Chapter 1124: Divide the Troops Into Two Groups
On the evening of November 17, the 100,000-man army finally arrived 30 miles west of Chifeng. It was less than an hour away from the Mijia tribe camp in the west of Chifeng, but it took a detour of dozens of miles to get to the Queji tribe camp in the north. The army stopped in the valley. Afterwards, all the generals gathered to discuss and confirm the final plan for tomorrow's attack.
Because Gongsun Zan personally led the army, Huangfu Chaobo had to come with him. There was no other way. If Gongsun Zan had not come, Zhao Yun would have no problem commanding the army, but Gongsun Zan came in person, and it was obviously impossible for him to listen to Zhao Yun's command.
Originally, Huangfu Chaobo meant to lead his troops to attack the Queji tribe camp in the north, but Gongsun Zan took over the task as the master, because they had to go around to the north and then launch the attack, so the difficulty was even greater.
In desperation, Huangfu Chaobo had to agree to his request. Considering that the elite cavalry in Gongsun Zan's hands had almost been lost, Huangfu Chaobo arranged Xiaoqiang's 20,000 Wuhuan cavalry into their team. In this way, they had 60,000 troops. Even if the time would be a little later, they could defeat the Queji tribe faster and then rush to the city to join their own army.
The next morning, just as the sky was slightly bright, Gongsun Zan and Xiaoqiang's 60,000 cavalry had already set out. They set out from the mountain valley where they camped, made a big circle, and rushed to the north of the Queji tribe camp in the north.
An hour after Gongsun Zan's army set out, at Huangfu Chaobo's order, 40,000 Tang soldiers began to march towards Chifeng City. According to the prior arrangement, Zhao Yun and Baima Yicong were the vanguards, and the two wings of the Tuqi and Kongheying cavalry rushed straight to the Xianbei camp in the east. Behind these three schools of cavalry were the rest of the guards, and at the end were the 15,000 newly recruited cavalry from Yanbei County.
As expected, when the Xianbei army in the camp saw that there were only more than 10,000 cavalrymen coming, led by only 5,000 white horse volunteers, they quickly gathered their forces and rushed towards Zhao Yun's army, but they did not expect that the cavalry opposite them was so powerful. Under the command of Zhao Yun, the white horse volunteers were like a sharp knife, killing directly through the middle of the Xianbei cavalry, messing up their formation, and the cavalry following closely followed the gaps made by the white horse volunteers.
When the Xianbei generals who led the troops found something wrong, their 15,000 cavalrymen had already become a mess, and there were more than 10,000 cavalrymen cruising around the periphery. As long as they found any Xianbei cavalry trying to leave the battlefield, they would be shot and killed there.
The Xianbei general then despairedly discovered that he had fallen into the enemy's trap. His 15,000 cavalry were just ordinary Xianbei cavalry, while the enemy's cavalry had twice as many elite cavalry as his own, which was an elite enough to rival the palace cavalry. If this continued, his cavalry would be annihilated here in less than half an hour. Seeing that his cavalry had less and less room to maneuver, it was difficult to escape the fate of the entire army being annihilated. At this point, a voice of "surrender and no death" sounded on the battlefield. The Xianbei general knew that if he did not surrender, he would surely die. Without thinking too much, he loudly ordered the soldiers to dismount and surrender. Fortunately, he reacted quickly. If it was a moment later, it would be estimated that not even half of the 15,000 Xianbei cavalry would be left.
After leaving 5,000 ordinary cavalry to collect the captives and clean up the battlefield, Zhao Yun led the rest of the troops and horses to rush towards the camp. At this time, the Xianbei camp was in chaos. Fifteen thousand cavalry went out to fight the enemy, but only a few dozen cavalry were able to escape back, which frightened the Xianbei people in the camp. Countless Xianbei people rushed to flee the camp and fled towards the direction of Chifeng City. Unfortunately, not long after they ran out of the camp, the figures of the White Horse Volunteers and the Tuqi appeared in their sight. Both troops were light cavalry. Under the command of Zhao Yun, the two cavalry bypassed the Xianbei camp and killed the fleeing Xianbei people.
The movement outside the city had already alarmed Mijia and Queji in the city. Chifeng City is divided into two cities, the outer and inner cities, and the inner city is located in the southeast corner of the outer city. So after entering the outer city, the two Xianbei armies attacked in one direction each. Mijia attacked the west gate of the inner city, while Queji attacked the north gate of the inner city.
After they first entered the outer city of Chifeng, the two tribes had launched several attacks on the inner city, but they were unsuccessful in the end. Later, the two discussed that there were only these 20,000 soldiers in Chifeng City. Their army had already captured the outer city, so they simply surrounded the inner city with their army, and then divided their troops to attack the other cities. After a period of time, after all the other cities and territories in Lulong were occupied, it would not be too late to come back and remove this nail.
So the two left a total of 60,000 troops to besiege the inner city of Chifeng, and then sent out the remaining 80,000 to 90,000 troops to attack and plunder other cities in Lulong County. If the 90,000 troops plus 40,000 to 50,000 auxiliary soldiers were divided into two routes, each of which would have 70,000 to 80,000 troops. I believe they are enough to deal with more than 100,000 Han troops. Moreover, the Han people are now being attacked everywhere by the Great Xianbei army, so how can they gather 100,000 troops?
In addition, the Wuhuan royal court in Liaoxi has already sent troops to Lulong. In this case, even if General Bai Ma has three heads and six arms, he will not be able to cope with it.
After the siege, the two of them sent people to the city occasionally to pretend to be there. Generally, they sent people to count the looted materials sent back from various places, so they lived very comfortably every day. Although the Han people's houses did not look as comfortable as tents, they were sturdy and warm, which made the two of them live very comfortably.
When they heard the alarm sent by the camp outside the city early in the morning, their first reaction was that those guys outside the city were making trouble again. However, the following news surprised them. Tens of thousands of Han cavalry suddenly appeared. The camp outside the city was the foundation of the tribe. It stored the materials used by the army and the countless materials recently looted from various cities. If it was lost, the whole tribe would have a hard time this winter. And it appeared outside the two camps at the same time, which surprised the two of them even more.
Both of them were veterans who had experienced many battles. After receiving the news, they immediately ordered the army to assemble and prepare to go out of the city to support the camp outside the city. As the desolate horns sounded in the city, the 30,000 elite Xianbei cavalry in the city began to gather towards the location of the two leaders. Then the two armies each left only two or three thousand cavalry to continue monitoring the Han army in the inner city, and the rest of the troops began to advance towards the camp outside the city.