Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 826
"The back of the mountain is huge." Li Keyong said.

Gai Yu was taken aback for a moment, but soon understood.

Zhou Dewei looked at Li Keyong with approving eyes, and deeply agreed.

Li Keyong glanced at Zhou Dewei approvingly.He is very good, worthy of years of teaching and cultivation.Even if Zhou Dewei disagrees with his decision to cooperate with Khitan, he will resolutely implement it. This is the person who can entrust important tasks.

"Yang Yue only raided the tribes north of Xinyigui, and he didn't even finish sweeping them. He ran away a lot." Li Keyong said: "There are many tribes in Tan, Ji, Ying, and Ping, even in Youzhou. There are still many Huzhous, if Khitan is brought here, who will they go with?"

This is a very real problem.The border area is a place where both Han and Chinese are mixed, and the people's conditions are complicated.Fan people are not necessarily inclined to Fan people, and Han people are not necessarily inclined to Han people.Many Khitans served as soldiers for the Han Jiedushi, and then went to fight Khitan.The Khitans also had Han soldiers under their command, and they slaughtered the Han without mercy.If Khitan is attracted, who knows what will happen to the place behind the mountain where there is a mixture of foreigners and Han, will they vote for Khitan?It's hard to tell.

The area behind the mountain to the north of Yanshan Mountain is an inseparable part of Youzhou Town. If it is lost, it will be completely passive defense instead of active defense. The difference between them is very big.

It is most forbidden to rely on Yanshan Mountain and the Great Wall for defense. There must be strongholds, military towns, and civilians in the north. Use offense instead of defense and actively defend. Only in this way can there be a chance of victory.

How could Gai Yu not understand what Li Ke said?But in his view, Shao Shude is already in dire straits, and it is best to unite all forces that can be united. Even Zhu Quanzhong can win over or even rescue him. This is the fundamental difference in philosophy between him and Li Keyong.To get to the bottom of it, it is actually the difference in goals.

What is Li Ke's goal?I'm afraid he didn't say it clearly himself, he was doing things entirely by instinct.

ambition?Compete for the world?He couldn't tell, maybe he had thought about it, but he didn't seem to have thought about it. The whole process of fighting for hegemony seemed to be passively following others.

But Gai Yu is different.He has a clear goal, which is to capture Hebei.With Hedong and Hebei in hand, the situation is quite different.

With the help of the "sages" in the past few years, King Jin has gotten better, but it is not enough, and he is still paying the price for the neglect of the early years.Can Shao Shude and Zhu Quanzhong's conditions in their early years be compared with King Jin?cannot.But they have done very dazzling things one after another, and even Yang Xingmi's expansion momentum is very strong. I have to say that this is a huge regret.

If the timing is missed, sometimes it is difficult to go back and catch up.Most importantly, you can't keep making mistakes.

"Marshal, if you want to defeat Shao Shude, you can't do without paying a price." Gai Yu said.

Zhou Dewei remained silent, he had his own ideas, but he would only wait for Li Keyong to make a decision.

"Yang Wu, why don't you speak?" Li Keyong asked suddenly.

"Marshal." Zhou Dewei saluted, and said, "You might as well wait and see if the Khitan will fight the Xia people first."

"You might as well make your words clearer," Li Ke said.

"Back to Commander. King Xi fled to the west, and the influence is too bad. If Khan Hen Dejin doesn't come up with some means, he might not be selected next time." Zhou Dewei said.

The Khitan Yaonian tribal alliance originated in the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty.

In the 22nd year of Kaiyuan, Khitan Khan Ketuyu wanted to unite with the Xi people to defect to the Turks, which violated the interests of the Tang court, so the court ordered Li Guozhe, a Khitan official from Songmo Dudu's Mansion, to rebel and kill Ketuyu.But Li Guozhe was soon killed by Ketuyu Khan's remnant party Niriya.

In the 25th year of Kaiyuan, Nieli was defeated by Datang, and he left Mobei to clean up the rest of the people, and re-established the tribal alliance, that is, the Yaonian Tribal Alliance.

Nie Li is the ancestor of A Baoji.

For some reason, he did not call himself Khan, but supported Diren Zuli as Khan, that is, Zwu Khan, and he himself served as Yi Li Jin, who was in charge of the military.

Inheriting the old customs of the Dahe Clan Alliance, the Yao Nian Clan Alliance also adopts an electoral system for Khan and Yili Jin, with a term of three years.But in the past 100 years, in fact, the term of office has often exceeded three years, and can be re-elected.

Khitan claims to have eight divisions, but they can actually be subdivided. For example, the Yelu clan is divided into three divisions. In fact, there are twenty divisions. The Diela division has been the strongest since the beginning, and the gap with the rest of the divisions is now bigger.

Since the election, the khans have been all members of the Yaoren family for a total of nine terms, because the Diela tribe supports them.

The Babu Yili Jin has also been held by the descendants of Niriya for more than ten years.

Khan Shen Dejin, like King Xi Quzhu, does not belong to any of the eight tribes. If counted by the twenty tribes, their family barely counts as one, but they have the smallest population and the weakest strength. Although they are Khans .

In the second year of Zhonghe (882), Bala Khan passed away. After the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven with burnt wood, Khan Shen Dejin was elected, and it has been five times so far.Before the end of this year, there will be another election.

This is what Zhou Dewei was talking about, so it can be seen that he has done some homework on Khitan and knows it very well.

"Yelu Shilu supports Shen Dejin, so he can be selected, what a big deal." Gai Yu said.

"The main benefit of annexing the Xi tribe is that the Deira tribe has gained it. Yelu Sala once conquered the six tribes of Xi, and got [-] households, which were placed in Raoyue Qinghe. They are the Diira slave tribe." Zhou Dewei said: "Go to the Huaihuang The Yelu family will not give up if they are going to fight like that in the town. I will just sit back and watch, and wait until they are almost done fighting, and then come out to clean up the mess, wouldn't it be beautiful?"

Gai Yu shook his head and said, "General Zhou's words are wrong, I bet Yelu family won't do anything to King Xi Quzhu, at least not now."

Zhou Dewei thought about it seriously, and said, "It's possible, but you might as well wait a bit, what if there is a fight?"

Gai Yu insisted: "I can't wait. Zhu Quanzhong is in danger, and Zhu Jin, Zhu Wei, Wang Shifan, and Luo Hongxin are not worth it..."

"Enough!" Li Keyong blew up when he heard the word "Zhu Quanzhong", and said angrily, "What do you have to do with such a shameless and shameless person like Zhu Quanzhong? This thief has no faith, has no face and no skin, I have never seen it before. Such a shameless person. Even if he kneels in front of me and recognizes me as his father, I will not send troops to rescue him."

Gai Yu smiled wryly, and Zhou Dewei also smiled wryly.

"Then wait for a while." Li Ke decided with one word: "The army marched south and fought fiercely with Cangjing and Zhenji for many days. It's time to take a rest and recharge your batteries."

******
The morning mist on the river was all over the sky, hazy.

The chimney curled up with smoke, full of pleasant life.

A woman in a purple skirt gently pulled up her hair and handed a bucket of mare's milk to the servant.

After finishing these tasks, the woman took care of the horse's hair with her own hands.

She carefully braided her mane and hung it over her forehead, and tied her ponytail into a knot.The wind is strong on the grassland, and the environment here is very different from that in the west. There are many trees and streams, which are suitable for pasture and farming. There are often thorns and shrubs on the grassland. If the hair is not well groomed, it is easy to be stuck by the thorns and hinder the horse's view. and action.

"What a beautiful horse!" the woman said with a smile, stroking the horse's neck.

The mare snorted and licked the woman lightly.

"Xi Lv Lv!" A high-pitched horse cry sounded not far away.

The mare and the woman looked at the same time, only to see a handsome black horse standing up, neighing endlessly.

"Husband." The woman smiled and waved.

The young man with hairy hair jumped off the horse and led the horse who was still losing his temper.

"What a tall and handsome horse, it's not a Khitan horse or a Turkic horse, where did it come from?" asked the woman.

"This is Qinghai Cong." The man with hairy hair said: "A normal Qinghai Cong is not so tall. I heard that Shao Shude, Xia Wang of the Tang Dynasty, took charge of the horse 20 years ago and continued to improve his horses. At that time, it lost its owner and was plundered, and it came into my hands after a round trip. It is rumored that it is a war horse ridden by the Tang army with armor, a tall and powerful steed."

The black horse calmed down a little and looked at the mare aside.

"What a good horse." The woman said happily.

"I'll give it to you if I like it." The man with hairy hair said with a smile.

"My husband needs a good horse to fight in battle." The woman shook her head and said.

"I don't like this horse." The man with dark hair laughed loudly, took the woman into his arms, and said, "It's expensive to eat, and you don't even smell ordinary grass. You only eat alfalfa, but you also eat millet. Who will raise it?" This kind of uncle. Our Khitan horse is better, with a pear nose and ears, and a gentle shape, which can gallop through the forest."

Pear-nosed and cracked ears are the characteristics of Khitan horses, which refer to the open ends of the horse's nostrils and the gap at the tip of the horse's ears.There is a local saying that if the nose is not broken, the qi will fill the lungs; if the ears are not missing, the wind will blow and no sound will be heard.It roughly means that the nose is wide open, which does not hurt the lungs. If the ears are notched, you can hear subtle sounds in the wind, such as the sound of arrows piercing the air. Whether it makes sense or not depends on your own understanding.

Another characteristic of Khitan horses is that their necks are thinner and they can gallop between trees.This is the product of the natural environment selection in the northeast region. After all, there are really many deep mountains and old forests here, which are completely different from the endless flat grasslands in the west.

"Then I'll take it." The woman happily took the reins of the horse, and wanted to get on the horse for a try, but when she saw the shoulder height of Fourteen Palms, she hesitated.

"Yue Liduo can ride it if he likes it." The hairy man picked up his wife and put her on the saddle.

The woman giggled and pinched the horse's belly skillfully. The black horse looked away from the mare and jumped out like lightning.

"Abaoji, Yue Liduo is getting more and more beautiful." Another man with hairy hair came over and said with a smile.

A Baoji glanced at the visitor with disgust, and asked lightly: "This time, brother Hua, won't you go?"

"There's the great Ta Mabu Shali, why do I need to make a fool of myself?" Brother Yelu Hua said with a smile: "The guards and soldiers have already called you 'Azhu Shali', so you must be able to win the battle right?"

Azhushali means "father, grandfather" in Khitan, which shows the love and admiration of the guards and soldiers for Abaoji.

"Then what are you doing in the tribe?" Abaoji raised his voice and asked, his tone no longer very friendly.

Brother Yelu Hua was a little afraid of A Baoji, but he still stuck his neck and replied: "Of course I will smelt armored soldiers and harvest food and grass together with my grandfather. A Baoji, you want to fight, can you do without these things?"

Yelu Huage is the son of Yelu Shilu.

Because of the defection of King Xi, Shi Lu had just resigned from the post of Babu Yi Li Jin, and his uncle Yu (yǎn) Gu Zhi took over temporarily.

Shilu is actually a talent.

During the period of Bala Khan, Shilu served as Yuyue and was in charge of state affairs. He "promoted the construction of the board, built the city, taught the people to learn mulberry and hemp, and organized organizations. He has the ambition of spreading the land and all the people."

In other words, Yelu Shilu taught the Khitan people to learn how to build cities, grow mulberry and grain, and improved their organization.

Shilu's late brother and Abaoji's father, Sala, was also very capable. "The benevolent people love things, and they first set up iron smelting, and taught the people to cast drums."

Thanks to the efforts of these two brothers, the Khitan's eight tribes of cattle and sheep were wild, and there were many war horses. At the same time, they also produced food, built cities, had a stable source of weapons, and greatly improved the organization of the people and the army. This may be their The main reason for conquering the surrounding tribes one by one.

The strength of Khitan was already far stronger than that of ordinary grassland tribes.With the same strength, Khitan cavalry can easily defeat tribal soldiers such as Liubuxi, Shiwei, and Tatar.

The system of two men per household, three horses per man, and the integration of military and civilians is the guarantee of their strong combat effectiveness.

"Stop doing ugly things." A Baoji said coldly, and went to find his wife Yue Liduo.

Brother Yelu Hua was stunned for a moment, his body trembling slightly.

I really hope that Abaoji will die in Yingping!

Yes, A Baoji is going to Yingping to see if there is a chance.The main purpose is to attack Pingzhou to open the gap into Youzhou.Yingzhou or Xingyingzhou is inside, so it doesn't matter whether they fight or not.

It's best to fight all the Xia people and Jin people, so as not to make a bad face with me when I come back.

(End of this chapter)