Chapter 105 Night Attack
In the early morning, when a person feels the most tired and sleeps the deepest, the thieves outside the city were pitch black, and a few bandits who were patrolling the camp also found a place to sleep. The camp without a camp was exposed to everyone's sight like a big girl without clothes.
The moon in the sky was covered by a dark cloud, and the breeze was blowing, giving people a hint of coolness. As soon as the ugly hour arrived, the south gate of Shouzhou quietly opened. The bricks and stones that had originally blocked the city gate were cleaned up, and teams of official troops wearing armor and holding blades came out quietly from the city.
These were the 100 soldiers selected by Huang Degong from the army, led by Wu Qun, Qianhu. Huang Degong originally wanted to lead the team to fight in person, but was forcibly rejected by several Qianhu on the grounds that he could not hold the main general and the dangerous place. Because several Qianhu wanted to make meritorious service and received rewards, he could only decide the candidate for the troops by rolling dice. In the end, Wu Qun proudly obtained the right to lead the troops amid the angrily scolding of the remaining people "spending thousands!" and "scam".
A hundred people were short-soldiers holding long swords, hammers and axes. After all, it was not a formation battle, and short-soldiers were more conducive to hand-to-hand combat. Because they were afraid of reflection, the originally bright blades and axes were painted with ink, and when they approached, they smelled a strong smell.
Most of the soldiers carved the fire medium hidden in the bamboo tube, and took off the lid on the lower end, took out the fire medium and blew it.
More than a dozen other people were carefully carrying bamboo baskets. There was a clay pot in the basket, which was wrapped in thick cotton cloth, filled with vegetable oil that was cooling after boiling. There were more than a dozen people each carrying several paper bags, which were huǒ yào, and the vegetable oil plus huǒ yào, was enough to make the fire more rapid.
During the day, Huang Degong carefully looked at the bandit camp in the Arrow Tower. Although he could not find the location of the bandits, nor did he see Gao Yingxiang's tent. However, he noticed that there was a camp in the northwest of the bandit camp with camp gates and camp gates, and the camp tents were quite neat, which seemed particularly eye-catching in the messy bandit camp. It seemed that this place was the elite of the bandits.
The place where Huang Degong saw was the place where a team of two thousand horses in the camp was located. In order to prevent Zhang Xianzhong, Gao Yingxiang ordered Gao Yingen to set up a camp here to monitor the camp.
As for Gao Yingxiang's big tent, it is located in the center of the entire camp outside the South Gate, five miles away from Shouzhou City, and it is beyond the normal sight, so Huang Degong did not notice it.
The 100 people selected this time were soldiers who could see things at night, be bold and careful, and willing to use their lives to win promotions and rewards.
After all Yexiu soldiers left the city, the city gate was not closed. The city gate hole and a thousand officials in the city were sitting on the ground to rest, preparing to meet the officials who returned to Yexiu. On the tops of the city gate on both sides of the city gate, five hundred archers were also ready to wait for the return of the night soldiers.
I have to say that Huang Degong has a very courageous spirit. Siliang opened the city gate so much, and he was not afraid of the thieves fighting against the night attacking the official army and taking advantage of the situation to enter the city gate. Huang Chuangzi's nickname is not wrong, he really doesn't respect the thieves' combat power.
Wu Qun was in the front row of the team. After seeing that everyone was here, he walked towards the northwest without saying a word. One hundred people were in a fan shape and followed closely behind him.
The night before dawn was as dark as thick ink, and Wu Qun and his men could only grop forward and headed towards the direction where the faint lights were emitted in the distance. The lights were emitted by the lanterns hanging by the bandits at the camp gate, and were two or three miles away.
But the night also gave them good cover. Hundreds of people were walking quietly, and occasionally someone tripped over the debris on the ground and made a sound, but there was no other sound.
About a quarter of an hour later, Wu Qun and others approached the most thief camp. The messy tents, straw sheds and shacks made snoring one after another. The thieves were sleeping soundly, and no one noticed or found the officials squatting on the ground in the night more than ten steps away.
At the end of a passage about tens of steps wide and hundreds of steps long is the elite camp of the thief army.
There was a lantern hanging from each side at the camp gate. Under the dim light, two soldiers with whistle-worthy helmets were sitting tilted against the camp gate, holding long spears and sleeping soundly.
Then Wu Qun waved his hand, and several soldiers behind him hugged and touched the tents of wài wéi from both sides of the passage. These people were all proficient in martial arts and good at fighting in close combat.
It is midsummer, and it is not necessary to say that the daylight is hot, even the night is so hot that it makes it difficult to fall asleep, and it is not a little cooler until the second half of the night.
Two bandit soldiers who were on duty changed their guards. After standing for half an hour, they yawned all over the sky. In the end, they couldn't hold on, so they simply leaned on the camp and fell asleep.
The daily routine of the thieves was not military discipline. Gao Yingxiang and others were all civilians and did not understand the way of the army at all. In addition, the thieves often had hundreds of thousands, and most of them were farmers who were digging food from the soil and could not control them at all, so they were just like herding sheep.
The formation of the horse teams that broke into the camp was also relatively complicated. They were both horse thieves, Hu Fans outside the frontier, and defected border troops. As Gao Yingxiang's combat power most relied on, he still attached great importance to the horse team. He also knew that his own way was not good, so the leader of the horse team was basically the original official army. These border troops were all old camps, so they naturally brought some rules in the official army, set up camps, and patrol patrols were one of them. Unfortunately, it has become a habit for the thieves to be lazy, and many rules are invisible. Now, when there are strong cities in front and pursuers in the back, even the minimum patrols to be neglected.
One of the most important factors is that since Gao Yingxiang started his army, he has fought countless battles with various officials and troops in several years, and the officials have never launched overnight attacks on the bandits.
Several soldiers touched the camp gate and were hidden in the black shadows in the camp tent. After observing around, two figures rushed over, covering the bandit's mouth with one hand, and then a sharp short blade was inserted into the neck of the bandit's side and pulled it down. The bandit's big artery and trachea were cut open, and a large trunk of blood gushed out quickly, and in the sweet dream, it entered the boundless eternal night.
After the post was removed, several soldiers immediately opened the camp gate. Wu Qun and the remaining soldiers quickly moved closer to the camp gate with their feet.
After entering the camp gate, Wu Qun made a gesture. He led dozens of people to the back along the right camp bar, and the remaining dozens were led by a hundred households and headed back along the left side. The goal was to find the stables and forage of the thief army and then set fire to the horses.
Wu Qun and his men walked back along the camp gate. After turning a corner, the light of the lantern at the camp gate was no longer visible, and everyone returned to the state of moving forward in the dark.
Wu Qun, who was walking in front, suddenly stepped on something, stood unsteadily, threw himself forward to the ground, and flew out with a short axe in his hand. Then a loud shout and scolding sounded: "Oh! Go to your mother! Blind! Fuck your mother!"
It turned out to be a bandit soldier who was not resistant to heat. He thought there were too many people in the tent, so he ran here in the middle of the night to take advantage of the cool air and slept soundly. When he was trampled on by Wu Qun in his sleep, he immediately started to scream and scold.
Wu Qun reached out to find the weapon, and a soldier raised his sword and slashed downward. He could not see clearly in the darkness. He slashed the thief's thigh, and the bandits let out a loud howl, which was far away in the quiet night.
Wu Qun quickly rolled forward, fearing that his subordinates would accidentally be injured. Several officials, soldiers and soldiers stepped on their swords and axes. After the thief screamed a few more times, they were finally killed in the neck by an axe.
Although there were only a few breaths, a few screams still alarmed the bandits in the nearby camp. The awakened thieves jumped up one after another. Some looked for weapons in the dark, some ran out of the camp to watch, and some fumbled to turn the fire to light the oil lamp.
Wu Qun got up and roared in a low voice when he saw this: "Ten people in the front row stay! Sun San! Light the camp! The rest follow me back!"
The sergeant named Sun San was Wu Qun's subordinate. After receiving the order, he rushed forward with a long sword. Ten soldiers in the front row followed him. Wu Qun led the remaining soldiers and ran back along the camp fence.
The summer is long and the night is short. It is already ugly and the sky is slightly brighter. Although you can't see the face clearly within a few steps, you can already see the general outline.
Several bandit soldiers had already run out of the tent ahead, some with knives and some with empty hands, clamoring around to watch.
Sun San used his waist and legs to rush towards the bandits who made a sound.
Although several thieves who were alarmed by screams ran out of the camp, their eyes were not far away in the darkness, and they didn't know what happened. While standing outside the tent, several figures suddenly appeared in the darkness in front of them.
"Who is it?"
"Stop!"
The shouting stopped just now, and several bandit soldiers who were in amazement were chopped by swords and axes. Several screams rang out one after another, and several bandits were chopped to the ground.
"Populate oil! Get the fire!" Sun San shouted.
A soldier pulled out the citrus jar plug wrapped in cotton, held the citrus jar and began to pour grease into the tent in front of him. After several fire media were blown up, the tent stained with oil was ignited. With the input of several packs of huǒ yào, the flames suddenly rose and burned with the help of the breeze.
As the fire rose, the surrounding things had nowhere to hide, and dozens of thieves in the tents around ran out one after another.
"It's an official army!"
"It's gone!"
Kill them!"
"Put the fire!"
Amid the yelling and roaring, dozens of people rushed over with weapons.
"Hurry! Light the fire!" Sun San roared and raised his sword to face the rushing bandits. After igniting several tents one after another, the rest of the soldiers rushed towards the bandits with their weapons.
When Wu Qun and his men were about to arrive at the rear camp, waves of neighing horses sounded, and faint flames appeared from the rear camp of the thief army.
Wu Qun was delighted that the soldiers on the left had already succeeded!
He shouted loudly: "Quick!" Then he rushed towards the fire with all his strength, and dozens of soldiers also tried their best to follow.
At this time, the thief army camp was in chaos, and all the sleeping thieves were awakened. The camp was full of panic-running thieves.
When Wu Qun arrived at the fire point, the fire had already burned rapidly. Several piles of grass that were several people tall had been lit, and there were shadows in the fire, and hundreds of refugees feeding war horses were fleeing their lives in panic.
More than 2,000 war horses in more than ten stables were frightened by the fire. Zhang Shuangquan, a hundred households, were leading people to cut off the reins of the horses, and hundreds of war horses with broken reins ran around. Many refugees were knocked to the ground by the war horses, with broken bones and spitting blood.
Wu Qun looked up and saw a fire appearing in the place where Sun San left behind. A large group of thieves were coming here. He shouted: "Light the stable! Hurry up! Come and follow me!"
After Wu Qun led the team away, Huang Degong stood motionless at the top of the city, looking at the northwest with his hands on his back, several thousand households were at the city gate, waiting for the command to respond.
Time seemed to be stagnant. It seemed that the night-attacked officials had been out of the city for several days, but the thieves' camp in the distance was still silent.
Suddenly, a ball of orange-red flames burned, and there seemed to be a figure flashing in the flames.
It's done! Huang Degong was happy.
But the fire was not as big as expected. No! If it were a thief army, the fire would have soared into the sky after igniting the forage. Although the fire is not small now and is spreading around, the flames are not high.
Could it be that you made a wrong judgment? The place where the fire was not a horse camp of the thieves, but an ordinary thieves camp was not good? But there are few ordinary thieves who set up camp bars. What is the situation? Don’t turn these hundred people into it!
Just when Huang Degong was full of annoyance, the sky in the distance suddenly brightened, and then the fire rose into the sky. The slightest sound of people shouting and neighing from the thief camp came from a long way under the quiet night sky.
It's really done!
Chapter completed!