Chapter 911 Divide and Conquer

Chapter 911 Divide and Conquer

Chapter 911 Divide and Conquer

"A good warrior attacks others instead of being attacked by others. Jin Zheng has many shortcomings when leading troops in battle, but this point must be remembered firmly." After reading the battle report, Shao Xun threw it to his staff.

After a rain, the grass on the grassland that had been eaten clean by cattle and sheep began to grow wildly again.

Some dry sand was covered with gorgeous wild flowers overnight, making it look like a paradise on earth.

"General Jin is a worthy general," Zhang Bin commented, "but he is too eager to win merit."

He was talking about the fact that after Kim Jong-un had clearly blocked the enemy's retreat route, he did not consolidate his camp but instead took the initiative to attack, which showed that he was too aggressive.

But Zhang Bin did not completely deny this person.

Kim Jong-un has indeed figured out how to attack others without causing harm to others.

Actively choose terrain and battlefields that are favorable to you, so that the enemy's cavalry advantage cannot be brought into play.

After succeeding, they rushed for more than 200 miles. With only ten days of food and water to carry with them, they set up barriers on the main roads to cut off the enemy's retreat.

Once the camp was set up, Suo Tou was forced to give up his advantage and was forced to dismount and fight on foot.

But Jin Zheng made a mistake here. Instead of defending the camp, he took the initiative to attack.

If you win, it's fine, but if you lose, the road will be blocked.

If Zhang Bin were to fight this battle, he would defend the camp.

Suo Tou might want to give it a try to see if he can take it down. If he can repel the enemy's offensive, the morale of his side will be boosted and the enemy's morale will be weakened. At this time, he might try to charge in.

If the morale of the Suotou is so low that they dare not even attack the camp and simply take a detour, then it doesn't matter. We can wait until late at night and send out multiple troops to beat drums and shout for killing everywhere.

The enemy had walked such a long way and was exhausted, hungry, and their morale was low. This move would make them even more panicked. They dared not even stop to rest at night and could only run in a hurry, depleting their physical strength and energy to the extreme.

At this time, we can send out the elite troops who have gathered their strength and energy to pursue the enemy closely. We should not force the enemy into a desperate situation, but just bite off the troops in the rear formation little by little. This is called "strike the tail" in the art of war.

After doing this several times, the retreat will turn into a rout, and the gains will be huge.

But Jin Zheng's idea was indeed different from that of his advisers. He actually took the initiative to form a formation for a field battle!

"If Jin Zheng uses it well, it will be a good sword. Even Wang Que'er and Hou Feihu are not as good as it." Shao Xun said with a smile: "If Que'er comes to fight in this battle, he will first store up food in Mayi and Yunzhong cities. Elite soldiers like Zuo Feilongwei will probably stay behind to escort the food."

"He led the Silver Spear Central Camp, the Right Camp and other cavalry troops to advance all the way. Every time he captured a city, he would stop and wait for food. He would not advance unless he had three months' worth of food."

"When the Suotou cavalry attacked, they used the chariot camp as a cover and marched all the way to Shengle City, forcing Suotou to fight a decisive battle."

"The leader of the group intercepted the grain route, but the Free Dragon Guards, Cavalry Guards and other troops repelled them."

"This style of play is slow and consumes a lot of money and food, but it is stable."

"Kim Jong-un's tactics are fast and he uses fewer troops, so he only needs a few elite troops, but they are not stable enough."

After saying that, Shao Xun looked at Zhang Bin and said, "Everyone is useful. If it's a life-and-death battle, I'll use Wang Que'er. But Jin Zheng is only leading the Zuo Feilong Guard to attack, so I can afford to lose."

"Yes." Zhang Bin cupped his hands and said no more.

King Liang was sober and knew Jin Zheng's strengths and weaknesses. He was able to control this overly ferocious and somewhat unruly wolf very well.

Shao Xun suddenly noticed that Wang Xiao, who was accompanying the army, was writing something. Considering Wang Xiao's status as a writer, he asked with a smile, "What is Chu Hui writing?"

Wang Xiao was a member of the Wang family of Chen County, the son of Wang Yin, and the nephew of Wang Hu.

Shao Xun knew that the king was secretly writing a history book about the dynasty.

Wang Yan even borrowed a few volumes and commented that the writing was not good enough.

Wang Xiao was a writer, and one of his jobs was to record things. It was possible that he would write down what Shao Xun said to his staff. After the war, he would even interview the people involved in the war and record first-hand information.

Later dynasties used this as the basis for compiling history.

After hearing Shao Xun's words, Wang Xiao hesitated.

Shao Xun smiled and was about to say forget it, but Wang Xiao stood up and handed it to him.

Shao Xun took it and read it, and found that it was about the war.

"Zheng said: 'Your Majesty has mobilized all the brave men in the country. If you drag on for a long time, both the men and the horses will be exhausted, and there will be unexpected disasters. Yihuai has entrusted all the important matters to Aitou, and everyone is resentful. I have tried my best to go to the war, but everyone is suspicious. Now the soldiers and horses are elite and brave, and there are more than ten thousand elite soldiers. It is better to go straight to Shanwu, attack them by surprise, and disrupt their formation.'"

"After saying this, he bowed to the south and wept: 'If I lose, I will cut my own throat to thank you.' The generals were moved to tears, and the troops advanced."

"Zheng's troops were stationed at Zhonglingyuan, and the divisions were in good order. The Xianbei dared not attack. Zheng personally beat the drum to encourage them, and the government troops advanced with drums, and the Xianbei were defeated. Zheng sent his generals to pursue them, and they fought several times a day and were defeated repeatedly. The Xianbei were therefore discouraged."

"When Aitou heard that Shanwu was already lost, he and his attendants looked at each other in dismay and said, 'We are going to die soon', and then he hurriedly ran back."

"After Shanwu was taken, he pretended to appease the Xianbei leader to weaken his army. He led several thousand elite troops westward and marched over 200 miles in two days. He conquered Wucheng and Luoxian and blocked the main roads to prevent the enemy from returning."

"The Aitou army arrived. He said to his commander Qin San: 'The enemy has come from afar, their morale is greatly reduced, and their physical strength is weak. You just need to line up your battle array and attack them.'"

"Qin San bowed and said, 'I rose from humble beginnings to riches and status, all thanks to King Liang. Now is the time to repay the favor.' Then he invited King Ai to fight, and he won."

"We sent troops to pursue them, but the bandits fled in a hurry, tens of thousands died, and Aitou was the only one who escaped."

Shao Xun remained silent for a long time after reading it.

This style was too familiar to him. He didn't think it was a big deal before, but when he experienced it himself, he felt it was a bit outrageous.

"How do you know what Aitou and Jinzheng said?" Shao Xun asked.

After a moment of silence, Wang Xiao cupped his hands and said, "This is the wisdom of Taishigong."

Shao Xun laughed.

If the historians of later dynasties really wrote this passage, then Jin Zheng's image would be greatly changed, and he would seem to be a brave, resourceful, bold and careful general. But Shao Xun knew that Jin Zheng was a man with distinct strengths and weaknesses. If he used his strengths well, he would be more powerful than Wang Que'er and Hou Feihu, with greater results and less cost.

If his weaknesses are exposed, he will suffer a great loss.

Shao Xun handed the manuscript to Wang Xiao, turned around and sat down, and asked, "How many people have died in Suotou since the battle?"

"The number of prisoners and executions should be around 10,000." Zhang Bin calculated for a while and replied.

"There are only so few people." Shao Xun sighed and said.

He is calculating the total bill.

Dou Qin and Dou Yuzhen, father and son, defected to the Wang family, which was a heavy loss for Helan Aitou. It could be seen as the complete annihilation of this army, but this was not the case in Shao Xun's view.

Because the main force of the Dou family is still there and is still alive.

If he returns to Tuoba Yihuai's side in the future, they will have tens of thousands more soldiers and horses, and this group of troops will be "revived" again.

The same is true for the Yilu clan, one of the ten Tuoba clans.

After they surrendered quickly, it was not easy to tear each other apart and attack and kill them directly.

"Your Majesty." Pan Tao stood up at some point and saluted, saying, "It's time to send envoys to contact Yihuai and Aitou. Their prestige is greatly damaged, their strength is weak, and many tribes are disunited. The only tribes that can be controlled are perhaps Helan and a few others. They should have fled to Yixin Mountain. If we can recruit them, we may be able to contain some of Pingcheng."

"Oh?" Shao Xun asked curiously, "After this defeat, Aitou is still willing to surrender?"

"It's a different time now." Pan Tao said, "When it comes to life and death, what's the point of saving face? It won't hurt to give it a try."

"Is he still worth recruiting?" Shao Xun asked doubtfully.

People like Helan Aitou are actually the same as Wang. Although there are a lot of people gathered around him, these adults and chiefs have no "patience" at all.

Yes, it is the lack of something called "patience".

If you win, we will still follow you.

If you lose, we will lose our patience and will leave.

But the question is, why can some grassland heroes and monarchs still make their subordinates remain "patient" and continue to follow them after failing several times?
To put it simply, it lies in the word "foundation".

The foundation can be bloodline, great fame, past merits, or even the appointment by the Emperor of the Central Plains.

The foundation is like a bank account. Some grassland monarchs have rich deposits in their accounts, and they have not used up all the money even after several consumptions.

Helan Aitou had little savings, and once he showed signs of decline, he would have no chance - in fact, Wang Xiao was right when he wrote, "Yihuai entrusted all important matters to Aitou, and everyone was resentful. He tried his best to join the expedition, but everyone was suspicious of him."

Therefore, Shao Xun felt that this person actually did not have much value, and he had no chance of rising again. Even if the Helan tribe became stronger in the future, the one who led them might be Aitou's son, or his grandson, but not him.

"Your Majesty, Aitou is not worth recruiting, but Yihuai is." Pan Tao said, "Madam Wang has sent people everywhere to recruit him, and she has given him positions one after another. Many people have come to her from far and near to seek refuge. This woman is very smart. Taking today's incident as a lesson, she will definitely kill Yihuai and Aitou as soon as possible. Otherwise, if war breaks out again in the future and Wang's army is defeated, who knows if people like Dou Qin and Liu Lugu will not go to Yihuai?"

Shao Xun pondered in silence.

Zhang Bin, Pan Tao, Yang Man and others looked at each other. Oh no, could the king have been bewitched by that woman, Wang?

Pan Tao's eyes flickered, thinking that this woman might ruin things.

"Your Majesty, as long as Yihuai is here, Madam Wang will always feel uneasy." Zhang Bin also advised: "The land of Bingzhou and Hexi is now destitute, with almost no Han people. If you want to maintain peace for another ten or eight years, you have to divide it up and govern it separately."

After a long while, Shao Xun nodded and said, "If you can guarantee peace for ten years, I will be able to free up my hands to guarantee peace for another twenty years."

"But..." He then said, "Shengle must not be left to Yihuai. I don't trust him. Shengle, Pingcheng..."

At the end, Shao Xun mentioned these two places.

Pan Tao rolled his eyes and asked, "Your Majesty, are you worried that the Wang family will become too powerful to control?"

Shao Xun looked at him and nodded.

"I have a plan." Pan Tao said.

"speak."

"The Xianbei used to have a system of three major people in the east, middle and west. Why don't you follow suit?" Pan Tao said, "Now Ruyuan, Dongmugen Mountain, Pingcheng and other places are all in the hands of the Wang family. Shengle, Wuyuan and other places in Henan are also about to be recovered. It is certainly not as good as when the Xianbei was prosperous, but it should not be underestimated. Perhaps the imperial decree can be used to grant official titles. I heard that the Wang family has a son named 'Tuoba Lizhen'..."

Having said this, he shut up.

Shao Xun's face rarely turned red.

But Pan Tao is right. When there is no way to actually manage these places, we have to consider restraining each other.

In short, the principle is that the more finely divided the Xianbei are, the better.

Tuoba Hena is still surviving in the Suotouchuan area and is dependent on the Yuwen clan. Last year, the Yuwen clan joined forces with Goguryeo to attack the Murong clan, but the result was the same as the previous joint attack many years ago, in which they were defeated again.

Pingcheng and Shengle each had one master.

There is another lord north of Henan.

If the Xianbei were divided into four parts, it would be more beneficial for him, as an arbitrator, to make profits.

Of course, this is not easy to implement, and it may not always work.

But he only wants it to work for ten or eight years so that he can free up his hands to do other things.

"Let's take Shengle first." Shao Xun slapped the table and said.

(End of this chapter)