The problems in Luoyang City are even more serious than what Man Chong originally thought.
Cao Cao was originally composed of people from all directions, saying that it was a regular army of the Han Dynasty, but in fact, only the Central Leader Army and the Central Guard Army were relatively regular. The soldiers gathered from other counties were only stronger than ordinary Yellow Turban Thieves.
When Cao Cao swept across the Central Plains, he gathered a large number of miscellaneous soldiers similar to the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou, and also collected clan forces like Li Dian. Later, although Li Dian surrendered to Fei Qian for some reason, there were still a large number of such troops in Cao Cao's army, including personal or family forces.
This kind of military force cannot be said to be very poor, but in some cases, there may be situations where there is no way to listen to the order and just follow the actions of its clan leader. Moreover, this soldier who belongs to the clan power may have more recognition of the Han Dynasty than to identify with Cao Cao. So once there is really a change in the pattern of the Han Dynasty, as long as the cavalry still holds the flag of the Han Dynasty, these people will not feel embarrassed when they are also worshipped under the hoof of the cavalry.
In name, these soldiers listened to Cao Cao, but in fact, Cao Cao only distributed one-time military pay and weapons to these clan leaders. As for food and grass, they were all jammed, so the equipment was messy and the equipment was lacking, and the elderly and weak were too old and weak, but it was inevitable. However, compared to the scattered and powerful people in other places, these people were also organized and combat-effective.
Among these miscellaneous soldiers in Luoyang City, many of them retreated from Hedong.
Cao Cao also knew that these soldiers who had been defeated were useless, let alone expect these people to follow Cao Cao to fight the tough battle, so there was no extra armor, weapons and weapons for them. Of course, what's the use of giving them, so he simply left these guys in Heluo, which was quite a bit like letting these guys die.
There are many things in Shandong that can be done, but they cannot be said clearly.
Although both Cao Cao and Man Chong knew that the soldiers in Heluo were actually abandoned to some extent. If more soldiers of the cavalry could be eliminated, it would be better. But if it doesn't work, I hope these guys can stay on the chessboard and complete their mission.
But the problem is that people, after all, have one more head than wood, and have a little more selfishness in their heads.
Since the beginning of a while ago, soldiers have been constantly fleeing. Although Man Chong has repeatedly set up traps to arrest the fleeing soldiers and kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, there are still people who are lucky enough to think that those who are caught are fools and are the smartest.
Even if they haven't escaped for the time being, it doesn't mean that they are bowing their heads to Cao Cao and admit defeat. Instead, they are very likely thinking about how to surrender to the Cavalry Army when the Cavalry Army arrives...
By that time, perhaps Man Chong's head would hang outside the city like those deserters who had been arrested before!
Therefore, after Man Chong learned that Zhang Liao had entered Yique, he did not dare to act rashly.
Only by staying in Luoyang and personally monitoring the soldiers in these places can Man Chong ensure that there are no mistakes.
However, staying in Luoyang City, watching Zhang Liao's original arrangement outside Luoyang City was like waiting to die. After thinking about it, Man Chong used his "Immortals' Guide to the Way".
Because the Heluo area is at least ten times wider than the Tongguan Sakata Road, Niutou Plateau, although Zhang Liao has not few people, once it is dispersed, its power will naturally become much weaker!
Between the Heluo villages and abandoned towns, there is no value or significance of occupying them. Except for those who do not know military tactics or those who talk about the war on paper, they will have no use at all. On the contrary, once they encounter elite soldiers assaults, they will not be able to resist them at all!
So, Man Chong curled up in Luoyang, waiting for Zhang Liao to react...
Although Zhang Liao also realized this and used the cover of the night to rush to the Tangshan branch, it was not realistic to completely cover up his whereabouts in a relatively open area like Heluo. So after receiving the news that Zhang Liao's soldiers had abnormal movements, Man Chong immediately took a part of the leaders to attack Zhang Liao's camp on the water!
This attack did not expect Zhang Liao...
While Zhang Liao defeated this army in Tangshan, Man Chong also rushed to Zhang Liao's Gushui Camp at night.
To be precise, the night of February 23, the tenth year of Taixing has passed, and it is already the early morning of February 24.
The darkness before dawn is undoubtedly the most exhausting and relaxing thing.
There was still no light in the sky, and the stars in the sky seemed to have gone to rest, everything was shrouded in the shadows.
Man Chong did not dare to cause trouble for Zhang Liao directly, and he could not rescue Yique's defenders. Because Man Chong judged that Zhang Liao was most likely to be on the front line, so he was not Zhang Liao's opponent when he faced Zhang Liao head-on.
Of course, Zhang Liao may also be here at Gushui Camp in the back line...
If Zhang Liao was in Gushui Camp, then Man Chong's attack this time would be in danger, but Man Chong made the right judgment because he not only made military judgments, but also made speculations on his personality.
Zhang Liao is from the northern region and prefers to visit the front line in person!
The bet was made!
...
...
The Gushui Camp built by Zhang Liao is a standard cavalry camp.
Set up along the valley water, there is no tree cut down as a fence, it blooms on the banks of the Heluo Valley water like plum blossoms. The entire camp covers a large area, but the defense facilities are not as rigorous as infantry camps, and there are not many fortifications. The defense system of such a cavalry camp is naturally not based on these fortifications, but on the cavalry in it...
Important supplies and utensils were concentrated in the central camp, and surrounded by scattered cavalry battalions, somewhat similar to the arrangement of the Hu people's royal courts, a circle of outside camps, an inner camp, and then a central camp.
Logically speaking, there is no problem with such a layout.
Zhang Liao led his troops to attack, and there were still patrols, sentries and on duty in the cavalry camp. However, the problem was that the camp was originally built for 5,000 cavalry to temporarily station, so it occupied a huge area. After Zhang Liao led his men to attack, the entire camp was empty...
Whether it is the Cavalry Army or the Cao Army, there is one characteristic that is the same, they are all humans.
If you are a person, you will have desires, want to be lazy, you will consciously or unconsciously avoid pain, and choose to make yourself happy...
This is human nature. Whether it is centralized or democratic republic, corruption cannot be avoided. The reason is that human nature itself is like this.
A good system can only avoid such problems, expansion and spread as much as possible, but it does not mean that they will not appear.
Zhang Liao consciously followed the suggestions of General Cavalry to cultivate grass-roots military academies. It was originally a good thing and a new beginning, but not everything could go smoothly, especially changing people's character and fighting human nature. If these military academy soldiers carried out short-term goals, this problem would not be exposed, but over time, the problem gradually emerged.
If the soldiers left behind Gushui Camp want to be on duty, patrol and investigate like the original 5,000 people, it would be equivalent to having to pay twice or even three times the workload.
Of course, there is no problem at the beginning. With enthusiasm, expectations and desires, you can resist the fatigue caused by increasing your workload, but over time, the problem arises.
The river patrol cavalry, that is, the cavalry who should have patrolled the waterway along the valley water, had a mistake.
After all, the Heluo night in spring is not as comfortable, warm and brightly lit as in later generations.
This cannot be entirely blamed on these river patrol cavalry, as well as objective factors.
Because even though Zhang Liao and his men arrived here on both sides of the valley, there were still some small animals around him who dared not come out during the day and came out to find food at night and needed to drink water. Therefore, when the river patrol cavalry inspected the valley, they often encountered abnormal movements. As a result, they rushed over and found that it was an animal...
After a while, as the number of times increases, the people will naturally become slower to react to this movement and stillness.
Moreover, when patrolling at night, the surroundings were as quiet as everything was dead. Even if there were tiny sounds, they would urge people to fall asleep like white noise.
After patrolling along the river bank, the Qiang cavalrymen who arrived on the river bank, looked around and found nothing unusual.
『Huh…』
The Qiang cavalry yawned a long time.
"Why don't you just end here today?" Someone suggested, "It's nothing to go forward... I'll go back early and I'll have half an hour to sleep..."
The captain of the river patrol cavalry was a little shaken, but he still insisted on moving forward. However, his persistence was just for a while. After walking for a while, he still found no problem. The captain ordered to go back. The other cavalry cheered and returned one after another.
Although the Qiang people have changed a lot, they still have some habits that are stubborn.
If the river patrol cavalry team crosses a river bay further, they will run into Man Chong and others face to face!
Man Chong and others came by boat. The five ships were not big, but the ones that were full of soldiers and equipment...
Man Chong stood at the bow of the boat, his expression seemed calm, but in fact he was also very panicked.
Coming to raid Zhang Liao's Gushui Camp is undoubtedly an extremely risky thing. If you are a little careless, you may die directly on the battlefield. Then Luoyang City will definitely surrender without fighting, and the defense of the entire Heluo area will collapse!
But if Man Chong doesn't come now and doesn't take this risk, then when Zhang Liao defeats Yique and then goes back to attack Luoyang, there may be a large number of central troops from the cavalry coming up at that time. Even if Man Chong can clearly know where Zhang Liao is, he may not have such an opportunity at the moment!
At the same time, in Luoyang City, only Man Chong personally led the team to give these Cao army soldiers the courage to follow. Otherwise, they would just simply send a military marquis or Sima from other departments, and they would probably be panicked before they could fight and could not make any preparations well, which would eventually be like delivering vegetables to the cavalry army...
Cavalry is difficult to fight, but it does not mean that they really cannot fight.
As long as the preparation is right, Man Chong feels that there is still a chance.
Now, because of the negligence of the river patrol cavalry, this opportunity was sent to Man Chong!
...
...
When the sun appeared in the horizon, Man Chong led a team to line up in the morning light, left the river and came towards the Gushui Camp.
Man Chong did not hold a flag, but the soldiers he led were actually not much different from those of the Cavalry Army.
After all, they were all the same Han soldiers before, and most of the clothes and robes were red and black.
So at the beginning, the soldiers in Gushui Camp didn't care, thinking that another group of soldiers who were going out to patrol came back. Until they almost arrived outside Gushui Camp, someone suddenly discovered something was wrong with the Manchong army!
Man Chong and the others came by boat, so there were no war horses!
And in such a cavalry camp, without a war horse is naturally the biggest flaw!
Unfortunately it's a bit late.
Most of the cavalry in Gushui camp were either making breakfast or feeding their war horses. Most of them did not have armor and weapons. When they received the warning and went to wear equipment as quickly as possible, the fire at the outermost part of the camp had already risen!
It is not only the cavalry that knows how to use tincture oil.
With the help of tinder oil, the flames quickly swallowed up some camp equipment on the periphery. The burning tents and equipment stopped other Hussars and cavalrymen from the intention of going forward directly, and could only go around from another direction.
The military academy who was left behind the camp personally led the team and set up a formation in the camp, preparing to attack Cao's army head-on. After waiting for a long time, he found that these Cao troops had no intention of breaking through and defeating Gushui Camp. They actually set off a fire and ran back!
Because of the flames and black smoke, these left-behind Hussar soldiers were vainly on the other side of the fire wall, eager to remove flammable materials to expand the battle site, but did not find that the Cao army soldiers led by Man Chong had no intention of going deep into the camp at all.
Man Chong didn't come to fight the Cavalry Army at all. He just wanted to disrupt the Cavalry Army's pace and delay the rhythm, so Man Chong stopped when he saw it was good and ran away when he fought!
『Chase and kill them all!』
I felt like I was being tricked by a left-behind military academy and roared angrily.
『Kill all the bandits!』
The other Hussars, who were disturbed by Man Chong's trick, couldn't even have a good breakfast, also roared in unison.
These Hussar Cavalry believe that the Cao army such as Man Chong were infantrymen. Even if the Cao army wanted to escape, how could they escape the four-legged cavalry?
But in anger, these soldiers of the cavalry academy forgot something. Since Man Chong specially brought tinea oil for the raid, how could he have no other preparations?
The Hussar cavalry urged the horses and accelerated to bypass the front camp where there was still fire, and chased the retreating Cao army. As they were chasing closer and closer, they seemed to hear the sound of the running gasps of the Cao army soldiers. As a result, at this moment, the war horse that rushed to the front suddenly neighed, and a horse fell to the ground. The knight on the horse was caught off guard, and was thrown out with a scream, and fell far away with a plop!
Before the other cavalry could react, two war horses fell down immediately, and two more were followed.
『Trigger Marso!』
The Hussars shouted.
If it is a normal queue, there will be cavalry specializing in long weapons, like clearing out possible tripping ropes on the ground, but when chasing out, these Hussars may be lost in anger, or in a hurry, they just took out their usual weapons and did not specifically get the long spears of the tripping rope...
By the time they realized there was a trippy horses, it was already a little late.
"Be careful, there is an ambush! Go to the side!"
There was no time to remove these tripping ropes, so the Hussars could only try to bypass this area, but bypassing means that the side with a larger cross-section is exposed!
Man Chong issued a shooting order.
『Swoosh!Swoosh!
The crossbow arrow roared out!
Although Ju Yi had already died, the tactics of using strong crossbows, long halberds, large shields, etc. to fight against the cavalry did not die because of his death.
The crossbow arrows are undoubtedly extremely lethal at such a distance. Even if the cavalry wears armor, most of the war horses with larger cross-sections do not have time to wear horse clothes. Moreover, even if the camp is on fire just now, even if some soldiers get the horse clothes, they may not be able to wear it.
After all, most horse clothes are made of linen, and if they are accidentally ignited and want to take them off, it will not be so easy.
Now that Ma Yi's weakness is not exposed to the crossbow targets of Man Chong and others!
Because of the tripping horse rope, it stopped suddenly and then tried to bypass it. The horse was not fast, and the crowded war horses were the best target. Even if the crossbow arrow failed to hit the front war horse, it would be caught by the war horse behind.
It is better to catch it if you shoot accurately, and the shooting horse fell to the ground, which affected the subsequent evasive movement of the horses and cavalry...
『Avoid! Spread!』
The Hussar Cavalry Military Academy, who knew it later, shouted at this time, temporarily letting the cavalry retreat and avoiding the attack range of crossbowmen that was preset by the Pet.
In most cases, cavalry can fight against infantry, especially the elite cavalry of the cavalry, which has the advantage in the same number of confrontations, but this does not mean that every confrontation can be won.
If Hussars and Cavalry Military Academy could be more cautious and not be blinded by anger, or if the cavalry team patrolling the river was more careful and walked further, it might have different results.
But it was obvious that Man Chong, who was fully prepared and had made plans, not only hit the weak link of Zhang Liao's leadership in this small-scale battle, but also was not greedy or aggressive. After taking advantage, he immediately boarded the ship and went down the river. The Hussar Cavalry who regrouped and caught up could only sigh.
Man Chong succeeded. He led his troops to travel back to Luoyang. He originally thought that such a successful raid could inspire the morale of Luoyang's defenders and inspire the confidence of other troops from all sides, but what he did not expect was that with him, the defeated soldiers from Taigu and Yique were also brought back...