Chapter 262 Cutting off the escape route
"Horse Butcher?"
"It's actually him? What should we do?"
"How about forget it. You go back to your tribe and I'll go back to my camp. We won't fight."
"That's right, the internal fighting among the Han people is nothing."
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Upon hearing Ma Su's name, a group of Qiang chiefs immediately became stunned. Before they even meet the enemy, everyone has already started discussing how to run away.
There is no other way. Mentioning the Ma Su Qiang tribe in recent years has been full of blood and tears. As long as you are met by Ma Su, you will basically be in a 30-70 situation.
He killed 30,000 people in seven days.
Therefore, many timid Qiang leaders have begun to consider disbanding, and their fighting spirit has disappeared in an instant.
Seeing this scene, Fei Yao's eyes were full of worry and headache.
With such an army to fight, what can even an army of 30,000 troops do? Especially the opponent, Ma Su, has always been a master of using less to defeat more. It's not like he has never defeated 30,000.
Even Fei Yao in the northwest had heard about the story of Guan Qiu Jian being taught by Ma Su in Nanyang.
"Don't panic, everyone. Even if Ma Su can fight again, we still have 30,000 troops." Although he had a headache, he still had to console him due to military orders.
"How many nails can you drive if you are covered in iron? What's more, we are not vegetarians. As long as we stick to the city and strengthen our vigilance to prevent the Shu army from attacking at night, even if he has the help of ghosts and gods, he will not be able to pose any threat to us. "
Fei Yao stabilized the morale of the army and then quickly set up military formations.
When setting up the military formation, Fei Yao also discovered that a large number of Qiang soldiers were afraid of Ma Su. Many Qiang people immediately shouted to go home after hearing that the person who came to kick them was the powerful general Ma Di.
Fei Yao suppressed dozens of people one after another and beheaded them in public to suppress the signs of cowardice.
But from this point of view, Fei Yao has basically given up the idea of attacking. If he dared to take the initiative to attack with this morale, I am afraid that this group of Qiang people would not have dispersed as soon as they encountered the enemy.
Come on, from now on, as long as Ma Su doesn't leave, Feiyao will die in this city. As for the matter of disturbing the Shu army's food routes, leave it to the friendly forces.
Fei Yao made up his mind to become a bastard in Xidu County and led 30,000 Qiang soldiers to station there.
Within a few days, more than ten thousand Shu troops came along the road and arrived at the gate of Xidu City smoothly. The Shu army set up a camp a few miles below the city, and then Ma Su led three thousand cavalry to call for formation.
According to Ma Su's idea, he would just taunt the Wei army as usual in front of the battle line to encourage the Wei army to take the initiative to attack. However, Fei Yao clearly understood the importance of pretending to be a grandson. It turned out that Ma Su came in person and didn't even miss his face.
As for the various tribes of the Qiang people, they are no longer as unruly as they used to be. Thirty thousand people are in the camp, and I won't go out no matter how scolded I am.
Anyway, most Qiang people don't understand it. There is no problem affecting morale. You can scold Ma Su all you want.
Ma Di was also helpless. Apparently he underestimated his reputation in Longyou.
"When did these Qiang soldiers become so cowardly? I still like how unruly they were back then." After returning to the camp, Ma Su shook his head helplessly, sighing that the environment for seeking death was no longer good.
"The Crown Prince and Tutor used to be very powerful among the Qiang and Hu people, so it's understandable that they were timid." Zhang Yi said with a smile,
"But that's fine. They can't retreat. We just need to keep an eye on them to ensure that the food supply of Jincheng is safe. When the prime minister goes north to Wuwei and defeats the main force of the Wei army, the Qiang soldiers here will collapse without a fight."
"That won't work! If we let them escape unharmed, it would be a huge defeat for me!" Ma Su said decisively immediately, rejecting Zhang Yi's suggestion very decisively.
"Moreover, this group of Qiang soldiers had been hiding in the mountains and forests before, and it was not easy to wipe them out. Now that they have finally come out of the mountains and forests, can I still let them go?"
"We must not only defeat this group of Qiang soldiers, but also annihilate them all and capture them all. The Western Qiang will be decided in one battle!"
Seeing Ma Su's tough attitude, Zhang Yi could only respond silently. To be honest, he still can't understand Ma Su.
Why did General Ma fight so hard, even risking his own life? Even if it was to help the Han Dynasty, it wouldn't be like this.
But even though he didn't understand, Zhang Yi had to admit that with Ma Su's hard work, he was indeed qualified to be promoted so quickly.
So far, all of Ma Su's promotions have convinced all the generals of the Shu Han Dynasty, and none of them were promoted because of connections.
"Then what are the plans of the Prince and Tutor? The generals are the main ones in Yiquan!" Zhang Yigong cupped his hands and asked.
Ma Su touched his chin, squinted his eyes and spread out the map to study it. After confirming the distribution of the Xiqiang tribe many times, Ma Su quickly had an idea.
"Yes!" Ma Su pointed his hand at the westernmost county seat of Xiping County.
"Linqiang?" Zhang Yi was stunned.
"Yes, it's Linqiang! This is the only way for the Western Qiang tribes to come out of the mountains. The main thing is to conquer this place. The 30,000 Qiang soldiers will have no way to retreat. By then, they will be surrounded by deep ditches and high fortresses. When their morale is low, they can fight. And break it!" Ma Su nodded and quickly made the final decision.
The Qiang soldiers themselves have low fighting will, and once their retreat is blocked, their morale will plummet instantly. Even if Fei Yao wanted to continue to retreat, the Qiang soldiers would come out and try to break out.
By then, the Qiang soldiers will have to fight to the death, and Ma Di will personally lead his troops to fight against them. If it succeeds, the 30,000 Qiang soldiers and the Qiang tribes involved behind them will be wiped out in one battle, and the Western Qiang will no longer be able to threaten Yongliang.
It failed... Anyway, based on Ma Su's understanding of the way of heaven, this is basically impossible.
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After Ma Su set the strategy, he started executing it on the same day.
Zhang Yi led his troops to the south of the Western Capital to watch over the Qiang soldiers and prevent them from making any moves. And Ma Su personally led 3,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry, heading west along the southern foothills, heading straight for Linqiang.
There are basically no large cities in the counties and counties of Liangzhou. They are all small cities used to deal with nomadic cavalry. Such a city is almost useless when faced with the Shu army, which is good at attacking cities.
So when Ma Su reached Linqiang, the infantry only took two hours to board the city of Linqiang.
Once Linqiang captured it, the retreat route of the Qiang army in Xidu was basically cut off. If they wanted to retreat to the mountains and forests, they would have no choice but to climb up the southern foothills and escape.
Therefore, this place is very important to the Qiang soldiers, and the Qiang soldiers will definitely find ways to send out large armies to rob it.
Ma Su firmly believes in this!
At the same time, news of Ma Su's capture of Linqiang also spread back to the Western Capital. However, after Fei Yao heard the news, his first reaction was surprise.
"So the butcher Ma Su is no longer in the Shu army camp outside the city?" Fei Yao was surprised and happy, and stood up excitedly.
"In this case, we have to send troops to attack the Shu army camp!"