The year before last, when Yuan Ke was still alive, Tuyuhun, Rouran, and other miscellaneous Hu tribes gradually moved inward and invaded the Wei territory in Hexi. After discussion, the imperial court decided to send important generals to govern Hexi, expel the Hu people, and clarify the boundaries.
The person chosen at that time was Li Shao, who would take office only in the spring of the following year. However, Yuanhuai and Yu Zhong rebelled, and Nanliang and Tuyuhun jointly invaded Guanzhong, so the matter was delayed.
Li Shao did not take office until Guanzhong was pacified and it was midsummer. But when Rouran invaded Beizhen, the central army was empty, and the battle in Guanzhong was about to end. Therefore, the imperial court had no troops to send, so Li Shao could only recruit them on the spot. Li Shao did recruit some, not much, just two thousand.
But you can also know if you think about it: Rouran sent a hundred thousand troops to take six towns, and even Jiuquan County was almost attacked. The two thousand Hexi soldiers were not enough to go to the border and stuff the teeth of the Rouran people.<
/p>
So this delay is another half year.
After Rouran withdrew his troops, the imperial court replaced governors on a large scale, and Li Shao was among them. When the dust settled, it was already winter. Even though Yuanhui and Yuanzhi were ambitious, they could only wait until the next spring to discuss matters. But who wants to retreat the enemy outside and give birth to internal thieves?
It has been less than a month since Gao Zhao rebelled and fled Beijing. Hexi is two thousand miles away, and even now everyone is still kept in the dark.
As the saying goes, fishing in troubled waters and taking advantage of the fire, how could Li Chengzhi miss such a good opportunity?
He couldn't always hide in Xihai and watch the show, watching the imperial court and Gao Zhao fight to the death, so he had to do something.
Li Chengzhi thought about it and decided that he should take the opportunity to expand his territory and build some fertile farmland to prepare for emergencies.
Regardless of the rest, since Emperor Taiwu conquered Northern Liang and captured the wealthy households in Hexi, more than 200,000 households in Dingkou moved to Pingcheng. As a result, more than 100,000 hectares of grain fields in Liangzhou were abandoned?
If I count on my fingers, it’s only been fifty years now.
It has only been abandoned for fifty years. It only needs to be slightly repaired, the water is soaked, the weeds are eradicated, and then exposed to the sun... In this way, it only takes two years to cultivate the land before it can be cultivated again.
There is no need to capture the entire three counties of Hexi, but only the two counties of Wuwei and Zhangye can gain up to three million acres of land.
Ten acres can support one young man, and fifty acres can support one household. With these fields alone, we can support 30 households of soldiers and 60,000 to 70,000 households of living people.
What's more, there is a Hexi horse farm that can herd millions of horses and 100,000 war horses every year. In addition, the vastness of the West Sea is thousands of miles, and there are pastures that can herd tens of millions of cattle and sheep. Not to mention that the number of households in the West Sea today is less than 100,000.
Another hundred thousand would be more than enough to live on.
Therefore, when Li Song was sent to Jingzhou to lead his troops to the West Sea, Li Chengzhi repeatedly considered: Hexi has a long and narrow terrain, with strong barbarians in the north and south, making it easy to attack and difficult to defend, and it is definitely not a place to start a business.
But the advantage is that it is located on the border, beyond the reach of the imperial court, making it an excellent place to raise troops and Tibetans.
It doesn’t take much, it can take as long as five years or as short as three years, Li Chengzhi can accumulate the strength to counterattack the Central Plains...
Thinking like this, before you know it, the sun has turned westward.
Hearing the noise coming from outside the government office, it seemed that Li Liang had returned. Li Chengzhi stood up and moved his hands and feet.
After hearing Li Cong's report, Li Chengzhi called out, and Li Liang, who was fully armored, stepped into the tent with a "swish".
"Mr. Lang, I am lucky enough to live up to my command!"
Li Chengzhi raised his eyebrows slightly and laughed "hahaha".
Five thousand armored cavalry with skillful bows and horses, and it was a surprise attack. If they still can't win, then there are only more than a thousand herdsmen at the Hexi Racecourse. That would be weird.
The reason why Li Liang spoke like this is because he was able to achieve victory without losing any blood. He didn't even fire a few arrows, and even half of the horses didn't frighten away.
Regardless of how many cattle and sheep there are, there are three to four hundred thousand horses in the Hexi Racecourse alone. Even if it is less, there should be thirty thousand war horses. That's why Li Chengzhi is so happy.
He nodded lightly: "Hard work!"
Li Liang was so flattered that he said he did not dare, and then asked: "The herdsmen and herdsmen in the racecourse were all captured without restraint. The servants left a separate camp, one to guard the prisoners, and the other to gather the horses, cattle and sheep. In addition, all the team leaders and above
, they were all escorted to the county town. The county governor Yuwen Yuanqing was also among them, would you like to meet me, sir?"
"He just disappeared, so that the news would not leak out!"
Li Chengzhi waved his hand, "Together with the magistrates of the four counties of Yongping, Shichi, Shandan, and Linze, as well as all Dingkou, we will take them to Zhenyi Pass first!"
"Ah?"
Li Liang was stunned.
We just captured Zhangye County City yesterday. When we entered the city, Li Chengzhi said that after taking the Hexi Racecourse, the next step would be to march into Wuwei.
After a full attack, there are only three to four thousand soldiers in Guzang City. The city wall has been in disrepair for many years, and the dilapidated areas are only ten feet long. It will fall when the horse pulls it. If it can be conquered, I dare not say it will be easy, but there is no suspense.
Even the city of Zhou cannot be saved, so why move Dingkou, cattle and sheep to Zhenyi?
"I dare to ask Mr. Lang, why don't you just occupy the county and state cities?"
"Silly?"
Li Chengzhi laughed again, "The reason why I asked you to pretend to be a Hu soldier and hide it from the outside world is to make the court think that Gao Zhao has made peace with Rouran. However, the Hu troops always leave immediately after looting. It is rare for them to capture a city.
In this case, it is natural to return to Zhenyi first, or to the West Sea..."
"Should we take Guzang City or not?"
"How can you put meat in your mouth and not eat it?"
Li Chengzhi replied simply and neatly, "I don't care about the rest, even if it's just for the thousands of households in the city, I still have to take it..."
After a pause, Li Chengzhi felt a little ridiculous again.
Since the Han Dynasty, counties with less than 10,000 households could not be called "Ling", but could only be called "county chief". How pitiful is Dongliang Tangtang, a state with only 10,000 households?
Yuan Hui, the governor, is really pitiful...
Li Chengzhi further explained: "After conquering Guzang, just like Zhangye, all useful things, such as cars and farm tools, etc. were taken away together. But don't demolish the house, let alone set it on fire, which will save you several months.
We still need to rebuild later..."
"Are all the officials in the city also escorted to Zhenyi like this?"
Officials?
Li Chengzhi pondered for a moment, and there was a hint of chill in his words: "Examine it first, and screen carefully to make sure no fish slips through the net: from Yuanhui on down, everyone who comes from the Xiuyi Guards will be killed. The rest will be closely guarded.
But don’t be embarrassed. I’ll serve you with good food and drink. I’ll be of great use to you, sir..."
"No!"
Li Liang knew immediately upon hearing this that Lang Jun would make a comeback within March or May. The reason why these officials were kept alive was for the purpose of handling government affairs and managing the local area.
"In addition, we will send more scouts to guard and guard, and we will break camp after dawn..."
Li Liang responded respectfully and hurriedly went to deliver the order.
Not long after, several teams of Tangqi headed east.
As for the large camp outside the county town, there were only felt tents like clouds, which were ten miles wide.
This time, Li Liang sent out 20,000 troops, 60% of which were armored cavalry...
……
With the experience of these two years, Li Liang has become more and more calm, and he is not inferior to Li Song in terms of knowledge and resourcefulness. Everything is arranged in an orderly manner, and Li Chengzhi does not need to work hard at all.
The reason why he accompanied the army in the Eastern Expedition was more symbolic than practical...
At the third watch, the rear camps have already risen. There are bright lights inside and outside the city. At dawn, each camp has prepared meals. After eating, the east sky has already turned white.
Hearing another drum sound, all the tribes began to move in an orderly manner. Six thousand armored cavalry and four thousand chariot soldiers headed east, while two other battalions escorted the county citizens and officials captured from Zhangye and marched towards Zhenyi.
In addition, there are still one thousand left in the Hexi racecourse, another thousand cavalry and six thousand rear troops, who are stationed in Zhangye County with Li Shi.
Cavalry pays attention to the word "quick". As soon as Fang left the camp, Li Liang divided the army into two parts. The front part was composed of 5,000 armored cavalry, which only brought four days of rations. He and Li Chengzhi rode quickly, planning to move within two days.
He rushed to Wuwei and besieged Guzang City at night.
The rear section is mostly filled with siege equipment, firearms, grain and grass, etc., and there are mostly chariots and soldiers, so they cannot move so fast and can only follow.
But no matter how slow it is, it will still be no problem to travel 500 miles in three days.
After the rear arrives, if Yuanhui still refuses to surrender, he can only attack by force.
According to Li Liang's estimation, firearms would not be needed at all. Given the ruins of Guzang County, it would only take a few rounds of stone cannons to defeat it.
Since Zhenyi sent out troops, Linze, Shandan, Shichi counties and Yongping, the county seat of Zhangye, have all been attacked in this way. Not to mention the damage to the city itself, even the defenders in the city did not suffer many casualties, which can be said to be effortless. Li Liang even thought that with Yuanhui's greed for life and fear of death, maybe the Jia cavalry would besiege the city and the city of Guzang would be surrendered while the rear was still halfway there...
……
A brigade of scouts was divided into fifty ponds and one pond with ten cavalry. They circled from the north of the city to Wuwei one night in advance. If anything abnormal was discovered along the way, it would take an hour to reach the army a hundred miles away.
However, the weather was calm for two consecutive days, and Tangqi did not see even a single smoke along the way, so he blocked the main roads leading from Guzang to Shanshan, Bogulu, and Jincheng County without any danger. It was the defenders.
Even if we are surprised that there is an enemy invading, we will never send a letter out of Liangzhou.
This has been the case all the way since the troops were sent out. As a result, four counties and one county were conquered, and Yuanhui didn't even hear the slightest sound...
It was three o'clock in the fifth watch (about 4:30), just when he was sleeping sweetly, but Yuan Hui had a nightmare.
He dreamed that he was being reckoned with by his wife, and that he had already been taken to the execution platform.
Just as the butcher's knife fell and the body and head were separated, there was a sudden thunder and the execution platform shook.
Shocked, Yuan Hui jumped up and sat up like a carp. When he saw the moonlight outside the window, which was like water and the window paper was illuminated pale, he realized that it was a nightmare.
He couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief, and just as he was about to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, Yuan Hui realized something was wrong again.
The bed was really shaking, like a dragon turning over the earth, and there was a faint roaring sound in my ears, like wind and thunder.
Listening carefully again, the sound of golden gongs could be heard faintly in the distance, mixed with hissing.
Got lost?
Yuan Hui was suspicious, so he turned over and jumped out of the bed. Just as he was about to put on his shoes, the door of the room was knocked open with a bang.
"Master Shi, the enemy is attacking!"
Everything is fine, why is the enemy coming?
Yuan Hui was startled, and his face immediately turned pale: "But we entered the city?"
"Not yet, but we have surrounded the four gates, and there are barbarians everywhere we look!"
Hu Qi?
Just like Yuwen Yuanqing, Yuanhui thought of Tuyuhun when he heard about Hu Qi.
In comparison, Wuwei City is closer to the old capital of Tuyuhun, and the herdsmen of Tuyuhun have all herded their cattle and sheep under Wuwei City.
He was startled and hurriedly picked up his boots: "Quick, put on my armor!"
By the time Yuan Hui was fully dressed and running up the city wall, it was already half an hour later. At this time, the sky was already getting bright, just in time for frost to fall.
Even though he was sweating profusely from running, Yuan Hui still felt a chill going straight into his neck.
At first glance, the city seemed to be full of barbarian soldiers, and it was all white. But after taking a closer look, Yuan Hui breathed a sigh of relief.
He became a right-guard general and had been in charge of embroidered clothes for many years. He also served as the governor of Jizhou. There were many rebellions in the prefectures and counties, and he was known as the superior commander who was good at using soldiers. Therefore, he was much more knowledgeable than Yuwen Yuanqing. p>
Taking a closer look, he knew that there seemed to be a lot of enemy troops under the city because their formations were extremely sparse. If calculated in reality, they were only over a thousand, and at most they could not exceed a thousand and a half.
That is to say, all four cities were besieged, and the number of incoming enemies was only five or six thousand at most. Moreover, the Hu people were very bad at attacking cities, so the only method was to hang them with reins and then use horse power to pull the wall. There was no other way. p>
According to the art of war, there are still 3,000 state soldiers in the city, and 1,000 Chinese soldiers brought from the capital. The strength is more than 4,000. I dare not say that the enemy will be forced to retreat, but it will be impossible to defend for a month or two.
Question.
Furthermore, there are Shanshan in the south and Lingzhou in the north, both of which are only six or seven hundred miles away from Wuwei. All we need to do is send a quick horse to report, and the reinforcements will arrive within ten days.
Looking at the thieves in the city again, there are only cavalry, not even cattle or sheep. How many days can they survive?
Just when he thought of this, Yuan Hui was suddenly startled, and the hairs all over his body stood up.