Chapter 182 Lure the Enemy
Chapter 182 Lure the Enemy
Gansu governor and brave Baturu Tao Maolin rushed into Shao Quanzhong's tent with his helmet and armor askew and fell to his knees.
"I am incompetent and lost Lingzhou. I deserve to die."
Even though Jiang Chunlin failed in his duties, Shao Quanzhong fired him without hesitation. That was because he did not regard the talented Jiang as an outsider and still had hope in him.
It was a chance to make meritorious contributions while serving one's sentence. As long as the "sacred favor" was not lost, the specific position was actually not a problem.
Since the establishment of the Huai Army, the first person to be demoted was the eldest brother Tian Xing, who was demoted to the captain of the marching team because of the mutiny in the left camp.
But the eldest brother is still the eldest brother, and there will be no delay in turning back and joining Shao Hengzhong in becoming the first batch of standardization.
Zhang Siwen, Tian Xing and Hai Qing were the three people who never received any rewards from the imperial court because they did not want them. In the Qing Dynasty, they were just commoners.
But who dares to question their status within the Huai Army now? They don't want to be officials of the imperial court. They are 100% Shao Quanzhong's true people. In the future, their authority in the new structure will definitely be much greater than those of the current generals, deputy generals, prefects, and prefects.
Tao Maolin did not belong to the Huai Army, but was a subordinate left by Shao Quanzhong's predecessor. Shao, who had a hot temper and would slam the table and curse at people at every turn, was particularly polite to him.
"General Tao, please stand up. Victory and defeat are common in the military. You don't have to blame yourself. Tell us about the fall of Lingzhou this time."
"Lingzhou City has been through war for a long time and has been occupied many times by the rebels from Jinjibao. Many parts of the city walls have collapsed and are in ruins. I have few soldiers and they were scattered at various gaps to guard. Suddenly, the enemy attacked in large numbers at night. My soldiers guarding the city were also a little slack, and the enemy broke into the city in one fell swoop. We lost the army's food and silver stored in Lingzhou. I really deserve to die."
"How many enemy troops are there?"
"I saw about 8,000 of them, all cavalry, half of them carrying Russian carbines. They rode in through the gap and were completely unstoppable. I turned around in a hurry, and I don't know if there are any more behind me."
"Okay, okay, you only have two thousand remnants of soldiers who are resting, and you don't have any solid fortifications to rely on. This is not a crime of war. Go down and rest for a while, and don't take it to heart."
What a considerate and kind superior! Tao Maolin left with tears of gratitude.
After Tao Maolin left, Shao Quanzhong turned around and his face changed color. "Someone, go to the tent to discuss this matter!"
The senior generals gathered urgently. As soon as everyone entered the room, Shao Quanzhong slammed the table and said, "Le Xiucai, how do you manage to be the head of the intelligence department? Where did eight thousand enemies come from?"
Le Xiucai looked very unhappy. "I just received news from the action team. This is the reinforcement sent by Ma Zhan'ao from Hezhou and Ma Guiyuan from Xining to Ma Hualong. They are familiar with the geography here. After entering the reconnaissance range of our scouts, they rode lightly and their speed was comparable to that of the scouts. They took advantage of the ice on the Yellow River to cross the river from the west bank overnight and rushed to Lingzhou. The news from the scouts just reached me, and Lingzhou has been lost."
Grant interjected, "This is not the fault of Director Le or General Tao. It is my fault for not planning well and not deploying defensive troops along the route where the enemy might send reinforcements. It is my responsibility."
Shao Quanzhong's tone suddenly became friendly, "Old Ge, this is not your fault. We didn't form a siege on Jinjibao. Enemy reinforcements can come from anywhere. We can't defend against them. How can we have so many soldiers to set up defenses everywhere?"
In general, all the generals of the Huai Army underestimated the bandits' ability to rush and fight. The troops from the water town of Suzhong were not familiar with the large-scale cavalry combat mode of the Northwest horse bandits. Among the senior generals, only Grant and Shao Quanzhong were familiar with cavalry. Grant planned defense and scouts according to the operational capabilities of the US cavalry, but he did not expect that the Northwest horse bandits had such extreme mobile warfare. If we really say who is most responsible, it is Shao Quanzhong who is most familiar with the Chinese horse bandits.
Lingzhou has actually always been the rear of the army. Tao Maolin's troops had just experienced a mutiny and were stationed there to recuperate and help with guarding. Shao Quanzhong actually didn't expect them to be able to fight.
Scholar Le was heartbroken. "Lingzhou has stored our food and fodder for one month, and more than 200,000 taels of military pay. If this is lost, our army will only have enough food for ten days, and we will also lose the next month's pay. This is a huge loss. Should we counterattack immediately to get back the food and fodder and pay?"
Shao Quanzhong touched his chin, "Don't worry, don't worry. Lord Qiao has strong logistical support. The next batch of food and grass will arrive within half a month. This food gap can be saved. If it really doesn't work, let part of the troops retreat to Tongchuan and borrow food from Xi'an temporarily. As for the salary, it is not a problem. We don't lack this little money. After we destroy this group of bandits, we can take it back. But we have been attacking the outer strongholds of Jinjibao for a long time and failed. Should we change our strategy?"
Grant nodded, "I have summarized the lessons of this battle in the past few days. We defeated the Eighteen Camps in Dongzhiyuan, and the victory came easily. The whole army thought that the bandits were just so-so. They wanted to win quickly, so they attacked Jinjibao and wanted to wipe out the enemy in one fell swoop. Now it seems that the entire Jinjibao defense system is too strong and cannot be taken down in a short time. We directly attacked the periphery of Jinjibao. The enemy lost troops and can be replenished immediately. Our tactics are to replenish the troops, and we need to adjust them immediately."
Grant took out his pointer and pointed at the map of Jinjibao on the wall. "There is a group of bunkers in the north and south of Jinjibao, totaling 570. Tongxincheng is the core in the south, and Wuzhong is the core in the north. If we don't cut off these two arms of the enemy, we won't be able to encircle Jinjibao. If we attack the perimeter of Jinjibao directly, the enemy will reinforce on three sides, and the combat situation will be very unfavorable to us."
Tian Xing scratched his head and said, "Then we have to nibble slowly from both wings."
"According to military strategy, this is correct. However, since Lingzhou has been lost this time, we can pretend that we are short of food and grass and pretend to withdraw our troops to see if the enemy will be fooled. If we can lure the enemy out of the castle and pursue them, we may be able to annihilate their manpower on the plains."
Hai Qing nodded, "Military Advisor Ge is also quite capable, no less than Military Advisor Zhang. Now the loss of Lingzhou has turned out to be a good thing."
"This is just an attempt. It will be useless if the enemy is not smart enough to fall for it. In addition, we need a troop to act as if it is short of food and defeated, as bait. The enemy cavalry moves too quickly, and the bait troop is still very risky."
Shao Quanzhong looked around at the generals and said, "Well, Song Laosan, you will be the bait."
"Brother Shao, don't call me by my nickname - forget it, why me?"
"Among your subordinates, there are the most veterans from Jiangyan. Even if the enemy is chasing us closely and the rout becomes real, we can still run back after being scattered."
Well, Song Laosan’s troops have always been Shao Quanzhong’s royal guards, following Shao Quanzhong. They have basically never been the vanguard. The dangers were always faced by Lin Bozai’s troops who were charging, or Shao Hengzhong’s troops who were defending. This time, it is finally the turn of the Song troops to take risks.
The next day, the sky was clear and the bandits on the Guojiaqiao front line saw the Huai Army retreating from afar.
The main force quickly ran away and the four remaining battalions of 6,000 people had scattered flags and no formation, and it was obvious that they were retreating with no morale at all.
The news that "the enemy soldiers were running out of food and fleeing" was immediately reported to Jinjibao.
(End of this chapter)