Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 228 Why (Two chapters in one)

In the autumn of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the wind from the sky became increasingly biting, and the sun in the sky was lazy, as if covered with a layer of misty gauze, and could not warm the ground at all.

A group of abandoned garrisons in southern Liaoning leads to the seaside. The dilapidated ruins look like black building blocks that have been kicked crooked by naughty children.

Although the residential area has been completely destroyed, you can still vaguely see clusters of haystacks and tumbleweeds that match the color of the ground.

At this moment, the deadly earth suddenly moved. The haystacks straightened up, the grass crawled out of the ground, and the tumbleweeds stretched out their bodies like curled-up watermelon worms.

Suddenly, more than twenty strong men in simple attire appeared in the originally deserted village.

"Everyone spread out and scout immediately." The captain's voice was soft, but all the team members could hear it.

More than twenty people scattered in all directions, like diligent little bees that had just woken up and were about to start working.

Some people went into the woods and climbed up the branches, some occupied the high points of the mound, and some people walked forward for two and a half miles with their backs bent.

All members are in groups of two, one guarding the surroundings and the other taking out a telescope to observe intelligence from afar.

Once it is confirmed that there are no traces of enemies within a radius of twenty or thirty miles, the brother holding the telescope will immediately lie down and exit the game.

"Lone Wolf has not detected any enemy... Dongyao has not detected any enemy... The situation around Jiashen is good... The Space Marines are here to protect you..."

More than ten groups of reconnaissance team members reported military intelligence one after another, and the players who received the summarized intelligence immediately went online.

In the hammock in the battleship cabin, a sleeping player suddenly opened his eyes. The room was full of crowded hammocks.

He skillfully passed through his brothers in the hammocks and trotted all the way to the generals' cabin. More than ten commanders and deputy commanders were gathered there. "The target location is clean and spotless!"

"Alright! Everyone, let's go! Operation King, step one, the landing operation begins!"

He Lusi, the chosen warmaster, immediately gave the order. Voice commands, flag signals, horns, and drums formed a saturated chain of command, conveying it to every player.

Thousands of players quickly boarded the boats and landed in the order set before the battle.

The brothers who landed first rushed to the exit of the narrow road as soon as possible. The width of the first trench was extremely important and determined whether the strategy could be successful.

More than a thousand people dug downwards with shovels at the same time. Inch by inch, the soil was shoveled out and thrown away, and the ground under their feet gradually sank.

If you have consumed a lot of physical strength, other people will take turns to continue shoveling soil and digging ditches.

Of course, in addition to digging trenches, some people used axes to cut down trees in the mountains and forests, made sharpened wooden stakes, tied wood with straw ropes to make chevaux de frise, and built wooden walls around the camp according to the standards for camping, defending the front, back, left and right.

Even the roads leading to the seaside had to be camped and trenches dug to ensure that supplies could be shipped unimpeded.

The Beiwei Army gradually gained a foothold in the narrow road, and the remaining players escorted the weapons, armor and supplies ashore.

In order to save the ship's carrying capacity, the Beiwei Army did not bring any livestock this time, and even the players were crowded together like slaves, just to carry more weapons and ammunition.

After all personnel and supplies were transported off the ship, half of the ships immediately returned to Dengzhou to transport the next batch of supplies.

The strategy of encircling the Jiannu has been approved by the leader, and all players in the war zone can send temporary support to southern Liaoning.

However, each war zone has its own difficulties, and it is impossible to "release people" without limit. Some people can be distributed here and some can be gathered there.

The Beggars' Army and the Wild Wolf Army sent two hundred men, the Immortal Army sent four hundred, the Lurkers from various locations sent three hundred, four hundred cadres from the core area, four hundred from non-emergency production departments, and all free men were mobilized...

The combat power of gamers in the Liaonan war zone has temporarily reached 6,000.

The leader also used his position as the general who suppressed the bandits and the additional military command power granted by the court in Henan, Huguang and Jiangbei to write a letter ordering the coastal authorities in Jiangbei to immediately mobilize civilian ships to transport food, fodder and ammunition to Dengzhou for unified deployment.

If the Jiangbei government dared to neglect military orders, causing the military situation in southern Liaoning to deteriorate, Li Mu would definitely report them severely and put all the blame on those who disobeyed orders.

On the surface, the imperial court was still unaware of the Beiwei Army's tactics at this time, and Li Mu's decision seemed to be a preparation for a counterattack in Dengzhou.

In fact, once the civilian ships arrive in Dengzhou and the news of the landing operation spreads, this batch of supplies can be used by the Beiwei Army.

"The first step of the operation, landing ashore, was successfully completed, bringing us one step closer to victory."

"He Lusi" held the resurrection flag in his hand and thrust it hard into the center of the position. As the players went offline and notified "you can go online", 1,800 brothers who came to support from various war zones crawled out from underground one after another.

More than a thousand people, wearing random pieces of clothing, looked around in confusion, with wooden walls and barricades arranged intermittently around them.

The intermittent trenches in front gradually widened, and the last line of defense inside the trenches was a breastwork made of rubble, broken wood, and bamboo baskets.

"Hey! Wang Tutu!"

"Oh my god! Hong Xiuqing, you guys are here too..."

"See you again, Warmaster Horus..."

Although they often chat and bicker online, they have been separated for a long time in the game, and the reunion feels like a reunion of old friends.

"Here are the weapons!"

The enthusiastic players acted like tour guides, waving a small flag to guide everyone to the logistics area to collect food and ammunition.

While helping each other put on weapons and helmets, they chatted about anecdotes from their respective war zones.

The lurking buddy shared what he saw and heard about the society in the late Ming Dynasty. The Jiangnan region was rich and prosperous, with almost no signs of chaos, just like the "peaceful" scene during the Wanli period a few years ago.

In the northern provinces, the drought becomes more severe as you go north. The frequency of seeing starving people on the road is extremely high, and plague has broken out in many villages.

Just like the monsters under the sacred mountain are becoming more and more rampant, the chaos under the capital is even more serious. The rich are feasting and drinking, while the poor are freezing to death on the streets. The corpses on the streets between the alleys can be dragged out in several carts every day.

The human trafficking was rampant, and many desperate refugees wished their children could be sold to the homes of rich and powerful people in exchange for money and food. In this way, although the family would be separated, at least they could still survive.

The differences between the north and the south due to climate and war make them seem like they are not from the same country.

Players of the Beggar Army, Wild Wolf Army, and Eternal Life Army shared their experiences of gradually capturing county towns and villages in Nanyang and Xiangyang. Many county towns surrendered, and even if some prefects and county magistrates put up a stubborn resistance, they were captured within a few days.

Those gentry and powerful people were extremely arrogant in front of others, saying that the government troops would be back soon, and you peasants should not even think about turning from a black chicken into a phoenix.

As a result, when the steel knife was put to their necks, the gentry and powerful people were so scared that they were shitting and pissing, and begged for mercy.

"Okay, okay! After I finish the Liaonan dungeon, I'll go fight the local tyrants with you beggars!"

"Welcome, welcome. My Qihuo Army is short of grassroots cadres and is in need of talent. If you surrender, you will still be granted the title of nobility..."

"I'd like to go to Korea and Japan. But the war zone hasn't been opened to foreign countries yet, and the primary exploration ticket can't go abroad..."

"I want to go to Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia should be our Chinese backyard!"

"Let's clean up the country first. There are dozens of provinces, enough for you to fight your way through."

"There are too few permanent respawn points. Shouldn't we at least add one in the north?"

"You're right. We think we can give Planner Gou some advice. We can add a second resurrection point in Dengzhou or Lushun. This way, we can control Shandong and southern Liaoning, and we can also control all provinces and foreign countries in Bohai Bay and the Yellow Sea by ship."

"Why add Dengzhou? Just put him in the capital. Once he's resurrected, he'll slaughter all the shitty bureaucrats, royal relatives, and even the princes of the entire north!

I will trample on the bones of the nobles and use their heads to build a Jingguan. Even Huang Chao will feel ashamed when he sees it!"

"You're right. If the resurrection point is in the capital, then the grasslands will be right there when I leave. I'll just unify the grasslands and start the westward expedition, slaughtering all the white pigs in Europe."

"Where's the address of this gaming company? If they don't add a resurrection point, I'll send them razor blades!"

The players were setting up fortifications while chatting about random topics.

The topics discussed became increasingly erratic, ranging from conquering foreign nations to what political system to adopt, from giant colonial trading enterprises, aristocratic republics, feudal federations to slave-owning monarchies...

Most people have a fairly consistent vision: the future core territory will be a giant rooster, much larger than a begonia leaf.

As for the territories outside the core territory, they are divided into special administrative regions, internal vassal states, external vassal states, and barbarians, who together build an unbreakable new world order.

Although this goal is quite far away, it does not prevent you from chatting and talking about it in your daily life.

The addition of 1,800 extra manpower made the efficiency of setting up fortifications astonishingly high. In just half a day, a trench more than two meters wide took shape.

This time, the Beiwei Army did not carry much heavy firepower and the amount of gunpowder was also limited, so the arrangement of the firepower network on this defense line was particularly important.

Every bit of precious ammunition and gunpowder must be used effectively to avoid them being used up before the next batch of supplies arrives.

He Lusi then stationed half of his rifled flintlock musketry and a small number of field artillery in the mountains and forests, and arranged a group of ambushes to prevent the Qing troops from climbing the mountain. The field artillery positions within the camp were also deliberately raised to facilitate bombardment of the enemy.

He did not consider the human-shaped mines for the time being. After all, the Qing army had suffered a loss once, so it was possible to arrange a "mine-sweeping team" to conduct advance reconnaissance.

Ajige, who had merely reported the victory and had not yet been escorted to the court, was also brought here by the Beiwei army.

The players erected three interlaced wooden frames and hung the still living Ajige in the air.

Even when the enemy was fighting, they could see the vague outline of Ajige.

Horus looked around at the busy scene of hammering and felt like a thief defending Iwo Jima, making full use of every manpower and every weapon to inflict the greatest damage to the enemy's vitality.

Although he was the main planner of the strategy, he didn't know whether this temporary defense line could stop the 130,000-strong army of the Jiannu.

All the "photos" taken by the hot air balloon in advance from overhead reconnaissance were uploaded to the game cloud, then downloaded to the computer and handed over to the big guys in the group to analyze the number of flags, tents, and queues. Finally, it was concluded that the main force of the Tartars assembled this time was about 130,000.

According to data from the late Ming Dynasty, if Huang Taiji drafted two of his three men, plus the Mongolian vassal states and the bannermen, it would be more than enough to mobilize an army of 160,000 to 170,000. This was the data after suffering two disastrous defeats and losing a lot of men.

If it were the peak situation before the Qing Dynasty entered the Pass, it would be no problem to mobilize an army of 200,000.

It is obvious that Huang Taiji reserved a part of the army to monitor the direction of Jinzhou. Perhaps "recovering" southern Liaoning and attacking the Beiwei Army was not worth the Qing Dynasty's full effort.

After taking a look at Ajige who was swaying on the wooden frame, Helus turned his head to look to the south.

Huang Taiji personally led an army of over 100,000 southwards, and he must have been confident and at ease.

The big boss in the group also said that Huang Taiji's personal expedition was not only to show off his military power and intimidate the Ming army, but also to warn the wavering Mongolia and Korea to demonstrate that the Qing Dynasty still had national strength and power.

But what if the other party suddenly finds that their retreat is cut off?
……

He opened the cloth bag, took out a few pieces of hard dried meat and stuffed them into his mouth. The scout looked towards the mountains and forests in the north. A cool breeze blew on the road, and no enemies appeared.

The rat tail behind his head was covered by an iron helmet. The scout sipped mare's milk with dried meat, and the smacking sounds of other teammates chewing dry food echoed in his ears.

Normally, there would be no Ming army on this road. However, the Qing army's main force of more than 100,000 troops marched south, and all the enemies along the way had already fled.

Even though the rear was absolutely safe, His Majesty, who was of a steady nature, still sent a large number of Tangma to check the enemy situation around.

I heard that the Han dogs have a unit that is good at water battles, and they like to land in the rear by boat to harass the grain team.

The main task of a considerable number of these scouts is to protect the food supply teams coming from the rear.

Ever since the day when the main force of the army marched south to ambush the Ming army, teams transporting grain have been moving south in an endless stream. The time of transport varies, but there has never been a single stone of grain missing.

However, the latest round of food transport teams arrived too late. Even if the army's food reserves can last for some time, food security is still a problem that the army commander has to worry about.

Could it be that the food team in the rear encountered a guerrilla group of Han dogs?

After eating and drinking their fill, the scouts mounted their horses and planned to head north for dozens of miles to see where the food supply team was.

The scenery along the way was still empty, but when they walked for dozens of miles, they saw a group of moving figures in a long hilly area.

Several wide trenches connected the narrow roads between the hills, like cracks cut by a giant knife.

Although there were flat areas between the trenches for people to stand on and wooden planks for walking on, the trenches themselves were too wide. If the planks were removed, even a strong man with all his strength would not be able to cross them in one step. A standing long jump would not be enough, and a running long jump would not be able to stop the speed and fall into another trench.

Behind the trench was a low wall made of various miscellaneous items, the heights of which varied, some reaching chest height and some waist height.

Behind the low wall are three conspicuous wooden walls of the camp, which firmly protect the soldiers in the center.

A tall wooden frame attracted the attention of all scouts, and a living person was hanging at the bottom of the frame.

Unfortunately, the scout did not have a telescope and the distance between the two sides was very far, so he could only vaguely see the vague outline of a living person, but did not know his specific identity.

However, based on the dozens of flags flying in the soldiers' camp, the scouts were able to conclude that these people were enemies, or the Beiwei Army!
Even without the black flag with white border, the characteristics of the Beiwei Army are extremely obvious - only they would hang dozens of strange and bizarre flags.

With more than ten years of combat experience, the scouts quickly estimated that the Beiwei army had several thousand troops.

How could the Beiwei Army, which could only take boats to circumvent the enemy and engage in minor raids, gather thousands of main forces and set up camp deep behind enemy lines?

The scouts did not dare to delay and rode back to the camp at full speed to report what they had seen and heard.

A group of Manchu, Mongolian and Han nobles and high-ranking officials were shocked when they heard this. They hadn't seen the Beiwei army in the past few days, and now they appeared behind them!

Huang Taiji sighed and let out a breath. The news that the soldiers and civilians in Fuzhou City suddenly disappeared made him feel lost for a moment. As expected, the Beiwei Army chose to escape.

He had to open fire to destroy the surrounded Ming army and capture thousands of soldiers and horses to serve as armed baoyi in the Han army banner.

He originally thought that his personal expedition to southern Liaoning would be a boring journey, but now he was surprised and happy to hear the news that the Beiwei Army had circumvented him.

What was surprising was that the Beiwei Army did not flee, nor did they take advantage of sea transportation to flow upstream into the Liaozhong Plain. Instead, they gathered thousands of people to block the road and separate the north and the south.

Huang Taiji specially arranged a detachment of troops to be stationed in Yaozhou and Haizhou in order to delay and block the elite troops of Beiwei, and then he led tens of thousands of Qing cavalry to rush over and surround the enemy.

The good news was that the Beiwei Army did not flee, but planned to confront him head-on. He still had a chance to destroy this powerful army.

The scout reported that the total number of enemy troops was no more than 5,000. He could hardly hold back his laughter and did not take the Beiwei Army seriously at all.

What can a mere 5,000 people do?
The main force of the Qing Dynasty had 130,000 infantry and cavalry, which was enough to crush the main force of the Ming army on the Jinzhou battlefield.

Even if these 5,000 men were all capable warriors, if they were given a chance to exchange one for three, they would only be able to kill 10,000 to 20,000 bondservants.

It's like a flying insect flying towards a person's face, and the human can kill the insect by waving his hand.

The princes and nobles all clamored to eliminate the troublesome Beiwei Army and use their heads as chamber pots.

Then, those Beiwei soldiers who would rather die than surrender were driven like slaves day and night, making it impossible for them to live or die.

Huang Taiji also felt that it would be easy to tear through the enemy's defense line, but as he liked to think too much, he felt that the Beiwei Army must have other intentions.

The captured defeated Ming soldiers all said that the combat soldiers and auxiliary soldiers of the Beiwei Army were all brave enough to fight. Even the auxiliary soldiers who were usually afraid of death dared to fight from the rear after being trained by the Beiwei Army.

Just as he used the empty camp strategy to delay the Ming army in Songshan, he suspected that this group of people who landed from the rear were just auxiliary troops of the Beiwei Army, whose purpose was to confuse and delay time.

Once he personally leads the main force to attack, the auxiliary troops, who are brave but have average combat effectiveness, will be defeated or even escape by boat. The time difference between heading north and attacking is the precious time that the Beiwei Army needs to gain.

What will the Beiwei Army do with this time?

Huang Taiji wondered to himself, could it be that the elite troops of the Beiwei Army were going to go north along the river and attack Shenyang directly?

The more Huang Taiji thought about it, the more he felt that this plan was feasible.

The troops left behind in Yaozhou and Haizhou were of average combat effectiveness, and they would not be able to hold out for even a day against the 5,000 elite Beiwei troops.
Even if he commanded a large force to take down the "roadblock" and sent tens of thousands of Qing cavalry to rush back for support, there would still be a lag of several days.

These few days are enough for the Beiwei Army to attack Shenyang.

You have to know that the Beiwei Army is a group of lunatics who hate the Eight Banners. Even if the plan of attacking Shenyang directly is extremely risky, and they may end up being surrounded by the Qing troops returning to support them, they will not be afraid.

If the Beiwei Army managed to capture Shenyang, his beloved concubine and offspring would be...

Do not!
Huang Taiji shook his head and got rid of this bad idea.

There were also several Manchu princes and high-ranking officials stationed in Shenyang. If they saw the Beiwei Army, they would know how to judge the enemy's strength and decide whether to defend the city.

Even if Shenyang could not be defended, the remaining garrison could escape to Liaobei on horseback with their families.

It will definitely be fine.

Moreover, this series of "Beiwei Army strategies" were all his own inferences. Perhaps the elite troops of the Beiwei Army did not go north.

It was not five thousand auxiliary troops, but five thousand elite soldiers standing upright in the narrow road between the hills, waiting for the decisive battle with his powerful Qing army.

Huang Taiji murmured in a deep voice.

Since you, the Beiwei Army, disregard the city, the safety of your friendly forces, and even your own safety, and dare to block the retreat of our Qing Dynasty with only 5,000 soldiers and horses,

Then let me show you the true strength of my Qing Dynasty's more than 100,000 soldiers.

"Attack!"

(End of this chapter)