Chinese New Year

Chapter 622: Rebuilding Border Defense
Lu Shen and Xu Shi never figured out why they had to subdue the Hu people in Jizhou and Youzhou.

Since the Han Dynasty, they have not been managed. They have sent a nominal lieutenant, but in reality, the Hu people are still self-governing.

When necessary, pay some money and hire them to fight.

Cao Cao repeatedly hired the Wuhuan people to fight for him. Who among Sun Quan, Liu Bei and others had not fought against the Wuhuan cavalry?
The reputation of "the world's most famous knight" was earned through hard work, not bragging.

Now that Lord Chen has unified the north and south of the Yellow River, he can just follow the old example of the previous dynasty. Anyway, the Xianbei and Wuhuan won't dare to move south for a while, so why bother to provoke them?

However, Shao Xun did not answer them, but wrote and drew on the ground with a dagger.

It was February and the weather was getting warmer.

Outside Juyong County, a large group of Hu soldiers from various tribes gathered.

There are not many people, only about two thousand in total, but their quality is very high, and they are all carefully selected warriors from each department.

The grassland tribes, of course, do not have soldiers, the soldiers are the people, and the people are the soldiers, but as for the chiefs, they generally have elite followers, all of whom are skilled in archery and horse riding. A single chief may not have many such followers, a small tribe may have dozens of cavalry, a large tribe may have hundreds of cavalry. But if you add them up? The number is quite considerable.

At this moment, they were hunting in the wilderness, all vying to be the first, all fighting bravely. From time to time, someone would perform various horse stunts, which would arouse cheers - if you don't have special skills, how can you be the leader's personal follower?

Lu Shen and Xu Shi watched it for a long time and were filled with admiration.

This kind of skill of combining man and horse is really amazing. In just a short while, several people have already performed the skill of back-shooting - riding their horses forward, without turning their heads, shooting an arrow directly at the back, and hitting the target by feeling, which is simply a magical skill.

The only way to deal with such skilled knights is to use spears and lances and charge in groups. You cannot defeat them in a free-range fight.

Outside the Great Wall, there are endless flat grasslands everywhere, with few rivers and forests, which is really very suitable for this kind of light cavalry that mainly engages in fighting and harassment.

That is their natural home turf.

Shao Xun was still writing and drawing until the sound of horse hooves was heard.

He looked up and saw Liu Yena sitting on horseback about ten steps away, holding two rabbits with a smile on his face.

"Madam is amazing." Shao Xun praised.

Hearing the word "Madam", Liu Yena immediately dismounted from the horse, his steps became lighter, and the smile on his face became even brighter.

Lu Shen and Xu Shi looked at each other.

The Hu woman is indeed less cunning.

Theoretically speaking, regardless of whether the wives and concubines in Lord Chen's mansion had formal titles or not, others would call them "Mrs. Yu", "Mrs. Le", "Mrs. Lu", "Mrs. Wang", etc. However, if the surname prefix was not added, it would be exclusive to the main wife.

Mr. Chen might have just made a slip of the tongue, but Mrs. Liu looked very happy. This...

Ms. Hu just likes to write her love and hate on her face without any concealment.

"What are you drawing, sir?" Liu Yena threw down the rabbit, grabbed Shao Xun's arm and asked.

Lu Shen and Xu Shi also turned their eyes over. It seemed to be a map.

Hou Zhi from the Shanggu Hou family also came over and saw at a glance that this was the terrain near Juyong. He even drew a road stretching into the distance.

Hou Zhi knew that it was Jundu Pass, the northernmost of the Eight Passes of Taihang Mountains. It ran roughly from southeast to northwest, was forty miles long, and had two entrances, namely "South Pass" and "North Pass".

Nankou is located in the northwest of Jundu County, Guangning County, more than ten miles northwest of Changping, Beijing today.

The north entrance was in the south of Juyong County - now Yanqing, Beijing.

Jundu Pass is sandwiched between two mountains, with a river flowing beside it and steep cliffs, making it extremely dangerous. The narrowest part of the pass is only five steps wide, barely enough for a car to pass through.

Therefore, in such a dangerous terrain, it is necessary to build a fortress.

Juyongguan is located in the middle of the pass (now the area of ​​Shangguancheng in Changping, Beijing). Because it is located in Junduxing, this pass is also called "Jundu Pass".

Because it is located northwest of Youzhou’s capital, it is also called "West Gate".

At the beginning of the Later Han Dynasty, Geng Kuang welcomed the envoy of Emperor Gengshi here.

At the end of the Later Han Dynasty, Gongsun Zan pursued and killed Liu Yu here.

The location of Juyong County is already beyond Junduxing. Outside its northern entrance, there are mixed Hu and Han people and various tribes living here, and the situation is very complicated.

"Guangting." After Shao Xun finished drawing the map, he stood up and asked, "Can you guard this city for me?"

Hou Zhi was overjoyed and immediately knelt on one knee, saying, "I am willing to die for you, sir."

"Okay!" Shao Xun said with a smile, "The Juyong Hou family is the descendant of Han Situ (Hou) Ba. The family tradition is brave and respectful to both the barbarians and the Chinese. You can be the eighth commander of Hebei and guard Juyong County and Guancheng for me."

"Don't worry, my lord. The Hou family has its base here and will not dare to retreat. If the enemy comes, we will fight them until the last man stands." Hou Zhi said.

Shao Xun patted his shoulder approvingly.

After two years, through continuous recruitment and relocation, there are now seven military towns: Shangbai (Shangzhen, located in Anping), Luze (Shangzhen, located in Julu), Feilongshan (Chen Wu's unit of the Qihuo Army, Zhongzhen, located in Changshan), Lukou (just promoted to Zhongzhen, located in Boling), Wuqiang (Xiazhen, located in Anping), Yijing (migrated from Anping, Xiazhen, located in Hejian), and Puyangshan (migrated from Anping, Xiazhen, located in Zhongshan) - the last three are surrendered people from Anping Xiongnu.

Juyongguan was the eighth military town, and its commander was Hou Zhi from the Shanggu Hou family.

Lu Shen and Xu Shi watched from the side.

The importance that Lord Chen attached to the Shanggu area was beyond imagination. Was it to pacify the Wuhuan?

Sure enough, Shao Xun soon mentioned the Wuhuan people.

"Is Wang Jun's son-in-law Su Shuyan outside the Great Wall in the north?" he asked.

"That's right," Hou Zhi replied, "He didn't dare to go too far north, otherwise he would have reached the pastures of the Tuoba Xianbei and Yuwen Xianbei."

"So you ran to a no-man's land in the cracks. It's really not easy to hide here and there." Shao Xun laughed: "If Guangting knows where you are, you can send someone to tell him that you have betrayed the Xiongnu and fled. Why don't you surrender? If you come to see me, I will grant you--"

Shao Xun thought for a moment and said, "The post of commander of Huaihuang Town."

"Excuse me, where is Huaihuang Town?" Hou Zhi asked.

"In the northern border of Guangning County, north of Yanshui (today's Yanghe River), they are allowed to build a military city, and farm and graze, guard the border and resist the enemy." Shao Xun said.

This place was located in the Wanquan District of Zhangjiakou in later generations, and belonged to the northern border of Xialuo County of Guangning County. In the first year of Taikang (280), "Xialuo County" was changed to "Xialuo County".

The Huaihuang Town in history was further north, in the Zhangbei area, out of Guangning County, at the northern foot of Yanshan Mountain. "Yes, sir." After asking about the situation, Hou Zhi immediately agreed.

Su Shuyan was Wang Jun's son-in-law. He fought for Wang Jun at first, but later they fell out and he defected to the Huns.

After the Huns were completely driven out of Hebei, Su Shuyan was afraid of being purged, so he fled northward.

If he did not intend to join either the Tuoba Xianbei or the Yuwen Xianbei, then he could only join Lord Chen.

Of course, he could also be independent, not relying on anyone or asking for help! But this would be very risky, as he might be attacked by all three parties at once, which would be unbearable.

"In ancient times, we need to appoint one or two garrison commanders." Shao Xun looked at the map he drew and thought silently.

Lu Shen and Xu Shi looked at each other again.

At this point, both of them understood that Mr. Chen was consolidating the northwest border defense of Youzhou.

Guangning and Shanggu counties were a mixture of Hu and Han people. Take Juyong County where Hou was from, for example, almost half of his family members were Hu people. Can you believe it?

Hou Zhi introduced that many Hu chieftains settled in Guangning and Shanggu counties and transformed themselves into local powerful families with their herdsmen and slaves...

It really opened my eyes! The customs in the border areas are indeed very different from those in the Central Plains.

"Youzhou still has 800,000 to 900,000 bushels of millet..." Shao Xun thought for a moment, pointed to the map he drew, and said, "After the spring sowing, we will distribute the grain and recruit people to build the Yuyi Town on the bank of Gushui (now Baihe River)."

The city of Yuyi Town was located in the northern border of Juyong County, Shanggu County, near Chicheng County in later generations.

If there is a town, there must be garrison soldiers and townspeople. Where are they?

"I will take over the post of commander of this town." Shao Xun said, looking at Liu, "Yena, take your retainers and slaves..."

Liu Ye does have "assets" under his name.

There are more than 1,600 tribes in total, mainly Jie people, and they are currently managed by Liu Hezhu and others. After defeating Liu Yao and Shi Le, the tribes of Changshan and Zhongshan counties were divided up, and Liu Yena also got more than 1,000 tribes as spoils of war, so she already has 3,000 tribes under her name.

Shao Xun wanted to trick these people over...

To put it bluntly, it's bullying honest people.

Yu Wenjun was in charge of her own dowry, which included several manors in Runan, Nandun and Yingchuan, with nearly 20,000 farmhands, all of whom were given by her father, brothers, uncles, and even other gentry in Yingchuan.

Shao Xun felt embarrassed to rob his wife of her private money, even though he had already asked for 15,000 pieces of silk cloth when redeeming the city of Anping.

"Forget it." Seeing Liu Ye's expression of wanting to agree, Shao Xun felt a little guilty, so he said, "I will concurrently be the commander of the town. You can choose someone to take charge of it. Just inform me of important matters. Besides, the defense of the barbarians is too hard. How can the soldiers guarding the border go without rewards? From now on, Youzhou will provide 100,000 bushels of grain and beans, and Jizhou will provide 20,000 pieces of cloth per year as a reward."

"Yeah." Liu Ye agreed.

Shao Xun still felt a little guilty.

Wuhuan Su Shuyan is fine, he is not one of us.

But Liu Ye's people should not be treated too harshly, after all, this place could go to war with Tuoba Xianbei and Yuwen Xianbei at any time. Even when there is no war, there will be small-scale conflicts, which will result in deaths.

If you don’t pay, why should people move from Jizhou to Youzhou?
"Sir, are you going to fight the Tuoba Xianbei?" Liu Ye walked over and asked softly.

"No fighting for now." Shao Xun replied: "It is not advisable to make enemies everywhere now, just guard the gate carefully."

The prestige of a court is always slowly consumed.

At this time, the brand of Dajin is still useful.

At least, Tuoba Yilu was extremely happy after being conferred the title of Duke of Dai.

At least, Duan Jilujuan could barely become the nominal leader of the Duan tribe by relying on the title of Duke of Liaoxi County.

At least, Murong Wei, who called himself the Great Chanyu, was still secretly asking for the title of Duke of Changli.

If we wait until the Hu people react and move south in large numbers, it will be much more difficult to recapture these border areas.

This is the significance of rebuilding border defenses and guarding the gates.

According to Shao Xun's strategic plan, attacking Tuoba Xianbei has a higher priority, and Murong and Yuwen will be ranked behind.

The reason is simple, Tuoba Xianbei is blocking the way.

During the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, Li Mi proposed a strategy to Emperor Suzong: the army would set out from Shuofang, get supplies in Yunzhong (Datong), then go through the grasslands outside the Great Wall, enter from Juyongguan, capture Fanyang, and "overthrow their nest."

At that time, the main forces of the Anshi rebels were all in the interior, and Youzhou was relatively empty, so the possibility of this plan succeeding was very high.

Unfortunately, Emperor Xuan and Emperor Su were both in power at the time. In order to gain legitimacy, Emperor Suzong decided to attack Luoyang, which was of great political significance, to consolidate his throne and rejected Li Mi's suggestion.

To put it bluntly, Li Mi was considering military affairs, while Suzong was concerned with politics. The two men considered issues from different perspectives.

Shao Xun did the opposite. He started from Youzhou, headed west, crossed the territory of Tuoba Xianbei, and reached Hetao.

Of course, he is not capable of implementing such a grand plan now. Tuoba Xianbei was not made of clay. In history, Fu Jian mobilized 300,000 soldiers and civilians and marched in several directions before he destroyed Tuoba Dai.

Still have to wait for the opportunity.

On the tenth day of February, Shao Xun returned to Jicheng, preparing to deal with the Duan tribe of the Xianbei. On the way, he received news that the Tuoba Xianbei were heading south from Daijun and eyeing Changshan.

The reason was that the emperor increased his fiefdom and made Dai and Changshan counties his fiefdom.

"Who delivered the imperial edict?" Shao Xun asked.

He did not ask how it was transmitted because it was impossible to stop it. Unless you sent someone to watch the emperor when he went to the toilet, slept, or went to bed with concubines, you could not stop him from secretly writing the edict.

In addition, in scenes like the New Year's banquet or the emperor and his ministers asking questions, it would be easy for ministers to smuggle imperial edicts out of the palace, unless you search them one by one.

"It is said that it was Cui Wei, the Prince's Right Guard Commander." Liu Fang, the law enforcement officer who came specially to report the news, replied.

Shao Xun took a deep breath.

Lu Shi looked at him worriedly.

"If the emperor is not easy to move, then how can the prince be easy to move too?" Shao Xun sneered.

(End of this chapter)