The Xiongnu had retreated from Xin'an, and Luoyang returned to peace.
The caravan that had been stranded in Liang County for a long time headed north again, passing through Yique Pass to Luoyang. The imperial court seized the time to collect taxes to make up for the increasingly empty treasury.
The wheat seedlings growing well in the farmland of Luonan counties make people feel extremely at ease.
Everything seems to be going in a good place.
At this time, waves of troop mobilizations ushered in near Liang County.
All the remaining old horses in Guangchengze were transferred away, and even a batch of new horses were requisitioned. Folk donkeys, mules, and the like were recruited as much as possible. Once a batch was requisitioned, a batch was sent away.
In the northern border of Puyang Suanzao County, troops have been continuously gathering here since a few days ago.
More than 2,000 cavalrymen from the Yi Congjun were mobilized, and about 1,200 infantrymen who could ride horses also came.
On the seventh day of June, a thousand soldiers came over.
On the ninth day of the sixth lunar month, due to the order of the general shogunate of the town army, Chenliu and the beggar army of Liang State mobilized more than 700 cavalry and brought their bows to Suanzaojiu.
On the tenth day of June, 200 soldiers from Yangcheng Prefecture arrived.
On the 11th, 300 Liang County soldiers arrived...
The lineup was extremely large. By the 16th, it had assembled 2,000 government soldiers, more than 3,000 Yi Cong infantry and cavalry, more than 700 Wuhuan Qingqi, a beggar army, plus more than 200 Shao soldiers, for a total of more than 6,000
There were more than 9,600 people, horses, more than 4,000 mules, and 3,000 donkeys, which almost emptied the family fortune.
There are no auxiliary soldiers among the more than 6,000 people, they are all combat soldiers. In other words, the combat soldiers must complete the work of the auxiliary soldiers themselves.
On the 17th, the soldiers loaded all kinds of luggage on the backs of the pack animals.
In addition to weapons, there are also a large number of vinegar cakes - Hu cakes soaked in vinegar and dried, which can be stored for up to sixty days.
Horse feed is also indispensable, mainly cooked beans and salt.
When you are out on an expedition and the military situation is very high, it is too slow to replenish energy by grazing horses. You may have to herd horses most of the day. You cannot afford to delay, so you can only feed them food directly.
Do not bring unnecessary items, such as cooking utensils, grindstones, etc., and reduce the load on the draft animals as much as possible to make room for carrying more dry food and horse feed.
Even so, at the end of the day, the food was still only enough for twelve or thirteen days.
If you eat sparingly, you may be able to consume an extra two or three days, but it won't be too much.
People can go hungry for a day or two and persist. Horses can't do it. They can't even go hungry for a whole meal. If they say they won't run, they won't run.
At the same time, Suanzao County also organized manpower to pull out the small wooden boats that had been prepared in advance from the river and began to build pontoons on the river.
On the other side of the river is Ji County. Although it is crumbling and looks like it will be captured by the Xiongnu at the next moment, it is still under our own control and there will be no main enemy troops coming to harass it.
Therefore, when Shao Xun set off with his large troops on the night of the 17th, the pontoon bridge had already been set up.
It took a whole night and half a day for the entire army to cross north to Ji County. After a short rest, they roared eastward and disappeared into the vast wilderness.
****
The army advanced almost parallel to the north bank of the Yellow River.
On the night of the 18th, I stayed in Jixian County, in the countryside of Chaogejian.
On the afternoon of the 19th, we passed by the north of Yanjin and did not stop after nightfall. We crossed the river directly and passed south of Fangtou.
At this time, the Xiongnu people woke up from a dream and immediately went to Yecheng and Changshan to report to Shi Chao and Shi Le knew about it.
Seeing their performance, Shao Xun secretly thought, "It's nothing."
When you go south, I am hard to guard against. When I go north, your performance is also very impressive. Have you never thought that someone would gather so many horses, donkeys and mules and gallop north of the river?
However, the Huns didn't look for trouble, and Shao Xun didn't bother to care about them.
After all, there are only a few soldiers who are good at mounted combat, and most of them are mounted infantry.
As for the mounted infantry, they cannot defeat the Huns' light cavalry when fighting on horseback. There is no need to attack the enemy's strengths with their own shortcomings.
On the afternoon of the 20th, the entire army marched into Liyangjin and dispersed more than a hundred Huns soldiers guarding Jinguan.
The whole army rested all night.
In the evening of that day, when Shao Xun looked at Baima Mountain on the other side of the river, Baima Jin had organized manpower to ferry some supplies over in small boats to replenish consumption.
At this time, many Xiongnu cavalry had appeared in the wild. I don’t know whether they were Shi Chao’s troops or Shi Le’s generals. But they were few in number, with no more than a hundred cavalry per group. Facing Liyangjin, which occupied Liyangjin, there were cavalry and heavy troops.
The Jin army, which consisted of infantry soldiers, did not dare to get too close.
Their top priority should be to gather the cavalry scattered everywhere so that they can have the strength to fight.
But no one will wait for them stupidly.
On the 21st, the army continued eastward.
At this time, Shao Xun discovered that the troops were not moving as fast as in the first day or two.
This is normal. Even if one person has two horses, the speed of the attack will slowly decrease over time. After all, fatigue will accumulate, and a night's rest is not enough to alleviate everything.
On the afternoon of the 22nd, the entire army arrived in the south of Dunqiu County and rested as usual.
The number of Huns cavalry roaming in the wild gradually increased, with the largest group reaching two thousand, and they began to approach and harass.
Shao Xun ordered his troops to dismount and form a formation, and used crossbows to drive away the bandit cavalry. Then he ordered Liangzhou's horses to charge directly into the formation, while Wuhuan's light cavalry outflanked them, driving the bandits to pieces.
In fact, the Huns' light cavalry was very fast and not many people died. However, after discovering that this Jin army's combined infantry and cavalry had strong combat power, they knew they had little chance, so they quickly dispersed.
They couldn't handle the Jin army, which numbered more than 10,000, so they had to ask Da Hu to come in person.
In the evening, Shao Xun took Yu Liang to the outside of a fort southeast of Dunqiu.
"Yuan Gui, why are you here?" Li Shou, the commander of Wubao, came out and was shocked when he saw Yu Liang.
"Come with Chen Gong to fight." Yu Liang saluted and said.
Yu Liang had one wife and two concubines. His first wife was the Xun family. The two concubines were respectively from the Shang family in Jijun and the Li family in Dunqiu. They were all small and medium-sized local noble families.
The main lineage of the Li family in Dunqiu had already crossed south with the prefect Lemo to Nandun and settled in Xincai, but some people stayed, such as Li Shou.
"Could it be an attack on Hebei?" Li Shou glanced at the general stationed at Ma Gaopo in the distance in surprise and asked.
"It's inconvenient to say more about this matter. Today I just ask for some water and horses and mules." Yu Liang said.
Li Shou hesitated for a while.
Yu Liang was a little anxious and said: "If you are on vacation, you should hesitate. It will be in your interest to fight back to Hebei in the future."
Li Shou was silent for a while and sent people back to Wubao.
After a while, a group of people pulled a cart and left the city via the suspension bridge.
There was a lot of "grain" loaded on the car. When Yu Liang took a look, it was just chaff and grain.
This is not for human consumption. Bran and grain mixed with some salt water are suitable for feeding horses.
"Steamed cakes are being made in the kitchen. They will be delivered in a few moments," Li Shou said.
After saying that, he sighed and looked a little hesitant.
He didn't know whether it was right or wrong to do so, but he had already done it, so what could he do?
He looked at the general, who was pointing in the distance.
Following his instructions, a group of cavalry would rush out from time to time and disappear on the horizon.
After the instructions were given, some horses were collected and sent to Wubao.
Li Shou took a look and saw that most of them were horses with cracked hooves that had not been trimmed, so he accepted them with confidence, and then gave them some horses, donkeys and mules to maintain their mobility.
After a while, the steaming hot steamed cakes were brought out basket by basket...
****
In the countryside of Guofan County, Dongping, Gou Xi took a sledgehammer and smashed Sima Yue's tombstone into several pieces.
After smashing it, I felt much relieved.
He ran in such a mess that he didn't have time to clean up anything. His wife and family were all trapped in Qingzhou, which made him very angry.
After sitting down with a heavy breath, he took the letter from his staff, scanned it roughly, and sneered again and again.
"...The Duke has long been listed with honors and offered many good suggestions. He has accomplished hundreds of battles in the north and south of the river. The victory shocked the three armies and cheered the six counties... The spirit of the Duke is the spirit of the mountains and rivers, and he is inspired by the universe. He is actually the leader of the country.
The town is the screen of the country. I have been friends with the public god for a long time, and now I am willing to donate one hundred thousand grains, thousands of armored battleships, and five hundred war horses to strengthen the military needs."
"... In the land of Qingzhou, the owl jackals have stolen the territory and harassed Henan, leaving me uneasy. Today there are Huns in the north and chaos in the south. They also have the important task of supervising the canal and cannot be divided. The three counties of Dongping, Jibei and Taishan can be divided into three counties.
The foundation is to select soldiers to guard the territory of the state, to prevent thieves from snooping on the road, and to appease those who rebel."
"...I have always known the talent of the Duke. He secured key points in the mountains and rivers, prepared weapons and spears, secretly prepared his troops, built deep ditches and high bases. Given time, the traitors were disturbed and the thieves collapsed. This is all the result of the Duke."
"... It may be said that there was a small gap between the Duke and the former Situ. Now that he has passed away, everything is over. The heir to the East China Sea and the concubine also know that the Duke is responsible for the long-term strategy of the country, and he has the sincerity of the country in his mind. I wish to express my respect to him.
We use the Duke's reputation to regulate the counties, so don't be suspicious of the Duke."
After reading the two pages of paper, Gou Xi directly balled it up and threw it away, saying: "Shao Quanzhong is teasing me, treating me like a three-year-old child."
Gou Chun picked up the letter from the ground, read it silently, and said: "Brother, it's true that Shao Xun can't control himself. I heard that Shi Le and Shi Chao repeatedly sent troops southward, and Nanyang was in chaos. He still had to take the responsibility for water transportation. It's true that
Can't get anything out
Military strength. In addition, the Huns usually go south during the autumn harvest to plunder millet and wheat. Shao Xun would rather not be prepared for this? If he raises his troops to come east, if he cannot win quickly, he will be surrounded by enemies on all sides, and defeat is expected. He should now - should
Don’t dare to offend us.”
"Confused!" Gou Xi scolded, and then said: "Even if Shao Xun is temporarily inconvenient to fight with me, how can he be unprepared? Does this look like fighting?"
Gou Chun was speechless.
"Send all the rangers out and go west deep into Puyang and Jiyin to investigate the movements of Shao's troops. Remember, you must not slack off. If you see Shao's army mobilized, report it immediately. Especially the Silver Spear Army is a priority.
It's important." Gou Xi ordered.
"Okay, I'll arrange the manpower now," Gou Chun said.
"How many people do you have on hand?" Gou Xi asked again.
"Five thousand new refugees were recruited, and now there are more than eight thousand."
Gou Xi nodded and said: "Tomorrow we will go south to Gaoping to recruit troops and collect grain."
He had several old acquaintances in Gaoping, who were the old generals who had followed him in the great defeat of Jisang in Dongwuyang, and they agreed to help him recruit new soldiers and expand his troops.
Yanzhou is still a place where people feel comfortable and familiar people are everywhere.
With the old corps and the governors Qing, Xu, Yanyu, Jingyang and other military officials, as long as there are soldiers, there are many things that can be done.
To be honest, he is unwilling to go to war with Shao Xun now, but this does not mean that he completely believes Shao Xun's lies.
Even if he had to go south to Gaoping to gather money, food and soldiers, he would keep one eye on Kaocheng and never dare to slack off.
On June 25th, Gou Xi led more than 15,000 old and new soldiers southward, heading straight for Gaoping State.
Chapter completed!