bookrebus Chapter 112 Talking about Liaodong
Chapter 112 Talking about Liaodong
When Lu Cheng met Xiong Tingbi, the future governor of Liaodong, who was already fifty years old, was looking at a map, which showed the current situation in Liaodong.
"Sir, people are here."
Xiong Tingbi turned around and looked Lu Cheng up and down. Seeing that Lu Cheng was tall and strong, with a murderous aura unique to a soldier, he couldn't help but nodded.
"Your name is Lu Cheng? Are you the general who escaped from the battlefield of Sarhu?"
"Yes, sir. I am a general under General Juniper."
"In the Battle of Sarhu, the commander of the Western Army and two generals were all killed, and tens of thousands of soldiers were slaughtered by the Jiannu. How did you escape? Tell me the details of this battle."
"Yes, sir. At that time, General Du led our army deep into the enemy's territory and lost contact with the other armies. Generals Wang and Zhao also tried to persuade General Du, but General Du was eager to make a contribution and insisted on finding the main force of the Jiannu, wanting to fight them to the death.
On the second day of March, Nurhaci personally led tens of thousands of troops to besiege our army. The two armies fought fiercely. By noon, the sky was dark and it was difficult to see even at a short distance. General Du ordered torches to be lit so that artillery could be used to attack the enemy. However, the enemy was in the dark while we were in the light. The Jiannu took the opportunity to shoot arrows, causing heavy casualties to our army.
Afterwards, the enemy took advantage of the fog, crossed the trenches, pulled down the stockade, and attacked our camp. Our soldiers fought desperately, but they were outnumbered, and the enemy was well-equipped and their morale was high. I believe you also know the situation of our army. In this battle, tens of thousands of people were slaughtered by the Jiannu. All three generals died in the battle.
After a day of bloody fighting, I was exhausted and passed out. Fortunately, the entire battlefield was shrouded in fog, and I was buried among the dead bodies, thus saving my life.
The next morning, I woke up from the dead, and there were corpses everywhere. I looked for food and water, and found four Jiannu were about to kill two of our soldiers. So I killed the four Jiannu with Jinyiwei flagman Shen Lian, who also survived by chance, and saved the garrison Lu Wenzhao and the military supervisor Guo Zhen..."
After telling the whole story truthfully, Lu Cheng added two more sentences: "Everything I said is true. If you don't believe it, you can send someone to investigate."
Xiong Tingbi had not been appointed to any official position at this time, so it was naturally impossible for him to investigate the two Jinyiweis Lu Wenzhao and Shen Lian, let alone the eunuch Guo Zhen.
Of course, even if Xiong Tingbi sent people to investigate, Lu Cheng did not lie.
After listening to the whole story, Xiong Tingbi hesitated for a moment before speaking: "Since you were able to survive in such a sea of blood and corpses, you must be good at martial arts. I have a guard here who has some skills. Why don't you fight him?"
"No problem at all."
In fact, Xiong Tingbi really didn’t believe what Lu Cheng said.
Ten years ago, in the 37th year of Wanli, Xiong Tingbi was inspecting Liaodong. The newly appointed Liaodong General Du Song defeated the Mongolian Chahan tribe, but accidentally injured the Kuanyi tribe that had already surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.
Xiong Tingbi strongly disapproved of Du Song's act of accidentally hurting his "ally" for the sake of credit, but he also did not want to stimulate Du Song and hurt the morale of his soldiers. Therefore, in the memorial to the court, Xiong Tingbi both affirmed Du Song's contribution and suggested that the court should be wary of retaliation from the Mongolian tribes.
Later, the Mongolian tribes attacked the Ming army and massacred the people. Xiong Tingbi naturally blamed Du Song for this incident, causing Du Song to be dismissed from his post by the court.
However, General Du had many supporters in the court, all of whom pleaded for Du Song. Moreover, Xiong Tingbi had enemies everywhere in the officialdom, and many censors stood up to impeach Xiong Tingbi and support Du Song.
Therefore, Xiong Tingbi and Du Song had old grudges, and Xiong Tingbi even looked down on Du Song from the bottom of his heart.
It's understandable if you think about it. Xiong Tingbi has been sitting on the bench for seven consecutive years, while Du Song, whom he dismissed, continues to serve as the general, and even becomes the main general of an army.
It was just that Du Song’s incompetence directly led to the annihilation of tens of thousands of troops.
Just think about the process and you can know what Xiong Tingbi's attitude was towards General Du.
Lu Cheng was also the general flag under General Du, so Xiong Tingbi naturally didn't have a good attitude towards Lu Cheng. The reason why he was willing to meet Lu Cheng was that he wanted to learn more about the Battle of Sarhu from Lu Cheng.
Of course, Lu Cheng was just a small general. Even if Xiong Tingbi looked down on Du Song, due to his status, he would not make things difficult for a small general and lose his status for nothing.
But if Lu Cheng performs poorly and turns out to be a fool, Xiong Tingbi will definitely kick Lu Cheng out.
Since Lu Cheng came here, he was naturally fully prepared mentally.
Following Xiong Tingbi's greeting, a sturdy guard with a sword on his waist walked in.
"Pei Hu, this is Lu Cheng, General Lu, fight him for a few moves."
"Yes, sir."
Afterwards, the two came to the open space in the courtyard, and the man looked at Lu Cheng: "Mr. Lu, please draw your sword."
Facing this fierce opponent, Lu Cheng just smiled slightly, took off his sword and held it in his hand: "Please!"
Seeing that Lu Cheng did not take the initiative to attack, the man did not hesitate to take a step forward and smashed the sword and scabbard in his hand towards Lu Cheng.
Lu Cheng had been learning sword skills from Ding Baiying for more than a month and was no longer the novice in sword skills. He immediately dodged the opponent's attack and hit the opponent's scabbard heavily with the scabbard in his hand.
With a clang sound, the wooden scabbard on the man's sword was shattered by the blow. The opponent's wrist was shaken and his body was a little unstable.
Before the other party could react, Lu Cheng's scabbard was already on his neck, and he took a step back: "Thank you."
Xiong Tingbi, who was not far away, stared at him, and was also a little frightened. His guard was once a warrior, and it was no problem for him to fight ten people alone, but he didn't expect that he would be defeated by Lu Cheng in just one encounter.
After seeing Lu Cheng's fighting strength, Xiong Tingbi believed what Lu Cheng had said before a little more.
"Mr. Lu, I have something else to ask you."
"Sir, please speak."
"You have gone through so much hardship to escape from the sea of blood and corpses. Why do you want to see me again? Do you still want to return to Liaodong? Are you not afraid of dying on the battlefield?"
"Sir, I joined the army at the age of seventeen and have been in Liaodong ever since. I have witnessed the brutality of the Jiannu Tartars. Now, after the Battle of Sarhu, the Jiannu have acquired a large amount of land and population, and their strength has been further strengthened. Sooner or later, they will invade the Ming Dynasty, occupy our territory, and kill our people.
I have been determined to join the army since I was young. I grew up listening to the stories of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, and I admire General Qi Jiguang of this dynasty. I especially like General Qi's words, "I don't want to be a marquis, but I hope the sea is peaceful." Although I am a lowly official, I am also a military general of the Ming Dynasty, and I also have a heart to kill the enemy and serve the country. "
Xiong Tingbi nodded in satisfaction: "Listening to you, you seem to be quite knowledgeable. Let me test you, what do you think of the current situation in Liaodong?"
"After this defeat, the land outside the Great Wall has been completely under the iron hoof of the Jiannu. The initiative of the war is no longer in our hands. The only way now is to quickly stabilize the situation, gather the defeated soldiers, and stabilize the people's hearts. If necessary, we can kill the fleeing generals.
Now, the enemy's manpower and food supply have surpassed the Liaodong defenders. We should focus on defense, hold the city, and improve our defense capabilities to stop the Jiannu's attack.
At the same time, we cannot sit back and watch the Jiannu grow stronger. We can train a small group of elite troops to harass the Jiannu rear in a guerrilla warfare manner. The Jiannu have just occupied a large number of cities in Liaodong, and they will inevitably disperse their troops to garrison. We can take advantage of the Jiannu's unstable foothold to constantly harass them, so that the Jiannu cannot develop at ease and buy time for us to recover our strength..."
Lu Cheng spoke eloquently, and what he said was basically consistent with Xiong Tingbi's future initiatives in Liaodong.
Xiong Tingbi was shocked when he heard this. He never expected that Lu Cheng, a small general officer, would have such insight.
At this point, Xiong Tingbi had already taken a new look at Lu Cheng. Even if Lu Cheng was only good at talking about military affairs on paper, this knowledge alone was enough to make him a staff advisor.
Of course, Lu Cheng has many strategies for Liaodong that he didn't say directly. But what I just said is enough.
This is thanks to the system, which did not seal Lu Cheng's memories of his previous life. Perhaps Lu Cheng's previous life was relatively simple, and there was no emotional line.
In his previous life, besides scientific research and training, Lu Cheng also read a lot of various books, including Chinese history and world history, theoretical works of various modern and contemporary military strategists, etc.
It may not be too difficult to become a qualified special warfare soldier. But if you want to be an all-round special warfare soldier or special warfare commander, you must not only know how to charge into battle, but also understand tactics and strategy, and have a global perspective and strategic thinking.