In the first year of Taiwu, July 5th, Dai County, Youzhou.
At this time, in Dai County, there was a roar of people and the neighing of cattle and horses.
At this time, the famous Wuhuan, Xiongnu, Xianbei marshal and Han tycoons from Daijun were all attending the banquet held by Beizhonglang General Lu Zhi in the shogunate.
Neither Zhang Chong nor Ju Shuo, the top military strategist in the North, expected that our Lu Zhi would no longer be at Changshan Pass, but would come to Dai County.
By the way, let me say one more thing, now Lu Zhi is no longer the North Zhonglang General, but Dongting and Xiting have jointly been canonized as the Zhenbei General, with the power to lead You, Ji, and all wars.
In other words, both the east and west capitals delegated the power of the Northland to Lu Zhi. And Lu Zhi didn't care who was the orthodox in the two capitals, he accepted them both anyway. In this way, Lu Zhi became the first Zhenbei general since the Han Dynasty to have two sections and two seals.
Then why is Lu Zhi in Dai County?
The reason is not complicated. The purpose of stationing at Changshan Pass is to defend, and to go to Daidi is to attack. Zhang Chong cannot be destroyed by just defending. Only by seeking greater power can we truly eliminate the Taishan bandit forces that have grown stronger.
The Hu people entrenched in Dai were the foreign aid Lu Zhi was seeking.
Therefore, Lu Zhi left 25,000 troops at Changshanguan to monitor the war in the south. He led 5,000 riders through the Taihang Mountains to the Laiyuan Valley, and then traveled from here through Feihu Valley, and finally exited Feihukou to where Dai County is located. Yuxian Basin.
Here is the border area where Xianbei, Huns, Wuhuan and Han people live together.
The Yuxian Basin where Dai County is located is the core area of the entire Dai land, and it was also the seat of the royal court of the Dai Kingdom in the past. As soon as Lu Zhi came, he used the seal of General Han Zhenbei to pass down the local chiefs to Dai County for a gathering, and opened a market specifically for this gathering.
Before the powerful chiefs from Dai came to Dai County, Lu Zhi, under the guidance of the heroes of Dai, led an army of five thousand on a hunting expedition to show off the power of Han Dynasty with his troops.
It's just that Lu Zhi didn't feel good about this hunting trip, because he felt that the barbarians here seemed not as tame as they used to be. The prey offered to him by the chiefs didn't look too good either.
In fact, Lu Zhi was overthinking it, because the grassland was getting colder and more and more grassland barbarians had gone south to the Datong Basin in advance.
The dense population naturally made the prey in this area more and more scarce, so although the prey presented to Lu Zhi by the barbarian chieftains was not as good as in the past, it was still the best gift they could give.
But how could Lu Zhi feel such a sense of crisis just because his prey was not beautiful? It's really because he knows that the big man is irreversible.
With the separation of the two capitals and the chaos in the Central Plains, the Northland has become an isolated island. Then Jizhou, the core of the Northland, was increasingly invaded by the Taishan Army, and the situation on the border became increasingly difficult.
When a person is weak, his confidence is not enough, and everyone will think that he has other intentions.
But Lu Zhi's sense of threat is not wrong, because as the Hu people recruiting troops in the hinterland of the Han people gradually returned to Dai, the situation there among the Han people was also known to the Hu people, so there was a bit of a treacherous atmosphere in it.
With such a crisis in his mind, Lu Zhi was naturally worried that the barbarians would take advantage of the situation and rob him.
But fortunately, the Han border defenses are still solid.
Take the northern part of Yanmen and Daijun where the Datong Basin is located, bordering Bingzhou and Jizhou respectively. Therefore, if the Hu people wanted to go south to attack the Han hinterland, they would go from these two sides.
Let’s talk about the passage between Daidi and Jizhou first.
If you just look at the map, Daijun in Youzhou borders Zhongshan in Jizhou, and it seems that you can go anywhere.
But in fact, this area is densely covered with high mountains. The famous mountains include Mount Hengshan, Mount Wutai, and Mount Taihang.
Therefore, the actual connection between Daidi and Jizhou is through these high mountains. But there are also basins between Chongshan and Chongshan, and there are two large basins in this area.
One is the Lingqiu Basin formed between Hengshan Mountain and Wutai Mountain, and the other is the Yuxian Basin formed by the remnants of Taihang Mountain and Hengshan Mountain.
Therefore, whoever controls the Linqiu Basin and Yuxian Basin will control the passage from Changshanguan to Daidi and northern Bingzhou.
Lingqiu, an important city in the Linqiu Basin, and Dai County in the Yuxian Basin have become battlegrounds for military strategists.
The Han army had defenses in these places.
The defense here in Daidi is a bit weak. Due to historical issues, there are no Han troops stationed here, and only some local powerful people represent the Han people. But there are still Han soldiers in Lingqiu, who can guard the northeast passage leading to the Xinding Basin.
As for the Laiyuan Valley, located in the Taihang Mountains, it is the hub of the Linqiu Basin and the Yuxian Basin. Both sides have to pass through here to get out of the Hebei area east of the Taihang Mountains.
Here in the Laiyuan Valley, Lu Zhi had already stationed thousands of troops, so the Wuyou Hu people went south from this area.
But the Hu people in the Datong Basin can still go south from Bingzhou, and there are two ways to go.
One is to take a road slightly to the west, along the eastern foot of Luliang Mountain to the Yunzhong Valley, and then along Fenshui River, you can reach the northern end of Taiyuan Basin; the other is to take a road slightly to the east, along the cliff mouth of Hengshan Mountain Walk. This gap is not far from the northwest of Mount Wutai, and through it you can reach the Xinding Basin.
In order to prevent the Hu people from going south from these two places and threatening the Fenshui and Taiyuan areas in the rear, the Zhao people built two passes at these two passages.
The pass to the west is called Loufan Pass, and the pass to the east is Yanmen Pass.
These two passes are important points in the defense of northern Xinjiang, and border troops have always been stationed there.
To sum up, the defense system of the Han people in northern Xinjiang is still effective. Although the threat of the Hu people going south is there, it is not that big.
It was precisely because of this stability that Lu Zhi focused his attention on attacking the Taishan Army. Otherwise, based on his view of the world, he would have led troops to attack the barbarians long ago.
This time Lu Zhi came to recruit troops, and he also had this idea. He wanted to recruit more strong Hu cavalry to bring to the south, which would also reduce the pressure on the defense of northern Xinjiang.
With this thought in mind, Lu Zhi paid more attention to this mutual market.
The relatively systematic exchange of trade between the Han people and the grasslands was during the period of Emperor Gaozu. After the siege of Baideng, Liu Bang began a century-old road to peace with the Huns. What is consistent with Heqin is the mutual market.
That is to say, the Han exchanged huge quantities of ironware, silk fabrics, other handicrafts, and grain for tens of thousands of Xiongnu cattle and horses.
Later, even in the Hanwu period, this mutual trade was not cut off, because it was of huge benefit to both parties.
For the Han people, the war horse resources obtained from mutual trade were an important source of armament, and the cattle, donkeys, and mules from trade played a huge role in promoting the production of Han's farming civilization.
Therefore, the Han people are unwilling to close the mutual market.
So the Hu people want to trade with the Han people for the enjoyment of those silks? Not entirely. For the Hu people, the biggest role of mutual trade was to obtain food from the Han people. Relying on this food, the upper class of the Hu people can build an army belonging to the central government and have the basis for an alliance.
Compared with the Han people, the Hu people have huge deficiencies in the accumulation of surplus wealth.
The Hu people's main survival resources come from cattle and sheep, but these may freeze to death in one winter. In addition, cattle and sheep need to be constantly moved to graze water and grass. If all the people under them are grazing, who will build a central authority?
Therefore, the food obtained from the Han region became the most important material basis for the Hu people to maintain a superstructure.
It is precisely because of this that the exchanges with the Han people were completely maintained by the upper class of the Hu people. Those sporadic grassland tribes could only trade loosely with the Han people, exchanging a few small things.
Therefore, in order to attract Hu people to Dai County, Lu Zhi opened a mutual market in Dai County and allowed any tribe to trade here.
But the Hu people have the greatest demand for food in the mutual market. Does Lu Zhi have food? No.
Now that the central government has declined, the transfer to the border areas has stopped for a long time. Now, in addition to part of Youzhou's self-produced food, some food can also be obtained from several Jizhou areas such as Hejian and Bohai.
This small amount of food supplies the 30,000 troops he has at his disposal. How can he have excess food to sell to the barbarians in Daidi?
But Lu Zhi had no food, but he had iron tools. Compared with food, ironware was even more enticing to the Hu people. After all, if you have iron tools and other tribes have food, then other tribes are your granary.
Hu people naturally understand this truth.
But Lu Zhi sold iron tools to the Hu people, didn't he commit a defensive taboo? You are obviously worried that the Hu people will not go south to plunder the General Assembly, but you still sell iron tools to the Hu people? Isn’t it stupid!
It's a pity that Lu Zhi is not stupid, on the contrary, he has first-rate wisdom.
Because he understood that if the Hu people had a large amount of iron weapons imported at this time, they would not immediately aim their swords and arrows at the Han people, but at other nearby tribes.
Why?
Because the Han people are hiding behind the passes, so what if you barbarians have iron weapons? Still can't get in? On the contrary, when you have iron arrows and other barbarian tribes still use bone arrows, what will you do?
Of course, it is to rob him or annex him.
Therefore, this is Lu Zhi's "treachery".
He used a large number of iron tools to exchange war horses with the Hu people, and then recruited a large number of Hu people to go to the interior. After that, the iron weapons transported caused a bloody fight in Daidi, and the strength of the Hu people was bound to be weakened.
The above was what Lu Zhi originally thought in Jixian, but he became more determined when he patrolled Daixian later.
From the mouths of some Hu people below, he learned that more and more Hu people were going south one after another and that everyone's life was very difficult. Lu Zhi became more and more determined to implement the ironware mutual trade.
Because he planned to arm these pro-Han Hu forces with iron weapons, let them serve as a defensive belt between the grassland Hu people and the Han people, and let them fight with the Shenghu people in the north.
It can be said that Lu Zhi's strategy is to understand all aspects, and it can be said that he is not inferior to his reputation as the greatest scholar in the North.
But Lu Zhi also understands that everything has its own development. Even though he started everything, the final result was still beyond his control.
The ironware mutual trading policy was indeed in line with many of Lu Zhi's thoughts at the beginning. Weaken the power of the Hu people and allow the pro-Han Hu people to become the outer defensive belt of northern Xinjiang.
But strength has always thrived in chaos.
The chaos caused by the massive import of iron would not last forever. There will always be a Erhu hero who will grow up in this chaos and annex other tribes.
By that time, the Hu people, who have iron weapons and have grown up from fighting in the war, will be even stronger than they are now.
Does Lu Zhi know about these possible consequences?
Of course he knows.
But these are the cards in his hand. If he doesn't sell iron weapons, how can he recruit a large number of Hu Qi to go south? Without such power, how could he defeat the Taishan bandits in the south?
In the end, Lu Zhi could only sigh:
"The only one who knows that I have sinned is the Spring and Autumn Period!"
Then I will devote all my energy to preparing for the future trading market.
Youzhou was originally an iron state, and there were a large number of iron offices in the territory. Therefore, once Lu Zhi made up his mind to implement the policy of mutual trade of iron, a large amount of iron was gathered in the past.
Over there, when they learned that the Han general Zhenbei had relaxed the iron ban and wanted to exchange iron tools for their cattle and horses, these barbarian chieftains went crazy with joy.
They even took out the good horses left by the tribe and prepared to trade with the Han people.
In the past, in order to maintain their horse advantage over the Han people, the Hu people consciously united together and were not allowed to send good horses to the Han people.
But now in order to obtain more iron tools, these barbarians did not care and took out good goods one after another, vowing to get more iron tools than the hostile forces.
In fact, in order to prevent the enemy tribes from obtaining iron tools, the Hu people had long been fighting on the roads outside Dai County. Once they arrived at Dai County, they began to praise Lu Zhi again.
In short, amid the peaceful cheers, the mutual trade between Lu Zhi and the Hu people in Daidi was a complete success.
So Lu Zhi took the opportunity to hold a big banquet to entertain them, and also prepared to talk to them about recruiting soldiers.
While the Hu people Xiaoshuai and Lu Zhi were drinking and drinking each other, in the city wall on the side of the shogunate, the Hu people were also driving cattle and sheep to trade with the Han officials.
Here is the quarrying ground set up, and the Han officials are constantly registering cattle and sheep. These cattle and sheep will serve as part of the Zhenbei Army's military rations throughout the autumn.
Obviously, Lu Zhi has made a military plan to completely eliminate the Taishan bandits before winter comes.
After the Hu people drove the cattle and sheep into the pen, they took a bamboo chip from the Han official, with the number of iron tools that could be replaced written on it. With this bamboo chip, the Hu people could go to the iron warehouse in the city to get the corresponding iron tools.
Everything is in perfect order. Even the brave and fierce barbarians stopped committing crimes when they saw the hostile tribes. They just want to get the iron as soon as possible to avoid long nights and dreams.
As for blood feuds and world feuds later on, when they take the iron tools back and cast them into knives and arrows, they will naturally have revenge and grudges.
Outside the grass market was peaceful, but inside the military mansion it was depressing and dignified.
When Lu Zhi said he wanted to recruit soldiers from them and still exchanged them for iron weapons. All the Hu chiefs were silent. It's not that they didn't want iron weapons, but if they didn't have good men under them, it would be useless to have iron weapons.
Although they don't know the Chinese idiom of "throwing fire under the cauldron", they still know that this is not a good thing.
And now that they have iron weapons, they have to step up their efforts to expand their power, which also requires greater manpower. So when Lu Zhi mentioned this request, the whole audience fell silent.
In the end, it was Lu Zhi who coughed and took the lead in breaking the silence.
Monthly tickets are available, family members. The final decisive battle on the Youji Plain has begun. My family gave me monthly votes, which gave me greater motivation to write a magnificent epic battle.