Chapter 1088 1083 [Switching from offense to defense]
On the east bank of Dianchi Lake, New China excavated an ancient Dian cultural site and unearthed tens of thousands of bronze vessels.
Later, the government used this to build a cultural tourism project and turned it into the "Colorful Yunnan Famous Ancient Dian City Resort".
At this moment, it is called Dawu Long.
The Wu family of the Bai people in Dali also recognized their ancestor as Jichang's uncle, Taibo, the founder of the Wu Kingdom.
The Wu family was not very prosperous in Dali State, so naturally they could not separate themselves into one party. Most of them were retainers of various wealthy families with different surnames.
The Wu family of Da Wulong has been a retainer of the Gao family for generations, helping the Gao family manage the Shanchan Mansion.
In Dianchi Lake, seven or eight fast boats sailed to all directions.
One of the fast boats docked at Dawu Long. After a young man landed, he hurried to the Wu family's Wubao.
"Fourth uncle, the master of the family has an order!"
When the young man saw the person in charge of Wubao, he said anxiously: "Chenggong has been captured by the Ming army. Our Wu family immediately gathered soldiers to defend the Wulong cage as the first priority. Juqiao further south (Jinning District),
Yangcheng Castle Ministry (Shangsuan Town, Jinning District) and other places have already sent ships to gather troops. Soldiers and horses from various ministries and towns must all move closer here, waiting for orders to go north to surround the enemy at any time!"
Wu Yizhen sighed: "Remnant soldiers from the Jiazong tribe escaped to report the news. I already knew that Chenggong had been captured, so I had already ordered the troops to gather. However, the young men under my jurisdiction have been recruited, and even the clan soldiers are mostly in Shanchan (Kunming).
, we have only gathered 200 troops now. If we bring in the old, weak, women and children, we may be able to defend Uburg, but we may not be able to attack the enemy forces going north to encircle them."
"Then just defend Wubao and prevent the Ming army from plundering and escaping southward," the young man said.
…
Chenggong.
Six thousand Ming troops and more than a thousand auxiliary soldiers and civilians were sleeping soundly while swaying about. Only a few were still standing guard inside and outside the mountain stronghold.
Li Shao, the son of Li Gong, a former Guangxi martial arts scholar in the former Song Dynasty, handed over his hands to Yang Zaixing and said: "General, the food obtained here is not much, it is only enough for us people to eat for three or four days. After interrogating the prisoners, it was learned that the strength of the Jiazong tribe was
The grain and grass have been transferred to Shanchan City in the past two days. Even the remaining grain and grass have to be shipped half to Shanchan."
Yang Zaixing's eyes lit up when he heard this: "In other words, the troops around Dian Lake are all in Shanchan, and going south are all fortresses with empty defenses?"
Li Shao nodded and said: "Yes, there are not many soldiers in the south, and all the young and strong men who can fight have been taken away."
Yang Zaixing said: "The soldiers and horses are quite tired. Let's rest for two or three hours first. Let the soldiers who have rested dismantle the wood in the village to make siege ladders, and then go to surprise the Wu cage after nightfall!"
"Secretary!"
"exist!"
"Bring me the information about Da Wu Long."
The military secretary immediately took out the box, rummaged through it, and quickly unfolded a pamphlet and handed it to Yang Zaixing.
Yang Zaixing thought:
"Da Wu Long, the Wu family of Shanchan has lived here for generations, and their descendants are all retainers of the Gao family."
"The Wu Clan has Wu's Wu Fort, which borders Dianchi Lake to the west, rivers to the south, mountains to the east, and flat land to the north. The Wu Fort is smaller, with a circumference of about sixty feet (190 meters), and a wall height of about one foot and two feet (less than
four meters).”
"I don't know how many households there are in Dawulong. Every time I sent out troops, the Wu family's troops were less than a thousand..."
Then, Yang Zaixing looked at other information nearby. After reading it, he smiled and said, "This is easy to fight."
About an hour later, soldiers on sentry duty by the lake reported that hundreds of ships had appeared in Dianchi Lake, and the ships were filled with enemy flags.
Yang Zaixing personally picked up the telescope and went to check it out.
Most of those ships were merchant ships and fishing boats, which should have been temporarily requisitioned for fighting. Guandu City, where the Gao family's hometown is located, is currently a commercial center with a radius of hundreds of miles, and countless merchant ships are docked there all year round.
Perhaps out of fear of the Ming army, or perhaps waiting for the main force, the Dali army from Dian Lake did not land directly to fight.
Yang Zaixing ordered: "The cavalry is divided into two groups and takes turns to go out to explore the enemy's situation. When encountering a large group of enemy troops, do not entangle them and just retreat. The cavalry who are not on the wheel should seize the time to sleep, and the auxiliary troops will help take care of the horses. The rest of the soldiers, in addition to being on duty,
Those who are on guard duty should go to bed quickly to refresh themselves."
In the Dian Lake not far from the mountain village, hundreds of Dali troop transport ships were cruising, but the Ming army officers and soldiers turned a blind eye and slept soundly.
What is elite?
Yang Zaixing's troops all wore light armor, and the proportion of firearms was not very high.
Their equipment is inferior to that of the Ming Army in the north, even to some of the main garrison troops, but they are indeed an elite field army.
Being able to sleep peacefully even when the enemy is at your side is called elite!
In the middle of the afternoon, sentries kept coming back to report that the main force of tens of thousands of enemy troops was getting closer and closer by land.
Yang Zaixing didn't sleep, and his eyes were bloodshot.
He personally rode a horse to the surrounding area to familiarize himself with the terrain, and then returned to the mountain stronghold for a careful inspection. Then he called the generals and carefully arranged the defense tasks. The generals called the officers to make arrangements, but they never disturbed the sleeping soldiers.
Finally, the main enemy force was three or four miles away, and Yang Zaixing shouted: "Don't sleep anymore, get up and prepare for battle!"
One by one, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were yawned and woken up by the officers, who took them to their respective defensive areas.
Outside the stronghold, the Dali army gradually stopped.
Gao Zhenshou personally led his generals and cavalry to the stronghold to observe the situation carefully, holding a pair of binoculars in his hand.
"The enemy must be on guard and can only attack by force," Gao Zhenming said.
Gao Zhenshou said: "It will be dark in an hour, and we haven't even set up camp. There may be an accident when attacking the city now, so we can only surround it first and then attack tomorrow."
"Will the enemy break out at night?" Gao Zhenming said.
Gao Zhenshou smiled and said: "It would be best if the enemy army breaks through. They are already surrounded by groups when they go deep. How much food and grass can be taken away by breaking out overnight? By then, this lone army will not only be a tired soldier, but also a group of hungry soldiers who are about to run out of food! Tell me.
Generals, guard your camp tonight to be prepared for the enemy's night attack or breakout. Keep all your weapons at your side, and those who have armor should sleep in it."
Gao Zhenming was extremely frightened and said: "We only have more than 40,000 soldiers in total, 5,000 are left to guard Shanchan, 3,000 are left to guard Guandu, and now there are only more than 30,000 left. The Ming army is very powerful, even with only a few thousand soldiers.
It’s better to underestimate it than..."
"Why not?" Gao Zhenshou asked.
Gao Zhenming said:
"It's better to let the thousands of soldiers who came by boat from Dianchi Lake go south to guard Wu's Wu Fort. We lead the troops to the east and camp on the mountain to block the east side, and then wait for the reinforcements from the south to arrive and the reinforcements from the west to arrive.
better."
"At that time, there will be Shanchan in the north, blocked by the two cities of Guandu, blocked by Wu Clan's Ubao and Yang Castle in the south, and our main camp in the east. The Ming army here will be surrounded on three sides and can only go west
Jump into Dianchi Lake to escape. When you gather 100,000 troops, then besiege a small mountain stronghold, are you afraid that you won't be able to capture it?"
Gao Zhenshou glared at his younger brother: "This is just the vanguard of the Guangxi Ming Army. When you gather one hundred thousand troops, the main force of the Guangxi Ming Army will come. What's more, the Ming Army from the north is attacking Shicheng County. Once Shicheng County falls,
, Shanchan Mansion will be surrounded instead. The Ming army here must be eaten as soon as possible!"
"Yes." Gao Zhenming said no more.
But he always felt bad in his heart. Can the 30,000-strong Li army in front of him really capture the mountain stronghold garrisoned by thousands of Ming troops?
Seeing that the Dali army was slowly retreating and the enemies in Dian Lake were also landing far away, Yang Zaixing probably guessed that the enemies were going to camp.
Yang Zaixing did not send troops to attack, nor did he plan to attack at night tonight.
"Don't build the siege ladder yet. The timber that has been removed will be used to strengthen the defense of the stronghold." Yang Zaixing ordered.
Li Shao asked: "Are we going to attack at night?"
Yang Zaixing shook his head: "The enemy must be on guard, and it is difficult to succeed in a night attack tonight. What's more, our soldiers are too tired, so we will take the opportunity to have a good night's sleep tonight."
Cao Xun worriedly said: "We are short of food and will run out of food in more than ten days. What should we do if the enemy is always surrounding us? Why not pretend to attack the enemy at night tonight? When trouble occurs, we can take the opportunity to send 800 elite troops.
We will ride on horseback to attack Wu's Wubao, which is more than 20 miles away. There must be food and grass there, and it will be easy to defend."
Yang Zaixing said: "I originally planned to capture Wu's Wu Fort, but now I have changed my mind. We don't have to do anything, just stick to the stronghold here."
"What should I do if there is insufficient food and grass?" asked a general named Zhang Zhongfu.
Yang Zaixing smiled and said: "Although we are going deep alone, we should still trust the friendly forces. Tens of thousands of troops are coming south from Guizhou. They have either captured Shicheng or are besieging Shicheng. They will definitely be able to approach Shanchan before we run out of food."
"We're just approaching, but we still can't get supplies of food and grass," Cao Xun said.
"I see!"
Li Shaofeng clapped his hands: "Friendly troops may move south to Shanchan at any time, so it is the enemy who should be worried. These enemy forces in front of us must eat us as soon as possible before we can go back to defend Shanchan with all our strength. We are like a nail driven here, no matter
If we pull them out quickly, Guard Shanchan will definitely have trouble sleeping and eating. Therefore, the enemy will storm the stronghold tomorrow, and we just need to be patient and guard it."
"That's right," Yang Zaixing said, "the enemy doesn't know how much food we have, so they don't dare to gamble and wait for us to starve to death. If I were the enemy's general, I would also choose to storm the stronghold."
After explaining this truth thoroughly, all the generals laughed happily.
There is no decent castle in Chenggong Mountain Village, and the mountains are not high or steep. Only some key places are built with stone fortifications, and the rest are wooden fences.
Such a cottage naturally has no defense capability.
But these few thousand Ming troops are all mountain infantry and mountain cavalry. The infantry are all trained in the firearm version of the Mandarin Duck Formation. Even if there is no fortress, it is still a home battle!
Except for a few soldiers who were on guard duty, all the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty slept happily.
Wake up in the morning with full energy and wash away the fatigue of the previous few days.
In the middle of the morning, more than 30,000 enemy troops approached the mountain stronghold again, planning to attack from the east and north. Since Dianchi Lake was not far to the west, this was considered to be in line with the military strategy of surrounding three and missing one.
As the enemy troops got closer and closer, the Ming auxiliary soldiers were still slowly moving stones.
They found small rocks from all over the mountains and carried them to the village to break them into pebbles. The shotgun shells they brought with them had long been used up, and it was not convenient to pick them up. Now they can use the gravels as shotgun shells.
Defense.
Didn't bring thunder.
Carrying too little is of no use; carrying too much is too heavy and is not conducive to rapid marches.
Thousands of soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were standing or sitting, wiping their weapons calmly.
There were even some people taking a nap to recuperate their energy. They were assigned as a reserve team and it was still early before they went into battle.
Yang Zaixing stood on a low gravel wall and watched the enemy formations at the foot of the mountain.
He has thousands of elites at his disposal, and he also occupies a stronghold.
Not to mention that the enemy cannot attack this point, even if the enemy's strength is doubled, Yang Zaixing is sure to defend until friendly forces besiege Kunming.
