Chapter 85: Maneuver Warfare
On the vast expanse of green grass, Military Inspector Wu Sihao of the third camp, holding the flag, watched the fierce Zhenzhou Army soldiers howling as they charged forward wielding great sabers. These great sabers had eight large iron rings pierced through their backs, clanging loudly.
Wu Sihao then turned his head to look at Officer in Charge of Orders Bai Ya from his own squad, the non-commissioned officer brought by the second young marshal, who was busy issuing several flag orders. A squad leader in the formation shouted hoarsely to repeat the commands, while the soldiers silently moved in unison according to the orders.
From a high-altitude view, the halberd formation overseen by Wu Sihao was forming into three ranks of horizontal lines preparing to meet the enemy. The crossbowmen originally following behind the formation switched to column formation and began quietly circling around, preparing to line up on both sides of the battlefield; farther away, a squad of Wu Family cavalry with cloth wrapped around their hooves was circling to the rear.
After the Wu Family Army’s large squad dispersed its formation, it had tangled with this bloodthirsty rebel army for a while, then suddenly spread out like five fingers, pinching in all directions.
The ones clashing with this Wu Family Army squad were about a hundred Zhenzhou berserkers. These berserkers had disorganized formations, but they were generally a head taller than the Wu Family Army soldiers, appearing robust and powerful; if singled out for one-on-one combat, they were clearly fearsome warriors.
In fact, during the march, in the previous few small-scale skirmishes, Wu Fei had already summarized the combat experience: normal troops facing the berserkers’ unpredictable successive chops from great sabers—with Wu Family Army’s three-year veterans as the standard—would quickly exhaust their stamina during blocking, ultimately being caught off-guard and beheaded by such terrifying opponents.
So for fighting these berserkers, the tactic summarized by the Wu Family Army non-commissioned officers: first have cavalry harass them with mushrooms for a while, then infantry formations take turns serving them up until their strength wanes, then bring heavy crossbows over to shoot.
And so it was now. Just as the Chong Shui soldiers were about to reach the front of the formation, Bai Ya raised his thumb to measure the enemy’s distance in steps; when they closed to thirty steps, Wu Family Army soldiers flung out cross darts one by one.
Noisy bombs landed in the berserker ranks, acrid smoke enveloping them, forcing these berserkers to lower their swords and cover their mouths and noses with elbows, their eyes involuntarily tearing up and squinting. Their fearless charge switched to hesitant steps.
And at that moment, whistling arrows flew from both sides. Wu Family Army crossbowmen on both flanks began shooting almost synchronously as the noisy bombs took effect. Crossbow bolts streaked through, arrow rain swept the sky, killing intent swept the ground, startling the locusts on the ground into panicked flight.
The cavalry lingering in the rear line also launched a charge, causing some berserkers to turn and prepare to resist the charge. As the sound of hooves grew from far to near, in the “sound” audible from the crossbowmen positions, the berserkers’ angry shouts also began to diminish because they had turned their backs to the Wu Family Army infantry formation.
However, the Wu Family Army cavalry feinted, turning their horses around and leaving at fifty steps, while the berserkers resisting the charge delayed by stopping, facing a second round of three volleys after the crossbow bolts were reloaded. After shooting, the cavalry came again, charging within forty steps before wheeling away, and the crossbowmen fired once more.
In the end, only about twenty berserkers remained; Wu Sihao led the halberd soldiers forward to engage. In the instant before clash, he bellowed “Hey ha!” to boost the officers and soldiers’ morale to the extreme. This was a characteristic of Wu Hengyu’s Northern Army.
The Wu Family Army’s close combat involved dozens acting in unison, jungle-like halberds ganging up one-on-one. The well-coordinated Wu Family Army soldiers spat on their palms, gripped the spear shafts, and coordinated before thrusting: “You two pin his great saber with halberds,” “I’ll stab his chest,” “Old Three, you stab his balls.”
Under the orderly division of labor by the halberd soldiers, these berserkers who could take on ten in the arena were pinned to the ground and poked into bloody sieves.
After the battle, Bai Ya issued a transmission order, and messengers from other camps would arrive at the battlefield to verify merits. The entire troop rested for half a shichen, then continued forced march.
…Returning to the large map…
The marching formation of the Wu Family Northern Army advanced on the Baitu Map of the Five Prefectures of Chong Shui, with each large squad as a flag.
Just now, Wu Sihao’s formation touched the enemy troop’s “flag,” and in the collision, the enemy squad’s flag disappeared. This was just a minor friction during the march. Such obstacles were encountered in other formations as well, but none were major hindrances, and the march continued.
All troops advanced in parallel.
The strongest enemy army discovered during the entire march was three days ago.
A warrior loyal to Prince Lelang led his hundreds of retainers to intercept. As commander-in-chief, Wu Fei drew four large squads to rapidly concentrate on the target, overwhelming the mantis trying to stop a chariot with five times the troop strength.
As for Prince Lelang’s main force, on Wu Fei’s silk book map, over a dozen flags were densely clustered in the city.
Wu Fei’s army under command, marked on the strategic map with three hundred battle soldiers and eight hundred auxiliary soldiers per flag, also had over a dozen flags, and bypassed Prince Lelang’s troop concentration area during the march.
Notably, when closest to the city, these concentration points could only send out one or two flags to intercept each time! They couldn’t mobilize more, as if stuck in a game.
…Twelve days of forced march later…
All troops had infiltrated through the central danger zone controlled by Prince Lelang’s main force, arriving in the North.
Wu Fei’s intelligence was very abundant; two days after his own action, Prince Lelang rode a war chariot to Kantian City, commanding a camp of thirty thousand. It was said this fiend, like a multi-level marketing boss, roared furiously from the city wall, and tens of thousands below fell into a rage responding.
Wu Fei was very curious about this: how did he take command of an army unfamiliar with him? Without a non-commissioned officer team assisting, he couldn’t even record the name of every leader.
Of course, now Wu Fei didn’t need to worry; Wu Fei had led the troops across three hundred li to complete the strategic objective, with all large squads arriving at designated locations after long march to begin assembling, forming a ten-thousand-strong main camp.
After eight large squads merged into the camp, Wu Fei did not ride his favorite Nine Phoenix, but switched to the standard dragon horse of the squad leaders. He surprise attack inspected the post-march conditions of each large squad.
While Wu Fei reviewed the troops, each large squad was busy with camp deployment work per drill manual regulations.
The scene’s atmosphere was like a tour group waking up in the morning, with people from each room brushing teeth and washing faces at fixed pools, hurriedly handling their own tasks.
In the assembled camp, each group’s horse carts gathered in areas for wood procurement, water sources, etc., busy with their large squad’s predetermined drill manual tasks. Facing Wu Fei’s inspection, there was no possibility of any concealment.
…Problem records filled a thick book…
After checking all large squads, Wu Fei checked the clock, confirmed initial camp work was complete, then beat the drum to raise the tents. In less than three quarters of an hour, all officers and soldiers were in the tents. Of course, most had dark circles under their eyes, and from their armor, it was clear they hadn’t removed it since last night.
Wu Fei nodded, confirming that the Northern Army he had taken over had smoothly integrated his command system.
In the camp, Wu Fei glanced at the attending squad leaders, then assigned seats to each: squad leaders who arrived first in the march with over ninety percent completeness in upper seats; those who arrived but had twenty percent stragglers in middle seats. Those who discarded some military supplies on Wu Fei’s order to arrive on time were in lower seats.
No other reason—this meeting was Wu Fei’s way of reminding these military officers and soldiers that there would be assessments every day!
This assessment provided daily feedback, keeping everyone constantly vigilant. (The effect was similar to Xuan Chong’s previous life’s notorious food delivery rider attendance system, but given the current army situation, these non-commissioned officers needed assessment.)
Before the non-commissioned officer system, Wu Fei controlled details himself, resulting in him falling ill directly during the Southern Border campaign. He realized that without reasonably delegating tasks to subordinates, he would be worked to death.
During seat assignment, there was a small incident: a dragon horse cavalry captain lost five large carts during the march and, upon arrival, had to borrow vehicles from other camps in the main camp, so he was seated low. As a disciple from a poor family originally favored by Wu Hengyu, being placed low made him restless, but he didn’t dare show emotion, because under Wu Fei’s fixed standards, others had met them and he hadn’t, so he could only swallow this bitter pill.
Wu Fei noticed this, as this cavalry captain had been dropping things along the way, which was exactly as he had anticipated!
Wu Fei had even prepared countermeasures, dispatching a deputy officer to constantly report his situation, and daily confirming his work oversights: on one hand ordering him to discard military supplies to maintain speed, on the other immediately ordering accompanying large squads to send teams to recover the discarded supplies.
When following under Wu Hengyu, this cavalry captain’s ability was top-notch, but over time he became a bit arrogant, somewhat condescending toward other Wu Family disciples based on his ability.
This arrogance made him psychologically resistant to accepting direct dispatches from Wu Fei for non-commissioned officers to handle scheduling for him. For smart people, it’s like: “You teaching me how to do things? On what basis?”
So Wu Fei didn’t assign him a nanny-level squad leader, letting him try handling it with his own smarts.
Narration: Because he was Wu Hengyu’s man, Wu Fei didn’t want contradictions between the two factions in the Wu Family Northern Army to escalate while he was getting things done.
Wu Fei even less wanted to expend his precious authority in this military operation planning regulating conflicts with individual guys.
So Wu Fei chose to let these potential troublemakers walk the scale themselves, expose their true weights, and convince them through facts.
Facts proved that the army system is highly specialized, requiring massive manpower and resources for systematic exploration; what Wu Fei had wasn’t particularly clever, but after seeing the future, using the Southern Border campaign opportunity, he quantified all links with metrics, then crafted solutions targeting problems, assembling into a military drill manual system.
Even if this dragon horse cavalry captain was ever so smart, without doing any exam questions, how could he cope with such issues.
However, after failing the exam, he could accept the “Officer in Charge of Orders” Wu Fei arranged for him.
…Scores failing, but room for great improvement…
Thus in the meeting, Wu Fei called names one by one; before each camp team came up, they reported the number of battle soldiers under their command, as well as the uniformity of armor and weapons.
Wu Fei took the camp roster, cross-checked. And issued tokens for each squad leader to prepare for strict inspection upon return.
Like a teacher checking elementary students reciting texts, this was a lengthy task lasting three shichen; meals for waiting squad leaders in the main tent were prepared: upper seats had meat, middle seats salty soybean cakes, lower seats only clear water and chaff cakes.
After camp teams received tokens in the tent, they went out with messengers for re-inspection, from eight in the morning until sunset, checking all troops once.
In Wu Fei’s main military tent hung a map of the entire camp, marking positions of each small camp; upon entering the main camp, cart, soldier, and armor counts were already tallied during assembly. Each camp team’s current status was shown on this master map, with remark boxes for each camp clearly noting shortages or completeness of armor and weapons.
Three large squads had shortages in actual checks; their camp captains received red cards, entered into rewards and punishments, with penalties to be settled later.
Immediate penalties might lead to underreporting, causing some troops severe shortages unknown to Wu Fei as army corps person in charge, leading to repeated errors in tactical assignments.
Temporarily withholding punishment until final post-campaign assessment aids team stability during execution.
When revising the drill manual, Wu Fei considered various details for the executing side below.
In the evening, Wu Fei looked at the entire camp team’s map and let out a long breath. Post-assembly army corps status was clear in his mind, and he had compiled records, awaiting handover to Wu Hanluan or Wu Hengyu.
Wu Fei marked each large camp with numerous values, with morale rated by conditions like “hot meals” and “complete bedding”; combat power preservation by armor and weapon maintenance.
In strategic games, to play deeply, you need to know each unit’s health. Currently, each camp team is a unit, with soldier count and armor/weapon levels as “health,” “defense,” and “attack.”
While checking the exchange catalog, Xuan Chong discovered his system had a “digitalized” command system exchange, about 0.2 academic credits.
Wu Fei: “Heh heh, I saved on this one.”
…System: Never planned to give it to you….
On the third day, after the army camp stabilized, groups of cavalry began raising flags to recruit soldiers in the surroundings.
In military strategy, besides foraging in enemy territory, there’s also recruiting in enemy territory; in the era of numerous modern states, this is called training puppet troops. But here now, it’s called recruiting militia.
Militia can’t be used in frontal combat, but they can hang under one’s flag (for escort and guard), to raid food and grass, levy supplies, all feasible.
Militia combat scenario as follows.
At the foot of Azure Dragon Mountain, on an official road frequented by merchants, the great chieftain and second chieftain eyed the goods escorted by famous local official caravans, faces showing ferocity. Previously they dared not touch, fearing retaliation, but now! The great chieftain raised his saber to his brothers: “Starve the timid, stuff the bold to death!” The thugs sparsely stood and responded, then charged down.
As these Chong Shui official caravans reached mid-road, this bandit gang suddenly revealed Wu Family Army flags and attacked; the government soldiers guarding the official carriages clashed weapons perfunctorily with the bandits and retreated. The perfunctory degree was like acting.
As for the lost items of these Chong Shui government soldiers! The retreating escort team reported to the official master: “Encountered” the Imperial Court army dispatched, so no need to pursue too much.
Ten shichen later, these mountain bandits—no, court-certified militia—cheerfully sorted treasures, moving unusable supplies to the exchange point stipulated by Wu Fei’s camp.
So it is with raising the royal banner to recruit soldiers for rations. Militia were originally bandits and mountain thieves, but as times grew hard, unable to borrow grain from familiar villages nearby, they came to the army to don the skin, becoming camp laborer troops.
The camp brought by Wu Fei was meticulously calculating its food and grass consumption, while laborer troops rapidly expanded in these ten days.
Of course Wu Fei wasn’t here to incite uprising. Recruiting militia was just a feint to muddy the waters in the North.
Meanwhile, six thousand troops quietly continued north, infiltrating from the northern Chong Shui and Northern Yongzhou junction, thrusting to a place unexpected by all sides.
Wu Fei: Any military operation needs to maintain “one’s own intent” unguessable by the enemy.
To achieve this, two points. First, “speed,” completing action before others react. Second, deploy more “smoke bombs” to further ensure strategic intent unguessable short-term.
But now Wu Fei’s smoke bombs weren’t just for Prince Lelang; Prince Lelang was the rebel side, Northern Yongzhou also rebel side.
…On the other side of the campaign fog…
In Kantian City, Prince Lelang sat bare-chested on a bronze armchair, reading Northern intelligence, with several slain servant corpses beside. About the Imperial Court army coming to exterminate, he knew in his heart when killing the imperial envoy.
Even Emperor Shu knew of his rebellion, otherwise wouldn’t dispatch that unlucky imperial envoy right after Wu Family Army soldiers were in position.
But Prince Lelang didn’t expect that just as he “actively” tore face, wanting a proper fight, preparing to organize troops southbound (it could be said Prince Lelang was raring to go, rallying subordinates, ready to don iron helmets and wield war hammers out of the city to meet these grandsons), suddenly the Wu Family Army whole army went North, and at very fast speed, fast enough to stun him.
To Prince Lelang, this Yao Army slipped out ten li from his army flank without being caught. Ten days later, it reached his rear, taking down the wastes he left in the North.
He paced the city wall, looking at the bloodthirst rising in the city.
At this time, unfortunates were thrown into the moat; alligator turtles surfaced in the river to devour the struggling unfortunates. As these alligator turtles feasted in the turbid moat, heavy iron mauls from the city wall smashed into their backs. Then these alligator turtles struggled fiercely, churning waves on the surface, yet still dragged ashore by winch iron chains from the wall.
Shore workshops immediately began modifying these war beasts. When these one-zhang-wide alligator turtles had mechanism iron wheels docked to their bellies, Prince Lelang’s mad army strung them up like “candied haws” with iron tongs to the alligator turtles’ mouths.
Looking closely, what candied haws—these were heads strung together. The alligator turtle stretched its head, snapping one by one; its original muddied body cracked like fire-baked, shedding mudshell to reveal blood-red body, shell spines turning to blood-grooved bone blades, and its originally clumsy turtle head sprouted sharp fangs protruding like wild boar and elephant tusks.
The giant turtles, constrained by iron chains, entered Prince Lelang’s army, which was now entirely painted red.
Over these years, after awakening “fighting power,” this troop followed their master in growing ever more bloodthirsty.
When Prince Lelang roared madly on the city wall, these soldiers also raised weapons, roaring along.
If fitted with a filter, it was like college military training students hearing mess call.
Just like that, this pack of lunatics squeezed out the city gate, charging north. Momentum boisterous, like a river snaking north.
While the Wu Family Army palace attendant squatting at the city gate brushed off his dust, pasted breath concealing runes all over, and instructed the dragon horse to fly lower. Don’t attract Chong Shui berserkers’ attention.
…Mad? Insane! Fooled ya….
In the Southern Route camp, after receiving the report, Wu Hanluan summoned Wu Hengyu and numerous generals to discuss the situation.
Wu Hanluan: “Yuan Chang has arranged in the North, I’ll go hold the line, lure the rebel king out of Lelang City, Hengyu you select three thousand elites to go North, tail them, don’t rush to engage.”
Wu Hengyu: “Yes.”
Wu Hanluan: “Southern camp holds position here, Wu Hong, you guard the camp.”
Wu Hanluan now vaguely sensed the power on Prince Lelang, mad in blood battles; he had to block it personally.
As for Wu Fei’s specific task, the camp generals were curious but didn’t ask.
After discussion, Wu Hengyu privately asked where Wu Fei went; Wu Hanluan: “He’s foraging food and grass.”
Wu Hengyu: “Battles have started, he’s foraging food and grass, where did he go?”
Wu Hanluan: “Heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed.”
