Shuhan

Chang'an City.

The drizzle was drizzling, which was very disturbing.

In the main hall of the governor's mansion.

Liu Chan sat on the main seat, but his face showed a little tiredness.

There's nothing I can do, I'm tired.

In the past few days, Liu Chan's schedule can be said to be very full.

First, he went to worship heaven, which took three days. The ceremony was more complicated than Liu Chan's ceremony for ascending to the throne of prince.

After that, it was time to recruit talents and take the exams at the Jiangwu Hall. Yesterday, we even took the talented people recruited and the students from the Jiangwu Hall to the outer fields of Chang'an to hunt in order to enhance their prestige and feelings.

After a set of procedures, the three beauties presented by Du You had no time to love them at night.

"General Hussar retreated to Yong County, and the Wei army's offensive in front temporarily stopped. However, Wei General Cao Zhen led the elite cavalry army, left the Wei army's sequence, and came towards Guanzhong first."

"How many people does Cao Zhen have?" Liu Chan asked slowly.

Fazheng stepped forward and said: "There are so many thousands of horses, they are all the elites of the Wei army."

"The army goes deep alone and is cut off from food and grass. It should be easy to deal with. How far can it go?"

Logistics and food supplies are the lifeline of an army. Without food, grass and baggage, no matter how elite the army is, it is useless.

People are like iron, and food is like steel. If you don't eat for a day, you will feel hungry.

There is no food left, the morale of the troops is gone, and the war will naturally become impossible to fight.

"This cavalry army had one man and three horses, and also brought many mules, horses and donkeys, which were responsible for loading grain and grass. The march turned like the wind. The defenders from various places tried to intercept them several times, but they were able to escape in advance."

How could local state and county soldiers stop these thousands of cavalry troops?

Besides
Cao Zhen went all the way from Yumi to the mouth of the valley, but not a single city was captured by him, but his food and grass supplies were still sufficient.

Either they were plundering foreign settlements for supplies, or there were people in Guanzhong who were playing tricks on both sides and secretly delivering money and food to Cao Zhen.

Liu Chan was not angry.

After all, it has not been a month since the capture of Guanzhong, and the influence and tentacles of the Han State have not been able to spread to all places in Guanzhong. With the speed of information dissemination in this era, perhaps in some remote places, they would still think that this is still the era of Han rule. Woolen cloth!

"If we let him go to Chongquan Lianshao and join forces with Zheng Hun, I'm afraid it will be difficult to deal with him."

Previously, Cao Zhen was trapped in Yumi, and it was difficult to exploit the advantage of the cavalry.

Now in the open area, the cavalry were like slippery loaches, difficult to catch.

Once the army is combined with Zheng Hun, the elite cavalry plus some state and county soldiers, the combat effectiveness of the Wei army will rise several levels.

"I'm afraid that Cao Zhen doesn't want to go to Zuo Fengyi!"

Liu Chan narrowed his eyes slightly and continued: "The grain roads in the rear have been plundered many times. I'm afraid it's Cao Zhen's fault. With his ten thousand riders, I'm afraid the grain and grass in the rear won't be able to be transported to Chang'an. If things continue like this, I'm afraid it's my big man's fault." We ran out of food and supplies and were forced to withdraw from Guanzhong."

Originally, when the Han army arrived in Guanzhong, there was some pressure on the supply of grain and grass. Now that the food route is cut off, if Cao Zhen's cavalry army of more than 10,000 cannot be restrained, the pressure on the Han army will be even greater.

In addition, the cavalry of Wei State was causing trouble in the territory, and the food collection in various places in Guanzhong could not proceed normally.

"Logistics is indeed a problem. Bao Xiedao transported grain several times, but all were looted. More than 20,000 hu of grain and grass were lost. If this continues, no matter how much grain and grass there is in Chang'an City, it will not be enough to consume."

There is indeed a lot of food and grass in Chang'an City, but there are also a lot of people gathered in Chang'an City. In addition, the front line still needs Chang'an City to transfer food and grass.
If this continues, I'm afraid there will really be a food and grass problem.

"Cao Zhen's more than 10,000 cavalry must be eliminated. Otherwise, the morale of the Guanzhong army will be turbulent, and more and more people will be seduced into rebellion."

After Chang'an was defeated, the various places in Guanzhong were quite submissive because they had seen the general trend.

The Han Kingdom had already gained an advantage by capturing Chang'an. There was a high probability that the Han Kingdom would win this battle.

They help whoever wins, so they obey.

But if Cao Zhen is in control in Guanzhong and the Han army cannot control it, what will those powerful and powerful foreigners in Guanzhong think?
Maybe they will think this way by then: Although the Han Kingdom conquered Guanzhong, it was fierce and internally incompetent, and could not even deal with the Wei army within the territory. It just occupied Guanzhong, and when the Wei Kingdom's heavenly troops arrived, Chang'an would immediately change hands.

Human hearts are very important.

Confidence is sometimes more valuable than gold.

Originally, there was a war in Guanzhong, and the defeated Wei army took many people up the mountain to become bandits. If Cao Zhen gained momentum and took tens of thousands of people, wouldn't he be able to affect the situation?

This is something Liu Chan absolutely cannot accept.

"The current plan is to use the river to intercept the cavalry, build forts on the main roads, set up antlers and block horses to block Cao Zhen's cavalry." Zhuge Liang came up with a safer way.

The advantage of cavalry is its mobility.

Especially since Cao Zhen had one man and three horses, plus many mules, horses and livestock to transport grain and grass, the speed was even faster.

If you remove his advantage of mobility, it will be easier to deal with him.

"It takes time to build a fortress, and the river is also shallow, so it is impossible to completely block the cavalry."

After all, Guanzhong is not the land of Jianghuai.

If it were the land of Jianghuai, the power of the cavalry would be greatly reduced.

Because the water network in the Yangtze and Huaihe River areas is dense, the amount of water is also large.

But in Guanzhong, except for the Wei River and a few tributaries, the amount of water in the other small rivers and streams can only be described as touching.

"Perhaps we can send out cavalry to cut off their food and grass and force them to leave!"

Wu Yi also thought of a way.

The one who can deal with the cavalry is of course the cavalry.

Moreover, Cao Zhen was at a disadvantage when fighting in enemy territory.

Although there are three horses per person, and there are a large number of mules, horses and livestock to transport grain and grass, your war horses run fast. Are your mules and horses transporting grain and grass faster than our Han army cavalry?

"This is a way."

People need to eat, and horses also need food and rest. If an animal like a horse does not eat feed or grain, but only feeds grass, it will need 20-30 kilograms of grass every day. If the horse finds the grass by itself, it will take three or four hours to eat it. If it is collected by people, it will also take It takes an hour to collect.

In order to cope with this situation, a mixture of half grass and part grain is usually used during marching. Even during long-distance marches, horses have to eat ten pounds of grass and about four pounds of beans or millet every day, which can be fed within an hour. .

The endurance of horses is not as good as that of humans. If they are walking with a heavy load, they may be able to walk 100 miles a day, but they can only last for 1 to 2 days.
They collapsed the next day, especially horses that ate grass.
Horses that eat grain do better and can last for 3 to 5 days.
Therefore, when the Wei army's cavalry marches, most of the troops will go first with one horse per person, leaving about one-tenth of the people to take care of the horses, and then drive the horses forward. When they catch up with the large army, they change horses and leave another ten One person takes care of the horse, feeds it, drinks water, and then chases it, and the cycle continues.

This saves time for feeding and resting the horses, and they can march 50 to 100 miles a day.

It truly turned into something like the wind.

Moreover, it saves horse power. The marching distance depends entirely on the supply of food behind, and is not limited by horse power.

If Cao Zhen marched like this, as long as he left the tenth of the people behind, because the food supply was cut off, he would have to look for food and grass. He was forced to leave the Han army's food and grass supply line and go to Zuofeng Yi to fight with Zheng Hun. Convergence.

"I heard that there are many Huns cavalry in Cao Zhen's army. The Huns cavalry don't need anyone to take care of the horses."

Most of the troops will go ahead with one horse per person, leaving about one-tenth of the troops to take care of the horses and catch up with the main force.
This is just the Han cavalry.

This is not how the nomads north of the Yellow River play.
Each Hun cavalryman was equipped with 4 horses. When running for a long distance, the 4 horses were driven at the same time, and only one of them would be ridden. When the horse under the crotch was tired, he would switch to the other horse beside him. There was no pause during the transfer process. The entire army was galloping at high speed, and the riders jumped directly from the back of one horse to another.

In this way, the four horses ride alternately.
The Mongolian army also used a similar method to attack over long distances to achieve suddenness in the battle.

The horses domesticated by the Mobei nomads are Mongolian horses, which are not tall, have big heads, and short legs. They are not as fast and elegant as the horses (Arab horses) in the Western Region and Central Asia and other places; they are not as strong and powerful as the European Normandy horses; but they have good endurance. , not picky about food, have strong disease resistance, and can adapt to the harsh climate environment of grassland deserts (especially the severe winter in Mobei).

After long journeys, they can maintain their strength even on the coarsest forage, and can even eat leaves and bark.

In areas where other military horses can starve to death, Mongolian horses still maintain high combat effectiveness.
Moreover, the nomads will train the horses to run at the pace of a camel, that is, stepping forward with the front and rear feet on the same side, which is what we call "shunguai".

It is said that horses save energy by running long distances like this. It is said that Mongolian horses can run hundreds of kilometers a day for more than ten consecutive days. Such excellent endurance cannot be achieved by other horse breeds.

Moreover, the Mongolian horse is not startled or surprised in battle, and is a military horse through and through.
The nomads in Mobei did not carry any baggage and grabbed whatever they could fight; the Mongolian horses were hard-working and ate wherever they went. They became natural cavalrymen.

If there were this group of Huns cavalry, it might not be that easy to cut off their retreat.

In fact, the most important thing is that most of the Han army's cavalry are on the front battlefield. The only ones that can be used now are Zhang Bao's 3,000 elite cavalry, plus Ma Chao's more than 1,000 Qiang cavalry.

But Zhang Bao's cavalry, most of which are heavy cavalry, are not good at running and are good at rushing into formation.

After leaving behind these heavy cavalry, there were less than two thousand light cavalry left.

There are less than 2,000 cavalrymen who may not be able to cut off their retreat.

"Perhaps we can make a fuss in the grain transport team."

Food transport team?
Everyone was stunned.

"Your Highness still plans to transport food?"

It had been robbed several times in succession, and the transportation of grain and grass from Baoxie Road had stopped.

The grain and grass transferred from Yizhou and Hanzhong are piled in Chencang.

If we don't expel or eliminate these Wei troops who are running rampant in Guanzhong, the food and grass transportation will be robbed every time, and the pure meat buns will beat the dogs and never come back.

"Of course, but a small number of masters are transporting grain, and the heavy armored infantry are guarding one side. There are a large number of crossbowmen in the team, and antlers are built to keep the horses in the team. Two thousand cavalry are on the side to drive away the Wei cavalry. "

As a time traveler, Liu Chan can naturally draw on the wisdom of his predecessors from the past five thousand years of China. No, for the current Liu Chan, it should be the wisdom of future generations.

In the defense battle of Youzhou in August 917 AD, the nearly 8 cavalrymen of the Khitan army were severely defeated by the infantry of the Jin Dynasty who were far smaller in number than themselves!
This battle can be called an example of "using foot to control cavalry" in ancient military history!

Among the 30,000 relief troops of the former Jin Dynasty, there were only 3,000 cavalry, and the rest were infantry. In order to prevent the Khitan cavalry from suddenly launching a fatal attack on the relief army during the march, Li Cunshen, the commander of the relief army, ordered the infantry to cut down trees to make weapons. Horses and antlers, and then the infantry advanced with these instruments.

At meal time and at night, let them accumulate the horses and antlers into a camp (fortification) and station them. In this way, the relief army marched towards Youzhou City bit by bit under the watchful eyes of the Khitan rangers.

On the way to Fengzhou City, the rescue army encountered small groups of Khitan cavalry many times. However, the Khitan cavalry, which numbered less than a thousand people, found it difficult to attack the rescue army who formed a strange formation with horses and antlers. They would also encounter The cavalry of the relief army was driven away, so they could only continue to harass, but with little success.

In the end, as the rescue army got closer and closer to the city of Jiangzhou, the Khitans could not sit still. In order to prevent the fat in their mouths from flying away, the Khitans gathered tens of thousands of cavalry and suddenly appeared to attack the rescue army while they were still marching.

Facing the swarming Khitan troops, the relief army did not panic. Li Cunshen and Li Siyuan immediately ordered the soldiers to pile up the antlers and horses in their hands into a strong "antler formation" to block the Khitan cavalry's attack on the military formation.

Then the soldiers were asked to take off the bows and arrows and crossbows hanging from their waists, and shoot continuously at the Khitan cavalry archers who were shooting arrows around the camp, turning the field battle into a city defense battle!
For a time, both sides of the battle fired thousands of arrows. The arrows they fired blocked the clouds and sun, washing the position like a heavy rain. What was shocking was that the Khitan army, which was mainly mounted archers, was defeated by crossbows. Rescue Army.

In the end, the army of the former Jin Dynasty rushed into the battle on foot and cavalry, and was directly defeated.

And this is what Liu Chan wants to learn from.

In the war between the former Jin and the Khitans, what was most needed was for the cavalry to attack, so a bait was needed.

The bait of the former Jin Dynasty was the rescue army to rescue Youzhou.

Liu Chan's bait was the carts of food and grass.

As long as these elusive Wei cavalry are attracted, the mobility of the cavalry will be out of the question, and the field battle will be turned into a city defense battle, and the balance of victory will tilt to his side.

If the Wei cavalry did not dare to attack and grain and grass were continuously transported to Chang'an, Cao Zhen would have lost the opportunity to cut off the Han army's food route.

For the Han State, this battle was a victory for the Han State.

And if he dares to attack the grain transport team, then Cao Zhen's cavalry problem will be completely solved.

"It may be difficult to control the horse by foot." Zhuge Liang had a worried look on his face.

Faced with tens of thousands of cavalry hanging around in front of you, harassing you from time to time, the pressure on the infantry is great. If the army is scattered, the cavalry will take advantage of it, which will directly lead to a rout.

Liu Chan laughed and said: "We must select elite infantrymen, who can be chosen according to martial law!"

Most of the Jiangwu Yi Cong came from powerful families. As the reservists of the Jiangwu Hall, they were very well-equipped. They had experienced numerous battles and small battles, and could do anything without being alarmed.

Mount Tai collapses in front of him without changing his appearance.

Now we need elites to destroy Cao Zhen's cavalry!
"Let's give it a try. If we can use this to deal with the Wei cavalry, that would naturally be the best."

The worst result is that thousands of people in Liangdao will die. For the Han army, it is not a serious loss of vitality.

"Liu Feng will lead the cavalry and Wang Ping will lead the infantry. We will set off in ten days!"

Now we have just captured Guanzhong, but it seems that it will take a lot of trouble to completely digest Guanzhong. (End of chapter)