my wonderful zoo

Chapter 232
"Yanjing is too far north. As the capital, food will not be self-sufficient in the future. It will have to be transported from the south to the north, which consumes too much manpower and material resources." Chen Xun replied, and then ended the topic with a question: "The envoy of the Liao Kingdom Where is your minister? Are you still waiting in Kaifeng?"

"No, I went to Xuzhou some time ago, and recently I heard that I am looking for a boat to Qingzhou. I don't know if it will leave." Jia Tao replied: "You are really persistent."

The envoys of a country travel thousands of miles for the future and destiny of the country. Perseverance is only the most basic quality.

A qualified diplomat is one who can persist in his faith under the most difficult and desperate circumstances.

When the Liao envoy arrived, Chen Xun planned to have a good talk with him and see if he could take the opportunity to use the Yelv Stone as a pathfinder to open a passage to Central Asia.

The Khitans had a feud with the Song State, but Chen Jiajun had never dealt with the Khitans.

Now that Yelu Dashi is forced to move westward, he can just touch the hard rocks in Central Asia.

When snipe and clam compete, the fisherman will benefit. If you can be a fisherman for a time, it will be a blessing to the military government. A little investment in the early stage will be worthwhile.

The next period of time was another boring siege battle.

Chen Xun's weapons were advanced, and most of the army's time was spent on traveling and restoring security after the war. As more and more cities were captured, Chen Xun had fewer and fewer veterans, so he had to let Gan Ping send him. An army is coming.

When he saw the No. 16 Army, Chen Xun's mood became much worse.

In Chen Xun's mind, the time when he was most satisfied with Chen Jiajun was during the Chen Jiazhuang period. At that time, everyone in the army was literate and everyone seemed very clever.

Since the expansion in Guangzhou, the literacy rate in the army has become lower and lower, and the overall quality has also become worse and worse.

By the time of the general reorganization in Kaifeng, in terms of literacy rate, they no longer had much advantage over the traditional army. What increased their combat effectiveness was three full meals a day, constant meat and fish, high-intensity training, and sophisticated weapons and equipment.

But the current Army No. 16 Army made Chen Xun realize that it was time for Chen Jiajun to stop and conserve his internal strength.

Not to mention the poor quality of the recruits of the Sixteenth Army, their weapons and equipment alone were not even uniform. The various captured old weapons made it impossible for the army to even form a serious phalanx of pikemen. .

What alarmed Chen Xun most was that the uniforms of the Sixteenth Army were not uniform.

Previously, his third uncle Chen Shou (Minister of Military Affairs) wrote to Chen Xun to inform him that all his money had been wiped out. Chen Xun did not react much at that time.

I thought that Chen Jiajun had seized so much money in Kaifeng, and he didn't have enough supplies, so he just bought them.

Now it seems that I have far overestimated the productivity and transportation capabilities of this era.

Even if you have mountains of gold and silver, changing the uniforms of an army of 10,000+ is not a task that can be completed in a month or two.

"Where did Gan Ping hit?" Chen Xun asked Jia Tao.

"Jeju." Jia Tao replied, knowing that the progress was a bit slower than Chen Xun, so he explained: "The attack speed can be improved, but the logistics supply cannot keep up."

Compared with those old-fashioned armies that eat wherever they fight, Chen's army is strictly prohibited from intruding on the people except for seizing official warehouses and purging those who are unkind to the rich.

The Jingdong West Road and the Jingdong East Road have been plowed back and forth by the Jin State, Song State, and the Rebel Army, making it impossible for the Chen Jiajun to support war with war.

"Send a message to Gan Ping and other senior military officers. We must proceed steadily and not in a hurry." Chen Xun ordered.

My own Xuzhou Group Army belongs to my own son, and the water transportation is also convenient enough. After the expansion, it still has this virtue. It is conceivable that the Kaifeng Group Army and the Hebei Group Army will only be worse now.

It is estimated that Sun Zheng's Kaifeng Army, which has been heading west, is now taking lives at the cost of attacking the city. …

The east gate of Yongxing East Road is Shaanxian County, Shaanxi Province.

"This Shaanzhou people are really tough, and they deserve to be the place where the Western Army comes from." Sun Zheng was commanding the newly recruited Song army along the road to attack the city in Yifu, while the Shaanzhou army was defending desperately.

Why not gunpowder weapons?
As early as when he attacked Xijing and Luoyang, it was completely consumed. Without the support of Guangzhou, Sun Zhengcai deeply felt the rareness of the material "saltpeter".

If you want to make some homemade gunpowder, even if it is of inferior quality, you will be limited by the lack of saltpeter and the output will never increase.

"Are we too impatient? The governor sent us an order, allowing us to expand on our own. If these Song soldiers are trained a little, the casualties will not be so serious." One of his generals persuaded.

"Urgent? Our progress has fallen behind. It took more than a month to get out of Beijing Northwest Road. As soon as we entered Yongxing Military Road, we were blocked in Shaanzhou for two days. As we were dragged on, Lai Qingyun probably The three roads in Hebei have been sorted out, and we can't enter Qinfeng Road." Sun Zheng also knew that he might be too anxious, but he couldn't help it.

"The sharpening of the sword does not stop the chopping of firewood. If you continue to use human lives like this, the governor will punish you if he finds out." Another general advised.

Everyone grew up with Chen Xun and understand Chen Xun's character.

Chen Xun has always taken the lives of his own clan very seriously, otherwise he would not have spent a lot of money to build the Chen Family Army, an expensive army.

You must know that during the Chenjiazhuang period of the Chenjiajun, the training cost of each soldier could arm a capital of the Song Dynasty's imperial army (100 people).

The value is 1:100, so expensive that every time one dies, it hurts to the point of suffocation.

But now it seems that this deal is still a good deal. Those soldiers before are now dead at worst.Without those expensive soldiers, the continuously expanding Chen Army would have been unable to maintain even the most basic military discipline.

"The Yellow River has passed through the Sanmenxia, ​​and the terrain to the west is more dangerous. The checkpoints are one after another. If they are filled like the attack on Shan County, another [-] soldiers will not be enough to consume."

"September is about to enter, and the weather will get cold soon, but we don't even have thick military uniforms. The governor has told us so many cases where victory turned into defeat due to sudden changes in weather. We must not capsize in this great northwest. "

"Those who are good at fighting have no great achievements. If you are not defeated, you will always win." Everyone started to persuade him.

Sun Zheng understood that these senior officers under him should have reached a consensus in private.

After calming down and thinking about my behavior during this period, I was indeed a little eager for quick success.As half bystanders, these officers could see things more clearly than they, the insiders, were able to reach a consensus.

"Actually, I think that letting the news of Song Ting's destruction spread more and brew in the northwest will be more conducive to our subsequent attack." During Sun Zheng's self-reflection, the officers continued to persuade.

"Okay, I understand. I am too anxious." Sun Zheng interrupted his generals' continued persuasion and ordered: "Use all the accumulated gunpowder and try to capture Shaanxi County in one fell swoop. We will stop at Shaanxi County." The county is resting and expanding, and before training is completed and supplies of winter clothing are in place, we will not continue to move westward."

Last winter, when he went north, he only brought more than 1 sets of winter clothes. Now Chen Jiajun has expanded his number by more than ten times, and he will expand his number by two or three times.

In addition to winter clothes, there is also a serious shortage of warm tents. The current weather is barely enough to sleep at night, and if it gets colder, some people will catch a cold while sleeping outdoors.

With the current medical conditions, if the wind and cold become contagious, the consequences will be serious.

　Thanks to book friend "Shirai Muzhi" for the reward and support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)