Dahan: A 100-year-old veteran, I will build the strongest family

Chapter 71 The Emperor and the Queen Go Out of the City Ten Miles to Welcome

Li Hong deeply understood the beauty of Mrs. Du.

It took me two days to come to terms with this.

At this time, everything had been arranged by Huangfu Song and his men, and they were ready to head south back to Luoyang.

Of the more than 800,000 people rescued from the Xianbei, except for 70,000 young and strong people who had a blood feud with the Xianbei and were homeless, they stayed and joined the Begging Army, and the remaining more than 700,000 people all returned home.

There were 70,000 homeless young and strong men who had a blood feud with the Xianbei, plus the 60,000 foreign slaves.

The number of the beggar army swelled to 130,000.

This is undoubtedly a huge number.

When the Beggar Army was first formed, its equipment was simple.

The weapons used were scimitars captured from the Xianbei people, and there were no protective equipment.

The war horses were the ones Li Hong sent from the Xianbei people.

The Xianbei people from various tribes sent a staggering number of 800,000 horses.

It can be said that this number is huge.

This is also one of the reasons why the Xianbei commanders were so angry.

This is equivalent to cutting their flesh.

With so many horses, Li Hong waved his hand and directly allocated 300,000 horses to the Beggars' Army.

The rest of the horses all migrated south.

Li Hong knew that chaos was not far away, and bringing back a large number of horses at this time would only aid the enemy in the future.

However, generals including Huangfu Song and Zhang He knew that he had extorted a large number of horses from the Xianbei.

He had no choice but to hand it over, otherwise Liu Hong would probably suspect him.

Li Hong planned to take back 200,000 horses of the remaining 500,000 horses to Luoyang to ask for credit from Liu Hong and to deal with Liu Hong.

As for the remaining 300,000 horses, Li Hong also planned to keep them all in Yanmen County to build a horse farm to strengthen the Han border army.

Of course, on the surface it was to strengthen the border troops, but Li Hong had already reserved these 300,000 horses.

Then he would place Yanmen County in the hands of his trusted confidants.

That's equivalent to pouring from the left hand to the right hand.

Everything was ready, and Li Hong immediately began to organize his troops and march south.

Compared to the rush on horseback when we came here, it was extremely urgent.

On the way back, I felt happy and relaxed.

When passing Yanmen Pass, the team stopped again, and Li Hong had an in-depth talk with Zang Min.

In the end, Zang Min and Xu Huang were left to guard Yanmen Pass.

The two generals need to be responsible for recruiting and training soldiers. They need to first increase the number of border troops to 30,000, build a horse farm, and make the 300,000 horses an important force for the border troops.

The team headed south.

Time flies, and another two months have passed.

At this time, a year and a half had passed since Li Hong set out from Luoyang with 10,000 Southern Army cavalry to march north.

This year and a half has been a time of ups and downs for the people of Luoyang.

Their emotions fluctuated greatly with the news coming back from the north. In the first stage, when Li Hong led the border troops to slaughter 100,000 foreign invaders who invaded Yanmen, they felt greatly surprised and excited. Then, when Li Hong led his troops to attack the heart of the grassland and trampled on the Xianbei royal court, they were very nervous and expectant. When he rescued more than 800,000 people and went south, they were amazed, excited, and happy. Later, when Li Hong was trapped in Yunzhong City, the whole of Luoyang was in a tense atmosphere.

Until Li Hong suddenly cut off the source of the problem and ordered the Han army to pretend to be Huns and Wuhuan people to attack the rear of the Xianbei, forcing the Xianbei people to retreat. The news spread to the entire Luoyang City and caused a sensation. They could not help but applaud.

During this year and a half, they had joy, expectations, worries, and surprises...

All the dust has settled.

Their hero is back!

This day.

As soon as the sun rose, the people of Luoyang poured out of the city like a tide.

There was a lot of noise and crowds everywhere, and with peddlers and hawkers mixing in, it was very lively.

Even Liu Hong got up early and took the empress and civil and military officials to personally go ten miles out of the city to welcome the triumphant army.

A group of civil and military officials stroked their beards and looked at the noisy people around them. They felt a little discouraged when Liu Hongqiang dragged them ten miles out of the city to welcome Li Hong.

Although, they felt that the honor of being greeted ten miles outside the city was a bit too much.

However, the fact that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people came out spontaneously also shows that Li Hong fought this battle in an admirable way.

The charming Queen He Lian looked at the huge crowds of people and couldn't help but said:
"Your Majesty, General Li is even more powerful than when he was young. He not only defeated the foreign invaders in Yanmen and broke through the Xianbei royal court, but also tricked the Xianbei army of hundreds of thousands into retreating unscathed. Such leadership ability is rare since the founding of the Han Dynasty. Your Majesty, you must make good use of General Li and let him work hard for a few more years."

Liu Hong listened to the Queen's words, unable to hide the smile on his face, and said with a smile:
"To be honest, General Li's performance has far exceeded my expectations. I will definitely reward General Li well this time."

Liu Hong said this with a smile, and at the same time, his eyes unconsciously glanced at Taishigong who had set up a desk beside him.

At this moment, Taishi Gongzheng picked up his pen, looked at the noisy crowd around him, and then wrote down something.

As Liu Hong looked at Taishigong's busy appearance, the smile on his face became even more intense.

At this time, a group of imperial guards came riding on horses.

"Your Majesty, General Li heard that Your Majesty personally went out of the city ten miles to welcome him, so he left the main force behind and is galloping towards us. He is only five miles away!"

The report from the imperial guards made Liu Hong very satisfied.

Liu Hong, the Queen and the officials did not have to wait long. Soon, smoke and dust filled the distance, and dozens of cavalrymen were seen riding horses towards them. The onlookers seemed to realize something and immediately became agitated, stretching their necks to look.

Dozens of cavalrymen rushed up close, and everyone was shocked. They saw a strong old warrior in armor riding a horse in front of the team. Who else could it be but Li Hong?

"It's General Li, it's really General Li, General Li is back!"

"That's General Li. General Li has returned triumphantly."

Excited exclamations rang out one after another.

Li Hong led Huangfu Song, Ji Ling, Yan Liang, Zhang Fei, Zhang He and other generals to dismount from their horses, came to Liu Hong and saluted respectfully.

"I am Li Hong, the last general, to greet Your Majesty. Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission and returned to the court victoriously!" Li Hong saluted to Liu Hong in a powerful voice.

All the generals also saluted loudly.

"Haha, good, you have fulfilled your mission. Please stand up, old general!" Liu Hong saw Li Hong salute respectfully, stepped forward to help Li Hong stand up, and said with satisfaction:
"When the old general led the army, he told me that he only needed 30,000 Yanmen border troops, 10,000 southern cavalry, 500 skilled craftsmen and three veteran generals to fight against 100,000 foreign tribes. I was a little lacking in confidence at the time. Now it seems that General Li underestimated it."

"Your Majesty, this battle is not the achievement of me alone, but the achievement of all the soldiers. It is also because of your Majesty's wise and brave decision to support me and insist on attacking the alien race when no one was optimistic about it. Your Majesty also had the determination to personally go to the Li family with the three dukes and nine ministers to ask for a general. Your Majesty is so decisive and trusting, how dare I not go all out!" Li Hong bowed to Liu Hong and said solemnly.

Hearing Li Hong's words, the empress, civil and military officials around him, as well as generals such as Huangfu Song, Ji Ling, Yan Liang, Zhang Fei, and Zhang He were all stunned and could not help but look at Li Hong strangely.

Li Hong is actually so good at flattering?
Even Liu Hong himself was stunned by Li Hong's words.

However, Liu Hong was overjoyed and his favorable impression of Li Hong increased. He understood that Li Hong was also praising him. He looked at Taishigong who was also stunned and couldn't help laughing:
"I am very pleased that the old general can understand my heart."

(End of this chapter)