The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 173: Just focus on the beginning and end, and make plans for the country!
Most of Xiao Yingxun's minions were mountain folk and refugees, and had not received much military training.

Because Xiao Yingxun didn't have much food in his hands and recruited many minions, he often didn't have enough to eat.

If you don’t have enough food, how can you have the strength to train?
That is to say, thinking that they could intercept Dabi's money and food this time, the Xiao family became generous and let the minions have enough to eat for two days.

Xiao Yingteng was able to train minions in the camp for this reason - on weekdays, ordinary minions only trained once every five days at most, spending most of their time farming and doing chores, which was inferior to the auxiliary soldiers in the official army.

In such a situation, even if there are more than 100 people, how can they cope with Li Dingguo's more than [-] elite cavalry charging into the camp?

Seeing that the fire spread rapidly to the point where it was difficult to extinguish due to the southeast wind, Xiao Yingteng stopped chasing it.

Although Xiao Yingxun took all the cavalry downstream to block the tail of the fleet, there were still more than a dozen cavalry left in the camp to deliver the message.

But facing Li Dingguo's more than a hundred elite cavalry, a dozen cavalry rushing forward would only result in a loss of lives.

Therefore, Xiao Yingteng no longer chased in vain. He just stared at the fire blankly and murmured: "It's over, it's all over..."

Xiao Yingxuan, on the other hand, sent people to the other side of the river to ask the officers and soldiers to intercept the enemy cavalry, and at the same time organized his minions to put out the fire and rescue supplies in the camp.

The official army camp on the west bank was arranged as if there were 4000 people stationed there, but in fact there were only [-] infantry and [-] cavalry.

There are only one thousand combat soldiers among the infantry in the camp, and the remaining one thousand are auxiliary soldiers.

It was led by Liu Guangzuo's general Zhao Desheng.

Seeing that the Xiao family's camp was inexplicably chaotic and a fire broke out, Zhao Desheng was confused for a moment.

They camped on the east and west banks of the river here. In order to communicate with each other, they got some boats and built pontoons upstream of the two camps to facilitate communication between the two sides.

But Zhao Desheng was a cautious person and lacked trust in the local bandits. He would not send troops there until he understood the situation clearly.

When Xiao Yingxuan sent someone to ask for support and explained the situation, Zhao Desheng and several of his officers and generals couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

"More than 100 riders messed up your camp like this?"

The Xiao clan members who came to report the news also felt ashamed and lowered their heads without speaking.

Zhao Desheng then said: "Damn it, Xiao Yingxun attracted 6000 or [-] people at once. I thought I could fight with them, but this is the result?"

The Xiao clan member who reported the news could only repeat: "Those more than a hundred riders must be Liu Thief spying on the horse. Please ask General Zhao Shen to send cavalry quickly to intercept them, so as not to let Liu Thief know what is true here!"

Zhao Desheng snorted and said: "Grandma, you don't need to think about it like that. I just sent all the hundreds of cavalry in the camp. Can I stop all the more than 100 thieves?"

Go back quickly and tell Xiao Yingteng to seize the time to rectify your men. Don't wait for Liu's fleet to come. It's still so chaotic that it won't have any effect.

If that's the case, your Xiao family can't even think of getting even half a percent this time! "

After hearing this, the Xiao clan members could only leave in despair.

···
When Li Dingguo saw that the fire was sweeping through the entire camp, he took more than a hundred cavalry who rushed to the camp and merged with dozens of cavalry cruising around the outside to retreat southward.

After running for six or seven miles, they saw the vanguard of the fleet.

This time, the fleet consisted of more than 300 large and small boats, basically carrying grain and grass.

The most valuable gold and silver jewelry were still in Xiangyang City, and were left by Liu Sheng to be transported at the end.

As for weapons, armor and other armaments, they have long been equipped to the standing army and civilian warriors.

The Tang River is not wide. Even in the flood season, the widest point is only more than 100 meters; the narrowest point, such as the place where the army and the Xiao family set up a river barricade, is only 40 meters.

Therefore, the fleet can only run parallel to four or five ships at most. When encountering a narrow place, it can only pass one by one.

As a result, more than 2000 large and small boats stretched on the Tang River for nearly [-] miles!
Although Liu Sheng sent seven standing military camps, plus [-] cavalry escorts, it was impossible to look after every ship.

Fortunately, the cargo carried this time was all grain and grass, which was not expensive.

The boatmen who rowed the boats and the trackers who pulled the fibers were all recruited from Xiangyang City and registered.He also gave them sufficient settlement allowance, and was not afraid of them risking their lives and escaping with food.

The boat was in the river, and the rebels only had to watch the bow and stern of the fleet; the boatmen and trackers could not row the boat to the shore.

As for individuals stealing food and running away - one person can only carry a few dozen kilograms of food at most, and he cannot run fast while carrying food on his back. If he is caught by the rebels, he will die.

What's more, Liu Sheng's settlement allowance for these peasants included five stones of grain and five taels of silver!
Dozens of kilograms of grain are nothing compared to this, and not worth the risk at all!

In order to protect the fleet, He Lianyue and other generals arranged two battalions of standing troops at the front of the fleet to accompany the fleet.

Two battalions of standing troops were also arranged in the middle of the fleet.

Three battalions of standing troops were arranged at the rear of the fleet.

Because the boat at the rear can be paddled directly, or it is easier to go down the river, it is most likely to cause an accident.

As for the [-] Cavalry Guards, Li Dingguo led two posts to explore northward along the river, and four posts patrolled back and forth on the east and west banks respectively.

The remaining two sentries were used as scouts, spreading out to the east and west to detect the enemy's situation.

In this way, even if some civilians colluded with outsiders and used horse-drawn carriages to steal grain and grass while the ship was stopping for a rest, they would be easily discovered and caught up by the knightly guards patrolling both sides of the strait.

As for the interception by the army.

Even if they are dispatched in sections and intercepted by multiple forces, they can only take away part of the food.

After Helianyue and others learned about it, they could send out the entire battalion or even more standing troops to defeat the enemy one by one.

Therefore, the method of intercepting and plundering in sections and multiple waves can pose a threat to the entire fleet only if there are tens of thousands of people.

But if there were tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, the enemy would definitely want to eat the entire fleet instead of just plundering a part.

Due to the above considerations, Liu Changhe, who was commanding the troops at the vanguard of the fleet, couldn't help but smile when he heard Li Dingguo's report and learned that the enemy had intercepted the enemy with iron cables across the river at Longtan Crossing.

"Hahaha, we have said before during our discussion that what we fear most is that the enemy will plunder the fleet in sections.

We do not have enough troops. If we encounter this situation, even if we defeat and drive away the enemy as quickly as possible, we will lose part of our food and grass.

Now the enemy is actually crossing the river with an iron rope upstream, obviously wanting to eat our entire fleet.

Their appetite is really big, but whether they can eat it depends on whether they have the strength! "

Li Dingguo also understood these situations, so he was also calm and relaxed at this time.

He said: "I saw that there seemed to be 6000 or [-] people stationed in the camp on the east bank, but the flags were uneven and the camp layout was chaotic, so I tested it with a hundred cavalry charging into the camp."

Liu Changhe, who had been smiling just now, couldn't help but be surprised when he heard these words, and couldn't help but interrupt: "What? Commander Li used a hundred cavalry to charge into the enemy camp of 6000 or [-] people?!"

Surprised, Liu Changhe couldn't help but look at the one or two hundred horsemen on the shore.

It was found that many people were indeed injured, obviously after a big battle.

But the number of people didn't seem to decrease much.

Li Dingguo smiled and said, "Vice-General Liu, please listen to what I have to say." "Okay, I'll tell you."

To be honest, Liu Changhe, Huang Gan and other rebel generals who were trained and promoted from humble beginnings by Liu Sheng were actually quite repulsive towards Li Dingguo. Some of them were even wary of Li Dingguo and even harbored hostility.

For one thing, they looked down on rogue troops like Zhang Xianzhong.

Zhang Xianzhong regarded himself as a senior anti-Ming leader, but he did not know that most of the rebel generals in the Kuei tribe thought this way: in less than a year after following Liu Sheng's uprising, they could seize half of Runing; Zhang Xianzhong and other rogue bandits had been in uprising for more than ten years, but they were still suppressed by the army. Chased and fled in all directions.

Such a comparison shows that their rebels are much stronger than the rogue bandits!
Secondly, before they left, they already knew that Zhang Xianzhong intended to capture Xiangyang and showed hostility to the Yi tribe rebels.

Third, they found it difficult to understand that Liu Sheng exchanged 10 shi of grain, 100 taels of silver, and [-] weapons for Li Dingguo and his more than [-] followers.

In their view, although Li Dingguo was an important general in Zhang Xianzhong's department, he was not worthy of Liu Sheng's actions.

You know, Shen Wandeng was still a guerrilla camp recruited by the government army at the beginning. When the rebel army broke through Ruyang, he brought hundreds of people to join him, but Liu Sheng did not take him so seriously.

Li Dingguo is a rogue general in his early twenties. Why?
Therefore, almost all the generals of the rebel army were more or less jealous and repulsive towards Li Dingguo.

However, through their contact over the past few days, they could see that Li Dingguo was indeed capable in riding, shooting, fighting, and commanding cavalry teams.

But these alone are not enough to convince Liu Changhe and others.

Therefore, when Liu Changhe first heard Li Dingguo's story about a hundred cavalry charging into an enemy camp of 6000 or [-] men, he didn't believe it at first, and then felt that it was impossible for Li Dingguo to lie about such a thing.

I was ready to listen to what he had to say.

Li Dingguo said: "I originally thought that the camp on the east bank was composed of rural soldiers and warriors from the government army, but when I rushed in to test it out, I found out that they were not, but rather local bandits.

The number of people is not five or six thousand, it is estimated that there are only more than 3000 people.So I took more than a hundred riders to find the kitchen, and while the enemy camp was in chaos, I set fire to the camp. "

Not only did a hundred cavalry charge into the camp, but they also set it on fire?

Liu Changhe was stunned.

He had only heard of this kind of achievement from scholars in the past.

For example, in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Liao defeated Sun Quan's 800 soldiers with [-] men in Xiaoyaojin.

Although Li Dingguo's performance in this battle is far from comparable to Zhang Liao's battle at Xiaoyaojin, it is still shocking enough.

At this time, Liu Changhe vaguely understood why Liu Sheng spent so much money and food to ask for Li Dingguo.

This guy is really awesome!
Li Dingguo continued: "The officers and soldiers posted many camp flags upstream and made a bluff. They must be trying to scare us away from attacking.

If they wanted to swallow the entire fleet, they would definitely send another force to block the stern.

After all, we don't have enough troops. Just in case, it's best to stop the fleet first.

See if you can seduce the officers and soldiers blocking the stern of the ship to show up, defeat them, and then deal with the officers and thieves at Longtandu. "

Liu Changhe came back to his senses, nodded and said: "You are right, I will order the fleet to stop and defend on the spot.

You Cavalry Guards are fast runners. Go and notify Deputy Huang, Commander Helian, and Commander Shen. "

"Yes!"

Li Dingguo responded with clasped fists, then got off the boat and ran south along the river with two hundred horsemen.

The 120 cavalrymen who had followed him to camp were all elite cavalrymen who had followed him to fight in Yuchuchuan for several years, and they were highly skilled.

In addition, Xiao's bandits were too lazy. They rushed out of the camp and burned the tents. No one was killed, and only 30 people were slightly injured.

If Liu Changhe knew about this, he would be even more surprised.

Li Dingguo and others galloped on their horses, running more than a dozen miles in more than a quarter of an hour, and arrived at the end of the fleet.

Boarded the ship and explained the situation to Helian Yue.

After listening, Helianyue nodded and said, "In this case, we should really stop the ship first and deal with the enemy blocking the tail of the fleet.

But, how to attract them out?Commander Li, do you have any suggestions? "

Li Dingguo pointed to the wilderness on both sides of the river and said: "As I expected, the enemy is probably divided into two parts at this time, hiding a little further away from the river bank.

As soon as the fleet is stopped by the barrage cable in front, they will come to block the downstream river.

For the current plan, we can only destroy their interception plan by concentrating our cavalry and actively looking for a side to attack. "

He Lianyue couldn't think of a better way for a while, so he said: "Okay! Just as Commander Li said, I will order Commander Shen to assemble the Cavalry Guards!"

The messenger cavalry used gongs to convey the message, and it didn't take long for Shen Wandeng to gather with the cavalry guards.

After learning of Li Dingguo's judgment and suggestions, Shen Wandeng agreed and immediately asked the west bank cavalry to reach the east bank through the temporary pontoon built by boats.

Because Li Dingguo judged that most of the enemy soldiers hidden on the east bank were local bandits and were easier to deal with.

···
Liao Gang.

Although both sides of the Tang River are boundless plains, there are also some small mounds.

Liao Gang, six or seven miles away from the Tang River, is such a mound.

At this time, Xiao Yingxun was hiding here with more than 100 horse bandits and more than [-] minions.

Seeing the sun approaching its zenith, the bandits under Xiao Yingxun were a little impatient.

A big boss came over and asked: "Big boss, Liu Sheng's fleet should have passed by, right?"

Xiao Yingxun stared at the big boss displeased and said, "What's the hurry? I bribed the fishermen in Jiaowan. As soon as the fleet passes by, he will notify us."

Just after Xiao Yingxun finished speaking, a sentry with good vision shouted: "Come on, come on!"

Although this Wangshao's eyesight is much better than that of ordinary people, he has a stutter.

After hearing this, Xiao Yingxun smiled at the big bosses around him and said, "What am I talking about? The news is coming soon."

Unexpectedly, the watchman then said: "There are so many cavalry!"

Many cavalry?

"A lot of cavalry are coming!"

Wangshao's face turned red and he finally choked out a complete sentence.

　Second more.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)