Because he knew there was a high probability of potential enemies ahead, Fei Bingqing did not dare to look down upon them and just led the army forward. Instead, he sent multiple groups of sentinels to investigate in advance to avoid being ambushed.
After all, the more than two hundred people he led actually didn't have many soldiers.
Huang Guangmao only had 300 main soldiers under his command. How could Fei Bingqing lead so many soldiers by himself?
Fei Bingqing actually only had about fifty people under his command who were soldiers, and there were about a hundred people who were brave from Lushan County, and dozens of people who didn't even have weapons and were just civilians who were used to transport baggage. .
If he were to be ambushed by a large-scale bandit army, he would only have about fifty people under his command, and if one of them failed, he would be doomed.
Therefore, Fei Bingqing was extremely cautious, walked slowly along the way, and sent out sentries at all times to alert the surroundings, especially the front.
But Fei Bingcai didn't know it at all. His men had already been found out by spies from Sanshui Village just after they set off.
When he led his troops north, Luo Zhixue also led his troops into the location chosen yesterday to prepare for an ambush.
The place he chose was not a good ambush location in the traditional sense. It was not a canyon like a line of sky, just a seemingly ordinary valley.
In fact, most of the roads into the mountain are roads in this kind of valley. After all, they have to pass through Songshan Mountain, and it is impossible to actually climb over the top of the mountain. They all go around the foot of the mountain and through the valley.
After Luo Zhixue led his people to this place, he deployed part of his troops and hid directly in the forest about a few hundred meters away on the right side of the mountain road. This did not mean that he was directly close to the mountain road. Naturally, he could not launch an attack directly after the enemy arrived at the mountain road. .
But if you get too close to the mountain road, you will definitely be discovered by enemy sentries.
Luo Zhixue did this because of his own considerations.
From a traditional perspective, it is not suitable for an ambush, and the vigilance of officers and soldiers should not be too heavy. At least the sentinels will not search carefully and repeatedly like they pass through some dangerous areas.
As a result, these sentinels are most likely searching both sides of the mountain road at will, and they are unlikely to leave the mountain road too far to search.
And when these officers and soldiers' sentinels searched this area and moved forward, Luo Zhixue's opportunity came.
When the time comes, he will approach quietly with his troops and launch an ambush directly when the enemy troops pass by.
The whole plan is very simple. The problem is that the officers and soldiers will not be too defensive about this kind of ordinary terrain.
Taking a step back, if the officers and soldiers were really so defensive, then Luo Zhixue could give up the attack, retreat instead, and finally conduct defensive operations at a predetermined place.
Luo Zhixue had prepared an escape route for himself from the beginning. If the ambush failed, he would directly adopt defensive operations, instead of insisting on setting up an ambush. Once the ambush failed, it would be over.
As time passed little by little, Luo Zhixue got the report in the afternoon, and Ming army sentry scouts appeared in front.
These sentinels worked in groups of two or three and continued to search both sides of the mountain road to prevent ambushes.
However, the search area was not large, at least it did not go several hundred meters away, so Luo Zhi and the others were not found.
However, Luo Zhixue and the others were not happy for long. When Luo Zhixue ordered the troops to start approaching, they discovered a second batch of sentinels of officers and soldiers approaching.
As a result, the second group of officers and soldiers' sentinels quickly discovered the Sanshui Village thieves who had emerged from the mountain forest and were preparing to ambush them on the edge of the mountain road.
After a round of exclamations and shouts, the outposts of both sides started fighting.
Yes, it was directly exposed!
Although Luo Zhixue was a little unwilling to accept this, he decisively ordered his troops to retreat directly.
If he did not retreat, Luo Zhixue would have no confidence that he would be able to block the attack of the officers and soldiers when the main force of the officers and soldiers came up from behind and a melee broke out between the two sides.
After all, the strength of the troops under his command is only that much, and there are not many that can fight. Moreover, many of them are old thieves and prisoners, so whether they can be relied on is another matter.
Seeing that the ambush failed, Luo Zhixue simply retreated to the planned defensive operation location in the rear.
This place is quite dangerous. It is purely a canyon-like terrain with steep cliffs on both sides, leaving only a few tens of meters in the middle to pass through.
After seeing Luo Zhixue and others returning, the artillery team captain Zhang Malin, who had been arranged by Luo Zhixue to deploy defensive positions here, quickly responded.
He knew without asking that the ambush led by Luo Zhixue himself must have failed. However, seeing that few people behind Luo Zhixue were injured or missing, he could guess that although the ambush failed, it should be nothing. loss.
After taking a step forward, Zhang Malin said: "Following Sir's instructions, I have already led the men to set up the two light cannons, and also simply arranged the horses and horses."
Luo Zhixue nodded slightly, and then stepped forward to check it out personally.
Their defensive position is deployed directly in the middle of the canyon. At the same time, people will be temporarily stationed on the hills on both sides of the canyon to prevent small groups of enemies from climbing directly through the dense forest.
The canyon is about thirty to forty meters wide, and if there are two artillery pieces, it will be enough to fully cover it.
Not to mention they still have archers.
Luo Zhixue said: "Hide all the cannons. We must not let the officers and soldiers discover them before they launch a large-scale attack."
Now Luo Zhixue is counting on relying on these two 200-pound artillery to give the officers and soldiers a hard blow, and then supplementing it with intensive shooting by archers. He wants to try to beat the officers and soldiers in one go. Scared.
The officers and soldiers were wary and did not dare to directly send a large force to fight them in close combat.
That's right, even if his own side occupied the power of the terrain, Luo Zhixue still never thought about fighting head-on with the officers and soldiers.
He only had such a few people under his command, and their combat effectiveness was so low. To be honest, Luo Zhixue felt unsure if they were to fight head-on with the officers and soldiers.
For this reason, Luo Zhixue personally arranged the defense. He wanted to show the enemy's weakness and attract the officers and soldiers to directly attack the canyon without much defense, creating an opportunity for his two artillery and dozens of archers to destroy the enemy in one fell swoop. Chance.
"You must not open fire without my order!" Luo Zhixue ordered Zhang Malin very seriously.
Zhang Malin nodded in agreement.
Luo Zhixue could also tell that this man was a little scared now and looked a little panicked.
Zhang Malin was not an officer or soldier. He used to be an ordinary farmer. Later, he joined Sanshui Village as a bandit soldier just to have a bite to eat.
Because of his old-fashioned diligence, he was promoted to a corps commander, and then he was selected to learn how to operate a cannon in the artillery team. He was the first gunner among a group of new artillery soldiers to learn to fully load and aim, so he was promoted to a commander in the artillery team.
After Luo Zhixue established the artillery team, he became the captain of the artillery team. He was in charge of 20 people and two 200-pound light artillery.
After Luo Zhixue told Zhang Malin, he went to An Yongduo and asked him to lead his troops to prepare. Also, he must not bend the bow and shoot arrows without his order.
Once Luo Zhixue gives the order, he must bend the bow and shoot the arrow in the shortest possible time.
The guardsmen are all cavalry, but the cavalry will not be of much use in this defensive battle. After all, the canyon is too small and seems to be tens of meters wide, but there is not much room for walking on the platform and there are small paths. There are actually woods on both sides...
There were no bows and arrows for cavalry to fight on horseback.
This time they were used as archers as before.
Not only them, Luo Zhixue also mobilized more than 30 other people who were capable of archery and equipped with bows and arrows, and temporarily gave them to Anyongduo's command.
The remaining people, mainly three infantry teams and a temporary team of old thieves, acted as frontal defense forces.
Wang Bingqi's team is used as a reserve team.
Luo Zhixue personally gave instructions to everyone one by one and reiterated their battle plan.
That is to hide it from the beginning so that the officers and soldiers don't discover it.
Luo Zhixue was preparing to show his enemy's weakness. At the beginning, there were only two teams of soldiers facing the front.
The purpose is to make the officers and soldiers feel that the thieves defending this canyon are not strong enough and can take them down in a single charge, and then send troops to rush up to fight. At that time, our own side will use artillery and archers to kill a large number of opponents.
After Luo Zhixue and others waited for more than two hours, they finally waited for the enemy.
It was still the enemy's sentinel who appeared first.
When these Ming army sentinels saw the terrain, they immediately became alert. They did not rush toward the canyon rashly, but continued to explore both sides.
After searching several times and confirming that there were really no rogue soldiers on both sides of the canyon, they sent people to cautiously enter the canyon.
As soon as they entered the valley, they already discovered the bandit army in the middle of the valley.
After all, Luo Zhixue and the others set up fortifications directly in the middle of the valley, using wooden stakes, horses and other objects to temporarily form a defensive fortification.
The target is so obvious that Ming army sentry detectives can see it even if they are not blind.
However, they could only see the fortifications and fifty or sixty people on the surface that Luo Zhixue wanted them to see.
Even in order to show weakness to the enemy, he behaved more realistically.
Luo Zhixue specially put in the recruits in their thirties and forties who had not been trained for more than ten days, and then arranged some people who had been trained for a long time to take charge.
As a result, what the officers and soldiers' sentinels saw were fifty or sixty frightened bandits...
Not long after, Huang Guangmao also led his army to visit this canyon. He looked at the nearby terrain and then said to his left and right: "Send more sentries and expand the search area. Be sure to understand the surrounding situation!"
Huang Guangmao had already received the report and personally saw a group of frightened and trembling thieves ahead.
Although this place is dangerous, Huang Guangmao doesn't think that just fifty or sixty thieves on the opposite side can stop him.
He was just worried that when he was attacking the rebels in the valley, a large number of rebels would emerge from both sides to ambush the rebels.
For this reason, he was very cautious at first and repeatedly dispatched multiple groups of sentinels, and finally confirmed that there was really no bandit ambush on both sides.
Then he turned his attention to the thieves in the valley!
Not long after, he gave a few instructions to his generals, and then a group of fifty or sixty officers and soldiers came towards the valley.
Then, Huang Guangmao saw the opponent's thieves panic, and then sparse arrows flew out.
Although not many arrows flew out, they still hit an officer and soldier. The officer and soldier did not die after being hit by the arrow, but was just injured.
When the officers and soldiers on the side saw that the other side was shooting arrows, and someone on their own side was hit by an arrow, they all began to stop moving forward.
After this hesitation, the bandit army on the opposite side fired some sporadic arrows, killing and wounding two officers and soldiers. The officers and soldiers panicked for a while, and in the next moment they retreated one by one.
The first attack by the officers and soldiers failed, and three people were killed.
Huang Guangmao was not angry when he saw this scene. Instead, the corners of his mouth slightly curved into a smile!
Unfortunately, Luo Zhixue on the other side also smiled!
