Niao Ni
Chapter 717 Settling the Western Liang (Summoning Monthly Tickets!)
The hawk flapped its wings and flew higher, then warily noticed a Qing light cavalry unit silently approaching from the direction of the Shitu Sea Meadow in the northeast. This unit numbered at least four thousand men, moving along the lower edge of the natural undulations of the dunes and meadows, silently advancing deep into the grasslands.
With a strange cry, the hawk seemed to sense the killing intent and terror emanating from the light cavalry. It flew higher into the cold clouds, flying for an unknown length of time before finally breaking through the clouds and swooping low towards a small hill beside a lake.
On this hill were several thousand Xihu grassland warriors, interspersed with some northern warriors who had migrated from the snowy plains to the north. However, it was clear that this group of warriors consisted of those who had struggled to escape from the battle at Red Mouth Pass, their morale was very low, and many of them were wounded.
Chanyu Subida's lips were somewhat parched, but there was no blood on his body. He coldly looked towards Red Mouth Pass in the distance, knowing that the Dingzhou army there was reorganizing and would not be able to catch up in a short time. He also presumed that those Qing soldiers would not dare to venture deep into the grasslands in pursuit.
He glanced at the royal court warriors around him, looking at the wounds on his warriors' bodies, and his eyes turned cold as he thought of the previous great battle at Red Mouth Pass.
Once winter arrived on the grasslands, it was rare to wage war. This was something that both the Xihu and the Qing had grown accustomed to, the main reason being the freezing temperatures and lack of food and supplies, which made it difficult to execute the Hu people's lightning-fast tactics. But this winter, this Chanyu had listened to the advice of a member of Huge's tribe, gathered the most elite knights at his disposal, and launched an offensive against the Xiliang Road, which seemed like an unwise choice, especially given the current bleak situation, which seemed to confirm this.
But who was Chanyu Subida? Thirty years ago, the increasingly declining Chanyu court had produced such a figure. He had been able to survive and grow strong in the cracks between the Left and Right Wise Kings, and had very wisely accepted the barbarian cavalry from the northern ice and snow, broadened his mind, and absorbed Central Plains people into his court tents...
If it weren't for such an era, if there weren't such brilliant figures on the eastern continent, Chanyu Subida would undoubtedly have grown into a wise ruler of the grasslands, a figure who would have inspired awe in all directions.
How could he have made such a low-level mistake? Subida's gaze swept across the hills and landed on the Hu woman riding a horse on the top of the hill, his expression becoming extremely complicated and dejected.
The reason why he chose to risk attacking the Qing's Xiliang Road in the cold winter was due to Chanyu Subida's own way of thinking. He knew that the Southern Qing court was currently in internal strife, that the Emperor and his most favored powerful minister were engaged in a cold war, and that Huge...
The Chanyu's eyes narrowed, looking like an eagle towards Red Mouth Pass in the distance, thinking to himself that Huge, who dared to betray the grasslands and collude with the Overwatch Council, should already be dead. He was truly a foolish man. How many people who dealt with the Overwatch Council could live smoothly?
Over the past year, Huge had risen to prominence on the grasslands. The Chanyu had investigated some rumors about what he was secretly relying on, so he also guessed why Huge would choose to invade the Xiliang Road in such a winter. Chanyu Subida paid close attention to the political rumors in the Qing capital. With a little calculation, he figured out that it must be related to that disgraced Little Fan.
The last time Fan Xian entered the grasslands, he purged most of the spies and eyes that Xiliang Road and the grassland tribes had sent out. The power of the royal court was severely damaged, and in the end, Fan Xian had brazenly escaped with hundreds of Black Riders right under the Chanyu's nose. This fact filled Subida with endless humiliation, especially every time he looked at the Songzhi Xianling. This humiliation was even more unbearable.
This winter, Huge's feigned attack on the Xiliang Road was an opportunity for the Chanyu. After a long conversation with Songzhi Xianling, he rejected the princess's advice to be cautious and wanted to take this opportunity to turn the tables, taking advantage of Fan Xian's desire to use foreign troops to help the Dingzhou Grand General secure his position, to gather the strength of the grasslands and launch an offensive against Xiliang with a decisive momentum!
This was originally a brilliant plan. The Grand General Li Hongcheng in Dingzhou must have received news from Fan Xian and would only think that Huge was feigning an attack. How could he have expected the Chanyu to take advantage of the situation and launch a full-scale offensive, catching them off guard!
Who could have expected that more than 100,000 Qing elite troops would be gathered on either side of Red Mouth Pass!
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This was the most shameless ambush. In this battle, Huge was killed, and the royal court and the Right Wise King's forces suffered heavy casualties. At least 20,000 young and strong grassland warriors lost their lives on the red earth!
Thinking of the pain of that previous battle, the Chanyu's eyes narrowed even more, and his mood became even colder. He spurred his horse and came to Songzhi Xianling's side, saying in a cold voice, "You said that he was just borrowing my grassland troops to help Li Hongcheng stabilize his position."
Haitang Duoduo didn't turn around. Her leather coat trembled in the cold wind. "As a Chanyu, you shouldn't have made such a risky gamble in the first place. I never really believed him... But I think this time it has nothing to do with him. He's just a pitiful chess piece who was calculated to death."
The two of them fell silent at the same time. To be able to clearly calculate Fan Xian's response, the grassland Hu people's strategy of turning the tables, and plan in advance, resulting in the first miserable defeat of the grasslands in thirty years, Qing could only have one such farsighted figure who could see the whole world.
In front of that Qing Emperor, it seemed that all the conspiracies were just the prelude to the killing moves in his chess game.
The hawk finally landed on Subida's coldly outstretched arm. In the freezing weather, the animal had been flying in the cold clouds for a while and was shivering from the cold. The color of its feathers appeared particularly dim.
Subida's pupils shrank, and he said in a deep voice, "There are thousands of light cavalry covering from the northeast..." He said in a cold voice, "The Qing people have plotted greatly this time. I don't know which general it is, but they dare to send strong troops deep into the grasslands after this great battle. In such cold weather, do these Qing people still dare to hope to wipe out the royal court in one fell swoop?"
Although he said that, the Chanyu was also extremely shocked by the strength of the Qing army and the determination to destroy everything that they showed. At this time, although there were still thousands of grassland warriors around the lake, they had just experienced a great battle and were at their peak of fatigue and depression. If they were to face the four thousand light cavalry who had been accumulating momentum head-on, the outcome was already known.
Subida cursed the Qing people's treachery in his heart, not giving himself any chance to rest. But as a king, he didn't dare to let his anger ruin his reason. In the first moment, he had issued a warning to the subordinates below the hillside. Immediately, the royal court warriors around the lake took action, moving extremely quickly, showing no signs of the previous injuries and low morale.
"Are you going with me?" The Chanyu turned his horse's head and looked back at the Hu woman on the hill.
"I'm going to Southern Qing." Haitang Duoduo lowered her head slightly, her eyes never leaving the direction of Red Mouth Pass, her face was serene, but a hint of self-blame and reflection was revealed in her voice.
She could see countless resentful spirits rising from that place, because of Huge's trust in someone, because of her own trust in someone, because of the Chanyu's trust in herself, tens of thousands of grassland warriors had been trapped by the Qing iron cavalry, suffering heavy casualties. Severed limbs and heads were scattered on the ground like rotten wood in a swamp.
Even she couldn't help but feel shaken by this scene of hellish sand, and at that moment, the current master of the Heavenly Path realized that even amidst thousands of troops and horses, one person's strength was actually very small and couldn't change anything.
"I want an explanation. If I can't get one, I have to give you and these dead people an explanation." After saying this, Haitang lightly spurred her horse and turned into a wisp of smoke, galloping down the hill and heading in the opposite direction of the sun.
Fan Xian had Hong Yiqing relay a message to her, and the message had been delivered, but because of the situation between Xiliang and the grasslands, Haitang had been unable to free herself. At this moment, she had to go to the capital.
Chanyu Subida didn't turn back to look at the dust. With a sharp shout, he led the remaining soldiers and generals under his command and headed deep into the grasslands. He believed that as long as he returned to his true homeland, those Qing light cavalrymen who were pouncing over like wolf cubs behind him would no longer pose any threat to him. And in the western grasslands, the seven thousand northern barbarian iron cavalry who only obeyed the Songzhi Xianling princess were still alive, waiting for him.
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Compared to the inexplicable war in the northern part of the continent, the war between the Qing and the Hu people that took place on the Xiliang Road of the Qing had undoubtedly a more profound and important influence on history. The beginning of this war was actually just a series of orders issued by Fan Xian from a small courtyard in the Qing capital that cost more than a hundred taels of silver.
It was because of these orders that Huge led the former subordinates of the Left Wise King and launched a feigned offensive towards the Xiliang Road. But Chanyu Subida, with his hawklike eyes, saw the relationship between Huge and Fan Xian of the Overwatch Council and took advantage of the situation, but unexpectedly all of this was within the expectations of the Dingzhou military.
The great net at Red Mouth Pass didn't know how many Hu people's lives it had reaped. In this battle, the Left Wise King's forces were completely lost, and the royal court and the Right Wise King's forces suffered heavy casualties and lost all their prestige. The various tribes on the grasslands began to stir, and Chanyu Subida's ambition to build a nation, which had initially sprouted under the help of the Songzhi Xianling princess and the Northern Qi Heavenly Path, was shattered. In the decades that followed, the grasslands were in a state of chaos, and there was no chance of unification.
This battle, a great defeat of the Xihu, had a far-reaching impact and was historically known as the Qingzhou Great Victory.
And besides the battle at Red Mouth Pass, there was another extremely important reason for the constant turmoil on the grasslands, and that was the four thousand light cavalrymen discovered by the hawk. A young general planned the entire campaign for the Dingzhou army to ambush the elite Xihu troops, and this general abruptly left the Red Mouth Pass battlefield when the battle broke out. As commander, he led the four thousand light cavalrymen hidden on the eastern side and launched a continuous pursuit of the remnants of the royal court for a full six months.
This pursuit took place in the ice and snow, galloping across the wilderness. Both the pursuers and the escapees lived an extraordinarily brutal life. This pursuit eventually broke Chanyu Subida's courage, and he was unable to contact the seven thousand Northern Barbarian iron cavalry scattered in the distant west.
After passing through winter, spring, wind, snow, and tall grass, this astonishing pursuit lasted a total of five months. When the last remaining strength of the Chanyu royal court finally contacted the last seven thousand iron cavalry that Haitang Duoduo had left on the grasslands, the brave and valiant Qing light cavalry finally withdrew from the grasslands.
During those five months in the grasslands, this light cavalry unit of only four thousand men burned, killed, and plundered all the way, destroying countless Hu tribes. With iron-blooded methods and discipline, they maintained the difficult pursuit in the grasslands. When they returned to Qingzhou City in the spring of the following year, only eight hundred of the four thousand men remained.
This iron cavalry, which completely changed the western situation of the Qing and completely dispelled the grassland Xihu's intention to invade the Central Plains, their commander was actually the commander of the Qingzhou Great Victory. As a senior general who should have been directing the country from within his tent, he bravely took it upon himself to descend a rank and enter the grasslands to pursue the enemy. Besides the Qing Emperor's all-encompassing planning, this young general was the real master. Chanyu Subida was defeated by this man and had no reason to complain.
This young general was named Ye Wan, the eldest son of Ye Zhong, the Right Overseer of the Southern Qing Court of Military Affairs, and the elder brother of Second Royal Consort Ye Ling'er. He was the one who left the Dingzhou army at the age of seventeen and went to the front lines of Southern Zhao, a figure who had been gradually forgotten by the people of the capital and by Fan Xian.
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When Ye Wan was stationed in Qingzhou, directing the battle at Red Mouth Pass and killing the Hu people until they cried out to the heavens, the nominal highest military commander of the Qing's Xiliang Road, Grand General Li Hongcheng, was being held under house arrest in the Grand General's mansion in Dingzhou.
Also in the mansion with him was Gong Dian, who had left his position as commander of the Imperial Guards and come to Dingzhou to take over. Military reports from Qingzhou were continuously delivered to the Grand General's mansion. Gong Dian and Li Hongcheng sat on opposite sides, silently looking at these military reports, without saying a word.
The troops deployed in the battle near Qingzhou were basically the main forces of the Dingzhou army of the Xiliang Road. They were all native border troops. The Ye family had been operating here for decades. Apart from the First Prince's western expedition in the past, which was still able to leave some influence in this area, the Ye family was the emperor of the Dingzhou army. Now that His Majesty had transferred the Ye family's eldest son back to Dingzhou and led these old Dingzhou troops to launch a fierce attack, there was naturally no problem with their cooperation.
And the half of the Southern Zhao border army that made Fan Xian feel uneasy did not pour into Dingzhou City as he had imagined, but only stopped in the northern part of Cangshan, west of the capital, and then selected one group to enter Dingzhou City. The number was not large, but it was enough to control the Grand General's mansion.
The handover of military power in Dingzhou was actually not a handover of soldiers, but only a handover of generals. The Ye family's eldest son entered Dingzhou, and with the cooperation of the Imperial Guards led by Gong Dian and other forces, he easily seized military power from Li Hongcheng's hands.
If everything went as Fan Xian had arranged, if a young general named Ye Wan, who was skilled in the art of war and regarded the Dingzhou army as his own, hadn't suddenly appeared, then when Huge led his troops in a feigned attack, Li Hongcheng could have taken advantage of this opportunity to delay his term of office for another year or six months.
The Grand General's mansion was very quiet. After a long silence, Li Hongcheng said calmly, "I am not as good as Ye Wan in fighting a war."
Gong Dian raised his head, glanced at him, and said after a long while in a hoarse voice, "Ye Wan grew up in the Dingzhou army since he was a child. He practiced martial arts on horseback and handled battles since he was three years old. But he was just a young man full of vigor and resentment that his father suppressed his merits, so he abandoned Dingzhou City and joined Southern Zhao."
"No wonder I rarely heard news of this person in the capital," Li Hongcheng nodded.
Gong Dian sighed and said, "Marshal Ye suppressed his merits back then, also thinking that he was too young, and his military merits were too great, fearing that it would arouse jealousy. After all, the eldest son of Qin, Old Master, died violently in the camp that year."
"Qin Heng is also not as good as him." Li Hongcheng looked at the military report in front of him and shook his head, "Marshal Ye deeply knows the art of harmony and dust, no wonder he was able to hide such an outstanding son for so long."
"My Dingzhou army's lifelong thought is to pacify the Xihu." Gong Dian was also a general from the Dingzhou army. He looked at Li Hongcheng and said, "Loyalty to His Majesty is a matter of course. No matter what the world thinks of my Dingzhou army, we are willing to do anything for the sake of His Majesty and the Qing."
Li Hongcheng smiled bitterly, knowing that this sentence was referring to the fact that Ye Ling'er married the Second Prince that year, and as a result, the Dingzhou army defected in the rebellion in the capital, giving the Second Prince the heaviest blow.
"I don't know what Fan Xian secretly told you, but if this time he is leading foreign bandits to invade, just to protect your position as Grand General..." Gong Dian's eyes narrowed, and he said with great coldness, "I am extremely disdainful of Fan Xian's actions."
Li Hongcheng raised his face and looked at Gong Dian calmly, saying, "What kind of person do you think I am? What kind of person is Fan Xian? Since I dare to let Huge come, I naturally have my means. Even if Ye Wan doesn't come, do you think I will let the Hu people take half a bit of advantage?"
"After all, it is something that has not happened, and there is still room for reversal." Gong Dian said, "But I think that His Majesty must be extremely disappointed in Little Fan..."
He paused, and then said, "After the Heir returns to the capital, please take a message to Little Fan on behalf of this General. This General has always admired him, but this time he is a little disappointed. How can a man born between heaven and earth use the blood of soldiers as a bargaining chip?"
Li Hongcheng took a deep breath, looking at Gong Dian with a smile that was not a smile. After a long silence, he said calmly, "You still don't understand Fan Xian after all. If he were really a character who would achieve success at the expense of ten thousand bones, if he really didn't care about the lives of the Qing soldiers, then this Great Qing... I'm afraid it would have long become a tattered rag full of holes. No matter how talented and ambitious His Majesty is, how can he stop him from tearing this rag apart from the inside? You underestimated his ability, and you underestimated his character."
Gong Dian was silent, but there was a chill in his heart. He didn't know that in front of His Majesty, that Little Fan had already suffered such a great setback. Could he still have any ability to fight back?
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The Battle of Red Mouth Pass, although it was an ambush, was facing tens of thousands of grassland cavalry like wolves and tigers. The Qing court, or more accurately, His Majesty the Qing Emperor, put a lot of effort into it. In addition to stripping Li Hongcheng of his military power, a secret decree gave Ye Wan, the eldest son of the Ye family, the power to command the entire army. As the saying goes, use people without doubt, and doubt people without use. In the end, the Qing Emperor's confidence, or gambling, in the young general achieved a complete victory.
Victory requires a foundation, requires soldiers. In order to defeat the Hu people on the grasslands, all the soldiers in the several major military camps inside and outside Dingzhou City were transferred. The entire Dingzhou army was dispatched, plus one part of Qingzhou, and finally such a victory was achieved. At present, Dingzhou City is maintained by the soldiers personally brought by Gong Dian and a small part of the Southern Zhao border army left by Ye Wan.
Li Hongcheng silently returned to the mansion, staring blankly at the large map in the study, and then said to the retainer who had been with him, "I am going back to the capital soon. I will send you out of Dingzhou. As for how to escape in the future, that depends on your ability."
The retainer was silent for a moment and said, "Ziyue thanks the General for his great kindness." This person was none other than Fan Xian's confidant, Deng Ziyue, who was fully responsible for the affairs of the Fourth Bureau of the Overwatch Council stationed in Xiliang. However, after the upheaval in the capital, Deng Ziyue became a character that the court had to capture. No one had thought that this person would be so bold as to hide in the Grand General's mansion.
"In this Qingzhou Great Victory, in addition to His Majesty's Holy vision and General Ye's divine use of soldiers, the Overwatch Council was also fully activated. Yan Bingyun has been in Dingzhou City, and I think the capital doesn't know about it." Deng Ziyue sighed and said, "Little Fan's plan was completely within His Majesty's calculations. When things came to a head, I couldn't possibly betray the interests of the Great Qing and notify those Hu people... I believe Little Fan and his subordinates should have the same idea."
Li Hongcheng was silent for a moment and said, "I suddenly feel that Gong Dian's words make sense. No matter how much Fan Xian tosses and turns, he is ultimately no match for His Majesty, and he is unwilling to let the people of the Great Qing fall into a miserable situation. Since that's the case, why bother?"
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(Still sick, still sick, still sick... Need monthly tickets, need monthly tickets, need monthly tickets...)