On September 26, while Babuhe was fleeing to the Luonan Basin Valley with the more than two hundred Wusu tribe survivors, Wei general Sima An had led his troops to the "Lushi Plain"
At the west end of the river, there is a river that the locals call "Hengjian".
Beyond this horizontal stream is the long and narrow valley connecting the Lushi Plain and the Ronan Basin Valley. It is said to be more than two hundred miles of winding roads.
On that day, Sima An was on the north side of Hengjian and ordered his slaves to start building a military camp - let's call it "Luyuanjian Northern Wei Camp".
In the temporary commander's tent in the military camp, Sima An summoned his generals to discuss the next strategy.
During this period, Bosile asked Sima An: "The general plans to set up camp here? Waiting for His Highness (King Su)'s order?"
Sima An shook his head.
In fact, King Su Zhao Hongrun gave Sima An a very high level of authority in this battle. Therefore, Sima An could refuse the surrender of the Wuxu tribe without any scruples and completely annihilate the Wuxu tribe on his own initiative, which had lost its will to resist.
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It's not that Sima An is really a bloodthirsty character, but he feels that the Wuxu tribe is the royal court of the Yi people. If he can take the opportunity to eradicate it, it would be better to eradicate it as soon as possible, so as not to affect the intention of a certain Prince Su to take over Sanchuan County.
Yes, when he learned that His Highness Prince Su planned to use "two flags" to force the tribes in Sanchuan to determine their respective positions, Sima An guessed that His Highness Prince Su was going to take over Sanchuan - while
With this opportunity, Sanchuan was officially included in the territory of Wei State and became a veritable "Sanchuan County".
How could Sima An accept the surrender of the Wuxu tribe when the name matter was concerned?
Leaving aside the other tribes, the Wuxu tribe must be destroyed! Because of the existence of the Wuxu tribe, many Yi tribes in Sanchuan may not be willing to accept submission to the Wei state.
This was a tacit understanding - Sima An knew very well what His Highness King Su, who appointed him as the vanguard officer, needed him to do.
"The next step is the Jie tribe..."
Just as the Qin army's commander Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi expected, after Sima An destroyed the Wuxu tribe, he set his sights on the Jie tribe located in the Luonan Basin Valley - as long as the Wei army chose to attack quickly, this was an inevitable result.
But when Sima An came to the Hengjian area and learned from Bosile that the Lushi Plain and the Luonan Basin Valley were actually separated by high mountains, and only a narrow valley road more than 200 miles long could pass through, Sima An felt at ease.
It's inevitable to start muttering.
After all, the cavalry is not suitable for fighting in that kind of valley terrain - to be precise, it is not that the cavalry cannot fight in the valley terrain, but it is that the cavalry cannot take advantage of the advantages of the cavalry in fighting here.
What is the advantage of the cavalry? It lies in mobility. However, in the long and narrow canyon, the mobility of the cavalry is greatly reduced. The only attack method left is the formation charge, which greatly reduces the threat level.
Therefore, Sima An had a hunch that his attack on the Jie tribe might not go smoothly this time. After all, the Jie tribe occupies a favorable terrain.
In this case, it is necessary to build a military camp that can be retreated near the Hengjian outside the canyon to deal with this war that will not last long.
"Is this the only narrow road from Lu to Luonan? Is there any other way?" Sima An asked Bosile.
Bosile shook his head regretfully and replied: "As far as I know, this is the only way to Luonan... There may be other shortcuts, but I am not from here, so I don't know."
Thinking about it, Bosile has lived in the north of Sanchuan since he was a child. The farthest place he has ever set foot is Lu's family. Therefore, he knows nothing about Luonan. How can he know the situation here?
Even the question about the long and narrow valley road came from the mouths of those slaves.
Hearing such an answer, even though Sima An felt a little unhappy, he had no choice but to order Bosile to send someone to the canyon to investigate the road conditions.
On September 29th, the Jiejiao cavalry sent by Bosile returned to the Northern Wei camp in Jian and reported to Sima An what they had discovered.
According to these Jiejiao cavalry, they traveled along the narrow valley for about 140 miles. There, they saw soldiers from the Jie tribe building a pass in the canyon, in order to avoid disturbing the Jie tribe.
The Jiejiao cavalry returned the same way.
During this period, some other Jiejiao cavalrymen who were responsible for exploring the canyon to see if there were any forks or shortcuts also shook their heads and said that the canyon only had two exits, the front and rear.
Of course, the "only two exits at the front and back" mentioned here refers to the canyon itself. In fact, the mountains on both sides of the canyon can be climbed, but the mountains are densely forested, there are many poisonous insects and beasts, and the mountain road is rough and difficult.
Yes, it is not conducive to marching.
"It seems that the only way to go is through that canyon..."
Frowning, Sima An finally made up his mind.
However, he did not order the troops to march. He was still waiting for news from King Su Zhao Hongrun.
The reason is very simple. I remember that when the 50,000 cavalry under his command dispersed across Sanchuan a while ago, they did not need food and grass logistics, because from the tribes who were unwilling to surrender to Wei, the cavalry under his command could plunder enough sheep as a
food.
But now, the tribes around Luoning and Lu have either been destroyed by the cavalry, or they have surrendered to Wei early. This makes it impossible for Sima An to continue to adopt the strategy of "fighting to support war", not to mention that he also accepted
Tens of thousands of slaves from the Wusu tribe were used as cannon fodder. Therefore, restoring the grain and grass transportation lines became something that must be completed before attacking the Jie tribe.
Because of this, he needs to wait for news from King Su Zhao Hongrun, who will tell him when the latest batch of grain and grass will arrive. Only after the date of grain and grass transportation is determined, can Sima An lead his army to the narrow strip without any worries.
The canyon advances.
The letter from King Su Zhao Hongrun came very quickly. In the afternoon of the same day, that is, the afternoon of September 29, the Qingya people sent the letter to the Wei camp in Jianbei and delivered it to Sima An.
At that time, Sima An was discussing something with the generals in the commander's tent, that is, the rectification of the tens of thousands of slaves - he planned to form these slaves in a military-style manner and let them be responsible for some logistical chores, such as cutting down trees and doing
Cooking, transporting grain, killing sheep, curing meat, etc.
Although Sima An really looked down upon the combat effectiveness of these slave soldiers, after all, they were tens of thousands of laborers, so there was no problem in doing chores.
While discussing this matter, the Green Crows sent a letter written by King Su Zhao Hongrun.
Unlike the two cavalry generals of the Dangshan Army, Ji Yan and Le Kui, who were in a somewhat uneasy mood, Sima An was not worried that a certain Prince Su would accuse him of killing too many people in his letter.
Sure enough, in this letter, King Su Zhao Hongrun did not mention Sima An's massacre of Sichuan people at all. He only asked Sima An to clean the battlefield after the war and bury or burn the corpses to avoid causing diseases. As for the Wuxu tribe
His Highness King Su did not even mention the destruction of the country.
In addition, Zhao Hongrun also clearly stated the route of grain and grass transportation in the letter, telling Sima An the exact date of the arrival of the first batch of grain and grass, etc.
To put it simply, all of Sima An's previous actions were tacitly approved by His Highness Prince Su.
This made the two Dangshan military cavalry generals Ji Yan and Le Kui feel relieved. After all, on the way to march, they left many "traces" to intimidate the Sichuan people, such as corpse forests, Jingguan, etc.
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Passing the letter to Ji Yan and Le Qu, who were looking curiously with their heads raised, Sima An asked the Blue Crow member who called himself "Crow Forty-Six": "Where is Your Highness's current garrison?"
Crow 46 cupped his fists and replied: "Your Highness and the Shang Shui Army are stationed at Lu's, and the Yanling Army is ordered to garrison Luoning and attack the Ling tribe in Yichuan."
Sima An nodded and marked it on the map.
The Ling Tribe entrenched in the Yichuan area is said to be as powerful as the Jie Tribe, but Sima An is not worried about the Yanling Army's battle situation. After all, the Yanling Army's strength is no less than that of the Shangshui Army, and even more powerful than the Shangshui Army.
The general-level command ability is even better than that of the Shang Shui Army. With this army attacking Yichuan, the Liangling tribe will not be able to pull off any tricks.
However, there was one thing that Sima An was quite puzzled about, and that was the number of troops stationed by King Su Zhao Hongrun in Lu. After all, according to Crow 46's description, apart from the Yanling army who was responsible for attacking Yichuan, King Su Zhao Hongrun still had ten soldiers.
Tens of thousands of troops are stationed in Lushi. It is really abnormal to gather together to set up defenses like this.
"Could it be that...ah, His Highness has a big heart."
Sima An said secretly.
After thinking about it, he gave instructions to several generals in the tent in front of Crow 46: "Bosile, tomorrow you and I will lead 20,000 soldiers and advance slowly, while the rest will stay in the military camp... Ji
Yan, Lequn, after I leave the camp, you two will restrain the slaves so that they will not cause trouble."
"I have the order!" The generals whose names were called in the tent clasped their fists and accepted the order.
From the side, Crow 46 remembered Sima An's arrangement in his heart and resigned at this time. He wanted to rush back to the Lu family and report Sima An's arrangement to Su Wang Zhao Hongrun.
At the same time, in the Hangu area, the deputy general of the Qin Army, Wang Jianzheng, led thousands of "Iron Eagle Army", silenced their flags and marched along the river towards Luocheng.
Different from the Tattooed Army, the Iron Eagle Army is an elite regular army that the Qin Army calls "sharps", and they are cavalry. They are the absolute main force in the war between Qin and the Xiqiang.
Seeing this well-armed cavalry passing under their noses, the Green Crows who were lurking in the nearby mountains and forests to spy on the Qin army braced themselves and stared closely.
"Keep a close eye..."
At the front of the Qin army, Qin general Wang Jian did not look sideways, but he often glanced at the mountains and forests far away from the corner of his eyes.
Although he did not see any monitors in that mountain forest, his intuition honed on the battlefield told him that there were countless pairs of eyes staring at him in that mountain forest, as well as the Iron Eagle Army he led.
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"General, would you like..." A general came forward and glanced at the mountain forest with meaning.
As if he had read through his subordinates' thoughts, Wang Jian shook his head.
He guessed that there must be Wei army scouts nearby, but it was not the time to get rid of these Wei army scouts yet.
"It's going to rain..."
Wang Jian looked up at the sky and saw that the sky was covered with dark clouds. He thought for a moment and had an idea in his mind.
"Let the soldiers hurry up and make sure to reach Mount Changhao before it rains."