The first prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 9 Pre-War Sneak Attack
On March [-]th, the first year of Zhou Xiande, after a rapid march, Emperor Chai Rong arrived at a small place a few miles away from Gaoping and ordered the troops to rest in place.

The soldiers quickly built a high platform to worship the sky, and sacrificed to the soldiers who died in the Northern Han invasion, and the morale of the Zhou army was very strong.

At the same time, Chai Rong was also preparing to attack the coalition forces of the Northern Han and Khitan at any time, but was opposed by everyone.

Because Chai Rong ordered the vanguard to march quickly, the follow-up troops were left far behind by him.

Originally, the follow-up troops could catch up soon, but Chai Rong's marching speed was too fast. The rear army led by Heyang Jiedushi Liu Ci did not know where it is now!

Thinking of this, Chai Rong was very worried, so he sent someone to contact Liu Ci's office urgently.

In fact, this is also Chai Rong's fault. When Chai Rong decided to go on a personal expedition that day, he had already asked Heyang Jiedu envoy Liu Ci to gather the reserve army of the Zhou army as a rear army.

Liu Ci actively carried out Chai Rong's order, and the army had assembled and was preparing to join Chai Rong.

Here, Chai Rong heard that Li Jun had been defeated again, and was furious. He ordered the troops to speed up. At the same time, someone sent an order to Liu Ci. There were only a few words on it:
"Order your department to go directly to Gaoping and meet Zhen, without stopping on the way."

Chai Rong's meaning is very simple, the troops will go directly to Gaoping for a decisive battle.

On the other side, Liu Chong is full of ambition. The Northern Han Dynasty occupied Jinzhou and gained the upper hand. Now he is preparing to go south to Kaifeng.

However, Liu Chong still did not expect that Chai Rong would come in person, let alone that this time might be the last time in his life that he would fight Chai Rong on the battlefield.

Chai Rong listened to the persuasion of a group of generals and did not rush to send troops. He was also worried about the situation that the enemy was outnumbered, so of course he had to think carefully.

But he really couldn't understand the arrogance of the Han army, and seeing the Zhou army's losing streak for several rounds, the morale was low, and he must find a way to reverse it.

At this time, Zhao Xu gave Chai Rong a note that he could use a small force to attack.

Now that the Han army has just won a big victory over our army, it will definitely relax its vigilance, and we can catch it by surprise and hit it hard.

Chai Rong also thought it was feasible. According to Chai Rong's idea, Zhao Xu came up with the idea, so Zhao Xu would naturally carry out this task.

So Chai Rong took the opportunity to order Zhao Xu to lead [-] soldiers to go north first, as the vanguard of the army, to attack the Han army. Their goal was not to win a big victory.

Instead, it is necessary to deal a certain blow to the Han army and make it annoying.

"Sun Tzu's Art of War" has a saying: "Know yourself and the enemy, and you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you don't know the enemy but know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you don't know the enemy and yourself, you will be imperiled in every battle."

After Zhao Xu received the order, he did not lead the troops to set off immediately, but immediately summoned more than a hundred cavalry.

Let these one hundred and ten people form a scout team, appoint Gao Huailiang as the captain, and let them spy on the situation ahead.

These people are the elites of the army. Not only are they superb in riding skills, but also their personal skills are very extraordinary. They are much stronger than ordinary soldiers.

That's why Zhao Xu chose them, and soon they were already in the vast Taihang Mountains.

Don't look at the rough and difficult mountain roads, but these elites are walking on flat ground.

And Zhao Xu led the other troops walking slowly, he didn't dare to rush in, and he could only plan when Gao Huailiang's information arrived.

Over there, Gao Huailiang and the others had already climbed over the mountain and walked in the dense forest.Seeing that Gao Huailiang is very familiar with this place, everyone couldn't help being very curious:
"Captain, why are you so familiar with this place?" asked a soldier named Er Gouzi beside Gao Huailiang.

Gao Huailiang smiled slightly: "When my father died, our family was also arrested by the government, and we hid in the mountains at that time."

"I remember that my elder brother took me here to hunt some game and dig medicinal materials to make a living. Of course I am familiar with this place. By the way, you tell the brothers that this mission is very important."

"It will be very helpful for us to deal with local people more and know more useful information, and it will be much more convenient for us to complete the mission by then."

Er Gouzi nodded again and again, conveyed Gao Huailiang's order to everyone, and strictly prohibited any conflicts with the local people.

Gao Huailiang also gave full play to his three-inch tongue, and fought fiercely with the surrounding Orion Yaonong.

In addition, he himself has been in this generation, and he has a natural closeness with the people here, and along the way, the soldiers saw a completely different Gao Huailiang.

His efforts were finally not in vain. Many local people were willing to help them, especially when they heard that they were the army of Da Zhou.

People here have a natural sense of belonging to Da Zhou, and they are extremely enthusiastic about them.

These hunters have no other skills, but they are very familiar with the plants and trees here. Gao Huailiang just ordered to rest where he was, when an hunter who was about to sleep with his eyes closed suddenly jumped up.

Then he put his ear on the ground and said loudly:

"General, there are a large group of people rushing towards us, judging from the sound of horseshoes, there are still a lot of people!"

Gao Huailiang also felt the vibration from the ground. The Zhou army was still far away, so it was the Han army.

It seemed that the enemy was not far away, so he immediately ordered:
"There are all of them, just pack lightly, mount a horse and spy on the military situation."

Hearing his order, the soldiers dropped dry rations and other bulky things, carrying only steel knives and a spear, got on their horses, and rushed north with Gao Huailiang.

After walking for less than a quarter of an hour, they found smoke and dust caused by troops marching in the north, and they could faintly see the flags fluttering.

The sharp-eyed Er Gouzi immediately saw that it was the flag of the Northern Han Dynasty
"General, that's the Northern Han army."

Gao Huailiang's heart sank. It stands to reason that the army of the Northern Han Dynasty was staying in Jinyang and preparing to go south to Kaifeng. Why did they come here?
Then Gao Huailiang was relieved: "This must be the troops used by the Northern Han Dynasty to block the Taihang Mountains!
The shortest way to enter Luzhou is through the Taihang Mountains, and this mountain pass is a good place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

It can be said that one man guards the gate, and ten thousand men cannot open it. As long as the throat is guarded, thousands of troops will not even think about coming. If the Han army is really occupied, we will be in danger.

Gao Huailiang, who came from a military family, understood the Northern Han army's intentions instantly!
In fact, he guessed very well.

This army was prepared by Zhang Yuanhui to prevent the Dazhou army from making a surprise attack from here, and according to his words, it was prepared.

Thinking of the enemy's plan, Gao Huailiang did not hesitate, and immediately ordered:

"Wang Ergou, you immediately bring a few people back to the army, tell the general the situation here, and remind the general to speed up the march, if it is too late, it will be too late.

As for the rest, we will go meet these Northern Han strikers to see if their necks are stiff or our big Zhou's steel knives are tough

Don't think that Gao Huailiang has less than a hundred people under his command now, but you have to know that these are warriors who are one in a million.

Their morale was high. Looking at the Northern Han army marching in the distance, Gao Huailiang suddenly drew his sword forward and shouted loudly: "Cavalry, raid, charge!"

Hearing his order, the soldiers urged the horses under their crotches to rush forward, the speed was like arrows being shot

Gao Huailiang took the lead and rushed to the front of the team.

The Northern Han army has won big victories in these few battles, and they may have relaxed their vigilance.

Seeing that the distance between them and the Northern Han Army was getting closer, the Northern Han Army finally spotted the dozens of cavalry rushing towards them.

Commander-in-chief Zhang Yuanhui shouted: "Enemy attack, defend!"

But how can the hastily prepared army stop Gao Huailiang's high-speed charge, especially the elite cavalry.

Since ancient times, cavalry has always had the upper hand in battles between cavalry and infantry, let alone the elite cavalry.

At this time, the war horse has already run out of interest, and the faster it runs, the faster it runs!Gao Huailiang and the others put their bodies close to the horse, held the rein in one hand and the long knife in the other, and tapped the horse's hind legs to speed it up.

Zhang Yuanhui was worthy of being a famous general, but he was suddenly attacked by the enemy.He didn't panic, on the contrary, he was very calm and methodically commanded the troops to resist the enemy's attack!
Anyway, the roads here are narrow, which is not conducive to the deployment of large groups of cavalry. Although your cavalry of the Zhou army are brave, they are small in number after all.

Gao Huailiang has led his cavalry team to charge for three consecutive rounds, and the corpses of the Han army are lying on the ground.

At this time, Zhang Yuanhui realized that this was the elite cavalry of the Great Zhou Army. He quickly commanded the army, stood firm, and waited for reinforcements. On the one hand, he resisted desperately.

As early as when Zhao Xu received the information from Gao Huailiang, he ordered the troops to march quickly and move closer to Gao Huailiang.

Zhao Xu came in time. He saw from a distance that Gao Huailiang was fighting with the Han army. He waved his hand and made his soldiers rush forward.

The Great Zhou army rushed over like a tide, and Zhang Yuanhui didn't lead many troops in the first place, so he suffered a dull loss.

No matter how scheming he is, there is nothing he can do about it. He has no soldiers under his command, and it is hard for a clever woman to cook without rice. All the scheming will not work!
In desperation, he had no choice but to order the remnant soldiers to retreat and flee. He also knew that this would have a great impact on morale, and it was better than annihilation of the entire army.

Following his order, the Han army began to retreat, and the Han army who was busy fleeing was in a state of embarrassment.

Zhao Xu had this opportunity, so he was willing to give up, so he led a large force to attack the retreating Han army.

It is said in the military book that the poor should not chase after them, because they are afraid of being tricked.

Look at the Northern Han army's formation, does it seem to be intentional? Zhao Xu decisively gave the order to pursue it.

After some fighting, the Northern Han Dynasty suffered heavy losses, but Zhang Yuanhui was lucky to escape!

Zhang Yuanhui led the remaining troops and fled north in a hurry, but Zhao Xu did not give orders to pursue them again, and his cavalry was exhausted.

At the same time, he didn't lead many people. If they encountered the main force of the Northern Han Dynasty, they would be like meat buns beating dogs and never returning.

The more important reason was that he was afraid of an ambush ahead.

It is very important to win this surprise attack and keep the main road to Gaoping. At the same time, the morale of the sluggish Dazhou has also improved.

Besides, Zhang Yuanhui ran non-stop all the way, and there was no trace of general demeanor at this time, so he can't be blamed, who is not afraid of death, right?

　The computer is broken and it needs to be repaired. It's a shame.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)