Chapter 211 210 Change of Plan
Dong Yiyuan's question made Li Zhen also turn his attention to Wei Guangde.
To be honest, although I don't think much of this fledgling young legend, the power and authority are really incomparable, so I can only listen to him here.
Wei Guangde thought for a moment before saying: "I have an immature idea. When we first came out of the customs, the situation we had was that the Anta Department had certain troops stationed outside Baoan Prefecture and Yanqing Prefecture, as well as Chang'an Prefecture and Huailai Prefecture. There are only occasional scouts here.
But since yesterday, Tatar reconnaissance cavalry in Huailai County have appeared frequently. I don’t know if the same is true on other routes. If the Tatars really start to conduct strict reconnaissance around Huailai, we will be attacked as soon as we step out of Huailai. Tatar discovery.
Such a large convoy would definitely not be able to outrun the opponent's four-legged enemy, and even field defenses would not be able to defend against it.
If something goes wrong with this batch of food and grass, the military morale in Baoan Prefecture will definitely be in chaos, and I am afraid they will not go to war. "
"Master Wei, can't he just not want to leave?"
Dong Yiyuan frowned when he heard Wei Guangde's words. He knew very well the status of food and grass in the army. Burning food and grass would lead to chaos in the army, but if the military camp was cut off from food, it would also lead to chaos in the army.
"The Tatars are here to put their reconnaissance cavalry in their arms. We can't leave."
Wei Guangde is also very direct and expresses his thoughts simply.
“What should I do if Baoan Prefecture runs out of food?”
Dong Yiyuan immediately asked.
"The reason why I went there this time was because the Xuanfu army was reluctant to go out to fight and said that the soldiers had no food and grass and had no fighting spirit, so we were forced to make this trip.
Now our location is very close to Baoan Prefecture. The convoy takes about five days to travel. Even if the Xuanfu army drives from Baoan Prefecture, it will only take three or four days, and Kuai Ma will arrive in less than two days.
Since we know that delivering food was dangerous in the past, why do we ask them to send people to pick it up? "
Having said this, Wei Guangde stood up and walked two steps in the room before continuing: "Let the Xuanfu army move. Even if there is no real fight with the Tatars with real swords and guns, at least the Tatars will divide their troops to monitor.
Mr. Li knows the purpose of my trip. As long as the Tatars come over, if they are not strong, we will take this opportunity to urge them to fight the Tatars first. But I am a little undecided. I have preset the battlefield in my arms. Wei still went to Huailai County. "
"You want to use these grains as bait?"
At this time, Li Zhen stood up suddenly and said in surprise, "This batch of grain and grass is very important to the Xuan Mansion, but it cannot be lost."
Of course Wei Guangde was aware of Li Zhen's reminder, and the most troublesome thing was that the Andu Department had strengthened the blockade and investigation around Huailai, which made their previous ideas come to nothing.
According to Weng Pu's original idea, there should not be many Andabu reconnaissance cavalry around Huailai at this time, and the grain transport convoy will be relatively safe.
In fact, Wei Guangde and Weng Pu also discussed in private why the Anta Department stayed here for more than half a month and did not leave.
According to their analysis, it may be for a transaction, but after such a long time, the transaction should have been completed, and the Anda Department should withdraw from Xuanfu immediately, and would never continue to stay here and send troops to threaten Baoan Prefecture and Two places in Yanqing Prefecture.
However, it was only after he arrived at Huailaiwei that he belatedly understood what An Dahan might have planned. Perhaps his idea was that since he was here, he would touch the Xuan army here and test the strength of the Ming army. , if he is a soft persimmon, he can defeat the main force of the Ming army in Huailai and Bao'an, and then he can attack the passes along Juyongguan and march into Beijing again.
Before coming, Wei Guangde really didn't expect that the Xuanfu guard post would be so unbearable. You must know that the closest army around the capital besides Ji Town is Xuanfu. Wei Guangde originally thought that the army here should be relatively strong, but when he arrived at Huailaiwei, he saw His military appearance was completely different from what he had imagined.
In Zhang Ji's words, it feels worse than the previous Jiujiang Wei.
The previous Jiujiang Guards were actually very weak. They had no longer had the grand military appearance when they followed Taizu to conquer the country, but they were much better than the Beggar Guards here.
As for now, it is even more incomparable.
Because of Jiujiang Wei's outstanding performance, both the Nanjing Governor's Office and the Ministry of War looked at them with admiration. Naturally, they gave them equipment and supplies in order to have a team that could be pulled out at the critical moment.
Naturally, there will be no shortage of money that should be distributed, but it will no longer be delayed as randomly as in the past.
Wei Guangde sighed in his heart, thinking of the people Yu Ding had seen during the day. This huge northern defense line was guarded by these people, and it was really difficult for them.
I remember when I was a kid, my father would brag about the strength of the frontier army in front of him. If Wei Guangde had known that he was like this at that time, hehe.
It was also for this reason that Wei Guangde guessed that Anda Khan might want to defeat the Xuan army here. These transferred troops might be the most powerful army in Xuanda town. As long as they were defeated, the future Xuanda defense line would be in vain.
The things we discussed with Weng Pu at the beginning will definitely not be used. If we continue to go according to the plan, then I am afraid that my life will be handed over here. The Anta Department will never sit back and watch such a large grain transport convoy enter Baoan Prefecture, and they are Sometimes I am afraid but also care about food.
At this time, Li Zhen and Dong Yiyuan were thinking about what Wei Guangde said, asking the people from Bao'an Prefecture to come over to pick up the food. If the Tatars didn't follow many troops, they could still fight back, and the initiative was still clear. In the hands of the army.
What's more, once we get here, Huailaiwei can at least gather some soldiers to join the battle, which will also increase the strength of the Ming army.
"If your Excellency plans this way, we need to communicate with the Huailaiwei commander. Which one has better defense, Huailaiwei City or Huailai County City."
Li Zhen fully supported Wei Guangde's proposal at this time. Without him, the risk would be much smaller.
Before, he was also very worried about the safety of this trip, not only food and grass, but also his own life.
According to Wei Guangde's opinion, at least his life could be saved and his errands would not be delayed. It was the best of both worlds, so he naturally agreed.
At this time, Dong Yiyuan was reminiscing about the Huailai County he had visited. After all, he was from Xuanfu and had traveled around Xuanfu with his father and elder brother.
After a long time, Dong Yiyuan clasped his fists at Wei Guangde and said: "Master Wei's plan is feasible to Beizhi. Master Li also said just now that you need to choose Huailai Acropolis or Huailai County. In fact, Beizhi has been here before. Of course, the defense of Huailai County is It's not as good as the Acropolis, but if we really want to attract the Anta tribe to invade, we may still need to meet the grain and grass in Huailai County to be more secure.
First, it is closer to Bao'an Prefecture and it is easier to get support from Bao'an Prefecture. Second, if we don't take action, the Tatars may not know our existence. "
It can only be said that the previous battlefield shielding was better. Nearly half of the cavalry were sent out to block Anda's reconnaissance cavalry. He also led the remaining cavalry around to provide support, so that Anda's reconnaissance cavalry only knew that there was no way to escape from Juyong Pass. The specific situation of the troops that came out was completely unknown.
In fact, these intelligence wars on the battlefield were not proposed by Wei Guangde. Dong Yiyuan had already arranged them in this way. The war wisdom of the ancients was no worse than that of modern people, and they knew everything they should know.
As for the errand of delivering food, they had previously planned to carry out the task at risk, which meant that they abided by orders more strictly and did not have Wei Guangde's arbitrary power. Therefore, many times they were unable to respond in time to changes in the battlefield and could only act in accordance with orders.
"Having the Huailai guards guard the Yongding River Bridge can protect the safety of the Acropolis. Send some soldiers to follow us to Huailai County and prepare to fight there."
At this moment, Wei Guangde thought that he should communicate with the people commanding Huailaiwei. Because tonight involved the transportation of grain tomorrow, Wei Guangde did not call the people from Huailaiwei. However, since his ideas were discussed by Li Zhen and Dong After Yiyuan accepted it, he naturally asked Huailaiwei to participate in the cooperation.
Wei Guangde turned to Zhang Ji outside the door and shouted: "Zhang Ji, go and ask the commander of the Huailai Guard to come over. By the way, ask Yu Guangdou to come over. I need him to write an official document to report to Lord Weng."
Yu Guangdou was a scribe brought by Wei Guangde from Juyongguan to help him handle some official documents.
Before these scribes came, Wei Guangde could only do the errand of writing official documents. When Changping sent people here, Wei Guangde naturally became the person in charge of them, and he no longer dealt with these matters.
Not long after, Yu Guangdou was summoned here, but at this time he could only stay aside. When the commander of Huailai Guard arrived, Wei Guangde first told him what Huailai Guard needed to do now.
When he heard that Wei Guangde wanted to take away five hundred soldiers from the acropolis, the commander of the Huailai Guards changed his expression.
"I want to take him to Huailai County. You can temporarily recruit Yu Ding to make up for it here."
Wei Guangde didn't want to get too entangled with the people in the Xuanfu. Now he directly used his privilege as counselor for military affairs to intervene in the military system.
From what Wei Guangde saw about the current situation of Huailaiwei, he didn't have a good face to face the commander.
The location of Huailai is really good. It is surrounded by two rivers, Sanggan River and Yanghe River. The intersection of the two rivers is the Yongding River. The river passes through Chongshan Mountain and the Great Wall, and finally flows through Beijing City and finally enters the Haihe River.
But don't think about the waterway, because the waterway is not smooth, and materials transported from the pass can only be transported by land. As for the Yongding River near Huailaiwei, it is stable and can be sailed.
As for why the grain was not sent directly from Huailaiwei to Baoan Prefecture by ship, it was not that Wei Guangde did not consider taking the waterway, but that there were not enough ships here.
Although this section of the river is dozens of feet wide, the part of the river upstream is still relatively narrow, especially in Baoan Prefecture, which is close to the Yang River. The river there is much narrower, and there is no way to prevent the Tatar cavalry from throwing bows and arrows on the bank. They are swimming against the current.
It was agreed with the commander of the Huailai Guard that Dong Yiyuan would go to the guard station early tomorrow morning to gather the manpower and set off. After the commander of the Huailai Guard left, Wei Guangde ordered Yu Guangdou to start writing official documents.
For the sake of his own life this time, Wei Guangde still had to fight hard and revised the strategy he had made with Weng Pu before. Naturally, at this time, he needed to inform Juyongguan. Weng Pu was the admiral in charge of military affairs and the boss of the war zone.
After Wei Guangde dictated it, he asked Li Zhen to take the official document written by Yu Guangdou in his hand and read it carefully before sending it out after confirming it was correct.
Then he asked Yu Guangdou to write an official document to mobilize the Xuanfu Army to come to Huailai County to transport grain. Previously, he only asked the Xuanfu Army to send out a unit to take over. Now that the plan has changed, it is natural to rewrite the official document.
After Wei Guangde and Li Zhen saw it, they immediately asked Dong Yiyuan to send several people from his close servants to Baoan Prefecture to deliver the message. Dong Yiyuan's servants were all from Xuanfu, so they were naturally familiar with many people.
Now that the overall situation has been decided, Wei Guangde breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. After learning about the military report sent from Huailai County in the afternoon, Wei Guangde's heart has been tugging.
In fact, Li Zhen also has the same mentality as him. Since he was assigned to the position of military preparation, he naturally knows some military affairs. Even if he didn't know it before, he knows a lot after sitting in this position. After all, He's not stupid either.
If I didn’t say it before, that’s because I knew when I was at Juyongguan that the commander-in-chief Weng Pu and Wei Guangde in front of me had a detailed plan for this operation. Naturally, he didn’t dare to say anything, and he couldn’t say anything.
The room became quiet. At this time, only Wei Guangde and Li Zhen were left in the room. Although they were sitting facing each other and there was a tea cup in front of the table, they were both contemplating the previous arrangements and neither spoke much nor drank. Tea.
War is actually a logical deduction. The commander of one side must make a series of reactions based on the intelligence he possesses to make the situation more beneficial to him.
What Wei Guangde is planning now is the reaction of An Dahan. He will know the information, what kind of reaction he will make, and how Wei Guangde should respond.
As for whether he could win a battle between soldiers, that was not within his scope for the time being.
To be honest, if the troops in Baoan Prefecture were similar to those of Huailaiwei, Wei Guangde felt that it would be safer for him to retreat to the border town under the protection of Dong Yiyuan, where he would wait for the arrival of the Datong Army.
However, Wei Guangde also heard from Dong Yiyuan that most of the Xuanfu army's guards were similar to Huailai guards, but the generals under the Xuanfu army and the soldiers led by the guerrillas could still fight against the Tatars, at least on both sides. When the strength is close, the outcome is 50-50.
As for Dong Yiyuan's father, Dong Yang, who previously served as a guerrilla general of the Xuanfu and died fighting when the Anda troops invaded Dishui Cliff, this was also caused by the huge disparity in strength and the delay in the arrival of the Xuanfu reinforcements.
In fact, the prairie cavalry's attacks on the military forts in Xuanfu and Datong were a bit like guerrilla warfare. They knew how to attack the weak with the strong rather than forcefully attacking them. They usually roamed around the periphery of the military forts looking for fighters. Once they selected a weak target, He suddenly got angry.
Therefore, every time they attacked a Ming army fort, they usually raided it with superior force in pursuit of a quick victory. By the time most of the Ming army arrived to support them, the Mongols had already retreated.
If the prairie cavalry has enough manpower and is strong enough, they will often ambush the Ming Dynasty reinforcements coming. Therefore, the Ming army in the border town was tired of dealing with the Tatars' fighting style, and in the end they were afraid and unwilling to fight.
After a long time, Wei Guangde suddenly sighed, "I wonder where the Datong Army is?"