Chapter 485 Drunk
Although the marching formation of Li Tai's men greatly avoided being intercepted and killed by the enemy's elite cavalry, it basically had nothing to do with speed. In the few hours after the first confrontation between the two sides, they had only advanced a dozen miles, and were still more than twenty miles away from the destination of the trip, Golden Granary City.
As night falls, vision is greatly restricted, and the ability to perceive the environment plummets. Traveling at night undoubtedly involves greater risks.
Although a one-day march does not cover a long distance, it consumes a lot of energy on the part of the men and horses. In a field environment, if you cannot gain the power to win in terms of mobility, you will have to pay greater energy and cost.
Li Tai knew that he would be exposed to the enemy's eyes, ears, and iron hoofs and blades during the entire march. These elite Jinyang soldiers and cavalry were all elites in hundreds of battles. Any small oversight or omission might be taken advantage of by the enemy, so he marched on this day. I felt nervous when I came down.
Although the two sides have never fought again, they are still engaged in another form of competition. For Li Tai, not fighting is a kind of victory, which shows that his marching method is thorough and meticulous, allowing the enemy to find no loopholes in the fighter plane.
From this perspective, he is already a qualified or even excellent general. He may not be able to win every battle or conquer every attack, but he has mastered the basic skills of a general very solidly.
Although the advancement on land is not large, due to the enemy's weak control over the river, the boat's advance and retreat are very limited. This replaces the function of the cavalry scout to a certain extent and allows Li Tai to gain an understanding of the enemy's dynamics. Basic understanding and knowledge that the enemy is launching an attack on Golden Granary City.
Although Han Xiong's troops are not large, they are veteran revolutionaries who have fought with the enemy on the border for many years. They are very capable and experienced. They have been able to repulse the enemy's fierce offensives several times relying on the terrain of Cangcheng. However, the enemy army was outnumbered after all, and after repeated attacks, they occupied the trestle water village outside Cangcheng, making it impossible to communicate directly with each other through waterways.
After nightfall, Li Tai chose a slightly higher hillside to station his troops. He formed a formation of chariots on the outside and rested his troops inside.
The enemy scouts were still wandering outside the car formation like vultures to observe. When they saw that they and their party had no intention of going on the road immediately, they left a few riders to continue guarding, while the others temporarily withdrew.
"Master Sir, after night falls, the men and horses cannot see far, and it is inconvenient to convey orders. The large number of enemy cavalry has become a disadvantage. The command and dispatch cannot be easy. If three hundred elite cavalry rush into the camp to shake the formation, the thieves will be frightened." disturbed."
After dinner, He Ruoden came up and whispered: "This place is not far from the bandit camp. You can reach it quickly by driving straight for more than ten miles. Please go out to disturb the enemy. Even if you can't break through the camp defense, you can still make Jingu City secure." When the trapped people know that there are reinforcements, they will not be discouraged or lose their fighting spirit."
Because of their high mobility and fast movement speed, the cavalry is more difficult to direct battles. Once the vision is limited at night, it is more difficult to conduct large-scale assembly and dispatch and become an effective combat unit. It is also difficult to fully utilize the advantages of large numbers of people. come out.
After Li Tai thought for a while, he agreed to He Ruoden's request to fight. His riding and shooting skills were among the best among his subordinates and were rarely matched. If he was responsible for attacking the enemy camp at night, the success rate would be greatly increased.
Now was certainly not a good time to launch a night attack. After confirming the plan, Li Tai asked He Ruoden to personally select the entourage and then let these people rest and stay overnight so that they no longer had to participate in the night watch. And he sent two light boats down the river to carefully explore the enemy's camp defenses and movements.
After making these arrangements, Li Tai also settled in his tent and fell asleep. After this day's march, he was already exhausted and needed to recharge his batteries.
I don't know how long he slept for. Li Tai was woken up by Li Quji outside the tent. When he walked out of the tent wearing clothes and holding a knife, he looked up and saw the stars in the sky, and asked: "What time is it? He Ruodun Are you waiting to set off?"
"It's already a quarter of an hour, and the night attack team has not yet set off. There are new changes in the bandit camp, and we need to wait for Alang to make a decision."
Li Quji whispered before entering: "At three o'clock in the morning, a drum order suddenly sounded in the bandit camp, and the soldiers were gathered to get into armor. It seemed that they were going to launch a night attack on Jingu City. But now the bandit camp was brightly lit and the troops were in full force. After some discussion, the servants and other generals felt that the rebel army might be pretending to attack at night, but in fact it was to lure our army to rush to save the city..."
When Li Tai heard this, he also frowned and walked straight to the bonfire where the generals were gathered. He also called the scouts on the ship closer to inquire carefully, and in his heart he more agreed with the guesses of Li Quji and others. .
The enemy army gathered late at night, but they did not attack the nearby Kanaya Castle. The only way to make sense was to lure him to rescue them.
If this is indeed the case, then the enemy must have been prepared for an ambush. If they launch a night attack according to the original plan, they will undoubtedly fall into a trap, and it is natural to abandon this plan.
However, He Ruodun was still unwilling to accept this, and raised his own doubts: "If the thief really tempted me to attack, he would always make some feint attack gesture. But now I only see people gathering but no one leaving the camp, but it seems to be to intimidate him." As if they were afraid of my attack..."
It is indeed strange that the enemy troops cannot gather together, but if it is said to be a bluff and intimidation, it is unlikely. After all, the gap in strength between the two sides is not small. Even if Li Tai attacks with his entire army, it is not worth the opponent staying up late at night and lining up in the camp to scare people.
"I'm afraid I haven't seen the details while peeping in the river. Maybe there are some changes in the bandit camp that I haven't been able to detect. I ask some riders to go and have a closer look. If there is any conspiracy outside the camp, we can predict it in advance."
He Ruoden spoke again, saying that he had been idle for a long time, and now he finally joined Li Tai's disciples and was re-employed. He did not want to miss any opportunity to make meritorious deeds.
After hearing this, Li Tai nodded and sent several small boats to cooperate with the inspection. After this interruption, he no longer felt sleepy, so he simply stayed here in person to wait for further news, letting other soldiers on night duty rest first.
Not only Li Tai and other officers and soldiers were puzzled, but also the officers and soldiers in the Eastern Wei military camp looked at each other in confusion at this time. Obviously in the evening, the general Xue Guyan personally ordered to have a meal and rest in advance in order to prepare to continue the siege battle at night. However, it has been a while since the agreed time, and the soldiers have already gathered, but there is no further news from the general's camp. Order.
Without the command of the general, these soldiers could not leave the camp. And because the previous assembly order prevented them from disbanding the troops without permission, the situation suddenly became awkward.
"The Lord is handling important matters in the tent. Please ask the general and others to supervise the troops and wait for military orders."
The soldiers guarding outside the big tent smiled and said to the generals who came here to ask for instructions. Regardless of whether they believed it or not, they were all complaining in their hearts.
The smell of alcohol filled the tent. Xue Guyan, who had vowed to drink only one bucket of wine before, was now lying on the table with his belly open. There were leftover barbecue dishes on the dining table, but the wine jar next to the table was already filled with alcohol. Not even a drop of it is left, obviously he is living up to his word.
For a person who is addicted to alcohol, forcing himself to set a drinking limit will only become a goal that he must break through when he gets drunk. If he had this kind of self-control, he wouldn't have drank before the war.
Fortunately, the soldiers already knew the lord's temperament very well, and were quite experienced in handling similar situations. Outside, they patiently dealt with the generals who came here to ask for instructions, while inside the tent, they began to cook soup to relieve the hangover. He opened the Lord's teeth and carefully poured the soup into it, and then waited for him to wake up.
As for how long it would take to sober up, they had no way of knowing, so they could only pray in their hearts as soon as possible. Although this situation is frustrating, according to past experience, it is always a near miss, and I hope this time will be no exception.
"The situation is not right, something is strange..."
Outside the camp, He Ruoden, who was getting closer and closer, frowned more and more. He saw no enemy arrangements along the way, and even the scouts were almost missing. This was really not in line with the situation of luring the enemy. .
He couldn't figure it out for a while, but since they had already marched here, he simply continued towards the enemy camp. The campfire was already in sight, and a voice finally sounded from the side of the wilderness road: "Who is that?"
He Ruodun raised his hand and shot following the sound. He let out a short scream and then another person jumped up from the cave and ran straight towards the camp in the dark. However, He Ruodun rode his horse forward, bent down and grabbed him with his hand.
"If you want to survive, tell the truth!"
He Ruoden pressed the blade of his saber to the man's neck, and immediately asked about the ambush plan in the camp, but the soldier shook his head and expressed ignorance. He only said that he would launch an attack on Jingu City tonight, and no soldiers left the camp to set up an ambush along the river.
"Send this man back alive and I will explore the enemy camp again."
One-sided words were not trustworthy, but what He Ruoden saw along the way was consistent with what the enemy soldier told him, so he gave the living creature to a few of his fellow soldiers to take back, and he and two other soldiers walked around the front of the camp and walked from there. I approached the side and reached the enemy's horse camp smoothly.
The horse camp was surrounded by simple fences and fences, with posts set up at regular intervals. There were several soldiers and grooms inside to guard the camp, and the horses in the circle were not allowed to go outside the camp.
"kill!"
Under the cover of darkness, He Ruoden raised his hand and shot a barking dog outside the sentry. When the sentry was startled, he dismounted and stepped forward with a knife to kill him. The two soldiers behind him cooperated tacitly and soon killed seven or eight of the sentry. People were slaughtered.
The sound of fighting here also attracted the attention of nearby enemy soldiers, and some horses in the circle who were sensitive to blood also neighed.
Ho Ruoden's Communist soldiers took the time to chop down the fence, and soon opened a huge gap. Then they threw bundles of ignited grass inside, and the frightened horses inside rushed out of the gap. .