Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 372 Is it difficult to handle? Then don't do it!

"Damn it, the Tang army is too unethical!

"It's a pity that their first reign title was 'Wu De'. The more they lack something, the more they emphasize it!
"Which good person threw dirty water on us while we were taking off our pants and shitting?"

Xue Wanche's curses echoed on both sides of the Fen River.

The Ming fleet retreated southward in disgrace along the Fen River, away from the city of Jinyang.

The battle just now really dealt a heavy loss to the Ming army.

The Ming fleet was first blocked by iron chains, and its formation was disrupted by fire ships. When it was forced to land, it was ambushed by Li Shiji on land.

With a series of smooth and flowing moves, the Ming army was beaten so badly that they could not take care of either their heads or their buttocks.

Especially when they were ambushed during landing, the Ming army was caught off guard and had no time to arrange their battle formation. They were badly defeated by Li Shiji's army.

In the end, it was the Ming army soldiers who, with their excellent professional skills and excellent equipment, fought their way out, hastily boarded ships, and withdrew from the battlefield southwards by water, thus avoiding the fate of being wiped out in one wave.

"Knowing yourself and the enemy will ensure victory in every battle. They know our military tactics inside and out. Our army cannot rely on one trick to conquer all enemies."

Qibi Heli sighed.

He was talking in rhymes all the time. Are you going to take the imperial examination? Li Ming was in no mood to complain.

The fight just now really hurt him.

The elite infantry of the Ming Dynasty were ambushed on the shore, and their powerful ships and guns were hit by garbage boats in the water.

Although the loss is not so great as to cause serious damage, it is enough to make the first generation of wealthy people who made their fortune from scratch feel distressed for a while.

"I can clearly see Jinyang Prefecture..." Xue Wanche pounded the boat railing unwillingly.

Seeing the iconic building in the enemy’s core area, is it some kind of flag?
For example, the German troops outside Moscow in 1941...

Li Ming looked at the Fen River gloomily and muttered to himself listlessly:
"The enemy knew our military's operational procedures very well, so they were able to prescribe the right remedy and fleece our troops."

It is true that the Ming army’s tactics during this period were too formulaic - if they could take a boat, they would take a boat; if they couldn’t, they would get off the boat and walk.

As a result, the Tang army deployed targeted tactics and took advantage of the timing of getting on and off the boat to launch a group attack.

In the final analysis, the Ming army made a strategic mistake and its unchanging tactics were exploited.

Fortunately, the Ming army had strong material strength and a higher tolerance for error in fighting. Even though they were hit by a wave of powerful attacks, they did not suffer unbearable losses.

The entire army was able to escape unscathed and headed south to temporarily avoid the Tang army's attack.

A country with strong national power is just so unreasonable.

"Your Majesty, how should we deal with this next?"

A dull question interrupted Li Ming's thoughts.

When he withdrew his thoughts, he saw Qibi Heli looking at him eagerly.

Indeed, Li Ming had no time to be depressed.

As the commander-in-chief of this army and the helmsman of the Ming Dynasty, he has more pressing issues to deal with -

What’s the next step?
Xue Wanche curled his lips:

"What should I do? Are you going to stop eating just because you choked on your food? Keep fighting!"

Li Ming leaned on the railing of the boat, looking at the two generals Heng and Ha sitting below, and gently tapped the railing with his fingers.

To be honest, although the two generals were also famous generals of the time, they were still a little lacking compared to Li Shiji, one of the Ten Sages of the Temple of Martial Arts.

Even though Li Shiji has always played the role of a rookie, that is in contrast to the two top carbon-based creatures in the Li family.

It was quite easy and enjoyable for him to fight Xue Wanche and Qibi Heli.

The gap between the two sides in command and strategy was vividly demonstrated in the battle just now.

Although the Ming Dynasty's advantages in material and manpower can partially make up for the gap in the abilities of the two sides' main generals.

However, it is still somewhat difficult to completely bridge the gap at the moment.

It’s not that Crouching Dragon and Phoenix are too weak, but that Li Shiji is too strong. This is the value of the Ten Sages of the Temple of War.

What's more, behind Li Shiji, in Jinyang City, there is a human being who combines both strategy and tactics.

Jinyang City... Two routes from north and south...

"By the way, how is the progress in Shuozhou?" Li Ming slapped his forehead and asked:

"We have encountered setbacks in the Bingzhou direction. We must inform them of this news as soon as possible, so that they will not rush south and push the front line too far."

Seeing the leader patting his forehead, Xue Wanche also patted his forehead:
"If your Majesty hadn't told me, I would have forgotten... I just received a secret letter from Shuozhou, but I haven't had time to pass it on to you yet."

Li Ming's mouth twitched:

"Such an important thing, you are telling me now?"

"I was fighting just now, and then I forgot about it. If Your Majesty hadn't reminded me, who would remember such a small thing?" Xue Wanche said confidently.

"..."

Li Ming resisted the urge to kick Lao Xue into the river—the key was that he couldn't kick him—and pouted as he stretched out his hand to him:

"Give me the letter. What did Li Jing say?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen it." Xue Wanche lowered his voice seriously:
"This is a secret letter."

"..." Li Ming completely gave up complaining about this guy, opened the wax seal of the letter and quickly read through it.

As he read, his eyebrows raised:
"Oh?"

The two generals Heng and Ha came up immediately:
"good news?"

Li Ming shook his head: "No."

"So, it's bad news?"

"Hiss...it doesn't seem like it."

The leader's ambiguous attitude left the two confused.

What exactly did Li Jing and Li Weigong send over, and what exactly happened in Shuozhou?

"Li Jing said in the letter."

Li Ming said slowly:
"Our army was stopped by Ashina She'er and Cheng Zhijie when they marched southwards. Our advance was blocked and we could only continue to defend Shuozhou."

"Tsk, isn't this the same as us? It seems Lord Li Wei is just so-so." Xue Wanche felt both happy and unhappy.

I am afraid that my brothers will be bullied at the fountain, but I am also afraid that my brothers will carry the whole game.

In comparison, Qibi Heli's thinking is much more normal.

"Duke Li Wei's attack was thwarted? This is difficult to deal with..."

The Ming army was defeated by the Tang army on both fronts. This was obviously very bad news.

Why does Your Majesty feel that this matter "doesn't seem like bad news"?

It's not possible that because the Tang army stopped Li Jing's march southward and indirectly integrated the pace of the north and south routes, you think this result is "okay", right?

"Difficult? If it's difficult, then don't do it." Li Ming let out a breath.

Don't do anything?

What does that mean? Are we not going to attack Shanxi anymore?
The two generals Heng and Ha found that no matter how big their imaginations were, they were like two solid iron lumps in front of the huge imagination of Emperor Li Ming.

"Your Majesty, what does this mean?"

The two were completely confused.

Li Ming unfolded the secret letter to the two of them:

"This is what Li Jing meant. What do you think?"

The two of them widened their eyes and studied every word carefully.

"Give up going south, tie down the Tang army, and consume the enemy, this..."

"Is this really feasible? If the Tang army continues to send troops to Shuozhou, Jinyang will inevitably become more and more empty. If they don't send troops there, and Shuozhou is lost, they will face pressure from both the north and the south."

Crouching Dragon and Phoenix tentatively expressed their approval of Li Jing's strategic shift.

"It's just..." Xue Wanche frowned:

"In this way, the burden of attacking Jinyang will fall entirely on the shoulders of our army.

Qibi Heli's position is even higher:

"The strategy of advancing north and south was planned before the war and approved by Your Majesty. Is it appropriate for Lord Li Wei to change the strategy on his own?"

There are many cases where leaders pass the buck to their subordinates, but this is the only case where subordinates pass the buck to their leader.

Li Ming didn't care about it and waved his hand lightly: "When a general is away from home, he may not obey the orders of the king. The war is the most important thing.

"As long as we can win, we can do anything."

This is also very much in Li Ming's style, everything is based on achieving the goal.

Even if I have to take on greater responsibility and bear a bigger blame for this, I will do it without hesitation.

In this way, the next step becomes clear.

"It seems unrealistic to want to defeat the last main force of the Tang army in one battle."

Li Ming sighed softly:

"Remember my order: The Southern Route Army will temporarily withdraw southward, reorganize logistics, and reorganize the troops.

"The northern army continues to attack southwards, exerting continuous pressure on the northern part of the Tang army, mainly to kill and wound the enemy's active forces."

In a nutshell, it’s still grinding.

A skilled cook cannot cook without rice. Now that the Tang army has been worn down, what tricks does General Tian Ce have left?
The Ming Dynasty can afford it, but what about the Tang Dynasty?

Qibi Heli expressed his admiration: "Your Majesty is absolutely right."

This kind of victory, although not very beautiful, may seem like an unfair victory.

But we can win!

Winning is more important than anything else.

Xue Wanche looked around absentmindedly, then suddenly frowned and narrowed his eyes:
"Huh? What is that?"

Lao Xue’s question made everyone nervous.

Because this guy's big eyes are not in vain, he can always find some disturbing clues.

"That's on the shore..."

Li Ming squinted his eyes almost into slits before he could vaguely see that there seemed to be a few black objects on the shore, moving from south to north.

"That's the army." Xue Wanche said.

"The army...whose subordinates are they?" Qibi Heli blinked his big, innocent and ignorant eyes.

The Ming troops were all on the boats.

The only ones on the shore were...

"Is it the Tang army? The Tang army's reinforcements?" Qibi Heli was horrified.

As the distance between the two sides grew shorter, the situation gradually became clear.

It was indeed the Tang army, marching quickly to the north.

What's in the North?
In the north is Jinyang City, the main force of the Tang army led by Li Shiji, and General Tiance Li Shimin!
"Where will they get the reinforcements? Guanzhong? Central Plains?" Xue Wanche shouted anxiously.

He didn't understand. Killing Martian soldiers was clearly the Ming Dynasty's ultimate move, so why did the Tang Dynasty also have the ability to do so?
"Puzhou, it's the garrison of Puzhou..."

Li Ming said calmly:
"They took advantage of our army's defeat and went north to support the defense of Jinyang."

The Tang Dynasty deployed a large defensive force in Puzhou, led by Li Shiji.

The original intention was to cut off the Ming army's route to the north and use the strong city to consume the Ming army's edge as much as possible.

Everyone knows what happened later.

Li Ming used his invincible fleet, which was so powerful that it had no friends, to ignore Puzhou and use the "leapfrog tactics" to skip over the defenders.

From then on, the situation of this Tang army became rather embarrassing.

If they continue to stay in Puzhou, it seems that they will not be able to play any role except eating up all the rice of the Tang Dynasty.

However, they do not have the ability to go north to support the battles in Jinzhou and Bingzhou.

It’s not that they couldn’t move, but the marching route to the north was blocked by the Ming army.

Letting them guard the city would indeed cause great trouble to the Ming army.

But let them meet the Ming army on a narrow road and fight a field battle.

That would be like jumping into a fire pit.

"So they are taking advantage of our army's defeat and their own inability to take care of themselves to rush north?" Xue Wanche said.

Qibi Heli thought about it carefully, and his expression suddenly changed:
"It would take several days to send a message from Jinyang to Puzhou, and it would take several more days for the main army to get here...

"They must have planned this long ago! They knew our army would be in trouble and mobilized the troops in Puzhou in advance!"

Who in the Tang army could plan so many steps in advance?
Who else could it be except His Majesty Li Shimin!

Even if he is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of strength, he can still make the enemy dance according to his command.

This is really terrifying when you think about it.

Everyone bowed their heads and remained silent.

Is Li Shimin, the great general of Tian Ce, an insurmountable mountain after all...

"This combo is great. Haha, you are worthy of being Li Er. It's worth it that I have been preparing for this day for so long."

A defiant smile appeared on Li Ming's lips.

Lao Xue and Qibi looked at each other and said in unison:
"Your Majesty, do you have a clever plan to break the impasse?"

Li Ming did not answer directly.

He faced everyone calmly, his voice was not loud, but full of pressure.

"You all, listen to my command——"

Since my generals are no match for me.

Then I will do it myself!

…………

"I am an incompetent subordinate. I let the bandits escape and once again betrayed your majesty's trust.

"Your Majesty, please punish me!"

In Jinyang Prefecture, Li Shiji knelt on the ground again to plead guilty.

But this time, the pot really wasn't his.

"The strength of our enemies is quite different. I don't expect you - or anyone else - to be able to wipe out the Ming army and their 'founding emperor' in one fell swoop."

Li Shimin sat at the top and spoke calmly.

"On the contrary, you fought this battle brilliantly. Not only did you plan your strategy properly, but you also grasped the tactical timing accurately. I will reward you."

"Your Majesty is wise." The generals present nodded one after another, also acknowledging Li Shiji's contribution.

In this battle, General Li made full use of the enemy's exposed combat inertia.

First, they lured the enemy deep into the city of Jinyang, and then seized the fleeting opportunity when the enemy came ashore, and attacked the Ming army fiercely from both land and sea.

This battle not only thwarted the enemy's offensive momentum, but also caused the enemy to suffer heavy casualties.

For the Tang army, which had suffered more defeats than victories, the victory in this battle was like a shot in the arm.

"General Ashina and General Cheng Zhijie also fought very successfully in the north, resisting Li Jing's repeated attempts to move south."

Guo Xiaoke said.

Compared to before the battle, his expression now is much more relaxed and he no longer has a tense face.

"There are good news on both the northern and southern fronts. It's great, it's wonderful!"

The air in Jinyang Prefecture seemed to start flowing again, and the generals who had been suppressed to the point of almost suffocating before the war were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Li Shimin smiled and nodded:

"The reversal of the battle situation is inseparable from the concerted efforts of all of you."

The generals felt much happier to receive recognition from General Tian Ce, who had the highest military power in the world.

The depression caused by the continuous suppression by the Ming army was swept away and he felt proud.

And in a relaxed atmosphere.

Li Shimin, who was originally the most relaxed, secretly tensed up his nerves.

"I put all my energy and effort into setting up such a tight net, but that guy managed to escape so easily?!
"That boy's strength...

“How can there be such a huge disparity?!”

(End of this chapter)