Prefect Zhou Yuan never dreamed that on the second day after he agreed, Yang Yuanqing led 20,000 cavalry to appear outside the county town. He stood on the top of the city and looked at the dark army of 20,000 people outside the city. His eyes were a little wet.
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Moreover, he saw that the cavalry did not bring any baggage except tents. So where was the food that Yang Yuanqing promised? Zhou Yuan was full of doubts.
At this time, General Pei Xingyan galloped forward on horseback and shouted: "Is the prefect here?"
Zhou Yuan cupped his hands at the top of the city and said, "That's it!"
"My general manager asked the eunuch to go to the military camp to discuss border crossing and food issues."
Zhou Yuan hesitated in his heart. It seemed a bit dangerous to meet Yang Yuanqing in the military camp. Magistrate Zhao next to him said: "The opponent's 20,000 cavalry will easily kill us."
Thinking about it, if Yang Yuanqing wanted to kill him, it would really be effortless.
"Okay! I'll go right away!" He had no choice but to agree.
Prefect Zhou Yuan and his two followers rode to the Fengzhou military camp. At this time, 20,000 cavalrymen had set up camp outside the city. There were thousands of large tents standing on the wasteland.
many.
Zhou Yuan was taken to the Chinese army's tent by the soldiers. Yang Yuanqing held up his hands and said with a smile: "Prefect Zhou, I haven't seen you for a few years. Have you married any more concubines?"
Zhou Yuan had been the prefect of Yanchuan County for ten years, and Yang Yuanqing had also been in the army in Fengzhou for more than ten years. Naturally, they knew each other. Yang Yuanqing’s joke immediately made Zhou Yuan feel relaxed. He returned the courtesy and said with a smile: "Last year again
I married a Hunnu concubine, but I don’t want to marry him anymore, it’s really hard to cope with it.”
The two of them smiled knowingly, walked into the big tent, and took their seats respectively. Yang Yuanqing didn't wait for him to speak first, and smiled and said: "The food will be transported by water, it will be two or three days late, so the prefect need not worry."
From Fengzhou, take the Yellow River to Lingwu County, and then turn to the tributary Yanchuan River to reach the county seat directly. Zhou Yuan was immediately relieved. He asked again: "The main force of Liu Jialun's army is in Yan'an County, and General Manager Yang has to go to Yan'an."
Does the county suppress bandits?"
"The suppression of bandits is not a big problem. I have a plan. I invited Governor Zhou here today to discuss future defenses. I plan to build a city in Yanchuan County and station three thousand troops to assist Governor Zhou in defending against bandits."
Zhou Yuan was stunned for a moment. He never imagined that Yang Yuanqing was guarding the mine.
Hongtie Mountain, one of the targets of the Fengzhou Army, is located in the west of Yanchuan County, fifty miles away from the county seat. A few miles to the north is the Yanchuan River. The water flow is gentle and can carry a large ship of 500 kilograms. In the past, there was a mine supervisor here.
, a large number of iron mines were mined and put on ships, and the ore ships entered the Yellow River from Yanchuan water and transported them to Lingwu County for smelting.
If Yang Yuanqing occupies the mine, his ore transport ship can enter the Yellow River and head north, and can directly reach Wuyuan County. The transportation is very convenient. More importantly, Wei Siyun, the prefect of Lingwu County, was the governor of Fengzhou at that time. He generally would not stop Fengzhou.
State ore ship.
This mine was occupied by the army of the slave bandit Bai Yusuo half a year ago, but two months ago, in order to seize the mine, the Hu bandit Liu Jialun of Yan'an County sent an army of 30,000 to fight Bai Yusuo's army along the Yanchuan River north of the mine.
A battle broke out between the armies, which ended with Bai Yusuo's army retreating.
Liu Jialun occupied the mine, but thousands of mining slaves had already fled during the battle between the two armies. Liu Jialun had no choice but to forcefully drive 10,000 people from Yan'an and Honghua counties to mine and leave 3,000 garrison troops to monitor.
But Liu Jialun faced another problem, that is, how to transport the ore to Yan'an County. There is no direct river here. The only way is to use animal power to transport it, using 10,000 horses to transport it, each horse carrying a hundred kilograms of weight at a time.
It can transport millions of kilograms of iron ore, so it needs to be accumulated to a certain amount before it can be transported uniformly.
In two months, millions of kilograms of iron ore have been mined and stacked in several huge and simple warehouses. It was during these days that Liu Jialun would send a large team of horses to transport the ore.
It was late autumn in late September, and it was extremely cold in the morning and evening. At night, a bright, semicircular moon rose from behind the barn. The cold silver glow filled the Red Iron Mountain, and the dark mountain shadow enveloped the Labor Day at the foot of the mountain.
There was a camp and a military camp. The civilians who had worked hard for a day were sleeping sleepily. The military camp was also extremely quiet. There were only two wooden sentry towers with two soldiers patrolling back and forth. The sentry towers were one mile apart, one to the east and one to the west.
At this time, two teams of Sui army scouts quietly approached the wooden tower. Two crossbowmen used rocks as cover. They raised their crossbows fifty steps away and aimed at the enemy sentries on the tower. The arrow tips were shining in the moonlight.
Flashing with green phosphorescence, it was coated with the highly poisonous drug 'Papamu' from Sogdia. When the blood clots the throat, even the voice cannot be shouted. It is the best poison for scouts to assassinate.
Just listen to two soft sounds of "Ka! Ka", and the two crossbow arrows shot out like lightning, hitting two sentinels almost at the same time. There was no shout, only two muffled groans. One of the sentinels jumped from the two-foot-high sentry
Fell off the tower.
The cry of jackdaws came from the west, which was a signal that another sentry tower had succeeded. There were also two echoes from here. After a while, sentries appeared on the sentry tower again, and they had been replaced by Sui troops.
Not long after, a Sui cavalry force of more than a thousand people came from the west. The horses' hooves were wrapped in thick linen. Although the sound was not loud, the momentum of the sprint of more than a thousand cavalry still swept over like a storm.
Many enemy soldiers were still awakened and rushed out of the barracks to take a look. What they saw were spears flashing with cold light and iron cavalry as powerful as thunder.
The Sui army suddenly rushed into the enemy camp, with cries, shouts, and screams. The cavalry kicked over the camp tents, spears mercilessly pierced the chests of the enemy soldiers, slashed with swords, and blood splashed everywhere. The Jihu army fled in all directions.
, many people did not wear shoes, they could not outrun the horses, the cavalry caught up instantly and killed the fleeing enemy soldiers one by one...,
Half an hour later, the killing gradually stopped, and more than two thousand of the three thousand Jihu troops were killed. The rest knelt down and surrendered. Only a dozen people escaped on horseback and rushed back to Yan'an County to report.
The camp of ten thousand civilians was a hundred steps away. The Sui army's massacre did not impact them, and no one dared to escape. Groups of people gathered in the camp in a daze, and everyone's eyes were full of fear. At this time, almost
A cavalryman rushed over and shouted: "You don't have to be afraid, we are the Fengzhou Sui Army, here to rescue you!"
After a moment of silence, cheers suddenly erupted in the camp.
It was getting daylight. Yang Yuanqing led a dozen generals, escorted by a thousand cavalry, to the mine. He squinted and looked at the mountain range. It was about ten miles long. It was a rocky mountain with no grass growing on it. But not everything was there.
It is red, only the few miles to the west are red, and Hongtie Mountain refers to this section.
More than ten years of mining have left a large gap in the mountain, but the iron ore resources are still abundant and can be mined for hundreds of years.
By this time, the battlefield had been cleaned, and the prisoners of war, most of whom were barbarians, but also a handful of Han Chinese, were sitting in piles with their hands tied behind their backs. Their bodies had been burned and buried, and more than two thousand war horses and a large number of inferior weapons were seized.
and hundreds of tents.
More than 10,000 civilians were quiet and stayed in their camps, waiting for the Sui army to relocate. The entire mine was shut down today.
But Yang Yuanqing was not interested in these. What he wanted was iron ore. He urged his horse to come to several large warehouses. Inside were piles of ore, mostly iron ore. But there were also hundreds of thousands of kilograms of yellow metal.
Copper ore.
At this time, Fengzhou Armor Commander Cao Hejun dismounted from his horse and ran into the barn. He picked up the ore and examined it carefully. After a while, he came out with a piece of ore, saluted Yang Yuanqing, couldn't hold back the joy in his heart and said: "General Manager,
This is a treasure mountain! The iron content of these iron ores is at least 60%, with very few impurities. It can produce fine iron, which is extremely suitable for making weapons and armor."
"Very good, these ores must be transported back to Fengzhou as soon as possible."
Looking at the mountains of iron ore, Yang Yuanqing couldn't help laughing, and turned around and said to everyone: "Then Liu Jialun worked hard to mine millions of kilograms of iron ore, and he didn't even see the shadow of pig iron.
He was taken away from us, I really want to know what his expression was like?"
The generals laughed loudly, and Yang Yuanqing waved his hand. He ordered several captains: "Organize these civilians and use the captured horses to transport the iron ore to the river as soon as possible!"
"Follow the order!"
Several captains ran to greet the soldiers, and Yang Yuanqing said to Pei Xingyan: "Liu Jia will not give up. He will definitely come to fight for the mines. You need to send more scouts to keep track of their movements."
Pei Xingyan bowed and saluted, "I understand your humble position!"
After arranging the trivial matters in the mine, Yang Yuanqing turned back to the officers and said: "The bait has been thrown out, it's time for us to take action."
He turned his horse's head and led a large group of cavalry to gallop towards the county seat.
Yan'an, Yanchuan, Diaoyin, Shuofang, Yulin and other counties in the northern part of the pass, as well as parts of Honghua, Lingwu and Wuyuan, due to relatively harsh natural conditions, do not use farming, and have always been used by the central court.
The areas where ethnic minorities are resettled are home to hundreds of thousands of Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Di, Qiang and other tribes.
When the central court was strong, these magistrates were quiet and responsible and did not violate the rules. However, once the central court was weak or the Central Plains was in chaos, these nobles among the barbarians began to become ambitious, stir up trouble, and set off rebellions.
Feng Chao robbed the Han people's wealth and killed the Han people.
Liu Jialun was a Xiongnu nobleman. When rebellions began to break out in various places during the Sui Dynasty, he also believed that the time had come and began to gather his troops to rebel. He also contacted leaders of other ethnic groups. His strength developed rapidly. In just a few months, he gathered troops
The number reached 100,000. He claimed to be the emperor, took Yan'an County and Diaoyin County as his strongholds, and led his army to loot and kill in the northern part of the pass. Every village was destroyed under their iron hoof. Except for some relatively large cities, they were not captured.
Almost all of the northern counties were occupied by his troops.
Like other rebels, Liu Jialun's biggest problem was backward equipment and an extreme lack of armor and weapons. Therefore, obtaining pig iron and making weapons was their top priority.
Two months ago, Liu Jia's general Liu Yaozi led 30,000 troops to seize the Chiling Mine occupied by Bai Yusuo. After a fierce battle, they finally drove Bai Yusuo away and seized the mine.
Just when Liu Jialun was looking forward to the imminent arrival of the iron ore, a bad news came. The mine was taken away by the Sui army. All the millions of kilograms of iron ore they had worked hard to mine for two months were seized by the Sui army.
Walk.
Liu Jialun was furious. How could he be willing to make a wedding dress for the Sui army in vain? The day after receiving the report, he personally led an army of 60,000 to rush towards the mine. He wanted to trample the Sui army who dared to rob his mine.