"How much grain and grass is left in the army?"

The quartermaster immediately replied: "Returning to China, grandfather, the food and grass in the army are only enough for six days. ”

"How much grain and grass is there in Anqing?"

"About ten days."

"Alright, you can go down."

"Yes, Grandpa Guo."

When the quartermaster left, none of the generals in the camp spoke, and the atmosphere was very depressing.

The situation is worse than they imagined.

There is a way that the soldiers and horses have not moved, and the grain and grass go first.

Food and grass are too important for any army, and they are simply a lifesaver.

If there is really no rice to cook, these millions of people may mutin at any time, and no one can afford the consequences.

The loss of Yinglin City had too great an impact on the whole army.

There was enough grain, grass and supplies in the city for the whole army to use for more than three months, but now all of them were cheaper than the Northwest Army, and this loss was really not ordinarily large.

Although some people proposed to mobilize the strength of the whole army to recapture Yinglin, at this time, there were 40,000 or 50,000 Northwest Army guards in Yinglin City, and the city gate and city wall were hardly damaged.

This is still secondary, mainly because the 100,000 army led by Ning Zhiyuan is not far away.

Once they really attack Yinglin, Ning Zhiyuan will definitely not stand idly by, and will definitely kill them directly.

At that time, Yinglin City will block the way in front of the army, and the Northwest Army will attack with all its might, so it will really fall into a dangerous place where the front and rear will be lost, so this proposal was quickly rejected by everyone.

Perhaps, it's time to retire.

Many generals had this idea in their hearts, but no one dared to say it.

In fact, it is not too much of a loss to withdraw from the army now. Although many men and horses were lost in the first three rounds of siege battles, at least the two big cities of Huiyang and Anqing were still in the hands of the Wei army, and they were not for nothing.

But the question is, can the Xie family, led by An Guogong, really swallow this breath?

At this time, they heard An Guogong ask in a deep voice: "You have heard the situation in the army very clearly. I wonder what you think? ”

The officials present looked at each other, but no one said anything.

They were all waiting, waiting for the first person to say goodbye.

It's just that no one is stupid, and no one wants to be this easy to get shot, so the scene froze.

As soon as An Guogong saw their expressions, he knew what they were thinking, his face suddenly became even more ugly, and he said coldly: "Aside from Yinglin City, the Northwest Army on the opposite side only has 100,000 people, and there are 500,000 or 600,000 soldiers on our side, except for the people.

As a general in the army, don't you even have the courage to fight against it? ”

"But Grandpa Guo, the firearms on the other side are sharp, and it is really difficult to resist with the drive of flesh and blood alone." Lu Shicong, the son of the Lu family, said tremblingly.

This remark hit the hearts of other generals, and also made the generals have a good impression of this child of a family who is greedy for life and afraid of death for the first time.

They had seen with their own eyes before, and the firearm called the fire gun was too powerful.

In the face of such firearms, if a person wants to rush over, he will simply be sent to death in vain. Therefore, they never thought that they could rely on a large number of people to defeat the Northwest Army on the opposite side, which only had 100,000 men.

Since it can't be beaten and the grain and grass are already tight, it is better to take advantage of the fact that it is the safest plan to withdraw the army, this is the common idea of most officers and generals.

An Guogong naturally knew about these situations, but if he wanted to withdraw like this, he couldn't accept it.

He is more than 60 years old this year, and he can be regarded as a military general.

Whether he would be able to organize another expedition to the northwest in his lifetime in the future, even he himself was not sure.

If they really retreat this time, then their Xie family will return to the dilemma of being attacked by the Northwest Army and the Hu people.

Don't look at the fact that the imperial court has signed a peace treaty with the Hu people, but with the wolf ambitions of the Hu people, they may turn their faces and deny people at any time.

When the Hu people invade Jiangnan again, as long as the Ning family stands by and watches, they can win without losing.

Especially after seeing the guns of the Northwest Army with his own eyes, An Guogong felt that he could no longer let the northwest develop.

Otherwise, if the number of firearms in the Northwest Army will increase from a few thousand to tens of thousands in a few years, not to mention their Xie family, even the Hu people will not dare to directly attack them.

If they can't eradicate them before the Ning family is fully up, the Xie family will definitely not be their opponent in the future.

In other words, this large-scale long-range was likely to be their Xie family's last chance to deal with the Ning family, so An Guogong refused to withdraw from the army.

Now seeing that most of the officers and generals under his command want to withdraw from the army, how can this not make An Guogong angry.

At this moment, Xie Changfeng, who had been silent, suddenly spoke: "Grandfather, grandson has a plan, maybe he can deal with the fire of the Northwest Army." ”

"Tell me about it."

It was the first time for Xie Changfeng to speak in front of so many military generals, and he was both excited and nervous.

In order to improve his grandfather's favor for him, he pretended to be calm and said: "In the previous battle, my grandson found that every time the firearms of the Northwest Army breathed fire, they only appeared when our soldiers were close to fifty or sixty paces.

It can be seen that although this firearm is sharp, its range is not far.

If that's the case, then the firebolt is only superficially powerful, and it shouldn't be able to penetrate the shield or armor.

In this case, Sun Er thought that the best way to deal with this firearm was to send cavalry wearing armor and even the horses to carry out a surprise attack.

As long as the cavalry brigade can successfully rush into the fire array to kill, the enemy will definitely be in chaos.

At that time, our follow-up army will be swarmed again, and we will definitely be able to turn defeat into victory. ”

After listening to Xie Changfeng's proposal, not only An Guogong himself, but even the other generals also had bright eyes.

You can try this.

Indeed, in the last war, the musketeers of the Northwest Army usually waited until the Wei soldiers approached fifty or sixty paces before they began to breathe fire, which shows that this musketeer did have a limited range, and even the longbow could not be compared.

If that's the case, then this fire gun is nothing to fear.

As long as all the knights wear helmets and armor, and even the horses under their crotches are equipped with horse armor, there is a great chance to rush into the battle and fight.

It sounds like it works.

For a while, everyone in the camp couldn't help but look at An Guogong's grandson with appreciative eyes.

Lu Shicong, the son of the Lu family, directly praised him: "The young general is wise, this plan is wonderful." ”

Lu Shicong's opening was also praised by others

Although Xie Changfeng, who was bathed in the praise of everyone, was excited in his heart, he still tried to suppress his face and said modestly: "The generals have won the award, and they are just doing their best, and this matter has to wait for my grandfather to decide." ”

Only then did everyone look at An Guogong together, waiting for him to finally make a decision.

Duke An Guo rarely looked at Xie Changfeng, the concubine who made this suggestion, with a pleased look, and then said loudly to everyone: "Gentlemen, for the sake of the society and the court, we will vow to fight to the death against the traitor Ning clan to the end.

At my command, the whole army immediately mobilized cavalry to stand by, and called up all the horse armor in the army.

Especially the horse armor, none of them can be missing, and all of them must be recruited, and there must be no mistakes. ”

"Yes, the last will obey." Everyone responded in unison.

The generals know that the reason why An Guogong places special emphasis on horse armor is because the number of this thing is indeed limited.

The so-called horse armor is the armor used to protect the war horse. The whole set of horse armor is divided into two parts, protecting the horse's head and torso, mainly leather, painted on the surface, and painted with exquisite patterns.

By the time of the former dynasty Liangguangzong, the horse armor designed by the Ministry of Industry had developed from leather to iron, and the protection of war horses had also become better.

However, in this way, the weight of the horse armor immediately increased significantly.

Even the Great Wei only has about 6,000 pairs of horse armor, and it is generally only equipped on the elite cavalry used for the breakthrough and the mounts of senior generals with more than 100 households, and the general war horses are not used.

The reason why the number of horse armor is far less than the armor worn by cavalry is not because the Ministry of Engineering cannot make it, but because there are too few top-level war horses suitable for equipping horse armor.

An adult cavalryman with full combat equipment such as helmets, armor, and weapons is already very heavy, and it is difficult for ordinary horses to withstand it for a long time.

Therefore, those who can really become war horses are all good horses that are one in a hundred, and only such good horses can move quickly on the battlefield while carrying cavalry.

The war horse equipped with horse armor is more demanding, a pair of iron horse armor weighs about fifty pounds, plus the weight of the fully armed cavalry itself, the weight of the two together is unbearable for ordinary war horses, only carefully selected top war horses can do it.

The Central Plains region has always lacked horses, and there are even fewer war horses that are one in a hundred, and there are even fewer top-level war horses.

Under these factors, it is difficult for horse armor, which is specially used to protect war horses, to be popularized in the army.

To put it bluntly, it is because there are too few top-level war horses, so the horse armor is made less.

Now An Guogong wants to recruit the horse armor of the whole army, which means that he wants to recruit not only horse armor, but also the war horses ridden by senior officers, and then use these war horses to form a large cavalry brigade.

At this time, all the officers knew in their hearts that this time the Xie family really planned to fight with the Ning family.

If this battle can be won, and even the enemy general Ning Zhiyuan can be captured alive, the Wei army will not only be able to calmly recover the occupied Yinglin City, but also turn the tide of the entire northwest war in one fell swoop.

But if it loses, then it is basically impossible for the imperial court to deal with the Ning family again.

After all, who in the world can restrain the Ning family, who else in the world can't even deal with a million troops?

This battle will be a decisive battle that will affect the general trend of the entire world, so everyone has to be prepared.

After a full day of deployment, the Wei army rearranged its formation.

In addition to ordinary people, the whole army was divided into three parts: the middle army, the left wing, and the right wing.

Among them, the Chinese army was the main force, led by more than 6,000 elite cavalrymen wearing armor and all equipped with horse armor.

They were followed by 15,000 ordinary cavalrymen unarmed with horse armor, followed by hundreds of thousands of infantry.

The left and right flanks were not equipped with cavalry, only infantry.

The reason why the left and right flanks are completely unmatched with cavalry is because the Northwest Army in front also made great adjustments in formation after seeing that the Wei army began to transfer troops.

The main adjustment was the placement of a large number of wooden horses with spikes in the open space on the left and right sides, leaving only the middle lane empty.

These spiked repulsions would have caused great trouble for the cavalry to advance and could only be dismantled one by one.

Therefore, An Guogong transferred the cavalry on the left and right flanks to the Chinese army, leaving only ordinary infantry to increase the number of men and horses charging in the middle.

And the Northwest Army deliberately gave way to the middle, obviously trying to lead the Wei army to attack from the middle.

Both sides are well aware that this is a big battle between charge and counter-charge, and the winner will be decided.

For a time, the entire battlefield was covered with battle clouds and a murderous awe.