Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 626 Wei’s winning point
Let's talk about when Ma Chao and Sun Ce led the Longyou group of cavalry to attack the Hetao eastward. Lu Xun also commanded the Chu army and led the Northern Expedition, and clashed with the Wei army in the Yanjin and Baima areas!
Because Ma Chao had not surrendered, the Chu State only provided food and grass, as well as some high-quality swords, guns, armor and other cold weapons and light armor, forget about the infuriating crossbows and artillery.

Only the few hundred people led by Sun Ce have these...

Weapons and light armor are indeed a big improvement for the Qiang cavalry, but they are not considered a "generation change".

What's more, in Sun Ce's view, direct replacement may not be a good thing - the era of Zhenqi and firearms are very different from cold weapons in terms of tactics and even strategy.

Although the training cost of Zhenqi crossbow is very low, which is far simpler than that of bows and arrows, this refers to the "low training cost" of grassroots Ji Zao soldiers. In terms of tactical command, it is not simple, especially when compared with the previous strategic conception and tactical command. They are completely different. The Chu Army Privy Council has specially trained them for this...

Ma Chao himself didn't understand, let alone the Qiang cavalry officers who were the main force in the Liang army. What could they understand?
However, even the cold weapons eliminated by the Chu State are still a great equipment upgrade for the original Qiang cavalry!
For this reason, Sun Ce specially asked his personal guard company and an artillery company to demonstrate Chu's fighting methods against the enemy on the battlefield, which was also a "reminder" to Ma Chao and the Qiang people.

Lest they open their minds and think that if the iron content of equipment per capita is a little more, they can blow their wings with Chu State...

Ma Chao quickly put down some civil strife caused by the mutiny in Longyou, and deposed Han Sui's Marquis of Liang. After being consecrated by his father Ma Teng as "Dong of Liang", he called himself "King of Yongliang" and commanded Xiliang. Attack the Hetao eastward.

Although Ma Teng was deposed and could only take care of himself at home, Ma Xiu and Ma Tie still supported their eldest brother... Ma Teng was so angry that he jumped up and down.

As for Pang De and others who were Ma Chao's confidants and friends, not to mention their positions, the main cause of chaos in Longyou was Yan Xing under Han Sui.

However, he was still defeated by Ma Chao, and he had already fled eastward, thinking that he might seek refuge with Wei or Yuan Tan...

It is said that the Xiongnu in Hetao are stronger than the Qiang in Xiliang. Most of the Qiang people in Hetao were also enslaved by the Xiongnu.

When Zhang Fei was at the rear, the Great Khan Huchuquan, who bravely killed the Huns, greatly dampened the morale of the Huns who followed the Wei army, but it actually helped Wei and Yuan Tan!

When Huchuquan was alive, he could barely cooperate with Wei. As for Yuan Tan... he was nominally allied with the Xiongnu, but in fact he was taking refuge with Huchuquan.

However, as soon as Huchuquan died, the state of Wei immediately incorporated Huchuquan's troops and the elite Huns who went south.

Yuan Tan was also in Hetao and subdued the Huns who were in chaos. Now several major tribes in Hetao have worshiped Yuan Tan!
This is why Lu Xun resented Zhang Fei even more after learning about this incident - Hu Chuquan died at the wrong time.

Fortunately, Huchuquan did take away many elites before. Although they were originally prepared to send out surprise troops from Hetao to cause trouble in Xiliang, so they did not count as an overwhelming force, but in the end they were not as powerful as before.

Just because they were surrendered by Yuan Tan, the Hetao Huns, who were originally scattered and upright in tactics, became a bit more of a threat.

And from the perspective of the Qiang, they are divided into many ethnic groups internally. It is not that the Qiang cavalry from Xiliang arrived, the Qiang cavalry from Hetao welcomed their compatriots one after another and counterattacked the evil Huns... but they were still coerced by the Huns. Let's fight the Liang army!
The only advantage of Liang's army is that the opponent's equipment is very poor - Yuan Tan is also very poor, and Wei is even less likely to support Yuan Tan with any weapons.

You and I are fighting over each other in the Hetao. As long as the outcome is not a big one, it will have little impact on the battle between Chu and Wei.

The real main battlefield is around Yanjin and Baima. The Wei army defends along the Yellow River, while the Chu army attacks in many directions...

The Wei army should be familiar with the terrain here. After all, when Cao Cao went north, he fought Yuan Shao here!
What makes Cao Cao depressed is that when he was in the south, he was waiting for Yuan Shao to attack and launch a defensive counterattack. Now that he was sitting in the north, he still had to defend strictly.

Like Bai Tu in Xiangyang, Cao Cao was always ready to go to the front line in Yecheng.

For the Chu State, as long as the former army can cross the Yellow River, it can turn to a full-scale Northern Expedition. Naturally, Bai Tu will personally supervise the army.

As for the Wei State, if the Chu State successfully crosses the river, it will have to make a decision, whether to fight the Chu State decisively, or to temporarily avoid the enemy - if it chooses the latter, it will have to move the capital from Yecheng to Yijing, or even to Liaodong. …

Cao Cao decided early on that once the Chu army moved north, he would use the geographical advantage to fight with it and never move further north.

In plain areas, with the bonus of cavalry, the weakness of cold weapons can be smaller.

As for moving further north?Cao Cao no longer thinks about this!

Liaodong had been returned to the Wei Dynasty not long ago, and in the past, wealthy families mostly plundered people on the Seafood Peninsula, which had a great impact on Liaodong.

When Cao Cao was seriously ill and Cao Zhi took charge, Liaodong was eroded and became the stronghold of radical families. There had been suppression by the Gongsun family before, and for historical reasons, the influence of the local gentry in Liaodong was generally not strong, and they did not pose any restraint.

In the same way, the north bordering Wuhuan and Xianbei is mostly like this. On the contrary, only the Hebei area is what Cao Cao can really control.

Moving to the north will only make Wei domestic and foreign difficult, and accelerate its defeat!
Now Cao Cao can see three points of "win chance". One is to regain Guanzhong and stabilize his position based on the [-]-mile Qinchuan River;

The second was internal troubles caused by the south resisting the powerful Chu and taking advantage of the winter to use troops to suppress the north;
The third is to bet on Chu's negligence and carelessness, fight with him in Hebei, and defeat him - just like the victory over Yuan Shao in Baima.

Of course, there is another thing that is being done all the time, which is the "imitation" of the craftsman camp.

But now we can barely make a degraded version of the "earth cannon", and there is no way to use the infuriating crossbow. Ma Jun proposed to use gunpowder to drive the crossbow, but...

This thing needs to be stabbed with a stick for a long time, and it must be erected to load bullets. Cao Cao thinks it is unreliable no matter how he looks at it!
It's a pity that Cao Cao didn't know that the real development of gunpowder was indeed from this way. He just thought that Ma Jun had taken the wrong path and did not let him continue...

What's more, even if we continue, it's too late!

As for the three points of victory, now the first point has been blocked by the state of Chu—Guanzhong cannot be pacified for a while, and the second, third... have to wait for the opportunity!
For the time being, Wei's good generals and good plans are not bad, and the Yellow River defense line has used all Wei's strength. There is hope that it can last until winter!

What?Does the Yellow River freeze in winter?

Ice does not mean that you can run a horse or pass an army. Even if you can pass an army, what can the Chu army do in such cold weather?
If the Chu army, dominated by southerners, really used its own shortcomings to attack the northerners' strengths and used troops in the middle of winter, Cao Cao would feel... maybe there would be a chance to win another big one!
(End of this chapter)