The Jagged Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 452 Chapter 451 West Wind (18)

The bitter and hot air seemed to be stagnant, the fiery face waited sadly for the wind to come, the sun shone fiercely in the dark blue sky, and the whole northwest land seemed to be shrouded in a furnace.

The weather in July is extremely hot, and in the past ten days, there has not been a drop of rain, the ground is cracked, and the drought is severe.

Zhang Yan led the army to set off from Shanggu County, first joined up with Yang Qiu's and Cheng Yi's troops in Yuzhong City, and then joined forces together, heading towards Wuwei along the river.

Marching in such hot weather is really not very comfortable. Many militiamen brought by Zhang Yan suffered from heat stroke because they couldn't adapt to the weather.

In desperation, Zhang Yan had no choice but to adjust the marching time, find a place to escape the heat during the day, and march in the coolness at night.

Once the marching time was adjusted, his advantages and disadvantages immediately became apparent.The advantage is that the soldiers no longer have to march under the scorching sun and the scorching heat, but the disadvantages are that the sight at night is not good and the march is slower.

However, more than half of the army were locals from Liangzhou and they were very familiar with the terrain. Under their leadership, the army finally arrived in Wuwei a few days later.

When Pang Rou, the prefect of Wuwei, learned that Zhang Yan and Ma Chao had led the army, she hurriedly arranged everything and personally led the officials out of the city to meet them.

Pang Rou is Pang De's cousin. Although his martial arts skills are not as good as Pound's, he has made great achievements in governing the local area. Although Pang De is Ma Chao's confidant, Pang Rou does hold such an important position by virtue of his own ability.

When Ma Teng was the prefect of Anding, Pang Rou was Ma Teng's right-hand man. He first served as Ma Teng's staff, and later was appointed as the magistrate of Linjing County, and managed Linjing County in an orderly manner.

After Ma Chao wiped out Han Sui's forces, because Wuwei was an important traffic route in the east-west direction, after several considerations, he appointed Pang Rou as the prefect, hoping that Pang Rou could manage Wuwei well.

After the army arrived at Guzang, the county town of Wuwei County, they temporarily stayed here for a few days, one was to wait for the two armies of Pang De and Ma Gang who had not yet arrived, and the other was to take some rest.

The next day, Pang De and Ma Gang led the troops to arrive at Guzang City successively. Together with the troops that had arrived before, there were a total of 11 people. It is to expel the Xianbei people from Liangzhou.

However, this is a joint army composed of the Han army, the Ma family army, and the Qiang people. Everyone has never been in contact with it before, and the fighting methods of each army are different. How to cooperate with each other is the first thing to be solved. The problem.

For this reason, Zhang Yan must hold a meeting before the war begins, and first declare a few points.

The main body of this coalition army is Ma's army, and 11 of the 8000 troops are Ma Chao's subordinates.Zhang Yan has 3000 people, and the Qiang people have [-] people, but because Zhang Yan is the king of Yan, and the whole world has more than [-] people, the commander-in-chief of this coalition army naturally falls Zhang Yan's body, and everyone is also convinced.

The meeting was held at Chenshi, Ma Teng, Ma Chao, Ma Dai, Ma Tie, Ma Xiu, Ma Gang, Pang De, Pang Rou, Yang Fu, Wang Shuang, Yang Qiu, Cheng Yi and others all attended, while Tai Shici, Xu Chu, Zhuge Liang , Pang Tong and the six commanders of the Qiang people must also be present.

When the time of day arrived, there were no seats left in the hall of the prefect's mansion in Guzang City. It was the first time that so many people sat here, and the one sitting at the top today was Zhang Yan, the famous regent of Yan.

After Zhang Yan walked out from the back hall, everyone present stood up from their seats at the same time, and respectfully bowed to Zhang Yan: "See His Royal Highness King Yan!"

"You don't need to be too polite, let's all sit down!" Zhang Yan said.

Everyone sat down one after another. As soon as this side sat down, Zhang Yan over there said: "I called everyone here today, just to announce a few things."

The hall was extremely quiet, and all the people present looked at Zhang Yan intently, listening intently.

Zhang Yandao: "The significance of sending troops this time is very significant. The purpose is to expel the Xianbei people from Liangzhou. However, according to the scouts' information, the Xianbei people occupying Dunhuang are only a very small part of the Western Xianbei. The real army of the Western Xianbei is here. In the area of ​​Jiluo Mountain, where they live, about 40 Xianbei people are stationed there, watching every move of the big man. If we don't act first, we are afraid that when the Xianbei people attack, we will become Very passive."

After a pause, Zhang Yan continued: "However, since the Xianbei people are scattered in the two places, I decided to divide the army into two groups, one led by Liangzhou Mu and Zhenxi General Ma Chao, from Guzang all the way west to recover Zhangye. , Jiuquan, Dunhuang, and Zhangye belong to the four regions of the country. The other army, led by the king himself, went straight to Jiluo Mountain, attacked the heart of the Xianbei people, and dealt a heavy blow to the Xianbei people."

Once these words were spoken, many people present looked at each other in blank dismay, and their faces were full of worries and scruples.Because the Xianbei people are too powerful, there are 40 Xianbei people in the Jiluo Mountain area, and the total number of their troops sent this time is only more than 11. The Xianbei people are almost a nation of soldiers, even if those women, Old people and children, at least there are more than [-] people who can fight, and all of them are cavalry.

In the face of such a powerful army, Zhang Yan actually proposed to divide the troops into two groups. Many people were skeptical, thinking that Zhang Yan must have gone crazy.

Among them, Qu Shuai of the Qiang people was the most worried. They were not the protagonists of this war. They were sent to help Ma Chao just out of face. Lost ground, but never said that they would go to the heartland of the Xianbei people to attack the Xianbei people. With their strength, it is not enough for the Xianbei people to bite their teeth. How to fight this battle.

Ma Teng and Ma Chao were also holding the same skeptical attitude. Although they had heard about how powerful King Yan was, the soldiers brought by King Yan this time seemed to have never been on the battlefield. There are thousands of elites, but facing more than [-] Xianbei iron cavalry, it will not help at all.

Ma Chao looked hesitant to speak, glanced at Zhang Yan, frowned, but never said anything.

Seeing this, Zhang Yan said to Ma Chao: "Meng Qi, if you have any questions, just ask."

Ma Chao immediately said: "His Royal Highness Yan, we have a total of 11 coalition troops this time, which is not a small number. However, compared with the 40 troops there, we are going to attack Jiluo Mountain, which is the heart of the Xianbei people. , this is much less. Moreover, this is the number of Xianbei people gathered around Jiluo Mountain, not counting the places further north of Jiluo Mountain. But His Royal Highness Yan Wang is not only going to provoke the Xianbei people of Jiluo Mountain, Is it a bit too hasty to divide the troops into two routes?"

Ma Teng also hurriedly clasped his fists and said: "King Yan, what Meng Qi said is very true, I think we should go to Dunhuang together, after driving out those Xianbei people, we will set up defenses around Dunhuang and deploy heavy troops to prevent Xianbei people from coming to retaliate. Although there are many coalition forces, most of them are infantry, and the Xianbei people are all cavalry. If we really fight in the wild, we will suffer a lot. On the contrary, if we can hold the city, guard the pass, and rely on the strong city wall To resist the Xianbei people, the Xianbei people are not good at attacking the city, if they can't attack for a long time, they will naturally retreat..."

Before Ma Teng finished speaking, Zhang Yan said with a smile: "You don't have to worry, since this king has made such a decision, he must be sure of victory. However, to go to Jiluo Mountain, this king must lead You can only have cavalry. The cavalry under the King's subordinates are limited. I want to borrow some horses from you for riding. You only need [-] horses. The rest of the army will be led by Ma Teng and Ma Chao to the west of Liangzhou , to recover the counties of Dunhuang."

As soon as this remark came out, people were even more surprised. Everyone thought that Zhang Yan would take away more than half of the soldiers and horses. Even if they only wanted cavalry, it should be all the cavalry. Ten thousand horses.

Ma Teng and Ma Chao wanted to say something else, Zhang Yan said first: "This matter is settled like this, please don't say too much, if anything happens, I will bear it all!"

At this time, Ma Teng and Ma Chao stopped talking, and the rest of them were even more speechless.In the end, it was decided that the Qiang people would lend the [-] war horses.

Later, Zhang Yan made a decision that he would only take away 3000 people, including the 1 cavalry brought by Tai Shici, and the other 1 people would be selected by Xu Chu from the [-] militiamen who had never been to the battlefield. Out of [-] people, the [-] elite soldiers sent by Niu Jin when they entered Liangzhou were left behind, and the other [-] troops were all subordinated to Ma Teng's subordinates, and Zhuge Liang served as Ma Teng's army.

Ma Chao, on the other hand, led his original soldiers and horses unchanged, and the Qiang people naturally fell under Ma Chao's jurisdiction.

After the meeting, Ma Teng, Ma Chao, Pang De, Yang Fu, Pang Rou and others all gathered together. They didn't quite understand Zhang Yan's amazing move today, but they had to obey such an order.

The next day, Zhang Yan took Xu Chu, Tai Shici, Pang Tong and other [-] cavalry, and took enough dry food and water to leave Guzang City first.

After Ma Teng, Ma Chao and others sent Zhang Yan away, they set foot on the westward route.

Ma Chao led Pang De, Ma Dai and [-] cavalry first, entrusted all the troops under his command to his father Ma Teng, and left Guzang City.

Afterwards, Ma Teng commanded the army and walked one by one. On the way, he was particularly puzzled by Zhang Yan's amazing move, so he asked Zhuge Liang, who joined the army, and asked: "Zhuge joined the army, and King Yan only brought thirteen thousand Cavalry, don't you really need to worry?"

Zhuge Liang said: "The king of Yan naturally has his reasons for doing this, and the king of Yan never fights unprepared battles. The reason why he brought so few people to attack the heartland of the Xianbei people should be sure to win. Take it."

(End of this chapter)