Chapter 774
Chen 94's Terrifying Military Talent
Annihilate Fu Youde's 100,000-strong army!
Upon hearing this, everyone was stunned. Everyone knew about Fu Youde's 100,000-strong army, which was a pure naval force, with a large part of it composed of bandits from Taihu Lake. Its naval strength should not be underestimated.
Chen Jie ultimately decided to hold the decisive battle on Poyang Lake. Since the final battle was a naval battle, it was crucial to weaken the enemy's naval forces as much as possible.
Moreover, although Fu Youde was a famous general, his strategic abilities were clearly inferior to those of Zhang Dingbian and others.
Therefore, Chen Jie is determined to annihilate Fu Youde's army this time. As long as Fu Youde's army is destroyed, Zhu Chongba will be severely weakened and will be unable to continue his rampage.
War is about weakening the enemy as much as possible while expanding your own strength.
Therefore, what Chen Jie wanted to do in this battle was to besiege the enemy's stronghold and attack their reinforcements.
Chen Jie's strategic plan was simple: support Wang Baobao in attacking Hongdu, but the target was not Hongdu.
With Zhu Wenzheng's extraordinary abilities in Hongdu, it would be very difficult for Wang Baobao to attack Hongdu. Therefore, Chen Jie's goal was to use Wang Baobao's 50,000 men as bait to make him pretend to attack Hongdu.
When the news reaches Zhu Chongba, he will definitely panic. After all, Zhu Chongba didn't know how monstrous Zhu Wenzheng was. Although he knew his nephew was good at fighting, he didn't think he was as good as he imagined.
If he panics, he will definitely send troops to support him. As Zhang Dingbian just analyzed, in the early stages, there are mainly two armies. One is Xu Da, who is stationed in Nankang, and has 60,000 men under his command.
The other force was Fu Youde, who was stationed in Hukou and commanded 100,000 naval troops.
They would definitely come to Hongdu's rescue, since no one could bear the strategic consequences of Chen Jie occupying Hongdu. So the two of them sent troops to Hongdu.
At this time, Chen Jie sent a detachment of troops to pretend to block Xu Da, but the main force was all positioned downstream of Hukou to block Fu Youde and encircle him. In this way, even if Fu Youde could not be completely annihilated, his 100,000-strong army would be completely crushed.
Therefore, in this battle, Wang Baobao was a bait, a bait used to lure Zhu Chongba.
When Chen Jie announced his strategy, everyone present was slightly taken aback. Then, they began to whisper and discuss among themselves. Chen Jie did not disturb them and turned to look at Zhao Ya.
Zhao Ya touched her belly, her brows furrowed slightly.
Chen Jie looked at Zhao Ya and said, "What's wrong, Ya Ya? Is there a problem with my arrangements?"
Zhao Ya paused for a moment after hearing this, and then said, "Husband, I'm afraid my brother won't be willing to just be bait."
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie said, "But he really can't take Hongdu. The commander of Hongdu is not so simple."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Ya fell silent for a long time before saying, "Let's hear what the generals have to say."
At this moment, Chen Xiaohu spoke up: "Besieging the point and attacking the reinforcements, that's a good idea, but Your Highness, is the garrison commander of Hongdu really that formidable that even the Imperial Uncle couldn't take it down?"
The moment the title "Imperial Brother-in-Law" was uttered, everyone in the room chuckled. Chen Jie said, "Although you may not believe it, Zhu Wenzheng, who is guarding the city, is by no means an easy opponent. His strength is beyond doubt."
Everyone fell silent upon hearing this. After a long while, Zhang Dingbian spoke up: "If the garrison commander of Hongdu is indeed as militarily capable as Your Highness says, then Your Highness's plan to besiege the city and attack the reinforcements is absolutely feasible. With just a few minor additions to the details, it can be considered the final strategic plan."
At this moment, the Prince of Ruyang spoke up: "Hmm, this plan is very good. As the saying goes, it is better to cut off one finger than to injure ten fingers of the enemy. I have heard of Fu Youde. It seems that he was brought out by Monk Peng. He is a tiger general!"
Ni Wenjun nodded: "Fu Youde used to be Xu Shouhui's close aide, so he is quite capable."
After discussing it, the group decided to adopt Chen Jie's strategic plan and change their target from Hongdu to Fu Youde's army.
Seeing that no one had any other ideas, Chen Jie spoke up, "Then that's settled. I'll write to Wang Baobao tomorrow, tell him our strategic intentions, and ask him to cooperate with us in winning this battle. I'll give him the credit!"
Hearing this, everyone nodded slightly. After confirming the strategic plan, the next step was to make specific arrangements for the personnel.
This time it was mainly divided into two parts. One part was to pretend to resist Xu Da's troops. This part was led by Chen Jie, with Jin Yanzi leading 30,000 Qinglong soldiers.
The objective was to stop Xu Da's army from reaching Hongdu, but it was only a feint attack, with no real resistance.
During the blocking process, two things need to be done. First, Wang Baobao must immediately withdraw his troops from the Hongdu battlefield and then go to Wucheng to join up with the Golden Swallow Green Dragon Army to prevent Xu Da from launching a counterattack.
Then, in the second part, Zhang Dingbian commanded the Qihuo Army, Baihu Army, and Zhuque Army to ambush Fu Youde's army outside Hukou, annihilating their main force and burning their warships and supplies, thus completing the strategic objective.
This plan is highly efficient and has a very low probability of failure. The only possibility of failure is that Zhu Chongba will remain inactive.
The requirement is that Zhu Chongba must have enough confidence in Hongdu, but does Zhu Chongba have that confidence and not go to save it?
He trusted his nephew, who had little practical experience.
You have to understand that his nephew was facing Wang Baobao, a general with a reputation for excellence. Even if Zhu Chongba didn't rely on his personal strength, he wouldn't be confident of victory against Wang Baobao. So he trusted his nephew.
As long as Zhu Chongba doesn't believe him, he will fall into the strategic planning.
Therefore, the probability of success for this plan is very high.
After everyone finished making their plans, the meeting adjourned. Prince Ruyang glanced at Chen Jie, then left without saying anything. He knew he couldn't say too much, as he was Prince Ruyang of the Great Qian Dynasty. Now that he was in this new dynasty, sometimes saying too much was a mistake.
He can only do things through his influence.
Meanwhile, Chen Jie, supporting Zhao Ya, said, "Why are you attending a meeting with such a big belly?"
Zhao Ya said, "I can't stay idle either, and I didn't expect to run into my third brother's memorial."
“I know my third brother led his own men out and his relationship with our Han Prince’s Mansion is unclear and ambiguous, which is wrong. But I also know that he went out to fight for my future. I’m caught in a dilemma.”
Hearing this, Chen Jie looked at Zhao Ya and said, "Hehe, don't think about these things now. These are things for the future. You should give birth to the baby in your belly first."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Ya looked at Chen Jie and said, "Husband, my child and I can give up honor and favor, and my child can give up any position, but I hope you can grant me one request."
Chen Jie looked at Zhao Ya and asked, "What's wrong, Ya Ya?"
Zhao Ya said, "Promise me."
Chen Jie said, "What is it you want to say first?"
Zhao Ya said, "No matter what happens in the future, can you please save my father and third brother's lives? They are my only family, and I don't want to lose them."
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie looked at Zhao Ya and said, "You're really overthinking things. Don't worry, they'll all be fine."
"As for me to make a guarantee? Ya Ya, you know that there are some things that are hard to guarantee when you're in my position. I might guarantee you today, but I might not be able to guarantee it tomorrow because of other things. I can't lie to you, right?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Ya looked at Chen Jie and sighed, "Sigh..." Life is a whirlpool; there are some things you don't want to choose, but others have already chosen for you. However, Zhao Ya still wanted to do something.
Zhao Ya looked at Chen Jie and said, "I'm going back to write a letter to my brother. Can you take your letter with you?"
Chen Jie looked at Zhao Ya and followed up with, "Okay."
Zhao Ya said, "Thank you."
Chen Jie helped Zhao Ya back to the house, and then began writing his letter. The content of his letter was very simple, mainly stating two things: first, to follow Chen Jiu Si's instructions and not to think about anything else.
The other thing is to make sure he is safe and well; everything else is unimportant.
This letter fully reveals her longing for her family at this time. She is not usually like this, but she is about to give birth, and perhaps due to excessive maternal hormones, she is somewhat sentimental. The letter was sent out quickly.
Chen Jie also wrote a letter to Wang Baobao.
The two letters were quickly delivered to the front lines in Jiujiang by fast ship.
At this moment, in the front-line command tent of Jiujiang Prefecture, Wang Baobao put down the two letters in his hand. The general next to him looked at Wang Baobao and asked, "General, what did the Prince of Han's Mansion say?"
Wang Baobao said, "Hehe, the King of Han seems a little worried about us."
Upon hearing this, the lieutenant said, "Hmm? Does the King of Han think we have ulterior motives?"
Wang Baobao said, "It's not that I'm worried about that, it's that the King of Han thinks we can't take down this small Hongdu."
"Ah, hahaha..."
Upon hearing this, everyone in the room burst into laughter. Then a general said, "That King of Han underestimates us too much. We can take Hongdu in an instant. How could we not take it?"
"That's right, how dare the King of Han underestimate our White Deer Army like this, it's really..."
Many generals looked disdainful, and Wang Baobao also laughed and said, "The King of Han said in his letter that he hopes we will make a feigned attack on Hongdu, while he wants to take the opportunity to annihilate Fu Youde's 100,000-strong army at Hukou."
Upon hearing this, all the generals frowned and said, "Does the King of Han intend to use us as bait?"
Wang Baobao said, "It's nothing. It's actually a good plan, but the mistake is that the King of Han thinks we can't take this small Hongdu City!"
"As long as the King of Han can stop the reinforcements, then Hongdu City will be in our hands. What do you all think?"
Upon hearing this, the soldiers exclaimed, "What the commander-in-chief says is absolutely right!"
Wang Baobao said, "However, this is not a bad thing. The King of Han said in his plan that he will block Fu Youde's 100,000 troops and Xu Da's 60,000 troops from Nankang. Although blocking the 60,000 troops from Nankang is a feint and not a full-scale attack, as long as they can hold off Xu Da for a while and Fu Youde's army will not come, we can take Hongdu."
What do the other armies think?
"The commander-in-chief is absolutely right!"
Wang Baobao said, "Alright, the purpose of our letter to the Prince of Han was to ask him to stop Fu Youde and Xu Da. Now that we have achieved our goal, what else is there to say? Prepare the whole army and attack Hongdu in three days."
"promise!"
Upon hearing this, the generals immediately agreed and followed the group out of the military tent. They were all thinking to themselves, "The King of Han underestimates us. How dare an unknown junior general from Hongdu try to stop our army? What a joke."
If we launch an attack, we can definitely take Hongdu within two days!
All the soldiers thought this, and at this moment, only Wang Baobao and his trusted deputy general Huobima remained in the military tent.
Huo Bima then looked at Wang Baobao and said, "General, is the other letter from the Princess?"
Wang Baobao didn't hide it from Huobima and said, "Yes, it's Ya Ya's."
"In his letter, he instructed me to listen to Chen Jiu Si, saying that if the garrison commander of Hongdu was a troublesome one, we would be in danger. It would be better to launch a feint attack, and that would be the greatest achievement!"
Upon hearing this, Huobi Ma said, "What the princess says is very true. As long as we do these things well, I don't think Chen Jiu Si will treat us unfairly."
Wang Baobao said, "How can that be? We are here to help Ya Ya compete for the Empress's position. If Ya Ya's family can't step up, how can she have any hope?"
“Attracting the enemy is indeed a great achievement, but if we can take Hongdu as a base and use it to block Xu Da’s attack, while Chen Jiu Si wipes out Fu You De’s army, wouldn’t that be two great achievements?”
"With these two great achievements, can't I at least secure a proper status for Ya Ya?"
Wang Baobao said.
Upon hearing this, Huobi Ma said, "But does the princess mean that the garrison commander of Hongdu is a formidable figure, and that the princess's information would surely be more comprehensive than ours?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Baobao said, "Heh, Chen Jiusi has access to information, but don't I?"
"The garrison commander of Hongdu is named Zhu Wenzheng. He is Zhu Chongba's nephew and is obviously a relative. It goes without saying what he can do. As long as we attack with all our might, we can take Hongdu in one day if we can't do it in two days."
"He has 20,000 men, I have 50,000. If the garrison were Xu Da, I would accept it, but some unknown junior officer thinks he can scare me away? Dream on!"
Wang Baobao spoke with great confidence. Indeed, in Wang Baobao's eyes, there used to be only Xu Da, but later Zhang Dingbian joined in.
He didn't take the other famous generals seriously at all.
As for this Zhu Wenzheng, I've never even heard of him, so how can you expect him to take him seriously?
"By the way, what's the status of the letter I wrote to the imperial court?"
Wang Baobao thought for a moment and then asked Huobi Ma another question. That's right, he had also written a letter to the court. The letter was very simple: Wang Baobao was in Cao Cao's camp but his heart was with Han. He wanted to help the court recover Jiangnan, but Zhu Chongba was too powerful. He hoped that the court could send troops to reinforce him and help him stabilize Zhu Chongba first.
In fact, Wang Baobao saw this memorial as nothing more than a desperate attempt to get some manpower from the court to help him out.
If it's a little cheaper, at least it'll cause Zhu Chongba some trouble, and it'll also help distract him when he attacks Hongdu.
Huo Bima said, "The imperial court has replied, hoping that you will abandon the territory in Jiangnan and lead 50,000 elite troops back to Dadu immediately. The imperial court promises you the title of Prince."
Upon hearing this, Wang Baobao chuckled and said, "Hehe, the imperial court has become shrewd; it seems we can't fool them anymore!" (End of Chapter)