Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3502 Really Busy

Lu Su is about to reach Tongguan.

The canopy carriage was shaking, and Lu Su's thoughts were shaking too.

Although Lu Su looked leisurely on the surface, he was actually very busy.

Not only should we be busy observing and memorizing, but we should also be busy calculating and predicting.

Shandong lost like this?

Lu Su was almost at Tongguan, but he still felt a little bit unbelievable.

He knew that the Hussars had a great advantage, but he didn't expect it to be so great!

This was not just Lu Su's doubt, but also the doubt of many aristocratic children from Shandong to Jiangdong. Was this the end of Prime Minister Cao Cao?

They may not respect Prime Minister Cao very much, but they will definitely respect the soldiers under Prime Minister Cao!

That’s tens of thousands of elite soldiers!

Although Cao Cao often boasted about his hundreds of thousands of troops, Lu Su knew that it was exaggerated. But no matter how exaggerated it was, there must be hundreds of thousands of them. If compressed, tens of thousands of people would definitely be a lot!

Tens of thousands of people, even if they were tens of thousands of pigs, would be hard to kill...

So, is it that Prime Minister Cao is too incompetent?

If I were to go...

How much standing military strength does Jiangdong have?

Jiangdong claimed that it also had 300,000 troops, but in reality its standing force was only around 30,000.

And there are many of them are navy!

In times of war, they could urgently expand their forces, with one veteran leading two new recruits, or one leading three, to more than 100,000 people. However, many of them were peasant soldiers who had not received any proper training. They went into battle with spears in hand. Compared with the Yellow Turban bandits, they probably only had one more piece of tattered armor...

Under such circumstances, the Hussars claimed to have 80,000 troops, but people in Shandong and Jiangdong generally believed that the Hussars had only about 10,000 or 20,000 troops.

Isn't it always the same if you judge others by yourself?

So these 20,000 or 20,000 soldiers defeated Cao Cao's nearly 100,000 men? !

Not to mention Lu Su, even Zhou Yu didn't believe it!

Zhou Yu had already overestimated the cavalry at that time, saying that Fei's potential could compete with Cao Cao and was roughly balanced, so Jiangdong's investment would be the decisive force...

Looking back now, Zhou Yu's view is obviously wrong...

If I had known earlier, I should have persuaded Zhou Yu to take Jiangbei...

Lu Su pondered without any sense of moral integrity.

What is politics and moral integrity?

Especially in Jiangdong.

The Jiangdong gentry did not dare to say that they were directly involved in Sun Ce's death, but they definitely provided convenience. Otherwise, wouldn't the location where Sun Ce went hunting and his daily behavioral habits be information that could be easily obtained by a few assassins?

But even if Emperor Sun knew, what could he do?

Others may not know whether the relationship between Sun Quan and the Jiangdong gentry is good or bad, whether it is confrontation or peace, but how could Lu Su not know?

Sun Quan hated the Jiangdong nobles to the core! But would it be useful to turn against them? How many times did Sun the Great and the Jiangdong nobles turn against each other? After the turn, didn't they have to bow their heads and ask Zhang Zhao to be the peacemaker? Otherwise, did they really think Sun Quan would be willing to see Zhang Zhao's ugly face?

If the Jiangdong nobles died first, Zhang Zhao would definitely be the second to die!

So, what people want and what they can actually do are often two different things.

At present, Lu Su still doesn't know that the Jiangdong expedition has failed, so he is not sure what to do next...

After all, according to Jiangdong's nature, Jiangdong's "love" of peace, "no interest" in Jiangbei, and willingness to "coexist peacefully" with Jiangbei actually all have a big premise!

If Jiangdong could easily send out some troops and defeat Jiangbei, let's see if Jiangdong can continue to maintain peace?

If we fight, not only will we fail to defeat the enemy, but we will also suffer heavy casualties. So who would be willing to fight?

Therefore, Lu Su felt that Jiangdong’s foreign strategy should be adjusted.

He came to Tongguan instead of continuing to wait in Chang'an in order to see with his own eyes whether there was really such a decisive change on the battlefield between Fei Qian and Cao Cao.

Now the Jiangbei power that the Jiangdong people feared, Prime Minister Cao Cao, was overthrown by the Guanxi man...

The big man from Guanxi...

Lu Su glanced at the cavalrymen on both sides of the vehicle, who were called guards but were actually there for surveillance.

He is indeed big and strong, compared with the young men from the aristocratic families in Jiangdong who always make orchid finger gestures...

Forget it.

Trouble!

The surging cavalry in the west, following Dong Zhuo, and the fluttering tricolor flag are about to spread to Shandong, or even the entire world?

Should, maybe, probably, not that fast?

But who can say for sure?

Just like the Cao army this time, they were defeated as soon as they said they would, as if a collapsed dam. At first glance, it seemed to be still there, but at another glance, it had disappeared without a trace.

In fact, Lu Su also knew that there was no way out if he defended Jiangdong alone.

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, Qin and Chu were both despised barbaric lands.

Guanzhong is now shaking, but the former territory of the Chu State, now known as Jiangdong, is still far from experiencing any economic boom.

If we close our defenses on Jiangdong, even though we have the river to protect us and serve as a natural barrier, we will still be trapped by the river.

Jiangdong cannot do without ships, but if there are too many ships, it will be dragged down by the ships.

However, the Central Plains north of the Yangtze River and the more distant Guanzhong area cannot be conquered by ships alone.

If the Jiangdong navy is excluded, the strength of the Jiangdong land troops is too weak.

At the same time, the resources of Jiangdong were not yet the land of fish and rice that was developed after the Jin Dynasty. There was a lack of craftsmen in various industries, and the means of production were relatively thin, so it was impossible to fight a protracted war.

Everyone likes it to be hard and firm, but in reality...

Lu Su smiled bitterly.

You know your own business. Don't be fooled by Jiang Dong's appearance of being the best in the world. But when he really goes into battle, he will be like, "You are so big, you are so bad, you...are you done for?"

In history, Emperor Sun would always lead a hundred thousand troops, with great momentum. Cao's reinforcements from other places were still on the way, and then they heard the news that the battle was over...

Jiangdong is not easy!

Now, under the careful management of Jiangdong, taking advantage of the intrigue between Jiangbei Feiqian and Cao Cao, Jiangdong tried to gain more space, but now...

When seeing the various war debris at Tongguan, Lu Su suddenly felt a sense of sadness.

I don't know if Prime Minister Cao still has room for a comeback this time...

If there is, it would be better. If not, if it is really as Zhou Yu expected, after the northern part of the Yangtze River is finally unified, the day of Jiangdong's demise is only a matter of time.

Jiangdong is so difficult!

It’s so difficult!

Why did Cao's army lose?

Lu Su made some inferences afterwards and then discovered some problems to a greater or lesser extent.

It is always easier to work backwards than to anticipate it.

The first point is that there was a problem with Cao’s core troops.

The core force of Cao's army was the Central Commander and the Central Guard Army, which were jointly established by Qingzhou soldiers and Cao's relatives.

Under Cao Cao's command, this army traveled across the Yellow River and fought many tough battles, which was truly remarkable. However, this army had a huge drawback, which was that it only produced output but no output!

Without new blood replenishment and only constant injuries, even the strongest body can't hold on!

The sons of the noble families all said that the lives of the lowly people were like grass and were not worth cherishing. However, grass grows once a year, but if a generation of lowly people wanted to grow up, how could they do so without time?

Cao Cao swallowed up 300,000 people from Qingzhou in one go, and became so fat that he even squirted oil. But after fighting the two Yuans repeatedly and moving to several battlefields, is it possible that there were no casualties at all?

The string is already very tight!

Why didn't anyone notice it beforehand? Didn't Cao Cao understand this?

Lu Su took a breath and suddenly something dawned on him.

It’s not that I don’t understand, but at that time, I had to do so!

This is the second question, why couldn’t Cao Cao get reinforcements in Shandong?

Logically speaking, shouldn't Cao Cao represent the Han Dynasty, the emperor, and the leaders of the aristocratic families in Shandong and northern Jiangsu?

The problems inherent in this made Lu Su think of Jiangdong.

I thought of Sun Quan.

So this time when he came to meet the Cavalry, Lu Su was not in a hurry and even deliberately walked slower.

Anyway, the war is over. No matter how anxious you are, you can't change the outcome. It's better to slow down and take a good look.

The army is a money-eating beast. No matter how much it eats, it is like a bottomless pit.

There are now more than 10,000 troops stationed in Tongguan, and the number of people eating, drinking, defecating and urinating every day is a huge number.

Lu Su didn't know the situation inside Tongguan, but looking at the Linzhi Plateau outside Tongguan, there were six food sheds, and smoke was rising every day! Lu Su made a rough estimate in his mind, and he was shocked...

It is of course impossible to feed the soldiers until they are full and their mouths are drooling, but at least they cannot go hungry. But how much does this require?

At least five or six hundred shi of grain are consumed a day.

This does not include fodder for the war horses.

Since when did Guanzhong become so arrogant?

The problem of supplying the army is no longer a trivial matter, but what is more worrying is that the army may harass the local area while it is stationed.

Generally speaking, the troops assembled for a war are not soldiers stationed in a certain place for a long time, and they will not have any friendship with the local merchants and people. They may even feel that they are not sure whether they will come back alive after going to the battlefield, so naturally they will not be polite to the locals, let alone show mercy. They may die on the battlefield at any time, so who can resist the coming of death? Therefore, forced buying and selling, even harassment and looting are possible.

Didn’t Sun Quan want to attack before?

Lu Su often had to clean up the mess for those big-name soldiers.

So now Lu Su is wondering, this cavalry...

What a weird thing!

If they can stay in the camp for several days and cause trouble in the local area, they can be considered a pretty good army, with a sense of discipline.

Being able to refrain from moving for more than ten days is already a sign of strict military discipline and is worthy of praise.

And now the Cavalry Army has been gathered here, it has been at least 20 to 30 days, right?

In the past twenty or thirty days, have these cavalry troops not had any conflicts with the three prefectures of Guanzhong?

This was obviously beyond Lu Su's understanding.

War disasters and military calamities are not just talk.

In the feudal dynasties, local forces did not like the central military to intervene in local affairs, which was also partly due to this aspect. It is easier to invite gods than to send them away. If things go wrong, the banditry will be eliminated just one step, and then a bigger disaster will happen. After repeated experience and lessons, local governments naturally formed an administrative template of hiding things from the higher-ups but not from the lower-ups. They would cover up if they could, and smooth things over if they could. They would not cry and go to the central government until the situation became so corrupt that it could not be resolved.

But why didn't the Hussar Army have these drawbacks?

Lu Su couldn't understand at all.

After all, there were many Hu people in the Cavalry Corps. Those guys with dark skin and curly beards had very different appearances from the people in the Central Plains and were easy to identify.

When Dong Zhuo was in Luoyang before, weren't it these Hu people who robbed and took things by force, causing public outrage?

This time, Lu Su not only represented the emperor to meet the cavalry, but also represented Jiangdong to take a look and explore the future direction of Jiangdong...

……

……

Fei Qian is very busy now.

Not only was he busy handling official business, he was also busy training soldiers.

The composition of the Cavalry Corps is actually divided into several parts.

The framework that Fei Qian originally used to build was the core strength left by Dong Zhuo.

For example, Dong Zhuo's Flying Bear Army...

I don't know what Dong Zhuo was thinking at the time. How could a fat bear fly? Anyway, this part of the Flying Bear Army was later split into two parts by Fei Qian, one in Guanzhong and the other in Beimo.

As for the muscles added later, it is even more complicated.

There are people from Longyou, Guanzhong, the north, ordinary people from good families, ordinary people from the lower class, and even refugees from other places. After repeated battles, these people can indeed be regarded as a rare elite force in the Han Dynasty. The training of combat skills has reached a very good level, but due to the constraints of the times, there is still a big gap between them and the image of a soldier in Fei Qian's mind.

In fact, it is surprising that it has reached the current level. After all, the military discipline of most feudal dynasties is generally mediocre, and some of them are even comparable to the behavior of evil spirits. When they are recruited, they are a mixed bag, and most of them do not have any formal training. When they go to the battlefield, what constrains or encourages them to fight is often money and promotion. The way to maintain daily order is whipping and beheading, whether it is thirteen beheadings or fifty-four beheadings, it is the same.

Fei Qian had spent most of his time in Guanzhong before. Although he would go to the training ground outside Chang'an from time to time to watch the non-commissioned officers training, he was indeed some distance away from ordinary soldiers. Now when he returns to the army, he finds that some problems of the army of this era are showing signs of resurgence.

With the defeat of Cao's army, Fei Qian's prestige rose to a new height.

Nowadays, if Fei Qian says something, thousands of troops will respond and tens of thousands of people will follow...

This is the power that comes with authority.

The lower the social status of a person, the louder his voice tends to be when he speaks, because no one listens.

The higher up the social ladder one is in, the softer their voices are when they speak, because no one dares not to listen.

Of course, once the upper class people start to scream and scream, it is actually very beautiful...

For example, when Yuan Shu shouted that there was no honey water.

When Yuan Shu spoke loudly, he probably never thought that one day no one would pay attention to him even when he yelled?

Every time Fei Qian thought of this, he had to remind himself.

Be cautious and careful. Once you become arrogant, it is often a sign of your downfall.

Through such self-reflection, Fei Qian did discover some problems.

The problem of the Hussars.

Ma Yue is just one of the external manifestations.

With Cao Cao's defeat, many of the cavalry soldiers and military academies began to become blindly optimistic. They even started thinking about opening champagne at halftime, planning what position to be promoted to, how much reward to get, and which place in Shandong would be better to serve...

So, Fei Qian began to train his troops.

Personally lead the instructors to train the troops.

This is the most direct reason why each of these Hussars is so honest now.

Every day I train on the Linzhi Plateau and I am exhausted. How can I have the time and energy to cause trouble somewhere else?

As for other reasons...

Although no one said it explicitly, most people knew that there would inevitably be large-scale promotions after the Eastern Expedition!

The carrot is hanging in front, and the sweet scent can already be smelled, so all of Fei Qian's requirements will be regarded as a precursor to the screening for promotion. No one wants to be left behind at this time, and even if one does not quite understand some of Fei Qian's requirements, one will try to cooperate as much as possible.

On the one hand, Fei Qian had some experience from later generations, and on the other hand, these cavalry soldiers were not bad in themselves, and with such an expectation waiting, they cooperated well in training. One or two days, nothing can be seen, but after more than ten or twenty days, the results will gradually emerge.

Fei Qian stood on the top of Tongguan City, stroking his beard, watching the soldiers training below the city.

Military training is originally a process of grinding human nature, or eliminating individuality, and piecing together scattered individuals into an organic whole. In this process, personal will will be erased little by little during queue drills, until each person is trained to be a killing machine without any psychological concerns.

This is why targets in military training should be as humanized as possible.

Because the army is really meant to kill people...

But this behavior is inhumane.

Human nature is greed, laziness and gluttony.

It takes more than twenty days to develop a habit, but it may only take a thought to break a habit.

During these twenty days of high-intensity training and drill rituals, under Fei Qian's careful practice, it was almost equivalent to once again beating away the impetuousness and complexity of these cavalry soldiers!

Under the city, every soldier in the military academy was tanned by the sun, but the murderous aura emanating from the ranks was so intense that even the sun in the sky seemed to have dropped by three degrees in temperature!

An individual is insignificant, but when they form a group, especially a strong group, they become strong, and this strength will infect every member of the group.

The previous casual and impetuous atmosphere has now basically disappeared.

Under the tricolor flag, this kind of army representing iron and blood is the army that Fei Qian wants.

"My lord, Lu Zijing has arrived."

Huang Xu arrived at Fei Qian's side and reported.

Fei Qian nodded slightly, "You came just in time..."

If they had come a few days earlier, Fei Qian would not have trained these soldiers well, which would have allowed Lu Su, who seemed simple-minded but was actually smart, to find some flaws. But now...

"Pass the order down, review the three armies tomorrow!"