Chapter 393 Borrowing Arrows from a Straw Boat!

He Zheng sat upright in the study, holding in his hand a document issued by the Political Affairs Office. It was a strategic introduction to Zhao Xie’s attack on Yan’an Prefecture, which was distributed to all middle and high-level officials in Yan’an Prefecture so that everyone could have a deep understanding of this war.

However, He Zheng looked surprised.

At first, when he read Zhao Xie’s plan for military deployment word by word, he couldn’t help feeling heavy in his heart.

This strategy was brilliant and rigorous. From intelligence gathering to the main force’s coordinated attacks, to logistics support, public opinion propaganda and diplomatic isolation, each link was closely linked, like an airtight net that seemed to completely cover Yan’an Prefecture.

However, as he read further, He Zheng’s expression became strange.

His fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop, and he thought to himself, “What exactly is Zhao Xie’s intention? He actually appointed me as a military general, responsible for the defense of the southern line and for dealing with new weapons and new tactics?
But how could he not know that I was originally a civil servant, and although I had some knowledge of military affairs, I had never actually led an army in battle, let alone been proficient in using new weapons and new tactics.

What’s more, I joined Yan’an Prefecture relatively late, and was only a mid-level official in the Prefecture. Not only was I not as good as the Six Masters of Su’s School, but dozens of Mr. Zhou’s men were also above me.

He didn’t even mention these people, but instead mentioned me?

According to what he said, I am an official of the same rank as General Zheng Chaozong and Chief Ping?”

He Zheng’s eyes revealed doubt and vigilance. Such a wrong judgment could either mean that Zhao Xie’s intelligence was wrong or there was a deeper conspiracy behind it.

He Zheng slowly stood up and paced back and forth in the study.

He thought to himself, “If Zhao Xie really thinks that I am a military general and I am formulating a strategy based on this, then this strategy may seem ingenious, but in fact it has huge loopholes.

If there is any deviation in my link, the entire strategic layout may be affected.

But if he did this on purpose, what was his intention? Was he trying to confuse us and make us let down our guard, or was he planning something else?”

Thinking of this, He Zheng hurriedly left the study and went to Su Yun’s meeting room.

When he stepped into the meeting room, Su Yun and Wang Baopu were having a heated discussion.

Seeing He Zheng’s hurried look, Su Yun asked, “Zijun, you came here in such a hurry, is there something important to discuss?”

He Zheng clasped his hands together and said respectfully, “Sir, I have just carefully studied Zhao Xie’s strategy and found something very strange.”

Afterwards, He Zheng informed Su Yun and Wang Baopu of his discovery in detail.

After Su Yun heard this, he and Wang Baopu smiled knowingly. Then he looked at He Zheng who was shocked, patted him on the shoulder and said, “Zijun is really sharp. He saw the problem right away. To be honest, this so-called strategy of Zhao Xie was actually conceived by our people in Yan’an Prefecture.”

He Zheng widened his eyes, his face full of disbelief. He opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say for a moment.

He Zheng, who had recovered from his shock, did not laugh. Instead, he looked solemn and lost in thought. After a moment, he slowly spoke: “Sir, this strategy is indeed very clever. If the Song army implements it, Yan’an Prefecture will be in danger.

Take the strategy for example, the Song army is going to set up a large logistics supply warehouse in a strategic location not far from Yan’an Prefecture to store large amounts of food, weapons, armor, and arrows. Once completed, the Song army’s combat effectiveness will be greatly enhanced, which will undoubtedly be a serious threat to our army.

Because it means that it will be difficult for us to attack the Song army’s food supply route, which forces us to confront the Song army head-on, which is a big taboo for us!”

Wang Baopu smiled and explained, “Zijun’s worries are indeed justified, but you only know one side of the story.

In fact, this is exactly what we deliberately arranged, which is the strategy of “borrowing arrows from a straw boat”.

You also know that our Yan’an Prefecture wants to fight a big war recently. Once this war starts, it will be protracted, but the existing strategic materials are indeed insufficient.

Therefore, we came up with this plan to let the Song army help us prepare supplies.”

He Zheng was stunned when he heard this, his heart was like a raging sea, he looked at Su Yun with complicated eyes, after a while he slowly came back to his senses, took a deep breath, and praised sincerely: “Sir, you are indeed a god who can write the wonderful book Romance of the Three Kingdoms, this plan is really imaginative, it makes people applaud!
Such a bold and ingenious plan, if it weren’t for someone as talented and ambitious as you, how could you have come up with it?”

He smiled bitterly and said, “I really didn’t expect that we could use the enemy commander so cleverly and make him deploy his troops according to our design. This kind of wisdom is really beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Moreover, this plan of “borrowing arrows with straw boats” is to use the Song army’s hand to prepare strategic materials for us. Once successful, our Yan’an Prefecture will be even more powerful.”

He shook his head and smiled bitterly.

Seeing He Zheng so shocked, Su Yun just smiled.

This seems risky and strange, but it is actually not that bad. He knows the emperor and his ministers of the Song Dynasty well enough, and he also has a deep understanding of the Western Army. He knows how to handle this matter.

In this strategy, things like intelligence and propaganda, could the Song Dynasty handle it?
That is a skill that Su has learned and is good at, okay? Instead of fighting fairly, you are fighting with Yan’an Prefecture with these weaknesses. Aren’t you just courting death?
And another most crucial point is the division of troops.

This was a trap set by Su Yun on purpose.

The Song army has a large number of troops. If they ignore them and just attack all the way, Yan’an Prefecture will face tremendous pressure.

However, once the Song army is divided, the strength of each legion will be relatively dispersed, and the overall attack power will be weakened. Yan’an Prefecture can then rely on its advantages such as familiarity with the terrain to form a local force comparison advantage and increase its chances of winning.

Once the Song army is divided into different corps, their marching routes and combat methods will be different. The division of troops will easily lead to difficulties in coordination among the corps and cause coordination loopholes.

Yan’an Prefecture can use its intelligence advantage to find the flaws and launch an attack.

For example, when the southern corps makes a detour, it may become disconnected from other corps, and Yan’an Prefecture can seize the opportunity to cut off its contact with the outside world.

The division of troops meant that each team had to provide logistics support. The Song army had to set up supply points and arrange transportation routes in multiple directions, which greatly increased resource consumption.

Yan’an Prefecture can harass and raid the Song army’s logistics lines, increasing the Song army’s logistical pressure and weakening its sustained combat capability.

For example, when the Western Route Army blocked Yan’an Prefecture’s escape route to the west, its logistical supply lines could easily become a target of attack by Yan’an Prefecture.

Another point is that after the Song army was divided, the command style and combat objectives of the generals of each corps may be different.

Yan’an Prefecture can divide the various corps of the Song Army through propaganda, rebellion and other means.

According to the characteristics of different generals, for example, for a brave but impulsive general, use provocation to induce him to make mistakes;

For cautious generals, they created false impressions to make them hesitant and undermine the fighting spirit of the Song army from within. As a certain netizen said, dividing the troops would lead to inferior forces in each direction!
In other words, the strategy that Su Yun provided to the Song Dynasty through You Zuo seemed to be well-organized and rigorous, but in fact it was full of traps!

As for why Su Yun dared to come up with such a strategy full of traps, it was because he knew the Song Dynasty very well.

For such an extremely important strategy, from offering suggestions to final setting of the tone, there was no professional general in charge. Only a half-baked Zhao Xie knew a little about military affairs. Oh, no, there was also the Empress Dowager Gao, who was said to be from a family of generals.

But what did Empress Dowager Gao actually know about military affairs?
Yes, Empress Dowager Gao came from a family of generals. Her great-grandfather was Gao Qiong, a famous general in the early Song Dynasty. Her mother was the granddaughter of Cao Bin, a founding hero of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, she grew up neither in the Gao family nor in the Cao family. She grew up in the palace.

Her aunt was Empress Cao of Emperor Renzong. She was adopted in the palace by Empress Cao when she was four years old and was treated as her own daughter. Her experience can be described as growing up in the deep palace and being raised by women. How much could such a person know about military affairs?
She just grew up around Empress Cao, a daughter of a general. She occasionally heard a few military terms and flipped through Sun Tzu’s Art of War when she was interested. At best, she was just a military enthusiast. She actually didn’t understand what the military was actually about.

But it was just these few people who decided on such an important strategy and gave it to Zhao Xie, a man with great ambitions but little talent, to execute.

All I can say is that Su Yun knew the nature of the Song Dynasty’s rulers and ministers too well.

But this is not surprising. Su Yun has suffered too many losses at their hands. Every loss makes one wiser. After suffering so many losses, if he still doesn’t understand what kind of people these people are, then all these losses will be in vain!
But Su Yun was not careless.

No matter how you set up the trap, these things will eventually have to be resolved on the battlefield.

There are too many accidents on the battlefield. Once an accident occurs, it may affect the final outcome.

For example, if a powerful general suddenly appeared beside Zhao Xie, the situation of the battle might become different. If he tried to counter him according to the strategy, he would be easily outmaneuvered.

For example, if Xixia and Tubo suddenly took the opportunity to attack Yan’an Prefecture at this time, then Yan’an Prefecture might be caught in a pincer attack, and it would be difficult for it to take care of both ends, and it would be in a desperate situation!

Therefore, no preparation is too little.

Su Yun began to coordinate the overall situation, convening meetings of the six departments and generals intensively to discuss the details of the battle plan and adjust the strategic deployment based on the latest intelligence.

He also paid attention to improving the morale of the army, often visiting the barracks to comfort the soldiers and encourage them to fight bravely to defend Yan’an Prefecture.

Under Su Yun’s urging, everyone in Yan’an Prefecture began to make intensive preparations.

In terms of military deployment, Zheng Chaozong conducted high-intensity training for the army, simulating surprise attacks in various complex terrains to enhance the soldiers’ combat skills and adaptability.

At the same time, he also set up a large number of traps and obstacles in dangerous areas according to the possible attack routes of the Song army, such as placing rolling logs and stones in the valleys and digging pits on the roads, in order to slow down the marching speed of the Song army and gain combat advantage for his side.

Ping Zicheng further strengthened the intelligence network. He arranged more spies to infiltrate the vicinity of Yan’an Prefecture. They not only paid attention to the troop deployment and material reserves of the Song army, but also paid close attention to the movements and decisions of the Song army generals.

In addition, he also used various means, such as intercepting the Song army’s communication letters and planting internal supporters, to obtain confidential information within the Song army, ensuring that Yan’an Prefecture could grasp the Song army’s every move in a timely manner and provide accurate basis for strategic decision-making.

In terms of material preparation, in addition to planning to “borrow arrows” from the Song army, Yan’an Prefecture also increased its allocation of local resources.

Craftsmen worked day and night to produce more weapons and armor to improve the army’s equipment level.

At the same time, they did not dare to relax their efforts on the storage of food and fodder. Not only did they purchase a large amount of food from the surrounding areas of Yan’an Prefecture, they also organized the people to reclaim wasteland, increase food production, and ensure sufficient supply of food and fodder during the war.

Yang Shi also made efforts in public opinion propaganda. He looked for civil servants in Yan’an Prefecture and asked them to actively write articles to publicize the just actions of Yan’an Prefecture and expose the evil deeds of the Song Dynasty’s unprovoked invasion.

These articles were widely circulated among the people through various channels, such as posting notices and word of mouth, which stimulated the people’s enthusiasm to defend their land and made the people more firmly support Yan’an Prefecture’s resistance.

He tried to make the entire Yan’an Prefecture regard resistance against the Song Dynasty as a just act and to unite the entire Yan’an Prefecture into a whole.

Of course, in terms of public security, or to prevent the Song Dynasty from sending people to instigate rebellion, a lot of effort was also made to maintain public security.

In terms of public security, Su Yun arranged to quickly form a security patrol team composed of elite soldiers. The team members were divided into several groups, and they shuttled through the streets and alleys of Yan’an Prefecture and important rural roads day and night.

In order to strengthen the control over the flow of people, Yan’an Prefecture set up strict checkpoints at various city gates and major traffic arteries.

The soldiers carefully checked the identity credentials of passers-by and focused on those with suspicious behavior and evasive words.

Every caravan entering the city had to register a detailed list of goods and personnel information to ensure that no spies from the Song Dynasty infiltrated.

At the same time, secret sentries were deployed around the checkpoints. They hid in the dark and closely monitored every move near the checkpoints. Once they found anything abnormal, they would immediately signal the patrol team.

The intelligence personnel under the command of Yan’an Prefecture extended their tentacles to every corner, not only collecting intelligence on the Song army, but also paying attention to whether there were any suspicious signs of activities by foreign forces in the city.

They cleverly gathered information through crowded places such as teahouses and restaurants, and immediately reported any secret contact clues related to the Song Dynasty once they found them.

Based on this intelligence, the security patrol team quickly took action, conducting surprise searches on suspicious locations and arresting potential Song Dynasty spies.

In addition, Yan’an Prefecture also encouraged the public to participate in maintaining public order. A reward system for reporting was established. If the public found suspicious persons or abnormal situations and reported them in time, they would be given generous material rewards after verification.

This move greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of the people and created an atmosphere of universal participation in public security prevention throughout Yan’an Prefecture.

Citizens supervise each other, neighbors unite as one, and jointly protect this land.

At night, the walls of Yan’an Prefecture were brightly lit, and patrolling soldiers would respond to each other at regular intervals to ensure the safety of the city wall’s defense line.

The security patrol teams in the city also stepped up their night patrols. They moved through the darkness with torches in hand, preventing potential enemies from acting rashly.

Yan’an Prefecture also regularly organizes security drills to enhance the patrol team’s emergency response and coordinated combat capabilities in order to cope with various possible emergencies.

This is already the action of the military government, but Su Yun has no choice. His territory is too small now, and he must mobilize all his forces to compete with a behemoth like the Song Dynasty.

It can be said that the Song Dynasty could fail many times, but Yan’an Prefecture could not tolerate even one failure, so Su Yun had to do everything to the extreme!

In fact, it is acceptable to encounter some setbacks in the military, but if Yan’an Prefecture is in chaos, then the Su Xuehui and the Jingsai Army will be like water without a source and trees without roots, and will be close to destruction, so Su Yun has to be cautious.

When the huge machine of Yan’an Prefecture started to rumble, Zhao Xie also arrived with his army!

(End of this chapter)