Although Liu Fenggu was also frightened by the steel knife and neck just now, he was better than Shao Zhi, and at least he could reply: "Lord Tang, just now the villain and Shao Qian accompanied Commander Chang and Commander Liu to clean up the battlefield outside the fort and count the casualties, and it turned out that in addition to the five hundred and seventy-seven Han soldiers who had died, there were also one hundred and five Han soldiers injured, plus the forty-eight Han soldiers who knelt and surrendered during the battle, a total of seven hundred and thirty people. According to the calculations of the villain and Shao Qian, the total number of Han troops who rushed out of the fort in the first two times should be 735 people. That is, at least five Han soldiers are missing. ”

"Five people are missing?" Tang Chao asked, "Are the numbers reliable?" Are you sure that the Han army that went out of the fort to participate in the battle was indeed 735 men? ”

"The villain is sure" Liu Fenggu nodded very confidently, "The villain will not be mistaken in the number of soldiers in his own battalion, and the villain is very familiar with Commander Zhao of the right battalion, and it is also clear how many soldiers and villains there are in his battalion." Moreover, after counting the number of people, the villain also compared with the roster of all the soldiers in the fort with Mr. Shao Qian, and the soldiers who went out of the fort to participate in the battle were indeed five less.

According to the villain's guess, the five soldiers were likely slightly injured in the battle, or simply pretended to be injured and fell to the ground during the charge. When the villain waited for the fort to surrender and welcome your army into the fort, these five people took advantage of the opportunity that everyone's minds were placed at the gate of the fort and secretly fled the battlefield. ”

Seeing that Liu Fenggu was extremely sure, Tang Chao no longer doubted it. Originally, after a battle, it was not a big deal that the opponent's soldiers were five less. However, the problem is that the purpose of the "Flying Dragon Army" in capturing Dabaoshu this time is to use this fortified fortress as a logistical supply base for Zuihou and provide logistical support for attacking other Northern Han forts or towns - this is also the fundamental reason why Tang Chao sent rangers to defend the south gate of Dabaoshu and intended to detain all caravans or pedestrians passing through this place for a period of time after that.

Now, all of this could have been aborted with the escape of the five Han soldiers - almost 100% sure that these five Han soldiers would have gone to report to the Northern Han defenders in Fanzhi, Bottle-shaped Fortress, and even Yanmen County and Yanmen Pass. Then, I'm afraid it won't be long before the army of the Northern Han Dynasty will drive outside the fort. At that time, if the "Flying Dragon Army" did not want to be trapped here by the Han army, it would only turn around and go north, break through the bottle-shaped barricade, and kill back to the Liao State, which meant that the "Operation No. 2" that had been fully prepared and consumed a lot of manpower, material and financial resources had to be abandoned halfway.

Thinking of this, Tang Chao hurriedly asked Liu Fenggu and said, "This commander asks you, how many roads are there to go to Bottle-shaped Qi, Fanzhi, Yanmen and other counties, how long does it take for those soldiers to walk to these places?" ”

Liu Fenggu thought for a moment and replied: "Back to the Tang Dynasty, Dabaoshu is forty miles away from the bottle-shaped bar, sixty miles away from Fanzhi County, one hundred and ten miles away from Yanmen County, and one hundred and fifty miles away from Yanmen Pass. If those soldiers run wildly, they will be able to reach the bottle at dawn tomorrow in the north, and Fanzhi County in the south before noon tomorrow. As for Yanmen County and Yanmen Pass, I am afraid that it will take more than two days.

However, what the villain said was to go all the way and not take a long rest in the middle. The five Han soldiers had only eaten one meal in the morning, and at this time they were afraid that they would be hungry for a long time, and it would be good to be able to run to Bottle Shape or Fanzhi County from afternoon to evening tomorrow. Moreover, since the adults came from the direction of the bottle-shaped qi, it was more likely that these five people would run to Fanzhi County in order to avoid other Liao troops in that direction. ”

"Then as far as you know, how many Han troops are there in Fanzhi County, and how many Han troops are there in Yanmen County and Yanmen Pass?" Tang Chao continued to ask.

Tang Chao's question involved the military secrets of the Han army, and Liu Fenggu was reluctant to talk about it from his own heart -- in his heart, defeat and surrender and leaking his own secrets were two different things. Therefore, hearing Tang Chao's question, Liu Fenggu hesitated a little and did not answer immediately. But just when he was thinking about whether to reveal this information to Tang Chao, Shao Zhi, who had been frightened by Tang Chao's palm just now, suddenly came to his senses, struggled to kneel again, and kowtowed: "Back to Lord Tang, as far as the villain knows, there are 4,000 defenders in Fanzhi County, 6,000 defenders in Yanmen County, and the largest army in Daizhou is stationed in Yanmen Pass, with a total of about 10,000 people. ”,

Although Tang Chao looked down on Shao Zhi in his heart, he was still very interested in the number of Han troops he provided, so he did not reprimand him for stealing words. Tang Chao simply added the numbers Shao Zhi said, and came up with the number 20,000. Although he had a certain understanding of the garrison of the Han army in the Daizhou area, there were 20,000 Han troops near the city on the left side of Dabao, which still surprised Tang Chao a little.

However, accidents are accidents, but Tang Chao does not have any fearful thoughts. On the one hand, the other party wants to leave part of the army to garrison the city, and it is impossible to send all the troops over, and it is already the limit to be able to send more than 10,000 men and horses. On the other hand, with the equipment advantage that the "Flying Dragon Army" now has, coupled with the fact that it is defending the city, even if the main force does not have time to arrive, with the more than 600 people in his current hands, he can fight with the Han army.

Of course, while being full of confidence in the combat effectiveness of his subordinates, Tang Chao also saw his shortcomings in this regard -- the problem of logistics and supply. Although the "Flying Dragon Army" got a lot of food from occupying the big fort, even if the Han army besieged it for several months, it would not be a problem for the soldiers to eat enough. However, as an army that relies heavily on firearms to win, once it loses the replenishment of ammunition, the "Flying Dragon Army" is in danger of being wiped out. Because after the arrival of enemy reinforcements, the siege must be the first step, which will interrupt the ammunition supply of the "Wyvern Army". In order to be in a hurry, the vanguard in his hands did not carry too much ammunition, with an average of only 50 rounds of ammunition for each rifle and only about 20 shells for each artillery. In the battle outside the fort just now, rifle bullets were consumed by nearly one-tenth, and artillery shells were consumed by one-fifth. The remaining ammunition may be enough for a few more skirmishes, but in the face of tens of thousands of enemy troops, it will be overwhelming.

The most important thing for Tang Chao now is to reserve enough ammunition, and the premise of this is that the main force on his side, especially the logistics battalion responsible for transporting ammunition, must arrive before the Han reinforcements besiege the city. Therefore, after getting relevant information from Liu Fenggu and Shao Zhi, Tang Chao ordered someone to take Shao and Liu down to take care of them, and began to make arrangements.

Tang Chao first ordered the rangers who were acting with the vanguard to send two men and horses, one to search in the direction of the bottle-shaped fortress and the other to search in the direction of Fanzhi County, so as to take advantage of the speed advantage of the cavalry to stop the five fleeing Han soldiers, so as to delay as much as possible the time for the Han troops elsewhere to learn the news of the occupation of Dabaoshu.

Secondly, Tang Chao sent a group of cavalry to the secret camp not far from the bottle-shaped barrage, and ordered the logistics troops there to immediately send all the combat materials in the camp to Dabaoshu to increase the ammunition reserves of the vanguard.

In addition, Tang Chao also set up a radio station as quickly as possible, and reported the relevant situation on the Dabaoshu side to the Liangxiang side, on the one hand, asking for instructions on whether the next step was to defend the fort, or continue to attack other Han strongholds according to the established Jihua, or withdraw the army. On the other hand, it is also hoped that if the committee and the military department decide to continue the fighting, they will try their best to urge the follow-up troops to speed up their advance and strive to rush to Dabaoshu before the Han army reinforcements besiege the city -- after the follow-up troops arrive, the "Flying Dragon Army" with 2,000 men will firmly grasp the operational initiative in their own hands.

Several orders were issued, but the first to feedback back was Liangxiang City, which was the farthest away. Two hours after Tang Chao's telegram was sent, the committee's reply arrived. In the telegram, in addition to ordering Tang Chao to revise the original plan of the battle and change the sortie to a fort - the withdrawal was not at all under consideration, the committee also informed him that the follow-up troops had advanced at full speed, and that the nearest one was not far from the bottle and should be able to reach it the next day. Several other troops are also hurrying up, and it is estimated that they will all arrive at Dabaoshu within three days.

After receiving a reply from the committee, a stone in Tang Chao's heart fell to the ground. According to Liu Fenggu's introduction, the Han soldiers who escaped will not be able to reach Fanzhi County until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. After receiving the news that Dabaoshu had been captured, Fanzhi County most likely did not send troops to recapture it, but sent people to Yanmen County and Yanmen Pass to rescue - after all, these two places and the bottle-shaped fortress that was likely to have fallen in the eyes of the Han army were the elite of Daizhou's soldiers and horses. As a result, the time spent on the road and the time spent by the army in making various preparations for the expedition made it possible for the Han reinforcements to arrive at Dabaoshu in five or six days at the earliest. By that time, the main force of the "Flying Dragon Army" had arrived, and all kinds of ammunition were well stocked, even if the 20,000 Han troops around it arrived, there was nothing to fear. ,

The second person who gave Tang Chao feedback was the Naba people sent to the secret camp, some of whom returned to Dabaoshu the next day, that is, on the 16th day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, bringing Tang Chao the news that the materials in the secret camp had been loaded and set off, and it was expected to arrive in Dabaoshu in the afternoon of the same day.

Zuihou's feedback was from the first two rangers to leave the Great Fort, who had returned to the Great Forts on the evening of April 16. Compared with the first two pieces of feedback, the news they brought to Tang Chao was not very good.

The first two rangers to be sent out searched carefully, and one of them only found and eliminated three escaped Han soldiers not too far from the county seat of Fanzhi. The other two Han soldiers who escaped were never discovered, and it is estimated that they did not take the main road, but fled into the mountains on both sides of the official road - it is not known whether these two ran to the mountains to hide, or went to Fanzhi County to report the news.

Although they could not stop all the fleeing Dabao defenders, considering that these two Han soldiers had crossed the mountains and mountains all the way, even if they ran to report the news, it would take two or three days before they could reach Fanzhi County. At that time, the "Flying Dragon Army" was all in place and was fully capable of fighting a big battle. Therefore, Tang Chao is quite satisfied with this result.

The situation was also as Tang Chao expected, and for the next seven days, Dabao was quite calm. Not only did the follow-up troops of the "Flying Dragon Army" arrive one after another under the leadership of Qian Yuanshan, Yang Xin, Zeng Zhilin, Muter, and Xin Feiyu, but they also had time to strengthen the fortress wall of the Great Fort so that they could defend it more when the Han army attacked the city.

The tranquility of Dabaoshu lasted until the 23rd day of the fourth lunar month of the seventh year of the corresponding calendar, and early in the morning, Qian Yuanshan and other members of the forward command had just sat down in the main hall of the camp, and Chang Shengjun sent them two pieces of information detected by the reconnaissance cavalry.

One of the scouts from the north simply reported that the garrison of the bottle had sent 3,000 men under the command of a commander to the south, and was now fifteen miles from the Great Fort.

The other piece of information is more detailed, which clearly reads: Liu Jiye, the adopted son of the Han Emperor Liu Jun, the envoy of the Han Jianxiong Army, and the Han general Liu Jiye, who was called "Liu Invincible" by the Han people, led 12,000 elite soldiers from Fanzhi County, and is now less than 15 miles away from Dabaoshu.

PS: During this time, idlers have changed their jobs to a new job, and the time they can spend on writing has been greatly reduced, and most of the time can only be guaranteed to be updated every two days, I hope book friends can understand. It's rare to have more time today, so I'll send two more 7,000 words, which is a little compensation, and I hope that book friends can continue to support idlers, xiexie.

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