Comparing the military strength of the Han court controlled by Zhang Chong with the strength of all parties in Taiping Road that he knew, anyone who is not stupid knows that Taiping Road has no chance at all.
Let’s look at the Han Dynasty first. We only count the economic and military forces on the books. The first major part is the national soldiers of each county. Because of the difference in military pressure between inner and outer counties, generally speaking, there are thousands of soldiers in inner counties. , it is probably a school captain's department, 500 soldiers, 50 cavalry, and the rest have 450 soldiers. Then there are 2,000 soldiers in a foreign county, and then a similar number of land reclamation soldiers composed of executed prisoners. That's almost four thousand soldiers.
And how many counties did Hanting have?
There are thirty-six border counties and seventy inner counties. Then there are 150,000 frontier troops and 70,000 inner county troops, totaling 220,000.
In addition to the permanent troops of the prefecture, the Han Dynasty also had garrisons on the dock walls at various strategic points. For example, there were 616 dock walls in Changshan Zhongshan in Zhao State, which were built to defend against the Qiang people. There were also three Longdao beacons in Fufeng Hanyang. One hundred. According to the layout of the Han court, there are nearly 200,000 soldiers here. However, these are generally farming soldiers, half farmers and half soldiers.
Then there are four major areas of camp troops in the border areas. Among them, there are 1,000 troops from Wuji School of the Western Region Protectorate, 1,000 cavalry from Duliao Camp in Yunzhong County, 2 troops each from Chang'an Camp and 2 Yong Camp commanded by Colonel Huya from Guanzhong. Thousands. The Liyang Camp in Hebei, the Yuyang Camp in Youzhou, and the Fuli Camp each have a thousand soldiers. In addition, the Wuhuan, Qiang, and Xiongnu captains each have a thousand soldiers. Then here is the border area, where the Han Dynasty There are 12,000 soldiers in the court, and these are generally elites. Especially the three guards, who can also recruit thousands of Qiang, Wuhuan, Xiongnu and other Hu soldiers during the war. These special ones are not counted.
Finally, there are the two armies of the North and South in Kyoto and the standing armed forces of each government. Kyoto has military power, and there are probably the following systems:
The first one is from the general's bodyguard system, with about 4,500 troops. There are 200 horsemen holding Jinwu, and 520 people holding halberds. A total of less than 1,000 people are on standby, specializing in water and fire outside the palace. Then there are Guang Luxun's thousand halberd-bearing men, and Hu Ben Zhonglang's 1,500 Langguan. These are all the children of the Duke of the imperial court and the county's two thousand stone prefect. There is also the Yulin Zhonglang. There are 2,000 Yulin cavalry and Zhangsu Guard attendants. These are the elites of the Han court, and they are supplemented by good families from six counties including Hanyang, Longxi, Anding, Beidi, Shangjun, and Xihe.
The second is the five-battalion system of the Northern Army of General Chariot and Cavalry, with a troop strength of 4,000. These five battalions are the Colonel of Tunqi, the Colonel of Yueqi, the Colonel of Infantry, the Colonel of Changshui, and the Colonel of Shesheng. Eight hundred officers and soldiers.
The third one is the palace guard system of the Hussar General, with the number of soldiers also being 4,000. The palace gate guards have 3,000 soldiers. The chariot commander has 200 soldiers, and the seventh palace gate commander has 800 soldiers.
The fourth is the Gyeonggi system of General Wei, that is, the Southern Army, with a troop strength of 4,000. Among them, there are 1,200 Sili Xiaowei, Zhongdu officials and disciples, and 300 Sili Xiaowei each.
Therefore, the total number of central soldiers in Kyoto is about 17,000. In this way, the entire Han Dynasty has 250,000 standing troops and 200,000 cultivation troops, which is 450,000.
And if the Han court does not intend to survive, and just delegates military power to the powerful counties and counties, allowing them to bring their own troops to defeat the thieves, then at the limit, the Han court can break out another 200,000 troops. Of course, this is also theoretically .Because if it reaches that level, the local situation will be extremely difficult to control, and the Han Dynasty will almost be over.
But Zhang Chong estimated that these were the total military strength of the Han court, but in fact, only a hundred thousand soldiers could participate in the conquest of Taiping Road. This was already the limit of the Han court's mobile troops. The Qiang people rebelled on a large scale, and at that time they mobilized There were about 100,000 soldiers from the five schools of Yulin and soldiers from nearby counties and counties.
But as for the 100,000-strong expeditionary force, Zhang Chong knew that Taiping Road could not be conquered. Because in history, when the Han Dynasty defeated the Yellow Turban Army, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun were given 40,000 troops, and the five schools of the Northern Army were transferred. , the knights of Sanhe and the elites of the counties. And Lu Zhi in the north gave 25,000 troops, including 5,000 Wuhuan cavalry. Plus some Cao Cao, Sun Jian and other troops, the total number of troops was probably around 100,000. In the end What was the result? From the time of the uprising to the time it was put down, Taipingdao failed to hold on for ten months or even a year.
The above is the situation in Hanting, but what about Taiping Road?
Taiping Road is called the Thirty-Six Squares of the World, but in fact the main ones are Jizhou Main Road, Qingyan Taiping Road, Nanyang Taiping Road and Ruying Taiping Road. Zhang Chong himself is from Qingyan Road, and he is relatively familiar with it. With his Understand that Qingzhou Dao has only 15,000 capable soldiers in six counties. On average, one county has less than 3,000 capable soldiers. The rest are just flag-wavers and followers of Taiping Dao. And so on. If so, there are millions of Taiping Taoists in the world, and there are probably around 100,000 extreme warriors.
But it is a pity that Taiping Dao did not practice the five soldiers, and the military formations were not strict and they fought independently. When the Han Dynasty conquered Taiping Dao, the strategy was very clear, which was to cut off the troops from all sides on Taiping Dao. Therefore, the first to send troops was to fight The most important thing is the Taiping Road in Yingru, which is located in the middle of the Taiping Road. If this area is destroyed, the Taiping Road in various places will not be connected together. Then they will focus on the Taiping Road in Hebei and behead them. Therefore, it was pacified in eight months. The great uprising that took place over 20 years after the development of Taiping Road.
But now that Zhang Chong has come to this world, the situation has naturally changed. First of all, he has five thousand Taishan soldiers under his command. He is confident that he can defeat the most elite northern and southern armies of the Han Dynasty. So as long as Zhang Chong makes good use of his tactics, he can maneuver Support the Taiping Dao in various places, which was not available in the original world. Then there is Zhang Chong’s knowledge. The main reason for the failure of the Taiping Dao uprising was that he was betrayed by Tang Zhou and leaked the beheading operation in Kyoto. Now if Tang Zhou can be eradicated, the Taiping Dao will If the success center blooms, the chances are probably greater.
But Zhang Chong knew rationally that this strategy would basically not succeed.
First of all, the North and South Palaces in Kyoto are not just palaces, they are actually military fortresses. This is a tradition passed down from the Han Dynasty. When Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, moved the capital to Guanzhong and built Chang'an, the North Palace was built at the beginning. Military fortress. There was no city wall in Chang'an, and it was built when his son Liu Ying came to the throne. The same is true for this dynasty. Emperor Guangwu built Luoyang from the ruins, building the South Palace first, and then the North Palace, between the two palaces It is connected by an air corridor and the rest are towering palace walls. It can be said that even if Taiping Dao were given twice as many troops, they would not be able to break through the palace gate.
Secondly, there has never been such a successful uprising in the capital in history. Because if you go to a large number of people, there will be many people talking, and it will be impossible to keep the secret. If there are few people to go, it will be completely useless in the heart of the country. .
For this reason, Zhang Chong is not optimistic about Taiping Dao's central flowering strategy. But he, Zhang Chong, is not a decision-maker at Taiping Dao. After all, he has only been in it for four years. No matter how great his achievements are, he still lacks seniority.
Woolen cloth.
Therefore, in the face of an uprising that was likely to fail, even Zhang Chong was a little confused, and he mostly took it one step at a time.
But the Mr. Tao Antao whom he met in Bo County directly planned a grand strategy for him, which was to change the base area, and this base area was the area with the highest probability of winning the world in the past, Guanzhong.
Don't tell me, when Tao An said this, it really broadened Zhang Chong's horizons. As a person of later generations, he certainly knew that it was feasible to use Guanzhong as a base.
If the inertia of history is strong enough, Dong Zhuo's entry into Beijing will still happen. Because the entire Liangzhou people are alienated from the Han court, they have no moral burden to break the order of the Han court. More importantly, the people who became stronger during the Pingqiang war
The Liangzhou horses are fierce enough and powerful enough to overturn the situation. So even if it is not Dong Zhuo who enters the capital, it is other military leaders who enter the capital.
If Dong Zhuo enters the capital, then it will be inevitable for the princes of the Guandong County to challenge Dong. Then Dong Zhuo will still move west to Guanzhong and move millions of people from the capital to fill Guanzhong. Although the chaos in Guanzhong will cause the victims to be displaced. But if Zhang Chong can
At that time, if you enter the pass and defeat the Liangzhou Army, you can directly occupy a good foundation.
By that time, he has consolidated his foundation in Guanzhong, collected the horses from Liangzhou, taken Hedong, and left the Taihang Mountains to enter Hebei. As long as he defeated Yuan Shao, the whole situation would be completely different.
Thinking of this, Zhang Chong was really a little excited. He immediately made a plan to Tao An:
"Tao Jun's words are very good. If you want to take Guanzhong, what are your plans?"
Tao An was calm and composed, painting with clay, and offering advice to Zhang Chong:
"The land of Guanzhong was called the Land of Four Sails in ancient times, which refers to the four roads into Guanzhong. The closest ones to us are the Xiaohan Road and the Wuguan Road. However, the two hundred miles of the valley in the Xiaohan area connects the two capitals, which is the strength of the Han Dynasty.
The strongest area. So the only thing left is to enter Nanyang from the Jianghan Plain and go directly to Chang'an via Wuguan. The First Emperor took this route three times when he left the six kingdoms of Guandong. Later, at the end of Qin Dynasty, Liu Bangneng entered Guanzhong before Xiang Yu and also took this route.
This shortcut. Later, when Zhou Yafu quelled the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu, he traveled to Luoyang through this route. It can be said that this place is the best route into Guanzhong."
Zhang Chong pondered, if this is the case, he would need to go west across Yuzhou, pass through Lu State, Liang State, Chen State, Yingchuan, and finally reach Nanyang. This route seems difficult to follow. This is the Han family
The core area is full of powerful people and densely populated forts. If he really wants to attack them one by one, his small number of troops will be defeated before they reach Nanyang.
He was thinking here, while Tao An continued to introduce:
"But Wuguan is so important, so the Han court is heavily guarded. In addition, Wuguan is built in the middle of Wuguan Road. There are thousands of walls on both sides. As long as our army cannot attack Wuguan, there will be the worry of the entire army being annihilated.
So now we still need to accumulate strength in Qilu Yangwei."
Zhang Chong understood what Tao An meant. Usually passes are built at the beginning or end of mountain roads, but Wuguan Road is built in the middle. This means that once the enemy goes deep and cannot quickly defeat Wuguan, the enemy will be blocked.
At the mountain pass, once the rear is blocked, the entire army will be defeated.
It seems that this matter needs to be discussed in the long run, but no matter what, there is something about Tao An. Zhang Chong left him in the shogunate and often consulted him on matters, and they got along well with each other for a while.