Time flies, and time flies to the end of April.

Huaiyang County Shoushen Tujia has led 7,000 Huaiyang County soldiers, as well as temporarily recruited township brave young people, a total of 10,000 people, embarked on the journey to Xingyang to guard Aocang.

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The military order sent to the hands of Zhou Zao, the commander of the southern expedition to Vietnam, is also about to arrive in a few days.

As for the counterinsurgency army led by the great general Guan Ying, it also set out from Beique in Chang'an on 20 April and headed for the Suiyang line outside Hangu Pass.

In addition to the two captains of the Northern Army, a total of more than 4,000 people, the infant army absorbed at least 15,000 soldiers and about 50,000 people from Chang'an and nearby alone.

According to Guan Ying's own speculation, by the time the army arrives at Hangu Pass, the combat establishment alone may reach more than 50,000 people!

As a result, the strength of the central forces and the rebels can be roughly equal in terms of numbers - the total number of rebels in Qidi is 200,000, but in terms of actual combat strength, it is unlikely to exceed a quarter of the total.

The reason is very simple: even if the central army is fully guaranteed logistics, as long as the army is out of the pass, at least two civilian men need to be responsible for transporting the rations of each soldier.

In the case of local armies with poorer organizational skills, the ratio of civilians to soldiers in the army will only be higher.

In the history of Emperor Jing, when Liu Bi, the king of Wu, brazenly launched a rebellion, the envoys sent by Liu Bi to Baiyue, the Korean Peninsula, and even the Xiongnu were all based on '100,000' as a unit to describe Liu Bi's army.

- 500,000 kings of Wu, 300,000 Baiyue, 200,000 kings of Chu, 400,000 kings of Qilu, a total of 1.4 million troops gathered to attack Chang'an!

The number of soldiers is mixed with water, which can be regarded as the most common strategic deception method in the war of the feudal era.

In fact, during the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu, Liu Bi, the king of Wu, scraped his family foundation and sent out men over 14 and 62 years old in Wu to make up an army of 200,000 people (1) - these 200,000 included non-combat formations such as people's husbands, slaves, and cannon fodder!

Liu Wu, the king of Chu, also tried his best to make up 100,000 rabble.

As for the land of Baiyue, which had not yet been developed in the Han Dynasty, and even stayed in the land of Baiyue, where slash-and-burn cultivation and blood drinking, it was unlikely that it could afford to afford a standing combat establishment of the order of magnitude of '300,000' - the tropical rainforest, which could not support so many people at all.

In fact, the army and immigrants who were ordered by the First Emperor to conquer Baiyue and stationed in the land of Baiyue for a long time were actually only hundreds of thousands; Relying only on these hundreds of thousands of people, Zhao Tuo and Ren Huan have roughly suppressed the land of Baiyue.

From this point of view, it is unlikely that the number of people supported by the land of Baiyue will exceed one million even if it is added to hundreds of thousands of former Qin relics.

Less than a million people, 300,000 soldiers?

Not to mention the old, weak, sick and disabled, plus women, Baiyue can't afford such a huge army!

What's more, the origin of 'Baiyue' is the Liangguang region south of Changsha, which is the most intuitive pattern before the Western Yuan Dynasty: hundreds of tribes, each of which does not obey each other, and fights with each other endlessly.

Such a land with wet swamps and ponds, and unruly people's customs, can Liu Bi really suppress it?

Stop it~

Liu Bi is not an ancestral dragon.

The real situation is that the three most powerful families in the land of Baiyue, Nanyue, Minyue, and Dongou, together produced 1 to 20,000 soldiers and horses (2); The remaining small tribes sent some cannon fodder.

And the rebels who really overcame obstacles under the leadership of Liu Bi and successfully arrived in Suiyang, the capital of Liang, were all the 200,000 men who could fight (station) in Wu, 100,000 soldiers in Chu, and more than 10,000 soldiers in Baiyue.

It was this army of more than 300,000 that was dragged for more than two months in front of the guards of less than 100,000 people in the Liang State.

When Liu Bi, the king of Wu, realized that Suiyang was unbreakable, he decided to make a detour and attack Zhou Yafu's central army stationed in Changyi first, but he was defeated by Zhou Yafu.

Zhou Yafu defeated Wu Chu's 300,000 army, how many soldiers and horses did he use?

According to historical records, Zhou Yafu was ordered by Emperor Jing to lead the 36th Route General to the expedition; Then how many soldiers and horses can these thirty-six road generals have?

Added together, no more than 100,000!

In the Han military system, 2,000 people are a captain, and then two captains form a captain, which can be called an army; Of course, the 'supernumerary' northern and southern armies of Chang'an, as well as the Flying Fox Army, are not among them.

And the commander of an army, that is, the commander who leads the 4,000 men under his command, is a 'general' in the popular sense.

Just like Chai Wu, the general of the cavalry at this time, his official position is 'Flying Fox Captain', but in private, some people use 'Flying Fox General' to refer to him.

In other words, the 36th Route General led by Zhou Yafu theoretically each had an establishment of 4,000 people, a total of more than 140,000 people.

But Wu Chu's 300,000 army has blown the bull to 1.2 million, can the central government not mix water on the number of combatants?

It's impossible.

——Regardless of the army of Dou Ying who guarded Xingyang, as well as the army that attacked Zhao Di and rescued Qi Di, Zhou Yafu's army that went to Suiyang to assist King Liang threatened an army of nearly 500,000!

But in fact, instead of 500,000 of Zhou Yafu's army, there were not even 140,000 people in the 36 commanders' headquarters - in the Wu Chu Rebellion, the lieutenant who led 2,000 people was already qualified to be called 'General Yu'.

This rebellion was no exception, whether it was Liu Zhang, the leader of the rebel army, or the central part of Chang'an, they also moderately mixed water in the combat establishment - the Qidi rebels claimed to have an army of 500,000, but in fact it was only 200,000, and the combat establishment did not exceed 50,000.

The Central Army is even more exaggerated: when the message of '400,000 troops' was transmitted to the outside world, the army under his command, even if the 50,000 people were counted, was less than 70,000!

Even if they absorb young and strong village warriors, rangers from all over the world, and heroes from all directions, the size of the army is unlikely to exceed 100,000 people.

In the final battle, the defense of Suiyang was likely to be based on the 20,000 Central Army with the Northern Army as the framework, Chang'an Qingzhuang as soldiers, and more than 30,000 rabble recruited along the way, against the so-called 'army' of nearly 50,000 rebels.

As for whether this war can be won, both the military and the Chang'an court have full confidence.

——Half a year ago, Liu Zhang's eldest brother, Liu Xiang, the king of Qi, personally went to Guanzhong, but he couldn't bargain in front of the '80,000 army' under the command of Guan Ying!

At that time, whether it was Liu Zhang, Marquis of Zhu Xu, or Liu Xingju, Marquis of Dongmu, they were all under Liu Xiang!

Now, Liu Xiang has died, Liu Xingju has died socially, Liu Zhang is alone, plus the ten concubines of King Mourning Hui who are not even qualified to inherit the property, and a little King Qi who is not yet an adult, what big things can be done?

It was in such an optimistic atmosphere that there was a person who was pessimistic about the rebellion of the princes.

- Emperor Liu Hong!

The Xiongnu mission had once again received a diplomatic order from Shan Yuting, formally agreeing to Liu Han's proposal for 'harmony'.

To be precise, it was Liu Hong's request to voluntarily take a girl for the sake of decent compensation.

About ten days later, the eldest daughter of the acting king, Princess Guantao of Liu Hongxin's enthronement, will officially set off from Baqiao, north of Chang'an, and go to the grassland with the Xiongnu mission.

In addition to marrying the princess, as a dowry, the Han family also had to pay tens of thousands of stone grain, 2,000 stone tea, and 500 stone salt, which were sent to the grassland with Liu Yan, the princess of Guantao.

Liu's marriage to the Xiongnu drew an imperfect end to the Han-Hungarian diplomacy - the Han family retained a trace of decency, but in addition to this ridiculous face, the Han family can be said to have lost everything.

Whether it is from the perspective of national dignity, diplomatic strategy, or short-term interests and long-term development, the Han family has lost a lot in this diplomacy.

If there is any gain, it is that the Huns, out of the last trace of 'diplomatic courtesy', will not attack the border walls of the Han Dynasty on a large scale in the next one to two years.

It was this negligible diplomatic benefit that made Liu Hong make a decision that was almost humiliating to lose his power and humiliate the country.

Because of the stability of the Han-Hungarian border, it was of unparalleled importance to the Han family facing the rebellion of the princes.

Putting aside the drawbacks of two-front warfare, today, even if the Han dynasty unites the strength of the whole country, it cannot achieve much strategic advantage from the Huns.

Under these circumstances, internal problems, especially the serious problems of the rebellion of the princes and kings, made it even worse for the Han dynasty, which did not have an advantage in the strategy against Hungary.

It's like two brothers together, they can't beat the big guy next door, but one day, the two brothers fight first!

What makes Liu Hong, the eldest brother, even more uncomfortable, is that the second brother who challenged himself will never have the consciousness of 'brother is against the wall and insulted by the outside'!

In desperation, Liu Hong could only show weakness and strive for the possibility of the big guy next door changing places to play for a while, get better, and clean up his ignorant younger brother.

The Huns' approval of Heqin's proposal means that at least this year, the Huns will not meddle in the internal affairs of the Han family - Liu Hong did not completely show weakness, and also pointed out Mao Dun's physical condition in a timely manner.

As long as the Huns were not hopelessly stupid, it was unlikely that they would launch a large-scale invasion in the last two years.

This means that the northern border wall has won a precious peace for the time being, even if relatively.

Externally, there was a brief period of stability, and internally, the absolute strength of the central government was far above that of the rebels, so logically speaking, the suppression of the rebellion was not too much of a problem.

But the problem that made Liu Hong feel worried, so that he did not dare to maintain absolute certainty about this rebellion, appeared precisely in the central government-Chen Ping and Zhou Bo's party!

Even if you don't consider the high similarity between this rebellion and the turmoil half a year ago, just from the banner raised by the rebels: Emperor Hui, it is not difficult for Liu Hong to guess that Liu Xiang launched a rebellion this time, and Chen Ping and Zhou Bo will definitely not be able to escape from it!

- Shang Fei Emperor Huizi, but Zhou Bo initiated it!

Today, Liu Hong also has quite clear evidence to prove that Liu Zhang's rebellion was instructed by Chen Ping and Zhou Bo.

As early as April 10, Liu Hong's order was sent to Huaiyang County in an expedited route of 800 miles, ordering Shen Tujia to lead his army into Xingyang.

After waiting for more than ten days, the 800-mile letter was urgently delivered to Huaiyang County.

Normally, there is not much doubt about this matter - especially for an emperor who was born in the deep palace and has not even gone out to Chang'an in his lifetime.

But the premise of all this is 'if Liu Hong is not a traverser'.

As a later generation, even if Liu Hong does not have an accurate cognition, he can roughly guess that the straight-line distance between Chang'an and Huaiyang County will not exceed 800 miles, even if it is the actual distance, it is only more than 1,000 miles.

And the distance between Linzi and Chang'an, the capital of Qi, is nearly three thousand miles!

From the first day of the fourth month, the sons of King Mourning Hui officially launched a rebellion, and the news spread from Linzi to Chang'an, but it only took eight days!

Taking this as a reference, the military order sent from Chang'an to Huaiyang should have been delivered to Huaiyang within three days.

Before April 20, Shen Tujia should have arrived in Xingyang, Huaiyang County to Xingyang, a journey of only 300 miles; No matter how spicy the soldiers of Huaiyang County were, no matter how slow Shen Tujia was, they should arrive in Xingyang within ten days after receiving the order.

However, the military order, which was supposed to arrive in Huaiyang in three days, around April 11, ended up taking more than ten days; It wasn't until today, April 29, that Liu Hong received the news sent by Shen Tujia eight days ago: the army has begun.

Thousands of miles back and forth, a total of only two thousand miles away, or in the road facilities are extremely perfect, the post station network can be called the world's most Guanzhong, or 800 miles of expedited substitution of people and horses, regardless of any cost of transmission methods, actually took half a month?

If there is no problem here, then Chen Ping can go up the tree!

- You must know that the infant irrigation army that only set off from Chang'an on April 20 is now almost at Hangu Pass!

The reason why Liu Hong sent Shen Tujia to guard Xingyang as soon as the rebellion broke out, in addition to trusting Shen Tujia's integrity in history and the basically unstained political component, the most important factor was that Huaiyang was close enough to Xingyang - three hundred miles.

In Liu Hong's expectation, Shen Tujia, a person who relied on martial arts from among the founding heroes and climbed from a small soldier to the prime minister step by step in history, should be able to arrive in Xingyang before the departure of the infant army.

Only in this way can Liu Hong achieve his goal: not to let Guan Ying interfere in Xingyang, that is, Ao Cang's affairs.

It's good now, when Shen Tujia leads the army to Xingyang, he will inevitably encounter the infant army that defends Xingyang for Shen Tujia.

Now that Zhou Bo has been deposed and the Taiwei is vacant, whether Ao Cang can return to the control of the court (Liu Hong) depends on how tough Shen Tujia can be when facing the first person in the military: the general.

Out of this consideration, Liu Hong has also sent a message to Shen Tujia through the channel of the Imperial Historian's Wind Collecting Group: When the war starts, every soldier of the Huaiyang Army must be in Xingyang City!

Liu Hong believes that Shen Tujia can understand the deep meaning of Liu Hong's words: If Ao Cang is snatched away by the baby, then don't come back! I don't even want to see you for the first time!

In order to make Shen Tujia be a little tougher in front of the baby, Liu Hong even...

Hmmm...

I gave Shen Tujia an imperial sword, cough cough...

The rest depends on whether Shen Tujia can take out the momentum of 'holding Shang Fang's sword' and hold Ao Cang.

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PS: There is a record in the historical records that when Liu Bi, the king of Wu, launched the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu, he instigated the people of Wu: The widow's son is fourteen years old this year and will charge into battle as a soldier; The widow himself is sixty-two years old this year, and he will personally serve as the commander of the expedition, so in the territory of Wu State, men over the age of fourteen and under the age of sixty-two must all go to war with the widow.

As for the research on the number of rebels in the Wu-Chu Rebellion, I did not find a very reliable statement, but only found a few points: before the Wu-Chu Rebellion, there were about 200,000 registered households in Wu, about one million people, excluding women, the old, the young, the sick and the disabled, and the aristocratic class, and there would be no more than 300,000 people who could participate in the battle.

Regarding this data, some scholars have made a rough inference: in the Wu and Chu Rebellion, the Wu army was about 200,000 people, the Chu army was less than 100,000, and the land of Baiyue, mainly the three giants, together sent about 10,000 people.

As for how many people were sent to Baiyue to participate in the Wuchu Rebellion, Zuo Zheng actually found another reference: in the period of Emperor Wen in history, Dongou Dongou, the weakest of the three giants of Baiyue, was embarrassed by the attack of Minyue, so he sent a request for help to Chang'an, and the central government of the Han Dynasty finally ordered Changsha to send troops to rescue.

Then Changsha sent 5,000 vassal soldiers to help Baiyue's third Dongou defeat the second Minyue...

From this point of view, it is unlikely that the total number of troops in Minyue will exceed 10,000; Even if you count the 'soldiers' with wooden sticks and even stone and bone tools, it will not exceed 30,000, and Dongou is likely to have no more than 5,000 soldiers.

As for the boss of Baiyue, the South Vietnam controlled by the old turtle Zhao Tuo is actually not too strong - in the historical Wen Dynasty, Zhao Tuo repeatedly jumped between the emperor and the ministers, and finally even attacked the Han Dynasty Changsha State, Huainan Li King Liu Chang, the muscular man, took his own army, that is, Zhao Tuo's South Vietnamese army was beaten fat, and before leaving, he also killed the fourth Baiyue brother.

From this point of view, Baiyue, mainly the number of troops sent by the three giants to support Liu Bi, is unlikely to exceed 10,000 - there are still people to guard their homes, and the Three Kingdoms must stand, and they also want to look at the Central Plains, how can they send all the troops to help Liu Bi!

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