If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools.
After you have determined what to do next and have selected a target, you must of course check to determine your own strength.
Because the initial destination was Bianzhou Military Town, Li Tai's armed forces were mobilized in full force this time. All 500 soldiers were mobilized. Together with the entourage of the accompanying members, they formed a team.
A cavalry team of nearly 600 people.
In the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, when there were thousands of troops at every turn, such an armed force of several hundred people was not inconspicuous, but it should not be underestimated. Even some counties and counties, including a considerable number of Han and Hu powerful men, were
There is no such scale of armed forces.
Because these are the elites in Li Tai's tribe, they are strong men who can be directly armed and go into battle, and each of them has certain bow and horse skills and combat experience.
Under normal circumstances, such a cavalry team is often allocated multiple or even twice the number of servants and support personnel, which can form a troop size of one, two thousand or even more.
The cavalry team of 600 people can already carry out many conventional and unconventional cavalry formation tactical coordination. When the battlefield environment and tactical coordination are advantageous, it can attack the Hu tribe of tens of thousands of people.
Although Jihu is fierce and difficult to tame, it is impossible for all the people to become soldiers.
The composition of a Jihu tribe is usually divided into leaders and their direct ethnic groups, as well as ruling elite warriors, farmers, herdsmen, craftsmen and other tribal people, as well as slaves who have no property or personal freedom at all.
The boundary between the latter two is not clear. The tribal people are equivalent to the private property of the leader Qushuai. It is just that the former has been attached for a longer period of time or has a special skill, so the situation will be slightly higher than that of a completely consumable product.
If there is any difference between the two, it is that the slaves at the lowest level may not even have reproductive rights. Because usually the Jihu tribe needs to control the population at a level that matches the environmental output, otherwise the survival of the entire tribe will be greatly affected.
.
A Jihu tribe with thousands of people only has a small core of elite armed forces, and may not even have as many people as Li Tai's group.
Other large vassal populations have very low combat effectiveness and organization, and pose little threat once they start fighting. Even after the battle on the frontal battlefield is over, these populations can be reorganized to increase their own war endurance.
This is also one of the reasons why Li Tai and his subordinates dared to plunder the Jihu tribe. As long as they didn't encounter real difficulties and were not hindered by heavy logistics, they could run away if they couldn't defeat them.
Because he had already made preparations, Li Tai brought a lot of ordnance with him on this trip.
One bow and one sword are standard equipment, and three bow strings are provided. Each person carries thirty to fifty arrows. These rations alone are enough to cope with a large-scale field battle.
In addition, there are eighty shields on horseback, thirty collars on both sides of the armor, twenty war horse armors and twenty horse poles. Although the number is not many, if they are armored and armed, they are enough to perform offensive and defensive clutches.
tactical coordination.
They did not bring any carriages, horses or other baggage teams with them on this trip. Apart from the one war horse each was allocated, they only had 60 idle horses to replace and carry supplies.
The key to maintaining a relatively considerable amount of ordnance is the carrying capacity freed up by the reduction of supplies. In terms of food supplies, each person carries two compressed grain cakes with him, which takes up very little space, but is enough to sustain the round trip.
Consumption.
I carried hundreds of kilograms of soybean meal and other horse food supplements. It was late autumn and walking along the river, there was no shortage of hay and other horse food feeds in the countryside.
In addition to two large iron pots, five marching felt tents, sharpening stones, and dozens of kilograms of ointment for maintaining utensils, although the supplies carried were quite a lot, they did not affect the mobility.
After making the decision, Li Tai also issued this order to his troops, ordering them to take a good rest, maintain their physical strength, and make slight adjustments to the organization and equipment distribution of the troops.
Li Yantou, Zhu Meng and Li Dao each led a team of 100 people, serving as the left and right wings and the vanguard. Li Tai led the remaining troops as the rear formation of the central army, unified transportation of armor, military provisions and other important supplies. The three teams in the front were responsible for checking
Exploring the terrain and finding targets, the Chinese military team is responsible for attacking the enemy.
After making this arrangement and arranging troops and supplies, everyone rested early in the temporary camp that night, leaving only a dozen scout posts nearby to keep watch overnight.
Not long after Li Tai fell asleep, he suddenly heard a warning sound coming from outside the tent. He quickly grabbed his knife and put on his clothes and walked out of the felt tent. He looked at the soldiers who were announcing before entering and asked, "What's the matter?"
"There was a sudden fire coming from the north of the east coast..."
Li Tai looked in the direction guided by the soldiers, and indeed saw a fire shining in the night on the other side of the river, but he could not see a clear source of the fire, so he thought it was not close.
"Is there any strange noise nearby?"
After observing for a moment, he asked again, he had just finished planning to attack Jihu, but it would be a bit embarrassing if Jihu took over the camp tonight.
After hearing this, the soldiers shook their heads and said: "Li Canjun has led his men to sneak to the north to investigate. Please wait at the camp."
Hearing that there was nothing unusual nearby, Li Tai let out a secret breath and did not disturb the people who were already asleep. He only held a knife and a few close friends waiting in the camp.
More than half an hour passed, and although the fire on the other side had not completely disappeared, it was also dimmed a lot.
Li Dao hurriedly returned, his brows furrowed, his expression slightly serious: "Master Lang, there is a reed shoal a few miles north, and traces of people and horses can be seen. It is estimated that there must be more than 200 people who have left their homes, and there are still people and horses on the river beach.
The traces left by the swim are not like those of officers and soldiers, they should be left by thieves and barbarians, probably the day before yesterday at most."
When Li Tai heard this, he also frowned, pointed to the other side and saw the fainter firelight and said: "If the thief Hu Shiwu has just passed through, the firelight there should be attacking and killing the households on the wall of the rural border."
"It should be the case. The thief is always around, and it is normal to steal food from his hometown. But there are still very few sightings, and we can't tell where the thief is."
Li Dao nodded after hearing the words. Seeing that it was getting late, he said again: "Master Lang, please rest first. It is no longer convenient to cross the river tonight. Wait until tomorrow. I will explore first and then cross the river from behind. There are not many defenses nearby."
, without strong troops in the border, these thieves will probably continue to wander around the border."
After hearing this, Li Tai nodded and glanced bitterly at the location that was already submerged in the darkness of night before returning to his tent and falling asleep.
In the morning of the next day, the team used a pontoon bridge on the ford of the Wudu River in the Jihu tribe to swim across the Luoshui River and entered Shicheng County from Toyin.
The so-called counties in this area are just names. The nearest military defense zone is Fushi City, which is located dozens of miles away and is under the jurisdiction of Shangjun.
The Shicheng County in this area was destroyed by the Jihu Rebellion in the seventh year of Datong. Now the county government is placed in Fucheng County. In addition to recruiting people and materials to participate in the defense of the Yellow River, it has basically given up its control of the territory.
administrative jurisdiction.
Therefore, this area is basically equivalent to an anarchic and barren area. Except for some parts of the country that are reluctant to leave their hometowns and relocate to their homeland, the regional tycoons are still fortified and defending themselves. The rest of the area is almost entirely within the scope of Jihu's activities.
Li Tai led the rear group forward slowly, and as far as the field of vision could be seen, there was almost no human habitation in the wilderness. In terms of landform characteristics alone, Shicheng County was more suitable for farming and pasture than the withered shade on the west bank of Luoshui River.
Although there are also structures of ravines and plateaus, the plateaus are much larger than those on the west coast. The wilderness is overgrown with weeds. After the frost, the cold wind has sucked away the water, leaving them withered and yellow on the ground.
The Luoshui River bends here and flows northwest. During the spring and summer flood seasons, the river surges. Since there are no bay canals to discharge floods, the river water often overflows, thus creating a large tidal flat. And this area has a rather famous reputation in later generations.
The resounding name is Nanniwan.
The land here is considered a rare area suitable for farming on the northern Shaanxi Plateau, so even though all the government offices and troops have withdrawn, there are still some villagers who cannot bear to leave. Even without the protection of the Western Wei regime, they still stay here and live here.
If the Western Wei government could organize effectively and strengthen personnel investment, this area definitely had the potential to become a strategic location for controlling the Northern Shaanxi Plateau and checking and balancing the Eastern Wei.
It's just that the foundation of the Western Wei Dynasty was too weak, and even the core area of Guanzhong had not been fully digested, and there was really no spare capacity to open another line of business, so that the good land and water could only be reduced to a paradise where Jihu was rampant.
Li Tai still felt regretful in his heart. Li Dao, who was going forward to explore the road, had already sent back his scouts and reported the specific location of a village wall that was attacked last night.
After hearing the news, Li Tai led his troops to go quickly. After traveling east for more than ten miles, they arrived at a dock wall in a valley with its back to the plateau.
The location of this dock wall was cleverly chosen, with the door opening facing the valley and leaning against a high plateau. Half of the buildings were hollowed out of the plateau and placed under the soil layer, like a cave dwelling enlarged many times.
If you had not walked into the valley to get close, you would hardly have discovered that there was a settlement here. This shows how cautious the villagers in this area were to avoid being exposed to Jihu's eyes and ears, but they still were not immune to the murderous hands.
The ground inside the wall of the dock was already scorched earth and completely covered in ashes. There were still some twisted corpses left in the ashes. You could see how cruel the death was at that time.
There are still many traces of knives and arrows on the earth wall of the dock wall. It should be that the Jihu team failed to penetrate the dock wall after a fierce battle, so they climbed up to the platform and set fire to it, using fire attacks to break through the wall.
Dock wall.
Li Tai rode his horse closer. As the mountain wind blew, a smell of burnt smell hit his face. Looking at the charred corpses and the broken walls remaining in the ashes, his shoulders trembled slightly, and he held the handle of the knife in his hand and sighed.
The voice said: "The remains of the body will not be collected for the time being. They will be lightly covered with thin soil. After killing all those thieves, we will sacrifice them with blood again!"