The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 374 Show
Fu Songqing watched as Yue Wenxuan put on a long show, showing concern for the soldiers and putting on various acts of care. Only after the performance was over did he walk up to Fu Songqing and smile, saying, "Oh, isn't this Lord Fu?"

Fu Songqing thought to himself: Pretend you only just noticed me? You came to my barracks to put on an act, just to show for me, right? Can't you just stop pretending?
Yue Wenxuan beckoned to him: "Lord Fu, may I speak to you in private?"

The two walked to the edge of the barracks. Gong Erniangzi led everyone else far away, leaving only the two of them to talk.

Fu Songqing then said in a low voice, "Such a powerful way to win people's hearts, but I don't know why you did it in front of me?"

Yue Wenxuan: "Of course I want Lord Fu to learn it! Lord Fu will definitely need this trick in the future."

Fu Songqing's face showed a strange expression: "I won't have the chance to use this trick. You exiled me here just to use the enemy soldiers to kill me, didn't you?"

Yue Wenxuan: "Why would I need to borrow a knife to kill you?"

Fu Songqing: "I am, after all, an envoy. When two countries are at war, envoys are not to be killed. If you don't want to give others a reason to criticize you, then arrange for me to 'accompany the army' and then be killed by the pseudo-Qi state."

Yue Wenxuan laughed: "Civil officials tend to overthink things; they make simple things seem incredibly complicated."

Fu Songqing glanced sideways: "Then what do you intend to do?"

Yue Wenxuan: "Lord Fu is a proponent of war and has always advocated for military action against the Jiangbei region to reclaim the lost territories of the Song Dynasty."

Fu Songqing: "That's right, so what?"

Yue Wenxuan: "Since you are a proponent of war, then of course you must know how to fight. I sent you here to learn how to fight."

Fu Songqing: "..."

That reason is absolutely outrageous.

Yue Wenxuan said, “High-ranking officials who have never been to the grassroots level are like those living in castles in the air, and they are very likely to make big mistakes. For example, if your army is clearly weaker than the enemy's, you decide to attack. Or, if your army is clearly far superior to the enemy's, you decide to retreat... These are all mistakes made by officials who have never been to the grassroots level, after misjudging the strength of both sides.”

"Therefore, I hope that our officials in the Northern Song Dynasty, especially those who are fighting on the front line, can go down to the grassroots level, do the most basic work, and accumulate experience. In the future, when they are in high positions, they can avoid some mistakes by using their grassroots experience."

Fu Songqing: "I am not an official of your Northern Song Dynasty."

Yue Wenxuan chuckled: "Who cares? Alright, Lord Fu, continue to enjoy your military service. I'm very busy. I need to visit some wounded soldiers, chat with some lower-ranking soldiers, talk to their families, and show concern for their elderly mothers. I don't have time to talk to Lord Fu much."

Fu Songqing: "Hypocritical!"

Yue Wenxuan: "That's still better than not even bothering to be hypocritical and always being aloof and disconnected from the grassroots. You should criticize the high-ranking officials of the Southern Song Dynasty and think about what they are doing now."

Fu Songqing was speechless for a moment.

Yue Wenxuan patted his behind and left to continue visiting the soldiers.

Fu Songqing thought to himself: You just want to get rid of me, the envoy of the Southern Song Dynasty? The more you want to kill me, the less I can die. I must endure the humiliation and return to my country alive.

With that in mind, he took out the musket again and continued practicing each movement.
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The next day, the army got up very early and began their march.

At this point, the army began to split into units. One thousand-man unit went due west, heading towards Anhe Town. Another thousand-man unit went northwest, heading towards Qingyang Town. And another thousand-man unit went southeast, heading towards Guishan Town.

Meanwhile, Fu Songqing's thousand-man team headed south.

He didn't know which group Gong Erniangzi and Yue Wenxuan were following.

Not long after they set off, a city appeared in the south. One of Fu Songqing's comrades, a soldier who had defected from Li Cheng's side, introduced the city to everyone: "That's Sizhou. I came here when I was with Li Cheng. It has long since fallen into the hands of the puppet Qi Kingdom. But the puppet Qi Kingdom probably doesn't have many troops in this city, maybe only a thousand."

The captain laughed and said, "In that case, the general will definitely order an attack on the city. Everyone, get ready for the attack."

Fu Songqing was astonished: "We only have a thousand men, many of whom are new recruits. How dare we attack a city defended by an equal number of troops?"

Throughout history, a siege has always required an enemy force several times larger than the enemy's.

I've never heard of a state capital city that a thousand men dared to attack while a thousand men defended it.

The captain laughed and said, "In a 1,000-on-1,000 situation, we basically have no chance of losing. We should be able to open the city with minimal effort."

Fu Songqing: "..."

Where does this confidence come from?
That would be considered arrogance!
An arrogant soldier will be defeated.

Fu Songqing felt a little panicked: I hope I don't die here.

Just when he was in a panic, he learned that the one thousand men were led by Gong Er Niangzi and Yue Wenxuan. Their orders were quickly passed down from top to bottom: "Prepare to attack the city."

Fu Songqing sighed inwardly: Is this a real attack? It seems my first battle in the Northern Song army is going to be a major defeat, and I wonder how many of my comrades will die.

A thousand men arrived at the city of Sizhou and began to form ranks.

Fu Songqing was positioned in the musket formation and could only see the backs of Gong Erniangzi and Yue Wenxuan riding on horseback from afar.

You can also see the Qi state flag planted on the city wall of Sizhou.

Soon, the Qi army came out of the city to meet the enemy. It seems that they did not intend to fight a defensive battle in the city at the beginning, but wanted to fight a round of battle in the open field first before making a decision.

Fu Songqing was so nervous that his toes were clenching tightly...

As a lowly soldier in the ranks, there was nothing he could do in this situation; he could only go with the flow, listening to the captain continuously issuing orders to prepare the entire musketeer unit.

Everyone was loading bullets, but after loading, they didn't move forward; they just stayed behind the army formation, playing arcade games.

Then, at Gong Er Niangzi's command, the convoy in front started moving. Several large wooden planks were placed at the front, blocking Fu Songqing's view. He couldn't even see where the enemy was for a while, and could only see the large wooden planks erected by his own convoy.

The convoy began to slowly advance...

Outside the wooden planks, a small number of arrows began to fly over the planks and into the air, but these arrows were blocked by the shield soldiers in the chariot formation.

They couldn't fly to the rear guard where Fu Songqing was.

Since Fu Songqing couldn't see the battle situation ahead anyway, he simply looked around and immediately noticed that a small number of strange musketeers had left the battle formation with their muskets and were wandering around the left and right sides of his own formation like stragglers.

Won't they get dealt with by the captain or the supervisory team if they wander off from the battle formation like this?
Just as he was thinking this, he saw a stragglers open fire with a loud "bang," but Fu Songqing couldn't see what they hit because all he could see in front of him was the door panel.

All he knew was that after the gunshot, cheers erupted from his own soldiers and cries of alarm came from the enemy...

Amidst the chaos, he heard a single sentence: "The general is dead, the general is dead."

(End of this chapter)