"Kill one thousand enemies, but lose eight hundred to yourself."
Ma Chao looked at the four scarred generals Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, Wei Yan, and Tai Shici with a sad look on his face, and finally sighed helplessly and said: "You guys go down and rest first.
There is no guarantee of victory or defeat in this battle, but you are absolutely not at fault, and the counselors behind Yuan Shao are not all idle."
The four of them nodded, no one said anything, and then left with fists in their hands.
It wasn't that they were too tired to say anything at this time, but the heavy casualties really made them in no mood to say anything.
In this battle, Gao Shun's heavy-armed soldiers lost more than a thousand; Zhang Liao's Yanbei cavalry lost more than two thousand; and Ma's Jingqi, who broke through head-on, lost about three thousand.
The most disastrous thing was that Wei Yan's two battalions of infantry numbered more than 7,000 people.
Less than 2,000 people were able to return afterwards.
Moreover, this is only the number of deaths, if the number of casualties is included.
In this battle, 30,000 troops were directly reduced to 10,000, especially Wei Yan's elite infantry, who were directly disabled.
Of course, the damage to the Ma family was so severe that Yan Liang and the senior officials could not seek a settlement.
Afterwards, they counted the corpses and reported that Yan Liang's 20,000 elite troops had also been maimed, leaving only five or six thousand wounded soldiers to recover from Wuzhi.
It was a great luck; and the subsequent high-ranking officials also suffered heavy losses.
Thirty thousand Youyan Jingqi, because they rushed to break through for rescue, did not fully deploy the charging formation, were later strangled by the Ma family cavalry, and almost 8,000 were beheaded. .
These reports are naturally not exact data, because many corpses on the battlefield are mutilated.
When cleaning and burying them, the officers can only rely on the flags, the people who command them and their experience to make judgments.
Calculating this, Yan Liang and Gao Gan lost about 25,000 people in total this time.
Ordinarily, the Ma Jiajun lost nearly 15,000 men in exchange for 25,000 enemy troops, which can be considered a victory.
But in Ma Chao's eyes, it can't be converted like that.
Those dispatched this time were all the elites of the direct lineage of the Ma family, and the average investment per warrior was more than three times that of the elites of ordinary princes.
If it were a normal battle, the Ma Jiajun would definitely be able to reduce casualties.
But the sudden arrival of high-ranking officials turned the encirclement and annihilation battle into a chaotic battle, and large-scale casualties to the Ma Jiajun were inevitable.
"After all calculations, I just don't want to fight this kind of battle without technical content.
But when an elite coach meets an elite coach, or an elite warrior meets an elite warrior, all that's left is sheer hard work."
Ma Chao sighed again.
I couldn't help but focus on Meng Da who came from Chang'an to prepare food and grass: "How are the preparations for the food and grass?"
In the past month or so, Meng Da has indeed been very busy.
Standing in front of Ma Chao at this time, he had a slender face, deep-set eye sockets, and even a few crow's feet appeared in the corners of his eyes.
After listening to Ma Chao's question, he flipped through the account book and replied: "Weichen inspected the nine counties of Yongzhou this time.
Except for Tianshui County, which was already taken once, and Wudu County, which was newly assigned, he brought back a total of seventy grains and grass.
Thirty-seven thousand five hundred stones.”
This is about more than half of Youzhou's annual income this year.
Ma Chao couldn't help but nodded and said: "Thank you for your hard work, Zidu.
How is the situation in Chang'an?"
"Fortunately, my lord's new policy is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, not to mention the war outside.
The people's hearts are still good, and they have not complained about the Ma family's continuous battles this year.
Although there are spies causing trouble and spreading rumors in the city, the shadow control and the propaganda of the Ministry of Rites have been eliminated.
The enemy is planning something, please be at ease, my lord."
"Go down and rest first," Ma Chao nodded again after hearing this, and then after thinking for a moment, he added: "When you leave tomorrow, remember to send a letter to the old fox for me.
This matter is not too urgent, but Remember to remind me tomorrow.”
After hearing this, Meng Da said nothing more and left.
At this time, Ma Chao was the only one left in the big tent.
After he stood up and walked back and forth for a few steps, he felt that his mind was still uneasy.
He simply took off the tent and hung the cowhide map, spread it on the ground, and began to think about it carefully.
At this moment, the war has just begun.
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Although the Ma family's march has twists and turns, it is progressing step by step, and it can be considered a smooth sailing.
From Xingyang to the current Huai County, the territory of the Ma family has expanded a bit.
Moreover, from other aspects, the Ma family is considered foolproof.
In terms of military strength, although some combat power was inevitably lost in the war, Ma Chao still had an army of 370,000 at this time.
Facing Yuan Shao's main force of 400,000, it could not be said to be slightly better, but at least he was evenly matched.
In terms of military rations, in addition to the military rations collected by Meng Da during this inspection, Ma Chao also seized several years of inventory in Huai County, Hanoi, and also intercepted the Yuan family's military rations once.
No matter how you calculate it, spending the last year and a half with Yuan Shao is no problem.
In terms of battlefield defense, after the capture of Huai County, the Ma Jiajun launched a large-scale defense line.
In one day, they had set up defense lines in Huai County, Qinshui, and Shanyang counties adjacent to the Qinshui River.
The three villages were at the horns of each other.
Even if Yuan Shao invades, his army has already established a firm foothold and is waiting for work.
Finally, in terms of civil servants and generals, the Ma family's lineup is no weaker than Yuan Shao.
Although Ma Chao didn't think he was really wise or powerful, he humbly accepted the advice and suggestions of his subordinates.
Compared with Yuan Shao's group of factions who were fighting for power and quarreling endlessly, it was actually much better.
But the more this happened, Ma Chaoyue felt a little uneasy.
This feeling was just an intuition and made no sense.
As a prince, Ma Chao has long been accustomed to having everything under control.
Although he can't see any problems now, his feelings cannot deceive him.
First of all, what Ma Chao couldn't bear to care about was his death.
After this incident happened for such a long time, Ma Chao has always been obsessed with the beautiful girl Shadow, not to mention the great kindness and righteousness between Ma Chao and Duanmu Ruoyu.
But after Ma Chao calmed down, he discovered that Duanmu Ruoyu's assassination failed, and there were too many doubts in it.
The shadow had infiltrated among the craftsmen half a year ago to build the wall that could hide people, so to speak, without the knowledge of gods or ghosts.
Moreover, Duanmu Ruoyu only thought of using that wall on a temporary basis.
If there is no shadow betrayal, I can only say that everything is too coincidental.
In addition, Ma Chao also felt that there was something fishy about the ambush on Yan Liang.
The reason why Ma Chao didn't prepare more backup after dispatching 30,000 troops was because he knew that Shen Pei and Yan Liang were not on the same front at all.
Neither Yan Liang nor Shen Pei would really go to save Huai County, so Shen Pei felt free to let Yan Liang go out for a while.
In this way, it is impossible for Shenpei to send senior officials to rescue Yan Liang.
In fact, if Yan Liang died in battle or the entire army was destroyed, it would still be a good gift to Shen Pei.
But the strange thing is that Shen Pei, who had long known that he could not command the entire army, actually sent high-ranking officials with 30,000 Youyan elite cavalry to rescue Yan Liang.
Such a move is really unreasonable.
If it weren't for a sudden impulse to let the already free Chou brother go to meet Gao Shun's army, I'm afraid the two armies would have fought to the last breath on that official road.
From this point of view, someone must have seen through Ma Chao's series of plans to siege the city and bring reinforcements. , but he missed a move and failed to mobilize Wu Zhi's 100,000 troops to rescue him, so he slapped Ma Chao hard.
Was that person lacking in energy or was he deliberately giving Ma Chao a reminder?
And if that person was involved in Duanmu Ruoyu's incident, what did he intend to do?
What's more, if these two things are all due to coincidence, it is completely clear: who said that high-ranking officials will not act on impulse and want to bring their troops to cooperate with Yan Liangzhen to fish in the troubled waters here in Huai County?
Everything immediately rose up in a white mist in front of Ma Chao's eyes, obscuring all his intentions and making it difficult to see clearly.
Ma Chao speculated for a long time, but could not come up with a reasonable explanation.
In the end, they could only put away the map and convene a military meeting to deal with Yuan Shao's army.
"After a desperate fight, there is a protracted war."
Ma Chao smiled bitterly and sighed: "War is really a waste of money and killing people.
I don't know when it will come to an end
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