If I had to use one word to describe He Chuan's mood today, it would be numbness.
He had just personally supervised the capture of Xiwei Bridge, and the Jinchang army retreated to Chang'an City in disgrace, leaving behind hundreds of corpses.
After replenishing food and grass and catching some young men, we headed into Chang'an to have some fun.
As a result, we have not yet collected enough food and supplies, and we may be surrounded by counterattacks.
He began to receive reports three days ago, saying that a small group of soldiers who went out to collect food were missing. He originally thought that they had run too far and were ambushed by rural unity soldiers.
But today, even a food collection team of eighty to one hundred people cannot guarantee safety.
Then it was definitely not done by the united soldiers. Even if half of the dozens of people had armor, it was not something that the united soldiers could deal with.
After it was confirmed that the Huazhou Town National Army was not dispatched, the identities of the troops who attacked them became clear.
It must be the Hexi rebel army who came from outside Sanguankou. Only they could successfully rob and kill the teams sent by He Chuan to collect food.
Because they have a large number of war horses and elite knights, they can use their strong mobility to ensure the efficiency and success rate of interception.
Horses were also raised in Guanzhong originally. There were horse breeding areas in Guanzhong during the Qin, Han, Tang and Three Dynasties. However, since the fall of the Tang Dynasty, Guanzhong has been unable to raise horses.
Because for farmers in Guanzhong prefectures, raising horses is actually a very costly matter.
In places like Liangzhou, you only need to find a valley with lush water and grass to raise horses. A few herdsmen can raise dozens or hundreds of horses. But this is not possible in Guanzhong. After thousands of years of development, Guanzhong has developed places with lush water and grass.
If you want to raise horses, you have to let the horses compete with people for food rations, which will be very expensive.
The reason why horses were raised during the Qin, Han, Tang and Three Dynasties was because of the support of the state machinery. The reduced income and food shortage brought by raising horses were paid for by the state.
In the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, you just finished singing and I appeared on the stage, and the one with strong soldiers and horses became the emperor.
Whether it is the emperor or the kings of various places, the most important thing for a commander is to prevent the people below from rebelling.
Who cares about raising horses in Guanzhong? This kind of investment is huge and requires long-term maintenance to see benefits.
Therefore, even though places such as Weizhou and Wuzhou, where the Changyi Army was envoyed, had the habit of raising horses, the proportion of cavalry among the rebels in Hechuan was not high, let alone the Huazhou Zhenguo Army.
Therefore, the only ones who can have so many war horses and cavalry are the Hexi Guiyi Army who have the land and customs to raise horses.
The Guanzhong army, such as He Chuan's rebel army, has more than 12,000 people and only has 4,000 to 5,000 mules and horses. There are less than 2,000 people who can be used as cavalry.
Faced with the situation where his food collection team was attacked from all sides, He Chuan also sent his own cavalry to fight back. However, the results were very little.
Those Guiyi troops from Hexi came and went like the wind, and they had rich combat experience. They were as cunning as foxes. As long as they saw He Chuan's cavalry dispatching, they would retreat early. They would not tangle with the large troops at all.
The Wu Defense Commander on the side frowned, "Since the Hexi Guiyi Army has appeared near the West Wei Bridge, even if Ganzhou has not been captured, I am afraid it is still under siege.
Now we have been cut off from our retreat! We are collecting grain from all sides. Not to mention that we cannot collect it, but to transport grain from the Xingping County granary, I am afraid we will have to send out a large army to protect it. It is better to give up the attack on Chang'an and retreat to Xingping County for repairs first.
."
He Chuan closed his eyes and began to think. He clenched his fists loudly and thought about it, but there was no good solution. But now it was impossible for him to lead the army to retreat.
Haha! After capturing the Xiwei Bridge but announcing not to enter Chang'an, the soldiers below have been waiting to enter Chang'an and plunder, and there will inevitably be trouble.
If he really wanted to make the whole army roar and lose his temper, it would be possible to kill He Chuan.
And if they continue to attack Chang'an, their back route has been seriously threatened. Xingping County, where grain and grass are stored, is still dozens of miles away from Xiwei Bridge. If it is captured, it will be troublesome.
"General Zhang Zhen, the only plan now is to mobilize all the cavalry from each department. I will give you 1,300 cavalry.
General Zhou Shi, I will give you another five hundred elite soldiers, and you can transport two thousand stones of grain and grass from the northeast warehouse of Xingping County to Xiwei Bridge."
Zhang Xiaoguo and Zhou Huer, Zhou Shijiang, frowned at the same time, but soon, Zhang Xiaoguo's brows relaxed, and only Zhou Shijiang still had an unhappy look on his face.
He Chuan didn't ask him to transport these two thousand stone loads of grain. He was obviously asking him to be used as bait.
Seeing General Zhou's displeasure, He Chuan squeezed out a smile and explained: "I see that the cavalry of the rebel army in Hexi are so bold and they even look down on us. If there are two thousand stones of food and grass escorted, they will definitely not let them go.
To capture the 500 elite soldiers escorting them, they would have to mobilize more than a thousand cavalry. I think their total number of cavalry near the Xiwei Bridge is just this.
If General Zhou Shi can first use a chariot formation to dampen their energy and contain them, and wait until General Zhang Zhen leads his troops to kill them, even if they cannot annihilate them all, they can still tear off a large piece of their flesh so that they will not dare to harass them again."
In fact, Qianzhou was not captured. Although He Chuan only left six to seven hundred soldiers to guard Qianzhou, the city of Qianzhou was not big and the city wall was quite high. Six to seven hundred soldiers were enough to defend it.
Therefore, after Zhang Zhao tried once or twice, he did not continue the attack. His main target was still the more than 10,000 rebels under He Chuan's command.
If the Hechuan rebel army is defeated or even annihilated, these hundreds of people in Qianzhou will be nothing more than meat and fish on the chopping board.
So Zhang Zhao left several hundred soldiers from Zhu Jing's tribe to guard the rebels in Qianzhou City, and then ordered Murong Nobunaga and Bai Congxin to be the vanguard to attack the rebel grain collection team around Xiwei Bridge in advance. He himself also personally
Lead the army to the West Wei Bridge.
And He Chuan's so-called strategy to lure the enemy was actually what Zhang Zhao had expected.
Because Zhang Zhao brought He Chuan to think about it, if he encountered He Chuan's situation, the only way he could think of was to throw out a bait to attract the enemy's cavalry to attack with all their strength, and then eat the cavalry.
Since he knew this situation, it was impossible for Zhang Zhao not to leave a backup plan, so the cavalry that surrounded the Xiwei Bridge and attacked the Hechuan grain transportation team were not only Murong Nobunaga and Li Cunhui, but also a thousand cavalry led by Hu Guang
about.
In fact, when Murong Nobunaga and others were attacking everywhere, Bai Congxin led another 1,500 cavalry, plus more than 1,000 people from Gyeongju party Li Yanli's troops as backup, and they had been stationed for a long time.
Bai Congxin looked at the high sun and wiped the sweat from his head. It was already a bit hot in the Guanzhong Plain at the end of June.
In fact, this month is not a good time for fighting. The weather is sultry and hot, and the soldiers' physical strength will be exhausted very quickly after wearing armor.
Moreover, now is a critical period for grain growth. Starting a war at this time will greatly affect the grain harvest.
But the rebels didn't care about this. Bai Congxin sighed. Even if this year's rebellion is successfully pacified, the harvests in Guanzhong counties will be over. How many people will starve to death this year?
Just as the commander of the horse army, who was a horse thief and already had some sympathy for the farmers, was sighing, Murong Nobunaga rode his horse and ran over from a distance.
"Commander Bai, we have found the main force of the rebel cavalry, but they are very careful and have been walking up the Wei River. Tan Ma and You Yijun have released a lot of them. It is estimated that it will not be easy to surprise them.
Bai Congxin smiled lightly, "If we can't attack them by surprise, then we will keep an eye on them. In addition, we should quickly send people to report to Sikong, saying that we have identified the rebels' food storage point, which is in Xinping County."
For Bai Congxin, it would be best if he could hit the rebel cavalry troops unexpectedly.
But if the enemy is already prepared, it is also a good harvest to find the accurate rebel food storage point.
Zhang Xiaoguo didn't know about his caution and saved his own life and that of more than a thousand cavalrymen.
As a top-notch general among the rebels, Zhang Xiaoguo still had some abilities. Even He Chuan had to rely on him in many aspects. So after a large number of Tan Ma and You Yijun were dispersed, Zhang Xiaoguo clearly realized that something was wrong.
If there were only more than a thousand cavalry coming from the opposite side, then his Tan Ma and You Yi Army would not have been beaten so badly.
In cavalry battles, one side compresses the other side's search space, which is the most common and most effective method.
Often when two cavalry teams are about to get close, they will inevitably break out into numerous and fierce dog fights in order to turn the other party into a 'blind man'.
The coach can often estimate the number of enemies from such small-scale dog fights.
Sure enough, when Sun Xiaoguo felt that the battle was getting more and more intense and he could no longer cope, Tan Ma finally sent shocking news.
About three thousand cavalrymen came from the north and west. General Zhou Shi, who was not happy to be used as bait, simply gave up two thousand stones of food and ran back to Xingping County after receiving Sun Xiaoguo's notification.
middle.
This was a correct choice. Sun Xiaoguo also began to lead the cavalry back to Xiwei Bridge before the siege of the Guiyi cavalry was completed.
On the north bank of the Wei River, the two sides launched an even more intense fight between small units and even a chase battle involving hundreds of people.
At this time, the army led by Zhang Zhao was already less than sixty miles away from the Xiwei Bridge. After solving the problem of whether to fight the rebels alone, the Guiyi Army's movement speed was astonishing.
And Zhang Zhao doesn't know yet that his decision this time will preserve the last bit of vitality for the entire Guanzhong.
Because before being looted by the rebel army, Guanzhong actually had a population of more than two million at this time.
Counties such as Xingping and Wannian near the Chang'an River alone have a population of more than 200,000. It can be said that Chang'an is not completely ruined. Historically, this rebellion was not very big, but it also caused the entire Chang'an and surrounding areas to rebel.
The county lost a population of 60,000 to 70,000 people. Counting points, Qian and other prefectures, at least more than 100,000 people were lost.
The rebellion was not very big, but it had a very serious consequence, which was to scare away many farmers in Guanzhong.
After the population of Guanzhong dropped sharply, the Central Plains Dynasty was no longer able to defend this place.
At this time, Hou Shu, who was gradually becoming prosperous and powerful, saw the weakness of the Central Plains dynasty in Guanzhong and stepped up its attacks on the Guanzhong area. This in turn led to more than 30 major and minor wars in Guanzhong in the next ten years.
Ten years later, during the rebellion of the daring Zhao Siwan and Hou Shu's war to capture Chengfeng, Qin and other states, the entire population of Guanzhong would be reduced by more than half. Chang'an, which had a population of more than 100,000, would not survive.
Since then, the Guanzhong Plain, which was the foundation for the prosperity of the Qin, Han, Tang and Three Dynasties, and the heartland of Chinese culture, has never risen again.
Zhang Zhao did not choose to join up with An Shenqi and others before attacking the rebels, but he secretly retained a relatively basic Guanzhong.