Tang Jianbu is waiting for food and fodder.
The mountain road is difficult, and the fifteen thousand steps of riding are eaten by horses, which consumes a lot of money. The food and grass they carry with them will not last long. What's more, they also followed Liang Gong's order and distributed part of the military food to the Hu and Han people near the station.
, appease people's hearts and stabilize the situation.
When the mule army crossed Gaodu and headed north, Tang Jian left a small number of troops to guard Gaodu. The main force had already penetrated more than 120 miles to the west and reached the place where Yangcheng County would later be located.
He didn't care about Liu Zhao's life and death. He had already passed through difficult and dangerous areas and entered a relatively flat area. It didn't matter how many Huns came, and they would be able to fight back sooner or later.
The main reason why he adjusted the direction of the battle was to get accurate news that there was an enemy coming from the west, so he killed them first and then reported them, organized his troops to the west, and sent a messenger to report the military situation.
Shangdang is deserted, many villages have been abolished, and only large and small Wuhuan are left in the mountains here. When the Xiongnu tribe heard that the army was coming, some surrendered on the spot - mainly the Wuhuan people - and some hurriedly walked west
, fled back to the Huns.
However, strictly speaking, this may already be the boundary of Sizhou. Not far to the west of Gein is Yize County (hù) of Pingyang County of Sizhou (to the west of today's Yangcheng County).
Ju Quchong led a small number of light cavalry forward and arrived outside Yize County. They encountered a group of enemy cavalry and retreated without fighting.
After returning, a large number of rangers were sent out to survey the terrain, observe the enemy's garrison position, and logistics transportation routes.
"There is Duanshi County in the mountains a hundred miles away to the north, and the tail gate of Wuling is tens of miles west of the county, so Wulingguan was built. I haven't heard any news about Liu Cong coming here, so I'm afraid there is a mistake."
"It shouldn't be a mistake. Liu Cong may have come here for inspection, urging the defenders to repair the city defenses, and then left to go elsewhere."
"Yize is far away from Shangdang, but it is also far away from Pingyang. There is indeed no shortage of food in Hedong, Pingyang, and Xihe, but it costs a lot to transport it here. The Xiongnu is not well-off and will not keep a large army here."
"I think so too. The main force of the Xiongnu should be at Wuling Pass. This is the place where the three Jin clans are divided into alliances. The terrain is relatively flat, so the Guan City is located. The Xiongnu should want to defend Wuling Pass. The Duan family in Yize can
Keep it by the rules, but don't abandon it. Maybe all the people have evacuated, leaving only an empty city."
"I expect Liu Cong to be in the north. There are two roads in Wuling, the north and the south. The south road, Wulingguan Mountain, is difficult and difficult to walk, making it inconvenient to use troops. The north road has gentler mountains. Although it is a big mountain, it is actually Fen, hundreds of miles away from Qin.
The main road runs through the lowest part of the mountain range. Since the Han Dynasty, people have taken the north road, while the south road is sparsely populated and in disrepair, making it unsuitable for large armies to pass."
"The North Road leads directly to the capital of the puppet Han Dynasty. Liu Congding is stationed there to personally supervise the battle and boost morale."
“Can water transport food?”
"Now that the water is shallow, I'm afraid it won't be possible. It was at the turn of spring and summer that the Qin general Wang Lu took the southern route. Taking advantage of the spring floods when the water was deep, he was able to support both land and water transport."
Tang Jian silently listened to the discussions of his staff and nodded slightly.
They were scholars. They dug out a lot of things from old papers and had a relatively good understanding of Bingzhou's traffic conditions. After he sent people to investigate on the spot, he found that there were differences with what his staff said, but they were not very big. Overall, they were reliable.
When marching and fighting, geography is really important.
He had been fighting in Henan and Hebei before. When he first entered Bingzhou, he was simply shocked - for a person who has lived on the plains for half his life, it is normal to be surprised when he sees such a broken and difficult terrain, just as he has been there before.
Hongnong.
From fighting in the plains to fighting in the mountains, the previous thinking will change.
He is trying to make changes.
"Build fortifications and keep troops here to monitor the direction of Yize and Duanshi, and the army will return to Gaodu to eat." After hearing this, Tang Jian made a decision.
Going west through the Wuling South Road is risky and difficult to supply. It is necessary to mobilize more than 200,000 strong men from Henan and Hebei to help transport grain and grass. This decision is not something he can make, so he can only go back first.
To put it bluntly, if you decide to march westward through Wuling Road, you need to be fully prepared. In terms of scale, you must have the supplies and personnel for a war to destroy the country, otherwise it will not work.
In the Changping Battle between Qin and Zhao, most of Zhao's more than 400,000 troops were just logistical support personnel, and the actual number of soldiers was probably tens of thousands.
If there are really 400,000 combat personnel, all the strong men and women sent by Zhao State cannot guarantee the logistics.
Terrain and food and fodder are too great a restriction on war.
****
Tang Jian's staff really got it right, Liu Cong is in Beidao at the moment.
To be more precise, it is east of Xiangling County, Pingyang County.
There is no shortage of food in the Yuncheng Basin, but the problem is that it cannot be transported to the east. In fact, it can be transported, but the losses will be high. It depends on whether you are willing to part with it.
That's the problem with terrain.
Sometimes, when looking at the country as a whole, there is an abundance of grain and grass, but in a specific place, there may be a shortage of grain because the cost of transporting grain from elsewhere is too high. Even in later generations, the country is still overhauling grain depots in various places because the transportation cost is too high.
high.
Liu Ya fought fiercely with Shao Xun in Hanoi, and the support from the Binh Duong court was very limited.
It is difficult to transport elite troops, grain, grass and equipment in large quantities, so they can only be stored locally. Because there are endless mountains in the middle, you have to go out of Zhiguan (one of the eight passes in Taihang) to get to Hanoi, and the road loss is relatively large.
Big and very costly.
Local soldiers use local resources and fight locally. This is the actual situation of ancient wars in many cases.
Of course the monarch knows that this may lead to local separatism, but in this world things are nothing more than cost, so what can he do?
Hedong, Pingyang, and Feng Yi are as wealthy as Henan, but if you don't use Hanoi, it will be in vain to go to the party.
Liu Cong was not a fool, he understood this truth. Therefore, after spending a lot of money to transport 200,000 dendrobium grains to Jinyang, he stopped and began to build the Wuling defense line.
The focus is on the North Road, which is the focus of contention between the two sides.
"Your Majesty." Liu Jing, King of Ruyin, saluted immediately when he saw Liu Cong driving his car.
Liu Cong got off Chengyu, his face was a little gloomy, and he just asked: "How is the pass?"
"We have all sent troops to gather food to wait for Shao's thieves." Liu Jing replied.
Liu Cong remained silent and just looked at the vast mountains. After a long time, he said: "If the Shao thieves are allowed to cross Wuling, they will break into the flat Fenshui Valley and will be difficult to control."
"Your Majesty, please relax." Liu Jing said: "Hanoi, the Shangdang is in ruins, and the Shao thieves are short of food and supplies, so it will be difficult to cross Wuling."
This is true.
Fighting in the mountainous area of ​​​​Bingzhou, with the support of the relatively wealthy Pingyang, Hedong, and Fengyi counties, Shao Xun is at a disadvantage in terms of grain and grass. Unless he mobilizes hundreds of thousands of people from Henan and Hebei to transfer grain and grass at any cost, but he does not have this now
strength.
But Liu Cong was still a little frustrated.
Before I knew it, someone was calling me at my door.
If the loss in Hebei is normal and beyond reach, then the loss in Hanoi and Shangdang is more fatal, because it causes Pingyang to lose its peripheral barrier, Zhiguan, Wulinguan, Diaohuangling, Danzhuling and other places are directly exposed to the
Under Shao Xun's military front, there was no longer a peripheral buffer zone.
Once these dangerous fortresses were broken, Shao Xun went straight into the flat river valley, and the imperial court had no geographical advantage.
"Shao thief is going to fight in person, how can I not fight in person?" Liu Cong sighed: "Ask the prince not to come back and continue to control Chang'an. I will take care of the areas east of Hedong, Pingyang and Xihe myself."
Liu Jing also looked at the endless mountains.
In fact, if the Shao thieves couldn't get through, they couldn't get through either.
The danger of Taihang is already shared by both parties.
What does this mean? It means that if the imperial court sends troops to attack the Shao thieves, the first thing they have to face is Wuling, the danger of Taihang, which is very difficult.
This also means that the Han Dynasty has lost the ability to harass the Shao Thief's core hinterland.
From now on, the Han Dynasty may become a pure Kansai regime, using Hongnong, Hedong, Pingyang, Xihe, Jinyang and other places as peripheral barriers to defend Chang'an.
Maybe this is not bad.
This kind of terrain consumes a lot of money on the attacking side and a small amount on the defending side, which is suitable for the changes in the national power of both sides after the capital is moved.
"I will posthumously make Liu Ya the King of Qi." Liu Cong said to the courtiers following behind him: "Take one of his sons to the prince's side and listen to him."
****
On October 13th, Shao Xun arrived in Gaodu and listened to Tang Jian's report face to face.
"The last general has sent Ju Qu Chong and his light cavalry to the north." Tang Jian said cautiously.
"There is no need to be so careful." Shao Xun said gently: "When you first joined the Shangdang, you thought about making progress. It's good to have this intention. No one has been to Wulingnan Road, and you can't count it just by reading the books and records.
Now that we know the danger, let’s forget it and see if we can take the North Road.”
The south road leads to Gaodu County in the Jincheng Basin, and the north road leads to Changzi County (today's Changzi) in the Changzhi Basin. The former is a small, dangerous road, and has been in disrepair for a long time. The latter is also a dangerous road, but it is well maintained. After all, it is a main road.
.
However, there are prerequisites for taking the north route, which is to capture the natural dangers of Danzhu Mountain and enter the Changzhi Basin.
"Now that we have been able to join the party and look back at Pingyang, why not go up to Long and look at Shu?" Shao Xun patted Tang Jian's shoulder and said with a smile: "I'm not greedy. The goal of this battle is to share the danger of Taihang with the Xiongnu. Now we have achieved it.
The rest is earned.”
"The last general is willing to send troops to the north to attack the Xuans and Danzhu Ridge." Tang Jian immediately asked for orders.
Shao Xun shook his head slightly and said: "I have ordered Jin Zheng to lead his troops north. At this time, his brave and diligent fighting style is needed."
Tang Jian bowed.
Liang Gong's meaning is very clear. Jin Zheng's fighting style can shorten the fighting time. What is lacking most now is time.
Hanoi, Shangdang was in ruins, and food needed to be transported from Henan, and then reached Gaodu through Taihangxing, eighty miles away.
We are heading north from Gaodu, but there is still a long way to go. Is this a big price to pay?
To put it bluntly, the cost of transporting grain is higher than that of the Xiongnu. Nowadays, transporting food regardless of the cost is really using national power to suppress people and hurting people with their own resources.
It's already mid-October now. Judging from the weather in recent years, heavy snow may fall at any time. By then, it will be almost impossible to transport food and grass, which really doesn't leave you much time.
The most ideal situation is actually to restore Shangdang's local agriculture and animal husbandry and provide food and grass locally. However, this requires disaster relief, which will occupy a large amount of military rations.
How to choose is really difficult.
If people want to eat, they don't just have to be heroic and ignore everything.
"After some time -" Shao Xun looked at Tang Jian and said: "There will be an appointment order from the Central Committee of the State. You can lead the governor of Hanoi from afar, control Gaodu, and watch over it for me."
"Ming Gong is leaving?" Tang Jian was slightly surprised.
"Let's see." Shao Xun said with a smile: "Take advantage if there is any advantage, and leave if there is no advantage."
(continues in the evening)
Chapter completed!