More than two dozen war horses passed through the boundless darkness like the wind. Although it was night, the knights did not raise fire to reveal their whereabouts. A Hexi knight who had spent more than a dozen cold and summer on the battlefield took the lead, his white robe like a blurred white shadow in the dark night, leading the way ahead. Behind him, twenty-three or four knights, all of them with one man and two horses, followed closely, and Chen Jian, the cavalry officer of the engine room of the General Army of the Great Education Regiment, was also among them.

He was not the commander of this Hexi Rangers, but was sent by Ma Zheng, the chief military machine of the Great Education Regiment of the United Army, to act as the eyes and ears of the Rangers in the front - Ma Zheng, who had been in Shazhou for a long time, knew that the Hexi Army was also actively carrying out reforms.

They had been beaten out in the previous war, and under the sense of imminent crisis of destroying the country and exterminating the nation (theoretically having already lost the country), there was naturally nothing that could not be reformed. The focus of Hexi's military reform, in addition to following the example of the Song army to establish a general army engine room and carry out military system reform, is to focus on strengthening the cavalry's impact capability.

The wheel impact launched by the knights of the Song army taught the Hexi army too profound a lesson. Therefore, the Hexi Army was a bit overkill, in addition to practicing the "wheel wall charge" skill of the Iron Harrier, it also provided the Western Liang cavalry as a ranger (light cavalry) with a horse pistol that could be carried.

In addition, in order to reduce the weight of the light cavalry, Zhao Zhongshun, the "reformer" of the Hexi Army, also invented a kind of "front heart cavalry armor" and distributed it to the Xiliang cavalry.

The so-called "forecore riding armor" is actually a type of armor that can only protect the front of the upper body, and it is also very strong using a cold forging process. After wearing this "front armor", the front of the knight's upper body is difficult for the sword to penetrate. However, the back and limbs are in an unprotected state.

Although the protection of this "fore-heart riding armor" is not strict enough, it is certainly much stronger than no protection, and it is not much worse than wearing heavy but insufficient defense of leather armor - don't think that leather armor is lighter than armor, the leather armor that can really effectively defend is made of thickened cowhide sheets, and sometimes a layer of chain mail is worn inside the leather armor, plus a very thick cloth shirt. After wearing it, it is not only overweight, but also very inconvenient to move.

If you add a fan-shaped leather and wooden shield to the cavalry, the defense should be better than wearing full leather armor!

However, this is only an improvement deduced by Zhao Zhongshun, Xiao Heda and others based on battlefield experience, and it still needs practical experience to determine the effect.

Therefore, Ma Zheng sent a lot of military planes to the "fire" level of the Xiliang cavalry to observe the performance of the Xiliang rangers on the battlefield.

The results of the observation are a bit disappointing. It's not that the performance of the Xiliang Rangers is not good, but that their performance is too good after encountering the light cavalry of the Peach Blossom Stone on the battlefield.

It's simply a one-sided slaughter of tricks, whether it's setting up a spear to charge in a team, or riding with a stubborn sheep's horn bow, you can hang the cavalry of Peach Blossom Stone.

Even once when he was camping, he was attacked by an opponent, and he still relied on a sword, shield and spear to fight a counterattack. Although he paid the price of one death, he killed seven opponents.

Compared with the cavalry of Xiliang under the peach blossom stone, this group is simply a tofu army!

How can you tell if the knife is good or not? It seems that we have to wait until the legendary Great Turkic elite soldiers arrive to see whether the Xiliang cavalry is good or not.

When he was thinking about his thoughts, the Xiliang Ranger who was leading the way in front had already reined in his war horse, and turned around and shouted in Chinese to Chen Jian, who was still riding his horse: "Chen Jiyi, Stone Town seems to be ahead!" ”

Already under Stone Town?

Jian Chen hurriedly reined in the war horse, then looked up.

The outline of the swarthy city is already in front of you. Above the city, there were still a few flickering fires, which should be torches carried by the soldiers patrolling the city.

Chen Jian stood up on the stirrup, looked at the outline of the city in the distance, and seemed to sit down on the saddle for a while, and said in a low voice: "Straight lady thief, this will be killed under the stone city." Running all the way, I didn't even see a single intact village...... I don't know how many black sweat rebels there are in this stone city? ”

When the leading Hexi veteran heard this, he asked: "Chen Jiyi, isn't it good that there is no rebellion?" The city of Nuoda is ours! ”

Hearing his words, Jian Chen just smiled: "Lao Li, you also see how many dishes those rebels have...... This group of people is not our opponent at all, if the wall is clear and flees far away, then the battle of Khotan will be fought. It is 1800 miles to Khotan! The cows, sheep and cakes we carried were not enough to eat on the way.

If the rebels wanted to defend the city, then there must have been a lot of food in the city. As long as the walls are broken, it will be ours.

And if they don't abandon Stone Town, they won't give up Jochang City and Kriya...... Aren't we going to be able to fight the enemy because of food? ”

"Hehe, the opportunity is the opportunity, and it really can be seen through better than a few of us!"

Jian Chen smiled proudly, "Let's rest today, and wait until dawn to sweep around...... Let's see if we can find a village or two that haven't been burned yet. ”

"Howler!" The Hexi veteran, who was called "Lao Li", greeted the cavalry behind him, "All fire obeys the order, the first, second, and third soldiers dismount, and the fourth army is on alert!" ”

"Whoa!"

……

Scattered bonfires began to appear on the grassland south of Stone Town one after another, a pile in the east, a pile in the west, and at a glance, it was clear that there were many small groups of Upper Peach Blossom Stone Rangers who had arrived.

Mahmoud. Surrounded by the generals, Berry climbed the walls of Stone Town, looking at the little sparks in the night, his brow furrowed slightly.

The "Gulam" cavalry on the peach blossom stone is very powerful! And there seems to be a lot of them, just in front of me, I'm afraid there are no less than hundreds of people.

During these days, the rangers sent out by Berry (all tribal and urban militia) suffered heavy losses. One after another, more than 200 souls returned to Heaven. Although it was quite honorable, Burke of Stone Town protested, saying that Mahmoud . Berry is wasting the Warrior's life in vain.

How could this fool, who only knew how to make money in Stone Town, and didn't know how to train the militia, didn't know the importance of reconnaissance? As long as we can find out the enemy's strength and supply, what is the loss of more than 200 lives?

But now that there are no human lives and no enemy situation has been discovered, the warriors sent out have not even seen the army of Peach Blossom Stone, and they have already seen the Almighty Allah...... If they could see that the Upper Peach Blossom Stone army was coming with a large number of cattle and sheep, Mahmud. Berry may change his decision to hold on to Stone Town.

And Mahmood. Berry eventually couldn't resist the protests of Stone Town, and withdrew all the Rangers scattered outside Stone City - although he was a high-ranking official in Khotan, he was a Ghulam warrior after all, and the governor of Stone Town was a Knight of Iqta. The former was a servant of the Great Khan, and the latter was the lord of the Great Khan's kindred.

Although in many Heavenly Sect countries, the Ghulam warriors were able to cultivate power, but there was no such phenomenon in the Qarakhanid Dynasty. After all, the Qarakhanid Dynasty was too poor to afford too many gurams, and there were only two or three thousand gurams in total, half of which were east and west, and of course they couldn't rule the country by them.

Therefore, Berry did not dare to offend the Iqtar knight class in Stone City too much...... Otherwise, he would not be able to serve as an official.

Mahmoud. Berry let out a long sigh, "Pass my orders, and the whole city will be on alert...... In addition, another group of Ghulam warriors was sent to Khotan to report the situation to the Khan.

Tell the Khan that the enemy on the Peach Blossom Stone is very strong, and we can't defeat it in a field battle, and we are ready to defeat the enemy by clearing the wilderness. At most, the enemy's food should be exhausted, and it is hoped that the Khan's soldiers and horses will reach Stone Town by then. ”

I have to say that this General Ghulam is still very professional. He did not pin all his hopes on the strong wall and clear the field, but made two preparations - if the Song army ran out of food within a month, it would be considered a victory.

If they have not withdrawn, it means that the Song army has a way to solve the logistical difficulties.

Then Stone Town may need the "Lion Khan" to personally lead the army to break the siege......

……

"Back to the general military plane, a large number of soldiers who have rebelled against the black sweat have been found on Stone Town!"

At noon the next day, Ma Zheng, who finally led the army out of the mountains, got the latest military report: the Black Khan rebel did not give up Stone City - what Ma Zheng was most afraid of was not that the enemy would defend the city, no matter how strong the city was, it would explode in ten days and half a month...... What he feared most was that the enemy would abandon the city and leave, and Khotan would be too vast. More than 2,000 miles away!

"Have you mastered everything around Stone Town?" Ma Zhengfa asked.

"Totally in control!" The preparation of one of the cavalrymen of the Hexi Army, who reported to Ma Zheng, replied triumphantly, "Outside Stone City, there are all iron cavalry of my Han family, and there is no longer a Hulu." ”

"Good!" Ma Zheng smiled, "You guys did a great job!" When the stone city is broken, I will give you Xiliang cavalry a day first! ”

Looting is a must...... Not only the Xiliang cavalry adapted from the Western Thieves wanted to rob it, but even a Han mercenary under the direct jurisdiction of Ma Zheng had to rob it. People have worked hard for so long and walked so far, isn't it just to get rich?

Moreover, if they don't rob all the cities along the way, won't the two brothers Zhao Qianshun and Zhao Zhongshun be able to easily raise money to repay their debts? Can't let them pay off Hades' debts!

"Thank you, subordinates, Chief Military Aircraft!" Then the petty officer of the Xiliang cavalry said thank you.

Ma Zheng laughed a few times and raised his voice: "Command the three armies, the Black Khan rebel is in Stone City...... Stone Town is already in the pocket of our army! Wait for the city to be broken, let it go for three days! ”

The army that had just walked out of the mountains was in high spirits, and when they heard Ma Zheng's order, they immediately cheered.

"Preserve the principles of heaven, destroy the rebels, and win the Great Song Dynasty!"