Technology is the secret, but cost doesn't seem to be technology. Ou Chou thinks so, and he has smelted iron all his life, he is hard in what he says and does, and the people he contacts are nobles, so he is not able to deceive and hypocrisy at all. Guo Zong's expression can only be described as dumbfounded, the treasure knife that swept the world was actually only worth a thousand dollars.

After being surprised, he was secretly happy again, and felt that it was right to go to Chu this time. If you can learn from Chu, it will be a huge profit. Most of the hundreds of thousands of Zhao soldiers are bronze weapons, and they wear leather armor.

In addition to Zhao Guoguo, the Rong people are also a big business. Before the Qin Shang Dynasty changed the law and cut off the northwest road, the Rong people often came to Luoyang to trade, and after the Qin State occupied Luoyang, the Rong people had to go around the territory of the Qin State and come to Handan to trade. Based on Guo Zong's knowledge, although the 'path' of the Rong people is profitable, its price is expensive. If you can use the treasure knife to sell it to the Rong people, the profit will not be less than that of Zhao Gao.

The profits were so huge that Guo Zong suddenly felt a little afraid in his heart. If the court finds any evidence of rebellion, it will be over. Nowadays, the king of Zhao and the Marquis of Chunping, the prince moved and the abolished prince Jia, the battle for the throne is intensifying, and the government is treacherous, obscure, not to mention the merchants, even the doctors dare not talk about the enthronement.

"Haha, is the gentleman joking?" Wei Jia saw that Guo Zong was stunned, and couldn't help laughing a few times. "How can such a treasure knife be worth only a thousand dollars?"

"The benefactor is faithful, and I am helpless." Ou Chou returned the treasure knife to Guo Zong, "The king of our country is a person given by heaven, and he once said to me: bronze will be replaced by great iron." The high price of iron is a matter of the past, and it may not be worth ten dollars in the future. ”

"Not worth ten cents?" Guo Zong only felt that his heart was about to jump out, if Chu really had ten yuan of iron, he would have to buy it and bring it back to Zhao State.

"Mr. Oucho?" As he spoke, the drooping old crown suddenly appeared, he was not here, and he heard that the master was rescued and came by a small boat. "It's really Mr. Ou Chou."

Zhao sent troops, the army has driven out of the Great Wall of Zhao to the south of the Yellow River, crossing the river is Puyang in the Qin realm, and Puyang crossing Pushui in the south is Wei State. It depends on whether the king of Wei agrees or not, and if he agrees, the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei and Chu can join together and attack Qin again.

"I've seen the master." Guanzi Ou Chou naturally knew it, but he didn't expect Guanzi to be on the ship.

"Sir, don't be polite." Guanzi's voice was still loud, "If Mr. encounters, he will pay it back a hundred times in the future." ”

"Qin is a country of tigers, wolves, birds and beasts, if all countries can work together and unite again, they should be exterminated." Weiga took the lead. The purpose of his trip is to join forces again, and it doesn't matter if they succeed or not, anyway, it is impossible for Qin to only fight Zhao.

In the midst of shouting and shouting and killing, Ou Chou couldn't help but think that maybe he was waiting for his family in Xianyang, and he wanted to tell the crown and felt that it was useless to tell him, and he also got Yingdu to ask the king. He also thought of the viciousness of the Qin people, and if he fled like this, he was afraid that the Qin people had killed them. Thinking of this, he had no interest in talking, and only looked forward to seeing the king earlier.

The boat went down the chasm, traveled one hundred and twenty miles a day, stayed at Xiangcheng and connected to Rushui, and then sailed directly to Yingdu along Rushui. Yingdu is still the same, and before he docked, he saw that the dock was full of people who greeted him. Zhao envoy went to Chu to discuss the contemplation, and the state of Chu was so aggressive that Wei Jia and the others felt very uneasy, where did they want to conspire.

"I've seen Zhao Envoy, I've seen the big fu. Mr. Ou Chou ......, "It's still Dazai Shen Yin Yu who went out of the city to greet him." Weiga and Guanzi stood at the front, and he saw it at a glance. Ou Chou stood behind the two of them, and he also saw it.

"Dare to ask if the king is in Yingdu?" Guanzi asked, and when he passed through Xiangcheng, he heard that the king was still supervising the battle in Chengyang, and the Chu army was fighting with the Qin army on the border.

"Back to the master, the king is not in Yingdu." Shen Yinyu replied. "Our army and the Qin army are fighting in the ...... of Magu, oh, let's go back to the city."

The public is really not good at talking about military affairs, and Shen Yinyu immediately welcomed everyone to the post house. At this time, Guanzi Fang asked carefully, "Where is Ma Gu?" How is our army? Why did you fight with the Qin army at the Valley of the Horse? ”

"Ma Gu ......" Ma Gu has never been a battleground for soldiers, and Shen Yinlu can't figure out where Ma Gu is. He said: "Da Sima Yan out of the Horse Valley, that is, the Biyang of Nanyang County of the Qin State. This is a battle of revenge for our army, and the king said that he will take the land of Qin. ”

"Biyang?" This one is familiar to the crown. Qinzhi Nanyang County is Chu Wanjun County, Wanjun is like a large plate, and many mountain roads around it can be entered. "Why don't you fight for the reinstatement of Jiyi? This is the road of the Qin army's eastward advance. ”

Guanzi asked Xiang Yan and Peng Zong the same questions, he didn't think of attacking at all, he only thought about defense, after all, attacking Wanjun with the national strength of Chu was undoubtedly a fool's dream. But because of this, when the 50,000 Chu army entered the valley in a big way, the Qin army was caught off guard Ma Gu is valley, strangled the valley road Qin cavalry could not get out of the valley, and the Chu army marched at night and transported grain at night, and the offensive intention was heavily disguised, and when tens of thousands of Chu troops appeared in Ma Valley, the Qin army's equipment was not in a hurry.

"I don't know. However, our army has occupied the entire territory of Magu at this time, or it can enter Biyang. Shen Yinyu said. The builders have been condemned, and the horse valley is only a single track, which is not double gauge and cannot be sustained. ”

The mountains of Fifty Miles of Horse Valley are adjacent to each other, and in the snowy season, the valley is trampled by soldiers and horses, and it is muddy and difficult to walk. In addition, when the Qin army retreated, the road was destroyed again, so that the four-wheeled carriage towed by the two horses could only carry forty stones, which was only one-third of the normal volume. The trebuchets were even worse, the first batch of four was transported, two were broken and one was injured, so that the artillerymen did not dare to transport it again.

But it's not all bad, the widest part of the horse valley is only two and a half miles, although there are even wider places, but the place where you can really line up and fight is about three miles. The battle of this width was no more than a thousand columns, and one or two thousand people were blocked there, and they could not be attacked for three days. What I really am worried about is that the valley road is long and narrow, if it is cut off from it by strange soldiers along the mountain road, and then attacked inside and outside, the Chu army in the middle of the pack will be defeated without food. But if this strange army can't break through the Chu army, then he will also run out of food.

The Battle of Horse Valley was a surprise attack for a short time, and a supply battle for a long time. Therefore, Xiang Yan divided the horse valley into four, and set up a battalion every ten miles, each battalion of 10,000 people, to store grain to prevent Qin Qi's soldiers from counterattacking and cutting off the grain road.

"Report to the general! Today it has reached forty carts and one hundred and ten carts. "The front line of the horse valley is Xiang Shi, and the carriage transports grain twice a day, and Xiang Zhi is most worried about a certain section of the valley behind him being cut off by the Qin people's strange soldiers.

"Why less than yesterday?" Xiang Zhi asked. Xiang's division had less than 15,000 men, and 40 wagons and 110 horses were enough for the whole army to eat in two days, but the rear was carrying grain in full force, and the number of half-day arrivals was significantly less than that of the previous days.

"Say yes...... He said that the king was coming. The officer couldn't help but have some excitement on his face. Although the king is young, he can be heroic and wise, eat and drink with the soldiers, treat the soldiers like brothers and sisters, and the respect and love of the soldiers are self-evident.

"The king is coming?" Xiang Zhi rubbed his face a few times, adjusted his uniform again, and asked, "When will you come to my teacher?" ”

"Maybe it's tomorrow, maybe it's the day after tomorrow." The military officials also listened to the royal hand on the grain cart.

"I already know, you go." Xiang Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. This is already the mouth of the valley, and it is two hundred and forty miles to Chengyang, even if you ride a horse, it will take three or four days to arrive, and the king estimates that it will take three or four days to reach the military camp.

He thought so, but Xiong Jing and Peng Zong had already arrived at Gukou Interception Mountain. The interception army mountain is dozens of miles wide, more than 1,000 feet high, and it is the birthplace of water. The Magu Valley Road comes diagonally from the northwest, and turns south out of the valley at the foot of the Interception Mountain. If history had not changed, Liu Xiu of the Eastern Han Dynasty was chased and killed by Wang Mang's army, and it was when he fled into the horse valley and entered this mountain that he disappeared. Snow-capped, pines and cypresses are verdant, and there are many deciduous trees between the greenery. It is probably very cold in the mountains, and there is not only snow on the dead branches, but also some ice edges hanging under the branches.

"Qin is more infiltrated, with the rivers and lakes." The original Vietnamese language is much more simple than what 'the mountains have trees and trees have branches', and Xiong Jing, who was riding on a horse, looked at the mountains and giant trees, and naturally thought of the Qin over-infiltration.

He was interested in reciting poems to the mountains and forests, and the temple people and historians on the horse were full of bitterness. The mountain road is monorail, and in order not to affect the transportation, the group can only ride horses. The stirrups are not as high as the saddle, and there is no feeling after walking for more than ten miles, and after thirty miles, the legs cannot clamp the horse's body, and they are swaying around for fear of falling off the horse at any time. Especially when Youshi was old, he was already lying on his horse at this time, grabbing his mane and not daring to let go.

More than 1,100 four-wheeled carriages were transporting grain along the whole line, and in addition to the four-wheeled carriages, there were also 30,000 limbos transporting grain in chariots. If it was to be transported to the front, the horse-drawn carriage could carry 3,600 stone per day, and the chariot could carry 3,250 stone per day, feeding 68,500 people. However, not all the grain is now transported to the front line, and there are no 68,000 people in the valley, so 2,000 stone millet can be stored every day.

There are 10,000 chariots, and there are more than 40 cars per mile. Looking at the back and forth of the chariots, Xiong Jing had to sigh a little. There is no waterway and only manpower is used to transport it, and the maximum attack distance in the case of millet transportation is 300 li (10 days of one-way journey), which is equal to the number of people on the front line, and the number of people on the transport force; If corn is transported, the maximum attack distance is 510 li (17 days of one-way travel), and at this time, it is also how many people on the front line eat food, and how many people in the rear must carry grain.

At this time, the role of the horse is reflected: if the road is easy, a long-distance attack of 510 miles will require only 2,570 four-wheeled carriages, 5,140 royal hands, and 5,140 horses for 100,000 people; In 1,200 miles of battle, 100,000 people were only 9,000 four-wheeled carriages, 18,000 royal hands, and 18,000 horses. The side with horses can always go farther, carry more, and save more manpower to become soldiers rather than forcemen.

The state of Chu lacks horses and people, and wants to attack by land from a long distance, so the result can only be one: horse-drawn railways.

500 tons and 1,200 horses were transported every day and night, with a daily attrition rate of 2.4%. This figure is not low, higher than that of four-wheeled carriages and rickshaws. However, the horse-drawn railway can travel 100 kilometers per day, and theoretically (1/2.4% = 41 days/2) can travel for 20 days, 100 kilometers per day, which is 2000 kilometers. The Chu army does not need to be that far, Chengyang is only more than 300 kilometers away from the analysis land, and 4,800 horses can solve it.