Chinese New Year

Chapter 593 The real goal

In early August, good news came from Xuzhou. Xi Jian led his army to capture Suiling of Xia Pi State and defeated the reinforcements sent by Zu Ti.

Afterwards, Tao Bao led his troops straight to Xiaxiang.

Liu Hedu led a part of his army southward to threaten Xu County.

In this way, even if Xia Pi was as stable as a rock, Zu Ti could no longer stay there.

At this time, he desperately needed the support of his own troops stationed on the Huai River front to help him stabilize the empty rear.

Unfortunately, more and more Jiangdong soldiers gathered at the Huai River, but none of them went north. They all wanted to make fun of Zu Ti.

In desperation, he led the soldiers and civilians of Xia Pi to board ships and retreat south at the end of July, abandoning this fortified city that once intimidated Shao's soldiers.

This withdrawal meant the loss of Xia Pi and Lin Huai counties. In the seventh year of Yuan Kang (297), Lin Huai county was divided into Lin Huai and Huai Ling counties. In the first year of Yong Ning (301), Huai Ling county was changed into Huai Ling state. The current Huai Ling King was Sima Rong.

So far, the two sides have generally used the Huai River as the boundary. Jianye still has a small number of stronghold cities north of the Huai River, relying on naval support to hold on, serving as an outer barrier for the Huai River defense line.

Xi Jian is consolidating the newly occupied area and waiting for a new batch of food and military supplies. Next, he will try to capture the Jiangdong Army city on the north bank of the Huai River. The battle is not over yet.

When Shao Xun received the news, he knew that the war in this direction was basically over.

In fact, for various reasons, Jianye was unable to exert its full strength north of the Huai River. Zu Ti was always constrained by various obstacles and had no choice but to retreat.

However, when it comes to the banks of the Huai River, people will become serious. This may be their bottom line.

Holding on to the Huai River defense line and ensuring the safety of a corner of Jiangnan would gain the support of the great families in Wu.

When they crossed the Huai River and headed north to attack Xia Pi, Pengcheng and even farther places like Langya, the support strength was greatly reduced.

To put it bluntly, it was related to the needs of the financial backers of the Jianye regime (the wealthy families in Wu). Their dream was to establish their own territory, nothing more.

On the third day of August, Chen Yougen, the left Sima of the Cavalry Shogunate, left Luoyang and headed for Chen and Xiang to recruit local men and to command troops from the five counties of Chen, Ruyin, Runan, Xincai and Nandun.

Xiahou Heng, the internal historian of Qiao, was appointed as the secretary of the shogunate, and the governor of Qiao and Pei Dingzhuang went south to tie down the troops in Jiangdong.

He also ordered Le Kai, the commander of the Mianyang North Shogunate Army, to recruit men from the five counties of Shunyang, Nanyang, Xinye, Yiyang and Sui, and march south to attack Xiangyang and besiege Wei to rescue Zhao.

For thousands of miles from east to west, Xi Jian's opponents were the refugee army from southern Xuzhou and the powerful families of Jiangdong.

Chen Yougen's opponent was the Jiangxi generals group of the former Soochow.

Lucky's opponent is the Jingzhou Group - this group is a special existence in the Eastern Wu system, relatively enterprising, and not quite in line with the overall style of the Eastern Wu.

In short, the south was dealt with by temporarily conscripted farmers and aristocratic tribesmen.

The most important thing at the moment is to conquer Hebei.

The wars that broke out in Hongnong and Henei were all aimed at containing the Huns, and everything was for Hebei.

On the fifth day of August, Shao Xun left Luoyang and headed north to Heyang with his personal army and some government troops, totaling about 5,000 people.

When he was about to leave, many people came to see him off.

Wang Yan was in charge of the Secretariat as the Grand Marshal, and was already the most powerful person in Luoyang.

The previous one was Sima Yue, who was in charge of the Secretariat as a Taifu.

To be able to record the affairs of the Shangshu, one must generally be a Three Dukes, a Grand Tutor, or a General. The General of Chariots and Cavalry is a second-rank official, so it is not impossible, but it always feels a little off.

"When is Taibai going to enter the court to assist in government affairs?" When Wang Yan had time, he walked over and asked quietly.

Entering the court is not "assisting in government", it is just a euphemism. It is more accurate to say "taking charge of government".

"Wait a little longer." Shao Xun didn't bother to be polite with Wang Yan and said directly: "Let me wipe out Shi Le and repel Sima Rui first. Right now, there are wars everywhere and the situation is not stable. How can I talk about assisting the government? How will outsiders see me?"

Wang Yan was relieved when he heard this, and said, "Meizi has arrived in Langya, and the troops of Xiao and Yan have arrived, so people are feeling a little better. Dongguan and Langya should be fine."

"With Mei Zi in charge, what do we have to worry about?" Shao Xun said happily.

In fact, it was the Yang family of Taishan who really stabilized the situation in northern Xuzhou. Although he was reluctant, Shao Xun still asked them to integrate the troops of Taishan, Lu and Dongguan counties to fight against Cao Yi.

Cao Qi had basically stabilized the internal situation last year, and was said to have "more than 100,000 soldiers", which showed some intention of external expansion.

This year they captured Dong'an County and attacked Dongguan again, and almost took over the entire territory.

In the north, they repeatedly plundered Jibei and Leling and were very arrogant.

But we have to admit that Cao Wei is currently the most powerful force in that area.

"How's the persuasion going?" Shao Xun asked.

"Cao Yi has a big appetite." Wang Yan said with a wry smile: "According to Mei Zi, he wants to be the Minister of the Court and the Governor of Qingzhou."

"No." Shao Xun said with a smile: "After defeating Shi Le, I will take him down and see if he can keep his word."

Wang Yan nodded and said, "Cao Yi was quite polite. At least he escorted the envoy out of the country. But Wang Mi killed the envoy."

"Was it Wang Mi who killed him? Or was it the Huns who killed him?" Shao Xun asked with his eyes fixed.

"I don't know about that." Wang Yan shook his head.

Being a messenger is a high-risk job and one can be killed at any time.

Previously, the envoy Shao Xun sent to Yecheng was tied up and sent to Pingyang by Shi Le, and then beheaded outside the city. As a result, he has no interest in sending envoys there anymore - people with low skills are not qualified to serve as envoys, and it is very painful to kill one of them.

Some of these bastards are unreasonable.

"Don't try to appease Wang Mi yet, it's a waste of lives." Shao Xun said, "Instead of trying to appease Wang Mi, it's better to find a way to persuade the Xin'an defenders to surrender. Well, it's impossible to persuade them to surrender in a short time, so we have to beat them up first. I'll talk about this after I come back from my northern tour."

"Is Taibai going to Hebei for inspection?" Wang Yan asked. "Let's wait and see." Shao Xun said, "The war situation changes rapidly, and I can't predict it."

While the two were talking, the newly appointed Weiwei Yang Jiongzhi came over and the three of them saluted each other.

"Are you going to Yecheng, my lord?" Yang Jiong asked as soon as he came up.

Shao Xun repeated what he had said to Wang Yan.

At the same time, I secretly laughed in my heart, why do everyone care about whether I am going to Hebei?
Lu Zhi wrote to him every other day, urging him to go to Yecheng. It was simply...

"Now that the war has started in Jianghuai, it would be better for you to take care of both ends in Henan." Yang Jiongzhi said, "I have just sorted out some clues in Yuzhou and eliminated the remaining poison of the past, but I didn't expect to be caught in the war again. Alas."

Shao Xun could tell that Yang Jiongzhi didn't want to leave Yuzhou.

At this point, is the position of Weiwei really as attractive as the position of Yuzhou Governor? Not necessarily.

The Yuzhou Governor is a real and powerful official, and he has much more bargaining chips to use for transactions than the Weiwei.

Shao Xun also heard that before leaving office, Yang Jiongzhi and Yu Chen had some unpleasantness. Fortunately, both parties were people who knew how to deal with things and only argued in private, and they appeared to be in harmony on the surface.

Now that Yu Chen has returned to Fangtou and Yang Jiongzhi has come to Luoyang, Yuzhou has fallen into the hands of Chu Huo. But no one knows what the two of them think - the Chu family of Yangdi is just a small aristocratic family and has suffered a severe blow from Wang Mi. It is far inferior to the Yu family and the Yang family.

However, the "cleaning up the remaining poison" mentioned by Yang Jiongzhi should have nothing to do with Yu Chen. It was the fault of Lu Zhila's clique.

In the past ten years, none of the three governors of Yuzhou could take root in the local area. In order to achieve this goal, Shao Xun also took great pains.

After talking with everyone one by one, Shao Xun mounted his horse and, surrounded by the army, headed north all the way to Heyang.

******
Winged dispatches were flying across the land of Hebei.

The news of Mr. Chen's northern tour soon spread everywhere. Upon hearing the news, Wang Que'er, Liu Qia, He Lun, Hou Feihu, Li Chong, Jin Zheng, Cai Cheng and other generals became nervous and intensified their offensives.

On the tenth day of the eighth month, Shi Le, who was organizing the harvest of millet and wheat in Changshan, also heard the news and asked, "Did the Shao bandits come here? How many people are there?"

"The Shao bandit came on his own, and his people were unaware of it."

"Are you in Yecheng?"

“I heard he went to Hanoi.”

Shi Le waved his hand to let the messenger leave, then closed his eyes and thought for a while.

Zhang Jing watched silently from the side.

After the defeat of Yecheng, Da Hu aged very quickly. Not only did his face become covered with wrinkles, but his hair also turned as white as snow.

My energy and spirit are not as good as before, what can I do?

"Don't panic." Shi Le patted Zhang Jing's shoulder with his rough hand and said with a smile: "What if Shao the thief comes? It will be difficult for him. Henan is a place with four wars and leaks everywhere, so it is not so easy to defend. I heard that he had a dispute with Sima Rui in Xuzhou. If Jingzhou or even Yuzhou goes to war again, it will definitely be a mess."

Zhang Jing felt relieved when he heard this.

The good thing about Da Hu is that he can handle things calmly no matter how difficult it is. Even if he is beaten to the point of losing all his territory and only has a few hundred soldiers or even only 18 horses left, he will calm down and think seriously about how to fight tomorrow, even if everything seems to be in vain.

"It's not true that Shao attacked Hongnong and Henei." As he was talking, Shi Le became interested. He took a branch and drew on the mud. He said, "He has few cavalry and cannot support Hongnong, Henei, Jiwei, Xuzhou and even Jizhou. So, look at where he uses the cavalry, and you will know where his real target is."

"Jizhou!" Zhang Jing exclaimed.

Shi Le threw away the branch and nodded.

To be honest, in the past few months, the cavalry fighting between the two sides in various parts of Jizhou has been very brutal and costly.

Liang Fuci, the imperial reinforcements, and his own subordinates mobilized 20,000 cavalry, but they were actually at a disadvantage when fighting against Shao's cavalry. This was the first time in many years of confrontation.

For the first time, Shao Ze gained the cavalry advantage!

Even though other battlefields were in dire need of cavalry and generals from all over the country were requesting cavalry reinforcements, Shao didn't seem to listen and was focused on intensifying the offensive in Hebei.

Because he knew very well that if he wanted to capture the northern counties of Jizhou, he would not be able to do so without cavalry to protect the food supply route.

It’s not that he didn’t want to dispatch cavalry to Hanoi and other directions, but he didn’t dare.

And with this kind of perseverance, the results gradually became apparent.

The rebel general Jin Zheng left Baigou River and transported food and grass by land. He had already conquered Hejian and then divided his troops into two routes. A partial force went to Zhangwu, and the main force went straight to Gaoyang. He was not afraid of the food supply route being cut off.

The situation was actually very dangerous, but fortunately the main force of the King of Zhongshan had also arrived in Changshan...

"Has Wang Jun replied?" Shi Le asked, as if he had thought of something.

"Three days ago, Diao Changshi came back with a message, and he is still trying to persuade Wang Jun." Zhang Jing said.

"What about over there? Any news?" Shi Le asked vaguely, as if afraid of being heard by others.

Zhang Jing understood and said softly, "They have a grudge against Shao Xun, but they are also a little afraid of him, so they only want to go south to plunder and are unwilling to fight for the Han people."

"Where are the Wuhuan people?"

"I didn't want to come. I heard that the King of Zhongshan had arrived in Hebei, so I sent a group south."

"What a bunch of sly guys." Shi Le cursed with a smile.

As he cursed, the smile on his face slowly faded, and he said, "Go look in Curry and pick out some rare items. You lead the team there yourself..."

"Where to go?"

"Zhang Wu!" Shi Le said, "Go and wait there."

(End of this chapter)