Starting from August 20, the elderly, weak, women, children, and family members of the postmen in Zuantianmao were transferred to Xingzi River in batches.
Team after team gathered at Dongguan of Yan'an Prefecture, those who shot the sky, those who broke through the sky, those who crossed the sky, Monk Wang's, and Cao Cao's.
People can influence each other.
The leaders around Yan'an who rallied around the Liu family all used Liu's border troops as their instructors, and they also used Yan'an guards' uniforms and weapons. The teams were almost all carved out of the same mold.
It’s just that some are exquisitely carved and some are sloppily carved.
There are three to five hundred people in each team, and they line up at the official road next to Mizi Field. If you look around without knowing, the biggest doubt in your mind is where did the Yan'an Guard come from so many flag troops.
Liu Chengzong stood on the mountain and watched, and he could easily estimate the combat effectiveness of each team.
Among all the teams, apart from his own five sentries, Zhang Tianlin's 400-horse team is the strongest.
Next were Liu Chengzu's 500 men on foot and cavalry, and then Li Wanqing's 500 men.
Liu Guoneng's 500-man unit later also hired instructors for the border army from Zhuantianmao, but the training period was still short and the equipment was not very good. However, like Liu Chengzu's army, the team was composed of father and son brothers.
Wang Ziyong, Wang Ziyong’s troops are not very effective in combat.
He has more than 200 Yanchuan people who have followed him, and they are still scattered everywhere on weekdays.
But when he raised his arms and shouted, thousands of young people came to the villages from all over the country. If you insist on talking about combat effectiveness, they definitely have no combat effectiveness, but their appeal is very strong.
Liu Chengzong saw this all the time, raised his arm and pointed at Liu Chengzu and said: "Brother, have you ever thought about it, starting from my fifth post, all the way to Monk Wang's team, they are all abnormal in northern Shaanxi."
"Abnormal?"
Liu Chengzu sneered and said disdainfully: "The one at the back is abnormal."
The last one he mentioned was Luo Rucai.
That team was very different from other people's paintings. It was divided into three parts in a square formation. The first one hundred men wore gold and silver and were wrapped in silk and satin. The last three hundred or so hungry people had bulging bellies and looked like hungry ghosts.<
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The old, weak, women and children in the middle led donkeys and mules, and a group of people stood out of place in the military formation.
The entire team is a manifestation of the gap between rich and poor in the Ming Dynasty.
Liu Chengzu turned around and said to Liu Chengzong: "There are just a bunch of beggars, why are you recruiting them?"
Most of the leaders in the team had the same view of Luo Rucai as Liu Chengzu.
People look down on this weak and arrogant refugee leader, and they also look down on his tactics.
"It's true that they are a bunch of beggars, but you haven't been to the east. Not every refugee leader is like us, well-fed, well-fed, warm and well-armed. We eat better than the army. It's precisely because they are like us.
People who block the officers and soldiers in other places are the exceptions."
Liu Chengzong shook his head and asked his brother: "Brother, do you really think that Luo Rucai's plan is not good? This man is very smart. He came to us with this plan. It is the only one that can win among all the options and strategies.
."
Liu Chengzu frowned: "Wrapped up hungry people to die, do you think it is a good plan? If you do such a thing, it will be difficult for your tribe to help you."
"The Master said: Not to teach the people to fight is to abandon them. What we know at the age of seven, he does not know at the age of twenty-seven. Think about it, don't care how many people died, don't care what others think, just think about it.
Can this plan be won?"
Liu Chengzong thought about this issue very seriously.
The troops were divided into three formations, with the hungry refugees in the front formation, Li Wanqing and others in the middle formation supervising the battle, and the elite troops of Liu Ying and the breakout camp in the rear formation.
The front line is divided into teams of 500 or 1,000 men. Each team has only one chance to engage in battle. If it fails to engage in battle, it will be destroyed by a volley of artillery.
After the refugees and hungry people collapse, they will overwhelm the troops of Li Wanqing and others, but the officers and soldiers cannot pursue them. To pursue them, they must abandon their artillery positions. If the formation breaks out, they will lose.
The artillery can carry at most twelve rounds of ammunition, which consumes gunpowder at the expense of twelve brigades. If the attacks are fast enough and the officers and soldiers are not given a chance to clean the cannon, the red-hot cannon can be blown up in five or six times.
Liu Chengzu said with an ugly face: "I might lose."
"Of course it is possible to lose. The hungry refugees are not trained. They are too weak. If the artillery fire does not hit them, they will retreat. But brother, have you ever thought about changing places? If the army forces the thieves to attack me,
How do we win?"
Liu Chengzu was speechless.
When it comes to the officers and soldiers, they have no reliable information on their strength, equipment, morale, training, food and heavy firepower, and must make estimates based on the most prudent conditions.
In this case, if they use this tactic, they may lose. The reason why they lose is because, as Liu Chengzong said, the hungry refugees are unorganized and are very likely to collapse their own team.
But if it were the other way around, he knew the various conditions of his own troops. If the officers and soldiers used this tactic to drive the rebels to attack, they would have no chance of winning.
"Since you think this plan is effective, why not use it?"
Liu Chengzong slowly raised his head and looked at the blue sky.
On the khaki land, the teams are marching eastward. Under the leadership of their respective leaders, they will be familiar with the terrain of this land in order to prepare for the next battle.
Everyone is limited by their cognition and experience, and they have different views on the same things. They and Luo Rucai are the people with the biggest differences in their two perspectives.
"I use it, who says I don't use it?"
Liu Chengzong smiled in surprise: "Who is Luo Rucai? In his eyes, Li Bei's officers and soldiers are as heavy as Mount Tai, and Cao Cao is just a feather. He found a few rocks and it was not enough. He could only save the lives of 20,000 to 30,000 hungry people."
, try your best."
Liu Chengzong turned to look at his brother, and clasped his hands in front of him: "His tired soldiers are asking for the fluorescent light of the polyspermum to compete with the bright moon. The idea is correct, but this man has never read a book and is a jerk. He doesn't want to ask that question."
Are you willing to burn the rot grass... Zhongdou Xing is interested in this plan and he came to see me yesterday."
"You mean, where is King Gao Chuang?"
"Yes, the final battlefield is still near Fucheng. We are most familiar with it here. If we can't win here, we won't win anywhere else."
Liu Chengzong stretched out his arm from Yanhe at his feet and pointed to the east: "From Yanchang to Fushi County, King Gao Chuang is fighting and retreating. We will provide support. If King Chuang can fight and retreat, it means that Li Bei's army is still in good condition and he can carry it with him."
If he has heavy artillery, then fight him in the mountains outside the official road."
"If the elite troops of the King of Chu can escape and most of them are killed in embarrassment, then Li Bei's troops don't have heavy artillery, so why should they be afraid of him?"
Liu Chengzu shook his head and said: "But what if he goes straight into the city and takes over the north and south siege?"
"I wish he could occupy the besieged city. The soldiers of the Yan'an Guards have been drawn out, and the food and weapons have been evacuated. He can have seven or eight days of food to last him to death. Let him occupy it. When he is so hungry that he can't walk, what else can he do?
Horrible."
"What if he also robs big investors?"
Liu Chengzong was happy.
There are some big households left near Yan'an Prefecture. The rest are basically the families of officials who don't have much money or food. Robbing them will cause great harm but little gain.
The best choice for Li Bei's soldiers is to rob thieves like them. If they also rob officials and their families, wouldn't they be just a bunch of rebel thieves?
"If he robbed a big family, wouldn't he be like us? Don't worry, brother, Li Bei can't get into Yan'an Mansion. Even if King Gao Chuang can't tire out Li Bei's troops, I still have a very good candidate."<
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In the final analysis, they are still too weak.
It's not that the military is weak, but that in the officer class, from top to bottom, there is no general with the experience of commanding 500 regular troops.
We can only try our best to give Li Bei's troops a negative status.
Delay time, reduce military rations, and make them hungry.
Several teams took turns delaying, making them tired.
"Who?"
"Sky monkey Liu Jiusi is moving from Yanzhou to Fucheng. He should arrive at Ganquan today. He can control his subordinates and is much better than the hungry people."
On August 22, Liu Ying's tribes set up camp in the mountains near Ganguyi.
Between the two counties, Tangqi reported back and forth. In the morning, Gao Yingxiang saw Li Bei's Tangqi at the camp of Baijiachuan.
In the afternoon, Li Bei's officers and soldiers placed seven cannons on the north bank and blasted the stronghold across the river to cover the officers and soldiers crossing the river.
A troop of 400 Mongolian cavalry and 300 infantrymen circled from the mountain to the east, intending to attack the lagging baggage when Li Bei launched his pursuit.
News was sent at night. They didn't know that they had been discovered by the Tangqi army. Li Bei had been prepared for the attack, so he had to retreat through the mountain road. Instead, he was pursued by the army's cavalry. Three hundred infantrymen fled in all directions in the mountains and were unable to return to their troops. They were nowhere to be found.
.
At midnight, Tangqi reported for the last time that the Chuang troops had retreated to Nanping Mountain. Taking advantage of the late arrival of the government troops, they engaged in a battle with the government troops on the tidal flat south of Yanchang County. They deployed pack artillery and repelled two attacks by the government troops of 100 troops. It was getting late, and the government troops were stationed in Yanchang County.
Messages kept coming back and forth from day to night. The intensity of the battle was not high, and the casualties on both sides were not large. However, Gao Yingxiang had someone send detailed troop information about Li Bei's troops.
There were three full commanders and civilian men recruited from Yanchang County, carrying more than a hundred vehicles and seven heavy artillery pieces.
Gao Yingxiang's plan was very simple. The troops were stationed in the stronghold and delayed to ensure that the grain and grass harvested from the robbery could be transported in the mountains to the Panlongchuan area behind by manpower.
He fought against Li Bei. It didn't matter whether he won or lost the battle. As long as Li Bei was not allowed to steal food and grass, it would be considered a victory.
However, Li Bei's troops have always attached great importance to the rear. One always fights with the headquarters, another keeps the headquarters as a reserve to look after the baggage, and the other keeps the headquarters to look after the rear, and also sends Tangqi to the rear.
This move made Liu Chengzong and others very confused. There was no baggage and no enemies in the rear. Why was he looking behind him?
It is obvious that Yanchuan has been controlled by the imperial court again.
No matter how hard he tried, he never imagined that the troops Li Bei left behind were guarding him.
General Lee believed that he was on the east side and would jump over to attack the flank at any time.
In the early morning of the 23rd, Wei Qian'er's Tangqi troops spread out forty miles from Ganguyi to the southeastern valley. They could already see the battlefield twelve miles away on Jiulian Mountain.
Chuangbu Tangqi said that the officers and soldiers fired cannons on the city all night long, hitting a cannon at intervals, which made people unable to sleep all night long.
Wait until morning, first march eastward in formation, go a few miles away and see that there is no response from the stronghold, then march westward in formation, rush into the headquarters to gather troops, and the officers and soldiers retreat.
Liu Chengzu said: "Li Bei guessed that we planned to use the exhaustion strategy and tried to break through the king's reinforcements in the east and west, but it was discovered."
Sure enough, when Li Bei left the city again in the afternoon, he no longer sent Tangqi to the rear, but mainly directed Tangqi's defense to the west, spreading out a radius of five miles, almost facing Wei Qian'er's Tangqi across the mountain.
Then the officers and soldiers formed two formations, one in preparation, and began to attack Nanping Mountain.
Taking advantage of heavy artillery, they successively broke through two small villages that were at the horns of each other, and the troops retreated into the mountains again.
The actual situation is not as complicated as Liu Chengzu thought.
However, on the night when Li Bei entered Yanchang County, he summoned the people in the city to inquire about the situation. One of the city guards mentioned that there was a cavalry team heading westward earlier holding a red flag with a Liu character.
During the day, we traveled east and west just for a try, but we didn't expect that the troops would move so easily, so we concentrated our efforts on attacking the stronghold.
In the afternoon of that day, Liu Jiusi, the monkey from the sky, who came from Yanzhou, led more than a thousand infantry to Fucheng, and told Liu Chengzong very proudly: "There are still two thousand people behind us, and we will arrive tonight."
We met again when we were employed, and our feelings for each other became much deeper.
However, there was no chance for small talk in the face of a powerful enemy. Liu Chengzong smiled and said, "Let your men rest for a day and assemble tomorrow. We will go to the top of the mountain to hold him off for a day."
The hilltop he mentioned was the narrow mountain ridge in the middle of the bend of the Yanhe River at the junction of Fushi County and Yanchang County, where the Yanhe River flows from north to south.
Cao Yao said that Li Bei's troops would definitely seize this mountain ridge to use it as a heavy artillery position to strangle the river valley.
When Liu Chengzong led his five sentries to Hequ, Gao Yingxiang's troops quickly retreated in two groups. The cavalry arrived first through the valley, while the infantry retreated through the mountains to the rear south of Panlongchuan.
When he saw Gao Yingxiang again, King Chuang didn't look embarrassed even though he had suffered repeated setbacks. He just smiled and said, "Damn, I lost a bunch of villages, so I've had people transport all the food. Li Bei is a little anxious. I guess he has food."
Not much."
After that, he looked around the valley on the mountain ridge and asked, "Why, is this the place where the decisive battle will take place?"
"No, the decisive battle is taking place in Daping in the north. The Sky Monkeys have just arrived. They have to rest for a day, and Li Bei can't be allowed to rest today."
"Don't let him rest."
While Liu Chengzong and Gao Yingxiang were talking, Cao Yao was already escorting the artillery team up from behind. People were pushing three medium-sized Franco machine guns up the mountain ridge on wheels.
Cao Yao complained: "The Yan'an Guards can only fight these three things far away. If they are set up, they should be able to hit the river beach. The official road is still close. Which team do you plan to let fight?"
The only difference between them and the official army is heavy artillery. The official army can transport thousands of kilograms of artillery and can hit two or three miles.
For the sake of mobility, they lost several heavy artillery pieces at Yanshui Pass. The three to five hundred kilogram medium-sized artillery pieces were already the heaviest artillery pieces.
"Crush Taotian, shoot Taotian and Cao Cao."
Liu Chengzong raised his hand and pointed to the official road at the foot of the mountain. Three teams of people were advancing at the foot of the mountain. Behind the three teams, the four sentry men of Gao Xian, Feng Zhen, Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu advanced slowly behind them and took up positions at the foot of the mountain.
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Gao Yingxiang worried: "Will they be defeated?"
"It will be defeated, so my people are behind, and there are three cannons on the mountain. I just need to counterattack the officers and soldiers to prevent them from expanding the victory. King Chuang's cavalry has to form an array on the other side of the mountain, just in case my people block it."
If you don’t hold back, your cavalry will respond.”
In fact, this is also Luo Rucai's strategy to exhaust the troops, but the manpower is more or less capable, and it is not possible to take people to death directly.
As soon as the troops at the foot of the mountain were in formation, Liu Chengzong saw flag-carrying soldiers looming on the top of the mountain in the distance. He shook his head and smiled at Gao Yingxiang: "It seems they really don't have much food and grass, and they don't want to rest."
The army's infantry and cavalry formed a long queue and walked out on the official road at the end of the river valley.