A popular tactic in modern warfare is called "blitzkrieg".
The core idea is to concentrate troops as quickly as possible to penetrate the enemy's weaknesses after accurately grasping the intelligence.
As a result, there was no disadvantage, and even when the tanks drove into the enemy's city, there were traffic policemen maintaining order.
Of course, the Qin Dynasty could not use tanks, airborne troops or mechanized infantry to fight "blitzkrieg" like World War II, but it could use ships and cavalry to fight blitzkrieg.
Needless to say, in terms of intelligence, the Qin army had just returned all the way from Ruyin not long ago. Shen Bing had a clear picture of the roads, defenses, hydrology and other conditions and drew them on a map.
Even after returning to the port city, intelligence continued to come from the Chu Kingdom.
At the same time, Shen Bing also knew that the Chu army was unprepared.
In this era, the fastest way to transmit orders was the carrier pigeon. However, according to the information obtained by Shen Bing, the Chu army did not carry the carrier pigeon to Ruyin.
This is mainly because although Ruyin is the focus of defense, it is not the focus of communication.
The focus of Xiang Yan's communication was Shouchun, who was King Chu of Chu. His situation and decisions on the front line needed to be reported to King Chu of Chu, who also needed King Chu of Chu to coordinate logistics and sometimes obtain his consent.
As for Ruyin... if we set up a post station and rush 800 miles away, we can get there in half a day. There is no need for carrier pigeons.
It was this loophole that Shen Bing was looking for.
What if the Black Armored Army can accelerate faster than the Eight Hundred Miles?
Does that mean that the Chu army's message [5200 www.bqg5200.me] cannot be transmitted?
Or could it be that the Chu army had just received the information and had no time to prepare?
This is the reason why Shen Bing chose to attack at night. The speed of the Black Armored Army moving down the Shah River was not greatly affected at night, but the Chu Army could not move faster despite the 800-mile rush...
That's what a horse without stirrups is like. If you travel at night at a faster speed, you won't know how much you will fall along the way. Whether you can reach your destination alive is a question, let alone deliver a message.
So it would have taken half a day to get there during the day, but it would have taken all night at night.
The situation on the road was exactly as Shen Bing expected. Because he could not get the order in time, although there was a Chu army grain transport team going upstream and encountering the Heijia Army, he was completely unaware of it and only thought it was the Chu army.
In order to rush for time, the forwards of the Black Armored Army completely ignored these food transport teams... If the forwards made any moves, it would easily block the river and affect the entire trip.
But the rear army was different. Their task was to burn, kill, and loot along the way. If the things they grabbed were war horses, grain, and arrows, they would be taken away with the boats and other items. If they were equipment, they would be sunk into the river.
In fact, Shen Bing's order was to keep only the war horses for replacement on the road, and everything else was to be sunk in the river.
But food and arrows are the lifeblood of the army, and the soldiers of the Black Armored Army are reluctant to part with them.
Later they discovered that it was completely unnecessary, because all they encountered along the way were transport teams, with more food and arrows than they could finish.
There was no one to stop them along the way, and the black-armored army arrived at Taocheng in an hour.
It was almost impossible not to be discovered by the Chu army in Taocheng, because Taocheng was not directly connected to Shashui, but entered the city through a ten-mile-long canal and then through a water gate.
The Chu soldiers standing at the top of the city saw a fleet of boats approaching from a distance and ordered them to stop. Then the Chu soldiers below the city came to inspect with torches.
How could the black-armored army care about so many people? A rain of arrows shot these Chu soldiers into hedgehogs.
The Chu army in Taocheng immediately became chaotic. The water gate was lowered with a click, and the horns broke the tranquility of the night, pulling the sleeping Chu army to the top of the city.
The black-armored army landed beside the canal calmly: they unloaded their horses, drove off their carriages, and then formed a team under the city to prepare for the attack.
"There are two thousand Chu troops in Taocheng." Chen Duan reported to Shen Bing: "They are all infantry, and there are another thousand laborers. However, there are five thousand Chu troops ten miles away from the city. They may arrive in half an hour."
Facts have proved that reinforcements in ancient times were not so fast. Because the situation was unclear, reinforcements would not be sent out randomly. In addition, they had to organize the army, walk on foot, etc. It took nearly an hour for the last batch of reinforcements to arrive.
Shen Bing nodded.
He has already set up spies in Taocheng. These spies have already figured out the situation and are waiting here, so the Black Armored Army can get the latest and most detailed information.
"Fight quickly and decide quickly!" Shen Bing ordered.
Chen Duan agreed and went to make arrangements.
Wang Ben couldn't help but asked:
"Lieutenant General, although this Tao City is not a fortified city, it is not easy to capture it."
"And our army is a cavalry army that is not good at attacking cities. How can we win a quick victory?"
The construction of the secret tunnel in Taocheng was all handled by Shen Bing's personal guards. Due to confidentiality reasons, only Shen Bing and Chen Duan knew about it. It was only Wang Ben who asked this question.
Shen Bing replied with a smile:
"Our army left this city when it retreated. How could we not do something about it?"
"Wait a moment, the city gate will open soon."
Only then did Wang Ben suddenly realize that all of this was a plan set by Shen Bing, and he was afraid that even the retreating troops would be... This was because he respected and admired Shen Bing.
Sure enough, within a quarter of an hour, fire broke out in the city and chaos broke out, and then the city gates slowly opened from both sides with a loud noise.
The black-armored army waiting at the city gate immediately drew out their bronze swords and charged in with shouts.
Seeing this situation, the Chu troops in the city dared to resist, so they could only raise their hands and surrender one by one.
Shen Bing didn't bother to pay attention to them, so he had them all tied up, gagged and thrown into the room.
The Black Armored Army used the fastest speed to take out the supplies placed on the mountain east of the city and put on the armor of the Chu Army's cavalry... These were captured during the battle with Xiang Luo's cavalry. Shen Bing deliberately kept 3,000 sets for use at this time. .
Of course, something as precious as rattan armor cannot be thrown away and hidden in the cave.
In the blink of an eye, the three thousand black armored troops turned into three thousand Chu cavalry, and then they crossed the Chu army's defense line and headed straight for Ruyin as if there was no one around.
Along the way, we encountered waves of grain transport teams coming from all directions.
These grain transport teams were transported by the nobles of Chu State to the port city.
At this time, the intentions of the Chu nobles had been successfully reversed by Xiang Yan, or it can be said that the nobles knew that Xiang Yan had won the battle and expelled the Qin army from the Chu territory... More importantly, Xiang Yan did not lose many troops.
Xiang Yan did not lose many troops, which means that the king's strength is still there.
In this way, if the war situation is stable and the nobles do not behave well, won't Xiang Yan and the king have to attack them when they turn around?
So the nobles dared to be lazy and rushed to transport food to the front line while the war was not over.
When encountering these grain teams, the Black Armored Army didn't talk nonsense. They just rode up and told them that the grain had been requisitioned, and ordered them to gather the grain into a pile and set it on fire.
This only made the soldiers and laborers in the grain transport team look confused.
Some of them seemed to realize that these cavalry were disguised as enemies, but even if they wanted to send a message and warn them, there was no hurry.
Because the Black Armored Army was a cavalry army, and they marched lightly and simply from the main road to Ruyin... In this era, there was no faster means of transportation than horses.