Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 334 The enemy must be rescued

Tuotuo's advancing speed was about the same as what Lu Jin and his team had predicted, which was probably around the end of October. The previous combat plan was also formulated according to this time point, so even if he came, it would not affect the next plan.

However, Lu Jin still informed Zhu Liangzu on the front line, and instructed them not to break up the main force to expand the army after taking Huai'an and Qinghe County. At least one division's main force should be retained as a mobile combat force to deal with possible attacks by Tuotuo. As for expanding and reorganizing the army, they could wait until Tuotuo withdrew his troops.

The main force led by Zhu Liangzu captured Baoying on the 24th and arrived at the city of Huai'an on the 26th. They immediately began to survey the terrain, convened a military meeting, and prepared to discuss launching an attack the next day.

Huai'an is the first intersection of the Grand Canal and the Huai River. It is equipped with multiple ship locks and is one of the key cities operated by the Yuan court in the Huaidong area. The officials here are luxuriously configured. Not only is there another Pingzhang 'Gou Er' of Henan Jiangbei Province in charge of the city, but also the deputy inspector 'Chu Buhua' of the Huaidong Road Xuanwei Office and his son, and there is also a big traitor, Zhao Lian, the councilor of Jiangbei Province.

Min Zishun, the chief of the Jiangbei Intelligence Station, who had followed the army all the way from Gaoyou Prefecture, immediately introduced it to the generals present.

"This Zhao Lian is a Jinshi in the first year of Emperor Yingzong's Zhizhi reign. He is now able to participate in provincial politics, all thanks to his grandfather's influence. According to the Marshal, this man is a complete traitor."

Gao Yao immediately asked, "What's so special about this person? Has he done anything evil?"

Min Zishun then explained, "The commander-in-chief once said that among the Han people in the world who served the barbarians, only three types of people could be forgiven. The first type was the abandoned people from the north of the former Song Dynasty. The former Song Dynasty sold land in exchange for peace and abandoned them. It was understandable that these people gave themselves to the barbarians.

"The second group is the people who surrendered when the former Song Dynasty was destroyed. Although these people have no backbone, their country has been destroyed, so it is understandable that they surrendered to the barbarians in order to survive.

"The three were born in the Yuan Dynasty. After all, there was only one court of the barbarians in the world at that time, so it was understandable that they served as officials in the Yuan court.

"But Zhao Lian's grandfather Zhao Hongwei was different. He was originally a Han Chinese from the Song Dynasty. In the first year of Jingyan, the Mongols invaded the Song Dynasty. Instead of defending his country, he took the initiative to write a letter to the Yuan general to surrender and lead the Yuan army. The Yuan general ordered his troops to attack Jiangxi. Zhao Hongwei defeated the Song generals many times and fought actively. He even threatened to massacre the cities and persuaded the Yuan army to surrender many cities. He killed countless Han people with lofty ideals.

"This beast even killed two generals of Prime Minister Wen, and served as the vanguard for the Yuan army to destroy the Song Dynasty. Later, he was promoted to the Imperial Censor of the Jiangnan Circuit of the Hulu Army, and was posthumously named Marquis of Tianshui County.

"This guy is a Han Chinese from the Song Dynasty. His country and family were not destroyed, but he surrendered to the enemy, sold out his country for fame, and was willing to serve as a hawk and dog for the Tartars, killing countless Han Chinese people. Isn't he the number one traitor?"

Feng Sheng, who was standing by, immediately said upon hearing this, "It is a great relief for such a person to die of old age."

Liao Yongzhong licked his lips, "The son should pay for the father's debt! He still has descendants. The evil that the Tartars have committed against the Han people, after the city is captured, we can pay back double to Zhao Lian."

Gao Yao nodded when he heard this. "If that's the case, he can indeed be called a traitor. But how do you know his background?"

Min Zishun said immediately, "This man was able to become a provincial councilor thanks to the protection of his grandfather. He tells everyone he meets that his ancestor was posthumously conferred the title of Marquis of Tianshui County by the court. All the clerks in the city know this. My spies have inquired about this from the clerks, so how could they not know this?"

"I see. We'll settle accounts with this guy after the city is conquered."

Several people were chatting about the backgrounds of Yuan court officials in the city, but Zhu Liangzu did not join in their conversation. He had just ridden his horse around the city to scout the terrain, and came back to talk about it.

"Huai'an guards the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Huai River, which is a strategic location. Why is the city defense so sparse? Why don't they build a city wall?"

Liao Yongzhong was speechless and said, "We are the ones attacking the city now, wouldn't it be good if the wall is broken a little?"

Zhu Liangzu said immediately, "It's good for us to attack the city now, but Tuotuo will be here at the end of the month, and then we will have to defend the city.

"But Huai'an City is so huge, and it will take a lot of work to renovate the entire city. Tuotuo is coming soon, so we don't have that much time. We can easily capture this dilapidated city. How much effort do you think Tuotuo will have to put in to capture this city?"

Well, while others were still thinking about how to attack the city, Zhu Liangzu had already made plans for defending the city in the future.
Liao Yongzhong then asked, "Didn't the Marshal say that after we defeat Huai'an, we will take Qinghe County. Qinghe River reaches the Huai River to the north and Hongze Lake to the south. The terrain is narrow and more dangerous. We can stop the enemy in Qinghe, right?"

Hu Hai also said, "Since Huai'an City is not strong enough to defend, we can also follow the instructions in the Marshal's military book and strive for active defense."

Liu Minhua had followed all the way from Tianchang and had heard that officers of the Shengwu Army, rank of Qianhu and above, had to learn Lu Jinfa's book of military tactics, but he had not seen it yet. Upon hearing this, he immediately asked curiously, "What is active defense?"

Hu Hai explained, "It means killing all the attacking enemy troops, so that you can protect your city. This is active defense."

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Liu Minhua was speechless for a while. If I had the ability to kill all the attacking enemy troops, why would I need to defend myself? I could just continue to attack. Of course, he didn't dare to say this out loud.
Zhu Liangzu also said, "Qinghe's location is indeed good, but we all know this. Are the Yuan army generals all fools? Can't they see it? Why do they come to Qinghe to fight us to the death?
"And Huai'an is even more important. Even if we have Qinghe, Huai'an must be defended. But our main force is limited now, and the rest are mostly surrendered soldiers who have just surrendered. Not to mention how loyal these people are now, whether they will defect again when they encounter an enemy. Even if these soldiers are really loyal, they are short of armor and have not been trained. How much combat power can they exert when they are really pulled into the battlefield?

"After our army captures Qinghe, we will have to defend the 400-500-li defense line from Qinghe to the mouth of the Huaihe River. However, our main force is very limited. If we only defend one place, I am confident that I can repel the invading enemy. However, the main force will be dispersed and the new soldiers will be useless. What should we do?"

Everyone frowned when they heard this and looked at the map to think of a solution.

Hu Hai first analyzed, "With the combat power of our main force, the enemy and ours are equal in number, or even slightly larger. As long as they are not more than twice our number, we will dare to fight and have a great chance of winning.

"But now our main forces are scattered, we have too many new recruits, and the line of defense we need to defend is too long. There is a saying in the Marshal's military book that if the line of defense is too long, setting up defenses everywhere is equivalent to having no defenses anywhere. And we can't find a clear defensive focus on our current line of defense.

"Especially along the Huai River for more than 300 miles from Huai'an, there is not even a city. The Yuan army can cross the river and go south anywhere. We can't set up defenses everywhere. No matter how many soldiers we have, it won't be enough.

"The biggest problem now is that we don't know where the enemy will come from. If they don't go through Qinghe County, then wouldn't our preparations be in vain?

“If there is such a location, the enemy will definitely come. Then we can abandon the defense of most areas and concentrate our main forces in one place. When the enemy comes, we will fight them. After defeating the main force of the enemy, they will be unable to continue attacking in a short period of time. Then we can slowly build the city and defense line.

"But if we can't find this defense focus, we can only set up defenses everywhere and we can't concentrate our main forces anywhere. Once the enemy attacks where we don't expect, the entire defense line will immediately fall into a passive position."

Everyone nodded when they heard this and began to think about where the focus of this defense was.

Feng Sheng suddenly said, "Qinghe County, which the Marshal has chosen, must be the key one."

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Feng Sheng explained, "What I mean is that a great war had broken out here in history, and Qinghe was indeed a place that military strategists had to fight for. "During the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, Zhu Wen, the founder of the Later Liang Dynasty, led his troops to conquer the Southern Tang. At that time, he was defeated by Yang Xingmi with a smaller force in Qingkou, which is now the territory of Qinghe County. Since then, the world has been divided into the north and the south. The Northern Dynasty no longer has the spare strength to go south, and Yang Xingmi was able to preserve the territory from Huainan to Jiangbei. It was not until Chai Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty personally led the army to conquer the area from Huai'an to the Yangtze River."

Liao Yongzhong scratched his hair when he heard this. He was born into a family of boat fishermen and had not been to school much. All the military tactics he learned were from Lu Jin and the quick-learning military tactics book. He knew nothing about these famous battles in history, so he asked.

"Then how did Yang Xingmi of the Southern Tang defeat the Later Liang army?"

Feng Sheng immediately said, "At that time, the Yellow River had not yet flowed into the sea. Yang Xingmi took advantage of the terrain and dug the Huai River embankment to flood the Seven Armies. This was how he defeated the enemy with a smaller force and won the Battle of Qingkou."

After Feng Sheng finished speaking, he looked eager to try, as if he wanted to emulate Yang Xingmi and flood the seven armies again to fight a battle of Qingkou.

However, the others looked at each other in bewilderment. The chief instructor Gao Yao also spoke up at this time, "It is better not to dig the river if possible. The reason why there are so many Red Turbans in the world and arouse public anger is the digging of the river. If we dig the Yellow River again, although we can stop Tuotuo, it will also cause great suffering to the people and make the Marshal bear the infamy."

As soon as these words came out, everyone fell silent again. At this moment, the young general Yang Huan, who had not spoken a word, suddenly raised his hand and said, "I may have a way."

Everyone looked at him immediately after hearing this. Yang Huan quickly changed his words, "It's just a suggestion. Whether it will work or not is up to you generals to decide."

"Tell me what you think." Zhu Liangzu said immediately. Yang Huan's artillery regiment had performed excellently throughout the battle. Although he was usually low-key and didn't talk much, he always came up with some useful ideas when he spoke occasionally. Therefore, Zhu Liangzu didn't treat him as a child.

Yang Huan then said, "According to what Commander Hu said just now, we don't know where the enemy will attack from, so we can't find the key point of defense. If that's the case, then why don't we take the initiative to lure the enemy over here?"

"How to lead him here?" Feng Sheng asked with a frown.

Yang Huan continued, “When I was studying with the Marshal, in addition to learning artillery and mathematics, the Marshal would occasionally talk about some battle examples and military tactics.

"The Marshal once said that he had three military masters. One of them was Master Lin, who was promoted to the rank of general and commanded a million soldiers. He fought in battles over thousands of miles and won more battles than he lost. He was mature and prudent, experienced in the use of troops, had an extraordinary memory, and was the author of many military books.

"The quick-learning military strategy that the commander-in-chief asked us to learn is actually the original words that Master Lin taught his generals. Our commander-in-chief just wrote them down and copied them into a book and taught them to us. Since you brothers have read the quick-learning military strategy, you should be able to see the power of General Lin from it."

Zhao Zhongzhong was a little surprised, "Is there such a thing? Why didn't the Marshal tell us?"

Feng Sheng also frowned. "I have read a lot of military books and historical records, but how come I have never heard of a general named Lin who commanded a million soldiers?"

Yang Huan shook his head. "I don't know about that. The Marshal didn't tell us about the origins of the masters."

Zhu Liangzu also became interested, "What about the other two?"

Yang Huan continued, "There is also a Master Su, who is also a great general. He once fought against an enemy army of 60 with only soldiers, and won seven battles in a row. Later, he commanded a large-scale battle and annihilated an enemy army of soldiers with soldiers. He was able to decide the outcome of the battle. He was a master of military strategy and was often called the living Han Xin by the commander-in-chief. This Master Su was best at using spies, intelligence warfare, and mobilizing the enemy.

"The third master is actually the master of Generals Lin and Su, and is also the grandmaster mentioned by the Marshal. The grandmaster once commented on General Su that he could mobilize the enemy troops as easily as commanding his own arm."

Everyone present was stunned when they heard this. Feng Sheng even frowned and said, "You remember correctly, right? Isn't it used to describe one's own command being good? If there is really someone who can command the enemy's soldiers like an arm, then it's not an exaggeration to say that he is the Han Xin of the present. But how can he do this?"

Liao Yongzhong glanced at Zhu Liangzu at this time, and suddenly remembered that Lu Jin had mobilized Zhu Liangzu by first sending a messenger from Luzhou to Lu'an to lure him to Luzhou, and then using his family to threaten him to return to Lu'an. Not only that, he also sent Ye Sheng as a spy on the way. He was good at using spies and could mobilize the enemy troops at his command. How could this be so similar to the combat style of General Su?
It turns out that the Marshal learned this from this person.
Zhu Liangzu noticed Liao Yongzhong's gaze and immediately remembered this matter. He immediately glared at Liao Yongzhong in anger. Liao Yongzhong was tactful and did not expose his past in front of everyone.
"Cough cough cough." Zhu Liangzu suddenly coughed to interrupt everyone. He was afraid that Liao Yongzhong would tell the embarrassing incident in public, so he hurriedly said.

"Commander Xiao Yang, I understand what you mean. You mean to mobilize the enemy to come to the place we have chosen and fight with me. This way, we don't have to set up defenses everywhere and can gather our main forces to defeat the enemy, right?"

Yang Huan immediately clasped his fists and said, "Master, please understand. This is exactly what I meant."

Feng Sheng added, "It's easy to say, but how can we mobilize the enemy troops here? We can't just capture Tuotuo and the Tartar emperor's family, right?"

Liao Yongzhong understood Yang Huan's intention based on Lu Jin's previous battle record, and said immediately, "In fact, this matter is also simple. There are only one or two ways to mobilize the enemy. Either place spies around the enemy generals to lure the enemy to come, or attack the enemy so that they must come to rescue, which is the so-called "encircle Wei to save Zhao". The enemy will come even if they don't come."

"Cough, cough, cough." Zhu Liangzu coughed again, glanced at Liao Yongzhong, and quickly reminded him not to continue.
Hu Hai glanced at the two of them, not understanding what they meant, and then he said, "Let's not talk about using spies. It's definitely too late now. The only way is to attack the enemy where they must be rescued. But now it's difficult because we can't find the key point to rescue them, right?"

Yang Huan suddenly spoke up again at this time, "The so-called attack on the enemy's must-rescue position does not necessarily require a clear position. It can just be a strategic posture. As long as we make the enemy believe that we are going to attack this 'must-rescue' position, we can mobilize the enemy."

Everyone seemed to be thinking about what he said, and Zhu Liangzu asked directly, "What exactly do you mean?"

Yang Huan added, "The mission the Marshal gave us is to capture the area east of Hongze Lake and south of the Huai River, and this Jiangbei Campaign will be over. But this is actually what the Marshal told us, and the enemy doesn't know what our ultimate goal is.

"Our army has marched northward from Yangzhou with unstoppable force, and has now reached the city of Huai'an. Given such a favorable situation, how does the enemy know whether we will continue to cross the river and march north after we capture Huai'an?
“Since there is no point to defend in the hundreds of miles of defense line downstream of Huai’an, we can simply not defend it. We can directly switch from defense to offense, build a floating bridge on the Huai River, send cavalry to scout all around, especially Shuyang and Andongzhou (Lianshui) north of the Huai River, and then send a main force regiment to cross the river, set up camp and build fortifications on the other side, build granaries, and create the momentum to cross the river immediately and go north.

"The enemy must have thought that we were going to continue northward. If the Huai River goes further north, we will reach the land of Qi and Lu. With the momentum of our army's development, it will not take long for us to occupy the entire Shandong area. Once we take Shandong, it will be almost like the army is at the gates of Dadu. The Yuan army will never allow us to continue crossing the river and heading north. They will definitely find ways to drive us back to the south of the Huai River.

"If the enemy wants to drive us back to Huainan, then this floating bridge will become a place that our army must rescue and the enemy must take, right? Then they will definitely come to the floating bridge to stop us, and won't this attract the enemy here?"

"Great!" Hu Hai clapped his hands and praised, "Attack the enemy and save them. We can also use it the other way around to attract the enemy to attack our army. This method is feasible."

Liao Yongzhong also drew inferences from this and extended this line of thought.

“We can also lure the enemy over here, feign defeat to lure them back to the south bank, and let the troops in Jiangbei withdraw. If the enemy dares to cross the pontoon bridge and chase us, we can just concentrate the superior firepower of hundreds of cannons and attack them halfway across the bridge!

"After the enemy collapses, our army will concentrate its main forces and rush forward to drive the enemy back into the river and annihilate the invading enemy on the river bank. In this way, the territory we just conquered will be preserved!"

Zhu Liangzu slapped his thigh and said, "Take the initiative to lure the enemy and attack them halfway across the river. This is the method we should use!"

(End of this chapter)