War is never child's play - this is the most profound conclusion that Zhang Xi has come to after more than ten years.

A bad command from a coach can have very serious consequences. At the worst, the soldiers will lose their lives, and at the worst, they will lose the city and land, and their lives will not be saved.

Therefore, in terms of battle formations, unless it is necessary to fight hard, Zhang Xi's use of troops has always been cautious and cautious.

Therefore, Liu Bei assembled the army of the Southern Expedition in early September, a total of more than 30,000 people, and also prepared grain and grass, but Zhang Xi did not set off directly.

First, the generals of the various ministries are not yet in place.

Yamen Wang Ping and Yizhou don't drive Li Hui are already in place, because they have been in Chengdu all the time, but the others have their own work to hand over, especially Zhang Wei, who is far away in Xiangyang, from Xiangyang to Hanzhong by boat, and then from Hanzhong to Chengdu, at least a month.

Second, although the soldiers are in place, only half of the soldiers that Liu Bei made up this time are veterans of the Han Dynasty, and the remaining half are all family soldiers who were temporarily put together by some families.

Although these people are outlaws with good physical fitness and fierce combat, they do not understand military formations at all, and they have no military discipline to speak of.

With such an army, Zhang Xi will not let them go directly to the battlefield, otherwise God knows what trouble these people can cause.

Therefore, it still needs to be trained.

Thirdly, the climate of that place in the south. I don't know what Zhuge Liang thinks, why did he cross Lu in May, isn't this attacking when the miasma is at its heaviest.

Wouldn't it be better for you to wait until December winter to march into the army?

In that place in Nanzhong, it is not cold in December, which does not affect the movement of Yizhou soldiers, and can also avoid most of the miasma infestation.

Speaking of miasma. Really, thanks to Zhang Ji, he spent more than five years in Jingzhou, revised the manuscript several times, and finally wrote "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases".

In addition to the principles of typhoid fever and the prescriptions for its prevention and treatment, the book also describes in detail the prevention and treatment methods for some common miasma.

The original manuscript of "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases" is hidden in Yuelu Academy, Zhang Ji himself is also very nourishing, and he lived in Yuelu Academy.

As for the printed version of "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases", Liu Bei Group ordered that all states and counties must archive a copy for doctors in all states and counties to watch for free. Just this one, let the people of Yizhou be grateful to Liu Bei, and at the same time, Zhang Ji himself rose to the status of "teacher of doctors" in the hearts of doctors.

Zhang Xi was in Chengdu, of course, it was easy to find "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases", and then according to the means of prevention and control of miasma epidemic in the book, he began to hoard various materials for the prevention and treatment of miasma.

Not only some medicinal herbs for the treatment of miasma diseases, but most importantly, a large number of wormwood and maocao are purchased to make mosquito repellent and insect repellent medicines.

The army could not afford to use mosquito nets, after all, there were too many people, even if they used twine to make mosquito nets, it was a large expense, and these mosquito nets were also easily damaged by constantly marching and moving camps.

Therefore, the main means of mosquito repellent in the army has to be solved by relying on arquebuses or smoked materials made of grass and wormwood.

In these things, Zhang Xi consciously asked Ma Tan, who was in the governor's logistics work, to prepare to keep Ma Jian busy, and he was not at home every day, so he almost fell asleep in the barracks.

That's right.

Going out with the army is not simply talking to the boss about some strategy, coming up with a plan, and then shaking the fan and watching the success or failure, Zhuge Liang can't do this.

If you want to be a general, or if you want to lead an army, you have to figure out these basic things first.

To be honest, Ma Jian also felt that he seemed to have made a mistake.

When he heard that he could go out with the army and manage the logistics of the entire army, he immediately felt that he had been reused and could realize his dream.

But. The whole job seems to be quite different from what I thought.

Why do the Governor's logistics people need to do so much?!

It is not only necessary to calculate the daily need for grain and grass and distribute it to the battalions, but also to be responsible for preparing all kinds of materials in advance, taking into account the speed of the march along the way, where to set up camp, and how many camp tents and camp timber need to be prepared.

In the face of different terrains, it is necessary to prepare different types of camping materials, and in case of different weather, we must also consider the replacement of materials, and at the same time, we must also pay attention to whether the selection of water sources is convenient, which all need to be considered by Ma Tan in advance.

During the march, it doesn't mean that the commander can camp in any place he chooses, so what do you want you, the governor's logistics officer, to do, just distribute the grain and grass, and send a warehouse official.

Sometimes Ma Jian is busy and busy, and there is always an illusion - is this really the kind of barracks life I want?!

What I hope for should be the kind of military life where the enemy army is wiped out while talking and laughing, right?!

But now, dealing with grain and grass materials every day, how can you still feel this kind of leisure.

Ma Jian thinks that this is not the military life he wants.

But the problem is that Ma Yan's qualifications are very shallow now, if he resigns because he dislikes the hard work of logistics, then who will dare to use himself in the future?!

Besides, it's not that you haven't learned anything.

If you can really preside over the logistics supply of 30,000 people, then in the future, you will lead 30,000 troops to go to battle, not to mention combat, at least there is no problem of leading troops to march at all.

In a dilemma, Ma Tan finally chose to persevere and continue to be busy in the barracks.

When the time came to mid-November, the generals of all the departments had arrived, and the soldiers had almost finished their training, Zhang Xi began to inspect the army and prepare for the expedition.

To be honest, the quality of this batch of non-commissioned officers is already a relatively poor batch among all the sergeants Zhang Xi has bred.

The quality is only a little bit stronger than the group of county soldiers brought in Padang County.

The quality of the soldiers cannot be compared with the Jingzhou soldiers, and the ordnance is only conventional ordnance, and even the ratio of Miao knives is not very high.

Although Guan Yu has been sent to Yizhou for the technology of steel filling method, Liu Bei has been busy preparing for the battle of Hanzhong in recent years, requiring a large number of weapons and ordnance, coupled with the huge number of troops, so the steel filling method and Miao knife, which have relatively high requirements for secrecy, have not been rolled out for production at the first time, but only forged a part, and most of the troops have been redressed, most of which are still the original ordnance.

Of the 30,000 troops allocated to Zhang Xi this time, only 5,000 were equipped with new-style Miao knives, and the rest of the soldiers were all still ring-headed knives.

Zhang Xi simply assigned these 5,000 people directly to Zhang Wei's command as his own Chinese army escort, and the other ordinary soldiers were handed over to Zhang Yi, Ma Zhong, Li Hui and others to command.

Wang Ping is an exception.

After Zhang Xi saw Wang Ping, he immediately asked Wang Ping to recruit people who were familiar with mountain warfare in the tribe.

These people, Zhang Xi is going to be used as a surprise soldier, after all, the terrain in the Nanzhong region is complicated, and they run in the mountains compared to those Nanzhong barbarians, and Zhang Xi is also worried that the Yizhou Shi clan is not the opponent of others.

Wang Ping's recruitment work also went smoothly, thanks to Zhuge Liang's "favor".

A few years ago, when Zhang Xi was tidying up Yanshan in Badong County, there was a group of people who really didn't know how to resettle, and it happened that Zhuge Liang was short of people to renovate Dujiangyan, so Zhang Xi handed over these people to Zhuge Liang to resettle.

After that, many people came out of the mountains one after another and defected to their hometowns, and these people took root in the plains near Chengdu.

Although these people are now farming like the Han people, the ability to climb mountains and wade through rivers will not be forgotten in such a short time, coupled with the kindness of "Zhuge Gong", these people are all supportive of Wang Ping's recruitment.

Wang Ping recruited more than 1,000 people very smoothly, and Zhang Xi put these people into a battalion, completely handed them over to Wang Ping's command, and according to Wang Ping's requirements, provided these people with all kinds of strange equipment.

After doing all this, Zhang Xi finally asked Liu Bei for instructions that he could set off south to quell the rebellion.

Then it was the oath and the expedition, and Liu Bei personally sent the army out of the city.

In the send-off procession, in addition to Liu Bei, Pang Tong and Fa Zheng all came.

Well, Zhuge Liang didn't come, he followed his brother Zhuge Jin to Jiangling at this time, and he left two months ago, and now he is probably busy arguing with Zhou Yu, Zhang Zhao and others to renegotiate the covenant.

Pang Tong and Fa Zheng were a little uneasy.

Zhang Xi's ability, the two of them are at ease, but the problem is that Zhang Xi has brought a lot of generals on this expedition, but except for Li Hui, Ma Jian and Zhang Wei, Pang Tong and Fa Zheng don't know anyone else, and some people haven't even heard of it.

Although, the combat effectiveness of the barbarians in these years is like that, and the headache in Nanzhong is that it has rebelled, rebelled, and capricious, but it is not really impossible to defeat.

But what. Isn't it a bit careless to go south with this lineup configuration?!

WHAT ZHANG Yi,MA Zhong,WANG Ping. In the past, it was either a county order or an alien race, but it can really work?!

Zhang Xi was not worried at all.

In particular, I will take the four governors of the city, plus a second Hanzhong Taishou as a general, and the future Yue Taishou Ma Jian will take care of the logistics for me, if I can't cut a group of Nanzhong barbarians, then I can directly make a piece of tofu and kill it.

Therefore, Zhang Xi confidently persuaded Pang Tong and Fa Zheng, and then officially led the army to set off from Chengdu.

But before he could reach Jiangyang County, Zhang Xi suddenly got a report that someone had come to join the army.

The person who came claimed to be "Guan Suo", the third son of Guan Junhou.

Zhang Xi was puzzled. I have been in and out of Guan Yu's mansion so many times, and I have even lived for more than a month, and I haven't seen Guan Yu's third son?!

Where did this rope come from?!

(End of chapter)