The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 7 and Five

In the fourth year of Chuping (193), July [-]th, this originally ordinary day, is no longer ordinary.

Accompanied by the rapid sound of horseshoes and the chaotic market, three urgent messages flew into Chendu, completely shattering the tranquility of Chendu.

One urgent message came from Sili, while the other two urgent messages came from Jingzhou.

Sili is in a hurry, Jing Yi is in a hurry!

The first urgent message came from Sili.

In the fourth year of Chuping, in March, the Wei army had already approached the revolving door pass.

Of the eight passes in Luoyang, only Guangcheng Pass, Xuanmen Pass, and Hangu Pass were no longer in Yuan Shao's hands, and the other five passes were already occupied by Wei Jun.

Yuan Shao dispatched Gao Lan, the general who conquered the east, and Ju Yi, the general who conquered the south, to lead an army of [-] troops, stationed at Liyang in Wei County and Huai County in Hanoi County to cross the river.

Afterwards, Yuan Shao dispatched the left general Han Meng to lead the main force in the Luoyang area with a total of more than [-] people to attack the Rotary Gate Pass.

A total of more than [-] soldiers from the Wei army at the Revolving Gate Pass participated in the battle, and these [-] soldiers almost took over the elite of the entire Wei court.

At the beginning of July, under the leadership of Gao Lan and Ju Yi, the Wei army launched an offensive from Huai County and Liyang at the same time, and Han Meng, who had been standing still for many days, also led his soldiers towards the revolving door. Guan launched an attack.

More than twenty catapults appeared outside the revolving door pass, throwing boulders towards the revolving door pass almost day and night.

These catapults are still human-powered catapults, not the counterweight catapults of the Yellow Turban Army. The secret of the Yellow Turban Army’s counterweight catapults has not been revealed, but only a few wheels are installed on the catapults so that they can move. It is not difficult to decide, so more than [-] siege catapults that can threaten the city wall of the Revolving Gate suddenly appeared outside the Revolving Gate Pass.

Revolving Gate Pass is the eastern barrier of Luoyang and the western barrier of Yanzhou.

In order to stabilize Yanzhou, Hanting must not lose the revolving door.

Once the revolving door pass is lost, it will face the risk of being surrounded by the Wei army in Huai County on both sides, and the Wei army stationed in Liyang will be even more difficult to resist.

Therefore, as soon as Sun Jian received the Wei army's change, he sent Cheng Pu to lead tens of thousands of troops to the Revolving Gate Pass, and stationed troops in Chenggao to prevent the Wei army from crossing the river in Huai County. He also assigned [-] troops to Ji Ling's command. Set up troops on white horses.

Sun Jian himself even led the troops to Xingyang City and took command of the central army to stabilize the war at Revolving Gate Pass.

Liyang crossing the river is more convenient than Huai County, and can quickly transport the army to the south bank, causing greater threats and damage. Liyang's importance is far more important than Huai County.

Ju Yi is the most famous general in Wei Ting today, and his position is usually the main attack position. Although according to the report of the embroidered clothes messenger, Ju Yi really only has about 5000 soldiers under his command, but Sun Jian still Not taken lightly.

Wei Ting's infantry were not as good as theirs, only the Xiandeng, Qiangnu, and Wuwei battalions were well-armed and elite, and the rest of the Yuan Army's infantry were relatively weak, so even if they had a large number, they would not be feared.

But Wei Ting's cavalry army is incomparable to Han Ting today.

Yuan Shao defeated Youzhou. Although Gongsun Zan is still alive and holding Yi Jing to guard, Yuan Shao has already accepted most of Gongsun Zan's territory and army.

Now there is a powerful Han cavalry army under Yuan Shao's command. This cavalry has 9000 people, all of whom are Han knights who are skilled in bowing and horses.

And the hundreds of thousands of Wuhuan people in the three counties are now prostrated under Wei Ting, for Yuan Shao's encouragement.

If it weren't for the heavy logistical pressure, coupled with the loose discipline of the Wuhuan people, it was difficult to control, and there was also the defense against Gongsundu who was entrenched in Liaodong, Youzhou, and the Yellow Turban Army occupying the two counties of Youzhou and Puyinxing, so now there are only [-] The Wuhuan cavalry on the left and right accompanied the Wei army to fight.

It can be said that without the threat of Gongsundu and the Yellow Turban Army, Yuan Shao could recruit more Wuhuan cavalry to fight south, further expanding the advantage of the cavalry.

With the popularity of new harnesses, the combat effectiveness of the cavalry is constantly increasing.

Yuan Shao has now created new-style harnesses for all the nine thousand cavalry troops under his command. Although there are some differences between the new-style harnesses imitated by Wei Ting and the new-style harnesses currently used by the Yellow Turban Army, it does not affect the practicality much. Sex is just a little different in appearance, which is irrelevant.

The popularization of these new harnesses made Yuan Shao's cavalry army unprecedentedly strong. Yuan Shao even spared no expense in sending envoys to Wuhuan in the three prefectures and the Xianbei tribe in the north to select tall, explosive war horses. Added to the cavalry.

These tall, fast-moving, and extremely explosive horses were gathered by Yuan Shao, and dispatched craftsmen to make horses' vests according to the average size of those horses.

These vests are all specially made. Many parts of these vests are the forging and production process of the original armor riding equipment, but there are improvements in some places.

On the chest and neck of the war horse, which are fragile, and may be stabbed and slashed by swords and sharp weapons, the Zhajia is still used.

However, in some places where arrows may only be encountered, such as horse buttocks and horse belly, a new type of armor-chain mail is used.

Most of the Hanoi Yellow Turban Army led by Yu Po was a local garrison and belonged to the second-line army. Facing Yuan Shao's elite onslaught, they could only choose to retreat temporarily and return to Bingzhou.

This kind of chain mail was discovered from some generals of the Yellow Turban Army who died in battle when they attacked Hanoi County.

The generals of the Yellow Turban Army generally wear two to three layers of armor.

The officers and officers of the Yellow Turban Army today are roughly uniform in equipment at the rank of military marquis and head of the village. They are covered with a khaki-colored war robe.

For example, "Follow the heaven and the earth without losing the baht points, achieve peace and auspiciousness and prosperity", and "follow the heaven and follow the righteousness, so as to achieve peace." "The world is prosperous." and so on.

Then wear a layer of black iron breastplate on the outermost side, with a skirt armor, and armbands with arm armor.

Wear a piece of leather armor, or wear a piece of chain mail. Most of the military lords and village chiefs wear leather armor, but only a small number of people wear chain mail.

It can be seen that the popularity rate of this kind of chain mail in the Yellow Turban Army is not very high.

These chain mails are fitted with thin iron rings to form a long coat with a hood, which is covered over the close-fitting clothing.

All the weight is borne by the shoulders, which can effectively protect against sharp weapons such as swords and spears. Compared with leather armor, it has stronger protection against bows and arrows, and is more breathable and lighter.

After Yuan Shao discovered the benefits of these armors, he immediately asked his craftsmen to imitate them.

The production process of chain mail is not difficult. Xu An ordered people to make it in the fifth year of Zhongping (188). At that time, it was not long before Xu An occupied Bingzhou. Therefore, it was still sufficient. When Xu An ordered the production of chain mail, there was not even a single piece of chain mail. It was Xu An who guided the craftsmen in the workshop to make the first chain mail.

Then, with continuous production and forging, the production of chain mail was gradually perfected in the workshop on Taiping Road, and its skills were also mastered by craftsmen.

The chain mail is the icing on the cake, the main protection is still on the outermost layer of iron armor, so Xu An only allocates a part of craftsmen to make chain mail.

Over the past few years, most of the chain mail produced has been equipped with officers of the Yellow Turban Army Sima and Lieutenant-level officers, as well as heavy infantry such as the Yellow Angels, Tengxiang Guards, and trapped camps.

Like saddles, stirrups, horseshoes and other new riding equipment, the production process of chain mail is very confidential, and it is not difficult to imitate.

After these chain mails came into Yuan Shao's hands, they were quickly imitated as long as there were real objects.

And Yuan Shao not only used it for the protection of the generals, but also used it on the horses.

The armor of the horse's belly and buttocks is protected by light chain mail, and then a horse coat made of coarse cloth is covered on the outermost layer.

The color of the horse clothes is black, and there are five virtues in the dynasty, gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, Yutu, Xiamu, Yinjin, Zhouhuo, and Qinshui, and the five elements are mutually restraining.

Qin is the virtue of water because of worshiping black, water is the threshold, and its color is mainly black. The Qin Dynasty favored black, with red in the black.

Since the Han Dynasty, there have been theories of water virtue, earth virtue, and fire virtue, and it has always been relatively chaotic.

However, after Guangwu Zhongxing, the Huode theory was officially established. From then on, Zhengshuo of the Han Dynasty was Huode, so Han was also called Yanhan.

This is why the banners and costumes of the Han army are mostly red.

However, Yuan Shao proclaimed himself emperor and established Wei Ting. According to the reason why the five elements restrain each other and water restrains fire, he claimed to be the virtue of water, so he worshiped black.

The emperor's costumes Yuan Shao wore were all black, and the school flags were also all black, black being black with a reddish color.

Although Yuan Shao has always held a disdainful attitude towards the Yellow Turban Army, he thinks that the Yellow Turban Army is just a group of traffickers, a group of low-class people who came from rural fools.

But he had to admit that many things in the Yellow Turban Army were more advanced than them.

The horse clothes will make the war horse hotter in summer, but in autumn, winter and spring, it can maintain the body temperature of the war horse, and it can also resist riding arrows to a certain extent. Of course, the effect of resisting arrows is quite limited.

And most importantly, when a large group of horses wearing horse clothes ran, the aura was more than several times higher.

Horses wearing horse clothes are quite practical whether they are used as a guard of honor or on the battlefield.

Now there are thousands of heavy armored cavalry under Yuan Shao's command wearing horse clothes and wearing vests. The knights of these heavy armored cavalry troops are all skilled in bows and horses. Of.

Xu An occupies Liangzhou and Liangzhou, occupies a large number of horse farms, has excellent war horses, and has a source of troops.

Yuan Shao only had a ranch in Youzhou, and his military resources were relatively poor. Although there were many horse breeders and horse riders in Jizhou, it did not have the martial atmosphere like Liangzhou and Bingzhou.

Yuan Shao recruited the cavalry army from Wuhuan in the three counties, and also recruited troops from the grasslands in the north of Saibei, but it is definitely impossible for these soldiers to be the main force, and it is impossible to recruit a lot of them.

The tribes of the grassland are afraid of prestige but not of morality.

If there is no Han cavalry to restrain them, then they will have to bear the backlash of those Wuhuan and Beidi people.

Therefore, neither the Wuhuan cavalry nor the northern cavalry Yuan Shao who had been conscripted were allowed to return to the tribe, nor were they given good armaments, nor did they have much new-style horse gear.

Takahashi saddles and horseshoes were not given to these cavalry, but a batch of stirrups were distributed to these prairie cavalry, after all, the combat power of these prairie cavalry must be maintained.

One is the source of horses and the other is the source of soldiers that restrict Yuan Shao's army expansion. Wei Ting is not short of food and grass, nor is it short of craftsmen.

Stealing Jizhou, Yuan Shao got Jizhou's food reserves accumulated over the years since Huangfusong's time, and then defeated Gongsun Zan, and obtained the food storage of Gongsun Zan and Liu Yu for several years. It can be said that there is plenty of food and grass.

The reason that restricted Xu An's expansion of the cavalry army was not horses and soldiers, he did not lack these two.

Contrary to Yuan Shao, what restricted Xu An from expanding his cavalry was food and craftsmen.

Xu'an didn't have so many craftsmen to make vests, harnesses, and food for such a large cavalry army.

The cost of raising a heavy cavalry is really too high. Although Xu An once thought about raising a heavy cavalry, the plan was eventually shelved indefinitely. Spending money already feels a bit stretched.

In the bitter cold places of Liangzhou and Bingzhou, how can the background of those powerful families compare with those in a wealthy place like Jizhou? Although Xu An has taken the wealth from those powerful families in the two places, but in fact these are not the same. many.

When Xu An entered Guanzhong, most of the powerful families had fled south to Wuguan with Wang Yun, Huangfusong and others. They took a lot of wealth and hid a lot of wealth. Although the Yellow Turban Army found out A part, but more have not been found, and the harvest is quite limited.

The strength of the current cavalry army, the cavalry army in Taipingdao is the strongest, there is no doubt about it.

The Sixth Battalion of the Yellow Turban Cavalry Army, together with the Southern Huns, Shanggu Wuhuan, Western Xianbei and other grassland descendants' allies, even the overlord Xianbei in the North would not dare to offend Xu An easily.

At the beginning, Ju Shou offered a series of strategies, one of which was to want Xianbei in the North to attack Bingzhou and contain the troops of Taipingdao.

Although Xianbei in the north has always been on good terms with Yuan Shao, when Yuan Shao sent an envoy to deliver a message, this plan was immediately rejected.

Xianbei is indeed the overlord of Mobei. Even if it is split into two tribes and fought fiercely for several years, the other tribes are nothing more than a group of rotten fish and shrimps under their cavalry.

But the Yellow Turban Army is the overlord of Mobei. Before the winner is determined, they are really unwilling to easily provoke this giant entrenched in Liangbin. Even whether it is the central Xianbei or the eastern Xianbei, they often send envoys to enter Bingzhou wants to make friends with Xu An.

One of the main reasons why they did not dare to fight tit-for-tat before was because the Yellow Turban Army was in the south, and they were afraid that the Yellow Turban Army would suddenly go north while they were fighting between the two sides, and reap the benefits.

However, after seeing the strategy of the Yellow Turban Army shifting to the south later, they were relieved and regarded the Yellow Turban Army as an ordinary Central Plains force.

Wei Ting's cavalry army is inferior, but it should not be underestimated. The Wuhuan of the three counties and some tribes in the north all surrendered to Yuan Shao. The Xianbei in the east also made friends with Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao was able to recruit volunteers on the grassland. Not a lot.

The cavalry under Yuan Shao's command included [-] cavalry that formed an army alone, and some cavalry that were scattered among the various armies.

The heavy cavalry of Yuan Shao's company also greatly increased the strength of Wei Jun's cavalry. Heavy cavalry is expensive, but their influence on the battlefield also makes them worthwhile.

A thousand-man heavy cavalry is thrown into the battlefield, and it can even change the course of a battle.

Now Yuan Shao's company has a total of 200 heavy cavalry.

This newly formed heavy cavalry was led by the guard general Jiang Yiqu. When Jiang Yiqu was listening to orders under Lu Zhi's tent, he led the heavy cavalry of the Han army in the battle of Zhangshui. Unfortunately, the cavalry of the Han army on the left was finally defeated. Sudden defeat, otherwise the victory or defeat of the Battle of Zhangshui is still in doubt.

Jiang Yiqu had experience and was very loyal to Yuan Shao, so Yuan Shao handed over the most important heavy cavalry under his command to Jiang Yiqu.

The name of this heavy cavalry was not decided at the beginning, and finally when Jianpei, Jushou and others saw the martial arts performance, the name was finally decided.

The charging momentum is like a tiger, and the galloping back and forth is like a swift leopard, so it is named: "Tiger and Leopard Cavalry".

The cavalry of Taipingdao and Wei Ting are strong, but the cavalry of Hanting in the south can be described as weak.

The Han court has neither a horse farm nor a good source of soldiers.

Except for a few cavalry troops among the various armies, the only thing Han Ting could do was the five thousand Youzhou cavalry led by Liu Bei.

Because of this, Sun Jian personally sat in Xingyang, hoping to block the Wei army's attack by relying on the Yellow River and the pass.

However, although the cavalry army is weak, the infantry of the Han army is not weak, and it is far stronger than the Wei army.

Its main force encountered the main force of the Yellow Turban Army, and even had the power to fight.

But now the Han court is facing the Wei court in the north.

The biggest problem now is how to defend the revolving door and Yanzhou.

Sun Jian sent an urgent message, requesting that all the [-] Youzhou cavalry led by Liu Bei who were on the Xuzhou battlefield be transferred immediately, and all cavalry troops that could be mobilized were requisitioned.

The revolving door was already crumbling under the repeated bombardment and onslaught of the catapults. The northern line was in danger, and a large number of cavalry continued to support it.

Otherwise, once the cavalry of the Wei army enters Yanzhou, the whole Yanzhou will become the racetrack of the Wei army.

And this is the helplessness of the lack of cavalry.

This helplessness is also the helplessness of the Central Plains Dynasty after the loss of the northern pastures and pass barriers in later generations.

Chapter 7 and Six: Qutang and Baidi

The other two dispatches came from Jingzhou.

The two dispatches, one in front and the other in the back, were separated by less than three days.

The first urgent item is an emergency document from Jingzhou.

In the fourth year of Chuping (193), June 29th.

The Yellow Turban Army soldiers went out of Wuguan, led by General Baibo Guo Tai in the Yellow Turban Army, it took only three days to break through Danshui City.

Zhang Lu also obeyed Xu An's order and sent his younger brother Zhang Wei to lead [-] Hanzhong soldiers to Shangyong to attack Nanyang County in response to Guo Tai's attack.