If you had to use one word to describe He Chuan's mood today, it would be numbness.
He had just personally supervised the capture of Xiwei Bridge, and the Jinchang army retreated to Chang'an City in embarrassment, leaving behind hundreds of corpses.
After replenishing food and grass and catching some young men, we will go to Chang'an to have a good time.
As a result, the food and grass have not been collected yet, and we may be surrounded by counterattacks.
He began to receive reports three days ago that a small group of soldiers who went out to collect food were missing. He originally thought that they had run too far and were ambushed by rural unity soldiers.
But today, even a food collection team of eighty to one hundred people cannot guarantee safety.
It was definitely not the work of the United Soldiers. Even if half of the dozens of people had armor, it would not be something that the United Soldiers could deal with.
After confirming that the Huazhou Town National Army was not dispatched, the identities of the troops that attacked them became clear.
It must be the Hexi Rebel Army who came from outside San Pass. Only they could successfully rob and kill the teams sent by He Chuan to collect food.
Because they have a large number of war horses and elite knights, they can use their strong mobility to ensure the efficiency and success rate of interception.
Horses were originally raised in Guanzhong, and there were horse breeding areas in Guanzhong during the Qin, Han, Tang and Three Dynasties. However, since the fall of the Tang Dynasty, Guanzhong has been unable to raise horses.
Because for farmers in Guanzhong prefectures, raising horses is actually a very costly matter.
In places like Liangzhou, all you need to raise horses is a valley with lush water and grass. A few herdsmen can raise dozens or hundreds of horses.
But this is not possible in Guanzhong. Guanzhong has been developed for thousands of years, and all places with abundant water and grass have been reclaimed into farmland.
If you want to raise horses, you have to let the horses compete with people for food rations, which will be very costly.
It was possible to raise horses in the Qin, Han, Tang and Three Dynasties because of the support of the state apparatus. The reduced income and food shortages brought by raising horses were paid for by the state.
In the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, you will sing and I will appear on the stage, and the one with strong soldiers and horses will be the emperor.
Regardless of whether it is the emperor, kings or commanders of various places, the most important thing is to prevent the people below from rebelling.
Who cares about raising horses in Guanzhong? This kind of investment is huge and requires long-term maintenance to see benefits.
Therefore, even though places such as Weizhou and Wuzhou, where the Changyi Army was envoyed, had the habit of raising horses, the proportion of cavalry among the rebels in Hechuan was not high, let alone the Huazhou Zhenguo Army.
Therefore, the only ones who can have so many war horses and cavalry are the Hexi Guiyi Army who have the land and customs to raise horses.
The Guanzhong army, such as He Chuan's rebel army, has more than 12,000 people and only has four to five thousand mules and horses. There are less than two thousand people who can be used as cavalry.
Faced with his food collection team being attacked from all sides, He Chuan also sent his own cavalry to fight back. However, little success was achieved.
Those Guiyi troops from Hexi came and went like the wind, and they had rich combat experience. They were as cunning as foxes. As long as they saw He Chuan's cavalry dispatching, they would retreat early. Not entangled with the large army at all.
Wu Defense Commander on the side frowned, "Since the Hexi Guiyi Army has appeared near the West Wei Bridge, even if Qianzhou has not been captured, I am afraid it is still under siege.
Now we have been cut off from our escape! We are collecting grain from all around, but if we can't collect it, we may have to send out a large army to protect it from the granary in Xingping County. It is better to give up the attack on Chang'an and retreat to Xingping County for repairs first. "
He Chuan closed his eyes and started thinking. He clenched his fists loudly and thought about it, but there was no good solution.
But now it is impossible for him to lead the army to retreat.
hehe! After laying down the Xiwei Bridge but announcing that they would not enter Chang'an, the soldiers below who had been waiting to enter Chang'an and plunder would inevitably cause trouble.
If he really wanted to make the whole army roar and lose his temper, it would be possible to kill He Chuan.
And if they continue to attack Chang'an, their back route has been seriously threatened. Xingping County, where grain and grass are stored, is still dozens of miles away from Xiwei Bridge. If it is captured, it will be troublesome.
"General Zhang Zhen, the only plan now is to mobilize all the cavalry from each department. I will give you 1,300 cavalry.
General Zhou Shi, I will give you another five hundred elite soldiers. You can transport two thousand stones of grain and grass from the northeast warehouse of Xingping County to Xiwei Bridge. "
Zhang Xiaoguo and Zhou Huer, Zhou Shijiang, frowned at the same time, but soon, Zhang Xiaoguo's brows relaxed, and only Zhou Shijiang still had an unhappy look on his face.
He Chuan was asking him to transport these two thousand stone loads of grain. He was obviously asking him to be used as bait.
Seeing General Zhou's displeasure, He Chuan squeezed out a smile and explained: "I think the cavalry of the Hexi Returning Army are so bold that they even look down on us. If there are two thousand stones of food and grass escorted, they will definitely not let them go.
To capture the 500 elite soldiers escorting them, they would have to mobilize more than a thousand cavalry. I think this is the total number of cavalry they have near Xiwei Bridge.
If General Zhou Shi can first use the chariot formation to dampen his spirit and contain him, he will wait until General Zhang Zhen arrives with his troops. Even if you can't annihilate them all, you can still tear off a large piece of their flesh so that they don't dare to harass them anymore. "
. . . .
In fact, Qianzhou was not captured. Although He Chuan only left six to seven hundred soldiers to guard Qianzhou, the city of Qianzhou was not big and the city wall was quite high. Six to seven hundred men were enough to defend it.
Therefore, after Zhang Zhao tried once or twice, he did not continue the attack. His main target was still the more than 10,000 rebels under He Chuan's command.
If the Hechuan rebel army is defeated or even annihilated, these hundreds of people in Qianzhou will be nothing more than fish on a eucalyptus board.
So Zhang Zhao left several hundred soldiers from Zhu Jing's tribe to guard the rebels in Qianzhou City, and then ordered Murong Nobunaga and Bai Congxin to be the vanguard to attack the rebel grain collection team around Xiwei Bridge in advance. He himself also personally Lead the army to the West Wei Bridge.
And He Chuan's so-called plan to lure the enemy was actually what Zhang Zhao had expected.
Because Zhang Zhao brought He Chuan to think about it, if he encountered He Chuan's situation, the only way he could think of was to throw out a bait to attract the enemy's cavalry to attack with all their strength, and then eat the cavalry.
Now that he knew this situation, it was impossible for Zhang Zhao not to leave a backup plan, so the cavalry that surrounded the Xiwei Bridge and attacked the Hechuan grain transportation team were not the only ones led by Murong Nobunaga, Li Cunhui, and Hu Guang. about.
In fact, when Murong Nobunaga and others were attacking everywhere, Bai Congxin led another 1,500 cavalry, plus more than 1,000 people from Gyeongju party Li Yanli's troops as backup, and they had been stationed for a long time.
Bai Congxin looked at the high sun and wiped the sweat from his head. It was already a bit hot in the Guanzhong Plain at the end of June.
In fact, this month is not a good time for combat. The weather is sultry and hot, and soldiers' physical strength will be exhausted quickly after wearing armor.
And now is a critical period for food growth. Going to war at this time will greatly affect the food harvest.
But the rebels didn't care about this. Bai Congxin sighed. Even if this year's rebellion is successfully pacified, the harvests in Guanzhong counties will be over. I wonder how many people will starve to death this year?
Just as the commander of the horse army, who was a horse thief and already had some compassion for the farmers, was sighing, Murong Nobunaga rode his horse and ran over from a distance.
"Commander Bai, we have found the main force of the rebel cavalry, but they are very careful and have been walking up the Wei River. Tan Ma and You Yijun have released a lot of them. It is estimated that it will not be easy to surprise them."
Bai Congxin smiled faintly, "If we can't attack them by surprise, then we will keep an eye on them. In addition, we should quickly send people to report to Sikong, saying that we have identified the rebels' food storage point, which is in Xinping County."
For Bai Congxin, it would be best if he could hit the rebel cavalry troops unexpectedly.
But if the enemy is already prepared, it is also a good harvest to find the accurate rebel food storage point.
. . . .
Zhang Xiaoguo didn't know about his caution and saved his own life and that of more than a thousand cavalrymen.
As a top-notch general among the rebels, Zhang Xiaoguo is still quite capable. Even He Chuan has to rely on him in many aspects.
So after a large number of Tan Ma and You Yijun dispersed, Zhang Xiaoguo clearly noticed something was wrong.
If there were only more than a thousand cavalry coming from the opposite side, then his Tan Ma and You Yi Army would not have been beaten so badly.
In cavalry battles, one side compresses the other side's search space, which is the most common and most effective method.
When two cavalry are about to get close, they will inevitably break out into numerous and fierce dog fights in order to make the other party 'blind'.
The coach can often estimate the number of enemies from such small-scale dog fights.
Sure enough, when Sun Xiaoguo felt that the battle was getting more and more intense and he could no longer handle it, Tan Ma finally sent shocking news.
About three thousand cavalrymen came from the north and west. General Zhou Shi, who was not happy to be used as bait, simply gave up two thousand stones of food and ran back to Xingping County after receiving Sun Xiaoguo's notification. middle.
This was the right choice. Sun Xiaoguo also began to lead the cavalry back to Xiwei Bridge before the siege of the Guiyi Army cavalry was completed.
On the north bank of the Wei River, the two sides launched an even more intense fight between small units, and even a chase battle involving hundreds of people.
At this time, the army led by Zhang Zhao was less than 60 miles away from the Xiwei Bridge. After solving the problem of whether to fight the rebels alone, the Guiyi Army's action speed was astonishing.
And Zhang Zhao doesn't know yet that his decision this time will preserve the last bit of vitality for the entire Guanzhong.
Because before it was looted by this rebellion. At this time, Guanzhong actually had a population of more than two million.
Xingping, Wannian and other counties near the Chang'an River alone have a population of more than 200,000. It can be said that Chang'an is not completely ruined.
Historically, this rebellion was not very big, but it also caused the entire Chang'an and surrounding counties to lose a population of 60,000 to 70,000 people. Counting Ping, Qian and other states, at least more than 100,000 people were lost.
The rebellion was not very big, but it had a very serious consequence, which was to scare away many farmers in Guanzhong.
After the population of Guanzhong dropped sharply, the Central Plains Dynasty was no longer able to defend this place.
At this time, Hou Shu, who was gradually becoming prosperous and powerful, saw the weakness of the Central Plains dynasty in Guanzhong and stepped up its attack on the Guanzhong area.
This in turn led to more than 30 major and minor wars in Guanzhong in the next ten years.
Ten years later, during the rebellion of the daring Zhao Siwan and Hou Shu's war to capture Chengfeng, Qin and other states, the entire population of Guanzhong would be reduced by more than half. Chang'an, which had a population of more than 100,000, would not survive.
Since then, the Guanzhong Plain, which was the foundation for the prosperity of the Qin, Han, Tang and Three Dynasties, and the heartland of Chinese culture, has never risen again.
Zhang Zhao did not choose to join An Shenqi and others before attacking the rebels, but he still managed to retain a relatively basic Guanzhong.
