Chapter 125: Hooked
In the 6th month of the 36th year of the Shu Tian Calendar, the perspective under heaven was focused on Emperor Shu leading the army north, the Da Yao fiefdoms actively responding, and the major events of False Hao and Wei Guan joining hands.
And from the Yao Capital in the east, came this group of “unscrupulous” forces, beginning to break the status quo.
Military Strategy states “Place them in a deadly position and then they will live.” From a purely military perspective, the Eastern Market Army showed no signs of entering a “deadly position.” And precisely because of this, Zhao Cheng in the east didn’t notice the existence of this destructive force at all.
But from an individual perspective, every member of the Eastern Market Army was already in a “deadly position.”
Last year, those few cowards who retreated, right after getting home, were impeached by the Censor and then demoted to commoners. After he set out on campaign, they mysteriously died violent deaths, serving as a warning to all the dandies about what the outcome would be if they didn’t make a name for themselves before returning.
Among them, the rope-pullers from the Da Yao Capital City as the lower ranks in the army—this year was the happiest time for them; they went from being spat on by prostitutes to becoming existences who could trample these high-class playthings at will; and after gaining power, they also took revenge on the tooth men who had once bullied them—these tooth men all had martial world forces behind them, so once the Eastern Market Army lost power, their fates would be extremely miserable.
And the middle ranks of the Eastern Market Army were overly arrogant, offending many people in the Yao Capital; these noble family disciples who had tasted the flavor of power and were then “forced” out of the city—if they couldn’t achieve anything, upon returning they would be hidden away by their families, followed by endless ridicule.
As for the top leader Wu Fei, he came alone to the north, spent all his money, and in outsiders’ eyes, he also couldn’t afford to lose. Wu Xiao Que: Of course he can’t afford to lose; if he loses, I’ll go crazy. If I go crazy, I’ll default on debts and walk away.
And Da Yao in the north had just fallen into a “Zhenlong Chess Game”; at the Da Yao border, fiefdoms like Zhu Liqiang were currently under suspicion from the Emperor, busy integrating local noble families to gain support, urgently short on prestige, unable to withstand any “loss” that would bring a blow to their reputation.
And the Dragon Descendant left here by Haotian also had certain contradictions with the local noble families, so he couldn’t mobilize full strength.
At this time, how should this chess game be broken?
…Xuan Chong: Need to use the method of the Great Han Chess Sage.…
Early in the 6th month, Wu Fei showed off the peacock he brought from the south. That night, brilliant light burst forth, then it hid in the main military tent; soldiers in the camp spread rumors that this was an auspicious sign.
At the same time, he summoned Nine Phoenix; Wu Fei warned the peacock: “Don’t go out these few days.”
The peacock was very obedient, like an old hen brooding, drilling into a concealment spot in the city.
On the other side, Wu Fei had Nine Phoenix crow at dawn in Lu Jiao City, then flap its wings and fly south for a stroll.
The reason for this was that Wu Fei knew there were Haotian scouts near Zhu Liqiang.
And Wu Fei knew that Haotian scouts had already scouted that he had a large flying bird mount, so he had Nine Phoenix fly back and forth, creating the illusion that he was still in the south seeking aid from Zhu Liqiang, causing a strategic misjudgment.
As for hiding the peacock well in the city, and revealing itself when necessary, to make the opponent produce chain misjudgments. Just like when Zhang Fei fought old man Yan Yan, using a body double technique.
The Eastern Market Army’s early “mine cart hitting” tactic had already made the Hao Army main force pour out from Huangyu City.
From several captives who slipped out of the northern cities, Wu Fei could know that the Haotian Dragon Descendant was now preparing for a decisive battle, so the troops in the Bo Prefecture occupied area had been drawn down, extremely empty.
…Perspective switch to the Haotian side…
Dragon Descendant Governor Su Dong was looking at the 5,000-strong army gathered before him, three large camps front and back, dragging a full seven or eight li; during the march, Su Dong’s army split into front, middle, and rear, advancing ten kilometers per day, pressing forward like a caterpillar.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go faster, but the military supplies needed to be moved bit by bit; in this marching formation, the camps were set up on one side and dismantled on the other.
The vanguard camping was easy to understand, while the rear tents were packed and moved forward to the front camp.
Finally, as the army passed, the camp only left a few fences and shacks for the subsequent laborers to rest.
And looking at the entire army from head to tail, the vanguard’s armor was neat, five jade lions arrayed in order, undoubtedly a majestic torrent.
At the rear of the Hao Army, the small tent camps formed by laborers were like mushrooms on rotting wood after rain—seemingly neatly arranged at first glance, but upon closer look, just like the caterpillar formation, they only moved after the front tents broke camp, and if the front tents were still there, even if they overslept, they wouldn’t hurriedly “cut in line” to leave.
Su Dong wasn’t anxious, because Lu Jiao City was right there, it couldn’t escape.
Su Dong expressed to his left and right generals: He very much wanted to see the expression of that “sneaky” southern barbarian general from southern Da Yao east when facing his army coming to punish.
And Su Dong guessed in his heart that when the Yao Army’s young general was caught by him, he would be dazed, regretting endlessly the decision over these two months to use “little tricks” to sneak attack the Hao Army. —Note: When Wu Fei met Zhu Liqiang, he called himself little brother, this was blabbed out by Zhu family army guards while drinking, evaluating Wu Fei as having no beard on his mouth.
As a veteran general tempered on the battlefield for seven or eight years, Su Dong didn’t think the young dandy sparrow general sent by Da Yao had much ability. (Wu Fei: My military service is?)
In the main camp, he looked at the Yao Army movements just scouted on the map, knowing that the Yao Army vanguard officer sent from Lu Jiao City was waiting on orders twenty kilometers ahead of his vanguard.
The Yao Army vanguard officer ran back to Lu Jiao City like a little rabbit as soon as chased. Su Dong despised these rats.
However, he didn’t know that less than ten li further north, the main force led by Wu Fei had already brushed past him; and during this process, dragon horse cavalry were sent nonstop day and night to suppress his scouts, not letting him learn a single bit of information.
Thus, in this way, the flying-like Wu Fei had already circled behind with 3,000 main force, followed by over 10,000 laborer corps carrying only three days of food and grass.
Compared to the Hao Army’s laborers transporting food and grass behind the vanguard, Wu Fei gave the laborers no burden at all; all military supplies were calculated and advanced directly following the vanguard legion’s wooden ox and flowing horse, while the laborers were instead lightly equipped, bits in mouths, arrayed in hurried march.
In this way, ensuring the whole army maintained a uniform fast speed.
…Fast and slow dividing line…
In the forced march, Wu Fei took a deep breath, and based on the deviation in the starlight in the sky, precisely determined how far he had traveled, and mentally reconstructed the map.
During the march, Wu Fei found a sandy area and directly drew the map on it; when the map was finished, the non-commissioned officers who received the message also arrived right on time. Drawing the map didn’t waste anyone’s time.
Wu Fei used the horse whip to point at the westernmost city, carefully analyzed to his subordinate generals, and determined to first attack Donglei Ferry.
Regarding Wu Fei’s free campaign lecture, most generals expressed “complete obedience,” but currently only three in ten were carefully following Wu Fei’s train of thought. On one hand, this group had no intention of independent thinking; on the other, they were superstitious about Wu Fei’s reliability. Of course, more thoughts were: after so many days, as long as they didn’t stay holed up in Lu Jiao City, it was fine.
As for after the main force left, Lu Jiao City only had 200 elites as garrison, the rest all able-bodied men—could they hold it?
Lu Jiao City could not only strike north on flat plains, but also retreat by sea, and back against mountains several kilometers south, it was a good defensive place.
Hmm, why is backing against mountains good for defense? Mountains inside can hide guerrilla teams.
Wu Fei set up three laborer camps there, about 1,000 people, mostly disciples of great Bo Prefecture families who fled to the mountains. Wu Fei personally followed locals to select some caves in the mountains to stockpile food and grass and hide soldiers. This meant that when the enemy army besieged the city, they had to worry whether ambush troops would emerge from the southern mountains.
Even if this laborer troop came down beating gongs, drums, and firing cannons, the besieging Hao Army camp still had to prepare for being raided. —As for searching the mountains? Sieging a city needs five or six thousand elites, searching mountains even 100,000 couldn’t handle it.
Of course, this good place in Wu Fei’s eyes was somewhere these capital camp non-commissioned officers didn’t want to stay for a moment.
Because the sleeping place was a dirt bed piled full of straw, and the straw inside was full of lice.
For example, the neighboring cavalry captain Li Xiaorong who was using the walking dogs tactic against the Hao Army commented on Lu Jiao City’s washing conditions this way: This lord’s beard in the capital was wiped three times daily by maidservants (he’s bragging, that’s his eldest legitimate brother’s treatment); this morning when getting up, he found it had been made into a nest by bugs! Relatively speaking, achieving merit in wind and frost is also hardship; this lord would rather be here.
Back to this temporary sand table map, Wu Fei with a tone cold as a machine, issued tasks to all officers and soldiers.
These officers and soldiers each signed military orders. Prepared for the upcoming battlefield killing.
…”Enter, deploy, take” rhythm begins…
June 16th, Donglei Ferry, this was a small earthen city with four-zhang-high city walls; in the city, as usual every day, city gates opened at cockcrow in the morning, closed at sunset.
Most city guards followed this regulation; basically, this rule was like a door hinge—without external collision, it would hold for a long time. But there were always sudden events needing the regulation to bend.
Every month, Donglei Ferry had merchants coming; merchants would transport away local sea goods and bring in cotton cloth. However, today when merchants entered the city it was already 4 PM, and then during entry, the axle broke; the merchants took out money, asking the gate officer to make an exception and let them repair the cart. The gate officer, seeing the silver money, didn’t drive away these merchants, which also made the city gates unable to close for a while.
However, at this moment, a burst of sand and dust rose from the east, the city dimmed, merchants blocked at the city gate kept shaking bells and shouting.
But in this shouting, the “da da da” sound seemed to come from far to near, getting closer.
A few gate soldiers sensed the crisis, but when trying to report to the city battlement and sound the horn, it was already too late—they were directly knocked down by the “merchants” at the gate.
When the dust cleared, knights holding repeating guns had arrived at the gate; the merchants hurriedly overturned the blocking large carts, the earthenware pots bound with straw rope on the carts were thrown aside, then the emptied large carts were directly pushed away; the merchants no longer had their previous cautious posture of “small business,” quickly clearing the goods, opening a road for the Yao Army entry cavalry.
This group of soldiers arrived at the city wall, shooting dead on the spot the garrison trying to resist with sabers, “bang bang” gunshots accompanied by the twisted sound of armor being shattered.
The shotgun blast demonstrated: within ten steps, fast and good; surviving soldiers immediately obediently dropped their sabers and spears, squatting in the wall corner waiting to be dealt with.
The city wall was taken within time for three incense sticks; subsequent battle soldiers rushing into the city divided into squads by flags, separately occupying warehouses full of supplies, then an iron armor assault troop rushed to where the city lord was.
This assault troop’s squad leader arrived at the city lord’s mansion.
In this two-courtyard eastern mansion building, the Yao Army confirmed: household registers and other government office governance materials were in the rooms on both sides of the mansion; the inner courtyard with the high platform building was just a place for seeking pleasure. Then they grabbed the clerks, reconfirming the daily office was not at that luxurious high platform. Wu Hong looked at the four-story high tower with tightly shut doors and grinned fiercely, calling his subordinates to fetch firewood.
When the firewood piled full the gate, almost becoming a cushion for jumping off the building, the city lord timidly shouted from upstairs: Don’t set fire! Then opened the city gate, surrendered himself and begged for mercy.
…Stolen city, smells so good…
Outside the city, Wu Fei who was borrowing the east wind, seeing the flag high on the city battlement, snapped his fingers; Vermilion Bird Fire flashed on his hand, the peacock circling high in the sky flapped wings and hid in the clouds.
Wu Fei personally entered the city to constrain order, mainly to control these battle soldiers. Sure enough in the city, after these battle soldiers took the area per plan, they had thoughts about the full city’s supplies.
“These unspoken thoughts of the subordinates,” Wu Fei understood all, and had calculated them all with an abacus, registering a clear merit account.
Wu Fei quickly named the non-commissioned officer who first entered the city, giving him two choices: one, stay to inventory goods; two, continue combat, divide tasks later; this non-commissioned officer from the capital was stunned, quickly asked to continue combat knowing the times.
Thus, Wu Fei selected a very reliable non-commissioned officer to take over Donglei Ferry, and gave him a usable name list.
Every name on the list had a box note “If undecided on xx matter, ask him.” This included several “spies” who tricked the gate; Wu Fei reminded to pay attention to these people, to keep and reuse them in this city later.
In another three hours, the subsequent able-bodied man troops would enter the city, rotating defense with the current main combat troops; these troops would assist this non-commissioned officer in guarding.
Wu Fei narrated to the selected non-commissioned officer: All goods and women, completely seal in the city lord’s mansion; you remember, not one goods seal missing, not one woman leaking, even dead leave the corpse.
After the rotation troops arrived outside the city, Wu Fei ran outside, under the gaze of the 3,000 rotation troops, emphasized again to the squad leaders the “captured goods guarding” issue; in the speech used words like “resolutely,” “certainly,” “transparent process,” “record entries and exits,” “responsibility to person,” etc.; finally granted this cooperative defense non-commissioned officer execution authority.
Wu Fei specially erupted killing intent, telling this guarding captured goods non-commissioned officer the severity of violating military orders. On this matter, wouldn’t just whip for the chaos found on streets during today’s inspection—really would kill. In the killing intent, all non-commissioned officers silently acknowledged this handling.
Four hours later, the Eastern Market Army vanguard battle soldiers completely handed city defense to the subsequent arriving laborers for defense; among the laborers, local noble family disciples began assisting governance and statistics of Dong Lei City supplies.
“Captured goods to public” wasn’t showmanship, but the core of combat power.
That is, maximally stimulate the merit-seeking initiative of the most combat-capable troops, quickly transfer garrison tasks to second- and third-line troops; this process sounds simple, but has some knack when doing.
How to make battle soldiers believe their spoils of war guarded by others no one dares steal?! —Wu Fei expressed understanding of the battle soldiers’ worries: 21st century normal people don’t even habit putting their mobile phone on strangers.
See, Wu Fei first explained to non-commissioned officers, then emphasized to rotation laborers, finally before battle soldiers exited the city, listed the city-inventoried goods and women numbers into a form, read publicly once, announced that after completing annihilation, return here to publicly inspect spoils of war!
On the drill ground, the battle soldiers who took the city confirmed Wu Fei was calculating so clearly, then boldly said they never doubted the Marshal. For battle soldiers, they just wanted Wu Xiao Que’s “one is one, two is two” attitude.
During the Eastern Market Army battle soldiers’ withdrawal, three laborers’ heads were hung on the city wall—these were for harassing women, not marching in formation, lingering before treasury sealing!
Chaotic times, heavy codes.
At this time, lingering near the treasury wasn’t even allowed, because lingering was “thinking”; second-line garrison troops now shouldn’t even have this bit of mind.
…Treating “morale” Wu Fei cared more than treating a girlfriend…
After the Dong Lei City battle, Wu Fei had no joy of “small victory.”
Under Wu Fei’s stern instruction, all non-commissioned officers also put away their “first battle victory” cockiness.
“Licking blood from the blade, walked the first step on a steel wire—what’s to be happy about! When the second step falls to pieces, is the first step’s success useful?” Wu Fei scolded these tail-raising non-commissioned officers, forcibly directing all non-commissioned officers’ gazes to the next step. Helping these guys who hadn’t fought before to awaken.
Wu Fei drew the map again on the muddy ground with his foot, throwing a question to the non-commissioned officers.
Wu Fei: “The Dong Lei City we now took is actually very unsafe; east is Su Dong who was originally coming to punish us; west are two other Dragon Descendant generals, Bai Jiawang, Jia Nantian.
Wu Fei used a grass stalk to point at the map: “Worst case is enemies will pinch us, but I think they won’t have such cooperation; ‘Dong Lei’ is Su Dong’s territory; after he learns we gutted his rear, he will definitely react first.”
Wu Fei looked at the many generals, said in a tempting voice: “Gentlemen, let’s seize the time, hit him again!”
Many non-commissioned officers nodded, all expressing great potential, thus began discussing how to plan the action.
Just like that, after just taking one city, the whole army’s action power didn’t decay, continued seeking the next one.
