Chapter 1029: Addicted to Night Raids
Although the cannibal scouts suspected why the Han army gave up the purpose of the salt pond, they could not think of anything. After careful investigation, they found that the people of the Han tribe had really withdrawn. Not only did they demolish the military camp, but they also filled up the trenches they had dug before. They left so cleanly that it was incredible.
However, they only needed to go back and report the news. Whether they needed to come back to occupy the place was not their task. The scouts went back and reported the news quickly.
Five days after the Han army withdrew, the cannibals sent about 300 people with weapons to test the place. After arriving at the place, they found that the Han tribe did not come to occupy it again. The Han army that had been stationed here before now returned to the vicinity of the salt ponds occupied by the Han tribe on the opposite side, as if they were planning to completely abandon the salt ponds on their side.
However, they still dared not be careless. The three hundred people stayed here for another three days, and the Han army still did not come to attack again. This made the cannibals feel relieved. They quickly sent people back to pass the message, asking the tribe to send some more warriors to guard and the people responsible for making salt.
The cannibals' cautious performance really made the battalion commander on the opposite side very angry. He cursed the cannibals on the opposite side as cowards in the barracks every day. What's the matter with you only getting three hundred people? Commander Xie had already explained that we should use the strategic position of the salt pond to fight a tug-of-war with the enemy. After eating a group of enemies, we should retreat and let them send people again, and then eat another group. This way, we can consume the enemy's living strength.
Now the enemy has sent 300 people, and he is a little disappointed. There are more than 1,700 people on his side. Three hundred people are not enough for his own battalion, and even the militia cannot be used.
The instructor of the first battalion advised him not to worry.
"Battalion commander, you don't have to worry. Didn't the scouts ahead say that the enemies ahead have been just staring at us vigilantly for the past three days and have not engaged in any production work? What do you think they are doing? Since they sent people to occupy the salt pond, they must have sent people to make salt. What's going on now? I'm sure they are observing our reaction. If we keep our composure these days, they will definitely send reinforcements or civilians over in the next few days, otherwise how can they make salt?"
The first battalion commander nodded. He also knew that what the instructor said made sense, but he was just feeling anxious. It would be boring without a battle, and how could he make merit without fighting? Now the commander-in-chief has taken the second and third battalions to fight a big battle, and he himself is fighting a tug-of-war with a thousand militiamen. What the hell is going on? The timid enemies dare not come over.
However, the fact was just as the instructor said. Three days later, the enemy really sent people again, and sent 700 more soldiers, making a total of 1,000 with the original 300 people. Then they moved more than 1,000 people, including the elderly, women, children, and even the disabled. These people were responsible for making salt here. After refining a batch of salt, they would divide 500 soldiers to send the salt back.
But what they didn't know was that it was already a luxury to send the salt back.
That night, the Han army stationed opposite the salt pond took action again. The first battalion commander had seen the successful case of using ether for a night attack last time, and he thought about doing it in the same way. The main thing was to use ether to stun the enemy. The casualties on both sides were relatively small. In this way, the Han tribe could avoid unnecessary sacrifices, and at the same time, they could capture more enemies with fewer deaths.
The first battalion commander didn't have ether in his hand, but the medical soldiers accompanying the army had it, which solved the problem.
So, that night, while the enemies were all asleep, the Han tribe used the same old tactics again. They first sent out a dozen militia hunters to kill the enemy sentries with bows, arrows, ropes, daggers and other tools, and then the battalion commander dispatched a platoon of soldiers with ether to knock out all the enemies.
In this way, at dawn the next day, more than 2,400 people sent by the cannibals to the salt pond became captives of the Han tribe again, and they didn't even know how they were captured.
Because after knocking these people out that night, the first battalion directly carried them to their side. Anyway, the two sides were not far away, and not only did they tie them up and take them back, they also took away the salt they had produced in the past two days.
The purpose of doing this is naturally to prevent the cannibals from obtaining salt. If they want to eat salt, they have to send more people over, otherwise they cannot complete the task.
In addition, the battalion commander left a dozen people in the enemy camp. These people were either old or disabled. It was not very useful to take them back as captives. It was better to leave them there and let them report back. Otherwise, the cannibals would not know the situation here. Who knows when they would send the next batch of people.
The dozen disabled people and old men who were left behind were also dumbfounded. They slept well last night, but when they opened their eyes in the morning, the whole camp was empty. Everyone disappeared, leaving only these dozen people. There were also a dozen dead people, who seemed to be the soldiers responsible for guarding. However, everyone else disappeared, which made them panic.
Some people suspected that it was a monster or some indescribable existence. Everyone was suspicious. However, no matter how they suspected, they could not stay in this place any longer. There was such a large salt pond, and there were only a dozen old men and disabled people left. There was no way to defend it anyway.
So these dozen people hastily buried the dozen dead bodies and immediately ran back to the cannibal tribe.
As for whether they will come again, when they will come, and how many people will come, there is no way to know, and now we can only wait.
However, this time we captured more than 2,000 prisoners at one time, which is also a great achievement. When we report it, we can say that we did not do nothing.
And the prisoners captured by the first battalion were also confused. They slept well in their own place last night, and nothing happened. When they opened their eyes the next day, they found that they were handcuffed and locked up in the camp of the Han tribe.
How did they get fat?
When were they captured?
Why don’t they know anything?
But no matter what, these people are now prisoners. Let them starve for two days. Even if they have any ideas, they don’t have the physical strength to realize them.
On the other hand, the main force led by Qu Bing himself also liked the tactic of night raids. It was because the victory at the hunting ground last time was too great. It was incredible to think that they captured nearly 10,000 people overnight with only a few hundred people. With such a temptation, not to mention Qu Bing, even You Ye and the officers and soldiers under the Shen Ce Guard wanted to repeat this method again.
Although ether was precious, it could not bring back such a great victory. If it could bring back tens of thousands of prisoners, then what would it matter if some ether was wasted?
So, Qubing and his men really repeated this operation. On the second night after the main force arrived at the river bend area, they launched another night attack and used anesthetics to knock out the old, weak, women and children of the cannibals gathered here.
These were the villages without young and strong men. There was no food in the village, so they took the initiative to run out to find food in groups. These people have been fishing here for more than half a month, and they can barely make a living for the time being. It's just that it's very cold in the wilderness, and many
people can freeze to death every day in half a month. And those who froze to death were eaten by each other, which was a terrible sight. Now they were captured by the Han tribe, which saved their lives in disguise. After all, the Han tribe would not starve them to death. These were all slaves used for work.
Tens of thousands of old, weak, women and children were escorted back again. At the same time, the camp in the river valley was also guarding these slaves to build more houses. Now, with these ten thousand people plus the twenty-four hundred captured in the salt pond and the approximately sixteen thousand people accumulated before, the total number of slaves captured by the Shen Ce Guards in the past four months is about to exceed thirty thousand, so they can only expand the prisoner camp, otherwise these slaves will freeze to death before they can be transported back to the south.
Fortunately, there are plenty of manpower now, and the Han tribe is not in a hurry.
However, although such a result is exciting, it also really surprised Qubing. Almost thirty thousand people have been captured, and there seem to be many cannibals. It is unknown when they will be captured. Fortunately, there are only two months before the beginning of spring. As long as they try their best to stop the enemy from going south in these two months, they can organize an attack after the beginning of next spring.
After taking these prisoners away, Qubing organized troops to blast the ice on the river bend and threw a large amount of shrubs and dead grass into the river. This was done to prevent the river from freezing again, and then the enemy would go south along the ice while they were not paying attention.
Now that the ice has been blown up, the enemy can only go south along the two sides of the river. In this way, the Han tribe only needs to block the river bank, and the enemy can't think of passing through here.
On the other side of the salt pond camp, after the soldiers of the first battalion captured the enemy on the opposite side, the remaining dozen old people and disabled people also hurriedly fled back to the forest in the north. After returning to their village, these people immediately reported the strange situation in the salt pond.
More than 2,000 people disappeared overnight, and only a dozen dead people were left there. Judging from the wounds, they should have been shot to death by bows and arrows, but there were no arrows. I think they should have been pulled out by the sneak attackers. After all, arrows are not easy to make and can be reused. It is normal to be pulled out. There
are no other forces around the salt pond that have the ability to sneak attack them, and there are bows and arrows. Except for the Han tribe, there is no one else, but they are very confused. How did the Han tribe capture more than 2,000 people overnight? If you want to capture them, just capture them all. Why did you leave more than a dozen people behind?
The most important thing is that the dozen people left behind didn't hear any movement at all. Anyone who knows about this will find it weird.
In addition, at dawn the next day, the dozen people found that the Han tribe on the opposite side had no reaction. They were still eating breakfast and training normally as usual. This matter was full of weirdness.
However, no matter how suspicious they were, they still had to eat salt. Since the Han tribe occupied the salt pond a few months ago, their villages had not replenished salt for a long time. They had been eating the previous stock for such a long time. Now the stock was almost gone. How could they not replenish salt? So they had to take back the salt pond.
However, in view of the previous strange events, the cannibals were also suspicious and didn't know what to do. Finally, they summoned the leaders of several villages to discuss and decided not to send so many people this time. In this way, even if they lost a group of people again, it would not hurt them.
So, several cannibal villages gathered a group of people again, divided into three parts, the first echelon is 500 totem warriors, responsible for seizing the salt pond, the second echelon is 500 laborers, after the first echelon occupied the salt pond, they would immediately go up to collect salt; the third echelon is still 500 warriors, they will stay behind, if there is an accident in front, then they can go to meet, if everything is normal, then these people will be responsible for transportation, no matter what, they have to transport a batch of salt back, the mouths of the family are almost dry.
After a few days, the vanguard of the cannibals arrived at the salt pond again, and the Han tribe scouts lurking in the surrounding area also sent the news back as soon as possible.
After listening to the report, the battalion commander couldn't help laughing. "It seems that these cannibals haven't made any progress. They still use the same routine as before, sending a small force to test first, and then sending a large force to collect salt in a few days. It's a pity that they don't know that all their actions are under the surveillance of our scouts."
The militia leader stationed here, Zai, just smiled and sneered at the cannibals. It's normal for a group of beasts who eat their own kind to have no progress.
However, the facts did not develop according to their ideas. After the 500-man vanguard reoccupied the salt pond, they immediately sent someone back to report the news. In just half an hour, the 500 laborers hanging behind caught up. After these people came, they didn't rest. They immediately started to burn fire and fetch water to prepare to boil salt, as if they were in a hurry. The third echelon at the back received the news and began to move forward, but still kept a distance of one thousand meters, ready to go over at any time to respond, or take the salt and run away.
After the scout found something wrong, he immediately sent the news over again, which made the battalion commander frown.
"What are they trying to do? Don't they want the salt pond anymore? Are they going to run away after collecting a batch of salt?"
Zai also frowned. "It's going to be difficult this time. The intention of their vanguard troops is very clear. They clearly don't plan to stay for long. They just occupied the area, and the salt miners behind them followed. They started working immediately. There are still 500 people hanging behind them, but they didn't come. They are too cautious."
"Humph, I don't care if they are cautious or not. Since they are here
, they must all stay." The commander of the first battalion gritted his teeth and said angrily. Just now they said that the enemy had suffered a loss but had not made any progress. As a result, they were slapped in the face by the enemy within an hour. It would be so embarrassing to tell others about
it. "Then what are you going to do? If we attack now, we have no advantage during the day. Moreover, there is a group of people following them. It is difficult for us to surround them. The enemy has 1,500 people, and we only have 1,700 people. The strength of both sides is about the same. If we want to surround them, we have to disperse our forces. At that time, our local forces will be at a disadvantage. We may suffer casualties." The instructor of the first battalion also analyzed.
(End of this chapter)
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