Chapter 126: Wang Jia Du
After taking Dong Lei City, Wu Fei dispatched multiple teams of scouts to strictly monitor the movements of the surrounding cities.
After all, the deductions made on the map with the staff officers, no matter how perfect, were just simulations; the final tactical arrangements still had to be determined based on the intelligence gathered. And everything went as Wu Fei had anticipated: the two Dragon Descendant generals in the west held their positions and did not come to support in time. Meanwhile, the troops on Su Dong’s side showed some activity, as the direction of their large laborer troops’ convergence changed.
Wu Fei counted on his fingers and calculated carefully: “There are still ten days, but at most five days, until a wave of fish die net breaks. What are you (Su Dong) going to do?”
Wu Fei looked at the sand table map and placed the flag ahead of time on an official road behind Su Dong’s corps. The other end of this official road was called Sheng Yan City. He looked at the map with the eyes of a hunter awaiting the harvest of his trap.
…Faction Switch Dividing Line…
On June 18, Su Dong, who had just advanced to the area forty kilometers from Lu Jiao City, received bad news. Although at this moment, riding his Dragon Horse, he could even see the flags on Lu Jiao City from the air, at that very time, an urgent report came from the rear: his supply depot at Dong Lei had been taken out by the Yao Army.
He thought it was fake, but more and more messages followed from the main camp, along with batches of people who escaped back.
The news seemed real, but by the time Su Dong realized it was true, he suddenly discovered that the news had already inevitably spread.
In fact, even if he wanted to seal off the news, he had no chance.
After Dong Lei City was breached, Wu Fei deliberately let the soldiers outside the captive camp proudly discuss how “our side only sent five hundred men” to plunder this city.
At the same time, in the middle of the night, there was another “lax supervision” of the captives, allowing them to escape in batches to report back.
The many topics that Wu Fei had the guarding soldiers discuss were toned like twenty-first-century marketing accounts: “shocking,” “you absolutely won’t believe” rhythms with titles. They couldn’t fool veterans, but they would definitely hook some fools. With enough hooked fools spreading it chaotically, it would influence the average ones, then more groups. This was called “information stampede” in later times.
This kind of Military Strategist’s “little trick” could only be used on weaklings who lacked disciplinary measures.
And now, Wu Fei was confident that the opponent was a weakling, because the Hao Army in each prefecture were not under unified command, and that Great General who made Da Yao’s fifteen-route army return defeated was not here.
After Su Dong returned to the main camp, morale was in panic. The officers and soldiers split into two factions: one advocated immediately turning back to retake Dong Lei, while the other was Su Dong’s confidants, who felt they could not return empty-handed. After all, this offensive was pushed by Su Dong; returning defeated would seriously damage this Dragon Descendant’s prestige, and consequently cause many investments from forces that joined him to go down the drain.
Su Dong observed the current situation and decided on two points of departure: first, quickly take Lu Jiao City; second, dispatch a general to take an official road on the southwest side, return to Sheng Yan City to gather enough food and grass, and support the main army.
In the military tent, the numerous generals and advisors looked at each other. Soon, someone indirectly raised an objection.
Advisor A: “Marshal, although taking the southern road can provide supplies for our army, the southern region is close to Zhu Family Army (Zhu Li Wang). Won’t we…?”
What Su Dong wanted now was authority, so he immediately denied it: “Absolutely impossible. The pig head doesn’t dare come dig at us!”
Before the next advisor could ask, Su Dong drew his knife, reinforcing the reasonableness of his judgment: “Based on the current intelligence, the small city in the east was just seized by a group of people. It’s not a big problem!”
Then he gave his son a look.
His son Su Zhe: “The southern region is just a band of small thieves. It only needs a thousand elite soldiers to extinguish them. Father, I am willing to take a military order to retake Dong Lei and stabilize the morale.”
Su Dong: “Your remaining courage is commendable, but I order you to take three thousand troops (eight hundred elites with a large number of farmers) to Sheng Yan City to transport grain.”
…Perspective Switch…
Yao Army battle soldiers heading south from Donglei Ferry, now the column was temporarily resting. The temporary campaign seminar was held by a large stone on the riverbank.
Wu Fei squatted by the new version of the dirt map he drew on the ground. After receiving the information that Su Dong’s corps had split its forces in the south, he stood up and pointed to the place called Wang Jia Du, issuing the order: “The whole army accelerates to Wang Jia Du.”
As one non-commissioned officer after another received the orders, the troops resting by the river immediately began carrying weapons and ammunition, moving in unison. — Footsteps were uniform. Hooves were also orderly, passing through the roads reserved in the column.
During the march, Wu Fei received the latest message from “spy”: the one leading the army was Su Dong’s third son, Su Zhe!
In Bo Prefecture, Dragon Descendants were first-class citizens, often despising Yao Army soldiers as cowardly, such as Zhu Dali’s army. As for Hao State’s own Great General Zhao Cheng, the Dragon Descendants evaluated him as “sly in using troops.” As for Su Zhe, he was evaluated as brave and decisive.
Regarding such blatantly biased praise, Wu Fei shook his head. Especially a few hours later, when scouts detected Su Zhe hurriedly bringing his troops, without deploying sufficient scout formations on both wings, Wu Fei thought: This is blatantly a naked newbie.
Then Wu Fei paused and evaluated in a mild tone: Hmm, maybe too smooth, unaware of the dangers of the battlefield.
Wu Fei thought that any war he fought was quite dangerous for both himself and the enemy.
The marching flags moved swiftly on the strategic map. Wu Fei arrived at the predetermined location ten hours early. Entering this “campaign map,” Wu Fei deployed troops at the ferry crossing.
…War is perilous, either death or injury…
Su Zhe’s troops stretched a kilometer, howling as they arrived at the river crossing. Due to the large number of troops, the dust raised by the front obscured the sky for those following behind, who could only see the tails swaying on the horse rumps.
Su Zhe was at the very front. He looked at the great river ahead and asked the guide: “Why is there no road?”
The guiding cavalry: “General, there is a ferry crossing ahead with several bamboo rafts. Of course, our army can also ford the water.”
Su Zhe frowned. He looked at his chaotic troops behind. By now he already felt that the column needed reorganization; dragging it here had already made large parts of the troops disorganized. If they crossed like this, the column would scatter even more. — But reorganizing to cross the river would take several hours. If people on the opposite shore saw, would they tip off the Yao People?
At this moment, Su Zhe was like some people who feel their shoelace is loose before boarding the bus. Once squeezed onto the bus, it would get looser from being stepped on, but should they squat down to tie it now? The bus doesn’t wait.
Su Zhe decided to lead the team across the river first himself.
Half a shichen later, the turbulent cold river water impacted the horses’ legs. Su Zhe’s boots were also splashed wet by the waves, but in the end, he urged his horse and brought three hundred men across the river.
But as he crossed, a burst of cannon fire came from the horizon. Two li upstream, large corps emerged rustling from the shrubbery on the bank, and bamboo rafts appeared in the river, also filled with soldiers holding firearms and halberds.
Wu Fei: Newbies all make the same mistake: rushing.
Like Tang Du’ao back then, this Su Zhe had also come too hastily, fixating on this nearest ferry at Wang Jia Du, without sending people to search other small swimming areas upstream.
…There’s a rank gap…
In this campaign, Wu Fei took the initiative to cross the river, occupy the high ground above Wang Jia Du, and prepare to fight a field battle with the enemy’s cavalry coming from afar.
After all, it was the first battle. Although rehearsed countless times on the training ground, facing the enemy’s regular army, would there be “cowardice in the face of the enemy” and rout?
Wu Fei’s first time leading troops was with laborers, and he was physically weak then, unable to suppress those camp team captains, so — he had always been guarding against the army disobeying.
Therefore, fighting after crossing the river was to let this great river block the desire of the three thousand able-bodied men he brought to retreat.
It seemed like imitating the battle at the river’s edge, but in fact, the participation of the three thousand able-bodied men troops had no impact on the result; bluntly put, adding them was just “adding auto-participation.” To intercept this Haotian troop, only the fifteen hundred battle soldiers brought were needed to win.
The reason for bringing them to deploy was Wu Fei’s aim to let this able-bodied men troop see blood, to adapt to future situations.
Wu Fei had made the worst plan: even if the able-bodied men troops were routed by the charge, his main force could block the enemy pursuit, letting the able-bodied men retreat to the upstream position, catch their breath for a defensive battle, and mobilize the laborer corps across the river via ships for support, then fight protracted warfare.
In Wu Fei’s view, the physical quality of these able-bodied men was not much worse than the rope-pullers back then; they all worked at docks, how could they eat that bowl of rice without a strong arm! And this earliest batch of captured able-bodied men, Wu Fei had high hopes for, viewing them as the main force for the future Bo Prefecture battle, and with that goal, the able-bodied men would inevitably see blood sooner or later and needed training.
Because once his side fought on a larger scale, and Hao State reacted, he needed sufficient troop strength to cope.
…War drums struck, everyone’s hands involuntarily gripped their weapons…
Wu Fei watched this troop from the high ground. For the Eastern Market Army, this was the first true field battle!
No matter how loudly the slogans echoed with emotion at the Eastern Market before, the “mutual trust” on the battlefield had not been tested. So-called “trust” meant letting the rope-puller battle soldiers also believe that those later able-bodied men could join them.
As soon as the able-bodied men square formation engaged, Wu Fei realized the opponent was not on the same level as him at all.
Wu Fei stared blankly at that “idiot” riding a majestic copper lion in the water. His own troops had charged over, and he was still calling mobile forces into the water to guard him. These were precious mobile forces; following him into the water rendered them ineffective.
As the war drums sounded, Wu Fei directly ordered the battle soldiers upstream not to hide anymore and to press forward.
The fifteen hundred-man corps, originally sitting cross-legged, immediately stood up, ignoring the mats under their butts, hugged their firearms and stood, checked the copper strips, percussion caps, and various pre-battle parts on them, then began trotting collectively toward the battlefield two li downstream.
The Wang Jia Du campaign began. The Eastern Market Army corps, arriving at the battlefield three hours early from upstream, thrust straight forward like a guillotine.
Su Zhe, who had just crossed the river, looked at the sky-shaking killing shouts behind him and wanted to recross the river, but was directly blocked by crossbowmen and halberd soldiers coming by boat on the river.
The Hao Army’s situation was like being on the guillotine: Su Zhe and his vanguard elite troops as the head stretched into the river, the main body as the “body,” and the able-bodied men troops on the Wang Jia Du bank as the guillotine, falling ferociously.
If Su Zhe ordered the whole army to retreat downstream now, he and the vanguard elite as the head would stay in the river entangled by Wu Fei’s troops — that would be decapitation!
If Su Zhe ordered the troops to fight to the death without retreating, the whole army would have their butts aimed at the Eastern Market Army firearm troops, then it would be “bang bang bang” a series of hot bullets.
…For shooters, this was absolutely a good posture…
Soon, the able-bodied men troops closed in and showed heroic spirit. Under the leadership of the three remaining non-commissioned officers and two hundred rope-puller soldiers, the able-bodied men used them as the benchmark to form battle formations, firmly entangling the Haotian troops, keeping the ferry crossing in constant engagement.
At the ferry dock, the Hao Army Jade Braves were suppressed by the able-bodied men’s brute force. Amid the crowd, the able-bodied men in bamboo helmets, relying on numbers, spared no effort, swinging halberds. The Hao Army grabbed the Yao Army’s halberd soldiers and fell into the water together.
Meanwhile, Da Yao’s able-bodied men troops, forced into the river, swam to their own boats on the river surface and came up.
It was worth mentioning that a considerable portion of these able-bodied men were summoned from southern docks, cart yards, etc., knew a bit of swimming, and for the long march had not worn heavy armor, only carrying dry flatbread at the chest for defense, making them more agile in the water than the Hao Army in full jade armor.
After several rounds, this gradually gave the able-bodied men troops bloodlust, even proactively using halberds to hook Hao Army bodies and leap into the lake water, dragging the Hao Army down.
Da Yao non-commissioned officer Hong Qiang, his face full of blood, stood at the ferry crossing and hacked six Haotian People to death, calling the able-bodied men to follow him and his guards, shouting: “In this battle, we are the pillars in the middle of the stream. Note the first merit; victors rewarded with three merits!”
As for how much three merits were! Put it this way: among the over a thousand women captured in Dong Lei City, ninety-nine percent could be taken with just one merit.
These days, the able-bodied men had also heard from the battle soldiers about how merits could get “meals, reward money, and future official positions.” Previously they listened for fun, thinking they didn’t have the guts, but today forced onto the battlefield, like gamblers at a countryside table going all-in in desperation, the able-bodied men all had one thought: fortune favors the bold, and given the current advantageous situation, they were likely to get this fortune.
Then the able-bodied men surged forward relentlessly, gradually pushing the Hao State troops to rout. Of course, the final blow was delivered by the battle soldiers.
The firearm corps divided into five square formations, pressing from the direction they came, and the cavalry camp on the flank circled from the west.
In the end, the first firearm camp, three hundred men, got the firing opportunity. They fired a volley from the side and rear at the Haotian Army entangled with the able-bodied men. The Haotian Army, coping with the front slashes, suddenly heard footsteps from behind. The solemn line formation executed, and the retreating Hao Army gaped at the dark gun muzzles.
“Bang”! The volley was like thunder.
This round of platoon fire shattered the Hao Army’s last blood courage. Large numbers of laborers directly dropped weapons and fled in rout, and as they fled west, they began to fall back, leading to stampede. Because the western cavalry pressed over like a city wall.
In the river, Su Zhe, fighting the boat fleet, was stunned. Hearing the cries from the riverbank of “surrendered,” “stop fighting,” “spare my life” from the defeated, the river water slapping his crotch copper lion and splashing his face was utterly desolate.
His nearby Dragon Horse battle soldiers woke this young general: “Young General, flee! It’s too late if you don’t go.”
But it was already too late. A special ship came over, with ballistae aiming. As it fired, the crossbow bolt burst into flames, igniting the Dragon Horse’s wings with yellow flames. The Hao Army’s Dragon Horses floating on the river, upon being shot, lost balance like acupoint-struck, falling into the water, wings flapping in the rolling river.
Su Zhe was even more isolated.
Half a shichen later, amid shouts of “victory,” he unwillingly rode his copper lion ashore. The troops he brought were kneeling on the bank over a dozen mu, and beside these “dozen mu” of Hao Army captives stood the proud Eastern Market Army, now all fixing eager-for-merit gazes on Su Zhe, like a pack of bloodthirsty wolves eyeing fat sheep.
Su Zhe alone at the ferry faced over a hundred dark firearm muzzles.
After a volley, sparks burst on the copper lion, sounding like coins struck on stainless steel, then the copper lion fell.
