xymnovel Chapter 2167 - 1567: Sing, Dance, Then Go Die!
Chapter 2167 - 1567: Sing, Dance, Then Go Die!
The wind on the grassland was fierce, the howling autumn wind blowing, and the scent of blood from the camp spread for miles. The Mongolian wolves crouched on a distant hill, coldly watching this slaughter more brutal than themselves. Slightly smaller in size than the North American gray wolves, they ran fast enough to hunt the herders’ cattle. And solitary injured herders, carrying an unmistakable scent of blood, were, of course, also among their targets.In the cruel and frigid Northern Land, it was indeed difficult for individual tribespeople who left their tribe and lost their herd to survive. Even if they encountered other tribes, they often became captured pastoral slaves. Only the elite Wulusi warriors, or archery masters with astonishing skills, had the value to be absorbed as warriors by other tribes. Therefore, the tribal archers of the Forest Tribe who escaped did not disperse voluntarily. They were too few in number, and even if they scattered and escaped, it would be hard for them to meet a better fate.
"Tadada! Tadada!..."
"Whoosh! Whoosh whoosh!..."
The hawks circled in the sky, overlooking the chase miles away. Eight or nine tribal archers from the Forest Tribe who escaped frequently fired back without ever hitting the pursuers behind. Bule, leading the chase with several times more men and horses, had better horsepower and patience. These Mongolian archers, in their pursuit style, certainly did not foolishly chase straight from behind, leaving themselves at a disadvantage to be shot by opponents with higher ground. They only left two or three cavalrymen trailing from a distance, while the others spread out on the flanks, dispersed, detouring, circling from the outskirts, just like a real pack of wolves hunting on the grassland.
Until half a day passed in a flash, and the fleeing horses’ power was gradually exhausted, only then did the pursuers on both sides move forward, accurately throwing lassoes to pull the people or horses down with a crash. After all, whether it was people or horses, they were the spoils of war, and no one would shoot arrows at and kill their own property.
"Bule Lord, all the escaped enemies have been recaptured!"
"Sain baina! Good, very good! Bring them all back! I am eager to see the spoils of war this time and how they will be distributed!"
The captured prisoners were stripped of food and water, hands and feet bound, thrown onto horseback to be taken back. Their strength was already exhausted, with no food, water, or mounts, even if they broke free from the ropes, escaping would be a dead end. As Bule and his men returned to the camp, the small cavalry teams going to the surrounding grazing grounds also returned successively, bringing back captured herders or those shot dead, and counting more livestock from the grazing lands.
As the sun set downwards, casting red rays over the grasslands, all information was gathered in the hands of Ao Hala and Maha Agudah, they then knew all the gains from this raid.
"Haha! Six thousand sheep, more than three hundred horses, two hundred cattle, and several tens of thousands of acres of grassland! The foundation of the Forest Tribe, though slightly less than our River-side Tribe, wasn’t far off! They actually had so many livestock, the existing pastures were probably insufficient, no wonder they had to come south to compete with us..."
"A total of 250 captives were caught? None of them are old or weak, half are warriors, and the other half are children, women, and pastoral slaves?..."
Hearing the number of captives, Maha Agudah pondered silently. This raid primarily for capturing had just reduced the Forest Tribe, originally over 400 people, to two or three hundred. These killings among the Mongolian tribes were evidently much harsher than the mergers among the Jurchen Tribes.
Perhaps this was because the greatest enemy of the Jurchen was the cold nature. They never truly controlled the boundless Black Water Forest, nor dared to entertain such a disrespectful and impossible notion. But the Mongolians on horseback could indeed claim that they had already mastered the entire grassland, making the Northern Grassland reach its population limits through pastures and herds. Thus, their greatest enemy had become ’humans,’ competing for grasslands and herds, contending with other tribes for resources.
"Haha! Brother Aguda, this time we only lost twenty or thirty men, and completely swallowed the Forest Tribe... your Armored Wulusi were truly fiercely fearless! I witnessed it right beside me, that warrior called ’Wushu,’ was almost unstoppable! That iron mace he smashed down could even kill a warhorse directly, easily killed three horses!"
"...Three horses!? Wasn’t it two?"
"Yes! It was three horses. That warrior pursued fleeing enemies later, killing another horse! Remarkable! He killed at least seven or eight men altogether, didn’t he? Truly an awe-inspiring warrior like a golden eagle! Just like you, so brave like an eagle!"
"... I understood. I will find him once Wushu is back..."
"Eh? Hasn’t the warrior returned yet? I clearly saw him return... Strange, no sign of him around?"
"..."
This raid and slaughter on the Forest Tribe cost the allied tribes more than twenty losses. Most of the casualties were from the unarmored archery cavalry of the River-side Tribe, while the losses of the armored Jurchen cavalry were minimal. In such open and exposed grassland battlefields, where small tribes decided victories in a single battle, the armor had a substantial advantage over the unarmored! And the decisive armored cavalry became a terrifying force for those Ten Thousand Households Tribe to militarily suppress surrounding small tribes.
Like how Duoyan Sanwei could occupy the most fertile Nenjiang River Basin, intimidating countless small and large tribes within a thousand-mile radius, it’s by relying on a vast amount of Ming Army armor passed down from the early Ming Dynasty. When hundreds of armored cavalrymen set out, supplemented by thousands of lightly armed archers, they were almost unrivaled in the midstream and upstream areas of the Heilongjiang, except for the major tribe of the Tatars to the west. Under the strict blockade by the Ming Dynasty over the Northern Grassland, ’salt’ was second, ’iron’ was first, and ’iron armor’ was the first among firsts, the capture of which meant collective execution!