My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 464: The Nation's Pawns, the Victorious General

Standing on the Wei Bridge, feeling this unprecedented desolation, Zhidu felt an indescribable sadness in his heart.

A new emperor appoints new ministers, this is not an idea that Zhidu did not have before.

When leaving Chang'an, Zhidu had indeed thought: it might be a long time before he returns to Chang'an; by then, Chang'an would have undergone earth-shaking changes.

I thought that when I returned to Chang'an, there would be many new faces in the court.

But Zhidu never expected that when he returned to Chang'an, he would be greeted by such a situation in the court and the country.

——It’s basically the same people.

But they are no longer those people.

The dandy relative of the emperor, Dou Wangsun, was appointed as prime minister;
Han Anguo, a strategist of the State of Liang, was promoted to one of the Three Dukes.

Even Wei Wan, who was Zhidu's immediate superior whom Zhidu looked down upon in the past and who was only one rank higher than Zhidu most of the time, has now been appointed as the Imperial Censor and the second prime minister of the Han Dynasty.

Only one step is left before all the officials can leave politely and have them give way.

The older predecessors who were already more respected than Zhidu had either retired to live a retired life or were promoted to the level where Zhidu was now, and even visiting him might not be qualified to see him.

Most of Zhidu's colleagues who were originally of the same generation as him have now been promoted. When they see Zhidu, even if they don't take the initiative to greet him, Zhidu will still take the initiative to say hello and address him as: Mr. So-and-so.

Not to mention the younger generations and fellow disciples.

If one could meet Zhidu without making sarcastic remarks like "auv, who is this?", he would be regarded as a person of great character and humbleness.

Everything has changed.

All of this made Zhidu feel unprecedentedly at a loss.

With such mixed emotions, Zhidu walked south along Zhangtai Street and finally stood outside the north gate of Weiyang Palace: Sima Gate.

After some recollections, Zhidu finally sighed, raised his head, straightened his face, walked straight into the palace gate, and headed towards the Xuanshi Hall.

However, little did they know that the public opinion in Chang'an, which seemed to have little reaction to Zhidu's return and seemed to be still calm, had completely attracted the attention of people all over the world - at least the people in Guanzhong - after this bombshell news.

As for the outside of the Great Wall, it is only a matter of time...

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"The Emperor's hawk is here~"

"Please sit down."

Weiyang Palace, Xuanshi Palace.

Today, Liu Rong specially chose the venue for the meeting with Zhidu in front of the huge sand table in the back hall.

Firstly, making memorials and reporting on work is actually very cumbersome.

From the integration of archives, to the accounting process, to the process of obtaining the results, to reporting the results to the central court in Chang'an, etc. - once they start talking, the conversation goes on from dawn to dusk in the blink of an eye.

Liu Rong neither liked this kind of tedious and boring work report nor had the patience to listen to Zhidu's long and boring clichés.

Secondly, due to the special nature of Yanmen County, Zhidu, the county governor, was actually a border guard.

When talking about Yanmen County, we have to mention Yanmen Pass.

The location of Yanmen Pass is roughly in Yanmen Mountain, about 20 kilometers north of Dai County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province.

From the perspective of the pass connecting the Great Wall, it can also be said that Yanmen Pass is also an important pass and node of the Great Wall defense line.

In later generations, Yanmen Pass was famous for its danger and was known as the "No. 1 Pass in China". There is a saying that "among the nine passes in the world, Yanmen Pass is the first"!
Moreover, Yanmen Pass, Ningwu Pass and Piantou Pass are collectively known as the Three Outer Passes.

Hundreds of years ago, King Wuling of Zhao adopted the Hu clothing and horse riding and archery, which greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the Zhao army, especially in grassland cavalry warfare.

After that, the Zhao soldiers under the control of King Wuling of Zhao won victory after victory.

After King Wuling of Zhao, the State of Zhao also showed great toughness towards the nomadic tribes on the northern border.

——The Linhu people are attacking, let’s kill them!
——The annoying person on the floor called, chase him away!
As time went on, Zhao's actual border control line moved further and further north, and Zhao established three counties: Yunzhong, Yanmen and Dai, in this newly conquered land.

Afterwards, the famous general Li Mu was ordered to assist Yanmen to guard against the northern barbarians, the Huns.

While stationed in Yanmen, Li Mu made an extremely accurate judgment on the defense situation on the northern border of Zhao State based on the actual situation.

Li Mu submitted a memorial to the King of Zhao: In order to eliminate the harassment of the Xiongnu on the border people of Zhao, and especially to make the Xiongnu people, who often worked hard to harvest peaches but had them picked by others, angry, we should take the initiative to attack and engage in battle.

The purpose of this battle is to prevent the Huns from getting anything through animal husbandry, nomadism, or trading with merchants for the next few years!

What’s even more exaggerated is that Li Mu succeeded.

Although no one knows how the war started, how it progressed, or when it ended, it still left a significant mark in the history of world wars.

——Defeat more than 100,000 Hun cavalry.

——For more than ten years thereafter, the Huns dared not attack Zhao.

Just these two short sentences are enough to explain why Li Mu was a famous general and why, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the various separatist regimes basically treated foreign tribes as wild monsters and bosses, rather than simply for the sake of upgrading.

In later generations, people called Li Mu a military strategic genius, and built a temple near Yanmen Pass called Jingbian Temple.

The significance of its existence is to commemorate Li Mu's numerous achievements in guarding the border and protecting the people.

Later, Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, and Li Mu's achievements, along with the dignity of the Zhao royal court, were temporarily buried under the ruins of the six kingdoms by Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

During the Qin Dynasty, the country was unified and peaceful.

Therefore, Emperor Qin Shi Huang dispatched General Meng Tian to lead an army of 300,000 to march north out of Yanmen Pass!

The original words in the history books are: attack the Hu in the north and recover all the land of Henan - that is, the Henan region.

As the saying goes, when it comes to matters concerning senior officials and generals, the fewer words there are, the bigger the matter.

Just these eight simple words: Defeat the Hu in the north and recover all of Henan Province, and no one knows how much blood and even precious lives were involved.

When the Huns were driven to the north of Yinshan Mountain by Qin general Meng Tian, ​​Emperor Qin Shi Huang once again ordered to connect the Great Walls of the various countries, forming a Qin Great Wall that stretched thousands of miles from west to east.

Therefore, Yanmen Pass became more and more important.

The time came to the first year after Emperor Taizu Gaohuang Liu Bang ascended the throne during the Han Dynasty.

The army of the Xiongnu leader Maodun was approaching the border. King Han Xin surrendered in Mayi at the front line of the war, and led his army to turn against the Han army!
As Han Wangxin surrendered without resistance and served for free, the Huns were able to cross the Juzhu Mountain to the south and attack Jinyang directly.

Jinyang is not only the capital of the Dai State of the Han Dynasty, but also what people in later generations often hear: Taiyuan.

There is no need to elaborate on the final outcome of that war.

——Battle of Pingcheng, Siege of Baideng, etc., are basically known to later generations. According to the original historical process, when the time came to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, that is, the present timeline, during this period after Emperor Rong ascended the throne, the military activities of the Xiongnu against the Han Dynasty would become more and more frequent, with greater intensity and more and more people coming.

Faced with the increasingly rampant invasion of the Huns, Emperor Wu of Han naturally could not swallow this humiliation, so he began to fight back and retaliate since he ascended the throne.

In the fifth year of Yuanguang reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Wu of Han issued an edict to recruit civilians and soldiers to repair Yanmen Pass.

Almost from the following year after the renovation of Yanmen Pass, the two most outstanding generals, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, as well as Li Guang, Cheng Bushi and other famous generals, began to use the ancient Yanmen Pass as their last stop before going north beyond the Great Wall.

During the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han, Wang Zhaojun went to the frontier to marry a foreign king, and she also passed through Yanmen Pass...

After understanding the above - the history of Yanmen Pass, it is not difficult to find that the reason why Yanmen County is called "Yanmen County" is not because there is a Yanmen Mountain under its jurisdiction;

It would be better to admit frankly: the existence of Yanmen Pass is the source of Yanmen County’s important strategic position.

Thinking of this, Liu Rong finally reluctantly withdrew his gaze from the sand table in front of him for a moment.

He raised his head with a smile and looked at Zhidu, whom he had not seen for several years. His face was slightly weathered. He saw Liu Rong smiling and waving at him.

"General, please come."

I don’t know why;

Liu Rong's call of "General" did not sound at all unnatural to Zhidu.

Quite the contrary - it was Liu Rong's solemn call of "General" that made Zhidu wish he could just join the army right there and become a real general of the Han Dynasty!
Even if he had not done so, Zhidu could actually be considered a veteran general of the Han Dynasty.

——Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, the strategic defense of the northern border wall of the Han Dynasty has always been the responsibility of local counties and kingdoms.

For example, the King of Yan, the King of Dai, and the King of Zhao, no matter how hard or difficult it was, they had to defeat the Huns outside the pass first, and then report to the rear at any time.

This is true for the princes and vassal states, and even more so for the border counties and prefectures controlled by foreign officials.

It is no exaggeration to say that, whether now or in the past, the garrison commanders of the Han Dynasty's border walls have always had extremely high tactical autonomy and a partial degree of strategic autonomy.

When the Huns were at the gates of the city, all the counties to the north of the wall, including Yanmen, Shang, Dai, Beidi, and Longyou, could spontaneously organize themselves to resist and defend against the invasion under the advocacy of their respective commanders, that is, the county governors or county commanders.

It is precisely for this reason that there is such a saying that is not acceptable inside and outside the court.

——The prefect of a county inland is an official;
The county governor at the border is a general.

Obviously, Zhidu was extremely pleased with Liu Rong's title of "General".

After all, he was the governor of a frontier city, and the title of general was undoubtedly the most direct, simple and rough affirmation that could be given to Zhidu's work in the past few years.

Following Liu Rong's call, he stepped forward and lowered his head along Liu Rong's gaze, looking at the partial area of ​​the foundation sand table. The word "Hexi" was the first thing that came into Zhidu's sight.

But soon, Zhidu looked to the right side of that area, to another area called "Hetao".

Then, Zhidu's expression became a little strange.

Zhidu's feelings towards his younger brother Cheng Buzhi became increasingly complicated.

At first, when the current Liu Rong sent Cheng Bushi to the north to be the governor of a border county, Zhidu thought it was nothing special.

But I didn't expect that if I took one step slowly, all the steps would be slow.

By the time Cheng Buzhi finished the Chaona War in the north and was transferred to Yanmen to be the prefect of the county, Cheng Buzhi had already been granted the title of Marquis!

On the other hand, Zhidu could only serve as the adjutant of this former younger brother and junior, and was appointed as the commander of Yanmen.

After he was transferred - from the prefect of Yanmen to the prefect of Shuofang, to go to the Hetao front, Zhidu was able to take his place and become the prefect of Yanmen.

For a while, the system even made fun of itself in this way.

——The next time Cheng Buzhi is transferred, he might go to Shuofang County again, continue to copy others, and serve as the governor of Shuofang County...

Pulling his scattered thoughts back to the present, Zhidu's attention was soon attracted by the somewhat 'abnormal' Gao Que.

Last year, in the Hetao-Mayi Battle between the Han and the Xiongnu, although Zhidu's troops did not directly participate in the fighting, they still took part in the battle as a reserve mobile force.

As one of the only two persons in charge of the Mayi battlefield - even if he was the deputy one, Zhidu could not have failed to understand: the Yanmen battlefield was delaying the main force of the Xiongnu Chanyu Ting in order to buy more time for the main force of the Han army on the Hetao battlefield to seize Hetao!
Naturally, Zhidu could not have failed to understand the terrain of the Hetao area, and how the Han army should deploy defenses on the west and north sides after taking over the Hetao area.

The most important area is obviously the northern part of Hetao, which is separated from Munan by a river and faces the other side from afar.

To be precise, it is Gaoque and the surrounding areas.

But now, Zhidu was surprised to find that the moat on the south side of Gaoque on the sand table in front of him was gone!

Judging from the small triangular flags stuck on the sand table, Liu Rong seemed to have just conducted a war game with someone, based on the premise that "Gaoque has no moat".

Zhi didn't really care who was conducting the war game simulation with Liu Rong.

It's just that Gaoque has no moat...

"Your Majesty, do you want to send troops in the cold winter, have the army cross the river at night, and then attack Gaoque at night?"

After all, he is what Emperor Xiaojing called "the country's minions and the victorious general in battle."

In just three or two breaths, Zhidu saw Liu Rong's true intention through the moat on the sand table, which was supposed to be located south of Gaoque but was filled with sand: above the river.

After asking this question, Liu Rong looked down at the sand table with a smile, and saw Zhidu frowning.

After a long while, Fang began to speak again: "It is indeed a bit radical."

“But it is indeed a rare God-given opportunity in the past few decades, or even in the next few decades.”

"Moreover, just like your majesty's plan to seize Hetao, this method can only be used once."

"If we fail, it will be extremely difficult to capture Gaoque again in the future, almost impossible."

Seeing Zhidu, who was originally a little lonely and sighing, becoming confident and talkative in the blink of an eye, Liu Rong finally revealed a strange smile.

However, he did not directly answer Zhidu's question, but asked in a suggestive way: "Are you used to staying in Yanmen?"

"Without a war, I'm afraid you'll get bored..."

...

"This winter, I intend to go hunting in the north."

"Prey, hunting grounds, good bows, and long swords are all here."

"I just don't know if the victorious generals and the country's minions mentioned by the late emperor can become my henchmen?"

(End of this chapter)