The news of the loss of Shuozhou was difficult to hide, and it immediately caused a huge shock in the direction of Ningwu Pass, which was not too far away, although at this time Sun Chuanting got a lot of news that the attack on Shuozhou was a group of elite soldiers of only a few thousand or so, but he never dared to underestimate this force. Through beacon fire, flying pigeons and special symbolic secret letters, Sun Chuanting, who was on the verge of the front line of Ningwu Pass, immediately ordered the main force of the 50,000 Ming army in the direction of Datong in the north, including 30,000 or 40,000 main forces of Kanzhan, to abandon the defense of the Datong area and return to help, and at the same time ordered the army near Ningwu Pass to prepare on the spot to deal with the enemy's light troops to launch a surprise attack from other directions.

In this regard, Zhu Qiugui, the king of Jin, was not very worried: "The enemy's group of elite soldiers is in the elite, and it is obviously not the opponent of tens of thousands of elite soldiers in the direction of Datong Mansion, our army now has sufficient troops, and the food stock is at least enough for hundreds of thousands of troops for a few months, there is no need to be so eager to fight a decisive battle with the enemy... ”

Although Sun Chuanting did not despise the legendary "volunteer troops", through a series of previous battle reports, he still believed that the strong enemy army was likely to have mastered a unique siege method, and relying on the city defense to resist passively was no longer the best policy. However, although the border army in the Datong area has been transferred a lot of strength, it can still be regarded as of acceptable quality after the replenishment and training in the past few months. In such a battleworthy team, even if the enemy army is very elite, it is by no means easy to defeat the Datong group with nearly ten times the strength in the field, and it is more likely to fall into a fierce battle in the field.

Once the depth of this elite is tested, the direction of Ningwuguan can mobilize troops to launch a siege against this lone army according to the situation, and if the legendary "volunteer elite" is eliminated, it will undoubtedly be a fatal blow to Emperor Chongzhen. And judging from the past situation, maybe the son of the military camp is among them, and if this happens, the profit will be very large.

Of course, there are many examples in history where fewer have won more, but it should not be so easy to win with a few thousand against tens of thousands, rather than a few tens of thousands against hundreds of thousands of people who are difficult to effectively coordinate and command.

"The combat power of those strong enemies must not be underestimated, and they will not be stupid enough to go north to attack Datong instead of plundering the closer rear of Ningwu Pass, only by concentrating tens of thousands of main forces in the direction of Datong to contain the main opponent, it is possible to finally resolve the crisis... In Sun Chuanting's estimate, it is likely that the decisive battle in the direction of Ningwu Pass may not be able to wait for the return of the army from the north.

From the perspective of military common sense, of course, Sun Chuanting's judgment did not have many problems, but at this time, Sun Chuanting still underestimated Xiao Xuan's "political confidence" in the volunteer division, and also misjudged the way of thinking.

The confrontation in Shuozhou, as well as the previous confrontation with the main force left behind in Jianzhou in Liaodong, has changed Xiao Xuan's view of the strategic pattern somewhat. Because in Xiao Xuan's view: for his own side, which has more than 100,000 decent troops and nearly 10,000 elites with relatively vitality and expansion capabilities, "avoiding strategic failure" is no longer the biggest strategic danger.

Xiao Xuan was worried, but because the victory came too quickly, he didn't have much time to pass the test of the domestic war and make the volunteer army develop relatively solidly to at least tens of thousands of reliable and decent troops. Therefore, this time he did not go south according to common sense, but led the team to advance in the direction of Datong abnormally.

When approaching the Huairen area, the northbound team led by Xiao Xuan finally encountered the advance cavalry, the main force of the Datong Army in the south. The team's relatively strict odds in advancing, as well as the unique one-man hot air balloon and telescope reconnaissance method, did not expose the main force when the cavalry was significantly less than the opponent. This made the main force of the Ming army in the Datong area, which was going south hundreds of miles away, feel that the enemy army going north was likely to be only about 2,000 people at most, and it was basically looking for death in front of the army that was more than 20 times that went south. Therefore, without much concern, they divided their troops in the relatively complex mountainous area and outflanked them from all directions.

If it were a traditional army, a passive encounter seemed inevitable. However, the team led by Xiao Xuan has quietly begun to have some differences from the same ancient legions from tactical methods to many application principles, so the effective use of the method of concealed fortifications at night has thrillingly avoided the search net launched by the Datong Ming army heading south. Through the activities of tens of thousands of enemy troops, Xiao Xuan could relatively clearly discover the approximate location of the enemy's main force.

When the Datong Ming army led by You Jia camped in a relatively densely populated place between Wulizhai and Bikouling, and was ready to continue to march south after gathering the team, Xiao Xuan no longer hesitated, marched nearly 100 miles by force, and launched a blasting night attack on the Datong Ming army at the fastest speed. This time, the attack was chosen not near dawn, but at midnight.

A night attack is quite a risky act, and if the defenders are well arranged, it will be quite dangerous even for the team led by Xiao Xuan now, but Xiao Xuan believes it. For the team that has not carried too much baggage to the south, it is very unlikely that they can effectively make sufficient arrangements in just a few hours.

Under the attack of at least tens of thousands of heavy shrapnel brought by the violent explosion, the Ming army, which had just converged, suffered more than half of the casualties in the first time. Although this was not the final word for a decent army, it also threw the enemy camp at night into chaos at the beginning. It was also after this that the three volunteer regiments and nine battalions of the volunteer division were fully engaged in the battle from all directions.

As long as they do not face the threat of certain explosive traps on the defending side, there is no doubt that night fighting, close combat, and melee combat are the greatest comparative advantages for volunteer divisions whose greatest comparative advantages are combat awareness, mutual familiarity between officers and men, and means of organizing and liaison. It seems that the traditional Chinese army is two completely different types.

After the violent rain of explosive bullets, accompanied by a lot of smoke and noise that could create a lot of smoke and noise to interfere with the opponent's grenade attack, the sound of guns, hand-to-hand combat, and even the sound of archers firing cold arrows into the flesh in the dark night, the battalion, which theoretically had little problem in defense, quickly fell into chaos.

Although the command and training were decent, the Datong army quickly entered a combat state, and many people who were fully equipped and put into battle after the rotation, but this kind of battle still caught the Ming army, which lacked grassroots flexibility, off guard. With the difficulty of distinguishing friend from foe, and the shadow of death and close confrontation looming, You Shigong had no choice but to regroup his team and retreat in other directions.

(End of chapter)