The rise of the prince

Chapter 856 The Two Factions Meet + History of the Xia War

In the second half of the first year of Zhangwu, the palace began to exert its strength.

The design of the new gunboat is very controversial. After all, there is a gap between the craftsman's perspective and the soldier's perspective, and there are also differences among the craftsmen.

Mainly the difference in motivation, which can be understood as conservatives and radicals.

The conservatives are mainly Tieniu, Guan Zhong, Zhu Rong and others, who believe that new ships should retain the mature tread wheel drive on large ships.

The radicals are Zhao Si, Qiu Er, etc., who advocate the use of steam power to build new warships.

But there is a big problem here. The second-generation steam engine of Wangfu has been greatly improved in terms of safety and reliability, and many guns have been built for the new army, but the power is very limited!The energy conversion rate is low.

So far, it can only be used for boring, and it is almost impossible to drive a big ship.

Although the third-generation steam engine has been continuously improved and tested for more than three years, the progress has not been great, and the power has increased, but it is far from meeting the requirements of large ships.

In addition, the current manufacturing capacity of Wangfu may not be able to manufacture the required parts as required.

On the contrary, most of the military's proposals are easy to realize, because their thinking is still in another era, which is completely different from the craftsmen of the palace. It's a masterpiece.

One night, he and Shiyu counted overnight.

Early the next morning, Li Xingzhou made a decision. He divided the craftsmen into two groups according to their differences of opinion, named them "conservative group" and "radical group", and allocated 18 guan to the conservative group and [-] guan to the radical group. The approximate cost calculated by the plan plus the result of [-] strings.

Then they were asked to come up with a sample ship before March next year, and then he would personally judge which group was easy to use.

That's the benefit of being rich!

If it was impossible for him to do this before, he could only pick a good plan and concentrate resources to implement it. Now that he has a lot of money, he might as well take a look at the whole thing, anyway, we have money!

This move also allows the two factions to establish a reasonable competition, and they both hold back their efforts to outdo each other.

When they were fighting in full swing, Li Xingzhou was also planning to name the two children who were about to turn one year old, and when they turned one year old, they would have a banquet with guests.

After much deliberation and discussion with Gillian and Shiyu, he planned to name Shiyu's son Li Sizheng and Gillian's daughter Li Simei.

By the beginning of July, the Privy Council was preparing to start a secret discussion on how to crusade against Xia.

However, it was only spread among several heads of the second government and the third department. Li Xing added an additional Yelu Dashi because he was going to use Yelu Dashi.

After the wedding with Yelu Yali, his worries were much less. Moreover, Yelu Dashi is getting older and older, and time is running out.

In the office of the Privy Council, several detailed maps of the Northwest have been placed long ago, all from different years. Jing Guo and Xia Guo have also fought against each other several times. Jing Guo lost the first two times, and it was not until the final battle that Come back.

In fact, the last battle had severely damaged Xia Guo's vitality. In addition, Xia Guo's population was small, so he didn't dare to fight with Jing Guo, so he proposed to become a minister.

For future calculations, the Privy Council found all the records and various battle reports of the previous war with Xia Guo.

After that, Li Xingzhou didn't invite other people for the time being, but looked at it by himself.

After reading for three days in a row, I finally read all the records and battle reports and letters.

The result was very strange. Generally speaking, Xia Guo and Jing Guo had little conflicts at the beginning, but there were three battles. The first time and the second time, Jing Guo lost. It was not until the third coaching change that he turned defeat into victory and forced Xia Guo peace talks.

It's just that the historians' records were too exaggerated, which made him a little confused.

In the First World War, Jing Jun killed 620 people, and the beheading was too late to count, because it was a retreat.

In the third battle, Jing Jun stood firm and counterattacked, and beheaded [-], which was a big victory.

These two times were relatively normal. The first time was when the Jing army broke through. The total strength was only more than 5000 people. Nearly 4000 people died in battle is already a very big loss.

The third big victory was because the coach was temporarily replaced by Zhong Daoyu, and Xia Guo was a soldier of the whole country. The assembled army was said to be 20, but the coach Zhong Daoyu judged that it was only in the early [-].

In this battle, he defended first, and then waited for an opportunity to attack. It was a big victory. This victory scared Xia Guo from using force against Jing Guo. It is reasonable to kill about [-] enemies.

But the records of the second battle are quite exaggerated, actually saying that 20 soldiers died in battle!This stunned Li Xingzhou. First of all, Jing Jun did not send 20 troops in the Second World War.

Although the information is complicated, he calculated after carefully integrating the dispatch orders and military newspapers at that time that the Jing army dispatched troops in the Second World War should be between [-] and [-].

It is possible to send 20 troops to fight the Liao Kingdom, because the main fight is in the direction of Youzhou, and the road is flat, so it is very convenient to dispatch the army.

It is absolutely impossible to attack Xia State with 20 troops. Not to mention the poor logistics. If you are familiar with the terrain in that area, you know that the border area between Jing State and Xia State is mountainous, and the army relies on river valleys to move. , There is no way to deploy so many people, too many people are completely useless.

Furthermore, the 20 deaths obviously lack military common sense.

In this era of cold weapons, [-]% of battles are defeat battles, and extremely large-scale killing is very rare, unless the opponent surrenders and then kills!

Fighting a war of annihilation is even more difficult.

The reason why Bai Qi's Battle of Changping has made people talk about it for thousands of years is not only because of its large scale, which is a rare battle between the two countries to try their best, but also because it is a very rare battle of annihilation in the era of cold weapons.

And now the historian actually records 20 dead!

Seventy-eight million people in Xia State encircled and wiped out 8?This historian's mind is filled with water, you can still believe it after being defeated, and died in battle.
In desperation, Li Xingzhou was going to meet the person who had really experienced this battle, the former general Zhong Daoyu who had been idle at home.

After leaving the Privy Council Yamen in the afternoon, he soon arrived at Zhong Daoyu's home.

Zhong Daoyu's General's Mansion is now much more bleak, but there are still many old subordinates helping out, and Li Xingzhou also asks the Palace to send a lot of money here every six months.

He didn't want an old general who had fought all his life to spend the rest of his life in despair.

Therefore, the people in the Zhongfu were very warm to him. As soon as he arrived, someone went in to inform him and invited him in. After a while, Zhong Daoyu came out.

The tall Zhong Daoyu now has a lot of flesh, and his complexion is much better than before. It seems that disarming and returning to the farmland has made him more comfortable.

"I've seen General Zhong." Li Xingzhou cupped his hands.

"Your Highness is serious. I am not a general now. I dare not be a general. I will sit in the room." Zhong Daoyu was still concise.

Li Xingzhou said as he walked: "General Zhong looks good, but his body has improved after leisure."

"Haha, Your Highness is wrong." Zhong Daoyu said as he sat down, "The old man's health is not getting better because of leisure, but because he is in a good mood. Your Highness is fighting in the front line, and every battle makes me happy. When you feel better, your body will naturally feel better.”

Being praised by Zhong Daoyu, Li Xingzhou was proud of himself, and said with a smile: "Everyone, each other, if there is no old general, I don't have the part to fight today." King Wu's rebel army attacked Khitan in the north, and Zhong Daoyu was also a god of war. If it weren't for him, it would be a question of whether Jingguo would be able to procrastinate until today.

If Zhong Daoyu is the old God of War, then he is the young God of War. One is from the older generation and the other is from the younger generation. There is a sense of vicissitudes of passing the torch from generation to generation.

Zhong Daoyu stopped talking, just nodded lightly, his eyes were dim, and he probably felt the same way, the end of an era, the beginning of an era.

After a while, the servants brought tea, and after drinking a few sips, Li Xingzhou began to talk about the war in the north with Zhong Daoyu.

As a veteran on the battlefield, Zhong Daoyu is very insightful.

As he talked, he talked about the war between Xia Guo and Jing Guo. Li Xingzhou also expressed his doubts about the record of "20 killed in battle".

Tsuka Daoyu didn't think so, but smiled dismissively.

"It made His Highness laugh. A brainy person like His Highness can see the problem at a glance."

"There really is a way inside?" Li Xingzhou asked.

Zhong Daoyu nodded, took a sip of hot tea, and then said: "In the beginning of the war with Xia, because of the pressure from the court officials, the emperor sent a civil servant to be the commander.

The literati had read some military books and knew how to deal with the enemy. Xia Guo's iron cavalry was strong, and there were nomadic Qiang soldiers in the north, so he proposed the method of building a city to advance, quickly building a city on the border of Xia State, and then using it as a rear to continue to move forward. "

Li Xingzhou was a little surprised when he heard this: "That's a civil servant who knows how to fight!"

Zhong Daoyu nodded: "Tactically, the old man also thinks he is right, the northwest is barren and there is a lot of open land, it is difficult for the army to plunder and obtain food on the spot.

To advance westward and beware of the cavalry raids of the Xia Kingdom, the best way is to build cities and garrison troops at key points, get supplies from the back of the link, and cut off the connections between them at the same time, and then continue to compress the space of the Xia Kingdom people, and finally annihilate them. "

"Then why did he lose?" Li Xingzhou was puzzled.

Speaking of this, Zhong Daoyu also felt a little regretful: "It's a pity that he has read military books but has no experience, so he can only talk about wars on paper. He has chosen the right tactics, but he has no experience and common sense. Big defeat."

"The first fortification site he chose was an important place, and it was still by the river, but it was too far away from the river bank, as far as a mile away. The sergeant reminded him that if he was too far away, the water might be blocked by the enemy, but he didn't listen.

The Xia people were also afraid after hearing about the construction of the city, and gathered tens of thousands of troops to attack. At that time, there were more than [-] troops stationed in the city, and the food was abundant.

But soon the Xia people quickly discovered the weakness, the city was more than a mile away from the river bank, so they sent troops to surround the city, and at the same time deployed elite troops layer by layer on the side from the river bank to the city, to prevent our soldiers from going out of the city to get water.

In the end, there was no water in the city, and there was no hope of holding on. The soldiers could only break through the siege. The enemy army was several times larger than themselves. Only three to 4000 people died in the battle and broke out. The newly built city was also destroyed by the enemy. "

Li Xingzhou sighed, "Isn't that Ma Di lost the street pavilion?"

Zhong Daoyu nodded, "Almost, it's all on paper.

But for the second time, he was more cautious and dug a well in the city to ensure that the water would not be cut off. However, he did not know that the groundwater level would drop during the dry season and there would be no water in the well. Can desperately break through.

This second time, the losses were even more severe. Those who escaped and died in battle totaled about [-] after the war. "

"Twenty thousand? Isn't it 20!" Li Xingzhou was surprised.

"Hmph, those literati can do without everything, but party struggles are indispensable!
At that time, someone wanted to trip him up, and the battle report came to the capital and abruptly stated that the 20 people killed in battle and missing were [-]!
If a country of Xia can annihilate our 20 troops in one battle a day, then why fight?All the countries in the world should surrender directly to Xia Guo! " Zhong Daoyu said angrily, and the more he spoke, the angrier he became.

"However, at that time, the emperor and some ministers and people who didn't know anything about war believed it!

After the old man took office, he saved the war situation and severely defeated the main force of the Xia army. As long as he builds the city step by step and fights steadily, he will be able to regain the land of Hetao even if he cannot destroy Xia after a few years. "

Li Xingzhou finally knew why the old man was angry. The literati party disregarded the overall situation, which ruined his chance to regain Hetao. How could he not be angry.

He was also very angry in his heart. There is a war on the front line, and it is fine to hear rumors from the people. As an official, as an official of the imperial court, you spread rumors in the capital that 20 troops were wiped out!How is this different from traitorousness?If it was in other dynasties, it would be cut off directly, and it would be considered a favor if it was not implicated.

(This is what the literati did. The front line fought hard to break through, and nearly 20 people disappeared and died in battle. Because of the party struggle, they became a frontline army in the capital and died [-] people. People were panicked, which directly affected the emperor's decision-making. See Song History, I really want to be pissed off by such "cultural people")
If the warriors who fought in the capital at that time had the right to speak and stand up to refute, then this lie can be easily exposed. A little common sense knows that if the contact battle that determines the outcome within a day can annihilate rather than defeat the main force of the enemy 20!That country of Xia has already ruled the world!I don't know how many times more fierce than the later Mongols.

But the warriors dare not refute the literati, the ancestral precept not to kill the scholar-bureaucrats is there, but there is no saying not to kill the warriors.

As a result, after the panic among the people, the court negotiated peace when the situation reversed, and since then lost the opportunity to regain the Hetao area
Li Xingzhou also heaved a long sigh, suppressed the anger in his heart and asked: "What kind of tactics does General Zhong use?"

"It's still to build a city with earth, but the old man knows better than him, and knows where to build the city. Then, because of the previous two victories, the Lord of the Xia Kingdom was arrogant and arrogant, and gathered an army of [-] to [-] people to attack. The old man led the soldiers to defend the city. On the [-]th, Xia Jun could not advance an inch, so he wanted to retreat.

The old man sensed their movements, led his troops to fight out when they were retreating, and attacked them at Bandu. In the first battle, more than ten thousand soldiers were beheaded, and many Xia soldiers were washed away by the river. After that, they chased and killed them for two days, and the main force of Xia troops had been severely damaged .

The most important thing is that many nomadic tribe leaders in the Xia army refused to obey their king's rule, but at that time the king was so powerful that they had to obey. After a defeat, it would be difficult for the Xia king to gather them.

This is a great opportunity." Speaking of this, Zhong Daoyu looked sad, and the next thing was that the imperial court sent people to peace talks, Xia Guo became a vassal, but the imperial court wanted to "reward" them with 13 taels of silver every year.

This matter is very aggrieved to Zhong Daoyu. In fact, even Li Xingzhou is aggrieved. If it is not for the literati and party struggle in the court, there is no need to use the people's fat and people's anointing to give Xia Guo 13 taels a year. Even now, Xia Guo still exists. It's all a problem.

He also talked to the old general about the battle of the Xia Kingdom. While sighing, Li Xingzhou also thought of some tactics, that is, Zhong Daoyu's method of building a city to defeat the people of the Xia Kingdom. It is indeed a good way to fight for the strong city and gradually divide and attack them.

And now the cast city is not like in the past, he can use cement!Fast and strong!

It seems that it needs to be researched carefully. With the cement fort and firearms, Li Xingzhou feels that his current tactics of beating Zhong Daoyu will be much easier than before.

(End of this chapter)