Back at the cottage, it was almost midnight, when Fang Jie's white lion entered the gate of the cottage, it caused a commotion. Fortunately, the white lion didn't seem to be interested in those surprised soldiers, and just followed Fang Jie obediently. In fact, Fang Jie himself was also surprised, this lion was clearly meeting him for the first time, yet why did he act like he was so attached to him
Sun Kaidao and others welcomed Fang Jie into the big tent. All the generals above the fourth rank were not asleep. The lights in the big tent were brightly lit, and the flames were crackling.
"General."
Sun Kaidao explained the situation in detail, and then marked it on the map and said: "Look, Gao Kaitai rebelled on the Hexi Road, and joined forces with the Navy General Wang Yiqu to block the river, and it took less than a month. He captured Hedong Road, and now the high bandit army is in full swing, the governor of Hedong Road, Yuan Tingshan, never expected such a change, Ye City was already besieged before it was too late to summon the county soldiers to rule the city."
"With the loss of Hedong Road, the emperor's way back to Chang'an was completely cut off. Even if he crossed Mangdang Mountain to go to Huangyang Road, Luo Yao would be waiting there. The road is blocked. The emperor should never have thought that he was at the most critical moment. The people arranged will raise the flag to rebel just when the counter-insurgency is about to end. Gao Kaitai is leading the two hundred thousand soldiers assigned to him by the emperor, plus Wang Yiqu's nearly one hundred thousand sailors. How could the local county soldiers be able to stop it."
"so… "
Sun Kai apologized and said: "This subordinate knows that the general has returned, so he asked Chen Xiaoru to rush over immediately to ask you to go back to the village for discussion."
Fang Jie frowned slightly and listened to Sun Kaidao's words. In fact, he had already sorted out all these things in his mind: "Are you worried...the emperor knows that there is no way to go east and no way to go south, so he will return to Jinyang?"
"right."
Sun Kaidao leaned over and said: "If the emperor returns to Jinyang, I'm afraid he will send someone to contact us immediately. What the subordinates are worried about is that although the soldiers have many complaints against the emperor, after all, they have been soldiers of the Sui Dynasty for so many years. , if the emperor makes any promises or big profits, there is no guarantee that the soldiers will not have any changes in their minds. The emperor is now desperate and must recruit more troops to help him open the way back to Chang'an... "
"It's not just us, I'm afraid that even the rebel army of Meng Wansui Yin Poshan will not attack again."
Fang Jie hummed: "You guessed right, the situation of the battle has changed. The emperor abandoned the Black Banner Army before because he thought it was worth it, but now our Black Banner Army has become a knife that he must go back to."
"So, I ask the general to make a decision early."
Sun Kaidao pointed to the map and said: "The subordinates have already sent a large number of flying fish robes into Huangyang Road. Over the past month since the general left, there has been news from Huangyang Road that Feiyupao has identified several places suitable for garrisoning troops. It's quite secretive. As long as our whereabouts are well protected, we won't be noticed. We will spend the winter in a remote place on Huangyang Road, and we will make a decision depending on the battle situation after the warm spring next year."
Fang Jie was silent for a while, then shook his head and said, "Let's take back all the Feiyu robes that were sent to Huangyang Dao, we won't go to Huangyang Dao."
"ah?"
Sun Kaidao was stunned for a moment, subconsciously glanced at Fang Xie and suddenly understood: "The general means to go out of Qingxia to the prairie?"
Fang Jie nodded, sat down and said to the crowd: "I have traveled westward out of the canyon for more than a month, with a journey of nearly ten thousand miles, and I am quite familiar with the current situation in Mengyuan. The Mengyuan royal court and the Buddhist sect are fighting fiercely. Buddhist believers and herdsmen left their homes and rushed to Daxue Mountain to protect their holy land, and people who supported Kuoketai Mengge also gathered there.
"I have never met a large tribe or a regular army since I left the canyon to Qinlin Gol. This war will not be won or lost in a short while, even if it is divided In the event of a victory or defeat, how much damage will the strength of the two sides be? Besides, we are not going to settle on the grassland."
Fang Jie said: "We need to rest, the most important thing is to replenish the horses."
He smiled: "There are not many people on the grassland now, and cattle, sheep and horses are not uncommon. Relying on these things, our soldiers can eat meat every day to survive the winter, and then we can recruit young and strong people and bring them to Training on the grassland, we will train a light cavalry team that moves like the wind before the Mengyuan royal court and Daxueshan decide the winner."
"Besides, we have the final say on the canyon."
"yes!"
Sun Kaidao's eyes brightened: "We have built a stone wall in the canyon. We only need to send people to guard it, and no one can easily pass by. Could the emperor still spend a lot of troops to attack it at this time? Since the grassland is already undefended, it is true. It's better than going to Huangyang Road to take risks. The most important thing is to replenish the war horses, as the general said."
"Just one year."
Sun Kaidao said with a smile: "If we're lucky, we can turn all 50,000 people into cavalry!"
The generals have not yet adapted to this sudden change, but after thinking about it, they found that this is indeed the best choice. Eating the cattle and sheep abandoned by the herdsmen on the grassland, riding their abandoned horses, and spending this winter comfortably, taking a year or even longer to come here when the Mengyuan people have no time to take care of them. Develop your own strength, and wait until you are strong before returning to the northwest. At that time, the emperor will probably be dead.
What's more, the canyon is in the hands of the Black Banner Army, and they can enter or exit.
"This trip to the grassland."
Fang Jie smiled and said: "My greatest achievement is to find that the Mengyuan Rebellion was more thorough than the Great Sui Rebellion. I galloped three hundred miles a day, and saw cattle and sheep grazing on the fat grass on the way. The wolf cavalry could not be seen. The big tribes were all in the Daxue Mountain or on the way to the Daxue Mountain, and the small tribes were afraid of being implicated and migrated to the south... Now out of the canyon, there are at least a few thousand miles with armored soldiers. I can't see, the grassland people believe in the Changshengtian, but now their Changshengtian has prepared gifts for us."
"God... how can I not take it?"
…
…
Although Fang Jie's decision was a bit abrupt, it immediately gained everyone's support. Now their strength is not strong enough to confront anyone head-on. If the emperor recruits Meng Wansui and Yin Poshan, and then amnesties the rebels, it will not take long to reorganize hundreds of thousands of troops, and the emperor will definitely send troops to the east.
At this time, the emperor will definitely not go south to fight Luo Yao again.
And Luo Yao probably would respond accordingly, leaving soldiers and horses to seal up Huang Yangdao to prevent the emperor from going south, and then he might rush to Ye Jinnan's army and command an army of one million to go straight to the south of the Yangtze River. Someone once said that those who win the south of the Yangtze River win the world. The land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River has no shortage of money and food, a large population, and sufficient soldiers. As long as they occupy the south of the Yangtze River, at worst, they can draw the river and rule with the Yang family.
If there were no accidents, Luo Yao must first pacify the south of the Yangtze River and then march north. His military strength is too large, and he urgently needs to replenish supplies in rich places. The farther the fight, the longer the front, and the more impractical it became to transport grain from the Xinkou warehouse. Across the river, it is not easy to transport grain from Xinkou warehouse to the south of the Yangtze River.
Although it seemed that the Black Banner Army's retreat into the prairie was a passive, even an evasive move, it would indeed be extremely beneficial for future use of troops. Now that the grasslands are lush with water and grass, they only need to collect the cattle and sheep discarded by the herdsmen to survive the winter in peace.
After the emperor and Gao Kaitai fought, Fang Jie would come back with the Black Banner Army. No matter if he went south or east, he would have a powerful cavalry troop with the most mobility, and no one could do anything about it.
After the decision, the army was ready to leave.
The meticulously repaired Fangu City cannot be discarded. This is the lookout post of the Black Banner Army. Fang Jie left 2,000 troops to guard the city, and the rest left the Central Plains and entered the grassland through the valley. A few years later, when the soldiers set foot on the grass for the second time, everyone felt a little strange.
Back then, when they came here in high spirits, blood flowed all over the place.
This time, they did not encounter any enemies. How could those small tribes who had no time to retreat dare to provoke tens of thousands of elite Sui warriors.
Fang Xie ordered Fan Gu to rotate the defenders. At this time, Fan Gu had only one eye, watching the changes in the northwest of the Great Sui Dynasty, and watching the emperor's struggle at the last moment.
While the emperor was gathering up the rebels on the Mangdang Mountain, Fang Jie also left a group of people to recruit the strong and strong people to join the army. The common people all know that General Fang loves the people like a son, so the people who signed up are very enthusiastic.
After arriving on the grassland, Fang Jie chose the grassland where Mandu Latu used to station the army. This is the most lush grassland within a radius of 2,000 miles. After the Mandu Banner was destroyed, the neighboring banner owners continued to send people to invade it, and some small tribes also migrated here to escape oppression. Later, after the war, Mandu Banner became a paradise for small tribes because there was no banner owner.
Fang Jie sent Chen Dingnan and Xiahou Baichuan to search the grassland with a thousand Qingqi each. When they encountered small tribes, they asked their leaders to bring cattle, sheep and horses to the Mandu Banner to sacrifice. The leaders of those small tribes did not dare to resist. Can obey. It took a month for the Black Banner Army to collect no less than 100,000 cattle and sheep and tens of thousands of horses on the grassland.
It was so easy, all the generals of the Black Banner Army were overjoyed. The benefits stimulated their enthusiasm, and the generals of each battalion went out in turn to expand the scope of the search. Whether it was owned or unowned, they would pull back when they saw war horses. However, according to Fang Jie's instructions, the Black Banner Army only took half of the war horses collected from those small tribes. Just try not to touch it.
By the time of winter in the northwest, Fang Jie's men had already searched for it within a radius of 3,000 li.
Meng Yuan's war horses are so shocking that the Black Banner soldier has one in a few months!
Such a huge harvest made the soldiers of the Black Banner Army very happy every day.
The most indispensable thing on the grassland is horses, and there is no shortage of cattle and sheep. This was the happiest winter the soldiers of the Black Banner Army had lived since the Western Expedition. They ate meat every day, which was much better than what they had lived on Langru Mountain.
Fang Jie sent out a large number of scouts to inquire about the news from Wang Ting, while the soldiers who stayed in Fan Gu sent information to Mandu Banner every ten days according to his request.
It seems that this winter is going to pass so easily.
happy and content.
But just when people were getting used to the ease, a piece of news made Fang Jie pay more attention to it.
November
The northern barbarians assembled the most powerful army they have ever seen. About 150,000 people entered the grassland from the northernmost point of Langru Mountain. On the way, these northern barbarians launched an attack on the northern Liao land. He tried to seize food and grass for the horses, but was defeated by 20,000 cold cavalry led by Wanyan Chongde.
In desperation, the northern barbarians had no choice but to negotiate a peace, and then walked around the Shiwanda mountain in desperation and entered the grassland.
barbarians are coming
And this is just an advance army. If they find that there is no defense on the grassland, they will immediately howl like a dragon who has discovered a treasure. Millions of northern barbarian tribes would cross the mountains and flood into the grasslands, and the barbarians who had survived in the extremely harsh environment for many years would feel that the grasslands were paradise.
If the northern barbarians don't open their eyes to provoke the black flag army to grab the territory
Maybe this winter will not be boring.