Munitions Empire-Chapter 998 - : 920 Zhao Jie’s Plan

When Zhao Chen learned that Zhao Zheng had been defending Shanping for almost 15 days without receiving a single soldier’s reinforcement, he was almost dumbfounded. He truly did not expect that Shanping would be without sufficient reinforcements.

These past few days, he had been focusing on the attack on Fengjiang and had no time to manage the matters of Shanping—considering that moving forward over 100 kilometers with hundreds of thousands of people is no small feat, it requires a great deal of effort and time from the commander.

Thus, his recent attention had always been on the attack on the west side of Fengjiang and he never thought that the situation in the direction of Shanping had already deteriorated to such an extent.

Initially, he thought that since he had secured a major victory at Fengjiang, logically speaking, Zhao Yu and his subordinates would definitely pay more attention to the situation at Fengjiang.

Putting himself in their shoes, if he were Zhao Chen, he would consider withdrawing the troops attacking Shanping and first secure his stronghold, Fengjiang.

But who knew, the opponent’s will was like iron, already at the city’s gates, yet not rushing to withdraw their troops for defense. Even more, the opponent had intensified the attack in the direction of Shanping, to the point where Zhao Zheng was starting to be overwhelmed.

This was completely illogical! Zhao Chen knew what Zhao Yu was capable of; if he truly could remain unshaken in the face of danger, then Zhao Chen would be the first to stand out and support Zhao Yu becoming the Crown Prince!

Therefore, after briefly analyzing, Zhao Chen roughly deduced that this was probably a battle plan devised by the Great Tang Empire for Zhao Yu.

Troops entering Sword Pavilion! This was pretty much the only chance for Fengjiang’s defending army to win in this civil war. And from the surface, as long as Shanping is held, it meant that the Dahua Empire had essentially won half of the war!

“Since I can see this, Shen Chuan must be able to see it too, even if he doesn’t say it, Chu Muzhou, that cunning person, surely can see it too!” Thinking this, Zhao Chen sent his worries back to the Imperial Capital in the form of a telegram.

In the Imperial Capital of the Dahua Empire, Zhao Kai was having a meeting with Chu Muzhou and another prince, Zhao Jie, who had just hurried back from the western front, along with Chief of Staff Shen Chuan.

In fact, they were also discussing the battle for Shanping: Zhao Kai’s delay in sending reinforcements close to Shanping was not entirely due to delays by the subordinates.

It was part of the plan, and these senior officials of the Dahua Empire were plotting a very interesting plan.

“Leaving Shanping to the enemy might be the better choice.” Dusty and weary, Prince Zhao Jie, who had arrived at the Imperial Capital just a few hours before, proposed his plan during the meeting.

In fact, Zhao Kai had already known about this plan and agreed with it, which was why the southern troops of the Dahua Empire were crowded in Guiguang, not hurrying to support Zhao Zheng in Shanping City.

“Consider this, if we now station heavy troops in Shanping, then the enemy’s main force would definitely shrink back to Fengjiang. If they defend from the city, our attacks would incur heavy losses,” Zhao Jie stepped up to the map and gestured the general idea.

“Forcing the enemy back into the city is clearly a bad move, annihilating the enemy in the open field is the most rational way to end the war,” Zhao Jie moved his hand to below Shanping City, drew a circle, and said, “Therefore, I suggest His Majesty not to deploy heavy troops in Shanping, but to use a small number of troops to attract a fierce attack from the enemy!”

“If Shanping is lost… who will bear the responsibility?” Shen Chuan, although not convinced of the feasibility of this plan, still asked.

As Chief of Staff, he actually preferred supporting Zhao Chen’s straightforward, yet most rational and safest approach to end this war.

However, reluctantly, Emperor Zhao Kai trusted Zhao Chen and Zhao Jie more, therefore whatever Shen Chuan, as Chief of Staff, said or did, had to be reasoned and justified.

“It doesn’t matter! Even if Shanping is lost, we really don’t lose anything! Guiguang has already assembled a large force, as long as we block the southward-moving Fengjiang rebels at Guiguang, we are still in an invincible position,” Zhao Jie said proudly.

He prided himself on unrivaled strategies, thus preferred using such “tactics”. Beside him, Zhao Kai smiled, evidently very much in agreement with Zhao Jie’s statement.

Afterward, as Zhao Jie continued to speak, whether it was Shen Chuan or Chu Muzhou, they began to understand why Zhao Kai appreciated Zhao Jie’s plan so much.

“Whether Shanping holds or not doesn’t really matter. Our goal is to hold at least one hundred and fifty thousand of Fengjiang’s defending army near Shanping. It supports Prince Zhao Chen’s attack on the west side of Fengjiang and to some extent, consumes the enemy’s supply capability.”

After finishing his statement without pause, he immediately continued: “If Prince Zhao Chen captures Fengjiang, then we would have cut off the rebels’ retreat. At that time, they will be trapped around Shanping, naturally at our mercy.”

Hearing this, both Chu Muzhou and Shen Chuan finally understood: Zhao Kai was considering how to annihilate all the rebels under Zhao Yu’s command in one fell swoop.

If handled properly, it could even cause the troops trapped in Shanping to waste more of the Great Tang Empire’s resources and deplete some of the Great Tang Empire’s national strength…

No wonder, no wonder the troops sent south to support Shanping daringly halted at Guiguang and did not advance, no wonder for over a month, the troops from Guiguang supporting Shanping were a pitifully mere single infantry division.

So, all of this was Emperor Zhao Kai choosing Zhao Jie’s strategy, ready to use the plan of the Fengjiang troops attacking Shanping to reverse and execute a “trap the dog in the house” maneuver.

Imagine if the Dahua Empire simultaneously launched attacks on Hezhe and Shanping against Fengjiang, the Fengjiang defenders would eventually be trapped in Fengjiang.

However, it is impossible for Fengjiang to be completely surrounded, and those rebels will surely happily escape from the Fengjiang Bridge to the Great Tang Empire. Besides sending millions of people to the Great Tang Empire, there is no benefit for the Dahua Empire.

But if these troops are blocked near Shanping, then they will no longer have the possibility of fleeing to the Great Tang Empire. With Zhao Kai’s personality, how could he possibly let these people who betrayed him go? Therefore, it is not surprising that Zhao Kai accepted Zhao Jie’s suggestion.

Thinking this, whether Shen Chuan or Chu Muzhou, they both know that Zhao Kai has already made up his mind and will not change it.

In looking at any issue, one must consider the historical context of that time, combine the various thoughts and characters of the main characters to analyze, and must not carelessly impose one’s own ideas, label the decision-maker in history, and then unfairly define a historical choice as right or wrong.

For example, the Song Dynasty has always been seen as a weak and incompetent dynasty, with common criticism of the Song Dynasty’s emphasis on literature over military, despising the Song Dynasty’s external weakness and incompetence.

In fact, if we look at the special historical period at that time, the conclusion is much fairer: after experiencing the military chaos in the late Tang Dynasty, the people spontaneously despised soldiers, which directly led to the low social status of soldiers.

At the same time, the rulers focused on guarding against military generals who caused the downfall of the previous dynasty, unwilling to let generals control the military power, trying to minimize the risk of generals controlling troops, this series of reforms itself is a correction of the mistakes of the previous dynasty.

In that era with limited means, monarchs relied mainly on the loyalty of generals to control them, which lacked stability, so the Song Dynasty, when reviewing the mistakes of the Tang Dynasty, focused on the issues of “Military Governors” and “military generals rebelling.”

Furthermore, since the Song Dynasty itself was established by a military coup, how could they not guard against such incidents?

It is evident, apart from the above-mentioned issues, there were inherent limitations in the troops themselves: the Song Dynasty’s troops were mainly infantry, thus naturally successful in the conquest of the southern region of the Yangtze River, but naturally fell into disadvantage when facing northern cavalry.

Having lost the northern territories, naturally lacking horses, not having trustworthy infantry, and not trusting frontline commanders, both psychologically and tactically, with flawed decisions and determination, how could they not be defeated?

If one continues to refer to the historical case of Zhao Kuangyin’s unsuccessful northern expeditions during the founding era of the Song Dynasty, it becomes inevitable that later Song Dynasty emperors adopted more compromising policies.

This is not making excuses for the weakness of the Song Dynasty, but providing an objective explanation: why were they weak! Even lacking courage!

Similarly, many people mock the old Japanese Empire Navy’s obsession with large battleships and big guns, considering them rigid thinkers.

But if one looks at that era, the Japanese navy commanders were simply following their past experience, making the most rational decisions based on their existing knowledge.

Imagine if, as a naval general of the Japanese Empire, in the past three or four decades, your navy has dominated Asia with battleships and cannons, defeating the Russian fleet and becoming a world power, wouldn’t you have confidence in this system of equipment?

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There were no real-world examples at that time to prove that carrier-based planes could cause fatal damage to moving warships.

The United Kingdom bombed a fixed target at the Italian military harbor, Bismarck Battleship was finally sunk by a group of battleships, and the attack on Pearl Harbor also targeted a fixed target, using a surprise attack strategy.

Searching for a fleet in the vast ocean itself is difficult, hitting a moving warship is still not easy, and densely packed anti-aircraft guns on warships might not fear airplanes…

Therefore, whether airplanes could sink warships was questionable, but the more than 400mm caliber giant cannons on warships were real!

From today’s perspective, aircraft carriers are naturally the core of naval battles, but at that time, there wasn’t such a concept. The United States’ use of aircraft carriers was out of desperation, and Japan’s abandonment of aircraft carriers was just an “inevitable circumstance” due to Japan’s national conditions.

Looking at Zhao Kai’s choice this time, it’s the same: he is a monarch, and what a monarch remembers the most is betrayal by his subordinates. Even if the betrayer is his own son, it is absolutely unacceptable.

Thus, Zhao Kai deep down prefers the plan of annihilating all the rebels at Shanping. He does not want to see most of the rebels escape, as it would leave a shadow in his heart and undermine his dignity.

Moreover, Zhao Kai is also a person who holds grudges and greatly values face, so he has even more reason to make this decision.

Besides, Zhao Jie’s analysis was also quite correct, attracting hundreds of thousands of Fengjiang’s rebel troops under Shanping City was indeed advantageous for the battle of Fengjiang.

Losing Shanping wasn’t really a big issue: what truly mattered was Guiguang behind Shanping City, not Shanping City itself!

Thus, with such a decision being all advantageous and not harmful, how could Zhao Kai possibly not choose it? He would definitely choose it, thus Shen Chuan and Chu Muzhou looked at each other and tactfully closed their mouths.

Regarding the telegram sent by Zhao Chen urging Zhao Kai to quickly reinforce Shanping, almost everyone who knew about it subconsciously chose… to forget.