Chapter 526: The North is good, but bloodshed on the battlefield is inevitable
Qin Dan recalled: "The horse meat was really hard at the time and was not cooked yet. But at that time I was so hungry that I drank a lot of horse milk and it tasted pretty good. I haven't had it since I returned to Jianye."
Here’s another chance to drink.”
Du De thought for a while and said with a smile: "If we can completely establish ourselves in Youzhou this time, then even if Brother Qin wants to drink horse milk every day until he vomits, it is not impossible."
Qin Dan nodded and said: "Brother Du said that the north is also better than the north. Although the winter is cold, more people can eat horse meat and drink horse milk. It is still difficult to have a meal in Jiangdong."
Compared with the farming people in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the nomadic people (such as the northern grassland people and the semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral Qiang people in the southwest) have a long history of eating horse meat.
The attitude towards horse meat can probably be seen as a dividing line between nomadic and agricultural cultures.
Horses, cattle, etc. will also be eaten if they lose their ability to serve.
In the frontier fortress areas during the Han Dynasty, the meat of dead horses was sold. For the frontier fortress areas with shortage of materials, this was a helpless move to make up for the lack of meat resources, even in Liaodong today.
The custom of eating horse meat in the Han Dynasty is closely related to the development of animal husbandry.
At that time, areas such as Hehuang, the Mongolian Plateau, and western Sichuan and Yunnan were all grassland nomadic areas. The local residents were mainly engaged in animal husbandry, and the animal husbandry industry was quite prosperous. This can be seen from the war and plunder of them by the Han Dynasty.
The spoils of war between the Han and the Xiongnu often included millions of various livestock. For example, the "Book of Han·Biography of Wei Qing" written by Ban Gu and others of the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded that Wei Qing "went to Gaoque in the west, then went to Longxi, and captured thousands of captives."
He had more than a million livestock, including white sheep, and the king of Loufan... drove horses, cattle and sheep, more than a hundred thousand, and returned with fully armored soldiers."
Although the number of horses has increased sharply, in real life, horses mainly perform transportation and drafting tasks, and their opportunities for use as meat are far less than that of cattle and sheep.
The Qin and Han dynasties adopted strict protection measures for horses. Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty issued an edict that "horses and cattle must not be slaughtered."
It is precisely because of this that horse meat is even more precious. Ordinary people are definitely not blessed to enjoy it. Only the rich and powerful have the opportunity to taste horse meat. However, dead horses on the battlefield are another matter. Even ordinary soldiers can taste it.
to some.
The horse meat in the cauldron continued to cook "gurgling-gurgling", and the firewood under the cauldron made a crackling sound.
Qin Dan looked at the Wei army that was getting bigger and bigger under the firelight, and the hill where the corpses of Wu army soldiers were piled up, and sighed: "Hey, when Youzhou is completely captured, I don't know how many people will die.
But it is still far inferior to the war between Qin and Zhao back then. The mountains built up during the Changping Battle between Qin and Zhao must have been much bigger than today."
Dude also looked at the hill of corpses and sighed: "Yes, but bloodshed is inevitable on the battlefield."
In the fifty-fifth year of King Zhou Nan (the forty-seventh year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, the sixth year of King Zhao Xiaocheng, 260 BC), the State of Qin took advantage of the lack of effective defense in the Shangdang area and sent Wang Lu, the chief of the left army, to lead his army through Taihang Road.
Attack the Shangdang area.
Because Zhao's reinforcements had not arrived, Feng Ting was weak and failed to resist the Qin army, so he led the people in the Shangdang area who were unwilling to surrender to Qin and fled to Zhao's territory.
Zhao Jun, who rushed to aid Shangdang, saw that Shangdang had been occupied by Qin, so he relied on the dangerous terrain near Changping to station troops here to assist the refugees of Shangdang.
In April of the fifty-fifth year of King Nan of Zhou (the forty-seventh year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, the sixth year of King Zhao Xiaocheng, 260 BC), Wang Lu attacked the State of Zhao. The State of Zhao sent the famous general Lian Po to lead the army to resist the invasion of the Qin army in Changping.
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General Pi of the Zhao army led his army to reconnoiter the movements of the Qin army. They encountered the scouts led by General Sima Geng of the Qin army. The Zhao army was defeated, General Pi was killed, and the Zhao army failed in the first battle.
In June, the Qin army invaded the Zhao army's position, captured two fortresses, and captured four lieutenants. In July, the Zhao army relied on the barriers to resist, and the Qin army continued to attack, invaded the Zhao army's position, and captured the Zhao army's position.
In the western fortress, two lieutenants were captured.
Lian Po saw that the Zhao army was defeated in repeated battles, so he forbade the Zhao army from fighting the Qin army, and stood firm to confront the Qin army.
The Qin army repeatedly challenged Lian Po to no avail, and the two armies were at loggerheads. King Zhao repeatedly blamed Lian Po for his passive response.
After the Battle of Changping broke out, Zhao Guo lost in the battle and a captain was killed.
King Zhao Xiaocheng summoned his advisers Lou Chang and Yu Qing, and planned to send troops to march lightly to attack the Qin army.
Lou Chang believed that there was no benefit to being hostile to Qin and Zhao, so he should immediately send envoys to Qin to negotiate peace.
Yu Qing believes that those who advocate negotiating peace with Qin now believe that Zhao will be defeated if Qin and Zhao fight;
If peace is negotiated now, the initiative will fall into the hands of Qin;
If envoys are sent to Chu and Wei asks for help, Qin will definitely worry that all the princes in the world will unite to attack Qin. Only then will peace be negotiated, and Zhao will be able to take some initiative in negotiating peace.
Zhao Guo changed generals before the battle. After Zhao Kuo arrived at the front line of Changping, he changed Lian Po's military deployment. The replacement general Bai Qi arrived at the front line and ordered the Qin army to challenge again. Zhao Kuo did not know what the plan was and personally led his troops out of the city to fight.
The Qin army pretended to be defeated and retreated all the way. The Zhao army pursued them all the way to the outside of the Qin army's barrier.
At this time, it was discovered that the Qin army's barrier was strong and could not be invaded, but the Qin army inside the barrier no longer went out to fight;
At the same time, a 25,000-strong assault force of the Qin Army had cut off the Zhao Army's retreat, making it unable to return to the barrier and trapped under the Qin Army's barrier;
Another cavalry force of 5,000 men cut the Zhao army led by Zhao Kuo into two sections, so that the head and tail could not see each other;
At the same time, the Qin Army blocked Zhao's grain transportation channel to Changping. After the Qin Army besieged Zhao Army, Zhao Army ran out of food and its combat effectiveness declined. The Qin Army sent light-armed elites to continuously harass and attack Zhao Army. Zhao Army repeatedly failed in battles and could only
Set up camp on the spot and wait for help.
After King Qin Zhaoxiang learned that Zhao's food transport channel to the Changping battlefield was cut off by the Qin army, he went to Hanoi (today's northern Henan region) to carry out war mobilization. He encouraged the people by promoting them to titles, and transferred all men over the age of fifteen in Hanoi to
On the front line of Changping, intercept Zhao's reinforcements and wait for the Zhao army to run out of food in Changping.
By September, the Zhao army under siege in Changping had been without food for forty-six days, and supplies could not be delivered. The soldiers in the army were in a desperate situation. All their horses had been killed, and they could only kill the weak to satisfy their hunger with human flesh.
Zhao Kuo planned to divide his troops to break out, but failed repeatedly.
Zhao Kuo had no choice but to go into battle himself and lead his army to break through, but was shot to death by the Qin army.
In the Battle of Changping, the Zhao army was defeated and 400,000 Zhao soldiers surrendered to Bai Qi.
Bai Qi believed that when Qin captured Shangdang, the people of Shangdang were unwilling to surrender to Qin and instead fled to Zhao. If Zhao soldiers surrendered to Qin again, trouble would easily arise.
So they used deceptive means to bury 400,000 Zhao soldiers alive, and only released 240 young soldiers back to Zhao. During this battle, 450,000 Zhao soldiers were killed and captured, and Zhao was shocked.