Da Wei Chun

Chapter 595
The year before last, Yuan Ke was still alive, because the Tuyuhun, Rouran, and other Hu tribes gradually moved inward and occupied the Wei land in Hexi.After deliberation, the imperial court decided to send a heavy general to govern Hexi, expel the Hu people, and clarify the border.

At that time, Li Shao was selected, and he will take office only in the spring of the next year.However, just as Yuanhuai and Yuzhong rebelled, Nanliang and Tuyuhun allied forces invaded Guanzhong, so the matter was delayed.

Li Shao didn't take office until Guanzhong was pacified, which was midsummer.But when Rouran invaded Beizhen far away, the Chinese army was empty, and the Guanzhong battle had just ended, so the imperial court had no soldiers to send, so Li Shao could only recruit on the spot.

Li Shao did collect some, not much, worth two thousand.

But you can also know if you think about it: Rouran sent a total of [-] troops to take the six towns, and even the city of Jiuquan County was almost broken.Just those two thousand Hexi soldiers, if they really ran to the border, it would not be enough to stuff the Rouran people's teeth.

So this delay is another half a year.

After Rouran's retreat, the imperial court had a large-scale replacement of governors, and Li Shao was among them.When the dust settles, it will be winter time.Even if Yuan Hui and Yuan Zhi are ambitious, they can only wait for the spring of next year to negotiate.

But who would want the foreign enemy to retreat, and the internal thief be born?
It was less than a month since Gao Zhao defected and fled Beijing.Hexi was two thousand miles away, so he was still kept in the dark.

As the saying goes, fishing in troubled waters, taking advantage of the fire to rob, such a good opportunity, how could Li Chengzhi miss it in vain?

It is also impossible for him to hide in the West Sea and watch a play all the time, watching the court fight Gao Zhao to the death, he has to do something.

After thinking about it, Li Chengzhi felt that it was better to take the opportunity to expand the territory and set up some fertile land for emergencies.

Regardless of the rest, since Emperor Taiwu conquered Beiliang, captured wealthy households in Hexi, and moved more than [-] households from Dingkou to Pingcheng, Liangzhou has abandoned more than [-] grain fields.
Doing the math, it has only been 50 years.

It has only been abandoned for 50 years, and it only needs to repair the channels slightly, soak it with water, eradicate weeds, and then expose it to the sun... In this way, it only takes two years to cultivate the land, and then it can be re-cultivated.

You don't need to capture the entire three counties of Hexi, but only Wuwei and Zhangye counties, you can get up to 300 million mu of land.

Ten mu raises one town, and fifty mu raises one family. In this way, only relying on these fields, you can raise [-] households of soldiers and [-] to [-] households of living people.

What's more, there is a Hexi horse farm that can graze a million horses and train [-] war horses every year, and the West Sea is vast and thousands of miles, and a pasture that can graze tens of millions of cattle and sheep.Not to mention that there are less than [-] Ding households in Xihai today, even if there are another [-], it is more than enough to support them.

Therefore, when Li Song was sent to Jingzhou to lead his troops to the West Sea, Li Chengzhi repeatedly considered: Hexi has a long and narrow terrain, with strong barbarians in the north and south, easy to attack and difficult to defend, and it is definitely not a place to start.

But the advantage is that it is located on the border, beyond the reach of the imperial court, and it is an excellent place to raise soldiers and Tibetans.

It doesn't take much, as long as five years, as short as three years, Li Chengzhi can accumulate the strength to counterattack the Central Plains...

Thinking about it like this, before I knew it, the sun was already westward.

Hearing the movement from outside the yamen, it seemed that Li Liang had returned.Li Chengzhi stood up and moved his hands and feet.

Li Cong reported, Li Chengzhi yelled to come in, and Li Liang, who was all in armor, stepped into the tent with a "squeak".

"Your Majesty, I'm lucky that you don't disgrace your life!"

Li Chengzhi raised his eyebrows slightly, and laughed "hahaha".

Five thousand armored cavalry who are proficient in bows and horses, and it is a surprise attack, if they can't take down the Hexi horse farm with only a thousand herdsmen, that would be a strange thing.

The reason for Li Liang's tone of voice should be that he didn't kill any soldiers, didn't even shoot a few arrows, and even half of the horses didn't startle away, so they paid off.

No matter how many cattle and sheep there are, the Hexi Racecourse now has 40 to [-] horses alone, and even if it is less, there should be [-] war horses, so Li Chengzhi is so happy.

He nodded lightly: "Hard work!"

Li Liang was so flattered that he didn't even dare to say that he didn't dare, and asked again: "All the herdsmen and households in the horse farm were captured without a fight, and the servants left a battalion alone. , and they were all taken to the county seat. Yuwen Yuanqing, the governor of the county, is also among them, do you want to see him, sir?"

"It disappeared, so as not to leak the rumor that I am still alive, sir!"

Li Chengzhi waved his hand, "With the magistrates of Yongping, Shichi, Shandan, Linze and other four counties, and all Dingkou, we will take you to Zhenyi Pass first!"

"what?"

Li Liang was dumbfounded.

Just captured Zhangye County City yesterday, when Li Chengzhi entered the city, he also said that after taking down the Hexi Racecourse, the next step is to march into Wuwei.

There are only three or four thousand soldiers in Guzang City, and the city wall has been in disrepair for many years, and the dilapidated part is only about ten feet tall, and it will fall down as soon as a horse is pulled.If it is a strong attack, I dare not say that it can be won easily, but there is absolutely no suspense.

Lianzhou City will not be protected, so why move Dingkou, cattle and sheep to Zhenyi?

"Dare to ask my lord, why didn't you just occupy the county and prefecture?"

"Silly?"

Li Chengzhi laughed again, "The reason why you pretended to be Hu Bing and cheated the world is to let the court be wary, thinking that Gao Zhao has made peace with Rouran. And the Hu tribe always leaves after robbing, and rarely captures a city. That being the case, it is natural to return to Zhenyi first, or even to the West Sea..."

"Will you take Guzang City or not?"

"How can there be any reason to put meat to your mouth but not eat it?"

Li Chengzhi replied bluntly, "I don't care about the rest, even if it's just for the thousands of households in the city, I must take it..."

After a short pause, Li Chengzhi felt a little ridiculous again.

Since the Han Dynasty, a county with no more than [-] households could not be called "ling", but could only be called "county magistrate".And the pitiful Dongliang state has tens of thousands of people?
Yuan Hui's governor is really pitiful...

Li Chengzhi also confessed: "After conquering Guzang, just like Zhangye, all the things used, such as vehicles and farm tools, etc. are taken away together. But don't demolish houses, let alone set fires, so you can save months. It will be rebuilt later…”

"Are the officials in that state city also escorted to Zhenyi like this?"

officials?

Li Chengzhi pondered for a while, and there was a bit of chill in his words: "In the first trial, carefully screen, and there is no fish that slipped through the net: from Yuan Hui down, everyone from the embroidery guards will be beheaded. The rest will be closely guarded. But don't make things difficult, I will serve you with delicious food and drink, sir, I will be of great use..."

"promise!"

As soon as Li Liang heard it, he knew that the gentleman would make a comeback within three to five months.The reason why the lives of these officials are kept is out of the consideration of acting as an agent of government affairs and governing the local area.

"In addition, send more scouts to the east to detour, strictly guard against death, don't surprise Yuan Hui, and leave the camp after dawn..."

Li Liang respectfully responded, and hurriedly passed the order.

Not long after, there were several teams of Tangqi heading east.

But in the big camp outside the county town, there are felt tents like clouds, which are ten miles wide.

This time, Li Liang dispatched [-] troops, [-]% of which were armored cavalry...

……

With the experience of these two years, Li Liang has become more stable, and he is not inferior to Li Song in terms of knowledge or resourcefulness.Everything was arranged in an orderly manner, and Li Chengzhi didn't need to work hard at all.

The reason why he marched with the army was more symbolic than practical...

At three o'clock, the rear battalion had already got up.Both inside and outside the city are full of lights.Towards dawn, each battalion has prepared meals.After eating hastily, the east sky has turned white.

Hearing another drumbeat, all the ministries began to move in an orderly manner.Six thousand Jia cavalry and four thousand chariot soldiers headed east, and two other battalions escorted the county people and officials captured from Zhangye to Zhenyi.

In addition, there are still [-] horsemen left at the Hexi Racecourse, and the remaining [-] cavalry and [-] rear troops are stationed in Zhangye County with Li Shi.

The cavalry paid attention to a quick word, and as soon as Fang left the camp, Li Liang divided the army into two parts.The front part is five thousand Jiaqi, with only four days of rations, and he and Li Chengzhi are rushing on the horse, planning to rush to Wuwei within two days, and besiege Guzang City by night.

The rear is mostly siege equipment, firearms, food and grass, etc., and there are mostly chariots and soldiers, so they can't go so fast and can only follow.

But no matter how slow it is, it is still no problem to travel five hundred miles in three days.

After the rear arrived, if Yuan Hui still held firm and refused to surrender, he could only attack by force.

According to Li Liang's estimate, no firearms were needed at all.With the dilapidated city of Guzang County, it only takes a few rounds of stone cannons to break it.

Since Zhenyi dispatched troops, the three counties of Linze, Shandan, and Shichi, as well as Yongping, the prefecture city of Zhangye, have all been attacked in this way.Not to mention their own damage, even the defenders in the city did not suffer many casualties, which can be said to be effortless.

Li Liang even thought that with Yuan Hui's disposition of greed for life and fear of death, maybe Guzang City would be thrown down when Jiaqi Fang besieged the city and the rear was still halfway...

……

A brigade of scouts was divided into fifty ponds, one pond and ten riders, and they had already circled from the north of Zhoucheng to Wuwei one night in advance.If an abnormality is found along the way, it will not take an hour to spread it to the army a hundred miles away.

But for two consecutive days, the weather was calm, and Tang Qi didn't even see a single smoke all the way, so he got stuck on all the main roads from Guzang to Shanshan, Bugulu, and Jincheng County without any surprises.Even if the defenders are alarmed by the enemy, they will never send a single word out of Liangzhou.

Since the dispatch of troops, this has been the case all along the way, so Yuan Hui has not even heard the wind of the four counties and one county in Lianke...

It was three o'clock in the five o'clock watch (about 04:30), when sleep was sweet, but Yuan Hui had a nightmare.

He dreamed that he was settled by the imperial court and had already been put on the execution platform.

Just as the butcher's knife fell and the body and head were separated, there was a sudden explosion of thunder, and the execution platform shook.

Surprised, Yuan Hui jumped up like a carp turning over.He didn't realize it was a nightmare until he saw the moonlight shining like water outside the window, and the window paper was illuminated palely.

He couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief, and was about to wipe off the cold sweat on his forehead when Yuan Hui felt something was wrong again.

The bed was really shaking, like an overturned dragon, and there was a rumbling sound in my ears, like wind and thunder.

Listening carefully again, the faint sound of golden gongs could be heard in the distance, mixed with hissing.

Drain?
Yuan Hui was suspicious, turned over and jumped off the bed.Just as he was about to put on his shoes, the door was knocked open with a "boom".

"Mr. Shi, the enemy is attacking!"

All right, why is the enemy coming?
Yuan Hui was taken aback for a moment, and his face immediately turned pale: "But entered the city?"

"Not yet, but the four gates have been besieged, and everywhere you see are Hu Qi!"

Hu Qi?

Just like Yuwen Yuanqing, when he heard Hu Qi, Yuan Hui thought of Tuyuhun.

In contrast, Wuwei City is closer to Tuyuhun, and the herdsmen who did not see Tuyuhun had already grazed their cattle and sheep under Wuwei City.

He was startled, and hurriedly raised his boots: "Quick, put armor on me!"

It was half an hour after Yuan Hui was fully dressed and ran up the city wall.At this time, the sky is already bright, just when the frost is falling.

Even though he was sweating profusely from running, Yuan Hui still felt the chill go straight to his neck.

At first glance, it seems that the city is full of Hu Bing, only to feel a vast expanse of whiteness.But after taking a closer look, Yuan Hui breathed a sigh of relief.

He entered as a general of the right guard, and led embroidered clothes for many years, and when he left, he was the governor of Jizhou. There were many rebellions in the prefectures and counties.

Taking a closer look, he knew that there seemed to be many enemy troops under the city, because the formation was extremely sparse.If it is counted as a real number, it is more than a thousand, at most it cannot exceed the number of five thousand.

That is, the four cities are besieged, and the number of incoming enemies is five or six thousand at most.Moreover, the Hu people are very bad at attacking the city, the only way is to hang the rein on the corner of the city, and then use the horsepower to pull the wall, there is no other way.

According to the law of war, there are still [-] state soldiers in the city, and [-] Chinese troops brought by me from Beijing, with a strength of more than [-].Moreover, the food and grass are still sufficient, and I dare not say that the enemy is forced to retreat, but there is no problem in defending for a month or two.

In addition, there is Shanshan in the south and Lingzhou in the north, both of which are only six or seven hundred miles away from Wuwei. You only need to send a fast horse to report, and the rescue will arrive within ten days.

Looking at the Hu thieves in the city, there are only cavalry, not even a cow or sheep, how many days can they survive?

Just thinking of this, Yuan Hui was taken aback suddenly, and the hairs all over his body stood on end.

He hurriedly asked: "Under the other three cities, it can be seen that Hu Bing drives cattle and sheep?"

His subordinates didn't know why, so he just said truthfully: "I have never seen cattle and sheep, they are all like now, only cavalry!"

Only cavalry?

In just one breath, the blood on Yuan Hui's face faded, turning as white as paper.

It has only been a few years since Tuoba Xianbei was sinicized, the Hu people were changed to Han surnames, and the old capital Pingcheng was moved to Luoyang. How could Yuan Hui not know the Hu people's marching methods?

Whenever troops are sent out, they must be accompanied by cattle and sheep to serve as food for the army.

It is only four to five hundred miles from Wuwei to Fu'ai City, but due to the barrier of Qilian Mountain, it is by no means a one-day journey.This back and forth only takes five or six days on the road, and that doesn't count the time for the battle and the capture of food.Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for these thousands of Hu soldiers to go on the road with only dried meat. In any case, there should be thousands of cattle and sheep accompanying the army.

But why is half of the city missing?

No matter how stupid he is, Yuan Hui has already reacted: the enemy is definitely not the five or six thousand people he saw in his eyes, there may be more rear troops?

So far, how dare he be as confident as before?
"Hurry up, hang someone down, and go to Shanshan and Lingzhou for help!"

"Mr. Shi, the lower official has already been hanged, but he was either shot at half the wall, or he was beheaded by the enemy's rangers as soon as he got on his horse!"

The general under his command turned back, and handed over another crossbow arrow, "The last general estimates that there are strong slaves among the thieves, and there are quite a few of them!"

Yuan Hui took it, and his pupils shrank suddenly: the arrow was more than two feet long, with feathers, and the arrow was like a cone, two inches long, with barbs, it was clearly a heavy armor-piercing arrow.

With a little scratching with a fingernail, Yuan Hui knew that it was forged from fine steel.

Looking at the city, the nearest Hu Qi is more than a hundred steps away from the wall.

With such a heavy crossbow and such a long distance, it takes a three-stone heavy crossbow to pierce armor or pierce a horse.

But in Tuyuhun, without the help of Nanliang, even the blacksmiths who forged soldiers and forged armor could not afford it. How could there be such a sharp weapon?
(End of this chapter)