Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 645: Offensive Battle

Emperor Jingtai put away his telescope and glanced at the city of Handan not far away. This city, whose name has remained unchanged for a thousand years, was his first visit, but in this way.

His attack on Handan actually had no impact on public opinion, because it was originally the territory of the Great Wei. The emperor of a country was raising a banner with dragon patterns to reclaim his own land, and that was justice.

These days, he has been studying these tactics he has never seen before, almost every day without sleep, such as large-scale troop cluster tactics, fire coverage theory, infantry-artillery coordination, dispersed tactics, and triangle theory.

He had no idea that so many combat tactics he had never heard of before had suddenly appeared, and that they were all compulsory courses at their Fuliang Military Academy.

They are currently in the critical stage of a decisive battle, and the theory of decisive battles even includes professional guidance on psychological warfare.

The military strategies and tactics are so meticulous and rigorous that they are truly astonishing.

They are not in a hurry to attack the city; they are waiting for reinforcements to arrive. This may sound arrogant, but this battle is meant to be seen not only by the soldiers inside the city but also by the various forces behind it.

Because when attacking a city, whether it's a soft attack, a hard attack, a siege, or a direct assault, these are all the worst strategies. The best strategy is to win hearts and minds. If you can cripple an enemy force several times your own outside the city, the city is practically yours for the taking.

Of course, another option is the tactic of a direct assault and massacre of a city. This is also a powerful psychological tactic, using the lives of the people in one city to force the surrender of other cities.

The problem is that anyone can issue this order, but Emperor Jingtai cannot, because he is righteous, he is the true royal army, and a royal army cannot massacre a city.

"Once the city is massacred, the fate of the nation will be lost."

The eight words Xia Lin left him still echoed in his ears, and all the generals and staff officers rejected the tactic of massacring the city.

So, the only option left for them was to fight a major battle outside the city against overwhelming odds and win.

Previously, they had always appeared as the offensive side, but this time they were adopting a defensive posture. The engineering battalion rested during the day and built fortifications under cover of darkness at night. The forward scouts returned every hour to report on the enemy's movements, fully displaying the enemy's whereabouts on the sand table.

At first, Emperor Jingtai was puzzled as to why there were so many scouts in a single unit, but now he understood just how important information was to a fighting force.

This army, built entirely with a new system, no longer operates on the old model of warfare where the number of troops is the primary factor in a two-way battle. The number of troops is not the key constraint for them; the only thing that can put them on the defensive is an incomplete information chain.

Inside the main tent, the strategists constantly adjusted the battle strategy based on the enemy's route of advance, a method that greatly impressed Emperor Jingtai.

What truly amazed him was the way these people transmitted information. They used a small box to send orders to the surrounding camps, and they called this a telegram.

Emperor Jingtai had seen newspapers, but he had never heard of a telegram.

But he didn't ask. After all, asking everything would make him lose face. He would just ask Xia Daosheng when he got back.

However, this thing sounds absurd, but if you really study it carefully, each of its technologies is not advanced; it just has high requirements for industrial integration.

The most difficult issue was the acid-base problem, but this was solved long ago, mainly thanks to the sodium sulfate from Yuncheng Salt Lake and the "cauldron method" developed by dual-use military and civilian personnel. This enabled the use of a rudimentary power cycle system. Next, natural magnets were ground into shapes, and silver and copper wires were used to create generators by cutting magnetic field lines. Then, cloth was coated with lacquer made from boiled tung oil, and thin sheets of silver were pressed and rolled up to make capacitors…

In short, none of the individual items are particularly difficult, but only geniuses and cheaters can put them together.

Unfortunately, Xia Lin was the cheater.

In this operation, they unleashed all their advanced technologies, including the extraordinary ability to hear the wind, which is difficult for ordinary people to comprehend. This allows for instant communication, a skill that can be described as divine on the battlefield.

Such divine skills that even historical records cannot document.

At this moment, Yang Ying's allied forces, totaling nearly 140,000 men, launched an attack on the Wei army from two directions, forming a pincer movement, with more than 50,000 steppe cavalry lying in ambush behind them.

He thought his plan was flawless. In his mind, the enemy only had more than 40,000 men, while he had nearly 200,000, plus 50,000 elite cavalry. He believed he could overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers. Moreover, the enemy was so arrogant that they were waiting for them to attack outside Handan. He thought it would be a disservice to his forces not to wipe them out.

Yang Ying's men had never fought such a lucrative battle in their lives. They were already vying for credit before even seeing the enemy. They didn't really understand why Li Mi had suffered such a crushing defeat, attributing the enemy's overwhelming numerical superiority to their smooth advance. In short, their thinking was stuck in the fantasy novels where the initial battle was a contest of sheer strength. "You have 300,000 men, you're a level 5 carpenter. I have 800,000 men, I'm a level 8 fitter. Your level 5 carpenter fighting my level 8 fitter—such a ridiculously low rank!"

Yang Ying watched them chatting and laughing, and heard them shouting about who could capture Emperor Jingtai alive, but he was not optimistic.

Intelligent people wouldn't be optimistic, would they? The Yang family's entertainment industry spans the world, so their intelligence network also extends across the globe.

Putting aside other things, he might not know the specific details of the soldiers in Jiangnan Province, but how could he not know how much money the soldiers in Jiangnan Province had spent?
The normal cost of supporting a soldier, including his salary, is about eighty taels of silver a year. However, the military expenses of Fuliang County account for about 30% of the total revenue of Fuliang, which is fourteen million taels of silver.

The entire Jiangnan Circuit was divided into three parts: the Polu Army, the New Army, and the Green Forest Army. The New Army, which consisted of more than 40,000 men, was stationed in Fuliang.

More than 40,000 men, costing 14 million taels of silver a year, averaging 350 taels of silver per person per year, more than four times the cost of a normal elite army.

It's important to know that Jiangnan Circuit has a comprehensive industrial base, and almost everything can be produced and sold locally. Unlike other regions, there are no price gouging issues. This is most evident in the food allowances. In Fuliang, each soldier receives 20 coins per meal. These 20 coins allow the soldier to eat meat and eggs. In the same region of Cangzhou and Hengzhou, 20 coins can only buy a few beans, a little tofu, and a small spoonful of lard. And that's during a good harvest. On ordinary days, they wouldn't even be able to afford these.

So where did the premium on each of them go? It couldn't have been embezzled, because that place was Xia Lin's forbidden territory; anyone who reached out would die, and Yang Ying knew that.

Alright, where does the 350 taels of silver go each year?
Heavy cavalry, powerful crossbowmen, and suicide squads.

This is the strongest configuration Yang Ying could think of.

But looking back at his soldiers, most of them were thin and weak conscripts who could only get enough to eat by working in the barracks. They included local thugs and ruffians, as well as farmers who had been forced into the army by warlords.

With such fighting strength, how can they be happy to fight against the enemy's battle-hardened troops?

But he can't say anything now, not even a whisper, because if the news gets out, no one will be willing to risk their lives for him.

Yang Ying was willing to gamble, but he certainly couldn't gamble with his own life. He had even planned his escape route. As soon as Handan fell, he would head north to the lands of Yan and Zhao. After all, that place had already been given to the commoners, so he would let them fight like dogs.

So he remained calm at the time, and when he heard his subordinates complaining, he even congratulated them on their success.

He noticed only one person's expression: Liu Heita. He had been expressionless and silent for the past few days. While everyone else vied to be at the forefront, he remained silent, content to escort the supplies.

Yang Ying personally believes that he has already guessed the general idea, but it is unclear why he did not tell others.

"Shenyong, why are you so gloomy?"

During a break in the mobilization banquet, Yang Ying found Liu Heita drinking alone in a corner. Although Liu Heita was not actually a hero, everyone called him Liu the Hero because he was the strongest and most powerful among them.

"Me?" Liu Heita put down his wine glass and looked at Yang Ying: "I fought with Li Mi for three years."

Yang Ying's heart skipped a beat at those words, but Liu Heita's next words convinced him that this man already knew the other party's true combat strength.

"Others may not know, but how could I not know how strong his Jibei Double Cavalry and Trapped Camp are?" Liu Heita patted his chest. "Among all the heroes in the world, there are only three who can reliably defeat me. You are no match for any of them. You are just rich, too rich. If we were to discuss battle tactics, my ten thousand cavalry alone would be enough to wipe out your eighty thousand men. But Li Mi used eight thousand men to fight me for three years, causing me heavy losses. The Trapped Camp is unparalleled in the world. The Jibei Double Cavalry moves like the wind."

Liu Heita stood up and patted Yang Ying's chest: "Think it over, how do you intend to use the lives of your brothers to pay for the destruction of that elite cavalry force that can be wiped out in a single day?"

After saying that, he walked out, then suddenly turned back and said, "The only person in the world who can reliably defeat me is Xia Lin, Xia Daosheng. This is his army, his soldiers. Boss Yang, you'd better think about your way out."

Yang Ying sat there, his chest heaving, and finally laughed in exasperation. He nodded repeatedly, "Good, good, good. You're already boosting the enemy's morale and diminishing your own before the fight even starts."

“You need to act tough too.” Liu Heita glanced down at Yang Ying. “Let me put it this way, Boss Yang. I served in the Fuliang New Army for three months. I… Liu Heita, was rejected by their vanguard battalion for failing the test. They originally wanted to transfer me to the supply battalion, but I refused, so I left in a huff. Now that I’m here, you call me Liu Shenyong.”

(End of this chapter)