Chapter 30 General Trend

With Cao Yudong fleeing to Jizhou, only Xin Bi himself was left in Bingzhou.

Wei Yan and Zhang Fei triumphantly joined forces outside Jinyang City. The two haven't seen each other for nearly two years, and they are very happy to meet, making good-natured jokes with each other, hand in hand, and entering the account together. Wei Yan is the general of Duliao at the moment, and his grade is naturally not as good as Zhang Fei, so he has to obey Zhang Fei's dispatch. Although Zhang Feiren is old, he is not nonsense, and he does not regard Wei Yan as his subordinate, so he laughed: "Let's discuss." ”

In fact, there is nothing to negotiate about the attack on Jinyang City, and it does not work at all to persuade Xinbi to surrender or anything, and the only way to say it is to attack the city. Zhang Fei sneered: "There are few people in Jinyang, our army has a lot of soldiers, and they attack from all sides, he is an iron walnut, I don't believe that I can't smash it." Wei Yan clapped his hands: "That's it!" ”

Jinyang is not an iron walnut, without Cao Yu and Cao Zhao's Chinese army, there is a serious shortage of troops in Jinyang City. In fact, Liang Xi is in Japan, and there are a lot of people in Bingzhou, and his strength is not weak. After Lord Xinbi eliminated the alien races in the military horses of Bingzhou, his strength dropped by more than half, and some time ago, in the days when Xinbi, a wise man, boldly blocked Zhang Fei, a martial artist, he was beaten by Zhang Fei's unreasonable, unreasonable, undisciplined, and unconventional weapons, even tearing and biting, eager to swallow even the bones and dregs, in addition to Zhang Fei, the giant, he was repeatedly rebelled, attacked by the Huns, and covered Cao Yu and others to leave, and the casualties were very heavy. At present, there are less than 10,000 people left in the entire Jinyang City. Among these 10,000 people, those who are really dedicated to the country and want to die with the city like Xinbi are afraid that they will not even reach a thousand.

Zhang Fei stood majestically on the high platform outside the city, waved his hand, and the Han army shouted in unison, rushing to the four gates of Jinyang like a tide. Overwhelming bows and arrows flew up the city walls and suppressed the Wei army's defenses. The dense rain of arrows made it impossible for the Wei army to raise its head. Although the Han army did not bring many siege weapons. But the victory was in the high morale and strong troops, and in every position, it was like five or six Han troops attacking a Wei army, and several times in one day, they almost broke through the city gate and entered the city. Simbi himself stood at the head of the city with his sword, shouting loudly. Boost morale. Guan Feng didn't like it, and suddenly slapped the horse to kill, her horse was fast, the arrow was accurate, and an arrow was shot, and it hit the shoulder of Lord Shi, which was still blocked by Liang Shi, otherwise I was afraid that Shi would be stabbed.

The day passes. The Han army did not rest and continued to attack the city. The people in the city were sleepy and tired, and they couldn't open their eyes when they were tired. The news of Xinbi's injury spread, and it was rumored in the army that Xinbi was dead, and the army's heart was chaotic for a while.

In the middle of the night, the troops of the West Side deceived the battalion. Liang Shi personally led the men and horses to bomb and suppress, but before it was pacified, the troops in Beicheng were in chaos again. Liang Shi was half tired overnight. At dawn, I was about to take a break. Suddenly, there was chaos at the East Gate. He hurriedly led people to arrive, the whole street was already inaccessible, the rebels were like ants, densely packed, and there were even more hidden forces in Ji Han's knowledge, they were clamoring while taking the opportunity to rush out, shouting frantically: "Tianxing Ji Han." Those who surrender to Han will not die! "On the one hand, he opened the east city with the rebels, cut the locks, and let the Han army enter the city. Liang Shi fought hard to kill, where could he stop the Han army from entering the city like a tide, one lost his mind, his horse's leg was cut off, and he fell off his horse, and seven or eight Han troops rushed up. Knock him to the ground. Tied up.

Simbi knew that the tide was turning, and he was wounded by an arrow. Leaving the Assassin's Mansion and heading straight for the granary, he ordered a fire, but he threw himself into the fire and set himself on fire to death. The Han army then arrived, and the whole army vigorously put out the fire and rescued, but there were still hundreds of thousands of stones of grain turned into ashes, so angry that Zhang Fei screamed again and again, and scolded non-stop. No matter what, Ji Han still picked the fruit of Bingzhou in his hands.

The news flew to Luoyang (there are carrier pigeons, of course they fly), Kong Ming and I couldn't help but be overjoyed, although we knew that this battle would be won, but the victory was so neat but it was still beyond my expectations, it only took a month to occupy the entire state, which can be called a god speed.

At that moment, I issued an order to seal Wei Yan as the assassin of the state, so that he could stabilize the place and resume production, and the Li brothers quickly quelled the riots everywhere, compiled the names of the Xiongnu meritorious people, incorporated them into the Northern Army, and transferred them to Luoyang. First, the Northern Army is the strongest army of Ji Han, and the soldiers are proud to enter the Northern Army, which is a pull for these two tribes, and it seems that Ji Han attaches importance to them, and secondly, these two tribes lose strong generals, so they will be more controlled, and third, they join the Northern Army, and Ji Han's strength can also be enhanced. Kong Ming listened to my deployment, and just waved a feather fan and smiled, although he didn't speak, but from his eyes, he could see what he meant: Your Majesty's words won my heart.

As for my father and son's reuse of Wei Yan, although he has never believed in Wei Yan, he will not pursue it at this time.

There was a small episode on the front line, that is, Zhang Bao asked Cao Zhao to duel, but unfortunately it did not materialize. Ten days later, Zhang Baokong waited for a whole day, but he didn't wait for Cao Zhao, he was so angry that he screamed, and even said that he shouldn't let Cao Zhao leave, such a treacherous villain can be killed. But in fact, he blamed Cao Zhao wrongly, not that Cao Zhao didn't want to come, but that he couldn't come. At this time, he was transferred back to Yecheng by his "childhood sweetheart" good friend, Emperor Cao Rui of Wei Ming.

Yecheng is already in chaos. At present, Ji Han has taken Huguan, which is only more than 300 miles away from Yecheng, the capital of Cao Wei, and there is almost no danger to defend on this road, which is ten times more tense than when Guan Yu attacked Xiangyang and Cao Cao wanted to move the capital. At the moment, Cao Wei is arguing whether to move the capital again or shrink the front.

In fact, before the Battle of Weinan and the Battle of Luoyang, Cao Wei was definitely the strongest of the Three Kingdoms, but whether in history or in this era, he did not have an overwhelming advantage over Ji Han and Eastern Wu during this period. Even Kong Ming went on several northern expeditions, and used infantry to chase Cao Wei, the strongest cavalry in the world, to fight, so that Sima Yi played the trick of passing letters for thousands of miles and announcing the edict at the camp gate of Xinbi. Of course, there is Kong Ming's brilliant talent in this period, but there is also another reason, that is, Cao Wei's strength is not as strong as people think. His overall strength is strong, but he has been established everywhere, and his forces are scattered.

The strength of a country does not depend entirely on the size of the territory it occupies, it is true that Cao Cao fought all his life to fight in the east and west, with his peerless posture. With his incomparable hegemony, it has proved that he is the first person in the world, and when he is the strongest, ten of the fourteen states in the world are his. However, in addition to the territory, the strength is measured more by the number of people.

Historically. In the sixth year of Jingyao (263), Shu Han had 280,000 households and 940,000 mouths. In the same year, Cao Wei had 660,000 households and 4.4 million mouths. In terms of households, the number of households in Cao Wei is only two and three times that of Shu and Han. And because Shu Han has gone downhill since the time of Kong Ming, while Cao Wei is the opposite, the previous proportion is only lower than this. Other words. The number of households in Cao Wei is only a little more than twice that of Shu and Han, not to mention that the people of Shu and Han are richer than the Central Plains, and Yizhou is a country of abundance, and the wars and turmoil experienced by Yizhou are far lighter than those in the north. During Liu Zhang's time, Yizhou was abundant, the customs were luxurious, and the rich families served jade food. Liu Bei took Shu. You can also take the gold and silver property of the people to reward the heroes, which shows its wealth. Zhuge Liang took Shu brocade under the management of the state, which also greatly increased the government's local fiscal revenue. Cao Wei, with more than twice the national strength of Shu Han, had to guard several times the border line of Shu Han. To confront Wu in Xiangyang and Hefei, in addition, you have to defend Wuhuan, Xianbei, Xiongnu and other ethnic minorities and the Gongsun family in Liaodong. This requires a large number of troops. The strength of Cao Wei's whole country has greatly increased compared with Cao Cao's period, and at its peak it was no less than 600,000 (Sima Zhao wrote: "Today's armies can be 500,000, and they can be outnumbered by the crowd, and they will not be restrained", and they will live inside and outside, no less than 600,000). But the national strength is not enough. The labor force in the country is too small, only more than twice that of Shu Han (but the army is close to four times), and military spending has become a problem. How to fix it? One way is to open up the source and revitalize the military camp, so that this army can solve part of the food problem by itself, but the ensuing problem is that the burden on the soldiers increases, the economic status is increasingly lower than that of the county and county households, and the combat effectiveness declines, which also leads to the gradual collapse of the military system from Cao Wei to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In addition to vigorously discouraging the emperor from extravagance and waste, Cao Wei's ministers also repeatedly emphasized the prudent use of troops in their foreign policy. Almost every time Cao Wei took the initiative to attack, he was opposed by many people. This kind of scene is not seen in Shu Han and Wu Kingdom. They demanded that the army be used for agriculture, that the number of troops be reduced, and that if the people from afar were not satisfied, they would cultivate Wende. This statement, which seems ridiculously pedantic, is actually compatible with Cao Wei's predicament in terms of national strength.

At present, the national strength of Ji Han has been far stronger than that of Cao Wei, and he took Hanzhong peacefully, avoided the loss of land and people in history, broke Chang'an in one fell swoop, took all the Yongliang land into his hands, and ambushed the ethnic minorities who thought they had been used, and recruited the Nanban, Xiqiang, Xiongnu, and Xianbei for conquest, and the number was much stronger than in history. There are also far fewer border troubles. At this time, Cao Wei also divided the men and horses into several parts, garrisoned along the Yangtze River, and stayed in the secluded place, Ji Han in the west could not be unguarded, and Gongsun in the north should also be careful. However, it seems that Cao Wei understands this now. They ceded Jingzhou, but moved the people of Jingzhou away, leaving Dongwu with a blank land. They fought to the death with Ji Han while not in Bingzhou, and withdrew their troops to Jizhou. He also vigorously allied with Soochow, trying to reduce his troops in the south and take back more than 200,000 horses and horses scattered along the Yangtze River. However, he realized too late, Ji Han has developed the economy over the years, allied with all the ministries, and done a good job in the corners and corners, concentrating all his forces to deal with him, strategically, he is already at a disadvantage, although the strength is still strong, but the decline has appeared.

However, Cao Wei's contraction was when Ji Han was attacking with all his might, and opportunities were not available all the time. Li Yuguan, Feng Yu, and Zhu Zhu did not stop in Bingzhou, and immediately sent troops eastward, taking the north road to Youzhou. The third uncle asked Zhang Bao and Guan Xing to attack Jizhou from the middle and south roads respectively. The Wei army was shocked, gathered their horses, and prepared to fight to the death. However, Zhang Bao Guanxing is just luring the enemy, but the real killer is on the North Road. With the help of Xianbei and Gongsun Gongzhi, Youzhou has no such a general as Tian Yu, and there is only one thorn Shi Wang Xiong who is fighting for merit and profit, where is the opponent of Li Yu and the three, but in more than a month, the three counties of Daijun, Shanggu and Guangyang have all entered the hands of Ji Han, and the Han army is approaching my hometown - Zhuo County.

Since I was born, I have never been to Zhuo County, but I am used to hearing the legends about Zhuo County, especially the big mulberry tree at the door of my house, which is lush and lush, like a car cover, although I have never seen it in person, but I always hear it in my dreams. I also saw the nostalgia in my father's eyes when he looked at the north in his later years. Such an ambitious person, sometimes, like ordinary people, he is also in love with everything in his hometown.

I think the third uncle may be the same.

It's almost time to go back to my hometown.

Kong Ming was not as blindly optimistic as me, he shook his head: "Jizhou, is the real base camp of Cao Wei, its combat strength and combat potential, far from other states can be compared, a few years ago, Cao Pi once wanted to move 100,000 Shijia (military households) to Henan at one time, was persuaded by Xinbi, 100,000 Shijia, that is, the potential 100,000 male soldiers, and now, Jizhou's Chinese army is no less than 150,000, if Jizhou is attacked, the Qinwang troops will not be less than 100,000 to 200,000 people, like that, Cao Wei's total strength in Jizhou will reach a terrible 35 to 450,000, such a number is something that Ji Han can't afford at the moment, so, Your Majesty, we don't have the strength to swallow Jizhou in one bite at the moment. And Zhuo County, located in the plain, the land is fertile and beautiful, although it is located in Youzhou, but it is also the same as Jizhou, and it is difficult for our army to take it, and it is finally captured, with the strength of Li Yu, Guan Feng and others, it is impossible to hold it. ”

I sighed a little disappointed, and redrew a fork on Zhuo County with a pen, canceling the plan to transfer troops and horses to Zhuo County again, originally, I still had the heart to let the third uncle return to his hometown, listening to Mr. Analysis, only to find that he was a little as frivolous as Xiang Yu, I calmed down: "Then, although Cao Wei has lost the state, the strength of Jizhou is stronger." That is, they can strike back at any time. ”

"Yes, it doesn't matter how much land you occupy, you can lose the land if you can occupy it, and talent is the most important thing. I, Ji Han, have developed too fast over the years, and the defense line has been stretched too long. Although there are many soldiers and horses, from Youzhou to Bingzhou to Sizhou to Jingzhou to Yizhou, it is not conducive to concentrating troops to attack or defend. Moreover, the people of our newly occupied Sizhou and Merge Prefectures are unstable, and we also need to settle down well before we can continue to attack. ”

"Did you go from offense to defense so quickly?" I said with some disappointment, and then shook my head: "At the moment, the morale of the army is high, Cao Wei does not know the true strength of our army, and he has been frightened by us. ”

"Your Majesty's thinking is inappropriate, and with Your Majesty's talent, you naturally know that if we are not prepared and only pin our hopes of victory on the mistakes of our opponents, it will be irresponsible for the lives of our officers and men. What's more, some things don't necessarily have to be obtained on the battlefield. ”

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your Majesty, do you want to learn from the Michi meeting between King Qin and King Zhao back then?"

I can't help but imagine how Cao Rui played the piano for me, and how to subtly make him feel Ji Han's coercion and feel internal instability at the meeting. But he finally shook his head and smiled: "I don't care about meeting him, but unfortunately, legally, I am the lord of the Han and he is a thief, unless he is obedient, there will be no time to meet." ”

Kong Ming also smiled: "Naturally, he didn't dare to come to see him, but His Majesty should also write a letter and communicate with him directly." As long as Cao Rui is always aware of Ji Han's offensive and always be careful to take precautions, he will feel nervous if he does not send troops. Moreover, the minister has a superficial plan, so that even if Cao Wei does not let him out of Jizhou, he must be nervous from time to time, dare not deal with it carelessly, and dare not easily send troops to counterattack, leaving us time to prepare calmly. ”