Author: Chris Webber

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When he received a letter from the messenger, Hebayong was working hard to wipe off the mud from his boots. A sudden heavy rain turned the road into a sludge, forcing the Tang army to stop advancing.

"Hei Ya Changzhi won a great victory, let me withdraw my troops?" Hebayong put down the letter he had read, and his face showed obvious disappointment.

"Yes!" The messenger smiled happily: "He encountered Tubo people in the valley. The two armies fought each other and our army won a great victory, with more than 700 heads and more than 1,700 people capturing alive, with a great victory!"

"This black-toothed Changzhi-!" Hebayong's sighing was complicated, disappointed, envious, and jealous, but in the end he nodded: "Okay, I'll withdraw, I can't go this way anyway!"

Compared to marching, retreating is even more difficult. The sky is as black as the pine forest on the distant hillside. The late autumn rain is constantly under the cold, and the rain floods the sound of horse hooves and blurs everyone's face.

The Tang army retreated southwest, away from the grass and siege, and followed the road when they came on the barren field. Due to the trampling of people and horses when they came and the watering of rain, the road had completely turned into mudflats, and people slipped from time to time. What's worse was the horses and carriages. These poor beasts almost slipped step by step. Hebayong had to order everyone to dismount and cut off the weeds beside the road and spread them on the road to prevent the carriage and horses from slipping.

In the afternoon of that day, the Tang army finally entered the forest covered with streams. Not long after, dense trees surrounded them, the rain became smaller, the horses became lighter, and the infantry tried their best to keep up with the pace of the chariots and horses. The howlings of wild beasts kept coming from afar, which made people frightened. No one spoke in the ranks. Hebayong turned around from time to time and confirmed that no one had left behind the baggage landed at the tail and no one was chasing him.

"The Tubo people shouldn't catch up with this kind of ghost weather, right?" Hebayong whispered to himself. He was not confident about it. It was indeed rain that made the road slippery and difficult to move, and the cold weather on the plateau even worsened this. But this was war, and the rain also greatly reduced the power of most of the Tang army's crossbows. This was good news for the Tubo people. More importantly, the Tubo people had just lost the battle. If they were a general of the Tubo people, they would definitely seize every opportunity to win a game.

The Tubo general should not invest all his troops. If it were himself, he would gather all the horses, one man, two horses or three horses, and go back to the front of the Tang army, choose a dangerous place, wait for the Tang army to be exhausted, and then launch a raid to resolve the battle in one fell swoop. He heard the garrisons in Songzhou say how the Tubo people would treat the prisoners. It is common to whip and cut off their ears, and there are even more cruel things, such as cutting off one foot, asking him to be a slave to pound rice, or digging out his eyes, locking them in the cellar for a lifetime, pushing the mills, etc. Hebayong secretly made up his mind that if he really reached that step, he would never fall into the hands of the Tubo people and be at the mercy of cruel destiny.

Every time he passed by a place where there might be ambushes hidden, Hebayong carefully sent scouts to search for it, but in the end nothing happened, and in the dark, there was nothing behind the bushes.

When he passed through the woods and arrived at the riverside, Hebayong ordered the soldiers to camp and rest. The rain had gradually stopped, but the weather became colder. Hebayong suspected that the ground would freeze that night. The soldiers set up a pile of bonfires and dried their clothes and crossbows on them. Hebayong walked through the bonfires and tried his best to encourage his soldiers that there was still two days away from Songzhou, and as long as they returned there, everything would be fine.

Hebayong did not rest all night. He wrapped his cloak and leaned against his war horse, his weapons placed within reach. He did not take a nap until dawn. When he was awakened by the neighing sound, he found that it was a dawn-free morning. The sky slowly brightened, but the sun was not visible. The darkness turned gray, and the color hesitantly returned to the world. The fir trees showed dark green colors, and the red birch and red-brown broadleaf almost turned brown. The soldiers fed the horses and ate a cold breakfast, unfermented hard bread and cured meat.

"We may have gone astray, General!" Chen Guoce said, he was the Zhechong Camp in Zhechong Prefecture, Fengzhou, Guannei Road. He has been in Songzhou for almost two years and is quite familiar with the local terrain. This time he served as Hebayong's deputy general and guide.

"Are you sure?" Hebayong's face became increasingly ugly.

"I'm sure!" Chen Guoce had a scar on his left forehead, and his eyebrows were half missing, which looked a little funny: "Look at the mountain in the west. If we were not wrong, that mountain should be on the east side of us!"

"Damn it!" Hebayong looked at the mountain where Chen Guoce pointed for a while, and the impression seemed to be as he said. There was a mountain on the east side of him when he set off. He spat in annoyance: "What should I do now?"

"It is definitely impossible to turn back now. First, it may just happen to run into the pursuit of Tubo people. Second, the soldiers thought they would be able to return to Songzhou in another two days, but now they learned that they had taken the wrong path and had to walk for another one or two more days, and their morale would definitely be bad!"

"You are right! What should I do now?" Hebayong nodded. As the saying goes, one move will lead to decline, and three will be exhausted. The Tang army first sent troops to divide the troops and advance together, attacking the Tubo people, but was ordered to withdraw troops halfway. This was awful. What's worse is that they encountered heavy rain on the way to retreat and took the wrong path. After all these troubles, how could these soldiers still fight?

"We can continue to go south until we reach the Dalu River, then walk west along the river, and then cross the river and then south. Although we need to walk thirty or forty miles more, we can also reach Songzhou! And there is also an advantage to walking like this. Our flanks are next to the Dalu River, and the terrain is flat, so there is no need to worry that the Tubo people are ambushing us in a dangerous place!"

Hebayong looked at Chen Guoce describing the new marching route on the rough map, but he was thinking about the feasibility of the other party's strategy. A few minutes later, he nodded: "Okay, just do what you said! I hope everything goes well!"

After breakfast, the Tang army began to march again and the rain fell again. From beginning to end, except for occasional intervals, we never saw the sun. The temperature was getting lower and lower, and the pale fog passed through the pine forests and surged on the barren fields. In the afternoon of that day, they finally walked out of the forest. There was a river ahead. The Tang soldiers cheered. They had had enough of the woods and the uneven hills. The rivers and plains in front of them gave them a fresh experience. Songzhou City was not far away.

"Is this the Dalu River?" Hebayong asked.

"Yes, this is what the local Qiang and Hu people call this river. In summer, there are many deer in the swamp woods on both sides of the river!" Chen Guoce said.

"That's good, let the soldiers stop and rest for a while and eat something!" Hebayong said, "There is also Darede!" He waved and attracted a solid knight: "Darrede, bring dozens of cavalry around to investigate, and your eyes are brighter, so don't miss the Tubo people!"

"As for the order!" Da Ruide responded, he whistled and rushed out with dozens of cavalry like a gust of wind. Chen Guosui looked at the knights and praised: "Good man, no less than my Guanxi man in the Tang Dynasty! Who is this Da Ruide? Chen is ignorant, why hasn't he heard of this surname?"

"May Captain Chen laughed!" Hebayong said with a smile: "This Dalude was originally a great family of Baekje. After the King of Governor defeated the Baekje rebels, they followed Fuyu Fengzhang to Japan. Later, the King of Governor attacked Japan again. They were desperate and surrendered. This time, the King of Governor came to Songzhou, and they rolled their armor and followed them as the front pawns!"

"No wonder the Baekje clan is so fierce!" Chen Guoce said astonished. Baekje Goguryeo and other countries fought fiercely with the Tang Dynasty for decades. In the end, although the Tang Dynasty conquered it, it still attached great importance to the military nobles in its country. They moved them into the country and organized them into their own troops to obey the orders. Gao Xianzhi, Heichi Changzhi and others were the leaders, and the Tang people did not think it was wrong at that time.

Hebayong and Chen Guoce chatted for a few words, and suddenly heard a sharp sound from afar, which was the sound of whistling. This sound could only represent one meaning at this time - that is, the enemy appeared.

"Hurry, put on the horse in armor!" Hebayong jumped up from the ground and shouted loudly: "Blow the trumpet and order all teams to wear armor to prepare for the battle!"

No matter how surprised the Tang army was, Hebayong's order was passed down. The soldiers took off their armor from the donkey cart and put them on their bows, put them on their strings, and prepared to fight. The more than 700 Baiji Japanese cavalrymen who were traveling with him had the fastest reaction. In a blink of an eye, they were already in two rows in front of the formation, with horse hooves trampling on the river bank, and mud splashing everywhere, causing a burst of curses.

"Captain Heba, Captain Heba!" Da Ruide swept over like the wind, his face full of surprise: "It's a Tubo, a Tubo!"

"I know it's a Tubo!" Hebayong asked anxiously, "How many people do they have?"

"It's not clear yet, but when we found that the Tubo people were drinking horses, and there were at least a thousand horses everywhere on the river beach!"

"Drinking horses?" Hebayong was stunned when he heard this, and immediately understood what Dasude meant: "You mean the Tubo people were not wary at all?"

"Yes, the water and grass by the river are lush, which is a good place to release horses!" Da Sude said: "The subordinates suspected that the Tubo people did not expect that we would take this path. They thought we would follow the old path and wanted to feed the horses here and then intercept our army halfway!"

Hearing this, Hebayong and Chen Guosu exchanged glances, and both saw ecstasy in each other's eyes. As Dalude said, the only possibility that can explain the strange behavior of the Tubo people at the moment is that both sides changed the path at the same time. The Tang people took the wrong path, while the Tubo people deliberately took a detour and intercepted the attack, but they did not expect the two sides to bump into each other. Fortunately, the Tang army discovered the opponent before the Tubo people, and the Tubo people were putting horses on the river beach, without warning.

"Person Chen, I'll leave all the infantry here to you! I think I'll succeed you!" Hebayong turned over and said with a smile: "Soldiers are very fast, and you are the vanguard!"

"As for your order!" Dalude said loudly.

The Tang people's cavalry advanced along the river bank, and their desire for victory burned Hebayong's chest like fire, sweeping away the fatigue. He personally served as the tip of the wings, and the rest were lined up from the wings, with the best horses, the best armor, and the best martial arts in the first row, followed by the second row, the third row, and the fourth row, with about ten steps between the two rows. The big flag with a white background and red edge was dancing above Hebayong's head, and the vermilion bird on the flag was flying in the air. The war horses were running faster and faster, and the weeds and shrubs fell under the horse's hooves. On the river beach ahead, you could clearly see hundreds of horses. The frightened Tubo people were panicking and taking weapons and saddleing their mounts. Some impatient people simply climbed onto the bareback horse and fled to the distance. Some Tubo people simply picked up weapons and formed a formation to fight against the sudden enemy.

"Don't rush to chase the escaped people, don't rush to get the spoils!" Hebayong said loudly: "Defeat the Tubo people first. If you don't listen to the military orders, you will be beheaded!"

The ground was wet and slippery, half mud and half rain. Hebayong's horse hooves slipped, stirring the mud, almost causing him to fall off his saddle before rushing to the enemy team. Fortunately, his riding skills were very good and he twisted his body to maintain balance. The Tubo people tried their best to get closer to each other and used a dense formation to resist the sudden impact. Hebayong bent his bow and shot out two arrows, then raised his knife and shouted: "Wan Sheng!" Everyone responded loudly. The arch-arrow formation flew out, making a long roar of steel, and the rolling horse hooves and sharp sword blades merged into one, rushing towards the enemy formation.

Dasude put a flat spear, and the tip of the spear penetrated the shield and iron armor. The huge force took it off the ground, and the spear rod was immediately broken. He dropped the spear rod, grabbed the bone that was put on his wrist, and slammed it hard on the head of the next opponent. The brain plasma and blood flowed everywhere. The impact of the collision paralyzed his shoulders, but he didn't care and rode his horse forward.

Hebayong's steel knife cut off most of the neck of the resister. He turned his body to avoid a spear. He vaguely heard the cheers coming from behind. The Tubo banner had been forgotten on the mud, and the people who surrounded it either escaped or were chopped down to the ground. Hebayong rode his horse and knocked down a stone caster, chopped off the arm of a spearman from his shoulder to his armpit, and then slammed a fierce attack on an iron helmet, at least a concussion. When he rushed to the river, his war horseman stood up, and Darude followed closely, his body covered in blood, not knowing whether it was the enemy or his own.

"We won, Captain Heba!" Dalude said loudly.

Hebayong took off his helmet and his vision expanded suddenly. The river beach was filled with Tubo people and frightened horses. The Tang army knights had already dispersed their formations, intercepting and capturing prisoners and war horses everywhere. Indeed, victory was undoubtedly his own!

"Yes, we won!" Hebayong replied seriously, and then laughed: "This time it's our turn to win, and it's more enjoyable to win!"
Chapter completed!