The 100,000 soldiers and horses of the First Route Army of the Great Zhou Dynasty were on the way.
On the side of the road, in a temporary military tent, Cao Renshi, the general of the left Yingyangwei, Zhang Xuanyu, the general of the right Jinwuwei, and Ma Renjie, the chief of Sinong Shaoqing, were discussing the military situation on a map on the case.
Cao Renshi said: "I just received the information, after the Khitan rebels failed to attack Huanzhou, they fled eastward to attack Pingzhou, and there were not many defenders in Pingzhou, so they did not dare to go out of the city for a decisive battle, so they defended the city to the death.
The Khitans did not have complete siege equipment, and their attack on Pingzhou was blocked, and now they are moving in the direction of Lulong."
Sinong Shaoqing Ma Renjie did not understand military affairs, mainly in charge of logistics and military merits, and asked when he heard this: "Where is our army now?"
Zhang Xuanyu pointed to the map and said: "Our army has just arrived in Macheng, and if we go further, through the Huangzhang Valley, we can go directly to Lulong and solve the crisis of Lulong and Pingzhou."
Ma Renjie looked at the map and muttered: "I see, Lulong is to the east, it is a vast ocean, and the Khitan rebels will not flee over there, so they must be prevented from fleeing west again."
Cao Renshi smiled slightly, and said: "Ma Shaoqing said seven, so this commander plans to send 800 miles of fast horses, and urgently dispatch troops and horses from Danzhou, Xianzhou, Guishun Prefecture and Jizhou to move closer to Shicheng, and together with our army, form a joint attack on the Khitan rebels, so as to annihilate them all in the territory of Lulong." ” Zhang Xuanyu said: "Once the Khitan is defeated, it is impossible to go east, and there is our army to intercept it in the west, as for our side, if they want to fight, it is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, then they will flee north and flee into the territory of the Xi people." ” Cao Renshi thought for a while and said: "I thought that I could send another messenger to contact King Xi and order him to send troops to defend along the Lulongsai area, and never let the Khitan soldiers enter the territory of the Xi clan The Xi clan is a subject country of our dynasty, although there are often things that violate the yang and the yin, how dare they openly shield these rebellious ministers and thieves before the lion of the court." ” Ma Renjie clapped his hands and smiled: "In this way, it is foolproof, and the main Khitan force can be completely annihilated in this battle."
All the generals smiled silently, and with 100,000 elite divisions of the imperial court, attacking the Khitans, who claimed to be 100,000 but were actually only 60,000 or 70,000, in their opinion, it was just a matter of being captured.
Huangzhang Valley is a shortcut for the imperial court soldiers and horses to aid Lulong, if you don't pass through this valley, then the imperial army will have to bypass from the mountains, at least more than ten days of delay, such a long time is enough for the Khitan people to escape when they hear the wind, so the idea is certain, Cao Renshi immediately sent a cavalry, rushed to the Huangzhang Valley in front of the brigade of men and horses, and occupied this strategic place.
When the vanguard army of the imperial court rushed to the Huangzhang Valley non-stop, they saw a tattered wolf banner fluttering on the hill from a distance, and the vanguard soldiers and horses couldn't help but be surprised, and immediately set up camp on the spot to send someone to report to the Chinese army.
Cao Renshi heard that the Khitans had already stationed soldiers and horses in the Huangzhang Valley, so he ordered the army to speed up the march, and on the other hand, he ordered the vanguard to try to attack the Huangzhang Valley first to explore the strength of the Khitans.
The vanguard general Wu Chengzhao received the general order and immediately ordered the brigade commander Ma Qiao to lead his troops to make a tentative attack.
Maqiao was the first expeditionary operation, and he was excited along the way, waiting for the general to give an order, but he was apprehensive for no reason.
Although the entire army has a disdainful attitude towards the Khitans, it seems that once the army arrives, the Khitans can be wiped out with a snap of their fingers, but after all, he is the first time to go to the battlefield.
Ma Qiao cautiously made a reconnaissance of the Huangzhang Valley first, and found that although the valley road in the middle of the valley was not very narrow, it was all within the range of the bow and crossbow, so it was difficult for the army to pass except for pulling out the enemy troops on both sides.
On one side of this valley, the mountain peaks are steep and the walls stand like mirrors, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the slopes on the other side are not steep, but the Khitan defenders have also increased a lot.
This hillside is not steep, and the cavalry could have rushed up, but unfortunately the slope that is not too steep is full of loose gravel, and it is not easy to even walk, let alone charge on horseback, and his cavalry is useless here, and must abandon the horse to fight on foot.
Ma Qiao was the first time to lead troops to fight, so he was very cautious, according to the art of war he learned in the army, first surveyed the terrain in detail, understood the target to be captured, and then began to deploy troops.
He ordered all the cavalry to dismount, put the horses in the care of a few soldiers, and then divided the soldiers into three teams, the first team was sword and shield men, the second team was crossbowmen, and the third team was spearmen and crossbowmen.
The first team of sword and shield men served as the main attacking force, the second team of crossbowmen fought in conjunction with the sword and shield men as a long-range strike force against the Khitan archers, and the third team was spearmen and crossbowmen as reserves.
If the offensive went well, the third team went into battle, quickly consolidating the positions that had been occupied.
If the attacking force did not make progress, it also achieved the purpose of reconnoitering the strength of the defenders.
If the enemy's position is captured first and then suppressed by the enemy's counter-charge, then the third team is responsible for covering the retreat of the robe and avoiding heavy casualties in the retreat.
As for the steep mountain wall on the other side, Ma Qiao decided to abandon it first.
Across the middle valley road, most of the bows and arrows shot from the opposite cliff have lost their lethality, so it is better to take one side first, and then attack the other side of the mountain after gaining a firm foothold.
Ma Qiao's arrangements were in order, and all arrangements had been decided, and he immediately ordered people to beat the war drums and launched an attack on the mountain.
The slope of this mountain was not steep enough, and the Khitans on the mountain could not use rolling logs and stones to resist the Tang army, so they could only rely on bows and arrows to stop the enemy.
Maqiao's soldiers are cavalry, but no matter what type of troops the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty are, they are not lacking in a war bow and crossbow, and as the elite cavalry of the forbidden army, they are equipped with riding shields, horizontal knives, spears and even throwing guns, integrating multiple arms in one, and are fully competent for the combat tasks arranged by Maqiao.
In the sound of war drums, Ma Qiao gave an order, and the sword and shield men used their riding shields to protect the vital points, holding horizontal knives, stepping on those loose and rough gravel that seriously hindered the speed of action and approached the hillside step by step, followed by the crossbowmen, using the sword and shield hands as a barrier, ready to suppress them remotely.
The spearmen and crossbowmen in reserve also marched to the halfway point of the mountain, ready to decide whether to attack or cover the retreat of their comrades according to the situation on the battlefield.
As soon as the two sides entered the range of each other's crossbows, sharp arrows came and went, and they began to shoot at each other.
Ma Qiao held a shield in one hand and a knife in the other, and personally led the sword and shield hands to rush to the front, they bent down, shielded their bodies with their riding shields, and approached the hill under the cover of the crossbowmen in the rear.
The arrows on the mountain are not dense, completely suppressed by the arrows of the imperial court soldiers and horses, although the Khitan people's arrows are accurate, the strength is also seriously insufficient, the shield of the horse bridge was shot a few sharp arrows only to shake the shield, some of the arrows fell down, Ma Qiao couldn't help but be surprised: "It's not that the Khitan people are nomadic and hunting, what they are best at is the bow and crossbow are so soft and soft, even if they are shot on the body, I am afraid that it is difficult to kill."
Ma Qiao was originally worried that the Khitans' bows and crossbows were powerful, but at this time, seeing that the Khitans' archery skills were just like this, his courage doubled, and he immediately ordered to speed up the attack, and when they were about to rush to the hillside, the originally sparse arrows on the hillside simply stopped, and Ma Qiao immediately increased his speed, and was the first to rush into the Khitan defense line, wave his horizontal knife, and rush to kill.
When he rushed into the enemy group, he found that the defenders on the hill were only a few hundred, and the weapons used were disorganized and worn, and the embroidered long knives, dung forks, and wooden sticks were all sorts of things.
The enemy soldiers were all ragged and vegetable, and they barely had the power to fight back.
Seeing that the enemy's combat strength was not strong, he simply abandoned the riding shield, danced the knife with both hands, and rushed all the way to the past, his body was as fast as a tiger, and the knife was as fast as the wind, and he did not entangle with the enemy, but tried to create chaos and create conditions for his men and horses to rush up the hillside.
Soon, all the sword and shield men rushed up the hillside, and then the crossbowmen also drew their sabers and joined the battle group, and the reserve team guarding the halfway up the mountain saw this situation, and immediately rushed to the hillside according to the original arrangement, but before they could join the battle group, the Khitan soldiers on the mountain called Huazi collapsed: "Don't fight, we surrender, we surrender."
There was one who shouted surrender at the beginning, and the resistance on the entire hillside immediately came to naught, except for a few people who wanted to escape into the dense forest, but were shot by the arrows of the Zhou army, and the rest of the Khitans knelt on the ground, holding their weapons high in both hands, and surrendered to the Zhou army.
Wu Chengzhao is a distant relative of the Wu family, relying on the family relationship in the army to be a brigade commander, after receiving the order to attack tentatively, he also beat the drum in his heart, so he ordered Maqiao to attack, and he did not move, ready to flee at any time, never thought that Maqiao with a brigade of divisions, smoothly rushed up the hillside.
When the Zhou army waved the battle flag and signaled to the bottom of the mountain on the hillside, Wu Chengzhao was dumbfounded, and then he was annoyed, knowing that the Khitans were so unhelpful, and this battle merit should be grabbed in his own hands.
With so many people looking at it now, it is impossible to take this credit clearly, and I can only hope that Ma Qiao's guy can understand something and focus on mentioning him as the striker in the battle report.
On the hillside, Ma Qiao couldn't stop smiling.
This was the first time he had commanded a battle, and it was the first time he had charged into battle and participated in the battle.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
At the moment when he received the order, although his face was calm, he didn't know how nervous he was, and his heart was beating like a drum, and he had both the nervousness and panic of joining the battle for the first time, and the lack of confidence in commanding all the way alone.
But when he rushed up the hill and hacked the second man to death, all this uneasiness and all the panic was thrown out of the clouds by him.
Soldiers must undergo the baptism of the battlefield to mature, and after this battle, Ma Qiao has quickly possessed the psychological qualities that a general should have.
And the record of seven people with a blade in his hand also made him never appear again when he hacked the first enemy to death, blood sprayed his face, and he immediately jumped up in panic and forgot to dodge, and almost took another enemy with a knife.
"Now what should I do, yes, yes, yes, remember" Ma Qiao, who had been grinning and smirking for a long time, finally remembered some common sense taught to him by the veteran in the army: now he should immediately check the enemy's equipment, understand the enemy's situation, and interrogate the prisoners about the enemy's situation, so that the commander can use it as a reference for the next move.
Wu Chengzhao waited for a long time, and was sure that there were no ambushes on the mountain, so he waved his army up the mountain to occupy this commanding height.
When Wu Chengzhao climbed the hill with a smile that could hardly be said to be happy, he only had time to participate in the interrogation of Maqiao, and through the interrogation, they quickly figured out the situation of the enemy army: The Khitan rebels, totaling more than 67,000 people, fled all the way east after the defeat in the attack on Danzhou, and fought to the city of Pingzhou, and the siege was frustrated again, and was forced to turn to Lulong again.
Because of the long-distance attack, they could not get supplies, their food and grass had run out, and their arrows were about to run out, and the sparse counterattack encountered by Maqiao when attacking the mountain was because the Khitans had less than five arrows left on average per person.
The Khitans didn't know that the imperial court Ba Jing had sent a large army, otherwise they would not have only sent such a few people to guard the Huangzhang Valley, but their main force was attacking Lulong, and the Huangzhang Valley was the only passage behind them.
However, when the officers and soldiers arrived, they had already sent people back to report the news.
The reason why they are weak in fighting and arrows is also very simple, they have no strength.
On the hill where they were stationed, Ma Qiao did not find a grain of grain, and when Ma Qiao and his soldiers approached the mountain, they were cooking and had not had time to eat.
When Ma Qiao heard about it, he personally went to check the pot of rice that they hadn't cooked yet, and there were two mice, a wild cat, and a pot of wild vegetables.
Wu Chengzhao scoffed at this, in his opinion, there was no need to check it at all, just looking at these Khitan people with vegetables on their faces and unable to stand steadily, he believed that these people had already run out of food.
The first merit of the first battle allowed Ma Qiao to rob, which made Wu Chengzhao very dissatisfied, and he was determined to fight the second battle himself and capture the other side of the mountain.
And the two hills belong to the first forward position of the Khitans, as long as the other hill is laid, he can mix the two battles into one, and the first credit is his.
As a result, Wu Chengzhao quickly reported the information obtained from the interrogation back to the Chinese army, and on the other hand, he prepared to personally take down another dangerous mountain that was said to be guarded by 50 people.
At this time, Ma Qiao, who had no eyesight, actually suggested to him that he surrender to the Khitan people on the mountain first: "General Lang, since the Khitan people are hungry and have no arrows, I am afraid that they do not have the confidence to defend that mountain, especially since we have occupied this place, according to the general, it is better to send someone up the mountain to surrender, if you can win without using troops, wouldn't it be better" After Wu Chengzhao heard this, his face became even more ugly, but if he could surrender, of course, he didn't need to use force, although there were not many defenders on that mountain, it was dangerous, although the Khitan people were so hungry that their chests were close to their backs, they still had the strength to push stones, just throwing stones down from that mountain, they could also kill a lot of people, and he couldn't make people think that he didn't care about the lives of his soldiers.
A sharp cold light flashed in Wu Chengzhao's eyes, and he coldly ordered: "Okay, General Ben will send you up the mountain to persuade you to surrender, and you go and tell them that whoever surrenders to sincerity, General Ben will not be guilty of the past."
Otherwise, attack the mountain, kill it cleanly, and leave no chickens and dogs, don't say that this general is unpredictable."
Ma Qiao didn't expect Wu Chengzhao to send him up the mountain to recruit him, the idea was his idea, and now that the general has orders, Ma Qiao had no choice but to pull a very old Khitan man to explain to him the good intentions of the imperial court to recruit peace.
The Khitan people nodded again and again, and agreed to go up the mountain with him to surrender, and Maqiao waved a white flag and climbed along the steep path between the mountains with the Khitan people to the opposite mountain.
Wu Chengzhao stood on the mountain, pressed the long knife in his hand, looked at the back of Maqiao who gradually disappeared on the opposite mountain, and his heart was cold: "The Khitans are just a group of uncivilized barbarians, how can they abide by the rules of not killing the two armies when they fight, if they are willing to surrender, if they don't surrender, with this order that I want to slaughter the mountain, I can cut off your dog's head first."
Wu Chengzhao secretly thought to himself, a wicked sneer hooked the corner of his lips, and as soon as he looked up again, he saw a white flag on the opposite hill waving at him: