The wool bundled under the buttocks exuded an unpleasant fishy smell in the late autumn. Many generals and soldiers of the Jin army felt a little uncomfortable, but A Shu enjoyed this feeling very much.
Even though he has been in the Jin army for so many years, even though he has gradually begun to consider himself a Han and now a Jin, he still instinctively enjoys the feeling of being in the grassland.
"It's a good start this time." Ah Shu looked at the herds of cattle, sheep and horses in the distance with satisfaction, but he still complained to the generals who followed him unwillingly: "But it's still too few, and the horses are also captured. Not many, just over a hundred. This time I just want to replace all the livestock and donkeys pulling our cart with horses. This can speed up the progress of our army. Not only can we sweep away all the tribes we detect, but we can also avoid them. The enemy will pursue us in the future. In other words, when we win the battle, we must be able to catch up, and when we lose the battle, we must be able to escape."
Ah Shu did not hide the conclusion that followed, which may have depressed the morale of the army.
On the grassland, speed is extremely important. As long as you are fast enough, you can win or lose with ease.
As a general born in the grasslands, fighting to the death is the concept that everyone has in mind, but running away if you can't defeat is definitely not a shameful thing. Given the cruelty of the grassland, if the concept of running away if you can't fight is not correctly viewed, there will not be many people left who can fight each other.
And this time they ran into this tribe. It was just the smallest tribe on the grassland, and its supplies were extremely limited, which was far from enough for their 20,000-strong army.
Although the Jin army had to deal with the logistics themselves during this expedition, it was certainly impossible to take without any food and grass when setting off. In addition to food and grass, they also had to carry enough equipment.
On the grassland, these things can't help them replenish their supplies. In particular, bows and arrows must be prepared in sufficient quantities. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, if Li Ling's soldiers and horses could each carry a few more bows and arrows, it would probably have ended differently.
These materials were all transported in large carts. A Shu's idea was to replace the donkeys and mules that used the carts with truly excellent war horses to maximize their marching speed.
As long as there are enough war horses and the soldiers have replacement horses, their movement speed will naturally increase. Even the extra war horses can be killed for food at critical moments, although this is extremely luxurious. But when push comes to shove, you have to do it no matter how extravagant it is.
"After all, the strength of our army is still inferior to Yuan Meng!" A general sighed.
The Jin army is not afraid of Yuan Meng, but the problem is the entire Jin army, and their army, including Dou Xian's Chinese army behind them, is only 20,000 people. Even if the people from Bingzhou and Hezhou are included, it is only six Thousands of people.
Sixty thousand cavalry are definitely a decisive force in the world. However, it is still impossible to compare with the entire Yuan Meng.
Even if half of Yuan Meng's troops are now deployed in the west, they can't defeat Yuan Meng with 60,000 troops. The generals of the Jin army are not so whimsical.
Their purpose of sending troops this time was not to defeat Yuan Meng, but to drag the opponent down.
"Where is our search team?" Ah Shu said while lifting a piece of roasted mutton.
The so-called search team is actually a scout, helping them discover the enemy's situation first.
If it is a small tribe on the grassland like before, especially a small tribe with only a few hundred people, then the vanguard army of A Shu can solve it by themselves.
But if he encounters those slightly larger tribes, Ah Shu can't guarantee that he can eat them all in one breath. He can also contact Dou Xian's main force of the Chinese army behind him as soon as possible and dispatch the whole army together.
As for the super-large tribes whose entire army cannot eat every last bit of the opponent, their numbers are also limited on the grasslands. Moreover, most of them are basically in the depths of the grassland and will not be close to the big man.
This time, after all, it is just a containment, not a full-scale war between the two sides. It is impossible for them to really penetrate into the deepest part of the country alone. Each general has a bottom line in his heart. After the army penetrates to a certain level, it will not continue to advance. . Therefore, basically you will not encounter those super large tribes in Yuanmeng.
In fact, after so many years of development, the floating water house has already achieved certain results in its penetration of Yuanmeng. Especially after the mutual trade between the two parties, the power of the floating water house took the opportunity to vigorously enter the grassland.
The Jin army also knows the location of some tribes on the grassland.
But on the grassland, people live in close proximity to water and grass, especially those small tribes. The position of the tribe is not fixed at all, but may move at any time. Therefore, the information about the floating house can only be used as a reference, and each army needs to send a large number of waiters to investigate.
"General Quchu just sent someone back to report that he has searched the surrounding fifty miles and found no other tribes from Yuanmeng!"
The grassland is still sparsely populated, so this situation was within Ashu's expectation.
Qu Chu, this is another famous general from the grassland system. He was one of the four adopted sons of Genghis Khan's mother, Hoelun, and one of Genghis Khan's generals. When Temujin was conquering the Merqi tribe, he picked up a little boy. According to Mongolian custom, he regarded him as a family member and gave him to his mother Hoelun as an adopted son.
However, in this life, he was intercepted by Li Xiang from the large summoning card and brought to the Jin army.
"We have to ask General Qu Chu to speed up. When our army left Liangzhou, after all, we only brought ten days of food and grass. We must find a way to get more food and grass. Otherwise, once our food is exhausted, we will collapse. ." A general said worriedly.
The general looked around at the soldiers who were happily killing cattle and sheep. On the surface, the future was bright, but as generals, they must have more to think about.
Moreover, to be honest, they should eat as little as possible of the food and grass they brought with them and save as much as possible. Once they are all eaten, it will be difficult to endure the next few days.
Although the soldiers are eating happily at this time, the soldiers are the lowest level of the people. They usually don't eat a few mouthfuls of meat a year. At this time, they encounter beef, mutton, and even horse meat from dead horses. Be open to eating.
But they are not grassland people after all. If they eat this for a while, they will definitely get tired of it. Leave some extra food and grass for them to carry, and then they can adjust it when they get tired of eating beef and mutton.
