Wandering the Heavens

"My Lord, I think that the Yu Kingdom will split into four groups and march towards Qiuling Pass. Therefore, my opinion is contrary to that of the military advisor. We should directly fight against Yingzhou where Helian Wei is stationed. After annihilating most of the imperial army, the remaining imperial army and the garrison troops will be much easier to deal with."

These were the words of Liang Longen, the general who had been guarding Qiuling Pass. Most of the generals and staff present nodded when they heard this, and they seemed to agree with his idea. In their opinion, as long as they defeated the 50,000 imperial troops, they could win the war.

However, this plan does not meet the strategic requirements of this northern expedition at all. The purpose of this operation is to march straight into the territory of Yu State and eliminate its war potential and pro-war factions.

Defeating 50,000 imperial troops would not solve the problem at all. More than ten years ago, the Chiyan Army defeated 200,000 imperial troops. But now they are still eyeing Liang State covetously. When the political situation in Liang State changed, they gathered 200,000 troops and marched south.

My uncle can tolerate this kind of thing, but my aunt can’t.

But this group of generals actually endured it, and only wanted to defeat the elite among them. How could they unify the world in the future with such little pursuit!

“Princess, military advisor, I think we should take the initiative to attack. Not only should we annihilate the 50,000 imperial troops, but we should also annihilate the garrison troops together. Even if we cannot annihilate them, we must defeat them as a whole so that the State of Yu can no longer organize them to fight.” Su Huai, an aide to Prince Mu, may not understand military affairs, but he understands the purpose of this northern expedition.

"I think that the army of Yu State has misjudged the situation in Daliang, and did not expect that Daliang would take the initiative to attack. Therefore, I think we can take advantage of this opportunity to first destroy one of the routes in Ji Yang or Xu Chuan, then take the imperial army in Yingzhou Road, and finally annihilate the remaining garrison troops. I think Xu Chuan has great potential. After surveying, I found that his marching route is rugged and it is difficult to transport baggage and food. Our army can set up an ambush at the entrance of Qiu Shui Gorge and attack when he is exhausted after coming out of the valley. We will surely win!" Su Huai knows how to provoke a fight.

Under the condition that the 200,000-strong army cannot coordinate due to the terrain conditions, in order to achieve the effect of dividing and advancing together, the marching speeds are different due to the distance of the journey and the road conditions, which determines that the departure time of these armies is completely different.

Moreover, the Yu State was more aware of the severity of Xu Chuan's marching route to Qiuling Pass. They would not expose Xu Chuan's troops to such a dangerous situation. It was simply impossible to target this route first. Even his entire operation was planned with Xu Chuan's route as bait.

"Mr. Su, I think this move is too risky. Yu State knows the situation in Qiu Shui Gorge better than we do. Therefore, the fact that they dare to go here means they have taken sufficient precautions. If they are only guarding against Daliang, it would be fine. But if they formulate a combat strategy around Qiu Shui Gorge, we will definitely be wiped out!" Infantry commander Ming Chengjun clearly opposed this plan, but he only opposed it and did not have his own ideas.

"Currently, among the three counties where the Yu State army has gathered, Xuchuan is in the middle, Yingzhou is in the east, and Jiyang is in the west. Relatively speaking, Yingzhou is the farthest from Qiuling Pass, so I think we can solve the Jiyang route first, or solve the Yingzhou route first, regardless of whether its elite royal army is in Yingzhou or not!" said the cavalry commander Yu Zangzhuo murderously.

"You are crazy!" The generals who were familiar with Yu Zangzhuo warned him one after another.

"Yes! Helian Wei and the others also think that we would have to be crazy to deal with the imperial army or the garrison troops along the Ji Yang route first. They didn't even think that we would go out of Qiuling Pass to fight in the territory of Yu State. Because more than ten years ago, when the Chiyan Army blocked the imperial army, it happened in the territory of Daliang!" Yu Zangzhuo was very sober.

Mu Nihuang and Yu Xian looked at each other and finally found a useful talent!

"How can the enemy think of something that we ourselves can't think of?"

Under the leadership of Yu Zangzhu, everyone's fear of Yu gradually disappeared, and everyone's interest in the discussion became more and more high. Under such circumstances, the military meeting quickly overturned the direction given by Yu Xian, with a small group of troops pretending to move towards the Qiushui Gorge, and the army ambushed on the road that Yingzhou must pass to Qiushui Gorge, and annihilated Helian Wei and the imperial army under his command in a short time.

After completing the assigned tasks, they would head directly north to attack Xuchuan and Jiyang from behind, forcing the two garrison troops to return and then annihilate or defeat them in a field battle.

After completing the first phase of the combat requirements, the infantry returned to Qiuling Pass and prepared to meet the cavalry, while the cavalry bypassed all the fortified cities and headed straight for Yechang, and took advantage of the opportunity to threaten Yechang to defeat the Yu army that came to defend the king as much as possible.

Yu Xian came up with a sense of humor and named this plan "Sickle Strike".

This plan is extremely risky because the army is fighting far away from its homeland without a base or stable supplies, which puts a lot of pressure on logistics and the soldiers' psychology.

"Generals, obey the order!"

"promise!"

"At noon tomorrow, the Scythe Blitz Plan will be officially launched. This battle is the key to Daliang's rise. All generals should do their own thing. If there is any failure, I, Mu Nihuang, will be responsible. If anyone violates the strategy and arrangements and insists on his own way, even if he succeeds, it will be a crime! Do you understand?"

"We will obey the princess' orders!"

A red sun hung in the sky above the mountains. Mu Nihuang took off her disguise from the military meeting and looked at the fiery clouds in the sky with some worry.

"Sir, can we go back to Daliang?" Mu Nihuang was a little sad.

"Princess, war is a means, not an end. It is better to leave the Kingdom of Yu to the young prince to destroy. This time we only need to break his spine." Yu Xian is optimistic about the upcoming war.

Mu Nihuang didn't know why Yu Xian always looked so confident of victory.

In fact, Mu Nihuang attached too much importance to the results of this expedition. She had not yet changed her habitual thinking of defensive warfare and did not understand the purpose of mobile warfare.

As for Yu Xian, he said at the military meeting that even if they urinated outside the capital of Yu State, Yechang City, they would win. Mu Nihuang was present and he quickly changed his words to say that it was spitting. Rather than a military action, this expedition actually had greater political significance.

Just imagine how hopeless the Yu Kingdom's army would be when faced with the highly mobile Liang Kingdom's cavalry, not to mention that Yu Xian had given them a surprise.

Helian Yue didn't like the surprise Yu Xian gave him. Wuchuan, which borders Yeqin, has a tough folk character. In fact, the Yu Kingdom itself was founded in Wuchuan. The Wuchuan noble family with Helian as the core gradually developed into a military aristocratic group in the war with Yeqin. With the imperial army as capital, they forcibly seized a large piece of land and cities from the world of warlords and established the Yu Kingdom.

Although there have been setbacks in the expansion in recent years, the army was still able to stabilize the situation and recover by relying on the young men and women from Wuchuan and other counties.

This time, they will face an unreasonable guy who once fought with foreign races on the battlefield and learned from cavalry generals such as Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and Wang Baobao.

It can be said that Yu Xian is very confident about how to use cavalry to attack and fight, unless Helian Yue suddenly gets a summoning system and summons those outstanding cavalry generals in history to serve him.

For this expedition, Yu Xian asked the Prince Mu's Palace to equip each cavalryman with three improved crossbows, which could hold ten crossbows. They did not need to repeatedly pull the string to reset. Ten crossbow arrows could be fired one after another after one pull of the spring. Moreover, the range and lethality were much greater than the bows and arrows currently equipped by the Yu army. Horse archery training took a long time, but the crossbow did not. One could just lift it up and pull the spring towards the front formation.

Yingzhou has an open terrain, and the imperial army reacted quickly to the cavalry's surprise attack. They quickly entered combat status and arranged the military formation in a blink of an eye. The vanguards wearing iron armor and huge shields built a temporary high wall and waited for the enemy's charge.

Then they soon became confused. When the cavalrymen were about to enter the range of the arrows, they suddenly split into two groups and ran to the left and right wings, while raising a wooden frame from the saddles towards the sky above their heads.

Before the low-ranking officers commanding the battlefield could figure out what the wooden frame was, they found that the sky was suddenly covered by a dark cloud.

Where do the dark clouds come from in such a clear sky?