Chapter 198: Farming and feeding the enemy

The most surprising thing was that Chen Ying ordered the left-behind general to be the usual stay-behind Duan Zhigan, nor the general Zhang Shigui of the cavalry, but Guo Xiaoke, who was promoted the fastest under Chen Ying.

Although Guo Xiaoke followed Chen Yingman for less than three years, he was promoted from a soldier to the current fourth-rank Zhongwu General, at the same level as Su Dingfang.

From the ninth-rank military officer to the fourth-rank general, Guo Xiaoke completed the 22-level jump in less than three years. If you calculate it carefully, you will probably be upgraded one level a month.

Even Guo Xiaoke himself felt inexplicable. Su Dingfang even joked that Guo Xiaoke was Chen Ying's illegitimate son. However, because Guo Xiaoke was a few years older than Chen Ying, even if Chen Ying's crotch was not tight, he would not give birth to a son as old as Guo Xiaoke.

The great scientist Einstein once said a secret to success: "What is a genius? It is one percent inspiration plus ninety-nine percent sweat." Many people regard this sentence as a chicken soup for the soul, but there is another paragraph in the sentence that says one percent inspiration is far more important than ninety-nine percent sweat.

Studying is actually just a skilled craftsman, and it is absolutely not a genius. Talent is actually more important than hard work. For example, in terms of online literature, Lao Cheng started writing books since 2009 and tried various subjects, but he has always been a failure. Doesn’t Lao Cheng work hard? There are more people who are lazy than Lao Cheng, but they are even more awesome. This is the gap in talent.

Guo Xiaoke was very talented. Although he was not doing his job properly when he was young, he found that the system of the Anxi Army was very suitable for his development. He could always learn from it and quickly accept Chen Ying's intentions. When Chen Ying appointed him as the deputy commander of the Yue Cavalry Army, Guo Xiaoke understood Chen Ying's intentions.

Chen Ying wanted to assimilate the Western Regions and transform the Western Regions into the Central Plains. Therefore, Guo Xiaoke carried out extremely harsh Tang Yan study in the Yue Cavalry Army and carried out Chen Ying's officer night school study, and achieved gratifying results. Su Dingfang, who was with Guo Xiaoke, just dealt with the matter. It was not too bad, but it was definitely not outstanding.

Chen Yingxin built more than 4,000 miles of asphalt roads, and the same human resources as Su Dingfang, Guo Xiaoke's troops completed more than 2,200 miles, while Su Dingfang's troops completed only more than 1,000 miles, and the gap was instantly reflected.

Opportunities will always be left to those who are well prepared. Chen Ying asked Guo Xiaoke to prosecutor Sima of the Western Regions Protectorate and stay in the Western Regions as Sima of the Western Regions. This is Chen Ying's affirmation of Guo Xiaoke's efforts.

Staying in the Western Regions is actually a test for Guo Xiaoke. As Chen Ying's identity and status, he cannot be stationed in the Western Regions for a long time unless Li Yuan's mind is in trouble.

Obviously, after Li Yuan made his move, he would definitely not sit idly by and watch the barbaric development of the Western Regions. At this time, Chen Ying would retire successfully and live the ideal life of his wife and children with Li Xiuning.

Then, Guo Xiaoke can become the second Western Regions Captain as in history.

What surprised the Western Regions Protectorate was that on the eve of the Western Expedition, Chen Ying specially promoted Ma Zhou to Cao Shenjun, a civil servant of the Western Regions Protectorate. You should know that Ma Zhou was born in a poor family and under Chen Ying's private identity, he managed the Tang Tongli Money House under his name, which was a merchant and the Qian family. However, he became Cao Shenjun, a civil servant of the Western Regions Protectorate. Although this was only a seventh-rank official position, he controlled the financial taxes of the nineteen prefectures and more than 100 counties in the Western Regions, which was equivalent to the money bag of the Western Regions Protectorate.

Although this is incompatible with etiquette, there is no objection.

Because Ma Zhou is Chen Ying's person, opposing Ma Zhou means opposing Chen Ying.

Ma Zhou's first job function was to fully allocate food and grass for Chen Ying's expedition to the West.

Before the troops moved, food and grass came first. The army of 100,000 and more than 200,000 war horses consumed as much as 3,000 stones of food every day, and as for the grass, it was ten times more than that.

In order to transport supplies from a 100,000 army, Chen Ying not only recruited more than 60,000 civilians to participate in the transportation of food and grass, but also drew more than 30,000 herdsmen from all ethnic groups and tribes, carrying hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep and marched.

Chen Ying was not difficult to take out the food consumed by the 100,000 troops, but what he lacked was transportation capacity. Not only that, Chen Ying also used the identity of the Great Protector of the Western Regions to transfer tens of thousands of camels to be responsible for transporting and replenishing supplies.

The Anxi Army was a mule-horse-forming army. The soldiers of the entire army, from generals to mates and servants, even used mules and horses to travel. Ordinary cavalry naturally rode forward on horseback, ordinary infantry, and sled soldiers of the Shooter Army, and the soldiers of the Modao Army. They marched in four-wheeled horse chariots.

A cargo-carrying four-wheeled carriage can carry a group of fully armed soldiers. It only takes two horses to advance on the flat ground at a speed of one hundred or fifty or sixty miles a day. Chen Ying mobilized more than six thousand four-wheeled carriages and almost transferred two-thirds of the four-wheeled carriages in the entire Western Regions.

These more than 6,000 carriages, of which more than 1,400 are used to transport soldiers of the Modao Army. More than 600 are transporting arrows, weapons and armor, and more than 1,000 soldiers are transporting soldiers of the Firefly Army. The remaining more than 3,000 four-wheeled carriages are all used to transport food and grass. More than 6,000 carriages are marching long distances, and the team lasts dozens of miles long.

It looks very spectacular, but in fact Chen Ying transported not much food. Each heavy-duty carriage can transport 3,000 kilograms of grain, about 30 stones. However, a 100,000 army would eat more than 3,000 stones of grain in a day, that is, Chen Ying prepared only 30 days.

Li Xiuning felt incredible about Chen Ying's preparation. Once the war started, there were too many uncertain factors. In case of any accident, the monthly supply would be too dangerous.

Li Xiuning expressed his doubts.

Chen Ying smiled bitterly and said, "You haven't calculated that there are more than 200,000 war horses and hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep. These are actually food!"

Li Xiuning asked in confusion: "That's not possible. War horses are the second life of soldiers. Once the army needs to kill horses to satisfy hunger, the impact on morale will be..."

Before Li Xiuning finished speaking, Chen Ying said: "This is the crux of the Western Regions. There are no rivers that can be used in the Western Regions, and water transportation is simply not feasible. The only way is land transportation. But now my transportation capacity is too low. In order to solve the problem of insufficient military rations, as long as the flowing supply is adopted, every time the grain truck is eaten, the civilians escorted by the grain truck will take the certificate, return empty, load the grain, and then start the shipment. Of course, this is just a treatment for the symptoms, not the root cause!"

Chen Ying regarded this Western Expedition as a big deal. He did not doubt the combat effectiveness of the Anxi Army soldiers. In history, Su Dingfang led the Tang army to fight against the Western Turks. In fact, he only had 20,000 Tang troops. In addition to the more than 10,000 cavalry surrendered by the Mukun tribe of the Western Turks, the total strength was only more than 30,000 troops.

Chen Ying used thousands of caravans to serve as the second alternative to the Tang army's supply and signed a joint agreement with them, and sold them the spoils of the Western Expedition, such as the cattle, sheep, horses and various seized materials to them at a price lower than 30% of the market price. The third alternative is to eat from the enemy and fight to support the war!

Chen Ying's Western Expedition was huge, gathering a large army of 100,000, plus 90,000 people, and using one-seventh of the total population of the Western Regions. Such a big move was not possible at all.

Therefore, the troops set out, and wherever they passed, the Western Turks had already left the camp and marched westward from Mulan City and followed the Tianshan Mountains for more than 300 miles. Not to mention humans, they didn't even see a ghost.

Zhang Shigui, who was in charge of the vanguard army, returned to Chen Ying's central command vehicle and said depressedly: "General, this Western Turkic man is simply a rabbit, and he hasn't even seen a ghost!"

Chen Ying smiled disapprovingly and said, "What are you afraid of? They can't escape unless they are willing to give up gaining a foothold in the Western Regions."

Zhang Shigui said: "According to me, we don't need to make such a loud noise at all in the Western Expedition. We just need to use our cavalry to dispatch. The last general can guarantee that we are not afraid of the Western Turks killing shit. They are completely pulled!"

"You're thinking too simple!" Chen Ying looked at Zhang Shigui, who had been wronged for thousands of years with a treacherous minister, and said, "Then I'll test you. When Cao Cao attacked Xiliang Ma Chao, he could use a small number of troops to defeat Ma Chao, who was brave but not wise, and instead made great efforts to attack slowly..."

Speaking of this, Zhang Shigui suddenly realized: "The general means the Western Turks. Like Ma Chao in Xiliang back and forth, the light cavalry came and went like the wind, and Cao Cao made great efforts, just to make Ma Chao prepare for a battle!"

However, Zhang Shigui looked at Chen Ying with some surprise. Now Chen Ying cited Cao Cao’s example. Is it a saying that he was unintentional or a comparison with Cao Cao?

Chen Ying pointed to the huge sand table in the command vehicle and said, "From the west of the Irie Valley, to the west of the West Sea (now the Caspian Sea) North Emus (now the north of the Siberian Plain today), the land spans thousands of miles, and the Western Turkic cavalry came and went like the wind. If we defeated part of the Western Turkic army in the direction of a surprise attack, it would be meaningless, let alone people are very cheap. They will not give up until the Yellow River, and will not hit the south wall or turn back. If I blindly show it, this matter will never be finished. Only by raising troops can there be no possibility of going down without fighting!"

Zhang Shigui nodded. This was Chen Ying's established strategy.

With less than 30,000 elite troops, Chen Ying could defeat more than 200,000 Western Turkic troops under the command of Ye Hu. However, if the troops are small, unless the battlefield starts to kill and establish its authority, it will make some people lucky. As long as there is a stronghold in the middle to resist, it will slow down the progress of the entire battle. Once the battlefield is in a stalemate, it will be protracted, and if you have to save money and food, you will fall into trouble.

Chen Ying didn't want to kill more people. He wanted to build a road that connects Chang'an from the Western Regions, which required a lot of human resources. Even the lives of the Turks were precious. At least he could build roads and dig ditches to bless the descendants of China and the road established by the Qin Dynasty. Until the time of Gu Yanwu in the late Ming Dynasty, he still recorded it in his book.

After thinking about it, Chen Ying decided to go the other way, and even made great efforts to mobilize a hundred thousand troops under the limit allowed by the current finance. Ninety-one million civilians, more than 6,000 heavy carriages, more than 200,000 war horses, hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep, creating a huge momentum.

Although Chen Ying had less than 200,000 men, he pretended to be a 500,000 army. As expected, he heard that 400,000 troops were joined by the West Turks, and not only did they have no intention of resisting, but even the Eastern Turks could not ignite the idea of ​​rescue! In fact, this is normal. Anyone who heard that Chen Ying had all his elite troops and mobilized 300,000 to 400,000 troops to enter the Western Turks, as long as he was not a fool, he would not come to die again.

Chen Ying stood in front of the car window, looking at the soldiers who were rushing on the road in silence, frowned slightly.

The soldiers of the Anxi Army, who were holding up a lot of arms and preparing to do a big battle, began to feel dejected when they found that the so-called Western Expedition had actually become an armed marching.

Zhang Shigui said: "The morale of the general is a bit..."

Chen Ying waved his hand and said, "Tell me the general's orders and let the soldiers sing!"

"Sing!"

"Sing duet!"

After a while, a loud singing sounded in the marching formation of the Anxi soldiers of the Tang Dynasty: "Wolf smoke rises and the mountains look north, dragons rise and roll up and horses neigh the sword as frost, hearts are like the vast water of the Yellow River, who can resist each other in the past twenty years?

Hate and want to be crazy, and the sword is aimed at.

How many loyal souls are buried in other places?

Why should I be willing to repay my family and country with hundreds of deaths?

I felt speechless and filled my eyes with blood and tears.

Horse hooves go south and people look north.

Looking north at the grass, the yellow dust is flying.

I am willing to defend my territory and open my borders again.

The great Tang Dynasty wants to let all sides congratulate!

Although it was a plagiarism, when the simple and plain song sounded, the passionate song resounded through the sky. The unspeakable sadness and tragic lyrics moved the soldiers and even the civilians. In the passionate song, the Anxi army was full of fighting spirit, galloping all the way, heading west!
Chapter completed!