stubborn thief

Chapter 266 Pulling
On both sides of the Gaiqu River on the border between Baili and Nangqian, there is a strange strategic situation.

Dunyue Duoji's front-line troops were encircled and wiped out, and the front-line supplies were exhausted. Reinforcement troops from all over the country gathered in the hometown of Longda and deployed defenses on the front lines of Kangzhu and Qamdo on the west bank of the Jinsha River, but they still did not retaliate.

However, Liu Chengzong's army was as powerful as a broken bamboo, but they did not garrison. They only crossed the river bank with a small number of pond horses to explore the terrain.

Prayer flags were hunting, eagles and vultures were circling in the valley, and heavily armed heavy-armored warriors from both sides occupied the hills and confronted each other along the vast and majestic snow-capped mountains and the rushing river valleys, and maintained a strange peace.

Because the barley is ripe.

Dunyue Duoji's army is busy harvesting food to supply the front line, while Liu Chengzong's army is busy gathering intelligence...they need to know where there is food.

From the Jinsha River to Zhaqu, from Dege Territory to Qamdo, the Baili Army has stationed tens of thousands of troops along the [-]-mile-long defense line and over a dozen mountain passes that are easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In comparison, the Lion Army has no defense line. They focus on garrisoning Danba and the banks of the Jinsha River, trying to find loopholes in the enemy's defense and win the war in an easier way. But until now, the officers of the Lion Army are still at a loss.

Until Li Bei, who went out with the army, couldn't sit still.

He could see that the generals of the Lion Army had fought many times with the best armies in the world and won victories. These veterans who crawled out of the dead had outstanding abilities in directly commanding battles on the battlefield, and they were all very good at killing people.

But when it comes to war, they are a bunch of laymen.

Li Bei didn't want to say anything at first, he was a surrendered general, and many generals in the army didn't like him.

On the other hand, he also couldn't understand the strategic intentions from Liu Chengzong to Cao Yao, Zhang Tianlin and others.

It wasn't until he heard it many times that he finally understood—the strategy of this group of people was to conquer every inch of the land controlled by King Briley.

The centripetal force of this army is very strong, and each general has different tactical choices.

Cao Yao advocated destroying all fortresses with artillery and guns, Wang Wenxiu advocated gathering heavy troops to lure the enemy into a decisive battle, and Zhang Tianlin advocated mobilizing cavalry to attack the grain road behind.

In general, the purpose is the same, to completely destroy King Bailey's defense.

The generals were arguing for their claims. Li Bei sat behind and said, "Marshal, go around."

Liu Chengzong was quietly listening to the arguments of the generals, each had its own advantages and disadvantages, the decision of which tactic to choose was in his hands.

He suddenly heard Li Bei's words, but he didn't react: "Huh? What did General Li say?"

"I said, we can go around."

Zhang Tianlin was at a disadvantage in the debate, mainly because his official position was low, Cao Yao and Wang Wenxiu were both battalion generals, and Qian Zong of the Buying Pao Battalion did not speak, and listened to their battalion generals.

Only Yang Yao, the battalion general of the horse camp, stayed behind in Haibei. As the representative of the generals of the horse camp, he must win the opportunity for the brothers of the horse camp to fight.

Hearing Li Bei's words suddenly, he stared and said: "General Li, the cavalry has already explored with Tang Qi, those mountain passes are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not easy to go around any place, there are fortresses behind, so you can't go around. "

"Keep going around, and in the end we can only be trapped in a tight siege!"

Li Bei shook his head and ignored Zhang Tianlin at all. He was not on the same level of thinking about the issue, which made him lose the desire to express.

Strange to say, the more this is the case, the more he hates the court.

If it wasn't for these deserters and old thieves who could eat enough, if it wasn't for the officers and soldiers who couldn't eat enough, how could they, the officers and soldiers, lose!

But Liu Chengzong was looking forward to it. This was the first time Li Bei spoke in the general-officer discussion. He said: "General Zhang, don't worry, let General Li finish talking... General Li, tell me your thoughts, I want to hear. "

For a long time, there have been thoughts in the Lion Army that belittle traditional generals, civil officials, and even culture.

Their generals are all veterans who started from humble beginnings, and the highest official positions are Yang Yao, who was born in the cavalry chief, and Wang Wenxiu, who was born in the infantry chief.

Cao Yao, who was a general, was not in charge of the team; Liu Chengzu, who became a commander, was not in charge of the team.

As for the more generals, most of them did not have military positions in the past, but under the leadership of Liu Chengzong, they defeated generals and generals one after another.

To them, the traditional generals and officers are nothing more than that, they are all dead bodies and vegetarian meals.

'You said he knew a lot and he was strong, so why did he lose? '

For them, Ming's officers were too conservative.

In any dynasty, the thinking of the army is the most conservative. For example, it was very slow to introduce a new weapon. From the introduction of the bird gun in the Jiajing year, there are still three-eyed guns on the nine sides.

It's the same as Liu Chengzong still can't believe in bird guns.

Because the battlefield is a place of life and death, there is no chance of trial and error. People trust their familiar weapons, familiar tactics, and familiar systems more.

But the generals of the Lion Army are different. They have been in a mortal situation for a long time, and they must use what they get. To put it bluntly, no one alive is dead.

People believe in and benefit from their own wisdom and strength, furthering this awareness.

Liu Chengzong is caught between these two types of people. He is different from others. Others’ hundred is always the end of his career. If it is 30 to [-] years ahead of schedule, there will be no drought and no decline in national power, and the management team or the hundred bosses will only be his starting point.

He trusts these new generals who are forced to become a progressive force, and he also believes that traditional generals must have their own strengths.

Li Bei was stared at by him for a long time with a serious expression on his lips, before he sighed and explained to everyone: "Bypassing the defense line is not for the purpose of bypassing the defense line."

"We are not familiar with the terrain. They are guarding the difficult-to-attack area of ​​the mountain pass. There is a fort behind the defense line, and there is a fort behind the fort. The Lion Army is better at marching guns, and it is stronger than the enemy in all aspects, but the enemy has a good location."

"Can our food and grass be supplemented, how many ammunition horses, how many soldiers' lives can be crushed step by step?"

Li Bei paused, Cao Yao was opening his mouth to defend, when Liu Chengzong, who was sitting at the head, gave him a glare, tilted his head and looked to the side, waiting for Li Bei to finish speaking.

Liu Chengzong knew what Cao Yao wanted to say even if he didn't listen, it was nothing more than plundering noble manors, and they could always get food.

Li Bei looked around at the generals in the hall, and sighed deeply: "Anyone can win a battle with sufficient food and supplies. Can our generals still win when they run out of ammunition and food?"

Cao Yao and the others were dumbfounded by the question.

After thinking about it, Cao Yao found that what Li Bei said was right. Since the incident with Liu Chengzong, he had hardly fought a battle where he ran out of ammunition and food. Even hunger was a long-standing memory.

Wang Wenxiu sat on the side and lowered his head to pick his nails. He had been beaten, he and Yang Yao had been beaten, and he was beaten by the officers and soldiers so hard that he couldn't find his way, otherwise he wouldn't have defected to Liu Chengzong.

Zhang Tianlin was kept silent by the questioning, since he left the army, he has been living a very carefree life, although before taking over Qin Wang Zhuangzi, he could not help being hungry and full, but when he was hungry, he did not fight with the army.

Luo Rucai simply looked at Li Laozheng at each other, and the two of them covered their mouths to prevent themselves from laughing out loud.

Then do you still need to fight when you run out of ammunition and food?Luo Caocao's troops were ruthless characters who were stationed without food for a winter and fought against themselves.

The generals were first laughed angrily, then fell into deep thought, and finally looked at Liu Chengzong one by one.

The reason why all of them can't run out of ammunition and food is Liu Chengzong.

Li Bei shook his head, asking this made him quite ashamed.

He never thought in his life that he would ask a group of generals who were former thieves if they could go to war after running out of ammunition and food.

At first glance, this situation seems to be the patent of thieves. In fact, the government and army always fight bravely when they are out of ammunition and food, and then lose the war.

In fact, Li Bei was still not convinced in the end, maybe he didn't realize it, not only for himself, but also for Cao Wenzhao and others.

More of a grievance against the court.

"We have a lot of gunpowder, but not enough to blast through one fort after another. We have a lot of soldiers and horses, but not enough to bear the consumption caused by besieging the fort again and again."

Liu Chengzong nodded slowly at the head, he couldn't sleep well that night, Fan Sanlang who was on duty in the hall was preparing gunpowder.

The gunmen on duty at night consume gunpowder every night, load their guns at night, and destroy the gunpowder the next morning, so the guards are already reluctant to use granular gunpowder for night duty, and use the gunpowder raw materials they found in Nangqian to make their own.

But these raw materials are enough for daily consumption, and once a war starts, there is no way to replenish them.

The same problem also appeared in grain, so Liu Chengzong was not in a hurry to attack. He hoped to create a good environment for Baili's nobles to harvest grain.

He opened his mouth and asked: "Then General Li said that you should go around, not for the purpose of going around, what should you say?"

"Commander, our army is more elite than theirs, and our generals are more united than their nobles, so every order of the commander can be executed very well."

Li Bei praised the generals of the Lion Army, and then said: "Now the defense line in front of us is tightly guarded. Their army is composed of nobles and recruited soldiers. Each of these people has his own territory, each has his own subordinates. mind."

Li Bei said that he had entered the state, he got up and walked around to the side, signaled to Liu Chengzong for permission, picked up the wooden whip, pointed to the rear of the defense line on the map, and said: "If these people want to stick to the fort and maintain the defense line, there must be a fortress behind to support it." , Tang Qi should go to find the location of these fortresses."

"If it is as I expected, the rear fortress should be able to transport food, arrows, gunpowder, and supplies around. We are in an enemy's territory, and this is the front line where Bai Li and Nangqian confronted in the past. The enemy army has a great advantage in transporting food and grass here. "

Li Bei raised his hand and drew a line along the banks of the Jinsha River: "If the mobilization is done properly and they bypass the line of defense and attack the Dege area, their troops will be mobilized, and the food roads here will be useless. The environment in which they transport food and grass is similar to ours." Similar, that's one of them."

"Secondly, bypassing the line of defense quickly will cause the enemy to panic. If King Baili is not on the front line, his army will be scattered and become a scattered army. The aristocrats will move fast and slow, they have no gaps, and we will create gaps."

All the generals listened with great interest, Cao Yao asked, "What about Nangqian, don't you want it?"

"The war in Nangqian has lasted from last year to this year. The nobles in a radius of [-] miles to the southeast have been uprooted, and the food and grass in the local area have also been collected. It has become a wasteland. What's the use of them taking the opportunity to attack Nangqian?"

Li Bei was full of doubts: "The commander of the lion army is marching and fighting in the field, how can he guard a piece of white ground and bind himself."

With one word to wake up the dreamer, Liu Chengzong and others suddenly realized... They were trapped by this piece of land.

"I understand!" Liu Chengzong applauded Dayue: "Just like in northern Shaanxi, leave them behind, beat the ones who came first and then those who came later, and finally go and beat those who can't come."

With the help of Li Bei, Tang Qi of the Lion Army has the direction of investigation.

Tang Bing is not an unannounced spy. This unit is set up for the Monan Mongols. They hardly need to hide their whereabouts. They are specially used to cover the battlefield, so sending them to investigate intelligence is almost a clear investigation.

Teams of pond soldiers crossed snow-capped mountains and walked through river valleys under the noses of the enemy. There were only five people in each pond, and they entered the enemy's control area.

If there are many enemies, they will retreat in other directions one by one. If there are few enemies, they will fight on horseback. Even the best equipped Dokang cavalry are afraid of their three-eyed guns.

However, both sides were basically transparent in terms of troop strength and location. Liu Chengzong's control area in the southeast of Nangqian was even more transparent to Bai Lijun.

There is no way to defend the four hundred-mile-long border.

Both sides even had the mentality of deliberately letting the opponent see. Bai Lijun hoped to make the opponent retreat in the face of difficulties, and Liu Chengzong hoped to show off his power and make the opponent surrender.

Tang Bing brought back the information much faster than Liu Chengzong imagined.

Dunyue Dorji's army deployed three layers of defense in an inverted triangle shape.

The enlisted slave army was at the forefront, and a small number of elite soldiers stood firm at the mountain passes. They were building camps at the mountain passes. Some soldiers saw groups of Chaula people on the road sending fur blankets to the camps.

It seemed that Briley had prepared for the winter defense of these passes.

The Tang soldiers marched against the ranks of the people Cha Ula, and rushed to the rear for thirty to fifty miles. Relying on what they saw and heard, aristocratic official villages and manors formed a second line of defense on the map.

The eight Guanzhai manors occupying important traffic routes are the only way to transport food and grass. Each of them is built like a small fortress, and all of them are stationed with a large number of elite soldiers.

The little nobles also stayed there to sing and sing every night, and at the same time assigned Wula to let the people deliver supplies to the front line.

Going further south is the last fulcrum of King Baili on the front line. Regarding this fulcrum, Liu Chengzong could never dream of what it is.

The last fulcrum of Dunyue Dorji's line of defense was actually the entry station of the Central Plains Dynasty.

From the territory of Dege to Changdu, there are four post cities built in the Yuan Dynasty and rebuilt in the early Ming Dynasty along the way. They are the grain roads behind Baili King Dunyue Duoji. The manor formed a huge grain road to maintain the confrontation.

Looking at the important places marked on the map, Liu Chengzong smiled, good post.

He is the most familiar with the post station.

　Good night!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)