Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 60 Improving Techniques and Tactics
After December, all the tribes in southern Lingjiang knew that "Wu Xiaoque" was like a migratory bird, coming and going at regular intervals.

This time, Wu Xiaoque's period of swaggering around north of Lingjiang was extended by ten days. So much so that some inner disciples of the Li Huo Sect in the south were cursing, "Doesn't Da Yao go home for the New Year?" In fact, the retreat had already begun; most of the rear camps had been withdrawn by November, and over ten thousand laborers had quietly returned home.

When the patriarch of the Li Huo Sect was drawn to the special forces team crossing the river, he thought Wu Fei was using this move to challenge him. In reality, it was Zhao Xianzhong who was ultimately responsible for rescuing the special forces returning to the river.

Wu Fei, on the other hand, was worried about filling the gap in his experience as he grew from a "general" to a "commander".

……

During the Black Tide War two years ago, Wu Fei realized that he was only capable of handling the defense aspect on his own.

Organizing several thousand people to defend the fortress was largely a static strategy. Even mobilizing a small number of elite troops to harass the city only involved a few hundred men. These few hundred men carried very little supplies. There was no need for complex considerations. Wu Fei's actions were like manipulating a hand: the left hand swung out, the right hand gathered power; the right hand swung out, the left hand retracted.

However, things are much more complicated in an offensive situation. Tens of thousands of people are attacking simultaneously, with each battalion consisting of a thousand men. Each battalion must plan its long march for a month. Each battalion must plan its encampment and regularly exchange scouts to understand its position within the overall force. Simultaneously, the next step of the march must be based on the overall deployment, avoiding both excessive prominence and lagging behind.

The considerations required for preparing a single platoon for a long-range operation are complex enough.

The military texts Wu Fei was reading described how different battalions should advance in turns, moving slowly like a forest when advancing at a leisurely pace; swiftly like a raging fire when attacking and seizing territory; as immovable as a towering mountain when defending; as shrewd as dark clouds obscuring the sun when concealing military intelligence; and as thunderous as a powerful force when the army is mobilized.

It sounded incredibly impressive, but when it came to actually doing it, Wu Fei was completely stumped.

As mentioned above, it is necessary to maintain a good and effective command transmission system between the garrison camps of each army (thousands of men).

When Wu Fei began hands-on training, he discovered that the communication of orders between the various battalions was extremely chaotic during operations. Subordinate units often did not only follow their own orders but also relayed them haphazardly to each other.

For example, if Battalion A (with a force of about 1,000 men) has a conflict of intelligence with another friendly Battalion C based on information provided by Battalion B, Battalion A will likely take action on its own. What is the limit to this unauthorized action? Are there any standards or constraints?
Note: This is how the 74th Division of Menglianggu acted without authorization, resulting in a large gap in the main force, which was then seized and annihilated.

During this southern expedition, Wu Fei discovered this problem and set up a special "communications battalion".

Furthermore, a rule was established that all battalions must remain silent during this troop deployment. Only messenger cavalry and battalions could exchange orders loudly. The communications battalion had a strict code checklist to prevent the enemy from sending false orders that could penetrate their lines.

Note: From the Shu Han to the Three Kingdoms period, many battles followed this pattern. In key battles involving hundreds of thousands of troops, one unit would penetrate deep into enemy-controlled territory, using flags and tokens to trick their way through the gates, ultimately capturing a crucial strategic point and achieving a miraculous victory.

In fact, there were similar cases in the 20th century, but they only occurred at the platoon level or so. They would seize enemy communications soldiers at the company or platoon level to pry open codebooks and penetrate the enemy's defenses before they realized they had been compromised.

In contrast, it is now very rare for thousands of people to infiltrate and spread their identities, as was the case in ancient times.

As for the local barbarians in the southern borderlands, who are in a state of low civilization, it's impossible for them to break through Wu Fei's current, rudimentary communications tactics and infiltrate. Even for Da Yao's side, it's difficult.

…The dividing line from learning to surpassing…

In this large-scale corps command, Wu Fei found the core principle of "tactics and techniques" for leading troops exceeding 10,000.

The "communication battalion" system that Wu Fei is currently developing has a promising future. With the progress of the times, messenger cavalry evolved into telegraph soldiers, and telegraph soldiers, in the information age, have become integrated information command centers.

It is worth mentioning that the military tactics and strategies that Wu Fei is now pondering are already beyond Wu Hanluan's capabilities.

In recent years, Wu Hanluan's northward campaigns have continued in the form of "large camps," meaning he would set up camps with a large army and cannon fodder before engaging in combat. This is known as "building camps and fighting a protracted war."

Wu Fei's current offensive in the southern border is a series of battalions. They are stationed in a dense, orderly fashion, like a forest. Any external force attempting to provoke them will cause the entire dozen or so battalions to move in unison, like trees swaying in the wind.

During an attack, the main camps would advance in shifts. Once they encountered the enemy's main force, all the camps would take turns attacking, deploying all the battalions to fight one route in the shortest possible time. Even if the enemy forces were more numerous, they could not deploy all their troops in time, and the vanguard would be overwhelmed by too many attacks. This is called "rapid invasion like fire".

Wu Fei's current research into military applications is already more advanced than Wu Hanluan's.

Wu Fei searched through military classics at home and found that there were only a few hundred words that he could use, and there were no annotations at all!
This shows that by this point, the ancestors of the family could no longer understand the text and regarded the relevant content at the end of the military treatise as mere boasting. However, Wu Fei is now painstakingly piecing together each word, trying to figure out what similar situations the predecessors encountered.

At the same time, Wu Fei also learned why Wu Hanluan and his ancestors had not read this passage.

Sun Tzu's Art of War states that warfare is an extremely costly endeavor, especially large-scale battles. This results in very few military strategists actually being able to put it into practice. Throughout history, how many people have truly commanded battles involving more than 100,000 troops?

Throughout history, many generals were forced into leading major battles when they first took command.

Taking Qin as an example, Hu Yang in the Battle of Eyu and Li Xin, who boasted of destroying Chu, both lacked experience in commanding armies of this size and were unable to consider all aspects, allowing their weaknesses to be exploited and them to be defeated in one fell swoop! Qin had a strong national foundation and the strategic advantage of Hangu Pass, allowing it to withstand defeats and ultimately nurture the strongest military strategists. The states of Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, and Qi, on the other hand, suffered a single defeat, were pushed back into their heartland, and were severely weakened and wiped out.

It's fair to say that right now, the area north of Da Yao is in chaos, with a fierce battle raging inside the monster room. Wu Fei is frantically grinding for experience in the starting village.

Although the Southern Frontier is a beginner area where the tribal generals' skills and tactics are almost non-existent, so much so that situations here could be handled by someone of Wu Hanluan's level, Wu Xiaoque is the ambitious and competitive type. She tries to use a knife that can kill a cow even when it's just a chicken, and actually commands a military operation of more than 20,000 people, and equips them with the largest possible resources.

In the past six months, the military has provided protection for over three hundred caravans engaged in trade in various directions in southern Xinjiang, and the army has established fifty-four outposts within the controlled area. There have also been over a hundred large and small-scale confrontations and attacks between the army and tribal alliances on the opposite bank of the river at the ferry crossing.

Both in terms of the number of participants and the duration of the battle, this was a large-scale campaign involving 50,000 people. It's safe to say that in the last two hundred years, the number of people capable of leading a battle of this scale is less than two out of ten!
In fact, what merit or ability does Nanjiang possess to make Wu Fei do this? It's because when Wu Fei (Xuan Chong) sets up hypothetical enemies, he always targets the top-tier targets that he can see.

…The fish south of the Lingjiang River are waiting anxiously; the fishing hook has already been lowered…

In the early 30th year of the Tianli era, after completing the packing of supplies, Wu Fei found Zhao Tu.

Wu Fei: "I heard that everyone in the south is waiting for me to leave."

Zhao Tu: "Yes, sir, your reputation has always been in their ears. Of course, they are becoming less and less familiar with your sword."

Wu Fei nodded: "Okay, I think we should set them up."

Zhao Tu and his generals all raised their heads.

Wu Fei walked to the map and slowly said, "In their eyes, we should have left long ago. And according to intelligence, the Li Huo Sect is getting increasingly angry, and they've deployed a lot of people along the river. If we show even the slightest sign of 'collapse'..."

Generals Zhao Tu and others said, "We will follow your orders, General."

Wu Fei nodded. Retreat is a complex art. During the Chu-Han Contention at the Honggou Canal, the invincible Xiang Yu fell at the crucial moment of retreat, and after the Battle of Guling, he completely declined. —If Xiang Yu had been able to defend against this sneak attack, at the prime of his thirty years, he could absolutely have outlasted Liu Bang.

Wu Fei glanced at the Li Huo Sect to the south and thought to himself, "I am not Xiang Yu, and you are not Liu Bang, who had three heroes in the early Han Dynasty."

…Experience packs that should always be cherished… That night, Wu Fei instructed Zhao Tu to send a mixed barbarian force and armored soldiers to the south bank. He used "ghost magic" to make these troops invisible, but did not order them to cause any damage. Instead, he instructed them to wait for orders after crossing the river.

After lying in wait for ten hours after crossing the river, Zhao Tu, the dragon horse cavalry, and the crow people, riding on griffins, repeatedly pulled each other in the air above the river to confirm the location of the barbarian troops on the opposite bank. Suddenly, they gave an order for the infiltration force lying in wait on the south bank to show itself. However, their order was not to sabotage the operation, but to retreat back to the riverbank.

After the infiltration team arrived in the south, they carefully lay in ambush for a night, enduring many mosquito bites, until they finally saw fireworks in the sky. However, the color of the signal fireworks told them to retreat immediately.

The infiltration team was baffled, wondering to themselves, "So, all that time we've been sneaking in all night, we're either up to something big or just feeding the mosquitoes?"

Meanwhile, Zhao Tu's griffin quickly fled, making the more than two hundred people who were carrying out the infiltration mission wonder if something serious had happened at the main camp.

During their retreat, the Yao army discovered many other tribes in the surrounding jungle, a sudden encounter that startled both sides. The Yao army, not wanting to prolong the conflict, chose a swift withdrawal.

Suddenly, the various tribes of southern Xinjiang saw this army appear. After a moment of fear, realizing that the army seemed to be fleeing in panic, they instinctively began to gather.

After retreating, the tribes on the south bank realized that the infiltration force had escaped.

The senior officer of the infiltration unit saw no support troops across the rolling river, only bamboo rafts hanging on the rocks, and shouts of battle echoing from the jungle behind him.

The crow-men and Zhao Tu riding a griffin had long since fled. A squad of crow-men landed in front of the infiltration team, ordering them to discard all equipment and armor and swim across the Ling River. To their further dismay, smoke was already rising from the Wu family army camp on the north bank, a sign that the camp had been burned down.

The general in charge of leading the troops felt like the sky had fallen. They were fighting well, so why was his general suddenly in retreat? With a desperate will to survive, he began to swim across the Lingjiang River.

As a result, after the various tribes of the southern border arrived at the riverbank, they immediately witnessed the infiltration troops crossing the river in a sorry state, as well as the burning smoke from the abandoned camps on the north bank.

The tribal chief of the Southern Frontier, a man with large horns, saw this scene and thought about it for a moment. He felt that this was a golden opportunity and then began to prepare to cross the river to pursue them.

After the Horned People tribe successfully crossed the river without encountering any resistance, other tribes followed suit. These southern tribes were also excited to see the Wu family army's camp ablaze with smoke.

January 2nd, 30th year of the Heavenly Calendar. This was a "retreat and ambush" battle of a training nature for Wu Fei.

After Wu Fei had arranged for most of his troops' supplies and provisions to be safely stored at the rear, he awaited the pursuit of the allied forces from the southern tribes. On the riverbank, the densely packed southern tribes had just landed and had not yet formed an effective formation. The noisy whistling between the different tribes resembled the scene of elementary school students on a field trip in the 21st century.

Originally, if Wu Fei truly wanted to leave, he could have vanished like the wind, giving the enemy no chance to pursue. However, Wu Fei wanted to gain practical experience in this "tactical exercise," imitating Zhuge Liang's strategy of trapping Zhang He, to teach the southern barbarians a lesson.

So when all the troops from the southern border landed and gathered in a chaotic mass, they rushed toward the abandoned camp of the Wu family. However, as they rushed toward the camp, twenty-four wooden oxen and flowing horses appeared by the roadside with their sails unfurled.

These chariots lined up along the main road according to their flags, quickly unfolding into three rows, each thirty meters apart, giving them a frontal width of two hundred paces. Suddenly, the tribe's scouts sensed a change in the weather; a strong north wind blew in, and then the canvas of all the wooden oxen and flowing horses billowed up as if filled with water.

Then these chariots charged into the battle formation like rakes, each chariot a serrated tooth, leaving deep bloody marks on the enemy's formation.

The tribes that were originally somewhat "separate" in the tribal alliance were violently mixed together. These young men from the southern border, who were of different heights and spoke different dialects and had never left their own tribal sphere of influence before this battle, ran in the same direction when they fled for their lives.

To put it simply, the various tribes, originally like "uniquely colored" clay, have now been mixed together.

After the chariots completed their assault, four hundred swordsmen and axemen charged forward. Since this was not a large-scale battle, the archers and crossbowmen were not very effective in the face of the enemy's disarray. Therefore, the ranged weapons carried by the swordsmen and axemen in this assault were three javelins.

This spear is three feet long, slightly larger than a bow and arrow. It is thrown by swinging a long pole, and its kinetic energy can penetrate cowhide armor within thirty paces. Well, actually, the Southern Barbarians crossing the river are not wearing much armor yet, because the raft is rocking, and if they wear too much armor, they will fall into the water. Those big, strong men from the tribes jump onto the raft like Li Kui getting on a boat with white stripes in the waves.

After throwing a volley of spears from behind the chariots, the chariot formation rolled forward like a rake sweeping over the pursuing "heroes" of the southern border tribes.

Beneath the chariot tracks, flesh and bones turned to mud, and the sides of the chariots were also trampled, filled with cries of agony. Those few small groups left in the gaps between the chariots became the perfect targets for the spearmen.

After throwing their spears, the axemen picked up their axes and began hacking. Almost instantly, the air thickened with the stench of blood to a choking degree.

The southern tribes lacked defensive equipment and were completely overwhelmed by the axe blows from the chariots. Those below the chariots either had their skulls shattered or their shoulders chopped off at the root. The soldiers on the chariots, aside from a few scrapes of armor, were splattered with blood by the deadly sights of the barbarians below.

From their elevated position atop the chariot, the warriors, with the added impact force of the chariot, could even allow a lowly soldier's axe strike to clash with the swords of the squad leaders who trained daily.

As the chariots pushed through the crowd, the infantry followed, joining the trampling of the southern barbarians.
For infantrymen, the broadsword was more suitable than the axe for close-quarters combat, as its longer blade allowed for a wider area of ​​attack. A machete could almost slice through flesh, stop at bone, and then pull the flesh back.

The broadswords whistled through the air, bringing a fear no less than that of a charging chariot. Zhao Xianzhong, leading the charge, swung left and right, slashing and killing, splattering enemy blood all over their faces like a blood-red whirlwind.

His bulging muscles, soaked in blood, radiated heat like red-hot iron, billowing steam rising from them. The white steam, accompanied by the explosive vibrations of blood mist from his muscles, resembled an erupting volcano. —After slaughtering over a hundred men, instead of exhaustion, he charged towards even larger and stronger enemies.

Sure enough, he set his sights on a tiger-like beast from the southern border. This tiger-like beast weighed almost 800 jin (approximately 400 kg), and excluding its tail, it was nearly 10 feet long and 6 feet tall. The head of a warhorse could only reach its shoulder.

The tiger was originally trying to run away, preparing to jump into the river and head south. Zhao Xianzhong rushed up, grabbed the tiger's tail, and dragged it ashore. The tiger became ferocious and began to drag it violently, but was blinded in one eye by a blow from an axe. Then another axe was swung at the tiger's claws. With the swinging left and right, the tiger's roar turned into a wail. It was hacked to pieces, its back pressed to the ground, its claws pointing to the sky, ready to fight back to the death.

Just then, Zhao Tu was hit on the head with a bamboo token, which suppressed his killing intent. This bamboo token came from Wu Fei, the master of the army. It was made of Qingling bamboo and belonged to a kind of Dao artifact. Wu Fei specially gave it to the flag captain at a critical moment.

"Xianzhong! Stop!" Wu Fei's shout of his name brought Zhao Tu back to his senses. (Most of the time, Wu Fei addressed Zhao Tu by his given name, but in formal conversation, he used his courtesy name. Like a parent, he would usually call a child by their nickname, but only when the child's full name was called.)

After giving the tiger a reluctant look, Zhao Xianzhong charged off in another direction.

Before the tiger could even feel relieved, it was thrown off the net by the arriving cavalry. Dragged by five horses, the tiger was pinned to the ground with its back to the ground and its feet pointing to the sky, completely bound by the net and unable to escape.

Faced with the advancing halberd-wielding soldiers, the tiger struggled a few times like a cat in a sack, then half-heartedly surrendered, its belly exposed, and was dragged away by the wooden ox-like horse.

Wu Fei glanced at the slit beneath the tiger and thought to himself: "My uncle's winged tiger would probably like this. Any tiger cubs born in the future would be good mounts."

The killing lasted for a full two hours.

South of the Lingjiang River, the tribes seemed unwilling to accept that so many people had been slaughtered in such a state. They believed that the Wu family army had already retreated, leaving only remnants, and they tested the waters again with four hundred men. Meanwhile, the wooden oxen and flowing horses, powered by the wind, charged back and forth six times, resulting in the riverbanks turning red and the fishy smell attracting countless large fish and pythons to writhe and forage in the waves.

After confirming that the enemy was not coming, the heavily armored Wu family army returned to their camp. After removing their armor, they were almost completely exhausted.

Of course, Zhao Xianzhong, that blockhead, was still full of energy, with human heads hanging from his waist, looking like he hadn't killed enough.

(End of this chapter)