Cheng Gongying couldn't keep up with Han Sui's train of thought, but fortunately, he had already memorized the map of Xiliang in his heart. He scratched his head and said hesitantly: "If you can't attack the city, the lord can only go northwest and make a detour to Qiangzhong?" ”

Han Sui stroked his palms and laughed, and said: "Yes, it is to walk from Qiangzhong, bypass Longxi County, and then take the river bridge between Jianwei City and Guiyi City, cross the river, and then return to Yunwu City, and finally cross the river into Jincheng." Isn't that the best option for me? ”

Cheng Gongying finally reacted at this time and said, "The lord is trying to use his voice to attack the west. Since Ma Chao would imagine that our army would take the route of Qiangzhong, the lord would plan and send a group of soldiers and horses to pretend to be the main force and flee to Qiangzhong. In fact, the lord still wants to attack the city and flee. ”

"Amazing, Boying. The whole army is up and down, and you can understand the old man. Han Sui looked at Cheng Gongying with satisfaction, and felt a sense of pity.

After Cheng Gongying was opened up, he said: "How difficult it is for our army to attack the city! Therefore, this plan is to let Ma Dai discover the part disguised as the main force. Once Ma Dai was in the scheme, he naturally led his army out of the city to chase and kill the so-called "main force of our army". Then, our army will have the opportunity to take the weakly defended city. ”

Han Sui smiled: "Yes, that's it. ”

Cheng Gongying said: "According to reliable information, Ma Dai is stationed in Caohan City. At that time, the suspicious soldiers will be able to pass under the city of Caohan. Ma Dai was responsible for the defense of Longxi County, and when he saw that our army was about to flee from Qiang, how could he dare not go out of the city to pursue? When he leads his army to chase the suspicious soldiers and run away, our army will be able to take the city of Caohan effortlessly! ”

Han Sui nodded a little smugly and said, "Ma Chao is ready to arrive." Without further ado, our army will act. ”

Han Sui convened the generals, and finally ordered Liang Xing, leading 8,000 cavalry as suspicious soldiers.

…………………………………………

On this side, Ma Chao didn't know that his battle had pulled so many heartstrings. Ma Chaozheng led 50,000 horsemen, marched unhurriedly, and sent scouts to the four directions to search for the traces of Han Sui's remnants; And sent countless heralds to and fro with the city of Caohan garrisoned by Ma Dai, and kept in touch all the time.

When preparing for night, Ma Chao still supervised the march of the army. At this moment, a scout suddenly rushed back from the southwest and said to Ma Chao: "Lord, there is information in the direction of Jicheng." ”

Ma Chao was interested and said, "Is Han Sui near Jicheng?" Ma Chao thought that it would be better if Han Sui was in Jicheng, his space would be further compressed, and he would be farther away from Jincheng and the Hexi Corridor.

The scout said, "No. There are 20,000 foot soldiers of Han Sui's army and 60,000 or 70,000 people, miscellaneous servants, craftsmen, etc., who learned that the lord was here and wanted to surrender to the lord. ”

Ma Chao was a little vigilant, the troops of about 100,000 people were about to surrender even though they still had combat strength, this was not another trick by Han Sui. The Battle of Chibi is a trick; During the Western Jin Dynasty, Hongnong was too guarded by the wall and surrendered, killing the Hun Liu Cong and throwing away his armor; Last time, Han Sui used a deception to surrender and almost succeeded in entering his camp, which shows that this deception is not fun.

Ma Chao glanced at Pang De behind him, Pang De understood, he said: "Young master, even if it is a fraudulent plan, Han Sui does not even need to use the people as bait, after all, the grain and grass are all under the escort of the people." ”

After Ma Chao heard this, his heart calmed down a little, and the scout added: "They also said that Han Sui abandoned them since the Battle of Ayang. Now they just want to take refuge in the lord, and they are willing to be the lord's subordinates and let them be disposed of. ”

After hearing this, Ma Chao's heart finally settled. Presumably, when Han Sui was pursuing, there were not enough war horses for 20,000 foot soldiers to ride, so he had to let them and Minfu be the queen. After the Battle of Ayang, Han Sui did not dare to return to the dead end of Jicheng, so he failed to join the infantry army.

Ma Chao then ordered Pang De to lead 5,000 cavalry to collect the more than 100,000 men, which would take time, especially to split the divisions, break up the organization, reorganize the organization, and reappoint officers at all levels. So Ma Chao ordered the army to be stationed first.

Ma Chao thought, even a foot soldier is not bad. You must know that since ancient times, Liangzhou has not only the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, but also the heavy infantry unique to Liangzhou. Ma Chao recalled the history of the Western Jin Dynasty.

In 307 A.D. of the Western Jin Dynasty, Liu Yuan and Wang Mi, the lords of the Xiongnu Han Kingdom, led more than 100,000 foot cavalry to besiege Luoyang. Seeing that the Han army was about to attack the city, Beigong Chun led his more than 1,000 guards wearing heavy armor and holding heavy soldiers, relying on the city gate to line up. Most of the Han troops were elite cavalry, and they shot arrows at Beigong Chun's guard cavalry, but because the armor and shields of the Liangzhou heavy soldiers were strong, they could not shake the slightest. The Han army then rushed into battle, and Beigong Chun led his heavy soldiers to meet him head-on and defeated the Han army with one blow. During the battle, the Han army suffered heavy casualties, and Liu Yuan had to withdraw his troops.

In the third year of Yongjia in the Western Jin Dynasty, Liu Cong, the son of Liu Yuan, led 50,000 iron cavalry and 30,000 foot soldiers to besiege Luoyang City for the third time. It also coincided with Zhang Liang sending Beigong Chun to Luoyang City to do business. At night, Beigong Chun led more than 1,000 of his Liangzhou heavy soldiers into the Xiongnu military camp, holding a big blade and cutting people at sight, defeating tens of thousands of Xiongnu elites in one fell swoop. The Han army not only suffered heavy losses, but also Sikong Hu Yanyi (Liu Yuan's old father-in-law) and the captured general Hu Yanhao died in the battle. Liu Cong had no choice but to withdraw his troops.

Twice defeated the Hun iron cavalry, so that Liangzhou heavy pawn famous, nursery rhyme said: Liangzhou horse, rampant in the world.

Thinking of this, Ma Chao already had an idea about the 20,000 foot soldiers in his heart. Since the people of Liangzhou are tall and strong, suitable for carrying heavy armor and being heavy pawns, and now there are 20,000 Liangzhou foot soldiers who have been on the battlefield for a long time to come uninvited, and they will attack the city in the future, so why not train them to be heavy pawns, just like Beigong Chun's guards?

Thinking of this, Ma Chao felt happy in his heart, anyway, the consumption of foot soldiers was only one-sixth of that of the iron cavalry, and Ma Chao decided that all the 20,000 foot soldiers would be wanted.

Soon, Pang De came back and said, "Young master, the last general has sent someone to collect those soldiers, and no one resists to break up the tribe." Now it is methodically disrupting everyone. ”

Ma Chao nodded, and sent more than a dozen Yangyi lieutenants in the army to replace the lieutenants, military horses, military marquis and other officers of the newly built subordinate tribe he selected, and publicized his ideas and affirmed military discipline.

Pang De said again: "Young master, there are more than 1,000 craftsmen, and they have now been integrated into our army. The miscellaneous servants and the people also handed over to the young master the remaining more than 600,000 stones, grains and grass, countless forages, iron armor, leather armor, bows and arrows, crossbow machines, swords, spears, horse armor, armor and riding equipment, etc. The military Chinese official estimated that these armaments, together with the surplus armaments of our army, were enough to equip 200,000 iron cavalry and 400,000 foot soldiers. ”

Ma Chao didn't care about this. The bamboo slips unearthed from the Yinwan Han Tomb record that in the arsenal of Donghai County in the Yongshi period of the Western Han Dynasty, there were 9,991 shields, 142322 leather armor, 63,324 armors, and 587299 armor; 97,584 horses and more than 5,000 sets of cavalry armor; 1,421 pieces of vehicle beryllium, 449801 pieces of beryllium, 50,178 pieces of spears, and 78,392 pieces of square (halberd); 156135 knives, 99,901 swords; 2,080 saddle sheaths and 825 horse sheaths; 537707 crossbow machines, including 11,181 crossbows for vehicles, 526526 ordinary crossbows, 263798 crossbow arms without crossbow machines, 77,521 bows, and 3,987 bowstrings; There are 564 crossbow cars and 10 crossbow cars. A Donghai County can be equipped with at least 500,000 foot riders, not to mention that Han Sui looted most of Liangzhou. Besides, Donghai County is still an inner county, and there are so many equipment, not to mention Liangzhou, which is under the focus of the imperial court, so it should be more.