That night, at the temporary station of the 3rd Cavalry Division, Major General Deng Weifang, commander of the division, learned a very critical piece of news. The scout cavalry sent out reported that they had discovered Tatars about 30 kilometers away on the left front.
trace.
After the scout cavalry ventured closer, they determined that the Tatar cavalry numbered at least two thousand.
"This should be the Tatar cavalry that attacked the construction site before!" Colonel Du Peiran, the commander of the 11th Cavalry Regiment, stepped forward and pointed to the simple military map spread on the table: "They were the construction site that they attacked yesterday. The construction site is far away from where they are now.
The direction is about sixty kilometers, the time and distance are just right, and the quantity is also right!"
"Is it possible that there are enemy reinforcements or enemy cavalry coming from other directions?" However, some people were skeptical, and the person who spoke was Lieutenant Colonel Niu Chengchun, deputy chief of staff of the Third Division.
Although Deng Weifang, commander of the Third Division, was already seventy or eight levels certain that the enemy cavalry he found should be the enemy cavalry that attacked the railway construction site before.
But as a general, he needs more references from different opinions.
So he turned his attention to Lieutenant Colonel Niu Chengchun who raised doubts.
motioning for him to continue.
Immediately Niu Chengchun walked up to the map, pointed at it and said: "Eight days ago, we received a notification from the Seventh Cavalry Division that an enemy cavalry appeared here with a lot of strength, about five.
Qianqi and the military headquarters once tried to assemble the nearby divisions of our division and the second division to support the 7th Cavalry Division in an ambush.
However, the enemy cavalry did not continue to go deeper, but quickly escaped. However, even if they walked away for a certain distance, they could not be too far away. Their purpose on the grassland was almost the same as ours, which was to weaken the opponent, so they must
Still looking for fighter planes nearby."
"Although the position of the enemy cavalry discovered eight days ago is different from the position of the enemy cavalry discovered now, and the distance is slightly different, eight days is enough for them to carry out large-scale maneuvers. So is it possible that the enemy cavalry discovered in front of us is
The enemy cavalry is not the enemy cavalry that attacked the railway construction site yesterday, but part of the enemy cavalry discovered eight days ago, or even just their forward troops?"
After Lieutenant Colonel Niu Chengchun finished speaking, the division chief of staff Brigadier General Lei Jianxin also nodded slightly, and then said: "There is also a possibility, that is, the enemy cavalry that attacked the construction site yesterday may also be the five soldiers discovered eight days ago.
Part of the Thousand Enemy Cavalry.”
After the two chiefs of staff finished speaking, the others were not fools, and they could immediately think of a consequence:
That is near these two thousand enemy knights, and there is a great possibility that there are more enemy knights.
Because if the above inference is true, then what they face is not two thousand enemy cavalry, but at least five thousand enemy cavalry.
At this time, Major General Deng Weifang also had doubts in his heart.
Immediately he said to everyone: "Find out all the enemy information we have obtained in the past ten days, and then mark it on the map!"
Relying on data and imagination alone is far less intuitive than marking on a map.
On the map, they can conduct more intuitive deductions and analyze various possibilities.
As a result, this large group of people became nervous and busy.
Half an hour later, Deng Weifang frowned slightly as he looked at the inferences of a group of staff officers and mid-level officers.
Although there are many directions of inference, no matter how everyone infers, they finally come to one fact.
That means there are definitely more than two thousand enemy cavalry nearby that they have discovered.
It might be five thousand riders, or it might be more.
Because after reviewing various military intelligence reports in the past ten days, they discovered that there were multiple enemy intelligence reports nearby. At first, many people thought that these enemy intelligence reports were traces of the 5,000 enemy troops discovered eight days ago.
But after careful analysis and comparison, we found that it is not that simple.
There are at least two large-scale enemy cavalry nearby, and the total strength is definitely more than 5,000 cavalry, and it may even be 7,000 or 8,000.
In this way, the situation of their Third Cavalry Division is more complicated.
The 3rd Cavalry Division's strength of more than 4,000 cavalry alone will easily lead to the enemy's siege against seven to eight thousand or even tens of thousands of enemy cavalry, and the end result will definitely not be good.
Even if they can escape by relying on the fast maneuvers of the cavalry, the Tatars' mobility is even better than that of the Tang cavalry.
Moreover, the Central Asian plains seem to be extremely wide, but you can't go anywhere. These cavalry seem to be highly mobile, but they can't run all the time. The horses can't stand it.
The complex situation at hand has exceeded the ability of the 3rd Cavalry Division to deal with it. The military headquarters must be notified in time for coordination.
Immediately, Major General Deng Weifang made a decision and immediately reported the situation to the military headquarters in the rear for the military headquarters to make a decision. He also notified the friendly Second Cavalry Division to the west and the friendly 13th Cavalry Division to the east.
At the same time, let the scout cavalry continue to monitor the two thousand enemy cavalry that have been discovered in front, and at the same time send more cavalry to search south.
In the inference just now, everyone analyzed that if the enemy had more troops, they should be in the south.
Because two thousand enemy cavalry have been discovered in the southeast of the 3rd Cavalry Division, but in the northeast is the friendly 13th Cavalry Division. Although the 13th Cavalry Division is a new field cavalry unit that was just formed last year, its foundation is the same as before.
The cavalry drawn from each field cavalry division, even if it is the cavalry to be supplemented later, is the cavalry of each division garrisoned in the country.
In other words, although the 13th Cavalry Division is a newly mobilized field cavalry division, in fact the cavalry in it are all veteran cavalry and there are no new recruits.
It is impossible for the Tatars to hide from the surveillance of the 13th Cavalry Division.
At the same time, farther to the east, it is already the forward construction point of the Central Asia Railway. There are a large number of infantry and artillery units under the Fourth Army stationed there, and a large number of divisional cavalry are also assigned to conduct peripheral reconnaissance. There may be
It is impossible for thousands of enemy cavalry to conceal the Fourth Army's peripheral reconnaissance.
As for the north, the 3rd Cavalry Division itself came down from the north, and behind the 3rd Cavalry Division is actually the headquarters of the 1st Cavalry Corps, and the military headquarters directly governs the 6th Cuirassier Regiment, the 6th Cuirassier Regiment, and the 1st Cavalry Corps.
The Seventh Hussars Regiment, the First Cavalry Artillery Regiment, the First Cavalry Baggage Regiment and other forces directly under the military headquarters have a total strength of about 7,000, which is more than his Third Cavalry Division.
It is unlikely that the Tatars went around to the rear again, between themselves and the military headquarters. Even if they missed them, the reconnaissance cavalry directly under the military headquarters in the rear would have discovered them long ago.
To the west, there is the friendly Second Cavalry Division. Like themselves, they search and intercept the enemy.
In fact, the current three cavalry divisions in the First Cavalry Corps are searching in a fan direction from northeast to southwest, covering a width of more than 200 kilometers.
With so many cavalry covering and searching, it would be impossible for the Tatars to sneak around even if they knew how to be invisible. Even if the people passed by, the horses would not be able to get through.
The movement of horses is much greater than that of people. There are at least tens of thousands or even 20,000 horses among the thousands of cavalry. With so many horses on the vast plains, they are as dazzling as a big fireball at night.
Even if they haven't seen them in person, even a novice scout rider can deduce their direction and approximate number through the traces of enemy riders on the road they pass.
In other words, large-scale cavalry maneuvers cannot be concealed, especially on such open plains.
Even if there are hundreds of thousands of troops, you can't completely blockade it. The scouts and cavalry can hide and hide. With one person and multiple horses, they can break through your blockade in minutes, and then find traces of the main force.
Therefore, the only possible direction for the enemy now is undoubtedly to the south. As for the specific direction of the south, is it southeast, southwest, or due south, and how far is it from the 3rd Cavalry Division.
These are uncertain and more scouts need to be dispatched to search.
Although it is already evening and night will fall soon, the scouts of the 3rd Cavalry Division are still carrying out their missions. At the same time, there are also messengers riding the best Central Asian horses and galloping out. They have to rush out as soon as possible.
Pass the message to the military headquarters in the rear and the friendly 2nd Cavalry Division and 13th Cavalry Division to the east and west.
And because night is approaching, even though they are on the grassland, the terrain is wide, and the messengers also have compasses to guide the direction, it is always difficult to travel at night, so they have to take advantage of this precious time in the evening to take advantage of the Western Ocean.
Yuhui hurried on as quickly as possible and arrived at the various ministries before it was completely dark.
Time passed bit by bit, and the sunset had completely set. The sky in the west was glowing with the last touch of red. On the field, a knight lay prone on his horse and ran wildly.
The knight looked tired. He had been riding a horse for more than half an hour and even the inner thighs were sore.
Along the way, he had already found a temporary station along the way to transfer to three horses. However, even the Central Asian horse that was the last to transfer was already sweating profusely and spraying white mist while running.
Both humans and horses are reaching their limit.
However, they still held on, because ahead was their destination, the temporary base of the First Cavalry Corps.
A few minutes later, he was seen entering the temporary station of the First Cavalry Army, and then personally handed a letter written by Major General Deng Weifang, commander of the Third Cavalry Division, to Major General Qi Lianzhong, chief of staff of the First Cavalry Army.
After Major General Qi Lianzhong carefully checked the apparent authenticity of the letter, he entered the accounting room and handed the letter to the new commander of the First Cavalry Army, Lieutenant General Dai Yaxin.
"This is a military report sent by the 3rd Cavalry Division!"
Dai Yaxin did not pick it up, but nodded. Immediately, a communications officer came up behind him to take the letter, conduct a more detailed identification of its authenticity, and prepare for subsequent decryption and translation.