dognovel Chapter 678 Jiang Wei Takes the Stage
Chapter 678 Jiang Wei Takes the Stage
The garrison commander of the third village had truly done his best. After all, the enemy's forces outnumbered his by eight or nine times, allowing them to employ various tactics with ease, while he could only run around frantically. This battle was unwinnable.
Instead of blaming him, Guan Xing encouraged him, "You've done a great job of persevering for so many days, but now that you've come this far, wouldn't it be a shame to give up? Are you sure you don't want to struggle any longer?"
The village chief shook his head and said, "I also want to persist, but I am truly powerless to do so. I concede defeat."
Guan Xing nodded and said, "Alright, write a report later to summarize the lessons learned this time. After I've read it, we can discuss how to improve."
Failure is not terrible. As long as you can reflect on your mistakes and learn from them after a failure, you can avoid risks in the next action and thus achieve final victory.
In life, those who advance triumphantly like Huo Qubing are few and far between. The vast majority of people succeed by enduring repeated setbacks and defeats. From this perspective, the idea that failure is the mother of success is indeed correct.
The third village chief bowed and took his leave. Guan Xing asked the second village chief, "Do you want to struggle a little longer?"
The second platoon leader shook his head vigorously, resolutely refusing, "The battle just now was something I discussed with the third platoon leader, and I had no other choice."
Guan Xing then asked the other team members, but no one was willing to take on this mess, not because they didn't want to, but because they really had no other options.
Guan Xing pondered for a moment, then turned and asked, "Boyue, would you like to give it a try?"
Jiang Wei immediately perked up and asked excitedly, "Is it possible?"
Seeing Guan Xing nod and decisively take over command to begin making arrangements, Jiang Wei, whose army of 300 had been reduced to only 92 men and still had a small number of wounded, was in dire straits. Jiang Wei did not back down at all, but instead called a meeting to understand the current situation and Ma Zhong's troop deployment.
After investigating, they discovered a small mistake in Ma Zhong's deployment: they had been advancing recently, pulling the enemy outposts blocking their way back by nearly two days' journey. The outposts in front were constantly on guard because of their battle with them, but the outposts behind them had not been engaged in battle for two days and must have become lax, and it was even possible that Ma Zhong had withdrawn them.
In light of this, Jiang Wei quickly made arrangements, first launching a feint attack on the forward outpost to let the enemy know that they were still there. After the feint attack, he decisively withdrew and attacked the outpost behind him. After a day and a night of rapid marching over mountains and valleys, he finally appeared near the target outpost. He observed that the enemy had indeed relaxed their guard, and decisively launched a night attack to prepare for a breakout.
The outpost in front of them was only occupied by a garrison with a force roughly equal to Jiang Wei's. Because they were caught off guard, Jiang Wei broke through the outpost easily, capturing a lot of supplies and greatly boosting morale.
After a short rest, Jiang Wei continued his advance to launch a surprise attack on another outpost. Unfortunately, this time he failed. However, Jiang Wei was not discouraged, because he had never intended to succeed. He only wanted to use this opportunity to lure Ma Zhong's main force to this location.
Therefore, after the defeat, he immediately returned along the same route and headed for the southernmost outpost, which was the outpost where he had just taken command and launched a feigned attack.
After another day and night of forced march, Jiang Wei launched another attack on the outpost after a short rest. After failing, he retreated to attack a second outpost, creating the illusion that he had withdrawn from the first outpost, thus making the enemy lower their guard. Half an hour later, he returned to the first outpost and caught the sentries off guard, making their escape difficult.
Just as he broke through the encirclement, the main force led by Ma Zhong and Zhou Shan arrived. Watching Jiang Wei's departing figure, Ma Zhong decisively said, "The enemy has changed commanders; they're a bit difficult to deal with."
Zhou Shan asked, "So what do you plan to do?"
Ma Zhong smiled confidently and said, "No matter how powerful he is, he only has less than a hundred men left. What kind of trouble can such a small force cause? This time, we won't play games with him. We'll attack directly. I'll lead five hundred men to follow behind them and pursue them relentlessly. We won't let them out of sight and won't give them a chance to rest. You lead your men to outflank and block them."
"Remember, if we set up roadblocks to intercept them again, each post must have at least three hundred men. We'll overwhelm them with our superior numbers."
Ma Zhong and Zhou Shan launched another operation, and Jiang Wei quickly discovered Ma Zhong's movements, feeling the pressure increase, but he was unwilling to give up and continue the struggle.
Jiang Wei ambushed Ma Zhong several times on the road, but because his forces were too small, he dared not linger in battle. Each time, he made a brief engagement and then retreated, not for any other reason than to slow down Ma Zhong's pursuit.
After achieving his goal of slowing down the pursuers, Jiang Wei led his army on a full-speed run, intending to win by speed and break out before Ma Zhong's encirclement could be completed. Otherwise, once Ma Zhong successfully encircled him again, he would have no chance of escaping.
The idea was good, but the enemy's forces were too large. After realizing Jiang Wei's intentions, Ma Zhong disregarded casualties and pursued him with all his might again, relentlessly entangled Jiang Wei to prevent him from escaping. Zhou Shan took advantage of the time Ma Zhong bought to divide the army into two groups: one took a shortcut to block the enemy, and the other expanded its outflanking range to the front to wait for the enemy to come to them.
As a result, Jiang Wei fought Ma Zhong and Zhou Shan with all his might, finally managing to shake off Ma Zhong and successfully pass through the road before Zhou Shan's first encirclement army blocked the entrance. However, before he could even celebrate, he was blocked by Zhou Shan's second army. Now, with an encirclement from the front and the main force led by Ma Zhong and Zhou Shan pursuing him from behind, Jiang Wei was completely trapped and had no choice but to admit defeat.
Soon Ma Zhongzhou arrived, and the two armies reunited. Jiang Wei said dejectedly, "Marquis Shence, General Ma, I have lost."
Ma Zhong said with lingering fear, "That's enough, you almost managed to break through."
He was leading nearly three thousand men; if Jiang Wei's less than one hundred remaining soldiers managed to break through, he would lose all face in the army.
Guan Xing comforted him, "That's good enough. At least we know how to handle this kind of desperate situation. Everyone who participated should write a report to summarize the lessons learned. By the way, where are we now?"
They've traveled hundreds of miles in this erratic journey, and are probably well past Jiangling's jurisdiction.
Ma Zhong said, "We're almost at Lingyang."
Liu Shan immediately cursed, "Damn it, they've already entered the territory of Wuling County?"
Lingyang County is under the jurisdiction of Wuling Prefecture, so it seems they've really traveled quite a distance these past few days.
Guan Xing laughed and said, "That's perfect. Let's rest here for one night and then go to Lingyang to recuperate before suppressing the bandits in Wuling County."
"Remember, this bandit suppression operation is still for learning purposes. Everyone will take turns leading, which will help you develop your command skills. Understand?"
They weren't there to suppress bandits, but rather to use the pretext of bandit suppression to hone the soldiers' command experience. To put it bluntly, these bandits were their army's experience package; how much experience they gained depended entirely on their own abilities.
The soldiers all wholeheartedly agreed and were extremely excited about the upcoming battle.
But the bandits entrenched in the Wuling Mountains probably don't think that way; they'd probably curse at these old men if they saw them.
Guan Xing said, "Then everyone should disperse and count their numbers. See if all your men are present. If not, send someone to find them immediately. The rest of you can rest."
After announcing the disbandment, Guan Xing went to handle the follow-up matters and check on the physical and mental condition of the soldiers, while Liu Shan sat on a stone to check on the soles of his feet that were blistered.
When has His Highness the Crown Prince ever traveled such a long distance? After several days, his feet are covered in blisters, and they burn with pain at the slightest touch.
As Liu Shan carefully examined the scene, he caught a glimpse of Jiang Wei sitting dejectedly to the side, lost in thought. He beckoned him over and asked, "Boyue, what are you thinking about? Are you still sighing over the defeat?"