On the night after tidying up Ding Po Tian, Luo Zhixue ordered the entire army to have extra meals. Not only were they filled with white rice and steamed buns, but they also had meat.
This meat is no longer the usual small bowl of broth and one or two thin slices of meat that each person can share, but each person can share several pieces of fat meat.
Just like the extra meal they gave after they captured Songjiazhuang, the soldiers were given a hearty meal.
After all, this was a victorious battle, and at the same time a large sum of money was captured, so a necessary reward was needed.
This time, in addition to annihilating 2,000 people from Dingpotian's command when they went north, they also prevented the bandits from continuing to harm Lushan County and making the already fragile living environment in the area even worse.
At the same time, after annihilating the bandits of this tribe, it also laid a certain foundation for the subsequent movement north to annihilate the main bandits of Chuang Potian Division.
In addition to these strategic factors, Luo Zhixue and the others gained a lot from annihilating the Dingpotian Division.
The battle was fought very easily, and the thieves of Dingpotian were defeated very quickly, because the casualties on both sides were actually not large.
There were no more than ten casualties in the Baoxiang camp, of which four were killed in battle and eight were injured. Basically, they were killed by the opponent's archers at the beginning of the battle.
Correspondingly, the Baoxiang camp killed more than 300 people from the other side.
Among the more than 2,000 enemy troops, in addition to more than 300 casualties, only about 300 people fled. The remaining more than 1,000 people were basically prisoners of war, including 200 soldiers among the bandits.
The two hundred soldiers who belonged to the Liuthiefeng camp had actually never fought against the Baoxiang camp from the beginning to the end. The main reason was that they were all infantry, and the Baoxiang camp initially sent cavalry, so the two sides had no contact in the early stage. , and after the winner was decided on the frontal battlefield, Luo Zhixue personally led a large group of infantry and artillery to press forward.
This group of thieves saw that the situation was over, and more importantly, they also discovered that Ding Potian had led his soldiers to escape, treating them as scapegoats and staying on the battlefield, and wanted them to try to delay the Baoxiang camp... …
As a result, several leaders in the rebel camp surrendered after discussion.
It was impossible not to surrender. At that time, the Baoxiang Battalion had already brought up the artillery. If they continued to resist, they would basically end up being unilaterally massacred by the Baoxiang Battalion's artillery unit.
However, although the two hundred soldiers of the bandit army never had a formal battle with Baoxiang Camp from beginning to end, Luo Zhixue still attached great importance to these two hundred soldiers.
Just looking at the formation of the trapped camp and the equipment of the soldiers, it can be basically seen that these two hundred soldiers are basically the core backbone of the bandits. If they can be annexed and digested, then the preservation of There will be two hundred more veterans with rich combat experience in the rural camp.
So as soon as these people surrendered, Luo Zhixue sent people to recruit these soldiers. If these people are willing to continue to join the army and pass the assessment, they can become members of the Baoxiang Camp. They will go through about a month. The veterans on the left and right are retrained, mainly for formation training and discipline training. After the training is completed, they will be directly assigned to various combat units to serve as combat soldiers.
As for staying in the established establishment, it is impossible. Baoxiang Camp recruits prisoners of war and never allows them to retain their original establishment, which will break up the arrangement.
In addition to these soldiers, Luo Zhixue also recruited ordinary prisoners of war, and the number of recruits was expected to be around two hundred.
The threshold for recruiting ordinary thieves is actually similar to that of recruiting new soldiers. First of all, they must be voluntary. Baoxiang Camp never forces young men to join the army, and recruits soldiers on a voluntary basis.
If the other party is willing, they will also have to pass physical fitness, discipline and other assessments. After passing the test, they will undergo about three months of recruit training like ordinary recruits. After the training, they will be assigned to various units like ordinary recruits.
Except for the two hundred combat soldiers and two hundred ordinary recruits who will join the Baoxiang camp after retraining by veterans and recruits, the remaining people are divided into two types. One is the die-hard and stubborn elements who are unwilling to surrender and become thieves. , such people will be sent to prisoner-of-war camps for high-intensity labor.
Some people who wanted to join the army but did not meet the conditions and were ultimately unable to join the Baoxiang camp were assigned to the settlement camp for regular settlement.
This settlement camp was from the previous Battle of Songshan.
At that time, too many officers, soldiers and young men were captured, and a small part of them passed the examination and joined the Baoxiang camp; some die-hard elements were imprisoned in prisoner-of-war camps; and the remaining part were willing to surrender to thieves, but those who did not meet the conditions were eventually expelled. Was incorporated into the newly established settlement camp.
This kind of settlement camp adopts military-style management for cultivation, and appropriate military training will be carried out during the leisure time. The purpose of Luo Zhixue in setting up this kind of settlement camp is, on the one hand, to let them cultivate and farm on their own to support themselves, and on the other hand, it also allows them to protect their hometown. The battalion harvests more food, and finally hopes to establish a secondary military force.
After all, these settlement camps are all made up of young and strong people. They will also conduct certain military training during their leisure time. When necessary, they can also be used as auxiliary forces such as suppressing areas and transporting logistics.
After several large-scale captures of enemies, Baoxiang Camp now has detailed regulations for the arrangement and use of prisoners of war. There are different arrangements for different prisoners of war. They will not all be locked up in prisoner-of-war camps as in the past. .
In this battle, Baoxiang Battalion not only obtained a group of soldiers and a large number of laborers, but also seized a lot of materials.
There are more than a hundred mules and horses among them, but there are not many war horses for cavalry. There are only a few dozen or so. The rest are ordinary draft horses, mules, donkeys, etc. used to pull out loads. livestock.
In fact, these mules and horses were not brought south by Dupitian and others at the beginning. In fact, there were not so many mules and horses when they went south from Ruzhou City. These mules and horses were all snatched directly along the way.
Besides mules and horses, there is vital food.
Ding Po Tian and the others had been grabbing food all the way south, and the food they grabbed was not small. According to the food standards of Baoxiang Camp, it was enough to feed a thousand people for about half a month.
This amount cannot be compared with what was captured in Songjiazhuang, but it is not too small. After all, not all enemies are grain merchants like Songjiazhuang, hoarding massive amounts of food.
Apart from food and mules and horses, the only thing worth mentioning is a batch of cold weapons.
They include bows and arrows, knives, spears, armor, etc., but the total number is not large, because many young men in this group of thieves were temporarily forcibly kidnapped. These people still used hoes and sharpened wood. A stick, not even an iron knife.
The total number of real weapons is only a thousand pieces, among which the spears, which are the main weapons of the infantry, total only more than 300. Some of them are junk made by bandits or ordinary villagers. When doing statistics in the afternoon, only a few were found. The approximately sixty spears barely met the standards for use in the Baoxiang camp.
The remaining weapons are similar, there are not many in total, and even fewer meet the standards for use in the Baoxiang Camp.
Generally speaking, based on the current size of the Baoxiang Camp, its own ordnance manufacturing capabilities, and the number of reserves, the ordnance used in this exchange of fire can basically be ignored.
The small quantity and poor quality of the captured ordnance can also be seen as to why the combat effectiveness of these bandits is so low.
Many of these bandits don't even have iron knives or spears, so they have no fighting power.
And such rogue thieves also gave Luo Zhixue and others greater confidence to fight against Chuang Potian's group.
——
Early the next morning, the Baoxiang camp went north again, preparing to intercept Chuang Potian's troops.
As usual, Wang Xiazi led the cavalry first, and Luo Zhixue personally led the infantry, artillery, and baggage.
When Wang Xiazi led the cavalry to go north first, they soon discovered something was wrong. They found that Chuang Potian and his group did not go towards Lushan County, but changed their route and headed straight towards Songjiazhuang. At this time, both sides The distance is only more than ten miles.
When Luo Zhixue learned that Chuang Potian's troops were turning towards him, Chuang Potian also learned from the sentry that a group of more than a hundred elite cavalry had been spotted ahead.
"Is this the official cavalry I mentioned before? Damn it, how could this official cavalry appear here?"
"These people are here. Does it mean that my nephew has been killed?"
"My nephew can't hold on for a day with two thousand people."
When Ding Potian met Wang Xiazi's cavalry yesterday, he had already sent a messenger Pegasus to report back to Chuang Potian, asking Chuang Potian to lead the main force south for rescue.
Chuang Potian learned from the messenger that his nephew was entangled by more than a hundred cavalrymen of unknown origin, most likely officers and soldiers.
Worried about his nephew's safety, he led his army south that day, preparing to rescue his nephew Ting Po Tian's troops. Because of the emergency, Chuang Po Tian did not bring the young cannon fodder that he had temporarily packed with him, but only brought two thousand The thieves went south.
These two thousand thieves were his old troops when he led the army eastward, and they had basically been thieves for more than three months.
Everyone has knives, spears and other weapons. Although the quality is not very good, most of them are tattered iron knives and iron spears, but they are still much better than those young and strong people who are temporarily carried.
Many of them also have mules and horses for riding, and when necessary, one or two hundred people can be mobilized to act as cavalry. As for the combat effectiveness, it cannot be compared with regular cavalry, but at least it is much stronger than pure infantry.
According to Chuang Potian's idea, as long as his nephew could persist for two days, he could lead two thousand elites to kill them. Even if they could not completely defeat this army by then, they should still be able to ensure a no-lose situation.
Later, when his other 4,000 thieves arrive, they can rely on their strength to counterattack.
But he didn't expect that after his nephew only sent back the first two batches of military orders, no more soldiers came later.
This led Chuang Potian to conclude that his nephew should have been surrounded by enemy troops and could no longer send out sentries to contact his own side.
However, what he didn't even expect was that just on the second day, his sentinel told him that he actually found a cavalry of hundreds of people in front.
And they are still cavalry in gray military uniforms.
