After the Spring Festival, Chu Chao-hui held a military conference, which only officers above battalion and company level were eligible to attend. Today there is a regiment in the valley, a cavalry battalion, the military camp in Nambu is also a regiment, but this regiment is not fully staffed, the two positions of regimental commander are vacant.
Chu Chao-hui announced at the meeting that a military operation would be held at the end of February, and that Zhou Cheng, the officer of the 1st Battalion, would be the supreme commander of the operation, commanding the 1st and 3rd Battalions, a total of 1,000 infantrymen, to take part in the operation.
Wei Qing because of the age of too little, or as a company commander position, not with Zhou Cheng as the same because of the expansion of the army rose to battalion commander, this expedition, Chu Chao Hui ready to let Wei Qing do the vanguard, with the military, there is a prestige can be convincing, the age of the small can also be promoted.
The cavalry battalion had 500 men, and the battalion commander was Zeng You, who had been a mountain bandit. The Cavalry Battalion clocked more than a hundred war horses, the rest were ordinary horses. For this military operation against the Tiger Tribe, all 500 cavalrymen of the Cavalry Battalion will participate.
Ma Ren, the commander of the 4th Battalion, stayed behind in the Nambu barracks, and he would lead the 4th Battalion to protect Nambu and the valley. There are still 500 recruits left in the valley, led by the commander of the second battalion, who is a bandit by birth, and will stay in the valley to continue training. Chu Chao Hui himself will follow the combat troops together with the river, this time he will not direct command, only in the rear pressure.
In order to make the soldiers combat morale high, Chu Chao Hui to the battalion officer to give the reason for the troops is that the tiger tribe is now bullying the eagle tribe, and so after bullying the eagle tribe, the next step is to come to attack the south port and the valley, in order to help the eagle tribe with the valley and the close relationship with the south port, and even more so in order to prevent the tiger tribe in the future claws to the north of the Changhe River, it is necessary for generals and soldiers to strangled the tiger tribe in the Su Plains.
When Chu Chao Hui talked about the Tiger Tribe's situation, he described the Tiger Tribe's greed and brutality, which made the sergeants under his command filled with righteous indignation, and they couldn't wait to cross the river to exterminate the Tiger Tribe now. When the meeting was adjourned, Chu Chao Hui left Zhou Cheng and Wei Qing behind.
"There is still more than a month to cross the river to fight, in this period of time, you summarize the intelligence and information collected, formulate a variety of combat plans, after a plan is formulated, let all the officers simulate the attack, make sure to find out the loopholes and deficiencies of the combat plan, and select the most tested plan for the course of action." Chu Chaohui to cultivate all the officers' ability to fight alone, in the era of no fast communication, the command and judgment of the officers is an important factor to achieve victory and reduce casualties.
"Yes! Sir!" Zhou Cheng and Wei Qing looked at each other with excitement and eagerness in their eyes.
Chu Chao Hui looked at the two confident subordinates, suddenly said slowly: "There is a point that must be remembered and kept secret, that is, don't drive the tiger tribe to extinction, be sure to let the tiger tribe retain a certain strength."
Wei Qing froze, his eyes looked at Chu Chao Hui to seek an answer, Zhou Cheng was full of puzzlement, not understanding how Chu Chao Hui, who had just incited the officers to completely eliminate the Tiger Tribe at the military meeting, now explicitly asked to let the Tiger Tribe have a way out.
Seeing that both of them didn't understand the mystery, Chu Chao Hui gently traced his finger on the topographic map north of the Chang River, with coldness in his eyes, "We won't limit our development to the two small places of Nambu and the valley, we will expand outwards in the future, the Eagle Tribe is the one that we must annex, we need his population and iron mines, and we also need to use this as a stronghold for expanding to the south, the Suk Plain is a very good place to be in. It will be good land for us later, you must remember that our army is for our economy, it exists to make life better for ourselves and our families."
Chu Chao Hui finished speaking and propped both hands on the conference table. "Think about why you should let the Tiger Tribe live."
Wei Qing raised his head fiercely, "My lord, Wei Qing understands, not wanting the Tiger Tribe to disappear is to allow the Eagle Tribe to have an enemy presence, so that the Eagle Tribe will have to rely on us all the time."
"Not bad!" Chu Chao Hui nodded approvingly at Wei Qing, who had always been the quickest to react.
Zhou Cheng stared at the map and pondered for a while before speaking his realization, "My lord, to defeat the Tiger Tribe but not to drive them to extinction, and to allow the Tiger Tribe to preserve a certain amount of strength, isn't it necessary to station troops north of the Yangtze River?"
Chu Chao Hui at this time face is gratified expression, Zhou Cheng reaction is not as fast as Wei Qing, but he is thinking about the week, think about things more comprehensive than Wei Qing, this is the reason Chu Chao Hui promoted Zhou into the first battalion commander, the first battalion commander is the future head of the preparatory candidates.
"Not bad, you guys analyzed it correctly! This is something you two have in mind, don't spread it out, and take this into consideration when making your battle plans."
"Yes! Sir!" Zhou Cheng and Wei Qing stood at attention and gave a military salute to indicate their acceptance of the mission.
When Zhou Cheng and Wei Qing left, Chu Chao Hui looked at the map out of his mind and his gaze moved to King Wu's capital.
Yu Kui reported back the news is that Jiang Daifu in the royal court constantly installed their own close friends, in the fiefdom to intensify the training of private soldiers, Ri Ji did not help the crown prince to choose the prince consort, but to help the king of Wu chose two young beauties, the king of Wu is now taking medication to renew his N spring, the thoughtful consort of Ri Ji to his more trusting.
Although Prince Zhao was authorized by the King of Wu to handle some state affairs, he still has no military power in his hands. Among the four major Secretaries of Departments, only the North Secretaries of Departments are in clear support of the Prince, and the North Secretaries of Departments are the descendants of the family of the Hussar Generals. East Sima and South Sima are under the command of King Wu's tiger, West Sima and Crown Prince Zhao have a dispute, the Harvest Festival pilgrimage trip, it has been seen that West Sima has fallen to Ri Ji's faction, when the Dacheng delegation left the capital of the King of Wu, West Sima was personally checking the gate, West Sima is not a complete defection to Ri Ji, Ri Ji will not allow West Sima to take part in the action of the murder of the Duke Guang's delegation.
On the surface, it seemed that Crown Prince Zhao and Yi Ji were evenly matched. Chu Chao Hui stared at the map of Wu for a moment in silence as he waved his hand for his guards to beckon Huang Zhong here.
Huang Zhong did not enter the army, but wearing the same clothes as the soldiers, Huang Zhong felt that such clothes are very spiritual, but also very warm, military uniforms and the northern hu people clothes are similar, the sleeves are very small, the belt with hooks around the waist, can be loosened or tightened, the same head wearing a hat, the hu people are wearing the hunde cap, here the soldiers wear a kind of floppy hat, when fighting in the floppy hat will also wear helmets, the feet wearing short leather boots, and hu clothes are different from the The length of the clothes is not knee-length, only up to the hips.
"Greetings, my lord." Huang Zhong entered and bowed respectfully towards Chu Chao Hui.
Chu Chao Hui waved his hand, signaling Huang Zhong not to be rude, "Huang Zhong, has your family arrived in the valley yet?"
"Your honor, Wu Dongjia has already sent someone via Chu to Chen to pick up, counting the time, should arrive in the next few days." Chu Chao Hui wants to use Huang Zhong greatly, but he can't trust unconditionally, Huang Zhong's family will be personally received by Wu Mu to settle in the valley, as a way to hold Huang Zhong in check.
Life in the valley is good, much better than in the barren Chen, Huang Zhong's family's old mother, wife and children are planting a dozen acres of dry land, life is very difficult, which is why Huang Zhong very much want to be rewarded by the nobles, thinking to be reused to improve the plight of the family, Chu Chaohui proposed to lend him his family, Huang Zhong did not feel that it is not good, he has no intention of betraying the lord, of course, does not feel that his family will become a hostage, Huang Zhong is very happy to see his family living in the valley. Huang Zhong is happy to see his family living in the valley.
"Family members come without worries, you can do things at ease, your future office will be in the south port, the external identity is a merchant, the main task is to understand the movements of the localities, merchants, boatmen, walkers, travelers are the object of your development, use them to help you collect intelligence, of course, the various places also need you to set up contact points."
Chu Chao Hui spoke in detail to Huang Zhong about the elements of establishing an intelligence network, assigning two of his men, four intelligence agents in the Tang Kingdom, and two slaves who raised birds.
The two henchmen were trained in the valley in the knowledge of espionage, how to use code words, how to use secret messages, these two have been proficient, the loyalty of the two has also been tested, and like Huang Zhong, these two have families and children, and their families and children are in the valley. They were placed by Huang Zhong's side, both as henchmen for Huang Zhong and to keep an eye on him. After all, Huang Zhong's time here was too short, and his loyalty had not been tested, so it was necessary to be on guard in advance.
The four intelligence agents of Tang country are arranged by Chu Chao Hui to monitor the secret dealings of Tang country's lord and Ripple Ji, what moves Tang country's lord has against Wu country must be inseparable from Ripple Ji's actions, nowadays these four people are all active in Tang king's capital. Because they only pay attention to the Tang king's every move, attention can not be other places within the territory of the Tang movements, even the Tang barrier began to intercept the news of the refugees did not observe, so that Chu Chao Hui deeply feel the lack of intelligence network, determined to establish a complete intelligence network, after the establishment of the Yellow Bell Intelligence Bureau, the main first in the establishment of a complete intelligence network in the Tang.
As for the two bird raising slaves assigned to Huang Zhong, they were good at taming pigeons. In the original time and space, from the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, southern China has a certain breeding and management of pigeons, but pigeons have not been used for communication, according to verifiable records from the Sui and Tang dynasties began to be used for communication.
In today's Qin, again, no one uses pigeons to send messages, but bird breeders are starting to appear, and the bird breeders are serving the nobles by raising ornamental birds for them. Now these two bird-breeding slaves will specialize in raising and training pigeons, training ordinary wild pigeons to become carrier pigeons, which will later be used exclusively for passing messages between intelligence sites and valleys.
The manpower provided to Huang Zhong was not much, but what was provided was quite a lot of funding, and with the funding, the development of manpower would not be too slow. However, Chu Chao Hui did not tell Huang Zhong about Yu Kui's activities in King Wu's capital, Yu Kui was too important to Zheng Chu and the two of them, his stronghold in King Wu's capital could not afford any slip-ups, Chu Chao Hui and Yu Kui would only have single-line contact.
At the end of February, the weather was slightly warmer, a large number of materials were transported to the Eagle Tribe by wooden boats from the valley and the south port, and 1,200 soldiers were secretly transported to the south bank in the darkness of the night, and Chu Chao-hui himself followed the last batch of wooden boats crossing the river to the Eagle Tribe, where he set up his general headquarters in the village of the Eagle Tribe.
Infantrymen were equipped with mostly rattan armor and a few with iron armor. Cavalrymen wore lock armor, which was the lightest and more maneuverable, suitable for cavalrymen. The soldiers' armor was not worn on their bodies at all times, usually marching was for the auxiliary soldiers to carry it on their backs, and only when they were about to enter the battlefield would the war soldiers take the armor from the auxiliary soldiers and put it on, and this was to allow the war soldiers to maintain their physical strength. The valley army has no auxiliary soldiers, only new soldiers, this time the first battalion and the third battalion that went on the march, the first battalion is a veteran soldier, the third battalion is a new soldier that has just been established for half a year, in the combat plan that Zhou Cheng has formulated, the first battalion is the main attacker, and the third battalion is the auxiliary, so all of the soldiers of the first battalion have all of their armor carried by the soldiers of the third battalion.
The tribesmen of the Eagle Tribe were very kind to their neighbors on the other side of the river, and they believed that the Wu people on the other side of the river had been their friends and were now their benefactors. Upon seeing the neatly formed, uniformly moving soldiers coming ashore, they were intrigued by the fact that these soldiers, who looked ordinary individually, stood together with a sense of intimidation.
Tuo Xiong led the elders to the long river dock to meet Chu Chaohui, the eagle tribe to the village of the best a house vacated to Chu Chaohui for the command, this house is modeled after the Nambu building style, brick and tile these building materials are bought from the Nambu.
Tuosu selected two dozen warriors from his tribe who were familiar with the terrain to follow the combat troops and set out to lead the way as guides for the army, while Tuosu himself followed Wei Qing's vanguard into battle.
Zhou Cheng's battle plan is very direct, without the use of ploys, in the strength of the complete victory over the Tiger Tribe, do not need to spend energy to fight with the Tiger Tribe of wisdom, the army followed Wei Qing's vanguard march, the goal of the Tiger Tribe's village directly.
The Tiger Tribe heard the news and organized two interceptions on the halfway, only animal skins and bamboo and wood made as the main weaponry of the Tiger Tribe warriors, is not at all the opponent of the heavily armed, in the hands of the Valley Slave Soldiers, the first interceptions left more than fifty corpses, more than thirty prisoners casualties, retreat in a state of disarray. The second time, the two allied tribes joined together and started a big battle with the valley slave soldiers at the edge of the Su Plain.
All the males of the Tiger Tribe who could go into battle went out to fight, because the Tiger Tribe knew that if they did not do everything in their power to stop the enemy outside of the Su Plains, their homes would be unprotected, and the Tiger Tribe not only went all out on their own, but they also forced all of the warriors of the two large tribes that had made a covenant with them to take part in the fight, making a total of nine hundred tribal warriors.
The Tiger Tribe alliance, relying on the number of people, surrounded the two hundred vanguard army, ready to eliminate the valley slave soldiers in one mouthful. Unfortunately, when the tiger tribe surrounded the vanguard army, was led by Zeng You more than one hundred lock armor cavalry from the periphery of the onslaught, backwardly equipped tribal warriors, facing the cavalry armed to the body of the horse, such as a child meets the adult people, the war is simply a one-sided massacre.
Riders with stirrups were trained to control their horses well and could fight flexibly on their horses, and infantry facing such cavalry was basically a death sentence. When Zhou Cheng's large troop outflanked from the periphery, the machetes of the cavalry warriors had already hacked their blades to the point where they were chipped.
Zhou Cheng took the binoculars at a hilltop to take a look, bad, the large force to wrap the encirclement if the tiger tribe warriors have to be wiped out, he hastened to let the messenger to play the flag, instructing the troops to vacate a gap to facilitate the escape of the tiger tribe.
The Tiger Tribe was more ferocious and resourceful than the two alliances, and when they realized that there was a gap, they decisively left the alliances behind to break out towards the gap. Tuosu jumped to his feet and watched the Tiger Tribe's remnants of more than two hundred people fleeing toward the southern mountains. After the battle, Tuosu went to Chu Chao Hui and complained, accusing Zhou Cheng of command failure, not setting up a tight arrangement, and the cavalry battalion commander, Zeng You, of focusing only on chasing after the Tiger Tribe's two allied tribes and letting the real threat go.
Chu Chao Hui was furious when he heard the war report, Zhou Cheng and Zeng You were both punished, they were relegated by Chu Chao Hui to the Su Plain to take turns on guard, using the Tiger Tribe's village as a temporary garrison, searching for the remnants of the Tiger Tribe here, making sure to block the Tiger Tribe outside of the Su Plain, and guaranteeing the safety of the Eagle Tribe and the other tribes that have defected to the Eagle Tribe.
In the battle of Su Plain, Chu Chao Hui brightly established his first military base here.