Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 371: No Way to Retreat, Only to Fight
Commander Yang arrived at Xuanhua at night and met General Guo and Prefect Lin, explaining his intentions. They both said they would cooperate, but when they opened the warehouse the next day, they found that there were less than 500 straw bags, which was not enough.

He had no choice but to send someone to Huailai to inquire. After waiting for a whole day, Commander Yang finally received the messenger from the capital, so he had to bring the person back.

There were two messengers in total (including insurance). After conveying the recent information from the capital, they read out the oral order of Emperor Chenghui, stating that Jia Lian would be in charge of the war on the front line and would not interfere in the rear.

Jia Lian was stunned. I was only away for a few days and so many things happened? Did those people in the capital eat for free? They were already at war, why didn't they send troops into the granary in advance to strengthen the defense?

Because he didn't know the specific details, Jia Lian still concluded that it was Li Ni's men who burned the granary. After all, this guy had been running the business for many years and had a deep foundation and a wide network of relationships.

After letting the messenger go down to rest, the three giants of the left army didn't even have dinner and got together for a meeting.

"I have basically plundered all the food in Xuanhua. There is a little food left in Tongzhou. I have to supply not only the capital, but also Juyongguan and the garrisons along the Great Wall. His Majesty said that I will be in charge of the frontline battles. I am afraid he hopes more than anyone else that the war will end as soon as possible."

Jia Lian expressed his personal opinion with a melancholy look on his face, and the other two remained silent.

The original plan was to force the enemy to take the initiative, rely on the defensive strength and firepower advantage, gradually consume the enemy's superior forces, and then counterattack. The advantage of doing this is that casualties are small.

"The problem now is no longer a food problem, but whether the King of Dongping in Liaodong can maintain his fence-sitting position. Once he chooses Li Ni, with his personal prestige in Liaodong, half of the civil and military officials on the Shanhaiguan line will be considered his people. It is precisely because of this that Commander Yue suggested that the Tongzhou camp send troops to Luanzhou." Commander Sun had a better understanding of the situation in the army and explained it in detail.

Commander Yang's opinion: "I am against taking the initiative to attack. The Shenji Camp and the Xishan Camp lack coordinated training. It is fine for them to hold the camp. Once they take the initiative to attack, the enemy will use their superior force to surround our army. They don't even have to fight us head-on, but will continue to harass us along the way. Our army doesn't even have the conditions to camp and rest overnight. It takes at least two days to get to Zhangjiakou. Do we have to form a battle formation to attack and move forward? What about logistics and food? They have a lot of cavalry and can launch an attack at any time. Our army hastily prepared, and the cavalry retreated. There is no need to fight, you will be exhausted to death."

That being said, how can one explain it? Jia Lian thought of Baliqiao. The tribes under Li Ni were not of one mind. Once Jia Lian took the initiative to attack, the grassland tribes, which had an absolute advantage in military strength, could not stop the grassland tribes from fighting a decisive battle even if Li Ni strongly opposed it. The reason was simple. The grassland tribes did not have much time. First of all, the horses were thin when they attacked in spring and could not afford to be consumed for a long time. Secondly, the production of the grassland tribes, the young and middle-aged men were out robbing, who would graze the cattle and sheep at home? Could they rely on a group of women, children and immobile old people?
Therefore, the time window left for the grassland tribes is at most three months. After all, there is not much food left at home, and the family members are waiting for a bite to eat. Eat meat? Cows and sheep are used to produce milk!

If the lower-class people in the Central Plains lived like cattle and horses, then the life of the serfs and grassland people was even worse than that of cattle and horses, especially after the white disaster.

"What you two said makes sense, but I still want to take a gamble. You know the fighting power of the Dongping Iron Cavalry better than I do. Apart from anything else, once we take Shanhaiguan, it will be very difficult to take it back. Now it is certain that Li Ni has a group of people hiding in the capital, waiting for the opportunity to cause trouble, and they have succeeded in doing it. Li Ni doesn't have much time, and neither do we, so let's attack."

After Jia Lian finished speaking, he looked at the two of them. They hesitated again and again, and nodded reluctantly, but since Jia Lian had made the decision, they could only obey.

"Okay, now that we have reached a consensus, let's talk about how to fight. According to Ye Bu Shou's situation, a unit of about 20,000 cavalrymen from the grassland left the main road and set up camp in the east. The purpose is obvious, which is to cut off the connection between our unit and Xuanhua City. The remaining 30,000 enemy troops set up camp on both sides of the road leading to Zhangjiakou, about 15 miles away from us. We must deploy our battle formation before the enemy reacts. By then, we can start supplying the enemy in front of us before the enemy in the east joins the main force of the enemy army."

Jia Lian paused for a moment, and the two of them analyzed the sand table and felt that there was no big problem.

"In terms of formation, the Shenji Camp will take the middle route, and the Xishan Camp will be divided into left and right camps, protecting the flanks with the cooperation of the cavalry. I judge that once the battle begins, the opponent will definitely use their superior forces to rush to the two wings. General Sun, you are under a lot of pressure, can you withstand it?" Jia Lian was really a little worried. The Xishan Camp's review was done well, but actual combat was different.

"We have to bear it even if we can't. The pressure in the middle is greater than on the wings." General Sun accepted the task with a firm attitude.

"Then let's arrange it this way. We'll prepare overnight and set out at five o'clock tomorrow morning." Jia Lian made the final decision.

"Commander-in-chief, what should we do with the main camp?" Sun Tongzhi was still a little hesitant. Jia Lian shook his head and said, "Let the auxiliary troops and baggage soldiers defend it. I hope the enemy will send more troops to attack the main camp."

Jia Lian was really not afraid. Including the auxiliary troops, the baggage camp of the Shenji Camp had 3,000 people, including 1,000 flintlock rifles, and the auxiliary troops were also equipped with long spears.

The baggage soldiers in the Xishan camp were even more numerous, including civilians, auxiliary soldiers, and baggage soldiers, totaling 5,000 people. They had no firearms, but they were not short of spears.

"Let the Night Guards start harassing them all night long." Commander Yang added, Jia Lian nodded, "There are 300 Night Guards in total, a little short, send all the Jia family's guards out."

The entire camp was in motion, preparing in the first half of the night, finishing before 10 p.m., and then resting immediately. Half an hour later, in the dead silence of the night, Ye Bushou quietly left the camp, wrapped his horse's hooves with sackcloth, and quietly moved towards the enemy camp.

Considering that the two of them would command the battle tomorrow, Jia Lian asked them to go back to sleep, and he stayed behind to wait for Ye Bu to come back for the attack.

When there was no one around, Jia Lian stood at the highest point of the hillside, feeling the night wind, and felt it difficult to calm down.

The camps of the grassland tribes were rather sloppy. It was not that they did not know how to set up camp, but that they did not have the conditions. The robbers did not bring many tools, so it was difficult to dig trenches. After a day of digging, they could only barely dig a trench one meter wide and one meter deep outside the camp. In order to prevent night raids and fire attacks, many mobile sentries were placed outside the trenches, and many fires were lit. Some people rested around the fires, and some rode on horseback to keep watch. The people who did not close the camp at night came to cause trouble, so they had no intention of attacking the camp. They quietly approached within a hundred steps and raised their carbines. The fires made it easier to aim, and the mobile cavalry sentries were targets.

"Bang, bang, bang!" Continuous gunfire rang out, and patrolling cavalrymen were shot and fell to the ground. Those near the fire quickly lay down. This was the experience learned after suffering a loss. Ye Bushou took the opportunity to speed up and rushed forward. After 20 steps, he pulled his horse back, took out a grenade from his bag, lit it with a fire starter, and threw it towards the fire.

"Boom boom boom!" Continuous explosions sounded, and the people lying on the ground dared not come out. A lot of the fire was blown away, and sparks lit up the night like blooming flowers.

Similar things just happened almost at the same time in different places. It seemed that there were night raiders harassing everywhere.

By the time the enemy reacted, Ye Bushou had already run far away.

The sleeping people were awakened by the explosion and came out to see what happened. By the time they figured out what happened, an hour had passed. What else could they do? It was the middle of the night and they had to continue sleeping.

Just as the people in the camp fell asleep, there was suddenly another round of banging noises outside. This time there were no casualties, but people saw fireworks coming towards them and firecrackers being set off in the distance.

After another half an hour, everyone went to sleep again. At four o'clock in the morning, Ye Bu Shou came up again quietly. This time it was a little special because everyone was carrying a long pole. Pay attention to the head of this thing. Those who know the business can tell at a glance that it is a Konkolev rocket, which is specially used for setting fires.

How can I describe the power of this thing? It is not very powerful and its accuracy is not guaranteed. Its biggest use on the battlefield is to scare the horses of the enemy cavalry.

Ye Bushou and the Jia family's guards formed a team of ten people. They used a very simple wooden tripod as a launching platform. After it was ignited, it made a whooshing sound. According to the rules, they were really worried that they would fly out of the trajectory of the Indian missile.

Fortunately, the tragedy of Brownian motion did not happen. These rockets successfully flew to the enemy's camp. This was mainly because the enemy's camp was large enough and the distance at which the rockets flew was only three hundred steps away.

After six or seven hundred rockets were fired, everyone began to retreat, and the rest depended on luck.

I can only say that my luck was average. More than 600 rockets flew into the camp and set seven or eight tents on fire, which was better than nothing. But I didn't seek results in the first place, I just came to harass them.

The enemy had been prepared for the possibility of a fire in the camp. After the rain-like explosions woke up the entire camp, soldiers kept coming out to see the situation and joined the firefighting efforts.

Li Ni's central camp was not affected too much, only the outer camps were harassed. However, the noise was so loud every time that no one could sleep well.

Finally it was daybreak, and the damned Ye Bushou calmed down. When Li Ni and the other princes got up and met, they looked at each other and all had dark circles under their eyes.

"Let's continue to rest today and let the people below be prepared for nighttime harassment!" Li Ni's headache was about to explode. Why was Jia Lian so cunning in fighting?
When it comes to fighting, Li Ni really has no experience. His strength is in forming cliques and factions.

Just when several princes felt unprepared and did not have enough confidence to launch an attack on Jia Lian's left army, one of his men came running over quickly: "Jia's troops have left the camp!"

"What?" Li Ni was so shocked that he thought he didn't sleep well last night and had hallucinations.

"Yes, the report from the reconnaissance cavalry ahead made it very clear."

"Damn it! Order all units to prepare for battle. Let's go out and take a look first."

Li Ni and a group of princes, with their respective guards, left the central army camp and rushed forward. When they saw the situation outside Wulipu clearly, they were sure that Jia Lian had indeed taken the initiative to attack.

"My God, they don't stay in the camp and come out to fight a positional battle. This is too abnormal." Li Ni said to himself and immediately realized in his heart, could it be that the hidden agents in the capital have taken action?

Don't tell me, don't tell me, that bunch of corrupt officials, gangsters, and professional rebels, it's definitely not possible for them to fight a positional war, they are all experts at making trouble among a crowd.

Or did the Prince of Dongping receive the news from Zhangjiakou and could not help but take action, and the emperor forced Jia Lian to end the war in the northwest as soon as possible?
This shouldn't be the case. Our army clearly has an advantage in manpower and its mobility is far superior to that of our opponents.

"Look!" King Lin Dan exclaimed, and when everyone looked forward, they found that the flag of the left army commander was raised, and the Zhou army was methodically arranged in a semi-combat formation and advancing slowly.

Watching the phalanxes moving forward, everyone was sure that this was not an illusion. Even though they were still marching, it would only take a moment at most to fully deploy into battle formation.

"Quick, notify all units to assemble!" Li Ni turned back without saying a word.

After Jia Lian's troops had advanced about seven miles, he ordered the central army to sound the flag and deploy in full battle formation.

The Shenji Camp was in the center, with the Xishan Camp's troops standing on the left and right. Although the whole camp did not move, its momentum was still as overwhelming as Mount Tai.

The various tribes on the grassland also completed the battle formation, but the connection between the tribes was not so tight. Since they were all cavalry, this was not a big problem.

The problem is that Li Ni is struggling internally at the moment, wondering whether to fight a decisive battle?
"Everyone, if you are not ready, I suggest you retreat and not fight him!"

In any case, Li Ni felt that now was not the time for a decisive battle. Although he did not understand military affairs, he could move people's hearts, especially those of the Great Zhou.

It's a pity that he doesn't understand the hearts of the people in the grassland.

"Your Majesty, we can't retreat. This retreat may lead to a great defeat!" Bahamas' words were unpleasant to the ear, but they made sense. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Your Majesty, you can't hesitate!" King Lin Dan also meant this and urged. Although the prince of the Chahar tribe didn't say anything, his eyes were firm.

The reason is simple. If we don't defeat Jia Lian's reinforcements, we can't rob properly. They came here to rob. If they can't take anything back, how can they live in the future? The people are going to rebel!
"In that case, let's fight! Inform Wen Naxing that the east is in his hands, and transfer another 10,000 troops back as a reserve. King Lin Dan and the Chahar tribe will be in the middle, and the Bahamas will go up from the west."

Li Ni quickly assigned tasks. King Lindan and King Chahar frowned, but did not intend to refute. They knew that in this situation, if they refuted, they would be doomed to a great defeat.

The reason is very simple. Whether in terms of manpower or mobility, they have the advantage. If they dare not fight when they are outnumbered by two to one, how can they fight in the future?
How can we happily rob if we don't even dare to fight? Once we retreat, what if the follow-up reinforcements from Datong, Juyongguan, and the capital arrive?
No matter how you look at it, this is a good opportunity for a fight, and it is a flaw that the opponent has revealed on his own initiative. If you miss it, most of the simple-minded grassland soldiers will not reason with you.

(End of this chapter)