General Qin Qiong quickly arranged the combat mission. All the troops sent out in the three groups were elite soldiers. Because Li Xiang had only more than 3,000 troops under his command, 3,000 of Cheng Yaojin's cavalry were allocated to him. If it were someone else, Cheng Yaojin might not be willing to do so, but Li Xiang was half his ally and they had various cooperation in Chang'an City. If Cheng Yaojin was not willing to do so, then he would be too stingy.
"Hey kid, these guys of mine have been with me for a long time. Please take good care of them on the way. This is the first time I'm sending my elite troops to others."
Before going to the battle, Cheng Yaojin still felt a little uncomfortable. Although these troops were all from the Tang Dynasty and Li Shimin strictly forbade them to form factions, it was impossible for the army to have no factions. If Li Xiang lost all of Cheng Yaojin's men at once, Cheng Yaojin would be heartbroken.
"Don't worry, General. Although this is our first time fighting, we are sure to not suffer any losses on the battlefield. You and your men will follow me for a while and come back. We will have many merits to show for it. Just prepare a thank-you banquet."
Li Xiang patted Cheng Yaojin's shoulder happily and said, acting very casually, but Cheng Yaojin fell for it. If he had to talk to Li Xiang with etiquette, he would probably be exhausted to death.
"These people have been with me for quite a while, and it's time for some of them to be promoted. I hope I can gain some credit with you this time, so that they can have a good ending."
Looking at some older soldiers in the distance, Cheng Yaojin was filled with emotion. There were only a small number of professional soldiers in the Tang Dynasty, and most of them were government soldiers. At their current age, if they had no merits, they could only go home and farm. Cheng Yaojin didn't want these people to go back to their hometown to farm in shame. After all, they were old brothers who had followed him for a lifetime.
"General, please stay. I will be back soon."
The other two groups of troops had already set off, so Li Xiang did not waste any more time here. After saying a few words to Cheng Yaojin, he immediately got on his horse. Cheng Yaojin did not have any instructions to give, and was somewhat reluctant to see his 3,000 elite troops set off with Li Xiang.
General Qin Qiong no longer had time to say goodbye. After these nearly 20,000 elite troops left, although he still had tens of thousands of troops under his command, most of them were just there to make up the numbers. If the elite troops of Tuyuhun really came to attack, then the border of the Tang Dynasty would really be engulfed in war.
Beep…
The system will give you a gift pack to unlock the sounding balloon, each worth 1,000 points.
When Li Xiang had just left the scope of Liangzhou City, he suddenly heard the system prompt sound. There were quite a few system prompt sounds during this period, but most of them were useless. When Li Xiang heard this sound, he immediately became interested.
"What is this?"
"Oh my god, what the hell is this?"
Li Xiang was so curious about what a sounding balloon looked like that he simply exchanged for one. Who knew that this thing would suddenly rise to a height of dozens of meters.
It’s all in vain!
Li Xiang knew that this thing was a hot air balloon and should be able to carry one person up, but unfortunately he forgot to tie the rope just now, so the balloon could only float to the depths of the grassland with the wind.
One thousand points equals one thousand coins, and they’re gone just like that?
Li Xiang looked at the hot air balloon flying away speechlessly. In this day and age, it is not so easy to bring it down.
Li Xiang immediately began to make arrangements for his men and asked them to gather all the ropes. Someone must tie up the hot air balloon after it comes out. If it flies again, he doesn't have that many thousand points.
When the second balloon was exchanged, Li Xiang's men quickly grabbed the hot air balloon, then quickly tied a rope and more than a dozen people pulled the hot air balloon to prevent it from flying again.
"Whoever has better eyesight and is lighter should step forward immediately and tie the other end of the rope to the carriage, especially the heavier ones."
Li Xiang immediately gave orders to his men. The hot air balloon had a relatively small lifting force, so there was basically no need to worry about it running away after being tied to the carriage. At most, it could carry a lighter person into the sky.
It is not easy to find fat people in this era, after all, everyone's life is not easy, but if you want to find some thin people, it is too easy. We quickly found a short man of 1.5 meters, tied a rope to him, and everyone slowly began to loosen the rope. This kid also reached several meters high in the air for the first time, and screamed with excitement.
"You idiot, keep your body as straight as possible with the rope, and don't open your mouth in the air. We need to fly higher later, so read the flag signals below carefully."
After hearing Li Xiang's curse, this guy quickly closed his mouth. When he rose to dozens of meters in the air, the wind would be stronger. If he kept keeping his mouth open, he would probably be killed before he could get any information.
Li Xiang remembered reading a document before. If you stand on the ground at a height of 1.8 meters, without any obstructions around, you can see about the situation within four kilometers around you. But if you rise to 20 meters, you can immediately see the situation within more than 20 kilometers around you, provided that your eyes are strong enough.
At this moment, the people have risen to a height of thirty meters, and the people below are having a hard time pulling them up. It seems that the wind is very strong at high altitudes.
At this moment, the people above could no longer hear the loud shouts, so they could only communicate through flag signals.
The weather conditions are good today, with a cloudless sky. The guy in the sky can see the situation within 30 kilometers around. This is much better than before. Even if you send out scouts, it is impossible to know the situation within 30 kilometers in a short time.
"There's a tribe on the left, about twenty-five miles away."
Li San looked at his brothers in the sky cautiously. When he brought the news back, he immediately reported to Li Xiang.
"The tribe is medium-sized, about the size of a palm..."
Li San continued to report with a bit of depression. The others didn't know the size of the tribe, but Li Xiang did some calculations in his head. At 30 meters in the air, the tribe was about the size of a palm, so he estimated that the tribe must be around 2,000 to 3,000 people. It wasn't a small tribe, but it was still within our reach. So, our first target had arrived...