Chapter 301 The funny beginning
"In May, in Shilekouji County, the governor Hu Chong went south to Jihe, and the governor of Xingyang, Pei Chun, rushed to build Ye. Strong winds broke trees. Earthquake. You, Bing, Si, The giant locusts in the six states of Hebei, Qin, and Yong ate all the grass and trees, and all the cattle and horses had hair. "
Of course, the above is what happened in history, and this time and space has changed too much.
But the details can be changed, but the fundamental strategy has not yet had the decisive force to overturn it, such as the Xiongnu attack on Luoyang.
After experiencing last year's failure, this year they used cutting off the Luoyang grain road as their main tactic. This was an important reason for Shi Le's move south in history.
He succeeded, Luoyang fell into a great famine, and Sima Yue was forced to take people out of the town to relieve the food pressure in Luoyang. However, Luoyang, which was short of major generals, still fell in the early summer of the second year. The Xiongnu even sent only 40,000 troops to capture it, less than one-third of the first force.
Their tactics were successful.
But when Shao Xun saw Yang Bao returning to Aocang with an empty ship, he was a little confused again.
Co-author Did the Huns completely ignore water transportation? Something is wrong.
If this continues, when I transport shipload after shipload of grain back to Luoyang, what's the point of you coming back this year?
The Forbidden Army still has more than 26,000 infantry and cavalry. If we temporarily recruit strong peasants and soldiers, it will not be a problem to gather 40,000 to 50,000 people.
Although these people are not good at field battles, what can you do if you insist on defending the city?
Shao Xun even thought for a time that the Huns might have given up.
Otherwise, how can we explain that they have not taken action against the water transport node so far?
No one attacked Junyi who was guarded by Chen Wu, the live beggar commander.
No one attacked Guandu City, which was guarded by the Yamen Army.
No one attacked Aocang City where troops and ships were concentrated.
No one attacked Licheng where the Yi Congjun was stationed.
No one even entered the Luoyang Basin and harassed water transportation nodes such as Gongxian and Yanshi. There was not even a sign of building a pontoon bridge to cross the river south.
What kind of bird war are you fighting!
Since he didn't know what they were doing, Shao Xun decided to take the initiative, taking the main force of the Silver Spear Army and all the cavalry that could move - including the personal soldiers, almost a thousand cavalry - and crossed the Bian Canal to the north, first As far as Yangwu, they sent Dongyan and Baima to attack Wang Mi's tribe.
This move is called alerting the enemy, that is, revealing the enemy's tactical intentions.
There are some things that cannot be guessed. The only way is to take the initiative, mobilize the enemy, and then analyze the clues to draw a relatively reliable conclusion.
He now even suspected that Shi Le and Wang Mi had disobeyed orders and failed to comply with the overall strategy of the Liu Han court.
But this kind of disobedience has a limit. They are still unable to break away from the Liu Han court and have no ability to stand on their own. This situation cannot last long.
When the furious Liu Cong sends orders repeatedly, they will eventually be unable to withstand the tremendous pressure and get back on track again.
Let’s see who consumes more energy!
But as soon as they started, they were forced to stop...
The overwhelming locusts have become a scene in Henan.
They were green at first, and the birds, chickens and ducks ate happily. But when the locusts gathered together and met each other, they began to become fierce and irritable because of the competition for food, and their body color also changed from blue. turned brown.
As a result, swarms of locusts began to take off and "fight" everywhere.
There is nothing you can do about the locusts that have taken off. They contain toxins in their bodies. Even their natural enemies will be slightly poisoned if they eat them.
It’s okay if you eat a few, but if you eat too much, just ask for more blessings.
"Man Yu and Gao Yi, you two send the cavalry out and keep a watchful eye from a distance. If there is any situation, come back immediately to report. The rest are rushing to harvest wheat." Shao Xun looked at the increasing number of locusts. ordered.
In fact, it doesn’t matter whether we send people or not. Such a serious locust plague may be rare in history, and it has reached the point of hindering people’s travel.
In his impression, it seems that only one time in the Yuan Dynasty, even people and horses were unable to travel -
"In May, in Shandong, Hedong, Henan and Guanzhong, locusts covered the sky and people and horses could not When we go, the ditches and ditches are all flat. "The crops and vegetation are all gone, and the people and horses can't move."
This is bullshit. What a world!
Shao Xun sighed, put down the butcher knife, picked up the sickle, braved the locusts, and went into the fields.
Xingyang is a county under Sizhou. When Wang Yan promoted the planting of winter wheat in the autumn of the previous year, Sizhou was not very active. There were not many farmers, Wubao, and manors planting this kind of wheat.
But when a severe drought hit, resulting in a large-scale reduction in spring millet production or even no harvest, many people woke up.
There is no need for anyone to urge you. At least 40 to 50% of the farmland was planted with winter wheat last autumn, and harvesting began one after another in May.
A few days ago, the earliest batch of wheat had even been harvested and dried.
In recent days, some farmland has begun to be harvested.
Shao Xun never thought that one day, the war would be interrupted by a severe locust plague.
There are so many surprises in this war!
******
Kui An took off his shirt and carefully covered it on the back of his mount. Even if it was not enough, he pulled out a few pieces of brocade that he had just grabbed and carefully covered it. Thinly cover the BMW.
But unexpectedly, the exquisite silk was actually covered with locusts.
Kui'an was dumbfounded. The locusts even ate silk.
He raised his head and looked at the sky again.
The locust army that covers the sky and the sun takes off in groups, swooping on farmland, grassland, and woods, looking for anything to eat.
To be honest, he had never seen a locust plague before, but he had never seen a locust plague so serious.
Too many!
I don’t know how it is in Hebei. It’s probably not much better, or even worse.
Affected by the locusts, all the spring millet seedlings in Hebei and Yuzhou were left alive!
Food!
Kui An was suddenly shocked. The most important thing now is food. Whoever can have more food will survive!
The sound of horse hooves in the distance.
Kui'an looked through the dense swarm of locusts and saw his own cavalry.
A lot of locusts fell on the horse. It raised its hooves uneasily and even threw people off.
Beast! He even eats horse hair, what a beast! Kui'an was so angry that he grabbed two locusts and tried to stuff them into his mouth.
"General, you can't eat it." The soldiers quickly took his hand and advised: "You will get sick."
"Get out of here!" Kui'an scolded: "I heard someone tell history before, saying that when Yuan Shu was in Shouchun, the people were hungry and poor, and they used mulberries and locusts as dry food. Is this false?"
"General, you really can't eat it. The general wiped his face, pulled down a locust, and said: "This thing is green at first and is edible. If it turns brown, it cannot be eaten. If you are really hungry and want to eat it, it is best to steam it." Eat, but you will still get sick if you eat too much."
"I'll just eat it!" Kui An looked at the two locusts still struggling in his palm, quietly threw one away, and stuffed the other one. In his mouth, he started chewing and eating, and while eating, he said: "You have even eaten human flesh, but locusts can't eat it?"
The general was speechless.
According to old legend, locusts can be eaten when they are on the ground. Once they change color and take off in groups, they must not be eaten unless they are about to starve to death.
After eating the locusts, Kui An suppressed his nausea and looked at the two people following the general, wondering: "Aren't you two following Taobao? Why did you come back with injuries?"
" General Tao led his troops to Meng County and was attacked by the beggar commanders Wang Ping and Qi Ji. He sent me to inform him. "
"Is Tao Bao a waste? He has three thousand cavalry. But Wang Ping and Qi Ji?" Kui An scolded.
"General, look at the locusts in the sky, whose horse can run?" The visitor said aggrievedly: "When the war horses and draft animals were agitated, the beggar army came out of the fortress, and our army was huge. They were defeated and lost more than three thousand people."
Kui An was speechless and didn't know what to say.
This is like when two armies are facing each other, and the wind and sand rise up, the disadvantaged side becomes restless and is taken advantage of.
The battle was won!
"General, there is no way to herd horses outside. Food is very important. We must get food as soon as possible." The general stepped forward and reminded.
Kui An was even speechless.
It is no better than it was a few decades ago, or even ten years ago.
There are fewer and fewer villages, and there are more and more Tuweizi, fortresses and even large-scale docks. The trend of people living together in clusters is very obvious.
Thousands of cavalry went south. If they could not graze in the wild, the consumption would be too great when food was very tight.
Then, the only way is to capture the fortress wall to obtain food - this is why they must go south with the infantry.
Small earthen fences with dozens or more than a hundred households are easy to capture, without even fighting. The cavalry can make a circle and scare them to get food. But they are too small to quench their thirst.
If it were Dawubao, tens of thousands of riders might be able to scare them into voluntarily handing over their food, and the thousands of riders could go to bed as soon as possible. He is sure that you can't capture your own fortress, or thinks that you are unwilling to use your precious cavalry to attack the city, so he will ignore you at all and must use infantry.
Thinking of this, Kui An became more and more irritable.
He found that this battle was far from the plan before departure.
He even vaguely felt that after this locust plague, the Wubao commanders were increasingly unwilling to submit. Every grain of food was precious. To take their food is to take their lives.
In short, it’s not as easy to talk as before.
He kind of wants to retreat.
Shao Xun is so lucky, my maid! This battle was so frustrating!
******
On the Guangchengze Ranch, all livestock are driven into pens, and the doors and windows are closed to prevent locusts from getting in.
People have only heard of locusts eating grass and trees before, but this is the first time they even eat livestock hair.
In fact, this is also the first time recorded in history that "the hairs of cattle and horses were all gone". The second time was in the first year of Zhenyuan (785) of the Tang Dynasty. "The locusts get a little more grumpy every time they gather together."
When there are too many gatherings and the irritability reaches the extreme, they will not only eat the hair of livestock, but even the leather.
The ducks squawking on the Guangchengze Lake ate locusts. They can resist a little bit of the cyanogen acid in locusts' bodies - the lethal dose is 1 mg/100kg - but they can't eat too much. A duck can eat a hundred locusts a day.
Chen Yougen looked anxiously at the people and campers who had been mobilized urgently.
They used many methods to hunt and kill locusts.
Like lighting a bonfire at night.
For example, digging trenches in the fields and then burying the densely packed locusts.
For example, use cloth curtains to build a fence along with the wind.
But it seems to be a drop in the bucket, better than nothing.
He saw with his own eyes that after a wide and deep trench was dug, it was filled with locusts within a short time.
God is going to kill someone!
Fortunately, the locusts in Guangchengze flew in from elsewhere and were a few days late. Half of the mature wheat in the fields has been harvested. Although the losses are still very heavy, part of the grain has been harvested.
After sighing deeply, he took the urgently recruited soldiers and troops, covered the horses with linen cloth, and walked to Liang County to assemble.
There are ten Fangfu soldiers in the five counties of Liang, Yangcheng, Luyang and the southern edge of Guangchengze. There are 3,000 people on the books, but only less than 2,600 can actually be mobilized.
Two thousand people have been drafted before. After receiving the news that Shi Le's troops were marching south this time, they urgently sent out another five hundred troops, and almost all of them who could go into battle were transferred over.
Changshe, Xuchang, Xiangcheng, Yangzhai and Liang counties have prepared some transfer horses and horse materials in advance.
Yesterday Li Zhong sent back an order to mobilize all the horses that could be used in Guangchengze, and strive to achieve 2,500 soldiers with two horses per man.
He understood what Li Chong meant.
One person and two horses, and horse materials have been prepared in various places in advance. Their rapid maneuverability will far exceed that of Shi Le's troops - he does not believe that Shi Le can achieve all the cavalry in his account to have one person and two horses.
This time he really did not hesitate to spend money. Even if he ran to death and destroyed a group of horses, he still had to grab Shi Le's soldiers and beat them severely.
It’s a pity that we got off to a bad start!
The overwhelming locusts greatly disrupted the rhythm of the government soldiers, making it impossible for them to race horses wantonly in the Xiangcheng and Yingchuan areas to capture, surround and annihilate Shile's cavalry.
Shi Le is so lucky, my maid! This battle was so frustrating!
As the sun set, Chen Yougen led his troops and troops, while driving away the locusts that crashed into him, while carrying heavy swords and crossbows, and leading "fully armed" horses, toward Liang County OK.
No one expected that this war would unfold in such a funny way.
(End of this chapter)