kingnovel Chapter 123 Gathering Troops
Chapter 123 Gathering Troops
In the meeting hall, after all the civil and military officials arrived, Xiong Tingbi immediately ordered: "Come here, arrest these two scoundrels Li Ruzhen and Li Guangrong!"
"Yes!"
Li Ruzhen and Li Guangrong immediately panicked: "Master Jinglüe, what have we done wrong? Why are you arresting me?"
"What's your fault? During the battle of Tieling, you were stationed in Shenyang, but you didn't send a single soldier to rescue, and watched Tieling being breached by Jiannu. This time, you missed the opportunity and let the Jiannu army escape. How can scum like you who are just sitting in the position of general have the face to sit there? Come on, take these two out and behead them in public!"
"Sir, General Li's family is loyal to the country and has made outstanding contributions. Please show some leniency."
"Please show some leniency and spare the two generals."
The Li family had many followers in Liaodong, and many generals immediately stood up to plead for the two generals.
Xiong Tingbi also knew that it was impossible to directly behead the two generals, so he immediately changed his words and said, "Since all the soldiers are pleading for you, I will put the two of you on the prisoner cart and send you to the capital to ask the emperor to decide. Along the way, let the people of Liaodong and the officers and soldiers of the Central Plains see these two fat and bloated drunkards who they have supported with their food and wages!"
After getting rid of Li Ruzhen and Li Guangrong, Xiong Tingbi immediately ordered He Shixian to lead his troops to Shenyang and take over Li Ruzhen's troops.
At the same time, Lu Cheng can also select soldiers and horses to supplement his own thousand households.
After arranging everything, Xiong Tingbi called He Shixian and Lu Cheng over to arrange the deployment in Shenyang.
At this time, Lu Cheng stood up and said, "Sir, there is a shortage of supplies for defending the city of Shenyang. There is not enough food, fodder, and gunpowder. The combined forces of all parties have less than 5000 soldiers capable of fighting. In this situation, it is impossible to stop Nurhaci's army. Moreover, the Yehe tribe in the north gate may not be able to hold out for long."
"Lu Cheng, do you think the Yehe tribe will lose?"
"That's right, and the Yehe tribe may not last until the end of this month. Once Nurhaci captures the northern pass, he will have no worries at all. At that time, Shenyang and Liaoyang will be Nurhaci's targets.
Moreover, Kaiyuan and Tieling had been looted, and Shenyang had no defenses to the north. If Nurhaci attacked Liaoyang in the rear, Shenyang would be even more passive. If Shenyang sent troops to rescue, it would have to fight a field battle with Nurhaci's Later Jin army. If Shenyang did not rescue Liaoyang, Liaoyang would also find it difficult to support itself.
Instead of dispersing our forces and garrisoning two cities, it is better to gather our forces in one place and concentrate our superior forces to defend Liaoyang. As long as we defend Liaoyang, Nurhaci will not dare to garrison there for a long time even if he occupies Shenyang.
Now the enemy and our forces are much stronger than each other, we are short of food and money, and our troops are short of middle and lower-level officers, so we urgently need time to accumulate strength. Therefore, we don't have to care about the gains and losses of a city or a place.
If the land is preserved but the people are lost, both the land and the people will be lost; if the people are preserved but the land is lost, both the land and the people will be preserved."
After hearing Lu Cheng's last two sentences, Xiong Tingbi and He Shixian's eyes lit up: "Well said! We should indeed be more decisive and preserve our manpower."
Xiong Tingbi thought for a moment before speaking: "Voluntarily giving up Shenyang is not a trivial matter. We must wait until the news of the fall of Beiguan comes back, and then I will write to the court, explain all the situations here, and beg His Majesty to allow us to retreat to Liaoyang.
How about this, General He and Captain Lu, you two go down and reorganize the troops immediately, organize all the defeated soldiers as soon as possible, and select middle and lower-level officers. In addition, send more scouts to keep an eye on the battle situation in Beiguan at any time."
"Yes, my lord!"
After the two men left, Xiong Tingbi stood alone in front of the map, thought for a long time, and wrote a letter himself, describing the detailed situation of the entire Liaodong and explaining his own defense strategy.
At the same time, Xiong Tingbi also explained the recent performances of Lu Cheng and He Shixian one by one and commended them for their achievements.
After leaving the meeting hall, He Shixian bowed to Lu Cheng and said, "I didn't expect Captain Lu to be so proficient in military strategy. Especially the sentence "If you save the land but lose the people, you will lose both the land and the people. If you save the people but lose the land, you will save both the land and the people." In just 16 words, it summarizes the essence of the art of war. It is really admirable and thought-provoking."
Lu Cheng quickly shook his head: "General He, you are too polite. This is not what I said."
"Oh? Who is that military expert? Why have I never heard of him?"
"This... I don't know where I saw it, but it seemed to make sense, so I wrote it down."
"Pity."
After expressing their feelings for a few times, the two separated.
When Lu Cheng returned to his residence, he immediately ordered the burial of the three soldiers who had died in the battle, allowing them to rest in peace. He then went to visit several injured soldiers and treated their wounds.
Afterwards, Lu Cheng called Ding Xiu and Ding Xian over and asked about the situation: "How many people have we recruited so far? How many young and strong men are there? How many weapons, armor, and horses are there?"
"As of today, we have recruited a total of 865 soldiers, of which about half are between the ages of 16 and 35. There are very few armors. Even if you add up all the leather armors and damaged armors, there are only 200 to sets at most. As for weapons, most of them still have a spear, and less than people carry swords. There are even fewer horses. Including the ones that you have seized in the past few days, there are less than ."
After hearing this number, Lu Cheng was not very satisfied. This number was only an approximate number, without an exact single digit.
However, Ding Xian is just a teenager, and it is already very good that he can achieve this level.
Now, Lu Cheng, the commander of a thousand households, lacks everything: soldiers, food, weapons, armor, horses, and talent.
Ding Xiu might be good at charging into battle, but he was not good at management, and was not even suitable for leading troops. Ding Xian was only suitable to be a personal bodyguard.
There is no way. Now it is not only Lu Cheng that lacks talents, the entire Liaodong is short of talents.
Moreover, there was not only a shortage of clerks who kept accounts and managed finances, but also a shortage of grassroots military officers such as centurions and general flag officers.
Although he already has a group of people under his command, it is not an easy task to turn them into combat power.
Thinking of this, Lu Cheng went to see Xiong Tingbi again and asked him for dozens of manpower.
Needless to say, the people Lu Cheng wanted to bring back were naturally the dozens of cavalry guards who had followed him out of the city before.
Xiong Tingbi was also very generous. He not only allocated 60 cavalrymen to Lu Cheng, but also gave Lu Cheng a complete set of equipment for those cavalrymen. He also allocated a batch of swords, shields, spears, etc. from the armory in Shenyang to ensure that every soldier under Lu Cheng had a weapon.
With these sixty cavalrymen, Lu Cheng immediately picked out some of the general flags and small flags. Three general flags were directly promoted to centurions, and five or six small flags were directly promoted to general flags. He temporarily managed those soldiers and horses, counted all the people, and continued to recruit soldiers.
Now, Lu Cheng didn't have time to pay attention to the quality of the soldiers, so he had to increase the number of soldiers first. Only when the number of soldiers was sufficient would there be room for selection.
After Li Ruzhen and Li Guangrong were sent away, their homes were also searched. Xiong Tingbi obtained a lot of gold, silver, and food supplies. He also distributed a batch of food to Lu Cheng so that the soldiers under Lu Cheng would not go hungry for the time being.
Of course, it is still difficult to eat enough every meal.
A few days later, Lu Chenggang gathered more than 1,200 soldiers and selected some temporary centurions, general flags and small flags from them, and finally set up the framework.
Of course, those centurions and general flag officers were all appointed temporarily and had not yet been recognized by the court, so they could not be considered military officers.
It is worth mentioning that Ding Xiu also became a temporary centurion and Ding Xian became a temporary general.
Afterwards, Lu Cheng began to divide these soldiers into two parts. One part was the young and strong men aged 16 to 35, who served as combat soldiers, and the rest of the old and weak were used as auxiliary soldiers.
Just when Lu Cheng was preparing to organize training, news came from the front line that the North Gate had been lost.
After receiving the news, Xiong Tingbi immediately sent someone to convey the news to the capital.
The emperor's edict was soon conveyed back to the capital, agreeing with Xiong Tingbi's strategy of "combining Shen and protecting Liao".
Immediately, Xiong Tingbi ordered the transfer of military and civilians in Shenyang to Liaoyang, and built defensive fortifications near Liaoyang in preparation for the attack of the Later Jin army.