Chapter 740: Chapter 574: Scare Them!
Soldiers huddled in groups of threes and fives, lying together; they simply took off their saddles to lay them on the ground, either sitting or lying down.
Campfires burned in clusters, cooking meat soup in iron pots.
There was no lack of firewood here; just chopping a few trees was enough for their use, nor was there a shortage of water, with an unnamed small river not far away.
They still had plenty of horse meat, and a lot of game too, as the snowy plains teemed with wild animals.
Such as tigers, bears, wolves, wild boars, and so on.
Nevertheless, with so many people and horses, they had ravaged the surrounding area for more than ten miles quite severely.
By the time dawn broke, the jungles within the ten-mile radius had become a complete mess, fortunately, this world had no environmental protection laws, nor were there environmentalists to condemn them.
Just as the sky began to lighten, Yang Zhenshan led the army towards the small tribe they had scouted yesterday.
The tribe Yang Minghao scouted yesterday wasn’t large, totaling barely over a thousand people.
Such a small tribe is likely not part of the Hu Clan; they should be a tribe that is independent between the Hu Clan and the snowy wildlands.
How could a small tribe withstand the military might of tens of thousands of soldiers?
With the army’s advance, the battle was over in less than half an hour.
Men, women, old and young, all perished under the slaughtering blade, perhaps only some wailing infants were spared, but Yang Zhenshan would not care for those infants.
Those infants, in such an environment, wouldn’t survive long anyway.
Once they left, it wouldn’t take long for packs of wild animals to be attracted here, and they too would feast.
This small tribe didn’t provide much in the way of supplies, mainly dried meat and wild vegetables, with over two thousand head of cattle and sheep, and more than three hundred horses, only managing to scrape together about ten pounds of salt.
It was evident that this was an extremely poor tribe.
Yang Minghao also found some wild mushrooms and stewed a pot of soup with dried wild vegetables and mushrooms.
"Dad, try this, it’s tastier than meat!"
Yang Zhenshan took the clay bowl, slowly sipping it.
Hmm, indeed tastier than dried meat.
Just ordinary wild vegetables and mushrooms, aside from salt, no other seasonings were added; how good could it be?
But in the eyes of the soldiers now, it was a rare delicacy.
A bowl of bland vegetable soup tasted better than the mutton pot.
Yang Zhenshan, watching the setting sun slowly disappear, said, "Now we should still be north of the Chi Ci Tribe, and next, we have to continue traveling nearly two thousand miles westward to enter the territory of the Wuliang Tribe!"
The Wuliang Tribe is the Royal Tribe of the Wuliang Royal Court, simply put, the tribe directly under the Wuliang Royal Court, including tribes belonging to the Wuliang Clan as well as medium and small tribes dependent on the Wuliang Clan.
"These two thousand miles should be much easier to travel, all flat grasslands!" said Yang Minghao.
Yang Chengxu said, "But we still need to replenish supplies, the supplies we got today are too little, and there’s no grain, only some dried meat!"
Yang Zhenshan nodded slightly, "Before we reach the territory of the Wuliang Tribe, we must not expose our whereabouts; every time we attack a tribe, we must ensure not a single survivor is left!"
The reason they circumvented Menghe Mountain from the north was not just to cross Menghe Mountain. If it was just for crossing Menghe Mountain, they could have taken the treacherous paths through the mountains with Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze; there was no need to venture so far into the snowy wildlands.
Yang Zhenshan intended to take Yemi City by surprise.
Only if Yemi City was completely unguarded, could he take the city in one fell swoop; otherwise, even with his troops at the foot of Yemi City, it would be difficult to capture it quickly.
After all, Yemi City is the King City of the Wuliang Royal Court; its walls are certainly no shorter than those of Chongshan Pass.
After resting for another night, the army began moving towards Yemi City along the edge of the snowy wildlands.
And it was at this time that Wu Tuo outside Linyuan City finally received the news that enemy forces had penetrated deep into the territory of the Royal Court.
By now, the Hu Shan River outside Linyuan City had been filled in, and Wu Tuo had ordered the army to attack the city for five days, yet even after five days, they had not once reached the city walls of Linyuan City.
The task of siege had already been troublesome enough for Wu Tuo, and now he was even more annoyed to suddenly receive news of enemy forces causing chaos in the heartland of the Royal Court.
"How did those enemy forces enter the heartland of the Royal Court?"
In the tent, Wu Tuo asked darkly.
The officials and generals of the Wuliang Royal Court inside the tent were all perplexed; they knew nothing of this matter.
At this moment, Wu Tuo’s trusted general Agoucher said, "Great King, the enemy forces might have come over Menghe Mountain!"
"Isn’t Tang Wuxi guarding Menghe Mountain?" Wu Tuo asked coldly.
"Tang Wuxi is only holding Menghe Mountain Pass; there may be other small paths over Menghe Mountain, or maybe they could round the mountain from the south or north!" Agoucher said.
Wu Tuo’s face grew dark, "The north of Menghe Mountain is the snowy wildlands. Even if they wanted to bypass from there, they could not do so quickly. And as for the south, that territory belongs to the Tatar Tribe; if they bypassed from the south, the Tatar Tribe would surely know it!"
Agoucher said, "Then they must have taken a small path!"
Wu Tuo said, "A small path, even Tang Wuxi, that fool, claimed there’s only one way through Menghe Mountain, the mountain pass. Now the army from Chongshan Town has crossed over a small path!"
Tang Wuxi suspected that Yang Mingzhen and his group had gone through Beiyuan Town, but Wu Tuo was quite certain that not a single army from Beiyuan Town could have made it.
Because at this moment, the soldiers of Beiyuan Town were retreating step by step, the Northern barbarian cavalry was conquering fortresses all along the way. Though the fighting was hard, they had indeed breached many garrison forts and stations.