When Xu Rong saw the ruts on the north bank of the river a few miles away from Zhanglin, he had to admire Chen Mu's strategy.
Looking back at the previous pursuit to the present, he found that Chen Mu's strategy was insidious at every step and shocking at every turn.
First, compare the mobility of the enemy and ourselves. Chen Mu has a thousand heavy cavalry, plus three thousand baggage and auxiliary troops.
So his marching speed is actually no different from that of normal infantry. Excluding meal time, his daily march is about 40 kilometers.
This was the normal speed of ancient marches.
Don't feel slow.
Although in the history of our army, there is a legendary story of marching 120 kilometers while fighting in 25 hours, almost moving at a speed of 5 kilometers per hour.
But let’s not talk about the iron foundation and willpower of our army. They are the best in history.
Secondly, it was achieved by not carrying a lot of baggage, traveling lightly and simply, and rushing to support another group of our troops along the way.
But it was different in ancient times. Roads, baggage, and the willpower of the army could all affect the marching speed.
For example, in the Battle of Xiangjiang when our army first broke through encirclement and suppression, its marching speed was extremely slow because it carried a large amount of baggage.
Therefore, whether recorded in history books or in reality, our army's legendary experience of marching 240 miles in 25 hours is a miracle and difficult to replicate.
Under normal circumstances, there is no problem with Chen Mu's marching speed.
According to the marching speed of later generations, it belongs to the normal marching speed, which is 4-5 kilometers per hour and the daily distance is 30-40 kilometers.
On the other hand, Xu Rong's infantry was able to cover more than 60 kilometers in 10 hours during a rapid march, almost at a speed of 6 kilometers per hour.
According to the marching speed, it can be classified as a forced march.
On top of the forced march, there was also the forced march.
Forced marches include marching more than 50 kilometers a day and marching continuously for more than 12 hours day and night.
Our army covers 120 kilometers in 25 hours, which is considered a forced march.
In addition, there are many examples of forced marches in ancient times, such as Cao Cao chasing Liu Bei and riding tigers and leopards for more than 300 miles in a day and night.
Su Dingfang conquered the Western Regions, leading 10,000 elite infantry and 3,000 cavalry in a sudden attack. They also marched 300 miles day and night.
There was also Li Su who entered Caizhou in the snowy night and walked more than 130 miles day and night under heavy snow. This was all in the category of forced march.
Therefore, Xu Rong's marching speed was actually faster than Chen Mu.
This is because he is leading the Southern Army, which is an elite soldier recruited by Emperor Xiaokang of the Han Dynasty. They must be young and strong to join the army, and they don't have to worry about supplies along the way, so they all travel lightly.
certainly.
This time, Xu Rong was marching in a hurry. When Xu Rong was chasing Chen Mu from Luoyang, he did not know the specific location of Chen Mu, so he moved at a normal marching speed to maintain the strength of the army so that he could change direction at any time.
But in addition, Hua Xiong had two thousand light cavalry, which was nearly twice as fast as the infantry.
So normally speaking, if Chen Mu was overtaken by Hua Xiong in the area between Handan and Wu'an, then when he ran to Waishui, he would definitely be overtaken by Xu Rong.
At that time, according to the comparison of the enemy's and our own forces, which is 2,000 light cavalry plus 5,000 infantry against 1,000 heavy cavalry, Xu Rong's chances of winning are not small.
Moreover, Xu Rong was not stupid enough to confront Chen Mu head-on. After the main force caught up, he could mobilize the county soldiers and press on with 30,000 troops. Even if Chen Mu's 3,000 heavy troops also joined the battlefield, under such a disparity in military strength,
, no matter how smart Chen Mu is, he still has to swallow his hatred by the water and be his prisoner.
In such a situation between the enemy and ourselves, Chen Mu played the first trick, which was to take advantage of Hua Xiong's ignorance of the details, first stage an ambush and defeat Hua Xiong's troops, and then use the eastern encirclement to move overnight before the encirclement was closed.
Head south from Yang to Feixiang.
This strategy of going north for the strategic purpose and moving south for the actual movement was beyond Xu Rong's expectation. He wasted a whole night, passing by Chen Mu, separated by more than 60 kilometers.
But the advantage is still in Xu Rong's hands.
Because you wanted to go north, but now you go south, you are going in the opposite direction, and Xu Rong will not have no chance to catch Chen Mu again.
In fact, the reason why Xu Rong did not go directly north to control Chen Mu's clan was because of this.
First of all, Xu Rong is also a shameless person. He uses clan threats and his reputation is too bad.
Secondly, Chen Mu is also a well-known filial son in the world. It is impossible for him to really refuse to save his family, otherwise it will be a big blow to his own reputation.
Moreover, Xu Rong had already arranged for backup to allow Li Gan to control the Chen family.
Finally, and most importantly.
Chen Mu went in the opposite direction, so although he distanced himself from Xu Rong, his strategic intention was not achieved. In terms of time and space, Xu Rong still had a great chance to catch up with Chen Mu and continue to complete the encirclement.
Moreover, Xu Rong felt that with a reputation as a filial son, at least 70% of the time, Chen Mu would still choose to go north, and it was unlikely that he would abandon his clan and go to Qingzhou to join Liu Bei.
Therefore, based on these five reasons, plus Dong Zhuo's repeated orders and five invitations to important people, Xu Rongcai did not go north, but chose to go south and continue to follow Chen Mu.
After all, in Xu Rong's opinion, he already had enough back-ups, and even if he didn't catch up with Chen Mu, he wouldn't be too passive.
But after arriving in Feixiang, Chen Mu played a second trick.
The trick was to cross the Zhang River and deliberately lead the traces to Kuiqiu in the east, so that everyone would mistakenly think that Chen Mu went eastward overnight and did not go north or return west.
If Xu Rong judged that Chen Mu walked past the Pottery Hall and then went to Zhongshan Kingdom from the direction of the Bohai River, then their attention would be drawn to the east.
But in fact, Chen Mu made a circle, went north across Fu River, walked all night to Quliang Yiyang, and finally headed north from Wu'an.
At this point, Xu Rong would really be left behind by Chen Mu.
Because Chen Mu was in the wrong direction before, and now Xu Rong is in the wrong direction. Not only were all the troops from each county transferred away, but his main force was also left far behind.
At that time, Xu Rong's two strategic goals, one is to catch up with Chen Mu, and the other is to control the Chen clan, will both fail.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! After realizing this, Xu Rong also broke into a cold sweat.
He never thought that there were such cunning people in this world, with endless tricks and tricks. If he hadn't been more discerning and had an attitude of giving it a try, he might have been deceived again.
.
"Cunning! So cunning!"
Xu Rong sighed. Although he was not a counselor in the Xiliang army, his tactical vision was not low, and he was much higher than other generals.
But when facing Chen Mu, it felt like meeting a thousand-year-old fox. If you want to guess his layout intention, it depends purely on luck, and you may not be able to think of it even if you think hard.
certainly.
Xu Rong definitely didn't know that Chen Mu was studying under a peerless great man who only appeared in five thousand years. Compared with that great man, Chen Mu only learned a little bit.
But just this little bit of superficiality was enough to make Xu Rong, an outstanding marshal who later defeated Sun Jian and Cao Cao, look around and have no choice but to follow behind and eat dust.
Hua Xiong now almost understood Chen Mu's tricks, opened his eyes wide and said, "The scholars have so many conspiracies and tricks, I almost got deceived by him again."
"Send the order and march quickly towards the people!"
Xu Rong shouted.
They had been delayed for a long time. Judging from the enemy's marching speed, Chen Mu might have almost reached Quliang. At this time, he must speed up to catch up.
At that moment, Xu Rong and Hua Xiong's troops marched overnight and headed along the official road in the direction of Lieren.
The reason why only their troops are there is because their troops have reversed day and night, sleeping in the morning and getting up in the afternoon, and can stay up all night long.
But those county soldiers are different. Not only do they have normal work and rest, but most of them are old soldiers in their 30s and 40s who were temporarily recruited. They are not as strong as the young men in their 20s. They can't keep moving forward without sleep, so they can only lose weight.
Rest in the countryside and follow them later.
However, from Xu Rong's point of view, these are all insignificant matters. Anyway, what he wants to do is to speed up the march and keep up with Chen Mu's large army. As long as the Qingqi bites, and then mobilizes troops to besiege, there will be no problem.
At that moment, Qingqi set out to pursue them all the way. Less than two hours later, good news came. On the official road leading to Quliang, some baggage vehicles were spotted from time to time along the way.
These vehicles had become empty. Obviously, Chen Mu had eaten up some of his food and grass after marching for so many days, so he abandoned some carriages to speed up the march.
After hearing the news, Xu Rong perked up. He knew that this meant that Chen Mu was not far away from them and would soon be overtaken by them.
"Send all the scouts out, hold up the torches, and speed up the march!"
Xu Rong gave the order.
The disadvantage of marching in the dark is that the soldiers cannot see the road clearly, and the entire army has to light torches.
And even if you light a torch, you can only see close up, not very far.
In this way, the army walking on the Jizhou Plain became a target in the dark and could easily be attacked.
For example, when Gan Ning's hundreds of cavalry robbed the camp, "Three Kingdoms" described that Cao's camp raised fire like stars, and the torches were densely packed, but Gan Ning still succeeded in hijacking the camp.
Because it was dark at the time, even though Cao's camp had a large number of torches, he still didn't notice Gan Ning sneaking up to the gate of their camp, and was suddenly attacked by Gan Ning, causing chaos in the large army.
Therefore, Xu Rong, who was cautious, sent out all his scouts and placed warnings on the surrounding plains, preparing Chen Mu to launch a sudden attack.
Although there were many of them, including 7,000 elites, the 1,000-heavy cavalry charged into the formation with all their might. They were caught off guard and defeated the many with a small number. Chen Mu had a chance, so Xu Rong had to guard against it.
But in this way, the marching speed will not be too fast. It is almost fifty kilometers from Feixiang to Quliang. If we walk at normal marching speed, we will have to go until noon the next day.
Although Lu Zhi captured six counties in Henan in one night, he achieved this result by relying on chariots and galloping under the stars without having to guard against the enemy.
Xu Rong had to be careful of Chen Mu's sneak attack, because this was a plain area suitable for cavalry galloping operations.
Especially for heavy cavalry, unless the weather is good and it rains heavily, if the infantry is attacked by heavy cavalry on the march without any preparation, the result will be a dead end.
certainly.
Xu Rong would definitely not fight an unprepared battle. He had long discovered that although Chen Mu's heavy cavalry was heavy cavalry, it was not fully armored. The horses were only armored to the abdomen and had no armor on their legs. He could let the soldiers cut him
Horse legs.
In fact, this was also how the military god Yue Fei later dealt with the Iron Buddha. The heavy cavalry in Chinese history has never been as exaggerated as the European heavy cavalry, with the whole body covered with armor weighing more than 100 kilograms.
Because China has a vast territory and rich resources, and a relatively large strategic depth, mobility is still the main focus. The armor coverage rate of heavy cavalry is at most 50%. Soldiers wear full-body armor, and horses only cover key areas such as the head, neck, buttocks, and the whole body carries weight.
Probably around 60-80 kg.
According to records, the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty was a period of great development of heavy armor. Including the "Military Policy Order" written by Cao Cao, it is recorded that Yuan Shao once had ten thousand pairs of heavy armor and three hundred pairs of horse armor. The so-called horse armor was for heavy cavalry.
Horse armor.
It can be seen that heavy cavalry had this concept at that time, but because there were no double stirrups, the scale of development was not as rapid as in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the Sui, Tang, Song, Liao, Jin and Mongolia periods, it was so terrifying that there were over 100,000 heavy cavalry on an exaggerated scale.
Xu Rong followed Dong Zhuo, and the Xiliang army also had heavy cavalry, so he developed this tactic of cutting off horse legs. Coupled with the support of two thousand light cavalry, he was not afraid of a head-on confrontation with Chen Mu's heavy cavalry.
In addition, the two thousand light cavalry can shoot from a distance and the heavy cavalry can be used to attack.
And it is said that Chen Mu will never participate in the battlefield, and will only watch from a distance. If someone is sent to attack...
All the prerequisites for a head-on confrontation have been thought out by Xu Rong.
It has to be said that Xu Rong is indeed a master of tactics. According to historical records, he defeated Cao Cao and Sun Jian without any military advantage.
Even the idea of defending the enemy's headquarters can appear in his mind. He is indeed not an ordinary person.
However, because of Xu Rong's caution, after a night of searching, no trace of Chen Mu was found.
At dawn in the morning, they began to speed up and arrived at Quliang at three o'clock in the morning (10 o'clock). Although they occasionally encountered luggage along the way, they found no one.
"It shouldn't be!"
When he arrived in the countryside more than ten miles outside Quliang City, he sent people to inquire around and asked if he had seen anyone. The farmers who got up early to work told him that they had not seen any troops passing by.
Xu Rong looked at the sky and murmured to himself: "There were abandoned baggage vehicles and fresh horse manure along the way. How could we not catch up? Could it be that they gave up their armor and fled quickly with light cavalry?"
In this case, it is not impossible.
Because if you give up the iron armor, the heavy cavalry will immediately turn into light cavalry, and their mobility will be twice as fast, so getting rid of them is not a problem.
But in that case, without replenishing the baggage, the horses would have to be forced to run.
By the time they reached Puyin, most of the horses were useless.
At that time, how will they have the ability to transfer the Chen clan?
Xu Rong thought hard but couldn't figure out why Chen Mu could disappear again. Where did he go?