Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 1053 Fate is like a loach

   "So-and-so only wants revenge! So-and-so wants the head of Thief Li!"

   Just when Liu Fan was muttering about leaving Guanzhong and going to Jiaozhou, someone just wanted to stay in Guanzhong.

   "Father's revenge has not been avenged! How can I leave? I want to stay in Guanzhong! I want revenge!" Ma Chao waved his arms and roared loudly.

  A plague changed many things.

Originally, Zhong Shao was happy to see these Xiliang soldiers go to trouble Yang Biao's men, so although he didn't show anything on the surface, he actually made some supportive actions, not only asking Xia Mou to send some food and grass When the luggage came over, he even turned a blind eye to Ma Chao and others' looting of the surrounding Xiaowubao.

   However, after a heavy rain in Guanzhong, the sudden outbreak of the plague completely changed the situation.

As long as the mind is still a little sober, it must be known that the sharp drop in population and the shortage of food and grass will follow after the plague, so Xia Mou immediately had someone notify Han Sui, saying that he could no longer do anything to the surrounding Wubao. Otherwise, we will launch an attack on Xiliang soldiers, not only that, but also reduce the rations for Xiliang soldiers.

  Xia Mou himself has to guard his own soldiers to eat, so how can he be magnanimous to supply Xiliang soldiers with his own hungry belly?

  Under the heavy rain, there was a muddy ocean everywhere. Even if Ma Chao wanted to march, he had no choice.

  As time went by, the cost of Xiliang soldiers suddenly became tense.

  At first, Han Sui was able to dispatch some to Ma Chao, but this time it was okay twice, and after three or five times, Han Sui felt pressured to continue to supply.

   "Nephew, let's go back to Xiliang for now..." Han Sui looked at Ma Chao with a headache, "...there is no rush for revenge, and it won't be too late to come back when we have all the reserves..."

   Ma Chao stared and said, "...is it not too late to come back?"

  Han Sui nodded and said, "Yes, come back when you are ready."

"... When you're ready?" Ma Chao squinted his eyes and murmured a few words. Suddenly, he stepped forward and knelt down in front of Han Sui, and said with a choked voice, "...Poor my father, I don't know where his bones are. Uncle! We waited hard and didn’t know where the food came from, but then...the thief Li has nowhere to get food! I just want to kill thief Li and avenge my father!"

   Logically speaking, what Ma Chao said was not wrong. Here in Xiliang, it is difficult for Han Sui and Ma Chao to maintain a relationship, and it must be even more difficult for Li Jue.

   But the question is, if you want to find the small army that Li Jue hid in such a large area in Guanzhong, where will you go to find it in the short term?

"...Nephew, please get up quickly..." Han Sui stepped forward to support Ma Chao, then held Ma Chao's arm and said, "Brother Ma is in such an accident, I am also heartbroken... However, the current situation really cannot stay for a long time ...Nephew, I'd better listen to my uncle's persuasion, go back to Xiliang first, and then make plans..."

  However, Ma Chao couldn't listen and just shook his head.

   It's not that Ma Chao doesn't understand the truth, but what he said before has also patted the chests of the clansmen. Now that he is back in despair, Ma Chao feels that he can't hold back this face.

  Like most people, the younger you are, the more you care about your face. In other words, when you get older, you know when to put it down and when to pick it up.

Seeing Ma Chao's insistence, Han Sui was also earnest. Although Ma Chao was indeed reckless at times, it was understandable that he was seeking revenge for killing his father, so he persuaded again: "Nephew, even if It was you who led the troops to search, but you must know that Li thief's place was severely plagued by the plague! This plague cannot be resisted by manpower... If you lead people there, it is tantamount to feeding on the tiger's mouth! Even if you don't Others also have to think about yourself and the people who follow you..."

   "This! This..." Ma Chao was speechless.

  In this era, the plague is almost unsolvable, which is naturally an important reason why Ma Chao's troops dare not rush forward. Although these Qiangqi Hu people are not afraid of life and death on the battlefield, they don't want to die in vain under the clutches of the plague.

   "..." Ma Chao turned his attention to his brothers, his clansmen, hoping to get support and encouragement from them, but there was none. In the face of the plague, even the bravest warriors couldn't bear it. Everyone knew this truth, so no one dared to rush into the hardest-hit area of ​​the plague like this.

"...Let's retreat, let's retreat," Han Sui patted Ma Chao on the shoulder, and said, "...be patient for a while, and there is still a chance to start again. If you bury yourself and your clansmen in the plague in vain, even in the future What's the point of taking revenge if you have a chance?"

  Ma Chao's raised head finally drooped down, like an eggplant beaten by frost...

   "...Let's go." Thinking that he had persuaded Ma Chao, Han Sui called Ma Chao to pack his bags and prepare to return to Xiliang while pulling Ma Chao.

Unexpectedly, Ma Chao took two steps after him, but broke free from Han Sui's hand, raised his head and said, "I won't go! It's too late to kill my father! Uncle, you take your clansmen back first, as long as you give someone Just keep 500 riders! Wait for someone to kill Li thief, and then return to Xiliang!"

   "You!" Han Sui was angry, but seeing Ma Chao's appearance, he finally let out a long sigh and said, "Forget it, nephew, be more careful..."

  ……………

   Ma Chao may not have imagined that such a willful act of himself would mess up the whole Guanzhong like a huge shit-stirring stick.

  Originally, the forces in Guanzhong were relatively balanced.

  Yang Biao was in Chang'an City, and Zhu Jun was stationed in Lingyi. Although there were not many soldiers, they were considered a military force. Chong Shao and Liu Fan controlled the Chang'an city defense and the forbidden army, while Xia Mou was in charge of the troops outside.

In terms of the number of soldiers, it is natural that Zhong Shao has more troops, but two-thirds of Zhong Shao's troops are at Xia Mou's place, so near Chang'an City, Yang Biao's number of soldiers is even more than that of Zhong Shao. .

   Therefore, in the area of ​​Chang’an, as a whole, there are mutual checks and balances. Yang Biao and Chong Shao are not sure that they can eat each other immediately, so they frame each other politically and engage in secret confrontations.

In fact, Chong Shao had thought of using Xiliang soldiers as knives, but after all, Dong Zhuo was a lesson learned from the past. If he couldn't control it, this Xiliang soldier was even more dangerous than Yang Biao, so in the end he used Xiliang soldiers as a weapon. As a backup method, Xia Mou dragged on.

  However, the plague in Guanzhong made it impossible to maintain the ambiguous relationship between Chong Shao and Xiliang Bing.

After the plague, anyone with a bit of a brain would know that there would be a shortage of food and grass for a period of time, so they tried their best to guard their own one-acre three-point land, counting the storage with their fingers, how could it be possible to remain the same? Provide food and grass for Xiliang soldiers?

   Therefore, the retreat of Xiliang soldiers was naturally within Zhong Shao's expectation.

  As soon as Han Sui led most of the Xiliang soldiers to retreat, Xia Mou and others naturally knew about it, and immediately reported it to Chong Shao. Chong Shao ordered Xia Mou to return to the court with his troops, which immediately put great pressure on Yang Biao and others.

But it never occurred to me that Ma Chao didn't leave, and took a small army to cruise around. Naturally, such an army cannot carry a large amount of food and grass, and it is impossible to produce and sell it by itself. All the consumption is naturally where to go to eat Wherever they go, they are all cavalry, coming and going like the wind, like horse bandits, looting everywhere.

Immediately, Yang Biao and others took advantage of this, saying that Zhong Shao, Xia Mou and others mobilized the army, wasted their money but could not protect the environment and the people, let the Xiliang bandit soldiers go, and even hinted that Zhong Shao and the Xiliang soldiers had colluded with each other so...

  For a while, Guanzhong was on edge, and the relationship between Zhong Shao and Yang Biao dropped to a freezing point.

  ……………

   "... this Yuanzhi, Guanzhong is already in chaos enough, he even wants to get involved..." Fei Qian pinched the short beard on his chin, holding the military report sent by Xu Shu in his hand, a little dumbfounded.

  The Yin Mountain in the north has just settled down, and the south where Xu Shu is located is about to start trouble again, this...

Diaoyin, where Xu Shu is located, controls nearly 5,000 soldiers and horses. In addition, Fei Qian left Xu Shuzuo Feng Yi's great seal. As the first-line command center, Xu Shu naturally focused his eyes on Guanzhong. above an area.

  If it wasn’t for the fact that the plague was too terrible some time ago, Xu Shu would probably have made a move against Zuo Fengyi long ago. Now that the plague is gradually subsiding, the plan to develop south is naturally placed on Fei Qian’s desk again.

   But the question is, is this a good time to expand to the south?

According to Fei Qian's original idea, at least wait for a while to let Yinshan recover a little bit, and within Fei Qian's plan, taking advantage of Xianbei's defeat this year, he will send troops to the north to thrive in the Xianbei tribe. Time to make a small fortune and get some war dividends.

Everyone knows that the Hu people are usually used to go south in the late autumn and early winter. This time happens to be the most prosperous time for the farming people in a year, and the season when a large amount of grain has just been harvested, so the Hu people can go back with a lot of spoils Happy winter.

  Then agricultural peoples have seasonality, but nomadic people have no seasonality?

   There are the same, but this seasonality happens to be when the crops of the farming people are in short supply, so the farming people don't have much thought to put down the hoes in their hands, drop the seedlings in the fields, and go all the way to trouble the barbarians.

However, Feiqian is different here. Anyway, this year, the area near Yinshan Mountain will generally be paid out. Even if some crops with a shorter growth period are replanted at this time, there will not be much harvest. The threat of Xianbei is completely resolved, providing Yinshan with a safer period of long-term development.

   Every year from May to around August, it is the breeding time of livestock on the grassland. During the reproduction period, just like the farming peoples, they all need a stable place, an area with abundant water and grass, so this time point is the biggest shortcoming of the grassland peoples.

  Anyway, I will go to the place with the best aquatic plants on the grassland, and I will definitely catch one...

Before coming to Bingzhou, Fei Qian had already started to make such preparations. Even when Jingzhou left Huang's house, he brought some related things and manpower. At that time, Xu Huang and Pang Tong also knew about it. , or more or less guessed a few points...

   There is a time difference. Since the Hu people came to rob during the harvest season of the Han people, they can't complain about Fei diving back on the grassland during the breeding season to fight back.

   It sounds complicated, but it is actually very simple.

   Castration.

  Since the war horse will be in heat during this time period, then the root of troubles will be cut off and the matter will be over. People in the Central Plains understood this technique very early on, but it seems that it was first used on their own bodies...

  Since arriving in Bingzhou, there have been successive battles. Some of the horses were damaged and retreated from the front line to recuperate. Some of them were castrated under Fei Qian's arrangement.

The horses after castration grow fat faster and will not conflict with other horses in the same trough, so the recovery is not bad. Now, after calculating the number, there are nearly a thousand horses that have recovered from their injuries after castration. Matched.

   Such a force is enough to give a barbarian a drink.

  Of course, although castration is good, it cannot be used on a large scale. Castrated war horses are docile and obedient, and are the first choice of many southern Han people who are not good at riding horses. However, they cannot reproduce after all. They are one-time non-renewable resources, and they will be gone when they are used up.

   Therefore, Fei Qian also tried to control the number of castrated war horses within a certain range as much as possible.

In addition to this, the castration and breeding technology of domestic hogs is also constantly advancing, and it seems that it has achieved certain results. Now farmers raise a few canopy marshals, not only for food, but also for fertilization with their feces , so in Pingyang, the number of house feeding specially built for domestic hogs has gradually increased.

Fei Qian lightly tapped the table with his fingers. Although he wanted to use troops to attack the barbarian gathering places in the north of Yinshan Mountain, about 3,000 troops would be enough. After all, it was only for looting and transportation, so there was no need to invest too much. It is not impossible for the remaining soldiers to be transferred to the south...

What Xu Shu said also made sense. Now near Chang'an, Zhong Shao and Yang Biao were at a stalemate. They had no time to care about each other, so they sent troops to seize some of Zuo Fengyi's cities. If they entered the Chang'an area, they could threaten the Chang'an area, and if they retreated, they could also obtain Zuo Fengyi's land and The population can then affect the situation in Guanzhong, and then decide the next direction according to the changes.

   In this way, at least it is better than drying in the shade.

   After all, if there is any change in Guanzhong, Diaoyin is still a little farther away. When you receive some information, and then start from Diaoyin, the dust may have settled by the time you arrive.

   But the problem is that the supply of food and grass on the head is not enough at the moment, and it is indeed a headache. Where can I get some money and food?

  (end of this chapter)