Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 345: Tight Front and Tight Back

"What the hell?"

"Fuck!"

Xue Rengui jumped back instinctively as if he had been electrocuted.

The other party's reaction was a little slow, and he was about to shout at the top of his voice:
"There is an enemy..."

Before he could finish the second half of the word, the old man's whole body shook and he collapsed to the ground, with a big bump on the back of his head.

Behind him stood several Ming army scouts.

"General! Are you okay?" The scout threw away the wooden stick in his hand and asked worriedly.

The elite are the elite after all. After the boss rolled down the mountain, they immediately went downhill to catch up, and only then were they able to provide support in time.

If the guy lying on the ground sounded the alarm, this reconnaissance team would have no chance of escaping.

"Nothing, nothing..." Xue Rengui calmed down for a moment and immediately ordered:
"Return to camp immediately and inform the commander!"

"Yes, sir!" the scout responded and took out a boning knife from his bag.

"What are you going to do?" Xue Rengui asked puzzledly.

"seal."

As the scout spoke, he bent down and prepared to cut the throat of the unconscious Tang soldier lying on the ground.

This is not because the Ming army scouts were brutal, but the basic tactics of reconnaissance troops throughout history, both in China and abroad.

Time was tight, the mission was heavy, and they couldn't be discovered. There was no time to take prisoners, so they just killed them directly.

"Wait." Xue Rengui thought for a moment and said:
"Let's tie this guy to a tree."

My brother is very kind-hearted. I can’t bear to send him to reincarnation like this.

The scouts looked at each other and without saying anything, quickly tied up this lucky unlucky guy.

"go!"

The group rushed back to the camp.

Along the way, Xue Rengui's heart was pounding.

He didn't feel anything at the time, but as time went on, he became more and more scared.

Damn it, damn it, damn it!

The Tang army actually set an ambush!
Moreover, it was at the foot of Shuozhou City, the last leg of the march, when everyone was the most tired and their vigilance was the least relaxed!
And judging from the scruffy beard of that old man, they have been lying in ambush here for quite some time, at least more than five days!

How cunning! Damn it, isn't Shuozhou the sphere of influence of our Ming Dynasty?

His Majesty Li Shimin is truly a god!
The Tang army set out from Bingzhou and arrived in Shuozhou earlier than the Ming army. Not only was their marching speed abnormal, but their decision-making time was also abnormally short!
It is not difficult to discover that the attack in the direction of Jinyang is a feint, but it is difficult to discover it in the first place.

It is even more difficult to judge that the real strategic intention of the Ming army is to retreat, and to retreat to Shuozhou!
If it weren’t for the two great immortals Li Jing and Hou Junji, so many troubles would have occurred along the way.

If the Ming army had maintained its normal marching speed and level of alert, it would have most likely fallen into the Tang army's trap!

In a state of insufficient supply and lack of defense, they were attacked shamelessly by the main force of the enemy. This loss...

"I dare not think about it, I dare not think about it..." Xue Rengui broke out in a cold sweat.

God helps the Ming Dynasty, we are so lucky!

He unexpectedly escaped the Tang army's conspiracy by accident...

"No, that's not the case. Maybe the two masters really saw through the Tang army's conspiracy and made preparations in advance?

"I'm too young..."

Xiao Xue felt that he had made a mistake and misunderstood the two leaders.

Duke Li Wei was not a decadent and foolish power-crazed man, and Hou Junji was not a stinky bureaucratic blame-shifting maniac.

Both of them are far-sighted pillars of the Ming Dynasty!

When he thought that his childhood idol was still the spotless Bai Yueguang, his tense mood relaxed a little.

…………

"Hei Fu! Hei Fu!"

In the ambush position of the Tang army, several soldiers were looking for their missing comrades.

"Where did that guy go? Why hasn't he come back yet after going to the bathroom? I'm going to kick his ass!" The sergeant was very anxious.

When facing a powerful enemy, suddenly one of your soldiers goes missing, which is absolutely terrifying when you think about it carefully.

"He wouldn't be eaten by a tiger... no, a big beast?" the old soldier guessed casually.

"How can a tiger eat a person without making any noise?!"

The sergeant was so anxious that he didn't even bother to avoid mentioning the name of the ancestor of this dynasty, "Li Hu".

"I'm afraid it was a Ming army scout who came up and cut his throat!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the soldiers' blood ran cold.

After all, such a large Ming army had reached the entrance of the ambush circle, but suddenly stopped strangely.

Could it be true that...

"This matter is too big, we must report it to the higher-ups immediately!"

The sergeant felt that he was bearing pressure that he shouldn't have to bear at this level.

"Quiet! What are you yelling about?" the captain shouted angrily in a low voice.

He had just come for his nth "final" pre-war inspection when he came across these old guys gathered together and chattering. He immediately became furious.

But for the sergeant, a captain was already considered "higher" enough.

"Colonel Captain..."

He was about to report to him that some soldiers were missing and suspected to have been ambush by Ming army scouts.

If Xue Rengui had really killed the enthusiastic Tang army soldier named "Heifu" at that time, their whereabouts would have been discovered earlier.

However, by coincidence, Xue Rengui left the person alive.

And the survivor woke up at this moment, making an inarticulate "woooo" sound.

"what sound?"

The captain, who was on high alert, interrupted the sergeant's report.

The sergeant also pricked up his ears and listened, his eyebrows twitching.

"It seems to be Hei Fu's voice?"

"Heifu?"

"That's what I was just about to tell you about... Hey, let's go over and take a look first!"

Several people followed the sound down the mountain and spent a lot of time searching before finally finding Brother Hefu, who was tied up and unconscious.

"What's wrong with you?!" Captain Wu was shocked and untied him.

Heifu was still standing there in a daze, his consciousness still hazy.

"I didn't know. When I was peeing, a celestial being suddenly dropped from the sky and told me that I was a good person. Then when I woke up, this is what happened..."

Then came some half-understandable nonsense like Li Tianwang (the Heavenly King holding a pagoda) coming down to earth.

It seems that there is no point in asking this question.

The captain gritted his teeth when he heard this:
"Let's report to the higher-ups first. We may have been discovered by their secret sentries."

…………

The Tang army encountered some minor confusion at the front line, which delayed them for some time.

Xue Rengui and his entourage seized upon this fleeting window, rolled down the cliff, took a shortcut to skillfully avoid the range of the Tang army's bows and crossbows, and galloped back to their headquarters on horseback.

He brought crucial information.

There are Tang army ambushes ahead!
From the perspective of the Tang army's lookouts, they only saw a few fast horses rushing out from some ravine and heading straight for the Ming army camp.

The speed of those horses was so fast that their bows and crossbows could not aim at them. They could only watch the enemy enter their camp.

Then, the Ming army, which had been procrastinating and dithering, suddenly acted quickly as if it had been injected with chicken blood.

The only difference is that the direction they are moving is not forward, but backward.

The formation also changed, from a simple long snake marching formation to a large circular array with the main force in the center and the wing troops in six directions of the central army.

Cheng Zhijie stood halfway up the mountain, watching the duck that was about to be caught suddenly change into this smooth and flowing formation, his face turned black.

"What does this mean?" he muttered to himself in a low voice.

The deputy general at the side immediately answered for the leader:
"General, this is Li Jing's signature Six Flower Formation, which means the enemy is ready to engage." "There are five basic formations in the Six Flower Formation, and the circular formation is a retreat formation."

Cheng Zhijie slowly turned his head, his eyes bloodshot, and repeated expressionlessly:
"Can you translate for me, what do they mean?"

"Uh..." The deputy general felt a chill on his neck for no apparent reason, and said with a stiff upper lip:
"It probably means 'There are enemies ahead, our army will fight and retreat'..."

"Translate that shit again. What does 'fight and retreat' mean?" Old Cheng's eyes were red with anger.

The deputy general was almost crying, and then he realized what his leader really meant:
"This means... the Ming army has discovered us..."

"They're waiting to get into formation, what the hell are you waiting for?!"

Cheng Zhijie seemed to be on fire.

"Get out there as fast as you can!"

You are not a general. Can you make the decision to send troops without authorization? Don’t you need to ask the general manager Li Shiji for permission?... The deputy general's words just came to his lips, but he swallowed them back.

In front of the Wagang bandits who had transformed into Shura, he still had a strong desire to survive.

…………

"This is...after all, they discovered it!"

On the top of the mountain, Li Shiji also witnessed everything that Cheng Zhijie saw, and saw it even more clearly than he did.

When the Ming army was so cowardly at the beginning, he suspected that the news had leaked.

Now that the other party suddenly changed their formation, there was even less to say.

The enemy discovered our army in advance and the ambush failed!

"But the failure of the ambush does not mean that our army has been defeated!"

Li Shiji's eyes were also bloodshot, just like a gambler who was going all in.

It is indeed time to gamble on the country's destiny.

The national strength of the entire Tang Dynasty has been overdrawn to the limit and can no longer hold out for much longer.

The only chance to turn the tables is to annihilate the main force of the Ming army in one fell swoop and let the exhausted country breathe!

Now that the main force of the Ming army has arrived at our doorstep, how can we let them escape?
Even without an ambush, the Tang army could still win in a head-on battle!

"All troops, listen to my orders..."

Li Shiji had just raised his voice to give an order when the messenger came in a panic:
"General Manager, Cheng Zhijie's troops disobeyed orders and attacked on their own!"

Without permission...Li Shiji's mouth twitched.

It is a big taboo to disobey orders and act without authorization in the army, which greatly challenges the commander's bottom line.

But there is nothing wrong with Lao Cheng's response.

Now that we have lost the first-mover advantage of an ambush, will we just stop fighting?

Li Shiji did not hesitate for a moment and immediately ordered:

"Beat the drums, raise the flags, and march out!"

…………

The Tang army immediately rushed down the mountain in battle formation without any delay.

They were already ready for battle and could start fighting at any time.

Now all we have to do is run a few miles further south to "welcome" the "visitors" from afar.

Needless to say, the Ming army had been on high alert all the way.

After receiving the warning from the scouts, they were fully prepared for battle.

The Ming Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, the two absolute superpowers on earth, finally launched a real head-on confrontation today, under the city of Shuozhou.

The main forces of the two countries, without any restrictions from subjective or objective conditions, gave full play to all their technical and tactical capabilities and fought a fair battle!
In fact, the commanders of both sides, whether it was Li Shimin and Li Shiji of the Tang Dynasty, or Li Ming and Li Jing of the Ming Dynasty, no one wanted to compete for the title of "upright".

The art of war is all about deception. In order to give their troops even the slightest advantage when the battle begins, the commanders on both sides racked their brains.

All kinds of ingenious, brilliant, and even despicable conspiracies and tricks emerge one after another.

However, after a fierce offensive and defensive battle behind the scenes, it turned out that both sides were evenly matched.

All strategies and tactics are ineffective and no one can gain any advantage over anyone else.

Then we can only compete in the hard power of the army.

The armies of both sides were like a flood. Under the command of the best generals, they smoothly changed the most suitable formation according to the terrain and enemy situation, and attacked the enemy fiercely.

Like Mars hitting the Earth, the long-awaited head-on confrontation between the main forces has begun.

Both the Ming Army and the Tang Army were the strongest combat forces on the earth at this time, and they were like a gap compared to the barbarians in all directions.

The two armies have the same origin and race, similar equipment, and similar basic tactics.

This battle is destined to be very brutal.

For a moment, dust was flying and the sound of killing was deafening.

The two ferocious hungry tigers, who had been holding back their anger for the entire winter, now vented their anger on each other without reservation.

…………

"Your Majesty Li Ming is just like that, he is too kindhearted and can never accomplish anything great.

"If you had listened to me and switched to a wartime system early on, and continuously transported resources from all over the country to the battlefield, would this war have been as frustrating as it is now?!"

In Pingzhou, in a busy roadside pub somewhere.

The drunk and knowledgeable buddy started the second favorite segment among men, "No one knows more about governing a country than I do."

Anyway, His Majesty Li Ming is used to sneezing, so he doesn't care if a few drunkards say bad things about him behind his back.

"Your Majesty is compassionate to the people, but it is a crime for you?"

Brother Dong’s remarks were attacked by other brothers who understand.

"Yes, that's right. You can talk without any worries now, but you will be unwilling to pay the tax when it is really collected from you."

"Who said I don't want to? Who said I don't want to?" The guy who understood at the beginning refused to admit defeat.

"Isn't it wartime now? Haven't taxes been raised? I don't feel anything!

"Not only do I not feel anything, I also feel that the effort is not strong enough, and I want to donate more funds to the government!"

This outrageous statement, which was so outrageous that it seemed like a cross-dressing, made it impossible for anyone to refute it.

Indeed, although the government has been promoting "wartime economy", "belt tightening" and "hardship march" all day long, the thunder is loud but the rain is small, and the common people are quite indifferent.

Life was not affected much, and people continued singing and dancing as usual.

A good example is that everyone can still drink and brag in the hotel.

Who wouldn't save food and drink freely in a state of war? We've all been used to hard times, so that's enough.

The situation is tight at the front, and the food shortage is even more severe in the rear, making the ordinary people feel embarrassed to eat too much.

Why can't we tighten our belts a little and provide more support to the soldiers?

Even the most brainless fans of His Majesty Li Ming couldn't help but have such doubts in their minds.

Your Majesty is too kind...

"Heh, do you know what a real state of war is?"

A vicissitudes and low voice came from behind Brother Dong.

Everyone looked towards the source of the sound.

The speaker was a middle-aged sailor with a face full of wrinkles. He looked weather-beaten, which made his words more convincing.

"Isn't it the Tang Dynasty across the street? A huge amount of supplies have been spent on the war, and the common people don't even have enough to eat. As the saying goes, 'no rooster crows for a thousand miles, and bones are exposed in the wild'..."

He said it so seriously that people couldn't help but believe it.

"On the other hand, what about us? We have no fighting spirit at all, we are just lax!

"Don't even mention that the government allows you to waste food and drink together. The government itself is even more wasteful. The ships that were built before the war in various port workshops have not stopped construction, but are still being built in full swing!
"The war has already come to this point, why are we still spending so much effort on shipbuilding? The main battlefield is in the mountains, why are we building big ships?"

The sailor was probably drunk and started complaining incessantly.

The knowledgeable guy next to him didn't dare to interrupt and listened attentively to the sailor's bragging.

They understood that this old man was the one who really understood.

When the atmosphere in the tavern reached its peak, no one noticed.

In the corner of the tavern, two women quietly stood up, placed a large coin on the table, and left quietly.

(End of this chapter)