sweeping the world

Chapter 538
When the two armies are fighting, the first battle is the level of morale. There is such a sentence as "the husband fights with courage", and the courage of the army is reflected in the morale.

For the Han army, it is already a common practice for the two armies to win their own side. What Zhong Hui wants is a hearty and dripping victory, with the smallest loss to win the victory, not to win a city attack and defense with his own side's corpses and blood. victory.

The first gap appeared in the city wall of Yangyi, and the following time was still a unilateral performance by the Han army. After the first gap, the city wall that was constantly bombarded became more and more fragile, and what happened several feet or even tens of feet behind The city wall collapsed, but the Han army still did not launch the attack on the city.

"The number of enemy soldiers who ran out of the city and surrendered has been increasing in the past two days. There were more than [-] soldiers yesterday." Peng Da didn't mention the enemy soldiers who were about to run away and were shot to death by his own people. He asked: "The enemy The morale of the army is extremely low, when shall we launch an attack?"

"Tomorrow." Zhong Hui knew that the opportunity to attack had arrived: "Tomorrow, we will fight against Keyang City."

The generals were immediately overjoyed. They surrounded Yangyi for more than [-] days, and the long-range attack equipment was showing off their power every day.

The way to use troops is to target the enemy's army, but also to plan for the own army. Zhong Hui's opportunity is not only because of the low morale of the enemy army, but also deliberately suppressing his own soldiers.

What Zhong Hui talked about was "restraint", which means conquering a city, liquidating the resisting enemy forces, and being relatively gentle to the surrendering enemy forces.The so-called moderation in the practice of the Han State is to assign the surrenders to the slave class and use them to contribute to the construction of the Han State.

The walls of the city collapsed in sections, and the psychological defenses of the Yangyi defenders continued to disintegrate with the collapse of the city walls. Surrendering out of the city was initially an individual act, and later evolved into an institutional surrender. Xu Guang kept killing people, but the killing did not stop the surrender The turmoil, on the contrary, caused more cannibalism because of the suppression.

The Han army on the Yangyi front was in a wonderful process of harvesting ripe fruits. Zhong asked the attacking troops to shout the slogan "Survivors will not die" to attack the city. After the attack began, the resistance they encountered was not fierce. Everywhere the Han army went Surrendering is more than fighting, and the defenders' resistance becomes resolute when they approach the stage of the city lord's mansion.

"Xu Guang transformed the City Lord's Mansion into a fortress, and built an earthen wall three miles away, with multiple corridors forming passages." Si Hongzhuang's army will be responsible for the first attack on the City Lord's Mansion in Yangyi. He is very rigorous in collecting information : "There are more than 2000 Jie people and nearly [-] Qiang and Di people."

Except for the more than 5000 people defending the city, the rest have surrendered.The Han army was relatively rough in dealing with captives. If they caught Jie people, they would be killed on the spot. People like Qiang, Di and Zahu were all slaves.Those Han Miao descendants who surrendered will be screened out, those who did evil before will be slaughtered, and the rest will be sent to various counties and counties to become common people to enrich the local population.

"Your department and some county and county soldiers are responsible for finishing the work. Is there any problem?" Zhong Hui received Si Hongzhuang's assurance, and said with a smile, "That's very good."

Si Hongzhuang was a general with the strength of a division under his command.

The Han Dynasty has rebuilt its military system, from top to bottom, it is Corps, Group Army, Army, Division, Qu, Tun, Team, Shi, and Wu.

Two teams make one team, five teams make one team, five teams make one village, four villages make one song, five songs make one division, and three divisions make one army.

At least three armies are gathered to form a group army, and more than two group armies form a corps. Zhengbei shogunate is now the size of a group army. If Zhengbei shogunate and Zhengdong shogunate merge, it will become a corps.

The new military system is Liu Yan's combination of the classical military system and the post-classical military system. For example, several units such as "Che" and "pawn" in the classical military system have been removed.In addition, it must be explained that corps and group armies did not exist in modern times, and related military units already existed in classical times.

The attack on the fortifications of the city lord's mansion still starts with long-range equipment, and even thick city walls can be knocked down. Earth embryo walls and fence walls are nothing at all.

Si Hongzhuang only used one day to destroy the fortifications, and the next day he laid down his position and advanced directly.

"The shields are like a wall to cover the soldiers advancing, and the rear is ready to peep." Xu Guang ventured up to the roof of the city lord's mansion to look at it, but he seemed calm in the face of the crisis: "The Han army is still the same."

The City Lord's Mansion was smashed for a day, and the fortifications were basically destroyed. There were stones and giant crossbows everywhere, and arrows could be seen everywhere. For example, there were many crossbow arrows stuck in the tiles of the roof where Xu Guang was standing.

"It is our misfortune to face such a strong army." Du Guang was equally calm, "We have done our best."

Who said no?Yangyi's defenders are inferior to the Han army in terms of long-range weapons, and the composition of their troops is even more chaotic. After seeing the superiority of the Han army's equipment, they were a little surprised that they could last for 23 days.

"It's a pity that the Han army didn't gain the advantage and attacked immediately." Xu Guang was satisfied with being able to persist for so long, and said disappointedly: "Otherwise, we can kill and wound more Han troops?"

"The Han Kingdom has already become a grand power." Du Guang is not a Jie tribe who regards the Han culture as dung. The victory of the war. The country of the Central Plains Celestial Dynasty, there is nothing like this."

Xu Guang sneered and said: "The former Sima Dynasty had such a goal. In order to reduce the losses of their own people, they used the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Zahu as soldiers. Later, the Xiongnu took the Central Plains."

Du Guang was speechless.

It’s true that Sima’s family was not the only one who did this, let’s not talk about those who are too far away. Didn’t the Western Han Dynasty also use the Huns who surrendered as soldiers, and the Eastern Han Dynasty used the Huns, Xianbei, and Wuhuan who defected as soldiers.The Western Han Dynasty encountered a backlash but survived it, but the Eastern Han Dynasty got rid of it and was looted by the servant army in Luoyang. In the Western Jin Dynasty, it directly lost the Central Plains.

"I heard that the Han Dynasty has nearly 20 servants?" Xu Guang said with full expectation, "I hope they will follow the old path of the Sima Dynasty!"

"Yes, there are [-] to [-] Qiang people alone, and the rest are Di people, Zahu, Liaodong and overseas ethnic groups." Du Guang watched the dark clouds rising in front of him, and pulled Xu Guang back : "Go down, the enemy's arrows are covered."

The foot battle of the Han army has always been so monotonous. They form a shield formation to cover and advance. Every time they advance a certain distance, they follow the archers behind them to cover the arrows. However, this monotonous way of advancing is not easy to deal with. If you want to crack Only weapons with a long-range attack distance are better than the Han army, or cavalry to advance regardless of the cost of casualties.

Various fortifications were destroyed, and the environment naturally became complicated. The Han army that formed the shield wall advanced to an area full of debris. It was difficult to advance in a piece of shield wall. It was necessary to split the shield wall and advance in small groups.

Arrows kept flying across the sky, and the shield wall was undone with a sound of metal friction, and soldiers with swords and small bucklers poured out.

When the shield wall of the Han army cracked, the defenders hiding in the complex environment began to cast cold arrows, and the Han army suffered casualties soon after being unable to defend against it.

Zhong Hui had no doubts that the remaining troops would destroy the stubborn enemy troops and join the army. After he led the troops northward, the next stage was to cross the Wei River and approach Jinyang.

"The shogunate sent a message that Shi Xuan has led his troops to leave Jinyang and go north. For the time being, we don't know whether to go to the northwest grassland or retreat back to Dingxiang." The difference between the long history of marching of the group army is that there is no prefix of "marching" in front of the long history.He was also riding on a majestic war horse, with a high-spirited demeanor and tone: "Shi Xuan just fled with the elite of his troops, leaving Li Tu to lead the army to garrison Jinyang. Judging from the situation in Yangyi, Jinyang is probably about the same."

"The most elite under Shi Xuan's command is Donggong Gaoli, and there are [-] Jie people and nearly [-] Qiang and Di." Zhong Hui reminded with a cautious attitude: "In the battle of Yangyi, what we eliminated was Shi Xuan's temporary arrest. There are mostly miscellaneous Hu and slave soldiers, but there are only three thousand Jie people and twenty thousand Qiang and Di, and the main force in his hands is still there."

The Han army knew that Shi Xuan had escaped, and it can be roughly judged that he fled with about 6 to [-] people. It is certain that Donggong Gaoli must be in the escape, but it is not certain how many Jie people, Qiang people, and Di people were taken away. It is impossible to confirm the composition of the troops in the hands of Li Tu who stayed in Jinyang.

Although the information about Zhongyang was slightly delayed, the Zhengbei shogunate already knew that Fu Hong was retreating.

The timing of Fu Hong's retreat was very precise. He took advantage of the fact that the Han army was mainly attacking the northeast of Bingzhou, and there was only one cavalry of the Han army on the south bank of Fenshui. .

Li Tan found that Fu Hong was showing signs of retreating, and he only sent the Second Cavalry Army to cross Fenshui to harass him. His intention was more like forcing Fu Hong to stop searching and evacuate immediately. No attempt was made to intercept Fu Hong's retreat.

"The soldiers in the general's hands are a little insufficient..." Zhang Gan asked with a puzzled expression, "But the county soldiers are not incapable of fighting. How could they indulge Fu Hong's retreat?"

Zhong Hui didn't know that much, he could only say: "Maybe there are factors we don't know about."

The strategy between countries has never been so simple. In the overall strategy of the Han Dynasty, it is necessary to have a foreign race as a pioneer to go west. Liu Yan believes that the tribe led by Fu Hong is an ideal pioneer. The order of the altar was to drive Fu Hong's troops westward.

Li Tan was still having a headache on how to fulfill the mission of the king. He was mostly happy when facing Fu Hong's initiative to retreat westward. What was annoyed was that Fu Hong ransacked the land before he left.

The movement on Fu Hong's side was really too big, so big that it was hard for the Han side not to pay attention.The state of Han didn't care much about property, but the population, which meant that the Hulu were not allowed to take away the descendants of the Han family.

When Shihu retreated to the north, he had taken away nearly a million Han Miao descendants. What Han knew was that the situation of the abducted Han Miao descendants was very bad. Everyone in the world is indignant, this Northern Expedition is not only about recovering the old land, but also about rescuing the captive compatriots.

Regarding the national policy, Li Tan did not explain to the generals under the shogunate system. After all, he said that he would release Fu Hong before fighting. Fu Hong couldn't let Fu Hong find out.

Even if there was only one division left, Zhong Hui would still have three armies and two divisions along the way, one of which was the Imperial Guard.

"After Jinyang, there will be Quyang." Li Tan still stayed in Jingling. After several soldiers were dispatched, there was only one imperial guard left around the shogunate.He said to Tiaoyou: "I wonder if Shihu will be like Shixuan."

The Zhengbei shogunate sent scouts to follow Shi Xuan's troops. The problem is that Shi Xuan used great strength to deal with the Han scouts. The scouts from both sides chased and fought each other very fiercely in the wilderness. The military scouts chased and lost Shi Xuan's troops from Mount Meng.

Li Tan has already sent people to look for Qian Jiantong's troops who set out earlier, but the reason is the same as the reason why it is difficult to find Shi Xuan's troops in the wilderness. Even if an army has tens of thousands of people, there are too many places to hide in the vast wilderness , it is not so easy to find the truth.After the ice and snow melt season, some activity traces are covered by nature as the ice and snow melt, so that even if Li Tan roughly knows which area Qian Jiantong's headquarters is in, it will take some time to find it.

Tiaoyou has to feel a little bit, the rise of the Han Kingdom has hardly encountered any twists and turns, which has led to the pride of the Han Kingdom's high-level officials.He knew that the top brass of the Han Dynasty had enough reasons and confidence to be proud, but there is a saying when pride is used in marching and fighting, "Arrogant soldiers must be defeated."And Han is not only a soldier, but also a very proud general, which is worth worrying about for everyone.

"Shi Jie has the intention to retreat to the grassland, and this Shi Jie has not concealed it." Tiaoyou felt that he should fulfill the responsibility of marching commander Shi, knowing that some words were not pleasant, but still said: "General, I don't know that Shi Jie's move is In paralyzing our army, why do we expect that the enemy will flee without fighting? If the general fights with this belief, our army will not be far behind."

Li Tan was stunned immediately, he was about to blurt out some words, but swallowed them back.

"Your Majesty ordered that the Imperial Guards be the vanguard in every battle. The general sent the Imperial Guards as the vanguard, but the soldiers followed closely behind." Tiaoyou actually didn't know why Liu Yan had such a request , He just said the truth: "The elite of the imperial guards is unstoppable, and they are really the best candidates for the front. If the enemy is ambushed and will not panic, presumably this is the king's intention. He is afraid that the generals will be proud, afraid... "

Li Tan didn't think much about it before, but after listening to Tiao You's words, he thought about it for a while, and realized that he was indeed too proud recently, and the whole army seemed to be the same. Thoughts, you will really suffer, and it will be too late to say anything when you really suffer.

"Chang Shi!" Li Tan took a deep breath and stood up, and solemnly bowed to Tiao You: "Thank you, Chang Shi, for your teaching."

Tiao You hurriedly returned the gift, and Lian Sheng said, "It's my duty."

(End of this chapter)