Chapter 34: Martial arts training and military deployment
The first month of the thirteenth year of Jianji (913) was more joyful and peaceful than any other year.
Because of the imperial examination at the end of February this year, the number of scholars from various states gathered in Xijing increased sharply, and there were also many people with southern accents who were eager to take the test.
The imperial examination ranking plan has not yet been decided, and it may not be officially implemented until three years later, but this does not affect people's enthusiasm at all. The imperial examination of a unified empire is fatal to scholars.
They talked about it over and over again when they were in their hometown, and on the way to Beijing with the envoys from various states, they talked endlessly with their companions. Whenever they had free time, they would supervise and encourage each other, and those who were outstanding in knowledge would help others solve problems, which was very impressive.
Enthusiastic and full of positive energy.
After arriving in Chang'an, they worked even harder, staying up all night to visit prostitutes.
Shao Shenli, the king of Chu, looked up at the Chu Pavilion of Qin Tower in Pingkangfang and left without hesitation.
Hanging out at the Jiaofang Theater was once his favorite thing to do - if he had a membership card, he would have already applied for one.
But now I feel that these are quite boring, so I don't even care about the newly married bride, and ride out of the city on horseback - Princess Xie of Chu is the daughter of Xie Yanzhang, the Marquis of Yu, the capital of Tiande Army.
There was a heavy snowfall yesterday, and the ground was completely white. After Shao Shenli rode his horse for a while, he met several young men, all of whom were noble sons and were of the same age as him.
A few people kept silent. After checking the equipment, they started running in the snow. During this period, the bow strings and thunderbolts sounded continuously, and the "dongdong" sound of arrows hitting the target was endless.
It was freezing cold and the strings were brittle and easy to break. After breaking one string, Shao Shenli took out another string and continued practicing.
There are about a dozen helpers around the shooting range. From time to time, they will replace the horse that cannot run and send a new horse with sufficient strength. Sometimes they will also run over to move the archery target, so that these men can practice more happily.
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After shooting more than ten arrows, Shao Shenli asked someone to bring a horse stick, put it under his arm, and rode his horse to charge.
The straw man swayed unsteadily in the cold wind.
Shao Shenli's eyes were bright and he stared at the target. When he got close, he held the Shuo in both hands, first swept it across, and then with all his strength, he lifted up the wooden figure behind him, and then threw it down heavily.
"Xilulu!" The horse's back was almost crushed, and it raised its head and neighed in pain.
Shao Shenli threw away the horse's spear, took out the mace from its sheath, and controlled the horse to rush towards another gathering area of straw men.
Wherever he passed, he was slashed left and right, and the straw men fell to the ground one after another.
After practicing for a while, he dismounted again, asked his entourage to get a rifle, walked up to a straw man, and practiced the art of assassination on foot.
His expression was so focused and his movements were so fierce and powerful that his companions couldn't stand it anymore.
"Your Highness, must he be in a daze..." Someone opened his mouth and asked, "Is it that the girl with the red card was snatched away by someone, and she is depressed and cannot vent her feelings?"
"Maybe it's because the bride is ugly..."
"Xie Yanzhang is also a talented person, isn't he?"
"Next time I look for a handsome boy servant, maybe His Highness will like it."
"Haha, that makes sense!"
"That's all. Your Highness is a noble man from Tianhuang. He works so hard. I'm just wasting my time by talking nonsense. Let's practice hard."
After a few people finished speaking, they continued to mount their horses, draw their bows, and practice their riding and shooting skills.
The conditions for children of nobles to practice literature and martial arts are unimaginable to outsiders.
An ordinary shepherd on the grassland will definitely not spend as long as they practice riding horses. Not to mention the consumption of equipment and the like, which require a lot of resources.
As for nutritional conditions and the teachings of famous teachers, the gap is even greater.
The only thing that the grassland shepherds can defeat them is their bravery and ruthlessness, their courage to fight and risk their lives. Or the nobles' children hang around in the flower streets and willow alleys, wasting their time on crooked ways.
But when a prince like Shao Shenli of Daxia was training hard day and night, the gap between the two sides widened infinitely.
"Kill!" The heavy snow fell again, and Shao Shenli's head was as hot as a steamer. When he finished the last assassination move, his whole body was almost exhausted.
The entourage quickly came over and helped him to rest in a wooden house.
Shao Shenli, who had taken off his armor, looked at his slightly trembling hands, feeling full and peaceful in his heart.
A year and a half ago in Luoyang, when the warriors of the Forbidden Army cheered for Fu Cunxun and ignored him, he felt disappointed.
It turned out that in the eyes of the warriors, he was so miserable and had no sense of existence!
Everything he owns is not respected from the bottom of his heart by others, just like his biological mother.
This realization caused him inner suffering and became the motivation for him to move forward.
"We still need to practice!" He grabbed the water bag, drank a large gulp of water, and said, "Until the Western Expedition begins."
The followers looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
It seems to be a good thing, but it doesn't seem to be a good thing. His Highness King Chu's self-esteem is too strong. He has not awakened for more than ten years. Once he is stimulated, he is out of control.
This happened!
The dull sound of horse hooves came from the post road not far away. From the sound, it seemed that there was more than one horse.
"Five hundred miles urgent!" Someone outside the wooden house exclaimed: "What kind of emergency military situation is this?"
"Did Abaoji call back? It shouldn't be. It's freezing cold. If he had the ability, why would he run away?"
"Perhaps there is trouble in Huainan again. In the newly acquired land, the people's sentiments are not stable, and the people's hearts are not yet attached. If there are people with ulterior motives and a little incitement, there may not be a rebellion."
"I don't think it's Huainan, maybe Wu Guan."
"The fifth officer has been suppressed several times. Which idiot would dare to cause trouble in the short term?"
"Where could that be? Could it be that there are barbarians in central Guizhou who are rebelling and occupying prefectures and counties?"
"It's hard to say. Those people are brainless. It's really possible."
Upon hearing this, Shao Shenli stood up suddenly, walked out of the wooden house, and looked at the back of the messenger who was gradually going away.
Such an urgent matter must be no small matter.
Reminiscent of the envoys from Da Changhe who came to Beijing to ask for a princess for their king, Shao Shenli highly suspected that something had happened in central Guizhou or Jiannan.
But if you think about it carefully, there seems to be a problem: according to the time, only three months have passed, and the envoys from the Great Chowa Kingdom should have just left the country. Maybe they haven't had time to tell their king the whole story. How can the Nanman move so fast?
But if not Nanman, where would it be?
He was a little confused, but there was a feeling of secret joy and excitement in his heart.
Isn't it just for the moment when I go into battle that I study and practice hard all day long? If an opportunity arises in the south, should I volunteer to join the army in the southern expedition? Shao Shenli hesitated for a while - my grandpa probably won't go to the south personally, which really makes people scratch their heads.
ah!
******
On the 28th of the first lunar month, Shao Shude, who was accompanying his family in the Pearl Mirror Hall of the Daming Palace, received a military report from the south.
After reading it, he slapped the imperial case hard.
The twenty-second prince, who had just passed his full moon, immediately burst into tears. Webster hurriedly walked over, picked up his son, and comforted him softly.
In the past six months, Shao Shude has had four new children.
In April of the twelfth year of Jianji, Mrs. Xiuyuan Xiao gave birth to a daughter.
In August, Mrs. Chongyi Du gave birth to a daughter, who later died in infancy.
In the first month of the thirteenth year, Chongrong Wei gave birth to a son.
Also in this month, Jieyu and Chu gave birth to a son.
So far, he has had 44 biological children.
Compared with Li Yuan in the previous Tang Dynasty, the number of children has exceeded three - Li Yuan only had 10 children before he became the emperor. After being imprisoned by his son, he actually gave birth to 31 more children in his fifties.
Shao Shude has so far had five children die in infancy, with a mortality rate of 10%, which is higher than that of Li Yuan - perhaps Li Yuan did not record some of his children who died in infancy.
But the survival rate of Li Yuan's children was even higher than that of his descendants. This is another very interesting thing. Not only the Tang Dynasty, but also the survival rate of the children of the two generations of emperors before the founding of many dynasties far exceeded that of subsequent kings.
Take the "Little Taizong" Tang Xuanzong as an example. He had a total of 12 sons. Except for Yizong, the eldest son of Queen Chao, most of them died young and a few adults also died young. This was extremely outrageous.
On the contrary, the survival rate of his 11 daughters is much higher. It is difficult to draw conclusions as to why.
Shao Shude noticed his son's crying, so he walked to the side hall next to him and read the military report carefully.
Another rebellion broke out among the barbarians in Lizhou!
This time the campaign was quite powerful, occupying various key points around Lizuo Wuhou City in Lizhou, cutting off Hanyuan and Tongwang counties from the prefecture.
Shao Shude asked someone to bring the map again and look at it carefully.
The barbarians in Li and Yajian can be said to be powerful in numbers. In the late Tang Dynasty, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people gathered to cause chaos.
Lizhou is also a state relatively south of Jiannan Road. Wuhou City, the capital of the state, is in the middle of the mountain. There are tens of thousands of high mountains to the east and west. It is extremely dangerous and controls the only southward tunnel on the west side of Jiannan Road.
Hanyuan County is twenty-five miles south of Wuhou City. It has crossed the mountains and the terrain is gradually unfolding.
Ten miles south of Hanyuan County there is a large-scale post station, Baitu Station, and another 40 miles to Tongwang County, there is Muzhen Station.
Ten miles south of Muzhenyi Station there is the Dadu River, which is very fast and difficult to cross and is called the most dangerous river. It is the natural boundary between north and south.
But it was just a "geographical boundary". In the Tang Dynasty, military towns were set up on both sides of the river. The imperial dynasty also sent troops and horses to garrison, mainly the Victory Army, plus more than 2,000 native Tuan villagers.
More than thirty miles south of the Dadu River, there is Wangxing Station and Wangxing Pass.
Fifty miles south of Wangxing, there is Qingxi Gorge and Qingxiguan. This was an important place for garrisoning troops in the Tang Dynasty to guard against Tubo and Nanzhao.
One hundred and ten miles south of Qingxiguan is the state boundary between Li and Xizhou. Guīzhou is also the most southwesterly state of Jiannan Road.
The post road runs from the state boundary to the south throughout the entire Sizhou territory, passing through Xin'an City, Yong'an City, Sanfu City, and Shaye City (today's Xichang). There is a post road to the south - this is another important military station. It was presided over by Li Deyu during the Taihe period.
Build.
Thirty miles south of Shaye City is the military town of Jiangmosu, and another 120 miles to reach Yangpenngling. After crossing this mountain, there is Guanyi Station at the southern foot of the mountain. The location of this Guanyi Station is the dividing line between Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao after the Anshi Rebellion.
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From the south of the Dadu River to Yangpenngling, a total of more than 750 miles, it was still under the very stable rule of the Tang Dynasty until the Taihe period of Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty. Li Deyu and Wei Gao built fortresses here to garrison soldiers and horses for defense.
It's not Nanzhao, it's mainly Tubo.
Since the late Tang Dynasty, the country's power has been weak, and most of the barbarians in this area have defected to Nanzhao, and a lot of land has been lost.
After Gao Pian defeated Nanzhao, he restored the borders in one fell swoop. However, many of the local fortifications were in dilapidated condition, and the people fled one after another, making it increasingly difficult to garrison troops. Once the garrison was reduced, it would be difficult for you to suppress the barbarians and control the land.
It's okay if they don't cause chaos, but once they do, they often attract the Nanzhao army, which is very troublesome.
Historically, when Dachanghe State attacked Qian Shu, its army directly reached the south bank of the Dadu River. The Shu army fought with their backs against the water and won a great victory, killing tens of thousands of people.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Quanbin destroyed Hou Shu and suggested "taking advantage of the situation to take Yunnan".
Zhao Kuangyin drew a mark on the map with his jade ax and said, "I don't have anything else."
"It is necessary to abandon the Yuexun counties and use the Dadu River as the boundary. If you want the invaders to be defeated and the ministers to be defeated, the best strategy is to defend the army." - Zhao Kuangyin ordered the abandonment of all of Yizhou and half of Lizhou, thinking that such a defense would be "to defend the army."
The best policy."
In this way, the territory of 750 miles was thrown to Dali. The military town and fort system rebuilt by Li Deyu and Wei Gao in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, and the good situation built by the former Shu king, who killed tens of thousands of enemies in one battle, was completely destroyed.
Collapse, the defense line finally retreated to the "natural limit".
To a certain extent, Zhao Da, who easily gave up the southwest territory and planned to save money to redeem the Sixteenth Province of Youyun, was not as ambitious as Zhao Er, the donkey-cart war god. At least his younger brother really started to do it, although the ending was very bleak.
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Shao Shude looked at the number of garrison troops marked on the map and frowned.
To the west and south of the Dadu River, the garrison only had two under-manned commanders, with a total of more than 3,000 men. In addition, there were thousands of native Tuan soldiers from Fanzhi, and the total strength was six to seven thousand.
With such a small number of people, if the Great Chowa Kingdom comes to attack, there is a high probability that they will not be able to withstand it.
As for whether Dachang Heguo came, there was no doubt. The front reported that the thieves had sent troops north and began to besiege several forts garrisoned by the Xia army. The walls of these garrison walls were thin and low, and each had only a few hundred soldiers, so their fall was inevitable.
After that, we will attack the Dadu River directly.
Of course these are not the most troublesome.
The most annoying thing is that the barbarians in Li and Xizhou vigorously responded to the Great Chowa Kingdom and raised troops to cause chaos, with the central intention of creating chaos - the barbarians in Yazhou were given face and did not join in the chaos.
"What the hell, uncle, he's going to launch an army before he even gets a wife?" Shao Shude slapped the table again and ordered: "Convene the political hall and the Privy Council prime ministers, I want to question them."
