Chinese New Year

Chapter 534 "Surrender"

As soon as Zao Song arrived in Anping, he encountered a battle.

Fortunately, the targets of the war were not them, but the Huns and the Huns?
After taking shelter in a familiar fortress, Zao Song climbed up the corner tower and looked around carefully.

"Taichan, don't watch it. It's just a dog-eat-dog fight between Wuhuan and Xianbei and Xiongnu." Cui Xing, the commander of the fort, came over and said.

"Xianbei? Where did the Xianbei come from?" Zao Song was a little surprised.

Wuhuan is fine, they are everywhere, it is not strange for them to appear anywhere. But as for Xianbei, as far as he knows, they are mainly distributed in the northern grasslands, there are some in the interior, but most of them live in Hexi (a vassal of Liu Han) and Youzhou, why did they run to Anping?

"I don't know that you came from Youzhou?" Cui Xing asked in surprise.

There are many Hu people in Youzhou, and their types are diverse.

Contrary to what most people imagine, before the Duan tribe of the Xianbei withdrew from Liaoxi in large numbers, the Xianbei people may have been the largest group of Hu people in Youzhou, but they did not account for half, and were even less than one-third of the total number of Hu people.

There were also a large number of Wuhuan and Xiongnu in Youzhou.

Under these two major ethnic groups are the Jie people and various unnamed small tribes of miscellaneous Hu people. For these miscellaneous Hu chiefs, they themselves may not be clear about their ethnic affiliation, after all, they have no habit of writing history.

Of course, the Jin Dynasty officials were not very clear about it, or were too lazy to make a clear distinction.

In official archives, "kind" is a word that appears frequently.

To put it bluntly, it is to distinguish between yellow people and white people, which is simple and crude - well, it is indeed very simple and rough. For example, if a yellow clan joins a white tribe, they will be considered white people, and vice versa.

For the officials of the Jin Dynasty, was it because they were not feeling well from taking drugs or because they were not having fun at the party? Why bother to investigate? Sometimes they just heard some unreliable rumors and wrote them down without verifying them.

The most prominent feature of the mixed group is its chaos and complexity.

"Is this the tribe that moved south from Youzhou? How come I didn't know about it?" Zao Song asked in surprise.

Cui Xing looked at his old friend helplessly and sighed, "I know Wang Jun is doomed."

Theoretically, all the Hu tribes in Youzhou were under Wang Jun's jurisdiction, but in reality he had no control over them. They came and went as they pleased, without even asking for permission.

Wuhuan son-in-law Su Shuyan has defected to the Xiongnu and plundered Youzhou. What can Wang Jun do?
The Duan tribe of Xianbei also fell out with him, occupied the land of Youzhou, became an independent entity and ruled their own territories. What could Wang Jun do? Well, he actually had to bribe his former enemy, the Tuoba Xianbei, with a large sum of money to fight the Duan tribe of Xianbei.

In other words, Wang Jun could no longer control the Hu people, as he had lost the huge Hu armed force in Youzhou.

So, what about the Han people?

Don't worry, Governor Wang has also fallen out with them.

Last year, a serious flood broke out in Youzhou, many places were affected, farmland was destroyed, and people were left without food and clothing.

The people of Youzhou requested relief, but Wang Jun refused.

He had one or two million hu of millet on hand, all of which he kept in the granary to support his troops, but not to provide disaster relief.

As a result, all the Hu and Han people in Youzhou became alienated.

Wang Jun was an expert at being a bad person, so anyone with a discerning eye could see that his rule was in jeopardy. He still had some die-hard fans, but they were few and far between. If they encountered a little bit of strong external force, they would be kicked over.

"Zhi Gu, what are you talking about?" Zao Song was a little unhappy.

He was the son-in-law of Wang Jun. He once served in the court of Sima Ying. When Ying was defeated, he defected to Wang Jun and was entrusted with important tasks.

This time he went south to Jizhou, he came with a mission.

The mission sounds a bit unbelievable, even funny: Wang Jun heard that Shi Le had suffered a disastrous defeat, so he sent people south to recruit the officials and people of Jizhou, and Zao Song was one of them.

In addition, he also had a special mission, which was to go to Yecheng to meet Shao Xun.

The task of winning over the officials and people of Jizhou was not going smoothly. Everyone was playing dumb and unwilling to make a clear statement.

Zaosong knew that this was just a wait-and-see move, not willing to make a bet easily.

There are not many soldiers in the counties, and their ability to protect themselves is worrying. Once they surrender to one side and are attacked by the other side, they may not be able to wait for rescue. By then, they will die and their clan will be destroyed. Who dares to bet easily?
Disappointed, Zao Song decided to go south to Yecheng first.

The route is also very cool. It goes directly to Anping, the seat of the Xiongnu Jizhou governor, and then goes to Weijun via Guangping. In fact, it is not that dangerous. Nowadays, the various political forces in the world have very weak control over the grassroots. As long as they find a foothold, it is not a problem at all. For them, the most dangerous thing is the numerous bandits in the countryside.

Today is August 25th. Zao Song was unlucky. As soon as he arrived in Anping, he encountered a large-scale war.

"Taichan, even though you are Wang Youzhou's son-in-law, you still have to think about yourself." Cui Xing pointed at the two sides fighting in the distance and said, "Who do you think is fighting the Xiongnu?"

"Aren't they Wuhuan and Xianbei?" Zao Song said subconsciously.

“Yes and no.” Cui Xing said, “One side of the battle is the soldiers under the command of Liang Fuci, the governor of Jizhou and the general of Zhenyuan of the Xiongnu, and the other side is Su Qiu, the general of Lukou.”

"Su Qiu? Never heard of it." Zao Song shook his head.

“You…” Cui Xing smiled bitterly, not knowing what to say.

"I heard that Su Qiu is a distant relative of Su Shuyan, and he led a group of Wuhuan, Xianbei, and Jie people southward, with more than 2,000 tribes and more than 15,000 people. He was appointed as the commander of Lukou Town by Lord Chen." Cui Xing explained: "This time he was ordered to go south and harass the Xiongnu people who stayed behind. He has been fighting for several days."

Zaosong suddenly realized.

The Wuhuan people originally had no surnames, but after being sinicized, many of them took Chinese surnames and names. For example, Su Shuyan and Su Puyan are actually names, not surnames, but many Wuhuan people simply made do with what they had and took Su as their surname, such as Su Qiu.

Lukou was located in the territory of Boling State, several dozen miles southwest of Raoyang. It was located at the mouth of the Luqu Canal, so it was also called "Lukou".

When Sima Xuanwang conquered Gongsun Yuan, he built a city here to store grain and make full use of the grain transport. Hebei had been in turmoil for a long time, and the battles were particularly fierce in Lukou, a strategic place for land and water transport. People from far and near fled, so the Hu people who fled from Youzhou were settled in Lukou City and allowed to farm and graze nearby.

Once you have the land and status, you naturally have to contribute.

Therefore, Su Qiu, as the commander of Lukou Town, selected two thousand cavalrymen and marched south to attack the Huns in Anping. The two sides fought repeatedly in the northern part of Anping, and both sides suffered casualties.

In Cui Xing's opinion, this is really a dog-eat-dog situation.

He disliked the Hu people in Youzhou because Wang Jun was unable to control them and they often went south to plunder.

He also disliked the Xiongnu in Anping because the collection of grain and labor service was too heavy a burden.

Moreover, the military discipline of the various Hu tribes led by the Xiongnu under Liang Fuzhi was very poor. They often burned, killed and looted, but Liang Fuzhi didn't care much.

You went to complain, but he was too lazy to do anything.

After you complained so many times, he just pretended to be so and arrested a few of the barbarians who had robbed too much and beheaded them, so that you would stop bothering him.

"Zhi Gu, what is a garrison commander? I consider myself familiar with the court rules and regulations, but I have never heard of the position of garrison commander." Zao Song asked.

He actually understood the meaning of "Zhenjiang" a little bit, because the imperial court had this position of "Jiang So-and-so (general's title) Zhen So-and-so (place name)". Is this an abbreviation?
"I don't know either." Cui Xing was a little confused when it came to this matter, and could only say: "Today, I only heard that Lu Ze's commander is Liu Hezhu, Lukou's commander is Su Qiu, and Shangbai's commander is Bo Sheng. It seems that the commanders are different. Lukou is the 'lower town', Lu Ze and Shangbai are the 'upper towns', but I don't know if there is a 'middle town'."

"Bo Sheng? The beggar general who was once summoned to Luojing by the King of Donghai?" Zao Song frowned, thinking that something was wrong.

The situation in Luoyang was critical at that time, and Sima Yue urgently summoned the generals of Hebei who were begging for mercy to lead their troops to defend the city, among whom was Bo Sheng.

Later, Sima Yue was forced to leave the capital and took away many soldiers, quite a few of whom were beggar soldiers.

After Sima Yue's death, the beggar generals went their separate ways.

Li Yun remained in Luoyang and served as General of the Right Guard.

Chen Wu is in Chenliu.

Wang Ping and his companions went to Liang State, but were attacked twice by Jin Zhun and Shi Le who attacked from the south. Their vitality was severely damaged and their people were scattered. They heard that they had been annexed by Shao Xun, who registered them as common people and reclaimed wasteland in various counties of Liang State.

After many twists and turns, Bo Sheng returned to Hebei. After Tian Hui's death, Bo Sheng led 5,000 households of Hu and Han people to surrender to Shi Le.

Hebei is really complicated!
Bo Sheng was a Wuhuan, and most of the 5,000 households under his command were also Wuhuan tribesmen. In fact, they had deep roots with the Wuhuan in Youzhou, and were one of the targets he wanted to surrender. Unexpectedly, Shao Xun got there first!
"What is Bo Sheng doing now?" Zao Song asked anxiously.

"How would I know?" Cui Xing said helplessly, "Maybe he is chasing Shi Le."

"Shi Le was defeated again?"

"Well, Xiangguo City was destroyed, and Le fled north to Zhao. His generals recruited soldiers from Changshan and Zhongshan to go south to join him. There may be another battle."

Zaosong sighed when he heard this.

When Shi Le was at his peak, he made Wang Youzhou afraid to fight. Only a year had passed, and who could have thought that Shi Le's momentum would take a sharp turn for the worse and end up like this?
Strictly speaking, Shao Xun saved Wang Youzhou twice.

The construction of Fangtou City was a one-time event.

The Northern Expedition to Yecheng was one.

But Wang Youzhou wanted to compete with Shao Xun for Hebei, and Zao Song felt a little embarrassed.

But no matter how embarrassed I am, I still have to do it.

There was no way. He was Wang Jun's son-in-law, and it was difficult for him to rely on others, although his family was also considered a Yingchuan gentry family.

While the two were talking, the battle in the distance had ended.

There was no real fighting between the two sides, and both sides tried to preserve their strength.

In fact, it is very normal. Your tribesmen are your capital. Once the capital is exhausted, why don’t you let others bully you?

As for warlords, that's normal. No one is a fool.

After both sides dispersed, a gong sounded in the fortress, and thousands of infantry and cavalry rushed out.

The few Huns who were cleaning the battlefield were stunned at first, then started cursing, turned around, mounted their horses and left.

The situation in Hebei is changing. The commanders of the forts and the owners of the manors dare to be "disrespectful" to the Xiongnu...

Damn, this is so realistic!

The Ding Zhuang from the fort who rushed out first sent out cavalry to keep on guard, and then happily cleaned up the things left behind by both sides on the battlefield.

Wounded horses, dead horses, weapons, armor, saddles, and even clothes worn by dead people, everything is useful.

Zao Song was stunned after reading it and sighed: "Hebei is really different now."

"Yes." Cui Xing nodded and said, "The Liu family of Pingyuan killed the Xiongnu officers and generals and surrendered the county. Shao Xun recommended a member of the Liu family as the prefect. Shao Xu of Anyang was also recommended as the prefect of Leling. Li Shou was also appointed as the prefect of Dunqiu. Some people in Qinghe also returned to the right path. Liang Fuci rushed to suppress the rebellion when he returned, but once he left, Qinghe would probably rebel again. The situation is really different now."

"Did Liu Cong send troops over?" Zao Song asked.

“I don’t know.” Cui Xing shook his head: “I heard that Bingzhou has sent out a large army, but I don’t know if it’s true or not…”

(End of this chapter)