Han officials

Chapter 37: What you learn from books is always shallow【4K】

"Don't be afraid of complications when marching, especially when the army is near enemy territory, or when the forests are unusual, or when you are in a place shared by the enemy. All soldiers must strictly restrain their weapons and stand still until the scouts report that there are no more dangers, and then follow the order to march."

Inside the Military Academy, Wei Zhe skillfully explained on the stage:

"Whenever there is an alarm, keep still, guard your posts, close the camp gates, and wait for orders to march. Anyone making noise or wandering around will be severely punished according to military law!"

After so many days of teaching, Wei Zhe has become a famous teacher.

He even specifically emphasized how to deal with many of the issues based on the situations of the Emei and the Three Han.

All in all, this "Autumn Training at the Military Academy" lasted for half a month.

It’s not that Wei Zhe doesn’t want to talk for a few more days, but time is running out.

So that afternoon, after finishing his last class on the stage, Wei Zhe sighed softly:
“It is better to practice what you preach than to say it a thousand times.”

"I've taught you everything I can. This time, the battle against the evil spirits will depend on your own abilities!"

As soon as these words were spoken, many military officers in the hall immediately bowed to the ground and shouted:

"We will remember the Lord's teachings and will live up to his trust!"

Originally, these twelve military camps were deeply indebted to Wei Zhe and regarded him as their reborn parents.

Now that Wei Zhe has taught them the art of war, these people are naturally even more loyal to him.

Among Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents and Teachers, it can be said that Wei Zhe is ranked only behind Heaven and Earth.

After all, a county lady is also a lady, and adoptive parents are closer to her than her closest relatives.

So now, let alone the Xianbei, even if Wei Zhe wanted to go to Luo, these people would follow him without hesitation.

And this is actually exactly what Wei Zhe wanted.

It doesn’t matter if your combat power is not high, you can train it slowly in the future, but it is better to improve your loyalty as soon as possible.

After leaving the county school, Wei Zhe secretly decided that perhaps he could make autumn training at the Military Academy a regular practice.

After all, the effect of this training seems to be better than the response from my wife last time.

As far as Wei Zhe knew, the lecture notes from the autumn training at the Military Academy had become hot commodities. Many merchants in Daifang County were offering high prices to buy them. The two remaining small powerful families in Daifang County, the Yuan and Li families, also seemed to have privately approached the training officers, but no one paid any attention.

They were refugees a year ago, but now they treat these lecture notes as heirlooms.

Even many military officers regarded each other as classmates and Wei Zhe as their mentor.

Influenced by this, many young and strong people in the settlements have regretted their decision.

If they had known that military settlements would have such treatment, why would they have chosen civilian settlements out of fear of the danger of war?

For a time, many agricultural promotion envoys reported the voices of their subordinates to Wei Zhe and requested to convert civilian settlements into military settlements.

……

"Mingsong, the people's hearts can be used!"

After learning about this, Xi Zhicai was filled with emotion, and so was Wei Zhe.

So after pondering for a moment, Wei Zhe nodded and said, "Then adjust it as appropriate!"

The six towns' civilian settlements can be reorganized into three battalion military settlements.

However, the six newly established military settlements obviously cannot enjoy the same treatment as the old batch and can only wait until next year.

Of course, these are all small matters. The real trouble lies in the preparations before sending troops.

For example, how many people does Wei Zhe need to mobilize to fight against the seven Huibei tribes this time?

Wei Zhe already had a plan in mind for this.

First of all, the 500 most powerful personal cavalrymen must participate. In addition, over the past six months, Wei Zhe has also recruited more than 3,000 young and strong men with good riding skills from among these tens of thousands of refugees.

By the way, there are 500 local men in Daifang City who are skilled in archery and horse riding and have volunteered to join the army.

All things added up, Wei Zhe was actually planning to dispatch 4,000 cavalry this time.

"Four thousand cavalry? Isn't this... a bit too risky?"

In the study, Xi Zhicai immediately looked worried after learning about the number of troops Wei Zhe was going to dispatch this time.

Even though the seven tribes of the Hubei people did not have as many people as the Three Kingdoms of Han, they were still a tribe of more than 100,000 people, with 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers.

Apart from anything else, each of the seven tribes of the Hun could probably provide four to five thousand cavalry.

However, Wei Zhe smiled proudly upon hearing this and said, "What we are planning is an unprecedented achievement. How can we succeed without taking some risks? No need to persuade me, let it be!"

To be honest, a war to annihilate a country like this was not something Daifang County could have planned.

Even insignificant barbarians like the Seven Tribes of the Xianbei can only be dealt with by the Lelang County.

If it weren't for the existence of "square iron coins", Wei Zhe wouldn't even be qualified to start a war.

After all, going out of the border to destroy the Hu is not a local defensive war, and this kind of war puts a huge test on logistics.

It is generally difficult for people who have not been to the battlefield to imagine the gap between the two, but mathematics does not lie.

Before traveling through time, Wei Zhe once believed that cavalry was the most perfect type of soldier.

After all, when a horse is hungry, it can eat grass, and when a person is hungry, he can drink horse milk. This is simply perfect.

In this way, the cavalry seemed to have no need for logistics, and it should even be common for the men and horses to work without sleep and fight for thousands of miles.

However, after following Huangfu Song to fight the Yellow Turbans for a year, Wei Zhe realized that he had fallen victim to the epidemic of street literature.

After all, a warhorse is not a perpetual motion machine, nor is it nuclear-powered, and its maintenance cost is very high.

Yes, horses do eat grass, but they are wild horses.

Moreover, even for wild horses, if they want to be full by eating grass, they need to eat for five or six hours a day.

What's more, given the consumption of war horses, eating grass alone cannot make up for it.

So although fodder is important, it can never replace food.

For example, during the Han Dynasty, when the Han and Xiongnu peoples fought against each other, they liked to feed their war horses with rice and wheat.

As for the elite cavalry of the Han army under Huo Qubing, in addition to large amounts of food, they even had to eat eggs to replenish their energy during battle.

Even the short Mongolian horses on the grassland need to eat food.

The most important thing is that war horses also consume a lot of salt in addition to grains.

Wei Zhe had heard Huangfu Song mention that the state horses raised in Liangzhou must be given salt every year and fed on the yin day of each month, so that the horses will be healthy and free of disease.

It is not easy to raise a Liangzhou horse.

In other words, Daifang County is on the seaside, so there is no worry about salt shortage. Otherwise, the consumption of 2 taels of salt per horse every day would be a considerable expense for Wei Zhe.

Therefore, it would be fine if Wei Zhe's 4,000 cavalry stayed in the country.

The amount of exercise is not large, so the consumption is naturally not high. In addition, there is plenty of time every day for them to eat alfalfa and fresh grass.

But once they go out of the border to attack the Hu, they will need a lot of food and supplies.

First of all, each cavalryman needs three liters of salt and three shi, three dou and three liters of grain per month. Four thousand cavalrymen need at least twelve thousand shi of grain per month.

And this is just a small part of the cost. The real big part of logistics is the consumption of war horses.

Even though only a small number of military officers under Wei Zhe could ride two horses each, there were still nearly 4,500 horses.

This means that another 45,000 shi of grain is consumed every month.

This means that these 4,000 cavalry, including their horses, would need at least 60,000 dan of grain per month to meet their needs. This would be 120,000 dan for two months and 180,000 dan for three months.

This does not even include the losses in logistics and transportation.

Therefore, Wei Zhe could not only only lead 4,000 cavalrymen out of the border this time, but he also only had two months.

Once this time is exceeded, the army going out of the border will be worried about running out of food.

Including the journey, the battle, and the return journey, two months is not a long time.

As mentioned in the preface, although Xi Zhicai is gifted, he is not born with knowledge.

Having never experienced actual war, he still has some problem of talking about war without doing it on paper.

Seeing that Wei Zhe was trapped in logistics and chose to risk his troops, Xi Zhicai thought for a moment and couldn't help but ask, "Why not give the enemy food?"

After all, Sun Wu once said: One catty of enemy food is worth twenty catties of our own.

However, Wei Zhe shook his head with a wry smile when he heard this.

"That's not how the account is calculated!"

Seeing Xi Zhicai's puzzled expression, Wei Zhe immediately explained patiently, "Warfare is a place of life and death, a matter of survival and destruction. How can you entrust your life to something you can't control?"

"Be lenient in your assessment of the enemy, and strict in your own judgment; this is the true art of war."

Sun Wu once said: "To plan more is to win, to plan less is to lose, and what about to plan nothing at all?"
Wei Zhe didn’t understand it before, but he understood it later.

War is about creating as many conditions for victory as possible for your side, so that you can defeat the enemy.

In this situation, how can we rely on the lifeline of logistics to obtain food from the enemy?
What if the other side were to burn all their food and destroy their stored grain? Wouldn’t Wei Zhe’s army be out of food?
During the Han-Xiongnu War, didn't Emperor Wu of Han know to obtain food from the enemy?
However, in the Battle of Mobei in the fourth year of Yuanshou, in order to supply the 100,000 Han cavalry of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, Emperor Wu of Han still ordered hundreds of thousands of infantry to follow the army, which emptied the national treasury.

By the way, Wei Zhe also learned the tactic of “be lenient in judging the enemy and be strict in judging yourself” from Huangfu Song.

Although he did not say it, all the arrangements he made to quell the rebellion were based on this idea.

When Xi Zhicai heard Wei Zhe say this, he immediately bowed to him solemnly.

"I've learned a lesson!" Xi Zhicai sighed, "Military matters really can't be discussed on paper!"

Therefore, if he hadn't had "Dai Fang Tie Qian" to plunder supplies for Wei Zhe, he wouldn't even be qualified to take action.

You should know that since June, Wei's fleet went out to sea three times before completing the transaction agreed upon by Yuan Jun and Guan Xiu. The three Korean countries and the Xianbei tribes along the coast were all plundered with iron money.

In total, they purchased 2,825 horses of various kinds, more than 100,000 furs, 160,000 hu of grain, and thousands of cattle, sheep, and women.

Including the horses previously seized, Wei Zhe was able to gather 4,000 cavalrymen.

But then again, although the fleet brought back a lot of supplies, they couldn't use them all. They still had to make a living. Plus, Wei Zhe was planning to sell a batch of grain to the Three Kingdoms of Korea as seeds next spring, so there would be even less food and fodder available.

Two months was the answer Wei Zhe came up with after calculating it repeatedly.

In this regard, even mathematicians may not be able to match his accuracy.

So, based on the map of the Hubei tribe sent back by Yuan Jun, Wei Zhe finally decided on the route of his troops after several calculations. That was to go east from Daifang County, go through the outskirts of Boji State and enter the Hubei territory. In this way, he could directly reach the Qianmo tribe of the Hubei tribe, and divide the seven Hubei tribes into two.

Wei Zhe pointed at the map and said, "South of the Qianmo tribe are the Dongqian and Cantai tribes. To the north are the four major tribes: Bunai, Huali, Xietoumei, and Fuzu. Once we capture the Qianmo tribe, our army can split the seven parts of the Xianbei into two and find an opportunity to defeat them one by one."

However, as he was speaking, Wei Zhe couldn't help but frown and shook his head:
"No, our army is small, and if we divide our forces, we will surely be defeated. We must first let the four tribes north of the Qianmo tribe become chaotic, so that we can deal with the Dongqian and Cantai tribes."

Hearing him say this, Xi Zhicai suddenly had an idea.

"Mingsir, why don't you use Yuan Ziliang's plan?"

Wei Zhe was puzzled when he heard this and asked, "What do you mean?"

Xi Zhicai explained, "Yuan Ziliang wrote to me last time saying that the Xianbei tribes have discovered that their newly forged weapons are of inferior quality and are currently investigating the cause. So, why don't we take advantage of this opportunity?"

Xi Zhicai’s idea was very simple. Since Xi Mo wanted an answer, he might as well give him the “truth”.

Xi Zhicai said calmly, "The Xianbei tribes are very fond of believing in ghosts and gods. If that's the case, we can have Yuan Ziliang bribe them with money and have his Xianbei recluses spread rumors among the four northern tribes, claiming that the weak weapons of the tribes are due to the sacrifices of the Bunai tribe, and that the weapons are cursed by the ghosts and gods they worship, which is why they break easily."

"This will not only cause internal strife among the four northern tribes, but will also significantly reduce the strength of the Bunai tribe, the strongest among the Xianbei people."

As soon as these words came out, Wei Zhe couldn't help but clap his hands and laugh, "Excellent! Very wonderful!"

I have to say, Xi Zhicai is still Xi Zhicai after all.

Even though he is a novice, he still can't hide his genius.

However, this trick is a bit vicious, because no one knows better than Wei Zhe how wronged the Bu Nai Department is.

But there's nothing we can do about it, since Wei Zhe just likes to use vicious tricks and be ruthless.

As soon as Xi Zhicai finished speaking, Wei Zhe happily agreed.

"Quick, send a letter to Ziliang and tell him to complete this plan as soon as possible!" At this point, Wei Zhe suddenly couldn't help but pat his head and laughed, "I'm confused too."

He looked at Xi Zhicai with a smile and said, "This plan can be used on more than just the evil Mo people."

You must know that Guan Xiu was trying every possible means to sow discord among the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

Mahan, Jinhan, and Byeonhan all suffered from various kinds of rebellions.

Especially the most powerful Ma Han, which is now almost full of rebels.

Muzhi Kingdom, a tribe directly under King Mahan, has been under siege by surrounding tribes for more than six months.

As the old weapons are almost completely destroyed, the Three Kingdoms of Korea will probably soon discover problems with their new weapons.

In this case, Xi Zhicai's rumor is extremely popular.
Just make a slight change and replace the person who casts the curse with the kings of Mahan, Jinhan and Byeonhan.

Given the superstition of ghosts and gods in the Three Han Kingdoms, this rumor was basically the truth.

In this way, even if a craftsman discovered that there was something fishy about the "square iron coins", he probably would not dare to say it out loud.

And the more rebellious the Samhan tribes were, the more they believed this rumor.

Upon hearing Wei Zhe's words, Xi Zhicai immediately laughed and said, "You raise one corner and then use the other three to counterattack. Your Excellency is indeed clever!"

As he spoke, Xi Zhicai quickly wrote letters to the two of them.

Since the seven tribes of Xianbei are all distributed along the coast, the logistics of Wei Zhe's army can be completely transported by sea.

You can order the Wei fleet to load up with food and fodder and set off first to wait at the coast of Qianmo.

As for the 4,000 cavalry led by Wei Zhe, there was no problem in carrying food for several days.

Once Wei Zhe conquered the Qianmo tribe, the fleet could accompany the Han army along the coast.

In this way, a lot of manpower and material resources will be reduced.

During this period, Xi Zhicai also proposed an idea, that is, Wei Zhe led two thousand cavalry to attack the Qian Mo tribe by land, and Taishi Ci led another two thousand cavalry to land on the sea ship, thus forming a pincer attack from the front and back.

But after thinking it over again and again, Wei Zhe rejected it.

The reason is simple: the risk is too great!
After all, if Taishi Ci fails to arrive on time, even if he is only one day late, Wei Zhe will be in great danger.

As for the 4,000 cavalrymen traveling on board the ship, that was even more impossible.

First of all, Wei Zhe did not have enough transportation capacity to transport both people and food.

Even if there is that capacity, it is not necessary.

After all, the warhorse cannot fight immediately after getting off the boat, and often needs to recuperate for a day or two, unless he follows Prime Minister Cao's example and sets up camp on connected boats.

So this time, Wei Zhe didn't want to play any tricks and was ready to directly confront the former Mo tribe...

(End of this chapter)