Chapter 448: A Bite of Fried Noodles and a Bite of Snow
Since most Xiongnu attacks on the border occurred in spring, the villagers were unprepared. In addition, it had just snowed, and the villagers all stayed in the village. No one went to the mountains to cut firewood, hunt, or work in the fields.
, the entire village suffered a disaster. Of the 476 people in the village, except for 37 young women who were kidnapped by the Huns, the rest were all killed and no one was spared.
At this time, in Liangzhou, except for a few counties and cities, other local armies had not yet been reorganized. Many places were still defended by powerful private armies and Qiang tribes. After receiving the news that the Xiongnu invaded the border areas, they had long been accustomed to it.
The local governors reported the matter to different levels, and it was already two days before Huang Zhong and Jia Xu, who were stationed in Long County, received the report.
Huang Zhong's first legion has 10,000 cavalry. Although the number of this cavalry is not large, they were all left directly after the pacification of Guanzhong and Xiliang. It can be said to be the most powerful cavalry unit in the entire Han army. With such a powerful cavalry unit
With the cavalry in hand, Huang Zhong naturally could not allow the Huns to run wild in his own land. Therefore, Huang Zhong immediately ordered Wei Yan to lead 3,000 cavalry to the scene of the accident. He then dispatched 20,000 infantry to reinforce it.
As Jushou expected, the tactic adopted by these Huns cavalry was to grab and run away. Although Wei Yan was marching very fast, when they got there, the Huns cavalry were no longer around. However, the situation in the village still made Wei Yan and him
The soldiers under his command were shocked. Villagers were slaughtered everywhere. Those cruel Huns did not even spare children under the age of one month. Some women even fell naked in a pool of blood. Before they died, they
Suffered inhumane ravages.
When the soldiers saw this, their eyes were split open, and they all shouted to avenge the dead villagers. It has not snowed in the past few days, and there are still deep horse hoof prints on the snow. If you follow these hoof prints,
If we go down there, we might be able to find the place where the Huns were stationed.
However, if he really pursues it, he will definitely go beyond the borders of the Han Dynasty. Liu Xin has extremely strict requirements on military discipline, not to mention that Wei Yan has been punished with a staff. Without orders from above, Wei Yan would not dare to make the decision to pursue cross-border pursuit.
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While Wei Yan ordered the remains of the villagers who died, he sent people to the county government to obtain the village's household registration book. At the same time, he sent reconnaissance cavalry to inspect the surrounding villages and towns, notifying the villagers to take precautions. Due to the complete household registration, Wei Yan soon
We quickly calculated how many villagers were killed or taken captive in this Xiongnu attack on the border.
Jia Xu was originally from Liangzhou, and he was very aware of the situation of the Xiongnu attack on the border. He keenly felt that it was unusual for such a thing to happen just after winter, so he sent an urgent report to Xiangyang using a red chicken-feather letter.
By the time the large groups of cavalry mobilized by Liu Xin arrived in Liangzhou one after another, Huang Zhong had already transferred 50,000 infantry to the border, set up ten camps, and sent out a large number of reconnaissance and cavalry outposts to prevent the Huns from attacking the border residents again.
People in other villages were also mobilized and stood guard day and night, just in case.
The number of cavalry Liu Xin gathered in Liangzhou was as many as 100,000. These cavalry belonged to different legions. Therefore, Liu Xin appointed Xu Huang as their temporary commander. Xu Huang was Liu Xin's sworn brother and the first to follow Liu Xin.
As one of Xin's generals, everyone naturally had no objection.
Hearing that Liu Xin had ordered a counterattack against the Huns, Huang Zhong and Wei Yan became excited. They stood up immediately, raised their hands and said, "General Xu, Liangzhou is where our fifth army is stationed. If the Huns dare to invade, it is our duty to do so."
, willing to be a pioneer!"
Zhang Fei shouted loudly: "Hey, I came all the way here not to appreciate the scenery of Liangzhou. I must be the first to be here."
Xu Huang said with a smile: "Don't fight anymore, my lord has made arrangements before leaving. This time we attack the Xiongnu, we will divide them into five groups and advance together."
The generals couldn't help but get excited. If they divided their troops into five groups, everyone would have a chance. No wonder Liu Xin wanted to transfer so many people over. In fact, if Ju Shou hadn't persuaded them, Liu Xin himself would have wanted to come here.
Xu Huang waved his hand and said in a deep voice: "My lord has an order. If the Huns invade our territory and kill my people, they should pay back ten times the amount they have committed!"
The generals looked at each other and made secret calculations. They had already learned that the Xiongnu raided the border and killed a total of 439 villagers and kidnapped 37 women. In other words, their attack this time would at least
To complete the task, 4,390 Huns must be killed and 370 Huns women must be captured. This order was given by Liu Xin alone to Xu Huang, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others before leaving.
Don't even know.
Zhao Yun had a kind heart and raised his hands and said: "Second brother, has my lord told me whether this attack on the Xiongnu will only kill young and strong men, or will it ignore the old, weak, women and children?"
Xu Huang frowned and said: "My lord, what I mean is that this time is not a head-on battle with the Huns. The main purpose is to find their tribal settlements, kill their men, take away their horses, cattle and sheep, and take away the young people."
Women, burn their tents and all the items and utensils. My lord has said that in this attack, everyone is only allowed to carry five days of dry food. If you want food and grass supplies, just grab them from the Huns tribes!"
Zhao Yun said in surprise: "In this case, wouldn't we be the same as those Huns?"
Zhang Fei laughed loudly and said: "No matter what you do, just do as big brother asks. Besides, are we allowed to rob him only if the Huns come to rob us?"
All the generals laughed.
Xu Huang slapped the table, stood up and said, "What Yide said is true! The Lord also said the same, to retaliate with tooth, to fight violence with violence, and to wash away blood with blood!"
"Yes, tooth for tooth, violence for violence, blood for blood!"
There was a roar in the big tent, and even Zhao Yun had an angry look on his face!
Xu Huang raised his hands slightly and said: "Generals, according to the order of the lord, the five generals Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Wei Yan, Ma Chao, and Pang De each led 10,000 cavalry to attack the Xiongnu in separate ways. The two generals Huang Zhong and Sun Ce are the two generals.
Support from left to right."
All the generals raised their hands to receive the order, but Sun Ce leaned over and said, "General Xu, I would like to be the pioneer. Please give me your permission, General!"
Xu Huang's face darkened and he said seriously: "Sun Ce, this is the arrangement made by the lord himself. Do you want to listen to it or not? Huh, Xu Huang doesn't want to carry the ax himself and gallop on the battlefield!"
Sun Ce didn't dare to say anything more and stepped aside.
This expedition was indeed arranged by Liu Xin personally. People always have selfish motives. Now Sun Ce can be regarded as Liu Xin's son-in-law. Liu Xin didn't want Sun Ce to be harmed and sent him to Liangzhou. To put it bluntly, it was nothing more than Liu Xin's.
If he is just asked to do the gilding, how can he be allowed to rush to the front and take risks?
Seeing that none of the generals had any objections, Xu Huang continued: "My lord has strict orders. Firstly, you are not allowed to rape women. Secondly, you are not allowed to hide property privately. Thirdly, you are not allowed to lose equipment. Anyone who violates the order will be punished by military force!"
After this order, the expressions of the generals all calmed down. The first two were relatively easy to do, but the last one was a bit difficult. But there was no way around it. Last time Zhang Liao lost four military horses in Xuzhou, so
Liu Xin sounded the alarm. Whether the four military horses were obtained by Liu Bei or Tao Qian,
There is nothing remarkable about it, but once it is obtained by the Huns, it will make them even more powerful. What's more, any of these equipment, from stirrups and horseshoes to sabers and cavalry bows, can improve the combat effectiveness of the prairie cavalry by a new level. Liu
How could Xin not be cautious?
Since he had witnessed the tragic deaths of the villagers, Wei Yan insisted on choosing the middle route, which was the direction where the horse hoof prints on the snow extended. With Xu Huang's permission, Wei Yan led 10,000 cavalry and braved the early morning rain.
At the first ray of sunshine, we embarked on a vast journey. These 10,000 cavalrymen all belonged to the fifth legion, and they stayed in Liangzhou the longest. Because Liu Xin’s troops all helped the people
Traditionally, they often helped the common people with some things, and they had the deepest relationship with the local common people, so they hated the Huns' attacks on the border the most. Therefore, this team advanced very quickly. In the evening, they appeared
In a valley, it can be seen that the surrounding horse hoof prints are messy, indicating that the campsite of the Huns who attacked the border of the Han Dynasty is not far from here.
Wei Yan raised his hand to restrain the team, took out a cylindrical object from his arms, put it on his eyes, and looked into the distance. This was just produced by the institute, and it is called clairvoyance. In fact, it was produced by Liu Xin and Ma Yun.
A telescope made under personal guidance. Because there is no glass, the lenses on the clairvoyance are all made of ground crystal. They are naturally valuable and can only be equipped by these high-ranking generals.
Of course, even with clairvoyance, it is impossible to really see thousands of miles away. However, through this clairvoyance, Wei Yan can still clearly see that there is a camp several miles away, with several bonfires lit inside, and many
People were dancing around the campfire. Wei Yan turned around and ordered: "Everyone dismount and rest, and eat some dry food!"
Every soldier carried a long cloth bag, and Wei Yan was no exception. Inside the bag was the dry food they carried on this trip - fried noodles. In this era, when marching and fighting, they also needed to bury pots to make rice. However,
For long-distance raids, burying pots to cook rice was obviously not suitable. Liu Xin urgently needed to develop a marching method for his cavalry.
rations, and Ma Yun happened to know how to make fried noodles. In later generations, there was a powerful army, with one bite of fried noodles and one mouthful of snow, it defeated a powerful enemy armed to the teeth. Ma Yun’s grandfather was a member of this army. When he was a child,
She often listened to her grandfather telling stories about their time, so she was extremely impressed by the fried noodles.
Fried noodles are simple to make and easy to carry, but Xu Huang only distributed rations to everyone for five days because this attack was just to teach the Huns a lesson and did not intend to fight on the grassland for a long time. Moreover, it is winter now, and the war horses
It is not easy to eat green grass, so you need to carry horse feed with the army. The carrying capacity of the war horses is limited. In order to ensure the needs of the war horses, the only way is to reduce the rations of the soldiers as much as possible.
The soldiers only carried five days' rations, which meant that they had to return to the Han Dynasty in two and a half days. However, all the soldiers hoped to fight further, so they valued this limited ration very much.
Ever since we set out, I haven’t been willing to eat anything.