Author: Chris Webber

"Idiot, I'm holding the torch high at night and I'm afraid I can't die!" Akton sneered and put down the corner bow, and the tight bowstrings made a buzzing sound.

Awang grabbed the arrow that penetrated his right chest, and it seemed that a red-hot iron pierced into it. His screams were harsh and terrifying and full of pain. The slaves on the side tried their best to do something to help his master, but they could not do anything. The wound was too deep and no one dared to move the arrow, for fear of killing Awang directly.

"Quick, hurry!" Awang tried his best to control himself: "Where is Danzeng? Hurry, call him here! Let him command on my behalf!"

"Yes, yes, I'll go and find Master Danzeng right away!" The slaves went to find someone in panic. Awang lay down with the help of a slave. The blood loss and pain made him feel exhausted, but his mind was still very clear, and he murmured: "There are not many enemies, otherwise they wouldn't just shoot arrows, but rushed over. First put on armor, half of them control the appendix, and half of them rushed out, driving away these cowards who can only hide from shooting arrows from afar! Don't panic, don't panic..."

For Awang, the unfortunate thing is that the slave found his deputy Danzeng in chaos. He handed over the white yak helmet representing command to Danzeng: "I'm no longer done, I'll leave the rest to you. There shouldn't be many enemies, otherwise I won't just hide in the distance to shoot arrows. You can leave half of the people to guard the prisoners, take the remaining half to drive the thieves away and escort the prisoners back! As for me, just give me some pleasure and bring the ashes back!"

"Awang!" Danzeng couldn't help but burst into tears when he looked at his old friend's pain. He pulled out his short knife, but couldn't do it. Awang reluctantly smiled and said, "Don't do this, like a woman! You should be happy for me to be able to die on the battlefield! Take my ashes back and hand them over to my wife, and ask her to tell the children what kind of person their father is!"

"Yeah!" Dan Zeng saw Awang's face pale and his chest was swelling rapidly. He knew that the other party was in extreme pain. He gritted his teeth, aimed the tip of the knife at Awang's heart, and stabbed it hard. Awang's body twitched violently, and then a relief smile appeared on his face. He let out a long breath and murmured: "I'm here-!"

The grassroots officers of the Tubo people had a lot of combat experience. Even at night, Danzeng accurately judged the direction of the enemy. He lined up his subordinates into a simple arrow formation and rushed towards the enemy. While shouting, he waved his spear, swords and axes, and rushed towards his enemy at all costs, either killing the enemy, or dying at the enemy.

Unfortunately, the enemy they encountered may be the most cunning group of cavalry commanders in Northeast Asia at that time. In addition to teaching personal martial arts such as cavalry shooting and spears, the Dinglin Temple's normal teachers would teach various tactics to selected outstanding students. Especially cavalry tactics, the normal teachers repeatedly reminded the students that an excellent cavalry general is also an excellent hunter. He must learn to hide his subordinates and skillfully use communication tools such as whistles, horns, flags, and whistles on the battlefield, and always hold his subordinates in his hands, sometimes dispersed and sometimes concentrated, luring the enemy to expose the weaknesses of his formation, and then attack them. After winning, they chased them relentlessly until they were eliminated, instead of hitting head-on in a dense spear formation like a fool or exposed to the powerful crossbowman. Compared with spears and bows, the fast four-legged horse's quickest horse is the most powerful weapon of the cavalry.

What Akden did today perfectly meets the requirements of the normal teachers. He first asked his subordinates to attack the Tubo people who were camping with bows and arrows. When he found that the Tubo people rushed out of the camp and rushed towards him, he immediately used a series of rhythmic whistles to direct his subordinates to retreat to both sides, avoiding the sharpness of the Tubo people, and then went around to the back and began to attack. Like most of the soldiers attacked behind him, the Tubo people's first reaction was that they were surrounded.

"Don't panic, don't panic! Use a shield to cover your face. We don't have to be afraid of cowards who can only shoot arrows!" Dan Zeng shouted loudly. He asked his subordinates to form a circular formation with himself as the center. In the darkness, the horse's hooves were like thunder, and arrows kept flying in, and the arrows were screaming. The Tubo people fought back with bows and stone throwers, but they could not see anything in the darkness and didn't know what they could hit. The Tang cavalry in the dark threw the torch into the open space around the Tubo round formation. It was clear that they rushed to a distance of only more than ten steps away from the Tubo people, pulled the horn bows to the ears, and the heavy arrows shot could even penetrate the Tubo people's skin shields, nailing the arms holding the shield to the shield. Whenever a Tubo people rushed out of the circular formation and tried to attack the Tang cavalry, these cavalry retreated into the darkness, and the pursuers would be surrounded and killed soon.

The Tubo people persisted for a long time. They believed that the enemy's cavalry had limited arrows, and they could just hold on until the enemy shot the arrows. But Acton set out with six pack horses, with twelve bags of feather arrows on it. When the Tubo people could no longer bear it, they began to retreat slowly to the camp. At first, they could still maintain the formation of a circular formation, but under the harassment of the Tang army, they could not stand it. Someone began to drop their injured companions and shields and flee to the camp. It was like the first piece of soil collapsed under the dam, and more and more people quickly escaped. In the end, they scattered. Acton's cavalry followed him and easily killed one enemy after another until the remaining enemies fled back to the camp.

"The Tubo people are already scared!" Akden smiled and said, "Everyone retreat and take a break!"

"Why should you retreat? Aren't you afraid of the Tubo people running away?" Tuyanmang Jiebo asked carefully. The other party played and killed the Tubo people who had just destroyed their village like sheep. Unconsciously, her attitude towards Akden had changed a lot, from being dissatisfied to being awe.

"The Tubo people have many wounded people, and there are so many prisoners. We are cavalry again, so they can't escape!" Akden smiled and said, "I'm afraid that they will take advantage of the night and send a few death-death men to attack us at night! Let's have a good rest and we will deal with them tomorrow at noon!"

For the remaining half night, no one in the Tubo camp closed his eyes, and the Tubo soldiers opened their eyes wide open to guard against possible attacks; while the Qiang captives were looking for opportunities to escape with a conflicting mood of fear and hope, knowing that the first ray of light of dawn the next day was coming and dispelling the darkness, they found that the mysterious attackers had long disappeared, leaving only horse hoof prints and corpses all over the ground.

There was only one way in front of Danzeng. He ordered the burning of his body, leaving behind the inability to walk and all the clothes that could be thrown away, and then escorting the prisoners onto the road. He had a gloomy face, looked back from time to time, holding the hilt of the knife, guarding against the mysterious attackers last night.

The Tubo people retreated was not easy. On the way, prisoners kept breaking free from their constraints and fleeing into the weeds on the road. If Danzeng were tortured and executed by his subordinates, he would have ordered his subordinates to pursue them relentlessly and capture them and torture them in front of other prisoners. But this time it was different. He had a premonition in his heart that the attackers would never give up so easily last night, and they would come again.

A sharp whistle sound confirmed Danzeng's guess. He had fought with the Tuyuhun people and knew very well that this was a feather arrow that nomads like to use. At the top of this feather arrow is a hollow wooden block. When the feather arrow is shot out, the air passes through the hole at a high speed, and a special sharp sound will be made. Herders often use it to convey messages. Since there are many Turkic and other ethnic cavalry in the Tang army, the Tang army also often uses it. He looked along the sound and saw a riding shadow in the hill ahead. Obviously, the whistle sound was shot out by the knight.

"The enemy of last night was catching up!"

Every Tubo people in the ranks felt a chill in their vests. Some even stopped and looked behind them, as if there were evil ghosts following behind.

"Don't stop, don't stop!" Dan Zeng shouted loudly, waving a whip above the soldiers' heads. He knew that this would aggravate the soldiers' fear, but he had to do so. The terrain here was flat and there was no way to see a large mound. For the Tubo people who were almost all infantry, it was even worse than last night's situation. Only by finding a high place as soon as possible can we set up a camp to defend.

While the Tubo people were rushing to the road, the sound of whistle and horns kept coming, as if two people were answering each other. The shadows of the cavalry appeared more and more frequently, just like an invisible whip whipping the backs of the Tubo people. Without Danzeng's urging, the Tubo soldiers were also marching as fast as possible. In order to avoid being dragged by the captives, they even threw the prisoners who had been escorted here after great hardships, and finally occupied the hill where the enemy had shot out the enemy before the enemy arrived.

"Everyone, put up the shield and prepare the stone-casting belt. If the thief's cavalry approaches, give them some good looks!" Dan Zeng said loudly.

The Tubo people responded in unison. For these Tubo soldiers, using stone-capping belts is almost a skill that penetrates the bone marrow. When they were young, they used wooden sticks and stone-capping belts with one hand. Whether it was driving cattle and sheep or driving away wolves and other beasts, they were inseparable from it. They were already very mature and flowing. Last night, it was because it was dark and they could only be beaten passively. Now it was clear, so they wanted to avenge their previous shame.

By the time Akden arrived, the Tubo people had formed a circular formation at the top of the hill. Although the mound was not high, about twenty meters above the ground, it was still a commanding height. The remaining Tubo people had seventy or eighty people. If they fought against the water, their morale should not be humiliated.

"Storm up and shoot these Tubo dogs to death!" Tuyanmang Jiebo shouted excitedly. She saw the embarrassment of the Tubo people last night and the just now. Her previous suspicion of Akton had long turned into reverence for the strong.

"They are condescending and use the stone-capping belt. They are rushing over like this to seek death!" Akton saw the power of the stone-capping belt when he was in Dinglin Temple. He knew that although the thing was difficult to use, even if he was wearing armor, his bones and tendons were broken. He looked around and suddenly pointed to the grass not far away: "Who is there? Hurry up and grab them!"

With a whistle, five or six cavalrymen rushed over and rushed back a dozen unkempt men. They were still more than ten steps away from the distance and cheered, jumped off their horses and rushed over, hugging the people, crying and laughing, and dancing. After a while, the Qiang girl came back and said to Akdun: "These are people from my tribe. The Tubo people ran away just now, and they took the opportunity to escape!"

"Oh? It's the best!" Akden looked at the left and right terrain, measured the wind direction, and suddenly smiled and said, "Tuyanmang Jiebo, please gather the people from the same village, listen to my order, and give these Tubo people a little color!"

Danzeng stood on the mound, observing the movements of the enemy. To his surprise, the number of enemies was much smaller than he had imagined, with only about twenty cavalry. He wanted to lead the troops to kill him, but was afraid that this was a trap. While he was hesitating, he saw dozens of prisoners who had escaped had gathered together and cut them up. What were they doing? Was it to feed the horses?

"Master Danzeng, should you fight out and give these Qiang dogs some color?" someone asked.

"Kill out? How do you know this is not a trap?" Dan Zeng sneered.

"There are only twenty riders in total, what's there to be afraid of?"

"What you saw was twenty riders, but didn't see them?" Dan Zeng asked, "When you use your brain, the thing on your neck is not just for food!"

Under Danzeng's scolding, the Tubo people strictly guarded the mound and sent more than a dozen raiders to throw stones at the Qiang people who were mowing the grass. However, the distance was too far and there was only a symbolic threat. After a while, the Tubo people found that the mowing seemed to be no threat to them, so they simply ignored it. After about two hours, the Qiang people cut a lot of grass, and the grass that was first cut was dried under the scorching sun on the plateau.

"Akton, why do you want us to cut so much grass? Do you feed the horses?" asked Tuyanmang Jiebo.

"No!" Akton shook his head: "Have you ever taken wild honey?"

"Wild honey? What does it mean?" Tuyanmang Jiebo asked in confusion.

"There are many wild bees in the forest in my hometown. Not only are there honey in the beehive, but there are also many bee pupas. They are very delicious and grilled with oil on fire, not to mention how fragrant it is. However, wild bees are also very poisonous. They will swollen if they are stinged. If they are stinged seven or eight, even a middle-aged man may die! So you have to find a way to eat wild honey!"

Tu Yanmang Jiebo was confused and said: "What does this wild honey have to do with mowing grass?"

"Hahaha!" Akton laughed: "You will know later!"

Danzeng was napping on the mound. He hadn't closed his eyes since last night. Even a man who was so stubborn could not hold on now.
Chapter completed!