Chapter 80 Defeat Xiao Zhang He using Lao Zhang Hes plan
The two largest families in Ganling are the Fang family and the Zhou family.
But towards the end of the Han Dynasty, the Zhou family gradually declined. By the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Fang family was still a high-ranking aristocrat, and their descendants produced many celebrities, such as Fang Xuanling, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty.
The Zhou family was no longer listed among the top sects in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Qinghe Zhou family's Junwangtang title was also lost to everyone.
However, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. Among the powerful families in Ganling City, the Zhou family still ranks second.
After Chen Mu recruited Fang Zhang, he asked him to contact Zhou Xian.
Zhou Xian and Fang Zhang are close friends of life and death, but they are just rivals. Therefore, when dealing with the Zhou family, they cannot be like the Fang family who smiles but conceals a knife and threatens them implicitly.
Instead, he directly threatened and threatened Chen Mu, saying that if he didn't do what he said, Chen Mu would lead his troops to annihilate the Zhou family.
Zhou's fear, coupled with the lobbying of his legitimate son Zhou Xian, finally agreed to Chen Mu's request.
The two major families of Fang and Zhou were the heads of the Ganling family, so they followed suit, and the other powerful families of smaller families could only follow suit.
And after the thing is completed, there is no need to divide it into 30-70, and there is no need to pay back the 1.8 million taels in full.
To paraphrase the leopard-headed man’s words: “I want them all!”
During the Han Dynasty, grain sowing times and grain types were different in different regions. For example, corn and wheat were the main crops in the north, while rice was the main food in the south.
Among them, in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, a fixed farming pattern has been formed, including winter wheat and summer corn.
This point is recorded in the books of the Han Dynasty and can be clearly checked.
The famous poem "Guan Mowing Wheat" tells the scene of winter wheat being sown in winter and then harvested in summer in May.
Corn, also known as millet, is sown in June after the winter wheat is harvested in January. The growth cycle is generally between March and April, and the harvest season is around September to October.
In this way, in late November, winter wheat could be sown again, and the two crops were cultivated in cycles, laying the foundation for the north to be the economic center before the Song Dynasty.
It is now mid-September and close to October, and the corn has reached maturity. Qinghe State on the north bank of the Yellow River is full of scenes of millet harvesting.
Inside Ganling City, looking at the vast expanse outside the city, hordes of villagers are harvesting grain in full swing. Zhang He on the city tower is anxious, his eyes are staring at the Qingzhou Military Camp in the distance from time to time, with a deep look between his eyebrows.
fear.
"hateful!"
Zhang He pounded the city wall and said viciously: "The Qingzhou Army calculated that our supply of food and grass was about to run out, so they came to the city to prevent us from leaving the city to collect food."
Zhu Ling muttered: "General, what I am most worried about now is that the Qingzhou Army takes this opportunity to take away all the food that belongs to us. In that case, even if they retreat, the people outside the city may not have any surplus food to pay taxes this year. We
It’s really a desperate situation.”
"Should we send someone out of the city to inform the Fang family, Zhou family and other families outside the city, and ask them to store the grain and grass harvested this year first, and then send them to the city after the Qingzhou army retreats?"
Colonel Jiang Qi gave his opinion.
But Zhu Ling was deeply worried and asked: "What if the Qingzhou Army knows that our city only has enough food for more than two months and never withdraws its troops?"
Everyone fell silent.
This is the scene they fear most. Even if they have been frugal, the daily consumption of the 40,000-strong army is not a small amount. According to the "Book of Han" records, soldiers in wartime consume 2.7-3 shi of food per month, even if they only consume 2.7-3 shi of food per day.
Eating two meals only consumes 1.8-2 shi of food per month. To maintain the most basic survival needs, 40,000 people will need 70,000 to 80,000 shi per month.
Last month, we checked the granaries and found that there were only about 200,000 dan left in the store. Although there were still tens of thousands of dan in Beiqiu City, they couldn't hold on for long. More than a month later, there were only 150,000 to 60,000 dan left in the city.
If they persist for two months, their food supply will be at the bottom.
If the Qingzhou Army does not withdraw its troops, they will be trapped in the city and die, waiting for their food to run out, which is when their death is coming.
However, Zhang He was not worried at all. He just glared at Jiang Qi and Mayan. He suspected that the embezzlement of grain and grass had something to do with them. On the surface, he said calmly and calmly: "Our army has 40,000 people, and the enemy's army is also
It's only fifty or sixty thousand, but it still has the strength to fight. If the food is exhausted, don't you guys know that the cauldrons are destroyed and the boats are destroyed, and the trapped animals are still fighting?"
"General, do you mean to break out of the encirclement when we are about to run out of food?"
Zhu Ling asked.
Zhang He nodded: "Not only to break out of the encirclement, but if possible, we can even take advantage of the principle that the enemy must win with a counterattack, and maybe defeat the enemy."
The two armies were facing each other on the plain, fighting for the morale of both sides.
If it really comes to the end of the road, Zhang He might not be able to use the examples of the Battle of Changping and the Battle of Julu to encourage the soldiers to fight for survival. Maybe there will be a chance to defeat the enemy.
After all, their army is not much worse than the Qingzhou Army in terms of strength and strength.
However, Zhang He must not have expected that his calculation was already within Chen Mu's expectation.
In the military camp outside the city.
Chen Mu held a meeting with Zhang Fei, Tai Shi Ci, Gao Shun and more than ten generals.
He sat high on the throne and said to everyone: "Zhang He was surrounded by us in the city, and there were only two months left to store grain. So I summoned many wealthy families in Ganling to purchase grain at a fair price, and gave them the grain they had originally paid and stored.
Collect them all. In this way, the big families and common people will have no extra food to pay to the city. After we withdraw our troops, Zhang He will have no choice but to forcibly collect food."
"The forced expropriation of grain and grass will inevitably cause complaints from the people of Ganling. There is not much grain left by the people, and it is difficult to maintain their lives. At this time, we will come forward to move these people away and use the grain and grass we purchased before to relieve these people. This can show off our
Qingzhou's benevolent and righteous style, secondly, publicized Zhang He's brutal actions and severely damaged the reputation of the Jizhou regime."
"Then we will withdraw our troops and strictly guard the grain roads. After the grain reserves in the city are empty, the enemy troops in Ganling City can only leave the city and evacuate along the direction of Qingyuan towards Yuancheng and Wei County. We will ambush along the way.
We can easily win the battle without any effort, and at the same time capture Qinghe to weaken Jizhou's strength."
"This plan can be said to kill three birds with one stone!"
Chen Mu looked at everyone, talked eloquently, and laid out the plan he had prepared.
Everyone was thoughtful, but Zhang Fei stared at him with eyes full of wisdom, his intelligence of 30 running rapidly, and asked in confusion: "Since they have no food in the first place, why do they spend so much effort to relocate the people?
They were ambushed along the way again, wouldn't it be enough to keep the siege going like this?"
"Good question!"
Chen Mu said with a smile: "Third brother, don't you hear about the battle of Changping and the battle of Julu? As the saying goes, don't pursue the poor enemy, and the sad soldiers will win. The military strength in the city is not much worse than ours. If the siege continues, as long as Zhang He is not stupid, he will win.
A few days before the food ran out, we used the excuse that death was imminent to encourage the soldiers to fight to the death. By that time, the trapped beasts were still fighting. Even if our army could win, it would be a miserable victory and the losses would be huge. Do you understand, third brother?
?”
Don't look at the Battle of Changping, when Zhao Kuo was defeated by Bai Qi and lost 400,000 surrendered soldiers. However, after several years of war, coupled with Zhao Kuo's deathbed breakout, it also caused a lot of damage to the Qin army.
The Battle of Julu was even more serious. Thirty thousand Chu troops fought against the odds and defeated 200,000 Qin troops in a last-ditch battle. This is a typical example of a desperate counterattack.
What's more interesting is that Ma Di also thought the same way during the Battle of Jieting. He set up camp on the mountain just to put himself in a desperate situation and learn from Xiang Yu and Han Xin to fight with their last breath.
As everyone knows, they won't come to fight you at all. Zhang He first cut off Ma Di's water source, so that his army would be short of water, and then sent a large army to surround the mountain, waiting for Ma Di's army to be hungry and thirsty, and its morale plummeted.
, then led his army to attack and defeated Ma Su in one fell swoop.
Therefore, what Chen Mu is learning now is actually Zhang He's own operation. Besiege but not attack at the beginning, and do not give Zhang He a chance to fight against the trapped beasts. When the city is short of food, Zhang He's army will naturally collapse internally. If he attacks at this time, then
Victory without fighting can not only easily cause a large number of casualties to the enemy, but also preserve one's own strength. It is a very simple and effective method.
To put it simply, Chen Mu used the old Zhang He's strategy to defeat the young Zhang He. If Zhang He knew the truth of this matter, I wonder if he would faint in the toilet from crying.
Zhang Fei's eyes widened. This kid has been smart since he was a child. His eyes were full of wisdom. He seemed to have understood the true meaning of Chen Mu's words. He nodded frequently: "I understand, the meaning is to fight like this, and our army's losses will be smaller."
?”
"That's pretty much it."
Chen Mu was helpless. It was too difficult for his third brother to think about deeper issues. He turned to Taishi Ci and said: "Ziyi, I ordered you to supervise the big families to collect grain. After the grain is harvested, it will be stored in Guangzong."
"only!"
Taishi Ci accepted the order.
Chen Mu said to Gao Shun again: "Zhongda, lead 10,000 troops to the east of Baigou River and to the north of Qiaoting."
"only!"
Gao Shun took the order.
Chen Mu said to Zhang Fei: "Third brother, you continue to be responsible for escorting the food, grass and baggage."
Zhang Fei scratched his head and said, "Are you sending food and grass again?"
He has been sending it for more than a month.
Chen Mu said with a smile: "I expected that after Zhang He's supplies were exhausted, there were only three ways to go. One was to attack Guangzong eastward, join up with Gao Lan, and attack the elder brother and Bogui together. The other two were to go south and return to Yuancheng via Qingyuan Pottery Hall.
In Wei County, the three are attacking our army's food and fodder, so this deployment is to cut off all Zhang He's routes!"
Ganling is surrounded on all sides. If you go north to Dongwu City, you can only escape to Anping Kingdom and Bohai County in the north, but they are already occupied by Gongsun Zan. Going there is asking for death.
To the south is the area entering Yanzhou Liaocheng Leping Fagan, but Cao Cao is now forced in this area by Lu Bu, and the two are in a stalemate. Zhang He went south to attack Cao Cao. It would not be easy to defeat Cao Cao with his 40,000 men. Wait until
Qinghe Kingdom's pursuers came, but he also met a dead end.
So he had no choice but to go east and escape back to Wei County.
However, the direction of Wei County has been fully occupied by the Qingzhou Army, and all traffic arteries and routes are blocked. As a result, Zhang He must either hit the two iron walls of Guangzong and Qingyuan, or find a way to rob them.
The grain and grass transported from Qingzhou to the front line were firstly used to supplement the supply, and secondly, they were used to cut off the Qingzhou grain road.
Chen Mu didn't know if Zhang He had the courage, but no matter whether he had the courage or not, Chen Mu had planned all the arrangements and possibilities, even if the grain transport team was slightly under-strength, Zhang Fei would still have the courage.
God is here.
You must know that Zhang Fei is very good at beating Zhang He. He is a master of ruthlessness. No matter how cunning and scheming Zhang He is, you will still be hung up and beaten by my third brother.
In mid-October, after a month of siege, the Qingzhou Army retreated with hundreds of thousands of newly harvested grains and grains.
The Qingzhou Army forced the major families in Ganling to sell this year's new grain to the Qingzhou Army. Although it was a forced purchase and sale, the purchase price was fair given the market price.
Secondly, these grains, which were originally to be paid as taxes, now not only do not need to be paid to Jizhou, but can also be sold for money. Of course the people are willing. Therefore, purchasing this batch of grains will not cause any problems in terms of reputation for the Qingzhou Army.
What's more, the Ganling Fang family acted as undercover agents and played a mediating and leading role. They pretended to have no choice but to sell the grain. Other families did not dare to resist the Qingzhou army and had no choice but to sell the grain.
As soon as they left, Zhang He impatiently sent grain collectors out of the city to collect grain.
However, basic officials such as clan elders, pavilion chiefs, and villagers in each township had no choice but to report that the Qingzhou Army had taken away the grain that was to be paid this year. The people could only afford the grain for next summer's harvest, and there was no surplus grain to pay taxes.
Upon hearing the news, Zhang He became furious and ordered his soldiers to forcibly collect grain.
How much food can be produced in the two counties?
The Qinghe Kingdom's seven counties have a population of about 700,000. Ganling is the administrative center, and the two cities of Beiqiu have a combined population of more than 200,000.
To support such a large population, the annual grain production of the two counties must be at least four million dan.
In actual life, grain production is much higher than this number.
Because the Beiqiu City of Ganling City is the Linqing City area in later generations, surrounded by plains and with an area of more than 800,000 acres of cultivated land, the grain production in the first quarter is about 2.4 million shi. After a year, the total grain production can reach
Five million stones.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! People usually farm and pay taxes. After deducting the rations before the next harvest, there is still some extra surplus grain. This grain is usually sold to subsidize the family.
The problem is that there was a severe drought in Guandong this year. Not only did Yanzhou and Yuzhou suffer, but Jizhou also suffered from drought and reduced food production. The people had no surplus food. The food that was originally required to pay taxes was also bought by the Qingzhou army. Now the only food left is living food.
Food rations until next summer’s harvest.
If the rations are taken away and winter wheat is cultivated now, the people will not survive until the summer harvest the next year.
Therefore, after this order was issued, the people complained. Even many big families outside the city complained. They approached Zhang He several times and asked him to stop this order.
After all, there are more than 20 powerful families in the two counties of Ganling Beiqiu. The land they own as slaves is close to half of the total population and total land in the two counties. When Zhang He confiscated grain, these people were the first to bear the brunt. Their own interests were harmed.
The aristocratic families are naturally unwilling.
But when it came to the safety of his own army, Zhang He naturally did not care much and sent grain collectors to the countryside to collect grain. The village elders and pavilion chiefs in various places had no choice but to lead Zhang He under the knife.
The soldiers went to collect grain.
certainly.
It is impossible to harvest so much grain overnight. There are only 30,000 soldiers and horses in Ganling City, and Zhang He only sent thousands of people out of the city. Therefore, only 20,000 to 30,000 dan were collected on the first day. Most of this was still
Collected from powerful families, the people were very resistant and the food collection was not progressing quickly.
But it’s good to be able to collect about 20,000 shi of grain every day. If this development continues, within a month, we can quickly collect 4 to 50,000 shi of grain and grass, which is enough for the army for half a year. As long as we can defend Ganling City, the city
The life and death of the people outside are another matter.
However, as time went on, Zhang He soon noticed that not only the common people were resisting the grain requisition, but also the wealthy and powerful families were deliberately delaying the progress and unwilling to hand over the grain.
This is also easy to understand. The Qingzhou Army was bought with money, and the people and aristocratic families were naturally willing. However, Zhang He was forced to conquer, and the nature was definitely different.
No one would be willing to hand over food for nothing, let alone the food they depend on for survival.
Therefore, after ten days, Zhang He could only collect about 100,000 shi of grain and grass, which could last about one more month. When he wanted to continue collecting, he found that all the people within dozens of miles around Ganling City had moved away, so he only
You can continue to collect food from the rural pavilions on the outside.
But by this time, the news had already spread, and more than 100,000 farmers around Ganling Beiqiu County were very panicked. Driven by the Qingzhou Army, they began to move east and north.
Although those big families had a large amount of grain stored, they also had nearly 100,000 hidden slaves to stock it. There was a drought this year, and the landlords had no surplus grain. Under Zhang He's high-pressure torture, they paid grain to avoid disasters, while moving their families and fleeing.
In October, there were only hundreds of thousands of acres of land left around the second city of Ganling Beiqiu, and more than 100,000 people fled.
These people were temporarily resettled in Guangchuan, Dongwucheng, Yimu County, Xiu County, Lijin and other places, which were later located near Dezhou City, Shandong Province. When the people moved away, Zhang He had no place to get food, which not only severely affected
In addition to Jizhou's strength, it can also improve Liu Bei's reputation, which can be said to kill three birds with one stone.
Zhang He was unwilling to give up and wanted to send all his troops out to chase the people and continue to collect grain and grass. However, the Qingzhou army returned and the army pressed on the border, forcing Zhang He to continue to stay in the city and suffer injustice and fight in the wild. He had no confidence to fight with Qingzhou.
One battle.
You must know that when Qingzhou invaded at the beginning, he had not fought against the Qingzhou Army. However, the School of Physics developed a large number of war tools, crossbows, weapons, armors, and equipment that were not at the same level at all.
At the first contact, the arrows laid out by tens of thousands of bows and crossbows fell like raindrops. From far away, they fired wildly, and from near, they fired crossbows. Moreover, they were fired in succession, which defeated Zhang He and his army.
In addition, there are also cavalry in Qingzhou, so that in a head-to-head encounter in the wild, Zhang He really did not have the courage to fight Qingzhou decisively before reaching a desperate situation.
However, Zhang He was not completely without gains. During this period of time, he collected grain and grass and obtained more than 100,000 shi, which allowed him to persist for two more months.
In this way, combined with the previous food reserves, it can last for almost three months.
It's just that the people were moved away, and Zhang He had completely lost his source of food and grass, and also lost the hearts of the people in Qinghe. His way back was cut off, and he had to think of some way out.