Zhuge Liang's Fifth Northern Expedition took another three years to prepare for his last Northern Expedition. In the past three years, Zhuge Liang not only deposed Li Yan, unified his thinking, and strengthened the unity of the Shuhan group; And the preparation for the Northern Expedition was much better. This time, he not only had Zhuge crossbows, wooden oxen, and eight arrays, but also invented flowing horses, repaired the plank road in the valley, and built a pavilion to store grain at the south entrance of the valley to reduce the logistical pressure after the outbreak of the war. Summarizing Zhuge Liang's previous Northern Expeditions, each time he made up for the shortcomings of the last time, from which we can clearly see that a great politician is growing in the direction of a great military strategist.
What is the so-called flowing horse, the same as the wooden ox, the history is also unknown, only in the "Zhuge Liang Collection", the method of its manufacture is briefly described, and there is still no instruction manual and design drawing. However, compared with the wooden ox, the text introduction of the flowing horse is more detailed, not only the size of each part, but also clearly indicates that it is porous and the aperture is larger, which indicates that the "flowing horse" may be assembled by the joint; If it is not called a "Trojan horse" but a "flowing horse", it should be a gliding or water-walking thing. According to experts, the "Flowing Horse" is likely to be a detachable and assembled amphibious transport.
On what basis is this?
Road. Zhuge Liang's last Northern Expedition took the slope of the slope, which is a very special road. The road starts from Baozhong County, where the ancient Baoguo (Baoxi's hometown) is located, enters the Baoshui (Hanshui tributary, also known as Heilongjiang) river valley from Baokou to the north, passes through Shimen, Triangle City, Chiya, and arrives at the source of Baoshui. Here and its corresponding diagonal water (Weishui tributary, now called the stone river) river valley has a watershed separation, the ancient name is Wuliban, over Wuliban, and then along the diagonal water northward to Xieyuguan, out of the mouth of the diagonal valley, is the important town of Meixian in Guanzhong.
The southern slope of the Qinling Mountains is generally gentle, and the northern slope is steep (Note 1), so the northern section of most valley roads is more difficult to navigate. Only the slope valley at the northern foot of the Bao slope road is 51 kilometers long, and there is an oblique water scouring, so the road is gentle, there is no big mountain, it is quite convenient and easy to walk, and its exit is close to Chang'an, this unique natural condition also made the Western Han Dynasty monarchs and ministers quite excited.
It turned out that although the Western Han Dynasty took Chang'an as its capital and built a high-rise building to control the world, it has always been plagued by food problems. In fact, the grain production in the Guanzhong Basin is okay, but with the Han Dynasty's large migration of the Guandong Haoqiang to Chang'an and its mausoleum, as well as the development of the Hexi Corridor in the northwest and the operation of the Western Regions to fight against the Xiongnu and other needs, resulting in Guanzhong grain ** increasingly unable to make ends meet, although Guanzhong has been building water conservancy, expanding the irrigation area, increasing grain production, and promoting reclamation in the northwest, but compared with the surging population, it is a drop in the bucket, so the Han Dynasty ** must transport grain from Kanto every year to blood transfusion, During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the largest annual transportation was 6 million stones, and these grain transfers mainly relied on waterways, Weishui and the Yellow River.
But the Yellow River has never been an easy stream, there is a problem with the transportation, the biggest problem is the section of Sanmenxia, because the river narrows sharply, resulting in turbulent water, the grain boat goes up, all rely on people to pull, the transportation cost is very large, and there are boulders in the river to divide the river water into three points (that is, the source of the idiom "mainstay"), making it more dangerous, often the boat is destroyed and people die, and the loss is very large. Later, the Tang Dynasty had artificially opened a road next to Sanmenxia, and when the ship arrived here, the grain was loaded onto the car, bypassing Sanmenxia, and then reloaded into the ship for water transportation, but the transportation cost increased again.
Pictured: Sanmenxia and the mainstay
Especially in disaster years, the demand for food was greater, and Cao Yun could not keep up, so the emperor had to take hundreds of civil and military officials to Luoyang, the eastern capital, to "eat". What are the benefits of going to Luoyang? Grain does not have to cross Sanmenxia.
Because of this, no dynasty after the Tang Dynasty chose to build its capital in Chang'an, but moved east to Kaifeng, and later north to Beijing.
In short, the Western Han Dynasty built the capital of Chang'an, and food ** is a big problem, so the imperial historian Zhang Tang wrote a research report to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty after investigation and research, suggesting that the plank road should be repaired to open the Cao Yun, and use the Bao water and the inclined water to communicate Wei Shui and Han Shui, so that the materials in the eastern part of the Kanto can be transported from Nanyang to Hanzhong through the Han River, and then transported to Guanzhong through the Bao Water and the Oblique Water, which perfectly avoids the danger of the Sanmenxia of the original Yellow River Cao Yun. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was very happy after seeing it, and immediately appointed Zhang Wei, the son of Zhang Tang, as the Taishou of Hanzhong, and sent tens of thousands of migrant workers to repair the plank road and open up the Caoyun. However, due to the fact that the water and the oblique water are too turbulent, and there are many large rocky shoals, the waterway drop is very large (there are still rafting and entertainment routes in the local area), and there are more boulders on the land route of Wuliban, which is difficult to dig through, so the matter of trough transportation was not successful in the end (see "Historical Records of the River Canal Book"), of course, this project is not in vain, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty expanded the Bao Slope Road, so that the road replaced the Chencang Road and became the most important trunk road in the Qinling Mountains, so that the transportation from Chang'an to Hanzhong was convenient for more than 400 miles. Eastern Han Dynasty Yongping four years (AD 61), Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty and the edict to repair the slope and dig the stone gate, lasted five years, repaired the southern section of the slope 129 kilometers, repaired the bridge pavilion 623, 5 bridges, the project is extremely huge; When Emperor Han An, Emperor Shun of Han and Emperor Huan of Han, Bao Slope Road has been rebuilt and repaired many times, in short, this is the best road condition in the Qinling Valley Road, only Cao Yun is a fly in the ointment, a bit of a pity.
Pictured: Praise water
But here in Zhuge Liang, the fly in the ointment can also be turned into perfection.
The specific method, of course, is to invent the flow horse. This thing, like a Transformer, can be disassembled and reassembled at will, so that it can be used for both vehicles and ships - on land, it can be carried by manpower or pulled by animal power, and when it is in the water, it becomes a special boat, which can be rowed and dragged by pulling fiber, which is enough to adapt to a variety of transportation conditions. In the design materials recorded in the "Zhuge Liang Collection", the feet of the flowing horse are relatively short, which should be used to tie the rope when pulling or grasping when lifting; The "square bag of two" is used to hold rice, because the part of the cargo is quite airtight, so as to adapt to driving in the turbulent river valley, so as not to splash wet and damage the rice grain. This is probably the first miniature "container".
On the other hand, Sima Yi is also actively preparing for the war. In fact, as early as three years ago, after Zhuge Liang attacked Longxi and retreated, Sima Yi's military advisor Du Xi and overseer Xue Yi reminded him: "Next year, the wheat is ripe, Liang will be Kou, there is no grain in Longxi, and it is appropriate to transport it in winter." "We also said in the last part that Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, not only did the Shu Han army not continue to have food, but Cao Wei also lost most of the wheat fields in Shangtai that were harvested by the Shu army, resulting in a shortage of military food. In the end, it was Guo Huai, the assassin of Yongzhou, who relied on his huge prestige in the Qiang, to collect grain from house to house, which allowed the Wei army to survive the food crisis. But this kind of thing can no longer be repeated, Qiang Di was originally rebellious and impermanent, Guo Huai has been rooted in Longxi for many years, and he has finally accumulated a little prestige, but he can't be completely overdrawn.
Therefore, Du Xi and Xue Yi took precautions, and wanted to quickly transport more grain from the east to Longxi to accumulate it in preparation for the big war, which was not a good idea, but Sima Yi was like a magical old man**: Even if Zhuge Liang came out, he would not attack the city again, and when he sought a field battle, he would be in Longdong, not in Longxi. And every time he hates the lack of food, he will accumulate grain, and he will not be able to move for three years. "So it's not necessary to transport grain, you should make long-term plans, and leave this matter to Sima Yi's younger brother Sima Fu!
To say that there are really a lot of talents in the Sima family. This Sima Fu was a financial expert, and at that time he was still serving as the Minister of Finance (Duzhi Shangshu) in the imperial court, and after learning of his brother's difficulties, he immediately suggested to the imperial court that the five thousand Jizhou farmers should be moved to Shangtai to go to Tuntian, and the autumn and winter battle formations were practiced, and the fields were repaired in spring and summer, so as to realize Longxi. In addition, Sima Yi also went to the emperor, set up the three counties of Jingzhao, Tianshui, and Nan'an, smelted iron, updated weapons, and asked for permission to set up a military market in Jingzhao County, raise military salaries, and repair the Zhengguo Canal and Baiqu, and added the Chengguo Canal in the upper reaches of Weishui and the Linjin Pi in Luoshui, so as to increase the irrigation area, nourish the population, and prepare for a long-term and larger-scale war.
In short, this is a war in which both sides are well prepared, and this is called chess where opponents meet good talents! To study the military affairs of ancient times, we must first profoundly understand that the battle on the battlefield is actually only an appearance, and the fundamental factors that ultimately determine the outcome of the war are the geopolitical factors hidden behind the annals of history and the logistics supply mode of the army at that time. And only by understanding these can we read the frightening and world-class demeanor between the top cattle of the Three Kingdoms from the seemingly boring history books.