From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 330

Zhou Yuan did not rush to make a military action plan, but gathered the soldiers together for daily training.

After more than 20 days of rushing, they were already exhausted. The intensity of the subsequent war was high, and they might not be able to bear it.

After a period of rest, Zhou Yuan was also busy with other things, mainly analyzing intelligence and offensive and defensive situations, and finally finding a breakthrough to win.

In addition, the implementation of the Single Whip Law was bound to encounter resistance. Although he handed this matter over to Deng Su, he still had some doubts about Deng Su's ability.

And the facts also proved the difficulty of this matter. Deng Su first encountered trouble when measuring the land.

The gentry family directly put out the court law, saying that there was no such law, and the private ownership of land would not cooperate with the measurement.

Deng Su's threat was useless. The gentry family directly stuck their heads out and said, "The imperial envoy wants to kill people, why does he need a reason?"

This made Deng Su so angry that he stomped his feet, but there was nothing he could do. He was the governor, but there must be a reason for killing people.

Most of the land of the gentry families was not reported, and he didn't know which piece of land belonged to whom, so he had no idea where to start!

Zhou Yuan also made a timely reminder: "Just report the land after surveying it, and all other lands are considered unowned land and can be re-divided."

"You are a governor, can you still let them ride on your head?"

Deng Su frowned and said, "If those lands are turned into unowned land, the gentry will make a fuss."

Zhou Yuan said, "There are so many in the Central Plains. If they dare to make trouble, they are bandits. Kill a group of them, and the rest will be honest."

"Master Deng, there is no way to do big things without bloodshed. This world has always been in line with the trend. Those who go against the will of heaven will die."

Deng Su had a gloomy face and didn't speak, but there was already murderous intent in his eyes.

Zhou Yuan then went back to his own business. The military rations were sufficient, and he recruited tens of thousands of people as baggage troops.

In this way, the five camps and 60,000 soldiers can fully participate in the war, which can be regarded as a side enhancement of their own strength.

After resting for almost half a month, the time is ripe, but Zhou Yuan still does not take any action, just maintaining the previous training.

Even Li Yu'an couldn't help asking: "Aren't you anxious? Zhang Bailong has no worries, and you are on the expedition, and the daily consumption of food and grass is huge. How long can you last?"

"If you don't make any achievements for too long, the court will put pressure on you. Maybe if you wait for another half a month, the imperial edict will arrive."

Zhou Yuan said lightly: "Fighting is not farming. It is not suitable after the season. Don't be anxious."

Li Yu'an said: "Are you waiting for the opportunity? To be honest, it's April now, spring plowing has long passed, and Zhang Bailong's strength has entered the peak period."

"You can't wait until the autumn harvest, right? That's too long."

As soon as the voice fell, a voice rang outside the door: "Zhongwu Bo, news is coming."

It was the voice of the female guard!

Zhou Yuan hurriedly said, "Hurry up and bring it here!"

The female guard strode in and handed Zhou Yuan a few letters.

Zhou Yuan opened them, took a deep breath, squinted and said, "It looks like we have to prepare for the battle. Call Li He, Liu Fang and others!"

Li Yu'an couldn't help but ask, "Intelligence? The Inner Court will provide you with intelligence again?"

Zhou Yuan smiled and said, "As early as the end of the first month, the Inner Court sent a large number of people over, and my second senior sister happened to be among them. She knows what kind of information I want."

Li He and others arrived soon, and Zhou Yuan also hung the map on the wall.

He looked at everyone and said in a deep voice: "We are now in Kaifeng City. There are no troops stationed in the nearby suburbs, and all the bandits have evacuated."

"According to intelligence, Zhang Bailong has prepared four armies, stationed in Chenzhou in the southeast, Yancheng in the south, Yingcheng in the southwest, and Songyang in the southwest."

"The four armies almost surrounded our Kaifeng. No matter which direction we march from, we will encounter the natural barrier they form."

While speaking, Zhou Yuan pointed to the map and said: "And it's not just a barrier. For example, Chenzhou and Yancheng have Ru'ning as the rear area to the south."

"Yingcheng has Nanyang as the rear area, and Songyang has Luoyang as the rear area. As the rear."

"This means that if any force is attacked, the follow-up troops and neighboring garrisons will come to support as quickly as possible."

Li He couldn't help but said in shock: "Zhang the thief is so good at using troops? With such a siege, we can't leave Kaifeng Prefecture at all. At most, we can send troops to Xuchang."

Liu Fang shook his head and said: "We can't go to Xuchang. The reason why the other party left Xuchang is to wait for us to fall into the trap."

"Once we go, the three armies of Chenzhou, Yancheng, and Yingcheng will quickly surround us, and it will be difficult for us to retreat at that time."

Xiang Yong said in a deep voice: "Zhang Bailong's four armies almost surrounded us, and there are follow-up troops to supply each other.It can echo, it is really difficult to deal with. "

"My suggestion is to go from the northwest and attack Huaiqing Prefecture. There are at most 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers there, and we can take it down in two days at most."

Zhou Yuan smiled and said, "At the same time, the armies of Songyang and Luoyang will surround us from two directions and force us back."

Xiang Yong said, "Then go from the southeast, through Tuocheng and Wuping, down along the Xifeishui River, to Shouzhou, bypass Runing, and directly attack Zhang Bailong's old nest Guangzhou."

Everyone's eyes lit up.

Li He couldn't help but nodded and said, "What a good idea. Zhang Bailong surrounded us tightly, and he didn't expect us to come in from other provinces."

Zhou Yuan knocked on the table and said lightly, "Everyone, the first thing you have to understand is the meaning of fighting."

"What are we doing here? It is to annihilate bandits, not to capture cities and plunder land."

"The former is the purpose, and the latter is just one of the means. ”

“What will happen if we occupy Guangzhou? The entire Central Plains is Zhang Bailong's territory. As long as his living forces are not destroyed, he will live forever.”

“We should fight for people this time, not land.”

Speaking of this, Zhou Yuan stood up and said in a deep voice: “Sun Tzu said, knowing yourself and the enemy, you can fight a hundred battles without danger. If you can't even see the nature of the war clearly, you will be led by Zhang Bailong and die in the Central Plains.”

“For example, I ordered Xiang Yong to take 30,000 elite soldiers to go south through Xifeishui and raid Guangzhou. Then Zhang Bailong will definitely order everyone to withdraw from Guangzhou and leave us an empty city.”

“What did we get? We just got countless civilians.”

“We only have 60,000 people. Every time we occupy a city, we need to stay behind to suppress the city. God knows how many peasant soldiers are hidden among the people?”

“In that case, what strength do we have to fight the other side? "

This was very clear, and everyone understood it.

Liu Fang clasped his fists and said, "Please tell me, General Jie, how should we fight this battle? To be honest, our experience in the Fifth Army Camp is still not very rich, especially against the peasant soldiers."

Zhou Yuan said, "It's the same old saying, knowing yourself and the enemy, you can fight a hundred battles without defeat. What is Zhang Bailong's advantage? A large number of people! But doesn't he have any disadvantages?"

"There are many factors that affect war, including the number of soldiers, the quality of soldiers, the level of generals, logistics and intelligence."

"At present, the opponent's advantages are the number of soldiers and logistics, while our advantages are the quality of individual soldiers and intelligence, and the level of generals is another matter."

"In this case, of course we should play to our strengths and crush them in terms of the quality of soldiers."

"What is quality? Combat effectiveness, cooperation, and discipline. ”

Speaking of this, Zhou Yuan sneered: "I don't know if you have observed that although Zhang Bailong's peasant soldiers are united and motivated, they obviously have poor discipline. When they attacked the city, they were as fierce as tigers, and they collapsed directly after too many casualties. This has already explained everything. "

"For this point, just kill them directly."

"So everyone, you should think about how to fight from this direction."

Everyone looked at each other and was really shocked. General Jie is worthy of being the contemporary little Zhuge. His analysis is too clear and too accurate.

How can they be defeated if they fight like this!