There is a high mountain ten miles away to the northwest, called Hongshan. On the other side of Hongshan is Xihua County, but it is a flat river. Standing on Hongshan, you can vaguely see some conditions in Ye County.
There is a trail on Hongshan Mountain that leads directly to Xihua County. There is a pavilion in the middle of the trail called Shen Pavilion.
There was drizzle in the sky, and a group of about a hundred people stopped here with two cars. A small soldier said in front of the car: "Report to your lord, the spies are here to report. Peng Tuo led the remaining soldiers to retreat into Xihua County. Now. The four doors are closed."
"I know, you go down."
Surrounded by soldiers, a middle-aged general in his late fifties was jumped out of the car.
The middle-aged man is wearing gold-plated mail, which shows that this man is no ordinary general. The faint gray beard on his mouth makes people feel that there is an air of twilight in his bravery.
In the pavilion, the middle-aged general looked at the densely packed yellow scarf soldiers in Xihua County and sighed, "The ant thieves have started to capture farmers again and use them as soldiers. Peng Tuo should not have been allowed to escape last time."
A counselor next to the middle-aged general sighed and became angry when he saw him, and repeatedly comforted him: "General, the cold has just begun to recover, so it is not appropriate to get angry. In the battle of Ruyang County, Peng Tuo's elite ant thieves have been lost, and those who escaped were defeated." Death is nothing more than lingering on."
"According to my subordinates, the bandits will be defeated without a fight in five days, or at most five days!"
"Oh, why?" The middle-aged general asked happily after hearing this, wanting to hear some high-level arguments.
The counselor smiled and said: "The majority of the soldiers are made up of farmers, which will definitely affect the summer grain harvest. Since the Yellow Turban turmoil, the cities in Runan have been severely short of food. Even our army can barely maintain it, let alone Peng Tuo." Pointing to the outside of Xihua County, he suggested: "As long as we send troops to harvest the nearby fields first, the grain and grass will be unable to be harvested, and the enemy will be defeated in five days!"
"It's only ten days into June, and the grain in the fields is not yet fully ripe. If it is harvested early, the yield will definitely be reduced a lot." The general lowered his head thoughtfully and muttered to himself, quietly looking at the dense yellow turban thieves under Runan City. Soldiers, think about the gains and losses of both.
In a battle between trapped beasts, the fighting power that breaks out from the ground will inevitably counterattack many of his troops. Now Yingchuan Bocai has tens of thousands of troops, which can be said to be a sea of people. It would be good if his side conserves more troops. And if the generals will The food that was about to ripen near Xihua County was harvested in advance, which had a great impact on the morale of the ant thieves in the city. Without food, their bones and muscles would be starved. Attacking the city at that time could reduce many casualties.
The problem is that this has done too much harm to the local people, which makes him unbearable. He needs a night to think about it.
There was a period of silence in the Shen Pavilion, and then two fast horses broke through the silence!
The middle-aged general heard the sound and looked around. Two knights, both wearing raincoats and bamboo hats, roared towards this side from the mountains through the muddy water.
With a groan!, the knight grabbed the reins of the horse, and the horse stopped moving forward after a burst of neighing.
"General, there are five hundred rebels from Jiangdong coming to surrender! One man and one horse, all cavalry."
"What, more than five hundred people, and they are still cavalry!"
Not only was the middle-aged general surprised, but the counselors on the side also showed strange expressions. They thought together in their minds: "Could they be private soldiers of the four major families in Jiangdong? Only they have the financial resources to organize a cavalry team."
To be able to get involved with the four major families in Jiangdong, you need to be not only powerful in officialdom, but also wealthy.
During the Yellow Turban period, the private soldiers of aristocratic families all guarded their own houses, and few sent troops to help the court. For example, the Yuan family of Runan, the fourth generation and the third Duke, were so prominent. There were nearly 10,000 farm slaves in captivity in their hometown, working on major farms. These tenant farmers , with a little reorganization of the army, there will be an army of tens of thousands,
Even though the Yuan family was not expensive, they were stingy, but they only donated a small amount of food and grass to the army to show their appreciation.
After a while, the middle-aged general returned to the foot of the mountain in a carriage, surrounded by guards.
The big flags with the characters "Han" and "Zhu" were fluttering in the wind. Under the big flags, officers and soldiers lined up in a neat formation, leaning out of the fence to look at more than 500 rebels wearing leather armor and lined up neatly. , as well as the horses around them, and behind these rebels there was a group of soldiers dressed as Han soldiers guarding the grain carts...
"General Zhonglang is back."
An officer saw the carriage returning from a distance, shouted, opened the camp door, and soldiers in Han uniforms poured out. I don't know if it was a welcoming ceremony or a guard against a group of cavalry not far away.
The middle-aged general is Zhu Jun, the newly appointed right-centered general of the imperial court, and the 500-cavalry battalion is Zhu Kui who has arrived in Runan.
In ancient times, cavalry, whether elite or not, was a force that could not be ignored. When Zhu Kui arrived here, he ordered his soldiers to dismount and stand by, and he and Xi Zhicai went forward to pay homage to Zhu Jun.
Xi Zhicai listened to Zhu Kui and said: "It is said that You Zhonglang will attach great importance to his hometown. You can start from this aspect."
Zhu Kui nodded with a smile.
Historically, Sun Jian, the founder of the Eastern Wu Dynasty, went north to fight against the Yellow Turbans. When he first met, he was appointed as an assistant army commander by Zhu Jun. He is known to the world, perhaps because he was from the same hometown as Zhu Jun.
As soon as Zhu Jun returned to the camp, he saw the 500 cavalry team with one man and one horse not far away. He was a little surprised. Could it be that those from Jiangdong were the rich sons of the four major surnames who led the troops to serve the country?
At this time, he saw a young man wearing bronze armor, leading a scribe, striding towards him. Zhu Jun waved his hand and told his guards not to be rude and stop him.
Zhu Kui came up smoothly. In front of Zhu Jun, he adjusted his posture, bowed and saluted: "Zhu Kui, a native of Moling, Jiangdong, has led a group of local soldiers to serve the country loyally."
Zhu Jun looked at the weak-headed young man in front of him and found that Zhu Kui was still looking straight at him, looking very calm.
"Are you from Moling, Danyang?" After a simple sentence, he didn't wait for Zhu Kui to answer yes or say something else.
But Zhu Jun suddenly raised his beard and laughed, and said to the surrounding tooth generals: "Everyone says that there are many loyal and righteous people in the north. Yizhen (Huangfu Song) and Ziqian (Lu Zhi) have gathered nearly a hundred rebel armies, large and small. .In my place, there are only three or two Xiaoyu soldiers, all of whom are from Yuzhou, and there is only one soldier from Jiangdong Township, Wentai."
"Wen Tai! It seems that Sun Jian has arrived early. I don't know what kind of person he is." Zhu Kui smiled and listened to Zhu Jun's cheerful words. He thought in his heart, he didn't know what it would be like to meet this young master Sun after so many years. But he still wants me to be his servant? Haha.
"General, why should you envy others? Sun Sima alone can equal hundreds of ordinary rebels." The counselor beside Zhu Jun also smiled and praised Sun Jian very much. It seems that Sun Jian has achieved good results during this period and is very rich.
"Zhu Kui, those cavalry were trained by you, do you know the art of war?" Zhu Jun asked after laughing heartily.
Although the specific combat power of these five hundred cavalrymen could not be seen for a while, their military appearance was commendable.
"I have read some military books, but I dare not say that I know the art of war." Zhu Kui responded modestly.
"Then..." Before Zhu Jun could say anything, his counselor suddenly said loudly: "Zhu Kui, Zhu Huaiming, the one who came up with the Confucianism, Legalism and Taoism to govern the country at the age of sixteen, did not expect to be so brave. "
Zhu Kuinian is twenty years old and eight feet tall. After running around under the scorching sun for days, his skin color has returned to the dark color it used to be when he was a child, making him look extremely strong and majestic.
"General." Seeing Zhu Jun's uninformed look, the counselor explained, "Zhang Zigang from Jiangdong highly praised him and said that his young talents are comparable to the ancient Gan Luo."
"Oh, Zhang Zigang is a famous figure in Jiangdong, and he praised him so much." Zhu Jun's face showed a look of surprise. He really didn't know this. He had been away from home for many years. In these years, he had been serving as the governor of Jiaozhou and pacified Nanhai County. During the Diplodocus Rebellion, after returning to Luoyang, the capital, he served as an admonishing official and was awarded the title of Marquis of Ting. Unfortunately, this senior official in the capital was not yet satisfied and was sent to quell the Yellow Turban bandits again.
Zhu Kui suddenly felt that he was already famous all over the world, how could anyone have heard of his name? He was very surprised. He looked at the long-clothed Confucian scholar, who had a broad forehead and no beard, and looked at him with a smile. Looking at myself, I became even more confused...
"I didn't expect Mr. Zigang to have such high regard for me. Only then did the theater director know my name, and this person in front of me actually knows something about me."
Under the secret joy, Zhu Kui couldn't help but ask: "I wonder who this gentleman is?"
"His surname is Chen, his given name is Gong, and his given name is Gongtai." He answered, but it was Xi Zhicai who was beside him. He actually knew this person and looked at the Confucian scholar facing him with a smile.
Chen Gong was also stunned and took a closer look: "Oh, you are Zhicai. I haven't seen you for many years, but Gong almost didn't recognize you." After an apology, he introduced Zhu Jun again. The chief officer was present. Naturally, everything must be reported and explained first.
"General, this is Yingchuan scholar Xi Zhicai, a classmate since childhood."
Zhu Jun was even more happy when the talented people came to join him. He said loudly: "With so many loyal and righteous people emerging, and the people's support for the Han Dynasty, there is no need to worry about the Yellow Turbans being immortalized. Huai Ming is willing to serve as Sima of the Right Army like Wentai, so Take the cavalry and write your own movie?"
"The general has an order, how dare you disobey him?" Zhu Kui was overjoyed. Military Sima was a big official, almost on the same level as a lieutenant colonel. When he first came here, he jumped several ranks in a row.
The Han Dynasty had military Sima, who was an officer subordinate to the general. The general camp (i.e., the troops directly under the general) was divided into five divisions. Each division had one captain, with a rank of two thousand dan. There was one military commander, with a rank of 1,000 dan. There was no captain's department. There is only one Sima in the army. When the other generals lead the army on expeditions, they will also be subordinated to Sima and other officials. If there is no captain in the army, the Sima will be the commander. Compared with the captain, they only have different grades.
It can be seen that Zhu Jun valued him and allowed him to lead his own troops under his command.
"By the way, general, these are the lieutenants under Lu Kang, the prefect of Lujiang. Chen Wu and Chen Zilie, along with other county soldiers, are equally loyal and loyal to the north to fight against the Yellow Turbans. So we are here together."
Zhu Jun saw that Chen Wu was only twenty years old, but he was quite tall and had some martial arts skills. He said happily: "Colonel Chen is loyal, since you are a captain under Prefect Lu, now you will also serve as a captain under my command."
"Yes, General." Chen Wu said happily.
Chen Wuyong was originally an official soldier, so he was naturally included in the official army camp and arranged together. Zhu Kui was a volunteer in the rural army. According to the wishes of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, he had to form his own army. The court would give him an official position and some food and grass. But you don't even have any salary. Otherwise, what is "volunteer"?
Then Zhu Jun looked at Xi Zhicai and asked: "Mr. Xi, would you like to be the commander-in-chief of our army like Gongtai?"