Although the marching formation set up by Li Tai's men greatly avoided being intercepted and charged by the enemy's fine cavalry, it basically had nothing to do with speed. In the few hours after the first confrontation between the two sides,
It has only advanced a dozen miles, and there is still more than twenty miles away from the destination of this trip, Golden Granary City.
As night falls, your field of vision is greatly restricted and your ability to perceive the environment plummets. Traveling at night undoubtedly involves greater risks.
Although a one-day march does not cover a long distance, it consumes a lot of energy on the part of the men and horses. In a field environment, if you cannot gain the power to win in terms of mobility, you will have to pay greater energy and cost.
Li Tai knew that he would be exposed to the enemy's eyes, ears, and iron hoofs and blades during the entire march. These Jinyang soldiers and cavalry were all elite soldiers who fought in hundreds of battles. Any slight oversight or omission might be taken advantage of by the enemy, so he marched on this day.
I felt mentally tense when I came down.
Although the two sides never fought again, they were still engaged in another form of competition. For Li Tai, not fighting was a kind of victory, which showed that his marching method was so thorough that the enemy could not find him at all.
Fighter vulnerability.
From this point of view, he is already a qualified and even excellent general. He may not be able to win every battle or conquer every attack, but he has mastered the basic skills of a general very solidly.
Although the advancement on land is not large, due to the enemy's weak control of the river, the boat's advance and retreat are very limited. This replaces the function of the cavalry scout to a certain extent and allows Li Tai to gain a better understanding of the enemy's dynamics.
Basic understanding and knowledge that the enemy is launching an attack on Golden Granary City.
Although Han Xiong's troops are not large, they are veteran revolutionaries who have been fighting the enemy on the border for many years. They are very capable and experienced. They have relied on the terrain of Cangcheng to repel the enemy's ferocious offensives several times. It's just that.
After all, the enemy army was outnumbered, and after repeated attacks, they occupied the trestle water village outside Cangcheng, making it impossible for them to communicate directly with each other through waterways.
After nightfall, Li Tai chose a slightly higher hillside to set up camp first. He formed a formation of chariots on the outside and rested his troops inside.
The enemy's scouts were still wandering around outside the car formation like vultures to observe. When they saw that they and their party had no intention of starting on the road immediately, they left a few riders to continue to guard, while the others temporarily withdrew.
"Master Sir, after night falls, the troops and horses cannot see far, and it is inconvenient to convey orders. The large number of enemy cavalry has become a disadvantage. The command and dispatch cannot be easy. If three hundred elite cavalry rush into the camp and shake the formation, the thieves will be frightened."
disturbed."
After dinner, He Ruoden came up to him again and whispered: "This place is not far from the bandit camp. You can reach it quickly by driving straight for more than ten miles. Please go out to disturb the enemy. Even if you can't break through their camp defenses, you can still make Jingu City secure."
If the trapped people know that there are reinforcements, they will not be discouraged, frightened, or lose their fighting spirit."
Because of their high mobility and fast movement speed, the cavalry is more difficult to direct battles. Once the vision is limited at night, it is more difficult to conduct large-scale assembly and dispatch and become an effective combat unit. It is also difficult to fully utilize the advantage of large numbers of people.
come out.
After Li Tai thought about it for a while, he agreed to He Ruoden's request to fight. His riding and shooting skills were among the best among his subordinates, rarely comparable. If he was responsible for attacking the enemy camp at night, the success rate would be greatly increased.
Of course, it was not a good time to launch a night attack. After confirming this plan, Li Tai asked He Ruoden to personally select the personnel to go into battle, and then let these people rest and stay overnight so that they did not have to participate in the night watch. He also dispatched two more light ships.
The boat went downstream and carefully explored the enemy's camp, defense and movements.
After making these arrangements, Li Tai also settled in his tent and fell asleep. After this day's march, he was already exhausted and needed to recharge his batteries.
I don't know how long he slept for. Li Tai was woken up by Li Quji outside the tent. When he walked out of the tent wearing clothes and carrying a knife, he looked up and saw the stars in the sky, and asked: "What time is it? He Ruoden
Are you waiting to set off?"
"It's already a quarter of an hour, and the night attack team has not yet set off. There are new changes in the bandit camp, and we need to wait for Alang to make a decision."
Li Quji whispered before entering: "At three o'clock in the morning, a drum order suddenly sounded in the bandit camp, and the soldiers were summoned to get into armor. It seemed that they were going to launch a night attack on Jingu City. But now the bandit camp was brightly lit, and the army was ready.
They gathered, but nothing happened. After discussion with the other generals, they all felt that the rebel army might be pretending to attack at night, but in fact it was to lure our army to rush to save the city..."
When Li Tai heard this, he also frowned and walked straight to the bonfire where the generals were gathered. He also called the scouts on the ship closer to inquire carefully, and in his heart he more agreed with the guesses of Li Quji and others.
.
The enemy army gathered late at night, but they did not attack the nearby Jingu Castle. It only made sense that they could lure themselves to rescue them.
If this is indeed the case, then the enemy must have prepared for an ambush. If they continue to launch a night attack according to the original plan, they will undoubtedly fall into a trap, and it is natural to abandon this plan.
However, He Ruodun was still unwilling to accept this, and raised his own doubts: "If the thief really tempted me to attack, he would always make some feint attack gesture, but now he only saw people gathering but no one came out of the camp, but it seemed to be to intimidate him."
Plan, as if afraid of my attack..."
It is indeed strange that the enemy army cannot gather together, but if it is a bluff intimidation, it is unlikely. After all, the gap in strength between the two sides is not small. Even if Li Tai attacks with his entire army, it is not worth the opponent's sleepless night.
The queues in the camp were intimidating.
"I'm afraid I haven't seen the details while peeping in the river. Maybe there are some changes in the bandits' camp that I can't detect. I'd like some riders to go and have a closer look. If there are any more plots outside the camp, we can predict them in advance."
He Ruoden spoke again and said that he had been idle for a long time, and now he finally joined Li Tai's disciples and was re-employed. He did not want to miss any opportunity to make meritorious deeds.
After hearing this, Li Tai nodded and sent several small boats to cooperate with the inspection. After this interruption, he no longer felt sleepy, so he simply stayed here to wait for further news, and let other soldiers on night duty rest first.
Not only Li Tai and other generals were puzzled, but the generals in the Eastern Wei military camp also looked at each other, wondering why. In the evening, the general Xue Guyan had personally ordered to have a meal and rest in advance, preparing to continue the siege battle at night, but now it was agreed.
A long time had passed, and the soldiers had already gathered, but there was still no further order from the general's camp.
The soldiers could not leave the camp without an order from the commander-in-chief. And because the previous assembly order prevented them from disbanding the troops without permission, the situation suddenly became awkward.
"The Lord is handling important matters in the tent. Please ask the general and other superintendents to wait for military orders."
The soldiers guarding outside the big tent smiled and said to the generals who came here to ask for instructions. Regardless of whether they believed it or not, they were saying this, but they were already complaining in their hearts.
The smell of alcohol filled the tent. Xue Guyan, who had vowed to drink only one bucket of wine before, was now lying on the table with his belly open. There were leftover barbecue dishes on the table, but the wine jar next to the table was already filled with wine.
Not even a drop is left, obviously he is living up to his word.
For a person who is addicted to alcohol, forcibly setting a drinking limit for himself, and when he gets drunk, it will only become a goal that he must break through. If he has this kind of self-control, he will not do it at all.
I'll have to drink before the war.
Fortunately, the soldiers already knew the lord's temperament very well, and were quite experienced in handling similar situations. Outside, they patiently dealt with the generals who came here to ask for instructions, while inside the tent, they began to cook soup and food to relieve the hangover.
He opened the Lord's teeth and carefully poured the soup into it, and then waited for him to sober up.
As for how long it would take to sober up, they had no way of knowing, so they could only pray in their hearts as soon as possible. Although this situation is helpless, according to past experience, it is always a near miss, and I hope this time will be no exception.
"The situation is not right, something is strange..."
Outside the camp, He Ruoden, who was already approaching, frowned more and more. He saw no enemy arrangements along the way, and even the scouts were almost missing. This was really not in line with the situation of luring the enemy.
.
He couldn't figure it out for a while, but since they had already marched here, he simply continued towards the enemy camp. The campfire was already in sight, and finally a voice shouted from the side of the wilderness road: "Who is that?"
He Ruodun raised his hand and shot at the sound. He let out a short scream and then another person jumped up from the cave and ran straight towards the camp in the dark. However, He Ruodun rode his horse forward, bent down and grabbed him with his hand.
"If you want to survive, tell the truth!"
He Ruoden pressed the blade of his saber to the man's neck, and immediately asked about the ambush plan in the camp, but the soldier shook his head and expressed ignorance. He only said that he would launch an attack on Jingu City tonight, and no soldiers left the camp to set up an ambush along the river.
"Send this man back alive, and I will go to the enemy camp to explore again."
One-sided words were not trustworthy, but what He Ruoden saw along the way was consistent with what the enemy soldier told him, so he gave the living creature to a few of his fellow soldiers to take back, and he and two other soldiers walked around the front of the camp and walked from there.
I approached from the side and successfully arrived at the enemy's horse camp.
The horse camp was surrounded by simple fences and fences, with posts set up at regular intervals. There were several soldiers and grooms inside to guard the camp, and the horses in the circle were not allowed to go outside the camp.
"kill!"
Under the cover of darkness, He Ruoden raised his hand and shot a barking dog outside the sentry. When the sentry was startled, he dismounted and stepped forward with a knife to kill him. The two soldiers behind him cooperated tacitly and soon killed seven or eight of the sentry.
People were slaughtered.
The sound of fighting here also attracted the attention of nearby enemy soldiers, and some horses in the circle who were sensitive to blood also neighed.
Ho Ruoden's Communist soldiers took the time to chop down the fence, and soon opened a huge gap. Then they threw bundles of ignited grass inside, and the frightened horses inside rushed out of the gap.