Chapter 242: One strike with all your strength

In Jinan Prefecture, Shandong, general Sheng Yong was looking at the map in front of him with serious eyes. His heart was full of worry. The 200,000 troops on the east road he led had been stagnant here for more than half a month. According to the plan, they should be deployed in the area from Guantao County to Liaocheng, so that they can keep a distance of about 200 miles from the middle road army and can echo each other.

But at this time his brigade was already five hundred miles away from the Central Army, which was an extremely unsafe distance. Whether he was attacked or the Central Army was attacked, they could not support each other.

The reason why the Eastern Route Army was unable to go north was very simple. Sheng Yong received a report from a spy that Li Wei was suddenly reinforcing troops on the Shandong Peninsula. Now the troops he deployed on the Shandong Peninsula have reached between 150,000 and 200,000, and it is not scattered, but concentrated in Zhucheng County, the southern part of the Shandong Peninsula, with the possibility of large-scale advance south.

This made Sheng Yong and Tie Xuan feel very uneasy. If their army headed north, the vast area from south of Shandong to the Yangtze River would become a defensive gap. Li Weizheng's army could march straight into, not only threatening the security of the capital, but also cutting off the food route of their imperial army.

So under the threat of Li Weizheng's sudden increase in troops, Sheng Yong did not dare to lead the army north, but stayed in Jinan Prefecture to defend. Two days ago, Tie Xuan had already gone to Zhucheng to negotiate, so he didn't know what the result of his negotiation would be.

Sheng Yong was also very suspicious of Li Weizheng's intention to suddenly increase his troops in Shandong. Although the emperor said before leaving that Li Wei was his own person, he could believe that if this was the case, why did he suddenly increase his troops? Of course, there are many explanations for this, such as increasing Shandong's auxiliary defense, protecting the food route, etc., but Li Weizheng's increase in troops actually caused the effect of restraining the eastern army from going north, which was very beneficial to the King of Yan.

What Sheng Yong is worried about now is Geng Bingwen's side of the middle army. If the King of Yan takes the opportunity to launch a large-scale attack on Geng Bingwen, it will be hard to say whether he can withstand it.

"Send someone to Zhucheng again. Once there is news from Lord Shangshu, Feige will report it immediately!" Sheng Yong issued an order again. He walked to the window and looked at Zhucheng. He was extremely anxious. Why didn't Tie Xuan come here yet?

Zhucheng, Shandong, is the south of Qingzhou Prefecture. It has always been a quiet small county town. At most, there are only more than a thousand transit soldiers. However, during this period, a large army suddenly came to an end in Zhucheng County. 150,000 Liaodong troops gathered here. The endless tent even covers a wider area than the county town. The people of Zhucheng live in fear all day long. Without the fifteen major troops, only 10,000 troops entered the city. This small county town will face a catastrophe. However, nearly twenty days have passed, and the army outside the city has never entered the city. The people of Zhucheng gradually feel at ease.

At this time, Li Wei was in the camp outside the city. He was sitting in front of the map and pondering. Like Sheng Yong, he was also waiting for news, but he was waiting for news from Peking. The reason why he suddenly increased his troops to the Shandong Peninsula was because he unexpectedly received a news that Ye Tianming was demoted to the people. Judging from the information sent by the secret spies in the capital, it was Huang Zicheng who received a secret report from Ye Tianming's slave, saying that Ye Tianming had hidden the secret decree of the late emperor. Therefore, Huang Zicheng filed a lawsuit with the emperor, and eventually Ye Tianming was demoted.

In Li Weizheng's opinion, this was a very clumsy counter-spunishment plan. How could Ye Tianming's slave know that his master had the secret order of the late emperor? With Ye Tianming's cautiousness, he probably didn't even know his son. Ye Tianming's son's son leaked the news while drunk was even more nonsense. As for the slave who reported to him, he was indeed from Ye Tianming's mansion, which was easy to explain. He was originally the one who was placed in Ye Tianming's mansion by King Yan.

This is an obvious counter-espionage plan. He used Ye Tianming and Huang Zicheng to kill Ye Tianming through the secret decree of the previous king. So what is the purpose of the King of Yan doing this? After Li Wei was thinking for a long time, he suddenly understood that the King of Yan did not like Ye Tianming's strategy. At least he did not like to play against Geng Bingwen. Li Weizheng also did not like Ye Tianming's strategy, nor did Geng Bingwen. He hoped that the Jingnan Battle could be fought, so he decided to help the King of Yan.

At this time, a personal soldier outside the tent ran to report: "Sir, Lord Tie, Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, is asking for a visit outside the camp."

"Please!" This was something that Li Weizheng expected, and it would be strange if he didn't come.

After a moment, under the guidance of his personal soldiers, Tie Xuan hurried into the tent, "General Li is fine!" Tie Xuan bowed with a smile.

Li Weizheng hurriedly stepped forward to see the ceremony, "Sir Tie is here, but Li Weizheng doesn't know that he can't send someone to greet him. Please forgive me!"

"I came here abruptly, it has nothing to do with General Li."

The two of them exchanged a few greetings. Li Wei was asking him to sit down and ordered his personal soldiers to serve tea. Tie Xuan took a sip of tea and asked straight to the point: "General Sheng and I are both very strange. Why did General Li accumulate large troops in Zhucheng? So I came to ask if something big happened in this area?

Li Weizheng smiled and said, "It's not a big deal. I'm worried that the Yan King's army will go south and threaten the capital in the future, so I specially held an army assembly exercise. I want to see how long it takes to start from Liaodong and go to Shandong to intercept the Yan King's army. The original destination was arranged in Yanzhou, but I was worried that it would cause misunderstandings between General Sheng and Secretary Tie, so the location was changed to Zhucheng County, which was slightly eastward. I hope it would not have any adverse impact on the court's eastern army."

"Is this true?" Tie Xuan looked at Li Weizheng with doubt and asked again: "Even if it is a assembly and drill, General Li will not be stationed in the army for twenty days!"

"This is what the Secretary of Iron has unknown. My army gathered from all walks of life, both early and late. The latest army came from Goryeo and has not arrived yet, so I have been waiting."

Tie Xuan was speechless. What Li Weizheng said was indeed impeccable. He did not really go to Yanzhou to intercept his retreat. He just made a suspicious move and created a situation. Although he did not follow the court's orders, Tie Xuan also knew that the court could not command the Liaodong Army. However, his actions did indeed bring serious consequences and restrained the court's Eastern Army. If he had to find Li Weizheng's responsibility, it would be that he did not communicate with the court army in time.

Tie Xuan had no choice but to sigh and said, "In the future, General Li will do such large-scale military exercises. We must inform us in time so that we will not cause many unnecessary misunderstandings."

Li Weizheng suddenly realized, and he quickly bowed and apologized: "This is Li Weizheng's inadequate consideration, so he must pay more attention in the future."

Although he was speaking, Li Weizheng did not retreat for a day, and the eastern army still did not dare to go north for a day. Tie Xuan asked again: "When will General Li be planning to end this drill?"

Li Wei was pondering for a moment, and then slowly said: "Since my drill has caused unnecessary misunderstanding, in order to eliminate this misunderstanding, I will withdraw my troops back to Liaodong today."

Two hours later, Li Weizheng issued an order and the army returned to Penglai and prepared to return to Liaodong by boat. Although Li Wei retreated under Tie Xuan's negotiations, he successfully restrained the imperial army from the east to head north. In just half a month, the situation in Hebei reversed...

The 200,000 army in the middle of the court, led by General Geng Bingwen and Minister of Justice Baozhao, had arrived in Handan ten days ago and established defensive fortifications, preparing to wait here for the eastern army to head north...

Among Zhu Yuanzhang's many generals, Geng Bingwen was just a relatively mediocre general. He was very mediocre in terms of wisdom, enemy situation judgment, ability to command troops and arrange troops, and was far from comparable to first-class generals such as Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Li Wenzhong, and Lan Yu. So when he was in Sichuan, he was led by Lan Yu and lost his troops, and was also looted by Lan Yu in Chengdu and Chongqing. In the end, he didn't even touch Lan Yu a hair.

Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and he was not wronged to bring him to prison and ask for punishment. However, he is now the main general of the central army of the court, and he also responded to the saying "There is no general in Shu, and Liao Hua is the vanguard." All the capable generals were killed by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Geng Bingwen became the last experienced veteran. With him, he could at least stabilize the morale of the army. This is why Ye Tianming strongly recommended him as the head coach of the central army. However, Geng Bingwen was not useless. He had one advantage, that is, his defensive ability was very strong. Among Zhu Yuanzhang's many generals, his defensive ability was first-class. He considered it very carefully in defense, even so meticulously that he had to dig a deep ditch, how many antlers to bury, how thick trees needed to be used for artillery bombardment, how many trees needed to be used for the fence of the camp, and so on, and so on, every detail was taken into consideration, making him the number one defender in the world.

This time, Geng Bingwen was very cautious. He fully utilized his strengths and approached north with every step of the way. This made the King of Yan a headache for him and tried every means to get rid of him.

That night, Geng Bingwen was discussing with Baozhao to withdraw his troops and return to Daming Mansion first, waiting for the Eastern Army to come and cooperate. They also received news that the Eastern Army was still stationed in Jinan Mansion. According to the plan, they should be in the Guantao area. Soon, he received the exact news from Sheng Yong that Li Wei was gathering nearly 200,000 troops in Zhucheng, and there was a possibility of cutting off the retreat of the imperial army, which surprised Geng Bingwen. If Li Wei was colluding with the King of Yan, the situation of the imperial army would be worrying.

"Report!" A sergeant suddenly came from the door of the big tent: "There is the latest news from the Yan army."

"What news?" Geng Bingwen asked nervously.

A soldier came in and presented a report of the situation: "A spy discovered that nearly 200,000 troops of King Yan were walking on Jinghai, Cangzhou, and heading south along the canal. The goal seemed to be to go to Shandong."

This sudden intelligence made Geng Bingwen and Bao Zhao look at each other, and their eyes were full of shock. Geng Bingwen said anxiously: "Mr. Bao, this must be because the King of Yan and Li Wei were colluding with each other and preparing to attack the court's Eastern Army from north to south. Sheng Yong is in danger!"

Bao Zhao is a weak scholar. He planned some strategic suggestions and delivered speeches in the army. It is OK to stabilize the soldiers' emotions, but he really doesn't understand this purely tactical problem. He also said anxiously: "General Geng can make a decision early in this matter."

Geng Bingwen thought for a while and said, "The tactics of the King of Yan are very obvious. He and Li Wei are attacking the Eastern Route Army first. After he succeeds, he will go north and detour behind us. First cut off our supplies. Then he will surround us with another Yan army in Peiping. We must not sit and wait for death. I suggest that the army go south to Jinan immediately to rescue the Eastern Route Army. I wonder what Lord Bao thinks?"

Bao Zhao nodded and said, "The lips are gone and the teeth are cold, General Geng said the most! "

Geng Bingwen immediately ordered: "The Central Army immediately set off an army and headed south."

On the night when the Central Army began to set off, a powerful army like tigers and wolves had just arrived in Shahe County a hundred miles away. This was the 250,000 elite army led by King Yan Zhu Di, himself, who was preparing to attack the Central Army of the imperial court.

This is the last link of the anti-espionage chain plan planned by Zhu Di. He concentrated his superior forces to defeat Geng Bingwen once. For this operation, he did not hesitate to mobilize 450,000 troops, of which 200,000 were composed of second troops with weak combat effectiveness. He went south along the canal to attack Shandong. The purpose was to mobilize Geng Bingwen's army. He was still deeply afraid of Geng Bingwen's defense. As long as Geng Bingwen's army was in the movement, he would be sure to defeat the middle army.

But Ye Tianming has been dismissed for a month, but the reason why he has been slow to move his troops is that he is worried about the court's Eastern Army. If the two armies of the court support each other and support each other, he will really be unsure. But he got an unexpected news that the Eastern Army was actually stranded in Jinan, five hundred routes away from the Central Army. Zhu Di was overjoyed and shouted: God-given opportunity! But he soon knew that it was not a God-given opportunity, but Li Wei was suddenly gathering a large army in Zhucheng and restraining the Eastern Army from heading north.

Zhu Di was deeply confused about this. He didn't know what Li Weizheng's intention was, but he didn't have time to think about it so much. The opportunity was fleeting, and he immediately launched a full-strength attack that had been prepared long ago.

In the night, Zhu Di's army marched rapidly like a flood. Zhu Di had already received the news that Geng Bingwen had set up camp and quickly ordered the army to accelerate its advance.

At this moment, a team of cavalry rushed to Zhu Di with two Ming army messengers, "Your Highness, Li Wei sent a messenger to ask for a meeting!"

Zhu Di was stunned, and he immediately said, "Bring them up!"

Two messengers were brought up, Zhu Di looked at them and asked, "Where is your General Li's letter?"

A messenger presented a letter, Zhu Di opened it, looked at it in the fire, and there was only one sentence without a head or end: "Help me with an arm!"

Zhu Di suddenly realized, and he laughed, "You General Li is really bold. Are you not afraid that I will tell the court this letter?"

"Report to your Highness, my general has another message."

"speak!"

"My general said that Your Highness has already used a counter-espionage plan, and he will not use it again."

Zhu Di laughed to the sky, "Okay! I'll get this favor."

He pointed to the south with a whip and ordered sternly: "Tell me my order, 100,000 Yanshan Iron Cavalry will go first, be sure to chase Geng Bingwen before dawn!"

In November of the first year of Jianwen, King of Yan Zhu Di personally led a 250,000 main army 60 miles east of Handan to fight. The first fierce battle broke out with Geng Bingwen's army. After a day of fierce battle, the imperial army was defeated, with 200,000 troops killed and injured, and countless people surrendered and fled. Geng Bingwen retreated to Daming Mansion and gathered 100,000 defeated troops to guard the death. Zhu Di's army confronted Geng Bingwen's army for five days. Seeing that he had no choice, he retreated back to Peiping.

The news reached the court, which shocked the court. Huang Zicheng denounced Ye Tianming for introducing incompetent generals and demanded that the general be replaced immediately. He recommended Duke Cao Li Jinglong as the chief general of the Northern Expedition. Zhu Yunwen immediately summoned Li Jinglong to the palace to inquire. Li Jinglong made a generous speech, and answered the military strategy and strategy, and said that he would go to Peking to celebrate the merits three months later.
Chapter completed!