prosperous age

Chapter 219 Chapter 218 Night battle?

"Admiral Weng counts for this, so please ask Master Wei to order it, and the Xuan Mansion will follow the master's plan."

It has been calculated, and Liu Dazhang also recognized it, just fight, and now it seems that there is still a chance of winning.

Liu Dazhang thinks so, Wei Guangde is naturally relieved in his heart, it is best not to question, after all he has never received any order from Weng Pu, where did the plan come from.

It is said that civil servants in the Song Dynasty had to arrange battle plans in advance every time they fought, including the formation of troops.

The Ming Dynasty is now in peace, and it has also begun to suppress military generals, but it has not completely deprived military generals of some autonomy.

As for the battle plan, Wei Guangde had discussed it with Ma Fang and Dong Yiyuan during the rest on the way here.

Whether to fight or not is up to Wei Guangde to decide, but when it comes to how to fight, he still knows that he should listen more to veterans like Ma Fang who have battlefield experience.

Industry specializing in surgery.

Only Ma Fang has the right to speak about the war. Dong Yiyuan himself does not have much battlefield experience, so he can only make soy sauce on the side, check for omissions and fill in the gaps, and learn from war experience.

Ma Fang's plan is perfect, Wei Guangde thinks so.

Let him lead an army to directly attack Alta Khan's camp and attack Alta Khan's headquarters. Even if he cannot be caught, he must be forced to retreat.

Another army carried out a feint attack on Wanhu of the Alta Department to contain the opponent and prevent them from organizing a team to rescue the Alta Khan camp.

It can be said that the key to this plan is that Ma Fang led the team to break into Altan Khan's camp, and use a sufficiently powerful assault to destroy the defense force of the Royal Guards.

Whether it was intentional or unintentional, Wei Guangde felt that Ma Fang's suggestion seemed to have intentionally left a loophole.

Wei Guangde has no battlefield experience. Although he participated in a battle once, it was done by following others, and did not involve the level of command.

The loophole left by Ma Fang is to block the connection between the Altan Khan camp and the Wanhu camp, at least in Wei Guangde's opinion.

The Mongols who entered the customs were all cavalry, they had enough horses to ride, so once Wanhu gave up counterattacking the attack of the Ming army, but sent an elite cavalry to rescue the camp of Altan Khan, Ma Fang’s army would be in a situation where the enemy was on the back. .

After Wei Guangde proposed it, Ma Fang seemed to suddenly understand and proposed a remedial measure, that is, a team of cavalry led by Liu Huan was deployed between the two camps of the Alta Department to intercept the rescue of the Alta Khan camp by the Alta Department.

According to Ma Fang's understanding of the Alta tribe, the Mongols are not good at camping, and their camps are generally very loose.

Although the Mongols were constantly at war with other countries and learned a lot in the process of continuous conquest, but because of the Mongols’ habit of swimming, their camps were rarely raided by the enemy, because their whereabouts were uncertain and it was difficult to determine Location.

And at the foot of Baoanzhou City, Ma Fang used the opportunity of going out on patrol to observe the camp of the Alta tribe. There is a Tartar camp more than ten miles away from the city. It should be the camp of ten thousand households next to Alta Khan. There is another camp a few miles behind the camp, which is Altan Khan's big tent, and the army deployed here is also the royal court guards of Altan Khan's cronies.

When they arrived at the city of the Ming army, they still set up camp like this, which actually showed the extreme contempt of the Ming army by the current Alta Ministry.

The Ming army hadn't taken the initiative to attack the Mongols for a long time, and they usually stationed on the side walls and waited for them to attack.

But it was precisely because of this that Ma Fang came up with the idea of ​​raiding Altan Khan's camp.

After all, if the big camps of the Alta Ministry were all together, Ma Fang's more than a thousand people might not be able to rush to the vicinity of the royal court before they would be blocked by the awakened Mongols.

The morale of the whole army in the Alda Department is very high. They have already regarded Xuan Mansion as their next ranch, and they don't think that the Ming army is capable of defeating them.

Perhaps, only the high-level leaders of Mongolia know that the threat of the Ming army is still real.

At least in the past 100 years ago, the Ming army went deep into the desert to attack them several times, but the leaders would not tell the people below that they needed the warriors under them to maintain high fighting spirit.

Wei Guangde already knew the details of the troops of the Xuanfu Army in Baoan Prefecture through Ma Fang, but at this time he did not directly state the battle plan they had agreed upon before, but asked Liu Dazhang very gently about the strength of the Ming Army Happening.

"My Xuanfu army transferred to Baoan Prefecture this time with a total of 7000 horse infantry, including about 5000 cavalry."

Regarding Wei Guangde's inquiry, Liu Dazhang did not play a blind eye.

Although the mobilization of the Xuanfu army has been reported before, it was a long time ago after all, and there are also variables in the actual mobilization. The plan is to mobilize 2000 people, but the actual number is only 7000. say clearly.

"Have you scouted how many people are there in the camp of the Alta Ministry, and how many people are there in the camp of the Alta Khan? Also, how many elite soldiers are there?"

Wei Guangde continued to ask, Ma Fang had given an estimate before, and Wei Guangde wanted to confirm it from Liu Dazhang.

"The Alda Department used to have about 3000 troops under the city, that is, [-] cavalry, including [-] elite soldiers."

Speaking of this, Liu Dazhang paused for a moment before continuing: "After my lord's plan, I Dahan transferred about 4000 troops to the south to Huailai County twice. At present, there should be about 6000 people in the camp, and the elite should only transfer 1000 people." People, there are still one or two thousand.

As for the situation in the Altan Khan camp, our scouts had estimated that the number of people was about 3000 to [-], and they were all elites. "

Hearing Liu Dazhang's words, Wei Guangde knew that Ma Fang's news was not false.

Although the combat power of the Ming army has weakened, the scouts' investigative capabilities have not declined, and their basic professional qualities are still there.

"To capture the thief and capture the king, Mr. Liu should know exactly what to do to make the most of this battle."

Wei Guangde said with a smile.

"Your Excellency, you mean that you want to attack Alta Khan's camp?"

Hearing Wei Guangde's "capturing the thief and capturing the king", Liu Dazhang naturally understood what he meant. If he could capture Al Dahan or kill him, he would definitely be favored by Emperor Jiajing, and he would be able to rise to the top of the world just around the corner.

"But."

Excitement appeared on Liu Dazhang's face for a short time, and then it quickly dissipated, "If our army besieges Altan Khan's camp, once the six thousand Tartars rush out, it will be difficult for us to stop them in the wild."

Yes, since he regards Altan Khan as his prey, he naturally wants to encircle him on all sides to prevent him from going away. He knows how many troops he can dispatch, but it is not enough.

Stopping 6000 people from the Alta Department is still a field battle. It will definitely not work if tens of thousands of people are not prepared. How many people are left can attack the Alta Khan camp.

As for the use of sneak attack tactics at night, it is actually the least advisable in this era. For some reasons, the proportion of night blindness in the army is very high, but this is not the main reason. It will be very troublesome, and it can even be said that once the night battle is used, it is basically a random fight.

Fighting during the day can be commanded through flags, drums, etc. At worst, sending a messenger can quickly find the person he is looking for to convey orders based on the flag, which is impossible at night.

It doesn't matter whether you win or lose. At this time, Weng Pu and Wei Guangde are responsible. Although Liu Dazhang is also responsible, it is not a big deal after all. As long as you stick to Wei Guangde's method, he will be the one who will suffer in the end. Although he will be implicated, but Responsibility is not great.

So after Wei Guangde said that he would fight I Da Khan, Liu Dazhang naturally thought of besieging from all sides, but he had insufficient troops, so he had to bring this up, otherwise he would be incompetent as the general soldier.

Execute the order, but don't you even have a basic judgment?
Wei Guangde also quickly realized after being confused for a short time. Liu Dazhang probably thought that he wanted to capture Aldakhan alive, or fight in broad daylight, or at least take advantage of the cover of night to surround the Aldakhan camp. .

how is this possible
Wei Guangde shook his head, "The goal is that I am right, catching him and killing him is a great feat, but it is not so easy. The primary goal is to take advantage of the unprepared and arrogant indulgence Hit him by surprise.

The cavalry was divided into two teams. One team was led by Liu Huan and deployed between the two camps of the Tartars to stop the Tartar cavalry from supporting Altan Khan. "

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde paused, and looked at a burly general in the hall, he seemed to be a strong general capable of fighting tough battles, at least stronger than Ma Fang.

Liu Huan and Wei Guangde heard that Dong Yiyuan and Ma Fang had mentioned him, so they naturally paid attention to this person before entering the city.

Wei Guangde doesn't think that the infantry's attack alone can delay the rescue of Alta Khan's camp. There will definitely be cavalry rushing out to rescue. At this time, it is time for this fierce general to stop the reinforcements. Troops cannot.

"Liu Zongbing, you and I lead [-] infantry to attack the camp of Alta Khan, try to hold them back, and prevent them from sending more men to support Alta Khan's side, as for Alta Khan."

Wei Guangde looked at Ma Fang at this point, "The guerrilla Ma Fang led a night attack to attack Alta Khan's camp. It would be best if he could be caught, but if he couldn't be caught, he would be killed. The last thing is to drive Alta Khan away. , Drive out of the Great Wall.

As soon as I Da Khan ran away, the rest of the Al Da tribe naturally had no leader, and retreating was their only choice. "

Hearing Wei Guangde's words, Liu Dazhang frowned.

Night attack.
"Your Excellency, what you mean is that 2000 people are left to guard Bao'an Prefecture, and the rest of the troops are dispatched to fight at night or in the field."

Liu Dazhang was really a little worried at this time. In fact, the Ming army and the Tartars fought in the open field.

Ma Fang reported several victories, but the gains were not great, because his opponents were not very strong.

He's not stupid, and he can't do the thing of hitting a stone with a pebble.

But even so, Ma Fang became one of the few generals in Xuanfu who dared to take the initiative to fight.

At this time, Liu Dazhang suddenly had a strange feeling in his heart, why the battle plan that Wei Guangde said was very similar to what Ma Fang said in front of him.

By this time, a trace of doubt finally arose in his heart.

I didn't doubt it before, that's because, as Wei Guangde said, he has sent official documents to urge the war many times.

With Dong Yiyuan around, Liu Dazhang would not doubt the authenticity of Wei Guangde's identity.

It's just such a coincidence that Mr. Weng Puweng knew the situation here at Juyongguan. It seems that he didn't report in detail about the camping situation of the Ida Ministry.

Thinking of Ma Fang, Liu Dazhang began to suspect that it was Ma Fang who was trying to win a fight with him, so he ran to Huailai County and saw Wei Guangde, a young man, and fooled him into living with this little guy who didn't know the heights of the world and was eager to make contributions.

It is indeed a great contribution to capture I Dahan alive, but it must be able to get it.

Liu Dazhang didn't really believe it was Weng Pu's plan, but he couldn't find a reason to refute it.

Fighting at night, this is fatal. Once the fight starts, it is possible to completely lose control of the Xuanfu army.

Thinking of this, Liu Dazhang thought that Wei Guangde didn't know the troubles of night battles, so he quickly approached Wei Guangde and whispered all the difficulties he would encounter in night battles, especially the difficulty of effectively commanding his subordinates after the war started.

Vice Commander Tian Shiwei was also intimidated by Wei Guangde's night battle plan at the moment. He is also a traditional officer. In fact, normal soldiers would not like the option of night battle.

At the beginning, Wei Guangde didn't consider the trouble of fighting at night. Under the influence of later generations, Wei Guangde always thought that fighting at night was a good way to attack the enemy.

Back then at Xifengkou, the 29th Army used sneak attacks at night to recapture the positions lost during the day many times, and also achieved the prestige of the Broadsword Team, so much so that in modern times, many people still think that the Broadsword is more powerful than the bayonet.

During the Korean War, the Volunteers also used night battles to win many times.

Well, anyway, Wei Guangde at this time did not realize that the night battle is actually a double-edged sword, hurting others and himself.

Especially when Liu Dazhang mentioned that "Once our department retreats, the other departments will continue to rush in without knowing it, and it is easy to suffer a disastrous defeat." Only then did Wei Guangde realize that night battles seem to be really not advisable.

Night attack, if it's a small group of elites, it's fine.

But the tactical purpose used is mainly to harass, not to defeat.

What he has to do now is to defeat the Alda Department, and the harassment of a small group of troops is obviously ineffective.

Just as Wei Guangde wanted to ask Liu Dazhang for his opinion, and wanted to hear what he had to say, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

If this person has the idea to go to war, he has already taken action. If he asks his opinion, I am afraid that he will only be told, "Let me think about it carefully", and then it will be delayed until the rations are exhausted or the Datong army arrives. .

Today, the battle plan must be finalized. Whether it is tonight or tomorrow morning, it must be finalized and cannot be changed.

Wei Guangde didn't know that Liu Dazhang had doubts, but he had a bad feeling in his heart.

The generals in the hall are also a little commotion at the moment. Everyone doesn't like night battles very much, so watching the three people in the hall discussing here, the people below are also talking together in twos and threes.

At this time, Ma Fang was the only one who was anxious. He was the one who proposed the night battle raid.

At first, what he considered was just to take his own troops to attack the Altan Khan camp and harass him.

It was only later that I thought that this might turn the tide of the battle, but the premise was that the troops in the Alda camp must be restrained and not let it send reinforcements to make myself suffer from the enemy.

At that time, the conditions were not met, and the basic quality let him know that the Ming army in Bao'an Prefecture was not strong enough to complete the above-mentioned arrangement, so naturally he stopped thinking about it in the end. It was not until he heard Wei Guangde's thoughts that he felt that it seemed like this The plan had a chance to be reborn.

(End of this chapter)