Basins of various sizes in the Western Regions were scattered all over the place, making it easy for an army to move freely. It was difficult to set up a defense. Therefore, in history, the Central Plains dynasties could only reach the Western Regions during their heyday. The Beiliang Protectorate's saying followed the rise of the Great Feng Dynasty. Today, the three towns of Qing Cang, Lin Yao, and Feng Xiang existed to connect the Western Regions and the Central Plains. In the vast area to the west of Lin Yao, the Miyun Pass was the main passageway. Mount Lantuo was located on the left side of the pass, making it a natural place to store troops.
One after another, two cavalry armies slowly moved east along this wide mountain pass. The latter was a typical Northern Mang light cavalry formation. Apart from the hundred-man commanders and thousand-man commanders who wore armor that was no different from the Central Plains' cavalry generals, the cavalry mostly wore light and durable armor made from leather. They were equipped with all sorts of weapons, including cavalry sabers, spears, cavalry bows, and there were even many wolf-tooth clubs and horse lassos hanging from the sides of the auxiliary horses. That vanguard cavalry was clearly even 'heavier'. For the sake of not harming the warhorses' legs, there were two additional mounts, the two mounts separately carrying 'armors', namely weapons and armor. The 'armored horses' had eye-catching armor pouches hanging from them, the set of armor almost completely covered in leather on the inside and either scale armor or chain mail on the outside. The weapons were also comparatively more orderly, all of them being spears, cavalry bows and cavalry blades, all of them hanging from the soldiers' horses. Meanwhile, this cavalry army numbering around three thousand also had leather armor on their warhorses. Just from the scale of this one man three mounts, one could tell that regardless of how strong or weak these three thousand cavalry were, they were definitely the 'old man's army' in Northern Mang's border army.
According to Beimang's trusted enemy, the Beiliang Frontier Army, the Beimang Border Army could be divided into three types. The cavalry nicknamed the "Son's Army" belonged to the elites of the Southern Dynasties, with each man riding two horses. They could be considered the sons of the Southern Dynasties' influential officials. They did not lack anything good. Their horses were excellent, and their armors were excellent. The cavalry of important military towns such as the Tile-Building Gentleman's Pavilion were among them. As for the Sun Zijun Army, they were much inferior. In the eyes of the cavalry outside Beiliang, especially outside the Liangzhou Pass, they were no different from military exploits on horseback. There was also a powerful cavalry force known as the Laozi Army, which was not to be underestimated. They had as many as three or even five auxiliary horses. For example, Dong Zhuo's private cavalry, Hong Jingyan's Rouran Iron Cavalry, and the personal troops of the Beimang Generals such as Liu Gui and Yang Yuanzan were all like this. Although their numbers were small, their combat power was extremely strong. There was no situation where they did not dare to fight to the death due to the disparity in numbers. If they won, they would be like a hot knife through butter, but if they lost, they would be completely wiped out. To a large extent, they were able to dominate the situation on the battlefield.
After the first battle of Liang Mang, the noble clans of the Southern Dynasty who had placed their bets on the battlefields of Liuzhou and Youzhou were greatly weakened. Since they could not rely on Liu Gui and Yang Yuanzan, the six or seven great clans of the Southern Dynasty who were connected with each other had learned their lesson and placed their bets on the famous Xia Jemo, Zhong Tan. Of course, Zhong Tan, who enjoyed the shade of a big tree, also took out a lot of his family's savings. The 3,000 elite cavalrymen were from the Zhong Family, and half of them were sent to Zhong Tan. Even General Zhong Shentong had no more than 3,000 private cavalrymen under his command, which showed how much the Zhong Family valued this legitimate son of the eldest branch. However, this was not surprising. After all, Zhong Tan was a junior that even the Empress personally praised in the imperial court. Looking at the Beimang officialdom for 20 years, among the seniors in the imperial court, only Liu Gui and Dong Zhuo had such an honor.
Zhong Tan rode on a Ferghana horse nicknamed "Beauty". The young general, who should have been proud of himself, had a gloomy look in his eyes as he looked into the distance of the mountain pass. A trusted chiliarch beside him asked curiously, "Young Lord, more than 80 horse stalls have been sent out, and they are all our men, so there won't be any mistakes. I estimate that there won't be any battles before we reach the Phoenix military town in Liuzhou. What is young lord worried about?"
Zhong Tan's ears rang with the familiar sound of hooves and camel bells. He frowned and said, "It's too quiet."
The chiliarch from the Zhong Family scratched his big bald head and grinned. "Young Lord's trip to Mount Lantuo was unexpected, so it's normal that the Beiliang Frontier Army didn't react in time. The pitiful cavalry in Liuzhou would have a hard time dealing with Huang Songpu's troops. How could they have the time to deal with us? "
Zhong Tan sighed and said worriedly, "In the previous battle, Dong Zhuo had already taken down Liangzhou's Hutou City and maintained a balance of power in Liuzhou. In the end, they lost the entire battle because Youzhou lost too badly. This time, the battle is to the north of Bibei City, but the key to victory is in Liuzhou. What I'm afraid of is that I'll lose in both wars because of where I am … "
The chiliarch hurriedly interrupted Zhong Tan's unlucky words and said resentfully, "Young Lord, don't jinx it!"
Zhong Tan laughed self-deprecatingly. Then, with a determined look in his eyes, he said in a deep voice, "Keep an eye on the horse fence at the front and send back spies. If there are any abnormalities, our three thousand cavalry in the vanguard will prepare for battle and rush out of Mount Miyun as quickly as possible. We must ensure that the six thousand cavalry behind us can spread out their formation on flat ground."
The reason why Xia Jemo personally led three thousand cavalrymen to open the way was that he was worried that they would be blocked in Mount Miyun. The six thousand cavalrymen behind him, who came from various sources, might not be able to successfully block the sudden charge of Beiliang's cavalry. They might even be forced by the enemy to the point where the seawater would flow backward. If that happened, it would be a one-sided slaughter in Mount Miyun. Even though the monk soldiers of Mount Lantuo were close at hand, it was of little significance to a cavalry battle where victory or defeat could be decided in a fleeting moment. Zhong Tan, who had experienced the bitter war at Hulukou from the beginning to the end, knew very well that the superiority and inferiority of military strength on paper were all false. Not only did the battle at Liang Mang prove this point, but the two young men, Xie Xibian and Kou Jianghuai, also proved this point with one unimaginable victory after another during the reestablishment of West Chu at Guangling Road in the Central Plains.
Although Zhong Tan had a discussion with his father, Zhong Shentong, and his little uncle, Zhong Liang, beforehand, they believed that the dangerous situation in Liuzhou did not allow Beiliang to dispatch twenty thousand cavalrymen to intercept them, and that once their military strength was less than twenty thousand cavalrymen, then Zhong Tan's ten thousand cavalrymen and the nearly ten thousand monk soldiers of Mount Lantuo who were about to rush to the battlefield would be in an invincible position on any battlefield to the west of Liuzhou. However, Zhong Tan never felt that there was anything inevitable on the battlefield. During the monarch's question and answer session at the imperial court in Xijing, Her Majesty praised this young man endlessly in front of all the important ministers. Zhong Tan did not say much, and said that "there was nothing outstanding about him, and he could only be cautious in using troops." This was not only to give consideration to the face of Liu Gui, Dong Zhuo, and the other "defeated generals", but more importantly, it was a true portrayal of Zhong Tan's disposition of troops.
Zhong Tan muttered to himself, "As long as I get out of this Miyun Pass, even if you, Hsu Fengnian, have the ability to stir up clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with one turn of the hand in Liuzhou, it won't affect the overall situation. However, even if you have the courage to come and intercept me, can you really stop me? "
Even though they were close to the exit, there was still some distance to go, and the latest military intelligence sent back by the stables didn't have any abnormalities. However, Zhong Tan suddenly narrowed his eyes and issued a strange military order. "Three thousand vanguard cavalrymen, change horses! Put on armor! "
Zhong Tan took the lead and charged forward.
If there were no Beiliang cavalrymen waiting outside the pass, then it would just be treated as a military exercise.
— —
In the art of war, there had always been a saying of attacking halfway, and it varied according to the time and place.
A young and scholarly cavalry general raised his arm, and the six thousand cavalrymen behind him suddenly stopped.
He raised his head and looked towards the Miyun Pass about three li away. The six thousand men behind him were all travel-worn, revealing exhausted expressions. One person riding two horses, both men and horses were exhausted. Logically speaking, under such circumstances, without at least half an hour of rest and reorganization, their combat strength definitely wouldn't recover to its peak state. The best divine steed under the heavens could roughly run three hundred li in a day. The so-called six hundred li or even eight hundred li of haste were all obtained through the exchange of horses at the relay stations and the huge price of not being held accountable for the deaths of people killed by the courier horses. In reality, the key to determining a cavalry's speed was the stamina of the cavalry's most inferior warhorse. Those famous long distance raids were all built on the premise of harming the horses. To put it simply, they had to continuously run the weak supporting horses to death to ensure the warhorse's stamina and charging power on the battlefield. Otherwise, how could a cavalry that would be exhausted after two or three charges cause any damage to the enemy?
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