After August, the south wind gradually subsides and the north wind gradually picks up. The pasture on the northern grasslands is getting richer, and the war horses that have eaten the rich pasture all summer have become fatter and stronger. Galloping on the grassland in the autumn wind is a thrilling scene.
.
Wei Ba spent four or five months recruiting 10,000 barbarians.
These 10,000 Hu Qi can be considered elites and were selected by Wei Ba from about 40,000 to 50,000 people. Wei Ba rejected many people’s suggestions to recruit more people and set the upper limit at 10,000. However, those who came after hearing the news
The Hu people were not disappointed either. Wei Ba arranged for them to farm near Liaodong and were unwilling to farm.
You can also do your old job - herding horses, cattle and sheep. In short, you have something to do. Wei Ba now has an army of 50,000 to 60,000 people. Winter clothes alone are a huge consumption, not to mention daily food consumption, which is already needed.
Many people who know how to herd cattle provide enough meat and milk.
Being able to do this is also based on Wei Ba's strong economic strength. If he didn't control half of the country's commercial taxes, he would have gone bankrupt long ago.
Even though Wei Ba's remarks and books about the Western Regions have become best-sellers, there are still only a few people in this era who truly have an overall view, and not many people are willing to look at the entire world situation from a digital perspective. If there are such thoughtful people, in the Han Dynasty
Draw a line on the map, south
As far as Bingzhou and Youzhou in the north, he will find that almost all of the most active commercial areas in the world are in the hands of Wei Ba. People who do business between the north and the south through the rivers and seas usually have their destinations and starting points either in Jiaozhou or in Jiaozhou.
Liaodong, or some point in the middle.
To put it bluntly, if we were to pick out the five most prosperous trade routes across the world, at least three of them would be controlled by Wei Ba.
He is truly the richest man in the world and has great wealth.
In addition to business routes, he holds Jiaozhou and the four Jiangnan counties in his hands, and has the most abundant grain reserves. Now he is still vigorously developing Liaodong. Over time, who can be more confident than him?
So Wei Ba is not in a hurry. Although he talks about being dissatisfied with Cao Wei's slowness, he is actually not worried about anything. As time goes by, the situation will only become more and more favorable to him. In a few years, he may win without fighting.
It is too illusory, but it is completely possible to destroy everything.
Why should he be anxious? In addition to his daily official duties, he also has a lot of free time to play with his three wives and several children. After arriving in Liaodong, and with the conditions, Wei Ba induced several children to drink
Milk, goat milk, and slaughtering cows and sheep every now and then. After a few months, these little guys have obviously become a lot stronger. Even my daughter Wei Yu is as strong as a deer.
The most troublesome thing is Guan Feng. As she grows older, she has a negative trend of horizontal development. In order to prevent the tiger girl from becoming a fat woman, Wei Ba learned from the painful experience and issued a recruitment order. He recruited more than a hundred women who were proficient in riding skills.
He formed a flying phoenix guard for Guan Feng, equipped with good war horses, and went to the grassland to run wildly every day.
Guan Feng originally had a personal guard battalion, which was the Divine Dog Battalion led by Nan Hu. But the Divine Dog Battalion was just infantry, and it was not interesting to stay with dogs every day. Now that there is a cavalry battalion, Guan Feng finally found it.
The best way to spend time was to integrate the Divine Dog Camp into the Feifeng Guard with the help of Nanhu. A big horse was paired with two Divine Dogs, and they would go hunting every three days and work part-time as scouts.
With the entertainment and the implication that Wei Ba formed the Feifeng Guard, Guan Feng's mentality improved obviously, and her face gradually became rosy. She rode horses during the day and at night. She was so busy that even her daughter
They were all a bit wild. Unknowingly, Guan Feng was pregnant again.
Facing Guan Feng's radiant second spring, although Xia Houhui was a little appreciative, he didn't think too much about it. His mother, Cao, who was far away in Luoyang, sent an envoy and agreed to the marriage between Wei Yinglan and Xia Houxuan, and only waited for Xia Houxuan's expedition.
We will get married when we come back. Yes
As a guarantee for this marriage, there is no possibility of a fire in Wei Ba's backyard in the short term. Xiahou Xuan and Guanqiu Jian's war is also going very smoothly, with good news coming frequently. Donglang has been recovered and the leader is expected to be there by the end of the year.
Can drink from Madonghai.
Wei Ba was basically satisfied with his method of mediating the conflicts between his wives and concubines.
After temporarily stabilizing the backyard, seeing that the 10,000 light cavalry and 4,000 heavy armored cavalry were almost trained, Wei Ba was gearing up and waiting for another expedition. Not only him, but even the soldiers under his command felt that it had been a few months.
The previous battle in Liaodong was not enough, so I was waiting for the autumn harvest to go west to Youzhou and Beiping counties to fight Chen Tai, or directly land in Qingzhou and fight Xiahou Ba again.
…
While Wei Ba was recuperating his strength in Liaodong, Li Yan was living like a year in Huguan.
Thirty thousand troops surrounded Huguan, but Li Yan never expected that he could conquer Huguan in one fell swoop and enter Jizhou. He himself knew how powerful he was and what kind of opponent Hao Zhao in Guanzhong was. He had the thunderbolt chariot.
, Hao Zhao also has it. He has the Liannu Chariot, and Hao Zhao also has it. Neither side has any obvious advantages.
Wei Ba did change his siege tactics, but this change was based on strong economic strength. What the Thunderbolt Chariot threw was not fire bombs, it was all money. Even the internal price of a fire bomb in Shu Han was three hundred yuan.
, at least twenty missiles are fired at a time, and a Thunderbolt Chariot will fire three hundred to four hundred missiles in one hour of attack, which is about ten gold.
To attack a city like Huguan, less than 500 Thunderbolt Chariots would hardly be effective. However, an hour-long attack by 500 Thunderbolt Chariots would require 150,000 to 200,000 fire bombs.
This is a huge consumption. Except for Wei Ba himself, few people can afford it. Wei Ba himself is the producer, and he only needs to pay the cost price. The cost price is still a mystery. Except for Wei Ba himself, probably only
The craftsmen in those workshops know.
Not to mention that Li Yan didn't have so many fire bombs in reserve, even if he did, he wouldn't dare to use them easily. When Zhuge Liang attacked Luoyang, the fire bombs failed to play the expected role. God knows whether a general like Hao Zhao who is good at defense is
I figured out a way, but if I can't conquer it at one stroke, all the money will be thrown into the water.
Conquest is a very expensive thing. Zhuge Liang fought in Guanzhong for several years, depleted all his savings in Guanzhong, and owed Wei Ba a large sum of money. Wei Guo fought for several years, and was exhausted, just like at the beginning
The same as the Wu State. However, looking at the weak Wei State, the Shu Han Dynasty is also extremely weak, and may not even have the strength to push for the last time. Now the only one who has enough ability to launch a war with obvious advantages is Wei Ba.
Because Wei Ba is rich.
Similarly, Jiang Wei was able to support 10,000 Huqi because he had mastered the trade routes of the Western Regions and had enough money to support the army.
No money, no need to discuss anything.
Li Yan didn't have much money, so he had to tighten his belt to live. Besieging the city was cheaper than attacking the city. Since there was no hope of breaking the city, Li Yan simply waited patiently. Waiting for Zhuge Liang to die and Wei Ba to attack from Jizhou.
Although the decision was made, the waiting days were not pleasant. As time went by, Li Yan became more and more anxious and uneasy.
Zhuge Liang is still alive, and Wei Ba has not launched an attack for a long time.
He can understand that Wei Ba will not launch an attack. Wei Ba needs time to fully strengthen the cavalry. He will definitely recruit Hu Qi in Liaodong. Hu Qi cannot go into battle immediately after recruiting Hu Qi. It will take a period of training and integration. Wei Ba is likely to
The attack was launched after the autumn harvest, because at that time the grain was put into the warehouse, the army rations were sufficient, and the physical strength of the war horses was at its best. The Hu people always launched wars after the autumn.
But Li Yan didn't know why Zhuge Liang didn't die. When he left Chang'an, Zhuge Liang was already very ill and was almost dead.
Li Yan felt that if Zhuge Liang did not die, he would die.
Fa Miao could only comfort Li Yan's pessimism, and that was just comfort.
Change will definitely happen, and it will happen in the near future. All they can do now is wait and wait patiently.
…
Sima Yi didn't plan to wait any longer.
It has been more than three months since Li Yan left Tongguan, nearly two months since he besieged Huguan, and Jiang Wei has been stationed in Puban for a long time. However, they have not made any further moves, and the smell of passiveness and indifference is obvious. In this case, Sima Yi decided
Use the intrigue between them to make a game.
The reason for exchanging defense zones with Xiahou Ba was because the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty believed that Xiahou Ba's troops had stronger combat power, while the soldiers he led were weaker in combat power and were more suitable to use favorable terrain to hold on. They were not as good as Xiahou Ba in terms of attack, so
Let Xiahou Ba deal with Wei Ba, who is also stronger, and let him deal with Li Yan.
Defending Bingzhou was the imperial court's hope for Sima Yi.
But Sima Yi himself didn't think so. He didn't think Li Yan was his opponent, although his confrontation with Li Yan in Nanyang ended with him escaping and losing a leg of his son Sima Zhao. But at that time, Wei Ba
In participating in the war, Wancheng was defeated. It was Wei Ba's new tactics that played a decisive role, not Li Yan's ability.
Now, Wei Ba is far away in Liaodong, Li Yan is isolated and helpless, and Jiang Wei in Puban is more of an enemy than a reinforcement.
In this case, Sima Yi decided to take the initiative. The reason why he did not take action when Li Yan first arrived at Huguan was because he was worried about Li Yanchu's arrival and was still vigilant. Now that time had dragged on for a long time, Li Yan should be a little tired and his fighter plane appeared.
.
From the moment he knew that Li Yan was sending troops to Tongguan, Sima Yi was ready to attack. If he didn't move at this time, it would be fine. If he moved, it would be like thunder.
Sima Yi ordered Sima Zhao to lead 5,000 men to stay at Longshan Camp, while he and Sima Shi personally led 25,000 troops to attack Huguan.
It took Sima Yi only five days to travel more than 500 miles from Jinyang to Huguan, averaging a hundred miles a day. As soon as he arrived at Huguan, Sima Yi immediately ordered an attack regardless of the fatigue of his soldiers from the long journey.
Li Yan did not expect Sima Yi to arrive so quickly. When he received the news from the scouts and knew that Sima Yi was approaching, Sima Yi was already close at hand. Three thousand vanguard soldiers, led by Sima Shi personally, launched a frenzied attack.