The autumn wind was austere.
Liuzhou General Kou Jianghuai sat high up on his horse, narrowing his eyes as he gazed towards the north.
He and Xu Longxiang had previously made a military order to the Governor-General House, that was, before Huang Songpu's army reached Qingcang City, they had to stop Beimang's Western Front Army at least three times!
In the ten thousand cavalry attack ten days ago, in terms of both sides' losses, the Long Xiang Army that seemed to have achieved great results did not gain much. Beimang's six thousand vanguard cavalry might be considered the elite of the southern court's border army, but Liuzhou was different from Beimang's Western Front Army. Beiliang definitely could not transfer troops from elsewhere to reinforce them. In other words, on the gambling table of Liuzhou, Kou Jianghuai only had so much silver on the table, a single copper coin less was also a small amount. However, Beimang's Huang Songpu could continuously bring out silver from his home. With enough capital, he could completely gamble a little for fun. As long as he won once, everything would be complete. That was why Kou Jianghuai's previous probing definitely had a deeper meaning, which was to make Huang Songpu, this Beimang veteran, feel even more tense. Then, he would straightforwardly and cleanly make a big gamble, gambling on Huang Songpu's slackness. Then, even though Liangzhou's crossbowmen were incomparably skilled, in the end, they could not go around so many of Huang Songpu's grassland fences and spy on the specific details of Beimang's camp. Kou Jianghuai could only use the Long Xiang Army's lives to obtain this military intelligence. He had already mentally prepared himself for Xu Longxiang and Li Mofan's harsh rejection. However, he did not expect that neither Xu Longxiang nor Li Mofan would raise any objections. Li Mofan, who was extremely skilled in military affairs, even personally led ten thousand dragon-elephant cavalry to charge into the enemy formation. Afterwards, Kou Jianghuai spoke bluntly, saying that the three thousand Long Xiang Army officers and soldiers who had set up camp like Huang Songpu's and Longguan's soldiers' were not worth it.
At that time, Xu Longxiang was squatting next to that massive black tiger, only drawing back his lips, not saying anything. Li Mofan, whose entire body was covered in blood, had a rather gloomy expression, but he didn't take his anger out on Kou Jianghuai, this Liuzhou general.
Kou Jianghuai closed his eyes, his mind quickly spreading out the layout of Beimang's western army. The army of one hundred and fifty thousand was divided into five large camps. Commander Huang Songpu's thirty thousand personal troops were set up in the center, their cavalry and footsteps mixed together. A certain Jia family's direct descendant troops set up their own camp. Even though there were only twenty thousand cavalry, their fighting strength was not ordinary, all of them Beimang's typical Laozi troops. Almost every one of them was dressed in armor, to the extent where there were several hundred strong cavalry who were even fully armored, taking on the embryonic form of a heavy cavalry army. The key was that regardless of whether it was maintenance or supplies, they were all responsible for themselves, undoubtedly a sharp weapon that could pierce through enemy lines. Then there were the forty thousand cavalry gathered by the three Yi families. These three camps were located at the front lines, while the two camps at the back were the forty thousand soldiers transferred from the six or seven military towns at the Southern Dynasty's border. There was also a supply camp that Beimang had only risen to prominence in the past twenty years. Based on what Li Mofan's troops had obtained when they broke through the Long Xiang army's lines, roughly 120 carriages, a total of eight hundred dan of provisions, and around one thousand four hundred dan of black beans for the warhorses. However, because the Beimang cavalry had always brought their own supplies when they went south to knock on the pass, in addition to the large number of mares accompanying them on every large scale march, the supply camp's purpose was only to be used at the foot of Qingcang City, far away from the Southern Dynasty's border, in case the army couldn't take the city for a long time.
Historically, the grassland cavalry had roamed the border areas of the Central Plains, especially in the autumn, so they rarely encountered any fatal supply problems. On the other hand, the Central Plains cavalry at the peak of national power had to rely on the power of the entire country to support that fragile supply line every time they took the initiative to go north. The real monarch of the Central Plains who changed this awkward situation was none other than the old Emperor of Liyang, Zhao Li, who had unified the Central Plains. Two of his decisions created the current prosperity of the Central Plains cavalry. One was to use the reason that the monarch should guard the country's gate to reject a large group of civil officials' suggestion to move the capital to Guangling Road, and continue to use Old Tai 'an City as the country's capital. At the same time, he formulated a very bold national policy, sparing no effort in supporting the two Liliao border armies. He didn't hesitate to use the huge tax revenue from Guangling Road and Gangnam-do to invest in the northern border of Liyang. The second decision was to allow Xu Xiao, whose meritorious service shocked the emperor, to lead the troops out of the capital, to be granted the title of Prince of Liyang's vassal in the northwest, which was rich in horses, and let him directly face Beimang!
Located in the north of Liyang's vast territory, the two border crossings on the east and west were heavily guarded by the country's most elite cavalry. In addition, in the middle of Liyang's vast territory, Ji Province was a natural stronghold. The old general Yang Shenxing had once cultivated the Ji Province infantry, who was known as the "Unparalleled in the World". How could it be as simple as just competing with Beiliang's Yan Wenluan? The reason was simple. The border of Ji Province didn't need a large number of cavalry, so even if Yang Shenxing had a soft spot for cavalry, he could only go with the flow.
Kou Jianghuai, who was resting with his eyes closed, subconsciously pressed his palm against the cold saber hilt at his waist and slowly twisted it.
According to the spy report, Beimang's barracks were extremely shoddy. They hastily dug three trenches around the barracks, and the thin fence behind them could be said to be blown down by the wind. Hemp ropes were tied to wooden poles, and the knots of the ropes couldn't be considered particular. The passages between the barracks should be clean and solemn, and soldiers shouldn't be allowed to wander around the barracks without permission. However, these five barracks were filled with people coming and going in a disorderly manner, without any rules to speak of. Previously, Li Mofan's several hundred elite cavalrymen had marched all the way to Beimang's central barracks, less than 150 steps away. He saw with his own eyes that the left and right barracks were in a mess, causing the passage between the barracks to become extremely congested and chaotic. Not to mention the Beiliang Frontier Army, which had the strictest military law in Liyang, Kou Jianghuai believed that West Chu's army had to do better than Beimang's.
Of course, this didn't mean that Beimang's cavalry was weak. On the contrary, it was precisely because Beimang's grasslands were used to the cavalry's lightning-fast speed that it was difficult for them to engrave this kind of cumbersome Central Plains military habit into their bones like the generals of the Central Plains.
If it were any other army from the Central Plains facing off against Beimang's hundreds of thousands of iron hooves, who would have the time to investigate the flaws in the Beimang's setting up camp? They could only rely on the dangerous passes or defend the big city to the death. Even if they dared to go out of the city to fight, they could only rely on heavily armored infantry to form a formation to stop the horses and rely on concentrated crossbows to kill the enemy cavalry.
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