On the turbulent river, there are boats one after another, with no end in sight.
The ship's draft was so deep that it almost pressed against the hull. It was full of millet, rice, beans and a small amount of wheat shipped from Huainan and Jiangnan.
There were more than ten troop carriers and boatmen standing on the deck of each ship.
Most of the troop carriers did not wear armor, only about one-third had leather armor, and a small amount of iron armor. When fighting on the river, wearing armor is really inconvenient and very dangerous.
Chen Yan was riding a horse walking on the shore, followed by more than a thousand troop carriers and some of the baggage vehicles.
We are already close to Yangxia, and if we go further northwest, we will enter Fugou County of Chenliu State.
Chen Yan was on the river, but he didn't know anything.
It was early May, and the Huns had been marching south for ten days.
During these ten days, there was not much movement in Xingyang, but there was a lot of commotion in Yanzhou. Especially in the Puyang and Chenliu areas, the cavalry surged southward, grazing and plundering.
A large group of infantry followed the cavalry and took away the money and grain they had stolen. The whole Yanzhou was in chaos.
The result of the chaos is obvious——
Ahead was a dock in Yangxia County. Outside the roughly fenced camp, thousands of people gathered there, crying and begging for some food.
After seeing the ship approaching, the crowd became even more commotion and shouted loudly.
"You should live for the high officials, but not for the common people?"
"Please, give me a mouthful of food. I can do whatever I want."
"Hurry up and put out the food!"
There are more than a thousand people stationed in the dock camp, all members of the aristocratic families mobilized by Chen Hou.
They stood on the wall of the village and looked at the refugees coldly.
If they are locals, for the sake of their pity, they may be able to donate a few mouthfuls of food. But for outsiders, how is it possible? Their own food is very tight!
The first ship docked.
The trackers found a place to rest for a while. They were not responsible for the rest of the river. That was other people's territory. If they crossed the border rashly, they might be beaten.
Some soldiers fetched water and lit a fire directly on the deck to cook. After a while, the rice was fragrant, causing the hungry people on the shore to become more and more commotion.
"Grab the food!" someone shouted and rushed towards the river.
The trackers were so frightened that they dispersed.
"Fire arrows!" a troop transport officer ordered.
"Whoosh! Whoosh!" The arrows flew out from the ship. They were sparse at first, but gradually became denser.
The refugees who rushed towards the canal were swept to the ground, while the remaining ones rolled and crawled and fled away.
Chen Yan's troops formed a semicircular formation.
They had practiced, and some of them had participated in the battle to put down the Shi Bing Rebellion, but most of them had never fought in any battles, lacked experience, and were very nervous.
When they saw the refugees rushing towards them, some even screamed and were killed by the officers.
Fortunately, the refugees were not strong soldiers, and they were a mixture of men, women, old and young. After being shot with a barrage of arrows, they were so frightened that they dispersed.
Chen Yan pushed aside several troop carriers and rode forward.
Dozens of corpses, old and young, men and women, lay scattered on the ground.
He sighed twice, lamenting the hardships faced by the people.
Eighty percent of these people were not refugees before, at least they were people who lived in Chengwu. The reason why they were so hungry that they had to support the old and the young to go south, it is not difficult to guess the reason: they were plundered by the Huns and forced to go south to beg.
Xiaowubao and small settlements are the most dangerous.
They don't have the bargaining power of aristocratic families, so they have nothing to do when a large army attacks them.
But he just sighed twice.
Nowadays, there is a shortage of food everywhere. If food is given to the refugees, the army will not have enough to eat, and many residents will starve to death.
In fact, he heard what the refugees were shouting just now. To a certain extent, their questioning was not wrong.
Save the minister, but not the people?
But the order Chen Yan received was to transport the grain back to Luoyang. He did not dare to release grain to help the people without authorization, nor did he want to do so.
The negative impact of last year's drought has only become more powerful this year.
After consuming a whole year's grain reserves, everyone now knows how valuable grain is, and they should keep it in their hands as much as possible, and never let it go unless absolutely necessary.
The refugees could not resist Wang Mi and Shi Le, so they handed over most of their food and were destined to die.
No one will save them because no one can conjure food.
After a day's rest in Yangxia, a new group of trackers arrived, and the fleet continued to move forward, heading north along the Suiyang Canal, passing through Fugou to Junyi, and settled in Shuizhai.
Junyi is a land and water transportation hub, with a huge warehouse city and the troop transport of Yang Bao, the captain of Sizhou Du branch.
Chen Yan noticed that the grain stocks in Junyicang City had been exhausted, and they were probably all shipped to Luoyang. After the arrival of the batch of grain he escorted, he could replenish the stock slightly.
However, these stored grains will not last long, and will soon be transported by Yang Bao's people on boats, enter the river through Xingyang, then enter the Yishui River, and be transported upstream to Taicang, Luoyang.
There are many dangers along the way.
It is indeed inconvenient for the Huns to attack ships on the river, but they can hunt trackers. Once they succeed, the grain will be silted up in Junyi and Aocang, and they will still be unable to enter Luoyang.
The army is in danger and the war is fierce. Please don’t deceive me! I don’t know how to deal with it this time.
After unloading the grain, Chen Yan returned with the fleet.
Along the way, deaths from hunger can be seen everywhere.
What's even more frightening is that there seem to be more locusts...
****
In Baima County, Puyang, Dahu Shile has already crossed the river.
Recently he has fought several battles with Sima Yue's troops, with both sides winning and losing.
To be precise, four of the six small battles were won.
In the two losses, the cavalry failed to cooperate in time, resulting in the defeat of the infantry. This made him a little vigilant: just one and a half years was not enough for him to train an elite infantry.
Generally speaking, he still recognized the combat effectiveness of the tens of thousands of people in Sima Yue's hands, but he had many ways to kill these people.
"Your Majesty."
"Captain."
"General."
"Da...Dahu."
When he heard the last salutation, Shi Le glared at this person, but did not pursue it, but said: "King Chu, King Qu Yang has sent someone to urge him again. What do you think we should do?"
"Commander, please hold off for a while." Taobao said directly: "Sima Yue is ill, and the army is mainly infantry. Now he is shrinking from the city and abandoning the countryside. It's just the right time for us to grab a good deal. We have finished grabbing the food.
, wouldn’t it be nice to leave the people who are crying for food to Sima Yue and Shao Xun, and let them sit back and watch the people starve to death and bear the bad reputation? "
"Passed!" Shi Le commented a few times, but did not directly reject Tao Bao's proposal.
Taobao is a little clever and resourceful. What he said is what his group has been doing on both sides of the river. It's just that he is not as harsh as Taobao said. He will more or less leave some food so that the people can farm with peace of mind.
.
If you rob it all at once, you will gain more, but what about next year? Will you still be unable to survive?
Only those who know how to exercise restraint are qualified to taste the final victory.
"Meng Sun, tell me how to fight this battle?" Shi Le looked at Zhang Bin and said.
Diao Ying and Zhang Jing quietly looked at each other, feeling a little anxious.
In recent months, Zhang Bin and Zhang Mengsun have received significantly more attention. Although it is not as good as the two of them who serve as left and right officials, the momentum is very wrong and makes people worried.
"May I ask, General, what Shizhong Wang is doing?" Zhang Bin asked.
Shi Leruo realized something.
Wang Mina was so brave that he didn't dare to take the initiative to stroke Shao's tiger beard. In fact, his soldiers were worse than the Jin army, at least they didn't build them every year.
In the Battle of Jujube, I hid in the camp and retreated without support, with more than 3,000 dead. As the attacker, Sima Yue only died about this number, so he was actually a winner.
"Wang Mi is also plundering," Shi Le said.
"I would like to ask again, if the general collects food, grass and military supplies, marches westward, and uses 20,000 cavalry and 60,000 infantry, a total of 80,000 troops to attack Shao Xun's 20,000 infantry in a field battle, can he win?" Zhang
Bin asked again.
Shi Le hesitated.
Of the 80,000 infantry and cavalry, the only ones that can really deal with the Shao thieves are the 20,000 cavalry.
Infantrymen who have been trained for more than a year can just beat other people, but if they face the Silver Spear Army, they probably won't be able to do it.
This is not just a matter of having too many people.
The Art of War makes it very clear that when there are more people, the left does not know the right, the right does not know the left, the front does not know the rear, and the rear does not know the front. Thousands of elites will just watch you fight in a formation. The contact area is only that big, 60,000
Most of the infantry may not have a chance to engage the enemy, and it is not impossible for them to be pierced through by someone inexplicably and lead to collapse.
"Maybe we can win." Shi Le looked into Zhang Bin's eyes and said.
"The general himself is not sure, so why speak so loudly?" Zhang Bin said: "Shao Thief has too few cavalry, which is his biggest disadvantage. In this case, don't fight with him in formation. I can fight if I want.
If you don't want to fight, just leave. Shao Thief can't catch up, so he can only call Naihe in vain."
Shi Le did not comment, but then asked: "What if the King of Chu sends someone to urge you?"
"The King of Chu is mopping up the remnants of the enemy in Hanoi, and he may not be able to go south for a while." Zhang Bin said without hesitation: "We will hold off for a while until we can no longer hold off."
When Shi Le heard this, it made sense.
In fact, that's what he thought too. How stupid must he be to take the initiative to challenge Shao Thief for a decisive battle? Even that fool Wang Mi knew how to avoid Xingyang.
Let me suffer a loss once, you are the best.
It would be foolish of me to suffer losses twice in the same place.
A loss like the Battle of Nomaoka is enough.
This is what he should do, avoiding the truth and making false claims, making false claims in the east and attacking in the west, and making detours to outflank him.
"Peach Leopard." Shi Le quickly made a decision and immediately started giving orders.
"Servant is here."
"You lead three thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry, and march south from Jiyin to plunder the Liang Kingdom."
"As commanded."
"Kui'an."
"Servant is here."
"You lead five thousand cavalry and fifteen thousand infantry, go south from Chenliu and plunder Chenjun."
"As commanded."
"Zhi Xiong."
"Servant is here."
"You lead two thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry to plunder Yingchuan and Xiangcheng."
"As commanded."
"Remember, it's still the old rules." Shi Le reminded: "Save enough food and grass for the return journey. Fight if you can, and leave if you can't. If you can collect food and grass, stay a little longer. If you can't raise it, come back as soon as possible. Spread out the scouts and go around.
Do not slack off in seeking information. Do not use the cavalry separately, but drive and kill the Jin army's cavalry, intercept their messengers, and scout them, making them deaf or blind. Do you understand?"
"As ordered." The three of them responded in unison.
Zhang Bin watched silently and nodded secretly in his heart.
After experiencing the nightmare defeat at Yemaoka, Dahu finally knew how to fight.
Maybe I'm not very skilled yet, and I'm not very clear about it, but I remember the rule of "fight if you can, and leave if you can't" and apply it very well.
People are not born knowing everything. If you know your mistakes and can correct them, there is no greater good.
Chapter completed!