At the end of May, the southern part of Bingzhou was already full of vegetation.↖
If it were a normal season, there would be a large area of fertile farmland to the west of the Fen River, which would be the time when the seedlings are beginning to grow and become full of vitality.
But now, not to mention the fields, even the farmers are gone.
The army's battles have long since turned this place into a wilderness, overgrown with vegetation, covering up the human traces of the past.
Of course, at this moment, more than 100,000 Tang troops marched northward. This place was full of people, and all the newly grown vegetation was destroyed. The army trampled on it, leaving the place in a mess.
Seven or eight miles northwest of the Tang army, Xun Xiang, a rough-looking man, stopped his horse, jumped up, and stood on his horse. He built a pergola with his hands and looked into the distance.
Here you can clearly see the flags of the Tang army and the groups of Tang soldiers marching forward.
With rich combat experience, he was actually stopping on a line that seemed dangerous to the cavalry. He also chose the right direction so that he would not be surrounded by anyone.
Xun Xiang is from Mayi, and he has many characteristics of Mayi people. He has a rough face, a strong and tall body, and his fierce aura can always make ordinary people shy away.
When Li Po was wandering around in Mayi, he was a member of the horse racing team in Mayi, and he was also ordered to investigate the murder case in Mayi City, so he had some interaction with Li Po.
At that time, he had some friendship with Yuchi Gong, but he was not as shrewd as Yuchigong. Yuchigong went to Heng'an Town Army, but he stayed in Mayi.
Later, Liu Wuzhou, Huang Ziying and others caused rebellion. As a well-known hero in Mayi City, he naturally got involved, and Liu Wuzhou was one of the more important ones.
When Li Po led his army to quell the Mayi rebellion, he beheaded Liu Wuzhou, Huang Ziying and others. Xun Xiang should have been among those to be executed, but Yuchi Gong saved his life and quietly kept him alive.
The kindness of saving life should be repaid by the spring of water.
From then on, Xun Xiang followed Yuchi Gong and became his personal bodyguard. As Yuchi Gong's official position increased, he also rose up and became the captain of the Zuowei Mansion. When he went on an expedition, he could lead a battalion.
The soldiers guarding Yuchi Gong are almost Yuchi Gong's lieutenant generals.
This time he led his men out to investigate the movements of the Tang army. There were more than a dozen visible people around him. There were also teams of scouts around him, which together probably numbered in the hundreds.
They were spread out over a very wide area, occupying a favorable terrain, and were almost able to spy on the Tang Army's front troops from all directions.
After looking at it for a while, Xunxiang had almost finished looking at it.
In fact, he is not a qualified scout. In his opinion, those thieving guys... well, even if he has his back against a big tree, he will never provoke them easily.
They were all formed from the old foundation of the Heng'an Town Army. When the army goes to war, it will be under the jurisdiction of the generals of each department. On weekdays, it is actually a separate army.
Those guys are not easy to mess with. Anyone who has made a name for themselves in each army will soon be selected into the army. Over time, they will undoubtedly become the best among the best in the cavalry.
The scout battalion back then is now called the Flying Cavalry Army in the army. It has about three thousand people. The military system is also completely different. And the three leading captains there are nothing compared to the generals in the army.
Difference.
The commander of this flying cavalry army was Li Wu, who had disappeared for a long time. Since this man went to unknown places, no one has been able to occupy that position.
Everyone also knows that this position may be reserved for a close friend.
Xun Xiang sat back on the horse again and said with a smile: "These thieves walk slower than a turtle, but they line up quite neatly..."
The others all burst out laughing after hearing this. When more than 100,000 troops plus civilians, almost 200,000 people were walking in the wild, it was natural that they were so majestic that no need to mention them.
But in the eyes of these elite border troops, it was just that.
They are not cavalry, so no matter how many there are, there is nothing they can do.
Xun Xiang waved his hand and said, "Let's go and have a look to the south."
The Tang army was indeed moving very slowly. At this time, they had only reached twenty or thirty miles north of Jiexiu. Their tail was probably still under the Jiexiu city. Moreover, it was already getting late, so the Tang army was about to set up camp.
As Yuchi Gong's confidant, Xun Xiang knew very well that the investigation at the moment was of little use. Tomorrow would be the time to get some real clues. General Xue in the south would lead his army to conduct a raid. The day after tomorrow would be the day after tomorrow for the Tang army to truly
When you go through some hardships.
Two or three miles south, an additional group of cavalry came out behind Xun Xiang. Scouts like them were almost innumerable around the huge body of the Tang army, just like a pack of wolves watching for their prey.
As long as the Tang Army did not want to spread the military formation they had set up, they would have almost nothing to do with these flies. The Tang Army's cavalry was too precious...
Of course, detecting the enemy's situation is also something that must be done.
In fact, by this time, some of the more experienced generals in the Tang army had become fearful.
When a large army goes on a campaign, the situation of the enemy in front is completely unclear. When the scouts are released, they are like mud cows entering the sea. They never return and cannot even get out within a radius of ten miles.
They had never seen such a situation before, and the feeling of danger could not help but rise in people's hearts.
By the end of the day, some people had begun to advise Li Shentong to send several groups of cavalry out to find out the enemy's situation, and to set up an ambush around the army to strangle the enemy scouts.
Li Shentong was still calm. He believed that the main force of the enemy army should be not far ahead.
The more enemy scouts appear around the army, the more it means that the enemy intends to fight a decisive battle with the army. This is a situation he really wants to see.
Moreover, the distance between Jiexiu and Pingyao is not too far.
If the enemy is pretending to be smart and bypasses the army to attack Jiexiu and Queshu Valley, then he has made a wrong calculation. He will send his army straight into Bingzhou, and then what will actually be seen is the strength and combat power of the army...
Moreover, bypassing the Tang army... Haha, except for the cavalry, the infantry can be ignored, and the cavalry can attack the city... This is also a scene that Li Shentong is very willing to see.
Therefore, as long as we guard the military formations along the way and do not give the enemy any opportunity, a decisive battle under Pingyao City should be a certainty.
What made him most confident was that there were 7,000 cavalry in the army, which was not much less than the enemy's cavalry. Moreover, he was also confident that the cavalry equipment and armor were even better than those of the same generation of cavalry.
As long as he finds the right opportunity to fight and destroys the enemy's cavalry in one battle, what other means does Li Po have left?
No matter how many tricks you have, I will remain unmoved.
The head coach of the Tang army, who had completely lost the opportunity on the battlefield, still thought he had a plan at this time. If Li Po knew about this, he would definitely laugh out loud.
Xu Shiji, who was on the left wing of the Tang army, came to the edge of the army and looked across the Fen River to the other side. There were also wandering cavalry wandering there, like tarsal maggots, coming and going with the Tang army.
OK.
Xu Shiji's heart gradually sank, and the word cavalry gradually became clear in his mind.
It is not that there are no cavalry in the Henan Army, but the number is too small. In every battle, a cavalry of hundreds of people is a force that cannot be ignored, which often means that the commander of the army is among them.
Moreover, after several years of fighting, there are very few cavalry in the Henan army. It does not mean that all the cavalry are dead, but that there are not enough horses and there is no place to supplement them.
Therefore, the generals in Henan often have the illusion that the infantry should be the main force on the battlefield.
Now, having seen more of the large cavalry in the Tang army, Xu Shiji felt quite shocked. However, as the army moved forward with such a strong force and accompanied by large cavalry, it was bullied into such a distance by enemy scouts.
Looking at the enemy cavalry in the distance who were calmly riding their horses and wandering on the other side as if for fun, Xu Shiji seemed to suddenly understand how powerful the frontier cavalry was.
They were not afraid of losing their precious cavalry on the battlefield. Every move of the army was closely monitored by their eyes and ears. In such a war, three points would be lost before the battle was started.
If we keep going like this, can the army reach the gates of Pingyao City? If we neglect it later, we may be attacked by a large group of cavalry...
Xu Shiji's back felt a little cold. He was even a little lucky to be on the left wing of the army, just close to the Fen River. Even if the cavalry came over, they would not be able to kill him unless the enemy wanted to plunge into the Fen River.
Xu Shiji turned to Zhang Liang and said, "Do you think I should tell General Li to prevent the rear army from being harassed by enemy troops?"
Zhang Liang habitually opened his white teeth and smiled innocently, but at this time, his smile looked rather stiff, a little weird, and not honest at all.
"We all have the surname Li. How can we still listen to what we have to say? When the man surnamed Jiang listened, Xu was about to say that we had shaken the morale of the army, so he threw us into the Fen River to feed the fish."
Okay, Xu Shiji just asked this question, nodded and said: "Tell everyone, cheer me up, don't be careless, our casualties are already heavy enough... let people keep an eye on me." Jiang Baoyi, if something happens, tie this guy up first and then talk..."
"Also, don't mingle with others. If something happens, stick to your spot."
Zhang Liang nodded repeatedly, "Who wants to get involved with us? General, don't worry. Whether to fight or retreat is all a matter of your words, but...this is hundreds of thousands of people, and it looks bigger than our army in Henan." It’s much more organized, can it really be defeated?”
Xu Shiji let out a long breath, then sighed and said, "If we can win a battle with more people, why are we in this situation?"
"I see... the man in the north is able to advance and retreat freely with his troops. He is not an easy person. It is better to prepare in advance. It is not easy for us to escape from Wei Gong's throne. What? Do you want to stay with your life? Isn’t it possible here?”
The two people talked and took the people back to their own army. On the other side, Xun Xiang, whose body was stained with blood, inspected the corpses on the ground with satisfaction.
The three hundred Tang troops were only more than ten miles away from the main army when they were surrounded and killed by Xun Xiang and his men. Not a single one of them escaped.
(Monthly ticket, monthly ticket, two updates a day is hard enough for Ah Cao. To be honest, even if I write three chapters, I still have to leave one chapter to avoid interrupting the update one day. Please forgive me for this.)