Chapter 143 Cao Wenyao's Abnormality

Liu Bao stopped at a mountain pass more than 50 miles west of Mianchi County and looked to the west with a single telescope. In the lens, he saw a team of officers and soldiers appearing outside the mountain pass, and stopped far away outside the mountain pass and slowly gathered together. When the last officers and soldiers arrived, the total strength It has been close to about 5,000 people, and there is a big Cao character on the flag in the middle.

Liu Bao then put down the monocular in his hand and handed it to the officers beside him, asking them to use the telescope to see the situation of the officers and soldiers.

Since Xiao Tianjian's monoculars have been made, they have gradually begun to be distributed to the Xingtian Army. However, because the lenses are rare and the scrapping rate is too high when grinding, the quantity produced is very limited. At present, it is only quite good to be equipped to the battalion commander level. In addition, it is the most equipped. Even if it is a scout, the scout team will have one, and other officers will not have this blessing.

So the officers were greedy for this thing in Liu Bao's hand. One by one, they came to their eyes to wait and see, one by one loudly.

"Hmm! It's really Cao Wenyao! The last time he slaughtered our secret pile, we haven't avenged him yet. This time he finally sent it to the door. Since he came this time, don't think about leaving so much! Why do we have to keep this one this time? Take this man's head and sacrifice the ghosts who died in his hands!" Liu Bao stepped on a stone and said to the generals who followed him.

The generals nodded repeatedly to agree. For this battle, their generals did not mean to be afraid at all. They were already eager to try.

After Liu Bao led his troops to capture Mianchi County, he led his troops to station in Mianchi County. During this period, he first cleaned up the hostile forces in Mianchi County and some small bandits, which quickly stabilized the situation in Mianchi County. At the same time, a temporary wharf was built by the Yellow River, especially from Shanxi. Receive all kinds of transshipment materials.

These days, Luoyang and Shaanxi did not respond quickly to the actions of Xing Tianjun. The Luoyang garrison huddled around Luoyang City. They did not dare to send troops to retake Xin'anyi and Mianchi County at all. They pretended to lie against Luoyang City and be beaten, just waited for the Xingtian Army to beat them.

On the contrary, Cao Wenyao in the direction of Shaanxi has a lot of actions. From time to time, he sends troops to attack, and sometimes he personally leads his troops to make a sneak attack. Liu Bao has fought with Shaanxi soldiers in this area many times during this period. It can be said that the two sides have a victory or defeat, because it is not a large-scale battle, and the advantage of the Xingtian Army cannot be fully developed. He waved it out, so he also suffered a few small losses, which made Liu Bao have long been angry and wanted to fight with Cao Wenyao once and kill him.

In recent days, he sent back news from Shaanxi, saying that Cao Wenyao was also rectifying his troops and horses during this period. In the near future, he would send troops to Mianchi and wanted to open up the connection with Luoyang again, so Liu Bao personally led his troops to this place and blocked the main road from Shanzhou to Mianchi.

In Liu Bao's right hand is Moyun Mountain, and his left hand is Jinyin Mountain, with two mountains and a ditch. This place happens to be the only key road from Mianchi to Shanzhou. If Cao Wenyao wants to restore Mianchi County, then he can only enter Mianchi County by walking here. In addition, there are only a few paths that can be bypassed, but These paths can't let the army pass at all, let alone carrying a heavy thing, so Liu Baoka is here, which is equivalent to stuck in the west gate of Mianchi County, and there is no need to worry about Cao Wenyao not coming.

And after careful preparation, Cao Wenyao finally began to take action at the end of October. The previous temptations made him regain some confidence and felt that this battle could still be fought, so he gathered 4,000 soldiers and horses from Hanguguan and Shanzhou and went out of Shanzhou to Mianchi. The county came, but after arriving here, he learned that the front passage had been cut off by Xing Tianjun, so he ordered to stop.

To be honest, this place is not a dangerous place, and it is not suitable for large-scale operations at all. Whether it is the officers and soldiers or the Xing Tianjun, they can't invest a large number of people. If you fight in this place, you can only fight hard between the two mountains. If Xing Tianjun can't stand it, he can only get out of the way. Let Cao Wenyao enter Mianchi County, but if Cao Wenyao can't defeat Liu Bao here, he can only choose to go back to Shanzhou, so at this time, it is very important here.

In terms of strength, although Liu Bao concentrated three battalions and two reserve battalions in Mianchi County before the war, there was also a small number of troops in the heavy battalion. Together, the number of troops at hand is not much less than Cao Wenyao, and even has a certain advantage.

But this time Xiao Tianjian gave him an order to defend Mianchi, so in such a big place, the thousands of people he had to not only control this mountain pass, but also station in Xin'anyi to prevent the attack of Luoyang officers and soldiers. In addition, they also had to divide their troops to protect the wharf by the Yellow River and Mianchi County. Such a division of soldiers, Liu Bao There are not many troops available at hand.

Therefore, Liu Bao only led the headquarters battalion here, plus a reserve battalion transferred from Yongning County, with a force of only more than 2,000 people. Compared with Cao Wenyao's more than 5,000 officers and soldiers, the strength is a little weaker. In addition, there is a relatively strong military fort here than when Liu Yao was stationed at the entrance of the official. For the fortifications, Liu Bao basically didn't have time to build any solid fortifications at this mountain pass, so he had to choose to lead his troops to fight with Cao Wenyao in the area of the mountain pass.

However, even so, Liu Bao did not show any worry at all. Instead, he led the officers under him with great interest to observe Cao Wenyao's strength and arrangement, as if everything was under his control.

The reason why Liu Bao is so confident is not that he is blindly confident. The predecessor of the four battalions led by Liu Bao himself is actually the former new barracks of Xing Tianjun. The main officers among them are actually strong generals in the former army of Xing Tianjun. Later, they were transferred to be instructors. They have rich combat experience one by one, not to mention With strong military training experience, it has now turned into a war barracks. Although a lot of backbone has been drawn away, the tradition is still there, and the training effect is also the best battalion among the battalions. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the four battalions under Liu Bao is definitely very high among the battle camps of the Xingtian Army.

And during this period, Xiao Tianjian ordered Liu Bao to sit in Mianchi. Considering that the east and west sides of Mianchi County are under great pressure, they are under great pressure, so in terms of weapons and material supply, they are very inclined to the troops stationed in Mianchi County. They are often transported by Shanxi, and the battalions on the side of Mianchi are equipped first, and Jinnan The transported artillery is also closely used by Liu Bao. Therefore, all the old-fashioned bird guns in Liu Bao's fourth battalion have been replaced with new self-made fire guns, and the proportion of fire guns in the battalion is as high as half as half. At the same time, the fourth battalion is also temporarily assigned to strengthen the direct artillery team, which not only has ten three-pound guns, but also temporarily equipped them. With five new six-pounder guns and two eight-pounder guns, the firepower can be said to be very fierce.

In addition, the Yongning reserve camp that cooperates with the Fourth Battalion this time is not an ordinary reserve camp. Its predecessor is a new camp led by the subordinates led by the tile jar as the main body. The training time has been long, although some of the personnel have been transferred and supplemented. In the barracks, but the skeleton is still there, the training level is also the highest among the reserve battalions, and the quality of equipment is also the best. The quality of their equipment has basically caught up with the regular barracks. In addition to the standard long gun knife card of the Xingtian Army, the equipment has also reached nearly 30%, and even the combat effectiveness is comparable to that of some newly formed soldiers. Camp.

And it was not others who led this reserve camp. It was Li Yantian, the third head of the crate. After the crate and Li Yantian led the troops, Xiao Tianjian first separated them from the old troops and sent them to Jinnan to follow Yan Chongxi to practice, so that they would not form a gang formation in the Xingtian Army. Small group, but after the crag jar came to Jinnan to see the rules of the Xing Tianjun, some of them couldn't stand such constraints. They couldn't help but be discouraged and felt that there was no money to get along in the Xing Tianjun Army, so they simply took a large amount of money and took his family to Zezhou City to be a rich man and live a small life, and this Li Yantian stayed in the army. After some experience, he was sent back to Henan by Yan Chongxi this year. First, he became a company commander, and then transferred to Yongning to take over the reserve battalion of Yongning. Now he is the battalion commander of the reserve battalion.

Li Yantian was born to lead the army. In addition, he was young and self-motivated. He did a good job in the army, and he was also very strict in restraining himself. He was quite appreciated by Xiao Tianjian, so he was promoted as an exception. After leading this reserve camp, Li Yantian was also dedicated to doing some achievements and wanted to turn this reserve camp into Xing Tianjun officially. The battle camp, and this time he came here with Liu Bao, it was also an opportunity for him to show his ability, so the combat effectiveness of his reserve camp could not be underestimated.

In this way, Liu Bao's strength is not as strong as Cao Wenyao, but his combat effectiveness is not inferior to Cao Wenyao at all, which is also the reason why Liu Bao is full of confidence.

However, Liu Bao was full of confidence, but Cao Wenyao was much more careful than before. In the battle of Guan Daokou, he thoroughly learned the strength of the soldiers of the Xingtian army. Later, he fought with the Xingtian army many times. He hardly took advantage of it. This time, although he was ordered by Hong Chengchou and led his troops to defeat the pond, Cao Wenyao became small. I am much more cautious, and there is no longer the arrogant mentality of the past.

When he led his troops to the mountain pass and learned that the Xing Tianjun had blocked the way, he immediately ordered to stop moving forward and began to camp on the spot. Instead of rushing, he shrank into a group to build a camp and made a defensive posture. He did not dare to lead his troops to rush straight to the mountain pass.

As a result, Liu Bao and Li Yantian waited for two days. In addition to sending only a small number of soldiers to test in the future, Cao Wenyao did not make a hard attack at all. Instead, he took his officers and soldiers to build camps outside the mountain pass day and night, and also grabbed the people everywhere and helped them build fortifications. The whole set up a desperate look. The posture of guarding the mountain pass.