Thousands of cavalry ran fast and produced a huge momentum, a large amount of yellow sand was swept into the sky, the vigilance rangers of the Great Food Army soon discovered this phenomenon, they immediately rode their horses close to investigate, and soon found the voice of the Western Qin Army, which frightened them, they originally thought that they did not need to worry about being pursued by the cavalry of the Western Qin Army after they were far away from Zaheidan City and entered the hinterland of the desert, but they did not expect that the Western Qin cavalry would catch up after only one day.

The Ranger's report made Ziad's face change, and he immediately got up and ordered: "Evacuate as fast as possible!" ”

A large number of large numbers of large food troops stepped on their horses and quickly left the resting place in units of 100 and 1,000 people, and nearly 2,000 horses and camels of the baggage team were also driven by the soldiers to carry supplies and leave at a faster speed.

Knowing that the Western Qin chasing soldiers came from behind, the soldiers of the Great Food Army were a little flustered, and the speed of running on horseback was much faster than yesterday, and many people hurriedly stepped on their horses and started running without even packing up their things.

Although the baggage team hanging behind the Great Food Army kept driving the war horses, the marching speed of the baggage team was obviously not able to catch up with the Great Food Army in front, and soon began to lag behind by some distance, while the Western Qin cavalry was rapidly pursuing behind.

Two hours later, the cavalry of the Western Qin Army finally caught up with the baggage team of the Great Food Army hanging at the back after the continuous acceleration of the pursuit, more than 2,000 horses and more than 300 camels and the materials, food and drinking water they carried were intercepted by the Western Qin Army, and some of the soldiers of the Great Food Army of the baggage team resisted, but were quickly shot, and the others dropped their weapons and surrendered one after another.

Zhao Hu didn't expect that it would take only an hour of pursuit to intercept the baggage team of the Great Food Army, he looked at the more than 2,000 horses, more than 300 camels and the supplies they were carrying in the middle and ordered his subordinates: "We are now chasing the enemy army, and there is no extra men and horses to take care of the prisoners, these prisoners are all executed, and they will be executed immediately!" ”

The general clenched his fists and said in a deep voice: "Obey!" ”

"All the generals listen to the order, the general has the order, leave no prisoners, kill!"

The Western Qin cavalry received the order and rushed up with their horses and slashed with their swords, and the unarmed soldiers screamed in horror and ran to the periphery, but they were surrounded tightly, and they couldn't run out if they wanted to, and even if they ran a distance, they were quickly hacked to death by the Western Qin cavalry who chased after them.

After a while, the general stepped forward and apologized to Zhao Hu: "General, all the prisoners have been executed!" ”

Zhao Hu nodded, and said in a deep voice: "Without this batch of supplies, Ziad can't escape far!" Ordered the army, leaving two hundred people to carry these supplies to follow behind, and the brigade followed General Ben to pursue first! ”

"Yes!"

The Western Qin Army, under the leadership of Zhao Hu, soon embarked on the journey of pursuing the Great Food Army, and did not slow down the pursuit at all because of the baggage behind it.

In the Great Food Army, which was trying his best to flee for his life, Ziyad looked back from time to time, and Daoud Zema saw his anxious expression and comforted him: "The general don't worry, the baggage team will catch up soon!" ”

Ziad shook his head and smiled bitterly: "You don't need to comfort me, we all know that the baggage team has not caught up for so long, but I am afraid that it has all fallen into the hands of the Western Qin army!" Who is this Zhao Hu? I can't even beat a little-known nobody, what qualifications do I have to be this general? ”

Daoud said: "General, Zhao Hu is not an unknown person, when I attacked the Sogdians with Said, until the city of Henglus, we fought with the Tang army outside the city, and retreated into the city after being defeated by the cavalry of the Tang army, the Tang army took turns to send troops to attack the city, and it could not be captured for many days, and there were countless casualties, and finally Zhao Ziliang sent his nephew to preside over the siege of the city, and it took only one day to break through the wall we defended, and his nephew was this Zhao Hu."

Ziad was silent, and after a long while, he sighed: "General Daoud, without the replenishment of baggage, we only have three days of food, which obviously cannot support us to return to Behedashir Castle, and what is even worse is that each of us only has one day's water, and without food, we can only support it for a few more days by drinking water, but without water to drink in the desert, we can't support it for a day!" ”

Daoud also realized the seriousness of the problem, he thought for a while and said: "General, according to the original route, our next supply and rest place is in Scorpion Ridge, from here to Scorpion Ridge it will take three days, we still have hundreds of horses in our army, after the food is eaten, we can kill horses to survive, and the food back to Behe Dahir Castle should be enough, but the water is not enough to drink!" The map shows that there is a small lake nearby, about a day's journey from here, and we can go there to refill the water! ”

At this time, a knight quickly caught up and shouted to Ziade: "General, the Western Qin cavalry has caught up, look!" ”

Ziad's heart jumped when he heard this, and when he looked back, he saw sand and dust rolling up over the horizon behind him, and small black dots flashing continuously, and he immediately said loudly to Daoud: "Give me the order, we will change the route of our march and go to the nearest lake to replenish water, as long as there is enough water, we will take a shortcut back to Behedashir Castle, and not take the original route!" ”

Daoud nodded and said, "Good! However, general, if we want to get rid of the pursuit of the Western Qin army, it is not a way for us to escape like this, we must leave a part to block the pursuit of the Western Qin cavalry, otherwise with the marching speed of the Western Qin cavalry with one person and two horses, none of us can escape! ”

Although he didn't want to admit it, Ziad also knew that what Daoud said was the truth, in fact, he had long known that if he wanted to get rid of the pursuit of the Western Qin army, someone had to stay behind to block the attack, block the Western Qin army for a while, and give others time to fully withdraw, but who should stay at this time? I'm afraid that no one wants to stay and wait for death, right? This is also the reason why he did not propose to let some of them stay behind to block the pursuit of the Western Qin army at the first time.

Ziad sighed: "I will lead the cavalry to stay behind to block the pursuit of the Western Qin army, General Daoud, you take the rest of the people to quickly rush to the nearest lake to replenish drinking water, and take them back to Behedashir Castle safely!" ”

Daoud objected: "No, you are the main general, you can't stay to block the pursuers, your responsibility is to return to Behedashir Castle with the remaining soldiers, or do I stay and give me a thousand men!" ”

Daoud originally wanted the soldiers in the army to follow him on a voluntary basis to stop the pursuing soldiers, but now the situation no longer allows it, the Western Qin army is close at hand, and there is no time for them to choose, so now they can only give mandatory orders.

Of course, Ziad would not agree, how to say that Daoud was nearly seventy years old, Ziad couldn't bear to let him stay to block the pursuers, and immediately refused: "No, you are old, let's go home and live with your family!" ”

Daoud laughed: "Because of my age, I don't have much time to live, I may go to heaven to see Allah at any time, so it's decided, I usually listen to you, but this time you listen to me once!" ”

The two argued, and in the end Ziad could not survive Daoud, so he had to stay with a thousand infantry to block the pursuers, while he drove to the nearest lake with the remaining more than a thousand cavalry and more than three thousand infantry.

Far away, Zhao Hu saw that the Great Food Army had divided its troops, most of them changed their march route and headed southwest, and a small number of the Great Food Army stopped and began to line up.

"It seems that the Great Food Army also knows that blindly escaping is not the way, leaving these people to block our pursuit, and wants to get most of the men and horses out of our pursuit!"

Zhao Hu thought in his heart, and immediately shouted to the generals behind him: "Their brigade has changed its marching route, it may be to go to a nearby lake to replenish drinking water, you take 3,000 people to pursue their brigade of men, it is best to take a detour to reach the nearest lake before them, remember not to fight with them, these people are already doomed to death, it is not cost-effective to fight hard, drive them to the original march route, and leave the rest of these people to me!" ”

The general was surprised: "General, there are more than 1,000 cavalry left behind to block our army, and after the general takes away 3,000 people, the general will only have more than 1,000 people, and he does not have an advantage in terms of troops!" ”

Zhao Hu said loudly: "Don't worry, their real cavalry is only more than a thousand people, the rest are infantry, although these people who stayed behind are all riding horses, they should all be infantry, if we Xiqin can't deal with these infantry on horseback, it's better to go home and pick up the children!" ”

The general thought that Zhao Hu was reasonable, and hugged his fists and said: "Okay, the general is careful, and he will keep in mind the general's entrustment!" ”

After speaking, he immediately ordered: "The second, third, and fourth battalions follow me!" ”

Three thousand cavalry were taken away by the generals, and only one thousand five hundred cavalry were left under Zhao Hu, although it was five hundred more than the one thousand people of the Great Food Army who blocked them, but this number did not have an obvious advantage in terms of strength, but what was this for the Western Qin cavalry?

At the position of more than three miles away from the Great Food Army's formation, the Western Qin Army slowed down its running speed, and Zhao Hu yelled at the flag officer behind him: "Order all the soldiers to change horses, maintain their running speed, and form a double-edged arrow formation!" ”

After the flag was played, the soldiers of the Western Qin Army began to change horses, and after changing horses, they began to line up in the run, and the double-edged arrow formation was a left and a right two arrows, like two arrows, if they charged, they could divide the enemy army into three parts after penetrating the enemy formation, and they could not respond to each other.

In front of the Great Food Army, a commander said to Daoud: "General, the Western Qin army has seen our intention to stop them, and they have also divided their troops, and the large group of men and horses are chasing after General Ziad, and the rest of these people are going to deal with us!" ”

Daoud thought for a while and said, "We are now in charge of our own affairs, and Zhao Hu wants to use such people to eliminate us?" He's too delusional! Let the brothers be ready for battle, we have to fight with the Western Qin people! ”

"Yes, General!"