Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 746 Breakthrough
Qi Bizhang has entered Yingzhou.

The horse raced all the way, and there was hardly a soldier in sight.You said why you can't see it, then you have to ask Lao Zhu how many troops he has.

In Zhengzhou camp, there were newly formed left and right Longwu armies, Ge Cong Zhoubu and Tingzidu, with a total of more than 1.8 people.

In the camp in Suzhou, there were the Feisheng and Xiongwei armies led by Shi Shucong, and the Shucong's own army controlled Hedu, with about 2.1 people.

During the camp in Caozhou, under Zhu Zhen's tent there were the left and right sudden generals, the left and right yamen, the left and right Desheng, the Qinqi, and the Zhusheng five armies, plus the two capitals of Tabai and Yingwu, totaling 2.7 people.

On the front line of Xuzhou, the Pang Shigu Group has the largest force, including the Feilong, Jianrui, Changjian, Kuangwei, Jiama, and Youguo armies, and currently has 7 soldiers ready to fight.

The above are the relatively capable troops under Zhu Quanzhong's tent, but after fighting for so many years, many new recruits have come in, and their combat effectiveness has declined compared to a few years ago.

In Xuzhou City, there are more than 5000 remnant soldiers from Poxia Capital, 1.7 soldiers from Luoyan Capital, and [-] from Zhongwu Yajun, for a total of [-], and nearly half of them are newly recruited.

Caizhou has more than 1.1 Zhongwu troops from Yang Shihou and [-] Fengguo Town Yajun from Zhang Quanyi, with a total of more than [-] people. The latter is still newly recruited.

There are tens of thousands of people in the right wing of the Changzhi Army in Bianzhou City, which are relatively elite.In addition, Zhang Guibian recruited and trained, and Xie Yanzhang now took over the eight armies of Shenwu, Tianwu, Longxiang, Longhu, Tianwei, Guangsheng, Shenjie, and Tianxing, with a total of about 5 people, collectively referred to as the "Eighth Army of Bianliang".

It's a pity that they are all recruits who have only been training for more than a year, so they can't be used much.Moreover, Zhu Quanzhong did this, regardless of financial pressure, it was really militaristic, which also showed that he was impatient.

The ones who can really fight are more than [-] regular troops. Apart from the troops guarding the core cities such as Bianzhou, and the troops who are stalemate with the Xia army on the front line, how many mobile troops does he have?They are all "dead things" that are squatting on the front line and cannot move.

Is it enough for Zhu Zhen and Shi Shucong's 5 or [-] people to defend the front of the Great Plain, which is nearly [-] miles wide on the eastern front?
To put it bluntly, since the defeat of Luoyang, Liang Jun, who has been increasingly short of troops, has found it difficult to maintain the front line.The more than [-] regular troops are not as capable as Dashun's two or three year olds.Otherwise, do you really think that the Xialiang War in [-] was fought for nothing?

So the Feilong army marched along the Yingshui River, collecting grain, grass and horse mules in the countryside, and none of the soldiers of the Liang army saw it.The local prefecture and county soldiers were weak in combat effectiveness, and their numbers were far smaller than that of the government army, so they could only guard the city and let them go about their activities in the wild.

On the third day of the twelfth lunar month, the army suddenly detoured westward, crossed the Ru River, defeated Shen Qiu, who had only [-] county soldiers, and entered the county seat.

"Now the thieves can mobilize soldiers and horses to chase after our army. Only Dai Siyuan in Chenzhou and Yang Shihou in Shangcai." Inside the county government, Qi Bizhang summoned the generals to discuss matters, only to hear him say: "Master Yang, I think He doesn't really want to fight, and he only has a thousand cavalry, so it's nothing to worry about. Even if he wants to chase us, he can't catch up with us, and if he catches up with us, he can't catch up with those cavalry alone. The most dangerous is the thousands of people in Dai Siyuan. The ability to seriously damage our army. We have to find a way to eat this part, so as to avoid future troubles."

"I think Yang Shihou is careful. He was not from the Quanzhong lineage, and he was thrown into the Zhongwu Army. Zhao Jue didn't trust him. Over the years, he led thousands of people to fight outside, sometimes in Ruzhou, sometimes in Caizhou, After a while, Heluo, I think those six or seven thousand paces will almost become his private army."

"Master Yang, who came to be the empress of Cai, moved slowly and without a clue, and he didn't look like he was fighting a war."

"Weisheng's army broke through Langshan Mountain and sent troops to Zhenyang. The rebels retreated without a fight. The Cui Hong Division of the Huaining Army attacked Baoxin County. Caizhou has already been taken by our army for three counties. Counting new news, that is There are four counties. There are four counties in the ten counties, can the thieves not panic?"

"If the thieves don't come, the land will be taken by Zhe's father and son. Not only Caizhou is like this, but Yingzhou is also like this. Are there soldiers in Yingzhou? If it's not for the state and county soldiers, I'm afraid it won't do anything."

"Avoid reality and act falsely. The art of war is the right way. Isn't it a disease to go head-to-head with others? I think Xiaozhe Sikong's strategy is good."

Qi Bizhang listened with a smile on his face.

Zhu Quanzhong's original military strength was at most 20.But in these years, how many troops have been wiped out?The lands of Meng, Huai, Luo, Ru, Chu, Si, Hao, Shou, Guang, and Shenzhou were also lost. At present, only Bian, Song, Bo, Ying, Chen, Xu, Cai, Xu, Su, Cao, Shan, Hua, and Zheng thirteen prefectures have greatly reduced their population, money and food, and they can support the current scale of soldiers and horses, which is already militaristic.

Internally, it is a common practice for soldiers to flee and become bandits by pulling out troops; the stinky winds of the Yellow River are smashed for ten miles, which disappoints the scholars; With the Yellow River gone forever.

Now being besieged on three sides, the troops are stretched thin, and the two towns of Xuanwu and Xuanyi are extremely empty.All the troops that could be mobilized were transferred to the west and north to block the holes. Even if Han Xin was resurrected and reborn in vain, it would be difficult to recover.

"The most important thing now is to attract the culprits, gather them and wipe them out." Qi Bizhang raised his hand to stop everyone's discussion, and said, "As long as Dai Siyuan or one of Yang Shihou's units are eliminated, the situation will be very different."

……

On the frozen ground east of Heyin County, a large group of cavalry roared towards them.

They came on the ice of the Yellow River and ran horses in the vast Zhengzhou territory.

These are the thousands of local villagers collected in Heyang.

Yes, they are Xiangyong!
Xiangyong rides a horse and shoots arrows, which is extremely rare in the Central Plains.Especially when thousands of them appeared at once, it simply overturned people's cognition.

But that's the truth.

The rural production structure has changed. They are no longer farmers facing the loess and their backs to the sky. Many people have large livestock at home, including cattle, camels, and naturally horses.

In addition, Heyang also has a government-run ranch, and the horses in it have been replenished in the second half of the year, and the number is huge, which can fully support the consumption.

This may be an "absurd" scene that overturns the history of war since ancient times.In ancient times, other imperial courts did not have private horse breeding, but most of them were concentrated in border counties, and the number was not very large.

For example, during the Xuanzong Dynasty, 76 horses were raised throughout the country, of which less than 50 were horses on government-run ranches, and the remaining 30 million were privately-raised horses, mainly in Hexi and Longyou towns.This is the number obtained after the introduction of the policy to encourage horse breeding. If there is no such stimulus policy, I am afraid that only wealthy households will raise horses, and ordinary people would rather raise sheep.

There are less than [-] households in Heyang Town. Under the three-crop crop rotation system, most people choose to raise sheep, and [-] acres of alfalfa field can support [-] sheep.But there are still many people who choose to keep at least one horse, which is a huge number.

If the Heyang shogunate introduced some policies, for example, if all families kept at least one horse, then there would be at least [-] horses in the whole town, or even more than [-] horses.

There is a huge gap in the amount of livestock maintenance between pure planting and mixed farming and animal husbandry.

And if we only talk about raising horses and other livestock, the grasslands can't compare with the Central Plains at all.Even if the Central Plains does not cultivate land and turns it into grassland, it will be a top-level pasture that is hundreds of times better than the grassland.A place like Ukraine in later generations was part of the southern Russian grasslands when it was not developed, with cattle and sheep everywhere. After development, it became the European granary, full of wheat.

Once horses are raised in agricultural or industrial society, how can the arid grassland be compared? In 1813, Napoleon ordered the search for horses, and the result was 350 million horses. There is no other reason, that is, farmers have a tradition of raising livestock, and they are also a mixed system of farming and animal husbandry, unlike China, which is almost all planting.

As for Tsarist Russia, there were even 3500 million horses during World War I.Once the traditional farming and agricultural areas are fully activated, the ability to raise horses can burst out of eight streets of grassland.

Among Shao Shude's lands in the Central Plains, Heyang Town, which was originally a piece of white land, implemented the three-crop crop rotation system most thoroughly, and has been replenishing livestock for several years.It is conceivable that after a few more years of development, this is an alternative to the northern agricultural belt.

Now Henan Province is also gradually promoting this agricultural production model, let's see in five years?
Song Le, the governor of Heyang, once calculated that if the Henan government recovers to 40 households, Ruzhou has [-] households, and Heyang also has [-] households, and if all the horses are in place, it may not be possible to pull out [-] to [-] horses. horse.And it's not just a matter of horses, farmers who raise horses will definitely learn to ride horses in their spare time, and even take part in multiple subjects when participating in rural training: riding and shooting.

Xiangyong in Mianchi County has this kind of training, and this county does not force horses, but it is not a problem to draw [-] cavalry.

For hundreds of years, the Great Khan of the Grassland has used hundreds of thousands of people to control strings. I don't know how they feel when they see millions of brave people in the Central Plains riding horses and archery.

Of course, Song Le also knew that most of this could only happen in the early days of the dynasty when the politics were clear.After a long time, farmers are unwilling to raise horses. At that time, various frauds will occur, and the number of horses in the country will probably drop significantly.But no matter what, it is not a problem to save more than five times the number of horses in the Xuanzong Dynasty all over the country, and most of them are located in the northern states. This is a very huge force.When fighting against the barbarians in the grassland, there is no shortcoming.

More than 3000 cavalry passed by from the east of Heyin County.

Ge Congzhou stood at the top of the city and watched them leave.

"Is this the Great Khan of the Grassland or the Jiedushi of the Central Plains?" Even though he knew that Shao Shude had unified many grassland tribes, he still couldn't help himself when he saw these cavalrymen wearing their own clothes and looking like brave men going east. Can't help scolding my mother.

He even wanted to suggest that King Liang learn the agricultural farming mode under Shao Shude's rule.But when he thought of the intricate land rights in Henan, he could only sigh, it was hard to divide.

"Zhengzhou! Oh, it's hit the nail on the head again." Ge Congzhou hated him.

Zhengzhou's troops are insufficient, and most of them are infantry. How can they catch up with these Xia people who are riding horses?
Since he is brave in the countryside, he is definitely not as good at fighting as the Yajun, and he is also timid accordingly, so he is very slippery in fighting.Don't fight if you can't fight, just run away, you can't catch up with me anyway.If you encounter someone who has been able to fight, more than a thousand riders and more than two thousand riders will rush forward together and beat you hundreds of village braves who transport grain and grass. The chances of winning are still very high.

He suddenly felt that his fate might be similar to that of Huo Cun.

(End of this chapter)