Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 146: Good Intentions and Good Deeds

Perhaps this was the style of the Ming Dynasty's regular army, or perhaps it was because General Lu was meticulous in managing his troops.

The military meetings where all the generals gathered were not just "paper talks" where everyone talked back and forth, but war games played around simple maps.

A long table made up of several square tables was placed in front of the generals.

A crude map of Shandong was placed on the table, with wooden soldiers holding flags, and one chess piece representing five thousand men.

The 50,000 soldiers of the Qinwang Army were stationed near the Ji River, crowded into a semicircular formation.

There were also several government troops stationed in nearby prefectures and counties, including Liu Zeqing and Ni Chong in Dongping, and the government troops from northern Henan stationed in Daming Prefecture...

No matter how the commander urged them, they always found excuses not to come, saying that they either had broken their legs and couldn't walk, or that they had caught a cold and were recuperating.

In a word, if no one comes and no soldiers come, you, the commander-in-chief, want to chop off my head, but you had better survive and find me first.

Wang Chengdong, deputy general of Shanxi Town, pointed at Jinan and said, "The Tartars have successfully ambushed us in Jinan, killing thousands of our soldiers in one battle. Their military might is at its peak. Why don't we avoid their attack and temporarily cross the Ji River to Jinan, where we can reunite with the Shandong standard bearers and make plans later?"

"No!" Hu Dawei slammed the table, knocking several chess pieces to the ground. One piece even catapulted into Li Mu's hand. "The main force of the Tartars is thirty miles away. They will attack us tomorrow morning. We won't have time to cross the river before we encounter them. By then, the soldiers will only think of retreating, so how can they dare to fight to the death?"

"Then we'll cross the river tonight."

"Ridiculous!" Another deputy general couldn't stand it any longer. "Go out and look at the sky yourself. Is there moonlight to help you cross the river tonight?"

Li Mu looked up and glanced at the two "pro-war" leaders, Hu Dawei and Li Fuming. The other generals of the Beijing camp were also fearless.

The commander-in-chief's standard camp commander was even more determined to fight to the death.

He thought that his "pitiful army strategy" was quite effective, at least it united most of the troops.

"I heard from Tang Ma that the main force of the Tartars still has 100,000 men... We only have 50,000 men, how can we defeat them?"

Hearing this, Li Mu thought it was his turn to play.

The troops sent to support the king cannot escape, as Zhu Youjian will force them to fight.

Rather than being forced into a decisive battle in a bad state, it is better to take advantage of the current hatred and fight the Tartars in one go.

Li Mu straightened the fallen chess piece back to its original position. "The 100,000 Tartars are fake. They are only 50,000 or 60,000 at most... I have the picture as proof."

Li Mu took out a stack of thick papers and placed them on the table, unfolding them one by one. Hu Dawei and several nearby generals took the opportunity to lend a hand, taking the folded papers and spreading them out.

The hand-drawn sketches by art students come into view, with realistic scenes, delicate lines, and a combination of light and shadow, just like photos taken with a black and white camera.

The Tartar camps and flags were decorated with recognizable colors.

Several vivid paintings represent the main force of the Tatars observed from different perspectives, together constructing a scene in the general's mind.

A scene from the main Tatar camp that they had witnessed on the battlefield.

The realistic sketching style refreshed the soldiers' views. Even some high-ranking civil servants who had seen the realistic oil paintings of Western missionaries were shocked.

"These, these were all painted by Brigadier General Li?" Hu Dawei was like an elder who discovered that his young man had an amazing talent, his eyes full of surprise at the boy's promising future.

"No, it was done by a few auxiliary soldiers under my command."

Yang Guozhu also became interested. "The elite soldiers of the Black Flag Battalion are fearless and brave. They all say that Lieutenant General Li has a good way of training them. I met him a few days ago and found him to be tall and mighty. He has many troupes of musicians and performers under his command, and now he has talented painters. He is truly a man of both civil and military talents, proficient in everything from music, chess, calligraphy, and painting..."

Most officers who have been promoted from the middle and lower levels have low cultural level and cannot appreciate music, chess, calligraphy and painting.

Li Mu, who was tall and mighty and looked like a tough guy, not only trained his soldiers well, but also brought with him a band of musicians, calligraphers, painters, jugglers and other skilled personnel.

He doesn't look like a crude warrior, but more like a Confucian scholar in armor, and a more retro martial scholar at that.

The more the commander-in-chief looked at Li Mu, the more he felt that Li Mu, who was both civil and military, was approachable.

If the latter has the title of Juren or Xiucai, he will be quickly reused by the court.

It's a pity that Li Mu has already entered the military service. Even if he is promoted to a higher position in the future, he will be left "idle". He can't become a general or a prime minister like a civil servant and ascend to the position of prime minister in the imperial palace, which is "second only to the emperor and above everyone else".

The real sketch severely slapped the faces of the "avoid war" faction——

The veteran generals could judge the approximate strength of the Tatar army at a glance through the Tatar camp, which was at most 50,000 to 60,000.

The Tatars also have a distinction between combat and auxiliary troops, and their overall combat effectiveness is about 64% and 55% compared to the Royalist Army.

Even when some generals questioned the authenticity of the painting, claiming that it was made up by the painter, there were generals who refuted it.

Hu Dawei pointed at the sketch in annoyance and said, "I won't talk about your painting skills. If you can pick out a servant and arrange the camp of 50,000 or 60,000 troops in an orderly manner, I will write the name Hu Dawei backwards from now on."

The general who was confronted was suddenly speechless.

After all, setting up camp is a technical job that only generals can do. It is not possible for any random person to come and organize 50,000 people in an orderly manner.

Not to mention the soldiers who couldn't recognize a single word and didn't even know how to choose a location for the toilets in the barracks.

Either the painters of the Black Flag Camp were all "liars" at the level of generals, or the painters of the Black Flag Camp personally went to the Tartar camp to scout and record the scenes.

If we convince the former, then Li Mu is a genius in training soldiers, and he can train even small soldiers into generals.

If they gain the trust of the latter, the generals who avoid war will be slapped in the face.

Obviously, none of the generals dared to believe the first possibility. It was too exaggerated that all the servants under a general were talented generals, which meant that the general's own talents were even more terrifying...

After dispelling the doubts about the enemy's large force, the morale of the generals was boosted, and the next step was to deal with the invasion of the Tartars.

"Now that the Tartars have crossed the river, they're coming to annihilate us. Tomorrow morning, there will be a fierce battle." "They've arrived just in time. My brother's blood feud was just about nowhere to be avenged, and now they've come to us on their own accord."

"We must fight to the death and survive." Someone made a suggestion and began to set up the war chess with our backs to the Ji River.

Li Mu stared at the new formation in a trance, thinking that the most famous example of a decisive battle was Han Xin.

They achieved great success by sending a special force to capture the city and crush the enemy's morale.

At present, there are many friendly troops stationed in the surrounding states and counties, but no friendly unit dares to attack the Tatars from behind. Moreover, the Tatars are highly mobile, which is inconsistent with the conditions for a decisive battle to capture the city.

Indiscriminate use of tactics will only lead to total defeat.

Li Mu finally understood the meaning of incompetent generals and exhausted armies.

There is Zhu Youjian, a "micro-control master" above him, and few civilian commanders who really understand how to fight. The experience of large-scale troop combat is almost zero. If there is anyone who can fight and has accumulated some troop combat experience, he will be killed by micro-control.

It would be unjust if we didn't lose the battle.

Or maybe the smart people are just trying to protect themselves, and as long as they don't offer any advice they won't be blamed later, which leads to the fools' suggestions being put into practice and the lives of loyal and brave men being wasted.

Li Mu thought that players who died in battle could be resurrected, but how could he easily kill the thousands of infantry and cavalry he had trained!
Li Mu didn't consider himself a strong general, but the players gave him countless classic military battle examples from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. He had accumulated a lot of tactics and strategies just by reading them.

What's more, he has fought countless battles of all sizes with the Chuang army in this life, and theory and practice are integrated at this moment.

He couldn't help but talk about his tactical idea. Whether it would work or not would be discussed later. Anyway, he couldn't help but express his frustration for the soldiers.

He repositioned the troops facing the Ji River so that all the troops were arranged in a long line perpendicular to the Ji River.

The army was divided into three parts: left, center and right. He deliberately strengthened the troops on the left wing to form a formation with heavy left and light right.

The right wing is close to the Ji River, and there are friendly troops on both sides, so only one side will be able to fight against the enemy.

"I want to focus on the left wing and use the right wing as bait to lure the Tartars to attack our right wing. Then, I will use the strong left wing to press forward and surround the Tartars on the Jishui River. In this way, even if the Tartar cavalry is large in number, they will suffer heavy casualties..."

"How to lure?" Hu Dawei stared at the war chess.

"Although we only have 400 elite soldiers left in our Black Flag Battalion, we can still lure the Tartars into an attack. They still have some time to gather their forces tomorrow, so we can add some chevaux de frise to hold them back."

"It's a bit risky. If the Tartars break through the right wing and tens of thousands of cavalry surround us, it will be disastrous." Wang Pu, the general of Datong, looked worried.

"So the trenches and chevaux-de-frise on the right flank must be solid. Even if we don't have the strongest troops, we must still hold the line. We must not scare off the Tartars, but at the same time, provoke their anger and attack them."

Li Mu believed that with the player's ability to make things happen, he would definitely be able to anger the Jiannu.

"I'll defend the right wing, too." Hu Dawei was the first to respond. "As long as I'm here, the Tartars won't be able to break through the right wing!"

Yang Guozhu also responded.

As the proposer, Li Mu naturally had to act as the executor to defend the right wing, so that the defensive force on the right wing would be almost complete.

But the commander-in-chief doesn't see it that way.

This tactic of luring the enemy sounds promising and is one of the few tactics currently available to the loyalist army.

However, the Black Flag Battalion had suffered heavy losses in the previous two battles, and its elite soldiers were no longer useful. The Black Flag Battalion could not guard the right wing, but had to be placed in the relatively safe center.

As for the candidates for the left and right wings, the commander also had an idea in mind.

The commander-in-chief repeatedly asked if there were any other good strategies, but the generals either gave some unsystematic ideas or theirs were not as good as Li Mu's.

The commander-in-chief then made up his mind to adopt Li Mu's suggestion and gave him a reassurance: "No matter what the outcome of this battle is, I will bear the responsibility alone!"

The commander-in-chief ordered the three generals of the Beijing camp to cooperate with Hu Dawei, Yang Guozhu and Wang Pu to guard the right wing, the Black Flag Camp and the Baoding Governor's Flag, as well as his Lu Xiangsheng Governor's Flag to sit firmly in the center, and the remaining soldiers with the strongest overall combat power were on the left wing.

As for the remaining troops of the Guanning Army, after losing their arrogant commander, the acting general who took over also became a well-behaved man and went to the left wing to serve the commander-in-chief.

The commander-in-chief also added that two hundred remaining elite soldiers from the Black Flag Camp would be selected and dispersed among the generals’ camps.

Although the commander did not know the principle of "instant messaging", he would use it if he could. Even if this rapid messaging was a coincidence of "a blind cat meeting a dead mouse" or nonsense, the elite combat power of the Black Flag could serve as bodyguards.

"In this battle, all soldiers must fight with all their might. Anyone who is cowardly or flees will be executed without mercy!"

"The last general takes command!"

The generals and officers from all the divisions said goodbye to the commander-in-chief and returned to their own camps.

……

The next morning, at daybreak, Li Mu was awakened by a group of enthusiastic players.

Auxiliary troops and convict soldiers were digging trenches and setting up horse-proof fences outside the camp.

The crude wooden wall that originally surrounded the entire camp was reduced to a small central military camp, and the excess materials were distributed to each camp to arrange the battlefield.

In the morning, Li Mu was eating breakfast in his tent when he suddenly heard a long horn sound.

He was not at all nervous about facing the decisive battle at night.

At this moment, he was terrifyingly calm, as if he had just released all his worries and anxieties. He picked up the crumbs of dry food that had fallen on the table and stuffed them into his mouth.

The main force of the Tatars has arrived and the decisive battle is about to begin.

(End of this chapter)