Chapter 84: Difficult twelfth lunar month [two in one]
For two or three days in a row, thousands of cavalrymen from the Shanggu Army moved in full force to search around the spot where their Korean army's grain transport team was attacked. They searched for several hours every day. Unfortunately, although the Shanggu Cavalry spread out a carpet in the area, A series of searches were carried out, but no trace of the movements of a large number of Wei troops was found.
Instead, the Wei army succeeded again, and a batch of grain and grass was burned again.
When the news reached the ears of Lihou Hanwu, Lihou Hanwu was shocked, angry and worried.
What is shocking and angry is that in this era of chaotic forces and gods, the world often interprets things that they cannot understand as the work of gods and ghosts. Therefore, when the Wei army attacked the Han army's grain transport team twice, the Han army's cavalry However, when the whereabouts of these Wei soldiers could not be found, Han Wu, the Marquis of Li, was inevitably a little frightened and secretly speculated whether the Wei army had used some magical magic to escape to the sky or the earth.
Worryingly, the daily consumption of food and fodder by the Korean soldiers and horses under his command is too great. The three armies of Yuyang Army, Shanggu Army, and Beiyan Guards have almost 80,000 people. Daijun Heavy Cavalry, currently with riders and retinues, is almost the same. There are 100,000 people, which is close to the rations for 200,000 people. Add in about 70,000 war horses, and the daily consumption is simply astronomical.
Fortunately - in fact, it cannot be said to be fortunate - when fighting with the Wei army in the wasteland west of Julu City a while ago, nearly 10,000 horses among Daijun's heavy cavalry were injured or even died on the spot. Han Wu, the Marquis of Li, ordered the slaughter of those dead horses. Finally, horse meat was used as military rations, which finally alleviated the embarrassment of running out of food and grass.
When Wei soldiers attacked the grain road twice in succession, Li Hou Han Wu had no choice but to slaughter the lame and injured horses.
It is not uncommon to use injured horses as reserve rations on the battlefield, but the problem is that even if all the injured horses are slaughtered, they will not be able to last for a few days. Is it possible to slaughter the intact horses as well? Can it be used as military ration?
Therefore, in anger, Li Hou Han Wu issued a fatal order to the Han army under his command: I must find those Wei troops who attacked the grain road! I must not let these people continue to lurk under the eyes of their Han army.
In this case, not to mention that all the Shanggu cavalry under the command of Ma She, the governor of Shanggu, were sent out, even the heavy cavalry under the command of Sima Shang, the acting county governor, were asked to dispatch without wearing heavy armor.
This order made the Korean cavalry complain.
It's not that they were unwilling to go out and look for traces of those Wei soldiers, the problem was that they couldn't find those Wei soldiers at all.
Looking around, there are vast white snowfields everywhere, and there is no trace of the Wei army's actions at all. Especially after the heavy snowfall, they were forced to dispatch. This made many cavalrymen full of resentment-if they could find those Forget it, the Wei soldiers were forced to dispatch even though they couldn't find the former's whereabouts at all. How could this not make them feel resentful?
Even, due to the order of Han Wu, Marquis of Li, the cavalry of the Han army were forced to go out to search for Wei soldiers despite the lack of necessary winter clothing, causing many cavalry to fall ill due to the cold.
Although it is just a minor illness with headache and brain fever, in this era of imperfect medical conditions, especially in the cold winter during the war between the two armies, once you catch wind and cold, it is basically equivalent to stepping into the gate of hell, unless the soldier The body must be strong and the immunity must be excellent. Otherwise, even colds, headaches and fevers can easily kill soldiers.
But there was no other way. Since Li Hou Han Wu had issued a death order, no matter how cold the weather was, the Korean cavalry must be dispatched to search for traces of the Wei army.
It is worth mentioning that during the search, the Shanggu cavalry encountered some individual Wei troops acting alone. However, those Wei soldiers were very alert and fled when they saw the Shanggu cavalry. Although the Shanggu cavalry immediately took action They pursued, but every time they chased, they lost the whereabouts of the Wei troops, as if the other party had disappeared alive, which puzzled them.
Afterwards, these Shanggu cavalry reported this incomprehensible incident to the Shanggu guard Ma She.
Ma She, the guardian of Shanggu, was also puzzled.
In his opinion, under the current freezing conditions, it is almost impossible for Wei soldiers to move outside for a long time in the snowy fields, even if those Wei soldiers are wearing thick winter clothes to keep out the cold.
Therefore, he felt that since there were indeed soldiers of the Wei army in this area, there must be a camp or stronghold of the Wei army nearby. Otherwise, the Wei army would not be able to support its operations on this snowy field.
But the problem is that the Shanggu cavalry under his command have searched the entire area, but have not found any traces of the Wei army's camp. This makes the Shanggu guard Ma She really puzzled.
How did the Wei army operate under the eyes of their Korean patrol guards?
With this question in mind, today, Shanggu Shou Mashe once again took his son Ma Kuo and more than a hundred cavalrymen, riding horses aimlessly on the endless snowy fields.
Suddenly, Ma She seemed to notice something. He reined in the reins suddenly and stared straight at the two piles of snow not far away on the left.
"Father?" Ma Kuo asked puzzledly.
Ma She pointed at the two parallel piles of snow in the distance, frowned and said, "When I passed by this place two days ago, this was a snow slope. Did I remember correctly?"
These words made Ma Kuo and the rest of the nearby Shanggu cavalry look at each other in shock.
Think about it, they were busy searching for traces of Wei Jun in the past two days, who would pay attention to the ubiquitous snow slope they passed by?
"..."
Under the puzzled looks of Ma Kuo and the other soldiers, Ma She, the guardian of the upper valley, got off his horse and walked through the snow to the two piles of snow standing parallel to each other. He reached out and stroked the flatter side of one of the piles of snow, and his face He showed a thoughtful look.
In Ma She's eyes, the two parallel piles of snow mounds were very strange. They definitely did not look like they were formed naturally. It was as if something had been hidden in the two parallel piles of snow mounds and then moved away again. As for the formation of such a gap.
Spreading his hands, Ma She gestured with his hands and measured the approximate distance between the two piles of snow. He found strangely that the space between the two piles of snow was enough to build a small house that could accommodate about ten people.
Of course, an ordinary house will definitely not run away.
However, this time the opponent is the Wei army, and it is the Wei army under the command of Wei Gongzi Run, so Mashe, the guardian of Shanggu, cannot guarantee it.
In his mind, Wei Gongzi Run was a hero with unconstrained ideas. He would often design all kinds of incredible things on the battlefield according to local conditions, such as the "Concrete Dwarf" built in the Gongdi area during the "Second Battle of Northern Xinjiang". "Wall", the plain terrain that was originally very suitable for Korean light cavalry operations was divided into pieces by these low walls, seriously hampering the cavalry.
Another example is the "Wugang vehicle" and the "sled vehicle". The former has become a common war weapon in the Korean army's light infantry lineup, and the latter has also become the main means of transportation for the Korean army's grain transport team in winter - although it is a bit shameful to steal troops,
But it is undeniable that these things designed by Wei Gongzi Run to win victory can indeed work wonders on the battlefield.
Therefore, at this moment, Ma She, the guardian of Shanggu, couldn't help but wonder: Could it be that Wei Gongzi Run had designed some weird war weapon that could provide a shelter for Wei soldiers in this snowy field, and it seemed to be a mobile shelter.
.
Although it was strange to say this, in fact, Ma She was really looking forward to seeing the true face of that magical thing.
"Father, are you here?"
At this time, Ma Kuo also got off his horse, walked to his father, and asked in confusion.
Ma She patted the snow in his palm, pointed at the two piles of strange-shaped snow, and said with a chuckle: "Wei Jun may have designed a movable house. According to my guess, Wei Jun probably took advantage of the situation."
When our army was not paying attention, we brought the movable wooden house here and then covered it with snow, so that our patrol sentries never found the whereabouts of the Wei army..."
"Covered under ice and snow?"
Ma Kuo and the rest of the cavalry looked at each other in confusion. After all, according to their usual thinking, if they were covered in ice and snow, wouldn't they freeze to death?
But thinking carefully about what Ma She said, they also felt that it made some sense. After all, they could not find the whereabouts of Wei's soldiers, so it was very likely that Wei's soldiers were hiding in this snowfield as Ma She said.
superior.
Soon, the judgment of Ma She, the guardian of Shanggu, spread to the Shanggu cavalry who were searching for the whereabouts of the Wei army in this snowy field. However, people's inertial thinking made many Shanggu cavalry not quite believe this. They just wanted to try and see.
I looked around for that kind of snow slope.
No, a group of more than a dozen cavalrymen from the Shanggu Valley found a snowy slope. One of the soldiers among them stabbed directly into the snow with a spear in his hand.
After poking at several places without any obstruction, the Shanggu cavalryman couldn't help but complain: "How could it be hidden under the snow?"
Listening to this comrade's complaint, the other dozen or so Shanggu cavalry laughed loudly.
But at this moment, the cavalryman who was poking his spear into the snow suddenly heard two clicks, and his expression changed involuntarily.
He pointed his spear into the snow again in disbelief. As expected, he heard two more clicks. It was obvious that there was indeed something hidden under the snow slope.
"There's something down here!"
the cavalryman exclaimed.
The remaining dozen or so Shanggu cavalry looked at each other in confusion. After coming to their senses, they subconsciously raised their weapons and then asked each other for their opinions.
"what to do?"
"dig!"
After some discussion, a dozen cavalrymen dismounted and worked together to dig out the snow. In a short time, they dug out a wooden house in this small snow slope.
The dozen or so cavalrymen glanced at each other and signaled three of them to move towards the door of the wooden house, preparing to break down the door.
At this moment, the window of the wooden house was opened, and several Wei soldiers in the house raised their crossbows and fired at the cavalry. The latter were caught off guard and were hit by arrows three times on the spot.
"Is there really a Wei soldier hiding here?!"
A dozen cavalrymen widened their eyes in disbelief, and at this moment, the door of the wooden house suddenly opened, and several Wei soldiers holding swords and shields rushed out.
After a scuffle, all but one of the dozen or so Shanggu cavalrymen escaped with injuries, and the rest were killed by these Wei soldiers.
"How did these people find us?"
Unable to catch up, Yang Wu, a fierce soldier of the Wei army, shook off the warm blood on his sword, frowned and said, "If it's a coincidence... isn't it too much of a coincidence?"
Not far away, Li Hui, a thousand-man general, and several Wei soldiers confiscated the seven or eight war horses that had lost their original owners. They frowned and said, "Maybe it's not a coincidence, maybe the chariots of other brothers were exposed. In short,
, after that cavalryman escapes, he will definitely report our position. It is not advisable to stay here for a long time and we should leave quickly."
Hearing this, Yang Wu and the other Wei soldiers nodded. The injured Wei soldiers went to the chariot to bandage their wounds, while the rest of the uninjured people worked together to dig out the chariot, pull out the war horses and fix them in the position of pulling the chariot.
Go up and leave quickly.
As for the corpses of the dozens of Shanggu cavalrymen, they were buried in snow.
Including the blood spilled.
Just as Li Hui, the thousand-man general, had judged, only half an hour later, the injured cavalryman from the Shanggu Army, who had fled, arrived here with the Shanggu Guard Ma She and more than a hundred cavalrymen in a hurry.
At this time, Li Hui, Yangwu and other Wei soldiers had already evacuated. When Ma She, the guardian of Shanggu, arrived here with his troops, all that was left was a snowfield with no abnormality, and two piles of seedlings, one large and one small.
A weird looking snowdrift.
"How come?"
When the injured Shanggu cavalryman saw this scene, he exclaimed: "I made marks along the way. It's impossible to remember the wrong location..."
Ma She, the guardian of the upper valley, got off his horse, patted the soldier on the shoulder, and told him not to worry. Then he walked towards the two piles of strange-shaped snow, looked around, and said, "Dig the snow around here."
Once again, if it is really in this position, it is impossible for Wei soldiers to hide the bodies of our soldiers too far away."
"yes!"
Dozens of Shanggu cavalry clasped their fists in response to the order and started digging in the snow with their bare hands. Not long after, the bodies of the dozen Shanggu cavalry that Wei soldiers Li Hui, Yang Wu and others had covered up with snow were removed from the snow.
The ground was dug out.
Now that the body has been found, it becomes clear: what the injured cavalryman said is true. There was indeed a small stronghold of Wei soldiers hidden under this snowy slope.
This perfectly explains why the Wei soldiers were able to move in this freezing snowfield, and why the Han army's sentries were never able to find them.
"General, do you want to pursue me?"
A cavalryman asked Ma Shedao.
Ma She got on his horse, looked around, and said in a deep voice: "Let's give chase."
"yes!"
The cavalrymen responded with clasped fists.
According to Ma She's estimate, even if the 'warhouse' carrying Wei soldiers could move, it would certainly not be much faster. As long as he knew the direction, and with the pace of his cavalry, he would definitely be able to catch up.
of.
But unfortunately, he went in the wrong direction this time, so he chased north for ten miles, but he didn't see any trace of the military hut moving on the snowy field.
This made the Zhushanggu cavalry a little disappointed.
Seeing this, Ma She comforted them and said: "The Wei soldiers can escape for a while, but they cannot escape forever. Since we know the tricks of the Wei army, hehe, we will catch them sooner or later."
After hearing this, all the Shanggu cavalry nodded.
Afterwards, Ma She, the guardian of Shanggu, reported the matter to Han Wu, the Marquis of Li.
After learning the real reason for Wei Jun's disappearance, Li Hou Han Wu breathed a sigh of relief.
What he was most worried about was whether the Wei army had used some magical witchcraft. But now that the secret had been revealed and he learned that the Wei army had just used a blind trick to cover the chariots hiding the Wei soldiers with snow, then what would he do? What does Hou Hanwu have to fear?
Immediately, he sent more cavalry to patrol and search, and ordered Han General Sima Shang to dispatch his cavalry to assist the Shanggu cavalry in searching for the whereabouts of the Wei army.
Under such circumstances, the Wei soldiers who were tasked with sniping at the Korean army's food road inevitably suffered casualties. In just a few days, more than ten sled chariots were found and more than a hundred elite soldiers died.
Among them, several intact sleigh chariots were pulled by the Shanggu cavalry to the Yuyang Army's military camp and presented to Lihou Hanwu.
Out of curiosity, Han Wu, Marquis of Li, Han Yang, Marquis of Dangyin, and Yuyang guard Qin Kai, looked at the sled chariot inside and out.
Even though they were enemies of each other, they couldn't help but marvel that Wei Gongzi Run was indeed a genius, and he could always come up with some fantastic ideas.
"It was this thing that caused two batches of food and fodder for our army to be attacked..."
Pointing at the sled vehicle, which had no technical content, Lihou Hanwu felt a little complicated.
You must know that in the past half month, almost all of their thousands of cavalry were deceived by this seemingly inconspicuous military house.
Strictly speaking, this is the gap between the two commanders: Wei Gongzi Run could think of building this thing and attacking the grain road under the eyes of their Korean army, but Lihou Han Wu could not guess the clue at all. With careful thinking, he guessed what was wrong. Maybe the Korean army would continue to be tricked by these Wei soldiers.
Reaching out to touch the outer wall of the sled chariot, Li Hou Han Wu once again strengthened his thoughts.
Although Beiyan Shou Leyi insisted that Wei Gongzi Run should not be killed, and killing him would definitely arouse Wei's anger towards him, making it impossible for the two countries to reconcile, but Lihou Hanwu still favored the views of Dangyinhou Hanyang, especially After personally experiencing Wei Gongzi Run using this kind of military house to trick them around, he believed even more firmly: Wei Gongzi Run must be eradicated!
This Crown Prince of Wei is really terrifying!
As Han Wu, the Marquis of Li, who was inferior to one person and surpassed ten thousand people in South Korea, he had never been so afraid of an opponent.
Thinking of this, he returned to his small tent, thinking about the strategy of encircling and killing Wei Gongzi Run in the coming spring. At this moment, in his mind, South Korea could lose the battlefield in Hanoi, but Wei Gongzi Run must die!
At the same time, Zhao Hongrun, who was in Julu City, also learned from the Wei soldiers who fled back to Julu City that "the Korean army knew the secret of the sled chariot", and felt quite regretful.
He didn't think that the secret of the sled vehicles could be kept secret from the Korean army for long, but he also didn't expect that in less than 20 days, the Korean army would see through the secret and successfully search for more than a dozen sled vehicles. As for the Wei soldiers in these sleigh troopers, they were unable to escape and died heroically when they were surrounded.
This made Zhao Hongrun quite distressed. You must know that the soldiers he sent out to carry out the task of sniping at the Korean army's food road were not ordinary soldiers. They were all leaders of the Shangshui Army. They were generals of a hundred people, even five hundred people, and thousands of people. The warriors and non-commissioned officers at the general level can be regarded as the backbone of the Shang Shui Army. Even if one of them dies, he will feel distressed, let alone hundreds of them who died.
Thinking of this, he summoned his favorite general Wu Ji and ordered the latter to send Shangshui cavalry to try to contact the Wei soldiers who were still lurking in the snowy fields and order them to return to Julu City.
During this period, some sleigh troopers who were forced to return to Julu City because they ran out of food were also ordered by Zhao Hongrun to abandon the mission.
But to be fair, in general, the Wei army still made a profit. After all, the existence of sled vehicles allowed the Wei army to attack the Korean army's grain transport team twice. This was simply adding insult to injury for the Korean army, which was already in a food crisis.
Not to mention that the twelfth lunar month is approaching and the temperature on the snowfield will drop again, which will greatly increase the difficulty of the Korean army's transportation of grain and grass.
As Zhao Hongrun judged, the Korean army at this time was indeed in a difficult situation of running out of food and grass. It almost relied on teams transporting food and grass once every three days, which could barely maintain the food and grass storage of several Korean military camps.
However, due to Wei soldiers' two sneak attacks on the Korean army's food road, the Korean army's food problem became more serious. In desperation, Li Hou Han Wu could only reluctantly order Sima Shang, the acting governor, to slaughter those completely undamaged war horses. Continuously sent letters to Handan, asking Handan to increase the size of its grain transport team.
In early December, the coldest month of the year, Handan, the capital of South Korea, once again recruited tens of thousands of civilians, asking them to brave the severe cold to transport grain and grass to the front lines of the Julu battlefield.
On the way to transport food, countless civilians were frozen to death by the cold weather and froze to death in the vast white snowfields.
During this period, many civilians who refused to serve were shot dead on the spot by the troops stationed in Handan.
This kind of violent and disturbing behavior caused Lihou Hanwu's reputation among the people to plummet. Even in the temple, some scholar-bureaucrats were dissatisfied with Lihou Hanwu's judgment and actions these days. They believed that the West River was opened up in Korea and Wei at the same time. With the battlefield and Hanoi battlefield being the two battlefields, Li Hou Han Wu really could not let the Wei army led by Wei Gongzi Run invade the hinterland of Korea, so he had to open a third battlefield - the Julu Battlefield.
This is a major strategic mistake!
It's just that Lihou Hanwu is still the dominant force in Korea. Therefore, there are not many voices opposing Lihou Hanwu in Handan City. At most, the families of the civilian husbands who were recruited to transport grain are complaining about this.
At the expense of thousands of civilians, the Korean army in Julu Battlefield struggled through the cold winter.
On the other side, Wei Crown Prince Zhao Hongrun received a battle report about the "Chu Qi Battle of Surabaya" from the Qingya people who came to deliver the news.
Just as Zhao Hongrun judged, Qi was defeated on the battlefield of Surabaya.
"Once Surabaya is defeated, Qi will not be able to protect itself. It is very likely that Qi will recall Tian Dan, who is stationed in Ningyang. In this way, (Chu general) Xiang Mo will have no opponent and will definitely attack Lu. Lu is afraid that It’s going to be a disaster…”
Looking at this battle report, Zhao Hongrun felt a little complicated.