At noon that day, the Third Cavalry Division of the Tang Army had stopped marching, because not far ahead, there was the Tatar frontline of two thousand enemy cavalry.
At this time, the distance between the two sides was only about five kilometers, which was already a very short distance for the cavalry.
Half an hour ago, the two sides had actually discovered each other. At that time, the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division, Major General Deng Weifang, thought that the Tatar cavalry on the opposite side would retreat when they discovered that they were approaching.
For this reason, Major General Deng Weifang was already prepared to carry out a forced attack on the last leg of the journey to hold back the enemy's forwards, and it would be best to severely damage them.
But I didn't expect that they would not give way at all, but stopped to prepare for battle.
This result seemed good on the surface, but it made Major General Deng Weifang wary.
Could it be that these Tatar cavalry were really decoys, because they stepped forward and then restrained themselves, waiting for the main force to come forward to encircle and annihilate the headquarters?
Deng Weifang and other senior generals of the First Cavalry Army had already expected that there might be the main Tatar cavalry over there, but before that they had just suspected it, even though they had already confirmed this suspicion.
But without seeing the enemy's main force, we can only be suspicious.
Now that he saw that the two thousand enemy troops did not retreat, but stopped to prepare for battle, Major General Deng Weifang was even more certain that there must be the main Tatar cavalry in the south.
Maybe there are quite a few!
The main force of the Tatar cavalry who has the courage to attack the third cavalry division is probably more than 10,000 cavalry.
And this is also in line with the speculations of some senior generals of the First Cavalry Army, and even plays into their intentions.
Otherwise, the Third Cavalry Division would not be here today.
The two thousand Tatar cavalry forwards on the opposite side are bait, but the 3rd Cavalry Division is also bait!
Lieutenant General Dai Yaxin hoped to use the 3rd Cavalry Division to lure the main Tatar cavalry to appear, but he gathered the strength of the entire 1st Cavalry Army to annihilate them.
So when he saw that the opponent's two thousand forwards were motionless, Deng Weifang was also motionless.
Instead, he stopped directly and then prepared for the same battle.
On the one hand, it is to feed the war horses and keep the main war horses in the best physical condition, and on the other hand, it is to construct emergency field fortifications.
The 3rd Cavalry Division came with the mentality of being a bait. The two thousand enemy forwards in front of them were not their real threat. The real threat was the enemy's main cavalry that was likely to exist.
The enemy cavalry they will face later may number in the tens of thousands.
As a decoy, you definitely cannot retreat casually. You need to at least draw out the enemy's main force, and then you can make a decision based on the situation.
So the 3rd Cavalry Division stopped to prepare for the battle and build field fortifications.
Interestingly, the same was true for the two thousand Tatar forwards on the opposite side. They also stopped, but did not build field fortifications.
Their strategy of luring the enemy was not to hold them where they were, but to attract the main cavalry force of the Tang Army to attack, and then directly bring them to the preset battlefield where the main cavalry force was located in the rear.
But as a result, a very strange situation appeared on the battlefield.
Both sides claim to be bait, and both want to attract the other side to attack!
However, neither side took the initiative to launch an attack, and the scene seemed very strange for a while.
This strangeness soon made the generals on both sides realize that something was wrong.
Deng Weifang looked at the two thousand Tatar cavalry in front of him and had a vague feeling.
The Tatars on the opposite side were too calm. Needless to say, there must be reinforcements behind them. They might just wait for the reinforcements from behind to come forward and then besiege their own troops.
But, is this really the case?
Or do they already know that there are reinforcements in their rear and are preparing to take the opportunity to attack their main force?
Major General Deng Weifang began to doubt whether this inference was correct.
At the same time, a Tatar cavalry general opposite also frowned.
The Southern Tang barbarians on the opposite side did not rush up, which made me want to retreat while fighting. In the end, my idea of leading them into the main ambush circle in the rear came to nothing. If I did not lure this Southern Tang barbarian cavalry in, then it would be difficult to do so.
Contain more Southern Tang barbarian cavalry from going south.
In this way, the strategic idea of the main force in the rear to severely damage the First Cavalry Army of the Southern Tang Barbarians would come to nothing.
Could it be that they noticed something?
At this time, the frontline generals on both sides became suspicious.
Because the current situation is really abnormal.
However, as forward troops and frontline generals who are all responsible for luring the enemy, they have their own tasks and it is impossible to say that they will do everything according to their own ideas.
So they could only wait, while using fast horses to deliver messages to the rear and request relevant decisions.
At this time, the main forces of both sides were not far from the front line. The main force directly under the First Cavalry Corps was only more than ten kilometers away from the Third Cavalry Division. At the same time, the Second Cavalry Division and the 13th Cavalry Division were also about the same distance.
and gradually move closer to the center.
The messengers rode horses and galloped, and it didn't take long for the news to arrive.
After receiving the news, Army Lieutenant General Dai Yaxin also became suspicious.
The situation in front of us is not normal. The other party has most likely discovered that its main force has begun to gather, so it did not act rashly.
But if this is the case, why don't their forward troops retreat?
Army Lieutenant General Dai Yaxin was suspicious, so he became more cautious. He ordered the 2nd Cavalry Division and the 13th Cavalry Division not to move directly towards the 3rd Cavalry Division, but to move towards their headquarters, which was the 1st Cavalry Corps.
The direct troops moved closer.
At the same time, it also sent an order to the 3rd Cavalry Division, asking them to continue to monitor the opponent's forward cavalry, but if they encounter anything wrong, they should retreat immediately and do not be reluctant to fight.
At the same time, he ordered the troops to continue moving south and strive to join the 3rd Cavalry Division earlier.
Although this situation seems a bit strange, Dai Yaxin knows that his First Cavalry Army is a huge force. As long as they are gathered together, there is no need to worry about many strange things. The worst is to cancel the previous tactics of encircling and annihilating the enemy's main force.
Conceive it and just leave.
If the Tatars want to stop the entire First Cavalry Army they have assembled, it is impossible without 40,000 to 50,000 elite cavalry.
But Dai Yaxin never expected that Wulihan would actually come out with 40,000 men!
Tens of kilometers away, Wulihan also received a report from the vanguard troops. It was said that about 4,000 horsemen from the Southern Tang Barbarians had found them. However, they did not launch an attack immediately, but were waiting for something.
What else could this be waiting for? They must be waiting for their main force to move north.
Wulihan could guess now that the main force of the First Cavalry Army of the Southern Tang Barbarians in the north must have been well prepared and waiting for his main force to move north.
But would they have thought that they would go north directly with 40,000 elite cavalry?
Wulihan didn't know, but judging from the current situation, it seemed that they didn't know.
Immediately, Wulihan made the first important tactical order of the day. He ordered the main cavalry to divide the troops, and the 40,000 cavalry were divided into two.
The 10,000 cavalry continued northward, while he himself turned 30,000 cavalry to the northeast.
The tactic is very simple, that is, let 10,000 cavalry go north to attract the main cavalry of the Southern Tang barbarians, and then lead 30,000 fine cavalry to kill them from the east.
In this case, even if you can't directly hit them hard for a while, as long as your 30,000 fine cavalry are riding to the east, you won't be afraid of the Southern Tang Barbarians' cavalry running back, and in the worst case, they will chase them all the way across the grassland.
With more horses and greater mobility over long distances, they Tatars are not afraid of those Southern Tang barbarians.
As we keep running, sooner or later we will be able to kill this Southern Tang barbarian's first cavalry army. Even if we can't wipe them all out, we will at least inflict heavy losses on them.
Ulihan has divided his forces!
The subsequent battle situation was found to be based on the plans formulated by the generals of both sides, but the balance of the war seemed to have tilted towards the Tatar side.
After receiving the order from Dai Yaxin, Deng Weifang on the front line continued to monitor the situation and prepared to face the enemy's main cavalry.
However, the longer he waited, the worse he felt!
Uneasiness was always lingering in his mind. At first, he just thought he was nervous before the war, but when he washed his face with cold water continuously, calmed down and gradually recalled the situation of the past two days in his mind.
He finally discovered the reason why he was so uneasy!
So where is the enemy's main force? How many are there?
They didn't know this from beginning to end.
All the previous statements about the enemy's main force are inferences, but there is no definite news.
Our own reconnaissance troops did not send back any definite news!
But it’s been a whole morning, why is there still no news?
If the enemy's main force is to the south, then it is estimated that the distance is not too far. Otherwise, the two thousand enemy cavalry on the opposite side would have fled long ago and would have stayed there.
This distance is only twenty or thirty kilometers at most. If it is any further away, it would be meaningless for the enemy to send a forward force of two thousand cavalry.
A range of twenty or thirty kilometers is nothing to a scout, especially on such grassland terrain.
So why haven't the scouts sent back any news yet?
Not found? Not found?
Or were they all intercepted by the enemy?
Thinking of this, he immediately asked his staff: "Where is our scout? Has there been any report?"
Immediately there was a report from the staff: "Starting at nine o'clock in the morning, we have successively sent out the third wave of reconnaissance cavalry. There are thirteen groups in total. Currently, eight groups have reported back one after another, but no enemy has been found. There are still six groups that have not reported back!"
After hearing this, Major General Deng Weifang continued: "Specify the direction and distance of each group of searches?"
Soon, a staff officer showed the deployment plan of the reconnaissance cavalry on the map. Thirteen groups of reconnaissance cavalry presented a fan-shaped search facing south. This was a very normal and standard cavalry search plan.
However, Deng Weifang was not concerned about this, but continued: "Which specific group did not come back?"