Chapter two hundred and seventy fifth sudden variable
The Qiaoqi Army already has less than 600 people, and now that Liu Xiu has added these new conditions, there are even fewer people who can be taken away.
Liu Xiu didn't want to say any more about this matter, so he waved his hands to Ma Wu and Feng Yi and said, "Just do what I want!"
Ma Wu and Feng Yi looked at each other, bowed to Liu Xiu, and then walked down the city wall.
On the evening of December 30th, the third year of Emperor Di Huang's reign (AD 22), Liu Xiu led the heroic cavalry of the Zhutian Army, using the cover of darkness, to quietly leave Jiyang and head straight for Lanxiang.
The reason why he chose the time for the sneak attack on Lanxiang to be on New Year's Eve was that Liu Xiu was taking advantage of the enemy's lack of preparedness during the New Year period.
There were less than 600 Qiaoqi troops. After Liu Xiu listed three conditions, the number of soldiers who followed him to attack Lanxiang was 550 in total.
In addition, following Liu Xiu, in addition to the three Xuying brothers, there were also Ma Wu, Yao Qi, Feng Yi, Zhu You, Gai Yan, Zang Gong, Fu Jun and others.
Liu Xiu and his party traveled all night and drove straight to Lanxiang.
When he was about to approach Lanxiang, Yao Qi suddenly saw fire flickering in front of him, sometimes bright and sometimes dark. His heart moved, and he turned around and said, "Lord!"
Liu Xiu reacted quickly. He pulled back the reins with one hand and raised his other hand high to signal the people behind him to stop.
The speed of their group of cavalry gradually slowed down. At this time, a black shadow emerged from the road ahead and ran straight towards them.
Without thinking, Fu Jun quickly took off his iron bow and placed the arrow on the bowstring.
Yao Qi said: "Ziwei!" and waved to him at the same time.
It didn't take long before the black shadow came to the front of the team.
Everyone took a closer look and saw that this man was wearing night clothes and had a thin build. Looking at his face, he looked young, about 20 years old, with dark skin and a pair of big, bright eyes.
The young man in black first bowed to Liu Xiu and said, "My lord!" Then he saluted Yao Qi and said, "My lord!"
Yao Qi looked at the young man and asked, "Peng Zhi, something has changed in Lanxiang?"
This young man's name is Peng Zhi, one of Yao Qi's spies and a minor leader among the spies.
Peng Zhi said anxiously: "Today, two grain transport teams from the Mang Army arrived in Lanxiang one after another. They are now living in Lanxiang and have not left yet."
Hearing this, Liu Xiu and others secretly frowned. Yao Qi asked: "How many people are there in these two grain transport teams?"
Peng Zhi said: "One group has no less than a thousand people, and the other group has about five hundred people."
In other words, the current number of reckless troops in Lanxiang is at least 2,000, maybe more than 3,000. Yao Qi lowered his eyes and pondered without saying a word.
Liu Quan rushed forward and approached Liu Xiu. His face was ugly and he said solemnly: "Young Master..."
Liu Xiu waved his hand and glanced sideways at Liu Quan. The latter shrank his neck in fright, did not dare to say another word, and took several steps back.
Feng Yi said: "My lord, the number of reckless troops currently stationed in Lanxiang is very likely to be 3,000. This is much more information than we had in advance."
The cavalry is good at long-distance raids, but not good at street fighting. If there are only a thousand soldiers in Lanxiang, they can still force a fight and have a chance of victory.
But now the number of reckless troops has increased to more than 3,000, which is far beyond their control.
Ma Wu asked with a dark face: "The Mang Army's grain transport team didn't come early or late, so why did they come just when we were about to attack Lanxiang? And there were two at once! Is it our plan? , has been noticed by the reckless army?"
Liu Xiu slowly shook his head thoughtfully. If the Mang army was really aware of his plan, then it would not be two grain transport teams sent to Lanxiang, but a large group of elite troops.
Peng Zhi whispered: "Today is the eve of the New Year, and tomorrow is the first day of the first lunar month. Zhen Fu and Liang Qiuci both want to reward the three armies, so..."
"So, Zhen Fu and Liang Qiu sent their talents today, and each sent a food transport team to transport the New Year's food back to the army." Liu Xiu continued.
Peng Zhi bowed and said: "My lord is wise!"
Liu Xiu squinted his eyes and silently calculated in his mind, five hundred versus three thousand, whether his side had any chance of winning this battle.
No one said anything at the scene, and everyone's eyes fell on Liu Xiu, just waiting for him to make a decision.
After a long time, seeing Liu Xiu still silent, Yao Qi said: "My lord, since there are sudden changes, why not fight another day?"
Liu Xiu shook his head slowly and murmured: "Don't miss the opportunity. If you lose it, it will never come back. If you delay it, things will change!"
Zhen Fu and Liang Qiuci are not ordinary people. Lan Xiang's weakness is temporarily ignored by the two of them due to internal fighting. But what if one day, a light flashes in their minds and they suddenly think of it?
Lan Xiang, strengthen the defense here so that we will have no chance of sneak attacks.
Moreover, the Mang army's grain transport team has arrived at Lanxiang, so they cannot be allowed to go back alive. Otherwise, if the Mang army is allowed to transport a large amount of food back to the army, even if we can successfully attack Lanxiang in the future, it will not be able to disrupt Mang.
The effect of military morale has been achieved.
Liu Xiu's eyes flashed and he said: "Today's battle must be fought!" As he spoke, he looked at Peng Zhi and asked: "How many of you are near Lanxiang?"
"Reporting to my lord, there are sixteen people in total!"
"You should all have casual clothes, right?"
Peng Zhi was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding what Liu Xiu meant. He nodded subconsciously and said, "During the day, we all wear casual clothes and move around Lanxiang."
Liu Xiu nodded and said, "Go and get all the clothes immediately!"
Although he didn't know what Liu Xiu wanted to do, Peng Zhi did not dare to disobey, bowed to Liu Xiu, saluted, then turned around and ran away quickly.
Liu Xiu dismounted and asked his soldiers to rest where they were.
Ma Wu, Yao Qi, Feng Yi and others gathered around Liu Xiu. Liu Xiu glanced at the people around him and said, "In a moment, I will bring a dozen brothers, dressed in casual clothes, to sneak into Lanxiang first..."
Yin Shi is also around three o'clock in the morning.
Liu Xiu, who had changed into casual clothes, led Xu Ying, Xu Fei, Xu Ting, Zhu You, Fu Jun and less than ten Qiaoqi soldiers, crawling on the ground and slowly approaching Lanxiang.
In the Han Dynasty, the institutions below the county level were townships, li, and pavilions. A pavilion of ten miles had a pavilion chief. Liu Xiu's ancestor Liu Bang was the pavilion chief at that time. A township of ten pavilions had a township official, and the name of the township official was
For the 'Three Elders'.
People who can be appointed as the three elders usually need to be over fifty years old and have the highest virtue among the people.
Don't think that the three elders have no real power. In addition to the three elders of the township, there are also the three elders of the county and the three elders of the county. They can supervise the performance of local officials. If the performance is not good, they can report it directly to the court.
Even some highly respected three elders are qualified to participate in government affairs. To put it bluntly, the three elders are representatives of the people and are used to supervise government officials. As early as the Han Dynasty, a private supervision system existed in Chinese official circles.
Lanxiang is not really a city, it is the size of a small town with hundreds of households in it.
At present, the food, grass and supplies of the 100,000 reckless troops are all hoarded in Lanxiang, and the entire Lanxiang has almost turned into a large military camp.
Several entrances and exits in the town are guarded by soldiers.
The place where Liu Xiu and others approached was the west gate of Lanxiang.
Because today is New Year's Eve, there are only four soldiers guarding the gate, and it is three o'clock in the morning, when people are the sleepiest and most tired of the day. This is why the few soldiers are holding their arms.
Holding a spear, leaning against the wall, he dozed off with his head drooped.
Liu Xiu and others lay down near the west gate, quietly observing, and they counted four soldiers. Liu Xiu nodded to Xu Ying, Xu Fei, and Xu Ting.
Then the four of them continued to crawl forward and headed towards the four dozing soldiers.
When Liu Xiu was still three steps away from the soldier in front, he heard a whooshing sound, and an arrow flew over his head and hit the soldier's throat. The soldier didn't say a word and moved forward.
Throw down.
Liu Xiu jumped up from the ground and immediately supported the fallen soldier's body without letting it make any sound.
He turned to look at Xu Ying and the other three, and all three of them also killed the target soldiers neatly.
As soon as they slowly lowered the four soldiers to the ground, they heard the sound of clattering footsteps coming from the west gate.
Liu Xiu looked over and saw a group of patrols approaching. There were not many, only six people.
Normally, the patrols should be in teams of ten, but tonight is New Year's Eve, so many of the patrolling soldiers are lazy.
Liu Xiu signaled to Xuying and the others, and they all hid on the left and right sides of Ximen.
Not long after, six soldiers on patrol had walked out of the west gate and went outside. They looked up and saw no soldiers standing guard. Several of them muttered angrily: "These boys dare to be lazy while on guard."
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Just when several soldiers turned around and wanted to go back, Liu Xiu and Xu Ying suddenly jumped out from the shadows on both sides of the west gate.
The four of them were like four cheetahs. When the people arrived, the swords in their hands followed. The four patrols opened their mouths wide, and before they had time to scream, the four swords had slashed across their necks.
The other two soldiers looked horrified, and before they could react, they heard a whooshing sound.
Snap, an arrow was nailed between the eyebrows of a soldier, piercing his head. The last soldier finally reacted, screamed, turned around and ran away.
He was faster, and a red light was faster, drawing a strange red line in the air and sinking into his heart.
Poof! The scream that had just been made suddenly stopped.
The Chixiao Sword pierced his back, and the soldier staggered forward two steps before falling to the ground.
In just the blink of an eye, the six patrolmen were all dead on the spot. After that, the scene returned to a deathly tranquility.
After waiting for a while, when no other soldiers came out, Liu Xiu and others emerged from the shadows. When the soldiers' bodies were lying on the roadside, he waved his hand and pulled out the Chixiao Sword inserted in the soldiers' backs.
Then, he put his sword into its sheath. After Zhu You, Fu Jun and others came over, everyone took off their weapons and hid them in the corner on the west gate. After hiding their weapons, more than a dozen of them used their bare hands.