Chapter 55: Military Strategist Lineage is out of service.
From the 28th year of Shu Tian Calendar winter to the beginning of the 29th year, just as Wu Fei went in and out of the Southern Border once, an ulcer appeared on the northeast border domain of Da Yao.
In October, a Guotai army of several thousand broke through the blockade of Da Yao’s fifteen routes of great armies and arrived at Lu Prefecture. Before Da Yao could react, they stirred up local rebel army for an uprising. This group of rebel army directly robbed the vehicles supplying food and grass to the frontline in the rear.
The Da Yao troops in Lu Prefecture Great Warehouse had to go suppress the local rebel army, but they were wiped out by this Guotai army that infiltrated wearing Zhao-character flags, which took Lu Prefecture Great Warehouse.
Next, Da Yao Lu Prefecture’s Royal Army had to tackle two problems in an extremely short time: the first was to recapture the important strategic node, hoping that Guotai great army would not burn the food and grass; the second was to continue pacifying the rebel army to open up the grain route. As for the frontline before the next batch of military grain arrived, what to do? They could only let the frontline great army endure hardship and trouble the common people.
Ultimately, Da Yao Lu Prefecture Prefect made a stupid decision that would make Military Strategists think it could enter a museum.
In this situation, abandoning 2 and directly choosing 1 was already naive and stupid enough. He had never seen a granary that could be recaptured after being seized. But insiders will never know how bizarre a zero-score test paper an outsider can produce.
Lu Prefecture Prefect wanted to choose both. However, afterward, Lu Prefecture Prefect’s actions made scholars under heaven empathize.
Because Lu Prefecture Prefect received a letter from his old subordinate. It seemed the lighting in the military camp was not good, and with his turbid gaze, this letter became an important basis for his decision.
The letter said: The garrison that seized Great Warehouse wants to transport the grain back to the North.
Thus, this made the Prefect feel that the granary was only temporarily in enemy hands and he could take it back. Although military officers and soldiers advised him not to do so, the difficulty of persuasion was like convincing an elder who had fallen into telecom fraud.
Little did he know, this “telecom fraud” letter was precisely written by the Prefect’s old subordinate on Zhao Cheng’s orders, after Zhao Cheng grasped this Prefect’s psychology.
When Lu Prefecture Prefect decided to muster his courage and resolve the dilemma in the few days before the food and grass was exhausted, the unskilled him failed to complete even one plan.
On Da Yao’s northern strategic map, Guotai great army’s flag marker was inserted just like that onto the strategic confrontation zones marked with “flags” one by one.
On October 12th of the 28th year, Lu Prefecture Prefect’s army dispatched to suppress the peasant army was defeated. The next day, the Guotai army in Great Warehouse successfully ambushed the Da Yao government soldiers trying to recapture Great Warehouse.
Especially that peasant army, it seemed injected with a soul, exceptionally tough. After clashing with Da Yao’s starving officers and soldiers for a full seven days, though routed, it did not collapse.
Then on the eighth day of the peasant army’s persistence, this Zhao-surnamed Haotian General led troops to arrive and completely annihilated Da Yao Lu Prefecture’s this route of great army.
Afterward, that farm army that had undergone battle formation tempering quickly merged under this Zhao-surnamed General’s command. His originally infiltration to here Haotian sub-unit suddenly had a scale of thirty thousand.
Da Yao’s iron-barrel defense line surrounding Bo Prefecture was kicked open a gap just like that. After the three routes of great armies alternately clashed flags with that Guotai route of great army and suffered defeats, they all withdrew one after another. Their originally three great camps also began migrating due to lack of food and grass supply.
Lu Prefecture Campaign occurred in mid-October of the 28th year and ended in the first month of the 29th year. And the news reached Lingnan in April of the 29th year.
Wu Fei, steadily sitting at Yongji Pass fishing from a high stool, was still calculating this year’s millet reserve surplus. Upon hearing the northern defeat report, his first reaction was: Impossible? Absolutely impossible. Guotai’s homeless dogs, where did they get the extra troop strength to sneak attack my Da Yao Royal Army.
Now Wu Fei could say he was a professional in the “Military Strategist” industry. As a professional, it was hard to imagine: with our side having troop strength advantage and frontline advantage, suddenly routing one route of great army, then losing the food and grass heavy town, and then letting the opponent grow stronger while weakening us, wrapping up an uprising army of over ten thousand in our own territory?
But with grain price fluctuations, northern refugees heading south, and the Imperial Court Sima’s severely worded demand for the South to supply this year’s horses and livestock, Wu Fei could not doubt.
After Wu Fei compared letter sources from multiple channels and confirmed the news’ truth: Is someone cheating over there? I’m not even cheating, how can you do this.
When more information came, Wu Fei felt this battle was defeated strangely!
The route of great army guarding Lu Prefecture there was a general favored by the current Grand Marshal, just turned thirty, not some old general, but from a military family noble family.
Wu Fei was heartbroken over Pig Head Three’s operation: How could he suddenly commit the whole army forward?
Military treatises clearly state that without identifying the enemy main force, the central army must not move rashly. — This is like two wrestlers confronting: before finding the power point to push the opponent’s center of gravity, keep your own center steady.
When having absolute troop strength advantage and food and grass all steady, the central army blocks transportation key routes, curbing the enemy great cluster’s mobility; the rear army holds strategic cities, acting as goalkeeper.
Wu Family Army’s strategy for pacifying Zhu Prefecture and He Prefecture was precisely such rigorous division of labor. Even if Wu Hengyu’s vanguard suppression was unfavorable, Wu Fei could trap the bandits in place with foraging difficulties, and when autumn winds withered, the conscripted young and strong would scatter back to the countryside, while the bandit main body became turtles in a jar.
Wu Fei felt as heartbroken as a football commentator from his previous life seeing an own goal: With such a great situation, why was the most important central army moving chaotically?
To determine if the enemy is seated bandits or roving bandits. If confirmed roving bandits, to exterminate the uprising send elite cavalry to pounce and extinguish; if confirmed seated bandits, seal key passages to prevent spread, your central army moving chaotically messes up the deployment here. The several routes of great armies will expose fatal gaps.
Wu Fei hurriedly wrote multiple letters, further using Wu Family’s connections in the Imperial Court to understand this battle’s situation, trying to reconstruct it.
Finally, after various detailed messages arrived, Wu Fei, with a professional and rigorous attitude, deduced the full picture of when Da Yao’s rear army Great Warehouse was surprise attacked and captured by that Guotai general: Lu Prefecture’s that route of great army, on the day the rear granary was surprise attacked, the routine half-day report between rear army and central army was interrupted.
Then that Guotai general probably used Da Yao armor under cover of night to deceive and open the checkpoint, seizing this Great Warehouse.
Wu Fei: Such a low-level mistake, as a scion of a military family, should not be made — something strange.
But when Wu Fei muttered “something strange,” psychologically he also became vigilant, that is “what if it were me,” after all, you don’t know until you take the test, and once tested, not a peep.
…Reviewing his own level…
Upon exiting closed-door cultivation in the 28th year, he had only preliminarily figured out the Military System for deployments between multiple camps at ten-thousand level and above, learned to properly set up camps, report and contact between armies. As for overall frontline command, how to meticulously chain camps for dozens of li, lock down the opponent, prevent infiltration success. These still needed learning.
Thus, Wu Fei, holding the Southern Border feng shui map, was already preparing things to study for the next round of exiting closed-door cultivation.
This “experience value” needed for Military Strategist troop deployment still had to be plucked from this Southern Border noob’s head.
…Test paper is quickly printing, five academic credit big questions, already ready…
In the northern great camp, Zhao Cheng was studying the three-chi-wide silk cloth map in front of him.
Though already in hand for three months, he was still quite interested in the map on this silk cloth. It was his first time seeing such a vivid full picture of mountains and rivers terrain.
Whenever Zhao Cheng had spare troop strength, he sent his subordinate cavalry to measure the surrounding mountains and rivers, then he added a few strokes to the hand-drawn map. Now this silk cloth map was much more detailed than at the start, with wild boars and roe deer traversing the mountains and rivers on its map, and jiao dragons, fish, and turtles in the rivers.
After Lu Prefecture great war, Guotai army up and down all prostrated in admiration to this newly appointed Great General.
When the generals asked why he could calculate that Da Yao’s Lu Prefecture great army scheduling would have a fatal mistake, leaving granary defense empty.
Zhao Cheng: “The numbers of victory and defeat may be decided on the battlefield or on the Imperial Court. You all may know battlefield victory and defeat like the back of your hand, but did not calculate the enemy country’s generals and ministers disharmonious.”
…Great power vs small country national war suddenly pulled, often internal problems…
Just as Zhao Cheng calculated, at this time Da Yao Lu Prefecture greatly defeated, the defeated general’s rank was demoted, but the Imperial Court dignitaries instead covered up the problem.
For example, the newly appointed Grand Marshal thought this battle also had highlights, that is Prince Zhou His Highness who went to the frontline to supervise the war remained calm in crisis during this battle, quickly rectified Da Yao troops, pressing down a stabilizing divine needle for the overall situation. However, this “stabilizing divine needle” was subsequently transferred back to Yao Capital.
This Prince Zhou is Emperor Shu’s third son. After Prince Bo’s rebellion, he became the only candidate for crown prince nowadays. He is also the one that many ministers in the Imperial Court are willing to support.
Unfortunately, although Prince Zhou is wise and well-versed in the Classics, he has a scholarly frailty. Therefore, in Shu Tian Calendar year 28, ten security officials of the Imperial Court jointly recommended Prince Zhou to go to the North to supervise the war. —This supervision resulted in a merit of “the divine needle stabilizing the sea amid a great defeat.”
And this is why in the mid-to-late Da Yao Dynasty, the ruling class was so inclined to keep the people ignorant. Because only with ignorant people can they maintain their advantage through information asymmetry. Anyone from a poor family who has read even a little book and can deduce the information asymmetry would think that some people up there have no real ability!
Zhao Cheng was just like that. Before this battle, he already had a clear account of the abilities of the key people in important positions on both the enemy and allied sides.
In the camp, facing the generals’ doubts, Zhao Cheng couldn’t withstand their insistence on wanting an explanation that a military treatise could provide.
Zhao Cheng could only quote classically: Military strategy states, to advance an army when it cannot advance and to retreat it when it cannot retreat is called “binding the army”; to share in the affairs of the three armies without knowing them confuses the soldiers; to share in the responsibilities of the three armies without knowing their authority creates doubt among the soldiers!
Zhao Cheng used this phrase to explain why he achieved victory, without any trace of self-praise, but rather recounted heavily: “Some people have read military treatises, but in the end, they still knowingly commit the error.”
As if it were his own mentor, or a familiar enemy, who had committed such a mistake, etching it deeply into his heart.
…”Wisdom and valor” are people with stories, now returning to the clear classroom…
In Yongji Pass, Wu Fei hadn’t slept for seven consecutive days. Every day he got up to review and felt there were entirely new situations.
The great defeat in Lu Prefecture made Wu Fei (Xuan Chong) feel worried that the military family scions in Lu Prefecture seemed to lose all discipline overnight, as if regressing to elementary school level.
Years of problem-solving experience told Xuan Chong that when he felt he could solve a question but others couldn’t, he must have overlooked certain conditions in the question.
Xuan Chong exerted his ox horn spirit and finally found this key condition one month after the battle ended: it was the political factor of Da Yao, namely the current Da Yao Crown Prince Prince Zhou.
Wu Fei caught up with the rhythm a week later.
Wu Fei found clues from a large pile of Imperial Court dispatches. Several years ago, when Wu Hanluan was still in the mountains exterminating Snake People, there was a struggle for the heir in the Da Yao Imperial Court. That is, the succession struggle between Prince Bo and Prince Zhou.
This succession struggle itself had nothing to do with the four directions; it was a debate in the central Imperial Court between Legalist forces and Confucian forces on how to govern Under Heaven.
Prince Bo was pushed by the Legalist faction, while Prince Zhou was pushed by the wise prince Confucian faction. As for the military strategists? In times of peace under heaven, military strategists just needed to guard the four directions well, without needing to get involved to intensify the factional struggle for the heir.
Then the “Dried River Great Case” occurred, Prince Bo fled, and the original Grand Marshal also committed suicide. So the struggle for the heir ended, and Prince Zhou immediately became the crown prince.
But the problem arose: Prince Zhou is a wise prince who promotes benevolent and filial rule, so he does not hold military authority. Hmm, Emperor Shu’s reign era “Shu” indicates that the current Son of Heaven values martial prowess. Under such a sovereign, if a son is too diligent in military affairs, he is likely to be suspected!
Xuan Chong checked historical records: Those who most taboo the Black Tortoise Gate succession method are precisely those who ascended via this method. When such an arrogant monarch who rose that way nags his second son “you resemble me,” it’s not praise, but the start of prevention.
Prince Bo clearly didn’t understand this principle and kept developing towards resembling his father, even thinking that befriending Sima and other officials who hold military power in the court was a symbol of his being favored.
Little did he know that shortening the safe distance between him and his monarch father like this couldn’t withstand even a bit of “father-son suspicion” turmoil.
Xuan Chong: So even without any external interference, Prince Zhou would inevitably succeed in the succession struggle.
But the problem is, if Emperor Shu shows he can hold the Nine Provinces and Ten Thousand Directions, then Prince Zhou can smoothly inherit as a peaceful Son of Heaven.
But now Under Heaven is in chaos, and due to a major decision mistake by Emperor Shu, a corner of heaven collapsed in Bo Prefecture. Consequently, people Under Heaven began to have certain expectations for Emperor Shu’s heir in military affairs.
After all, if your father didn’t handle things well, and the son who comes up is even more clueless, wouldn’t the vassal lords in the four directions grow suspicious?
Therefore, Prince Zhou must show he understands military affairs, at least having some commanding prestige over the various military strategist forces participating in this Northern war.
In short, Prince Zhou now should relate to the commanders of the various armies like a homeroom teacher to students: “I have led you before,” establishing a substantive superior-subordinate relationship with many military strategist generals.
But the more he pursues this superior-subordinate relationship, the easier it is to mess up actual affairs.
The true reason is this:
In Shu Tian Calendar year 28, month 10, Prince Zhou had just arrived at the main camp and initially took command of the army, attempting to see quick results to cater to the praise from the various ministers in the Imperial Court. Thus, he changed the originally steady army deployment to one top-heavy with light feet!
After seeing his October operations, Wu Fei cursed: “According to military strategist professionals, knowing how to lead troops is the more the better, but without that ability, forcibly leading an army makes the more soldiers the more chaos.”
The distances between the army’s main camp, vanguard, and rear depot all require careful arrangement, with messenger horses scheduled in shifts.
Prince Zhou didn’t understand these; he directly mobilized heavy troops upon arrival to resolve it.
And in October, what he first saw was that the unruly civilians who displeased him rebelled right after he arrived, damaging his wise prince virtue, so he prepared to establish prestige first.
As a result, Prince Zhou’s operations directly created flaws in the army’s military formation, and this flaw was precisely what Zhao Cheng and others exploited.
…Leading by a generation can only intimidate students who want to improve…
In Yongji Pass, Wu Fei paced seriously. This “stinking auxiliary general” spent several times the effort after the war to barely analyze Zhuge Liang’s pre-battle layout, feeling a chill in his heart.
The military strategists on Guotai’s side are terrifying. If Wu Fei’s side used military affairs to block all possible mistakes as much as possible, this one seized every flaw from top to bottom in the opponent’s (Da Yao camp) side.
Speaking of which, the “generals and ministers not in harmony” contradictions on Da Yao’s side were right in front of Wu Fei, but Wu Fei wouldn’t dare attempt to exploit them.
At the beginning of the black tide knocking at the gate, Wu Fei could have arranged a night raid on the camp but skipped that possibility. But that one (Zhao Cheng) was bold yet cautious, using the enemy’s error to seize Da Yao’s fatal gap and strike in.
In Yongji Pass, Wu Fei chewed sugarcane and muttered: I’d better stay in the Southern Region and honestly fight the barbarians; leave those divine figures in the North to Da Yao’s side to deal with.
But what Wu Fei didn’t know was that while drilling into the ox horn, he finally “saw their backs,” spotting the generational difference. Yet in Da Yao’s North, they hadn’t even seen the generational difference. “Military strategist” levels had a gap.
…Birds on the beam carefully groomed their feathers under the morning sun, while those few clouds on the horizon remained entangled…
In the Divine Capital’s Nine Palaces, Emperor Shu sternly rebuked those below. The fifteen forward armies were all pushing responsibility for this battle onto each other. The content of officials’ memorials was nothing more than “enemy army cunning,” “our army negligent,” “allied army stupid.” Stripping away the flowery rhetoric, it was just like elementary school kids teaming up in a mobile game, failing, and then cursing teammates for sucking—of course, no one dared curse Emperor Shu daddy, the gold master.
As for the tactics and military strategy used by Guotai in this battle, the generals who took turns returning to the Divine Capital’s central palace to kneel and report unanimously believed: This was just an accident, absolutely no next time.
