Chapter 843 Sudden fighter opportunity!

January 18, early morning

In a mansion in Yijing, feeling the dazzling sunlight outside the window, Yuan Song slowly opened his eyes······················

Waking up from his dream, Yuan Song subconsciously shouted to the door:

"Xiao Sen, what time is it now?"

Upon hearing Yuan Song's call, Yuan Song's nephew and captain of the personal guards, Yuan Sen, immediately came in and said;

"Uncle, it's almost 1:00 pm now. Do you want to sleep a little longer, or should I ask someone to prepare a bath for you?"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Song shook his head in self-mockery. Sleeping in the house was more comfortable than sleeping in the camp. There was even a day when he could sleep until 9 o'clock in the morning.

As the commander-in-chief of the Fengwu Army in the Yunbing battlefield, he should now be eating and sleeping in the military camp with his soldiers.

To be honest, he doesn't need to be much younger. If he was five years younger, Yuan Song would live in the army camp with the soldiers. But unfortunately, he is already 47 years old this year, which means he has already stepped into old age in this era.

After years of marching and fighting, Yuan Song has accumulated a lot of illnesses, and the cold in his left leg has begun to affect his normal life.

If he was on the march or fighting, he would naturally grit his teeth and persevere, but now that he was stationed in Jinzhong, Yuan Song felt that it was unnecessary to be so hard, so he tacitly agreed to his soldiers to prepare a house for him as his residence in Jinzhong···························
"Get ready for me to wash up. I want fried dough sticks and shrimp porridge for breakfast!" Yuan Song thought for a moment and then instructed Yuan Sen:
After hearing Yuan Song's instructions, Yuan Song immediately went down to prepare. About an incense stick later, after washing up, Yuan Song started to eat breakfast. At the same time, Yuan Sen also reported to him:

"Uncle, Commander Xun sent a message this morning saying that he has important military information to report to you!"

After hearing this, Yuan Song, who was eating fried dough sticks, frowned slightly and said:
"When was the message delivered?"

Yuan Sen also realized that something was wrong from his uncle's words, but he did not dare to hide it and could only lower his head and say:
"Tatsuki!"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Song's eyes gradually became sharper and he asked in a deep voice:

"Why didn't you tell me right away?"

Feeling Yuan Song's serious attitude, Yuan Sen hesitated for a moment and whispered:

"Uncle, you've been suffering from severe insomnia recently. You didn't fall asleep until four o'clock last night, and you were sleeping soundly at noon. I saw that you haven't had a good sleep for several days, so I didn't wake you up, thinking that you would wake up soon and it wouldn't delay anything..."

Listening to his nephew's answer, Yuan Song warned him sternly:

"Yuan Sen, I'm telling you that the military situation is extremely urgent. No matter what I'm doing at any time, you must tell me immediately once there is any military information delivered to me!"

"This won't happen again. If it happens again, you'll get out of here and go back to Yijing!"

After hearing this, Yuan Sen felt a little aggrieved, but under Yuan Song's gaze, he could only nod obediently.

After teaching Yuan Sen a lesson, Yuan Song didn't even bother to eat the rest of his breakfast and rode his horse to the Fengwu Army camp.

Xun Ke had been waiting in the camp for a long time. When he saw Yuan Song appear, he immediately reported:

"Master Yuan, Captain Zhang Xiaojie from the Coordination Office has arrived and brought very important intelligence!"

Feeling the excitement hidden in Xun Ke's words, Yuan Song also became interested in this very important information.

In the previous meeting, he and Xun Ke reached a consensus and decided to only take over the important node of Lujialing before the New Year, and then launch a large-scale military operation after the New Year.

The plan went smoothly. Xun Ke personally took charge of the operation in Lujialing. While the enemy in Lujialing had not yet reacted, he led his troops to attack the city with lightning speed, leaving Yun Bing's army no chance to come to the rescue.

Although the scale of this battle was not large and only a few thousand enemy troops were annihilated, it was a good start to the New Year and greatly boosted the morale of the Fengwu Army. Xun Ke was also very happy, but his excitement was still a little lower than today...

This also made Yuan Song curious. What kind of information did the Coordination Office bring to make Xun Ke so happy?

With Yuan Song's permission, Xun Ke brought Zhang Xiaojie up. Zhang Xiaojie also knew what Yuan Song wanted to hear, so after paying his respects to Yuan Song, he directly reported:

"Sir Yuan, our General Coordination Office has already investigated the food reserves of the Yunbing Army. This time, the Luoan court has made great efforts to protect Yunbing. Last year, they delivered 370,000 dan of food to Yunbing in three batches, and also promised to guarantee the food supply of the Yunbing Army this year!"

"Therefore, Yunbing's army still has some food shortages, but the shortage is not large. In Wenshan, Xiaode, and Yi counties, there are at least two months of food reserves, so the enemy army is not short of food now!"

After hearing the news, Yuan Song's expression remained calm, but a hint of disappointment appeared in the depths of his eyes.

For a long time in the past, food was a major shortcoming of the Yunbing Army, so Yuan Song also planned to make use of food. But now it seems that Wang Muzhi also knows their weakness, so he also won the support of the Luoan court and stockpiled a lot of food.

Therefore, the plan of using food to fight a war of attrition and a siege war seems to be unworkable.
While Yuan Song was thinking, Zhang Xiaojie continued to introduce: "My Lords, although the Yunbing Army has stored a lot of food, their military pay has been owed for more than half a year. At the beginning, they could still pay some generals, but since September last year, the leaders of the Yunbing Army have not received their military pay, which has caused some people in the Yunbing Army to be very resentful!"

"Our Coordination Office recently discovered an opportunity in Wenshan County. The Yunbing Army has two battalions in Wenshan County with a total of 7,000 troops."

"The commanders of the two battalions are named Sun Hansheng and He Dechang. Under Wang Muzhi's appointment, Sun Hansheng serves as the general of Wenshan County and He Dechang as the deputy general. The two of them will work together to be responsible for the defense of Wenshan County!"

"He Dechang spent 500 taels of silver to buy his position as commander. He raised 300 taels of silver by selling his house and land, and borrowed 200 taels of silver from a loan shark. He originally planned to earn the money back by taking empty salary after becoming the commander!"

“However, because the Yunbing army owed him wages, not only did he not get the empty wages as he wished, he also did not receive his own share of the military wages. The money house had a strong background and was pressing for money, so He Dechang had no choice but to secretly resell the military rations of Wenshan County to the money house in order to pay back the money…”

"He Dechang originally had a very good plan. Grain is a hard currency in Yunbing, so there is no shortage of buyers when he sells it. Selling it to a bank can not only pay off the debt, but also make extra money. However, he was not careful enough and the news leaked to Sun Hansheng!"

"Sun Hansheng scolded He Dechang. Although he did not report the matter to Wang Muzhi immediately at He Dechang's request, he also asked He Dechang to get the military rations back as soon as possible, otherwise he would report the matter to Wang Muzhi!"

"He Dechang went to the bank to ask for military rations, but the bank naturally didn't care about his life or death, so He Dechang is now in a dilemma. After learning about this situation, our people from the Coordination Office also contacted He Dechang. He Dechang has basically relented and is willing to help our army attack Wenshan County as an insider!"

After hearing Zhang Xiaojie's introduction, Yuan Song also understood why Xun Ke was so happy!

The location of Wenshan, Heyi and Xiaode counties is a bit like a Chinese character "品" (a character in Chinese). Heyi is in the middle and closest to Jinzhong, while Wenshan and Xiaode are located on the left and right. The three counties jointly guard Jinyang.

Because the defense line formed by these three counties was very solid, and Yuan Song was reluctant to sacrifice his lives, how to break through this defense line was a headache for Yuan Song. His previous plan was to start with Heyi County step by step, and then solve the two counties of Wenshan and Xiaode...

But to be honest, the most effective way to deal with this situation is to start with Wenshan and Xiaode. As long as any one of these two counties is captured, the connection between Jinyang and the front line can be cut off. At that time, it will be much easier to capture the remaining two counties.

However, if they wanted to attack Wenshan and Xiaode directly, their retreat would be exposed to Heyi County. If they failed to capture the target in the short term and their logistics supply was harassed by the enemy forces in Heyi County, their offensive would inevitably be unsustainable and they might even be attacked from both the north and the south by the enemy forces.

Therefore, Yuan Song and Xun Ke decided to be safer and would rather fight slowly and steadily to attack Heyi County first.

As the saying goes, the battle situation is ever-changing. Yuan Song and Xun Ke had never expected that just as they had finished formulating their battle plan, a huge fighter plane appeared in front of them.

If the intelligence from the Coordination Office is correct, then the Fengwu Army can use an elite division to quickly attack the city of Wenshan County, and then quickly capture Wenshan County with the help of He Dechang.

If the entire operation is carried out quickly, two days will be enough to complete the battle. As long as Wenshan County is captured, the Fengwu Army can use its cavalry advantage to completely cut off the connection between Jinyang, Xiaode, and Yi County.

At that time, either Wang Muzhi would send troops to provide support, or he would have to watch helplessly as his carefully designed defense line was swallowed up bit by bit by the Fengwu Army...

Seeing that Yuan Song fell into deep thought after listening to the introduction, Xun Ke first asked Zhang Xiaojie to retreat and rest. When there were only two of them left in the tent, Xun Ke spoke directly:
"Sir Yuan, I think this is a very good opportunity. As long as we take over Wenshan County, the situation in Yunbing will be clear. We can eliminate the remaining two counties and reach Jinyang before April. The beginning of May is the Marshal's birthday, and we can give him a generous gift!"

Feeling the heat in Xun Ke's eyes, Yuan Song suddenly realized something beyond the battle situation.

With the fall of Lin Huaiwu, his transfer to Yunbing as the commander-in-chief, and the restoration of the original organization of the Third Army, although the Marshal did not put forward any specific requirements for the progress of the Yunbing battle, the entire Fengwu Army, from top to bottom, was full of expectations for the Yunbing battle.

This expectation is both a motivation and a pressure. As the commander-in-chief of Yunbing and the person in charge of the Fengwu Army on the Yunbing battlefield, Yuan Song can naturally feel this pressure. However, as the first general of the Fengwu Army, he has rich experience and great contributions, so this pressure is relatively small for him.

However, this was completely different for Xun Ke. Xun Ke had previously been transferred to the position of general of the Eighth Division, which had caused some controversy in the Fengwu Army.

Many people think that Xun Ke did not make many contributions in the Fengwu Army, and it would be difficult to convince the public if he was directly transferred to the position of general. Fortunately, Xun Ke later performed well and led the Eighth Division to perform very well in the Yunbing battlefield. However, affected by the overall poor performance of the Fengwu Army in the Yunbing battlefield last year, Xun Ke’s military achievements were not very great...

Under such circumstances, the Marshal once again rejected the opposition of many people and directly promoted Xun Ke to the commander of the Third Army. This move undoubtedly caused an uproar in the Fengwu Army!

Naturally, no one dared to say anything about the Marshal's decision, so the pressure fell entirely on Xun Ke. So in the face of these pressures, Xun Ke must have been holding his breath and wanted to prove to his colleagues in the Fengwu Army that he was capable enough to be the commander of the Third Army.

So even though this opportunity seemed to come out of nowhere and involved certain risks, Xun Ke naturally didn't want to miss it!

At this time, Xun Ke didn't know what Yuan Song was thinking. Seeing that Yuan Song still didn't speak, he directly told him his plan in full.

"Master Yuan, I know this opportunity involves considerable risk, but opportunities are fleeting, and this opportunity is worth taking certain risks!"

"My idea is to act as soon as possible within three days. We will gather 10,000 men in the Third Army, including the cavalry. I will personally lead them and rush to Wenshan County!"

"In this way, even if this is a trap set by the enemy, they don't have the ability to kill 10,000 of us directly, and I will be able to bring all the people back smoothly!"

After saying that, Xun Ke looked at Yuan Song with great anticipation. Yuan Song was the commander-in-chief of Yunbing, and the plan could not be implemented without his nod.

Under Xun Ke's gaze, Yuan Song pondered for a moment and then said slowly:
"Three days is too short a time. It takes time to mobilize the troops, so the action is scheduled for New Year's Eve!
"While you, Lord Xun, lead the Third Army to take action, I will lead the Second Army to besiege Heyi County and ensure the safety of your retreat!"

“If the battle goes wrong, don’t hesitate to withdraw immediately. I will lead my troops to support you…”

(End of this chapter)