Four hundred and thirtieth chapters release the general
Cao Baozong stood up in shock. What he feared most happened. Deserters actually appeared, and two thousand people escaped. This was not bad.
He hurried over with his soldiers, and the cavalry commander Tuoba Chengqing clasped his fists and said: "General, we just drew lots, and a thousand cavalrymen won the horse-sacrifice lot. Several hundred soldiers regretted it and fled on horseback. This caused
A large number of other cavalry are following, and my humble position cannot stop me!"
"How many people ran away?"
Tuoba Chengqing wiped the sweat from his forehead and said: "More than 2,100 people!
"asshole!"
Cao Baozong gritted his teeth with hatred and said: "How did I tell you before? The horses and the people have to be separated. What nonsense do you need to draw? Confiscate all the horses quickly."
Tuoba Chengqing said helplessly: "General, the horse circle has been set up, but they are not willing to be fooled. Besides, the war horses are their private property and cannot be confiscated. The soldiers will rebel."
The anger in Cao Baozong's heart was still lingering, so he could only say bitterly: "Then compensate them! The market price of a horse is about ten guan of gold. If a horse is killed, the court will compensate the owner of the war horse 20 guan of gold. Now they should have no objection.
Bar!"
"Ji Zhi thinks it's feasible. They all mentioned compensation, so it should be negotiable!"
"Tell them, if they don't kill the war horses, they themselves will starve to death. If they starve to death, the war horses will kill them too!"
"I'll go discuss it with them now."
The more than 2,000 cavalrymen who negotiated could not tolerate their horses being slaughtered and eaten, even if they were given money to compensate them. These cavalrymen were the most radical. When hundreds of them defected first, other cavalrymen also ran away.
But the official road in the north was not a way out. Ten thousand Song army cavalry laid a dragnet twenty miles away. After a short fierce battle and dozens of people were killed, two thousand Xixia cavalry who were hungry and cold surrendered to the Song army. At least
You won't starve to death if you surrender.
Yang Zaixing led a small leader of the Xixia army who could speak Chinese to Chen Qing. The small leader of the Xixia army was equivalent to the escort team of the Song army, and the main leader was equivalent to the head of the capital.
"I am reporting to the capital that these two thousand people are deserters. They were originally Xixia herdsmen, and the horses are their own family property. They did not want their horses to be killed for military rations, so they mutinied and ran away."
Chen Qing sneered: "They actually started to eat horses, how long can they hold on?"
Chen Qing asked the little leader: "If Cao Baozong gathered all the war horses, where would he put them?"
"It should be placed in the northwest corner. They built a large stable with wooden poles there and asked us to put the horses together. We all knew that they wanted to take the opportunity to kill the horses, but everyone refused, and a quarrel broke out.
We’re all done.”
Chen Qing used tree branches to roughly draw a camp pattern on the ground, and then drew a horse circle in the northwest corner, "Is this what it looks like?"
"Exactly!"
"Where is the sentry? How far is it from the camp?" Chen Qing asked again.
"About a mile or so!"
At this point, the little leader knelt down and begged: "We are ordinary herdsmen, we still have parents, wives and children at home. I beg the general to spare our lives!"
Chen Qing smiled and said: "Don't worry about this. You are very valuable. It would be a pity to kill you. I will wait for the Xixia court to redeem you."
The little leader was taken down, and Yang Zaixing said: "Du Tong, tonight is an opportunity to defeat the opponent. They are hungry and unable to fight at all. Use cavalry to attack at night, and we can defeat them all in one battle."
Chen Qing shook his head, "When the two armies are fighting, the priority is to attack their hearts. It doesn't make much sense to defeat them directly. I want to force their entire army to surrender. Killing people and killing their hearts is the best way to lay the foundation for the complete defeat of the remaining 50,000 Xixia army."
"I understand the humble position!"
Yang Zaixing finally understood Chen Qing’s true intention of caring about the location of the horse pen.
At the fourth watch, the Xixia soldiers began to kill horses for cooking. At this moment, a cavalry of about 2,000 people came from the north, all wearing the military uniforms of Xixia soldiers. The outer sentries thought they were soldiers who had escaped before and returned.
When the opponent's gleaming sword hit their heads, the sentries suddenly realized that this was the Song army's costume, not their cavalry.
It was too late to call the police. The sentry ran back and was soon overtaken and hacked to death.
The cavalry rushed into the northwest corner of the camp at lightning speed. Thousands of horses were gathered here, and there were hundreds of horses waiting to be killed. Two thousand Song Army cavalry broke into the temporary horse pen. The horses were extremely spiritual. I witnessed it with my own eyes.
After the death of their companions, they all knew that this was an opportunity to escape, and thousands of horses followed the Song cavalry and fled south.
When Cao Baozong arrived with thousands of soldiers, the two thousand cavalry and thousands of horses had already disappeared, leaving only the corpses of more than 300 horse-killing soldiers and dozens of freshly killed horses.
Cao Baozong stared at the empty horse pen in a daze. His mind went blank. The generals looked at each other in confusion. The last food was gone. What would they eat? There were still three to four hundred miles to go, and they would all starve to death on the road.
.
At this time, the general guarding the horse pen stepped forward with a face full of shame and handed a letter to Cao Baozong, "This is the letter left by the Song army. Please give this humble post to the general!"
Cao Baozong finally became furious and shouted: "Why don't you die!"
He drew his sword, pierced the general's chest with the sword, snatched the letter, turned around and stormed away angrily. The general fell on his back and stared at the sky with unblinking eyes.
All the generals shuddered, as if they had seen their own fate
Shang Dongyan hurriedly found the coach Cao Baozong who was sitting alone in a small tent in a daze. "General, the generals' opinion is to turn the road to the south. The population along the Wei River is densely populated. We can plunder some food there."
Cao Baozong glanced at him, shook his head for a while and said, "Stop dreaming. Will Chen Qing give us this opportunity?"
"What should we do? There are only fifty horses, and eighteen thousand people are not enough. What about lunch and dinner? The soldiers will rebel!"
Shang Dongyan was so anxious that he suddenly saw the letter in Cao Baozong's hand and immediately asked: "What did Chen Qing say in the letter?"
"He said"
Cao Baozong hesitated and said, "He said that as long as my army is willing to lay down its weapons and surrender, as a condition, he can let seventy people leave."
Shang Dongyan was stunned for a moment, "In other words, all generals can leave?"
Cao Baozong nodded, "That should be the meaning! We choose the people ourselves, he only cares about the number of people."
"Then how does the general decide?" Shang Dongyan swallowed and asked nervously.
Cao Baozong sighed, "Do I still have a choice?"
He stood up and said: "Go and find all the generals above the deputy general level!"
The assistant generals of the Xixia army are equivalent to the commanders. Above the assistant generals are the generals, and above the generals are the generals. They are equivalent to the leadership and control of the Song army. At the top are the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief, etc.
There are 20,000 troops, including 57 middle and high-level generals, including deputy generals. Together with Cao Baozong and 12 personal soldiers, there are exactly 70 people.
Cao Baozong ordered the entire army to lay down their weapons, take off their armor and surrender, and promised the soldiers that he would convince the emperor to redeem them from Xixia as soon as possible.
The commander issued a surrender order, and no one among the eighteen thousand soldiers who were dizzy with hunger was willing to fight to the death. The soldiers threw away their weapons, took off their armor, and sat on the roadside waiting for the Song army to come to provide food.
The seventy generals cut off the horse meat for dry food and rode northward. The Song soldiers did not stop them and allowed the seventy generals to ride northward.
Yang Zaixing watched the seventy people go away. He asked Chen Qingdao with some confusion: "Actually, the governor doesn't need to let them go?"
Chen Qing looked at the dozen generals around him and saw that each of them was very confused, so he smiled and said: "Everyone is surprised! Why did I let them go? I have to tell everyone so that everyone can fully understand my combat intentions.
, you can learn to imitate it in the future.”
Everyone bowed together and said: "I am willing to obey Dutong's teachings!"
Chen Qing then said calmly: "I discovered that the enemy general Cao Baozong was just like Zhao Kuo on paper. He moved south inexplicably and withdrew northward inexplicably. In the middle of the withdrawal, he actually set up his army to fight me. He thought he wanted to fight me.
, the enemy army will obey his intention and fight decisively?
So! The enemy general who can only talk on paper is the opponent we need. Such an opponent will destroy the remaining 50,000 troops sooner or later. If I capture him, the Emperor of Xixia will definitely send another more powerful opponent. How can I
You are no longer a fool."
Everyone laughed and admired the commander's wisdom. Chen Qing laughed again and said: "As for letting other generals go, I am worried that they will lead prisoners of war to rebel in the future. Without these generals, 20,000 prisoners of war will be easy to manage."
Everyone applauded together. It was so right. The most important thing for prisoners of war to be honest and not rebel is that there should be no leader among them.
Chen Qing immediately ordered: "Give them each a piece of dry food, and then escort them back to Longxi County!"
