Chapter 670: The Sneak Attack Plan

"General, there is no need to worry. These Rich Clans are nothing but a rabble. We only need to distribute the captured Flintlocks and ammunition and train the Village Soldiers to deal with them."

Zhong Li and Chang Wei were discussing matters regarding the training of Village Soldiers.

Hearing this, a trace of disdain appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Chang Wei laughed softly; Zhong Li's thoughts coincided with his own, yet he was somewhat hesitant, "But can we rely solely on these Village Soldiers to deal with the harassment of the Rich Clan soldiers?"

The Qi army is nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs before the Prince's Personal Army; how could these private soldiers of the Rich Clans be their match?

What he worried about was these Rich Clans harming the commoners in the territories they had occupied and sabotaging the rear base they had established.

After all, as long as the rear base is stable, their supply lines are secure.

"General, rest assured, they will certainly be able to do it." Zhong Li was full of confidence, "The commoners who support us have suffered the most from the oppression of the Rich Clans; they certainly do not want to see the Rich Clans return, to return to the miserable days of the past."

Pausing for a moment, he continued: "Therefore, they will surely fight the Rich Clan private soldiers to the end. Furthermore, this time I intend to mobilize all the commoners in the countryside, making everyone a soldier. We will surely be able to send them running in terror. The General only needs to lead the troops to continue attacking cities and seizing strongholds."

Chang Wei nodded, giving Zhong Li an appreciative look.

He had already removed Zhong Li from the army to specifically take charge of the occupied territories.

With Zhong Li's assurance, he felt a sense of relief.

The so-called edict denouncing them as rebels issued by Han Zheng would be nothing but a scrap of paper to him, having no influence whatsoever on the next step of the offensive.

Following this, he listened to other news brought back by the Scouts.

"The Qi soldiers are withdrawing from the counties and prefectures, rushing toward Ji City and Zi City," the Scout continued.

"Oh?" Chang Wei's eyes narrowed.

Currently, they were located in the northeast direction of Qizhou.

And Lu City was located to their southwest, at a distance of about three hundred li.

Among them, Lu City was situated among the mountains, while Ji City and Zi City guarded the two mountain roads leading to Lu City.

To attack Lu City from the front, these two cities must be taken.

This time, Qi was focusing its defense on Ji City and Zi City, clearly to hold Lu City, delay time, and wait for the arrival of reinforcements from other powerful clans.

However, the direction of Ji City, northeast of Lu City, is mountainous, and the mountains are steep.

But the mountains to the southwest of Lu City are sparse and low; attacking from this direction would be much easier.

Therefore, by attacking Ji City or Zi City directly, they would sacrifice more men and horses.

But if they were to make a detour to the southwest of Lu City, it would require traveling more than five hundred li, which would take too long.

After weighing it, Chang Wei suddenly thought of something, a flash of realization, and he said: "Since they have sent us such a generous gift, we shall accept it."

Qin Shan and Guan Tong looked at each other, surprised, "The General does not intend to attack Lu City?"

Chang Wei nodded, "They want to lure us into deep, isolated territory. Think about it: if we cannot take Lu City in time and our supply lines are stretched, once the reinforcements of the powerful clans arrive,"

"especially if the Northern Di Cavalry makes a detour to launch a sneak attack, our supply lines will be in danger."

Qin Shan and Guan Tong nodded.

The Northern Di Cavalry comes and goes like the wind; they are not afraid of a head-on battle, but they fear them attacking the supply lines.

"Furthermore, the most important thing about this southern expedition is to annihilate the Anti-Yan Coalition. Once the Anti-Yan Coalition is broken, Qi will collapse without being attacked," said Chang Wei.

This time, he was only responsible for the vanguard. In a few days, Yan Wang would arrive in Qizhou to join him in a decisive battle against the Anti-Yan Coalition.

Since that is the case, why should he follow Qi's strategy and lead troops to attack Lu City?

"That's right, if we fight, we fight this annoying Coalition. Once the Coalition is broken, not only Qi, but conquering the Xie Family and Southern Liang will be as easy as turning over one's hand," said Lv Chang.

Having decided on this matter, Chang Wei issued orders to the three of them.

He had Lv Chang lead thirty thousand men to attack eastward to control the coastal cities in the east.

He had Guan Tong lead thirty thousand troops to attack westward to control the cities along the Jin River.

Guan Tong was to attack southward to occupy the cities between Dongping and Ji City.

Finally, he and Lv Chang would join forces to attack southeast, taking Lai County, Langya Commandery, and Donghai Commandery.

These three commanderies are all located on the peninsula of Qi.

Once these three commanderies are taken, they will basically control the coastline of Qi, and at that time, only Lu City and a corner in the southwest will remain.

Immediately after.

Chang Wei had Zhong Li continue to be responsible for establishing government offices, while simultaneously having the three of them reorganize their troops and set out.

……

In Yancheng, while the Prince's Personal Army was busy conquering territory.

Zhou Yi was in the Prince's study discussing with Zhao Xu the plan to launch a sneak attack on the Dongying Navy.

"This is the port where the Dongying Navy is mainly stationed," Zhao Xu said to Zhou Yi, pointing to a location on the map of Dongying.

This was the map of Dongying he had drawn, as well as the nautical charts of the vicinity.

It marked out all the mountains and geography of Dongying, and was very detailed.

After the Prince's Personal Army officially moved south, he decided to initiate the remaining two strategies formulated to break the Anti-Yan Alliance.

The first of these strategies was naturally to annihilate the Dongying Navy.

During this period, Dongying and Qi had been colluding, which had long since touched his bottom line. At the same time, it stirred up some shameful memories of the modern era in his mind.

Although they were in two different time and space, the nature of this island nation in the eastern sea was unexpectedly the same.

Such a jackal lying at the side of Da Song—if it cannot be tamed, it will surely be used by the Western Lands and become a knife stabbed into Da Song by the Western Lands.

Moreover, this Dongying had come into contact with the Western Lands earlier than the Wa nation of the modern era.

The intelligence collected by Xu Ke showed that it already had a tendency to act as a pawn for the Western Lands.

Currently, because of the internal chaos in Da Song and the unceasing border troubles in the North Territory, he could not yet launch a full-scale war against Dongying.

But using his naval advantage to take the opportunity to annihilate the Dongying Navy and sever the tentacles they had extended was still achievable, and also very necessary.

After all, as a party to the alliance, Dongying had intended to participate in the internal chaos of Da Song and also belonged to the warring side.

Therefore, how could he possibly give them a chance to launch a sneak attack on the Yanzhou Navy?

On the contrary, he wanted to let the Eastern Japanese taste the flavor of being sneak-attacked themselves.

"This general understands." Zhou Yi's gaze was sharp.

The Eastern Japanese have concentrated the majority of their warships at Fukuoka Port on the western side of Dongying.

And this Fukuoka Port is separated from Gaoli by a single sea, a mere five or six hundred li away from Jinyin Island; their objective is self-evident.

It is feared that the Dongying Navy has been waiting for the war to begin, while Yanzhou is busy dealing with the Anti-Yan Alliance, to launch a sneak attack on Jinghai Port.

"Although the warships of the Dongying Navy are far inferior to ours, they are numerous in quantity, so you must not be careless," Zhao Xu cautioned.

The Eastern Japanese warships at Fukuoka Port have reached two hundred and forty vessels.

That is almost seventy percent of their military strength, with the remaining thirty percent having been supplemented into the current Wufeng Pirates.

At present, the Wufeng Pirates are also gathering at Wufeng Island, seemingly waiting for orders as well.

Now, the southward campaign has been underway for several days.

He believes that the Dongying informants in Qizhou will certainly transmit this news back to Dongying.

It is time to launch a sneak attack before the Dongying Navy takes action.

After all, following this period of deep-sea training, the newly launched warships have all formed combat capability.