Chapter 220: The Open Strategy

"Internal strife?" "Niu Fu and the others wouldn't be so shortsighted as to fail to see this situation, would they?"

Tao Qian hesitated for a moment and said.

"What the Inspector Tao says is indeed reasonable."

"Do you really think those brutes could see this?" Kong Zhou did not think so; he himself hadn't even thought of it, so how could a mere martial man from Liangzhou understand it?

As a disciple of the Kong Clan, Kong Zhou possessed an Inheritance spanning tens of thousands of years, and their arrogance was even greater than that of many first-rate noble families.

Looking down on martial men was quite normal for them.

But Tao Qian was different; Tao Qian had truly experienced the battlefield, and he had also been to the borderlands to suppress some rebels.

He knew very well that border generals might not have great backgrounds, and their scholarly knowledge might not be as good as that of noble scions, but their ability to lead troops in battle was absolutely not inferior. If you underestimated them, you would inevitably suffer for it.

Hadn't Zhang Yang and the others just done that, relying on their own troops being superior to Niu Fu's and not taking Niu Fu and his men seriously?

As a result, they suffered a great loss, losing one-third of their troops in less than a month.

Now, they were lying in the rear licking their wounds.

"Gongxu, you must not underestimate these border generals. If they were truly just a group of brutes, how could Dong Zhongying have been able to dominate Luoyang today?"

Tao Qian would not underestimate others. Many people thought Dong Zhongying was just a boor, but this very boor had managed to reach the highest rank of officialdom.

He certainly would not underestimate Dong Zhuo's subordinates.

Once Tao Qian said this, Kong Zhou could no longer refute him. After all, this was reality; although he also looked down on Dong Zhuo, Dong Zhuo's current power was very high.

The man was now one of the Three Dukes, while he was currently only an Inspector. If it weren't for Han Lingdi increasing the power of Inspectors due to the Yellow Turbans, giving Inspectors local military authority...

His power would not even be as great as that of a local Prefect.

After all, previously, a Prefect could ignore an Inspector; they were the true heads of the local government.

He could look down on Dong Zhuo's background, but he could not ignore Dong Zhuo's current status, nor could he ignore how Dong Zhuo had achieved his current position.

Feeling somewhat stifled in his heart, he could only watch silently from the side.

"Ning'an, continue. Since you also believe they might not ignore this problem, what should we do next?"

"Inspector Tao, the question is not what we should do next, but rather what Niu Fu will do."

"We will just continue our long-range attacks every day to force the other side to make a mistake."

"This is an open strategy; either they retreat, or they come out of their camp to fight us in the open field."

"If left unchecked, the Imperial Guard and the Local Army are like bombs. I don't think Niu Fu is that foolish."

Su Fan said confidently. Even if Niu Fu were an idiot and couldn't think of it, he believed Xu Rong would certainly discover it.

Then, it would be time for Niu Fu and Xu Rong to choose.

If they came out of the camp to fight them in the open, Su Fan and his allies, combined with the armies of Tao Qian and Kong Zhou, had a total of 300,000 troops, with no fewer than 100,000 elite soldiers among them.

Although Niu Fu had 10,000 Xiliang Iron Cavalry under his command, Su Fan and his allies had more cavalry in total.

Of course, in terms of quality, only Su Fan's 4,000 iron cavalry could compare with the Xiliang Iron Cavalry.

Tao Qian and Kong Zhou had over 20,000 cavalry combined, but their cavalry's combat strength was a significant step below that of Su Fan's and Niu Fu's.

In terms of overall strength, the coalition of Su Fan and his allies was still superior to Niu Fu's army. Without the protection of the camp, in a true open-field battle, Niu Fu's army would definitely not be a match.

These past few days, Niu Fu had also tried.

The Xiliang Army was indeed elite, but Su Fan's army was not bad either, and with the high morale of Tao Qian and Kong Zhou's armies, there were no mistakes in command.

Even if Xu Rong came, Su Fan would not be afraid.

Xu Rong could lead the army to condense Military Qi, but in fact, Su Fan's army could do it too. Military Qi was not a supernatural ability of the Military School; as long as the soldiers were tough, ordinary generals could also figure it out.

Su Fan's army was not bad; they had been training for five or six years, and they trusted each other. In these years, Zang Ba, Chen Dao, and the others had also figured out the method of Military Qi.

Even Su Fan could manifest Military Qi.

As for going a step further, that would require an Inheritance from the Military School, and Inheritances of Military School supernatural abilities were not common in the entire Divine Han.

At least none of the officers under Su Fan's command had one.

But facing Niu Fu and Xu Rong's army, Su Fan and his allies held the advantage.

They now held the initiative. What Su Fan was using was an open strategy, a method of uprightness.

Either Niu Fu brought his troops out to fight him in the open field—although defeating Niu Fu's Xiliang Army might come with losses, if they truly defeated Niu Fu's army, they could almost cross the Yellow River and press directly on Luoyang.

Or Niu Fu chose to retreat and hold the city, as a city was safer than this camp.

A few days ago, Su Fan, Xi Zhicai, and Chen Dao had already considered all the options available to Niu Fu and his men.

Besides that, if Niu Fu wanted to turn the tide, he might choose to launch a night raid on their camp, but that was very difficult; if they were prepared, it would just be sending men to their deaths.

Or they could attack their supply lines, which would require cavalry, just like when they raided the Yellow Turbans' supply lines back then.

But this also had certain risks; after all, Henei Commandery still belonged to the coalition, and the coalition was different from the Yellow Turbans.

Sending a lone force deep into the enemy's rear—if they were truly discovered, even cavalry would be in trouble. Once they were bogged down, there was even a possibility of the entire army being wiped out.

Or perhaps they might choose to send elite troops to secretly cross the river north of Xiaoping, bypass Su Fan's army, and attack from the rear.

But this path was also very difficult. Not to mention that Niu Fu's camp was being watched closely by Su Fan, making it impossible to split his forces.

Secondly, even if they sent troops from their main base and took a long detour to attack Su Fan's rear, it would be very difficult to achieve.

Because behind Su Fan and his allies was Zhang Yang's army; they were resting, and if they were truly attacked, they could hold out for a period of time.

They still had 200,000 troops, so the number of hidden troops Niu Fu could send would not be large.

They would inevitably be a small group, and even if Zhang Yang and his men were useless, they could still hold out for a while.

Therefore, trying to sneak attack them was almost impossible to achieve. Su Fan was not Wang Kuang.

Historically, that was exactly how Wang Kuang was defeated.

But he, Xi Zhicai, and the others had considered all of this in detail and had made response strategies for everything.

Therefore, it was almost impossible for Niu Fu to succeed if he wanted to play dirty with him.

He had considered every aspect; if Niu Fu wanted to defeat him, he could only do it head-on, but defeating him head-on was almost impossible.

Therefore, Su Fan was very confident, and his confidence also influenced Tao Qian and the others; in the great battles of these past days, their coalition had indeed achieved successive small victories.

Although the fruits of victory were not large, at the very least, they had suppressed Niu Fu to the point where he dared not leave his main camp.