Just the next day after Guzang City was captured, Li Su personally entered the city, and was domineering and decisive to ask Wang Ping, Ma Dai and Xu Shu to temporarily put aside his work of identifying prisoners, restoring order, and restoring order. He focused his main energy on transporting supplies to Ma Chao on the front line to ensure subsequent pursuits.

"Quickly, prepare all the caravans, and gather all the cows and pack horses that can still be used. Travel ninety miles a day and arrive in Doudan County within two days. No mistakes are allowed. Wang Ping, you bring some infantry with the car to escort them."

Ma Dai is young and still a little confused:

"Didn't the scout just arrived this morning? It was said that the eldest brother defeated Guo Si in Fanhe and Rile. By the time Didan was blocked by Ruoshui, he could no longer catch up with Guo Si. Since he could not catch up, he still had to chase him so urgently? The soldiers had no rest, and the remaining rebels hiding in Guzang City were not cleared, which was very unsafe."

Ma Dai himself was so tired, but more importantly, he felt that the war between the soldiers had just ended and he was discharged in one breath. He couldn't recover for a long time and it was difficult to immediately return to a high-organizational mobilization state.

Li Su was too lazy to talk nonsense with an intermediate officer like Ma Dai who was just a mere military Sima: "The pursuit of Guo Si was like a storm, and after several quarters, it was solved. We had delayed in Guzang for so long before, so that after this quarter was cut through, Guo Si had no chance to gain a stable foothold until Jiuquan.

Jia Xu has already left many days earlier than Guo Si. Jia Xu must have done the vicious matter of pursuing the walls and clearing the wilderness and moving the treasury. Indeed, we can't change whether we are rushing to chase each other or not.

However, Jia Xu certainly has not done a purely destructive work of damaging the people, plundering the surplus grain of civilians, and even burning, killing and looting. In this regard, Guo Si is much crueler than Jia Xu, and cannot give Guo Si too much time to respond. This is also to deter the enemy, make them misjudgment the situation, and dare not resist in various counties along the way, forcing them to retreat thousands of miles."

Li Su's tactical thinking is a bit similar to chasing the enemy with vitality and crushing. The "island-jumping tactic" does not give the enemy the opportunity to defend each strong fortress, and uses his momentum to scare the enemy to retreat to the end in one breath.

Seeing that the right general's principle was so righteous, Ma Dai immediately shut up. Since Wang Ping wanted to escort some of the Qing Qiang soldiers and his troops could stay, then his people would definitely do the loading and unloading work. Wang Ping could play the role of the old man once, get in the car and rest first.

Ma Dai wiped his sweat and ordered decisively: "The whole army gathers! Go and load all the equipment, cotton coats, and jerky in the army, and take more salt to prevent accidents. It will take 20,000 people to eat for three months. Then put the remaining food, soybean meal, and cotton cloth..."

To put it bluntly, in mid-May, when the battle to attack Han Sui broke out, Li Su supervised the number of caravans for his camp, only about 700.

But now it has been halfway through August. In the three months between, the local civilians in Lintao have to farm one and a half months before and after the busy autumn harvest, and the remaining half of the time has been recruited by the government to log, process wood, and build cars. So now supporting Ma Chao for thousands of miles to pursue land, the total number of caravans that Li Su can use is close to 1,500.

Anyway, caravans will be very useful in the Western Regions' business and travel routes in the future, especially civil transportation in the Ruoshui River Basin between Wuwei County and Jiuquan County.

Even if we can re-expand the Western Regions in the future, in the humid Tianshan North and South Oasis Basins in Xinjiang, as long as there are large rivers flowing, such as the Tarim River, the Yili River, and caravans, the amphibious and land-based transportation tools are more cost-effective than traditional large trucks or even camel fleets.

Of course, the limitations of caravans are always inevitable. For example, from Jiuquan to the west, from Yumen to the later Hami and Turpan, caravans are completely a burden. These places only have dot-shaped oasis with snow-capped mountains and melting water every one or two hundred miles away. The Gobi Desert is too wide, so it is more suitable for the horse team and the camel team.

Even so, at worst, you can use a caravan between Jincheng and Jiuquan and Yumen. From Yumen to central Xinjiang to cross the Turpan Desert, you can use a horse and camel team. After passing Turpan, you can enter an area with Tianshan Snow River and then use a caravan. In short, building more amphibious caravans will definitely be of great benefit to the logistics costs in the process of developing the Western Regions, and you will not have to worry about extra waste after the battle.

Ma Dai's soldiers worked hard all day and loaded the goods. The convoy went west under Li Su's personal supervision. After walking for about two days, it only arrived at Doudan County near Ruoshuiyuan on August 20th.

Li Su still planned to follow Ma Chao to go west a little this time. However, he would definitely not go to Juyanhai or leave Yumen Pass. At most, he would use Jiuquan County as Li Su's terminal. If Guo Si escapes further in the future, he would have to let Ma Chao chase him. Li Su and go there too is too dangerous.

On the one hand, this is because the ruler should indeed understand the local people's conditions. He may not have the opportunity to come again in the future and deeply understand the shortcomings that need to be solved in the local area. It is very necessary.

Since Emperor Huan came to power in the Han Dynasty, there have been more than 20 years of war in Western Liang and fifteen years of intermittent peace. The princesses in the court advocated giving up Liangzhou or even giving up Guanzhong, which made the Qiang and Hu fend for themselves. So much so that since Duan Yi's death, no one in the court actually understood the Qiang affairs, nor did he know how to govern the Qiang people, and he didn't even know what the Qiang people had.

At most, they just think that "the Qiang people just want to rob" and solve the problem with one-size-fits-all approach. Such an attitude will definitely not be able to manage Xiliang well, and it is even more impossible to reopen the Western Regions.

Since the people of the court regarded the people of Xiliang seriously as human beings, they only felt that they were all beasts like Dong Zhuo, Li Jue and Guo Si, so Li Su had to conduct research. The premise was that they could not be personally in danger, and they could not endure obvious hardships in life.

...

Ma Chao repaired the city of Dedan County for three days to restore the troops to their state and morale. Seeing Li Su personally escorting the supply convoy with thousands of soldiers was also very surprised and moved:

"How could the Right General come here in person? It's so hard. And now halfway through August, the Hu land is in a bitter cold. Guo Si's remaining cavalrymen are only 15,000. From now on, there will be no strong city that can hold on like Guzang. Guo Si can mostly fight to the death. I'll deal with him enough."

Li Su shook the fan bone and signaled that Ma Chao not to be too careful: "Don't underestimate the enemy. I'm not here to help you come to the battle formation. I just pretend to be exploring the road to the Western Regions and see how much logistics can be improved by using a caravan. You said you are sure to annihilate Guo Si, but have you ever thought about how many soldiers you can take to attack? Will you starve to death on the way?"

Ma Chao was stunned: "I have lived in Wuwei for a long time and am quite familiar with the local area, so I won't be like this, right? However, General Right reminded me that I also thought of some difficulties: Now at most half a month, the autumn grass will wither, and even the forage for war horses must be shipped with the army in a cart.

If by October, some sections of the river may dry up, and if the weather is cold enough, the shallow areas will freeze. At that time, the schooner will completely lose its advantage of flowing downstream, and can only be dragged by horses.

No wonder Guo Si had to drag the time to transport supplies to the rear before, but did not give our army the opportunity to quickly take down Guzang. Maybe in addition to eating more of Guzang's stored grain and strengthening the walls and clearing the fields, the weather was cold and the horses had no grass. I didn't even think about it at the beginning, Jia Xu was really vicious."

Li Su shook her head, feeling that Ma Chao's understanding was obviously not comprehensive enough: "You only think that horses have no wormwood after the cold winter, which is not weak enough along the water coast. In some areas, I am afraid that the grass is not enough for autumn to eat, right? Maybe Guo Si's troops will pass first, and his horses will eat grass. Even if the season is normal, there will be no grass."

Ma Chao frowned and thought about it carefully: "We have to be careful of this situation, but according to my understanding of Xiliang, until Jiuquan, as long as it is not covered by university in winter, the forage must be enough to pass by the horses. The situation you are talking about is unless you go north from Jiuquan, far from the Qilian Mountains and enter the depths of the Gobi Desert, and go directly to the Juyan Sea."

Li Su: "So we have to make the worst plan, I calculated this way. There are information obtained during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. When Emperor Wu fought Huo Qubing to Juyanhai, he set out from Jincheng, passed through Jiuquan, Guzang, Zhangye, and sent him one man, five horses, four horses to transport supplies, and one horse rides and fights. The pack horse can also be replaced with the data of riding occasionally. Is it okay?"

Ma Chao calculated his mind and nodded: "Absolutely, when Emperor Wu was so qualified for Huo Piqi, he must have transported all the horse materials by carrying them, so it was so expensive.

A horse carries more than 600 kilograms of Han jin, and each cavalry carries four horses to transport supplies. It is equivalent to a cavalry and his horse, which requires 2,500 kilograms of Han jin, which can be driven from Jincheng to Juyanhai."

This data sounds very exaggerated by laymen, but it is mainly because the stacking efficiency is too low. After adding more horses, the horse itself has to eat grass and drink water. After passing Jiuquan, even the horses eat the horses themselves have to carry the horses themselves, and the more horses they consume, the more they consume.

A bit like "the larger the moon rocket is, the more fuel it needs to send the fuel itself to heaven", and it will eventually fall into a dead cycle. Unless you can do a multi-stage rocket and throw away the fuel barrel after the fuel is burned out, but that's so expensive, Li Su will definitely not be willing to let it go.

For example, if Li Su does not have a caravan, he can choose to "let the horse team concentrate on eating some of the supplies on the horse's back first, and kill the empty horse directly after eating." This can reduce a lot of terrifying logistical losses, so that horses that have no power to transport will no longer waste food, and will kill them as soon as they are used to dry out.

Fortunately, Li Suyou had a caravan, and he had no need to think about the terrifying means he needed to consider during Emperor Wu of Han. (Don’t get me wrong, Emperor Wu of Han didn’t do that, the above is just a hypothesis)

Therefore, Li Su just followed the algorithm admitted by Ma Chao and continued to calculate: "Even if each cavalry needs 2,500 kilograms of transportation capacity from Jincheng to Juyanhai, our current new caravan, six horses pulling cart, and 15,000 kilograms of transportation capacity is equivalent to the original twenty-four horses that were used for six cavalry during Huo Qubing.

Therefore, the reason why Guo Si and Jia Xu felt that they still had a glimmer of hope was that they must be based on the fact that Ma Chao's horses may not even be 15,000 after a fierce battle. Maybe they can only support three thousand cavalrymen to chase Juyanhai. Therefore, they felt that the three thousand cavalry were not afraid of at all. This is the confidence they had to retreat decisively and thoroughly.

But now we rely on the 15,000 horses you have, plus the additional captures when fighting against the Qiang tribe and pursuing Guo Si, we will be counted as 18,000 horses. At that time, nine thousand horses will be pulled, and all of these five hundred horses will be transported away, and nine thousand will be allowed to cavalry to ride.

As for the extra cavalry you have, stay in Zhangye or chase at most to Jiuquan. Don’t stay away from the Qilian Mountain Corridor, save transportation capacity to ensure that the 9,000 people in the final battle can fully exert their combat power. Guo Si and Jia Xu are in accordance with the fact that you can only use three or four thousand people to Juyanhai, and think they can still fight. At that time, you can let tens of thousands of cavalry reach such a far-reaching barren land. Will their final hope be completely shattered?"

When Ma Chao heard this, he couldn't help scratching his head. His math was too poor and he couldn't calculate the logistics account at all. If he had asked him to do this strategic plan in person today, maybe after he chased Jiuquan, if Guo Si didn't kill Guo Si, he would really be able to kill all the cavalry left with him as many people as he left to Juyanhai.

If you really do that, it is probably possible to win, but on the way back, many people might starve to death or have to kill a large number of horses to eat horse meat to supply.

Fortunately, Li Su came in person and calculated the accounts with him using the idea of ​​almost modern mathematics and modern military logistics coordination.

"The planning of the right general really makes me ashamed! The right general is guided by everything. You think I will lead as many soldiers as I lead to chase and kill." Ma Chao was taught sincerely.

When actually doing it, Ma Chao could actually bring a little more, such as bringing a full 10,000 troops. Because the energy density of the war horse food brought by Li Su is relatively high, it saves weight. There is a large amount of soybean meal collected in Longxi, which is easier to make the horse full and replenish energy than eating wheatgrass or other ingredients, so it cannot be calculated completely based on the data when Huo Qubing was about to be counted.

But when he hit Ma Chao, Li Sude said it was easier for the enemy to be more lenient.

After the two of them finished their work, Li Su concluded: "Boqi, from tomorrow, you will continue to pursue quickly with your cavalry. Before arriving at Jiuquan, you don't have to wait for me for the time being, because in this section of Jiuquan, you only need to carry food with you, and horses still have grass to eat everywhere. It is important to seize the city as quickly as possible.

Once the supplies are exhausted, some people will be left to guard the cities along the way, concentrate the supplies to the front army, and let the left-behind troops wait for my convoy to catch up slowly, and then follow up after I get the supplies. After all, my convoy can only travel 80 miles a day. After you arrive at Jiuquan, wait for me to replenish it again."

Ma Chao received the order and strictly implemented Li Su's plan the next day and continued to pursue and grab the city.

Everything was indeed as Li Su expected. Guo Si and Jia Xu knew that they would defend the small towns in the middle, and they did not intend to waste their troops in vain, so they were indeed unstoppable and solved.

Ma Chao almost fought and advanced to a county town at the speed of winning the battle and taking over Wulan County, and on the 22nd, he took over Zhangye County and Zhaowu, a neighboring county further northwest. He defeated Biao family in twenty-three, defeated Lewan in twenty-four, and arrived at Jiuquan in twenty-sixth.

Of course, Li Su, who walked much slower, only arrived in Zhaowu this genius.

Moreover, Li Su quickly paid the price for his decision to "let Ma Chao enter and grab territory and the baggage team go slowly."

Because I just passed Zhangye, I was still in the Gobi field between Zhangye and Zhaowu, on the banks of the Ruoshui River.

Li Su's convoy was attacked by Guo Si Yu Nie and some Qiang tribes who settled in the valley of the Ruoshui tribe of the Qilian Mountains in Zhangye.

As expected, it is inevitable that the logistics troops would be exposed to their gaps when they were running fast. After all, Li Su had already thought of this possibility a few months ago when he was preparing for the battle in Lintao.
Chapter completed!