There are a lot of horse thieves in Xiazhou City, and it is even very likely that there are many local officials who collude with horse thieves, so in order to prevent the action of sending troops from being known by horse thieves in advance, Lao Guo and his generals chose to secretly go out of the city from different city gates in batches, and then, mobilize a small number of elite soldiers and horses outside the city to make a detour to reinforce the old white city, in order to avoid the eyes of horse thieves as much as possible.

Although this will delay a lot of time, Lao Guo believes in Li An's judgment, and at the same time believes in his own judgment very much, he feels that since the officers and soldiers are camped and rested in the abandoned city, then, the horse thieves will inevitably choose the most favorable time to raid, and it is indeed the best time to raid in the middle of the night, and even, it can be later, and the raid in the early morning is also very good.

In short, it is unlikely that the horse thieves will launch a surprise attack before the middle of the night, because during this time the officers and soldiers have not yet entered a deep sleep time, and even, they have not rested, so their losses will be relatively large, and once most of the officers and soldiers are asleep, then they can almost annihilate all the officers and soldiers without any losses, although the horse thieves are not afraid of death, but they will not choose to die for no reason, as long as they can not die, they will not choose to die, since they can choose to do it when the officers and soldiers are asleep, Then why do you have to attack while the officers and soldiers are still asleep?

Horse thieves are not willing to do loss-making business, their favorite business is a business that has no profits, if they can destroy all the officers and soldiers without losing any horse thieves, they will naturally be very excited, this is their favorite way.

Therefore, as long as these horse thieves are not fools, they will definitely not attack in advance, and there is still a lot of time from night to midnight, which is completely enough for Lao Guo to lead the elite soldiers and horses to arrive in the old White City, he is betting on the shrewdness of the horse thieves, if the horse thieves are a group of fools, the situation will be very bad, however, judging from such a long time of fighting, the horse thieves are definitely not fools, they are a very shrewd group of people, they will not do stupid things.

Lao Guo and the three subordinates under his command went out quietly from different city gates at different times, and the time when they led the soldiers and horses to set off was also different, and they traveled in batches, so the target was not big at all, and it was difficult to be discovered by the horse thieves outside the city, so as to avoid the leakage of this thief plan

Because the road is also relatively long, all the soldiers are equipped with two horses, so that they can be switched to ride, so as to ensure that these soldiers and horses can arrive at the ruins of the old white city in time, and then cooperate with the troops inside to attack the horse thieves on both sides, and eliminate the main force of horse thieves in one fell swoop.

In the ruins of the old White City, all the guards knew that the horse thieves would sneak attack at night, so they were actively preparing, and everyone was working hard, after all, if they didn't work hard enough, they would lose their own lives.

Digging horse pits, setting up a large number of tripping ropes, laying flammable grass and trees, these are all necessary to prepare for dealing with horse thieves, and after preparing these, it is necessary to allocate troops, in addition to the dozen or so guards used to confuse horse thieves on the periphery, the rest of the guards are also assigned to different positions, some are responsible for pulling the horse rope, some are responsible for fire prevention, and some patrol near the main traps to prevent horse thieves and spies from entering and accidentally touching these traps, if these traps are exposed, the horse thieves will not be fooled.

The environment in the city is very bad, there are broken walls and ruins everywhere, and a lot of grass and trees, which are taller than the broken walls, is a place that is easy to cause fires.

It is very risky for the army to be deployed in the city, but it will take time for the fire to spread, and as long as the deployment is reasonable, more than 100 officers and soldiers can calmly withdraw from the ruins of the old Baicheng.

In addition to the deployment of a certain number of soldiers and horses in the ruins of the city, there are many soldiers and horses deployed above the city gate tower, there are remnants of the female wall to cover, from the outside there is no sign of the ambush of soldiers and horses here, these soldiers and horses are ambushed here, but also to be able to block the way for horse thieves to exit the old white city.

This deployment is also a kind of gambling, in case the horse thieves raid the city gate hole, leaving half of the people to go to the city, it will be very troublesome, but Li An believes that when the horse thieves raid the city gate hole, they will definitely not leave a large number of people to consolidate the city gate, it would be good to leave ten people, and the rest of the horse thieves must all rush to the city to find the main force of the officers and soldiers.

As long as the number of horse thieves left is not large, it will not pose a threat to the hidden officers and soldiers, and when a large number of horse thieves enter the city, these small number of horse thieves will be wiped out by the officers and soldiers who are hiding, and at the same time, the horse thieves who enter the city will also fall into various traps, and it is impossible for them to leave the old white city quickly, and each city gate will be sealed by a lit fire, and the horse thieves will not want to escape, if they give up the horses, they may be able to escape from the dilapidated city walls, but after there are no horses, the speed of the horse thieves escaping is very slow, At this time, as long as Lao Guo's officers and soldiers arrived in time, none of these horse thieves who were running around could escape.

In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong and reduce the losses of officers and soldiers as much as possible, Li An personally went to the various city gates to inspect the preparations of officers and soldiers and deal with many detailed problems.

There were more than 20 guards in ambush at the east gate, plus the six soldiers near the city gate, there were nearly 30 soldiers in total, which was a very powerful force.

Most of the soldiers were hidden, and the soldiers in charge of guarding the city gate were patrolling carefully, and on the left and right sides of the city gate, a soldier patrolled to prevent horse thieves and spies from approaching and discovering the hidden officers and soldiers.

The two soldiers below, and the two soldiers upstairs, were also on duty at the gates to prevent anyone from entering or leaving the gates.

Li An stood on the city gate tower, looked at the two soldiers who were on duty, and said: "Find a small wooden shield for them to install, when the horse thieves raid at night, there will definitely be a rain of arrows, and a few soldiers on duty at the city gate will definitely be attacked by the rain of arrows, the armor is still not enough to be safe, put a small wooden shield in the armor, you can increase a lot of defensive power, to ensure the safety of the soldiers." ”

"Yes, Li Shilang."

The subordinate behind him spoke.

Obviously, in order to prevent the horse thieves from discovering their intentions, Li An could not withdraw these small number of guards, and they must be used as bait, and it is very risky to act as bait, for example, when the horse thieves suddenly kill, they will definitely not let go of these officers and soldiers at the city gate in front of them, they are numerous, and they will inevitably immediately launch a large number of arrows to annihilate the officers and soldiers at the city gate, and then, with lightning speed, raid the main force of the officers and soldiers in the city, so as to annihilate all the officers and soldiers.

In this way, these dozen officers and soldiers who acted as bait would be at risk of all sacrifices, and Li An was naturally unwilling to let the soldiers under his command die, even if it was just sacrificing a soldier, Li An was very reluctant in his heart.

For this reason, Li An came up with such a method, so that these officers and soldiers who acted as bait were equipped with an extra plank, so that they could well resist the damage of arrows to the body, so as to avoid death.

Of course, it is not enough to have a plank, but you must also prepare some horse blood and put it on your chest, when you are shot in the chest by an arrow, the horse blood will flow out, and as soon as the soldier falls to the ground, the horse thief will think that the officer and soldier have been killed.

And Li An also specially explained that the main task of these soldiers in charge of the bait is to pretend to be dead, and the more they pretend, the more the horse thief will relax his vigilance, so as to enter the ambush circle that has been set up long ago.

"There aren't enough of these plants and trees, we need to prepare more, if we can't stop the horse thieves, our plan will be lost."

Li An looked at the dry firewood and hay prepared on the tower of the city gate and spoke.

These things are kept to prevent horse thieves from escaping from the old White City, as long as these things are thrown in the city gate hole, and then, light a fire, then, the horse thieves can not escape through the city gate hole to escape the ruins of the old White City, but the premise is that the fire must be big enough, if the fire is not big, it will not be able to stop the horse thieves who are eager to flee.

The size of the fire is naturally related to the amount of wood and hay, and only enough firewood and grass can ignite a large enough fire to really trap the horse thief in the ruins of the old White City.

Li An felt that the soldiers did not have enough firewood and hay prepared on the city gate tower, in case this small amount of firewood burned out, the horse thieves would be able to rush out through the city gate hole, so it was necessary to prepare more, the more the better, and it was not impossible to prepare several times the amount.

"Yes, Li Shilang."

Hearing the order, several soldiers hurriedly and quietly went to prepare more firewood and hay.

Soon, a soldier came up from the city, took a few bags of horse blood, and distributed it to the soldier who was in charge of luring the enemy, and it was not long before another soldier came and prepared a plank not too thick for each of the baiters.

These soldiers in charge of luring the enemy, according to Li An's request, put the wooden plank and horse blood into their chest at the same time, and then wrapped the outer armor to prevent the stuffing from being exposed.

"Remember, your task is to lure the enemy, and when you are hit by an arrow, you must fall down as soon as possible, and do not make any action, and you must stand on the sidelines, and do not stand too close to the city gate, if you do, the horses of the horse thieves will trample you into pulp."

Li An personally asked.

"Matter, Li Shilang, we know."

The soldiers in charge of luring the enemy were still a little nervous, but they were also very moved to see that Li An had thought so thoughtfully about them.

They are very ordinary soldiers, and their status in this era is very low, even if the general asks them to go up to die, they must obey unconditionally, and the generals who can care about them in every detail are really too few and too few, so they are naturally very excited to hear that Li An cares about them so much.

Although Li Ang has thought about it very carefully, it still can't avoid the casualties of these decoy soldiers, after all, there are many horse thieves, and a salvo is more than 100 arrows, and these arrows may not necessarily be shot in the soldiers' chests, in case they hit the head and neck, then the wooden shield and horse blood that Li Ang prepared for them will be in vain.

So, in the end, it is luck that determines whether they survive or not, if they are lucky, they will survive, and if they are unlucky, they will most likely be killed, and they are not sure whether their luck is good or bad, so they can only pray in their hearts that they are not unlucky and will not be shot by arrows other than the chest.

"Li Shilang, it's too dangerous here, you and your wife should leave here and go to a safe place, so that we can have a big fight with the horse thieves without our hands and feet."

A small leader of the guards spoke.

Li An hadn't fought a battle for a long time, and he missed the thrill of fighting at close range, so he was naturally unwilling to give up such a good opportunity, and said: "You don't have to be like this, you just have to fight a good battle, don't worry about the safety of this officer, General Guo's main army is already on the way, and it will arrive at the battlefield after the horse thief launches a surprise attack, and this officer will be fine, and he will keep his heart in his stomach." ”

Ang Lee kept adjusting the details of the thief suppression plan, in order to achieve as much refinement as possible, so as to increase the chance of deceiving the horse thief, and then achieve his own goal.

And the horse thieves are indeed not fools, since they put the time of the attack in the middle of the night, then, before this, they will definitely not be idle, and will naturally continue to investigate, and investigate the situation in the ruins of the old white city, so that the chance of victory is greater.

After nightfall, the soldiers patrolling the city wall did not patrol, but returned to rest in their tents outside the city, but the soldiers on the city gate tower did not leave, and stood upright.

A horse thief spy with a big scar on his face, cautiously approached a section of the city wall that was more damaged, and then quietly climbed up, for fear of being discovered, this horse thief spy was very careful in every step, and after climbing the city wall, quietly looked into the city.

A large number of tents and lanterns in the middle of the city immediately caught the eye of the horse thief, making him guess that it was the place where the Tang officers and soldiers rested.

The small number of officers and soldiers walking around the city made the Scarface Horse Thief dare not enter the city rashly, and once he was caught, he should not survive.

The Scar Scout quietly left the city walls and returned to the place where the thieves were in season, ready to report to the leader of the horse thieves.

"The officers and soldiers are all in the middle of the city, and most of them should be asleep!"

The leader of the horse thieves asked excitedly.

"Chief, I can see clearly, there are more than a dozen tents in the middle of the city, thirty or fifty lanterns are hung around, and there are several officers and soldiers walking back and forth around, and there are also officers and soldiers patrolling on the main roads in the city, I only saw two soldiers patrolling together, there should be other roads!"

The spy replied.

Before the leader of the horse thieves could speak, several small leaders around him could no longer hold back, and they were all gearing up, waiting for the time to come, immediately kill and eliminate the officers and soldiers, and even began to arrange how to clean up the battlefield, how to transport all the corpses of these officers and soldiers, and bury them in a place where no officers and soldiers could find them.

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