At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 281, Xiongnu’s strategy and Xiang Yu’s improvements

June 29, the fourth year of the Han Dynasty.

After receiving the battle report from Li Shang, Xu Fan understood that Mao Dun wanted to escape, and immediately commanded the hundreds of thousands of troops gathered at Yanmen Pass to fight out. At the same time, he ordered the Yunzhong County Sheriff to lead 2 troops to march to Pianguan Pass in order to block the attack. The way the dead Huns escaped.

After arriving in Mayi, Li Shang heard that Fan Kuai had led tens of thousands of cavalry to pursue the main force of more than 100,000 Huns. He was worried that Fan Kuai and the others would be ambushed by the Huns, so he immediately ordered Jing Tao, the general of the heroic cavalry, to lead 30,000 cavalry to support Fan Kuai. , and he led the rest of the army to continue the pursuit.

June 30, the fourth year of the Han Dynasty.

After Xu Fan received Fan Kuai's battle report, he learned that the main force of the Huns had escaped from Pingcheng, and his plan to encircle and annihilate the Huns had failed. He ordered Fan Kuai to withdraw to Pingcheng to rest and wait for the next order.

Although Fan Kuai can be regarded as a brave general who will go down in history, compared with Mao Dun, who can unify the entire desert, he is still one level behind. After all, even Liu Bang, an old gangster, has not defeated a powerful enemy. Xu Fan is worried that Fan Kuai will continue to pursue him. Being ambushed by danger, he was asked to retreat to Pingcheng first.

The second day of July in the fourth year of Han Dynasty.

Xu Fan led the army to Pingcheng.

Jing Tao, Fan Kuai, Wang Qiang, Cui Yan, Yu Long and other generals went out of the city to meet the emperor.

When Xu Fan saw Fan Kuai, he patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "The battle in Mayi was good. It showed the majesty of my big man. I captured two kings in one battle. This fighting spirit will definitely go down in history."

Although it is not as valuable as Li Er, it can still be regarded as a great victory with less over more.

Fan Kuai heard this and said with a smile: "The Huns couldn't help but fight. I all regret it. If I had known that the Huns could not help but fight and were so timid and fearful, I would have waited for Your Majesty to lead the main force to surround the Huns." Fight this battle again.”

Xu Fan laughed loudly and said: "I thought you, Fan Kuai, were an honest man, but I didn't expect to be here in Versailles."

Although Fan Kuai and the others did not understand what Versailles meant, they probably felt that they wanted Fan Kuai not to be too proud.

Jing Tao regretfully said: "The Huns ran too fast. Although we pursued them all the way, we captured thousands of the Huns' rear troops."

After Jing Tao led 3 cavalry to support Fan Kuai, they originally wanted to fight the Huns, but Mao Dun did not give them this chance and fled quickly. The desert is the home ground of the Huns. Jing Tao and the others went deep into the desert for hundreds of miles, but only defeated them. An army from the rear of the Huns returned to Pingcheng.

Xu Fan smiled and said: "If the Huns can escape from Yanmen County, I will see how they exit Monan. This time the court will definitely inflict heavy losses on the Huns."

"Ji Xin."

"The general is here!"

"You lead the main force of 2 cavalry led by the cavalry battalion, with 8 infantry as the auxiliary. I will ask the prefects of Yunzhong County and Jiuyuan County to fully support you. This group of people will go directly to the royal court of the Huns, and they can kill the invaders. Dun is the best. If you can’t kill Maodun, just capture more tribes on the grassland. The more, the better.”

Ji Xin hesitated and said: "The tribe that captured the Huns? Shouldn't I continue to go deep into Mobei to pursue Modu? If I pursue these small tribes, I'm afraid it will delay the opportunity for Modu to escape."

Xu Fan explained: "After the failure of the Mayi ambush, it is no longer possible to eliminate the Huns in a short time. At this time, the strategy must be changed."

"We must be prepared for a protracted war, and this requires us to seize the flaws of the Huns tribe and then continue to attack. Only in this way can the Huns collapse quickly."

"And what is the flaw of the Huns? It is that their population is sparse. My Han Dynasty has 20 million people, but the Huns only have one million people. There are only a few hundred thousand young men who can actually fight as soldiers. Even if the number is relaxed to Teenagers and fifty-year-olds all became soldiers. The total strength of the Huns would not exceed .

Population is their biggest flaw. As long as our army annihilates 100,000 young Huns, then other tribes on the grassland will eat the Huns without us attacking. Therefore, the best tactic to deal with the Huns is to capture all the Huns on the grassland, leaving Mao Dun with no troops to use. "

"And I, a big man, also have my own inherent flaws, that is, it is difficult to support too many troops on the border. Now the 20 troops need me, a big man, to allocate grain from Lantian Granary and Aocang. Millions of people have to contribute to these two grain roads. , and this is still in Mayi and Jiuyuan County, our army is still fighting on the inside. If we go thousands of miles into the desert, the logistical pressure will increase several times. "

Xu Fan went as far as to say that in order to fight for the decisive battle in Mobei, Emperor Wu not only wiped out the sixty years of accumulation of the Han Dynasty, but also used various methods to collect the wealth of the people, and then raised the food and grass for the decisive battle in Mobei. Now Xu Fan and the others don't have to go thousands of miles deep into Mobei, but even going thousands of miles south of Mobei is difficult for the newly born big man to bear.

"So the current army can last up to half a year. I am not afraid of fighting with Mao Dun now. My Han soldiers are never afraid of frontal combat. The only thing I worry about is that Mao Dun fights guerrillas with us in the desert, and we can't find Mo Dun's main force. And Maodun continued to attack our army's food routes, which hit our army's weak spot.

Our army only has 5 cavalry at most galloping across the desert, but the number of cavalry is too small and the desert is too vast to capture Maodun. When the desert winter comes, the Han will have to disband this army and retreat to the territory of the Han.

Capturing the Huns is the lowest guarantee. It guarantees that even if we cannot catch Maodun, we can still severely injure the Huns. Such arrests will disappear as long as we do it a few more times. "

Wu Sheng worriedly said: "But what should we do with these Huns? Raising them will be a huge expense for me, a big man."

Wu Sheng knew that with the emperor's character, massacre would definitely not be an option, but raising hundreds of thousands of Huns would be even more unbearable for the Han's frontier.

Xu Fan smiled and said: "There is nothing to worry about. I, the Han Dynasty, will establish a vassal state in Monan to resist the invasion of the barbarians. Aren't these the best people of the Monan princes? And the princes in the land of Hexi and Liaodong The country also needs population. Although these Huns cannot farm, they can herd animals and have good fighting ability. Entrusting them to Ji Bu and Lu Chen can help them stabilize the vassal states. Moreover, when these Huns arrive in Liaodong and Hexi, they will also They have become outsiders. If they want to survive, they must rely on us."

Ji Xin and other generals only then understood Xu Fan's strategy.

Ji Xin then led 2 cavalry and 4 infantry to Jiuyuan County. He would recruit the soldiers from Yunzhong County and Jiuyuan County as his subordinates to maintain food routes for him.

Xu Fan stationed his army in Pingcheng and sent cavalry to continuously sweep the Huns tribes within a hundred miles of Yanmen County. Whenever a tribe was found, all of them and their animals were brought to Mayi for resettlement. Although Maodun asked the Huns tribes to retreat to the depths of the desert and clear the fields on the grassland to block the Han army, there were still many small tribes hiding and not retreating.

At first they felt that this war had nothing to do with them.

The second is that the strength of these tribes is too weak. They dare not leave the pastures they are familiar with. The desert is a world where the jungle is the strongest. If a small tribe like them goes to an unfamiliar pasture, there is a high probability that they will be captured by the local tribes and become slaves.

As a result, these small tribes who were hiding were all wiped out by the Han army. The Han army captured tens of thousands of Huns in the desert.

While capturing the Huns, the Han rear continued to pile up food supplies from Taiyuan County, Hengshan County and other Central Plains counties in Pingcheng to prepare for the attack on the desert. The small Pingcheng became a huge granary.

Xu Fan took advantage of his daydreaming time to look at Baishan Mountain. In this world, he was the only one who knew the meaning of the name of this mountain.

Qi State, Linzi County, Tianheng Camp.

In the big tent, Tian Heng was lying on the table, looking at an old silk map with weak candlelight. Tian Heng's army invaded Linzi County with almost no obstacles. Now it is less than 200 miles away from Linzi City. .

Hua Wushang said: "Your Majesty, the Ding family, Xu family, Xie family, He family and other noble and powerful families in Linzi are willing to provide food and weapons to support your Majesty in dealing with Xiang Yu."

Tian Heng laughed and said: "The Xiang family is indeed unpopular in our Qi country." Hua Wushang smiled and said: "Xiang Yu is confused. He thinks that he is the Han emperor and actually divides the land of the nobles and powerful people in Qi country. He doesn't even think about it. If you don’t have the prestige of the Han Emperor, you are simply asking for your own death.”

This is really a bit unfair to Xiang Yu. He was born in a noble family. How could he learn from Xu Fan's policies of equalizing land and dividing the land between households, which offended the powerful nobles.

But there is a saying that is good, a penny can stump a hero, and Xiang Yu is the hero who is stumped. After becoming the king of Qi, Xiang Yu can no longer just think about fighting. The life and death of millions of Qi people are also closely related to him.

After Xiang Yu annihilated the Qin army in Qi and captured Linzi, Meng Yi took away the last bit of Linzi's wealth, leaving Xiang Yu with an empty treasury and millions of Qi refugees waiting to be fed. Where money and food come from has become the most important issue for Xiang Yu and Qi State.

Under this situation, Xiang Yu made a plan with the Han Dynasty to exchange war horses for food, while at the same time massively disarmament and reducing military expenditures.

It can be said that Xiang Yu's finances were extremely difficult in the first year after he captured Linzi. That's why Xiang Yu now occupies Linzi, the richest city, but his troops are not as large as Tian Heng's because he has to rescue more victims.

However, his subordinates Xiang Shu and others had studied in Dahan for three years and knew the financial income of Dahan very well. He divided Dahan into acres and shared the benefits of equalizing the land with Xiang Yu. He was stumped by money. Xiang Yu was immediately moved.

Of course, he could not annex powerful lands to equalize the land like Xu Fan, but after three years of fierce fighting, Qi State had killed a large number of people and had countless fertile open spaces. He distributed part of this land to his soldiers who followed him in the war. Part of it was distributed to the landless refugees in Qi State to solve the problem of the victims. As for dividing the land into acres, Xiang Yu thought about it but still did not implement it.

Instead, we created a variant of the land-sharing system, in which the refugees who were given land had to pay half of the grain in the first three years, and then 10% less of the grain each year, until the final grain tax became one-tenth.

Logically speaking, Xiang Yu's reforms did not affect the interests of Qi's powerful aristocrats, but could also resettle millions of disaster victims in Qi. It could be said to be a good thing that killed two birds with one stone.

But many times, such good things cannot be done. Qi State voluntarily surrendered, allowing Qi's aristocrats to escape the attack of the Qin army. The aristocrats were extremely powerful. Even after experiencing the enclosure of the Qin people, they could not survive for three years. During the war, the nobles and powerful forces of Qi were still the most powerful in the entire world.

This resulted in many seemingly abandoned wastelands in Qi. When Xiang Yu settled these lands for heroes and refugees, the nobles immediately took out the title deeds to prove that the land belonged to their family.

Even when many refugees had just planted food, powerful men and private soldiers immediately claimed that the land belonged to them, and then drove away the farmers on the land. This happened in large numbers in Qidi.

In the end, Xiang Yu and the others tallied up the land deeds, and he was so angry that he laughed. Seventy percent of the land in Qi was owned by these powerful nobles. Even if there were nobles who were wiped out by the Qin people, they would still have those kind of eight-pole. Relatives who cannot be defeated are brought in to inherit the family property.

Well, he fought against the violent Qin for more than two years, and even his uncle died. In the end, most of the interests of Qi State were taken away by the nobles of Qi State, leaving only some bones and dregs for himself. He really thought that he The king of Qi built such a foolish king.

Annoyed, Xiang Yu immediately issued an order that any land that had been vacant for two years would be nationalized by the court. He sold these lands to the Central Plains tycoons who fled to Qi State, hoping to replace the original Qi nobles with the Central Plains tycoons. Powerful.

Moreover, he also wants to investigate the land tax of these powerful people. If you say that these fields are yours, fine, I admit it, but you should always pay taxes on the land.

Xiang Yu directly went back 20 years and found out that in the era of King Jian of Qi, many powerful nobles had to pay taxes that were higher than the price of their land. If the taxes could not be paid, the land would be confiscated, and then Xiang Yu would turn around and sell it to powerful people who were willing to take refuge in him.

The relationship between Xiang Yu and the powerful nobles of Qi State was extremely tense.

This feather is more abominable than the violent Qin Hai. What is the difference between this and the Qin people's enclosure.

The aristocrats of this era had extremely powerful hands-on skills, and some unwilling tyrants immediately killed the officials sent by Xiang Yu and raised a flag to rebel.

But these nobles and tyrants of Qi State were kicked into trouble. When Xiang Yu heard the news, he immediately led 1000 cavalry to the rebel fort. He climbed the ladder to attack the city in person, and defeated the powerful fort of the nobles in one day. .

Then Xiang Yu directly killed the rebel powerful family and rewarded all the Wubao and land to one of his subordinates.

At this time, the entire Qi State was shocked. They did not expect that Xiang Yu was a man of action. They killed the whole family of the rebels without even asking for conditions. The powerful nobles of Qi State were frightened by Xiang Yu's cruelty while being saddened by the death of rabbits and foxes.

It was Xiang Bo who appeased the powerful aristocrats of Qi State, and both parties agreed to take a step back. The land left vacant by the powerful nobles of Qi State would belong to Xiang Yu, and Xiang Yu would not check the taxes of the powerful nobles of Qi State.

This seems to be a solution to the conflict, but the powerful aristocrats of Qi are extremely unconvinced. Your Xiang family is an outsider. You don't want to win them over, but you want to collect their taxes. Could it be that they sent people and paid to drive away the Qin people? It's for you, Xiang Yu, to collect taxes. They won't have beaten the Qin people away in vain.

In order to resist Xiang Yu, these powerful nobles of Qi contacted Tian Heng again, hoping to rely on Tian Heng's power to expel Xiang Yu.

At this time, a messenger entered the camp and said: "Report, Your Majesty, Xiang Yu is leading an army of 2 to attack our army. General Tian Guang is asking for support."

Hua Wushang smiled and said: "Qi State is unstable now, Xiang Yu does not dare to send out his entire army. Xiang Yu is not from Qi, and he has offended the powerful nobles of Qi State. He is now like Feng Quji who suppressed Qi State in the past. They will definitely be wiped out by our Qi people.”

Tian Heng also smiled and said: "Xiang Yu only has 2 troops, and our army has 6. Both sides are equipped with the same equipment. We have an absolute advantage in terms of numbers. We have a chance of winning. The key now is time. We can't afford it. After procrastinating for a long time, the Han Emperor would definitely support Xiang Yu after he had eliminated the Huns on the grassland.

It will be difficult for us to annihilate Xiang Yu by then. It is best to capture Linzi City this month and capture the entire Qi Kingdom before the autumn harvest. We hope to settle the matter in one battle and leave Xiang Yu with no chance to ask for help.

Tian Heng thought for a while and said: "The whole army will speed up and join the vanguard. Our army will directly destroy Xiang Yu's army."

Xue County, Lu County, Zhendong General's Mansion, the Chinese Army's main tent.

Ge Ying said angrily: "Xiang Yu and Tian Heng are simply lawless. Your Majesty has already asked them to have a truce for three years, and now they are fighting just over a year ago. They have no regard for His Majesty, the co-owner of the world, and have no regard for them." I, the Duke of Lu, take this seriously."

Ge Ying sent an envoy to Tian Heng to warn Tian Heng not to start a war, but Tian Heng beat out Ge Ying's envoy.

The situation of the envoy he sent to Linzi was slightly better. Although Xiang Yu was angry, Xiang Bo sent Ge Ying's envoy gift out of Qi in a good mood. Obviously, both sides were going to fight this battle.

Ge Ying continued: "None of these foreign vassals are honest. As soon as my big man focused his attention on the border, they immediately stopped listening to His Majesty's orders."

Ge Ying said fiercely: "Do they think that I, a big man, is a violent Qin?"

Not to mention, the current situation is very similar to that of the late Qin Dynasty. They are both border areas where the main force of the empire is concentrated. The hinterland of the Central Plains is extremely empty, and then turmoil broke out, but now the spearheads of these princes have not turned against the Han Dynasty.

Today, the princes are fighting with each other. Who knows when these princes will point the finger at the Han Dynasty. It is because of the chaotic times at the end of Qin that Ge Ying cannot tolerate these princes obeying orders today. At this time, Ge Ying discovered that the Han Dynasty's internal idea of ​​reducing vassal vassals was reasonable, and that none of these external vassals could really be retained.

Zhang He smiled bitterly and said: "The Prime Minister sent an order to our Zhendong General Mansion to stop the war between the two sides and prevent them from affecting the court's war against the Huns. Even if we cannot stop it, we cannot let this war expand. The court has no way to support it. Fighting on two fronts.”

Then he shook his head and said: "Xiang Yu and Tian Heng launched a war so unscrupulously because they saw that the imperial court could not take action. I, the big man, still have to find a way to strengthen restrictions on these princes, otherwise such wars will be endless in the future, and the ceremony will collapse. If you are happy, it will appear in my big man."

Ge Ying's face was extremely ugly.

(End of this chapter)