To a certain extent, war is about logistics. The quality of logistics support is directly related to the success or failure of the war. Even if robots fight, a large amount of lubricants and parts must be prepared, let alone humans. The Jurchen cavalry is indeed very powerful. In its heyday,
, ten thousand Jurchen cavalry can sweep across the Central Plains.
But their food intake is also quite astonishing. A strong Jurchen cavalry must eat at least ten kilograms of meat a day, almost one sheep. What about the 100,000 Jurchen cavalry? Thirty-six million sheep a year, so two
What about the 100,000 Jurchen cavalry? Can a small Jin Kingdom support them?
Therefore, a large amount of land in Hebei and the Central Plains was used to raise sheep. The agricultural civilization lost its foundation and the population disappeared. The most prosperous and prosperous agricultural civilization in history, the civilization of the Two Song Dynasties, just disappeared.
Precisely because logistics is extremely important and the war is approaching, the logistics shortage of Jin Bing has become a major issue that worries Wanyan Wushu, and it has also become the focus of Chen Qing's attention.
On the Old Yellow River, a fleet of thirty 500-stone warships was lurking in a reed swamp about thirty miles away from the Old Yellow River Pier in Damingfu.
The Yellow River had changed its course in the second year of Jianyan, turning south from Puyang, passing through Caozhou, Xuzhou and all the way to the Huaihe River, taking the Huaihe River and entering the sea.
But the Yellow River before the diversion is still there, but the water volume has dropped sharply. It has changed from a large river to a medium-sized river, called the Old Yellow River. Considering that it is already June and the weather is getting hot, frozen mutton can only last three or four days, so
To transport mutton, you have to travel the shortest distance, which is to go straight south along the Old Yellow River. You can reach Puyang within three days. After being refrozen in an ice cellar in Puyang, you can then transfer it to Bianliang. This is the only feasible solution.
Jin Bing could consider this plan, as could the Western Army. After Niu Gao accepted the mission, he also carefully planned the interception plan.
From the intelligence transfer from Daming Prefecture, to the tracking of sentry ships, to the tailing of war fleets and the interception of the main fleet, all are linked together to ensure that this Jin soldiers' logistics fleet must be captured in one fell swoop.
At the fourth watch, more than 500 flat-bottomed tugboats and 20 guard sentry boats entered the old Yellow River from the Cao River. The Jin soldiers were extremely weak on the water. There were only these 20 sentinel boats on the Yellow River, fully loaded with 600 soldiers.
In addition, there are two soldiers on each flat-bottomed tugboat, and a total of 1,500 soldiers are escorting the boat on the water. In addition, there are 2,000 cavalry on the shore, and the protection is quite tight.
It was for this reason that Niu Gao decided not to start at the old Yellow River, but at the intersection of the old and new Yellow Rivers where the water surface is the widest.
Five hundred flat-bottomed tugboats sailed through the reed swamp area and continued to sail toward the southwest. When the fleet was far away, thirty 500-stone warships came out of the reed swamp, following the Jin soldiers from a distance.
The fleet left.
Puyang has always been an important town on the Yellow River and is famous for its White Horse Crossing. However, since the second year of Jianyan, the Yellow River burst its banks here in Puyang. Puzhou, Caozhou, Xuzhou, Sizhou and other places have suffered disasters, and a large amount of land and population have been destroyed.
After the water receded, the soil became very barren, the originally fertile land turned into dry fields, and the wheat yield per mu dropped sharply from 400 kilograms to more than 100 kilograms.
Puyang also declined accordingly. Although it is the intersection of the old and new Yellow Rivers, its transportation status is very important, and it should be the best transit place. But in fact, transportation on the Yellow River has not developed at all, and Puyang has lost its past.
aura, turning it into an ordinary county town.
However, there are still three kilograms of iron left in the broken ship. Although Puyang has declined, it still has some heritage. First of all, the county is very large. It is a large county with a population of hundreds of thousands at its peak. Now there are more than 100,000. In addition, it
There are several large warehouses, including a large ice cellar.
Previously, the Jin soldiers garrisoned 3,000 troops in Puyang, but seeing that the war was approaching, Wanyan Wushu quickly withdrew the garrisons in various places. The 3,000 troops garrisoned in Puyang have been withdrawn, and now only 300 troops are left to guard the warehouse.
At three o'clock in the night, two thousand Western troops came quickly from the direction of the pier, where a dozen large ships were moored.
This is the two thousand army sent by Niu Gao. The goal is to capture Puyang City. They also need to re-ice the 500,000 frozen muttons in Puyang City before they can continue to be transported to Luoyang, otherwise they will definitely deteriorate and rot on the road.
At the same time, hundreds of Western soldiers who had been lurking in the city also rushed to the north city. They entered the city the afternoon before, bribed the defenders a little, and then put their armor and weapons in cargo boxes and brought them directly into the city.
There were only 300 troops in the city, so no one was guarding the city at night. Only two soldiers on duty lived in the city tower. The Western soldiers knocked out the two soldiers on duty and tied them up, then opened the city gate and waved torches on the city wall.
, not long after, two thousand soldiers who were ambushing outside the city rushed into the city.
On the morning of the third day, the fleet carrying mutton sailed into the intersection of the old and new Yellow Rivers. The river here is more than ten miles wide, surrounded by vast waves, and Puyang City can be faintly seen in the distance.
At this moment, a fleet of about fifty or sixty ships appeared on the main channel of the Yellow River ahead. They were rapidly rushing towards the transport fleet, less than ten miles away.
"Dang! Dang! Dang!"
The transport fleet sounded the alarm, and the commander of the escort ship was shocked and ordered: "The fleet retreats, and the warships come up to fight!"
Twenty guard ships rushed forward to buy time for the tug fleet to retreat. The transport tug fleet began to turn around and attempted to sail back to the old path of the Yellow River. However, they did not expect that a fleet of thirty warships had already arrived.
Followed for a long time.
Jin Bing's naval forces were all Han Chinese who grew up by the Yellow River and were recruited by Jin Bing as patrolling naval forces. However, they usually did not operate in the Yellow River, but patrolled the inland river on Hebei Road.
The twenty sentry ships were very agile and surrounded the Western warships from all directions and fired rockets at the ships.
Niu Gao sneered and said: "Surround them and sink them!"
The sixty large ships dispersed. They were all about a thousand stones in size. They did not use sails and sailed on foot. They were very fast and more flexible. They soon surrounded the twenty sentry ships in a large circle.
Commander Jin Bing was a little surprised. The other party actually besieged him. Did they ignore the cargo ship?
When he turned around, he was stunned by the scene in the distance. He saw a fleet of ships escorting a long cargo ship heading towards Puyang City.
It turned out that the other side blocked them, and another fleet took control of the tugboat fleet. The soldiers guarding the tugboats were not sailors, and they were either killed or had to surrender.
Niu Gao's two-thousand-stone main ship had silently sailed to the side of the rear main ship, and suddenly accelerated its speed and crashed into it.
"boom!"
The sentinel boat on which the Jin soldiers were riding was caught off guard and was knocked over from the side by the main ship of the Western Army. The bottom of the boat was upside down, and all thirty soldiers fell into the water.
Arrows rained down from the big ship, and the commander and a dozen of his men were instantly killed by random arrows.
"Spare your life! We surrender." The remaining soldiers cried and surrendered.
Without the leader, other sentry ships also surrendered one after another. They were unable to fight against each other at all. The soldiers were not fools. The Western warships far exceeded them in size and speed. Apart from surrender, there was only one way to die.
This water battle with huge disparity in power ended in less than half an hour. Except for dozens of people who refused to surrender and were killed, more than 1,400 soldiers all surrendered.
The tugboat fleet arrived in Puyang and entered the moat directly from a small river, then entered the city through Shuicheng Gate, and parked directly in front of the warehouse area. All soldiers and surrendered troops participated in unloading. More than 10,000 people were busy until the evening, and only five people were able to get there.
All 100,000 frozen sheep were moved into the ice cave warehouse.
A commander said to Niu Gao: "The cavalry on the shore must have discovered us in the end. They will rush back and report to Wan Yanchang, who will also immediately notify the Jin soldiers in Bianliang."
Niu Gao smiled slightly and said: "Don't worry, after all this time, plus the time of carrier pigeons, it will take at least five days for the Bianliang Jin soldiers to reach Puyang. By then we would have left Puyang County long ago. In fact, I only need to freeze
Two days is enough."
Niu Gao still underestimated the Jin soldiers and did not wait for five days. Three days later, five thousand Jurchen cavalry who rushed from Yingtian Mansion rushed to Puyang. However, the Western Army had already escorted the fleet to Luoyang a day ago.
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[Lao Gao is not feeling well, so I would like to ask everyone for leave. Two updates today!]
