Looking at the secret letter in his hand, Zhao Hongrun felt quite emotional.
The secret message in his hand at this moment was forwarded by the branch of the Green Crows in Daliang, and what was delivered was the exact news that "Crow Seven" and others had returned from Ji County, Yuyang County, South Korea.
According to information from Crow Qi, he saw with his own eyes that in the "Battle of Jixian", almost 150,000 Donghu cavalry fell in front of South Korea's heavy cavalry - Zhao Hongrun felt that the "150,000" figure was a bit exaggerated.
After all, he has led troops to fight all year round, and of course he knows what a spectacular scene it will be if 150,000 Donghu cavalry are placed on the battlefield. Unless these 150,000 Donghu cavalry are just wooden piles, as long as they have the consciousness to escape, with the help of heavy
The charging speed of the cavalry was almost impossible to catch up with these Donghu Qingqi.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun conservatively estimated that the number of Donghu cavalry casualties in the "Battle of Jixian" needs to be discounted, that is, about 70,000 to 80,000.
Of course, this estimate is actually meaningless, because it is impossible for South Korea to let the Donghu cavalry escape from South Korea - why did the army guarding Mashe in Shanggu not participate in this battle? Isn't it just waiting for the Donghu cavalry to escape?
After they all entered South Korea through Juyong Pass, did they send troops to cut off the latter's return route and retake Juyong Pass and Juzhu Mountain Beiling Fortress?
Even if Crow Qi was eager to report on the Korean heavy cavalry and couldn't wait to inquire about the actions of Shanggu Shou Ma She, Zhao Hongrun could guess it because the trap set by South Korea for Dong Hu this time was so obvious that it was
Any general who knows a little bit about the art of war and strategy will hardly be fooled - as a frontier fortress of the country, how could it fall so easily?
Come to think of it, the Donghu have always been used to running rampant in the northern border of South Korea, so they did not expect that South Korea was deliberately showing weakness to the enemy, luring them into the plains of Yuyang County, and then annihilating them in one fell swoop.
"This time South Korea severely damaged Donghu, and I have contributed a lot. Marquis Han Wu should award me with first-class military merit..."
After taking a few glances at the secret message in his hand, Zhao Hongrun was joking with Lu Mu, Qin Shaojun, and Zhao Que in the tent.
After hearing this, Qin Shaojun asked in confusion: "South Korea won the war, what does this have to do with you?"
Zhao Hongrun smiled and said nothing, and did not answer Qin Shaojun.
I believe that only the Zongwei Chief Lu Mu in the tent at this time could understand the profound meaning of His Highness's words.
It is simply because South Korea’s design of Donghu this time relied entirely on the heavy cavalry modeled after Wei’s Youma heavy cavalry. Without this heavy cavalry, South Korea would never have thought of attacking those 150,000 Donghu troops in such a short period of time.
The cavalry dealt a devastating blow.
Without that heavy cavalry, the 150,000 Donghu cavalry would eventually flow to the plain terrain of Shanggu County or even Handan County, burning, killing and looting in the hinterland of South Korea. At that time, South Korea would pay for their actions of "leading wolves into the house" -
-Of course, without the support of the heavy cavalry, South Korea would not have deliberately given up Juyongguan and deliberately put so many Donghu cavalry into the territory.
Therefore, South Korea's biggest reliance on defeating Donghu this time is the heavy cavalry built with a lot of money. The concept of "heavy cavalry" was first proposed by Zhao Hongrun, and thus he created the Youma Heavy Cavalry. Therefore, South Korea should naturally use
The first merit was awarded to him.
Of course, this was just a joke, Zhao Hongrun wanted to ease the shock in his heart at this moment: even he did not expect that South Korea would be so bold to use heavy cavalry to design the Donghu cavalry, and they even won the bet.
Those were 150,000 Donghu cavalry, which should have at least caused some losses to the South Korean army. Unexpectedly, South Korea used that heavy cavalry to wipe out all these Donghu cavalry within the country's borders at an extremely small cost.
"Donghu is over..."
Zhao Hongrun let out a long breath.
As the strongest Rongdi occupying a large area of grassland outside northern Korea, the Donghu tribes cannot of course only have a few hundred thousand warriors, but it cannot be denied that the annihilation of the hundreds of thousands of Donghu warriors will definitely make the Donghu tribes
The vitality of the tribe was severely damaged.
What's more, after achieving such a brilliant record, South Korea will definitely pursue the victory. Therefore, it is already a certainty that South Korea will severely damage Donghu and drive the latter to the distant and cold northern plateau.
Coupled with Zhao Hongrun's side, the Wei army also defeated Lin Hu and the Xiongnu. This means that South Korea will be free from the invasion and harassment of foreigners. Soon, Wei will face a country that will no longer have the drag of foreigners.
South Korea - Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun felt a little toothache.
You know, in the "Third Wei-Korean Northern Border Battle", when South Korea mobilized elite border garrison troops such as the "Yanmen Army" and the "Beiyan Army", the casualties of the Wei army suddenly increased, and Zhao Hongrun's
It was in the "Battle of Ningyi" against Yanmen Shou Li Mu and Beiyan Shou Leyi that the Shang Shui Army suffered heavy casualties for the first time, with nearly 20,000 casualties. At that time, he
The friendly army from the Qin State he led lost more than half as a result. It can be imagined that the Yanmen Army and the Beiyan Army, the two Korean border garrisons, are not at the same level as the weak armies of the Handan Army.
.
So in the end, it was thanks to Yanmen's trick of luring Lin Hu and taking advantage of the situation to invade Taiyuan, and Yanmen, the king of Nanliang, that Wei defeated South Korea.
If South Korea had not been hindered by Lin Hu and Dong Hu in that battle, it would have been hard to tell the outcome based on the situation at that time.
Now, the Wei State is about to face Korea, which is no longer burdened by Lin Hu, Dong Hu and other foreign ethnic groups. Even Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but become nervous after realizing this.
But when he recalled South Korea's heavy cavalry, which cost 50,000 yuan to build, he couldn't control his nervousness and couldn't help laughing.
"Fifty thousand heavy cavalry..."
Zhao Hongrun almost woke up laughing from his dream.
Only those who have built heavy cavalry know how expensive this unit is. Regardless of the cost of cavalry, it seems that the light cavalry has an extra set of Wei heavy infantry-style armor and an extra set of vests. But in fact,
It's much more than that.
First of all, the material used to make the heavy cavalry armor was an alloy studied by the Wei State Smelting Bureau at that time. Yes, it was an alloy made by forging iron into steel and adding other metal ores in proportion to it. The purpose was to make the heavy cavalry armor more durable.
The armor you ride on has stronger defense without adding much weight.
Secondly, the inside of the armor of the heavy cavalry must be lined with thick leather armor, and key parts must be filled with animal tendons. The purpose is to reduce the shock force that the heavy cavalry receives when colliding. Otherwise, it will be like Yuma Heavy Cavalry.
Wearing an armor that looked like an iron can, they ran rampantly. While killing the enemy sergeants, they themselves had already been injured by the force of the impact, and their internal organs were injured, causing them to vomit blood.
Thirdly, the vests of heavy cavalry, or the armors worn by war horses, are not an ordinary thing.
In order to prevent the burden of the armor from causing the war horses to lose too much of their usual flexibility, the vests of the Yuma heavy cavalry are made of chain mail and hanging armor made of interlocking iron rings. The advantage is that it is easy to wear and can provide defense.
The strength is higher than that of ordinary armor, but the disadvantage is that it is time-consuming to create. In order to ensure the toughness of this armor, the Smelting Bureau and the Weapon Casting Bureau were both artificially crafted at that time. There are thousands of iron rings on a piece of chain armor.
You can imagine the huge amount of this project.
It is precisely because of sparing no effort on the material of the armor that the Yuma Heavy Cavalry can create stunning results again and again. As for Zhao Hongrun, he is unable to build more heavy cavalry. He only maintains the current five thousand Yuma Heavy Cavalry.
The armor will cost him a lot of money.
However, South Korea actually built 50,000 heavy cavalry in one go. Even though the armor of these heavy cavalry is slightly inferior to that of Yuma's heavy cavalry, the cost is probably astronomical.
What made Zhao Hongrun secretly happy was that he had at least a hundred ways to make these 50,000 Korean heavy cavalry retreat without any gains.
There is no way around this. After all, the heavy cavalry itself is a very restricted unit, and its survivability alone is almost zero. Even if it is a legionary battle, it very much needs the cooperation of the enemy. If the other party does not cooperate, it will not be able to survive after seeing the heavy cavalry.
The cavalry is out of the battle the moment it enters the battlefield. In fact, except for heavy infantry, almost all other arms can escape from the lock of heavy cavalry with their legs, as long as they turn around and escape in time.
This is very embarrassing.
What's even more embarrassing is that the heavy cavalry will never dare to charge towards the heavy infantry in formation, because the heavy infantry, relying on their heavy armor, is enough to make the heavy cavalry fall, and the heavy cavalry - especially the heavy cavalry in the front row.
Once a cavalryman falls to the ground, it is almost impossible for him to stand up again, and the friendly forces behind him may trample them to death.
Therefore, the best targets for heavy cavalry to bully are actually crossbowmen and light infantry, followed by light cavalry, so that heavy infantry and heavy cavalry like them are things that heavy cavalry do not want to face because they are too self-inflicted.
big.
At least half of Wei's garrison-level elite troops are heavy infantry, which is bound to make South Korea's heavy cavalry feel very embarrassed when they see the Wei army.
Of course, it is also possible that the Korean generals do not know that heavy cavalry cannot restrain heavy infantry, but I believe that as long as a war is over, those Korean generals will realize that exchanging a Korean heavy cavalry for a Wei heavy infantry will
This is definitely a loss-making transaction.
Because he knew all this, when Zhao Hongrun looked at the description of "50,000 (Korean) heavy cavalry" in the secret letter, he knew that the future battle between Wei and South Korea for the supremacy of the Central Plains would at least be over.
An additional 30% chance of winning.
If he wasn't afraid of leaking the news, he would really like to celebrate grandly and share his joy with others.
In late July, the Wei army in Linzhong County was divided into two groups.
The aristocratic private armies in Wei State began to collect the profits of war, count the livestock on this grassland, and recruit prisoners of war as slaves. On this matter, these nobles had already reached an agreement with the imperial court.
This agreement was signed by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the domestic nobles, and was unanimously approved by the inner court of Chui Gong Palace. Generally speaking, the private army of the domestic nobles assisted the court in counting the war benefits, and the court gave them a little sweetness accordingly.
.
For example, the imperial court allowed the domestic nobles to purchase foreign captives such as Lin Hu who were captured by the Wei army in this battle at a certain price, and let these slaves work for the domestic nobles.
However, for important resources such as war horses and cattle, the imperial court strictly prohibited private transactions among domestic nobles. After all, the main purpose of Wei's attack on the Hetao was to obtain the war horses and cattle resources in the Hetao area.
As for some of the jewelry, gold and silverware collected by Lin Hu, the court was not very fond of it. As long as the nobles in the country did not get too greedy and paid a rough amount to the court, the court would turn a blind eye.
Close one eye.
As a result, with the tacit approval of the imperial court, the aristocratic private armies in Wei, including Qin's army and the Jiejiao cavalry from Sanchuan County, began to collect wealth on a large scale throughout Linzhong County, targeting those who had not explicitly surrendered to Wei before.
In the country, the nomadic tribes, whose position has always been wavering, began to implement liquidation.
The cattle, horses and sheep in the tribe were taken away, and the people in the tribe were reduced to slaves. The pretty girls among them were also reduced to barter. In the blink of an eye, a tribe was completely divided up. "Note: Because of some
The reason is this aspect. To be precise, I basically sketched out the war against the nomads. I had no choice but to guard against the slightest, so I could only write about the civil war among the Central Plains people."
However, those nomadic peoples, such as the Xianbei, Tiele and several other weak ethnic groups (tribes) whose clan leaders personally surrendered to the Wei army early on, were lucky enough to escape. They just looked at the Qin and Wei coalition forces and others like them with fear.
They were Jiejiao cavalry who came from nomadic tribes, and they separated tribes that were larger than them.
As for the garrison-level elite divisions of the Wei army, such as the Shangshui Army, the Wei Wu Army, the Anti-Rebel Army, the Northern First Army, and the Shanyang Army, they tried to cross the river in batches during this period and continued to pursue Lin Hu.
Linhe Plain, which is now the land named "Shuofang County" by Zhao Hongrun, the Prince of the East Palace of Wei State, has two branches of the river to the north, called "Nanhe" and "Beihe" respectively.
Among them, there is a horizontal mountain range to the east of Nanhe River, called "Yinshan Mountain". From a geographical point of view, it can become a natural barrier for "Jiuyuan County"; and there is also a horizontal mountain range to the north of Beihe River, called "Yangshan Mountain".
”, geographically it can become a natural barrier for “Shuofang County”.
Therefore, for the long-term peace and stability of Shuofang County and Jiuyuan County, what the Wei army has to do now is to continue to pursue Lin Hu and drive Lin Hu completely out of the natural barrier of "Yangshan-Yinshan".
From early August to mid-August, under the joint offensive of various Wei armies, Lin Hu and the Xiongnu retreated steadily. Some of them surrendered to the Wei army in exchange for the right to continue living in the Hetao area.
It is worth mentioning that these Lin Hu and the Xiongnu did not know where they found out that Zhao Hongrun, the Prince of the East Palace of the Wei Kingdom, was currently in Shuofang County, offering more than a hundred girls from his tribe.
To be fair, those pretty girls are pretty cute.
However, the only thing Zhao Hongrun asked of them was the "Humanization Order". As long as these nomads were willing to sincerely accept the Central Plains culture, he would not kill them all.
However, the vast majority of Linhu and Xiongnu still chose to move north, probably thinking of avoiding the Wei State first, and then coming back to retake the Hetao area when the Wei State became stronger in the future.
Naturally, Zhao Hongrun would not be polite to these foreigners who refused to surrender to the Wei State and refuse to accept the culture of the Central Plains. He ordered all Wei armies to expel them all to the north of "Yangshan-Yinshan".
In mid-August, after the chase, Zhao Hongrun, accompanied by the generals, climbed to the "Yang Mountain" in the northern part of Shuofang County and climbed up to look at the surrounding area.
During this period, he pointed to the "Yangshan" and "Yinshan" mountains in the northeast and said: "This area is suitable for building a Great Wall frontier. I decided to let the court spend ten years to build a Great Wall here..."
Hearing this, Yanhou Zhao Jiang and Huanhou Zhao Xuan were very surprised. You must know that they are still eager to continue their campaign to the north. After all, according to the information they learned from the prisoners of Linhu, there are still people north of the Hetao area.
An endless territory.
Even bigger than the entire Wei State.
In fact, not only Yanhou Zhao Jiang and Huanhou Zhao Xuan, but also the generals of the Wei State who are beside Zhao Hongrun at the moment, who doesn't want to open up new territories and leave a name in history?
But Zhao Hongrun shook his head and said: "If you fight hard, you can't defend... No, there should be no point in garrisoning."
To be fair, with the current strength of the Hetao area, the Wei army is fully capable of continuing to advance north and attack the vast land in the north.
But this is meaningless. After all, the north of Shuofang County is already a place that can be called a plateau. Although there is not much vegetation, due to the complex terrain, there are many ravines and valleys unique to the plateau area. In fact, it is far inferior to the flat Hetao Plain.
More suitable for grazing.
What's more, with the current strength of Wei State, even if the Wei army can seize hundreds or thousands of miles to the north, it will not be able to allocate so many troops to garrison; but if a small force is sent to garrison deep in the northern grasslands, then
It's almost meaningless, at best it serves as an outpost.
After hearing Zhao Hongrun's explanation, Marquis of Yan Zhao Jiang and Marquis of Huan Zhao Xuan regretfully discovered that Wei State really had no need for that northern land.
As a result, the Wei army stopped at "Yangshan-Yinshan".
At the same time, Zhao Hongrun sent an order to the Daliang court in the name of the Prince of the East Palace, ordering the Ministry of Industry of the imperial court to prepare regulations as soon as possible to build a Great Wall border fortress on the "Yangshan-Yinshan" side of the mountain. On the one hand, it was used to divide the territory of Wei and the north.
The sphere of influence of the nomads, on the other hand, is also to prevent nomads from abroad from raiding the Hetao in the future.
After all, although the Wei State has made a name for itself in the northwest through this war, in the "Hexi Corridor (i.e. Liangzhou)" to the west, in the vast land there, there are still people in the Central Plains collectively called "Xiqiang"
” powerful alien race, not to mention Lin Hu and the Xiongnu who had completely become enemies because of this war.
Unless the Wei State remains strong, once its weakness is revealed, these foreign nations will surely pounce on it like wolves that have smelled blood.
Waiting for late September, Zhao Hongrun ordered to suppress the rebel army. The Northern First Army and the Southern Yan Army captured "Yunzhong" to the east of "Jiuyuan County". As for the land further east of "Yunzhong" (historically known as
Dingxiang), Zhao Hongrun does not plan to move for the time being.
Because that land (Dingxiang) borders South Korea's Yanmen County, once the Wei army captures that land (Dingxiang), there will inevitably be friction with South Korea.
But now, neither Wei nor South Korea is ready to start this unprecedented battle between Wei and South Korea for the dominance of the Central Plains - if South Korea has not solved Donghu at this time, Zhao Hongrun would not mind giving it a try, but
At present, South Korea has severely damaged Dong Hu. Maybe Dong Hu has been defeated and expelled, so forget it.
Keeping that piece of land (Dingxiang) as a buffer between Wei and South Korea in the north will help prevent a premature war between the two countries. After all, compared to South Korea's expulsion of Donghu to the farther north, this time Wei
Occupying the natural pasture in the Hetao area, they need more time to recuperate and recuperate than South Korea to slowly digest the resources of the Hetao Plain.
In early October, Zhao Hongrun returned to "Yuanzhong Fortress".
Of course, this so-called fortress is just a concept at the moment. According to Zhao Hongrun's estimation, it will take at least three to five years for this fortress to be completed.
After returning to the fortress, Zhao Hongrun began to think about the candidates for generals to garrison the Hetao Plain.
Since the current strength of the Wei State is still unable to completely digest the entire Hetao area, Zhao Hongrun decided to divide five small counties in the Hetao area to radiate the entire Hetao area, namely "Yinchuan County", "Shuofang County", and "Jiuyuan County".
County", "Yuanzhong County" and "Yulin County", as for "Yunzhong County"
County", after long consideration, Zhao Hongrun also decided to station an army here. After all, he planned to build the "Yangshan-Yinshan" Great Wall into the forest to completely isolate the northern grassland and the Hetao area. At the same time, the east side of Yunzhong County
, to the east of (Dingxiang) is South Korea's Yanmen County, which must be guarded against.
Therefore, there are a total of six small counties and six generals are required to garrison them.
In order to commend the contributions of the various Wei armies this time and promote young generals, Zhao Hongrun intended to let the military recommend candidates.
As a result, the chief generals of the various Wei armies recommended their deputy generals one after another.
Sima An, the governor of Hexi, recommended the deputy general "Bai Fangming" to be the governor of Yinchuan County.
Shao Hu of Wei Wujun recommended "Zhao Bao" who was almost the same age as the governor of "Shuofang County" - this made Zhao Hongrun feel puzzled at first. After all, his original intention was to promote young generals and he really couldn't understand Shao.
Why did Tiger recommend Zhao Bao?
It wasn't until he saw Shaohu's letter of recommendation recommending Zhao Chengyue, the second son of King Yu of Zhao Yuanji, to serve as Zhao Bao's deputy general that Zhao Hongrun suddenly realized - this was obviously because Shaohu was worried about the young master Zhao Chengyue, so he called him Zhao Bao.
Look after.
However, Zhao Bao has such an impulsive personality, and Zhao Chengyue, Zhao Hongrun's cousin, is also a man who is eager to prove himself through war like Yanhou Zhao Jiang. It is not difficult for Zhao Hongrun to guess that Shuofang County will never take a stubborn approach in the future.
strategy.
It is worth mentioning that Shuofang County was captured by Wei Ji, the governor of Hedong and Lintao Lord. Moreover, Wei Ji originally intended to recommend Lieutenant General Feng Ting, a former Korean general, to serve as the governor of Shuofang County, but he was intercepted by Shao Hu.
Damn it, this is embarrassing.
However, after Zhao Hongrun considered it for a while, he still arranged Feng Ting to "Jiuyuan County". After all, although this man was a versatile general, he was actually not that good at commanding troops and horses. Therefore, he arranged him to "Jiuyuan County".
"Shuofang County" or "Yunzhong County" are not suitable - the governors of these two places need brave generals with strong combat capabilities, and they must be the places where war is most likely to break out.
As for Feng Ting, it is just right to arrange it in "Jiuyuan County" where there may be less war between "Shuofang County" and "Yunzhong County". Feng Ting can do everything whether it is to govern the area under his jurisdiction or to support the two neighboring counties.
competent.
As for the "Yuanzhong Fortress", it was Zhao Hongrun who personally appointed him. He directly appointed "Yi Gu", the general of the Wei Wu Army. After all, this man once defeated millions of Chu troops, and Zhao Hongrun admired his strategic vision.
As the core of the Hetao area, Yuanzhong Fortress needs such a strategically visionary general to garrison it.
The only ones left are "Yunzhong County" and "Yulin County". Compared with Yulin County, "Yunzhong County" is more likely to directly face the famous Korean general Yanmen Shou Li Mu. Therefore, it needs someone who can compete with Li Mu.
Famous generals who are fighting in harmony are in charge...
"Hmm..."
Smacking his lips, Zhao Hongrun immediately thought of the best candidate.
Even if he is one of the top ten tycoons in Beiyuan, he is the guardian of Taiyuan!
To be honest, Zhao Hongrun was also very curious about what it would be like if Lian Bu faced Li Mu, a heroic general in the top ten ranks of Beiyuan.
Of course, the premise is that he can convince Lian Ni.