Chengshi County is seventy or eighty miles northeast of Yuanju County, and there is an official road connecting the two. Now, at the edge of a dense forest 30 miles northeast of Yuanju County, a team of Jingqi with a population of about 8,000 is rest.
This cavalry team is extremely elite, and the first performance is one man with two horses. Secondly, in addition to the horse lance, spare horse lance and horizontal knife, every well-armored cavalry wears a crossbow. Not only were they armed from head to toe, but each of them seemed to be carrying a small arsenal.
Such a fine cavalry, not to mention its combat power, would cost an unimaginable amount of money just to feed them.
Under normal circumstances, the military expenditure to feed five infantry can support one cavalry. But as far as this cavalry is concerned, each person is afraid that it will cost the resources of ten ordinary infantry to train.
In other words, the military expenditure for arming these eight thousand elite cavalry is enough to raise another army with a minimum of 80,000 infantry!
Elite soldiers are not easy to come by, especially elite cavalry are not easy to train, which is evident from this.
However, the actual situation is that the military resources consumed by this fine cavalry are far better than an army of 100,000 infantry.
There is only one reason: the proportion of monks in this fine cavalry is too high - not only much higher than that of ordinary infantry troops, but also much higher than ordinary fine cavalry.
Even for a monk who is only at the first level of Qi training, whether it is equipment expenses or salary provisions, it is far more than an ordinary elite knight. And in this elite cavalry, the proportion of Qi training monks has reached a terrifying 30%!
Among a cavalry force of 8,000 men, there were actually more than 2,000 Qi training monks!
You know, before the world was in chaos, even a monk at the first level of Qi training had the qualifications to become a seventh-rank official of the imperial dynasty. Although there were countless officials in the entire dynasty, how many officials of the seventh rank or above were there in the more than three hundred prefectures and more than a thousand counties in the Tang Dynasty
This is also a great struggle in troubled times, and the overall strength of the monks has been greatly improved, otherwise, even if the monks from the rivers and lakes are included, no one can gather such a fine cavalry.
Even so, this elite cavalry is scary enough.
Looking at the whole world, there are fifty-three feudal towns and more than ten princes big and small. Who can form such an army of fine cavalry? Even Zhu Wen, who had already leveled the seven towns in the Central Plains, could not pull up such a fine cavalry in such a short period of time.
So there is only one answer.
This fine cavalry will only and can only appear under the command of the king who has already seen the future situation of the world and raced against time to make preparations for it, even before Huang Chao took action.
The name of this fine cavalry is Langyadu.
Their command is called Shangguan Qingcheng.
Now, it is inappropriate to call this army a wolf fang. According to the military system at the end of the Tang Dynasty, one hundred people were the "capital", five hundred people were one commander, and five thousand people were one army.
So this army should be called the Spike Army now.
At this moment, the white-faced and red-lipped Shangguan Qingcheng was standing by the forest, holding a handful of beans in his hand, and was concentrating on feeding his war horse.
The battle was imminent, her expression was as usual, her eyes were calmer than usual.
Even if she was wearing armor and a hood at the moment, it couldn't conceal her overpowering face. It's a pity that this beautiful face never bloomed with brilliance, because she has facial paralysis.
Facial paralysis has the benefits of facial paralysis, especially as a general in the army, she needs to remain calm at all times.
When the war horse finished eating the beans, Shangguan Qingcheng stretched out his hand, and gently and vigorously combed the mane of the war horse, as if treating his own siblings. The war horse snorted comfortably after drinking the water, and narrowed its eyes slightly.
Behind her, more than 8,000 soldiers were silently doing the same thing.
The war horses will not be fed too much, because the battle is imminent.
From time to time, a horse galloped back in front, reined in and rolled down in front of Shangguan Qingcheng, and ran forward to salute: "Report! The five thousand cavalry of the Vanguard Army of the Xuanwu Army turned eastward, and as the general expected, they have already fought against the Caozhou Army! "
Shangguan Qingcheng nodded, and the action of combing the horse's mane was not affected at all.
It is Shangguan Qingcheng's idea to let Caozhou's soldiers and horses go out first to attract the attention of the Xuanwu army's vanguard and disperse the opponent's forces. As for the order, it was Li Ye who issued Xue Wei's hand.
Even if the Spike Army's combat power is strong, Shangguan Qingcheng thinks that it will not be a problem to rescue Yuanju and defeat Zhu Yin, so she has to be fully prepared as much as possible. When it comes time to win the battle, you are not afraid to work hard and pay more military expenditures, but you are afraid that you will not be able to win because of side effects.
The loss of defeat cannot be measured by a little military expenditure.
A moment later, Shangguan Qingcheng looked up at the sky, and a look of awe-inspiring flashed across his eyes.
At this time, a horse galloped from behind the queue, also reporting the military situation to Shangguan Qingcheng.
"Report! General, our 20,000-step cavalry army is already in place!"
Shangguan Qingcheng didn't nod this time, she patted the horse's neck, and turned straight onto the horse.
Holding the reins in hand, Shangguan Qingcheng looked in the direction of Yuanju, "How should Yuanju respond to the military order given to Yuanju?"
The deputy general came forward and said: "Our military envoy has ordered three times to order his troops to go out of the city to attack the Xuanwu army's left wing when we attacked the Xuanwu army. The guard three times replied that he would obey the military order."
Shangguan Qingcheng nodded.
She wanted to take advantage of Zhu Yin's troops before they landed, and give him a head-on blow, but there was too little time - it took them day and night to arrive when the other party had just landed. But before the battle, the fine cavalry who rushed forward for a long time had to rest for a while and take a breath of relief.
Shangguan Qingcheng's eyebrows were like lightning, and he raised his hand to order: "All the officers and men listen to the order and rush to attack the vanguard army of the Xuanwu Army! Order Zhao Batian, the monster monks guard the two wings, and be ready to intercept the Taoist soldiers at any time!"
"Decree!"
With his legs lightly clamping the horse's belly, Shangguan Qingcheng urged the horse to set off slowly.
But at this moment, she suddenly frowned and looked to the northwest.
Even if nothing abnormal can be seen in the forest field, with the state of her military general Dzogchen, she can clearly feel that there are people with strong cultivation bases there.
But she didn't do anything, and she didn't even care.
The powerful aura is just a few, without the slightest ability to affect the actions of the Spike Army. If the other party dared to appear in front of the Spike Army, not to mention that they would be crushed to a pulp by the 8,000-strong military formation, the monster monks accompanying them would not let them have a chance to get close.
...
On the south bank of Baigou in Yuanju County, on a hill with withered forest leaves, several men and women dressed in long robes with gentle demeanor were watching Zhu Yin's troops assembled on the north bank of Baigou.
With an army of about 50,000 people, even if a sailor is left on the ship, 40,000 people will go ashore. Looking from afar, there is a crowd of people on the bank of the river, which is huge but not crowded. The various ministries are clearly separated and form a whole, showing their outstanding ability to arrange troops for the generals.
The vanguard troops lined up in front of the crowd are neatly formed and murderous. It is conceivable that once an enemy invades, they will not become fish and meat, but will most likely play the role of swordsman. The entire army will organize a powerful counterattack in an instant.
A middle-aged man with a calm face and a handsome demeanor waved the folding fan in his hand and said with emotion: "I heard that the Xuanwu Army ravaged the Central Plains for several months, and I thought they were just helped by Taoist soldiers. Now I can see such military might with my own eyes. Knowing that the Xuanwu Army is indeed a strong army... From this, it can be seen that Zhu Wen's talent in governing the army should not be underestimated."
Beside this man, there is a young Confucian scholar with a square face and firm eyes, and his demeanor is not the same as that of ordinary elegant and restrained Confucian scholars. It is Cui Keli's classmate Zhang Zhongsheng.
He said: "Zhu Wen spent half his life as a soldier and fought north and south. He is a fierce general who crawled out of blood and fire. He really cannot be underestimated. The younger generation was fortunate enough to be in the Xuanwu Army and met the opponent's tigers and wolves. Strong, indeed there are very few who can beat the Xuanwu Army."
The middle-aged man turned his head to look at Zhang Zhongsheng, and smiled: "It seems that Zhenzhi also feels that the Xuanwu Army has a chance to win this battle?"
Zhenzhi is Zhang Zhongsheng's character.
He arrived in Yangzhou two months ago and participated in a grand meeting where Confucian sages commented on the world's scholars. Although he was not ranked among the eight outstanding men because of his young age and insufficient qualifications, he was also rated as the first of the seventy-two scholars of Confucianism by Wang Zaifeng, and he was also presented with the gift of "sit down to determine the country's great strategy, and action to call the country's gains and losses". Fourteen character comments.
As a result, Zhang Zhongsheng became famous for a while, and had a great reputation among countless scholars in Huainan.
The meaning of the fourteen-character comment could not be more simple. It is said that Zhang Zhongsheng not only has the ability to govern the state, formulate and implement major national affairs, but also has the quality of supervising states and counties, investigating unjust officials, and measuring political gains and losses.
Simply put, in Wang Zaifeng's words, Zhang Zhongsheng has the talent of a prime minister.
This time the Great War in the Central Plains happened suddenly, whether it was Li Ye mobilizing an army of one million or Zhu Wen rushing to attack the Tianping Army, the speed far exceeded the expectations of the princes. This caused Li Maozhen in Guanzhong and Gao Pian in Huainan to be unable to immediately mobilize the main force to enter the Central Plains to interfere in the battle.
The army can be mobilized slowly, but the spies have to be dispatched immediately. For a prince like Gao Pian, in addition to sending ordinary scouts, he had to let his talented men go to the battlefield to observe, judge the combat strength of the two warring parties, and study their tactics.
These information collection tasks are all in preparation for the next Huainan Army to send troops to the Central Plains.
The battlefield is dangerous, and only big monks can come, let alone Zhang Zhongsheng. The middle-aged man in front of him holding a folding fan is one of the Eight Confucianists, Guo Pu, who has long been famous among Confucians.
Hearing Guo Pu's question, Zhang Zhongsheng shook his head unexpectedly.
Guo Pu was surprised and said, "Zhenzhi thinks Xuanwu's army can't conquer Tianping?"
If he hadn't known that Zhang Zhongsheng had traveled to the Central Plains, been to Bianzhou and Qingzhou, and had witnessed real battles with his own eyes, with Guo Pu's status and qualifications, I'm afraid he would have laughed at him unceremoniously.
Zhang Zhongsheng said earnestly: "It is easy for the Xuanwu army to defeat the Tianping army. But if the Xuanwu army wants to capture the three states of Tianping, they must face the Pinglu army under King An's command."
Speaking of the three words "Pinglu Army", Zhang Zhongsheng couldn't help but increase his tone, and his eyes couldn't help showing a solemn and stern look.
Because of these three words, he recalled that he and Cui Keli had witnessed the battle scene of the Pinglu army resisting the Xuanwu army in the city of Qingzhou.
Seeing Zhang Zhongsheng's appearance, Guo Pu didn't take it seriously and said, "Could it be that the Pinglu Army is more elite than the Xuanwu Army? Can there be an army stronger than the Xuanwu Army in this world?"
When he was in Yangzhou, he had seen what the Huainan army looked like, and he had fought with the army. In his objective evaluation, the brave Huainan Army was no match for the Xuanwu Army.
If the Pinglu army is more capable of fighting than the Xuanwu army, wouldn't the Huainan army be the third most powerful in the world in comparison? For Confucianists and Gao Pian who aspired to win the Central Plains, this ranking was too low.
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Zhang Zhongsheng shook his head again.
He looked at Guo Pu solemnly, and said in a serious manner: "Other juniors dare not say, but this junior has seen the Spike City led by General Shangguan in the Pinglu Army, and it is definitely not the Xuanwu army in front of us. Counterbalanced!"
Guo Pu was startled, and then laughed: "Spike is so elite?"
"No, Langya can't even be called elite."
"what is that?"
Zhang Zhongsheng's eyes were full of fear, as if he saw a ghost, "Spike Fangdu, there are only two words to describe it."
"Which two words are they?"
"fear!"