amaotonovel Chapter 736 Night Raid, Rescuing Sun Lang
Chapter 736 Night Raid, Rescuing Sun Lang
On the official road leading from Xuchang to Pingyu, Li Gousheng was leading a huge convoy of nearly twenty carriages and more than three hundred people at high speed.
However, their destination this time was not Pingyu but Queshan, and their mission was to rescue Sun Lang.
On the road, a young man in his late twenties asked, "Brother Gousheng, I heard that there are five or six thousand Wei soldiers besieging Brother Sun Lang. Can we rescue him with our small force?"
The young man's name is Lin Tai. He is one of the special forces members from Jiangnan and also the militia leader who broke through Xihua County. He has now been summoned by Li Gousheng to carry out a special mission.
Li Gousheng laughed and scolded, "Stop calling me 'brother' all the time. When we're behind enemy lines, we need to use code names. My code name is Panda, and yours is Qiongqi. Don't forget."
Lin Tai quickly asked again, "Panda, can we rescue Tianlang (Sun Lang's code name) with just this many people?"
Li Gousheng said, "I don't know, but one thing is very clear: if our three hundred men can't rescue Tianlang, Tianlang is doomed. Don't even think about gathering all our troops to attack Tianyu; that's unrealistic."
"Logically speaking, the best way to rescue Tianlang is indeed to gather all the troops from all the counties and concentrate superior forces to confront Tianyu head-on. But don't forget that gathering troops takes time, and Tianlang obviously doesn't have that much time."
"Moreover, we will gather troops, but won't Tian Yu? Cao Wei has heavy troops in Jiangxia, Xiangfan, and even Xudu. They can easily send over 10,000 or 20,000 of them. Our rabble will only be cannon fodder. Therefore, the rescue of Tianlang must be carried out by surprise. We must launch a surprise attack before Tian Yu's reinforcements arrive and catch him off guard. Do you understand?"
Lin Tai nodded and said, "I understand the reasoning, but do you think Tian Yu will abandon Tianlang after receiving news of the fall of the counties and rush back to reinforce them?"
Li Gousheng shook his head and said, "Then you've underestimated Tian Yu. What did Marquis Shence teach us? He said never underestimate the enemy's intelligence, always prepare for the worst, and have at least three backup plans for each operation to prevent any unforeseen circumstances."
"Let's analyze how Tian Yu will react when he receives news of the successive fall of various counties. His instinctive reaction will definitely be to immediately abandon Sun Lang and return to Pingyu to stabilize Pingyu before attacking the rebels in various places and recovering the lost territories, right?"
Lin Tai nodded quickly.
Li Gousheng said, "The problem is that we are bandits now. When we break through the county town, we are only robbing it and not occupying it. In other words, the county town still belongs to Cao Wei. How can we talk about recapturing it?"
“Since we don’t need to reclaim the lost territory, we can only suppress our rebel army. But we can fire and run, and when we encounter government troops, we scatter and flee in all directions. For example, if a rebel army is being pursued by Tian Yu, they split into three and flee in three directions. Who do you want Tian Yu to chase, or should he also split into three directions and chase them at the same time?”
“If we only chase one route, and then chase another route after catching up, we will have to travel a lot of unnecessary distances and exhaust ourselves. If we split up to pursue, our strength will be easily dispersed. Besides, our rebel army will regroup after splitting up. What if the government troops split up, and we take advantage of their split to gather together and annihilate one of the government troops?”
"So if Tian Yu really abandons Tianlang and turns around to chase after our group of rebels, he will lose on both sides. Not only will he lose, but he may also suffer losses."
"So the best way for Tian Yu is to stay in Queshan and besiege the enemy to catch reinforcements, and then wipe us out when our group of rebels gathers up and rushes to Queshan to rescue Tianlang."
Lin Tai's expression changed slightly, and he said with lingering fear, "Besieging the point to attack reinforcements, that's really ruthless, but won't our three hundred men be surrounded if we go there?"
Li Gousheng replied, "It's possible, but the risk will be much smaller. Whether it's our rebel army gathering to attack Queshan, or Tian Yu mobilizing troops to encircle and annihilate us in Queshan, it will take time. We can't complete the gathering in a short time, and he can't mobilize troops either. This gives us room to maneuver."
"We need to take advantage of the gap between Tian Yu requesting reinforcements and the arrival of the reinforcements to launch an attack on Tian Yu."
"Furthermore, since Tian Yu has chosen to besiege the enemy's stronghold and attack their reinforcements, he will definitely focus his main efforts on the location and direction of the rebels' gathering. In this way, he may naturally overlook our small force of three hundred men."
Lin Tai suddenly realized and said, "So you ordered all the armies to assemble in the direction of Shangcai in order to attract Tian Yu's attention?"
Li Gousheng laughed and said, "Congratulations on getting it right."
Lin Tai, without a second thought, patted his chest excitedly and said, "We will strictly follow Panda's orders. You tell us how to fight, and we will fight accordingly."
Li Gousheng said, "Then go and do a good job of comforting the soldiers and soothing their emotions."
Of these 300 people, only 12 were special forces members; the rest were newly recruited locals from Runan, whose military skills made Li Gousheng somewhat uneasy.
After a day's journey, the caravan finally arrived in Pingyu territory, only fifty li away from Queshan.
Li Gousheng placed the supplies at a stronghold in a nearby village, rested for half a day, and then led his troops to Queshan at 10 p.m.
After more than two hours of trekking, they finally arrived near Tian Yu's camp at 4:45 AM. After resting for a quarter of an hour, they launched an attack on Tian Yu's camp.
This was the most tiring time of day, and Tian Yu's Wei army had been at the foot of the mountain for more than twenty days and were already numb, so they were not on guard.
Li Gousheng led three hundred men into the camp without incident and then decisively sounded the charge.
That's right, it's the bugle call. In large-scale military operations, it's customary to advance with drums and retreat with gongs. However, drums are too big and inconvenient to carry. Not only is it inconvenient for guerrillas behind enemy lines to move around with large drums, but they also can't escape in critical moments. Therefore, Guan Xing equipped them with bugles call.
The bugle call startled Tian Yu and Gao Rou from their deep sleep. Tian Yu had been sleeping fully clothed every night, but upon hearing the bugle, he jumped up, grabbed his sword, rushed out of the camp, and shouted, "Don't panic, everyone! The enemy can't be many. Hold your positions!"
He truly hadn't expected a sneak attack, but he could guess the attackers' identities—the rebels who were undoubtedly there to rescue Sun Lang. The rebels were still gathering, and the force that had arrived was definitely a small group, numbering no more than five hundred.
If I can't even eat this many people, then all these years of my life have been for nothing.
The idea was good, but they forgot that there was Sun Lang on the mountain. Sun Lang was also sleeping fully clothed. When he heard the bugle call, he suddenly got up and roared, "Reinforcements are here to save us! Follow me down the mountain immediately!"
After saying that, he rushed into the cave where they were hiding, kicked his teammates awake, and then charged down with his knife.
At the camp below the mountain, Li Gousheng, his face covered to avoid being recognized, wielded a broadsword and charged left and right through the enemy ranks. No one could withstand his attacks. Other special forces members followed behind him, forming an arrowhead formation with him, like a sharp knife piercing into the Wei army's ranks. When the main force saw Li Gousheng's bravery, they also unleashed astonishing combat power.
However, they only had three hundred men, while the Wei army had five or six thousand. The commander-in-chief, Tian Yu, remained calm and quickly led his army to surround Li Gousheng's three hundred men.
Fortunately, Sun Lang arrived at the crucial moment and shouted excitedly, "Boss, I knew you wouldn't abandon me!"
Li Gousheng shouted back, "Stop talking nonsense, hurry up!"
Upon hearing Li Gousheng's voice, Sun Lang immediately felt relieved. However, instead of rushing into the enemy camp to rescue Li Gousheng, he turned around and went to the stable to disperse the Wei army's warhorses, preventing them from being chased by the Wei army on horseback later.
Sun Lang's arrival disrupted the Wei army's formation and greatly boosted the morale of Li Gousheng's side. Li Gousheng fought his way through the enemy lines and soon met up with Sun Lang, who had dispersed the horses. The two chose a direction and immediately broke through the encirclement.
Li Gousheng's goal this time is to rescue people, not to annihilate Tian Yu's army. Now that the people have been rescued, why not run away?