Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 491 The Case Unfolds
Pei Yuan paid close attention to official intelligence while going to watch Qi Yanming's military training from time to time.

At the beginning, Pei Yuan wanted to give Qi Yanming some advice.

He knew some names of things like "rapid penetration", "luring the enemy in deep", "outflanking", "encircling a point and attacking reinforcements", etc.

However, after observing for a few days, Pei Yuan discovered that the understanding of the battlefield in the cold weapon era was very different from that in later generations.

Later training focused on obedience and had very high requirements for the details of command.

In the era of hot weapons, commanders can calmly convey their intentions to every end of the army, and every end can respond quickly.

But on the battlefield of this era, this is simply impossible.

A well-trained general soldier who can receive two orders without getting confused can be considered elite.

One is to attack, the other is to retreat!

In fact, due to the inconvenience of communication and the close-range combat method, the battlefield is often in a mysterious state of being out of control.

The commander-in-chief had very limited means to contact the various troops.

If the distance is closer, different troops can be commanded by flags; if the distance is farther, a large number of messengers will be needed to run back and forth.

Once the soldiers started fighting with their weapons in hand, it became even more difficult to control the rhythm.

When a life-and-death struggle is decided right before your eyes, the psychological test that soldiers face is more complex and more difficult.

Soldiers fighting for their lives are often in a state of high tension. They cannot pay attention to the changes in flags and commands, nor can they remember the meaning of those chaotic flags.

They could only accept simple and straightforward orders, which were to advance when the drum was beaten and retreat when the horn was sounded.

According to Qi Yanming, "When faced with life and death, people are always cowardly. If you can bravely attack in the face of danger and not scatter when defeated and retreating, then you are a successful soldier."

But Pei Yuan was still very dissatisfied with this.

The elite soldiers he wanted could not be measured by today's standards.

Pei Yuan had time to ask Qi Yanming, "If we want these soldiers to improve, what should we do?"

Qi Yanming was stunned for a moment after hearing this, but he did give an answer, "Unless he has been through hundreds of battles and has formed his own fighting style."

"Such troops can form a tacit understanding without command when facing various situations."

"For example, the fighting style of our Bazhou Cavalry is to focus on rapid advances and harassing the enemy. Once the enemy puts up resistance, we quickly pull away and attack until they are rescued."

"With this kind of tacit understanding in battle, we can always be one step ahead of the opponent and complete the battle arrangements first."

"In this way, even if we encounter a very skilled enemy, if his command has not been delivered, his deployment has not been completed, and we have already hit his weak point, how can the enemy win?"

Pei Yuan nodded repeatedly after hearing this. It made sense.

But there is no environment for training troops now. Now is the time when Zhu Houzhao is promoting the "Ming Dynasty First Army". Pei Yuan must be very stubborn to engage in an arms race with that guy?

Pei Yuan did not have the opportunity to train an army to engage in repeated combat and hone their tacit understanding.

The troops he needs now are just the fulcrum that can change the situation at the critical moment.

Pei Yuan thought for a while, and could only ask unwillingly, "Then is there any other way?"

Seeing Qi Yanming scratching his head in an awkward situation, Pei Yuan was about to say that even a worse method would be fine.

Then Qi Yanming sighed, "If you want to be stronger, then I can't control you."

"I once heard Mr. Zhao mention that the great generals in the past all used formations, which were flexible and had infinite uses."

"If you practice the formation well, the number of soldiers you can command can be expanded by dozens or hundreds of times."

"And unlike our hard-trained elite, as long as the losses of a team that is proficient in formations are not too great, the new recruits can quickly integrate into the team. As long as the combat power is not greatly reduced, they can replace the dead with the living, and the supply is endless."

Pei Yuan didn't expect Qi Yanming to say such a thing, and asked suspiciously, "Formation?"

Isn't that something from a storybook?

Pei Yuan still remembered hearing someone say before that there were often emperors who pretended to know everything and gave battle plans to generals on the front line, which was a mess.

Am I that kind of person?

Pei Yuan had no interest in this answer, but he didn't want to offend Qi Yanming too much, so he could only perfunctorily say, "Oh? My son, ah, Yanming, haven't you seen those formations?"

Qi Yanming said regretfully, "Mr. Zhao did try to perform it once or twice, but the instructions were too complicated and I really didn't remember it clearly."

"Our Bazhou army is constantly on the move and fighting. Not to mention that we don't have time to practice formations, even if we do have time to practice, if we can't practice for a few days before a battle, we don't know how many people will be left."

Pei Yuan was speechless. Zhao Sui must have been stupid after reading the storybook.

Then he said, "It seems that the formation is just a big name."

But Qi Yanming shook his head and said, "That's not the case. Mr. Zhao once trained a small formation with his personal soldiers, but it only used a few hundred people, a mixture of archers, shieldmen, cavalry, spears, and firearms. These soldiers advanced and retreated in a staggered manner without any stagnation."

"I led some people to try it out for a while. We were clearly facing hundreds of people, but it felt like we were facing thousands of people. And what's rare is that the offensive was continuous, and we didn't get into chaos even after the defeat."

Pei Yuan became interested immediately after hearing what Qi Yanming said.

Under his repeated questioning, Qi Yanming told him everything he knew.

Pei Yuan realized his own shallowness after listening to a few sentences. After listening to the whole thing, he couldn't help but sigh, "So that's how it is. The wisdom of our ancestors really can't be underestimated."

To put it simply, the art of formation is a series of military plans prepared for war.

For example, when we charge, where do we launch the attack? When the enemy charges, who do I use to meet the enemy? Where do I place my cavalry and archers?

How to achieve the highest DPS when attacking, which worthless troops to use to create diversion when retreating, where should the retreating troops adjust their counterattacks, and should the troops responsible for covering be protected?

For example, when setting up camp, how should the baggage be arranged, where should the war horses be placed, which troops and horses need to be placed on the periphery as a buffer, and which troops and horses can be used as the first strike of the counterattack?
Even the layout of the trenches and antlers in the entire camp, how to delay the enemy's attack to the greatest extent possible, and what changes and moves can be made to trap the enemy who raids the camp to death in the camp.

These military plans are manifested in war as formations.

The existence of the formation simplifies the thinking process when hastily going into battle, and also makes up for the shortcoming that ordinary soldiers are difficult to command in battle.

The coach only needs to flexibly choose military plans according to the situation he is facing, and then he can make the most calm and rational choice. Or to put it another way, it is just like doing math problems. You can prepare several sets of equations in advance and apply them to familiar problems.

As long as those soldiers strictly follow the formation training and get used to their order of advance and retreat and attack rounds, they can organize a sophisticated attack without complicated command.

In this way, by relying on the carefully prepared military plans in normal times, we can fight the unprepared when the battle comes and demonstrate first-class performance.

Of course, the most frightening thing about this style of play is encountering a similar master.

This is also why in some storybooks, the enemy will set up a battle formation, and then a master will climb up to take a look, and then instruct them to enter and exit from a certain door, thus easily defeating the enemy.

Because those who know how to command troops can roughly calculate where the main attack is, where the flank is, and where the reserved retreat route is by looking at your troop deployment and formation position.

If the enemy were to discover the changes in the formation in advance, all of our military intentions would naturally be exposed.

At that time, everyone will have to do their best and fight it out.

After Pei Yuan and Qi Yanming finished talking, they felt that they had benefited a lot.

It’s just that he doesn’t have many ideas about the battle formation for the time being.

After seeing Qi Yanming off, Pei Yuan began to wonder if there were any talented people left in the wild in this era, or if there were any masters of military strategy waiting to be abducted?

Pei Yuan hid in the vast Taishan Valley for several days. During these days, the news of Zhang Yong's murder had spread widely.

The news reached the capital as soon as possible and reached Zhu Houzhao's ears.

Zhu Houzhao was furious when he heard this, and immediately ordered the Chengdu Procuratorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Dali Temple to handle the matter together. He also asked Zhang Rui, the governor of the East Factory, to send people to investigate secretly. Even Gu Dayong, who was in Shandong at the time, received an official document from the inner court.

The local Shandong officials who had just bled heavily to feed Zhang Yong were even more furious, gnashing their teeth and determined to find the thief who attacked and killed Eunuch Zhang.

But no matter how angry they were, they were still very sober.

Such a big case is not something they can easily get involved in. If they are not careful, they will turn other people's troubles into their own troubles.

So even though they knew the case was urgent, everyone paid close attention and said nothing, except for the unfortunate Dongping prefect who was reluctant to shirk responsibility and personally led people to protect the scene.

It was five days later when the officials from the Censorate, Ministry of Justice and Dali Temple in Beijing who were in charge of the trial arrived at the scene in the south.

Pei Yuan was also amazed when he heard this.

The corpses were thrown all over the official road. Although they were sprinkled with lime powder to prevent corrosion and odor, the weather in August was extremely hot.

Many of the corpses were bloated and burst, crawling with maggots.

The team led by the Ministry of Justice was a principal official, the team led by the Censorate was a Censor-in-Chief, and the Dali Temple rarely had any work to do, so the person who came this time was the Dali Temple's Shaoqing.

In addition, there were a number of officials of varying ranks accompanying him.

Because this incident was of such a serious nature and the victim was an internal minister, it was no longer possible for the clerks and minor officials to simply deal with it perfunctorily.

In front of many local Shandong officials accompanying them, several chief officers could only step forward and check the scene with composure.

As a result, these officials, who usually live a life of luxury, all looked grim and turned away with evasive eyes when they saw the tragic scene and smelled the foul stench.

After the big guys had expressed their opinions appropriately, officials and clerks from the three law departments entered the scene and began to investigate the scene.

When those who actually did the work officially entered the ambush site to investigate, just one look and the officials and clerks of the Three Law Departments, as well as the local officials of Shandong, felt heavy in their hearts.

Because as far as the eye could see, half of the corpses of the Beijing soldiers were pierced with crossbow arrows.

They had thought of various possibilities before, for example, Eunuch Zhang's collection of money along the way attracted the attention of nearby bandits. After all, wealth is attractive, and those bandits did not know Eunuch Zhang's status and power, so they might not be in awe of him.

If it's really for the big money, it makes sense.

But it’s different when a large number of crossbows are used.

The implications here are very worthy of caution.

The officials and clerks were quietly checking the situation, and no one dared to stand out too much.

Before long, the detailed situation was placed on the desks of several chief officers.

All of the more than 200 Jinyiwei of the Beijing Army that Zhang Yong brought with him on his journey south were killed on the spot. Many of them died in tragic ways. After being exposed to the sun for several days, the situation became even more difficult to deal with.

Zhang Rong's body was chopped into two pieces and Zhang Yong's head was cut off. One could only judge that the old man was Zhang Yong by his genitals, body shape and clothing.

The scene was cleaned up very well, with no bodies of thieves left behind. Except for the crossbow arrows embedded in the bodies, which were difficult to deal with, all other weapons had been taken away.

After seeing this information, several chief officers looked at each other and said nothing.

Judging from the information on paper alone, the attack by this group of thieves on Zhang Yong and his group was simply crushing.

More than 200 elite soldiers were killed without anyone escaping.

Moreover, the other party still had the energy to clean up the scene before leaving calmly.

Song Yu, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, reacted the fastest and said, "In other words, this group of thieves is not only extremely rampant, but also still very powerful?"

Chen Min, the head of the Ministry of Justice, also understood what Song Yu meant. They came from Beijing to investigate the case, and they were only accompanied by more than 200 soldiers and guards.

Although they still know nothing about the whole case, what if the thief thinks they are investigating something and wants to make a complete fuss?
Aren't they also in danger?

Chen Min immediately blurted out, "The bandits are fierce and stubborn. We should ask the Shandong Military Commissioner for help in case of any emergency."

The Dali Temple Shaoqing picked up the document and showed it to the two of them. He then pointed at one of the lines and said in a deep voice, "They used a large number of crossbows. To be safe, it would be better to call in people from outside."

Song Yu also realized that the Shaoqing of Dali Temple suspected that local Shandong garrison soldiers were involved.

So, he looked at the Shandong officials present calmly, pondered for a while and said, "Of course I am willing to believe that the Shandong Dusi has nothing to do with this matter, but in order to clear the suspicion of the local garrison, it is better to transfer troops from outside to assist in the investigation."

The Shandong Provincial Surveillance Commissioner present at the meeting looked unhappy and asked, "Then in your opinion, where should we mobilize troops?"

Song Yu said, "The three guards of Tianjin are also under the jurisdiction of the Shandong Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's Office. They have nothing to do with this case. How about mobilizing personnel from the three guards and letting the three commanders come to assist in the investigation?"

(End of this chapter)