Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3567 Patrol Hippo

The problems in Luoyang City were more serious than Man Chong had originally thought.

Cao Cao's subordinates were originally gathered from all over the place. They were said to be the regular army of the Han Dynasty, but in fact only the generals and guards could be considered relatively regular. The rest of the soldiers gathered from various counties and prefectures were only slightly stronger than the ordinary Yellow Turban bandits.

When Cao Cao swept across the Central Plains, he gathered a large number of miscellaneous soldiers like the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou, and also took in clan forces like Li Dian. Although Li Dian later defected to Fei Qian for some reason, there were still a large number of such personal or family troops in Cao Cao's army.

This kind of troops cannot be said to be bad, but in some cases, they may not obey orders and just follow their clan leaders. Moreover, these clan soldiers may identify with the Great Han more than Cao Cao. So once there is a change in the Great Han situation, as long as the Hussars still hold the banner of the Great Han, these people will also change their loyalty to the Hussars and will not feel embarrassed.

In name, these soldiers obeyed Cao Cao, but in reality, Cao Cao only issued a one-time salary and weapons to these clan leaders, and the food and grass were issued at a high price, so it was inevitable that the equipment was messy, the equipment was lacking, and there were more old and weak soldiers than strong ones. However, compared with the scattered and powerful people in other places, these people were more organized and combat-capable.

Among these miscellaneous soldiers in Luoyang City, many were those who had retreated all the way from Hedong.

Cao Cao also knew that these soldiers who had lost their morale were useless, and there was no need to expect them to follow Cao Cao to fight all the way, so he did not give them any extra armor, equipment or weapons. Of course, what would be the use of giving them, so he simply left these guys in Heluo, which was a bit like letting them fend for themselves.

There are many things in Shandong that can be done, but they cannot be stated openly.

Although both Cao Cao and Man Chong knew that the soldiers in the Heluo area were actually discarded pieces to some extent, it would be best if they could exchange more soldiers of the Cavalry, but if that was not possible, they also hoped that these guys could stay on the chessboard and complete their mission.

But the problem is that humans, after all, have one more head than wood, and there is more selfishness in their head.

Soldiers have been escaping since some time ago. Although Man Chong has set traps again and again to capture the fleeing soldiers and make an example of them, there are still some people who are lucky enough to think that those who were caught are fools and they are the smartest.

Even if they didn't escape for the time being, it didn't mean that they had surrendered to Cao Cao and Man Chong. Instead, they were probably thinking about how to join the Cavalry Army when the Cavalry Army arrived...

By that time, perhaps Man Chong’s head would be hung outside the city like those deserters who were caught before!

Therefore, after Man Chong learned that Zhang Liao had marched into Yique, he did not dare to act rashly.

Man Chong could only stay in Luoyang and personally monitor these local soldiers to ensure that no mistakes would be made.

However, staying in Luoyang City and watching Zhang Liao's original arrangement outside Luoyang City was like waiting for death. After thinking it over, Man Chong used the "immortal's guidance".

Because the Heluo area is at least ten times wider than the Niutouyuan on the Tongguan Slope, although Zhang Liao's troops are not small, once they are dispersed, their strength will naturally be much weaker!

The ruined villages and abandoned towns in the Heluo countryside have no value or meaning to occupy. Except for those who are ignorant of military tactics or those who only know how to talk about war on paper and think that occupying them can show off their strength, they are of no use at all. On the contrary, once they are attacked by elite troops, they will be unable to resist at all!

So, Man Chong huddled in Luoyang, waiting for Zhang Liao to react...

Although Zhang Liao was aware of this and used the cover of night to attack the Tangshan branch, it was not realistic to completely conceal his whereabouts in a relatively open area like Heluo. So after Man Chong received the news of the unusual movements of Zhang Liao's soldiers, he immediately led a part of the central army to attack Zhang Liao's camp on Gu Shui!

This attack was indeed something Zhang Liao had not expected...

At the same time that Zhang Liao defeated the Tangshan army, Man Chong also hurriedly arrived at Zhang Liao's Gushui camp at night that day.

To be precise, the night of February 23rd of the tenth year of Taixing has passed, and at this moment, it is already the early morning of February 24th.

The darkness before dawn is undoubtedly the most tiring and relaxing.

There was still no light in the sky, and the stars in the sky seemed to have gone to rest, and everything was shrouded in shadow.

Man Chong did not dare to cause trouble to Zhang Liao directly, nor could he rescue the defenders of Yique. Because Man Chong judged that Zhang Liao was most likely on the front line, so he was no match for Zhang Liao if he faced him head-on.

Of course, Zhang Liao could also be at the rear Gushui camp...

If Zhang Liao was really in the Gushui camp, then Man Chong's attack this time would be disastrous. However, Man Chong's judgment was correct because he not only made a military judgment, but also made a speculation on character.

Zhang Liao is from the north and prefers to be on the front line!

Man Chong won the bet!

……

……

The Gushui Camp built by Zhang Liao was a standard cavalry camp.

It was built along the valley water, without cutting down any trees to serve as fences. It was like a plum blossom blooming on the bank of the Heluo Valley. The entire camp covered a large area, but the defense facilities were not as rigorous as those of the infantry camp, and there were not many fortifications. The defense system of such a cavalry camp naturally did not rely on these fortifications, but on the cavalry in it...

Important supplies and equipment were concentrated in the central camp, while cavalry camps were scattered around it, which was somewhat similar to the layout of the Hu people's royal court, with an outer camp, an inner camp, and then the central camp.

Logically speaking, there is nothing wrong with this arrangement.

Zhang Liao led his troops to attack, and there were still patrols, sentinels, and guards in the cavalry camp. However, the problem was that the camp was originally built for the temporary stationing of 5,000 cavalry, so it occupied a large area. After Zhang Liao led his troops to attack, the entire camp was empty...

Whether it is the Cavalry Army or Cao's Army, there is one thing in common: they are all human beings.

As a human being, you will have desires, you will want to be lazy, you will consciously or unconsciously avoid pain, and choose to make yourself feel good...

This is human nature. Whether it is a centralized government or a democratic republic, corruption is unavoidable because this is human nature itself.

A good system can only prevent the occurrence, expansion and spread of such problems as much as possible, but it does not mean that it will not occur.

Zhang Liao consciously followed the advice of the General of Cavalry and cultivated grassroots military schools. It was originally a good thing and a new beginning, but not everything can go smoothly, especially in changing people's character and fighting against human nature. If these military school soldiers implement short-term goals, problems in this regard will not be exposed, but over time, problems will slowly emerge.

If the soldiers left behind in Gushui Camp want to perform the same duties of guarding, patrolling, and investigating as the original 5,000 people, they will need to do twice or even three times the workload.

Of course there was no problem at the beginning. There was enthusiasm, anticipation, and desire, which could resist the fatigue brought about by the increased workload. But after a long time, problems arose.

The river patrol cavalry, which was supposed to patrol the waterways along the valley water, made a mistake.

After all, the spring nights in Heluo are not as comfortable, warm and brightly lit as those in later generations.

This cannot be entirely blamed on the river patrol cavalry, there are also objective factors that have an impact.

Because on both sides of the valley, even though Zhang Liao led his men and horses here, there are still some small animals around. They dare not come out during the day, and come out at night to look for food and need water. Therefore, when the river patrol cavalry checked along the valley, they often encountered abnormal movements. When they rushed over to take a look, they found that it was animals...

After a while, the horses and men naturally became less responsive to such noises.

Moreover, when patrolling at night, everything around is as quiet as if everything is dead. Even if there are tiny sounds, it is like white noise that helps people fall asleep.

The Qiang cavalry who were patrolling along the river bank reached the high hill on the river bank, looked around, and found nothing unusual.

"Ha hu..." The Qiang cavalryman yawned loudly.

"Why don't we stop here today?" someone else suggested, "There's nothing much to go on... If we go back early, we can sleep an extra half hour..."

The captain of the river patrol cavalry was a little shaken, but still insisted on moving forward. However, his persistence only lasted for a while. After walking a short distance, he still did not find any problems, so he ordered his men to go back. The other cavalry cheered and rode back one after another.

Although the Qiang people have changed a lot, some of their habits are still stubborn.

If the river patrol cavalry team went forward and crossed the river bend, they would run into Man Chong and others face to face!

Man Chong and his men came by boat. There were five boats, none of which were big, but they were filled with soldiers and equipment...

Man Chong stood at the bow of the ship. He looked calm, but in fact he was very panicked.

To raid Zhang Liao's Gushui camp is undoubtedly an extremely risky thing to do. If you are a little careless, you might die on the battlefield. Then Luoyang City will definitely surrender without a fight, and the defense of the entire Heluo area will collapse!

But if Man Chong does not come now and does not take the risk, then after Zhang Liao defeats Yique, he will turn around and attack Luoyang. It is possible that a large force of the central army of the cavalry will arrive by then. Then even if Man Chong knows clearly where Zhang Liao is, he may not have the opportunity he has now!

At the same time, in Luoyang City, only Man Chong himself could lead the troops to give the Cao army the courage to follow. Otherwise, if he simply sent a military school officer or a Sima from another department, they would probably be in a panic before the battle even started, and would not be able to make all kinds of preparations properly, which would ultimately be like delivering food to the Hussars...

Cavalry is difficult to fight, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to fight.

As long as he was properly prepared, Man Chong felt that there was still a chance.

And now, due to the negligence of the river patrol cavalry, this opportunity was brought to Man Chong!

……

……

When the sun appeared on the horizon, Man Chong led his team to line up in the morning light, left the river and headed towards the Gu Shui camp.

Man Chong did not carry a flag, but the attire of the soldiers he led was actually not much different from that of the Cavalry.

After all, they were all the same Han soldiers, and their robes were mostly red and black.

So at the beginning, the soldiers in the Gushui camp didn't take it seriously, thinking that it was another group of soldiers who were out on patrol and coming back. It was not until they were almost at the outskirts of the Gushui camp that someone suddenly discovered that something was wrong with Man Chong's troops!

Man Chong and his men came by boat, so they had no war horses!

In such a cavalry camp, the lack of war horses is naturally the biggest flaw!

Unfortunately it's a little late.

Most of the cavalrymen in the Gushui camp were either making breakfast or feeding their horses with fodder. Most of them were not wearing armor or carrying weapons. By the time they received the alarm and rushed to put on their equipment as quickly as possible, a fire had already started outside the camp!

The Hussars were not the only ones who knew how to use kerosene.

With the help of kerosene, the flames quickly engulfed some of the camp equipment on the periphery. The burning tents and equipment acted like a wall of fire, blocking the other Hussars who intended to advance directly to outflanking the enemy, forcing them to go around in another direction.

The military school who stayed in the camp led the team personally and deployed their troops in the camp, ready to attack Cao's army head-on. However, after waiting for a long time, they found out that these Cao's troops had no intention of breaking through and defeating Gu Shui's camp. They actually set a fire and ran back!

Because of the flames and black smoke, the remaining Hussars were on the other side of the fire wall, rushing to remove flammable materials to expand the fighting area, but they did not realize that the Cao army soldiers led by Man Chong had no intention of going deep into the camp.

Man Chong was not here to fight the Hussars at all. He just wanted to disrupt the Hussars' pace and slow down the rhythm, so Man Chong knew when to stop and just run away after fighting!

"Chase them and kill them all!"

The remaining military academy students, feeling that they had been tricked, roared angrily.

"Kill all the bandits!"

The other Hussars, who were unable to have a proper breakfast due to Man Chong's move, also roared in unison.

These cavalrymen believed that Man Chong and other Cao troops were infantry. Even if Cao troops wanted to escape, how could they escape from the four-legged cavalry?

However, in their anger, these soldiers of the Cavalry Academy forgot one thing: since Man Chong had brought kerosene specifically for the surprise attack, how could he not have any other preparations?

The Hussars urged their horses on, speeding up and bypassing the front camp where there were still some flames, and chasing after the retreating Cao army. They were getting closer and closer, and they seemed to hear the panting of the Cao soldiers as they ran. As a result, at this moment, a war horse in the front suddenly neighed, lost its front hoof, and fell to the ground. The knight on the horse was caught off guard, and was thrown out with a whoosh, and fell far away with a thud!

Before the other cavalrymen could react, two horses fell, followed by two more.

"Tripping rope!"

the Hussars shouted.

If it was a normal formation, there would be cavalrymen holding long weapons, clearing the possible tripwires on the ground like a minefield. However, when they were chasing, these hussars might have been blinded by anger, or they might have just taken their usual weapons in a hurry, and did not specifically take the long spears to cut the tripwires...

By the time they realized there was a tripwire, it was too late.

"Be careful, there's an ambush! Move to the side!"

There was no time to remove the tripwires, so the Hussars could only try to bypass the area, but bypassing meant exposing a relatively larger side cross-section!

Man Chong gave the order to shoot.

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!"

The crossbow arrow whizzed out!

Although Ju Yi had died long ago, the tactics of using powerful crossbows, long spears and large shields to fight against cavalry did not disappear with his death.

The crossbow arrows were undoubtedly extremely lethal at this distance. Even if the cavalry wore armor, most of the horses with larger cross-sections did not have time to wear horse cloths. Moreover, as the camp had just caught fire, even if some soldiers had obtained horse cloths, they might not have put them on the horses.

After all, most horse blankets are made of linen. If they are accidentally ignited, it will not be easy to take them off.

Now without Ma Yi's weakness, he was exposed to the crossbow arrows of Man Chong and others!

The horses had to stop suddenly because of the tripwire, and then tried to go around it. Their speed was not fast, and the crowded war horses made them the best targets. Even if the crossbow arrows could not hit the warhorse in front, they would be caught by the warhorse behind.

It is better to catch the bullet well than to shoot accurately. The warhorse that was shot fell to the ground, which affected the subsequent warhorses and cavalrymen's evasion and maneuvering...

"Get out of the way! Scatter!"

The cavalry cadet, who realized the situation belatedly, shouted at this time to temporarily order the cavalry to retreat and avoid the crossbowmen's attack range set by Man Chong.

In most cases, cavalry can defeat infantry, especially the elite cavalry of Hussars, which have the advantage in confrontations of equal numbers, but this does not mean that they can win every confrontation.

If the Hussar Cavalry Academy had been more cautious and not been blinded by anger, or if the cavalry squad patrolling the river had been more careful and walked further, perhaps the results would have been different.

But it is obvious that Man Chong, who was fully prepared and had a plan in place, not only hit the weak link of Zhang Liao's attack in this small-scale battle, but also did not be greedy or reckless. After gaining the advantage, he immediately boarded the boat and sailed downstream, while the Hussar cavalry who had regrouped and caught up with him could only sigh in despair.

Man Chong succeeded. He led his troops back to Luoyang, originally thinking that such a successful raid would boost the morale of the Luoyang defenders and inspire the confidence of the troops from other parties. However, he did not expect that he would be accompanied by the defeated soldiers from Taigu and Yique...