In the second year of Taiwu, October 7th.
According to the original arrangement, Xu Sheng and his team should rest in the Pingcheng area.
But early this morning, the garrison general Xu Sheng, together with the other two generals, took the initiative to request the general Lu Fang that he was willing to go south to investigate the Sanggan River area first.
Lu Fang used to be the general of the school captain Lu Xiang, and he has always admired the fierce general. In his eyes, Xu Sheng was such a fierce general.
Sometimes he felt sorry for Xu Sheng because he was assigned to their rear army system and was delayed.
Since the battle of Zhongrenting, the rear army has not had any major battles. Even the capture of Juyong Pass was a small fight. Later, the king sent troops to conquer Liao, and the rear army was the least mobilized.
So when the last of countless armies became famous in the Battle of Liao, Xu Sheng was still a garrison general.
And at the same time? Tai Shici, the "white-robed general" who stood out in the Liao expedition, was still an enemy in Zhongrenting, but now he has become a general.
This is the opportunity of fortune.
But Lu Fang is not too worried about Xu Sheng, because this kid is also extraordinary. Not only did he come from the Yecheng Lecture School of Martial Arts, but he also had a reputation in front of the king, and he was a very capable general.
So Lu Fang knew that Xu Sheng was just short of a chance now.
Even Lu Fang knew this, and Xu Sheng himself knew even more, which was why he took the initiative to ask for help.
After the Taishan Army captured Pingcheng, they did not continue southward. Instead, they stayed in Pingcheng and began to deal with the nearby Hu tribes.
Zhang Chong attaches great importance to Pingcheng. This is not only because of the glory of Pingcheng in the future, but also because even now, Pingcheng is an important hub for northern defense.
It roughly extends from Daijun in the east, to Shanwu in the west, to Yinguan in the south, and to the north. This area is a vast plain, and it is also called Yanbei by the locals.
Zhang Chong prefers to call it "Datong Basin".
This basin is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and the passes between the mountains are staggered, which is very conducive to the formation of political units or military alliances. In addition, there is a Sanggan River flowing in the middle of it, which is suitable for both farming and nomadic herding.
In this way, a mixture of Hu and Han people settled here.
In addition, on the channel, the Datong Basin where Pingcheng is located is also a transportation hub.
Starting from Pingcheng, passing through Yonggu and going straight to the north, you can jump onto the vast grassland and attack Xianbei; go down along the Sanggan River and pass through the northeast line or due east line to Youzhou. And this passage was also the one taken by the Taishan Army.
Then go up the Sanggan River and pass through the south or southwest line to reach Bingzhou and directly to Yanmen Pass. From here, you can cross the Baidao to the west, and then go south to Chang'an.
It can be said that Pingcheng is the most important transportation hub, and this is the first choice for both offense and defense.
Because of this, although the Han Dynasty failed to develop Pingcheng due to historical limitations, Zhang Chong decided to use this southern expedition to put the development of Pingcheng into action.
Therefore, Zhang Chong decided to set up the grain platform for this southern expedition here. The grain and fodder transported from Youji will be accumulated here, and then go south along the Fenshui waterway.
At the same time, Zhang Chong used his time in Pingcheng to continuously recruit nearby nomadic tribes.
At this point, Zhang Chong would like to thank Lu Zhi for his contribution. Because in the past Lu Zhi delivered a batch of iron tools to these nomadic barbarians in the Yandai land, which caused the tribes to fight together.
Just when they were exhausted from fighting, the Taishan Army suddenly rushed out from Youzhou and picked peaches. First, they defeated several Xiongnu tribes, and then successfully recruited a large number of nomads.
However, it was inevitable that the Taishan Army stayed in Pingcheng for a long time.
Xu Sheng was a garrison general of the rear army marshal's department. Although he was in a humble position, he still did not forget what was going on at the front. He was keenly aware that now was the time to investigate the Sanggan River area.
So he took the initiative to volunteer and get this opportunity first.
Sure enough, his general Lu Fang agreed without hesitation and specially approved a batch of war horses for Xu Sheng to ride on.
Xu Sheng took only four military officers and six capable sentries, and a group of eleven people quietly drove to Sanggan River to explore.
After crossing the Sanggan River, we are outside Yanmen Pass, where is the defense area of Gai Xun, the general of Liao Dynasty.
It was only half a year before Gai Xun was appointed as General Du Liao.
Since Dong Zhuo took full control of the military power in Kansai, people such as Gai Xun and Fu Xie have been released one after another. Originally, Fu Xie wanted to seek the position of General Du Liao. His original intention was that he would rather be a pure warrior guarding the country's borders than get involved in politics.
But Dong Zhuo thought carefully and finally made Gai Xun the general of Du Liao.
This is because he doesn't trust Fu Xie very much. Fu Xie once served as Huangfu Song's bodyguard, and the Huangfu family's prestige in the Yanmen area was very deep.
Huangfu Song's father served as the governor of Yanmen, and his uncle Huangfu Gui even served as the general of Du Liao. And now he was worried about letting Fu Xie, a person who had a close relationship with Huangfu Song, be the general of Liao Dynasty.
Therefore, the position of General Du Liao fell on Gai Xun.
The first thing Gai Xun did for General Du Liao was to move the palace of General Du Liao, which was originally located in Dingxiang County, to Yanmen Pass.
This was based on his judgment of the future war.
Previously, the reason why General Du Liao was stationed in the Wuyuan and Dingxiang areas was to monitor the Southern Huns here.
After the Xiongnu from the south moved north to the Meiji area, the Han Dynasty set up the shogunate of General Du Liao in the north and the shogunate of General Du Liao in the south of it. It can be said that the channels for the Xiongnu to return to the grassland were blocked from the northwest. But now, the situation has changed. The Xiongnu were no longer the most important enemy of the Han Dynasty, but an ally that needed to be absorbed.
The Taishan Army suddenly became the biggest enemy of the Kansai court in northern Xinjiang.
Therefore, after obtaining the approval of Taishi Dong Zhuo and young emperor Liu Xie, Gai Xun not only moved the shogunate to Yanmen County, but also specially recruited 3,000 Huns cavalry from the Xiongnu royal court to accompany him.
In addition to the two thousand beacon soldiers originally stationed at Yanmen Pass, Gai Xun now had three thousand Xiongnu soldiers, two thousand Du Liao camp soldiers, and two thousand Yanmen beacon soldiers.
And when Xu Sheng led the ten-man cavalry quietly along the Sanggan River and penetrated outside Yanmen Pass, he had actually penetrated deep into the enemy's rear. As long as one was not careful, the ten-man cavalry would be wiped out.
Therefore, Xu Sheng had to maintain a high concentration of energy throughout the whole process. He was the one who was going to go on a mission. Since ten people came out, he had to take these ten people back.
But this process is quite thrilling. In addition to encountering the wandering Huns along the way, they must also be careful to guard against the beacon soldiers outside Yanmen Pass.
In the beginning, they would never pay attention to the so-called beacon soldiers, because this type of soldier is almost a serf-like miscellaneous soldier with no initiative at all.
But soon, Xu Sheng and the others realized how wrong they were.
These beacon soldiers outside Yanmen Pass are not simple. These people not only actively pursue clues, but also have their own camp barriers on the main roads. They are like a group of hyenas that can smell the scent of all enemies.
And the reason why these serfs' beacon soldiers were able to change like this was all because of one person.
He is Pei Ye, the governor of Taiyuan. He is from the Wenxi Pei family and is the most outstanding member of the Pei family's generation.
His son Pei Mao was famous for standing up and scolding Dong Zhuo to dismount and pay homage to the young emperor when Dong Zhuo entered the capital.
As the general responsible for supplying all military supplies to Yanmen Pass, Pei Ye rectified and improved the defense of Yanmen Pass.
In addition to General Du Liao's camp troops and the Huns and Tibetan soldiers, the one that Pei Ye improved the most was the beacon soldiers.
He changed the beacon soldiers who used to be serfs into good family members who owned land. The method is very simple, which is to give these people all the land they originally cultivated.
In the past, the fields cultivated by these beacon soldiers belonged to the Han Dynasty, and these people were actually serfs. Now, Pei Ye decided to give public land to these beacon soldiers and let them pay taxes to the government like normal farmers, but he only required them to patrol in their spare time and fight in war.
This is actually the Taishan Army that Pei Ye learned from.
In fact, as long as a force still has a certain degree of vitality, it will not endure being passively beaten, and will learn from its enemies.
For example, during the Warring States Period, Qin was not the first to reform. It was precisely because he was beaten to the point of near destruction by the reforming Wei State that he desperately wanted to reform.
Because it does not change the law, it will only lead to a dead end.
But now that the Taishan Army has taken the lead in combining land and the army, other princes have begun to have to learn. However, because of the different core power classes of these people, this learning also has choices.
For example, Yuan Shao only allocated fields to the warriors under his rule, while Cao Cao also allocated fields to the officials. Pei Ye didn't have the power they had, so he could only allocate some public land to these beacon soldiers.
But even so, these beacon soldiers also showed strong initiative and will to defend their fields.
In fact, the strength of these beacon soldiers is not weak.
These beacon soldiers in the Yanbei area are either mountain people from the Hengshan Mountains or miscellaneous men on the plains. They are cold-resistant and hard-fighting, and they are the material for elite soldiers.
Pei Ye gave these people two hectares of land and asked them to send out a soldier. If they gave them three hectares, they would send out a war horse. Then, outside Yanbei, set up a fort and form a garrison with troops.
For a time, Bingzhou, without spending any resources, had two thousand beacon soldiers who were willing to die and could defend their homes.
So when Xu Sheng and other eleven cavalry teams entered the Yanbei area, they encountered a series of unexpected dangers.
……
Xu Sheng and the others have been exposed.
At this time, they were walking along a ravine. Their war horses had also been released into the mountains and forests long ago. They did not expect that it was because of the tracks of the war horses that they were discovered by the beacon soldiers.
When nearly a hundred people were shouting and chasing them, Xu Sheng and the others could only choose to retreat into the mountains to the west.
Along this ravine, Xu Sheng and the others soon discovered a field ridge in front of them. This was developed by mountain people hiding in the mountains and forests.
The autumn harvest has passed, and the fields are bare.
Xu Sheng and the others searched here but still couldn't find anything edible.
After entering the mountain, their supplies had been cut off, and what was even more desperate was that they were lost.
It was Xu Sheng's prestige that kept this team from collapsing.
But the dull low pressure always lingered in this team, making people breathless.
So, Xu Sheng decided to think of a way to raise everyone's spirits.