In a short time, the three camps of the Dashun Army have all been set up in camp.

These three camps, each other's horns, in the shape of a zigzag, thought to be a mutual aid situation, the three camps each stationed 50,000 people. Among them, the middle battalion that broke forward was guarded by the coach Liu Zongmin, the left battalion commander would be Liu Fangliang, and the right battalion would be Li Guo.

For the sake of safety, important logistical materials such as ordnance, grain and grass were stationed in the left and right battalions at the back, with the first battalion spaced about two miles apart to maintain sufficient space for movement.

Liu Zongmin thought that in the next few days, as long as he was stationed on the spot, he would be safe. As long as the Qing army rushes to the north, it can work with the Qing army to attack the Tang army in the north and south.

He never wanted to know that his calculations were so good, he thought he was safe, but the result was that on the first day he settled down, he was quickly destroyed and disrupted by the Tang army.

That night, the moon was dark and the stars were scarce, all silent, all the way to the rogue soldiers, everyone was tired, they were sleeping soundly in the camp, at this time, from the Shanhaiguan, suddenly there was a deafening rumbling drum sound in the distance, soon, the lights at the Shanhaiguan were flickering, and the swan's horn and shouts also sounded continuously.

The mutation protruded, and the middle camp at the forefront suddenly surprised everyone and became a mess.

Hearing the horn of Shanhaiguan and the sound of drums shaking the sky, Liu Zongmin, who was originally in the big tent of the Chinese army and slept with salivation at the corners of his mouth, jumped up from the bed in fright.

"What's going on? Is the Tang army going to attack and seize the camp at night?! While urgently dressing, Liu Zongmin yelled at the stunned guards at the door.

The guard looked at him fearfully, and replied, "Returning to the Great Marshal, although the Shanhaiguan is brightly lit, the drums are shaking the sky, and the shouts are bursting, it is very strange that no soldiers and horses have come. ”

"Oh? Is there such a strange thing? ”

Liu Zongmin frowned, the speed of dressing and armor was obviously much slower, he was stunned for a moment, and then ordered: "Go, go to the left camp and the right camp quickly, and pass on the Cihou and Hao Hou to discuss." ”

Soon, Liu Fangliang and Li Guo, who were dressed in armor and looked panicked, hurriedly came to the Chinese military tent.

"Ruhou, why is it that the Tang army is beating drums and trumpets like this, and it is very strong, but it does not come to attack?" Liu Fangliang asked urgently.

Liu Zongmin's face was dark, he hadn't replied yet, but Li Guo on the side interjected with a hesitant face: "Liu Shuai, I'm thinking, but the Tang army guarding the pass, but Zhuge Liang scared Cao Cao away when he wanted to learn from the Three Kingdoms?" ”

"Oh, is it? Then you can tell me about it. ”

"Liu Shuai, that's it." Li Guo saw Liu Zong's sensitive interest, so he talked eloquently: "At that time, Liu Bei Fang seized Xichuan and regained his relationship with Cao Cao in Hanzhong, then Liu Bei occupied a dangerous place, and Cao Cao had to camp in an open area. In order to force Cao Cao to retreat, the military advisor Zhuge Liang thought of a strategy. ”

"What's the plan?"

"That is, in the dead of night and when the sergeants were tired, Zhuge Liang ordered his subordinate sergeants to beat drums and shout, and make a posture of wanting to attack Cao's camp at night, so that Cao Cao and his army were terrified but helpless, and the soldiers of the whole army were always in a state of anxiety and irritability, and could not sleep peacefully."

"! Since Zhuge Liang used such intimidation methods, he should not be left alone. ”

"How can this be done! You must know that soldiers are treacherous, and they should be taken lightly. After all, no one can guarantee that Zhuge Liang will take advantage of the paralysis of Cao's army to really send troops to raid and seize the camp. This is in the midst of the ten falsehoods, and suddenly it is true, then Cao Jun is slack and defenseless, but he will suffer a big loss. ”

"Well, that's a real headache. And what about later? ”

Later, Cao Cao couldn't bear such endless torment and torture, and finally had to order the army to return. After Cao's army retreated, the land of Hanzhong was occupied by Liu Bei. ”

After listening to Li Guo's words, Liu Zongmin lowered his head, stroked his thick beard with his hand, and looked thoughtful.

Suddenly, he seemed to have an understanding, and said hurriedly: "Li Guo, what do you mean, but do you say that the Tang army now will use this intimidation tactic to torture and consume our army just like Zhuge Liang scared Cao Cao back then?" ”

"Exactly. In my opinion, the Tang army must be like Zhuge Kongming that day, harassing every night, so that our army cannot rest in peace......"

"So, do you think that the Tang army has the courage and ability to carry out a surprise attack on our army?" Liu Zongmin asked with a frown.

"It is very likely that the Tang army is now firmly guarding Shanhaiguan, which can be described as waiting for work. It is also very likely that they will take advantage of the paralysis and exhaustion of our army to launch a night attack against our army. Li Guo's face was worried.

Li Guo's words made Liu Zongmin's face even more worried, and for a while, he hesitated, and he didn't know how to deal with it.

"What the Marquis said, I thought it was too exaggerated." Liu Fangliang, who had not spoken, replied angrily: "Now our army has as many as 150,000 troops, all of them are elite troops, and the power is so great that it is enough to make the enemy fearful. It is understood that the Tang army guarding the mountain pass, but more than 10,000 people, defending the city is already difficult, how can they still have the courage to go out of the city and attack at night, in my opinion, they estimate that they only dare to use such a trick to intimidate our army, but they have no courage to go out of the city and attack at night. Therefore, please also ask the Marquis of Ru to give an order, so that the sergeant should not panic, ignore the tricks of the Tang army, and just have a good rest. ”

"Cihou, this is not to be said. Military intelligence events, how can it be a fluke. Li Guo shook his head and said: "In case the Tang army does not follow common sense, it will definitely send troops to attack at night, and our army is paralyzed and slack, how can the recovering generals stop it." If it is the first time to start a war, it will be a defeat, and the prestige of the Tang army will be frustrated, and the battle behind it will be difficult to fight. He also asked the Marquis of Ru to give an order to pull out the camp overnight and then retreat ten miles away, away from the Tang army's attack range. At the same time, more sentry cavalry was sent to patrol all night to prevent the Tang army from infiltrating and attacking. ”

"Hmph, Li Guo, you may not be too timid." Liu Fangliang was very dissatisfied with Li Guo's statement, and he said coldly: "If you say this, our army will not fight, because as soon as the Tang army beats the drums and shouts, it will withdraw from the camp by itself, which is simply a big joke in the world!" If this spreads, won't the face and dignity of my Dashun army be lost? ”

"Cihou, military affairs, life and death, how can you take care of such a virtual thing as face?" Li Guo immediately frowned and retorted: "If our army relaxes its vigilance on this, if the Tang army really takes the opportunity to attack, our army will definitely suffer heavy casualties if it is not guarded, isn't this kind of responsibility far more serious than pulling out the camp and retreating?" It's really come to such a situation, are you willing to bear the responsibility for the defeat in this battle? ”

Hearing the disagreement between the two people, Liu Zongmin became more and more irritable, he gritted his teeth and shouted: "Okay! Don't fight! No matter how long you argue, you can't make any noise. Okay, now that the commander has made up his mind, you just listen to the order. ”

Hearing Liu Zongmin say this, Liu Fangliang and Li Guo stopped arguing, and the two of them turned their eyes to Liu Zongmin.

"You two listen well, now that our army has just come here, not a single soldier has been fighting, and because of the Tang army's clamoring, they will pull out the camp and retreat, which will inevitably hurt the morale too much, and also damage the glory and dignity of our army, so it is absolutely not advisable to take a good strategy." Liu Zongmin glanced at Li Guo, who was disappointed, and said to Liu Fangliang, who had a slight look on his face: "However, the Tang army is full of tricks, although our army's strength is more than ten times that of it, but they are really daring, dare to ask for a sudden truth in the ten falsehoods, our army is really defenseless, and it will suffer a heavy setback, which is also very likely." Therefore, it is necessary to take precautions in advance to be safe. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately ordered: "After the two of you return to the camp, you need to send additional manpower to take strict precautions outside the camp and closely observe the movements of the Tang army to prevent its troops from attacking the camp." ”

Liu Fangliang and Li Guo responded in unison, and were about to leave, but Li Guo turned his head again and said uneasily: "Liu Shuai, I will wait for this, I will be more guarded, but the position of the left camp and the right camp is later, and the Tang army wants to sneak attack, but it is difficult to care for a while." What worries me the most is the middle camp. ”

Facing Liu Zongmin's two sharp gazes, Li Guo did not evade it, he continued: "The position of the middle camp is the most prominent, and the right camp and the left camp behind it are difficult to echo for a while. I only hope that Liu Shuai can take careful precautions to prevent the Tang Army's tricks from succeeding,"

"Ben Shuai knows about this, and you don't need to remind him again and again." Liu Zongmin was unhappy in his heart, and replied with a sneer: "This commander is scheduled to send additional sentry horses tonight, go out to patrol the camp, and will set up a horse rejection outside the camp, even if the Tang army does not care about life and death, and is forced to attack, I am afraid that it will be extremely difficult to approach." And as long as their offensive is blocked, then we can counter their troops, and even wipe out all the soldiers and horses of the Tang army's sneak attack. ”

Hearing Liu Zongmin's nervous plan, but rather optimistic, Li Guo frowned.

He opened his mouth to say more, but when he saw Liu Zongmin's gloomy face, he finally just sighed lightly, didn't say anything, and turned around and left.

After Liu Fangliang and Li Guo left, Liu Zongmin immediately began to strengthen the defense of the military camp.

He sent hundreds of sentry cavalry to patrol the camp outside the camp all night, and at the same time, at the entrance of the camp gate and the weak point of the fence, he ordered his soldiers to urgently reinforce and place a large number of horses and barbs to prevent the Tang army from sneaking up.

After these tasks were handed over, Liu Zongmin was afraid that his subordinates would be lazy, but he was also cautious, and took the trouble to personally inspect the camp, while supervising the soldiers to speed up the arrangement, and at the same time ordering that there should be no noise in the camp, and all the sergeants should strictly abide by military discipline, and all the soldiers who had no tasks still rested as usual.

After finally finishing all this, Liu Zongmin, who was highly tired, returned to the tent and fell asleep.

The next situation was really as Liu Zongmin expected, almost every half an hour, the drums rumbled at Shanhaiguan, and the shouts shook the sky, making Liu Zongmin's camp tense for a while.

At the first two Shanhaiguan movements, Liu Zongmin still patiently got up to check, but the third time, he woke up in bed, but he was too lazy to move, and only ordered his soldiers to check if there was anything abnormal.

And when the fourth Shanhaiguan drum sounded, Liu Zongmin was already thundering, and he didn't think about it at all.

Similar to him, the soldiers of the whole battalion, except for the patrolling sentries and sentry, who were still fighting hard against heavy drowsiness, the rest of the sergeants were all deep in sleep, and the whole camp was snoring one after another.

It's just that Liu Zongmin and his subordinates thought that the Tang army was just bluffing and deliberately did not let himself and his soldiers rest peacefully, but he never expected that when the Tang army sounded the fourth drum beat, a large number of auxiliary soldiers had quietly come to the grove next to the camp.

In fact, when the drums sounded the first few times, the Tang army had already begun to move, and they used the sound of drums, horns, and shouts as cover, and a large number of auxiliaries dressed in black night clothes had sneaked out of the city and started a night raid.

The Tang army's night attack plan, speaking of which, is really similar to Zhuge Liang's strategy to repel Cao Cao.

That is, using the trumpets and shouts as a cover, let the Tang soldiers' auxiliaries as the advance team, carrying small trebuchet parts that had been disassembled into pieces, and a large number of individual soldiers to shake the sky, crawl out of the ditch outside the city, and quietly sneak into the groves outside the city.

When they arrived at the grove, they used the faint moonlight as a light and the intermittent drumming of Shanhaiguan City as a cover, and relied on the disassembly and assembly training that had been practiced many times in the past, to quickly and accurately assemble the small trebuchet that was disassembled into parts. In the same way, the individual earth-shaking thunder that he brought with him was also tied into a bundle in a group of ten, ready to be thrown and used.

The target of their attack was the middle camp where Liu Zongmin was stationed, as Li Guo predicted.

After all, this is the closest to the woods, and if you attack from the woods, this barracks is right on the edge of the maximum range of small trebuchets. At the same time, it is far away from the left and right battalions, and if there is an emergency, the other two battalions will also be difficult to rescue, so attacking here should be the best choice.

According to the plan of the Tang army, when the auxiliary troops began to throw earth-shaking thunder and Liu Zongmin's middle camp was in chaos, the 4,000 cavalry who had been quietly waiting at the east gate of Shanhaiguan could immediately jump out of the city, launch a fierce attack on the defeated Qing army, and vigorously pursue and kill the fleeing Liu Zongmin's troops, causing them the maximum damage possible.

Such a night attack, of course, is also quite dangerous, considering that after all, its own strength is limited, and the enemy's army is extremely strong, so this plan requires that after an all-out blow, strive to retreat with all his body, which should be the safest measure.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, the Tang army will carefully calculate the end time of the night attack, and when the enemy's left and right battalions come to help, the whole army will have already retreated back to Shanhaiguan, so that the enemy army will be empty, and the so-called reinforcements are meaningless.

At the time of the third beating of drums and shouts of the Tang army, a large number of auxiliary soldiers of the Tang army, taking advantage of the cover of night, bowed down and quickly walked through, like a group of alert and patient groundhogs, came to the dark grove, where they quickly assembled trebuchets and threw mines with the cluster of individual soldiers.

They were to wait until about four o'clock in the morning, when the enemy was in the most sluggish and paralyzed state, before they began to attack.

Sure enough, they were pleased to see from a distance that when the fourth drum sounded, there was very little movement in the enemy camp, and the sentry riders who were parading outside the camp also continued to wander numbly, and did not take the noise of the Tang army seriously at all.

The best moment to attack has finally arrived.