The Han army's troops on the northern front fought against the idea of hoarding hay in these tribes, and those envoys and "CIA" personnel set out in advance in order to communicate with the chiefs of those tribes and get them to promise to transfer a part of the grain and grass to ensure that the war horses of the army could get enough forage.

In addition, they can also transfer a part of cattle and sheep and other livestock to supply the army with supplementary meat. It is true that the army brought dry food for 10 days, but most of these dry foods are made of rice flour, which is low in protein, and if there is more meat supplement, it is very good for the soldiers to maintain their combat effectiveness.

Moreover, if you can save as much dry food as possible in these ten days, you can still get food supplements in the Hetao area, and when you enter the territory of Wei, you will inevitably have to face a series of fierce battles, and it will be more difficult to replenish food at that time, and you may not even have time to find food for the army. Therefore, it is best to save dry food for emergency use when the war is tight.

This time the army crossed the border, and almost all the surplus grain and surplus forage in the tribes of the Hetao were all gone, and fortunately the Hetao Plain was a rich place, otherwise it would not have been able to supply such a large number of troops.

Of course, this time the supplies can be smoothly replenished, and these envoys and "CIA" personnel who set off in the early stage are indispensable, and if they had not done a lot of work, it would not have been possible to acquire such a large amount of materials in a short period of time.

Therefore, the success or failure of the war does not depend only on the army, in addition to fighting, there is a lot of work to be done, for example, the "give way" mentioned above is also one of the important tasks they do.

There are many tribes scattered along the way of the army's planning, and their presence will block the passage of the army, limit their speed, and even some forces that do not know whether they are alive or dead will harass the army, which will have a certain impact on the safety of the army.

Therefore, those emissaries and "CIA" personnel need to clear a clear path for the army to pass quickly. It's not that the tens of thousands of troops of the Han army can't defeat these forces, but there is no need to make extraneous branches at this time, according to the strategic intention of the General Staff (in fact, Liu Hou and his four think tanks), the combat policy of the troops on the northern front is to be fast and sudden.

Originally, the combat policy was to be fast and hidden, but considering that tens of thousands of people and 200,000 war horses crossed the border, it was impossible for such a huge contingent to be hidden.

Because if you carry out a surprise attack, the enemy will not have time to react, and if you have no time to react, then the effect achieved will be similar to that of concealment. However, "suddenly" and "fast" are actually the same thing, and they all boil down to one word: "fast".

Therefore, the Northern Route Army must march as fast as possible, and go as fast as it can, in the hope of catching the enemy by surprise. Since it is necessary to be fast, it is necessary to clear all obstacles on the road as much as possible in advance, so that the army can pass as soon as possible without obstacles. Therefore, the preliminary work of the envoy and the "CIA" personnel is very important.

Most tribes can be done by buying and luring, but when the forest is big, there are all kinds of birds, and there is never a shortage of people in this world who are not afraid of death, or people who can't see the situation clearly. They were very unfriendly and even hateful to the Han army, not only would they not provide food and give way to the Han army, but they would also send troops to harass the passage of the army, endangering the safety of the army.

Then the other words come into play: coercion, purge, and assassination. This is also the reason why there were not only messengers holding holy decrees in the early stage, but also "CIA" personnel.

The "CIA" personnel are not vegetarians, and some of them are spies who are good at intelligence detection, and more are special forces who are good at sneak attacks, assassinations, and snipers. For those disobedient chieftains and tribes, they were all eliminated by thunder, so that not only could they get their food and grass for free, but also made way for the troops, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

Of course, in fact, the "CIA" does not have so many special forces, and most of the special forces come from the special forces of the 1st Division, who are temporarily seconded to the "CIA" to carry out this important task.

As a result of the preliminary work, the army marched south unhindered, and soon passed through the Hetao region and reached Xiao Pass, which was the core of the Wei state[1].

Xiao Guan stood in the Liupan Mountain Pass, guarding the passage from the direction of the Jing River into Guanzhong. Since the Warring States Period, Qin and Han dynasties, the Xiaoguan Ancient Road has always been the main channel for military, economic and cultural exchanges between Guanzhong and the north.

The Great Wall of the Warring States Qin Dynasty is from west to east, across the Huanjiang River, crossing the old road of Xiaoguan, setting up blockages along the river, building cities and passes, building Xiaoguan at this intersection, that is, the pass built on the Great Wall, and it is also one of the earliest passes in the history of the Great Wall, and the strategic location is extremely important.

Xiao Pass is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, but once it breaks through Xiao Pass, the entire Hanzhong is in front of you, and it can be said that there is no danger to defend in Pingchuan. In fact, the situation that the Northern Route Army would encounter Xiao Pass on the way to march had long been expected by the General Staff.

No matter which direction you take, there must be at least one pass that cannot be bypassed, the difference is only the difficulty of attacking and the number of passes.

The most difficult to attack and the largest number of passes is, of course, the eastern front, and this direction is also the direction of the Wei army's key defense. From east to west, the three Xiongguan passes of Guanghu Pass, Hangu Pass, and Tongguan are enough to make people's teeth sour, not to mention, Wei also set up other small passes, cities, stockades and fortresses along the way and other dense fortifications.

It is conceivable that if we want to advance from the eastern front to Chang'an and attack the city all the way, even if the Hong army uses the sharp attack power of firearms, it will definitely take time and energy, and it is estimated that it will not be able to do it in three or five months. The reason why Sima Yi formulated the strategy of letting the troops of the northern front break into the pass to carry out a sneak attack was based on the consideration of avoiding the real and making the hypocritical.

In order to guard against the Han army from the east, Wei will inevitably concentrate the main force of the army on the eastern front, so that the defensive forces in other directions will inevitably be relatively weak. I'm afraid that the whole Wei State would never have thought that the Han army would make a detour of thousands of miles and invade Hanzhong from the direction of the grassland.

Of course, if the Hong army had not captured so many war horses, it would indeed not have been able to achieve this feat, but the Xianbei people provoked the Hong army first, so that the first and second divisions destroyed the two most powerful Xianbei forces, and captured tens of thousands of war horses, so that this plan could be implemented. This cannot but say that there is a providence in the dark.

Note 1: The geography here is a bit confusing, Xiao Pass should be the gateway to the northwest of Guanzhong, and entering from the northeast should not pass through Xiao Pass.

I originally wrote it on a so-called "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" map, as we all know, Lao Luo is also a geographical idiot~ idiot, and there are many geographical fallacies in the romance.

In fact, the geography in the previous plot was wrong, it was impossible for the Han army to occupy Jinyang so quickly, if Jinyang was occupied, there would be no danger to defend along the way from Jinyang to Chang'an. Therefore, it should be that these places in Jinyang are the borders of Wei, so that they can rely on Taihang Mountain, Luliang Mountain, etc. as natural hazards to hold.

But it's still the same sentence.,Just when the plot needs it.,As long as you don't look at ancient maps, modern maps and satellite maps,You shouldn't think there's anything wrong with it (I just studied all kinds of maps for a long time before I found this problem.)。