces and stop them in the Huangzhang Valley."
The terrain of the Huangzhang Valley is narrow, and the army cannot be manipulated, as long as we can hold the valley pass, they will not be able to pass. ” Luo Wanquan retorted: "What's the use of that, the Tang people have an army of 160,000, if we defend the Huangzhang Pass, even if they can't come, we will be dragged to death there, there are still Tang soldiers and horses in Danzhou, Zhuojun and other places, if they learn that the reinforcements have arrived, gather soldiers and horses to attack from behind, we will suffer from the enemy on our backs, trapped in the Huangzhang Valley, and we can't escape if we want to." ” He Axiao thought about it, and couldn't help but be deflated, and dropped it with a willow branch and said: "It can't be avoided, and it can't be blocked, so what should I do?"
Sun Wanrong stroked his beard, frowned and pondered for a long time, and suddenly said: "Ah Xiao's idea, I don't think it's necessarily unusable, but it needs to be flexible."
Li Qianzhong knew that Sun Wanrong was resourceful, and hurriedly asked, "What good ideas do you have?"
Sun Wanrong said: "The Tang people have always been arrogant and don't take us seriously, which is called arrogance.
My idea is to use their disdain for us, if we use it well, maybe we can eat all the Tang troops along the way, but if we fail, the people who are the bait will go and there will be no return, so I need people who dare to die all the way."
Sun Wanrong's gaze swept over the leaders one by one, and said coldly: "Who is willing to take on this important task":