Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 93: The Strategy of Suspending an Attack

Seeing that there was no one around, the doorman stepped forward and said:
"Master, you have been an official for a long time. Have you ever copied a protective talisman?"

Meng Kang said, "But is that true? White jade for the hall and gold for the horse? I was once the governor of Jiangning, so I have the official protection talisman."

Menzi shook his head and said:

"Master, you are talking about the old talisman, but I am talking about the new talisman. The old talisman was useful before, but it is no longer effective now. If you want to stay in office for a long time, you need a new talisman."

Meng Kang was shocked and said:

"Is this true? Where is the new official protection talisman? Show it to me!"

The doorman then took out a piece of paper, which read:
The first sentence: "Square or not, it doesn't matter if you meet Huaiyin and surrender."

Small print is written below: Fang Yong of Huaizhou controls the area of Lianghuai and has hundreds of thousands of soldiers. He treats all the officials and wealthy families who surrender with leniency and generosity.

The second line: "The White Lotus King of Jin hated the officials so much that he crossed the Naihe Bridge in the autumn."

Small print is marked below: Wu Sheng of Shanxi and the White Lotus Sect in other provinces regard officials as enemies, and all those who surrender will be punished in the future, with their entire families being massacred and their clans being exterminated.

Meng Kang returned home with a heavy heart, carrying the talisman to protect his official position.

In such a big house, Meng Kang couldn't find anyone to discuss things with.

His wife is his wife who has lived through all his hardships. Although she is virtuous, her vision is limited and it is difficult for them to discuss matters together.

His son is a playboy who spends his days cockfighting and running errands, and is not as good as his wife.

At this time, someone came to see him. It was a young man named Zhai Xun, with the courtesy name Boyan, and he was Meng Kang's son-in-law.

Zhai Xun became famous at a young age, and had the title of Juren, but he failed repeatedly in the Jinshi examination. He was full of ambition, so he directly joined the army. After many years of not being promoted, he finally gave up his ambition and asked to marry Meng Kang's concubine's daughter, which was how he was promoted. He is now the deputy envoy of Jinling Xuanfushisi.

Although he was only a deputy envoy, Zhai Xun was in charge of all the defensive armed forces in Jinling, big and small.

This is because the chief envoy of the Jinling Xuanfu Mission was previously killed by the White Lotus Sect, and the court has not yet filled the vacancy.

The Jinling garrison did fill the vacancy, but it was a bit regrettable that all the government troops in the Jinling area were slaughtered by Feng Tai, leaving no one for the Jinling garrison.

Previously, the defense of Jinling had always been in the charge of Duke Shanguo, and was later taken over by Wang Ziteng.

After Wang Ziteng received the imperial edict to return to the capital, he took all his troops to the capital, leaving only an empty city in Nanjing.

In Yangzhou, Wang Ziteng still took Wei Yinghong's face into consideration to some extent. After all, Wei Yinghong had been an official for many years and was a disciple of the emperor, so he symbolically left behind five thousand soldiers and horses.

However, Meng Kang had just taken office in Jinling, so Wang Ziteng naturally had no concerns and withdrew all his troops without hesitation, leaving Meng Kang with an empty shell.

In Jinling today, apart from dozens of yamen runners and some city guards, there is only a few hundred soldiers under Zhai Xun, who were recruited by Zhai Xun at his own expense in order to consolidate his position.

Now, Zhai Xun heard that the Huaiyin bandits were attacking, so he rushed to his father-in-law Meng Kang's house to discuss, and the scene just now happened.

Meng Kang was delighted to see Zhai Xun coming.

He knew that his son-in-law was a capable man, so he quickly took out the official protection talisman and discussed with Zhai Xun.

Zhai Xun saw the contents of the official protection talisman and nodded:

"What is said above is true. The White Lotus Sect and the Jin thieves are all tyrants. They have no vision and are short-sighted. It is only a matter of time before they are defeated. Only the Marquis of Huaiyin has great ambitions and is tolerant of the world. He can accomplish great things!"

Meng Kang was overjoyed when he heard this and said:

"So, Boyan agrees that I should surrender to the Marquis of Huaiyin."

Zhai Xun shook his head.

"Since ancient times, surrender has been like a timely help or icing on the cake. However, icing on the cake is not as good as a timely help. If we surrender at the first sign of trouble, it will not even be as good as icing on the cake. Even if we surrender, we can only avoid death. How can we get rich?"

Meng Kang frowned.

"What does Boyan mean?"

Zhai Xun said confidently:

"I have a plan. With only five or six hundred men, we can defeat the Huaiyin navy and inflict heavy casualties on them. If you surrender then, we two will be put to important positions!"

Meng Kang was shocked when he heard this and said:

"Shut up, you absolutely cannot do that! If you do that, I'm afraid you and I will be implicated and our entire family will be wiped out!"

Zhai Xun said:

"Don't panic, father-in-law. My plan is not to hurt anyone. It is just to make the appearance but not the real effort; to scare the army but not hurt them." Zhai Xun told Meng Kang about his plan.

After hearing this, Meng Kang nodded slowly.

But on the river, there are many sails and warships lined up in formation, like a huge beast cutting through the vast river.

Suddenly, the lookout exclaimed:
"General, there's a situation!"

Zhang Yuan hurried forward and looked through a telescope.

However, in the distance, they saw fifty or sixty small government warships approaching on the river, with government troops lined up on the ships, roughly a total of several hundred people.

The two sides walked towards each other, and soon, the other side approached.

"fire!"

Zhang Yuan gave the order.

His men immediately fired cannons, and several rows of shells shot over, instantly breaking the government army's warships into pieces, and half of them were destroyed.

"Fire again!"

Zhang Yuan gave another order.

This time the distance was closer and the artillery shells were more accurate. After several rows of artillery shells were fired, the government warships suffered heavy losses again, with only a few left.

The distance is a little closer.

The soldier on the lookout tower said, "General, no, it's a dummy!"

Zhang Yuan was shocked, and when the boat came over to take a look, he saw that it was indeed a fake person.

It was woven with straw and covered with official military uniforms. Since the telescopes of that era were not clear enough, they could not be distinguished from a distance.

"This is the enemy's strategy of confusing the enemy, we must not be careless!"

Zhang Yuan made a quick judgment.

After sailing for a while, dozens of official ships appeared.

Zhang Yuan still ordered to fire!
After a few rounds of shelling, it was the dummy again.

By the third time, some people began to question:

"General, you are wasting artillery shells like this. I'm afraid General Fang will blame you if he hears about it. It's just a fake person. Why don't you wait until it gets closer to identify its authenticity before firing the cannon? Even if it is a real person, it's just a few dozen small boats. What can it do?

Zhang Yuan said seriously:
"No, marchers must be cautious first and must not be careless!"

Due to Zhang Yuan's prestige, his subordinates said no more.

Then two more waves came, all of them were fake people.

Later on, the other side had changed from small boats to bamboo rafts, perhaps because there were not enough boats.

The generals and soldiers all believed that this was an enemy strategy to consume our ammunition. They once again advised Zhang Yuan not to fire rashly and to wait until they got closer. However, Zhang Yuan did not listen and forced them to fire.

So it was night.

Zhang Yuan was also a human being, so he naturally wanted to go down and rest, so he let his deputy take over.

Before leaving, Zhang Yuan repeatedly reminded his deputy not to be careless and to fire!
The deputy agreed on the surface, but he disagreed in his heart.

Then, another bamboo raft came over.

At first, the deputy took Zhang Yuan's instructions into consideration and chose to fire.

But two waves in a row were all straw men.

By the third time, the deputy was so worried about the ammunition that he didn't want to order the artillery to fire, so he released a bamboo raft and ordered the lookout to carefully identify it when it got closer, and confirmed that it was still a straw man.

The deputy then drove the boat directly into them, and the big boat smashed the bamboo rafts into pieces.

Everyone on the boat burst into laughter.

Then came the fourth wave...

(End of this chapter)