weaving

Wei Zhice and Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng exchanged a glance, and Wei Zhice understood what Zhang Cheng meant.

He smiled, rose, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and said, "Commander-in-Chief, may I try to answer this question?"

Zhang Cheng smiled and said, "Very well. I'll be waiting for your insightful opinion, Brother Zhice."

After bowing with clasped hands, Wei Zhice said, "In my opinion, the strategic goal mentioned by the Commander-in-Chief is to fundamentally weaken the Jurchens' war potential, whether it be territory, resources, troops, or population, with territory and production capacity being the most important."

The smaller the territory, the narrower the Jurchens' living space, which also meant a narrower strategic depth; and the weakening of their production capacity gradually made them unable to bear the costs of large-scale battles, thus losing their ability to launch strategic offensives.

"good!"

Marquis Yongning, Zhang Cheng, clapped and cheered: "Zhi Ce truly deserves to be the most brilliant general under my command. He has grasped the strategic objective very accurately and described it very well. It is simple and straightforward, but very effective."

"You flatter me, Commander-in-Chief," Wei Zhi said modestly, clasping his hands in a fist salute.

"Zhi Ce, now tell us what our army's tactical objectives are?"

Wei Zhice, as always, clasped his hands in a salute and said with a smile, "Commander, if I have said anything inappropriate, please correct me."

Zhang Cheng smiled slightly and waved his hand, signaling him to speak up boldly...

"According to Zhice's opinion, our army has two tactical objectives, and they are also different in that they are sequential."

When he got to this point, he paused slightly, glanced around at everyone, and then continued: "Firstly, since it is the Hetao Grassland, this is also the first step in achieving the two tactical objectives, and should be placed at the forefront of the tactical objectives to be achieved in the early stages."

The recapture of the Hetao region is secondary; the true tactical objective lies in subduing the Hetao captives and making them useful to our army.

Everyone nodded slightly in agreement, including the Earl of Yongning.

Luo Rucai seemed somewhat anxious and pressed on, "General Wei, what about the second one?"

Wei Zhice smiled at him to express his goodwill before speaking: "The second one... is naturally the Jurchen army that is currently ravaging the land of Qi and Lu."

As the commander-in-chief just said, these Jurchen barbarians dared to invade our Great Ming, so we must make them know our strength and not underestimate our Great Ming, nor should they think that our capital region is their backyard, where they can come and go as they please.

Before anyone could express their opinion, Wei Zhice clasped his hands in a fist salute to the Earl of Yongning and continued, "Moreover, I suspect the Commander-in-Chief has a deeper meaning."

"Oh." Zhang Cheng smiled in perfect cooperation: "Zhi Ce, guess what other deeper meaning I have? Why don't you tell me everything so I can hear it and see if your guess is right or wrong."

Wei Zhice smiled knowingly. He had long guessed that the Earl of Yongning wanted to use him to say the words in order to boost the morale of all the civil and military officials present, especially the generals.

"Commander, I guess your deeper meaning regarding the invasion of the Jurchens is, to put it bluntly, to make choices and treat them differently. We should not only eliminate the limited Jurchen forces as much as possible, but also create ambiguity and even misunderstandings within them, in order to achieve the goal of dividing the Jurchen and Northern Barbarian alliance."

The true significance of this tactical objective lies in actually sowing discord between the Jurchens and the Northern Barbarians!

Wei Zhice suddenly stopped speaking here. He looked at Zhang Cheng, the Earl of Yongning, behind the commander's desk, clasped his hands and said, "Commander, is Zhice's view in line with yours?"

"Hahaha……"

The Earl of Yongning laughed heartily: "That's right, that's definitely right." After laughing, Zhang Cheng posed another question to him: "Zhi Ce, you need to explain again how to make choices and how to treat them differently in order to achieve the goal of differentiating the relationship between the Jurchens and the Northern Barbarians."

Wei Zhice thought to himself, "Commander, you're really something! You're really taking advantage of me!"

However, he only dared to mutter these words to himself, but dared not utter a single word.

"In Zhi Ce's view, in order to achieve the goal of dividing the Jurchens and the Northern Barbarians, it is necessary to treat the Jurchens and the Northern Barbarians differently. We must show no mercy to the Jurchens, injuring as many as we can, and killing them without leaving them any way out;
The situation is slightly more complicated when dealing with the northern barbarians, and a basic principle of differentiated treatment must also be adopted. That is, those who are determined to follow the Jurchens should be treated the same way as the Jurchens.

However, for the troops of those Mongol tribes who later submitted to the Jurchens, the basic principle of "beating them hard but not killing them" must be adhered to. That is, let them know the power of our Brave and Resolute Army and realize that following the Jurchens will not bring them any advantage. That will suffice.

After Wei Zhice finished speaking, the hall fell into silence. Clearly, everyone had taken his words to heart and was now pondering the meaning behind them.

The Earl of Yongning did not disturb everyone's contemplation, but quietly sipped the tea on the general's table. However, a voice caught his attention.

"General Wei has a point, but if we do that, this battle will be much harder for us."

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it was Yuan Shizhong who had raised the question. He then said, "On one hand, you want to kill them all, and on the other hand, you want to hold back? This is simply like 'a boat on the beach, unable to move an inch'."

Wei Zhice chuckled and replied, "It's not that difficult. Our priority is definitely to win the battle first, and our secondary consideration is to kill more Jurchens and fewer Northern barbarians. If we can't win the battle, then we'll definitely fight them to the death, regardless of whether they are Jurchens or Northern barbarians!"

"I have no objection to anything else, but there's one thing that must be added: those traitorous soldiers in the Jurchen army. We must kill them one by one, and we must never tolerate or allow them to fester." Zhang Guangda said in a deep voice what he really thought.

"That's right. These fake Tartars are the most hateful; they must not be allowed to live!"

The people in the hall no longer considered the difficulties of treating the Jurchens and the Northern Barbarians differently, and wholeheartedly supported Zhang Guangda's proposal. The crowd was so excited that it made one's blood boil.

After everyone had vented their resentment towards the traitorous army, Marquis Yongning Zhang Cheng waved his hand, quieting everyone down.

"What Zhi Ce just said is very correct, and it is exactly what I originally intended."

He first affirmed Wei Zhice's speech, and then said, "Zhice has already explained the relationship between strategic and tactical objectives very clearly, so I won't say anything more."

Everyone must understand clearly that all actions of our army must be closely centered on the strategic goal of making every effort to weaken the Jurchens, and everything else must give way to this goal.

As for our army's two strategic objectives, as Zhi Ce said, the priority is to ensure the success of the operation in the Hetao region. Therefore, the first priority is to ensure that the invading Jurchens do not escape too early, nor can they leave unharmed. They must be wounded or maimed.

Another point is the matter of differentiated treatment. Zhi Ce explained it very well: first ensure victory against the Jurchens, then consider differentiated treatment; this way, nothing is delayed.

He paused for a moment before continuing, "You all remember this: fighting the Jurchens is a matter of life and death. You must not hold back and must go all out to wound or cripple them. This is my only requirement for you."

As for the matter of differentiated treatment, firstly, it falls under the tactical decision-making level of this office; secondly, if necessary, this office will issue specific military orders to you, so you must not act on your own initiative, lest you jeopardize military operations.”

"Here!"

"Alright, let's conclude the military council here for today. As for the next steps in the army's deployment, we'll issue the command orders after I've made my decision."

"Yes, sir!" (End of Chapter)