Tang Dynasty Mingyue Song Dynasty Pass

Chapter 840: Looking from afar

On the eastern route of the Song army, two great generals, Wang Shenqi and Yang Guangyi, each led 50,000 elite imperial guards. They recruited local troops along the way like a snowball. When they arrived in the northern part of Haizhou, they had gathered into a mighty army of 80,000 people, which echoed the troops of Lin Renzhao and Lin Juyi from a distance, forming a confrontation. These 80,000 soldiers, with bright armor and high morale, vowed to fight the Wu army to the death.

The main force of the Song army was led by Zhao Kuangyin himself. He sat on a dragon horse with a sharp gaze. Under his command, there were dozens of generals including Dang Jin, Wang Zhengzhong, Gao Huaide, Tian Chongjin, Mi Xin, etc., all of whom were excellent in martial arts and both wise and brave. They surrounded Zhao Kuangyin like stars surrounding the moon.

Two hundred thousand imperial troops, with cavalry as strong as dragons and infantry as strong as walls, marched out from Suqian in a mighty force and headed straight for Haizhou. Their momentum was unstoppable.

The purpose of Zhao Kuangyin's trip was not only to encircle and suppress the Wu army, but also to see the legendary Su Chen with his own eyes.

This name has been passed down in the city of Bianjing for many years. From the initial poetic talent, to the later anti-Song hero, and then to the legendary figure who came back from the dead to help Yang Linger restore the Wu Kingdom, destroy the Southern Han, and unify the south, every step Su Chen took was thrilling, and people had to look at him with new eyes.

Zhao Kuangyin secretly wondered who this Su Chen was. Did he have three heads and six arms to defeat the Song army so many times and bring shame to the Song Dynasty?
This time, he will personally lead the elite imperial guards and generals of the Song Dynasty to compete with Su Chen to see whether this young man is really as powerful as the rumors say.

As the Song army approached step by step, a strong sense of war filled the sky above Haizhou.

Zhao Kuangyin and Su Chen, two heroes of the time, are about to engage in a thrilling showdown on this land.

At this moment, although Su Chen only mobilized 150,000 soldiers and horses, which was slightly inferior to the Song army led by Zhao Kuangyin in terms of numbers, Su Chen did not feel timid at all, but was full of confidence and composure.

This confidence does not come from the number of soldiers or the bravery of his generals, but from his unfathomable tactical wisdom and endless new fighting methods.

He knew very well that on the battlefield, the number of troops was not the only factor that determined victory or defeat. What was more important was the precise control of the battle situation and the flexible response.

Therefore, Su Chen had already planned several ways to attack the Song army in his mind, and when the time was right, he would use them one by one to catch the Song army off guard.

In a blink of an eye, the Song army had crossed the Shu River and was approaching Shuyang in a mighty force, only a few dozen miles away from the Wu army camp.

The Wu army camp was located in a strategic location, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and had built solid trenches and fortifications, like a solid wall of steel, just waiting for the Song army to come and challenge.

Although the Song army led by Zhao Kuangyin was strong in men and horses, he did not act rashly in the face of the Wu army's strict defense.

He knew very well that only by knowing both oneself and the enemy can one win every battle. Therefore, Zhao Kuangyin chose to camp 20 miles west of Shuyang City, dividing the 200,000-strong army into several camps with a rigorous layout and great momentum.

At dusk that day, Su Chen took some personal guards and went out to observe the enemy camp. Accompanying them were Jing Hong and Peng Jingjing, who was disguised as a man.

At present, the Qingying Guard is temporarily handed over to Peng Jingjing to protect Su Chen's safety.

Su Chen stood on a high ground, holding a telescope and looking at the Song army camp several miles ahead for a while, checking the Song army's formation, food and grass teams, and actual military strength. Su Chen had inspected this terrain many times, and he had considered and deduced the location of the Song army's camp.

"If the telescope is more powerful, we can see more clearly. In this era of backward technology, we have an absolute advantage!"

Su Chen sighed lightly. The telescope he got was one of the secrets of the Wu army. It could see seven or eight miles further than the enemy. This was the advantage. It could see at a glance whether there were ambushes or not.

The most profound war allusion in this regard is the famous Battle of Maling in history. In 341 BC, Wei sent troops to attack Han, and Han asked Qi for help. The King of Qi sent Tian Ji as the chief general and Sun Bin as the military advisor, and led the army straight to the Wei capital Daliang City. After the Wei army that attacked Han withdrew, King Hui of Wei ordered Prince Shen as the supreme general and Pang Juan as the general, and led an army of people to rush towards the Qi army, attempting to decide the outcome with the Qi army.

At this time, the Qi army had entered deep into the Wei territory, and the Wei army followed. A fierce battle was inevitable.

At that time, Sun Bin was confident and commanded with great determination. He took into account the fact that the Wei soldiers were strong and good at fighting, and had always despised the Qi army. He correctly judged that the Wei army would be arrogant and underestimate the enemy, be eager to fight, and advance rashly with light troops. So, Sun Bin formulated a brilliant plan that would be passed down through the ages, which was to reduce the number of cooking fires to lure the enemy, and set up an ambush to annihilate the enemy.

As soon as the Qi army came into contact with the Wei army, they immediately pretended to be defeated and retreated. In order to lure the Wei army into pursuit, the Qi army followed Sun Bin's pre-deployment and implemented the strategy of "reducing the number of stoves". On the first day, they dug stoves for cooking for 100,000 people, and on the second day they reduced it to 50,000 stoves. On the third day they reduced it to 30,000 stoves, creating the illusion that a large number of Qi soldiers were fleeing while the Wei army was pursuing them.

After chasing for three consecutive days, Pang Juan saw that the Qi army was retreating to avoid fighting and reducing their cooking fires every day, so he became complacent and arbitrarily concluded that the Qi army's morale was low and more than half of the soldiers had fled. So he abandoned his infantry and baggage and only took a part of the lightly armed elite cavalry to chase the Qi army day and night.

Based on the actions of the Wei army, Sun Bin judged that the Wei army would advance to Maling after sunset. The roads in the Maling area were narrow, the trees were dense, and the terrain was difficult. So Sun Bin took advantage of this favorable terrain and selected 10,000 archers from the Qi army to ambush on both sides of the road. When the Wei cavalry arrived, the Qi army fired thousands of crossbows at the same time, giving the Wei army a lightning strike that made the Wei army panic-stricken and defeated.

Pang Juan was exhausted and saw that he was doomed to fail, so he committed suicide in anger. The Qi army pursued the victory and defeated the Wei army again and again, killing more than 100,000 enemies and capturing the Wei army commander, Prince Shen. Since then, the Wei state was seriously injured and it was difficult for it to be the overlord anymore.

This story inspired Su Chen: First, it was the stupidity of the commander-in-chief. A strategic mistake would often kill hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers, even if they were the most elite soldiers!
Secondly, if he had a telescope, Pang Juan would have been able to see clearly the formation and internal affairs of the Qi army ten miles away in the rear, and he would not have fallen into Sun Bin's trap of "reducing the number of cooking fires to lure the enemy."

At present, the Wu army is using telescopes, which will give them an advantage over the Song army in observing the enemy situation.

Su Chen, wearing armor, walked on the high hillside and returned to the Wu army's camp. Here, countless white tents were like blooming flowers scattered in the wilderness. The neighing of war horses and the sound of autumn wind sweeping leaves mixed together, forming a unique and desolate tune of the military camp.

The curl of smoke from the cooking stove swayed up in the dust, and from a distance it looked like a dancing veil under the setting sun.

Su Chen returned to the camp and summoned the generals, commanders-in-chief, and du yu hou of each army to discuss matters.

Su Chen's subordinates, Tai Shi Zhao, Jing Hong, Bian Zhanyu, Li Saidong, Chai Songyun, Ma Donglin, Ma Zhanchao, Wu Yanrou, Jin Hui, Pan Weizhen and others all came.

Compared with those powerful generals of the Song State, these generals are relatively young. Fortunately, they have experienced the previous battles of destroying Wu Yue, fighting the Song army, and destroying Southern Han, and have accumulated a lot of experience. After three years of learning military tactics, they can all be put to good use.

However, Su Chen kept reminding his generals not to be proud, just like Ma Su in the Three Kingdoms period, who was too arrogant, did not listen to correct military orders, made decisions on his own, and thought he could achieve merit and fame, but ended up failing, causing heavy losses to the Shu army.