After a big meal at Li Su's house, Liu Bei and others almost calculated the enemy forces that the Northern Expedition had to face.

As of the beginning of next year, the Guanzhong puppet dynasty still has about 230,000 troops on the books, and the source of information from Lusu is also relatively reliable, so the big numbers should not be wrong.

Among them, elite veterans who had been in the army for more than five years and had quarreled with Dong Zhuo's Qiang Rebellion, have dropped from more than 40,000 people when Dong Zhuo died to only more than 20,000 left.

Li Jue and Guo Si lost thousands of people in the battle between Chang'an and Lu Bu. The biggest loss was that almost half of Dong Yue's Central Army Generals were made of dumplings at Yangping Pass. Because at that time, each Central Army Generals basically had nearly 10,000 Pingqiang veterans, Dong Yue lost 30,000 to 40,000, of which seven or eight thousand were Pingqiang veterans, and only a small number of them ran away with Zhang Ji and Jia Xu, and were later incorporated.

In addition, Zhang Ji later fought with Han Sui, Guo Si fought with Han Sui and Ma Teng, and Ma Chao's Huating breakout, which combined the losses. It was normal for the Guanzhong army to only have more than 20,000 Pingqiang veterans left. The heavy armored cavalry Feixiong Army is also included, and there are about 6,000 people.

Among the remaining 210,000 people, who have been in the military for three years, have experienced fighting with the Kwantung coalition forces, about 900,000 to 100,000.

In early 192, there were 150,000 people in this group, and there were 140,000 left after the battle of Lu Bu, and 110,000 after the Battle of Yangping Pass. Recently, there were losses in continuous combat, and the remaining 100,000 is reasonable.

The last 110,000 people, forty thousand were the scattered soldiers and scattered prisoners just captured by Han Suima Teng, and the quality was not much higher than that of the bandits, and the seventy thousand were the new men who had been in the army for a year.

The combat experience of these strong men was limited to the battle with Han Sui-Ma Teng and Fa Zheng, and there was no chance to practice courage when they saw blood in actual combat.

As for the current internal struggle and relaxation of the Western Liang Army, they will not care much about daily training. They are basically in a state of sheep, allowing soldiers to be self-reliant. Those who refuse to train hard will naturally choose to die on the battlefield. Those who survive will definitely be willing to learn life-saving skills.

After calculating the accounts in detail, Liu Bei finally got a clear idea of ​​the question of "Why did Li Jue and Guo Si's army fight more and more and more, and he would not doubt his life, and he had worked hard to manage farming and rectify the past few years.

Although Liu Bei's Northern Expedition force was almost the same as when he discussed with Li Su, he was constrained by the supply of military rations and could only use 100,000 infantry, 20,000 cavalry, and 120,000 people.

But as long as we are united and elite enough, it is not impossible for 120,000 people to suppress 230,000 in the offensive battle.

Moreover, the thousands of Southern Xiongnu cavalry in Huchuquan who raised horse farms in Dazhong, Wudu County, and the thousands of cavalry that Ma Chaoxin joined were not included in the original plan. It is still easy to add Huchuquan and Ma Chao to a little more than 10,000 cavalry, so that the total cavalry can reach about 32,000 people.

The Northern Expedition Army's 100,000 infantry training plan was well completed, and the total amount was not adjusted, but the composition was slightly adjusted with the original plan. At the beginning of entering Sichuan, Li Su and Liu Bei considered that the Han people in Shu were not fierce, so they decided to open the Han soldiers.

The barbarian soldiers were brave and more fierce than the Han people in the south. This was caused by the living environment. Li Su of course also knew that the amount of barbarian soldiers should be controlled so as not to rely on barbarians to fight in the future, and eventually became a state of prevalence of mercenaries before the Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty or in the late Roman Empire.

During this Northern Expedition, the Wudang Flying Army could only play a restraint in the second wave of offensives, or take a path of a side division that was particularly dangerous and had to attack. Chen Cang, the main battlefield in front, should not be used.

There is also a small-scale secret force that followed Kunming Yi and Ailaoyi, that is, the one hundred war elephants sacrificed by the surrendered tribes in the South Central, and they are also dealt with, and they can only be used until the summer offensive.

Elephants are also very cold-fearing animals. The war elephants in the tropical rainforest in the south can only be active in the Guanzhong Plain in summer. Moreover, they only have three months to participate in the war, and they have to rush back immediately after the autumn harvest. I guess they can only catch up with the final battle to attack Chang'an.

...

For the last days in November, almost all the senior executives of Liubei Group were busy with the final strategic plan of division. Or they would occasionally relax and adjust their status, and other administrative affairs were handed over to the middle-level officials responsible for specific affairs as required. Li Su and Xun You had no intention of considering them.

Li Su knows the general direction of history and has a good overall view, but the specific military dispatch and command are not first-class.

Mainly due to the difficulties of the Shu Road, more than 100,000 troops could not pile up on one main attack route to attack, so all the grain trucks and ships would be piled together and they could not move forward at all. Therefore, the consistent and effective principle of "concentrating superior forces" cannot be directly improperly applied on the specific issue of the Northern Expedition from Sichuan.

The transportation capacity of those difficult roads that cannot be taken as the main attack direction cannot be wasted. We must evaluate in detail, and live within our means. How much local food can be transported and how much grain can be produced in the original land, we will divide the number of troops to attract the attention of the enemy and weaken the enemy's defensive forces in the main attack direction.

During the process of doing these things, Li Su quickly found that some of them could not keep up or were prone to neglect, so he gradually handed over to Xun You to check for omissions and fill in the gaps. Starting from late November, as Lu Su returned to Chengdu, Lu Su was also involved - Lu Su was responsible for evaluating the logistics capacity and management of each road, while Xun You considered the profit and loss of the logistics data given by Lu Su and arranged the troops of each road.

Xun You, the prefect of Shu County, has been in full swing for a year, and now Liu Bei has discovered that he has quite a vision in military strategy planning, so recently he has made a temporary adjustment to allow Xun You to join the military - that is, Liu Bei, the head commander.

The rank of the official position of joining the army fluctuates greatly, and the key is to who will join the army.

In history, before Ma Su was appointed as the prefect of Yueli before he became Zhuge Liang. Therefore, he was appointed as the prefect of the king and his rank was not necessarily lower than that of the prefect of Shu County. If he did a good job and succeeded in the Northern Expedition, the commander would be able to gain a lot of credit for joining the army, and he might become the Nine Ministers.

Xun You didn't follow Liu Bei for a long time, only two to three years, but it was entirely up to him that he had a good job in the Chang'an court, and he was obviously much older than other civil servants under Liu Bei's command. He took advantage of his "enterprise qualifications" and was normal to get a quick promotion.

In early December, Li Su provided the main ideas and general directions, Lu Su was responsible for logistics accounting, and Xun You was responsible for the specific plan of dispatching troops to the Northern Expedition, and finally came out. Everyone was relieved and could have a peaceful New Year.

The Northern Expedition Army, with a total of 132,000 people, led by Guan Yu, 40,000 Han infantry (including four of the six camps), 5,000 Yueji soldiers, and Zhao Yun's 15,000 cavalry, a total of 60,000 people. They will be the first echelon of Chen Cangdao's main attack and will break out of Dasan Pass in early February.

In general, Wu Kuang directly led Hu Chuquan, Taishi Ci and Gao Shun, with a total of 20,000 troops. He was equipped with civil servants who were more familiar with the situation in the mountains of Shu as counselors and logistics management. Because it was not important, newcomers had more opportunities to make a comeback. Not long after he entered the official position, Zhang Song, a local who had just become the county magistrate, was able to temporarily join the army, and Zheng Du was responsible for logistics.

...

With a total force of more than 130,000, and there were 27,000 left in the end, I took the Baoxiao Road - it cannot be considered "walking" the Baoxiao Road, because four or five thousand of them have already been stationed in Wuzhangyuan and Taibai Mountain in advance this winter. Some of the people who retreated from Ma Chao only temporarily retreated to Baozhong for winter. The next year, the snow can go north again.

So among these 27,000 people, there were 12,000 Han infantry soldiers, of which 9,000 needed to be transported to the front line by the plank road. There were 10,000 soldiers from Banyan Man Mountain and 5,000 Ma Chao's cavalry.

The commander of the Eastern Route Army was of course Zhang Fei, who was the best at mountain war among the senior generals under Liu Bei's tent. Zhang Fei was responsible for these 27,000 people, with Ma Chao, Xu Huang, and Wang Ping under his command. Fa Zheng was also appointed as the army, and Huang Quan was also responsible for logistics dispatch.

The 130,000 troops will be divided into good routes and batches. They will set off in December as early as December and prepare to enter the attacking position. At the latest, they will be ensured to be in place after the Yuan Dynasty in mid-January. Enter the Hanzhong area and get a break and adjust the state.

...

"This year was the most hasty year I had since I entered Sichuan. I couldn't even celebrate the Shangyuan Festival in Chengdu. I left for at least half a year. Will my wife have to go to Hanzhong with the army first?"

One day in mid-December, after returning home after the strategic meeting, Li Su showed up with his wife, thinking about the New Year and the movements of the inner house in advance.

He yawned deeply. He had been resting for a while before, but now he was in a state of continuous military arrangements. His body was still a little unacceptable. In addition, it was the coldest season of the year, and he had to take a bath to relieve his fatigue after returning home after business every day.

Unexpectedly, after listening to his plan, Cai Yan did not think he was clingy as he imagined. Instead, he said calmly: "Let's talk about it after the New Year. No hurry. I am very healthy these days, and it may be unfavorable. If there is no one around me to take care of my food and daily life, I can just take Jinse and the others to Hanzhong. I believe in my husband's character and will not mess with her."

Li Su was originally lying on the soft couch with her back on her back. Hearing this, he got up and looked up and down carefully: "How could he feel uncomfortable?"

"I don't know now, don't ask!" Cai Yan blushed and made excuses, fearing that he was embarrassed.

Li Su did not make things difficult for her at the time, and finally she ended for more than ten days. Finally, just a few days before New Year's Eve, Cai Yan told him that he had seen a doctor and it turned out that he had it.

Li Su suddenly realized: His wife has been not normal in the past few months and did not hide from dangerous days at all. Instead, he used the fact that he had been in Shu in the second half of this year and continued to flatter him. Something happened.

Looking back now, could it be that I saw that the king's concubines were pregnant, General Zhennan had a descendant, and General Fu Bo had officially married, so Cai Yan felt that he was not competitive enough with other people's wives?

"Since this is the case, your health is inconvenient, so don't walk around. After we leave, there are no men in the palace anyway. You can chat with the princess occasionally to relieve your boredom." Li Su didn't insist, just comforted his wife, and of course he couldn't help but ponder and ask what his wife thought at the beginning.

Cai Yan also explained his concerns with a look of distress and helplessness.

——
Chapter completed!