ragginovel Chapter 570 Become a General First
Chapter 570 Become a General First
Chapter 570 Become a General First
On a cold night, a crescent moon hung like a hook in the sky.
A strong wind blew, and the sound of hooves echoed like a roaring tide in the wind.
On this dark and windy night, more than 500 Yuan cavalrymen, now lightly armed, set off at midnight and rushed at great speed toward a mountain pass outside Badaling.
That place was the closest grain depot to Feng Manlou's troops, and it was also a strategic stronghold that the Yuan army had been eyeing for a long time.
Feng Manlou had always been on high alert for this place, so the Yuan army's night raid in this weather was not unexpected for him.
While the five hundred men were still halfway there, the scouts on night watch had already noticed them and sent out a signal. The Ming army camp also dispatched a detachment of troops to provide support almost as soon as they saw the smoke signal. Meanwhile, the soldiers at the grain depot, who were already heavily guarded, were ready to meet the attack.
But at that moment, an accident still occurred.
A small ambush force of just over a hundred men, which had been lying in wait along the route that the Ming army was sure to take to rescue them, suddenly emerged from the forest.
Led by a brave and fierce young general wielding a trident, this group of one hundred managed to throw nearly a thousand people into disarray.
At the same time, the five hundred Yuan soldiers who seemed to be heading to seize the grain supplies turned their horses around halfway and attacked the group of people who had hastily come to the aid of the Ming army camp, which just happened to coordinate with the one hundred ambushers.
In an instant, the nearly one thousand Ming soldiers were thrown into chaos and collapsed almost at the first touch, fleeing towards the main camp.
Before long, they lost more than two hundred men, while the rest retreated in disarray. The six hundred Yuan soldiers who regrouped, relying on their light armor and fast horses, managed to complete the operation with almost no losses and then ran away, leaving the Ming army no chance to regroup and launch a pincer attack on them from both the main camp and the supply depot.
At first glance, anyone would think that this was a very successful tactical harassment.
What the Yuan army didn't know was that not long after they withdrew, before dawn, the Ming army sent another team that seemed to have been prepared in advance to quickly clean up the battlefield, as if they were afraid that leaving the corpses there might expose something when it got light.
Of course, we don't need to keep you in suspense, since you readers should have already guessed that this is a play that Sun and Huang had planned.
It appears that the 1,000 men of the Ming Army were ambushed by Sun Yixie and his men on their way to support the military supply depot, and that they fled in panic, losing more than 200 lives. However, those who were actually left there were just soldiers, bandits, and criminals who had been in prison the day before.
In those days, whenever there were many border wars, many such people would emerge to take advantage of the chaos. Unlike ordinary bandits, most of these people would only target areas where war was taking place, because they all knew that during wartime, all government affairs had to prioritize military support. The government was already extremely busy with logistics work alone, and it was undoubtedly even more stretched when it came to maintaining public order.
Therefore, many cases during this period were ultimately swept under the guise of "the Yuan army was responsible" and left unresolved. This allowed these people to commit theft, robbery, kidnapping, fraud, and even arson, murder, rape, and kidnapping with impunity.
According to the law, some of these people do not deserve the death penalty, but in the specific circumstances, they are indeed despicable and deserve to die.
Generally speaking, if even the government doesn't have time to manage these people, the military will be even less likely to care. Which general has time to manage those people during wartime? Can he divide a day into thirty hours?
Ah~ Fengmanlou has this empty space.
Even if he doesn't sleep, I still want to control him.
Even his own men advised him: "General, if some deserters or ruffians do something bad, we can deal with them, but ordinary bandits are not our concern. Why should you bother with them?"
Feng Manlou, however, said, “We protect our country and its people, not just our territory. If we truly had no resources, I would remain silent. But now, with just a little effort and a small force, I can bring these scoundrels to justice and restore peace to the people. Why not do it? Rather, it is precisely because the government is too busy and unable to manage that I must intervene. If even we don’t help them, who else can they rely on?”
His words filled his men with shame and made them admire and respect him even more. After that, Feng Manlou's military camp... unknowingly accumulated a group of people who were arrested and imprisoned.
Huang Donglai took a look and thought it would be a waste not to make use of these useless people. He happened to have a poison... no... brilliant plan that could be used. Why don't you listen to it, Brother Feng?
Then he told Feng Manlou about the series of plans he and Sun Yixie had discussed. After listening to this, the latter thought to himself: Are you two dogs?
Despite his thoughts, Feng Ge was still very honest in his actions.
The next day, Feng Manlou personally went to the two hundred prisoners and gave a passionate speech.
He said that... now that the war is critical and manpower is needed, he can put aside past grievances and give these people a chance to join his ranks and atone for their crimes; and he also guaranteed with his own character and reputation that as long as these criminals dare to fight and struggle, he will absolutely not hold past grievances against them, and may even let them make a name for themselves.
Ladies and gentlemen, what is meant by a true hero?
Feng Manlou's patriotism and dedication to the people have reached a level that transcends traditional morality and shame; others may give up their lives, but he is willing to give up his reputation.
He didn't care how he would be judged before or after his death; all he cared about was the result.
He is willing to give everything for this result, and he is willing to bear everything.
To describe Huang Donglai's character, it would be like this: I don't care what you say, but in the end I'll just ask you one question: did you win or not?
In conclusion, those prisoners who believed Feng Manlou's words were inexplicably abandoned that night by a well-trained, feignedly defeated army, becoming lambs to the slaughter, and dying wondering, "Why were we so badly punished the very day we were granted amnesty?"
On the other hand...
The next day at dawn, at the Yuan army camp.
Early in the morning, Yibula summoned all the soldiers in the camp and publicly announced that he would also appoint Sun Yixie as a general.
This time, Kunduli had learned his lesson. He knew that if he came, he would definitely be mistreated, so he simply pretended to be sick and didn't come out.
Even he lost his temper, so even if others had complaints, they wouldn't dare to say them in front of the commander-in-chief, right?
So...
"Heh... I thought Feng Manlou had three heads and six arms, but he's just a weakling with a lead knife and a slow horse, all talk and no action." Yibula was still smugly reviewing last night's actions when he was rewarding Sun Yixie. "But your trick of luring the snake out of its hole and making them walk into the trap did save me a lot of trouble."
Upon hearing this, Sun Yixie immediately knelt on one knee, looked up with a sincere expression, clasped his hands, and said, "General, your strategies are brilliant. I was merely offering a suggestion and following your orders. How could I dare to claim credit?"
The others didn't fully understand their two sentences because they were unaware of Sun Yixie's "advice".
In fact, the plan that Sun Yixie presented to Yibula that day was part of the attack plan that Sun Yixie had overheard on the night Yibula first met him, but it was a degraded version.
Because Brother Sun overheard it, he told Huang Donglai about this plan when he was communicating with him. Then he went back to Yibula and presented him with this plan, which the other party had already thought of and was considering implementing at a suitable time. He deliberately made it sound crude and cleverly omitted some information that he shouldn't know.
After hearing this, Nayibula naturally thought: This kid is really talented. He thinks the same way as me. Although he's not as good as me, it's not easy for him to have six or seven tenths of my strategy.
With this mindset, it's inevitable that he'll give you important responsibilities, because subconsciously he's already linked "affirming you" with "affirming himself."
"Hehe... good, you know how to talk." Yibula was now somewhat used to Sun Yixie's undisguised flattery. As he spoke, he waved his hand, and a soldier next to him presented a set of battle robes and armor to Sun Yixie. "Kameda-kun, actually, I wanted to promote you after you defeated Kunduli last time, but you were just a menial laborer at the time and had not made any contributions. Promoting you would probably not be convincing to the troops. But from now on... you will be my vanguard general."
"Also, your name is Kameda Kazumine, so let's call the battalion you lead the 'Peak Battalion'."
"Thank you, Commander!" Sun Yixie accepted the battle robe and armor, his face beaming with excitement. "From now on, I will serve you with everything I have, even at the cost of my life!"