Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 460: Night Battles

December 19th, the same night that Pucha Shijie set out.

After resting for two days, the Jingnan Army launched another night attack on the Jin army camp under the city.

The main general leading the army into battle was Li Tieqiang of the Tianping Army.

Logically speaking, a night attack falls into the category of surprise attack. The darkness will reduce the degree of organization of both the enemy and us to the minimum, so the attacking party must select elite troops, and a night attack is bound to happen by chance.

Because even the most elite troops will suffer casualties and feel tired, and if they are not careful in a night battle, they will suffer heavy casualties. The generals leading the army will treat these elite troops as treasures and will not abandon them easily.

The Jingnan Army was the only one to institutionalize and standardize night raids.

Liu Huai naturally took the lead among them. The generals of the Jingnan Army were also afraid that if they did not go into battle, the commander-in-chief would rush out with his own guards. If Liu Huai was inexplicably killed in the chaos, what would happen to the future of the Jingnan Army? What would happen to his hometown in Shandong?
Can the anti-Jin campaign continue? Can the construction of water conservancy projects, roads, and land distribution continue?
A more important reason was that the Jingnan Army had clear rewards and punishments, and the compensation for casualties was in the form of real money and even land. In addition, there was sufficient food and meat every now and then, and night blindness caused by malnutrition was also sufficiently alleviated. The expansion of the base of combatants made continuous night battles possible.

Of course, these are just the basic reasons why Li Tieqiang participated in this battle.

The real reason was that the three main generals Liu Huai, Xin Qiji and He Boqiu in Chao County all had an ominous premonition about the silence of the Jin army.

Although sitting back and consuming food is also a tactic, the former Tian Ce General Li Shimin was extremely good at it. After using a sit-down war to wear down the enemy's morale, he led elite troops to pursue and attack relentlessly, thus destroying the enemy in one fell swoop.

However, in the current situation, the Jin army is in a situation where they will survive if they fight quickly but perish if they fight slowly. All their supply routes have been cut off. How can they be qualified to compete with the Jingnan army for food?
But the Jin army did just that.

Could it be that Wanyan Liang really lost his mind?

Li Tieqiang led his elite troops in a night attack this time in order to find out what the Jin army wanted to do.

Send troops to attack first, and then judge their plans based on the Jin army’s response.

At three quarters past midnight, dark clouds covered the moon. Three hundred elite soldiers held their tongues in their hands. Everything was ready. The city gates were wide open. Charge!

Of course, it was impossible to run for their lives in such a dark night. The three hundred elite soldiers pulled each other's belts and struggled to cross the deer horns and trenches according to the route they remembered during the day, groping their way towards the Jin army camp.

Li Tieqiang moved forward while keeping his eyes wide open to look at the surrounding scene. However, it was so dark that he could only see the outlines clearly within two or three steps, but beyond two or three steps he could not distinguish between humans and ghosts. He could only rely on his memory from the daytime to move forward.

As long as they reach the outskirts of the Jin army camp, they can send a signal to the top of the city wall. At that time, fires and braziers will be lit on the top of the city wall, and supporting troops will quickly be in place, and everything will be safe.

There was complete silence all around, with only the sounds of breathing and the rubbing of armor plates.

However, just after passing the last set of antlers, Li Tieqiang suddenly discovered that a strange sound was coming from the side.

He originally thought that some of the troops behind him had taken the wrong path, and was about to go over and scold them, but then he discovered that the Jin army's Guishan camp a few miles northwest was suddenly lit up with lights and the sound of killing was deafening. The same was true for Cheng Min's troops. From a distance, it really looked like the entire Guishan was on fire.

But that's not the point.

With the help of the firelight coming from afar, Li Tieqiang suddenly discovered that about a hundred steps to his side, there was a group of sneaky people wearing armor and carrying simple ladders, moving towards the city wall.

The people on the opposite side also saw the three hundred elite soldiers led by Li Tieqiang, and were also stunned and stopped.

Li Tieqiang was the first to react. He spat out the copper coins in his mouth and roared, "Damn gold thieves! Raise the fire! Raise the fire! Form your ranks!"

The Song army was startled by the sudden roar in the silent night. However, Li Tieqiang was one of the most prestigious rebel leaders after all, and his carefully selected subordinates would naturally not ignore his orders.

Torches were quickly lit; this was no longer the time to hide one's identity. Li Tieqiang understood that in a night battle, whoever organized the army first would be the first to touch the skirt of the goddess of victory.

It was pitch dark. If the enemy could not organize their army, even if they had 10,000 men, they would be defeated by our 300 soldiers at the first charge.

The Jin army also knew the situation. They did not launch an attack immediately, but were also busy lighting the torches they carried with them.

The situation was a bit funny. Both sides had a team of about 300 people. From generals to soldiers, Lazi stared at the opposite troops fiercely while setting fire to everything that could be ignited.

"Quick! Blow the horn!"

"Line up! Spears in front, swords and shields behind!"

"Find your own sergeant and squad leader, don't go wandering around!"

When Li Tieqiang and the Jin army leader were forming their lines under the command headquarters, they did not forget to warn their respective base camps. The responses from both the Chao County city wall and the Jin army camp were very direct. A large number of braziers and torches were lit, one in the south and one in the north, illuminating the middle area with shadows.

Li Tieqiang and the Jin army generals almost completed the reorganization of the army at the same time. At this point, there was nothing much to say. The two sides lined up neatly and attacked each other. In less than a moment, the battle turned into a big mess.

These days, even a skirmish in broad daylight could turn into a chaotic melee, let alone at night.

The vanguards fought for less than a few rounds. Some soldiers repelled the enemy and charged into the battle line, while others were beaten back repeatedly. The battle line almost immediately became a jagged pattern.

Both the Jingnan Army and the Jin Army had a very firm will to fight. They formed formations in groups relying on their friends and fellow villagers. When they saw someone they didn't know, they would attack him head-on. However, neither side was immediately defeated.

Even though they were soldiers, the rate of casualties in this unavoidable, chaotic battle was still shocking. Enemies surrounded them from all sides, and in many cases, it was difficult to distinguish between friend and foe, with fratricide a common occurrence.

If this kind of bad war continues, it is hard to say what the outcome will be.

It is possible that even though one has the upper hand, a major defeat may occur due to strange reasons.

After all, the situation is too chaotic now. Even if the Jingnan Army kills all the Jin Army first, they may kill each other for a while before stopping.

However, neither the Jingnan Army nor the Jin Army Camp would turn a blind eye to the crisis of their own troops.

The county seat of Chao County and the Jin army camp burst open almost at the same time, and hundreds of soldiers from each side poured out with torches in their hands, rushing towards the killing battlefield between Chao County and the Jin army camp.

Both sides sent out armored soldiers. In this environment, if the cavalry went out, they would be asking for trouble. The non-combat casualties caused by the terrain alone would make the Song and Jin commanders cry like Meng Jiangnu.

However, Lei Ben hesitated just after leaving the city and stopped his elite troops from advancing.

This was not because he was afraid of fighting, but because he was worried that a surprise attack tonight would turn into a decisive battle.

In such a chaotic battlefield, even if Lei Ben threw all his troops in, it would only exacerbate the chaos.

He couldn't even find Li Tieqiang, so how could he rescue him?
The Jin army probably also had this concern, so they simply lined up to the north of the battle group, facing the vanguard troops in front of the city gate from a distance.

If the elite troops are mixed up with the reinforcements of the Jin army, should the rest of the Jingnan army continue to reinforce or just stand by and watch?

If there is no reinforcement, in the event of a major defeat, the loss of nearly a thousand soldiers is secondary. What about the morale of the entire army?
If reinforcements were needed, the Jin army would certainly come forward, and they could not afford to lose all morale. The end result was that everyone used the "add fuel to the fire" tactic together, and fought a decisive battle at night.

Although the Jingnan Army was very skilled in night attacks, if someone suggested that tens of thousands of people fight a decisive battle at night, Liu Huai would definitely think that person had been kicked in the head by a donkey.

Apart from anything else, the casualties caused by trampling and accidental injuries alone are enough to make any commander cry bitterly.

Liu Huai stood on the top of the city wall, first looked in the direction of Guishan Mountain, and then said to Xin Qiji: "Wu Lang, we can't fight anymore tonight. You personally arrange for the troops to go out of the city to support and bring Li Tieqiang back."

Xin Qiji nodded and was about to leave the city when he turned back and said, "Da Lang, the actions of the Jin thieves are very wrong."

Liu Huai actually also had this feeling that something was wrong, but like Xin Qiji, he couldn't tell what exactly was wrong.

This abnormality is like a subtle color difference in the canvas, or a discordant melody in a huge symphony. Even if the artists cannot find the source of the abnormality at the first time, they can still clearly feel that there is something weird.

Liu Huai knew what Xin Qiji meant, but he still shook his head: "It's too late to talk about this. Something is going to happen over at Guishan. We can't let this become a decisive battle for no reason."

After Xin Qiji bowed and left, Liu Huai said to the guards beside him: "Shout together, form a battle array at the city gate!"

"Line up at the city gate!"

Amidst the loud shouts of the vanguard troops and the defenders on the city walls, Xin Qiji led his 500 soldiers and galloped out. Like Lei Ben, he did not order his men to join the battle, but instead asked the auxiliary soldiers to carry out firewood, pile it up, and then light it to make the surroundings as bright as possible.

Then he sent a small group of elite troops to gather troops in the melee.

The Jin army seemed to have the same idea. After nearly a thousand soldiers left the camp, they did not move forward. Instead, they blew the horn and lit a bonfire to gather their troops.

After more than half an hour of fighting, the hundreds of soldiers in the center of the battlefield were exhausted and slowly stopped attacking.

Both sides took the opportunity to withdraw their troops. Soon, the battlefield became completely quiet except for the few bonfires. Only the Turtle Mountain in the distance was still brightly lit and the cries of killing were deafening.

Liu Huai stroked the parapet with a frown on his face.

(End of this chapter)