stubborn thief

Chapter 358 Night Battle
As night falls, the river valley can't be seen, only piles of bonfires on the ground, like the reflection of the sky full of stars on the land.

The bonfires in the valley were placed forty or fifty steps apart, forming a huge square formation. He Huchen looked at the square formation left by Liu Chengzong after his retreat from a distance, with hesitation on his face.

He didn't know whether he should step into this phalanx that was tailor-made for their tens of thousands of troops.

The river valley was just that wide, and the phalanx surrounded by campfires occupied half of the middle. If they didn't enter the campfire formation, they would have to divide their troops if they wanted to secretly pass through this area. Otherwise, the team would be too long and it would be too easy to be intercepted.

He Huchen was annoyed by this feeling.

He had fought against Liu Chengzong. In Huanglong Mountain, even though he lost in the end, the two sides were almost stalemate in the desperate fight, but Liu Chengzong hid the red cannon and fired it in the rain.

If you really want to talk about the feeling of that battle, it is actually no different from when he fought against the Mongols outside the border and the Shaanxi rebels inside the border—it just depends on whether you can fight on the battlefield, you can win if you can fight, and lose if you can’t fight.

However, He Huchen was wrong from the beginning to the end of the Hehuang campaign this time. It seemed that this battle had nothing to do with whether he could win or not.

He is no longer He Huchen, but He Laoniu with a ring tied to his nose. It looks like he has four hooves growing on his own legs, but it doesn't matter where he goes.

Especially seeing the bonfire square left by Liu Chengzong in front of him, this feeling became clearer.

If the battle in Huanglong Mountain is that you play a card and I play a card to compare the size, then this battle is almost like Liu Chengzong turned the table, pressing the hands of the five towns commanders to show their cards, and finally put himself The cards were slapped in their faces.

For He Huchen, he thought the bonfire formation was an insult.

In fact, no, Liu Chengzong didn't intend to insult people with the bonfire array. He just roughly estimated the space needed by the officers and soldiers, and put out an indicator that could roughly observe where the officers and troops were, so as to guide the shelling.

The real insult was that Liu Chengzong left a pot beside the bonfire in the middle of the phalanx, and in the pot were three big cakes he baked for the three general soldiers.

The pot was placed so clearly that the officers and soldiers didn't dare to eat it when they found it. They were worried that Liu Shizi would poison the pancakes, so they had to report it. Even the officers didn't dare to eat it. Qi and He Huchen.

Can these two enter the bonfire formation? Hearing that there were three pancakes left in the middle, he was so angry that he blew his beard and stared. Yang Qi was about to lead the army across the bonfire formation on the spot, but was stopped by He Huchen: "Brother Yang, no!"

He Huchen felt that he was being led by the nose all the way, and this would be regarded as a wake-up call, and said to Yang Qi: "He knows what we want to do, so we can't fulfill his wish!"

Yang Qixin said you don't fart, damn it I don't even know what I want to do, how could he know?
Yang Qi really didn't know what he wanted to do, because He Huchen didn't let him do what he wanted to do.

He wanted to go east to save You Shilu, but he didn't want to go west at all. In fact, if You Shilu was saved and he was allowed to return to his hometown in Lanzhou, Yang Qi would be very happy.

It was He Huchen who insisted on going west to rescue his soldiers, so he held him up.

Asked where you were going, you said west, and when you went west, you said that the army march would fulfill the enemy's wish... Yang Qi was full of impatience, with a strange look on his face: "Brother He, why don't you tell me, are you two here?" What agreement was reached before the war, you, you, don't harm your brother."

"What are you thinking, my son is almost driven crazy by him." He Huchen glanced at Yang Qi, and looked at the darkness of the bonfire formation and the west: "I am at odds with him, what agreement can we have?"

He Huchen was shrouded in the shadow of the enemy's progress, but it was because of Yang Qi's gag that he regained his confidence as a general.

Then he expressed his thoughts: "Liu Chengzong left a pot to confirm two things. First, he knew that we hadn't eaten, and second, he didn't know that You Shuai was in the east... He has only led troops for a few years, and he has fought several times. Big battle, he is not sure about the situation in the east."

Yang Qi was taken aback when he heard the words, and the feeling in his heart changed immediately.

To be honest, this battle was interesting. For a long time, even though he had been the commander-in-chief for several years, Yang Qi hadn't felt like commanding an army for a long time.

In this regard, Yang Qi's feelings were even stronger than He Huchen's.

The imperial court is using the commander-in-chief as a large guerrilla general who can fight.

However, due to the lack of troops in Guyuan in the past two years, the quality of the newly recruited frontier troops was not good, and the command was not good. He didn't even feel like a general.

Encounters are everywhere, enemies are all over the place, there is no huge duel and mentality battles between the commanders of both sides, only exhausting chasing and besieging.

He degenerates.

But following He Huchen's words, "he's not sure about the situation in the east", goosebumps appeared all over Yang Qi's body, as if the long-sleeping war instinct in his heart had been awakened, causing him to open his mouth slightly and look up at the sky full of stars.

He said, "Eat."

He Huchen nodded heavily and laughed loudly: "Yes, eat!"

On the dark roof on the other side of the battlefield, Liu Chengzong looked at the brightly illuminated bonfire phalanx. Huang Shengxiao's artillery had already entered the preset position. Counting the time, the commander of the three towns should have arrived at the bonfire. He was wondering why he didn't What about movement?

Then he saw that on the north and south sides of the bonfire square, a bonfire was slowly burning. Instead of entering the bonfire square, the officers and soldiers lit the bonfire themselves to illuminate the dark sides of the battlefield.

Liu Chengzong asked himself in his heart: Are they going to attack?

Immediately, he denied this conjecture in his mind. Since the officers and soldiers entered the bunker, they have no time to eat. They must be very hungry.

But immediately afterwards, in the darkness to the east of the bonfire square, several scattered places glowed vaguely, making it hard to see clearly.

He looked through the binoculars, and found that it seemed that the officers and soldiers were lighting a fire, setting up several large pots, and preparing to cook.

This can't help but make Liu Chengzong regret withdrawing the siege of the two thousand Guyuan troops... The purpose of withdrawing the siege is to find a better opportunity to eat up the main force of the official army, but at present, if the official army has food to eat, they may not rush to attack.

If he had known this earlier, he would have eaten those 2000 people first at the cost of fighting directly with the officers and soldiers.

"Basang, let your people go first, no, half the battalion, let the half battalion go to bed first." Liu Chengzong gave Basang an order in the landlord's compound as the headquarters, and then sent someone to convey the same order to Huang Shengxiao : "Two artillery generals always sleep in one. The battle is estimated to start tomorrow."

His entire army was plunged into darkness. It was surrounded by villages where Fanbing and Mongolian soldiers used to avoid acne. The soldiers had lived here for more than a month and knew the terrain very well. In each battalion, only simple lanterns were erected in the courtyard where the officers were. , emitting dim light.

This light was hard to spot a hundred paces away, and the entire battlefield exuded a man-made terrifying atmosphere.

The darkness is inherently tense, not to mention that the enemy army is on the side, and the wind and grass are enough to make people panic.

It's just that this kind of pressure was not only exerted on the enemy's mind, Liu Chengzong was also shrouded in pressure.

Fan Sanlang climbed onto the tiled roof and looked east, only to feel it was pitch black, even the light from the bonfire seemed to be covered in a thick layer of fog, and he couldn't see anything clearly, she said: "The commander-in-chief, let's go to sleep for a while. Up there, the enemy will call you when they make a move."

Liu Chengzong laughed easily and shook his head slowly.

He wondered how strong a heart must be to be able to sleep in this situation?Unless he is allowed to lead the army westward on horseback, and he can sleep overnight on horseback, he will not be able to sleep even tomorrow night if the army is stationed here, as long as the battle is not over.

Liu Chengzong said: "Go to sleep, I may squint for a while in the second half of the night, then you will come up and replace me."

Fan Sanlang knew that he couldn't persuade him, so he nodded lightly, and was about to go down, when he suddenly heard a scream resounding through the river valley in the distance, the voice of the Mongolian soldiers echoed in the darkness, and a black shadow swept across the battlefield The bonfire formation in the middle pulled huge black shadows to the east.

Almost without any words, anyone can feel the turmoil brought about by this shocking change in the army.

Liu Chengzong shouted to the drummers and standard bearers in the courtyard: "The Chinese army does not move, watch the lights!"

The tense drummer had already raised his drumsticks, and slowly lowered his raised hands after hearing the words, while the flag bearer quickly hung two lights on the flag with crossbeams, and slowly erected the big flag in the courtyard.

Two bright lights were erected above the yard, and then two lights were hung one by one in the surrounding yards. In the darkness, armored warriors looked up at the nearest yard and saw the two lights lit up as promised, and the commotion was also visible to the naked eye. The speed subsides.

Liu Chengzong, who was standing on the roof, breathed a sigh of relief, and then picked up the binoculars to look at the battlefield. It was too far away and too dark, and he couldn't see anything. He could only see something like a pot set up on the vague bonfire of the enemy's camp. It still looked like that .

After a while, Youtang came galloping along the road with a lantern in one hand and a yellow flag in one hand, and reported: "Commander, a small group of enemy troops on the south road wanted to touch them, but they collided with the soldiers of the fishing camp and were driven away. "

Liu Shizi's nervousness calmed down a little, and he waited for a while before laughing. He ordered the soldiers in the pond to tell the Mongolian generals on the front line west of the campfire to be careful of the enemy, and there might be another attack in a while.

The darkness will magnify people's uneasiness. When the soldiers returned from the pond, Liu Chengzong sat on the top of the mountain in the landlord's compound and took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and think about why the enemy would try to break through at this time.

There are two possibilities. The first is normal operation. Find out where the front line is in the dark before the meal, so as to prevent the army from being attacked while eating. The second possibility is that the cooking fire is an illusion, but the enemy wants him to see it. They are making a fire.

This is to make him let down his vigilance, which is the harbinger of a night attack.

Liu Chengzong thought for a while, and decided to overthrow his meaningless guess, no matter what they want to do, it is right to continue to harass.

He sent someone to call Tang Bing, and ordered him to give Xie Erhu an order: "Come and not be rude, let the horse team prepare to harass, even if they really eat, don't let them eat well... Show the size of the army."

However, he did not take back his order to rest half of the soldiers of Basang and Huang Shengxiao.

Although the short-term doubts about him in his heart have not subsided, Liu Chengzong does not think that Yang Yao's offensive in the east is hindered. On the contrary, the operation in the east should be very successful.

Because if the officers and soldiers aggressively pursued Yang Yao, no one would dare to stay in the bunker, let alone pursue him westward.

Now there are at least [-] soldiers in the east, including the more than [-] Guyuan soldiers who were let go, Liu Chengzong believes that the number of troops will not be less than [-].

In this way, even if the officers and soldiers have food tonight, they don't know what's going on in the east. The officers and soldiers of the three towns must be out of touch, otherwise they won't eat here. The logistics can be delivered, and they should go back to the earth fort to eat.

"I understand!"

Liu Chengzong was talking to himself on the roof, and his gaze towards the east had become full of confidence, and his determination that had wavered slightly became extremely firm again: "You are... bluffing."

Without waiting for the Mongolian soldiers to investigate clearly, he immediately ordered the Tang soldiers: "Quick horse, tell General Wang that he is going to sleep on horseback tonight, and the training infantry battalion must arrive at Mijiatai before dawn. I need them to join forces early tomorrow morning." battle."

Just as the sound of horseshoes in the pond sounded outside the courtyard of the command headquarters, and the sound of shouts of killing came from far away and near in the darkness beyond the campfire, Xie Erhu's men moved.

Ever since he saw the posture of the training horse battalion, Xie Erhu has been working hard in his heart. Although his [-] soldiers in the fishing battalion had been carefully selected before the battle, they still looked like a group of stragglers compared to the training horse battalion.

However, this night battle was a good opportunity for him to prove himself. After all, professionally, his Mongolian cavalry team was far behind, but he believed that the Mongolian soldiers had an advantage in the gathering and dispersal of skirmishers.

It's just that this battle is much more chaotic than he imagined.

He Huchen was standing in the army formation. The first westward infiltration battle had just ended on the left flank, and he was found as he expected, but he didn't expect Liu Chengzong to place the Mongols so close to the bonfire formation.

The horse soldiers who were in charge of the infiltration task were almost hit by the hidden arrows just after they crossed the area where the bonfire was bright, and even before people came out of the area illuminated by the fire.

Fortunately, the fighting outside was quite noisy, but it did not pose a threat to his Yebushou... Yebushou handed him the enemy's projectile weapon, which was a wooden arrow with a wooden shaft and no feathers.

According to the soldiers, the arrows were not wood, but bones, teeth, or sharpened stones, but it seemed that they were not tied tightly. They were stuck on the soldier's cotton armor. When the arrows were pulled out, they fell off.

Anyone who hears such a report will smile. Is there anything more joyful on the battlefield than the enemy using weapons 3000 years behind himself?

This also slightly dispelled the tension in He Huchen's heart caused by the darkness.

He looked down at the iron pot camouflaged with armor and wood, thinking about when Liu Chengzong was most relaxed tonight, then he heard the rumble of horseshoes from the left wing again, and at the same time there were arrows whistling and whizzing across the right wing.

However, he already knew the actuality of the Mongolian soldiers' equipment, so he was not worried about it. He just asked the soldiers to stabilize their positions, and greeted them with three-eyed guns and Franco cannons if they approached.

After a while, the horseshoes began to circle around in the darkness outside the army formation, and the Fran's machine gun was filled with scatter, and from time to time returned fire in the direction of the feathered arrows shot in the darkness.

When the officers and soldiers of the three towns thought that this situation would last for a long time, suddenly there was a strange cry from the Mongolian army, and then the cavalry in layers seemed to recede like a tide, and then approached again.

Just when He Huchen thought it was another harassment, the sound of tramping horseshoes broke through the safe distance, and in the darkness, a column of horses quickly approached the southeast direction from behind the army formation, and then there was the sound of gunfire like popping beans.

The sound was obviously different from the three-eyed blunderbuss, not the blunderbuss of the official army.

Zhong Bao, who had assembled a cavalry team at Nanshan since sunset, galloped and shot at a corner of the battlefield, put rows of blunderbuss into the officer's formation, cut off a corner obliquely, retreated eastward again, and disappeared into the darkness.

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)