Coming at you

In the early morning, a squad of Li Ping's second cavalry company stationed in Qizhou had a small-scale direct conflict with Zhang Xianzhong's sentinel cavalry. Twelve people including Liu Ming, commander of the fourth battalion, were killed, and their horses were also lost. Only two people escaped back.

.

A fiasco! A huge fiasco.

The shocked Li Ping, almost livid, hurried back to Fuchi Town, and Song Baolai also followed closely.

He is also eager to know the details of the bad news?

This was the first confrontation with Zhang Xianzhong's troops since they captured Qizhou. It was already very worrying, and then there was this result.

"What's going on? How did the cavalry company end up doing the work of the reconnaissance company? And why did Liu Ming end up joining the cavalry unit?" As soon as Li Ping entered the staff office, he was shouted at.

The buzzing staff office instantly fell silent.

Wu Dong, the chief of the training section, hurriedly came up to him in the silence and explained: "The battle site is on the edge of the mountainous area on the other side of Chidong Lake, north of Qizhou City, only twenty miles away from Qizhou City. The squad of the Second Cavalry Company that fought with Zhang Xianzhong's department

Originally we were just passing through there for field training, but Battalion Commander Liu followed us for experiential training, and we did not expect to encounter enemies, especially so early in the morning."

As Wu Dong spoke, he guided Li Ping toward the wall where the large map was hung, and his finger quickly pointed at a new irregular circle drawn with a red pencil on the map.

That's where the battle took place.

Pencils had been invented by Song Baolai as early as in Xiangyang. The support camp had a strong demand for this in terms of production, but it was not yet mature at that time.

After arriving in Fuchi, Song Baolai finally solved all the technical obstacles in pencil manufacturing and immediately became the most important tool for staff operations.

Wu Dong's words made Li Ping a little dazed. When he stood in front of the map, his eyes tightened. He asked in confusion: "When did the enemy come so close? Besides, fourteen people will not be able to run away when they see the enemy's elite reconnaissance cavalry."

Just run back two!"

There is not just one red circle on the map, but many, each of which represents a place where Zhang Xianzhong's scouts frequently move or a new place.

Since late April, these red circles began to increase suddenly and crossed the Xishui River east of Huangzhou Fucheng to the Qi River west of Qizhou, but did not cross the river again.

Li Ping's reconnaissance company also stopped its reconnaissance activities across the Qihe River to the west.

Both sides were very cautious and deliberately avoided direct conflict.

As for Guangji County in the northeast of Qizhou, there is no red circle, but only a shallow red line close to the county seat, where the enemies are always huddled in the city.

Therefore, this new red circle in Chidong Hubei becomes extremely eye-catching and dazzling in the midst of cleanliness.

"Is our cavalry so weak?" Song Baolai asked uneasily after glancing at the map.

Although Song Baolai knew that their side's cavalry was not strong and there were many novices, Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry gave him a bad impression.

Zhang Xianzhong also had cavalry in Qizhou at the beginning, but it didn't seem to cause them any trouble during the battle, and no one mentioned it in particular.

In other words, being strong can’t make you any stronger!

But this time the battle took place very close to Qizhou, and they were defeated by Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry. This not only revealed that their cavalry was really weak, but also showed that Zhang Xianzhong's cavalry didn't seem to have taken them too seriously.

Take it seriously!

Perhaps due to previous cautious testing, Zhang Xianzhong's troops had already grasped the reality of Li Ping's troops.

Although the reconnaissance company has rigorous training and strong combat capabilities, its riding and shooting skills are its biggest weaknesses.

As for riding, real veterans can often tell the difference just by looking and listening from a distance.

However, these two skills require years of accumulation and tempering. Except for a few individuals, most of the officers and soldiers of the reconnaissance company who have rarely ridden horses or practiced archery before will never be able to reach or approach the level of veterans in a short period of time.

As for the cavalry battalion established later, it was even weaker.

Wu Dong glanced at Li Ping, who was still staring at the map in a daze, and said with a sad face: "Liu Yingchang and the others fell into a trap."

"Fell into a trap?"

Li Ping's eyes suddenly withdrew from the map and looked at Wu Dong in shock.

Wu Dong said with an even more depressed expression: "At first, I only found five enemies, and these five enemies didn't seem to notice the squad of the Second Cavalry Company. Battalion Commander Liu wanted to attack them secretly. Battalion Commander Liu is a bow and arrow man."

Being born in a hand, I had some confidence in myself, and I used more to defeat the less, so I made the decision. But I didn't expect that these five enemies were actually bait."

A ball of anger suddenly rose up in Li Ping's heart, and he spoke with a bit of gritted teeth: "In other words, we took the initiative to attack? And we didn't conduct careful reconnaissance before attacking!"

Wu Dong lowered his head unconsciously and continued bravely: "Well. According to the brothers who escaped, it didn't take long from the discovery of the enemy to the start of the attack. It was indeed a bit hasty that no more supplementary reconnaissance was conducted."

"This Liu Ming!" Li Ping's tone became even more dissatisfied.

But Wu Dong raised his head at this moment and said: "Actually, we can't blame Battalion Commander Liu for his eagerness to achieve success. The enemy dared to get so close, and he didn't want to show weakness. Moreover, the hasty attack was mainly because he was worried that the enemy would not dare to stay for a long time and lose the opportunity to fight. At the same time,

I am also afraid that too much reconnaissance will scare away the enemy."

Li Ping looked at Wu Dong and was stunned for a moment, then his tone began to soften and he said: "How many enemies are there?"

"The incident happened suddenly, the details are not clear. The two brothers only saw about a dozen enemies in total. It is not clear whether there are more enemies in the dark."

"Fuck!"

Li Ping couldn't help but uttered a curse word, and then immediately continued to ask: "Are there any prisoners?"

"It cannot be ruled out, but Liu Yingchang was definitely dead after being shot through the neck."

Li Ping's facial features twisted together unconsciously, but he immediately said urgently: "Hurry up and notify Ma Yong and Zhou Wen and order them to shrink their troops immediately and not to retaliate."

"The chief of staff has issued an order in this regard. The Second Cavalry Company and all our troops outside Qizhou have withdrawn. Only the reconnaissance company has organized two groups to conduct careful reconnaissance, and only in open areas." Wu Dong

replied.

"That's good, that's good." Li Ping finally felt a little more at ease.

But Wu Dong hesitated at this time and said: "It is necessary to bring back the troops, but I think we should further increase our reconnaissance. We have many questions that need to be clarified. For example, is the enemy fully pressing forward? This

You can’t be afraid of casualties.”

Li Ping was stunned again, then looked at Wu Dong with admiration and nodded: "That makes sense. Go and inform Zhang Qing, deputy commander of the cavalry battalion, to go to Qizhou to strengthen the reconnaissance force and figure out the situation as soon as possible."

…

After listening to a more detailed report on the situation and watching Li Ping issue several more orders on reducing training across the board and increasing alert and combat readiness, Song Baolai left a sentence of "I will go get my handgun now" and hurried away.

The staff officers in the staff office all looked at Li Ping in astonishment.

But Li Ping was in no mood to explain to them. He felt very heavy.

No matter what the circumstances, this unexpected conflict will undoubtedly cause huge losses, especially the loss of a battalion commander, which is even more unacceptable.

He knew that this would have a huge impact on the morale of the entire army.

Although Liu Ming has always been a person with a low sense of presence, his shooting skills are actually very average.

But after all, he was the captain of the 3rd Sent Team 9 (Archer Team) when Li Ping first became the commander-in-chief. He was considered a person with important responsibilities and a well-known old man. He continues to be the commander of the first battalion.

Maybe it was these identities that harmed him.

Seeing that all his comrades in important positions have made a lot of achievements, he is just taking advantage of his seniority.

It's impossible for him to have no ideas.

It was probably this mentality, as well as Malan's successful example of attacking Li Zicheng's reconnaissance cavalry west of Shenhu, and the fact that we were outnumbered this time, that may have made Liu Ming relax his vigilance and conduct no serious reconnaissance.

Under such circumstances, one hastily decides to take risks.

But in his anxiety, he obviously ignored that if the enemy dared to get so close, he must have something to rely on, and it couldn't be for nothing.

The huge loss is heartbreaking, and the information revealed by this loss is even more disturbing.

The enemy dared to ambush an opponent of equal strength with more than a dozen men, and this was very close to the opponent's fortified city.

Even these people should have sneaked in quietly last night.

Zhang Xianzhong's reconnaissance cavalry is not only extremely strong, but it also shows that the enemy is showing a strong offensive posture.

In this regard, Wu Dong and the staff of the training unit generally expressed the same concerns.

If you do this stuff every day, you are most sensitive to these situations.

Sure enough, in the next two days, Zhang Xianzhong's reconnaissance cavalry began to appear extensively north of Qizhou. At the same time, the naval battalion that rushed into Qihe to guard and assist in defense also discovered that a large number of Zhang Xianzhong's infantry came from the west and were stationed near Qihe.

, with at least tens of thousands of troops.

There was a rumbling sound for a while.

Although the reconnaissance company also took some actions, and even had five direct confrontations with the opponent's sentinels in two days, it was unable to contain the opponent's further pressing.

Moreover, due to the overall losses during the confrontation, Zhang Xianzhong's reconnaissance cavalry became more arrogant and unscrupulous, and even a cavalry squad boldly appeared directly in the sight of the Fugan Pass defenders.

In the end, except for roughly figuring out that the enemy's reconnaissance cavalry crossed from the upper reaches of the Qi River, the reconnaissance company was unable to obtain more effective intelligence.

As a last resort, Li Ping could only make up his mind and order Zhang Qing, Ma Xiaotian and Yuanye, the precious former Liaodong frontier army cavalry, to lead a few officers and soldiers with the best riding skills to form a capable hunting team.

I can't bear to let the child catch the wolf.

Li Ping urgently needed prisoners and knew the enemy's situation.

Zhang Qing and others did not disappoint Li Ping, and their powerful combination quickly achieved great results.

In just two days, they annihilated two of Zhang Xianzhong's reconnaissance cavalry teams with only one injured, captured three prisoners, and forced the enemy's reconnaissance activities to completely retreat to the north of Chidong Lake.

Through interrogating the prisoners, Li Ping finally figured out some of the situation.

Most of Zhang Xianzhong's army, including Zhang Xianzhong himself, had arrived at Huangzhou City from the Macheng area and captured Luotian County in the Yinghuo Mountains, about 100 miles north of Huangzhou City.

The 10,000-strong infantry force sent close to the Qihe River was called the vanguard.

At present, the reconnaissance cavalry of Zhang Xianzhong's department who carry out reconnaissance and oppression around Qizhou are basically all newly recruited in Macheng. Many of them are from the original Renhui and are veterans of the recruitment and training of the original Mei Zhihuan.

This well explains why these scout cavalry are all very capable and experienced, but they find it difficult to parry against Zhang Qing and others who are former elite cavalrymen of the Liaodong frontier army.

There is still a gap between the cultivation on the northern border battlefield and the cultivation in the inland arena, and the gap is huge.

The results of the interrogation naturally shocked Li Ping.

Although there are still some strange things, Zhang Xianzhong's intention is undoubtedly very obvious.

Qizhou entered a state of full preparation for war.

Those newly made seven old-fashioned cast iron cannons, bronze cannons, and thirty-one clay-mold iron-core bronze cannons were all brought to Qizhou by Li Ping to strengthen defense.
Chapter completed!