However, Yuan Pei's preparations were obviously a bit redundant. The bandits in Ling County were not strong. According to the information given by Yuan Pei, the number of the bandits in Ling County was less than 3,000, including the old, weak, women and children.
As for Li Hao, he brought two thousand troops alone, and although Wan Songbai and Cheng Shi did not bring all their troops, they also brought a thousand troops to suppress the formation.
Because they have seen the training of Li Hao's men and know that these troops are definitely not inferior to the elite troops under their command. The only thing lacking may be actual combat experience, so they can rest assured to use this group of people as the main force.
Moreover, the information also mentions that the terrain of the camp occupied by the bandits is not dangerous. The only troublesome thing is that it is backed by a large lake called Pofutang. Once the bandits are defeated and escape into the lake, they will be able to catch them later. There is some trouble.
But this is not a big deal. Anyway, bandits cannot be eradicated every time, and it doesn't matter if some fish slip through the net.
Of course, information belongs to information, and the three of them, including Li Hao, still believed in their own eyes.
Although it is true that thieves are not taken seriously, the specific strategy should wait until the actual situation is visited before making a decision.
With the support of Yuan Pei, the state shepherd, it was naturally easy to mobilize military equipment. Soon the food, grass and baggage were all ready, and then Yuan Pei personally sent three people and led the army to leave the camp.
After Li Hao and his three men had left for several hours, the second group of Yuan family members set off before the sun set and pursued Li Hao's marching route.
The order they received was that once Li Hao's troops were in danger, they would show up to save people. If nothing happened, they would not need to show up and they would just come back.
Originally, Yuan Pei wanted to hide this from Li Hao, lest Li Hao think that he doubted his ability.
It's just that as an experienced general, with such a troop of soldiers following behind him, how could he possibly hide this from Li Hao.
Although they deliberately kept a middle distance from Li Hao's troops, they were still discovered by Li Hao's scouts who had been left behind on the next morning.
If the scouts hadn't recognized that this was a piece of the Yuan family, Li Hao would have been preparing to set an ambush in front of them and give them a surprise.
As for their purpose of coming, Li Hao could naturally think of it. Although he didn't think they would be of any use, he didn't reject Yuan Pei's kindness. He simply kept calm and helped them cover up in front of Wan Songbai and Cheng Shi.
The march after that was quite smooth. After all, the Xiapi State that passed in the middle had just been wiped out by Yuan Peiqing some time ago, and now he didn't have the foresight to provoke him.
So three days later, the army arrived at the county seat of Ling County. At this time, Li Hao ordered his troops to camp and rest outside the county seat, and sent scouts to inquire about the situation where the bandits were occupying.
Li Hao's habitual behavior made Wan Songbai and Cheng Shi breathe a sigh of relief.
Regardless of the war, Li Hao's arrangements for commanding the march and his actions of dispatching scouts showed that Li Hao was very cautious in his actions. This was enough.
To be honest, the two of them didn't worry about fighting this time. Anyway, if Li Hao couldn't handle it, they could take care of it.
What they were worried about was that Li Hao couldn't control his impulses. If something happened to Li Hao, they would really not be able to explain it to the Yuan family.
The scouts quickly inquired about the situation and came back. There was basically no deviation between the situation of the bandits and the information given by Yuan Pei. It was obvious that Yuan Pei had put a lot of effort into the investigation.
Li Hao couldn't help but sigh. He was truly worthy of being his own father. He had taken great pains to find a place where he could practice and practice his skills well.
Now that it was confirmed that the situation of the bandits was true, Li Hao no longer hesitated and directly led his troops to set up camp five miles in front of the bandits' camp and began to prepare for the attack.
According to the original drill, Li Hao's subordinates were divided into two parts. One part was responsible for guarding the camp and patrolling the surrounding area, while the other part cooperated with the craftsmen to cut down trees and make rams and wooden curtains.
As for why not to build a ladder, it is purely because this kind of wooden camp does not need to climb high to attack. After all, those who are condescending have an advantage in defense.
Using a ladder to rush up, personal protection is not enough to withstand the thieves' hammering wood and bows and arrows, and it is inevitable that there will be some losses. Instead, it is better to use a ram to knock over the gate of the village and rush in directly.
Anyway, with the tools improved by Li Hao, it is still very easy to break such a village gate.
Of course, in addition to preparing for a strong attack, Li Hao sent someone to shoot a surrender letter to the bandits as usual. He sincerely told them to be aware of the current situation and not to block the car with their arms, and told them that surrendering voluntarily could save their lives.
But it was obvious that the bandits did not listen to the advice, so Li Hao turned around and started preparing for the siege with peace of mind, personally supervising and inspecting various units.
After all, although I had led these people to practice sieges in the past, they had never been in actual combat. The people below were somewhat nervous and needed Li Hao to comfort them one by one.
At this time, Wan Songbai and Cheng Shi, who had been silent before, found Li Hao: "These days, it seems that Mr. Yuan is very skilled in commanding troops. He is not like a man who leads troops in battle for the first time. .
Fortunately, Yuan Zhoumu was still worried that something would go wrong with you and asked the two of us to help. Who knows, we are not needed at all! "
Li Hao laughed when he heard this and said: "Two generals, don't laugh at me. When it comes to fighting with soldiers, my current ability cannot compare with these two.
It's just that it's been two years since this song was assigned to me, and I've been constantly involved in daily management training. I can directly name most of the people in it, so the conductor is naturally a bit smoother, so it's not worthy of praise. "
The two of them were shocked when they heard this. You must know that it is not easy for a young master from a noble family to be able to calm down and do this.
The two people immediately felt that with this energy, Li Hao would be able to achieve great things in the future. If they originally valued Li Hao's family background when making friends with them, now they valued Li Hao even more.
Originally, when the two of them came here this time, they had never experienced actual combat, even to watch Li Hao's subordinates. They were worried that someone without a leader would panic when they first entered the battlefield, and something unexpected would happen.
So I plan to allocate some people from among my own troops to join here as the first climbers. Then, with them taking the lead to boost morale, I think others can be better mobilized.
Now that I think Li Hao can be a friend, I am naturally more willing to spend money. He said immediately: "By the way, we are here to discuss something with you. Although these thieves are really not very powerful, Mr. Yuan's men You can get things done yourself.
But look at the two of us, we have worked so hard to bring troops and horses here, and it is really uncomfortable to just sit back and watch.
So I want to discuss it with you, let our subordinates also participate in the battle, help fight in the front line, and also stretch their muscles. "
When Li Hao heard this, he naturally understood the good intentions of the two. After all, people would die in a war, although now his side has a great advantage.
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But in the era of cold weapons, in close combat, no matter how great the advantage is, there can be no casualties.
As for grabbing the credit, there is absolutely no need. After all, the people of the Yuan family are the ones who take the credit last. If they can all be robbed of the first credit, then the people of the Yuan family should be bumped to death.
However, Li Hao does need some brave men who have fought in the war to boost his morale. After all, this fight with real swords and guns will probably be bloody and bloody.
It is the first time for my subordinates to see this scene, and they will inevitably feel afraid. With someone taking the lead in the charge as an example, their mentality will adjust faster.
Of course, if the two of them didn't raise it themselves, Li Hao wouldn't raise it either. At worst, he could just take the lead and the effect might be better.
But now that the two of them have taken the initiative, Li Hao will naturally not refuse. After all, friendship has to come and go, and sometimes owed favors can improve the relationship.
Then he agreed: "Thank you two generals very much. If it's convenient, just assign fifty of my people to be the first to board."
Wan Songbai and Cheng Shi were stunned for a moment, and then Cheng Shi said: "Master Yuan is too alienated from us. Fifty people are really too few, so why not come out with a song to help the battle?"
Obviously, he was a little surprised by Li Hao's request. After all, he had always borrowed as many troops as he could for war, so suddenly meeting such an unusual person would inevitably make people suspicious.
But Li Hao had something in mind. This time he came here just to practice his troops, and Li Hao had already decided to practice siege tactics.
According to the current military system, there are 500 troops per army, which is not a small number compared to the wealth of Cheng Shi and Wan Songbai. Being able to do this is indeed a big investment.
But Li Hao's troops only have a total of 2,000 people. If all 500 people are allowed to join, it will definitely disrupt Li Hao's formation and offensive rhythm, and it may really turn into random killings in the end.
That would deviate from Li Hao's vision and fail to achieve the purpose of Li Hao's original training, so Li Hao replied: "It's not that I'm being polite to the two generals, it's just that I came here this time to take the opportunity to train a group of troops. .
If everything is done by the general's subordinates, I'm afraid this training will be ineffective, and there may not be such a good opportunity again in the future.
I understand the intention of the two of you to fight, and I accept this, but this time only fifty people are really needed. "
Seeing that Li Hao was sincere in his words and that he really didn't need so many people, the two of them didn't say anything more. They just said that they would select elite people to help when they got back.
In fact, these two people did exactly that. They selected fifty people that day, all of whom were first-class capable people.
These people, plus the fifty people mobilized by Li Hao, formed the advance force. As the vanguard of the entire army, after the gate of the village was breached, they had to bear the brunt of the attack and rush into the village to clear the way for the follow-up troops.
The next step is to wait for the siege equipment to be built before the attack can be officially launched. This wait will not be ready until the next day.
Li Hao didn't delay any longer. Anyway, with the strength of this group of thieves, they would definitely be able to take them away in one wave, so he didn't leave any troops to guard the camp.
The whole army immediately went out and took the prepared siege equipment to the bandit camp to make final preparations.
Each step is prepared for war according to the originally set plans, and Li Hao personally inspects and supervises them to see if there are any mistakes or omissions.
However, Wan Songbai and Cheng Shi were very free at this time. They gathered together and looked at the pile of strange-shaped things at the front with great curiosity.
With their brains, the two of them could naturally tell that the thing in front of it was a siege equipment, and they could guess its general purpose. However, they had never seen the shape of this thing before, so they were curious about the effect.
It's just that both of them had a sense of proportion. Even though Li Hao came from behind, he didn't say anything to ask. After all, this was not like a chef's method or something insignificant.
Maybe it involves the Yuan family's secrets. It would be too easy to offend people by speaking rashly, so I might as well just endure it and watch from the sidelines. Anyway, we will know the situation when the fight starts.
As the soldiers were well prepared, under Li Hao's order, the battle to suppress bandits officially began.
The first to take action were the ram and the wooden curtain made by Li Hao. Both of these instruments were protected with layers of wood and leather.
The first troops organized by Li Hao and the first batch of siege troops hid under the protection and slowly approached the village gate with rams and wooden curtains.
Of course, the thieves would not remain indifferent as the enemy approached. They would shoot arrows from a distance, but they could not break through the defense at all, so they stopped shooting after a while.
I thought that even if a bow and arrow couldn't break it, then when they got to the bottom of the village wall, they could break it with rocks.
But these really underestimated the technology brought by Li Hao from later generations. The key positions of the ram and the wooden pole were reinforced and used pulleys to relieve the force.
No matter how hard they smashed it, they couldn't shake it at all. Instead, they watched helplessly as the rush car ignored the crowd of people blocking the village gate, and smashed the village gate into two pieces in a few blows.
As soon as the gate of the village was breached, the first troops rushed in shouting slogans of killing the enemy, clearing the way for the large troops behind.
Naturally, Li Hao didn't waste any time. When he saw that the gate of the village was breached, he ordered the whole army to attack the bandit camp and expand the victory.
Things went smoothly after that. After all, there were not many thieves who were not afraid of death. Except for a small number of people who escaped quickly, they escaped into the lake in a small boat that had been prepared long after they got to the stronghold.
Most of the others abandoned their weapons and surrendered, but not many people died.
According to the final statistics, about seventy or eighty people escaped from the bandits, including their second leader.
As for their boss, he was not so lucky. When he broke open the village gate, he tried to lead people to block the village gate. As a result, he was not good at martial arts and was directly killed by the troops who came first. This was also the direct reason why the bandits were defeated so quickly.
This also led Li Hao to capture a large number of prisoners, roughly counting 1,600 to 700 people, but nearly 200 of them were women or children.
More than 20 people under Li Hao's command were killed in the battle, most of whom were among the first to ascend. After all, they were fighting against a large number of people, so some damage was inevitable.
Eighteen people were left seriously injured and about a hundred were lightly injured. Among the fifty people borrowed, 12 were killed and three were seriously injured. As for the other injuries, Li Hao was not sure, but he thought they were not serious.
After checking the bandit stronghold, Li Hao asked people to invite Wan Songbai and Cheng Shi, and said: "This is the list of seizures that I just ordered people to tally. Take a look." After that, he put the items in his hand. The silk was handed to the two of them.
After the two men took it, Li Hao said: "The bandits were successfully suppressed this time, and you two also helped me a lot. Therefore, I intend to divide the loot obtained this time into three equal parts. I don't know what you two think."
After hearing this, Cheng Shi said directly: "There is absolutely nothing wrong with this matter. This war was mainly fought by you and led by your troops. We only helped with some small help. How can we be embarrassed to take credit and share the spoils?"
Wan Songbai also agreed at this time: "Brother Cheng Xian is right, we should never take this trophy."
Li Hao replied: "That's not what you're saying. Even if the three families send troops together this time, it's normal for them to be divided equally. After all, the two generals also need rewards and comfort, so we can't let the two generals pay for it.
If we really do this, I, the Yuan family, will probably be ridiculed by others in the future, so you two must take what you should take.
However, I do have a merciless request, that is, when the spoils of war are divided, the money can be shared with the two of you. You can share as many strong prisoners as possible with me. What do you two think? "
The two of them naturally refused to agree, and continued to argue with Li Hao. However, the rationale for this was that it was still worse than Li Hao, and they finally accepted Li Hao's distribution plan.
And if you think Li Hao needs prisoners, then give them all to Li Hao, and neither family wants them.
Of course, Li Hao did not keep everyone. For these prisoners, Li Hao held a public trial and asked them to report each other and expose the most evil ones.
Those who had a lot of blood debts on hand were eliminated, and the remaining ones were really prepared to take them back to Jiaodong.
