The sky is always gloomy during the Qingming Festival, and from time to time tears shed from the sky by unknown people. Updates are fast and there are no ads.
Those who cry may be remembering an old friend, being heartbroken by someone, or simply being infected by this slightly sad season and crying for the petals that fell to the ground.
If you are standing on a high mountain in the deep mountains, everything you see is white mist, and you can only see the dense forests and rivers in the mountains through the gaps in the mist.
If a literati travels with beautiful women, they may be tempted by the beautiful scenery in front of them, and then become popular in poetry, leaving behind a lot of poems, among which there may be something like "taking prostitutes to the east mountain".
Spring is coming. Look at the peaches and plums from a distance, and when you look into the mirror, you will read such a famous story through the ages.
But today, such a beautiful scene was tarnished by a crowd of shouts, screams, swords and blood.
In a small flat area at the foot of the mountain, there were hundreds of people wearing different clothes. One group had about 350 people, and the other group had about 400 people.
In the small group, there were more than a hundred people wearing Ming military uniforms, and the remaining two hundred or so people were wearing ordinary clothes.
But even though these people were dressed differently, the weapons they held were the same, and even their formations and demeanor were the same.
Most of the people wearing ordinary clothes still had baskets at their feet, but these baskets were empty!
As for the party with more people, their clothes were messy, and even the formations of most people were chaotic. Only a group of nearly a hundred people, composed of half-grown children, maintained an orderly queue.
But in front of the group of half-grown children, a knight on horseback looked sad!
"What's going on? Didn't it mean that there are only more than a hundred guardsmen in this grain transport team, and the others are civilian husbands? Those people don't look like civilian husbands!" At this time, a man who was also riding next to Wang Danxu
The young man on the horse said: "General, we have been fooled!"
Wang Danxu also looked depressed!
Their intelligence turned out to be wrong. The information reported by the spies showed that there were more than 300 people in the army, of which only more than 100 were regular soldiers, and the rest were civilians.
But now it seems that those civilian men are not civilian men at all, but fake regular troops!
"What's going on?" At this time, Li Xuan from behind was also frowning.
Fang Dongquan looked anxious at this time, knelt down and said: "I deserve death for my crime. It should be that our people failed to see clearly, so they admitted their mistake!"
Fang Dong was fully responsible for the spies sent out to search for the Ming army before. Now that something went wrong, he, the person in charge, could not shirk his responsibility.
Li Xuan waved his hand: "Let's not talk about responsibilities for now. What should we do now?"
While speaking, Li Xuan looked at everyone present!
At this time, Butcher Chen was the first to speak: "What else can we do? Just fight. Although they have more than 300 people, we also have more than 400 people, and behind us we have a baggage team of almost 400 people. Plus
Get up enough to kill them!"
As soon as Tufu Chen finished speaking, Fang Dongquan said, "I'm afraid it would be inappropriate to attack rashly. Although we have more people, the enemy troops are all regular troops of the garrison. If you are not afraid of ten thousand, just in case! I think it is better to
It's prudent, let's not wait any longer, let's go directly before they come here!"
Huang Xueren said: "If we retreat directly, it is a safe way, but now the pseudo-Ming Dynasty has begun to form a formation. If we retreat rashly, I am afraid it will cause chaos!"
It's not easy to leave. The two sides haven't started fighting yet. It would be too easy for the bandits in Huangzhushan to leave. But what happens after they leave?
The Ming army is not stupid and will definitely catch up. If they are chased all the way and cannot keep the distance, Huangzhushan will have no way to gather the troops. At that time, instead of retreating, they will collapse.
Li Xuan looked at Wang Danxu at this time: "General Wang, Aiqing, you are the commander-in-chief of the Guards. If we fight, how sure are you that we can win?"
When Li Xuan asked, everyone including Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren, and Liu Bagou all turned their attention to Wang Danxu, because they all knew very well that Wang Danxu's answer was very important.
Everyone knows that the Royal Guards of the Tang Dynasty now rely on the Guards of only more than 90 people and the heavy-armored sword and shield bearers of less than 30 people under Butcher Chen. The rest are used for fighting.
It's okay for those who make up the numbers to fight with the wind, but in today's situation, I'm afraid it will all break up once we get into battle.
Wang Danxu raised his head and looked at Li Xuan and the others. He did not speak immediately, but pondered for a moment and then said: "If the weather is good, the musket can be more powerful, and with General Chen's heavy
The armor, sword, and shield soldiers cooperate with our Guards, and I am 50% sure that I can win this battle, but I am afraid the casualties will be relatively large!"
Wang Danxu did not stop talking, and soon continued: "But..."
As soon as they heard this but, many people's expressions became a little gloomy. At this time, Wang Danxu came up with a but, and he was obviously not optimistic about it.
Wang Danxu did not speak, but pointed upward to the sky, then turned to Li Xuan and said seriously: "Your Majesty, it's raining!"
As soon as Wang Danxu said these words, Li Xuan slightly raised his head and looked at the sky. At this time, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and more importantly, there seemed to be raindrops falling at this moment. Although the raindrops were very small, they could not be called light rain.
, you won’t even feel it if you don’t pay attention.
But after being reminded by Wang Danxu, Li Xuan immediately noticed this.
When it rained, the musketeers, an important combat force of the Guards, lost a large part of their support and could only be used as ordinary spearmen.
Regarding the bad weather, muskets and bows and arrows may not be able to work. They had expected it before coming, but they did not expect to encounter more than 300 regular Ming troops. In their plan, they encountered only
With more than a hundred regular troops, they can rely on several times their strength to defeat them.
but now!
Everything has changed!
At this time, Butcher Chen said: "Let's be clear, we know it's raining now without you having to tell us, just tell me directly, if I lead people to cooperate with you, how sure can I be?"
Wang Danxu said: "Thirty percent, at most 30%, and even if we win, I'm afraid the Guards and the Heavy Armor Sword and Shield Troops will be crippled!"
Hearing what Wang Danxu said, Li Xuan fell into deep thought.
In fact, there is no need for Wang Danxu to say that he himself knows that today's battle is probably not going to be easy to win, and not only is it not going to be easy to win, it is very likely that it will be a complete defeat.
But he never said anything about retreat from the beginning to the end. It wasn't that he didn't want to run, but that he couldn't say anything about running.
As an emperor, even if he is just a mountain emperor, he has to maintain his majesty in front of his subordinates. If he encounters a strong enemy and just leads them away without saying a word, it will make people think that he, the emperor, is just a coward.
.
So he can't say retreat, he must let others say it!
Because Li Xuan was not the only one who wanted to run away. Looking at the expressions of so many people present, Li Xuan knew that these bandit leaders had long wanted to run away, but they just didn't know how to run for a while. After all, they wanted to run away.
There are also many considerations on the road, such as who should go first, whether the leader should go first or the soldiers, whether the guards should go first or the standing army, these are all troublesome matters.
Wang Danxu said that he was only 30% sure, and even if he won, he would suffer heavy losses, which made many people look unhappy.
Even Butcher Chen, who had previously clamored to go up and fight the Ming army, frowned. He was careless and always said he wanted to fight, but he was not a fool.
This man has led troops into battles many times. Every time he fought, it seemed that he was attacking the enemy's formation single-handedly. But if you study his battle cases carefully, you will find that every time he charged into the battle, he was picking on the weak.
But he would never rush into the dense formation of the Ming army foolishly.
Otherwise, he would have died a long time ago, and he would still be alive and kicking now!
He also knew that when the two armies faced each other, although the heavy armor, sword and shield troops under his command could play a big role, it was the Guards under Wang Danxu that really determined the outcome of both sides.
If the Guards are not sure, then whether it is his heavy armored sword and shield soldiers or other standing armies, they are even more uncertain.
At this time, Fang Dongquan said: "Our goal is not to kill or injure a few Ming troops, but to cut off their food routes. Since this Ming army is not a food transport team and does not carry food, why waste our efforts so late?"
Such a fight!"
Fang Dongquan paused and then continued: "We don't have to act rashly now. We can retreat first. As long as we continue to block their food routes, these Ming troops who have entered the mountains will not be able to overthrow them!"
Fang Dongquan, who was the first person to say that he would retreat in time, now said it again is not surprising.
But the strange thing is that Butcher Chen also said: "We can leave first. If they dare to catch up, I will kill them when they turn around!"
Butcher Chen said so, and naturally others followed suit. Huang Xueren and Bai Yunqi successively said that they wanted to retreat.
After these military generals spoke one after another, Liu Bagou stepped forward and said: "Since you all agree to spare the Ming Army, then without further delay, generals, please make arrangements as soon as possible!"
As he said that, he glanced at Wang Danxu, and then said: "General Wang, you will take the Guards to escort the Holy Driver first!"
As soon as he heard Liu Bagou's words, Li Xuan couldn't help but praise: Liu Bagou is indeed a loyal minister.
It is conceivable that once the order to retreat is notified, chaos will definitely occur. After all, everyone knows that if they fall behind, they may be overtaken by the Ming army.
Among the bandits in Huangzhu Mountain, the most valuable thing is the Guards, which has less than a hundred men. Those standing armies are all for bargaining, and they are the cannon fodder among the cannon fodder. At the critical moment, the Guards should be allowed to go first to save the Tang Dynasty King.
The division is an elite one, which shows that Liu Bagou still knows the importance!
However, the reason why Li Xuan praised Liu Bagou was not only because Liu Bagou asked the Guards to go first, but because Liu Bagou asked the Guards to take him, the emperor, to go first.
At the critical moment, everyone else only cared about their own safety, but Liu Bagou's first consideration was to let the emperor, Li Xuan, go first.
This shows that Liu Bagou is indeed a loyal minister!