Chapter 43: Battle Clouds (3)

"Based on the scout report and other intelligence summary, the General Staff made the following analysis and judgment on Yan's forces.

Yan Ni has a total of 25 guards, including the ones stationed in Daning, including the Daning Zhongwei, Xincheng Wei, Yingzhou Qianwei, Yingzhou Right Guard, Fang Kuan as the main general; Andong Zhongtun Wei Wei Wei

Huailai Guards were stationed in Xuanfu, with Wang Zhong as the main general; Jizhou Guards, Zunhua Guards, Tongzhou Guards were stationed in Kaiping and Luanzhou, and Fang Sheng was the main general. Zhuolu Guards, Lulong Guards, Wuqing Guards, and Funing Guards were stationed in Beiping and Zhuozhou, with Zhang Xin as the main general.

Yan Ni's mobile troops were the most elite guards, with a total of eleven, Yanshan Sanwei and Yanshan Forewarts, Duoyan Sanwei and Bohai Guards, as well as Miyun Guards, Yanqing Guards, and Longqing Guards, with about 55,000 troops.

The goal of this entry into the pass was Yan Ni's mobile troops. The combat method was to siege the city and attack reinforcements, use Kaiping and Luanzhou as bait to lure Yan Ni to lead his army to rescue him, and then use our main force to intercept the attack halfway through the way to defeat Yan Ni's mobile troops.

"Tie Xuan introduced the large array of combat plans, and the guards below immediately discussed it.

Tie Xuan drank a sip of water and said, "In order to achieve this combat goal, our army has secretly mobilized the Dingliaon guards of the Goryeo Army. The two Gaizhou guards were transported to Shanhaiguan by sea. It is estimated that the two are disembarking.

In this battle, our Liaodong Army mobilized thirteen guards, including three armies. The specific arrangements are as follows: the four infantry guards, Dingliao Right Guard, Fuzhou Guard, Gaizhou Guard, and Dingliao rear guard are responsible for besieging Kaiping.

Ningyuan Guard, Guangning Central Guard, Yulin Right Guard was the Central Guard, responsible for facing the reinforcements of Beiping, Ding Liao Zhonggu, Guangning Left Guard was the Right Guard, Lalu Guard, and 30,000 Guards were the Left Guard. After weakening Yan Ni's spirit, the Central Guard and then threw themselves into the battlefield and defeated them in one fell swoop.

Shenyang Central Guard is the General Reserve Team of the Central Army. Do you know? What else is there?"

Tie Xuan had just finished speaking, and there was a lot of discussion below. Young generals like Katun were full of excitement on their faces. Tie Xuan asked again: "Is there any problem?" Everyone answered together: "No problem!"

Zhu Zhi stood up and everyone immediately calmed down. Zhu Zhi said, "This battle attack is a place where Yan Ni must rescue him. Once Kaiping is lost, there is no danger to defend 200 miles east of Hebei.

So Yan Ni will definitely lead the army to rescue him, and I also believe that this is the day that the fourth brother has been waiting for for a long time. I think this is the day that you all here are looking forward to! This decisive battle with Yan Ni.

I hope you will work hard and strive for the first place. I will be the one who is in charge of playing drums for you!”

All the generals knelt down on the ground in unison, shouting together: "Try to fight the enemy bravely and swear to defeat Yan Ni."

...

Daoyan, Zhang Xin, Zhang Yu, Zhu Neng, Qiu Fu and other confidants were recruited into the study by Zhu Di.

Zhu Di handed Fang Sheng’s letter of help and said, “This is the second letter. What do you think?” The letter of help was sent to everyone and circulated. Look at me. I see that you have nothing to say.

After a while, Zhu Di smiled and said, "Why, are you all afraid?"

Zhu Neng also smiled and said, "I, Zhu Neng, started to climb with His Highness at the age of fifteen and were afraid of death."

Zhu Di said: "Then what's hard to say?"

Zhang Yu said: "Then let me tell you what I think first. The Southern Army was newly defeated and its troops were almost exhausted. The court sent an official like Yang Jing to Liaodong to urge the King of Liao to send troops, which was a plan to surround Wei and save Zhao.

Yu thought that our army should not be too entangled with Liaodong. He should take advantage of the great victory and go south to take advantage of Yingtian. As long as we capture Yingtian, the world will make an edict."

Daoyan nodded and said, "General Zhang said very well, and I agree that the imperial court has lost its skills. Although Xu Huizu is currently appointed as the commander, his troops are in decline and he is no longer enough to defend him. Your Highness only needs to choose a breakthrough point to drive his army south.

It is determined to be like a stunning momentum. If you go back and get entangled with the King of Liao, you may lose the opportunity to fight.”

The two of them were both literary and military, and they were the most trusted person in front of Zhu Di's tent. When they said this, the others stopped talking and looked at Zhu Di in a monopoly manner. Zhu Di slowly got up, walked to the window and looked at the scenery in the garden, but he didn't look at it for a long time.

Daoyan understood Zhu Di's habits very well. Every time he fought, he would test his subordinates' tone first. Look at everyone's wishes and reasons, but in fact he had already had the idea in his heart.

He will find criticism or more sufficient reasons to convince them based on his subordinates' opinions.

Zhu Di turned around and said, "You have fought for a year and have made outstanding achievements. The great cause of Jingnan has begun to appear. But do you really think Yingtian is within your control?" Look at me, I look at you, don't know what to say.

Zhu Di said: "I started a war against the will of heaven. Fortunately, the emperor is foolish and the treacherous ministers are unrighteous. I won the righteous army repeatedly and won the current foundation.

But everyone must see that although the imperial court suffered repeated heavy damage, the lean camel was bigger than the horse. Xu Huizu was quite capable and gathered 200,000 troops to defend Jinan Dezhou, which could not be stopped for a while.

Moreover, the Liaodong army was full of food and was eyeing each other. If our army went south and was trapped under the river and the strong city, the fifteenth on the other side took advantage of our empty rear to attack and occupy Peiping, and internal and external affairs would be in danger.

Therefore, if you want to win the title of Yingtian, you must solve the problem of Lao Shiwu, a confidant.

Last year, when the battle between Shahe River was in trouble, I was confused for a while and fell into the fifteenth plan, which led to a loss. I have always remembered this revenge and did not avenge this. How can our Yan army raise our heads in front of the Liaodong army in the future?

Therefore, I thought this battle would be inevitable, and our army must fight and win it, and wipe out the main force of Liaodong, so that we can go south without any worries and compete for the Central Plains." After that, my eyes glanced at everyone present, with their eyes as if they were torched.

Zhang Yu first replied: "Since your highness has made up your mind, there is nothing else to say to the last general. He can only do his best to assist Your Highness in defeating the enemy in Liaodong." After that, several generals said together: "I will listen to your Highness's order."

...

On the eighth day of the eighth month, a sunny day. The gates of Shanhaiguan were opened wide, and the troops of the Liaodong Army were constantly opening out of the pass.

Various flags were waving, "Shahe Tiger Ben" and "Guanning Iron Cavalry" were flying at the forefront of the team; after the training, the Liaodong army was full of fighting spirit, and each soldier had a desire for victory written on his face; behind each guard soldiers were a team of four-wheeled carriages, loaded with supplies, food and grass, and were continuously flowing; the cavalry rolled up smoke and dust on the official road, covering the sky and the sun.

After the Liaodong Army entered the pass, the troops immediately divided into two groups. Guanning Army captured Yongping and Liaoxi Army rushed towards Changli. However, there were no Yan troops in the two cities. They retreated as early as the end of July, leaving only some county officials to maintain order.

The Liaodong army occupied two cities without bloodshed. The two armies rested for a day, and then gathered towards Luanzhou.

This time the battle into the pass was very different from that of Yang Wen. Last time, the Yan army sent a small group of troops along the way to harass and fight back, but this time it was like birds and beasts scattered, and the Liaodong Army advanced without any effort.

When the Liaoxi Army commanded by Qu Neng arrived on the bank of the Luan River, he finally saw the Yan army flag. The Zunhua Guard flag was flying on the city gate of Luanzhou. It seemed that the Yan army planned to start dealing with each other from here.

The Liaoxi Army was not in a hurry to cross the river, but instead set up camp beside the river and rested for two days.

On the morning of the third day, the flags of the upper reaches of the Luan River rolled, and the flags of the Guanning Army also appeared. They crossed the Luan River upstream and went downstream. When they saw the Guanning Army arrive, Qu Nengcai ordered the baggage camp to build a floating bridge for a day and night.

Two large, three small and five floating bridges. On August 13th, the Liaoxi Army crossed the Luan River under the cover of Guanning Army, and the two armies merged to surround Luanzhou and blocked water.

The Liaodong army besieged the city was not in a hurry to attack, but rested for two days to usher in the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Liaodong army killed pigs and sheep and held a banquet. The lanterns in the joint camp outside the Luanzhou City were dotted, giving a peaceful atmosphere of festivals.

The Yan army in the city did not have such idle intentions to celebrate the festival. In the second half of the night, they sent 300 suicide squads to siege the camp and rob the village, but they were ambushed by the Liaodong army.

At dawn the next day, the attack orders were issued to the Luanzhou area and the guards were reached. The sun had just risen. The horns of the joint camp outside the city were ringing. The Liaodong army teams left the camp in an orderly manner and advanced towards the preset position.

At the time of the Chen Dynasty, Zhu Zhi slowly walked up to the generals at the east gate of the city, surrounded by many generals. Zhu Zhi sat down on the middle tiger-skin chair. He was three floors high and one meter above the ground. He was able to see the situation on the battlefield.

The station was about 800 steps away from the city gate. Zhu Zhi was estimated to be 600 meters away. There were 100 meters of troops in front of him. The Dingliao Right Guard unhurriedly launched the lineup.

The front floor is a twenty-four smoothbore cannons installed in front, which are lined up three hundred steps away from the city gate, just within the direct shooting distance, followed by forty-eight short and concise mortars; there is a thousand-house musketeer on both sides of the smoothbore cannon, with both wings facing the city gate at a twenty-degree angle.

Form a cross firepower; the second floor is a team of four thousand clans and knives mixed with guns and cards. Responsible for protecting the artillery. Once a military horse in the city breaks out, they will quickly rush out of the gaps in the cannon.

The formation was assembled into a formation, and the last row was a thousand muskets riding a horse. At this time, they were responsible for defending Zhu Zhi on the stage. This was the most powerful firearm guard of the Liaodong Army, and it also spent countless money to pile up modern troops.

Deng Tianhai, the commander of the Dingliao Right Guard, stood respectfully, aiming at Zhu Zhi and Qu Neng. Qu Neng nodded, and Deng Tianhai immediately ordered the command of the troops to pass down the order for artillery preparation.

Not long after, there was a loud bang in front, and a caliber projectile took the way out and landed at a distance of fifteen steps on the left side of the city gate. The powerful kinetic energy of the shell hit the brick and soil mixed wall and stone chips suddenly flew across the city wall.

The proofreader was ambushed two hundred steps away from the city and immediately gave information backwards in flag language. He used thousands of households in the artillery field to rush to the ground, raised his sleeves, and adjusted the angle and direction personally.

Another shot was shot out, but the shot hit the city gate steadily. With a muffled sound, Zhu Zhi seemed to see the city gate shaking.

The artillery battalion stipulates that excellent gunners must shoot within three guns at a direct shooting distance of 300 steps. There are countless pairs of eyes behind them, including the King of Liao, who are watching. Fortunately, the second gun hit the target, and Qianhu finally breathed a long sigh.

Then he passed the shelling moment to the surrounding gunners with some smugness.

Seeing that the artillery battalion was ready, Qu Neng issued a new order. The two thousand households of Fuzhou Guards on the right slowly advanced with the drum beats. The position on the left was the two thousand households of Guangning's left guards.

The left and right armies slowly advanced to a distance of two hundred steps from the city to stop, and here they will be outside the range of the hard crossbow shooting at the top of the city.
Chapter completed!