"In May, Hu Chong, the governor of Shilekouji County, went south to Jihe, and Pei Chun, the governor of Xingyang, rushed to Jianye. Strong winds broke trees. Earthquakes. Locusts spread across the six states of You, Bing, Si, Ji, Qin, and Yong.
All the grass, trees, cattle and horse hair are gone.”
Of course, the above is what happened in history, and this time and space has changed too much.
But the details can be changed, but the fundamental strategy has not yet had the decisive force to overturn it, such as the Xiongnu attack on Luoyang.
After experiencing last year's failure, this year they used cutting off the Luoyang grain road as their main tactic. This was an important reason for Shi Le's move south in history.
He succeeded, and Luoyang fell into a great famine. Sima Yue was forced to lead people out of the town to reduce the food pressure on Luoyang. However, Luoyang, which was short of major generals, still fell in the early summer of the next year. The Xiongnu even sent only 40,000 people to take it.
After falling, it was less than one-third of the first force.
Their tactics were successful.
But when Shao Xun saw Yang Bao returning to Aocang with the empty ship, he was a little confused again.
Did the Xiongnu completely ignore water transportation? Something was wrong.
If this continues, after I transport boatloads of grain back to Luoyang, what's the point of you coming back this year?
The Forbidden Army still has more than 26,000 infantry and cavalry. If we temporarily recruit strong peasants and soldiers, it will not be a problem to gather 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers.
Although these people are not good at fighting in the field, what can you do if you insist on defending the city?
Shao Xun even thought for a time that the Huns might have given up.
Otherwise, how to explain that they have not taken action against the water transport node so far?
No one attacked Junyi, who was guarded by beggar commander Chen Wu.
No one attacked Guandu City, which was guarded by the Yamen Army.
No one attacked Aocang City to transport troops and a large number of ships were concentrated.
No one attacked Licheng where the rebel army was stationed.
No one even entered the Luoyang Basin and harassed water transportation nodes such as Gongxian and Yanshi. There was no sign of even building a pontoon bridge to cross the river south.
What a bird fight!
Since he didn't know what they were doing, Shao Xun decided to take the initiative, taking the main force of the Silver Spear Army and all the cavalry that could move - including the personal soldiers, almost a thousand cavalry - and crossed the Bian Canal to the north, first
As far as Yangwu, they sent Dongyan and Baima to attack Wang Mi's tribe.
This move is called alerting the enemy, that is, revealing the enemy's tactical intentions.
There are some things that cannot be guessed. The only way is to take the initiative, mobilize the enemy, and then analyze the clues to draw relatively reliable conclusions.
He now even suspected that Shi Le and Wang Mi had disobeyed orders and failed to comply with the overall strategy of the Liu Han court.
But this kind of disobedience has a limit. They are still unable to break away from the Liu Han court and have no ability to stand on their own. This situation cannot last forever.
When the furious Liu Cong keeps issuing orders, they will eventually be unable to withstand the tremendous pressure and get back on track again.
Let’s see who consumes more energy!
But as soon as he started, he was forced to stop...
The overwhelming locusts have become a scene in Henan.
They were green at first, and the birds, chickens and ducks ate happily. But when the locusts gathered together and met each other, they began to become fierce and violent due to competition for food, and their body color also changed from green to brown.
As a result, swarms of locusts began to take off and "fight" everywhere.
There is nothing you can do about the locusts that have taken off. They contain toxins in their bodies, and even their natural enemies will be slightly poisoned if they eat them.
It's okay if you eat a little bit, but if you eat too much, just ask for more blessings.
"Man Yu, Gao Yi, you two send the cavalry out and keep a watchful eye from a distance. If there is any situation, come back immediately to report. The rest are harvesting wheat." Shao Xun looked at the increasing number of locusts and ordered.
In fact, it doesn't matter whether we send people or not. Such a serious locust plague may be rare in history, and it has already reached the point of hindering people's travel.
In his impression, it seemed that only one time in the Yuan Dynasty, even people and horses could not travel -
"In the fifth month, in Shandong, Hedong, Henan, and Guanzhong, locusts cover the sky, making it impossible for people and horses to move, and all the ravines they fall into are flat."
"The crops, crops, and trees are all gone. The sun is blocked wherever possible, making it impossible for people and horses to move. The holes and trenches are filled with overflow."
This shit world!
Shao Xun sighed, put down the butcher knife, picked up the sickle, and braved the locusts, and went into the fields.
Xingyang is a county under Sizhou. When Wang Yan promoted the planting of winter wheat in the autumn of the previous year, Sizhou was not very active. There were not many farmers, Wubao and manors planting this wheat.
But when a severe drought hit, resulting in large-scale reductions in spring millet production and even no harvests, many people woke up.
And without anyone urging, at least 40 to 50% of the farmland was planted with winter wheat last autumn, and harvesting began one after another in May.
A few days ago, the first batch of wheat had even been harvested and dried.
In recent days, some farmland has begun to be harvested.
Shao Xun never thought that one day, the war would be interrupted by a serious locust plague.
There are so many surprises in this war!
****
Kui'an took off his battle robe and carefully covered the back of his horse. Even if it was not enough, he pulled some pieces of brocade he had just snatched and carefully covered the BMW.
But unexpectedly, the exquisite silk was actually covered with locusts.
Kui'an was dumbfounded. The locusts even ate silk.
He raised his head and looked at the sky again.
The locust army that covered the sky took off in groups, swooping on farmland, grassland, and woods, looking for anything they could eat.
To be honest, he had never seen a locust plague, but he had never seen a locust plague so serious.
Too many!
I don’t know how it is in Hebei, I guess it’s not much better, or even worse.
Due to such a disturbance by locusts, all the millet seedlings planted in the spring in Hebei and Yuzhou were left alive!
food!
Kui'an was suddenly shocked. The most important thing now is food. Whoever can have more food will survive!
The sound of horse hooves could be heard in the distance.
Kui'an looked through the dense swarm of locusts and saw his own cavalry.
A lot of locusts fell on the horse, and it raised its hooves uneasily, even throwing people off.
What a beast! He even eats horse hair. What a beast!
Kui'an was so angry that he grabbed two locusts and tried to stuff them into his mouth.
"General, you can't eat it." The soldiers quickly took his hand and advised, "You will get sick."
"Go away!" Kui'an scolded: "I heard people tell history before and mentioned that when Yuan Shu was in Shouchun, the people were hungry and poor, and they used mulberry trees and locusts as food. Is this false?"
"General, I really can't eat it." The general wiped his face, pulled down a locust, and said: "This thing is green at first and is edible. If it turns brown, you can't eat it. If you are really hungry and can't eat it, you must force it.
, it’s best to steam it before eating it, but you will still get sick if you eat too much.”
"I'll just eat it!" Kui An glanced at the two locusts still struggling in his palm, quietly threw one away, stuffed the other into his mouth, chewed it up, and said while eating, "Even
He’s eaten human flesh, but locusts can’t eat it?”
The general was speechless.
Therefore, according to old legend, you can eat locusts when they are on the ground. Once they change color and take off in swarms, you must not eat them unless you are about to starve to death.
After eating the locusts, Kui An suppressed his nausea and looked at the two people following the general, wondering: "Didn't you two follow Taobao? Why did you come back with injuries?"
"General Tao led his troops to Meng County and was attacked by the beggar commander Wang Ping and Qi Ji. He was defeated for a while. I was specially sent to inform you."
"Is Tao Bao a waste? He has three thousand cavalry, but he can't beat Wang Ping and Qi Ji?" Kui'an scolded.
"General, look at these locusts in the sky, whose horse can run?" The visitor said aggrievedly: "When the war horses and draft animals were agitated, the beggar army came out of the fort. Our army was defeated and three of our troops were lost.
More than a thousand people.”
Kui'an was speechless and didn't know what to say for a moment.
It's like when two armies are confronting each other, and a sudden storm blows up, the disadvantaged side becomes restless and is taken advantage of.
This battle is won!
"General, there is no way to herd horses outside. Food is very important. We must get food as soon as possible." The general stepped forward and reminded.
Kui'an was even more speechless.
Today is no better than it was decades ago, or even ten years ago.
There are fewer and fewer villages, and there are more and more Tuweizi, fortresses and even large forts. The trend of people living together in small forts is very obvious.
Thousands of cavalry went south. If they could not graze in the wild, the consumption would be too great when food was very tight.
Then, they can only capture the fortress wall to obtain food - this is why they must lead the infantry southward.
A small village with dozens or more than a hundred households is easy to capture, and without even fighting, the cavalry can make a circle and frighten them to get food. But they are too small and cannot quench their thirst.
If it's Dawu Fort, tens of thousands of riders might be able to scare them into voluntarily handing over food, and the thousands of riders can go to bed as soon as possible. He is sure that you can't capture your own Wubao, or he thinks that you are reluctant to take the precious food.
When cavalry attacks a city, they won't care about you at all. You must go up to infantry.
Thinking of this, Kui'an became more and more irritable.
He found that this battle was far from the plan before departure.
He even vaguely felt that after this locust plague, the Wubao commanders were becoming more and more unwilling to give in. Every grain of food was precious. To take their food was to take their lives.
In short, it's not as easy to talk as before.
He kind of wanted to retreat.
Shao Xun is so lucky, my maidservant! This battle was so frustrating!
****
On Guangchengze Pasture, all livestock are driven into pens and doors and windows are closed to prevent locusts from getting in.
People had only heard of locusts eating vegetation before, but this was the first time they even ate livestock hair.
In fact, this is also the first time recorded in history that "all the hair on cattle and horses was gone". The second time was in the first year of Zhenyuan of the Tang Dynasty (785). "Wherever (the locusts) went, there were corpses everywhere in the grass, trees and livestock hair, and they died of hunger on the road."
Every time the locusts gather together, their temper becomes a little more violent.
When there are too many gatherings and the temper becomes extreme, they will eat not only the hair of livestock, but even the leather.
The ducks squawking and squawking on the upper reaches of Guangchengze Lake ate locusts. They can resist a little of the cyanogen acid in locusts' bodies - the lethal dose is 1mg/100kg - but they can't eat too much. A duck can eat hundreds of locusts in a day.
It's just amazing.
Chen Yougen looked anxiously at the people and campers who had been mobilized urgently.
They used many methods to kill locusts.
For example, light a bonfire at night.
For example, digging trenches in the fields and then burying the densely packed locusts.
For example, use cloth curtains to build a fence along with the wind.
But it seems like it's just a drop in the bucket, better than nothing.
He saw with his own eyes that after a wide and deep trench was dug, it was filled with locusts within a short time.
God wants to kill people!
Fortunately, the locusts in Guangchengze flew in from elsewhere and were a few days late. Half of the mature wheat in the fields had been harvested. Although the losses were still very heavy, part of the grain was harvested.
After sighing deeply, he took the urgently recruited soldiers and troops, covered the horses with linen cloth, and walked to Liang County to assemble.
There are ten defense troops in the five counties of Liang, Yangcheng, Luyang and the southern edge of Guangcheng Ze. There are 3,000 troops on the books, but less than 2,600 can actually be mobilized.
Two thousand people had been drafted before. This time after receiving the news that Shi Le's troops were marching south, another 500 were urgently drafted, and almost everyone who could go into battle was mobilized.
Changshe, Xuchang, Xiangcheng, Yangzhai and Liang counties have prepared some transfer horses and horse materials in advance.
Yesterday, Li Zhong sent back an order to mobilize all the horses that could be used in Guangchengze, and strive to achieve 2,500 soldiers with two horses per man.
He understood what Li Chong meant.
With one person and two horses, and horse materials prepared in advance in various places, their rapid maneuverability would far exceed that of Shi Le's troops - he did not believe that Shi Le could manage all the cavalry in his account to have one person and two horses.
This time, he really did not hesitate to spend money. Even if he ran to death and crippled a group of horses, he still had to seize Shi Le's soldiers and beat them severely.
It's a pity that it was a bad start!
The overwhelming locusts greatly disrupted the rhythm of the soldiers, making it impossible for them to run wildly in the Xiangcheng and Yingchuan areas, capture, and annihilate Shile's cavalry.
Shi Le is so lucky, my maid! This battle was so frustrating!
As the sun set, Chen Yougen led his troops and troops, while driving away the locusts that were attacking him, carrying heavy swords and crossbows, and leading "fully armed" horses, towards Liang County.
No one expected that this war would unfold in such a funny way.
Chapter completed!