Overlord!

After hearing that Zhang He led his troops to defeat Ma Chao, Sun Ce said: "When we fight with Hebei in the future, we must be careful about Zhang He."

If there is a defeat like the Battle of Jieting during the Jiangbei Expedition, it will severely damage people's morale.

Zhang Zhao nodded in agreement: "Hebei is mediocre, but the famous generals are He He and the soldiers are sharp. If you take advantage of the advantages and advance, you will definitely be in trouble. Liu Bei was defeated and returned. Ma Chao's army had no fighting spirit and retreated after defeat. , Zhang He then used [-] cavalry to cover behind him, broke through Pu Ban, and cut off Liu Bei's army supply route."

"Liu Bei nearly retreated with his entire army. He fought to cross from Caoyang to the south and returned to Hongnong. He fell into the river and killed more than [-] people!"

Cao Yang!

Sun Ce lamented: "This place is really the ruin of the Han Dynasty. All the hopes of the Han Dynasty for rejuvenation were destroyed here twice."

Liu Bei's army totaled only about [-] people, and more than [-] people fell into the river here and died!
  It can almost be said that the emperor's royal division was severely damaged and has been unable to recover since then.

The only territory that the emperor could control strongly was half of Henan and the small and sparsely populated Hongnong County.

Hongnong, if you look at the map, you will know that the narrow terrain is vividly interpreted here. The Taotao River is in the north and the tall Qinling Mountains are in the south. The terrain between the two is steep, so Tongguan can be set up here. Tongguan is known as "the river flows south of Tongjiguan Mountain in the pass" precisely because the Wei and Luo Rivers meet the Yellow River and hug the pass in the north, and it is close to Huayue in the west. The surrounding mountains are surrounded by mountains and peaks, with deep valleys and cliffs. The mountains are high and the road is narrow. There is a narrow catwalk in the middle, which can only accommodate one car and one horse.

Therefore, it can be described as "the narrow road is dangerous and the apes compete with each other" and "the road in the world stops at Tongguan Pass". After Du Fu's travels, he also had a poem that "the father-in-law looks at the important place, and it is narrow enough to accommodate a bicycle. It is difficult to fight with a long halberd, but one man will be used for eternity."

This kind of terrain is destined to have a very small population here. At the peak of the Han Dynasty, there were only [-] people here, which is equivalent to the population of a county in some large counties. After experiencing the chaos of Dong Zhuo and the tyranny of Li Jue and Guo Si, it is unclear whether the population here can be reduced to [-]. After all, Guanzhong, the area west of Tongguan, is said to have suffered population extinction, with only a few hundred registered people left, and the scholar-bureaucrats were forced to eat human flesh.

After sighing with emotion, Sun Ce's thoughts quickly returned to reality and said: "If the east of Hedong is conquered by Zhang He, Yuan Shao will almost have the entire land of Three Rivers, and his cavalry will become stronger and stronger."

The Three Rivers and Five Schools were the foundation of the Han Dynasty and the military support of the entire empire.

Now that the land of Three Rivers is owned by Yuan Shao, the Knights of Three Rivers will also serve as a source of troops to strengthen Yuan Shao's military force.

Sun Ce frowned and said: "I remember that Zhou Yu once pursued Cao Cao before and said that the combat power of the imperial cavalry is even better than mine! Looking at his pommel and horse after the war, the imperial court has learned the secret of my cavalry."

After all, the north still has the advantage of cavalry. When both sides have the same horse equipment, saddles and reins, the riding skills of the northern frontier cavalry are still better than those of the southern cavalry.

So this is also a hidden danger. The combat power of the northern cavalry will gradually catch up!
  Of course, in today's battle involving hundreds of thousands, Sun Ce is no longer afraid of cavalry.

This secret of pommel and horse has been hidden for nearly ten years and helped Sun Ce secure such a large territory. Its significance has been realized.

In a [-]-level battle between Yuan and Sun, they must have formed a fort to confront each other and defended the territory. The decisive winner was the hundreds of thousands of heavy infantry wearing heavy armor and fearless of death. The cavalry could not directly determine the direction of the war, and even more so. It is impossible to go deep alone and attack hundreds of miles.

At this time, the competition is still about the comprehensive strength of both parties.

Therefore, Zhang Zhao said with relief: "The reason why the Sanhe cavalry is famous is that in the past, the land of Sanhe was close to the capital. The people were prosperous and the economy was prosperous. The middle-class families also had hundreds of acres of land. Therefore, the children of the clan could learn literature and martial arts and become excellent sources of cavalry soldiers. , Now the land of Sanhe is in ruins, and among the cities, ten houses and nine empty houses, Yuan Shao may not be able to revive the Sanhe cavalry."

Sun Ce's intention changed slightly. Isn't this a soldier? Everyone is a small landowner.

If Yuan Shao can calm down and recuperate, the future of this land of three rivers is limitless.

Therefore, Sun Ce asked: "The situation in the north has changed drastically. Yuan Shao has captured the land of Three Rivers. Has Yuan Shao stopped his troops?"

Zhang Zhao solemnly replied: "This is exactly what I wanted to tell you. It is said that Yuan Shao has not stopped his troops, but has crossed the river and entered the military pass."

Sun Ce frowned slightly and asked, "Yuan Shao wants to force Guanzhong to surrender to him?"

Zhang Zhaoyao looked to the northwest: "If the Xiliang cavalry surrenders to Yuan Shao, it will be our real big problem. I would like to ask the prince if he can send troops to contain Yuan Shao a little bit?"

Sun Ce stood up, stretched out his hand, and directly rejected the proposal: "The generals in Guanzhong are not so easy to defeat!"

You must know that although troops were sent to Hedong, there were only a few thousand generals in Guanzhong.

But if the guard is in Guanxi, it is no problem to have the ten generals in Guanzhong plus the Qiang and Hu cavalry to gather [-] people.

In this era, defense is always easier than offense.

Yuan Jun supplied Zhang He and more than [-] troops to cross hundreds of miles to attack Guanzhong, which was a huge waste of energy.

However, it would be relatively simple for all the generals in Guanzhong to gather hundreds of thousands of troops and guard the Wei River.

Sun Ce asserted: "The two armies must be unable to do anything to each other. In the end, the Kansai army was short of food and chose to surrender to Yuan Shao to fulfill his ambition. If Yuan Shao is arrogant, he must proclaim himself emperor as soon as possible!"

Just like Sun Ce said, the battle in the end is about logistical supplies and power base.

Sun Ce had no doubt that Han Sui, Ma Teng and others could assemble hundreds of thousands of troops. After all, since the time of Emperor Ling, the entire Liangzhou was almost not owned by the Han Dynasty. There were hundreds of thousands of rebels here all year round. The empire The famous generals Sun Jian, Dong Zhuo, and Huangfu Song came here again and again to quell the rebellion, but they failed to wipe out these rebels.

But their biggest shortcoming is also these hundreds of thousands of troops. Sun Ce now has seven states, no land system, and a prosperous land of plenty, but he can't recruit hundreds of thousands of troops. They have no way to guarantee it. Logistics supplies for these hundreds of thousands of rebels.

Especially since Liangzhou was already in ruins after so many years of war, they had nowhere to go even if they wanted to plunder.

When more than [-] people gather and stand at odds for several months at most, they will be on the verge of collapse due to lack of supplies. If these princes and generals do not want to be killed by their subordinates, they can only ask Yuan Shao to surrender.

It is not that there are no experts in Yuan Shao's camp. It is likely that Yuan Jun took a fancy to this place and decisively entered Guanzhong.

Yuan Shao may not want to take over the ruined land of Guanzhong, but he must be very concerned about surrendering such a large territory to him, which is crucial for him to become emperor.

Once this place surrenders, in his vision, all the princes such as Sun Ce and Ma Teng will surrender. The Han Dynasty will only have two counties left. The Yuan family will succeed the Han Dynasty. It can be said that the general trend is determined.

But once he proclaims himself emperor, hundreds of thousands of troops in Kansai rebel, and Sun Ce also announces a crusade with [-] troops, then Yuan Shao's hegemony will fall apart.

It's just that Yuan Shao, who has been fascinated by the throne, will not believe this at this moment.

His ambitions have become swollen, and he is obsessed with proclaiming himself emperor and living the addiction of being an emperor. Therefore, Lao Zhu's strategy of building high walls, hoarding grain, and slowly becoming king is a good strategy for hegemony.

However, even if he was slowly proclaimed king, Zhu Yuanzhang had already established the title of emperor when he had Sun Ce's territory, and then the Ming army conquered the Shandong area during the Northern Expedition.

Although the situation cannot be completely compared, the south was more prosperous during Zhu Yuanzhang's period. Even if it only had half of Sun Ce's current power, it would still be more powerful and prosperous than the princes of the world.

But Sun Ce does have the capital to conquer the world like Zhu Yuanzhang.

Sun Ce said: "As soon as Yuan Shao proclaims himself emperor, we will launch the Northern Expedition immediately. Many soldiers and rebellions in the territory must be put down as soon as possible!"

There are two rebellions that Sun Ce is most concerned about now.

One is the rebellion of Yuzhang bandits in the south. This rebellion has been going on for nearly a year.

Shortly after Sun Ce's Northern Expedition and the main force of the army left, rebellion here took advantage of the situation and has now spread to Yuzhang, Poyang, and Luling.

The government just wanted to reduce the impact, so they only called them Yuzhang Thieves. But in fact, this Yuzhang is not the current Yuzhang, but the ancient name of this area of ​​Yuzhang. If we talk about it in detail, it is the Yuzhang Thieves and Poyang Bandits. The gathering of thieves and Luling thieves.

But the trouble is that these rebels did not gather in one place, but dispersed along the waterways to the entire Yuzhang area, which was the entire Jiangxi Province in later generations.

They either rely on distant defenses and hide in deep mountains and dense forests, or hide in the river network of Daze. When the government comes to suppress them, they scatter like birds and beasts. When the government withdraws, they reunite and come out to plunder places.

Without enough troops to coordinate an encirclement and suppression campaign, it would be difficult to eradicate these rebellions.

Zhang Zhao said: "Lü Meng has joined forces with Gan Ning, Ling Cao, Jiang Qin, Wenpin, Xu Huang, Zhu Huan, Yu Jin, Zhang Fei and other generals to encircle this place. An army of [-] has set up ambushes and will fight day and night. According to several legends, Good news, more than [-] people have been captured. If there is no plague, it will be easy to put down the rebellion here within this year."

What if there was no plague?

That's easy to say!
  As late autumn approaches, soldiers go deep into the mountains, forests and swamps to suppress rebellion. This is the time when they are most susceptible to plague, dysentery and typhoid fever.

Jingzhou came to report that the plague was spreading in Jiangxia, Nanyang, and Wuling areas, especially typhoid fever, which was simply difficult to contain. Many villages and towns and entire families were wiped out, and it was not known to the counties until more than ten days later.

This is indeed the tragedy of this era, but it is also the luck of this era. Due to the inconvenience of transportation, the plague was limited to a certain area and could not spread.

To deal with things like plague, prevention is better than cure since ancient times.

Once you contract the plague, there will be no effective treatment even after two thousand years. At the end of the Han Dynasty, you almost had to wait for death.

Therefore, limiting the spread of plague has been the most important means of epidemic prevention in the Central Plains since ancient times.

Sun Ce thought for a while and said: "Order Chen Bao, the commander of the army, to take the solitary staff, three thousand stones of grain and grass, and three thousand dogs and sheep to the army to reward the soldiers and enforce the prohibition! The strict soldiers will drink raw water directly. Any officer who is found drinking directly from swamps or water nets will be dismissed from the rank of officer from the camp commander on down! Let the generals use herbs to prevent the plague at any cost. Anyone who does not manage the army strictly and causes the plague to breed will not be severely punished. loan!"

Thinking of typhoid fever, Sun Ce thought of Zhang Zhongjing. Sun Ce said: "At the same time, let the states and counties recommend a good cure for typhoid fever! Anyone who can cure typhoid fever will be rewarded with the position of a doctor!"

Lang Zhong is not yet a title for doctors, but an official name, which is a general name for the emperor's attendants. "Han Feizi" says: Lang Zhong, for the Lang in the center, is the person on the left and right of the king. The doctors of the Han Dynasty served as bodyguards on the inside and fought on the outside. In addition, the Shangshu Desk is equipped with a doctor's office for edicts and policy documents.

Coincidentally, the two famous doctors in the late Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing and Hua Tuo, were both under the rule of Sun Ce. Sun Ce naturally hoped to gather them in Jiankang City, firstly to develop medicine, and secondly to ensure that he and Zhou Yu, Lu Meng, Zhuge Liang and others They will not die young. Every extra year these heroes live will reduce the number of civilians who die in battles.

In addition to good doctors, the biggest advantage of Jiangdong's army in the battle is its sufficient logistics supplies. When Sun Ce first started his army, he didn't even have a few kilograms of herbal medicines. Now, there are as many as three thousand kilograms of mugwort, skullcap, atractylodes and other herbs. The number of herbal medicines grown in Jiangdong is With millions of acres of farmland and sufficient supplies, it can be said to be the best in the world.

The army also had a large amount of raw silk, cloth, sea salt and spirits to protect the soldiers' wounds.

After using so many methods, Sun Ce also tried his best. He can only hope that Yuzhang can go smoothly and put down the rebellion as soon as possible.

Then Sun Ce asked: "How is the situation at Changxi?"

Chang Xi, also known as Chang Ba, was one of the Taishan bandits like Zang Ba.

Due to Cao Cao's defeat, the war in Qingzhou quickly came to an end. Generals such as Zang Ba, Sun Guan, Chang Xi, Wu Dun, Yin Li, and Li Dian all led their troops to surrender to Zhuge Liang.

There is no way, their foundation places such as Taishan, Langya, Qi, Beihai and other places have been captured by the armies of Zhuge Liang and Taishi Ci.

As Sun Ce expected, Taishi Ci, with the cooperation of Huang Zhong, easily gathered [-] Donglai Township party members and heroes, defeated Liu Yi, the so-called governor of Yingzhou, and restored the entire territory of Donglai.

However, the [-]-strong army could not be easily disbanded, so Taishi Ci led the [-]-strong army to march westward, cooperating with Zhuge Liang to attack the eastern front of Cao's army, and competed with Yuan Tan, Zang Ba and others for the land of Qingzhou.

When Cao Cao's main force was defeated, Qingzhou lost its master.

Zang Ba, Li Dian and others were all members of Cao Jun's vassal, and the army had its own system. After Cao Cao's defeat, the two of them discussed it and thought that Yuan Shao was indecisive and not Sun Ce's enemy. Attached to Sun Ce.

This is undoubtedly a happy event, because the two of them also have some cities in Taishan, Le'an, Qi and other places, as well as more than [-] tribesmen.

The Li family has thousands of soldiers, while the Taishan army has more than [-] soldiers. They are both good sources of soldiers.

The two of them surrendered in large numbers, and Sun Ce very generously rewarded Li Dian as the prime minister of Langya, and Zang Ba as the general of Suiyuan Zhonglang. In addition, he divided Langye, Donghai, and Beihai into three counties: Chengyang, Licheng, and Changlu, and Wu Dun was the prefect of Licheng, Yin Li was the prefect of Dongguan, Sun Guan was the prime minister of Beihai, and Changxi was the prefect of Chengyang.

This was done not only to reward high-ranking officials with generous rewards for their merits, but also to deprive these Taishan vassal towns of their military power.

Sun Ce is not Cao Cao, and no other faction's army can form a system under his command.

Li Dian's Li Jiajun accepted Sun Ce's reorganization very directly. Most of them were demobilized, but a small number met the recruitment standards and were kept in the army and dispersed to various ministries.

But Chang Xi was so ambitious that he was unwilling to be deprived of his military power and directly led the army to launch a rebellion. (End of chapter)