Man Chong was relocating to Chang'an. It was impossible for Zhang Xi, who was in Zuo Fengyi and only one step away from Chang'an, not to receive information about such a big news.
To be honest, for a moment, Zhang Xi also thought about whether he should wait for Man Chong's emigrant team to leave the city, follow them and pursue them, and somehow intercept some of the people.
But Zhang Xi hesitated again and again and finally gave up.
It's not that Zhang Xi doesn't know the importance of Dingkou, but the strategic location of Tongguan is too important. From a military perspective, the priority is higher.
Only by seizing Tongguan can we truly take the initiative in the defense of the three auxiliaries, and at the same time open the passage to the Central Plains region.
Although there is another Hangu Pass in front of this passage, it is better to have Tongguan in your own hands than to fail to capture Tongguan and have to face two male passes.
Another one, if Man Chong does not know whether to live or die and still sends the people from Tongguan into Guan, then as long as Zhang Xi can seize Tongguan and close the first gate from Guanzhong to the inside of Guan, then Man Chong will take the 200,000 people with him. , there is no place to run at all.
Therefore, after Zhang Xi entered Zuo Fengyi, he did not head towards Chang'an at all. Instead, he turned directly and headed towards Tongguan behind Chang'an.
This time, Zhang Xi and Liu Yin were still partners in the invasion, while Hu Zun was left by Zhang Xi to guard Weicheng as the retreat for the entire army.
Weicheng's surrender has proved Hu Zun's sincerity. Even if Zhang Xi is cautious, he still has to give Hu Zun this trust. Otherwise, who will surrender in the future?
Along the way, what Zhang Xi was most worried about was the marching speed.
If you want to seize Tongguan, you must buy enough time before Chang'an reacts.
The Wei thieves would definitely send troops to guard such an important place as Tongguan. As for Chang'an, knowing that they had broken through in the direction of Zuo Fengyi and entered Zuo Fengyi, they would definitely choose to send reinforcements in the direction of Tongguan.
What Zhang Xi has to do is to directly attack Tongguan before Chang'an's reinforcements arrive, and then defend Tongguan to completely close the Chang'an army's retreat to Feng Yi from the left.
But marching in the snow is not that convenient after all.
In addition, the weather in Guanzhong has begun to clear up, which is good news for Liu Bei's main army in Youfufeng, which can use the spring floods to flood Huaili City, but it is not good news for Zhang Xi's preemption operation.
If it is still a cold and snowy day, although the marching speed cannot be compared with normal marching, it is not impossible to march with the help of sleds to transport food and grass.
But as the weather gets warmer, the snow begins to melt and become softer, making sleds less useful in such weather.
If you are not careful, the grain transport truck can easily overturn due to uneven force, which in turn affects the marching speed.
What's even more unlucky is that while the snow is slowly melting but has not completely melted, it is impossible to transport food on carts. If you want to seize Tongguan, Zhang Xi must give up the food supplies and let the soldiers only bring a few days of food and grass. Emergency, and then the whole army rushes forward.
However, this is unrealistic.
The journey from Chang'an to Tongguan is more than 300 miles. When we reach Tongguan, we have to consider the issue of siege. This period is not three or five days, but half a month to a month. Zhang Xi cannot risk running out of food. On the way.
In a normal march, a forced march can cover more than fifty miles in one day. In a forced march in snowy weather, it can cover more than thirty to forty miles in a day. However, in this kind of snowy weather, Zhang Xi, leading the army, could not even cover twenty miles.
Such a slow marching speed really made Zhang Xi anxious, but at the same time he was helpless.
But Zhang Xi always comforted himself by saying that he could not increase his marching speed, and the reinforcements sent by Chang'an to Tongguan could not increase their speed either.
At least he still had a sled to help him, and at least he could transport grain and grass on some flat roads. If the Wei army in Chang'an wanted to support Tongguan, they first had to find a way to solve the problem of grain and grass supply along the way.
Therefore, theoretically speaking, when Zhang Xi led his troops to Tongguan, the Chang'an reinforcements from Tongguan might still be near Chang'an City and had not actually set off.
But when Zhang Xi really led his army halfway, he saw a scene that made him worried.
A group of common people, about a thousand people, men, women, old and young, holding wooden hoe and hoes in their hands, stood in front of his army.
Seriously, this is incredible.
Zhang Xi led an army, and it was a large-scale army of ten thousand people.
After forty or fifty years of war, there was really not much difference in moral character between the armies of the Han Dynasty and the armies of the princes. However, few people who had experienced such a long period of war dared to block the army's path forward.
The most terrible thing is that these people are here to block the road and rob, and the target of the robbery is military rations.
The people surrounded the army and wanted to rob him. Zhang Xi didn't know what was causing the trouble. Could it be that the great virtuous master had been resurrected? !
But these people didn’t wear yellow scarves either.
Really, the luck of these people is really good. Zhang Xi governs the army very strictly, especially those who harass the people. He has always punished them severely under Zhang Xi's rule. Otherwise, these people would never see Zhang Xi at all. They were blown away by the former sergeants.
"I really don't dare to offend General Huwei. I just heard that Uncle Liu has always been benevolent and righteous. I can't help but wait."
The old man who was brought to Zhang Xi represented the more than a thousand people behind him and told Zhang Xi his difficulties.
These people were all Sanfu people who had been escorted from Chang'an to Guan by Man Chong earlier.
Originally, for these people, it was impossible for them to reason with the government with a knife. The government forced them to migrate, and they had no choice but to pack up their belongings, prepare enough food for the migration, and follow the large army. Hit the road.
But no one knew. A group of military lords appeared out of nowhere and suddenly appeared in front of them. They said that the war situation was urgent and they wanted to requisition the food in their hands as army rations. If they refused to give it, these military lords were really serious. Dare to kill.
As for the military man who escorted the common people into the customs, it was obvious that he was in the same group as these murderous military men, and no one cared about them at all.
I have to say, although those murderous military lords were a little cruel, they still gave these people a way to live. They only confiscated half of their food, which at least left them a way to live. But the people who originally escorted them still had a way to live. As soon as those military masters heard that the Shu soldiers were coming, they immediately snatched away all the remaining food after the murderous military masters left, and then roared away without paying any attention to them.
Poor people, all their food was robbed. Even if they wanted to return to their hometown, they were all hungry and dizzy after walking for less than two days.
Then these common people saw the army led by Zhang Xi.
The young people in the common people's team are brave after all. Of course, the most important thing is that they are hungry and have no choice. They are thinking, if the military master can rob us, why can't we rob these military masters? !
After all, the older generation had rich experience and stopped these young people from dying in vain. But the older generation also knew that it was not an option to continue like this.
Seeing the incoming army, the colors of their flags were different from those of the government. I probably guessed that this was the Shu army that the government said.
And I have always heard that the Shu thieves in Hanzhong... uh, no, they are the Han army, they are Uncle Liu's team, and Uncle Liu has always been kind and righteous. If it is not possible, let's go forward and beg, and let Uncle Liu's army share some food for us. Maybe it really works.
Of course, if it doesn't work, we have no choice. Being killed by a military commander is the same as dying of starvation. When that time comes, we will try our best to see if we can find a way out.
Only then did the common people block the road, and it felt like they were trying to steal military rations.
After understanding the whole story, Zhang Xi only sighed and had only one thought in his mind - Man Chong, you are simply not a human being! ! !
After a moment's thought, Zhang Xi could tell that those military lords who killed people to collect food must be the reinforcements sent by Manchong to Tongguan. In order to gain time, they must have only brought a small amount of military rations, and went directly without any baggage. Hit the road.
The food supplies along the way must have been supported by robbing the rations of these migrating people.
Obviously, this is competing for time with oneself, but no matter what, the person who came up with this idea is definitely a heartless person.
You took away all the people's food rations. They were in such a wilderness and it was winter. They didn't even have a chance to hunt and dig wild vegetables to survive. Isn't this driving people to death? !
Zhang Xi didn't know who the generals of this supporting army were, but he knew that this force must have been sent by Man Chong, and Man Chong must bear the main responsibility.
But Man Chong was indeed wronged, and this was really not his idea.
As for Wang Chang, Wang Chang actually felt that he was quite unjust.
Man Chong asked himself to support Chang'an as soon as possible, but he did not give himself enough support and ordered him to set off immediately, otherwise military law would be engaged.
But what should we do about the food and grass problem? !
It was only four or five days' journey from Changling to Weicheng. Wang Chang went to rescue again, thinking that he would have more supplies when he entered Weicheng, so it was okay to bring some dry food and no luggage.
It only takes three or four days to retreat from Weicheng across the Weiqiao and into Chang'an. If we save some of the remaining dry food, and with Man Chong's support, we won't have to worry about it. We can get from Chang'an to Tongguan, which is enough. More than three hundred miles away.
You Man Chong didn't give me any solution to the logistics problem, nor did you give me any support. You just urged me to go on the road. What can I do? !
If it weren't for the sake of maintaining the dignity of the Taiyuan family, Wang Chang would have decided to leave the city and go straight to Weicheng to talk to Zhang Xi about the terms of surrender.
But unfortunately, Wang Chang had to think about his family's reputation. It would be too absurd to surrender because of such a problem.
Therefore, Wang Chang could only find a way to solve this problem by himself.
Soon, Wang Chang thought of a good idea.
From Chang'an to Tongguan, there must be some migrating people walking slowly along the way, and these people should have a lot of food in their hands.
Of course, Wang Chang didn't really want to force these people to death, he just requisitioned them for emergency use. After arriving at Tongguan, with logistical supplements, and when these people passed through Tongguan, he would just compensate them back.
And in order to prevent these people from starving to death halfway, Wang Chang only collected half of the rations. The people relied on the remaining half of the rations to persist to Tongguan, which was not a problem at all.
Wang Chang never expected that the county soldiers responsible for escorting the troops would rob the people and disperse in a hurry as soon as they heard that the Shu army was coming.
This kind of thing is unimaginable in Wang Chang's heart, and it is impossible for him to happen in the forbidden army led by Wang Chang. He really has never experienced it.
But no matter how Wang Chang felt that he was wronged, Zhang Xi had already settled this debt on Man Chong. If he later knew that Wang Chang led the army to do this, Zhang Xi and Wang Chang would hate him together.
You don't treat the people as human beings.
(End of chapter)
