At the end of May this year, with the advent of early summer, the war of grain plundering by the Tibetan people this spring was accompanied by a major defeat, losing more than 200,000 people, before it barely ended.

Now it's only August, the first golden autumn, and before the time has passed in March, the people of Fan have come to the door again, seeking cooperation with the Chu State.

"You're going to wait for this autumn and plan to attack Helong again?"

Baling, in the palace, Lu Yuan looked at the envoy of the Fan people below, and after listening to the other party's explanation, he couldn't help but ask.

"Yes."

The envoy of the Fan people nodded, and then said sincerely: "Thanks to the help of the Chu State this spring, I have grabbed a large amount of grain and gone back. This summer, no one from the tribes starved to death.

But now, more than two months have passed, and the grain snatched from Helong has also been eaten.

This autumn, there will be a shortage of food in all departments.

If we can't stock up on enough food, in the cold winter and early spring, for four or five months, our people will die of hunger and cold.

Therefore, taking advantage of this autumn, while the wind and snow have not yet fallen, it is already our last chance to go to Helong to grab a wave of grain.

However, Zhou Manpower is strong, and it is still difficult to win against Zhou Ren by relying on our Xueyuan family.

The king and we are married, and the state of Chu and the state of Zhou have always had hatred, and we have a common enemy.

Three months ago, Chu State cooperated with us, and we cooperated very happily.

Therefore, after discussing the grain plundering in the autumn this time, the various ministries wanted to invite the Chu State to send troops together to capture the Zhou State. ”

The messenger explained why.

Lu Yuan listened, was silent for a moment, and then asked, "How many soldiers and horses do you plan to send this time?" ”

The messenger immediately replied, "Because in the summer the various tribes have sufficient food and grass, and the warriors and horses are well raised, so this time we can take out more soldiers and horses than before."

We will unite one hundred and twenty-seven divisions of the snow field, and under the leadership of the four kings, we can send out 800,000 horsemen.

These are all warriors on the snowfield, unparalleled in riding and shooting, and this time the mighty fall will definitely make the Zhou people frightened. ”

The messenger finally added a sentence that was a little unconfident.

The so-called 800,000 horsemen sound quite powerful, and it is really bluffing when it is spread.

But in fact, they are just 800,000 grassland herdsmen who have been temporarily gathered, and their nature is like that of a brave villager.

Those steppe herdsmen, if they were against those untrained people, could indeed easily defeat them with the mighty momentum of charging on horseback, and follow them to kill.

But if you encounter a well-trained elite soldier with strong armor and sharp guns, then a slight riding advantage will not play any role at all.

Trained elite soldiers, with sufficient courage, are not afraid of the so-called horse charge at all.

And things like war horses also know fear, and when they encounter a cluster of infantry phalanxes, they will also know to be afraid and know how to dodge when they see the spears and spears erected in front of them.

Therefore, as long as the foot soldiers are brave enough, they will not be intimidated by the momentum of the war horse charge, they will not break up, and they can keep the formation intact.

Then the so-called cavalry is simply a joke.

In front of the foot soldiers who formed a phalanx, as long as the cavalry dared to rush forward, it was sending them to death.

Often, thousands of foot soldiers formed a phalanx, and tens of thousands, or even 100,000 cavalry, rushed to the ground.

If you insist on being strong, you will only hit your head and break the bloodstream.

Let's take a typical example.

During the Three Kingdoms period of Lu Yuan's previous life, Gongsun Zan of Youzhou selected 3,000 good riders in northern Xinjiang, and ordered them to ride white horses, called white horses.

The rate of the grassland, invincible, Hu Lu all heard and changed color, is the world's famous horse.

Then during the Battle of Jieqiao, Gongsun Chan personally led three thousand white horse servants to charge in front of the formation.

As a result, Yuan Shao's pioneer general Lu Yi led 800 soldiers to the dead, holding shields and armor, and strong crossbows and rain, destroying this elite cavalry in the world and beheading more than 1,000 levels.

In this battle, Gongsun Zhan's elite was lost, and his power collapsed after that, and was finally destroyed by Yuan Shao.

This is the most famous example of the Three Kingdoms period.

Further back, there was Li Guangling of the Western Han Dynasty with 5,000 Danyang elite soldiers, fighting more than 80,000 cavalry of the Huns, although it was inevitable that he was defeated and captured in the end, but also set a record of killing tens of thousands of enemies.

As for the later generations, there are even more examples of fighting with foot and cavalry.

Even in the Taizong period of the Tang Dynasty, there was a nomadic people of the Tiele Department, relying on the cavalry infantry combat method, to maneuver on horseback, and when it came to battle, they dismounted and fought on foot, and then rode on foot to defeat the nomadic cavalry.

In the end, relying on this move, Xue Yantuo, the leader of the Tiele Tribe, unified Mobei and became the Great Khan of the Grassland with hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

During the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, there were many Mengren, and you can often see the records of cavalry with foot and even infantry charging against cavalry, breaking tens of thousands, tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of horses.

Thus.

A well-trained elite soldier can be said to be crushing in terms of how much of a threat to cavalry.

In the face of this kind of elite soldiers, the only advantage of cavalry is mobility.

And if there is a force of elite foot soldiers, and at the same time there are elite cavalry, then those nomadic tribes, the only mobile advantage will also be lost.

In the face of the infantry, they were defeated, and even if they wanted to escape, they could not escape the well-trained cavalry.

Many theories of cavalry invincibility in later generations were advocated after the Houjin entered the customs.

A little off-topic here.

In fact, after Jin Pingding the grassland, unified Kyushu, the so-called elite of the Eight Banners, most of them were also mounted infantry, relying on infantry to win, and they were especially good at firearms.

Ahem...... Back to business.

A well-established force basically has an organized infantry and cavalry army, and when the two are combined, there will be no defects.

Fortunately.

The Zhou Kingdom in the north just meets these two points.

Zhou is close to the grassland, not only there are many horse farms in the country, but also a large number of horses can be obtained from the grassland, and there is no shortage of war horses.

In fact, within the Zhou State, there is a cavalry of more than 100,000 people all year round, all of whom are well-trained elite cavalry, and in terms of riding and archery skills, they are not inferior to those grassland herdsmen.

Even in addition to cavalry archery, these cavalry were more adept at melee charges, and were far more powerful in frontal combat than ordinary herdsmen.

With such elite cavalry, coupled with a huge number of elite soldiers, how could those hungry herdsman cavalry on the snow field be opponents?

This is also the reason why the people of the Snow Plains have been fighting with the Zhou State for so many years, but they have repeatedly been deflated on the battlefield and have never bargained for anything.

Because of the frontal foot battle, you can't beat the Zhou people.

Charge with cavalry, and you can't rush the opponent's military formation.

Even the cavalry and archery kung fu and frontal cavalry charge could not defeat the elite cavalry of the Zhou State.

Even his own war horse can't compare to the good horse carefully bred by Zhou Guo, and he can't run as fast as anyone else.

The battlefield is lost, and you can't escape if you want to.

All kinds of disadvantages add up, and the Tibetan people take the lead to win.

In recent years, the only benefit that the Fan people have gotten is that a few months ago, the Chu State stabbed the Zhou State from behind, causing the Zhou people to suffer from the enemy in the abdomen and back, and they were in chaos.

In the end, the Tibetan people found an opportunity, broke several cities, and snatched back a lot of food.

That's why.

The people of the Snow Plains who ate this sweetness knew the taste of the marrow at this time, so they wanted to cooperate with the Chu State again and take the opportunity to reap more benefits.

As for this request, Lu Yuan thought about it and did not refuse, saying: "Xueyuan and my Chu State are an alliance of in-laws. Now that he has been invited, he will not refuse.

When the envoy goes back, he can tell the four kings and the tribes that after you launch your troops and horses this autumn, my Dachu will also follow and respond from the rear of the Zhou people. ”

Weaken the Zhou state, and absorb nutrients in the process, and at the same time achieve the goal of weakening the Tibetan people.

Using war to pull these two major forces in the northwest into the abyss, constantly bleed, and completely destroy them is the national policy originally set by Lu Yuan.

And if you want to realize this national policy, the best way is the land of Helong.

Every year, the Fan people and the Zhou State would break out two major wars here.

If you want to fish in troubled waters and stir up right and wrong, there is nothing more suitable than these two wars.

"King Xie. The grace of the king, all the departments of my snow field will never dare to forget, and in the future, they will be allied with the Chu State forever and will never turn their backs. ”

When the envoy heard Lu Yuan's promise, his face suddenly showed joy, and he hurriedly made many promises and guarantees.

However, Lu Yuan just smiled at this.

The so-called oath promise, you said that if there were gods in the era of prosperity of the Dao Law, and there was the so-called destiny of the Heavenly Dao in the underworld, then it would naturally be quite credible.

But in this kind of sacred and unrevealed, the end of the world.

The so-called oath naturally has little credibility and binding force.

I don't know if others believe it or not, anyway, Lu Yuan doesn't believe it, because he didn't see any gods or heavenly ways to restrain the execution of the oath.

Just looking at the envoy's excited expression, he thought about it for a while, and talked about a business again: "The envoy said that there is a shortage of food in all parts of the snow field, and many people die of cold and starvation every year, thinking that it is a tragedy in the world.

It just so happens that in recent years, our Chu country has had a bumper harvest and accumulated a lot of grain.

In other words, there are many people on the other side who have no food to eat, and my land is vast and sparsely populated, and few people cultivate.

Why don't you and me have two families, I will provide food, you will give people, how about exchanging population for food? ”

Lu Yuan remembered a plan he had thought of before, using grain to exchange for population with those Tibetan people.

Instead of letting a large number of people freeze to death and starve to death in vain, it is better to use these superfluous people who can't be fed to exchange food with the Chu State.

In this way, people who would have starved to death can have a way to live.

The state of Chu can also have sufficient manpower to develop the place.

It's the best of both worlds.

Hearing this proposal, the following envoy's eyes lit up: "What the king said about exchanging people for food, I don't know what kind of exchange method it is?" ”

Seeing his heartbeat, Lu Yuan smiled and said, "I will ...... it."

At that moment, he told the messenger about his general idea.

After reaching a preliminary consensus, the minister was summoned and asked to work with the envoy to discuss the details of the transaction.

As for Lu Yuan, after sending the envoy away, this is the beginning of contacting Huang Xuan, asking him to prepare soldiers and horses, and prepare to respond to the action of the Tibetan people this autumn.

However, the last time they raided Helong, the Zhou people suffered a big loss, and now after coming to their senses, they have strictly sealed the Yangguan trail from Hanzhong to Long.

The original Linguan Fortress was not only widened and reinforced, but also increased the garrison to 50,000 people, and was also equipped with an assistant to the innate grandmaster.

With such a tight defense, even if Huang Xuan led 100,000 soldiers from Hanzhong to pour out, it would be difficult to break it and capture it.

Therefore, if you want to enter Longxi from this road, it is impossible.

Even if it can be done, the state of Chu will have to pay a huge price.

Although Lu Yuan didn't mind helping the people of Tibet, he pulled this so-called in-law.

But the price of this in-law is that if you lose a lot, then it is worth considering.

Therefore, sending troops from Hanzhong to Longxi, this plan has been vetoed by Lu Yuan since the last time.

However, although Yangguan Road can't be taken, the route of Chu out of Long is not limited to this.

A few years ago, when he was opening up Hegu County, Lu Yuan not only wanted to solve the problem of the Fan people on the edge of Xichuan County, but also had an important purpose, that is, there was a little-known trail between Hegu County and Longxi County.

This route, which Lu Yuan called the forest path, has been widened and consolidated a lot after years of exploration and development.

Compared with the past, only a few or a dozen people can pass, and the road is often cut off, and you need to climb mountains and mountains and cross cliffs.

At this time, after construction, there is already a small road to pass, which is enough for tens of millions of troops to cross the forest and arrive in Longxi.

Although there are only thousands or tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, for the battle of hundreds of thousands of people between the Zhou State and the Fang people, it is simply insignificant, and there is no wind and waves at all.

But for the state of Chu.

Being able to invest tens of thousands of soldiers and horses on the battlefield is enough to fish in troubled waters and reap some benefits.

At the very least, sending tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and choosing a good general to lead, is enough to break some weakly defended county towns in Longxi and plunder the material population among them.

What Lu Yuan wanted was not to destroy the Zhou State, nor to seize Longxi, let alone really help the Tibetan people.

What he wanted was always just the material population of the Zhou State.

It is enough to achieve this goal.

Send a small partial army to enter Longxi, and if you can capture back a few thousand people, then the Chu State will be able to build a new town.

If tens of thousands of people can be taken back, then a new county seat can be built.

If you can take back 100,000 people, you can set up a new government.

In this way, it adds up to a lot, go a few more times, spend a few more years, and maybe a county will come out.

Moreover, this forest trail, leading to the Longxi area, is relatively close to the front line, and belongs to the place where the forces of the Fan and Zhou people are mixed.

The state of Chu had just reached a consensus with the Tibetan people on the exchange of population for food, and at this time, through this trail, it could be used as a trade route to transport population materials.

Therefore, this matter was urgent, and Lu Yuan had to contact Huang Xuan and let his doppelganger personally supervise the handling, so that he could rest assured.

……

The connection between the Fan people and the Chu State is being prepared intensively.

And the Zhou State in the north, with the arrival of autumn, also began to mobilize as in previous years, to prepare for another round of grain plundering war by the Tibetan people.

Both sides are preparing for war.

However, unexpectedly, this autumn, the first battle of the Zhou State was not against the Tibetan people.

August 29, 10th year of Shenwu.

The 400,000 troops on the southern frontier of Wei suddenly entered Shuofang County of Zhou without declaring war.

Because a large number of veteran elites were transferred before, more than half of the soldiers and horses in Shuofang County were filled with new recruits and lacked experience.

In addition, the attack of Wei State was sudden, and Zhou State did not have much defense, and in just a few days after the war, Shuofang County was lost to more than half of the prefecture county, and the battle situation can be described as a thousand miles.

It was only at this time that the surrounding countries knew that Wei had been preparing for this war for a long time.

not only secretly gathered the most elite soldiers and horses in the country, but also deliberately mobilized eight innate grandmasters, among which there was even a famous general in the world of the second innate realm, in order to catch Zhou Guo off guard.

It was not until this year that the elite troops in the northern Xinjiang of the Zhou State were transferred and replaced by a large number of new recruits, so they saw the opportunity and launched an attack.

At this time, several years of planning, once launched, the results were gratifying.

The entire Shuofang County fell halfway, and the defense system in the north of the Zhou people was shattered.

The 300,000 troops originally stationed in northern Xinjiang lost more than 200,000, and those newly recruited this year lost even more.

Even under the siege of several congenital states of the Wei State, one of the congenital pillar states of the Zhou State died on the battlefield and died in Shuofang.

In the face of this sudden strong enemy, there is also a crisis that the Wei people are about to break through the northern frontier and kill the Guannei.

The monarchs and ministers in Chang'an City suddenly panicked.

The emperor of Zhou hurriedly issued an edict, asking the 150,000 elites of northern Xinjiang who were originally transferred to Longxi County to immediately retreat to Shuofang to resist the Wei people.

At the same time, he ordered the two counties of Henan and Nanyang to each draw 50,000 soldiers and horses, return to Guannai, and urgently aid the Beijing division.

Then he requisitioned two pillar states from the second county of Helong as the commander of the army.

In this way, 250,000 troops were finally put together, and there were two Xianzhu countries, who were able to go north to Shuofang to resist the Wei people.

It's just that in this way, with the departure of 150,000 elites from Northern Xinjiang and the two pillar states, the power of the Zhou State in the two counties of Helong was instantly empty.

There are only more than 300,000 soldiers and horses left, as well as three generals of the Pillar Kingdom.

After several years of war with the Tibetan people, this was the most empty time.

In the face of such a good opportunity, the Tibetan people will naturally not miss it.

Almost at the moment after the departure of those elites from northern Xinjiang, the 800,000 people of the Tibetan people rode down the snowfield in an instant, and slaughtered into the two counties of Helong.

After a large number of soldiers and horses were missing, in the face of the vast invasion of the Tibetans, although the Zhou State was still able to resist, and even won the battle.

However, in the face of the snowy people who did not fight on the frontal battlefield, but scattered and invaded, it was difficult to send enough troops and horses to encircle and suppress the pursuit.

For a time, countless Tibetan people poured into the two counties of Helong, and all prefectures, counties, towns, townships, and villages, everywhere they passed, were all killed by war, and a beacon smoke rose in the northwest.

In this chaos, Huang Xuan also selected good soldiers and horses, and still personally led the troops, from the forest path out of the river valley, and once again entered Longxi.

The state of Zhou also surged with the war in Shuofang and Helong, and millions of strong enemies invaded, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the country were exhausted, and they no longer had the slightest strength to take care of others.

Even the Hanshui line in the south completely lost its deterrence against the Chu State as a large number of soldiers and horses from Nanyang County were withdrawn back to the Guannei.

At this point, there is no longer the slightest threat to the northern border of Chu State.

At this moment, Lu Yuan could finally put his mind at ease, go all out to start the southern expedition, and deal with the four-nation alliance led by Ning Guo.

But before that, he had to see Mo Li first.

Let's see what this Flying Frost Dao Master wants to say to himself before leaving.