The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 259: Warfare, the Way of Deception
In the early morning, on the banks of the Perfume River, the breeze was blowing gently, and three or four thousand Annan cannon fodder gathered together in groups of about thirty people.

All of them buried their heads, eating fried spring rolls, fried small fish, and sticky rice drizzled with syrup, which were rarely seen on ordinary days.

Today is Laba Festival, so even the cannon fodder can get such delicious food.

"The general has ordered that anyone who charges five times today and throws five bags will have dry rice tonight and a full stomach. Anyone who throws eight bags or more will have wine and meat tonight. Anyone who throws twelve bags or more will be promoted to a good man on the spot!"

The cannon fodders who were eating heard the officer's roar, and immediately became excited and cheered a few times, then hurried back to eating.

The people of Guangnan have suffered a lot. The previous generation of Nguyen Lords, King Nguyen Phuc Kho, was ambitious and extravagant, and the people have been tormented a lot.

I thought the situation would be better after Nguyen Phuc Khoa's death, but Nguyen Phuc Thuan and Truong Phuoc Luan came instead.

These two were even more powerful than Nguyen Phuc Khoa. After a few years, the people were basically on the brink of collapse.

But that’s not all. Just when they thought the combination of Ruan Fuchun and Zhang Fuluan was the limit, God sent them the Beihe Zheng army.

This is not enough to describe the heavyweight. The Zheng army in Beihe is a real jackal, tiger, leopard and the king of hell who takes lives.

Under these successive blows, the wealthy Hue region had reached the point where farmers with only 20 to 30 acres of land could only eat a dry meal during the busy farming season.

Therefore, with such a sumptuous meal today, no one is willing to eat less.

Only when they heard that throwing twelve bags could regain their status as a good husband, would some strong cannon fodder raise their heads and imagine it.

Because Annan broke away from the Central Plains at the end of the Tang Dynasty, they retained many customs from before the Tang Dynasty from top to bottom.

For example, the daily use of the word "beloved".

The so-called Huiliang people literally mean those who have turned over a new leaf. The Annan dynasties of all generations liked to recruit strong and powerful people from the peasant armies that rebelled and caused trouble to form the Huiliang Army.

The last generation of Hui Liang Army in history was commanded by Nguyen Phuc Anh's confidant, the eunuch general Le Van Duyet. They were once the elite troops in the Gia Dinh area in the early Nguyen Dynasty. Le Van Duyet, who controlled them, was even like a vassal.

Mo Zibu was naturally no exception. According to the rules of Annan, the Chinese volunteers under his command were actually Hui people.

If they become Huiliang people, they won't have to carry sacks to fill the moat, and they can also accumulate military merits and receive rewards. For these cannon fodders, it is also a good promotion channel.

But before the officer could finish his words, the officers, wearing red mandarin duck battle jackets and military caps similar to Fan Yang's, were still holding gongs and shouting:

"Anyone who fails to complete at least three bag-throwings today will die in the moat, saving themselves from being stabbed by me and leaving their bodies untouched."

Although the Xing Tang army crossed the Xiangshui River and sent all of Zheng's small inland fleet on the Xiangshui River into the water, there was still a moat under the city wall near Hue.

The only thing that is better than the south is that there is a large piece of land in the east for the army to deploy, and the moat is basically stagnant water, not as wide and deep as the moat in the south.

The sound of drums rang out, and before the sun rose, the entire eastern part of Hue suddenly became restless. Thousands of civilians carried sandbags and, under the arrangement of the officers, approached the moat within six or seven hundred meters.

The Zheng army on the city wall was also alarmed. They immediately operated the artillery and began to bombard the outside of the city.

The spinning shell hits the ground, creating a large hole immediately, and then the projectile bounces around aimlessly again.

A group of cannon fodder civilians were very unlucky and were hit by a cannon. Three or four of them screamed and rolled on the ground.

Although they were not hit directly, the ricocheting shells were also very terrifying. Just the slightest touch would break their bones and tendons.

The surrounding civilians were terrified. They screamed, threw down the sandbags at their feet, and turned to run away.

Then only a few footsteps and screams were heard. Although the officers in charge of suppressing the civilians were also frightened and had cold sweat on their foreheads, they still acted without mercy.

The bloody steel knife was far more intimidating than a cannonball that would only hit someone by chance, so after a brief panic, the cannon fodder civilians calmed down.

The Zheng army's artillery bombardment from a high position was actually quite powerful, but unfortunately they had too few artillery pieces, so it was difficult to exert much lethality.

At this time, the Xing Tang Army's field artillery also began to bombard the top of Hue City.

However, due to the short time, the earthen mound outside the city had not yet been piled high, and the direct-fire shells from the cannons could not reach the top of the city. Therefore, most of the shells hit the city wall, creating shallow pits of varying sizes.

While the artillery was bombarding, the infantry of the Xing Tang army began to form a formation and move forward. At the same time, a large number of Zheng army's musketeers also emerged from the top of the city.

The musketeers on both sides then began firing at each other from a distance of about 150 meters.

At this distance, muskets are not completely without threat. Even if the kinetic energy is not enough to kill someone on the spot, the lead bullet entering the flesh will bring lead poisoning and cause wound infection, which may result in amputation at the mildest and death at the worst.

The exchange of firearms was very fierce. The Zheng army was strong because they had the protection of the city walls, while the Xing Tang army had the advantage in the number and quality of firearms.

The two sides exchanged fire for half an hour, and then the Zheng army voluntarily stopped fighting. The dozens of people killed and injured were nothing.

However, the Zheng army's reserves of gunpowder and lead bullets were not as good as those of the Xing Tang army. If they continued to squander them like this, they would have no guns left when they were needed to capture the city.

Therefore, in this routine shooting that must take place every day, the Zheng army is basically the one that takes the initiative to stop.

Seeing that the Zheng army on the city wall stopped shooting, Chen Chengshan, who was in charge of commanding the civilians, waved his hand, and thousands of civilians howled and rushed up one after another with sacks on their backs.

The sound of muskets rang out again, and the Zheng army's sharpshooters hid behind the firing holes on the battlements and continued to fire with their precise shooting skills.

The civilians were knocked to the ground one after another, but inspired by the harsh military law and infinite hatred towards Zheng's army, not many of them retreated. They kept throwing sandbags filled with mud into the moat, and soon a section of it was filled up.

At the same time, at the source of the East Gate moat, naval warships were also protecting the work of a large number of civilian workers.

While blocking the source of the water, they dug many small ditches on both sides to drain the water in the moat into the Perfume River.

Huang Wufu, dressed in casual clothes, came to observe the attack of the Xing Tang Army in person. Seeing that Mo Wu, who had a large number of naval warships, was still using traditional methods to attack the city, he felt a little relieved.

Huang Tingbao was a little anxious. He looked at Huang Wufu and said, "Father, at this rate, the southern bandits will only need fifteen days at most to fill the moat and build enough earthen hills outside the city.

In that case, the southern bandits' demolition soldiers could easily blow up the city walls, and the artillery could bombard the city from a high position.

I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to engage in street fighting with them in Hue, as this is their territory after all."

Huang Wufu glanced at Huang Tingbao. His adopted son was brave and able to gather talented people, but he still lacked a lot in strategy and vision.

Huang Wufu shook his head and explained, "The battlefield won't be here. The gains and losses of Hue are completely insignificant. Even if we give up all the Nguyen territory we have taken, it's not impossible."

Huang Tingbao was a little confused. "Father, occupying Hue and destroying the Nguyen family is a feat that many generations of rulers and kings have failed to accomplish. How can we give up so easily?"

Huang Wufu's face darkened as he looked at the Xing Tang army shouting for attack from afar and shook his head, "What great achievements, what rich land and fertile fields, are nothing if we can't defend them.

The strength of the southern bandits cannot be underestimated. If we don't kill them in large numbers, they will become an even more difficult enemy to deal with than the Nguyen clan in Hue."

As he said this, Huang Wufu led his generals back to the command post and began to write and calculate on straw paper.

"I've observed the southern bandits deploying their forces over the past ten days. They've mobilized at least 30,000 civilians, over a hundred artillery pieces of varying sizes, over 30 warships, 17 military flags, and around 10,000 soldiers. Their main force should be concentrated here."

Ruan Youzheng shook his head, not particularly agreeing with Huang Wufu's judgment.

"The southern bandits are planning to send out 10,000 soldiers on land and sea this time, and if we return to Liang, we'll double that, about 20,000.

The number of civilian laborers is probably the same or slightly higher, and the total number should be less than 70,000. If there are more, Mo Wu’s military rations will not be able to be delivered.

From this perspective, the southern bandits should have two camps, one main and one auxiliary, but it is still unclear which is the main force, because the southern bandits can use a small army to fill a large number of civilians to pretend to be the main force."

The reason why Nguyen Huu Cheng said this was because Huang Wufu's battle plan was to first let the Xing Tang army camp under the fortified city of Hue.

After the siege troops were exhausted, Zheng Sen would personally lead the main force south, using his well-rested troops to defeat Mo Zi Bu's exhausted troops. Meanwhile, in Hue, Huang Wufu had sent 5,000 of his 35,000 troops back to Bac Ha for food shortages, and Huang Dinh Ti had taken another 15,000 with him to suppress Le Vi Mi.

There were only 15,000 people left in Hue. It was impossible to defeat Mo Zibu with these people alone, so they had to attack him together with Zheng Sen's army.

In this case, we must find out whether the Xing Tang Army outside the city is the main force.

Otherwise, they would be playing the game of cracking walnuts with the Xing Tang army's detachment, and then the main force of the Zheng army led by Zheng Sen would be caught by the main force of the Xing Tang army, and the outcome would be unpredictable.

So after hearing Ruan Youzheng's judgment, Ding Xirang, who was in charge of the cavalry, stood up and said:

"The southern bandits have a cavalry of several hundred men who have been covering the eastern coastal area, preventing our scouts from getting close.

The few scouts could only see the southern bandit camp from a distance, but they were unable to get close enough to investigate.

Huang Wufu frowned. This was the biggest sequelae of allowing soldiers to plunder. After Zheng's army drew their butcher knives, the hearts of the people in the north and south of Hue were completely changed.

This led to a significant decrease in the number of people cooperating with the Zheng army. The Zheng army was from the north, and their attire and accent were different from those of Guangnan, and they could not pass the inspection of the Xingtang army at all.

Therefore, even scouts could only observe from a distance and could not get close.

After thinking for a while, Huang Wufu waved his hand, looked at Huang Tingbao and said, "Just looking at the speed of filling the moat and the number of artillery, the southern bandits outside the city should be the main force.

However, in order to prevent the southern bandits from cheating, we need to test it a little before we can confirm it.

"A Bao, take five thousand elite soldiers and try to drive them out. Engage the southern bandits for several days. We don't seek victory, but we must test the southern bandit army's combat effectiveness."

In Huang Wufu's opinion, the best way to determine whether the Xingtang Army outside the city is the main force is to fight directly with it.

Whether it is an elite force or a detachment, we will know it after a fight.

In the Xingtang Army camp, Huang Wufu's actions had actually been roughly guessed by Mo Zibu and his staff officers, and Mo Zibu was indeed setting up a trap to deceive Huang Wufu.

Lieutenant Colonel Chief of Staff Mo Zhengcun was holding a thick stack of analysis reports and talking to the generals attending the meeting.

The position of staff officer has existed since its establishment in the late Tang Dynasty. This time, Mo Zibu obtained a large number of grassroots officers from France, who not only helped him build the framework of the Xing Tang Army, but also provided him with a large number of professional and modern officers to build a mature staff system for Mo Zibu.

Of course, the ancient Chinese military staff system was also very mature. Even in the Qing army, there were all kinds of staff, consultants, and clerical staff.

However, Mo Zibu's makeshift team was unable to build a Chinese-style staff system, so they simply used the French style.

"We have searched for data on the North-South War over the past hundred years, and generally show that the Nguyen Dynasty of Quang Nam could deploy between 15,000 and 35,000 troops, and the number of conscripted civilians should be greater than this.

Therefore, the troops currently deployed outside Hue are reasonable, and Huang Wufu will definitely regard them as the main force."

Mo Zhengcun pointed to Xiangcha County northwest of Hue and said, "The intelligence we have received so far shows that Zheng's army, including civilians, is no less than 80,000 people and is heading south.

Although they also had cavalry protection, the people of Hue were loyal to us, and many of them took the initiative to go south to inform us of the situation before the Northern Zheng army approached.

Therefore, the General Staff judged that Zheng's army would go through Xiangcha County and then enter Hue via the Tianmu Ancient Road, or stay in Xiangcha County and wait until our army was exhausted before attacking.

The terrain of Vietnam as a whole is long and strip-shaped. Before it was developed, many places were not considered good, such as the area around Hue.

At this time, northeast of Hue was the huge Tam Giang Lagoon, which was later well renovated and became a famous tourist attraction.

However, at this time, the Tanjiang Lagoon was still a brackish water area. When the tide was high, it would flow back to form a huge lake, and when the tide was low, it would become a swampy muddy area near the sea. The surrounding roads were narrow and not suitable for large armies to pass through.

The northwest is full of high mountains, and only Mount Tianmu, which leads to the Tianmu Temple west of Hue City, is lower. Therefore, an ancient road was built there, which has always been the main road into Hue.

If Zheng Jun is not a fool, he will definitely choose to take the Tianmu Ancient Trail.

Chen Lian smiled and said, "Although Huang Wufu is a veteran general in Beihe, he doesn't know the full strength of our army. So according to Nguyen's previous calculations, the more than 30,000 people under Hue City must be the main force."

Chen Guangyao also laughed and continued, "But in fact, behind us, the Xing Tang Shogunate, there are millions of fertile fields in Jiading, Siam also produces a lot of rice, and we have large sea vessels to help with transportation, so there is no shortage of food at all.

Not to mention the current size of 120,000 people, even if there were 50,000 more, we could still support them."

Mo Zibu also smiled with his eyes narrowed. This will be the biggest reason why Huang Wufu and Bei Zheng will fail.

Because Huang Wufu and others had been in Beihe for a long time, they had no idea that Jiading had been well developed and that grain production had far exceeded that of the past.

It was even more difficult for them to imagine how much support Mo Zibu had given to Zheng Xin and how great his contributions were.

The relationship between Mo Zibu and Zheng Xin is definitely not a simple father-in-law and son-in-law relationship, so Zheng Xin will definitely do his best to help Mo Zibu.

So on the surface, Mo Zi Bu was just the last armed force of the Nguyen family in Guangnan, but in fact, except for the elite soldiers who were basically within Huang Wufu's estimation range, the rest were far beyond Huang Wufu's expectations.

It can be said that in terms of logistics, Mo Zibu is far from being a warlord in Guangnan. Instead, the most elite Han forces in the entire south, the Zheng family of Siam and the Mingxiang people of Jiading are supporting Mo Zibu.

Huang Wufu estimated Mo Zibu based on Guangnan's previous strength and believed that he could only withstand a mobilization of 70,000 people at most.

But in fact, Mo Zibu mobilized 120,000 people, and with the continuous free transportation of Siamese rice, Mo Zibu could even support another 50,000 people.

With sufficient manpower, Mo Zibu deployed 40,000 people outside the city of Hue, including the elite Wuding Regiment and the Hakka Second Regiment of Tangshan Town, a total of 5,000 combat soldiers and Hui people auxiliary soldiers.

At the same time, among the 35,000 to 36,000 civilian laborers outside the city, only about 20,000 were actually used as laborers, and the rest were fake soldiers used to deceive Huang Wufu.

"Okay, the mission is basically accomplished. I guess Huang Wufu should want to go out of the city to personally inspect the quality of our army.

Each regiment was to dispatch a company to the outskirts of Hue City, under the command of Chen Chengshan, and return to the team immediately after completing the mission.

Attention, captains of all regiments: tomorrow, stop training and regroup, and prepare to march to Xiangcha County. We will occupy the county seat and block Zheng's army, first attacking Zheng Sen and then Huang Wufu."

Sure enough, shortly after Mo Zibu issued the order, when the two sides were conducting their routine daily "attack and defense drills", Huang Tingbao suddenly led more than 5,000 Zheng troops out of the city.

Chen Chengshan had a plan in place, even pretending to be caught off guard and being driven back several miles. He then assembled his forces and engaged Huang Tingbao in three small-scale battles over four days.

During the battle, the flags of each regiment of the Xingtang Army basically appeared, and the combat effectiveness of the main company was quite good.

In the three battles, more than 200 of the 5,000 men Huang Tingbao led out of the city were killed and nearly 1,000 were injured. They were beaten several times and had to retreat and reorganize in order to maintain their combat effectiveness.

The Xing Tang army dispatched nearly 10,000 troops, with casualties around 1,000.

Huang Wufu would personally go to the top of the city wall to watch every time. Seeing that the Xing Tang army showed their usual sharp guns and cannons, and their combat effectiveness was slightly higher than his own side without deploying cavalry, he was completely relieved.

The captured civilians also confessed the numbers of several regiments, which were similar to what Huang Wufu had learned.

At this point, if someone told Huang Wufu that among the 1,000 soldiers in the Xing Tang Army, there were only 150 combat soldiers, and the rest were all civilians or even civilians, Huang Wufu would not believe it.

What a joke! How could an army with only 15% of its main force have 70% of its equipment made of firearms, more than 20 field guns, and a large number of large-caliber siege guns, and still be slightly better than the Zheng army in combat effectiveness?

In Huang Wufu's opinion, such an army would never appear.

On the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, only a dozen days away from the Spring Festival, Huang Wufu's report was delivered to Zheng Sen, and then Zheng's army began to speed up and move south.

At the same time Zheng Sen set off, a secret letter was delivered to Mo Zibu's desk. After reading it, Mo Zibu immediately burned it.

Then he turned to look at Pei Dexuan and said, "If we win this battle, your Pei family will have made a great contribution. In the future, the Pei family will be the largest family in Beihe!"

　I started drinking in the morning yesterday and was almost unconscious by the afternoon. It was already midnight when I woke up. The young generation in their twenties nowadays can drink so much that they drink alcohol like water. I have to admit that they are no match for them.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)