It's still dark, and the smoke is already rising.
On the banks of the Hutuo River, the old shepherds cut down many willow branches and began to build more tents.
Their bodies are stooped, their beards and hair are all white, and their skin is dark, and from a distance, they look like dead tree bark.
There is a look in his eyes that has seen through the vicissitudes of life and a sense of indifference, as if he is living one day at a time.
Starting from the Xiongnu, there has been a cruel custom: valuing young people and devaluing old people. Tribes such as Wuhuan and Xianbei followed this custom.
The elderly are not allowed to enjoy better food, cannot wear good clothes, and have to do more dirty, hard and tiring work...
When the Han envoys came to the Xiongnu, they were surprised to see young adults eating the fat parts of cattle and sheep. After they had finished eating, the old people could eat the leftovers.
The Bank of China defended this custom by saying that the Xiongnu had always regarded war as a meritorious service. The old and the weak were unable to fight, so the fat food was eaten by the strong. Therefore, they could defend themselves, and each father and son could live in peace.
It can only be said that different environments create different customs, and there is no absolute right or wrong.
When breakfast was ready, it was already bright.
In the largest tent in the center, the leader Duan Mobo came out from the east gate - Xianbei custom is that the tent has only one door open, which is the door facing the east.
After seeing the morning sun in the distance, Duan Mobo knelt down and muttered something very pious.
After a long time, Duan Mobo just got up. He would not go back to the tent, but sat on the grass by the river, eating freshly steamed corn rice.
The guards, the soldiers who accompanied him and even the soldiers outside, and the slaves also sat on the ground and ate corn.
From the beginning of the first stage to the last wave, everyone eats the same thing, just in quantity - generally speaking, the strong eat more, the old and the young eat less.
From here we can see the difference between Xianbei and Liu Han Xiongnu.
Liu Han already has obvious social class differences. The upper class eats alcohol and delicacies, while the lower class eats millet, cow and goat milk, cheese, and wild vegetables and fruits to satisfy their hunger.
Compared with them, Xianbei society was relatively primitive and simple, and the food that the group of people who went on the expedition ate was actually the same - in fact, the Xiongnu society was also like this at the beginning.
Compared with the old and the weak, women are treated the same as the young and strong in terms of food.
This time we went south for an expedition, and there were only a few hundred healthy women accompanying the army. Their faces were full of flesh, their arms could run horses, and their buttocks could kill someone if they stuck them out. They could be treated as men.
The main jobs of these women were to mend furs, milk cows and make cheese, and deal with dead horses.
Everyone has long hair and obviously none of them are married.
Wuhuan and Xianbei women usually wear their hair in a bun and wear Jujue - similar to the silk crown worn by Mongolian women in later generations when they get married.
Hu women are quite happy.
The social atmosphere despises the elderly and young people, but attaches great importance to women.
There is no penalty for a son to kill his father and brother, but he is not allowed to kill his mother.
It is not necessary to take revenge if the father and brother are killed by others, but there must be revenge if the mother is killed by others.
If a woman from one clan marries another clan, and something goes wrong, the family will investigate it. If the death is abnormal, they will be held accountable, usually by offering cattle and sheep to atone for the crime.
Very strange custom.
In short, women had a very high status, and this custom was later brought to the Northern Dynasties. However, the customs of the Hu people did not have any ethical constraints on women or restrictions on the use of power, which led to many problems. Some people even started the practice of "raising a son to kill his mother"
system.
After everyone had breakfast, they rested for a while, and then got up to sort out their horses and weapons.
Duan Mobo took his personal entourage out for a walk.
The area around the Hutuo River is rich in water and grass, with many fields and many Wubao manors.
Since going south, many fortresses have lost money to eliminate disasters. They would rather starve themselves or even starve to death. They also sent a batch of grain to the Xianbei people, which enriched their military resources and grew their ambitions.
"The land in Jizhou is fatter than in Youzhou." Duan Mobo looked at the tall wormwood on the river bank and said, "One acre of land here can raise more than five times more cattle and sheep than on the grassland."
Five times more cattle and sheep means five times more wealth and five times more population.
Wealth and population also mean combat power. If it can snowball to accumulate greater power, it might be possible.
No wonder everyone wants to go south to the Central Plains!
"Mobo." Duan Shefuchen's figure appeared on the other side of the river. He pulled the reins of his horse, calmed the horse, and said, "I've been here for three days, why don't you go and grab one?"
"Uncle, don't you want revenge?" Duan Mobo asked loudly.
Duan Shefuchen was silent for a while and said: "It's an old thing ten years ago."
Duan Mobo's eyes widened. After ten years, is it over?
Ten years ago, when the old prince was still there, Duanbu Xianbei had a population of 150,000.
Ten years later, the old prince was gone, and the population of Duanbu Xianbei decreased instead of increasing. Now it is only over 100,000, and the ancestral home of Liaoxi County (now Qinhuangdao and parts of Tangshan, Hebei) was taken away by Murong Xianbei.
How to calculate this account?
"If you don't want revenge, why did your uncle go south?" Duan Mobo asked angrily.
Duan Shefuchen replied: "It's not that I don't want revenge. It's not that I haven't killed Shao Bing since I went south. It's just that some things are more important."
Duan Mobo was speechless.
What the uncle calls more important things is actually looting. Looting everything, food, cloth, farm tools, livestock, people, etc., everything is wanted.
In recent years, there have been no fewer than 40,000 households of refugees from various walks of life who have gone to western Liaoning to escape the chaos, which is more than 200,000 people. Murong has taken all of them - some stayed in western Liaoning, and some moved to Changli and other places to farm and farm.
Mu, providing food and supplies for the Murong family.
As time went by, the strength gap between the two sides became endless.
To put it simply, the current Duan Xianbei has no ability to seek revenge from the Murong clan, nor can he defeat the Yuwen clan, so he can only linger in Youzhou - they did have a falling out with Wang Jun, but their relationship is very complicated, and they may not be enemies.
Can be regarded as a "passerby".
Duan Shefuchen's meaning is very clear, save some strength and don't make random attacks.
The tribe is finished fighting for strength, who will replenish it for you?
In its heyday, Duanbu Xianbei had 50,000 string-controllers and 50,000 horsemen. Now it only has a population of 100,000, and it can only manage 30,000 horsemen at most. Not everyone has a horse, so be careful!
It is better to look around and see if there is any chance to rob some people and property.
The war in Hebei continued, and some Wubao owners and manor owners could no longer survive, so they moved their entire families, and the team was vast. From the Wubao commanders who stuck to one place and farmed, they became the wandering refugee commanders. These people can be robbed.
, and even captured them directly.
Isn't it easier to defeat these people than to defeat Shao Bing?
But Duan Mobo disagreed.
"If your uncle doesn't fight me, I will bring bad luck to the Shao thieves." I heard him say: "The Shao thieves have several land and water transport canals with huge crowds of people and a lot of supplies. I will go and plunder some of them. If there is any gain, my uncle will not take it.
Jealous."
Duan Shefuchen laughed loudly and said: "Wen Yang is going south soon. You can go find him. Maybe we can join forces and do something big, but I won't accompany you anymore."
After that, he turned around and left with a flick of his horse's head.
****
Since mid-September, the amount of grain and grass transported from the rear to Zhongshan has decreased.
Jin Zheng is based in Puyin and receives warning messages from various places almost every few days.
On the seventh day of the ninth lunar month, just as part of the Yi Cong Army crossed the upper reaches of the Hengshui River and suddenly reached Shangquyang, the Xianbei cavalry entered the territory of Hejian, killed more than a thousand people from the Cui family's grain transport team in Qinghe, and robbed the grain before returning.
On the Double Ninth Festival, the Xianbei cavalry attacked a plain Liu family's grain transport team in the southeast of Gaoyang County. They killed more than 700 people from Quzhuang and captured 2,000 husbands and slaves.
On September 12, the Wuhuan cavalry of the Beggar Army was defeated in Hejian.
On September 13th, the Huns defeated Anping again and sent 3,000 cavalry troops.
On September 15th, more than 2,000 Jie cavalry were routed in a field battle.
The fighting power is extremely powerful.
During the cavalry battle, the miscellaneous cavalry under Shao Xun's tent won less and lost more, and could hardly cover the grain road.
After reading the defeat reports from all directions, Jin Zheng realized that the combat effectiveness of the Xianbei cavalry had to be considered in another level, which was not comparable to that of ordinary miscellaneous cavalry. If he wanted to expel this troop that was harassing the rear, he could either mobilize the Yicong army cavalry from the front line and return
To provide reinforcements, either destroy the Zhangwu State and leave the Xianbei people without supplies and without a rear.
At this time, he regretted that after conquering Hejian, he sent his troops westward and captured Gaoyang, Zhongshan and other counties.
I thought that Linghu Ni had been frightened by him. It was a dead dog and there could be no threat. He could send a partial army to monitor this person. But who would have thought that Duan Xianbei went south brazenly and participated in this war.
.
Fortunately, Duan Bu's movements were a little slow and there were not many people involved in the attack. Otherwise, he would have faced a greater risk of running out of food.
"General, it is not appropriate to advance rashly at this time." While Jin Zheng was checking the map, guest Zhen Pian advised him.
Jin Zheng glanced at him and said: "It's just a few thieves, why worry? Mr. Chen has put his righteousness into my hands, how can he be so timid?"
"It is better to call back the elite cavalry of the Manchu Army and destroy the Xianbei people first," Zhen Pian advised.
"You old man -" Jin Zheng was about to scold him, but after thinking about it, he realized that what he said was not unreasonable.
Zhen Pian looked at his words and breathed a sigh of relief.
General Jin is brave when he is brave, but sometimes he cares about his head rather than his body. But then again, Xianbei's march south was an accident and it was difficult to predict beforehand. Moreover, General Jin was not unprepared and had no choice but to beg for help. The Huns surrendered their troops and the Jie people
I have never done anything to this Xianbei gang, so there is nothing I can do about it.
Now there is only one way, either to mobilize the Yi army to exterminate Xianbei, or to gather several times the number of Xianbei cavalry and massacre them with men and horses.
"Forget it, I'll let Qiao Hong lead three thousand cavalry back." Jin Zheng sighed and said irritably.
"The general is wise." Zhen Pian bowed his hand.
He was only in his early forties, and he was not angry when Kim Jong called him "old man". He had no choice but to survive. He did not want to cause the entire army to run out of food and end up with a huge defeat.
Zhen Pian was a native of Weichang County, Zhongshan State, and a fellow villager with Liu Kun. Because Wei Chang was once named Wuji, the family was called the "Wuji Zhen Family", and it was a declining noble clan.
The most famous descendant of the Zhen family, Zhen Xi (Guo Xi), the Duke of Guang'an County, lives in Luoyang and miraculously avoided the melee among the kings because of his "short talent" - as long as I am useless, no one will use me.
There will be no worries of standing in the wrong team and being liquidated.
Zhen Pian was spotted by Jin Zheng in Yecheng. He thought he had some talent, so he forced him to serve as an army aide and make suggestions.
Zhen Pian was very reluctant at first, but after coming to the army for a while, he suddenly felt like he had something special to live in, so he stayed there with peace of mind, and made a few suggestions from time to time, although Jin Zheng did not listen to him most of the time and made his own decisions.
Jin Zheng finally listened to this suggestion to clean up the Xianbei raiding troops in the rear.
Zhen Pian was very satisfied.
In the past month, Governor Jin has listened to his suggestions more and more often, which is a good thing.
"Will Liu Yao take advantage of the situation to counterattack?" Jin Zheng suddenly asked.
Zhen Pian glanced at the map, pointed to the northern part of Bingzhou, and said, "Does the governor know how many troops Liu Yao brought to aid Hebei?"
"It is said that there are fifty thousand people." Jin Zheng said.
"I don't think so." Zhen Pian said: "Liu Yao came from Jingxing. The journey was long and desolate. It was difficult to raise food and grass. How could he lead an army of 50,000? Even if he did, he would allocate some to the north of Bingzhou to guard the pass along the road and guard against expansion.
Ba Xianbei went south from Yanmen to cut off his return. I think he can bring at most 20,000 people with him. Of the 20,000 people, some of them will be used to defend Daijun Xianbei from going south. There are only more than 10,000 people who can be used."
Jin Zheng nodded slowly.
"If Liu Yao counterattacks, he will have to deploy soldiers and horses to defend Daijun Xianbei. It depends on whether he dares to do so." Zhen Pian added: "General, you might as well wait and see what happens. At this time, the Yi Cong army will be sent back to support and slow down.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing. When Liu Yao comes, we’ll just retreat. Don’t be anxious, just stay calm and adapt. Duanbu Xianbei can go south, but Tuoba Xianbei can’t?”
"Liu Yao did not enter Hebei through Jingxing last year, but went straight to Fukouxing. There is a reason for that." Zhen Pian said meaningfully.
Chapter completed!