Although some of the newly surrendered soldiers betrayed and surrendered to the enemy, the Marshal's Mansion's surrender campaign in the east of Hezui was still very effective.
But because of Liu Chengzong's hesitation, the work of accepting the people was delayed for one day.
Seeing the poor people coming to the west one after another, Liu Chengzong was very cautious, because as far as he knew, there were not so many people at the mouth of the river.
After careful interrogation, I found out that it was Lanzhou's banner troops who were chasing the poor.
Many people were driven over because they could not pay bribes. This was too unbelievable for Liu Shizi. He thought about it all night, but he still couldn't figure out why the enemy would do this.
He could understand that Lanzhou wanted to push the people who had fled Hehuang to the mouth of the river. But he didn't understand that the poor people in Lanzhou were also driven to the mouth of the river, but he was greatly shocked.
Are you afraid that these poor people will respond when he attacks the city?
Liu Chengzong thought to himself, could it be said that my name as a liberator has spread from Uzang to Lanzhou? It shouldn't be!
You can think of this as a good thing in your mind, but the reality is that more than 60,000 people gathered in Hezui. Not only was the scale too large for the soldiers to inspect, it even blocked the road and affected the transmission of news in Tangqi.
We don’t know whether these people were carrying smallpox; we don’t know whether they were spies from the army; we don’t even know whether there were officers and soldiers among them.
Liu Chengzong only knew that among the hungry people there were spies from the Zhenhai camp sent by his brother, who reported that the Gansu frontier troops had moved their camps north, and that the Lanzhou army had set off firecrackers for ten miles at the mouth of the river and sprinkled lime and sulfur.
By the time he wanted to take over the people with all his strength, there was no time. The Gansu army moved the defense and the Lanzhou soldiers set off firecrackers. These were the first actions of the army to launch an attack.
This is very interesting to say, but human imagination is limited.
The Liu Chengzong in the minds of the five-town frontier commanders is the Liu Chengzong they imagined. The five-town frontier commanders and Shaanxi Lanzhou officials in Liu Chengzong's minds are also what he imagined.
Even the fantasy of the five towns' frontier commanders is quite close to reality. After all, they all know Liu Shishi's soldiers.
Liu Chengzong's fantasy was not very close to reality, because he could not imagine how exaggerated an order could be in a dying government office.
He always believed that Lanzhou had a deep meaning in driving away the people before sending out troops.
Maybe the officers and soldiers no longer want to be human, and want to use the crowd of people to disperse their own army to avoid a frontal battle and directly defeat him?
On the Beishan Terrace, Liu Chengzong saw crowds of people in the distance, and the rain was about to come. Li Bei, standing beside him, had a complicated mood.
For several years, he, a court counselor, was captured, put under house arrest, and then assisted Liu Chengzong. Until today, he finally stood opposite the court on the battlefield.
He shook his head, sighed, and watched Liu Chengzong fighting wits and courage with the air, and said: "Commander, don't think about it, there is no deep meaning. As long as the court has the ability to carry out deep meaning, we will not reach Qinghai. This is Prince Su's slap on the head."
, the result of the flag army’s deception.”
Liu Chengzong was surprised and said: "So sure?"
"I'm very sure that the generals of the five towns all have their own abilities. A fool can't sit in that position. If the people rush at you, you may not be overwhelmed. But as long as the people run in the opposite direction as soon as the knife is shown, the officers and soldiers will definitely be overwhelmed." Li Bei was one of the first batch of guest generals selected to join the Guanning Army in Liaodong, and he was very clear about the advantages and disadvantages of main troops and guest troops.
When a main soldier encounters a setback, his will becomes more tenacious. He relies on loyalty to maintain his position and has lower salary requirements, but he is more likely to sympathize with his fellow countrymen and is at risk of rebellion. Guest soldiers have a higher cost and are not as tough as the main soldier when they encounter setbacks. Military discipline is difficult to restrain, but they are prone to rebellion.
There will be no mercy on the local rebels.
At this time, the official troops assembled in Lanzhou would not have many main troops, and most of them would be guest troops. Li Bei believed that in terms of fighting will, they were no different from the army of the Marshal's Mansion.
But Liu Chengzong still felt that the government and army were playing a big game.
To be on the safe side, he first sent people to attack Lu Chieftain's brother in the north to convey the news of the Gansu Army's northward transfer.
Urging my brother to break the city as soon as possible and occupy the mountain pass stronghold to prevent the Gansu army from rushing to help, and to guard and prevent it from forming a siege.
He does not plan to move his brother's army into the valley. If the Gansu army infected with smallpox supports the Lu chieftain, then his brother and Li Wanqing's 4,000 troops all have antibodies to smallpox, so it is just right to deal with them.
As for the 60,000 people who gathered east of the river mouth to beg for food, Liu Chengzong would not give up. However, the war was going on at this time, there was no inspection for the time being, and he did not know whether he was infected with smallpox, so he could not put them all in his belly and back.
Therefore, he ordered the guards to lead the scattered soldiers to urgently organize the people to form a hundred sentries, and each led hundreds of people into the southeast valley to temporarily avoid the battle.
Li Tianyu helped a lot in this matter. There are many areas belonging to chieftains in the large valley in the southeast. The names of the places in the mountains are names such as Qijia Mountain and Zhaojiashan. The people formed teams and lined up along the valley to the south.
A few days of rations will be temporarily provided by the nearby chieftain village.
The entire retreat into the valley was extremely chaotic due to its rapidity. More than 30,000 people evacuated into the mountains in one day, but the other 20,000 people could not be found.
Whether it is the people who fled to Lanzhou with the wealthy people earlier or the more ordinary people who were driven out from Lanzhou, it is difficult for people to trust Liu Chengzong.
Rather than being taken into Nanshan like prisoners, they preferred to run north and even hide in an uninhabited village east of the river mouth.
On the morning of March 13th, Dai Daozi saw the mighty army entering the valley from the east bend of the river. Tangqi, who was spreading out in the valley, waved his flag. The news soon spread through Tangqi.
Liu Chengzong, who was stationed at Hezui, heard it.
Then Dai Daozi began to give orders to the Tang soldiers to squeeze the enemy Tang soldiers and start a battle.
The Tang soldiers need to fight in order to delay the enemy Tang soldiers from occupying the hilltop wilderness, and force the subsequent army to become uneasy and send more troops to deal with them.
Through this, Tang soldiers can get closer to the enemy's main force and further ascertain the enemy's strength, strength, morale, camp formation, equipment, logistics and other information.
Liu Chengzong's response was to fight but retreat.
However, for Dai Daozi, this kind of encounter is more like a show of force at the tactical level.
Outside the Bao'en Temple in Hewan, Dai Daozi, with a relaxed smile on his face, gave the order to the Tang soldiers: "They can understand our flags and tease these underachievers. Bring me back alive. I want to ask Qing Qing."
Is the bastard of the feudal clan dead?"
In the wilderness three miles away, Ma Xiang, the commander-in-chief of the Ningxia Border Army, was so nervous that his palms became sweaty.
In fact, Ma Xiang did not have much experience as a Tang soldier. When the Ningxia border troops were deployed in Yan'an to suppress bandits, he only served as a barbarian at night. His main duty was to ride day and night inside and outside the Great Wall to see where the border walls were swallowed up by the yellow sand.
Just reporting to the camp general.
It was all because General He lost his pants in Huanglong Mountain and he took a few more Mongolian heads before he was drafted into the pacesetter camp. It was less than half a year before he was able to catch up and take the position of General Manager Tangqi.
In the past six months, he has taken the newly recruited Tang soldiers to study flag orders hard, and asked many people for advice on how to use them, and then he managed to build up the skills of Tang soldiers.
It was fine to follow the steps at first, but until this expedition, Ma Xiang was very nervous.
In fact, it is not a good strategy to put Ningxia's Tang soldiers in the front. Liu Chengzong's name is too lethal to Ningxia's border troops.
But You Shilu, who came from Yulin, was the deputy commander, and his standard camp did not have the Tang Bing system.
Guyuan's Yang Qi is a great commander, but that commander has been busy leading thieves to suppress the government troops. He has trained seven or eight groups of Tang soldiers. Under the torment of the retired border troops, not to mention Tang soldiers, there are Tang horses.
One who can survive three battles.
Only He Huchen has the Tang soldiers in his hands, so the battle between the Tang soldiers can only fall on them.
Seeing his Tang soldiers retreating gradually, Ma Xiang couldn't help but frown, and soon heard his approaching subordinates excitedly say: "President Bai, we saw them waving the flag, and ordered the Tang soldiers to retreat ten miles in succession, and also attack the mountains to the north of us.
flag to inform you of the upcoming suppression campaign."
"Beishan, is there an ambush?"
Ma Xiang shook his head and looked to the north. The north was indeed full of mountains, and the mountains for ten or twenty miles were full of valleys. If there was an ambush... He ordered: "Give Marshal He a report and divide the twelve ponds to explore the mountains."
."
Dai Daozi watched his Tang soldiers retreating five miles on the battlefield to find a place to hide. The enemy Tang soldiers quickly separated out a group to explore the north and south ravines. He shook his head and smiled: "Hey, can we be fooled? What about the people behind?
There’s no need to use their skills, just let them play in the ravine while we leave.”
As Dai Daozi led the Tang soldiers to retreat, more than 20,000 troops composed of Ningxia, Yulin, Guyuan towns, Lanzhou Banner Army, and Taozhou local soldiers slowed down their advance. Each formation divided small forces to guard the valley entrance, and half of the Tang soldiers continued
Move forward, intending to cover ten miles.
When the Tang soldiers reached seven miles, they found Marshal Tang Ma approaching from the front. They immediately retreated one by one. During the retreat, they were attacked by the Tang soldiers who were hiding in houses and haystacks.
In order to succeed in the ambush, many of Dai Daozi's Tang soldiers sent their horses to be taken away by Pao Ze in advance. Suddenly, muskets were heard everywhere.
He Huchen suspected that the news was false from the beginning, because his Tang soldiers could understand the flags on the opposite side, and the flags on the other side could also understand his. So he hurried to the front of the formation, only to see a distressing scene with his binoculars. After finally cultivating Tang soldiers who could understand the flags, they were oppressed by the enemy from the front and ambushed from behind. The soldiers of Tangtang were killed with a shot from behind and an arrow in the face.
However, what He Huchen was most concerned about was not this. He expected that the newly trained Tang soldiers who lacked experience were defeated in the confrontation. He was more concerned about those Tang soldiers who stood together but did not fight.
We haven't seen each other for three years. Liu Chengzong's army has undergone many changes compared to before. Judging from the Tang soldiers' beggars, they have tassels on their helmets and guns. This is the most significant difference between the two armies.
He Huchen held the telescope with a cautious face. The more he looked at it, the more purple his face became, and his fists became tighter and tighter.
Because there are usually only one or three solitary Tang soldiers in a square mile, the battlefield where the Tang soldiers clashed swept across the entire valley's no-man's land in a matter of seconds, and the sound of gunshots was heard in some places.
But there are also some places where there is no sound.
In the telescope, there were Tang soldiers with open arms and lowered their weapons. He Huchen confirmed again and again that those people were indeed his subordinates. They surrendered...surrendered?
He Huchen looked back at the boundless military formation. Not counting Wang Xingshan from the north and Wang Chengen from the south, there were 22,000 troops behind them in the middle alone.
With such a strong force, more than a dozen Tang soldiers chose to surrender in their first confrontation with the enemy?
A ‘click’ sound.
The wooden shell of the telescope was cracked by He Huchen.
At the other end of the battlefield, Dai Daozi happily let the guards wave the flag, led the Tang soldiers and the captured and surrendered Tang soldiers, and retreated ten miles westward one by one, and had someone deliver a message to Liu Chengzong thirty miles away.
"Commander, the Tang soldiers have reported that the enemy has more than 20,000 troops. The march has been delayed and morale is low. Thirteen Tang soldiers have been captured and are being escorted."
Liu Chengzong was arranging defenses at the newly built Hekou Fort, and he was very happy to hear the news. Although the battle between the Tang soldiers was not very good, it was a victory in the first battle, which was very helpful to boost morale.
He looked at the north and south mountains of the river valley. Through the telescope, he could see that there were people hiding on the top of the mountains. This battle in the river valley would let the people of Hehuang know who is the real Hehuang as quickly as possible.
Lord.
Subsequently, more and more Tang soldiers retreated to the west bank. After a while, nearly a hundred people gathered. The width of the river valley was between four and eight miles. This meant that the Tang soldiers on the front line had retreated twelve or three miles. The enemy troops
The distance with him is getting closer and closer.
At this moment, several more Tang Riders came from the east of the river. Their expressions of eagerness gave Liu Chengzong a bad premonition.
Sure enough, not long after, Tang Bing turned over and dismounted outside the bunker, clasped his fists and said: "Commander, please report urgently."
When the Tang soldiers entered the fort, they reported in front of Liu Chengzong and Yang Yao: "All the surrendering troops are Ningxia soldiers. They said that the imperial troops were divided into three groups this time. Three thousand Gansu troops on the north route rescued the chieftain of Lu, and Ningxia troops on the middle route.
When Liu Chengzong heard this, he closed his eyes and thought. His troops in Hehuang were about the same number, and there was no obvious disadvantage in the middle.
It's just that Liu Chengzu's side of the North Road used 4,000 troops to fight against the 4,000 local soldiers of the Lu chieftain. The siege has been going on for several days. If the 3,000 Gansu reinforcements arrive first and Liancheng is not captured, the North Road may suffer.
The Tang soldiers paused, clasped their fists again and said: "On the south road are the Lintao Army and the Hezhou Army. They have a combined force of 11,000. They want to go straight to Xining and Nian Bo."
Liu Chengzong felt bad, suppressed his uneasiness, and let the Tang soldiers go down, holding on to the earth wall and remaining silent for a long time.
"Commander?"
Yang Yao just spoke, but before he could say anything, Liu Chengzong heard an order to the guards: "Urgently report to Nanshan, ask the guards who lead the troops to restrain the people to go south to explore the enemy's situation, and send the message to Binggou and Xining on flying horses.
Enemy situation; order Xincheng garrison Wang Wenxiu to send troops to Xining."
Yang Yao breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Liu Chengzong had similar views to him, and the main force should not return support at this time.
In a head-to-head fight with the officers and soldiers in the middle who have similar strength, if they win, the officers and soldiers will naturally be unable to complete the encirclement; but once they retreat, it is certain that the officers and soldiers will complete the encirclement.
Liu Chengzong had more considerations than Yang Yao. He had to consider multiple armies. At this time, his army of more than 20,000 people was not the Lion Army that had been banned in the early years.
This is not something you should or should not do, but something you cannot retreat from.
The Mongolian soldiers of Xie Erhu and Ahai Daiqing were either lost during the retreat or were defeated during the retreat. They will definitely not return with their entire division.
Without these two flanking cavalry, the shortcomings of the slow response of Basang's subordinate troops and the rigidity of the team will be completely exposed. With Yang Yao's Lion Army cavalry of less than 4,000, the situation will be extremely critical.
Liu Chengzong looked at Yang Yao: "I believe in Wang Wenxiu. Let's deal with the enemies in front of us first, Yansui, Guyuan, and Ningxia."
As he spoke, he smiled, and the hair on his face stood up: "I am a Yansui soldier, you are a Guyuan soldier, and Dai Daozi is a Ningxia soldier. Let's show them... the capabilities of the border army!"