Chapter 160 Zhuge Liang’s new rival (please order)
By the time Zhao Yun, a staunch supporter of the Han movement, calmed down, Ma Di had already vomited and was leaning against the corner, gasping for air.
Originally this was just a small matter, nothing to do with face.
But out of the corner of his eye, Ma Su saw Zhang Xiu leaning on his shoulders and laughing outside the door, but he didn't come to save him!
It exploded on the spot.
After regaining his composure, he beckoned Zhang Xiu to come closer, and asked with a long face: "We know that five thousand stones of grain is enough to feed five thousand soldiers of our army for five days. How much grain and grass do ten thousand soldiers need for ten days?"
Hearing this, Zhang Xiu's brain exploded. He calculated in his mind for a long time before he replied uncertainly: "Ten thousand shi of food?"
To be honest, this problem stumped Zhang Xiu. He was illiterate and was still half-assed in arithmetic despite being taught by the math genius Ma Su for a long time.
Addition and subtraction within one hundred takes a long time to calculate on your fingers.
He actually got it right!... Ma Su was shocked. He was silent for a moment, and then slapped his thigh.
"Asshole! As a senior general, it takes so long to count!" Ma Di angrily scolded Zhang Xiu while taking out a yellowed "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic" from his arms, threw it into the latter's arms, and fell silent.
The voice said: "You will be punished by copying this book a hundred times within one day!"
"If you can't finish copying, you will be engaged in military law!"
"Yes." Zhang Xiu hugged "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic" in annoyance and left with a sad face.
Ma Su took a long breath, feeling extremely comfortable.
Zhao Yun looked at Ma Su speechlessly, endured it for a while, and finally couldn't help but interjected: "Youchang, isn't this right? According to the assumption that five thousand people use five thousand stones of food for five days, wouldn't ten thousand people use ten days?
It should be 20,000 stone grain?"
"Zhao has been with the Prime Minister on expeditions in all directions for a long time, and has been taught by the Prime Minister. He will never make a mistake in his calculations."
"How about you do the math again?"
"..." Ma Di glanced at Zhao Yun expressionlessly, and quickly changed the subject: "Old General Zhao, I intend to select 10,000 elite warriors from the Shaodang Qiang and Xianling Qiang tribes, and train them into an army.
If there is a change in the world, I will order my cavalry to attack Wuwei, and then order a general to lead the troops from Xixian County to attack Tianshui. In this way, we can first capture Liangzhou, then encircle Longyou, and look at Guanzhong... great things can be accomplished!"
"I wonder what the old general thinks?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yun's eyes instantly brightened like stars.
At his age, he no longer has any interest in most things, such as women and money, but when it comes to training cavalry and commanding cavalry, then he is very energetic.
As a general, who doesn't want to have a tiger and wolf army that is as fast as the wind and as fast as lightning?
"This is a great good! A great good! Zhao took over this job!"
Ma Su nodded and ordered a new desk to be moved to a place farther away from Zhao Yun. He began to write and draw on it, and calculated the cost of setting up 10,000 elite cavalry.
Horses are readily available. Every Qiang household has a horse. It is easy to select 10,000 good horses.
Soldiers are also ready-made. The Qiang people grew up on horses and have superb riding skills. Once they form an army, their combat effectiveness is very good.
In the past, the Xiliang cavalry that killed Cao Cao to the point of cutting off his beard and discarding his robes was built on the basis of the Qiang people.
The question now is how much it costs to build an elite cavalry force of 20,000 people. A complete set of armor, weapons and equipment is extremely expensive.
Although there is plenty of money in the Shaodang Qiang treasury, due to a series of problems such as the lack of iron and the lack of iron smelting craftsmen, the previous Qiang kings had plans to form elite cavalry to resist Wei's self-reliance, but they were all forced to suspend their plans.
.
Shu and Wei, the countries with the most developed iron smelting technology, both restricted the export of iron to surrounding foreigners.
After Cao Cao was unable to take care of himself by the Xiliang army with long guns and fast horses, he immediately issued an order that the Wei State was not allowed to sell large quantities of finished iron to surrounding foreigners.
In Shu, the mountain roads are difficult and transportation is inconvenient, so the Qiang people usually can only buy from the countries in the Western Regions.
However, the iron smelting technology of the countries in the Western Regions has only emerged from the 1.0 Stone Age, and is still far away from the Central Plains 3.0 era of refined iron quenching, so we might as well not mention it.
Therefore, for a long period of time, the very brave Qiang soldiers could only fight with Wei and Shu with the most rubbish equipment, and were often clearly arranged by the two countries.
The reason why Ma Teng and Han Sui's Xiliang army were invincible was that they were originally Han ministers and could buy iron tools, armor and various equipment from the Han Dynasty.
However, these problems are no longer a problem now. The iron smelting technology in Shu is very advanced. The artery-level road leading to Xi County is about to be repaired, and transportation is no longer a problem.
As long as we can get iron and equipment, form the first real cavalry of the Shu Han Dynasty, and then face Wei Guogang, it shouldn't be difficult, right?
By that time, I won't have to resort to retreating and not fighting every time I encounter the Wei army.
Ma Su thought.
After three days and three nights of research, the math wizard finally figured out all the costs.
Simply put, to form an elite cavalry force of 20,000 people, you need 40,000 horses, 40,000 sets of horse gear, 20,000 sets of armor, helmets, weapons, bows and arrows and a series of other equipment.
Not counting the cost of horses and soldiers, on average each cavalry costs 30,000 yuan, and the total cost of 20,000 cavalry is 6 billion.
In other words, after setting up this cavalry, three-fifths of the money in the Qiang treasury was lost in one go.
At this result, Ma Su was shocked and regretted.
Each of these well-equipped cavalry can actually move 30,000 yuan.
Whether it was ambushing fire attacks at Xia Bian or constructing a powerful force to dig canals and flood the city, the Shu soldiers he commanded defeated the Wei army and also damaged a large amount of equipment.
It seems that in future wars with Wei, we should try to use the trick of persuading surrender.
Violence must not be used unless absolutely necessary.
Ma Su secretly made up his mind.
…
Wuzhangyuan, the camp of the Shu army.
Zhuge Liang looked helplessly at Liu Yan, the chattering general and supervisor of the army.
Zhuge Liang brought 50,000 troops to Xiegu this time. As soon as they entered the border of Guanzhong, they immediately fell in love with the natural fortress of Wuzhangyuan. So he ordered the generals to divide their troops to capture the surrounding counties, and at the same time ordered the soldiers to build fortifications on Wuzhangyuan.
This time, Zhuge Liang had enough confidence.
Firstly, the Shu army is not short of food, and secondly, the road to transport food is being rapidly constructed. In less than three months, the road will be able to extend from Hanzhong to Wuzhangyuan.
To put it bluntly, he is prepared to fight a protracted war this time.
But Liu Yan, the supervisor, had a different view.
Liu Yan was a native of the Lu state of Yuzhou. When Liu Bei was in Yuzhou, he appointed Liu Yan as his official. Because Liu Yan and Liu Bei had the same clan and surname, and he was very well-mannered and good at talking and discussing, so he was favored by Liu Bei and often followed him as a guest.
Liu Bei socializing.
In the summer of the 19th year of Jian'an (214), Liu Bei defeated Liu Zhang and captured Yizhou, appointing Liu Yan as the prefect of Guling County. In April of the third year of Zhangwu (223), Liu Bei passed away. In May, Prince Liu Chan ascended the throne and changed the Yuan Dynasty to Jianxing.
.Liu Yan was granted the title of Duxianghou, ranking second only to Zhuge Liang and Li Yan. He also served as a guard, a central military advisor, and a rear general. Later, he was promoted from the rear general to the chariot and cavalry general.
Although Liu Yan held a high official position, he did not participate in the state affairs of the Shu Han Dynasty. He was only appointed by Liu Chan to symbolically lead more than a thousand soldiers to follow Prime Minister Zhuge Liang and make some criticisms and suggestions.
It was Zhuge Liang's initiative to let Liu Yan accompany the army.
Because of Sima Yi's previous counterintuitive plan, the emperor had no master, so he had to be summoned back to central Sichuan, causing the Northern Expedition to be abandoned halfway.
In order to avoid such a situation happening again, Zhuge Liang specially brought Liu Yan with him when he sent out troops this time.
He originally thought that Liu Yan knew his weight and was just a tool with eyes.
But unexpectedly, Liu Yan did not have this awareness.
From the moment he sent out troops, Liu Yan had been giving instructions on his marching formation.
Moreover, Liu Yan's appearance in the army was also very high-profile, even more high-profile than his commander Zhuge Liang. His carriages, horses, clothing, and food could be described as luxurious, and he often brought hundreds of followers with him to explore the camps in a swaggering manner.
This made all the generals feel resentful.
Each general's tent is a very private space, how can you look around?
You must know that everyone is a military general, and there are no women in the army. In normal times, you can only practice martial arts to relieve stress.
With Liu Yan running around like this, if he saw some one-on-five or one-on-ten scenes that he shouldn't have seen, where would everyone put their face?
