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This is the best time of the year. The flowers on the grassland are colorful and dotted, like a gorgeous green ocean. The spring breeze blows through the green fields, and the air is filled with a sweet smell.

The Lanzhou caravan winds on the business road on the northern foot of the Yinshan Mountains. This road is very easy to identify. The tall Yinshan Mountains in the south are natural signposts. Kang Ketian has walked several times, so the journey is very smooth. Several small caravans have seen the advantage and followed the Lanzhou caravan far away.

In the grassland about a hundred miles away, the shepherd Amur sat on the ground with a frown and gently patted his uneasy mount. Just after early spring, Amur was planning to take good care of the livestock that had been overwintering, but the head man hurriedly summoned all the men in the tribe who could rob the caravans. The Alatanwula tribe where Amur was located belonged to one of the countless nomadic tribes on the northern foot of the Yin Mountains at this time. On weekdays, he fought with other grassland tribes to grab water plants, livestock and slaves, and occasionally rob caravans on the grassland. Most of these battles were initiated by the patriarchs and nobles. The spoils obtained were publicly owned by the tribe, but they were equivalent to the private property of nobles. Ordinary shepherds like Amur worked hard to bleed and delayed their own sheep. The more battles the more they fought, the more poor they became, and many people were forced to sell themselves to the head man as slaves.

"Amur, why are you still sitting? Get up quickly. The eagle of Alatanula is about to take off and pick up a lamb!" Suhe, the son of the head man Agudam, raised his horse whip and shouted happily at him. Amur is a warrior in the clan. He can catch a fast horse when running, and can kill a group of wolves with one archery. Every time he fights, Suhe will ask him to follow him, waiting for the bodyguard who doesn't spend money.

This time a large caravan was about to pass through nearby. I heard that the tea and silk on the cart were piled up like a hill. More than a dozen tribes on the grassland were alarmed, as if vultures smelled the smell of dead bodies. The eagles on the grassland hovered around the flock, but according to the report of the shepherds who were close to observe, the guards of this caravan were very strong. Not only were there hundreds of strong knights, but they also seemed to carry special strong crossbows made by the Han people. It was difficult for any tribe to swallow the caravan alone.

Arslen, the head of the Mandu Latu tribe with the most warriors, suggested that everyone should first defeat the caravan's guards, and then distribute goods and slaves according to the warriors of each tribe to go out to fight. So Suhe brought over more than 200 warriors who pulled the big bow. At this moment, there were thousands of grassland warriors gathered near the Han caravan. Suhe considered more not how to defeat the caravan's guards, but how to win the greatest benefit for his tribe in the competition for spoils. Of course, it was to win the greatest benefit for his family. Ordinary shepherds like Amur would just give him a piece of tea and half a foot of cloth.

If an eagle soars in the sky at this time, it will see that while the warriors of the Altanwula tribe rose up and horses, hundreds of miles away around the center of the Lanzhou caravan, more than a dozen tribes were marching towards the caravan, like the formation of wolves on the grassland ambushing the sheep.

The fast approaching tribal cavalry soon encountered the horses probing around the cruising caravan. Almost a moment later, the Han caravans connected hundreds of carts heads and tails into two circles like frightened poisonous snakes. The caravan's quick reaction made the hearts of Amur, a tribal warrior who had fought many wars, shrouded a layer of dark clouds in his heart. This was not a caravan, Khitan, or Han army, but that's the case.

"Sir, our fat piece of meat has found all the wolves on the grassland. There are many enemies and messy, and maybe they will charge soon." Seeing Kang Ketian's expression tense, Yu Furengui smiled at Xin Gudao. Xin Gu's face was solemn. It was estimated that there were one or two thousand cavalrymen in the surrounding grassland tribes. He replied: "Don't look at the large number of people, the grassland people plundered, and it would be like doing business and would not fight to the death. They would rush forward for a while later. Can't they eat?

If you stay in the trap, you might be in chaos." He was a horse thief and knew something about the robbery of the tribe cavalry. He turned around and said to Feng Bo, the centurion of the Cavalry Camp, and said, "Call your brothers to prepare for horses. When the enemy is weak, go out and fight with me for a while." Kang Ketian saw that Xin Gu and Yu Furengui were all fine, and the soldiers of the Lanzhou army who were accompanying him were also very calm, which was very different from the usual caravan guards panicked when they encountered the robbery of the grassland tribe. He felt a little at ease.

Before the other tribes gathered, Su He, who was anxious, could no longer hold back. Although he had agreed in advance to allocate goods and slaves according to the number of warriors produced by each tribe, as long as the Han chariot formation was first broken, could the things he got still be spit out? Su He was originally dissatisfied with the position of the Mandu Latu tribe as if he was the leader of the alliance during this plunder. Seeing that the nobles leading the tribes in the left and right directions were eager to try, he rode out and shouted loudly: "Warriors, kill them, gold and slaves, everyone has a share." Under his leadership, the other tribes on the left and right also became riots. The warriors on the nearly thousand grasslands were like floods breaking the dam, bent their bows and arrows, and waved various swords to rush towards the circular defense circle of the caravan.

"Damn!" Aers, the leader of Mandu Latu, blurted out, pointing at Su He who was leading the charge with a horse whip, "I want to kill this little wolf cub with my own hands."

"Don't be anxious, the head man, this caravan guard responded quickly, even better than ordinary troops, and seemed to have other information. This group of reckless men attacked without waiting for the gathering of the army, just to try their strength." A man wearing silver iron armor beside Als said in a deep voice. Compared with the tribal warriors around him, he seemed to be a little thin, with a little bump on his face and a short thorny whisker on his lips. If it weren't for the deep gloomy eyes that were really captivating, he would have been almost like that.

The childish young man looks like a young man. But Ars, the leader of the Mandu Latu tribe who had 800 tribe warriors under him, was very respectful to him because he was the nephew of Li Guangrui, the governor of the Dingnan Army who was intimidated in the north. At the age of twelve, Li Jiqian, who was appointed as the commander of the Inner Capital, was appointed as the commander of the Inner Capital. Li Jiqian was only fourteen years old at this time and was known as "a good at riding and shooting, and abide by wisdom." Not only did he have a reputation among the tribes that depended on the Tuoba clan, but he also became a master of the Confucian army for two years and had already become famous among the tribes in the northwest.

"It's just right!" Han Yu, the centurion of the Ya Military Camp, shouted in a deep voice, "Prepare, take two hundred steps." The archer behind him bent his bow, pointing to the direction of the tribe cavalry rushing over, "Align," the hundred famous archers bent their bows and keeping the same angle as the direction of Hou Rui raising the bow. The archers in the Lanzhou army were selected from the army competition, and the salary was comparable to that of the officers. The arrows fired from afar were all taken by the archers, while the other soldiers were aligned with the archers, and the rain of arrows shot was accurate and dense.

"Let it!" The last command was blurted out by Hou Rui. Hundreds of sharp arrows broke out of the air and plunged steadily and fiercely into the most dense group of tribal cavalry that happened to be two hundred steps away. Suddenly, dozens of riders fell off the horse. Just after this round, "Shoot!" This was the order of the archer Cen Peng, "Shoot!" The archer Deng Jun issued the order, "Shoot!" Hou Rui, who had already put the arrows back and took the right shot, shot the second arrow, and Congcong's arrow feathers continued to chase the cavalry to bite the formation.

Seeing that the enemy was constantly falling off the horse, but the enemy's vanguard had already rushed within a hundred steps, Han Yu shouted loudly: "Change the crossbow!" Except for Hou Rui, Cen Peng, and Deng Jun, other soldiers picked up the powerful crossbows that had been placed around them, and in teams, ten people aimed at an enemy cavalry at the same time. Under the command of the centurion, three hundred crossbow machines were divided into three groups to launch them in turn, and powerful crossbow arrows shot the leading enemy cavalry in front of the formation. The sharp archers such as Hou Rui took this opportunity to freely aim at the throat of the enemy cavalry, and fired arrows repeatedly in key areas such as the head. At this time, the enemy was approaching, and the bow was not necessary to be fully pulled. Hou Rui and other archers had already reached an astonishing speed. Chen De sighed when he observed archers training that if ordinary soldiers could reach the level of archers, it would be a waste to develop firearms.

The tribal cavalry kept firing arrows at the caravan's chariot formation on horseback, but the archers were low in firing power and were difficult to aim at the caravan. The crossbowmen of the caravan were all wearing armor and were invisible under the cover of the caravan. Therefore, the rain of arrows against the cavalry only caused very little casualties to the caravan. The only thing they were hoping was to quickly rush into the caravan and use scimitars and iron hooves to pay back the blood debts from the Han people hiding in the shell of turtles.

But in the end, this crossbow shot was really amazing. Seeing that several of the bravest warriors in the tribe were shot down instantly, and even the people and horses were shot like hedgehogs. The tribe warriors who were still grazing on the grassland yesterday were a little overwhelmed. Even Su He, who bent over and hid behind the horse's neck, was secretly shocked. He had seen some worlds and knew that this crossbow arrow was also a forbidden thing among the people in the Central Plains. Ordinary caravans secretly carried at most a dozen pieces to deal with horse thieves.

Who would have thought that robbing the merchant would encounter such a intensive crossbow shooting? He looked back and saw that many warriors from the tribe had secretly beaten horses and ran back. Amur, where was Amur? Suhe looked for his amulet everywhere and saw his back from afar. This dog who was afraid of death! Suhe cursed in his heart, quickly turned his horse's head, and quickly returned to the horse before he rushed to the front, running faster than when he first took the lead in charge.

"What a mob!" Han Yu looked at the enemy's back with some contempt, and had already run fifty steps away, shouting loudly, "Colle the bow." The three hundred archers stopped shooting the retreating enemy according to the order. Behind them, one hundred spearmen and fifty sword and shield soldiers were waiting for the battle, and the enemy's courage was not enough to support them in rushing to the front of the formation. The soldiers were happy to rest for a while.

On the side, the civilians of the caravan had already moved the carriage away in a corridor. Xin Gu, the captain of the cavalry camp, led a hundred cavalry to chase the enemy in the direction of retreat like arrows. Compared with the tribal cavalry with simple armor and various weapons, Xin Gu's cavalry under him were armed with armor. Even the front chest of the horse was covered with iron armor, with cowhide armor on the side abdomen, holding a long spear, and there were horizontal swords and bows hanging beside the saddle. Compared with the tribal cavalry that had just rushed to the enemy's formation, it would be as strong as a tiger entering a flock of sheep.

Since the armor of the Hussars such as Xin Gu were placed on large chariots during marching on weekdays and were only worn during wartime, the heads of each tribe saw a strong armored cavalry rushing out of the caravan, all of which looked like earth. Many tribes had been recruited by Khitan warriors to participate in the battle. They knew that such regular armored cavalry were far superior to the tribe cavalry that gathered in a hurry, and what was terrible was that behind such cavalry, there must be a force behind them. Many leaders were already secretly regretting coming to this muddy water.

"Oh? Are there any armored cavalry? This caravan is becoming more and more interesting." Seeing Ars beside him, Li Jiqian curled his lips and whispered to the guard leader Murong Yao behind him, "Let the iron kite get on the horse, there will be a battle."

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