Chapter 1235: Meat Grinder
Although Qin Hao expelled the Yuanmeng army from Yinchuan County, he also paid a heavy price.
There were not many Yuanmeng cavalry who invaded Yinchuan, only one-tenth of the total number of Yuanmeng's army, which was one hundred thousand cavalry. However, the general leading the army was Murong Chui, so Yuanmeng had almost no flaws in the command of the cavalry.
Qin Hao had 150,000 troops and 50,000 militiamen, totaling 200,000 troops.
The number of Qin troops was twice that of Yuan and Mongolia, but their cavalry was only 50,000, which was only one-half of the number of Yuan and Mongolian cavalry. Their mobility was far inferior to that of foreigners.
If you want to completely drive the Yuanmeng Iron Cavalry out of Yinchuan County, you must go out of the city to fight the Yuanmeng Iron Cavalry. However, using infantry to fight against foreigners on the plains is undoubtedly a thankless task.
Relying on many famous generals such as Bai Qi and Jiang Song, Qin Hao planned several counterattacks. In the end, although Murong Chui was driven out of Yinchuan, after statistics, he found that he had paid a heavy price.
Nearly 20,000 militiamen alone died in the battle, and the regular army also suffered thousands of casualties, but only killed nearly 10,000 Mongolian cavalry.
In the history of the Qin Army's campaigns, it was rare that the casualties were higher than the opponent's, but this time it was unavoidable no matter what.
The combat quality of the militiamen is so poor that even if they have undergone military training, they can only be used to defend the city. Going out of the city is simply courting death.
But even when defending the city, the casualty rate of the militiamen was still very high, which lowered the overall casualty rate of the Qin army.
The combat power of Qin Hao's 150,000 troops, coupled with the coordination of many fierce generals, could definitely defeat Murong Chui's 100,000 cavalry head-on.
Murong Chui was also aware of this, so he took the initiative to lead the troops to withdraw from Yinchuan County while Bai Qi's encirclement was not yet complete, otherwise Yuan Meng would not have suffered only such a few casualties.
Murong Chui's cunning level exceeded Qin Hao and Bai Qi's expectations. Although this siege failed to severely damage Yuan Meng, it managed to take back Yinchuan County, which greatly reduced the scope of Yuan Meng's activities in Hetao.
After stabilizing Yinchuan County, Qin Hao could finally turn around and pay attention to the situation of the entire Hetao, but found that the anti-Yuan war in Yinchuan County was just a microcosm.
Nowadays, the Hetao has turned into a mess. Every city and county is fighting. Both sides of Jin and Yuan suffered heavy casualties, but the most casualties were among the militiamen.
The southern Yinchuan County where Qin Hao was responsible for guarding had relatively few militia casualties, with only nearly 20,000 militiamen dead, while the central Ningxia County had already lost 40,000 militiamen, and the northernmost Yinshan County also had the most intense fighting, and now it is even more fierce. A total of 60,000 militiamen were dead.
In less than two months since Yuanmeng broke through Zhenbeiguan, 120,000 of the 200,000 militiamen recruited by the Jin army had died.
The Jin army did not use the militiamen as cannon fodder, but only used them to defend the city, but they still suffered such heavy casualties. The 120,000 militiamen probably only defeated the 30,000 Yuanmeng army. This shows that Yuanmeng army The strength of the cavalry and the brutality of the Hetao battle between Jin and Yuan Dynasties.
With all the people in Hetao serving as soldiers, even if 120,000 militiamen were lost, the Jin army could quickly be replenished, so there are still nearly 200,000 militiamen in Hetao today.
Nowadays, the style of Hetao is too complicated, so after Qin Hao came to Hetao, he did not replace Wang Meng as the commander-in-chief. Instead, he chose to follow Wang Meng's order. After all, Wang Meng was the one who understood the situation in Hetao best, and Wang Meng had already He came up with a strategy to defeat Yuan Meng.
After discussion, Wang Meng, Xi Zhicai and Zhuge Liang finally came up with a three-step strategy to defeat Yuan Meng, and the first step was to defend Yuan Meng's strength and energy.
Wang Meng's first step plan has been carried out so far, and the distribution of troops in Hetao has now become:
Qin Hao, Bai Qi, Xue Rengui, and Huo Qubing led 150,000 Qin and Ming coalition troops and 50,000 militiamen to guard the seven cities of Yinchuan.
Wang Meng, Zhuge Liang, Xi Zhicai, and Luo Yi led 120,000 elite Jin troops and 70,000 militiamen to guard the five cities of Ningxia.
Li Jing, Yang Liulang, and Yang Wulang led 10,000 Jin troops and 80,000 militiamen to guard a city in Yinshan, which was the city of Yinshan.
Qin Liangyu, Meng Tian, Meng Wu, and She Saihua led an army of 100,000 to guard the border between the three counties in the central and northern areas and Hetao to prevent the Yuan and Meng cavalry from entering Bingzhou.
The Qin and Jin armies, including the temporarily recruited civilians, totaled 580,000 troops. The troops were divided into three groups and dispersed in Qianli Hetao, guarding the remaining thirteen cities in Yinchuan, Ningxia and Yinshan counties.
As for the other cities in Hetao, they were naturally captured by Yuanmeng, including nine counties in Yinshan and five counties in Ningxia. The only complete one was Yinchuan County where Qin Hao was located.
In just two months, the Han army suffered casualties of 120,000 militiamen and 20,000 regular troops, a total of 140,000 casualties of the army, and Yuan Meng naturally felt uncomfortable.
In the process of conquering nine counties in Yinshan, five counties in Ningxia, and three counties in Yinchuan, there were very few examples of Yuanmeng taking the initiative to open cities and surrender. Most of the cities were captured by Yuanmeng one by one.
Now Yuanmeng has lost no less than 60,000 troops, and the main force of 400,000 cavalry has dropped to 340,000. However, the number of Han troops facing them has not decreased but increased.
Now the Han army's strength has reached 580,000, which fully exceeds Yuanmeng's strength of 240,000. Although it is still generally on the defensive, this also makes Yuanmeng's next offensive in Hetao difficult.
Until now, Wang Meng's strategy to fight against Yuanmeng has been very obvious, which is to fight a people's war in Hetao and Yuanmeng, and use the vast ocean of people to completely crush the invading Yuanmeng aliens.
Temujin's 400,000 yuan of Mongolian iron cavalry could cause too much harm. Since tragic sacrifices are destined to be inevitable, we can only try to minimize the losses, and the best way is undoubtedly to limit the battlefield. In the Loop.
No matter how big the scale of the battle between Jin and Yuan Dynasty becomes, the battlefield can only be fought on the land of thirty cities in the Thousand Miles Hetao. In this way, the damage of this battle to Bingzhou is also minimized.
In order to prevent Yuanmeng from harming Bingzhou and even the world, both Qin Hao and Qin Wen made up their minds to fight Temujin to death even if they defeated the thirty cities in Hetao. Tens of thousands of people have all been sacrificed, and 400,000 yuan of Mongolian iron cavalry must be completely left in Hetao.
Now that both Qin, Jin and Yuan Meng are furious, the Battle of Hetao has developed into a war of attrition. Whoever can grit their teeth and persevere to the end will be the winner.
Of course, fighting for consumption is also a helpless move when Wang Meng's second step strategy fails. Now Wang Meng's second plan has not even been implemented, so no one knows what the final result will be.
However, Yuanmeng is currently at a disadvantage. Although more people died on Qin and Jin's side, the final competition between the two sides was still the main force and elites.
Now Yuan and Meng's main force has dropped to 340,000, while Qin and Jin, after removing the soldiers and civilians, have a main force of 380,000, including more than 100,000 cavalry.
The balance of victory has gradually tilted towards Qin and Jin.
