Chapter 302 Things are changing
"Open the door!" Outside Xie's Wubao in Yangxia, several people wrapped in turbans and leading horses covered with linen came.
They shouted loudly and claimed that they were on the orders of Lu Shijun of Xiang County, traveling between counties and issuing orders.
After checking the handwriting and seal on the letter, the generals invited them in.
Xie Xi, who was teaching students at home, went to the main hall to greet him.
"Chen Tonggen, a servant of the Marquis Mansion, has met Mr. Xie." Chen Tonggen bowed and said.
"Who are you, Governor Chen of the Long Sword Army?" Xie Fe glanced at him and asked.
"My brother."
Xie Pei nodded and asked: "Why did the envoy send you here?" Grain is life, and now the locusts are harming grain, and they are harming people's lives. "Chen Tonggen said: "Food is precious, and your top priority should be to protect grain and the people. If there is any offense, the day of Chen Hou's return will be determined. We must be held accountable. He's family is ruined, and Yin Jian is not far away. You should think carefully about it."
After hearing this, Xie Xi was silent for a long time.
Chen Tonggen did not rush, and left after conveying the order. He was in a hurry to go to the next house, and had no time to chat with them.
Xie Pei stood quietly at the door of the hall. After a long time, he smiled bitterly and said to himself: "Lu Zidao said something rude, but he has the ability. The locust plague is everywhere, and people are suffering. They need food. It’s life-threatening, who can hand it over happily?”
After saying that, he shook his head, feeling very sad.
Since this year, his mood has been very heavy.
On the one hand, they felt the gradual disintegration of the order in the north, and the energy of the nobles began to fade. At this time of great change, food and military strength became more important, while fame, official position, and family status began to lose importance, and a large group of people began to rise.
Shao Xun is just one of the representatives.
Didn’t his group of people rise? Twenty or thirty years ago, they would never have thought of getting an official position in their lifetime. You don’t even have to go that far, just look at how difficult it was for Shao Xun to get the official position six or seven years ago.
If he didn't make a great contribution to capture Sima Yi from the palace, Xiaolian of Donghai County would never get his turn.
But what now? Farmers, military households, pig butchers, and even thieves and bandits all got official positions, and they were as good as a monkey.
On the other hand, Xie Xi's confidence was severely damaged by the successive wars and disasters in the north. There were many scholars who held the same view as him. During the exchange of letters, Xie Fei saw too much discouragement and disappointment, and the number of people who wanted to go south increased.
No one likes to live in a stable environment.
Luoyang was besieged twice, the war lasted for three days, and drought locusts came alternately. Whoever wants to stay in the north can stay. Anyway, I won't stay anymore - this is the idea of many people.
Xie Xi was also a little moved.
My elder brother Xie Kun has arrived in Jianye, found a position in the shogunate of King Langya, and has initially settled down.
He brought over more than 3,000 children, relatives, servants, tribes, and villagers, and settled them in the Jingkou area. He heard that they would be moved to other counties in the future, and he would eventually give them a piece of land to build a manor. .
As for the common people, I heard that King Langya tried to establish Qiaojun and Qiaoxian for resettlement, and would not interfere with the local people in Jiangnan.
Anyway, the south is desolate and there are a lot of open spaces. It is not difficult at all to resettle it, as long as you are willing to open up wasteland.
"Autumn is known when a leaf falls..." After Xie Fe finished saying this, he shook his head and left with a sigh.
He also needs to study and teach students - of course, they are the children of the noble family.
If we go to the south in the future, these gentry children who have a teacher-student relationship will be a huge help to the Xie family.
******
Just when Lu Zhi, the governor of Yuzhou, sent a large number of messengers to various counties to convey the order of strengthening the walls and clearing the country, the southern part of Chenliu County, the western part of Liang State, the northern part of Chen County and even Yingchuan County In the northwest area, fierce fighting has begun.
After suffering a loss, Taobao regrouped and defeated the Beggar Army in Suiyang.
The beggar army retreated, and Taobao directly attacked Liangguo's county and city. In three days, they burned, killed and looted wantonly.
Liang Wang Sima Xi was born in Luoyang, but his fiefdom was completely destroyed - the former Liang Wang Sima Wei (róng) died in the first year of Tai'an (302), childless, and Langya King Sima Xi, the grandson of Sima Min and the son of Sima Dan, King of Wuling, succeeded to the throne and inherited this fiefdom of more than 5,300 households.
Kui'an patrolled around Yangxia and Fugou.
First, cavalry were sent to the walls of various fortresses to summon them to donate food and grass, but no one responded.
So he sent infantry to break through several earthen fences and small fortresses, but the gains were extremely limited. Then he turned to attack the Wubao built by the powerful. They did not stop for several days, but lost more than a thousand soldiers and horses.
When he saw the soldiers secretly hiding the corpses of the enemy and our dead, his mentality collapsed...
Zhixiong besieged Chenliu Weishi County on May 20th and captured the city in one day. However, when he besieged the gentry headed by Ruan and Haoqiang Wubao in Weishi countryside, he lost troops and generals.
After a few days, they only broke down two barriers and obtained 25,000 dendrobium of grain, which was enough for them to feed them for a few days.
With no other choice, they could only slaughter all the men, women, and children who had breached the fortress wall to make preserved meat.
And their behavior naturally made the people in other fortress walls more united and defended desperately, refusing to compromise no matter what.
Things seem to be changing slowly.
On the 25th, the army arrived at Yanling County. At this time, the number of locusts had decreased, but they were still overwhelming and could be seen everywhere.
The reason for the decrease in locusts is that they have eaten up everything they can eat. They either starve to death or migrate elsewhere. For them, who fly 150 kilometers a day, this is simply not a problem. They must eat up everything they can before giving up.
Yu Liang stood on the wall of his Wubao, staring into the distance.
He was wearing a set of shiny bright armor, holding a walking bow in his hand, a knife hanging on his waist, and a spear stuck on his back. He looked majestic.
There are hundreds of warriors standing behind them, each armed with an iron armor, equipped with all their equipment, and their morale is high.
If Shao Xun sees it, he will definitely feel that the nobles are still rich and have many good things hidden at home.
Compared with the warriors behind Yu Liang, the hundreds of soldiers sent to Guangchengze by their family were definitely not elite.
The Yu family has a great business and many branches.
Some distant branches may have a small house at home, and they will either stay behind closed doors, gather into a large fortress with relatively complete defense facilities, or simply escape.
Yu Liang and his family hid in the Wubao of their uncle Yu Zhi.
Thousands of houses were crammed into the whole fort, so full that it was almost impossible to live in it. As a last resort, a second trench was dug outside the Wubao, an earthen wall was built, and adult men were sent outside, each with a crude weapon, as a peripheral barrier.
"After this year, no matter how comfortable the manor is, no one will live in it, right?" The enemy had already begun to circle around, looking for weak points in the defense, but Yu Liang said this.
Cousin Yu Mi (son of Yu Gun) had just come up from downstairs when he heard Yu Liang's words and immediately laughed: "Wubao is dark, damp, and cramped. Who would love to live there? It's even more inconvenient. If you treat guests, your reputation will not spread over time."
"You can only choose one or the other," Yu Liang said.
Yu Mi glanced at his cousin and didn't expect that he had changed so much.
This kind of words should be spoken by someone like him, who has traveled around with his father to study, build forts, and farm and fight endlessly since he was a boy. It seems that after following Chen Hou for so long, Yuan Gui has learned a lot and is no longer the young man who only talks about classics and mysteries.
"The thieves are coming." Yu Miao reminded.
Yu Liang looked forward and saw more than a thousand thieves arrayed behind him, driving thousands of men, women, and children forward.
Scattered arrows flew out.
After all, the gentry tribe is not an official army. It is not as formal as them, and there are not so many crossbows and arrows, so the arrows fired are not dense.
But even so, a large number of the thieves who rushed over still fell down, and quite a few of them fell down while walking - they may have fainted from starvation.
After consuming a wave of arrows, men, women and children rushed to the earth wall.
There were shouts from behind the earth wall, spears, broadswords and even wooden sticks were swung down, another bloody killing.
The thieves took advantage of the situation to cover up.
They had some organization and good equipment. After paying a certain price of casualties, they broke through the earth wall in one move and scattered the Yu family bankers.
A large number of arrows fell from the top of the wall, and a large number of the thieves who had just shown their power fell down.
The chieftains of Yujiazhuang took advantage of the situation and rushed out with their reserve team to fight with the thieves.
Their skills were unfamiliar and their equipment was poor, but after the locust plague, they had a strong fighting spirit, so they killed the thieves who were in chaos and retreated steadily.
Everyone knows that they are fighting for themselves now and for their families to get food to survive.
So many people died in the troubled times, even those who survived were not human, and the difference between them and death was not very big.
I am not afraid of living, but I am afraid of death! If you chop off a person's head today, you will get three measures of food. If you don't chop off a few more, how will you face your parents, wives and children who are waiting for food when you go back?
The battle soon entered a fierce stage.
Inside and outside the earthen wall, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and corpses lay everywhere.
Yu Liang rubbed his eyes subconsciously.
After the locust plague, not a single blade of grass grows, and the ground is bare for thousands of miles. At this time, more than two thousand people from both sides were crowded together, fighting so hard that he could hardly tell whether the land was originally this color or whether it was watered with blood.
"Dangdang..." The sound of gold ringing sounded from the rear of the bandit army.
The morale of guests at Yujiazhuang was greatly boosted.
Hundreds of relatively capable private soldiers rushed out of Wubao and led the bankers in pursuit. They fought until they were within a stone's throw before slowly withdrawing.
The battlefield soon returned to calm.
An enemy army wants to come over and collect the corpse. A cloud of arrows fell from the top of the city, killing seven or eight people, and the rest dispersed in a rush.
Yu Liang withdrew his gaze and looked into the distance.
There were dozens of large and small flags standing there, and it looked like there were thousands of thieves.
They are hesitating whether to continue to invest their strength and launch a new round of attack.
This is not an easy decision to make.
Yingchuan was home to powerful nobles, and it was probably the place with the fewest farmers in the entire Yuzhou. There were not many Tuweizi or small fortresses at all, but only large manors and large forts.
The manor is easier to fight, but it also has walls and trenches, and the resistance is even fiercer.
This locust plague seems to have greatly boosted the determination of the people of Yuzhou to resist desperately, causing their troops going south to encounter obstacles at every turn. Every time they conquered a place, a large number of skilled soldiers were killed or injured. Even if Latins can join the army to make up for battle losses, how much combat effectiveness do the new recruits have?
As for morale, it is extremely low.
Perhaps it is time to retreat, this battle should not have been fought in the first place.
The general should be thankful that his entire army did not go south.
Otherwise, the 80,000-foot cavalrymen would struggle hard in the locust plague, with not enough food to eat. They would continue to bleed when they captured the fortress wall, and their morale would be low. At this time, if there is a surprise attack by the elite soldiers who are recharging their strength, there is a risk that the entire army will be annihilated.
"Dong, dong, dong..." On the western horizon, a burst of passionate war drums sounded.
I don’t know how many people came from the other side.
I don’t know how effective they are in combat.
I don’t know what their morale is like.
The bandit soldiers who were stationed outside Yujiawu Fort immediately withdrew without even the thought of fighting.
"Yuan Gui, you are the commander-in-chief and you should send troops to pursue him." Yu Mi reminded from the side.
Yu Liang turned to look at Yu Mi, suddenly enlightened.
Yu Mi lowered his voice again and said: "I heard that there are many concubines from aristocratic families in Chenhou's house and they have contributed a lot. Although Wenjun's sister is the official wife, she has a soft temper and may not be able to suppress them. At this time, it’s up to the family to help.”
Yu Liang nodded and immediately gave the order.
After a while, hundreds of Buqu led two thousand bankers and chased them out, shouting and killing them.
"Yuan Gui, it's best to send people to the Xun family, the Zhong family, the Chen family, and the Yin family." Yu Mi added: "The thieves should have little morale after the battle has reached this point. Let's get together, and it won't be a problem to send out 30,000 to 40,000 troops. The thieves are short of food, their morale is low, and they have come from a long distance. They are panicked. I think they have few horses that can run. It is not risky to pursue them at this time. Big. In terms of merits after the war, if you initiate this matter, Yuan Gui will definitely win the favor of Marquis Chen." "Brother, your words make sense," Yu Liang bowed and said sincerely.
Yu Mi waved his hand and said: "We are all members of our own family, why should we be like this?"
There are many branches of the Yu family in Yingchuan. As for his father Yu Gun's branch, he has been away from home all year round. In recent years, he has built a fort in the Linlu Mountain of Jijun to farm and harvest his own crops. As a result, he has become a lot estranged from his hometown. , many younger generations don’t even know them anymore.
But the world is so strange. Because of Shao Xun's relationship, their branch and the main family have moved more and more, and the relationship has become closer.
This is not a bad thing, Yu Mi also wants to return to his family, although his father would rather live in the mountains until his death.
After a while, the people from the west had arrived outside Wubao.
Yu Mi and Yu Liang looked around and saw an army of about five thousand people.
At the front were more than two thousand iron-armored warriors.
They carried heavy swords, carried crossbows on their backs, led horses covered with linen, and chased in the direction where the thieves had fled.
Long Sword Army! The soldiers who died in Chen Hou's tent were extremely powerful.
Yu Liang breathed a sigh of relief, the battle was safe.
(End of this chapter)