In this battle, the Qin army suffered more than a thousand casualties, mostly from Pu Lei's army.
Killed three thousand enemies and captured five hundred... Most of these captured Huns were injured after falling from their horses and unable to escape.
However, they were soon included in the kill count.
It's not that Shen Bing is ruthless. In fact, after the Loulan battle, Shen Bing has realized that he needs to be more lenient towards the Huns.
But firstly, the Qin army at this time is really not suitable for keeping prisoners, and secondly, most of these prisoners are wounded...
The wounded are in trouble.
Of course, Shen Bing was unwilling to give the little healing to the prisoners. At the same time, the doctors accompanying the army were all witch doctors who only knew how to perform magic tricks. If they couldn't have any effect, they could only leave the prisoners to die.
then……
It's better to keep prisoners until the next battle.
The casualty ratio is actually not important. What is important is that the Qin army achieved its strategic goal: to seize the Jiaohe Oasis and drive the Xiongnu to Gushi.
Then the Qin army stayed in Jiaohe for a few days.
The Qin army has done nothing in the past few days except building fortifications at Jiaohe.
Almost all the trees in the Jiaohe area were cut down by the Qin army, and a walled city was built in Jiaohe.
Then dig horse pits everywhere within a few miles of the walled city... The cost of trapping horse pits is extremely low, as long as you are willing to spend effort and time.
After a few days, the Jiaohe area became an oasis unsuitable for cavalry attacks.
At this time, Xun Hao, who was in Gushi, had differences with Ge Yu.
After Geyu returned to Gushi after his defeat at Jiaohe, he reported to Xunxun:
"King Youxian, my subordinates think that the Qin army is not coming for my uncle this time."
Xun Hao Qi said:
"How can I see it?"
Ge Yu replied:
"The Qin army seems to have only carried five firearms and left most of them in Loulan!"
The Huns didn't know what artillery was called, they just called it firearms.
Seeing that Xun Yu was disapproving, Ge Yu continued:
"It is said that the Qin army used twenty firearms for several hours to destroy the Loulan city wall."
"If there are five firearms... even if we attack for a whole day, we still won't be able to destroy the wall of Gushi."
"Besides, the city wall is thicker than Loulan, so we can still repair it..."
"If the Qin army wants to attack the city, won't they be asking for trouble?"
Xunhao replied:
"If it weren't for my aunt, what would the commander think the Qin army's purpose was?"
These words stopped Ge Yu. He really didn't know what the Qin army was planning.
In fact, what Ge Yu said is correct, but it is also wrong.
That's right, because from a tactical point of view, the Qin army did not intend to attack Gu Shi.
If this is not true, it is because strategically speaking, its target is still Gu Shi.
Although Ge Yu was wise and brave, he noticed something was wrong, but how could he distinguish it clearly?
Then Xun Hao said:
"The Qin army took Jiaohe just to prepare for the attack on Gushi."
"Although this work is unexpected by us, we will attack it after a little rectification."
"We just need to wait for the Qin army to arrive."
Ge Yu said with some worry:
"But King Youxian, my aunt cannot accommodate these many soldiers and horses."
Xunhao replied:
"It doesn't matter, we can drive some of the redundant war horses to the grassland to alleviate the temporary emergency."
Ge Yu could only agree and then retreated.
Xun Hao's approach may be right. Driving the redundant war horses back to the grassland can reduce the consumption of water and grass. For example, instead of originally having three horses per person, now each person has one horse.
However, the Huns, who had stayed in the grasslands for a long time and grazing carefree, did not know the fragility of the oasis vegetation. After those aquatic plants were destructively consumed, they would not be able to recover for a long time in the future. How could it be solved by reducing some war horses? .
Needless to say, the result was that Xun Hao waited for his aunt, but could not wait for the Qin army.
Suddenly one day I received information that Saar had been lost.
Only then did Xunxun realize that the situation seemed to be just like Ge Yu said, the Qin army's target was not Gu Shi but the oasis around Gu Shi.
The Qin army attacked Saar after establishing a foothold in Jiaohe.
There is a walled city at Jiaohe, and horse traps are set up around it. With 3,000 men guarding Jiaohe, the enemy can be protected.
After that, Shen Bing led more than 5,000 people to attack Sar.
Saar is more than a hundred miles away from Jiaohe.
This time Shen Bing learned the lesson from last time and adopted a more cautious attack method...calculating the time based on his marching speed, he arrived at Sarr after dawn and set up a formation to approach Sarr.
If we talk about the past, the Xiongnu, who were good at riding and shooting, were more suitable for fighting during the day than at night.
But now, the Qin army has more long-range equipment and is more suitable for daytime combat.
On the contrary, the Qin army was more afraid of being rushed by the Xiongnu into a melee because of its lack of troops... The total strength of the Xiongnu was ninety thousand, and even two, three or even four or five people could defeat the Qin army. One person would be enough to defeat the Qin army. Defeated.
The best way to avoid a melee is to fight the battle clearly during the day when visibility is good.
Shen Bing took Thrall without much effort.
The 5,000 Xiongnu cavalry stationed in Saar withdrew only after the Qin army fired a few cannonballs.
The Huns cavalry could only retreat.
This was also the disadvantage of cavalry in this era. When the infantry was well prepared with their cavalry and pikemen, there was almost no possibility for the cavalry to charge into the formation.
In the past, when the Qin army only had bows and crossbows, the Xiongnu cavalry could still compete with the infantry with the advantage of riding and shooting.
However, if the Qin army is equipped with three-bow long crossbows and artillery with a range of more than 600 steps, it will become a mobile fortress that can be defended near and attacked from a distance. Although it moves slowly, it is almost invincible to the Xiongnu cavalry. .
On the other hand, the Xiongnu cavalry army was invincible, and their bows could not reach the range of the Qin army. They could not even reach the Qin army's powerful crossbows, so they had no choice but to give up on Sal.
As soon as Sal lost the smoke, he realized that the problem was serious.
Because Saar is also the forward base for the Xiongnu to go deep into the desert to attack the Qin army's supply line... Once Saar is lost, it means that the troops that go deep into the desert to attack are in danger.
What gives Xunxi even more headaches is:
Jiaohe and Saar are the largest oases outside Gushi City. These two places can accommodate 10,000 and 5,000 Huns cavalry respectively.
As soon as these two places were lost, more than ten thousand Huns cavalry gathered in Gushi.
Food for people is not a problem for the time being... The Xiongnu brought a large number of livestock, and they only needed to slaughter the cattle and sheep to avoid starvation.
The problem is that these livestock, including the war horses, have no grass.
Not to mention the lack of grass, the water level of the lakes in Gushi City has been greatly reduced due to the large amount of drinking water from livestock.
If this continues, I'm afraid even drinking water will be a problem.
Only then did Xunxu realize that fighting in the Western Regions was not like doing whatever you wanted in the grasslands, nor could it be solved with more soldiers.
In desperation, we could only withdraw our troops in batches towards the grassland.
In fact, the fundamental problem is that "offense is greater than defense".
On the one hand, the special terrain of the Western Region caused the Huns cavalry to lose their mobile combat capabilities.
On the other hand, it was the Huns' cavalry's reliance on the oasis that forced them to be on the defensive.
Defense itself requires more troops, and there are loopholes everywhere.
The Qin army can concentrate its forces to attack its weaknesses and compress its living space.