Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 145 Here comes my brother
Li Mu led nearly 10,000 Black Flag Army soldiers and followed the commander-in-chief. His fine mountain armor reflected the light under the winter sun. The black bone dragon flag fluttered in the wind, and dozens of player-style flags were also moving forward in the queue.

One of the flags, which was several times larger than the black flag, was fixed on the mule cart. It was the "temporary resurrection battle flag" activated by Li Mu.

For now, he temporarily turned off the resurrection function of the battle flag. If a few funny people suddenly popped out and resurrected, it would be troublesome if it scared the queue.

After all, this place is very close to the capital, and information is transmitted extremely quickly. It is not like the poor valleys in the southern mountainous areas of Henan where outrageous rumors can spread.

If someone discovered the "magical use" of the battle flag and told Zhu Youjian about it, it would be disastrous if he regarded Li Mu as an evil sorcerer and ordered all the civil and military officials in the world to encircle and suppress him.

Many civil servants and military supervisors accompanying the army rode in more comfortable carriages, and only a few civil servants leading troops rode war horses.

Excluding auxiliary troops and civilian laborers, the total number of soldiers and horses that followed the commander-in-chief to attack was 50,000, and the cavalry suffered heavy losses.

The army advanced towards the border of Changqing County, reached the Ji River, and then headed north along the river.

This kind of march has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it goes along the water, reducing the possibility of enemy attacks from the rear, and a pontoon bridge can be built at any time to cross the river to the south.

The disadvantage is that if the enemy rushes from the flank, the army will not have time to build a pontoon bridge and will be driven into the river by the enemy soldiers, resulting in the annihilation of the entire army.

Therefore, intelligence work is particularly important.

The Tang cavalry with the best riding skills were sent to four directions: northeast, north, west, and southeast after crossing the river.

There are five to twelve cavalrymen in each squad, and the squads are arranged one mile apart to ensure that comrades can see each other's flag signals or hear the sound of signal arrows.

Each pond was five miles apart, and the farthest pond had more than twelve riders, who were either scouting the enemy situation or killing enemy scouts and interrogating them for intelligence.

Each intelligence "channel" extends outward for a maximum of about thirty miles, like several spider webs extending outward from a giant spider.

However, players are exceptions. They do not need such a conventional way of communicating and directly volunteer to join the most dangerous outer-layer cavalry.

If there were any enemy movements, they could complete the information exchange within three minutes without having to use flag signals or send verbal messages back.

Li Mu, riding on horseback, looked back and into the distance.

The densely packed soldiers of the Royalist Army seemed to connect the sky and the earth at the end of the vision. The long columns stepped on the ground, and the military flags of various tribes fluttered in the wind, like a many-legged centipede balloon waving its colorful limbs.

Li Mu, who was in the middle of the team, could not see the specific situation in front and behind him, only the back of his own rider's head and face.

After all, the western part of Shandong Province is a large flat plain, and the road conditions are pretty good, so cavalry teams and mule carts will not go downhill or fall into potholes.

The tens of thousands of troops marching to support the king were moving at a relatively slow pace. The fact that they could cover thirty or forty miles a day was a testament to the commander's strict management.

Suddenly a warhorse came running from the front of the team, passing through the marching team while shouting to rest in place.

During the third rest stop, Li Mu reined in his horse and dismounted, and the cavalrymen around him also dismounted.

Before Li Mu could open his mouth, his cavalrymen handed him a stool.

He had just sat down and didn't have to worry about any extra things. He had some paper-wrapped dried plums, a bag of red bean paste buns, pork jerky wrapped in oil paper, and a bamboo tube of warm water in his arms.

Li Mu looked down and saw several cavalry and infantry kneeling respectfully on one knee, holding food and drink above their heads with both hands, like a human coffee table, quietly waiting for their commander to enjoy it.

Li Mu had to admit that this small gesture was quite helpful, and it was no wonder that many people could not resist the temptation of "feudal hierarchy".

Who doesn’t like a decadent life where clothes are provided for you, food is provided for you, and money is pocketed?
However, Li Mu still tried hard to overcome this "feudal custom" and waved his hand to signal them that there was no need to do so. He had hands and feet and could get food and drink by himself.

However, these infantry and cavalry soldiers acted as if it was a matter of course, claiming that these trivial matters were their responsibility.

Although there was no clear distinction between personal soldiers and servants under Li Mu's command, or in other words, all the infantry and cavalry were his servants.

In addition to protecting the commander, servants should sometimes also take on some trivial matters in life.

The soldiers said that the rewards and military pay issued by the court were short of the required amount, and it was Li Mu who paid the shortfall out of his own pocket so that the soldiers' treatment could be brought up to par with that of the border troops.

They were paid by the Marshal, so they were his men. If they didn't do more work, they wouldn't feel comfortable receiving the generous salary.

"Then let's eat together."

"But this is prepared for the Marshal, how dare we..."

"We are all comrades who fought side by side. What is there to be afraid of? I will only leave my back to you to protect after I have made sure you have enough food and water."

Li Mu took the red bean paste bun and immediately winked at the soldiers.

The cavalry and infantry looked at each other and saw doubt in each other's eyes, but since the commander-in-chief had given the order, they had no choice but to obey.

Except for the portion left for the Marshal, the remaining pork jerky was divided up all at once. This was the jerky made by the "potato soldiers" from my hometown, and it tasted delicious.

While taking a break and having a snack, a soldier from the Black Flag Battalion lying on a mule cart suddenly opened his eyes.

He quickly jumped out of the car and ran all the way to Li Mu. "A skirmish broke out about thirty miles to the northeast. Two of our Tang cavalry were killed, and five Tartars were killed. All members of the Death Squadron are intact..."

"Great! Another victory! Quickly inform the commander-in-chief that the main force of the Tartars has crossed the Ji River and is not far from here."

A moment later, another player rushed over to Li Mu. "The Black Flag Battalion's Seventh Reconnaissance Team has penetrated the main Tatar enemy's area of ​​activity and has captured the outline of the enemy camp. Several art students are currently sketching and will be able to submit their drawings online soon."

"Good job!"

Li Mu slapped his thigh excitedly, then tore off a small piece of the red bean paste bun and handed it to the player who reported the incident. The reward for reporting the incident was then deposited into the player's account. While the system's photos could be uploaded to the internet, and Li Mu could view them on forums, they couldn't be printed out to share with the general public. He could only replicate them using the methods of an art student, sketching them with simple line drawings.

Only intelligence with such a high amount of information can increase the confidence of the generals.

A few minutes later, the order to stop marching and set up camp on the spot came. Tens of thousands of troops, like a slow-moving dragon, slowly lay down their heavy bodies and fell asleep.

Li Mu squinted his eyes and looked into the distance. The setting sun was like a faint candlelight in the bedroom. The orange-red afterglow soaked the clouds in the sky, and the world in the distance gradually dimmed.

It's getting dark.

The whole world seemed to be shrouded in a thick black fog. Li Mu could not see or hear anything. He could only receive the ever-changing news from players going online and offline.

Li Mu's camp was arranged on the right, close to the river.

Combat soldiers, auxiliary soldiers, and prisoners unloaded their tents from the mule carts.

The big tent where Li Mu was was set up first. The soldiers brought a square table and storage boxes and put them together. Then they took out a carefully selected map of Shandong and spread it out on the table. Countless small benches were also placed on both sides of the long table.

The extra benches are placed at the end of the long table, forming two horizontal rows in a vertical plane.

A total of twenty people, including player staff and combat representatives from the directly affiliated units, selected by Li Mu, will attend his personal military meeting.

Of course, Li Mu had to attend the military meeting of the commander-in-chief first.

Accompanied by five cavalrymen, Li Mu rode to the commander-in-chief's tent to gather.

Along the way he saw the auxiliary troops and prisoners of various armies working.

Countless auxiliary soldiers unloaded the cargo from the mule carts, and either went to the nearby woods with axes to cut some wood, or used some camp materials transported with the army.

"Dig the trench deeper!" The officer ordered the auxiliary soldiers to dig a trench defense system.

They hammered logs into the ground to form a wooden wall around the tent, placed chevaux de frise at the foot of the wall, and dug a trench around the outside of the wall.

Two rows of fire pots were placed outside the gate of the camp at a wide distance to light the way for the horses returning at night.

If a Tangqi encounters an emergency outside, he can avoid the disaster and return when it is safe.

The war horses and livestock in the army were managed by each unit, and were enclosed in some simple wooden fences.

The materials needed to build a temporary camp are very simple, requiring only wood, nails, hemp rope, animal skins and the like.

To deal with a highly mobile and fierce enemy like the Tatars, the camp must be set up securely at night, regardless of whether the Tatars will launch a night attack or not.

The camp of 50,000 people stretched for several miles, and it took Li Mu a while to walk on horseback.

When he arrived at the commander-in-chief's tent, his personal guards were stopped outside the tent and the weapons they carried were confiscated. After all, the tent was full of the commander-in-chief's personal guards, and he was not afraid of assassination.

Li Mu lifted the curtain and passed through the outer tent, then walked a few steps and entered the inner tent. More than half of the generals had arrived, and Li Mu was not the last one.

Li Mu is very self-aware. At the moment, he is just a small character with average military strength and official position.

He didn't have much say in front of the generals, deputy generals, and military supervisors, so he just came to listen to the strategic guidelines and know how to fight the Jiannu next, and to make himself familiar to them.

Hu Dawei, who had only met him twice, seemed to be meeting him again after a long separation and recognized him at a glance as Lieutenant General Li of the Black Flag Camp.

The other party enthusiastically pulled him to sit down and started chatting with him to liven up the atmosphere.

Li Mu accepted the kindness with suspicion, but when he looked down, he found that he was sitting in the middle seat in the right vertical row of the tent.

Li Mu thought to himself that you, Hu Dawei, are the general, and I am just a lieutenant general, so how can you just sit down casually.

You have to know that the ancients had a strong concept of hierarchy, and there were fixed rules for who could sit in what position. Even if someone sat anywhere without following the rules, they would invisibly offend certain people.

Li Mu could have chosen not to bribe his superiors. At most, he would have been regarded as a fool who did not understand the ways of the world and would not have been promoted.

But if you sit in the wrong seat, you will slap someone in the face and offend them. You won’t even know when the revenge will come, and you won’t know how you offended this person.

Li Mu was not afraid of his enemies, but he was afraid of hidden arrows that were difficult to defend against.

So before he had absolute strength to overthrow everything, he decided to be honest.

He immediately stood up and moved to the last seat, but unexpectedly Hu Dawei also sat over, like an eager elder who wanted to have a few more heartfelt words with his younger junior.

Hu Dawei introduced the names of the generals present to him, such as the eunuch Gao Qiqian, Wang Pu, Yang Guozhu, Sun Yingyuan, Huang Degong, Zhou Yuji... those from Shaanxi and Gansu, Shanxi, Xuanfu and Datong, Liaoxi, Baoding Dubiao, and Shandong troops...

It is even more comprehensive and clear than what the players introduced to him.

Later, generals arrived one after another, and the commander-in-chief also took the main seat surrounded by his personal guards.

The core theme of the meeting was that the Tatars crossed the Ji River and a skirmish broke out between the two sides about 30 miles away from here.

Both the enemy and us have discovered the movements of the other side's main forces. If the Tartars take the initiative to attack, how should the loyalist army respond?

(End of this chapter)