Chapter 1014 Suspicion

"Kill the enemy a thousand, lose 800!" Ma Chaoyou looked at the scarred generals Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, Wei Yan and Tai Shici, and finally sighed helplessly: "You go down and rest first. There is no victory or defeat in this battle, but you absolutely have no fault. The counselors behind Yuan Shao are not all dry meals..."

The four nodded, no one said anything, and then left with their fists. It's not that they are so tired that they have nothing to say at this time, but the heavy casualties, which really makes them feel no longer in the mood to say anything.

In this battle, Gao Shun's heavy armed soldiers lost more than 1,000; Zhang Liaoyan's north horse died in the battle; the Ma family's elite cavalry who broke through on the front lost about 3,000. And the most tragic thing is that Wei Yan's two battalions of soldiers, more than 7,000 people, and less than 2,000 people can come back afterwards.

Moreover, this is only the number of deaths, if the number of casualties is included. In this battle, 30,000 Ma's army directly shrank to 10,000! In particular, Wei Yan's elite infantry was directly disabled...

Of course, the Ma family was so badly damaged that Yan Liang and Gao Gan were not happy. After the incident, they took inventory of the bodies and reported that Yan Liang's 20,000 elites were also disabled, and it was lucky that the remaining 5,000 to 6,000 wounded soldiers could get back Wuzhi. Later, Gao Gan also suffered heavy losses, 30,000 Youyan elite horses, because of the rapid breakthrough rescue. , did not fully launch the charge formation, was strangled by the later Ma cavalry, and almost 8,000 people were beheaded.

These reports are naturally not accurate data, because many bodies on the battlefield are incomplete. When cleaning and buried deep, officers can only rely on the flag to be judged by their characters and experience. In this way, Yan Liang and Gao Gan lost about 25,000 people in total this time.

Generally, the Ma army lost nearly 15,000 people, in exchange for the enemy's 25,000 people, which was also a victory. But in Ma Chao's eyes, it can't be converted like that. This time, all the elites of the Ma family were dispatched, with an average investment of more than three times more than the elite of ordinary princes. If there is a normal confrontation, the Ma army will certainly reduce casualties. However, Gao Gan suddenly turned the encirclement and annihilation into a chaotic war, and the large-scale casualties of the Ma army were also inevitable.

"I don't want to fight this kind of battle without technical content. But when the elite coach meets the elite coach, and the elite warrior meets the elite warrior, he can only be left with complete hard work... Hey!" With a sigh, Ma Chao couldn't help looking at Meng Da, who came from Chang'an to prepare grain and grass: "How's the preparation of grain and grass?"

For more than a month, Meng Da has been very busy. At this time, standing in front of Ma Chao, his face was clear, his eyes were deep, and even a few crow's feet appeared in the corners of his eyes. After listening to Ma Chao's question, he turned over the account book and replied, "Weichen inspected the nine counties of Yongzhou this time. Except for Tianshui County and Xinxia Wudu County, which he had already borne once, brought back a total of 737,500 stones of grain and fodder."

This is about half of Youzhou's annual income this year. Ma Chao couldn't help nodding and said, "Thank you for your hard work. How's Chang'an?"

"For good, the lord's new policy is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, not to mention the war outside. The people are not bad, and they have not complained about the repeated battles of the Ma family this year. Although there are spies and rumors in the city, Shadow Control and the Propaganda of the Ministry of Ceremonies have cut off the enemy's tricks. Please rest assured.

"Go down and have a rest first," Ma Chao nodded after hearing it. Then after thinking for a moment, he said, "When you leave tomorrow, remember to send me a letter to the old fox. It's not too urgent, but remember to remind me tomorrow."

Meng Da didn't say anything after hearing this and left.

At this time, Ma Chao was left in the tent. After getting up and walking back and forth for a few steps, he still felt restless. He simply took off the tent and hung the cowhide map, spread it on the ground and thought carefully.

At this moment, the war has just begun. Although the Ma family's march has twists and turns, it is also smooth. From Xingyang to Huai County now, the territory of the Ma family has expanded a little. Moreover, in other aspects, the Ma family is also foolproof.

In terms of military strength, although the war inevitably lost some combat strength, Ma Chao still has 370,000 troops in his hands at this time, which is not slightly better than Yuan Shao's 400,000 main force, but at least it is comparable.

In addition to the military grain collected by Meng Da's inspection, Ma Chao also seized the inventory of Huai County, Hanoi for several years, and also intercepted Yuan's military grain. No matter how you calculate, it is no problem to spend a year and a half with Yuan Shao.

On the battlefield deployment, after the capture of Huai County, the Ma family army made a big move. In one day, they had already set up defensive lines in the Qinshui River adjacent to the three counties of Huai County, Qinshui and Shanyang, and the three big villages were horns with each other. Even if Yuan Shao invaded, his own army had established a firm foothold and waited for work.

Finally, from the perspective of Wenchen and military generals, the Ma family lineup is not weaker than Yuan Shao. Although Ma Chao didn't think he was really wise and martial, he also humbly accepted his advice. Compared with Yuan Shao's faction that competed for power and profit and quarreled endlessly, it was really much better.

But the more so, Ma Chaoyue felt a little uneasy - that feeling was an intuition and there was no reason. As a prince, Ma Chao has long been used to the determination to control everything in his hands. Although he can't see any problem now, his feelings can't deceive his heart.

First of all, what Ma Chao can't care about is the death of Duanmu Ruoyu. After such a long incident, Ma Chao has been thinking about the shadow of Meiji, not that there is much kindness between Ma Chao and Duanmu Ruoyu. But after calming down, Ma Chao found that Duanmu Ruoyu's assassination failed, and there were too many doubts.

Six years ago, the shadow mixed into the craftsmen and built a wall that could hide people. It can be said that God did not know it and ghosts it. Moreover, the wall was also remembered to be used by Duanmu Ruoyu. To say that there is no shadow betrayal, it can only be said that everything is too coincidental.

In addition, Ma Chao also felt something strange about the ambush of Yan Liang this time. The reason why Ma Chao did not have much backup after sending 30,000 troops was that he knew that the match was not on the same front line with Yan Liang at all. And Yan Liang and the trial pair will not really go to save Huai County, so the trial and matching also rest assured to let Yan Liang go out for a walk.

In this way, it is impossible for the judge to send a high-level officer to rescue Yan Liang. In fact, if Yan Liang is killed in battle or the whole army is destroyed, it is still a good gift for the trial. But strangely, he had long known that he could not command the whole army, so he sent Gao Gan to ride 30,000 Youyan to rescue Yan Liang. Such a move is really unreasonable.

If it hadn't been for Sima Yi's momentary sex and let the ugly brother, who had been free, take over Gao Shun's army, I'm afraid that the two armies would really fight to the last breath on that official road - so, some of them must have seen through Ma Chao's series of siege and aid, but they were also one move away. He did not mobilize Wuzhi's 100,000 army to rescue him and slap Ma Chao fiercely.

Is that person's lack of energy? Or did you deliberately give Ma Chao a reminder? And if Duanmu Ruoyu also has the participation of that person, what exactly does he want to do?

What's more terrible is that if these two things are all attributed to coincidence, it is also completely clear: who stipulates that Gao Gan will not be careless and wants to take his army to cooperate with Yan Liangzhen to come to Huai County to fish in troubled waters?

Everything immediately rose in front of Ma Chao's eyes, covering all the intentions hazy and difficult to see. Ma Chao speculated for a long time, but there was no reasonable explanation. Finally, the only way is to put away the map and hold a military conference to deal with Yuan Shao's army.

"After the desperate battle, it's a protracted battle." Ma Chao smiled bitterly and sighed again: "A war is really money-burning and killing people. I don't know when it will be the end..."