Fenghou

This treatment really cheered the 20 family members, and even Yue Fei couldn't do it.

That afternoon, Chen Qing received a report that a scout team escorted back three prisoners of war, and there was some important information, which Chen Qing attached great importance to.

Chapter 23 The Decline

Inside the big tent, Chen Qing looked at the three prisoners of war, all of whom were Khitans and sentinel cavalry. Each of them only wore a pair of shorts, and their upper body and legs were bare. The military doctor of the Song Army was measuring their height and weight.

The three people in front of him really shocked Chen Qing and how short and thin they were. Of course, Donghu people are not tall, and Khitan people and Jurchen people are generally about 1.6 meters tall, but they are very strong in physique. Like a beast.

But the three Khitans in front of them were surprisingly skinny, and they were actually sentinel cavalry, the elite army of the golden soldiers.

The leather armor they wore was on the ground. Chen Qing picked up the leather armor and looked at it carefully. The leather armor was very rough, the leather was not tanned enough, and the toughness was not enough. A sharp spear could pierce through it with a single blow.

This made Chen Qing a little surprised, indicating that ordinary Donghu soldiers wore ordinary leather armor, just like the signing army.

In the West Valley of Dasan Pass, in Qinzhou and in Ganquan Fort, Chen Qingdu fought against Jinbing's Donghu army. The opponents were all wearing iron armor, but it was not as high-quality as the Jurchen army's iron armor, but it could definitely block a hundred steps Outside the crossbow fire.

In just seven or eight years, the overall equipment of the Jin soldiers has dropped significantly, and the three Eastern Hu scouts are far inferior to the Western Army scouts in terms of height and weight. Does this also indicate the decline of the Jin country's national strength?

"Military teacher, what do you think?" Chen Qing smiled and asked Zhang Xiao next to him.

Zhang Xiao pondered for a while and said: "Since the Jin soldiers occupied the Central Plains, they have actually been consuming the wealth accumulated by the Song Dynasty and sucking the blood of the people of the Song Dynasty. All of them are able to equip iron armor, and all of them are physically strong, and now their equipment and physical fitness are getting worse and worse, which means that the Song Dynasty has been sucked dry by them, and the financial resources of the Central Plains can no longer support the Jin soldiers."

"The military adviser is right. Judging from their previous confessions, they usually don't have meat in their meals. Like the signing army soldiers, they are all bread. Even the Jurchen soldiers can't guarantee to eat meat in large pieces, they can only eat meat So much so that this sentinel cavalry was ordered to go south to Fugou County to snatch the sheep of the farmers, and the food of the army has not improved when the war is approaching, which will seriously affect the morale of the opposing army."

Zhang Xiao nodded, "If you dig deeper, you will find a lot of details. From the thinness of the three of you, you can tell that the other party's military resources are very poor. They are all ordinary Khitan herdsmen. They only conscripted the army and went south a year ago. Even the herdsmen are so thin. , indicating that the Khitan and Xi people were brutally oppressed by the Kingdom of Jin, and indirectly said that the Donghu people's military resources will be exhausted."

At this time, Liu Qiong stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, all the scouts are here."

"Take him to the tent of the Chinese army. If I have something to ask him, the military adviser will come with me!"

……

Shen Qing, the scout of the Eagle Army, was brought into the tent of the Chinese army. He was a little nervous, and knelt down on one knee to salute, "Shen Qing, the scout of the Flying Eagle Army, sees Your Highness!"

"Shen Dutou, please stand up and speak!"

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Chen Qing looked at Shen Qing, saw that he was tall and straight, with a clear appearance, and his gestures were decisive and resolute like a soldier, Chen Qing secretly nodded and praised him, this person is a talent.

Chen Qing said again: "The three prisoners of war you captured this time are indeed very important, but I want to know the detailed process of your capture of the enemy army. I want to know the details and try to be as detailed as possible."

"Reporting to Your Highness, I was ordered to investigate the enemy situation in Fugou County, but we found no enemy situation in Fugou County for three days. We planned to return as planned, but when we had our last lunch, we found that this scout was running from the official road in the north. Come……"

Shen Qing then described the situation of the encounter with the enemy army in detail, and finally said: "Three people still ran away, because I was a scout and was about to leave, so I couldn't talk about leaking secrets, so I didn't chase them."

Chen Qing asked, "How far were you from them when you ambush?"

"Forty steps!"

"But the shortest distance for a scout to ambush is fifty steps, why do you need forty steps?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, if it is fifty steps, there are too many trees, which will obscure our vision and affect the effect of shooting crossbows, so we can only choose forty steps, which is the best line of sight and guarantees our sneak attack effect."

"Forty steps without alarming them?"

Shen Qing shook his head, "They didn't notice it at all, I also felt it myself, their sentry cavalry is the worst I have ever seen, even worse than ordinary cavalry, when their companions were shot, their first reaction was to run for their lives, no One person turned around and tried desperately, even when their leader shouted, they scattered and fled instead of gathering together and desperately."

"Do you understand Khitan?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, I have learned a little bit of humble occupation, and I know a little bit of Khitan and Jurchen."

Chen Qing nodded, and asked again: "When you buried the enemy's corpse, did you feel that the enemy's body was thinner?"

Shen Qing hurriedly said: "This is what I feel the most about. These thirty East Hu cavalry sentry cavalry are all relatively thin and light in weight. I specifically asked the captured leaders why they were all skinny and why they were selected. For the Rangers?"

"What did he say?" This was also a question that Chen Qing was very concerned about.

"He said that the sentry cavalry is selected based on the equestrian assessment. Although they are relatively thin, they are very skilled in equestrianism."

"Do you think they are good at horsemanship?"

"To be honest, it's very good. The three of them are wearing black hoods, their hands are tied behind their backs, and they use their feet to control the horse. They still keep up with our horses. If they are not afraid of our crossbow arrows, they might run away on horseback."

Chen Qing nodded, "That is to say, there are no such experienced soldiers who are good at equestrianism, strong and experienced?"

"It should be gone!"

"Retire, everyone! Each person will be rewarded with ten guan coins, and a great merit will be recorded once. As the leader, you will get five extra turns!"

Shen Qing was overjoyed, and hurriedly thanked him and left.

Here is a brief talk about the promotion and credits of the Western Army. Every time a battle starts, soldiers only need to participate in the battle, even if they are logistics soldiers who did not go into battle, they can get half of the effort. This is the smallest credit, which is considered hard work.

If you go to battle and don't run away, you can get a small merit, if you kill one or more enemies, you can get a medium merit, and if you kill three or more enemies, you can get a great merit.

After getting the credit, it will be reported to the Ministry of Officials, and then the Department of Officials will record it in the record. The merit is turned into a turn, half the work is half a turn, the minor work is one turn, the medium work is two turns, the great work is three turns, Shen Qing just added five Turn, it is a great credit.

Once you have accumulated ten ranks, you can be promoted to an official rank, and at the same time have the qualifications for official promotion, but whether you can be promoted depends on whether there are vacancies.

In order to reduce favor promotion, the Ministry of Officials will queue up. Those with higher official ranks will be promoted first, those with the same official rank and higher number of transfers will be given priority, and those with the same official rank with the same number of transfers will be given priority.

This is why seniority is especially valued in the army. This kind of qualifications are accumulated by everyone with their lives. How can they not be valued?

But in order to let the outstanding ones stand out, there is an exception promotion in the army. There are two situations in which the outstanding ones can be promoted exceptionally. One is when the main general is killed in battle, the deputy will be automatically promoted to the main general. If all the generals are dead, then take the initiative to stand Come out, and the outstanding soldiers who lead the soldiers to continue fighting will be promoted directly.

There is also a person who has made extraordinary achievements. For example, when Tang Qian served as the deputy commander, he single-handedly burned tens of thousands of grains and supplies of the enemy army, and was directly promoted from the deputy commander to the commander.

Shen Qing led his men to annihilate the enemy sentry cavalry and captured three prisoners of war. Chen Qing gave him the credit of adding five ranks.

However, Shen Qing has already accumulated six ranks of merit, and now that he has increased by five ranks, his official rank will be promoted to one level, and his official position can also be promoted to deputy commander. Of course, he is overjoyed.

Chen Qing pondered for a moment and then said to Zhang Xiao: "At the moment of the war, I believe that Wanyan Wushu will definitely find ways to improve the food of the soldiers and improve the morale of the army. There is not much oil and water to be squeezed in the states of the Central Plains. The biggest possibility is to transport mutton from Hebei to On the south bank of the Yellow River."

Zhang Xiao nodded, "Your Highness is right, now is the time to test General Niu Gao."

Chapter 24 Interception

The so-called one leaf knows the autumn, from the equipment and treatment of Donghu soldiers, Chen Qing knew that Wanyan Wushu's current financial resources and strength had obviously declined.

In fact, this is also inevitable. The cruel oppression of the Puppet Qi State has exhausted the people and property of the people in the Central Plains. One of the most important reasons why Wanyan Wushu can recruit 10,000+ people at once is that soldiers can eat enough.

Han soldiers don’t have high requirements, they are satisfied with enough food, but Jurchen soldiers can’t, they have to eat meat, but now, the meat reserves in the Bianliang ice cellar are all empty, and the butcher shops on the street have also closed and gone bankrupt, and there is no meat. It can be sold, there are only some livestock and thousands of sheep left in the Wanyan Wushu army, this amount of meat is not enough at all.

Bianliang has [-] Jin soldiers, including [-] Donghu soldiers and [-] Jurchen soldiers. The Donghu soldiers are already the same as the Han soldiers. They only have noodle cakes, and at most they can drink some broth. , only a thin layer of minced meat could be sprinkled in the dough, so that the soldiers complained and their morale was obviously low.

The wheat harvest has already started, and it will be harvested within ten days at the latest, and the war will start in ten days at the earliest. Seeing that the war is imminent, the soldiers are depressed day by day. In the final analysis, the food is not good.

This is a big deal, and Wanyan Wushu has been worrying about it for the past few days. He sent two hundred sheep conscript teams to all parts of Kaifeng Mansion to search for sheep, and forcibly conscript them for military use, not only sheep, but also cattle, pigs, dogs, and poultry. All forced together.

Of course, there will be no mules, donkeys and horses. They have searched round after round, and they have been searched long ago.

Fan Gong persuaded Wanyan Wushu worriedly: "Your Majesty, other conscripts are available, but cattle are still not required. Cattle are the lifeblood of the common people. Without cattle, the land cannot be cultivated. Big things will happen. Let us let it go." Soldiers should not requisition cattle, but return the cattle to the local government.”

Wanyan Wushu knocked on the table angrily and said: "Most of the soldiers have returned, but so far, only 1 sheep, [-] pigs, [-] dogs, and more than [-] poultry have been recruited. [-] soldiers need [-] sheep for a meal, how many days do you think these foods can last?"

The lord was already angry, but Fan Gong still bite the bullet and said: "But more than 1000 cows can't eat for a few days, and they offended the people, so why bother, I suggest you ask Wan Yanchang for help!"

"What help!"

Wanyan Wushu stared, "They have a large amount of mutton sent from Shangjing, and a large part of it belonged to us, but he found various excuses and refused to send it. Now I beg him?"

"My lord, it doesn't matter if you lower your head once. You can find the place later. He destroyed the alliance and refused to rescue him. If the Central Plains falls, will the emperor let him go?"

Wanyan Wushu let out a long breath and said: "The cow waits a while, after getting the mutton from Hebei, it won't be too late to return it to the government!"

Wanyan Wushu then wrote an eagle letter and sent it to Wanyanchang of Daming Mansion with the eagle letter.

……

At dusk that day, Wanyanchang received an eagle letter from Bianliang. In the letter, Wanyan Wushu asked for 50 slaughtered sheep to be sent to Bianliang by boat.

There has been no contact between Wanyan Wushu and Wanyanchang for nearly two months. The main reason is that Wanyanwushu is very dissatisfied with Wanyanchang's attack on Taiyuan Mansion without authorization, so he ignores him. Naturally, Wanyanchang is also very angry, and also Too lazy to explain to Wanyan Wushu, the two ignored each other, which was equivalent to a cold war.

The fact that Wanyan Wushu took the initiative to write a letter asking for mutton this time is a manifestation of Wanyan Wushu's soft compromise. From one perspective, this is actually Wanyan Wushu asking for help from Wanyanchang.

It's just that Wanyan Wushu's words and tone in the letter annoyed Wanyan and Lisa a bit.

"What is must, what is must, we are his logistics camp, we can send him whatever he wants, without even saying a word of request, what does he think of us? Marshal, in my opinion, he won't send it , see if he changes his words?"

Wan Yanchang said slowly for a while: "Wu Shu has always been proud, and he will not bow his head to me unless he has to. It is estimated that his stock of meat is exhausted, and the Jurchen soldiers started to make trouble, so he wrote to me. When I am emotional, I still have to support when I should, otherwise he will sue the emperor, and I will not be able to bear it."

Wanyan and Lisa didn't expect Wanyanchang's attitude to compromise, so he could only sullenly say: "Even if the marshal wants to send it, but the Yellow River has been blocked by the Song army, we can't send it to the Yellow River!"

Wan Yanchang said indifferently: "The Song Army only has more than 200 ships. How far can he block? Let's send it to another place instead of Kaifeng Mansion. We will cross the Yellow River from Jeju, then take Jishui to Juyeze, all the way. It's been transported to Bianliang, as for the safety along the way, he will figure out his own way, and I will only be responsible for sending it across the Yellow River."

"Although what we sent was frozen mutton, I was afraid that the time in Bianliang would be too long, and the meat would stink."

This is indeed a big problem. It takes at least half a month on the road, and the meat has long been smelly. Wan Yanchang pondered for a moment and said: "Then send it to Puyang. There is an ice cellar in Puyang. They can store it in the Puyang ice cellar first, and then eat it by themselves." Find a way to transport it back to Bianliang."

This method is good, making Puyang a transit, and the distance across the Yellow River is also the shortest.

Wanyan and Lisa bowed and said, "I'll make arrangements for the humble job!"

……

There is a Yuanhe restaurant near the east gate of Daming City. This is the intelligence point set up by the Intelligence Division of the Western Army in Daming City. In addition, there is a shop selling sheepskins. There are a total of twelve scouts at the two points. The leader is Liu Zhen, the shopkeeper of Yuanhe Restaurant, the shopkeeper Liu Da. He is the real commander of the scout battalion. He is about 40 years old.

So the intelligence department took a fancy to him and transferred him to serve as the intelligence director of Hedong City. Except for Yanshan Mansion, all information points on Hebei Road are under his jurisdiction.

Liu Zhen also received a pigeon letter from Xu Chang, asking him to pay close attention to the sheep storage pen and mutton warehouse in Daming City, keep an eye on the other party's mutton out of the warehouse, and contact Niu Gao's fleet at any time.

Jin Bing's sheep and horse city is located in the northeast of Daming City, covering an area of ​​thousands of square meters. There are 200 million sheep in captivity, and thousands of Jin Bing are responsible for taking care of them. Liu Zhen immediately sent five men to the nearby hills and woods to monitor.

But apart from Yangma City, the focus is on Jin Bing’s meat depot. Liu Zhen has also considered that it is unrealistic to transport live sheep from Daming to Bianliang. The solution is to ship frozen mutton.

Jin Bing’s meat storage is the ice storage of the former imperial palace. There are three in total. During the summer season, the imperial palace consumes a lot of ice every day. Now these three huge ice cellars have become Jin Bing’s grain storage, storing a large amount of mutton inside. and wine.

Liu Zhen focused on these three ice cellars.

Of course, the ice cellar is also transported to the outside through the Cao River. Every day, there are boats to transport mutton to the military camp. The time is usually at night.

This is the case almost every day, and then fresh mutton will be transported into the ice cellar by cart.

That night, in an inn on the Caohe River, several spies were staring intently at the Caohe River. During the day, there were already signs that hundreds of flat-bottomed tugboats had already entered the ice cellar area.

There was movement on the Caohe River, and a team of 2000 cavalry had arrived at the Caohe River and was waiting by the Caohe River.

"Here we come!" A scout scout pointed to the distance and shouted.

I saw a long fleet of ships appearing two miles away, with a lantern hanging on each ship, continuously sailing out of the ice cellar area, it was the fleet during the day.

The two spies continued to stare at the fleet, and the other rushed to inform Liu Zhen that the city gate had been closed, and Liu Zhen was also waiting in a courtyard outside the southern city, which was also an intelligence point for the Western Army.

Liu Zhen got the news that the mutton fleet had come out, and he immediately sent two of his men to ride to the Yellow River.

Chapter 25 Interception

To a certain extent, war is about logistics. The quality of logistics support is directly related to the success or failure of the war. Even if it is a robot war, a large amount of lubricants and parts must be prepared, let alone humans. The Jurchen cavalry is indeed very powerful. In its heyday , [-] Jurchen cavalry can sweep the Central Plains.

But their food intake is also quite astonishing. A strong Jurchen cavalry eats at least a dozen catties of meat a day, which is almost a sheep. What about the 600 Jurchen cavalry?It takes 20 million sheep a year, so what about the [-] Jurchen cavalry?Can it be supported by a small golden country?

Therefore, a large amount of land in Hebei and the Central Plains was used to raise sheep. The agricultural civilization lost its foundation, the population disappeared, and the most prosperous and prosperous agricultural civilization in history, the civilization of the Song Dynasty disappeared.

It was precisely because the logistics were extremely important and the war was approaching that the lack of Jin Bing's logistics became a major worry for Wanyan Wushu, and it also became the focus of Chen Qing's attention.

On the Old Yellow River, a fleet of thirty five-hundred-stone warships was lurking in a reed marsh about thirty miles away from the Old Yellow River Wharf in Daming Mansion.

The Yellow River has been diverted in the second year of Jianyan, turning from Puyang to the south, passing through Caozhou and Xuzhou to the Huaihe River, and taking the Huaihe River into the sea.

But the Yellow River before the diversion is still there, but the water volume has dropped sharply. It has changed from a large river to a medium-sized river, called the Old Yellow River. Considering that it is already June and the weather is starting to be hot, frozen mutton can last for three or four days, so The shortest distance must be taken to transport mutton, that is, to go southward in a straight line along the Old Yellow River, and arrive in Puyang within three days. After being restored to freezing in the ice cellar in Puyang, it is then transported to Bianliang. This is the only feasible solution.

Jin Bing could consider this plan, and the Western Army could also consider it. After Niu Gao accepted the mission, he also carefully planned the interception plan.

From the information pick-up and delivery of the Daming Mansion, the stalking and tracking of the sentry ships, the tailing of the war fleet and the interception of the main fleet, they are all interlocking, and the logistics fleet of this golden soldier must be wiped out in one go.

At four o'clock, more than 500 flat-bottomed tugboats and [-] escort sentry boats entered the old Yellow River from Caohe.

In addition, there were two soldiers on each flat-bottomed tugboat, a total of [-] soldiers escorted the boat on the water, and there were [-] cavalry on the shore, and the guards were quite tight.

It was also for this reason that Niu Gao decided not to strike at the old course of the Yellow River, but at the confluence of the old and new Yellow Rivers where the water surface was widest.

Five hundred flat-bottomed tugboats sailed through the reed marsh area, and continued to sail southwest. When the fleet was far away, thirty five hundred stone warships came out of the reed marsh, trailing behind Jin Bing from a distance. The fleet departs.

……

Puyang has always been an important town on the Yellow River and is famous for its Baimadu. However, since the second year of Jianyan, the Yellow River broke its embankment here in Puyang. Puzhou, Caozhou, Xuzhou, Sizhou and other places have all suffered disasters. A large amount of land and population After the water receded, the soil became very barren, the originally fertile land became dry land, and the yield of wheat per mu dropped sharply from 100 catties to more than [-] catties.

Puyang also declined accordingly. Although it is the confluence of the old and new Yellow Rivers, its transportation status is very important, and it should be the best transit point, but in fact, the transportation on the Yellow River has not developed at all, and Puyang has lost its past. The aura of the city has become an ordinary county town.

However, there are still three catties of iron in the broken ship. Although Puyang has declined, it still has some heritage. First of all, the county seat is very large, it is a large county, and its population reached hundreds of thousands at its peak. There are several large warehouses, including a large ice cellar.