The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 572 Why does it sound like Zhong Hui's words?
Youzhou, State of Yan.

Yang Hu stood on the city wall, watching the soldiers training in the distance.

Since arriving in Hebei, Yang Hu has been concentrating on training the army in addition to pacifying the local people.

He could not participate in the war between Shu and Wu because of the distance between them. However, Yang Hu did not feel frustrated because he also had enemies to deal with.

Originally, Guanqiu Jian led the expeditionary force all the way to the Korean Peninsula, and almost defeated all the enemies in the north. Few dared to jump out and challenge the Wei Dynasty.

But that was more than ten years ago after all.

During these years, many changes have taken place in the north.

As the Xianbei became increasingly powerful, the former Wuhuan and other tribes had completely declined. Yang Hu felt an inexplicable threat from several Xianbei tribes in the north.

Currently, the three major Xianbei tribes in the north are Tuoba, Duan, and Murong.

They knew the Wei Dynasty very well, but the Wei Dynasty lacked knowledge of them.

During the past decade or so, they have developed rapidly. We only know that the Tuoba tribe has a combat force of nearly 200,000. Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that they are bragging.

As for the other two tribes, although they lived in the Liaodong and Liaoxi regions of the Wei Dynasty, Yang Hu discovered that the Wei Dynasty did not have an accurate understanding of them.

Perhaps it was because so many major events had happened in the imperial court in recent years that no one had the time to pay attention to the situation on the border.

Or maybe it's because of contempt, thinking that the other party has already surrendered and there is no need to keep watching them.

This made Yang Hu a little alert.

Like Deng Ai, Yang Hu felt that these Hu people outside the Great Wall might pose a threat.

No matter how peaceful the current situation is, Your Majesty will never allow a foreign force to occupy your territory. The educational policy implemented in Yongliang and Bingzhou in the future will definitely be carried out in Youzhou.

However, the Xianbei people were not as completely dependent as the Xiongnu and Qiang people.

They established their own country outside the city.

It is probably not easy to persuade them to succeed directly like Bingzhou did.

This is a battle that must be fought. The Xianbei's combat effectiveness is much higher than that of the Qiang, Hu, and Xiongnu.

Previously, even with all five Xiongnu tribes out, they were still no match for the Xianbei's Tuoba tribe. Now, the Tuoba tribe is many times stronger than before.

Yang Hu stood on the city wall, watching the soldiers training in the distance, but he was thinking about future strategies in his heart.

Yang Hu now has more than 30,000 elite troops under his command.

After arriving here, Yang Hu screened the soldiers under his command.

He dismissed those sons of noble families who came to gain military merits. Originally, the place where the most people came to gain military merits was the Central Army.

However, as the imperial court strengthened its control over the central army, the number of times the central army went out to fight increased significantly. In addition, people like Ma Long implemented new training methods in the central army, which immediately caused a large number of children from prominent families to flee the central army.

They didn't dare to stay there. After much thought, Hebei became a good place to gild themselves.

Because there is no war here.

There are still wars in other areas from time to time, but there is no war here. It is very peaceful and suitable for those who are afraid of death and have accomplished nothing to come here to gain experience.

And the original commander here was He Zeng.

He doesn't care at all whether there are people working under him or not. It doesn't matter what happens. He only cares about himself.

This resulted in the Hebei Corps' combat effectiveness being extremely low.

After Yang Hu arrived, he first dismissed those who were idle, and then laid off many old, weak and sick people. He believed that the entire Wei army should be downsized.

The size of Wei's army was simply too large.

After destroying the Kingdom of Shu, the number of troops exceeded 500,000, reaching an unprecedented level. Even at the peak of the Later Han Dynasty, there was no army of such scale.

Yang Hu felt that the number of troops could be appropriately reduced and the elite among them could be promoted, just like the emperor's reforms in the temple, to make it more efficient and lighter.

He first made similar cuts in Hebei.

Now, only the elite troops are left, including nearly 10,000 cavalrymen, which is enough to deal with many things.

Yang Hu was gazing into the distance when he suddenly saw a group of cavalry galloping towards him.

The corner of Yang Hu's eye twitched.

He recognized the cavalry.

There were probably more than 400 people, and their aura was so extraordinary that even the soldiers who were training couldn't help but tilt their heads to look at them.

Wen Yang rode on a steed and led everyone directly into the fort.

As soon as he broke into the fortress, he jumped off his horse. Followed by several trusted men, he quickly walked up the city wall and appeared in front of Yang Hu.

This is the first garrison fort on the border of Yan State and an important fortress facing enemies outside the border.

"Greetings, General!" Yang Hu looked at the young man in front of him and was silent for a long time, but still did not scold him.

"Ayang, why are you here when you're not busy with your business in Bingzhou?"

Wen Yang stood up, scratching his head, looking confused. "General, Zuwu is watching over things over there, so I'm not needed. Liu Bao and the others don't dare to disobey. There's nothing I can do over there anymore."

Yang Hu then said, "I sent you there mainly because I wanted you to learn how to get things done and how to get along with your colleagues. But you've caused a lot of trouble these days."

Wen Yang hurriedly said, "Those bastards dared to disobey Your Majesty's edict. They truly deserve to be beaten. I'm being merciful by not chopping them off!"

Wen Yang saw Yang Hu's dark face and hurriedly explained, "General, you don't know. These bastards have divided up a large amount of fertile land for themselves in the name of allocating arable land. They have also tampered with the houses prepared for the Xiongnu. They have used the important task of education as a tool to make profits."

Hearing Wen Yang's complaints, Yang Hu said calmly, "I know these things."

Wen Yang was about to continue speaking when he heard Yang Hu's words. He was a little surprised. He looked at Yang Hu in disbelief, "General, you know? Then why didn't you do anything? Did you let them do this evil?"

Yang Hu signaled Wen Yang to follow him, and then he started walking on the city wall. The others did not follow him.

"Ayang, a general can focus only on victory or defeat and make the right decisions, but if you want to be a commander, you have to consider more things."

"Now that you've dealt with those officials, who will take care of the subsequent resettlement?"

"Zuwu alone can't handle so many things. We have to wait for the temple to send the right person."

"This will delay the process for nearly half a year."

Wen Yang was very dissatisfied when he heard what Yang Hu said.

"So, should we just let them do their evil? With people like this obstructing our progress, even the best policies won't be implemented and will ultimately have a counterproductive effect."

Yang Hu smiled and explained, "So we should take a compromise approach. First, we should punish them so they don't dare make mistakes again. After they complete their task, we can then calculate their merits and faults and deal with them accordingly. What do you think?"

Wen Yang grinned, "I've already knocked on it."

Yang Hu sighed deeply.

It seems that there is no way for me to make this guy grow up in the short term. However, this is also okay. After all, he is still young. At this age, who is not so reckless and free and easy?
Yang Hu simply stopped talking about these things and asked, "Then why did you come to see me?"

Wen Yang then spoke up, "General, when I was in Bingzhou, I recruited many Xiongnu people. They talked about many things about the Xianbei, which we don't know. So, I want to investigate the various Xianbei tribes."

Yang Hu was stunned. "How are you going to investigate?"

"I plan to lead the cavalry to their tribe and ask their tribal leaders about their situation!"

Yang Hu's eyes widened, "No!"

He stopped, turned around and stared at Wen Yang in front of him.

"Do you want to investigate or do you want to go to war?"

"Of course I'm going to investigate. I'm only taking a few hundred cavalrymen with me. The Xianbei tribes are all getting along well with us right now. Why would I go over and start a war with them? Even if I were to start a war, it wouldn't be now. Besides, we know so little about the Xianbei. If I go there myself, I'll find out what their situation is like!"

Yang Hu frowned and said, "This is too risky. We can send someone to investigate secretly."

Wen Yang immediately raised his head.

"How could a dignified General of the Great Wei not have this much courage? What could you possibly find out by sending people to secretly investigate? General of the Great Wei, you should be straightforward in your actions!"

Hearing this, Yang Hu narrowed his eyes subconsciously, "Why does this sound like what Zhong Shiji said?"

Wen Yang was delighted. "So he told you that, too?"

"His words woke me up!"

"When the Xianbei came earlier, I used hunting to observe their strategy. When Minister Zhong arrived, he reprimanded me."

"He said I was too cowardly. It's obviously the Great Wei that's powerful, and they're weak, so why should we be afraid of them? We should have done it in a big way. Now it's not us who are afraid of war, but the Xianbei people. They don't have the courage to go against the Great Wei, so they chose to surrender and send hostages. This sneaky approach is actually cowardly. It's better to go directly and ask!"

Wen Yang couldn't help but sigh, "As expected of Minister Zhong. After listening to his words, I pondered for a long time and felt that what he said made a lot of sense. That's why I came to see the general and wanted to go out and see how they were doing."

Yang Hu was suddenly speechless.

Zhong Hui's words were actually quite true; they were indeed the ones who were afraid. However, Yang Hu was also worried that Wen Yang's temper might lead him to trouble if he went outside the Great Wall. If he beat up his colleagues here, what would happen if he went out and beat up the Xianbei leader?
The two countries that were originally living in peace might just start fighting.

If someone else had said this to him, Yang Hu would have agreed, but it was Wen Yang who said this.
This guy who causes the most trouble.

Yang Hu pondered for a long time.

"You can go, but you can only go to the Duan and Murong tribes."

"Thank you, General!!!"

"I will never cause trouble!!"

"This"

(End of this chapter)