Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 265 Tao Ranwo Xihuang (4)

Behind the main artillery position, Ma Rui sighed: "It's a pity that the city wall is blocking it, so we can't observe the results of the battle." His cavalry was used as a reserve team and there was no battle for the time being.Watching the gunners set off firecrackers, I couldn't help feeling a little itchy.Zhao Xingde stared at the black arcs, and said in a low voice: "How many people in the world can bear to be beaten and not fight back? Cavalrymen must be prepared, if Japanese are afraid of the power of cannons, they will May detour to our side and rear.

The shelling of the Eighth Battalion continued until dusk. After dark, Li Sihai sent people ashore to contact the Eighth Battalion.The two sides agreed to concentrate their firepower on Laiyuan County.Zhao Xingde notified the 20-day agreement with the Han army, and Li Sihai immediately sent a messenger over.Li Sihai also believed that the Japanese probably couldn't bear the pressure of shelling and would take the initiative to go out of the city to challenge.He advised Zhao Xingde to keep bombarding Yuancheng, but not to attack the city lightly.On the one hand, waiting for the Han army to come, on the other hand, continuous shelling can put more pressure on the defenders than rushing to attack the city. The Japanese will be anxiously waiting all day long.The soldiers of the Chengying Camp and the Han army knew the deadline, so they would not worry about a long battle, and their morale would accumulate until the final burst.Zhao Xingde believed that Li Sihai had guessed the enemy's psychology very well, and decided to accept his suggestion. Zhao Xingde's only regret was the terrain. He had too few crossbowmen in his hands. There were only two hundred men. This flaw is exploited to the extreme.If there are a thousand or two thousand archers, by building an arc-shaped offensive two or three times longer than the city wall, two or three people below the city can 'shoot' one person above the city, and they can suppress people above the city wall at all.Fortunately, artillery can make up for the lack of archers.When actually attacking the city, concentrate the artillery to bombard the narrowest section of the city wall on the west.The city wall is low, allowing the Han army to pile up earth hills under the city, and finally elite soldiers will step on the earth hills to attack the city with the least casualties.Once you occupy the mountain city as the commanding height, you can pull up the artillery, bombard the other seven villages from a high position, and drive the Japanese into the river to feed the fish.

As night fell, Zhao Xingde made a last inspection tour of the camp.The Eighth Battalion of Chengying marched for two days and ran for more than a hundred miles. When they arrived in Laiyuan County, they didn't care about rest, so they immediately started to build fortifications and worked hard for three days.Whether it is energy or physical strength, you need rest and recovery.The enemy is at present, and the general next to him can't wait for his subordinates to sleep with their eyes open.But Zhao Xingde laughed at every camp, "If the enemy doesn't attack, everyone should sleep well." He also specifically told Liu Zhijian and Gao Su that if the enemy didn't move, they shouldn't fire before dawn.After explaining this, he himself returned to the tent, wrapped in a blanket, and fell asleep on the hard ground.

His relaxed attitude infected many people. Some sergeants who were still nervous for the first time could lie down at ease, open their eyes and comfort themselves, saying, "What the general said is not wrong, right?" Even the soldiers in the garrison Those Han soldiers who had just trained for less than a month also slept soundly next to each other. "Brother Liu, the enemy won't attack the camp at night, right?" Ma Biaozi asked. In the garrison, apart from the sergeants, he admired the ten-man commander Liu Liandao the most. He was a true hero who killed the Khitan people.Liu Lian patted him on the head and cursed: "What kind of heart are you? The enemy attacked at night. Let's fight him desperately. If he doesn't come, we will sleep peacefully in vain." Ma Biaozi grinned and said, "Brother What I'm saying is, I heard that our General Zhao has been taught by a god and man, and he is the best at scheming, and the enemy's movements can't be hidden from him." Liu Liandao closed his eyes and didn't bother to care about this bastard, and after a while, both of them were snoring loudly .

Only the sergeant on duty kept his eyes open vigilantly.The bushes around the camp had already been cleared away, and lanterns were hung high in front of the wide trench. After nightfall, the position of Chengying Eighth Battalion sank into an eerie silence.

Coming to Yuancheng, Pu Chenggui suggested: "Master Soldier and Horse Envoy, why don't you send your archers down to the city, and shoot those lanterns first."

"No need, so as not to startle the snake." Cui Xianxi's face was gloomy, and he counted the casualties just now, including those on the sunk ship, the whole army died and injured more than 170 people.He was deeply ashamed of his daytime fears.After sunset, in order to prevent the Navy from attacking, the enemy's gunboat retreated to the sea and anchored.Jin Rongxian, commander of the Northeast Battalion stationed in Baozhou, had nowhere to vent his anger. After hearing that there were only a thousand enemy troops outside Laiyuan City, he sent a letter to reprimand Cui Xianxi for fearing the enemy and fighting cowardly, and ordered him to take advantage of the Liao army before it arrived. , Go out of the city to attack the enemy's forward, capture the sharp artillery and transport it back to the country.

Compared with the loss of Laiyuan City, more than a hundred casualties are nothing.However, as a general, it is a sin to lose troops and lose generals but be helpless. "Plan to find me as a scapegoat." Cui Xianxi gritted his teeth and thought.Usually the enemy army will guard against night attacks, and the moment before dawn is the most sleepy and slack time, so he planned to lead the army out of the city to attack at Yinshi.Every move of the enemy army can be seen very clearly from the top of the city, and there is no ambush.The art of war is to use righteousness and surprise to win. He intends to challenge the "Liao army" with [-] infantry head-on, and another cavalry general Huang Feng will lead [-] cavalry to outflank the enemy's formation.After making a plan to go out of the city to attack the enemy, Cui Xianxi was even more ashamed of his cowardice during the day, which was nothing but artillery.

"Be alert at night to prevent the enemy from entering the city at night." Cui Xianxi solemnly told him to pass Pu Chenggui and went down the tower.He usually lives in the Laiyuan County Government Office, but today the city tower has been repeatedly bombarded, and it is even more impossible to spend the night in the city tower.Back at the mansion, a maidservant brought from Kaijing carefully took off his armor and put on a homely satin robe. After serving the food and wine, the maidservant knelt down beside him to serve the wine and vegetables.Cui Xianxi is a nobleman of the hereditary martial arts class, he was frightened today, under the gentle and meticulous service of the maidservant, his eyes slowly recovered, and he easily took her into his arms.

At the darkest hour before dawn, the city of Laiyuan occupied by the Communist Party began to make a small noise. "Don't make a sound, calm down." The officers carefully distributed the grass stalks and asked the soldiers to hold them in their mouths.The horses were all covered with iron hooves, and following the actions of the men and horses, there was only a slight tinkling sound of the iron armor. However, the moment the city gate opened wide, the soldiers of the Chengying Camp lurking nearby discovered it.Ten Commander Pan Yuheng said in a low voice: "The policeman has moved, Cao Bo go back and report first, Dalin and I are here to count the sheep." Cao Bai responded in a low voice, and ran back with his waist bowed. "There are a lot of sheep." Pan Yuheng whispered, "Two hundred, three hundred..." When he counted to around one thousand, he asked Sun Dalin to report it again.Finally seeing the cavalry appear, Pan Yuheng left the post contentedly.

"Enemy attack!" "Go to battle!" Not long after, the soldiers in the Xia Guo camp were woken up.The gunners immediately loaded the artillery with ammunition. "Fire!" After the order was issued, the ten cannons roared at the same time. The firelight pierced the darkness, and the huge roar tore through the deliberately kept silence. Cannonballs roared towards the city gate one after another.With hasty aiming, most of the shells hit the city wall, and only two or three shells landed in the formation of the Japanese army, but it brought a lot of chaos.

Almost everyone in the 2000-strong army was panicked. Cui Xianxi finally calmed down, and his mood became 'disturbed' again. He thought that the generals under his command must have not restrained his subordinates well, and he was discovered by the enemy as soon as he left the city.The chaotic situation that emerged from the very beginning was beyond his expectation. In his mind, even if the enemy finds a night attack, they will cunningly set deeper traps, similar to the general Wei Guo in the Three Kingdoms storybook. After entering Zhuge Liang's camp, suddenly trumpets and cannons were fired, and soldiers were ambushed from all sides.He was anxious and angry, secretly complaining about the lack of cooperation of the enemy generals.

"Soldiers and horses make the enemy, do you want to retreat to the city?" Pu Chenggui asked with a pale face. He had just seen a shell penetrate three people with his own eyes.

Cui Xianxi gave him a cold look of contempt, pulled out the saber at his waist, and shouted loudly: "Don't panic, all units should form a team." After shouting three times in a row, he turned his head and explained to the timid Bie Jiang: "The enemy is attracted by the front, and the cavalry is turning around from the flanks. Isn't this the case now?" He ignored the other generals and continued to shout twice: "Don't 'chaos', don't 'chaos'!"

Perhaps it was infected by the envoys, or perhaps the Japanese army itself was elite, under the non-stop attack of ten artillery pieces, [-] infantry still maintained their position.Taking advantage of the darkness before dawn, more than [-] riders quietly left the infantry formation, made a big circle, and went around the side and rear of the enemy camp.Cavalry commander Liu Zhao slowed down his horse carefully.During the war with the Liao Kingdom, Emperor Suzong deeply felt that there were too few cavalry in his dynasty, so he conscripted all the people with horses in the country as divine cavalry, but these people's riding skills were really worrying. Some will fall behind, and some will fall off their horses.

Liu Zhao secretly rejoiced.Xia Guo's artillery was concentrating on bombarding the Japanese infantry formation directly in front of them, so they didn't have time to pay attention to the cavalry.However, they did not escape the eyes of the scouts. Ma Rui and Jian Cheng had gathered their subordinates, and both of them were frowning and staring at the slow-moving cavalry in the morning mist. "This group of monkeys on horseback." Ma Rui spit out the grass stalk from his mouth, "Give me the head." Without waiting for Jian Cheng's consent, he raised his big gun with one arm, and raised the tip of the gun diagonally upwards. This is the front arrow. According to the military order of the formation, the horses scraped the soil under their hooves and started to run gently. Ma Rui and his ten-man team formed the smallest arrow, followed closely by the other ninety cavalry.

Cavalry is the one that needs the least coordination, and it is also the arm that needs the most coordination.The cavalry of the Xia Kingdom, who have gone through countless trials and hardships, naturally fell into the latter situation.The front and arrow array is the most compact, and the two cavalry adjacent to the left and right charge almost together. Everyone is holding a spear or a horse, and the rear can only see the front.Moreover, even if they could see the mountains of swords and flames ahead, everyone only followed the secret codes of various military orders agreed in advance.When the speed gradually increased, the hundred cavalry moved forward like an arrow.The sergeants remained silent, accompanied by heavy iron hoofs, only the armor worn by the horses and horses screamed, telling people that this cavalry has the power of a hammer.

When this cavalry appeared in sight, Liu Zhao's heart sank, and the [-] or so Japanese cavalry, almost instantly, the already loose formation became even more chaotic.This time it was different from before, the more exquisite the soldiers were, the more they tried to sneak to the side, and they were unwilling to beat the enemy's edge.