Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 334 Chang'an's Last Chance

If one word were to be used to describe He Chuan's mood today, it would be numb.

He had just personally overseen the capture of the Xiwei Bridge, and the Jinchang Army had left hundreds of corpses and retreated back to Chang'an City in embarrassment.

Just waiting for food and grass to be replenished, and after catching up with some young men, they will go to Chang'an for a while.

As a result, the food and grass have not been collected until now, and there is a possibility that they will be surrounded.

He has been receiving reports since three days ago that a small group of soldiers who went out to collect food went missing. He originally thought that he had run too far and was ambushed by the united soldiers in the countryside.

But today, even a grain requisition team of 100 to [-] people cannot guarantee safety.

Then it must not have been done by the united soldiers. Even if half of the dozens of people have armor, it is not something that the united soldiers can deal with.

After confirming that the national army in Huazhou Township had not been dispatched, the identities of the troops who attacked them were clearly revealed.

It must be the Hexi Guiyi Army who came from Sanguankou. Only they can successfully rob and kill the teams sent by He Chuan to collect food.

Because they have a large number of horses and elite knights, they can use their strong mobility to ensure the efficiency and success rate of interception.

Originally, Guanzhong also raised horses. Qin, Han and Tang dynasties had horse breeding land in Guanzhong, but since the fall of the Tang Dynasty, Guanzhong could not afford to raise horses.

Because for farmers in the Guanzhong states, raising horses is actually a very expensive thing.

In Liangzhou and other places, one only needs to find a valley with lush water and grass to raise horses.A few herdsmen can raise dozens or even hundreds of horses.

But not in Guanzhong. After thousands of years of development in Guanzhong, all the places with lush water and grass have been reclaimed into farmland.

If you want to raise horses, you can only let the horses compete with people for rations, so the cost will be very high.

The Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties were able to raise horses because of the support of the state machine, and the reduction in income and food shortages brought about by raising horses was paid by the state.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, when you sing, I will appear on the stage, and the one with the strongest soldiers and horses will be the emperor.

Regardless of whether it is the emperor, the kings of various places, or the commander-in-chief, the most important thing is to prevent the people below from rebelling.

Who cares about raising horses in Guanzhong? This kind of investment is huge and requires long-term maintenance to see benefits.

Therefore, even though Weizhou and Wuzhou, the envoys of the Zhangyi Army, had the habit of raising horses, the proportion of cavalry was not high among the rebellious soldiers in Hechuan, let alone the Huazhou Township Army.

So now there are so many war horses and cavalry, only the Hexi Guiyi Army with horse breeding land and customs.

The Guanzhong army, such as He Chuan's rebel army, has more than 2000 people, but only four to five thousand mules and horses.There are less than [-] people who can be used as cavalry.

Faced with the situation where his food requisition team was being attacked everywhere, He Chuan also sent his own cavalry to fight back.However, little has been achieved.

Those Guiyi soldiers from Hexi came and went like the wind, and they had rich combat experience. They were as cunning as foxes. As long as they saw He Chuan's cavalry dispatched, they would retreat in advance.Not entangled with the peloton at all.

Defense Wu on the side frowned, "Since the Hexi Guiyi Army has appeared near the Xiwei Bridge, even if Qianzhou has not been captured, I am afraid it is still under siege.

Now we have been cut off by someone!Collect grain from all around, let alone if it cannot be collected, I am afraid that a large army must be dispatched to protect the grain transport from the granary in Xingping County. It is better to give up attacking Chang'an and retreat to Xingping County for repairs. "

He Chuan closed his eyes and began to think. He clenched his fists and rattled, thinking about it, but there was no good solution.

But it is impossible for him to lead the army back now.

Ha ha!After laying down the Xiwei Bridge but announcing that they will not enter Chang'an, the generals who have been waiting to enter Chang'an to loot wantonly will inevitably make trouble.

If he really wants to attract the whole army to howl and get angry, it is possible to kill him, He Chuan.

And if they continue to attack Chang'an, the back road has already been seriously threatened. Xingping County, which is hoarding grain and grass, is still dozens of miles away from Xiwei Bridge. Once it is captured, it will be troublesome.

"General Zhang Zhen, the only plan now is to mobilize all the cavalry from each department, and I will give you [-] cavalry.

General Zhou Shi, I will give you another five hundred elite soldiers, and you will transport two thousand shi of grain and grass from the Northeast Warehouse in Xingping County to Xiwei Bridge. "

Zhang Xiaoguo and Zhou Huer Zhou Shijiang frowned at the same time, but soon, Zhang Xiaoguo's brows relaxed, only Zhou Shijiang still had an unhappy look on his face.

Where did He Chuan want him to transport these two thousand stone loads of grain? He was obviously asking him to be a bait.

Seeing General Zhou Shi's displeasure, He Chuan squeezed out a smile and explained: "I see the cavalry of the Hexi Guiyi Army acting recklessly, and they even look down on us. If there is two thousand shi of grain and grass escorted, they will definitely not let it go.

To eat the [-] elite soldiers escorted, you have to mobilize more than a thousand cavalry. I think the total number of cavalry they have near the Xiwei Bridge is just these.

If General Zhou Shi can use the chariot formation to dampen his spirit first and restrain him, then General Zhang Zhen will lead his troops to kill him.Even if they can't be wiped out, they can still tear off a large piece of their flesh so that they don't dare to harass them anymore. "

. . . .

In fact, Qianzhou was not captured. Although He Chuan only left 700 to [-] soldiers to defend Qianzhou, the city of Qianzhou is not big, and the city walls are quite high. Six to seven hundred people are enough to defend.

Therefore, after Zhang Zhao tried once or twice, he did not continue to attack, and his main target was still the more than [-] rebels under He Chuan's command.

If the He Chuan Rebellion was defeated or even wiped out, the hundreds of people in Qianzhou would be nothing more than fish on the chopping board.

So Zhang Zhao left hundreds of soldiers from the Erzhujing Department to guard the rebel army in Qianzhou City, and then ordered Murong Xinchang and Bai Congxin to be the vanguard to attack the grain requisition team around the Xiwei Bridge in advance. Lead the army to the West Wei Bridge.

And He Chuan's so-called trick to lure the enemy was actually already in Zhang Zhao's expectation.

Because Zhang Zhao took He Chuan into him and thought about it. If he encountered He Chuan's situation, the only way he could think of was to throw a bait to attract the enemy cavalry to attack with all their strength, and then eat the cavalry.
Now that he knew this situation, it was impossible for Zhang Zhao not to stay behind, so the cavalry who surrounded the Xiwei Bridge and attacked the Hechuan grain transport team were not the only one thousand cavalry led by Murong Nobunaga, Li Cunhui, and Hu Guang. about.

In fact, when Murong Xinchang and the others were attacking everywhere, Bai Congxin led another [-] cavalry, plus more than [-] people from the Li Yanli Department of the Gyeongju Party as a backup, and they had been squatting for a long time.

Bai Congxin looked at the high sun and wiped the sweat from his brow. The Guanzhong Plain was already a bit hot at the end of June.

In fact, this month is not a good time for combat. The weather is sweltering, and the physical strength of soldiers will be exhausted quickly after wearing armor.

And now is a critical period for grain growth. A war at this time will greatly affect the grain harvest.

But the rebels don't care about this, Bai Congxin sighed, even if this year's rebellion is successfully quelled, the harvests of these counties in Guanzhong will be over, how many people will starve to death this year?
Just as the commander of the horse army, who was born as a horse thief and already had some sympathy for the farmers, was sighing, Murong Xinchang rode his horse and ran over from a distance.

"Commander Bai, we have found the main force of the rebel cavalry, but they are very careful and have been walking up the Wei River. There are quite a few Tanma and Youyi troops released. It is estimated that it will not be easy to surprise them."

Bai Congxin smiled faintly, "If we can't surprise them, then we will keep them under control. In addition, we should send someone to report to Sikong immediately, saying that we have confirmed that the rebel army's food storage point is in Xinping County."

For Bai Congxin, it would be best if he could hit the rebel cavalry by surprise.

But if the enemy is already prepared, it is also a good harvest to find the exact food storage point of the rebels.

. . . .

Zhang Xiaoguo didn't know his prudence, and saved his own life and the lives of more than a thousand cavalrymen.

As one of the most powerful generals in the rebel army, Zhang Xiaoguo still had some ability, and even He Chuan had to rely on him in many ways.

So after sending out a large number of Tanma and You Yijun, Zhang Xiaoguo obviously noticed something was wrong.

If there were only a thousand cavalry coming from the opposite side, then his Tan Ma and You Yi Army would not have been beaten so badly.

In cavalry battles, one side compresses the other side's search space, which is the most common and most effective method.

Often when the two cavalry are about to approach, there will be many and fierce dog fights, in order to make each other 'blind'.

The coach can often infer the number of enemies from this small-scale dog fight.

Sure enough, when Sun Xiaoguo felt that the battle was getting more and more intense and he could no longer handle it, Tanma finally sent amazing news.

About [-] cavalrymen rushed over from the north and west, and General Zhou Shi, who was not willing to be used as a bait, simply abandoned two thousand shi of grain and ran back to Xingping County after being notified by Sun Xiaoguo middle.

This was the right choice. Sun Xiaoguo also began to lead the cavalry back to the Xiwei Bridge before the siege of the Guiyi Army's cavalry was completed.

On the north bank of the Weihe River, the two sides launched a more intense small force fight, and even a chase battle with hundreds of people.

At this time, the army led by Zhang Zhao was less than sixty miles away from the Xiwei Bridge. After solving the problem of whether to fight the rebels alone, the speed of action of the Guiyi Army was astonishing.

Moreover, Zhang Zhao didn't know that his decision this time would save the last bit of life for the entire Guanzhong.

Because before being ransacked by the rebellious army.At this time, Guanzhong actually had a population of more than two million.

The counties of Xingping and Wannian near the Chang'an River alone have a population of more than [-]. It can be said that Chang'an is not completely dilapidated.

Historically, the rebellion was not very big, but it also caused the entire Chang'an and surrounding counties to lose [-] to [-] people. Counting Bin, Qian and other prefectures, at least more than [-] people lost.

The rebellion was not very big, but it led to a very serious consequence, which was to scare away many farmers in Guanzhong.

After the population of Guanzhong dropped sharply, the Central Plains Dynasty was no longer able to defend this place.

At this time, Hou Shu, who was gradually becoming prosperous and strong, saw the weakness of the Central Plains Dynasty in Guanzhong, and stepped up the attack on the Guanzhong area.

This led to more than [-] wars and chaos in Guanzhong in the next ten years.

And ten years later, during the rebellion of the gutsy Zhao Siwan and Hou Shu's war to capture Chengfeng, Qin and other prefectures, the population of the entire Guanzhong will be reduced by more than half, and there will be no one in Chang'an, which has a population of more than [-].

Since then, the foundation of Qin, Han, Tang and Three Dynasties, the Guanzhong Plain, the heartland of Chinese culture, has never risen again.

Zhang Zhao didn't choose to attack the rebels after reuniting with An Shenqi and others, but secretly kept a fairly basic Guanzhong.

(End of this chapter)