Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 435 On behalf of Li Erfeng, I retract the bestowal of the surname Li upon him.
On the south side of Qingtongxia, on the bank of the Yellow River.

Countless tents are hidden among the trees in various canyons, large and small.

The camp was filled with the aroma of wine and meat.

They captured a large number of Li Guangyan's troops and enjoyed the spoils of war to their heart's content.

Canned meat, paired with fine wine in a glass bottle, is the kind of enjoyment they've always dreamed of.

These meats and wines filled large carts, and basically every cavalryman of the Tuoba tribe could get a share.

They ate, drank, and finally fell asleep, snoring loudly.

Even a few who remain vigilant cannot stop the needs of the majority.

The entire canyon was filled with the sound of snoring.

Those who remained vigilant continued to keep watch outside, but this watch was of little practical significance.

The locator continuously sent signals invisible to the naked eye, guiding the Imperial Guards and the Palace Guard cavalry to pull out a large net from a distance.

In the afternoon, Li Guangyan, who was taking a rare break and fast asleep in his tent, was suddenly doused with a basin of water.

He shook his head and sat up, his eyes, which he tried to open, were filled with confusion.

"Defense Commander!"

"The Han Chinese troops are attacking!"

Li Guangyan was drunk and couldn't be woken up no matter what, so the only solution was to pour cold water on him.

He staggered to his feet, stepped out of the tent, and looked up at the sky.

The sun shines brightly, and colorful clouds drift by.

A surprise attack in broad daylight?

Feeling groggy, Li Guangyan looked at the chaotic camp, his mind a jumble of thoughts.

He fetched some cold water and plunged into it.

Use the rapid temperature change to quickly wake yourself up.

This shouldn't have happened.

The captured liquors were so delicious—red, blue, green, and yellow—they were not only beautiful but also sweet.

I couldn't resist drinking a few more glasses, never expecting the aftereffects to be so strong.

He raised his head and took a deep breath, hurriedly mounted his horse without even cleaning himself, and headed towards the mouth of the canyon.

All I saw along the way was a scene of utter chaos, with many people still fast asleep in their tents.

These scenes filled Li Guangyan with dread.

"The problem must lie with those spoils of war!"

"Although the large carts were abandoned, the wheel tracks were no longer visible."

"But with so many horses carrying the goods back and forth, their whereabouts must have been exposed."

"Sigh~ I'm still too poor."

The Tanguts were very poor. For example, the cavalry led by Li Guangyan had only a few hundred suits of armor, many of which were old and worn out.

Having suddenly seized a large amount of supplies, they refused to give them up no matter what.

"The Han people attacked in broad daylight."

"They are either extremely foolish or have absolute confidence."

Riding his horse to the valley entrance, Li Guangyan couldn't help but gasp as he looked at the steel Great Wall slowly approaching in the distance.

The armor, gleaming with a metallic sheen in the sunlight, sent a chill down his spine.

Those magnificent, tall horses clad in armor filled him with trepidation.

But what truly drove Li Guangyan to despair was the sheer number of them!

Everywhere you looked, there were cavalrymen slowly approaching from a distance.

Taking a deep breath, Li Guangyan turned his horse around and shouted sternly, "Wake everyone up!"

"Bring weapons and a horse, nothing else!"

The only chance is to run away quickly before they completely block off the escape route.

There are too many drunk people.

Lin Dao's liquor doesn't feel very strong when you drink it, but it has a powerful aftereffect.

After a period of fermentation, even if you force yourself to shout, you'll still be in a daze with your head full of mush.

The camps throughout the canyon were in chaos, and it took a long time to wake everyone up.

With a chill running down his spine, Li Guangyan gritted his teeth and led his men out of the valley.

As for those who haven't left yet, it can only be said that it was their fate to die!

During the day, scouts are placed far away, giving them enough time to react.

However, the troops sent by Lin Dao were too numerous. These cavalrymen, riding tall horses captured from Liaodong and other places, gradually closed in from a distance.

After observing for a while, Li Guangyan immediately charged towards the area where the enemy cavalry was most concentrated.

The people around looked puzzled.

There was a gap in the road that even the cavalry blocking the way didn't manage to get through, so why didn't they go through it?
Li Guangyan had no time to explain and ordered all his troops to charge forward at all costs.

To become a commander of tens of thousands of troops, even if you rely on connections, you still need to have some real skills.

He could see that the gap over there was close to the bank of the Yellow River, and what seemed like a way out was actually a dead end.

The areas where Han cavalry were most concentrated, though seemingly dangerous, were actually open to a wide-open world once they broke through.

The idea is correct, but only if you can beat them.

The imperial guards cavalry on this side also accelerated forward and clashed.

Both sides consisted of teams of several hundred people, forming many different teams of varying sizes, which clashed and attacked each other.

Usually, after a fierce battle, the team size will be reduced by one level.

After recuperating and regrouping, they will once again challenge the next team.

The kind of scene in movies and TV dramas where thousands of cavalrymen charge together like a giant mass.

It's not that they didn't exist, but rather that they weren't the mainstream of cavalry combat.

Li Guangyan vigorously wiped the sweat from his face.

He had already fought his way through several battles, but now he only had a hundred or so riders left with him.

However, within a radius of several miles, there were at least five or six Han cavalry formations moving around.

Those Han Chinese cavalrymen were all dressed in fine iron armor and rode magnificent, tall horses.

In terms of quantity, they far exceed their own.

There are too many Han Chinese~

"They have an inexhaustible supply of soldiers; they're leaving us no way to survive!"

In fact, during the agricultural era, as long as the people of the Central Plains could unite against external forces, they would inevitably be able to expand to the very limits of geographical boundaries.

The thunderous sound of hooves echoed as a troop of several hundred Han cavalrymen charged forward.

Li Guangyan let out a despairing sigh.

He raised his spear with both hands, led the remaining men around him, and charged forward again.

Horses crisscrossed, weapons were brandished, and men shouted as horses neighed.

After a fierce head-on clash, only seven or eight Tuoba cavalrymen managed to break through, and almost all of them were wounded.

Li Guangyan was not among these people.

Li Jiqian's father, Li Yuanhao's grandfather, died in battle outside Qingtongxia before he could even have a son to establish the foundation of the Western Xia dynasty.

No one cared about his death; he would only be dragged away when the battlefield was being cleared after the war.

The seven or eight riders who broke out of the formation did not hesitate at all; they immediately parted ways and desperately spurred their horses to break through the encirclement.

The cavalry, naturally, disdained to pursue these scattered soldiers; their target was the large groups of enemy troops.

The light cavalry on the perimeter were responsible for intercepting and killing any stray deserters.

Not all Tuoba cavalrymen knew where the real path to survival lay.

When most cavalrymen are suddenly attacked, their instinctive reaction is to run to places with fewer people.

As they ran, they eventually reached the banks of the Yellow River.

The Yellow River, which is hundreds of meters wide, was something these cavalrymen could not possibly swim across.

Even more terrifying, there were boats on the river, hundreds of them blocking the river and completely cutting off their escape route.

When a large number of Han cavalry surged forward, it was already over.

Those who dared to resist were killed on the spot.

Those who were unwilling to give up and tried to swim away were hit with wooden sticks by the people on the boat and sank to the bottom of the water with a gurgling sound.

The rest surrendered.

They were tied up and taken away in squads.

The mines in various places will become their final destination.

Eliminating the troublesome Tuoba cavalry was just a trivial matter for Lin Dao.

Here, he was urging the Hengshan Dangxiang people to launch a fierce attack on Lingzhou City.

This offensive has only one effect: to deplete the number of Yokoyama Tangut cannon fodder.

"almost."

Seeing that the two-day offensive had resulted in the loss of thousands of Hengshan Tangut cannon fodder, Lin Dao nodded in approval.

"Substitute."

He doesn't intend to waste all these cannon fodder here.

More often, they were taken to the Western Regions for consumption.

Once they reached the Western Regions, which were thousands of miles away, they had nowhere to run.

The retreat of the Yokoyama Tanguts was like a tidal wave, and the defending troops cheered and even urinated on the city walls to celebrate.

They defended the city and inflicted heavy losses on the attacking enemy forces.

There's nothing wrong with celebrating.

The problem is that the troops that come next are ones they cannot resist.

The process remains the same.

The volunteer warriors pushed the massive shield carts slowly toward the city wall.

Inside the shield vehicle was a coffin, which was filled with explosives used in mining.

The shield cart, with steel plates embedded on top and covered with fireproof cloth, successfully approached the city wall.

Then came a deafening explosion.

A section of the city wall, more than twenty feet long, collapsed, and the nearby garrison was engulfed by the billowing smoke and dust.

With a large number of armored soldiers entering the city, all that remained was to clear out and fight.

As dusk approached, Lin Dao finally entered the city.

At this time, most areas of the city had calmed down, with only a few areas still experiencing sounds of fighting.

The fires that broke out everywhere were put out by soldiers and men.

However, the largest fire in the city was at the official residence of the Dingnan Army Military Governor, which was also the residence of Li Yiyin, the Prince of Xiping.

"His Majesty."

Commander-in-Chief Sun Xingyou rode up to report, "That traitor Li!"

"He doesn't deserve the surname Li."

Lin Dao immediately interrupted, "He claims to be from the Xianbei Tuoba tribe, and is therefore of the Tuoba clan."

Li Yiyin is a typical two-faced person.

When they submitted to the Central Plains, they claimed to be of the Li clan, whose surname was bestowed upon them by the Tang Dynasty.

However, within the Dingnan Army and when dealing with other Hu tribes, they also referred to themselves as the Xianbei Tuoba clan.

Since he so desires to be a member of the Tuoba clan, then Lin Dao will take back the Li surname bestowed upon him on behalf of Li Erfeng.

"Yes~"

Sun Xingyou immediately echoed, "The remnant of the Xianbei Tuoba clan, whose personal name was Tuoba Yiyin, seeing no hope of resistance, set fire to his own palace and committed suicide."

Tuoba Yiyin certainly didn't want to die.

Who would easily want to die if they could become a prince, controlling several states and the fate of millions of people?

But there is no way.

Lin Dao refused to accept his surrender at all.

They couldn't win in a fight, and if they were captured, their fate would be extremely tragic.

It's better to take matters into your own hands than to die after being humiliated.

Of course, this was done with the mindset of 'If I can't have it, I won't let you have it either.'

Tuoba Yiyin's fire took away all the wealth he had accumulated over the years, as well as his family.

This is something I'll do even in death to disgust you.

Lin Dao, however, did not care at all.

He glanced at the burning palace in the distance and said, "No need to put out the fire, let it burn to the ground."

"Burning away the symbols of the old era, tomorrow will be a brand new chapter!"

(End of this chapter)