Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 320: Cut off the grain in Long, the separation of Hu soldiers

August, Lueyang.

"I led my troops to fight for several days, verbally insulting Zhang Yu. But Zhang Yu has been shutting himself up to nourish his strength. I can do nothing about it now!"

Cheng Yi took off his helmet, his face full of fatigue, and complained to Han Sui and Song Jian, saying, "Zhang Yu went west to attack Longyou, intending to defeat his army. Now he is closing the camp and not fighting, which is contrary to his intention. It is really puzzling!"

After Zhang Yu had been on a 10-day raid of more than 600 miles and opened up the three roads of Weishui, Qingshui, and Guanlong, he had been staying in the camp. Han Sui and Song Jian were worried about the shortage of food and grass, so they asked Cheng Yi to lead the troops to challenge Zhang Yu and summoned the Qiang and Di tribes to come to their aid, hoping to decide the outcome with Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu saw through the intentions of the Longyou army. Because the Long Road was unobstructed, he was not in a hurry to engage in battle. He held his ground according to the old strategy and confronted them from July to August, making it difficult for Han Sui to achieve a quick victory.

Han Sui paced anxiously and said, "Zhang Yu is well versed in the art of war. He knows that our army is based in Longxi and Jincheng, and that food and supplies need to be transported over long distances. Moreover, Longyou is in decline and its food production is not as good as that of Shanxi. Now that Zhang Yu has lifted the siege of Ji County, the people of Long are transporting food and supplies for them. The enemy no longer has to worry about food and supplies."

"So it is not difficult to see what Zhang Yu is thinking. He simply wants to wait until our army runs out of food so that he can send out his troops to defeat our army."

"What should we do now?" Fan Chou asked worriedly.

Han Sui hesitated for a moment and said, "Let's first ask the Qiang people in Xingguo and Changli to provide food to reduce the loss of long-distance transportation from Jincheng. We can also send cavalry to bypass and see if we can harass the Long Road, burn and plunder Zhang Yu's army's food, and force him to send troops."

"promise!"

Han Sui repeatedly harassed the enemy's food supply route to force them to withdraw. For example, when Zhang Wen and Dong Zhuo attacked Longyou, Han Sui and Bian Zhang saw that the situation was not favorable for them, so they took the initiative to distance themselves and retreated to the distant Jincheng County.

Zhang Wen and Dong Zhuo jointly marched to recover the lost territory in one battle, so they attacked Jincheng County in a big way, but their food supply was cut off by Han Sui. The army was out of food and eventually retreated. During the pursuit, only Sun Jian had a unique vision and proposed to cut off Han Sui's food supply, but he was not valued; Dong Zhuo was well aware of the danger of the food supply and sent troops to guard it in advance, so he was able to retreat.

When Zhuge Liang attacked Longyou three times, in the duel with Sima Yi, both of them targeted the opponent's military food to force the opponent to reveal a flaw. When Liu Xiu attacked Longyou several times, why did he have to fight so many times? The essence was still the lack of food.

Therefore, when deploying troops in Longyou, the most important thing is military food. Whoever has more food and grass will gain an advantage in Longyou, and then be able to force the opponent to use troops. Han Sui has fought with the generals of the Eastern Han Dynasty for many years, so how could he not see through Zhang Yu's mind? Naturally, he would take targeted actions.

"If the Qiang people don't lend us food, it will be difficult for our army to burn Zhang Yu's food. Our army has less food than Zhang Yu, what should we do?" Song Jian asked.

Han Sui stopped and stood in front of the map, frowning and said, "If we are short of food and grass, we can only ask for peace from Zhang Yu or lead our troops to withdraw to Jincheng. Now let's confront Zhang Yu first and see if we can burn and plunder the enemy's food. If that doesn't work, write a letter to Yuan Shao and ask him to send troops to Anyi, which will also force Zhang Yu to withdraw."

"Wen Yue is very wise, listen to Wen Yue's opinion!"

Although Han Sui was defeated by Zhang Yu last month, he at least captured Yang Qiu's troops. Now Song Jian thought he was not as good as Han Sui, so he naturally chose to trust Han Sui.

Not to mention that Han Sui and Song Jian were worried about Zhang Yu's isolation and cultivation, now Zhang Yu was waiting for Shi Yi's feedback.

Qinting camp, inside the big tent.

Zhang Yuyi lay on the cushion, holding the bamboo slips in his hands, feeling quite comfortable.

"Your Majesty!"

"Gongda!"

Zhang Yu straightened his sitting posture slightly, and when he saw Xun You coming into the tent from outside, he asked, "Did any enemy general leave the camp to challenge us today?"

"I don't see the enemy generals coming out of the camp to challenge me!"

Xun You shook his head and said worriedly, "Sir, the enemy will not challenge us these days. I am afraid Han Sui has another plan."

Hearing this, Zhang Yu put down the bamboo slips in his hand and asked, "What do you mean, Gongda?"

Xun You sat on a stool and said, "Your Majesty sent Shi Yi to lead the cavalry to attack and plunder Han Sui's military supplies. Han Sui is not a man without strategy. He has been on the battlefield for a long time. Now that he sees that our army is staying in the camp and not fighting, he may attack our military supply route to force us to fight!"

Zhang Yu nodded and said, "Gongda is right. Although the army's food is stored in Long County, it is inevitable that Han Sui will send cavalry to plunder the Guanlong Road."

As he spoke, Zhang Yu directed his instructions to Zhao Yun in the tent: "Zilong, lead two thousand cavalrymen out of the camp and inspect the food routes in Guanlong to prepare for Han Sui's looting."

"Yes, sir!" Zhao Yun bowed and accepted the order.

After Zhao Yun left, Xun You was a little worried and asked, "General Shi Yi's army has been alone and deep in Longyou. He has been away from the camp for more than a month. According to the time, Shi Yi's army will run out of food and grass. Now there is no news from General Shi Yi. Has something gone wrong?"

Zhang Yu said with a smile: "Shi Yi was born in the south of the desert. He has been living by the water and grass since he was a teenager. Enduring hunger is the norm. All the Hu cavalry under his command are like this. Now he is leading his troops to rob food, which is no different from hunting on the grassland. Moreover, Shi Yi knows the situation and knows how to advance and retreat. Now there is no military report, which means there is no progress for the time being." The ecological environment in Longyou is much better than in later times. There are large tracts of forests and grasslands all over Longshan. Shi Yi led the Hu cavalry to hunt like a fish into the sea, and he adapted to the environment of Longyou.

Of course, what Zhang Yu was most relieved about was Shi Yi and the Hu cavalry he led.

The Hu cavalry under Zhang Yu's command came from the Xiongnu and Xianbei tribes living in Dingxiang and Yanmen counties. The Xianbei tribe, in particular, had not been in contact with the Han area for a long time and still retained the habit of living by following water and grass, so they were particularly good at running and running.

Therefore, Zhang Yu's scouts were mostly composed of Xianbei Hu. Under the leadership of Shi Yi, they could cover the reconnaissance range within 50 miles. When necessary, they could act as light cavalry to plunder the grain roads for the army. This was an advantage that the Han cavalry could hardly match.

The cavalry under Zhang Yu who really fought tough battles were mostly Han people recruited by Zhang Yu from Bingzhou, rather than the seemingly barbaric Hu people.

In fact, in the border areas, the Hu people were able to defeat the Han people not by relying on their so-called bravery or strength, or by winning by force. Instead, the Han army relied on their ability to fight hand-to-hand and frontal battles, and was more inclined to fight tough battles.

As for why the Hu people could defeat the Han people repeatedly, or why the Han dynasty liked to use Hu soldiers, it was not because the Han soldiers were inferior, but because the Hu people were more cost-effective. The Hu people relied on the harsh environment and the military literacy cultivated by long-term hunting, and they were more proficient in strategies and tactics than the Han people who farmed. So in fact, the roles of the Hu soldiers and the Han soldiers were reversed.

What is the evidence?
In fact, we can understand from the example of the Han Dynasty that Liu Bang was besieged at Baideng not because Liu Bang could not defeat Maodun directly, but because Liu Bang led the Han army from Taiyuan to Pingcheng and repeatedly defeated the Xiongnu. He fell into Maodun's trap of luring the enemy deep into his territory and was besieged at Baideng. If the Xiongnu soldiers led by Maodun were capable of fighting a tough battle, they would have defeated Liu Bang long ago. Why did they negotiate with Liu Bang?
Let's look at the three great generals who went out to attack the Xianbei at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Tan Shihuai knew that he could not defeat the Han cavalry, so he stretched the battle line to thousands of miles and used the depth to wear down the Han cavalry. If Tan Shihuai was sure to defeat the Han cavalry, why would he give up the rich desert south and take refuge in the desert north to use the depth to wear down the Han cavalry?

But the saying "Hu people are natural warriors" is true. This does not mean that Hu people have strong fighting power, but that Hu people are low-cost and cost-effective as soldiers.

The nomadic society in which the Hu people lived was highly militarized. Archery, horseback riding and archery were both a means of survival and a military skill. The herdsmen were organized into cavalry, and the cavalry were all herdsmen who had not left their jobs.

The living conditions of the Han people were better than those of the Hu people, but because they lived on farming, the conditions for training them as soldiers were too high. Once the Han cavalry was trained, due to reasons such as organization and equipment, the low-intensity trained Hu cavalry could not match the Han professional cavalry. Needless to say, the gap between professional and non-professional cavalry was obvious.

In the early days of the Han Dynasty, professional soldiers were trained due to the high intensity of wars, and they often beat up the Hu people. However, due to the internal corruption and financial problems of the dynasty, it was difficult to maintain professional soldiers, so they chose to recruit the cost-effective Hu people to join the army to maintain their corrupt rule.

Although the main ethnic groups in the transition from Song to Yuan and from Ming to Qing were different, they could no longer be called barbarians in terms of their rise. Temujin and Nurhaci both created writing systems, brought relatively centralized rule to their ethnic groups, and most importantly, created a team of professional soldiers who were good at fighting.

Take the Mongolian cavalry as an example. Under the training of Genghis Khan, they were able to switch between military disciplines of massacre and killing and starving to death without looting.

Thanks to his deep understanding of the differences between Han and Hu people, although Zhang Yu was born in the frontier and was familiar with Hu customs, he chose strong frontier men as the main cavalry to play the role of melee armored cavalry. The Hu cavalry, on the other hand, used their good riding and shooting skills, knowledge of water and grass, and ability to endure hunger and cold to act as archery light cavalry.

Of course, due to the high quality requirements for East Asian cavalry, the cavalry in Zhang Yu’s army are proficient in both hand-to-hand combat and mounted archery. The only difference is their skills and equipment due to the different roles they play in the army.

Out of trust in the Huer cavalry's ability to escape, plunder, and survive, as well as his faith in Shi Yi's military ability, Zhang Yu was not too worried about Shi Yi, who he had sent out to plunder the grain route, but instead expected Shi Yi to bring him back some prey.

While Zhang Yu and Xun You were chatting, the attendant walked into the tent and said happily.

"Sir, General Shi Yi has good news!"

Hearing this, Zhang Yu could not help but laugh, and said to Xun You: "We are just discussing Shi Yi, and now we have the victory report. How great is that!"

"Speak quickly!"

"My lord, the cavalry reported that General Shi Yi led his cavalry to attack Pingxiang. On the way, he killed the grain transport officer Yang Kui and burned all the grain and grass. He then occupied Pingxiang (now Linwei) and cut off the grain route from Jincheng to Lueyang." The attendant said happily.

"Okay!"

Zhang Yu clapped his hands and smiled, saying: "Shi Yi cuts off the Huachuan River, and Jincheng's grain cannot go south. When Han Sui runs out of food in Hanyang and leads his troops to withdraw, it will be our chance to defeat the enemy."

Xun You stroked his beard and commented, laughing: "Lai Xi occupied Lueyang in the past, paving the way for Emperor Shizu to defeat Long; now Shi Yi is attacking Pingxiang, which will give you an opportunity to defeat Han."

"Don't rush!"

Zhang Yu restrained his expression and said, "Let Shi Yi hold Pingxiang firmly, and our army will continue to stay in seclusion and nourish its strength. Tell the generals not to rush to use the troops. Let's see how long Han Sui can hold out!"

"As ordered!"

"Send the scouts into the tent. I want to inquire about how Shi Yi attacked and killed Yang Kui!" Zhang Yu said with a smile.

"promise!"

(End of this chapter)