Chapter 1201 The cavalry broke out of the Great Wall
Kang Changning is already fifty-three years old this year. At this age, he is considered relatively old in the Tang Army.
In the early years, the Army of the Tang Dynasty was always very young. The senior generals at that time were generally only in their twenties and thirties, and few were over forty years old.
Although after many years of unification wars and several years of peace after unification, everyone has gradually grown older, and the average age of senior generals has increased significantly.
But this situation does not exist in field troops. The average age of generals in field troops is still very young.
This is because with the passage of time, the middle and low-level officers in the unification war gradually grew up. At this time, if the generals at the top have been occupying the division commanders, the positions of army commanders will not give up, leaving those young officers to see
If there is no hope, the rabbit will bite if it is anxious.
In addition, after the unification war, the Holy Emperor Li Xuan was also a little worried that those senior generals would take advantage of their merits to act recklessly, so he also adopted the method of promotion and secretion, and successively transferred many senior generals in the field army back to Jinling City, and even
In order to arrange for Hao Bainian, Li Chunjing and other army generals, Li Xuan did not even limit the number of people for the position of Deputy Privy Council Envoy.
Among the twelve active army generals in the army today, except for General Lei Wan who serves as the Minister of Operations and the Minister on Duty in the Imperial Study Room, the others all hold the fictitious position of Deputy Privy Council Envoy. Of course, although they are only given fictitious positions,
In order to supplement them, they were very generous in terms of titles. Dukes and marquises gave a lot to them, and they even revealed in private that they would grant overseas fiefdoms to nobles in the future.
The combination of various circumstances has resulted in the fact that although the senior generals in the Tang Army are not counted, the senior commanders in the field forces still remain young. The average age of the army major generals and division commanders of the twenty infantry divisions is
They are only thirty-eight years old, the youngest is not even thirty years old, and the oldest is only in his forties.
The average age of those lieutenant generals and commanders is also about forty years old.
There are actually relatively few field army major generals like Kang Changning who are 53 years old. He is a full eight years older than Deng Xide.
Kang Changning also knew that he was still serving in the field army to this day, instead of being transferred back to Jinling City like many others, or simply rushed to the provincial garrison headquarters, which played a huge part in his tone.
This Battle of Hetao can be regarded as his last chance in the field army. If he misses it, there will definitely be no next chance, because at that time, he will either be forced to retire, or be transferred back to Jinling City, or rushed to the local area
As for the garrison headquarters, as for the actual power departments that want to stay in the field army or the Privy Council, basically don't expect it.
It was precisely because of knowing this that Kang Changning was so excited, yet cautious at the same time.
On the night of receiving the appointment, he found Deng Xide and asked his immediate boss, who was eight years younger than him, for tactical guidance. As for relying on his age and qualifications to act recklessly, this was not Kang Changning's style. If
If he really had this style, he would have been forced to retire from active service when Xuanping was eight years old, and he would still be there until now.
Deng Xide was quite pleased with Kang Changning's attitude. What he valued was Kang Changning's maturity and steadiness, as well as his seniority. When he served as his deputy for the past six months, Kang Changning was like a big butler, taking charge of the army.
Many chores in the house are handled in an orderly manner, and Deng Xide does not need to worry about many messy things.
This time, Deng Xide did not give Kang Changning, his deputy, any harsh words. Instead, he told him to relax and correct his mentality. If he encounters danger, he should avoid it, but he should be decisive when he seizes the opportunity.
Strike the enemy.
Of course, Deng Xide couldn't explain in detail how to judge the appropriateness. He could only rely on Kang Changning's own experience.
Deng Xide believed that this veteran cavalryman who had been in the army for more than ten years, even if his military talent was not outstanding, still had the necessary experience and military literacy. As long as he commanded the troops to fight in an orderly manner and did not make a mess, then he would not
What a big mess will happen.
Kang Changning felt even greater pressure on Deng Xide's trust.
Because Deng Xide allowed him to judge the situation by himself, and let him decide on his own when to retreat, when to fight, and how to fight.
To put it more bluntly, Deng Xide would only lead the infantry troops to station at the old site of Dongsheng to attract enemy troops and at the same time ensure the logistics supply line. The whole matter of attacking the enemy would be left to Kang Changning.
For this reason, Kang Changning also felt great pressure. With this pressure, he left Datong Fucheng in early September. In the next two days, he gathered his own cavalry troops one by one, and then secretly marched to the Great Wall.
Next, he will lead these 15,000 cavalrymen to break out of the Great Wall.
According to the predetermined battle plan, the cavalry regiment he led would advance into the grassland first. This was partly to take advantage of the rapid maneuverability of the cavalry to catch the Tatars off guard and gain the upper hand.
On the other hand, it is also to detect the specific situation of the Tatars, attract the attention of the Tatars, and indirectly cover the infantry behind them.
The infantry in the rear had an even heavier task. They needed to fight all the way to the old site of Dongsheng City. There was a flat plain along the way, and they would be attacked by Tatar cavalry at any time.
Therefore, when these infantrymen went on an expedition, they were followed by a total of more than 3,000 professional engineering troops drawn from various northern armies, and among the many civilians recruited to transport baggage, there were also some recruited craftsmen.
Craftsmen, together with ordinary civilians, will become the main labor force to assist engineers in building fortresses.
The 20,000 civilians, in addition to transporting baggage, also needed to build fortresses along the way, build roads all the way to Dongsheng City, and finally insert a super-large nail in Dongsheng City, a nail that could kill a Tatar.
Naturally, it is not that difficult to build a fortress under the enemy's watchful eye.
In order to speed up construction, the military even used a large amount of cement, and the various types of carriages that transported cement and other materials were all four-wheeled heavy-duty carriages. These four-wheeled heavy-duty carriages not only had a large cargo capacity, but also could
Good at resisting the impact of cavalry, the Army began to use these four-wheeled heavy carriages on a large scale in plain terrain during the Unification War.
These four-wheeled carriages can be seen in the Northern Expedition and the Liaodong War, but this is the first time they have been used on a large scale.
The infantry army at the rear was a super large corps, with a total strength of more than 40,000, and 20,000 civilians. With so many people fighting on the grassland, it would be impossible for the Tatars not to stop them.
Therefore, Kang Changning's mission in the early stage was to interfere with the Tatars' line of sight, confuse the enemy, and achieve the purpose of indirectly covering the rear infantry operations. When the concealment could no longer be carried out in the mid-term, it was time to launch a direct attack.
With their own cavalry regiments present, the Tatars did not dare to attack their own infantry troops easily.
And when the infantry troops cover the engineers and build the defense line, the strategic initiative in the Hetao area can be directly returned to the Tang Army. At that time, relying on Dongsheng City, we can advance and retreat freely, and attack wherever we want.
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The cavalry regiment, led by Kang Changning, officially left the Great Wall. More than 10,000 cavalry crossed the Great Wall and headed towards the grassland to kill. The Tatars on the opposite side were not blind, so they must have seen it immediately.
Immediately afterwards, many envoys rode fast horses on the grassland. They needed to inform the tribes as soon as possible that a large group of cavalry from the Tang Army had entered the grassland!
Kang Changning also knew that as soon as he entered the grassland, within a few days, all the tribes within hundreds of miles would probably know about it. After all, the Tang Empire had a post system that could expedite travel for 300 or even 500 miles.
However, most Tatars have a similar communication system, and the grassland lacks everything except horses. At the same time, the terrain is plain, so messengers can deliver messages faster.
However, a few days of buffering is enough. Even if they find out tomorrow that they will lead troops to fight, what will happen? These nomads are usually scattered in various places to graze. If they want to gather together to fight, it will take a long time.
It's not a matter of one or two days.
He estimated that he would have at least about half a month.
During this half month, the enemy has not yet massed on a large scale, so our infantry can be safe. At the same time, we can strike first and inflict heavy losses on some Tatar tribes.
With this judgment in mind, after he entered the grassland, he was not too cautious, but quickly went north, forming a huge arrow and sweeping towards the hinterland of the grassland. He hoped to use this time to weaken the Tatar resistance as much as possible
ability to prepare for the war in half a month.
However, Kang Changning obviously underestimated the capabilities of Anda Khan and the military mobilization capabilities of the Tatars he commanded, and even more underestimated the Tatars' ability to spy on the Great Wall's defense line.
In fact, before Kang Changning sent troops, Anda Khan on the grassland had already received many early warnings and knew that the Tang Army was gathering heavy troops in Datong Prefecture!
As a precaution, Ada Khan sent envoys to various tribes a few days ago to recruit soldiers from each tribe.
Now the envoys recruiting troops from various tribes are running wildly on horseback, heading towards various parts of the grassland.
Not only tribes in Tumochuan, but also in nearby Hetao and other areas will receive conscriptions from the contemporary grass overlord ‘Anada Khan’!
As for Anda Khan's direct control of the direct tribes, that is, the Tumote tribe, they are even more cautious!
When Ada Khan learned from the envoy who was running all the way back that the Tang Army had really sent troops, the soldiers of the Tumote Department quickly got on their horses and went out to fight under the leadership of Ada Khan himself.