Book 45 - Chapter 10 – Execution of the Plan (1/2)
Dou Jiande was standing in thehim Alone, he had his eyes fixed on the clay model on a round table in thethe two ain went to battle and tiain achieved victory – revealed a smile, his pair of eyebrows rose up, he cal, coh Liyang, to cut off the arm hich Li Yuan explore the area outside the Pass”
Kou Zhong sighed inwardly, knowing Dou Jiande has not put his heart – the desire to have hiiance to him – to death He hurriedly stepped forward and concentrated his attention to look Turned out the , co area The roads, cities and toere spread out and were clearly depicted, absolutely not some ordinary military map could compare with; it was detailed and fine, with proper depression and elevation, so that in just one glance everything could be seen very clearly, saving a lot of ti in praise, Kou Zhong said, “This three-diraphicon the other side, Liu Heita laughed and said, “Thiswas ae without practical experience; to personally build this kind of model, first he must spent a period of time to do an on-site survey, and then to use both hands to knead the clay to ht process and passion to throw hihest require the enemy from the art of war Fro to Dou Jiande
Dou Jiande slowly said, “To the south, Liyang is connected to Jiang Huai, to the west it is connected to Xiangluo, to the north it joins Youyan Whether I want to , this is a strategic hub thatcarefully checked the layout of theThe as thick, deep ditches were dug around the city, drawing its water froji Canal It could even be said that it was as secure as a city protected by a wall of uarded, difficult to attack Pointing to another city southwest of Liyang, he asked, “What city is this?”
Dou Jiande laughed aloud and said, “Xiao Zhong is indeed out of the ordinary, you are able to see the key place fro can be attacked This city is called Weihui, together with Liyang, they have the momentum of horns In the past, Yuwen Huaji led a hundred thousand old Sui elite troops going up north, Li shi+ji abandoned Liyang and defended Liyangcang [lit Liyang granary], while Li Mi led his troops to be stationed at Qingqi Everyday they communicated via fire beacon Whenever Yuwen Huaji attacked Liyang, Li Mi would dispatch his troops to attack his tail, causing Yuwen Huaji to face the ene has been broken by me and turned into ruins, it’s difficult for Li shi+ji to carryout the retreat and defend Liyangcang tactic But if Weihui corresponds ith the Tang Areous for our ar has a brilliant scheme to break the ene theresponded, “Since you have this consideration, why not attack and seize Weihui, which defensive capability is far below Liyang’s – first, and then cut off all sea and land connections to and fro will really become a lone city At that tihter, Dou Ye can fulfill your desire”
Liu Heita sighed and said, “It’s not that we did not think about this strategy, but we are afraid that e are going around Liyang to go straight to Weihui, Li shi+ji would lead his troops behind us and attack suddenly Li shi+ji is indeed the eneral under Li shi+min’s command, he absolutelymuttered to hihed and said, “Since that’s the case, why don’t we beat the to send the troops to Weihui, we lure Li shi+ji to come and attack, and then we turn around to devour hiht about that strategy, but there are two problems: first, Li shi+ji is proficient in the art of war, he can’t possibly be falling into the trap that easily; second, even if Li shi+ji is willing to send troops and attack, although the distance fro to Weihui is only a little raphy of thein scattered formation, Li shi+ji, who is familiar with the local terrain, could concentrate his ht as his cover, and ambush any point on my army If that happens, our allotted share is only to take a beating”
Having a card up his sleeve, Kou Zhong s would not send troops If the person in charge in Liyang is only Li shi+ji, one y is feasible or not is still difficult to predict Fortunately, there is also Li Shentong Li Yuan entrusted hi defeat at Zhaocheng While feeling his face and eyes are without any light, while he is eager to seek victory, he definitely will not want towill send troops to attack”
And then he slyly said, “This time I went outside the Great Wall, it really opened wide my horizon All Tujue people are of the sao like the wind, never afraid of sudden and violent attack and not afraid to h we cannot copy the style they aretheir troops, we could put it to use differently in different situations”
Greatly interested, Dou Jiande and Liu Heita pro said, “This is called there can never be too much deception in war Not only ant to lure the attacked either Furthermore, we e of our troops, to seize their resolve But I wonder how’s the strength of both sides, the enehtest hesitation, Dou Jiande replied, “Co the construction battalion, there are altogether five divisions; each division is ten thousand , the number of military personnel and civilian is between sixty to seventy thousand people, but the soldiers who are truly trained and have combat experience are no hing aloud, Kou Zhong said, “I have always been accusto If this ti to face the weak – is still not successful, I should obediently pack and quit and return hohtly with Dou Ye I want to know, after Dou Ye capture the city, what do you usually do?”
Dou Jiande revealed a look of ad asked was indeed the words of an expert It should be noted that the reputation of the attacker had a decisive influence toward the people being attacked For example, Tujue people were accustomed to massacre everyone in a captured city, so that the army and civilians in the city knew that horizontally, they’d be dead, vertically, they’d also be dead; therefore, they would rather fight to the last drop of blood, to hold out against the enemy to the very end
Liu Heita replied on his behalf, “Dou Ye’s treatainst it Take defeating Yuwen Huaji for example; we acquired beautiful women in the imperial palace by the thousands, but Dou Ye ienerals ished to stay were all put in important positions Therefore, the civil court officials and enerals of the old Sui, none was not happy to be employed by Dou Ye, such as the former Sui’s assistantin the same capacity, the Minor Treasurer [one of the Nine Ministers in ih official] in the Ministry of Works, Yu shi+fu as the assistant ate, don’t knohat it is], Ouyang Xun as the high ranking official in the Minister of Ceremonies; as for those who did not wish to surrender, we respected their aspiration, and properly sent them out of our territory”
E is going to be the object inside Dou Ye’s bag”
Dou Jiande stared deeply at hi to work together with Heita, an insignificant Liyang city won’t be anything difficult, even the world will be the object insidesaid, “Can this ht now is to seize Liyang first, and then da out of the Pass to the east”
Dou Jiande cheerfully said, “Xiao Zhong evidently knohy I, Dou Jiande particularly think highly of you, not only because you are both wise and brave, but the more important reason is that we all were born of low social strata [note: the dictionary says ‘social stratum below the level of ordinary people/untouchable/dalit (India caste)] Although my circumstances are a bit better than yours, but when I was little, my family was very poor, so I can’t stand those corrupt bureaucrats aristocratic, rich and powerful family who think that they are above everybody else – thethe people can understand the suffering of the people Throughout history, whoseand , the first imperial eeneration, precisely due to the cala concern to the circu caround, yet he was successful in establishi+ng the throne of the Han Fa military to recover, it was the period where our Central Earth was at its peak, since the dawn of time until today Therefore, all a to let Li Yuan and the likes to prevail This is called united the power is strong, divided the power is weak Xiao Zhong ought to give thought to bignodded and said, “Dou Ye’s words went straight to the bottom of my heart, hence in terh I have the intention of unifying the world, I do not have the ambition to become the emperor I only hope that there will be someone in position to allow the common people in the world to pass the days in peace and happiness” Translated by foxs
Greatly delighted, Dou Jiande said, “That should do it! Xiao Zhong, please tell us your brilliant sche troops”
Kou Zhong took a deep breath When his train of thought was back to clear, he spoke with serious expression, “The reason the Tujue are acclaimed as invisible wonder troops, able to appear and disappear unpredictably like a spirit or a ghost in the prairie, is simply because they are able to unleash the flexibility of the cavalry to the extreme saturation; they value exquisiteness, they don’t value number Of course we cannot become as formidable as the Tujue wolf army in such a short period of time, but from the fifty thousand soldiers we could carefully pick two, three thousand warriors with brilliant equestrian archery skill, to act as our vanguard troops to open up a path As long as they could evade the enemy’s scouts’ eyes and ears, this cavalry unit could be like the Tujue Wolf Ar unpredictably like a spirit or a ghost, plus they could be the invisible wonder troops”
Dou Jiande and Liu Heita listened with full attention, they repeatedly nodded their heads
Kou Zhong was radiant with delight, his voice projected a very strong self-confidence, he went on, “And then our troops will split up five ways, one unit protects the ons convoy and the construction battalion, taking position in the ht, protecting fro a three-li distance with the , travel forty li during the day, by nightfall we can pitch caht take the opportunity to strike at night, to burn our rations and fodder, and ons, we could deliver a frontal assault according to plan, attack his Niang’s so that they are in a sorry state”
Knitting his brows, Dou Jiande said, “If I were Li shi+ji, I would also use fast-ht and the terrain as my cover, plus I could attack froainst it There is a great possibility that ould really suffer losses”
Kou Zhong laughed aloud and said, “That is precisely the ht, he walked over to thefacing the garden Pursing his lips, he let out a shrill whistle The little falcon Wuh in the sky, heard her master’s call and swooped down, entered in and landed on Kou Zhong’s outstretched wrist Since his poas profound, he did not need any wrist guard, also he did not need to worry about being injured by the falcon’s iron claws
Kou Zhong hed happily, and said, “With this little darling ofan eye in the sky, the enemy won’t be able to hide from us; one person comes we kill one person, a couple coht Dou Ye have?” Translated by foxs
Dou Jiande’s pair of eyes lit up, he laughed loudly and heartily and said, “This is called the Heaven helpsco, ill march our troops to Weihui, to pull a snake fro Li shi+min out of the Pass to the east, Li Yuan won’t have any other choice”
After three whole days of traveling by fast horse, Xu Ziling, Song shi+dao, Lei Jiuzhi and Ren Jun, four men reached Taolin on the southern bank of the Yellow River west of the Pass They checked in into the hotel in which a reservation has beenrespectfully for the Jiahe, was Zhai Rang’s former subordinate Over the years Zhai Jiao did business inside and outside the Great Wall and made her fortune, thereupon she used her wealth to support their old subordinates to change profession and do business, so that they lived a soed for them to stay at the rear of the hotel, downstairs was the hall, upstairs were guest rooms, tranquil yet hidden
Everybody sat down around the table, Zheng Jiahe leaned into Xu Ziling’s ear and spoke in low voice, “The chest that Xu Ye wanted, Da Xiaojie already sent it here, I put it inside the wine cellar downstairs The lacquer seal on the chest is still intact, it has been left unopened”
This chest of gold and silver, money and valuables was the spoils of war they obtained froold in the chest was given to Ou Liangcai and the other Pingyao oods that were robbed froh to be used as the capital to ga expressed his thanks, Zheng Jiahe and his trusted attendants withdrew