According to the calculation method of the distance between the two places of Blue Mercury, the city of Tai'an is about 200 kilometers away from Huguan. If you ride a fast horse, it will probably take only half a day to reach another place, that is, if necessary, you can actually go back and forth between the two places overnight on the same day.www.biquge.info

Another important factor why Lyon chose Tai'an City is that Tai'an County is only about 100 kilometers away from Yangcheng, Jiangzhou.

This became an important reason why Leon and other Xinghua officers looked at Tai'an County.

It is not far from the two places, and the choice of Tai'an County as the combat base of the Xinghua Army can be said to be able to attack, retreat and defend, and occupy the operational advantage.

After stationing in Tai'an City, the Xinghua Army can completely rely on the urban defense conditions of Tai'an City, temporarily take root in Tai'an City, and establish a solid defensive position, a temporary military base, and an operational command center that are conducive to the Xinghua Army.

As long as these are completed, the Xinghua army can attack the nearest city, attack Yangcheng, and then sweep Jiangzhou.

According to the information of the Xinghua Intelligence Bureau, Leon had one of the facts about the county town of Tai'an, which had about 300 soldiers and 500 villagers.

The local forces shown by this data are actually not very strong, so this situation is relatively easy for the Xinghua Army to control. However, Lyon is not sure of a relatively important factor for the time being - he has not yet been able to determine whether the government of Tai'an County will be able to abandon Tai'an City because Tai'an is relatively close to Huguan and the war between the two countries is about to break out.

If the local government of Xia has already evacuated in advance, the situation is easier to deal with, as long as the army is stationed and the mood of the people in Tai'an is controlled, and if the government has not yet evacuated, then the Xinghua officers will need to consider this factor in addition.

However, in either case, Lyon has actually regarded the city of Tai'an as the headquarters of the Xinghua army for a long time, and it is only necessary to implement it concretely.

This strategic layout of Lyon was proven to be effective in the later development of the war situation. In fact, Wei Changhai tried to lead his army to attack Jiangzhou and failed, and another important factor was that Wei Changhai did not see the important strategic location of Tai'an City, so that from beginning to end, Wei Changhai did not think that he should first capture Tai'an City, as Lyon did at this time, as an important transit point for the Xinghua army to continue its march. Moreover, at that time, in Wei Changhai's opinion, the walls of Tai'an City were low, not conducive to defense, and it looked easy to capture, especially because I am afraid that this inconspicuous Tai'an City could not even withstand a bombardment by the mortar battalion of the Xinghua Army. Therefore, Wei Changhai did not focus on Tai'an City in the end, but bypassed Tai'an City.

Correspondingly, Tai'an City escaped in the last battle and did not become Wei Changhai's target. It is precisely because of Wei Changhai's "letting go of a horse" that now, the Lyon troops have to face the Xia army of Tai'an County, which has not been damaged. It's just that in Leon's view, this is not a factor to repeat Wei Changhai's mistakes, even if there are more Xia soldiers in Tai'an County, Leon will still choose to attack Tai'an County first, establish a stronghold, and then attack Yangcheng.

"Contact the intelligence officer, I want a report on the current situation of Taean City. Leon said to his adjutant. To be on the safe side, Lyon knows as much as possible about the city of Tai'an.

"Yes, Commander. "The adjutant ran and found the intelligence officer who accompanied the army.

After a while, the intelligence officers of the accompanying army sent a simple but comprehensive investigation report.

This report is a piece of paper, and the paper contains four key messages:

The first is about the county order of Tai'an County, including the investigation of all his personal information, such as name, age, and personality evaluation, etc., and there are also county soldiers led by the county order, mainly including the number of soldiers and township soldiers, a total of 800 people, and the main weapons of those county soldiers are spears and bows and arrows;

The second is the main strength of Tai'an County, in Tai'an County, in addition to the county soldiers led by the county order, there is also a 3,000-soldier Xia Army infantry and archers, stationed in Tai'an County;

The third is the number of people in Tai'an County. Because the news of the war has leaked, and some nearby Xia areas and urban areas have been affected by the war, the number of refugees in Xia has increased by leaps and bounds, and the nearby refugees have survived nearby, squeezed into Tai'an County, and impacted the lives of local people in Tai'an County. For a time, the entire Tai'an County fell into a state of chaos among the people;

Fourth, the general situation of the Xia army around Tai'an County. There were three Xia armies around Tai'an County, one of which was a cavalry army and two infantry armies. They are all supporting forces in Tai'an County. These supporting Xia troops were actually transferred to the area around Tai'an County in the near future in order to deal with the attack of the Xinghua Army.

Lyon attaches great importance to these intelligence information. Especially the last item, regarding the investigation of the strength of the Xia army stationed around Tai'an County, the analysis of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau believes that these Xia soldiers are aimed at the attack force of the Xinghua Army, that is, once the Lyon Department attacks Tai'an County, these Xia troops will attack and harass the Xinghua army, take the opportunity to kill and injure the Xinghua army, and consume the combat power of the Xinghua army.

Obviously, Xia Jun wants to repeat his old tricks. Last time, Wei Changhai's hasty attack gave the Xia army a chance to exploit loopholes, so that the Xia army's attack and harassment military operation was victorious and tasted the sweetness, so the Xia army thought that the Xinghua army was vulnerable, as long as they repeated their old tricks and concocted the same method again, they could repel the Lyon army.

Leon is different from Wei Changhai, considering problems, deploying tactics, etc., will be more stable and thoughtful, and naturally will not act rashly, let alone let the Xinghua army have the opportunity to make the same mistake again.

After carefully reading this investigation report, Leon immediately summoned officers at all levels in the army to discuss the attack on Tai'an County according to the investigation report.

After half an hour of discussion, Lyon decided to give full play to the advantages of the Xinghua army.

What is the main advantage of the Xinghua Army? That is, it is fully armed, and the whole army is fully armed. When the enemy army did not appear in professional troops, a company of more than 100 people was enough to fight against thousands of Xia army foot soldiers, and it was still able to defeat the Xia army in a crushing state.

Therefore, Lyon's method was to use the tactic of dividing the army to attack according to the superiority of the Xinghua army.

Leon decided that the Xinghua army, with only 5,000 soldiers and artillery battalions, would be mainly responsible for attacking the county town of Tai'an. The rest of the Xinghua troops were responsible for sweeping the Xia army around the county seat of Tai'an.

After Wu Junjie's troops returned, Lyon's order was given, and the whole army continued to advance. Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed, at present, all the layouts have been arranged, the troops have been allocated, as long as the Xinghua army attacks Tai'an County, steady and steady, it will definitely be able to capture Tai'an County.

Leon is confident, and he can't help but want to rest well in the county town of Tai'an.

"All soldiers, move on. ”

The decision of the Lyon Ministry was also conveyed to Wei Yingcai through the radio waves. The two troops, one positive and one strange, assisted each other, which was part of the battle plan.

Although Leon will not inquire about the movements of Wei Yingcai's department, Lyon will ensure that all the contents of the report to the main force will also be conveyed to Wei Yingcai's department, so as to ensure that Wei Yingcai's department can cooperate closely with Leon at any time during the operation. Therefore, what Lyon needs to do is actually inform the entire Xinghua army of their important movements. Correspondingly, as a partial teacher, Wei Yingcai only needs to regularly report the news that they are still active every day.

At this time, Wei Yingcai's department was located in the hilly area of northern Jiangzhou, 300 kilometers away from Huguan and more than 200 kilometers away from Yangcheng. In other words, Wei Yingcai's department is very close to Liangzhou.

Of course, the reason why Wei Yingcai led his troops to go so far was not because he wanted to go to Liangzhou, but because Wei Yingcai judged based on the intelligence and the terrain and landforms on the map, and came to a conclusion.

According to the investigation report of the Intelligence Bureau, after the Xia army lost control of Huguan, under the arrangement of its commander Bai Qi, the Xia army still had no less than 200,000 troops left.

Judging from the numbers, the Xia army is very strong. But in fact, the Xia army lost the Huguan granary and suffered a crushing defeat, not only the granary was insufficient, but also the morale dropped greatly. Coupled with the weapons of the Xinghua Army, it was enough for the commander of the Xia Army to understand that the army was not gathered together to compare numbers, and whoever had more could win.

Therefore, in Wei Yingcai's view, this is an excellent time to attack.

According to the information of the Xinghua Imperial Intelligence Bureau, the defenders of Yangcheng are only 50,000, including the defenders around Yangcheng, which is estimated to be about 50,000. At least 100,000 Xia Jun are missing, and this 100,000 is still a very conservative number. Wei Yingcai's task is to find out the hidden troops of the Xia army and eliminate them.

"This place, this, and this...... Send out scout cavalry to search these places carefully. I give the Scout Cavalry the maximum autonomy to search anywhere you suspect within the prescribed limits. At the same time, every hour, turn on the walkie-talkie for ten minutes, and the team will exchange messages with each other and report the latest information to us. "Wei Yingcai gave the order to the captain of the reconnaissance cavalry to search.

Wei Yingcai's troops reconnoitred everywhere, looking for the enemy.

After most of the day's search, the news finally came back.

"Sir, we have found a large enemy battalion, two strongholds heavily defended by enemy troops. The soldier in charge of communications reported to Wei Yingcai.

Wei Yingcai took out the map and asked the soldiers to mark it.

Between Jiangzhou and Liangzhou, there is a big river called Chihe. The main camp of the Xia army was on a small hillside south of the Chihe River. It is about 20 kilometers away from Wei Yingcai's department.

According to the findings of the reconnaissance cavalry, there was a granary for the Xia army. Near the granary is the military camp of the Xia army. According to the tents in the barracks, it is estimated that there were no less than 50,000 Xia soldiers. It is very likely that this Xia army was ambushed here by the Xia State and used as an ambush. This is Wei Yingcai's speculation. Wei Yingcai named this summer army camp "Chihe Camp".

In any case, Wei Ying can be regarded as eyeing this Chihe camp.

"How is the enemy's equipment, are you aware of our people?" Wei Yingcai asked.

"Report to the sir, the enemy is in armor, there are many archers, there are many horses, the camp is neat, the soldiers are able to move, it should be a well-trained soldier. We have an advantage in a frontal field battle, but in a melee battle, we may not have much advantage. A staff officer said after analyzing the battle situation.

"Attack the camp, or induce the Xia army to fight us head-on. Another staff officer said.

Wei Yingcai seriously thought about the opinion of the staff officer, and he believed that the current Lyon Department did not need his response. In this case, why didn't Wei Yingcai lead his army to Chihe and attack the enemy camp.

The staff officers also agreed with Wei Yingcai's decision, and unanimously agreed that Wei Yingcai's decision was beneficial. The elimination of the Chihe battalion would be equivalent to stabilizing the northern region of Jiangzhou, with one less enemy in one direction.

Wei Yingcai led the army, according to his own plan, as quietly as possible, slowed down the speed of the troops slightly, and headed for Chihe.

Xia Guojian's clear wall also has some benefits for the Xinghua Army, that is, no matter what the Xinghua Army does, few people can find out.

Because of the slowdown in the pace of the march and the careful avoidance of the enemy's scouts, the Xinghua army spent two hours marching twenty kilometers, and found an abandoned mountain village about a thousand meters away from the Chihe camp.

This mountain village is not large, with only about a dozen houses. But the place is better than being hidden, surrounded by mountains and forests, which perfectly conceals Wei Yingcai's department. Wei Yingcai lit the lamp in the house, and it was not easy for the enemy to find out.

Wei Yingcai decided to stay in the mountain village for the time being, waiting for the best opportunity.

Then, the sky grew darker, and night fell.

There was a moon in the sky, barely giving Wei Yingcai a glimmer of light for them to move in the dark.

Wei Yingcai sent reconnaissance soldiers to find out the movement patterns of the enemy's large camp and the surrounding terrain.

Four hours after nightfall, Wei Yingcai led his troops into action, leaving the horses in the mountain village, guarded by a small number of soldiers, and the large army approached the enemy Chihe camp on foot cautiously.

At this time, inside and outside the enemy's Chihe camp, except for the two fires at the gate of the camp, shining at the gate of the camp, and the soldiers of the Xia Army who were keeping vigil, it was very quiet.

"The enemy is asleep!" the scout captain reported to Wei Yingcai.

"Can you be sure that there are soldiers sleeping in the tents of the enemy camp?" Wei Yingcai asked.

"Two hours ago, there was still some noise in the enemy camp, and it was determined that there were many enemy soldiers in the Chihe camp......" The reconnaissance captain assured Wei Yingcai that the Chihe camp was not an empty camp.

Wei Yingcai would not suspect his subordinates, and he immediately ordered the artillery company to prepare. Although Wei Yingcai's army was only 5,000 soldiers, he still carried 20 mortars and 500 rounds of ammunition with him. These mortar shells are mainly used to attack enemy strongholds with a certain degree of defense.

Before the artillery company opened fire, Wei Yingcai climbed another high ground and observed the Chihe camp with a telescope.

Wei Yingcai put down the binoculars, thought about the terrain on the map again, and said to the Xinghua officer beside him: "Surround the Chihe camp, I want to completely annihilate this Xia army." He found out that the Xia army was camped in Chihe and made a big mistake, that is, facing the river. As long as the Xinghua army defends the Xia army with three lines of defense, it can besiege and kill the Xia army soldiers.

Wei Yingcai sent a thousand soldiers, five hundred soldiers on one side, to guard the direction of the two sides of the Chihe camp. They were responsible for blocking the side direction of the Xia army and preventing the Xia soldiers from escaping. There are about 3,000 Xinghua soldiers, facing the Chihe camp, and they will be the main force attacking the Chihe camp. (To be continued.) )