Chapter 983 Battle Plan
Lu Ping looked curiously at the telescope in Qubing's hand and the weapons of the two guards beside him. They were things he had never seen before, and all of them were made by the Han tribe he had never been to.
"Compass."
Qubing used the telescope to observe the surroundings, and then reached out for a compass. It was a small compass sealed in an exquisite wooden box, with a diameter of only five centimeters. There was also a round convex lens in the middle to magnify the scale on the compass for the user to observe.
The most important thing was that on one corner of the square wooden box containing the compass, there was a crystal cap embedded in the wooden box, which was filled with water and a bubble swaying inside. After Qubing took it, he carefully adjusted the bubble to the center of the circle at the top of the crystal cap before he began to observe the compass needle inside.
"The things you use are all very special. I've seen this compass. Captain You and his men also have one, but it's bigger than the one you use, and it doesn't have a box. What's this round thing on your compass? Why are you filling it with water and it's not full yet?" After looking at it for a while, Lu Ping next to him finally couldn't help asking.
"Oh, you mean this? This is the latest model of military compass. It's small in size, light in weight, more convenient to carry, and more accurate. The one on top is a magnifying glass, which can magnify the compass scale for easy observation. It can also be removed in an emergency to make fire.
"The one on the corner is a level, which is used to adjust the compass's horizontal posture. Simply put, it's more accurate to put it flat. Also, it's not filled with water, but alcohol with pigment. If it was water, it would have frozen in this environment." Seeing that he was curious, Qu Bing explained, and then continued to ask.
"Have you ambushed the cannibal team here before?"
"Yes, we have ambushed, and fought many times." Lu Ping glanced at the compass and answered immediately.
"What was the final result? "Qubing continued to ask.
He had discovered that this was not the best ambush site, because in this position, even if they could repel or annihilate the enemy, it was still inconsistent with their combat purpose. They came to capture prisoners, not to fight to the death with the cannibals.
"As for the results of the battle, there are big and small results. A big result means killing more enemies. If the enemy has more people and we have fewer people, then we can sneak attack them once and run away, but we can't run to this side, otherwise we will expose this place.
"Anyway, we are the active party, so we have never suffered any loss in any battle." Lu Ping immediately explained.
"Well, then when you have fewer people, if you run away after the sneak attack, will they chase you?" Qubing asked another key question.
"Chase, but they will chase for a while. Later, when they chase again, You Changshi will arrange some people to ambush them in advance. If they are ambushed, they will not dare to chase again. And whether the enemy will chase you or not depends on the person." Lu Ping explained again.
"Oh? What do you think?"
"It depends on the people. If we ambush the old, weak, sick and disabled who are out looking for food, they will not chase us no matter what. Instead, they will run away. But if we encounter a hunting team composed of young and strong people, it depends on the situation.
If the team is led by You Changshi and there are not many people, the enemy will chase them. They are very angry with You Changshi. As long as they see him, they will definitely not let him go if they have a chance.
But if there is no You Changshi leading the team, and we are outnumbered, the enemy will not chase us, but they will not run away, but stay there and continue to wait and see. If the number of people is similar to theirs, they will come over to fight. If we have more people than them, they may retreat." Lu Ping explained his combat experience with gestures.
"Oh, so that's how it is." Qubing nodded thoughtfully. At this time, he had a general plan.
It turns out that different arrangements must be made for different enemies, but no matter how to arrange it, the troops on one side must be larger than the enemy's. Only by concentrating superior forces to surround the enemy can the enemy be captured alive.
Otherwise, one squad can kill a hundred people on the other side, but what's the use? The leader wants living, working prisoners.
"Qubing, what are you looking at? Why don't you go in and eat?"
At this time, You Ye suddenly came over from behind. He had just led the soldiers to the sentry post to rest, but after waiting for a long time, he didn't see Qu Bing coming down, so he came out to find him again.
"Uncle You, you came at the right time. Let me ask, do those cannibals really appear here often? How many people come each time, and how often do they appear?" Qu Bing asked immediately when he saw You Ye coming.
"Well, they come here often, at least dozens of people each time, and as many as three or four hundred. This is when they go out. If they go north from the south and capture people, it's not certain. It depends on how many prisoners they capture. As for the frequency of appearance, three to five days is about the same. There will definitely be people here every three to five days." Youye thought for a while and said.
"So what you mean is that they go south more often and the time is more regular, but the number of people and time when they come back from the south to the north are uncertain?" Qubing summarized.
"Well, it's like this. After all, this is the source of the Ruyang River and the Liuyang River. The river is the road that guides their direction. Whether they lead the team south, come back, or fish, they will pass by here, but the frequency is actually not fixed.
"I have been here for nearly four years, and I have a certain understanding of their situation. I have also summarized some rules. Let's put it this way. They live in the forest in the north in the form of villages, and their food sources are three kinds.
"First, there is a problem with the harvest from those fixed traps. That is, these traps have been set for too long. The stupider birds and beasts living in the forest have almost been eaten by them. The remaining ones are smarter than each other and have long been fooled by the traps. Even if some of them are stupid enough to send food to them, the quantity is very limited and is not enough for them to eat.
"The second is a hunting ground on the east side of the forest. The east side of the forest is all rolling mountains. The terrain is mainly stone mountains, sparse woods, shrubs, and grasslands. There is also a river there that flows eastward.
"There are usually a large number of wild animals gathered there, such as bighorn deer, mountain argali, alpacas, long-haired bison, long-haired rhinoceros, and wild donkeys. They are all in large groups. It is the main hunting ground for cannibals. Generally speaking, as long as the prey caught in their traps is not enough to eat, they will organize the young and strong warriors in the village to go hunting in the east to obtain food.
"The third factor is more important, which is the weather here. The winter here is very long, at least six months. It mainly depends on the weather in the first three months. If there is a lot of snow in the first three months of winter and it is very cold, the snow will cover the grass and shrubs on the ground. The herds of animals that eat grass will not be able to dig up food, so the herds in the east will migrate to the south.
"At that time, the cannibals will lose their prey for wintering here, so they will venture south to plunder the people of the southern tribes for food. If they are too hungry, they will even eat the people in their own nest.
"However, the winter here is too long. Even if there are no heavy snowfalls in the first three months, the beasts in the east will eat up all the grass roots, bushes, leaves and other things on the ground. In three months, they will almost eat up all the land. In the last three months of winter, they will still migrate to the south, so the cannibals can only hunt in the first three months of winter.
"During the first three months, they have to hunt and store food as much as possible. If they don't store enough, they will have to go south to plunder the people and food of other tribes."
Qubing was stunned. It was the first time he heard this theory. Was this the reason why the cannibals went south to attack other tribes? !
The weather was the reason that affected whether the enemy would go south, but then Qubing found another mismatch.
"That's not right. I remember that the first time our leader encountered those cannibals in the Tree Tribe was in autumn. Later, when the cannibals took the initiative to attack our city, it seemed to be winter. But they seemed to have come in spring and summer before. The time doesn't match?"
"Why doesn't it match? Let me ask you, how long did it take you to get here by boat?"
Youye asked back immediately after hearing Qubing's question, but before he could answer, he continued.
"It took you more than a month to get there by boat. Those cannibals have no horses, no boats, and no cars. Oh, they have elephants, but they are a minority after all. With so many people, they rely on their two legs. Even if they set out in winter, it will take several months to reach us. If they are slower, it may take a year. Who knows when those cannibals who attacked our tribe set out.
"Also, I just missed a point. It's not just the winter weather. If there is a late spring cold snap in the spring, or if spring comes a month or half a month late, causing their food reserves to be exhausted, and the beasts in the east don't come back, they will still go south even in spring.
"If you count it this way, if they set out in the spring, they may really reach our Han tribe in the fall."
Qubing was speechless this time by Youye's explanation. If you count it this way, it is really possible, and who knows if those cannibals will encounter something on the way and delay them, such as attacking a tribe, and then absorbing and digesting it before continuing to move forward. Such a series of battles will always take time, right?
Therefore, it is really impossible to calculate the time when the cannibals arrived at the Han tribe. There is no point in dwelling on this issue.
"Let's go, let's eat first. It's so cold, and if you don't eat enough, you'll freeze to death." Seeing that Qubing was silent, Youye called him to eat again.
This time, Qubing did not object, and took two of his personal soldiers to go into the underground sentry post to eat.
The entrance to the sentry post was built under the roots of a huge dead tree in the woods. There was a slope leading underground, about five or six meters deep. Below was a long straight corridor, about one meter and a half high. People could walk in it while crouching, and it could accommodate two people walking side by side, which was quite spacious.
There were two side chambers on each side of the corridor. There were kangs in the side chambers, which were large bunk beds. About thirty people could sleep in one room. If they slept on the floor, they could sleep a few more people. However, there was a lot of food stored in the empty space in the side chambers, so it was obviously impossible to sleep on the floor. Each side chamber had a hidden vent leading to the ground.
At the end of the corridor is a kitchen, where there is a large circular stove. The four side rooms are all heated in this kitchen. The kitchen is also higher than the side rooms to prevent smoke from entering the side rooms. The kitchen is higher, so smoke can only gather in the kitchen.
The sentry who stayed behind was cooking here at this time, and the young man who Lu Ping just replaced was also helping in the kitchen. The food everyone ate was pretty good. In addition to corn cakes, there were some smoked bacon and sausages, and there were also a lot of pickles. Of course, it was impossible to eat fresh vegetables in this season, but it was good to have a hot meal in the ice and snow. The
personal soldiers brought food to Qubing in a lunch box, four corn cakes, two sausages, and a pickled cucumber. While he was eating, he was thinking about what Youye had just said.
When he was eating the pickled cucumbers, he suddenly asked Youye, "Uncle You, where does your salt come from? I remember that the tribe didn't seem to send you salt. And where do those cannibals get their salt from?"
"Of course the tribe didn't send it to us. If we even needed the tribe to supply salt, the leader would definitely not agree to let us build a base here. The transportation cost would be too high.
"Our salt, and the cannibals' salt, all come from the salt pond in the hunting ground in the east. You should have thought that if there was no salt in the hunting ground, how could the herds gather there? After all, those cattle, sheep, and deer also need salt, and our salt is also collected and refined there." Youye explained immediately after hearing this.
"Then you all collect salt there, have you never encountered cannibals? Have you had any conflicts? "Qubing asked again.
"Of course we did. At the beginning, we didn't know where the salt was, so we followed the cannibals and looked around. We also scouted everywhere. Later, we found their salt-collecting grounds, so we fought with them for it. We had a few fights. At that time, there were not many people in the base, so we won and lost. Many people died on both sides.
"Later, we scouted more and found that there was more than one salt pond in the east. In order to reduce unnecessary sacrifices, we changed places to collect salt. The cannibals also knew about it, but later we had more people, and they wanted to occupy all the salt ponds but couldn't beat us. Both sides occupied several salt ponds, and it is relatively balanced at present. There has been no conflict for a long time." Youye explained again.
Qubing's eyes lit up when he heard it. After listening to Youye's talk, he already knew how to fight this battle.
He could send people to rob the cannibals' salt ponds. This was a must-fight place. Without salt, no matter how powerful the cannibals were, they could not survive. So if the salt ponds were robbed, they would definitely send troops to take them back.
The second is to rob the cannibals of their prey and ambush their hunting teams. This way, they can capture the cannibals' young and strong captives and reduce their food reserves. In this way, they will not have enough food and will inevitably be forced to move south.
Third, when the cannibals are out of salt and prey, they cannot beat the Shen Ce Guards, and then they will have no choice but to take the risk of moving south to conquer the southern tribes. At that time, I will lead my men to block them on the road they must take to the south.
With these three approaches, when the enemy's living forces are almost eliminated, we will launch a nail-pulling general attack on the enemy's residence, flattening them one village at a time.
(End of this chapter)
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