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

As the Art of War says, an isolated city cannot be defended.

Therefore, although Chen Wan formulated a strategy of defending and waiting for attack, he did not intend to gather heavy troops in Ruyang and defend the city to the death, but to guard the important places in Runing Prefecture.

Having said that, if he simply gave up other cities and important locations, he would not be able to explain to the imperial court and Emperor Jiahua.

Therefore, all the cities in Runing Prefecture that can be defended must be defended as much as possible, especially the cities and important places around Ruyang.

Zhenyang is located in the south of Ruyang, and Yangfu is located in the east of Ruyang. They are both prosperous towns, or small cities. They are both considered as the barriers of Ruyang and must not be lost.

However, to Chen Wan's surprise, the Hui army did not take advantage of the victory to advance to Zhenyang, Yangfu and other places, but instead guarded the three captured important places of Xincai, Shenqiu Town and Gucheng, and there was no movement for several days.

Outside Ruyang City, inside the tent of the Left Commander-in-Chief.

Chen Wan was staring at the military map on the table, frowning and thinking hard.

There were also several staff members, military assistants and other civilian personnel helping with the advisory work.

"After this bandit took over Xincai, Shenqiu and Gucheng, he stopped moving. What is his plan?"

"Who knows? We know too little about the bandits. Let alone the bandits under Liu Sheng, we know very little about Liu Sheng himself."

"These people are said to be from overseas. They are the survivors who fled overseas for refuge at the end of the Tang Dynasty. They are not from our Great Chu. It is difficult to find out their background."

"···"

Listening to the discussions of people around him, Chen Wan only felt more worried and irritated.

This war had not gone as he had expected from the beginning, and it was getting more and more out of control. If it really came to that, even he would be powerless to save the situation.

At this time, an aide said, "General, the bandits are hesitating because they are short of food and grass. After all, Jiaodong suffered from drought before, and Huaibei is not a place with abundant food and grass. The bandits may have gathered 100,000 troops this time, so it is very likely that they are short of food and grass."

"It is indeed possible." Chen Wan nodded, then sighed, "But even if that is the case, what can we do? We can't even defend the city, so are we going to send troops to counterattack Yingzhou Prefecture?"

The staff member worriedly said, "But the money and food allocated to us by the court is not enough. Now the border troops and local troops are gathered in Runing with hundreds of thousands of troops. If this drags on, I'm afraid we will be the first to collapse."

Chen Wan's frown deepened.

Then he said: "Our Great Chu has a vast territory. If the imperial court squeezes in, we can always raise some money and food. We don't need to worry about this. What we need to consider is winning this war."

“Students understand.”

Then, Chen Wan continued to stare at the map and ponder, as if he could see a way to defeat the Lai army from this map.

Not long after, the guard outside the tent came in and reported, "Commander-in-chief, the court has sent two imperial envoys."

Two imperial envoys?

Without the guards saying much, Chen Wan and his staff in the tent understood what was going on.

It must be that the emperor and the cabinet sent people at the same time.

I'm afraid that the news of the fall of Xincai, Shenqiu and Gucheng will be reported back to Xiangjing, and the higher-ups will send people to hold us accountable.

Immediately, Chen Wan straightened his appearance and said, "Please invite the imperial envoy in. Forget it, I'll go to the tent to greet him in person."

Chen Wan now controls an army of 100,000 to 200,000 Chu soldiers. As the Minister of War of the Chu State, he is also granted the title of Prince Taibao, which is almost the highest position among ministers.

Although he was unlikely to rebel under the system of the Great Chu, he had to guard against the emperor's suspicion. Therefore, some etiquette issues must be paid attention to, otherwise if the villain complained to the emperor, the problem might be more serious than losing Xincai.

Not long after he walked out of the tent, Chen Wan met the imperial envoy sent by the court.

It turned out to be a censor from the Censorate and a eunuch in the palace.

"Chen Wan accepts the order!" The eunuch spoke first.

Chen Wan immediately accepted the order according to military etiquette.

It was not a formal decree, but an imperial decree, so it was written in the tone of Emperor Jiahua. The words were casual, but the dissatisfaction with Chen Wan was very obvious.

"Grand Marshal, when I first appointed you as the Left Commander-in-Chief, you promised to at least protect Runing Prefecture. But now that the war has just begun, you have lost three important places, Xincai, Shenqiu, and Gucheng. Why is that?"

"Isn't the court giving you enough soldiers? Is the country raising enough money and food? Isn't the Grand Marshal's power too great? Now the rise and fall of the Great Chu depends on you. I hope you will do your best and live up to me..."

When the eunuch finished reading the imperial edict, the civil servants and generals who were listening to it in front of the tent were all silent.

Even though Chen Wan was good at cultivating his Qi, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. From this imperial edict, it can be seen that Emperor Jiahua was really dissatisfied with the loss of the three places in Xincai, and even suspected him.

Although Chen Wan did not think that the troops, horses, money and food provided by the court were really sufficient, he could not say so. Because considering the current situation of the Great Chu, the court had indeed done its best to mobilize so many troops, horses, money and food.

Afterwards, the Censor of the Censorate brought a letter from the Cabinet urging war.

Because Chen Wan's original plan for a decisive battle with the Hui army in Ruyang was to win a quick victory in order to save money and food.

But now, not only has the Lai army not been defeated, but three important locations have been lost. It seems that the war will be prolonged. The departments in charge of logistics in the court are very worried.

Both the imperial edict from Emperor Jiahua and the letter from the cabinet urging war put Chen Wan under great pressure.

However, if he took the initiative to attack the city occupied by the Lai army, he really had little chance of winning.

At this moment, Chen Wan wanted to scold Liu Sheng in person: Didn't you want to beat Ru Ning before? Come over and beat him? What are you waiting for? !
···
Yingchuan.

In the temporary palace of Emperor Dalai (the government office), Liu Sheng was discussing the situation of the war with Liu Yu and several staff officers of the imperial guards.

At present, these people are already considered Liu Sheng's descendants. In addition to assisting him in military affairs, Liu Sheng can also pass on his military ideas and cultivate military talents for Dalai here.

"Although Xunfengwei has not yet infiltrated the top leadership of Da Chu, and cannot understand some things that only the decision-makers of Da Chu know. However, from the analysis of various intelligence obtained over the past years, Da Chu must be short of money and food in this battle."

"This can be seen from the fact that the Chu army gathered in Runing Prefecture but did not take the initiative to attack. Now, Chen Wan, the left commander of the Great Chu, is probably scratching his head in anxiety."

When Liu Sheng analyzed the battle situation, his tone was light-hearted and humorous, causing young people like Liu Yu to chuckle along.

Liu Sheng continued, "However, we will temporarily stop fighting after we take Xincai, Shenqiu, and Gucheng, not just to see Chen Wan scratching his head. Liu Yu, tell me why we do this?"

If in private, Liu Sheng would most likely call Liu Yu by her nickname Kang Kang.

But now in the army, the father and son have the status of superior and subordinate, so Liu Sheng calls him by his name.

Liu Yu's eyebrows are about 50% similar to Liu Sheng's, but her eyes and brows are more like Li Xiangyun's.

Hearing this, he looked at the military map hanging on the screen and said, "I think the main reason is that the Jiangbei Garrison Army has not been trained for long and lacks actual combat experience."

"After you take over the three places of Xincai, we will temporarily stop fighting. Our army will be able to digest and absorb the gains from the previous battles, and the Jiangbei garrison troops will also have time to grow and improve."

"In addition, our army has more money and food than the Chu army, and is much more united than the Chu army. If we ignore other factors, the longer the battle lasts, the better it will be for our army."

"Good analysis." Liu Sheng looked pleased.

As an emperor, it is not necessary to understand military affairs, but understanding military affairs is definitely better than not understanding them.

At least he would not be like Emperor Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty, who was fooled by Yuan Chonghuan, Yang Sichang and others one after another - although those people were not completely fooling people, if Chongzhen understood military affairs, he could either cooperate with them or choose a better strategy.

If the emperor does not understand military affairs, it will easily have a negative impact.

Liu Yu couldn't help but ask, "Father, how long will our army rest for?"

Liu Sheng smiled and said, "It won't be too long, at least half a month, at most a month, the war will start again."

"Of course, before that, we might as well send out two detachments to capture Zhugao and Gushi. In this way, as long as we defeat the main force of the Chu army in the future, we can quickly take over the entire Runing Prefecture."

···
Time flies, half a month has passed.

Just as Liu Sheng said, in the past half month, the Hui army, with a detachment of less than 10,000 people, successively captured two important places, Zhugao Town and Gushi County.

The Chu army had no solution at all.

Since they cannot defend the city, they have to send troops to support it. If they send too few troops, they may be surrounded and attacked by the enemy troops. If they send too many troops, it would be like going all in. However, Chen Wan does not have the courage to go all in, nor does he have the capital to do so.

Chen Wan's choice was to continue to strengthen the military forces and armaments in important bases around Ruyang, such as Zhenyang and Yangfu, and to prepare for a defensive battle with the Hui army with Ruyang as the center.

In mid-October, the Hui army finally launched a large-scale attack again.

This time the target is Yangfu.

The straight-line distance between Ruyang City and Yangfu is only 70 to 80 li. If Yangfu is lost, Ruyang's eastern barrier will also be gone.

It can be said that the battle of Yangfu is related to the outcome of the entire war. (End of this chapter)