Chinese New Year

Chapter 476 New Establishment
"It's a disaster!" He Ming hurriedly got off the ox cart in front of a manor on the outskirts of Lu County, Dongping. He said anxiously, and then he choked.

"Where is Yi Dai?" He Ming was a little confused when he saw the whole mansion in mourning.

"The head of the family died suddenly the day before yesterday." The person greeting guests at the door said with a sad face.

"What?" He Ming was shocked. "Heng Yi Dai was always healthy, why did he die suddenly? Did he catch some acute disease?"

The person who greeted the guests looked embarrassed and said, "Mr. He is a close friend of the master of the house. You can come in and have a chat."

He Ming calmed down, nodded, and was about to step inside when he saw a large group of people, carrying the elderly and children, riding on ox carts and donkey carts, heading south not far away.

"Why is this?" He Ming pointed and asked.

"These are my farmhands, more than 400 households in total, and we are all letting them go now."

"Why release?"

"As a last resort."

He Ming was stunned and looked carefully, and found that these civilians were actually escorted by soldiers - or should I say, escorted?
He seemed to understand a little, but also seemed not to understand quite well.

However, he did not hesitate too much and soon entered the Heng family - the Lu Heng family of Dongping and the He family of Fan County were small and declining aristocratic families in Dongping and Gaoping respectively.

After He Ming entered the mansion, the door was quickly closed.

Next to the people heading south, Shi Xian was riding a horse, heading south slowly.

He was from Kaocheng. His ancestors were once a noble family during the Later Han Dynasty. After more than a hundred years of war, the family was in decline. As a branch of the family, his family was even worse off. He had been a soldier for a long time and got the job of a village leader. His life was better than before, but it was not a revival.

Because he served as a soldier in Gaoping Prefecture, his whole family moved to Rencheng and settled there.

There is a difference between government soldiers and government soldiers, and the gap is huge.

Take him for example, he only had a set of leather armor on him, which he bought with his own money.

I also have very few instruments. After the tip of my original bow cracked, I only saved enough money to make a new one in the middle of this year.

As for the horse under his crotch, it was newly given by the higher-ups and was said to be from Guangchengze Ranch.

Shi Xian was very satisfied with this horse. It was only three years old, which was the beginning of the golden age in a horse's life.

The horse has been castrated.

I heard that there are now six or seven thousand horses in Guangchengze, including three thousand mares. Among the remaining three or four thousand stallions, except for a few, most of them have been castrated.

A male horse that has not been castrated is a stallion, which is generally the strongest and is used to breed with mares.

The castrated stallions were used as war horses, pack horses, and draft horses, and were repeatedly consumed on the battlefield without any mercy.

In fact, this is normal.

It is not the number of stallions but the number of mares that determines the size of a herd.

It takes a horse eleven months to give birth to a foal, which is slower than a human. Moreover, a horse can generally only get pregnant once every two years, which is similar to a human.

Of the three thousand mares in Guangchengze, excluding those that failed to become pregnant and those that did not survive, it would be good if they could give birth to more than a thousand foals a year.

This amount is not enough to be consumed in two major wars.

Therefore, horses were extremely valuable. It was really great that Lord Chen showed mercy and allocated 500 horses to the soldiers of Gaoping Prefecture.

Well, not only were horses distributed, but people were also distributed, including the more than 400 households they were escorting.

Not every soldier in Gaoping Prefecture had enough men. Shi Xian himself only had two households, one of which had five people, and the other had only two people.

When the Xiongnu invaded, Lu Heng of Dongping was lucky and did not harvest the grains in time, which became supplies for the Xiongnu. When the superiors came to urge him, he was rude and procrastinated.

When the time came to settle accounts, the head of the family "died of illness" and his nephew took over.

Not only that, the Heng family also donated 100,000 hu of grain and 1,000 pieces of cloth, which were stored in the county warehouse. They also gave up more than 400 farmhands and transferred them to the government soldiers as their troops, which was a serious blow to their vitality.

Shi Xian had no sympathy for them at all; they only brought it upon themselves.

If the Xiongnu could resolutely implement the strategy of fortifying the city and clearing the fields, they would not be able to successfully harvest enough food. Their horses would have to graze in the wild, where they would spend most of the day eating grass - during the day and at night. How many hours a day could they be out on the move?

But it’s different with food. After the horses are full quickly, their attendance and power increase greatly.

It's simply aiding the enemy!
Fine snowflakes began to float in the sky again, and the horse snorted unconsciously.

Shi Xian rolled over and landed on the ground, leading his horse and walking away.

As he walked, he gently stroked the horse's neck. The horse also leaned over and touched his face affectionately.

Alas, I only have this one horse and I can’t bear to ride it even when I’m on the road.

When will we be able to be like the Hun cavalry, with three horses each and roaming across Henan?

There was no hope for Chen Gong's ranch. The number of horses born in a year might not be as many as those that died on the battlefield.

You still have to buy it, and you have to buy a mare.

As for the horses captured on the battlefield, they were basically castrated stallions, which could only be used for emergency purposes and could not be a long-term solution.

A few days later, when more than 400 households were almost freezing to death, they finally arrived at Xialou City, a "Longxiang Prefecture" of Gaoping soldiers, with hundreds of soldiers' families scattered around it.

The people lived in adobe houses, built fires, and baked dry cakes, waiting in confusion for the government soldiers to come and select them.

Shi Xian keenly discovered that there were more than 200 households in Xialou City. When he asked, he learned that it was the Jing family of Rencheng who "let" them go. He immediately laughed. In the livestock pen outside the city, hundreds of horses were newly delivered, and the soldiers were taking them into the stables to avoid the cold.

"Where did the horse come from?" Shi Xian asked subconsciously.

"It's not ours. We will send it to Dongping soon and let it be raised here first." Someone said, "I heard that Mr. Chen wants to set up a government army in Dongping."

"Where did the soldiers come from?"

"The garrison troops who withdrew from Fangtou have turned over one by one."

"Where does the money and food come from?"

"Money and food?" The man laughed and said, "Isn't it a lot of fines? It's almost enough to support a year."

"What about the second year?"

"We'll talk about it next year."

"That's right. At worst, we can ask the manor owners for money." Shi Xian said with a smile, "If they refuse to obey, we can mobilize all the soldiers and wipe them out."

"Hey, Mr. Shi, I heard that a scholar bought your bride as a maid. You didn't dare to say a word at that time, but now you are so arrogant?"

Shi Xian's face turned dark, and he almost didn't punch the man.

After a cold snort, he said: "With Mr. Chen here, we warriors will never have to endure such humiliation again."

The man chuckled and said, "I can't stand scholars either. Yesterday, I followed Zhang Changshi to the Jing family manor to collect grain. The men drew their swords and strung their bows, and they were so scared that they almost peed themselves."

Shi Xian took a deep breath and a slight smile appeared on his face.

There are 1,200 soldiers in Longxiang Prefecture, each with officers.

Although they are scattered in various villages, they have a sense of belonging psychologically: they are a collective, and there are people to take charge of them when something happens.

The fort commanders who are rampant in the village are not good people. They often kidnap people as slaves. If they encounter passing merchants without sufficient guards, they may rob and kill them.

But they dared not bully the soldiers of the nearby villages. Once such a thing really happened, the lowest-ranking Sima of the other departments would report it to the higher authorities, and after obtaining approval, at least 1,200 soldiers would be dispatched, fully armed, and often accompanied by other strong men from the county and neighboring counties, who would surround the offending fortress and force them to surrender.

Why did the head of the Dongping Lu Heng family "die of illness" so quickly? There are reasons for this.

If there were no government soldiers in the county or even in the prefecture, things would not be so simple.

There are definitely not many soldiers in the county, and they cannot intimidate the fortress owner. If the prefect or county magistrate wants to recruit private soldiers from other fortresses or manors, they will not care much about you because you are alone, and they may not be willing to provide men.

Therefore, the government soldiers are the cornerstone of local stability.

There are 6,000 soldiers in the ten counties of Gaoping, which is a huge force. Otherwise, based on the rumor that Governor Yu was so greedy for money, he would have died unclearly.

"I don't think it's that simple to set up a government army in Dongping." Another person came over and said while feeding hay to the horses, "Maybe there will be a war."

"Oh? Fighting a war?" Shi Xian was startled, then he smiled and said, "I still want to get a job as an official. Fighting a war is good for me."

"I ask you to go to Hebei to fight the Huns. Will you go?" the man sneered.

Shi Xian choked and said angrily: "If the Xiongnu is willing to dismount and fight me face to face, I will kill his entire family."

"Haha!" Everyone around laughed.

He is a cavalryman, why did he dismount to fight you? It is right for him to walk on four legs while you walk on two.

"I won't tease you any more." The visitor said, "Gaoping and Dongping have deployed a large number of soldiers, probably to deal with Cao Yi."

"Attack Qingzhou?" Shi Xian asked.

"I can't say for sure." The man shook his head and said, "It is also possible that they crossed the river from Dongping and attacked Yangping in Hebei."

Shi Xian lowered his head and thought about it, it was really possible.

If Lord Chen continued to attack Shi Le, he would definitely start from Fangtou and march along the river. The soldiers from Gaoping and Dongping would gather together, cross the river and march westward, and attack Lord Chen's army from both the east and the west.

If we attack Qingzhou, the army will gather and march eastward to Mount Tai, where they can break into Cao Qi's territory at any time.

No matter which direction you go, the journey is actually not far.

Shi Xian secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

When the soldiers go into battle, they need to bring their own dry food and soldiers.

If the journey is long, the travel expenses will be considerable.

If the battle is fought right on our doorstep, the burden will be greatly reduced.

In fact, they can't stand long expeditions. If they do it a few more times, their family assets will be emptied.

"It's better to attack Hebei." Someone nearby gritted his teeth and said, "Half of my house was burned down and I just plastered it with mud. If we don't push Shi Le north, the enemy cavalry will move south."

"Yes." Someone echoed, "I think Lord Chen has few cavalrymen. If Shi Le comes next year, we still can't stop him. If he goes to Henan again the year after, he will still be plundered. Instead of this, it is better to go straight into Hebei and push him far away, so as not to burn down the house again."

"Cross the river and occupy Yangping, and then let Shi Le plunder Yangping."

Everyone was talking excitedly about defending their homeland.

After listening for a long time, Shi Xian became very excited. He wished he could follow Chen Gong to the battle at the beginning of the new year, push Shi Le all the way to Youzhou, and get an official position at the same time.

(End of this chapter)