South of Haozhou City, dust was flying within a radius of several miles.
Hehe, not far away, there were two big men in shorts carrying a thick wooden pestle, tamping the soil rhythmically while shouting. The strong man carrying the load walked barefoot, gritting his teeth and wiping his sweat with a dirty cloth around his neck.
The tent was open, and the tower of Haozhou was faintly visible in the distance filled with yellow dust. Guo Shao was standing in front of a wooden frame, drawing with a brush. His drawing was really ugly, but he seemed very serious. While asking the scouts in detail, he added lines on the paper. He was drawing a very rough diagram of the city.
At this time, several more generals came in. He finally threw the brush into the inkstone, turned around and said: Build six camps, each with double-layer defense, and station secret sentries and send out cavalry within a radius of fifty miles.
Here.
Guo Shao added: "We have just arrived in Shouzhou and have only 20,000 soldiers. We will neither besiege nor attack the city, but occupy the place first and guard against sneak attacks by the enemy."
A general reported: There was a mudflat in the northwest of the city, where thousands of Tang soldiers were defending it. They not only built fences but also dug through the Huai River to build a moat. There was a water fort in the north of the city, with more than 200 warships.
Another general reported: Hundreds of Tang army warships were found in Sizhou downstream.
Send people to monitor the area from all sides and leave it alone for now. Guo Shao immediately gave the order.
After a while, a military general was brought into the tent by several personal soldiers. The general clasped his fists and saluted, saying: I am Qi Guan, a military officer of the Right Wing, and I have come to pay a visit to Marshal Guo on the orders of Gao Huaide, the commander of the Right Wing.
Guo Shao immediately put on a kind smile, and asked about Gao Huaide's situation, and even asked about his health. He cared about him like an old friend. Guo Shao, who was led astray by Xiang Xun and Zhao Kuangyin, didn't spend much time with these two people, but he learned a lot from their words and deeds; especially Zhao Kuangyin, who was considered an opponent by Guo Shao in his heart, but it did not prevent him from learning from his opponent.
But Qi Guan, the commander of the army, was not here to build relationships between the generals. He quickly got down to business: when General Li Jixun was the commander of the right wing, he was defeated in the southwest of Tushan. I personally led the troops to participate in this battle. First, General Li heard that Shouzhou had been broken, so he rushed to attack. Then he was tricked and ambushed. When the defeated army returned to the Zhou army camp, the food and grass were burned by the special forces. I thought that Chai Kehong had anticipated General Li's move and was well prepared.
Guo Shao nodded, picked up a pen from the inkstone, and wrote on a torn booklet: Insight into the opponent's intentions and anticipate his moves, and use strategies and tactics to capture the opponent's generals' psychology.
You continue.
Qi Guan said: Our army was defeated because we were ambushed. At that time, the troops rushed forward and did not check the traps under their feet and around them. Suddenly, the smoke filled the air and separated the soldiers. In panic, we encountered several elite troops led by Chai Kehong, so we were defeated. Later, I saw that they were only a few elite troops, and the others were chasing and killing in a mess. Their armor was not in order and the team was in disarray. They were not very powerful. We were just caught off guard.
Guo Shao wrote and drew on the book, recording the general situation and his own views, and then gave it to Zuo You, Yang Biao and other generals for review.
All the generals thought Guo Shao's words made sense. Li Chuyun said: Chai Kehong is smart and good at using tricks, relying on the wisdom of one person, but he is not good at controlling too many troops.
Guo Shao and the others discussed it for a while, then asked with a smile: What do you think are my strengths and weaknesses
Yang Biao said: "Big brother is good at seizing the opportunity and hitting the target with one strike."
Zuo You pondered and said: "It is a great honor to boost morale. I think it is very good that the lord proposed to end the civil war and fight for the people of the world. The ancients said that the kingly way should be used to defeat the unjust, and this is the way."
Wang Zhang laughed and said, "I am here to say that General Guo is wrong. Li Chongjin said everywhere that General Guo is soft-hearted and cannot lead troops. I really think that the lord is too kind sometimes, just like the battle to capture Shouzhou City. I am afraid that only General Guo can avoid massacring the city."
Li Chuyun said: The most important point is that our Great Zhou army is obviously braver and more skilled in fighting than the Southern Tang army.
Let me tell you about myself. Guo Shaodao.
Everyone quieted down and listened attentively.
Unexpectedly, Guo Shao just said calmly: I am good at archery.
Haha, everyone was stunned at first, and then burst into laughter.
Guo Shao did not keep the right wing general Qi Guan, and sent him away. The generals also dispersed one after another, each of them focusing on the construction of their camps.
Haozhou City had not yet been surrounded, and there were a large number of Southern Tang troops outside the city and on the river. Guo Shao did not go around for the time being. He stayed in the central army camp, thinking about Chai Kehong and other things.
He tapped his fingers lightly on the chopping board a few times unconsciously, thinking to himself: I just said that Chai Kehong is not good at commanding a large number of people, and it seems that I am not that good either.
Although Guo Shao is currently the commander of the Infantry Division, he actually controls only the left wing of the Hujie Army, which is about 20,000 troops, but the scope of the deployment is no longer in sight. Guo Shao said that he had no idea how the generals of this era controlled their subordinates. Perhaps only generals from aristocratic families like Gao Huaide would know, and his father would definitely teach his son all kinds of skills; but the generals would definitely not have the leisure to teach outsiders.
To do well in any industry, you need some skills and insights, which depend on the experience of predecessors and your own experience. No matter how talented a person is, he or she cannot be born knowing how to do something.
Guo Shao thought about it and decided to find a way to change the status quo. He established a simple command system using the messenger's military orders as a trial.
Guo Shao asked someone to carve eighty-eight wooden seals, and then selected hundreds of soldiers from the lower camp who had been eliminated by the elite regular army to form messengers.
These soldiers were equivalent to the garrison soldiers who were stationed in the fields. They had no military pay and were told that they would be regular soldiers of the Hujie Army after becoming messengers. They would be treated the same as other soldiers. Many people were willing to join. However, Guo Shao personally reviewed these soldiers with his generals. They did not require them to be brave and strong, but only to be smart. They would pass the test if they could make the main idea clear immediately after they were asked to repeat a few sentences.
Then each person was given three command flags to be inserted on his back to distinguish the combatants.
After everything was ready, Guo Shao summoned dozens of generals from the left wing to the central army to discuss matters. He first took down the wooden seals for them to see, there were two types of seals in total.
The first type consists of 12 pieces, six for each military commander and the central army, each with only one character on it: "忠勇武信义胜", which is issued to military commanders. The second type consists of 38 pieces, which are issued to commanders, with two characters on them: "忠甲", "忠乙", "忠丙", and so on.
Guo Shaodao: Before every battle, we draw lots. Whichever seal we draw is the seal we win. We are not allowed to reveal our seals or ask others for theirs. If we have to go out in an emergency and don't have time to draw lots, the last number we drew will be used as the seal.
When each department reported military intelligence and the army issued a military order, it had to be stamped. If the characters did not match, the order would be invalid and could be ignored.
Of course, the first character of the commander-in-chief, Zhongyongwuxinyisheng, may be different from the character of the military commander after drawing lots. Remember how many military reports were sent that day, and write down the number each time to prevent the military orders and military reports from being lost halfway.
Guo Shao appointed Zuo You as the military counselor on the spot, responsible for writing and sending military orders; he also appointed Tan Shitou as the commander of the messengers, responsible for commanding and dispatching the messengers, and incorporated the remaining dozens of his men into the messenger corps to receive military pay; Luo Mengzi still led a personal guard of 300 people.
Tan Shitou was the old soldier who led his troops to flee during the attack on Shouzhou and was almost executed on the spot by Li Chongjin. Later, Guo Shao pleaded for him and he was spared. He was also brave and meritorious during the siege, and was pardoned after half of his men died. His son was originally a captain, but was burned to death by kerosene. Tan Shitou was directly appointed as the captain of the lower camp by Guo Shao. Later, he always followed Guo Shao and was loyal to him, so Guo Shao now trusted him very much.
It is said that the Iron Cavalry Army was screened and eliminated, and all of them were brave and strong men. However, Guo Shao reorganized some of the people he wanted to eliminate into the Imperial Army system, and he didn't seem to care about what kind of people he had.
No matter what, even if the soldiers were eliminated by the imperial army, they were still more useful than those old men in Wuqi Town. Therefore, Guo Shao did not despise them at all and took in all the soldiers.
Guo Shao took out a batch of flags embroidered with tiger patterns that he had used for show last time, had someone embroider the army numbers on them, and then distributed them to everyone.
In the several camps that had been built at one time, tiger flags were flying everywhere. Although it was a bit out of place, it was still domineering, as if the tiger had become the symbol of the Hujie Army. The Hujie Army originally had nothing to do with tigers, because it was not called the Hujie Army before. The name was changed after the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty; just like the Iron Cavalry Army was formerly called the Xiaodi Army, it was just a change of name, and the people were still the same.
Not long after, Gao Huaide led the right wing to Haozhou.
Gao Huaide found that the camp and fortifications had been repaired by Guo Shao. He saved trouble and directly stationed his troops in the built camp.
Tens of thousands of militiamen and local soldiers from Shouzhou arrived in Haozhou one after another. Suddenly, more and more people and horses were outside the city of Haozhou. Guo Shao ordered the construction of two siege works.
The Tang army remained motionless, and the Zhou army also did not make any movement. The soldiers were working all day long, preparing various equipment.
In mid-October, the emperor led the elite troops of the East and West Classes of the Imperial Palace to visit Haozhou. He discovered that a group of Tang troops were stationed on the northwest river beach, and immediately ordered Qi Tingyi, the commander of the East and West Classes, to attack the Tang troops.
Qi Tingyi was known as Qi Tuo. He actually led his soldiers on camels to rush across the moat outside the Southern Tang military fortifications. Then the troops attacked and destroyed the fortifications outside the Southern Tang city, capturing 3,000 people.
Chai Rong was overjoyed and promoted Qi Tuo to the position of Colonel of the Left Wing of the Hujie Army to fill the vacancy.
Guo Shao was once the commander of the left wing, and later he was promoted to the commander of the infantry division. The position had been vacant, but this time Qi Tuo took it. It was the emperor's order, and there was no way to disobey.