The staff officer immediately continued marking on the map. He marked all the six groups of scouts who had not returned.
Among them, two groups in the southwest direction did not return, and one group in the south direction did not return. But strangely, the remaining three groups of scouts in the southeast direction did not return.
The three groups of scouts in the southeast have not reported anything. This is definitely not normal!
When he saw this, Major General Deng Weifang said solemnly: "The reconnaissance cavalry from the southeast has not returned yet, why didn't you report it earlier?"
The intelligence staff hesitated and said: "The reconnaissance cavalry in the southeast departed a little later. According to the scheduled plan, if nothing is discovered, the scheduled time to report back should be around two o'clock in the afternoon. It is not the time yet, and there is still ten days left."
five minutes!"
"Asshole!" Major General Deng Weifang took a deep breath!
His intuition told him that there was a problem in the southeast, and it was a big problem!
Not only him, but most of the other officers of the 3rd Cavalry Division also noticed something was wrong.
According to the relevant regulations on military reconnaissance in the Tang Dynasty, if the reconnaissance force does not encounter enemies, some investigators will usually return to report the information first, while other personnel will extend the distance to continue the search.
This is true for both the southwest and due south directions, so although there are still three groups of scouts who have not returned, several other groups have sent people back to report the news.
There were no reports from the southeast.
Even though there are still fifteen minutes left before the scheduled report time, the three groups of scouts in the southeast are all rushing to report? No one comes back more than ten minutes in advance?
This kind of thing is not normal.
At this time, the staff officer in charge of intelligence affairs beside him was also sweating profusely, and he felt that he was aggrieved.
According to the military system, he actually did not make a mistake, because the scheduled reporting time has not yet arrived. If there is no report by the time, he will definitely report the relevant abnormalities to Deng Weifang.
But the problem is, isn’t it time?
If you report before the time is up, then most of the scouts will have problems after they set off.
Deng Weifang took out his pocket watch and looked at the time. It was already half past one o'clock at noon, and there were still fifteen minutes left before the last agreed report time.
But he didn't think that the three groups of reconnaissance riders would be quick to report!
He was unwilling to wait any longer, but said: "Send the scout cavalry to the southeast immediately!"
Having said that, he paused and then emphasized: "Each group of scouts is equipped with two additional horses to create a greater distance between the front and rear!"
Hearing what he said, some officers had already noticed that Deng Weifang was already suspicious. The three groups of investigators in the southeast were afraid that they would all be ruined.
Otherwise, I would not specifically ask for further distance.
Immediately, officers took the order and left. Soon, three groups of scouts rushed out of the military camp. These scouts were not equipped with two horses like ordinary scouts, but were all equipped with four horses.
This kind of horse configuration allows the cavalry to achieve faster and larger search distances, and at the same time obtain a higher survival guarantee rate.
Just when Deng Weifang made the decision to send out additional reconnaissance cavalry, about 20 kilometers southeast, a knight from the Tang Dynasty was galloping on horseback, and more than a hundred meters behind them, more than a dozen Tatar cavalry were chasing him.
This knight of the Tang Dynasty is named Qin Weitong, and he is a sergeant.
Coming from a poor peasant family, he had never touched a horse before he joined the army. He only rode cows when he was a child herding cattle for the gentry's family.
But after he signed up to join the army at the age of sixteen, he was assigned because he had ridden bulls, had a high sense of balance, was agile and flexible, and got along better with horses during the cavalry test.
Cavalry recruit camp for training.
After completing another three months of basic training for new recruits, he passed the cavalry assessment and became a formal cavalryman. However, at that time, he was still not allowed to serve in the cavalry unit. Instead, he continued to train in the cavalry training camp, training again.
After a full year, he became a formal cavalryman and entered the cavalry force.
However, he did not initially serve in a field cavalry unit, but in a divisional cavalry regiment of an infantry division serving in national defense garrison.
Two years later, due to his excellent performance in the assessment, he was transferred to serve in the 3rd Cavalry Division and became a member of the field cavalry.
In other words, it took him three years and three months from joining the army to serving in the 3rd Cavalry Division.
It can be seen that the training of cavalry is more troublesome and costly than infantry and artillery.
Of course, even so, the training of cavalry in the Tang Dynasty was faster and more cost-effective than training the Tatars from childhood.
It takes more than ten years for the Tatars to train a cavalry who can fight proficiently, starting from childhood until adulthood.
This is closely related to the huge difference in training methods between the two sides. The training of cavalry in the Tang Dynasty basically only required the cavalry to possess the most basic personal skills, but more importantly, it required the training of formations and discipline.
The Tatar cavalry, on the other hand, like contemporary European cavalry, pay more attention to the cultivation of personal skills.
The time spent on the two is naturally completely different.
After serving in the 3rd Cavalry Division for two years, the results of his five years of night schooling in the army came to fruition. He successfully passed the primary school graduation examination organized within the army, thus obtaining a primary school diploma.
This is a national primary school diploma, not an ordinary cultural examination within the military.
After obtaining the diploma, he embarked on the road of becoming a non-commissioned officer, because if he could not become a non-commissioned officer, he would have to retire.
In the military system of the Tang Dynasty, ordinary soldiers in ordinary arms such as infantry retired after four years of service, whether you wanted to or not. The cavalry was considered a technical arm and took longer to train, so the years of retirement were also quite long, but they would also retire after six years of service.
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In fact, many soldiers are unwilling to retire after their service years are up, but if they want to stay in the army, there are only two ways, one is to become a non-commissioned officer, and the other is to pass the exam and enter a martial arts school.
There is basically no hope of applying for the martial arts school. Ordinary students who apply for the martial arts school need to graduate from a preparatory course or a government-run technical secondary school. However, the military has relaxed the enrollment period for active soldiers to the middle school years.
But in fact, the number of special recruitment places is limited each year, and to put it bluntly, people with a middle school degree are not allowed to be ordinary soldiers. As for working in the army, it is difficult to obtain a middle school diploma in just four years. Basically, these
The special recruitment quota has nothing to do with ordinary soldiers.
The best way for ordinary soldiers to stay in the army is to become a noncommissioned officer.
The retirement age of soldiers of the Datang Army is relatively old. Most of them can serve until they are thirty-five years old, and some special units can even serve until they are forty years old.
Today's ordinary soldiers in the Tang Dynasty want to become non-commissioned officers. Unless they have meritorious services and other additional factors, they need to have a primary school diploma and outstanding combat skills. Only in this way can they pass the non-commissioned officer examination and become a non-commissioned officer.
Qin Weitong spent more than five years studying hard to obtain a primary school diploma. Then he passed the examination and became a non-commissioned officer, obtained the rank of corporal, and was gradually promoted. This year he finally became a staff sergeant.
At this time, he had been in the army for thirteen years and was just thirty years old, so he was older and younger.
He no longer expects to become an officer because he is already over his age. Unless he is determined to make a special contribution, he can't hope to become an officer.
As a cavalryman with the rank of sergeant, he is already considered a veteran cavalryman, and even the backbone noncommissioned officer of his cavalry platoon.
In this reconnaissance, he mainly coordinated with the lieutenant who led the team to search for enemy troops.
But they didn't expect that half an hour ago, when they were walking concealed along a valley, they suddenly discovered the traces of a large group of enemy cavalry. Although they didn't see it with their own eyes at the time, there was a loud rumbling sound coming from the ground and emanating from the distance.
From the huge smoke and dust that came out, they determined on the spot that there were at least tens of thousands or more enemy cavalry in the distance.
The lieutenant officer who immediately led the team sent Sergeant Qin Weitong and another reconnaissance rider back to report first, while he himself continued to lead people to conduct in-depth investigations to find out the specific number and movements of the enemy troops.
But as soon as Sergeant Qin Weitong led a young cavalryman out a few hundred meters, he found a group of hundreds of Tatar cavalry running towards them.
They discovered Qin Wei and others and came to attack and kill them!
Although the officer leading the team tried to break out with the remaining people, although there was concealment in the valley, it also meant that there was not much scope for maneuvering to escape.
In the end, Qin Weitong saw with his own eyes that the leader of the team was killed on the battlefield, and more than a dozen other comrades were almost attacked and killed in just tens of seconds.
But he was lucky. He immediately galloped on his horse and broke through the interceptions of several Tatar cavalry on the road before escaping.
Unfortunately, when he broke through the interception, the young superior cavalryman who returned with him to report was killed in action to cover his breakout.
The Tatar cavalry did not use their sabers, but accurately hit the superior soldier with their pistols, leaving the superior soldier's life forever in the land of Central Asia.
The Tatar cavalry behind naturally had no intention of letting Qin Weitong go back to report, so they kept chasing him.
When one person faced more than a dozen enemy cavalry, Sergeant Qin Weitong would not take any chances. It was absolutely impossible for him to stop and fight the enemy to death. He had to run back and report the news.
Qin Weitong's horse galloped all the way without stopping at all. He even changed horses directly on the horse's back.
But now, his horse can no longer hold on.
He was now riding two Arabian horses. Although he changed horses along the way, they were now almost exhausted.
However, the Tatar cavalry in the rear generally brought three or four horses with them, so they gained a lot of advantages in the pursuit by changing horses along the way.
Lying on the horse, he looked around at the nearby terrain. As an old scout, he found the record of this terrain in his mind and knew that he was still nearly ten kilometers away from his camp.
If the horse gallops wildly, it won't take long.
But his horse couldn't run.
Because he had already noticed that the war horse he was riding on had reached the final stage, and even his steps were starting to become unsteady. He immediately jumped directly onto another war horse that was also physically weak. As for him, he
The abandoned war horse was already unstable, and Qin Weitong had some leverage when he leapt, which made the horse even more unstable.
As soon as Qin Weitong left, the war horse fell to the ground with a thud. He struggled several times to get up again, but could not get up.
This Arabian horse has been run down by him.
Moreover, the current horse could not hold up for long either. He estimated that it would be finished if it could run only one or two kilometers at most.
I am afraid that I will die on this desolate grassland like those ten or so comrades.
After continuing to run for one thousand meters, Qin Weitong could already feel that the horse was beginning to lose its footing.
At this moment, he had only one thought: It's over!
He took advantage of the last bit of strength left in his war horse and stopped directly on the top of a hill!
After arriving and stopping, he lay down on the top of a hill, raised his Minie rifle condescendingly, aimed at one of the enemy cavalry, and pulled the trigger. He remembered the clear bang immediately.
Thanks to the accuracy of the Mini rifle, coupled with Qin Weitong's precise marksmanship that he had practiced over the years, an enemy cavalryman a hundred meters away arrived in response.
Watching the enemy knight fall, the nervous look on his face slowly faded, and then a smile appeared.
Even if he dies, he still has to support a few people.
So, he took out his pistol and took aim again.
The bullets in the previous Mini rifle and the current Suifa pistol were all hurriedly loaded by him on horseback.
The technical difficulty of loading a galloping horse is naturally very high, but as a veteran cavalryman who has been in the army for more than ten years, this is not a problem for him.
Just now I killed one with the mini rifle, and now I kill another one, then it’s a pure profit!
Although he knew that he was about to die soon, he still tried to calmly give the order and aimed the Suifa pistol in his hand. Although he had two Suifa pistols on his body, he only had time to load one while on horseback.
So he only had one bullet for his pistol!
Even if he dies, he still wants to earn one!
boom!
Then he pulled the trigger of the pistol, and another Tatar cavalry fell from the horse!
At the same time, the Tatar cavalry on the opposite side also fired with pistols!
Bang bang bang, crisp gunshots rang out continuously, and Qin Weitong felt a sharp pain coming from his upper right arm, so much so that he couldn't even pick up his saber.