Vol 2 Chapter 2427: It’s easier to kneel down than to stand up
Chapter 2427 It’s easier to kneel down than to stand up
Chapter 2416: It’s easier to kneel down than to stand up
In the First Battle of Guanzhong, the Qin Dynasty dispatched more than 200,000 troops, divided into five groups to attack the Tang Dynasty. Due to various factors, although they were not able to achieve full success, they still achieved extremely impressive results.
In this battle, Great Qin captured Wuguan, Tongguan, Xiaoguan, and Yaoguan. These four fortresses were easy to defend and difficult to attack, leaving Guanzhong completely exposed to the iron hoof of Great Qin.
Without the obstruction of Xiongguan Fortress, the vast plains of Guanzhong were like a beautiful woman taking off her clothes in the eyes of the Qin army, who could ravage them whenever they wanted.
In addition, the Qin army also occupied half of Guanzhong and wiped out 100,000 elite troops of the Tang army, which greatly weakened the Tang state's war potential, and the Tang state has not been able to recover to this day.
Of course, the most important point is to force the Tang State to cede territory and pay indemnity, become a vassal and pay tribute, and since then it has become a vassal state of the Qin Dynasty.
This is the most fatal thing. After all, confidence is also extremely important in the confrontation between countries.
When you are confident, you can have the confidence and certainty to persevere, and your resistance will naturally be stronger.
But once the confidence is insufficient and there is no certainty of victory, the ability to resist will become weak, and you will even be unable to resist.
The Tang army in the past was, firstly, based on its own strength, and secondly, the status of both sides was equal, so it had the confidence to dare to attack the strong with the weak and challenge the Qin army, the overlord of the princes.
But now, the Tang State is not only defeated by Da Qin, but also a vassal state of Da Qin. Its backbone has been broken, so how can it still have confidence?
In addition, in the past year and a half, Da Qin has also implemented a policy of differentiation and co-optation against the Tang State from all aspects, which greatly undermined the Tang State's internal will to resist.
Therefore, if the second Guanzhong War is launched, the resistance of the Tang army will definitely not be as strong as before.
This is the main reason why Ying Hao is confident that the Guanzhong War will end within a month or two.
“Taifu Jia, you are in charge of intelligence, tell me, what is the combat strength of the Tang Army in Guanzhong now?” Ying Hao asked.
Jia Xu immediately stood up and reported: "Your Majesty, nearly half of the Tang army in Guanzhong are new recruits who have never seen blood.
Over the past year, although Li Shimin has increased military investment and increased training time, reaching six trainings a week, the overall effect is not obvious. "
With the advent of the Warring States Period, in order to increase the combat effectiveness of the army, the princes not only increased research on equipment and ordnance, but also spent a lot of effort on training soldiers. After all, training is the lowest-cost way.
Before the beginning of the Troubled Times, the Han army trained three times a week and rested basically every other day.
But when the troubled times began, in order to survive and develop, the princes would not let the soldiers be so relaxed. They would train to death as long as they could not die.
The training time of soldiers is constantly increasing, from three trainings to four trainings, and it is not until the fifth training that they stabilize. If the training time is longer, the soldiers will be overtired, which will be detrimental to their physical and mental health.
Da Qin currently trains five times a week, but Li Tang increased it to six trainings a week, which shows how eager Li Shimin is to improve the military's combat effectiveness in order to deal with the threat of Da Qin.
As for the training method? Countries are different, but without exception, soldiers are allowed to practice external martial arts to strengthen their physical fitness.
Why not let soldiers practice internal skills?
Naturally, internal strength relies heavily on resources in the early stage. If all soldiers are required to practice internal strength, it will really be a bottomless pit.
Among the countries, even the richest Qin could only barely afford it, let alone other countries.
Looking at external skills, in the early stage, there is little reliance on resources. Once you get to a high level of practice, you only need to increase your food and keep up with your nutrition. You don’t have to worry about destroying yourself through practice.
In the later stages of internal strength training, you no longer rely on external objects so much, and you rely less on resources as you progress to the later stages. You mainly rely on your own understanding.
Instead, it is an external skill. The more advanced you practice, the greater your reliance on resources.
Yue Yun, Huang Tianhua, Jin Tai, and Jiao Moxiang, these God of War level external martial arts masters, spend at least a thousand taels of silver each month just on medicinal baths and medicinal meals.
Of course, 99% of soldiers will definitely not reach this level. If they really have that qualification, they will definitely be promoted to generals due to their military exploits, so naturally there is no need to worry about resources.
As for the physical training methods promoted by the military, countries are naturally different. They are all simple and easy-to-learn external skills with a low threshold, so I will not discuss them one by one.
Li Shimin increased military expenditures and training time, but the effect was not good. This was naturally not because the Tang State was not good at training troops, but because the Qin army had broken its backbone.
The morale of the military has been lost, and it will be difficult to increase combat effectiveness by relying solely on training.
It is easy for a country to kneel down, but it is not so easy to stand up again.
This was the case in China during the late Qing Dynasty. The backbone was completely broken by the foreign powers, and the country knelt in humiliation for more than a hundred years. Even though countless martyrs fought against all odds, they did not stand up completely until Ying Hao crossed over.
The situation faced by the Tang army now is not much better than that of China in the late Qing Dynasty.
The most powerful force in the world, Da Qin, is blocking its doorstep and can attack at any time, and the Tang State has no danger to defend it.
Who can not despair in this situation?
The Tang army in Guanzhong knew that they could not defeat the Qin State, and they could die at any time. It would be difficult for them not to rebel, and to ensure high combat power would be too much.
Li Shimin thought that after becoming a vassal, he could use his skills to save the morale of the army and restore the Tang army's combat effectiveness, but in the end he overestimated himself and underestimated Ying Hao.
Li Shimin can use strategies to save the morale of the army, but the prerequisite is that Ying Hao does not interfere, but Ying Hao is not a fool, how could he not react at all?
No matter what moves Li Shimin used, Ying Hao only used one move, which was to disintegrate and disintegrate, making all Li Shimin's efforts go to waste.
“According to the information sent back by the spies who lurked into the Tang army at Heibingtai, the Tang army in Guanzhong generally changed their minds towards our army after hearing about it, and the overall attitude was pessimistic about whether the Tang state could defend Guanzhong.”
Although Jia Xu did not explicitly state the strength of the Tang army's combat power, the meaning behind his words was already obvious.
The Tang army in Guanzhong is much weaker than it was a year and a half ago.
Not only the Tang army in Guanzhong, but also the Tang army in Hanzhong and Longxi, their combat effectiveness has also dropped sharply.
Who asked Li Shimin to remove too many elites to make up for the vacancy in Guanzhong's troops? The decline in combat effectiveness is inevitable.
The combat effectiveness of the Tang Army declined, but on the other hand, the Qin Army's combat effectiveness not only did not decline, but further improved through disarmament and the suppression of Japanese invaders.
With one thing going down and the other going up, how could the Tang army be able to stop the Qin army?
“Okay, we must win Guanzhong this time and unify Sili.” Ying Hao said with confidence.
As for whether the Shu, Chu and other states would prevent Da Qin from occupying Guanzhong out of fear, or even directly send troops to start a war?
Ying Hao and his advisers discussed the possibility and agreed that it was unlikely.
The target of Da Qin's troops this time was only one and a half counties in Guanzhong, not the entire Guanxi.
Da Qin has already occupied one and a half counties in Guanzhong, and after capturing another one and a half counties including Chang'an, there will be no qualitative leap. Are you going to start a full-scale war with Da Qin just because of one and a half counties?
This is obviously not a good deal.
Besides, even if a war actually breaks out, there is no guarantee of victory.
Hence, after Qin fully occupied Guanzhong, it would stop as long as it felt good and would not overly stimulate other countries, so the war would not expand further.
“Li Jing, the governor of Yongzhou, is solely responsible for the dispatch of troops to Guanzhong this time. I have only one request: to occupy Guanzhong as quickly as possible.” Ying Hao ordered in a deep voice.
ient.
Ying Hao's decree soon spread to Guanzhong.
After receiving the imperial edict, Li Jing immediately secretly summoned all the civil and military officials in Guanzhong and held a high-level meeting in Lantian to discuss how to start the war.
In the Lantian meeting hall, Li Jing, the governor of Yongzhou, sat on the main seat. Below him were clearly distinguished civil and military officials, standing on the left and right respectively. The head of the military officials was the deputy governor Wang Jian, while the head of the civil officials was Wu Qi, the governor of Yongzhou.
Wang Jian is survived by: Tongguan Commander-in-Chief Sima Cuo, Xiaoguan Commander-in-Chief Gong Sun Yan, Wuguan Commander-in-Chief Hu Luguang, and Aoguan Commander-in-Chief Fu Cunshen.
In addition to these four generals, there are also Gongsun Xuanyuan, Yuwen Chengdu, Jia Fu, Pei Yuanqing, Huang Tianhua, Qin Yong, Yue Yun, Xue Dingshan, Zhang Xiu and other famous generals.
The founding princes like Gongsun Xuanyuan, Yuwen Chengdu, and Jia Fu were all above Wang Jian in terms of official position and title. Logically speaking, they should not be ranked behind Wang Jian.
But Wang Jian still has the position of deputy governor of Yongzhou. In the military circles of Yongzhou, he is second only to Wu Qi. And Great Qin has always regarded positions regardless of seniority, so everyone consciously stood behind Wang Jian, the deputy governor.
Unlike Wang Jian, Wu Qi, as the governor of Yongzhou, was the veritable leader among the civil servants in Yongzhou. At the same time, due to the special circumstances of Yongzhou, the boundaries between civil servants and military generals were relatively blurred.
Although Wu Qi, the governor of the state, was a civilian official, he was also in charge of the military, so he and Li Jing were actually on equal status.
It's just that Li Jing has accumulated prestige for a long time and is also the coach appointed by His Majesty, so Wu Qi took the initiative to submit to Li Jing.
The lineup after Wu Qi was equally luxurious, including: military advisor Baili Xi, farewell driver Di Renjie, chief secretary Wang Xizhi, chief envoy Qin Guan, Fufeng prefect Liu Yong on the right, Jun Cheng Yangku, Feng Ling prefect Bismarck on the left, Jun Cheng Banchao...
Among the civil servants, the one with the lowest qualifications is Ban Chao, the new top scholar in science and technology, and he is also the youngest among the civil servants.
In addition, Baili Xi, the military advisor who offered wine to Yongzhou, was originally the governor of Hedong. However, because of his outstanding political performance in the past year and the great rule of Hedong, he was promoted by Ying Hao to the military advisor of Yongzhou to assist the governor in managing military affairs.
The Qin Dynasty only has one and a half counties in Yongzhou, but this small place has gathered so many capable ministers and generals. The strength of the lineup is no less than that of those complete big states, or even better.
This shows how much Great Qin attaches great importance to Guanzhong. Even a blind person can see the ambition of Great Qin towards Guanzhong.
This is also the main reason why Li Shimin was so eager to improve the army, but unfortunately it was destroyed by Ying Hao.
Li Jing saw that everyone had arrived and said, "Everyone, Your Majesty has a decree to order us to recover Guanzhong in advance."
As soon as these words came out, the generals present immediately exploded. Jia Fu was even more excited and said: "Great, I didn't agree with the withdrawal of the troops at the beginning, but now we can finally take Guanzhong."
The reason why Qin made peace with the Tang State even though it had all the advantages, naturally had multiple considerations.
But the generals in the army didn't care about this. They only knew that they were about to capture Chang'an, but the court was holding them back and affecting their achievements, so they were naturally dissatisfied.
However, at the later founding ceremony, all the generals in Guanxi received high honors, which resolved this dissatisfaction. However, the complete occupation of Guanzhong was still the obsession of the Yongzhou generals.
The Qin Dynasty only had one and a half counties in Guanzhong, but it had gathered so many capable ministers and generals. This resulted in the duplication of functions of many people and the decline in power.
The governor is treated as a captain, and the general is treated as a captain.
The governor was treated as a governor, and the governor was treated as a county magistrate.
It's okay for a short time, but if it goes on like this for a long time, who can bear it?
Therefore, what the civil and military officials in Yongzhou hope most is to conquer Guanzhong, so that they can truly return to their posts and enjoy the rights that should belong to them.
Not long ago, the civil and military officials in Yongzhou were preparing to submit a collective letter to the emperor requesting troops to attack the Tang Dynasty, but Li Jing forcibly suppressed it.
Li Jing is not stupid. He naturally knows that Da Qin only has one and a half counties in Yongzhou, but it is crowded with senior officials from a big state. This is obviously abnormal.
Your Majesty definitely has the idea of sending troops in advance, but he has not made it public yet.
If these people were really allowed to cause trouble, Your Majesty would definitely think that he was letting it go.
Li Jing has not been idle this year. In addition to training his troops, he also sent troops to the border from time to time, provoking the Tang army like a show of force, but he refused to go to war with the Tang army.
Like a blunt knife cutting flesh, it gradually wore away Tang Jun's spirit and disintegrated Tang Jun's will.
The morale of the Tang army in Guanzhong has never been improved, mainly because of Li Jing.
In addition, Li Jing was also good at using alienation tactics to constantly alienate the generals of Li and Tang Dynasties, which made the Tang soldiers panic. Under internal and external difficulties, it would be weird if their combat effectiveness could be improved.
The decision to go to war made everyone extremely excited, and they discussed it for a long time before they calmed down.
At this moment, Wu Qi, the governor, stood up and said: "Even if the Tang army in Guanzhong has low morale and weak combat strength, it still has 120,000 troops after all.
It will be a bit difficult to rely solely on our army's strength in Yongzhou, so I dare to ask the governor how many troops the imperial court will send to support? "
As soon as these words came out, all the generals also reacted.
Yes, the Yongzhou army only has 70,000 troops. We can't let them use 70,000 troops to attack Li Tang's 120,000 defenders, right? Even if we win, the casualties will be huge.
Li Jing smiled calmly and said: "The imperial court will not only send one hundred thousand elites this time, but also generals such as Li Cunxiao, Sun Lingming, Jiang Song, and Gao Chong to participate in this battle."
This chapter is from yesterday, today’s chapter is another matter
(End of this chapter)
