Mi Han

Chapter 240
Mi Yang handed over the command of the army outside the city to Zhang Nan, and he himself led the army into Wudang City after Feng Xi completely controlled Wudang City.

Although in order to control Wudang City, some Han troops began to enter Wudang City.

However, Mi Yang did not let all the Han troops enter Wudang City. He still left more than ten thousand troops in the north of the city to defend Wudang City.

When there are enough troops, it is necessary to leave a large army outside the city to serve as horns with the city.

When Mi Yang led his troops into the city, the first thing he asked Yanping was: "Where is the granary in the city?"

Under Mi Yang's inquiry, Yanping immediately took Mi Yang to the granary in the east of Wudang City.

In important cities, there are basically granaries.

The places where grain was stored in ancient times included Granary, Lane, Jing, Cellar, Dou and so on.

Although the names are different, the purpose is the same, and they are all used to store food.

Among them, Lin, 囷, and Jing are above-ground buildings, and cellars and sinuses are located underground.

Wudang County is important because it is the west gate of Nanyang County.

Because of the strategic significance of Wudang County in the military, although the scale of Wudang City is not large, there are four granaries built here.

It is currently September of the first year of Yankang, which is the month of autumn harvest.

As early as August, Cao Ren's military campaign against Hanxing County had already begun, so logically speaking, there should not be much grain in the granary at present.

But this kind of situation only belongs to the princes Liu Bei and Sun Quan in the south, while the forces of Cao Wei in the north have no such restrictions.

Although the combined territory of Liu Bei and Sun Quan is very large, most of their territories are concentrated in the south of the Yangtze River, so most of the crops in their territories are mainly rice or wheat.

For Cao Wei, the Yellow River Basin, the origin of Chinese civilization, is within his sphere of influence.

Around the Yellow River Basin, it is very conducive to the cultivation of corn.

Corn is the millet of later generations.

The ancients often talked about five grains. There are many different terms for five grains in ancient times. There are two main ones: one refers to rice, millet, millet, wheat, and bean; the other refers to hemp, millet, millet, wheat, and bean.

The millet in the five grains refers to corn.

With the continuous changes in Chinese history, the crops that are the main food for Chinese people are also constantly changing with the times.

But in the Han Dynasty, the staple food of the northern Chinese people was corn.

There are various reasons why corn can become the staple food of the northern Chinese people.

Corn is resistant to drought and poverty, and has a stable yield. It was the only cereal crop that showed a surplus in ancient times before the development of rice.

"Lunheng · Straightforwardness" records: "Ximen Leopard irrigates with Zhang water, and the (millet) mu harvests one bell."

The yield of millet per mu is ten shi, converted into the current measurement unit, and one mu yields 205 catties of millet.

In the Han Dynasty, "The Second Year of Emperor Wen of the Former Han Dynasty" recorded that "the harvest of a hundred mu is only three hundred stones", which is converted into the current unit yield of 281 jin per mu, which is still relatively poor.

The ultra-high yield guaranteed corn, which occupied the pillar position in the social food structure before Tang and Song Dynasties.

Compared with the yield per mu of rice and wheat in the same period, the yield of corn is several times higher than that of rice and wheat.

In addition, corn has the characteristics of long storage time.

The shelf life of corn is as long as 9 years, while the shelf life of rice is only 5 years at most. It can be seen that corn is naturally used as military food.

According to historical records, 20 years after the fall of the Sui Dynasty, the accumulated millet in the treasury of Chang'an was still edible.

Moreover, corn is eaten by people and horses in the military camp, and the energy contained in corn is very high.

In the Han Dynasty, in order to ensure the sufficient physical strength of the war horses, the concentrated feed added to the war horses was corn.

According to the records of "Salt and Iron Theory": "One horse is a horse, the food for the six members of the middle family, and one dead man."

One war horse will eat the rations of at least six people, and during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the country had 1 horses.

If it weren't for the high yield of corn, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty would not have been able to raise so many war horses.

Corn has a short maturation time, and corn sown in spring can be harvested around summer.

Summer sown corn can be harvested around winter.

As early as this summer, when Liu Bei and Sun Quan in the south were still waiting for the rice or wheat to mature, Cao Wei had already harvested a large amount of corn.

The yield of corn in the Yellow River Basin is already extremely high. Coupled with the almost harsh exploitation ratio of the officials and eight people under the Cao Wei garrison system, the Cao Wei government harvested a large amount of corn this year.

And rice, Cao Wei is also widely planted in the Huaihe River Basin.

In the Guanlong area of ​​Cao Wei, a large amount of wheat was also planted.

The rice and wheat harvests in Cao Wei's territory are very impressive, no worse than those of Sun Quan and Liu Bei in the south.

While waiting for the rice and wheat to mature, Cao Wei had the corn harvested from the Yellow River Basin as the support for his military rations.

So why is it that Cao Wei in history is like adding a buff, even if he experiences a big defeat, he can make a comeback quickly.

In the winter of the 24th year of Jian'an, Cao Cao could not spare too many troops to rescue Cao Ren.

But after this summer, Cao Pi can willfully lead tens of thousands of Wei troops to the south to show off Wuwei, regardless of the loss of military rations.

Because Cao Wei holds the three major grain-producing areas in China:

Yellow River Basin, Wei River Basin, and Huai River Basin.

So as long as Cao Wei is given a few years to recuperate, Cao Wei, a war machine that occupies the main grain-producing areas of China, will be able to crush Liu Bei and Sun Quan to death with his powerful national power.

Now the four big granaries in front of Mi Yang are full of corn.

The reason why Mi Yang wanted to attack Wudang was because of the corn in these four granaries.

Mi Yang looked at the four granaries in front of him with a greedy look in his eyes. As the leader of Wudang County, Yanping certainly knew who was in charge of the four granaries.

Many of the petty officials guarding the granary came from his family.

Yanping immediately asked his people to look for the Cangguan who came to Wudang City. After the Cangguan arrived, Yanping immediately asked the Cangguan, "How many stones of corn are there in the four granaries in front of you?"

When Cangguan saw Mi Yang, he guessed that Mi Yang's identity was not simple, so he said to Mi Yang with fear on his face:
"Currently, there are nearly 20 shi of corn in the four granaries."

After hearing that there were nearly 20 shi of corn in the four granaries in front of him, Mi Yang's eyes showed excitement.

In the contemporary military food supply, the system of two meals a day is generally adopted.

Under this system, generally speaking, the food consumed by a soldier for a month is about one stone.

A normal army of [-] would consume about [-] shi of food in one month.

20 stones of corn are enough for a normal army of 2 to consume for [-] years.

Even if Mi Yang's army had three meals a day, the 20 shi of corn was enough to support his army, at least for a year and a half.

Cao Wei deserves to be a big dog, really rich.

According to the barrenness of Hanxing County, it is already a bit difficult to provide the rations of [-] troops daily.

In the future, the army will consume even more food and grass during the northern expedition. Mi Yang has long been worried that there will be a risk of insufficient food and grass in the future.

The soldiers and horses have not moved, and the food and grass go first. Without sufficient food and grass, no battle can be won.

Now with these 20 shi of corn, Mi Yang will be able to bring his own military rations to fight a protracted war with Cao Wei when Liu Bei makes a large-scale Northern Expedition in the future.

To be honest, even if Mi Yang was given a year to farm honestly, according to the situation in Hanxing County, the annual grain storage might not be 20 shi.

Because Hanxing County is currently in a state of waste, there are many places that need to use food.

Sure enough, farming is worthwhile, and junglers still have to fight. This time Mi Yang can be said to have made a lot of money.

Mi Yang looked at the four granaries in front of him, and he already regarded them as four golden mountains.

Mi Yang immediately ordered Zhang Ni to lead the army to officially take over the granary in Wudang City, and strictly prohibited all idlers from approaching the granary.

Now these four granaries are where Mi Yang's Ni Lin is located, whoever moves will die.

As long as Mi Yang can successfully transport the 20 shi of corn back to Hanxing County safely, then his goal of attacking Wudang County this time will be completed.

After ordering Zhang Yi to lead the army to take over the four granaries, Mi Yang immediately sent envoys to Xicheng to summon Lu Yi.

To transport nearly 20 shi of corn, although Mi Yang has the convenience of water transportation, it is not a small project.

He now needs a capable talent like Lu Yi to help him complete this task.

After completing this series of arrangements, Mi Yang in a good mood let Yanping leave first, and he himself returned to the county mansion under the protection of Ding Feng.

After returning to the county mansion, Mi Yang saw Zhang Bao who had been waiting in the county mansion for the first time.

When Zhang Bao saw Mi Yang's return, joy appeared on his face, and he hurried forward to meet Mi Yang.

Mi Yang saw that Zhang Bao did not lead soldiers to patrol the city to stabilize people's hearts, but instead waited for his return in the county mansion. He asked Zhang Bao with doubts: "Gongben, do you have something to report?"

Because of the relationship with Zhang Bao, when Mi Yang got along with Zhang Bao in private, he still used to call Zhang Bao Biao to show his closeness.

Facing Mi Yang's inquiry, Zhang Bao bowed to Mi Yang and said:

"General, there are still thousands of rebel cavalry wandering outside Wudang City."

"If you continue to let them go, it will not be good for the general to continue marching in the future. Therefore, I want to ask for a fight and get rid of thousands of bandit cavalry for the general."

Hearing that Zhang Bao came here for this matter, Mi Yang showed a thoughtful look on his face.

How could he not know what Zhang Bao said?
But it is not easy to get rid of those thousands of cavalry.

Between the cavalry and infantry, because of the different types of arms, the tactics used are also very different.

If the infantry wants to win, it usually needs to be formed first.

The cavalry and their tactics are very diverse.

In fact, different from ordinary people's understanding, there is no such thing as cavalry restraining infantry in contemporary times.

It has been said in many art of war that as long as the advantage of the terrain is used, the infantry can also defeat the cavalry head-on, and vice versa.

But according to the current terrain, the south of Wudang City is the Han River, while the north of the city is a large plain.

The bonus of plain terrain to cavalry is not ordinary.

Although Mi Yang currently has several times more troops than the enemy, Cao Tai and Sima Yi are not fools, they would foolishly wait on the plain to be surrounded by tens of thousands of Han troops.

They can take advantage of the high mobility of the cavalry to avoid the encirclement of the Han army.

And if the cavalry army is not surrounded, the Han army can at most expel the cavalry army of the Wei army, but there is no way to wipe out the two thousand cavalry troops of the Wei army.

But if it was just expulsion, then as soon as the Han army withdrew to the camp, Cao Tai and Sima Yi could lead the Wei army cavalry to wander outside Wudang City.

And as long as the Wei Army's cavalry was defeated several times to no avail, the morale of the Han Army would definitely be affected.

This is one of the reasons why Mi Yang strictly ordered the Han army not to go out of the camp to fight the Wei army.

Pay and harvest are completely incompatible.

Mi Yang also knew the reason why more than 2000 cavalry troops of the Wei army did not leave after the fall of Wudang City.

It's just that even if he knew Cao Tai and Sima Yi's intentions, Mi Yang couldn't do anything about it.

Make bricks without straw.

Without cavalry and terrain, it is unwise to attack rashly.

If you want to defeat the more than 2000 cavalry army head-on, the best way is to have a strong cavalry army yourself.

This is also one of the reasons why Mi Yang did not intend to take the opportunity to attack Wancheng.

The land road from Wudang to Wancheng can be described as a smooth road, and Cao Pi's reinforcements may arrive in the near future.

Once a large number of cavalry troops of the Wei army enter the vast plain, it will be a huge disaster for the supply line of the Han army.

Liu Bei also knew this truth.

So even though it is clear that the Northern Expedition from Xiangyang is faster, Liu Bei still insists on placing the direction of his own expedition in Guanzhong.

Because no matter how outstanding the Han army's military exploits in the southern land are, once the Han army crosses the Yangtze River and enters the Central Plains, the situation will be very unfavorable to the Han army if there is a lack of cavalry on one's own side.

Without its own cavalry, the Han army could not gain an advantage in the Central Plains.

Mi Yang vetoed Zhang Bao's proposal, and he still had the original plan for the two thousand cavalry troops of the Wei army.

But just after Mi Yang rejected Zhang Bao's proposal, Deng Ai hurried to him with a military report.

Seeing Deng Ai's eagerness, Mi Yang immediately took the military newspaper from Deng Ai's hand and read it.

After reading the contents of the military newspaper, Mi Yang frowned.

Cao Zhen!

Mi Yang immediately asked Ding Feng to summon a group of generals to discuss matters in the hall of the county government.

Under Ding Feng's summoning, all the generals of the Han army who were able to move away soon arrived in the hall of the county government.

After seeing that all the generals had arrived, Mi Yang immediately informed the generals present of the contents of the general's report.

After learning the contents of the military newspaper, the faces of the generals who had just arrived were all shocked.

The veteran Feng Xi who was present was even more directly born, and asked Mi Yang to withdraw immediately.

What kind of military newspaper content made Feng Xi so nervous?
This military report was sent by Fa Miao in Hanzhong.

The content of the military newspaper is very simple, mainly only one content is written.

General Cao Zhen, General of Anti-Wei Zhenxi, led the army to assemble in Chang'an, and seemed to have the intention of aggressively invading Hanzhong!

You must know that in order to make Mi Yang's plan foolproof, Liu Bei transferred most of Hanzhong's elite to Mi Yang, and now Hanzhong is at a time when its troops are most empty.

If Hanzhong is captured by Cao Zhen's army, the door of Yizhou will be wide open.

No one can bear such consequences!
(End of this chapter)