kingnovel Chapter 459: Reorganization and Expansion of the Army
Chapter 459: Reorganization and Expansion of the Army
(Map of the late Northern Song Dynasty)
The annual tribute of the great Liao Kingdom was actually robbed, and within its territory. How could the Liao Kingdom tolerate this?
Upon hearing the news, the Liao border garrison commander sent someone to deliver the message back to Shangjing as soon as possible, notified nearby tribes, and personally led troops to pursue.
The next morning, after a night's rest, the troops had just finished breakfast and were preparing to continue their journey when they heard a cry and a steppe eagle swooped down and landed on Lu Cheng's shoulder.
Lu Cheng took a bamboo tube from the bird's leg, opened it, and took out a note from it. On it was written: The pursuers are approaching, ten miles away, with three thousand cavalry.
After reading the note, Lu Cheng gave a call, and the 1,200 cavalrymen immediately gathered and waited for Lu Cheng's orders.
"Brothers, the Liao people are afraid that we don't have enough horses and carriages to go back, so they come to send us horses and weapons. Since the Liao people are so generous, we can't let them down. Lu Da, Shi Jin, you two lead the infantry to wait here and guard the supplies."
"Yes!"
"Hua Rong, Yuan Lang, Yang Zhi, Lu Fang, Pang Wanchun, follow me to receive the horses and weapons sent by the Liao people."
"I obey my orders!"
Following Lu Cheng's order, more than a thousand cavalrymen mounted their horses and followed Lu Cheng's footsteps to meet the pursuers behind them.
In order to avoid exposing his identity, Lu Cheng deliberately changed his clothes and horses when he led people to rob the annual tribute yesterday, and also changed his weapon from a fine steel spear to an ordinary spear.
When the two cavalry forces charged towards each other, the Liao soldiers on the opposite side did not know that the one rushing in front of them was the killing god that they had tried to avoid in the first place.
After the first wave of arrows from both sides, the two sides quickly collided with each other. Twelve thousand versus three thousand, there seemed to be a huge disparity in strength, but once the two sides fought, Lu Cheng and several of his generals were like sharp knives, directly breaking through the 3000 cavalry of the Liao army, dividing them into small parts and making them unable to gather together again.
In the cavalry confrontation on the grassland, the brave general who leads the charge can play a big role. If you can directly break the enemy's formation, separate the enemy, and keep cutting back and forth, you can quickly seize the initiative on the battlefield.
Moreover, the brave general in the front will lead the way and tear open the enemy's defense, and the cavalry following behind can quickly make up the attack and reap lives, which can not only kill the enemy more quickly and effectively, but also greatly avoid casualties on their own side.
In addition to Lu Cheng himself, the few people following him were also first-rate generals trained by Lu Cheng himself. They charged into battle and were invincible.
Soon, a group of fierce generals, with their unstoppable momentum, completely seized the initiative on the battlefield, killing the enemy without any chance of fighting back, and thus formed a one-sided advantage.
The sound of swords and guns clashing, the neighing of horses, the howling of wounded soldiers, and the shouts of soldiers fighting bravely to kill the enemy, all kinds of sounds merged into one, dust flew, blood splattered, and the ground was covered with blood and broken limbs.
The battle did not last long and soon turned from a fierce fight into a chase.
However, this time the targets of pursuit were the fleeing Liao soldiers.
When everything stopped and the soldiers began to clean up the battlefield, Shi Jin came over with a group of infantrymen to help.
According to statistics after the battle, this battle captured 1,300 war horses, more than 2,000 swords and spears, and some armor and supplies. In the end, less than 1,000 Liao soldiers escaped.
On the grassland, it is not easy to wipe out a large group of cavalry, unless more cavalry are used to besiege them.
Lu Cheng currently has only a thousand cavalrymen under his command, and in terms of troop quality and training level, they are not as good as the Liao cavalry who have lived on horseback for a long time.
However, after this battle, the subsequent Liao pursuers did not dare to get too close for a while, but waited patiently for the arrival of subsequent troops.
After Lu Cheng cleaned up the battlefield, he quickly drove the horses to meet up with the infantry. The infantry quickly transported the supplies, took a small path through the mountains, and entered the territory of the Song Dynasty. The cavalry bypassed and passed through the weak points in the Song Dynasty's border army's defense and soon met up with the infantry.
When the subsequent Liao soldiers caught up, they had lost any trace of Lu Cheng and others.
At this point, the Liao Kingdom not only lost the annual tribute sent by the Song Dynasty this year, but also lost several thousand soldiers.
Lu Cheng led his men on a journey of several days and successfully transported the valuables back to the warehouse in the mountain village.
Later, Lu Cheng found an opportunity to put this batch of silver directly into the storage space. Later, this batch of silver would be used to purchase food, fodder, and weapons and transported here.
On the other hand, the Liao Kingdom, whose annual tribute was robbed, sent troops to search extensively for half a month, but could not find any trace of the annual tribute. So they sent envoys to the Song Dynasty, requesting the Song Dynasty to send troops to help them get the annual tribute back.
When Emperor Huizong of Song received urgent reports from the border troops, he had a deeper understanding of the incompetence of the Liao Kingdom.
At the same time, Lu Cheng also returned to the border and wrote a special letter, detailing the comparison between the border armies of Song and Liao, emphasizing the incompetence of the Liao army.
After much consideration, Emperor Huizong of Song finally agreed to the request of the Liao Kingdom. On the surface, he ordered the frontline soldiers to help find the lost annual tribute of the Liao Kingdom. But secretly, he gave Lu Cheng a secret order to communicate with the soldiers of the border army and deal with the Liao army.
Anyway, this batch of tax coins has already been delivered to the Liao Kingdom. It was not lost within the territory of the Song Kingdom and has nothing to do with the Song Kingdom. The Song Kingdom has no responsibility or obligation to help them find it.
When Lu Cheng received the message, he also laughed. Even if Song Huizong did not send him a secret message, he knew what to do.
What happened next is obvious. The border armies of Song and Liao cooperated with each other and searched for one or two months, but not only did they not find any trace of the annual tribute, but the Liao army was also ambushed several times and suffered heavy casualties.
During this period, Lu Cheng also integrated and expanded the troops of various mountain strongholds in the north, bringing all the troops together and recruiting a group of people to make up 12,000 troops. He reorganized them into four guards, each with 3,000 people. They were namely the Shenwu Guard, the Mighty Guard, the Yingwu Guard, and the Xiongwu Guard, collectively known as the Yangwei Army.
Lu Da, Yang Zhi, Yuan Lang and Pang Wanchun served as the commanders of the four guards respectively, while Shi Jin, Hua Rong, Lu Fang and Pei Xuan served as the deputy commanders of the four guards respectively.
Moreover, Lu Cheng gave them a year to develop, provided them with sufficient food and supplies, and allowed them to grow and develop. After four years, the guard with the largest number of soldiers and the best troops would have a new organization.
A year later, when the Jin Dynasty was established and continued to expand westward, Lu Cheng's troops marched into Liaodong and established a base.
Lu Cheng planned to expand the four guards to eight guards within a year, and each guard would preferably be expanded from 3000 to 5000 people. 4 troops would be enough to occupy the southern part of Liaodong and block the Jin army's advance, and thus advance westward with the Jin army, divide the Liao Kingdom, and eye the Song Dynasty.
As for the problem of military resources, there is no need to worry at all. As long as there is money and food, there will be no problem in recruiting soldiers. There are people who cannot survive everywhere.
Lu Cheng had already planned the names of each guard. In the future, there will be Xuanwu, Yangwu, Zhenwu, and Fenwu guards, as well as Yulin guards, Xiaoqi guards, Yingyang guards, Jinyi guards, Longxiang guards, Fengxiang guards, Baotao guards, Feixiong guards, and so on.
In addition to formulating a major development plan for the future, Lu Cheng also prepared two books for each guard commander, one was a recruit training manual, and the other was an officer tactical skills and strategy manual.
The generals under Lu Cheng can only be considered as talented generals, but not commanders. They are okay at leading two or three thousand soldiers into battle, but it is not enough for them to command an army of more than ten thousand people.
Therefore, Lu Cheng could only try his best to guide them and encourage them to learn independently.
Among these people, Lu Cheng is most optimistic about Yang Zhi and Pang Wanchun. These two people have some knowledge of strategy and have read some military books. The others are not so good.
After Lu Cheng arranged everything in the north, he did not return to Bian Jing immediately, but went back to Lujiazhuang in Yuncheng County first.
Calculating the time, the three women in the family should give birth. Considering the sanitary conditions of this era, giving birth to a child is basically like walking through the gates of hell. Lu Cheng is really a little worried...