Although Yao Pingzhong was reluctant to fake defeat, as a general of the Song Dynasty, he did not dare to disobey the command of Li Gang, the Privy Councillor!
Moreover, he had already been severely punished once for offending Tong Guan. This time he finally managed to win over Li Gang, his big backer. How could he not learn his lesson and behave well?
Not to mention Li Gang wants him to "fake defeat", even if he wants him to "real defeat", he still has to execute it!
Of course, if Li Gang insisted on him winning the battle, he might not be able to do it. After all, it’s easy to defeat a war. If you don’t know how to win a war, why don’t you still lose a war? "Fake defeat" and "real defeat" are both attitude issues. And winning the battle is a matter of ability...
In fact, Yao Pingzhong is also somewhat capable, but he does not have the ability to command a large army in battle. He is just a brave man who leads hundreds or thousands of cavalry to charge, similar to Wang De, the second-largest man in their Yao family army.
Before Xuanhe's Northern Expedition, this Yao Pingzhong was very effective whether he was fighting Xixia or Fangla, and he was known as "the most successful in the entire army." If he hadn't been arrogant and offended Tong Guan repeatedly, he would probably have been the vanguard during Xuanhe's Northern Expedition.
Yao Pingzhong, who did not catch up with Xuanhe's battle against the Liao Dynasty and was thrown into disuse. In the first month of the eighth year of Xuanhe's reign, Yao Pingzhong felt that this was the news of the official replacement, the difficulties in Kaifeng, and the court's call for heroes from all over the world to be loyal to the king. A chance to turn around. So he spent a lot of money and gathered a group of Langdang relatives from the Yao family in Miyuan. They equipped them with the best armor, equipment and horses. They also teamed up with Wang De, a strong general of the Yao family army, and gathered 1,000 elite soldiers to fly to Kaifeng Prefecture. !
That’s a full 1,000 cavalry!
Compared with the other Qinwang rebels who couldn't even put together paper armor, these 1,000 Yao cavalry were definitely a luxurious lineup. When Li Gang saw these cavalry, his eyes lit up! He was immediately promoted to the commander of the army before the camp, and this time he was made the vanguard of the troops.
Of course Yao Pingzhong had to work harder to defeat the battle to repay Li Gang's kindness!
Do you have to work harder to lose a battle?
Of course! Li Gang didn't ask him to run away or only run away when he saw thieves, but asked him to kill the thieves before running away... and before running away, he had to kill a wave of thieves ruthlessly!
In fact, Li Gang's arrangement was not a "fake defeat" at all, but an attempt to escape and package it as a fake defeat.
The key to whether this fake defeat looks like it or not depends on how hard Yao Pingzhong and Wang De fight! If the three to five hundred gold thieves and vanguard kidnapper horses can be defeated in one wave, Li Gang's army should be able to escape safely.
After sending Yao Pingzhong to lead the cavalry to try hard to defeat the battle, Li Gang immediately ordered the drums to be beaten to gather the generals, summoned the entire army and officers above generals to start arranging an escape.
"Fake defeat and return to Kaifeng Mansion" is Li Gang's big goal, but in terms of specific implementation, he cannot run towards Kaifeng Mansion with his head covered... It is 230 miles to run back to Kaifeng Mansion from Huhe Town, Puzhou Far away, and Li Gang's army is mainly infantry. If you have to run all the way back, why don't you lie down from exhaustion?
Moreover, the Jin soldiers are mainly cavalry. If they are to be chased by the tail, how can an army of 100,000 be chased to the point of annihilation?
Fortunately, Li Gang, a military layman, still had understanding people around him. His marching counselor, Zhe Yanzhi, was a general from the Zhe family. Although he, like Zhong Shidao, had given up martial arts and followed the path of civility. However, he has not forgotten the military skills passed down from his family. He still knows how to march and fight (but like Zhong Shidao, he lacks actual combat experience), and of course he also knows how to run away.
Therefore, the escape plan he made for Li Gang was to run south from Huhe Town and go straight to Dingtao, the military city of Guangji Army.
Dingtao is on the north bank of the Wuzhang River, only more than 80 miles away from Huhe Town... If you can run harder, you can get there in one day.
As a local administrative unit, the "army" of the Song Dynasty was generally established in strategic military locations, and military cities were generally relatively strong. Moreover, Dingtao is next to the Wuzhang River, so it is easier to obtain supplies, which is conducive to long-term persistence.
And Li Gang has now summoned all his generals and officers above to assign them a "fake defeat mission"... Of course, before announcing a "fake defeat", he must first announce a piece of good news. In order to stabilize the morale of the army.
After the three-way gathering of generals and drums, a large group of rebels or generals from all over the world gathered in the Chinese army tent where Li Gang, Zhe Yanzhi, and Qin Hui were.
"Tell you good news!" Seeing that everyone was almost here, Li Gang, who was sitting in the coach's seat in neat official uniform, twirled his beard and said with a smile, "I just got the news, the official family and Mrs. Han The soldiers led by the lieutenant were assisted by Wang Yishi of Jingdong Qin in Liangshanbo, and defeated the gold thieves several times. Moreover, the gold thieves soldiers were attracted by our army again, and now the officials are out of danger... I am waiting for this journey. Even if it’s not in vain, I’ll give you a generous reward after I return to Beijing!”
When the generals below heard his words, they all cheered in unison.
Li Gang twirled his beard, nodded with a smile, and then raised his hand to signal the people below to be quiet so they could continue to listen to his deception.
Li Gang said: "The army of gold thieves is probably coming to Huhe Town!"
What? The golden thief is coming?
The atmosphere in the big tent suddenly became tense!
The army Li Gang brought out of Kaifeng Prefecture was basically a mob...except for the 1,000 Yao family army brought by Yao Pingzhong, which was more capable, only the 1,000 Zhe family army brought by Zhe Yanzhi was slightly stronger (worse than Yao Pingzhong's army) too much).
Except for Yao Pingzhong, who is a bit hot-headed, everyone in the army is also very self-aware...knowing that they are scum!
So when I heard that the golden thief was coming, I immediately panicked.
Li Gang, on the other hand, was calm and confident... In fact, he was also panicking, otherwise he wouldn't have "faked defeat." But he can keep his composure!
"I already have a way to lure the enemy. As long as you follow the plan, you will definitely be able to return to Kaifeng Mansion safely!"
What? The people below were confused again.
What is the method of luring the enemy?
What does it mean?
Shouldn't we run away now? Why did he become an enemy? Is luring the enemy a polite way of saying escape?
Li Gang looked at a group of stunned military attachés below and said with a smile: "I know the rules and will not let my brothers' hard work be in vain... let the rewards go first, each soldier will be given a bolt of silk first, and wait until he returns to Kaifeng Everyone in the house will be rewarded with a copper coin!"
ah! ?
It can still be like this!
Now the military attachés were even more surprised.
Although the officers and soldiers of the Song Dynasty were all desperate for money, they still acted on their conscience when asking for money... When they went into battle to kill the enemy, everyone would reach out and ask for money. But when escaping, no one wants money.
Now, Privy Li actually gave out a reward before escaping... Does this mean everyone should run faster?
Li Gang smiled and said: "Everyone can follow me out of the city to lure the enemy and relieve the government's difficulties. That means everyone has made merit, and merit will be rewarded... Just take it, soldiers!"
Then he put on a profound expression and said to Orihiko next to him: "Senior Orihiko, now announce my military order!"
Zhe Yanzhi immediately stood up and said to the generals below with a straight face and a serious face: "The camp envoy Privy Li has given an order, and the whole army should be ready to march. Once the order is given, everyone should march south in order." Retreat to Dingtao, the military city of Guangji. The generals must not panic or scramble. If they are pursued by gold thieves, they should form a square formation on the spot and wait for reinforcements! In addition, the following generals must withdraw into Leize, Linpu, Nanhua, and Chengshi must stick to their guns and make no mistakes!"
...
"Kill the gold thief, earn reward money, follow Sajia, kill..."
"Dong dong dong dong..."
In the early morning of the 10th day of February, on the plain east of Huhe Town, with a shout and a burst of rapid drumming, thousands of cavalry rumbled out of the darkness with the help of the moonlight that had not yet disappeared. .
The horse's hooves stepped on the water-saturated earth, bringing up pieces of soil, and roared towards the four to five hundred knights in white robes who were marching along an official road!
The four or five white-robed knights seemed to be startled by the sudden cavalry attack in front of them. But they quickly reacted, and several of the knights immediately turned their horses around and galloped eastward. The remaining cavalrymen took off the spears on their shoulders, dispersed their formation, and launched an attack amidst the sound of horns, without any fear of the opponent's overwhelming numbers.
A tit-for-tat cavalry confrontation broke out on the plain east of Huhe Town in the blink of an eye.
This is a cavalry night battle!
Horses galloping at full speed at night, rushing against each other in the dark, and if you are not careful, you will collide... If you collide with the cavalry during the collision, it will be a horse-destroying death!
That is to say, Yao Pingzhong, the energetic and somewhat abnormal successor of the Yao family, dared to do this with his own soldiers - in the original history, he was more active than now. Not only did he lead the army to the Kaifeng Mansion, but he also The golden thief fought several battles and actually won them all. In the end, he got carried away and encouraged Li Gang to let him lead his troops to sneak attack on the Jin soldiers' camp. The result was a sheep among wolves...
However, although this guy lost the battle, he was stronger than other defeated Song generals in this era. He knew his shame! After losing the battle, he was shameless and fled to Qingcheng Mountain in Sichuan to become a Taoist priest.
He sounds like a man!
And Wang De, who is following him now, was also a fierce man in history. The Jin people called him "Wang Yaksha", and Yaksha... of course he was particularly awesome at night!
Together, these two people contributed to such a lifeless cavalry night battle!
The one who was ambushed by the two of them was a Jin Bing Mou Ke, a subordinate of Wan Yan's mother, all Jurchen kidnappers. They were responsible for clearing the way for the army. Unexpectedly, they encountered such a group of life-threatening lunatics!
However, these Jurchen kidnapper horses and Alixi who followed them were tough enough and did not panic when encountering enemy attacks. Except for a few horses who went to report the news, the others immediately launched a counterattack!
The 1,400 to 500 horsemen from both sides collided and fought hand-to-hand in the darkness before dawn... In a very short period of time, both sides suffered heavy casualties. More than half of the soldiers were lost, and they could not hold on until reinforcements were felt, so they had to withdraw from the battle.
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