Although the Qiang guide said that this swamp was so dangerous, Ma Chao still did not retreat like this. They still wanted to try to see if they could go deep into the grassland. He also wanted to make achievements, and if he could get through this road, he could build a world-famous one.
Great deeds can go down in history!
Such a temptation was difficult for Ma Chao to refuse, so he asked his men to camp here, then cut some weeds suitable for weaving straw ropes, and weaved a large number of straw ropes. Then he sent 100 men deep into the swamp, hoping to get out of the swamp.
find a way,
Ma Chao's 100 subordinates were divided into 10 groups of 10 people, with straw ropes tied to each other. In this way, even if one person fell, other people could pull him up. Then these 100 people became
Fan-shaped, constantly deepening into this swamp.
But they had no choice but to return after less than 30 miles, and then reported to the Ma Chao Association. This swamp was too difficult to walk. There were some dry places on the outside, but after 10 miles deep, there were very few such places.
Many places can submerge half of the body. This kind of place is not suitable for a large army at all. In addition, the weather is cold, and the soldiers who are soaked all over can no longer bear it and have to retreat!
Ma Chao was unwilling to continue sending people to explore, but he stayed here for more than ten days. He penetrated 100 miles into the swamp, but still could not find the edge of the swamp, and their food and grass were almost exhausted, and there were even ten soldiers left.
Swallowed by the swamp, the morale of the soldiers plummeted.
Ma Chao had no choice but to lead the 1,000 troops in two groups, one to the north and one to the south, to see if they could go around the swamp.
However, the swamp was much larger than Ma Chao expected. The two new armies failed to find the edge of the swamp for several days. Instead, the mountains and rivers along the way kept blocking their exploration. There was no way, Ma Chao could only return to Wuhan the same way.
Dujun. Then informed Xu Wei of the results of his investigation.
Xu Wei was shocked when he received Ma Chao's investigation. He only knew that there would be mountains and rivers blocking it, but he didn't expect that there was an endless swamp on the plateau. There were swamps on the plateau, so how did the army get there that time?
of?
The book only talked about snow-capped mountains and grasslands, but not about swamps! For a while, Xu Wei suspected that his geography teacher was taught by a history teacher. Otherwise, how could such a vast swamp appear inexplicably on the plateau?
?
But after thinking about it, Xu Wei felt that this made sense. At this time, the Qiang people were extremely powerful in Xiliang, even more than the Tubo people in history, but they had never heard of them invading Yizhou. There was only one kind
Perhaps Yizhou was a blessing in disguise, because this vast swamp blocked the Qiang people from invading Yizhou from the plateau, thus preserving the peace of Yizhou for hundreds of years!
Seeing that Xu Wei's clever plan failed.
Zhang Baiqi said: "In power, we should find a way to defeat Liu Bei's army head-on. Liu Bei has become a humble and shameless villain. Not only does he not dare to fight us head-on, but he also wants to cut off our food supply."
Way to defeat us!”
During this time, Zhang Baiqi was irritated by Liu Bei's methods. Liu Bei knew that he could not defeat the large army in the frontal battlefield, so he tried to find a way to cut off the food channel. Logically speaking, this was a normal military strategy.
Zhang Baiqi shouldn't be so angry, but Liu Bei's methods are too cumbersome.
He used a small force of hundreds of people to constantly harass Da Gan's troops transporting grain and grass. Zhang Baiqi led his troops to encircle and suppress the Han army. Liu Bei asked these small troops to run up the mountain. Da Gan was not as good at climbing mountains as these southern barbarians living in the mountains. And even if Zhang Baiqi captured one or two Han troops, the loss of a few hundred people would be insignificant to Liu Bei's hundreds of thousands of people. That's why Zhang Baiqi was so angry with Liu Bei!
Hanzhong is surrounded by high mountains, which gives Liu Bei room to deploy his tactics, especially since most of the Yizhou Army he led are Southern Barbarians. These people can be said to be the mountain infantry of this era, although Zhang Baiqi does not want to admit it. , but I have to admit that on the mountainous terrain, the strength is still acceptable.
Liu Bei used these mountain soldiers to constantly shuttle through the mountains of Hanzhong to attack the food routes of Da Gan Army. Even if they could not cut off the food routes of Da Gan Army, they still wanted to disgust Da Gan Army. As for Zhang Baiqi, they wanted to fight head-on. , Liu Bei defended himself tightly and refused to go down the mountain. If he had the ability, he would attack his camp on the mountain. The hundreds of miles of mountains in Hanzhong were his defense line.
But Xu Wei didn't want Daqian's elite to be exhausted in the mountains of Hanzhong, and Xu Wei also felt that the army in history had passed by. His soldiers were much more logistically stronger, and there were no strong enemies chasing behind. It just takes a little more time. You can definitely find the way into Yizhou!
So he said to Zhang Baiqi: "The current war situation is in our favor. Liu Bei's grain has to pass through the mountains and ridges to reach the battlefield. It is impossible for him to have more grain than us, and everyone knows that now the people of Yizhou He is helping Liu Bei transport grain and grass. If he can survive this year, what will Liu Bei's army eat next year?"
"So time is on our side. As long as we continue to wait like this, victory will belong to us sooner or later."
"At the same time, we have to give Ma Chao some time. Although Ma Chao has encountered a swamp now, as long as we go deeper and explore, we will definitely be able to find a road through the swamp. By then, our surprise troops will be able to reach the capital directly, and the entire Yizhou will be destroyed. We have overcome it. This difficulty is nothing compared to the fruits we will harvest in the future."
At the same time, Xu Wei also began to instruct Ma Chao to make some equipment for entering the swamp. For example, military boots are definitely needed to cross the grass. Everything is lacking in Wudu, but there is no shortage of cowhide for boots. Especially Xu Wei also made a kind of package that mostly Xu Wei remembers the jumpsuit worn by duckweed fishermen when he was a child. With this kind of waterproof jumpsuit, soldiers don’t have to worry about being frozen. Then they can also use it to increase the area like a tennis racket. Boots for walking in muddy swamps. Small flat-bottomed boats for walking in swamps.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Xu Wei even wrote to Ma Chao: "As long as the mind does not slip, there are always more solutions than difficulties."
Encourage him to use his brain more and find ways to solve the problems encountered in the swamp.
After Ma Chao got these equipment drawings from Xu Wei, he also received a letter of encouragement from Xu Wei. As if he had been given a shot of blood, he wrote back to Xu Wei and said that he would not go down to the plateau unless the road to Yizhou was opened!
So after a month of preparation, Ma Chao made enough tools to deal with the swamp and brought 1,000 people to the swamp again. Ma Chao and the others first established a stable camp and at the same time opened up the connection with Wudu County.
, let them transport food and grass to this camp.
Then Ma Chao personally led the exploration horses and gradually penetrated into the swamp from the outside. This time it took more than a month to penetrate more than 100 miles and found some slightly dry areas, which was barely enough for a small army to camp and rest here.
, but food and grass supplies need to be prepared in advance, otherwise, in a place like this where the ground is not working every day, without enough supplies, you may die here. But this is a good start, Ma Chao
Keep going deeper into the swamp with hope!
The words were divided into two parts. After Lu Bu got the help of Yang Biao and Wang Yun, he also resigned and took Zhang Liao and Gao Shun first to go south to Jiaozhou.
As soon as the group arrived in Jiaozhi County, Lu Bu discovered that Jiaozhi was much more lively than he had imagined. It was not as prosperous and lively as those in the mainland of the Han Dynasty. Lu Bu estimated that there were about hundreds of thousands of people in this city.
After entering the city, Lu Bugai sighed and said to Zhang Liao and others: "I never thought that in a desolate place like Jiaozhou, there would be such a populous city!"
Zhang Liao said: "It took several hundred years for Jiaozhi County to be established. It is reasonable to have such a large population."
But he still said doubtfully: "But the number of merchants here is a bit exaggerated. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be so many merchants in such a remote place."
Zhang Liao could see carriages filled with goods walking in the city along the way. Those who didn't know it thought they were coming to Northern Xinjiang, where there are many livestock!
Lu Bu thought for a while and said: "This is a reasonable thing. You don't know how strong the demand for savages has been by the Han Dynasty in recent years. The development of Jiangnan requires bloodshed and sacrifice. How can those descendants of the noble families sacrifice themselves?"
And the barbarians like the Southern Barbarians, who were highly sinicized, were protected by Liu Bei, a hypocrite. Who could these wealthy nobles rely on to reclaim their land? The only option was to capture these barbarians.
As far as I know, there are many caravans of big families here to capture savages, and this has even become the main business of many families. The business of savages is very hot at this time. It is said that a strong savage is worth 50,000 yuan.
It is more than twice as expensive as the most expensive period of the Han Dynasty. You must know that these are troubled times. In Bingzhou, we could get a slave with just a few kilograms of grain, but now it costs 50,000 yuan, which is worth nearly several hundred dan of grain.
It’s doubled hundreds of times.”
Gao Shun said: "General, food is not valuable now. But there is a lack of labor in various places to cultivate the land, so slaves are naturally valuable."
Lu Bu and others had used this kind of thing before, and they also had manors in the Han Dynasty. So they bought some slaves to cultivate the land, and they were used to it. It was difficult for even Liu Bei to stop this kind of thing. Because the development of Jiangnan would inevitably involve bloodshed and sacrifice, he didn't want it to happen.
The southern barbarians who had been sinicized in the south of the Yangtze River shed blood. And the wealthy nobles did not want to shed blood and sacrifice, so they could only sacrifice the barbarians outside the Han Dynasty. Liu Bei could only turn a blind eye to such things.
At this time, Lu Bu and the others found that many people were running towards the beach. Lu Bu stopped one person out of curiosity and asked, "But what are you doing? What happened at the beach?"
The man who was stopped was a little angry, but seeing that Lu Bu was so tall and powerful, he didn't dare to offend him, so he could only whisper: "The overseas fleet is coming, and everyone is going to buy spices from overseas. Even if they can't afford it, It’s also good to have a long experience!
Lu Bu asked curiously: "Where did the spices in Jiaozhou come from?"
The person who was stopped said: "Why is there no spice in Jiaozhou? Hasn't this warrior heard of such a big thing? The spice island discovered by Daqian is famous all over the world!"
Zhang Liao was surprised and said: "You are talking about Dagan's spices. Is it Dagan's caravan that is coming?"
No wonder Zhang Liao was so surprised. Jiaozhi County here is the deepest hinterland of the Han Dynasty. Now Daqian’s merchant ships have actually come here, and even the merchant ships have come here. If one day Daqian’s navy attacks the Han Dynasty, What came here were not merchant ships transporting spices, but warships carrying war artillery.
Lu Bu didn't care. He had no loyalty to the Han Dynasty. Even if Jiaozhou was occupied by Daqian, he didn't feel it was a pity. Instead, he was curious about how Daqian's merchant ships came to this place? No. Should it be possible to gain direct access to the territory?
So he said to the two of them: "Let's take a look together!"
So the three of them came to the seaside pier together. At this time, the Jiaozhou pier was already crowded with people. Countless businessmen gathered here, and the ocean-going ship not far away from the sea was slowly docked on the horse's head.
When Daqian merchants transported the spices, people here almost went crazy when they smelled the smell.
At this time, a businessman shouted: "I have 100 slaves here, how many spices can the shopkeeper exchange for them?"
When the shopkeeper of Daqian heard this, he cried out: "It's a fair trade, I will give you as much spice as your savage weighs, but I also said ugly things in front of you. What I need is to take the young savage with me. Only A strong man alone is worthless."
The shopkeeper also laughed and said: "Don't worry, I understand the rules of your business. This time I directly captured a tribe of savages. Not to mention his wife, children, and children, even his clan leader is here. I can completely satisfy you, shopkeeper." I just want to ask, but I don’t know how many spices you have brought this time, shopkeeper?”
The shopkeeper smiled and said, "How many cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg do you want?"
After speaking, the shopkeeper's men came over carrying a huge scale. Then Lu Bu saw an unprecedented sight. The shopkeeper asked a few savages to get on the scale, and then directly threw the spices in sacks on the other side. bag, and when both parties are balanced, the two parties will start trading.
He saw a Han merchant exchange 100 savages for 100 bags of spices. Although these sacks were not opened, anyone standing next to them could smell the spices.
Lu Bu felt pity for a while. The merchants in Daqian simply didn't know how to do business. It didn't matter that the strong savages could exchange for spices. Those old, weak, women and children were not worth a few dollars, but they could exchange so many spices. They had no idea where the spices were. How valuable is a big man?
Rare foreign spices were introduced to China in the early Han Dynasty, but the royal family of the Han Dynasty did not use spices easily because they advocated simplicity. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to trade with the Western Regions, spices were spread eastward on a large scale. No matter which route the spices were spread eastward, The journey is quite long and arduous, and the amount of spices that can be carried is also extremely limited. Therefore, the spices are extremely expensive, usually costing several thousand yuan per catty, or even tens of thousands of yuan, which is already the price of gold.
So to Lu Bu, those 100 bags of spices were 100 bags of gold. In the end, only 100 slaves were exchanged, and the Dagan people simply didn't know how to do business.