Chapter 62: What qualifications do you have to learn from Qi Shaobao
Less than half an hour later, under the supervision of Zuo Zixiong, the officers and soldiers of Huangqikou Town cleaned up the battlefield and allowed the soldiers to eat the morning meal and breathe a sigh of relief.
The war dead were also hastily pulled aside for cremation, and the wounded were simply treated.
After a short and bloody battle, although the army was waiting for work and had the advantages of terrain and firearms, 31 people were directly killed, 47 were seriously injured, and 68 were slightly injured.
At least half of the so-called serious injuries cannot be saved and can only be treated briefly to relieve their pain, and the other half will be left with some disabilities. In total, more than 60 people suffered permanent battle losses, accounting for 3% of the total force.
Among the casualties in the battle, only more than 20% were elite Shen family servants, and the remaining 70% to 80% were new recruits trained by local regiments.
On the one hand, this is related to the poor combat effectiveness of the regiment training and the hasty training. On the other hand, it is also because the regiment training mostly consists of spearmen, who need to carry the line and bear pressure, and are far less safe than the firearms soldiers.
Fortunately, the results of the battle were also very fruitful. Just looking for corpses and seriously wounded soldiers abandoned by the enemy after the war, nearly 400 heads were harvested. There were countless lightly wounded soldiers who escaped.
In addition, 130 intact and slightly injured horses, 200 donkeys, mules and other pack animals were seized.
Seriously injured and disabled animals can only be slaughtered immediately and cooked immediately for the soldiers to feast on the meat.
The broken knives and guns left behind by the enemy were not worth much, but more than fifty pairs of iron-clad cotton armor were removed from the corpses. After a brief cleaning, they were immediately given training points to the regiment that performed well today.
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When cleaning the battlefield, of course you will also capture the enemy's wounded and prisoners.
Zuo Zixiong was careful and asked his subordinates to pay special attention to the rebel officers among the wounded.
His subordinates did not disappoint him and found a commander of the rebel cavalry department who was unable to follow the retreat because of a broken leg.
That one always seems to have no other injuries. As long as one leg is amputated and the wound is treated cleanly and no suppuration occurs, he will probably survive, so his desire to survive is relatively strong.
Zuo Zixiong liked to deal with people who had a strong desire for survival, so he avoided suspicion and called Shen Lian, a member of the prison army, to interrogate the prisoner together to show his public conscience in all decisions.
He didn't waste any time. He pulled out his saber and put it on the commander's neck: "How many troops did you come this time? Who is the general? How many reinforcements will there be in the future? Let's make it clear. Let the military doctor debridement and stop the bleeding immediately.
Otherwise, he will be killed and you can find another wounded person to ask."
Saying that, Zuo Zixiong waved his hand and asked his soldiers to bring another rebel officer over from the side. The rebel officer seemed to have been seriously injured and unconscious, so he could not speak.
Zuo Zixiong chopped off the head of the unconscious thief officer with a backhand knife, and said coldly: "There is no need for the thief general who cannot speak to suffer any more."
The broken leg was splashed with blood from Pao Ze's neck. He recovered from the initial shock and stupor, and quickly begged for mercy: "It's the soldiers led by Young Master Liu Xiong, Your Majesty... Oh no, Liu Xiyao also let Yi Dou Gu lead him."
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Liu Xiyao has ordered his army to start from Huanggang, and they will definitely arrive before this evening. You...you have so few people, you cannot withstand Liu Xiyao's army!"
Zuo Zixiong's face was calm: "Liu Xiyao personally leads the army? How many people are there?"
Mr. Broken Leg: "Liu Xiyao's entire army always has one or two... maybe twenty or thirty thousand. I don't know how many there are."
Zuo Zixiong was not demanding at all and knew that this was the truth. With a glance, he signaled to his subordinates to keep their promise and drag down the traitor who had confessed honestly to have his leg amputated and medicine applied.
As for whether you can survive after leg sawing and debridement, that depends on fate.
Next to them, Shen Lian and Pizarro had different expressions after hearing the confession.
Pizarro just came to get a high salary as an instructor, not to accompany him to do things that risked getting paid for nothing. He immediately shouted:
"Zuo, shouldn't we withdraw to Qizhou County immediately? There is only half of the daytime. If Liu Xiyao really comes with ten or twenty thousand people and surrounds us in a small town like this with only earthen fences and wooden fences, The only outcome is destruction!"
After all, Shen Lian has been a confidant of the Shen family for many years and a desperado. His loyalty is more reliable. He is more worried about the overall situation. After thinking about it for a while, he couldn't help but regretted:
"If I had known that I would eventually retreat to the city, I shouldn't have given Liu Xiong a chance to breathe just now. I should have taken advantage of his defeat and pursued him one after another. Maybe I could have killed more of Qian'er's 800 remaining soldiers without giving them a chance to regroup.
Now it is a bit difficult. It will be difficult for Liu Xiong and the remnants of Yidou Valley to break through the Huangqokou Town we are guarding. But if we leave the town and march in the open areas of the valley plains on the north bank of Qishui River, we will be defeated by them. Harassment is not easy to deal with.”
By cleaning the battlefield and interrogating prisoners, the combat strength of the enemy and ourselves is now very clear.
Zuo Zixiong's side had lost nearly a hundred men in combat, but there were still 1,900 men who were in good condition, with enough weapons, equipment and ammunition, and 200 men who could ride horses (dozens of which were originally brought) , officer's horse)
Liu Xiong and Yi Dougu should have about 1,300 or 400 people left, nearly half of whom are cavalry, and the rest are at least mounted infantry, which has the advantage of mobility.
Leaving the terrain cover of the town, in the open area, the musketeers and spearmen had to deal with attacks from multiple directions, which was indeed risky.
Zuo Zixiong's face was as dark as water. He still maintained a certain degree of politeness towards Shen Lian, the "supervisor of hundreds of military households", to prove that he was convinced of Shen Tongzhi's deployment. But this did not mean that he would mind Shen Lian's tactics. questioned him.
After taking a deep breath, Zuo Zixiong said solemnly:
"Shen Baihu, it's better to stop this kind of afterthought. At dawn just now, the sky was dark and the enemy's situation was unclear. The safest way is not to pursue and expand the victory.
What's more, our army is all infantry, and half of them are new soldiers. Even if we chase them out, the enemy has horses, but they won't be able to catch up with a few people. Let's look forward and think about how to safely retreat to Qizhou City.
Since even we have figured out that it would be unsafe for the infantry to face the nimble cavalry in the valley plains, the enemy can also figure it out. Maybe they can seduce Liu Xiong to regain his courage and take the initiative to provoke us.
If we can wait for work and take advantage of the situation to attack them again, and finally successfully withdraw from the city, and even use this to form a deep hatred with Liu Xiyao, that will be the blessing for the people of Huangzhou - the most annoying thing for Mr. Tongzhi is that Liu Xiyao does not come to attack the city, but the surrounding areas Plagiarism and looting to harvest autumn grain."
When Shen Lian heard this, he realized that this was indeed the case, and he apologized to Zuo Zixiong: "To put it this way, I am talking too much. However, it will take 1,900 infantry to break through the siege of 1,300 cavalry." , is it really safe to march twenty or thirty miles back to the county seat?"
Zuo Zixiong thought for a while: "If you do your best and follow fate, there is no guarantee of victory on the battlefield. We will slowly walk eastward along the north bank of Qishui River. With the south side leaning against the river, it is impossible to be detoured by enemy cavalry. In fact, Just defend the northeast, west and three sides.
There are numerous examples of famous generals in ancient times who marched along the river in Que Yue Formation and defended three sides against cavalry harassment. The most famous one is Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty, who marched westward in Que Yue Formation on the north bank of the Yellow River. The Northern Wei cavalry used several It cannot be broken by twice the profit.
Although we don't have chariots like Liu Yu, and we can't learn from Qi Shaobao's chariot formation to defeat the Tatars, we do have firearms and a small fleet. We have more people than the enemy, and we have more physical strength than the enemy. We should be very promising. ——Liu Xiong traveled all night and didn’t get much sleep at all.”
After hearing this, Shen Lian immediately asked for orders: "How about I lead the fleet up the river and cooperate with the capital on land and water. I have followed my master on the sea since I was a child, and commanding a few ships is more than enough."
Zuo Zixiong nodded: "That's okay, but you'd better separate a speedboat, carry many powerful oarsmen and polesmen, rush back to the city at full speed against the current, and report the news to Lord Tongzhi.
If your subordinates are unreliable, you'd better deliver the message in person. The messenger on land will definitely be intercepted by the enemy's cavalry, and only the light sentry ship can avoid it. Only after your lord knows my latest plan can you cooperate with us."
Shen Lian thought carefully and found that there was no other captain under his command who could do this job reliably. He had no choice but to take on the task of delivering the message himself and entrust the command of the fleet to others.
He found thirty strong sailors, feasted on meat, brought fifteen turtledove muskets and fifteen Lumi muskets, ensuring that each man had a shot, and also equipped with some bows and arrows for self-defense, and took the picket ship with him. Try to swim upstream as close to the south bank of Qishui River as possible.
The ship was also equipped with more than a dozen long bamboo poles, and seven or eight sailors were always working hard to hold the poles. The sentinel boat was speeding in the shallow water, and the enemy cavalry could not detect it, and it was impossible to pursue it after it was discovered.
On the other side, Huangqikou Town had actually been evacuated before the war, and there was not much property left in the town.
In order to prevent the enemy from joining the enemy, a place was left for Liu Xiyao to rest during the war. Zuo Zixiong had to fortify the walls and clear the country, and burned all the remaining dilapidated buildings in the town with fire during the withdrawal.
All the weapons and armor seized in the morning that could be taken away were loaded onto the dozens of Shen family's sand boats. The hundreds of livestock carcasses seized were also simply cut, and as much clean meat as possible was selected for shipment.
The remaining skeletons of "horse scorpions", "donkey scorpions" and "mule scorpions" that couldn't be loaded were all thrown into the town, along with animal offal that were easily infected with germs and should not be hoarded.
After the fire dissipated, the aroma of the roasted skeletons and internal organs of hundreds of donkeys and horses attracted wild dogs, domestic dogs, and all kinds of animals from a radius of more than ten miles, gnawing at the bones and sucking out the marrow. It was really apocalyptic. The strange situation.
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Zuo Zixiong took 1,900 soldiers and 200 horses, loaded all the baggage on the boat, and sailed upstream by land and water.
Among the 1,900 people, some were still on the boat, so there were only about 1,500 people on foot on the shore. It was not that he had not thought about taking all of them by boat, but it was really impossible to sit down. The Shen family fleet was originally here. There are only a dozen or so boats performing the show.
Moreover, if they are all by boat, it will not be easy to eliminate the enemy's temporary manipulation in the shallows of the channel, so it is most stable to proceed by land and water.
Zuo Zixiong's latest movements were immediately noticed by Liu Xiong and Yi Dougu, who had escaped more than ten miles upstream. The rebel cavalry scouts saw the flames in the town downstream, and the officers and soldiers went upstream, and immediately reported it to the young master. .
"Do these thieves want to hold us back for a while, and after weakening our energy, they will immediately hide back to the county seat to join the main force? What a good plan. If these two thousand people join forces with the city defenders, they will be able to attack the city again in the future.
It’s even harder.”
Liu Xiong also had some military knowledge and immediately realized that Zuo Zixiong and Shen Shuren could not be allowed to join forces.
You have offended this young master and still want to leave?
However, he had just suffered a disastrous defeat, which left him with no confidence, so he asked Yi Dou Gu, who was temporarily on crutches next to him: "Are you still confident of volleying?"
Yi Dougu did not answer immediately, but asked the scout some details, mainly the marching arrangements of Zuo Zixiong's troops.
After listening, he said maturely and solemnly: "It seems that the enemy's military discipline is indeed strict, but they actually thought of Buchuyue Formation, advancing by land and water and retreating slowly. It was at least evening before the king's main force arrived, but now it has just begun.
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It is only ten miles from Huangqikou Town to our place, and another fifteen miles to Qizhou County. If there is no delay, they will definitely be able to complete the twenty-five miles and return to the city within three hours.
Although our army is newly defeated, it has many cavalry. Zuo Zixiong's moon formation seems to be quite lawful, but there is no chariot staff. In ancient times, the key to defeating cavalry in formations against water was to have chariots as bunkers - Qi Shaobao of this Dynasty against the Tatars
Isn’t that true for people too?
In my opinion, as long as our army is dispersed enough, is brave enough after knowing its shame, and takes advantage of the enemy's eagerness to return home after a new victory, and is proud and complacent, we can still fight.
In the morning, the terrain was too narrow, and so many of our cavalry couldn't form a formation, so we had to charge intensively, so we were beaten so badly by shotguns. This time, the battlefield was very wide, so we had to loosen our formation, harass them by roaming around, and let them scatter shotguns.
Useless!"
The old thief Yi Dougu told some common sense about military affairs, all of which made Liu Xiong agree with him, and he finally regained his confidence in intercepting.
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