Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 188 Benevolence! Tyranny?

On the Yong River, as Hao's army marched, wooden stakes were driven into the riverbed, and Yu Yong crossbowmen crossed the river via a temporary pontoon bridge.

He Chen looked at the winding army. He was the general of Haotian's side in this Battle of Yongshui. On April 12th of the 4th year of Tianyou Calendar, he led an army of 4 men on a raid towards Changjun.

Meanwhile, the commander of the other Haotian army was named Xu Xi, and he attempted to attack the garrison from the west. Because the area north of Yongshui was too barren, it could only support one army attacking the city, while the other army had to rely on the enemy for sustenance. Therefore, Xu Xi's other army's route was to launch a feint attack on the western garrison. Of course, they also bore the responsibility of burning, killing, and looting.

When the new generation of officers in the Wu family army learned about Hao Jun's pre-war food reserves, they, who had little experience, couldn't understand how these poor bastards dared to do that.
He Chen had no idea how Xu Xi's advance was going. His journey had been extremely difficult. After learning of his arrival, Changjun hadn't retreated into the city for a defensive battle as he had expected. Instead, about eight thousand conscripted farmers had left the city to fight, setting up camps on his left and right flanks.

He Chen followed the scout to his left flank and was shocked to see one of the Wu family's militia (two thousand men) stationed there!
In short, "too wealthy." Over a hundred vehicles formed a fortress! Such a large number of vehicles would require at least eight hundred mules and horses! And such a number of packhorses would undoubtedly be reserved for the main armored troops of Hao's army.

Moreover, the "carts" were also very expensive. The large commercial market that Haojun occupied in the north only had about fifty large carts.

And now this is a conscripted army! Changjun has deployed four such agricultural labor corps, surrounding Hechen from four directions. Where is the Wu family army's true main force?
He Chen couldn't help but feel deeply moved by the abundance and prosperity of the south.

The Hao Kingdom's annual wars have indeed cultivated tens of thousands of brave warriors, a force unmatched in the world. It can be said that no other power in the world could muster such a large army.

Even the current Wu Family Army is no match; Xuan Chong's forces number less than ten thousand! Xuan Chong: I don't know if ten thousand could defeat them. If I had ten thousand soldiers raised according to my standards, my finances would collapse.

However, the price paid for the many soldiers of Hao Kingdom who fought so hard was that annual taxation led to the exodus of a large number of people, the abandonment of land, and the lack of agricultural output, making it impossible to raise livestock. The local economy was already in a state of severe depression, with its output comparable to that of the nomadic grasslands. In many places, they couldn't even gather enough horses of a single color to form a procession.

On the other hand, while Xuan Chong was being called "the ground-scraping sparrow," he was seriously investing in the local area, building his own governance system. Although this system still relied on an agricultural economy in places like Yongzhou, it was a resounding success in comparison! Fields were not abandoned; in fact, large-scale reclamation was underway. Irrigation canals were constantly being dug, livestock were being raised, and roads were being built one by one.

The main force of Yongzhou has not yet appeared, and He Chen has a bad feeling, but as the commander-in-chief, he is still very optimistic on the surface.

He Chen addressed his generals: "Once we conquer this place, it will all be ours. The wealth here will allow us to rise a rank within the Hao Kingdom. Success and fame will be ours today!"

However, among the Hao army, the newly conscripted farmers kept their eyes fixed on the roadside.

Because there were always some millet seedlings left in the roadside grass, these northern farmers put these millet ears into their bosoms and whispered among themselves.

Soldier 1: My goodness, don't these guys in the south pick up the ears of grain? (These seedlings only appear when the ears of grain are left on the roadside)
Farmer Soldier 2: That's right. The people in my village survived last year when there was a shortage of food, because they went to work in the south.

Farmer-Soldier 3: We've taken this place, now we can finally have enough to eat, right?

Farmer-Soldier 4: Who knows? Even if we can't win, we can still get a full meal. I heard that the porridge they cook there is really fragrant and thick, and they even give us pickled vegetables.

Farmer-Soldier 5: Brother, you've also eaten grain there?
Peasant Soldier 4: Of course! Those adults always say that Wu Xiaoque will plunder the land when she comes. But let me tell you, we've been requisitioned so much grain that we're practically eating dirt. What else is there to plunder? (Resentment begins to rise)
Various rumors and gossip circulated endlessly within the Hao army. At first, it was the soldiers recruited from Yongbei who were talking, but it quickly affected the regular soldiers! This was because poverty was widespread within the Hao kingdom.

The high-ranking officers of Hao Army quickly realized that morale was wavering, so they made a promise: they would not stop fighting for three days after capturing Chang County! This temporarily stabilized morale.

…Does being wealthy mean being incapable of fighting?…

On April 15th, the first battle began. A battalion of two thousand Hao soldiers, consisting of conscripted farmers, charged the wagon formation. It appeared that the Hao army had made the first move, but in reality, this conscripted farmer unit had come from the rear to set up camp.

As a result, the Wu family's militia directly stepped in. Three hundred cavalrymen on mules rushed up and fired wildly with their muskets, driving away the twenty cavalrymen from Hao's army who were occupying the territory. They then set up their wagon formation and camped there!
This forced Haojun, who was exhausted from a day's journey, to fight.

Under the leadership of the military commissioner, Hao Jun launched an attack on the chariot formation.

Ten crossbows were pushed out from the Wu family's chariot formation. The crossbows continuously fired long-barreled bullets with explosive gunpowder, firing a volley from four or five hundred paces away.

Furthermore, these crossbow carts were highly mobile, able to break out of the cart formation and chase after the Hao army, who couldn't stop, much less retreat!—because their supplies were already insufficient after running over, and if they retreated and were chased and shot again, they would collapse. Thus, the Hao army had no choice but to launch an attack on the cart formation.

As the dark mass of people surged forward like a tide, the ballistae immediately retreated back into the wagon formation, and groups of soldiers held something between the wagons as if "drawing curtains."

When Hao Jun reached 180 paces in front of the battle line, the heavy crossbows of the Wu family army in the chariot formation began to fire in unison. The arrows swept across the densest formation of Hao Jun's troops.

The Hao soldiers at the forefront were heavily targeted by the Yao army's militia fire. The Hao army's charging troops slowed their pace, their shields raised, making progress difficult. The Hao army generals whipped the peasants behind them, urging them to catch up.

Hao Jun finally reached within a hundred paces, and the crossbow bolts began to thin out. After all, the crossbows had a limited ammunition supply, and each crossbowman carried no more than twenty arrows.

At that moment, a volley of gunfire rang out, and within a hundred paces of the wagon formation, Hao's troops fell in droves like wheat being harvested.

Crossbow bolts were expensive, scarce, and labor-intensive. In contrast, each musketeer infantryman had hundreds of muskets in ammunition.

Based on the needs of the war, the Wu Family Army crossbowmen all used heavy arrows! The arrows were wrapped with wind-controlling patterns, which compensated for the shortcoming of the current wrought iron smoothbore firearms, whose effective killing power was less than 120 paces. They were designed to target high-value enemy charging groups.

In military manuals, large-scale positional warfare still relies on firearms for victory.

Hao Jun struggled to get within three or four meters and saw the large array of wagons. The wagons were not tightly connected, but rather each wagon was ten paces apart. This large gap made Hao Jun think that he could easily squeeze in and then slaughter the crossbowmen and musketeers.

However, when they rushed in front of them, the Hao army's farmers were wrong. After seeing a soldier struggling as if caught in a spider web, they noticed the inconspicuous "threads" between the seemingly loose chariots in the formation.

Looking back, after the chariots and crossbows returned to the chariot formation, the Wu family army, amidst whistles, saw groups of soldiers pulling curtains between the chariots.

The Wu Family Army is a highly professional force. Any tactical system, even the combat system of the peasant soldiers, is developed by the non-commissioned officers during tactical simulations.

Xuan Chong: How can musket warfare be without barbed wire? Carry a bundle on each wagon, set up a formation, insert it into the wooden fence, and pull out four or five lines of barbed wire. That will create a perfect firing window.

The Hao soldiers rushed forward in a frenzy, only to be driven to despair by the seemingly thin but difficult-to-cut threads. In their desperation, they bit into them with their teeth, breaking their own teeth in the process. They then confirmed that the threads connecting the carriages were "iron wires," and cursed the Wu family army in the south for wasting such precious resources.

On the Hao Kingdom's side, during this southward march, agricultural ironware was melted down and turned into weapons, yet the Wu family army still managed to use refined iron to pull iron wire.

Hao Jun surrounded the barbed wire wagons, much like the caravans of Native Americans as they marched westward through America.

Hao Jun searched every angle, hoping to find a place where there were no barbed wires between the chariots. But the result? The Wu family army's chariot formation left them no room for error.

Every step in the combat procedures outlined in military manuals is handled by a specialized team of non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Expecting one person to handle everything could lead to errors. But expecting a group of NCOs competing against each other to suddenly have one do absolutely nothing? That's impossible.

Hao Jun sent a chariot through the enemy lines, losing three or four hundred corpses before finally collapsing.

As the routed soldiers, carrying rumors of fear, reached other ranks of the Hao army, this became the prelude to the demise of the He Chen Legion. This legion, which maintained its fighting spirit through "plunder," immediately became terrified of the enemy once it discovered they were difficult to deal with. As the scattered soldiers fled towards the rear, it was too late to blockade them.

Ten kilometers behind, the Hao army's peasant detachments, who had not engaged in battle, stood in the middle of the road. Looking at their own troops, now scattered and defeated, they too wavered!
…gap!…

He Chen didn't even have time to gather his defeated troops, because Chang Jun's main force caught up with him, and from behind, he saw the Ghost Chariot and the strange iron oxen steaming on the horizon.

"Toot toot toot, woo woo woo woo," the sound of the jet train made Hao Jun, who had never seen such a thing before, tremble with fear.

General Cai's main force and Su Ming's five hundred armored soldiers left the city, along with a thousand respectable men. This force was to encircle and block the retreat route of He Chen's main force.

Zhan Kui charged into He Chen's well-organized formation. The five hundred-strong Hao army column was scattered like tofu.

The thunderous roar of the Zhan Kui, which was actually a barrage of high-temperature steel balls from a steam explosion, caused heavy casualties among the Hao army. As for the Jade Lion? It was directly struck by the Zhan Kui, which had five times its mass. The Wu family's armored soldiers immediately formed small formations of five men each, working with the Zhan Kui to finish off the enemy. The Hao army soldiers, whose ranks had been broken by the impact, were finished off with spiked clubs and spears and could no longer get up.

He Chen's main force was thus breached, while the two Taiyue Luan in the sky were being suppressed and beaten by the two Guiche.

General Cai seized the opportunity, mobilizing eight available battalions to immediately surround the enemy. He Chen's troops were defeated. And when He Chen's main force appeared on the road during their escape, the subsequent Hao army truly collapsed.

…The phoenix sings in the western mountains…

The other Hao army was not faring much better. General Heng's side relied on the fortified village and held off a thousand Hao soldiers, annihilating them completely. Meanwhile, the Hao army in the west also began to collapse in a chain reaction.

It's important to understand that Hao Jun's feigned attack force was burdened with the fatal condition of "relying on the enemy for food" from the very beginning. Relying on the enemy for food meant eliminating the enemy's main force, which would allow them to travel in groups of ten to various villages to "borrow" grain.

If the enemy's main force is not destroyed, they will send troops to borrow grain from various villages, which means they are scattering their troops and handing them over to the local troops to kill.

The Wu family army had military settlements on the upper reaches of the Yong River. Grain was stored in the military settlement fortresses. It would take thousands of men to capture these fortresses. Once those thousands of men were separated, it would be enough for General Heng to concentrate his forces to "sever one of their fingers" and make the entire army scream in terror.

Therefore, after eliminating He Chen's three separate forces, Xu Xi no longer wanted to fight along the way.

However, at this moment, a dramatic scene unfolded when the Wu family army was pursuing them: a large number of farmers in Yongzhou defected and surrendered en masse, even beheading the Hao army's supervising soldiers to show their loyalty.

Therefore, Yongzhou had no choice but to gather the rebels and have them move their families over.

As Su Ming led his troops in pursuit, they encountered a column of conscripted farmers carrying Hao army flags. Instead of running away, these farmers approached and immediately inquired. The Hao army's organized conscripted farmers were surrendering: "General, are you short of men? I know the defensive map of the pseudo-Hao."

Upon hearing Su Ming announce his military rank and accept his surrender, the entire troop cheered joyfully. Then, as required, they wrapped a strip of cloth around their heads, which marked them as having joined the group.

In order to feed the more than 30,000 people who had been sent there, the Wu family army had to mobilize its supplies.

The defeated Hao army gathered its remaining forces and retreated towards the north of Yongzhou. This meant that the three central prefectures of Yongzhou fell into the hands of the Wu family army. Had it not been for Xuan Chong's strategy of "small-scale expansion with a focus on governance," the entire territory of Yongzhou could have been captured.

…“reduced”…

Because Xu Xi retreated early, he sent out some rearguard troops and recruited civilians, and the core of the thousand-strong old camp was still intact; while the six black jade lions and fifteen teams of jade warriors brought by He Chen were lost, and they could only be escorted back in disgrace.

The idea of ​​the remaining loyalist faction within Hao Kingdom to support another faction of Yao people to balance Zhao Cheng's dominance was also shattered.

In Yuhua Prefecture, Zhao Cheng also received news of the end of the battle in Yongzhou. After confirming the details of the battle, he summoned the strategist in charge of "spies".

When Zhao Cheng learned that the commanders in charge of the Battle of Yongzhou were not Wu Fei's direct subordinates, but two generals who had surrendered under false pretenses, and that the generals of the reinforcements sent from the north were also outside of Wu Fei's original system, he couldn't help but frown.

Seeing this, the minister said, "General, why are you worried? Although our army suffered a minor setback in the Battle of Yongzhou, it did not seriously damage our forces. Yongzhou is desolate, so even if the Zhen army wins two minor victories, it will not be a big problem."

Zhao Cheng pointed at the map and silently thought, "Although the northern part of Yongzhou is desolate, the land has been ravaged by war for a long time, and the people are fierce and brave. If a hero emerges in ten years, and our dynasty becomes complacent, we will be like dry tinder that is ignited by fire, and we will be doomed forever."

The defection of troops in the later stages of the Battle of Yongshui deeply moved Zhao Cheng! What impressed him most about Wu Fei was his management skills.

Xuan Chong dared not slack off towards Zhao Cheng, believing that Zhao Cheng was definitely superior to him in leading troops. But Zhao Cheng also felt a headache whenever he saw Xuan Chong!

If we attack, Xuan Chong is just stalling for time; if we don't attack, his behind-the-scenes farming is terrifying! In the quarter of Yongzhou, Xuan Chong governed for four or five years, and his grain and fodder supplies were so plentiful that the other three-quarters could only look on in envy. The people all flocked to the south of the Yong River.

Zhao Cheng had been closely monitoring the trade in Zhenzhou and other areas. He reviewed every month the various decrees issued by Xuan Chong to clarify laws and regulations.

After assessing the current state of new land reclamation in various parts of Zhen, he concluded that Xuan Chong was capable of using a corner of the world to contend with half the world, especially when that half of the world was becoming increasingly devastated.

Zhao Cheng had a premonition! If he conquered more territory and his power grew to an awkward level, Xuan Chong would definitely "declare war" on him.

Back then, when they were locked in a standoff in Bohai, Xuan Chong patiently accumulated every advantage, displaying an attitude of "not hesitating to spend several years stockpiling grain and fodder, preparing to use resources to achieve victory," which left a deep impression on Zhao Cheng.

Zhao Cheng looked in the mirror. He was almost forty years old. Years of fighting had taken a toll on his mental abilities, and some of his teeth had fallen out, requiring ivory replacements. "Wu Fei," on the other hand, was a few years younger. According to the intelligence gathered, "Wu Fei" was incredibly energetic, showing no signs of decline whatsoever.

Zhao Cheng gritted his teeth: Energy! Great generals emerge from the ranks. If one side constantly feeds experience to the other side's novices, they can quickly get through the growth period.

Zhao Cheng was the one who could best appreciate Xuan Chong's growth. Six years ago, when they failed to take down Xuan Chong in the first wave, Xuan Chong was constantly learning!

Last year, many scions of prominent families flocked to his service, abandoning Xuan Chong. After learning of the "tyrannical" nature of the new Wu family leader, Zhao Cheng mistakenly believed that Xuan Chong had become complacent and indulged in wine and women.

After all, the current emperor was wise before ascending the throne, but became incompetent after losing his control. Zhao Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, because once someone becomes addicted to enjoyment, they will stop learning and improving. This opponent's potential has been capped. (Xuan Chong: How can I stop playing if you don't die?)

But he later discovered that "Wu Fei" had become "tyrannical," not because he was indulging in wine and women, but because he was using his power to create conflict with those below him.

"He's called 'tyrannical' because he's implementing reforms!"

Zhao Cheng opened the box and took out the jade pendant with the dragon design. This time, he took the initiative to contact Pu E.

(End of this chapter)