Chapter 305 Another Attack on Shuofang
Deng Fan's suggestion to Ma Su about military towns and herding was quickly adopted by Ma Su.
This area in the north is indeed dry and rainless, and the local people are basically not good at farming. As Deng Fan said, if you slowly educate them, you need to wait until the year of the monkey.
Now that the Han Dynasty is in a period of rising national power and is in urgent need of blood transfusions for the Northern Expedition, it is difficult to have time to wait for the results of the northwest farming. If we insist on continuing to farm like this, the start-up capital for the next Northern Expedition will most likely be much less.
It’s not that farming is unaffordable, but military towns are more cost-effective!
In the end, all of Deng Fan's suggestions were recognized by Ma Su, and they talked with Ma Su all night long. The two talked all night and almost used up all the paper Ma Su brought.
Fortunately, Ma Su desperately left a few military orders for the next few battles.
Under Deng Fan's suggestion, the Han Dynasty will establish six military towns in Wuyuan County, Shuofang County, Beidi County, in order to block the possibility of foreign herdsmen fleeing.
At the same time, this is different from farming. Because the herdsmen have horses, they will run away if the tax you set is too high, and the care and maintenance fees are high. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate appropriate cattle and sheep taxes and open the market to reduce the enthusiasm of these herdsmen to flee.
In this way, the Han Dynasty can maintain a huge pasture in northern Xinjiang with less border maintenance fees. Moreover, as soon as a military town is established, or even a military town in Beidi County is established, blood transfusions can be provided to the imperial court immediately.
Among the blueprints drawn by Deng Fan for Ma Su, the final result was that the price of cattle and sheep in northern Xinjiang would be low from now on. Horses, cattle and sheep are not scarce, and Guanzhong, which is only separated from the Northland by a river, can still taste dividends.
The military town policy was finally agreed by Ma Su and compiled into a memorial. As usual, one copy was sent to Hebei County and the other to Chengdu.
Naturally, Ma Su himself could not make the decision on such a major matter of establishing military forces in northern Xinjiang. Although Ma Su estimated that even if he did it, Liu Chan wouldn't say anything, but considering that the prime minister would whip him, Ma Su thought it was better to forget it.
It's not worth it to get whipped for something like this.
After reporting the latest strategy for dealing with the Northern Territory, Ma Su led his troops and continued to station troops on Table Mountain to monitor the rebels in the Northern Territory.
However, after Ke Bineng, the Hu tribes in the north no longer dared to go south, and Beidi County was basically abandoned by the Hu people.
At the same time, Jiang Wei and Shu Ji also made great progress in Beidi County.
Jiang Wei defeated Qiang soldiers in several cities in the south, captured tens of thousands of people, and captured hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep. He was really addicted to war. Although Shu Ji did not make any gains in the central part at first, with the constant harassment, the barbarians in all tribes in the north were exhausted.
There are obviously thousands of enemies, but they are like dog-skin plaster. They can't be beaten, and they can't be chased. If you are ambushed by a small group of troops, it is extremely easy for the Han army to counterattack and lose your troops.
In the end, this group of barbarians became fearful after knowing that their allies in the north could not come south to help. Some tribes surrendered directly to Shu Ji without hope, while the new king of the North, Liu Cui, abandoned the city with his tribe and fled north, preparing to go north to Shuofang County.
But it's obvious that Shu Ji doesn't like to let the tiger go back to the mountains. The most important thing is, if they go north to meet General Zhengbei, wouldn't it make me look useless?
So Shu Ji led 3,000 cavalrymen and ran for more than 200 miles, catching up with Liu Kuai's tribe before they met Ma Di. The Hu tribe that was caught off guard was almost completely wiped out. Liu Kui himself died in the rebellion, and Shu Ji took over all his tribe.
Since then, Shu Ji and Jiang Wei had a total force of 10,000, and in less than two months, they had basically conquered the entire Beidi County. All the Hu people who were entrenched here were captured, and all the harvest was turned into trophies of the Han army.
At the end of this battle, the entire Beidi County was basically recovered, and the territory of the Han Dynasty expanded to northern Xinjiang.
The news of Ma Su's great victory on the front was sent to Hebei County along with the army's policy of stationing herdsmen. Zhuge Liang was very satisfied with Ma Di's battle report and read it over and over again.
"Okay, very good! We captured more than 100,000 people, captured countless cattle and sheep, and recovered the lost territory. This is a great achievement!"
"And You Chang also knows how to divide troops and power, and does not have the power to monopolize it. This is the best." Zhuge Liang smiled and looked at the series of battle reports sent by Ma Su, and asked for rewards for each person who had military merit.
"Prime Minister, this military town strategy proposed by General Zhengbei, I don't know..." Yang Yi focused on the military town strategy proposed by Ma Su, with doubts in his eyes.
Are you sure this is not what Ma Di wanted to do to arrange his own forces in the north and took the opportunity to propose it?
"Although this matter is wonderful, it still needs to be sent to Chengdu for His Majesty and Jiang Wan to make a decision." Zhuge Liang shook his head gently and made his decision softly.
"You don't need to speculate on your young heart. This kid can't pretend to be anything."
"I'm overly concerned." Yang Yi cupped her hands and replied calmly.
Zhuge Liang didn't say anything, he just waved Yang Yi to go down and do the work.
After Yang Yi left, Zhuge Liang looked at the direction Yang Yi left and sighed slightly.
"How can I live long if I am proud of my talents and don't like warriors? I'm afraid I will be able to see Duke Wei soon after my death, right?"
Zhuge Liang has a thorough understanding of the characters of his group of people, and also understands their character flaws. Now, Zhuge Liang is not worried about what will happen to Wei Yan, but he is starting to worry about Yang Yi.
As a general who hates evil and beats anyone he sees unhappy, will Ma Di be able to tolerate Yang Yi in the future?
If Ma Su can't accommodate Yang Yi, I'm afraid Yang Yi will die.
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After more than two months of conquest, both Jiang Wei and Shu Ji completed their tasks. Basically the entire Beidi County was recovered, and more than 100,000 Qiang and Hu people from all tribes were captured.
However, although the results were very good, Ma Su did not intend to stop there. He sent people to let Shu Ji and Jiang Wei hand over the prisoners to the follow-up troops, and then led his troops and horses to join them northward.
Ke Bineng, who is more difficult to fight in the northern border, has been captured. There are not many hard fights in the northern border. In response, Ma Su hoped to gather troops and consider recovering another Shuofang County.
This belongs to Delong Wangshu. If you can be greedy, be as greedy as possible.
Jiang Wei and Shu Ji received the order and immediately led their troops north to join Ma Di. The Han army gathered together at Zhuzi Mountain, with a total strength of 10,000, and began to send troops northward again.
However, Shuofang County is much more difficult than attacking Beidi County, and the logistical pressure on the Han army will soon increase rapidly. Because they are basically undeveloped grasslands, logistical supply transportation is very difficult.
The consumption of cavalry is more than double that of infantry.
And the most important thing is that it took several months to regain Northland County, and it is now the beginning of summer. The animal power of the northern cavalry basically kept up with the Han army, and the Han army's advantage was basically gone.
Ma Su had only been marching for a few days when the scouting horses from the front came to report. The holder of Shuofang County, Bu Dugen, the Xianbei Chanyu, gathered all the people and came to fight the Han army to the death!