stubborn thief

Chapter 346 Frontier Army
Although some students who had just surrendered defected to the enemy, the surrender of the Marshal's Mansion in the east of Hezui was still very effective.

But because of Liu Chengzong's hesitation, the work of accepting the people was delayed for a day.

Seeing streams of poor people rushing westward, Liu Chengzong was very cautious, because as far as he knew, there were not so many people in Hekou.

After careful questioning, I found out that it was Lanzhou's Banner Army who was chasing out the poor.

Many people were kicked out because they couldn't pay the bribes. This was too unbelievable for Liu Shizi. He thought about it all night, but he couldn't figure out why the enemy would do this.

He could understand that Lanzhou wanted to drive the fleeing people from Hehuang to Hekou; but he didn't understand but was greatly shocked to drive the impoverished people from Lanzhou to Hekou.

Afraid that these poor people would respond internally when he attacked the city?

Liu Chengzong said in his heart, could it be said that the name of my liberator has been passed down from Uzbekistan to Lanzhou?It shouldn't be!
This kind of good thing can be thought in your heart, but the reality is that more than 6 people gathered at the mouth of the river. Not only was the scale too large for the soldiers to check, but it even blocked the road and affected the message transmission of Tangqi.

It is not known whether these people were carrying smallpox; it is not known whether there were any spies from the government and the army; it is even impossible to know whether there were officers and soldiers among them.

Liu Chengzong only knew that there were spies from the Zhenhai camp sent by his brother among the hungry people, who reported that the Gansu frontier army had moved northward, and that the Lanzhou government army set off firecrackers for ten miles at the mouth of the river, and sprinkled lime sulfur.

When he wanted to take over the people with all his strength, there was no time. The Gansu army moved to the defense and the Lanzhou soldiers set off firecrackers.

It's interesting to say that people's imagination is limited.

The Liu Chengzong in the mind of the border commander of the five towns is the Liu Chengzong imagined by them, and the border commander of the five towns and the officials of Lanzhou, Shaanxi in Liu Chengzong's mind are also what he imagined.

Even the fantasy of the five towns border commanders is quite close to reality. After all, they all know Liu Shizi's soldiers.

However, Liu Chengzong's fantasy was not close to reality, because he could not imagine how exaggerated an order could be deformed in the dying yamen.

He always believed that Lanzhou must have a deep meaning to drive out the people before sending troops.

Maybe the officers and soldiers don't want to be human anymore, and they want to use the crowd of people to push away their own army to avoid a frontal battle and defeat him directly?
On Beishan Terrace, Liu Chengzong watched the crowds in the distance, and the rain was about to come. Li Bei, who was standing beside him, was in a complicated state of mind.

For several years, he, a member of the imperial court, was captured and placed under house arrest, and then contributed to Liu Chengzong. Until today, he finally stood opposite the imperial court on the battlefield.

He shook his head, sighed, watched Liu Chengzong fight against the air, and said: "Marshal, don't think about it, there is no deep meaning, as long as the court implements the deep meaning, we will not be able to reach Qinghai. This is King Su's slap on the head." , The result of the flag army fooling around."

Liu Chengzong was surprised: "So sure?"

"It's very certain that the generals of the five towns have their own abilities. A fool can't sit in that position. If you use the people to attack you, you may not be overwhelmed, but as long as the people run in reverse, the officers and soldiers will definitely be overwhelmed."

Li Bei was the first batch of guest generals of the Guanning Army selected into Liaodong, and he was very clear about the pros and cons of the main soldiers and guest soldiers.

When the main soldier encounters setbacks, he will be more tenacious, relying on loyalty to maintain a lower salary requirement, but he is easy to have sympathy for his fellow countrymen, and there is a risk of rebellion; No mercy to local rebels.

At this time, the official army gathered in Lanzhou will not have too many main soldiers, and most of them should be guest troops. Li Bei believes that in terms of fighting will, they are not far behind the army of the Marshal's Mansion by 01:30.

But Liu Chengzong still felt that the officers and soldiers were playing big chess.

To be on the safe side, he first sent someone to send news of the northern transfer of the Gansu Army to the elder brother who attacked Lu Tusi in the north.

Urge my brother to break through the city as soon as possible and occupy the mountain pass stronghold, so as to prevent the Gansu army from rushing to help and guarding against him to form a siege to his own side.

He didn't plan to transfer his brother's army into the valley. If the smallpox-stricken Gansu army supported Lu Tusi, then both his brother and Li Wanqing's [-] troops had antibodies against smallpox, and it would be just right to deal with them.

And Liu Chengzong would not give up on the [-] people who gathered east of the river mouth to beg for food, but at the moment of the war, they have not been reviewed for the time being, and it is not known whether they are infected with smallpox, so they cannot all be put in the belly or back.

Therefore, he ordered the guards to lead the scattered native soldiers to form an emergency formation for the people, forming a hundred or ten posts, and each led hundreds of people into the southeast valley to temporarily avoid the battle.

Li Tianyu helped a lot in this matter. In the big southeast valley, there are many chieftains' lands. The names of the places in the mountains are Qijiashan, Zhaojiashan and so on. The people form teams and line up along the valley to the south. A few days of rations were temporarily provided by the nearest chieftain village.

The entire evacuation into the valley was extremely chaotic because of its speed and speed. More than 2 people evacuated into the mountains within one day, but the other [-] people could not be found.

Whether it is the people who fled to Lanzhou with the wealthy family earlier, or the people who were driven out from Lanzhou, it is difficult for people to trust Liu Chengzong.

Rather than being brought into Nanshan like prisoners, they preferred to run north, and even hid in uninhabited villages east of the river mouth.

On the morning of March [-]th, Dai Daozi saw the mighty army entering the valley at the river bend in the east. In the ears of Liu Chengzong, who was stationed at Hezui.

Then Dai Daozi began to order the Tang soldiers to squeeze the enemy Tang soldiers and start fighting.

The Tang soldiers need to fight in order to delay the speed of the enemy Tang soldiers from occupying the hills and fields, and force the subsequent army to become restless and send more troops to deal with them.

In this way, the Tang soldiers can be closer to the main force of the enemy army, and further ascertain the enemy's actual situation, strength, morale, camp, equipment, logistics and other information.

Liu Chengzong's response to this was to fight and retreat.

However, to Dai Daozi, this kind of encounter was more like a show of power at the tactical level.

Outside the Baoen Temple in Hewan, Daozi Dai gave an order to the Tang soldiers with a relaxed smile on his face: "They can understand our flag, tease these juniors, catch me alive, I want to ask Qing Fan's bastard is dead."

On the field three miles away, Ma Xiang, the chief of the Ningxia Frontier Army Tang Bingbai, was so nervous that his palms sweated.

In fact, Ma Xiang didn’t have much experience as a Tang soldier. When the Ningxia frontier army went to Yan’an to suppress bandits, he just didn’t pick up the sand battalion at night. His main duty was to ride around the Great Wall day and night to see where the side walls were engulfed by yellow sand. Just report to the battalion general.

It was only because He Zongbing lost his trousers in Huanglong Mountain, and he took a few more Mongolian heads before he was drawn into the pacesetter battalion. It has not been half a year since he was forced to get on the shelf and sit in the position of Tangqi Baizong.

In the past six months, he led the newly recruited soldiers to learn the flag order hard, and asked many times how to use the soldiers, and then he reluctantly put up the airs of the soldiers.

It was good to follow the steps step by step, but until this expedition, Ma Xiang was very nervous.

In fact, it is not a good strategy for Ningxia's Tang soldiers to be in the front. The name Liu Chengzong is too lethal to Ningxia's border troops.

But You Shilu, who came from Yulin, is the deputy commander, and his standard battalion does not have the organizational system of Tang Bing.

Yang Qi from Guyuan is the commander in chief, but that handsome man has been busy leading the hungry thieves to suppress the official army. He trained seven or eight soldiers in the pond. Can survive three battles.

Only He Huchen had established Tang soldiers in his hands, and the confrontation of Tang soldiers could only fall on their heads.

Seeing his Tang soldiers retreating step by step, Ma Xiang couldn't help frowning, and soon heard the approaching subordinates excitedly say: "President Bai, we saw them wave the flag, and ordered the Tang cavalry to retreat ten miles for the first time, and also to attack the mountains to the north of us." The flag informs the news of the advance and suppression."

"Beishan, is there an ambush?"

Ma Xiang shook his head and looked to the north. The north is indeed full of mountains, and the mountains for ten or twenty miles are full of valleys. If there is an ambush...he ordered: "Report to Commander He, and divide the twelve ponds to explore the mountains. .”

Dai Daozi watched his own Tang soldiers retreat five miles on the battlefield to find a place to hide. The enemy Tang soldiers quickly separated a part to explore the north and south valleys, shaking his head with a smile: "Tch, this can also be fooled? Then the other side You don’t need to use your skills, let them play with the valley, and let’s go.”

As Dai Daozi led the Tang troops to retreat, the more than [-] troops composed of the three towns of Ningxia, Yulin, and Guyuan, Lanzhou Banner Army, and Taozhou native soldiers slowed down. Go forward, intending to cover ten miles.

When the Tang soldiers walked to Qili, they found that the marshal's mansion Tangma was approaching from the front, and they retreated one after another. On the way to retreat, they were attacked by Tang soldiers hiding in houses and haystacks.

In order to succeed in the ambush, many of Dai Daozi's Tang soldiers let Paoze take away their horses in advance. For a while, the guns rang everywhere.

He Huchen suspected it was fake news from the beginning, because his soldiers in the pond could understand the flag on the opposite side, and the other side could also understand his flag, so he hurried to the front of the formation, only to see a distressing scene through the binoculars.

It was hard to train soldiers who could understand the flag, and when the enemy was oppressed from the front and ambushed from the back, all the sergeants in the pond were killed by such blows from the back and arrows from the front.

However, He Huchen was not most concerned about this. The inexperienced new Tang soldiers were defeated in the confrontation, which he expected. He was more concerned about those Tang soldiers who stood together but did not fight.

We haven't seen each other for three years, and Liu Chengzong's army has changed a lot compared to before. Just from the bowls of the Tang soldiers, they put helmet tassels on the helmet spears. This is the most obvious difference between the two armies.

He Huchen held the binoculars cautiously, his face became more purple the more he looked at it, and his fists were clenched tighter and tighter.

Because there are usually only one to three solitary soldiers in a square area of ​​one mile, the battlefield where the soldiers confronted swept across the no man's land of the entire river valley in a moment, and there were loud gunshots in some places.

But there are also places where there is no sound.

In the binoculars, there were Tang soldiers who opened their arms and put down their weapons. He Huchen confirmed again and again that those people were indeed his subordinates, and they surrendered... Surrendered?

He Huchen looked back at the boundless army formation. Not counting Wang Xingshan on the North Road and Wang Chengen on the South Road, there were 2 troops behind them in the middle road alone.

With such a strong force, more than a dozen Tang soldiers chose to surrender in the first confrontation with the enemy?

There was a 'click'.

The wooden case of the telescope was cracked by He Huchen.

On the other side of the battlefield, Dai Daozi happily asked the guards to wave the flag, led the Tang soldiers and those who had been captured and surrendered, retreated ten miles west one by one, and sent a message to Liu Chengzong thirty miles away.

"Commander, the Tang soldiers report that the enemy has more than 13 troops, their marching speed has been delayed, and their morale is low. [-] Tang soldiers have been captured and are being escorted."

Liu Chengzong was deploying defenses at the newly built Hekou Fort, and he was very happy to hear the news. Although the results of the contest between the Tang soldiers were not much higher, they won the first battle, which was very helpful in boosting morale.

He looked at the two mountains north and south of the river valley, and through the binoculars, he could see that there were sporadic people hiding on the top of the mountains. This battle in the valley will let the people of the whole Hehuang know who is the real Hehuang at the fastest speed. Lord.

Afterwards, more and more pond soldiers retreated to the west bank. After a while, nearly a hundred people gathered. The width of the valley was between four and eight miles, which meant that the frontline pond soldiers had retreated twelve or three miles. The distance with him is getting closer and closer.

At this moment, several Tangqi came galloping from Hedong. Their eager expressions made Liu Chengzong have a bad feeling in his heart.

Sure enough, not long after, Tang Bing got off his horse outside the earthen castle, clasped his fists and said, "Commander, report urgently."

When the Tang soldiers entered the fort, they reported in front of Liu Chengzong and Yang Yao: "All the soldiers who surrendered were Ningxia soldiers. It is said that the imperial troops are divided into three groups. The Gansu army on the north route is [-] to rescue Lu Tusi, and the middle route is from Ningxia. , Yulin, Guyuan, Taozhou, and Lanzhou, [-] soldiers."

When Liu Chengzong heard this, he closed his eyes and thought about it. His strength in Hehuang was about the same, and there was no obvious disadvantage in the middle.

It's just that Liu Chengzu on the North Road used [-] soldiers to fight against the [-] native soldiers of Lu Tusi. He has been attacking the city for a few days. If the [-] Gansu reinforcements arrive first and Liancheng does not fall, the North Road may suffer.

Tang Bing paused, clasped his fists again and said, "The south road is the Lintao Army and the Hezhou Army. There are [-] troops together, and they want to go straight to Xining and Nianbo."

Liu Chengzong's heart was broken, and he suppressed his uneasiness, let Tang Bing go down, and held on to the earth wall for a long time without saying a word.

"Master?"

Yang Yao had just opened his mouth, and before he could say anything, he heard Liu Chengzong order the guards: "Report to Nanshan urgently, let the guards who lead the territorial soldiers restrain the people go south to investigate the enemy's situation, and send a message to Binggou and Xining by flying horse, tell them The enemy's situation; ordered Xincheng guard Wang Wenxiu to send troops to Xining."

Yang Yao heaved a sigh of relief, it seemed that Liu Chengzong had a similar opinion with him, and the main players in this meeting should not come back.

If you fight head-to-head with the officers and soldiers in the middle with similar strength, if you win the officers and soldiers, you will naturally not be able to complete the encirclement; but once you retreat, the completion of the encirclement is a certainty.

Liu Chengzong had more considerations than Yang Yao. What he had to consider was multiple armies. At this time, his army of more than [-] people was not the Lion Army that was banned in the early years.

This is not a matter of whether it should be done or not, but that it cannot be withdrawn.

The Mongolian soldiers of Xie Erhu and A Haidaiqing were either lost or defeated during the retreat, and they would definitely not return with their entire force.

Without these two flanking cavalry, Basang's slow-response and rigid team's shortcomings would be fully exposed. With Yang Yao's less than [-] Lion Army cavalry alone, the situation would be extremely critical.

Liu Chengzong looked at Yang Yao: "I believe in Wang Wenxiu, let's deal with the enemies in front of us first, Yansui, Guyuan, and Ningxia."

As he said that, he smiled, and the fur on his face stood up: "I am a soldier from Yansui, you are a soldier from Guyuan, and Dai Daozi is a soldier from Ningxia. We will let them see... the skills of the frontier army!"

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)