Chapter 269: The Meizi War (2)

Qingmei Town is located about 60 miles east of Meizhou. The town is quite large, with about 300 households. There are more than a dozen villages around the town. A main official road connecting Meizhou and Ziyang passes through the south of the town, making Qingmei Town the most famous town in a radius of dozens of miles. However, at this time, Qingmei Town was filled with a tense atmosphere before the war. An army of nearly 100,000 people was deployed around a forest about three miles north of Qingmei Town. A whole day, Qingmei Town and the nearby people fled to Renshou County in the south under the command of the army. Within a radius of fifty miles, no household was on lights in the night.

Around a forest to the north, 100,000 Liaodong troops were already waiting for it. On the east side of the forest is a hill with dense trees on it, and two or three thatched huts were distributed among them. The owner of the thatched hut had fled. This place became the temporary command post of the Liaodong Army. One of the larger thatched huts faintly emitted lights. Although the lights were faintly visible, they were still so attractive in the dark night.

In the hut, Li Wei and more than a dozen commanders were whispering to discuss Lan Yu's army's march route in front of a map. From the information obtained by the scout, Lan Yu's army was less than fifty miles away from Qingmei Town. In just one day and one night, Lan Yu forced a 120 miles southeast at an extremely fast speed, allowing everyone to understand Lan Yu's speed of using troops. If it were the past, everyone might have made a marvelous sound, but everyone present was all generals, and no one was amazed now. Lan Yu's current use of troops was like a performance by a brilliant magician who had leaked secrets in front of his peers.

They saw the back of Lan Yu's "fast" and "strange" military use. This is a strategy of fighting at the expense of soldiers' physical strength. This strategy may be very effective in the face of unprepared enemy troops, but in the face of an enemy who already knows this strategy very well and is ready, it will undoubtedly bring a catastrophe to itself.

The official road from Pengshan to Ziyang is located fifteen miles north of Qingmei Town. The reason why I chose the garrison in Qingmei Town was the decision made by the staff based on Lan Yu's military habits. Lan Yu's military habits were to send three scouts to patrol the front. The three scouts were twenty miles apart, and each scout was about a hundred people. Their patrol was a kind of net-like exploration, which was very detailed, so Lan Yu never encountered ambush in wars.

However, after analyzing his large number of marching records, the staff found one of the rules, or a loopholes, that is, the Lan Yu army's marching scouts would only conduct exploration within ten miles of both sides of the road to prevent ambushing halfway. It should be said that for ambushing, this kind of exploration has been sufficient. After discovering the enemy situation, the distance of ten miles is enough to allow the Lan Yu army to quickly gather and respond to the battle.

But this time, the Liaodong Army did not want to fight an ambush battle, but planned to fight a tough battle with Lan Yujun, so it was considered after careful consideration.

Moreover, there is a river several miles east of Qingmei Town, called Renshoushui. The bridges on the river are narrow. When Lanyu's 250,000 troops cross the bridge, they will inevitably slow down, forming a bottleneck. In this way, the army behind will be stranded in large numbers directly opposite Qingmei Town.

"Everyone, the situation in front of us is very clear. Since Lan Yu's army is less than fifty miles away, it means that his former scout has passed and has not discovered us."

Li Weizheng's voice was clear and low, and there was no resistance at all. "The war will break out in two hours. We have excellent weapons and sharp artillery. This is our advantage and we must make full use of it, but our disadvantage is also obvious. We are insufficient troops, so no one can attack the Lan Yu army without my orders. Those who violate the order will be killed!"

Li Weizheng glanced at the generals again, and saw that everyone understood their tactical arrangements, so he nodded and said, "I won't say much. General Ping stayed, and the others returned to the army."

The generals gave a bow and left one after another. Only Li Weizheng and Ping'an were left in the room. Seeing that he was a little sad, Li Weizheng smiled and said, "Do you know why you are left alone?"

"I don't know."

"I want to give you a mission, and you will lead 5,000 cavalry to attack the Lan Yu Hou Army."

Ping An was overjoyed. He was so sad that he could not defeat the enemy by sneak attack. Li Weizheng seemed to know what he was thinking, so he smiled slightly and continued: "Lan Yu's rear army has only 20,000 people, and your cavalry should be able to deal with it. However, Lan Yu sent someone to help, so you leave and withdraw, and you will not be allowed to fight in love."

"Sir, why can't we directly defeat Lan Yujun through sneak attacks?" Ping An was still a little confused.

Li Weizheng shook his head and said, "If the opponent has 100,000 people, or the opponent's coach is Li Jinglong and others, I will do this, but our opponent is Lan Yu, which is the number one player of the dynasty. Although we have figured out his tactics, don't underestimate him because of this. If we use sneak attacks, we will not be able to play our advantages, and the final result may not be as optimistic as we thought."

"I understand, I will never be in love with the fight."

Ping An gave a gift and went out. After looking at the map for a moment, Li Weizheng blew out the oil lamp and walked out of the house with great strides.

The night was getting darker and darker, and it was already the second day of the morning. The world was silent. As the moisture increased, a thin layer of mist appeared on the ground, covering the forests and fields.

At this time, a huge army had appeared on the official road fifteen miles away, and the torches formed a long fire dragon. This was the 30,000 vanguards of the Lan Yu Army. The extremely tired soldiers had reached the end of their strength after a day and night of march. The commander had promised them that after passing Renshoushui, they could rest for an hour. It was this hope of resting that seemed to quench their thirst, which inspired the soldiers' final potential.

The front army began to cross the bridge, and the narrow bridge immediately hindered the speed of the front army. As expected, the army immediately slowed down, and shouts and scoldings came one after another. About half an hour later, the forefronts continued to cross the bridge one after another, and the official road became quiet again.

Another hour later, a large group of people appeared on the official road again. This time, it was the main force of Lan Yujun. There were 200,000 people, stretching for more than ten miles. The overwhelming torches were like a sea of ​​fire. On the hills, you could see the torches in the distance without even a thousand miles away.

On the hills, hundreds of cavalry guards were guarding their head coach. Li Wei held a thousand-eye eyes in his hand and looked into the distance. The thousand-eye eyes made him see more clearly. As he thought, although the soldiers of the Lan Yu army were exhausted, it was obvious from the distribution of the torches that they were not messy and very orderly. They did not spread to both sides because of the blockage in front, but stood there and waited patiently.

The deputy general Deng Jian, who was standing beside him, said with some concern: "Sir, I am very worried that if Lan Yu knows that we are prepared, will he retreat and not fight us head-on?"

"Definitely not." Li Wei was putting his eyes down and said lightly: "He knows more than anyone else what the consequences will be if the 200,000 army retreats. He should know that in a head-on battle with us, there may be a little chance to win, so don't worry! We will definitely win this battle."

On the official road, Lan Yu's brows were frowning tightly. He did not expect that the bridge on Renshou River in front would cause such blockage. If he had known this, he would have ordered the forward to build two more bridges. But now that things have come to this point, he had no choice. On the one hand, he ordered his subordinates to search for ships and build a floating bridge. On the other hand, he could only wait patiently, but the soldiers seemed willing to wait so that they could take advantage of the wait interval. Lan Yu also found this opportunity and ordered: "The whole army can rest on the spot and wait for the bridge to cross."

The military order was passed, and large areas of torches were extinguished. The exhausted soldiers sat on the ground one after another. Many of them fell to the ground and fell asleep. They had been forcibly marching for a few days, and the rest time was less than three hours together. Even the Iron Man would be tired and disbanded. The team was very quiet, and everyone was so tired that they didn't even have the strength to speak.

Although Lan Yu was also very tired, the habit he developed for many years of marching could not be changed. He rode on the horse and looked at both sides of the official road. The dark night fog blocked his sight and could not see anything, but he felt an uneasy feeling in his heart. This feeling was slowly formed in his decades of military career and was very accurate.

"Where is this?" This uneasy feeling made Lan Yu become alert.

The marching Sima Lu Xuanwu immediately reported: "Report to the general, fifteen miles south is Qingmei Town, the only way from Meizhou to Ziyang."

"Have the scout gone to investigate?"

Lu Xuanwu hesitated and said, "We followed the custom and only investigated within ten miles of both sides of the official road. We found that there was no one in a village. It was probably the Liaodong army that passed by and scared them away."

"No!" Lan Yu immediately felt something was wrong. How could the army passes through the border? It was so simple that it could scare people away. He immediately ordered: "Send the scouts to the town to investigate immediately, go immediately!"

But he felt that it was too late. As soon as Lan Yu finished speaking, a terrifying noise suddenly came from behind him. The soldiers stood up one after another and looked back. Lan Yu said angrily: "What happened?"

Several war horses rushed over, and the soldiers shouted in horror: "General, the rear army was suddenly attacked by Liaodong cavalry and could no longer support it."

Lan Yu was shocked and asked hurriedly: "How many cavalry do the other side have?"

"About five thousand cavalry, very sharp, the general in charge seemed to be Ping Baoer."

Lan Yu's heart sank into the abyss. His rear army had 20,000 people, while the opponent had only 5,000 cavalry. Can't he support him so quickly?

Deputy General Sun Guangbiao also realized something was wrong, and he hurriedly said: "General, I'm afraid the matter is serious. If the opponent's general is really Ping Baoer, then the main force in Liaodong should be nearby."

Lan Yu suddenly turned around and stared at the direction of Qingmei Town in the darkness. He suddenly said word by word: "I know that Li Weizheng must be watching us not far away."

The generals around him were suddenly panicked and begged: "General, we are here to come from a long journey. How can the soldiers have the strength to fight? Let's retreat! We can't fight against the Liaodong Army."

"Shut up!" Lan Yu roared, and the generals immediately calmed down.

"Do you think we only have a few thousand men? The 200,000 army will be what the consequences will be if it retreats? The morale of the army is in chaos, and the opponent only needs five thousand cavalry to defeat us."

All the generals lowered their heads, and Sun Guangbiao whispered: "Then what should we do now? Please give the order to the general!"

Lan Yu also knew that his army was very tired. If he could find an ambush in advance, he would let the soldiers rest for two hours before fighting. But now the other party has launched, and the soldiers all knew that they were ambushing in him. If they dragged on, the army would be unstable and chaos would soon occur.
Chapter completed!