Chapter 451: Listening to Thunder in a Silent Place
Liu Xiang didn't like fighting a war of attrition, whether it was the consumption of human lives or materials.
The military system of the Anping Army is a recruitment system. Those who join the army will receive military pay, and they will receive pensions for the dead and wounded. Soldiers who die in battle and are disabled will have preferential treatment for their families. They join the army as officials, and priority will not be given to selection. Their children will be raised by the general government until they reach adulthood. Parents
They will also be supported.
This allows the army sergeants to have a lot less worries, their morale is high, and they dare to fight to the death.
However, for every soldier killed in battle, funeral expenses and pensions cost tens of thousands of dollars. Taking care of his children and their families was another huge expense, which was about twice the amount of pensions on average.
A large number of casualties can make him bankrupt.
The soldiers under his command were very valuable, but most of the enemies he faced were recruited by force. Without military pay, those who died in battle died in vain, and their families rarely received pensions and preferential treatment.
Therefore, Liu Xiang did not want to trade his life with the enemy at all. It was such a loss.
We all know the truth: when the consumption of a war exceeds the benefits, such a war cannot last long.
To attack Sanfu, he mobilized more than 140,000 soldiers, more than 20,000 horses, and consumed more than 6,000 dan of food every day. After Ping'an Tongbao became popular, military pay was changed to direct payment, otherwise the pressure on logistics would be greater.
Fortunately, the navy completely controlled the Weishui River, so a large amount of supplies could be transported by water, and 30,000 civilians were enough to do the job.
If all land transportation is carried out, at least 100,000 laborers will be recruited, and the consumption of baggage transportation will inevitably increase greatly.
In the past six months, he had stockpiled millions of stones of grain and grass in Hedong, which was the main supply for the army. The accumulation in Hanzhong and Wudu was insufficient, and the transportation was not easy. It was sheer nonsense to expect that there would be enough supplies for hundreds of thousands of people.
Originally Chencang was the largest granary in Sanfu, but when Sun Jian withdrew to Wudu, he emptied the city. Dong Zhuo later did not continue to store grain there, but built Xiwu as the residence of his family and Sanfu.
A supplementary land for harvesting grain.
Therefore, Liu Xiang could only rely on the food from Hedong, plus the supply line from Youzhou, Jizhou to Bingzhou, which could only support the army for two hundred days at most.
It is not easy to capture Chang'an in half a year.
The food in the city exceeds two million shi. This is what Huangfu Song said himself. The grain he moved out in Yiwu is more than 2 million shi. He doesn't know how much Chang'an originally hoarded.
The Liangzhou army has 70,000 to 80,000 men, and they are guarding at least 2 million yuan of food and grass, but they cannot consume it.
Not to mention the consumption of 200,000 to 300,000 people in the city, the Liangzhou soldiers cannot do anything to relieve the people. They have been setting up troops in the city for three days. No one knows how many people will survive.
Li Jue, Guo Si and others have been shrinking their troops and trying their best to avoid field battles with the Anping Army. They retreated extremely decisively and their intention to defend Chang'an was very obvious.
Feng Yi, Fufeng, and Jingzhao were able to get it easily, but Liu Xiang was not happy at all.
On the tenth day of October, armies from all walks of life gathered at the foot of Chang'an City, encircling them on all sides. Only Chang'an remained in the land of three auxiliary forces.
He was not sure that he could storm this huge city covering an area of 36 square kilometers with less than twice the force.
"Don't worry about it, Yicheng, leave it to me to enter the city first!" Sun Jian saw that he still couldn't be happy, so he tried to persuade him.
Liu Xiang didn't have a gloomy look on his face. When the army was fighting, what would happen if the coach cried in despair? It would affect morale. There was no way he didn't understand such a simple truth.
Moreover, during this period, a lot of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal have been secretly delivered to the Chinese army's tent. Chang'an cannot be captured in conventional combat, so let's use technology to crush it. A one-foot-thick city gate cannot stop hundreds of kilograms of black metal.
Explosion of gunpowder.
He was just thinking about how to conceal the secret of gunpowder in front of hundreds of thousands of troops, and how Emperor Liu Xie and the ministers of the imperial court should deal with it.
Should the emperor narrow the emperor to order the princes, or should he punish the emperor and then stand on his own? How to kill Liu Xie? Is the time ripe for self-reliance? What will be the follow-up reactions? It is a waste of brain cells.
So he seemed a little silent.
"Are Wentai and Longguan consolidated?"
"Han Dang is stationed at Long Pass with five thousand soldiers and horses, so there is no danger."
Liu Xiang believed Sun Jian's guarantee. Han Dang's troops were the most elite troops under Sun Wentai's command. They were also known as the Jie Fan Army, which meant that no matter how big the troubles were or how strong the enemies were, as long as Han Dang arrived, everything would be over.
can be solved.
In these years, he has gained a great reputation in Liangzhou.
Recently, two young players have emerged in Liangzhou and are known as "Little Liu Xiang". One is 18-year-old Sun Ce and Sun Bofu, and the other is 17-year-old Ma Chao and Ma Mengqi.
These two young generals belong to two sides and are often compared by others. They are also unconvinced by each other, and they are quite evenly matched and tit for tat.
The two of them are about the same age as Liu Xiang when he became famous in Liangzhou, and they are regarded as his juniors. In fact, he is only six or seven years older than them.
When Sun Ce respectfully calls him uncle, it always makes him feel awkward and old.
Look at the eighteen-year-old Cao Ang next to the attendant. If he hadn't already been engaged to his sister, this kid would have called him uncle, right?
Liu Xiang touched his smooth lower jaw, it was time to grow a beard.
"Has Bo Fu promoted filial piety and integrity?"
"Not yet. Wouldn't it be shameless for Sun to call his own son Xiaolian? He will be laughed at."
In the Han Dynasty, direct relatives could not be recommended to promote filial piety and honesty. Sun Jian's hometown of Wu County was not under Liu Xiang's rule. Therefore, although Sun Ce had a military position, he could not recommend filial piety and honesty.
And promoting filial piety and honesty to serve as an official is the right path for the Han Dynasty, just like the imperial examinations in the following dynasties, it is a golden road and is looked down upon by others.
"First, he will be promoted to Cao Tu of the General's Mansion, and next year he will be promoted to a filial piety in Jizhou, or he will be promoted to a regular servant of Sanqi, or he will go to Qianniuwei to study for two years, and then he will be promoted to a lieutenant general in the army. This can be regarded as an orthodoxy.
His background is unknown, and he hangs out with you in the army without knowing it. When will it end?"
Of course Sun Ce could get ahead by following his father, but Liu Xiang was actually testing Sun Jian.
Previously, Wudu County and Hanzhong County were enclaves. After Jushou arrived, he presided over the division of land. However, taxes and other matters could not be transported out at all. They were allowed to intercept and raise troops. Sun Jian and Tan Mingxuan were both semi-independent warlords.
The troops under their command are nominally local garrison, but in fact they are private troops.
On Tan Minfen's side, there were people from Wu Dou Mi Dao to check and balance, and there was also Ju Shuo to control, and he successfully took back the ownership of the 20,000 troops, leaving only the command power.
Liu Xiang was talking about Sun Ce's official career, but actually he was asking Sun Jian if he was willing to give up his personal career.
After all, only in the private army can Sun Ce be appointed to military positions at will. Once outside this army, he would be useless.
Sun Jian did not hesitate and said with a happy smile: "Hahaha, with you as my uncle personally arranging Ce'er's birth, I feel relieved. Damn it, I thought we had made great achievements in the past, but we were still suppressed and turned into traitors.
If you want to grab some horses, you have to be secretive to avoid being noticed. When Yicheng becomes emperor, let’s see who dares to suppress us!"
How could he not understand the meaning of those words? Of course he would be distressed if he gave up the army. Although Liu Xiang had left these 15,000 troops to him, he had put a lot of thought into them over the years.
However, the withdrawal of private soldiers is a general trend and cannot be resisted.
He knew clearly how ruthless Liu Yicheng was seven years ago. At that time, this man was only seventeen years old. He massacred hundreds of thousands of Qiang people without blinking an eye. The world would take his own son and what not.
Jin Ma Chao competes with him.
Compared to what?
Incomparable!
Liu Xiang was very happy to be able to take back the soldiers and horses of Wudu County. Before attacking the city, he had to solve the hidden dangers of his troops so that he could concentrate on fighting.
Fortunately, neither Tan Minmian nor Sun Jian were overly ambitious, otherwise, they would have to be eliminated before attacking the city.
The best result is to resolve the issue of troop ownership in a smooth manner.
At this time, he had occupied the Kunming Pool and Jianzhang Palace in Shanglin Garden. He also divided his troops to set up camps at Baqiao and the Weishui River in the north. He also divided his troops in Lingtai and Piyong in the south, and in the Fuguo outside the city in the east.
occupied.
The towering city walls of Chang'an are close at hand.