Han Khan

Chapter 81: Victory or defeat determined by duel
On August 8, in the Great Lakes Basin under Jinshan Mountain, the sky was clear, the clouds were spreading, and flocks of geese were calling in the sky.

Zhang Sheng, the leader of the Jinhan tribe, was leading his troops to charge at the Tatars. Spies from some tribes on the grassland were hiding behind sparse trees and rocks and watching the battle.

On the distant grassland, countless Tatar tribal warriors and Jinhan cavalry were riding horses and brandishing swords in a fierce battle.

Timur looked at the enemy charging head-on, his face was horrified, and he shouted angrily: "Separate! Separate! Split to the sides..."

But with Zhang Xibao on the north also leading his troops to charge, where could they go separately?
The two sides were originally running very fast, but at this moment they were interrupted by the Jin Han people charging from the front, back and north!
They were divided into three groups, each facing the Jinhan people who were charging with spears.

There were not many armored warriors among the Tatar cavalry, so nearly a thousand Tatars were stabbed and fell off their horses at this moment.

After a round of charge was completed, the war horses were exhausted after running for a long time, so the two sides turned into close-range hand-to-hand combat.

Why didn't the Tatars run? Because they were riding horses, not motorcycles, so they couldn't escape and could only try their best to swing their sabers and spears.

But because they had no armor, they were killed one by one by the Jin Han people.

The tribal war taking place here was no less cruel and brutal than the siege wars that took place in various parts of the Central Plains. In fact, it was even more cruel and brutal, because the losing side would never have the chance to start over.

As more and more Tatars died in the battle, the remaining Tatars were gradually surrounded by the Jinhan cavalry and had no chance of escape.

The two groups of people were killing with great enthusiasm.

Scimitars were waving constantly and arrows were whistling through the air. From time to time, people were spurting blood and falling off their horses. Heads were rolling on the grass and broken limbs were everywhere.

At this time, a Tatar warrior wearing iron armor, riding on a horse, short in stature but very strong, walked out of the crowd alone.

He said in halting Turkic:
“We will each send out a powerful warrior to fight it out in this circle.

Tengri, if we win, please show mercy and let us leave. We, the Tatars, will never dare to offend you again and will compensate you with 20000 sheep and 2000 horses.

If we lose, how about we surrender to your army?"

If this battle were to be fought in the standard grassland tribal combat method, each tribe would stop far away and send out teams of warriors to engage in bloody wars of attrition.

Of course, this is not because they like to see blood, or to show their fearlessness and bravery.

It's because their clothes are similar. If they get into a melee, they will most likely not be able to distinguish between friend and foe, and then they will start killing each other.

This was the result of poverty. At that time, the various tribes on the grassland did not have the ability to have relatively uniform clothing, standardized weapons, and other distinctive styles to distinguish between friends and enemies like the Turks and Uighurs.

Therefore, we can only choose such a cruel way to fight the decisive battle.

What they are fighting for is the ownership of grasslands and lakes, which is equivalent to the right to survive. There is no winner or loser. The winner owns everything and the loser loses everything. It is that simple.

However, the Jinhan people in front of the Tatars were in sharp contrast to them. All the guards were wearing iron armor and helmets.

Therefore, the Jin Han people would not engage in a war of attrition with them, and they themselves certainly would not want to do so, because the enemy's armor was too sophisticated.

However, both sides were very tired after fighting for so long, especially the Jin Han people. They had fought a battle last night and had not slept all night to resist the Tatar attack, and they had another battle during the day today.

Due to such great consumption, some guards even fainted and fell off their horses.

The Tatars were no exception. Their scouts had rushed here quickly from Yanran Mountain after discovering that a battle had taken place in the Great Lakes Basin. If it weren't for each man riding two horses, the horses would have been exhausted to death after such a long-distance raid.

It turns out that the ancestors of these people originally lived in the mountains of the Great Xianbei Mountains. After the Uighurs fled, they migrated from the forest to the grasslands, and changed from a fishing and hunting tribe to a horse-riding and herding tribe. Over the past hundred years, they are now flooding around the Yanran Mountains and the Langjuxu Mountains, becoming a powerful nomadic people.

The language they spoke was not Turkic or Uighur, but Donghu, a language that belonged to the same branch as the languages ​​spoken by the Xianbei and Rouran peoples but had developed to this day.

However, due to the relatively low level of cultural development of this ethnic group, there are a large number of loanwords from Tiele, Turkic and Uighur peoples in their language.

Therefore, when Zhang Sheng heard the other party speaking, he felt very tired.

Despite this, Zhang Sheng still tried hard to understand and comprehend what this person wanted to express.

Zhang Sheng waved his hand to signal the Jin Han people to disperse. He agreed to the duel, and he would fight on behalf of the Jin Han people. Although he was the leader, this task should be accomplished by him at the moment.

Because the Jin Han guards had been fighting for a long time and had suffered heavy casualties due to exhaustion, Zhang Sheng was only giving orders last night and did not fight, so he had enough energy to duel at this moment. He also wanted to resolve this battle once and for all.

The Tatar leader Timur saw a warrior with a particularly long lance in his hand, a full beard, and wearing gorgeous armor, riding a tall black warhorse, walking out from the crowd!
Although the other person had a thick beard, he could also tell that he was not very old!

But the other party didn't say anything and gained the upper hand in momentum.

At this time, Timur said modestly: "I still don't know your name, and which powerful tribe you are from? I am Timur, the leader of the Tatars!"

At the same time, he waved his hand to signal his tribesmen and men to retreat.

"You want to plunder my tribe?" Zhang Sheng interrupted and asked.

"Well, this is our plan!" Timur didn't know what to say for a moment. After hesitating for a while, he said frankly.

Isn't it the same on the steppes? There is no unified Khan to mediate and distribute.

Therefore, in order to compete for pastures and water sources, the tribes often fought each other to the death. What they were actually fighting for was living space.

Zhang Sheng looked at the short and strong man wearing iron armor and holding a long sword and said:
"My tribe is called Jinhan, I am Tengri's messenger on earth, and I am also the nephew of the Khitan Khan, Kutulu Yar.

Tengri is called Haotian God in our language, and I came to the grassland on behalf of Haotian God to spread his will to the people on the grassland. "

I want to avenge my uncle and kill the tribesmen who rebelled and killed him, but you offended me, and I originally planned to kill you all!
However, my soldiers have been fighting for a day and a night and they are exhausted.

So, I accept your challenge, are you ready?"

Timur, riding on a horse, clenched the saber in his right hand and nodded to Zhang Sheng to signal that he was ready!
It was quite civilized, but it was also the result of the stalemate between the two sides.

Zhang Sheng held up his lance and drove his warhorse straight towards Timur. Timur.

At the moment when the two men's horses met, there was a loud bang, followed by the sound of metal colliding.

When the attack failed, the two men did not remain in a stalemate. Instead, they staggered their horses, rushed forward for a distance, and then both turned their horses around.

Seeing Zhang Sheng getting closer and closer, the Tatar leader Timur tightly grasped the saber in his hand, aimed at Zhang Sheng's neck and chopped with all his strength.

But Zhang Sheng would not let him succeed. He held the lance handle with both hands, leaned sideways to avoid the incoming saber, and then swung the lance hard at the enemy's waist and abdomen. Timur's hair trembled, and he quickly grabbed the reins of his horse and retreated to the left.

But it was too late...

(End of this chapter)