Chapter 601 Eastern Front
The sky has not yet dawned, and the smoke has already risen.
On the banks of the Hutuo River, the old shepherds cut down many willow branches and began to build more tents.
They are stooped and have white beard and hair. The skin is dark, and from a distance, it looks like dead tree bark.
There is a look in his eyes that has seen through the vicissitudes of life and indifference, as if he is living one day at a time.
Since the Xiongnu, there has been a cruel custom: the young are noble and the old are despised. Wuhuan, Xianbei and other tribes followed it.
Old people are not allowed to enjoy better food, cannot wear good clothes, and have to do more dirty, hard and tiring work...
When the Han envoys came to the Xiongnu, they saw young adults After eating the fat parts of cattle and sheep, the old man could eat the leftovers and was very surprised.
The Bank of China defended this custom by saying that the Xiongnu had always regarded war as a meritorious service. The old and the weak could not fight, so the fat ones were eaten by the strong. Therefore, they could defend themselves, and each father and son could live in peace.
It can only be said that different environments create different customs, and there is no absolute right or wrong.
When breakfast was ready, it was already bright.
In the largest tent in the center, the leader Duan Mobo came out of the east gate - according to Xianbei custom, the tent has only one door open, which is the door facing the east.
After seeing the morning sun in the distance, Duan Mobo knelt down and muttered something very pious.
After a long time, Duan Mobo just stood up, and would not go back to the tent. He just sat on the ground on the grass by the river, eating freshly steamed corn rice.
The guards, followers, and even the soldiers and slaves outside also sat on the ground and ate corn.
From the leader Duan Mobo down, everyone eats the same thing, just in quantity - generally speaking, the strong eat more, the old and the young eat less.
From here we can see the difference between Xianbei and Liu Han Xiongnu.
Liu Han already had obvious social class differences. The upper class drank alcohol and delicacies, while the lower class relied on millet, cow and goat milk, cheese, wild vegetables and fruits to satisfy their hunger.
Compared with theirs, Xianbei society was relatively primitive and simple. The food that the group of people who went on the expedition ate was actually the same - in fact, the Xiongnu society was also like this at the beginning.
Compared with the old and the weak, women are treated the same as the young and strong in terms of food.
This time we went south for an expedition, and there were only a few hundred strong women accompanying the army. Their faces were full of flesh, their arms could run horses, and their buttocks could kill someone if they stuck them out. They could be treated as men.
The main jobs of these women were to mend furs, milk cows for making cheese, and deal with dead horses.
Everyone is young and obviously none of them are married.
Wuhuan and Xianbei women usually wear their hair in a bun and wear a goujue - similar to the stiletto crown worn by Mongolian women in later generations - when they get married.
Hu women are more comfortable.
The social atmosphere despises the elderly and young people, but attaches great importance to women.
There is no penalty for a son to kill his father and brother, but he is not allowed to kill his mother.
It is not necessary to take revenge if your father and brother are killed by others, but you must take revenge if your mother is killed by others.
If a woman from one clan marries another clan and something happens, the family will investigate it. If she dies abnormally, she will be held accountable, usually by offering cattle and sheep to make atonement.
Very peculiar custom.
In short, women had a very high status, and this custom was later brought to the Northern Dynasties. However, the customs of the Hu people did not have any ethical constraints on women or restrictions on the use of power, which led to many problems. Some people even started to "kill the mother after setting up a son". system.
After everyone finished breakfast, they rested for a while, and then got up to sort out their horses and weapons.
Duan Mobo took his personal entourage out for a walk.
The area around the Hutuo River is rich in water and grass, with many fields and many Wubao manors.
Since going south, many fortresses have lost money to eliminate disasters. They would rather starve themselves or even starve to death. They also sent a batch of food to the Xianbei people, which enriched their military resources and grew their ambitions.
“The land in Jizhou is more fertile than Youzhou.” Duan Mobo looked at the tall wormwood on the river bank and said, “One acre of land here can raise more than five times more cattle and sheep than on the grassland. . ”
Five times more cattle and sheep means five times more wealth and five times more population.
Wealth and population also mean combat power. If it can snowball and accumulate greater power, it might be possible.
No wonder everyone wants to go south to the Central Plains!
"Mobo." Duan Shefuchen's figure appeared on the other side of the river. He pulled the reins of his horse, calmed the horse, and said, "I've been staying here for three days. Are you going to grab it?" A handful? ”
"Uncle, don't you want revenge?" Duan Mobo asked loudly.
Duan Shefuchen was silent for a while and said: "It's an old thing ten years ago."
Duan Mobo's eyes widened. After ten years, has it been forgotten?
Ten years ago, when the old prince was still there, Duanbu Xianbei had a population of 150,000.
Ten years later, the old prince is gone, and the population of Duanbu Xianbei has decreased instead of increasing. Now it is only over 100,000, and the ancestral home of Liaoxi County (now Qinhuangdao, Hebei and parts of Tangshan) was still occupied by Murong Xianbei. Taken away.
How to settle this account?
"If you don't want revenge, why did your uncle go south?" Duan Mobo asked angrily.
Duan Shefuchen replied: "It's not that I don't want revenge. It's not that I haven't killed Shao Bing since I went south. It's just that some things are more important."
Duan Mobo was speechless.
What my uncle called the more important thing was actually robbery. Loot everything, food, cloth, farm tools, livestock, people, etc., everything is wanted.
In recent years, there have been no less than 40,000 households, more than 200,000 people, from all walks of life who have gone to western Liaoning to escape the chaos. Murong has taken all of them - some stayed in western Liaoning, and some moved to Changli and other places to farm and farm. Mu, providing food and supplies for the Murong family.
As time passed, the gap in strength between the two sides became endless. To put it simply, the current Duan Bu Xianbei has no ability to seek revenge from the Murong clan, nor can he defeat the Yuwen clan, so he can only linger in Youzhou - they did fall out with Wang Jun, but their relationship is very complicated, and they may not be enemies. Can be regarded as a "passerby".
Duan Shefuchen’s meaning is very clear, save some strength and don’t make random attacks.
The tribe is finished fighting, who will help you?
In its heyday, Duanbu Xianbei had 50,000 string-controllers and 50,000 riders. Now it only has a population of 100,000, and it can only pull out 30,000 riders at most. Not everyone has a horse, so give it a shot!
It is better to look around and see if there is a chance to rob some people and property.
The war in Hebei continued, and some Wubao owners and manor owners could no longer survive, so they moved their entire families, and the team was vast. From the Wubao commander who stuck to one place and farmed, he became a wandering refugee commander. These people can be robbed, or even captured directly.
Isn’t it easier to fight these people than to fight Shao Bing?
But Duan Mobo disagrees.
"Uncle, if you don't fight, I will bring bad luck to Shao." I heard him say: "Shao has several water and land transportation canals with huge crowds of people and a lot of supplies. I will go and plunder some of them. If there is any gain, uncle will not take it." "Jealous."
Duan Shefuchen laughed loudly and said, "Wen Yang is going south soon. You can go find him. Maybe we can join forces and do something big, but I won't accompany you anymore." "
After that, he turned around and left with a flick of his horse's head.
******
Since mid-September, the amount of grain and grass transported from the rear to Zhongshan has decreased.
Kim Zheng is based in Puyin and receives warnings from various places almost every few days.
On the seventh day of the ninth lunar month, when part of the Yi Congjun crossed the river from the upper reaches of the Hengshui River and suddenly reached Shangquyang, the Xianbei cavalry entered the territory of Hejian, killed more than a thousand people from the Cui family's grain transport team in Qinghe, and robbed the grain before returning. .
On the Double Ninth Festival, the Xianbei cavalry attacked a plain Liu family's grain transport team in the southeast of Gaoyang County, killing more than 700 villagers and capturing 2,000 husbands and slaves.
On September 12th, the Wuhuan cavalry of the Beggar Army was defeated in Hejian.
On September 13th, the Huns defeated Anping again and sent 3,000 cavalry.
On September 15th, more than 2,000 Jie people cavalry were defeated in the field battle.
The fighting power is extremely powerful.
During the cavalry battle, the miscellaneous cavalry under Shao Xun's account won less and lost more, and could hardly cover the grain road.
After reading all the defeat reports, Jin Zheng realized that the combat effectiveness of the Xianbei cavalry had to be considered in another level, and was not comparable to that of ordinary miscellaneous cavalry. If we want to expel this force that is harassing the rear, we must either mobilize the Yicong Army cavalry from the front line to return reinforcements, or destroy Zhangwu State, leaving the Xianbei people with no way to supply supplies and no rear.
At this time, he regretted that after conquering Hejian, he sent his troops westward and captured Gaoyang, Zhongshan and other counties.
I thought that Linghu Ni had been frightened by him. A dead dog could not be a threat. He could send a side force to monitor this person. But who would have thought that Duan Bu Xianbei went south brazenly and participated in this war.
Fortunately, Duan Bu's movements were a bit slow and there were not many people involved in the attack. Otherwise, he would have faced a greater risk of running out of food.
"General, it is not appropriate to advance rashly at this time." When Jin Zheng was checking the map, guest Zhen Pian advised him.
Jin Zheng glanced at him and said: "It's just a few thieves, why worry? Mr. Chen will pay his righteousness from Xiao Rui into my hands, how can he be so timid?"
" It's better to call back the Manchu army's elite cavalry and kill the Xianbei first," Zhen Pian advised.
"You old man -" Jin Zheng was about to scold him, but after thinking about it, he realized that what he said was not unreasonable.
Zhen Pian observed his words and breathed a sigh of relief.
General Jin is brave when he is brave, but sometimes he does not care about his head. But then again, Xianbei's move south was an accident and difficult to predict beforehand. Moreover, it was not that General Jin was unprepared. The beggar army, the Xiongnu troops, and the Jie people had not been able to defeat these Xianbei gangs, so there was nothing they could do.
Now there is only one way, either to mobilize the Yi army to exterminate Xianbei, or to gather several times the number of Xianbei people's miscellaneous cavalry and pile them to death with men and horses.
"Forget it, I'll let Qiao Hong lead three thousand horses back." Jin Zheng sighed and said irritably.
“The general is wise.” Zhen Pian bowed his hand.
He was only in his early forties, and he was not angry when Kim Jong called him an "old man". There is no other way, survival is important, don't cause the whole army to run out of food, and end up with a big defeat.
Zhen Pian is from Weichang County, Zhongshan State, and is fellow villager with Liu Kun. Because Wei Chang was once named Wuji, this family was called the "Wuji Zhen Family", and it was a declining gentry clan.
Zhen Xi (Guo Xi), the most famous descendant of the Zhen family and the Duke of Guang'an County, lives in Luoyang and miraculously avoided the melee among the kings because of his "short talent" - as long as I am useless enough, Then no one would use me, and there would be no worries of being liquidated if I am on the wrong team.
Zhen Pian was spotted by Jin Zheng in Yecheng. He thought he had some talent, so he forced him to serve as an army aide and make suggestions.
Zhen Pian was very reluctant at first, but after coming to the army for a while, he suddenly felt like he had something special to live in, so he settled down and offered some advice from time to time, although Jin Zheng mostly didn't listen to him and made his own decisions.
Jin Zheng finally listened to this suggestion to clean up the Xianbei raiding troops in the rear.
Zhen Pian is very satisfied.
In the past month, Governor Jin has listened to his suggestions more and more often, which is a good thing.
"Will Liu Yao take advantage of the situation to counterattack?" Jin Zheng suddenly asked.
Zhen Pian glanced at the map, pointed to the northern part of Bingzhou, and said, "Does the governor know how many troops Liu Yao brought to aid Hebei?"
"It is said that there are fifty thousand troops." Jin Zheng said.
"I don't think so." Zhen Pian said: "Liu Yao came from Jingxing. The journey was long and desolate along the way. It was difficult to raise food and grass. How could he lead an army of 50,000? Even if he did, he would also get part of it in the northern part of Bingzhou. Guard the passes along the road to prevent Tuoba Xianbei from going south from Yanmen and cut off his return. I think that of the 20,000 people he has brought with him, some of them will be used to prevent Daijun Xianbei from going south. "
Jin Zheng nodded slowly.
"If Liu Yao counterattacks, he will definitely deploy soldiers and horses to defend Daijun Xianbei. It depends on whether he dares to do so." Zhen Pian said again: "General, you might as well wait and see what happens. At this time, he will mobilize Yi Congjun to return. Reinforcement, slowing down is not necessarily a bad thing. Liu Yao is coming, we will retreat. Don't be anxious, just calm down and respond. Can Duan Xianbei go south? "
"Liu Yao did not enter Hebei from Jingxing last year, but went straight to Fukouxing. There is a reason." Zhen Pian said meaningfully.
(End of this chapter)