Strictly speaking, the topography of Yokoyama is not a mountain range, but an ancient plateau, which has been cut by flowing water and soil erosion for many years, and has become a fragmented terrain with thousands of ravines, which is really complicated to the extreme. If you hadn't lived in this shattered plateau for generations, entering it would have been like entering a labyrinth, and you wouldn't be able to figure out the east, south, west, and west.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the ethnic group living in the Hengshan area was called Hengshan Qiang, also known as Hengshan Fanbu. It is difficult to figure out whether their bloodline is Qiang, Tibetan, Dangxiang, or Han, maybe all kinds of bloodlines.

It is probably because the bad environment they live in is really bad, and since the weakening of the Tang Dynasty, this mountainous land with thousands of ravines has become a place outside the law, and countless kings of ravines have come into being, and countless combative Hengshan tribes have been formed.

And the rise of the Western Xia bandit regime and the wealth and weakness of the Northern Song Dynasty gave those kings of the ravine the opportunity to follow the big robbers and become small robbers.

Therefore, the barren Hengshan area has always been the best source of infantry soldiers in Western Xia, and Hengshan Bubazi came from here. The kings of the ravines, large and small, also made a fortune because they followed the Western Xia to rob the Han people, and over the decades, they became accustomed to the lifestyle of treating the Han people as prey.

Even though most of the Hengshan region has now been included in the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, the Hengshan tribe living there is still loyal to the Western Xia and opposed to the Great Song Dynasty - after all, the wolves will not be ruled by the sheep, unless the sheep become tigers!

And the Great Song Dynasty is definitely not a tiger that can bite people, although many generals in the Western Army have been fighting with these Tibetan troops for decades, and they have already fought a deep feud in the sea of blood, and they are eager to slaughter them all. However, the civil service system of the Northern Song Dynasty would not allow such a thing to happen...... Therefore, the Tibetan tribe here is in the painful process of being hurt, but not being killed and defeated, and at the same time, because there is no chance of robbery, it is in the painful process of becoming thrifty from luxury.

Therefore, the hearts of the people in Hengshan still belong to Western Xia. After all, the bandit country of Western Xia is the only big thief who can take the Hengshan tribe to rob the Han people!

Because the people's hearts belong to Xia, the Hengshan with thousands of ravines is not too big an obstacle for Chage's army at all. There are no mountains that can block the north-south traffic here, but countless ravines that extend in all directions.

Even the Song army, which was the best at building cities, was not capable of building enough castles to plug the countless ravines here.

The only way is to send countless sentinels to keep an eye on every ravine, every part of the region.

On a desolate loess plateau, the young Han Wu stood in the cold wind, staring at the scattered fires in the distance.

At this moment, it is ugly, the air is cold, and everything is dormant. The thieves of the Yokoyama tribe will not go out with torches at this time.

Looking at the number of torches, the number of thieves in action is not three hundred and five hundred, but there are several thousand, right?

A few thousand is almost impossible for the Hengshan tribe to gather. If there are hundreds of strong people under the hands of those ravine kings, they can be called a big leader, and they can find a small official position in the Great Song Dynasty or the Western Thieves.

Han Wu, a young archer who grew up on the border of Yan'an and grew up smelling wolf smoke since he was a child, immediately knew what was going on? His whole body trembled, and he didn't know if it was because he was nervous or excited about the upcoming big battle.

This is his first battle for Han Wu!

"Fire Chief! Fire Chief! ”

Han Wu seemed to be crazy and ran on the high loess plateau, shouting at the top of his voice as he ran.

In the center of the loess plateau here are seven or eight small, slope-like single tents. The small tent encircled the city in a ring, and a bonfire was lit in the middle, and several small tents were baked warmly. Inside each tabernacle was an archer sleeping with his head covered.

Young Han Wu's mind was blank, only the thought of the western thief attacking, and he couldn't remember which tent his fire chief Han Dwarf Tiger was in for a while, so he simply overturned them one by one.

The archers who were sleeping soundly inside suddenly stirred the wind, and all of them were disturbed to their dreams, and they immediately shouted and scolded.

"Straight thief, which pinch of birds is lifting the tent?"

"It's Po Han Wu, isn't this little pickled goods crazy?"

"Han Wu, what are you doing with Pickled Chaos?"

Han Wu made a fuss for a while, and was already a little sober, and hurriedly pointed to the north and jumped to his feet and said, "The West Thief is here!" It's the thieves from the west, thousands, maybe tens of thousands......"

"You're a little killer, why are you crazy at night? Where did the thief come from? The thieves have already scared us! ”

"Shi Laosi, you are blind, look over there for yourself!"

The archer, who was called Shi Laosi by Han Wu, stood up at this time, squinted his eyes and looked north, and suddenly shouted like Han Wu: "Straight lady thief, it's really a thief in the west...... Where did they come from? ”

Ten years older than Han Wu, but only as tall as Han Wu's shoulders, Han Dwarf Tiger, the fire chief, also saw countless torches at this time, forming three fire dragons in the darkness, flowing forward in the ravines of Hengshan, and extremely fast!

"West thief!" Han Xiaohu jumped up, "Hurry up, hurry up, pack up your things, let's go to Saimen Village to report the news!"

Shi Laosi, don't be stunned, put out the fire...... You can't let the thief follow the light to touch it! ”

The fire was quickly extinguished by Shi Laosi, and the loess plateau was suddenly plunged into darkness.

At this moment, in the middle of the rolling fire dragon, several pairs of sharp eyes were looking at the place where the fire was extinguished.

Xiao Heda retracted his gaze, looked at Brother Cha, the king of Jin, who was one neck ahead of him, and said, "King, this group of Song dogs who slipped through the net are not sleeping and have discovered us." ”

A part of the Hengshan tribe loyal to Western Xia of course sent good hands to touch the sentry posts of the Song army. But the terrain here is too fragmented, and there are really thousands of ravines. Rao is a fan who has lived here for generations, and he doesn't dare to say that he can touch every hill and hill. Moreover, the sentry posts of the Song army are mobile, and it is unlikely that they will be completely cleaned up.

But so what? He came over Hengshan with an army of 40,000, how many archers of the Song people were there in Saimen Village? If you die, it's one or two thousand, how can you stop it?

"It doesn't matter." Brother Cha smiled coldly, "Li Yan, how far is it from Saimen Village here?" ”

"I'll be there tomorrow at noon! Even if the Song people knew that the king was coming, it was impossible to deploy troops. ”

Brother Cha asked a somewhat elderly leader of the Tibetan tribe beside him: "Leader Li, how many people have you gathered?" ”

"Back to the king, our thirteen Tibetan tribes in Yanzhou have long been looking forward to the return of the Great White High Kingdom! However, the king came suddenly, and there were not many people who were really anxious, only the thousands of people in the minister's headquarters had already picked up their swords and bows, and they were willing to drive forward for the king! ”

No matter what, a Tibetan tribe can't pull out thousands of Ding Zhuang, and most of this Li Da leader is to concentrate the old and weak women and children in the tribe, and barely raise more than 2,000 people, which is called thousands.

Of course, Brother Cha also knew it, but he would not discourage the enthusiasm of Chief Li, and said with a smile: "Okay! The big boss is really brave! Wait to lay down the Saimen Village, let your family grab an hour first! ”

"Thank you, King!"

Brother Cha nodded, and a hideous expression appeared on the young face under the torch: "Order the three armies, hurry!" Before noon tomorrow, be sure to kill under the Saimen Village! ”

"Whoa!"

Saimenzhai is located in the upper reaches of Yanshui, about 200 miles away from the city of Yan'an, and is on the shortcut to attack Yan'an from Hengshan to the south.

In the first year of Kangding (1040), it was here that Wei Ming Yuanhao invaded Yanzhou, and defeated Liu Ping and Shi Yuansun's troops at Sanchuankou. If it weren't for the cold weather and the sudden rise of wind and snow, Yanzhou would have become the territory of Western Xia long ago!

And the reason why Brother Cha chose Saimen Village this time was not only to plunder, but also to attack Saimen to coerce Yan'an and force the Song army to retreat from Yinzhou.

……

Saimen Zhai can't hold it!

When Han Wu rode an old horse that was foaming at the mouth to arrive at the dangerous Tumen Pass north of Saimen Village, this young man, who had only been an archer for a short time, knew that Saimen Village would be lost.

Because Han Wu himself is the archer of Saimen Village, he is very familiar with the situation of this border cottage.

Although after the Battle of Sanchuankou in the early years, Saimen Village was the focus of the Western Army's archers, and there have always been a large number of archers deployed in Saimen Village and Tumen Pass north of Saimen Village. However, as the Song army continued to make progress in the area of Hengshan and Wudinghe, the defense of Saimen Village became increasingly negligent.

Gradually, working as an archer in Saimenzhai became a good business. 200 acres of land does not need to pay rent and tax, even if it is rented out, a few people in a family can have food and clothing. And Saimen Village is unlikely to be attacked by Western thieves, which is really a good place.

And in a good place, naturally some people break their heads and want to squeeze in, even if they "dedicate" part of the 200 acres to Shangguan...... For example, Han Wu's 200 acres were not taken all, and half of them were honored to their bosses!

The remaining 100 acres is actually enough to raise him as a single boy. However, archers who had families had to cut back on equipment and training to save money, and at the same time rent land to increase their income.

In this case, their combat effectiveness is naturally not guaranteed!

"Old Five!"

Just as Han Wu and the others were waiting for the earth gate to close and open to let them in, Han Xiaohu from his clan suddenly called him.

"Brother Tiger, what's the matter?" Han Wu asked.

Han Xiaohu's voice was very low, and he obviously knew that something was wrong, "I'll give you a bad deal, go find a loess plateau to keep an eye on the road, and if the western thief arrives, he will report it immediately." ”

What kind of errand is this?

Han Wu was stunned. The western thief is going to Tumen Pass, can he still avoid the watchtower and sentry on the pass?

"Go!" Han Dwarf Tiger roared, "If there is a coming day, remember to take care of my mother!" ”

Han Wu immediately understood that this brother of his clan wanted to let himself live...... He also knew that Saimen Village was not safe!