Chapter 72 Ma Di defeats Chen Cangdao
The Qianghu people are not the Xiongnu Wuhuan in the north. Their skills are too poor to make suitable bows and arrows, so they are not good at mounted archery.
But the Qiang and Hu people also have their own way of fighting, which is javelin throwing.
For the Qianghu tribe in Longyou, whenever there is a battle, most of the cavalry are in front and the infantry is behind. They throw a javelin first, and then charge with the infantry and cavalry.
This style of play brought a lot of trouble to Cao Jun when Ma Chao went rampant in Longyou.
Basically, all of the Qiang and Hu cavalry recruited by Ma Su were very good at throwing. When they rushed forward, they simultaneously took out their javelins and threw them at the Wei army's formation.
The javelin easily passed through the defense of the shield bearer in front and fell straight into the shield-less military formation behind. A wave of javelins was thrown over, and screams arose loudly in the Wei army formation, and dozens of soldiers were shot to the end.
One advantage of the javelin is that its throwing speed is not much slower than that of a bow and arrow, and it is more powerful than an arrow. When the cavalry rushed forward, the Qiang and Hu cavalry threw at least four rounds of javelins, and a large number of Wei soldiers fell to the ground after being struck by their spears.
"Kill!!" Ma Su took the lead and rushed directly into the military formation. The momentum was too fierce for Wei's soldiers to resist.
Before the Wei soldiers could surround them, the Qiang and Hu guards came in and hacked at the Wei soldiers.
After just one charge, the Wei army was overwhelmed, and the soldiers fled in all directions, no longer fighting. Ma Su didn't even have time to turn around and charge again. The Wei army had no formation left.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Ma Su killed the Wei soldiers escorting the grain and seized the large amount of grain.
"General, burn it or transport it back?" Shu Ji looked at the cart of grain with envy in his eyes.
This much food was enough to feed the Dong Qiang tribe for a long time.
"Of course, burn it. We don't have the time or manpower to transport it away." Ma Di shook his head. Although he was reluctant to part with it, he still reluctantly ordered the fire.
There are only a thousand of them in total, and it is too far away to transport them back. It won't be long before Hao Zhao finds out about his food robbery, and someone will definitely be sent to rescue him.
There is no other way but to burn it.
Soon, dozens of carts of grain burned, and the raging fire quickly devoured these precious grains.
By the time Wang Shuang arrived, Ma Su had already left with his troops, leaving him with only the grain cart that was about to burn to ashes.
"Fuck! Shu Dog is really a despicable villain! He didn't dare to attack Chencang and actually robbed our food!!" Wang Shuang jumped up and down in anger, wishing to kill Ma Su immediately.
It's a pity that Ma Su has already gone far away, and he can't kill him even if he wants to.
With no other choice, Wang Shuang could only lead his troops back to Chencang and told Hao Zhao about the burning of the grain.
"Those Shu dogs are so cunning, they actually took the opportunity to rob our grain!" Wang Shuang was still cursing when he returned to Chencang, and kept greeting Shu Han and Ma Su's parents.
"This is not easy to handle..." Hao Zhao was not that angry. He felt more pressure.
"It seems that the Shu people don't want to continue fighting with us in Chencang, and will instead attack our grain roads."
The military rations needed by Chencang were basically allocated by Yongxian County and sent to Chencang across the Lianshui River. If the Shu army was stuck east of Lianshui and Chencang to block the attack, Hao Zhao would really have no choice.
Once the grain road is cut off, it will be useless even if Hao Zhao builds Chencang higher than the sky.
"What should we really do? Are we just going to let them plunder like this?" Wang Shuang said angrily, he was very unhappy about this.
"How about I personally lead the troops to escort the food and grass? If those Shu dogs dare to come, I will personally kill their leader!"
A group of barbarians from the mountains dared to plunder the supplies of the Wei Dynasty. It was really disgusting.
"Don't think about it, you can't stop them." Hao Zhao shook his head gently and said calmly,
"Ma Su is commanding Qiang and Hu cavalry recruited from Longyou. They come and go like the wind. They are good at looting and arson. Even if you personally lead the troops to escort, they can still fire rockets from a distance to burn the baggage. .”
"They are all cavalry. You can't catch them even if you want to."
"Then I went to Guo Yongzhou to ask for cavalry. It's like the Wei Dynasty has no cavalry." Wang Shuang was very dissatisfied and said directly.
"The loss of the escort will be great. This is not a long-term solution." Hao Zhao objected immediately. He also understood the situation in Yongzhou.
We were already poor, and now we have lost the entire Longyou. It is already very difficult to supply him with enough food and fodder for 10,000 soldiers and horses. If this continues, Yongzhou will go bankrupt.
"Then what should we do? You can make a decision, I was ordered to assist you." Wang Shuang sat down helplessly and slapped the table hard.
"We can only ask Guo Yongzhou to transport food to us across the Wei River. His men are all Qiang people, so they probably don't know the nature of water." Hao Zhao shook his head and felt a little headache looking at the map.
This Ma Su is really a dog-skin plaster. No matter what you do, it will make you sick.
However, this made Hao Zhao even more wary, because there were not many places behind Chencang suitable for guerrilla warfare. Ma Su will bring his cavalry to attack, fearing that the large Shu army is not far away.
The repair work must be stepped up. If the main force of the Shu army arrives and the repairs are not completed, I am afraid things will become serious.
"Starting today, the repair work in Chencang City will be changed from three shifts to two shifts, with each shift working for six hours." Hao Zhao thought for a while and finally made up his mind.
"I heard that Zhuge Liang has returned to Hanzhong from Longyou. It is estimated that the Shu army will come from the Shu road soon. We must seize the time. Even if the soldiers are a little tired, there is nothing we can do."
"As for the group of Shu army cavalry that crossed over, I have my own way to deal with them!"
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In the next month, Ma Su led his cavalry behind him and began to harass them wildly. They intercepted and killed the Wei army's baggage one after another and set fire to the grain that passed by.
During this period, the Wei army in the direction of Chencang sent soldiers to respond, but because there were not many responding troops, they were killed by Ma Di.
After trying many times and finding that Ma Su could not evade transporting grain by land, Guo Huai had no choice but to take the water route.
The water flow of the Wei River near Chencang is relatively turbulent, and it is dangerous to go down the river, let alone go upstream. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't avoid Ma Di, Guo Huai would not be very willing to take the water route.
The Wei army's baggage was transported by water, directly bypassing Ma Di's base. When Ma Di saw the grain ships sailing on the Wei River, he immediately understood what Wei Jun was thinking.
"Well, you took the waterway to avoid me?" Ma Di touched his chin and squinted his eyes to look at the Wei army ships traveling in the turbulent current.
It seems that the probability of death in water battles is higher?
"General, what should we do? Just retreat like this?" Shu Ji looked at the ships in the water and felt a little helpless.
"They took the water route, and we can't reach them."
"What are you afraid of! They can take a boat but we can't!" Ma Di suddenly opened his eyes, his tone full of doubt.
"Find a place to build a boat according to my method, and let's find a way to have some fun with them!"