Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 1112 Turning point

A team of cavalry galloped across the vast plains of Guanzhong. In the queue, besides the three-color flag indicating their affiliation, there was also a general flag with the word "Dangkou Xiaowei Zhang" floating. Economy.

  After a day of recuperation in Diaoyin, Zhang Ji and Zhang Xiu marched separately at Guanxia.

  Although Zhang Xiu knew that this trip was dangerous, he still set off with five hundred people first, and took the picture book given by Fei Qian to walk the mountain road that Zhao Yun had walked.

Let's not talk about other things, first Zhang Xiu has to find the mountain road between the mountain roads, and secondly on the mountain road, if the opponent is prepared, then only two or three hundred troops are needed to fight a decent ambush. Once ambushed, it is tantamount to a complete failure, and there is even the danger of annihilation of the entire army.

  So Zhang Xiu was very calm, but Zhang Ji was still very worried, but Zhang Ji still endured it and didn't say anything. Zhang Xiu is Zhang Ji's clan son, strictly speaking, he is not a direct relative. However, after such a long time, Zhang Ji regards Zhang Xiu as his own child. There is also some unspeakable feeling in my heart.

  Leading the cavalry gallop on the flat ground, watching the ground recede quickly. This is Zhang Ji's favorite state, but he doesn't understand why Fei Qian gave him a strange task, but no matter how strange the task is, it still needs to be completed...

   Above the head of Diaoyin City, Fei Qian looked at Guanzhong from a distance, and was constantly pondering in his heart. The flag fluttered overhead, beeping in the cold wind.

  The weather is getting colder and colder. This year's winter is earlier and colder than last year.

  The cold north wind seems to be able to blow through the iron armor and seep into the body. Even a layer of fine fleece sweater can't resist the cold wind.

   If only there was cotton...

The denitrification process of chicken feather and duck feather is not enough. It is not impossible to wear chicken and duck down, but it must be turned over frequently, and it is easy to get insects. Like Feiqian, which needs to be outside for a long time and is inconvenient to wash and replace, it is a relatively mature wool product. More appropriate.

  Everything is valuable, and Guanzhong is no exception.

The greatest value of this piece of land is the entire canal irrigation system built since the former Qin Dynasty. After hundreds of years, it is still very easy to use. Guanzhong has a lot of fertile land.

   It's just a pity, it's not the right time to come forward and completely occupy Guanzhong...

However, just taking advantage of this opportunity to take Zuo Fengyi and isolate Guanzhong from Hongnong must be carried out, otherwise, after waiting for Yang Biao and Zhao Wen to join hands and resume cultivation for a few years, he will definitely become Fei Qian. great threat.

  As for Jing Zhaoyin and You Fufeng, the best state is to let Zhong Shao and Zhao Wen occupy one of them, and then these two people will fight each other, so as to give Fei Qian a stable digestion of Yinshan and buy time.

  So after Xu Shu learned of Fei Qian's decision, he did not wait for Fei Qian's arrival, but took the lead in leading more than 3,000 people to attack Tongguan directly...

  Three thousand to five thousand is almost a good general, the maximum force that can be directly commanded. If it increases further, it is necessary to divide the troops, and a lieutenant will be needed to assist in command and command.

  Many people have no concept of tens of thousands of people, they just exist in their minds, just like farmers and women plowing the fields discussing how the emperor will live, they just guess based on their own experience.

  In fact, in ancient wars, all kinds of rules and regulations are extremely complicated...

Why in ancient wars, especially in the Three Kingdoms, there was always a situation where food roads were cut off. In fact, the simplest reason is that there are only a few routes that can be replenished by luggage vehicles, either this one or that one, anyway. The car is equipped with wheels, so it is impossible to go directly to the sky with two more wings.

Moreover, in order to store food and grass, the army usually builds a special transshipment base behind the forward position. It knows that this is a great weakness, but it still has to continue to do so. The most fundamental reason is that food and grass. If you transport a large amount of food at one time, if you don't build such a transfer camp at the front, then the army may be hungry before the next batch of food and grass arrives...

It is easy to say for a thousand-man army, once it exceeds 10,000, the grain and grass alone will consume 18,000 shi a month during the battle. This is still an infantry. Bean material, then 10,000 cavalry, one month means that at least 60,000 shi of food and grass will be consumed!

  Fei Qian also wants to directly build up a force of 100,000 to 200,000 troops, and then from north to south, without considering the supply of food and grass, without considering the loss of equipment, just push it all the way to finish the job...

   But obviously it is impossible.

   This is the case on the battlefield. The so-called large army is actually a huge structural system composed of small battles. The so-called big scene that costs one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand is actually a joke in most cases.

  In the Battle of Julu, Xiang Yu's tens of thousands of people wiped out Zhang Han Wangli's 400,000 troops.

   In the Battle of Chibi, Cao Jun's front camp caught fire, and the two to three hundred thousand troops behind him collapsed on their own.

   Liu Bei's Yiling, too.

  Northern Wei Erzhu Rong’s tens of thousands of troops destroyed Ge Rong’s hundreds of thousands of troops, also relying on sneak attacks.

  In the change of the civil fortress, more than 200,000 Ming troops were taken by tens of thousands of Wala cavalry...

   Too many soldiers is sometimes not a good thing.

Fei Qian's current strength is not large, but as long as these soldiers appear in the most critical positions on the battlefield, compared with the ordinary infantry in Guanzhong who are mainly recruited by the Chang'an Forbidden Army and temporary recruits, they are like a steel knife and a slap. The difference, although it may hurt, and the slap will be red at most, but the steel knife will kill people!

  Fei Qian stood silently on the city wall, looking into the distance, as if looking at the land in Guanzhong, wondering where to stab his steel knife.

   Now we are waiting for the news ahead.

  It’s like two people fighting, only when the opponent starts to fight, more flaws will be exposed, and then you will know that those are real, and those are faked before...

  ………………

   Suyi County.

   Zhao Wen was also standing on the city wall to inspect the city defense, frowning, a little worried.

The stock of rolling stone and wood in Suyi is almost non-existent. Although Zhao Wen has sent a large number of soldiers and mobilized the people in the city to cut and dig around, but there are not many hand tools, the accumulation of these materials is still very large. slow.

  But no matter what, after all, Suyi was obtained, which made Zhao Wen feel a little more relaxed.

   At least if he is stationed in Suyi, it is not easy for General Zhengxi to march into Chang'an. When the army marches in, the most important thing is the safety of the supply line. Suyi is stuck on the supply line of the official road from Diaoyin to Chang'an...

   As far as Guanzhong is concerned, Zhao Wen is more worried about the intervention of Fei Qian, the general who conquered the west.

   Zhao Wen didn't pay much attention to Zhong Shao, an old and frail guy. If it weren't for Zhao Wen's tacit understanding with a few Guanzhong gentry, he would have found a chance to do it.

  The money and food for sending troops this time were naturally provided by these gentry clans. Otherwise, the cultivated land near Chang’an harvested three melons and two dates.

   With support, there must be something in return. Zhao Wen promised these gentry that after he takes control of Guanzhong in the future, he will sell some land to these gentry. Of course, this price is naturally half-selling and half-giving...

  Anyway, these are the lands of those who escaped from Guanzhong, and they can be regarded as unclaimed lands. If they are given to these gentry, Zhao Wen doesn't have to pay for them himself, so why not do it?

  The premise is that Fei Qian does not intervene.

  Zhao Wen still remembers that when Xiliang, Li and Guo occupied Chaogang, it was because of Feiqian’s cavalry that suddenly appeared in Guanzhong, which instantly changed the whole situation...

   For Fei Qian's cavalry, Zhao Wen is really envious and jealous, feeling everything.

  When Xiliang soldiers left, Guan Zhong's legs became shorter.

no way.

   Cavalry is too difficult to raise.

  Even if Zhao Wen has the heart, the source of the horses is a huge problem. The surrounding gentry have contributed a little, and Zhao Wen can make up more than a thousand, but these riders...

   Just make do with it.

  In the past two days, Zhao Wen sent the only cavalry scouts far away in order to detect Fei Qian's movements this morning.

Therefore, in Zhao Wen's heart at this time, he was looking forward to knowing the movement of Fei Qian's army earlier, and at the same time worried that if Fei Qian's army was too powerful, he would be able to hold it. Yang Biao's support...

  Just as Zhao Wen was thinking about it, suddenly a few riders came rushing from the north!

   Zhao Wen looked intently, and couldn't help but jump in his heart, because he saw a white quill arrow stuck tremblingly on the left shoulder of one of them, and the blood was already stained red!

"...Here we come! Here we come!" A few scouts who rushed to the city rolled off their horses and shouted in embarrassment, "Baili, about a hundred miles to the north, we met the cavalry from Zhengxi! We met each other, little Heizi He's dead! Little Heizi is dead..."

   "How many troops are there in Zhengxi?" Zhao Wen frowned, suppressing his anger, and said in a deep voice. Damn you little blackie, I don't care if you, little blackie, die or not, the most important thing is to bring news back to me.

   "...A lot, a lot! Much more than us!" This guy who was originally a good equestrian in Wubao and has just been transferred to a cavalry scout shouted incoherently.

  Zhao Wen's face was gloomy. If it wasn't for worrying about damaging morale, he would even have the heart to let these useless guys be dragged down and chopped off.

   Fortunately, not long after, other cavalry scouts from the original Chang'an Forbidden Army brought the latest news. General Zhengxi's troops have left Diayin, and about 800 cavalry are coming to Suyi!

   "But General Zhengxi is in command?" Zhao Wen hurriedly asked, "Did you see the banner of General Zhengxi?"

   "Reporting to the envoy, I didn't see the banner of Zhengxi, but only a banner of 'Dangkou Xiaowei Zhang'..." The scout replied.

  Hearing this, Zhao Wen was inexplicably relieved: "Come here, send an order quickly to let all the surrounding soldiers return to the city! Pull the suspension bridge and close the city gate!"

The distance of a hundred miles is about an hour for the cavalry, and they came behind Zhao Wen's scouts, so it didn't take long for Zhao Wen to see high dust in the north, like a huge tree. Like a plume of smoke, it billows in.

"All alert! Archers line up!" Zhao Wen shouted loudly, then looked left and right, and couldn't help shouting again, "Where are the arrows? Why did you just move them up? Isn't there more than ten thousand of them in the warehouses in the city? Hurry up!" Move here!"

  10,000 arrows sounds like a lot, but in fact, there are only 20 to 30 arrows per person, and it takes less than an hour to shoot them all!

  But it can only be used carefully. After all, although the arrow is a weapon for defending the city, but this thing, whether it is the arrow or the shaft, is more troublesome to make, and there are some special requirements. Therefore, unless the leading generals are really rough to a certain extent, or are forced to a desperate situation, generally speaking, they will not cut down a piece of wood or cut bamboo at will, and use it as an arrow shaft.

  Archers have been trained to shoot arrows with a fixed weight. If the center of gravity of a rough-made arrow is not forward, it will float randomly after shooting. If you want to shoot someone, you really have to rely on luck...

Insufficient lethality is one aspect, and another aspect will waste a lot of attack opportunities. After all, people's physical strength is limited, and it takes physical strength to draw a bow every time. value.

"Return to the envoy! There are all the arrows in the city!" A military marquis reported, "Among the warehouse, only the upper layers are newly made arrows, and the rest are obsolete objects from earlier years, which are unusable. It's gone..." If the arrow is not used, it will gradually rot. Even if it is painted, it will not last for a few years. After all, the arrow is made of iron and will rust. There are gaps in the arrow shaft, damp and bugs. For arrow storage, it is fatal.

   "...Understood, let's be on guard first..." Zhao Wen was angry, but he was helpless. Seeing the cavalry coming from the north getting closer, he didn't care about anything else, so he could only think about what was in front of him first.

  In this era, the cavalry has always been the king on the battlefield. When the cavalry gathers together and rolls in, it is a great shock and deterrent to anyone.

  Horseshoes trampled on the ground, and hundreds of cavalrymen spread out a fan under the tricolor flag and the flag of "Dangkou Xiaowei Zhang", and came slowly. When you get close, you can see the red cherry blossoms on the cavalry spears fluttering, the iron armor glistening, and the men and horses breathing white air, like a huge monster baring its teeth and claws to bring the breath of death.

  At the head of Suyi city, the soldiers under Zhao Wen couldn't help but become a little commotion when they saw this scene, and they gradually calmed down after the military marquis Qu Chang ran back and forth.

"...the cavalry of General Zhengxi..." Zhao Wen stared closely, muttering softly, not knowing if he really thought so, or to comfort himself, "...it really is extraordinary...but, if you Siege of the city...hehe...it's hard for you to fly up?"

  (end of this chapter)