Chapter 279

Under Jinan City.

"Wanhu, look, in front is the Shandong provincial capital Jinan City."

"If we can take it down, it will definitely allow the tribesmen to make a big profit, and we won't have to worry for the next few years!"

"..."

Thousand-household Wanqi Yao said with joy.

Fighting all the way here, they had eaten a lot of looting dividends.

It was just that before, they were acting with the main army, and every time the spoils were picked by the Great Chanyu first, and then by the few Wanhus ranked in front.

Their Wanhu was formed relatively late, their strength was relatively weak, their speaking power in the tribe was limited, and the spoils they could get were also fewer.

Erden took the initiative to ask for the expedition to Shandong, besides wanting to establish his own merit, he also wanted to take the opportunity to make a big profit.

In recent years, the Tatar tribe had been constantly conquering east and west, seemingly infinitely beautiful, but the days of the tribesmen were not good.

The productivity of the Tatar tribe was limited and could not be self-sufficient.

Economically, they relied heavily on Great Dayu.

Because of the war with Great Dayu, the two sides closed the trade channel, and they could only buy high-priced smuggled goods.

The wealth looted in the past was only temporarily stored in their hands, and it would fall into the hands of unscrupulous merchants before long.

Including the Tatar high-level, in fact, there was not much silver, and the wealth was mainly slaves, livestock, land, and grassland.

From the rise of the Tatar tribe to the present, the efforts they made, in a sense, were all working for Jin merchants.

Or working for the official interest groups behind these merchants.

But this was a thing that couldn't be helped. If the Tatar tribe wanted to rise, they had to pay the price.

If the profit was not big enough, it wouldn't be able to make these people betray Great Dayu and take the risk of beheading to do smuggling business.

Don't look at them empty-handed now, as if there was no harvest, in fact, many of the wealth they looted had long been sold to Jin merchants.

After all, looting was easy, but transportation was difficult.

Wanting to transport a large amount of spoils from Great Dayu back to Liaodong was definitely not an easy thing.

Especially many antiques, calligraphy, and paintings, only in Great Dayu could they sell for a price, and after returning to the grassland, they were worthless.

Being suppressed in price didn't matter, anyway, they were all looted, and they didn't know the real price.

Having someone help deal with dirty things was making a blood profit.

"You kid, stop daydreaming!"

"We have walked all the way here and encountered countless cities, and there are not many cities stronger than Jinan."

"Which one have you seen broken by us?"

"Moreover, the enemy's reinforcements are just a few dozen miles away."

"Wanting to attack the city, first solve the stumbling block of Great Dayu's Marquis Wuyang."

"This Wanhu boasted in front of the Great Chanyu that I would cut off Marquis Wuyang's head to sacrifice the flag, and there will be a fierce battle next."

"You guys, don't drag my feet!"

Erden couldn't help but laugh and scold.

Originally, he came to loot, and for the wealth in Jinan City, he naturally couldn't ignore it.

Although the wealth looted needed to be handed over 30% to the Great Chanyu, the bulk was still left in the headquarters.

However, compared to wealth, he was more concerned about how to annihilate the Prince of the Blood main army led by Marquis Wuyang.

Disdainful on the mouth, he was full of fear for the Yu army elite in his heart.

According to past experience, the elite troops of Great Dayu were all armored.

Setting up a formation and clashing with cavalry, they could also not fall behind.

In the eyes of the outside world, the Tatar tribe was famous for cavalry, but in fact, there were infantry inside them.

100,000 iron cavalry, that was just a cow blown out.

If they were really allowed to raise 100,000 cavalry, they would definitely drag the Tatar tribe to death.

Referring to historical experience, as long as the Central Plains Dynasty had enough warhorses, they could easily hang and beat the grassland cavalry every time.

It was not that the Central Plains Dynasty was good at cavalry archery, mainly because the grassland cavalry were basically part-time.

During the war, they were soldiers; in normal times, they were herdsmen.

Bullying ordinary infantry was fine, but encountering professional cavalry who were detached from production, they immediately revealed their original shape.

Other grassland nations could not afford professionalized armies, and the Tatar tribe could not afford it either.

Being able to fight and good at fighting was entirely fought out.

Ordinary herdsmen trained a little, picked up long spears and crossed warhorses, and after fighting a few battles on the battlefield without dying, they were qualified soldiers.

Completely detached from production training, for the Tatar tribe, this was an impossible task.

Even if they supplied with the power of the whole tribe, in their 100,000 main army, the ratio of cavalry to infantry was only four to six.

Unlike ordinary infantry, when looting inside the pass, they would also ride horses.

Because of the living environment, all Tatars could ride horses.

Falling into the eyes of the outside world, those who rode horses were naturally cavalry.

As for whether their crotches were warhorses or pack horses used to transport spoils, no one studied deeply.

Generally speaking, encountering Northern Barbarian cavalry, there were few who could retreat unscathed.

Either captured as slaves, or directly lost their lives.

"Wanhu, rest assured, we will not live up to expectations and cut off Marquis Wuyang's dog head!"

A group of Tatar generals replied in unison.

They had encountered Yu government troops many times, except for Liaozhen which made them fearful, only the Beijing Camp encountered before brought them trouble.

But it was only trouble.

Relying on the mobility of cavalry, they always held the initiative of the war.

Using the enemy's psychology of wanting to rush back to the capital, deliberately setting traps on the road, they beat the enemy into a rout.

The only problem was that in the process of fighting, the losses they paid were not small.

The Prince of the Blood main army led by Marquis Wuyang, in their eyes, was nothing more than a flipped version of the Beijing Camp.

Encountering under normal circumstances, there might be some trouble.

But they couldn't withstand their luck being good enough, Marquis Wuyang's troops were mostly southerners, and they were not acclimatized to the north.

The battle had not yet started, and non-combat attrition appeared in a pile.

It was precisely when the enemy was at their weakest, if they couldn't grasp the opportunity, it wouldn't be so easy to fight later.

"Good!"

"Everyone has this ambition, this Wanhu is relieved."

"However, Marquis Wuyang is not an ordinary person, we must not take it lightly."

"The ghost party cavalry is still on the road, just with our headquarters troops, wanting to take down the enemy army is afraid of paying not small losses."

"Pass the order down, the army will camp nearby to rest for a night, and break the enemy army tomorrow!"

Erden ordered immediately.

Strategically, one can despise the enemy, but tactically, one must value the enemy.

Unlike other Great Dayu armies, which had civil officials pointing fingers from above, Marquis Wuyang himself was the Regional Commander of the main army.

The enemy's 100,000 Prince of the Blood main army, although it was a virtual number, still had 50,000 or 60,000.

Using the 10,000 headquarters troops to attack the enemy's 50,000 or 60,000 main army was not the act of a wise man.

Great Dayu lacked nothing but people, even if 10,000 or 20,000 died, they could quickly supplement them.

But their Tatar tribe could not.

There were only so many young men in the tribe, let alone losing 10,000, even losing 1,000 or 800 would make him feel pain.

If they lost 2,000 or 3,000, his Wanhu would be severely injured.

The work of risking one's life must be handed over to the little brothers to do, and the direct troops only needed to lay the foundation for victory at the critical moment.

"..."

The Northern Barbarians were at the city gate, and the Provincial Governor's office was in a mess.

Everyone had prepared for the Northern Barbarian invasion, but when this day really came, everyone had no bottom in their hearts.

"Provincial Governor, since the enemy army is here, hurry up and notify Marquis Wuyang's troops to enter the city!"

Jinan Prefect Cheng Junfeng urged hurriedly.

Being beaten to the door by the enemy and only receiving news after the fact was clearly a dereliction of duty by local officials.

At this time, it was not suitable to pursue responsibility, so they could only temporarily suppress the problem.

But letting reinforcements enter the city was urgent.

Once the enemy army besieged the city, when they wanted reinforcements to come over, they wouldn't be able to enter the city.

"Don't count on it!"

"Marquis Wuyang fought out from the battlefield, and his military experience is much richer than yours and mine."

"The Prince of the Blood main army camp is less than thirty miles away from us, the enemy army is at the city gate, it is impossible for him not to receive news."

"The main army hasn't come over, that means they are not prepared to come over."

"In the previous days, you disliked the malaria in their army and were worried about infection, so you refused them to enter the city."

"Now that you need them, you want them to rush over immediately; where is there such a good thing in the world!"

Jia Xiaochen said angrily.

In order to keep the Prince of the Blood main army, he took a big risk.

Unless he made great contributions in the subsequent war, otherwise even if the court did not punish him after the war, he would have to take the initiative to plead guilty.

Prince Lu and Duke Yansheng's actions, anyone with a discerning eye knew it was his handwriting.

The Emperor could not pursue the responsibility of these two, but cleaning up this Provincial Governor was still very simple.

It wouldn't reach the point of heads falling, but the official career was definitely not expected to go further.

Planning hard, just to protect Jinan Prefecture.

Never expected that at the critical moment, his own people made things happen.

As early as five days ago, the Prince of the Blood main army landed on the Yellow River.

Originally, they should have entered the city long ago, but the gentry in the city were worried about malaria infecting themselves and strongly opposed the Prince of the Blood main army entering the city.

The officials of the Prefecture Yamen also followed suit, seeing that the opposing force was too strong, Jia Xiaochen could only adopt a compromise strategy.

At a location thirty miles away from Jinan City, an open space was cleared for the Prince of the Blood main army to camp.

In order to appease the other party, he specifically sent people to send labor-rewarding materials, which prevented chaos.

At this time, the enemy army was at the city gate, and everyone suddenly fell into chaos.

Marquis Wuyang's troops had many sick, but there was no news of anyone dying.

The butcher knife of the Northern Barbarians was much more terrifying than malaria; people slaughtered the city as if playing.

"Provincial Governor, now is not the time to gamble."

"Taking advantage of the enemy army not yet encircling Jinan, we still have the opportunity to put the reinforcements into the city, and it will be too late if it is late."

"In the previous days, in order to reinforce Qufu and Yanzhou, we drew a lot of elites, and now there are less than 10,000 defenders in the city."

"Even if we immediately conscript the people, we can only gather 30,000 people at most."

"If the Northern Barbarians attack the city with all their strength, we can't stop it!"

Min Kaifeng, the Provincial Administration Commissioner, spoke to persuade.

The Great Dayu army was full of empty pay, the nominal 10,000 main army, being able to gather 6,000 soldiers was already the general's ability.

Deducting the old and weak who were making up the numbers, being able to have 3,000 or 4,000 combat-capable soldiers was already considered an elite army.

The combat effectiveness of the people was even less worth mentioning; letting these people guard the city was mainly doing hard labor.

If they really fought with the enemy army, it was estimated that in one encounter, the team would be defeated.

As for Marquis Wuyang, it was a problem of interests.

Mixing in officialdom, face was worthless.

When it was time to bow, one had to bow.

Otherwise, letting the enemy army fight in, they, these officials, would all be finished.

"Min, you speak easily."

"The problem is that Marquis Wuyang is not our subordinate general, he is a frontier official holding two major Viceroys."

"Wanting to wave and come, call and go, do you think it is possible?"

"In the previous days, in order to appease the other party, this official exhausted his mind."

"Now wanting people to sell their lives, without enough benefits, it is impossible to achieve at all."

"Don't forget that Marquis Wuyang, who holds the four provinces of Liangguang, Min, and Zhe, is not that group of poor military generals, and can be dealt with by casually hitting tens of thousands of taels."

"In terms of financial resources, the resources the other party can mobilize are far from what we can compare!"

Jia Xiaochen said helplessly.

Relying on interests could indeed solve the problem, but the other party was someone who had seen the world, and the silver passing through his hands every year was in the millions.

Wanting to settle Marquis Wuyang by throwing money could indeed be done, it was just that they couldn't afford that price.

"Provincial Governor, things have happened, saying these has no meaning."

"The top priority is to hurry up and let the reinforcements enter the city, this subordinate can organize the gentry in the city to raise a sum of silver to apologize to Marquis Wuyang."

"As an imperial relative, he can't just watch Jinan fall, right!"

Cheng Junfeng said, biting the bullet.

Reaching this step, he could only take "righteousness" to speak.

Expecting the gentry in the city to donate, that was just a drop in the bucket.

Being able to raise tens of thousands of taels was already generous, and it needed to hurt for a long time.

Raising more money was more impossible.

The decayed bureaucratic system determined that it was impossible to have large amounts of stored silver in the yamen.

No matter how much income there was, it would be emptied by officials through various means in the shortest time.

"Hmph!"

"Precisely because he is an imperial relative, he is fearless."

"Losing Jinan Prefecture, you and I will lose our heads, and the other party will only be reprimanded."

"..."

Speaking halfway, realizing he had spoken wrongly, Jia Xiaochen decisively chose to close his mouth.

In this kind of situation, there were not many people the Emperor could trust, and even fewer who had the ability to command thousands of troops.

In the Capital Defense Battle, they were forced to use the Duke of Cheng and the Marquis of Zhenyuan, and the southern situation could only rely on Marquis Wuyang.

Forced by the situation, civil officials could only pinch their noses and recognize it.

Even if they had ideas, they could only wait until the war ended before taking action.

The imperial relatives and meritorious officials joined forces and had already gained considerable speaking power in the court.

Even if Jinan was lost, this pot was still carried by these unlucky guys, and it would not fall on Marquis Wuyang.

No matter the Emperor or the meritorious officials, they would not allow Marquis Wuyang to fall now.

"..."

Twilight gradually darkened, but the expedition army camp was brightly lit.

"Marquis, tonight is a heaven-sent opportunity."

"The Northern Barbarians swept all the way, and they are the most arrogant, and also the easiest to reveal flaws."

"Only 10,000 people dared to go deep alone and kill under Jinan City, which is enough to prove that the enemy army has become arrogant soldiers."

"Just pick 2,000 soldiers and launch a sneak attack in the second half of the night, and it will definitely give the enemy army a heavy blow."

"If the government troops in the city can send troops to respond in time, maybe they can annihilate the enemy army!"

After getting Li Mu's hint, Qin Tianrui proposed first.

(End of this chapter)