The Maojin knife from the late Jin Dynasty

Chapter 347 Cheng Han’s helplessness

Yes, the Cheng Han soldiers attacked Chang'an in three groups!

Liu Tai couldn't help but be stunned when he heard the news from Zhou Ping who was stationed in Chencang.

Because Liu Tai's supply of grain and grass in Hebei is already the limit to supply Liu Tai to attack all the way to Chang'an. It is too unrealistic to further supply Liu Tai to attack Hanzhong or even Chengdu.

Therefore, Liu Tai chose to recuperate, because it was too inconvenient to transport grain and grass when attacking Shu.

This is what Liu Tai was forced to do to develop the Zhengbai Canal, the Chidao from Chang'an to Luoyang, and the canal from Luoyang to Xingyang.

Of course, these three projects can actually be divided into two. One is that Chang'an can be self-sufficient and even have a surplus to support its attack on Shu. The other is to complete the supply from Hebei to Chang'an.

In Liu Tai's original plan, the ultimate goal was to detour to Qishan Road, but Zhou Ping was now training secretly on Chencang Road, specifically recruiting soldiers who were good at mountain climbing for training.

Jie Fei also obeyed Liu Tai's order to build the special tools needed for this unit to suit their needs for various mountain climbing.

But the real foreshadowing was on the Tangluo Road. Here, Liu Tai asked Zhou Ping to choose a stronghold and fight the battle, that is, every day's march distance, he would find a suitable place to build a camp in the local area.

Then use this camp as the base and build a plank road behind you. When the plank road is completed, the camp will become a granary to store food. The soldiers continue to expand forward, march for one day, choose a suitable place to build the camp, and then build it backward. plank road.

Just so honestly, step by step, the engineering battalion continued to advance forward.

Generally, soldiers from the Changshui Camp are stationed in these camps. If they really encounter enemies, long-range attack soldiers like the Changshui Camp are the easiest to deal with.

This strategy of building the camp honestly and then advancing steadily did not impress Li Xiong at first.

After all, Liu Tai built the camp with great fanfare, and Li Xiong instinctively thought of the strategy of building plank roads openly and secretly to infiltrate Chencang.

Then he immediately asked Yang Nandi, who had just surrendered, to investigate Chencang. In view of Li Xiong's deliberate investigation and Yang Nandi's familiarity with this land, Zhou Ping's military training could not be concealed even if he wanted to.

Under such circumstances, Li Xiong immediately focused his main energy on Chen Cangdao, who was on guard against Zhou Ping, fearing that Zhou Ping would suddenly kill him and catch him off guard.

But as the days passed, especially after this year’s autumn harvest, Li Xiong felt something was wrong.

Because the camp on the Tangluo Road was on the first day, the second day, and the third day... Now the camp was almost passing through Maoping and passing the Bali Pass. Liu Tai didn't look like he was building a plank road to covertly attack Chencang. This was clearly a secret. Building the plank road is so intense!

After Li Xiong told his feelings to his subordinates, Li Xiang couldn't help but sigh:

"Liu Taizhen is worthy of being the overlord of the Central Plains. He builds plank roads openly and secretly visits Chen Cang, but Liu Taizhen makes it difficult to deal with the truth and the lies!"

"How do you think we should respond?!" Li Xiong looked around after hearing Li Xiang's words.

"Why don't we also build a camp to block the attack?" Fan Bi couldn't help but said,

"Shu is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the Tangluo Road is the most dangerous and threatening place. If Liu Tai can build a camp on the Tangluo Road, then naturally we can too. When the time comes, we will just block each other's road. .”

Li Xiong nodded when he heard Fan Bi's words. No matter how he said it, it was indeed a good idea and he couldn't help but look at Li Xiang.

At this moment, Li Xiang thought for a while and said, "What the Prime Minister said is true, but we have a small population in Shu. Even if we build a camp, we still need soldiers to defend it. The longer the time goes, the heavier the burden on Shu will be." ah!"

Hearing Li Xiang's words, Li Xiong nodded in approval.

Although it has always been said that Shu is a land of abundance, but really speaking, before the Eight Kings Rebellion was over, turmoil broke out in Shu. It was not until he ascended the throne that he gradually took control of the political power of Shu.

But even so, the war in Shu has only subsided for a few years. Even if it has recovered a little and allowed me to save some food and grass, I will definitely not be able to sustain it if the stalemate continues.

After all, Li Xiong was not the kind of person who relied on absolute force to conquer Shu, but was elected as the emperor by everyone.

This makes the resources that Li Xiong can dispatch far behind those when Zhuge Liang first took over Shu.

It's not that Shu doesn't have so many resources now, but that Li Xiong can't allocate so many resources.

At least for the vast majority of aristocratic families, if they are asked to provide money and food to support a war, they may grit their teeth and persist, but if they continue to support an army, they will definitely fall out.

Therefore, even if Fan Bi's suggestion was correct, Li Xiang still rejected it based on practical considerations.

But Li Xiang added:

"We have only one state in our country, so it is impossible for us to overwhelm Yan Han who has the power of nine states.

If we really fall into a confrontation, we are afraid that we will be like the way Shu faced the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and our national power will be exhausted by the opponent! "

After all, Zhuge Liang's legacy to Shu was quite good, and this gave Shu the confidence to continue the stalemate.

In the final analysis, the current Cheng Han cannot compare with the original Shu Han. After all, no matter how the Shu Han expeditions to the north, the retained production system is intact. No matter how much people's power is consumed, it will gradually consume the people's power and national power.

But Cheng Han is different. Li Xiong of Cheng Han himself is a Di ethnic group, which leads to conflicts between the Han and Di ethnic groups in Shu. Secondly, Li Xiong was elected, which shows that Li Xiong has great influence on all local forces. The mastery level is not enough.

Of course, the most important thing is that Shu has been in chaos for too many years. Even if it begins to recover under Li Xiong's control, the dead population will not suddenly recover. This is the biggest reason for Cheng Han's weakness.

And Liu Tai finally paid attention to population. The population of the north that he currently controls, even if it is not 15 million, is always more than 10 million. This gap is the biggest gap between Yanhan and Chenghan.

Although Li Xiang or Fan Bi didn't understand it clearly, they vaguely knew something.

"Then what does the general think we should do next?" Fan Bi couldn't help but say.

"Gather with Yang Nandi to attack Chencang!" Li Xiang said, "Then send elite troops to surprise Tangluo Road and destroy the granary."

At this time, Li Xiong could feel the helplessness of Zhuge Liang's seven expeditions to Qishan and Jiang Wei's nine northern expeditions.

There is no other way, just because we are a small country with few people, so we must take the initiative and find a way to dispatch Liu Tai's army. Otherwise, as long as you stop the rhythm of the attack, Liu Tai's plank road construction will really blow your face. There is no need to secretly cross Chencang. If you follow Liu Tai's rhythm, you will definitely die.

To be honest, if the plank road built in Ming Dynasty is really built to the point where both sides build camps on the Tangluo Road, then Liu Tai will definitely find a way to dismantle the catapult and send it to the front line for throwing. It doesn't take much, as long as he has an investment gun An oiled catapult is enough. The opponent will definitely cry for father and mother. After all, the opponent's catapult is not capable of this.

Therefore, Liu Tai can use much more resources than Cheng Han, but the current grain and grass cannot keep up with the various grain and grass projects that need to be waited for.

Although Cheng Han didn't know what Liu Tai was waiting for, they watched Liu Tai's stronghold, and the camp that was fighting the war was just advancing towards them. They couldn't wait to die, let Liu Tai complete the layout!
Li Xiong took a deep breath, agreed with Li Xiang's words, and asked Li Xiang to lead the main force to attack Chencang Road. After attracting all Liu Tai's soldiers, he arranged for an elite force to go to Tangluo Road and directly burn down the buildings built by Liu Tai along the way. Plank roads and campsites.

Of course, the attack on Liu Tai couldn't just be done by himself. Yang Nandi, who had fled to Shu, naturally had to be involved.

Yang Nandi also knew that he could not escape. There was no way that Liu Tai's policies were almost completely offensive to ethnic minorities.

Although Yang Duryodhana himself doesn't care much about his own race, it would be nice to have the opportunity to be Liu Tai's dog now, but the problem is that if he surrenders, his rights will be gone. This is absolutely unacceptable to Yang Duryodhana. .

So at this moment Yang Nandi and Li Xiong attacked Chencang together, so he naturally agreed.

But the problem is that Yang Duryodhana agreed, but he still asked for some benefits. Even Yang Duryodhana only thought about how he could cheat and reduce his own losses.

And Li Xiong didn't care what Yang Duryodni had in mind, he just needed his people to come over and round up the number of people.

Under such circumstances, Li Xiong appointed Li Xiang as the commander-in-chief and Zhao Su as the mastermind. He led 20,000 soldiers and joined Yang Duryodhana's 10,000 men to conquer Chencang with a so-called 100,000-strong army. At least the entire Chencang Road was densely packed. There were quite a lot of people.

Zhou Ping was indeed a little surprised that Yang Nandi and Cheng Han joined forces to attack, but he was not too panicked.

How to fight against the enemy is how to fight against the enemy. Although Changshui Camp is not in his hands, his Shesheng Battalion and Barrier Battalion are all stationed in Chencang City, and Tunqi and Yueqi are stationed outside the city. , not to mention that there are new soldiers under his command who are training.

Therefore, Chen Cang was really as stable as Mount Tai, so Zhou Ping simply sent a letter to Liu Tai, indicating that Cheng Han was coming to attack.

Liu Tai sent a reply directly to Zhou Ping, simply saying: "It's up to you to decide!"

For Liu Tai, although he didn't know what Cheng Han was thinking, he knew very well that if Zhou Ping wanted to attack Shu in the future, he would definitely need to accept this test.

If Zhou Ping can't even handle Cheng Han's initiative to attack, then it is conceivable that it is unrealistic to expect Zhou Ping to attack Cheng Han.

This fight with Cheng Han was just the right time to test Cheng Han's quality and Zhou Ping's ability.

However, Liu Tai still asked Li Ju to send troops to the street pavilion. As long as Zhang Mao didn't act rashly, he didn't need to do anything more.

But if Zhang Mao threw Zhang Jun here to paralyze himself, then he would have to consider whether to kill Zhang Jun to sacrifice the flag, and then send troops to conquer Liangzhou.

All in all, I don’t know what other people are thinking these days, but when Zhang Jun knew that Cheng Han was attacking Chencang, he prayed every day that his uncle would never send troops at this time!

After solving Zhou Ping's worries and allowing Zhou Ping to fight against the enemy wholeheartedly, the next step is to look at Zhou Ping's own abilities.

To be honest, I watched Liu Tai dispatch his soldiers, and at the same time he was in charge of Chang'an to dispatch logistics.

Zhou Ping knew that this was the test Liu Tai gave him.

Zhou Ping knew that Liu Tai had promised him to conquer Shu and complete the achievement of destroying the country.

But now facing Cheng Han's attack, if he couldn't defeat Cheng Han, then what qualifications would he have for commanding him.

Therefore, Zhou Ping put his whole heart and soul into garrisoning Chencang.

To be honest, Zhou Ping was raised by Liu Tai and has always been a general who plays a positive role. Although after Liu Tai crossed the Yellow River, he began to gradually train towards a commander, but it is undeniable that Zhou Ping's style has been implemented in this way.

Therefore, his command and dispatch or military formation layout are outstandingly stable. There is no way he can do it. This is how he has been stable all the way. When marching and fighting, he should do what he should do to the best of his ability.

This made Zhou Ping's command seem quite rigid, even very inflexible.

But when Li Xiang and Yang Nandi appeared in front of Chencang with their troops, they were still greatly shocked.

The city of Chencang was completely repaired by Zhou Ping, and the city was surrounded by ravines and traps.

The soldiers in Chencang City are all tall and tall, at least eight feet tall. In addition, they are wearing extremely thick armor, and the metallic luster reflected on it will make anyone who sees them can't help but shiver.

To be honest, the battle hadn't even started yet, and Li Xiang's army was a little short of breath when they looked at Chen Cang.

Yang Nandi couldn't help but look towards Li Xiang, as if he was saying with his eyes, are you sure you want to fight?
The average height of our soldiers is only about one Cao, and the equipment and generals they carry may not be as sophisticated as those of the other party's soldiers. Are you sure we are not here to send them? !

Li Xiang also glared at Yang Duryodhana fiercely, as if to say, when they were training mountain climbers, why don't you check their information on the way? You didn't find out such obvious information!

Yang Duryodhana is not afraid either. Have you ever seen them wearing armor and tall people climbing mountains? They must all choose people who are small and flexible! How did I know that when they entered the war, they would have so many tough men and such sophisticated equipment.

In the end, Li Xiang and Yang Nandi suddenly burst into laughter, and in this laughter, the two sides reached a unified opinion.

Come on, let’s set up the camp first. As for other things, we can talk about it later.

"General, something feels wrong!" Sun Wei said to Zhou Ping, "The camps of these two armies are neither far nor far apart, nor close nor close. They are clearly on guard, unlike what the Allied Forces should have. Look!"

"Yang Duryodhana fled to Shu last year, so it's normal that he's not familiar with Li Xiang!" Zhou Ping nodded and said, "How about we try to attack Li Xiang's camp today!"

"It's impossible for Li Xiang to be unprepared!" Sun Wei couldn't help but say after hearing Zhou Ping's words.

"It doesn't matter whether Li Xiang is prepared or not. What's important is that we have to see if we can surround Yang Nandi with reinforcements!" Zhou Ping said, "After all, it would be a pity to let the Tunqi Battalion and Yueqi Battalion just come to defend Chencang! "

Sun Wei also nodded in approval.

(End of this chapter)