Tibet

30,000 cavalrymen came in overwhelming numbers and entered the 200-step line. Guo Ziyi ordered: "Fire arrows and mines!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The drums sounded loudly, and 5,000 large yellow crossbows fired at the same time. 5,000 arrows and mines were fired at the same time, disappearing in the air in an instant, and shooting towards the rear of the enemy cavalry.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" There was an explosion on the ground, which was extremely spectacular. This was not an explosion of 50 bombs, but an explosion of 5,000 mines. If one mine killed two people, it would be 10,000 people, not to mention far more than two people.

There were violent explosions one after another, and the sound of the explosions covered the screams, and the smoke was filled.

The cavalry in front was frightened and pulled the reins one after another. The cavalry behind rushed over, shouting and neighing, and the battlefield was in chaos.

Ten thousand heavy crossbow soldiers quickly coordinated to string the second arrow mine, lit the fuse, and fired again.

Five thousand arrows were fired at the dense cavalry again. After the first round of explosions, the smoke of the battlefield had not yet dissipated, and the Khitan cavalry was still in shock. As a result, the second round came again, and again violent explosions occurred in the crowd.

Xu Zongran, the general of the Modao Army, could not help but sigh. This time, their Modao Army had no chance.

Yelu Salad, like all the Khitan soldiers, was stunned by the explosion in front of him. When the smoke dissipated, thousands of cavalry were desperately rushing back. Only two rounds of explosions killed and injured more than 25,000 people.

This frightened the remaining 60,000 Khitan troops.

At this time, the horn of the Tang army sounded, and Xi Wanli led 30,000 cavalrymen to go out, followed by 10,000 spearmen.

Yelu Salad knew that his army's morale was completely gone, but he did not dare to retreat. Once he retreated, the infantry would cause the whole army to collapse.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and shout: "All troops, go and fight!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The 60,000 Khitan troops had to fight with all their might, with 20,000 cavalry in front and 40,000 infantry in the back.

The two armies gradually approached, and the Tang cavalry drew out their explosive arrows, drew their bows and arrows, and shot at the enemy cavalry.

They used old-style explosive arrows, which were easy to explode. Whether they hit the enemy's armor or touched the ground, they would explode. Since their introduction, they have caused hundreds of casualties among Tang soldiers.

For this reason, the Firearms Department made improvements again, changing the small pottery jar at the front of the explosive arrow to a small porcelain jar, so that it was no longer so fragile, and it would explode only when it hit hard objects such as stone slabs and wooden boards.

Although the safety was greatly improved, the practicality was greatly reduced, so it was not as popular with Tang soldiers as it was at the beginning.

Under the strong appeal of the generals and soldiers, the Privy Council made improvements, allowing the two types of explosive arrows to be used at the same time, and distinguished by color, red for old and black for new, and at the same time limiting the scope of use. For example, the old explosive arrows were not allowed to be used during training. In addition, the special quiver was improved. Most accidents were caused by soldiers accidentally causing explosions when drawing arrows.

With a series of targeted improvements and the increasingly skilled operation of the soldiers, the explosion accidents were rapidly reduced. In the past two months, no explosion accidents have occurred.

At this time, the Tang army soldiers used red feather explosive arrows, that is, the old explosive explosive arrows. Whether they hit the enemy or not, they would explode.

Thirty thousand Tang army cavalrymen shot tens of thousands of explosive arrows in an instant, which rained down on the enemy's twenty thousand cavalrymen, triggering a series of crackling explosions. Countless Khitan soldiers screamed and fell off their horses. More than five thousand people were killed or injured in a hail of arrows.

The rest of the cavalrymen had already been scared to death and turned around to flee, with three thousand Tang army cavalrymen chasing them from behind.

The rout of 20,000 cavalrymen triggered the desperate escape of 40,000 infantrymen behind them. The Khitan army was defeated. Yelu Salad repeatedly shouted but could not stop. Seeing that the situation was over, he could only sigh and ride his horse to escape.

The 30,000 cavalrymen of the Tang army chased for nearly 40 miles in one breath. The 20,000 cavalrymen led by Xi Wanli were extremely powerful. They were not in a hurry to kill the enemy soldiers, but stabbed them with a gun and continued to chase, leaving 10,000 cavalrymen and 10,000 infantrymen chasing from the back door to kill them. This was extremely efficient, and tens of thousands of Khitan troops eventually died.

Only Yelu Salad escaped the pursuit of the Tang army with thousands of cavalrymen among the 90,000 Khitan troops, and the rest of the 90,000 troops were annihilated.

But the Tang army did not stop chasing. Zhang Dian led 10,000 cavalrymen to chase all the way north. In the order given to them by the emperor, Yelu Salad must be killed, and his descendants were not allowed to leave a single one.

This was the red decree, and it was also the highest decree of the Liaodong Campaign. Although he didn't know why, Guo Ziyi still followed the order to the letter.

This task was placed on Zhang Dian.

The next day, at dawn, there were faint shouts of killing ahead, and Zhang Dian immediately led the cavalry to follow.

The bodies of the Khitan cavalry were scattered all over the ground. They were the thousands of Khitan troops they had been chasing for more than 80 miles. They were intercepted by Nan Jiyun's army, and in a great battle, almost the entire army was destroyed.

When Nan Jiyun heard that Zhang Dian was chasing Yelu Salad, he hurriedly ordered the entire army to search for the bodies, but did not find the target.

At this time, a Langjiang said: "General Nan, I saw about a hundred cavalry guards and one person broke through to the northeast."

Zhang Dian was very anxious and wanted to lead the army to chase immediately. Nan Jiyun quickly prepared two horses for Zhang Dian and brought him a month's worth of dry food.

Zhang Dian then led 500 elite cavalry to chase in the northwest direction.

Among the three armies heading north, Guo Ziyi had to fight against the main force of the Khitan. His troops did not dare to move too fast, for fear that the team would be stretched too long and be ambushed by the enemy. Nan Jiyun's army had to cooperate with Guo Ziyi, so they also could not move too fast.

Only Ma Lin's army had a clear mission, which was to sweep across the Khitan's nest. The 50,000-strong army marched without any worries and entered the land of Xidi a few days ago.

The army marched northward all the way. On this morning, a river suddenly appeared in the distance. They found the Khitan's nest with endless tents stationed on both sides of the river.

Ma Lin drew his sword and shouted, "Go in, kill all men without mercy!"

The 50,000-strong army rushed to the Khitan's nest.

Three days later, Guo Ziyi's army also arrived at the Khitan's nest. At this time, the 50,000 Tang army had combed the entire Khitan tribe several times like combing hair with a comb.

Like the Xi people in the south, all the Khitan nobles were killed, including men, women, old and young. The rest of the young and strong men who dared to resist were also killed by the Tang army. Only a small number of older men and more than 200,000 women and children were left, all of whom were ordinary people.

Of course, although the Khitan tribe is large, with a population of nearly one million, the core tribe is not large, with only hundreds of thousands of people, and the rest are dependent tribes, such as the Xi tribe with a population of more than 200,000, some Xi people, Shiwei people, Mohe people, Bohai people, etc.

These dependent tribes basically left more than ten days ago, and each went to find a place to make a living, or to rely on other tribes.

For more than 20 years, the Khitan has been fighting without a break, and the army has consumed a lot. This time, the Tang army launched the final decisive battle against the Khitan.

Except for the nobles, the Khitan did not go to the battlefield. The rest of the young and strong men were all equipped, and only then did they piece together an army of 90,000. There were no young and strong men left, only middle-aged and elderly men. In addition, the average life expectancy of the Khitan people was very short. Most people could only live to more than 40 years old, and the nobles could live to 50 or 60 years old.

After killing all the nobles, there were basically not many adult men left, less than 10,000 people, and the rest were children under 14 years old.

Guo Ziyi was always prudent. He did not allow his soldiers to violate these Khitan women. Instead, he gathered them together, put them on a big cart, swept away all the wealth of Khitan, and headed for Yingzhou.

Guo Ziyi was thoughtful. Many of his soldiers had no wives. He considered selecting tens of thousands of young women to be wives for his soldiers.

Preserving their innocence was actually preserving the face of his soldiers.

He told his men his ideas, and his generals unanimously agreed not to indulge the soldiers.

And the soldiers were registered. Those who were willing to marry these Khitan women were all registered, and they were selected and matched after Yingzhou.

Khitan had been destroyed, but there was one last detail, which was Zhang Dian's pursuit of Yelu Salad.

Zhang Dian was known as the first scout of the Tang Dynasty. He had rich experience and strong tracking ability. He kept staring at the other party with the traces and smells of his horse's hooves.

In the hilly mountains in the north, Zhang Dian had been tracking the enemy for three days. Yelu Salad tried several methods but failed to get rid of Zhang Dian. Instead, his men kept decreasing, from 120 to more than 50. Some of them were sent out by him, and some secretly left him.

At this time, they had entered the territory of the Shiwei tribe. Yelu Salad had a good relationship with the Shiwei tribe. He was determined to find the Shiwei tribe. They had been out of food for two days. If they continued to endure, they would starve to death.

At noon, crossing a hill, Yelu Salad suddenly saw hundreds of large tents at the foot of the mountain. He was overjoyed and ran towards the tent group with the last 50 men.

Two hours later, Zhang Dian and his men also found the tent group.

At the same time, he found the horse hooves that had been tracking him all the way outside the tent group and disappeared into the tent group.