"Report to the Chief Soldier, the Liukou led by Li Yan is only twenty miles away from Datong City!" The Tanma sent out once again reported the situation of Li Yan's department to Cao Yue, who had been staying in Datong City temporarily.

Cao Yue didn't say anything special, just waved his hand and asked the sergeant who reported the situation to step back.

Li Yan's men and horses will arrive at the city of Datong, Liu Zongmin's army is still nearly two hundred miles away from Datong, will Li Yan, who arrived first, take the lead in attacking the city, or will Liu Zongmin's troops arrive together? Cao Yue leaned towards the former possibility.

Probably influenced by some wild historical records, he always thought that Li Yan, who was good in all aspects, did not have a good relationship with other important figures in the peasant army, and finally Li Yan was killed after the defeat of Li Zichengshi in the Battle of Stone, which confirmed this point. Therefore, Cao Yue believed that Li Yan, who thought that he had a good command and combat ability, would definitely take advantage of the sharp spirit of the troops who had just arrived at the time of the arrival of the army to try to attack first.

After receiving a series of military intelligence reports, Cao Yue also convened his generals again to discuss the military situation.

Zhao Liang, who was appointed by Wu Mingzhi as the deputy commander-in-chief of Datong, proposed to Cao Yue that he could take advantage of Li Yanbu's unstable foothold to take the initiative to attack and take him by surprise. "Lord Commander, the last general is willing to take a battalion of soldiers out of the city to meet the Liukou," Zhao Liang also took the initiative to ask for battle.

After Cao Jie heard this, he immediately stood up and expressed his willingness to lead his first battalion soldiers out of the city to take the initiative to meet the rogue.

However, there are also people who stand up against it, believing that it is not necessary to abandon the fortified city and go out to face the battle in order to win, so that even if you win, you will pay a heavy price. Although Datong's troops are still sufficient, these are all elite soldiers trained by Cao Yue, the chief soldier, through hard work, and there is no need to pay unnecessary losses. With the fortified city of Datong to defend, with sufficient food and weapons, it is good to let the rogues meet under the city of Datong and break their blood.

"Lord Commander, if we go out of the city to meet the attack, we are in the hands of the Liukou, they can lose a lot of our men and horses outside the city, even if all the people and horses of Li Yanbu are lost, there is also Liu Zongmin's army, even if we pay the loss of one enemy and two, in the end, our Datong army is all over, and there are still many people left in the Liukou, Datong will also fall into the hands of the Liukou," Zhao Tai, another deputy commander-in-chief, held the opposite opinion, he did not agree with Zhao Liang and Cao Jie and others said, "Unless, like the last Jiannu, the Liukou army is approaching the city of Datong, We can fight with our backs to the city and use the powerful lethality of the musket battalion to deal a blow to the rogues. ”

"Lord Commander, the Liukou are just a group of rabble, their combat effectiveness is far inferior to Jiannu, we can completely annihilate the elite of nearly 10,000 Jiannu under Datong, are you afraid of tens of thousands of Liukou?" Cao Jie, who was carried away by the last big victory, was a little unimpressed by what Zhao Tai said, "As long as someone covers our flanks, my first battalion can defeat Li Yan's troops." ”

"If Li Yan ordered the cavalry to repeatedly attack the flank of the musket battalion, and the men and horses covering the flank could not withstand the attack of the rogues, what would be the final result?" Cao Yue couldn't help but ask Cao Jie, "Can your troops still organize resistance or attack in an orderly manner?" ”

"What the chief soldier said is," Zhao Tai couldn't help but be proud when he saw Cao Yue supporting them in watching the battle, "Although the power of the musket battalion is huge, if the Liukou cavalry rushes to the vicinity, it will only be slaughtered!"

"Won't Deputy Chief Zhao doubt the combat effectiveness of the cavalry he leads?" Cao Jie was a little depressed, but he couldn't help but refute Zhao Tai, as Cao Yue's most trusted general, and now the general of the first battalion, he didn't have much psychological disadvantage in front of Zhao Tai and others.

"It is precisely because I know that the cavalry under my command is not strong in combat, so I am worried that I will not be able to withstand the attack of the Liukou cavalry," seeing that Cao Yue did not make any further statement, Zhao Tai continued to state his opinion, "There are more than 10,000 cavalry under Li Yan's command, and we only have 8,000 people, most of them are newly trained recruits, and their combat effectiveness is not much stronger than that of Liukou. What's more, now that the weather is warm, the speed of the cavalry attack is very fast. ”

"I think what Deputy General Zhao said is very rewarding, we must be cautious and not careless!"

In the end, Cao Yue agreed with what Zhao Tai and others said, and if he didn't take the initiative to go out of the city to meet the attack, he let Li Yanbu slowly prepare for the siege. Zhao Tai is right, the current Datong soldiers have been trained with great difficulty, and he doesn't want to lose them easily. Also, after all, this was not a battle against foreign captives, but a fight between his compatriots, and the casualties caused by the large-scale battle outside the city must have been very large, and he did not want to see this.

Now in the war, Cao Yue relies most on firearms, and in the case of relatively backward firearms today, the chances of winning by defending the city are obviously much greater. Cao Yue hoped that the huge power of firearms would be used to deter the rogues and make them retreat, and there was no need to turn Datong into a super slaughterhouse. Now although He Liukou is both enemy and us, they are both people of the Ming Dynasty, and Cao Yue hopes that the war will kill some Han family members.

In the end, the result of the military discussion was that they did not leave to meet the battle, and waited for the rogues to attack the city.

Even if the hundreds of thousands of troops can surround Datong City, it is impossible for them to stay under Datong City for a long time, after all, the money and food needed by the hundreds of thousands of troops are not a few, and they cannot meet their needs by plundering the people near Datong. What's more, the Liukou also appeared as the savior of the people, and unless they had an extreme situation, they still wanted to make the most decisions about the official warehouses of Datong City and nearby state cities.

It's just that Cao Yue and Wei Daben have already taken precautions and taken full precautions. Although it is impossible to achieve the same strong walls and wilderness as the last time he dealt with the invasion of Jiannu, it can at least make it more difficult for the rogues to obtain food.

Cao Yue still thought that after Li Yan led the army to Datong, he would directly attack the city with his troops, but it turned out that Cao Yue's idea was wrong, and Li Yan's headquarters that arrived under Datong City first, did not attack the city immediately, but camped on a slope backed by mountains ten miles away from Datong City, and did not directly reach Datong City. After Li Yan's army was stationed at the entrance of the camp, he began to cut down nearby forests and make siege equipment such as ladders.

Li Yan's original plan was to use the rapid rush to catch Cao Yue off guard, but in the end he knew that this was just his wishful thinking, and the scouts sent by Cao Yue had already detected the whereabouts of his army, and it was impossible to fight another surprise battle.

In the end, Li Yan decided to camp and rest first, waiting for Liu Zongmin's army to come, and the two groups of men and horses joined forces to attack Datong City. His men were exhausted from the long march and were in dire need of rest. Li Yan had been in the army for many years and knew that after arriving near Datong, he would have to beware of a sneak attack by the officers and soldiers, so he chose a place not far from Datong City, where the terrain was very conducive to defense and not conducive to sneak attack.

After detecting the situation, Cao Yue probably guessed Li Yan's plan, and he immediately made arrangements.

The special training team, which had been trained for more than half a year, could also be used to try its skills, and Cao Yue immediately ordered the special training team that had returned from following Li Yanbu to prepare for a sneak attack on the Liukou camp.