Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 352: Repeated emotions repeated to get through the night of missing you
Knowing the approximate location and number of enemy troops gives you considerable initiative in deciding whether to fight or harass.

While the enemy was still confused about the intelligence, we had already formulated an annihilation plan around the enemy.

"A hundred miles is only about a day's walk for a cavalry unit. If we set out now, we'll be in close contact with the main force of the Ming army by tomorrow evening... If six hundred cavalrymen were to defeat sixty thousand main forces, that would be an even more legendary achievement than the victory at Xiongyueyi, right?"

A player was wearing leather armor dotted with black and white patterns, with a long tail made of unknown material tied around his waist. It swayed from side to side while he spoke, just like a leopard walking upright.

Another person's eyes widened, anticipation flowing in their eyes for the blind box prize. "Well, then, in the history books, our names will be military gods sitting at the same table with Han Xin and Li Jing..."

There was a clapping of hands, and Guo Ziyi interrupted the conversation just in time. "Alright, fantasy time is over. If legends were that easy to create, they wouldn't be legends. Now that we've defeated the Ming army's vanguard, the scattered soldiers will sooner or later bring news back to the main force. How do you think the situation will change next? By the way, does anyone remember the distribution of prefectures and counties in Shandong?"

After these words were spoken, the brothers looked at each other in surprise.

Many people don’t even know the specific locations of dozens of provinces in China, let alone the distribution map of prefectures and counties in Shandong Province in the late Ming Dynasty.

"Which good brother has the map?" An Lushan stood up and shouted to the people around him, and immediately six brothers came over with smiles on their faces.

Guo Ziyi brought two boxes of gunpowder and stacked them together to serve as a "lectern". Others also brought ammunition boxes, wheels, and chicken buses and sat around them, just like friends and relatives on a holiday, sitting around the stove. The flickering flames cast everyone's figures on the wall.

The owner spread a very detailed map on the ammunition box. This was the fifth edition of the northern map that had been repeatedly revised by cartographers based on the background of the Ming Dynasty. Everything north of the Yellow River was included in the map.

After obtaining the consent of the map owner, Guo Ziyi used a charcoal pencil to draw a dot on the farthest county town mentioned by the captive and the field where his side was located, connecting them into a straight line.

He used a ruler to compare the straight-line distance between the two points, and after converting it with a scale, it was about 120 miles.

Then draw a circle with a diameter of ninety miles with your point as the center to indicate your distance in one day.

"Well, before we start a battle, we should first deduce the outcome using the worst-case scenario. According to the map, we won't be able to reach our target point within a day."

The others nodded repeatedly when they heard this. This was how Guo Ziyi led them to win the battle of "defeating the majority with the minority". When encountering a large number of enemies, Guo Ziyi had no intention of eating up the enemy army.

As the enemy formed a battle array, they showed their cowardice.

Guo Ziyi realized that the reputation of the Beiwei Army for being invincible in every battle was gradually becoming apparent, and the enemy was afraid to fight against them.

He tested the enemy's firearms coverage by surrounding and harassing them, and confirmed that the vans were all light vans carrying three to five people, rather than heavy vans carrying fifteen people. Only then did he become eager to kill a large number of enemy troops.

After most of the enemy cavalry had been depleted, Guo Ziyi decided to "keep the eagle" all night to further weaken the enemy's morale and condition, hoping to wipe out the entire army...

"Well, we can't reach it in one day, so what if we let the enemy come to us on their own?" One of them pointed at the map. "The enemy is moving every day. Maybe if we head north, we can encounter them within two or three days."

"Even so, it's still too difficult to defeat an enemy force a hundred times stronger than us."

"Fuck you guys—" a player wearing a homemade gas mask interrupted. "Everyone can tell that 600 vs. 60,000 is a joke, right? Why are you seriously discussing ants eating elephants? Did I accidentally walk into some high-end game where everyone can beat 50?"

"Hahaha, let me tell you a joke to liven things up. I think the enemy will become even more cautious after hearing the news of the vanguard's demise. A three-day journey might take them seven, or even them stay in the city."

"It would be better if he could fight a static battle. Our southern army could then sweep across southern Shandong without any worries. When Governor Yang looked back, he would find that our detachment had already fought its way through a large circle and reached Jinan."

"There are too many cities in Dongchang and Yanzhou, and the Cao Gang is entrenched there. If we wait for a small force to penetrate six or seven hundred miles, the main force of Qingzhou will probably be exhausted."

"Well, a two-pronged approach is best. Tell the detachment to march south to capture the city. The main force can also be mobilized. First, assemble at Qinghe Post, forty miles west of Qingzhou. That way, the estimated distance to the main enemy force will be only about two hundred miles."

Guo Ziyi also drew four concentric circles around the post station to indicate that it would take about four days to reach the station.

"It seems we need to keep the enemy where they are and fight a decisive battle with us. Once we capture these tens of thousands of enemy soldiers, the entire North China Plain will be opened up."

"I don't think it's a good idea. It's summer now, and the sun is still very scorching. It's better to let the enemy take the initiative to attack our position. The enemy has traveled a long way, and we can wait for them to tire themselves out. We can win three points without even fighting."

"The Ming army isn't humanoid, so how can we get them to obediently enter our pre-set positions?"

"There are many ways to mobilize the enemy—" Guo Ziyi pondered for a moment, "For example, if their rear supplies were cut off, they had to retreat to get food... Jinan was surrounded, and they had to turn back to rescue... The Ministry of War urged them to advance and fight."

"According to the historical cycle of Li Zicheng's arm wrestling with the Ming army, each decisive battle between the two sides was fought every six months to a year. This time, Governor Yang prepared for less than half a year. It was obvious that he was urged many times by Zhu Youjian and had to take action." An Lushan said.

Another player slapped his thigh excitedly. "The food and fodder carried by tens of thousands of troops can only last for twenty days, or even ten. They've already been on the march from Jinan for several days. If we intercept a few of their baggage trains along the way, the enemy will be starved!"

"So you want to go around and cut off their food supply? But north of Jinan is all plains, where would you start?"

Guo Ziyi drew a dotted line starting from Jinan on the map. "The food shortage cuts off the supply line. If I were the government army, I would definitely transport the food and fodder to Jinan via the Grand Canal and the Ji River, and then transport them to the main military camp by land and water.

Presumably, they marched along the Ji River and bypassed the hills for the convenience of supply.

Land transport takes a relatively fixed amount of time but is extremely costly, while water transport has a large volume but is difficult to accurately calculate. If we cut off a point on this line near Jinan, we can break the enemy's back."

"Well, by the way, we can also pretend that we are going to attack Jinan, forcing the enemy's main force to return for reinforcements and fight a well-prepared blocking battle."

"But we only have 600 cavalrymen. We can't accomplish such a difficult task, right?"

"Who said we have to do it?" Guo Ziyi looked puzzled. "The task of decisive battle with the enemy will naturally be handed over to the main force. We are only responsible for confusing the enemy."

"How do you say that?"

"No matter if it's our own or the enemy, once the main force is in motion, it's difficult to hide our tracks. So, before the enemy figures out our main force's movements, we must obscure their judgment as much as possible, making them mistakenly believe we're about to engage in a head-on battle—" Guo Ziyi pressed down on the city near Gaowan County, squeezing it three times as if it were a mosquito bite. "Intelligence of enemy attacks is everywhere, especially from nearby counties, where the most urgent reports are coming in. What do you think the enemy will think?"

"I will feel that the main force of the Red Turban bandits has arrived. I will fight them to the death and recapture the lost territory in Shandong in one fell swoop!"

The other players joined in the clamor, as if putting themselves in the soldiers' perspective, viciously "insulting" the rebels for not "starving to death" at home. Guo Ziyi snapped his fingers, grateful for his brother's humorous remarks. "Of course, our 600-man strength is definitely not enough. We'll need reinforcements from Qingzhou to expand us into a true vanguard force, with a strength of 2,000 to 3,000, ideally with a full complement of mules and horses. As long as we capture enough counties, the enemy will increasingly suspect that the main force of the Red Turban Army is approaching."

"But there's a problem," a player said, pointing to the main force's position on the map. "Since you said that a large army is difficult to conceal, how can our main force not be detected by the enemy?"

"That's a good question. Although there are no topographical markers on this map, it's clear that county towns in central Shandong are much rarer than those in the north and south."

After Guo Ziyi said this, everyone noticed the differences in the distribution of county towns. The county towns on the North China Plain were almost next to each other.

"The small number of county towns indicates a small population. As long as the main force advances westward along Zibo, it will encounter only a handful of county towns along the way. If the enemy's Tangma is under control, even if they are lucky enough to get intelligence, it will be difficult to tell where the real main force is.

Even if they accurately received the location of our main force, it would still take them three to five days to deploy their troops. By then, our main force would have already dug a trap along the food supply route, waiting for them to fall into it."

"Your plan sounds good, but it doesn't take into account the enemy's perspective. If they hear that the vanguard has suffered such a crushing defeat, will they simply retreat to Jinan and defend it to the bitter end? Or will they throw all their weight behind and march straight to Qingzhou to fight you? Or perhaps they will open their arsenals, arm the gentry, and allow them to build strongholds for self-defense, thus blocking us on our way?"

"The battlefield is dynamic, and strategies must naturally change based on changes on the front lines. If the government troops dare to retreat to Jinan, they will automatically abandon northern and southern Shandong. Zhu Youjian cannot defeat us, but he can control the civilian officials who lead the troops.

It would be best if they could go straight to Qingzhou. Let's reverse the deployment. The vanguard troops will go straight to Jinan, and the main force will wait for them at Qingheyi and wait for them to die in the fortifications.

As for the gentry building strongholds to protect themselves, it is also a dead end way to delay time. Zhu Youjian will not allow any behavior that delays the recovery of lost territory and the rescue of friendly forces.

His bad temper caused the deaths of friendly troops in the Battle of Dalinghhe and the Battle of Songjin. In 1643, he was still urging Sun Chuanting to leave Tongguan and he could not change.

Zhu Youjian is our best 'ally'!"

"Well, then I'll go offline and tell my brothers in Qingzhou about your strategy and see what they think." After saying this, An Lushan lay on his back on the ground, like a thick rag doll with bent limbs.

No one understood enemy and friendly intelligence better than the frontline personnel. Qingzhou discussed the strategy of "making a noise in the north and attacking in the south" for several hours, and finally decided to implement Guo Ziyi's proposal.

The main force will be stationed at Qingheyi, and the southern army will attack directly into southern Shandong. The 4,000 captured surrendered soldiers can be escorted to Qingheyi.

There's just one strategic point I disagree on.

Qingzhou did not provide more than 2,000 cavalrymen, but instead increased the combat strength of the vanguard cavalry to 5,000, with three horses for each person and sufficient food, fodder and ammunition.

Qingzhou asked Guo Ziyi and others to make a big scene in front of the enemy soldiers, the more lively the better.

Just half a day after the battle, the Red Turban Army completed the deployment of troops and food supplies.

Two days after the battle, the vanguard cavalry completed the escort of prisoners, and subsequent reinforcements continued to arrive.

Although the average quality of this "newly formed army" has dropped two levels and is mixed with many new and old players who are not very good at riding horses, the combat effectiveness of the additional retainers and surrendered soldiers is still acceptable.

Just as Guo Ziyi's vanguard troops were rapidly replenishing their troops, the surviving officers and soldiers who had fled finally fled to the nearby county town.

They made their experiences short and simple, reducing the originally exaggerated figure of 700 against 6,000 to 3,000 bandits defeating 10,000 government troops under the guidance of treacherous people.

After all, a team of 6,000 infantry and cavalry was defeated by 700 bandit cavalry, which would be shameful for the rest of one's life if it were made public.

The defeated soldiers didn't want to become the subject of conversation, so they added a series of half-true and half-false "stories".

They claimed that the civilian laborers accompanying the army were cunning and deliberately slowing down the government troops.

Many treacherous people were bribed by the rebels and secretly added croton seeds to the fodder of the war horses, causing the horses to lose their fighting power.

The treacherous people even deliberately sent "special workers" to the camp to comfort the soldiers a few days before the war, causing the soldiers to fight for many days, their legs trembling, and unable to compete with the enemy army.

The defeated soldiers said that if the enemy army was not so cunning and had not used "unconventional tactics" to attack the combat effectiveness of the government army, how could the enemy army have won with fewer troops?

The defeated soldiers who fled to various counties had different stories, but the lies they fabricated were basically the same.

Even if some honest defeated soldiers let the cat out of the bag, they would be forced to change their tune by other veteran soldiers.

Regardless of whether the information was true or false, local officials wrote both versions into the Tangbao newspaper.

On the third day after the battle, the relay messengers who had been delivering intelligence finally arrived on horseback at the main force.

Although Yang Wenyue, Lu Wenjin and others did not dare to believe the news of the vanguard's defeat, and even less than the exaggerated version of "seven hundred rebels defeated six thousand government troops", the fact that less than half of the defeated soldiers escaped at least showed that the defeat was real.

The striker suffered a crushing defeat, which meant that the originally smooth road turned into a dark fog.

Yang Wenyue couldn't tell how many bandits were gathered ahead.

Three thousand, or seven thousand? Or were they sending more troops after defeating the government troops?
If the government troops were to engage in a decisive battle with the enemy troops nearby, how much would it cost them to win?
The rebel army has instigated millions of treacherous people to fight for them, and even if they are defeated once or twice, they can still make a comeback.

But if the officers and soldiers were defeated once, they would be doomed.

The news of the bandits' great victory caused an uproar among the civil and military officials.

Some felt that the enemy troops were coming with the momentum of a great victory, and that they had to avoid their sharp edge. The nearby county town had thin walls and little land, making it an unsuitable place for a strong defense.

It would be better to retreat to Jinan, where the city walls are high and thick, with water to the north and mountains to the south. If tens of thousands of troops gather there, they will surely hold out for more than a year.

(End of this chapter)