Chapter 300: Fight if you can
On the Wishui River, there are ships one after another, with no end in sight.
The ship's draft was so deep that it almost pressed against the hull. It was full of millet, rice, beans and a small amount of wheat shipped from Huainan and Jiangnan.
On the deck of each ship stood more than ten troop carriers and boatmen.
Most of the troop carriers did not wear armor, only about one-third had leather armor, and a small amount of iron armor - fighting on the river, wearing armor is really inconvenient and very dangerous.
Chen Yan was riding a horse walking on the shore, followed by more than a thousand troop transporters, pulling some of the baggage vehicles.
We are already close to Yangxia. Going further northwest, we will enter Fugou County of Chenliu State.
Chen Yan is on the river, but he is not ignorant.
It is early May, and the Huns have been marching south for ten days.
During these ten days, there was not much movement in Xingyang, but Yanzhou was very noisy. Especially in the Puyang and Chenliu areas, the cavalry surged southward, grazing and plundering.
A large group of infantry followed the cavalry and took away the money and grain and the strong men. The whole Yanzhou was in chaos.
The result of the chaos is obvious——
Ahead is a dock in Yangxia County. Outside the roughly fenced camp, thousands of people gathered there, crying and begging for help. They have little food.
After seeing the ships coming, the crowd became even more commotion and shouted loudly.
“I’m a good minister, but not a common people?”
“Please, give me a mouthful of food, I can do whatever I want.”
“Hurry up and put in the food. !”
There are more than a thousand people stationed in the dock camp, all members of the family mobilized by Chen Hou.
They stood on the wall of the village and looked at the refugees coldly.
If you are a local, for the sake of their pity, maybe you can give them a few mouthfuls of food. But for outsiders, how is that possible? Their own food is very tight!
The first ship docked.
The tracker found a place to rest for a while. They don't need to be responsible for the rest of the river. That's someone else's territory. If you cross the border rashly, you might get beaten.
There were troops carrying water and lighting a fire directly on the deck for cooking. After a while, the aroma of rice filled the air, causing the hungry people on the shore to become more and more commotion.
"Grab the food!" Someone shouted and rushed towards the river.
The trackers dispersed in fright.
"Fire arrows!" a troop transport officer ordered.
"Whoosh! Whoosh!" The arrow flew out from the ship. It was sparse at first, but gradually became denser.
The refugees who rushed towards the boat were swept to the ground, and the remaining ones rolled and crawled and fled away.
Chen Yan's troops formed a semicircular formation.
They have practiced, and some of them have participated in the battle to put down the Shi Bing Rebellion, but most of them have never fought in any battles, lack experience, and are very nervous.
When they saw the refugees rushing towards them, some even screamed and were killed by the officers.
Fortunately, the refugees were not strong soldiers, and they were a mix of men, women, old and young. After being shot with a barrage of arrows, they collapsed in fright.
Chen Yan pushed aside several troop carriers and rode forward.
Dozens of corpses, old and young, men and women, lay scattered on the ground.
He sighed twice, lamenting the hardships faced by the people.
80% of these people were not refugees before, at least they were people who lived in Chengwu. It’s not hard to guess the reason why they went south without enough food to support the old and the young: they were plundered by the Huns and forced to go south to beg.
Xiaowubao and small settlements are the most dangerous.
They don’t have the bargaining power of aristocratic families, so there is nothing they can do when a large army attacks them.
But he just sighed twice.
Nowadays, there is a shortage of food everywhere. If food is given to the refugees, the army will not have enough to eat, and many residents will starve to death.
In fact, he heard what the refugees were shouting just now. To a certain extent, the question is correct.
Save the minister, but not the people?
But the order Chen Yan received was to transport the grain back to Luoyang. He did not dare to release grain to help the people without authorization, and he did not want to do so.
It was only this year that the negative impact of last year’s drought became apparent.
After consuming a whole year's grain reserves, everyone now knows how valuable grain is, and they should keep it in their hands as much as possible, and never let it go unless absolutely necessary.
The refugees could not resist Wang Mi and Shi Le and handed over most of their food. They were destined to die.
No one will save them because no one can conjure food.
After a day's rest in Yangxia, a new batch of trackers arrived, and the fleet continued to move forward, heading north along the Suiyang Canal, passing through Fugou to Junyi, and settled in the water village.
Junyi is a water and land transportation hub, with a huge warehouse city and the troop transport of Yang Bao, the captain of the Sizhou Du branch.
Chen Yan noticed that the grain reserves in Junyicang City had been exhausted, and they were probably all transported to Luoyang. After the batch of grain he escorted arrives, the inventory can be replenished slightly.
But these stored grains will not last long, and will soon be transported by Yang Bao's people by boat, enter the river through Xingyang, then enter the Yishui River, and be transported upstream to Taicang, Luoyang.
This journey is full of dangers.
It is indeed inconvenient for the Huns to attack ships on the river, but they can attack trackers. Once obtained, the food will be stored in Junyi and Aocang, and it will still be unable to enter Luoyang.
The army is in danger and the battle is fierce, sincerely do not deceive me! I don't know how to deal with it this time.
After unloading the grain, Chen Yan returned with the fleet.
Along the way, deaths from hunger can be seen everywhere.
What’s even more frightening is that there seem to be more locusts...
******
In Baima County, Puyang, Dahu Shile has already crossed the river.
Recently he has fought several battles with Sima Yue's troops, with both sides winning and losing.
Six small battles, to be exact, and four were won. In the two losses, the cavalry failed to cooperate in time, resulting in the defeat of the infantry. This made him a little wary: just one and a half years was not enough for him to train an elite infantry.
Generally speaking, he still recognized the combat effectiveness of the tens of thousands of people in Sima Yue's hands, but he had many ways to kill these people.
"Your Majesty."
"Commander."
"General."
"Big...Big Hu."
When he heard the last salutation, Shi Le glared at the person, but did not pursue the matter. Instead, he said: "The King of Chu and the King of Quyang have sent people to urge them again. What do you think we should do?"
"Commander, please hold off for a while." Taobao said directly: "Sima Yue is ill, and the army is mainly infantry. Now he is shrinking from the city and abandoning the countryside. It is just the right time for us to grab a good one. We have finished grabbing the food. , Wouldn't it be nice to leave the people who are waiting for food to Sima Yue and Shao Xun, and let them sit back and watch the people starve to death and bear the bad reputation? "
" Passed!" Shi Le commented a few times, but did not directly reject Tao. Leopard's proposal.
Taobao is a little clever and resourceful. What he said is what his group has been doing on both sides of the river. It's just that he is not as harsh as Tao Bao said, and more or less some food will be left to allow the people to farm with peace of mind.
If you rob it all at once, you will gain more, but what about next year? Still having trouble getting through life?
Restraint, only those who know how to exercise restraint are qualified to taste the final victory.
"Meng Sun, tell me how to fight this battle?" Shi Le looked at Zhang Bin and said.
Diao Ying and Zhang Jing quietly looked at each other, feeling a little anxious.
In recent months, Zhang Bin and Zhang Mengsun have received significantly more attention. Although it is not as good as the two of them who serve as left and right officials, the momentum is very wrong and makes people worried.
“May I ask the general, what is Wang Shizhong doing?” Zhang Bin asked.
Shi Leruo had some realization.
Wang Mina, who had eaten the heart of a bear and a leopard, dared not take the initiative to stroke the thief Shao's tiger beard. In fact, his soldiers were worse than the Jin army, at least they didn't form them every year.
In the Battle of Jujube, we hid in the camp and finally retreated without support, with more than 3,000 dead. As the attacker, Sima Yue only died about this number, so he actually won.
"Wang Mi is also looting," Shi Le said.
"My servant asks again, if the general has collected food and military supplies, marched westward, and used 20,000 cavalry and 60,000 infantry, a total of 80,000 troops to attack Shao Xun's 20,000 infantry, and formed a field battle, Can you win?" Zhang Bin asked again.
Shi Le hesitated.
The 80,000 cavalrymen who can really deal with Shao Thief are only the 20,000 cavalrymen.
The infantrymen who have been trained for more than a year can just beat other people, but if they face the Silver Spear Army, they probably won't be able to do it.
This is not just a matter of having too many people.
The Art of War makes it very clear that when there are more people, the left will not listen to the right, and the right will not listen to the left. The front will not know the rear, and the rear will not know the front. Thousands of elites will watch you fight in a formation, and the contact surface It's so big that most of the 60,000 infantry might not have a chance to engage the enemy. It's not impossible for them to be pierced through by someone inexplicably and lead to collapse.
“Maybe we can win.” Shi Le looked into Zhang Bin’s eyes and said.
"The general himself is not sure, so why talk so loudly?" Zhang Bin said: "Shao Thief has too few cavalry, which is his biggest disadvantage. In this case, don't fight with him in formation. If I want to fight, I can fight, and if I don't want to fight, I can leave. Shao Thief cannot catch up, so he can only call Naihe."
Shi Le was noncommittal, and then asked: "What if the King of Chu sends someone to urge him? ”
"The King of Chu is mopping up the remaining enemies in Hanoi, and he may not be able to go south for a while." Zhang Bin said without hesitation: "Put it off until you can't hold it off any longer."
Shi Le was very reasonable when he heard this. .
Actually, he thought so too. How stupid must one be to take the initiative to challenge Shao Thief for a decisive battle? Even that idiot Wang Mi knows how to avoid Xingyang.
Let me suffer once, you are the one who is the best.
It was stupid of me to suffer losses twice in the same place.
Such a loss as the Battle of Nomaoka is enough.
This is what he should do, avoiding the truth and pretending to be false, making false claims in the east, attacking in the west, and outflanking.
"Peach Leopard." Shi Le quickly made a decision and immediately started giving orders.
"I am here."
"You lead three thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry, and go south from Jiyin to plunder the Liang Kingdom."
"I obey."
"Kui'an."
"I am here."
"You lead five thousand cavalry and fifteen thousand infantry, and go south from Chenliu , plunder Chen County."
"Yes."
"I'm here."
"You lead two thousand. , ten thousand infantry, plundered Yingchuan and Xiangcheng."
"Remember, it's still the same old rules." Shi Le reminded: "Save enough food for the return journey. Fight if you can't, and leave if you can't. If you can't collect food, stay a little longer. If you can't raise it, come back as soon as possible. The scouts should spread out and go around to find out the news. Don't let the cavalry be used separately, but drive and kill the Jin cavalry and intercept them. Their messengers and scouts made them deaf and blind, do you understand? ”
"As ordered." The three of them responded in unison.
Zhang Bin watched silently, nodding secretly in his heart.
After experiencing the nightmare defeat of Yemaoka, Dahu finally knew how to fight.
Maybe I’m not very skilled yet, and I’m not very clear about it, but I remember the rule “Fight if you can, and leave if you can’t” and apply it very well.
People are not born knowing everything. If you know your mistakes and can correct them, there is no greater good.
(End of this chapter)