How much will an army of 700,000 be fed?

At the moment, from Cao Cao downwards, the generals and ministers in the military tent all silently calculated.

In fact, it is also easy to calculate, in the matter of marching and fighting, the amount of food of the sergeant must be greater than usual, and it is necessary for each person to eat one pound of rice grain a day, which only refers to the rice grain to be eaten in the most ordinary time. Well, it's the portion of raw rice, not cooked food.

In fact, for a big man, a pound of rice grain is not enough.

Anyway, according to a rough estimate, Yuan Shao's army of 700,000 has crossed the Yellow River, and its rice and grain, plus a certain amount of vegetables, is estimated to consume more than one million catties per day.

Therefore, Xun You didn't wait for the people in the military account to calculate too much, and said: "My lord, generals, we don't need to take the calculations seriously as detailed and accurate, let's make a rough estimate." According to their daily military rations, it is about one million catties, so you can think about how much this million catties of grain will be? ”

(In ancient times, stones were used to measure rice and grain, and the measurement of a stone in different periods was different, in the Qin and Han dynasties, a stone seemed to be about 100 kilograms, in the Tang Dynasty, a stone was about 50 kilograms, and in the Song Dynasty, it was about 90 kilograms...... Hehe, let's not use the ancient degree measurement to calculate. ）

However, during the Han Dynasty, a sack or something, a bag is about 100 catties of grain, of course, this refers to rice, if it is noodles, it is a bag of 30 or 50 catties.

One million catties of grain, at least in 10,000 bags or even 20,000 bags.

20,000 bags of grain are estimated to be piled up into a mountain.

Xun You said: "With so much grain, Yuan Shao has to transport it from his granary." Transported across the Yellow River and transported by boat, it is difficult for us to know the truth and the truth. However, as long as we send people to secretly cross the Yellow River and reach the north bank, we can always see it. It is unlikely that Yuan Shao will deliver the daily military rations needed by the army day by day, it will inevitably be ten days and a half months, and even send military rations for a month or even longer for his army. For Yuan Shao, it is estimated that he is on the north bank of the Yellow River. There will definitely be a granary for storing the military rations, and it will never be possible to send them across the river without taking our official crossing. So. The lord sent people to cross the river to reconnoitre, presumably he could find out where Yuan Shao's military rations were stored. As long as we find the place where Yuan Shaojun stored the grain, then we have a goal. As long as Yuan Shao's military rations were robbed. Then Yuan Shao's military spirit will inevitably be unstable. At that time, it will be too late for Yuan Shao to transport grain, so he may have to retreat first. As long as Yuan Shao retreats, there will be more ways for us to counterattack. ”

"By the way, my lord, Yuan Shao's military rations, he will definitely send heavy troops to guard them. And, estimate Yuan Shao's granary. It will not be too far from his army, and if his granary is lost, it is estimated that reinforcements will arrive soon. Therefore, if we say that we are robbing grain, I am afraid it is unlikely, so we are not robbing grain, but destroying grain, as long as we find Yuan Shao's military rations warehouse, we will set a fire and burn his military rations, so that even if we do not rob them, we can achieve the same effect. Xun Yu reminded him later.

"Sure enough, it is worthy of my son's room, after listening to Gongda's words, Cao's eyes suddenly brightened, and he didn't dare to put Yuan Shao's army under much pressure." After Cao Cao listened to Xun You's words, he was greatly impressed by Xun You.

Well, some truth is indeed a seemingly simple thing, but if you don't have a glimpse of wisdom, you just can't see through it and can't figure it out.

Everyone knows the truth that when the two armies are fighting, they must first rob the grain, but with the current situation of Cao Cao and Yuan Shaojun, it seems a bit of a fantasy to talk about robbing Yuan Shao's grain. However, after Xun You said this, they understood, it seems that it is not too difficult to figure out where Yuan Shao's current military rations are, as long as they figure out where Yuan Shao's granary is, then there are many ways to destroy it?

"Generals, did you hear that? Now, our main goal is, as Mr. Xun said just now, to destroy Yuan Shaojun's granary. Cao Cao's expression finally became a little cheerful.

"Lord, Mr. Xun's strategy makes me admire, but this is a strategy to defeat Yuan Shao or force Yuan Shao to retreat. However, Mr. Xun You came to Xu Du just now, I am afraid that we are not clear about the current situation of our army, and now, Yuan Shao's army is in a hurry, and I am worried that it is not that we cannot find Yuan Shao's granary, nor that we cannot destroy Yuan Shao's military rations, but that we are worried that our current situation will not be able to guard the day when we find Yuan Shao's granary. ”

At this time, one of the counselors spoke.

When everyone looked at it, it was the young scribe Liu Ye.

Liu Ye, the word Ziyang, Huainan Chengde people. Historically, he was a strategist and politician of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, and he was a true veteran of the three dynasties of Cao Wei.

Liu Ye has been bold and clever since he was a child, especially good at analyzing the situation and good at dealing with emergency affairs.

Xu Shao, who once commented on Cao Cao as a capable minister who ruled the world, and Xu Shao, who was a hero in troubled times, also commented on Liu Ye, saying that he had the talent of the world.

He was a wise strategist after Cao Cao seized Yangzhou.

When Liu Ye was seven years old, his mother died, and when he was dying, he once told him that a certain servant beside his father had the character of framing people, and he was worried that the servant would frame the Liu family after her death, and hoped that he and his brother Liu Jian would get rid of this person when they grew up. And Liu Ye, when he was thirteen years old, this servant really had bad intentions and repeatedly framed people, and actually wanted to slander Liu Ye and let him be reprimanded by his father. Liu Ye was angry and beheaded the servant, and then calmly reported to his father, whose father was angry at first, but after asking the reason, he especially appreciated the son and did not criticize him.

The Yellow Turban rioted, Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, and the world's heroes rose together. The land of Yangzhou is also an eventful time. Especially after Yuan Shu was stationed in Yangzhou, Yangzhou was even more chaotic.

Well, on the surface, Yangzhou is under the governance of Yuan Shu, but in fact, Yangzhou has always been full of power, although each other bears the name of Yuan Shu, but it is also equivalent to their respective land cede and claim hegemony. Because, when Yuan Shu ruled Yangzhou, he didn't care about those at all, he just needed those guys to admit that he was the lord of Yangzhou and his subordinates. Just give Yuan Shao enough benefits. Usually, between those powerful forces, attack each other or something. Yuan Shu would only pretend not to see it.

Therefore, in Yangzhou, Liu Ye is not willing to take refuge in anyone, he does not want to help the abuse.

After Cao Cao seized Yangzhou, he implemented a series of policies to govern the locality, and after Liu Ye's observation, he found that Cao Cao was indeed interested in tidying up the place. It is true that he has the intention to let the people live a good life, at least, Cao Jun's attitude towards the people is different from Yuan Shujun's attitude towards the people. And also. Dealing with those local bullies, local forces and so on, they are all suppressed and eliminated as much as possible.

Seeing this, Liu Ye became interested in Cao Cao. Then I came to Xudu. took refuge in Cao Cao.

Right now. In the Yangzhou area, in fact, there are still many large and small potentials, although Cao Cao captured Shouchun, but there are still many places that have no time to take care of for the time being. Before, Cao Cao sent Cao Hong to garrison Yuzhou, just to let Cao Hong purge the bandits and robbers in Yuzhou, and then lead the army into Yangzhou to pacify those thieves who were making trouble. It's a pity that Cao Hong was defeated by Zhang Fei. failed to wave the army to Yangzhou again.

With the Cao army that Cao Cao is currently stationed in Yangzhou, it is not enough to eliminate the bandits, robbers and some powerful forces in Yangzhou. For example, after Yuan Shu was destroyed, Liu Xun, who fled to Lujiang, had tens of thousands of troops, and if Cao Cao hadn't sent a large army, he would have been difficult to exterminate him.

After Liu Ye voted for Cao Cao, he wanted to report to Cao Cao about the actual situation in Yangzhou now and how to govern Yangzhou in the future. It's just that now Cao Cao is at war with Yuan Shao's army, where is there any effort to pay attention to the affairs of Yangzhou?

Liu Ye also knew Cao Cao's current situation, so he also followed him to Guandu.

Cao Cao saw that it was Liu Ye, and knew that this young man was indeed a real talent and a counselor worthy of his reliance.

Therefore, Cao Cao said to Liu Ye tolerantly: "Hehe, look at what Ziyang said, it seems that you have a very good understanding of our current situation, do you have any ideas?" Well, why don't you tell Mr. Xun about our current situation first, who doesn't know the situation very well. ”

"Yes!" Although Liu Ye is young, he feels quite stable, and he is not timid because he faces too many big people.

He calmly responded, and then said to Xun You: "Mr. Xun, now Yuan Shao is constantly attacking our Guandu defense line, before our Guandu Pass, our army is guarding with the pass, and Yuan Shaojun can't help us." But the problem is that Yuan Shaojun's army of more than 700,000 troops has set up a position, so that our defense line has to grow, and in general, our current defense line is estimated to be twenty or thirty miles long. ”

"Well, although Xun hasn't been to the front to see it in person, he can estimate it, and there is no way to do it." Xun You continued: "Yuan Shao has a lot of troops, and the formation is too large, if we don't extend the defense line, we will let Yuan Shao attack from our flank to the Guandu Pass." At that time, we will not be against Yuan Shaojun, but will be surrounded by Yuan Shaojun. ”

"Indeed, now, except for relying on some mountains to resist Yuan Shao's army, there is really no way to stop Yuan Shao's army from attacking Xudu." Liu Ye nodded and said: "However, now Yuan Shaojun actually adopted a method that Liu had not heard of attacking the cottage wall on the hillside, and after these few days of advancement, now Yuan Shaojun can directly advance to a place more than 100 or 200 steps below the defensive wall on our half-mountain." In a few days, they will be able to launch a full-line attack on our defensive line directly from a short distance from our defensive wall. ”

"Oh? What the hell is this ......" Xun You heard this, and said a little confused: "This is unlikely, right?" Although this mountain range is not too steep, it can be more than one or two hundred steps from the middle of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain, right? Yuan Shaojun was able to advance so close? Didn't our army approve a lot of rolling stones and sassal wood? Aren't they afraid of the lethality of these things to them? ”

"Hehe......" Cao Cao smiled bitterly at this moment, and said to Xun You: "Mr. Xun, you should also know about Liu Yi, Yuan Shao, and Gongsun Zhan teaming up to crusade against Zhang Yan in Montenegro, right?" ”

"Of course that's true." How could Xun You not know about this incident? He nodded and said: "At that time, Zhang Yan was known as a million black mountain thieves, but later statistics, there should not be so many, even if there were, they were just some ordinary people who had just put down their farm tools." ”

"Not about that." Cao Cao shook his head and said: "I mean, at that time, Zhang Yan of Montenegro planned to defend Montenegro, and at that time, there was a walled wall in Montenegro that was built on some very steep slopes, which was even more steep than our current defensive wall. Then. Liu Yi used such a method to overcome the defensive wall of Montenegro, and finally killed Montenegro. Kill Zhang Yan. ”

"Well, Mr. Xun, Yuan Shaojun may have borrowed from Liu Yi's method of conquering Montenegro at the beginning, he cut down countless tree stumps under the foot of the defensive wall on our mountain, nailed the stumps to the ground, and then adopted the method of advancing step by step. We used those wooden stakes to block the rolling stones and sassalwood that we pushed down the mountain. Liu Ye explained.

"Ah, I see. Unexpectedly, Yuan Shao actually learned Liu Yi's attacking technique. It seems that it is really a bit tricky. "Xun You doesn't have to go to the front line to watch in person, listen to Cao Cao and Liu Ye say this. He could imagine the stake array in his mind. It is conceivable that through such a stake array, Yuan Shaojun can greatly shorten the distance they can attack the defensive wall on the mountain, and even directly advance to the bottom of the defensive wall.

These mountains are not steep, nor are they rocky, and it is quite easy to make stakes in the dirt of the mountains. As soon as Xun You thought of this, he knew that the current situation of Cao Jun was really not optimistic.

Liu Ye said again: "Liu has watched the wooden pile array before the Guandu Pass. Sure enough, it was very subtle, Yuan Shao's military horse. In that stake array, they can still form a formation, especially their archers, and they can also form a large-scale bow and arrow suppression of our army within the stake array. Originally, we were on the mountain, we were condescending, and the range of the bow and arrow was farther than the bow and arrow that Yuan Shaojun shot back, and we could shoot them if they didn't come. However, now that they have a large array of stakes, they can advance to within a hundred or two hundred paces, which makes their bows and arrows more lethal to our soldiers. Yesterday, there was a section of the defensive line that was completely suppressed by Yuan Shaojun's archers, almost allowing Yuan Shaojun to break through our defensive line. ”

"Well......" Xun You heard Liu Ye say in such detail, he couldn't help but want to compare this young strategist who was not long in Cao Cao, but he also seemed to be valued by Cao Cao, so he said to Liu Ye: "In this case, Xun is afraid that there is no way to worry about the main centimeter, Mr. Liu, you should have already figured out a way to deal with it, right?" ”

"Liu is not talented, he just thought of some methods, but I don't know if Lu Dao is useless, and I am about to report to the lord." Liu Ye was not modest at the moment, and directly hugged Cao Cao with his fist.

"There's a way? Ziyang, let's talk about it. Cao Cao urged anxiously.

"There are two ways, it depends on what choice the lord has to take." Liu Ye stretched out two fingers and said: "First, to break such a large array of wooden stakes, Liu thinks that the best thing is that when they launch a full-line attack on our defensive wall, our army will immediately counterattack it." I just heard Mr. Xun say, our Cao army, the elite sergeants, can be one as ten, we take the initiative to seek to meet with Yuan Shao's army in close combat, defeat the Yuan Shao army horses sent by Yuan Shao to attack the city, and follow them into the stake array, although this stake array is subtle, but as long as we also kill the stake array, Yuan Shaojun can not help us, when the time comes, it is a matter of the narrow road to meet the brave win. Their bows and arrows could not help the soldiers of our army hidden in the stake array. When the time comes, we can destroy their stake array, hehe, maybe, these stakes sent by Yuan Shao will eventually become the stakes for us to resist him. ”

"Well, that's number one." Liu Ye said: "Second, we now also know that we have piled up rolling stones and sassalwood on the defensive wall, and it is difficult to harm Yuan Shaojun who is hiding in the stake array. Why is that? Because whether it is a rolling stone or a sassal wood, it is all rolled down from above, in the process of rolling, if it is a bumpy place, it will definitely block the castration of the rolling stone and the sassal wood, and even block these objects that roll down from the mountain, Yuan Shao's wooden stake array may be such a reason. Therefore, Liu thought that if we threw some boulders directly into those wooden pile arrays from top to bottom, even if we couldn't destroy those wooden piles, it would inevitably cause great damage to Yuan Shaojun who were hiding in the wooden pile array. In this way, it is estimated that Yuan Shao's attack can be resisted, and time can be bought for the lord to send people to Hebei to explore the location of Yuan Shao's granary. ”

"Huh? That's right, the heavy objects that rolled down couldn't hurt the Yuan Shao soldiers in the stake array, but what if we threw the boulder directly into the stake formation from a high place? Cao Cao also sighed in surprise, and said almost in unison with Liu Ye: "Trebuchet!" ”

"That's right, lord, Liu thinks that in the overall situation, there is already Mr. Xun's plan to rob grain, then, there is no need for us to engage with Yuan Shao's army, short-handed, and we don't have to risk entering the stake formation to fight with Yuan Shao's superior forces, so Liu thinks that it is best to use a trebuchet to throw boulders condescendingly, and with the power of trebuchets, Yuan Shaojun will be able to be suppressed."

"Ha Luha, Cao ordered the study of trebuchets, and originally intended to be used only for siege purposes, but I didn't expect that now it can also come in handy."

"Well, lord, don't be too happy, Liu Mouzhi said, the lord did not send the trebuchet left in Xudu this time."

"Yes, yes, Ziyang, now I will transfer an army with you, you go back to Xudu quickly, and send all the trebuchets in Xudu, at this moment, the sky is not completely bright, you rush back, this time and again tomorrow morning, you must send the trebuchet to this Guandu."

"Yes!" (To be continued......)