jdhmnovel Chapter 737: Offense is the best defense
Chapter 737: Offense is the best defense
There is a difference between encirclement and breakout. Encirclement requires a circular deployment of troops to completely trap the enemy and prevent their escape. This requires a large number of troops, three to five times the number of troops to achieve the effect of one troop.
Breaking out is different; you only need to choose one point to break through, so your forces can be more concentrated and have the same effect as nailing a plank.
Li Gousheng used himself as the arrowhead, leading his troops to break through from the inside in an arrowhead formation. Sun Lang attacked from the outside in the same way. The Wei army, whose forces were scattered, could not withstand their pincer attack from both inside and outside, which allowed the two to quickly break through the Wei army and reunite.
Then Li Gousheng and Sun Lang formed a scissor formation to take turns covering each other as they retreated, preparing to leave the military camp and escape.
Tian Yu was naturally unwilling to let them leave, so he immediately led his personal guards to join the battle, holding Li Gousheng and Sun Lang back tightly on the front, while ordering the rest of the army to flank them from both sides, determined to leave Li Gousheng and Sun Lang behind.
The idea was good, but he forgot that he was now leading not the elite troops that had fought alongside him against the Xianbei in the north, but the county soldiers responsible for maintaining order. Their combat strength was not even in the same league.
Faced with Tian Yu's fierce attack, Li Gousheng ordered Sun Lang to resist head-on while he led his troops to attack the enemy's rear. They quickly broke through the enemy's lines again and cleared the way for retreat.
Thus, Li Gousheng and Sun Lang took turns providing cover while fighting and retreating, and soon withdrew from the military camp and left triumphantly.
The Wei army's warhorses were scattered, and they were temporarily unable to pursue them, so they could only watch helplessly as the Wei army left.
Li Gousheng and Sun Lang, who had withdrawn from the military camp, ran wildly for half an hour, escaping for dozens of miles before stopping to rest after confirming that the Wei army was not pursuing them.
Li Gousheng approached Sun Lang, tore off his blood-soaked face mask, and laughed, "Old Sun, we finally rescued you. This time, we really risked our lives."
Looking at the dejected troops, Sun Lang said, "We really risked our lives. Between the two of us and our eight hundred soldiers, I estimate less than sixty percent will escape."
Li Gousheng looked back and found that the team was almost half the size it had been when they first met up; the losses were indeed quite significant.
But in war, we can't just look at the losses; we also have to look at how well the objectives have been achieved. At least this time, they achieved their goal of rescuing Sun Lang, and that's enough.
However, if we abandon the rescue of Sun Lang out of fear of losses, the problem will be huge. If we don't rescue Sun Lang, what will Sun Lang and his soldiers think? We serve the court, but when something happens, the court doesn't care about us. What's the point of us working here?
If everyone thinks like that, how can war be fought?
Moreover, anyone behind enemy lines could be surrounded. If you don't save Sun Lang today, he certainly won't save you tomorrow, and eventually the group will naturally break up.
Li Gousheng patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I will personally hand over the pension to their family according to the Han army's pension standards. Let's go and find a place to rest first."
The group continued on their journey, and along the way, Sun Lang asked, "What are you planning to do next?"
Li Gousheng laughed and said, "You'll have to ask me that. I have to go and distribute pensions to the fallen soldiers and return to Xuchang to deal with Xiahou Chong, so the army will be under your command. But there is one thing you can consider: our troops from various counties are already gathering in the direction of Shangcai. Now that we've finally gathered them, we can't just sit around doing nothing. So why not do something big and try to attack Pingyu?"
Pingyu is the seat of Runan Commandery. During this period, the Han army attacked all the counties in Runan, but did not dare to go to Pingyu. Now that the troops have gathered and the number of people has increased, they are naturally eager to go to Pingyu to test the waters.
Upon hearing this, Sun Lang was overjoyed and said, "Great idea! I will head to Shangcai tomorrow to join the army."
They decided to continue their journey, intending to first reach the village where supplies were stored to recuperate and rest before proceeding with their next action.
They rested, but Tian Yu and Gao Rou had no desire to sleep. Gao Rou looked at the mess on the ground and cursed through gritted teeth, "This is outrageous! This is too arrogant! This is Runan, the heartland of our Great Wei! How can the Han army be so arrogant?"
Tian Yu calmly sighed, "Now I understand why those famous generals of Eastern Wu lost so badly. Even Guan Xing's disciples are so powerful. I can't imagine how powerful Guan Xing himself was."
"Now that things have come to this, the plan to besiege the stronghold and intercept reinforcements has failed. It's time to consider other options."
Gao Rou quickly asked, "What do you mean?"
Tian Yu replied, "Didn't we say earlier that the rebels in various places had begun to gather? They gathered to rescue Sun Lang, but since Sun Lang has been rescued, they naturally won't come to Queshan. But with so many rebels finally gathered, they shouldn't just scatter, right?"
Gao Rou's expression changed slightly, and she quickly asked, "You mean they might take other actions? If that's the case, they have enough troops this time and are very likely to attack the county city. Should you return to Pingyu City immediately to defend it?"
Tian Yu shook his head and said, "Defense is useless. These rebels are more cunning than ghosts. They have no reason to attack the city. If they find out that Pingyu is well-defended, they will definitely give up the attack and may even flee to other places. So we should take the initiative and attack instead of defending."
"I order the Imperial Household Department to immediately find out the location of the rebels' assembly. I want to take the initiative to attack and defeat them in one fell swoop before they have fully assembled and reorganized."
After the rebels gathered, because the various units were not under each other's command, they had to be reorganized in order to exert their fighting power. The reorganization process was Tian Yu's opportunity. If he could seize this opportunity to attack the rebels, he could win the battle in one fell swoop.
Gao Rou nodded in agreement, and Tian Yu continued, "Prefect Gao, you can no longer stay in Runan. You should return to Yingchuan as soon as possible. I'm afraid that once the rebels can no longer stay in Runan, they will wander into Yingchuan and cause trouble."
Upon hearing that Yingchuan might be in trouble, Gao Rou's expression changed drastically, and she quickly said, "I'll leave tomorrow."
The two chatted for a few more minutes and then parted ways. In the middle of the night, Tian Yu had no time to rest. Instead, he searched for the scattered warhorses, comforted the demoralized soldiers, and mobilized supplies to prepare for the upcoming battle.
The following afternoon, around 5 PM, the school administration reported that the rebels' assembly point had been confirmed as Shangcai.
Tian Yu immediately made arrangements, ordering the wounded soldiers to carry his banner and march towards Pingyu in a grand manner, making it appear as if a large army was returning. He himself led three thousand elite troops, who had been selected, to secretly head towards Shangcai, hiding during the day and moving at night.
This time, he wanted to emulate Li Gousheng's surprise attack, so he couldn't march in with great fanfare. He had to sneak into the village and avoid firing shots.
However, this slowed down their march and caused them to fall behind Sun Lang.
Sun Lang rested in the village for only one night before leading his army straight to Shangcai. Although they traveled on foot, they could travel day and night, so they quickly arrived at Shangcai City.
The city of Shangcai has now been completely occupied by the Han army, which has gathered more than 6,000 soldiers, and more and more Han soldiers are still rushing to this place.
Sun Lang entered Shangcai City and successfully met the Hu brothers, who were the first to enter Shangcai.
The Hu brothers already knew that Sun Lang had been besieged while saving them, and they were somewhat grateful to see him again. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Sun Lang took out Li Gousheng's letter, and the two brothers immediately expressed their support for Sun Lang to become the leader of this rebel army after reading it.
Sun Lang quickly gathered information on various troops, determined the leadership and troop numbers of the troops in the city and those that had not yet arrived, and then organized them into squads and battalions, appointing officers at all levels.
Most of the officers were his classmates from the special forces, and since they all knew each other well, it was easy to deal with them. Therefore, before the army had even fully assembled, Sun Lang had already ascertained the total number of troops, which was a full 18,000.
After all this commotion, they had managed to gather nearly 20,000 men, which instantly boosted Sun Lang's confidence. He immediately proclaimed himself General Tianlang and prepared to attack Pingyu City.