On the third day of July, there was nothing left to do except cut down trees, set up fences, and set up camp.
On the fourth day of the lunar month, there was nothing left to do, so we started making siege equipment.
On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Shao Xun arrived with his civil and military generals and tens of thousands of soldiers. Another wave of camps was set up, and at the same time he adjusted the deployment of troops, while he led people to observe the terrain - this was the second most important task besides food and grass during the march.
Pingcheng is surrounded by mountains on three sides.
In the east there are Baishan Mountain (today's Mapu Mountain) and Hegan Mountain (today's Cailiang Mountain).
To the north is Fangshan (today's Fangshan, where the imperial mausoleums of the Northern Wei Dynasty are located).
To the west are Wuzhou Mountain (today's Wuzhou Mountain) and Leigong Mountain (today's Leigong Mountain, with the Leigong Temple on the mountain).
Only the south is open land.
From a military point of view, we should set up camp on Sanmian Mountain, garrison troops and horses, and support each other with Pingcheng, so that the siege team will always be like a thorn in the back until they capture these strongholds. But for now, the enemy is only in Baidengtai, There are two thousand soldiers and horses on Baishan Mountain each. Judging from their appearance, they are not the core members of Tuoba.
On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Shao Xun ordered Jin Zheng and Yu Ju to lead more than 10,000 cavalry to attack Bai Dengtai and Bai Dengshan Mountain to deal with the flank threat first.
If the mountains will become a threat behind the scenes, then the rivers and lakes near Pingcheng will hinder the mobilization of troops.
There is Tianyuan Pool in the north of the city. When you hear the name, you will know that it is taken from Tianyuan Pool in Luoyang.
During Tuoba Yi's reign, his mother Feng Shi (the wife of Tuoba Desert Khan) was buried near Tianyuan Pool. Two hundred thousand people from far and near attended the ceremony, and a stone inscription was erected.
A funeral attracts 200,000 people. This is not just a funeral, but a political rally.
To put it bluntly, Tuoba Yiyin wants the tribes and powerful people in the central region to recognize his rule. Anyone who doesn't come will have objections. If he comes, it will be a political statement.
From then on, Tuoba Yiyin had strong control over the Pingcheng area and operated it for ten years.
As Tuoba Yiyun's first wife, Qi, who was born in the east, naturally regards this place as her base.
To the east of Pingcheng there is "Muddy Water", also known as "Ru Muddy Water", which is today's Yuhe River.
This river is not far from the city, so it can actually be put to good use. However, the Xianbei people are not very good at building cities, nor are they good at using city defense facilities.
Pingcheng was simply repaired and slightly expanded. After all, Pingcheng (county) in the Han Dynasty was just the military residence in the eastern part of Yanmen County. It was larger than an ordinary county seat, but it was not yet at the level of a county seat.
In addition, the old Pingcheng has long been in dilapidated condition. It cannot afford the status of the southern capital without repair. The Xianbei people have been doing it again and again, which has turned Pingcheng into a Han Dynasty county-level city. There is no moat outside the city, and there is no moat at the top of the city. There are no beneficial defensive equipment and other city defense facilities.
All in all, the Xianbei people would not be able to defend the city.
After Shao Xun read it, he made up his mind and secretly laughed that if the Xianbei people had a good infantry and practiced their ability to defend the city, it would be difficult for them to fight.
After observing the terrain, the only thing left is to deploy the enemy's and our own troops. This matter still depends on the leading party.
On the sixth day of July, Shao Xun built an earthen platform on the west bank of Muddy Waters in the southeast of Pingcheng.
Mrs. Wang, mother and son Shi Yiqian came on stage.
Shi Yiqian sat in the middle, and Wang sat on the left side, receiving congratulations from all the officials.
Their system is similar to that of Tuoba Yilu's era, with the word "mixed" highlighted.
Dai Gong Shi Yiqian was the supreme monarch, and the actual power was in the hands of his mother Wang.
Under Dai Gong, there were four assistant ministers, namely Wang Feng, Changsun Rui, Su Zhongyi and Daijun Weixiong.
Among them, Wang Feng and Su Zhongyi are both from Wuhuan. Wei Xiong has lived in Daijun for generations and has a close relationship with Wuhuan. He has a close friendship with Wang Feng. Overall, Wuhuan's power is very powerful, which is a good reflection of the current regime.
background color.
The four assistants assist each other in managing the affairs of the country and hold great power.
Wang Feng, the brother of the Wang family, controlled Daijun, Guangning, Wuhuan, Jin people and other miscellaneous people. Although he had gone through many wars, he nominally controlled no less than 50,000 tribesmen.
Wei Xiong was actually counted among Wang Feng's tribe, but he was very independent, and he paid money to Shao Xun in private. He himself had been the assistant prime minister during the Tuoba Yilu era and had a high status.
What Su Zhongyi didn't say was that he only had 8,000 tribe members left. This time he was supplemented by some Wuhuan and Zahu captives. The entire tribe's household registration suddenly exceeded 20,000, making it a medium-sized tribe leader.
There is no doubt that both he and Wei Xiong were sand mixed in by Shao Xun, representing his will.
Changsun Rui is the leader of the Tuoba tribe with the tenth surname Tuoba. As the first Tuoba clan to join the Wang clan, it is normal for Changsun Rui to receive such courtesy, not to mention that his tribe is not small in size and has absorbed some of the eastern parts and was disbanded.
After the Wuhuan and scattered small tribes were removed, the number was no less than 40,000.
Under the Four Auxiliary Prime Ministers, the remnants of the ancestral virtuous kings on the left and right were completely abolished, and generals were put in place like Liu Han.
Liu Lugu, Yu Ju, Pu Gulu, Da Xiheruo and others were appointed as the generals of the east, west, south and north of the town, and the word "da" was added to honor their titles.
Under the four generals, there are also other senior officials from various ministries, all of whom have been awarded the title of seal official.
In addition, Wang planned to establish a county magistrate at the suggestion of Chang Sun Rui and "Yang Zhen" (Three Dukes) Duan Fan, but Shao Xun vetoed it and asked her to wait.
Ms. Wang is now a little happy, but also very worried. After being rejected by Shao Xun on a proposal, she often worries about gains and losses, scares herself, and starts a mental conflict with herself.
After the group of people knelt down to worship Wang and Shi Yijian, Shao Xun came to the high platform.
Mrs. Wang led her son to salute him. Shao Xun nodded slightly, sat on a chair under Shi Yijian, and asked, "How many thieves are there in the city? Have you figured it out?"
The three sons stood behind Shao Xun, Hutou glanced at Shi Yijian from time to time.
Shi Yijian felt his gaze, feeling a little afraid and a little angry.
In recent times, he has had many contacts with the three of them.
In terms of perception, the second prince Badger Lang didn't care much about him. He was always worried, and he didn't know what he was thinking about every day.
Nian Liu was the most polite and courteous to him, and seemed to respect him the most. Shi Yiqian also liked to associate with him.
Hutou was the youngest among the three brothers, but he always treated him with vague malice. He even grabbed his collar and wanted to beat him. If some factors were not taken into consideration, the fist would have hit him in the face.
Shi Yiqian hated this person the most.
Just as he was looking into the tiger's head, with sparks and lightning, his mother Wang had already looked at Duan Fan.
Duan Fan came out of the queue, bowed to the three of them, and then said: "There are at most 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers in the city."
After speaking, he explained in detail: "Although the Dai Kingdom is large, the tribes are scattered everywhere. Don't look at the Yanmen, Pingcheng, and Guangning areas that have been fighting for several months. In fact, more than half of the tribes have not participated. They have been involved in fighting each other.
Most of them were from the ten surnames of Tuoba and various large tribes. The situation of Qi's mother and her son was critical, many people abandoned them, and the number of soldiers became increasingly scarce. The number of these more than 20,000 soldiers was still after all the men were recruited, maybe less than two
Ten thousand."
"There are still some soldiers lingering outside the city, but they may not be willing to fight to the death for He Li. The King of Liang may be able to force him to flee by sending a partial army. The imperial court (Daiguo) will also send people to appease him, so it is not difficult to predict.
"
Duan Fan’s words speak to the essence.
What is the biggest feature of this war? A civil war in which the upper class fights for power.
The participants are all descendants of the Tuoba clan. In theory, their allegiance is the same. This makes most of the tribal nobles lose their determination to fight to the end. When it comes to the battlefield, it is often the case that after one or two key battles, one side
The forces quickly collapsed, and the other side surrendered and accepted rebellion, establishing victory.
When these descendants of the Tuoba clan decide the winner, other tribes can just go through the process and swear allegiance.
Sometimes, when an incompetent Tuoba descendant dies, another Tuoba descendant is recognized by everyone. Even if he is already a mere commander, he can quickly gain the allegiance of many tribes and recruit more than 100,000 troops overnight.
This is the characteristic of grassland politics: the game of bloodline aristocrats.
In fact, this is not only the case with Tuoba Xianbei, other Hu regimes have similar situations to some extent. The most typical one is that after the collapse of the Tubo Empire, the princes were scattered everywhere. Some of them really had nothing but a few followers around them.
After going to a certain place, the princes and nobles married their daughters, gave them land, swore allegiance, and handed over their land and power to the prince after his death.
Because his bloodline is not as noble as that of the prince, he cannot compete with him and can only kneel on the ground and serve him.
Grassland is so expensive. This saying is not for nothing.
"Today I climbed up to view the mountains and river valleys. It is obvious that He Li and others are not good at defending the city." Shao Xun said: "How good the soldiers are, we have to give it a try. Just now, Duan Gong said that there are many bandit soldiers near Pingcheng. This is not false.
"When you besiege the city, you can send people to care for it and don't let it be used by Yi Huai. You can also send people to visit the surrounding valleys. There will definitely be many old and weak women and children grazing in it. You can take the cattle, sheep and horses to support the military."
Sieges are military battles, others are political battles.
In Shao Xun's view, this political battle is more important and must be fought with all-out effort.
Moreover, political battles have now accumulated from quantitative changes to qualitative changes.
Shao Xun is also thinking, if the Wang family continues to expand like this, will it get out of control?
He knew very well that many of the people who came over did not surrender for his sake. In fact, there were not many such people.
If he didn't have the Wang family and his son, many people who had surrendered would still be fighting with him.
Wang is a smart person, and she may have been keenly aware of this, knowing that her bargaining power has increased and she is no longer a puppet without any say.
But she hasn't made any move to resist yet, which is intriguing.
"We will start attacking the city early tomorrow morning. The old rule is to surround three towers and one tower." Seeing that no one objected, Shao Xun decided with one word.
The generals who came with the expedition responded in unison.
Xianbei and Wuhuan adults all looked at Wang.
Mrs. Wang raised her head and looked at the crowd. From the corner of her eye, she first paid attention to the direction of Shao Xun. Seeing that he had no other intentions, she said: "Starting tomorrow, each ministry will select young men to obey the military orders of King Liang."
"Yes." All the adults responded one after another.
Two distinct systems.
Shao Xun looked ahead.
At this point, the enemy on the surface is actually a skeleton in the grave, worth mentioning. The most challenging aftermath is about to come, and this is the real test.
The barbarians left over from the end of the Han Dynasty had accumulated many abuses and had now reached the deep water area.
History has proven that the policies towards the barbarians in the Eastern Han, Cao, Wei, and Western Jin Dynasties were full of problems, and the old road was no longer feasible, and it was a dead end.
Now we need innovation in the time traveler system.
This innovation cannot be copied yet, because time has changed and the social environment is different, so adjustments need to be made.
For example, if you now implement a system like the Ming and Qing Dynasties where the six ministries are directly responsible to the emperor rather than to the prime minister, that is nonsense, a step too far, and simply seeking death.
But if we implement a group system, decentralize power with two or three prime ministers, and make the six ministries responsible to the collective of prime ministers, it is somewhat maneuverable.
War is a continuation of politics, and political issues are the core.
Chapter completed!