Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 252 Choice
The Black-Clad Society obtained this intelligence entirely thanks to the "Deceitful Bug" who infiltrated Liu Yanzhang's team.

Because of his excessively "brave" performance at the military council, he, who was only a hundred or so men and not an old brother from Puzhou, directly became a middle-to-upper-level member of the bandit army and could attend military meetings every time.

The "Deceitful Insect" was Guo Shaobin, the contact he found last night, and was tasked with bringing back two messages, each more important than the last.

Guo Shaobin dared not delay. After obtaining the night's notice, he rode back to Zhongdu overnight to report.

Of course, in reality, the "Deceitful Insect" mentioned three things. Besides the two important pieces of intelligence, the third was about himself. He asked Guo Shaobin when he could return to the Baoyi Army because he was worried that if he didn't go back soon, he might become a "piao shuai" (a high-ranking military officer).

There was no way around it; Liu Yanzhang admired him too much, and there was even a hint of reluctance in his words towards Liu Yanzhang.

Guo Shaobin kept this change in the Deceitful Insect in mind, then verbally replied "soon," and rode off on the Deceitful Insect's warhorse.

The first item in the military report that Guo Shaobin was to deliver was the battle report of the Cao army's general offensive against Xiaqiu yesterday.

In fact, he participated in the great battle yesterday when the grass army besieged Xiaqiu, and he was waving flags and shouting outside the city.

Therefore, he was also very clear about yesterday's battle.

Just yesterday, when the Cao army launched a massive three-pronged attack, Kang Huaizhen, Yan Bao, and other Yanzhou naval knights rushed out of the city. After breaking through Yanshou Gate, they directly attacked northward, breaking through the Cao army's three lines of defense.

Upon seeing this, Li Xi, Kong Miao, and the others on the city wall cheered and were about to raise a toast when they were dumbfounded.

Instead of turning back, Generals Kang Huaizhen and Yan Bao fled north immediately after breaking through the enemy lines, without looking back.

At the time, Guo Shaobin was secretly cheering for the Yanzhou Navy Knights, but when he saw this scene, his jaw dropped.

What he didn't know was that on the opposite city wall, after witnessing the same scene, there was an eerie silence.

……

Outside Yanshou Gate, the sounds of battle rose from all sides, but on the city wall, only banners fluttered in the wind, and there was no other sound.

The silence didn't last long before it was broken by a barrage of curses.

All that could be heard was the angry pointing of the direction Kang Huaizhen and his men had gone, and the incessant cursing.

The insults were incredibly vulgar, especially those who had a good relationship with Kang Huaizhen, whose faces turned bright red.

They were genuinely cursing: "That damned Kang, why did you only call Yan Bao out? We could have gone too! Now you're running off and abandoning your brothers. How could you do that!"

They've really lost their heart.

Meanwhile, Kong Miao, who had been insisting on launching an attack, was also stunned for a long time. Seeing the Li faction staring at him, he blushed and began to curse:
"Kang Huaizhen is indeed a member of the Hu tribes, not a Chinese, disloyal and unfilial. He has family members in the city, so arrest his relatives directly and execute them in a public manner to quell the unrest in the army!"

Kong Miao was a man of some sense. He knew that if Generals Kang Huaizhen and Yan Bao chose to abandon the city and flee in front of all the officials and soldiers in the city, how could the Yanhai Army on the city walls still have any morale?

Therefore, they planned to use the heads of the two men's families left in the city to intimidate the army.

But when Li Xi heard this, he refused to play along with Kong Miao any longer and replied with a straight face:
"Generals Kang and Yan have gone to request reinforcements on my orders. Don't panic. Each unit should perform its duties and wait for the reinforcements to arrive."

No one present believed these words, but they all looked at Li Xi with new respect.

When Kong Miao mentioned killing the families of Kang Huaizhen and Yan Bao, they almost turned hostile.

Although those two bastards didn't help them, it doesn't mean they're going to kill their families. After all, who can guarantee they won't do something like that?

If you constantly bring trouble upon your family, sooner or later your wife, children, and elderly parents will also lose their heads.

Besides, you surnamed Kong are a local tyrant in Qufu, but what gives you the right to point fingers at their Yanzhou Navy?
Besides, didn't you hear what our governor said? The two generals went to ask for reinforcements. It's not your place to shout and fight here.

Look at you, so capable! All you think you are is shout for battle!

However, they knew in their hearts that Li's words were just to fool people. How could someone go out to call for reinforcements and take all the cavalry in the city with them?

That old dog Kang is truly inhuman; he just spouts whatever comes to mind.

Just now, when he was on the city wall and didn't want to leave, he said that out of eight hundred cavalrymen, three hundred of them could actually fight.

And then what? You bastard, you're trying to run away, damn it, you just pulled out six hundred of them all at once, practically taking away all the cavalry in the city.

Thinking of this, the generals present were still seething with hatred.

However, while angrily cursing Kong, Kang, and Yan, everyone also secretly praised Li's faction.

He thought to himself that Li Xi was indeed calm and resourceful in the face of danger, and didn't panic when things happened. If he had been a real governor, he would have served in Yanzhou for a few years, and Xiaqiu wouldn't be in this state today.

Kong Miao, however, wouldn't listen and tried to intimidate him with classical Chinese phrases, but Li Xi calmly replied:
"Kong Sheng, the wind is strong on the city wall and it's not good to be blown away. You should go down and rest first."

Kong Miao held no specific official position and did not participate in the imperial examinations, so although he was highly respected in the local area, he was still just an ordinary citizen.

Previously, the Li faction addressed him as "Gong," but now they're calling him "Kong Sheng," which is quite impolite.

Kong Miao was trembling with rage. Seeing the approaching Yanzhou naval officers, he flicked his sleeve and roared:

"No need for you to trouble yourself, Your Excellency. I am not old and can walk!"

After saying that, he turned and left the city wall without looking back, ignoring the discussions that were taking place on the city wall behind him.

The young general Kong Qing, who was behind him, raised his spear, clasped his hands in a fist and bowed to Li Xi, then followed his uncle Kong Miao down the aisle.

Watching Kong Qing's retreating figure, Li Xi nodded, then roared at the Yanzhou and Haizhou generals present:

"Gentlemen, fight bravely! This is the time to repay the imperial court! Hold on, reinforcements will surely arrive!"

It must be said that Li Xi has indeed done what he could, and even most civil officials who have never commanded troops could not have done it as well as him.

However, by the time it got a little dark that day, the outer city of Xiaqiu had been completely breached, and Li Xi led 5,000 Yanzhou navy troops to retreat into the inner city to continue their defense.

Thus, the Cao army, which had been besieging the city for a long time, stood on the city wall of Xiaqiu and cheered and roared. This was the first vassal state they had captured. Although the inner city had not yet fallen, everyone knew that the Yanhai army would be doomed even if they entered the inner city after losing the outer granaries.

Liu Yanzhang was also very happy and immediately allocated two thousand men from the old camp to Zhang Juyan. Although the men were of varying ages and skill levels, the twenty-four-year-old Zhang Juyan finally had a chance to start his career.

In addition, this was not Liu Yanzhang's only great joy. He had a second great joy, which was that his army had finally made a major breakthrough in Yizhou. After the messenger from his army gave a detailed introduction of the situation, Liu Yanzhang specially summoned all the commanders of the army, big and small, to the Yanshou Gate tower in Xiaqiu.

Right here, while hosting a banquet for the meritorious heroes, the envoy was instructed to reiterate the battle report in front of everyone, and finally, everyone looked towards the inner city together.

The Cao army, now emboldened, launched a fierce attack on the inner city of Xiaqiu.

At that time, Hun Tianchong was on the city wall, and the battle report he heard at the banquet was the second intelligence he sent to the Baoyi Army.

At this moment, he had no idea what role his intelligence would play in the overall battle. Anyway, Guo Shaobin had said that it would cost five strings of cash for a major intelligence report, three strings for a medium intelligence report, and one string for a minor intelligence report.

Yes, those bastards' Black Clothes Society pays their spies and informants on a piece-rate basis.

The Chaos Insect thought to itself:

"Although this intelligence is old, it's still about Wang and Huang, so it's worth at least three strings of cash!"

And so, for the sake of three strings of cash, he sold the intelligence.

……

While Liu Yanzhang, stationed outside the southwest city, was still unaware of the Baoyi Army's capture of Zhongdu, Guo Shaobin, who was in their army, already knew.

So as soon as he left the camp, Guo Shaobin headed straight north and arrived at Zhongdu City the next morning. After handing over his waist token, he went straight to where his superior, He Weidao, was.

After hearing the intelligence brought by Guo Shaobin, He Weidao immediately pulled him next door to report to Zhao Huai'an inside.

At this moment, Zhao Huai'an listened to Guo Shaobin finish recounting the first piece of intelligence and realized that Xiaqiu City was on the verge of collapse. Without changing his expression, he asked Guo Shaobin to explain the second piece of intelligence in detail.

He Weidao had only given a brief mention, but that had already alerted Zhao Huai'an, who keenly sensed that there was something big going on.

This was the first time Guo Shaobin had met Zhao Huai'an. His first thought upon seeing him was, "Indeed, this is the kind of man who can lead us, the Baoyi Army,."

When Zhao Huai'an asked for more details, Guo Shaobin quickly recounted everything he knew, without omitting a single word.

...On that day, at the Yanshou Gate Tower in Xiaqiu City, the messenger from the bandit army came to deliver news of victory and to convey the latest spirit of their army to Liu Yanzhang and other bandit leaders.

It turned out that when Song Wei set up two defensive lines on the east side of Yimeng and sent 3,000 elite troops to attack Xintai, Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao, who were stationed there, summoned their generals and launched a major discussion on the current situation.

The Grass Army is essentially an alliance, so major decisions concerning the future are discussed by a dozen or so votes.

The purpose of this meeting with the generals is to discuss how to break through the two defensive lines built by Song Wei and the enemy troops that are about to enter the valley.

Most of the casualties didn't take it seriously, only a small number of people noticed it.

They recalled some rumors circulating in the army that some unorthodox Taoist priest had told the two commanders that Mount Tai possessed an aura of imperial power, and that the two commanders seemed to have no intention of moving from the mountain.

It seems they intend to develop the central and southern Shandong region as their current stronghold.

If this rumor were true, it would be a major event that would determine the fate of the army. However, at that time, no one really believed it. After all, it was such a big matter that the two commanders would not have discussed it with them.

However, some more perceptive coaches now feel that these rumors are probably not unfounded.

After all, if we followed the old habits of mobile warfare, we would just let the enemy attack! We would simply hand over Xintai to them, and then they would move on to the next location.

Take Zizhou, for example, further north. It's rich and prosperous, a feast for the eyes, and I wonder how many generals are drooling with envy.

But what were the two commanders talking about this time? They were talking about breaking through the enemy's encirclement and how to deal with the invading enemy.

If they didn't consider Xintai their stronghold, how could they have such wording and ideas?
Therefore, the generals of the peasant army were in a state of confusion, not knowing what had caused the changes in the two commanders, Wang and Huang.

While the voters remained silent, Huang Chao took the initiative to change the subject and began to talk about the current situation.

He briefly explained the current situation: the Cao army was in a very favorable position. Having occupied the surrounding strategic locations, they were now able to build a solid fortification to defend the Tai, Lu, Ni, Meng, and Yi mountains and the valleys within them.

To convince Huang Chao, he cited the example of the Red Eyebrows Army, which occupied the area at the end of the Former Han Dynasty, saying that the area was large enough to accommodate their army of over 100,000.

From here, they can train their army, recuperate, and wait for the opportune moment.

However, if they choose to remain in central and southern Shandong, then this army of over 100,000 men would be considered an overstretched force. Therefore, in order to avoid wasting manpower and to raise food supplies, it is necessary to send out a detachment to fight.

Huang Chao told everyone that if they just passively defended the south-central part of Shandong, things would only get worse. The only way to defeat the Tang army was to attack their rear, obtain supplies from them, and then sweep through the villages and towns to grow stronger. Only then would the rebel army become stronger with each battle.

Therefore, after discussing with Wang Xianzhi, he decided to lead a portion of the rebel army to launch an offensive and open up battlefields in Mizhou, Laizhou, and even Dengzhou, which are located to the flank and rear of Yizhou. This would help to contain the Tang army in Yizhou and reduce the pressure on his own side.

Huang Chao spoke casually at the time, but the generals who had been in the martial arts world for so long were far from simple.

Their hearts were in turmoil; they truly hadn't expected that the dispute between Commanders Wang and Huang over whether to accept amnesty or continue the rebellion would end in such a way.

They're not stupid; how could they not see that Wang Xianzhi had won big this time?
The final result was that not only did the rebel army remain in Tailu Yimeng, but they also successfully drove Huang Chao, who had voiced opposition, to the outside world. Although he was also a regional general, he was far from the center of power.

Isn't this a clear case of defeat in the struggle?

The messenger from the Caojun army brought Liu Yanzhang this intelligence, along with the subsequent news of their great victory over the various vassal armies on the eastern front.

This was the intelligence that Guo Shaobin told Zhao Huai'an.

After hearing this, a flash of surprise crossed Zhao Huai'an's face, and he suddenly asked Guo Shaobin:

"Do you know how many people Huang Chao led across the Yimeng Mountains and into the Yishui River basin?"

Guo Shaobin cautiously stated:
"There is no accurate intelligence, because even the leaders of the various factions in the rebel army have difficulty determining the number of people under their command. However, given Huang Chao's status, he must have had at least 20,000 to 30,000 old thieves with him."

Zhao Huai'an then asked:

Do you know which of the generals followed Huang Chao?

This time, Guo Shaobin answered very decisively, explaining in detail:
"Those who went out with Huang Chao were all members of the Huang family. Moreover, the men under his command were all old thieves from Caozhou, who had always been at the forefront in every battle, and were all elites."

Zhao Huai'an nodded, then, in front of Guo Shaobin, inscribed his name on the screen, and then smiled:

"Guo Shaobin, I remember. Go down and rest first, have some soup and rice, and I'll call you if I need anything."

Upon seeing that his name had been remembered by the magistrate and left on the screen, Guo Shaobin was overjoyed. In the end, he suppressed his excitement with great willpower, calmly clasped his hands in greeting, and descended with composure.

Once outside, Guo Shaobin couldn't help but clench his fist and let out a suppressed growl:
"It's done!"

Then, amidst the two men's light laughter, they were led to the next room to rest.

……

As soon as Guo Shaobin left, Zhao Huai'an pressed his temples and said to Zhang Guinian beside him:
"Old Zhang, can you help me figure out what our current situation is?"

Zhang Guinian nodded, then stood up and addressed Zhao Huai'an, as well as all the generals and advisors present:

"The intelligence is now quite certain, and all our previous worries have come true. The situation with Huang Cun is still not entirely clear, but their attitude of giving up on entering Qizhou is very obvious. If they really have gone to Yuncheng, then we will face a double threat from both the east and the west."

"Wang and Huang Cao's troops on the eastern front have broken through the Yishui defense line, putting Song Gong's side in danger. On the western front, the three prefectures of Cao, Pu, and Yun are sparsely populated, and Huang Cun's troops are launching a counterattack, which means our rear is in danger."

"In this situation, there are only three options."

"One option is to return to Yuncheng to reinforce our rear and secure our supplies. The advantage of this strategy is that it's the prerequisite for us to maintain our fighting strength. If the officers and soldiers knew that their rear supplies had been robbed, they would definitely make a fuss about going back."

"Rather than being forced to walk with a knife to our throats by our subordinates, we should propose it ourselves. This way, we can be of one mind and return together to rescue Yuncheng."

After saying this, Zhang Guinian also observed the expressions of the righteous generals present, noticing that many of them were nodding in agreement, before continuing:

"Of course, the downside of this strategy is that we completely give up the opportunity to pin down the main force of the Cao army on the eastern front. Once they defeat Song Gong's side, the Cao army will really gain a foothold in that area, and it will be difficult to wipe them out in the future."

Clearly, the generals of Baoyi didn't care about this weakness at all; they valued the potential losses more than quickly annihilating the bandit army.

After all, one is acting for the court, and the other for themselves. Is there even a question?
Moreover, they had considered allowing their bandit army to grow stronger, after all, they were also warriors and had the instinctive thought of supporting bandits to enhance their own power.

However, their lord had never revealed this intention, so they naturally wouldn't say it to avoid bad luck.

Zhang Guinian knew that he had no point in speaking, so he proposed the second option:

"Our second strategy is to continue the pincer attack on the eastern front and ignore Huang Cun's troops. After all, we have already occupied the Wenshui waterway and can quickly advance to Laiwu and Xintai to form a pincer attack with Song Gong's troops from the east and west."

"We'll first defeat Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao's main forces, then turn back to annihilate Huang Cun's detachment. Even if the supplies fall into their hands, they'll only be temporarily holding them for us."

This time, however, Zhang Guinian didn't need to point out the shortcomings; other soldiers came up to express their different opinions.

Gao Qinde directly expressed his disagreement, saying to Zhao Huai'an:

"My lord, we really can't count on Duke Song's side. The troops under his command are all scheming and two-faced. If we advance deep into enemy territory on our own, the greater chance is that not only will we be left without support, but we'll also be surrounded by his bandits on Mount Tai. In that case, we won't be able to break through from the center, but will be ambushed from all sides!"

"By then, if our army has not won at the front and has lost the rear, even if the entire army is fearless of death, in the end, all we can do is die."

After Gao Qinde finished speaking, Zhang Guinian did not say anything, which clearly showed that he also agreed with this statement.

Seeing that Zhao Huai'an remained silent, he offered his third idea.

"At present, it seems that our army can handle both tasks. We can send some troops back to reinforce Yuncheng first, and then the rest can go to relieve the siege of Xiaqiu. Once the Taining army inside is rescued, the situation on the western front will be completely stabilized. In this way, we will still have a forward base for the next counterattack, instead of not being able to even enter Yanzhou."

"However, the drawback of this strategy is also obvious. Our forces are already dispersed across the three capitals. If we divide our forces again, the forces in each place will be weak. In the end, we may not be able to rescue Xiaqiu or defend Yuncheng."

After saying all this, Zhang Guinian bowed to Zhao Huai'an, then returned to his stool, keeping his mouth and nose closed and his mind at ease.

That's what a good strategist should be like.

He presented three strategies and analyzed each one, but made no decision.

Because making decisions is something that those in positions of power need to do.

After listening, Zhao Huai'an showed little expression, looked at everyone present, and asked directly:

"So, what's everyone's choice?"

(End of this chapter)