Yang Yao climbed up the mountain eagerly, not caring if his feet slipped and fell. Until he climbed to the top of the mountain and looked at the mountain pass of the Huanglong Mountains in the east, he finally showed an expression of relief.
The officers and soldiers in the camp first assembled on both sides of the official road at the mountain pass, and then lined up to stand on the west side of the camp.
Zhang Tianlin spent a long time climbing up and complained: "Why are you climbing so fast..."
Then he saw the changes in the officers and soldiers at the mountain pass on the other side, and was shocked and angry: "Grandma, we are going to fight with the officers and soldiers."
Yang Yao shook his head and said: "The general is here, these people don't want to go out to fight."
He looked very excited, and he had some guesses about what was going to happen next, but he didn't dare to think about it.
All I could do was stare straight at the mountain pass.
A large army of officers and soldiers defected to the rebels. Who in their right mind would dare to think in this direction?
Yang Yao just thought about it and already felt that he had offended God.
Zhang Tianlin's reaction to the Ningxia soldiers was even more unacceptable. The Ningxia frontier soldiers, who were so arrogant, wanted to shoot him when they saw him, but they became well-behaved when they saw Liu Shishi?
On the other side of the battlefield, the generals from Ningxia helplessly watched their troops fall apart.
Some highly respected officers were escorted out of the camp by soldiers.
Some officers who imposed severe military punishment tried to draw their swords to stop them, but their subordinates turned against them with swords.
There were also those who always treated the sergeants badly, and of course they were killed by the mutinous sergeants.
Revenge when there is a grudge, and revenge when there is hatred.
After leaving the camp, the troops directly accepted the on-site reorganization of the Lion Battalion.
Liu Chengzong had already thought of arrangements for them when he marched. He first sent the cold, feverish, and injured soldiers to the outposts, leaving more than 500 people scattered and organized into various outposts.
In an instant, the originally small difference in strength between the two sides turned into a force of 3,000 soldiers from the Lion Battalion surrounding the more than 300 people He Huchen had left in the village.
Everything happened so fast that He Huchen, the leader of the camp, didn't even have time to order the soldiers to block the gate of the camp. All the troops were already filing out under the leadership of grassroots officers.
Even the wounded soldiers with broken legs jumped out of the camp on crutches.
He Huchen had never seen anything like this when he was fighting in Beizhili and Shandong.
In the fight against the Northern invaders in Ningxia, Ningxia soldiers have always been loyal, brave, hard-working, and not afraid of death. Even King Qin and King Qin's troops in Ningxia did not mutiny much under the leadership of You Shilu.
He Huchen couldn't understand the sudden large-scale defection. What kind of enchanting soup did Liu Shizi give to his soldiers?
In a moment, there were only more than 300 people left in the camp.
These people are basically generals at all levels and some servants, and there are very few ordinary soldiers left.
He Huchen said that by closing the gate of the village: "We can still reverse the situation until Commander-in-Chief Du leads his troops to help."
People from the Lion Camp shouted from the city: "Congratulations, Marshal, Governor Hong has called Marshal Du back to the border wall. Please surrender!"
In fact, Liu Chengzong is still not sure whether Du Wenhuan has left or not, maybe he is behind them.
But this did not delay him from using his words to break through He Huchen's resistance.
He Huchen looked suspicious, and all the generals on the stronghold looked ashen.
Especially Shen Guangxian, who said angrily: "Commander, I know that guy named Du is unreliable!"
He Huchen did not answer, and after thinking for a moment, he turned to everyone and asked: "There is insufficient food and grass in the stronghold, and it will not be better if we hold on for a few days. He wants to go out of the stronghold to fight with the thieves, and he will be loyal to His Majesty today. You and others will all suffer."
Your Majesty, would you like to come with me?"
A group of generals headed by Shen Guangxian prostrated themselves and shouted: "Follow the commander to the death!"
The gate of the village was opened, and more than 300 cavalrymen rushed out and formed two formations on the east side of the village. Then the center sentry of the Lion Battalion pressed up, and the two wings were covered by horse soldiers.
But before the two sides could enter the fighting range, a red horse with a faded mane carried a rider carrying a flag and marched to the front of the formation.
Liu Chengzong tied the Liu-character flag on the ground, hung a shield on his left arm, and then shouted from a distance: "He Huchen, look at the person behind you."
"Do you know what they gave up to stand with you? You just led them to death?"
In fact, to be honest, those who are still standing behind He Huchen have really not given up anything.
Yinchuan had never suffered from drought before this year, and the servants had never suffered from hunger. They just lacked wages.
Not to mention the officers, their salaries have not been cut off, especially those who exceed the 100th rank. Even if they enter the Lions Camp, their treatment may not be better than before.
Moreover, the number of households in which these people belong is the proportion of the average household size in Ningxia.
But He Huchen's understanding was already confused. Moreover, in his position, he had no way of knowing what ordinary officers and soldiers could gain from the Lion Battalion.
Liu Chengzong's words actually made him relax his determination to die.
He Huchen turned his head and looked at his generals with a guilty look in his eyes. His generals also breathed a sigh of relief.
If the general wants to lead them to charge, then they will charge towards the enemy just like those heroes in ancient times. This ending is not bad for the general.
But if the commander changes his mind, it will be a better thing for them.
After all, the responsibility for surrender will be borne by the commander-in-chief. They were just following orders.
But for He Huchen, this is not the case.
Liu Chengzong found that no arrows were fired at him from the enemy formation. He knew that the officers and soldiers had no intention to die, so he continued to persuade him to surrender loudly: "Surrender, I will send you home to guard the border for the imperial court. There are so many generals working together."
After dying today, how long will it take for Ningxia Town to recover?"
Unless these generals die, Ningxia will not be able to slow down!
There are only a few people in Ningxia. King Qin left a few thousand and dropped a few thousand more here. The remaining soldiers couldn't even dig up the sand.
He Huchen turned his head and bowed his hands to the generals who were following him: "The war has come to an end, and the blame lies with He. You all can surrender and let this lion thief take you back to Ningxia."
"As a commander-in-chief, He can win or lose, live or die, but he cannot lose his prestige as a traitor."
Shen Guangxian was extremely anxious: "Commander!"
Not only was he close to He Huchen, but if He Huchen committed suicide here, the blame for bringing the general to surrender would fall on his head.
He shouted straight from the bottom of his heart: "Commander, you can't die!"
Almost at the same time as he shouted, He Huchen drew the sword from his waist, but before he could put it on his neck, someone kicked him away and kicked the sword away.
It’s He Zan.
He threw his father down and shouted: "General God, hurry up!"
A series of changes made Liu Chengzong extremely confused. He originally thought that his words had an effect, but he saw He Huchen pull out his sword.
Just as He Huchen drew out his sword, his son threw him to the ground again. In the final chaos, the weapon fell to the ground with a ping-pong-pong-pong sound. More than 300 generals and servants tied up He Huchen and took him over to surrender.
Liu Chengzong pulled up the flag from the ground and felt extremely satisfied.
This was the first time, the first time that the army and the army, which were still capable of fighting, surrendered to him.
Yang Yao and Zhang Tianlin also ran over with their troops. Yang Yao was very envious when he saw the troops recruiting new recruits everywhere, and his head was full of questions: "General, what's going on?"
"What's going on? I won the battle."
At this moment, Liu Chengzong could finally breathe a sigh of relief and sent people east through Huanglong Mountain to find out about Du Wenhuan.
However, before the people sent out went far, they saw the messenger from the south.
To be precise, it was people sent by Liu Chengzu in Lion Bay who sent the news that Yang Yao had sent Du Wenhuan's at least 2,000 troops eastward from Fucheng before the war.
This was the third person sent by Liu Chengzu. The first one came out of the valley and bumped into Du Wenhuan's Tang soldiers in the Yunyan Town area and was killed; the second one did not dare to take the main road and got lost in Huanglong Mountain.
When the third man set off, Du Wenhuan's troops had already retreated from the east to the north and entered the official road of Huanglong Mountain from Yichuan. However, the official road was full of mud and was too difficult to walk.
The news was sent to the two armies only after they were ready.
But there’s nothing to complain about. If you want to blame it, you can only blame the mountain road.
When Liu Chengzong came out of the mountain, he looked back at the deep valley road and made up his mind that he would never go down the official road in such a large mountain range again unless absolutely necessary.
It's better to go to the country roads in the hills.
Liu Chengzong was very optimistic about He Zan. After people temporarily detained He Huchen and other generals, he sent someone to find He Zan alone.
The sentry troops of the Lion Battalion camped on the east bank of the Luo River. The two of them also found a dry ancient stone pavilion on the east bank of the Luo River and sat in the pavilion to chat for a while.
Liu Chengzong asked: "How did you figure it out?"
"I don't understand. It's just that I can't win. There's no point in fighting you."
He Zan actually saw the situation of the Lion Camp clearly and also understood the reason why the Lion Camp was able to gather the border troops.
It’s because of this severe drought.
The imperial court has been indebted to the lower-level border troops for too long. It's not that the Lion Battalion is too strong, but that they are too weak.
This strength or weakness does not lie in the combat power and morale of the soldiers, but in the fact that the troops on the expedition were not fully deployed... The imperial court never regarded this matter as a war.
It should only be used to suppress civil unrest, and the purpose is to kill the bandit leader.
However, He Zan, who stayed in the prison camp of Lion Camp for a short two days, already knew very well that what the court was facing in Shaanxi was not a civil unrest, but a war.
It can even be said to be a war between countries.
The same tactics used by the Western Army to deal with the Northern invaders in the past will no longer work.
The imperial court used bloodletting to deal with the Northern Lu. The border troops selected elite soldiers and generals, went deep into the vast sea, and used tit-for-tat killings to retaliate against the Northern Lu's plundering of the border.
Supplemented by the economic blockade of the Great Wall, the northern tribes will not be allowed to obtain money, food, iron tools, or the babies of the northern tribes will grow up.
But this set of things is useless against Liu Chengzong, and even killing him is useless.
The most correct way is to trap Yan'an Prefecture, lock up the city walls and clear the country, blockade all important roads, and let the six departments of the imperial court plan how to deal with the thieves, how many troops need to be mobilized, how much money and food will be spent, and completely annihilate them in one battle.
Instead of squeezing out some troops and filling up an army in northern Shaanxi like now.
Originally, the morale of the border troops was low due to lack of pay, but after losing the battle, they received great comfort from the traitors after being captured.
This made He Zan feel that the Ningxia soldiers were like a group of boys giving away money.
But these things cannot be solved by He Zan, not even by He Huchen.
If both their father and son died here, it would be of no use to the cause, so it would be better to live.
"I think it's meaningless. If you had guarded the border well in Ningxia, you wouldn't have ended up like this." Liu Chengzong sighed: "Those who live and die are soldiers, so why lose both sides."
After that, he said to He Zan: "You go, the rebels are either the starving people who are crazy about hunger, or the border troops who are crazy about poverty. Guard the border well and stop meddling in the affairs here."
Liu Chengzong easily said to let them go, which made He Zan a little unbelievable.
But then I figured out that whether they surrendered or ran away was of no practical significance to Liu Chengzong’s Lion Camp.
After all, no one would work for the Lion Battalion after they surrendered, but the process of their surrender was very important to the soldiers of the Lion Battalion.
Only when they surrender will it be considered that the Lion Battalion has completely defeated a general force that was suppressed by the official army.
He Huchen led more than 2,000 Ningxia troops to fight thousands of miles, and finally brought more than 300 generals. The servants returned in despair. They were given a gift of ten miles by the Lion Camp and watched as he led his troops into the muddy Ziwuling official road.
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Just a few days ago, they beat Li Laojiao hard at the corner of that mountain road.
On this rare opportunity, the Lion Battalion also counted all the spoils from the battle of Huanglong Mountain in the camps southeast of Luohe.
The losses were considerable. In addition to the casualties and illnesses of the soldiers, a large amount of military rations were soaked in water, and seven heavy cannons were lost. Only the thousand-jin Hongyi cannon, which had done great service, was still being dragged slowly along the mountain road.
The gains are also great. After one of the most dangerous and fierce battles, the Lion Battalion now holds its head high and chest out unconsciously when walking in formation, regardless of whether it is fighting or assisting soldiers.
The addition of a large number of Ningxia soldiers not only made up for the shortage of soldiers killed and injured in the Lion Battalion, but also expanded the strength of the six combat posts to more than 4,500. Adding the baggage posts and work posts, the strength was almost 6,000.
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The most important thing is the Tangqi team. A total of 288 Tangqi soldiers from He Huchen's 24 Tang soldiers were all incorporated into Wei Qian'er's command. Combined with the original 12 Tangqi soldiers, they formed a Tangqi team of more than 400 people.
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With a little training, this Tangqi unit will gain greater advantages for the Lion Battalion in future battles covering the battlefield.
The strength structure of each outpost has also undergone great changes with this replenishment of troops. The most significant feature is that the strength of the six combat outposts has increased from the original 500 to 700 or 800.
Subsequently, each post began to report their military exploits from the commander level. In fact, it is difficult to accurately record their military exploits, and most of them report their performance during the battle.
In the end, all the auxiliary soldiers, except for less than 70 who showed fear of war in battle, were all promoted to combat soldiers, and the Ningxia soldiers who joined from the prisoners became auxiliary soldiers.
The structure of the Lion Battalion has undergone strange changes, from one soldier leading two auxiliary soldiers to two soldiers leading one auxiliary soldier.
Moreover, the combat skills of auxiliary soldiers are no worse than those of combat soldiers.
In fact, some auxiliary soldiers have insufficient combat capabilities to fulfill their duties as combat soldiers.
Tianhou, Wang Wenxiu, Cao Yao and others all reported this matter to Liu Chengzong, but Liu Chengzong still decided not to forget the old man.
Skills belong to skills, merits belong to merits.
The newly arrived troops from Ningxia have not yet made any achievements, so why should they be put in the position of soldiers?
What's more, Liu Chengzong didn't intend to keep the Lion Battalion in this structure forever. This was just an expedient measure to use two soldiers to watch a new member of the border army in a short period of time.
After the battle was over, Li Laojiao sighed.
He was the loser second only to He Huchen in this battle. More than 3,000 people were beaten to more than 1,000. All the food stolen in Qingyang Mansion was thrown into the ravine and it rained.
I didn't catch anything, and I still owe Liu Chengzong three thousand shi of rice and grain.
What's more, Liu Chengzong... he couldn't afford to offend him. On the day after the battle, he became a tool and led the troops south to the central part of Yanzhou and Yijun County to raise military rations for the Lion Camp.
The rain stopped, and Liu Chengzong was thinking about Du Wenhuan.
Du Wenhuan has indeed withdrawn his troops from Yichuan, so what is he doing now?