Chapter 23 Night Attack
At Chou time in the early morning of the second day, the sky was covered with dark clouds and the earth was pitch black. In front of the barricades at the west gate of Lujiazhai, several dim lanterns hanging on wooden poles were swaying in the howling north wind.

On both sides of the gate of Lujiazhai, on the battlements of the courtyard wall, several guards who were on guard were huddled behind the wall, leaning on their spears and dozing off. They were so sleepy that they didn't even want to open their eyes to pick out the boogers in their eyes, and their minds were in a mess.

At this time, there is still more than an hour before dawn, which is the time of the day when people are most tired, and it is also an excellent opportunity for a night attack.

Zhu Cilang had already brought almost all of his troops to the outskirts of Lujiazhai, leaving only Li Banghua and a few armored soldiers in Linjiazhai to guard the hostages. Almost all the guards of Linjiazhai also gathered together and followed the army.

Zhou Shixian and Chen Fu originally wanted to send troops to protect Zhu Cilang and let him stay in the safe rear, but he rejected it as soon as they opened their mouths. At this time, it is absolutely a taboo in military strategy not to concentrate troops to destroy the enemy in one fell swoop, but to hesitate and send troops elsewhere.

After spending these days together day and night, Chang Denggui and Li Banghua have fully understood Zhu Cilang's character and are full of confidence in His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Most importantly, both of them are knowledgeable about military affairs and are well aware of the importance of concentrating troops during a war.

Although Zhou Shixian's starting point was good and he put the crown prince first in everything, he was basically just talking about military campaigns. Chen Fu had his concerns, so when he saw Zhou Shixian taking the lead, he quickly agreed.

However, whether it was Zhou Shixian, Chen Fu, Li Banghua, or Chang Denggui, they actually only had the power to express their own opinions. The final decision on all major events concerning the southward march was in the hands of Zhu Cilang.

Not only did he not plan to split up his forces, he would also lead the main force of the guards to follow directly and personally supervise the battle on the front line in order to boost morale and complete this crucial blow.

The appearance of this Shun cavalry completely disrupted Zhu Cilang's plan to move south. If he could not annihilate the enemy, he would risk gathering Chen Fu's troops, and the little sense of security and initiative he had just gained would be gone in an instant.

The most crucial thing is that if his plan to go south is blocked and he cannot take control of the army in Jiangbei before Lu Jiude wins over military leaders such as Gao Jie, Huang Degong, and Liu Liangzuo to support Zhu Yousong's ascension to the throne, then going south will be meaningless.

The layout of Lujiazhai is actually not much different from that of Linjiazhai. Lin Yongan has been there several times and has a basic understanding of the situation in the village, but in order to complete the raid, he still has to torture some key information from the Lujiazhai guards.

Zhu Cilang's plan was not complicated. After finding out the location of the Shun cavalry, he launched a surprise attack and annihilated them. As for the hundreds of young and strong men in Lujiazhai, they were no threat at all in front of the elite armored soldiers.

Chen Fu and Lin Changfeng were both sent by Zhu Cilang as vanguards. Each of them led five of the strongest and most agile Night Warriors in the army. At this time, they had already reached a position about fifty or sixty steps in front of the gate of Lujiazhai.

Lin Changfeng secretly glanced at Chen Fu beside him. The other party was as tall as an iron tower, and looked even more powerful than his bear-like strong brother. He was also very agile. Now he was valued by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. This made him somewhat unconvinced, and he secretly felt a strong desire in his heart.

Chang Denggui and Zhou Shixian led the main force and followed Zhu Cilang. Lin Yongan and his two sons followed behind with more than 200 carefully selected village guards. For such a large number of troops to attack at night, the fastest way would be to enter the village through the gate.

The night was still very cold. The twelve men in the vanguard wore not only a piece of cotton armor but also a piece of chain mail. Their faces were smeared with ash and their feet were covered with cotton cloth. They moved in the dark and Ye Bushu, who lacked sufficient experience, could not notice them at all.

These elite troops of the Beijing Camp were not afraid of the Shun Army, especially in the current situation where the enemy was in the open and we were in the dark. After Chen Fu and Lin Changfeng confirmed that there were no secret sentries deployed by the Shun Army in the surrounding area, they immediately began to move forward.

Amid the whistling wind, the twelve people quickly reached the walls on both sides of the gate of Lujiazhai. Without any communication with each other, they quietly set up four long ladders. Both ends of the ladders were wrapped with thick cotton cloth, and when they touched the earth wall, they made no sound at all.

Chen Fu held his ladder knife between his teeth and gently pressed down on the ladder, confirming it was sturdy enough before climbing up with ease. The ladder still made a creaking sound, but the dozing guard at Lujiazhai didn't notice it at all. He quickly scaled the courtyard wall and carefully peeked out from the battlement. After confirming that all the sentries behind the battlement were asleep, he gestured backward and immediately jumped onto the top of the wall.

The five people following Chen Fu also quickly climbed up the wall. They first took out the ladder knives in their mouths, then quietly passed through the narrow passage in front of the courtyard wall and touched the sides of the sentries.

Lin Changfeng was not to be outdone. He led his men and completed the tactical moves before the attack almost at the same time as Chen Fu. The two of them waved their hands at the same time on the wall, and the ten soldiers under his command immediately took action. They grabbed the necks of the village guards and stabbed their hearts with their ladder knives. Their movements were quick and decisive.

The eight Lujiazhai guards on the wall had no armor protection and were not alert at all. They were killed in their sleep by these elite veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles. Each of them had a look of horror in his eyes before he died, but his body could only struggle a few times as a conditioned reflex, and then his throat was crushed by a pair of iron pliers.

In front of professional field army soldiers, these village guards had no ability to fight back at all.

Soon, Chen Fu and Lin Changfeng led people to capture the three village guards behind the village gate alive. The former was responsible for interrogating the Shun army entering the village, while the latter directly opened the village gate and went out to meet the army that was lurking in the darkness outside.

Chen Fu's big hand, as cold and hard as iron, pinched the throat of the village guard who was pressed against the wall of the village gate. He completely ignored the other party's frightened eyes and trembling body. While softly threatening the other party to be quiet and tell the truth, he raised his hand and pressed the tip of the ladder knife against the other party's forehead. The tip of the knife gently pierced the skin, and blood immediately flowed out of the wound, dripping down the nose and finally onto the ground.

The village guard had been trembling with fear when he saw such a tall and ferocious enemy who suddenly appeared in the dark night like an evil ghost. At this moment, he felt a sharp pain on his forehead and was completely stunned. He could not answer anything he was asked.

Chen Fu interrogated the three men separately, and after making sure that they had honestly confessed what they knew, he ordered them to be killed, and then he and Lin Changfeng welcomed the army outside.

Lin Yongan was familiar with the layout of the village, and he personally led them straight to the west courtyard where the Shun army was. Chen Fu and Lin Changfeng were still the vanguard, and they quickly reached the gate of the west courtyard. There were two Shun soldiers standing behind the barricades at the gate on duty, and there should be several more Shun soldiers inside watching the horses.

The west courtyard of Lujiazhai is usually used to receive merchants. Now that the spring flood has just begun, there are not many guests. All the people living there are the Shun army cavalry. There is a huge stable in the courtyard that can accommodate more than 300 horses overnight, and there must be someone watching all night.

"I'll take seven people and climb in from the side using a ladder to take out the awake thieves inside. You take the other three people outside and pretend to be guards delivering something to Lujiazhai, and take out the two thieves standing guard as well."

Chen Fu withdrew his gaze from the west gate of Lujiazhai and gave Lin Changfeng an order. This Shun army seemed quite capable. Although their alertness was low, they were not completely relaxed. The basic sentries were deployed, so they had to be careful.

Although Lin Changfeng was somewhat dissatisfied with being commanded by the other party, he immediately nodded in agreement because the overall situation was more important.

Seeing this, Chen Fu nodded, then waved his hand and rushed into the darkness with seven armored soldiers carrying a ladder.

 Thanks to book friends Yuekenlu Dazhuang and 20181107124212127 for their rewards. Both book friends have rewarded this book many times. The author will do his best to write the subsequent plot.

  
 
(End of this chapter)

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