Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 234 Encircling Three Sides and Leaving One
Of course, Lao Jing also knew the importance of Huang Wei's army, after all, they were all equipped with full American weaponry built at great expense.

This is quite different from Huang Baitao's army. Huang Baitao's army was a motley crew with all sorts of weapons, and even Huang Baitao himself was not a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy.

Therefore, he naturally did not gain the old man's favor, so he was not rescued and that was that, it didn't matter.

Huang Wei, on the other hand, was a true member of the Whampoa Military Academy clique, and his troops were equipped with fully American-made weapons at great expense.

That's why Lao Zi risked the annihilation of his entire army to save Huang Wei's troops.

Unfortunately, in order to prevent Huang Wei and Du Yuming from joining forces, the General Headquarters and the Second Field Army commanders had already made up their minds to annihilate Huang Wei's army.

Finally, the Second Field Army commander, Wang Gensheng's old commander, ordered a general attack on Huang Wei's army group at 4:30 pm on the 6th. The specific battle arrangement was to form the Eastern Group with the Fourth, Ninth, and Eleventh Columns and the Independent Corps, under the command of Wang Gensheng's old commander. The attack targets were Shenzhuang, Zhangweizi, and the Zhangzhuang area.

Then, the 1st and 3rd Columns of the Second Field Army and the 13th Column of the East China Field Army formed the Western Group, whose goal was to capture the areas of Qianhou Sanguanmiao, Maweizi, Yuwangmiao and Xuzhuang.

Then, the 6th Column of the Second Field Army and the 7th Column of the Third Field Army formed the Southern Group, whose targets were Wangzhuang and Liujialou.

That's right, there was no Northern Group, meaning the north was empty. The encirclement tactic used by Wang Gensheng's old commander, who was also the commander of the Second Field Army, was the ancient tactic of surrounding three sides and leaving one side open.

This tactic originated in Sun Tzu's Art of War, where it is said that when besieging an enemy, one must leave an opening.

Although Sun Tzu has been dead for more than 2,500 years, and times have changed dramatically, from cold weapons two thousand years ago to modern firearms, they look different but are actually the same, and the principles of war remain the same.

For example, the strategy of "encircling three sides and leaving one side open," or "leaving a gap when besieging an army," is an extremely ruthless tactic used in ancient times and even today when attacking cities and capturing strongholds, but it is very effective.

This tactic means that when attacking a city, regardless of whether you have the ability to annihilate the enemy, you must leave them a "way out." In other words, if the city wall has four directions, you attack from three directions and leave one direction for the enemy to escape.

Of course, there were specific considerations for leaving this path open. First, the path had to be rugged, suitable for an ambush, the purpose of which was to clear out any fleeing troops. Second, this path had to be unique, preventing the enemy from scattering and escaping.

This might seem like giving the enemy a way out, but the underlying principle is quite different. If you rely on your superior numbers to completely surround the city and fight to the death, the enemy troops defending the city will see no hope of escape and will fight to the death.

Moreover, they'll be highly motivated, thinking that since they're going to die anyway, they might as well fight to the death. Even if the attacking side wins in the end, their losses won't be small. But if you leave them a way out, then people will lose their fighting spirit and scatter like birds and beasts when they have a way out.

Thus, when they fled the city, they had lost all fighting spirit; they had transformed from warriors into sheep to be slaughtered, making them easier to conquer.

So the most brilliant aspect of this tactic is that it exploits the human instinct for survival; people become exceptionally vulnerable when there's hope of survival. That's why Sun Tzu often said, "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the best strategy; to subdue a city is the worst." The wisdom of our ancestors is truly remarkable.

After all, even though more than two thousand years have passed, people's hearts are still the same as they were two thousand years ago. In fact, let alone two thousand years, as long as human civilization exists and humanity exists, this tactic of winning people's hearts will still be useful.

Therefore, the fighting style of Li Yunlong in the TV series "Bright Sword" when attacking Ping'an County is not recommended.

The fact that over a thousand Japanese soldiers fought against tens of thousands of Eighth Route Army troops for so long, aside from differences in weaponry and equipment, was due to the fact that the Japanese soldiers in the city knew they were doomed and therefore fought desperately. This increased the difficulty of the battle.

This is also because Li Yunlong didn't study enough. If Li Yunlong had also adopted the strategy of surrounding three sides and leaving one side open, giving the Japanese in Ping'an County a glimmer of hope, then the casualties in the attack on Ping'an County would not have been so great and the losses would have been much smaller.

However, this is only from the perspective of attacking Ping'an County alone. If we consider the overall strategic situation, Li Yunlong's method of encirclement is actually correct. From the strategic perspective of encirclement, it becomes a tactic of besieging a point and attacking reinforcements.

Once the tactic of besieging the enemy's stronghold and attacking reinforcements is adopted, then it is naturally impossible to let the Japanese soldiers in Ping'an County escape or be eliminated so quickly.

Only by trapping the Japanese devils within Ping'an County can we attract more Japanese troops to come and provide support.

Only in this way can a comprehensive strategy of besieging the enemy's stronghold and attacking reinforcements be achieved. After all, Li Yunlong did not gain any advantage in attacking Ping'an County and suffered many casualties.

However, overall, the Eighth Route Army still came out ahead, after all, the strategy of besieging the enemy's stronghold and attacking reinforcements caused heavy casualties to the Japanese troops who came to provide support from other places!
Therefore, the tactic of "surrounding three sides and leaving one open" needs to be planned in a more comprehensive and strategic manner.

It's not that you can easily implement the "surround three sides and leave one open" tactic anywhere.

Of course, the Second Field Army is now very suitable for dealing with Huang Wei's army.

After all, Lao Zi no longer has any troops to rescue Huang Wei's army.

The only group capable of rescuing Huang Wei's army, Du Yuming's group, is now besieged in Chenguanzhuang.

Therefore, the real goal in dealing with Huang Wei's army now is to eliminate Huang Wei's army, rather than resorting to some kind of encirclement and suppression tactic.

Moreover, only by quickly eliminating Huang Wei's army can they free up resources to deal with Du Yuming's group.

After all, Du Yuming's group had three army corps with over 300,000 men. It would be difficult to solve the problem by simply relying on the Third Field Army. There is a big difference between encirclement and annihilation.

Of course, the most distressed people right now are Si Ling and Huang Wei of the 12th Army Corps, and Hu Lian, who was appointed to turn the tide.

Just as the Second and Third Field Armies were preparing to launch a general offensive, Huang Wei, upon learning that Du Yuming's group was also surrounded, said to the commander of the 12th Army Corps with a look of despair:

"We've reached a dead end; now we can only rely on ourselves!"

This news was especially true for the army commanders.

In particular, Yang Botao, the commander of the 18th Army, was hiding in his room alone, smoking and worrying. At this moment, Wang Cuishan, Yang Botao's bodyguard, came in.

Because Wang Cuishan was an underground party member, when he saw Yang Botao looking worried, he wanted to persuade Yang Botao to revolt and surrender. After all, the 18th Army was the main force of the 12th Army Corps, so if the commander of the 18th Army, Yang Botao, revolted...

The blow to the Twelfth Army Corps would be enormous, and it's not impossible that the entire Twelfth Army Corps could collapse.

So even though he knew that rashly persuading Yang Botao was a very dangerous thing, Wang Cuishan had no choice but to do it.

(End of this chapter)