Chapter 116: The Tartars have stolen it, so are you still afraid of thieves?
Outside the west gate of Kaifeng, the lights and bonfires were obviously much sparser than when the bandits first arrived. After all, there were less than 7,000 bandits and tens of thousands of hungry people. Fortunately, there was no fighting at the old camp in the west of the city, and the army's food and grass were not lost.
You won't go hungry.
After the soldiers of the invading army had dinner, they all rested in each camp. Except for the flickering bonfires inside and outside the camp, there was no light.
Occasionally, some rebel soldiers held torches and patrolled inside and outside the camp. It makes sense that Li Zicheng was able to dominate the Ming Dynasty for more than ten years.
He is not like other thieves who are greedy for pleasure, and this is only superficial. The first advantage of Li Zicheng is that he is calm, and he is almost never impulsive. The second advantage is that he is cautious. This advantage saved his life several times.
Nowadays, although his old camp is wrapped in the middle by four other camps, he has not relaxed his vigilance at all. Outposts and hidden outposts are also arranged everywhere, and there are also several mobile patrol teams.
But this is not the case for all intruder camps. For example, the Yidougu bandit camp in the southernmost camp only strengthened the guards at the camp gate, and there were no hidden sentries or mobile sentries outside the camp.
Another example is the bandit soldiers under Gu Ying in the east. Although they set up open posts, hidden posts, and mobile posts in accordance with King Chuang's instructions, he did not patrol carefully. In addition, in the cold and freezing night, the sergeants who went out were
Clearly slacking off.
…………
To the northwest of Kaifeng City, there were two rows of bonfires standing in front of Wei Zhicheng's car formation. He was afraid of Li Zicheng's new defeat, so he was unwilling to make a sneak attack at night.
But Li Zicheng didn't come, but there were groups of officers and cavalry leading their horses slowly heading south. Because both the people and the horses were moving in slowly, even though there were nearly a thousand people, they didn't make any big noise.
Sound, if you are a little further away, you can't hear anything.
Under the leadership of Zhang Guangda, they took advantage of the moonlight to sneak all the way one mile away from the camp of the rebel cavalry and lurked behind a high hill.
Although the wind stopped and the snow stopped at dusk, the winter night after the snow was even more severe. The soldiers did not dare to light a fire to keep warm. They could only hold their horses close to each other to fight against the cold.
Zhang Guangda and Wang Tieren climbed up the high hill and looked towards the south, only to see that everything there was as normal, as calm as a pool of stagnant water, without any ripples or movement.
Wang Tieren looked at the sky and said with some worry: "General, there is no light tonight. If it is a night attack, it may not be easy to identify friendly troops."
Zhang Guangda said disapprovingly: "I'm afraid of a ball. I think we broke into the Tatar camp back then. How can we still be afraid of the bandits now? Even if it's dark, just charge forward and hit him, and then we'll circle back."
Big camp.
As for the friendly forces, Chen Zhong and the others were planned to go south, so they were no match for us, while Chen Yongfu's troops were supposed to be heading towards the west gate. What's more, they were both officers and soldiers, and their uniforms were different from those of the traitors.
It would not be difficult to identify him if he met him face to face."
Wang Tieren stopped talking. He raised his telescope and looked at the lights at the camp of the army and cavalry in the distance.
There are more than 3,000 soldiers and horses in the bandit army, and there are more than 1,000 people and mules and horses to support, and there are many pack horses, so the camp occupies a large area and there are more lights in the camp than other camps.
"General, the fourth watch has passed, and there is still no movement at all in the south. Isn't Chen Yongfu a coward?" Wang Tieren put down his telescope and said with some suspicion.
"Not urgent."
Zhang Guangda's expression could not be seen clearly in the darkness, but he could only hear him saying in a deep voice: "According to the commander-in-chief's wishes, we are just here to join in the fun for the Li thieves. We just keep an eye on the horse team of thieves in front of us. If they don't move, we won't move."
.”
He then continued: "If we hadn't learned that Chen Yongfu wanted to steal the camp, our commander would not have had the idea. Even if we faced the gongs and drums and fought against Li Thief's cavalry, we would not be afraid at all."
Wang Tieren also smiled and said: "That's right. This intruder is a bit more powerful. A real fight is just like this. It's not like chopping melons and vegetables."
Zhang Guangda said in a deep voice at this time: "It is a good thing that you are so confident. But the commander-in-chief once said, 'Strategically, you can despise the enemy, but tactically, you must pay attention to the enemy.' You must always keep it in mind."
The cavalry in front is the essence of the old camp of thieves, so it is handed over to the fierce thief Liu Zongmin to lead it, but it is a force that cannot be underestimated. If not, the commander would not send us here to suffer this fate."
"General, there is something going on in the bandit camp!"
When Zhang Guangda heard Wang Tieren's scream, he quickly raised the telescope in his hand and looked south through the tube. He saw a sudden fire in the camp of Liu Zongmin's cavalry in the south.
He was also overjoyed, but said in a deep voice: "Don't be anxious, wait and see!"
…………
That night, Chen Yongfu did not launch a night attack from the east. Instead, he took a detour to the south and planned to pass through the Yidou Valley camp and go straight to the old camp of the intruder Li Zicheng.
His sentry horse was not equipped with a telescope, but he could still tell the difference between the Guying and Yidougu camps according to the flag signal. When Chen Yongfu learned that there were three thief camps on the outside and one in the middle.
He then judged that the old camp of the intruders must be located in the middle. Of course, his sentries did not dare to go deep, and they did not find out that there was Liu Fangliang's camp outside Xiguan.
Originally, Chen Yongfu planned to go straight to the camp of the bandit general Gu Ying who was guarding the official road, but he temporarily decided to take a detour to the south and steal Yi Dou Gu's camp first.
This temporary change also caused the sentry sent by Chen Zhong to fail to find Chen Yongfu and pass on the news that the west gate was closed to him, causing Chen Yongfu to suffer avoidable losses.
Also because Chen Yongfu temporarily changed the direction of the night attack, which increased the distance, and because he was already relatively close to the bandit camp, he did not dare to rush forward with his whip and hooves, so he could only advance slowly, making the night attack time a full half an hour later than planned.
.
They all dismounted one mile southwest of Yidou Valley Camp. Except for the more than a hundred elite cavalry who walked in front to explore the road, the nearly a thousand cavalrymen led their horses forward slowly, not daring to make a sound.
sound.
Chen De, who served as a garrison officer as a Qianhu official, was the son of Chen Yongfu, the deputy commander-in-chief of Henan Province. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes, wore a bright helmet and armor, and was equipped with swords, bows and arrows. He was leading nearly a hundred of Chen Yongfu's elite servants, abandoning their horses and walking on foot.
Exploring the road ahead, we gradually reached the gate not far from the bandit camp.
Chen De’s body corresponds to the old saying “a tiger father has no dog son”!
As the son of Chen Yongfu, deputy commander of the Henan Army, he has indeed lived up to his father's high expectations. He has practiced martial arts since he was a child. He is proficient in horse and foot and has extraordinary skills. He is well-known in Kaifeng Prefecture, and he is also good at shooting.
arrow.
Among the officers and soldiers in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, military bravery has always been respected. Chen De's bravery was greatly embarrassed by his father Chen Yongfu. Whenever he chatted with the generals in Henan, as long as his son was mentioned, there would be a lot of laughter.
praise.
Saying that his tiger father has no dog sons greatly satisfied Chen Yongfu's vanity!
Chen De also went with the army to rescue Luoyang this time, and he was in charge of Chen Yongfu's five hundred servants and cavalry.
As the deputy commander-in-chief of Henan Province, Chen Yongfu was supposed to have 3,000 troops in the direct battalion. Although he did not treat his subordinates as harshly as the commander-in-chief Wang Shaoyu, half of whom had no pay, but there were still many old, weak and remnant soldiers to make up the number.
And these five hundred servants are the greatest strength that Chen Yongfu can rely on!
Chen De also lived up to his expectations and trained these five hundred servants in an orderly manner. With these hundreds of powerful servants, both the governor Li Xianfeng and the commander-in-chief Wang Shaoyu were polite to Chen Yongfu. Even the long history of the Zhou Palace was