I will be the master of Xuande

Chapter 710 Eight Thousand Riders

Liu Jian mobilized soldiers and horses from various states and counties and began to mobilize troops towards Sizhou. This time he used almost half of the country's strength.

Liu Jian came to Luoyang in person and took over the command from Zhao Yun. Later, he sent people to Bingzhou Taiyuan to summon Guo Jia and Zhang Liao to help.

The reason why Liu Jian dared to use some of Bingzhou's troops was because from the first half of this year, good news about Bingzhou had been passed on one after another.

Guo Jia's achievements this year were very fruitful. He annihilated several main Xianbei forces who secretly wanted to rebel against the imperial court in the border counties of Bingzhou. At the same time, he also implemented the new horse administration in Bingzhou, and at the same time increased the process of the southern Xiongnu tribe returning to the Han Dynasty.

Because many Southern Xiongnu people were included in the local household registration of Bingzhou, the population of Bingzhou, like Youzhou, has shown a leap-forward growth in the past two years. One is because of the absorption of Xianbei, Xiongnu and others. Secondly, after the population increased, the local intermarriage policy became more complete, which caused Hebei's population to grow by leaps and bounds.

The main problems associated with the surge in population are insufficient food fields and bullying and annexation by powerful forces. However, Hebei has been led by the government in recent years and formulated strict policies to nip these problems in the bud.

Especially in Bingzhou, Guo Jia was always merciless in dealing with class issues and implemented the new Han laws formulated in Chang'an very thoroughly. Therefore, a series of subsequent problems caused by the population surge did not appear in Bingzhou.

In terms of farming and the construction of common people's cooperatives, Bingzhou is also very mature. The Huns and Xianbei people who have basically integrated into the Han nationality have work and food in Bingzhou. This is a major factor in the stability of people's livelihood. Key factor.

It can be said that Guo Jia has managed the military and political affairs of Bingzhou very well over the years, so well that Liu Jian was surprised!

He knew that Guo Jianai was a great talent, and originally wanted to train him into an all-around hero, but he didn't expect that the other person's understanding was so high!

Today's Bingzhou, both internally and externally, has reached a level that makes Liu Jian very satisfied. It can even be said that in Liu Jian's view, Bingzhou's achievements in some aspects have even surpassed Guanzhong and Sizhou!

In particular, Bingzhou's local mining of graphite and iron ore has not fallen behind at all, becoming the second giant raw material supplier of iron graphite in the Han Dynasty after Youzhou.

And compared to Youzhou, Bingzhou is closer to Guanzhong and Sizhou, so there is basically no need to worry about the sales of graphite and ironware!

Under such a promising situation, Liu Jian transferred Guo Jia and Zhang Liao from Taiyuan to the Luoyang front line.

After arriving in Luoyang, Liu Jian assigned Guo Jia the task of making him responsible for the logistics support of the entire army, and he had already dispatched grain and grass supplies from various places.

Xun Yu is now in Chang'an to coordinate all affairs in Guanzhong, while Liu Jian has mobilized an army of 60,000 in Luoyang. These soldiers and horses are elite troops dispatched from Sizhou, Guanzhong, Sanhe, Hebei and other places at the same time. The food and grass for each department cannot only be It depends on the supply from Guanzhong, so a capable person is needed to take charge of the matter.

And Guo Jia, who has been in charge of the overall situation of Bingzhou all year round, is fully qualified for this job.

Historically, Guo Jia was good at conspiracies, mainly advising his lord and formulating strategies for battle.

To put it bluntly, he is a staff officer!

But in this era, Guo Jia's abilities are no longer limited to being a staff officer!

There was so much more he could do.

Not only as a staff officer, but also in battle, strategizing, coordinating the overall situation, logistics support, local political affairs...

Guo Jia has already fully experienced everything.

Now he is no longer the genius Guo Fengxiao.

But the all-rounder Guo Fengxiao!

In addition, Zhang Liao made many military exploits in Bingzhou and made outstanding achievements. Liu Jian transferred him to Luoyang this time, hoping that he would make new achievements together with Zhao Yun and others!

For this war, Liu Jian mobilized 200,000 civilians and auxiliary troops in Jizhou, 100,000 carts, 100,000 livestock, all officials in Sizhou and Guanzhong, as well as Sanhe, and even the grassroots commanders and village chiefs, and all work was carried out around this war.

The first goal of this battle is to defeat Yuan Shao, and the second goal is to capture Wancheng and even the entire Nanyang area.

This is Liu Jian's ultimate goal in this battle.

Yuan Shao has occupied Jingzhou for a long enough time. Liu Jian can allow Yuan Shao to continue to occupy Jingzhou for a few more years in other states and counties, but in Nanyang County, Liu Jian decided to take it back!

First of all, Nanyang County is the hometown of Guangwu and the land of Longxing in the Han Dynasty. How can it be left in the hands of Yuan for a long time?

Second, Nanyang County was also the county with the strongest iron smelting technology in the Han Dynasty. Although it lags behind Hebei now, its heritage is still there after all.

Obtaining Nanyang County is equivalent to getting a lot of talents who can be smelted. Now through the exchanges between states, Liu Jian believes that Nanyang County will definitely become brilliant again.

Moreover, to the north of Nanyang County are Sizhou and Guanzhong. For the two capitals, Nanyang...especially Wancheng must be controlled by our own side, so as to ensure the safety of the two capitals and at the same time, from a military strategic level, let the court truly Wancheng turns from defense to offense!

However, if Nanyang County is captured, there is a key problem.

That is because there are too many prominent families in Nanyang County, and Yuan Shao has been used to many bad habits over the years.

In order to be able to confront Liu Jian, Yuan Shao gave almost all the benefits he could think of to the prominent families to the major families in Nanyang County.

It can be said that in order to make these families become Yuan Shao's arms, Yuan Shao was extremely tolerant and indulgent towards them.

This also makes the power of Nanyang County families and their local influence even surpass that of any previous generation.

This is also the reason why the famous families in the south are unwilling to let Liu Jian rule.

Liu Jian's behavior was the opposite.

There is no doubt that after taking Nanyang County, Liu Jian will inevitably face resistance from these families.

Logically speaking, Liu Jian is not afraid of resistance from these families. Every time he rules a place, he encounters such resistance.

How could he be afraid of Nanyang County alone?

The key issue is that not only are there many prominent families in Nanyang County, but this is also an extraordinary period.

After Liu Jian captured Nanyang County, he didn't have much time to battle wits and courage with these families, because the Han Dynasty was full of wars, and there were many things in Guanzhong, Sizhou, and Liangzhou that needed him to deal with. He couldn't do it indefinitely. In Nanyang County, he competed with noble families in a battle of wits and courage.

After all, he is no longer the same person he was back then.

He is Prime Minister Liu.

In response to this situation, Guo Jia came up with a solution for Liu Jian!

That is to expand the momentum.

To expand his momentum, Liu Jian wanted to go south to Nanyang County.

This method is definitely useful.

Liu Jian didn't like the famous families in Nanyang County, but how could the famous families in Nanyang County like Liu Jian?

They didn't like Liu Jian's rule over them, so they all concentrated their families' efforts to support Yuan Shao.

However, when things become irreversible and Liu Jian has to station in Nanyang County, what will happen to these people?

Guo Jia feels that quite a few of them will move south.

In the previous Han Dynasty, families took root in one place and would not move easily.

But with the chaos in the world in recent years, this deep-rooted thought has changed.

During the years when Yuan Shao was in Nanyang County, the power of many local prominent families in Nanyang County had grown from a county to a state. Their family business has many foundations in Nanjun of Jingzhou, Jiangxia, or the four southern counties.

If they were allowed to live and die with the Yuan family in Nanyang County, they would probably not be willing to do so.

Moreover, these noble families have a relatively forward-looking vision. At the beginning, many of them actually felt that Nanyang County was at the junction of such powerful forces as Yuan Shao and Liu Jian in the north. There might be chaos one day, and then their family's property would be destroyed. But it was completely over.

Therefore, those forward-looking leaders of famous families have begun to arrange industries in the south over the years, finding a way back for their families.

Now Guo Jia proposed to let Liu Jian's army spread the news before taking action, just to force these families to evacuate to the south first.

To be honest, Liu Jian doesn't need these families, and these families also don't like being under Liu Jian's rule.

Since both parties don't like it, then everyone might as well break up. I'll spread the news first that I want to take over Nanyang County. If you families continue to stay in Nanyang County, then you will have to be governed by me, Liu Deran, from now on.

Then, your family will not enjoy that special level of treatment like the families in the north from now on!

The Guo family cannot guarantee how many families will start preparing to move south secretly after this news spreads.

But he believed that a large number of families would definitely take action. As long as these families moved south, even if some of the families staying in Nanyang County would still become a constraint for Liu Jian, the resistance would be much smaller.

After stationing in Nanyang County, if Liu Jian wanted to deal with them, it would be much easier than the current situation.

Guo Jia took charge of logistics support for Liu Jian, and also advised Liu Jian on frontline matters. It can be said that he has grown into a great talent.

Over the years, his training in Bingzhou was indeed not in vain.

After all the food, grass and armaments in various places were fully prepared, Liu Jian began to launch a large-scale attack on Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao was still in the offensive tense before, but his military operations in Sizhou were blocked by Zhao Yun.

Yuan Shao originally wanted to plan to continue the attack, but he didn't expect Liu Jian to come in person, and Yuan Yi's army in Yizhou had been defeated and retreated to Hanzhong...

This made Yuan Shao very passive, but in this case, he could not withdraw his troops casually.

Fortunately, Liu Jian's army still had to deal with Ma Teng and Han Sui on the other side of Liangzhou, and had to leave some troops in Guanzhong for defense. This made Yuan Shao feel lucky.

He felt that Liu Jian could not muster many superior troops to fight him, so he felt that he was still capable of fighting against Liu Jian.

In fact, he was wrong about everything.

At the junction of Nanyang and Sizhou, the reason why Yuan Shao had many troops and horses, but was repeatedly driven back by Zhao Yun, was because his cavalry was too far apart. The area was all plains, and Yuan Shao wanted to use his crossbow army here. It is still very difficult to gain an advantage through formation.

If the crossbow army wants to deal with the cavalry attack, it needs the cooperation of a shield array, or it must be on top of the city.

but. At the junction of Nanyang and Sizhou, most of the places where the two sides fought were plains.

In this terrain, even though Yuan Shao ordered the crossbow troops to form a formation on the plain that was conducive to shooting, Zhao Yun immediately retreated after seeing the opponent's formation.

There was no direct conflict with Yuan Shao's specially arranged army.

Zhao Yun will only actually fight Yuan Shao when Yuan Shao uses infantry or cavalry to sneak attack on his own farmland.

In this way, Yuan Shao could only passively let Zhao Yun's cavalry lead him by the nose.

Zhao Yun's Baima Yi was subordinate to the light cavalry unit, and the damage caused to Yuan Shao's army was not particularly huge.

But this time, Liu Jian wanted Yuan Shao to see what a real northern cavalry battle formation was.

He dispatched a large number of majestic war horses and knights who were good at charging from Youzhou and Bingzhou to the front line, and assembled a total of nearly 8,000 horsemen.

Among these cavalry were Xianbei and Huns who had already joined the Han army, as well as Wuhuan people.

The war horses are also heroic war horses trained in the stables of Xianbei and Wuhuan.

They wander around the border all year round, constantly galloping and fighting in order to defend the border. Compared with the cavalry in the south, they are simply a world of difference.

Moreover, Liu Jian also mobilized many sophisticated armors and weapons from all over the northern and southern Guanzhong.

He transferred officers who were good at cavalry and archery from the imperial army, as well as Habayashi Lang, and all of them joined the cavalry formation.

Of course, the Han Dynasty does not yet have such strong national strength to arm a heavy cavalry force of nearly ten thousand people.

Only more than 3,000 of these cavalry were fully armed.

They have the most majestic war horses, as well as the most sophisticated lances, lances or longshuo, as well as the strongest armor, helmets and shields.

Everything is the best. Liu Jian can even say bluntly that any one of these cavalry is no worse than a general in the south.

The general of this cavalry, Liu Jian, was naturally assigned to Zhao Yun, while Zhao Yun's deputy general, Liu Jian, was assigned to Zhang Liao.

The front vanguard of the cavalry was Yan Liang and Wen Chou.

Later, after this powerful force was armed and ready, Liu Jian began to observe Yuan Shao's movements.

Finally he found an opportunity, that is, Yuan Shao wanted to secretly send troops to attack his grain road from Guanzhong to Sizhou.

This time, Yuan Shao dispatched about 20,000 southern elites.

The more than 20,000 southern elites were Liu Jian's primary target.

He wants to make Yuan Shao frightened in a battle.

After sorting out these eight thousand horses, Liu Jian began to prepare a driving strategy against Yuan Shao and others.

He wants Yuan Shao to know how powerful his cavalry is. Only now will Yuan Shao begin to gradually feel the real terror of the northern cavalry on the Ping An battlefield.

However, Yuan Shao himself has not yet reacted.

(End of this chapter)