Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 259: Your Highness’s kindness is not over yet! Head south!
Great, it’s Li Jing, we are saved - this was the first reaction of Su Dingfang, Xue Rengui and the Red Turban Army soldiers.

Their second reaction was -

"The general did not miss the deadline. Fortunately, fortunately..."

Su Dingfang breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Jing reined in his horse and looked back at this former subordinate who had been hidden for more than 20 years because of his involvement, his eyes flickering.

"You didn't break your promise. Thank you for your hard work."

Behind him, the Northeastern cavalry who came to support followed the path that the commander himself had paved, jumped off the top of the mountain, and rushed down the mountain.

They galloped into the sunset, their exquisite armor shining with golden light, like heavenly soldiers and generals.

Zhang Jian’s words “Hold on firmly and there will be a way” are not nonsense.

This was Li Ming’s strategic conception.

First, the "vanguard" troops led by Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui launched a harassment war, not seeking to kill the enemy, but only to provoke the Tiele people as much as possible.

After attracting enough hatred, you can create a flaw to attract the enemy's main force, or at least a considerable part of its forces, to the Hengshan line outside Yanmen Pass.

Finally, the "main force" of the Northeastern Army led by Li Jing went out and wiped out the Xueyantuo army in the mountains.

The biggest trouble that the grassland peoples pose to agricultural civilization is not their fighting power but their strategic mobility.

They hit and run, collapse at the first touch, and will dare to do it again next time.

Although the Central Plains Dynasty won more battles than it lost, it was difficult to encircle the enemy in the vast grasslands. It often fought battles of crushing rather than annihilation, and was unable to effectively kill the enemy's effective forces.

This leads to endless border troubles, which are annoying enough during the heyday of a dynasty, but in the last years of a dynasty they are often the last steel bar that breaks the camel's back.

The strange and rugged mountain and forest terrain of Hengshan can effectively prevent the Tiele people from escaping on horseback, making it easy to lure them in and kill them.

What's more, Li Ming's Northeast Army was neither good at horse combat nor lacked war horses, but had a unique understanding of the tactical application of mountain warfare.

In a word, using this Red Turban Army vanguard as bait to lure the Xueyantuo Army to the Hengshan Mountains was a win-win situation.

Li Ming won twice.

From Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui onwards, every soldier of the Red Turban Army was very clear about his duty as "bait" and faithfully carried out the tactics of adding fuel to the fire and provoking the enemy.

The execution was a little too successful, which aroused the Tiele people's ignorance and karma. They even wanted to eat these annoying flies in one bite, and took the initiative to drive the Red Turban Army towards Hengshan, far away from Liaodong.

Both directions went to belong to yes.

"I will chase him right away!"

Xue Rengui seemed to have suddenly regained his strength. He bowed respectfully to the two old seniors and started to run down the mountain like a spring.

It's really a ghost. I never thought that he would not die. Today is the day he will die heroically.

So what on earth did he do by abandoning the etiquette of a junior and speaking his mind to the old senior Su Dingfang...

Comrade Xue Rengui, who was arrogant at first but respectful later, now only wanted to jump off the cliff of Hengshan Mountain and leave this embarrassing planet.

"No need, I was just joking."

Li Jing shook the reins gently, and the horse obediently blocked Xue Rengui's way.

"You've worked hard. Go down and rest first. Leave the rest of the battle to us."

As he said this, he dismounted from his horse first and spoke a few words to the deputy general.

The deputy general then passed the commander's orders to the signalmen, who "translated" them into flag signals and drum signals, which were then passed down layer by layer to the reinforcements he brought.

After making a series of arrangements smoothly, Li Jing withdrew his hands and squatted in the trench with Lao Su and Xiao Xue.

The three people looked at each other.

Su Dingfang couldn't help but ask his old leader:
"Then why don't you chase after him?"

Li Jing glared at him unhappily:
"Are you stupid enough to be a Wuhou Guard? How can a commander rush to the front line?"

As he spoke, he touched his buttocks and muttered:

"Fortunately, I have a lot of flesh. This fierce horse jumped down from the mountain and almost broke my old bones."

A cool appearance comes at a price.

"puff……"

Xiao Xue almost couldn't hold back his laughter.

I have heard of the name of Li Weigong for a long time, but I didn't expect that this meritorious veteran who even Your Majesty is afraid of is actually a funny little old man.

Old Su glanced at Xiao Xue and curled his lips:
"Reporting to Lord Li Wei, I have discovered a promising general for Liaodong, General Xue Rengui.

"At such a young age, he not only commanded properly, had flexible tactics, and fought courageously, but he also respected his teachers and superiors, and strictly observed propriety, righteousness, and integrity. He is truly a model of both talent and virtue."

Xue Rengui's mouth twitched and he shrank into the corner of the trench, and the smile on his face shifted to Su Dingfang's face.

"You are all great. You have been able to hold off so many enemies for so long..."

Li Jing felt both relieved and distressed.

Because the tactic of seducing the Xueyantuo was so successful, it not only attracted the enemy to the Hengshan line in advance, but also attracted far more enemy troops than expected.

Lao Su and Xiao Xue, with a few thousand men, managed to hold the line despite repeated fierce attacks from enemies that outnumbered them by dozens or even hundreds of times their number.

This was also thanks to the fact that the person who came to support was Li Jing, who was good at commanding the army.

If it were someone else, traveling thousands of miles from the Northeast to Yunzhou would inevitably take a few days.

By the time they arrived, they were late even for the banquet. The Xueyantuo army had already left Yunzhou and happily returned to the south to plunder.

At this time, Li Jing's men came with a message:

"Report to the commander! Our vanguard is already in place and has driven the enemy out of this hill!
"The main force is on standby at the top of the mountain, please give us instructions!"

The messenger was very energetic and almost shouted while reporting, which quickly attracted the attention of Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui.

They looked at the legendary "reinforcements" curiously.

The other person's appearance was not much different from that of a Chinese person, but his Chinese had a peculiar accent.

It is definitely not from the Han area, but it is not the accent of the grassland barbarians either.

Apart from his appearance and accent, the messenger was shorter than the average Liaodong man. The standard armor draped over him dangled and did not fit him well, giving him a funny look, like a child wearing adult clothes.

His face was also thinner than that of the people from Liaodong, with prominent cheekbones and a sallow complexion.

However, his eyes were full of energy, more energetic than those of the vigorous people of Liaodong, and they were simply glowing.

The overly spirited spirit, coupled with the thin stature and pale face, made the messenger look a little stubborn.

Li Jing spent almost no time thinking and issued further combat instructions very fluently:

"Don't alert the enemy. Stop the advance of the front army and build a defense line on the spot.

“The left army will come from the west, and the right army from the east, and will outflank the enemy from the rear along the mountain ridge.

"The central army is the reserve, do not move."

"Yes! His Highness Li Ming's kindness has not yet been repaid!" The messenger responded with great energy, waving the command flag nimbly toward the top of the mountain behind him.

After a while, a group of infantrymen emerged from the two small paths on the left and right of the top of the mountain.

The cavalry was moving too fast just now and they couldn't see clearly. This time, Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui carefully observed the infantry and found that this support army seemed to have... subtle "characteristics".

Although the reinforcements were wearing the standard armor of the Red Turban Army and the standard helmets of Liaodong, their morale was as high as that of the Red Turban Army.

But Su and Xue always felt that there were subtle differences between them and the "traditional" Liaodong Red Turban Army.

One of the differences is their appearance. Like the messengers, those soldiers are thin and have sallow complexions, as if they have been malnourished for a long time and have only had a few full meals recently.

The second difference is in facial features. If you look closely, there are still some differences between them and the Chinese. The most obvious one is that their cheeks are bigger. This is probably because of the different languages ​​and pronunciation parts, which lead to the acquired differences in facial features.

The third difference is their spirit. These soldiers are so spirited. There is light in their eyes. Their fighting spirit is even higher than that of the Red Turban Army. You can tell at first glance that they are very stubborn and not easy to mess with.

However, it is normal that there are differences between the two armies, and it did not surprise Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui.

Because these support troops were not the Red Turban Army and did not come from Liaodong.

No matter how much Liaodong develops, it is only the size of two pieces of land and does not hide any population. These 3,000 Red Turban Army "bait" are indeed Liaodong's most powerful force.

It is impossible to spawn so many Martian soldiers out of thin air.

It is obvious that these reinforcements are not from Liaodong, they are not even Chinese.

But they were Goguryeo people.

Li Ming's colonial strategy in Goguryeo - in simple terms, "just do good things, allow or even induce the Goguryeo rulers to do bad things, make the people suffer, and bring bad reputation to Yeon Gaesomun" - achieved great success.

Not only did he control the economic lifeline of Goguryeo and infiltrate every aspect of the country's national economy and people's livelihood, he also earned a huge amount of reputation in the local area.

The locals have reached the point of worshipping Li Ming (literally, such as building a shrine for him), and as a result, they have an overwhelming trust in "Liaodong" and the "Red Turban Army."

Under the operation of Fang Xuanling and Li Jing, the two "foxes", the Goguryeo people enthusiastically joined the Red Turban Army and received complete training locally. During the period when Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui were causing trouble in Hebei, Li Jing was not idle in Goguryeo, doing the two things of recruiting and training.

With the strongest military god of the time (except Li Shimin) in charge of the rear, there is a pool of high-quality manpower whose numbers are no less than Xueyantuo and whose fighting will is far greater than that of the enemy.

Only double the happiness could make Li Ming happily make up his mind to boldly use the 3,000 soldiers he had gathered with great difficulty in Liaodong as bait.

However, it is easy to obtain tens of thousands of manpower, but it is difficult to find tens of thousands of war horses. This is also the fundamental reason why Li Ming set the decisive battle battlefield in Hengshan to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses and fight in mountain warfare.

What? You asked what Yeon Gaesomun, the regent of Goguryeo, thought about the enemy recruiting and training soldiers in their own country?
He uses his cell phone to watch it, he can't watch it without his cell phone.

Be it Yeon Gaesomun or other aristocratic chiefs, the old Goguryeo ruling class completely lost control of their country, and it can no longer be simply described as being sidelined.

But they were raised as pigs.

Being kept in his own palace by the bribe deliberately provided by Li Ming, he could not hear nor dare to listen to the noise from the outside world, so naturally he could not care so much.

"The follow-up Goguryeo army is still on the way to reinforce, and there are about 100,000 people."

Li Jing briefly introduced the general situation to his two subordinates:

"We first crossed Yanshan Mountain from Xifengkou and entered Hebei. It was freezing cold, so it took us a little longer to get through Pingxingguan and arrive here. We could have gone a day faster."

Su Dingfang understood the meaning of this short sentence:

"One hundred thousand people, a long-distance raid, how do you solve the logistics?"

Xue Rengui also thought:
"From Xifengkou to Hengshan, it's at least a thousand miles. To feed and feed an army of 100,000 people, there must be at least 400,000 or 500,000 civilians, right?
"It will take a lot of time to prepare food, supplies, and personnel!"

Based on his experience in Yingzhou, if he arranged several thousand soldiers to march into neighboring Goguryeo, it would take a long time just to wait for the laborers to deliver the food.

It can be said that the biggest constraint on marching speed is not that the soldiers' legs are not fast enough, but that the four-wheeled baggage vehicles are too slow.

Li Jing organized a much larger expeditionary force, which traveled thousands of miles and actually arrived at the battlefield in time.

Judging from the mental state of the soldiers, no logistical problems occurred throughout the process.

It's simply incredible speed and scheduling capabilities.

If Xue Rengui were in his place, the issue of feeding and drinking hundreds of thousands of soldiers would give him a headache just by making a logistics plan.

Is this the terrifying thing about the world's number one general?

"Logistics and supplies..."

When this topic was brought up, Li Jing's expression became subtle:
"Of course, we have prepared some logistics and laborers."

This statement is very artistic.

What does "prepare some" mean?
"However, some food and grass can be obtained on the spot." Li Jing said vaguely.

Lao Su and Xiao Xue retreat tactically.

What does “resolve the issue on the spot” mean?
What specific methods were used to collect grain from local people in Hebei?

Could it be...

Li Jing looked at the two funny guys, one old and one young, speechlessly, with the corners of his mouth twitching.

"What are you looking at? Do I look like someone who would allow his soldiers to plunder his own people?"

Xue Rengui glanced at a subordinate of Li Jing who was hidden away for "allowing his soldiers to plunder" and said nothing.

"It was the people of Hebei who voluntarily provided food and drink, which greatly eased the logistical pressure and saved the army from having to wait for the baggage train!"

Li Jing explained unhappily:
"Wherever our army went, the people welcomed it wholeheartedly. It was truly a perfect time. The scene of thriving vitality and everything flourishing is still vivid before our eyes."

Old Su and Xiao Xue looked at each other in confusion.

In other words, an army of more than 100,000 was supported solely by the people's "feeding"?

"Oh, this is also thanks to you two." Li Jing said awkwardly:
"Thanks to your good deeds in Hebei and not bringing shame to His Highness Li Ming, the people are so supportive of our Northeastern army."

Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui seemed to be thinking:
“No wonder His Highness repeatedly warned us before we set out to fight, to strictly abide by military discipline and not to harass the people.

"So there is this intention..."

Calculate the people's sentiments thoroughly and feed them back into strategic logistics.

As expected of His Highness Li Ming, who built a powerful regime from scratch in the Northeast...

"Report to the general!"

The spirited messenger came again:
"The vanguard reports that the Xueyantuo army not only refused to surrender, but also dared to fight back against our army!"

Li Jing raised his eyebrows, keenly aware of something strange:
"They are not even afraid of the ambush troops with large numbers. They are no longer ordinary barbarians. We must strike hard."

His reasoning is not without reason.

Just when it seemed that the Red Turban Army was about to be wiped out, tens of thousands of them suddenly appeared on the battlefield, which would have caused a huge drop in morale for everyone.

What’s more, what about the Tiele people, whose average fighting ability is not very good and whose organizational ability is very poor?

"Indeed, ordinary Tiele tribes are like a pile of loose sand, and they will collapse as soon as they encounter a tough opponent. It is a bit abnormal that they are so tenacious today..."

After being pointed out by his old leader, Su Dingfang, who had become a "friend of life and death" with the Tiele people, also sensed that something was wrong:
"Could it be..."

“Could it be that there are high-ranking Xueyantuo officials in that army?
"For example, Zhenzhu Khan?"

Xue Rengui had the same suspicion.

They were able to block the Red Turban Army under their command in Hengshan and fight them to the death in unfamiliar mountainous areas, and even after paying a huge price of tens of thousands of casualties, they still fought to the death.

The fighting spirit of the opposing Tiele army far exceeded that of those scattered tribes that collapsed after being harassed by guerrilla warfare.

They are the elite tribe of the Xueyantuo Khanate.

Moreover, if there was no leader of sufficient importance to keep them in check, the Tiele people would never have fought so hard.

"interesting……"

Li Jing stroked his beard and looked meaningfully at the foot of the mountain.

At the foot of the mountain, Xueyantuo soldiers were continuously replenished and reorganized into several infantry phalanxes, ready to fight to the end.

The veteran's face was calm, but his eyes were sparkling with excitement:
"Get out of the way, I'll take charge!"

…………

Not far away, on a towering ridge isolated from the battlefield.

Li Shimin and his three followers lay prone on the snow, not even daring to blink.

They happened to be in a high place, overlooking the entire valley and having a clear view of everything that happened on the battlefield.

"Tian Khan, Tian Khan, please don't cry yet. The heavenly soldiers have come to save the Tang Dynasty."

Ashina She'er was so stunned that he could not speak.

The sudden turn twisted his waist.

Behind the opposite mountain top, tens of thousands of Martian soldiers suddenly appeared without warning, instantly turning the situation around.

Anyone would find it magical.

"What are you talking about, you rude bastard!

"Your Majesty didn't cry, it was just a bit snowy just now!"

Qibi Heli cursed in a low voice while wiping his tears.

Those loyal people from Liaodong who swore to fight to the death made him, a loyal Tiele man who was in Mobei but whose heart was with the Tang Dynasty, feel very involved.

The loyal warriors survived the desperate situation, which made the old Qibi feel mixed emotions.

No, no, your focus is that your father is crying... Li Chengqian complained in his heart and was thinking about how to say a few auspicious words to his father such as "God bless the Tang Dynasty".

But Li Shimin had a serious look and a frown on his face. He stared at the situation on the battlefield intently, with almost half of his body leaning out of the ridge, and his hands tightly grasping the snow.

This tense look doesn't seem like he's happy for the loyal soldier's survival...

"Father...Emperor?"

Being around such a father, Li Chengqian felt fear and pressure for the first time in a long time.

It was as if I had returned to the past, to the days of my youth when I would be punished like a storm if I made the slightest mistake...

"The front army is deterrent, the two armies are encircling, and the central army is ready..."

At this time, Li Shimin completely ignored the other three people, and even ignored himself who was sentimental not long ago. His brain was working fast and coldly.

"This steady and balanced method of transporting troops...

"Why does he look so much like Li Jing?"

(End of this chapter)