Daming kill

Chapter 213
In the early morning, a small-scale direct conflict occurred between Li Ping's second company of cavalry stationed in Qizhou and Zhang Xianzhong's sentry cavalry. Twelve people including Liu Ming, the commander of the fourth battalion, were killed, and their horses were also lost at the same time. Only two people fled back.

fiasco!Huge fiasco.

Shocked, Li Ping hurried back to Fuchi Town with an almost livid face, followed by Song Baolai worriedly.

He was also eager to know the details of the bad news?

This was the first confrontation with Zhang Xianzhong's troops since they captured Qizhou. It was already very heart-wrenching, but this was the result.

"What's the situation? Why did the cavalry company work as a reconnaissance company? And Liu Ming, why did he go to the cavalry unit?" Li Ping shouted and asked as soon as he entered the staff office.

The staff office, which was buzzing, fell silent in an instant.

In the silence, Wu Dong, the chief of the combat training section, rushed forward and explained: "The battle site is on the edge of the mountainous area on the other side of the Chidong Lake in the north of Qizhou City, only [-] miles away from Qizhou City. Originally, it was just passing through there for field training, and Battalion Commander Liu followed him for experiential training, and he didn't expect to encounter the enemy, especially early in the morning."

As Wu Dong spoke, he led Li Ping to the wall where the big map was hung, and his finger quickly pointed to an irregular circle newly drawn with a red pencil on the map.

That's where the fighting takes place.

Pencils had already been produced by Song Baolai when they were in Xiangyang, and the security camp had a strong demand for them in production, but they were not yet mature at that time.

After arriving in Fuchi, Song Baolai finally solved all the technical obstacles in pencil manufacturing, and immediately became the most important tool for staff work.

Wu Dong's words made Li Ping a little dazed, and when he stood in front of the map, his eyes tightened even more. He asked in confusion, "When did the enemy come out so close? Besides, if you see the enemy's elite scouts and run away, fourteen people won't be able to escape." Just run back two!"

There is not only one red circle on the map, but many, each representing a location where Zhang Xianzhong's reconnaissance cavalry is frequently active or a new location.

Since the end of April, these red circles began to increase suddenly and crossed the Xishui River in the east of Huangzhou Fucheng to the Qihe River in the west of Qizhou, but did not cross the river again.

Li Ping's reconnaissance company also stopped its reconnaissance activities westward across the Qi River.

Both sides are very careful to deliberately avoid direct conflict.

As for the vicinity of Guangji County in the northeast of Qizhou, there is no red circle, but only a shallow red line close to the county, where the enemies are always huddled in the city.

Therefore, the new red circle in the cleanness of Chidong Hubei becomes extremely eye-catching and dazzling.

"Are our cavalry so weak?" Song Baolai asked uneasily after scanning the map twice.

Although Song Baolai knew that the cavalry on their side was not strong and there were many novices, but Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry did not give him a good feeling.

Zhang Xianzhong also had cavalry in Qizhou at the beginning, but he didn't seem to cause them any trouble during the battle, and he didn't hear anyone mention it in particular.

In other words, it is not strong enough!
But this time the battle took place very close to Qizhou, and they were defeated by Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry. This not only revealed that their cavalry seemed a little weak, but also reflected that Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry didn't seem to take them too seriously. Seriously!

Perhaps Zhang Xianzhong's troops had already grasped the truth and reality of Li Ping's troops because of the cautious probing before.

Although the reconnaissance company has strict training and strong combat capabilities, its biggest shortcomings are riding and archery.

As for riding skills, real veterans can often judge that they are almost inseparable as long as they look from a distance and listen to the sound.

But these two skills require years of accumulation and honing. Except for a few individuals, most officers and soldiers of the reconnaissance company who have seldom ridden horses and practiced archery before can never reach or approach the level of veterans in a short period of time.

As for the cavalry battalion established later, it was even weaker.

Wu Dong glanced at Li Ping, who was still staring at the map in a daze, and said bitterly, "Battalion Commander Liu and the others fell into a trap."

"Caught in a trap?"

Li Ping abruptly withdrew his gaze from the map, and looked at Wu Dong in horror.

Wu Dong said with an even more distressed expression: "In the beginning, only five enemies were found, and these five enemies didn't seem to have discovered the squad of the Second Company, so Battalion Commander Liu wanted to attack them secretly. As a fighter, he has some confidence in himself, and fights more and less, so he decides. But I didn't expect that these five enemies are actually bait."

Li Ping's heart was suddenly filled with anger, and his voice was a little gritted: "That is to say, we took the initiative to attack? And we didn't do a careful reconnaissance before the attack!"

Wu Dong lowered his head subconsciously, and said bravely, "Yes. According to the brothers who escaped, the time from the discovery of the enemy to the start of the attack was not long, and there was no more supplementary reconnaissance. It was indeed a bit hasty."

"This Liu Ming!" Li Ping's tone became even more dissatisfied.

But Wu Dong raised his head at this moment and said: "Actually, you can't blame Battalion Commander Liu for his eagerness to make contributions. He doesn't want to show weakness if the enemy dares to get so close. Moreover, the hasty attack is mainly because he is worried that the enemy won't stay for long and lose his opportunity. I'm also afraid that too much reconnaissance will scare the enemy away."

Li Ping stared blankly at Wu Dong, and his tone began to slow down, "How many enemies are there?"

"The incident happened suddenly. I don't know the details. The two brothers only saw about a dozen enemies in total. I don't know if there are any in the dark."

"Fuck!"

Li Ping couldn't help but swear, and then immediately continued to ask: "Is anyone captured?"

"It cannot be ruled out, but Battalion Commander Liu is definitely dead after being shot through the neck."

Li Ping's facial features were twisted together unconsciously, but he immediately said in a hurry: "Hurry up and tell Ma Yong and Zhou Wen, and order them to immediately shrink their troops and not retaliate."

"The chief of staff has issued an order in this regard. The Second Cavalry Company and all our troops outside Qizhou have retreated. Only the reconnaissance company has organized two teams to carry out cautious reconnaissance, and they are only in open areas." Wu Dong replied.

"That's good, that's good." Li Ping finally felt relieved.

But Wu Dong hesitated at this moment and said: "It is necessary to bring back the troops, but I think we should further increase the reconnaissance. We have many issues that need to be clarified, such as whether the enemy is fully suppressed? This Don't be afraid of casualties."

Li Ping was taken aback for another moment, then looked at Wu Dong appreciatively and nodded, "That's very reasonable. Go and inform the deputy battalion commander of the cavalry battalion, Zhang Qing, to go to Qizhou. We need to strengthen the reconnaissance force and find out the situation as soon as possible."

……

After listening to a more detailed report on the situation and watching Li Ping issue a few more orders about reducing training and increasing alert and combat readiness, Song Baolai left in a hurry after saying "I'm going to get hand guns now".

All the staff members in the staff office looked at Li Ping in astonishment.

But Li Ping was not in the mood to explain to them, his heart was very heavy.

No matter what the circumstances, this accidental conflict undoubtedly caused a huge loss, especially the loss of a battalion commander, which is even more unacceptable.

He knew that the blow to the morale of the entire army would not be ordinary.

Although Liu Ming has always been a person with a low sense of presence, his shooting skills are actually very average.

But after all, he was the captain of the 3rd Team 9th Team (Bow and Archer Team) when Li Ping was appointed as General Manager.

Maybe it was these identities that killed him.

Seeing that all the comrades in important positions have more or less made a lot of contributions, but he is only relying on his seniority.

He can't be without ideas.

Probably it was this thought, and Ma Lan's successful example of attacking Li Zicheng's reconnaissance cavalry to the west of Shenhu, and the fact that the enemy was outnumbered this time, it might have made Liu Ming relax his vigilance, and did not carry out serious reconnaissance. Take a hasty decision to take a risk.

But in his impatience, he obviously ignored that the enemy dared to get so close, he must rely on something, let alone give it in vain.

The magnitude of the loss is heart-wrenching, but the message it reveals is even more heart-wrenching.

A dozen or so enemies dare to ambush an opponent of the same strength, and it is still very close to the opponent's strong city.

Even these people should have sneaked in silently last night.

Zhang Xianzhong's reconnaissance cavalry is not only not generally strong, but also shows that the enemy is showing a strong offensive posture.

In this regard, Wu Dong and the staff of the training unit roughly expressed the same concern.

Doing this stuff every day is the most sensitive to these situations.

Sure enough, in the next two days, Zhang Xianzhong's scouts began to appear widely in the north of Qizhou.At the same time, the naval battalion that rushed into the Qihe River to guard and assist in the defense also found a large number of Zhang Xianzhong's infantry coming from the west and stationed near the Qihe River, with a strength of at least tens of thousands.

For a while, the wind was jittery.

Although the reconnaissance company also took some actions, and even had five direct encounters with the opponent's sentry within two days, it failed to contain the opponent's further pressing.

Moreover, due to the overall loss during the fight, Zhang Xianzhong's reconnaissance cavalry became more arrogant and unscrupulous, and even a cavalry squad boldly appeared directly in the sight of the Fuganguan defenders.

In the end, except that the enemy's reconnaissance cavalry crossed the upper reaches of the Qi River, the reconnaissance company failed to obtain more effective information.

As a last resort, Li Ping could only make up his mind to order Zhang Qing, Ma Xiaotian and Yuan Ye, the precious cavalrymen of the former Liaodong frontier army, to bring a few officers and soldiers with the best riding skills to form a capable hunting team.

It is reluctant that the child cannot catch the wolf.

Li Ping urgently needs prisoners and needs to know the enemy's situation.

And Zhang Qing and others did not disappoint Li Ping, and their strong combination soon achieved great results.

In just two days, they annihilated two of Zhang Xianzhong's reconnaissance cavalry squads with only one person injured, captured three prisoners, and forced the enemy's reconnaissance activities to completely retreat to the north of Chidong Lake.

Through the interrogation of the captives, Li Ping finally figured out something.

The vast majority of Zhang Xianzhong's army, including Zhang Xianzhong himself, has reached Huangzhou City Mansion from the Macheng area, and conquered Luotian County in the Yinghuo Mountains, about 100 miles north of Huangzhou City Mansion.

And the [-]-strong infantry that was dispatched and approached the Qihe River was the vanguard.

At present, the reconnaissance and cavalry of Zhang Xianzhong's department, who carry out reconnaissance and oppression around Qizhou, are basically newly recruited in Macheng.

This explains why these reconnaissance cavalry are all very powerful and experienced, but it is difficult to parry Zhang Qing and others who were born in the Liaodong frontier army.

There is still a gap between cultivation on the northern border battlefield and cultivation in the inland rivers and lakes, and the gap is huge.

Li Ping was naturally shocked by the results of the interrogation.

Although there are still some strange things, Zhang Xianzhong's intentions are undoubtedly very obvious.

Qizhou has entered a state of full preparation for war.

Those newly built seven old-fashioned cast iron cannons, bronze cannons and 31 clay molded iron core copper cannons were all taken to Qizhou by Li Ping to strengthen their defense.

(End of this chapter)