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Wu Ban's efficiency did not disappoint Liu Jing. One hour later, he got the exact news from the captured Qiang scouts that the Qiang King Nangong was not in Zhangye City, but went to Heli tribe and the northern part of the Gong to urge troops. He set out seven days ago and has not returned yet.

Liu Jing immediately found these two tribes on the map, located at the foot of Heli Mountain. The pastures of the two tribes are close together, about two miles northwest of Zhangye City. These two tribes are large tribes with tens of thousands of people and are of great importance in Zhangye County.

Liu Jing quickly judged the situation in front of him. Nangong only brought more than a thousand people to these two tribes. If it went very smoothly, he could bring about 20,000 troops. If it didn't go smoothly, his strength would be greatly reduced. Normally, he could come back in four days at most, but he has been walking for seven days now, which means that his trip was not going smoothly.

Liu Jing immediately made a decision and went to Heli Mountain to intercept Nangong. At this time, the Han army had obtained more than 10,000 war horses from various Qiang people who were pro-Han. Liu Jing ordered Wang Ping to ride five thousand infantrymen and follow the 10,000 cavalry to head northwest.

Heli Mountain is a stretching mountain in the northwest to southeast of the Hexi Corridor. At the foot of the mountain is the largest and most abundant pasture on the Hexi Corridor, with a radius of nearly a thousand miles. This pasture was first occupied by the Zhaowu tribe of the Yuezhi people. After the Zhaowu tribe was defeated by the Huns, it moved west to the Fergan Basin in Central Asia and established the Nine Sogdian Kingdoms.

Later, the Qiang people moved here to grazed. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, it was set up as the horse farming garden of the central court and set up a horse prison. The Qiang people also undertake the task of raising horses in the court, and most of the war horses they raised were provided to the court every year.

Currently, there are two major Qiang tribes living on this pasture, one is called Gongbei and the other is called Heli tribe. They occupy the most abundant pasture and naturally become relatively powerful Qiang tribes, each of which has tens of thousands of people.

Before the Han army attacked Hexi, these two tribes also regarded Nangong as the Qiang King, providing four sheep every year, and the army could be recruited at any time. Although the conditions were particularly harsh, due to the powerful strength of the Nangong tribe, the Heli tribe in the northern part of the Gongbei could only swallow their anger and accept Nangong's exploitation.

However, since the Han army defeated the Qiang and Hu cavalry in Wuwei County and annihilated nearly 10,000 people, Hexi was shocked, and the Qiang tribes began to rebel. The northern part of the Gong Dynasty was no exception. Although they did not dare to surrender to the Han army publicly, they had already begun to perfunctory Nangong in their attitude. They delayed the share sheep they should pay, and the army also found various excuses not to go to the recruitment.

However, these two tribes involved 20,000 troops, and they were important to Nangong. He could let other tribes go temporarily, but Nangong refused to let these two tribes go. In order to get 20,000 troops, Nangong personally rushed to Heli Mountain, but the situation was not as good as he wished. Although the two tribes were drinking and meat to entertain Nangong every day, on the key issues of sending troops, the two tribes were ambiguous and refused to send troops.

Nangong had been at the foot of Heli Mountain for seven days. No matter how he persuaded him, the two tribes refused to let go. The Heli army was only willing to send a thousand troops at most, while the northern part of the Palace only had two thousand troops, and together they only had five thousand troops, which was far from the 20,000 troops that Nangong wanted before.

But time could no longer delay him. In desperation, Nangong could only lead the five thousand recruited people and one thousand of his cavalry back to Zhangye City. After the marching, night fell, and Nangong ordered the army to rest.

Just ten miles away, Liu Jing's army had just set up a camp beside a small river.

The stars are shining in the night sky of the grassland, and the stars are hanging in the velvet sky. In the distance is the huge dark figure of Heli Mountain, like a giant dragon sleeping soundly on the vast grassland. In the night, a team of Han army scout cavalry with more than ones is running fast on the grassland. As the general, the captain Wu Ban, he was ordered to go to Heli Mountain to investigate the whereabouts of Nangong.

At this time, they had just left the camp for more than 20 miles and were heading west along a small river originating from Heli Mountain. Wu Ban was the younger brother of Wu Yi, the governor of Hanzhong. He was about ten years old, tall and had excellent martial arts skills. He was the deputy commander of the Eagle Strike Army. Currently, the commander of the Eagle Strike Army, Liu Zheng and another deputy commander Ren Ping were in Guanzhong, while Wu Ban followed Liu Jing as he advanced west. He was appreciated by Liu Jing and many important things were handed over to him. Wu Ban also worked very hard. Originally, he went to Heli Mountain to investigate the enemy situation, and scouts were usually enough, but Wu Ban still insisted on leading his troops to him.

At this moment, a soldier suddenly pointed to the distance and shouted: "General, look!"

Wu Ban slowed down his horse, and he also saw that there was a tent stationed on a grass hill in the distance, covering a large area, with as many large tents as there were obviously not herder tribes, but military camps. Wu Ban was secretly shocked, was this Nangong's army?

Before leaving, the King of Han reminded him that Nangong might have returned to Zhangye City in the past two days and asked him to be extra careful. Unexpectedly, when he encountered the enemy situation, Wu Ban did not dare to be careless and immediately ordered the soldiers to hide in a forest and sent two scouts to investigate.

Soon, the two scouts heard exciting news. The enemy they found was Nangong's army, with about 6,000 people, on their way back to Zhangye City. This information was important, and Wu Ban immediately turned his head and rushed back to the Han army camp.

Liu Jing did not rest in the central army's tent. He stood in front of the Guanlong map for a long time and pondered. Although Guanlong became the territory of the Han Dynasty, in fact, there were not many areas controlled by the imperial court. Except for Guanzhong and Longxi, the rest of the areas were basically in the hands of aliens. Before, he wiped out Yang Qianwan and Song Jian and regained the Longxi and Hehuang areas.

The Nangong is now dealing with the purpose of restoring the control of the Central Plains dynasty over the Hexi Corridor, but it is still far from enough. For example, the Helan Mountains and Hetao area are now under the hands of the Qiang and Hu. In addition, the areas within the Guanzhong, that is, the vast areas north of Guanzhong are under the control of the Qiang and Huns. However, when the Han Dynasty was strong, a large number of Han people were moved to develop Hetao, and the Han Dynasty established more than a dozen counties there. However, with the decline of the court at the end of the Han Dynasty, these lands were re-invested into the hands of nomadic peoples.

But Liu Jing also knew that he had to take it step by step, clearing out Yang Qianwan and Song Jian because they would threaten the crucial Qishan strategic channel, and destroying Nangong because he occupied the Hexi Corridor for a short time, and there were internal differences and interests that had not been solidified. In this case, he would undoubtedly achieve twice the result with half the effort.

As for Heshuo and the land within the pass, it must be planned in the long run, gained a foothold in the north, and then gradually fought, and finally restored the Han Dynasty's rule over the Heshuo region, but now he cannot be too hasty.

While thinking, a soldier outside the tent reported urgently: "Report to Your Highness, General Wu discovered the enemy situation and asked for a visit outside the tent."

Liu Jing was stunned and immediately ordered: "Let him in."

After a moment, Wu Ban strode into the camp and knelt down on one knee to report: "Your Highness, I discovered the Qianghu camp ten miles away, with about 6,000 people, which were the Nangong army."

Liu Jing was overjoyed and immediately shouted: "Tell me my order, and order each general to set off immediately and prepare to attack Qianghu at night."

The 15,000 Han troops quickly mobilized, packed up their armor and turned over their horses. At this time, Liu Jing called Wu Ban and told him: "You can lead the Eagle Strike Army to secretly go, burn the enemy camp, and make the enemy confused."

"After the order", Wu Ban bowed and left in a hurry.

Liu Jing called Wang Ping again and told him: "When the Qianghu chaos is in chaos, most of them will escape to their tribes, but Nangong will definitely escape back to Zhangye City. You can lead 5,000 troops to intercept the southeast. No matter what, you have to stop Nangong, regardless of life or death."

Wang Ping nodded, "I understand, and I will never let Your Highness down."

When Wu Ban and Wang Ping's troops were all deployed one after another, Liu Jing ordered: "Strike"

Ten thousand cavalry lined out of the camp, with thick sheepskin on their horses' hooves silently, and they rushed to the Qiang camp ten away.

...........

As time approached, the Qianghu Camp was extremely quiet, and most people were asleep. Only a team of patrol soldiers patrolled the camp and around. At this time, the Qiang people had not yet entered the wartime state, and the patrols around the camp were only within ten miles.

At this time, several black shadows had quietly touched the surrounding camp. This was the Han army's Eagle Strike Army, led by General Wu Ban, and the outer patrol sentry had been killed by them. They sneaked into the camp from the northwest corner and waited for news outside the camp.

At this moment, a team of five-man sentry came in line. Not far from them, ten cold archers of the Eagle Strike Army were ready. They had a clear division of labor. The two were responsible for solving one person, one shot the first arrow, and the other shot the rest.

The cold archer has replaced the poisonous sniper poison arrow with a poisonous poison. This poison comes from the barbarian tribe. When he sees blood, ten cold archers raise their crossbows and aim at the five sentries. Someone shouts and shoots.

A sound of crossbows sounded, and five crossbow arrows shot at the sentries like lightning, shooting accurately at the people in their throats. Then the five cold arrows shot up also roared. The powerful arrows shot through the hearts of the five people. The five sentries fell to the ground and died without even shouting.
Chapter completed!