Chapter 654 Internal strife
Behind the face-covering iron armor, there are eyes shining with cold light. Everyone is extremely tall and marching in a unified pace, slowly and unstoppably pressing towards the enemy formation.
Although there were only a thousand people, the momentum generated by these one thousand people overwhelmed the Qiang Hu who rushed up in a swarm on the opposite side.
Feng Yong has stood up and is ready to go down the mountain and return to camp.
The fighting with each other for most of the day seemed very cruel and stalemate, but after the Mo Dao team was dispatched, the fighting in front suddenly became like a child's game.
The extremely sharp Mo Dao, tight formation, and strict discipline made it extremely easy for them to face stragglers like the Qiang and Hu.
At first, there were still rebel Qiang who dared to charge forward. After the Mo Dao team split one team after another of people and horses into countless pieces, the Qiang and Hu on the opposite side finally collapsed.
This is simply not something they can resist.
These people are simply evil ghosts sent down from the ground to the human world by the King of Ghosts.
No matter what was in front of them, whether it was swords, guns, sticks, human bodies or horses, the result was the same.
The most common movements on their hands are: chopping and stabbing.
Wherever they passed, no one survived, no matter whether they were humans or horses, leaving only scraps of meat on the ground.
The first to collapse were the Qianghu who were fighting head-on with the Mo Dao team. They turned their horses' heads and desperately tried to escape from these monster-like evil spirits in front of them. They were unwilling to stop even if they trampled on their own friendly troops.
They disrupted their formation and led everyone to flee backwards.
Liu Hun led the Qiang and Hu servants who had rested and began to pursue in two directions, trying to intercept the scattered enemies as much as possible.
Feng Yong stood on the mountain, pointed at the chaotic battlefield below and asked Huo Yi, "Do you see anything?"
“The Mo Dao team is very powerful.”
Huo Yi answered honestly.
Hearing this, Feng Yong glanced sideways and said, "Of course I know that Modao Team is very powerful. Apart from Modao Team, don't you see anything else?"
Huo Yi looked at Qiang Hu who had fled in a hurry, and then looked at Feng Yong. His face was slightly hot, and he was a little confused, "The last general really doesn't know."
Feng Yong sighed and said, "We have been fighting for almost a day today. Whether it is the rebel Qiang Hu or the loyal Qiang Hu, even though they suffered heavy casualties, they did not flinch, which is enough to prove their bravery."
“It’s just that they are too chaotic, fighting on their own, with insufficient weapons and unrepaired armor, so they are no match for the Han army.”
The Qianghu of Liangzhou and Longyou have a high level of fighting ability, and are tough and tenacious by nature. Otherwise, they would not have forced the Eastern Han Dynasty to almost give up on Liangzhou several times.
Just because they did not have a unified command and were backward in terms of productivity and social civilization structure, they were always crushed by the Han army.
"If you can take them into your own hands, train their minds, train their military appearance, eliminate their laxity, and cleanse their ignorance, it is impossible to form a strong army."
It doesn't matter if you are stupid, as long as you are tenacious and tenacious enough, you will be a good soldier.
The key is how to get rid of their laxity.
Feng Yong has enough experience in this area.
Under the protection of the tribe, Feng Yong came down from the hillside that was used as a temporary observation headquarters. Wherever he went, everyone from Qiang and Hu people gave way.
Before this, Qiang and Hu only thought that Feng Langjun was a very good person and very approachable to them.
But ever since they saw the Mo Dao team's battle, there was a layer of awe in their eyes.
That forest of knives left a very deep impression on them.
They tried their best and fought for a whole day, but they couldn't defeat the Mo Dao team for more than half an hour.
But for Feng Yong, who had experienced the baptism of the Northern Expedition, this battle was not a big scene at all.
There were three thousand rebel Qiang and Hu troops. On our side, apart from the five hundred Han troops holding the line, the five hundred Han troops guarding the hillside, and the last thousand Modao troops who came on stage.
In fact, only 2,000 surrendered Qianghu continued to fight.
Feng Yong sent the remaining Qiang and Hu tribes out to collect information about the rebellious Qiang and Hu tribes in Hanyang County, or to persuade the wavering centrists.
Compared to most of the Longyou wealthy tribes, Feng Yong is now more willing to believe in the surrendered Qianghu tribes who are waiting for him to receive rations.
But for Hanyang County, this was the largest Qiang rebellion in the past few years.
Because the Qiang guard captain led the army to patrol Longyou, the rebellious Qiang and Hu in Hanyang County had to unite and want to defend against the danger and fight against the army.
"General, the interrogation has come out. This group of rebel Qiang is led by a Qushuai named Yego'er. He is a leader of a large tribe. Now he has united with other tribes, so he has such a large scale."
Zhang Yi quickly reported the news he got from the prisoners.
Feng Yong nodded. This news was expected. The information obtained by the Qiang and Hu sent out can be corroborated with it. It seems to be true.
“Does anyone know where the activities of Yego’er’s tribe are?”
Feng Yong asked.
“Just around Qingshui.”
"This place is not far from Qingshui. It seems that it is indeed this Yemoer."
This time Feng Yong set out from Jicheng, and the route he took was to go east along the Wei River, pass through Shanggui, reach the west of Linwei, and then turn north.
This route can more easily drive the rebellious Qiang and Hus to the north step by step.
The army was blocked by the Qiang and Hus between Linwei County and Qingshui County.
Obviously, the Qianghu in Hanyang County planned to take advantage of the complex mountainous conditions in the remaining mountains of Longshan Mountain and defend themselves according to danger.
This is in line with their usual style.
For hundreds of years, the Qiang and Hu rebels in Longyou basically did this.
If you can beat them, loot the city. If you can't beat them, run into the mountains and hide.
If Han officials are easy to talk, then they have to push their limits. If they are not easy to talk, then they should resist first.
Resistance is instinct anyway. If you resist, you may not die, right?
Haven’t this been the way it has been for hundreds of years?
Before the sun set, Liu Hun, who went to chase the defeated army, also came back.
"General, the defeated Qiang Hu ran into the mountains. There is a valley there, which I heard people say is called Catching Fox Valley. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack. The general did not dare to enter easily, so he came back to report to the general."
Liu Hun, covered in blood, stood there as if he had just crawled out of a pool of blood.
"Okay, let's go down and rest first." Feng Yong nodded, "Go to Fox Catching Valley tomorrow."
The main purpose of this inspection of Longyou is to quell the Qiang rebellion. This is Feng Yong's job, so he cannot let the rebellious Qiang escape so easily.
The next day, he personally led his army to the entrance of the Fox Catching Valley and saw that the Qiang and Hu had already sent people to guard the dangerous places in the valley.
“Does anyone know the specific topography of this valley?”
Feng Yong asked, holding a riding whip and pointing to the valley ahead.
All the generals around him are ignorant.
"I remember that the Qiang Huli captured yesterday said there were members of the Yego'er tribe? Ask them clearly."
Zhang Yi agreed, turned around and went down to interrogate him personally.
Feng Yong also asked people to find the local indigenous people and the Qiang Hu who were familiar with the area in the army.
By gathering intelligence from all parties, the terrain of Foxcatching Valley was quickly figured out.
The entrance to the valley where Feng Yong led the army was located, which was the south entrance of the Fox Catching Valley, and the north entrance was in Qingshui County.
If you take the official road directly to the north from here, you can reach Qingshui City in only thirty miles.
But if you enter from this valley, you have to walk nearly two hundred miles of mountain roads, which can be regarded as a difficult mountain and a deep valley.
And in the valley, you can also climb up Longshan Mountain from the east.
It can be said that you can advance to attack, and you can retreat to defend.
In order to eliminate the rebel Qiang in one fell swoop, Feng Yong first sent Liu Hun to lead people around Qingshui County to block the entrance to the north. At the same time, he went to the valley in person to observe the surrounding terrain.
The Qiang Hu guarding the valley seemed to be very confident. Seeing that Feng Yong and his party were heavily protected, they dared to rush out on horseback, stood at a distance, and shot a wave of arrows in this direction.
Although the arrow feathers only fell far ahead, this approach was obviously a provocation.
After returning to the camp, he pointed to the valley and said to the generals, "In this valley, the east is higher than the west, so the east mountain is obviously more important than the west mountain. The Hu people also knew this, so they sent more garrison troops to the east mountain than to the west." "
"Jufu, you lead five hundred Nan sergeants tonight, quietly go up Dongshan, try to get as close as possible to the Qiang and Hu defenders, occupy the good terrain, set up camps, penetrate the trenches, and build fortifications."
Jufu quickly clasped his fists and said, "No!"
Zheng Nan, a soldier from the same background as Wudang Feijun, walked as fast as he could on the mountain road.
Although the Qiang and Hu currently appear to be acting together, they actually have separate affiliations, and their orders are inconsistent. This is a loophole that can be exploited.
“Huo Yi, I have also sent you five hundred men over to Xishan Mountain. Can you take them down?”
Feng Yong asked Huo Yi again.
“The general will definitely live up to his mission!”
Huo Yi quickly stood up and responded.
Five hundred people are not many, but for Huo Yi, who is determined to follow his father's example, this is already a great surprise.
After all, this is the first time he has seriously led an army alone.
"Okay, I will wait for your good news tomorrow. As long as I can climb the mountains on both sides, the victory will be determined."
Although the valley caused some trouble to Feng Yong, he didn't care.
At worst, I will block you in this valley for two months.
When the weather gets colder, if half of the people in the valley survive, I will lose!
The cold winter is the biggest enemy of the nomads. There are white disasters, insufficient food, no things to keep out the cold, etc. Even in a normal year, which year does not kill people?
What's more, they also experienced a severe drought this time and did not have enough time to prepare food.
Escape to the valley and be able to produce food out of thin air?
It was night. Jufu and Huo Yi each led five hundred men and went up the mountain with their coins in hand.
In the early morning, the Qiang people discovered the Han army building a camp and quickly sent troops to attack.
Ju Fu Huo Yi has the advantage in crossbows and arrows, and he can guard the camp without moving.
The Qiang people found that they could not break the camp of the two men, and wanted to block the water channels on the mountains on both sides.
Feng Yong, who was guarding outside the entrance of the valley, saw this situation and directly sent Zhang Yi and Mo Dao team up the water to attack the Qiang Hu who were preparing to cut off the water channel.
When the Qiang people saw the bright forest of knives, they rushed back to the valley before fighting. Hundreds of them fell directly into the water.
Feng Yong then drove his servant troops to press forward, and at the same time he sent troops from the east and west mountains to attack. Under the three-way attack, the Qiang people guarding the entrance of the valley fought independently and could not organize a unified resistance.
In the end, the Modao team attacked again and defeated the Qiang and Hu defenders head-on, forcing them to flee into the valley.
Feng Yong led the army slowly into the valley. The Qiang and Hu still tried to defend various dangerous points in the valley. However, in front of Zhang Yi, Jufu and Huo Yi, the stubborn resistance of the rebel Qiang was meaningless and was defeated at every turn.
So Feng Yong led his men and chased deep into the valley.
In the deepest part of the valley, there is a wide flat land where countless tents are erected and countless cattle, horses, sheep and mules are gathered here.
From a distance, it looks like a peaceful place independent of the troubled times.
But in fact, this originally peaceful land is now filled with anxiety and panic.
The usual laughter is gone.
The woman was counting her cattle and sheep over and over again, and counting all the felt items in the tent.
Those things that are not commonly used have been tied tightly with straw ropes and can be picked up and left at any time.
The strong men of the clan were sharpening their weapons carefully, or taking out their bone bows and arrows to count them clearly. Sometimes they looked to the south in confusion: I heard that the Han people had led a large army into the valley.
The largest tent in the middle was suddenly opened, and a tall Qiang man walked out of it with a gloomy face, and walked towards his tribe without looking back.
Behind him, more than ten people walked out one after another, all leaders of various tribes in the valley.
There was no smile on anyone's face.
Qu Shuai, the Qiang man who left first, returned to his tribe, beat several sheep slaves to vent his anger, and then issued an order: All tribesmen should pack up and leave here immediately early tomorrow morning and hide in the mountains to the east. .
After hearing this, the woman quickly gathered the cattle and sheep, and at the same time packed up everything in the tent and put it on the horse.
When the man heard that he was going east, he couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He silently put away his weapons and got up to help clean up the camp.
“Zhi Shi Gu, do you really want to leave like this?”
When night fell, someone quietly found Qu Shuai, a Qiang man who was about to leave with his tribe, and asked.
"Mr. Bai Jun, you have also seen that Ye Mo'er still wants us to fight the Han people. If I don't leave, I'm afraid that all the warriors in my clan will die here."
Zhi Shigu said with anger still lingering.
“But even if you escape to the mountains, how many people in your tribe can survive this winter?”
“Even if you can’t survive, it’s better than waiting to die here.”
Zhi Shigu said with a frown.
"Alas, we don't have enough food to eat this year. The reason why we listened to that Ye Mo'er is to find enough food to survive this winter."
The visitor let out a long sigh, with the same frown on his face.
"I didn't expect that not only the food was not found, but also many warriors in the clan died, and they were even forced to this point. If I had known better, it would be better to join the Han people from the beginning!"
To seek refuge with the Han people?
Zhi Shigu’s expression changed and he glanced at the other party.
“I heard that the Han people in the south are very kind to us Qiang people. Have you ever heard of that Feng Langjun...”
The visitor didn't seem to notice the stone bone healer's expression, and was still talking about the gossip he had heard, both true and false.
Some of them have been vaguely heard before, and some have become popular recently.
To be honest, everyone in the valley now feels a little regretful.
If you have no food to eat, you will rebel. If you can no longer rebel, then go and seek refuge with the Han people. The Han people will make arrangements for themselves. Then you will rebel again next time when you don’t have enough to eat and you really can’t stand it anymore.
In the past many years, everyone has been doing this over and over again.
It is only in the past few years that things have become more stable.
Because a god-like official appeared among the Han people. Not only could he know the situation among their people beforehand, but he could also deal with them fairly and treat them as kindly as possible.
So Ye Mo'er said that he would avenge Guo Governor, and everyone agreed.
The worst thing is that in the end, we will end up like before, with the whole family relying on one another.
I think the Han people who just took over Longyou will not do anything to them. The most they can do is move them to another place.
Unexpectedly, the development of things was beyond everyone's expectations.
The Han people responded very strongly, and even after the drought, they still had the ability to send troops immediately.
What is even more unexpected is that the Qiang people in the west did not rebel during the severe drought in Longyou? They even completely surrendered to the Han people and raised their swords against them who were of the same race.
What about the agreement we made together? The tacit understanding that has existed for so many years is just gone?
“It’s true that Governor Guo can treat us fairly, but I heard that Feng Langjun is better. He has been taught by the mountain god, so the tribes in Tianshui are willing to obey him..."
“But we have already turned against you…”
"We were just deceived by Ye Mo'er. Feng Langjun is broad-minded and won't blame us."
At this moment, all kinds of gossip came together, and these barbarians who had reached the last moment couldn't help but force themselves to imagine a country bumpkin with a glorious image in their hearts.
Ah, no, it’s Feng Langjun.
Because this can anesthetize yourself and give you the feeling of grasping at the last life-saving straw.
“Then what do we do now?”
“Ye Mo’er still insists on going his own way…”
…
It was night, and the sound of killings was loud in the valley. The rebellious Qiang and Hu suddenly broke into internal strife, and blood flowed into rivers.
(End of this chapter)