General Qin

Compared with the real northward retreat of the Huns.

The main force of the Qin army south of the big river withdrew lonely.

The army moved southward for more than ten li, and set up camp again in an open area.

A large number of cavalry of the Qin army were sent out to patrol and guard. At the same time, the Qin soldiers stationed along the river all cheered up and patrolled along the river with bows and crossbows, in case the Huns sent scouts across the river to detect the whereabouts of the Qin army. trace.

The so-called southward retreat was just Zhao Tuo's last move to trick the Prairie Wolf King.

Before making a move, feign a retreat.

This is exactly: soldiers are deceitful.

"General, our army can use more than 75,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry here, and the food can last for about ten days. The rear army still has 5,000 cavalry and 20,000 Yuezhi cavalry. According to this, it is half a day away. In addition, the boat division coming from the direction of Helan has nearly 10,000 infantry, and the food and fodder loaded can last half a month for the army. An order from the general has been sent to order the boat division to stop at the upper reaches of the river until nightfall. Down the river. Our army loaded arrows..."

Standing in the tent, Chief Shi Xiao He reported to Zhao Tuo and the generals all the details of the Qin army's strength, food, fodder and supplies.

Zhao Tuo nodded in satisfaction after listening to the data.

Don't look at Xiao He's report is just a plain number, at first glance you can't see anything special.

But logistics management requires such detailed and well-organized.

In this position, no one needs to make any extraordinary achievements. As long as the logistics management of the army can be done in an orderly manner without mistakes, and the general can understand the various situations of the army at a glance, that is the greatest contribution.

Ordinary people who can manage the logistics of hundreds or thousands of people are considered very capable.

Someone like Xiao He who can sort out the situation of a 100,000 army can be called a good talent.

"Historically, when discussing meritorious officials in the early Han Dynasty, Henkel took Xiao He as the greatest contributor and called him a meritorious person, while the rest of the officials were all meritorious officials. This is precisely because he saw the importance of logistics."

Zhao Tuo secretly sighed in his heart, and turned his attention back to the strength of the Qin army.

This time he attacked the Xiongnu in the north, because of the difficulty of traveling by land, and because he had to keep troops to guard Helan and other places, the soldiers he brought with him were only 60,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry. After crossing the desert, they merged with Yang Yuan's division in the north, and the strength of the Qin army reached 75,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry.

As for the 20,000 Yueshi cavalry and the 5,000 Qin cavalry who are in charge of monitoring, they are only here now because they were afraid that the Huns would see through the plot of the Qin army if they leaked their traces. Therefore, Zhao Tuo decided to recruit them before the start of the war in order to maintain concealment. .

Finally, adding the supporting soldiers on the Qin Army's boat division, Zhao Tuo's available troops in this battle were 85,000 infantry and 35,000 cavalry, a total of 120,000 troops.

And this is only the strength of the soldiers on the surface. If Su Jiasha's 20,000 soldiers are counted, it will reach a terrifying 140,000 soldiers.

"The Xiongnu have just gone through the civil strife, and there should be less than 100,000 soldiers to fight. If you are more generous, count Touman as 100,000."

"One hundred and forty thousand against one hundred thousand."

The corner of Zhao Tuo's mouth curled up slightly, and he looked at the generals under his command in the tent.

Yang Yuan, Zhao Guang, Sima Liang, Wang Li...

Officially began to discuss the specific tactics this time.

...

On September 16th, the twenty-seventh year of Qin Shihuang, the moon was very round.

On the grassland not far from the north bank of the Dahe River, there is a forest of felt tents.

This is the five thousand Huns led by Yi Hanxie, the right general.

Touman Shanyu led his army back to the north, and left him stationed here to guard against the Qin people in the south.

But when it comes to precaution and vigilance, few Huns take it to heart.

Because of the agreement between the Qin people and Da Shanyu, Qin's army has already retreated southward.

The scouts of the Xiongnu once saw the black army marching out of the camp. This is what they saw with their own eyes, and it must be true.

Therefore, the Xiongnu army staying here is in a relaxed and happy atmosphere.

Under the bright moonlight, the livestock are already at rest.

Because there are no women here, the ordinary Huns who have no entertainment mostly go to sleep early.

Only General You and a few nobles were drinking kumiss and chatting about various things in the tent.

"King Zuoguli has surrendered to the Great Shanyu and vowed never to betray him again."

A Xiongnu nobleman clapped his hands and said: "This is the best. The Great Chanyu is our Hun's heaven. Only with the Great Shanyu can we fight against the Yuezhi and the Qin people."

However, there were also people who got drunk and joked, "Da Shan is the sky, but he is also an old pervert. Can you see Da Shan Yu looking at the appearance of that Yue family lady? I look at him, saying Taking in Yuezhi people, I am afraid that after returning home, I will ride them like horses."

"Hahaha, that woman of the Yue family looks very strange. I heard that she has the blood of the west. I have never seen a woman with this appearance, let alone Da Shanyu. Even I saw it and wanted to ride it. , I don’t know what it’s like.”

After a group of Xiongnu nobles got drunk, they began to chat about colorful topics.

Even because of Touman Shanyu's previous appearance of losing prestige, they lost a little bit of respect, and kept talking about all kinds of obscene and obscene words, only laughter was heard in the tent.

The general on the right, Yi Hanxie, burped and felt that the scene was not very good, so he named one of the Xiongnu nobles.

"Ma Lida, it's your turn to inspect the river tonight. Stop drinking, and take your subordinates, go."

Ma Lida, who was drowsy, responded, remembering that it was indeed his time to patrol the river tonight.

Before Touman Shanyu left, he ordered the right general to pay attention to the movement of the Qin people in the south, and to send people to patrol the river bank day and night to prevent accidents.

After all, he was attacked by the Qin people once at night, so he was prepared for it.

General You did let people do this, and sent people to patrol along the river every day and night.

However, nothing happened for a few days, and Qin's army had already moved south, so they just treated it as a superficial matter, and no one paid attention to it.

Under such circumstances, as soon as the drunk Ma Lida stepped out of the tent and was blown by the autumn night wind, he immediately didn't want to go patrolling the river.

He shivered, and muttered: "It's very windy and cold at night, and the riverside can't be seen clearly. Why are you going to patrol the river? Besides, the army of the Qin people is gone. There is nothing to be prepared for, even if the Qin people If they didn’t leave, they didn’t have bridges or boats, so what else could they do across the river.”

Thinking of this, Ma Lida breathed out alcohol and spoke to the followers around him.

"Help me back to the tent, I can't hold it anymore, I have to go back to sleep."

...

Under the bright moon, the river surged and shimmered.

On the south bank of the river, a large number of Qin troops took advantage of the darkness to build a small pier suitable for ships to dock on a flat river bank.

Behind the pier, there was a pitch-black wave, and in the moonlight one could see that they were moving human heads.

"General, my Great Qin's boat master is here!"

Chen Ping yelled, and pointed in the direction of the upper reaches of the river.

Everyone looked around.

I saw a huge long snake flowing down the river in the dazzling waves in the west. When we got close, we could see clearly that it was a huge fleet under the moonlight.

"The last general, Yang Xiong, met the top general."

After the boat master docked, General Qin, who got off the boat, saluted Zhao Tuo.

This made Zhao Tuo startled, the person who came was actually an old acquaintance, it was his former colleague in the palace and his old boss Yang Xiong when he was in Wei.

"Lieutenant Yang is exempt."

Zhao Tuo smiled.

Yang Xiong raised his head, cupped his hands and said: "My boat division, listen to the general's orders."

As he spoke, Yang Xiong winked at Zhao Tuo.

Zhao Tuo couldn't help laughing, feeling a sense of intimacy in his heart.

Although this brother Yang is of mediocre ability, he is a character who can listen to people's words. Although he was Zhao Tuo's boss in Weidi in the past, he completely delegated the power to Zhao Tuo. He did what Zhao Tuo said.

Such good use of the advantages of his subordinates, coupled with the fact that Yang Xiong was born in the Yang family, during the Qin army's conquest of the six kingdoms, although Yang Xiong did not soar in the title like Zhao Tuo, he also rushed to the title of the right concubine.

Now he is working under Qiang Li, as a school lieutenant, and was ordered to lead the boat division to support.

"That guy Qiang Yan, didn't he let go of Yueshi Xihou to fear I would scold him, knowing that Yang Xiong is my friend, and sent him here to show his kindness to me?"

Zhao Tuo shook his head. Now is the critical moment of the war, so he stopped thinking about it.

The boat division was loaded with a large amount of grain and grass, and Zhao Tuo immediately ordered the civilian men accompanying the army to get on the boat and unload the grain and grass.

After the food and grass were unloaded, the ships, under Yang Xiong's dispatch, began to line up to build a pontoon bridge for the troops to pass through.

The river section here was carefully selected by the Qin army. The river is relatively gentle, and the terrain on both sides is open, which is suitable for building a bridge.

After being busy in the middle of the night, a pontoon bridge composed of boats appeared in front of Zhao Tuo.

Zhao Tuo stood on the shore, followed by many advisers and generals.

Further back, there is an endless black army.

He looked across the river, where the weeds were swaying in the wind in the hazy moonlight.

Zhao Tuo took a deep breath, raised his arms and shouted.

"Cross the river!"