Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1650 Losses of troops and generals!

Yi Jing, General Staff,

Because Ye Mingsheng came very suddenly without any prior notice, everyone in the General Staff was caught off guard. After Ye Mingsheng arrived at the General Staff, he asked all the first-class staff including Zhao Han and Ma Zhongjun to assemble in the conference room within a cup of tea.

Under Ye Mingsheng's order, Zhao Han, Ma Zhongjun, Feng Cheng, Luo Gang, Shen Hao and others also came to the meeting room one after another.

After the greetings, Ye Mingsheng looked at the sand table while asking Zhang Yufeng to circulate the letter he had just received to everyone.

While everyone was reading the letter, Ye Mingsheng, who was looking at the sand table, fell into deep thought.

In the letter, Xun Ke recounted that the 50,000-strong coalition army led by him and Dariachi was surrounded by the Cumans on the Turte grassland. The two sides fought fiercely for a day and a night, and the coalition army suffered heavy casualties. Even Dariachi himself was bombarded by the Cumans because he went to the front line in person!
Although this shot did not kill Dariachi completely, he was seriously injured and fell into a coma.

Seeing that the situation was becoming more and more dangerous, Xun Ke wanted to withdraw his troops under the cover of night, but he was discovered by the enemy. The two sides fought again in the dark for another whole night. Seeing the enemy rushing up, Xun Ke ordered the entire army to abandon all firearms and retreat in desperation.

The Qipchaks were well aware of the power of Daqian's firearms, so when they saw the Daqian army throwing away their firearms, they immediately scrambled for them. Xun Ke also took advantage of this opportunity to launch a counterattack and annihilated the enemy's vanguard troops...

Afterwards, Xun Ke was no longer interested in fighting, and quickly led the remaining coalition forces to withdraw towards the Erlunqin grassland.

After the vanguard was annihilated, the Cumans did not dare to pursue too closely for a while, but they eventually caught up with the remnants of the coalition forces ninety miles west of Damao Mountain.

At that time, the morale of the coalition forces collapsed and they had lost almost all of their firearms. Xun Ke knew that he would be defeated in the decisive battle!
So Xun Ke did not act on impulse, but chose to cut off his arm to survive, and let Dana lead 3,000 elite troops to stop
Although Dana and the three thousand elite soldiers fought desperately, their sacrifice only bought Xun Ke two days. Two days later, the Kipchaks caught up with the remnants of the coalition forces in Damao Mountain.

Fortunately, Gao Shen and Urigenbayar, who stayed behind in the royal court of Robe, immediately led their troops to come to the rescue after receiving the news. With the help of the reinforcements, the coalition forces were able to barely stabilize their position and confront the Cuman army relying on the geographical advantage of Damao Mountain.

After introducing the battle situation, Xun Ke also reported to Ye Mingsheng that the Luobi people suffered heavy losses after this battle. When they set out to attack the Qincha Khanate, there were about 50,000 people, 30,000 Luobi people and 20,000 Daqian troops.

About 30,000 people returned, of which 15,000 were from the Daqian army. It can be said that half of the Luo Bi army was lost, and nearly half of the people who returned were injured. The morale of the army could be said to have dropped to freezing point!

Because of Xun Ke’s vigilance, the Daqian army lost relatively fewer soldiers and horses, but lost almost all of its firearms. Fortunately, when Xun Ke went to the Golden Horde, he left thousands of people in the Luobi royal court. The firearms of these people were preserved, allowing the Daqian army to maintain some of its combat effectiveness...

Fortunately, after being in a coma for several days, Dariyachi woke up. Although several powerful figures within Luobi, including Urigenbayar, were dissatisfied with the defeat, they had no intention of settling accounts with Dariyachi in view of the current situation.

This blessing in disguise is also a comfort to Ye Mingsheng.

In Daqian, and even in the Fengwu Army period before, defeats like this were very rare, so when Ye Mingsheng first saw what was written in the letter, he was shocked beyond words. Even now, Ye Mingsheng still finds it hard to believe! He is even more heartbroken!

What hurt Ye Mingsheng was not his anger. Although those tens of thousands of muskets and dozens of cannons were valuable, with Daqian's current industrial capacity, it would only take a few months to produce them at full capacity, and a year of normal production would be enough to produce them.

What Ye Mingsheng was really sad about was the loss of lives. Even though the Luobi people suffered the greatest losses in this battle and the Daqian people only suffered a few thousand casualties, you have to know that those who went to the grassland this time were all based on the Third Division, plus cavalry drawn from various tribes, and they barely gathered 30,000 people!

These 30,000 cavalrymen are all the elite of Daqian, and they constitute the majority of Daqian's cavalry. Thousands of them were lost in this battle, plus the post-war compensation. How could Ye Mingsheng not feel distressed!

Although the reality is very cruel, as the emperor of Daqian and a ZZ figure, Ye Mingsheng still forces himself to accept this reality instead of escaping from it!

Judging from the current situation, what Ye Mingsheng is most worried about is undoubtedly that in such a tragic defeat with tens of thousands of casualties, the Robe people will blame each other and thus fall apart...

Ye Mingsheng was very clear about a reality, that is, when Daqian placed its future strategic focus overseas and in Southeast Asia, Daqian would be unable to independently fight against the Golden Horde on the grassland, especially the Golden Horde which was backed by the Romans!
Just like now, 30,000 soldiers and horses have been fighting on the grassland for a long time, and the daily logistical supplies are thousands of taels of silver. In just a few months, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver have been consumed. Together with the disaster in the north, Ye Mingsheng was forced to issue bonds worth one million taels of silver!

Now when Ye Mingsheng recalled his thoughts when he issued the bonds before, he was secretly glad that he decided to directly issue one million bonds instead of 700,000 bonds. Otherwise, judging from the current situation, 700,000 would definitely not be enough, and he would have to issue a second batch of bonds!

Even if we have this one million taels of silver now, if the war drags on for a long time, even if Ye Mingsheng doesn't want to, he will probably have to consider canceling the tax reduction or even increasing taxes for the sake of the court's health.

This is only 30,000 soldiers and horses. If you want to fight against the Khanate of Qincha independently on the grassland, 30,000 soldiers and horses are not enough. At least 50,000 to 70,000 are needed. To win this war, 100,000 cavalry are needed!
Therefore, under the current circumstances, it is not realistic to rely solely on one's own strength to go deep into the grassland and destroy the Golden Horde. Ye Mingsheng himself has fought on the grassland, and he knows how difficult it is to search for the main force of the enemy in such a vast grassland...
If we just fight against the Golden Horde and maintain the security of the north of Daqian, we will need hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year.
With the development of firearms, the Golden Horde, the Robbes and other once-powerful and arrogant grassland peoples will become more and more adept at singing and dancing, so it is totally uneconomical to invest a lot of resources in them at this point in time!
Therefore, the Robe people are very important to Ye Mingsheng. It is very important to let the Robe people maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness to fight against the Cumans!

In order to maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness, unity is an indispensable factor!
The strength of the Robe people has been weaker than that of the Cumans in recent years, not to mention that the Cumans now have the help of the Romans. If the Robe people are not united, they will be like a pile of loose sand. Even if Ye Mingsheng wants to support them, the Robe people will be like mud and cannot be supported. This is also an important reason why Ye Mingsheng is willing to tolerate Darachi becoming the Khan. Now that they have suffered such a great defeat, the Robe tribes have not abandoned Darachi and are willing to unite around him. This also proves that Darachi still has a certain prestige and personal charm within Robe!

While Ye Mingsheng was thinking secretly, Zhao Han, Ma Zhongjun and others also finished reading the letter. They were all shocked by the news in the letter and looked at each other. Just when the atmosphere in the room became awkward, the first-class staff officer Shen Hao suddenly said:

“Your Majesty, although General Xun Ke and the Luobi people are currently holding off the enemy on the west side of Damao Mountain, the strength of both sides is no longer equal after this battle. Moreover, their morale is low after this defeat, and most of their firearms have been lost. Our dynasty must take drastic measures, otherwise I’m afraid General Xun Ke’s troops will not be able to hold out for long…”

After hearing what Shen Hao said, Ye Mingsheng hesitated for a moment and said:

"When you say drastic measures, do you mean your earlier proposal for the Second Army to move north?"

"Yes! Now is a great opportunity for Habib to completely defeat the Robe people and unify the grassland. He will definitely try to concentrate his forces and achieve success in one battle! In this way, the heartland of the Golden Horde will inevitably be empty!"

"The Third Army can then attack the city of Lesa from the north!"

After hearing this, Ye Mingsheng fell silent. Shen Hao had reported this suggestion to him before Xun Ke led his troops north.

Shen Hao's idea was for Xun Ke to lead 30,000 cavalrymen to join forces with the Robe people, and then attack the Turte grassland from east to west, while Guo Zhiping led the main force of the Second Army from Yongliang to the north. In this way, the two routes could attack at the same time, making it difficult for the Golden Horde to take care of both ends.

Shen Hao’s idea is very good. Under ideal circumstances, the Golden Horde could be completely defeated in one battle!
But under the circumstances at the time, Ye Mingsheng took many factors into consideration and did not adopt Shen Hao's idea!

At that time, Ye Mingsheng was mainly considering his own strategic goals. Ye Mingsheng's grassland strategy was not to completely wipe out the Cumans. What Ye Mingsheng wanted was to form a balance between the Cumans and the Robe people. In this way, the two sides could restrain each other and have no time to move south. Ye Mingsheng could lead Daqian to implement the strategy of looking south without distraction!
On the specific operational level, this strategy of sending troops in two directions also has many difficulties!
The biggest difficulty is that the Second Army is mainly composed of infantry. The whole army of more than 30,000 people is mainly infantry, and there is only about a battalion of 3,000 cavalry. With such a configuration in Yongliang, it is no problem for Guanzhong to rely on the city for defense...
However, these people left the protection of the city and fought against the Cuman cavalry in the vast grassland without any cover, which was a disadvantage and they could not gain any advantage. If Habib adopted the strategy of "no matter how many directions they come from, I will only take one direction",
He could completely rely on the mobility of the cavalry to attack the Second Army that came from the grassland first, defeat the Second Army, and then lead the victorious army to fight against Xun Ke's troops.

Based on this point, Ye Mingsheng did not adopt Shen Hao's suggestion at the time, but only ordered Xun Ke's Third Army to lead the troops north to the grassland to support the Luobi people.

The situation at that time had changed compared to a few months ago. Ye Mingsheng was a little unsure whether Shen Hao's idea was right or wrong. He immediately looked at the silent Chief of Staff Zhao Han and asked:

"Zhao Han, what do you think?"

Zhao Han organized his sermon:

"Your Majesty, I think if Habib really wants to achieve his goal in one fell swoop and wants to swallow up the Robe people in one fell swoop, then the Second Army going north to attack Wei and save Zhao may be a feasible solution!"

As soon as Zhao Han finished speaking, the first-class staff officer Luo Gang beside him subconsciously opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but he seemed to have some concerns. After hesitating for a moment, he closed his mouth. Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng directly named him:
"Luo Gang, what do you think?"

After being called by Ye Mingsheng, Luo Gang did not hesitate and spoke directly:
"The Second Army is mainly composed of infantry. If they want to attack Lesa in the vast grassland, it will take a long time. By the time the Second Army reaches Lesa, I'm afraid Habib has already defeated the Robe people and is coming back..."

After Luo Gang finished speaking, Shen Hao, who proposed this idea, refuted:

"Staff Officer Luo, Lesa is the capital of the Golden Horde and Habib's home base. Habib will never sit idly by and watch Lesa fall into danger. The Second Army does not need to reach Lesa, Habib will withdraw from Damao Mountain to provide support! As long as Habib withdraws, the Second Army can also withdraw!"

"Staff Officer Shen, I understand what you mean. You want my Second Army's tens of thousands of soldiers to race against the Cumans on the grassland, right? The Second Army's soldiers are mainly infantrymen with only two legs, while the Cumans are riding horses. If they can't outrun them, then the tens of thousands of soldiers of the Second Army will be in danger, right?"

"Can there be no risk in fighting a war? If you are afraid of risks, then why fight a war? You might as well just go home and hug your children!"

Zhao Han, who was standing aside, felt a headache when he saw Luo Gang and Shen Hao quarreling. Luo Gang and Shen Hao were both first-class staff officers in the General Staff, second only to him and Ma Zhongjun. They had also made great contributions to Daqian. The two of them should have been united and worked together!

But for some reason, the two of them just have different personalities and can't get along with each other. They usually quarrel all the time in the General Staff Office. I never thought that now in front of the emperor, the two of them are also so unrestrained!
Thinking of this, Zhao Han stood up and said:

"Your Majesty, I have a way to have the best of both worlds!"

After hearing the best of both worlds, Ye Mingsheng became interested and asked:
"Don't keep me in suspense. Tell me quickly..."