Cross the Sea in the Red Chamber

As early as when Jiang Yuan went to northern Xinjiang to inspect, the whole Dajing had already entered a state of alert.All the checkpoints leading to the border are all allowed to enter and not allowed to exit, and all the spies under Situ Sheng's command are dispatched to arrest all suspicious people and resolutely not let any spies go.

The frontier army in northern Xinjiang has already pulled up a line of defense, prohibiting anyone from crossing the Great Wall and entering the northern barbarians.The merchants in a commercial place like Zhangyuancheng have been replaced by prepared spies. Not only will they not leak the news, but they can also help the border towns to monitor the people coming and going, and not let suspicious people go. Therefore, the news of the Northern Expedition has not been spread. Customs.

Originally, it was okay to bring Xungui to the battlefield or not, and it would not be as bad as them if they didn't bring them, but if they did, they could only be regarded as a burden.However, Jiang Yuan still suggested that Situ Sheng take all the nobles living in the capital with him to watch, in case they took advantage of the opportunity of the Northern Expedition to collude with the Supreme Emperor in the palace or the imprisoned King Zhongshun to make trouble.

The aristocratic family has always had Lin Jun watching, wanting to cause trouble, let's see if Lin Jun's sword is good or not!And Xungui... Jiang Yuan smiled, he didn't believe that this group of people would be useless at all...

This time, Situ Sheng didn't intend to make a quick decision. The war against the Northern Barbarian Kingdom would definitely not be immediate. It would take at least a few years to complete after the first battle.Different from civil wars, like the San Francisco Rebellion, as long as the three feudal kings and their families were killed and captured, and then their army was defeated, the people in the three lands would immediately surrender.Because they are all Jing people, they don't have any hatred, but the Beiman is different.

Different countries, different races, different cultures, different civilizations... This makes Jingren and the Northern Man have nothing in common. It's no use defeating either.So he chose the most clumsy-looking, but in fact the smartest, formation to deal with the Northern Man. escape.

This formation of troops does look a little weird, and it is completely anti-military.

The soldiers of the Qi State and the soldiers dispatched from all over the country joined forces with the local soldiers of the Liao State to block the entire eastern defense line, completely curbing the eastward path of the northern barbarians, preventing them from entering the Liao State area eastward.

The defense line in the northern border is composed of part of the frontier troops in the northern land. They must stick to the Great Wall and the nearby Xiongguan, and they must not allow the northern barbarian army to enter the pass.The road to the south of the Beiman Kingdom was blocked across the board, preventing it from entering the Central Plains through the northern border.

On the side of the Western Regions, starting from Jiayuguan in Gansu, there are frontier troops from the North and troops from Zhao and Wei to contain them, forcibly cutting a line of defense between the Beiman Kingdom and the countries of the Western Regions, and keeping the Beiman The passage to the west is completely cut off.The defense line here is actually not that long, but in terms of the personnel stationed here, it is the one with the highest density among the three defense lines, with a full [-] soldiers guarding it.

The front line of the Western Regions is different from the other two sides. It will be attacked from both sides. Not only must the people of the Northern Manchuria be prevented from fleeing westward and entering the Western Regions, but also pay attention to the side of the Western Regions, so that the allies of the Northern Mandates in the Western Regions cannot attack the defense line. Help the northern barbarians flee.Because both sides have to be prepared, and they are not stationed on the territory of their own country, the task is quite arduous, and it can be said to be full of difficulties.

The borders in the three directions of east, west, south, and northern barbarians were completely sealed off by the Jing army, leaving only the north side. It looks like the encirclement in the art of war, but in fact it is completely sealed off. Blocking.

Where is the northern side of the Beiman Kingdom?There is the northern part of Siberia, the range of the Arctic Circle.It is frozen all year round and the wind is biting. Only animals with thick fur can survive. People can't adapt to the environment there. Even if they carry blankets, they will freeze to death there.

According to the introduction of the Yuezhi people, Siberia has been getting colder and colder every day for these years, and it is much colder than it was in this world.If you live in the same place, have a solid and warm house, and have enough coal for heating, you can barely support it. If you really want to travel there, there is only a dead end.

There is no greenhouse effect or warm winter these days, and the people of the Northern Barbarians are not Eskimos living in igloos. It is impossible for them to escape from the north to the west by bypassing the defense line of the Jing Dynasty. There is no one in a hundred.

Therefore, it doesn't matter whether the north is blocked or not. The defense line bestowed by nature has completely cut off the northward route of the Beiman Kingdom. With such a four-sided blockade, the people of the Beiman Kingdom have nowhere to go. Unless they can break through the defense line, otherwise they will die. It can only stay on the land of the Northern Man State, which is the first step of the Northern Expedition.

Situ Sheng led the army to march in person, and ordered the prince Situ Ye to supervise the country.His Majesty the Emperor set the command location near the Yanmen Pass to facilitate contact with the Yuezhi people and to monitor the movements of the Beiman Kingdom at all times.

In the army tent, only Situ Sheng and Jiang Yuan were left at this moment. They looked at the accurate map of the Northern Man that Yuezhi had drawn in front of them, silently thinking about something.

After a long time, Situ Sheng smiled slightly, "Now that the blockade is complete, now we just need to close the door and catch the thief!"

Jiang Yuan also smiled, but what he said was irrelevant: "Your Majesty thinks that Lieutenant General Sun Lisun should leave?"

Situ Sheng nodded, "Now the preliminary layout for dealing with the Northern Man has been completed, and the time is just right. It is indeed time for Sun Li and the others to dispatch. Whether the next plan will succeed depends on Sun Li's affairs. How about it. You have always been optimistic about Sun Li, and hope he will not disappoint our hopes."

Jiang Yuan smiled, and raised the corners of his mouth, "Among the calculations in the temple that day, all the generals offered advice, but Sun Li and Wu Yuanqing were the most favored by the humble ministers. Soldiers are tricky, attacking those who are unprepared, and taking them by surprise. Wu Yuanqing's method , has existed since ancient times, and it is only lured by profit. Sun Li's method seems vicious, but in fact it is beyond the same kind. No one has used this method of warfare since ancient times. Not to mention that the northern barbarians don't know this method, even if they know it, it is difficult to guard against it. There is truth, and there is yang in the yin, which is quite unique.”

"Sun Li's idea coincides with what I thought at the beginning. If it wasn't for such a vicious strategy, why would His Majesty choose to send troops in autumn? I always choose spring and summer when I send troops, don't I? Because of this desperate plan that no one can guard against, it is a good time to send troops at this time, so that the Beiman Kingdom can have a good drink."

Situ Sheng agreed very much, he had no kindness at all towards the people of the Northern Man Kingdom.How can there be mercy for an enemy of decades?Of course, you can do whatever you want, and you can do whatever you want.That Sun Li, who looked ordinary and ordinary, but spoke amazingly, came up with a trick similar to what Jiang Yuan said. It seems that the saying that people should not be judged by appearances really makes sense.

As for Jiang Yuan, he dared to kill the officials of his own country in the south of the Yangtze River. How can he be polite to the northern barbarian country?Kindness to the enemy is cruelty to oneself, as long as it can destroy the enemy's vitality, it doesn't matter whether it is cruel or not, vicious or not?None of the people in the Northern Man Kingdom had Jingren's blood in their hands. Are they only allowed to kill Jingren, and Jingren is not allowed to kill them? What is the reason for this?

If killing is a sin, then Jiang Yuan is willing to go forward with his sins, even if it saves Jingren from dying, he will choose such a road of Shura.Compared with the country he loves and his compatriots, he can only choose to let the northern barbarian country die...

In the northern barbarian country, the vast prairie has been plunged into darkness.

A few knights guarded a tightly wrapped carriage and moved slowly on the grassland. The first knight squinted his eyes to look at the sheepskin map in his hand, and then aligned the compass in his opponent's hand with the light of the moon. Only then did he feel relieved, and pointed forward with his finger, "That's the right direction, it's marked on the map, and it's only a dozen miles ahead."

His words obviously inspired the few people following him, and several knights showed a smile, smiling and encouraging the horses in their crotches to move forward.The group of them has crossed the Great Wall and left the customs for many days. In order to reduce trouble, they deliberately dressed up as northern barbarians, and they went out day and night, carefully advancing on the territory of the northern barbarians to complete the mission of His Majesty the Emperor. issued orders.

Fortunately, their luck has always been good, probably because their number is relatively small, there are only ten people, even if they add a carriage, the goal is not too big.Therefore, until they went deep into the hinterland of the Northern Barbarian Kingdom, they still did not encounter any decent interception, allowing them to go all the way north and approach the goal of exiting the customs smoothly.

A distance of more than ten miles is only a short time for a good horse from the Western Regions, and soon this team of knights has reached the destination of their trip - the Guna River!

The water of the Guna River is crystal clear, but its width is not very wide, only about ten feet.However, the green grass on both sides of the river is lush and the soil is fragrant. At first glance, it is a land of fertile water and grass, which is the favorite place of herdsmen.

The people in the northern barbarian country are basically herdsmen, so they naturally live by grass.However, grass is not enough to keep livestock, and water sources such as rivers and lakes are also needed for livestock to drink, and this Guna River is an extremely important water source for them.This Guna River doesn't look wide, but it flows through most of the northern barbarian country and nourishes the best pastures, so at least half of the herdsmen choose to migrate along this river.

Guna means "mother" in the language of the northern barbarians. The northern barbarian nation relied on the guna river to develop. For them, the status of the guna river is quite lofty. Without the guna river The river will lose the life of the northern barbarian herdsmen.

The river where this team of knights is located has a slow flow, less water, and is relatively desolate.There are no herdsmen living nearby at all, and it is the upper reaches of the river, so it is the best place to start.If there was no tip-off from the Yuezhi people, they would have no idea that such a place existed.

The knights dismounted one after another, and came to the tightly wrapped carriage together, carefully untied the rope, lifted the oilcloth, and took off the oilcloth wrapped on the carriage.

The first knight directed the others to lead the horses to a distant place, and asked everyone to wear cloth towels to cover their mouths and noses, thick hats to cover their hair, and special deerskin gloves to protect their entire arms. He and the others carefully opened the item wrapped in layers of oil paper, and carefully buried the thing exuding a strange medicinal smell in the river bed.

There were a lot of packages like this, and it took them a lot of time just to disassemble and bury them. After all the items contained in the packages were buried by them, the moon in the sky had quietly set, and there was a ray of red light in the eastern sky.

The group of knights quickly destroyed all the oiled paper bags and other things nearby, and burned the clothes they were wearing, the cloth towels and gloves they were wearing just now, and then washed their faces and hands with the water they brought, and put on new Beige cloths. Barbarian clothes left the Guna.

At the same time as they acted, many such knight squads in northern Xinjiang threw or buried the same thing into the riverbed of the Guna River, and some people were responsible for driving some cattle and sheep away, allowing them to drill into the local Among the flocks of northern barbarian herders.

Those northern barbarian herdsmen didn't care when they found out that there were too many cattle and sheep in their homes. They just took advantage of the loss of cattle and sheep from nearby people, so they happily accepted it.How did they know that those extra cattle and sheep were not taken advantage of, but a series of reminders!

In the Beiman Kingdom, in the tent, Abona Jiang, the deputy envoy of the Beiman who had been sent to Dajing, was drinking tea.

In Dajing, people used porcelain cups and jade cups instead of pottery cups for drinking tea, but Abernajiang chose a big gold cup to put tea in. It looked nondescript, but he was very satisfied.In his mind, the porcelain and jade used by Jingren looked beautiful, but how could gold look rich?As the leader of the northern barbarian tribe, of course, the golden cup shows his identity.

As the leader of a medium-sized tribe, Abonajiang's life is still very good. Although his own tribe is not the largest among the northern barbarians, his status is just a big household, not as good as a captain. The general, as well as the left and right virtuous kings, are already considered high-ranking figures among the northern barbarians, and have always been respected by others.

Not only that, since he was sent to Yasukuni, he negotiated a big trade with the court of Yasukuni, and brought back tea unique to Yasukuni, and he was valued by Beiman Khan, which made his tribe develop better and better , has far surpassed other tribes in charge, and is no different from some princes.

Since he was the one who brought back the tea trade, Abonajiang could enjoy the best tea in a legitimate way.The northern barbarians don't like tea soaked in water. They have to boil the tea with milk, and then add butter, sugar cubes, and salt.The thick milk tea is really satisfying in the mouth. Although he is dissatisfied with the trade that made Xue Jin contact the salt behind his back, Abernajiang is still satisfied with his current life.

So what if Xue Jin, a descendant of Jingren, got back the salt?Isn't he still a little Dingling King, intact?The Great Khan of the Northern Man just rewarded him with some gold and silver, nothing else.

Compared with himself, although he is still a household name, in fact, his men and horses are much more than that of Xue Jin, and his slaves are [-]% more than him. His life is much better, and his life is much more nourishing than his. It seems that Da Khan still prefers to believe in the northern barbarians, those descendants of the Jingren, but that's all...

Abernajiang finished drinking the milk tea in the golden cup, and proudly asked his subordinates in the tent, "Have you prepared for the Muzhe conference?"

The subordinate quickly stroked his chest with his right hand, bent down to salute, and said: "Report to the leader, everything for the meeting has been prepared, and the herdsmen have gathered the tribe's cattle, sheep and tents, waiting to follow the leader to the royal court. "

Abonajiang nodded with satisfaction, "This time our tribe's population, slaves, cattle and sheep have increased a lot, and I hope to get better pastures from the Great Khan. You have to carefully select warriors and show them at the conference." Show the strength of our tribe!"

The subordinate nodded repeatedly, and then left the tent to make final preparations.Not only the tribes of Abona River are preparing, but all the tribes in the Beiman Kingdom are preparing to relocate in preparation for the annual Namuzhe Conference.

The Muzhe Conference is a very important event in the Northern Barbarian Kingdom. The time of the event is chosen every autumn, requiring all the tribes in the country to gather near the royal court for a grand gathering.

The word "Na Muzhe" means a good harvest in the northern barbarian language.In autumn, the livestock became fat, and the newborn cattle, sheep and horses were also strong. In order to celebrate the harvest, the Beiman Kingdom held the Herdsman Conference, where all the tribes of the country gathered together to celebrate.

On weekdays, all the tribes graze on different grasslands in the Northern Barbarian Kingdom, and they hardly see each other. The animal husbandry meeting is a rare time for them to get together. Exchanging information and discussing cooperation is also convenient for the Great Khan to inspect the army across the country and understand the strength of his subordinates.

It has been more than a hundred years since the rise of the Northern Barbarian Kingdom. After so many years of development, the domestic population and the number of tribes have increased a lot, and there are often frictions in the division of grasslands.Under such circumstances, it is inevitable that some people will not accept the Khan's insistence on dividing the territory. Therefore, at the meeting, all tribes must select their warriors to compete in wrestling, archery and horseback riding.

The tribe with more winners has the right to get more fertile pastures in the next year, while the pastures allocated to the losers may not be so good next year. The tribes of the barbarian country should not slack off, they must constantly develop their military strength, and they must not indulge in pleasure and forget about hard work.

This is not the most important role of the Muzhe Conference in the country.You must know that all the people living in the northern barbarian country are nomads. Nomads are no more than farming peoples. They depend entirely on the weather for their food, and their ability to deal with famines is worse than farming peoples.

Once there is a natural disaster such as heavy snow in the northern barbarian country, it is very likely that all the tribes will lose a large number of cattle, sheep and livestock.Losing these livestock is equivalent to losing food and clothing. How can they survive the winter without food and clothing?

The Great Khan of the Northern Barbarian Kingdom would gather all the tribal leaders in the royal court during the Shepherd’s Conference, and they would discuss how to survive the harsh winter. This method can be summed up in one sentence, that is—send troops to grab food !

Because of the rise of Dajing, the army has become stronger and stronger, and the incidents of the northern barbarians entering the customs to grab food have become less and less in recent years.After all, facing such a powerful opponent, perhaps sacrificing many troops and not getting enough food, the loss outweighs the gain.Therefore, the Northern Barbarian Kingdom has set its sights on other places.

The Western Regions are a big fat sheep in their eyes, where there are delicious food and wine, as well as gold, silver, treasures, livestock and horses, and most importantly, delicious food!If they couldn't get enough food and grass for the Northern Man from the countries in the Western Regions, they would go south to rob other nomads in Qinghai. Anyway, they didn't belong to the Northern Man country, so there was nothing wrong with robbing them.

Compared with the northern barbarian army who is familiar with going out in the severe cold, the armies of the Western Regions and Qinghai tribes will be a little timid in the cold winter, and they can easily be wiped out and robbed by the northern barbarian army who attacked in the heavy snow. enough food.The Muzhe Conference in autumn was the best time for the northern barbarian monarchs and ministers to discuss the matter of dispatching troops, and it was naturally the most important event.

The Muzhe Conference is when all the tribes of the Beiman Kingdom gather together. People in the Beiman Kingdom know this, and many people in the Jing Dynasty also know it. Of course, Jiang Yuan and Situ Sheng also know it.The reason why they chose to send troops to the Northern Expedition in autumn was because of this rare opportunity!

All the tribes were slowly gathering towards the royal court where the Great Khan was. No matter whether they belonged to the northern barbarians, the descendants of the Jing people or other nomadic peoples, they would drive their livestock and horse-drawn carriages to move to the royal court.They will hold the shepherd's meeting in the royal court for about a month, and then decide whether to send troops to rob other countries to prepare for the winter. In order to prevent natural disasters in winter, these people may gather together in the royal court. winter.

On a nearby hillside, a group of Yuezhi people watched the migration of the tribes of the Beiman Kingdom from a distance, and they were the tribes of Abonajiang.The northern barbarians in his tribe drove flocks of cattle and sheep, and drove countless carriages along the Guna River towards the southwest, and he knew that that direction was the seat of the royal court of the northern barbarians.

The members of the Yue clan swallowed, and couldn't help but said to the leader in front of them: "Leader, why can't we go down and snatch those northern barbarians? They are obviously not prepared at all. Although there are many people, they are too late to deal with them. We only need to rob them once." You can get countless cattle and sheep, enough for us to survive the winter."

The patriarch of the Yue clan is a wrinkled man in his fifties. Although he is old, his eyes are very bright, and with his hooked nose, he looks very ruthless.He just glanced at that clansman, and scared all the clansmen behind him so that they dared not speak. At this time, he opened his mouth and said slowly: "No one of you is allowed to snatch those cattle and sheep. The water in the Guna River, whether human or animal Absolutely not to drink, this is the advice given to us by those Jing people."

He said loudly: "Those people from Jing came to the mountains to look for us, either to deliver food and livestock to us, or to give us tasks, but they never gave such advice. Since they suddenly said that, there must be someone We must obey their reasoning.”

Some of the clansmen behind him were still unconvinced, a young man pouted and walked out, "Now those Jing people are not here, none of them know what we did, how could they still be separated by the Great Wall and so far away?" Do you know that we have robbed the cattle and sheep of the northern barbarians? Such a good opportunity, it is a pity to miss it."

The old leader shook his head, "So you are still young. Indeed, those Jing people don't know whether we have robbed the cattle and sheep of the Northern barbarians, but have you ever wondered why they deliberately warned us not to rob Jing people of cattle? What about the sheep? What did that person say back then, even the lost cattle and sheep are absolutely not allowed to be retrieved, we must guard against livestock that do not belong to our tribe, and we must never let the cattle and sheep outside come into contact with our cattle and sheep. This shows that What?"

The members of the Yue clan obviously didn't know the answer, they just frowned, not knowing what to say.

The old leader stroked his beard and said, "If I'm not wrong, the cattle and sheep of those northern barbarians have been tampered with by the Jing people, and even the Guna River is not safe. Although I don't know what they did, But haven't you seen the methods of those Jing people? Do you really want to offend those Jing people?"

Hearing these words from the old leader, all the clansmen were afraid to speak.These people have all seen how powerful Jingren is, and the thing called "Landmine" made them even more terrified.The Jing people in the south were able to tame the thunder in the sky, and even collected the untamable thunder and put it in an iron ball. Even the things that the gods could not do were done by them. What else could they not do? arrived?

At this time, no one dared to mention the matter of robbing the cattle and sheep of the northern barbarians. Those Jing people were as powerful as the gods in the sky, and they dared not provoke them.

The old leader didn't speak anymore, he just stroked his beard with his hands, and kept calculating in his heart.The reason why he agreed to the Yasukuni Alliance at the beginning, and even made the Yuezhi so humble, was to gain the support of the Yasukuni, and one day be able to defeat the Northern Man and regain the former grassland.

Originally, he just wanted to use Yasukuni, but now he didn't dare to fool those Jing people.He has seen a lot, and has never seen a stranger country than Jingren. Such a powerful weapon is definitely not something that the Yuezhi can resist, or even the Beiman.Since Jingren was able to defeat the Beiman, it would not take much to defeat the Yuezhi. He could tell that those Jingren would never allow the Yuezhi to separate and become a new country.

He thought about it for a long time, instead of fighting with Jingren, he might as well submit to Jingren.He comforted himself that at least Jingren treated them well.If you have to find a boss, Jingren is at least much better than the Northern Man...