Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1203: Sneak Attack on Fuyuan
Wei Xuliang sorted out his thoughts and spoke first: "According to the imperial court's order, there are two armies going into Yunnan. The commander-in-chief is leading one, and the other is the White Rod Army of Sichuan, led by General of the Cavalry and Sichuan Commander-in-Chief Ma Xianglin, and General Qin Yiming is his deputy."

"I have been in Xuanfu for a long time. I have witnessed the fighting power of the White Rod Army. To be honest, the White Rod Army is indeed the strongest army in the world. Although the number of its troops is small, the 3,000 White Rod Army soldiers are so fierce that they can even fight against nearly 10,000 Jian Nu. The court sent this army to Yunnan to reinforce Yunnan. Its intention is very obvious."

Xie Jikai nodded slightly. He understood what Wei Xuliang meant. He was simply telling him that the White Rod Army was the real main force among the two armies of Sichuan and Guizhou, and the Guizhou Army he led was just assisting the White Rod Army. But this was normal. Who in the world didn't know about the great reputation of the White Rod Army? Xie Jikai was also clear about the combat effectiveness of the 3,000 White Rod Army. Although Xie Jikai brought nearly 10,000 elite troops into Yunnan this time, these troops were carefully selected from the Guizhou local area and the Duzhisi, and were well-trained and well-equipped, but if he really had to fight head-on with the 3,000 White Rod soldiers, he would probably not be able to defeat them even if they spared him a hand.

Although Xie Jiekai is the commander-in-chief of this army and has an even more noble status, not only is he the Marquis of Yongping, he is also the father-in-law of the Crown Prince, the father of the Crown Princess, and the grandfather of the Crown Prince. However, Xie Jiekai is not a brainless person. He is very self-aware, otherwise he would not have been so courteous and humble as to ask Wei Xuliang for advice in this manner just now.

Wei Xuliang stood up and asked someone to bring a map and spread it out. He pointed to the location on the map and said, "From the time the imperial edict was issued to today, according to the time calculation, the time when Sichuan received the edict should be about the same as the time when the Marshal received it."

Seeing everyone nodding, Wei Xuliang stretched out his hand and pointed at Yibin in Sichuan, and said, "I learned from someone in Guiyang that the most convenient way to march from Guizhou to Yunnan is the Yunnan-Guizhou Post Road we took along this route. And now we have indeed walked this road, and now we are very close to Yunnan. As long as we continue to go west, we can enter Yunnan."

"According to the current situation, if my judgment is correct, the Sichuan reinforcements should take the Wuchi Road, which starts from Yibin and then goes south to Zhaotong and directly to Yunnan. According to the time calculation, the White Spear Soldiers should arrive in Zhaotong soon. If they arrive in Zhaotong, based on my understanding of the White Spear Soldiers, they will definitely take this place directly with a thunderous force. As long as Zhaotong is occupied, the northeastern gate of Yunnan will be opened. Then, whether the White Spear Soldiers go south or march from the southwest, they can threaten Kunming."

Xie Jikai's eyes wandered over the map. The Xie family had lived in Guizhou for a long time, and Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan were close neighbors. He was quite familiar with these places. He estimated in his mind while looking at the map, and felt that Wei Xuliang was right. According to the time, the White Spear Soldiers were indeed about to reach Zhaotong.

Zhaotong is the northern gate of Yunnan and an important area connecting Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. Once Zhaotong is occupied, the northern gate of Yunnan will be directly opened, and then the army can go south to attack Xuanwei directly, and then march to Qujing, or march southwest from Xundian Prefecture to attack Kunming directly.

"Has there been any news about the Sichuan White Rod Army in the past few days?" Thinking of this, Xie Jiekai turned to Lin Kang and asked.

Lin Kang shook his head and said, "The two divisions are far apart and it is difficult to communicate. In addition, the mountainous terrain is difficult to navigate and intelligence is not smooth. The Jinyiwei has not sent any new information yet. They only informed us of the time when the White Rod Army would send out troops a few days ago. As for other information, there is no news yet. We cannot be sure where the White Rod Army is at the moment."

Xie Jikai nodded. Although he knew this would be the result, he still asked this question just to confirm it.

"General Wei, please continue."

"Yes!" Wei Xuliang said, "Although the news is not smooth, the White Spear Army has always marched very fast. In addition, the White Spear Army is good at mountain warfare. According to the passage of time, even if they haven't reached Zhaotong yet, they will be close. In my opinion, there will be news about the battle of Zhaotong soon. It will not be a problem for the White Spear Army to take Zhaotong. Once Zhaotong is captured, they will definitely move south."

At this point, Wei Xuliang paused and said, "Let's not talk about the White Spear Army first, let's talk about our own situation. Just now, the commander-in-chief asked the centurion here, and although the centurion's answer was not satisfactory, I think this is not a bad thing, maybe it is a good thing."

"Why is this?" everyone asked in surprise.

Wei Xuliang smiled and said, "Didn't you notice that there are two very important points in what the previous centurion said?" Seeing the doubts on everyone's faces, Wei Xuliang didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "First, there is news from Yunnan that Sha Dingzhou went west to fight in Chuxiong, but failed to take Chuxiong. This means that there are still our Ming troops resisting in Yunnan. At least Sha Dingzhou only occupied eastern Yunnan but did not take western Yunnan. The people of Guizhou are safe and sound, which is a good thing!"

"As for the second point, the centurion also said that he hadn't heard any news from Yunnan in recent days. In fact, no news means good news. If there was any troop movement by Sha Dingzhou in Yunnan, especially in Fuyuan, it is impossible that there was no news at all since Pingyi is so close. If we analyze the two together, I think Sha Dingzhou has not thought about the layout of Fuyuan including Qujing Prefecture at this time. In addition, because of the war in Chuxiong, Sha Dingzhou is mobilizing troops to attack Chuxiong again in order to break western Yunnan and solve the problem of the Duke of Qian." As soon as these words came out, Xie Jiekai's eyes lit up and he slapped his thigh and laughed.

"What a wake-up call! I actually overlooked all this. Thanks to General Wei's reminder, I suddenly realized it."

Not only Xie Jikai, but everyone else also understood, and they all looked at Wei Xuliang with admiration. Wei Xuliang is indeed a descendant of the Wei family. The Wei family has produced many good generals over the past hundred years, and many of its descendants have served in the nine frontiers. Although Wei Xuliang's official position is not high, he has rich combat experience, especially a clear mind and good judgment. It is for this reason that the court deliberately transferred Wei Xuliang from Xuanfu to Dali, but they did not expect the rebellion in Shadingzhou to happen so suddenly that something happened before Wei Xuliang arrived in Kunming. This is also an unexpected change.

Everyone present felt that what Wei Xuliang said made sense, and according to the intelligence now known, this possibility was also very high. So there was no news from Yunnan for the time being, which should be good news. Sha Dingzhou was now anxious to march into western Yunnan, defeat Chuxiong, and then send troops to completely solve the problem of Mu Tianbo, and he didn't care about the defense in the east at all.

At this time, the best way for Xie Jikai's reinforcements was to continue to advance, directly from Pingyi to the west, and take Fuyuan before the enemy could react. As long as Fuyuan was taken, the eastern gate of Yunnan would be opened by Xie Jikai, and with Fuyuan as a base, they could gain a firm foothold in eastern Yunnan. Next, whether they continued to attack Qujing or contacted the White Rod Army in the north to cooperate in combat, the initiative fell to the Ming army.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that Wei Xuliang's opinion was correct. Xie Jiekai was not an indecisive person. As a commander, he knew very well that making judgments in wartime required decisiveness, even if this decisiveness entailed certain risks.

Moreover, Xie Jikai has nearly 10,000 troops. Even if this army is not as strong as Sha Dingzhou, it will be no problem to attack Fuyuan County. You must know that although Sha Dingzhou's military strength is not weak, his main force is in the west. In Fuyuan, it is at best a local force. For a mere county in Fuyuan, it is estimated that there are a thousand people stationed there. If things go wrong, even Qujing may not have too many troops.

Thinking of this, Xie Jikai immediately made up his mind and decided not to continue waiting in Pingyi and immediately prepared to send troops to Fuyuan.

Then, Xie Jikai issued a series of orders, letting the garrison Lin Kang as the vanguard and Xie Guangping as the deputy to lead 3,000 elite troops to attack Fuyuan directly. He himself led the central army, with Wei Xuliang as the deputy general following, and the rest of the troops covering the rear, to capture Fuyuan as soon as possible.

On that day, the army cooked in Pingyi, ate and rested well, and sent scouts to Fuyuan for investigation. The next morning, the vanguard led by Lin Kang was the first to set out and headed towards Fuyuan. After that, the central army and the rear army set out to the west. By the evening of the second day, Lin Kang's vanguard arrived outside Fuyuan City. At this time, the scouts also found out the situation in the city. Wei Xuliang's judgment was not wrong at all. Fuyuan City did not have many defenders at all, only more than 300 people were stationed, and nearly half of them were old and weak. The city did not make any preparations and did not expect the Ming army to attack.

After confirming the intelligence, Lin Kang decided to attack Fuyuan at night. At three o'clock in the morning, Lin Kang sent dozens of elite soldiers who were good at climbing to quietly climb the city wall. They killed the sentries while the defenders on the city were completely unprepared, and then opened the city gate.

As soon as the city gate opened, Lin Kang's main force rushed in through the gate. When the sound of killing rang out in the city, the officials and soldiers defending the city suddenly realized that it was too late to save the situation. In less than half an hour, Fuyuan fell into the hands of the Ming army. Except for some stubborn resisters who were killed, all the officials and soldiers in the city surrendered.

When Xie Jikai led the central army to Fuyuan the next day, Fuyuan was completely in his hands. Seeing this, Xie Jikai was overjoyed and led his troops into the city with great pride. He counted the spoils in the city. Since it didn't take much effort to capture Fuyuan, the Ming army didn't even suffer many casualties, and all the spoils in the city fell into Xie Jikai's hands. With these supplies, Xie Jikai's troops didn't have to worry about logistics for the time being. At this time, Xie Jikai directly set his sights on Qujing in the west, and called everyone to discuss whether he could pursue the victory and capture Qujing again to make a great contribution.

Facing Xie Jikai's question, Wei Xuliang hesitated a little. He had the same idea in his mind, and taking Fuyuan was too easy. Qujing was not far from Fuyuan. If they could take Qujing, then the merits of their army would be really great.

However, Wei Xuliang also had concerns, because Qujing was different from Fuyuan. Fuyuan was just a county town, but Qujing was a prefecture town. Not only was the city much larger, but the population was several times that of Fuyuan. Moreover, Qujing was an important town in eastern Yunnan. Sha Dingzhou did not place many troops in Fuyuan, but he certainly would not be careless in Qujing. With Fuyuan, the news could not be concealed at all. It might have reached Qujing in a day, and Qujing would definitely be prepared. In this case, it would be difficult to capture Qujing as easily as Fuyuan.

(End of this chapter)