Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 233: The Joy of the Boudoir and the Importance of Using Military Forces

As the sun rose in the early morning, Zhang Yu had already gotten up from his comfortable life.

After taking Cai Yan as his concubine, Zhang Yu indulged himself in the service of the talented woman. After all, there was nothing more interesting than having a talented woman write obscene poems. Cai Yan looked so shy, and it was probably the first time in her life that she would use the talent she had learned so hard for such a ridiculous thing.

Noticing Zhang Yu standing up, Cai Yan opened her beautiful eyes slightly and asked, "Do you need me to stand up and serve you?"

Zhang Yu spread his arms and let the maid dress him. He smiled and said, "I still have important things to take care of. Zhao Ji can rest for a while."

Cai Yan propped herself up, and the quilt slipped down, revealing a piece of white. She said, "My father came to me yesterday and asked me to go back today to help him copy the classics. I don't know if I can come back tonight."

"I'll just go to Madam You's room to rest tonight!"

There are many wives and concubines in the family, and it is the best policy to treat them all equally, not to mention that the tastes are different, so he also needs to change his appetite.

Zhang Yu put on his cloak, looked down at the white silk on the table, and said jokingly, "When Zhaoji has time, you can finish the rest of the poem!"

Upon hearing this, Cai Yan's elegant face instantly turned red with embarrassment. Last night was really too absurd.

She had to write those frivolous poems in front of the desk, and she didn't finish writing them, so she did something stupid on the desk. When she was doing something stupid, she had to ask her which one was better. It was really embarrassing!

When leaving the desk, he insisted on stamping two large round seals on the white silk with ink, which was really unworthy of the teachings of sages.

Although her ex-husband Wei Zhongdao was good at literature, he was not as considerate as Zhang Junhou, and his health was not as strong as Zhang Junhou.

Cai Yan stared blankly at the ridiculous white silk, then suddenly came to her senses and covered her blushing face with the brocade quilt.

She didn't do it voluntarily, but her husband forced her to do it!

Not to mention that Cai Yan was currently repenting, but Zhang Yu had already practiced, changed into clean clothes, and went to see the two newborn babies in a refreshed state.

Before the expedition to Hebei this year, Li Suyi and Hongniang became pregnant one after another, and both gave birth to their children successfully. Hongniang gave birth to a girl, and Li Suyi gave birth to a boy.

The ratio of three sons and one daughter satisfied Zhang Yu. He had both sons and daughters, and if the eldest son was incompetent, he would still have room to choose his successor.

"Bo Song fought well in this expedition against the Huns!"

Zhang Yu handed his daughter in his arms to Hongniang, asked Li Song, who came to ask for a meeting, to sit down, and said.

"Thanks to the efforts of Zhao Yun, Shi Yi and Ke Bi, we were able to defeat the Xiongnu Xubu tribe!"

Li Song sorted out his thoughts and said, "The Hexi River valley is crisscrossed with gullies and ravines, and the barbarians are entrenched there. It is not good for the army to attack, but it is convenient for the cavalry to invade and plunder. As you said, after several rounds of plundering, the people of Qiang and Hu will suffer and will sooner or later submit to you."

"What are the people like in Xihe? Are there only Huns?" Zhang Yu asked.

Li Song shook his head and said, "It's not just the Xiongnu. There are also the Dongqiang and the Baidi natives. There are also Han people living among them, but the Xiongnu have the largest population. The people's sentiments are complicated. It's easy for you to subdue the Xiongnu, but it may not be easy to control the Xihe area!"

"Take it easy!"

Zhang Yu said: "We will first conquer Guanzhong, and then we will slowly conquer Xihe. Since our dynasty moved the Xiongnu into the country, we have repeatedly abandoned counties and prefectures. If we can subdue the Xiongnu in the future, we must move them north to the border, and then subdue the Qiang and Hu tribes and restore the old counties and towns."

It is actually very difficult to sinicize the Loess Plateau. Although the Qin and Western Han controlled the Loess Plateau, there were actually quite a few Rongdi peoples in it. After the large-scale immigration of the Western Han Dynasty, the northern Shaanxi Plateau had actually been sinicized.

The Eastern Han Dynasty settled the Xiongnu in Hetao and the Qiang in northern Shaanxi, which in turn destroyed the process of sinicization since the Qin and Han Dynasties. In particular, the Xiongnu merged with the Eastern Qiang, and the local Rongdi merged with the above two tribes, forming a complex ethnic distribution in the northern Shaanxi Plateau.

Since Zhang Yu had ambitions for the whole world, it was impossible for him to simply want to subdue the Huns, but rather to see if he could restore his rule on the Loess Plateau.

After pouring a cup of tea for Li Song, Zhang Yu asked, "Have you ever met your nephew?"

"I have seen him. He is stronger than other children!" Li Song said with a smile, "When he grows up, he will have the bearing of a noble!"

Li Song was already very satisfied that his sister could give birth to a boy. Since his sister married Zhang Yu, they had been together for many years, but because they had been separated for many years, they had never been pregnant. Now that she could give birth to a son for Zhang Yu, the status of the Li family in Bingzhou was almost unshakable.

After all, Zhang Yu is in such a good position now, and his future prospects are simply invaluable. Whether Li Shi can achieve success and fame depends not only on his military exploits, but other factors cannot be ignored.

If one is more courageous, he may think that if Zhang Yu can rule the world in the future, the Li family will not only become rich and powerful, but can go further with the help of his offspring.

After a pause, Li Song hesitated for a while and asked, "Your Excellency, are you too anxious to attack Guanzhong next year?"

"Why do you say that?" Zhang Yu asked.

"The enemy has many troops. Although Youzhou has agreed to the alliance, I'm afraid it won't be able to contribute much!" Li Song said, "It's better to wait for a while and recruit elite soldiers. Then we can send troops to Guanzhong!" Zhang Yu frowned and said, "Although Bingzhou is dangerous and solid, it is not a foundation for great things. Guanzhong has thousands of miles of fertile land and millions of households. If we don't take Guanzhong next year, we will be slower than the princes in Guandong by one step, and we will be slower than them step by step!"

Zhang Yu advised, "Bo Song, Emperor Gaozu led his army to attack Qin. He defeated the enemy with a small force and conquered Guanzhong to become king. Now the princes in Guandong are fighting each other, but no one dares to take Guanzhong. If you conquer it, you can dominate Guanxi and become king by taking the strong army in Guanxi. To accomplish great things, how can you be afraid of difficulties and retreat?"

Conquering the world is not just playing house. Although Bingzhou is a well-preserved place, the land is not rich and is much worse than Hebei and Guanzhong. If Zhang Yu wants to have the power to annex the world, in addition to going east to Hebei, he must go west to Guanzhong.

Compared with the complicated situation in Hebei, Guanzhong is undoubtedly easier to annex and has a lot of room for development. If he keeps delaying the time of sending troops because of the large number of enemy troops, what is the point of fighting for the world? After all, the princes such as Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and Yuan Shu will not wait for him.

Moreover, having more soldiers does not necessarily mean victory. The previous hesitation in sending troops was that the surrendered soldiers had not been digested. But now that the surrendered soldiers have been digested, more soldiers are available, and with the help of princes such as Liu Yu and Liu Bei, the probability of winning has greatly increased.

Seeing that Zhang Yu's words made sense, Li Song realized that he was being timid.

Li Song looked ashamed, and said, "Your Excellency is right. I am short-sighted!"

"Always give your soldiers courage!" Zhang Yu advised.

"promise!"

They chatted some more about the northern border, and it was not until noon that Zhang Yu let Li Song leave.

Looking at Li Song's departing back, Zhang Yu had already remembered the concerns of the generals about the expedition to Guanzhong. It seemed that if he wanted the soldiers to go to the expedition without worries, he needed to use some means.

After a while, the attendant stepped into the hall and said, "Mr. Zhong wants to see you, my Lord!"

"please!"

As the attendants left the hall, Zhong Yao quickly entered.

"Yao pays respects to you, my lord. We have been negotiating an alliance with Youzhou and have made some progress!" Zhong Yao said.

"Yuan Chang, you've worked hard!"

Zhang Yu stood up and invited Zhong Yao to sit on the couch with him, and asked, "How does Youzhou want to help our army?"

Zhong Yao took out a scarf from his bosom and presented it to him, saying, "My Lord, because Gongsun Zan is unwilling to send troops, the Grand Marshal has sent his son Liu He to lead 3,000 elite cavalry and is willing to provide us with food and grain for the war."

As Zhang Yu was reading the contents of the scarf, Zhong Yao said, "There is another matter that I need to tell you. Gongsun Zan is unwilling to send troops to Guanzhong and wants Liu Bei to send troops. The Grand Marshal has decided to restrict Gongsun Zan's military supplies. I am afraid that there will be a rift between the two because of this."

Gongsun Zan knew that Yuan Shao was eyeing Bohai, so he did not dare to leave his post without permission, so he asked Liu Bei to send troops to Guanzhong, reluctantly allowing Liu Yu to continue to maintain the supply of military supplies. However, in order to restrict Gongsun Zan, Liu Yu reduced a large amount of military supplies in an attempt to control Gongsun Zan.

Zhang Yu frowned slightly and said, "Gongsun Zan was defeated by Yuan Shao in Pingyuan, and now Youzhou has restricted the supply of food and grain. Next year, our army will march to Guanzhong, and Yuan Shao will definitely go west to attack Gongsun Zan. By then, Jizhou will probably be taken by Yuan Shao."

"If Gongsun Zan is defeated by Yuan Shao, he can still seek refuge with the Grand Marshal. And if you can conquer the Three Auxiliary Prefectures, you can then use the geographical advantages of Shangdang to plot against Yuan Shao. You will first occupy Guanzhong, then swallow Jizhou, and finally look to Henan, then your great cause will be accomplished!" Zhong Yao said.

"We can discuss Hebei later, but let's talk about deploying troops in Guanzhong first!"

Zhang Yu thought about the condition of the armor and asked, "How is the armor now?"

"The counties of Bingzhou received more than 5,000 pieces of armor, including 3,000 pieces of iron and leather armor, and 2,500 pieces of cloth armor. Under normal circumstances, we could have received 6,000 to 7,000 pieces of armor this year, but due to the reduction in iron production in the middle of the journey, as well as the need to cast weapons and arrowheads, we had to reduce armor production."

Zhong Yao pondered for a moment and said, "However, after next year, thanks to the support of Hedong County, the various counties' palaces will be able to cast cloth armor, and the output of armor will be at least 8,000 to 9,000 pieces. If we consider the situation of using troops and need to recruit civilians for corvée service, perhaps the number will be less."

"What about the horse armor?"

"Fifty sets of horse armor were cast, half of which were cloth-covered horse armor!" said Zhong Yao.

"The entire army now has 200 sets of horse armor and 10,000 sets of armor. This will be our support for the military expedition next year." Zhang Yu nodded, indicating that he understood.

When Zhang Yu started his army, he had thousands of armors because he was a member of the imperial guards. Later, when he occupied Bingzhou and the two counties of Henei and Hedong, he captured three to four thousand armors. If you include the armors he had cast, Zhang Yu had tens of thousands of armors. Excluding the small amount of armors distributed to the county soldiers, most of the armors were used to equip the six armies.

As for horse armor, it is an indispensable equipment for cavalry. After all, there are many war horses among the Guanzhong rebels, and because they are border troops, the quality is not bad. To deal with the Guanzhong rebels, we must not suffer any loss in cavalry.

Of course, the combat effectiveness of Bingzhou cavalry is beyond doubt, and Zhang Yu started out as a cavalryman, and his generals Zhang Liao, Lu Bu, Zhao Yun, Shi Yi, and the three brothers Liu, Guan, and Zhang who responded to the alliance were all brave and good cavalrymen. Therefore, if they could be equipped with excellent armor and sophisticated weapons, they might be able to make a difference in cavalry.

ps: I have something to do today and tomorrow, so I will update 2 times temporarily, and 1 times on the 3st. I haven't asked for monthly tickets for a long time, so I'm asking for some in advance.

(End of this chapter)