When he realized that the person threatening his food route was probably the Liangzhou Army who had entered Xiaoguan in advance, Cao Zhen did not dare to be careless.
In these days, when marching and fighting, food and grass are the first priority. Without a stable food route, the soldiers will definitely not be able to fight with peace of mind.
Therefore, Cao Zhen immediately responded and asked Niu Jin to lead all the remaining cavalry regiments and personally go to the vicinity of Dali County to find the main cavalry of the Liangzhou Corps for a decisive battle and fight to determine the rear.
After a while, Cao Zhen decided that it was not careless and underestimating the enemy. In fact, as a cavalry commander, Niu Jin even felt that Cao Zhen was making a fuss out of a molehill.
According to the description of the cavalry who returned from defeat, although the cavalry behind them formed an army, they were only six to seven thousand people, and the scale was not large.
Yes, Niu Jin admitted that he did underestimate the enemy at the beginning. Faced with the enemy's size of 3,000 people, he only sent one general to lead 5,000 cavalry to encircle and suppress the enemy. Unexpectedly, the enemy had backup.
Because he was unprepared for battle and the command level of the general was really not good, he was surrounded by the enemy and beat him up. He lost more than a thousand cavalry and retreated to Chongquan County.
But things are different now. He personally leads the troops to fight. At the same time, the enemy's backhand has been revealed. The cavalry can't hold up 7,000 people, and their combat power is only that. Niu Jin only needs to bring 5,000 elite cavalry to defeat him in one fell swoop. To defeat the enemy, there is no need to bring all the cavalry with you.
Niu Jin's words made Cao Zhen feel a little hurt. Where did this old man get such confidence? !
But Cao Zhen still couldn't do anything with Niu Jin.
This old man, although his level is not very good, he is senior enough. He was a veteran of three dynasties who followed Cao Ren as a deputy general in his early years. Now he is valued by Cao Rui and is in charge of the elite cavalry regiment directly belonging to the emperor.
Although Cao Zhen could completely overpower Niu Jin in his official position, the problem was that Cao Zhen couldn't do that.
He had already made a mistake in sending troops this time. Although the emperor sent Wang Lang to make up for it, it was better not to be too tough on Niu Jin.
Besides, Cao Zhen is different from Cao Xiu. Cao Zhen is relatively good at human relations. Facing such a veteran of three dynasties, he is still willing to give some face.
Therefore, Cao Zhen had to hold back his anger and advised Niu Jin to march and fight, and to be cautious first. You think the Shu thieves have exposed their back tricks, but what if they still have hidden ones? !
Besides, Zhao Yun is also a famous Shu thieves general. Although compared to famous generals such as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, his gold content is a bit lacking, but it should not be underestimated. Wouldn't it be better for the old general to go all out to get full success? !
After much persuasion and coaxing, Cao Zhen finally convinced Niu Jin to let him take 13,000 cavalry to the vicinity of Dali County to encircle and suppress the Liangzhou cavalry led by Zhao Yun.
Actually, Cao Zhen originally meant to hand over 5,000 of his own cavalry, including Wang Chang, to Niu Jin's command.
Now the main force besieging Chongquan County is the infantry. The only role of the cavalry is to roam around the periphery to ensure that the enemy does not dare to rush out of the city and burn their siege equipment, or just break out and escape. It is better to let Niu Jin take them all away to ensure a big victory. win.
In the end, Niu Jin disagreed and was only willing to lead his own cavalry regiment to attack. He didn't want any more of Cao Zhen's cavalry regiment.
The old general's attitude was so resolute that Cao Zhen couldn't force him to tell the truth. Cao Zhen also felt that even if the Shu thieves had a back-up, they would be able to hold up the sky with 10,000 cavalry behind them. Niu Jin should not be able to fight with 13,000 cavalry. You will be at a disadvantage.
If you don’t want to take it, don’t take it.
After sending away the cavalry regiment led by Niu Jin, Cao Zhen was thinking about the next response. On the other hand, he ordered the entire army to attack Chongquan, unable to give the Shu thieves in Chongquan County any chance to breathe.
Compared to the Liangzhou Army led by Zhao Yun, Cao Zhen and Zhang Xi, who cares about Chongquan County, are just little foxes who may cause trouble for you at any time.
In terms of reputation, although Zhao Yun is a veteran general, the older generals of Cao Wei who have fought against Zhao Yun and know that Zhao Yun is powerful have basically withered away. In addition, Zhao Yun has been in charge of Liangzhou for these years. It is located in a remote place and has always been a good person. Keeping a low profile is indeed not as good as Zhang Xi, who was in charge of Yongzhou and made trouble under Cao Wei's nose.
In terms of ability, Cao Zhen has never fought against Zhao Yun.
On the contrary, he had dealt with Zhang Xi several times, and with the two Northern Expeditions of Shu thieves, Zhang Xi shouldered the important task of taking sole responsibility, while Zhao Yun was either a suspect or flanking Cao Zhen most of the time. I really didn't feel that Zhao Yun was that powerful. place.
In Cao Zhen's view, Zhao Yun may have some ability, but more importantly, he is still a bit like an old man who has reached his current position based on his qualifications.
Therefore, although he knew that his retreat was in danger, Cao Zhen felt that his response was no problem and his troops were sufficient. He felt that he should be able to repel Zhao Yun and continue his attack on Chongquan County.
In other words, at this time, Cao Zhen still felt that he had an advantage and had no plans to withdraw his troops.
In Dali County, Zhao Yun was already waiting for the Wei army's cavalry to arrive.
One thing was actually that Cao Zhen was right. Zhao Yun had always kept his backup plan.
The first time he sent three thousand troops to harass the grain transport team, Zhao Yun was actually deliberately showing weakness to the enemy, hoping to attract Wei's cavalry to encircle and suppress him, and then use heavy troops to counterattack.
In fact, this move was very effective. It attracted Cao Wei's 5,000 cavalry, but was beaten by the 7,000 cavalry commanded by Zhao Yun himself. Only more than 3,000 cavalry were left and fled back.
The reason why these more than 3,000 cavalrymen were able to escape was because Zhao Yun deliberately held back and did not let his own cavalry continue to pursue them.
In fact, in cavalry combat, the casualties caused by head-on confrontation will not be too great.
Real mass destruction occurs when one party retreats and the other party pursues it. Especially for the Liangzhou Rangers who are good at guerrillas, chasing and killing the enemy is the most suitable combat method for the Liangzhou Cavalry.
However, Zhao Yun only let the cavalry pursue for twenty miles and then stopped chasing. This was equivalent to letting the defeated cavalry of the Wei army go.
The purpose of this was, on the one hand, to mislead the Wei army's cavalry general so that he would misjudge the strength of the cavalry he led. On the other hand, Zhao Yun's purpose was not to eat these five thousand cavalry. His appetite was very large. big.
In doing so, he still wanted to lure more cavalry to encircle and suppress him, and then use his trump card that he had carefully prepared for five years in Liangzhou to completely determine the outcome of Zuo Fengyi's battlefield.
And Zhao Yun's trump card is the three thousand heavy cavalry that he has never used.
Heavy cavalry is actually not a new concept. The concept of heavy cavalry existed in the Pre-Han Dynasty.
But the concept of Zhao Yun's three thousand heavy cavalry is still different from ordinary heavy cavalry.
Take the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, the ace unit of the great cavalry powerhouse Cao Wei, as an example. Most of the heavy cavalry of this era had men wearing heavy armor but horses without armor. They mainly focused on protecting people.
The heavy cavalry that Zhao Yun had carefully trained for five years in Liangzhou were fully equipped with both men and horses, and were real heavy cavalry.
It is somewhat similar to the iron pagoda of later generations of Jin Wushu. Of course, there will not be the kind of iron pagoda with three horses connected.
In fact, the idea of forming heavy cavalry was really not thought up by Zhao Yun, but suggested by Zhang Xi and Zhao Yun, and Zhang Xi's source of inspiration was indeed the iron pagoda under Jin Wushu.
However, while Zhao Yun affirmed Zhang Xi's idea of heavy cavalry, he also questioned Zhang Xi's three-horse formation.
In cavalry fighting, when running at high speed, if the horses are connected again, if one cavalry cannot keep up with the speed, or is a little timid during the battle, wouldn't it involve the other two cavalry?
If the entire army does this, then as long as a small number of people are timid in the face of battle, the entire cavalry offensive formation will completely collapse. The cavalry is not infantry, and formation collapse cannot occur when marching at high speed. So what? It's better to fight independently.
Therefore, Zhao Yun rejected Zhang Xi's proposal of three horses in parallel, thinking that it was just a whimsical idea of someone who did not understand cavalry warfare.
Zhang Xi didn't force it. On the one hand, he really didn't understand cavalry. On the other hand, Zhang Xi was in Yongzhou and Zhao Yun was in Liangzhou. The communication between the two mainly relied on communication. Communication in these days was not too luxurious. It’s good to be able to communicate once a month.
You can't argue about this matter and affect the formation of the cavalry team.
Therefore, Zhang Xi just made a suggestion, and it was Zhao Yun who had the final say on how to implement it and how to form this heavy cavalry unit.
Then Zhao Yun was in trouble.
To form such a heavy cavalry, the first thing to solve is the problem of war horses.
With both men and horses in armor, the requirements for war horses are not generally high. Even if ordinary war horses can barely support the weight of both men and horses, they can no longer run fast.
And cavalry that cannot increase speed have no practical significance at all.
Therefore, Zhao Yun's first headache is to choose the best horse.
But it won't be easy.
Although Liangzhou is a horse-producing place, Liangzhou has never been famous for its heavy cavalry. Most of Liangzhou's cavalry are rangers wearing light armor or even no armor.
Liangzhou war horses have good endurance and explosive power, but their load-bearing capacity is only that much. If the heavy cavalry of this era may be able to withstand it, but if even the horses have to wear heavy armor, then ordinary Liangzhou war horses cannot bear it. Yes.
Zhao Yun tried using Liangzhou war horses to form a heavy cavalry with both men and horses. The impact distance could not exceed ten miles, otherwise a large number of horses would be damaged.
If the impact distance is only ten miles, the significance of cavalry combat will be completely lost.
This is definitely not possible.
For this reason, Zhao Yun had to write to Zhang Xi again, asking if there was a solution. Zhang Xi's reply gave a solution, but Zhao Yun could not accept it.
There was no time.
One of Zhang Xi's solutions is to select war horses with excellent load-bearing capacity and explosive power. After several generations of training, he strives to breed a batch of high-quality war horses that can take into account the advantages of both.
But Zhang Xi really doesn’t need to give an idea about this matter. This matter has been going on since Emperor Xiaowu of the former Han Dynasty seized the Hetao area. Emperor Xiaowu even went on an expedition in order to obtain Dawanju and improve the local war horse breed. .
But even so, after three hundred years of improvement, it only formed the three horse-producing areas of Liangzhou, Bingzhou, and Youzhou.
Zhao Yun didn't have three hundred years to wait, and he couldn't be sure whether the improved horses could meet his requirements in terms of endurance, weight-bearing, and explosive power.
I really can't afford to wait.
Zhang Xi's second method was still to follow Emperor Xiaowu's example and send envoys to the west to find a more suitable breed of war horses.
In Zhang Xi's reply to Zhao Yun, he vaguely mentioned that there is a kind of war horse in the far west, which can carry cavalry like iron cans in battle. He sent people to search westward through the Silk Road, maybe they can find it. This kind of war horse.
Of course, today's Han Dynasty certainly does not have the power to dominate the world as it did during Emperor Xiaowu's time, and the Silk Road is not easy to travel, but it is always a hope.
But this method, even if Zhang Xi conveyed his opinions through letters, Zhao Yun could tell from between the lines that it was unreliable.
Let’s not talk about whether this method of finding a needle in a haystack is feasible. Let’s just say that the Silk Road is not under the control of the Han Dynasty.
During the period of Emperor Xiaowu, the Silk Road was first opened, and with the national power of the Han Dynasty as the backing, no one dared to stab the Han Dynasty.
But now, the Silk Road is intermittent, and the Han army has not returned to the Western Regions for decades. No one can guarantee the attitude of the Western Regions towards the Han, and few Western Region merchants are willing to come again. When it comes to Dahan, after all, the current Dahan is in a period of war.
In this case, if you want to find the kind of war horse that Zhang Xi heard about, you can only rely on luck.
These two methods, one cannot wait for time, the other can only depend on luck, are not what Zhao Yun is pursuing.
Zhao Yun is really worried. Zhang Xi's suggestion cannot solve his current problem at all. If the problem of war horses cannot be solved, it will be impossible to form a heavy cavalry with both men and horses.
Zhao Yun even thought that it might be possible to reduce the weight of the war horse's armor and replace all the original iron armor with leather armor.
Originally, Zhao Yun had planned to compromise, so he did so, but God favored the big man after all.
A businessman from the Western Regions appeared out of nowhere and wanted to enter Liangzhou of the Han Dynasty to do business. He asked someone to find connections and sent some "gifts" to the governor of Liangzhou of the Han Dynasty, including a high-quality war horse from the "Western Regions".
Originally, facing such "ignorant" Hu merchants, Xu Miao, the governor of Liangzhou, would not even meet him, let alone receive gifts.
But it happened that Zhao Yun happened to be discussing military affairs with Xu Miao at the Governor's Mansion in Liangzhou that day. Unfortunately, Zhao Yun saw the war horse and Xu Miao turned red on the spot.
Who the hell is so ignorant, giving yourself gifts in front of Zhao Yun, with no conscience at all? Even if you have to pay bribes, you wouldn't do it like this.
Just when Xu Miao was worried about Zhao Yun's misunderstanding and was about to explain, Xu Miao found that Zhao Yun was looking straight at the war horse, and his eyes began to slowly shine.
Well. Xu Miao suddenly no longer worried about his future.
(End of chapter)
