Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 266 I see these bandits are like chickens and dogs

The two had also seen the lifelike cassock and the sudden disappearance of the bandit general before, although they had both heard some rumors about the Evil Suppression Thousand Households Office.

At this moment, I couldn't suppress my curiosity and asked.

Xiao Yan now remembered that his son had mentioned that Pei Yuan could release mice.

Pei Yuan deliberately said vaguely, "It's just a little trick."

Gu Dayong had an idea.

Could it be that his hope of rebuilding the West Factory lies in these little tricks?
It would be bad to let Xiao Yan know too much.

Thinking about this, he changed the subject and asked, "What do you think of the bandits' military appearance, Captain Pei?"

Pei Yuan wanted to boost the morale of these guys, so of course he couldn't say anything that would dampen their spirits.

He said confidently, "I think these bandits are like chickens and dogs."

Pei Yuan's words were not exaggerated at all.

In order to be more convincing, he told the two in detail, "The Bazhou rebels we are talking about cannot be viewed in a general way. They actually have a very clear ruling order of the survival of the fittest."

"The strongest group of Bazhou bandits are the Hebei bandits who serve as cavalry. This group of troops is commanded by Liu Qi."

"The second is the slightly more elite infantry with some armor. These infantry are mainly in the hands of Liu Liu, Qi Yanming, Zhao Sui and others."

"The remaining troops are mostly bandits with a small number of elite soldiers as the backbone. These bandits have poor military discipline and weak fighting will. Relying on their numbers, they may be able to fight a favorable battle, but if they really encounter a tough opponent, they will not be able to achieve any results."

"We are facing such an enemy. Well, perhaps even worse, because this is a team that was defeated by the governor-general Bai Yu and temporarily supplemented with many young and strong men."

"Their combat performance may be even weaker. This can be clearly seen from the fact that this group of Bazhou bandits failed to capture any fortified cities after entering Shandong."

Xiao Yan listened thoughtfully, and Gu Dayong nodded frequently.

As an old expert who has learned from every failure in dealing with the Bazhou Army, Gu Dayong believes that such analysis is systematic and scientific.

But, Qian Hu, why do you know so much about the Bazhou Army...

Pei Yuan waited for a while and felt a little surprised when he saw that the bandits had not attacked yet.

He didn't dare to go out and hang out at this moment, so he could only emphasize in general, "Strengthen the defense, use more fortifications to consume more energy, and try to reduce the number of deaths."

Pei Yuan was still worried about the possibility of a fire attack, so he asked, "By the way, have you checked the water source in the camp?"

Xiao Yan actually went to see it, "The water here is shallow, so it's easy to dig."

Pei Yuan said, "Just pour water all over the camp to prevent them from using fire to attack."

Xiao Yan thought for a moment and said, "Let's pick some prisoners to do it."

Pei Yuan was somewhat suspicious of Xiao Yan's motives, "Do they still have the strength?"

The prisoners, who had returned from transporting the baggage, dug trenches and transported pine wood, all of which required strenuous physical labor.

After they finished their hard work, Xiao Yan sent them away with just a sip of thin soup.

The prisoners were tired and hungry. If they were tormented any further now, some of them might die.

Xiao Bapi said, "We can promise them that we will release a few people who do a good job. We are originally trying to prevent the Bazhou army from setting fire. If we let them know that we are prepared, we may be able to save ourselves the trouble."

Pei Yuan stopped objecting and said with emotion, "Yes, if they set the fire, they would most likely make torches from the pine forest on the other side of the hill. There is oil on the pine wood, and once it burns, there will be a lot of smoke. Even if nothing is burned, it will cause us a lot of trouble."

Xiao Baopi went to the captives and picked out fifty people. He gave each of them a bucket and a ladle and asked them to splash water in the camp.

The tents were all covered with wet mud, the straw mats covering the baggage were also covered with a thick layer of wet mud, and the temporarily stacked pine wood had its surface burned and smoked, and was also covered with a layer of wet mud.

The prisoners walked around the camp, but apart from sprinkling water, they found nothing worth showing off.

Xiao Yan picked out a few people at random, released them out of the camp under the watchful eyes of the others, and then drove the others back.

If you want to ensure that the captives do not cause trouble, you have to give them some hope.

The released captives were unarmed and were soon questioned by the scouts sent by the bandits and taken back.

They asked about the situation in general, but didn't gain much.

After all, this government army was under the surveillance of the bandits from beginning to end.

The sporadic capture of prisoners also gave them a general understanding of some of the inside stories.

Perhaps the only useful information was that the government troops had made sufficient preparations to prevent fire attacks.

Considering that the government army camp is located at a relatively high altitude, it is not possible to draw water from nearby for irrigation.

If we want to capture the government army camp, it seems that the only way is to fight hard.

Not long after, Mantianxing Zhao Xinghe came with the reinforcements of Big Tiger Chen Hutou.

The two armies merged together, with flags crisscrossing in disorder. More than 20,000 soldiers formed a large black mass, looking strong and powerful, with an extremely astonishing momentum.

Pei Yuan, Xiao Yan and Gu Dayong all went to the observation deck to watch, and they were all silent when they saw this scene.

No matter how strong the enemy's troops are, numbers themselves are a very powerful thing.

Then everyone saw two people walk to the open space in front of the army and stand still.

Then, leaders from each flag came out to discuss the matter.

After a brief chat, the soldiers who had just gathered together slowly separated again, and the team that had just arrived went straight to the back of the camp.

There were short slopes on both sides of the camp set up by the government troops, which were not very suitable for attack.

If you want to attack, you can only attack from two directions, one in front and one behind.

Judging from the rebels' posture, they are clearly planning to attack from both sides and destroy the camp in one go.

Everyone was a little nervous, looked at each other, and said, "Here they come!"

The three of them had already made arrangements in advance. The front camp was guarded by Pei Yuan and Chen Toutie's team, and the rear camp was guarded by Xiao Yan, Xu Feng and Cheng Leixiang's team.

As for the auxiliary troops, after a short rest they will serve as reserve forces and be deployed to both sides of the line depending on the situation.

Pei Yuan expected that the intensity of the attack by the Bazhou bandits, who were not good at siege cities, should not be very great.

But no one expected that this war would become so ferocious as soon as it showed its true colors.

The first to clash were the archers of both sides.

Amid the dense sounds of clappers, the archers of the Bazhou bandits, under the cover of their shield bearers, lowered their heads and ran forward.

Chen Toutie shouted loudly and ordered his soldiers to get ready.

As soon as the bandits from Bazhou came into range, the government troops immediately began shooting arrows.

The bandits' shields were crudely made of bamboo and wood.

The shield bearer cannot even protect himself well, let alone being of much use to the archer beside him.

The government troops had powerful bows and arrows, had a stronghold for protection, and were on a slightly higher ground. As soon as the first wave of Bazhou bandits reached the shooting range, seven or eight of them were shot dead by a volley of arrows from the government troops.

When the archers of the Bazhou bandits started to shoot back, the distance was shortened, causing the bandits to lose more than ten people.

However, the archers from Bazhou were extremely brave and rushed into the range, as if they had not seen any casualties, and began to shoot at the government troops. More than 30% of the more than 300 people who rushed over in the first wave were quickly killed.

Relying on the favorable terrain, the government troops suffered only minor casualties.

The archers in the Bazhou army were still shooting desperately, but those shield soldiers who still had enough energy to observe could not hold on any longer.

Taking advantage of the brief moment when the government troops were collecting arrows, a dozen shield soldiers began to flee at the same time.

Then, the escape led the entire battle line.

The first wave of exploratory troops quickly dispersed.

"Mantianxing" stepped out again and had an urgent discussion with those leaders.

Then a mixed group of archers and infantry came out.

Chen Toutie had learned from his experience last time.

Command more calmly.

The soldiers of Xuzhou Guard gradually recovered from their panic over the number of bandits.

Just when they were about to repel the invaders as they did last time, suddenly a group of bandits in the rear formation began to charge forward quickly with a strange-looking flag.

Pei Yuan saw his expression change slightly, and said to Gu Dayong, "Eunuch Gu, please go and organize those auxiliary troops and be ready to fight at any time."

After saying this, he went down from the watchtower and called on his personal soldiers to put on armor for him.

By the time he put on protective armor over his cotton armor, carried a knife, and went down to the camp, Chen Toutie had already come looking for him in a panic.

"Qian Hu, the enemy is approaching us, what should we do?"

Pei Yuan didn't ask any more questions and just climbed up the wall to look around.

The team with the strange-looking flags was running very fast, and now they had already rushed ahead of the archers and infantry.

Then the teams of bandits behind began to mobilize, and rushed towards the camp one after another like waves!

Looking at the posture, it seemed as if they were going to destroy the government army camp in one breath.

Pei Yuan glanced around and shouted at everyone, "What are you afraid of? The trench ahead is so wide, how can they fly over? Shoot, shoot!"

The government army archers managed to stabilize the morale of the troops and fired two more rounds.

Unfortunately, the range of the bow and arrow is only so far, and the number of bows and arrows is not enough to form a sufficient blockade.

The government army's archers fired only two rounds, and the rebels with strange flags rushed to the front of the ravine.

Chen Toutie wanted to use concentrated fire from bows and arrows to completely defeat this army that had suffered heavy losses, but the archers who had taken advantage of the cover of the bandits had already approached and were able to shoot.

After a simple assessment, Chen Toutie could only order his men to shoot at the rebel archers, allowing groups of bandits to approach the trench.

The bandits were obviously prepared for this trench.

The teams behind used ropes to drag wide bamboo rafts over, intending to cover the trench.

Some who couldn't wait had already begun to tentatively climb down from the trench.

However, the second wave of archers was obviously not as brave as the first wave. After shooting at the government troops for a while, they simply collapsed and began to flee to both wings.

Seeing that he had repelled the archers, Chen Toutie quickly ordered the Xuzhou soldiers to shoot at the crowd pushing and shoving at the ravine.

The team with the strange-looking flags was there to attract firepower. They basically had no protective gear except for a single sword in their hands.

After the Xuzhou soldiers fired a round, the team that suffered heavy casualties began to flee.

The second wave of troops that attacked the ravine also ran away. The remaining bandits used shields to cover themselves, buying time for the people behind to fill the trench.

At this moment, a personal soldier came hurriedly from the rear camp and reported to Pei Yuan.

"Captain Xiao said that the rear camp was only harassed by less than a hundred people, but no fighting broke out."

Pei Yuan quickly looked into the distance and saw that the troops of "Big Tiger" who had moved towards the rear camp before had come back again.

Pei Yuan immediately figured out what these bandits were up to.

This is to divide the troops first and affect the judgment of the defender.

Then open the gap at the back and use wave after wave of frontal attacks to break the will of the defenders.

Pei Yuan even felt that with such a fierce offensive and such a huge gap in troop strength, it was possible to defeat the government troops head-on.

He said decisively, "We can't wait any longer. Where's Ding Hong? Come with me."

At this time, Gu Dayong drove the auxiliary soldiers over. Pei Yuan was overjoyed and said quickly, "Let the auxiliary soldiers go to the wall to shoot arrows. Chen Toutie will see my attack and move accordingly."

After saying that, Pei Yuan mounted his horse and joined the Xuzhou riders who had been waiting nervously on the side.

Pei Yuan rode his horse a little to stretch its legs, then shouted decisively, "Open the gate and lower the drawbridge."

The soldiers who had been prepared quickly opened the gate inward and then released the suspension bridge protecting the gate.

The suspension bridge made of bundles of pine wood fell heavily on the trench.

A bandit who was close to the main gate was nearly knocked to the ground by the heavy suspension bridge.

When the bandits saw the village gate open and the suspension bridge lowered, their first reaction was to cheer excitedly.

Then he wanted to rush over and cut the rope that was pulling the suspension bridge.

At this time, a burst of arrows shot from the wall of the village, and several knife-wielding bandits fled in panic.

Just at this time, there was a sudden sound of horse hooves, and Pei Yuan, leading dozens of Xuzhou cavalry, rushed out of the camp like thunder.

Pei Yuan rode out on his horse and immediately started hacking away, killing the enemies at the camp gate.

Then Pei Yuan rushed forward without hesitation towards the bandits who were dragging bamboo rafts to cover the ravine.

When the bandits saw Pei Yuan's cavalry approaching with great momentum, they dropped their bamboo rafts and fled in all directions without saying a word.

Pei Yuan did not chase after them upon seeing this, but instead attacked the bandits who were attacking the camp from behind.

Those bandits had already noticed Pei Yuan when he rushed out of the camp. Now they were attacked from behind and could hardly keep their balance.

Pei Yuan led the cavalry to kill and completely disperse the three or four hundred people.

Chen Toutie in the camp also led his troops out and killed everyone, leaving hundreds of corpses on the ground.

Pei Yuan knew in his heart that these people were simply cannon fodder to help the archers absorb firepower, and they did not particularly care about the outcome of the battle.

The main significance of this offensive is to strike a blow to the enemy's morale and disrupt the enemy's attack rhythm.

He saw that "Mantianxing" reacted quickly, and two teams of bandits armed with spears surrounded them aggressively. He did not dare to fight and directly retreated back to the camp with his troops.

After this brief fight between the two sides, the intensity of attack and defense on the battlefield seemed to increase instantly.

As Chen Hutou's troops arrived, the bandits' troops rushed towards the camp like endless waves.

Chen Toutie looked at the lines of soldiers, his face turned pale with shock. He said to Pei Yuan in panic, "Captain, what should we do?"

(End of this chapter)