More importantly, dogs were able to obey their owners 'commands, so they became indispensable assistants when hunting.
Whether it was the Emperor of the Ninth Level Supreme Martial Artist or the ordinary hunter who roamed the forest, dogs were one of their favorite animals.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Khitans in the north gradually became stronger.
The Khitan King Yelu Deguang was the second son of the Khitan Founding Emperor Yelu Abao Ji. He was also the second emperor of the Khitan Kingdom. He was an out-and-out hound lover.
Before the Khitans entered the Central Plains on a large scale, they had always been a typical nomadic people. Hunting had always been an important source of meat for them.
It was also one of the daily pastimes of the emperors and nobles, and the hounds could not leave it for even a moment.
The hunting dogs that Yelu Deguang raised had the scientific name "Khitan Skinny Dog" in the dog classification system, also known as "Mongolian Skinny Dog".
This kind of dog was tall, had long limbs, a slender waist, and a keen sense of smell. It could run as if it was flying, and was fierce and good at fighting.
When these hounds were out hunting, their combat power was even more astonishing.
According to the History of Liao, there was a time when Liao Xingzong went hunting and met a tiger.
The Khitan Kingdom had a strong culture of raising hounds. From the emperor to the soldiers, many people raised dogs.
Every time the army went out, a large number of Khitan thin dogs would often be in groups of thousands, lingering around the team, making it a spectacle.
How powerful was the Khitan Skinny Dog?
To exaggerate, the reason why the Khitans were able to obtain the Sixteen Prefectures of the Dark Cloud Region was because of the indelible contribution made by the Khitans.
In the third year of Qing Tai of the Later Tang Dynasty (936 AD), a war broke out between Shi Jingtang, a warlord of Jinyang, and Li Congke, the king of the Later Tang Dynasty.
Shi Jingtang's power was alone, and at the cost of ceding sixteen states of Youyun, he asked the Khitan king Yelu Deguang to send troops to help fight against the Later Tang Dynasty.
Yelu Deguang had the intention of meddling in the Central Plains for a long time, and it was exactly what he wanted. Thus, he led the army south into Shanxi, and at Jin 'an Stronghold south of Jinyang City, he started a fierce battle with the Later Tang General Zhang Jingda.
Both sides were evenly matched in terms of strength, both having around 50,000 people.
However, the Khitans were all cavalry, and the Later Tang army only had more than 10,000 cavalry. It was difficult to resist Yelu Deguang's fierce offensive and was forced to rely on the small town of Jin 'an Stronghold to shrink its defense.
The Khitan cavalry was not good at attacking, and Yelu Deguang's several fierce attacks were ineffective, so they started a siege battle and surrounded Jin 'an Stronghold, trying to trap the Later Tang army in Jin' an Stronghold.
Later Tang General Zhang Jingda saw that the entire army was trapped in a tight encirclement. The food and fodder they brought were extremely limited and could not last long. Once the food ran out, the entire army would collapse. He was as anxious as ants on a hot pot.
If they wanted to break the deadlock, they could only break through the encirclement or send someone to Luoyang to ask Li Congke, the emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty, for help.
The Later Tang army had organized several strong assaults, but they were all attacked head-on. They were unable to break through the encirclement and repeatedly wanted to send people to infiltrate the encirclement to move their troops behind.
Yelu Deguang was good at using troops. He had seen through the enemy's thoughts and ordered his subordinates to defend themselves to the death, not allowing a single soldier of the Later Tang Army to escape the encirclement.
The Khitan army camped directly around Jin 'an Stronghold, which was dozens of miles long. The tents were connected like hills, and the yurts were continuous like hills.
In order to prevent any mistakes, he hung a bell as a warning.
The Khitans were at the front line, pulling up criss-crossing felt ropes and tying the bells on the warhorses 'necks to the felt ropes.
Once the enemy wanted to sneak attack or break through at night and touched the felt rope, the bells would ring together to warn the Khitan soldiers.
What was even more amazing was that Yelu Deguang also used the Khitan fine dogs that he had kept in the army.
Thousands of Khitan thin dogs patrolled the front line,"letting dogs come and go" day and night. Jin 'an Stronghold was "covered by dogs on all sides".
The Khitan Small Dog, which had always been used for hunting, had officially changed its identity at this time. It took on the role of assisting the army in combat and was responsible for guarding the position. It had completely become a military dog.
The Battle of Jin 'an Stronghold created the first historical record of large-scale use of military dogs in ancient times.
As a military dog, the Khitan Skinny Hound went to the battlefield for the first time and completed its combat mission very beautifully.
The Later Tang Army in Jin 'an Stronghold had tried many times to send small troops to sneak out of the encirclement in the dead of night. However, they were discovered by the Khitan military dogs every time and immediately barked wildly.
The Khitan army immediately heard the sound and rushed over. The Later Tang army had no choice but to retreat into the city.
The " scouts " sent by the Later Tang Army at night were also discovered by the military dogs in time.
Sometimes, when there were too few scouts, they were even bitten or subdued by a group of military dogs.
" Those who came out at night in the army were captured by the Khitans, so they closed the camp and did not dare to come out."" Dogs were extremely alert, but no one broke out."
Jin 'an Stronghold had become a dead city, and the traffic inside and outside was completely cut off.
The brutal siege lasted for more than three months.
The 50,000 soldiers of the Later Tang Dynasty in Jin 'an Stronghold did not receive any assistance at all. They had long run out of food, and they had no food or grass.
In the end, the warhorses of the Later Tang became the biggest sacrifice. Large numbers of them starved to death or were killed by the hungry soldiers as food.
At the beginning of the battle, the Later Tang army still had 10,000 horses, but slowly, they were all used up.
After the Khitans were exterminated by the Jurchen, the Jurchen inherited the Khitan fine dogs. They were also nomads. When the Jurchen trained the Khitan fine dogs, they were better than the Khitans.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]