Chapter 26: The Army is Full of Ten Thousand (Part 2)

  In the chaos, Abaoji rushed into the Liao army and shouted loudly: "Xiao Si's head is here!"

  Zong Wang and Zong Xiong shouted one after another: "Xiao Si has died! Xiao Si has died!"

  In the midst of chaos, how could the Liao soldiers distinguish between true and false? The hearts were in a state of panic, the reins were out of control, Xiao Tienu and Alu Man led the charge, and before the dust had settled, the Liao army had already dispersed and was difficult to gather.

  At this time, Zhe Yan Chong and others had also crossed the river, and they all rushed to cover up. Chong shouted at Xiao Tie Nu: "Don't stop! Pursue! Pursue!"

  The three of them led the hundred cavalry to form a single entity, charging in the direction of the retreating Liao army. Along the way, they did not stop to fight and kill, but instead looked for gatherings of troops on the other side and flew over to disperse them. They did not collect weapons or take prisoners, only collecting war horses.

  Di Yu and Cao Guangyi were arrayed in formation at the rear, taking custody of prisoners. After confiscating their weapons, each Han unit assigned a few soldiers with knives and spears to drive several prisoners, then ordered these prisoners to gather military equipment, flags, and food; within one day they took over 1,200 prisoners.

  At this time, Yang Kaiyuan's engineer troops arrived, and Cao Guangyi ordered his personal soldiers to go down, select 400 prisoners of war, put on the Han army uniforms, issue short weapons, and disperse them among the original 200 people. Yang Kaiyuan also selected 400 people from among them, tied a cloth strip on their left arm as a mark, and dispersed them into the engineer troops.

  After settling down, they rested in their camp. On the second day, they advanced in the direction of Zhe Yan Chong's raid. Soon, another piece of good news arrived: Zhe Yan Chong and others had launched a surprise attack on Wulun Lake again, achieving a great victory! Cao Guangyi was overjoyed and led his army to provide reinforcements.

  The Liao army was greatly defeated, and Xiao Si was dismissed from his post, replaced by the Liao general Xiao Dili as the commander-in-chief. Xiao Dili stationed in Wulun Lake, seeing that the defeat had slightly stabilized, thinking that the Jurchen would retreat after a single victory like last time, so he opened the camp to accept the defeated soldiers from various routes.

  Zhe Yan Chong and others arrived at Wulun Dui, already exhausted. Xiao Tienuo grasped his reins and said: "Continue to charge in! The Khitan people are already frightened out of their wits! As long as we charge in, we won't even need to fight, we can scare them away!"

  Zhe Yan rushed forward and shouted: "Good!"

  Xiao Deli had already rested, when suddenly there was a great commotion in front of the camp. People everywhere were shouting: "The Jurchen have arrived!" It turned out that Zhao Yanzhong was driving several hundred defeated soldiers to charge into the camp, and it was unclear how many men and horses there were in the darkness. Xiao Deli was greatly startled, mounted his horse and fled. The commander having been lost, the entire army became even more chaotic.

  Zhe Yan sighed in his heart: "It's a pity we have too few soldiers, otherwise..."

  Suddenly, the sounds of killing came from the northeast and due east directions. It was Abaoji and Zonghan who led their troops to attack. On the second day, Cao Guangyi also arrived with his troops. Seeing that Cao's soldiers were full of energy, Xiao Tiennu said to Zhao Yancong: "The momentum of a great victory is most worth taking advantage of! Let me and my brother change troops and continue to pursue!"

  Zhe Yan Chong said: "Guang Bi's troops, three people have two new captives, I'm afraid it's not suitable."

  Xiao Tienu said: "If we were defeated, it would be very dangerous, but at the moment of great victory, who dares to harbor a rebellious heart!"

  At that time, Abaoji did not wait for the discussion on merits and rewards to be completed, but instead led more than 300 soldiers from Cao Guangyi's unit to attack Bin Prefecture. Diyu also led his unit to meet up with them.

  On this side, Ah Gu Da won the military equipment and goods, captured countless people, held a grand feast for the generals, and rewarded his family. Suddenly, he saw that two people were missing from Zhe Yan Chong's side, asked where they went, Zhe Yan Chong said: "Guang Yi is outside comforting the captives, Tie Nu attacked Binzhou."

  Aguda was overjoyed, and he rewarded the two men with the female slaves and goods they had obtained. He also appointed Zhe Yan to lead in his place. The Wanyan clan heard this and stood up together, saying: "We are the main branch of the Wanyan family, how can we be inferior to the Han people led by the son-in-law?" They all asked to go to war.

  On the second day, Wu Si came out with his troops, and Cao Guangyi led his men to form a battle array. The number of people was more than twice as many as yesterday. However, he said: "All 487 men under my command are present."

  "Where did so many people and horses come from?"

  Cao Guangyi smiled slightly and said, "When chariots and horses are mixed together and ridden, and the surrendered soldiers are well-treated and nurtured, it is called winning over the enemy and becoming stronger. Yesterday, you handed over a hundred cavalrymen to me, and each of these hundred people is like those who crawled out with us from the Valley of Plague! With these hundred people as the backbone, what's difficult about recruiting the war prisoners we've defeated?" He paused for a moment, then said, "Although Tie Nu is pursuing a victory, after all, he only brought more than three hundred men, and even if Mr. Di joined him, it would be no more than six hundred. Even if they won, it would be difficult to consolidate the results of the battle, so let's hurry up and go support them."

  "Not bad!"

  But when they arrived in Pennsylvania, the city had already changed its flag. Xiao Tienu was shaking a head on the city wall and laughed: "Big brother! You're too late! Xiao Chuo's head is already here!" Xiao Chuo was the deputy commander of the Liao army, and after Xiao Xi escaped back to the Liao capital, he became the highest-ranking officer!

  "Alright alright! This victory is all thanks to you!"

  Everyone entered the city to discuss, Xiao Tienu wanted to go south again, Di Yu advised him to stay: "Our army is already tired and needs rest. Besides, the Jurchen army is all over the place, we've made enough of a show this time! If we continue, it will become a competition with them!"

  Xiao Tienu said: "Compete for merit if you must compete!"

  Di Yu advised: "Yan Chong is already the son-in-law of the former emperor, but as long as we are flying the Han banner, we are still just guests. It's better to let the people of the Wanyan imperial clan take care of such high-profile matters."

  Xiao Tienu listened with a gloomy expression.

  Di Yu and Zhe Yan Chong led the troops out to reorganize, in just a few days their forces expanded from 350 to 1,200 people. Although the new recruits had been carefully selected, they were still uneven in quality. Di Cao carefully screened them, eliminating the inferior and keeping only the best, selecting over 800 people, with the remaining 300-400 as reserves, not part of the regular troops. Also, due to this battle, new team leaders were selected.

  Yang Kaiyuan soon arrived and told the crowd that the Jurchen generals had captured many strongholds in these few days. Many of the Jurchen tribes that were originally attached to the Liao State surrendered, and Aguda gathered them all into the army. The Jurchen military strength has already exceeded 10,000 people.

  Diwu sighed and said: "The Liao army has a saying: 'If the Jurchen are not satisfied with ten thousand, they cannot be defeated even if there are ten thousand.' The trend of Jurchen independence has already taken shape, and Abaoji's power and prestige are like the sun in the sky! It is difficult for the Liao country to rule over the Jurchen people again."

  Cao Guangyi said, "Although this is the case, the Khitan people will never give up easily. If they can't defeat the Jurchen, the Bohai people, Mongols and even the Xianbei people will follow suit, I'm afraid everyone will rise up in rebellion! By then, the Great Liao will be fragmented. It seems that we still can't avoid a great war! We must prepare for battle!"

  At the time, Yang Kaiyuan was left to train three or four hundred reserve troops, Di Quan and Cao Guangyi were in charge of training eight hundred strong soldiers, Xiao Tienu and Alu Buluo returned to Ningcheng to receive rewards.

  Xiao Tienu said discontentedly: "What reward? I'm not going!"

  "Zhe Yan Chong Qi Dao: 'Wei He?'" translates to "Zhe Yan Chong Qi said: 'Why?'"

  Xiao Tienu said: "Although there is a word 'nu' in my name, I am willing to be a bandit all my life, but not a household slave! What I want, I will take by force, no need for others to give it to me!"

  "Arumand shouted: 'Well said!'"

  "Alright, you don't want it, I'll go get it. You just follow behind me and stretch out your hands, that's okay, right?"

  Suddenly it was announced that Yang Yingqi had arrived, Xiao Tienu was overjoyed and ran out first, pulling the just dismounted Yang Yingqi to run all over the city, finally asking: "How is it?"

  "What's going on?"

  Xiao Tienu said: "What about this Binzhou City?"

  "What do you want to do?"

  Xiao Tienu said: "This is what I have conquered. From now on, we will station here and no longer return to Hui Ning. How about that?"

  Yang Yingqi finally understood what he meant and smiled: "No way."

  "What's wrong with that?"

  Yang Yingqi said: "Do you want to be independent? It's still too early! Our strength is still too weak, besides, this Pennsylvania City is only slightly larger than Han Village, the layout is not good, the products are not good! The geographical location is also bad, even if Ah Gu Da gives it to me as a reward, I don't want it. It's better to return it to the Wan Yan Department."

  Xiao Tienu let out a sigh and said: "It's finally been taken down..."

  "Don't worry. As long as we have the strength, the later things come, the better! Sooner or later, we'll have our own territory!"

  Xiao Tienu turned her sorrow into joy and said: "Don't you have a plan in mind?"

  Yang Yingqi smiled and said: "The Buddha said: It cannot be spoken!"