The night is quiet, but there is an atmosphere that makes people feel scary and apprehensive. The darkness outside the west side of Tongguan City is as deep as ink, making it unpredictable.
The nights in ancient times were different from the modern nights that are exaggerated by all kinds of light pollution. The scenery the soldiers looked up was not just a faint darkness under the moonlight, but a true darkness like a black cloth covering it.
In short, in modern nights full of light pollution, the night may not always be that dark, but in ancient times, the visibility at night can be said to be quite low. This darkness of the night gave the army a great advantage in surprise attacks on camps.
Concealment effect, but it will also put the night attack troops in an equally vulnerable situation.
Li Weiqun grew up as an orphan in the Dabie Mountains, and went to the Chu Chuang Army to study the common sense and tactics of military operations. He also followed the Chu soldiers to fight in various prefectures in Huguang. Until now, he has experienced Dangshan Mountain, Baigou River, and Shenzhou.
In the three battles, although he failed to participate in the most intense battle of harvesting deer, he still accumulated rich combat experience.
The most important thing is that Li Weiqun followed the King of Jin and defeated the Manchu Eight Banners soldiers three times. In his world view, the Qing army was not the invincible monster in the eyes of the Ming army in the past, but just a force that had been defeated three times in a row since he came into contact with it.
Yes, not a particularly scary enemy.
About 700 of the elite cavalry who filed out from Guancheng were elite Chu soldiers from Huguang.
In fact, most of these Jingchu knights only have about two years of cavalry combat experience. Compared with the Manchu cavalry who have been on the battlefield since childhood, and the Guan Ning cavalry who have been on the border for more than ten years, the gap in combat experience is quite huge.
But they were young, confident, and calm, and were filled with a belief in victory that was forged by invincibility. In the cavalry team of more than 700 people, the number of officers was so large that even Luo Dain and Zhao Yingyuan were surprised.
Gao Ruli, who was experienced in the Ming Dynasty system after being recruited by the Ming court, and Wang Liangzhi, who was originally a deputy general in the Sichuan army, were both surprised by the proportion of officers in the Chu Chuang cavalry.
Of course, according to Li Laiheng's design, these grassroots officers who are responsible for controlling the cavalry organization and restraining the impact formation should be more accurately called cavalry non-commissioned officers.
The equipment, training, and tactical forms of these knights are all different from the combat forms of the Ming Dynasty frontier troops, Manchu cavalry, and even ordinary peasant army cavalry. They all adopted the intensive charge combat form of Chu breaking through the three walls, but this form
, can it also exert its power in a night attack?
This is still an unknown.
But Li Weiqun has full confidence in his men. Although his battlefield experience is not very long, two years of intensive and fierce battles have forged him into a good material. Li Weiqun understands that the Chu Chuang cavalry relies on non-commissioned officers.
The numerical advantage has an advantage over any cavalry unit in terms of "organization" - this advantage must be more important than the advantage of individual martial arts.
Especially during night raids.
In addition to the more than 700 Chu Chuang elite cavalry, the troops participating in the night attack also included more than 300 cavalry under Ma Jinzhong. Most of Ma Jinzhong's men were Huguang recruits who followed Guojunzhen north, and they all received considerable training.
Adequate military training, but a serious lack of actual combat experience.
In addition, there are some soldiers who were recruited by Ma Jinzhong and Li Laiheng. When Luo Yanqing put down the Guanzhong rebellion, they recruited Cao Ying and the rest of the Qin army. Most of these soldiers are the elite of the northwest rebels who have been defeated. They have rich combat experience and their martial arts are above the level.
It's just that the organization and morale may not be comparable to the Knights of Chu.
There are more than a thousand elite cavalry, all carefully selected brave men. Li Weiqun is responsible for commanding the front line of the army. His awe-inspiring young heroism in front of the horse reminded the Shun army officers and soldiers of Baoding Duke Liu Fangliang and Ping Dinghou.
Zhang Pihu.
Ma Jinzhong was a senior commander in the rebel army, and he followed Zuo Liangyu for many years to suppress Cao Xian. Now he only has the same status as Li Weiqun, serving as a powerful general.
And because of Li Weiqun's military exploits, his status is higher than that of Ma Jinzhong.
But Ma Jinzhong was not discouraged. Ever since he followed Guo Junzhen to the north for reinforcements, he knew that Chu Chuang from Huguang would gradually become the mainstay of the Dashun Army. As long as he followed King Ding Jin closely, his future would be full of hope.
of.
This is also true. After he followed Li Laiheng and Luo Yanqing to quell the Guanzhong rebellion, he could be regarded as completely clearing his past dark history of following Zuo Liangyu to succeed with the remnants of the people. He successfully broke into the palace and became a direct descendant of Chu Chuang. The future path will certainly be
It is extremely broad.
Ma Jinzhong reined in the reins, ordered the knights to lower their flags and wrap their armours, clamp their horses with their horses in their saddles, arrange themselves in a neat formation, and follow behind Li Weiqun:
"Are we still raising fire?"
Li Weiqun looked at the brightly lit Tongguan City, and then at the dark Guanmen Avenue. He originally wanted the cavalry team to advance a certain distance with a fire, then extinguish the torch, spy on the enemy camp, and wait for an opportunity to launch an attack.
But Li Weiqun thought about it again and decided to be safer: "Put out the torch!"
Luo Dai En was still a little worried, so he said to Generals Li Weiqun and Ma Jinzhong again:
"You lead your troops to spy on the enemy camp. If you don't have a good fighter plane, or the enemy's reinforcements have arrived, don't make any more rash night attacks!"
Before Ma Jinzhong could answer, Li Weiqun smiled and said, "Don't worry, uncle, we'll be back soon."
He shouted to the soldiers in a deep voice: "We are attacking at night, don't miss any opportunity. Let's go!"
Li Weiqun gave the order, and the large group of cavalry rushed out immediately. In the late winter, the trees in Guansai had lost all their leaves, and there were only some white snow on the branches that were shaken off by the four hooves of the war horses.
The snowflakes drifted down, and they seemed to be far away from each other. Before making any waves in the night, they were instantly trampled into pieces in the mud by the flying horses.
The defenders who stayed in Tongguan were a little nervous. Luo Dain was a little worried about Li Weiqun's overly out-of-the-box and confident style. He knew that the young Chu Chuang officers under King Jin generally had the same style.
It is certainly a good thing that these people can still be so calm and confident in the face of the powerful Eight Banners Army. But if they are overconfident and turn into taking risks, it will be very bad.
The same was true for Zhao Yingyuan and Wang Liangzhi. Zhao Yingyuan became even more worried after Wang Liangzhi explained the discipline regulations of Guan Ning's night patrol. Before Li Weiqun set off, he repeatedly persuaded him to see the fighter plane clearly. If he was not extremely desperate,
If you have a good fighter plane, never, never launch an attack rashly.
The best situation is to return directly to Tongguan after finding out whether the Qing reinforcements have arrived.
Only Gao Ruli remembered many past events. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, he, like Tianxing star Zhang Tianlin and Zhongdou star Gao Yingen, followed Li Zicheng into Sichuan. Back then, they joined forces and first broke through Ningqiang, the throat from Shaanxi to Sichuan, and then conquered Sichuan.
Qipanguan and Chaotianguan occupied Guangyuan County.
It's like entering an uninhabited land, including Zhaohua, Jintang, Jianzhou, Shifang, Pengxian, Pixian, Xindu, Xichong, Suining, Zitong, Mianzhou, Xinfan, Wenjiang, Jiangyou, Changming, Luojiang, Deyang
, Hanzhou and other prefectures and counties.
He was truly invincible, and even set up an ambush in Baiqing, Zitong County, and killed Hou Liangzhu, the commander-in-chief of Sichuan.
In just one month, 38 prefectures and counties in Sichuan were conquered.
I was Li Zicheng's right-hand man back then!
But it was also from that time that Gao Ruli accepted the care of the Ming Dynasty and embarked on a completely different path from his old friends in Chuangying, and eventually became the capricious wall-jumping villain he is today.
Gao Ruli finally couldn't hold it any longer. He picked up his sword on his back, rushed out of Guancheng on horseback, and led a small group of cavalry to follow Li Weiqun and Ma Jinzhong's team.
"I can't miss anything anymore...let me go with you. I have been staying in Guanzhong, Chang'an and Tongguan for these years. No one in the Shun Army is more familiar with the geography than me."