Chapter 112: Strategic planning

Wang Family Courtyard, Wang Pu Warm Pavilion.

The news about the Wang family is not slower than the government. Almost as Wei Daben learned the news, Wang Pu also knew that the bandit army had reached the Octagon Fort. Wei Daben and Zhang Zi'an and the secret discussions between King Dai had not yet come to fruition, but Wang Pu had already begun to discuss with Zhen Youcai how to defend Datong.

Wang Pu was responsible for defending Datong and did not think of a second person.

Wang Pu had long said that even if the court temporarily sent someone else to be the general of Datong Town, he still had a way to undermine others. The only one who really commanded the Datong border army was Wang Pu, but it could not be someone else. In Datong's three-point land, Wang Pu or the Wang family was so confident.

At this moment, Wang Puzheng and Zhen Youcai surrounded the map to study countermeasures.

Zhen Youcai pointed to Wang Pu somewhere on the map and said, "General, this is the Bajiao Fort, and a few dozen miles ahead is Shuozhou. From Shuozhou to the east along the Sanggan River to the Old River, and then from the Laohekou to the north along the Shili River to the north, it is Datong, and the whole journey is only about 300 miles."

Wang Pu nodded and said nothing.

Zhen Youcai continued: "Although it is early April, the weather in Datong is still very cold, and the ice of several rivers has not melted at all. The bandit army can quickly push the army along the valley. According to the benefactor, they will be able to reach Datong the night after tomorrow."

Wang Pu said: "In other words, we still have three days to prepare?"

Zhen Youcai nodded and said, "It's almost the case."

Wang Pu asked: "You are talented, if you are the general of Datong Town and face the attack of more than 100,000 thieves, how do you plan to defend Datong?"

Zhen Youcai said: "There is no other way, you can only strengthen the walls and clear the fields."

"Strengthen the walls and clear the fields?"

"Yes, strengthen the walls and clear the fields! Move all the people of Datong Prefecture into the city, and then concentrate all the livestock and grain in the city. The government will set up a porridge shed to distribute the daily food of the people, so that it will not leave a grain of food for the thieves. If the thieves cannot find the land for food, they can only rush to other prefectures and counties."

Wang Pu frowned and said, "You mean that you want to move all the people into Datong City within three days. Is this possible?"

Zhen Youcai said: "The problem should not be big. Except for the tens of thousands of military households distributed in the border areas, most of the more than 100,000 people are mostly distributed in the valleys of Shilihe and Sanggan River. Most of the villages and towns are only a hundred miles away from Datong. It should be possible to move most of the people into the city in three days."

Wang Pu asked: "So many people went to the city to take refuge, are there enough food?"

Zhen Youcai said: "Suppose that 100,000 people are moved into the city, and the original 30,000 people and troops in the city will surge to 130,000 people. Suppose that each person eats half a kilogram of rice every day, the food consumed every day will be at least 65,000 kilograms, which is about 350 stones. The 80,000 stones stored in the Wang family compound is enough to support nine months."

Wang Pu said: "It seems that the food is enough."

Zhen Youcai said: "I am worried that the 20,000 stones of grain stored in the Leigong Mountain camp will be more than 5 million kilograms of bacon. If this batch of grain and bacon falls into the hands of the thief, the thief can cook the meat and wild vegetables together to save food. As long as they last two months, the wheat outside the city will be ripe, and the trouble will be great."

Wang Pu thought for a while and shook his head and said, "Leigong Mountain Camp is a natural fortress. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack and has water sources. The bandits may not be able to fight. When the situation is critical, they can still send troops to threaten the bandits. They can just 'elastic support' with Datong, so they must not give up easily."

Zhen Youcai was clear at a glance and said respectfully: "The general's eyes are far-reaching, and his humble position is far less than that."

Wang Pu slowly stood up, turned his eyes to the outside of the warm cabinet, and whispered: "The secret discussions in the government office should have a result, right?"

"General!" As soon as Wang Pu finished speaking, the voice of Lu Liudi sounded outside the warm pavilion. "The Lord Wei, the Prime Minister of Datong, asked for a visit."

Wang Pu turned around and exchanged glances with Zhen Youcai, and smiled and said, "Haha, let's say Cao Cao and Cao Cao are here."

Zhen Youcai showed a bad smile on his face and whispered: "General, this time they have something to ask for us and take the initiative in our hands. General, you might as well ask for a price everywhere and ask them to hand over all the silver and grains from the Datong vassal treasury. It is best to let Zhang Zi'an's old castrate and the iron rooster, the prostitute, also make some blood."

"Yeah." Wang Pu nodded and said deeply, "These two guys have sucked too much money and ointment. It's time for them to get some blood. They have to understand whether it's better to donate some of their property or wait for the thieves to come into the city and steal their lives."

Zhen Youcai smiled wickedly and said, "General's clarification."

"Let's go." Wang Pu waved his hand and said loudly, "Let's go and meet this Wei Daben."

Shuozhou, Li Yan's tent.

Since it takes time to transmit the Tang Dynasty, the actual itinerary of the Shaanxi Rebel Army was half a day faster than that of the Guanfutang Dynasty. Shanxi Governor Wang Qiaonian sent the Tang Dynasty newspaper to the Datong Prefect Wei Daben that the bandits had arrived at the Bajiao Fort, but in fact, the elite rebel army led by Li Yan had passed the Bajiao Fort half a day ago and had now captured Shuozhou.

It is said that it is the elite of the rebel army because Li Yan left all the old, young, and children in the army at Mizhi, and only brought more than 50,000 elite troops to the expedition.

Along the way, the rebel army made progress beyond Li Yan's imagination!

When Li Yan initially formulated his marching route, he was hesitant because there were two ways to go from Mizhi to Datong.

The first road is to follow the border. This road is close to the distance, but along the way, the Ming Dynasty's official army has many guards, schools and fortresses. Emperor Hongwu and Emperor Yongle have operated the nine borders twice and set up a large number of military strongholds along the Great Wall. In the narrow and long areas within the Great Wall, the number of military strongholds can be described as numerous as cows.

The second road is to first go east to the hinterland of Taiyuan Prefecture, and then go north to Datong. The advantage of this is to bypass the military strongholds with numerous oxen hairs on the frontier. The disadvantage is that the distance will be greatly extended. The original distance is less than 300 miles, and it is likely to be extended to five or six hundred miles.

After repeated weighing, Li Yan finally chose the first path!

Facts have proved that Li Yan's choice was correct.

Because they could not receive military pay for a long time, they had to endure the oppression and humiliation of generals at all levels. The Ming border troops stationed in the frontier strongholds had already been completely disappointed with the court of the Great Dynasty. Almost as soon as the rebels arrived, the soldiers of the border soldiers who had been fed up and rose up one after another. They killed the generals of the border town who usually rode on their heads as a mighty person, and then resolutely defected to the rebel army.

By the time Li Yan's army captured Shuozhou, they had already broken through dozens of military strongholds along the way, and at least more than 8,000 government troops turned aside and became soldiers of the rebel army. Although many of these more than 8,000 government troops were guards. The equipment was extremely poor and there was no training, compared with the Shaanxi rebel army, these guards could be regarded as "elite".

What's more, there are indeed many real elite troops among these more than 8,000 officials.

More importantly, these border troops in the rebellious areas also brought a large amount of information about Datong to Li Yan, including how many border troops there are in Datong Town, how many people there are in Datong Prefecture? How many border troops are scattered in the surrounding military strongholds, and how many are stationed in Datong City?

For generals like Li Yan, the value of these intelligence is even far more than that of the 8,000 border soldiers themselves!

The rebel army had just captured Shuozhou. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the army's rest, Li Yan urgently summoned Ma Shouying, He Yilong, He Jin, Liu Xiyao, Lin Yangcheng, Li Hu, Jing Maocheng, Li Xuan and others to discuss matters.

Li Xuan was originally the head of Gushan Fort in Yansui Town. Because the Gushan Fort wanted to kill him with the help of the rebels, he was furious and killed Gushan Fort. Then he led more than 800 official troops in the mainland of Gushan Fort to join the rebels. Li Yan did not want the official troops along the way to be divided by Ma Shucheng five people, so he organized the battalion alone and led by Li Xuan.

When everyone arrived, Li Yancai said loudly: "Generals, it is now possible to confirm that the total strength of the border army in Datong Town is about 18,000, of which 8,000 troops are stationed in the camp north of Datong City, and the remaining more than 10,000 people are stationed in more than 100 guards, places, and forts, which are quite scattered."

"That's great." Ma Shouying said loudly, "Now our army has more than 70,000 elite troops, while the Datong defenders only have only 8,000 troops. Our army has nearly ten times the advantage of military strength. Haha, we will win this battle!"

"No." Li Yan shook his head and said, "There are not only eight thousand border troops in Datong City, but also five thousand servants of the Wang family!"

"The Wang family actually has 5,000 servants?" He Jin said in a sniff, "Good, this Wang family is worthy of being the richest man in Shanxi, rich enough. He can actually afford so many servants!"

"So what?" Ma Shou said disapprovingly. "Even if the five thousand servants of the Wang family are added, the Datong defenders will only have 13,000 troops. Our army still has an overwhelming advantage in military strength."

Li Yan nodded and said, "Our army does have an overwhelming advantage in terms of military strength, but we can't be careless in this battle. After all, Wang Pu is in Datong City. This Wang Pu is not a simple person. Last August, he broke Shengjing with only more than a thousand cavalry servants and captured Huang Taiji alive!"

"Wang Pu is in Datong?" Ma Shouying said horrifiedly, "This is really a thrust person, you can't be careless."

The other generals also nodded and said that they had heard of Wang Pu's name for a long time, and they could even be said to be well-known. As the saying goes, a famous man is a vain man. He must always be careful when fighting such a powerful person.

"However, you generals don't have to overestimate Wang Pu." Li Yan smiled faintly and continued, "No matter how powerful Wang Pu is, he is just a person. He can defeat Shengjing because Jiannu was too careless, because Jiannu did not expect that the Ming army would dare to go against the trend and attack Shengjing in surprise. In addition, Wang Pu can capture Huang Taiji back to the Ming Dynasty not because he would escape to the sky and earth, but because Jiannu was busy fighting for power and profit, and had no intention of saving Huang Taiji at all!"

"In the face of absolute strength, all conspiracies will be useless." A faint calmness floated on Li Yan's face, and then said, "As long as our army fights steadily in this battle of Datong and does not give Wang Pu any opportunity to take advantage of, we can win the final victory with our absolute military advantage!"

Ma Shouying shouted: "Brother Li Yan, just tell me, how should we fight now?"

Li Yan said calmly: "To win the Battle of Datong, there are two things that are very important."

Ma Shouying said: "What two things?"

Li Yan said: "The first thing is to never let more than 10,000 more than 10,000 military strongholds scattered around Datong return to Datong City! Everyone has seen the situation along the way. As long as these more than 10,000 more than 10,000 troops are not allowed to retreat to Datong, the defenders of Datong will be reduced by 10,000, and our army will be more than 10,000 more. The enemy and our army will be further widened."

Ma Shouying said, "What else?"

Li Yan said: "There is also that people outside Datong City cannot be allowed to withdraw into the city! Although our army has an absolute advantage in military strength, this battle may have to be delayed for several months. At present, there are more than two months before the wheat is mature. If we have to survive this period, we cannot lose the support of people outside the city."

"Well." Although Ma Shouying didn't understand Li Yan's strategy very well, he nodded seriously and said, "These two things that Brother Li Yan said are indeed very important. Brothers must do it carefully."

A faint smile flashed across Li Yan's face, and he continued, "So, I want to ask five generals and I to lead an elite army to set out first, and strive to force more than 200 miles to reach the city of Datong within a day and one night. In this way, the people of Datong Prefecture and the border troops of various surrounding military strongholds will not be able to retreat into Datong City in time."

"This..." Ma Shouying frowned, "Who will lead the subsequent army?"

"I haven't thought about it yet." Li Yan asked back, "I wonder if there is a suitable candidate for General Ma?"
Chapter completed!