Chapter 51: The Bugle of Hexi Cavalry

Soon, the troops of Hexi Fortress began to assemble!

After annexing the populations of Sanhe Fortress and Hou Village, the strength of Hexi Fortress had increased significantly.

Coupled with the return of some able-bodied men from Li Erjiang’s group…

Hexi Fortress now had nearly six hundred men capable of mounting horses and fighting.

And this time, Li Xiao prepared to lead four hundred men to Ta Village.

Leaving the Old Master to guard the home with two hundred combatants and many other old, weak, women, and children, to prevent being lured away from their base.

At the same time, Li Xiao also sent people to notify Gushan Fortress and Hedong Fortress to head to Ta Village early tomorrow morning.

Upon the arrival of the Eastern Capital Army, Li Xiao had to gather more troops.

Not just to relieve the crisis of Ta Village.

But also to flex muscles at the Khitans, competing for status and initiative.

If the generals of the Eastern Capital Army were smart, they would absolutely not provoke the Han force for no reason before dealing with the Karluks.

But conversely, if the Han muscles weren’t hard enough, they would be despised by the Khitans.

They would indulge other tribes in looting Han fortresses to stimulate the enthusiasm of these nomadic tribes.

In short, whoever was stronger and had greater utility value would have a higher status in the eyes of the Khitans.

“Everyone, three horses per person, check your weapons, fill your quivers.”

“Each person bring three torches!”

On the grassland outside Hexi Fortress, Li Xiao, wearing leather armor, shouted loudly to everyone.

Beside him were two more horses, one carrying Li Xiao’s heavy armor, the other carrying jerky and ten days’ rations, as well as weapons like the horse lance and arrows.

Others were similar, all wearing leather armor; weapons were stowed away when not in combat.

“Set off!”

With Li Xiao’s order, four hundred cavalrymen galloped rapidly toward Ta Village against the light of the setting sun.

Before them, Li Xiao had already sent out scout cavalry to reconnoiter the enemy situation ten li in advance.

Ta Village!

With the killing of his son, Nierdu had also gone completely mad.

Sending out all his troops, determined to breach Ta Village at all costs.

“Chief Nierdu, you are simply crazy!”

“Your tribe has already lost many people; what you should do now is stop the attack immediately.”

Outside Ta Village, five hundred troops of the Čarlan tribe attacked desperately.

Unfortunately, blocked by moats and battlements, their warhorses found it hard to rush over.

Eventually, they could only leave more and more corpses outside the moat.

Behind these Čarlan cavalry, Nierdu looked ahead with a solemn and gloomy gaze.

Not caring at all about the words of the Khitan beside him.

“A blood debt must be paid in blood. The Han people killed my son; they must pay with their blood,” Nierdu said in a cold and fierce voice.

There was still a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.

Obviously, the death of his most favored son made him very angry.

“As you can see, this Han tribe is not as weak as we imagined; their resistance is very resolute.”

“If you don’t want the warriors of the Čarlan tribe to be wiped out in front of that moat, then you should calm down, Nierdu!”

A thin, short Khitan, with only two long locks of hair at his temples, shouted angrily at Nierdu.

He was a person from the Eastern Capital Regency, named Kuotu!

Because he was fluent in the language of the Čarlan tribe, he was sent to the Čarlan tribe as a supervising army official, lest these Čarlan people disobey orders or slack off.

Previously, when the Čarlan tribe wanted to capture this Han tribe, Kuotu didn’t mind.

Just robbing some cattle, sheep, and women, killing some Han people; as long as the Čarlan people showed such enthusiasm when attacking the Karluks, it was worth it.

But unexpectedly, this Han tribe was so tenacious. Fighting until now, both sides had suffered considerable losses.

Only then did Kuotu become anxious.

If the Han people were weak, it was called ‘rewarding the troops’; if the Han people were strong, it became fratricide.

After all, the enemy of the Eastern Capital Army was the Karluks.

If the Čarlan people suffered heavy casualties, how could they fight the Karluks?

“Say no more. I won’t rest until I take down this Han tribe today,” Nierdu raised his hand and said.

Just some tribesmen dying; as long as the backbone of the Čarlan tribe wasn’t hurt, he could capture slaves from other tribes after returning.

When those slaves became obedient and established merits, they would naturally become members of the Čarlan tribe.

“You…” Kuotu looked at Nierdu angrily but was helpless.

He could only say angrily: “I will report all this to Lord Xiao Simo.”

After speaking, he left angrily and sent someone to make a petty report.

Although Nierdu usually bribed him with quite a bit of gold and silver, this matter really wasn’t easy to conceal.

…

The sky grew darker and darker; the sun had slowly set, and the last ray of light quietly disappeared from the earth.

At this time, the cavalry of Hexi Fortress was less than five li away from Ta Village.

The speed was somewhat slow, mainly because Li Xiao was too careful.

“It seems the brains of these nomadic peoples aren’t that sharp,” Li Xiao shook his head softly while riding.

He thought there would be ambushes on the road, but unexpectedly, the brains of these nomadic peoples were all one-track minds.

But being cautious was always a good thing.

Li Xiao turned to look around. It was completely dark; nothing could be seen clearly beyond a few dozen meters.

But the sounds of killing from Ta Village could be vaguely heard.

The battle was fierce.

While the scout cavalry hadn’t returned yet, Li Xiao ordered everyone: “Everyone, prepare for battle.”

At this time, the four hundred cavalrymen of Hexi Fortress silently gripped their spears, making final preparations.

Li Xiao and the other fifteen heavy cavalrymen began to put on armor with the help of their companions.

Soon, three scout cavalry returned and reported the situation of Ta Village to Li Xiao.

“Most of the enemies are west of Ta Village, numbering about three to four hundred.”

“Within ten li around, there are no other large groups of troops!”

Li Xiao put on his heavy armor, turned to look at Zhao Dabao, and said: “It seems this is the vanguard of the Eastern Capital.”

“Daring to besiege Ta Village with four hundred people, do they really think there are no men in our Jin Prefecture Han families?”

“Da Long, let’s fight!”

Zhao Dabao held a spear and said aggressively: “These damn guys, don’t let a single one escape.”

Li Xiao nodded, the expression on his face becoming more indifferent.

This cavalry from the Eastern Capital must be severely damaged; otherwise, the Han people of Jin Prefecture would only become fat meat in the eyes of the Eastern Capital Army.

Summoning some core members of Hexi Fortress, he ordered: “Sixth Uncle, take one hundred men and circle to the rear of the enemy.”

“Dazhuang, take one hundred men to intercept south of Ta Village.”

“The remaining two hundred men, I will lead personally for a frontal attack.”

“Yes!”

The crowd began to move. Four hundred Hexi cavalry split into three parts, moving rapidly toward the direction of Ta Village.

…

Although it was dark, the intensity of the battle at Ta Village hadn’t weakened at all.

The Čarlan people were still attacking fiercely. They even took advantage of the darkness to sneak into other places with weak defenses, attempting to cross the moats and battlements to rush into the village.

But fortunately, Zhao Tiezhu was experienced and tenaciously blocked the Čarlan people outside.

“Little bastards, hold on; people from the other three fortresses will arrive soon.”

“Behind you are your women and daughters. If you don’t want them ravaged by the enemy, hold on tightly for me,” Zhao Tiezhu shouted loudly from his horse, as he couldn’t move easily.

A pair of cloudy eyes scanned the surroundings, sharp as wolf eyes in this darkness.

Suddenly drawing his bow and nocking an arrow, he shot straight out.

In the next second, a scream rang out in the darkness. A Čarlan who rushed into the village was shot off his horse as soon as he showed his head.

At the other end of the village, a Čarlan slave wearing leather armor was waving a curved saber, commanding other slaves to work.

“Quick, quick, quick!”

“Fill this ditch for me!”

The slave shouted loudly: “Master has ordered, whoever rushes into the village first will be exempted from slave status and rewarded with ten sheep.”

“Charge for me!”

Hearing this, some slaves worked even more vigorously.

Pushing a cart full of stones and soil, braving the arrows of Ta Village, they pushed toward the moat.

They wanted to fill this section of the moat to facilitate more people and horses rushing into the village simultaneously.

Although many slaves were shot dead by arrows in this process, as the moat became shallower and shallower, these slaves also got excited.

Becoming a free herdsman with small assets was their dream.

Now, they finally saw the possibility of realizing their dream.

“Charge in for me!”

Seeing the moat about to be filled, the slave wearing leather armor couldn’t suppress his excitement and shouted loudly.

Those who didn’t know would think he was a noble of the Čarlan tribe.

But in fact, he was just a slave.

But among slaves, there were also distinctions of high and low status.

It mainly depended on whose slave one was.

Just like the bondservants of the Qing Dynasty, some had higher status and treatment than ordinary bannermen.

This leather-armored slave was the same. As Nierdu’s private slave, his status was even higher than ordinary minor Čarlan nobles.

He enjoyed this status, so he was loyal to Nierdu.

Fighting wars, he also put in the most effort.

But just when these Čarlan slaves were preparing to cross the moat and start a large-scale charge again…

Nierdu suddenly issued an order to retreat!

“What’s wrong?”

“What happened, why retreat?”

These Čarlan people were confused. Seeing they were about to attack into the Han village, why retreat?

But little did they know, Nierdu also had unspeakable bitterness.

The scout cavalry he sent to reconnoiter the surroundings reported news that made him angry.

Han reinforcements had arrived!

“How many people?”

“It’s too dark to see clearly, but judging from the sound, the number is definitely not less than us,” the scout said with a terrified face.

Originally there were three of them, but just as they were preparing to further investigate the enemy’s number, they were discovered by the enemy.

Then his two companions were shot successively by an Eagle Shooter among the enemies, and even he himself almost didn’t make it back.

Too terrifying!

“Damn it, retreat!” Nierdu was very unwilling, but could only leave as soon as possible.

On the other side, Li Xiao watched helplessly as an enemy scout escaped, shaking his head helplessly.

He originally wanted to launch a surprise attack while the Čarlan people were unprepared, but obviously, the Čarlan people were not pushovers either and had long been on guard.

The situation on the battlefield changed rapidly; how could everything go as wished?

But it didn’t matter. Matters having come to this point, so what if the Čarlan people discovered them?

Wearing fish-scale armor, swinging the horse lance in his hand toward the direction of the Čarlan people.

Li Xiao shouted loudly: “Light all torches!”

“Attack!”