After leaving Jinguyuan, the "caravan" continued westward.
After walking southwest for a day, I saw a restaurant in the distance and stopped.
"Can the store take care of draft animals?" someone asked.
The store owner was already drowsy. After squinting for a long time, he nodded.
Thirty or forty horses need a lot of food, but he has accumulated a lot of hay here, which can barely cope with it.
After a while, two young men came out. One of them unharnessed the draft horse and fed it with fodder and salt water. The other brought a large bale of hay and chopped it up on the spot with a guillotine.
"How can we just eat grass? We have to walk a long way." One of Fan Long's followers said: "Is there no grain?"
The young man looked back at the old man.
The attendant asked someone to take out a few pieces of skin and pass them over, saying: "Quickly bring some grain to feed."
The old man took the leather, carefully inspected each piece to make sure it was in good condition, and finally nodded.
After a while, a muscular woman with a sinewy face came out of the backyard, carrying a large bag of grain easily.
After carrying one bag, he went back to carry the second bag.
"The store always prepares this. It seems that Luoyang has a lot of business travelers." Fan Long entered the restaurant, sat cross-legged on the futon, and said with a smile.
He was quite used to sitting cross-legged because that was how the Huns liked it.
After the store owner asked what they wanted to eat, he went to the kitchen first, then came over, poured wine for Fan Long, and said casually: "There are indeed more business travelers this year. From the guest's accent, are they from Bingzhou?"
Fan Long glanced at the store owner in surprise, nodded, and said, "I came from Taiyuan to sell some leather goods, Ma'er."
"There have been fewer merchants from Bingzhou in the past two years." The store owner didn't want to ask more questions and just said, "Before the drought, merchants from Bingzhou who trafficked horses, sheep, medicinal materials, and fur goods would go south every year."
"The store owner is quite knowledgeable." Fan Long said with a smile.
The severe drought in Bingzhou four years ago had far-reaching consequences. Since then, the situation has become increasingly chaotic and eventually out of control.
There are still many people from Bingzhou going south, but they are now refugees.
"We have seen less and less of them in recent years." The storekeeper sighed: "There is no peace with the fighting. If Zhang Fang hadn't been driven away last year, Luoyang would be in even worse shape."
"Who drove Zhang Fang away?"
"Isn't that Shao Sima who's 'one thousand breaks one hundred thousand'?"
"He is now a general in the palace." Fan Long said with a smile: "Why does the store know so well?"
The store owner was silent for a long time, and finally said: "I have two sons, one died in Chengdu in the Battle of Changsha in Hejian, and the other died in the Battle of Chengdu in the East China Sea..."
Fan Long sighed after hearing this, stood up and poured a bowl of wine for the shopkeeper.
Within a year, two sons died in battle one after another. The white-haired man gave away the black-haired man. How miserable.
However, today's world is full of such tragedies. I would rather not have a piece of pure land. What else can I say?
The shopkeeper picked up the wine bowl and took a sip, and said: "This shop is also open and closed from time to time. From the twelfth lunar month of last year to the twelfth lunar month of this year, it has been a whole year, which can be regarded as the longest time it has been open."
"It's so difficult to make a living." Fan Long sighed with emotion.
But at the end of the day, he will continue to recruit talents for the King of Han, continue to contribute to the King of Han's conquest, and continue to make this world more chaotic.
This is not surprising.
People can be compassionate, can release goodwill and give benefits within a certain range, but once their fundamental interests are violated, everything is in vain.
"I just hope Shao Sima can stay in Luoyang for a few more years, the Silver Spear Army can stay for a few more years, and I can open a store for a few more years and raise a few grandchildren," the store owner said.
"Silver Spear Army?" Fan Long was startled.
"In the mountains to the southwest, I heard that there is a big fortress. Sometimes troops will march here. With carts and drums and horns, the soldiers stand on the carts and shoot arrows. I am old and blind, and I don't know what I am practicing.
Formation."
Many things in official circles are really just kept hidden from the public.
Yunzhongwu has been under construction in Nuji Mountain for a year. There are many trucks and people traveling between Luoyang and Nuji Mountain.
Sometimes we pass a motorcade, sometimes we pass a large group of refugees, sometimes there are people driving cattle, sometimes there are soldiers coming and going, and often there are messengers stopping their horses in this small shop to eat.
It is impossible for soldiers and messengers to say nothing. After a long time, it will be difficult to hide the truth from the people below.
Many high-ranking officials in history were greatly surprised when things came to a head and they found out that things were beyond their control. In fact, it was because you were out of touch and had been fooled. It is a tradition in officialdom to hide things from others.
At this time, Fan Long listened and was thinking: "Does Sima Yue know about this?"
Xuan then thought that there were quite a few officials and generals repairing the Wubao Manor. Even if Sima Yue knew about it, he might not necessarily think there was anything wrong with it.
However, Wubao and Wubao are different, and Buqu and Buqu are also different.
Sometimes, details often cost lives.
"The store just said that the Silver Spear Army drove carts, marched and shot arrows. Can you elaborate on that?" Fan Long asked again.
"I don't know very well." The shopkeeper thought about it carefully and said, "It means bringing many carriages and mule carriages, divided into two columns, with the sergeants marching in the middle. As soon as the drums sounded, they stopped immediately, and the convoys joined each other end to end. Then
Then some sergeants jumped on the chariot, and when the trumpet sounded, they fired arrows."
The old man spoke very briefly, even a little messy, but Fan Long understood it clearly.
This is how infantry deal with cavalry.
A large group of infantry marches, and the baggage vehicles are placed on both sides to prevent the cavalry from charging directly. When encountering the enemy's cavalry, the baggage vehicles are connected end to end, forming a circle. The cavalry cannot charge directly, and the dismounted infantry cannot defeat the infantry from a distance.
Let's go for archery. The range, strength and accuracy of the riding bow are not as good as those of the walking bow, not to mention that people may have crossbows, so it's really difficult.
When the former Han Dynasty attacked the Xiongnu, Wei Qing seemed to have done this.
Malong also did the same thing when he entered Liangzhou from the west.
Why is this Shao Xun always practicing tactics against cavalry?
Are his soldiers that elite? The chariot formation is very simple, but when used by different people, the effects vary greatly.
Fan Long thought of the soldiers he saw in Jinguyuan. They were terrible. How dare he?
The food was served quickly.
Fan Long and his entourage finished their meal in a matter of seconds. After the horses were almost fed, they would finish their meal and leave.
The convoy headed west, arduously moving along the dilapidated official road.
When they arrived near Nuji Mountain, Fan Long and several of his followers stopped.
In the distance are endless mountain forests with many pines and cypresses, which are still lush and green even in the middle of winter.
In front of the forest, a plateau suddenly rose up, about ten feet in length - Xun Xu, the secretary of the Central Jin Dynasty, once made a ruler, which was slightly shorter than the ruler of the Later Han Dynasty (nearly 21.9 centimeters), six feet per step, or about 1.3 inches.
Meters, one foot ten feet, about 2.2 meters.
The plateau is quite large, with bamboos and trees on it, occupying more than half of the ground.
The plateau lies on the Luoshui River in the north. Standing on it, one can overlook the jade-belt-like river from a high position.
On the west side of the plateau is a deep ditch, three to four feet deep and about ten feet wide. It might have been a dry river channel, but now it is overgrown with bamboo, wood and weeds.
With sharp eyes, Fan Long even saw a dozen sheep wandering in the deep ditch, digging out dry grass from under the snowdrifts and munching happily.
On the east side of the plateau is the Qugu River. A large amount of farmland has been opened up on both sides of the plateau, and many ditches have been dug. It is very careful.
I can't see anything on the south side, it should be the road going up and down the plateau.
There is a Wubao on the plateau, located in the northwest corner.
To the west of the fortress is the deep ditch. The plateau wall is relatively steep and difficult to climb.
To the north is Luoshui, which is also difficult to get across.
I can't see clearly what the east side looks like, maybe a trench was dug.
There are many residents living on the north side of Wubao, because there are some diamond-shaped windows on the wall. Occasionally, urchins will stick their heads out, scream and then pull back, and other children will laugh in unison.
There was faint sound of drums from the south side of the plateau, and even the sound of hundreds of people shouting "kill" in unison. Without thinking too much, you could tell that it was the sergeants practicing - the Silver Spear Army?
"There is such a fierce tiger hidden deep in the mountains." Fan Long sighed with emotion: "This Shao Xun has a family business here, no wonder recruiting him is in vain."
"Da Honglu, do you want to send someone over to investigate?" a follower asked.
"No." Fan Long waved his hand and said, "Don't try to scare the snake. Besides, Shao Xun is a person that the King of Han values ​​​​and he treats me with courtesy. Why should he be like this? Let's go, there is nothing to see."
There is also a large area of ​​flattened land on the north bank of Luoshui River, and it looks like it will be cultivated and planted next spring.
From the amount of land, the population in Wubao can be roughly estimated.
There are no less than five thousand men and women living in this Wubao.
Fan Long and his party left quickly.
When passing through Sanxiang, I stopped for a while, then meandered north along the mountain road and disappeared into the vast mountains.
And in the Kinmen Mountain to the west of Sanxiang, the person he missed was patrolling.
Chapter completed!