In order to speed up the progress, Yang Xuan even gave up his rotation and dug holes underground day and night. Not only were there a few simple passages, but on the side where the local commander's tent was located, the underground was already dug in all directions.
The small pits all over the place are dug directly to provide ventilation holes. The passages are narrow and the soil on the grassland is hard, so there is no need to worry about collapse. The spacious pits will be reinforced with wooden pillars and boards just in case.
On a dark and windy night, less than two miles away from the main camp of the Fucha Division, caves were quietly exposed. This place was already three miles away from Tucheng.
Groups of soldiers emerged from the caves. They were all dressed in black, lying on the ground, and soon assembled a force of a thousand people.
The leader of the army was Qianhu Yang Xiao. He ordered in a low voice: "Check all the fire starters. I will say it one last time. Just shoot the arrows for a while. Everyone must shoot out the five rockets in their hands to complete the mission."
Then return to the cave you came from, don't run around, and if you encounter the enemy's pursuit, don't get entangled, and evacuate as soon as possible, there will be people here to respond, and I will also cut off the rear for you, do you understand?"
Everyone was silent and nodded.
Yang Xiao raised his arm and pointed at the Fucha Division camp not far away: "Let's go."
It is not that the Fucha Division's camp is unguarded, but since the war began, Dasheng soldiers have not taken the initiative to attack, and even if the opponent wants to attack, the large pits and small pits outside the Tucheng are doomed to be unable to send cavalry.
Sneak attack, so the main defense direction of the Fucha Division camp is still on the periphery.
Aguta is always on guard against the surprise attack of the 30,000-strong army.
As for the direction of Tucheng, for the Fucha army with all cavalry, wouldn't it be funny if the infantry attacked the cavalry in a sneak attack? Even if the sneak attack is successful and the cavalry overtakes them, do you still want one of them to come back alive?
The Fucha tribe's camp was five miles away from the Tucheng. At this distance, no one could escape the pursuit of the prairie cavalry.
Therefore, the defense here was almost useless. When Yang Xiao led his men to the front of the camp, they were still not discovered by the guards. With Yang Xiao's gesture, everyone lay down and hid again.
Yang Xiao did not launch an attack because he was still waiting for the signal.
This signal was the night attack of Essien's three thousand cavalry.
Yang Xuan and the Essien cavalry who were wandering around the periphery had always exchanged information with falcons. Tonight's sneak attack was just a feint attack by the cavalry to attract the enemy's attention. The real killing move was made by Yang Xiao's troops.
In the Fucha tribe's camp, the soldiers have fallen into a deep sleep. Although there are still a large number of soldiers patrolling at night, everyone is a little sleepy. Commander Agutu has always said that he should beware of Essin's cavalry sneak attacks, but this has been more than ten days.
Well, the opponent never even came to fight in person, at most he just wandered around from a distance.
How could the other side dare to make a sneak attack against this army of 50,000 people?
The guards and patrol troops are also old and weak troops arranged. Every one of them is absent-minded and wants to get through the night watch quickly so that they can go back to sleep.
Therefore, when the sound of horse hooves approached the camp, the guards did not issue a warning immediately. Instead, they waited until the opponent appeared at the gate of the camp before confirming that it was Essien's cavalry attacking.
The obstacles in front of the camp were quickly pulled away, and three thousand cavalry rushed into the camp. They killed everyone they saw and set tents on fire. In a short time, the Fucha Division camp became a mess.
.
However, the elite troops of the Fucha Department also moved very quickly and began to assemble troops. In less than a stick of incense, several thousand-man troops were assembled and began to counterattack or even outflank the enemy.
However, when the opponent saw a group of elite cavalry, they did not engage in the battle at all and simply turned around and ran away.
Aguta had not met the Essien cavalry for more than ten days, nor had he traced their true whereabouts. Now that he finally showed up, he was not willing to let them go and immediately ordered his troops to pursue them.
Little did they know that when their large force was chasing them out, Yang Xiao and his men had already sneaked into their camp.
Even Yang Xiao himself didn't expect that the trip would go so smoothly. He quietly eliminated several groups of patrols along the way and remained undetected until they found the enemy's granary and stables.
So, with an order, the infantry turned into cavalry, and then started setting fire.
In addition to burning food, they also poured kerosene on the horses, placed fire starters on the horses' backs, and then set the horses on fire.
The neighing of the horses and the rising flames finally attracted the enemy's attention, but it was already too late.
When they saw the mad horses, they couldn't even stop them. They could only watch the burning horses running wildly in the camp, setting tents one after another on fire.
It was already windy tonight, and the wind helped the fire, and the fire spread quickly.
In addition, the soldiers led by Yang Xiao were still shooting rockets everywhere to fill the empty spaces not affected by the flames.
Without Agutu's orders, the Fucha cavalry mounted their horses one after another and came to intercept and pursue.
Yang Xiao directly ordered the retreat.
I was originally worried that two legs would not be able to run as well as four legs, but now it is better. With horses instead, it will not be so easy for the enemy to catch up.
By the time the enemy assembled their troops and began to pursue them, Yang Xiao had already led his men out of the camp.
For the galloping horses, Erli Di was only a matter of seconds. When the enemy chased them out of the camp, Yang Xiao and others had already returned to the cave. There were already three thousand crossbow archers waiting here, and a rain of arrows was ready.
Blocked the enemy's pursuit.
It's just that the other side is not willing to let go of these Dasheng soldiers easily. In their view, these Dasheng soldiers rarely appear outside the city, and are not even within the scope of the trap. They just adjusted their formation slightly and launched again.
Charged.
However, the next moment, they saw thousands of horses on fire, charging straight towards their team.
Although the Fucha Division's pursuing troops numbered several thousand, they were once again scattered in formation when faced with the crazy horses.
After they finally reorganized their formation, there was no trace of the enemy on the grassland.
At this scene, even Aguta who chased him was a little dumbfounded.
The opponent was just an infantryman. How did he disappear under his nose?
Although he was puzzled, Aguta did not dare to pursue him rashly because of the darkness, so he had to return to camp.
Seeing the fire blazing into the sky in the camp, Aguta was furious.
Yang Xiao's night attack burned nearly half of the food and grass and a quarter of the tents. In short, almost all of their sneak attack was in a sea of fire.
This loss was not small. Not only was the food and grass burned, but nearly 10,000 horses were frightened and ran away due to the fire, and nearly 1,000 people were injured or killed.
When the fire was extinguished and it was almost dawn, Aguta stayed up all night, planning how to fight back. After so many years of leading troops, he had never fought such a frustrating battle.