Li Xiang is just a senior officer, and with such a military position, it is impossible for him to be involved in any military secrets. However, the combination of his story and the intelligence obtained by the Qingzhou Army can confirm something. Some senior officials of the Qingzhou Army have always been suspicious, but they
Something that cannot be confirmed - Yuan Shao also has a logistics problem.
Lack of food is an eternal theme in troubled times. While wars cause huge damage to production, they also increase consumption. It is inevitable to make ends meet.
The supply of grain and grass had a huge impact on the war.
In history alone, in many battles during the Three Kingdoms era, the impact of food on war can be said to be everywhere.
The most famous one is that in the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao raided Yuan Shao's granary, Wuchao, thus establishing the victory of the war. The most sustainable one was Zhuge Liang's Liu Chu Qishan, except for the first time it was broken by Zhang Jia.
In Jie Ting, apart from having strategic reasons to retreat, almost every other retreat was due to lack of food.
In addition, there was the battle between Lu Bu and Cao Cao for Dongjun, and the battle for Hebei between Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao. The final losers were the ones with logistical supply problems but with stronger military force.
In the case of consecutive battles and victories, Wang Yu adopted the strategy of avoiding the enemy's edge and luring the enemy deeper. This was also due to Tian Feng's reminder and concerns about logistics supply.
Qingzhou’s logistics are under great pressure, but will Jizhou be relaxed?
With the war almost sweeping through the entire territory of Jizhou, how could Yuan Shao, who had mobilized nearly 200,000 troops since the Battle of Jieqiao, not be under any pressure at all, even though Jizhou had abundant storage?
What Qingzhou is not sure about is just how much logistical pressure Yuan Shao will face.
Now, through Li Xiang's narration, the truth has emerged bit by bit.
Yuan Jun has been under logistical pressure for a long time, not because Jizhou's storage capacity is insufficient, but because Yuan Jun's operational focus has been changing repeatedly.
Before the Hebei War officially started, Yuan Shao was on the defensive. On the one hand, he had to prepare for a decisive frontal battle, and on the other hand, he had to hoard heavy troops in the rear to guard against Gongsun Zan's light cavalry detours and surprise attacks. Therefore, in addition to routine delivery of money and grain from Jizhou at that time,
In addition to Yecheng, it is also transported to the counties and cities in various counties, especially the counties on the front line.
Therefore, except for Qinghe, Yangping, Anping, and Yecheng, the remaining counties only left the minimum reserves of money, food, and soldiers. This is why the Black Mountain Army moved across Anping and Zhao, and was unstoppable.
main reason.
If you have few soldiers, your combat power will be weak; if you have little food, your mobilization ability will be poor. If you combine the two, you will naturally be invincible.
After the victory at Jieqiao, in order to maintain the offensive, Jizhou's reserves began to be transported to Qinghe and Anping to ensure the smooth march of Qu Yi's 50,000-strong army.
As a result, in the Battle of Longcuo, the 50,000-strong army was wiped out. Zhang Jaw, who was a reserve, also won first and then lost. This caused the coalition forces to counterattack and lost their combat effectiveness. They could only defend the isolated city. The Qingyou coalition forces swept through Anping and Qinghe counties. Previously.
All the investment was in vain, whether it was manpower or material resources, Yuan Shao suffered extremely heavy losses.
The subsequent battle situation also maintained a rhythm of ups and downs.
From the initial tenacious defense, to the encirclement on all sides, to the decisive battle in Qingyuan, and later to the protracted battle with Qingyuan as the base, and finally to the pursuit, Yuan Shao's counterattack strategy changed again and again.
With the changes, the strategic focus and grain storage locations will naturally change accordingly.
However, food harvesting cannot be accomplished overnight. The strategic focus of several strategies is different, and the places where food is stored are naturally different. The reason why Yuan Shao changed his strategy after he failed to find a fighter in Qingyuan.
It became a stalemate. In addition to the blow of Yan Liang's defeat, more importantly, there were difficulties in the supply of food and grass.
In the age of cold weapons, few people had the will and ability to launch expeditions. The most important reason was the loss of food and grass during transportation. The saying that feeding food thousands of miles away makes soldiers hungry is a vivid illustration of this truth.
If the peasants alone carry six buckets per person, which is about 60 to 80 kilograms of grain, and the peasants eat two buckets a day, they can only travel for thirty-six days at most. Assuming that the grain transport team can carry three buckets a day.
Ten miles of land, when the food is exhausted, it is almost exactly a thousand miles. When the food is fed for a thousand miles, at the end, there is only the bottom of the bag left.
Of course, the loading efficiency of using carriages and horses will be much higher, but the losses are also indispensable. Cows, horses and livestock can eat more than people. Then take into account the impact of attrition caused by disease and accidental factors, as well as weather changes that delay the trip, and the arrival of civilian laborers.
, but also to return. Food transportation is a very heavy burden for the princes.
Although Yuan Shao was very rich, he could not withstand such troubles. Except for Yecheng, his strategic focus changed again and again. He changed the places where he stored grain, but the consumption of the people on the road was quite astonishing.
In addition, since Zhang Yan sent troops, the security in Jizhou suddenly became much worse, and additional troops and horses had to be dispatched to transport food, which once again increased Yuan Shao's burden.
Finally, Yuan Shao not only had many troops, but also a large part of them were guest troops.
Except for Liu Dai who did not cross the river to join forces with Yuan Jun and brought only dry food, the rest of the allied troops came with only food. Food alone is not enough. Generally speaking, guest troops fight in different places. In order to maintain
Morale, to prevent the soldiers from being demoralized due to homesickness and other reasons, they had to be rewarded from time to time, or even double their military pay. Yuan Shao was naturally responsible for this money.
From a certain point of view, Wang Yu defeated Liu Dai and Cao Cao successively, which not only boosted his prestige, but also reduced some of the logistical pressure on Jizhou. It lost a total of 50,000 mouths. It was simply a bottomless pit!
Li Xiang couldn't tell whether there was any ambush in the strategy of the three armies advancing together, but he said in a very sure tone: "Yuan Shao must not be able to hold on any longer. He made it clear when he ordered Zhang Shijun to divide his troops and advance.
, let us try to raise money and food by ourselves, and also said an elegant word, what is it..."
"Because of the enemy's supply?" Li Shiyi continued.
"Yes! That's the word!" Li Xiang clapped his hands, and Flattery immediately followed: "The eleven brothers are still knowledgeable, and they have the fairy spirit of Wang Junhou, but it is different."
He was flattered, but Li Shiyi's expression turned even worse. He looked up at the crowd, then at the town not far away, and asked coldly: "So, you burned, killed, and looted in Qinghe, harming the people.
?”
Li Xiang was a man with no talent but a lot of cleverness. Hearing the unkind tone, he immediately shuddered and quickly said, "You can't blame me for this. I'm just a little guy. I don't just do whatever others ask me to do."
What are you doing? Besides... besides, this is my first time as a big girl getting on the sedan chair. By the way, I have never done anything in this town. If you don’t believe me, ask them!"
He was really anxious now, and he couldn't speak in a panic. Fortunately, the last sentence was still somewhat convincing.
"If you didn't take action, why are they chasing you?" Li Shiyi's tone was still cold, but a little less serious.
He understood why the people who were being held hostage were so angry. If he had suffered such an unreasonable disaster, he would definitely be extremely angry. Those who harmed the people must deserve to die. If they were just followers, they would not be so guilty. After all, they have not been out of the fifth service.
My brothers, if the mistakes they make are not big, he might not want to show some mercy.
"At this moment, who can tell who is who? Why don't we arrest and beat them? Let's vent the anger in our hearts before we talk?" Hearing the looseness in the other party's tone, Li Xiang breathed a long sigh of relief and pointed.
The chaotic crowd said: "Look, it's all in such chaos. Who has time to look for someone?"
What he said made sense, but as a reason to exonerate himself, it was not sufficient. Seeing that Li Shiyi still had a look of hesitation on his face, he quickly threw out the last reason: "Actually, beating someone, robbing someone,...
Among women, not many of us are from Hanoi."
"Oh, what do you say?" This time, even Tai Shici moved slightly. If there are other troops mixed in the Hanoi army, it is very likely that Yuan Shao dared to divide his troops into three groups.
"Report to the general." Li Xiang was obedient and bowed first, then explained: "Shijun Zhang is from Shangdang, and he, the governor of Hanoi, was also appointed by Yuan Shao, not by the imperial decree. He was appointed by the imperial court.
, it’s Wang Shijun! If his name is not correct, his words will not be correct, so he can only rely on nepotism and promote all his direct descendants."
He babbled a little aggrievedly: "Take that bastard who abandoned his horse and ran away, for example. Although he led a hundred people, in fact, he was just a commander, but he was from the Shangdang Army, not the Hanoi Army.
, but it turns out that there are five people and six people who consider themselves generals. Not only him, anyone who comes from the Shangdang, even a small soldier, is more popular than me..."
He was already a bit of a talker, but when he felt aggrieved, he started to talk incessantly, and there were a lot of personal things that were tangled up in him, but his meaning was clearly expressed.
If we purely rely on the imperial edicts, the current governor of Hanoi is indeed Wang Kuang, but this is not the main reason that troubles Zhang Yang. Like many foreign princes, Zhang Yang's troubles mainly come from the balance of internal factions.
This is actually a common problem in the Three Kingdoms era. There is always a distinction between foreign powerful dragons and local snakes.
The conflict between Yuan Shao and Ju Shou, the conflict between Xuzhou Tao Qian and Chen Deng and his son, Xue Li and others; the relationship between Jingzhou Liu Biao and Cai, Kuai and other large families in Jingzhou; the relationship between Yizhou Liu Yan and the gentry in Shu; even the relationship between Youzhou Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan
relationships can also be classified into this category.
In order for outsiders to overwhelm the local gangsters, they must have their own direct lineage, and must rely closely on these direct lineages to carry out a long-term struggle. If not, they will be ignored by local factions and become puppets. The most typical example is Liu Biao.
Liu Biao's reputation was no lower than that of Liu Yu. His ability and demeanor were among the best among the princes, and he was an ambitious figure. Otherwise, he would not have achieved such a feat of riding into Jingzhou alone. However, after stabilizing the interior of Jingzhou, he completely
Unable to expand.
Both the east and west are from the same clan and should not be insulted. To be on the safe side, it’s okay not to be provocative, but Nanyang in the north is very empty. Zhang Ji fully cooperated with Dong Zhuo’s main force to attack Luoyang, but he encountered Zhang Liao and was beaten to a bruise and swollen face.
Falling flowers and flowing water, he barely escaped with his nephew Zhang Xiu's fight to the death.
If Liu Biao had any strategic vision, he should not miss this opportunity to add insult to injury.
At that time, Cao Cao's main force was fighting fiercely with Wang Yu in Hebei, and Yingchuan was empty. After Liu Biao captured Nanyang, he could take advantage of the situation to capture Yingchuan, and it was not a lie to capture Chenliu.
But he sat still and missed the opportunity.
Does Jingzhou have no soldiers? Jingxiang's soldiers were very famous until the Sui and Tang Dynasties, even during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and even in modern times. Would a strong army that could defeat Sun Jian have no combat effectiveness?
Lack of food? This is even more nonsense. After the war in Hebei was in full swing and civil strife broke out in Xuzhou, Jingzhou was probably already the richest state in the Han Dynasty. How could there be no food?
The reason why Liu Biao remained motionless was simply that local factions were constraining each other and he could not make the decision.
In view of this, various princes are actually working hard to expand the strength of their direct lineage and suppress local factions. The conflict between Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan is the most obvious.
If you don't suppress it, you will be ignored. East Wind and West Wind always have to decide the winner. Therefore, even if they know that the suppression process will reveal flaws and lose strength, the princes still have no choice but to do it. This is an unsolvable problem.
Zhang Yang is a member of the group who is working hard to suppress the enemy faction. So far, he has been relatively successful, but it has some side effects. This side effect was more obviously exposed during this robbery operation.
"Before setting off, Commander Zhang made it clear that we should try not to hurt anyone, let alone disturb the people. After collecting food, we should also leave food for the winter and seeds for next year. We will only take what is rich. But the result is,
That damn Zhang cracks his whip whenever he sees someone, and pulls out any pretty woman he sees..."
Li Xiang said angrily: "In the beginning, there were no young men in those two villages. Later, too much grain was robbed. He felt tired of carrying it, so he even robbed the men together. Here," he tried to move towards the crowd.
Nuzui: "There are quite a few of them who are not from this town at all. They are committing crimes, but it has nothing to do with us. They are all the crimes committed by those gang members who joined the party."
He felt that he had almost excused himself, so after he finished speaking, he put on an innocent expression, but was choked back by his cousin: "Didn't you say it was your first time?"
"Yes..." He opened his mouth, but had nothing to say. He was so angry that he wished he could slap himself in the mouth. He had almost passed the test, but if he had to talk so much nonsense, wouldn't he be looking for trouble for himself?
"Li Xiaowei, please step down first." Taishi Ci spoke again. Although the person calling was Li Shiyi, Li Xiang trembled violently. He was afraid. The three hundred cavalry were certainly terrifying, but
This fierce general who cuts off generals and seizes flags as if they are nothing is not much worse. It is not wrong to say that he is more terrifying.
"Here." Li Shiyi knew that Tai Shici had something to discuss, so he quickly drove Li Xiang away and asked two cavalry to monitor him.
Li Xiang was frightened now. Something big had happened! The general had to kill him! However, this seemed unreasonable. He didn't seem to be such an important person? (To be continued. Please search Gone with the Wind