The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Most of Xiao Yingxun's minions were mountain folk and refugees, and had not received much military training.

Because Xiao Yingxun didn't have much food in his hands and recruited many minions, he often didn't have enough to eat.

If you don’t have enough food, how can you have the strength to train?

That is to say, thinking that they could intercept Dabi's money and food this time, the Xiao family became generous and let the minions have enough to eat for two days.

Xiao Yingteng was able to train minions in the camp for this reason - on weekdays, ordinary minions only trained once every five days at most, spending most of their time farming and doing chores, which was inferior to the auxiliary soldiers in the official army.

In such a situation, even if there are more than 3,000 people, how can they cope with Li Dingguo's more than 100 elite cavalry charging into the camp?

Seeing that the fire spread rapidly to the point where it was difficult to extinguish due to the southeast wind, Xiao Yingteng stopped chasing it.

Although Xiao Yingxun took all the cavalry downstream to block the tail of the fleet, there were still more than a dozen cavalry left in the camp to deliver the message.

But facing Li Dingguo's more than a hundred elite cavalry, a dozen cavalry rushing forward would only result in a loss of lives.

Therefore, Xiao Yingteng no longer chased in vain. He just stared at the fire blankly and murmured: "It's over, it's all over..."

Xiao Yingxuan, on the other hand, sent people to the other side of the river to ask the officers and soldiers to intercept the enemy cavalry, and at the same time organized his minions to put out the fire and rescue supplies in the camp.

The official army camp on the west bank was arranged as if there were four thousand people stationed there, but in fact there were only two thousand infantry and one hundred cavalry.

There are only one thousand combat soldiers among the infantry in the camp, and the remaining one thousand are auxiliary soldiers.

It was led by Liu Guangzuo's general Zhao Desheng.

Seeing that the Xiao family's camp was inexplicably chaotic and a fire broke out, Zhao Desheng was confused for a moment.

They camped on the east and west banks of the river here. In order to communicate with each other, they got some boats and built pontoons upstream of the two camps to facilitate communication between the two sides.

But Zhao Desheng was a cautious person and lacked trust in the local bandits. He would not send troops there until he understood the situation clearly.

When Xiao Yingxuan sent someone to ask for support and explained the situation, Zhao Desheng and several of his officers and generals couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

"More than a hundred riders have messed up your camp like this?"

The Xiao clan members who came to report the news also felt ashamed and lowered their heads without speaking.

Zhao Desheng then said: "Damn it, Xiao Yingxun brought in five or six thousand people at once. I thought he could fight with more people, but this is the result?"

The Xiao clan member who reported the news could only repeat: "Those more than a hundred riders must be Liu Thief spying on the horse. Please ask General Zhao Shen to send cavalry quickly to intercept them, so as not to let Liu Thief know what is true here!"

Zhao Desheng snorted and said: "Grandma, you don't need to think about it like that. I just sent all the hundreds of cavalry in the camp. Can I stop all the more than a hundred thieves?"

Go back quickly and tell Xiao Yingteng to seize the time to rectify your men. Don't wait for Liu's fleet to come. It's still so chaotic that it won't have any effect.

If that's the case, your Xiao family can't even think of getting even half a percent this time! "

After hearing this, the Xiao clan members could only leave in despair.

···

When Li Dingguo saw that the fire was sweeping through the entire camp, he took more than a hundred cavalry who rushed to the camp and merged with dozens of cavalry cruising around the outside to retreat southward.

After running for six or seven miles, they saw the vanguard of the fleet.

This time, the fleet consisted of more than 2,300 large and small boats, basically carrying grain and grass.

The most valuable gold and silver jewelry were still in Xiangyang City, and were left by Liu Sheng to be transported at the end.

As for weapons, armor and other armaments, they have long been equipped to the standing army and civilian warriors.

The Tang River is not wide. Even in the flood season, the widest point is only more than a hundred meters; the narrowest point, such as the place where the army and the Xiao family set up iron ropes to block the river, is only thirty or forty meters.

Therefore, the fleet can only run parallel to four or five ships at most. When encountering a narrow place, it can only pass one by one.

As a result, more than two thousand large and small boats stretched on the Tang River for nearly twenty miles!

Although Liu Sheng sent seven standing military camps, plus 800 cavalry escorts, it was impossible to look after every ship.

Fortunately, the cargo carried this time was all grain and grass, which was not expensive.

The boatmen who rowed the boats and the trackers who pulled the fibers were all recruited from Xiangyang City and registered. He also gave them sufficient settlement allowance, and was not afraid of them risking their lives and escaping with food.

The boat was in the river, and the rebels only had to watch the bow and stern of the fleet; the boatmen and trackers could not row the boat to the shore.

As for individuals stealing food and running away - one person can only carry a few dozen kilograms of food at most, and he cannot run fast while carrying food on his back. If he is caught by the rebels, he will die.

What's more, Liu Sheng's settlement allowance for these peasants included five stones of grain and five taels of silver!

Dozens of kilograms of grain are nothing compared to this, and not worth the risk at all!

In order to protect the fleet, He Lianyue and other generals arranged two battalions of standing troops at the front of the fleet to accompany the fleet.

Two battalions of standing troops were also arranged in the middle of the fleet.

Three battalions of standing troops were arranged at the rear of the fleet.

Because the boat at the rear can be paddled directly, or it is easier to go down the river, it is most likely to cause an accident.

As for the 800 Cavalry Guards, Li Dingguo led two posts to explore northward along the river, and four posts patrolled back and forth on the east and west banks respectively.

The remaining two sentries were used as scouts, spreading out to the east and west to detect the enemy's situation.

In this way, even if some civilians colluded with outsiders and used horse-drawn carriages to steal grain and grass while the ship was stopping for a rest, they would be easily discovered and caught up by the knightly guards patrolling both sides of the strait.

As for the interception by the army.

Even if they are dispatched in sections and intercepted by multiple forces, they can only take away part of the food.

After Helianyue and others learned about it, they could send out the entire battalion or even more standing troops to defeat the enemy one by one.

Therefore, the method of intercepting and plundering in sections and multiple waves can pose a threat to the entire fleet only if there are tens of thousands of people.

But if there were tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, the enemy would definitely want to eat the entire fleet instead of just plundering a part.

Due to the above considerations, Liu Changhe, who was commanding the troops at the vanguard of the fleet, couldn't help but smile when he heard Li Dingguo's report and learned that the enemy had intercepted the enemy with iron cables across the river at Longtan Crossing.

"Hahaha, we have said before during our discussion that what we fear most is that the enemy will plunder the fleet in sections.

We do not have enough troops. If we encounter this situation, even if we defeat and drive away the enemy as quickly as possible, we will lose part of our food and grass.

Now the enemy is actually crossing the river with an iron rope upstream, obviously wanting to eat our entire fleet.

Their appetite is really big, but whether they can eat it depends on whether they have the strength! "

Li Dingguo also understood these situations, so he was also calm and relaxed at this time.

He said: "I saw that there seemed to be five or six thousand people stationed in the camp on the east bank, but the flags were not in order and the camp layout was chaotic, so I tested it with a hundred cavalry charging into the camp."

Liu Changhe, who had been smiling just now, couldn't help but be surprised when he heard these words, and couldn't help but interrupt: "What? Commander Li used a hundred cavalry to charge into the enemy camp of five or six thousand people?!"

Surprised, Liu Changhe couldn't help but look at the one or two hundred horsemen on the shore.

It was found that many people were indeed injured, obviously after a big battle.

But the number of people didn't seem to decrease much.

Li Dingguo smiled and said, "Vice-General Liu, please listen to what I have to say."