Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2139 Zongbaikui ([-]) Volley by the River
"Soldiers are precious and fast" can be said by everyone, but there are very few people who can do it, and even fewer people understand why Sun Wu said this truth.Many people only look at "soldiers are precious and fast" from the tactical level, and think that Sun Wu's meaning is nothing more than saying that combat should pursue surprise, attack unpreparedness, and defeat the enemy before he reacts.

This understanding is not wrong, but it is not comprehensive, and may not even be the fundamental reason why Sun Wu wrote it down in the Art of War. The core essence of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" is actually "calculation", which is the calculation of accounts, so he said that "soldiers are precious and fast" must also come from "calculation".

Liu Ting's previous understanding of "soldiers are precious and quick" was also at the tactical level. It was not until he received high-level practical guidance during the court war that he began to understand what "soldiers are expensive" at the strategic level, and he also understood "forget". importance.

Sun Tzu said: "The method of employing troops is to drive a thousand four-wheeled chariots, to ride a thousand leather chariots, to carry one hundred thousand armors, and to feed food for a thousand miles. The internal and external expenses, the use of guests, the materials of glue and paint, and the decoration of the chariots and armors cost thousands of gold a day. Then one hundred thousand teachers will be raised.

The literal translation of this passage is that Sun Tzu said: The general rule of using troops in combat is that if you need to use a thousand chariots and a thousand baggage carts, a total of [-] soldiers, and transport food thousands of miles away, then the cost of the front and rear, the diplomatic The cost of envoys, the replenishment of combat equipment, and the maintenance of vehicle armor cost thousands of gold every day, and then a hundred thousand troops can operate.

The simple statement is: fighting wars is fighting money.

According to the book of war, transporting food thousands of miles away is called "20 people serve one person", and it takes 20 people's rations to feed a soldier.This is just the item of food transportation. Soldiers' armor, weapons, war horses, etc., which one does not cost money, and which one spends less?

Therefore, the law of war says: It is more expensive to use war to win, if it lasts for a long time, blunt troops will be defeated, for attacking a city, it will be weak, and for a long time, violent divisions will make the country insufficient.

The use of troops requires quick victory, protracted time will wear down the weapons and equipment, and the morale of the army will be dampened. Siege will exhaust the army's strength, and the army will be in trouble for the country's finances if the army fights for a long time.

In this regard, Americans should have a deep understanding. From 1961 to 1975, the rice army fought in Vietnam for more than ten years, and sent more than 250 million people to Vietnam, of which more than 54 were ground troops. Except for the use of atomic bombs, all sophisticated weapons were used.

However, the United States not only failed to win the final victory, but instead killed 5.8 people, injured more than 10 people, and consumed a total of 760 million tons of ammunition—equivalent to three times its consumption during World War II, costing nearly 3000 billion yuan. Finally, under the pressure of the anti-war wave sweeping the country, they had to withdraw their troops.

In the Vietnam War, the United States won most of the battles, but ultimately lost the entire war.

The art of war also says: if a blunt soldier defeats a sharp one, and if he bends his strength to destroy his goods, the princes will take advantage of the disadvantages and rise up. Although there are wise men, they will not be able to follow suit.Therefore, the soldiers have heard of clumsy speed, but have not seen the coincidence for a long time.

If the weapons and equipment are worn out, the morale of the army is bruised, the military power is exhausted, and the country's economy is exhausted, then other princes will take the opportunity to launch an attack. At that time, even if there are resourceful people, there is no way to restore this situation.Therefore, when fighting with soldiers, I have only heard of honest and quick decisions, but I have never seen tricky and long-lasting ones.

There are many explanations for "the old soldier has heard the clumsy speed, but it has not been seen for a long time", but the core idea is to make a quick decision because it cannot be delayed.

When Gao Wushi first explained these principles to Liu Ting, Liu Ting was actually not very convinced, because he felt that Gao Wushi commanded the army several times and did not fully implement the concept of "soldiers are expensive and fast". It was nothing more than quelling the chaos in the northwest.

Only in that battle, Gao Wushi played the magic weapon from the sky. In other previous battles, Liu Ting felt that Gao Wushi played very "positively", which was just in the middle of the law, and his main focus was on stability.

However, before this Western Expedition, as Gao Wushi continued to give him some advice and analyzed each item of preparations for the Western Expedition, he suddenly understood.Gao Yushi's "soldiers are expensive and fast" is at the strategic level, which is completely different from his previous understanding.

First of all, Gao Yushi never fights a second time—meaning, he either doesn't make a move, or he has to solve the problem once, leaving no chance for the enemy to make trouble again.

It was very common for a battle to be fought this year but the problem was not completely resolved, and it ended up having to be fought again next year, but Liu Ting found that Gao Yushi's subordinates had never had such a thing.

Annan, Dingbei, Pingxi, Zhengdong, Gao Yushi, but if he goes out in person, he will definitely solve all the problems and resolutely not give the chance to revive, and this is the strategic level of "speed" - the "speed" here is not necessarily It only refers to playing fast, but the overall time required to solve one thing is short enough.

It is true that this kind of thing may only be done by a civil servant like Gao Yushi, because the so-called "not giving a chance to revive" often requires the cooperation of political means after the war, and a military general like Liu Ting obviously has insufficient authority.

However, this comprehension still allowed Liu Ting to improve a lot, because only by understanding the truth, he would be able to cooperate with the follow-up political strikes in the military and know what to fight.

According to some forecast data that Gao Wu gave him before the war, the cost of this Western Expedition can be called astronomical. The court will need to spend tens of millions of taels of silver just before the army is dispatched. If the war cannot be carried out smoothly and quickly If it is over, then every three months of delay, the court will spend an extra sixty-seven million taels of money.

Every extra month will cost an extra 200 million taels. What kind of concept is this?Even though Liu Ting didn't care much about these things in the past, he was still shocked by this number.Therefore, now he is well aware of the great responsibility he has. If he can fight faster, he must fight faster;

The [-] cavalry and about [-] Verluberg mine guards quickly set off.Because it is still a hundred miles away from Suzhou City, Liu Ting's troops still maintain the state of marching with horses.According to his plan, he will switch to a riding position when he is only about [-] miles away from Suzhou, enter the battlefield at a slow pace, and then change to a fast pace after he can be seen by the city chief of Suzhou, so that he can fight before Suzhou is too late. In case of reaction, directly break the city.

There is good news at this time, the Wei Lubao mine guard team actually has horses.Although the horses in the fort are not war horses, but a batch of draft horses originally purchased from the Tumet western tribe through trade, there are a total of [-] horses, but in any case, they are still used temporarily for riding and hauling artillery. owned.

Of course, Liu Ting's official seal was needed to call this batch of horses, because Gao He, the deacon of the Welubao Copper Mine, and Gao Duo, the column leader of the mine guard team, did not have enough authority to control these horses. Its mission is to protect group assets.

Liu Ting was different. Gao Yushi gave Liu Ting a lot of power, allowing him to mobilize all Jinghua's people, materials, and financial resources in Gansu when he thought it was necessary.

The addition of the Weilubao mine protection team gave Liu Ting's troops the most urgently needed artillery support, and the two sides formed a coalition to rush towards Suzhou City in the southwest.

At the beginning, Liu Ting's men were quite worried about whether the Weilubao mine guard team could keep up with their marching speed, but after walking for ten or twenty miles, they finally felt relieved.Gao Duo didn't brag. It's hard to say how the mine guard team will fight, but it's true that they are all iron feet.The weapons and supplies on their backs were even heavier than those of the cavalry soldiers of the Liu family army, but none of them fell behind. It seems that the physical fitness of those who can be miners is really good.

Of course, such an important march is not just such a foolish way to go straight to Suzhou. Liu Ting once again sent Yeburei, divided into five groups, in a fan-shaped reconnaissance of the situation ahead.

This time, Liu Ting took out all the Yebushou in his hands, and the orders he issued were also very strict. For example, when he found a small group of enemy troops probing horses, Yebushou could choose to wipe them out on the spot—as long as you are sure of the complete annihilation That's fine.

Facts have proved that this order is very necessary, because after the five teams were not collected at night, two of them encountered a small group of scout horses from the Chahar Mongolian army. I plan to come to Weiluburg to investigate the situation.

As I said before, the Mongolian army stopped attacking the large bastion of Weluburg after they couldn't take it down, but instead sent people to monitor it.Their surveillance does not mean sending people to stay outside the fort for a long time, but sending a group of cavalry to inspect the horses every day.What Liu Ting's department encountered at night was the group of Mongolian soldiers who were going to inspect Welubao today.

Ye Bushou, who encountered this group of Mongolian troops exploring horses, was not superior in terms of strength, because the opponent had about 120 cavalry, while his own had only [-] cavalry.According to Liu Ting's order, the war can only be started with the certainty of completely annihilating the opponent. If it is an ordinary Ming army cavalry, most of them can only retreat as much as possible at this time.

However, this night is not received is a bit out of the ordinary, they actually decided to wipe out these Mongolian explorers.

It stands to reason that even if the Mongolian cavalry were not the most capable of fighting on the grassland, they should at least be the most capable of running on the grassland. Even if it is extremely difficult to become a top-level scout like "No Night" in the Ming army, I am afraid that they are outnumbered. At that time, it was impossible to guarantee the complete annihilation of the superior Mongolian cavalry.

However, this group of people who do not accept the soldiers at night is a fierce man-Liu Zhaosun.

Liu Zhaosun was originally the one with the most outstanding personal force under Liu Ting's command. In the past years, he had been both a vanguard and a leader of the personal army. His riding skills are beyond doubt.This time when the troops were dispatched to attack Suzhou, it had entered the most critical moment, so he took the initiative to ask Ying to be in charge of this "fire reconnaissance", so he was actually the top person in charge of the five teams sent by Liu Ting who did not accept them at night.

How to wipe out two hundred Mongolian cavalry without accepting 120 nights?If it was on the endless prairie, Liu Zhaosun would be the same, because the reason is obvious: even if the Mongolian cavalry cannot fight, at least they can run.As long as they choose to flee in all directions, it is impossible for Yebushu, who is at a disadvantage in strength, to guarantee that they will all be left behind.You can't keep them all, even if only one escapes, it means that the battle has failed.

However, this is not an endless prairie, this is already the Hexi Corridor!

He originally traveled along the Beida River, and at this time he was walking near the later Yuanyangchi Reservoir [Note: The reservoir was built in 1943 and does not exist yet, but in the past Beida River turned here and formed a A shallow water depression and reed marshes similar to tidal flats. ].

There is not only a reed marsh here, but also a hilly land with ravines and ravines on the east side of the reed marsh.This is a sparsely wooded hill—that is to say, there are some sparse trees, but they are not densely packed, which can serve as some cover and do not hinder the horses from traveling in it.

Liu Zhaosun also "learned" at Erdemutu and knew what the Mongolian cavalry would do if they entered such an environment.He judged that this Mongolian cavalry would definitely wade across the river directly from the shallows out of the mentality of "saving trouble" in this vicinity, and would not find trouble for themselves and run to the deep water area to "cross the river with leather bags".At the same time, the Mongolian cavalry will definitely drink their horses here, so that the horses can replenish water near here.

The only question is whether this Mongolian cavalry intends to drink horses in the west of Beidahe before crossing the river, or cross the river first and then go east to drink horses?

If it is the former, there is nothing to say, we can only wait for their chance to cross the river, and launch a surprise attack after they have just completed crossing the river-at this time, we cannot engage in half-crossing strikes, because half-crossing strikes cannot wipe them all out, we must wait for them When everyone crosses the river but their foothold is not stable and the whole team needs to start again, the time must be grasped just right, and it can't be done earlier or later.

Earlier, the Mongolian cavalry who hadn't crossed the river might have turned around and ran back to report to the Mongolian army in Suzhou; later, the whole team had been completed, and the effect of launching a surprise attack would be poor, at least it would increase their own losses.

This is the case of drinking the horses first and then crossing the river. Another situation is that the Mongolian cavalry crosses the river first and then drinks the horses.In this case, Liu Zhaosun didn't have to rush to start it, but could wait until they picked the horse drinking position, completely break up the team, and let everyone lead their horses to drink horses before starting.

This kind of opportunity is better than getting a firm foothold after crossing the river, because although the foothold is not stable, at least people are on the horse and the team is relatively concentrated. Anti-raid, trying to save some of the situation.

However, drinking horses scattered around is different. No matter how prestigious your commander is, objectively, it will be difficult for everyone to gather together and launch a counter-surprise attack immediately. Because at that time, the water source has long been turned into mud after passing by the horses galloping, so you can't drink it indiscriminately, and you must change it to a place upstream, where the water is deeper.

It is okay to let the horses drink water in this kind of place, but since the water is deep, they will not be able to wade back to Hexi when they encounter a surprise attack, and the probability of being wiped out will be greatly increased.

Liu Zhaosun led more than 120 men to hide in the ravines of the sparsely wooded hills. He held a binoculars and a helmet full of weeds on his head, nervously staring at the movements of the Mongolian cavalry in front of him.

They reached the river, they chose the shallow mud flat, they made a way among the reeds, they... crossed the river.

Liu Zhaosun took a deep breath and slammed his fist on the loess barrier in front of him: "Very well, these Tartars are going to drink horses in the east of the river. Let's stay calm and wait a little longer until they break up. Outflank the east and south roads, they must be wiped out, one is not... no, you have to leave a few tongues, and ask about the situation in Suzhou city!"
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PS: In the past two days, my son has been positive and is currently having a fever, but his constitution may be similar to mine. The symptoms are obvious but the antigen is still negative.However, today's festival may be of great significance to children, and they have to go out to play despite their feverish bodies. I can only say... I hope that happiness can relieve the pain.I also wish all readers who have children at home to stay away from the epidemic and have a happy family. Everyone, big friends and children, are happy today:)

(End of this chapter)