The territory of the Eastern Turkic Steppe beyond Youzhou.
This was the area closest to Youzhou. There were dozens of tribes, big and small, living on a plain that was not fertile. There were hundreds of clans in these tribes, but none of them were important to them.
These small tribes usually lived together and helped each other. If anything happened, they would face it together.
Just before, Jie Li Khan had forcefully recruited fifty thousand people from these small tribes in order to attack Youzhou.
In the end, the result of the attack on Youzhou was that only Jieli Khan returned. None of the others returned alive, and the fifty thousand soldiers were buried with the Turkic army.
However, to these small tribes, the death of 50,000 soldiers was not even worse. Worse was yet to come.
Winter had arrived, and they had to pay a large amount of taxes to the Turkic court.
……
In the snow and ice, the tribesmen who were looking for wild vegetables heard the sound of horse hooves and looked up.
Not far away, a troop of 1,000 cavalrymen was rapidly charging toward the tribe's encampment.
These cavalrymen all had a unique characteristic, and that was that they were holding wolf flags and were fully armed.
"It's the Royal Court's personal guards!"
"Run!"
“……”
The tribesmen did not even want the wild vegetables they had just dug up and ran away.
The cavalrymen from the royal court sped up. When they arrived in front of the tribesmen, they slashed with their swords and axes, killing many of them.
There were even some who saw beautiful women and directly dismounted to drag them away.
After wreaking havoc like bandits for a while, the leaders of the various small tribes walked out of the tribe's encampment. The leader was an old man.
"Please don't kill them. I beg you, General Tedar, please don't kill my people!”
The old man shouted and ran forward. He did not dare to resist and knelt beside the horse to beg for mercy.
"Forget it. We're here to collect taxes, not to kill. Let them go.”
The cavalry general, Tedar, gave the order, and the tribesmen who were about to be killed ran back to live.
This was the internal strife of the Turks.
A tribe without the protection of the Khagan was prey for the other tribes. They could only kneel on the ground and let the other tribes and the people of the royal court do whatever they wanted.
"Thank you, General Tedar!"
The old man and the tribesmen all knelt down and kowtowed in thanks.
"There's no need to thank me. I just need to get your taxes.”
Tedar jumped off his horse as he spoke. He kicked away the tribesmen who were blocking his way and walked into the encampment. He looked around and saw dozens of lambs, as well as more than a hundred women and children.
The Turkic court collected taxes differently. They didn't need food, only livestock and people.
Usually, these small tribes could give hundreds of sheep, but this year, there were only a few dozen. It was obviously not enough.
"Damned thing, how could I dare to give this little thing of yours to the Khagan?”
Tedar glared at everyone in dissatisfaction, then placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"General, please spare our lives. We have no choice. Previously, the Khagan wanted to use troops against Youzhou and forcefully recruited 50,000 people and a lot of livestock from us.”
The old man and the leaders knelt on the ground, kowtowing and crying.
"It doesn't matter if I can't take it out. I can only bring more women and children back.”
Tedar waved his hand as he spoke.
The cavalrymen charged into the tribe's encampment, dismounted, and entered the tents of the tribesmen to snatch the women and children.
Seeing this, the men of the small tribes in the encampment really wanted to kill these royal cavalrymen, but considering that they did not even have any iron weapons, they could only grit their teeth and endure it.
Just as the cavalrymen of the royal court were snatching people in front of everyone, a messenger cavalryman suddenly ran to Tedar and reported loudly,""General, a troop of Tang cavalrymen has come within 500 meters of the tribe's encampment!”
" What?!"
When Tedar heard that it was the cavalry of the Tang army, he was shocked. He did not dare to say anything about collecting taxes anymore and shouted,""All cavalrymen, mount your horses and prepare for battle!”
It was not that Tedar did not want to run, but the enemy was already within 500 meters. It was too late to run now, so he might as well go all out.
Not only did Tedar bring his 1,000 cavalrymen, but he also brought all the tribesmen with him and forced them to fight together.
……
A moment later.
Tedar led the cavalry and brought along a total of 50,000 tribesmen. They had already set up a battle line at the tribe's encampment.
In front of these 100,000 tribesmen was Li Yu, who had come out to sweep the area. Behind him were 1,000 Imperial Cavalry and Bai Qi.
"Hehe, I was wondering how many people had come, but it turned out that there were only a thousand or so.”
Tedar smiled contemptuously on his horse. In his opinion, his 1,000 cavalrymen and tribesmen could defeat the Tang army.
Li Yu did not respond. He could not be bothered with an ant like Tedar. Instead, he focused his attention on the 50,000 tribesmen.
There were men and women among these tribesmen, and even children and the elderly. They were very dissatisfied with the royal court cavalry that was holding them back, but they had no choice but to obey due to their martial strength.
"There's a huge conflict between the Royal Court and the small tribes.”
Based on what he saw, Li Yu deduced an important piece of information.
This might be something that could be used.
"Your Highness, these tribesmen are a little strange. Since they are hostile to the royal cavalry in the rear, why don't they resist?”
Baiqi asked.
"What are you thinking? These Turkic tribesmen don't even have metal weapons, and you want them to deal with the elite cavalry of the Imperial Court? He was afraid that he would be killed by these 1,000 people until his blood flowed like a river.”
Li Yu said.
In ancient warfare, cavalry had a crushing advantage over infantry, but this advantage could be made up for with equipment.
The Buren soldiers could suppress the Turkic cavalry with their sabers, but the tribesmen who didn't even have iron weapons couldn't do so.
"Your Highness, let's start the war. Regardless of whether they are tribal people or cavalry, we will kill them all!”
Baiqi pleaded.
"Let's begin."
Li Yu gave the order and habitually rushed out.
The 1,000 imperial cavalry behind him also began to charge.
The charge of the Guards Cavalry was massive. The tribesmen in front had never fought before, and now that they saw the cavalry charging, they were all terrified.
This fear was greater than the fear of the Turkic cavalry, so all the tribesmen fled in all directions.
"Damned beast, come back!”
Tedar furiously slashed at the tribesmen, but even so, he could not call them back to face the charge of the Imperial Cavalry.
Soon, the Imperial Guards Cavalry and the Imperial Court Cavalry entered a confrontation. With just a single charge, the Imperial Court Cavalry that Jie Li Khagan was so proud of were instantly smashed into pieces.
Tedar was killed by Li Yu's spear, and the surviving cavalrymen were all killed by Bai Qi and the others.
"Don't kill us, we surrender!”
The tribesmen knew that they couldn't escape, so they quickly knelt on the ground and kowtowed to beg for mercy.
"We came here to sweep the place clean. No one can save your lives today!”
Bai Qi said as he drew his sword and prepared to step forward to kill these tribesmen. However, he was stopped by Li Yu just as he took a step forward.
"Wait, I have an idea. We can use these Tribesmen.”
Li Yu smiled.
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