Yanmen Pass, as an important pass for the Han family in northern border defense, had different defenses in different periods.
Whenever the Hu people went south along the Sangqian River and entered Yanmen, once they could break through, they could directly follow the Fenshui River Valley into the heart of Taiyuan to plunder, or they could break into Hebei along the southeast of the Huchi River Valley and enter Hebei to plunder.
Because of its importance, the Han Dynasty has always regarded Yanmen Pass as the most important defensive zone on its northern border. In addition to the daily beacon soldiers guarding Guancheng, there are also generals such as General Du Liao and the Huns protecting the city stationed outside the border wall near Yanmen.
But this is already in the past. As Liu Hong mobilized most of the Bingzhou frontier troops to go south when rushing west to Chang'an, the defenses in this section fell into emptiness. Fortunately, this period was also a time when the Xianbei people were in chaos, otherwise Bingzhou would have fallen early. For Hu Xu.
At this time, about fifty miles northwest of Yanmen Pass, there was a rammed earth plateau that meandered for hundreds of miles from east to west. This was the Zhao Great Wall built by the Zhao State in the past.
As time goes by, only the base of the majestic border wall remains, but the artistic conception of fighting and iron horses becomes stronger and stronger like fine wine.
Outside this section of the border wall, which is hundreds of miles away, although it is still Han territory in name, it is actually what the world often calls outside the Pass.
This is a vast expanse of mountainous grassland. It is October, and the ups and downs are dotted with frost.
This area is the pasture of the Tuoba Xianbei people.
On these hundreds of miles of grassland, there is a large lake in the middle, with vast mist. There are grasslands and lakes. This was originally a unique and high-quality pasture, but unfortunately, this lake is a rare brine lake and cannot support cattle and horses at all.
That's why this grassland was left to the Tuoba tribe, which was considered a weak tribe.
The Tuoba tribe, like other Xianbei tribes, originated from the northeastern region, and then collectively moved into the warm and humid grasslands with the decline of the Huns.
Then between Huanling, they gradually continued to migrate southwest along the Yinshan Mountains and entered the current grassland to inhabit.
Unlike some other tribes, the Xianbei of the Tuoba tribe have a custom of shaving off part of the hair on the top of their heads, and then braiding the surrounding hair and hanging it down. In this way, they are also called "Suotou Xianbei" by the Han people.
Originally, the Tuoba tribe was weak, with a strength of just over a thousand accounts. But soon the opportunity came, and I don’t know what methods the Han people used. Soon the Hu people in Yanbei and Daidi started fighting.
The Tuoba tribe in the Salt Lake Grassland happened to be far away from the center of the most chaos, and instead continued to recruit those exiled barbarians.
These remnants of the Hu people joined the Tuoba tribe, and soon the Tuoba tribe's strength ushered in great development.
Before the Taishan Army entered this area, the Tuoba tribe, under the leadership of its young chief Tuoba Liwei, had just annexed a larger Xiongnu tribe nearby, which steadily increased the clan's power to the strength of three thousand tents.
It can be said that the Tuoba tribe at this time is the strongest tribe in the nearby grassland.
If the Taishan Army hadn't entered Pingcheng and started recruiting barbarians from the Daidi and Yanbei areas, maybe the Tuoba Tribe could really have become a large tribal alliance of Wan Zhang under the leadership of its young chief Tuoba Liwei.
But unfortunately, fate was not with Tuoba tribe after all.
At this time, in the middle of the dotted tents, Tuoba Liwei, the chief of the Tuoba tribe, was entertaining a guest.
This person's name is Wang Yi, and he is the envoy of Pei Ye, the prefect of Taiyuan.
He came here just to persuade Tuoba Liwei to attack Pingcheng from the flank.
The Daihai grassland and Heping City where the Tuoba tribe is located are only separated by a mountain. They can go directly around to the back of Pingcheng through the gap between the mountains.
Originally, according to Tuoba Liwei's previous development, he only needed to sit here and watch the tiger fight. It didn't mean that no matter who won, he could bite a piece of meat from the fallen side.
But Wang Yi was from the north, proficient in the Xiongnu and Xianbei languages, and was a student of the great Confucian Liu Kuan, so he was very eloquent. Relying on his persuasion, Tuoba Liwei gradually shook his previous views.
Not to mention whether to send troops or not, at least he was convinced by one thing. That is, the Taishan Army that suddenly rushed over was their enemy.
In Wang Yi's narration, Tuoba Liwei gradually understood how harmful this so-called Taishan Army was.
They actually made the herdsmen of the grassland settle down, and even gave these tribes names like the Han people to create households. The handsome men and chiefs of those tribes were all deprived of their population and lost control of the tribes.
This made Tuoba Liwei feel a little cold. You must know that there are a large number of scattered herdsmen in their tribe. These people only stay in Tuoba tribe because Tuoba tribe can protect them.
Now if the Taishan Army is really allowed to continue doing this in the Yanbei area, wouldn't these people be able to escape completely?
Tuoba Li vaguely awakened his class consciousness and began to regard the Taishan Army as his class enemy.
But this matter was too important. When Taishan's army first entered the Yanbei area, he learned that the opponent's horse foot force was 30,000, and the cavalry alone was as many as 10,000 people.
As for Tuoba Liwei, even if all the old, young, and young women were killed recently, they could only raise thirty thousand, and they were all without horses.
Don’t think that nomadic people ride horses in different groups. In fact, war horses are precious to all ethnic groups. The large number of slaves in the Tuoba tribe almost did not have war horses, and even if they were gathered into an army, they would be nothing more than miscellaneous soldiers.
In addition, the target of the Taishan Army's attack now is Yanmen Pass, which has little to do with him. He really doesn't have to take advantage of the fire for those Han people.
However, the threat from the Taishan Army is indeed real,
Therefore, Tuoba Liwei promised Wang Yi that as long as Yanmen Pass could defeat the Taishan Army, he would lead a hundred thousand string control soldiers from his clan to attack Pingcheng so that the Taishan Army and horses would not be able to return. Of course, the supplies, money and food for sending troops must still be in accordance with the original plan.
Wang Yi also knew that this was the best condition he could obtain, so he returned to Yanmen Pass again with this promise.
……
Two days later, Wang Yi's delegation followed the western foothills of Wuzhou Mountain and entered Mayi through Shanwu, Zhongling, and Wuzhou. Then, after resting in Mayi, they finally headed east and entered Yanmen Pass.
When the convoy traveled through the vast mountain plateau along a line of river valleys, we saw the green mountains facing each other in the distance, the solitary peaks reaching into the sky, the formation of wild geese flying north from between the two peaks, and the birds and beasts in the valley corresponding with their calls.
Under the blue sky and white clouds, Yanmen Pass at this time is like a mountain gate that locks the world, majestic and majestic.
This was not the first time Wang Yi saw Yanmen closed, but he would still be infected if he saw it again. He couldn't help but sigh:
"With such natural dangers, even if we have millions of soldiers, we can only look back and sigh."
To be honest, he was quite confused about this mission. In his opinion, there is absolutely no need to find a Xianbei Hu tribe to bow down to.
This discomfort is not only due to the Han chauvinism in his bones, but also comes from his understanding of Yanmen Pass and Gai Xun.
The first is Yanmen Pass, which is located at a gap in Hengshan Mountain. Except for this place to enter the Linyi Basin, it is really impossible for one person to pass the pass and no one can open it.
Then there is Gai Xun.
Gai Xun was originally not familiar to the Central Plains aristocratic family, because his family came from Dunhuang, thousands of miles away from Kyoto. But soon Gai Xun rose up during the Liangzhou Rebellion.
Wang Yi has never actually met Gai Xun, but he is from the North and is not far from Jincheng where Gai Xun is famous. So he naturally heard how this man repeatedly defeated Beigong Boyu with a force far weaker than the rebels.
Therefore, with such a general and guarding Yanmen Pass, everything is safe, so why should he ask for reinforcements from a little Zahu chieftain? It's just a head shorter than our Han family.
The gloomy mood in my heart suddenly cleared up after seeing the crimson flag of the Han family on Guanling.
Suddenly, Wang Yi asked the driver beside him:
"Let's find a place to rest first. Let's get some water to clean up. After staying in that fishy place for a long time, I always feel like I have a smell. After entering the customs, we will meet Mr. Gai for the first time, so we should be decent."
The driver nodded and drove to a nearby creek. This stream flows down from the mountains and flows into the Fen River. It is very clear.
But when Wang Yi and others took off their clothes, a group of warriors suddenly ran down from behind the slope and tied them up without saying a word.
Wang Yi was shivering due to the cold wind, but his mind was very clear that these people must be the Taishan Army.
So he felt aggrieved and said to the bushi in charge:
"General, we are all business travelers from nearby, why do you want to arrest us?"
But the leading warrior didn't listen and just cursed:
"Hush Naigong? Where are your goods? Where's your money? You smell like sheep all over your body. Did you just come back from the Hu tribe?"
Wang Yi was choked by these words and remained silent.
Over there, the Taishan Army men searched the car and clothes, dug out some talismans and documents, and handed them over to the leading warrior.
The warrior looked at it once and snorted coldly:
"What else can you say?"
Wang Yi also knew that the matter could no longer be hidden, so he said firmly:
"It is said that the two armies are fighting without killing the envoys. The Ertai Mountain Army is also the leader of one side. Isn't this impossible?"
Who would have thought that as soon as Wang Yi finished speaking, the leading warrior slapped him.
Wang Yi was caught off guard, and one of his teeth was knocked out, and then he shouted in horror:
"Woo, non, ha, what..."
The leading warrior was confused and turned to the other majestic warrior:
"Old Sun, why is he humming?"
The warrior in question also shrugged and said nonchalantly:
"Who might I be asking you? You are the same. This person is a member of a noble family. You are such a fool and you don't know how to be polite to others."
But those were the words, but hearing the gloating in this person's tone, I knew that this person was very happy.
The leading samurai suddenly understood. He rubbed his palm and formally introduced:
"Remember, our name is Xu Sheng. When I ask you later, you'd better tell the truth. Otherwise, after a few times, you will understand that the slap just now was Qingfeng Xu Mian."
Seeing the warrior named Xu Sheng staring at him with red eyes, Wang Yi couldn't help but tremble.
He had a premonition that he would not be able to enter the barrier this time.