Chinese New Year

Chapter 464: Learn from the best and achieve the best

Baigou has become Shi Le's logistical artery.

Large quantities of grain, hay, and military supplies were transported by land or water from all directions to Neihuang, and then transported upstream by small boats to Fangtou.

On August 20th, a large group of cavalry rushed down to the bank of Huangchi where Liu Can once hunted.

After arriving at Huangchi, the herdsmen quickly took the horses away and let them graze in the surrounding lush wild meadows to replenish their horsepower.

Liang Fuzhi, the great general of the Han Dynasty who was in charge of Zhenyuan, was strolling by the lake, feeling somewhat complacent.

He had just won a victory over Wang Jun.

The results of the battle were not great, only several thousand heads were beheaded and over a thousand armors and horses were seized, but it was still enough to be proud of.

Wang Jun is becoming less and less capable.

Last month, after falling out with the Duan tribe of the Xianbei, Wang Jun summoned Wuhuan son-in-law Su Shuyan for help. Shuyan refused his orders and defected to the Han, cutting off another arm of Wang Jun.

This person has become that thing - yes, a pile of dry bones in a tomb!
If the emperor had not ordered his troops to move south to protect Jizhou, he would still be leading his troops to have fun in Youzhou.

By the way, the West also won a big victory.

The emperor personally led the army to defeat the Tuoba Xianbei at Beiqu and pursued them for more than a hundred miles before returning.

However, Liang Fuci suspected that not much was achieved, because in total only two thousand Xianbei soldiers were captured and some cattle, sheep and horses were seized. It seemed that Pingyang did not hold a banquet to celebrate the victory, which showed that the quality of this victory was somewhat insufficient.

The Xianbei’s fighting capability is still acceptable.

The defeat of Beiqu was mainly due to Tuoba Pugen's own fault. He was too reckless and even wanted to launch a surprise attack on Pingyang.

Once this kind of light troops are discovered, they are basically doomed and forced to retreat. Unfortunately, the results of the pursuit are insufficient.

But no matter what, this was still a great victory for the emperor.

General Lan Yang of the Jin Dynasty and Wang Can of Henei led their troops in two directions, pursued Han Ju and Liu Kun to the outskirts of Jinyang City, and harvested the millet and wheat in the fields of officials and civilians in Bingzhou before returning.

Next, we should resume the offensive in Guanzhong.

As for Hebei, alas...

Several riders came galloping over from a distance. After dismounting, they walked over, bowed and saluted, saying, "Envoy Liang."

"It turns out to be Zhang Changshi." Liang Fuzhi returned the greeting.

"When will the envoy go south?" Zhang Jing asked directly without any hesitation.

"How's the fight with Fangtou going?" Liang Fuci asked instead of answering.

"After several days of continuous attacks, several thousand soldiers were lost," said Zhang Jing.

"Did you take it down?"

"No. But the Xuchang soldiers under Shao's command also suffered heavy losses."

"Pfft!" Liang Fuci laughed mercilessly, saying, "I've always heard that Shao Xun has an army of silver spears, and they are brave and invincible. How come you haven't even seen the silver spear army?"

Zhang Jing blushed and said, "It's all because the Qihuo Army didn't work hard. They suffered thousands of casualties and only breached two trenches. However, Shao's Silver Spear Army also fought twice, otherwise the Qihuo Army wouldn't have suffered such a heavy loss."

"Keep fighting the beggars. It will be funny if they force them to rebel." Liang Fuci said.

"The families of the Qihuo Army are all here, they dare not rebel." Zhang Jing said, "The General of the Eastern Expedition has sent out proclamations to all the counties, conscripting a group of strong men from the forts to go south and continue the attack on Fangtou. Your Excellency——"

Liang Fuci stretched out his hand to stop Zhang Jing from speaking.

He sneered at Zhang Jing and said in a sarcastic tone, "First it was the beggars, then the villagers. Why is Shi Zhengdong still unwilling to take out his old capital?"

The so-called old capital of Shi Le was actually the young men who were forced to join the army when he fought in various places before and after the Battle of Yemagang.

At that time, there were still some self-cultivating farmers in Henan and Hebei, as well as many earthen walls and small manors, all of whom were forced into the army by people like Shi Le and Wang Mi.

These soldiers of Shi Le initially cultivated land in the northern part of Bingzhou, and later part of them were annexed by the imperial court.

After Shi Le conquered Hebei, he took tens of thousands of people with him, continued to recruit Latin soldiers, and then slowly settled down in the counties of Hebei.

These young men who are both farmers and soldiers are Shi Le's real capital.

Of course, the various Hu tribes, mainly Jie and Wuhuan, were also Shi Le's capital and occupied a core position.

Liang Fuci has been in Hebei for quite some time.

Before taking office, he was instructed by the imperial court in person. After taking office, he observed from the sidelines and found that Shi Le was indeed an ambitious man.

In essence, he and Shao Xun are the same type of people, using core military force to force the aristocratic families to cooperate with them.

If Shi Le is allowed to develop comfortably for a few more years, the combat effectiveness of his soldiers stationed in the fields will be stronger, and the combat effectiveness of the Wuhuan and Jie cavalry will also be more outstanding. By then, Hebei will no longer belong to the Han Dynasty, and even Liang Fuci may not be able to stay in Anping.

"Your Excellency may not know that Hebei has a bumper harvest this year, and the soldiers stationed in the fields are rushing to harvest millet and wheat and have not yet set out to fight. In ten days, the General who Expedites the East will mobilize them to go south to join the fight against the Shao bandits," said Zhang Jing.

"Slippery!" Liang Fuci sneered, and then said: "My troops are all strong cavalry, it would be a pity to use them in foot battle."

"General, you can cross the river from Puyang, Dongping, and Jibei to harass Shao's rear." Zhang Jing remained calm and continued to persuade: "Shao's rear yard is on fire, and the morale of the front line is unstable, which may lead to a great defeat."

"Why me?" Liang Fuci sneered and said, "The imperial court only ordered me to protect the grain route of Jizhou, but did not mention crossing the river."

Liang Fuci was somewhat tempted to harass Henan, but hesitant.

The Battle of Dongping had just ended, but he was still a little worried. Moreover, the court had asked him to secretly monitor Shi Le, but if all the 20,000 cavalrymen under his command were killed, how could he monitor him?

Zhang Jing doesn't even offer any benefits, but wants to trick him into going south and fighting for his life. Is that possible?
"Your Excellency," Zhang Jing said solemnly, "If we fail to defeat the Shao bandit, Hebei will never be at peace. Even the general's troops will not be able to farm and graze in peace. The matter in Henei is imminent, Your Excellency must pay attention to it."

Liang Fuci was unmoved and asked, "I heard that Dahu's nephew Jilong stationed troops in Taiyuan, why didn't he go south?"

Zhang Jing was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted and said with a wry smile: "Ji Long is a newlywed, it is not appropriate for him to go to the army for the time being." Liang Fuci's face became even uglier.

"Jilong" was named Shi Hu, with the courtesy name Jilong. He was the nephew of Shi Le.

A while ago, Liu Kun sent out troops from three directions to attack and destroy the Han Dynasty. Shi Le pretended to send some troops to reinforce, led by Shi Hu.

Unexpectedly, after only a few battles, this guy was only thinking about getting married and actually hooked up with the noble aristocratic family of Taiyuan Guo.

Guo, the sister of General Guo Rong of the Han Dynasty, married Shi Hu directly. The two got married in Shangdang. This is the "newlyweds" mentioned by Zhang Jing.

In fact, this is very normal under normal circumstances.

Taiyuan Guo family is just a stone's throw away from Shangdang, where Jie people have been entrenched for many years and are extremely powerful. For the sake of the family, Taiyuan Guo family's marriage to Shi Hu is also reasonable. After all, Shi Le has almost won over all the Jie people in Shangdang, and he is the master of the Jie people. Marrying into his family is valuable.

But this incident undoubtedly extended Shi Le's influence from Shangdang to Taiyuan, which was not a good thing.

Liang Fuci was worried about the court and was extremely unhappy about this.

"The big Hu is dreaming of beautiful things every day." Liang Fuci snorted coldly, and said, "The emperor ordered him to attack Heyang, but he made all kinds of excuses. That's fine, after all, Fangtou is also very important, but he has troops but doesn't send them out, but wants me to work for him. It's really nonsense."

After saying this, he waved his sleeves and left.

Zhang Jingmo stood there for a long time, then suddenly smiled and left.

The rift between Pingyang and Yecheng is becoming more and more obvious.

However, it was not time for a breakup yet, and everyone was pretending to be harmonious. Liang Fuci was sulking him simply because he was not very shrewd and was not good at controlling his emotions.

If we really want to talk about rebelliousness, isn’t Cao Yi of Qingzhou rebellious?

He was now intent on forcing the noble families in the counties and states of Qingzhou to work for him, and for this reason, many noble families had fled with their families.

It is true that Cao Yi was right to do so, because it was a move to consolidate the foundation. The question is, would the Han court be willing to see you consolidate the foundation? Not necessarily.

Let's just make do with it for now. The situation is getting increasingly tense, and now we have to serve the Emperor of Pingyang.

After leaving Huangchi, Zhang Jing headed westward and halfway caught up with a troop sent to Fangtou by Tao Bao, the governor of Weijun, and arrived at the front-line camp on the 24th.

"How is it?" Shi Le was listening to the reports from his staff. When he saw Zhang Jing returning, he asked.

"Envoy Liang has a deep prejudice against the king." Zhang Jing said vaguely.

Shi Le understood and asked, "You won't send any troops?"

"When we were halfway there, we heard that Envoy Liang had sent over 3,000 surrendered soldiers from Youzhou."

"He's sending away a beggar." Shi Le laughed and said, "Don't pay attention to him. The court has just defeated Liu Kun and the Xianbei, and is in high spirits. Liang Fuci, this idiot, can't see the situation clearly and is being rude to me. If the situation changes drastically in the future, the court might transfer him away."

Zhang Jing nodded and asked, "How is the war going?"

When this matter was mentioned, Shi Le also frowned slightly.

He stood up, shook his clothes, and led everyone to a high platform. He pointed to the dense crowd of soldiers attacking the Jin army camp in front of him and said, "The Jin soldiers are quite durable. The day before yesterday, they defeated the Xuchang hereditary soldiers. Shao sent the Silver Spear Army to supervise the battle and dispatched a group of Tuntian Army to fight. They held out for three days. Early this morning, the Xuchang hereditary soldiers came again."

Zhang Jing looked into the distance and saw arrows and stones flying from the Jin army camp, and the sound of killing shaking the sky.

A group of young men from the fort, who were transferred from somewhere, attacked the fort repeatedly, with corpses falling like rain. Finally, they could not hold on any longer and collapsed.

The Jin army lowered the drawbridge from the camp, and the soldiers filed out. They chased and killed the enemy for a while, then burned the siege equipment left under the camp, and then returned to the camp and held their ground as before.

Zhang Jing was secretly shocked when he saw this.

Before the Battle of Fangtou, he once thought that after years of fighting in the south and the north, the combat effectiveness of their painstakingly trained infantry had become quite impressive, and perhaps they could compete with the Shao bandits.

But now it seems that even if the army that is currently harvesting in autumn is transferred here, it may not be able to capture the Jin army camp.

What is the Xuchang Hereditary Army? Wasn't it destroyed by Sima Hu and Sima Yue? The current Xuchang Hereditary Army must have been newly formed later, and they can actually hold the camp and get better and better.

Everybody is making progress, but I don't know to what extent Shao Ze's Silver Spear Army has improved.

"Your Majesty..." Zhang Jing wanted to persuade him.

"I know what you are going to say." Shi Le waved his hand and said, "Wait a few more days and then move the army south. Let's first..."

Shi Le pointed at the private soldiers of the Hebei nobles and the young men in the forts and said, "Let them wear down the Jin people's spirit first."

After that, he looked at the generals around him and said calmly: "You are the generals of the cavalry, and you should be relaxed on the outside and tight on the inside. If there is any unusual movement in the infantry camp, you don't need to ask for permission, just kill them directly."

"Yes." The generals responded as a matter of course.

Zhang Jing thought about it again and again, and said softly: "My lord, the key to this battle is still in Henan."

"Don't always think of taking shortcuts." Shi Le said unhappily, "If Fangtou cannot be taken, what's the point of fighting well in Henan? Don't worry about the pots and pans at home. Now that you are here, use all your strength. This is not an empty statement. If there are those who hesitate to advance and preserve their strength, don't blame me for not being considerate of brothers."

"Yes." The generals were startled and responded in unison.

Da Hu's words dispelled their hopes. They had originally thought that if they couldn't win, they should just forget it and not force it.

Now it seems that Da Hu is serious. It is impossible to preserve our strength. We should stop being smart.

Zhang Bin watched silently from the side.

If you learn from the best, you will get the average; if you learn from the average, you will get the bottom.

Da Hu is still sober.

This does not mean that they must use up all their capital, but they must not be allowed to take chances and must go all out.

(End of this chapter)