After nightfall, the moon and stars were sparse, and it was still very cold in the mountains at the beginning of spring.
But Chai Rong's heart is hot, and tonight's action is his first signal. If he can defeat Cao Jun, capture Xu Huang alive or kill him, he will make a great contribution!
His current mentality is very strange. If this urge to perform meritorious deeds is for rewards or to obtain a higher status... it may be due to this aspect, but it is not always the case.
Chai Rong naturally also wanted to live a good life, but as time went by, especially after his wife and children received enthusiastic help in the "shanty town", he thought more about "living a good life with everyone."
There is a difference of a few words, but the difference is huge.
And status... In the Red Star Army, being a general is not a good job.
Not only do the generals of the Red Star Army receive almost no special treatment, they are also responsible for the teaching and training of their subordinates. They must learn to lead troops and run the army, communicate and command during wartime...
But what was gained was the trust and heartfelt respect of the soldiers.
This was a special feeling that he had rarely experienced before. It was a feeling that he couldn't explain, but for Chai Rong, it was more fascinating and addictive than the rich food and clothing.
He also wanted to experience this feeling more, to have more colleagues respect and trust him, and for the prince to appreciate and affirm himself more.
This time is a rare opportunity. He wants to make a great contribution together with his brothers!
Chai Rong's eyesight was not good at night, but most of the veterans of the Red Star Regular Army could see easily on such a moonlit night.
Every time there is an operation in the dark, these veterans lead the way and guard from the side. People with poor eyesight follow their instructions.
"Captain, down this slope is the valley road. Cao Bing's army has already gone east along the road. We can reach the Beishan Trail not far away."
After hearing the report from the veterans at the front, Chai Rong waved his hand: "Let's go! Let's go explore first and wait for a few other people."
"yes!"
At this time, Chai Rong gathered the teams closest to him, totaling more than 300 people, including veterans with good night vision and tribal mountain people who were familiar with the environment.
Even with smaller teams before, Li Er ensured that there were veterans with good night vision in each team.
In fact, the best choice is to ambush on the trails on both sides of the mountains. However, the Beishan Trail is different from the main road. Both sides are not gentle slopes, but cliffs, so it is not suitable for such an attack.
If you want to ensure that Xu Huang is captured, you can only enter the Beishan Trail.
But the ambush advantage is gone, and there is still the night vision advantage.
Taking advantage of his unpreparedness and attacking the camp at night, coupled with his superior strength, he will definitely succeed in the battle!
"Captain, the intersection is safe and we haven't seen Cao Jun's ambush."
"Okay, let's rest in hiding for now and wait for the other troops to join up."
The other two groups gathered under Li Er and Ding Feng respectively. Chai Rong came to join them after waiting for a short time.
Li Ersurong said: "Starting from the intersection, there will be people on duty at each section. Once the scouts at the intersection find that Cao's army is coming to block the back road, they will immediately send messages one by one with whistles."
He still had some concerns. Since he had followed Prince Liu Chan for a longer time and talked more, Li Er could view the abilities of Cao Wei's generals more objectively than Ding Feng and Chai Rong.
I had heard the prince mention this Xu Huang before, and I knew that he was by no means an easy person to deal with.
But because of this, Li Er also didn't want to return to the mountain when he saw the opportunity.
If Cao Wei can cut off another powerful minion, it will be a great help to his own revenge plan and to the prince's ideal of supporting the Han Dynasty.
Since the fight has already begun, it is naturally impossible to say some depressing words to make the enemy angry before the battle, but it is still necessary to be careful.
"The Crown Prince often says, 'It is the people who have the productivity and fighting power.' We must be cautious in this night attack. If we find anything unusual, we must evacuate immediately. We must not let the Crown Prince's hard work be wasted here!"
With half of the Red Star regular army in his hands, Li Er felt deeply that he had a heavy responsibility and emphasized his tone.
"Yes!" Chai Rong and Ding Feng solemnly clasped their fists, and the other generals clasped their fists in agreement at the same time.
After a few simple explanations and arranging their retreat, everyone entered the Beishan path in the dark under the moonlight without lighting torches.
After marching quickly, they finally discovered Cao Jun's camp about ten miles away.
It was the first fairly wide place on the trail. During the day, Cao Jun had cut down the surrounding trees and built a simple camp.
But it seems to be because of rush to work? This time, Cao Jun's camp did not build a four-corner watchtower, only a few high platforms that were not too high.
There are some sparse antlers at the door.
Chai Rong couldn't help but laugh secretly. The cavalry couldn't show its power at all on such a rugged road, so why were they displaying antlers?
Then Xu Huang shouldn't just have a false reputation.
The area around the camp was probably due to felling of trees, and dead leaves were piled up thickly.
There were torches burning in the village and at the entrance of the camp. The soldiers guarding the gate were very eye-catching under the torches. There were also patrolling Cao troops in the camp.
There are piles of hay and dry firewood everywhere in the camp that should be used for heating.
Everything seems very natural.
"Get closer, and the front row is ready to release arrows." Li Er whispered, and the order was quickly spread by word of mouth.
Accustomed to harassing Cao's troops at night, they were already very familiar with the alert range of Cao's troops.
"put!"
Whoosh whoosh!
The nearest soldiers drew their bows and fired arrows, and more than a hundred arrows shot at the dozen Cao soldiers on duty at the same time.
After the first wave of shooting, the soldiers immediately rushed forward, continuing to pick up arrows and nock their bows. After finishing the arrows, they stood still, opened their bows, and fired the second wave of arrows.
The soldiers behind who could not be shot at this time also entered the shooting range, so the second wave of arrows was more numerous than the first wave.
"kill--!"
After the two waves of arrows, most of Cao's troops on guard were wounded or killed. The soldiers immediately rushed to Cao's camp with weapons in hand!
The key to a night attack is to be sudden and fast, taking advantage of the chaos of the enemy to cause a lot of damage. Naturally, it is impossible to form a formation like two armies facing each other.
Instead, each unit and each team was used as a unit to act separately and find the enemy to fight.
The excited Chai Rong rushed ahead, bypassing the antlers, and led the first group of people into Cao's camp.
"The Shu army is coming! The Shu army is coming -!" The patrolling Cao army found that they were attacked at night and had no intention of resisting at all, so they ran away.
Chai Rong seemed to have seen Cao Jun's blood flowing all over the ground after a while, and Xu Huang's pale face...
But today, Cao Jun's camps seemed to be farther away from the camp gate.
When everyone rushed into Cao's camp, Li Er was the first to notice something unusual.
When I shouted to kill Zhentian, why didn't Cao Jun's camp respond at all?
broken!
"No! You've fallen into a trap. Get out!"
Li Er, who had always been doubtful, reacted unpleasantly. After giving the order, the soldiers holding gold cymbals immediately started banging.
Chai Rong was still a few steps away from killing Cao Jun's tent. At this time, his eagerness to perform meritorious service gradually cooled down, but he still had a trace of luck.
He strode across the final distance and lifted the tent curtain with the spear in his hand before his heart completely sank.
There was only hay in the camp... but Cao Jun was nowhere to be seen.
Click, click, click!
Many small crashes sounded outside Cao's camp, which were the sounds of flints... but the Han soldiers in the camp were noisy and the gold cymbals were beating, so naturally they could not be heard.
But immediately, they saw that the reason why the fallen leaves around the camp were so thick was because Cao Jun was lying in it.
At this time, they all appeared and lit the torches that had been prepared in their hands.
"set fire--!"
With an order, torches were thrown into this extremely simple camp one after another. The wooden fence, dry firewood, and tents filled with hay all became excellent fuel at this time.
At this time, Chai Rong also knew why Cao Jun set up those antlers at the camp gate.
It was not to guard against cavalry at all, but now those dummy antlers had been pushed to the entrance of the camp and were burning...
"Hahahaha! Since you like sneak attacks at night so much, don't leave tonight! Shoot the arrows, shoot the arrows quickly!"
Li Er closed his eyes, knowing that he would probably die here today, but he immediately opened them again: "Imperial formation! The whole army will follow me to attack the camp gate and break away the antlers!"
The Red Star Army soldiers followed the order and quickly recovered from their brief panic. They quickly formed a formation almost instinctively to defend against the arrows thrown in from outside the camp.
However, those tribal mountain people did not have such literacy. At this time, they were already in chaos. Although some were following the Red Star Army, more people were running around in panic, trying to find a place that was not on fire to escape. They had already been hit by arrows and began to appear. There were casualties.
Chai Rong's eyes were filled with regret, and his tightly clenched fists were trembling slightly.
He only caused this disaster because of his greed for success. However, it was too late to say anything at this time.
He took off the leather water bag from his waist, poured water on his head and face, and said viciously to the soldiers around him: "Pour water on me!"
The soldiers under his command didn't know what he was going to do, but they still obeyed the order and poured water on him one after another.
"I'll push the antlers away!!"
After roaring decisively, Chai Rong did something that violated the general's order for the first time. He raised his shield to protect his head, voluntarily left the formation and ran towards the burning antlers at the camp gate.
Since he was the one who led his brothers to a dead end, he would still give them a way out even if he risked his life!
He may have been impatient and greedy for success, and made mistakes by rashly advancing, but there is no coward in the Red Star Army who is afraid of death, and he, Chai Rong, is no exception.
(End of chapter)
