The terrain of Yinshan Mountain is very high, even standing on a gentle hillside, the stars above the head are several times larger than when they were in Changling, and they look like pearls, within reach.
Many parts of Yinshan Mountain are the natural dividing line of the Qin and Chu territories. This hillside is on the side near Chu and belongs to the territory of the Chu Dynasty. However, the Qin army is stationed on the hillside at this moment. It is densely covered and forms its own formation.
In the river valley and desert area twenty miles below this hillside, countless bonfires are denser than the stars in the sky. The black tents and red bonfires are connected together until the end of ordinary people's eyesight, just like the legendary river Styx .
In the camp of the Qin army’s Chinese army on the hillside, the huge tent propped up with felt made of black yak hair was like a black sky, and dozens of candles as thick as a child’s arm illuminated a sand table.
Sand table deduction, which is a tool commonly used by almost all generals in wars from several dynasties ago, can most intuitively see the terrain of their own army and the movement of each army, so as to judge the situation in various details more intuitively.
The battle between two huge dynasties with similar strengths and the unprecedented deployment of troops also made the sand table in the middle of the camp very large. Between the mountains and rivers, small flags representing the army were extremely dense.
The discussion of the general's combat deployment has ended. When the sun rises tomorrow, some of the small flags above will move to new positions, or disappear completely.
In the huge camp, only Sima Cuo and Fusu were left.
Standing in the shadow of the shaking candles, some marks are marked on these small flags, think that behind each small flag that looks insignificant on the sand table represents many fresh lives, think of the disappearance of these small flags At that time, the real battlefield was filled with He Gu's corpses, and Fusu's mood could not be calm, and his breathing was always heavy.
Sima Cuo looked at him, and a slight sarcasm slowly emerged from the corner of his cold mouth.
"What's this?"
He stretched out a finger, tapped the huge sand table in front of him, and asked.
Fusu's body trembled slightly, and he subconsciously replied, "This is the life and death of countless people."
The slight sarcasm at the corner of Sima Cuo's mouth became stronger, he shook his head, and said, "This is the whole world, the whole Great Qin Dynasty."
Fu Su was stunned, unable to understand the meaning of Sima Cuo's words now.
"Most commanders may be powerful practitioners, but powerful practitioners may not be able to become commanders." Sima glanced at him by mistake, and said slowly and coldly: "The difference between commanders and ordinary powerful practitioners is that It is to look at things from a different height. You are the prince most valued by the emperor and the empress. As long as you do not make a big mistake, the throne of the Great Qin Dynasty will naturally be handed over to you in the future. So you must start from the position of commander, from the entire empire. look at things from a different angle.”
"What is evolving in this sandbox is only battles, but the outcome of this war will determine the fate of the empire. Compared with the entire empire, although each flag here represents thousands or even thousands of The life and death of thousands of people, the blood flowed into rivers, and the bones into mountains, but they are still too small."
Sima Cuo's gaze left Fusu's face and the sand table in front of him, and turned to the night sky outside the camp. After a pause for a few breaths, he slowly said: "In a sense, Zhao Mu is the opponent I fear the most. , because he only cares about the final victory and defeat, not the process. This person Tang Mo has a similar temperament to yours, and he cares too much about the life and death of these people."
"Every dynasty has many powerful practitioners, and countless warriors who are good at fighting. As the commander and your position, what you have to grasp is the overall trend. Naturally, these people will fight in wars."
Sima laughed wrongly, "Just like now, you just need to be sure that there will be problems with the entire army of the Great Chu Dynasty under Tang Mei's command. Can you see now that he will lead the army? In this overall situation, the Chu army already exists A fatal weakness? If you can't see it, then the commander is meaningless, and any order given is meaningless. Maybe the vast majority of the armies represented by these flags have won the battle, but in the end you will find that you lost for no reason gone."
"weakness?"
Hearing Sima Cuo's teachings, Fu Su looked at the sand table in a daze, but he still couldn't see where the fatal weakness of the Chu army that Sima Cuo said was already there.
"The more complicated the battle line is, the longer it drags on, the more variables there will be. With the entry of Yan, Qi, and those from Bashan Sword Field, it will be more unfavorable to us. Zhao Mu stayed in Chudu to stabilize the situation in the rear, and recommended Tang It is Tang Mo's way to lead the army as the commander, and it will be natural to do this."
Sima Cuo restrained his smile, and said slowly and coldly, "But the Achilles' heel of a leader like him is food and grass. Although the Chu army has been preparing for the winter, there is still not enough food and grass to respond to us. The more detailed the battle , the more routes there are for food delivery and storage, the more prone to problems. As long as this can be discovered, all orders only need to be aimed at this point.”
Fusu took a breath, and he finally understood.
Sima Cuo continued indifferently: "Food, grass, grass, grass, and grass. Of all the orders issued tonight, our 50,000 Huben army, which seems to be led by Lian Bo, is the most moving, but in fact it is just to contain most of the Chu army. The key is only those small flags, many of the fodder stored by the Chu army will be burned. Even if Wei Wujiu led the army to march towards the Luhezi meadow, it was just a trick. The role among them is often used to contain and protect some generals, and sometimes, the decisive victory does not lie in the battles between these people, but in the victories harvested by some inconspicuous troops."
…
Snow Valley Pass.
A very inconspicuous place on the sand table.
A valley in the Yinshan Mountains that does not get sunlight leads to this place. Because there is no sunlight, even in early summer, the valley is covered with a layer of white snow.
This pass is located in the northern part of Daliang County. Because it is too remote, it is only to guard against some rogues outside the pass, so it only built a stone city at the exit of the valley. Originally, there were only 400 garrisons.
However, just a few days ago, some nobles and their entourages from the Great Chu Dynasty arrived here, together with the warlords, there were a total of more than 700 people.
These aristocrats are all from the surrounding areas of Chu Duying, and they all belong to the powerful families, but they are not powerful enough to make Zheng Xiangfei show mercy. All those nobles who could participate in the battle were reorganized into the army, and only those old and weak women and children who could not join the army stayed in the capital and were properly "taken care of".
After going to the front line, the army organized by these nobles was divided and distributed, and the combat power of the group finally sent to Xuegu Pass was extremely poor, at least far inferior to the 400 garrisons here.
The original garrison here did not have a good impression of these nobles, and they were afraid that these people would defect, so after these people arrived here, they were grouped into groups of five and led by an old soldier.
Many ordinary veterans here also suddenly became "corporate leaders".
Song Wei, the "corporate leader" who was in charge of the outpost watch that night, was just such a veteran.
The so-called outpost is just a hidden camp on the hillside on the side of the snow valley, which can accommodate a group of six people.
Even in order to resist the cold, the six people crowded tightly and relied on the warmth of their bodies for warmth, but Song Wei could still clearly feel the hostility of the five people under his command.
"As long as you keep your voice down, the wind in this valley is enough to cover up our voices, and even powerful practitioners can't hear them. If you don't say anything, you will easily get sleepy. How about talking?"
The old soldier, whose skin was damaged by the wind, frost and sunlight on the plateau like bark, rubbed his hands and said proactively.
No one answered.
Song Wei didn't take it seriously, and then said: "I know that you are dissatisfied. Everyone wants to live a peaceful life with good clothes and good food. Who wants to suffer here? Not only you don't want to, but I don't want to. I am not a practitioner. Where do you get the money for military exploits?"
"Then why did you join the army?" After a few breaths, a voice sounded.
"There is no choice." Song Wei smiled self-deprecatingly, "My father gave birth to two sons. I am the eldest son. My younger brother has been weak since he was a child. He can read and write better than me. My family is poor and has no farmland. According to the law of Chu, If you can’t afford the military tax, someone in your family will naturally join the army. Who will come if I don’t come?”
"You are different from me, but you have no choice." Song Wei turned his head and looked at the people huddled with him, and said seriously: "What I mean is, if you come, you will be safe. Since there is no choice, the only The only thing I can think of is to find a way to live, and it is better to live well than to die here. So resentment is of no use, and everyone lives in peace here, and it will be fine after this big war."
The camp fell silent again.
Seeing that his words were obviously recognized, Song Wei smiled and said: "Fortunately, our place is too remote, and it's not an important place to fight for, so there shouldn't be any people from the Qin army coming here to sneak attack. The possibility of going down..."
He naturally wanted to say that the possibility of us surviving is of course higher.
However, his words stopped abruptly.
His Adam's apple froze, his entire face froze, but his pupils shrank violently.
Some white with slight gaps appeared in the white snow.
Several white figures quietly appeared in the valley like ghosts.
Then came more white figures, densely packed towards the valley behind.