"The villain meets the king!" The outpost was five miles away from the camp, and the camp could not gallop at night, so Xiong Jing dismounted after entering the camp. However, his swollen legs made him walk very staggeringly, and he needed help to walk, but he didn't want others to help him, so the group that followed him all stood at the gate of the camp, and the soldiers on duty did not know what to do, and they all bowed down.

"Excuse me, get up." The sound of the soldier made Xiong Jing have some strength, and he finally walked.

"The last general will meet the king and congratulate him on his accession to the throne." The shogunate of the Chinese army was blazing and bright. The slightly larger officers were there, and they bowed a large number under the leadership of the chief general. Of course, because they were wearing leather armor, they were just bowing, not prostrating.

"The generals will be exempt, it's late at night, everyone stand back and rest." Xiong Jing finally sat down, even if it was very uncomfortable to kneel, and let him breathe a deep breath. Most of the generals retreated, but the main generals Huang Yong, Yang Xu, Yi Yangjun, as well as Lian Po and some strategists in the army still did not retreat. Xiong Jing left the camp yesterday morning and returned to the camp this evening, and what happened during this period will be reported and discussed.

"Tell the king: The Qin army that attacked Chengyang pulled out its camp and went north today." Huang Yong is a big deal as soon as he comes up.

"The Qin army has assembled?" The old servant Ge Zheng washed Xiong Jing's face with hot water, but Xiong Jing was not particular, and discussed while washing.

"The king is wise." Huang Yong slapped a sycophant quietly, he has been currying favor with Xiong Jing Chu recently, and the customary fief of Xiong Jing Chu State is to receive it in the third generation, but Huang Xie's fief is too big, and it is not without precedent to receive it in one life.

"Don't say kind words." Xiong Jing was a little displeased with him, and asked again: "Is there any information that the Qin army is gathering in Yiyi?" ”

"Not yet." Yang Lu replied, "The martial knights of the Qin army have almost eliminated our army scouts, and it is difficult for our army scouts to know about the affairs of Yiyi. ”

"What about Xiang Yan? Did he receive a report of the Qin army's build-up? Xiong Jing asked Xiang Yan again, his 180,000 army going north affected everyone's nerves. If these 180,000 people were surrounded by the Qin army, the Chu State would basically be finished.

"General Xiang only travels fifteen miles a day, and when Xixian County receives the news, it is urgently transmitted to General Xiang." A few days ago, I didn't know how Xiang Yan went north on the road, but now when I arrived in Xixian County, everyone knew that Xiang Yan had made some preparations for going north, bringing a lot of grain, chariots and horses, and the daily march was very slow, only fifteen miles, and it took three days to reach Jiangyi in terms of time.

"Great King, the last general thought that General Xiang was very cautious when he went north, and he only traveled fifteen miles a day, thinking that he was just going to fight a decisive battle with the Qin people to relieve the siege of Chengyang, not really to fight a decisive battle with the Qin people." Yang added that this was his judgment after arriving in Xi County.

"Not really." Lian Po, who had always dozed off, spoke, and he was not tired now. "The Qi army is going south and the Wei army is about to come out, if we can't make a decision with the Qin people in the north of Huaishui as soon as possible, I am afraid that the Qin people will echo Qi Wei in the future, and the Chu State will be in danger."

"Xin Pingjun's intention is that our army should be decided early by the Qin people?" Lian Po has no official position in the army, and his identity is just Xiong Jing's disciple, but he has been on the battlefield for a long time and knows the Qin army, so everyone can listen to his words.

"In today's situation, in terms of war, it should be decided early, and it is not good to decide later." Lian Po looked at Xiong Jing, his pronunciation of the word 'war' is very heavy, in modern language it means 'from a military point of view', as for 'from a political point of view', it depends on Xiong Jing's judgment.

War is the continuation of politics, but the outcome of war determines politics. Xiong Jing had no intention of changing generals in battle, what he had to do now was to defeat the most powerful of them, the Qin State, before the three kingdoms of Qin, Wei and Qi became dominant. This was not a deliberate choice for him, it was set in front of him by God. If it weren't for the defeat of Jiangyi before, Wei Qi and Wei would have hesitated to send troops, and now that Jiangyi has been defeated and the Qin army has increased its troops, Wei Qi will of course take the opportunity to defeat the water dogs and carve up Chu with Qin. Even if the Qin State didn't want to destroy Chu, they also hoped to take a few cities and take advantage of it.

"Great King, didn't the court send people to Zhao and Wei? Then when will Zhao Jun send troops to me? Yi Yangjun asked, he suddenly missed Ling Yin Huang Xie, if Huang Xie was still there, I am afraid the situation would not be so serious.

"The whole Zhao State is controlled by the minister Guo Kai, and Guo Kai and the Qin people have long colluded." What Lian Po said was truly appalling. "I, the eldest son of Zhao State, Chunping Marquis, entered Qin, and the Qin people did not let him go, so Zhao Yan was able to ascend the throne. Zhao Yan ascended the throne, and all those who were evil with Qin were dismissed. Four years ago, in the spring, Shenjun persuaded the five countries to join forces, and the coalition forces did not pull out, which has a great relationship here. ”

"Ahh Some of the incomprehensible Xiong Jing looked at Lian Po stupidly, as if he was in a dream. To this day, he no longer had hope that Zhao would send troops, but he never imagined that Zhao would collude with Qin, and Zhao Yan ascended to the throne with the help of Qin.

"What Xinpingjun said, I have also heard it." Yang Shu was the least surprised of the military tents, and he had already heard similar rumors. "Qin Prime Minister Lu Buwei helped King Zhao ascend the throne, and King Zhao wanted to repay him with Qiong Yao, and Jun Zhi went to work, which is why. However, due to the turmoil, Lü Buwei was already unable to protect himself, and it was difficult to predict whether Guo Kai would collude with the Qin people. ”

"In today's situation, we can't expect Zhao Jun to come to the rescue." Xiong Jing, who had stabilized his mind, interjected, "If our army and the Qin army have an early showdown, what are the odds of victory?" ”

No one dared to answer Xiong Jing's question, even Lian Po was silent, but there were a few strategists calculating the troops. After a while, the calculated advisor said: "Tell the king, if our army is combined with the general, there should be 250,000 troops. The division of Cai County is 3,000 people a day, and if we fight with our relatives after ten days, our army should have 280,000. ”

"How many Qin troops are there?" Xiong Jing asked again. As usual, no one spoke, even the strategists stayed there and there was no news from the Qin army at all, they didn't have to count at all, the only thing they knew was that the Qin State announced an increase of 200,000 troops.

"Chengyang needs to be surrounded by 10,000 people, otherwise the Chu army in the inner city will counterattack and all the previous achievements will be wasted; Yiyi is the camp of the Qin army, and it is necessary to stay 10,000 people during the war; The grain road from Yiyi to Qinjing is more than 200 miles, and there must be hoarding and transshipment warehouses on the way, and in order to prevent the Chu army from cutting off the grain road, the grain road may need 20,000 people to guard. If the Qin army is 300,000, the number of people who can fight with me is 260,000, and if the Qin army is more than 300,000...... "Lian Po, who is most familiar with the Qin army, can only calculate the strength of the Qin army, and there is no report, and he does not know how many people there are under the command of Meng Wu."

"Xinping-kun, I have something I don't understand." Yang Shu suddenly had a problem.

"Please." Lian Po can be regarded as affordable to Yang Xu, no better than Huang Yong.

"Yiyi to Wanjun is 600 miles, and there is no waterway among them, how can the grain of the Qin army be transported? Our army relies on waterways for transportation, and more than 200,000 people are already inconvenient, and the Qin army has many horses, and horses eat ten times as much as people, and they all rely on land transportation......"

Yang Lu asked about logistics, and Xiong Jing also considered similar questions, and made a special calculation: Suppose there are 10,000 troops, transported by Qin's double chariots, how many people and horses are needed to transport grain?

The Qin State is said to be able to carry 25 stones of grain and 60 miles a day. If the army fights for food (2.7 catties per person per day), and the horse food is ten times that of people, the daily consumption of 1,000 stone of grain and straw for sixty miles of transportation requires 80 double-wheel carts to transport (back + back), subtract ten times the amount of horse food (80x10) of people, and subtract 80 coachmen, the transportation loss rate is 8.8%.

This transport loss rate is important, and the distance that the army can leave the granary depends on it. At 8.8%, if the Qin army was more than 11 days away from the granary (660 li), all the military grain transported would be consumed on the horses and coachmen who transported the grain, and the front-line army would not be able to eat a grain of millet, and would only starve to death if it was not collected on the spot.

Yiyi is 600 miles away from Wanjun in the rear of the Qin army, and at this loss rate, it is equivalent to transporting 100 stone of grain, 88 stone is consumed on the road, and the remaining 12 stone can reach the stomach of the Qin army on the front line. If you really want to transport grain and straw from the rear, it will take 30 times (300,000 people) and 80 double-wheel carts, and you have to multiply it by ten days, and finally divide it by 12%, because only so much grain and straw will arrive at the front line, and the number of wagons will be an astonishing 200,000, which the Qin State cannot afford.

However, the rate of loss is variable, and if the Qin army transports corn instead of husked millet, then the tonnage of transportation will be reduced by 40%; If the horses are fed not with weeds but with beans, then the horses will not eat ten times more than people but five times as much as people, which is equivalent to a transportation loss rate of 2.88%. 10,000 Qin troops only needed 48 double-wheel cars for 60 miles, 300,000 or 14,400 vehicles, and taking into account the 28.8% loss (10 days), a total of 20,055 double-wheel vehicles were needed.

This kind of logistical pressure is not difficult for the Qin State, this is still in the case of fighting food, the army generally fights food when it is engaged, and it usually participates in food, so the logistical pressure is more relaxed.

"Eh......" Compared with others, Xiong Jing's mathematics can be described as outstanding, and he can figure out the math problems that others can't solve in their lifetime. Thinking of the transportation loss rate, Xiong Jing suddenly had some ideas.

"Can you send someone to investigate three things: first, what does the Qin army's horse eat, is it a weed or an essence? Second, did the Qin army transport corn or millet? Third, how much millet and rice were snatched and harvested by the Qin army? …… Also, can you estimate how many horses the Qin army had, not including the horses that carried the grain, and how many double-wheeled carts carrying grain entered the camp every day? ”

Xiong Jing said that he said three questions, and in the end he came up with five questions, but everyone understood what he meant. Yang Lu reminded: "The king wants to estimate the grain of the Qin army? The Qin people occupied Yiyi for a long time, and it was difficult to count the grain transported in the past. ”

"Can it be done?" Xiong Jing didn't care how much grain was transported to Yiyi by the Qin army before, he just wanted to know what the attrition rate of the Qin army's logistics transportation was. Knowing the attrition rate of the Qin army's logistics and transportation, we know the Qin army's offensive limit distance.

Xiong Jing dismissed the meeting after explaining the five questions, and everyone actually knew in their hearts that if the Qin army exceeded 200,000, it would be difficult for the Chu army, which did not have an absolute numerical advantage, to win, but no one dared to talk about it in front of Xiong Jing. But after everyone left, Lian Pofang said: "This battle is more auspicious and less auspicious." ”

"May I ask the teacher, what is the strength of Qin Jun compared with the sixth ** team?" Xiong Jing asked the disciple politely, this was a question that had plagued him for a long time. If he really wants to fight a decisive battle with the Qin army again, he must first understand the opponent.