Chapter 709 The rear
In the third year of Taiwu, April 20th, before midnight.
On the night when the Taigu Pass garrison was destroyed, Hu Wuqiu, who was supposed to be guarding Shenyuan Pass, rushed to Taigu with a few cavalry and took over the command of the Taishan Army here.
It turned out that Zhu Ling left two thousand troops behind after conquering Taigu Pass, and then led the remaining troops to attack Yique Pass.
After that, Hu Wuqiu wanted to take over the garrison of Taigu Pass and unify them under his command. After all, Taigu Pass and Shenyuan Pass are closer, and they need more integrated defense.
However, Taigu Pass at that time rejected Hu Wuqiu because they belonged to different armies. This made Hu Wuqiu very angry, but he had no choice but to do it. After all, he did not have the name to command the two thousand troops.
In fact, the reason why the defenders of Taigu Pass rejected Hu Wuqiu at that time was that Hu Wuqiu's reputation was not good and he often annexed friendly forces.
Despite the strict military system of Taishan Army, in fact it still cannot stop this situation. Because many times what you think of as a merger is called a reorganization in the eyes of others.
For example, after a main battalion leader is disabled, in order to quickly form combat effectiveness, key personnel will be transferred from other battalion leaders. Sometimes a large establishment will be reorganized, and even a reorganized battalion leader will be incorporated.
So can you tell whether this is a merger or a reorganization? It is this grayscale of reality that makes these two concepts very vague and easy to be exploited by some dirty military generals.
Hu Wuqiu was one of them, and most of the five thousand troops in his hands came from this way. And why can he be so unscrupulous?
On the one hand, it is true that this person always has a reason for everything, and on the other hand, he comes from the Hu Wu family.
In today's Taishan Army, there are actually several generals. They either joined the Taishan Army as a whole, or entered the Taishan Army system at an early stage, so their families are densely populated with children.
The representative of the former is Ma Teng, and the representative of the latter is Hu Wujia.
The Hu Wu family used to be enemies of the Taishan Army, but under the judgment of the family leader Hu Wuban, he boldly bet on Zhang Chong, and made a lot of contributions to the Taishan Army during the early dormant period of the Taishan Army.
Hu Wu's family has a special characteristic. Because the family governs "Gongyang Chunqiu", they pursue revanchism. The so-called "Hu's mother's family must avenge any enemy."
But when the enemy this time was the Taishan Army, Hu Wuban very flexibly chose to join the Taishan Army and became his own family member.
In this way, their family's purpose will not be broken, and they will get a smooth ride.
Since then, Hu's mother's family has developed rapidly in the Taishan army, and her children are in both military and political circles, and the most prominent one in the military circle is Hu Wuqiu.
This gentleman is good at training troops and is good at military formations. He may not be good at fighting in formations, but he is indeed a first-rate general.
When fighting in the Youzhou area before, a thousand-man battalion defeated a powerful local coalition of 7,000 people, while only a dozen of our own casualties were suffered.
In this way, relying on his outstanding abilities and impressive background, Hu Wuqiu was transferred repeatedly and is now the leader of an army.
So how could the Taigu Pass garrison at that time dare to hand themselves over to Hu Wuqiu?
Besides, Hu Wuqiu was from Taishan, and they were all descendants of Qinghe. They were selected by Zhu Ling at all levels of the local army. They could be said to be true soldiers from Hebei, and they should never be cast indiscriminately.
But this time, with the arrival of Hu Wuqiu, the remnants of Qinghe Zhaoyi Army who had suffered a great defeat no longer dared to refuse Hu Muqiu, and handed over all their general power to Hu Muqiu.
But this time when Hu Muqiu came, it was not because he was interested in the Zhaoyi Army of about a thousand people, but because he wanted to fight a big one.
After learning that Taigu Pass had been broken, he ordered his troops to rush to the direction of Taigu, while he arrived first with a few cavalry.
In Hu Muqiu's view, Taigu Road in the direction of Taigu Pass is an important passage for the defense of Kyoto, and it is absolutely impossible for the king to allow this passage to be occupied by Yuan's army.
And once he defends this passage first, won't Jane be in the king's heart later? In addition, the risk of this matter is not high.
In Hu Muqiu's view, his troops will arrive tomorrow at the latest, but the leading troops in the direction of Kyoto will not arrive at the latest the day after tomorrow?
How could he not do something with such little risk and big benefits?
So after accepting the thousand-man Zhaoyi remnant army, Hu Muqiu began to make corresponding defensive preparations. He first strengthened the original barrier at the entrance of Taigu Road, then gathered the remaining Zhaoyi troops around the barrier, and built three corridors spanning about six miles.
Behind the barrier, he built several camps in advance to leave room for the arrival of his follow-up troops.
Hu Muqiu's thoughts can also be seen from this arrangement.
That is to let Zhaoyi's remnant army go to the front and let his troops stay behind.
Such behavior naturally made Zhaoyi's remnant army internally dissatisfied, but their military leader Zhu Ling was still stranded in the direction of Yiqueguan and had no time to worry about them. They also hated the Yuan army who brutalized their army, so they decided to obey Hu Muqiu. military orders.
But no matter what, the Taishan army blocking the front line of Yuan's army heading north was in a bad state.
……
While the Taishan Army on the opposite side was urgently building a defense line, on the Taigu Road side, Yuan Shao led the cavalry regiment south to Yingchuan. He was going to supervise the collection of grain and military strength from the rear.
Accompanying Yuan Shao south to Yingchuan was a cavalry force of about a thousand people. Most of these people were Northern soldiers who followed Gao Lan south.
Although Gao Lan defected to Yuan Shu's side, Yuan Shao still trusted this army, and most of its members were wealthy children from the north. They hated having their families taken away by Taishan's army, so he gave the army the title "Beifu", which meant that he would lead them These people returned to their hometowns.
These Beifu knights were originally worried because of Gao Lan, but they didn't expect that Yuan Shao still trusted them so much. So these people were very excited and tattooed the word "红心" on their arms, which means brave and loyal.
This time, Yuan Shao took these people with him when he went south to Yingchuan. On the one hand, he deepened the loyalty of these Beifu knights. On the other hand, this time he went south, there were many things that needed to be handled by outsiders like Beifu knights.
Yes, this time Yuan Shao went south to attack certain families in Yingchuan. Without these soldiers from other states, many things would not be easy.
Yuan Shao had deep considerations about taking the initiative to attack the Taishan Army this time, and it was not just to avenge his eldest son.
Since he followed Xu You's advice and began to implement the samurai manor system in the western areas of Yuzhou and Yanzhou, his military power expanded rapidly, which also helped him integrate the forces within his territory in a short period of time, and was able to form a military control over the surrounding families. Advantages.
But since withdrawing his troops from Jingzhou, Yuan Shao found that he could no longer satisfy the desires of the armored warriors below. They kept asking for spoils of war. There was no honor at all, only profit.
Yuan Shao was afraid that he would not be able to support these gluttonous desires and would eventually be backlashed by these people.
So Yuan Shao thought of a way, which was to create an enemy for these people that would make them desperate. Moreover, this enemy is still something they cannot surrender to.
Since you armored warriors are always asking me for land, manors, and slaves, and even threaten me if you are not satisfied even a little bit, then I will let you understand that without me, Yuan Shao, everything you have now will be replaced by the Taishan Army. It's going to come to nothing. At that time, if you can't keep what you have, why do you want it from him?
This is of course a risky move, but can we achieve peace without actively provoking the Taishan Army? Rather than having Taishan's army ready to attack when the time comes, he might as well tie up the manor warriors under his command and fight together.
If you win, you have everything. If you lose, you don't think much about it.
This is Xu You's advice to Yuan Shao.
He told Yuan Shao that this battle with the Taishan Army was an opportunity to reintegrate his military strength. They used the slogan of defending their hometown to mobilize the warriors from various estates within the territory. This time not only did Yuan Shao not need to pay anything, but the warriors themselves would even fight for their lives.
As long as the Taishan Army is made evil enough and will take away their manor and slaves, are you afraid that these people will not fight hard?
However, maintaining such a huge mobilized military force will inevitably consume a huge amount of food. Without food, the army will not be stable, so the first thing he needs to do is to collect enough military food.
When the Taishan Army entered the Gyeonggi area, Yuan Shao first recruited the first batch of troops, numbering about 60,000, most of whom were his direct troops.
Then after Taishan's army captured Kyoto, Yuan Shao recruited his second batch of troops. Most of them were powerful families, warriors and their followers in the territory. The number was not counted, but the overall number was more than 100,000.
Most of them were prisoners plundered from Jingzhou, and these people were not willing to go to the battlefield at all.
Because Yuan Shao's army is a rank-based system, a military remnant who was born as a disciple has no chance of being promoted to a military official.
But war has never been about them obeying their wishes. These people belong to warriors and family heads, but they do not belong to themselves.
Not to mention the cruelty of war, these lowest-level cannon fodders suffer huge casualties wherever they go. Those who often survive until the end of the war may not even survive.
So even though these people make up the majority of the army, Yuan Shao doesn't care, and maybe not many people care.
The only two groups that really worried Yuan Shao were the warriors and the powerful.
For Yuan Shao, the warrior group is undoubtedly his greatest source of strength. Now Yuan Shao occupies the vast Yuzhou, half of Yanzhou and part of Huaixi. He has enfeoffed a large number of warriors in this vast land.
Almost one-third of the land was distributed by Yuan Shao to the warriors in the army and local tycoons.
Originally, these people gave Yuan Shao a headache because they were eager for victory and loot. However, with the advent of a comprehensive crisis in Yuzhou, these people rallied around Yuan Shao and became his solid force.
For this war, they donated generously, which is not to say that it destroyed the family and made trouble, but they also contributed money and others.
On the contrary, the powerful people in the Yuzhou area have some ideas of their own.
As an army in the classical era, Yuan Shao's army was indispensable for these powerful sons. These people not only serve as most of his military personnel, but also control Yuzhou's truly important military resources, including remaining grain, fodder, horses, and livestock.
Therefore, the support of Yuzhou's powerful people is particularly important to Yuan Shao.
And most of the time, Yuan Shao was not stingy in sharing power with these people. The most important positions in counties and counties were often in the hands of these people. In return, these people were also responsible for collecting local supplies to protect Yuan Shao's external affairs. war.
So this time, Yuan Shao still recruited these powerful children as usual. He required that the adult children of powerful people in each county must serve as military officials in front of the army.
This is not a very demanding requirement, because in this era, this is what is always required.
The Han Dynasty is not far away from ancient times, and military is still a must for most of the Qing clan's children.
Because these children of the Qing clan actually obtained their titles and families through military wars, and their honor and prestige are meaningful only if the Han Dynasty exists, so they must and are willing to fight for the country.
Now, although Yuan Shao is not the head of the Han family, their current relationship and situation are actually no different from the past.
It was Yuan Shao who protected them, and they must fight for Yuan Shao.
But what now? There were actually deserters among these people. They were originally going to take their troops north to join Yuan Shao's troops, but they fled when they reached Yingchuan.
Most of these people were captured, and the descendants of the Qing family were imprisoned together to await Yuan Shao's decision.
This time when they return to Yingchuan, Yuan Shao will solve this matter. As for how to solve it? From the fact that he only brought Beifu knights from the North with him, we knew his choice.
……
Yingchuan, Wuyang.
In the early morning, the breeze blew over a hill, and a cavalry team of hundreds of people was surrounding the place.
Yuan Shao's youngest son Yuan Shang was riding among them.
Yuan Shang was only thirteen this year, but on the day his elder brother Yuan Tan died, Yuan Shao held a crowning ceremony for Yuan Shang, indicating that this young boy who was only thirteen years old had become the heir who could inherit the Yuan family's business.
Regarding Yuan Shao's behavior, all the staff including Xu You, Xun Zhan, and Guo Jia understood that this actually made Yuan Shang his successor.
If Yuan Tan is still there, then being the eldest son to inherit is naturally the best choice. But now that Yuan Tan is gone, Yuan Shao can choose his favorite heir.
Compared with the dullness of his second son Yuan Xi, Yuan Shao undoubtedly prefers Yuan Shang who resembles him so handsomely and smartly.
At that time, Yuan Shao asked Xu You and others about the successor. Xu You was considering the left and right, but Guo Jia was the only one who said that no matter who Yuan Shao established, he should be dismissed.
Therefore, Yuan Shao finally decided to make Yuan Shang his successor, and asked all the generals in the army to kneel down and pay allegiance to him.
Yuan Shao was not very sure about this war, and he even had the consciousness of dying on the battlefield, so he had no scruples and asked everyone to be loyal to Yuan Shang. The reason is that once he dies in battle, these people can still protect Yuan Shang and continue fighting.
This time, Yuan Shao returned to Yingchuan to supervise food and grass and brought Yuan Shang with him. Afterwards, Yuan Shao will stay in Yingchuan to dispatch the army, and Yuan Shang will be sent to the rear of Runan, where he will wait for news about him.
But before they parted, Yuan Shao had to teach his youngest son the most important lesson in life.
That's what it means to be a monarch!