The second moment Liu Chengzong sent troops from Pingliang Mansion.
Cao Wenzhao rode his horse to the river bank, broke off the willows and threw them into the river to watch for a long time.
Guan Ning's reconnaissance cavalry was ordered not to continue to oppress the Tang cavalry of the Western Army, and the troops retreated three miles eastward and built a camp in the mountains on the south bank.
"Peace, let the brothers be careful, load the muskets, prepare the cannons, unstring the bows and arrows, put on the armor and prepare to fight. The enemy will attack in half an hour."
Cao Wenzhao issued a series of orders one after another, and Ping An took the order to remind the soldiers.
Cao Bianjiao looked on and was dumbfounded. Within half an hour, the enemy attacked, and his uncle didn't sleep either. His ancestors couldn't give him a dream!
Cao Wenzhao enjoyed his nephew's fussing but not saying anything. He smiled and pointed to the river bank three miles away: "Go and have a look."
Cao Bianjiao took the order and left. After a while, he came back and looked at his uncle with admiration and doubt in his eyes: "The river is muddy... But general, you can only know that there are soldiers upstream, how do you know where they are?"
"The reconnaissance cavalry fought with the Tang cavalry of the Western Army in the morning, and then we pressed them for thirty miles to the west."
Cao Wenzhao looked at the evening sky: "If the enemy had sent troops two hours ago, they would be very close to us now."
This is not an effect that a small group of men and horses can produce. This army has either a large number of troops or a large number of horses.
At this time, Cao Wenzhao ruled out the possibility of large groups of infantry marching.
Unless the other party is a fool, he won't rush all the way here. After all, after running fifty miles, it's time to go to bed. Why don't you expect to be beaten?
The cavalry soldiers must have come to attack suddenly before night.
Then Guan Ning's army waited until late at night in intense preparations.
Although Liu Chengzong did not have the experience of having his troops exposed by turbid river water, he had a complete and highly motivated Tangqi troops.
Guan Ning's army advanced westward, but Dai Daozi had no ability to stop them. He could only try to cover up and engage with them, but it was delayed.
However, the Ningxia Tang soldiers under Dai Daozi were very courageous. As long as Guan Ning's army retreated, they dared to continue pressing forward, always allowing the two Tang soldiers to approach and hang them one mile away from their formation.
Even when Cao Bianjiao came out of the camp, Liangtangqi also tried to do it.
However, when an arrow was fired from forty steps away and his helmet was knocked off, Tang Qi quickly picked it up and ran away, not daring to continue forward.
Cao Wenzhao had only 60 reconnaissance cavalry who were part-time Tang soldiers, and the horses they rode were all slave horses exchanged from the Shanxi Guards Station, and they even had two mules.
Dai Daozi's Tang soldiers who retreated fifty miles each had two or three horses. The further they retreated, the more Tang soldiers they had, not to mention that their mission was not to fight.
The reconnaissance cavalry came, and they retreated two or three miles. When they had almost retreated, they gathered many times the soldiers to pounce on them, and soon regained the area of activity.
Guan Ning's army mobilized the cavalry to chase them out. Dai Daozi was even happier and retreated five or six miles directly. The cavalry did not dare to pursue.
If we pursue further, we are afraid of running into a large group of people, and they will not be able to escape.
So it didn't take long for the cavalry to retreat to the camp. After the cavalry withdrew, Dai Daozi's Tangqi came back after a cup of tea at most.
The Tang soldiers were completely suppressed, and Cao Wenzhao really had nothing to do with these people.
Because his pioneer officer has returned home in full glory and has taken up his post as a general in Yan'an comfortably.
Fortunately, with this kind of connected river valley terrain, the advantage Tang soldiers can create for the main force is small.
After all, they have two missions. On the one hand, they find the enemy's main force and know where they are and what they are doing; at the same time, they prevent the enemy from finding our main force and let them know where we are and what we are doing.
For Cao Wenzhao, there was no doubt that this force, which seemed to be an enemy rather than a friend, was in the west; as for what it was doing, he had already observed the river water through experience and saw that it was heading east.
But I just feel very unhappy. After all, there are enemy soldiers standing in the valley, on the mountains, and a mile away. The enemy will know whether his butt is white or not, and no one will be happy.
During the march, Liu Chengzong received news that Guan Ning's army was stationed in the camp. Knowing that he had been exposed, he changed his plan and instead stationed himself at Xiaoluhe, forty miles east of Pingliang City, to set up a defensive horse.
They were much more comfortable than Cao Wenzhao. They knew that the enemy was twenty-five miles away, so they had a comfortable meal. It was time to set up defenses and rest.
Liu Chengzong even gave Hongqi a full-body massage. It was so comfortable that he squinted his head and kicked his legs.
The Lion Battalion rushed to the front line slower than he expected because the troop establishment was a bit bloated.
This is an old problem in the Lion Camp. Since the Ningxia soldiers from He Huchen's unit joined, each post has a strength of about 750 people. After going around Guyuan, a large number of Guyuan soldiers joined.
In Pingliang Fucheng, many of the skilled craftsmen who served the feudal lord in Dongcheng were recruited by me into the work posts, and their families were all sent to the baggage posts.
Now, except for the rear outpost stationed in Zhenyuan, the seven outposts have become a thousand-man team.
This time we dispatched troops under the leadership of Yang Yao, Cao Yao, Gao Xian, Zhong Hu, Liu Chengyun, and Hetang Cavalry, with a total force of more than 6,000.
When camping in a river valley, several camps can be used as tactical depth.
In fact, if Cao Wen's edict hadn't come by chance, it would have been time to divide the Lion Battalion into two camps after the military discipline was improved.
But the war was coming, and it was impossible for Liu Chengzong to change his organization before going to war.
Before dawn the next day, the Lion Camp was cooking at the riverside camp.
Liu Chengzong and several sentry commanders were carrying rice porridge in the tent and accepted the report from Dai Daozi on the front line: "Commander, Guan Ning's army has been building a camp in the mountains since the fifth watch, and they are digging trenches now."
"What's going on with this army?" Liu Chengzong took a sip of porridge and asked to his left and right: "Don't they have horses? They neither run nor attack, but come to Pingliang to dig trenches and build camps?"
None of the sentry commanders knew the reason, but Dai Daozi said with a strange look on his face: "Their horses don't seem to be very good. Yesterday the horsemen went out to camp twice, and I saw a few mules in the team."
Liu Chengzong said: "Did you look east?"
"I sent people to the east yesterday, but there was no one there."
Liu Chengzong felt confident, and he said: "I guess this has something to do with Yang Yanchang and Wang Ziyong. They should be with Cao Wenzhao, but they didn't find out this time."
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Although he didn't send a message to himself, he was rushing back and forth. Yang He didn't know where he was for a long time, let alone others. Even if Yang Yanchang wanted to send a message to him, it was not easy.
No matter what, it seems that Liu Chengzong now thinks that those two guys probably sold Cao Wenzhao.
In fact, Liu Chengzong was very interested in the two people's escape strategies, and was curious about how they managed to get rid of Cao Wenzhao in the middle.
After they had finished their meal and the sky was getting brighter, Yang Yao's cavalry took the lead in crossing the Xiaolu River.
Liu Chengzong led the Chinese army mixed with Cao Yao and Gao Xian to follow closely. Chengyun and Zhong Hu set up camp for the rear formation and continued to advance.
After marching to Jiangou River in the morning, Chengyun and Zhong Hu will camp to build a defensive line.
Liu Chengzong, who was crossing the river at this time, could already see Cao Wenzhao's camp on the mountains and dry farming terraces.
He was looking at the mountains with a telescope on the river bank.
Cao Wenzhao on the mountain is also looking at him with a telescope.
As soon as he saw the big banner with Liu characters on a red background and gold characters, he knew it was broken.
These bold and capable Tangqi were really Liu Chengzong's people... In this way, they mistakenly thought it was the officer's mistake, causing him to miss the best opportunity to retreat.
Cao Wenzhao looked at it and asked without looking back: "Have you found out that there is indeed a mountain road in the south that leads to Chongxin County?"
"Yes, it's been found out, but the mountain road is difficult to walk."
As soon as Cao Bianjiao finished speaking, his uncle suddenly cursed secretly, handed over the single-tube brass telescope, pointed at the military formation on the river bank and said, "Look at that calf cannon, is it the same as the one used by the Ziwu Ridge bandits?"
Cao Bianjiao took a look and saw that it was the same small red copper barbarian cannon.
Seeing such a cannon once, Cao Wenzhao thought that the bandits might have defeated an army somewhere and captured the proceeds.
But after meeting Gao Yingxiang first, and then seeing Liu Chengzong's more lion cannons, Cao Wenzhao couldn't help but doubt that the Shaanxi thieves had the ability to make their own red barbarian cannons?
After all, as far as he knew, except for Liu Chengzong and Gao Yingxiang, no one had seen such a gun anywhere.
At this moment, the outpost Yang Yao's cavalry troops were divided into five sentries, passed by the valley, and lined up due north of the mountain terraces. They sent out several brave riders, all of whom were brave men, and ran down the hillside shouting: "Shameless traitor, why don't you return?"
Surrender!"
Guan Ning's army, who was using a spear as a horse on the mountain, was stunned. They looked at each other and even forgot to shoot arrows.
Cao Wenzhao was so angry that he laughed, raised his hand and pointed at the military formation twice, but did not say a word.
Look back at yourself.
Recruited four thousand miles back and forth by the imperial court, from the mountains to the layers of terraced fields, there were many weather-beaten Liao soldiers with horses and torn armor.
People were holding their helmets, some had lost their hair scarves and their hair was disheveled; some had their armor damaged in the battle and used captured locks and armor-piercing parts as supplements.
Even though the cotton armor is still intact, there are still some dark red blood stains on it, making the cotton cloth dry and wrinkled.
Look at the enemy again.
The clothes are neat, the horses are strong, and the weapons and armors are brighter than the last.
These bastards are more regular than the fucking regular army.
Cao Bianjiao said: "General, is there any misunderstanding? I'll go and ask?"
"Don't go, don't you still understand?"
Cao Wenzhao stopped his nephew and said, "Thief Liu passed through so many places unharmed. Most of the local officials were bribed to join him, and the governors of the three sides even appeased him. Now that we have not ordered him to stop in Pingliang, he has been caught." He turned his head and asked with a bad look: "If it were you, would you let this opportunity pass?"
Cao Bianjiao's thoughts drifted away, and he nodded and said: "I think Yang Yanchang and Wang Ziyong may have something to do with him. They are both from Yan'an."
"Don't talk nonsense."
Cao Wenzhao's tone was very calm and he said: "Generals Yang and Wang are just dissatisfied with us for killing the thieves. Although they were at odds along the way, they never complained about the hard work."
In fact, Cao Wenzhao also had this suspicion in his heart.
Liu Chengzong and Gao Yingxiang used the same cannon. Gao Yingxiang let Yang Yanchang and Wang Ziyong go, and blocked himself to the west of Ziwu Ridge.
Instead of attacking the king and seizing the baggage for his own use when they were heading west.
This is not in line with the common sense of military use, and it is not in line with the purpose of robbing hungry thieves, unless their purpose is to keep themselves in the west.
But there is no evidence for this kind of thing, so I can't say it in my heart.
Thinking of this, Cao Wenzhao cursed in his heart, damn, he was always worried about spies around him in Liaodong, but he didn't expect that when he returned to Guan, he was still afraid of spies around him.
Then, he put everything behind him, put on his helmet and said to his nephew: "Get ready for war!"
Behind him, Cao Bianjiao, Cao Dingjiao and Ping An's young generals put on their helmets and got on their horses.
Immediately, the Guanning cavalry soldiers on the terraces also put on their helmets one after another, got back on their horses, and followed the leadership of their team officers, walking down the mountain one by one.
Liu Chengzong, who saw the formation in the distance, admired their courage.
He thought he was going to launch a forceful infantry attack on the mountains and fields.
In fact, on the way here, Liu Chengzong had been thinking about how to boost morale.
After all, Guan Ningjun may be the strongest opponent he has encountered so far. He may not be able to solve the battle as smoothly as before, so he needs to leave Zhong Hu behind to set up a defense line.
Boosting morale has become a very important thing.
But when they met for real, Liu Chengzong found that his subordinates didn't need to boost morale at all.
They were already very angry when they saw Guan Ningjun coming down the mountain in a arrogant manner.
Regardless of when the Lion Battalion fought, the soldiers did not line up and whisper before encountering the enemy, except this time.
It’s a mess.
I don’t know who started it first, but within a few breaths, there was a shout and curse from the team.
Then even the officers couldn't control it, because the officers standing at the front of the team also faced the soldiers, turned back and pointed at the enemy, saying something with anger on their faces.
Not only the mixed troops on Liu Chengzong's side, but also on Yang Yao's side, were even more chaotic. From time to time, someone would ride out alone for five or six steps, rein in his horse, look back, and say something to Pao Ze, pointing fingers at the sky and earth.
Gao Xian gritted his teeth and his eyes were red. He took out the sword from his waist, weighed it and put it back into the scabbard. Then he took out a melon hammer from the horse's back and held it in his hand. He pointed forward and said, "I thought I would see you again in this life."
Without them, these people spent my military salary and caused my wife and children to be separated!"
To be honest, Liu Chengzong felt that his people would be so angry when they saw the intruders.
The imperial court misappropriated the military pay that belonged to them to the east and made them starve for several years. As a result, their wives and children were separated, their families were destroyed, and they themselves became rebels.
This conflict cannot be resolved by the Beilu, unless there is another Hou Jin army on the battlefield.
Liu Chengzong grinned and shook his head, saying to himself: "Sixty-two taels and five cents of silver, forty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty cents of Heguan Dui Tong Bao...Brother Cao, pull out the cannon!"
"I've been waiting for a long time, Commander!"
Cao Yao responded cheerfully, and the front of the mixed infantry, cavalry and artillery team made a gap on the two wings, revealing Cao Yao's huge treasure.
The surrounding sergeants stepped aside, and the Hongyi artillery had already been loaded with ammunition. The artillerymen took aim briefly, and then lit the charge towards the Guan Ning army filing out of the mountain road.
A blast from the ground caused the surrounding soldiers to cover their ears. Smoke rose from the ground. Under the smoke and dust, the shells flew straight towards the mountain road.
This is the order to attack.
As soon as the cannon fired, the 200 cavalry front troops under Yang Yao's command, divided into five posts, rushed directly towards Guan Ning's army coming down the mountain.
The furious troops under Liu Chengzong also drove their mounts to spread out their long legs and spread out in formation.
Even Liu Chengzong, who was in the middle of the military formation, leaned over and patted the red flag and drew his sword: "We are all soldiers, let me see where you are stronger!"