Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 221 The Murderous Mist
As the night deepened, Chelibuhua's camp was temporarily set up in a deserted village near the north bank of the Huai River. His soldiers lit a bonfire and roasted tasteless dry rations.

Because of the scorched earth policy, the Yuan army could not get any meat at all, and even if they wanted to hunt, it was not so easy. Without meat supplies, they ran so far but could not rob anything, so their morale inevitably dropped.

After all, you can't expect these Yuan troops who kill innocent people for credit and plunder the civilians to have any lofty ideals.

By the bonfire in a large courtyard in the village, Chelibuha and Aduqin both had worried looks on their faces.

Jura left at around three in the afternoon. It is now completely dark. If the horse ran fast, it might have run hundreds of miles after chasing for such a long time. I don't know if it caught up with the gang of thieves.

Have they caught up with them, won the battle, and are they camping somewhere? Or have they been ambushed by the enemy soldiers and have been completely wiped out?

Neither of them had any way of knowing that this kind of waiting was the most uncomfortable feeling.

Aduqin tightened his cloak, poked the bonfire in front of him, and suddenly suggested.

"The enemy situation is unclear now. I suspect that the Luzhou Red Turbans have more troops on the north bank. They sent people to attack our army's food supplies during the day, and they may come again tonight. We should send people to guard the food supplies tonight."

Chelibuhua raised the tin wine flask and took a big gulp, then nodded, "It should be so."

Upon hearing this, Aduqin was stunned and looked at Chelibuhua in surprise. He didn't expect that with Chelibuhua's personality, he would agree so readily.

Then Aduqin said again.

"Although Zhula is reckless, he is not someone who does not know the overall situation. Even if he cannot make it back at this late hour, he should send someone back to deliver the message. Now there is no one to deliver the message, so he must have encountered trouble."

Seeing that Chelibuhua had no reaction, Aduqin continued, "It is now dark, and our army is not familiar with the terrain here, so it is not appropriate to split up the troops to look for them. If there is still no news after dawn tomorrow, I suggest that the entire army should go together to look for them. If they cannot find them, the entire army should retreat eastwards.

"It is not appropriate for us to stay here for too long with our current food and fodder. We should retreat first, bring the infantry army with us next time, and prepare more food and fodder, and then we can conquer Haozhou."

Chelibuhua was helpless now. He was unwilling to fight desperately in the first place, and in the current situation, even if he wanted to fight, he might not win. The Red Turbans here were too cunning, and the Red Turbans in other places had never been heard of as fortifying the city and clearing the fields. At this time, instead of letting the people farm, were they just going to let the land lie waste? The Red Turban bandits in Luzhou were simply unreasonable.

In fact, Lu Jin didn't want to let the land go to waste. However, after the great disasters in recent years, the population in Huaixi region has dropped sharply. There is a lack of everything except wasteland. Even if he moved all the people north of the Huaihe River in Haozhou to the south bank, there would still be enough wasteland for them to cultivate. So what is there to hesitate about? Only a fool would not move.

"That's it. Let's go look for him at daybreak. But I'm afraid the bandits won't give me this chance. Zhula is a fool. The bandits have fortified their positions and cleared the fields. They are obviously well prepared. I just hope he can escape with more soldiers tomorrow."

Aduqin also nodded, and both of them prepared for the worst.

However, their plan was quite good, but Zheng Yong obviously had no intention of letting them go.

At about ten o'clock in the evening, Zheng Yong finally waited for Zhang Huzi and Zhou Dexing to come and meet him. After the three of them discussed it, they immediately started Zheng Yong's plan to tire out the soldiers.

Now Chelibuhua's cavalry had just suffered a defeat during the day. Although they themselves did not know the exact news for the time being, the fact that no one was found alive or dead, and an army of more than 800 cavalrymen had just disappeared was enough to make the remaining cavalrymen nervous.

In addition, they could not grab anything, could not see the enemy, and could not eat or sleep well. Their morale was low. It was impossible to continue to lure the enemy to split up. The remaining troops of the Yuan army would certainly stick together. It was better to take this opportunity to wage a psychological warfare on them.

Use the strategy of tiring out the troops to harass them, making them suspicious and unable to eat or sleep well. Wait until the Yuan army is tired and thin, and then eat them up in one fell swoop.

Zheng Yong called Zhou Dexing and Zhang Huzi to his side and told them, "The enemy is camped in the village, and they have protected their food and fodder in the innermost part. We will definitely not be able to attack them by surprise, so tonight's night attack will focus on disturbing them, and it would be best if we can burn down a few houses.

"But my first battalion will be responsible for the night raid. Your two battalions have been running all afternoon. You should quickly arrange for the soldiers to rest and recover their strength. Don't be lazy tomorrow morning."

"Yes, commander, don't worry. My Fourth Battalion is ready to join the battle at any time." Zhou Dexing responded immediately.

Zhang Huzi just nodded. He was the first one to follow Zheng Yong to join Lu Jin. He was also the one who personally lured Zuo Junbi to send troops during Lu Jin's first battle. At that time, Lu Jin had not yet officially taken a position in the Chaohu navy. He was considered an old direct descendant of Zheng Yong, and the two of them did not need to be polite.

After letting the two go down to rest, Zheng Yong also started the action.

As Chelibuhua's Yuan army was highly alert and the sound of horse hooves was loud at night, making them easily discovered by the enemy, Zheng Yong, in order to reduce his own casualties, ordered each unit to operate in companies. Each company was divided into four teams, with each team consisting of a platoon of fifty cavalry.

During each raid, one platoon would approach with great fanfare to deliberately attract the Yuan army's attention. After diverting the Yuan army's attention, the other two platoons would be sent to cruise around the village, creating chaotic horse hoof sounds so that the Yuan army would not know from which direction they were raiding. Finally, the fourth platoon would be responsible for breaking through the defense line.

There is no need to achieve great results. It is enough to burn a few houses and kill a few Yuan soldiers each time. The purpose is to prevent the Yuan army from resting.

Then the four companies of the first battalion took turns to go out, and after four rounds of fighting, the night was over.

The plan was finalized, and at midnight, the Shengwu Army set out on time.

Chelibuhua had drunk some wine in the evening and was snoring in a daze. At this moment, the sound of horse hooves suddenly came from outside the village.

The Yuan army sentries immediately became alert, and the cavalry on guard immediately went forward to check whether Zhu La had returned with his troops.

"Is the one on the other side a general of Zhula Qianhu?"

The scout had just approached and the people were still not able to see clearly. The most important thing was that these people did not light torches, so they could only see the shadows of dozens or even hundreds of cavalrymen on the opposite side. The armor on those cavalrymen shone coldly in the moonlight.

As a result, after asking, the other side did not answer at all, but rushed towards the village in silence. When they met the Yuan army scout, they shot several arrows at them and killed a Yuan soldier on the spot. Seeing that the situation was not good, the other companions of the Yuan army immediately raised the horn and blew it while running back.

Woohoo——

A dull horn sounded in the night, and the Yuan army that was sleeping in the village was suddenly awakened. Fortunately, Aduqin had been prepared and left 400 cavalry on night duty. After hearing the horn, he immediately sent out 100 cavalry.

"Just drive the enemy away, don't run too far." "Yes, go!"

The Yuan army immediately sent out a hundred-man team to deal with the platoon that came to harass them. After a while, the sentries outside also came back.

Aduqin immediately asked, "What happened? How many enemy troops are there?"

"General, there were dozens of bandit cavalrymen who wanted to attack the camp. When they saw that our army had prepared for the attack, they left on the spot." The sentry replied immediately.

"That's good." Aduqin was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he heard that, horns were blown in several other directions of the village. Sentry guards on all sides of the village came to report that they had seen the enemy. There were dozens of them in each direction, and they retreated after one strike.

Aduqin frowned when he heard this. They were cruising around, not attacking or engaging in battle. Could it be that the enemy army was trying to tire out the enemy? But even if the enemy army was trying to tire out the enemy, he had no better solution. After all, he only had about 2,000 cavalrymen. If he used half of them to fight the enemy, how many soldiers would be left to rest?

Aduqin immediately ordered, "Send a message to each camp, do not pursue, just repel the enemy. Wake up the four centurions and tell them to be alert, don't let the enemy take advantage of the opportunity and run into the village."

"Yes!" The messenger immediately went to give orders to each camp.

On Zheng Yong's First Battalion's side, the first raid lasted less than half an hour. Although the platoon responsible for the raid did not achieve any results, they took advantage of the chaos to get to the edge of the village and threw dozens of torches into it, but failed to set the village on fire.

After the company came back, Zheng Yong immediately asked, "How is the situation?"

"Commander, the enemy has been prepared. There are about a hundred cavalrymen active on each side of the village. And I vaguely saw sentries on the roofs. As long as someone approaches, they will blow the horn. It is very difficult to get close." Wei Tao, the company commander of the first company of the first battalion, reported immediately.

"Well, there is no need to achieve any results. As long as we can mobilize the enemy troops and prevent them from resting in peace, it will be fine. You don't have to blame yourself. Go down and rest." Zheng Yong waved his hand and prepared to let the second company continue.

But Wei Tao said at this time, "Commander, I have a suggestion. The wind is blowing from the southwest tonight. I just looked around the village and saw a row of thatched houses to the south of the village. If we prepare in advance and get some rockets, we can first lure away the enemy troops to the south, and then send a team to raid the south and shoot at the roofs of the huts with rockets. There is a great chance that those huts can be set on fire. With the help of the wind, the fire may burn down half of the village."

Zheng Yong's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he immediately said, "Good idea. If it works, I'll remember you for your advice."

"Yes, thank you, Commander." Wei Tao immediately bowed happily to express his gratitude, and then took his subordinates to rest.

Zheng Yong quickly called the second company over and told them the method just used. The second company immediately prepared fire and arrows and quickly launched a second round of attack.

Aduqin was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw that the first round of harassment was over, but Zheng Yong's second round of attack came, and it seemed that he retreated after one strike.

The Yuan army had almost figured out the intention of the Shengwu Army, and thought that they had no real intention of attacking the camp, but were just here to harass and annoy people, so the Yuan cavalry went up to drive them away, cursing, and had no idea what Zheng Yong could do.

But soon, after a hundred-household team deployed by the Yuan army in the south of the village was lured away, the first platoon of the second company immediately launched a surprise attack. Each man held four flaming arrows in his hands. They rushed to the place near the huts and used rapid shooting method to randomly shoot arrows at the roofs of those huts. After each man shot four arrows, he immediately turned around and ran away. The second batch of Yuan troops coming out of the village were so angry that they had no choice but to let Aduchin let them run too far in pursuit, for fear that they would be ambushed by the Shengwu Army.

But before this group of people returned, a burst of screams from the Yuan army came from the village behind them.

"Fire! Fire! The house to the south is on fire!"

The cavalrymen immediately turned their heads and saw that the roofs of two huts were indeed on fire, and there were also some rockets stuck on other roofs and walls. The fire was spreading, which immediately shocked them.

"It's on fire! Wake up! Wake everyone up!"

"Go and rescue the warhorse!"

There was a sudden chaos in the village, with people shouting and horses neighing. Some horses, frightened by the fire, started running rampant in the village.

After a while, all the Yuan army was finally mobilized. Looking at the raging fire in the southeast corner of the village, Chelibuhua's face looked extremely ugly and he immediately asked Aduqin.

"How are the departments doing?"

"General, apart from more than ten casualties in driving away the enemy, there were no other losses, the food and grass were not burned, and the men and horses were all alert." Aduqin replied immediately.

"It's the middle of the night, the camp is on fire, and there are enemy troops lurking outside. I don't know how many troops the enemy has. What should we do now?" Chelibuhua said sadly.

Upon hearing this, Aduqin leaned closer and whispered, "General, since the enemy still has the strength to harass us here, then the Zhula army is likely to have been wiped out. We can no longer rely on luck.

"It's late at night now, and we don't know the number of enemy troops. We can't move rashly at night, otherwise we will be easily attacked by the enemy. I suggest demolishing the surrounding houses and paying attention to fire prevention. Let everyone cheer up and wait until dawn, then we can retreat. What do you think?"

"Well, go and pass the order. We will withdraw our troops at dawn. We will come back to conquer Haozhou next time when we have enough food and infantry!"

After this fire attack, Chelibuhua had no idea that Zhula's army was most likely wiped out. This group of Red Turban cavalry obviously had a strong sense of battle. If he did not attack them, they would attack him instead, without even resting at night. Chelibuhua had already planned to retreat, and since Aduqin had brought it up on his own initiative, he immediately took the opportunity and agreed.

On the other side, Aduqin was also busy, sending people to guard the periphery and demolishing houses near the fire area. After a while, fog came again around two o'clock in the morning. The air was very humid, and the fire, which was not very big to begin with, was quickly extinguished.

However, the damp air and the smell of cigarette ash in the air made the Yuan army in the village even more uncomfortable and their morale was even lower. Not only could they not rest, they were also afraid that the Shengwu Army outside would attack again.

In the second half of the night, Zheng Yong sent people to launch two more surprise attacks, but neither achieved the same results as the second time.

It was past four in the morning, when it was about to be dawn, when Chelibuha and Aduqin walked out of the house, and their hearts sank to the bottom.

There was thick fog outside. Even with their eyes wide open, it was difficult to see more than twenty steps outside. How could they march and retreat?

(End of this chapter)