kvmb Chapter 141 Special Operations Hidden
Chapter 141 Special Operations Hidden
After Nurhaci and his troops traveled for another two or three hours, they finally found a new river. After having several slaves and some horses try it out and confirming that the river water and the surrounding aquatic plants were not poisonous, Nurhaci then ordered the entire army to rest.
At this time, Nurhaci called his men and asked, "How many soldiers and horses did we lose before? Have you calculated it?"
"Your Majesty, nearly 500 of our horses have been poisoned. Three hundred and twenty-six soldiers have been poisoned, and there are more than 400 soldiers whose poisoning is less severe and should be able to survive."
After hearing the numbers reported by his subordinates, Nurhaci punched his leg angrily and said, "Humph! How hateful! Eyidu, Daishan, who do you think could have done this?"
"Khan, in my opinion, this is probably Lu Cheng's doing."
Daishan also nodded: "Father Khan, Lu Cheng has always acted in a despicable way and used any means necessary. This should be what he did."
Nurhaci snorted coldly, "I guess it's this Lu Cheng. If this man is not eliminated, he will be a great threat to the Jurchens! After this war is over, you will do everything you can to eliminate this Lu Cheng. Assassination, poisoning, as long as you can use all the methods, use them all. In addition, post a reward, anyone who can kill Lu Cheng will be rewarded with 100,000 taels of silver!"
"Yes, King Khan."
At this moment, Lu Cheng did not know that Nurhaci had already put a price on his life.
After seeing the Later Jin army stop to rest, Lu Cheng did not stop to rest, but continued to move forward, looking for a suitable place.
After experiencing the previous poisoning incident, the Later Jin army also realized that Lu Cheng must be hiding in the dark, and became obviously more vigilant. They sent out a large number of cavalry to search ahead continuously, looking for traces of Lu Cheng and others.
Therefore, Lu Cheng and others continued to move forward along another road, trying to keep as much distance as possible from the Later Jin army, and looking for places that the Later Jin scouts could not detect.
That night, the Later Jin army set up camp in a wilderness and deployed a large number of sentries on the outskirts.
Seeing that there was no suitable opportunity, Lu Cheng did not choose to take action, but continued to hide in the dark and wait for the opportunity, which also allowed the Later Jin army to relax their vigilance.
The next day, the Later Jin army continued on their journey. When they stopped to rest, they would use slaves and horses to test nearby water sources and aquatic plants to prevent poisoning again.
Fortunately, there was no further poisoning incident, and Nurhaci relaxed his vigilance slightly.
It was not until after noon, when the Later Jin army arrived at a valley, that Nurhaci ordered the army to stop marching and sent out a large number of scouts to check the valley and the hillsides on both sides. After confirming that there was no one hiding in the entire valley and the hillsides on both sides, he ordered the army to march into the valley.
This valley is four or five miles long and can accommodate seven or eight horses walking side by side, so it is relatively spacious.
After confirming that there was no problem, Nurhaci ordered the entire army to pass quickly.
Although he had sent scouts to conduct a detailed search, Nurhaci was still somewhat uneasy and kept urging the army to pass through the valley as quickly as possible.
Nurhaci finally breathed a sigh of relief only when the vanguard of the army left the valley.
However, at this moment, nimble and agile figures suddenly jumped down from some trees on the hillsides on both sides.
These figures were all wearing clothes dyed grass green. Some of them had hats woven from wild grass on their heads and some wild grass on their bodies. As long as they lay down in the grass or hid directly in the trees, it would be difficult for others to find them.
After these figures jumped out, they immediately ran to the edge of the cliff, took out fire starters, lit the explosive packs one by one, and threw them into the valley below.
Some of the explosive packs were thrown directly into the cavalry troops, and some were deliberately thrown onto the hillsides on both sides, some of which were filled with rubble.
In an instant, a series of explosions sounded in the valley, rocks flew everywhere, people and horses fell to the ground, and screams were heard.
Nurhaci, who was about to reach the exit of the valley, quickly gave orders to speed up the march.
The cavalry who had already rushed out of the valley hurriedly moved towards the hillsides on both sides, trying to find Lu Cheng and his soldiers.
However, at this time, Lu Cheng and his special forces team members immediately turned around and retreated after throwing a wave of explosives, giving the enemy no chance to discover them.
After all the Later Jin troops rushed out of the valley, Nurhaci looked at the many embarrassed Later Jin soldiers and asked, "How many soldiers did we lose this time?"
"More than 300 people were seriously injured or killed, and nearly 1,000 people were injured to varying degrees. Thousands of horses were lost. The scene was chaotic, and many horses were frightened and collided and trampled on each other..."
After hearing the whole story, Nurhaci was furious: "Lu Cheng! I will never forgive you!"
However, Lu Cheng had already walked far away at this time and could not hear Nurhaci's incompetence and rage at all.
After Lu Cheng led his men out of the valley, the special forces members were still a little excited: "Sir, this should be considered a real special operation, right?"
"Just barely. Poisoning, camouflage, hiding, and blasting are only a small part of special operations. You still have a lot to learn. In the future, you may need to perform various tasks, assassinating enemy leaders, poisoning the wells in the enemy city, spreading rumors in the enemy-occupied area, sneaking and blasting the city gates, burning the enemy's food and grass, etc. Special operations means using any means to achieve the goal."
"Sir, shall we continue chasing?"
"We should stop chasing them and return. The Later Jin Tartars must be more alert now, and it will be difficult to find a suitable opportunity. Besides, our Haizhou City has just experienced a great war and needs to be reorganized. There are still many things to do. As for those Tartars, let's keep them for now. There will be plenty of opportunities to kill them later."
"Yes, my lord."
"Return immediately."
Two or three days later, when Lu Cheng rushed back to Haizhou City, the commander of the army, Ma Bojun, immediately came to greet him and said, "General, you are finally back. The governor sent someone to invite you over a long time ago."
Lu Cheng nodded: "I will go to see the governor now. The defense of Haicheng will be handed over to you first."
The two original captains of Haizhou Guard were both promoted from the lowest levels. They had no problem with their abilities and were qualified to be captains. Their character was also good. After getting along with each other for more than half a year, they had completely recognized Lu Cheng as a general.
Moreover, the more than 3,000 soldiers in Haizhou City had all been reorganized by Lu Cheng. The appointment and dismissal of middle and lower-level officers such as the general flag and the centurions were basically approved by Lu Cheng, and their loyalty was not a problem.
Coupled with the long-term ideological construction and interest connections, even if Lu Cheng led these soldiers to rebel, these soldiers would basically be willing to follow him.
Of course, at this moment, Lu Cheng was still loyal to the Ming Dynasty on the surface.
After rushing all the way to Liaoyang, Lu Cheng immediately went to meet Xiong Tingbi.
Xiong Tingbi was also quite happy to see Lu Cheng. He was originally very worried about the massive attack by the Later Jin army and had even prepared for a decisive battle with the Later Jin army.
However, Lu Cheng defended the entire Haizhou city with only a few thousand soldiers, causing Nurhaci to suffer a great loss and eventually have to flee in defeat.
It can be expected that Nurhaci would not easily invade Liaodong again in the next period of time, and Liaodong also gained more time for development.
"Lu Cheng, you fought beautifully in this battle to defend the city."
"Thank you for your praise, sir. This is also inseparable from your great help and guidance."
"I didn't give you any orders. I just provided you with some supplies. By the way, can you teach other generals how to make bombs and explosive packs?"
"Of course, no problem. However, these methods are kept strictly confidential by me. All the craftsmen involved in the production are strictly controlled by me to prevent them from leaking the methods. I am worried that if these methods are passed on to other generals, if they fail to keep them confidential and the Jian Nu learn them, it may cause trouble for us in turn."
Xiong Tingbi was silent for a moment after hearing this: "What you said does make some sense. Let me think about this matter again and come up with a comprehensive solution. By the way, after winning the battle, you did not stay in the city. What did you do?"
"Nothing much, just to cause some trouble to Nurhaci and kill some of his soldiers."
Xiong Tingbi immediately became interested: "Oh? Tell me in detail."
Lu Cheng did not hide anything and gave a brief account of the poisoning and ambush. Xiong Tingbi was delighted when he heard this: "Okay! I will immediately send people to check along the way. If what you said is true, I will also report this achievement to you."