There is such a large group of people approaching Huangzhu Mountain nearby. Naturally, it is impossible to keep this news secret for too long. It was okay when Village Leader Li and his party were still dozens of miles away, but when they got closer to within thirty miles,
Later, it was discovered by the outpost arranged by the Tang Dynasty.
Although the mountains are vast and boundless, most of them are deep mountains and old forests, and it is impossible for large groups of people to pass through dangerous peaks and mountain streams.
In order for large groups of people to pass through, they can only pass through those well-established roads, even if these roads are not considered major roads to some extent, but are trails in the mountains.
However, there are actually not many such trails. As long as Huangzhushan arranges sentries on these trails, they can monitor the activities of large groups of people within a radius of dozens of miles.
Of course, if the opponent is only a small force of less than ten or twenty people, they can still easily bypass the Huangzhushan sentry.
It is a pity that Chief Li and his party have more than 400 people, and most of them are old, weak, women and children. It is impossible for them to bypass the outer sentry of Huangzhu Mountain.
Therefore, when they approached Huangzhushan for thirty miles, Huangzhushan's outer sentry spotted them immediately, and then the two outer sentries quickly ran back to the rear to report the news.
When Li Xuan learned that a large group of unidentified people appeared outside, he immediately summoned the ministers to discuss the matter.
In the meeting hall, Liu Bagou, Fang Dongquan, and Wang Shanxu gathered together again to discuss this sudden matter.
"According to our spies' reports, the total number of people coming towards our Huangzhu Mountain is more than 400. The specific number is not yet clear, but it should not exceed 500." Fang Dongquan explained the situation to everyone:
"More than half of the more than 400 people are old, weak, women and children, and there are about a hundred young adults. After close observation, these young adults are all carrying weapons!"
"Judging from their situation, we can basically judge that this is a gang of thieves who came to us from outside!"
At this time, Liu Bagou said: "Are you sure that they only have more than 400 people? Is this just their vanguard, and there are more people behind them?"
At this time, Huang Xueren said: "This is unlikely. If they are just the vanguard, then they must all be young and strong. It is impossible to bring old, weak, women and children with them to serve as the vanguard!"
Liu Bagou nodded slightly after hearing this: "If there are only more than 400 people and only more than 100 people are young and strong, then the threat to us is not great!"
Qian Mengjiu also said: "With our strength, we can definitely defeat a bandit of this strength!"
Wang Shanxu said: "Yes, even when we were training the new army last year, it was easy to defeat the bandits of this strength. What's more, now that our new army has just formed, even if there is only one musketeer for the time being,
team, but the strength of other arms is enough to defeat them!"
Listening to the discussion below, Li Xuan began to think of another possibility, so he said: "It will not be a problem to defeat them, but since they came to our door, they can just allow our new army to train.
, In addition, with the addition of more than 400 people, the population under my rule in the Tang Dynasty will also exceed 4,000!"
At this time, Li Xuan continued: "Previously, our raids were limited to a radius of a hundred miles, but judging from today's situation, there will definitely be more gangs of thieves a hundred miles away. We can just harvest in the summer
Let’s do a large-scale sweep beforehand to increase the population of our Datang!”
After hearing Li Xuan's words, several people below looked surprised!
They were still discussing how to defeat these bandit gangs that came from nowhere, but their own emperor had already begun to consider capturing them all.
Not to mention, he actually set his sights hundreds of miles away!
He never thought that his young emperor would be so courageous and ambitious.
After Li Xuan said this, Liu Bagou, who had always been the most active in expanding the population of the Tang Dynasty, immediately showed joy and said: "Your Majesty is wise, this matter is a chance from heaven, and you have given us the population of 400 in the Tang Dynasty for nothing!"
Li Xuan smiled slightly: "In this battle, we must not only win, but also control the casualties as much as possible so that we can accept prisoners. Do you have any strategies for this?"
Unless something Li Xuan thinks is absolutely necessary, Li Xuan will generally not get involved in the implementation of specific affairs.
He is very clear about his position in the Tang Dynasty, that is, a high-ranking ruler, their emperor. What he has to do is to decide the general direction and what to do after setting the general direction. That is Liu Bagou,
Fang Dong has nothing to do with them.
Even if he has a detailed plan, he will usually communicate it through Bai Yunqi and use Bai Yunqi's words to gain the unanimous approval of the ministers.
In the past year, he could count all the things he had done without permission. In the early stage, he established the Guards, and in the later stage, he led an army to personally attack Longhua Town.
But even so, he only makes general decisions, and he usually doesn't get involved in the specifics of what to do.
After Li Xuan determined the general direction of capturing these foreign thieves, the next step was for Fang Dongquan and the others.
How to fight later and how to deploy the troops are all relatively detailed and complicated matters, and whenever this happens, Li Xuan will be aloof and just listen but not say anything, and Liu Bagou, Qian Mengjiu and other civil servants have nothing to do with it.
I hung up high and allowed Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren, Wang Shanxu and other generals to fight over each other.
And this kind of debate often lasts for a long time, because almost every general will have his own opinion on this matter, and then think that his own opinion is correct.
For example, this time, Fang Dong set up an ambush in a small valley twelve miles away, but Wang Shanxu believed that the terrain of the small valley was not suitable for the deployment of troops, so they could only rely on traditional fighting, which would not be able to function.
Here comes the various formations that the King of Tang Dynasty has been training so hard for the past month.
In other words, if you follow Fang Dongquan's method of ambush, the fight will be no different from the battles in the past bandit era.
Therefore, Wang Shanxu's suggestion was to bring in the bandits and conduct an interception operation on a gentle hillside eight miles away. This would maximize the formation tactics that the new army had trained so hard, and also allow the musketeers and spearmen to play their best.
Come out for the biggest fight.
However, Fang Dongquan and Chen Tufu also have objections to this plan, because in this case, they cannot adopt an ambush mode to fight. The terrain there is gentle, and the opponent will definitely find their troops several miles away. When the time comes, they will see Datang
Master Wang's strict and orderly formation meant that people might turn around and run away.
And even if this is not certain, it can actually be said to be 100%!
When any bandit gang sees enemies waiting in neat formation in front of them, their first reaction is to run away, and they can run faster than a rabbit.
The biggest example is Huang Zhushan himself. When they attacked the Ming army's grain road, they encountered a disguised grain team led by Diao Leixun. What did the bandits in Huang Zhushan do at that time? They didn't even have the guts to test the attack and turned around.
Just ran away.
As the saying goes, you must save others by yourself. The bandit gang in Huangzhushan is in such a bad situation that naturally we cannot expect other bandit gangs to rise to the challenge.
It is their normal reaction to turn around and run away immediately, and it is also the most likely thing they will do.
If you don't believe in evil and send someone to test and attack, but after the test, you find something wrong and turn around and run away, this kind of thing is less likely, but it can happen.
However, knowing clearly that there is a strong enemy ahead, and still stubbornly fighting, it is absolutely impossible for this kind of thing to happen. If this kind of thing really happens, it must be that the opponent's brains are all short-circuited, from the top boss to the ordinary minions.
Fang Dongquan wanted to choose a complex terrain for an ambush, using the previous model to surround and completely capture the opponent, while Wang Shanxu wanted a flat terrain for a decisive battle.
Both plans have their own advantages and disadvantages, and this is why these generals can't argue.
In the end, it was Qian Mengjiu who was a civil servant and also the Minister of the Ministry of War, who came out to confuse the situation and said that we could do the two plans together, and he also set up an ambush and formed an array to take advantage of the formation.
After hearing this, Fang Dongquan and Wang Shanxu felt that they could not convince each other anyway, so they might as well adopt a compromise plan, so they agreed.
In the end, they chose to conduct the interception operation in front of a small valley ten miles away. In front of the valley was a forest that was not too dense, and the terrain was undulating, allowing people to ambush. At the same time, the undulating terrain was barely flat.
Less tightly organized queues are also possible.
The reason why the outside of this small valley can be accepted by both sides as a preset battlefield is because although the terrain there is not suitable for an ambush, it can barely hide troops for an ambush.
Although the terrain is not too flat, it is still barely enough for the troops to form a battle formation.
This kind of terrain that can take into account both ambush and line operations will lead to unsuccessful ambush and affect the efficiency of line operations. However, there is nothing perfect in this world. To take into account more ideas and possibilities,
Then the only choice is to balance all aspects.
And balance often represents mediocrity!
It's just that at this time, balance and mediocrity also mean less risk, and Li Xuan doesn't want to take risks. After all, the new professional army of the Tang Dynasty King's Division was established last month, and it has only been a month now.
It can be said that the new army of the Tang Dynasty is still in the exploratory stage. Now this kind of battle where the resistance is not expected to be too fierce is the most suitable for training.
As for military training, the lower the risk, the better.
Li Xuan didn't want anything unexpected to happen. Whether it caused a large number of casualties to his own side or allowed the other side to escape, this was not the result he wanted.
After the general plan was finalized at the court meeting, the Tang Dynasty quickly turned into a war machine, spinning at high speed!