"Whoosh!" An arrow flew out and hit the straw man a hundred steps away.
The legendary man who can pierce a young man with a hundred steps? Everyone was dumbfounded.
However, they had no time to continue to marvel. As the war drums beat, tens of thousands of private soldiers lined up in an arrow formation and marched toward the wall in the direction of Chen Hou's arrows.
The formation was a bit rough, the soldiers were not very skilled, and there were many mistakes during the advance. But fortunately, no major chaos was caused, and they successfully advanced to the designated location and completed an attack on the straw men.
"The private soldiers of aristocratic families are good at fighting on a scale of a thousand people. If there are more than a thousand people, but less than 5,000 people, they can barely fight a dozen. When there are 10,000 people, or when they need to form a formation that they are not familiar with, they will make a lot of mistakes.
I'm at a loss. Write it down." Shao Xun stood on the high platform, looked at the private soldiers of various tribes who were conducting their last drill, and ordered.
The clerk recorded it on the spot.
Jin Zheng, Wang Queer, Man Yu, Tang Jian and others stood by the side, each thinking.
They have watched the training of private soldiers from aristocratic families many times, and found that their basic skills are not too bad. Some elite troops are even more proficient in various martial arts, dare to fight, and are extremely brave.
This made them very confused. With such strength, why did they not dare to fight with Wang Mi, Shi Le and others?
After practicing for a few times, they gradually understood that, as Chen Hou said, the more people there are, the less effective they are in fighting, and they don't know how to fight.
Most of the defeated soldiers and veterans hired back by aristocratic families are lower-level officers and soldiers. The military inheritance is not comprehensive, and after a certain level of teaching, it can no longer be taught.
The noble families may also have military strategies in their own families - if the family started out with Confucianism or metaphysics, and has never produced a general, it may not necessarily have one - but they may not often practice large-scale battle formations.
One is expensive, the other is unnecessary.
Over time, it became like this.
Compared with the Yuzhou gentry, the Jiangnan aristocratic families are really an anomaly in terms of their power.
This may be related to the political status quo of Soochow. This country relied more on the power of aristocratic families than Cao Wei, resulting in a unique political ecology. In the end, the main body of the army even became the gentry, a powerful force.
"After the training is completed, I will give you a piece of silk." Shao Xun ordered after seeing tens of thousands of troops starting to gather their troops.
Not surprisingly, the cheers were very enthusiastic.
After a while, dozens of leaders of Qu family soldiers brought people over to receive the reward after getting permission from the master's family.
"Thank you, Marquis Chen, for the reward." Everyone thanked him one after another.
Shao Xun took the opportunity to encourage him.
He had even carefully memorized the names of some tribe leaders. When they were called out in public, the people whose names were called were very excited.
This method may not seem very clever, but it is really effective. As long as you are willing to spend time and energy to do it, it will always be effective. Prestige and popular support are often accumulated bit by bit in this way.
After distributing rewards to the sergeants, he did not intend to take all the remaining wealth.
After having a rough understanding of the He family's wealth, he only planned to withdraw 30,000 bolts of silk, and the rest would be divided among the participating clans, including the shops.
As for the land, tribes and food, Shao Xun naturally accepted them.
In addition, the affairs regarding the He family members are also being excavated in depth.
There are many powerful landowners who are dependent on the He family. It is a good time to take care of them together this time, and it is estimated that they can get a lot of money and food.
Money and food have three uses.
The first is to resettle the soldiers, their families, and troops. The expenses for the first year must be at least covered.
This part is mainly food expenses. It may be necessary to purchase some cattle and farm tools, but not much. The He family even has some ready-made.
The second is to use part of it to buy horses and recruit soldiers. Wu Qian is responsible for this.
The Liangzhou soldiers will leave soon.
Shao Xun asked Wu Qian to bring another batch of gifts to Liangzhou to thank Zhang Gui for the gift of horses. He also went there to buy a batch of horses and recruit some soldiers.
He planned to take out 20,000 bolts of silk, 5,000 guan of money, plus some gold, silver, jade, and goods from the Central Plains copied from He Mansion, and return to Liangzhou with Bei Gongchun and others.
As for when we will come back, we have to wait and see.
Shao Xun felt that Liangzhou soldiers would probably come again next year, so it was a good time to return together to avoid being robbed along the way.
Third, if there is still something to be gained from looting the members of the He family, Shao Xun plans to exchange the land with the Chenjun gentry and try to gather the land as much as possible to house the auxiliary troops.
Ideally, a stable ruling area should be formed around Chen County, Ninh Binh City, and Xiang County.
After all, for members of aristocratic families, the land is their own and can be transferred to others at any time without many restrictions.
But the area under their control is different. The land is relatively even and governed by military law, making it less prone to rebellion.
In early April, Shao Xun, who had been staying in Chen County for a long time, finally received the imperial edict: to lead his troops north and garrison Xingyang.
In addition, he also received two letters.
The first letter was sent by Le Mo, the prefect of Dunqiu, saying that Shile attacked Dunqiu fiercely, all counties fell, and many thieves surrendered on the fortress wall.
So far, he has only managed to hold on to the county seat and is unable to regain the lost territory.
There are less than 4,000 soldiers in the city, with hundreds of Nanyang Yue tribe and hundreds of Hebei warriors as the base. The battle to this day has resulted in many casualties, and there is not enough food, grass and equipment. Therefore, please lead the army and civilians.
Withdraw south.
Shao Xun wrote back asking him to persist.
But he didn't say anything, and if it really didn't work, it wouldn't be his fault to retreat.
There are no reinforcements from outside, and we are alone on the north of the river. How can you make people persist?
The situation in Ji County is slightly better, but it is still very difficult. It's just that my father-in-law has been an official there for a long time, has won several battles to defend the city, and has made sufficient preparations, so he can persist longer.
The second letter was written by Concubine Pei.
Shao Xun was sweating on his forehead after reading it. This was too...
****
"Summer April, floods, Yanzhou earthquake."
Suiyang Canal was dug manually.
In the seventh year of Jian'an (202), Cao Cao went to Junyi to "regulate Suiyang Canal".
In fact, it is to organize the rivers, lakes and wetlands between Junyi (Kaifeng) and Chenxian (Suiyang) to form a complete canal.
North-south rivers such as Suiyang Canal, Bian Canal, Woishui, Yingshui and Sishui are very important. Because the Yellow River and Huaihe River are generally parallel and both run east-west. To connect the two, you must rely on these north-south natural rivers.
Or artificial canal.
The same applies to the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River. They also need north-south river channels to communicate.
The entire water transport network was built on these east-west, north-south rivers.
Suiyang Canal is not wide and the water volume is not very abundant. It has always been relatively "gentle".
But in the summer of the fourth year in Yongjia, with the continuous heavy rains, the water level rose sharply, and the artificial canal Suiyang Canal actually showed a bit of ferociousness.
The trackers shouted their slogans and walked hesitantly on both sides of the Suiyang Canal, pulling one heavy-laden boat after another upstream.
There were five or six sergeants standing on the front and rear decks of the ship, carrying swords and bows, looking majestic.
They are soldiers of the Silver Spear Army. This time going north, they no longer need to walk on two legs, they can just take a boat, which is very easy.
The cabin was full of bags of grain, some of which were seized from the He family, and some of which were supplied by Yuzhou nobles.
After the severe drought last year, Yuzhou was in a difficult situation and food was not very abundant. Raising food this time would really cost them their lives.
But what can we do if the world is like this? The Huns are coming and they may demand more.
No matter how insufficient food is, priority must be given to supplying military supplies. As for whether anyone will starve to death because of this, we don't care.
This is the cruel reality, the bloody reality in troubled times.
On the post road on the west bank of the canal, more soldiers, chariots and horses are marching.
They mainly came from Yingchuan, Chenjun, and Qiaoguo, totaling 7,000, including 500 cavalry and more than 6,000 infantry.
Except for the cavalry, most of them were given to silver spears, and 7,000 soldiers from the Yi Cong Second Army served as auxiliary troops.
To put it simply, the troops under Shao Xun's command include 6,000 Silver Spear Army soldiers, more than 800 Yicong Army soldiers, 500 cavalry troops provided by the nobles of the three counties, plus his personal soldiers, which is about 7,500 soldiers.
soldiers.
There are also 2,000 auxiliary troops under the command of Hao Chang, and more than 6,000 auxiliary troops from the three counties.
The total strength is about 16,000 people.
There are not many soldiers, but the quality is relatively high. Especially the 6,000 Silver Spear Army soldiers, they are the well-deserved backbone of the battlefield.
Without these 6,000 people, the remaining 10,000 are just chickens and dogs.
On the sixth day of April, the army arrived in the western suburbs of Junyi County.
A large group of cavalry appeared in sight, took a peek and then left.
They are not enemies, in theory they are even friendly forces: the Wuhuan cavalry of the Beggar Army.
Guangzong, Junyi, and Liang Guo all had a large number of Wuhuan and other miscellaneous refugees who followed the beggars to eat everywhere.
They can ride horses and shoot arrows, but many of them have been reduced to infantry. After all, they have become beggars, so they still want to ride horses?
On the grassland, if it is not necessary for daily life, herdsmen are not willing to raise horses at all. It is too uneconomical!
The hundreds of cavalry in front of me are probably the only established cavalry unit that beggar commander Chen Wu can handle.
After resting for a few days in Junyi, the army continued its journey, heading west.
At this time, Shao Xun received news that Shi Le had built a pontoon bridge at Dunqiu and seemed to be crossing to the south. Sima Yue relieved the siege of Baima and stationed in Puyang.
While conveying this military message, Pan Tao also added a line of small words.
Shao Xun felt heavy after reading it.
Sima Yue fainted again.
After waking up this time, he had a very bad temper, frequently beating and killing servants, and forgetting many people and things.
Shao Xun was not worried about Sima Yue, but more worried about the tens of thousands of troops following him. He was also worried that after Sima Yue's death, Chen Wu, Qi Ji, and Wang Pingping would no longer obey orders and go their own way, turning from friendly forces fighting against the Huns into
A "wild monster" that is difficult to distinguish between friend and foe.
On April 15th, the army arrived in Xingyang.
Li Zhong led two thousand Yamen troops to join them, and sent over a batch of military supplies and vehicles to deal with the cavalry. Then he returned to Changshe, where he wanted to organize the remaining troops in the rear.
On April 20th, the first batch of canal ships departed from Hefei, intending to enter the Yellow River via Qiaoguo, Chenjun, Chenliuguo, and Xingyangjun before heading to Luoyang.
Guangling Duzhi Yamen was restored, but the food and grass had been burned, making it difficult to raise money for a while.
Almost at the same time, Liu Cong arrived in Hanoi with tens of thousands of people to take charge of frontline military affairs.
The Han and Jin Dynasties faced each other across the river on a front line of hundreds of miles from Hanoi in the west to Dunqiu in the east. A war over water transportation was about to break out.
Chapter completed!