Chinese New Year

Chapter 499 Stability and Return

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" After three consecutive shouts, the Nanyang Kingdom Army, whose number had almost doubled, ended this short training and returned home to busy themselves with their lives.

The number of people has doubled, but the expenses have hardly increased, or there was not much expense before.

They farmed to support themselves and also contributed some food and silk to the palace.

The weapons were provided by Yong Raoye. They were actually very simple. There was no armor. A little leather armor was good enough. Most people had no armor.

There were also very few bows, only about 300 in total, some of which were even replaced by hunting bows. There were few people who knew how to shoot arrows, and it was expensive to train them from scratch, so we could only wait until later.

The only expense of the palace is the food supply during the training period.

As for recruiting soldiers, they were in camp all year round. They had two meals a day when they were not training, and three meals a day when they were training or going to war. These farmers usually worked on the farm at home, so they naturally did not need to be provided with meals, but when they were assembled for training, they had to have three meals a day.

This training lasted for a month, and five thousand people consumed fifteen thousand hu of grain. This expense was really not large and was completely acceptable.

The most important thing is that if you train well, you can defend the national borders and suppress refugees. This is the most important thing.

After the army was disbanded, only a thousand people remained.

They take turns on duty and will have to continue on duty for another month until their replacement at the end of April.

Surrounded by a large army, Shao Xun was teaching a few fort owners a lesson.

"It's just a few pieces of fodder, but they're fighting so hard that someone has even died. How disgraceful?" Shao Xun said, holding a horsewhip, looking at the two middle-aged men who were glaring at each other.

"Reporting to you, sir, this is the grass seeds I brought from Guanxi. I sowed them on the wasteland for two years. This year they grew quite strong, so I sent people to herd them. Who would have thought that this person would kill people and steal cattle and sheep?"

"That's nonsense. Your men are hiding in the trees. Shoot me first."

"Does it make sense for you to steal things?"

"That's my family's land, it's just left uncultivated."

……

Shao Xun felt a little regretful. He shouldn't have been so impulsive as to get involved in such trivial matters. It's not that he couldn't do anything about it, but it affected his mood.

He summoned Cai Cheng and ordered, "Take the two men to the chancellor's office and clearly divide the boundaries of their respective forts."

After saying that, he looked at the two of them and said, "If anyone takes action without authorization and kills or injures someone, each person will be fined fifty households. Do you accept that?"

The two looked embarrassed, but they quickly reacted and said in unison: "I give up."

"Within three days, gather all the people and send them here." Shao Xun waved his hand and returned to the palace.

The bodyguards were already packing their luggage.

Yang Qin led 200 cavalrymen to Yuyang to take Le back home. After she arrived in Nieyang, the army would set off and return to Xuchang - in fact, the Yicong army had already set off and headed for Fangtou.

Shao Xun spread out the map on the desk and looked at it silently.

There was a rustling sound nearby, and he turned his head to see his daughter approaching him cautiously. She was so shocked to see that she was discovered, as if she was wondering how she could be exposed even with such a light movement.

Shao Xun stretched out his hand, held his daughter in his arms, and continued to look at the map.

"Grandpa, are you leaving?"

"Ah."

"Where to go?"

"Ah."

"When are you coming back?"

"Ah."

"Hiss..." Shao Xun felt a sharp pain in his beard. He lowered his head helplessly, kissed his daughter, and said, "Grandpa is going to beat a man named Da Hu."

"Is it a very big Hu person?"

"I guess so. I heard that he has a sturdy build, so he should be quite tall."

“Bigger than Liu Xiong?”

"Liu Xiong?"

"That's the groom."

"Oh, Liu Ling. That's not the case. King Kong Nu is a gifted man. Who knows what he ate to grow up so strong?"

The daughter twisted in his arms, then stood up carefully.

Shao Xun's eyes moved back and forth between Fangtou and Huangchi, silently calculating the distance.

How many ships are to be assembled?
Where do ships anchor overnight?

How to avoid being attacked overnight?
Are there places where the water is too shallow to sail?

How much rainfall has there been this year? In which month are water levels highest? In which month are water levels lowest?
Is there a suitable place to camp near Huangchi?

What is the attitude of the local nobles?

There were too many questions, and he thought about them over and over again, weighing them again and again.

The daughter jumped lightly onto the table, smiled embarrassedly, and then jumped into Shao Xun's arms.

Shao Xun held her tightly and turned his gaze back to Yecheng.

The assassin reported that Shi Le had transferred a lot of military rations to Yishui to supply the Northern Expedition Army, so the grain price in Yecheng rose rapidly. Tao Bao, the governor of Weijun, had no choice but to collect grain from all the forts and transport it to Yecheng to stabilize the grain price.

There is no doubt that this move has offended the local nobles. Is there any opportunity here?

Yu Chen tried to appease the wealthy families in Hebei by saying that the local wealthy families had an ambiguous attitude and were just fence-sitters who should not be trusted.

The good news is that there are a few people who sincerely surrendered and sent hostages to Yu Chen, and their attitudes are impeccable.

The daughter stood up again and jumped onto the table.

One of her feet stepped on a corner of the map and she subconsciously crushed it, giggling.

Shao Xun had no choice but to carry her back, saying, "If the generals see this, my dignity as a father will be completely lost."

He felt a lot of guilt towards his daughter who was not around all year round and was very indulgent towards her. On the contrary, Liu often corrected and punished her daughter, causing her to cry and come to Shao Xun to complain.

Uh, he discovered that the place his daughter had just stepped on was Yecheng...

Is this a sign? No, why am I so superstitious about boy prophecies?
"Don't move, grandpa is busy with something." Shao Xun patted his daughter's head and said softly.

The little girl didn't answer, but simply climbed up his arm and, using all four limbs, climbed onto his shoulder.

Shao Xun eliminated the distractions and continued looking at the map.

"Pah." When his daughter fell from his shoulder, she accidentally fell to the ground. It was nothing at first, but when she saw Shao Xun turning his head to look at her, her mouth pursed and she burst into tears.

"Haha." Shao Xun was amused. He turned around and picked her up. After a few words of comfort, he asked her to sit cross-legged beside him and stop making trouble. His fingers continued to gesture on the map.

The Heilongjiang Army and the Xuchang soldiers have already headed north. Their mission is to escort a batch of food and fodder to Fangtou and then station there.

The Xiangcheng Dingzhuang have also returned, and they will disband on the spot.

The seven counties of Liang, Luyang, Yangdi, Yangcheng, Ye, Xincheng and Luhun gathered 5,000 strong men and went to Fangtou to receive orders. They were auxiliary troops.

There has been no war in the Luonan counties for some years, and there has never been conscription. The people are not used to fighting, and sooner or later they will become useless and not even qualified to serve as auxiliary troops. So this time a group of them will be conscripted.

Five thousand soldiers were sent to Ningping City, Kaocheng and Yingyang to cultivate land, which were also auxiliary troops.

With the addition of the 20,000 troops transferred from Nanyang, the military force this time is very large. A rough estimate is that there are at least 50,000 to 60,000 troops.

The men in Luonan will be recruited at the end of the month and march towards Puyang.

The military farm troops set out in April.

By then, a group of foreign troops may also be recruited, such as the Chenliu Qihuo Army, the people of Xingyangwubao, the troops of the Yuyan nobles, etc., and the scale will be even larger.

How to fight? How to deploy troops? Should we divide our troops? How should we divide them? These are all things that need to be carefully considered.

As he thought about it, he gently stroked his daughter's little head and carefully weighed the pros and cons.

Liu came to the door of the study with some tea and snacks. When she saw this scene, she looked a little dazed.

After a while, his eyes turned red.

In troubled times, it is such a rare thing for a family to live in such harmony.

She adjusted her mood, smiled, put the tea on another table, and said, "I have been looking at it for a long time, but I still can't see the flowers. Let's take a rest first."

The little girl cheered. Although she was often beaten by her mother and cried loudly, she still threw herself into her mother's arms, rubbed her face, and then jumped to the table, grabbed a piece of cut pith cake, and just as she was about to put it in her mouth, her eyes rolled, and she ran to Shao Xun's side, handed him the pith cake, and said, "Grandpa, this is for you to eat."

Liu covered her mouth and laughed.

The daughter is much more capable than her. At such a young age, she knows how to flatter and coax a decisive and ruthless warrior into doing things for her.

Shao Xun took the marrow cake with great enjoyment and took a bite. The one given by his daughter was just delicious, no doubt about it.

"Mother, you eat too." The younger daughter picked up another piece of marrow cake and handed it to Liu.

Liu took it gently.

The daughter took her hand again and asked her to sit next to Shao Xun, then went around behind the two of them and squeezed in between.

She turned her head to the left to look at her father, then turned her head to the right to look at her mother, with a look of satisfaction on her face.

Shao Xun was touched.

I originally wanted to let Liu stay in Nanyang a little longer, but now I think if I can bring her back home earlier, I should bring her back earlier.

This daughter is very clever. After returning home, she made her grandparents very happy.

"The matter in Nanyang is over, it's time to go back." After eating the marrow cake, Shao Xun said, "I have been here for almost a month, and the officials in the palace have been running in, and all affairs are handled well."

"The Kingdom's army has 5,000 soldiers on the register. With Yuan Xi leading them, there won't be much of a problem. They will finish training in March, do farm work in April and May, and train for another half a month in June. They may not become a powerful force, but they are enough to protect the Kingdom."

"After the autumn harvest, the land will be left fallow this winter to conserve soil fertility. Millet will be planted in the spring of next year, and wheat will be planted after the autumn harvest."

"The weak refugees from Guanxi will be allowed to stay in the kingdom to recuperate. Those who can no longer walk will be given some wasteland so that they can earn their living. Those who are strong will be sent to Runan in batches."

"There are so many common people and scholars in the kingdom. Don't forget about the election. Those who are promoted are all our own people. You can use them with confidence."

"These matters are handled by special people. As the Concubine of Nanyang, you cannot stay out of it completely. Sometimes you should make some comments to let the officials in the palace know who the real master is. You have been with Hua Nu for a long time, so you must have seen how she does it."

After saying that, Shao Xun took Liu's hand and looked at her.

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Liu said softly.

As long as you can protect me, give me a home, and let me live safely in troubled times, how could I not listen to you?

However, she also had a luxury hope, which was to be able to bring her daughter into the Shao Mansion. She did not want to continue to be a concubine in an unclear manner.

Shao Xun seemed to understand her thoughts and nodded slightly.

Married women tend to face reality more easily.

At first, she was horrified and even slapped him.

Now, when the moon sets through the west window, she puts her hands on the windowsill and already knows to push her snow-white buttocks back.

The woman, who had been celibate for a long time, was extremely wet and sucked him dry every day.

"Please write another letter for me." Shao Xun said again.

"What letter?" Liu was a little surprised.

In her current life, apart from her "husband" and her daughter, she only writes to Pei occasionally and hardly interacts with outsiders.

"Aren't you from the Liu family of Pingyuan?" Shao Xun was a little embarrassed, but still said, "Since you have relatives at home, why not write a few letters for me? When we take over Pingyuan in the future, I will take you home to visit your relatives."

Liu was a little dazed.

Who doesn’t miss home?

But his parents died early, and there were only a few brothers and sisters in the family. After the death of King Nanyang, they gradually lost contact.

Family affection is so dull, what else is there to say?

But if Shao Xun asked her to write a letter, she would not refuse. Moreover, she really wanted to go home to visit if possible.

"Okay." Liu nodded and said, "Wait a moment, I'll go write it right away."

Like the Wancheng Liu family, the Pingyuan Liu family are descendants of the Han royal family.

The Liu family of Pingyuan is the descendant of Liu Chang, the second son of King Li of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty, and Liu Bo, the King Zhen of Jibei (grandson of Liu Bang). With hundreds of years of inheritance, they have become a major family in Pingyuan.

The Wancheng Liu family is the descendant of Liu Fa, the son of Emperor Jing of Han and King Ding of Changsha. They did not do well in Wancheng and their family background was far inferior to that of the Pingyuan Liu family.

Others, such as the Zhongshan Liu family and the Peiguo Liu family, are also aristocratic families that evolved from the Han royal family.

To attack Hebei, he really needs the help of these big families, or rather, the betrayal of them.

This is both a military war and a political war, and the two are inseparable.

After the Cold Food Festival, Shao Xun led his army to leave Nieyang and head north back to Xuchang.

They came in February and left in April. In just two months, they quickly captured Wancheng and stabilized the situation in the rear. It was as fast as lightning.

If the timing was not right, he would have wanted to stay here for a while to further consolidate his rule.

But the situation in Hebei was more important, and there was no way to keep him there.

(End of this chapter)