Chapter 124, Ping Kun’s Strategy (Part 1)
Amid the heavy snowfall, the city of Hangzhou was covered in silver. However, with the city gates tightly closed all day long, Hangzhou citizens can no longer enjoy the snowy scenery of West Lake as they used to, and the increasingly urgent war atmosphere has made everyone completely lose interest in sightseeing.
Ever since the bandits invaded in large numbers from the sea, Liu Mengqian, the prefect of Hangzhou, has always adopted the tactic of shrinking back and closing the city gates tightly and never attacking.
Although this approach allowed him to avoid the risk of risking his own life, it also caused the vast and densely populated countryside outside Hangzhou to become a hunting ground for thieves to come and kill at will. It was so ravaged. So in the past few days, Magistrate Liu's life has not been easy - after the bandits ended their siege of the city, documents from various counties flying in like snow flakes filled his desk, and there were also a lot of scholars who had their families ruined. Juren, come to the city He, a parent official, cried out for revenge: In the late Ming Dynasty, the literary style in the Jiangnan water towns was very prosperous. Even rural landlords probably had the reputation of being a scholar or a scholar. According to the Ming Dynasty system, they had a certain political status and should be respected and admired by others.
However, this group of thieves didn't know why they were so crazy. They treated the lowly commoners in a so-so and polite manner, but they treated the Jin gentry with brutality. They ransacked and exterminated their homes at every turn, and they didn't even bother to deal with those who "inherited poems and rituals". The rich and famous families took this seriously, and all the wealthy gentry in their path were spared. Even the retired old minister was killed - you stupid and ignorant thieves, don't you understand the principle that "you can't punish a doctor"? ?
In short, Prefect Liu Mengqian knew very well that after so many well-known gentry with imperial titles died in one fell swoop, as the parent official of Hangzhou and the first person responsible for this war, his situation was already very dangerous. If you do something, when the governor of Zhejiang comes back or the court holds him accountable, not only will the black gauze hat on your head be unsafe, but also Even his own head was a bit mysterious... However, Magistrate Liu, who didn't want to regard a turtle with a shrunken head as a dead turtle, thought for a long time, but still couldn't come up with a good countermeasure. Finally, he decided to brainstorm and borrow the wisdom of everyone, Scholars from all over the city are invited to come and offer their suggestions, hoping that while preserving the city of Hangzhou, they can also teach the thieves a lesson!
Um? Why only invite scholars who are studying? Of course, it is because scholars are knowledgeable and are dignified officials in the court. How can they associate with traffickers and pawns?
As a result, the lobby of the prefecture's Yamen was filled with people. Poor scholars and down-and-out literati from all walks of life appeared at the Pingkun Conference - those scholars from wealthy and noble families saw such a huge threat to the thieves. The enemy is now taking advantage of the cessation of the siege by the Tiankun thieves, dragging their children and girls out of the city in the heavy snow, and fleeing to the north to Huzhou and Jiaxing. Only poor scholars with no money came to the Yamen to join in the fun.
Although the situation was urgent, Prefect Liu Mengqian still did not forget to put on a show, and Shi Shiran did not show up until most of the attendees had finished their second cup of tea. A group of eagerly awaiting supervisors, scholars, academicians, and laotongsheng hurriedly came forward to receive the ceremony. They waited until everyone had finished the ceremony and sat down. Mr. Liu first wiped his hands and face with a hot towel slowly, then took a sip of the Longjing tea brought by the servant, and then spoke leisurely:
"...Everyone, you must have heard about the deeds of overseas thieves who pretended to be descendants of the Song Dynasty, colluded with traitors in Fujian and Guangdong, and killed loyal people. To this day, these gangsters are Chou was so mad that he invaded this good place in the south of the Yangtze River! Since ancient times, Han and thieves have not been at odds with each other. It is a pity that outside the city of Hangzhou, there are countless loyal ministers and righteous men of the Ming Dynasty who have left home because they hated Kun and thieves. If it weren't for the safety of the people in Hangzhou, I would have personally led the troops out of the city to meet with these thieves! But right now, the top priority is to protect Hangzhou. The city is in ruins, so I ask everyone here to offer their suggestions if we can really defeat the thieves."
The words of Magistrate Liu Mengqian contained both great justice and selfish interests, and successfully stimulated the utilitarian aspirations of all the down-and-out literati. Immediately, a trembling old voice spoke up: "...Lord Fu Zun! Ahem! The thieves come from afar just to rob property and people. The students thought that they only need to select dozens of brave men who dare to fight and sneak in. Among the villagers, if you get the opportunity to assassinate the thieves, the thieves will definitely retreat!"
An old man with white beard and hair and a stooped figure stood up tremblingly first, his face flushed with excitement, and the few strands of white beard on his chin trembled... as if he only needed an order from Magistrate Liu , this old sour man in his seventies would personally pick up a sharp blade and go out into battle to defeat the enemy.
Inspired by this old man, the scholars present also started to make suggestions. You and I came up with a lot of ideas. Unfortunately, most of them were inspired by "Water Margin" and "Three Kingdoms". Although it said assassination. , alienation, false surrender and honey traps are all there, but they are basically taken for granted, seriously lacking in operability... Therefore, Prefect Liu Mengqian listened with great interest at first, but soon he became more and more frowning.
——Fake surrender by opening the city gate? Do you want me, the prefect, to go to the enemy camp in person as a hostage? Regardless of whether the enemy can be retreated in the end, doesn't this mean we are going to die?
——An empty city plan? But everyone knows that the Kun thief is vulgar and illiterate, and he doesn't know poetry. What if he rushes into the city directly?
——Assassinate the thief chieftain? How could it be so easy to kill the leader of a thief among thousands of troops? Can such a powerful assassin be found in Hangzhou?
——A divorce plan? At present, everyone knows nothing about the inside story of this group of thieves and soldiers outside the city, and there is no way to start a divorce plan!
- Borrowing arrows from a straw boat? Hey, hey, where did that Kunthief get his bow and arrows? Those are all cannons and cannons! How can a mere straw boat be caught?
Just when Magistrate Liu Mengqian was increasingly doubting whether it was necessary to hold this "Pingkun Conference", someone finally made his eyes light up with his words:
"...Lord Fu Zun, seniors, we can think long and hard about what strategy to use to attack the Kun bandits outside the city. But there is a saying in the art of war: know yourself and the enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles. Before we compete with the Kun bandits in a battle of wits and courage, we must Only by knowing the details of these overseas giants can we adapt to the local situation It is appropriate to be targeted... The student is not talented, but in recent years he has also been interested in national affairs. He has been paying attention to find out the inside story of Kun thief, collecting and excerpting Kun thief's books. It took more than a year to compile it into a volume of "Ping Kun's Minutes". Today I hereby publish this Submit it, please take a look at it..."
This scholar named Gao Xuan was only in his twenties. He was wearing a half-worn straight jacket that had been washed white. It showed that his family was not well-off, but his expression was unusually calm and composed. He smiled faintly, and at that moment He took out a volume of booklet from his arms and handed it to Magistrate Liu respectfully.
This move was a surprise, and it immediately attracted the attention of everyone around. Although there were many people who came up with random ideas just now, and there were also many people who had read "Gu Shi Lu", they were able to put the Ping Kun in their minds into mind. Strategy, systematically compiled into a manuscript, is really unique except for Gao Xuan, a poor scholar. Magistrate Liu was also unambiguous. He immediately took the "Minutes of Pingkun" and started reading it with his head shaking. When he read something unclear, he would politely ask Gao Xuan a few words, as if he appreciated this person very much. ’s... At this moment, Gao Xuan, who was originally unattractive, suddenly became the center of attention. Those blazing eyes full of envy, jealousy and hatred almost almost set him on fire!
And Gao Xuan, who was attracting the attention of everyone, had a proud look on his face after listening to a few words of flattery. He thought he had embarked on the road to success and was about to reach the top...so he entered a kind of soul wandering. In Tianwai's state, he seemed to see that his father-in-law, who had always looked down on him before, finally looked at him with new eyes, and the brother-in-law who had once looked down upon him knelt down in front of him and greeted him...
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This Gao Xuan Gao scholar who made a big splash at the "Pingkun Conference" is not yet thirty years old this year and has already gained the reputation of a scholar. He can be regarded as young and promising, but his family is really poor - with this Like many scholars in those days, Gao Xuan had no job and relied entirely on his ancestral property to survive. In the early years, his family still had a small income, and he could make do with it. He kept studying and making friends with teachers in order to be able to enter school and pass the examination. However, something unexpected happened, and Gao Xuan's parents suddenly passed away one after another. Before his parents passed away, he married another wife... A series of red and white events depleted the last of the Gao family's fortune. In the end, only a dilapidated house passed down from ancestors and some dilapidated household items were left.
By last year, most of Gao Xuan's family had to rely on his father-in-law to support him - Gao Xuan's scholarly wife was the daughter of a commoner family, and I was a wine seller on the street, because he felt that marrying a scholar would give him face. He married his daughter to a poor scholar. Unexpectedly, because Gao Xuan, a talented son-in-law, had to observe filial piety to his parents, he could not take the civil service examination for a long time. Even if he passed the examination, he might not be able to pass the examination in one go. As a result, the couple had to rely on his father-in-law to support him... So under the eyes of his father-in-law and the cold words of his brother-in-law. In front of him, Gao Xuan was always frustrated and unable to raise his head.
In this depressing atmosphere where everything is sad, the Perfect Bookstore opened by "Lingnan Gentleman" Zhao Yiggong in Hangzhou became a good place for Gao Xuan to spend time and escape from reality - in order to gain enough popularity in Hangzhou and give himself This outsider "raises the hope". When Zhao Yiggong opened Wanbi Bookstore, he implemented a free borrowing strategy for the poor and talented people. Not only did the talented and poor children read for free in the bookstore, they did not interfere, and tea was provided in order to gain a good reputation among the scholars: these days, there is no fame, no protection from the government and the gentry, and they can do whatever they want. It was difficult... As a result, a cultural salon famous throughout Hangzhou was quickly formed, especially among the poor scholars.
Therefore, Gao Xuan, a scholar who was depressed and had nothing to do, plunged into the vast collection of exquisite books in Wanbi Bookstore under the introduction of several equally depressed scholar friends. He read them and forgot to eat and sleep every day. He refused to leave until the bookstore closed... Unexpectedly, just last summer, Mr. Zhao Yingong, who was originally praised by Hangzhou scholars, suddenly became a "conspirator and spy", and the Wanbi Bookstore he opened was also closed down by the government!
——When this earth-shattering news came, Gao Xuan was reading in Wanbi Bookstore as usual... After hearing the news, other customers in the store and bookshop clerks were so frightened that their faces turned pale, and they ran away as fast as possible, fearing that they would be The officials arrested and convicted everyone indiscriminately. Only Gao Xuan remained calm and calm. After the others had fled, he picked up the pens, inks, paper and inkstones they had left behind, plus a purse that someone had left behind. He also plundered several books from the bookstore in one go. After ten books, I happily returned home carrying a large sack.
In the next few months, in order to make ends meet, Gao Xuan pawned these windfalls from Wanbi Bookstore one after another in exchange for money to buy rice. But among the pile of books he brought back, he found a handwritten booklet that recorded many "Kun Thief Secrets" and "Ping Kun's Clever Tips", which immediately made Gao Xuan read with gusto - and Jue Jue Like most Confucian scholars of the late Ming Dynasty who had the world in mind, Gao Xuan also had a strong interest in "investigation of things", "firearms" and "strategic science", which was contrary to the social history of that time. The situation is related. The continuous losses on all fronts made the entire Ming court look forward to reversing the crisis through the development and introduction of several new weapons and new tactics. Therefore, a wave of "paper talks" emerged at that time. Scholars who originally had no basic understanding or concept of war began to read military books in order to keep up with the fashion...
When he was at Wanbi Bookstore, Gao Xuan once wanted to find some Australian military art books to achieve a surprise victory. But I couldn't find this kind of book. Now that I got this "Pingkun Secret Book", I felt like I had found a treasure. I studied it day and night, trying to learn some "dragon-slaying skills" from it.
——What he didn’t know was that this handwritten booklet recording the “Secrets of the Kun Thief” and “Ping Kun’s Clever Plan” was actually collected by a traveler from the Lingao Group when he was extremely bored. They, those who traveled through Hainan Island, combined the rumors with their own wild imaginations to casually The nature of this book written for self-entertainment is similar to the various nonsense jokes on the Internet in later generations... But when I went to Hangzhou for business, I somehow left the booklet in Wanbi Bookstore. , and then let Gao Xuan, the "elegant thief", steal it...
If you are a veteran with rich combat experience, you may be able to see the absurdity of the contents in the booklet at a glance. The problem is that Gao Xuan, a poor scholar, is like all similar "military enthusiasts" of the Ming Dynasty. He has high ambitions and low abilities. He does not have any professional military experience. He can only talk purely about what he takes for granted. Looking at the eloquent words written in this booklet of boasting, , he believed it to be true.
After being fascinated by the book, Gao Xuan also excerpted the passages in the booklet, combined it with his own secondary processing and artistic imagination, as well as some "deeds of Kun people" found in other books, and painstakingly wrote a book "Ping Kun's Notes" 》, thinking that he is already a "master of affairs".
It is a pity that although "Ping Kun's Minutes" was completed, the Kun thieves were thousands of miles away. Gao Xuan, who was in Hangzhou, had no way to apply for fame even if he wanted to take this strange book, and he also didn't have much. People are interested in such trivial matters—the top cadres of Donglin Party and Fushe are not like him The little guy could come into contact with him, but in the end he just lived in a shabby house and had nothing to do... However, as the saying goes, the emperor pays off, just when Gao Xuan was lamenting that his abilities were useless, a big-name and fierce thief suddenly fell from the sky. The children rushed to the Qiantang River just a short distance away!
Regarding this, the others were horrified and worried all day long, but Gao Xuan was as excited as if he had fallen asleep on a pillow. He first took out the "Pingkun Minutes" and carefully transcribed it, in preparation for submitting it to the nobleman when he recommended himself. , he also found all the books about Kun thieves at hand and read them repeatedly, and also talked with those who fled into the city for refuge to find out about the thieves... In the end, this "Pingkun Conference" became a blockbuster
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At this moment, in his professional capacity as a "kunshi expert", he was giving advice to the prefect Liu Mengqian, who was currently confused.
"...It is said that most of the Kun thieves cannot bend their legs, so they often use firearms. As long as they select a few brave men and knock them to the ground with bamboo poles, they will not be able to get up again and can only be captured without any help. Even children with yellow mouths and old men will also You are good at killing thieves with your hands, you might as well give it a try, it will definitely work wonders..."
——After hearing Gao Xuan's "high opinion", Magistrate Liu decided to recruit the young men in the city to organize a bamboo pole team. Although if they were allowed to go out of the city to attack the bandit camp at Phoenix Villa, they would probably be unable to do so, but if they just stayed behind the city wall for street fighting, they should still be able to make do.
"...among the Kun thieves, there are many foreigners from the West. They have been eating dried beef and mutton since they were young. They cannot digest the food, so they need tea and rhubarb to facilitate digestion. If the foreigners cannot do this, their intestines and stomach will be blocked and they will not be able to survive. . This is our power to control barbarians..."
——After hearing this, Magistrate Liu ordered all the tea shops and medicine shops in the city to be quickly sealed down to prevent a few tea leaves and rhubarb from falling into the hands of the thieves again.
Next, Gao Xuan analyzed to Magistrate Liu that the Qiongzhou Kun bandits came across the sea from thousands of miles away in the south. Their plans were very big and they were bent on seeking our great tomorrow. However, these vulgar warriors who went into battle naked in person were all exiled due to failure in the party struggle. "Sin Kun", so it can be used by high-ranking officials and generous salaries to control barbarians... These words coincide with the social reality of today's Ming Dynasty where "the nobles and the military are lowly", so Magistrate Liu couldn't help but nod.
Finally, as the conclusion of this high-level discussion, Gao Xuan, a scholar with an ever-increasing imagination, even revealed the secret behind the sharp weapons of Kun Thief - "...Kun Thief's artillery is made with the method of gouging out the heart. Therefore, it is the most vicious, taking away the heart and lungs without any disadvantage, but it can only cause Anything from yang to yin to filth can be broken"... I don't know how this guy took the forging and cannon-making method from an unknown book and further extended it to the heart-gouging method. He also drew inferences about " The strange conclusion is that anything from yang to yin to filth can break firearms." It would be a shame not to write fantasy novels with such a great talent.
In short, Gao Xuan is very satisfied at this moment, thinking that with his understanding of Kun Thief, promotion and fortune are just around the corner! The world is in chaos right now, powerful men are everywhere, and there are people running around and making smoke, and this chaos may not be over for a while. Although the people are in trouble, it is the only way for counselors like him to make achievements and become famous. The best stage, just like Guo Jia and Zhuge Liang in the troubled times of the Three Kingdoms...
However, since ancient times, literati have looked down upon each other. Seeing Gao Xuan win the favor of the Lord Fu Zun with just a few tricks, how can the other scholars present sit still? Although they knew little about foreign affairs, it did not prevent them from drawing wisdom from the stories of their ancestors, and they immediately came up with clever tricks:
"...I wonder if Liu's parents have heard of the wisdom of Prime Minister Tie Xuan during the Jingnan Campaign in the past to protect Jinan and retire as Emperor Chengzu? This generation of thieves came from overseas and pretended to be Miao descendants of the Song Dynasty. If you please show the memorial tablets of the emperors of the Song Dynasty, List them on the city wall, and write an eloquent article to denounce the enemy's courage. If you think about it, the thieves will retreat."
——Although this teenage boy takes things for granted, at least he has learned the history of this dynasty well.
"... I wonder if Mr. Liu knows that in the Battle of Chibi in the Three Kingdoms, the Soochow Navy took advantage of the east wind to use fireboats to destroy Cao's army's large ships? Nowadays, the giant ships of the Kun and Thieves are anchored in the Qiantang River. Isn't it different from the strength of Cao Ying's navy back then? ? It's winter now, the northwest wind is strong, and the army is in Fuyang County on the upper reaches of Qianjiang River. Let the fire boats attack the enemy, and if the wind and water go smoothly, the battle of Chibi will be repeated at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain. Then you can select elite soldiers to go out of the city and take advantage of the chaos to attack the Fenghuang Villa camp by land. Even if you can't defeat the thieves in one fell swoop, you can still cause chaos. There is no time to attack the city for many days..."
——Although this Juren master's statement is still a bit vague, it is already the "most professional" idea at this conference...
All in all, the "Pingkun Conference" held by the Hangzhou government office ended successfully with Gao Xuan's fame and heated discussions among everyone. After the meeting, the entire city of Hangzhou was in commotion under the repeated urgent orders of the prefect - those who posted lists to recruit warriors, those who collected bamboo poles to stab the thieves in the knees, those who seized tea shops and medicine shops, and those who searched for black dog blood and clean barrels everywhere. ,child Children's urine, women's "riding cloth" (ancient version of sanitary napkins) and other "most yang, yin and filthy things", those who consulted historical materials to carve the tablets of the emperors of the Song Dynasty, and those who cited scriptures and wrote powerful articles to criticize thieves... there are really all kinds of things. , nothing surprising. Idle people in the city rushed out to see this rare Western view, which eventually led to a ridiculous attack and defense battle in Hangzhou...
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However, at the beginning of this ridiculous offensive and defensive battle in Hangzhou, the actions of both sides were barely normal.
——On the night when the heavy snow first stopped, before the Kun thieves, who had been huddled in Phoenix Villa for many days, could resume their offensive on Hangzhou City as the weather improved, the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers in the city had already taken the lead. Launched a comprehensive counterattack from both land and water!
Under repeated strict orders from Hangzhou, Fuyang County in the upper reaches of the Qiantang River bravely recruited a fire attack fleet, forcibly seized more than 50 civilian ships, piled them with firewood, poured them with clear oil, and added many poisons that were said to be poisonous. Smoke the poisonous medicinal materials and use them to burn. At the same time, he spent a lot of money to recruit a group of daredevils with good water skills, most of whom were heroes in the world, and planned to let them drive these arson boats to ram the big ship of the Kun thief.
This fire attack fleet raised its sails from Fuyang Pier at dusk and rode the wind down the river. It is expected to arrive at the foot of Phoenix Mountain at night. The entire Hangzhou officials and gentry are looking forward to these arson ships reenacting the Battle of Chibi. Miracles...Sadly, in the pervasive satellite aerial photography As soon as this fire attack fleet left Fuyang Pier, it was noticed by the time traveler, and was monitored in real time all the way. The reason why a small boat was not dispatched to intercept it at the first time was because it was initially I mistook them for refugee ships and didn't take them too seriously.
In addition, sailing in the dark is a very difficult technical task. If you are driving a sailboat instead of a motor boat, it will be even more difficult - these warriors were lured by the government bounty to drive the arson ship. Although courage and water skills are good, the ability to sail a boat may not be very good. At the same time, not everyone is familiar with the Qiantang River waterway. If it was during the day, one boat could still follow the other, but the fire attack had to be effective at night... As a result, in the dark night, these arson boats were constantly stranded and left behind, and in the end only three of them were left behind. More than ten ships arrived at the foot of Phoenix Mountain, and the "Kon Thief Fleet" at the foot of Phoenix Mountain was impatient to wait.
The next moment, along with the red flares rising from the pier to represent an attack, a sharp siren spread throughout Captain Li Huamei's Hangzhou - because the ship's berth was the closest to the upstream. Captain Li Huamei, who had been in battle for a long time, immediately adopted standard counter-fire attack tactics: the bright searchlight swept across the river, allowing these small boats that thought they were lurking well to see at a glance; The naval gun immediately opened fire, and a hail-like hail of bullets swept across the river, filling these small, thin fishing boats with holes all over them!
When they saw the bright searchlight beam, the warriors on the fire attack fleet were already in a panic. Several ships immediately collided into a ball and capsized one after another during the collision. And the rain of bullets that hit them immediately further aggravated their panic... amid the rumbling sound of gunfire and heart-rending wails. These suicide squad members, who were actually quite afraid of death, immediately lit the arson boat, drank a small pot of soju to keep out the cold, and jumped into the water to escape in a hurry. Before some people even had time to jump from the boat, their clothes were already burned by the flames lit by their companions...
At the stern of the Hangzhou, Li Huamei held a newly acquired pair of binoculars with night vision effects and looked at all the farce happening in front of her with a contemptuous expression - the shore defense battery of Phoenix Villa did not fire at all, and the other warships did not move at all. From the beginning In the end, only her Hangzhou fired two broadside salvos. As a result, more than 30 ships of the other party were all in chaos, and there was no interaction. Some sank or swirled on the water after collision, some caught fire and sank after being hit by artillery shells, some burned prematurely and sank due to premature ignition at a long distance, some drifted to an unknown destination on the wrong course, and some fled to the river. While trying to escape from the shore... only one of the luckiest arson boats floated near the Hangzhou, but it was immediately extinguished by the crew with high-pressure water cannons.
"...It's so boring. They are just a bunch of cowards. They are far worse than the fire attacks of Malay pirates."
Finding that there seemed to be no more excitement on the river, she curled her lips in disdain, put down the telescope, and went back to the cabin to sleep.
On the other side, while the army officers and soldiers in Phoenix Villa were watching the flames on the river with interest, Captain Zhenhuan from Li Village in Qiongzhou was ordered to gather everyone in the mountain infantry company and listen. A chief wearing a snow camouflage uniform lectured:
"...As we all know, a good hunter will not just make a trap. Although I think most of these enemies in Hangzhou are not good hunters, you still have to be careful when you should be careful - according to reliable information, an elite unit of the enemy is here today. He left Hangzhou City in the afternoon and quietly came towards us. Your mission is to find all these damn rats and eliminate them all..."
After solemnly accepting the mission, Captain Zhenhuan, who had black stripes on his face, led his Li soldiers to separate and quickly disappeared into the vast night surrounding the villa - what he didn't know was , this group of enemies was also discovered by time-travelers through satellites, and they have been following and observing them since they left the city. It was only when the other party entered the densely forested mountainous area west of the city that they lost track of them due to the darkness of night and the cover of the trees. In addition, what Captain Zhen Huan didn't know was that when they were carefully stepping on the snow against the cold wind and searching for this unknown enemy all over the mountain, the enemy was actually still slowly walking on the way to Phoenix Villa. , and a considerable number of people will never arrive here...