Chapter 240 Cao Wei’s national strength and changes in Chang’an
Mi Yang handed over the command of the army outside the city to Zhang Nan, and he led his own troops into Wudang City after Feng Xi took complete control of Wudang City.
Although in order to control Wudang City, some Han troops began to station in Wudang City.
However, Mi Yang did not let all the Han troops enter Wudang City. He still left more than 10,000 troops in the north of the city to defend Wudang City.
When there are enough troops, it is necessary to leave a large army outside the city to serve as an angle to the city.
When Mi Yang led his troops into the city, the first thing he asked Yanping was: "Where is the granary in the city?"
After Mi Yang's inquiry, Yanping immediately took Mi Yang to the granary located in the east of Wudang City.
In important cities, there are basically granaries.
In ancient times, grain storage places included Lin, Jiao, Jing, Jiao, Dou, etc.
Although the names are different, the purpose is the same, which is a place to store food.
Among them, Lin, Yi, and Jing are above-ground buildings, while Jiao and Dou are located underground.
Wudang County is in an important position, guarding the west gate of Nanyang County.
Because of the strategic significance of Wudang County in the military, although the scale of Wudang City is not large, there are four granaries built here.
It is currently September of the first year of Yankang, which is the month when the autumn harvest is gradually entering.
Cao Ren's military operation against Hanxing County had already begun in August, so logically speaking, there should not be much grain stored in the granary at present.
However, this situation only belongs to the princes Liu Bei and Sun Quan in the south. The power of Cao Wei in the north does not have such restrictions.
Although the combined territory of Liu Bei and Sun Quan was very large, most of their territories were concentrated in the south of the Yangtze River, so most of the crops in their territories were mainly rice or wheat.
For Cao Wei, the Yellow River Basin, the origin of Chinese civilization, was within his sphere of influence.
The area around the Yellow River Basin is very conducive to growing corn.
Corn is the millet of later generations.
The ancients often talked about the five grains. There were many different ways to describe the five grains in ancient times. There are two main ones: one refers to rice, millet, millet, wheat, and bean sprouts; the other refers to hemp, millet, millet, wheat, and bean sprouts.
Among the five grains, Ji refers to millet.
With the continuous changes in Chinese history, the crops that are the main food of Chinese people are also constantly changing with the times.
However, during the Han Dynasty, the staple food crop of the northern Chinese people was corn.
There are many reasons why corn has become the staple food of the northern Chinese people.
Millet is resistant to drought and poverty, and has stable yields. Before the development of rice, it was the only cereal crop that showed a surplus in ancient times.
"Lunheng Suixing Pian" records: "Ximen Bao irrigates with water from Zhang, and then one acre of millet will be harvested."
The yield of millet per mu is ten shi, which is converted into current measurement units, and the yield of millet per mu is 205 jin.
In the Han Dynasty, "The Second Year of Emperor Wen of the Former Han Dynasty" recorded that "the harvest from one hundred acres is only three hundred jin", which is converted into the current unit yield of 281 jin per mu, which is still a relatively poor situation.
The ultra-high yield ensured that corn occupied the mainstay position in the social food structure before the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Compared with the yield per mu of rice and wheat during the same period, the yield of corn is several times that of rice and wheat.
In addition, corn has the characteristic of long storage time.
The shelf life of corn is as long as 9 years, while the shelf life of rice is only 5 years at most. This shows that corn is born to be used as military food.
Historical data records that 20 years after the fall of the Sui Dynasty, the accumulated millet in Chang'an's treasury was still edible.
Moreover, corn was eaten by both men and horses in the military camp, and the energy contained in corn was very high.
During the Han Dynasty, in order to ensure that the horses had sufficient physical strength, the concentrated feed added to the horses was corn.
According to the record in "Salt and Iron Treatise": "One horse can feed six members of the middle family and one young man will die."
One war horse had to eat the rations of at least 6 people. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were 400,000 horses in the country.
If it weren't for the high yield of corn, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty would never have been able to raise so many war horses.
The maturity time of corn is short, and the corn sown in spring can usually be harvested around summer.
Summer sown corn can usually be harvested around winter.
As early as this summer, while Liu Bei and Sun Quan in the south were still waiting for rice or wheat to mature, Cao Wei had already harvested a large amount of corn.
The yield of corn in the Yellow River Basin is already extremely high. Coupled with the almost harsh exploitation ratio of Cao Wei's farming system, which had eight officials and two civilians, the Cao Wei government harvested a large amount of corn this year.
And rice, Cao Wei is also widely cultivated in the Huaihe River Basin.
In the Guanlong area of Cao Wei, a large amount of wheat was grown.
The rice and wheat harvests in Cao Wei's territory were both impressive, no worse than those of Sun Quan and Liu Bei in the south.
While waiting for the rice and wheat to mature, Cao Wei had corn harvested from the Yellow River Basin as support for his army.
That's why Cao Wei in history seemed to have added buffs. Even if he suffered a big defeat, he could make a comeback quickly.
In the winter of the 24th year of Jian'an, Cao Cao could not spare many troops to rescue Cao Ren.
But after this summer, Cao Pi can lead tens of thousands of Wei troops to the south to show off his power, regardless of the loss of military supplies.
Because Cao Wei holds the three main grain-producing areas in China:
Yellow River Basin, Wei River Basin, Huaihe River Basin.
Therefore, as long as Cao Wei is given a few years to recuperate, the powerful national power exerted by Cao Wei, a war machine that occupies China's main grain-producing areas, will be enough to crush Liu Bei and Sun Quan.
Now the four large granaries in front of Mi Yang are all filled with corn.
The reason why Mi Yang wanted to attack Wudang in the first place was because of the corn in these four granaries.
Mi Yang looked at the four granaries in front of him with a greedy look in his eyes. As Yanping was a local leader in Wudang County, he certainly knew who was currently responsible for looking after these four granaries.
Many of the petty officials who guarded the granary were from his family.
Yanping immediately asked his tribe to find the Cangguan who came to Wudang City. After the Cangguan arrived, Yanping immediately asked the Cangguan: "How many stones of corn are there in the four granaries in front of you?"
When the warehouse officer saw Mi Yang, he guessed that Mi Yang's identity was not simple, so he said to Mi Yang with fear:
"Currently, there are nearly 200,000 shi of corn in the four granaries."
After hearing that there were nearly 200,000 stones of corn in the four granaries in front of her, Mi Yang's eyes showed excitement.
In the food supply of the army at that time, the system of two meals a day was generally adopted.
Under this system, generally speaking, a soldier consumes about one stone in food per month.
A normal army of 10,000 would consume about 10,000 shi of food in one month.
200,000 stones of corn is enough for an army of 10,000 to normally consume for 2 years.
Even if Mi Yang's army adopts a three-meal-a-day system, these 200,000 stones of corn are enough to support his army, providing at least a year and a half of military rations.
Cao Wei is indeed a wealthy man, he is so rich.
According to the poverty of Hanxing County, it is already a bit difficult to supply the military food needs of an army of 10,000 troops on a daily basis.
When the army went on the Northern Expedition in the future, the amount of food and grass they would consume would be even greater. Mi Yang had long been worried that there would be a risk of insufficient food and grass in the future.
Before the troops and horses move, food and grass must go first. Without sufficient food and grass, no battle can be won.
Now with these 200,000 stones of corn, when Liu Bei launches his Northern Expedition in the future, Mi Yang will be able to bring his own military supplies to fight a protracted war with Cao Wei.
To be honest, even if Mi Yang is given a year to farm, according to the situation in Hanxing County, the annual grain reserves may not be 200,000 dan.
Because Hanxing County is currently in a situation where everything is waiting for development, there are many places that need food.
Sure enough, you have to farm, but you still have to fight in the wild. Mi Yang can be said to have made a lot of money this time.
Mi Yang looked at the four granaries in front of him, and he already regarded them as four golden mountains.
Mi Yang immediately ordered Zhang Yi to lead his army to formally take over the granary in Wudang City, and strictly prohibited all idlers from approaching the granary.
Now these four granaries are where Mi Yang's enemies are, and whoever touches them will die.
As long as Mi Yang can successfully transport the 200,000 stones of corn back to Hanxing County safely, then his goal of attacking Wudang County this time will be completed.
After ordering Zhang Yi to lead the army to take over the four granaries, Mi Yang immediately sent an envoy to Xicheng to summon Lu Yi.
To transport nearly 200,000 kilograms of corn, even though Miyang has the convenience of water transportation, it is still a big project.
He now needs capable people like Lu Yi to help him complete this task.
After completing this series of arrangements, Mi Yang, who was in a good mood, asked Yanping to leave first, and he himself returned to the county government under the protection of Ding Feng.
After returning to the county house, Mi Yang immediately saw Zhang Bao, who had been waiting in the county house for a long time.
Zhang Bao's face lit up when he saw Mi Yang returning, and he quickly stepped forward to pay homage to Mi Yang.
When Mi Yang saw that Zhang Bao was not patrolling the city with his sergeants to stabilize people's hearts, but instead was waiting for his return in the county government, he asked Zhang Bao with questions: "Gongben, do you have something to report?"
Because of her relationship with Zhang Bao, when Mi Yang got along with Zhang Bao in private, she still used to call Zhang Bao by her nickname to show her closeness.
Facing Mi Yang's inquiry, Zhang Bao bowed to Mi Yang and said:
"General, there are still thousands of thieves and cavalry wandering outside Wudang City."
"If we continue to leave them alone, it will not be conducive to the general's continued march in the future. So Bao wants to invite a battle to get rid of the thousands of traitor cavalry for the general."
Hearing that Zhang Bao came here for this matter, Mi Yang's face showed a thoughtful look.
How could he not know what Zhang Bao said?
But it is not easy to get rid of those thousands of cavalry.
Because of the different types of arms, the cavalry and infantry have very different tactics.
If an infantry army wants to win, it usually has to form a formation first.
The cavalry's tactics are very diverse.
In fact, contrary to ordinary people's understanding, there is no such thing as cavalry restraining infantry in contemporary times.
It is said in many art of war that as long as the advantage of the terrain is used, the infantry can defeat the cavalry head-on, and vice versa.
But according to the current terrain, the south of Wudang City is the Han River, and the north of the city is a large plain.
The bonus of plain terrain to the cavalry is not generally great.
Although Mi Yang currently has several times more troops than the enemy, Cao Tai and Sima Yi are not fools and will wait foolishly on the plain to be surrounded by tens of thousands of Han troops.
They could completely use the high mobility of the cavalry to avoid the encirclement of the Han army.
And if the cavalry is not surrounded, the Han army can at best drive away the Wei cavalry, but there is no way to annihilate the two thousand Wei cavalry.
But if it is just an expulsion, then as soon as the Han army withdraws to the camp, Cao Tai and Sima Yi can lead the Wei cavalry to wander outside Wudang City.
And as long as the Wei cavalry is defeated several times without success, the morale of the Han army will definitely be affected.
This is one of the reasons why Mi Yang strictly ordered the Han army not to leave the camp to fight with the Wei army.
Efforts and gains are not directly proportional at all.
Mi Yang also knew the reason why more than two thousand Wei cavalry did not leave after the fall of Wudang City.
But even if he knew the intentions of Cao Tai and Sima Yi, Mi Yang had nothing to do.
Make bricks without straw.
With no cavalry and no terrain, it would be unwise to attack rashly.
If you want to defeat the more than 2,000 cavalry troops head-on, the best way is to have a strong cavalry army yourself.
This is one of the reasons why Mi Yang does not plan to take the opportunity to attack Wancheng.
The land route from Wudang to Wancheng is smooth, and Cao Pi's reinforcements may arrive in the near future.
Once a large number of Wei cavalry entered the vast plains, it would be a huge disaster for the Han army's supply lines.
Liu Bei also knew this.
Therefore, even though it was obviously faster to conduct the Northern Expedition from Xiangyang, Liu Bei still insisted on placing his personal expedition in Guanzhong.
Because no matter how outstanding the Han army's military exploits were in the southern land, once the Han army crossed the Yangtze River and entered the Central Plains, the situation would be greatly unfavorable to the Han army when it lacked cavalry.
Without its own cavalry, the Han army would not be able to gain an advantage in the Central Plains.
Mi Yang rejected Zhang Bao's proposal, but he still held on to his original plan for the two thousand Wei cavalry.
But just after Mi Yang rejected Zhang Bao's proposal, Deng Ai hurried to him with a military report.
Seeing Deng Ai's eager look, Mi Yang immediately took the military report from Deng Ai's hand and started reading it.
After reading the contents of the military report, Mi Yang frowned.
Cao Zhen!
Mi Yang immediately asked Ding Feng to summon a group of generals to discuss matters in the county hall.
Under Ding Feng's call, all the Han generals who were able to get away soon arrived at the county hall.
After seeing all the generals gathered, Mi Yang immediately informed the generals present about the contents of the general's report.
After learning the contents of the military report, the faces of the generals who had just arrived were all shocked.
The veteran general Feng Xi who was present was directly from the army and asked Mi Yang to withdraw his troops immediately.
What kind of military report content made Feng Xi so nervous?
This military report was sent from Fa Miao in Hanzhong.
The content of the military newspaper was very simple, mainly only writing one thing.
General Cao Zhen, who rebelled against the Wei Dynasty and suppressed the West, personally led his army to assemble in Chang'an, seemingly intending to invade Hanzhong on a large scale!
You must know that in order to make Mi Yang's plan foolproof, Liu Bei transferred most of Hanzhong's elite troops to Mi Yang. Now Hanzhong is at its most empty.
If Hanzhong is captured by Cao Zhen's army, the door to Yizhou will be wide open.
No one can afford such consequences!
(End of chapter)
This chapter has been completed!