The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

It is still the time of autumn harvest, and the border troops of the Great Chu have not yet gathered in Henan. It can be said that the day of the decisive battle expected by both Li and Chu is at least half a month away.

But now Liu Sheng is already in the Yingzhou camp, holding various military meetings every day.

He understood almost every aspect of the upcoming decisive battle, explained it thoroughly to the generals, and made various response plans for various situations.

Under the current conditions, Liu Sheng has almost completed the pre-war preparations to the extreme.

On the contrary, not only was the military, political, and logistical aspects of the Chu State in a mess, but the Chu rulers and ministers still knew very little about the Hui Army, and some of the "intelligence" even came from rumors...
The capital of Runing Prefecture is Ruyang.

The war is imminent, and this place has now become a large military camp. In addition to the troops guarding the various passes and cities in Runing Prefecture, most of the troops from Da Chu who arrived in Runing Prefecture earlier gathered here.

It was naturally impossible for tens of thousands of soldiers to be stationed in the city, so they all camped outside the city.

The two commanders appointed by Emperor Jiahua also arrived in Ruyang recently.

This was beyond Liu Sheng's expectations - perhaps because he attached great importance to this battle, or perhaps because he was worried about so many troops being in the hands of one person.

This time, Emperor Jiahua made an exception and appointed two commanders.

The Minister of War Chen Wan was appointed as the left commander-in-chief, and the Grand Secretary Gao Sheng was appointed as the right commander-in-chief.

Of course, Emperor Jiahua also knew that the worst thing about war is multiple orders, and there can only be one commander in chief for the three armies. Therefore, he specifically stated that the Left Commander Chen Wan would be the leader of this battle, and the Right Commander Gao Sheng would be the assistant.

After all, in terms of military affairs of the Great Chu, Chen Wan's prestige exceeds that of Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs came to Ruyang later. He was in a state of anger during the past few days while inspecting various military camps.

That day, he came to the big tent where Chen Wan was and couldn't help muttering again.

"Although I heard that the border troops were also corrupt, I didn't expect it to be so corrupt!"

"Not to mention military discipline, this time I went to inspect the camps and wanted to count the troops that had arrived, but the commanders of each camp found excuses to shirk their responsibilities. It's obvious that they are seriously cheating!"

"In addition, most of the weapons in the various battalions seem to be out of maintenance. I wanted to take inventory of the weapons, but was also evaded by these generals."

"We know that the war is imminent, but we don't even know how many soldiers we have available, the armaments of each battalion, and the actual combat strength. How can we fight this war?!"

Chen Wan knew much more about the border army's affairs than Goldman Sachs. In fact, he was the backer of some military officials and border army generals who embezzled military funds.

Therefore, after hearing what Gao Sheng said, Chen Wan's expression did not change at all, and he said calmly: "The phenomenon of eating empty salaries has existed for a long time - the salaries that the Ministry of Revenue and the inner treasury have taken out for the border troops over the years have not been consistent with the written ones, and when they are distributed to the commanders of each camp, I don't know how much fat has been skimmed off. If there is no empty salary, we can't even support these soldiers now."

Gao Sheng said angrily, "I am not going to investigate the issue of eating empty salaries at this time, but we must know the strength and strength of each battalion's troops and weapons before the station!"

Chen Wan said, "I know the combat effectiveness of each battalion, so you don't need to worry about that. However, there is still a lot of money and food that has not arrived for this battle. Why don't you send someone to supervise and urge them to arrive?"

Gao Sheng knew that as the right commander, he was in charge of logistics, military discipline and other matters in this battle, so he did not argue with Chen Wan about this.

He said, "I will send someone to supervise the money and grain matters, but now that war is imminent, how much does the Grand Marshal know about the true situation of the bandits?"

Chen Wan frowned deeply and said, "Recently, the army has sent many scouts and secret agents to Yingzhou Prefecture and even Sizhou Prefecture. Unfortunately, the enemy's army is heavily guarded, and the information the spies can get is very limited."

"I only know that the bandits have gathered a large number of troops in Yingzhou Prefecture. I don't know the exact number, but it should be no less than 50,000."

Goldman was very disappointed to hear this and asked, "Where are the bandit generals? Do you know anything about them?"

Chen Wan shook his head, "I know nothing."

Goldman was stunned. “How can we fight this war?” As the saying goes, “Know yourself and your enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without danger.” Even the ancients knew the importance of pre-war intelligence work.

In addition to understanding the number of local troops and their military equipment, it is also very important to understand the enemy's generals.

If you know the combat style of a certain general, you can respond accordingly to increase your chances of winning the battle.

Now the Chu side knew nothing about the number of soldiers and generals of the Hui army. Even though Goldman Sachs had not experienced many battles, he knew that this battle would be even more difficult.

As the Minister of War of the Great Chu and the commander-in-chief of the Chu army in this battle, Chen Wan naturally hoped to win this battle.

Seeing that Gao Sheng was in despair, he said, "Your Majesty has asked us to use this battle to annihilate the main force of the bandits and get rid of this scourge in one fell swoop."

"But you and I both know that even if the imperial court mobilizes 100,000 border troops, our chances of winning this battle are still slim."

"So, I am not going to take the initiative to attack Yingzhou in this battle, but to defend and wait for the attack."

"This way we can avoid our army's shortcomings as much as possible, and also learn more about the enemy's strengths and weaknesses through defensive battles."

"If we can accumulate the chances of winning in the defensive battle, and wait for the right opportunity, we can counterattack the bandits and secure victory!"

After hearing Chen Wan's plan, Gao Sheng's expression finally improved. He said, "It's good that the Grand Marshal has a plan in mind. I will take care of the logistics and try not to hold you back."

Chen Wan bowed to Gao Sheng and said, "Then I'll leave it to you, Mr. Gao."

In the court, the two men sometimes had different political views. Although they could not be called political enemies, they were not enemies either.

However, now that the Chu State is facing danger, the two of them have a rare mutual understanding and are working together.

Unfortunately, there are very few people in the Chu army who are as sensible and knowledgeable as Chen Wan and Gao Sheng.

Most people only care about their own interests, and there are many people who ignore the overall situation in order to pursue their own interests.

For example, there is a lot of chaos in the military camp outside Ruyang City.

There were border troops that bullied local troops, there were imperial troops that despised border troops, and there were border troops that refused to obey the imperial troops and fought with them.

The generals of each camp also fought openly and secretly for money and food, making the huge military camp chaotic.

As for local officials and officials at all levels in charge of logistics, there are endless cases of people taking advantage of the opportunity to embezzle and enrich themselves at the expense of public funds...

Under such circumstances, half a month passed in a flash and it was October.

At this time, the autumn harvest was over in most places, and it was time to use troops.

As a result, the scouting activities of both sides became more frequent, and scouting battles broke out again and again at the border between Ruyang and Ying.

The scouts of the Hui army were basically from the royal guards. They were all elite soldiers who had experienced many battles and were much better equipped than the Chu army. Naturally, they won repeatedly in scout battles and constantly compressed the exploration range of the Chu army.

October 9th.

The Hui army consisted of one regiment each from the Huben Guard and the Shengjie Guard as its main force, with two brigades of garrison troops, and they went straight to Xincai.

As an important city on the Ru River, Xincai was garrisoned by Chen Wan with 5,000 frontier troops and 10,000 local soldiers. Under normal circumstances, it can be said to be impregnable. (End of this chapter)