Cao Ba dared to fight tough battles, and he often took the lead in charging into battle, but this does not mean that he was a reckless man.
In addition to his eldest son Wang Mao, Wang Yuankui had brothers who were good at fighting and had many nephews.
Among the Wang family's descendants, Wang Lie, Wang Gai, Wang Zhong, Wang Kai, Wang Da and Wang Ye are all famous brave generals in Heshuo.
Wang Yuankui relied on his brothers and nephews from the royal family to firmly control the German army. The military power of the German Army has not changed hands for more than 20 years.
They have held military power for so many years and have maintained relatively good internal stability, so that the benefits of military power are like an irresistible drug addiction that has long been deeply rooted in their bones.
When the negotiation failed, Wang Yuankui, Wang Mao and his son, and other members of the royal family, aroused a lot of courage in their hearts, and tried their best to intercept Liang Jun's defeat from the south. They crossed the Wei River and Moyu River on the west bank, thinking of keeping the four enemies they would rather die than let go.
Fifty thousand horses.
Cao Ba took the lead in the afternoon and personally led a group of cavalry to rush across the ford to test the enemy's interception strength on the east bank. On the east bank of the river, he was jointly intercepted by brothers Wang Gai and Wang Gai.
The cavalry of both sides fought together. Cao Ba bravely defeated the three armies and had a horse spear in his hand. He only encountered three or five opponents in the army. When they saw Wang Gai, the two brothers Wang Gai and Wang Gai joined forces to kill them without paying attention, but they were almost killed.
it's here.
In terms of pure martial arts, brothers Wang Gai and Wang Kai have cultivated their muscles and bones to the point where their strength is as strong as a mountain. Cao Ba is only slightly stronger than them. With one against two and underestimating the enemy, he was able to escape by chance. He was not in Moyu.
On the east bank of the river, the bodies were wrapped in horse leather, but thanks to their thick armor, the generals on the left and right fought to the death to protect each other.
The generals of the Wang family and the Chengde army are now ferocious lost dogs, fighting like trapped beasts. Not only do the cavalry outnumber them, but there are also a small number of navy warships in the Moyu River to attack their hastily built floating rafts. In the afternoon
Cao Ba couldn't help but become impatient when he heard that there would be 3,000 Xia tribe Qiang riding south before noon tomorrow.
Even if Feng Xuan couldn't come, Cao Ba would send people to Feng Xuan to discuss countermeasures, but he didn't expect that Feng Xuan would come over first and said that the Pingxia tribe's Qiang cavalry might not be able to leave the Jingshui River Valley.
Cao Ba was slightly startled, and regardless of the danger he encountered in the afternoon, he asked in surprise: "What? People in Pingxia don't dare to fight?"
It is not Cao Ba's forte to ponder the enemy general's thoughts.
Li Yuanshou's son Li Siqi led three thousand Xia tribe Qiang to ride in and out of the Jingshui River Valley between Qingyuan. Cao Ba was too lazy to think about what he was thinking.
He also prefers to be a general who charges into battle, a general who commands the entire army, or a general who controls all the troops. He does not do this.
"It's not that the Pingxia people dare not fight out - Governor Jing sent a messenger across the river before noon to report that three days ago Han Bao confirmed that there is a wild trail in the plateau valley in the northern part of Tongguan County that can cross the northern ridge of Jiuji Mountain and enter Yongshou
Within the county, Han Bao has personally led two thousand light-armored elites to Yongshou territory," Feng Xuan said. "Looking at the enemy's movements, they probably haven't noticed this yet."
"Wang Mao did not send reinforcements to Heiniutan. He obviously hoped that the Pingxia people could leave Chiyang in time to reinforce Heiniutan. He was not afraid that we would raid from Heiniutan. But if Han Bao could stop the Pingxia people,
In Yongshou territory, Heiniutan will be our best breakthrough! But can that boy Han Bao be able to stop the Pingxia cavalry in time?" Cao Ba was excited, but couldn't help but asked worriedly, "Let's go from Tongguan County.
How many miles is the valley path across Jiuji Mountain to Yongshou County?"
Yongshou County and the northern area of Chiyang County, which controls the southern section of the Jingshui River Valley, are the main passes for the German army of 40,000 to 50,000 troops to flee to Qingyuan. It is significant that some infantry can directly penetrate into Yongshou County from the Weibei Mountains.
It's somewhat self-explanatory.
However, starting from Tongguan County to the Jingshui River Valley in Yongshou County, it seems that the direct distance is only a hundred miles, but if you cross the northern ridge of Jiuji Mountain from the inaccessible Yexing Mountain Road, the distance is definitely more than a hundred miles.
Cao Ba only had this question because he was worried that Han Bao would lead a surprise army and would not be able to rush to the Jingshui River Valley in the south of Yongtai and north of Chiyang as scheduled to intercept the Qiang cavalry of the Pingxia tribe heading south.
"Preliminary survey shows that it is almost three hundred miles away." Feng Xuan said.
"...How is it possible to intercept the Pingxia cavalry in time?" Cao Ba took a breath and said.
It is still possible for two thousand elite infantrymen to travel three hundred miles on a smooth post road in three days, but to walk three hundred miles over mountains and ridges, Cao Ba even doubted that he would be exhausted if he made the trip himself.
Vomiting blood?
Of course, Feng Xuan was not sure that Han Bao would be able to enter the southern section of the Jingshui River Valley in time and stop the Pingxia people. When making decisions, he must leave a certain amount of leeway, saying:
"It may be too late to block Pingxia's cavalry in Yongshou and not be able to go south. Even Li Siqi will successfully enter the east bank of Heiniutan before tomorrow noon and strengthen the interception of us there. But as long as Han Bao can lead his troops into the Jingshui Valley tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, we will be able to defeat the enemy.
The shock will definitely not be small..."
Even ignoring Han Bao's surprise attack on the Jingshui River Valley, seeing the enemy's resolute interception on the east bank of the Moyu River prompted Feng Xuan to decide to choose Heiniutan upstream as a breakthrough point.
In this case, even if the battle across the river will be quite fierce, it will most likely be a stalemate for a long time. As long as we can successfully break through Heiniutan, we can go directly east and cut off the German army's northward escape channel from the south entrance of the Jingshui River Valley.
If one crosses the Moyu River through the fords in the lower reaches, if time is extended, even if one succeeds in gaining a foothold on the east bank, he may still be held back by the German rear troops and unable to intercept the fleeing enemy from the head.
Of course, even if Feng Xuan does not expect the Korean leopards to enter the Jingshui River Valley tonight, he still hopes that the Korean leopards will enter the northern area of Chiyang tomorrow evening or night.
In that case, even if Han Bao failed to stop the Pingxia people from going south, the deterrent to the enemy would certainly not be low.
This would still help them take advantage of the enemy's declining morale and wavering will to concentrate their forces on a breakthrough from Heiniutan.
"Okay..." Cao Ba said excitedly, "I will leave more than a thousand cavalry here as suspects to contain the enemy forces on the other side. The other cavalry will withdraw behind the woods to the west tonight and turn towards Heiniutan. I will go with you tomorrow morning
Lu Ze, Hou Mo, Li Zhi and their main forces will join together to kill Heiniutan! If you don't believe that you can bite his mother's bird for a day, you can't bite his mother's bird off!"
"You have to stay here and act as a suspect," Feng Xuan said. "You are too picky on the battlefield and you are eye-catching. Only when you are in Mulberry Bay, Wang Mao dare not relax the defense here, and may he mistakenly think that you are here."
This is our main attack direction. I have ordered all the troops to transfer all the injured and injured, and the supply camp that arrived early has also rushed to join us..."
There is no way to transport ready-made heavy war equipment, and the supply camp goes first. There is no way to erect a simple bridge over the Moyu River overnight under the strong attack of the enemy. It is also impossible to build hundreds of bridges.
Thousands of floating rafts swallowed up the enemy's small naval force, and they randomly chose the crossing point along the Moyu River. It would be better to concentrate on Sanhe Bay first to further confuse the enemy general's judgment.
Of course, in order to truly attract the main force intercepting the enemy cavalry downstream, an iconic figure like Cao Ba cannot leave.
"..." Cao Ba didn't expect that one day he would be used as a suspect, and he groaned in pain: "Li Zhi is still a melon, Lu Ze, and Hou Mo are all cowardly and useless, no one
Take the lead and tear up the enemy's formation, how are you going to defeat Heiniutan?"
Cao Ba was not stupid enough to point the finger at Feng Xuan, but he also emphasized that he was Feng Xuan's only brave general who could be used to enter the forward line and lead his soldiers to fight bravely.
Feng Xuan said: "You may not be the first to break through the enemy's interception, but remember to use your generals mercifully..."
Cao Ba is a brave general, and he is indeed a fierce general. In terms of the battles he has experienced, his record of killing enemies is unrivaled. However, as a sharp blade, Cao Ba kills enemies bravely, but does not protect his flanks enough.
As a result, its casualty rate was much higher than average.
Because Cao Ba had already attracted the attention of the enemy, Feng Xuan was inconvenient to transfer him to the main battlefield of Heiniutan to lead the troops in the battle. However, he was also worried that if he stayed in Sanghe Bay, he would attract the main elite of the enemy and forget to fill in the murderous nature.
Most of the people who came here to serve as suspects were the wounded, sick and auxiliary soldiers.
"If you can win, you have to fight bravely. What's the use of using only generals and not being able to lead them to defeat the enemy? However, I will not forget that Sanghe Bay is full of suspicious soldiers." Cao Ba said.
"It's good that you know." Feng Xuan said.
He then summoned Cao Ba and his subordinates to join the army, and decided on the reinforcements and horses to strengthen Heiniutan and the deployment of the Gubusuuzhen formation. Then, surrounded by his cavalry, he went around to a dense forest.
To the west, out of sight of the enemy, rushing north...
…………
…………
"In front is the Black Wind Valley. In autumn and winter, strong winds often pass through the ditch, blowing up black dust and making it look like a black wind. That's why it got this name..."
In the early morning light, Han Bao placed his sword across his knees, sat cross-legged on the dirt, and listened to the scout's report on the situation at the road ahead.
The loess plateau where they were located was barren and there were no tall trees. It was early summer and there was abundant rain, and weeds grew long in the valleys of the plateau.
Although Han Bao led his troops to regain Zhucheng Village in Tongzhou and did not enter the west bank of Jingshui River to intercept the German troops fleeing north, he found out that there was a trail from Tongguan to Yongshou that could cross the northern ridge of Jiuji Mountain, so Han Bao directly decided to send his guards to
Camp and recover Tongguan's soldiers and horses, form a raiding party to march through Shanxi.
Soldiers are expensive and fast, and Han Bao could not send out troops without Jing Zhen's consent.
In that case, at least one day would be delayed. He just sent people to the Baqiao camp to report his decision while sending troops.
When setting out from the west of Tongguan County, Han Bao did not know that the three thousand Pingxia Qiang cavalry had arrived in the northern part of Yongshou County from Qingzhou. He decided to take a wild path and penetrate into the Jingshui River Valley between Yongshou and Chiyang. His intention was simple.
It is to cooperate with the cavalry advancing westward and block the enemy's northward escape route directly from the road that the enemy must pass through.
This was an arduous and outstanding march.
In addition to swords, spears, light shields, crossbows and arrows, the two thousand soldiers who marched westward in batches unloaded all their heavy armor in Tongguan City.
In addition to a series of stony mountains dominated by gray carbon in the transition zone between the southern edge and the Guanzhong Basin, the Weibei Plateau, also known as the Northern Shaanxi Plateau in later generations, is dominated by loess hilly landforms with gentle tops and steep slopes.
.
Intermittent roads extend among the hills and ridges on the top of the plateau or among the gullies carved by streams and rivers.
The Heifeng Valley in front is actually a ravine formed by the continuous erosion and alluvial loess hills along the loess hills for thousands of years or more. It goes west along the Gurgling River and passes through this more than twenty miles long.
From the valley, you can see the turbid Jingshui water, passing through the wider valleys and gullies, flowing to the Guanzhong Basin in the south until it merges into the Wei River.
Although when setting off from Tongchuan County, Han Bao was not aware of Li Siqi's 3,000 Pingxia Qiang cavalry going south from Yuanzhou, but at this time the scouts had already confirmed that a cavalry group was passing through the valley in the southern part of Yongshou County and going south.
Obviously, this could only be Qiang or Mongol cavalry reinforced from Yuanzhou or even from the Hetao Plain further north.
In more than three days, after traveling for nearly 300 miles in the Yuanliang Valley, the two thousand troops and horses had already been sparsely spread out for nearly a hundred miles. When they followed Hangou to the front of Heifeng Valley, there were only 300 soldiers and horses.
The rest of the people were exhausted at this time, and many of them even wore their boots. The front soldiers and horses were originally a reorganized combat battalion of 500 people, plus Han Bao, the brigade commander, had 50 soldiers.
There were many personal guards, soldiers and other entourage, but nearly half of them were left behind at this time, and they could not keep up with the intensity of the march.
Han Bao took off his shoes and socks, and his feet were bloody. His firm will made him study the military situation without changing his expression, and at the same time asked the guards to wrap his legs with medicine, and then endured the pain and stuffed it into the crack.
among the combat boots.
More than 300 exhausted soldiers passed through the Black Wind Valley. Except for swords, bows and crossbows, none of them had any armor. It was unrealistic to intercept the enemy reinforcements from the front, whose number was unknown at the moment.
At this time, it was necessary to set up a suspicious formation based on the Heifeng Valley to alert the enemy, making them worry that their retreat would be cut off and not dare to continue southward, or to hide in the plateau valley east of Heifeng Valley before the enemy was aware of it.
Rest and recuperate, wait for this enemy force to pass by, and then block its retreat from behind?
The more than 300 men at the front took the time to rest, while Han Bao stared at the battle map and fell into deep thought.
Choosing the former may alert the enemy in advance.
If the enemy forces divide their forces and enter the Heifeng Valley, they may block their access to the Jingshui River Valley, making it impossible to directly enter the Jingshui River Valley and sealing the enemy's retreat route.
Choosing the latter, if the main force of troops on the south and west wings cannot advance into Chiyang in time, they may not be able to withstand the life-threatening force of 40,000 to 50,000 enemy troops without strong armor and heavy shields.
Fight into the Jingshui River Valley.
What a dilemma!
"Commander of the Brigade, Deputy Envoy Feng has sent people over!" At this time, several more scouts sent to the front climbed over the plateau beam in the south, slid along the steep slope, and slid directly into the ditch. They brought back two mountain men dressed as hunters.
Dark and thin man.
In the past four days, Han Bao had passed through the maze-like loess plateau beams. Han Bao had no way to get in touch with the Baqiao Camp, and he had no idea about the situation of the German and German troops escaping north and intercepting the enemy troops on the southern line and on the west flank.
, this was also the reason why it was difficult for him to make a decision just now.
At this time, seeing Feng Xuan sending someone to contact him, Han Bao stood up excitedly. Regardless of the painful pain when his bloody feet were stuffed into his combat boots, he limped over and asked eagerly: "Feng Xuan is leading the brigades."
Have the cavalry all come from Fengxiang?"
"Generals Wang Mao, Wang Da, and Wang Qi have led more than 10,000 German troops on foot to set up defenses along the Moyu River. They plan to cross the river from Heiniutan and enter Chiyang County this morning..."
The visitor was a mid-level soldier from the Longyou Xuanwei Envoy's Office. He looked familiar to Han Bao, but the visitor had traveled over mountains and ridges day and night, covering more than a hundred miles of mountain roads, and had to disguise himself and pass through enemy-occupied areas. He looked more like
They are still embarrassed.
After verifying his identity, he didn't have time to clean up, so he came directly to see Han Bao. In the dim morning light, it was natural that he couldn't see his true face.
After hearing the name, I found out that the person who came was Tian Mao, the second son of Tian Cheng, the counselor of the Nanneishi Prefecture. He had been in the army for several years and had been serving as a military attaché beside Han Qian. Han Bao had met him twice before.
Tian Mao requested years ago to follow Feng Xuan and lead the cavalry brigade into Longyou to participate in the battle. Then he followed Feng Xuan and others from Tianshui to the east along the Weishui River and entered Guanzhong.
Feng Xuan knew for sure that Han Bao was leading 2,000 light-armored infantry across the plateau valley at the northern foot of Jiuji Mountain and marched westward. He was worried that Han Bao would be unable to contact the southern front within three or four days and would be unable to accurately estimate the war situation south of Chiyang.
, sent a large number of scouts to cross the hills and mountains in the upper reaches of the Moyu River, on the one hand to harass the Pingxia and Qiang tribes heading south from the western front, and on the other hand to facilitate the messengers to pass through the Jingshui River Valley, which is still under the control of the enemy.
Go through and wait for Han Bao to come and contact you among the hills to the east.
Tian Mao was unwilling to receive preferential treatment because of his status. He had no experience in leading troops in combat and did not expect to go to the front line to charge into battle, so he took the initiative to contact Han Bao, the surprise attack force.
Seeing that the first batch of more than 300 horses who followed Han Bao to the east side of Heifeng Valley were all miserable, Tian Mao couldn't bear to ask him to lead these remnant soldiers out of Heifeng Valley to contain ten times the number of people.
The elite of Pingxia.
"How many scouts did Feng Xuan send to explore the hills and mountains on the west flank of the river valley?" Han Bao asked after listening to Tian Mao's dictation and marking the deployment of troops and horses on the southern front and the west flank on the combat map.
Feng Xuan knew clearly that even if they arrived on the east side of the Jingshui River Valley in time, they would be miserable. He hoped that they would let Li Siqi's Pingxia tribe Qiang ride over first, and then when the time was right, they would enter the Jingshui River Valley from the side and destabilize Heiniutan.
Just improve the morale of the enemy troops and reduce the difficulty for them to forcefully break through the Heiniutan defense line.
If this is the arrangement, the battle at Heiniutan will be unimaginably fierce.
After all, once the Heiniutan crossing battle begins, the Chengde Army will inevitably realize where Feng Xuan's breakthrough focus is. In addition to Li Siqi's reinforcements, the Chengde Army can mobilize a large number of reinforcements from Liquan and Chiyang.
Once the German army used heavy shields and spears to form a formation east of Heiniutan, and Feng Xuan only used his cavalry to seize the beach and cross the river, how many people would have to die to defeat the enemy?
"Currently, there are more than two hundred of our scouts west of the river valley." Tian Mao said.
"Two hundred elite scouts are enough!" Han Bao said. "The Pingxia people know that the small group of soldiers and horses in the hills on the west flank can only be scout troops. The number will not be large. They also need to leave a small number on the west flank.
The defensive strength is enough, and we cannot attract their troops. But if we fight out from Heifeng Valley, he will definitely shrink his troops to the entrance of Heifeng Valley. He will never dare to go south easily again! We can defeat these three thousand Xia Qiang.
Ride and hold!"
"This..." Tian Mao looked at the more than 300 people staggering around. If it weren't for the newly-made war crossbows of the Ordnance Institute, which mainly use winches to open the string, he would have doubted how many of these people could pull the war crossbows, and even more so.
Not to mention picking up swords and spears and fighting against the brave Pingxia people in the plateau valley.
"The Pingxia people waited until this moment to decide to go south to rescue the German troops and flee north. To put it bluntly, they were not willing to take much risks." Han Bao summoned the few soldiers and battalion generals who followed him to his side.
Said, "We don't necessarily have to fight them in formation at the west entrance of Heifenggou. What's more important is to let the Pingxia people know that if they continue to go south, they will bear the risk of being blocked by us. Li Yuanshou is ambitious, but Pingxia
The small number of people in the tribe cannot support their huge ambition. There are more than 200 elite scouts on the west wing to support them. As long as we confirm that the Pingxia people have stopped going south, we can fight and retreat in the Black Wind Valley and wait for the troops behind.
come over……"
The once ignorant young slave boy was now a senior general of Daliang who had experienced the test of war.
Although Han Bao looked very embarrassed after three days and four nights of forced march, his tone revealed firm confidence.
He knew very well that if they could successfully drag the Pingxia people into the Jingshui River Valley at this time, it would mean that the interception force deployed by the German army on the east bank of Heiniutan would only be 40 to 50% of the planned number; Feng
The first wave of assaults organized by Xuan on the west bank would most likely penetrate the much thinner defense line than expected, instead of having to use cavalry to crush the enemy's heavy armored infantry formation on the narrow Heiniutan.
.
The advantage of cavalry lies in roundabout maneuvers, and it is difficult to take advantage of heavy armored infantry formations.
"There is no need to send people to report, as long as three bonfires are lit high on the plateau, the west wing will gather the scouts to respond when they see it!" Tian Mao said excitedly.
There are not many soldiers and horses entering the mountains on the west wing, but the situation is much better than here. The only problem is that Li Siqi knows that they only have a small number of scouts on the west wing who have climbed over the mountains and crawled in, and they cannot hold back the main force of the Pingxia Qiang Cavalry.
.
However, plans have already been made for various tactics. All it takes is Tian Mao and Han Bao to meet up and send a simple signal using bonfire or smoke.
Han Bao immediately divided the more than 300 people who arrived at Heifenggou into two groups. The more than 100 people who were in slightly worse condition stayed in Heifenggou to rest and coordinate their retreat if necessary. The other 200 people, who had slightly better physical strength, followed
He went to the Jingshui River Valley to kill and attract the attention of the Pingxia people.
In order to create a momentum of strong troops and horses, Han Bao also specially divided more than 200 people into three teams. One team walked to the bottom of Heifeng Valley, and the other two teams walked to the plateau beams on both sides of Heifeng Valley...