Chapter 147: Stalemate
Half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.
Sun Jie had already marched out of the south with his entire army and confronted Zhang Hu who was entrenched in Baoning Mansion. However, except for the "Victory of Liubianyi" that Shancai was able to pull off before the war officially started, apart from single-digit scout contact battles in the past six months, there were no actual large-scale battles between the two sides.
It's not that Sun Jie doesn't want to fight, he really doesn't have the capital to afford it. Nanjinguan is like a giant beast that is looking at people to devour. Sun Jie estimated that if he attacked by force, he would have to pay about 3,500 casualties: 1,000 auxiliary soldiers died, 2,000 were seriously injured and disabled, and 2,000 combat soldiers were killed. A battalion was left dead and disabled. This is just a pass. Later, we have to cross the Jialing River under the firepower of the city to touch the south wall of Baoning Mansion! According to this method of attack, even if Zhang Hu is defeated and driven out of Baoning, the Sun family army will be severely damaged and will not be able to recover for five or six years. In these years and years, with the smoke everywhere, how can they have five or six years to recover from their injuries? Therefore, if we attack by force, the Sun family's two-hundred-year-old foundation may be destroyed in our own hands!
It is said that kindness does not lead to soldiers, and Sun Jie, who is a hereditary general, is by no means reluctant to die. If it comes to the last moment, he can die for his country like the ancestors of the Sun family without hesitation. Even oneself can be wrapped in horse leather, there is nothing to say about being reluctant to die. But he was unwilling to sacrifice his men in vain - especially since he had no capital to launch an attack.
The initial plan was to obtain enough food, grass and manpower to support the army's operations, and then obtain the military power to control Shaanxi's troops and horses. Sun Jie would form a grand formation, with local men as the main force and his own auxiliary troops as the supplement, and attack by force. Baoning - Let the local people bear most of the casualties, and your troops can always maintain a high combat effectiveness. After Zhang Hu is driven out of Jianzhou, according to the situation of the Shaanxi soldiers, if you can fight, block it, and if you can't fight, avoid it. , his own headquarters defeated Zhang Hu through a long-distance pursuit. The core essence of this attack method is to exchange human lives for food: to fight head-on and quickly establish future victory at the cost of a few days and thousands of lives.
According to the second revised plan, if there is enough support from the people and the people, Sun Jie will leave one or two battalions in the southern county to block Zhang Hunan's escape route to Yanting, and take the risk of maneuvering the main force to Cangxi, or even more. He went to Jianzhou, a faraway place, to seize Zhang's grain and grass reserves, and then attacked from north to south. When fighting, move out of the main channel of the Jialing River and leave a path for Zhang Hu to run. In this way, Zhang thief will not have to fight to the death, and the casualties of his troops can always be kept within the tolerable range - and then it will be simple The battalions took turns to roll around, chasing each other all the way. Zhang's defeated troops were bound to have flaws everywhere, and every flaw would be severely torn off a piece of flesh. After a few hundred miles, this rogue bandit would Like snow water under the sun, it may not even be able to survive the Lintao Mansion in Shaanxi Province and then disappear into ashes. The essence of this style of play is to use the consumption of food and grass to offset the loss of human life: large-depth and long-distance maneuvers will undoubtedly consume a lot of food and grass materials, but unexpected attacks will achieve good tactical effects.
However, contrary to expectations, except for the half of the grain and grass that was initially shipped, there was no longer any large-scale supply transportation. As for the civil servants, don't even think about it: there is not enough food and grass to support military operations, and the civil servants who are burdened with food have no other use except to help with meals. Sun Jie calculated that according to the standard that three civilians carrying supplies can support a soldier for half a month*, the full amount of food in his hand can only support the maneuver to the gate of Jianzhou City. If he cannot win with one attack, it will be his turn. Taking the risk of being attacked by Zhang's thieves from the north and the south, they were desperate. Therefore, after going to the south to meet up with Shan Gouji, they could only stay there. The soldiers had two meals a day, the auxiliary troops were a handful and a few, and the Qianbachuan people had one meal a day, waiting for Zhang Hu to reveal his flaws.
On the other hand, Zhang Hu's side has people and food, there are dangers ahead, and no worries about the retreat. He is not stupid enough to run out of the city to fight with Sun Jie, and there is no need to attack other than a group of soldiers who have no property. Nanfang didn't have it, and he had little experience in the first rebellion and didn't know what to do next, so he ended up with Sun Jie.
Officials in Sichuan Province gradually understood this situation: as long as Sun Jie was around, they did not need to worry about Zhang Thief's invasion. After the flood, he himself was not rich. In addition, the king of Shu made troubles every now and then, so the supply of grain and grass for Sun's tribe was slack. He calculated the days and when the rush was tight, he scraped together a few hundred dan for Sun Jie. past……
The court became more lively, and there were more and more accusations against Sun Jie for not fighting. However, everyone also knows that the Holy Emperor's trust in the Sun family is extremely high, and every ten days or so, Sun Jie's military information will be reported to the capital by horseback at 400 miles (the fastest standard is 600 miles, 800 miles The Liga rush is just a legend. In that case, people and horses at every stop will run to death). Referring to the reports of Sichuan provincial officials, it is an objective fact that Sun Jie was short of food and could not launch military operations. Therefore, most of the people at the beginning Apart from yelling a few words, Yan Guan didn't go too far. However, things changed over time, and finally some people lost their temper.
During the incident, Hu Ke gave Qiao Nanxing (also known as Shang Bai) an excerpt of "Ten Considerations" to Emperor Sheng. On the surface, it expressed concern about the stalemate in the war in Sichuan Province, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that this Lord Qiao The finger pointed at Sun Jie was still trying to preserve his strength: "...Bakeru, a husband-general, is so courageous that he can break through hundreds of Qin passes. It has been more than half a year without troops. Is it because of lack of food? I wonder if it has been half a year. How much food will be consumed? There are nine things to worry about. The soldiers are the generals. They only know the order of the general but not the country. The ten things to worry about are that the country is timid in war but brave in private war. How can it be that he has received two hundred years of heaven's grace without being ashamed and ashamed... " Mr. Qiao, who came from a decent background and specializes in finding faults, is as sharp as a knife, and his every word is heart-breaking. In one sentence, he easily described Sun Jie's previous victory as a "private war. If you have more help, you might even say some unpleasant words.
In fact, Qiao Nanxing's move was not entirely a matter of grandstanding. Mr. Qiao had a friend of the same age, Jiang Yuanbiao (also known as Shizhan), who had succeeded Yu Chaozhi a few months ago and was the censor of Shaanxi Province at that time. In order to please Lord Chiang, the Lintao Mansion once organized a performance for him: a strong man holding a broadsword cut off three bull heads in succession - this majestic general was Lu Guangyu, the commander of the Lanzhou Central Guard. General Lu perfectly fits Mr. Chiang’s perception of a military general: illiterate, extremely powerful, full of aggression, and respectful to himself! When talking about Zhang Hu, General Lu curled his lips contemptuously: "If you meet a certain person and can survive under a certain knife, then that certain person is a son of a bitch!" The simple and resounding words left a deep impression on Mr. Jiang. Impression: That’s great! As a military general, going into battle to kill the enemy is the only right path. Planning strategies is the job of our civil servants who are well-read in poetry and literature. Is it your turn to think so much? Just give it to me! Soldiers, as many as you die, I will pat my chest and make up for you...
In line with the good wish of seeking talents for the country, Lord Chiang intended to cultivate Lu Guangyu, so he expressed his thoughts to several friends in the capital. After careful planning and division of labor, Qiao Nanxing was responsible for taking the lead in firing.
As everyone expected, the Holy Spirit still excused Sun Jie, so Gao Shiyang from the military department came into the matter: "I have heard that Lu, the commander of the Ningxia Central Guards, is loyal and brave. His bravery is not inferior to that of Guan Zhang. There are hundreds of people in Shaanxi." The reputation of the enemy. I am willing to recommend this envoy to quell the rebellion, and work with Sun Shuai to achieve the effectiveness of the north-south pincer attack!"
Hearing that someone could help Sun Jie attack Zhang Hu, the Holy Emperor had no reason not to be right. Taking into account the feelings of Sun Jie, who had been entangled with Zhang Hu for half a year, the emperor accepted the memorial that the officials requested to engrave the "Seal of the General of Victory and Rebellion" on Lu Guangyu. A month later, Pingni was led by Xiu Wei (also known as Hongfan), the minister of the Ministry of Industry, as the commander-in-chief, An Yugui, the internal eunuch who swept the floor and cleaned the palace, as the military supervisor, and Lu Guangyu, the commander of the Ningxia Central Guards, as the general. The army then marched southward from Shaanxi with great vigor.
The Ming Dynasty was an empire of patches: in order to prevent the chief envoys and inspectors from colluding, they patched up the patrol and censorship; to prevent them from wrangling, they patched up the governor; in order to prevent the feuding between several governors, they patched up the manager. Because the guards cannot fight, a patch is made to use the people as soldiers. In order to prevent the generals from sending troops to disturb the people and fearing the enemy, a patch is made to temporarily assign civilian officials to lead the troops. In order to prevent the civilian officials from being overbearing and the military generals from acting recklessly, or two The guys teamed up to embezzle military funds, so they patched up a eunuch to supervise the army...
The army along the way was majestic, especially Lu Guangyu. In order to show his bravery, whenever he went to a prosperous place, he would always take off his shirt, perform tricks on the adults, and make all the civil servants of the state and county look at him. They were so mesmerized that they wrote poems one after another as part of their heroic deeds - well, in fact, everyone knows who recommended General Lu. It is said that you should not look at the face of the monk but the face of the Buddha. Show more support. In the future, you will be an egg. There will be fewer bones picked out by Mr. Jiang in the basket... However, the fly in the ointment is that if there are no local civil servants present to organize, the people who see the army often flee, even Nanbazhai and Zhunizhai (today's Gansu Province) Zhuoni County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture), Yangtang Village and other villages closed their gates as if they were facing a formidable enemy. The villagers armed themselves on the walls and guarded their own officers and soldiers as if they were thieves. General Lu was so angry that he screamed strangely. , if Master Xiu hadn't stopped him, he would have started fighting in Shaanxi! I really can't blame General Lu for being angry. The people are so ignorant: the army must eat and drink when it is victorious, right? Isn’t it right to take your pigs, sheep, chickens and dogs? The army's supplies must be transported by someone, so what's the point of grabbing a few people to carry them for a period?
As the saying goes, soldiers are more valuable than speed. With an average speed of more than ten miles a day, the Pingni army finally approached Guangyuan more than three months later. By this time, Sun Jie had already driven Zhang Hu out of Baoning Mansion. How could Sun Jie get such a great achievement alone? General Lu launched the attack on Guangyuan without saying a word, thus leaving a popular "legend".
*This is a popular algorithm used by ancient generals to calculate logistics support. When the ratio of auxiliary troops to combat troops is 1:1, the one-way limit for carrying supplies is 18 days, when 2:1 is 25 days, and when 3:1 is one month. Because the civilians themselves also have to eat, the longer the time goes by, the more the food bearers will eat. The total amount that can be carried is fixed, and the less extra supplies they need to carry for the soldiers. If you consider the return journey, it should be halved. If there is no ready-made official road, it should be halved. When you need to pass through difficult terrain such as mountains and forests, it should be halved again. Without getting lost in the dense forest, the marching speed may be only two meters per day. Only three miles. This was the result of Sun Jie's calculation of treating his auxiliary soldiers as half-mining civilians.
[Be with your baby during the holidays and stop updating for a few days. Happy holidays, readers. 】
