According to the calculation method of the distance between the two places of Blue Mercury, Tai'an City is about 200 kilometers away from Huguan. This distance is actually not too far. If you ride a fast horse, you can reach another place in just half a day. In other words, if necessary, you can actually go back and forth between the two places overnight that day.

Another important factor in Lyon's choice of Tai'an City is that Tai'an County is only about 100 kilometers away from Jiangzhou Yangcheng.

This has become an important reason why Xinghua officers such as Lyon have fallen in love with Tai'an County.

Not far from both places, Tai'an County was chosen as the combat stronghold of the Xinghua Army. It was just that it could attack and retreat or defend, and it had all its combat advantages.

After entering Tai'an City, the Xinghua Army could fully rely on the city defense conditions of Tai'an City to temporarily take root in Tai'an City, and establish a solid defensive position, temporary military base and combat command center that was conducive to the Xinghua Army.

As long as these are completed, the Xinghua Army can attack nearby, attack Yangcheng, and then sweep Jiangzhou.

According to the information from the Xinghua Intelligence Bureau, Lyon obtained one of the situations about Tai'an County - there were about 300 soldiers and 500 township tycoons in the entire Tai'an County.

The local forces shown by this data are actually not strong, so this situation is relatively easy for the Xinghua Army to control. However, Lyon is not yet sure of a relatively important factor - he is not yet sure whether the government in Tai'an County may be abandoned because Tai'an is close to Huguan and the war between the two countries is about to break out.

If the local government of Xia State had already evacuated early, the situation would be easier to deal with. As long as the army entered and control the emotions of the people in Tai'an City; if the government had not evacuated, the officers of Xinghua would need to consider additional considerations to deal with this factor.

However, no matter what the situation is, Lyon has actually regarded Tai'an City as the command center for the Xinghua Army to be stationed for a long time, and it is only a matter of specific implementation.

Lyon's strategic layout was proven to its effectiveness in the subsequent development of the war situation. In fact, Wei Changhai's previous attempt to lead his army to attack Jiangzhou and failed, which was that Wei Changhai did not see the important strategic position of Tai'an City, so from beginning to end, Wei Changhai did not think that he should first capture Tai'an City as Lyon did at this time, as it did at this time, as the Xinghua Army continued its march. Moreover, at that time, in Wei Changhai's view, the low walls of Tai'an City were not conducive to defense and seemed easy to conquer, especially, I am afraid that this inconspicuous Tai'an City could not even withstand a bombing by the Xinghua Army's mortar battalion. Therefore, Wei Changhai did not focus on Tai'an City in the end, but bypassed Tai'an City.

Correspondingly, Tai'an City escaped by chance in the last battle and did not become Wei Changhai's target. It is precisely because of Wei Changhai's "letting go" that the Lyon troops now have to face the Xia army in Tai'an County, which has not been damaged. However, in Lyon's view, this is not a factor that repeats Wei Changhai's mistakes. Even if there are more Xia soldiers in Tai'an County, Lyon will still choose to break through Tai'an County first, establish a stronghold, and then attack Yangcheng.

"Contact intelligence personnel, I want a report on the status quo of Tai'an City." Lyon said to his adjutant. To be on the safe side, Lyon understands the entire situation of Tai'an City as comprehensively and in detail as possible.

"Yes, commander." The adjutant ran and found the military intelligence personnel.

After a while, a simple but comprehensive investigation report was sent with the military intelligence personnel.

This report is a piece of paper, which contains four key information:

First, the county magistrate of Tai'an County, including the investigation of all his personal information, such as name, age, and personality evaluation, and there are also county soldiers led by the county magistrate, mainly including the number of soldiers and township soldiers, a total of 800 people. The main types of weapons of those county soldiers were spears and bows;

Second, the main forces of Tai'an County are in Tai'an County. In addition to the county soldiers led by the county magistrate, there is also a Xia army infantry and archers of 3,000 soldiers stationed in Tai'an County;

The third is the number of people in Tai'an County. Because the news of the war has been leaked, and some nearby Xiaguo areas and urban areas have been affected by the war, the number of refugees in Xiaguo has soared, and nearby refugees have even survived nearby, squeezed into Tai'an County, impacting the local people's livelihood. For a time, the entire Tai'an County fell into a state of chaos in the hearts of the people;

Fourth, the general situation of the Xia army around Tai'an County. There are three Xia army around Tai'an County, one of which is a cavalry and two infantry. They are all supporting forces of Tai'an County. In fact, these supporting Xia army were actually sent to the areas around Tai'an County in order to deal with the attacks of Xinghua Army.

Lyon attaches great importance to these intelligence information. Especially the last item, regarding the investigation of the Xia army's troops stationed around Tai'an County, the Imperial Intelligence Bureau's analysis believes that these Xia soldiers were targeting the attacking troops of the Xinghua Army. In other words, once the Lyon troops attack Tai'an County, these Xia troops will harass the Xinghua Army, take the opportunity to kill and injure the Xinghua Army, and consume the combat power of the Xinghua Army.

Obviously, the Xia army wanted to use the same trick again. Last time, the hasty attack of Wei Changhai's troops gave the Xia army the opportunity to take advantage of loopholes, allowing the Xia army to get victory and taste the sweetness of the harassing military operation. Therefore, the Xia army believed that the Xinghua army was vulnerable. As long as they used the same trick again and did it in the same way, they could repel the Lyon troops.

Unlike Wei Changhai, Lyon will be more steady and thorough in thinking about issues, deploying tactics, etc., and will naturally not act rashly, nor will it give Xinghua Army the opportunity to make the same mistake again.

After carefully reading this investigation report, Lyon immediately summoned officers at all levels in the army to discuss the attack on Tai'an County based on the investigation report.

After half an hour of discussion, Lyon decided to give full play to the advantages of Xinghua Army.

What are the main advantages of the Xinghua Army? That is, weapons, fully armed, and the entire army is gunned. When there was no professional army in the enemy army, a company of more than a hundred people was enough to fight against thousands of Xia army infantry, and it was able to defeat the Xia army in a crushing state.

Therefore, Lyon's method is to use the tactic of division of troops to attack based on the advantages of the Xinghua Army.

Lyon decided that the Xinghua army only used 5,000 soldiers and artillery battalions to be mainly responsible for attacking Tai'an County. The remaining Xinghua troops were responsible for sweeping the Xia army around Tai'an County.

After Wu Junjie's troops returned to the team, Lyon's order was issued, and the entire army continued to move forward. Everything was ready, only the east wind was needed. At present, all the layout had been arranged and the troops had been allocated. As long as the Xinghua army attacked Tai'an County and fought steadily, they would definitely be able to capture Tai'an County.

Lyon was confident and couldn't help but want to have a good rest in Tai'an County.

"All soldiers, keep moving forward."

The decisions of the Lyon Department were also conveyed to Wei Yingcai through radio waves. The two troops, one positive and one strange, assisted each other, were part of the combat plan.

Although Lyon will not ask about the movements of Wei Yingcai's troops, Lyon will guarantee that all the content reported to the main force will be communicated to Wei Yingcai's troops together to ensure that Wei Yingcai's troops can cooperate closely with the Lyon troops at any time during the operation. Therefore, what Lyon needs to do is to inform the entire Xinghua Army of their important movements. Correspondingly, as a partial division, Wei Yingcai only needs to inform the news that they are still in the event regularly every day.

At this time, Wei Yingcai's army was located in the hilly area in the northern part of Jiangzhou, 300 kilometers away from Huguan and more than 200 kilometers away from Yangcheng. In other words, Wei Yingcai's army was very close to Liangzhou.

Of course, the reason why Wei Yingcai led his troops so far was not because he wanted to go to Liangzhou, but because Wei Yingcai judged the information and the topography on the map and concluded.

According to the investigation report of the Intelligence Bureau, after the Xia army lost control of Huguan, under the arrangement of its commander Bai Qi, the remaining Xia army still had no less than 200,000 troops.

Judging from the numbers, the Xia army has a strong military strength. But in fact, the Xia army lost the Huguan granary and suffered a crushing defeat. Not only was the shortage of the granary, but the morale was also greatly reduced. In addition, the weapons of the Xinghua army were enough to make the commander of the Xia army understand that the army did not gather together to compare the number, but whoever could win.

Therefore, in Wei Yingcai's opinion, this is an excellent opportunity to attack.

According to the information from the Intelligence Bureau of Xinghua Empire, there are only 50,000 defenders in Yangcheng, including the defenders around Yangcheng, which is estimated to be about 50,000. At least 100,000 Xia troops are missing, and the 100,000 is still a very conservative number. Wei Yingcai's mission is to find out the hidden troops of the Xia army and destroy them.

"This place, this, and this... we must send reconnaissance cavalry to search these places carefully. I give the reconnaissance cavalry the greatest autonomy. Any place you suspect can be searched within the prescribed range. For the time, every hour, turn on the intercom for ten minutes, and the teams must communicate information and report the latest information to us." Wei Yingcai issued many search orders to the captain of the reconnaissance cavalry.

Wei Yingcai's troops reconnaissance cavalry everywhere, looking for the enemy.

After most of the day of searching, the news finally came back.

"Sir, we discovered a large camp of the enemy and two strong defending strongholds of the enemy." The soldiers in charge of the communication reported to Wei Yingcai.

Wei Yingcai took out the map and asked the soldiers to mark it.

There is a big river between Jiangzhou and Liangzhou, called Chihe. The Xia army's camp is on a small hill south of Chihe. It is about twenty kilometers away from Wei Yingcai's troops.

According to the investigation results of the reconnaissance cavalry, there was a granary of the Xia army. Near the granary was the Xia army's military camp. According to the tents in the military camp, it is estimated that the Xia army's troops were less than 50,000. It is very likely that this Xia army was ambushed here by the Xia Kingdom and used as an ambush. This is Wei Yingcai's speculation. Wei Yingcai named this Xia army camp "Chihe Camp".

In any case, Wei Yingcai was targeting this Chihe Camp.

"How is the enemy's equipment? Are you aware of our people?" Wei Yingcai asked.

"Report to the commander, the enemy is wearing armor, there are many archers, and there are also many horses. The camp is neat and the soldiers are capable of moving. We should be soldiers who have received strict training. We have advantages in frontal field battles, but if we fight in a melee, we may not have a great advantage." A staff officer said, analyzing the battle situation.

"Attack the camp, or induce the Xia army to fight us head-on." said another staff officer.

Wei Yingcai seriously considered the opinions of the staff officer. He believed that the current Lyon troops did not need his support. Since this is the case, why didn't Wei Yingcai lead his army to Chihe and attack the enemy camp?

The staff officers also agreed with Wei Yingcai's decision and unanimously believed that Wei Yingcai's doing so was beneficial. Eliminating the Chihe Camp would be equivalent to stabilizing the northern part of Jiangzhou and missing enemies in one direction.

Wei Yingcai led his army, and according to his plan, he tried to calmly slow down the speed of the troops slightly and headed to Chihe.

The Xia Kingdom's strong walls and clearing the fields also have some benefits for the Xinghua Army, that is, no matter what the Xinghua Army does, few people can discover it.

Because the pace of the march was slowed down and the careful avoidance of the enemy's scouts, the Xinghua Army spent two hours marching for 20 kilometers. A abandoned mountain village was discovered about a thousand meters away from Chihe Camp.

This mountain village is not big, with only about a dozen houses. However, the place is in seclusion, and the surrounding mountains and forests perfectly cover up Wei Yingcai's troops. Wei Yingcai and his friends light the lights in the house, so the enemy is not easy to spot.

Wei Yingcai decided to stay in the mountain village for the time being and wait for the best time.

Then, the sky gradually darkened and the night fell.

There is a moon in the sky, which barely gives Wei Yingcai and the others the glimmer of action in the darkness.

Wei Yingcai sent reconnaissance soldiers to inquire about the activities of the enemy camp and the surrounding terrain.

Four hours after the night, Wei Yingcai led his troops to start the operation. They left their horses in the mountain village and were guarded by a small number of soldiers. The large army was carefully walking to the enemy's Chihe camp.

At this time, inside and outside the enemy's Chihe camp, except for the two fires at the entrance of the camp, illuminating the entrance of the camp, and the Xia soldiers watching at night, it was very quiet.

"The enemy is asleep!" The reconnaissance captain reported to Wei Yingcai.

"Can you be sure that there are soldiers sleeping in the tent of the enemy camp?" Wei Yingcai asked.

"Two hours ago, there was still some noise from the enemy camp, and it was confirmed that there were many enemy soldiers in the Chihe camp..." The reconnaissance captain assured Wei Yingcai that the Chihe camp was not an empty camp.

Wei Yingcai would not doubt his subordinates, so he immediately ordered the cannon company to prepare. Although Wei Yingcai's army had only 5,000 soldiers, he still carried twenty mortars and five hundred rounds of ammunition with him. These mortar shells were mainly used to attack enemy strongholds with certain defense.

Before the cannon company fired, Wei Yingcai climbed another high ground and observed the Chihe Camp with a telescope.

Wei Yingcai put down his telescope, thought about the terrain on the map, and said to the Xinghua officer beside him: "Around the Chihe Camp, I want to completely annihilate this Xia army." He found that the Xia army had made a big mistake in camping in the Chihe River, that is, facing the river. As long as the Xinghua army defended the Xia army from three defense lines, they could surround and kill the Xia soldiers.

Wei Yingcai sent one thousand soldiers, five hundred soldiers on one side, to guard the two sides of the Chihe Camp. They were responsible for blocking the Xia army's side direction and preventing the Xia army's soldiers from escaping. About 3,000 Xinghua soldiers were facing the Chihe Camp, and they would be the main force in attacking the Chihe Camp.
Chapter completed!