Across the vast lands of Central Asia, a piercing eagle cry awakened the entire Gobi Desert.
On a sheltered slope, tens of thousands of Khitan troops stood in battle formation.
At the center stood, naturally, the Kara-Khitan's most elite Gongfen Army, formed from troops dispatched by tribes directly under Jügär Khan.
They occupied the finest pastures and lands, commanded vast numbers of tribesmen and slaves, and possessed the best equipment. Although their estates in Huasu O'erduo had previously been looted and seized by the Tatars, costing them their source of recruits, their main force remained intact. This time, Yelü Zhilugu had dispatched ten thousand men, including eight thousand light cavalry and two thousand armored heavy cavalry.
Commanding this Gongfen Army was also a Khitan elder, Jügär Khan's clan uncle, Yelü Zonghan.
The flanks were occupied by the numerous light cavalry of the Six Yuan Department. The Six Yuan Department was also a core force among the Khitan tribes. Though it had been spurned by Jügär Khan and sidelined after the Great King of the Southern Yuan had deposed and enthroned rulers, after Kutlug took charge, it absorbed a considerable number of remnants from the Naimans who had fled the Tatar steppe to seek refuge with him. Its strength remained formidable.
At this moment, the Six Yuan Department had gathered a full twenty thousand light and heavy cavalrymen, and its leader Kutlug was also the commander of this eastern expeditionary army.
Besides these thirty thousand elite Khitan troops, the rest were auxiliary forces from various tribes: Uyghurs, Karluks, Kankalis, Sogdians, and of course, "Ivan's unit," which consisted mostly of Saracens.
Over the yellow Gobi Desert, gusts of dusty wind blew from the valley. The entire sky was hazy and yellow, and even the scorching sun seemed to have lost some of