In order to ensure that Xu Pang could successfully escort Zhu Hang to Jianye City, Xu Huai ordered the mobilization of Jiuzhai soldiers and horses that night, passing through the cover of the Niushou Mountain ridges and dense forests, to Guanyin Village, west of Huanglongxian, about 20 miles away from Yuelong Village.
Assemble.
The rebel Jian Rui walked at night in the foothills holding a torch. The firelight faintly shined through the dense forest with fallen leaves. It was difficult for the nearby soldiers not to notice it.
This was also the first large-scale gathering of the rebel army after Xu Huai arrived in Jianye. Whether it was Wu Chi, Zhong Changqing, or the Qianhu under their command, all the Yuhous did not dare to be careless, and they also updated the troops overnight.
A large number of troops, especially hard-working cavalry, were transferred from the banks of Pogangdu Waihe River to the vicinity of Caocha River.
This made the blockade of Jianye's periphery by the Japanese soldiers become even more sparse.
In order to prevent thieves and bandits from hiding outside the city wall, and to prevent the defenders' view from being blocked, the bushes and trees were cleared away, exposing flat land that was solidly frozen, and the soil was so cold that it turned white.
In the woods seven or eight miles away, Xu Zan slowly stroked the war horse beside him, touching the smooth satin-like mane of the war horse, and calmly observed the group of enemy cavalry that was lingering between the woods and the city wall.
"Can you get through?" Zhu Tong came from behind and saw that in addition to the more than thirty cavalry soldiers directly opposite them, there were six cavalry groups of corresponding size on the east side of Jianye City. What did he think????
The area was blocked and he asked worriedly.
A considerable part of the soldiers who crossed the river were attracted to the west of the Caocha River. The troops currently remaining near Jianye City can only blockade the area close to the city wall and cannot take care of the areas farther out. Therefore, the Suwei Forbidden Army dispatched
It was quite difficult for the scouts to leave the city and deliver the news, but the rebels in Jurong and other places heard that Xu Huai had arrived at Niushou Mountain and detoured from the south of Lishui to gather, but they were not afraid of being intercepted by the captors.
Xu Fang also led a cavalry group overnight - and he had finally managed to collect more than 40 horses in the past few days - to escort Zhu Hang. Zhu Tong surrounded him from outside, and lurked to the east of Jianye City before dawn, about 30 meters away from Yue City.
In a woods about seven or eight miles away from the courtyard gate.
This is a shallow hilly terrain, and although the leaves are withered, there is no risk of their whereabouts being exposed as long as the horsemen do not approach directly.
At present, there are more than 200 horsemen outside the east city of Jianye. Xu Zang is confident that he can safely escort Zhu Hang and Zhu Tong to the city wall while they are unprepared. The distance of seven to eight miles is even more difficult for the horses galloping at full speed.
No need for a cup of tea.
The problem is, those cowards in the capital will never dare to open the city gate to take them into the city. At most, they can put a few ropes or hanging baskets to pull them up. What will happen to the war horses?
It took a lot of effort to gather more than 40 war horses, but Xu Zang couldn't bear to abandon them easily. Besides, they abandoned the war horses outside the city. They followed Zhu Hang and Zhu Tong into the city, and they would be trapped in the city for a short time without doing anything.
It was not what Xu Fang wanted to see.
Xu Fang called Wu Chishi and several of his subordinates to him and discussed in a low voice: "Should we enter the city?"
"I'll just follow your orders." Although Wuchishi often teased Xu Zang, he was actually Xu Zang's fanboy, he said in a loud voice.
"The way of playing is different whether you advance or not. Don't be lazy, you have to find a solution together!" Xu Teng glared at the "irresponsible" Wu Chishi and said.
They chose to follow Zhu Hang, Zhu Tong and his son into the city. The war horses would eventually be abandoned. They only needed to sprint from the woods to the city wall with all their strength. The captive cavalry chased them from both sides. They did not need to pay special attention to whether the captive soldiers would shoot.
Kill the war horse.
The short-term lethality of arrow wounds to war horses is insufficient. Even if many war horses are shot with dozens of arrows all over their bodies, it will not affect short-distance high-speed sprinting.
This is also their easiest and most convenient option.
If they don't want to enter the city, they need to preserve their war horses as much as possible, otherwise they won't be able to deal with the four-legged horsemen, let alone return to Niushou Mountain calmly.
And when they sent Zhu Hang, Zhu Tong and his son under the city wall, they would attract all the nearby captives. If they wanted to leave later, they would have to face the pursuit and interception of the captives several times their size.
Not to mention that there is no guarantee of casualties, there is even a possibility of being surrounded and annihilated by superior enemy cavalry at Jianye City Gate.
Xu Zan is brave and aggressive, but not stupid.
Whether to advance or not was of great importance, and he had to involve all the military attachés to make decisions.
"Should everyone decide whether to enter or not?" Seeing that Wu Chishi and others were silent, Xu Fan was afraid that putting together several layers of questions would be too complicated and confuse everyone's brains, so he decided to do multiple-choice questions first.
"Of course it's better to come back if you can," Wu Chishi said. "With these cowards in Beijing, if we enter the city, we probably won't be able to open the city until we drive all the soldiers who crossed the Yangtze River down the Yangtze River to feed the fish and turtles.
Door, we can't hold ourselves to death when we enter Beijing?"
"No entry, no entry!"
Several generals also didn't want to go to the capital with Zhu Hang, Zhu Tong and his son. They were very annoyed when they saw that the Suwei imperial army had not responded at all in the past few days. How could they want to go to the city to join them?
"How can we fight if we don't get in?" Wu Chi asked in pain.
He was not afraid of casualties, and was not even afraid of dying on the battlefield, but the disparity was indeed too great. Whether it was a samurai residence before or a high-level military command school at this time, the first lesson required military generals to remember the strategy.
Prioritization of tactical objectives and avoidance of unnecessary casualties.
"It's not impossible to fight,"
Xu Zang glanced at Wu Chi Shi with a headache, thinking that if Su Miao also came to Jianye in advance, he wouldn't have to think about these headaches, and said,
"The envoy gave us three days to escort Mr. Zhu to the capital, and he didn't say it must be today. We can wait on the side first and not rush to get close! Besides, the fundamental purpose of escorting Mr. Zhu is to let the capital know about our arrival.
According to the news, we have been keeping an eye on this place for the past two days, fighting and attacking at the same time. If Jingzhong can’t guess all this, there is no point in escorting Duke Zhu into the city, right?"
Having said this, Xu Zang glanced at Zhu Hang standing next to him with a guilty conscience.
Zhu Hang didn't understand the specific tactical arrangements, but listening to Xu Tan's tone behind him, it seemed that he wasn't necessarily thinking about sending him into the city, so he quickly interjected:
"I'd better trouble you, General Xu Pan, to send me into the city as soon as possible!"
Zhu Tong said at the side: "Father can write a letter first, asking Xu Zang and others to report if they have a chance to enter the city. Whether they can enter the city later depends on whether there is a chance."
Zhu Tong still knew what his father Zhu Hang was thinking.
A large number of the soldiers who crossed the river were restrained to the west of the Caochang River. Not only were they unable to organize troops and horses to storm Jianye City, they did not even deploy troops in the direction of Chizhou to intercept the eastward advance of the Beijing-Xiang reinforcements. The soldiers may have realized that there was no point in doing so.
Already.
Without controlling the cities along the river such as Tongling, rashly deploying interception troops and horses near Chicheng is an extremely risky military operation in itself; if you want to take risks, you must take the prerequisite of storming and building Ye City, and the prerequisites no longer exist, so it is also
There will be no direct interception, and more of them will use the navy as a ship to carry out harassment and delay the eastward advance of the Beijing-Xiang reinforcements.
By this time, Zhu Tong had completely understood that Jianye was safe at this time - perhaps this was already determined the moment Xu Huai set foot on the land west of the Caochang River.
The Japanese soldiers may have focused on building a defense line in Shucheng and west of Lujiang River at this time.
Under such circumstances, Zhu Tong didn't even feel the need to escort him and his father into the city, as long as the news was passed on.
It would be simpler to simply send news or messages into the city: dozens of riders gallop out of the bushes to attract the attention of the enemy riders on the east wing of Jianye, and then arrange for three or five people to take advantage of the enemy riders' negligence from the other direction and attack them.
The horse galloped close to the city wall and threw his hand into the city. It didn't take a few blinks to finish.
Of course, Zhu Tong knew that his father Zhu Hang was anxious to enter the city at this time, and the main purpose was to advise His Majesty to take immediate action.
When the soldiers who crossed the river no longer posed much of a threat, Beijing now controlled the Suwei Forbidden Army and built a Yefu army of more than 30,000 people. However, they closed the city and defended themselves without doing anything. Not many people in the world would know.
Details, but what do the rebels who have gathered at Niushou Mountain think?
Although Xu Tan was brave and bellicose, his thoughts were rough and subtle. Zhu Tong could see that Xu Tan was dilly-dallying, but he actually didn't want to send his father directly to the city.
Xu Tong chuckled and said to Zhu Hang: "Of course we will try our best, but as Zhu Tong said, it is better to throw the letters into the city first - the defenders at the top of the city are mostly illiterate guys. Throwing the letters over, they may think that
It is a letter persuading people to surrender. If these idiots tear the letter into pieces, we will have to make another trip after the captives are alert, which is too unpleasant. We will also have to ask Duke Zhu to change into official robes, and we will escort Duke Zhu out of the woods for a walk.
A face!"
"Okay then..." Zhu Hang said helplessly.
When setting off, Zhu Hang was still dressed in military uniform, but his official robes, seals, letters and other items were all packed with his clothes. Zhu Tong was responsible for carrying them behind him.
Zhu Hang thought that the Jianye Prefecture Yin he had worked for for several years would put on the distinctive purple official uniform and someone would recognize him within a mile or two of the city wall, so as not to inconvenience Xu Dan and the others, who had to go under the city wall to explain the incident.
The delay is too long.
Xu Fang and his men were deploying something in the valley. After Zhu Hang put on his official robes and urgently wrote a memorial, he personally led a dozen riders out of the bushes.
The atmosphere in Dai Viet is relatively civilized, but yellow and purple clothing is strictly prohibited for civilians to use at will. Only ministers of civil and military affairs and ministers of the third rank or above can wear purple robes.
A dozen cavalrymen surrounded an official in purple robes and galloped out of the woods. When several groups of cavalrymen cruising nearby saw it, of course they knew it was a big fish, and even had an idea that made their blood boil - the Southern Dynasty was outside Jianye City, but there was no such thing.
How many people are qualified to wear purple robes?
The nearby horsemen almost immediately increased their speed and mounted their horses to surround him.
Before Xu Fang and the others could get closer to the city wall, two groups of horsemen galloped from both sides, and another group of horsemen circled behind, trying to cut off their retreat.
"I have offended Mr. Zhu!"
Xu Tan directly pulled the skinny Zhu Hang from the back of the horse he was sitting on with one hand, and placed it across the saddle to prevent Zhu Hang from falling off the horse. Then he shouted "Let's go" and pulled him away.
Pulling the reins, he took the lead and galloped towards the shallow valley on the south side of the woods where they had previously hidden.
The three groups of captives and cavalry merged into one and pursued closely.
They also knew very well that there could not be a large number of soldiers and horses hiding nearby. There were small woods between the villages and communities, and the leaves were all withered. You could see the depths of the woods with a quick glance, and the dense forest at the western foot of Baohua Mountain was two or three miles away from here.
Ten miles away, if there is an ambush, it should be at the western foot of Baohua Mountain. After all, their current control over the outskirts of Jianye is already quite stretched in terms of military strength.
How could they easily let go of a big fish wearing a purple robe if they weren't afraid of any large ambush in a short period of time?
Xu Fang and the others increased their speed and fled further to Baohua Mountain. Luqi also pursued them at full speed, fearing that if they slacked off even a little bit, they would let the big fish escape into Baohua Mountain.
The three riders in the front suddenly stumbled and rushed forward. Only then did the seven or eight riders behind suddenly notice that there was a thin black rope stretched straight on the ground, about a foot high from the ground, mixed with dead branches and leaves.
Very inconspicuous.
Normally, a tripping rope is either thick and easy to detect. Even if such a thin tripping rope can trip one or two horses, it should be broken directly.
Obviously, the cruel fact disappointed the seven or eight captives behind them. Suddenly, it was too late to make any evasive action. They watched the galloping horses' hooves hit the thin rope, like a knife cutting, and the front of the three war horses unexpectedly...
The hoof was directly cut off by the thin rope while galloping, but the thin rope was still not broken.
The horsemen behind him reined in their horses urgently, or pulled the reins to deflect to the wings, but the crisis did not end there.
Several thin ropes suddenly stretched out from the pile of dead leaves and among them...
