When he arrived at the military political office, the atmosphere was tense, Bailiyan (Wei Xian) sat down, Cao Chizheng glanced up, continued to hold a four-foot-long thin bamboo stick, pointed to the direction west of Xu Tu on the sand table and continued:

"I just got to report that 12 days ago, two hundred miles west of Xutu, I found traces of the barbarian army. Based on the news of the past month, Ben Shuai judged that the barbarian army had the intention of bypassing Xu Tu and attacking Xiaochi directly, and the generals could have high opinions. ”

Gong Liangwen stood up at this time, came to the sand table and said:

"Bypassing Xu Tu and attacking Xiaochi directly is a wonderful move. However, there are many dangerous places in the valley west of Xutu, and the barbarian army passes through here, and it is easy to go and how difficult it is to return. If the Xu Tu defenders go out of the city to break through the barbarian army outside the city, the barbarian army's westward advance will be in danger of being attacked from the front and back. ”

"What if the barbarian army does not draw troops from outside Xutu City, but has other reinforcements."

Cao Chi asked rhetorically, Gongliangwen was slightly surprised, he said:

"There are reinforcements! There are 250,000 barbarian troops outside Xutu City, could it be that they are drawn south from Duhui? That's impossible. ”

"It's not impossible, but there must be reinforcements, and I'm afraid there are a lot." Cao Chi said heavily, holding the sand table platform with both hands, and his eyes fell on Xiaochi City.

At this time, Bailiyan said:

"Imperial marshal, there are many mountains and valleys west of Xutu, and now they are covered with snow, how can the barbarian army make a detour from the south of Xutu to Xiaochi."

"General Wei has not known, the unicorn is strong and tall, galloping in the snow as if walking on the ground, there is a snow iron plough behind it, which can eradicate the heavy snow, several unicorn horses go forward in parallel, and can open a road several zhang or even ten zhang wide. The barbarian army marched in winter, and everywhere they went, they opened the way with unicorns, so the march was extremely fast. ”

Ranging in height from one to one and a half feet, the unicorn can cut snow with its mouth and nibble on the roots of plants buried deep in the snow in cold weather.

Even after the winter, the logistics supply of the coalition army can only rely on sleigh transportation, but the barbarian army can let hundreds of thousands of unicorns be transported immediately over long distances, which greatly facilitates the logistics transportation of the barbarian army in winter.

Due to its tall size, it can gallop through the snow at a depth of more than two meters in winter, and the snow plow, which is dragged with an iron snow plow, is used to sweep the snow to one side with a lasso to open the way for Jin Xuedi's army, not only the cavalry can pass, but the infantry is also more convenient.

No matter how poor it is, there are plenty of spare horses, mammoth war elephants, and unicorn horses for the barbarians to use as mounts, and they can always find a more suitable means of marching in winter.

"Xutu City" because of its road under the village, built at the foot of Tiannan West Mountain, to the west 800 miles is full of winding mountains and valleys, so there is "the mountain road is long to walk Xu Road" said, the name of Xu Tu City is how it comes.

The shortcut from Xutu to the main city of Weiguo in Xiaochi can only be quickly passed by beating Xutu City. If you take a detour, you will have to walk more than 400 miles. For the coalition army, walking an extra 400 miles in the snow is almost a man and a horse, and the limit of the rations that a single soldier can carry is not allowed to go without a heavy load, and the cavalry will not be able to walk 600 miles in winter, and the infantry will not even be able to walk 300 miles.

"Imperial Marshal, I don't know the geometry of the defenders of Xiaochi City?" Bailiyan asked.

"Xiaochi is located in the north of Xutu, there are 60,000 Song and Wei joint soldiers, 40,000 royal guests, all of them are infantry troops. The population is about 200,000. Cao Chizheng said it simply.

Gong Liangwen said at this time:

"That marshal wants to draw cavalry from Tiannan Pass to the west."

"Exactly, not only will the commander draw troops from Tiannan Pass, but Mingzhou City will also send troops, and the two places will mobilize 200,000 cavalry, and they will meet the barbarian army when they go there."

"Our coalition army in Duhui, Tiannan, Xutu three frontal containment of the barbarian army of 800,000 horses, even if the enemy army sneak attack, the strength will never be too much, Xiaochi City is high and deep, the defenders are 100,000, our army is going to 200,000 horses, it is inevitable to move the army. In case our army leaves, the barbarian army outside Tiannan City will attack, and Tiannan Pass may be lost. Gong Liangwen said worriedly.

"Let's talk about this matter from the old man." The military herd finally stood up and came to the side of the wooden frame where the map was hung: "Since last year, Jin Xuedi's army has increased from 500,000 to 800,000 in a short period of time, advancing on a front of thousands of miles at the same time.

They want to use the power of thunder to put pressure on our army, intending to inflict heavy damage on our army, tear up the gap, and at the same time create the illusion that our army is very powerful, mistakenly believing that its strength is extremely poor, and neglect to take precautions. In fact, he had already planned a roundabout strategy to go north, but because the imperial marshal was unable to find out Jin Xuedi's movements for a long time, he did not light the red cloud beacon tower when he sent the imperial speed order to you this year, which is also the reason. ”

Mu Yu's voice fell, and Gong Liangwen asked again:

"As Ruo'an Mujun said, this roundabout sneak attack on the barbarian army of Xiaochi, how big is its momentum."

"We don't know yet, but we won't be less. The old man could even predict that the enemies outside Tiannan City would probably be more than 250,000, and you should consider it the worst plan. ”

At this point, what Bai Liyan had been worried about before finally happened.

In the past few hundred years, the number of Jin Xuedi's troops in the north was as low as 300,000, and the peak was approaching 900,000, but it never increased to 900,000 in one go, but gradually increased to 900,000 during the five or six years of the war, and when the war was withdrawn, there were 900,000 people still alive, and the actual number of people reached more than 1.3 million, of which the difference was the number of people killed, and the death rate exceeded 30%.

According to this calculation, the number of troops of the barbarian army this time is at least 1.2 million, and the number of troops will increase dramatically to 800,000 in one year.

What is even more terrifying is that Jin Xuedi is almost not restricted by the scale of logistics transportation, using hundreds of thousands of unicorn horses and millions of horses to replace most of the manpower, and is not affected by the seasonal weather, transporting grain and grass supplies to the front line, which is far from being comparable to the logistics of the Central Plains coalition army.

Therefore, a large amount of manpower and material resources of the Central Plains coalition army are consumed in logistics and transportation, while the barbarian army can free up millions of young and strong laborers from logistics to enter the war, which is the most terrifying thing about Jin Xuedi.

Animal resources are like the transport vehicles of modern warfare, in the era of cold weapons, the efficiency of logistics and transportation is determined, and when this kind of animal resources have a great strategic gap, the balance of war will inevitably tilt towards it.

The barbarian army's courage to cross the Xu Road and attack Xiaochi for a long distance this time was a huge attempt to follow the step-by-step strategy for hundreds of years, and its full preparation, firm determination to campaign, and huge scale of troops can be seen from the strategic deployment of Cao Chizheng and Mu Yu's decision to concentrate all the cavalry, and it must have been prepared for the worst.

Bailiyan even believed that this would be the most sinister battle since the beginning of the war.

The scene was silent for a long time, and the atmosphere became subtle.

None of the people sitting at the scene were laymen, Mu Yu and Cao Chi were saying this, everyone knew that a vicious battle would be inevitable. Bai Liyan thought more about how to fight at this time, but how Cao Chi was preparing to make the princes' armies willingly dispatch all the cavalry.

Just as he was thinking about it, Cao Chi unexpectedly pointed the finger at Baili Yan:

"General Wei's cavalry battle is quite exquisite, can the Xian army fight?"

Bailiyan didn't expect it, but in a blink of an eye, he thought that Gongliangwen didn't suffer any losses when he took the lead in September, and Cao Chi was taking the lead in ordering generals, mostly to foreshadow the next split of various forces. In view of Cao Chi's attitude towards Xianjun in the past, Bai Liyan believed that this was the next step that Cao Chi was giving him.

Thinking of this, he hurriedly answered and said:

"The Xian army is willing to do the work of dogs and horses, but it is just a logistical transfer, and I hope that the coalition forces can take care of it to relieve our army's worries."

Bailiyan quickly compromised, and Cao Chizheng, who was expressionless, had a slight hint of approval:

"General Wei can rest assured in this matter, this battle is very important, and the baggage of all armies will be uniformly transported. Now, General Ji Yao, can the Qi army fight? ”

"This ......"

Ji Yao was uncertain at this time, and he couldn't help but think again: It's best to avoid the past.

But he just wanted to come to something, and Cao Chi suddenly asked him to make a statement. Ji Yao was completely dispossessed, first looked at Shen Bi, then at Wang Yanfei, and finally swept over Bailiyan, and the contradictions and complexities in his heart were instantly revealed.

Qiguo is now being garrisoned by the Jin State and is being killed by Weiguo, Cao Chi is bringing out the second one, the intention is obvious, Wei Xian is a native of Qiguo. The merging of the Xian and Qi armies undoubtedly greatly increased the cohesion, and it was much stronger than being attached to the Jin State.

But at this time, Wang Yanfei and Shen Bi objected at the same time:

"Imperial marshal, Xian and Qi are the lower states of my Jin Kingdom, how can I have an army alone, and I should be the only one in the Jin Kingdom."

"Humph!" Shen Bi snorted coldly, "Qiguo lives in the West Sea, and was forcibly stationed and coerced by you Jin Yuan in the ocean country, looking at the whole world, there is no such brazen and domineering person." ”

Wang Yanfei was not to be outdone, and ridiculed each other:

"I don't know who it was back then, who cut off two hundred miles of land in the country of Qi, if it weren't for my Jin country to be the master, how can there be a country of Qiguo now, joke!"

Wang Yanfei's words are three passes, one slap slapped three people, the first slap Shen Bi is undoubted, the battle of Luye, Wei Guo only cut off two hundred miles of land from Qiguo. The second slap was for Shen Bi to hit Ji Yao, and the third slap went directly to Bai Liyan's face, because he was also a Qi person.

Wei Guo cut off Qi Guo 200 from the ground, it seems that without the support of Jin Guo, Qi Guo will be finished sooner or later, and the people of Qi Guo should be grateful. However, Wei Guo cut off two hundred miles of land in Qi State, and Jin Guo did not seem to have a small appetite, so he directly cut off a county in Xian State.

These are three slaps inside and out, slapped on the faces of three people, the name is "the taste is different", the red-eyed can immediately be anxious when they hear it, and the grateful Dade can call his father after listening.

At this time, Bailiyan was furious, and when she was about to attack, Cao Chi was the first to speak:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this battle is the first to be the first to go, if the Jin and Wei armies are willing to take the lead, the commander can transfer the Qi army to go with the Jin army, the Xian army and the Wei army to go together, General Wang and General Shen can have objections."

"Hiss......" Shen Bi was surprised.

"This ......" Wang Yanfei was not convinced, even if he was not convinced, when he heard the word first, he immediately swallowed back to his stomach when the words came to his mouth.

Seeing that Wang and Shen were silent, Ji Yao, who was almost blacked out in front of him, had no qualifications to object, because he had no choice between good and bad, so he couldn't tie Zhiguo's thighs with his face anymore.

At this time, Cao Chizheng said again:

"Since you have no objections, this time the two armies of Xian and Qi are one army, Jin, Zhao, Chen, and Yan are one army, Wei and Zhi are one army, and Xu Guo and I are one army, and tomorrow morning, the north gate of each army will be assembled, and there must be no mistake!"

As soon as the words fell, Shen Bi objected:

"Imperial marshal, Zhao, Chen, and Yan are all the countries of the West Sea, and they are going down to defend the country for me, why should they have the same army as the Jin State."

"The four kingdoms of Jin, Zhao, Chen, and Yan have very few cavalry here, and the combined troops can be combat."

"How many cavalry did I have to defend the country."

"Xu Tu and Xiaochi are the cities of the Weiguo in the south, and there are still tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, but they are still less than the Jin army. This marshal is considering that the defense of the country is all miscellaneous horses, and the combat power is weak, so he joined forces with the Zhiguo cavalry, but he had combat strength. If General Shen is willing to leave an army alone, the commander has no objection. ”

"This ......"

Shen Bi was speechless, and Wang Yanfei was secretly proud. Bai Liyan suddenly realized that this Cao Chi is really powerful.