Chinese New Year

Chapter 545: Aftermath and the Two Sheep (Additional chapter for leader Yu Wenmingguang)
On the post road leading north from Anping County City to Boling, there was a noisy crowd that stretched as far as the eye could see.

The troops of various tribes launched a large-scale pursuit and captured many enemies.

Su Qiu, the commander of Lukou Town, changed his previous timidity and suddenly became active. He took all his capital, more than 3,000 cavalry, attacked everywhere, hunted down the defeated enemies, captured a number of people, and then took them back to his town to expand his strength.

The rest of the departments are similar.

Since they were not allowed to massacre the city, they gave up on that idea and focused on collecting the enemy's baggage and capturing people to increase their capital for future separatist regimes.

On the 12th, Liang Fuci, the governor of Jizhou of Liu Han, was captured by Su Qiu in Boling and sent to Anping.

There were still more than 30,000 Hu and Han men and women blocked in the city. After their weapons were confiscated, they were all escorted out of the city, housed in a military camp, and placed under strict surveillance.

At the time of the great defeat, people were in panic and rumors were flying everywhere.

The surrendered people trembled and mourned.

The Beggar Army soldiers who were in charge of guarding them laughed heartily, feeling very relieved.

Once upon a time, they had suffered the same fate, kneeling on the ground crying and begging the victor to spare them.

Shi Le let them go and allowed them to continue farming and grazing in Guangzong and serve him.

Everyone was grateful and felt fortunate.

In the subsequent Battle of Fangtou, the Qihuo Army also fought hard and stormed the Jin Army camp, resulting in heavy casualties.

When Duke Chen attacked Shi Le, part of the Qihuo army fought with the Jin army in Guangping. They surrendered only after the situation became hopeless.

As for their later surrender to Duke Chen and their battles with Shi Le and Liang Fuci, it was not their fault. The general trend was like that and it was God's will that could not be defied. If Duke Chen suffered a crushing defeat in Hebei and never recovered, they would rebel again and turn against Duke Chen. Whoever won would be "God's will" and they would help him.

"My friend, you are lucky. You won't die." The soldier guarding the camp gate looked down at the surrendered people sitting on the ground in the camp with his spear and said, "Mr. Chen paid to buy your lives. How novel! I have never heard of this in so many years."

"Forget it. Liang Fuci and Shi Le didn't kill us back then. We will repay you with what we have paid. We won't owe you anything in the future." A man next to him said, "Behave yourself and don't give me a chance. If you start a fight, I will kill all 3,000 people in your camp, and Mr. Chen will have nothing to say."

"It's time for dinner, it's time for dinner..." a shout came from a distance.

The guard went over to negotiate for a while, and then opened the camp gate to let the carriages loaded with food in.

There was some commotion among the surrendered people, but they soon calmed down.

The guards stood on the wall, looking down with their bows in their hands.

There were also some soldiers in the camp to maintain order.

They had already eaten their fill and were wandering around the camp, capturing and killing anyone who was causing unrest.

When they came across a beautiful woman, they would sometimes drag her into the barracks and enjoy her. After a long time, they would release the woman, who was ravaged beyond recognition and with her clothes torn.

The surrendered people dared to be angry but not to speak.

This has been the way wars have been fought since ancient times, and people have been mentally prepared for this because this is how they treat their enemies.

Furthermore, in times of chaos, we have seen many worse things than this, and raping a woman is simply not worth mentioning.

The meals were distributed one by one, and the surrendered soldiers ate in silence.

They will definitely not be able to eat enough, that's the rule, the victor will not leave them with the energy to resist.

After eating, they had to leave the camp in batches, dig pits to bury the bodies, and restore the criss-crossing trenches to further consume their physical strength.

In the end, even if they wanted to rebel, they couldn't. Moreover, in the process of working, many people would be exhausted or beaten to death, which would further wear down their will to resist. The troublemakers who dared to make trouble were picked out early and executed.

In this way, the remaining ones are relatively honest people, who have no desire to resist and are numb, and will let themselves be manipulated. Then they will be kept for a few days, fed a few good meals, and sent on their way.

Their destination is Henan, so they will definitely not be kept in Hebei any longer, so as to avoid collusion with the Huns and cause further trouble.

After they left, the war-torn Anping County would become extremely empty. Shao Xun had decided to take it into his hands and issued his first order after the war: appointing Lu Chen, the son of Shizhong Lu Zhi and the Chief of the Northern Army, as the prefect of Anping.

******
On October 13, Yang Chen, the right Sima of the Pingdong Shogunate, returned from Boling. After meeting Shao Xun to report on his work, he came to Yang Dan's tent.

In terms of seniority, Yang Man, Yang Dan, and Yang Xianrong are of the same generation, and Yang Chen is one generation older than them.

No matter how violent Yang Dan was, he had to behave himself in front of his elders. Otherwise, the clan would have plenty of ways to punish him.

"Peng Zu, Mr. Chen's words are as good as gold. He will not go back on his words. After becoming the governor of Qinghe, you should be more restrained in your temper. This is not about commanding the army, but about comforting the people. Do you understand?" Yang Chen frowned and scolded as he looked at the various weapons lined up on the left and right sides of the tent.

After Yang Dan finished his greeting, he opened his mouth and said helplessly: "If the clan is worried, just send some people over. I will train the soldiers."

Lord Chen appointed him as the governor of Qinghe, which was a huge reward because this was a wealthy county and everyone was vying for the position.

But the problem was that the Nanyang soldiers would return home after the war and would no longer be under his control. He had accumulated so many desperate people in Nanyang for so many years, but now most of them were going to disperse, which made him very unhappy.

After taking office in Qinghe, he had to borrow some people from the clan, and together with the dozens of confidants who were willing to stay after his persuasion, he trained an army from scratch.

"I will naturally write to the clan about this matter, so you don't need to say more." Yang Chen said, "I came here today just to remind you that the Yang family is already a big tree that attracts wind, so you should be honest and don't do anything out of line."

The Yang family of Taishan was already very prominent, and after they made up their minds to support Mr. Chen, their family became even more prosperous.

Yang Jiongzhi was the governor of Yuzhou, Yang Chen was the right Sima of the Pingdong General's staff, Yang Jian was the prefect of Ruyin, Yang Man was the prefect of Shunyang, Yang Liang was the internal historian of Lu, and Yang Pian was the prefect of Taishan. The Yang family's relatives, the Xiahou family, controlled the Qiao state, and the Liu family of Pei state was also close to them. Now Yang Dan has become the prefect of Qinghe, a large county in Hebei.

The power of the Yang family is enough to make people fearful.

Previously, Yang had wanted to marry one of her legitimate daughters to Mr. Chen as a concubine, but Mr. Chen did not want his wife to suffer any injustice, so he refused.

In addition, no one knew why Yang Xianrong went crazy and was determined not to allow the daughter of the Yang family to go to Mr. Chen's mansion. This was simply unreasonable - one more daughter of the Yang family means one more power for you.

After this matter failed, the Yang family also calmed down, but they did not give up.

They set their sights on the next generation, trying to find a way to have the Prince of Chen marry the daughter of the Yang family.

After the Crown Prince became the Crown Prince, Yang became the Crown Princess.

After the prince becomes the emperor, it is Queen Yang who becomes the emperor.

Of course, they also face fierce competition in this matter.

It is difficult for the Yu family to produce two consecutive generations of empresses, so what about the Yingchuan gentry who were on good terms with the Yu family? Would they produce an Empress Xun, Empress Chen, or Empress Yin? It is hard to say.

In short, the Yang family's stage-by-stage expansion has reached its peak. The next step is to cultivate followers, digest them slowly, and try to avoid attracting attention.

"Uncle, in this age of great strife, you are still so timid. It's really outrageous." Yang Dan said carelessly, "In the past, someone from our clan served as an official in Sima Teng's mansion. After Teng's defeat, all his efforts went down the drain. Now that you have the opportunity to intervene in Jizhou and Bingzhou, are you just giving up?"

"You don't understand." Yang Chen shook his head and said, "Mr. Chen is not a simple man. He is said to be a man of his word, but I think he rarely speaks the truth. He both pulls and beats the nobles and is on guard against them in every way."

It seems to be a very contradictory thing to want to reuse a group and suppress them at the same time.

But there is no absolute in the world, and many things are contradictory, which requires skill.

What was Mr. Chen's attitude toward the aristocratic families? On the surface, they were very friendly, like honey and oil.

Mr. Chen was also greedy for the beauty and talent of girls from aristocratic families, and he often took them into his house, so that his children all had the blood of aristocratic families. But what was the reality?
When he recruited a large number of poor and powerful people from Yu and Yan states, when he asked for official positions for military men, when he continuously expanded the size of his disciples, and when he even recruited and appointed Hu people as officials, he was already cutting flesh from the aristocratic families.

This is another Cao Mengde!

He went even further than Cao Mengde because he promoted more military men into officialdom and even made them powerful in some counties.

There are no fools in the world, and the aristocratic families are also thinking about Shao Xun.

Especially after Henan gradually became the rear area, the external crisis eased, and some gentry were no longer willing to compromise on issues that they had been able to compromise on before.

However, there have been recent rumors that Lord Chen is planning to build a palace in Yecheng.

The rumor was so convincing that people were half-believing and half-doubting. As a result, the Henan gentry became more obedient. They were worried that Mr. Chen would really go to Yecheng, which would make the people of Hebei laugh to death.

"What should I do in Qinghe?" Yang Dan asked.

"Just train the troops and store food." Yang Chen said, "When you are needed, lead the troops to the battlefield. When you are not needed, just be honest."

"That's a bit too boring." Yang Dan sneered.

Yang Chen looked at him deeply.

"Okay, let's do as my uncle says." Yang Dan said helplessly.

Yang Chen snorted and said, "After conquering Anping, Lord Chen will definitely move his troops westwards. Don't volunteer to do so."

Yang Dan responded with a muffled “yes”.

She County is still holding on.

The main force of the Xiongnu could not come over, so they could only send a part of the cavalry to travel eastward from Shexian County, carrying food and water for several days, and their range of movement was limited.

They are now digging trenches and surrounding She County. It seems that they have no other options and are unwilling to continue to cause casualties.

There won't be any big battles to fight next, so it doesn't matter whether you go or not.

That's it for this year.

(I will add more chapters for the leader first, and the chapter added today will be moved to tomorrow)
(End of this chapter)