Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 389: Sailing on Land
"start."

As soon as His Majesty's order was passed down, flags were flying and drums were beating.

A large number of workers entered the port one after another, loaded the piled up oiled timber onto trucks and carried it up the mountain.

These workers came with an army of millions of civilians, totaling nearly hundreds of thousands of people.

Although Li Ming dispersed a large number of laborers to other places, he still maintained a large labor force in places such as Yuci close to the front line to ensure that they could be available at any time.

If he simply piled up 100,000 people on the front line, anyone with a discerning eye would know that he was preparing to cause trouble.

But if he gathered a million people and scattered them all over the place, then others would not know whether he was trying to cause trouble or was just acting crazy.

This is also part of the deception. The one million people are just to cover up the one hundred thousand people.

Like ants moving house, these workers gradually cleared out the timber piled up at the river port and transported it into the mountains on wheelbarrows.

The mountain in the backyard of this river port is a branch of the Wuqiong Mountains in Shanxi, named "Nanshan". It runs north-south along the Fen River, and goes straight from the Ming army camp to the south of Jinyang City.

This strategic mountain, which should have been a site of frequent accidents, became a blind spot for both sides' offense and defense because of its overly dense forests and was unsuitable for large-scale troop deployments.

Apart from placing some scattered scouts, the troops of both sides basically regarded the Nanshan Mountain south of Jinyang as the map border and automatically bypassed it during military operations.

However, as everyone knows, little brother Li Ming set a fire on this mountain and burned it into a bald mountain.

This highly suspicious behavior was avoided by the other party because of his bizarre behavior of setting fires in various places in Shanxi.

In other words, thanks to Li Ming's clever operation, he obtained hundreds of thousands of laborers on the front line, a bare mountain without any tree cover leading directly to the enemy's base camp - and most importantly, the enemy troops who were completely unaware of this.

Under the noses of Tang Jun, he successfully attracted the opponent's attention with a massive amount of information and concealed the real killer move.

Today, all the preliminary preparations have been completed, and the Tang army has successfully taken the bait, being lured forward by the bait troops of Xue Wanche and Qibi Heli.

It can be said that everything is ready, all we need is the east wind!
"It will win."

Li Ming glanced at the busy crowd at the port and the mountain, then looked away, picked up a document and started reading.

This letter was sent by Ma Zhou.

Li Zhi's predecessor (teacher), an official of the previous dynasty who was once sent to Zhangqiu to be a county magistrate by Li Ming's pretense, and was also discouraged by Li Ming's financial war and finally surrendered, is now sent to the occupied area of ​​Henan by Li Ming to temporarily take charge of the local people's livelihood.

You know what, this low-key worker in the Ming Dynasty is doing quite well in the vast world of Henan.

There is no way. The happy hometown of Daming is now full of talents, and the internal affairs are in turmoil. It is time to expand more land under the sun and find a good way out for the bunch of SSRs in hand.

But this time, the letter sent by Ma Zhou made Li Ming frown.

"The summer was hot and rainy, and the Yellow River was dry...

"Tsk, the world is not at peace. This war cannot be delayed any longer, it must be ended quickly."

…………

On the South Mountain, laborers were driving carts on the mountain road. The strong smell of burning was everywhere, lingering deep in the nose.

This section of the mountain burned very thoroughly, and the fire seemed to be deliberately guided by an invisible giant hand, and "coincidentally" burned out a shortcut in the mountain.

This was certainly not a coincidence. The Ming army came prepared. They had planned the route long ago, laid hay in advance, moved boulders, leveled the soil, and dug fire-prevention trenches along the route.

Let the fire complete the final "demolition" work, and a passage from the Ming army's river port directly into the heart of the Tang army's defense line was completed.

Of course, all these advance preparations were carried out under the nose of the Tang army, by stuffing in massive amounts of junk intelligence and concealing the truth.

But now, the front line is in a fierce battle, the Tang army is attacking in full force, and the commander Li Shiji is on the battlefield in person, with limited vision; while Li Shimin is overlooking the battle from the Jinyang city wall more than ten miles away. It is impossible for him to notice the details on the edge of the battlefield due to the heavy fog.

Little do they know that devastating changes are taking place in this blind spot, not too far away.

…………

“Start right here and lay the planks.”

At the foreman's command, the laborers took the wooden boards down from the carts, put them end to end, and laid them flat on the burned path.

This road leading directly to Jinyang is quite a distance away from the battlefield, which is equivalent to taking a big detour.

Although the distance is long, fortunately this place was once the old river channel of a seasonal river. Due to the erosion of rainwater all year round, the terrain is gentle and the height difference is small.

This feature is crucial to Li Ming's plan.

Judging by "road" standards, this burned path is rugged, narrow and winding, barely navigable, and not suitable for large-scale travel.

The power of nature, this job can only be done so well, the requirements cannot be too high.

However, according to Li Ming's idea, this temporary road does not need to be too sophisticated.

Hundreds of thousands of laborers were distributed on this "road" which was not very long in a straight line, and the road surface was paved with oiled wooden boards.

These wooden boards were soaked with the blood and sweat of the people of the Ming Dynasty (literally), and their surfaces were extremely smooth and greasy, making it impossible for people to stand steadily on them.

This kind of road paving (physical) work is much simpler than building a road seriously.

The wooden boards are prefabricated boards that are mass-produced and shipped from the factory in the rear, and are also pre-soaked with grease and oil.

All the workers have to do is to move the wooden boards off the truck, lay them flat on the ground, and connect them at the ends with rivets.

For a Ming Dynasty craftsman who has experienced many battles, is this considered work? Isn't this just a little game to relieve stress in his spare time?

Under the orderly dispatch of experienced foremen, the roads were basically paved wherever people went, and the project progressed very smoothly and quickly.

On the mountain road, the workers could even vaguely hear the sound of swords and horses coming from the distant battlefield.

The battle is in full swing.

They were startled and quickened their work.

Gradually, the sound of fighting became farther and farther away, until it was left behind them and could no longer be heard.

The workers knew they had paved the road behind the war zone.

This also means that the destination of this trip is approaching.

With the wheels rumbling, they walked down the mountain along the burned path, turned a corner, and arrived at the bank of the Fen River again.

The solid city wall is not far to the north, and the tall Jinyang Tower can be clearly seen.

I don’t know if it was an illusion, but the workers seemed to see an old and tall figure on the city wall.

This place is behind Li Shiji's defense zone and before the Jinyang city wall, right in the middle.

More importantly, the river surface from here to the north all the way to Jinyang City is very clean.

That disgusting iron chain + fire ship defense line did not extend here and was also bypassed.

"It's right here. Fix the board."

Following the contractor's orders, the workers laid the last few wooden boards, extending all the way to the Fen River.

In this way, a wooden plank "road" that started and ended at the Fen River and bypassed the battlefield and water blockade was completed in just half a day.

Even the fighting on the front line had not stopped and Li Shiji's troops had not returned to the camp!

However, this road is more like an extra-long slide than a "road".

The linked wooden boards shone so brightly that even a mosquito would stagger if it flew over them.

This is exactly the effect Li Ming wants to achieve.

"Report the completion news to His Majesty as soon as possible."

…………

call out!
On the banks of the Fen River and beside the Nanshan Mountains, the sound of whistling arrows cuts through the sky.

Soon, from a position further south of the arrow launch site, the second whistling arrow followed. Then, the third, the fourth...

Along the Fen River, the sound of whistling arrows rang out one after another, like an invisible giant taking steady steps towards the south.

"Hmm? Exploding arrows and whistling arrows? Coming from Nanshan?"

Li Shiji's ears twitched and he looked vigilantly at the mountain at the edge of the battlefield.

After being tempered by the wildfire, the appearance of Nanshan has undergone earth-shaking changes. It is now bare and charred, forming a sharp contrast with the green mountains and clear waters in the background.

However, the dense smoke severely obstructed his vision, leaving Li Shiji completely unaware of what was happening behind the mountain.

"Could it be the enemy's outflanking movement? But the mountain path is steep and even without the trees to block the way, it should not be able to support a large-scale march..."

Li Shiji's mind was in turmoil, not knowing whether the enemy was deliberately making trouble or was really going to take action.

"The right army guards the exit at the foot of the mountain and strengthens vigilance. The other troops continue to advance and outflank the enemy!"

Out of caution, he responded in a way that he thought was safe.

…………

On the Ming army side.

Under Li Shiji's fierce attack, the enemy was already showing signs of fatigue and the situation was reversed.

"Xue Manzi, have you suddenly realized something?"

"You are a Tiele Turkic half-blood who can't even speak clearly. How do you use 'suddenly realize'? What do you want to say?"

"It seems our army is surrounded."

"...You just realized it? Isn't this the job of baits like us?"

Just when Xue Wanche and Qibi Heli, a pair of close friends, were teasing each other to relieve stress.

call out--

At the edge of the battlefield, on the Nanshan side, the sound of arrows rang out one after another, reaching the main camp of the Ming army.

The two looked at each other and perked up.

"Your Majesty's general offensive is about to begin!"

"My fellow lads, be alert and don't let our old friend Li Shiji idle. Hit them hard and pin them down!"

…………

shhhhh--

The shrill sound of arrows soon reached the Ming army's main camp and reached the ears of Emperor Li Ming.

This is a pre-arranged signal, indicating that—

"The planks have been laid, everything is going well..."

Li Ming swallowed nervously.

Even he felt that his imagination was a bit too far-fetched.

They could have clearly relied on their absolute national strength advantage, or simply adopted fortress tactics, to slowly wear down the remaining Tang troops.

However, he chose the style with the most barrage.

"There's nothing we can do. This war has dragged on for too long. We have to end it soon.

"Alas... there are still a lot of bad things waiting for me in the country."

Li Ming sighed secretly and nodded to the clerk beside him:
"Do it."

"Yes!"

Your Majesty's imperial order was passed down level by level.

At the river port, Yuchi Xunyu looked worriedly at the dense blockades and dusty battlefield ahead, his throat moved, and he waved his hand:

"set off!"

At his command, the huge Ming army fleet retracted its sails and slowly began to turn by rowing, with its bows facing the shore.

The men on the dock hooked the boat with a chain and put an ox yoke on one end.

Pulled by a group of cattle, the huge warship slowly sailed into an artificially dug pool on the bank of the Fen River.

The pool is not filled with water, but melted oil. The bottom of the oil pool gradually slopes upward, and a lubricated iron plate is placed on the edge, directly connected to the passage on the mountain.

When the warship passed through this oil pool, the bottom of the ship immediately became very lubricated, and it slid on the equally smooth iron plate under the pull of livestock.

These tower ships are flat-bottomed boats used for river and offshore operations. They have flat bottoms, so they are also suitable for being towed on land.

With the cooperation of people and livestock, the first large ship was pulled ashore smoothly along the smooth surface of the board, completely leaving the water, and along the "track" made of wooden boards, it actually reached Nanshan.

"This is possible. Boats can actually sail on dry land..."

Yuchi Xunyu watched the warship "climbing" upwards step by step, his neck rising little by little and his mouth opening unconsciously.

Following Brother Ming, life is really full of surprises.

He actually witnessed a boat climbing a mountain today!

"No, no, now is not the time to be in a daze!"

Yuchi Xunyu slapped himself twice, forced himself to cheer up, waved his hand and ordered:

"Follow!"

The second ship, the third ship...

Using the same method, soon half of the fleet was completely out of the water and moving steadily on the land.

However, it’s not always smooth sailing.

When one of the warships was going ashore, a cow accidentally stepped on empty air and brought down the neighboring cows and horses, causing chaos in the herd that was pulling the warships.

Having lost its forward momentum, the ship slowly moved down the slope and backed toward the oil pool.

And behind it, the next ship is waiting to go ashore!
If the two ships collide, the consequences will be disastrous!
At this critical moment, the two poles at the stern were immediately lowered, slid on the wooden board for a distance, and then accurately got stuck in the joint between the two wooden boards.

Just like that, the ship barely stopped its downward trend before accelerating downward.

Huh... Yuchi Xunyu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and secretly thanked the skilled craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty for being able to provide a layer of insurance for such an outrageous plan...

Fortunately, apart from this predictable accident, the whole process was generally uneventful.

Pulled by countless animals, the huge Ming fleet landed on the shore, bypassed the heavily blocked water, and rushed towards Jinyang City along the smooth wooden tracks!

…………

As the sun sets, the Tang army, which has been fighting all day, takes a rest, leaning on their spears.

They have no intention of letting up.

Having been toyed with by the Ming army from beginning to end, I finally managed to defeat them today. How could I let go of this God-given opportunity for revenge!
But just as they were about to engage in battle again.

But I heard a heavy voice coming from behind Nanshan.

Like the roar of a giant beast.

(End of this chapter)