stubborn thief

One after another caught fire, fleeting in the night sky.

The fierce firelight briefly illuminated the plain, reflecting the horse teams chasing and fighting.

To the south of the battlefield, Cao Wen ordered the four battalions to cross the Wei River in full formation, and the fire dragons holding torches high in the four directions marched towards Hebei.

He has no hidden tracks at all.

Although his troops are as strong as ten thousand men, if he deliberately conceals himself, he can still rush to the battlefield with a small movement.

However, the speed of the march would inevitably be delayed. After weighing the two aspects, Cao Wenzhao believed that since the location of Liu Chengzong's camp had been found and the night attack was successful, the most important victory condition at this time was the superiority of troops and speed.

But he didn't know that his younger brother Cao Wenyao, who was running away with his troops, almost cried when he saw the fire dragon coming from afar.

Why did you come so fast!

"Quick, tell Commander Cao that the night attack failed!"

The night attack by two thousand elites on Liu Chengzong's camp was completely defeated.

Sudden attacks from three directions can be said to have defeated the Marshal's army at the first moment of contact.

After all, the advantage brought by the surprise attack was too great. Two to three hundred elite cavalry roared in and almost instantly overwhelmed the four to five hundred marshal's troops who were resting in the small camp. They lost their organization and were beaten directly into skirmishers.

But Cao Wenyao didn't come here to do this.

A defeat battle consists of two battle processes.

The first is to defeat, and the second is to pursue. The former needs to break up the establishment, and the latter is responsible for expanding the results.

In other words, in the process of defeat, it is not necessary to kill people. As long as the enemy loses their fighting spirit and morale, the enemy will collapse and our army will occupy the battlefield.

But whether the enemy can lose its combat effectiveness depends on the outcome of the pursuit.

If they can't continue to pursue and expand the victory, then it is very likely that a thousand troops will be defeated. After half an hour, they will regroup and still have to face a thousand troops.

The problem Cao Wenyao needs to face is that they did defeat the three small battalions of the Marshal's Army from three directions, but they were unable to enter the pursuit state after the victory.

Because people are not afraid or panicked.

The army did lose command for a short period of time, but the soldiers did not collapse or lose morale. Instead, they held on to their car bases.

On the other hand, the dispersed marshal's army did not escape. They fought back if they could. If they couldn't, they hid in the car barriers and fought. If they couldn't fight, they lay on the ground and pretended to be dead.

In short, refuse to withdraw from the battlefield.

If they don't withdraw from the battlefield, Cao Wenyao will have no choice but to withdraw from the battlefield, otherwise he will be dragged into positional warfare.

In fact, Cao Wenyao did not dare to enter the positional battle. After all, the reinforcements from the nearby marshal's army quickly surrounded him from the left and right. With a little hesitation, even the armored cavalry from the camp rushed out.

How could this be considered a night attack?

Since the attack had failed, Cao Wenyao could not force his two thousand elite troops to head-on into the more than ten thousand enemy soldiers, and could only call on the troops on three sides to retreat.

The southern edge of the camp of the Marshal's Army was only seven or eight miles away from the south bank of the Wei River. As soon as Cao Wenyao gathered his elite cavalry, Cao Wenzhao led his army across the Wei River and rushed towards this direction with torches.

Cao Wenyao is almost panicking. Why don't you get beaten when you come here?

It's really not.

When Cao Wenzhao ran halfway, he noticed that something was wrong with the situation on the distant battlefield. He quickly reined in his horse and positioned his army three miles away from the marshal's camp.

Because the marshal's army camp was attacked at night, but no soldiers fled south, not a single one. This is definitely not what a successful night attack looks like!

Moreover, they could still hear some sounds of fighting on the south bank of the Wei River earlier, but now that they had crossed the Wei River, the shouts of killing in the enemy camp had stopped, and they could only see the camp being brightly lit by fire.

The night attack must have failed, no need to think about it.

Cao Wenzhao now doubted whether his younger brother Cao Wenyao had died in the night attack.

To advance or to retreat, that is obviously a question.

Cao Wenzhao did not take too long to make a decision. After all, the army came over at open fire. He was very aware of the movements of his own army. It was already known to the marshal's army, and it was difficult for the entire army to retreat.

Therefore, he could only quickly adjust his deployment. The Shenguangxian camp was in the front, and the Buyingdi camp, which was attacked during the night attack, was in the back. He used the Chinese cavalry to cover the two wings, and then slowly pressed forward, carefully exploring the darkness. battlefield conditions.

But...they didn't look at the butt.

After the Ningxia army crossed the river in a mighty manner, Baoji City behind them opened its gates again.

Luo Rucai, who was surrounded in the city, almost laughed like crazy.

He had no experience in defending the city before. Even if he tore through the city defense booklet Liu Shishi was given, he still didn't understand many things he should understand.

For example, if you open a city gate to defend a city, it would be difficult for people who have never defended or attacked a city to understand the purpose of doing so.

But it's different now. Just the opening and closing of the city gate can make Luo Rucai have fun.

His Baoji City has four gates. One gate will be opened after a while. When the west gate is closed, the east gate will be opened. When the east gate is closed, the north gate will be opened. Anyway, one of the city gates is always open.

The besieging army did not dare to come in because they would be beaten if they entered. The outer gate was open, but the urn gate was closed inside.

The enemy troops come in through the gate, release 200 or [-] people, the gate tower on the city gate falls down, and guns are fired from all sides on the wall of the urn. The troops who enter the urn will be killed.

It would be better if the enemy troops did not enter through the gate, which would make it easier for our defenders to leave the city.

The gates of the urn are built so that they are not in line with the outer gate. For example, the west gate. If the inner gate faces west, then the outer gate must open to the south or north. You can't see whether the inner gate is open or closed from the outside.

This is the situation in Waiweng City.

If it is an inner urn city, it should be reversed. The outer gate of the west wall opens to the west. If the urn city is inside, the inner gate should open to the south or north.

There is no need for Moon City, and the situation of the inner gate cannot be seen from the outside.

The outer gate was always open, and once the inner gate was opened, the defenders could leave the city at any time.

The Ningxia army in the west mobilized and deployed, and Luo Ru in the city could see clearly. He originally wanted to scare them again.

Seeing the Ningxia army breaking out of camp and making preparations to cross the river, Luo Rucai ordered a group of troops and went to the north of the city to prepare for leaving the city without waiting for the friendly troops to convey the message to him.

This time it was not Li Rugui who led the troops.

On the one hand, Li Rugui's troops stayed up all night and experienced several battles. Their manpower and horsepower were extremely exhausted and they were not suitable for another battle.

On the other hand, there was a successful case of Li Rugui killing two generals at night. The officers under Luo Rucai thought that the Ningxia Ming army was easy to deal with, and they all actively requested a battle.

The situation is completely different from the way Li Rugui was preparing to die when he went to war.

The general leading the army this time was Luo Rucai's cousin-in-law Wang Guocai.

The kingdom had married Rodan's niece long before the drought came.

Later, when Luo Rucai rebelled, he did not participate. He did not join Luo Rucai until he could no longer survive, became a fire chief, and followed him to Qinghai. He was also very effective during the counterinsurgency campaign in Kangning. He was promoted two levels in a row and became the commander-in-chief of the brigade. Later, he wanted to repay his merits and became the commander-in-chief, but was suppressed by Luo Rucai.

Therefore, I have always been very resentful.

Luo Rucai is not a wise man who favors virtuous people and avoids relatives.

The main reason is that this cousin-in-law is disobedient.

The place he found for Wang Guocai was to work as a township official in Haixi County where Liu Guoneng was the magistrate, and to get a piece of land to raise horses and cattle.

When the time comes, he and his cousin will have more babies and raise more babies in Xining. They don’t expect to be rich, but they will need money and land. They will live a comfortable life. When uncle Luo Dane gets old, there will be someone to help him. Retirement.

Luo Rucai went to this place just for the sake of his nephew Wang Long. He was very kind to his ten-year-old nephew and had already sent him to Xining Academy to study and practice martial arts.

But Luo Rucai didn't think much of this cousin-in-law, and even thought he was in the way.

Relatives help people in stages. When Luo Ru first started to grab a big family, multiple relatives came to hug each other for warmth, which was a real help.

The other is that the family background is relatively good, and the in-law relationships are more or less capable people, so the power of relatives is naturally also very important.

But after Luo Rucai's rebellion came to fruition, relatives like Guo Rucai... were completely a hindrance.

In terms of ability, you are not outstanding; in terms of friendship, when the uprising needs people the most, you would rather die in the cave and work for the master's family to raise sheep than come and help me move the ladder to rob the big family.

When I'm done and I lead my horse into stirrups for Liu Chengzong, the leading leader in northern Shaanxi, you come over and join me.

Luo Rucai thought, you might as well die in famine while I marry my cousin to someone else.

You bitch is occupying my cousin. If you can't handle big things or small things, I have to work hard to train you and give you a promotion.

If you violate military law and get into trouble, I have to step in to protect you; if you die on the battlefield, your family will have to blame me for not protecting you.

It's enough to be the CEO. If you were promoted to the CEO, then you would have to hang around in front of my eyes. How annoying!

Of course, relatives are often more believable than ordinary people.

But Luo Rucai has always been generous to his subordinates and is a very popular general. There is no shortage of more than 3000 people under his command who are willing to fight for him.

The same promotion opportunity was given to an outsider like Li Rugui, and he was grateful. Faced with the task of attacking an opponent who didn't know his strength and almost dying, he rushed up to him after asking for a bowl of wine.

If I give it to you, you will still feel that it is due because of your relationship with your cousin-in-law.

But thinking about it, Luo Rucai still had to favor him when considering this, which had proven to be an easy opportunity to make meritorious deeds.

After all, uncle Luo Dain was there to persuade him and persuade him to give him a chance, so Luo Rucai couldn't help but keep disobeying him.

Besides, he had no intention of being disobedient. He stood on the city gate tower and looked at Wang Guocai leading four hundred horses out of the city and chasing the Ningxia army across the river, with a look of complacency on his face.

Uncle Luo Dain warned at his side: "This battle may not be that easy. Don't underestimate the enemy."

"Ah? Uncle, don't worry. My nephew knows that there is Zuo Liangyu in the east." Luo Rucai smiled and was in a good mood. He clapped his hands and said, "I guess the kingdom just fought with the Ningxia army, so the friendly forces in the east should also The attack is on the left, we will fight out when the time comes."

Others only thought that he thought that this attack was very certain, but in fact Luo Caocao was already happy in his heart, and his calculations were clicking.

The reason why he agreed to Wang Guocai and gave him the opportunity to fight this time was not entirely because of his uncle Luo Dain's persuasion.

He had actually considered it in his mind and let Guo Cai lead the troops into battle. There was indeed no bad outcome.

It's not bad to win, but... wouldn't it be better to lose?

My brother-in-law died in the rebellion. This is the price we, General Luo, pay for serving the commander-in-chief.

I just asked the handsome man to act as a matchmaker and marry my sister to someone else.

There is no hope for the three brothers from the Generalissimo's family. General Luo is not handsome, and my sister is not born with the beauty and beauty of the country.

It would be best to marry Yang Chengzu, who is a close brother, but Yang Chengzu is also a general, and there is no shortage of women. However, the little lame Liu Guoneng and the one-handed Zhao Fucan can both be considered, and they can be regarded as helping each other.

If it really doesn’t work, we should take ten thousand steps back. We are worthy of the monk Gama from Nangqian Magistrate County who returned to secular life to beg his wife. At least we won’t have to worry about recruiting troops in Kangning Prefecture in the future; even though the Taijis in the Tunmu Camp are all Tatars. , each of them is also an earl or baron of the Marshal's Mansion, which is not an insult.

No matter how you look at it, at least you won't cause trouble to yourself.

All good things!
Guo Guo is not a fool. Even a blind man can tell that his uncle doesn't want to see him.

On the contrary, he is actually very smart and makes the safest choices with low risk and low return.

Back then, Luo Rucai was a bachelor, fearless of heaven and earth. When there was a drought, he gathered a group of friends and brothers to rob big households and attack Tuwei.

The people in his kingdom really have a lot of strength, and he would rather stop the sheep of a big family to eat, rather than follow them and fight for their lives.

If you fight to the death, what will you do with your wife and children?
Of the dozen or so people who followed Luo Rucai to fight for their lives in the beginning, weren't the only ones left who were his uncle Luo Dayen and brother Yang Chengzu?

Later, when he couldn't find anything to eat, he went to live with his uncle, just so that the family could survive.

It’s true that you won’t get rich by doing low-risk things all the time, but you can get through it slowly, and it doesn’t matter if you can’t get through it. How many people have tried their best but haven’t gotten rich yet.

Just as he led his army across the river, there was no gust of wind rushing up to bite Cao Wenzhao in the butt.

He led four brigades of cavalry and slowly followed the Ningxia army. When he saw the Ming army stationed in the distance, he quickly stopped.

It was not until the Ming army adjusted their formation and slowly advanced that he continued to give orders to follow.

He did not dare to be like Li Rugui, who disguised himself as Zuo Liangyu and attacked and killed the general. Moreover, the Ming army would not give him a chance to attack and kill the general as the army was marching.

He is waiting for a suitable and safe opportunity.

The opportunity will come soon!
In the east of the south bank of the Wei River, Zhang Xianzhong, who had been in confrontation for a long time, received Liu Chengzong's order and launched another attack on the Yunnan soldiers.

Cao Wenzhao had also discovered that south of Liu Chengzong's camp, the army was in strict formation, and the soldiers and horses were gathered behind the chariots, just waiting for them to attack.

But as soon as the gunfire sounded on the south bank, Cao Wenzhao could only strengthen his confidence and ordered his troops to move forward and fight a head-on night battle with the marshal's army.

But he didn't expect that Liu Chengzong assigned all the cannons to Gao Yingdeng's camp in the south, and the general operating the artillery under Gao Yingdeng was named Tang Tong.

Shen Guangxian showed that the soldiers and horses of the battalion had just formed a battle formation, pushing three Franco-style general cannons into the firing range. Just as they were about to order the cannons to be held down and fired, they heard two bangs from the military formation in the distance.

The two solid iron bullets crossed the one-mile range and landed not far from their military formation.

Shen Guangxian did not see the shell, but the experienced general's ear was very good, and he knew it was a large-caliber heavy artillery, and it was a non-France type heavy artillery.

The reloading time of this heavy artillery is extremely long, which is enough for them to rush into the formation and break camp.

When he saw this situation, he immediately cheered: "The enemy has fired their cannons, hurry up, the cavalry will hit the formation, and the infantry will follow up, don't give them a chance to reload!"

On the other side of the military formation, in front of the marshal's military formation lined with soldiers, Tang Tong, who was wearing a red shirt with bare shoulders, looked indifferent.

He stuffed a strip of horse meat into his mouth and chewed it for a while. Hearing the sound of horse hooves not far away, he chuckled disdainfully: "That's it?"

He turned to look at the generals Wailiangzi and Li Baliang on the side, and ordered: "Send the artillery troops, the enemy's cavalry is close to a hundred steps, and shoot out all the cannons loaded with loose ammunition!" (End of Chapter)