Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 608: The Underworld: Tang Zong is Alone and Han Zu is Alone
"Since everyone is clear about the rules, let's select Li Yuan and Li Zhi of the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Yunwen of the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Guangyi of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Ogedei of the Mongolian Dynasty as referees."

"I declare that the first sandbox war on Emperor Island and the Central Plains unification war have begun!"

On the Emperor Island, as Zhu Gaoxu spoke, he immediately joined the Zhu family's camp.

In order to make it easier for everyone to get familiar with it, Zhu Gaoxu chose a huge sand table that included the entire two capitals, thirteen provinces, two deserts, Northeast China, Western Regions, Qinghai-Tibet, Annan, Korea and other regions.

After the selection, each family began to plant their flags under the referee's decision. Li Tang occupied northern Shanxi, Ying Qin occupied Guanzhong, Yang Jian occupied southern Shanxi and Yiluo, Zhu Ming occupied Jianghuai, Zhao Song started in Qi and Lu, Liu Han started in Bashu, Temujin started in northern Mobei, Maodun started in southern Mobei, Wanyan started in Bohai, Yelu started in Liaodong, Sima started in Jiangdong...

Apart from them, there are many other forces, large and small, that can come into play.

Everyone's strength and equipment are the same. Each person has five armies totaling 50,000 soldiers, including three infantry armies, one armored army, and one air force army.

The rules of the game are armor fights infantry, air force fights armor, and infantry with artillery fights air force.

One party declares war on the other party head-on, and then tells the referee its own battle deployment, and the referee counts the deployments of both sides to determine the result.

Due to terrain problems, the navy was not deployed in this battle, but rather in preparation for the "Island Unification War" ten years later.

It has to be said that even though Li Shimin, Liu Bang, Zhao Kuangyin, Temujin, Wanyan Aguda and others were exposed to such new equipment and military ideas for the first time, their brains were not slow.

When the three members of the Zhu family successively defeated Zhang Shicheng, Chen Youliang, Sun Jian, Chen Baxian and others and took over the entire Jianghuai area, they also began their path of continuous expansion.

Compared with the three people from the Zhu family, those who first mastered the rules of the game were naturally the outstanding ones who conquered the world with their strength.

Since all the Liu clan members were together, Liu Bang, Liu Che, Liu Xiu, Liu Yu and others who were stationed in Bashu began to attack the Bashu region.

Li Shimin, who was entrenched in northern Shanxi, did not immediately engage in battle with Yang Jian, who was entrenched in southern Shanxi. Instead, he raided the Xianbei Tan Shihuai and the Turkic Ili Khan, who were entrenched in Hetao, to the west.

The two sides were fighting and were caught off guard by Li Shimin.

After taking over the Hetao area, Li Shimin expanded his military force to 150,000. He began to march eastward to attack Shi Le in Hebei.

At that time, Shi Le had just joined forces with Murong Chui to deal with Ran Min, and was preparing to attack Zhao Song in the south when he met Li Shimin. Both sides could only begin to endorse the referee.

Scenes like this happen all the time, and it takes almost a quarter of an hour for everyone to memorize and see their arrangements come to fruition.

In the first quarter of an hour, Zhu Yuanzhang defeated Zhang Shicheng, Chen Youliang, Sun Jian, Zhu Wen and others, and took over the entire Jianghuai area.

Li Shimin defeated Tan Shihuai and Ilkhan and took over the Hetao area.

Liu Bang defeated Li Xiong, Qiao Zong, Wang Jian, Meng Zhixiang, Ming Yuzhen and others, and completely controlled the entire Bashu area.

To Ying Zheng were Li Shimin in the north, Li Yuanhao in the west, Yang Jian in the east, and Liu Bang in the south.

As the first emperor of China, Ying Zheng was well aware that his personal ability to lead troops was not good, so he launched a surprise attack on Li Yuanhao when Li Yuanhao was fighting against Yaoluo Geguli Peiluo, the Khan of the Western Regions Uighurs.

Yaoluo Geguli Peiluo, Ying Zheng, and Songtsen Gampo of Qinghai-Tibet besieged Li Yuanhao together. The entire Gansu was divided into three parts, and Ying Zheng's military strength increased to 80,000.

At the same time, Wanyan and Yelu were at war, while Temujin and Maodun formed a diplomatic alliance and marched south.

In the south, Tuoba Tao, Gao Huan, Fu Jian and others were fighting to a standstill.

At times like this, the qualities of a founding emperor who unified the country were revealed.

At that time, under this situation, Li Shimin was somewhat overwhelmed. He had to deal with Yang Jian, Ying Zheng, and Shi Le by himself, and he also had to be careful about sneak attacks from Temujin and Maodun in the north. In the Tang Dynasty emperor's team, except for Li Chun and a few people who could barely help, the rest of the people basically made things worse, so that he was unable to cope with the situation.

Compared with him, Liu Han, who was a gathering of Liu clan members, Zhu Ming, who was a family of Zhu, and the Great Mongolia of Temujin's Golden Family seemed more powerful.

It has to be said that Liu Bang was very good at using people. At the beginning of the second quarter of an hour, a large number of troops began to move in the southwest direction.

Liu Bang ordered Liu Che to lead 50,000 troops to garrison Hanzhong, while he led 100,000 troops to attack Gao Huan in Guizhou. Liu Xiu, Liu Yu and Liu Bei led 150,000 troops to attack Geluofeng in Yunnan.

At the same time, the referee began to arrange the endorsements of other emperors.

"We must first stabilize the southeast, so as to avoid being attacked from both sides..."

Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes, and Zhu Gaoxu also said: "The main force will attack Nanjing from Jiangpu!"

"Send the special forces across Anqing and head to Tongling!" Zhu Di was also very excited.

Under their offensive, the Ming Dynasty, which had originally unified Jianghuai and had an army of 250,000, used 100,000 to guard Jianghuai and guard against the north, and the remaining 150,000 were divided into 100,000 for Zhu Gaoxu to attack Nanjing and 50,000 for Zhu Di to attack Tongling.

At that time, Sima Yi had only conquered Qi and Liang of Xiao Daocheng and Xiao Yan, and had not yet had time to attack and destroy Chen Baxian's Southern Chen. His military strength was exactly 150,000.

As Zhu Di and his son Zhu Gaoxu commanded the army south, Sima Yi, Sima Zhao, Sima Shi and Sima Yan immediately felt the pressure.

At the same time, Li Shimin defeated Shi Le and Murong Chui, entered Hebei, occupied the Shanhaiguan line in Beiping, and Shi Le and Murong Chui retreated to the south of Beiping.

The coalition forces of Temujin and Maodun marched southward, but their target was not the tough Li Shimin, but the Uighurs in the Western Regions to the west.

Under the attack from both sides, the Uighurs were defeated, and Ying Zheng also seized parts of Gansu and 10,000 troops occupied by the Uighurs.

Temujin got territory and 20,000 troops, and Maodun got 30,000 troops.

After tasting the sweetness of cooperation, the two turned their attention to Gansu region.

Ying Zheng, who had an army of 90,000, became their new target.

Ying Zheng's general direction was not wrong, but when it came to the tactical details, without the assistance of Wang Jian and others, he was still unable to resist the Mongol-Hungarian coalition forces of Temujin and Maodun with his personal abilities alone.

With the same equipment and "paper talk", Gansu region fell completely.

Although Ying Zheng did not engage in direct confrontation with him, he retreated to Longxi to retain his strength.

In the south, under the command of Liu Bang, Liu Xiu and others attacked and destroyed Geluofeng, captured Gao Huan, and increased the number of troops to 400,000, becoming the strongest force on the sand table.

At the same time, Zhu Di took over the area south of Nanjing, Zhu Gaoxu attacked Nanjing, and Sima Yi retreated to the Jiangdong area.

When it comes to hot weapons, Zhu Di and his son Zhu Gaoxu, who had discussed them for decades during their lifetime, were more proficient in them than any emperor who had just come into contact with hot weapons.

The two of them mastered blitzkrieg to perfection, and the Ming army's strength suddenly increased to 350,000, second only to the Liu family.

Seeing the growing power of Liu and Zhu, Li Shimin could not help but get angry at his children and grandchildren: "Look at them, how many brains are used in a game of war chess, and then look at you."

Li Chun and others were very helpless after being reprimanded by Li Shimin. They also wanted to point fingers on the sand table, but their level was indeed not as good as those heroes who emerged in troubled times.

Although there were more than 400 emperors in China, there were only 20 or 30 of them who actually achieved military results.

Even emperors like Ying Zheng, Liu Che, and Liu Heng, who are famous throughout the ages, were fine when it came to strategy, but were completely at a loss when it came to tactical execution.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that no matter how good a fighter Li Shimin was, he could not withstand the siege of the three emperors from the Zhu family and the four emperors from the Liu family.

The Sima family, which has the ability to lead troops, has been forced from the south of the Yangtze River to the east of the Yangtze River by the Zhu family. It is estimated that when the third round begins, the Sima family will have to commit suicide.

As the second round was coming to an end, Li Shimin called over his son, Li Zhi, who was the referee:
"Zhi Nu, remember this. I'm going to make the following deployment adjustments: I'll use the First and Second Armies plus two armored guards to strengthen the Shanhaiguan defense line to prevent a surprise attack by Yelu Abaoji."

"In addition, use the third and fourth armies to encircle and attack Hejian."

"The Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Armies plus an armored guard will move from west to east on the northern defense line to prevent Temujin and Maodun's troops from moving south."

"I will personally lead the fifth, sixth, seventh, eleventh and twelfth armies to attack Murong Chui and Shi Le and completely recover Hebei."

"In addition, Li Chun, you lead three armored guards to monitor Yang Jian south of Taiyuan and east of Handan to prevent Yang Jian from attacking Taiyuan!"

"Yes!!"

On the Emperor's Island, although the Li family did not have descendants as outstanding as those of other dynasties, Li Shimin still calmly began the fight on the sand table.

At the same time, Zhao Kuangyin finally unified Shandong in the Qi and Lu areas.

He had already expected that Li Shimin would take over Hebei, so he led his troops north to attack Shi Le.

At the beginning of the third round, Shi Le and Murong Chui were defeated by the pincer attack of Li Shimin and Zhao Kuangyin.

At the same time, Wanyan Aguda led his children and grandchildren to fight against Yelu Abaoji.

At that time, Yelu Abaoji was attacking Goguryeo in Liaodong. Although he knew that the Wanyan family would move south, he did not expect that the Wanyan family would seize the opportunity so well.

The two sides fought in the Liaoshen area, and Maodun attacked Temujin when he was preparing to attack Li Shimin, and the competition for the overlord of the two deserts began.

As Li Shimin expected, in the southeast direction, as soon as the third round started, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di defeated Sima Yi and Chen Baxian, unified Zhejiang and Jiangdong regions, and directly attacked Qian Miao in Fujian in one step and three steps.

Qian Miao was totally unprepared for this. After all, even though this was a war game simulation, who could guarantee victory in three battles?

Caught off guard, Qian Miao was defeated by Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di, who brought with them 250,000 troops captured from Jiangnan and 150,000 troops in their own hands, a total of 400,000 troops.

At the same time, Tuoba Tao, who had just defeated Fu Jian and unified Huguang, was destroyed by an army of 300,000 led by Liu Bang, Liu Xiu, Liu Yu and others out of Sichuan.

At that time, the only people left south of the Qinling Mountains and the Yellow River were Liu Bang, Zhu Yuanzhang and Cao Cao, who defended Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiaozhi.

There is no doubt that once the fourth game begins, Cao Cao will become the victim of the struggle between the two sides.

There is still some value in the Three Caos. Although Cao Cao's ability is far inferior to Liu Bang, Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Shimin, Zhao Kuangyin and others, he does not want to sit and wait for death.

During this period, he did think about attacking Fujian or Yunnan, but was blocked by the arrangements of Liu Xiu and Zhu Gaoxu.

"There are fewer and fewer people. Now it seems that it is either the Liu family or the Zhu family."

"Alas, Taizong is also a bit unlucky. He is so powerful, but his descendants...Alas!"

"Cao Cao, how long can you hold on?"

Off the court, some people sighed for Li Shimin, while others, like Sun Ce, mocked Cao Cao.

In short, everyone can see now that Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang are most likely to compete for the world. Li Shimin's position is too bad. Three forces in the north are eyeing him, and Zhao Kuangyin and Yang Jian in the south are eyeing him covetously.

Li Shimin also felt the pressure. Although he was a good fighter, it was impossible for him to defeat so many forces at the same time by himself. Besides, the military strength of Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang exceeded his.

Sure enough, as the fourth game started, Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang successively attacked Cao Cao in Guangdong and Guangxi. Cao Cao was defeated under the siege of 400,000 troops on the western front and 500,000 troops on the eastern front.

Zhu Gaoxu captured Guangdong, and Liu Bang obtained Guangxi and Jiaozhi.

It seemed that Liu Bang had the upper hand, but Cao Cao's army was on the eastern front. Zhu Gaoxu swallowed up Cao Cao's 100,000 soldiers in one fell swoop, and Liu Bang only got 50,000. In this way, Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang both had 750,000 soldiers.

In the north, Li Shimin took the initiative to attack Yang Jian, while Zhao Kuangyin attacked Li Shimin's Hebei and Yang Jian's Henan at the same time.

Li Shimin ignored Zhao Kuangyin and focused on dealing with Yang Jian.

Before the end of the fourth game, Ying Zheng recovered the lost land in Gansu that was seized by Temujin, Yang Jian was defeated, Li Shimin captured southern Shanxi and half of Henan, and Zhao Kuangyin obtained southern Hebei and southern Henan.

At the same time, Temujin in Mobei defeated Maodun, the Wanyan family defeated the Yelu family, and launched an attack on Goguryeo.

Only Liu and Zhu were left in the south, Li, Ying and Zhao were left in the north, and outside the Great Wall, only the enemies Borjigin and Wanyan were left. In the remote areas, there were also Tubo and Goguryeo.

At this point in the battle, the emperor's dynasty with a large number of people was still able to handle it with ease, but the energy of three people like Zhao Kuangyin, Li Shimin, and Ying Zheng could no longer keep up.

As time passed, Li Shimin attacked Zhao Kuangyin, and Zhao Kuangyin also knew that Li Shimin would attack him, and the two sides started fighting.

Outside the Great Wall, Temujin did not fight to the death with the Wanyan family. Instead, he took the initiative to attack Songtsen Gampo in Qinghai-Tibet while the Wanyan family was conquering Goguryeo.

Ying Zheng planned to launch a surprise attack on Li Shimin, but failed as Li Shimin had deployed defenses in Dali.

In the south, the battle between Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di, Zhu Gaoxu and Liu Bang, Liu Xiu, Liu Che, Liu Yu, Liu Bei and others began.

The two sides mainly engaged in a tug-of-war battle in Guangdong and Guangxi, with the main battlefields being in Jingxiang and the Yangtze River.

In terms of terrain, the Liu family has an advantage, but the combat methods of hot weapons cannot be figured out in just half an hour.

Zhu Di commanded the armored group to cooperate with the air force to attack Jingxiang, Zhu Yuanzhang defended Zhao Kuangyin, and Zhu Gaoxu conducted mobile warfare in Guangdong and Guangxi and southern Huguang.

Liu Bang cooperated with Liu Yu and Liu Bei, and although they only had 500,000 troops against Zhu Gaoxu's 400,000, they were still a little embarrassed, but overall the loss was not great.

Compared with them, Liu Xiu gathered 150,000 soldiers and defended Jingxiang like an iron wall, while Zhu Di had no idea what to do with his 200,000 soldiers.

While Liu Bang was thinking about how to capture Zhu Gaoxu for a decisive battle, Temujin's army of 150,000 destroyed Songtsen Gampo and gathered 200,000 troops to invade Bashu.

Because the main force was on the front line, Liu Che, who had an army of 100,000, was caught off guard.

The strategic emperor faced off against the emperor who was at the top of both strategy and tactics. It was obvious that Liu Che alone did not have enough energy to deal with Temujin, Kublai Khan, Tolui, Jochi, Batu and others, and the rear front was in danger.

At the same time, Ying Zheng sent troops to attack Hanzhong. Liu Qi lost the Hanzhong area and was so angry that he almost wanted to smash the chessboard.

Fortunately, this chessboard weighs six or seven hundred kilograms, otherwise the Han chess master would have to come back again.

Seeing that the war situation was gradually improving, Zhu Yuanzhang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"My ten years of training paid off. This time I'm going to lead you two in a comeback battle."

"Hehe..." Zhu Di laughed cheerfully, and Zhu Gaoxu also crossed his arms across his chest, looking very relaxed.

As the fifth round began, Li Shimin, with the help of Li Chun and others, finally defeated Zhao Kuangyin and took control of Shandong.

The reason for Zhao Kuangyin's failure was that he had few useful brothers and descendants, so he handed Kaifeng over to Zhao Guangyi to garrison. As a result, Zhao Guangyi was as fierce as a tiger, but was completely defeated by Li Shimin in just a few words.

Zhao Kuangyin had taken over Peking, but when he looked back, he found that his home was gone.

"Sanlang, let's go out and talk!"

"Second brother! I'm your younger brother! You promised mother that you would treat me well!"

Zhao Kuangyin dragged Zhao Guangyi out with a dark face. Zhao Guangyi hurriedly explained, but Zhao Kuangyin simply didn't listen.

"Can this person also be Taizong?"

Li Shimin rubbed his aching temple and finally opened his eyes. He saw that on the chessboard, the Ming army's flags were all over Shandong.

"Tang Zong, I will gladly accept Shandong."

Zhu Di's honest black face became the biggest mockery. Li Shimin broke down and looked at Li Chun and others with wide eyes: "I just didn't see it for a few breaths, what's going on?"

"Taizong... Emperor Ming's armored group is too fast. We..."

Li Chen, who was guarding Shandong, tried to explain, but Li Shimin kicked him over and said, "You unworthy descendant, I'm here in person!"

Li Shimin stretched out his hand and prepared to do it himself, but at this time Temujin smiled and said: "Tang Zong, please look to the north first!"

It seemed that at some point, Temujin had already fled back to the south of the desert, and his troops were approaching the northern defense line.

No matter how powerful Li Shimin was, he was unable to take the overall situation into consideration while fighting against Zhao Kuangyin, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Di.

The Hetao area was captured by Temujin, but fortunately Li Chun operated properly and did not lose any troops.

“Save people and lose land, and everyone and land will survive. Save land and lose people, and everyone and land will be lost.”

Li Shimin rubbed his brows. After all, war game simulation is not a real battlefield. As long as the army is not eroded, it will not be difficult to recover Hetao and Shandong.

Now he occupies Shanxi, Peking, and Henan, and has an army of 600,000, second only to the Liu and Zhu families.

If you operate it well, you may be able to win.

Thinking of this, Li Shimin heard thunderous laughter in his ears: "Tang Zong, we are not polite either!"

Li Shimin glanced sideways and saw that Wanyan Aguda had already defeated Goguryeo and was now approaching Shanhaiguan with 300,000 people from all over Northeast China.

"Tang Zong, I have no choice but to send troops."

Ying Zheng spoke with red eyes, and it was obvious that his energy had reached its limit.

Now it is no longer a showdown between dynasties, but a showdown between individuals and families.

Li Shimin and Ying Zheng, who were alone and weak, were destined to find it difficult to win in such a group fight. If they were given their own generals, the outcome would be different.

However, no civil or military officials were allowed to enter the emperor's party, so Li Shimin and Ying Zheng were destined to suffer losses.

In comparison, Li Shimin at least had Li Chun and Li Yu to use, but there was no one available on Ying Zheng's side, and the same went for Yang Jian's elimination.

As time went by, Li Shimin withdrew from the war game under attack from all sides. The Ming Dynasty got Shandong, half of Hebei and the whole of Henan, Ying Zheng got half of Shanxi, Temujin got half of Shanxi, and Wanyan Aguda got half of Hebei.

"The First Emperor, if you can tolerate only small benefits, we will not be polite."

"Brother Zheng, I have no choice but to take action."

Zhu Yuanzhang spoke first, followed closely by Liu Bang.

What the two said made Ying Zheng's face darken. If all his civil and military officials were still there, he would not be in such a mess.

With this in mind, the fifth game officially began.

In this round, Temujin recaptured Gansu, Zhu Yuanzhang took half of Shanxi, Hebei and Guanzhong, and Liu Bang captured Hanzhong out of Sichuan.

At the same time, Liu Bang ordered Liu Xiu to attack Guangdong and Liu Yu to attack Jiangxi.

For a time, Guangdong and half of Jiangxi were lost, but Zhu Gaoxu was well prepared and withdrew his troops without any damage.

If this were real, Liu Bang could recruit soldiers from these two places for attack, but this is a war game simulation, and there is no other way to obtain the army except to be surrounded and annexed.

On the surface, Liu Bang won, but in reality, it was the Ming Dynasty that won, having annexed most of Ying Zheng's troops.

"Oh no, this game is a bit weird!"

At this point, Liu Bang realized the truth that "If you keep the people but lose the land, both the people and the land will be preserved; if you keep the land but lose the people, both the people and the land will be lost." But it was too late.

"In this war game simulation, the Ming Dynasty will not be polite."

"Zhu Di, be polite."

"We took advantage of the situation this time. After this, you should study war games carefully. I hope you can win next time."

The Ming Dynasty had already opened the champagne at halftime, and they had the confidence to do so. After all, at this moment the Ming Dynasty had a military strength of 1.5 million, while Liu Bang had only 850,000, and Temujin and Wanyan Aguda together had only 600,000.

Wargames, after all, are a blindfolded game of "rock-paper-scissors".

This game was created by the Zhu family. Now that they have a large number of troops, the outcome of the war is obvious.

Sure enough, as the seventh round began, Liu Bang was eliminated by Zhu Yuanzhang's concentrated forces, and then Temujin and Wanyan Aguda were also swept away by the autumn wind.

After the game was over, Liu Bang, Li Shimin, Liu Che, Ying Zheng and others were extremely unwilling to accept it, but as Hua Guang arrived, they all had to leave.

"Everyone, see you again in ten years!"

"Zhu Yuanzhang, you better tell me how to play next time!"

"What? What did you say? I can't hear you!"

Facing a bunch of loud questions from the emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang pretended to be deaf and dumb, and then waited for Hua Guang to take them away before Zhu Yuanzhang breathed a sigh of relief:

"Huh... We were almost overturned."

Wiping the sweat off his face, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Di:

"Old Four, let's change the sand table next time. They are familiar with this sand table. I'm afraid we won't be a match for the Liu family next time."

"Don't worry, Dad. Next time we'll play on an island and play with the navy!"

After Zhu Di replied, he looked at Zhu Gaoxu and said, "Second brother, the next time you draw lots, you have to do it this way. Draw us to a good place and put Liu Bei and Emperor Tang Zong in a place where four wars are fought."

Zhu Gaoxu chuckled: "Dad, don't worry, I'm doing my job. Our Zhu family will definitely win the championship again!"

Listening to the conversation between Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Yunwen said cautiously: "Speaking of which, aren't we cheating..."

"you shut up!!"

(End of this chapter)