The same chasing each other for straddle horses is not a thing that can have results in a short period of time, Zhang Cang's rangers have been chasing for nearly two moments from the discovery of someone on the hillside to the chase, not only did not close the distance but farther, during which it was not without Han army rangers from other directions to block it, but the fleeing enemy can always rely on the speed of the war horse under the crotch to quickly avoid and open the distance again.

"What's going on?" Zhang Cang felt confused and puzzled.

The Ranger horses of the Han Army are all selected from the excellent Longxi horses, which pay attention to long-distance endurance, and indeed maintain a certain speed during the chase, the problem is that the group of people who fled seem to be more excellent?

The Xiongnu's horse breed is not much stronger than Longxi horse, and in general, it is not as explosive as Longxi horse or Zhao Di horse, but now it doesn't seem to be like that?

The main reason is that it is a little far away, and it is difficult for the rangers of the Han army to see clearly the war horses under the seats of the fleeing people, if they can see clearly, they will definitely find that the horses ridden by Mao Dun and others are not Hun horses at all, they are a kind of West Pole horses with a height of about one meter six, the body lines are full of uniformity, the head is small and exquisite, the eyes are big, the head and neck are high, the limbs are strong, and so on.

The West Pole Horse is the legendary sweat and blood horse, but the real scientific name is the Ili Horse. Now, of course, it's called the Pole Horse, because it was brought by the groups that migrated from west to east.

Different from the Ili horses of later generations who were confused because of their long-term ancestry in the Western Regions, although the Ili horses of later generations still maintained the excellent characteristics of many Kazakh horse breeds, the height of the horses was already less than 1.5 meters, and the height of the West Pole horses ridden by Mao Dun and others was generally more than 1.5 meters, and the tallest even exceeded 1.6 meters and nearly 1.7 meters.

If the Han army rangers chased on the plains, the Longxi horses, who were good at galloping on flat ground, would definitely catch up gradually, but Mao Dun and the others chose to be on an uneven road, and of course they had an advantage for the West Pole horses, who were good at running on mountain roads.

Maudun occasionally looked back at the Han army who was hanging far behind, and his free hand caressed the horse's mane with affection. He knew that the horses under his seat were not the best of the eastward migration group, and that there were many excellent breeds of horses besides the West Pole horse, such as an extremely majestic hot-blooded horse (i.e., the Arabian horse), and a horse breed that looked not only tall but also had a long line from Europa.

Of course, the nomads know that there are different types of horses, such as the horses raised by the Huns themselves are full of endurance and have a strong adaptability to harsh conditions, and other types of horses are full of short-range explosiveness, good at mountains, good at deserts, and good at wetlands.

Maudun has spent a lot of money to buy a number of different horse breeds from various ethnic groups that have migrated eastward, and he is already planning to observe them when the time is right, hoping to have horses with different uses.

Of course, those tribes will never sell the best and best war horses in the clan, so Mao Dun is not without the intention of stealing once he is out of danger.

"Give up high-speed racing. Just follow slowly and slowly at a flat speed? Xiahou Ying saw that he was getting farther and farther away, and asked after riding his horse close to Zhang Cang.

This chase has been going on for nearly half an hour, chasing from the original slope to the mountain road, if you want to chase it any further, you can only follow the gang into the valley surrounded by several mountains.

Feng Lin Don't Advance has always been emphasized in Chinese military history, and it is juxtaposed with the mountain not to go forward, after all, without enough intelligence as a basis, who dares to guarantee that there will be no ambush?

It is several directions that are encircled together, and Zhang Cang's pursuit this time is indeed enough as long as he maintains enough pressure. He was about to say something, but the group of people running in front of him seemed to have an accident?

Mao Dun and the others in the gallop were already slowing down their horses and preparing to change horses to ride. Suddenly, when the front hooves of the war horse under the seat of a person stepped down, he suddenly neighed and stood up and fluttered two front hooves, and the rider on the horseback was thrown out because the situation was too sudden and did not react, and the person who was thrown out was very unlucky to hit the ground with his head first, only to hear the sound of "click" and his neck was directly broken. He didn't even struggle, his head twisted very strangely and lay on the ground motionless.

"It's the representative of the Wan tribe, and his mount's horse's hooves have collapsed......"

Wan? "Wan" depends on the transliteration, as for the real clan name no one is interested in researching, Mao Dun's deepest impression of this ethnic group is that it is very good at herding horses. The horses owned by its group are also very good, and there is even a horse king named "Tianma" in the clan, such as the West Pole horse that can be ridden this time is mostly provided by the Wan tribe.

"Kill the horse with the broken hooves. Tie the dead man to the horse, and we continue walking. Maudun made a decisive decision.

Zhang Cang, who had already planned not to continue the pursuit, naturally did not speak when he saw that the group of people had an accident, and the team kept the state of pursuit approaching, but although Mao Dun and the others delayed for a while, waiting for Mao Dun and the others to start driving the horse and running again, Zhang Cang approached the accident site and saw a horse with its neck cut open and lying on the ground twitching.

Ordered to stop the pursuit, Zhang Cang took the lead in turning over and jumping off the horse after arranging the sentry post, he stepped on the horse blood flowing on the ground and approached, and after a little identification, he soon found that the horse lying on the ground and twitching was a horse breed that had never been seen before.

"Looking at the amount of bleeding, the carotid artery has been completely severed, and there is no way to save it." Xiahou Ying also watched closely: "I have never seen horses of this size before, they are very fast, but their endurance does not seem to be very good, and they are good at walking mountain roads?" ”

Xiahou Ying was talking nonsense, chasing down all the way down the Han Army rangers only changed once, but those people were transferred three times in a row within half an hour, and the mountain road was still walking like a fly, who couldn't see that he was good at walking on the mountain road. In addition, the horse lying on the ground, its neck wound is so big and deep, and the amount of blood is so much, the carotid artery must have been severed.

Zhang Cang didn't say anything, he moved his position to lift the hooves of the dead horse, and found that the horse's left front hoof had a sharp stone inserted into the horse's shoe, apparently it was the pain that caused it to throw the rider out of the horse's back.

"In fact, as long as you pull out the sharp stones and bandage the horse a little, you can still run without weight," Xiahou Ying is also a person who understands horses, after all, his previous profession was to drive cars, and he has a lot of contact with horses: "They slaughtered such an excellent war horse without even inspecting it." ”

"......" Zhang Cang glanced at Xiahou Ying, who was still nagging, and beckoned to others: "Clean it up and take it back to the camp." ”

"Junhou, let's not chase after you?" Xiahou Ying saw a signal flare rising in the sky more than once: "The front should be about to complete the encirclement." ”

"You have a lot of words, I need to consider whether to report and replace Sima from another department." Zhang Cang arranged for the manpower to transport the horse carcass back. Loudly beckoned to the robe to get back on his horse.

Xiahou Ying shouted something that he didn't know what to say, turned over his horse with quick movements, and repeated the instructions Zhang Cang had just given. His behavior made Zhang Cang even more speechless, and some of the robes around him were rolling their eyes, and more of them were smiling.

Mao Dun and the others, who had already fled, were not blind, although they didn't know what the colored thing was that kind of "huh-" rising in the air with a color, but as long as it was not a negative intelligence, they could always guess that it was a means of communication for the Han army.

The Huaxia ethnic group is a powerful race, and they have never had any objection to this, whether it is the steppe Hu people in the north or the barbarians in the dense forests in the south. The things and things created by the Chinese civilization have been influencing the surrounding area. It's like the hieroglyphs and some living habits of various ethnic groups of Chinese civilization, but this time the fresh product is really too bizarre, right?

There was another "boom" in Mao Dun's ears, and there was a pillar of red smoke in the air not far away, and he was thinking about whether that thing was a new weapon, and he was also thinking about how long it would take to cut off the retreat, whether his own troops in ambush in the basin were rushing towards this side, and whether they had collided with the Han army after coming.

The tool used by the Han army to inform each other of their positions was a signal flare, which was actually a non-intense gunpowder that the monks had tossed out after six or seven years of research. What is non-violent? It is gunpowder that does not have enough explosive power, and this kind of thing has actually been used by Fang Shi as a necessity for alchemy as early as the Spring and Autumn Period. That is, baking the material that allows the pill to shrink into a pellet, or is it gradually developed to the correct use of gunpowder due to Lu Zhe's intervention, but so far it is to research the gunpowder that can be used for signal flares, and there is still a long way to go to drive the propellant force of the projectile suitable for artillery and muskets.

Of course, there are mountainous areas near the source of the Yellow River. But in general, it is not very dense, most of the area is a state of plains and small local basins, Mao Dun and the others quickly walked out of the valley, and the moment they came out of the valley, they saw that there were already two groups of men and horses in front of them.

On one side was the 5,000 Qin cavalry led by Zhang Han. Their opponents were the 5,000 Hun cavalry arranged by Maudun as a response, as well as a small number of cavalry of various tribes.

At this time, the cavalry of the Qin army had already invested at least 3,000 cavalry, and the remaining 2,000 cavalry were personally led by Zhang Han to move around the periphery of the battle site. The Huns and the cavalry of various ethnic groups were in a state of complete devotion. After all, they wanted to open a gap so that Maudun and the representatives of the various tribes could cross the blockade.

The cavalry of the Qin army used crossbows and bows to release arrows in a swimming state, and the Huns and cavalry of various ethnic groups did not have crossbows, which were killing tools, and could only shoot back with various types of bows such as horn bows.

The battlefield is full of "booming" horses' hooves, and the cavalry of the two sides riding on horseback is competing in such an extremely unbalanced state of engagement, and from time to time there will be a muffled snort or scream from the arrow, and some of the cavalry who are hit by the arrow can stay on horseback because they are not fatal, and the cavalry who is directly hit in the vital part falls off the horse.

Why is it extremely unbalanced? That's because only the Qin army is currently shooting arrows, and the Xiongnu and cavalry of various ethnic groups have not yet entered their own range.

"Our crossbows are almost finished," Qin Jun, who looked like a lieutenant-level Qin Jun who spoke from the outfit, asked for orders: "Is it to retreat for a new round of reloading, or to directly charge?" ”

The Qin army's mounted crossbow is not a burst type, in fact, it is a crossbow that can only shoot one shot and then re-open the string. This thing is a monster with a maximum range of about five hundred meters, but it is too troublesome to load, and I don't know why the Qin army will equip this thing on the cavalry system.

In fact, as long as you look at the ongoing engagement, you can probably deduce that the Qin army is equipped with crossbows on the cavalry, and what is currently happening is that the cavalry of the Qin army is firing arrows from a long distance, and a kind of swimming form of band shooting is changing with the position of the overall cavalry, forming a continuous state of non-stagnant shooting.

Because the range was long enough, the Qin army could give priority to long-range killing capabilities without being threatened, but the Xiongnu and cavalry of various ethnic groups were facing a dilemma because their bows and arrows were not enough, and they would be shot endlessly on the way to the past, and they would also face endless shots if they didn't rely on the past.

It is estimated that at this moment, the Hu commander who commanded the Huns and the cavalry of various ethnic groups was in a state of semi-collapse in his heart? It was too embarrassing to be completely beaten and unable to fight back, but the Huns and the cavalry of various tribes generally showed a posture of braving the continuous shooting of crossbow arrows.

Mao Dun, who was watching from a distance, was actually frightened, of course he saw that it was the Qin army who was killing his cavalry by taking advantage of the long-range killing equipment, and he was very surprised by the cavalry tactics of the Qin army's cavalry, if the Qin cavalry could maintain the continuity of this long-range lethality, then there was no need to fight when facing the Qin cavalry, and the only option left was to flee as soon as he saw it.

Naturally, the representatives of the various ethnic groups also saw what happened on the battlefield, and they showed various expressions on their faces, and they didn't know what they were discussing with each other in strange language, but looking at the frightened expressions on everyone's faces probably wouldn't be a good thing for the Huns.

Just when Mao Dun's heart was full of mixed feelings, and when the representatives of various ethnic groups were chirping crookedly and not talking about anything, the cavalry of the Qin army suddenly stopped running, and the black-pressed cavalry turned around and retreated in the sound of the horn.

The people who saw that scene were basically in a stunned state of mind, one moment they were still unusually ferocious unilateral damage output, and the next moment they had to retreat as if they had suddenly collapsed, this kind of behavior was too weird.

"They can't always maintain that posture, so as long as they can endure the losses on the way of the charge, they will definitely be able to defeat the opponent as soon as they get close!" Maudun immediately said when he saw that picture.

Is that really the case? Nobody knows. Now no one has the strength to compare the truth, didn't they see the shadow of the Han cavalry in the distance? It's better to hurry over to the rendezvous and get out of here as quickly as possible...... (To be continued......)