SWDnovel Chapter 1368 Response
Chapter 1368 Response
Chapter 1368 Response
"Somebody come!"
"Master?"
"Go, invite the envoy of Tuoba Xianbei to the front hall. I will be there soon."
"Here."
Ever since the ambush on the Han army at the Youzhou border a few years ago, Sima Yi had formally established an offensive and defensive alliance with Tuoba Xianbei.
He even verbally promised that as long as the Han army could be defeated, if Tuoba Xianbei wanted to take Liaodong as their habitat in the future, he would send troops from Youzhou to help.
Compared to working for Feng Guiwang and begging for food, what Sima Yi gave was undoubtedly much more generous and tempting.
This is one of the important reasons why most people in the Tuoba Xianbei tribe are willing to form an alliance with Sima Yi.
These years were the honeymoon period for Tuoba Xianbei and Sima Yi. Not only did the two sides conduct continuous trade across the border, but they also sent envoys back and forth constantly.
The Tuoba Xianbei envoy who was in Yecheng at that time was Tuoba Xilu, the second son of Tuoba Liwei and the strongest competitor of Tuoba Shamo Khan.
Tuoba Xilu received the news and rushed to the Taifu Mansion without delay:
"Foreign minister Tuoba Xilu pays homage to the Grand Tutor."
After all, although he represented the Tuoba Xianbei, for the Hu people, the remaining power of the Han Dynasty for four hundred years was still vaguely visible and had not completely dissipated.
And Ji Han's rise against the trend in recent years has the intention of re-consolidating the prestige of the Han family, which had already become vague.
Therefore, Tuoba Xilu, who came from the northern grasslands, still had a certain admiration for the Central Plains Han area.
In addition, he was just an envoy sent by Tuoba Liwei to Southern Xia. Facing Sima Yi, the lord of Hebei, he naturally had to lower his posture.
Unexpectedly, Sima Yi didn't bother to be polite with him, and directly said:
"I have received accurate information that the Han Kingdom has already sent out an army of 500,000 soldiers, planning to cross the Taihang Mountains in three groups and invade Hebei."
"Five hundred thousand?" Tuoba Xilu was shocked. "At this time?"
He looked at Sima Yi in horror, but saw that the other party had a serious expression but no sign of panic.
Tuoba Xilu calmed down and reacted. He asked again:
"Master Taifu, is the news reliable? How could the Han Kingdom send troops at this time?"
It's winter!
At this time, the grassland was facing a white disaster.
Although Nanxia is warmer than the grasslands and has more food and clothing than the grasslands, people can still freeze to death or starve to death.
It is even more incredible that the Han State wanted to cross the Taihang Mountains at this time.
Because it will only be colder and more difficult to walk in the mountains.
A gust of mountain wind is enough to make a person fall off a cliff accidentally.
Is the Emperor of Han crazy?
"Of course reliable."
Sima Taifu remained calm and patiently explained to the envoy who represented his ally:
"In fact, I received news that the Han Kingdom might send troops a month ago. At least half a month ago, the vanguard of the Han Kingdom's army had arrived in Taiyuan."
"I got the news about the commander of the Han army, so I informed Tuoba Langjun that you should come."
Tuoba Xilu asked subconsciously:
"So who is leading the Han army this time?"
"Feng Mingwen." Sima Yi glanced at Tuoba Xilu and said, "He is the Feng the Plague God that is popular on your grassland."
Whether you hate Feng or respect him, you have to admit one thing: he has profoundly changed everything on the grassland, including people and livestock.
It not only changed the way of grazing on the grassland, but also changed the way of life and even eating.
Some people on the grassland said that he was a messenger from God sent by heaven.
But Feng's reputation for slaughter - often slaughtering thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people at a time, with the speed and number of killings comparable to a plague - also made him notorious on the grassland.
Therefore, some people call him the messenger of the plague god.
Hearing this name, Tuoba Xilu's heart beat faster.
Although he had never met this person, he had expelled the Western Xianbei, slaughtered the Central Xianbei, and was famous across the grassland. Who could not have heard of this person's name?
Countless Xianbei people were either captured by him and forced to work as laborers or massacred and exterminated by him.
I heard that in the valley of Qiaoshan, you can still hear the cries of wronged souls from time to time, and in the rivers of Henan (i.e. Hetao), most of the fish and shrimp are blood red and people dare not eat them.
Not to mention the grassland, even the son of the Grand Tutor (i.e. Sima Zhao) showed fear when he mentioned this person.
According to Master Sima, when this man was in Nanzhong, there were already rumors that he "ate human flesh and blood during the day and had sex with three thousand women at night."
Later it was heard that a witch from the southern barbarians learned through divination that this man was the reincarnation of the Ghost King, so she soaked her body in a secret medicine for seven days and seven nights, and then went to serve the Ghost King Feng in person.
King Feng was so pleased that he let the Nanman go.
Regardless of whether this rumor is true or not, it can be seen from this that this person is equally cruel and ruthless to the southern barbarians, the southern Xia people and the grassland people.
Thinking of these rumors, Tuoba Xilu couldn't help but swallow his saliva:
"King Feng is leading the army himself? Five hundred thousand?"
Seeing Tuoba Xilu's somewhat nervous expression, Sima Taifu knew that this number might scare this barbarian from the grassland who had never seen the world.
He said in a gentle voice:
"It is said that there are only 500,000 soldiers. This is a false claim. There are not really that many soldiers. I estimated that there are only about 200,000."
"Add to that the civilians and auxiliary soldiers in the army, which will account for at least half, so the number of combat troops will not exceed 100,000 at most."
"One hundred thousand..." Tuoba Xilu thought it made sense when he heard it.
After all, his own tribe also claimed to have 200,000 soldiers and horses.
But those were the only people in the tribe who could ride horses.
If we count those who can ride horses and draw bows, there are only about 100,000 of them.
In reality, only 50,000 people were able to go into battle.
"One hundred thousand soldiers, divided into three groups. Even if they focus on one group, one group would only have about 50,000 soldiers at most."
Sima Taifu continued to analyze to Tuoba Xilu:
"Now Feng Mingwen is stationed in Taiyuan, and most of his generals are also with him. So in my opinion, the Han army's heavy troops must be attacking Jingxing."
Sima Yi, who had an army of more than 150,000 under his command, was not at a disadvantage in terms of numbers.
But Sima Yi's family knows their own business.
If the Han army were allowed to enter Hebei, the 150,000 men under his command might not be able to defeat Feng's 100,000 men - at least in an open battle on the battlefield, Sima Taifu was not at all confident.
Of course, Mr. Feng is known for his cunning, so if it weren't a fair fight, this thief might not be afraid of anyone.
This is very troublesome.
As the art of war says: Use the normal to unite and the unusual to win.
This thief is both a strange and skilled person, and is exactly the opponent that people are most reluctant to face.
At least 70% to 80% of the Han army's infantry were wearing armor, while on our side, it was good if ten out of a hundred people were wearing armor.
The cavalry was even more disparate, so disastrous to watch.
Both the cavalry and the cavalry were inferior to the Han army.
The weapons, armor and horses are not good enough.
The only advantage that Wei had originally possessed, horsemanship, was completely lost after the advent of the stirrup.
As for the armored cavalry...
There's no way to even mention it.
Ever since Cao Zidan was defeated at the Battle of Xiaoguan, the Wei Dynasty had thought about rebuilding the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, but due to lack of time and money, it had to give up.
When the Wei Dynasty disbanded the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry in the early years, the Wei Dynasty had already occupied the entire north, and neither Wu nor Shu had cavalry that could compete with the elite cavalry of the Wei Dynasty.
The most important thing is that the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry costs too much money and food.
To be honest, even now, Sima Yi has not fully figured out where the money, food, iron horses and cavalry from the Han Kingdom came from.
It's like they appear out of thin air continuously!
How else to explain the Han army's armor?
How to explain the weapons of the Han army?
Not to mention the cavalry.
If you want to build a cavalry from scratch, in addition to investing a lot of money and food, you also need to raise horses, train horses, and practice riding...
All of these things take time and cannot be achieved overnight.
Normally speaking, a person who can train a group of brave and combat-capable cavalry in ten years is considered a powerful figure.
Even for Wu'an Jun Li Mu, it took him several years and almost ten years to train an elite army that could defeat the Hu people.
However, the Han Kingdom was able to build an invincible armored cavalry within a few years relying only on the two states of Shu and Liang.
It is simply unjust to marry his mother!
Even if you are a disciple of the mountain sect, you still have to be reasonable, right?
You are not a disciple of an immortal sect!
Can every horse produced by your stable be a war horse?
Your war horses don’t need to eat food?
Your cavalry doesn't need training?
Oh, I know this, a trick!
Five years of hard training in riding skills are not as good as one year of training with stirrups. This kind of shortcut is simply, simply unreasonable!
Not a son of man!
……
Whenever he thought about this, even a man as shrewd as Sima Yi would feel terrified.
The Wei Dynasty has suffered repeated defeats over the years, which on the surface seem to be due to war.
In fact, it was the unreasonable rapid development of the Han State's strength and the rapid changes that were difficult to accept and understand.
Now that I think about it, it was precisely because Wei did not react at all, or was unable to understand these huge changes in the Han State, that it was repeatedly at a loss and made mistakes in its response under the enemy's constant advance.
By the time they reacted, the situation in the world had already changed.
After thinking about it carefully, I felt extremely horrified and then I felt despair.
But Master Sima could only hide this despair in his heart and dared not easily tell anyone about it.
It's not just because I have no way out, but also because I'm unwilling to give up.
"Master Taifu," Tuoba Xilu had completely calmed down at this time, and said tentatively, "The soldiers under your command are only more than those of the Han Kingdom, not less, plus they are guarding the pass."
"Then Feng Wen, well, even if Feng Wen Shen is very powerful, it would not be easy for him to break through the Taihang Mountain Pass and enter Hebei, right?"
Being sent as an envoy by Tuoba Liwei to Nanxia to see the world, Tuoba Xilu's knowledge of the Central Plains may be unremarkable, but he is definitely not a stupid man.
Sima Taifu summoned me so anxiously, probably because he wanted his own tribe to send troops to help.
But in Tuoba Xilu's opinion, not to mention that it is winter now, the tribesmen on the grassland are fighting the white disaster with all their might.
No matter how brave the warriors in the tribe are, they are still flesh and blood and will be frozen to death. How could they risk the white disaster and go south at this time?
Besides, the eagles on the grassland will only stay with other eagles in the sky and will not land on the ground to keep company with pheasants.
If the State of Wei, despite having the advantage in numbers and geographical location, cannot even defend the Taihang Mountain Pass, then they will lose the qualification to form an alliance with the Steppe Eagles.
The shrewd Sima Yi immediately realized Tuoba Xilu's thoughts.
He couldn't help but curse in his heart.
Why did your grandfather Tuoba Liwei form an alliance with me instead of submitting to the Han Kingdom? Don’t you have any idea?
If Hebei is really lost, do you think that you, a mere Tuoba Xianbei, can stop Mr. Feng from the Han State?
Not to mention the Western Xianbei and Kebi Neng, even Budugen is stronger than your Sotou.
But what about the results?
If I really cannot defend Hebei, all of you in the clan will just have to wait to work as laborers for God of the Plague Feng!
"The Taihang Mountains can certainly be defended. No matter how powerful Feng Mingwen is, he is still a human, not a god."
Even if he is a god, he is the god of you barbarians from the grassland.
No matter how elite the Han army was, it was impossible for them to cross the mountains and capture the Taihang Mountain Pass in winter.
"What I'm worried about is not the Taihang Mountains, but the grasslands to the north." Sima Yi said in a deep voice, "Lord Tuoba, you should have heard the story of Feng the Plague God crossing the desert from Liangzhou and entering Bingzhou from the north."
"No one can guarantee that he will not repeat his old tricks and send troops from Pingcheng to the south via the grassland."
Sima Taifu would certainly not tell Tuoba Xilu that he was almost certain that as long as there was a slight chance, Feng would definitely emerge from a certain pass in the north of Jizhou and Youzhou.
Since the fall of Bingzhou, the Hu people in the area from Pingcheng to Juyongguan were almost completely wiped out by the Han army.
Although there was no direct evidence, Master Sima knew that it was definitely the work of Mr. Feng.
Otherwise, how do we explain the battle at the Youzhou border?
Clearing out the Hu people in the north of Jizhou in advance would apparently cut off Jizhou's access to horses from the grassland.
In fact, in wartime, it is also easy to conceal the battlefield. With the ability of the Han cavalry, it is not difficult to set out from Pingcheng and raid Wuruan Pass (also known as Zijing Pass).
Wuruan Pass is one of the nine passes in the world.
In addition, Sima Taifu suffered another great loss.
It is naturally impossible to notice this.
So before the war started, he had already sent people to reinforce Wuruan Pass and defend it strictly.
By guarding the Wuruan Pass, we can not only prevent the Feng bandits from coming from the northern grasslands, but also prevent the Han army from entering Jizhou from Puyin Pass.
Although the northern part of Jizhou was on guard, Sima Taifu was also very worried about the northern part of Youzhou.
Compared to the Wuruan Pass which can block the enemies from the north and west, the Juyong Pass in Youzhou, which is also one of the nine passes in the world, protects the safety of the entire Youzhou.
Not to mention, the Yanshan Mountains, which stretch to the north of You and Ji states, have countless mountain passes of all sizes.
Although these mountain passes cannot allow a large army to advance across the grassland in one go, they can easily provide space for small groups of bandits to harass.
This means that although this battle appears to be using the Taihang Mountains to stop the Han army from advancing eastward, in fact a large number of troops must also be deployed on the northern defense line.
It can even be said that the battle line of this war is extremely long.
This is also the reason why Sima Taifu summoned Tuoba Xilu.
Aren’t allies on the grassland useful at this time?
As long as they sent out troops, they did not expect to defeat the Han army that entered the grassland. As long as they could continue to harass from the rear, they would prevent the Han army from easily attacking the pass from the north.
Even if they could detect the main force of the Han army on the grassland and inform themselves in advance so that they could be prepared, the pressure in the north would be greatly reduced.
After listening to Sima Taifu's analysis, Tuoba Xilu finally understood.
Well, that is indeed a problem.
Even the leaders of the various tribes in the western Xianbei and the leader of the central Xianbei, Kebi Neng, were defeated by Feng Wenshen, which is enough to show how powerful the Han cavalry was.
"But Master Taifu, no matter how powerful the Han army is, the grassland is covered with thick snow. How can their horses run?"
"Lord Tuoba, this time, the bandit Feng has sent out an army of 100,000, so it is impossible for him to retreat easily." Sima Taifu cursed him as a fool in his heart, and said earnestly, "Winter will eventually pass, and spring will eventually come."
"The accumulated snow in winter can certainly help us stop the Han army, but what about when the snow melts in spring?"
"So I ask you to send someone back to the tribe as soon as possible to inform Chief Tuoba and let him make preparations as soon as possible."
Illustration of the Battle of Hebei:
(End of this chapter)