Daqin Engineering Corps

"Why did the general say this?"

Shen Bing replied:

"I asked Wang Bai and Lei Hui a few days ago. The news from the Northland is that the Northland was extremely cold last year."

"The Huns' cattle and sheep froze to death and injured countless people."

"In this way..."

Fusu said "Oh":

"In this way, the Xiongnu will go south to plunder food and grass for supplies?"

Shen Bing nodded and said:

"Exactly, especially if the news of Li Mu's death reaches the Xiongnu, and Zhao Wangjia abandons the Northland and moves to the Dai Kingdom..."

Hearing this, Fu Su also nodded cautiously.

Among the seven kingdoms of the Central Plains, Li Mu is the only one who can truly defeat the Xiongnu, but now that Li Mu is dead, the Huns are starving, and the Northland is empty, when will we not take it now?

But Fusu changed his mind and asked again:

"But what does this have to do with Nirvana?"

Shen Bing only answered two words:

"Smelting iron."

Fu Su was dumbfounded.

Although he knows that iron smelting needs fuel and that nirvana can be burned, why does iron smelting need nirvana?No charcoal?

This is also one of the reasons why coal is available in this era but has not been taken seriously.

Everyone thinks like Fusu, and they are all using charcoal to make iron, so a lot of coal is discovered, but it is only mined by the people themselves for cooking and heating.

Another reason is that some people tried to use coal to smelt iron, but found that using coal to smelt iron would produce more impurities and reduce the quality of iron, so they abandoned it.

This situation did not change until hundreds of years later.

But obviously, Shen Bing would not wait until then.

Continue to go up the Yellow River north, and finally arrived in the North after more than ten days.

There are actually three plains in the Hetao area:

One is in the middle of the word "Ji" in the Yellow River, one is at the first turning point, and the other is at the second turning point.

These three areas are called "Xitao", "Houtao" and "Qantao" respectively.

Shen Bing's army was stationed at "Houtao" and "Qiantao" to prevent the Huns from the north and south.

Among them is the "Qiantao" area, because "Qiantao" is directly connected to Yanmen County (now south of Youyu County, Shanxi), and it is the only place where the Xiongnu invaded the Central Plains.

To the west of "Houtao" is the Hexi Corridor, and through the Hexi Corridor is the Western Region that is not known to the Central Plains.

Therefore, things in ancient times are sometimes unclear. In fact, the Central Plains and the Western Regions have always had some kind of connection, such as businessmen or refugees traveling between the Central Plains and the Western Regions.

However, this kind of communication was very rare and limited to the people. In addition, the roads were difficult and the Xiongnu blocked them, so the countries in the Central Plains did not know that the Western Regions existed for a time.

The one who came to greet him was a military officer named Jia (jiā).

Jia is a kind of wind instrument, popular in Saibei and Western Regions. This Jia's father was a musician, and he was given this name in the hope that he would continue his legacy. Who would have thought that he would become an officer of the Qin Army.

Jia is Wang Jian's former army, and the more than [-] Qin soldiers he led were left behind when Wang Jian was ordered to dredge the Yellow River, so of course he knows Shen Bing's name.

When he saw Shen Bing, he hurriedly led the next group of people to greet him, and when he saw Shen Bing, he said with a sigh of relief:

"It's safe to have a general come to help your subordinates."

"These days there will always be a small team of Huns coming to test it out, and the more than [-] subordinates defending the northern land may not be able to do it!"

Shen Bing nodded.

The total area of ​​the Hetao area is more than 2 square kilometers, and of course more than [-] people cannot defend it.

However, even if Shen Bing and a group of people arrived, the situation would not be optimistic... Shen Bing's Daliang Army and Shenwu Army had no more than [-] soldiers.

Among them, there were [-] Shenwu Army, [-] Daliang Army, and Jia's [-] Qin Army, barely more than [-] people.

Shen Bing asked Wang Bo who was following behind Wang Ben:

"How did General Li Mu guard the North?"

Wang Bai was taken aback for a moment, then replied:

"General, back then General Li Mu led a hundred thousand troops to guard the North."

"After several years of operation, it has grown to 20 Northland elite soldiers."

"These 20 soldiers are divided into front and rear sets."

Shen Bing was speechless for a moment.

The God of War Li Mu needs 20 people to be stationed here to prevent the Huns from invading, but he only has 4000 people.

What's more serious is that when Zhao Wangjia established Daiguo, all the people in the area were moved away, leaving only old and weak people with no use value, so Shen Bing only had soldiers and an empty city.

The only advantage is that there are many houses left by the original residents in this area, and the Qin army no longer needs to work hard to build them.

Seeing this situation, Fusu blamed himself in a low voice:

"It's Fusu who hurt the general."

"Zhao Gao and Li Si probably already knew about the situation here."

"They condemned the general to come here because they wanted to use the power of the Huns to get rid of Fusu."

Shen Bing felt that what Fusu said was reasonable.

Because Jia must have reported the situation here to Ying Zheng, so Zhao Gao is an insider.

Perhaps Ying Zheng didn't take the Huns as a barbarian seriously.

But Zhao Gao and Li Si knew that this was not the case.

So a plan to kill someone with a borrowed knife was born out of nowhere.

Shen Bing replied calmly:

"It's useless to say these things at this time, we should hurry up and prepare for the battle."

Chapter 294 Shrinking the Line of Defense

The first thing Shen Bing did was to shrink the line of defense.

A force of 2 would definitely not be able to guard an area of ​​more than 1 square kilometers. Even if Xitao did not need to defend, there would be more than [-] square kilometers.

So Shen Bing decided to concentrate his forces in Yunzhong County, which is in the front set... After Wang Jian received the front set from Zhao Jun, Yingzheng set up two counties, Yunzhong and Jiuyuan, in the front set of Beidi, and sent the people here Incorporated into household registration for unified management.

Jiuyuan County was abandoned by Shen Bing, because the troops in Shen Bing's hands could not even be divided into two places.

The geographical location of Yunzhong County is obviously more important than that of Jiuyuan County, and it is also safer.

Because Yunzhong County is just at the second corner of the "ji" shape of the Yellow River.

Holding here will prevent the Huns from entering the hinterland of the Central Plains through the gap in the Great Wall.

Moreover, Yunzhong County is also close to Yanmen County in the north, so it is easier to get support from the rear, and the Huns cannot cut off the rear of the Northern Army.

Conversely, if Shen Bing guards Jiuyuan and abandons Yunzhong, the Xiongnu can easily cut off Shen Bing's connection with the Central Plains as long as they occupy Yunzhong.

In fact, there is still a way for the Xiongnu to go, and that is to cross the Yellow River from the "ji" shape and then go deep into the Central Plains.

However, to the south of that line is the Kubuqi Desert, then the Ordos Plateau, further south there is the Mu Us Sandy Land, and then the Loess Plateau...

This is a desert, a plateau, and a sandy land. It is definitely a nightmare for the Huns' cavalry.

If the Xiongnu took this road, I am afraid that they would starve to death before reaching the Central Plains.

Therefore, Shen Bing can relax and give up all the west of Yunzhong County.

To say that the Hetao area is really a treasure land, at least it is a treasure land for the Central Plains.

The reason for saying this is that there are many grasslands in the front and back flats due to the irrigation of the Yellow River.

The grassland is an excellent natural horse farm for the Central Plains.

And "horse likes high and cold is not beneficial to Yan Fang", that is to say, horses are suitable for breeding in cold regions.

It needs to be cold and the grass is fertile and the water is beautiful. Looking at the entire Central Plains, there are only two places in Hetao and Guanzhong.

Among them, Guanzhong has always been the center of gravity of the dynasty. With the increase of population, the grassland has been destroyed, so the Central Plains can raise horses or can raise horses of the same quality as the northern nomads. Only the Hetao area.

At this time, the countries in the Central Plains had not realized this, because they did not pay much attention to cavalry and did not pay attention to the Huns.

After that, the Song Dynasty, because of the loss of the natural horse farm in the Hetao area, could not develop cavalry and could only be passive everywhere with infantry, and was eventually destroyed by Mongolia.

These are all later stories.

It was only a helpless move for Shen Bing to give up this treasure land at this time.

But it is temporary, Shen Bing believes that it will not be long before he regains Hetao again.

Shen Bing gave up completely, that is, he directly moved all the people to Yunzhong County.

Wang Ben was a little puzzled by this, and he suggested to Shen Bing:

"General, the people in Jiuyuan County and the west are all old and weak, and gathering in Yunzhong County will waste food and grass and will not work."

"I'm nervous about waiting for the food and grasslands, and now there are so many people. I'm afraid..."

Hearing this, Fu Su frowned:

"The captain's words are wrong."

"Even if they are old and weak, they are still my Great Qin people. How can we leave them to the Xiongnu?"

"The so-called 'those who lose the hearts of the people lose the world', if we take small profits today and forget the great righteousness, how can we win the support of the people in the future?"

After Fusu said this about Wang Ben, he didn't dare to say anything more.

It is no wonder that Wang Ben would suggest so, he was educated by "Legalism" since he was a child.

There is a saying that "the law does not tolerate mercy". The last thing Legalists talk about is emotion, and they do whatever is beneficial to them. This is one of the reasons why cruel officials and tortures have emerged in endlessly in later generations.

For example, Li Si and Han Fei were originally classmates, and they were both legalists, but because Li Si was jealous of Han Fei's talent and worried that Han Fei would affect his power, he planned to throw Han Fei into prison and get rid of him.

This is the method of the Legalists. Although the Qin State has become stronger after the reform, it has lost a lot of human touch.

Under such blunt and cold education since he was a child, Wang Ben naturally had the mentality of "interest first".

Fusu, influenced by Confucianism, is another story.

Seeing that Wang Ben was dissatisfied, Shen Bing said:

"The captain doesn't know something."

"The people in the North are not just old and weak..."

Wang Ben couldn't help but wonder:

"However, my subordinates have never seen a young man, even a strong woman or a child."

Shen Bing explained:

"The captain didn't see it because the young and strong are all in Daiguo."

Wang Ben thought for a while, and couldn't help saying "oh":

"The general intends to attract the people of the country to come here?"

Shen Bing nodded and said:

"May I ask the captain, why did the people in the Northland move to Daiguo with Zhao Wangjia?"

Wang Ben replied:

"They were originally the people of Zhao State. How dare they refuse to obey Zhao Wangjia's order and the soldiers threatened him?"

Shen Bing praised:

"The captain's words are very true."