"Kill a thousand, lose eight hundred!" Ma Chao looked at Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, Wei Yan, and Tai Shici, the four scarred generals, with sad faces, and finally sighed helplessly: "You go down to rest first, this battle can't be said to be won or lost, but you definitely have no fault." The strategists behind Yuan Shao are not all dry meals......."

The four of them nodded, no one spoke, and then left with their fists clenched. It's not that they're so tired that they can't say anything at this time, it's that the heavy casualties really don't make them feel in the mood to say anything more.

In this battle, Gao Shun's heavy soldiers lost more than 1,000 soldiers; Zhang Liaoyan died more than 2,000 in the battle; The Ma family, who broke through head-on, lost about 3,000. And the most tragic thing is the two battalions of foot soldiers under Wei Yan, more than 7,000 people, and less than 2,000 people can come back afterwards.

And that's just the number of deaths, if you count the number of casualties. In this battle, the 30,000 Ma family army directly shrank to 10,000! In particular, Wei Yan's elite infantry was directly beaten into a disability.......

Of course, the Ma family was so badly damaged, Yan Liang and Gao Gan didn't get a good deal, and after counting the corpses, it was reported that Yan Liang's 20,000 elites were also disabled, and it would be a great fortune that there were five or six thousand wounded soldiers left to retrieve Wuzhi; And later Gao Gan, the losses were also very heavy, 30,000 Youyan Jing cavalry, because of the rapid breakthrough rescue, did not fully launch the charge formation, and was later strangled by the Ma cavalry, and was beheaded by almost 8,000 people.

These reports are naturally not exact data, because many corpses on the battlefield are mutilated, and when they are cleaned and buried, the officers can only rely on the characters and experience of the banner. In this way, Yan Liang and Gao Gan lost a total of about 25,000 people this time.

It is said that the loss of the Ma army was nearly 15,000 people, and in exchange for the enemy's 25,000 people, it was also a victory. But in Ma Chao's eyes, it can't be converted like that. This time, all the elites of the Ma family lineage were dispatched, and the average investment of each soldier was more than three times more than that of the elite of ordinary princes. If it was a normal confrontation and fighting, Ma Jiajun would definitely be able to reduce casualties. But the suddenness of the high-level cadres turned the encirclement and annihilation battle into a chaotic war, and large-scale casualties of the Ma Jiajun were inevitable.

"I just don't want to fight this kind of unskilled battle. But when an elite boss meets an elite coach, and an elite warrior meets an elite warrior, there is only a downright desperate ....... left! With a leisurely sigh again, Ma Chao couldn't help but put his eyes on Meng Da, who came from Chang'an to prepare grain and grass: "How is the preparation of grain and grass?" ”

For more than a month, Meng Da has indeed been very busy. Standing in front of Ma Chao at this time, his face was clear, his eye sockets were deep, and even the corners of his eyes had a few crow's feet. After listening to Ma Chao's question, he flipped through the account book and replied: "Wechen inspected the nine counties of Yongzhou this time, except for Tianshui County and Xinxia Wudu County, which had already borne once, and brought back a total of 737,500 stones of grain and grass. ”

This is about half of Youzhou's annual income this year, Ma Chao couldn't help but nod and said: "Zidu has worked hard, how is the situation in Chang'an?" ”

"Fortunately, the new policy of the lord is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, not to mention that the war is outside. The people's hearts are acceptable, and they have not complained because of the Ma family's repeated battles this year. Although there are spies and rumors in the city, the shadow control and the propaganda of the Ministry of Rites have cut off the enemy's tricks, so please be careful. ”

"Let's go down and rest first," Ma Chao nodded after hearing this, and then after thinking for a moment, he said again: "When you leave tomorrow, remember to help me bring a letter to the old fox, this matter is not too urgent, but remember to remind me tomorrow." ”

Meng Da didn't say anything after hearing this, and resigned.

At this time, there was only Ma Chao left in the big tent, and after he got up and paced back and forth for a few steps, he felt that his mind was still restless, so he simply took off the tent and hung the cowhide map, spread it on the ground, and thought about it carefully.

At this moment, the war has just begun, and although the Ma family's march has twists and turns, it can be regarded as a smooth fight step by step. From Xingyang to the current Huai County, the territory of the Ma family has expanded a few points. Moreover, in other respects, the Ma family is also foolproof.

In terms of troops, although the war inevitably lost some combat power, Ma Chao still had 370,000 troops in his hands at this time, and it was not slightly better to deal with Yuan Shao's 400,000 main force, but at least it was comparable.

In terms of military rations, in addition to the military rations collected by Meng Da during this inspection, Ma Chao also seized several years' stocks in Huai County, Hanoi, and intercepted the Yuan family's military rations once. No matter how you calculate it, there is no problem with Yuan Shao for a year and a half.

On the battlefield, after the capture of Huai County, Ma Jiajun made a big move, and in one day, it had laid down a defense line in Huai County, Qinshui, and Shanyang counties adjacent to the Qinshui River, and the three big villages were each other's horns. Even if Yuan Shao came to attack, the self-army had already established a firm foothold and waited for work.

Finally, in terms of Wenchen military generals, the Ma family's lineup is not weaker than Yuan Shao. Although Ma Chao didn't think he was really wise and martial, he humbly accepted the advice of his subordinates. Compared with Yuan Shao's nest of factions vying for power and quarreling, it is really much better.

But the more this happened, Ma Chaoyue felt a little uneasy—that feeling was an intuition and didn't make any sense. As a prince, Ma Chao has long been accustomed to the determination of controlling everything in his hands, and now although he can't see any problems, his feelings can't deceive his heart.

First of all, what Ma Chao can't mind is Duanmu Ruoyu's death. After such a long time after this incident, Ma Chao has always been obsessed with that beautiful shadow, not to say how heavy the kindness between Ma Chao and Duanmu Ruoyu is. But after calming down, Ma Chao found that Duanmu Ruoyu's assassination failed, and there were too many suspicious points.

Half a year ago, the shadow blended into the craftsmen and built a wall that could hide people, so to speak, the gods did not know it, and the ghosts did not know it. Moreover, that wall was also remembered by Duanmu Ruoyu after he had a temporary idea. To say that there is no shadow betrayal, it can only be said that everything is too coincidental.

In addition, this time to ambush Yan Liang, Ma Chao also felt that there were many strange things. The reason why Ma Chao didn't have much preparation after sending out an army of 30,000 was because he knew that the trial match and Yan Liang were not on the same front at all. And Yan Liang and the trial will not really save Huaixian, so the trial is also relieved to let Yan Liang go out to let the wind go.

In this way, it is impossible for the trial to send senior cadres to rescue Yan Liang. In fact, if Yan Liang is killed in battle or the whole army is destroyed, it will still be a good gift for the trial. But the strange thing is that he had long known that he could not command the trial of the whole army, and he actually sent Gao Gan to rescue Yan Liang with 30,000 Youyan Jing horses. Such a move is really unreasonable.

If it weren't for Sima Yi's momentary anger and letting the ugly brother who had already vacated his hands go to meet Gao Shun's army, I am afraid that the two armies would really fight to the last breath on that official road - so it seems that someone must have seen through Ma Chao's serial plan to besiege the city and send reinforcements, but he also made a bad move, and did not mobilize Wu Zhi's 100,000 troops to rescue with all his might, and slapped Ma Chao hard.

Is that person running low on energy? Or did you deliberately give Ma Chao a reminder? And if Duanmu Ruoyu was also involved in that person, what did he want?

What's even more terrifying is that if these two things are all attributed to coincidence, it will be completely clear: who stipulates that Gao Gan will not act rashly, and want to take his army to cooperate with Yan Liangzhen to come to Huaixian County to fish in troubled waters?

Everything, a white mist immediately rose in front of Ma Chao's eyes, obscuring all intentions in a hazy and difficult to see clearly. Ma Chao speculated for a long time, but he couldn't guess a reasonable explanation. In the end, the only way to do this was to put away the map and convene a military meeting to deal with Yuan Shao's army.

"After the desperate battle, there is a protracted battle." Ma Chao smiled bitterly and sighed again: "Fighting a war is really burning money and killing people, I don't know when it will be the end of ........"