diskusbooks Chapter 381: Surrounding the Royal Court and Capturing Tens of Thousands
Chapter 381: Surrounding the Royal Court and Capturing Tens of Thousands
Qiyan Huihe had already made plans. He set out with his elite soldiers and headed northwest, while letting the elderly, weak, women and children in the tribe run to the northeast.
Who would the Yan army chase after? It would definitely be their main force.
What's the point of killing a bunch of old, weak, sick and disabled people? The ones who can kill you are the main young and strong ones.
In fact, Qiyan Huihe knew that women and children were the hope for the continuation of the tribe, otherwise the tens of thousands of men left would not be able to have children.
So he used this strategy.
However, what he didn't know was that more than a month ago, a man named Yu Huatian had already seen through all of this.
And a complete strategy has been formulated.
As Qiyan Huihe thought, they had superb horsemanship, while the enemy's cavalry were wearing armor and could not run fast at all. At most, they could bully the infantry, but could not catch up with their cavalry at all.
After running ten miles, they had opened up a large gap between themselves and those behind them.
They ran northwest, bypassed the tribe, and after running for more than ten miles, the remaining 20,000 troops in the tribe caught up with them.
They ran for dozens of miles in one breath and stopped at a small river. They let the horses eat grass, rest and drink water, and they also took the time to rest.
Only at this time did Qi Yan Huihe have time to count the number of people who had escaped.
This number was so huge that it almost made him cry.
Only more than 20,000 people escaped, plus the 20,000 young and strong people in the tribe, there were only more than 40,000 people.
Due to years of war, the entire grassland tribe suffered a sharp decline in population, especially the young and strong.
These 80,000 young and strong men are the last fighting force.
Qiyan Huihe originally wanted to go south to attack the State of Yan, and seize the territory if possible, and if not, seize supplies, food, and women.
With food and women, these young and strong men can work hard and have more children, dozens of children each. After a dozen years, they will have an army of one million.
By then he will not be old yet and will be able to go south and sweep across the Central Plains.
But ideals are beautiful, and reality is cruel.
The Yan army's artillery ruthlessly shattered his dream.
Qi Yan Huihe had no choice but to run away, fearing that the Yan army would catch up with them. After a short rest, they continued to run.
And their worries were obviously unnecessary.
Because the Yan army didn't chase them at all.
After the Zhennan Army arrived at the tribe, they did not massacre the elderly, the weak, women and children inside. Instead, some of them roamed around and drove back those who wanted to run out to the grassland, while the other part chased those who had already escaped.
They said that those who were riding horses, the elderly, the weak, the women and the children in the tribe were driving cattle and sheep with their families, so how could they be fast?
When the Zhennan Army arrived here, they immediately drove those people towards the tribe, driving them back with both the people and the sheep.
Those who were unwilling to leave or dared to resist were shot to death with arrows.
None of the elderly, weak, women and children escaped; they were all driven back into the tribe.
After more than half an hour, the main force of the Yan army also arrived.
The army quickly surrounded the entire tribe and then advanced steadily forward.
They did not kill too many grassland people, but kept compressing their space, forcing them to move towards the center, and then occupied the surrounding tents and robbed their cattle and sheep.
Until the hundreds of thousands of elderly, weak, women and children were squeezed to the point that the space was almost packed with people, and there was only one square kilometer left for people to stand.
They just started to set up camp.
Assuming that eight people can stand in one square meter, one square kilometer is one million square meters, which can accommodate eight million people.
There were only a few hundred thousand people inside now, which gave them plenty of space; they could even lie down.
Of course, apart from these, there was nothing else. The Yan army simply kept these people in a pen like animals.
No water, no food, no weapons, nothing.
They could only eat the dry food and beef jerky they brought with them, and the water in their canteens.
The Yan army set up camp and stationed two walls.
They first surrounded the elderly, weak, women and children on the grassland, and then built a wall around the village to resist the enemy's cavalry attacks.
The tents left behind by the grassland people provided them with convenience, allowing many soldiers who were too lazy to set up tents to move in directly and eat and drink their food and drink.
When they attacked Kun State, they did not steal anything because that place would become Yan State's territory in the future and they could not steal from their own people.
But when they fought on the grassland, they would leave after the battle. They had no psychological pressure at all. Naturally, they would rob when they should rob and kill when they should kill.
Whether it is the Yan people or the Kun people, they have suffered from these grassland people for a long time.
Those grassland people often went south to raid the valleys. "Raiding the valleys" was just a nice way of saying it, but in reality they were burning, killing and looting.
Wherever they went, they killed all the men and looted all the women, food and supplies.
It doesn’t matter if you have killed them all, you can continue killing in another place after a while.
Then wait a few years, and people will come back to the places where people were slaughtered before, and then they will rob again.
It can be said that both the Yan people and the Kun people hated the grassland people to the core.
Now they are just returning the favor for what the other party has done to them.
The army had set up camp and the general's tent was erected. Shen Changgong, Yu Huatian and others also entered the tent.
“Your Majesty, according to statistics from the battlefield cleanup, we killed over 30,000 enemy soldiers, and our army suffered over 800 casualties.
The enemy casualties were mostly those killed by the Shenji Battalion's artillery and muskets, as well as those who fell and died. A small number were killed by the Zhennan Army and other cavalry."
Yuhuatian reported the battle situation.
Shen Changgong sighed and said,
"The grassland cavalry is still very strong. Under the massive artillery casualties, they can still show such tenacious fighting spirit and kill more than 800 of us. The casualties are quite heavy."
Upon hearing this, Yu Huatian, Zhang Han, Gongsun Wan'er and others couldn't help but twitch their lips.
Listen, is what you say a human being?
The casualty ratio was 800 to over 30,000, which was already a miracle of a complete victory.
You think there are too many deaths?
Zhang Han said,
"Your Majesty, when we were chasing the enemy, we discovered that there were nearly 20,000 cavalrymen in this tribe, rushing towards the northwest. When they arrived here, there was no young and strong man left. I think that the remaining cavalrymen here might have gone to join Wang Khan.
Perhaps tomorrow, when they learn we have surrounded their tribe, they will strike back against us."
Shen Changgong nodded and said expressionlessly,
“I’m not afraid of them coming, I’m just afraid of them not coming.
I'm worried, what if these people are scared by us and don't dare to come?
To surround a point and attack its reinforcements is to ensure that the area being surrounded still has combat capability.
We fought too hard, and these people were no longer surrounded, but directly captured."
Yu Huatian smiled and said,
"Your Highness is worrying too much. If Qiyan Huihe dares not come back to rescue him, then his death will truly come."