Sun Zhongshan's words came very suddenly, but they were not unexpected by everyone. Sun Huan, Wen Mu and Shao Chuan fell silent in unison. The two letters between Zhang Shao and Huo Shiqi only raised a question that everyone was aware of but no one was willing to admit. Only Qi Wei clenched his fists and still muttered the words "why withdraw".

“…… Previously, our army was far inferior to the Turquoise people in front of us, and it was not inappropriate to build fortifications and camp for confrontation. But now it is different, the thirteen cavalry battalions I brought also have 4,300 people, and the combined strength of our army in Mogan is also 14,000, which is only 3,000 less than the thieves, so why should we avoid the enemy and fear the war? "The most proud achievement of this old general in his life is that he has broken 6,000 horses in 100 horses, so he doesn't pay attention to the disparity in strength between the enemy and us, and he just talks about it by the fire with his fists clenched." What's more, the cavalry of the thieves seems to be powerful, but in fact, there are only 3,000 elite and capable big tent soldiers, as long as this team is defeated, the rest of the people can be taken down with one drum! The more he spoke, the more excited he became, he took a step forward, made a military salute to Sun Zhongshan with his crossed arms in his chest, his waist was straight, his head with white hair was raised, his eyes were burning and he looked at Sun Zhongshan's back in front of the map, and said loudly: "Please give the general an order!" One by one, he is willing to lead the 4,000 cavalry of the left army as the general to get rid of this stubborn enemy and sweep away the thieves in front of him! ”

These words were impassioned and resounding. However, his words fell for a long time, and no one in the room stood up to say a word. Sun Zhongshan still stood still in front of the map, and the three people sitting around the fire pond were like three stone statues, as if they had not heard Qi Wei's request for battle, neither one stood up to echo Qi Wei's judgment, nor did anyone jump out to refute his point of view. It seems that there is no such person as Qi Wei in this room at all.

After a long time, Sun Zhongshan turned around and beckoned to Qi Wei, motioning for him to sit down. Seeing Qi Wei reluctantly sit down, he glanced at Sun Huan with his eyes.

Among the more than a dozen senior generals above the military Sima level, Sun Huan has always been famous for daring to fight ruthless battles and fight tough battles, but it is easy to be ignored for his ability to plan and calculate military affairs. In fact, Sun Huan was successively promoted and reused by the two successive governors of Yanshan, Li Wei and Shang Cheng, how could he really be just a scheming man? It's just that this man is good at hiding. Sun Huan's temperament is a bit lazy and careless, and he is reluctant to work hard if he can't move his mind, and in the eyes of others, he only has the recklessness of fighting bloodily. But now the situation is different, he is Sun Zhongshan's deputy, he is the deputy commander of the army, and it is his unshirkable duty to make military suggestions. Sensing Sun Zhongshan's gaze, he slowly stroked the rough iron shaft in his hand with one hand, his eyes stared at the flickering fire pond with blazing flames, and his eyes were gloomy and said slowly: "Since our army swore in Liuzhen on July 25, the enemies along the way have all been hidden, and the only few encounters with the enemy have not achieved significant results. On the third day of the first month of this month, our army entered and occupied Mogan, and the remnants of the Tuqi Ci flowing northward converged with the big horde soldiers who were heading south of Heishui City and the tribal soldiers of the various tribes of Alegu, and confronted our army by virtue of the terrain. Our army has repeatedly provoked, but the enemy has not moved, and it seems that the attack is the idea of wasting our army's food and grass to force our army to retreat on its own and then defeat it at the end of the year. Now that our army is reinforced by 4,000 cavalry, it seems that the gap between the strength of the army and the enemy in front of us is not large. According to the art of war, the enemy can fight, and our army also has the capital to fight the enemy. But the account cannot be counted in this way. The 4,000 men of the left army walked from Yandong to Mogan for 17 days, and they only ate halfway with military rations. ”

Sun Huan is worthy of being a veteran military officer, and his words are reasonable and well-founded, and he does not suppress or tell the story, not only describing the various situations encountered by the army in the past two months, but also saving enough face for everyone present, including Qi Wei, and everyone admires in their hearts, and their faces can't help but turn red. Sun Huan said that "the results are not significant", but he is actually putting gold on everyone's face. In the two months since the army was dispatched to Liuzhen, the casualties of the army were less than 600, and only a few dozen people were actually killed or wounded in the hands of the enemy, and the rest were mostly caused by diseases and epidemics. With such a trivial number of casualties, where can there be any results to be achieved? In the autumn battle strategy originally formulated by the Admiral's Office, the word "fast" was emphasized for the army leaving Liuzhen in the middle route, and it was repeatedly demanded that the middle route army should be "swift and decisive" in its actions and that it should have a "thunderous momentum" in its march, and it was suggested that the horse infantry army could be used separately when necessary, and that the characteristics of the cavalry's rapid mobility should be used to carry out large-scale and large-depth penetration, and strive to destroy the enemy on a large scale and in a systematic manner south of Heishui City and north of Mogan. The result? It took the army thirty-nine days to walk from Liuzhen to Mogan, and on average it didn't reach ten miles a day, and it couldn't even be counted as a march; This is simply the opposite of the strategy proposed by Shang Cheng! In fact, everyone knew in their hearts that at the moment when Sun Zhongshan walked to Luhe ten days, there was no need to continue to implement the autumn strategy. However, because the strategy has the words "the command of the two route armies can act cheaply according to the situation at the time and make decisions on the spot", the hesitation and delay of the middle route army and the reckless dispatch of troops by the east route army, the two actions that obviously ran counter to the strategy, were not stopped by the Wei government, and finally led to the current situation. Now, the 20,000 elite Zhao army is advancing on the front line of Luhe Mogan, and they can't advance or retreat, they can't be reconciled, they can only empty food and grass, and Yandong, who lacks troops, is three shocks a day, and the situation is as dangerous as eggs.

The situation has evolved like this, and Guo Biao, Zhang Shao, and Sun Zhongshan, who insist on implementing the strategy, must bear great responsibility. However, Sun Huan, Ximen Sheng, Shao Chuan, Wen Mu and others, who took on different responsibilities in the battle, although they acted on orders, they also had responsibilities. They should have proceeded from the reality of the situation and suggested that the other side make a slight adjustment in time according to the changing situation, but for some reason, they did not notice that the situation was deteriorating day by day. Perhaps, they have noticed that the reality is different from the forecast in the strategy, but for some reason, they have not taken any favorable measures to try to reverse the situation.

Seriously investigated, Shang Cheng, who is currently recuperating in Fangzhou, will also bear a certain amount of responsibility. In mid-July, when Guo Biao repeatedly stated that he was determined to implement the autumn strategy, he expressed his opposition. Yes, in the past two or three years, Yan Shanwei has indeed emerged a large number of promising generals represented by Sun Zhongshan, Sun Huan, Shao Chuan and others, but they are still far from truly leading an army to deter the side. Yes, these people are in their early thirties and forties, which is the most glorious time of a person's life. This is their advantage as well as their disadvantage. They want to make achievements, but they lack experience and are afraid of failure. They aspire to make a difference, but they give up the initiative and prefer to stick to the rules rather than take positive action. What is even worse is that while they are handing over the right and responsibility to make decisions to others, they forget that the surrounding environment is undergoing earth-shaking and tremendous changes. For all the generals and soldiers of Da Zhao, this is a new and unfamiliar way of thinking about military affairs, and it is also a new way of warfare, and all kinds of defensive combat ideas and methods of the past will be abandoned. In this great change in military thinking, no one, no matter who he is, and no matter how glorious his past is, must work hard to learn and adapt. Learning and adapting takes time and comes at a cost. Shang Cheng didn't want Sun Zhongshan and Sun Huan to be the price they had to pay for this transformation...... Of course, growth comes not only at a cost, but also with confidence, and a big victory against the Turquoises will undoubtedly greatly boost the confidence that the soldiers will win. It was because of such considerations that he finally reluctantly agreed with Guo Biao's opinion and continued to implement the autumn strategy.

But now is not the time to hold accountable. The two letters were placed in front of Sun Zhongshan, and they were also placed in front of Sun Huan and Shaochuan Wenmu. Between the standoff and the retreat, they had to come up with a decision.

The answer is self-explanatory. The enemy in front of him can't hold out, the Zhao army is helpless to break the enemy, the army's grain and grass can't be helped, plus the situation in Yandong is dangerous, if you don't retreat, do you really want to spend the winter in Mogan?

There was also opposition to the withdrawal. This person is Qi Wei. He is still thinking about taking the 4,000 cavalry of the left army to build an immortal feat. But he was in the minority in the room, and no one came forward to support his views. Sun Zhongshan and the others didn't even pay attention to him, and there was no such person in the house.

Since it was decided to withdraw the army, Sun Zhongshan asked Wen Mu: "Mogan's food is enough to eat for three days." How much grain is there there in Luhe now? ”

Luhe is the only place for the army to advance and retreat, and the grain and straw supplies delivered from Liuzhen are also temporarily stored here before being transferred to Mogan, and the location is the most critical. It is precisely because of the importance of this place that Sun Zhongshan specially asked Wen Mu from the Wei Mansion before sending troops, in order to let his best friend guard the back road for the army.

Wen Mu also knew what his responsibilities were. Although the figures such as food, ordnance, medicine, clothing, etc., were all in his mind, he didn't dare to ignore them for a while, but when he heard Sun Zhongshan's question, he still carefully recalled the increase or decrease of the baggage, and then replied cautiously: "The Luhe side has always maintained enough military supplies to support the army for about thirty days. At present, there are more than 4,000 cavalry troops of the left army, and the grain and grass on the side of Yanshan cannot be replenished for a while because of the difficult roads, and it is estimated that it can last for more than 20 days. "This number is not accurate. He glanced at Sun Zhongshan quietly, hoping that Sun Zhongshan could understand the meaning of his lies. In the past ten days, the amount of grain and grass from Yanshan has plummeted, and it is very good to be able to support the army for fifteen days. He paused and added, "If the weather in the northern part of Yanzhong improves, the supply of supplies will be restored soon." The implication is that even if the retreat is in the middle of the grain or when there is no help, as the army gets closer to Yanshan, the shorter the grain route will be, and even if there is a slight gap, it can be quickly filled.

Sun Zhongshan nodded with a deep groan, and looked at Shao Chuan.

Before Qi Wei arrived in Mogan, the division of labor among the four generals was that Sun Huan assisted Sun Zhongshan in taking charge of the overall situation, Wen Mu was in charge of logistics, and the task of engaging the enemy fell on Shao Chuan's shoulders. Shao Chuan rubbed his hands and said, "I don't have anything to say, it's still the same." Sixty miles north from Mogan, the Turks set up five camps, almost one for ten miles. Together with the camp on the west bank of the Heishui River, the enemy's six camps totaled more than 16,000 soldiers and horses. Among them, there were 3,000 soldiers in the big tent, 10,000 soldiers from the tribe, and more than 2,000 slave soldiers who herded horses, herded sheep, and made grass and fires. There may be one or two thousand more big tent soldiers on the other side of Blackwater City. Qian Laosan's cavalry brigade still has four infantry battalions, and the distance between them and the enemy's first battalion is five miles, and if they retreat, they will definitely be bitten and unable to get rid of them. He quickly measured the comparison of forces between the two sides in his mind. It's hard to say whether Qian Laosan can come back. ”

"Let Ji Zheng's cavalry brigade go up and replace the four infantry battalions." Sun Zhongshan immediately made a decision. In the summer, the personnel of the Left Army changed greatly because of Li Shen's case, and Fan Quan was no longer in the Chinese Army and went to serve in the Left Army. Now the cavalry brigade is in charge of Ji Zheng.

"Good!" Shao Chuan agreed to this method without hesitation. But he didn't leave immediately, but looked at Wen Mu with his eyes. Wen Mu found pen and ink on the military case, hurriedly wrote an order, handed it to Sun Zhongshan for sealing, and then handed it over to someone to do it immediately.

Seeing that Wen Mu's pen did not stop, and Wen wrote a military order in an instant, Shao Chuan couldn't help but smack his lips with envy. He is famous in the army, firstly, because of his wild temperament, he is ruthless to the enemy when he fights, and he is not bad at his own people when he is not fighting, and he dares to smash his spear shaft for a few bed crossbows even for many years to make friends; Second, this guy is a well-known illiterate person, and he has made jokes for I don't know how many times. Just because he is illiterate, he has all his talents, qualifications, and merits, but he can no longer move forward half a step forward if he becomes a brigade commander. Until the beginning of this summer, it was in this courtyard that Shang Cheng took the opportunity to give the position of Sima Governor of the Chinese Army. This was an emergency promotion before the battle, and the military department could only pinch his nose and admit the account, and only after returning to Yanshan did he confer the title of a ranger general. There is an illiterate general in the ranks of Da Zhao's senior generals, and he is also rumored by many people to be a "beautiful talk".

The big thing of retreat was agreed, and the next thing was to take care of the military affairs. The sequence of marching of each unit, which brigade moves first and which team goes later, and even which army and horses take which road at which hour, and the daily start and end of the itinerary must be carefully calculated, as well as how to arrange the baggage and how to supply the grain...... The four of them sat around and discussed repeatedly, and they discussed it for two hours before coming up with a formal copy. I don't know if it's because I'm tired or too close to the fire, Shao Chuan's forehead and sideburns are sweaty, and complaining vigorously about this matter is even harder than fighting.

Sun Zhongshan sat next to the military case, checking the copywriting page by page, and when he heard him mutter, he couldn't help but laugh and said: "Didn't you listen to the general, fighting abroad is logistics." Logistics management is a profound military knowledge. Seeing that there were no omissions or confusion in the copywriting, he called someone to come in and take it to re-copy, and said to Shao Chuan half-jokingly and half-seriously, "If you don't want to find a way to read and write, I'm afraid you won't be able to be a general in a few years." Before I sent out the army, I went to Weifu to see General Zhang Shao, and I happened to see a pile of paper pressed on his case, and the paper was full of things I had never heard of. ”

Sun Huan was still thinking about the unexpected situations that might be encountered during the retreat, and asked casually, "What are they?" ”

"Methods of warfare outside the borders; management of occupied territories; Cavalry Combat Essentials; tactical characteristics of cavalry operations in various environments; the essentials of mountain warfare; mountain infantry tactics; Mixed Infantry and Cavalry Combat Tactics ......" Sun Zhongshan raised his face and recalled carefully, and said more than a dozen questions in a row that made people seem to understand but not understand. "It's too much. I just shook my head at the time, and I couldn't remember any of it. ”

"You didn't flip it through?" Shao Chuan asked.

"Zhang Jixian's desk, I dare to rummage through it?" Sun Zhongshan said with a smile, "What's more, it's just when I lowered my head and drank saliva, Zhang Jixian put that thing away." ”

Shao Chuan's best is military, seeing that Hunting is happy, Sun Zhongshan didn't find an answer here, and immediately asked Wen Mu: "Zhaoyuan, you have been working with Zhang Jixian in Weifu for more than a year, and you are most familiar with the affairs of Weifu." I ask you, what kind of knowledge is this? ”

Wen Mu grinned. He and Shao Chuan are promoted to a rank and position, and the general from the Wupin guerrilla is one level lower than Shao Chuan's general from the Wupin guerrilla, and even Sun Zhongshan can't hear about it, where can he go to inquire? What's more, as soon as you hear it, you will know who wrote it. However, he thinks that what is on Zhang Shao's desk is probably a notebook or something.

In fact, in this room, except for Qi Wei, who had not spoken for a long time, everyone else guessed that it was mostly a notebook, and they could all think of its origin. After all, it is the general's experience in leading troops and the method of using soldiers, even if Zhang Shao occasionally records his knowledge, he probably doesn't dare to show it for no reason, right? However, everyone is inevitably a little puzzled, where did the general learn these skills?

This is a very sensitive issue. Before anyone else had time to think further along the question, Shao Chuan slapped his thigh suddenly, as if he had just remembered something important, and said, "There is something I forgot to say just now." At the end of the hour the spies came back to report that there were many new horseshoe prints in the camp of Tukuci on the west bank, which had come from the west......"

This is the old news. It's not been a day or two since this happened. When this sign of increasing troops first appeared, Sun Zhongshan and the others thought that it was Alegu or the Da Tengliang and Wannuer tribes who had increased their troops here, and they were very worried for two or three days. Later, it was found out that the so-called "reinforcements" were all Turks who came out of several camps on the east bank, and first walked a long way north, and then turned to the west after leaving the scope of the Zhao army's inspection of the horses, and went around a large circle to "reinforce" the camps in Hexi. If the trick is exposed, there is nothing to fear. But I don't know why, for the past ten days, the Turks have been engaged in this kind of trick. At present, Shao Chuan once again took it out as a shield, the purpose was obviously to cover up for others.

Sun Zhongshan ignored Shao Chuan's words, stood up and said: "Since there is a resolution, then everyone will go back to the camp and start preparations, according to the marching sequence, and the troops will gradually withdraw from tomorrow!" ”