Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 231 Battle of Xiazhou
Rewind to early June; shift the strategic focus from Yongzhou in the north to other fronts.

Just as Xuan Chong expressed his firm support for Su Ming on the northern front, on the southern front in the Xiangzhou direction, Xuan Chong's three "pawns" had already crossed the river. The battle report from the southern front was: "Currently very stable, just waiting for the pigs of Jizhou to crash into the tree."

Now let's look at the military operations being carried out on the central front, in Zhenzhou and Xiazhou. Xuan Chong is quite confident about this front because Wu Zaixing is in charge of the Xiazhou campaign, which is also the area in Xuan Chong's territory that has undergone the most profound changes.

Because the Xia Prefecture had been ravaged by the Hao Army in the years leading up to the chaos of the world, the people who migrated from Xia Prefecture to Zhen Kingdom all harbored a blood feud with Zhao Cheng's Hao Army.

However, since the exiled people were like shifting sands, lacking stable assets to support their organization, the powerful families who controlled the land didn't care about these "grudges" at all, believing that driving away the refugees would settle the grudges.

Little did they know, a new era had arrived. True wealth was no longer confined to land, nor was lasting loyalty limited to clans. In the Zhenzhou region, a new organization, distinct from the old-fashioned gangs, emerged; they possessed a platform covering a broad spectrum of people, and the formal organizational capabilities derived from the military. This was a completely new faction.

The faction's activities covered multiple states under Xuanchong's rule. The more workshops a region had, the more members it had. The faction members held an annual "gathering" in the "Great Council Hall" to sing odes. Afterwards, they would disperse to the cities and countryside to exchange their thoughts.

When implementing the Xiazhou strategy at this stage, Wuju has mobilized 40,000 grassroots members, 70% of whom have family genealogies originating from Xiazhou.

These people lost their land and worked in workshops. Most of them attended night school to receive more supplies, and during their collective learning in the night school, they were exposed to the new ideas of the reform.

Xuan Chong: Their composition is quite clean.

The new warlords achieved complete internal autonomy in military, political, and economic affairs throughout Xiazhou. They acted in accordance with decisions that aligned with the group's greatest interests.

The factions formed by powerful clans and aristocratic families are represented by "people of high prestige," who then lead everyone to form a force and serve under a certain person (lord).

For example, Cao Cao's Xun Yu was a representative of people from Yingchuan. Zhang Zhao was a civil official representative of the Huai-Si faction of the Jiangdong Group.

The core of this model is the "leading representative"; once this representative is gone, the group in the court collapses.

Later, a specific term emerged: "political broker." Li Hongzhang was a practitioner of this art, but he ruined it, causing it to become completely unacceptable in the East during Xuan Chong's time; it was labeled with negative terms like "clique" or "faction." However, in Europe, the United States, and the West, this approach was still quite sophisticated.

The new party leadership operates according to a set of interests that encompasses everyone; this is called the "guiding principle." It's not centered around "brokers," where if one leader dies, another will immediately emerge. It's impossible to completely eliminate them. Unless the entire "head" abandons the guiding principle during their long-term leadership.

Standing on the stage, Wu Zaixing shouted: "The Xia Prefecture Campaign must adhere to three principles! The military principle is to freeze to death rather than dismantle houses, and starve to death rather than plunder! The political principle is to expel the tyrannical rulers and restore the Xi Yao! The economic principle is to redistribute land and purge treacherous and powerful clans!"

Before the war began, the thriving newspaper industry in the eight largest and most industrialized cities of Zhenzhou disseminated the contents of this program to the various artisan areas.

Therefore, after the mobilization order was issued, Wu Ju mobilized 300,000 people in eight cities along this route. What was originally a population shortage in three cities in Xia Prefecture is now bustling with activity. The well-developed transportation network and the supply depots for maintaining carriages and horses—equipped only in one city—were all in place in these three cities.

This round is going to completely change the weather in the entire Xia Prefecture.

…massive economic changes have led to profound social transformations…

Over the past decade, with the development of trade routes in southern Xinjiang, Lingnan has focused on traditional raw material commerce, while Zhenzhou has focused on processing industries such as iron smelting and textiles.

Note: The textile industry developed in Xuanchong was not the British model of cotton textile manufacturing. Cotton textile production requires vast cotton fields and a population of hundreds of millions to support a high-end market, both of which were lacking in Xuanchong.

Xuanchong was engaged in the hemp spinning industry, producing hemp cloth, not luxury consumer goods like cotton cloth.

Large pieces of linen are engineering consumables, for example, used to make sails.

It is needed on ships and train lines at the southern sea outlet.

After adjusting the wind direction according to feng shui, a sail is still needed to save power.

The hemp rope industry has also expanded. This is because hemp rope and bamboo are essential materials for building dams and erecting scaffolding.

The industrial allocation in Xuanchong was entirely for the purpose of "social engineering services" and "making life available to more people."

In the early stages of developing the linen market, Xuanchong adhered to the principle of "small profits but quick turnover".

In the linen industry, every penny invested yields a maximum profit of only 10%, far lower than the profit-generating speed of the early spinning industry, which was comparable to a money-printing machine.

However, the cotton market became saturated very quickly, and Britain eventually had to go to war to find a market, otherwise workers would lose their jobs and the cotton market would be unable to repay its loans.

In the country of Zhen, the number of textile workers expanded from 200,000 to 300,000. Production increased significantly, and the textile industry was widely integrated into the reproduction of agriculture and industry.

The cloth produced was so abundant that it was used to separate the lakes in Yunmengze, isolating the fish fry from the adult fish.

Market shrinkage? Not at all. In Eastern culture, only markets for "hedonistic consumption" shrink; in industries involving reproduction, this cultural atmosphere that worships "permanent property" will expand and expand at all costs.

The power of large-scale industrial production has already begun to emerge—it's just that a large coal mine hasn't been found for Xuanchong yet.

…Industrial culture has emerged; culture is mobilization…

Now that the Qin army has returned to Xiazhou, how many people from Xiazhou will go back to farming?

It's probably because nobody knew how to farm. So in feudal times, once a large number of immigrants were driven from their homes, it was very difficult for them to return—because the interests of the migrants and the land had been directly severed during the migration.

In the old days, even if exiled people survived in foreign lands, when they looked back at their homeland, it was just looking back.

Their homeland had already been occupied by those people, and they would have no land or houses to return to. Without a unified interest, there would naturally be no unified action.

The reason why the Song Dynasty lost the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, the Hetao region of Western Xia, and even later retreated to the south without being able to retake them, was naturally because it couldn't guarantee that when soldiers recruited from the south attacked the north, the officials would allocate land to them in their hometowns. Therefore, when the Southern Dynasties fought against the North, the only force capable of fighting the North was the peasants in the Huai River region who had lost their land.

Modern political parties differ from the old ones in their approach to the distribution of benefits. Political parties distribute benefits to everyone.

Before the war, Wu Juwang's preparations were very thorough. Based on thousands of survey reports from the lower classes, he developed targeted war mobilization plans for the people below.

Wu Ju sent out propagandists to various artisan districts. These propagandists first explained the great evils of the Hao Kingdom from the perspective of people's livelihood.

"The land in Xia Prefecture is currently under the rule of Hao State and its utilization rate is extremely low. There is a lack of water conservancy, a lack of cultivation of river silt fertilizer, and even a lack of manpower. The annual grain output is only 150,000 shi! On the other hand, the arable area of ​​Zhen Prefecture is less than two-thirds of that of Xia Prefecture, but its grain output is 1.2 million shi!"

After evoking widespread grief and indignation, the speaker abruptly changed the subject: "After we conquer the land and redistribute it, we will invest heavily in irrigation. Within three years, grain production will reach 1.8 million shi per year!"

This statement immediately excited the workshop owners. The construction of the irrigation system required sail-powered transport vehicles, as well as large quantities of hemp ropes and bamboo poles – these orders meant money!
Then came even more significant news. The speakers all said the same thing: after capturing Xiazhou, the price of grain in the industrial workshops would be guaranteed to be 20 wen per jin; laborers who signed up to support the front lines would receive 60 jin of grain coupons every year for the next 20 years.

After these words were spoken, these immigrants who had lost their homeland suddenly felt a longing for their hometown.

The above was a mobilization of the common people. Internally, in propaganda targeting administrative personnel, the warlords planned fifteen administrative regions and seven thousand positions for Xia Prefecture. These positions were all "official posts," meaning a large number of opportunities for advancement. —As a result, the scholars who had come from Xia Prefecture to become minor officials began to shout: "The emperor is tyrannical, but the state prospers!"

As for the internal propaganda to the industry and commerce sector, it was said that train routes and platforms would be planned in advance; at the same time, in the estimated commercial consumer market report, all businesses such as grain, salt, charcoal, oil, and cloth were listed as having the potential to increase revenue each year.

The senior bureaucrats in the new party who managed the "commodities" emphasized to business people at the mobilization meeting: These businesses will not be handed over to the local forces in Xiazhou after the war to reconstruct and fill the gaps on their own! Instead, they will all be taken over and their own people from this battle will be arranged to take over.

Within the Wu family army, due to Xuan Chong's more than ten years of physical practice, the concept of "blood for blood" has been implemented throughout the entire country.

After the war profit distribution plan of the new warlords was approved by Xuan Chong, a fire was ignited on the central front.

Xuan Chong: "In a war, how much value can be plundered from the losers? The clearer the calculation, the more blood money can be offered, and the stronger the military group's blood reserves will be. In the past, I calculated it alone; now, my disciples calculate it together."

…Modern people, compared to the ancients, are better at being meticulous and calculating…

On June 13th of the 5th year of the Tongzheng calendar, 6 fully armed Chen troops entered Xia Prefecture.

When the farmers in the fields of Xia Prefecture saw these soldiers dressed in gray cloth, they were bewildered and wanted to flee from them; but the soldiers ignored them and instead threw rice cakes at them. Then the legion passed by and headed straight for the military assembly point of the Hao army.

The total strength of Haojun's forces in Xiazhou was approximately 50,000 (including local garrisons that could not move freely), and all of them had completed training and integration for national warfare before the war, were able to form ranks, and had a preliminary "drill code" system. —Xuan Chong, with his overconfident assessment of the enemy, tried to align the opponent's forces with his own "pattern".

Zhao Cheng has been working on military reforms for years, but the problem is that without the support of national strength after the "reforms," ​​his efforts have been ineffective. Especially now that Xuan Chong has seen through the true strength of the Hao Kingdom, the Xia Zhou route lacks large-scale mobility, making their tactics like a killer whale fighting a great white shark.

Although great white sharks also have sharp teeth, their burst speed is comparable to the normal cruising speed of orcas. This is your ultimate move, while this is my basic attack.

In the Battle of Xiazhou, 30,000 troops made a high-speed maneuver of 100 kilometers, outflanking the Hao army at the same location where Zhao Cheng had blocked the rear of the Imperial Guard's army from the three vassal states. They launched an attack on the cities defended by the three vassal states along almost the same route Zhao Cheng had taken years before.

On June 15th, the Zhen army used heavy artillery to blast open the seemingly strong defenses of Lingcheng.

The city defenses of Lingcheng were built by order of Emperor Xu when he ascended the throne in his early years. The bricks and tiles were made by burning them and then binding them together with lime and egg white.

However, this area was too far to the rear for the Hao Kingdom; Zhao Cheng's generals had not deployed heavy troops here. — It wasn't that Zhao Cheng was negligent, but rather that his forces were limited, and facing a large-scale troop infiltration, he was outnumbered both in the front and rear.

There were only four or five hundred old, weak, sick, and disabled people in the area. They all had missing teeth, knocked out by eating bread mixed with sand. Even the dozen or so elite soldiers in the city, quite formidable due to their acquired martial arts techniques, were powerless against the overwhelming aura of over a thousand men.

Those martial arts masters who cultivate martial arts can fight one-on-one, but now on the city wall, facing the suppression of the Zhen army's artillery fire, they don't even dare to raise their heads.

As the standardized trenching operations extended forward, and with the suppression of artillery fire, the morale of the defenders on the city walls of Lingcheng collapsed too quickly; they all fled in no time.
When the vanguard of the Chen army stormed the city walls, there was no resistance from the city; chaos reigned. Wealthy families kept their doors tightly shut, and thieves roamed the streets.

After the Chen army entered the city, they ruthlessly seized the residences of several powerful local clans who had defected to the Hao Kingdom. They then placed the city under military control, prioritizing the control of household registrations and territories in the treasury. After the warehouses were sealed and guarded by designated personnel, once order was completely stable, the accountants were organized to go in and check the inventory.

As for controlling the city? The new political faction in the country had already compiled a list of those willing to support the front lines before the war. Those cadres whose household registrations were in Lingcheng a few years ago were called out and asked to organize the interrogation of the old forces in the city.

…A rematch after ten years…

Meanwhile, Zhao Cheng was on his way to the battlefield in Xiangzhou. Thanks to the secret communication, he soon received news of the fall of Lingcheng in the north.

Zhao Cheng silently burned the message. He imagined the scene of Xuanchong's various corps launching a full-scale attack, but after the North and South made their move, Zhao Cheng had to admit that he had slightly underestimated the Zhen army.

He used his "insider" tactics to try to undermine the morale of the troops on all fronts.

Just like when dealing with the eighteen armies sent by the emperor, it had no effect on Wuyuanchang. The various armies marched towards the front line without moving an inch, showing no wavering in military execution.

For example, he is now repeatedly spreading the word that he will go to the North Road to fight Xuanchong.

However, the northern route was still led by Su Ming, the "criticized" commander, and all the troops in Yongzhou were completely obedient to Su Ming's plan.

As for the Xiazhou front, the tactics were not the "ordinary" head-on confrontation, but rather a rather ingenious flanking maneuver.

Zhao Cheng even suspected that Wu Yuanchang might be directly leading the army in this battle. But clearly, neither the Peacock nor the Ghost Chariot appeared here; only flying mechanisms like the Wooden Luan were present. This indicated that that route was not Xuan Chong's main force.

Zhao Cheng was surprised by this! It turned out that Xuan Chong had other generals under his command.

It's important to understand that there are many factors to consider when employing flanking maneuvers; insufficient ability can lead to failure. Most commanders will only use this tactic appropriately on their own side.

Now that Xuan Chong is allowing troops other than his own to do this, it shows that he trusts that commander to the extreme!
Xuan Chong's attitude towards Zhao Cheng: "If you, Zhao Cheng, were in command of the Xia Prefecture route, I would certainly not trust Wu Zaixing's approach; I would let him fight in a conventional manner. But now that it is confirmed that you are not on this route, I will give him tactical authority."

Zhao Cheng could also see that the military operations in Xiazhou were already in the rudimentary form of the Xuanchong military system, lacking only on-the-spot experience.

Five years ago, if anyone had shown any sign of wanting to gain experience on the battlefield, Zhao Cheng would have crushed them the moment they appeared. But now, with Xuan Chong advancing from multiple directions, Zhao Cheng was overwhelmed.

Zhao Cheng seemed to sense that Wu Yuanchang was holding a strong hand and was staring at him.

Zhao Cheng issued an order: "Tell Zhenhao not to make any rash moves and to withdraw his troops eastward." However, after issuing this order, Zhao Cheng still felt somewhat uneasy.

…losing control of the situation…

The perspective shifts to Xiazhou, where chaos reigns.

In Zhenhao's camp, a group of scholars from local powerful families came to plead: "General, please save us from this dire situation! We are willing to offer our family's wealth to help you defend against the enemy!"

Narrator: If these aristocratic families were to truly donate their wealth, they would all become very poor.

Wu Zaixing's army captured northern Xia Prefecture, completely severing the crucial trade route between Xia Prefecture and Sha Prefecture.

Furthermore, with the arrival of a large number of officials from Zhenzhou who spoke with the Xiazhou accent, they took over transportation routes, warehouses, and land reclamation. They also completely severed the connections between the various powerful families in the city and the farms, which was intended to overthrow the local forces.

As Zhao Cheng's trusted general, Zhen Hao previously led his troops here, setting up camp on the spot to confront the three cities held by the Zhen Kingdom.

However, with the Zhen army maneuvering in northern Xiazhou, he is currently under the influence of various parties and is finding it difficult to maintain his composure.

Zhenhao's wife received a letter from her family, and his concubine also received gifts; all of them were about sending troops into battle.

The woman's advice infuriated him, but he had to consider it. No matter how angry he was, he couldn't severely punish those around him.

For a powerful and decisive person, those closest to them are the most untouchable, even if they are servants, such as cooks.

Throughout history, there are countless examples of people who "died" or "almost died" at the hands of those around them, such as Zhang Fei, Jiajing Emperor, and the Song general Hua Yuan and coachman Yang Zhen in the story of "Yang Zhen's shameful soup".

Zhenhao was displeased with his wife's remarks, and then tried to reason with her; when facing his concubine, he simply turned cold and told her not to meddle in things she shouldn't. However, there were no further punishments afterward.

Because Zhenhao knew that his inner quarters had been informed, the thoughts of his soldiers and officers had also been conveyed. He could only respond "gently" and try to appease them, not daring to suddenly turn against them, as that would be "going against the wishes of the people."

Wu Fei understood this situation when he was a teenager leading troops: an army that appears to obey orders is actually a vicious dragon bound by military law, ready to turn on you at any moment. Before being defeated, they are impatient and eager to gain merit; before winning, they become bullies among themselves, shift blame, and shirk responsibility.

Therefore, as a classical, old-style general, one cannot be lax or negligent when leading troops; when there are no clear tactical objectives, one must set plans for the army and not let them idle away their time thinking randomly.

When Zhenhao was stationed at the military base, he did not prevent his soldiers from contacting the powerful families. As the interests of the powerful families were damaged, many soldiers shared the same fate and prosperity, and would try to let "evil energy" seep in.

…factors outside the battlefield…

"Where is my tiger tally?" On June 15th, after a night of heavy drinking, Zhenhao searched his entire body and his tent, only to find that his most crucial military command token was missing. If an external force used his tiger tally to mobilize his troops, he would have no way to defend himself unless he went to Zhao Cheng to prove it for him.

However, Zhao Cheng is currently in the south and is furious with his incompetent teammate Wang Yushan. He dares not go over and admit that he is the second "pighead".

He summoned his personal guards and asked, "Who stole my money last night?"

His personal guards were completely clueless, which angered him so much that he dragged them away, tortured them, and then conducted a thorough search.

Even though he beat his personal guards to the point of near death, he still couldn't find the thief who stole his "money".

The next day, however, a fearless wandering swordsman came to his door, leaving a letter with a flying knife: "You hold great power, yet you do not uphold justice for the people. Heaven has forsaken you! If you repent in time, there is still a chance to make amends. What you have lost will be returned to you."

And so, a strategic mistake that later historians considered "avoidable" occurred.

In early July, Zhenhao began to lead his army northward.

Perhaps no one in history knows why Zhenhao disobeyed the commander's clear orders and led his army north to meet Wu Zaixing's troops, even though Zhao Cheng, as the commander, had repeatedly instructed his confidant to "guard the East Pass and fight the enemy to the north."
Historically, the "major mistakes" that have baffled people are simply due to the masterminds behind the scenes being too well hidden; or perhaps what people are looking at is the historical material compiled by the social class to which these masterminds belong.

As Hao Xiang moved north, the second force from Xiazhou began to maneuver and penetrate behind the 30,000-strong Hao army; Wu Zaixing's troops along the Lingcheng front also immediately withdrew their forces from attacking other cities and quickly regrouped.

The two Chen armies, one in the north and one in the south, moved simultaneously, like the upper and lower jaws of a Dunkleosteus, while the Hao army was like a pitiful trilobite.

Xuan Chong's strategic objective in this operation—to annihilate Zhao Cheng's entire army—is also nearing completion.

(End of this chapter)