Chapter 267: First Battle with Jiading

"In the 14th year of Hongwu, Lan Yu and Mu Ying attacked Dali. Lan Yu offered suggestions that the real soldiers could feint attack Xiaguan and the void soldiers attacked the barbarian enemy behind. The barbarian enemy was shocked and thought that the Ming army rushed in from behind, so he drew troops back to defend. The Xiaguan army marched straight in and broke through Dali in one fell swoop."

"In the 20th year of Hongwu, Lan Yu was the deputy general and followed Feng Sheng to attack Nahachu, the Northern Yuan Taiwei of Jinshan. Lan Yu led the light cavalry to raid while taking advantage of the heavy snow, defeating the Northern Yuan army, killing Pingzhang, and Nahachu surrendered to Ming."

"In the 22nd year, Lan Yu led the fifteen major troops to attack Yuerhai for a long distance, and defeated the Beiyuan Army..."

In the big tent, the details of the war between Lan Yu in previous years were read out one by one. Li Weizheng, Gao Wei, Deng Jian and general Ping An all listened attentively. Several staff members were marking the huge sand table. According to the latest information, they used various small flags to mark the garrison on the sand table. For example, two small red flags were inserted to represent 20,000 troops, and three small blue flags meant 3,000 troops.

What Li Wei values ​​most in his combat career is intelligence. In fact, almost all his battles are victorious from sufficient circumstances, so among all the troops in his army, the scouts have the strongest ability and enjoy the best treatment. Later, the Jinyiwei who defected to him basically supplemented the scouts. Moreover, his scouts role is no longer the traditional scouts, but more of the role of spies, traveling merchants, inn shopkeepers, teahouse shopkeepers, even women, old people, etc. They would sneak into this area a year or two before a certain strategy was formulated, and lived like normal people, but the intelligence network was weaving quickly and strictly.

For example, when Lan Yu entered Sichuan this time to suppress the rebellion, the Liaodong Intelligence Department sent nearly 100 former Jinyiwei elites to sneak into Sichuan. They quickly weaved the intelligence network in Sichuan. When Li Weizheng entered Sichuan this time, a huge intelligence system had been completed in Sichuan, and every move of Lan Yu's army was captured in the eyes of these spies.

A large amount of intelligence comes every day, and this intelligence will be classified by the Intelligence Department, and finally, important and valuable intelligence will be handed over to the Staff Office to assist in decision-making.

After finishing the details of Lan Yu's battles over the years, Gao Wei nodded and sighed: "It's very detailed. When I was in Hongwu in the 26th year of Hongwu, I happened to be a general under Geng Bingwen. I personally experienced Lan Yu's surprise weapon, but I still didn't know so much, so detailed."

Li Wei was just thinking about it and asked, "General Gao, in the 26th year of Hongwu, what is your biggest feeling for fighting against Lan Yu? I want to hear it."

Gao Wei sighed and said, "The biggest characteristic of Lan Yu's battle is two words, one is 'fast' and the other is 'qi'. When he attacked Chongqing last time, I was busy dispatching troops, but in the blink of an eye, he had already crossed the river to Yongchuan. Let's talk about 'qi'. In the 26th year of Hongwu, the reason why he could defeat Geng Bingwen was because of his vain and reality, and he always took the initiative to attack the King of Shu. But when Geng Bingwen came to support, he turned to Chongqing again. When Geng Bingwen transferred to Chongqing, he returned to capture Chengdu. You can't touch what his real intention was at all?"

Li Wei was slowly walking to the sand table and staring at Neijiang. Five red flags were planted in the city of Neijiang, which meant that there were 50,000 troops here. Among Lan Yu's nearly 300,000 troops, this was definitely a heavy army. On the contrary, in Jiading Prefecture (Today Leshan), there were only three blue flags, and only three thousand garrisons were planted. There were basically no large-scale garrisons along the way from Minjiang. Is this Lan Yu's negligence? He clearly knew that he was coming by a large number of boats.

Thinking of this, he asked another marching adviser: "How is the navigation status of Tuojiang River and Minjiang River?"

The march opened a book of information and said, "It was September. The Minjiang River could carry a large ship of thousands of stones, but the Tuojiang River was in a hurry and could only carry a ship of five hundred stones, and it required manpower to pull the fiber."

Li Wei was nodding, and he lowered his head and looked carefully at the distance from Neijiang to Jiadingzhou, which was at most two hundred miles. He asked again: "What is the highest marching record of Lan Yujun?"

The marching officer replied: "Report to the Grand Governor, Lan Yu had been in Hongwu for 26 years, and the infantry traveled 80 miles overnight. This is his highest record. If he followed this kind of march, he would take two days and one night from Neijiang to Minjiang, including rest time."

"Then how much time does it take for our ship to arrive in Jiadingzhou?"

“It takes five days.”

After listening to the analysis, Li Weizheng smiled at the other generals and said, "How about it, do you have any ideas?"

Deng Jian hesitated and said, "Is it because Lan Yu's intention to let us go to Minjiang, so he deployed heavy troops in Neijiang."

"No! He hopes that we will go to Neijiang." Li Weizheng smiled slightly.

Gao Wei also interrogated: "The governor said it well. With the style of using the army of Lan Yuxu, he hoped that we would go to Neijiang and deploy heavy troops in Neijiang."

"What should we do?" Ping An, who was next to him, felt a headache and couldn't help but scream.

Several generals looked at Li Weizheng together, but Li Weizheng smiled faintly and said, "No matter how he uses tricks and tricks, we will follow our plan. Our goal is to take Chengdu and use the route that is most beneficial to us."

Speaking of this, his wooden pole pointed to the Minjiang River and said, "Let's go to the Minjiang River, and 100,000 troops head north."

Three days later, a fleet of nearly a thousand large ships began to march northwards with thousands of sails dancing on the river, covering the sky and the sun. The huge fleet was out of sight. On the bow of the ship, Li Wei was smiling and asked Ping'an: "General Ping, is it a bit unused to take a boat to fight?"

Ping An scratched the back of his head and smiled, "I was seasick at first. When I got off the boat, I was so dizzy that I couldn't stand. But after getting on the boat, I felt gradually getting used to it. But it was not as satisfying as riding a horse. I felt like I was tied up and I felt so nervous."

"Okay, after Yibin, I will give you a guard, Daning cavalry, and you will lead the way for me on land."

"Sir, I have something to ask, but I wonder if I can ask questions or answers."

Li Wei glanced at him, and saw that he was full of seriousness, and then smiled and said, "What do you want to ask?"

Ping An showed an expression that was difficult to open, but in the end he gritted his teeth and asked: "Sir, it has been rumored in the army that he has the intention to replace the Ming Dynasty. I wonder if he really has this intention?"

"What do you think?" Li Weizheng did not answer him directly, but asked back.

Ping'an shook his head and said, "I don't think so."

"Why?"

"If the Lord really wanted to take the Ming Dynasty and replace it, then there would be a chance when Li Jinglong was defeated for the second time. At that time, the imperial court had only more than 100,000 soldiers, his morale was low and people were panicked. However, the Lord had nearly 600,000 soldiers. Isn't it easy to replace the imperial court?"

"You think of the problem too simply. For example, Cao Cao used the emperor to command the princes. In fact, the Emperor of Han was just a puppet. Why didn't he proclaim himself emperor? It depends on the will of God. God would not allow him, and he could not do it even if he wanted to."

"God's will?" Ping'an was confused. Li Weizheng patted his shoulder and smiled, "The so-called God's will is only to understand it, not to be expressed in words."

The fleet continued to go north. That afternoon, the fleet arrived on the river thirty miles south of Jiading Prefecture. The enemy situation began to appear. Ping An heard the latest news of scouts on the shore. Hundreds of small boats appeared on the river ten miles ahead, and were sailing towards this side quickly. In addition, the 50,000 troops from the Nei River were already twenty miles away.

Li Wei sneered and immediately ordered: "The ships dock, the army will gather ashore, and intercept the ships to be dispatched!"

The fleet began to dock, and the dense Liaodong army disembarked and went ashore, moving quickly and in an orderly manner. Hundreds of tiger squat cannons consigned by war horses were also carried ashore. The Liaodong army gathered on the shore, and twenty smaller ships continued to move northward. The most sharp thing about the Liaodong army was the navy. Their strength on the water was unattainable in the world. Not only did they attack sharply, but they also had their own unique means for interception and defense.

More than 20 interceptor ships continued to go north and stopped. They pulled up three iron chains as thick as wrists on the river surface. Then they threw down dozens of wooden box anchor thunders. This was a kind of extremely exquisitely designed mine. It was fixed on the river surface by an iron anchor. The explosion time was determined based on the length of the fuse. It was a timed mine. In fact, this mine was invented more than a hundred years later. The reason for the invention was not because of the technical difficulty, but because of the actual war needs. In the early Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty implemented the maritime ban, and there was no need for such mines. However, the Liaodong Army vigorously developed the naval army, and this kind of shocking thunder placed in the water naturally appeared. Dozens of mines were densely spread in front of the first iron chain, and the fuse in the wooden box was already burning.

A mile away, hundreds of small boats had appeared, and dense black dots were coming quickly here. They were loaded with linoleum, firewood and other various ignition-enhancing items, trying to re-enact the spectacular scene of burning the Red Cliff, but burning the Red Cliff only had an effect on those who were unprepared. In front of the Liaodong Army, which was famous for its naval army, this method seemed a bit ridiculous.

The soldiers on the boat had already discovered intercepting iron chains in front. Behind the iron chain, more than 20 gunships were waiting for them to arrive. Seeing that the other party was prepared, the soldiers lit the boats and then dived to the shore. The Liaodong army was waiting for them on the shore. Hundreds of small boats ignited a huge fire and hit the iron chain. At this moment, a shocking explosion suddenly came from the water surface, and a violent explosion was blown away.

Several meters high water columns were raised, and several small boats were blown to pieces. Explosions came one after another, and the entire water surface was almost overturned. Nearly a hundred soldiers who swam a little slower were buried in the water. After a while, the explosion gradually stopped. At this time, there was no small boat on the water surface, but the wreckage of the small boat was floating, and the bodies of some soldiers were mixed in it, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder.

The huge explosion reached several miles away. Li Wei heard continuous explosions on the boat. He suddenly understood Lan Yu's tactics. Using the boat was not really trying to burn the fleet, but just trying to intercept them.

Li Weizheng had a doubt in his heart. There were only 50,000 enemy troops coming from Neijiang. Will they really come to die? Impossible! It is very likely that there was something hidden in Jiading City ahead. Li Weizheng changed his mind and immediately ordered: "Let the scouts hurry to Jiading City to investigate the information!"
Chapter completed!