Of course, Ma Chao decided to follow him.

After all, the official warehouse of Mei County has been evacuated urgently in just two days. Even if Ma Chao stayed, he wanted to stick to Mei County, what should he eat this winter? Compared with Qi County, which has official warehouses to store grain, the urban defenses in Mei County are stronger, but the supply has seriously deteriorated.

Of course, Ma Chao and even his father Ma Teng are not considered "king troops" now. The habits of bandits have not changed, so they are also doing the robbery. If they are really cruel, they can seize food and drive them out of the city. But then they will definitely not think about following Liu Bei again in the future.

The Ma family’s lower limit on harming the people is not as cruel as Li Jue, Guo Si and Han Sui. Ma Teng’s resume is “Four years of thieves, two years of Zhao’an, and the past is an official army”, while Han Sui is a “ten-year old thief”, and he can still laugh at him for fifty steps.

As for Ma Chao himself, it can be said that a person is still kind in his first nature, because he has no chance to harm the people, so he is not so hard-hearted.

Human nature changes slowly with the years.

I made up my mind to run, but it was still not so easy to run successfully. Because there are more grains to be transported away in Mei County and wealthy households to be withdrawn together, and it is very congested. Although it should be done in two days, if Li Jue's people bite his tail, the loss will definitely be huge.

So after Ma Chao arrived, Fa Zheng first tested him to accept a letter of surrender and harass the pursuit speed of the army sent by Li Jue from Chang'an, which could be slowed down for one day or even half a day, mainly to prevent Li Jue from sending a small group of troops to intercept him after receiving the news.

In exchange, Fa Zheng personally promised Ma Chao that as long as he did a good job in the rear, Ma Chao would be ranked third in the military merits of the Battle of Wuzhangyuan. Liu Bei would promise him to retain all the troops of the headquarters and not be adapted and mixed with sand. In the future, he would be able to receive equipment, food and salary supplements, and he would also be given the position of Ma Chao as a captain.

He became a lieutenant at the age of eighteen. It was obviously because he brought the capital into the group. He had thousands of cavalrymen. When Ma Chao was under Ma Teng, he could not do some valuable official positions.

The more than 5,000 cavalrymen in Ma Chao's hands will definitely not be able to fight a tough battle with Li Jue's tens of thousands of people.

But Li Jue's cavalry was transferred away. He used troops on the Western Front. Among the tens of thousands of people coming from Chang'an, there were insufficient cavalry. If a small group of troops left the main force and advanced rashly, they might still be eaten by Ma Chao.

Because the loss would not be too great, Ma Chao still pinched his nose and fucked it first and then temporarily accepted a letter of vote.

After a day of tentative contact between the two sides on such a small scale, Ma Chao also suffered casualties and lost 300 or 400 people. Finally, the entire army retreated safely to the near Wuzhangyuan and protected the first evacuated baggage force.

Including the slight losses in Qi County's breakthrough, Ma Chao actually only had 5,000 Wuwei County cavalry survived.

...

In order to accommodate more people who come to join, Fa Zheng has not been idle in Wuzhangyuan these days, so he allowed the soldiers to expand the camp and built a camp on Mazhong Mountain at the east bank of Wugongshui and the entrance of the Qinling Valley.

In this way, the two battalions of the river echoed each other, and completely blocked the Wugong Shuigukou, ensuring that the enemy could not go back to the valley entrance and set fire to the plank road, and even a small group of arson squads that were swimming and infiltrated could not enter.

The place name Mazuoshan is not as famous as Wuzhangyuan, but it is still quite dangerous. Later generations wrote "Shui Jing Zhu" written in the Southern and Northern Dynasties: "The Wei River also goes east to the north of Mazuo. Zhuge Liang and Bu Zhi wrote: Mazuo is located in the east of Wugong, and it has a high power, so it is inconvenient to attack, so it is kept."

It can be seen that this Mazuo Mountain is confronting the river from Wuzhangyuan. During the Battle of Wuzhangyuan in history, it was a camp occupied by Sima Yi first. Zhuge Liang felt that it was inconvenient to attack and was easy to lose, so he kept it.

Moreover, Mazhongshan has a terrain disadvantage compared to Wuzhang, that is, the hillside on the north is too far from the Wei River, so it is impossible to "back the mountain on one side and the river on both sides", so it can only be "back the mountain on one side and the river on the other side". The enemy can calmly attack along Weinan and from north to south. The direction of defense of Mazhongshan camp is twice as high.

Of course, at this moment, there is still a certain danger in the cultivation of the Wugong Water Camp, that is, if the camp in Hedong is broken, the soldiers will be driven down the river. Therefore, Fa Zheng also temporarily built a simple wooden bridge on the Wugong Water, without the like, which communicates with Wuzhangyuan and Mazuka Mountain.

Anyway, when Wugong water flows out of the Qinling Mountains, the narrow place is only a dozen feet wide. Just find some big trees in the Qinling Mountains and use three giant trees to form arches to easily build bridges. To be honest, just find a tree that is large enough to ensure that the length of the bridge is shorter than the length of the three trees, and the arch can be built.

Only after Ma Chao's men were temporarily settled in the Mazhongshan camp, did he find the Fazheng theory in a hurry.

He brought dozens of personal soldiers to Wuzhangyuan, went straight to Fazheng's central army tent, and asked him for an explanation.

"Fa Duwei, our army is a friendly army for the king. Mu Yi came to surrender. You actually harmed our army. When you arrived, you retreated and even harmed our army's rear palace. Hundreds of people were killed or injured. Isn't it too much for people to deceive people!"

"General Ma sat down for a moment, listen to Fa's explanation." Fa Zheng gave a defensive stance and asked Ma Chao to sit down first. Ma Chao is not any general yet, but since he wants to appease him, he will give him more face in his name.

In fact, Fa Zheng had already thought about the reason for hiding from Ma Chao and why he cheated Ma Chao together - that is, everything should be based on concealing the time and route of the Liu Bei army's formal Northern Expedition as the first priority.

If Fa Zheng had ignored Ma Chao from the beginning and even let Ma Chao guard in Qi County for a winter, Ma Chao might not have been killed.

To take a step back, even if Ma Chao was destroyed and killed, it was not related to Fa Zhengniao. Ma Chao had five or six thousand cavalry on his hands, and most of the soldiers could be killed and injured, and he could no longer defend. At least he could cause tens of thousands of casualties to the attacking Li Jue Army. For Liu Bei's army, what's wrong with watching the other two princes consume each other?

If Ma Chao survived this winter in Qi County, Liu Bei's main force in the Northern Expedition next year, and then he rescued Qi County and rescued Ma Chao, Ma Chao would still be grateful.

But since Fa Zheng contacted Ma Chao, he had to do the show to the end. First of all, he could not let Ma Chao stay in Qi County - because once Liu Bei's army showed the attitude of "we can let friendly troops hold on for another winter, we can still rescue him", it is very likely that in the ears of Jia Xu, he could estimate the intelligence that "Liu Bei's army's comprehensive attack may be the beginning of spring next year."

Only by posing as "rescuing Ma Chao back to the rear" will the enemy misjudgment "It seems that the enemy's general attack is still far away, so far that if Ma Chao is left in Qi County, he will be dead. Ma Chao will eat up all the food and cannot even come to reinforcements."

Ma Chao retreated south to make another smoke bomb over the general attack time.

So, why not trap Ji County? Why do you have to transport all the food in Ji County? This is to make the "Dige tactic" more realistic.

Ma Chao didn't understand what "Dige tactics" meant, so Fa Zheng wanted to explain it to him.

Of course, as mentioned earlier, the "Dige Tactics" is a set of B solutions for fraud. Fa Zheng is still cheating with Ma Chao until now:

"General Ma, do you know that the troops of the King of Hanzhong are now enough to fight the northern expedition. All they lack is the difficulty of Shu Road and it is really difficult to transport grain. If we could station more than 500,000 stones of grain for our army in Ji County or Chencang today, the King of Hanzhong would immediately raise more than 100,000 elite troops and fight in Chang'an in the north!

Last year, our army was defeated in Wuzhangyuan, and then it was killed by Dong Yue, Fan Chou and Jia Xu into Wudu and Yangping Pass, which was extremely damaged along the Chencang Road in Hanzhong. At that time, our army almost lost a year of grain harvest in Wudu and half of Hanzhong County, and the road to transport grain was further damaged.

Therefore, if we expect our army to transport grain by itself, we will at least build roads and accumulate grain for more than a year before we can make an expedition in the north. It was in such difficulties that the right general suggested that the king adopt the "Dige tactic", that is, to use the natural danger at the Baoxie Roadkou, and to use a small amount of troops to defend the camp and obtain the front entry and exit. Then set up a large dige here to find the hollowed-out land in Taibai Mountain to accumulate grain, and then make a comprehensive northern expedition when enough food is saved.

At the same time, every year during the autumn harvest, we will use a small amount of troops to go out to the plank road, plunder the Jin County and other places, grab the grain in Guanzhong in the surrounding areas of Gukou, and hoard them in the vicinity of Dige. Because grabbing one stone of grain in Ji County is more valuable than three stone of grain in Hanzhong, and can greatly speed up the preparations for the Northern Expedition.

This is why I gave up after conquering my hometown, Mei County. Because I want to save a large amount of food as military ration for the coming year. If I occupy the city, I will have to keep too many people guarding me. These guards have to eat grain every day, and after a few months, they will eat back the robbed grain and cannot save it.

To save food, we must ensure that the garrison on the northern front is minimized and only guard the most dangerous places. This time, the defenders of Mei County surrendered to the King of Hanzhong this time, there were more than 4,000 people, as well as officials and dozens of large households in the city, with a total of more than 2,000 people.

But we will not leave these 6,000 soldiers and civilians in Wuzhangyuan camp, and at most a few hundred people are left. The rest must be transported back to the rear, and they will be placed in Baozhong County and Nanzheng County for the winter. The reason is still the same: Eating one grain of Baozhong means saving three grains of Wuzhangyuan. Since transporting grain is not easy, we will transport the people who eat the grain back. We are not allowed to eat northern grains until wartime."

A person has to eat five to ten stones of grain throughout the winter, three to four months, and other vegetables, wild vegetables and salt rations. Walking back to the southern end of the plank road with empty hands is indeed much more than transporting these supplies to the northern province.

Ma Chao was a little angry at first, but later he became more confused as he listened, because he was not very good at math and could not count the military rations account at all. So he couldn't know if Fazheng's numbers were correct as he listened.

But he firmly believed in a thought: the account of this plan was so detailed that even "how much grain can be surplus per month through the Dige tactics, how much grain can be surplus per month, and how much grain can be surplus per seasonal harvest and grain robbery every quarter" was calculated clearly, and "how long it takes to save it, you can make efforts to recover Chang'an."

Then, this plan will definitely not be fake!

There is no fake plan in this world that can be so detailed? The real plan of other warlords is not so detailed, right! They are still in a state of taking one step at a time to act according to the opportunity.

Others dare not say that at least Ma Chao knew that his father never made such a detailed logistics plan when sending troops. He only had enough food to eat for the first half of the month when sending troops. Then he went to the enemy-occupied area to rob. If he found that the robbery efficiency was not as good as expected, he would be thrust. Anyway, he was all cavalry and retreated directly.

This time it was because of Jieting. Huating was cut off by the enemy's rear route and could not be withdrawn, otherwise there would be no logistical accidents.

"So that's it...for the rest, since this is the case, Chao can at least give the soldiers an explanation. Otherwise, I'm afraid the morale of the army will not be convinced." After hearing this, Ma Chao's anger was temporarily relieved because of his poor mathematics.

Fa Zheng took advantage of the victory and pursued: "General Ma, since I have told you the 'Dige grain tactic tactic', I believe you can guess it too. After your army resisted the battle for a few days, as long as you defeat the pursuers of Li Jue in front of you, they will retreat in a difficult situation and do not want to die in vain to attack the strong camp.

Then, I will arrange for most of your army to retreat south on the plank road and eat at Baozhong. General Ma will not object, right?"

Ma Chao was shocked: "I want to retreat south too?"

Fa Zheng: "Of course, didn't you say that the soldiers in the north can ensure that they can defend the Wuzhangyuan camp and ensure that the grain and plank roads are safe, and don't let the enemy burn the plank roads. Excessive food is also a waste of food. There is no need for large-scale cavalry field battles in the future - don't worry, the King of Hanzhong will be given preferential treatment.

Your troops and weapons and armor can be left in Taibai Mountain Camp. Anyway, it will be coming next year. The plank road is difficult to carry, and it will be a waste of energy to carry it back next time. Don't worry, I will register and return it to your people next year. If you don't believe it, our army can also distribute property that is much more expensive than weapons as rewards and pledges.

You can take away most of the horses, because there are not many horses left on the hillside of Taibai Mountain. After all, this is a living thing to eat."

Ma Chao was in pain and had the illusion of being temporarily disarmed, but Fa Zheng said it very well. Can the fortune of the plank road be wasted and useless work should be done less. At present, the biggest difficulty in the Northern Expedition is transportation.

Fa Zheng made such arrangements for safety. Ma Chao had just surrendered and sealed the iron armor and heavy weapons in Taibai Mountain. It was difficult to carry out light equipment and avoided the difficulty of Lu Su's control in the Hanzhong Basin.

After thinking about it, Ma Chao agreed and said that he would make such arrangements when Li Jue retreated a little.

In this era, the steel knives of an ordinary soldier are only worth a few hundred yuan, and the armor will be more expensive. There are also heavy weapons that use more steel. It is hard to say about these, ranging from thousands to ten thousand yuan.

Fa Zheng was generous and issued a vote, promising that each soldier who handed over the weapons and armor could receive two five-foot-wide Shu brocade as a deposit fee for surrendering, which was definitely several times more valuable than the weapon. (After all, they are all cavalry and their value is relatively expensive)

Unfortunately, the soldiers in Ma Chao camp who followed him all the way were not as united as everyone.

Some soldiers were either from fellow townsmen with Li Jue and Guo Si’s main force of Liangzhou Army, or had other considerations that they felt that their hometown was difficult to leave. In their eyes, it was acceptable to go to Chang'an, but they were too far away from their hometown when they entered Sichuan. I wonder if they would have a chance to return home in this life.

After Ma Chao roughly revealed some subsequent withdrawals, several officers and dozens of soldiers left the team and secretly went to Mei County to join Li Juejun.

The highest-level was a Qu Junhou, who even brought military intelligence that "the King of Hanzhong was preparing to use Dige tactics to store grain to ensure the logistics of the Northern Expedition."

After receiving the information, Li Jue was overjoyed and rewarded the surrendered officer with great reward. He promoted him from Qu Junhou to Sima of another department and promoted him to another level. He also learned about the ins and outs of this information and how he got it, so that he could give it to Jia Xu for more details.

"Liu Bei's account is indeed a lot of capable people. It's amazing that Zhou Xiang could do the military account plan before sending troops." Li Jie was thinking about the idea of ​​the "Dige Plan" and always felt that it involved his own math blind spots.
Chapter completed!