Chapter 511 Waiting for change
The drum beats come and go, as if knocking on people’s hearts, knocking their souls out.
On June 20, after many days of stockpiling supplies, the Jin army marched westward from Neihuang.
Countless boats sailed out of Huangchi, entered Baigou, turned around in the north and turned westward, more than 200 steps north of the county seat, upstream and entered Huan River.
Hao Chang, the captain of the field camp, did not get the opportunity to join the army in the end. He led 5,000 troops from Yingyang and Luyang to stay in Neihuang to prevent the enemy from easily taking away this important strategic node.
Shao Xun personally commanded the entire two battalions of Yinqiang, one Yi Congjun, all the Mule Army, and one Fu Bing, totaling more than 18,000 soldiers, plus 5,000 soldiers from Xuchang and three Fu Bingbu Qu There are 5,000 troops stationed in Qian, Kaocheng, Ningping City and other places, 3,000 Quzhuangke of the wealthy tribe in Henan, and 3,000 Dingzhuang in Wubao, Hebei. The total force is more than 37,000, known as 150,000. It is a mighty force. Go to Anyang.
When Zhi Quliu arrived in Neihuang with more than 2,000 cavalry, he saw such a scene.
The trackers wore short rough clothes and stood barefoot on the river beach. When the trumpet sounded, their muscled thighs suddenly exerted force, and the fiber ropes stretched straight, pulling the heavy ships towards them. Front drag.
When they encountered a shoal, they were even extra careful and sent people to the north shore to tow the ship from both sides to ensure that the ship passed safely.
Between Huangchi, Baigou and Huanshui, there are forests of rafts and oars, and there is a bustle of people, as if all the ships in Henan have gathered here.
Seeing the Xiongnu Qingqi approaching, the bell immediately rang on the ship.
The boatmen and troop carriers worked together to push the ballista to the side of the ship, and worked hard to load the arrows and wind the bow.
Our own cavalry was dispatched on the shore and rushed straight towards the Huns.
The infantry also quickened their pace to cover the trackers and prevent them from being affected. As a result, the ships had no time to anchor and lost control and collided with each other.
The arrows are as dense as locusts.
As soon as the Huns cavalry approached, they turned their horses' heads and ran back.
If it doesn’t work during the day, it’s just a death wish. Try it again at night.
Zhi Quliu seemed to have anticipated this scene. He just sighed softly and slipped away with the others.
He is like a gambler. Although I have already lost in the same card game once, I still don't believe in evil. I always think that if I play again, I might be able to turn defeat into victory.
But this is the material world, war is materialistic, and the enemy is not someone who will be defeated at the first touch, so why do you bother to provoke him? What do you get but a dozen bodies left behind?
After the enemy cavalry withdrew, the Yi Congjun pursued them for several miles and then stopped pursuing them. They returned to the river bank and continued to escort the fleet and infantry.
There are many ways to teach the enemy a lesson.
The Huns cavalry are light and flexible, and it is difficult to catch up. But as long as you get closer to Anyang and Yecheng, one day, these Huns cavalry that are wandering around and harassing them repeatedly will run back obediently and never go anywhere. They will give up their mobility advantage and fight you head-on.
You didn't take the initiative to catch them, but they were forced to run in front of you and fight you in a way they were not good at. This is the wonder of war.
"Crash!" The bow of the ship split the water waves and struggled forward.
The sound of trackers' horns echoed across both sides of the Huan River.
The convoy squirmed forward without any noise, like a silent beast stalking on the eve of a hunt.
The armor shines with a dazzling silver light, as if eager for flesh and blood sacrifice.
This huge team headed straight for Anyang, unstoppable.
******
A troop of cavalry dismounted.
Some people led the horses to graze, while others took off various tools from the pack horses and started working.
The sky is cloudless and dazzlingly blue.
On the ground scorched by the scorching sun, three thousand Huns cavalry wielded spades and picks, carried dung baskets, carried away the excavated soil, and dumped it into the Huan River.
Not long after, Youwubao Shuai led more than two thousand men and drove a cart to the river bank.
He hesitated and asked whether to push these carriages into the river.
Kui An whipped him directly and said: "Do it quickly, don't hesitate."
Wubao Shuai was unhappy and ordered the guards to move one car after another. A carriage was pushed into the river and filled with sandbags.
Kui An learned this move from Shao Xun.
When he besieged Luoyang, Shao Xun filled the river with heavy carts and sandbags, and temporarily built a wading channel, allowing his soldiers to successfully cross the river and stand firm on the other side. heel.
This trick still works.
Even if the river cannot be blocked, it is always good to let some sections of the river silt up.
Of course Shao Xun can send people to dredge and clean up, but this will take a lot of time and slow down his advance.
The order given by Tao Bao was delayed. Kui'an and Zhiquliu acted separately and really tried their best.
After working like this for an hour, the surface of the river became turbid.
Kui'an patrolled along the river and was quite satisfied.
It is easy to block a river but difficult to dredge it. Just this one moment can disgust Shao Xun for a long time and buy Da Hu more time.
The bots have stopped working and have retreated to the trees not far away.
Firstly, after working under the scorching sun for so long, I really couldn’t work anymore; secondly, because the river was overflowing and both sides were muddy, I couldn’t work anymore.
The sound of horse hooves sounded in the distance.
After a while, the scout rushed back.
After hearing the report, Kui'an immediately ordered everyone to mount their horses.
He personally led 2,500 men, strung his horn bows, and went out to meet them. Hundreds of others drove their horses and retreated.
Wubaoshuai was panicked, led the draft horse, called Baoding, and dispersed in a rush.
The place was quiet for a while, except for the Huan water flowing loudly, overflowing the river bank, flooding the post roads and meadows, and creating large yellow mud ponds.
The cavalry on both sides have started a fierce battle in the wilderness.
Arrows flying, swords intersecting, killing and being killed have become the main theme of Hebei.
After fighting for less than half an hour, both sides drew up their troops and looked at each other from a distance.
The Jin army had few cavalry, only 500 vanguards, but they were well-equipped and good at fighting.
The Huns have many people, five times as many as they do. They can outflank them and use more to defeat fewer, giving full play to their strength advantage.
The two sides fought for a while, with considerable casualties, and both did not want to fight.
So, after looking at each other, they retreated tacitly and disappeared into the wilderness.
Half an hour later, the sound of horse hooves sounded again in the east.
A thousand mule troops came to the river bank.
The warlord Jiang Ke looked at the destroyed river and sighed.
A thousand people got off their mules, and half of them were on guard, while the other half tried to clear the river.
This is all the enemy can do.
If the nearby Wubao Shuai is willing to provide food and grass on the spot, the matter is actually not that complicated. But there are only a few people in Changle County who are secretly communicating with each other, and they are still unwilling to surrender openly. This is really a wise way to die.
Here the river is being cleaned, while Kui'an over there is leading his people back to Changle County.
There is some commotion in the county. But after they withdrew, it slowly became quiet.
Kui'an climbed to the top of the city and looked east.
The Huan River flows quietly, winding and disappearing at the end of the east.
Nothing could be seen there, but Kui'an seemed to hear the incessant sound of marching drums, the clatter of ships splitting the river, the rustle of infantry advancing, and the huge buzz of crossbows being fired. .
He felt that something was wrong with his brain. It looked like he would have to arrest a few women to vent his anger tonight.
But he knew it very well in his heart, but he had just been unwilling to face it: all kinds of small means could only stop the enemy soldiers for a while, but they would still come after all, and they were unstoppable.
"Send the order, Shao Thief's movements will be reported every hour. Anyone who dares to slack off will be killed without mercy." Kui'an slapped the city wall and ordered. The soldiers took the order and went down to deliver the order.
Kui An still refused to go downstairs and continued to stand there, looking at the eastern sky like a watchstone.
******
On June 23, Yecheng was particularly fresh and clean after the drizzle.
Shi Le, surrounded by the generals, returned to this long-lost city.
He patiently chatted with the officials and scholars, and then returned to the mansion. It was already the time when the lanterns were first lit.
"Comfortable." Shi Le leaned on the couch without any image, with a look of dust on his face.
The soldiers brought the food, and each of the staff took a futon, sat on the floor, and began to eat.
Shi Le ate quickly, threw away the bowl after a while, drank tea and rinsed his mouth.
“There are still a lot of things that I haven’t had time to do.” After rinsing his mouth, he sighed and said.
The first thing is to set up a school, take Jin people as teachers, select generals and disciples to go to the school, and train talents to manage the place, so that we will not be like now, relying on the nobles for everything and constantly fighting with them bargain.
The second thing is to amend the Nine-Rank Officials Law to allow local states and counties to elect virtuous people, and focus on people of lower origins such as humble and powerful people, which also weakens the influence of the great gentry.
The third thing is to re-count the household registrations in all counties. The current household registration statistics are a joke, far smaller than the actual population. In fact, this problem was very common in the Later Han Dynasty. Zhang Bin believed that even if only hundreds of thousands more people could be traced, it would still be an improvement over the original, and he was convinced.
Statistical household registration is the prerequisite for the issuance of rents and taxes. If it can be implemented, then there will be no need to keep playing tricks with the nobles.
The fourth thing is to delete the laws and regulations.
Shi Le has a deep understanding of this. The laws are strict and complicated, and if people accidentally violate them, the consequences are often unbearable. He felt that some unreasonable, inhumane, overly complicated, and overly strict laws should be deleted to let the people breathe a sigh of relief. This would also stabilize society in disguise and facilitate governance.
In addition to the four things, there is actually an exhortation to teach farmers.
He has been doing this, but he has only done half of it, that is, allocating fields and houses to the more than 70,000 infantrymen who started with him, allowing them to sow and harvest by themselves, and practice fighting in their free time.
As for other than these people, he can't control it, and he doesn't have the energy to do it for the time being. Instead, he entrusts it to the nobles to rule.
For this reason, he ordered his nephews and generals to marry the nobles of Hebei and Bingzhou to deepen their relationship with each other.
To be fair, if Shi Le is given a few more years to carry out these five things one by one and implement them in depth, he will really have a firm foothold in Hebei, and the "Hebei League Leader" will be at his fingertips , just like "Henan League Leader" Shao Xun.
When doing things these days, you can’t escape from these few things.
Countless people have helped sum up the experience. If you want to find another way, you will often be self-defeating.
Policies must fit three things: 1. productivity level; 2. traditions and values of the times; 3. external and internal environment.
If you don't mess around with these three things, you won't even know how you will die.
The five things Shi Le wanted to do were actually reliable, which may be one of the factors that contributed to his success.
But he doesn't have this time anymore because someone doesn't want to give him a chance.
That man is very cruel. He keeps a close eye on those who have proven himself in history and wants to kill them quickly.
This is fate, there is no way.
"Where is Shao Xun?" For a moment of emotion, Shi Le once showed some weakness, but now he sat up straight again, excluding inappropriate emotions, and asked in a deep voice.
“We can arrive in Changle County the day after tomorrow at the earliest.” Zhang Jing put down his bowls and chopsticks and said first.
"How is Changle County?" Shi Le asked.
“It can’t be stopped.” Zhang Jing replied honestly: “Perhaps we can only think of a way in Anyang. Taobao sent thousands of people south to defend the city.”
“ Thousands of people?”
"Taobao doesn't really want to defend Anyang. He wants to fight Shao Xun in Yecheng." Zhang Jing glanced at Shi Le and said.
Shi Le was thoughtful, but now is not the time to care about such nonsense. He thought for a while and said: "This is not wrong."
"At the end of May , Shao Xunfu arrived at Fangtou."
"In early June, they went down the Baigou, and then the ships of Kneihuang swarmed into Huangchi, constantly hoarding food and equipment."
"Today. If they can defeat Changle, they will head west towards Anyang."
"The army on the west route will camp step by step, defeat Chaoge, seize the stone bridge, cross Changsha Valley, and approach Dangyin in the north."< br>
“The two groups are about to meet. Do you have any good ideas?”
Zhang Bin also finished eating. After rinsing his mouth, he said directly: “Your Majesty, it’s time to send another group. People have gone to Pingyang."
When Shi Le heard this, he said: "It is really hateful for people like Ma Jing and Zhu Ji to only accept money and do nothing."
Zhang Bin still looked at him.
Shi Le came to his senses and immediately smiled and said: "Don't be upset, Meng Sun, I will send someone to Pingyang right now."
"Over there in Anping..." Zhang Bin said again.
"Liang Zhenyuan doesn't dare to be cunning. If Shao Xun is allowed to capture Yecheng, it will be difficult for him. His soldiers will come, don't worry." Shi Le said.
Zhang Bin nodded, and then said: "There is only one strategy now, resist at the provincial level and wait for change."
"Meng Sun might as well elaborate."
"Dangyin can't be defended anymore, so we can abandon it, but Anyang cannot be abandoned." Zhang Bin said: "The north of Anyang is only forty miles away from Yecheng, which can be said to be very close. There are Anyang Bridge, Hanling Mountain, Yema Gang, Caoqiao and other places that are conducive to garrisoning troops can send infantry forward, set up strongholds on the road, and fight at the provincial level. The longer the delay, the better."
"Ye City will repair the city defenses, store supplies, and Recruit soldiers to facilitate the defense. "
"Select additional cavalry and elite infantry and send them to lead. Your Majesty knows better than me what to do."
After hearing this, Shi Le said. After pondering for a moment, he asked: "What if Shao Xun refuses to leave and attacks step by step?"
"Delay and wait for change." Zhang Bin repeated it again.
Shi Le was silent.
Zhang Bin believed that he could no longer resist Shao Xun on his own and needed help from the court.
This strategy is not foolproof.
How long can the delay be delayed? That is the question.
The consequences of procrastination are also a question.
At the end of the day, it was still a question of whether anyone would come to save me.
There are too many problems, but there is no solution.
Even if there is a decisive battle with Shao Xun, it is better to delay it first and be more prepared.
As for the alienation of the scholars in Hebei, that is a trivial matter.
If we cannot win this battle, everything will be lost.
If he wins this battle, the wallflowers will come back to support him and beat him up.
"What's going on with King Zhongshan?" he asked.
"We fought several battles with Tuoba, and we both won and lost." Zhang Bin did not mention Liu Kun, because he did not have many soldiers, and most of them were new soldiers, so they could not play any role and could only sit and watch. Tuoba Xianbei fought with the Pingyang court, although he was the one who instigated this war.
After listening to this, Shi Le didn’t speak for a long time.
Others did not interrupt and waited patiently.
“Bang!” Shi Le slapped the table and said, “In that case, let’s just stop doing it. Send the order to send the crown prince to Pingyang. If his mother dares to make any noise, I will divorce her.”< br>
After saying that, he looked at Zhang Bin, Zhang Jing and others, and said: "There are still some difficulties in this battle, let's go over them together."
(End of this chapter)< br>