Chapter 1113 Turning Point

A group of cavalry galloped on the vast plains of Guanzhong. In the queue, in addition to the three-color flag indicating their affiliation, there was also a general flag with the characters "Dang Kou Xiaowei Zhang" floating in the queue. It was Zhang. Economic.

After a day of repairing in Diaoyin, Zhang Ji and Zhang Xiu went separate ways at Guanxia.

Although Zhang Xiu knew that this trip was dangerous, he still led 500 people to set off first, taking the atlas given by Fei Qian, to walk on the mountain road that Zhao Yun had walked.

Let’s not talk about anything else. First, Zhang Xiu needs to find a mountain road between the mountain roads. Secondly, on the mountain road, if the opponent is prepared, he can fight a decent ambush with only two to three hundred troops. Once they are ambushed, it means a complete failure, and there is even the risk of the entire army being annihilated.

So Zhang Xiu acted very calmly, but Zhang Ji was still very worried, but Zhang Ji still endured it and said nothing. Zhang Xiu is a descendant of Zhang Ji. Strictly speaking, he is not a direct relative. However, after such a long time, Zhang Ji regarded Zhang Xiu as his own child. Seeing his own child flying solo, the older generation There is something unspeakable in my heart.

He led the cavalry and galloped on the flat ground, watching the ground retreat rapidly. This is Zhang Ji's favorite state, but he doesn't understand why Fei Qian handed over a strange task, but no matter how strange the task is, it still needs to be completed...

On the top of Diaoyin City, Fei Qian looked at Guanzhong from a distance, thinking constantly in his mind. Flags fluttered overhead, chirping in the cold wind.

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

The biting north wind seemed to be able to blow through the iron armor and seep into the body. Even a fine velvet sweater with an extra layer could not withstand the cold wind.

If only there was cotton...

The denitrification process of chicken and duck feathers is not up to standard. Wearing chicken and duck down is not impossible, but it must be turned over frequently, and it is easy to get insects. For people like Feiqian who need to be outside for a long time and are inconvenient to wash and change, it is better to use more mature wool products. More appropriate.

Everything has value, and Guanzhong is no exception.

The greatest value of this piece of land is the entire canal irrigation system built since the pre-Qin Dynasty. After hundreds of years, it is still very useful, providing a continuous supply of water to the land in Guanzhong and making the entire Guanzhong has a lot of fertile farmland.

It's just a pity that now is not the time for me to come forward and completely occupy Guanzhong...

However, it is still necessary to take this opportunity to isolate Guanzhong and Hongnong by taking Zuo Fengyi. Otherwise, waiting for Yang Biao and Zhao Wen to join forces and resume their cultivation for a few years, they will inevitably become Fei Qian. great threat.

As for Jing Zhaoyin and You Fufeng, the best situation is to let Zhong Shao and Zhao Wen occupy one, and then the two people fight each other to buy time for Fei Qian to firmly digest Yinshan.

So after Xu Shu learned that Fei Qian had made such a decision, he did not wait for Fei Qian's arrival, but took the lead and led more than 3,000 people to directly attack Tongguan...

Three thousand to five thousand is almost the maximum number of troops that a good general can directly command. If it increases further, the troops must be divided, and deputy generals will be needed to assist in leadership and command.

Many people have no idea about 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 speculate based on their own experience.

In fact, in ancient wars, the various rules and regulations were extremely cumbersome...

Why in ancient wars, especially in the Three Kingdoms, were there always situations where food routes were cut off? In fact, the simplest reason is that there are only a few routes that can be supplied through baggage trucks. Either this one or that one. Anyway, the baggage trucks A car has only four wheels, so there is no way it can fly directly to the sky with two more wings.

Moreover, in order to reserve grain and grass, the army usually builds a special transshipment base behind the forward position. Even though it knows that this is a huge weakness, it still has to continue to do this. The most fundamental reason is that if the grain and grass are not If you transport a large amount of food and grass at one time and do not build such a transfer camp at the front, the army may starve before the next batch of food and grass arrives...

It's easy to say that a thousand-man-level army is easy to say. Once it exceeds ten thousand people, during the battle, the food and grass alone will consume 18,000 dan per month. This is still infantry. If it is a cavalry like Fei Qian, it will also need to add fodder and Bean feed, then ten thousand cavalry means that a month will consume at least 60,000 shi of food and grass!

Fei Qian also wants to directly recruit a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand troops, and then push it all the way from north to south, without considering the supply of food and grass, without considering the loss of equipment...

But it's obviously impossible.

This is the case on the battlefield. The so-called large army suppresses the situation. In fact, it is a small battle that makes up the entire huge structural system. The so-called big scene that costs one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand is actually a joke in most cases.

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

In the Battle of Chibi, the camp in front of Cao's army caught fire, and the more than 200,000 to 300,000 troops behind him collapsed on their own.

The same goes for Liu Bei's Yiling.

Northern Wei's Er Zhu Rong destroyed Ge Rong's army of hundreds of thousands with tens of thousands, also relying on sneak attacks.

During the Tumubao Incident, more than 200,000 Ming troops were taken in turns by tens of thousands of tiled cavalry...

Having more soldiers is sometimes not a good thing.

Fei Qian doesn't have many troops now, but as long as these soldiers appear at the most critical position on the battlefield, compared with Guanzhong, which is mainly composed of Chang'an Forbidden Army and ordinary infantry recruited temporarily, they are like a steel knife and a slap. The difference is, although it may hurt, the slap will turn red at most, but the steel knife will kill someone!

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

Now we are waiting for the news ahead.

It's like two people fighting. Only when the opponent starts to fight, more flaws are exposed, and only then do you know which ones are real and which ones were pretended before...

…………………………

Suyi County.

Zhao Wen, who was also standing on the city wall inspecting the city defenses, frowned and was a little worried.

There is almost no stock of rolling stone wood in Suyi. Although Zhao Wen has sent a large number of soldiers and mobilized the people in the city to cut down and dig around, the accumulation of these materials is still very large without many handy tools. slow.

But no matter what, Su Yi was still obtained, which made Zhao Wen feel somewhat relieved.

At least when he is stationed in Suyi, it will be difficult for General Zhengxi to march into Chang'an. As the army advances, the most important thing is the safety of the supply line. Suyi is stuck on the official supply line from Diaoyin to Chang'an...

For Guanzhong, Zhao Wen was more worried about the intervention of Fei Qian, the general who conquered the west.

Zhao Wen didn't look down on that old and frail guy Zhong Shao. If Zhao Wen hadn't first reached a tacit understanding with several Guanzhong nobles, he would have found an opportunity to take action.

The money and food for sending troops this time were naturally provided by these noble families. Otherwise, what would it be like to get three melons and two dates from the cultivated land near Chang'an?

With support, there will naturally be rewards. Zhao Wen promised these nobles that after he takes control of Guanzhong in the future, he will sell some land to these nobles. Of course, at this price, it is naturally half-sale and half-free...

Anyway, these are also the lands of those who have escaped from Guanzhong, and they can be regarded as ownerless lands. If they are given to these nobles, Zhao Wen does not have to pay for them himself, so why not?

The premise is that Fei Qian doesn't interfere.

Zhao Wen still remembers that when Xiliang Li and Guo occupied Chaogang, it was because Fei Qian's cavalry suddenly appeared in Guanzhong, which instantly changed the entire situation...

For the cavalry under Fei Qian, Zhao Wen was really envious, jealous, and full of everything.

As soon as the Xiliang soldiers left, Guanzhong's legs became shorter.

no way.

Cavalry is too difficult to raise.

Even if Zhao Wen is willing, the source of war horses is a huge problem. The surrounding nobles have contributed to some extent, and Zhao Wen can collect more than a thousand, but these riders...

Just make do with it.

In the past two days, Zhao Wen sent the only cavalry scouts he had on hand all the way out in order to detect Fei Qian's movements this morning.

Therefore, at this time, Zhao Wen was not only looking forward to knowing the movements of Fei Qian's army as soon as possible, but at the same time he was worried that if Fei Qian's troops were too large, he would not be able to hold on until Xia Mou or Yang Biao’s support...

While Zhao Wen was thinking, suddenly several horses came rushing from the north!

Zhao Wen looked at it intently, and his heart jumped suddenly, because he saw a white feather arrow stuck tremblingly on the left shoulder of one of them, and the blood was already dyed red!

"...Coming! Coming!" Several scouts who rushed to the city rolled off their horses and shouted in embarrassment, "Baili, about Baili to the north, we met the cavalry from Zhengxi! When they met, Xiao Hei The boy is dead! The 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 black man, I don’t care whether your little black man dies or not, bringing me the news is the most important thing.

"...Many, many! Much more than us!" This guy, who was originally an expert horseman in Wubao and has just been transferred to a cavalry scout, shouted incoherently.

Zhao Wen had a sullen face. If he hadn't been worried about damaging morale, he would have even considered dragging these useless guys down and chopping them up.

Fortunately, not long after, other cavalry scouts from the Chang'an Forbidden Army arrived and brought the latest news. General Zhengxi's troops had left Diaoyin, and about eight hundred cavalry were heading towards Suyi!

"But General Zhengxi is in command?" Zhao Wen asked urgently, "Have you seen the flag of General Zhengxi?"

"Reporting to the envoy, I saw no flag for the expedition to the west, only a flag for 'Dang bandit Colonel Zhang'..." the scout replied.

Hearing this, Zhao Wen breathed an inexplicable sigh of relief: "Come here, please quickly send an order to have all surrounding soldiers return to the city! Pull the suspension bridge and close the city gate!"

The distance of a hundred miles is only about an hour for the cavalry, and they came behind Zhao Wen's scout. Therefore, it didn't take long for Zhao Wen to see high dust rising from the north, like a huge stick. Like a plume of smoke, billowing in.

"Everyone is on alert! Archers line up!" Zhao Wen shouted loudly, then looked around and couldn't help shouting, "Where are the arrows? Why just bring them up? Aren't there more than ten thousand in the city's warehouses? Hurry up. Move here quickly!”

Thousands of arrows may sound like a lot, but in fact, when divided among people, there are only twenty or thirty arrows per person, and they can shoot them all in less than an hour!

But you can only pay attention to its use. After all, although arrows are powerful weapons for defending the city, this thing, whether it is an arrow or an arrow shaft, is more troublesome to make and has some special requirements. Therefore, unless the general leading the army is really rough to a certain extent, or is forced into a desperate situation, generally speaking, he will not just cut down a piece of wood or cut off a piece of bamboo and then chip it into an arrow shaft.

Archers have been trained to shoot arrows with a fixed weight. If the center of gravity of a crudely made arrow is not closer to the front, it will float randomly after being shot. If you want to hit someone, you really have to rely on luck...

Insufficient lethality is one aspect, and it also wastes many attack opportunities. After all, human physical strength is limited. Every time you fire a bow, you need to spend physical strength. If you can't kill it, it is wasted in vain. value.

"Report to your Majesty! All the arrows in the city are here!" A military lord reported, "Among the warehouses, only the top few layers have newly made arrows, the rest are old and rotten items from earlier years and cannot be used. "If the arrows are not used, they will gradually rot. Even if they are painted, they will not last for a few years. After all, the arrows are made of iron and will rust. There are gaps in the arrow shafts, moisture and insects." , are fatal for arrow storage.

"...I know, let's be on guard first..." Zhao Wen was angry, but he had no choice. Seeing the cavalry coming from the north getting closer and closer, he couldn't think of 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 gather together and roll in, it is a great shock and deterrence to anyone.

Horse hooves trampled the ground, and hundreds of cavalry spread out under the tricolor flag and the banner of "Dang Kou Xiaowei Zhang" and came slowly. When you get closer, you can see the fluttering red cherry blossoms on the spears of these cavalrymen, the sparkling iron armor, and the men and horses breathing white air, like a huge monster, spreading its teeth and claws to bring the breath of death.

At the top of Suyi City, Zhao Wen's soldiers couldn't help but start a commotion when they saw this scene. They gradually became quiet after the commander of the army, Qu Chang, ran back and forth.

"...the cavalry of General Zhengxi..." Zhao Wen stared closely and murmured softly, not knowing whether he was really thinking this or trying to comfort himself, "...it is indeed extraordinary... ...But, are you going to attack the city...hehe... I wonder if you can still fly up?"