One hundred and fifty-eight chapters

If it was placed in the past, Zhang Hu's marching speed certainly could not be compared with Yan Minwang's mixed Han army. Half of the people led by Yan Minwang are Tibetan soldiers, and the other half of the Han soldiers have lived in Taozhou for generations, and they have been following the customs of the countryside for a long time, and their various habits are not much different from the locals. These people's dependence on auxiliaries is much lower than that of traditional armies - any Ming army, including the empire's most elite Sun Jie, unless a long-distance march with a unified route is planned in advance, grain and grass will be prepared in advance on the way, under normal circumstances, some auxiliaries are close to the water source to camp for the soldiers, while the other part has to bury pots and cook, and a group of people must be divided to chop wood and fetch water, and the forage for military rations and horses must be carried by all auxiliaries or follow the large army with small carts, oxen and horses. As a result, the speed of the march will be very slow - the average speed can reach 30 miles a day, and it is definitely a first-class strong army. In many cases, the long journey of the army is like moving from a city: the blacksmiths and carpenters who accompany the army, the women's battalion who do the leather and meat business, the pigs, sheep and livestock, and all kinds of small businesses...... They all have to go with the army, and the speed of the march is limited faster than that of the turtle*. Before the advent of the modern logistics system, this problem was almost unsolvable, until the later Manchu Qing Dynasty, when the Crow War transferred troops to the front line in another way: to break up the whole into parts. The soldiers of the scattered units were divided into a number of "starts" and went to the battlefield on their own. For example, a certain battalion in Guizhou had 500 soldiers, scattered and stationed at more than 20 key checkpoints (called "flood lands") in a certain prefecture...... On the way, the magistrates were asked to eat by the waist sign or the road drawn by the governor. This trip, let alone a few months, has been the longest for more than a year, and the battle is over and has not yet arrived*! Concentrating forces for an assault is even more of a pipe dream.

Speaking of the grain platform, there is another phenomenon that seems very unbelievable today, which sounds like a fantasy, but in fact it is true - in some large-scale wars, in order to ensure the supply of military food on the front line, the imperial court will even organize people to go to the safety zone close to the front line to reclaim. After half a year and a year, the grain will be beaten down and put into the warehouse on the spot for the army that will come at that time to eat! For example, in the Pinghao'an Rebellion, the imperial court organized the people in Jiading, Chengdu and other places in advance to open a large area of military tun, and the same is true for Zuo Zongtang in later generations to recover Ili...... There are two reasons for this: the first is cost. In ancient times, there were no roads and railways, and there was no mechanized transportation capacity, relying on people to carry thousands of miles of grain on their shoulders, and the people themselves had to eat, and it was efficient to save one out of ten, but if it was farther, 95% of it might be consumed on the way, and no one could afford it. The second is that everyone is like this, and the efficiency of the opponent will not be high, so there is no need to worry about delaying the fighters, and the thousands of hungry soldiers who have no food to eat are the biggest crisis in the imperial court.

The people led by Yan Minwang are different. First of all, as long as it doesn't rain when camping, you don't need to set up a tent: wear half of the Tibetan robe wrapped around your waist and the other half around your waist, and you can sleep upside down. The second is that the physical strength is good, and the soldiers in the ordinary army are hungry after walking for most of the day, so they will naturally be weak and procrastinate. These people are different, they drove hundreds of yaks with the army to carry heavy loads, no matter which one is hungry, just find a cow and pull out a dagger to stab a guy, and then pour a belly of hot cow blood on the wound, and grab a handful of wet cow dung and paste it on the wound - the person is also in good spirits, and the cow is fine, continue to walk! The third is that the weight is limited, no matter how cold the weather is, you don't need to bring extra cotton clothes, and you can tie it into the yak herd at night to wrap how warm you are! Finally, everyone has a horse to ride...... What's more, Governor Ding gave a death order, and the prefectures and counties along the way prepared enough supplies.

Zhang Hu's speed is not slow. Because he also has nearly 2,000 horses - more than 1,000 horses were exchanged in the White Horse Road Cluster Division, and after entering Taozhou Wei, they were successively replaced with tea bricks and salt bricks along the way. The baggage he carried was not much, and he was in a hurry to go north, and there was no decent resistance in Lintao Mansion, so it was not until Anxiang (now Yongjing, Gansu) that the rear team was bitten by Yan Minwang.

After entering Shaanxi Province, Zhang Hu took the lead, and Fang Ge was responsible for the postponement. The Sumulian River is not far from the north of Anxiang, and one to the east leads to Ganzhou, which is today's Lanzhou, and the other is first to the southwest and then to the southeast and turns a 60-degree angle to merge with the Tao River, and Anxiang is located on the north bank of the Tao River. Fang Ge crossed the river with his front foot, and Yan Minwang's pursuers reached the south bank, and the two armies confronted each other across the river.

No matter how anxious he is, Commander Yan can't force the crossing - being hit by a half-crossing and being 100% hung up, it was a gift to Zhang Thief's head in vain, and it is impossible for Commander Yan to make such a low-level mistake. So the army turned back along the Tao River and crossed near the river pass downstream. After crossing the river, the striker sent a messenger to deliver a letter to the guards of Ganzhou, asking them to cooperate in the attack: as long as they could contain the thieves, they would only need to delay for a day at most, and they would be able to arrive.

It took three days for the army to cross the river, and just as they were about to pull out the camp, Tang Cai came back: Lanzhou has been defeated by Zhang Hu's front army, don't count on it! Lu Guangyu took away everything he could fight and then threw Sichuan to fend for himself, and the remaining old, weak, sick and disabled heard that King Zhang, who had defeated Lu's command, sought revenge and took out his nest, and scattered and fled to the surrounding forts, and now Zhang Hu is comfortable to stay in Lanzhou City and gnaw on the leg of mutton.

Yan Minwang was so angry that he hurriedly rushed forward, and then plunged headlong into Fang Ge's ambush circle.

But it was Fang Ge who suffered.

Finding the ambush, the pursuers of the Taozhou guard quickly formed a defensive circle with yaks. Like Qi Jiguang's car formation, it is the experience of how many actual battles have been exchanged for human lives, the two battalions ambushed by Fang Ge did not get any cheap at all, and Taozhou Wei almost had a strong bow! This is also a local characteristic - the elite troops in the interior have a high armor rate, and the effect of bows and arrows on armor is very poor, so the proportion of archers in the army has always been very low. The Tibetan border is different, except for the head and a limited number of cronies, the vast majority of Tibetan soldiers do not have iron armor, and the cavalry charge is to start with bows and arrows shooting at each other, so bows and arrows are standard.

Zhang Hu's armor rate here is not high, after all, it is impossible to bring iron armor after escaping from Baoning in a hurry, and there are some in the arsenal of Chaotianguan after joining Fang Ge, plus the capture of defeating Lu Yuguang, the whole army is barely less than forty percent. Fang Ge gave more than half of the armor to Zhang Hu's battalions, not that Fang Ge was more righteous, because the first battle in his life was to fight Lu Guangyu's ambush, and he won the destruction of the withering and decaying, so he took it for granted that all battles were like this, and the pursuers found that Zhongfu would run back like General Lu's gang of soldiers, and it was not easy to catch up with him when he wore iron armor.

An order was given to ambush the soldiers. There were two or three hundred cavalry in the ambush, and I expected them to crush the dog officers and soldiers at once, and then the cavalry drove in circles, and the infantry then pressed up to chase and slash, but I didn't expect that the other party not only did not run, but after a while, a large group of yaks squeezed to the front and blocked the road! What can I do? Vice Marshal Fang was at a loss for a while. The arrow must be fired, so the second drum smashed the infantry down and the whole army charged.

The soldiers rushed forward with a shout, and then Fang Ge saw a field of locusts rushing from behind the herd! The distance is close, only more than ten or twenty zhang, the soldiers of the Taozhou guard all use flat shooting, and the fifty or so cavalry who ran in the front did not dodge, and they fell down with a brush, stumbling the people and horses behind. In the second round of shooting, the Tibetan soldiers and the Han soldiers, who had become the majority of Tibetans, greeted the guys with mounted guns in a hurry, and the results of the battle under the overwhelming firepower advantage can be imagined. The third round of arrows was almost shot in front of the guys who rushed to the front of them without holding their feet, and the shooting effect was surprisingly good. Those fateful fellows ran to the cow only to find that the knife in their hand was still a foot long, but they couldn't reach the enemy on the other side, and they were in a hurry, and the spear on the opposite side had been stabbed on the back of the ox!

Fang Ge behind the formation saw it in his eyes, anxious in his heart - however, he just stared at it and couldn't help it. I have the intention to organize archers to shoot, but this idea was denied by myself as soon as it came out: not to mention that the archers are limited, more than a thousand bows are less than a hundred, and the other party is still hiding behind the ox, who loses and who wins can figure it out with their toes! If only there were more spearmen, it would be nice to stab the ox down without anyone - alas, no, how fast can you run with a spear? Half of the cavalry was lost in one photo, and the sword and shield soldiers still had a small round shield to protect the vital points, how could the spearmen raise their shields with their guns in both hands? The bows and arrows of this kung fu officer army must not be put down by half again!

It's so hateful! I'm all charged, why don't you run away? Are you officers and soldiers?

The cranky Fang Ge didn't remember that Ming Jin had withdrawn his troops, but he didn't need it: his own soldiers in front of him had already turned their heads and ran back. The only fortunate thing is that everyone still firmly believes that Zhang Dashuai is the chosen one, although he was defeated, his morale did not collapse, and he did not run around aimlessly, and he knew that he was running to his handsome banner.

After shooting two or three rounds of arrows at the backs of the deserters, Yan Minwang stopped everyone's desire to pursue, and did not pursue Fang Ge who was in a state of embarrassment: more than 300 people were killed and wounded on the ground, and these heads were enough to deal with themselves. Of course, Commander Yan didn't intend to deal with the errand and quit his troops, he would definitely continue to chase after him. His thoughts are like Sun Jie's: now that he has bitten this gang of thieves, Yan Minwang wants to play like a cat and a mouse, always keep in touch and always keep the pressure.

Yan Minwang knew that if he moved forward, it was the Shaanxi Xingdu Division of the Ming Dynasty. Along the side walls, there are fortresses everywhere, and every step of the thief's march has to pay a high price! As long as he is biting tightly in the back, it is only a matter of time before the thief's army collapses, and it is not a matter of catching Zhang Hu at that time? I don't know if there are any thieves in front of this ambush, if you are greedy and cheap to let the cooked duck fly away, it will be too cost-effective.

After cleaning the battlefield, the heads were all cut and pickled with lime, and Commander Yan took stock of the results: in this encounter, the beheading of two hundred and seventy-eight levels, how could the number of people who struggled to escape with injuries be less than this number, and half of them will be killed by arrow poison in the next few days (Commander Yan doesn't know what infection is). Your casualties are in the single digits. Several yaks died, and they were killed along with the seriously injured thieves and horses who couldn't walk with broken legs, and the whole army ate meat at night!

Lord Ding, the prefect of Lintao, was overjoyed. It seems that the thief is just crossing the border, and the target is not the main house. Moreover, although the soldiers of this house are unusable, the guest army of Taozhou Wei is simply a god soldier from heaven, too fierce! After seeing the head of the thief in person, Lord Ding patted his chest and spoke: The court's merit is a matter for the court, and the government can't treat the soldiers badly, come, each head will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver!

Yan Minwang's pursuers totaled about 2,000 people, and after such a fold, after a battle, each person got as many as three or four taels (the officers would definitely take more), and the cheers were thunderous! This transaction is too cost-effective, especially for Lord Ding: how much more than 10,000 taels of military salary has been deducted over the years? Lord Ding faintly had a thought: Is it possible to cut more soldiers in the future? The money is all up, it's all your own, if you have nothing to do, if something happens again - just ask Yan to command!

Lord Ding sent the silver, and Yan Minwang was of course happy. However, seeing the wine and food picks carried by the thousands of soldiers and civilians sent by Lord Ding, Commander Yan almost cried: Lord Ding, Lord Ding, you really don't know about our hidden soldiers!

Commander Yan's worries became a reality in a blink of an eye, and the troops had delayed their precious pursuit time for two days!

For other armies, the Lao army will of course be sincerely grateful to the generals for their wine and meat. If there is a lot of wine, the general will command: "Each fruit is divided into one jar, and when the rest is victorious, Ben will get drunk with his brothers!" ”

But that's not the case with the Tibetan soldiers! Until the last drop of wine is drunk, the army will never move a step forward! Not to mention that the generals can't stop them, and the king of heaven can't come over in person! After drinking too much wine, everyone held hands around the bonfire and sang and danced, jumped and danced, fell asleep, and the next day got up in a daze and urinated, and the next thing was to continue to look for the wine jar! Therefore, the leaders of the Tibetan army will never bring wine: if you kill the opponent's stockade, you will be fine if you drink yourself to death, and before that, you must not let them see a drop of wine!

If Fang Ge came to counterattack at this time, Yan Commander would almost have to be wiped out here. But where would Zhang Hu Fangge know this, gritting his teeth and running and hating: how could he just get rid of Sun Jie's evil star, how could he keep up with such a guy again, I have never heard of it before, but it is even more fierce than Sun Jie, and the passing years are greatly disadvantaged.

In just two days, a huge accident occurred that allowed Zhang Hu to escape.

* You can refer to the marching and camping scene of the Roman legions in the American drama "Spartacus", which is very realistic: the camp of the regular legion is decent, with camp walls, camp gates, horse rejections, and lookouts; The auxiliary barracks accompanying the army resembled a chaotic market, with all kinds of petty traders, artisans, and prostitutes...... Crowded together in a mess, next to the Legion camp. At that time, the logistics of the army were heavily dependent on these people, and they also supported themselves by doing the business of the army. However, this can only happen when the empire is at its strongest and the expedition is launched—with strict discipline and confidence in victory. Like the chaotic times at the end of the Ming Dynasty described in this book, it is completely impossible: of course, the thieves are blindly robbing, even the officials and soldiers are no different, and they are still afraid to avoid these evil stars, and it is impossible to take the initiative to send them to rob.

*For details, please refer to Mr. Mao Haijian's masterpiece "The Collapse of the Celestial Empire, Re-study of the Opium War", and "The Military and Diplomacy of the Two Opium Wars in Modern Times".

[Six-day stoppage.] Readers share more with friends - the story is made up, and the knowledge points are quite hardcore, hehe. 】