Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 308 The big one is coming

On the Yellow River, a small fleet of Tang troops cruised through the hostile river.

The south bank was the Ming-occupied area, and the north bank was the Ming's native Hebei province. This fleet could only take the middle channel of the river, trying to interfere with and intercept the Ming army's cross-river supplies.

After traveling eastward along the river for a while, the fleet pilot discovered that rows of small boats were moored downstream, connected end to end, almost blocking the entire river.

The boat was piled high with dry firewood and tung oil, with no disguise at all, making it clear that they were trying to "bring warmth" to these Tang compatriots.

The Tang army fleet was frightened and quickly turned around, thanking themselves for not being blind and discovering the danger in time.

However, after the ships finally turned 180 degrees and tried to stay away from the mines.

They suddenly discovered that more such fire boats were drifting from upstream, densely packed downstream and approaching them rapidly.

Just a little spark and they will be reduced to ashes!
Tang Jun's scalp exploded instantly.

I was actually surrounded by arson ships!
Just as they were feeling numb, a boat came from the north bank of the river, flying a large flag of non-war.

The Ming envoys on the ship didn't say much nonsense. They raised their voices and shouted at the Tang army, which was in a dilemma:
"If you don't want to be burned to ashes, surrender!"

What the envoy said made so much sense that the entire Tang army was convinced by his eloquent argument. They immediately stated that they were all conscripted men, had admired the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and had long wanted to abandon darkness and join the light!
The Tang fleet was captured without bloodshed.

After clearing the river channel, all the ships quickly sailed out from the port on the north bank of the Yellow River, carrying a large number of soldiers and supplies, and docked in the south.

Xue Rengui, a young general of the Ming Dynasty, led more than 100,000 reinforcements and set foot on the land of Henan.

"How dare they brazenly show off their might right under our noses? The Tang army really doesn't know how high the heavens are and how deep the earth is. It's ridiculous that they are so arrogant at first and then submissive later."

Xue Rengui sighed in his heart.

After all, the Yellow River is not the Yangtze River. Its water flow is gentle and there are relatively few mountains on both sides, so there are many ferry crossings, which the Tang Dynasty navy could not block at all.

This does not include the Ming Dynasty’s own navy.

However, Xiao Xue only relaxed for a short while, and then immediately began to deploy soldiers.

Even though he commands hundreds of thousands of people and looks very heroic and confident.

However, compared with Li Jing's elite soldiers who have experienced many battles, these second-line troops under his command are still inferior, so he has to spend more effort on command.

Fortunately, the task they performed was not difficult.

That was to consolidate the flank of Li Jing's main army located in Zhengzhou, and to station in various prefectures and counties along the Yellow River, such as Huazhou, Bianzhou, and Zhengzhou east of Zhengzhou.

To put it bluntly, it is just about defending the stronghold and filling the front line.

Defensive battles do not require very good equipment, war horses, or high morale and organization.

Just enough arrows and enough gold.

In situations other than field battles, second-line troops are sufficient, and their actual combat effectiveness is probably similar to that of first-line troops.

"But they actually mobilized so many troops to strengthen the defense line... Did General Li Jing foresee any danger?"

Xue Rengui did not dare to neglect it, and his heart was alarmed. While building a defense line, he asked Li Jing, the chief steward, for the latest situation.

The news he received made him even more confused.

"The main force of the Tang army is led by Li Shiji, with a total of about 60,000 people. They are currently stationed west of Zhengzhou and are under the constant surveillance of our scouts...

"Hiss, eh?"

The enemy is still west of Zhengzhou. If Li Jing wants to consolidate his flank, it would be reasonable to let Xue Rengui lead his troops to support Zhengzhou and deploy defenses in the south of the city.

Why should he be asked to defend these counties far away from Zhengzhou?
And it's like scattering sesame seeds, a little in this city and a little in that city?
Does this have anything to do with supporting the battle?
"But with Li Weigong's wisdom, he must have his reasons for doing so...

"Could it be that there is a change in the city? Or is there any unusual movement in the southern states?"

After all, this is the core area of ​​the Tang Dynasty, unlike Liaodong and Hebei, which are originally remote or simply alienated from the Tang Dynasty.

It would probably be much more difficult for the Ming Dynasty to annex and assimilate this place.

In addition, the south bank of the Yellow River is not the south bank of the Sea, and there are large areas of "Tang-occupied areas" to the south of these prefectures and counties.

The contact line between the two sides is very long, so it is not impossible for the Tang army to march north to try to regain lost territory.

Xue Rengui immediately called the Ming garrison commander who had stayed behind to find out the actual situation on the ground.

"What? None of these problems?"

As a result, the actual situation I learned was, if not exactly the same as what I had expected, it could be said to be completely opposite.

As one of the earliest developed war zones, the people of Central Plains were already numbed. As long as the city was not massacred, they would welcome the royal army with food and drink.

As for the enemy situation in the south, although it does exist, its strength and scale are very small.

This intensity is more like harassment than a Northern Expedition.

It gives people a feeling that the Tang Dynasty is no longer able to exert any effort.

"These plots of land don't look like they need assistance... Why is Lord Li Wei doing this?"

Xue Rengui was very puzzled.

If he were to make the decision, he would have sent all these hundreds of thousands of people to the Zhengzhou front and swept through the Tang Dynasty in one wave.

Of course, he only dared to think about it. No matter how confused he was in his heart, he did not dare to be negligent and carried out his superiors' orders to the letter.

…………

However, just as Xue Rengui was setting up his defenses to perfection, he encountered a rather... annoying resistance.

The resistance came from the Tang army, but why is it called "annoying"?

Because those Tang troops did not cause much direct damage, at best they were just harassment of the same scale as before, and they stopped there after a brief attack, and neither side suffered many casualties.

However, the timing and location of these harassments were just right.

If you don't do this when a garrison's food and grass are running out, you can disrupt the baggage transport team with an attack, delay the supply time, and let the garrison wait and starve for a few days.

It means digging a hole or burying a trap at a weak point in a certain place's defense line, or pretending to be ghosts and howling in the middle of the night, causing serious mental pollution.

It is not very destructive, but it is extremely insulting.

The scale of these waves of harassment was not large each time, but the frequency was very exaggerated.

When there are many cases, there can be dozens of them every day. The entire long defense line that Xue Rengui is responsible for can be said to be full of cases, making it difficult to guard against.

This greatly slowed down the pace of setting up the defense line, making it difficult for Xue Rengui's troops to complete the planned consolidation goals.

"What the hell, where do those harassment troops come from?"

Xue Rengui was beaten so badly that he began to doubt his life.

After participating in the Battle of Liaodong that year and defeating the strong Goguryeo with the weak Liaodong, the young general's self-confidence was high.

But now, he was so tortured by the endless small-scale harassment that he had lost all his energy and couldn't help but feel anxious.

"Didn't you say at the beginning that the Tang troops in the south were incapable of organizing a decent attack?

"But now it seems that they are fighting in an orderly manner, aren't they?"

Xue Rengui angrily questioned the original local garrison commander.

He wondered if the defenders were lying about military intelligence and deliberately downplaying the threat from the enemy.

It's impossible that the abilities of these defenders are far superior to those of Xue, so that the problems that he finds very difficult are just trivial matters in the eyes of the defenders, right?

The enemy's harassment is not aimless at all, it is obviously the outpost of a big rhythm!
However, the defenders were also very confused about the current situation:
"To reply to General Xue, they did not harass us like this at the beginning..."

Xue Rengui frowned:

"You mean to say that the enemy suddenly changed their fighting style after I arrived?"

Everyone nodded.

"Hmm..." Xue Rengui pondered for a while and said:

"Send a disguised grain transport team from Huazhou to Bianzhou, capture a few of the harassers alive, and interrogate them thoroughly to find out where they came from."

…………

Xue Rengui's fishing plan was quickly put into action and he caught a fish that day.

More than a dozen Tang soldiers were captured in one fell swoop.

The intensive interrogation was carried out in full swing, and the result of the interrogation surprised everyone.

Because these soldiers who hit the Ming army's weak spot were not the "elite" as everyone imagined.

On the contrary, these soldiers are average in terms of both training level and tactical ability.

At best, they could fight back and forth with Xue Rengui's second-line troops, or even be inferior to them.

If these rookies and new recruits occasionally encountered the Ming army's weak logistics team once or twice, it could be explained as "a blind cat catching a dead mouse."

But how did they manage to hit the Ming army’s vital points with every punch?
You know, although Xue Rengui's soldiers have little experience, Xue Rengui himself is a veteran who has fought in hundreds of battles!

What's more, they are also covered with the rookie protective color of "defense".

what is the problem?

And these rookie captives naturally do not have the will to die rather than surrender.

After a great memory recovery session, they confessed everything they knew.

However, the intelligence obtained was not very informative.

"They did this because their superiors ordered them to do so...

"What's the difference between saying it and not saying it?
“Who were the generals who made the decision to attack, and what was their next plan?”

Xue Rengui was very dissatisfied with the results of the interrogation and rarely yelled at his subordinates.

Because in the few days after the fishing supply incident, the Tang army's harassment offensive never stopped, but instead tended to intensify.

These shameless sneak attacks that have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain are really depressing.

It gives people a feeling of having power but nowhere to use it.

Especially for a young general like Xue Rengui who became famous at a young age, his smooth military experience made him lack some education and experience of setbacks.

The adjutant in charge of the interrogation was also helpless:
“General, the ranks of these captured soldiers are not high enough, the highest being a colonel.

"How could they know any high-level military secrets..."

"Ah... forget it!" Xue Rengui interrupted angrily:

"If you think the level is not high enough, then I, Xue, will help you catch one with a high enough level!"

…………

Xue Rengui did what he said.

After making such a bold statement, he actually led the team himself and fought with all his might against those small groups of Tang troops who were constantly harassing him.

It cannot be said that there were no results. The number of captured Tang soldiers increased and their ranks became higher and higher.

However, this has not been able to curb the increasingly rampant harassment.

Moreover, these actions are becoming more and more targeted, all focusing on the logistics of the Ming Dynasty.

Not only did they attack the Ming army's supply transportation, but they also expanded the war to the fields in the occupied areas, expelling and capturing local farmers, and further weakening the Ming army's ability to collect grain locally.

This resulted in the Ming army starving in the wealthy Central Plains.

However, the Ming army could not do much to counter this.

This was because the Tang army was operating in small groups, and the entire battle line was too long, without any natural barriers such as mountains or rivers.

There are gaps everywhere that the attacker can exploit.

How to defend against a punch that has no rules?
There's no way to prevent it!
From a tactical point of view alone, the combat skills of these Tang troops were really crude and they didn't know much.

Even the captains who led the troops were just mechanically carrying out orders from their superiors and had no idea what they were doing.

However, strategically, these second and third-line Tang army troops achieved the effect of being elusive and difficult to defend against.

The defender can only passively take the beating.

It made Xue Rengui, the fire captain, run around and was exhausted from dealing with the situation.

Ultimately, it was because the Ming army switched from an offensive to a defensive position, and the Central Plains was not suitable for defense.

However, Xue Rengui had been harassed to the point of being a little dizzy and it was difficult for him to analyze the strategy calmly.

Now he just wanted to find out the mastermind behind this and slap to death that guy who was more annoying than a mosquito.

Yes, he realized that the Tang army soldiers were just ordinary soldiers, nothing special.

The problem lies with the enemy's main general!
Who is so unvirtuous that he doesn't dare to fight to the death in an upright manner, but instead does some shameful and despicable things behind the scenes!

However, Xue Rengui had a lot of passion, but he could only draw his sword and look around in confusion.

Each of his counterattacks achieved perfect results, successfully repelling the enemy, killing, wounding or capturing enemy commanders.

However, the enemy was too small, and his little achievement was far from making up for the cost of leading a large army.

In particular, this accelerated the consumption of food and fodder.

Under the enemy's relentless harassment, obtaining food and fodder had become increasingly difficult.

These "victories" sound good, but they are actually losses.

And more importantly, neither of the two goals, namely preventing the Tang army from harassing logistics or uncovering the Tang army's plans, was achieved.

The Tang army's harassment continued to change in pattern.

In addition to the common night battles and ambushes.

They even used the unique skills of the northwestern nomadic peoples, and found a bunch of naturalized Han Turkic guys from somewhere, and used their cavalry to continuously attack the Ming army's city defenses along the way.

Wherever they find a weak point, they will start looting there. If they can defeat the enemy, they will fight. If they can't, they will run away. This emphasizes flexibility and maneuverability.

Xue Rengui's mission this time was to reinforce and consolidate the defense line, and there was no additional goal of "cavalry warfare", so he did not bring enough war horse feed, and there was no good way to restrain this.

After all, who the hell could have imagined that they would be robbed by a group of cunning Turks in the heart of the Central Plains!

In this way, they were trapped in a vicious cycle of being passively beaten, running around, consuming food and supplies, and suffering more beatings.

The Ming army's defense line on the south bank of the Yellow River gradually became riddled with holes, and the connections between cities and states were cut off, turning them into isolated islands.

What’s more serious is that the logistics are insufficient.

Before Xue Rengui came, the front line only needed to supply Li Jing's troops, and it could be supported by cross-river transportation across the Yellow River alone.

After Xue Rengui arrived, there were suddenly more than 100,000 mouths to feed on the front line, and the land supply routes from Qizhou and Yanzhou were severely disrupted by the Tang army.

This made food and grass become scarce.

This made Xue Rengui extremely depressed.

"Do you want to ask Li Weigong for help?"

He was caught in a fierce ideological struggle.

Because he was a person stationed in the rear, he didn't have the nerve to ask for help from Li Jing who was on the front line.

The leader asked him to come for support, but he ended up asking the leader for help. What's the use of him? Why did the leader ask him to come?
During the time of crossing the river, Xiao Xue won many "battles", but not only did he fail to complete any of the tasks assigned by the leader, he made the situation worse.

Li Jing asked him to consolidate the defense line east of Zhengzhou, but the defense line, which was originally in good condition, began to collapse as soon as he arrived.

Li Jing asked him to ensure the supply line, but when he arrived, the supply was blocked and he had to compete with Li Jing's troops for food.

Whoever is put in this situation will be annoyed.

What’s more, he is Xue Rengui, the young hero of the Ming Dynasty?

He became very anxious.

And deeper than the anxiety is a growing worry.

Let’s not talk about the quality of the enemy’s grassroots soldiers, but the general who is in charge of all this is definitely an expert among experts.

For such a master, every step he takes has a purpose.

Harassing the logistics was not just an isolated action to disgust the Ming army, but the beginning of a bigger move.

The subconscious mind told Xue Rengui that something big was coming.

(End of this chapter)