Chapter 260 Everything is ready, Mi Yang is confused
As time went by, more and more Wei troops gathered in Wancheng from all directions.
Previously, in order to stabilize the situation in Nanyang County as soon as possible, Cao Pi first led tens of thousands of troops to Wancheng.
But the huge Cao Wei must have more than those troops.
Cao Wei's army was divided into two categories: the central army and the local army.
In the Central Army, it is divided into the Central Army and the Foreign Army.
The Chinese army is relative to the foreign army.
After Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor and established the Wei Empire, one of his most important reform measures was to further systematically divide the country's military.
He established many metropolitan areas based on states or frontiers.
In the early days when Cao Cao was still in power, the division of the army under his command was not detailed. He usually personally commanded a large army to conquer various places.
After Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao and captured the Ji, Qing and Qing states, his ruling area gradually took on a national scale.
At this time, the situation has become serious. We can no longer lead a main army to fight everywhere as in the past. This will also consume a lot of military supplies.
So under Xun Yu's suggestion, Cao Cao began to adopt the method of leaving large armies in various places.
After the Battle of Guandu, every time Cao Cao pacified a place, he would leave a part of the Chinese army to garrison there, and one person would be the commander-in-chief to command all the armies in the area.
But in that jurisdiction, there was not only the Chinese army left by Cao Cao.
The governor in the area under his jurisdiction will use the Chinese army left by Cao Cao as the backbone, and recruit soldiers in the area under his jurisdiction to form a sufficient number of large armies.
This is the military model of Cao Wei's foreign army that was divided from the Central Army. For example, after Cao Cao pacified Hanzhong and appointed Xia Houyuan as the general to conquer the west, he adopted this military model.
The troops led by generals and governors who stay outside are called foreign troops;
The military directly under the central government is called the Chinese Army.
But whether it is Cao Wei's central army or the foreign army, they are essentially armies trained by Cao Cao himself, so their combat capabilities are very good.
Because of this special military model, among Cao Wei's military positions, the military positions of four expeditions and four towns began to become the most powerful and highest-status military positions.
"In the first year of Huangchu, a governor was appointed to oversee the military affairs of various states, and he was given the title of general of four expeditions and four towns. He also appointed a general to oversee all the Chinese and foreign armies, with the rank of Taiwei."
In addition to the Chinese army and foreign troops, Cao Wei also had state and county soldiers as local soldiers.
In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Guangwu went on strike to recruit soldiers, and the military strength of the prefecture and state was very weak.
When Cao Cao unified the north, large and small separatist armed forces were either eliminated or incorporated. States and counties often only had the central army stationed in the army, but no local armed forces.
At that time, Sima Lang, the chief secretary of the Prime Minister, suggested that the prefectures and counties should establish local armed forces to "prepare the barbarians externally and intimidate the barbarians internally."
At Sima Lang's suggestion, Cao Cao restored the old system of the Western Han Dynasty. "According to Sima Lang's advice, he restored the order of state and county soldiers, but did not appoint a lieutenant, a prefect or a governor and commander."
Cao Wei's prefecture and county soldiers were responsible for guarding their own prefectures and counties, and they should be mobilized for expeditions when necessary. However, the status of the prefecture and county soldiers was lower than that of the Chinese army and the foreign army.
In addition to the Chinese army, foreign troops and local state and county soldiers, Cao Wei also had a huge special force, which was the field soldiers.
Cao Wei's farming villages were divided into two types: civilian villages and military villages. Although military villages were mostly located in border areas, Cao Wei regarded civilian villages as the country's fundamental economic policy.
Under this coercive economic policy, millions of young men and women in civilian villages all over Cao Wei's country were a natural and continuous source of soldiers for Cao Wei's army.
The late Han Dynasty was not a certain Song Dynasty. All men in the Han Dynasty were martial arts.
As long as the men of the late Han Dynasty are given weapons, after a little training, they will instantly become a powerful army.
This kind of military system has miraculous effects in protecting the border.
Under this military system, if there is an early warning on the frontier, the rulers of Cao Wei can take advantage of the convenient transportation conditions in the north and command the Chinese army to personally support the frontier.
On the other hand, the ruler of Cao Wei could issue an edict to all the major governorates in the world, asking them to lead their own troops to support the governorates under attack.
Under the snowballing rally, Cao Wei's army would often break through the one hundred thousand mark soon.
This will make the enemy feel a sense of despair based on the strong military strength.
It can be said that although Cao Wei's economy is in a mess, the Cao Wei military system reformed by the military master Cao Cao is currently the most advanced system among the three major forces in the world.
However, in order to prevent excessive local military power, Cao Cao and Cao Pi continued to strengthen their forces and directly controlled the strength and eliteness of the Chinese army in their hands.
When Cao Pi came to the throne, the Luoyang Central Army directly under his control had reached tens of thousands.
This army of hundreds of thousands is the most elite, most armored, and best-trained army among all Cao Wei's forces.
These hundreds of thousands of troops were left by Cao Cao to Cao Pi and were the most powerful guarantee to intimidate the local area.
Later, Cao Wei's central army even reached more than 200,000 people. Cao Wei's central army alone could launch a war to destroy the country.
In history, there were constant rebellions in the Cao Wei region, the most famous of which was the Three Huainan Rebellions.
The reason why Sima Sanhei was able to successfully quell the three rebellions in Huainan was essentially because the Central Army of Cao Wei suppressed the local army.
Historically, during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, Cao Rui handed over the command of part of the Chinese army to Sima Yi in order to resist Zhuge Liang's army.
Many people think that the fundamental purpose of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was to capture Longxi, but in fact, Zhuge Liang also had another purpose, which was to find an opportunity to completely eat up the central army of Cao Wei commanded by Sima Yi in the wild.
As long as Zhuge Liang can defeat Cao Wei's frightening Chinese army, then Cao Wei will fall into a huge crisis in an instant.
During the Battle of Lu City, Zhuge Liang was only one step away from his goal, only one step away!
It's a pity that there is a rebel named Li Yan from behind.
And because Cao Wei's middle army suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Lucheng, Sima Yi later avoided fighting because he knew very well that if he lost all the remaining Cao Wei's middle army, the consequences would definitely be catastrophic.
When Cao Pi led tens of thousands of troops from Luoyang, he never thought that he could completely defeat Mi Yang with just the tens of thousands of troops in his hands.
Cao Pi knew very well what his own advantages were, so when he led his army from Luoyang, he had already issued an emperor's edict to the major governor areas, asking them to gather troops and horses to meet in Nanyang County.
Later, when Cao Pi received a report from Cao Tai and found out that Guan Yu indeed sent troops to attack Fancheng as Jia Xu had predicted, Cao Pi's edict urging various places to send troops became more urgent.
As time went by, after Cao Pi's emperor's edict spread to various places, governors or generals from various places led their troops to Wancheng to join Cao Pi.
Among them, the ones closest to Nanyang County are undoubtedly Jia Kui, the governor of Yuzhou, and Wang Ling, the governor of Yanzhou.
Yuzhou and Yanzhou are the most elite parts of the Central Plains, so their production has recovered the fastest.
The grain and grass harvested by these two states this year alone can support the own use of the state and county, and there is still a lot of grain and grass left to support other states and counties.
Therefore, when these two feudal officials led the army to Wancheng, the Wei army currently in Nanyang County had exceeded 100,000 including auxiliary troops.
One hundred thousand Wei troops gathered in Nanyang County, which made Cao Wei's ministers currently in Nanyang County feel increasingly confident.
The most important thing is that there are currently about 50,000 Wei Zhongjun in Nanyang County.
This 50,000-strong army was trained by Cao Cao, Emperor Wu of the Wei Dynasty, and its combat effectiveness can be said to be unparalleled in the world.
In terms of numbers, the Wei army was far superior to the combined forces of Guan Yu and Mi Yang, and in terms of eliteness, they were also stronger than the enemy.
This made the ministers of Cao and Wei not feel confident.
Regardless of whether it was Mi Yang or Guan Yu, they were constantly sending spies to investigate the movements of the Wei army inside and outside Wancheng.
News of the arrival of a large number of Wei troops quickly reached Guan Yu.
Compared with the heavy thoughts of the Han generals after hearing the news, Guan Yu's expression was not at all nervous.
This scene was something he had expected.
This is a huge gap in national power between the Han Dynasty and the reverse Wei Dynasty, which cannot be made up in a short time.
But Guan Yu didn't care how many foreign troops Cao Wei had and the arrival of state and county troops. He had only one goal after raising his troops, and that was Cao Wei's central army brought by Cao Pi himself!
In the big tent, Guan Yu asked Wang Fu: "Guoshan, how have our army's losses been recently?"
Currently in the big tent, all the Han generals and ministers are present. When Guan Yu asks about this matter, the heavy look on Wang Fu's face becomes more solemn.
He came out and bowed to Guan Yu and reported:
"In the past half month, whenever our army's grain ships escorting grain and grass appeared, the bandits wandering on the north bank saw this scene. They often followed our army's grain ships with thousands of cavalry, and occasionally attacked and fired rockets.
Whenever our soldiers who were stretching on the south bank were washed to the north bank by the rapids, they were all killed and wounded by the bandits.
If our army's grain ship docks and escorts the grain truck towards the camp, the bandit army will use cavalry to attack our army's grain team.
Whenever our army sends troops to the north bank to attack, or sends reinforcements from the camp, the traitor army will immediately retreat. When our army retreats, the traitor army will come back.
In the past half month, hundreds of our soldiers have been killed or injured, and not a few grains and fodder have been burned by the bandits."
After saying the above, Wang Fufu said in a more serious tone: "This move by the bandit army will have a huge impact on the morale of our army."
After hearing what Wang Fu said, everyone in the tent frowned deeply.
Perhaps because of the timely rescue of the Han army, the number of soldiers and food lost was not too much.
But the thieves' behavior of constantly harassing the grain road like flies is indeed disgusting.
This was a big blow to the morale of the Han army.
Compared to the frowns of the generals, there was no sullen expression on Guan Yu's face.
He was born in the north and had fought with the Wei army for many years, so he was very clear about the tactics of the cavalry.
All of Wei Jun's current responses were roughly in line with what he had guessed before.
In fact, the Han army did not have countermeasures against the Wei cavalry's harassment tactics.
That is to deploy heavy troops in layers on the Han army's main food and grass, and form formations to resist the attack of the Wei army's cavalry.
However, such countermeasures are very labor intensive.
The situation faced by the Han army now does not allow them to spend such a large amount of troops.
Now the Han army faced not only the tens of thousands of Wei cavalry, but also the tens of thousands of Wei troops in Fancheng and Yancheng.
Although the Han army had passed through the barriers and surrounded Fancheng for a month.
However, no matter how well the fortress is laid out, if it is not closely guarded by soldiers, it will just be a dead thing that can be destroyed by people.
Once the Han army dedicates most of its troops to guard the grain road, the protective power in the barrier will be greatly reduced.
If the Wei troops in Fancheng and Yancheng make any changes at that time, the Han army's efforts in the past month will be wasted, and they will easily fall into a situation where they are attacked from both sides.
So now the Han army is in a dilemma.
In this dilemma, Liao Hua tried to make a suggestion:
"Is it possible to set up an ambush on our army's food route?"
When Liao Hua's suggestion was put forward, no one agreed with Liao Hua.
Because Liao Hua's proposal does not conform to the actual situation.
The two cities of Xiangfan and Xiangfan are located on both sides of the Han River. Outside the cities are open plains. On the ten-mile grain road, there is no terrain to lay an ambush.
When Liao Hua saw that his proposal was not supported by the generals, he realized the omissions in his proposal at the next moment.
So he said nothing silently.
Compared to the silence of the generals, Guan Yu didn't have much worry in his heart.
Guan Yu first asked the generals to retreat, and then he left only Zhao Lei alone.
After all the generals had retreated, Guan Yu asked Zhao Lei, "Are all the utensils ready?"
Facing Guan Yu's inquiry, Zhao Lei quickly replied: "Everything is ready."
Seeing what Zhao Lei said, a smile finally appeared on Guan Yu's face, which had seemed solemn just now.
Before Ma Liang became the governor of Jingzhou, Zhao Lei was actually the chief steward of Guan Yu's army.
After using Zhao Lei for many years, Guan Yu still subconsciously asked Zhao Lei to do some things.
Now that you are fully prepared, you can start taking action.
Wudang is located upstream of Fancheng, with the existence of the Han River. Ma Liang's messenger soon arrived at Wudang City.
Because they had Ma Liang's diploma with a seal as proof, Ma Liang's envoy was quickly received by Mi Yang.
Now Mi Yang is listening to Wang Hong's job description.
Mi Yang currently holds many official positions. After he was worshiped as Zuo General by Liu Bei, his original position as Hanxing Prefect was not removed.
Therefore, in addition to handling the military affairs of Yibei, Mi Yang also remotely controls the government affairs of Hanxing County.
Today happened to be the day when Wang Hong came to Wudang City to personally report to Mi Yang about the reforms he had implemented in Fangling.
As the head of Fangling County, Wang Hong could have sent a small official to report these matters to Mi Yang.
However, as Mi Yang's status improved, Wang Hong felt deeply that his choice to go south to the police was right, and on the other hand, he became more determined to hold Mi Yang's thigh tightly.
People change. Perhaps Wang Hong's original intention to defect to Mi Yang was to avenge Cao Wei's blood.
But as he gained power, Wang Hong's heart began to change.
In his view, there is no conflict between revenge and enjoyment of glory and wealth.
Wang Hong knew that everything he had now was obtained through Mi Yang.
Therefore, as the number of talents under Mi Yang increased, Wang Hong, who had little talent to begin with, was worried that one day he would be squeezed out of the inner circle of the Yibei ministers headed by Mi Yang.
With this idea, Wang Hong would go to Wuzhong in person whenever he had the opportunity to report government affairs to Mi Yang in person.
The reason is to show more face in front of Mi Yang.
Mi Yang and Wang Hong were originally discussing the next reform measures for Fangling, but when Mi Yang received the letter from Ma Liang's envoy, Mi Yang's face immediately showed a heavy look.
Guan Yu, is there something wrong with your health?
But before, my father-in-law wrote to him to discuss how to crack the cavalry method, and he even drew a picture for him based on the memory of later generations. How could he suddenly become ill?
There will be another chapter in a moment.
(End of chapter)
This chapter has been completed!