Alien Arms Empire

Chapter 919 Chapter 920 Zhao Jie’s plan

When Zhao Chen learned that Zhao Zheng had been guarding Shanping for almost 15 days without receiving any reinforcements from soldiers, he almost went crazy. He really didn't expect that Shanping didn't have enough reinforcements.

In the past few days, he has been focusing on the attack on Fengjiang and has no time to care about Shanping. You know, moving hundreds of thousands of people forward more than 100 kilometers is not a small project. It requires a lot of effort from the commander. of energy and time.

 So his recent attention has been on the attack on the west side of Fengjiang. He never expected that the situation in the direction of Shanping had deteriorated to such an extent.

Originally, he thought that he had won a big victory on Fengjiang's side. According to common sense, Zhao Yu and his men would definitely be more concerned about the battle situation in Fengjiang's direction.

Comparing his feelings, if it were him, Zhao Chen, he would definitely consider withdrawing the troops that attacked Shanping and defend his home base of Fengjiang first.

But who would have known that the other side would be as strong-willed as they were already approaching the city, and they were not in a hurry to withdraw their troops for defense. The opponent even stepped up their attack in the direction of Shanping, which was already too much for Zhao Zheng.

This is completely unreasonable! Zhao Chen knew what Zhao Yu was capable of. If he could really be so fearless in the face of danger, then he, Zhao Chen, would be the first to stand up and support Zhao Yu in becoming the crown prince!

So, Zhao Chen just made a brief analysis and roughly judged that it was the battle plan drawn up by the Tang Empire for Zhao Yu.

 The soldiers entered the sword pavilion! This is almost the only chance for the Fengjiang defenders to win in this civil war. On the surface, as long as the mountain screen is defended, the Great China Empire will have won half of this war!

"Since I can see it, Shen Chuan must also be able to see it. Even if he doesn't say it, someone as sophisticated as Chu Muzhou must be able to see it!" Zhao Chen thought in his heart and put his Concerns were sent back to the imperial capital in the form of telegrams.

In the imperial capital of the Dahua Empire, Zhao Kai was having a meeting with Chu Muzhou, another prince Zhao Jie who had just returned to the imperial capital from the Western Front, and the Minister of War Shen Chuan.

In fact, they were also discussing the battle of Shanping: Zhao Kai's delay in the arrival of reinforcements at Shanping was not entirely caused by the delay of the people below.

This itself is part of the plan. These senior officials of the Dahua Empire are planning a plan that looks very interesting.

"Leaving a mountain screen for the other party may be a better choice." Prince Zhao Jie, who had just arrived in the imperial capital a few hours ago, was traveling in the dust and put forward his plan at the meeting.

 In fact, Zhao Kai had already known about this plan earlier. It was precisely because he agreed with this plan that the southern troops of the Dahua Empire crowded in Guiguang and delayed going to Shanping City to support Zhao Zheng.

"Just imagine, if we deploy heavy troops in Shanping now, then the enemy's main force will definitely retreat back to Fengjiang. By then they will defend the city, and we will suffer heavy losses no matter how we attack." Zhao Jie walked to the map and gestured Here’s a rough idea.

"Forcing the opponent back to the city is obviously a bad idea. Annihilating the enemy in the wild is the most reasonable way to end the war." Zhao Jie moved his hand to the foot of Shanping City and said in a circle: "Therefore, I suggest that Your Majesty not stay in Shanping Instead of deploying heavy troops, use a small number of troops to attract the enemy to attack!"

"If the mountain screen is lost...who will bear the responsibility?" Although Shen Chuan didn't think this plan was feasible, he still asked.

 As the Minister of War, he was actually more willing to support Zhao Chen and end the war in the clumsiest, but most reasonable and safe way.

But in desperation, Emperor Zhao Kai trusted Zhao Chen and Zhao Jie more, so what he, the Minister of War, said and did must be well-founded.

"It doesn't matter! Even if the mountain screen is lost, we actually don't lose anything! Guiguang has assembled a large number of troops. As long as we block the Fengjiang rebels going south in Guiguang, we will still be invincible. Land." Zhao Jie said proudly.

 He prides himself on being unparalleled in resourcefulness, so he is more willing to use such "strategies". Zhao Kai on the side was smiling, obviously agreeing with Zhao Jie's statement.

 Later, when Zhao Jie continued to talk, both Shen Chuan and Chu Muzhou knew why Zhao Kai admired Zhao Jie's plan so much.

"If Shanping is defended, it means it is defended. It doesn't matter if it cannot be defended. Our goal is to pin down at least 150,000 Fengjiang defenders near Shanping. On the one hand, this supports Prince Zhao Chen's attack on the west side of Fengjiang. On the one hand, it also consumes the enemy’s supply capacity to a certain extent.”

He did not pause after finishing speaking, and immediately continued: "If Prince Zhao Chen captures Fengjiang, then we have cut off the retreat of these rebels. When they are trapped in the Shanping area, they will naturally be free to do whatever we want. ”

Hearing this, Chu Muzhou and Shen Chuan finally understood: Zhao Kai was already thinking about **** all the rebels under Zhao Yu's command.

If done properly, the rebels trapped in Shanping can even waste some of the Tang Empire's materials and consume some of the Datang Empire's national power...

No wonder, no wonder the troops who went south to support Shanping dared to stop in Guiguang. No wonder that in more than a month, the troops who supported Shanping from Guiguang only had a pitiful infantry division.

It turns out that all of this was Emperor Zhao Kai, who chose Zhao Jie's strategy and prepared to use Fengjiang troops to attack Shanping's "plan", and in turn used one move to close the door and beat the dog. Just imagine, if the Dahua Empire launched an attack on Fengjiang at the same time in Hezhe and Shanping, the Fengjiang defenders would eventually be trapped in Fengjiang.

But Fengjiang cannot be completely surrounded. When the time comes, these rebels will happily escape from Fengjiang Bridge to the Tang Empire. Apart from sending hundreds of thousands of people to the Tang Empire, it did not bring much benefit to the Great China Empire.

 But if these troops were blocked near Shanping, it would be impossible for them to escape to the Tang Empire. With Zhao Kai's temperament, how could he let these people who betrayed him go? Therefore, it is not surprising that Zhao Kai accepted Zhao Jie's suggestion.

Thinking of this, both Shen Chuan and Chu Muzhou knew that Zhao Kai had actually made up his mind and would not change it at all.

Everything must be viewed with reference to the historical background of the time, and it must be analyzed in conjunction with the various thoughts and personalities of the main characters. You must not just put a hat on the head of a certain historical decision-maker according to your own ideas. on, and then give an unfair definition of right and wrong to a historical decision.

For example, the Song Dynasty has always been regarded as a weak and incompetent dynasty. People generally criticize the Song Dynasty for emphasizing culture over military affairs and despise the Song Dynasty for its external weakness and incompetence.

In fact, if we look at the special historical period at that time, the conclusion we can draw is actually more fair: after experiencing the military chaos in the late Tang Dynasty, the common people spontaneously looked down upon soldiers, which directly led to the low status of soldiers in society. .

At the same time, the superiors focused on guarding against the generals who led to the destruction of the previous dynasty, and were unwilling to let generals control the military power, so as to reduce the risk of generals controlling the troops as much as possible. This series of reforms itself was a correction of the mistakes of the previous dynasty.

In that era when means were scarce, the monarch's control of generals mainly relied on the loyalty of the generals themselves. This situation was too unstable, so when the Song Dynasty reviewed the mistakes of the Tang Dynasty, it focused on "Jiedu". On a series of issues such as "making" and "generals committing crimes".

In addition, the Song Dynasty itself was founded by the rebellion of military generals. How could it not take precautions against this kind of thing?

It must be noted that in addition to the problems mentioned above, there are also limitations of the troops themselves: the troops of the Song Dynasty were mainly infantry, so they went south to unify the southern Yangtze River area and fought well. However, when facing the north, When it comes to cavalry, they are naturally at a disadvantage.

The Song Dynasty, which lost Mobei and Yanyun, was naturally short of horses, had no excellent infantry, and did not trust the frontline commanding generals. It had problems with psychology, tactics, decision-making, and determination. How could it be undefeated?

If we continue to refer to the actual case of the failed Northern Expedition of the Zhao Kuangyin brothers during the founding era of the Song Dynasty, it will become an inevitable phenomenon that the subsequent emperors of the Song Dynasty will adopt more compromising foreign policies.

 This is not to make excuses for the weakness of the Song Dynasty, but to objectively explain the situation: why it was weak! Not even the courage!

Similarly, many people are laughing at the old Japanese Imperial Navy's obsession with big ships and cannons, thinking that they are all stupid.

 But if we look at it in the context of that era, the commanders of the Japanese Navy just made the most reasonable decisions based on their own past experiences and based on their existing knowledge.

If you were a naval admiral of the Japanese Empire, and in the past thirty or forty years, your navy had won the Sino-Japanese War that dominated Asia with its battleships and artillery, and then defeated Russia and annihilated the Russian fleet to become a world power, wouldn't you? Are you full of confidence in this equipment system?

 At that time, there was no actual combat precedent proving that carrier-based aircraft on an aircraft carrier could cause fatal damage to a moving warship.

The British bombed the Italian naval ports with fixed targets. The Bismarck battleship was sunk by a group battle of battleships. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor also used fixed targets, and it was still a sneak attack.

Finding a fleet on the sea is difficult in itself. It is still not easy to hit a moving warship. The dense anti-aircraft artillery on the warship may not be afraid of aircraft...

So there is a question mark over whether the aircraft can sink the warship, but the huge cannon with a caliber of more than 400 millimeters on the warship is real!

From today's perspective, aircraft carriers are naturally the core of naval warfare, but at that time, there was really no such concept. The United States' use of aircraft carriers is just to catch up, and Japan's abandonment of aircraft carriers is just a matter of frustration because "Japan has its own national conditions."

Looking at Zhao Kai's choice this time, the same is true: he is a king, and what a king hates most is the betrayal of his own men. Even if the person who betrayed him was his own son, he would never accept it.

Therefore, from the bottom of his heart, Zhao Kai was more inclined to the plan of gathering all the rebels in Shanping. He did not want to see most of the rebels escape. This would leave inner demons in his heart and destroy his majesty.

In addition, Zhao Kai is a person who must retaliate for his anger and has a very good face, so he has even more reasons to make this decision.

Moreover, Zhao Jie's analysis is actually correct. Attracting hundreds of thousands of Fengjiang rebel troops under Shanping City is indeed beneficial to the Battle of Fengjiang.

 There is really no big problem if Shanping is lost: what is really important is the light behind Shanping City, not Shanping City!

So, how could Zhao Kai not choose this kind of decision that has all the benefits and no harm? He would definitely choose, so Shen Chuan and Chu Muzhou looked at each other and closed their mouths in a wise manner.

As for the message sent by Zhao Chen urging Zhao Kai to quickly reinforce Shanping, almost everyone familiar with the matter subconsciously chose to forget it.

 (End of this chapter)