Chapter 364 Camp Robbery
When he led troops to Jiangzhou to quell the rebellion in the Song Dynasty, Gu Tingye led 30,000 soldiers and horses through Hengshan and arrived at Hezhou City.
Zhao Xing gave Gu Tingye a secret order, allowing him to mobilize the troops of the three armies of Qinzhou.
Qinzhou's three armies have nearly 50,000 soldiers and horses, specially used to defend Hehuang and Tubo.
According to the agreement between Wang Shao and Hehuang Tubo, the Song Dynasty sent troops to help Hehuang Tubo repel the Qiang attack.
Tubo in Hehuang paid tribute to the Song Dynasty and handed Weiyuan City, the gateway to Hehuang, to the Song Dynasty.
With Weiyuan, the three armies defending Hehuang no longer need to be stationed in Qinzhou.
Gu Tingye gathered all the troops and horses of the three armies and marched to Hehuang.
However, one of the troops was left behind in Weiyuan City by Gu Tingye.
After all, this is their retreat, and there is no room for failure.
The tribes of Hehuang and Tubo were retreating steadily after being beaten by the Qiang people. Now that they saw the arrival of reinforcements, they were naturally overjoyed. The leaders of each tribe personally welcomed the arrival of the Song Dynasty soldiers.
However, after learning that Gu Tingye only brought 30,000 soldiers and horses, the Tubo tribes felt that they had been deceived.
The Qiang people have more than 100,000 horse and infantry troops. The Song Dynasty only sent 30,000 troops and horses. They were still infantry. What use could they have?
At the reception banquet, the leaders of the Tubo tribes in Hehuang ordered their generals to attack, accusing the Song Dynasty of taking the benefits and not doing anything.
Gu Tingye said that the Song Dynasty would continue to send reinforcements later, and that he would help Tubo repel the Qiang people outside the city within three days.
The generals of the various tribes in Hehuang laughed at him and said that they would not send troops to help and would see how Gu Tingye could fight back the Qiang people.
Gu Tingye immediately said that he did not want Tubo to help.
The leaders of the Tubo tribes were secretly happy when they heard this. In fact, it didn't matter how many troops the Song Dynasty sent. As long as the Song Dynasty intervened, the Qiang people would definitely have some scruples.
Gu Tingye took the initiative to ask for help, which made them even happier.
Whether Da Song wins or loses, they are happy to hear it.
If they win, the Qiang people will be driven back. If they lose, the Song Dynasty will lose troops and generals, so it will inevitably continue to increase its troops.
After the banquet was over, Gu Tingye and Wang Shao returned to the military camp with several accompanying generals.
"There are more than 100,000 Qiang troops outside the city. The general was just having a banquet. Why did he promise to repel the Qiang people outside the city?"
As soon as he entered the Chinese army camp, Yuan Wenshao couldn't help but ask.
On the way, he wanted to ask several times, but Gu Tingye stopped him with his eyes.
Since ancient times, there have been many battles in which the smaller the number, the better the location, the right person, and one or more of them.
And they were fighting away from home. Not to mention their military disadvantage, the opponent also had tens of thousands of cavalry, so what could they use to defeat them?
"Brother Zichun, please explain to Wen Shao." Gu Tingye said with a smile.
"Why does the general think that I know what the general is thinking?" Wang Shao said with a smile.
"If Brother Zichun didn't know, he would have stopped me just now." Gu Tingye said.
"Your Majesty uses generals as his chief generals. He really has a sharp eye and knows pearls!" Wang Shao praised.
"Wang Jianjun, you'd better hurry up and talk." Yuan Wenshao urged.
"The tribes of Tubo don't trust us, and they don't have any good intentions. If we join them in fighting the Qiang people, we have to be careful that Tibet sells us out."
"In order to win over the Qiang people, we must first defeat them, so sending troops alone is very beneficial to us."
Wang Shao looked at Gu Tingye and said, "General, I wonder if what I said is right?"
"What Zichun said is exactly what I thought." Gu Tingye nodded.
"But how are we going to repel the Qiang people?" Yuan Wenshao frowned.
"Surprise attack!"
Wang Shao said: "Our army has just arrived. Under normal circumstances, the Qiang people will be on guard, but we have joined forces with Tubo. The Qiang people will never think that we will attack by surprise!" "That's right!" Gu Tingye said: "We only have With 30,000 soldiers and horses, the Qiang people have won consecutive battles and are in great momentum. It is dark tonight and you can hardly see your hands. You should immediately select a thousand people from the army and follow me to rob the camp!"
The more people in a camp, the better, and most people in ancient times had night blindness. Even if the night was good, they would look like blind people at night.
Most of the soldiers are young and strong, and the food is better than that of ordinary people, but not many can be seen at night.
Moreover, the main purpose of robbing the camp was to create chaos. During the night, once there was chaos, the soldiers would rush around in panic, and countless people would be trampled to death.
Therefore, the small number of people can facilitate the command.
"Yes!" Yuan Wenshao and others responded loudly.
That night, Gu Tingye personally led a thousand troops and braved the night to go out of the city to rob the camp.
Although Wang Shao supported the robbery of the camp, he opposed Gu Tingye personally leading the troops.
The robbery camp is a small one, so even if it fails, the loss will not be big.
And Gu Tingye is the commander-in-chief. If he goes there personally, if something goes wrong, even if the camp is successfully robbed, there will be no profit.
But Gu Tingye was very insistent. The reason why he promised to fight off the Qiang people in three days was not because he made an impulsive choice after being squeezed out.
According to his discussion with Wang Shao, if he wants to conquer the Qiang people, he must first give them a painful beating.
However, they have limited troops on hand, although they can write to Zhao Xing to send reinforcements.
But in this case, not only do you have to wait, but something unexpected happens.
If Zhao Xing could increase his troops, he would have done so when the previous decree came.
They will not be allowed to mobilize troops from the British side.
Now that Xixia has ceased war on the plateau, once troops are mobilized from the British side, Xixia is likely to withdraw directly.
Therefore, the best result is that they only use these soldiers and horses on hand.
Not only will Xixia relax its vigilance, but it will also paralyze the Qiang people.
But there are too few soldiers and horses, and it is very difficult to hurt the Qiang people.
Even if the sneak attack is successful, it is unlikely to cause much damage to the Qiang people.
The most important purpose of the sneak attack was to demoralize the Qiang people and boost the morale of the Tubo tribes.
Under this situation, Tubo saw the hope of victory. With the reinforcements from the Song Dynasty, Tubo could fight the Qiang people desperately.
Therefore, this sneak attack must be successful and handed over to others. Gu Tingye was worried.
In the end, Wang Shao was convinced by Gu Tingye.
Gu Tingye, with a thousand soldiers and horses, braved the night and quietly reached the vicinity of the Qiang camp.
The Qiang soldiers were already tired because they had been attacking the city for days. In addition, they did not expect Song Dynasty reinforcements to launch a sneak attack when they arrived, so they were not prepared at all.
Moreover, because of the arrival of reinforcements from the Song Dynasty, the Qiang people even moved their original camp back more than ten miles.
This resulted in the original fortifications and measures to prevent camp robberies near the camp needing to be redone.
But because there was not enough time and he didn't think he would be attacked by surprise, he didn't make any preparations at all.
Gu Tingye easily reached the Qiang camp from the side.
Entering the camp, Gu Tingye ordered people to light fires everywhere to create chaos, especially the stables. Several people sent by Gu Tingye destroyed several of them. With the flames soaring into the sky, the horses were frightened and ran around. The entire camp was in chaos for a while. .
The Qiang camp was robbed. Naturally, such a big news could not be hidden from the Tubo people in Hezhou.
While sending people out of the city to investigate, the leaders of various Tubo tribes gathered together to speculate on what had happened in the Qiang camp.
At this time, Wang Shao came to ask for an audience, and told the leaders of the Tubo tribes that the Song Dynasty had sent troops to rob the camp, and asked them to send troops out of the city.
(End of chapter)