Chapter 1257 Walking in the Snow

After Lan Yu returned to the camp, it took only one hour from announcing the order to getting ready.

When he walked out of the tent with his helmet in one hand and his head held high, he saw that the 20,000 carefully selected warriors were already dressed neatly, leading saddled and stirruped war horses, waiting outside the tent for a long time.

Lan Yu walked to the front row of soldiers, carefully checked their equipment, and then returned to the center and gave a sonorous speech to the soldiers:

"This mission was a military order signed by me and General Fu, vowing to win a great victory, so I took it by force!"

As he said this, he swept his eyes fiercely over the generals and said, "What do you say?!"

"Fight to the death and win a great victory!" The soldiers shouted in unison.

"Good!" Lan Yu nodded with satisfaction, stretched out his hand to catch a handful of heavy snow falling from the sky, and said loudly: "When the famous Tang Dynasty general Li Su attacked Caizhou, it was also snowing heavily. At that time, everyone said that we should wait until the snow stopped before going to battle. But Li Su thought that the weather was bad and the enemy would not expect anyone to attack at this time, so they would naturally relax their vigilance. If we take the initiative to attack, we will definitely be able to catch them by surprise and attack them when they are unprepared!"

"So he led all the generals to attack Caizhou on a snowy night. As expected, he took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness and captured Caizhou in one fell swoop, pacifying Huaixi and establishing an immortal achievement!" Pause , he looked at the soldiers provocatively and said:

"Now it's snowing again, I want to follow Li Su and go to Qingzhou in the snow! I just don't know if you have the courage of the Tang army and dare to follow me to the battle in the snow?"

"Dare! Dare! Dare!" The soldiers roared in unison: "We are willing to go through fire and water for the Marquis!"

"Okay! Then follow me to capture Qingzhou, wipe out the Tartars, establish meritorious deeds, and go down in history!" Lan Yu put on his helmet and jumped on the horse with a swift movement. With his legs clamped on the horse's belly, the pure black Wuzhui horse under his crotch threw its long legs and headed towards the camp gate.

Nanxiong Marquis Zhao Yong and 20,000 cavalry also got on the horse, followed their commander closely, and left the camp in a heroic and high-spirited manner under the envious gaze of other officers and soldiers.

At that time, the heavy snow was flying, and in a blink of an eye, it covered the strings of horse hoof prints. All in front of me was white, the world was in chaos, and everything seemed to have lost its vitality. Only the red tassels on the soldiers' helmets were still dancing in the snow and wind...

~~

Although Lan Yu and the generals were fierce in their fight, the task of raiding Qingzhou was actually very difficult.

Putting aside the difficulties of being unfamiliar with the place and knowing nothing about the strength of the Yuan army, it was very difficult to march to Qingzhou.

According to the guide, Daning is about 600 miles away from Qingzhou.

According to the standards set by Boss Zhu, the cavalry must march 120 miles day and night if it is slow, and 150 miles day and night if it is urgent. In other words, it takes four days to reach Qingzhou under normal circumstances.

But now it is snowing and the visibility is very low. The snow on the ground is about a foot thick, which is not normal in any way. The marching speed will inevitably be greatly affected, so it is normal to walk for five or six days.

For a pure cavalry team, marching for more than three days is a nightmare. Because you can't let the horse run fast and not eat grass at the same time...

According to the standards of the Ming army, a military horse eats one bundle of grass a day, which is about 15 kilograms, and it needs to eat three liters of feed during wartime to make up for the huge consumption.

And a sergeant only needs to eat two liters of rice and beans a day. In other words, the food intake of war horses is six to seven times that of soldiers, and the consumption is very amazing. Even if equipped with pack horses specially carrying supplies, they can only carry three days of supplies at most.

So without the support of the baggage troops, a pure cavalry unit can only march at full speed for three days at most, and must find ways to replenish or plunder supplies. Otherwise, a lot of time must be set aside every day for the horses to graze wild grass, and the marching speed will be greatly affected.

Especially in this season, war horses must leave the snow and forage for dry grass. They have to eat from morning to night, and then continue to eat grass the next day, and they don't have to march at all...

Lan Yu's solution is-as long as they can get to Qingzhou within three days, isn't it?

When the Mongolian guide heard that the army only brought three days of food and grass, he almost fell off his horse.

"How can we get to Qingzhou in three days with such heavy snow?"

"Others can't make it, but my sons can definitely make it." Lan Yu sat upright on the horse, pointed at his soldiers who were braving the wind and snow behind him with his whip and said, "Because they are the soldiers I led."

"Yes, my Lord, you are mighty, but people can bear it, but horses can't." The Mongolian guide named Xu Yelu spoke fluent Chinese. The Yuan Dynasty had only been gone for less than 20 years, and there were more Mongolians who could speak Chinese than Mongolian.

"The horse was also trained by me, Lan Yu." Lan Yu glanced at him coldly and said, "Just lead the way, don't worry about anything else."

"Hey." Xu Yelu shrank his neck involuntarily as if he was stared at by a prairie wolf. He didn't dare to talk nonsense anymore and hurried to lead the way.

At this time, Nanxiong Marquis Zhao Yong rode over and rode side by side with Lan Yu, saying, "It's snowing so hard that we can't tell east from west, south from north. It's completely dark... Oh no, it's white. Will this guy take us the wrong way? We're in trouble..."

"I don't count on him." Lan Yu said, handing Zhao Yong a small round box.

Zhao Yong took the golden round box and saw a circle of directions engraved inside. There was a pointer hanging in the middle, one end was red and the other end was white. There was also a transparent crystal shell on it.

"Is this a compass?" Zhao Yong shook the compass, but saw that the pointer always pointed to one position, so he recognized it.

"Yes." Lan Yu nodded.

"I have only seen a water compass before, but this is the first time I have seen a dry compass." Zhao Yong played with the compass fondly and said, "It is so small and portable."

"Be careful, don't drop it." Lan Yu also cherished this thing. "The Sixth Prince asked someone to make this. He said that dry compasses are more convenient for marching and fighting. So he made a batch of them and distributed them to the generals of the Southern Conquest Army... Of course, this one was specially made for me."

As he spoke, he said in a deep voice: "If you rely on this thing, you won't get lost. Anyway, just keep going north."

"Then I'll be relieved." Zhao Yong reluctantly returned the compass to Lan Yu and said, "Can you help me get one from the prince later?"

"No need." Lan Yu looked at the compass and saw that the direction was correct. She put it away carefully and said, "The Sixth Prince is such a fine person. I guess it won't take a few days to match them all for you."

"Hmm, it's really good to hang out with the Sixth Prince. I heard that the Southern Army is paid double pay?" Zhao Yong has never been to the south and is very curious about things in Yunnan.

"Absolutely." Lan Yu nodded and said, "What about settlement expenses, border defense expenses, epidemic prevention expenses, high temperature subsidies...it all adds up to a lot more."

"I see, no wonder so many people want to transfer to Yunnan." Zhao Yong said with a heartbeat: "Hey, I also heard that there is still a fiefdom there, and Xiping Marquis and the others have already enjoyed it. Is it true?"

"How do I know?" Lan Yu pulled her face and said angrily: "Just ask Mu Ying directly!"