Qin Official

At the foot of Helan Mountain, the green plains on both sides of the river are lush with grass, which makes Fusu, the young master who has been beaten by the wind and sand, feel relaxed and happy.

After Fusu nodded in agreement, Tang Duo, a poet who knew a lot about farming, got off his horse and tried the soil. He was pleasantly surprised to find that, unlike the yellow sand and hard soil that he had traveled hundreds of miles along the way, the soil here was made from years of siltation by the river. , the vegetation is withered and dead, and the black soil is moistened by cattle and sheep excrement.

Tang Duo said: "If we follow the standards in "Yu Gong", we can at least reach the middle of the field. If we use this big river to open ditches, we can even reach the upper middle!"

Each school of thought has its own ancient saints that it admires, and the one the Mohists admire the most is Dayu. Therefore, although most of the Mohists were small craftsmen, they did not discriminate against farmers. After entering the Qin Dynasty, they gradually merged with the farmers who took refuge in Lu Buwei, but they also absorbed a lot of their knowledge.

Fusu nodded and smiled again: "Didn't Mr. Chunyu firmly say that everything outside the Great Wall is a useless wasteland? We should really take him to see it."

Chunyu Yue could not answer this question, because although Fusu had to come here to join the army, he could not bring too many people, so he left Chunyu Yue in Huamachi.

In the world view of the Central Plains people, they do feel that everything outside the Central Plains is the Four Wildernesses. Starting from the Four Wildernesses, the further out, the worse the environment becomes until the Four Pole is reached. In such a desolate place, only barbarians and Rongdi can survive, and civilized Central Plains people do not need to set foot there.

Fusu had thought so before, and this was one of the reasons why he opposed his father's use of troops against the Four Wildernesses. However, the scene in front of him greatly increased his knowledge.

But this does not change Fusu's belief that the cost of this war far outweighs the gain.

"Yes, there is indeed a large area of ​​good land at the foot of the Helan Mountains, but at the expense of conscripting the people, delaying the farming season, and desolating the interior, and traveling thousands of miles to open up frontiers in order to seek prosperity, isn't this the opposite? If the people are allowed to rest at home The new land cleared for cultivation and grass cultivation may far exceed the value of this land.”

Qin had more than enough territory but not enough for the people. Killing what was not enough and fighting for all the surplus could not be called wisdom.

But Fusu could only keep this sentence in his heart and could not say it. The last thing the supervisor could do was to break the morale of the army.

With a gentle smile, he headed straight to the riverside military camp under the guidance of Fu Zhi, where the Beidi and Longxi armies had met and were currently stationed together. Li Xin also brought only soldiers. The two armies combined totaled about 30,000 people, and the camp was already quite large.

The northern soldiers who knew about Fusu pointed to the military supervisor's banner on the military vehicle from a distance, and proudly told the Longxi soldiers that this was the eldest son coming to the front line. The military supervisor in Longxi was Meng Yi, who was still behind to oversee the army. Although Liang's status is not low, compared to the eldest son, his status is more than a little inferior.

According to Fusu's prior understanding, the total number of Xiongnu men in Helan Mountain was only over 10,000, and they could not pose a threat to this large army at all. But starting from twenty miles away, he discovered that sentry scouts were patrolling back and forth with extreme vigilance. The camp was also firmly established. Sharp antlers were distributed on important roads, which were sharp weapons to guard against cavalry raids.

After entering the large tent where Generals Li Xin and Heifu were discussing military affairs without hindrance, Fusu felt that the atmosphere here was solemn. All the generals had solemn expressions, and his staff pointed at the map and argued.

"May I ask the two generals, what happened?"

After Heifu nodded to Li Xin, he took a deep breath and informed Fusu of the bad news.

"Sir, there are no traces of the Huns in the Helan Grassland. General Li and I sent scouts to search in all directions. Just now, Hou Qi, who was patrolling in the north, brought back two messengers with several arrows in their bodies. It was me four days ago. The Liangjiazi knights sent to warn General Feng Jie. They told me that two hundred miles away, at Baiyang Mountain, more than 10,000 Shangjun soldiers were besieged by 50,000 to 60,000 Xiongnu horsemen!"

…

"Fifty or sixty thousand riders?"

Xiaoshi Fusu didn't know much about military affairs, so he was startled by this number and broke into a cold sweat, and couldn't help but blurt out:

"Could it be that the scouts misunderstood? How could the Xiongnu have fifty or sixty thousand people? Didn't General Wei tell his father before that the entire Xiongnu, excluding the four tribes in Henan Province, only has 780,000 or 80,000 horses, and Helan alone?" The Xiongnu, including half-grown children who can shoot bows, have at most ten thousand horses. The main force of the Xiongnu should not be fighting the Qiang and Mongolian generals in Beijia. How come so many people and horses are gathered in Henan now?"

If this is the case, will their Chan Yu Wang Ting and Tou Man City be abandoned?

Heifu shook his head: "Subsequently, another person came back, and his account was no different from the other two. I believe that the soldiers under my command are all well-trained warrior knights, and there will be no mistakes!"

What he was most worried about now, apart from the annihilation of his friendly forces by the Huns, was the dozens of good men who stayed behind to lure away the Huns' scouts in order for Hou Qi to come back successfully to report the news.

Gan Chong, a young man whose background was not as good as Qianghua's, and whose courage was not as good as Fu Zhi's. Hei Fu also did not pay much attention and expectations to him, but he used his fearlessness and fearlessness to send back important information. Hei Fu really hopes, He could miraculously survive being pursued by hundreds of Huns and not die.

At this time, Li Xin said: "All the scouts in Longxi said that the Helan grassland is empty."

He raised his head and looked at Heifu and Fusu: "Since the Huns can give up Helan, why can't they give up Wangting? Give up Beijia, and even Hetao!"

Heifu showed a wry smile: "Yes, the Huns and the Central Plains people have different concepts of land. Temporarily giving up large areas of territory is unreasonable to the Central Plains countries, but to the Huns, it is nothing. "

The Qin Dynasty had never fought against grassland kingdoms such as the Xiongnu in the past. Although it increased the proportion of cavalry, its combat thinking was still the same as when fighting the Six Kingdoms in the past, which was to use force to suppress.

Due to the pressure of peace and logistics, the Qin army could not gather everyone in one place on a two-thousand-mile battle line. Otherwise, its own supplies would collapse first without fighting, so it could only adopt the method of "separate attack and combined attack".

It seems that the Qin army has a total of 300,000 troops, although half of them are civilians. However, after losing Lin Hu and Yan Yan, and being defeated by Hei Fu, their strength was greatly reduced, and they were outnumbered. Hard to win.

But what is the multitude and what is the minority?

It is by no means a simple addition of the total force, but depends on the strength invested by both sides within a limited time and place. This is also what Sun Tzu strives for in the Art of War: "I am dedicated and the enemy is divided." In the words of later generations, it is about "concentrating superior forces." , annihilate the enemy one by one."

As the weaker side, the Xiongnu foolishly fought a decisive battle with the main force of the Qin army, and their chances of winning were not high. They could only use the terrain, conduct mobile operations, get into the gaps between the various departments of the Qin army, concentrate their forces, and annihilate one of them first.

At this point, the war strategy that the Huns had been planning for half a year was ready to come out.

"First use the half-year truce between the Qin army to collect grain and slowly evacuate people and animals. Anyway, the grassland is vast and grazing can be done everywhere in the summer. This will allow our army to go deep outside the fortress, lengthen the supply line, and fully realize our own goals. Exposed!"

"The Huns are concentrating their forces. No matter how many ways you come, I will only go all the way." Heifu said: "Touman Shanyu must be thinking like this!"

"That's right, the one who knows how to use the weak will win."

Li Xin nodded: "This time, the Huns have the upper hand to win!"

This is war, and plans can never keep up with changes.

Fusu tightened his grip on the sword at his waist. Even if he won the victory and captured Beijia and Henan, he still didn't feel that the Qin Dynasty gained more than it lost, let alone destroyed all the way first? That's 20,000 soldiers! If he died outside the fortress, even though Fusu would not be responsible for the Shangjun soldiers, he would still feel that he had done something wrong.

At this time, Heifu stared at the map and suddenly laughed.

Everyone in the tent was at a loss what to do. When Fusu saw Hei Fu's sudden joy, he said, "Does General Wei have some countermeasures?"

Hei Fu nodded and said: "The reason for his joy is that General Feng Jie found a great opportunity for Qin to annihilate the main force of the Huns!"

Everyone looked at each other, but only the veteran general Li Xin reacted: "Yes, although Touman Chanyu is cunning, I'm afraid he made a mistake."

He pointed at the location of Aries Mountain on the map and said, "What he picked is not an easy persimmon!"

Heifu expressed his approval: "That's right. Each of the four frontier armies of our Great Qin Dynasty are strong soldiers who have experienced the test of conquering the Six Kingdoms. They are all tough bones to crack!"

"But I heard a saying."

After Fusu entered the army, he still read some military books, although he was only at the preliminary understanding stage.

He said: "The ancients said that a chariot is worth six riders, and six cavalry are worth one pawn. The rider on the chariot is also the military soldier of the army. Ten cavalry can defeat a thousand people, and a hundred cavalry can defeat ten thousand people. Ten cavalry can defeat a hundred people, and a hundred cavalry can defeat them. Thousands of people, this is a large number."

"Right now, General Feng is located in a vast and flat grassland. He can't defeat one cavalry with one step. How much more can he defeat 60,000 barbarian cavalry with more than 10,000 people?"

Li Xin, who was the best at using cavalry in the Qin Dynasty, shook his head: "Sir, there is a saying in the art of war that if the chariot and cavalry are defeated in battle, then one cavalry cannot serve as an infantry."

Chariots and cavalry were not used properly, and one cavalryman was not worth one infantryman in battle. The cavalry is the eyes of the army. It can be used for reconnaissance and warning, tracking and chasing fleeing enemies, cutting off enemy food routes and attacking scattered enemies. Even though the Huns were good at riding and shooting, the use of cavalry was limited to that without high-saddled stirrups. .

They are certainly very strong in mobile warfare on the grasslands, but besieging solid vehicle fortresses with infantry and attacking the front line with powerful bows and crossbows are not their strengths.

Heifu added: "Especially the Shangjun soldiers. Last time they lent a thousand crossbowmen to the Northland to guard the grain team, they shot thousands of Huns cavalry and retreated in panic. Now they are in a favorable terrain. If they rely on Baiyang Mountain to The four warriors rush into the formation to meet the enemy, and the Huns will never be able to break through the formation in a short period of time!"

Heifu raised his hand and included the entire Henan region on the map with his palm: "The Huns thought that they had surrounded the Shangjun soldiers and could retreat after annihilating them. Little did they know that outside them, three Qin armies gathered, and the Qiang , the Second Mongolian General must also have discovered that the main force of the Huns is not in Beijia, but in Henan, and has sent troops to support them."

"Now, as long as the Shangjun soldiers hold their ground and hold back the Huns, our Beidi and Longxi armies will rush to help and cut off the Huns' retreat north to Hetao, making them unable to attack or retreat, trapped in the desert and the river. In the meantime, wait for the reinforcements from the Qiang and Mongolian generals to arrive..."

Heifu knocked on Feng Lingfu's position in Baiyang Mountain and said optimistically:

"Then we can coordinate the inside and the outside, and give the Huns a center to bloom!"