Seeing that the Dali soldiers retreated to their camp a few miles away shortly after noon, Yang Zaixing immediately sent his cavalry down the mountain to conduct reconnaissance.
Cao Xun came back soon and reported: "The enemy was very strange today. I took the cavalry to investigate, but they didn't stop them with all their strength. They just fired a few arrows and ran away in fear. It was like... well, it seemed like they let us go on purpose.
, let us know that the Dali soldiers are about to withdraw."
Li Shao said with a smile: "The enemy troops attacked the mountain stronghold with too many casualties and couldn't attack it. They wanted to lure us down the mountain to fight in the field."
"The enemy is really going to withdraw, or is it just a show of force?" Yang Zaixing asked.
Cao Xun replied: "I can see clearly with a telescope that the enemy's camps are being tidied up, and all the military tents are being tidied up."
Although Kunming has a mild climate, Yang Zaixing seems to be a little angry, and his lips have been chapped these days.
He unconsciously stuck out his tongue to lick it and thought about it without saying a word.
Suddenly, Yang Zaixing spoke: "Bi Jin is old and prudent, leading eight hundred regular soldiers and more than a thousand auxiliary soldiers to stay at the stronghold. If the enemy takes advantage of the situation and comes by boat from Dian Lake, he will immediately light up the smoke to send a signal. The remaining soldiers, come with me.
Try to pursue and see if you can find an opportunity to defeat the enemy."
As soon as these words came out, all the generals were shocked.
They only have 6,000 regular soldiers and more than 1,000 auxiliary soldiers, while the enemy has 40,000 to 50,000.
Under normal circumstances, holding on to the stronghold is a great achievement, but you actually have to split up your troops to pursue it?
Bi Jin dissuaded us: "General, the enemy is just trying to lure us down the mountain, so why do we have to sneak into the enemy's trap? Moreover, we must divide our troops to defend the mountain stronghold and protect the food and grass here. The troops capable of fighting will be even weaker."
Yang Zaixing waved his hand and said, "Otherwise, the enemy army has become frightened and their morale is extremely low. This can be seen from the last few attacks on the mountain. When the Dali soldiers heard the sound of firing muskets, they swarmed in fear regardless of whether anyone was hit.
Turn around and run away. Why are you afraid of such a weak soldier?"
"Also, despite the fact that there are tens of thousands of enemy troops, many of them are without armor. Those must be state and county soldiers (rural soldiers) recruited. They can't even line up in an orderly formation. The retreat of tens of thousands of people will inevitably cause chaos. We seize the opportunity
You can defeat the enemy with one strike!"
Cao Xun reminded: "The horses of the Dali cavalry are better than our horses."
"It's not much better. When the time comes, I will personally lead the cavalry in battle!" Yang Zaixing said.
Although there are ponies in all southwestern provinces, the top one must be the Dali horse.
The average shoulder height of the Dali horse is generally 5 cm higher than other southwestern horse breeds, and it has the advantages of other southwestern horse breeds.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, official horse farms were set up in southwestern Sichuan and the white areas of Guangxi to breed mountain war horses. However, little success was achieved in selecting horse breeds.
Northern war horses are not suitable for fighting in the southwest region, mainly due to terrain and climate problems - historically, the Mongols have been breeding horse breeds in the southwest, and they have not achieved much after hundreds of years of breeding.
Therefore, the cavalry horses under Yang Zaixing were mainly purchased from Dali, with a few from the Song clan tribute in Guizhou and official horse farms in southwestern Sichuan.
Will Dali sell its top war horses to Emperor Zhu?
Now the battle between the two sides has revealed that the Dali cavalry's horses are generally two or three centimeters higher at the shoulders than the Guangxi cavalry.
Moreover, the horse is faster.
Only the mounts of generals such as Yang Zaixing and Cao Xun are among the best horses in the southwest.
At this moment, Yang Zaixing was determined to pursue him, and Cao Xun, as a cavalry general, could not stop him. He was even a little eager to try, because he knew how capable Yang Zaixing was.
After watching Yang Zaixing lead his generals and soldiers down the mountain, Bi Jin, who stayed behind at the stronghold, had no choice but to quickly redeploy his defenses.
Bi Jin was a native of Yanzhou, Shandong, and historically belonged to Yue Fei's tribe.
But Bi Jin was able to leave his name in history mainly because he had a good son - Bi Zaiyu!
Bi Jin in this time and space has never seen Yue Fei.
He first followed Zhang Shuye to the capital to serve as king, then surrendered to the Ming army in a confused way, and then was reorganized in Kaifeng and transferred back to his hometown. Then he was assigned to Guan Sheng's subordinates and became a small school of the motley army, and then crossed the sea with Zhao Li to attack Liaodong.
After going around in circles for many years, Bi Jin had no stable backer and no decent military achievements. It was not until he was thrown to Guangxi that he was appreciated by Yang Zaixing.
Those who are good at fighting do not have great achievements. Bi Jin cannot be said to be good at fighting, but he is definitely good at defense.
Many generals under Yang Zaixing are lunatics who like to fight in vain.
Therefore, every time they wanted to go out to fight, they would definitely hand over their stronghold and food and fodder to Bi Jin to prevent their old nest from being raided by the enemy.
"Our army has insufficient strength, so the first and second stone walls have all been abandoned, and everyone has retreated to the last stone wall."
"Under the second stone wall, dig a trench immediately."
"There is definitely not enough time to dig a deep trench. Just make it full of holes so that the enemy cannot rush in at full speed when they attack."
"Take some of the rubble from the two outer stone walls and bring it back to make rolling stones."
"..."
Bi Jin arranged the defenses in an orderly manner, and Yang Zaixing had led thousands of troops down the mountain.
"No, the enemy general really dares to come?"
Gao Zhenshou was not happy when he heard the news. He was just trying to lure the enemy. He never thought that the Ming army would actually come down the mountain.
Although I have suffered heavy casualties in the past two days, I still have more than 47,000 soldiers. You have thousands of soldiers and horses in hand to defend the stronghold, but you still dare to go down the mountain to chase and fight?
You really don’t treat me as a human being!
At this time, the various ministries in Dali were retreating in an orderly manner, with elites arranged to alternately cover the route. The baggage troops had even withdrawn more than ten miles north.
Gao Zhenshou did not retreat after receiving the news. He called all the generals and said: "The enemy general is a fool. He has a stronghold and does not defend it, but he wants to fight with us on the ground. We just happened to annihilate them all!"
"Gao Zhenli."
"exist."
"You immediately ride to the northwest camp and lead the 6,000 soldiers and horses there. When we start fighting here, you take a boat and go around to the west of the stronghold to land ashore. Taking advantage of the enemy's empty strength, attack the mountain regardless of casualties."
"yes!"
"Gentlemen, we have the superior force on the front, and we have sent surprise troops to attack the enemy's lair. Once a fight breaks out, the enemy will definitely be defeated."
"The prime minister has a wonderful plan!"
After another discussion and arrangement, the generals went back to lead their troops to fight.
Yang Zhongyan looked confused and said in a low voice: "Brother, what are the Ming troops on the mountain doing? Their main force has almost reached Shanchan. He just needs to hold the stronghold by himself. When the time comes, we will look for opportunities to defect. This is obviously inevitable.
It’s a winning situation. Why did they risk going down the mountain to pursue us?”
Yang Zhongsu sighed: "The generals of the Ming army obviously don't take us seriously. Thousands of people are actively pursuing tens of thousands, and they still think they will win."
"I don't want to turn my back on people who look down on them like this." Yang Zhongyan was very angry.
Yang Zhongsu said: "Send someone to contact Zhang Zheng and ask him to find an opportunity to defect with us. Maybe we can make a big decision today..."
“Woooooooo~~~”
At this moment, the military bugle sounded.
A messenger rushed over and said to the generals who had not gone far: "Every unit quickly gathers the cavalry, the enemy cavalry is coming to kill them!"
"What?"
The Yang brothers looked at each other in shock.
He quickly rode over to see what was going on, and saw about 800 Ming army cavalry, leaving behind the Ming army infantry, heading towards tens of thousands of Dali troops.
"How dare they!" Yang Zhongsu said in horror.
The various units of the Dali Army had just stopped withdrawing and were still gathering in a panic but orderly manner.
The logistics troops cannot be recovered for the time being, but most of the soldiers are already moving closer to form formations.
If the Dali Army did not have a cavalry unit, Yang Zaixing's 800 cavalry would naturally have a chance to successfully attack. The problem is that the Dali Army not only had cavalry, but also had more cavalry than Guangxi's cavalry, and could quickly stop Yang Zaixing's 800 cavalry.
It is still very expensive to raise cavalry, and they are the treasures of the princes.
Therefore, when they withdrew, the cavalry also withdrew separately without handing over their treasures. However, the cavalry units were not far apart and could quickly assemble to defend against the enemy and prepare for any surprises during the withdrawal.
Yang Zhongyan flew back to lead the Yang cavalry. When he returned with the cavalry, the Gao cavalry had already engaged Yang Zaixing.
Both sides are light cavalry, so normally they should shoot arrows first.
However, they saw Yang Zaixing leading 800 cavalry to charge at an accelerated speed, and they were attacking in a conical formation with all their might.
Gao Zhenming, however, led the Gao cavalry and subconsciously dispersed into several teams, trying to distance themselves and shoot arrows on both sides.
When the two armies were dozens of steps apart, the Ming cavalry accelerated again.
To be continued...