Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 379 The Invisible Front
"The Ming army has summoned millions of brave men from all over the country. Their mission is to build a group of bunkers on the battle line.

"Because the Tang Dynasty's celestial soldiers' defense in Jinyang is impregnable, the Ming Dynasty's celestial soldiers have taken a different approach and are planning to build bunkers and advance layer by layer..."

The merchant was a Hu man, but he had fully grasped the essence of the Confucian doctrine of the mean.

On the left is a Tang Dynasty heavenly soldier, and on the right is a Ming Dynasty hero. The main purpose is to treat both sides equally and not offend either side. He tremblingly describes the strategic plan of the Ming army.

The poor guy was completely confused and still had no idea what had happened.

He was obviously doing business well, counting copper coins and singing songs, when suddenly, he was caught by the Tang army, dragged in front of the commander, and interrogated.

Li Shiji looked down from a high position at the businessman who was shaking like a sieve.

The small businessman hugged himself tightly, looking up at the number one warrior of the Tang Dynasty with a sneaky look.

The two people's eyes met.

Li Shiji immediately flew into a rage:
"Nonsense, how could a small merchant like you know the Ming army's plan?
"You must be a spy from the Ming army! Come, drag him out!"

Hu Shang immediately let out a sharp roar:

"It's unfair, sir! It's unfair, general!"

How funny! He was doing business peacefully, but was forcibly abducted by the Tang army and asked this and that. He was not satisfied with his answers, so he was forced to be labeled a "spy"!
Is there still justice in heaven? Is there still law in the world?
Of course not, so the guards picked him up like a chicken and dragged him out.

"I have paid taxes for Chang'an, I have lost money for the Tang Dynasty! I want to see His Majesty, I want to see His Majesty~
"Oh My God!"

Listening to the crisp sound of spanking coming from outside the military tent, Li Shiji couldn't help but hold his forehead:
"Oh, what's going on..."

As the commander-in-chief of a hundred thousand imperial guards, under normal circumstances, it was unnecessary and inappropriate for him to personally interrogate a businessman.

How funny! The enemy is about to knock on the gate, and you, Old Li, are still arguing with a traveling merchant? Don’t you have more important things to do?

But the current situation is a bit special.

His scouts had reported early on that an astonishing number of Ming army support had arrived at the front line.

However, the Tang army scouts and the Ming army had been fighting each other for so long, so they were much more knowledgeable than the dignitaries sitting in Chang'an and talking about the world. They were not frightened by such a large fleet and personnel.

They recognized the strangeness of the Ming Dynasty's "reinforcements" at a glance. Those ships were harmless transport ships, and the people were all harmless and simple civilians.

So the question is, what does Li Ming want to do by gathering so many laborers from all over the country?

You don't want to build roads and bridges in Shanxi, do you?
There is no doubt that the Ming army's huge strategic shift was obviously aimed at Jinyang.

Apart from this point, the Ming army's actions were full of problems.

"How exactly does His Majesty on the other side plan to attack?"

Li Shiji racked his brains for three days and three nights but couldn't find any ideas.

Millions of civilians have arrived at the front lines, which can be considered to be of no help at all in the battle, but it can be considered to be better than nothing.

Moreover, civilians need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate. Isn't this tantamount to raising a group of parasites that are ten times the size of the Ming army, who come all the way to eat up all the army's rice?
With Li Ming's intelligence - no, cunning - he would definitely not do such a losing business.

"Does His Majesty intend to use the civilians as human shields and put them in front as a shield?

"No, no, no, that's unlikely. Regardless of whether Li Ming is capable of doing such a dirty thing, from an actual combat perspective, this would not be a good idea. The fleeing civilians would even cause the army's formation to collapse..."

Li Shiji scratched his head frantically.

After Li Ming was upgraded from His Highness to His Majesty, his ability to cause people headaches also upgraded.

Every move is beyond common sense and hard to understand.

"Could it be that, as the merchant said, so many civilians were gathered together to build a fortress?"

Li Shiji repeatedly pondered over the merchant's confession.

Contrary to his deliberately indifferent attitude, Lao Li actually attached great importance to the information provided by the businessman.

Because the information that guy provided - that the Ming army gathered so many civilians just to build bunkers - was more logical than any other possibilities that Li Shiji had thought of himself.

There was nothing special about that Hu merchant.

Like many of his local colleagues, he often traveled between Jinyang, Yuci and other counties, and almost every day he shuttled between the actual control lines of the Tang and Ming armies.

These merchants were frequent visitors to the Tang army camps. They would often pull their carts and travel between camps, selling groceries and food to the soldiers.

Needless to say, this group of profit-seeking people must have also pulled his "powerful army chariot" back and forth between the opposite Ming army camp.

Want to eat?
It is a normal business practice to take advantage of both the enemy and us.

After all, real-life wars don’t come with a “one-click screen clear” function, and there are civilians living near the battlefield, and they still have to make a living.

Once a war becomes protracted, interest groups dependent on the military will naturally emerge.

The main generals of both sides turned a blind eye to this.

After all, soldiers also have to make a living.

No matter how powerful an army's logistics is, it is impossible to take care of everything.

The soldiers’ daily necessities, dry food and side dishes also need to be supplemented by the “powerful army chariots” that roam around.

And because they often visit both sides, they have an extra layer of value besides assisting in logistics...

"woo woo woo woo……"

The merchant was held by the soldiers' arms and dragged back to the main tent, where he was thrown in front of the general manager Li Shiji with a plop.

Li Shiji immediately put away his distressed and confused expression, and continued to look down at the small businessman lying on the ground with a cold face.

"Ouch, ouch..." The businessman collapsed on the ground like a dead pig, wailing weakly, looking like he was breathing in but not out.

Ha, coward… Li Shiji snorted coldly.

He had just specifically hinted to the guards to use a little more skill when hitting with the board and to keep the board flat.

When you spank someone in this way, the sound of "pa pa pa" is very crisp and has a strong sense of ritual, but it does not actually hurt the flesh and bones.

Therefore, the businessman did not suffer any serious physical injuries, and his ugly appearance was mainly due to being frightened.

"Stop pretending." Li Shiji said coldly:

"Tell me, how can a common peddler like you know all the strategic secrets of the Ming army?"

The merchant really cried, with tears and snot:

"Woo, this isn't a secret!
"Don't the civilians in the Ming Dynasty know what kind of work they do? I shuttled through their camps to sell goods, and they were chatting there. Even if I didn't want to know, I couldn't cover my ears!"

"..." Li Shiji frowned upon hearing this.

Although the reason of "hearsay" sounds far-fetched, it is actually not that strange.

Because that’s millions of civilians!

It must be a mixed bag, with all kinds of monsters and demons.
Do you expect those common people who are worse than a mob to keep secrets like the soldiers?
That's really overthinking.

However, even though he thought so in his heart, Li Shiji still didn't dare to be completely at ease.

"Tell me again the story you heard," he ordered coldly.

The merchant wept bitterly and repeated what he had just said:
"Woo woo, I heard from the civilians on the other side that the Ming soldiers are preparing to implement a fortress tactic, gradually approaching Jinyang City from the periphery, step by step, and gradually reducing the space for the Tang soldiers..."

Li Shiji closed his eyes slightly, making sure that what this guy said was consistent. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he shouted:
"Hey! How dare you! Is that what you can say?"

The businessman was also quick-witted and immediately buried his head in the ground:

"That's what the General wants me to say!"

Li Shiji burst out laughing:
"Okay, okay, it's none of your business."

As he said this, he threw him a string of copper coins, waved his hand and sent him away.

"Thank you... General, for not killing me... I know I was wrong, I will never come again..."

The poor little Hu merchant covered his butt and limped away.

After he completely left the tent, Li Shiji's face suddenly became serious. It was not just because "this" merchant brought relatively credible news.

Also because the Tang army had randomly captured many "such" merchants.

Some of these businessmen were calm and composed, some were panic-stricken, some spoke incoherently, and some simply fainted.

However, the intelligence provided by all of them can corroborate each other, and all point to the same movement of the Ming army -

"Is your Majesty serious? Using a fortress..."

Relying on fortresses and advancing layer by layer is indeed a good way to deal with mountain warfare.

Good is just one word:

stable.

The land that is encroached upon by the fortresses will basically be firmly controlled by the Ming army.

It would be very difficult for the Tang army to use their top-level defenses to support brick, stone and earth fortifications and recover the lost territory.

The person who tied the bell must untie it. As a force specialized in mountain warfare, the Ming army also has its own way of dealing with mountain warfare.

Of course, the fortress tactics have many shortcomings, such as being time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive.

But, does the Ming Dynasty lack time, manpower, and money?

"If there is a shortage, His Majesty across the street would not have specially dispatched a million civilians..."

Li Shiji rubbed his eyes in distress.

Although he had never been to any city in Daming in person, he had long heard of the great reputation of Daming's civil engineering.

It would be funny if one day you woke up and suddenly found that your main tent was surrounded by bunkers.

"Your Majesty must be informed of this important information immediately."

Li Shiji immediately picked up his pen and wrote a concise secret letter to Jinyang.

After writing, he immediately summoned his deputy general:

"Pass me the order, ready to attack!"

The deputy general was startled:
"South?"

In a battle to defend a city, the defender should avoid taking the initiative to attack.

Abandoning the protection of one's own fortress fortifications and sending lives to other people's doorsteps, isn't this a huge loss!

So during this period of time, the Tang army had been hiding behind the solid city defenses.

The Ming army also hesitated for the same reason.

The two sides just held back, sitting in silence and waiting for an opportunity to take advantage. This was the tactic used by the two most powerful military theories on the face of the earth so far.

"But now, if our army does not take the initiative to attack, the enemy's fortress will hit us in the face!"

Li Shiji told his deputy general the general information he had just obtained from many merchants.

"Israel Fortress?!" The deputy general's face turned serious.

This news came from many traveling merchants, and he himself had bought a lot of things from the merchants' "Strong Army Chariots".

Now I have to believe it.

"The situation has changed, and our tactics must change accordingly. This time we must strike hard—

"Target the enemy's weak spot, those numerous and vulnerable civilians!" said Li Shiji.

In addition to its high cost, the fortress tactic has another fatal flaw.

That is, before the solid fortifications were built, a large number of civilians were very vulnerable.

If they lack sufficient cover, they will be the perfect target -

It would collapse at the first blow, and the Ming army's own phalanx formation would also be broken.

This is the tactic of slaughtering farmers that has been talked about throughout history, both in China and abroad, and has been used successfully again and again by people.

If we confront the Ming army head-on, we might have some concerns in our hearts.

But if it is an easy and enjoyable activity of slaughtering farmers, the soldiers will still be happy to carry it out.

"Yes, sir!" The deputy general kicked his heels excitedly and was about to give the order to attack.

But before he walked out of the tent, he almost bumped into a messenger.

"What happened?" Li Shiji suddenly became serious.

At this critical moment, the message was so urgent, which meant...

"Enemy attack!" the messenger said succinctly.

The deputy general immediately slapped his thigh:
"The Ming army is quite thoughtful! They are trying to use the initiative to attack to contain our army and protect their civilians!"

He had completely accepted the information that "the Ming army adopted fortress warfare tactics" and began to imagine based on this.

"Don't panic, it's a small matter." Li Shiji calmly arranged:

"The troops were divided into two groups. One group took a strategic position to defend and deal with the attacking area.

"Another group will sneak through Chencang to find the civilians they deliberately hid and defeat them! There is no way that tens of thousands of civilians would not leave any traces!"

"Yes!"

The deputy general received the order and immediately withdrew to give orders to the three armies.

Li Shiji was full of confidence as he looked at the battle map with countless arrows and circles drawn on it.

Fortunately, we discovered it early, and we were still in time to stop their conspiracy before the Ming army’s fortress was formed!

As for the accuracy of the intelligence, he no longer had any doubts.

The testimonies of all the merchants who were captured and questioned pointed to the same result: "fortress tactics".

No matter how powerful Li Ming is, he can't bribe all the local businessmen, right?

…………

Outside Jinyang City, it was more than ten miles away from the Tang army camp.

Next to the temporary dock on the Fen River.

Hu Shang, who was interrogated personally by Li Shiji, pushed his "strong army chariot" and walked into the Ming army camp as if no one was around.

The military camp was heavily guarded, but no one dared to stop this untraceable Hu man.

On the contrary, the soldiers passing by showed him great respect, stopped to bow to him, and called out affectionately:
"The lost president!"

Hu Shang drove straight into the core area of ​​the military camp, parked his cart casually, and walked straight into the tent of His Majesty Li Ming.

In the tent, Li Ming was studying the map.

As soon as he saw the visiting young Hu merchant, he immediately put down the work at hand and greeted him warmly with open arms.

"Zhi Shi Bu Zhen, you are finally back!

"Has false information spread?"

The little Hu merchant whose butt was fondled by Li Shiji—actually the earliest original shareholder of the Li Ming faction, a Turkic merchant, and the head of the "Chamber of Commerce", one of the three major intelligence organizations of the Ming Dynasty—Zhi Shi Buzhen, rubbed his butt and said with a wry smile:

"Well, judging from Li Shiji's reaction, he must have believed it and thought that our army really intended to build bunkers all the way to Jinyang."

"Haha, you and your colleagues in the Chamber of Commerce have done a great job in making him believe in such a fantastic plan!" Li Ming smiled.

"How could he know that all the merchants shuttling between his military camps were, without exception, secret agents of the Ming Dynasty!"

(End of this chapter)