Chapter 205 I can’t laugh or cry
Chapter 205 I can’t laugh or cry
Miao Bo rushed out with four thousand people.
After all, it was a regular army, so of course they went into battle in neat formations.
The strength of the enemy army was already revealed in yesterday's attack and defense. In fact, they were just peasant soldiers pulled from the fields, and at most they had the desperate spirit of bandits.
In fact, he wanted to take the initiative yesterday.
Since ancient times, if there are no outer strongholds to support the main city and the defenders dare not go out of the city to fight, it will usually be difficult to defend the city.
The enemy's siege equipment could not be burned.
Once an arrow is shot, it cannot be retrieved.
We cannot take advantage of their failed siege and retreat to effectively kill their personnel.
Not to mention the night attack that prevented him from sleeping well.
Defending stubbornly is definitely a taboo!
Miao Bo was well-versed in military books and had led troops before. Although he had never fought in a war, he still knew this.
So, after seeing the enemy troops retreating in a disorderly manner, he ignored the opposition and led his troops to attack, striving to defeat the enemy in a single battle and capture and kill tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people.
When the news reaches the palace, how happy I will be!
After the army left the city, they chased for several hundred steps. When the remaining bandits saw this, they only resisted for a short moment before they scattered and fled for their lives.
Miao Bo laughed loudly and said, "These inexperienced thieves will collapse at the first blow. It's easy to defeat them."
At this moment, the originally tight pursuit formation gradually became disorganized during the advance.
The reason is simple: there is a lot of money on the ground.
When the first person couldn't help but bend down to pick it up, soon the second person followed suit.
The rebels also abandoned a lot of livestock.
Several imperial guardsmen rushed towards the horses, scrambling to grab them.
Some people even jumped onto the cart and rummaged through the carriage, searching for valuables.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have time to search inside the carriage, just untie the harness and lead the ox pulling the cart away.
The whole scene was in chaos, even more chaotic than the enemy's retreat just now.
Miao Bo subconsciously felt that something was wrong, his face turned serious, and he shouted: "Pass the order, anyone who picks up property without permission will be killed without mercy."
The personal soldier turned his horse and was about to pass on the order, but he saw smoke and dust all over the sky ahead, and a large group of bandits were rushing towards him along the post road.
At this time, bandits also rushed down from the woods on both sides, shouting and yelling.
Liu Ling used all his old tricks, and thousands of people surrounded the enemy from three sides, catching the imperial guards off guard.
"Miao Bo!" Liu Ling jumped out from the mountainside with a heavy halberd in his hand and ran down the mountain along the path.
"Bang!" The halberd in his hand seemed like a light toy. He swung it casually, with great force. Anyone who was swept or touched fell to the ground with a scream.
Miao Bo was already stunned, the only thought in his mind was: It’s over, I’ve fallen into a trap!
Liu Ling was wearing heavy armor and swung his long spear vigorously, knocking down more than a dozen imperial guards in an instant, and headed straight towards the direction where Miao Bo was.
Everyone on the battlefield looked a little dumbfounded; they had never seen someone with such incredible strength.
The hundreds of personal soldiers behind him, chanting the slogans of Tianshi Dao, bravely advanced forward, and were invincible.
The outer battle line collapsed quickly, and Liu Ling was only a few dozen steps away from Miao Bo.
"Swoosh!" A stray arrow flew over, and Miao Bo's horse's front hooves softened and fell to the ground.
Miao Bo came to his senses with a cry of surprise, and immediately turned around and ran away.
As soon as he fled, the imperial guards who had been planning to resist for a while suddenly collapsed and fled in all directions.
Liu Ling pursued relentlessly, bringing with him hundreds of his personal soldiers, and held on to Miao Bo's followers.
Miao Bo passed through the city gate and rushed into Huanyuan Pass.
Liu Ling chased him out the door.
Miao Bo did not stop and rushed directly to the rear of the city.
Liu Ling rushed into the city gate with his personal soldiers.
Miao Bo took a horse and galloped away waving the whip.
Liu Ling was furious and ordered the cavalry to come up quickly and chase the enemy relentlessly without stopping.
Behind Liu Ling, more and more bandit troops came back and poured into Huanyuan Pass like a tide, and no one could stop them.
Guancheng fell.
******
"On April 20th, the bandit army led by Wang Laizi was defeated in Xiangcheng, more than 3,000 of the bandits were killed, and 4,000 were captured. Laizi was the only one who escaped."
"On the 21st, we defeated 8,000 men from the Zhang brothers' group."
"On the 22nd, we defeated them again and killed more than ten officers and generals. In the two battles, we captured more than 3,000 enemies and beheaded 2,800 of them."
Within three days, the Southern Army, with the Silver Spear Army as its main force, fought four battles in the Ru River area, beheading more than 6,000 people and capturing more than 7,000 people. The rest all fled.
After all this, the bandits who had gone crazy and engaged in the "Brownian motion" finally calmed down and moved away from this place. They either returned to Yingchuan or went south to Runan, but most of them still went north to follow Wang Mi.
Wang Mi couldn't control everyone, and the "joined" bandit leaders had their own ideas, so he didn't bother to care, and just held on to the tens of thousands of people he could control. Unexpectedly, under Shao Xun's series of attacks, the bandits all went north and took the initiative to follow the "General of the Eastern Expedition", which was very ironic.
"Give a message to Huang Biao, asking him to take the reserve troops to sweep along the Ru River. There are still many remaining enemies scattered outside, and do not let them get close to Luyang, Guangchengze, and Liangxian. If the defeated enemies can be gathered together, then gather together. If they cannot be gathered together, attack them without hesitation." Shao Xun gave the order to the messenger on the way to Yushanwu.
After the messenger repeated the order, he took the order and left. Shao Xun gave his horse a boost and rushed forward.
On the country road soaked by drizzle, the army with high morale marched in a long line.
The prisoners and captured property had been handed over to the reserve troops, and now they were ready to go into battle again with light equipment.
In addition to the Silver Spear Army, the Palace Army and the Hebei surrendered army serving as auxiliary troops, there were more than 2,000 "volunteer" warriors with a variety of weapons in the team. Most of them were brave young men and wanderers from Xiangcheng who voluntarily followed. The rest were mostly powerful servants recruited from Xiangcheng and Jiacheng, and released prisoners from prison.
A force cannot only have elite soldiers, but also needs a large number of miscellaneous soldiers.
In a battle, even if the enemy only fights you a few times before giving up, you can't possibly be without casualties in the process of long-range shooting with strong bows and crossbows and close combat with short weapons.
Even if you are wearing iron armor, you will not be able to withstand the force of a blunt weapon in close combat.
No matter how well you are protected, a powerful crossbow can fire several arrows at a time and easily pierce multiple armored warriors to the ground.
When a strong bow is shot at close range, even iron armor cannot block the arrow, not to mention that others can shoot it in the face.
In dense formations, the lethality is particularly terrifying.
Even if you achieve a mythical casualty ratio of one to dozens or even one hundred, and kill or capture ten thousand enemy soldiers, your death toll will not be less than one or two hundred.
The blade of a knife will become dull as time goes by.
Elite soldiers will be consumed as the killing continues if there is no time to replenish them.
At this time, miscellaneous soldiers or second-line troops are crucial.
If Shao Xun had not distrusted the bandits of Wang Mi who had just been captured, he would have already selected some of the strongest and most capable men to recruit them.
It would be great if a samurai from Yicong could join in.
With these two thousand men as the vanguard, wherever they go, the bandits will be frightened. At this time, there is no need to waste precious Silver Spear Army soldiers. After all, there will be casualties even if they chase and kill the defeated enemies.
On the afternoon of the 24th, the army approached Yushanwu. Upon hearing of their arrival, Wang Sang's troops hastily fled northward. The fort's people chased them for a while, then withdrew.
"Sir, fortunately nothing is lost in Yushanwu." Li Chong came down the mountain and reported respectfully.
"You fought well." Shao Xun patted him on the shoulder and said, "You fought against tens of thousands of bandits with only 5,000 soldiers and killed and wounded quite a few. That's pretty good. Do you have any insights?"
Li Zhong pondered for a moment and said, "It is better to fight these thieves who do not care about human lives in the open. Attacking and defending the city will give them an advantage. This time, Yushanwu was trapped by them. If you don't come, we will have to fight for many days until they can no longer bear the casualties."
"That's right." Shao Xun nodded and said, "Write down all your insights. I have already compiled the gains and losses of every battle we fought, and now I can add your part."
Fighting in the field with a force like Wang Mi's, which consists of a small number of elite troops and a majority of cannon fodder, can easily cause the cannon fodder to collapse, affecting the morale of the elite main force, and thus resulting in a defeat.
But attacking and defending a city is not necessarily the case.
If the enemy builds walls and digs trenches on all sides to surround you, it will become like you attacking the city, and casualties will increase sharply.
Of course, with the two thousand Yamen Army and six hundred Silver Spear Army recruits in Li Zhong's hands, they may not necessarily win the field battle. After all, the Yamen Army is a light infantry, their equipment is too poor, and their training is not as good as that of the Silver Spear Army.
Shao Xun didn't mean to blame him, in fact he played very well.
Yushanwu was stuck here, tying down a large number of enemy troops, including Wang Mi's cousin Wang Sang. If others told the court about it, he would be worthy of the court, and no one could accuse him of avoiding fighting.
"Are you heading north now, my lord?" Li Chong asked.
"You are exhausted after fighting for a long time. Let's take a rest for a day or two." Shao Xun stroked his chin and said, "Besides, let Huanyuan Pass temper the enemy's spirit. If Wang Mi is not fully exhausted and his morale is still there, and he turns around to attack me, it will be troublesome."
"Your Excellency is mature and prudent, this is the right thing to do." Li Chonghui said.
In this war, Marquis Luyang fought hard against the enemy army from the beginning to the end, won four victories in three days, and shocked Xiangcheng. He did not take any passive action to avoid the war.
Even though Li Chong was worried about Luoyang, he had to admit that Marquis Luyang had tried his best.
Shao Xun then looked at the farmland at the foot of the mountain.
The enemy army did not intentionally destroy the land, but the army was trampling on it as it went back and forth. I wonder how much millet I sowed this spring will be harvested in the fall. It seems that it would be best for all the forts, manors and even Guangchengze under my control to sow winter wheat this year to harvest as much food as possible.
As for the maintenance of the soil...
The Huns have already reached Pingyang, and will most likely move south next year. Why would we bother conserving the land?
After a war breaks out, farmland will effectively be left fallow, giving it plenty of time to recover.
On the 25th, the army rested for a day in Yushanwu.
Shao Xun transferred some officers and soldiers from the seventh building of the Silver Spear Army to buildings one to five to complete its organization.
I will find a way to recruit new people to fill the vacancies in the seventh building.
On the afternoon of the 26th, Shao Xun dispatched a thousand garrison guards and five hundred guards from Yushanwu, with Zhanggu, the chief of the chuang, as the vanguard, and assigned two thousand volunteers to them, and they headed north in advance.
Early in the morning of the 27th, the Silver Spear, Long Sword and auxiliary troops marched northward in pursuit of the enemy.
On the 28th, the Inspector of the Imperial Capital, Mi Huang, sent an envoy from Dagu Pass, who took a detour through Liang County and Yushanwu and caught up with Shao Xun from behind.
"Huanyuan Pass was lost, most of the 5,000 imperial guards were defeated, and General Miao Bo escaped alone." When everyone heard the news from the breathless messenger, they were stunned.
If nothing unexpected happened - and sure enough, an accident happened soon!
He is really courting death!
After hearing about the loss, Shao Xun didn't know whether to be happy or sad. In the end, he could only laugh and cry.
"Send a message to the front troops, march day and night to catch up with them." Shao Xun ordered: "Also send a message to Wang Chan and Hao Chang, leave the ox carts behind, select a group of horse carts and mule carts first, and set out with the army."
After the order was issued, the army's movement speed suddenly increased.
(End of this chapter)