I

It was easy to make a decision because... Zhao Han was almost out of food.

On New Year's Eve, I went into the mountains with food rations. It is now the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. During the journey, they stayed day and night, for fear of being discovered, so it was naturally impossible to grab food.

Then just attack the military camp at night!

At this moment, Tian Younian, the prefect of Yuanzhou, was being harassed by the magistrate of Yichun all the way from the city to the military camp.

The county magistrate Fang Lu complained endlessly: "Master, why did you recruit so many troops? All the big families in the city have broken through the threshold of the county government office."

Yuanzhou government office and Yichun county government office are in the same city.

"Don't worry about the war. Go back and defend the city. Don't let the rebels steal the city." Tian Younian didn't want to explain anything to a idiot.

The Duchang bandits have been wiped out by the officers and soldiers, and the entire north of Jiangxi is peaceful.

Tian Younian had made an appointment with the governor long ago to send troops together after the Lantern Festival. Since the rebels came to kill them on their own initiative, it would be better to directly surround and kill the Zhao thief in Fenyi County.

Arriving at the military camp, staff officer Hong Yan stepped forward and said, "Master, the military rations have been prepared and more than 2,300 soldiers have been gathered."

2,300 people are "veterans". The temporarily recruited soldiers are not counted as human beings. They are all domestic slaves sent out by the big families in the city, as well as vagrants in the city.

The total adds up to more than five thousand!

Another scholar came forward, it was Zuo Xiaocheng who had joined Jie Xuelong before. He now lives in his grandfather's house in Yichun County. He spreads the abominable deeds of Zhao Thief everywhere, saying that Zhao Thief wants to kill all the landlords in the world, frightening the big families in Yichun County to the point of weakness.

Because of this, the wealthy families in Yichun actively donated money and food to support the prefect Tian Younian in recruiting troops and suppressing bandits.

Zuo Xiaocheng reminded: "Master Fu, the rebel thief in Fenyi County must be the Zhao thief. This thief is extremely cunning and moves very quickly. We must be careful to prevent this thief from stealing the city."

"Don't worry, I have left 300 elite soldiers in Fucheng and 800 local warriors." Tian Younian had already been confident.

Zuo Xiaocheng added: "Tonight, thousands of troops have gathered in the military camp, and countless grain and grass have been piled on the boats at the dock outside the city. We must beware of Zhao thieves' night attacks."

Staff officer Hong Yan said with a smile: "Brother Zuo Xian, I think you are scared out of your wits by the Zhao thief. Our army has already sent many sentries along the Yuan River. Can the Zhao thief fly over and attack at night?"

Zuo Xiaocheng hesitated to speak, feeling that he was overthinking.

Tian Younian frowned, thought for a moment and said: "Set up more sentries tonight, and send more soldiers to guard the army rations. We will march out early tomorrow morning!"

There were two Tian Younian in the Chongzhen Dynasty. The other had not yet passed the Jinshi examination, but he was already recognized as a master of Mao poetry.

But the Tian Younian in front of him was only born in Juren, and he was able to quickly become a magistrate, all because of his military exploits!

This guy is a son of a military family in Shaanxi. Both his father and brother are generals. He has learned archery and horsemanship and the art of war since he was a child, and it is only incidental to take the imperial examination. After spending money to buy a magistrate, every time he went to a place, he would definitely recruit troops to either destroy the bandits or conquer the rebels.

After lunch, Tian Younian personally inspected the military camp, constantly condolences to the soldiers, and pointed out the inappropriate layout of the military camp.

Recapture Fenyi County?

Tian Younian had never had such an idea. He just wanted to block the Zhao thief in Fenyi County, and then join forces with Governor Li Maofang and Qianshi Wang Siren to kill the thousands of rebel rebels!

As soon as he received the news, Tian Younian sent messengers to Nanchang and Jiujiang to contact friendly forces.

As for the sudden recruitment of domestic slaves and gangsters, it was purely to scare Zhao Han with superior military strength, so that Zhao Han cowered in Fenyi County and did not dare to come out. The longer the delay, the greater the chance of victory for the officers and soldiers. He only needs to wait until friendly reinforcements are reinforced.

Tian Younian did not dare to underestimate the Zhao thief. Those who could send troops in winter were ruthless people.

What's more, Thief Zhao also attacked Binjiang Town and took away hundreds of elites he had trained for two years!

After the patrol, Tian Younian went back to the house to rest and took out a "New Book of Ji Xiao" to read. He had been reading this book for twenty years.

This guy looks like a civil servant, but in fact he doesn't have much knowledge. It would be difficult for him to be a scholar in Jiangxi. But he is familiar with the art of war and is skilled in bow and horse. In battle, he can take the lead and lead the charge.

While reading, Tian Younian suddenly put down his military book and went out to observe the mountains behind him.

It was already afternoon, and Tian Younian ordered: "Cut down the woods under Yuegong Ridge and send a few people into the mountain to search for the enemy!"

Yuegong Ridge is a very large mountain that rises abruptly in the southeast of Fucheng. Yuegong Ridge is only its highest peak.

It would definitely be useless to send a few people to search the mountain. It would be feasible to cut down the woods near the military camp.

In fact, the military camp is thousands of steps away from the foot of the mountain, and it is not directly next to the mountain.

This military camp is fixed, and many barracks have been built, all of which are mud houses made of rammed earth. It is sheer nonsense to plan a night attack and set the camp on fire.

Several sentry towers were built in various corners of the military camp, which could be used for sentry duty and as arrow towers.

After nightfall, Tian Younian personally inspected the military camp and ordered the sentry soldiers and archers in the sentry tower to cheer up.

After doing all this, Tian Younian finally went back to sleep. He was exhausted and soon started snoring like thunder.

…

Zhao Han set out at the third watch and arrived at the foot of the mountain close to the fifth watch, which is equivalent to walking from zero to four o'clock.

Walk slowly to save energy.

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, there was no moonlight, and it was pitch black before dawn.

The soldiers who attacked at night often fell down accidentally. How could the sentry in the camp see clearly? Instead, in order to keep out the cold, they placed a brazier in the sentry tower, which became a beacon for the rebels.

Huang Yao led 800 people around to the north, Huang Shun led 800 people around to the south, and Zhao Han led 900 people to the east.

Unfortunately, I don't have a watch, so I can't tell the time to attack together.

After the two of them walked around to the attack location, they both waited for a while. Huang Yao took the lead in lighting the torches, with two torches per person, and 1,600 torches rushed towards the military camp.

Hearing the shouts of killing, Zhao Han and Huang Shun also lit torches. A total of more than 5,000 torches were lit in the three groups.

Because Tian Younian's layout was too tight, he could not reach the camp quietly. They always light fires and start attacking when they are two to three hundred steps away from the camp. If they get closer, they will be discovered by sentries.

"Thief...thief attack!"

The sentry was shocked and blew his horn one after another, and the archers in the sentry tower quickly cocked their horns.

The officers and soldiers in the barracks panicked, and the domestic slaves and gangsters recruited temporarily ran out without dressing. Seeing countless torches lighting up from all sides, they were so frightened that they immediately blew up the camp and fled for their lives. They rushed to the west where there were no enemy troops. They even knocked down the gate of the camp.

The soldiers who had been trained for about half a year were not much better. They just put on their clothes and ran for their lives.

There were only more than a thousand real veterans, and they spontaneously armed themselves with weapons and moved closer to Tian Younian's residence without any orders from their superiors.

This prefect is really good at training soldiers!

It was Xie Xuelong's subordinates. If they had encountered this situation, they would have been so frightened that the entire army lost its organization.

Each sentry tower has six archers.

Huang Yao was the first to rush to the outskirts of the camp. The walls of the camp were as high as one person. The man threw away the torch, struck the ground with his long spear, and used his strength to easily rush through the village wall, then killed the two gatekeepers and opened the south gate of the village.

"Boohoo!"

From two nearby sentry towers, twelve archers fired arrows, but in a panic, they only hit four targets.

"Capture the tower!"

The two commanders who rushed in first immediately led the nearby soldiers to seize the guard tower according to the predetermined plan, and the remaining people followed Huang Yao and continued to kill inside.

"Mother!"

"Spare your life!"

Some of the fleeing officers and soldiers were killed by Huang Yao's troops, and they just ran with their heads covered in the darkness.

Zhao Han in the east was hit by an arrow, but fortunately he was not injured. An arrow hit the cotton-padded clothes under the ribs, piercing the clothes diagonally and entering almost close to the flesh.

He led his troops straight into the depths of the military camp, while Zhang Tieniu and Liu Zhu led their troops to seize the tower respectively.

Zhang Tieniu had also thrown away his torch, and without even taking his shield, he crazily climbed up the ladder. The enemy's archers were even more panicked than he was. They were holding their bows with trembling hands. One arrow hit Zhang Tieniu's shoulder, another arrow knocked down the soldier behind him, and all the other arrows missed.

"kill!"

Zhang Tieniu had already climbed up and was facing the spear fired by the sentry.

This guy was really reckless. He stretched out his right arm to block, but his sleeve was pierced by the gun tip, and his arm was also cut with a big gash. Another spear came, Zhang Tieniu ducked, took out his ax and jumped out, and chopped off half of the enemy's hand with one axe.

Two sentries with guns, plus six archers, Zhang Tieniu rushed in with an ax in hand. He first wounded one person, then killed another, then charged sideways and knocked an archer off the tower.

Finally, teammates rushed up and killed all the remaining enemies.

"Kill the enemy!"

Zhang Tieniu held his ax high and roared as he descended from the sentry tower and rushed towards the main battlefield in the military camp.

Tian Younian didn't take off his clothes at all, he even wore armor. After waking up, he immediately took off his bow, arrows and sword, walked out of the barracks and let the trumpeter blow the trumpet to gather the troops.

More than 1,300 elite veterans quickly surrounded Tian Younian and formed a military formation.

Fortunately, Zhao Han made a surprise attack on Binjiang Town and took away hundreds of veterans, including more than a hundred archers. Otherwise, the elite around Tian Younian must have exceeded 1,800 people at this time.

This guy is extremely strict in running the army, and his military pay is never withheld.

To be able to support so many soldiers, in addition to donations of money and food from large households, there must have been extraordinary measures. For example, when they suppressed bandits in Pingxiang County, they killed two big landowners and claimed that it was a good thing they had done to rebel against bandits. They stole a large amount of money and grain as military pay.

Facing the tight formation, Huang Yao did not dare to get close at all, and formed a formation from a distance to wait for the arrival of friendly forces.

Tian Younian did not dare to take the initiative to attack. Although both sides had torches, charging at night would easily lead to a messy formation, and there were bandit troops coming from his north and east.

The rebels were surrounded on three sides and numbered more than 2,400 people.

There were only more than 1,300 soldiers in Tian Younian's besieged camp, but there were more than 800 archers.

Zhao Han couldn't help but admire: "Zhifu Tian is really powerful. In terms of military training ability, he is comparable to famous generals in the past!"

"Are you Luling Zhao Yan?" Tian Younian asked.

"Exactly." Zhao Han replied.

Tian Younian smiled and said: "You are not bad, you can actually lead troops to climb mountains in the snow."

"Stop it." Zhao Han was unwilling to attack forcefully, as the opponent's archers were a headache.

"Okay." Tian Younian agreed immediately.

"Um?"

Zhao Han was a little surprised because Tian Younian surrendered too readily.

Tian Younian said: "My hometown is in Shaanxi, and my whole family died at the hands of bandits. Some time ago, news came that my father and brother also died in the war. The Tian family has repaid the king's kindness, and the rest should be considered for themselves. I am in Yuanzhou Fucheng There is a concubine who gave birth to a son who is almost two years old. This is the only incense left in the Tian family."

Well, thanks to the Shaanxi bandits, Tian Younian no longer has any worries.