Before the fire arrived, the billowing black smoke had already begun to disperse with the wind.
Although the reeds that were not harvested last year have become dry under the recent sunshine, the bottom of these reeds is shallow water. The reeds have strong water absorption, and the sunlight evaporates during the day. At night, the lake water below will slowly seep upward along the reed poles.
.
Therefore, in fact, at this time of night, the reeds are half wet and half dry.
In addition, spring has arrived, and new reed green seedlings have grown over the reed swamps. When half-dried reeds and tender seedlings are burned in the fire, a large amount of smoke will be produced.
The smoke quickly spread throughout the reed marsh through the wind, affecting all living things in the reed marsh hundreds of steps away before the fire. Of course, this also included the people hiding in the reed marsh.
Liu Qi led more than 7,000 rebels and was hiding in the reed swamps of Wugongdian and Baiyangdian.
Just as Zhang Yanling expected, the successive victories filled the rebel army with a blind confidence of being invincible. The vulnerability of the officers and soldiers gave them great confidence.
Liu Qi originally served as a member of the Western Route Army and captured Yizhou through several county towns along the Yishui River. His coming to Xiong County to defend it was due to a strategic dispute and adjustment arrangement by the rebels not long ago.
As the situation evolved, the rebel leaders held a meeting on the future development strategy of the rebel army.
At the meeting, Qi Yanming, who had defected not long ago, proposed a strategy, that is, the rebels must attack south and cross the river to seize Nanjing. Finally, based on the rice-rich land south of the Yangtze River, the imperial court was established in Nanjing to compete with the Ming Dynasty.
Strategy.
This proposal was supported by Yang Hu and Liu Chong. However, doing so would mean that they could not threaten the capital from the north. They might even end up losing the place where they had already established a foothold in Hebei.
Zhao Sui disagreed. He felt that Hebei was the hometown of the rebels, and the local people supported him so much. If he gave up the land in Hebei, he would have let down the expectations of his hometown elders. Zhao Sui also said that most of the rebel soldiers were local people in Hebei who joined the army.
Their parents, wives and children are all in Hebei. If they are allowed to leave their hometown and go south, how can they feel at ease? Their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced.
Zhao Sui also has a third reason, that is, the two prefectures of Hebei and Baoding are now the territory of the rebel army. Both manpower and materials can be quickly replenished here. Once this place is lost and the army turns south, then
It has become a rootless tree. Once it encounters setbacks and cannot advance or retreat, it will become a rogue.
It has to be said that Zhao Sui's worries are reasonable. But Qi Yanming insists on his opinion. He believes that under the current situation, Hebei is a dead place. If he does not stick to this for the sake of the overall situation and the future of the rebels,
Soon he will be surrounded by officers and soldiers from all sides, and they will be strangled here step by step.
Both sides have their reasons, and the two argued hard and couldn't stop arguing. Yang Hu supported Qi Yanming's opinion and believed that going south would create a big situation. Liu Qi supported Zhao Sui, thinking that Zhao Sui's idea was more practical. He believed that nowadays
The most important thing is to consolidate a firm foothold, rather than thinking about seizing Nanjing and establishing a court. This is too fanciful.
This was the first time that the rebel leaders had disagreements on major strategies.
In his heart, Liu Chong supported Qi Yanming's plan to go south, but he could not ignore Zhao Sui's opinion. Zhao Sui has become the think tank of the rebel army since he joined the group. He has contributed most to the development of the rebel army to today's situation. On the one hand, he must
We should pay attention to Zhao Sui's opinions, and on the other hand, we should also plan for the future.
Ever since, Liu Chong proposed a compromise plan, which was to divide his troops.
One hundred thousand soldiers and horses were divided into two. He and Zheng Hu Qi Yanming led an army of 50,000 to attack south. Zhao Sui and Liu Qi led an army of 50,000 to defend the two prefectures of Baoding and Hejian. In this way, if the southward march was frustrated, at least there would be room to turn around.
.And if Nanjing is captured and the situation is stabilized, Zhao Sui and Liu Qi will lead their troops south again.
This seems to be the best of both worlds, but it actually violates a taboo of military strategists. The current combat effectiveness of the rebels is actually very average, and their several victories have been achieved through trickery and planning. The rebels are still unable to equip everyone with decent weapons.
Hands, armor, horses, and heavy siege equipment are all very few. In this situation, dividing the troops is tantamount to seeking death.
However, it was precisely because of the excessive performance of the officers and soldiers in the previous round that gave the rebel leaders immense confidence. They believed that the officers and soldiers were weak and vulnerable, so they did not consider the danger of doing so at all.
Liu Chong's suggestion was adopted by everyone. Zhao Sui stayed in Baoding Prefecture and led 30,000 troops to secure the base area of Baoding Prefecture. Liu Qi was originally going to guard Hejian Prefecture, but he preferred to fight with the officers and soldiers on the front line, so he insisted
It is required to garrison in Quxiong County, which is the northern gateway of Baoding Prefecture and is far away from Bazhou.
Liu Qi was still thinking of waiting for an opportunity to capture Bazhou's troops, proving that his strategy of staying in Hebei was correct. It proved that as Liu Chong's younger brother, he was not relying on his elder brother's skills to get by in the rebel army.
The day before yesterday, when he learned that tens of thousands of soldiers and horses from the Bazhou imperial court were dispatched to attack Xiong County, Liu Qi felt that an opportunity had come. According to the intelligence report, he learned that the opponent's soldiers and horses were the best equipped and armored, and they were the soldiers and horses of the Beijing camp in the capital.
. He is not so arrogant that he thinks he can defeat his opponent head-on. But he thinks he can cooperate with the army of Baoding Prefecture to eat up the troops of the Beijing camp.
If we can encircle and annihilate this Beijing camp soldier, we will obtain a large amount of equipment, armor, and war horses. More importantly, it will once again dampen the arrogance of the officers and soldiers and teach them not to dare to do anything arbitrarily again.
So Liu Qi used his brain and learned to think the way Zhao Sui did. Finally, he made a plan for this battle. First, his troops hid in the reeds to avoid his sharp edge and hide an ambush. Second,
When the imperial officers and soldiers attacked Baoding,
The more than a thousand men left in the city burned the grain and grass, and cooperated with themselves inside and outside to capture Xiong County and cut off the retreat of the officers and soldiers. The third step was to take advantage of the enemy's lack of food and confusion and fight with Zhao Sui's 30,000 soldiers.
The horses will annihilate all the opponents together.
It has to be said that Liu Qi used his brains. This plan is really vicious. If everything goes as he wants, Zhang Yanling's more than 10,000 troops will really face a desperate situation.
It's a pity that Liu Qizao's big brain doesn't have much information. He can only learn the method that Zhao Sui used to hide in the reeds, but he completely forgot whether using the same strategy twice on officers and soldiers would be a good idea to others.
They all became fools.
He also forgot that the reason why Zhao Sui dared to do that in the first place was an unexpected move. When it was freezing and snowy, no one would think that there would be people hiding in the wild, let alone the wet reeds.
Moreover, even if someone knew that soldiers and horses were hiding in it, considering that the entire reed marsh was covered with ice and snow after the snow, there was absolutely no fear that officers and soldiers could pose a threat to themselves. This is because the reed marsh is most afraid of fire attacks, but the reed marsh is soaked in ice and snow.
Reeds cannot be burned.
Of course, he knew nothing about his opponent. How could he deceive the Marquis of Jianchang of the Ming Dynasty? Although Zhang Yanling did not participate in the early battles to counter the rebellion, the news of each battle and the development of the situation were
Zhang Yanling paid close attention to her at all times. The news from Zhang Lun, Zhu Lin and others was first-hand.
Liu Qi actually had a premonition that something was not going to happen, because the manpower sent out to monitor the movements of the officers and soldiers entering the city came back in the evening, saying that the imperial troops were dispatched. And they were heading towards Baiyangdian.
If Liu Qi is decisive, he still has time to withdraw from the east side with his troops. Of course, in that case, the opponent may find his trace and catch up, eventually leading to a head-on battle.
Liu Qi took a chance and thought that the other party did not know his whereabouts at all. After all, he arranged people in the city to spread the news that he led his troops back to Baoding Mansion. After all, the officers and soldiers were not that smart. After all, this was a large reed swamp, even if they
There is nothing to be done about suspecting that there are soldiers and horses hidden in the reeds.
It was these flukes and inexplicable self-confidence that kept him from acting rashly. But when the midnight fire soared into the sky and thick smoke quickly filled the reeds, Liu Qi knew that something bad was going to happen.
The grand smoke penetrated into the space of the reed marshes along with the wind. The wall of fire was still far away, but the smoke had already made the rebels hiding hundreds of steps away cough and cry, which was simply unbearable.
They began to escape toward the east side away from the reed marsh. However, the fire and smoke spread as quickly as they trudged in the reed marsh. They panted and ran wildly in the reed marsh. The usually soft and light reed poles now seemed like
A series of strong fences blocked them. The dead leaves of the reed poles were like knives, and their hands and feet were cut with bloody marks. The soft floating ground under their feet was like a quagmire, and they didn't exert any effort to step on it, so they couldn't run fast at all.
Soon, the fire caught up with some soldiers on the west side. In the raging flames, hundreds of rebel soldiers were swallowed up, screaming and wailing in the fire. The screams even drowned out the sound of the roaring flames.
In just half an hour, the entire reed marsh was burning with flames, and countless fires began to spread. That was because the burning reed stems and leaves fell forward, spreading in leaps and bounds. A ball of fire would
Can quickly ignite surrounding reeds.
Miserable screams could be heard one after another in the reed swamp. It was unknown how many people were burned alive by the fire.
The rebel soldiers in the reed marsh couldn't stay any longer. Some ran to the shore and some swam to the deep water of Baiyangdian. At this time, staying in the reed marsh was like staying in hell.
However, isn't the cold and deep lake another hell? Once you get to the shore, can you escape from death?