"As far as I know, that's not a ranger sentry either," Wei Landu continued to retort unceremoniously: "I asked a few officers of the Evergreen Battalion who fled back, and they all said that they were the army led by Ji Huisi himself. ”

"That's just to excuse the thief, who did Lord Wei ask at that time? Are they the ones who became traitors later? Zhang Biao pushed back the words: "If you want to say that the whole new army was defeated by the thieves' rangers, I don't believe it, but the thieves did it, and we shouldn't turn a blind eye to it." ”

"At that time, it should have been that the morale of the army was unstable, and everyone in the rear of the Evergreen Battalion wanted to flee for their lives, so they dispersed in a hurry, otherwise it would be impossible." Jia Minghe had also read the newspaper of the New Army, and he told everyone his judgment: "But it is ridiculous to say that the rangers can defeat our guards, I dare to say that even if the Hou Ye himself is here, he will never agree." ”

"My lord, we're just assuming the worst-case scenario and making recommendations based on that."

"Okay, I know, Master Hou must have a deep meaning, I don't blame you." Jia Minghe thought for a while: "However, this plan cannot be passed, and the attack effect of those tanma on our combat troops will be canceled, and the Shanlan battalion does not have to stay behind to protect the baggage." ”

"Obedience."

After talking about a few other questions, Jia Minghe talked about the overall military plan made by the staff of the third battalion: "Your suggestion is a long snake formation, one battalion of avant-garde, one battalion of cover, and one battalion after the break, and directly attack Kaifeng, right?" ”

"Yes, the thief doesn't have any power to stop us, and the thief's subordinates are worse than Ji Kou. There are only about 20,000 thieves, and any of our battalions can defeat his entire army, but we are worried that he will be harassed in all directions, so we need to divide our troops to cover the road. ”

"Just now I was talking about the enemy's leniency," Wei Landu snorted, the staff of the Shanlan battalion took the value of the chess pieces very differently from the other two battalions, under his influence, the Shanlan battalion believed that every two battalions must not be separated by more than two hours: "If we despise Xu Ping too much, we will suffer if we don't do it well, but he has firearms." ”

"What about firearms, they have no armor and no sharp blades, can they win without relying on firearms alone in white-knuckle warfare? Besides, we have it, and we still have flintlock pistols and cannons, so what can he do if he can have a few hundred arquebuses? It would be good if the thief had this guts, in Shandong he threw down the wounded soldiers and ran away, this gutless rat! ”

He Ma's words made Wei Landu's face look ugly: "Lord He, I also agreed at that time, am I also a gutless rat?" ”

"Brother He can't mean this, the most pressing question at the moment is how to deal with the camp." Wei Wu hurriedly came out to interrupt, these days he has changed his ways, quit drinking, and soaked in the military camp every day to train soldiers, but the matter in Shandong is a hidden pain in his heart.

Wei Landu was stunned for a moment, and didn't mention this topic anymore, and said: "Before the Battle of Shandong, the Changqing Battalion was the first place in the New Army Exercise of the Fifth Battalion, which is of course the credit of Lord Zhang, but Xu Ping was also commended, at that time——"

"First, it is to teach the soldiers to train well; Second, Xu Thief has a lot of old stories in the Evergreen Camp, so he can attract people's hearts. Homer interrupted Wei Landu.

"This is really a deception, the new five battalions, all of which were built by the old five battalion headquarters and the supplementary battalion with 2,000 people as the backbone, the Changqing battalion because of the first battle in Texas, in order to let the Dongsen battalion recover as soon as possible, so simply allocated the remnants of the supplementary battalion to Changqing. If you want to say that the non-commissioned officers are skilled, the Evergreen Battalion is far inferior to the other battalions, at least two percent of the non-commissioned officers in my Shanlan Battalion are old non-commissioned officers who have been transferred from the Panshi Battalion, and the Evergreen Battalion is at most some new non-commissioned officers who have some experience in the first war in Texas and are hastily trained by the teaching team. To belittle Xu Ping so much now is not only out of conscience, but also not beneficial to our army's attack! ”

"Brother Wei is so ambitious for others, what is the purpose of destroying his own prestige? At that time, the Changqing camp was not normal at all, and it was almost a thief who had the final say. ”

"When will it be Xu Ping's turn to say the final word in the Evergreen Camp? How did I never know? Are you saying that Master Zhang is confused and can't tell who the camp officer is? Or is it that Hou Ye is confused and allows Xu Ping to set aside Lord Zhang? ”

"Stop." Wei Wu interjected.

"Master Hou has never looked down on Xu Thief, and Lord He also retracted his praise for Xu Thief, saying that he had lost his eyes. Xu Thief was lucky enough to enter the villain, and he had no real talent to learn. Are you saying that Hou Ye is confused and misunderstood? Or are you saying that Lord He is talking nonsense? ”

"Don't talk about it." Wei Wu said again.

"Stop." Jia Minghe also spoke up.

Wei Landu turned to look at Jia Minghe: "The big marshal was also on the scene at that time, didn't the big marshal have an impression of Xu Ping?" How can you look at him as an idiot? ”

Jia Minghe nodded: "Xu Ping is talented, and when I first exercised, I was very optimistic about him." ”

Since Jia Minghe spoke, the rest of the people stopped arguing, and Jia Minghe said: "Xu Ping knows how to train troops, so we want to annihilate him here and not give him more time to train the troops." ”

The officers in the camp stood solemnly, and Jia Minghe ordered to reformulate the plan: "The purpose of the battle is to completely annihilate Xu Ping's lineage." ”

After the military discussion, Jia Minghe asked Wei Landu to stay: "Although I said this just now, I may still let you be in charge of the guard task." ”

Wei Landu looked indignant: "Dashuai, have you also listened to the rumors?" ”

"I don't, but I don't think you and them will work well." Jia Minghe sighed: "It's not comfortable to compete with friends on the battlefield, right?" ”

……

"My plan is to fight a decisive battle with these three battalions of the new army in Henan," Xu Ping and Li Dingguo said of his thoughts: "Defeat the new army face to face." ”

"Let me guess," Li Dingguo smiled when he heard this: "First, if the new army is released into Kaifeng, it will greatly boost the morale of the Bianjun, right?" ”

"Yes, in fact, the morale of the Kaifeng defenders has been greatly boosted now."

"Second, once the new army merges with the Bianjun army and has the new army as the backbone, the Bianjun army will not be so easy to fight, and our army will shed blood and die, and what will be consumed may not be the strength of the new army, and now the new army is coming alone, and every time we kill a person, the new army is bleeding."

"That's right," Xu Ping nodded again and again: "There is another point, the Dongjiang Army in Shandong is currently fighting guerrilla warfare with the New Army, which cannot hurt the bones of the New Army at all." If we do the same, it will only be a matter of time before we are eliminated, and only by destroying the main force of the new army can we make the Marquis of Zhendong pay attention to us and thus share the pressure for Shandong. ”

"Three battalions, one of them is still the Xuanfeng battalion, this is the main battalion head of Zhendonghou, right?" Li Dingguo kept smiling: "Is Brother Xu so confident?" ”

"No, of course not, I'm not sure that I can win the decisive battle, but if I don't fight the decisive battle, I will definitely lose. What's more......" Xu Ping said coldly: "The people of Henan are also looking forward to our victory. ”

"How is Brother Xu going to fight?"

"If the new army comes from end to end and along the avenue, I will build fortresses along the way, so that the new army will shed its blood under these fortifications." Xu Ping hesitated when he said this, after all, the military strength of the new army was far above the guard battalion: "For many years, Zhendonghou has always had an absolute advantage in firearms and fortifications, and his enemies have never posed any threat to him in this regard, so the new army is mainly studying how to better exert the power of the fortress, using fortifications, trenches, and firearms to kill and injure a large number of enemies, and has not thought too much about how to attack the firearms troops that are also protected by fortresses and trenches, so although the new soldiers are numerous, But the tactical advantage is still on my side. ”

"If you don't follow the road from end to end, then it means that there is fraud in it, right?"

"Yes, the new army is above the top, and I am afraid that they will not seriously consider what they will do in case of a strong resistance, if they do not attack violently, they are probably afraid that one onslaught will drive us all away, and they will not be able to destroy us. From what I know of General Jia, I guess he will probably not be satisfied with driving us away, and he will enter Kaifeng with great force and let us retreat safely. ”

……

August 10,

"My lord, the new army has smuggled across the Yellow River and is rushing towards Yifeng."

"Brother Shen knows?"

"Know, he has long been ready to retreat, and he will evacuate as soon as he receives the report from the prospecting horse."

"Good."

The offensive of the new army was not violent, and the action dragged on, Xu Ping said to his subordinates: "This must be afraid that the attack will be too fierce and scare us away." ”

"If it weren't for the strict orders of the adults, Brother Shen would have wanted to fight it." After Yu Shenhe heard that the pioneer was the Chizhuo battalion, he always advocated that he should first attack head-on, not to fight hard, but to do a little to improve morale: "It's just a team of people who are smuggling." ”

"It's too late to change now." Xu Ping saw that Yu Shenhe was still unwilling, and said with a smile: "In the end, my plan is not compatible." ”

"If the Chizhuo Battalion continues to press, I think it's better to fight a little, it's not that the adults of this battalion don't know what kind of quality they are, we don't have to exert much effort to hurt him." Yu Shenhe looked regretful: "It's really angry to watch Wei Wu, a bear man, show off his might, it is estimated that he is drunk again now, and it is a good time for us to attack." ”

"Forget it, don't lose a big one. Well, how are you setting up the camp? ”

"The fake fire gun is made vividly, and General Li placed it on the camp wall, far from letting the new army see it clearly. My lord, if it were someone else, I wouldn't dare to pack the ticket, but the reconnaissance of the front army of the Chizhuo Battalion is a straw bag like He Feibao, hmph, they will definitely not be able to find it. ”

……

When Jia Minghe arrived at Yifeng, he saw that the Chizhuo battalion was being deployed and reconnoitred in an orderly manner, and the battalion officer Wei Wu had arrived with the vanguard two days earlier, and he had supervised his subordinates to take various contingency measures in the past two days to prevent a counterattack by the battalion.

Seeing Wei Wu, whose eyes were bloodshot, come out to greet him, Jia Minghe persuaded: "Brother Wei should rest more." ”

"Yes, don't worry, Dashuai, I will go to sleep in a while, and I will definitely not delay Dashuai's affairs."

Jia Minghe said a few words of encouragement and asked about the movement of the camp.

"I'm afraid that Brother He is right, Xu Thief has no heart." Wei Wu told Jia Minghe that he had fled far away from the camp: "Even if the thieves have firearms, there are not many, and they are definitely not as exaggerated as Kaifeng said, there are thousands." ”

"Well," Jia Minghe nodded, "You didn't beat them too badly, did you?" ”

"I didn't hit anyone at all, the thieves here ran away as soon as they heard the wind and grass, and the sneak attack didn't run as fast as they did."

"Xu Ping, he can't say anything if he doesn't fight," Jia Minghe frowned and thought about it, he was very worried that Xu Ping would flee away with his troops, so the battle in Kaifeng would become as protracted as Shandong, and the order from the Zhendong Hou Mansion was to fight quickly: "You said that there is a strong camp of thieves in front?" ”

"Yes," Wei Wu found a large camp between Yifeng and Lanyang: "It seems that the thieves have plans to defend Lanyang, the camp is very strong, and there are thousands of troops stationed around, I hope they won't run away without fighting this time." How is Zhao Pizhai there? ”

"Very well, I've hid enough boats for the thieves to detect it." Jia Minghe has not detected any movement of breaking into the camp to explore the horses, if the other party really has a move, he will never believe that he can hide his eyes so thoroughly: "Let's act according to the original plan, today the Shanlan camp has begun to cross the river, and your battalion will feint on both sides, and I will choose the front battalion to copy their back road." ”

"Commander, the last general thinks that it is too much to use two battalions to feint." When he studied Xu Ping before, Wei Landu thought that as long as he attacked a certain army of Xu Ping, and made Xu Ping feel that he had the ability to reinforce and relieve the siege, he would come to the rescue, which was very consistent with Jia Minghe's thinking. Wei Wu also agreed at the time, but now he has another opinion: "This camp is so strong and under the banner of Xu thief, but after careful detective and many times of analysis, Xiao He found that it was not Xu Ping's main force stationed in it, but the western thief, not to mention the large number of firearms that Kaifeng said-those things that look like firearms at first glance should be fake; Xiao He also said that the posture of patrolling with the fire gun on his back was also wrong, and the last general went to see it in person when he heard the news, and dared to assure the marshal that it was definitely a fake spearman. Even if Kaifeng is exaggerating, there will always be some firearms in the hands of Xu Thief. The last general thought that the thief must still be hesitating whether to try the depth, or to retreat immediately and wait for a good opportunity. Although the thieves have a large number of troops, but the western thieves are neither the descendants of the Li thief, nor the descendants of the Xu thief, maybe the Xu thief thinks that it is enough to use these people to try out our depth, even if they live or die, they may not be reprimanded by the Li thief, maybe the Li thief is still looking forward to their end. ”

Jia Minghe pondered for a moment and asked, "Are you worried about the feint attack of the two battalions separately, or is it too violent?" ”

"Yes. There are about four or five thousand people in the line of Xu thieves, and there are probably hundreds of muskets, if a battalion is too scattered, it may still suffer losses, since we brought our brothers to Henan, we must try to bring more brothers back well, right? Wei Wu proposed: "Before Jia Shuai meets the descendants of the Xu thief, it is estimated that he will also encounter some stragglers of the thieves, and the last general thinks that Jia Shuai might as well bring two more teams under me, and use them to clear the thieves and sentinels along the way, and guard the road, so that the Xuanfeng battalion can remain intact and follow behind to recuperate - using a whole battalion to annihilate the descendants of the Xu thief must have less losses, and the last general and the Shanlan camp here are enough, enough." ”

"That's a good point." Jia Minghe nodded.

……

In the past month, there has been no sign of any increase in grain prices in Henan, and even dropped slightly, which has reassured the hearts of the people in Kaifeng Prefecture. The volume of grain transactions has been greatly reduced, so that each rice bank does not need to vacate a large number of warehouses to load new grain, and the pressure on the old grain to leave the warehouse is not large, and some of the old grain enters the market causing the price of rice to fall, and the rotten rice that really needs to be destroyed is collected by Sun Kewang to feed the pigs. The Chuang camp in Kaifeng Prefecture formulated a grand meat production plan and organized people to establish a new battalion, which was named the Poultry and Animal Camp by Sun Kewang, and was composed of people with breeding experience selected from among the displaced people. In addition to sheep and pigs, the camp also plans to raise rabbits, chickens and ducks. The ambitious Sun Kewang hoped that by the middle of next year, the battalion would be able to provide 40 goats and pigs a day, so that Xu Ping could take care of a large part of the meat he needed on his own, without having to purchase large quantities from the private sector.

After arranging the task of harvesting corn, Sun Kewang left the garrison and rushed to join Xu Ping and Li Dingguo, and arrived at Lanyang, which is located 80 miles east of Kaifeng City, on 15 August. Xu Ping and Li Dingguo were studying the terrain, and when they saw him arriving, they told him that the main force of the three battalions of the new army had arrived at Xiaosongji, sixty miles away, and that the vanguard of the new army had smuggled across the Yellow River last night and established a bridgehead at Yifeng, twenty-five miles away.

Sun Kewang just glanced at the map and shouted: "Why don't you send people to strictly guard the crossing of the Yellow River, and let them smuggle successfully!" ”

After finishing speaking, Sun Kewang asked for orders: "Brother Xu, give me a thousand people, and I will immediately take back the Yifeng." ”

"I doubt we can take it back with a thousand men, but even if we can, we won't go."

Before Xu Ping's words fell, Li Dingguo smiled and added: "Brother Xu thinks that we can't go to block the Yellow River crossing, and we must let the Ming army over." ”

"Why?"

"Because we have Kaifeng City behind us, we can't confront the Ming army along the Yellow River for a long time." Li Dingguo completely agreed with Xu Ping's view. In the past, the Chuang army had beaten the Kaifeng defenders several times, and they had already broken their courage, and now the Ming army was completely cowering in the city, and no longer dared to go out of the city to challenge, so Xu Ping was able to quietly move the main force to Lanyang secretly. But if there is a long-term confrontation with the new army, then the Kaifeng defenders will be able to see the flaw sooner or later: "I set up the banner of the guard battalion in the big camp, presumably able to deceive the new army for a while, so that they think that my elite is hiding in the middle, and since there are not many firearms and no artillery, then they will be more relieved - my headquarters is so poorly equipped, and the rest is naturally even worse." ”

This morning, Li Dingguo's main force had already gone to Yifeng to set up camp and deploy defense, and Xu Ping asked Sun Kewang to also bring people to Yifeng to assist Li Dingguo in defense. "I only left 4,000 troops to monitor Kaifeng City, and Lanyang here plus your troops have the entire Guards Battalion and 8,000 people in the West Battalion."

"So we're going to fight to the death with the Ming army here?"

"No, I just need you to help me hold back some of the new army so that I can fight the other part."

Sun Kewang looked at Li Dingguo in confusion, and the latter smiled: "Let the general tell you." “

"I need your help to hold off the two battalions of enemy troops from Yifeng, and I'll fight the remaining battalion here."

Saying that, Xu Ping stretched out his hand to the map, Sun Kewang looked at it fixedly, and couldn't help but be startled: "You say that the army will be smuggled from Zhao Pizhai?" ”

Xu Ping nodded: "Yes." ”

"When did you find out?"

"I didn't send a horse to find a horse, so I was afraid of startling the snake."

Zhao Pizhai is located a few miles north of Lanyang, and the decisive battle site chosen by Xu Ping is located on the only path from Zhao Pizhai to Lanyang.

"So how do you know? Do you have any work within the Ming army? ”

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