What is the crux of the war?

It is a foot soldier, enough food, and the people believe in it.

These are the words of Master Confucius.

Whether it is placed at the national level or at the level of the army, it is an irrefutable truth.

"Now there is no shortage of elite soldiers and strong generals for Liao thieves and us, and there is no shortage of refined weapons. No matter from what point of view, the troops, equipment, and training of the Liao thieves will not lose to us. But there is one thing they are far behind us...... Their grain and grass could not be delivered. ”

Just when the Liao people were inexplicably shocked by the transportation capacity of the track, Han Gang was analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of both sides to the generals under his command.

"The grain storage of Dawangzhuang is definitely not enough, and it relied on the transportation of Daizhou before. But after adding reinforcements, the number of Liao thieves increased several times. If the transportation from Daizhou cannot be accelerated, the Liao thieves on the opposite side and their war horses will soon be hungry. ”

"And the current strength of the Liao thief ......" Han Gang glanced at Zhang Qi.

Zhang Qi understood: "The total strength of the Liao thieves in the big and small wangzhuang is estimated to be 20,000 to 25,000, and it will not exceed 30,000 at most. As for the war horses, they should be more than twice the strength of the Liao thieves. ”

"Let's count it at 20,000." Han Gang took the words back, "That's three times the size of the previous Wangzhuang garrison. And the number of war horses is also tripled. In other words, in order to transport grain from Daizhou, it is necessary to put in three times the previous supply. The amount of food eaten by war horses is ten times that of a human being, including grass and grain, and five or six times that of a man. The Liao thieves were 20,000 men and 40,000 or 50,000 horses. And our army has nearly 40,000 soldiers and 10,000 military horses here. The Liao thieves have far more war horses than us, which is a great advantage in battle, but once they are stationed in one place, they need to consume more grain and grass than ours. ”

Previously, the Liao army was very good at ensuring the supply of grain and grass to the front-line strongholds - after all, Daizhou and Xiaowangzhuang only had a supply line of forty miles. But a supply line that can support 6,000 cavalry will definitely be greatly discounted in the face of 20,000 soldiers and horses. Even if there is still some stock, the remaining support time is only one-third of the previous one.

"And the most important thing is that the official road from Daizhou to Dawangzhuang has not been repaired. Liao thieves don't know this craft! Han Gang's words provoked a chuckle.

The official road from Daizhou was more and more seriously damaged, and the manpower and skills to repair the road were completely lacking in the hands of the Liao army. There are no paved roads that make it impossible to pass through large horse-drawn carriages. The cavalry can freely cross the fields and fields, at most it is only because of the ridges and ditches that make the speed a little slower, the more rugged the road can bring the suddenness of the attack, but the logistics supply is the road requirements to be as good as possible, otherwise it will greatly affect the carrying capacity and transfer speed.

Supplying the army at the front line has always been measured in tens of millions of stones. Such a large amount requires a huge amount of manpower and animal power. Han Gang was able to rely on the national strength of the Great Song Dynasty to directly build a track that extended to the front line, but the Liao army could not find people, and it was impossible to learn from the Song people to build the track.

Even though the distance between Daizhou and Daxiaowangzhuang is only forty miles, through this journey, it may be no problem to provide grain and grass for the front line with 70,000 or 80,000 mouths of men and horses, but if it comes for a few more days, the consumption of war horses and other animal power will seriously weaken the combat effectiveness of the Liao army. In this way, the transportation of fishing in the dry water, not to mention whether the livestock in the baggage team can afford it, even the roads cannot support it.

"And we have rails, and the capacity is ten times that of horse-drawn carts and pack horses, and now we can transport 10,000 stones of grain and grass a day."

Han Gang looked at Huang Sheng again, and Huang Shang continued: "Actually, two thousand stone bundles of grain and grass a day are enough. ”

Han Gang smiled and said, "The enemy is lenient, and the hungry stomach is also considered an enemy." Counting more miles, we can eat about 1,500 or 600 stone of rice and wheat a day, plus more than 1,000 bunches of forage...... In fact, it is far less than the Liao thief to eat. Converted to trains, two hands bent fingers to count. ”

Han Gang's ease infected every general. Although many of them had never fought in a war in their lives, they still understood better than laymen how important the issue of food and grass was.

If a strong man who can fight is hungry for a few days, it will be like mud. Once the Liao army ran out of food, this battle would be won without fighting.

But Han Gang's heart was by no means as relaxed as he appeared. The track maintenance of the simple type is not so good. Just now, before the generals came in, Huang Sheng happened to report to him that there was something wrong on the other side of the track.

However, for this matter, Han Gang has long been mentally prepared, and he has done a more thorough job in terms of maintenance. A total of 800 maintenance teams, at most half a day, the interrupted traffic will be restored.

The rails distribute the weight of the vehicle through the sleepers, which is far more stable than the wheels with only narrow contact surfaces. Just like the tracked vehicles that appeared in later generations, they will always be better adapted to the ground than wheeled vehicles. On such a road, even though there will still be various problems, such as track settlement, such as track breakage, and even the resulting overturning and derailment, the supply line maintained by this track will always be better than the logistics support of the Liao.

The logistical superiority, even if it is only a little stronger, is also a guarantee of victory.

"I don't know if the thieves know that we consume more energy than them. If he knew the way, the Liao thief might have fled back to Daizhou immediately. ”

"I guess I'll know what to do. Even spaceships can learn from it, and the orbit is not famous. ”

"That's not exactly. Maybe they thought we had the road fixed. It wasn't that there were no thieves who explored their brains when repairing the track, but if you don't know the track, no matter how you look at it, you are repairing the road. ”

Wooden planks are indispensable for repairing pulp roads. In the era when there were no steel plates, when it was too late to re-ram the earth to cushion the road, it was necessary to pad the pits and ditches with thick wooden planks to allow the passage of carriages and horses. Therefore, when building the track, putting sleepers and letting uninformed outsiders see it is indeed just repairing the road surface.

Keep the generals and colonels arguing about the advance and retreat of the Liao army below. Several staff members around Han Gang also whispered.

Although Zhi Keren had just passed and stood for a short time, he had already crossed the battlefield before the weak crown, but he couldn't understand the current situation, there was no big battle here in Hedong, and victory was already in sight.

"I've never fought a battle like this. Won without even fighting. ”

Zhang Qi said: "This is a soldier who surrenders without a fight. It can also be said that those who are good at fighting have no outstanding achievements. ”

"Yesterday the Privy Council also said that because we have a good helper."

Zhe Keren asked: "Who?" ”

"Naturally, it is His Royal Highness the Father of Da Liao. With the habits of the Liao army, once the situation is unfavorable and there is no more gain, they will definitely go home. Xiao Shisan is not a stupid person, he will not fail to see that the current situation in Daizhou is not favorable to him, but he stayed in Daizhou and did not retreat, because he was forced by Yelu Yixin. ”

The war situation in Hedong was mixed with too many political factors, making the Liao army in Daizhou tantamount to tying its own hands and feet. All decisions can only be made on the premise of keeping the state.

If both sides can let it go, Han Gang is not at all sure that he will lead this group of troops with the Beijing Forbidden Army as the main force to win the Liao Army, and at most he can only do 'gift abroad'.

It's a pity that Yelu Yixin is too greedy. Han Gang thought that if he could restrain a little, instead of trying to rely on cutting meat from the Great Song Dynasty to feed a group of wolves under him, the Liao army in Hedong would not fall into such a predicament.

It seems that it was the success of Xining's eight years, and the carve-up of Western Xia that made His Royal Highness Shangfu taste the sweetness, and he no longer knew what it meant to be in moderation.

I don't know if he can wake up in time, or that Xiao Shisan and Zhang Xiaojie have the courage to disobey him.

But the trapped beasts have already fallen into the pit, how can they let them go.

Han Gang raised his eyes and looked at the civil and military generals in the tent, and everyone here probably wouldn't agree.

……………………

If there is no supply of food and grass, the worst result will only be the collapse of the whole army.

This is a situation that no one below Xiao Thirteen wants to see. But he and Zhang Xiaojie sat and sighed in the tent, but there was no solution.

But it is equally difficult to make up your mind to retreat. Once you retreat to Daizhou, there is no room for retreat. Moreover, the Song army could attack Fanzhi County at that time, seize the western entrance of the Flying Fox Mountain, and cut off the connection between Daizhou and Nanjing Road. In that case, there is really only one way left on the Saikyo Road.

How did this happen?

At the beginning, Xiao 13 was not worried that the Song army would attack in a big way. According to the previous plan, Daizhou's reinforcements will come to the rescue when the Song army attacks Dawangzhuang, and they will attack inside and outside, defeating the Song people in one fell swoop. When the Song army increased its troops, it could attack with all its strength to defeat or even eliminate the reinforcements in the middle of the road - putting on such a posture to threaten the Song army not to choose to attack.

The Liao army, with its massive cavalry, had many tactics to choose from, but the Song army still came, and it was by tens of thousands of troops in one day and one night.

If it is a normal increase in troops, even if the reinforcements are not defeated in the middle of the road, even if the Song people are guarding the camp as they are now. In the next few days, Xiao Shisan could still gradually return the main force to Daizhou, and still let Yelu Daoning stay in Daxiaowangzhuang to ensure that the army would not run out of food. When the Song army really attacked the camp, he led his troops back to crush the Song army's offensive - at that time, he had such confidence.

It's just that now, he has lost the confidence to hold the front-line stronghold of Xiaowangzhuang with only 6,000 regular troops, and he is not sure that he can hold it even if he leaves 10,000 soldiers and horses.

The Song army can transport tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to the front line by track in one day and one night, and can immediately launch an offensive as soon as they get off the train after trekking for hundreds of miles, and confront themselves all day, who can guarantee that the Song army will not be able to solve the defenders of Daxiaowangzhuang in one hour? Who can guarantee that when the Song army attacked Daxiaowangzhuang, it would not be able to divide its troops to intercept or even ambush reinforcements. If one is not good, the internal and external attacks will become encirclement points.

No matter how well you plan in advance, everything will become useless.

Is it a desperate counterattack, or a retreat to Daizhou? Can this back and forth guarantee morale? Will he still be able to control the tribal army below?

The question was too heavy for Xiao 13 to answer.

"Let's retreat." I don't know how long it took, Zhang Xiaojie, who had been sitting like a statue for a long time, had a voice: "It's not a way here." Attacking the camp of the Song people will definitely not be able to attack, and if you stay here, you will definitely run out of food, after all, you still can't hold it, so you should go back to Daizhou earlier and find a way. ”

Xiao Shisan didn't react, his eyes lowered and he didn't know what he was thinking. But the green tendons on the back of his hand swelled, like

Zhang Xiaojie stared at Xiao Shisan's expression change, suddenly remembered something, his face changed suddenly, and he jumped up: "Do you want to go straight to Xinkou Village?!" ”

Xiao 13 sat still and raised his eyes: "Looking for death?" ”

Zhang Xiaojie was relieved, wiped his cold sweat and sat down again. That's really looking for death.

No one can guarantee that the tens of thousands of people in front of him are the whole class in Han Gang's hands. The Song people were able to transport tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to the front line in one day and one night, and they could also transport troops from Kaifeng and Taiyuan to Xinkou Village in a few days. As long as there are three or five thousand soldiers and horses left in Xinkou Village, guarding them for two or three days, the only possibility waiting for them is the annihilation of the whole army!

"So what to do?" Zhang Xiaojie asked.

Xiao Shisan smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Let's go, sooner or later I will have to retreat." Han Gang made it clear that he was waiting for us to run out of food and retreat. Thankfully, it would be difficult for them to go if they played. ”

Now the morale is still there, not that the grain and grass are exhausted, once the Song army catches up in a hurry, the opportunity to turn the tables will come.

But the two were talking, and the sound of war drums faintly came from outside the tent.

A pro-general rushed into the tent: "Privy Secret, Xianggong, the Song army is fighting." ”