Chapter 154 Sacrifice with blood

Chapter 154 Sacrifice with blood

If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools.

After you have determined what to do next and have selected a goal, you must of course check to determine your own strength.

Because the initial destination was Bianzhou Military Town, Li Tai's armed forces were mobilized in full force this time, with all 500 troops deployed. Together with the accompanying members' respective entourages, a cavalry team of nearly 600 people was formed.

In the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, when there were thousands of troops at every turn, such an armed force of several hundred people was not very impressive, but it should not be underestimated. Even some counties and counties, including a considerable number of Han and Hu powerful men, could not reach such an armed scale.

Because these are the elites in Li Tai's tribe, they are strong men who can be directly armed and put into battle, and each of them has certain bow and horse skills and combat experience.

Under normal circumstances, such a cavalry team is often allocated multiple or even twice the number of servants and support personnel, which can form a troop size of one, two thousand or even more.

The cavalry team of 600 people can already carry out many conventional and unconventional cavalry formation tactical coordination. When the battlefield environment and tactical coordination are advantageous, it can attack the Hu tribe of tens of thousands of people.

Although Jihu is fierce and difficult to tame, it is impossible for all the people to become soldiers.

The composition of a Jihu tribe is usually divided into leaders and their immediate ethnic groups, elite warriors who occupy dominant positions, farmers, herdsmen, craftsmen and other tribal people, as well as slaves who have no property or personal freedom at all.

The boundary between the latter two is not clear. The tribal people are equivalent to the private property of the leader Qushuai. It is just that the former has been attached for a longer period of time or has special skills, so the situation will be slightly higher than that of being completely consumable.

If there is any difference between the two, it is that the lowest slaves may not even have reproductive rights. Because usually the Jihu tribe needs to control the population at a level that matches the environmental output, otherwise the survival of the entire tribe will be greatly affected.

A Jihu tribe with thousands of people only has a small core of elite armed forces, and may not even have as many people as Li Tai.

The other large vassal populations have very low combat effectiveness and organization, and pose little threat once they start fighting. Even after the battle on the frontal battlefield is over, these populations can be collected and reorganized to increase their own war endurance.

This is also one of the reasons why Li Tai and his subordinates dared to rob the Jihu tribe. As long as they did not encounter real difficulties and were not hindered by heavy logistics, they could run away if they couldn't defeat them.

Because he had already made preparations, Li Tai brought a lot of ordnance with him on this trip.

A bow and a sword are standard equipment, and three bow strings are provided. Each person carries between thirty and fifty arrows. These rations alone are enough to cope with a large-scale field battle.

In addition, there are eighty shields on horseback, thirty collars on both sides of armor, twenty war horse armors, and twenty horse poles. Although the number is not many, if they are armored and armed, they are enough to perform offensive and defensive clutches. tactical coordination.

They did not bring any carriages, horses or other baggage teams with them on this trip. Apart from the one war horse each was allocated, they only had 60 idle horses to replace and carry supplies.

The key to maintaining a relatively considerable amount of ordnance is the carrying capacity freed up by the reduction of supplies. In terms of food supplies, each person carried two compressed grain cakes with them. The space occupied was minimal, but it was enough to sustain consumption back and forth.

I carried hundreds of kilograms of soybean meal and other horse food supplements. It was late autumn and walking along the river, there was no shortage of hay and other horse food feeds in the countryside.

In addition to two large iron pots, five marching felt tents, a sharpening stone, and dozens of kilograms of ointment for maintaining utensils, although the supplies carried are quite a lot, they have not reached the point of affecting mobility.

After making the decision, Li Tai also issued this order to his troops, ordering them to take a good rest, maintain their physical strength, and make slight adjustments to the organization and equipment distribution of the troops.

Li Yantou, Zhu Meng and Li Dao each led a team of 100 people, serving as the left and right wings and the vanguard. Li Tai led the rest of the troops to form the rear line of the central army, and unified the transportation of armor, military rations and other important supplies. The three teams at the front are responsible for surveying the terrain and finding targets, while the Chinese team is responsible for attacking the enemy.

After making this arrangement and allocating troops and supplies, everyone rested early in the temporary camp that night, leaving only a dozen scout posts nearby to keep watch overnight.

Not long after Li Tai fell asleep, he suddenly heard a warning sound coming from outside the tent. He quickly grabbed his knife and put on his clothes and walked out of the felt tent. He looked at the soldiers who came in to report and asked, "What's the matter?"

"There was a sudden fire coming from the north of the east coast..."

Li Tai looked in the direction guided by the soldiers, and sure enough he saw a fire shining in the night on the other side of the river, but he couldn't see a clear source of the fire, so he thought it was not close.

"Is there any strange noise near you?"

After observing for a moment, he asked again. He had just finished planning to attack Jihu, but it would be a bit embarrassing if Jihu took over the camp tonight.

After hearing this, the soldiers shook their heads and said: "Li Canjun has led his men to sneak to the north to investigate. Please wait at the camp."

Hearing that there was nothing strange nearby, Li Tai let out a secret breath and did not disturb the troops who were already asleep. He only held the knife and a few close friends waiting in the camp.

More than half an hour has passed, and although the fire on the other side has not completely disappeared, it has also dimmed a lot.

Li Dao hurried back, frowning and looking a little serious: "My lord, there is a reed marsh a few miles north, where you can see traces of people and horses staying. It is estimated that there should be more than 200 people. There are also traces of people and horses swimming across the river. The traces do not look like official troops, but should be left by the bandits and horses, at most two days ago." Li Tai also frowned when he heard this, pointed to the fainter fire on the opposite bank and said: "If the bandits and soldiers just passed through, then the fire there should be attacking and killing the people in the village." "It should be, It is normal for bandits to rob and prey in the countryside whenever they appear. But we still see few bandits, so we can't tell which bandits they are. "Li Dao nodded after hearing this. Seeing that it was getting darker, he said, "Master, please rest first. It is inconvenient to cross the river tonight. Tomorrow, I will explore first and then cross the river. There are not many defenses nearby, and there are no strong soldiers in the border. These bandits should continue to wander around the border." Li Tai nodded after hearing this, and took another hateful look at the direction that had been submerged in the darkness of the night, and then went back to the tent to sleep. The next morning, the team used a floating bridge and swam across the Luo River at the shallows where the Jihu troops crossed the river before, and entered the scope of Shicheng County from Diaoyin. The so-called counties in this area are just in name only. The nearest military defense zone is still located in Fushi City, dozens of miles away, under the jurisdiction of Shangjun. The Shicheng County in this area was destroyed in the Jihu Rebellion in the seventh year of Datong. Now the county government is located in Fucheng County. Except for the mobilization of manpower and materials to participate in the Yellow River defense, it has basically given up the administrative jurisdiction over its territory.

Therefore, this area is basically equivalent to a governmentless Hu wilderness. Except for some local tyrants who are reluctant to leave their hometowns and are reluctant to move to their hometowns, the rest of the area is almost entirely the activity range of the Jihu.

Li Tai led the rear troops to move forward slowly. As far as the eye can see, there is almost no human wilderness. In terms of landform features alone, Shicheng County is more suitable for farming and grazing than Diaoyin on the west bank of Luoshui.

Although there are also gully and plateau structures, the plateau blocks are much larger than those on the west bank. The wilderness is overgrown with weeds. After frost, the cold wind sucks away the moisture, and the dry yellow falls to the ground.

The Luoshui River bends and runs northwest in this area. The river is turbulent in the spring and summer flood season. Because there is no river bend canal to discharge flood water, the river water often overflows, thus forming a large area of ​​tidal flat depressions. This area has a very resounding name in later generations, called Nanniwan.

This land is a rare area suitable for farming on the northern Shaanxi Plateau, so even though the government offices and the army have all withdrawn, some villagers still can't bear to leave, and even without the protection of the Western Wei regime, they still stay here to live.

If the Western Wei government can organize effectively and strengthen personnel investment, this area definitely has the potential to become a strategic place to control the northern Shaanxi Plateau and balance the Eastern Wei.

However, the Western Wei foundation is too weak, and even the core area of ​​Guanzhong has not been fully digested, and there is really no spare energy to open another line for operation, so that the good water and soil can only become a paradise for the Jiehu to wreak havoc.

Li Tai was still feeling sorry in his heart, and Li Dao, who was exploring the way ahead, had sent back scouts to report the specific location of a villager's wall that was attacked last night.

After receiving the news, Li Tai led the crowd to rush there, and more than ten miles eastward arrived at a wall backed by the tableland and located in the valley.

This wall is cleverly located, facing the valley and opening its door, with a high plateau on its back. Half of the buildings are hollowed out of the plateau and set under the soil, like a cave that has been magnified many times.

If you don't walk into the valley and get close, you will hardly find that there is a settlement here. It shows how cautious the villagers in this area are in order to avoid being exposed to the eyes and ears of the Jihu, but they still can't avoid being killed.

The wall has become scorched earth and ashes at this time. There are still some twisted corpses in the ashes, which shows how cruel the death was at that time.

There are still many traces of knife chopping and arrow chiseling on the earth wall of the wall. It should be that the Jihu team failed to break into the wall after a fierce battle, so they climbed up the plateau and set fire to it, and broke through the wall with fire.

Li Tai rode his horse closer. As the mountain wind blew, a burning stench blew in his face. Looking at the charred corpses and the broken walls remaining in the ashes, his shoulders trembled slightly. He held the hilt of the knife and said in a deep voice: "Don't bury the remaining corpses for now. Cover them with a thin layer of soil. After killing all the bandits, we will offer a blood sacrifice!"