Chapter 326 Playing Style

Chapter 326 Playing Style

Chapter 326 Playing Style
After Sima Yue's death, undercurrents immediately began to surge.

According to his last wish, he should have wanted to invite General Zhenjun and Crown Prince Sima Pi to assist him and continue to control Yan and Xu states.

He Lun, Wang Bing and Liu Qia, who held military power, all expressed their willingness to serve the prince as their leader.

The three of them are neither members of the royal family nor have high status, nor are they very famous. Assisting the prince is their best choice and can best protect their interests.

The most important thing now is to bring the prince over.

Before the prince came to Fan County, the military and political affairs of Yanzhou had to be taken care of.

The government affairs should be handled by either the princes or famous scholars like Wang Yan. No one else was suitable. After much discussion, it was finally decided that Sima Fan, the Prince of Xiangyang, would be the acting governor.

He Lun did not quite agree with this, but all his colleagues in the shogunate agreed, so he had no choice but to acquiesce in the end.

Military affairs were nominally managed by Liu Chou, the left chief secretary of the royal palace, and He Sui, the chief clerk.

He Lun and Wang Bing were military men and conscripts, and were not suitable to be chief officers. Even if they were from samurai families, as long as they were conscripted, trained soldiers, and led troops to fight, they would be willing to be lowly and degenerate, and only fit to be driven by the samurai of the shogunate.

Considering that Liu Chou was from Pengcheng and He Sui was from Donghai, they were both acceptable to He Lun, Wang Bing and even Liu Qia.

Power was divided up in this way.

Now we just have to wait for the prince to come back and "return power".

If the crown prince does not come, the shogunate will be disbanded and the army will fall apart.

In fact, some people had already said goodbye and left the mansion, most of them were scholars from other places who were not from Qing and Xu states.

They either returned to their hometown or went to Jianye, with the latter being the majority - sadly speaking, Situ served as the governor of Yanzhou twice, and deliberately won over the Yanzhou scholars, giving them many powerful positions, but in the end the Qingxu scholars were still the most reliable.

When Wang Bing left Fan County, he saw many scholars leaving, and he sighed: As soon as the prime minister left, the shogunate seemed to be unable to maintain its position. If an external enemy attacked at this time, even though Fan County had more than 30,000 troops, they would most likely be defeated in one blow.

He led more than a hundred riders and hundreds of horses, headed south from Fan County, and detoured to Jiyin. He received help from the Jiyin Bian family, the family of former shogunate chief clerk Bian Dun (now Sima of the Shanjian shogunate), exchanged a batch of horses, raised some supplies, and then headed west.

It was six or seven days later when we entered Chenliu.

Everywhere you look, you see ruined cities and fortresses.

Occasionally, when they saw a fort with people still living in it, others would act as if they were facing a great enemy and would simply shoot arrows at them and tell them to get out of here.

Wang Bing sighed. When he arrived at Waihuang County, the food and water were almost gone. Fortunately, the county magistrate was still there and raised a batch of food for them with great difficulty. However, when he was about to leave, he encountered the Huns army that was plundering everywhere and was forced to stay in Waihuang.

Wang Bing was a little anxious.

The shogunate is beginning to fall apart. If we wait any longer, even if we succeed in bringing the crown prince back, I'm afraid there won't be much strength left.

What's more, the longer it drags on, the easier it is for the enemy to find out and then attack us. What should we do then?
He now realizes more and more the importance of a backbone.

The backbone does not need to be very powerful, but it must exist. As long as it can be recognized by the people around it, then the group will have cohesion. Otherwise, it will be a mess and nothing can be done.

We have to take the prince away quickly.

******
Just two days after Sima Yue passed away and Wang Bing was still on the road, heavy snow fell in Xingyang and Yingchuan areas.

Wang Sang looked towards the east sadly, wondering what was happening to his hometown Donglai.

I heard that Cao Wei and Gou Xi had a battle and were badly defeated.

After so many years, Wang Sang still couldn't overcome the huge obstacle of Gou Xi. He suddenly felt discouraged.

Today is November 16th. The army has been marching south for several days and is about to cross the Wei River and advance towards Yingchuan.

At this time, several riders rushed over from the other side of the river. After passing through the ice, they reported: "General, there are government troops coming from the south to the north, with a flag bearing the character 'Shao'. The vanguard has already started fighting with them."

Wang Sang was startled and asked quickly, "How far is it?"

He didn't ask how many people had come, but only asked how far it was. This shows what he was thinking.

"Ten miles."

"Your mother's slave!" Wang Sang cursed, "You came here ten miles away to report. What are you doing?"

The scout was speechless.

"How many soldiers does Shao the thief have?" Wang Sang asked after calming himself down.

"There may be 20,000 people, mostly infantry, with very few cavalry."

Wang Sang was relieved for a moment, but soon became anxious again. Shao didn't have many cavalrymen, and neither did they.

Among this group of foreign generals, Shi Le had the most cavalry, while the others were all the same, with a few thousand or two thousand cavalry at most. This time, he only brought 10,000 infantry and 500 to 600 cavalry with him. In terms of the number of cavalry, he was on par with Shao Ze.

No, we have to contact Lu Ming and others.

They have a bunch of miscellaneous Hu cavalry under their command, and with their help, they have the confidence to face the Shao bandit.

The messenger set out quickly.

Wang Sang looked at the gloomy sky, feeling conflicted and hesitant.

The two armies were ten miles apart. If they retreated at this time, they would probably retreat like the one in Gong County. Moreover, with so much property seized, the march would be very slow unless they abandoned it.

He looked up at the sky. The snow had stopped long ago, leaving only the howling north wind.

This is more advantageous.

In winter, strong north winds often blow, which can greatly offset the opponent's advantage in bows and arrows.

But Wang Sang still didn't dare to fight.

"Come here!" Wang Sang immediately ordered, "Break up the ice on the river surface, break up as much as possible to stop the enemy."

After the general received the order, Wang Sang thought for a moment and said, "Throw away the looted property so as not to slow down the march."

This time, the person who took the order was a little hesitant.

Isn't it for money and food that soldiers risk their lives to serve? What do you mean by letting people throw away their wealth?
"General, are you going to use the plan of leaving the gold behind?"

"What's the plan for the gold?" Wang Sang waved his hand and said, "You don't have to throw away the silk, but throw away all the other things that are in the way. I saw someone carrying two bronze tripods, it's ridiculous."

"General, those two bronze tripods are worth a lot of money. They are related to the rewards of dozens of soldiers. They agreed to sell them at a valuation after returning to Yecheng and exchange them for some food and silk." The general reminded: "And those cows, each cow is shared equally by several people. If they are thrown away casually, it may hurt morale."

"Bang!" Wang Sang slammed the table and said angrily, "Which is more important, money or life?"

The general was speechless.

"Go and pass the order quickly, don't hesitate." Wang Sang raised his voice and said.

"Yes." The general turned and left.

Soon, the makeshift camp became busy inside and outside.

The veterans who had seen the Silver Spear Army's combat effectiveness quickly chiseled the ice with various tools. The new recruits recruited in the past year were a little confused. They just worked subconsciously after receiving the order and were not as enthusiastic as the veterans.

Overall, this order was executed relatively well, but another order requiring people to give up the looted property was met with great resistance.

Not only did the new recruits not understand, even the veterans had complaints.

It is human nature to be reluctant to give up good fortune.

Rumors began to spread in the army: the Silver Spear Army was close at hand, so they had no choice but to do so.

As for how far this "close at hand" is, the various versions that have been circulated are very scary. The most exaggerated one even says that it is only one or two miles away and could be rushing over at any time.

The whole camp was in commotion.

After hearing the report from his subordinates, Wang Sang was so anxious that sweat broke out on his forehead.

This is not anyone's fault, only his.

As the commander, he conveyed to the soldiers the idea that "we can't win" and "we have to start running for our lives now". If you have done this, what morale can you expect from the soldiers?
The fact that the camp didn't explode on the spot was already a reflection of the hard training and effective organization in the past year.

Wang Sang was sweating more and more. He found that he seemed to have made things worse. But there was nothing he could do. He had been beaten too hard by Shao Ze before. His capital was constantly being consumed. Every time he had a little fighting power, he was directly defeated. Now he didn't have the courage to face the enemy head-on.

After all, it’s all Shao the thief’s fault.

Wang Sang thought about it and decided that he had to personally suppress the incident. So he called over a hundred of his personal soldiers, and with murderous intent, they left the tent and began to clean up the barracks. At this moment, the scouts ran back panting.

Without them saying anything, Wang Sang already knew what was going on.

On the southern horizon, a large horse team appeared.

The horses’ hooves rumbled and the flags fluttered.

There were not many people in the cavalry, with only about two or three hundred at the front, but each man had two horses and they were moving very fast.

The soldier who was breaking the river ice subconsciously stopped his work and stared blankly across the river.

"Long Sword Army..." An old soldier who had fought in the Battle of Dayang swallowed and murmured.

The Changjian Army quickly rushed to the south bank of the Wei River and found a high point in the distance to dismount.

What follows is a dazzling moment.

There were less than three hundred people in total. They quickly untied the luggage from the pack horses, took out the armor, and put it on each other in pairs.

Others who were not prepared to join the battle quickly gathered their horses, retreated far away, and disappeared behind a small forest.

The fully armed Long Sword Army lined up on the other side of the Wei River where the river ice had just been broken, and took out their crossbows.

The whole process took a very short time, and it was obvious that it was the result of repeated trials and tribulations.

After they were ready for battle, more than a thousand cavalrymen rushed over from the south, still with one man riding two horses.

This time they did not dismount, but galloped directly across the river a little further away. After making a long circle, they dismounted and formed a battle formation two miles to the north.

Wang Sang felt like he was falling into an icy cave.

What kind of fighting style is this? Can heavy infantry be played like this?
(End of this chapter)