Chapter 1235: Meat Grinder

Although Qin Hao expelled the Yuanmeng army from Yinchuan County, he also paid a lot of price.

There were not many Yuanmeng iron cavalry who invaded Yinchuan, only one-tenth of the total number of Yuanmeng troops, that is, 100,000 cavalry, but the general who led the army was Murong Chui, so Yuanmeng had almost no flaws in the command of the cavalry.

Qin Hao had 150,000 troops and 50,000 militiamen, a total of 200,000 troops.

In terms of numbers, the Qin army was twice as large as that of Yuanmeng, but the cavalry was only 50,000, which was only half of the number of Yuanmeng cavalry, and its mobility was far inferior to that of other races.

If you want to completely drive the Yuanmeng Iron Cavalry out of Yinchuan County, you must go out of the city to fight with the Yuanmeng Iron Cavalry, but it is undoubtedly a thankless task to use infantry to confront foreign races on the plain.

Relying on Bai Qi, Jiang Song and many other famous generals, Qin Hao planned several counterattacks, and finally although Murong Chui drove out of Yinchuan, after statistics, he found that he also paid a lot of price.

The militia alone lost nearly 20,000 casualties, and the regular army also suffered thousands of casualties, but only nearly 10,000 Mongolian cavalry were killed.

In the history of the Qin army's conquests, it was rare for the casualties to be higher than those of the opponent, but this time it was inevitable no matter what.

The fighting quality of the militia is so poor that even if they have undergone military training, they can only be used to defend the city, and going out of the city is simply looking for death.

But even if the city was defended, the death and casualty rate of the militia was still very high, so that the overall casualty rate of the Qin army was lowered.

The combat power of the 150,000 army in Qin Hao's hands, coupled with the many fierce generals who are matched with him, can definitely defeat Murong Chui's 100,000 iron cavalry head-on.

Murong Chui was also aware of this, so he took the initiative to lead the army to withdraw from Yinchuan County while the encirclement of Baiqi had not yet been completely perfected, otherwise Yuanmeng would not have only suffered such a small number of casualties.

Murong Chui's cunning exceeded Qin Hao and Bai Qi's expectations, and although this encirclement and suppression failed to hit Yuanmeng hard, it finally recovered Yinchuan County, which narrowed the scope of Yuanmeng's activities in Hetao a lot.

After stabilizing Yinchuan County, Qin Hao could finally go back and pay attention to the form of the entire Hetao, but found that the Anti-Yuan War in Yinchuan County was just a microcosm.

Now the Hetao has become a pot of porridge, all cities and counties are fighting, the casualties on both sides of the Jin and Yuan sides are very large, but the militia is the most killed and wounded.

In the southern Yinchuan County, where Qin Hao was in charge of guarding, the militia casualties were small, only nearly 20,000 militiamen died, while Ningxia County in the central part had 40,000 militiamen, and the northernmost Yinshan County was also the most intense, and now there were 60,000 militiamen.

In less than two months since Yuanmeng broke through Zhenbei Pass, 120,000 of the 200,000 militiamen recruited by the Jin army have died.

The Jin army did not use the militia as cannon fodder, but only used it to defend the city, but it still paid such a large number of casualties, and the 120,000 militia probably only fought out the 30,000 troops of Yuanmeng, which shows the strength of the Yuanmeng iron cavalry, as well as the tragedy of the Jin-Yuan Hetao battle.

Under the whole army of Hetao, even if 120,000 militia have been lost, the Jin army can be quickly replenished, so there are still nearly 200,000 militia in Hetao today.

Now the formula of the Hetao is too complicated, so after Qin Hao came to the Hetao, he did not take the position of Wang Meng's main general, but chose to obey Wang Meng's orders, after all, Wang Meng is the one who knows the situation in the Hetao best, and Wang Meng has also come up with a strategy to repel Yuanmeng.

After Wang Meng, Xi Zhicai and Zhuge Liang discussed, they finally came up with a three-step strategy to defeat Yuanmeng, and the first step was to defend to the death first to consume Yuanmeng's troops and sharpness.

Wang Meng's first step has been carried out so far, and now the distribution of forces in the Hetao has become:

Qin Hao, Bai Qi, Xue Rengui, and Huo Qubing led 150,000 Qin-Ming coalition troops and 50,000 militiamen to guard the seven cities of Yinchuan.

Wang Meng, Zhuge Liang, Xi Zhicai, and Luo Yi led 120,000 elite Jin troops and 70,000 militiamen to guard the five cities of Ningxia.

Li Jing, Yang Liulang, and Yang Wulang led 10,000 Jin troops and 80,000 militiamen to guard a city in Yinshan, that is, Yinshan City.

Qin Liangyu, Meng Tian, Meng Wu, and She Saihua led an army of 100,000 to guard the junction of the three counties in the north and the Hetao to prevent the Yuan and Mongolian iron cavalry from entering the annexed state.

The two armies of Qin and Jin, together with the temporarily conscripted people, totaled 580,000 horses, and the troops were scattered in the Qianli Hetao in three routes, defending the only thirteen remaining cities in Yinchuan, Ningxia and Yinshan counties.

As for the other cities in the Hetao, they have naturally been captured by Yuanmeng, nine counties in Yinshan, five counties in Ningxia, and the only complete one is Yinchuan County, where Qin Hao is located.

In just two months, the Han army suffered 120,000 casualties among the militia, as well as 20,000 regular troops, a full 140,000 casualties, and Yuan Meng naturally did not feel good.

In the process of attacking the nine counties of Yinshan, the five counties of Ningxia and the three counties of Yinchuan, there are still very few examples of Yuan Meng taking the initiative to open the city and surrender, and most of the cities were captured by Yuan and Meng one by one.

Now Yuanmeng has lost no less than 60,000 troops, and the main force of 400,000 iron cavalry has dropped to 340,000, but the number of Han troops facing it has increased instead of decreasing.

Now the strength of the Han army has reached 580,000, which is enough to exceed the 240,000 troops of Yuan and Meng, although it can still be on the defensive, but this also makes it difficult for Yuan and Meng to attack in Hetao.

Until now, Wang Meng's strategy to resist Yuanmeng has been obvious to Chang, that is, to fight a people's war with Yuanmeng in Hetao, and use the people's ocean to completely crush the invading Yuanmeng alien race.

The damage that Temujin's 400,000 yuan Mengtie cavalry could cause was too great, and since the tragic sacrifice was already doomed to be unavoidable, the only way to minimize the losses was to try to minimize it, and the best way was undoubtedly to limit the battlefield to the Hetao.

No matter how big the scale of the Jin and Yuan battles eventually grew, the battlefield could only be fought on the land of thirty cities in the Qianli Hetao, so the damage to the state of this battle was minimized.

In order to prevent Yuanmeng from harming the state and even the world, both Qin Hao and Qin Wen made up their minds that even if the thirty cities of Hetao were defeated and destroyed, they would fight to the death with Temujin, and even if more than 1.4 million people were sacrificed, they would completely leave 400,000 yuan of Mengtieqi in Hetao.

Now that both Qin and Jin and Yuan and Meng have been killed, and the battle of Hetao has developed into a war of attrition, whoever can grit his teeth and hold on to the end will be the winner.

Of course, fighting for consumption is also a helpless move in the case of Wang Meng's second-step strategy failure, and now Wang Meng's second plan has not even been implemented, so no one knows what the final result will be.

However, at present, Yuanmeng is still at a loss, although there are more people dead on Qin Jin's side, but the final competition between the two sides is still the main force and the elite.

Now the main force of Yuan and Meng has dropped to 340,000, but after Qin and Jin removed the soldiers and civilians, there is a full 380,000 main army, of which there are more than 100,000 cavalry.

The balance of victory has gradually tilted towards Qin Jin's side.