729 Yang Erxi and His Companions Fourth (2/2)

The next morning, these retired Tang soldiers joined the main forces.

”Nice going, Yang Erxi. You got a cutlass so quickly.”

The cavalry officer looked at him and said.

Yang Erxi said smugly, ”It's nothing. But it was indeed not easy to kill the three barbarians. By the way, if it was not me unwilling to take credit, the two badly injured cavalry soldiers should also be added on my account.”

The cavalry laughed and said, ”Well, well. I will report to the commander to record a merit.”

”Don't forget that I was a border soldier in the second year of the Tianqi era. Watch your tone!”

Yang Erxi taunted. Then he shouldered his pitch-fork and went into the forest with his companions.

The cavalry lightly kicked the horse and headed to a hillside along another road. He went to the commander's mount and whispered about the military intelligence he had just received.

Liu Si, commander of the Valiant Cavalry Battalion, nodded seriously and gave the cavalry a sign to leave. Then he looked at the middle-aged man beside him and said, ”Long Qing has speeded up, so he just missed us.”

The middle-aged man in black clothes looked serene. He was extremely eye-catching among hundreds of stern cavalries of the Valiant Cavalry Battalion. He was Chao Xiaoshu.

Chao Xiaoshu said, ”Long Qing is too anxious and the defense of the county too weak.”

Liu Si said, ”The garrison troops of the county could fight on foot. However, faced with those field-tested grassland cavalries, they could do nothing at all. They've done their best.”

”I did not mean to blame them.” Chao Xiaoshu said, ”Among all local forces of these counties, the Gushan Commandery has real military capability. As the military manager of three states, Hua Shanyue did a good job. But most of his troops have been moved to the Northern Military Camp to prevent the Golden Palace from moving southward. So we can't count on him either.”

Liu Si was a little depressed. He, with Chao Xiaoshu, led eight hundred picked cavalries from the Valiant Cavalry Battalion to leave Chang'an for the Eastern Border. They had experienced all hardships and dangers on the way and fought several times with grassland cavalry, but failed to change the situation fundamentally.

They did not even dare to confront Long Qing's main force for the lack of enough soldiers.

”Don't worry too much. Although we could do nothing but harass and chase to attack, we can make those barbarians less presumptuous and the people at the Eastern Border would be less harmed.”

With that, he looked at the volunteer soldiers disappearing in the forest and said with respect, ”It would really be beyond control without them.”

There were many people like Yang Erxi.

Many farmers left their farmlands and homes to be here. They came to the remote Eastern Border with some travelling expenses, luggage and knives or bows and arrows taken from the military years ago.

At that time, they set out before the court's conscription order came to their hometown. It was technically unwise of them to do so since they were not organized and did not even know where the battlefield was.

However, this time it was different. It was about Tang's future. So the news of the invasion of foreign enemies was equal to the military order and the conscription order. As long as they encountered someone who was armed with an old knife or bow, they could be sure that the person was their companion. In this way, a powerful force was gradually formed.

Where was the battlefield? Where the enemy was, there was a battlefield.

This was Yang Erxi's idea as well as that of his companions.

According to post-war statistics, in the central states of the Tang Empire, over twenty thousand retired Tang soldiers volunteered to join the war at the Eastern Border against the aggression before the arrival of the conscription order.

Among these earliest and most lovely counterattacks, less than half of them had made their way back home in the end.