At this time, the inside and outside of the fort suddenly became quiet, if it were not for the "Flying Dragon Army" artillery outside the fort was nervously building a firing position, it would even make people think that the soldiers outside the fort were waiting for the commander in the fort to come out of the fort to inspect them. However, this calm did not last long, although the official position of the Qianzong Shao Zhi of Dabaoshu was not high, but he had been in the army for many years, and he had fought with the Khitans for many years in the past, and he had very rich experience in the battle array. After the desperation of discovering that he had been cut off, he suddenly noticed a problem when he had been watching the movements of the enemy troops outside the fort from the watchtower.

He found the sudden enemy army to behave strangely. The enemy infantry slaughtered outside their fort, apparently trying to break through the fortress and occupy the most important fortress between Bottle Shape and Fanzhi County, but they did not carry any siege equipment. Although it is said that they came from the light troops of the enemy, it is normal that they did not carry siege equipment. It stands to reason that if they were tasked with capturing the fortress, then even if they could not carry their weapons because of the haste of the march, they should immediately send people to cut down trees and make some simple equipment on the spot as soon as they arrived outside the fort - even if they did not have time to prepare such large equipment as rushing carts and building carts, then at least some ladders should be prepared. But at the moment, the hundreds of enemy troops outside the fort did not send people to cut down trees, although I don't know what the more than 100 people gathered behind the infantry of the three phalanxes in front of them are busy doing, but it doesn't look like they are making siege equipment.

This phenomenon made Shao Qian, the general manager of the big fort, have a judgment -- the hundreds of enemy troops outside the fort did not come to attack the fort at all, and the reason why they came here should only be to see the defenders in the fort, or to deter the defenders in the fort, so that the defenders would not dare to act rashly, so as to buy time for the main force of the Liao army behind.

From this, this Master Qian extended another idea, that is, the bottle-shaped wall in front of him was not broken by the Liao army. The Liao army was afraid that the defenders in the bottle wall would send people to the rear to ask for help, so they sent a team of several hundred people to surround the big fort in order to intercept the messengers sent from the bottle wall to ask for help, so that they would have enough time to capture the bottle wall, or at least enough time to loot the people around the bottle wall. This also explains that there are only a few dozen cavalry on the other side of Weishenme, and these infantry outside the fort are so strange in terms of clothing and weapons - the main Khitan cavalry is plundering around the bottle-shaped barricade, and the strangely dressed infantry can make the defenders inside the fort suspicious and dare not go out of the fort to engage them, so that they can trap the large fort with thousands of defenders with hundreds of men.

Thinking of this, Mr. Shao Qian, who thought that he had clearly seen the enemy's conspiracy, immediately abandoned his plan to die with the enemy, and at the same time, his spirit also came up. Standing on the watchtower, he hurriedly ordered his own soldiers to call the two battalion commanders in the fort to the watchtower.

Two battalion commanders, one surnamed Zhao and the other surnamed Liu. The two were originally following the orders of their boss Qian, leading their subordinates to be on strict alert, preparing to resist the "Liao army" that might attack the fort at any time. This will hear the boss call himself, and while ordering his deputy to command in his place, he will hurry up to the watchtower.

On the watchtower, Shao Zhi stopped the two conductors Zhao and Liu, who wanted to salute him, and then explained his judgment to the two in the most concise language. Zhao and Liu both felt justified after hearing this, and the commander Zhao even proposed to lead a battalion of soldiers under his command to kill out of the fort, kill the Liao troops outside the fort, and completely break the enemy's conspiracy.

Shao Zhi felt very pleased with the active performance of his subordinates. He nodded and said, "What Commander Zhao said is exactly what he wants. However, after all, there were more than 600 enemy troops outside the fort, and the battalion led by Zhao Command Post was less than 500 people, so he did not have an advantage in terms of troops, and there were dozens of Liao cavalry on the other side of the fort. Therefore, in addition to the battalion head led by Zhao Command Post, the battalion head commanded by Liu also had to cooperate with the battle. The first 1,000 men of our two battalions will beat him with 600 infantry and dozens of cavalry, so that we can be more sure. ”

"Mr. Qian, I really see it more thoroughly than the last general. It's just that if the last general takes all the men and horses out of the fort, then this fort will become an empty city. If the Liao army still has an ambush nearby, then it will be too late for the general to come back for reinforcements. The two conductors, Zhao and Liu, first complimented them, and then raised their own doubts. ,

Shao Zhi waved his hand and replied, "The two commanders don't have to worry. Mr. Ben Qian had already carefully observed from the watchtower just now, and there was no sign of an enemy ambush around our fort. The two commanders only needed to leave a small team of crossbowmen for Ben Qian, in case the enemy cavalry ventured to attack the fort. Although the rest of the soldiers were taken out, there was no need to worry about the back road. ”

"Mr. Qian, Lord Qian, is wise" Zhao and Liu, the two conductors, once again sent compliments.

Shao Zhi didn't care about the compliments of his subordinates, he continued to order: "Later, the two commanders will gather the soldiers under their command, and then Commander Zhao will lead the team out of the fort first and fight with the Liao army." After the men and horses under the command of Zhao and the Liao army were in a scuffle, Commander Liu ordered his men and horses to leave the fort and join the melee from both flanks of the enemy infantry, so that the enemy infantry mistakenly thought that they had been surrounded, so that they would be defeated faster. When the time comes, they will definitely ask for help from their cavalry. When the enemy cavalry received the information and came to reinforcements, Liu Commander personally led the remaining Sandu men and horses to attack and attack the enemy cavalry from behind.

As a result, the enemy cavalry will either get caught in a melee between the front and rear and will not be able to play to its advantage, or they will rush out of the melee. And if he wants to kill the place where the two sides are fighting, there are only two ways to choose. Rushing back, although only the Sandu men and horses under the command of Liu were there to stop them, not far behind the Sandu men and horses was the parapet wall of our fort, on which there were the crossbowmen of the commander-in-chief Ben Qian. For the enemy cavalry, I am afraid that even if they can break through the interception of the infantry, they will not be able to escape the shooting of the crossbowmen. Therefore, they can only rush forward, in the direction from which they came.

But in that case, they will not only have to fight a bloody way among our Han soldiers, but also among the infantry of his Liao State. At that time, the Sandu people led by Commander Liu followed the cavalry of the Liao army and slaughtered into its infantry formation, completely disrupting the formation of the Liao army. As long as the Liao army's position is chaotic, then they will only have to be slaughtered. ”

Shao Zhi and Shao Qian always said the Tao, and the two commanders were also greatly increased by his confidence, and there was no hesitation. The two of them saluted Shao Zhi together and said, "Master Qian's plan is very good, and the last general will wait for this to go to the whole team." ”

Shao Zhi nodded when he heard this, and said, "The two commanders quickly went to sort out the people. When Ben Qian raised the red flag above the watchtower, Commander Zhao led the team out of the fort. After Ben Qian raised the blue flag, Commander Liu sent the first two people out of the fort. After Ben Qian raised the green flag, Commander Liu personally led the remaining soldiers of Sandu out of the fort. ”

"Yes, the last general commands." The two commanders, Zhao and Liu, bowed down to receive the order, and then went down to the watchtower to gather the team.

When Shao Zhi and Shao Qian were always teaching their subordinates on the watchtower, Tang Chao was also assigning tasks to several company commanders under him. Although in Tang Chao's original jihua, he planned to take advantage of the strange dress and equipment of his team to stabilize the defenders in the Dashu Fort, so that they would not dare to act rashly. Then, using their own firepower superiority, they carried out a fierce artillery bombardment of the fort, so as to achieve the effect of surrendering the army without a fight.

Therefore, while the artillery was preparing for the position, he called the company commanders of the three infantry companies and a squad leader of the "wolf's tooth" squad to his side, and discussed the order in which the three companies would enter the fort after the artillery blasted the door of the opponent's fort open, as well as the direction in which they would charge and kill in the fort. At the same time, it was also required that after entering the fort, the squad of the "Wolf Tooth" team should not be entangled too much with the enemy's ordinary soldiers, but should find the officers with higher positions in the enemy's army. In this regard, the commanders of the three infantry companies and the squad leader of the "Wolf Tooth" squad nodded one after another, indicating that they fully understood what Tang Chao meant, and would definitely follow the jihua arranged by Tang Chao.

Just as several people were about to finalize this action plan, a personal soldier who was in charge of monitoring the other party's movements suddenly shouted: "Twenty-four masters, the enemy army is out of the fort." ”

Hearing that the enemy army who had originally made a stubborn posture had actually come out of the fort, although Tang Chao and the other commanders of the "Flying Dragon Army" felt a little unexpected, everyone did not panic in the slightest. While ordering several company commanders to return to their own team as quickly as possible and command the soldiers to fight, Tang Chao turned his head to inquire about the readiness of the artillery positions behind.

In charge of commanding the artillery in the rear was Ma Zhengsheng, deputy commander of the artillery battalion of the "Flying Dragon Army". Hearing Tang Chao's inquiry, he hurriedly replied: "Twenty-four masters, the six mortars have been placed and are ready to shoot at any time." The two front-loading guns are still being arranged, and it will take half a cup of tea to be ready. ”,

Tang Chao did not give an order immediately, but turned his head and continued to observe the number and queue of the Han army. When he found out that the Han army out of the fort was only one battalion of less than 500 people, and it was not in front of the fort, but rushed straight to his side, he couldn't help but feel a little strange in his heart. Because according to common sense, when you have the upper hand in numbers, the best choice should be to rely on the fort to take a defensive position. This allows you to protect your back and use the ranged weapons in the fort to maximize the damage to the enemy. However, the Han army on the opposite side gave up such tactics that were beneficial to itself, and instead attacked itself with a team that was inferior in numbers, which was really contrary to common sense in combat.

Regarding this abnormal tactics of the enemy army, Tang Chao's initial understanding was that these people who rushed out were dead soldiers such as death squads, but after thinking about it, he denied his judgment - the Han army in the Dabao garrison was only more than 1,000 people, and it was absolutely impossible to send 500 people to play with their lives at once.

Since the possibility of death squads does not exist, there is only one explanation for the sudden rush of the enemy troops, and that is that there are other troops behind this battalion of people. The other party may have planned to use this battalion to lure himself into the bait first, and when his side was greedy for merit, he rushed up to fight with this battalion, and after falling into a melee, the other party sent reinforcements out to surround him from his own flanks. At that time, even if his cavalry rushed over from the other side of the fort, in this relatively small battlefield, in the face of the situation of the enemy and the enemy fighting together, it would be very limited to play a role.

Thinking of this, Tang Chao already has a corresponding countermeasure. On the one hand, he sent a signal corpsman to inform the three company commanders in front of him, telling them to listen to the orders of his side and block the enemy according to the method of dealing with enemy infantry in ordinary training, and at the same time, he turned his head again and ordered Ma Zhengsheng, the deputy commander of the artillery battalion behind him: "Deputy Battalion Commander Ma, order all mortars to set the target point of shooting in the area between 30 and 80 meters in front of the gate of the enemy fort, and then open fire together after I give the order to open fire." ”

"Yes," Ma replied loudly.

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