The conversation was divided into two parts. Five days before Ma Chao chased him to Jiuquan and Li Su arrived in Zhangye, Guo Si had already escaped to Jiuquan on a moonlit road, and in Jiuquan City, he met Jia Xu, who had already returned to the rear to carry out the mission of clearing the wilderness in the sturdy walls.

After all, no matter how fast Ma Chao pursued, he had to divide his troops and pacify the counties, and it was impossible to run wildly. Guo Si did not have these worries and could pass the city without entering, so the distance between him and Ma Chao was actually getting bigger and bigger.

After arriving in Jiuquan, when he met Jia Xu, Guo Si almost couldn't resist the internal strife, at least he criticized him for being crazy:

"Coward! If you hadn't had to leave early, could our guards in Guzang be able to expose the truth about you running for your own life by Li Su, and the morale of the army would be ruthless for three days?

You have the shame of saying that you didn’t use the banner, and you would not affect your morale without knowing it. You didn’t even understand how to deal with Li Su’s fraudulent confession, so you ran away!”

Jia Xu was also very depressed. He did not expect that Li Su would expose him to run away as soon as he came up, and he also seized this point to hit Guo Sijun's morale, making them feel that they were abandoned. From this perspective, for his own safety, Jia Xu was indeed a bit of a murder or a burial.

He knew that there would be no good end to argue directly. He just waited for Guo Si to have an affair, and then he tactfully admitted his mistake while implying that Guo Si had come to this point, so he could only work together to look forward. Recalling old accounts would not help the next stage of self-preservation and self-preservation.

"General Cavalry, I'm wrong with this, because I'm not careful enough to be sure. But let's think about how to take advantage of the winter weather to hold off Ma Chao's pursuit this year. If Ma Chao's pursuers can return in a desperate situation in the cold winter, he might not have the courage to make a move again next year.

Now that the heroes are rising together, Liu Bei is not able to use his national strength to waste the border for a long time. This year or next year, the reason why he is still focused on dealing with us is simply because His Majesty is still there and General Zhu Ye is still alive, so that the princes from all sides have no excuse to clear the king.

But I think Zhu Yan's life span is almost the same. Before we lost Chang'an, we heard that he was ill all year round. As long as we could survive these two years, once the two Yuan and Liu Bei rebelled, Liu Bei would not care about the disease of tinea scabies that had already escaped and had no threat to him?"

I have to say that Jia Xu's words are similar to those of Gongsun Zan before his death in history. The reason why Gongsun Zan defended Yijing Tower and compared the war of food attrition with Yuan Shao was that he relied on "the world's heroes were in conflict, and no one could stop the troops from expending their troops under the strong city for several years."

And to be honest, if Gongsun Zan's plan was not captured by Yuan Shao in 199 by using the cave-sieged city siege method in history, but he had to hold on for one more year, he might have survived. Because the sudden battle of Guandu occurred the next year. If Yuan Cao fought by the Yellow River, how could he still have to take care of Gongsun Zan?

However, Gongsun Zan's luck was indeed not enough, and the time-consuming strategy became a laughing stock.

Therefore, Jia Xu's plan is not ridiculous purely from a strategic perspective. On the contrary, it is the best spare tire that can be imagined in the current state. What's more, Jia Xu is more clever than Gongsun Zan lies in his heart that he is very clear about "how long it takes to last and what variable conditions appear before there will be a turning point."

Gongsun Zan could not see the most thoroughly, and could only look forward to a general expectation of "the world will change", and could not be specific to "looking forward to Yuan and Cao's rebellion."

Jia Xu saw it very clearly that he could let everything else be, delaying time until Zhu Jun died.

Now all the princes in the world are secretly looking forward to Zhu Jun's death as soon as possible.

Jia Xu and Guo Si said a lot of constructive encouragement to look forward, which brought Guo Si back.

Then Guo Si asked if Jia Xu could hold on to Jiuquan. After all, since Guzang, he had been chased by Ma Chao for seven or eight hundred miles. Even if it was only considered that Zhangye County began to escape, it would be more than six hundred miles.

Jia Xu predicted: "I originally planned to try to stick to it in Jiuquan, but you, Guzang, lost too quickly, and Ma Chao's pursuit after breaking through Guzang was faster than expected, so as today's energy, the environment is not enough to eliminate the supply of horses and grass supplies from Ma Chao's army.

Fortunately, I made preparations and used ships to transfer most of the supplies in Jiuquan to continue to flow downstream along the weak water. We must make plans to go directly to Haixi County (Juyanhai) to spend the winter to waste Ma Chao.

On the other hand, if the General of the Cavalry is worried, I will let me divide a little force to defend the city of Jiuquan this time, or go to the Qilian Mountains to connect some Qiang tribes. At that time, Ma Chao will dare to cross Jiuquan and chase Haixi County. We can come out of Qilian Mountains here to fight guerrillas and intercept Ma Chao's logistics supplies."

Guo Si was very moved when he heard this, and thought Jia Xu had regretted and was not afraid of his reforms. He didn't know that Jia Xu was thinking in his heart: When Jiuquan City was lost, we would pretend to be afraid of the crime and burn the county magistrate's office, leave some bodies and put on our official uniforms and hang our seals...

Then I was about to leave with my name.

Even if you take some money and weapons, bring some personal soldiers, and make friends with some Hexi Qiang and Hu tribes in hiding their names, go to Hexi, and take some areas controlled by the Hu people in Hetao, and escape to Guandong.

Of course, in Jia Xu's heart, this step was absolutely necessary. Guo Si really had no hope and left. Moreover, he had already drawn a bottom line for himself: before Zhu Jun died, he would never surrender to any princes.

Because his reputation was so bad, he would be rewarded by the princes as a bargaining chip to be loyal to the emperor.

Even if Zhu Jun dies, it depends on whether the current emperor is still there. If the emperor is gone one day, the princes in the world don’t have to consider expressing their loyalty to Liu Xie. Only then can he consider finding a prince other than Liu Bei to make a living.

Guo Si didn't think much about it, he just asked Jia Xu how to do it.

Jia Xu also said, "Ma Chao's main force pursued him, and the supply line in the rear is thousands of miles long. As long as the baggage and the main force do not act together, they have to transport it back and forth multiple times, they will definitely be caught and cut off their food route."

Guo Si was relieved and stayed in Jiuquan for a day or two, and with all the main cavalry and the remaining weapons, he continued to retreat to Haixi County along the weak water.

Only then three days later did Ma Chao chase him to Jiuquan. Jia Xu's confidant resisted symbolically. When the city finally broke, "against the crime and set fire" left a burnt corpse in the Jiuquan County Magistrate's Mansion with Jia Xu's seal and ribbon.

When Ma Chao got the charred corpse, he thought it was done. Although he tortured and asked about Jia Xu, he was helpless that Jia Xu could still afford a small group of loyal and loyal soldiers around him. He arranged it very cleverly, and only the most core people knew that the charred corpse was not Jia Xu, so no matter how Ma Chao tortured and asked about it, he had no result.

In the end, it was made into an iron case, sealed the Jiao head and seal, and sent it back to the rear to report the merits. The trusted guards of Jia Xu who had no value were of course executed by Ma Chao according to law.

...

The weak water is 1,800 miles long, and the first 800 miles long, flowing along the northern foot of the Qilian Mountains. Every 100 miles apart, there is a relatively wide tributary with abundant water, which gathers and flows out from the valley on the northern slope of the Qilian Mountains and injects into the weak water main stream.

As mentioned earlier, whenever such tributaries appear, the valley will feed a settlement tribe of tens of thousands of Qiang people because of the abundant water and grass, and will not travel.

At the same time, the intersection of these tributaries injected into weak water is often the place where the Han people set up county towns. For example, the largest weak water tributary in Zhangye County flows over the south of Zhangye County, the county seat, and injects weak water at this point in Zhangye.

Before his fake death, Jia Xu had actually brought his personal guards and a group of treasures that were left untouched in Jiuquan City and came to this area to lobby. He found the Shaoge tribe of the Qiang tribe in Zhangye Valley in the Qilian River Valley south of Zhangye, as well as the Kewu tribe of the Qiang tribe in Zhaowu Valley.

These tribes actually celebrated a little with Guo Si and Jia Xu because Jia Xu had plundered and squeezed them out before, mainly to plunder the grain and excess livestock.

But knowing that these tribes are of value, Jia Xu paid for his money by staying at the front line of his life, which could only be considered as a forced purchase and a forced sale.

Jia Xu knew very well that at this point, no matter how much gold, silver and copper coins left in Guo Si’s camp were useless. As long as he finally fled with a few confidants, he needed to live after arriving in Guandong, the rest of the money he needed to live without his life and death, would be better to use as a bargaining chip to convince the Qiang people.

Moreover, if you leave the money to these Qiang kings, it doesn’t matter even if they are snatched away by Ma Chao. Ma Chao is hungry, unable to eat cold, and cannot be converted into horses and weapons within the year, so it will not enhance Ma Chao’s pursuit potential.

For the sake of money, the Shaoge tribe and the Kowu tribe did not make things too difficult for Jia Xu. Jia Xu told them the truth that "the lips were dead and the teeth were cold", and they could accept it.

Jia Xu said: If Ma Chao and Li Su cannot be driven away, Liu Bei will establish a Guandong people in Xiliang to govern the high-level ruler in the Hexi Corridor, and the life of the Qiang tribe will be even more unwilling to do anything. If there is too much population, it will not be so easy to rob.

These Qiang kings were originally someone who wanted to establish a stable Han ruling order. They would be somewhat unwilling to try to resist. They would not be completely convinced if they had never seen how much Ma Chao and Li Su's knife were.

I heard from Jia Xu that Ma Chao's troops will advance soon, and just let the main force rob Ma Chao's baggage troops be spared. Are these people still overjoyed?

How can you miss a good thing like running a transportation team?

So, after a coincidence operation, the Qiang King of the Russian He tribe and the Qiang King of the Kewu tribe led the troops to prepare and scatter scouts every day to inquire about the enemy situation in the Ruoshui River Basin. Before Jia Xu left, he also left some of his troops to help with the investigation and matchmaking work. Then Jia Xu himself disappeared (the Qiang Kings later thought that Jia Xu was burned to death in Jiuquan City)

Three or four days after Ma Chao's main force passed by Zhangye, King Shao Ge and King Kewu finally caught Li Su, a big fat sheep. I heard that there were 1,500 very heavy trucks, but only 5,000 people including the driver drove the truck. Each car was spread out to less than four soldiers, and there were no full-time cavalry troops to escort. How could they bear such a large amount of money?

The one who has a big vote, the winter food and livestock that were bought and sold by Jia Xu before came back, and he could make several times more profitable!

...

On Li Su's side, when he encountered the enemy, he was about the west of Zhangye County and east of Zhaowu County, and more than 40 miles away from the front and rear county towns.

It can be seen that the Qiang tribe robbed the grains had calculated the distance. He knew that Li Su's convoy had to walk for a whole day from Zhangye to Zhaowu, so he specially picked him until noon, and was the farthest from the county towns in front and back, so it was difficult to find the city to defend immediately.

He has a rich experience in robbery, and at first glance he is a veteran who specializes in committing crimes with "wild boar forest".

Li Su was sitting in his caravan with lengthened and widened bulletproof boards, and heard Wang Ping's tone slightly panic to inform the enemy: "Right General! It should be Guo Sijun and the local Qiang King join forces to rob us of supplies! There are too many, I'm afraid there are tens of thousands of people."

Li Su's hand just shook slightly, but his wife was also in the same car as him, and she continued to conceive the "Fu of the West" and add chapters to the future. How could he be embarrassed in front of women?

Li Su pretended to be calm and asked: "Ten thousand people? How could there be so many war soldiers? The Qiang tribes with more than ten thousand households nearby have their own strength? I have checked it. Come and take a telescope."

Li Su personally observed from a distance for a while and saw that the enemy troops gushing out of the Qilian Valley in the distance were really dark and elusive. However, the battle behind seemed to be disproportionate to the size of the people, and the front was dragged very far. Not most people were riding horses.

After seeing the equipment level of the enemy in the front row and the overall cavalry proportion, Li Su was roughly aware of it, and in turn comforted Wang Ping: "Don't panic, you have never seen large-scale cavalry combat, so it is normal to misjudgment. Just form a chariot array according to the tactics of breaking cavalry and robbery practiced before departure.

These Qiang people are about to start winter, and they have no farm work or grazing. The whole family is coming to carry things. It is estimated that there are many people because they are fast, and they are afraid that they will not be dizzy when they divide the spoils. It would be good if there are more than 10,000 people in real cavalry warriors. We use crossbow arrows and super long cone guns at will, and you can waste them at will, even if they spill, they are afraid that the chariot array will not be able to repel two or three times the cavalry?"

Li Su guessed it right. The total number of young and strong Qiang soldiers brought by King Shao Ge and King Kewu was only more than 10,000. After all, the Qiang tribe could not produce too many horses, so it would be nice to have a few families with one horse that they could ride. The remaining ones seemed to have tens of thousands of people, and they all came to fight for the Autumn Wind to boost their momentum.

Seeing that Li Su was so confident and commanded, Wang Ping was relieved.

Of course, no matter how Wang Ping is fighting, Li Su's life safety is definitely fine. If there is really danger, put on iron armor and let Dian Wei concentrate the cavalry guards to break through.

These Qiang kings didn't know how valuable Li Su was. When they saw that Li Su gave up his supplies, they would be too busy to kill them all.

However, the appearance of these Qiang kings is still somewhat different from the tactics of "counter-robbery robbery" deduced by Li Su and Xu Shu. That is, during the tactical deduction a few months ago, Li Su asked the convoy to walk on the south bank of the weak water, and used a caravan to easily cross multiple tributaries on the south bank without any trouble. The cavalry robbery he estimated was from the Great Gobi Desert in the northeast.

But today, because the main force coming to fight was not Guo Si's direct cavalry, but the Qiang tribe in the Qilian Mountain Valley. These people originally came along the valley of the weak water tributary of the south. Li Su went to the weak water in Henan, and the reaction time was shorter.

But considering that it was just a war chess deduction by Li Su and Xu Shu a few months ago, the battle has been fought for so long, and there will definitely be changes in the situation. For specific emergencies, who can really calculate all the chaos deduction like the Laplace demon?

Li Su can ensure that 80% of the accuracy is accurate, and that the main part is roughly accurate, which is already amazing.

In order to make up for the last one or two percent of the defects in detail, Li Su also paid a little price.

When Wang Ping formed a car formation according to the Eight Formation Chart, due to insufficient time, there were more than 100 vehicles, accounting for about one-tenth of the total force. He was unable to move in place for a while and was blocked by the river when he was alone. He could only fight against a small number of cars with scattered cars.

The remaining 90% of the vehicles were not able to form a circular formation or a standard moon formation. The formation depth was much thinner than the predetermined tactics, just an arc formation with a relatively small arc. The subsequent one could only slowly shrink the two wings in while fighting.

Wang Ping's formation did not succeed in establishing a stable position, and there was not enough time. These disadvantages were ecstatic in the eyes of the Qiang kings on the opposite side.

Especially when King Shaoge led his direct cavalry to kill several Han soldiers who were placed in single caravans, his confidence became even more strong, and he thought to himself:

"The Han army wants to form a formation to resist the cavalry charge! But their formation is too thin! It is several miles wide from east to west, and only seventy or eighty steps thick from north to south, so it can be pierced through with just one rush! And as long as you approach and shoot arrows, even the last chariots in the enemy formation are within the range of the bow and arrow. We shoot at the flag formation of the generals in the enemy formation and smash the flag formation, and the rest will not be able to cause trouble for the entire army?"

King Shaoge and King Kewu tacitly launched a full-scale charge, trying to break through the flag formation and destroy the Han army's will to resist.

"Swoosh swish swish swish" the dense shooting of thousands of bows and the rapid charge with thunderous hooves, the momentum is not amazing.

The arrows were nailed to several layers of chassis inside and outside the vehicle array, and one and a half inches of thick wood could not be shot through. As the previous waves of arrow rain almost failed, the morale of the Han army protecting the grain instantly recovered, and even if the enemy had several times more, they were not very panicked.

At the same time, because many Han army chariots were equipped with crossbows, the crossbows had a relatively close range, and the hit rate was only 50 steps, and it was best to put it within 30 steps. Therefore, the Qiang soldiers began to shoot arrows from 100 steps to 70 or 80 steps, and the firepower of the Han army at the beginning did not seem strong.

Even if there is a strong crossbow, Li Su also cared for Wang Ping to take advantage of the enemy's underestimation and attack, and immediately gave a decisive and severe blow, in order to shock the enemy's courage with one blow.

The Qiang soldiers in Xiliang became more and more arrogant. They saw that they rushed to fifty or thirty steps - they were honest and did not encounter any counterattacks from infantry and crossbows from afar, and they did not want to continue to archery and cavalry fighting and shooting.

The main reason was that the Qiang King ordered them to concentrate their firepower to shoot Li Su's flag formation, and Li Su's flag formation was sixty or seventy steps away from the front line caravan. The Qiang people could not shoot Li Su's handsome car without getting close.

On the other hand, it is also because the Qiang people's riding and shooting were not as good as the Xianbei Xiongnu Wuhuan, and their archery skills were relatively poor.

The specialty of the Qiang cavalry is that they are sprinting with spears. For them, the bow cavalry is to charge and catch the enemy and shoot a few arrows in front of them. The more this characteristic goes to the Middle East, the more obvious the civilization in the Near East. For example, the later Arab Mamluk cavalry, the archery is the burst shooting before the charge, and it is not used to fight with Parthian tactics.

As the Qiang soldiers finally entered the range covered by the crossbow, all the long-range firepower in the Han military vehicle array finally opened and shot out in a "buzzing" swarm.

A large number of pure wooden cut crossbow arrows without metal arrows are enough to kill within twenty steps.

Especially these Qiang tribes, many of them can’t even afford to wear professional leather armor, but they just wear tattered leather jackets. Although they are also made of animal leather tanned, the leather is quite thick and has a certain defense.

A bunch of blood rain instantly splattered, making many outer cabriolets red, like vermilion paint applied. A piece of Qiang cavalry fell down like a crop of wheat.
To be continued...