My older brother is Gao Huan.

Chapter 30 Trouble

The routed soldiers, who had completely lost the will to resist, were not even as capable of fighting as the peasants.

Screams came and went.

Gao Yu reined in his horse, which suddenly stopped, reared up, and then turned its head.

The remaining infantry had already scattered and fled, and he immediately gave orders.

"Don't chase the poor bandits!"

Some cavalrymen had already fled, and this matter could not be kept secret. There was no point in pursuing this group of fleeing soldiers.

Hou Jing and Mulan immediately reined in their horses and returned to the caravan's location.

The soldiers who had fallen from their horses were being watched over by Liu Taozhi and others, and Gao Yu walked up to them.

Upon seeing Gao Yu, the group of people lowered their heads in fear, not daring to meet his gaze. They had witnessed Gao Yu behead a man with a single stroke up close, a truly horrifying sight.

"Who are you?!"

No one responded.

Hou Jing, who was standing to the side, pulled out a bull-ear dagger from his boot and stabbed it into the soldier's thigh.

The soldier let out a scream and cried out for mercy.

Hou Jing sneered in a chilling tone, "Is my blade sharp?"

While laughing, he increased the pressure on his hands, causing the soldier to scream in agony.

Gao Yu raised his hand to stop him and spoke again, "Answer me! Who are you!"

"Replying to...replying to my lord, we...we are soldiers of the Tiger Warrior Army."

really!

Just as Gao Yu had guessed, this group of people were soldiers from the central army who had followed Li Chong on his expedition to earn military merit.

Hou Jing couldn't help but sneer, "The Central Army? Aren't they the elite of our Great Wei? How can trash like you be allowed into the Central Army?"

After drawing his ox-ear dagger and wiping away the blood, Hou Jing continued to mock, "If I were you, I would first harass you with ranged attacks, and then lead my cavalry in a charge!"

Gao Yu took this to heart.

If what Hou Jing said is true, he might only be able to escape on horseback with his men. The soldiers of this central army were far too incompetent in both their pre-emptive handling and their subsequent response to the enemy, completely lacking the demeanor of what is called "the elite of the world".

Judging from their reaction, this wasn't their first robbery; they had clearly been doing the same thing when they robbed caravans in Luoyang before.

Robberies around Luoyang are too easy, aren't they?
However, now is not the time to worry about that. After learning the identity of the enemy's central commander, Gao Yu knew that he had stirred up trouble and there would be consequences!

We need to come up with a solution quickly.

"Wan Jing, you take your men to clean up the battlefield here. Do not burn the corpses; bring them back to the camp along with these people."

Then he turned to the caravan leader and said, "Quickly send someone to tell your family head about this matter, and report it truthfully!"

After explaining everything.

Gao Yu then mounted his horse, saying, "I will return to camp immediately to discuss countermeasures with the commander!"

He immediately rode back to the military camp at full speed!
"Erlang, what's wrong with you...?"

Seeing Gao Yu covered in blood, Gao Huan couldn't help but ask.

"Brother, something has happened."

Gao Yu told Gao Huan everything that had just happened.

Gao Huan was startled to hear that the soldiers killed were from the central army, but he did not panic. Instead, he said, "You handled it very well. You stay in the tent and wait. This is not something that you and I can handle."

He told Gao Yu to wait in the military tent while he himself rode quickly to Loujiawu Fort.

He personally went to Lou Neigan.

At this moment, Lou Neigan had already learned of the caravan's plight. Upon seeing Gao Huan arrive, he immediately slammed his fist on the table in anger.

"How dare you! So what if you're the Central Army? You're bullying the Lou family! You want the Lou family to supply the army with food and you want to rob our merchant caravans. What kind of logic is this?"

"My dear son-in-law, come with me to the military camp! We'll find Commander Duan and demand an explanation!"

Although the Lou family was not a prominent clan, they were a moderately powerful family and a local strongman in Huai Shuo.

Just like when Hou Jing stole the horse, Lou Zhaojun immediately ordered him to be hanged in public as a warning to others. If she didn't react at all when her own caravan was robbed by the central army, would they really think the Lou family was easy to bully?
........................

"Report! The Grand Commander is in trouble!!"

A guard rushed into Li Chongjun's tent in a panic.

Li Chongzheng stood in front of the marching map, frowned, and scolded, "What makes you so flustered?"

"It is Lu Zhong, a junior officer of the Yamen."

Li Chong did have some recollection of it.

The surname Lu originated from the Xianbei surname 'Bu Liugu' after its Sinicization, and it is one of the eight prominent Xianbei surnames.

However, Lu Zhong was a branch of the Lu family; otherwise, he wouldn't have risked losing his head to come to the frontier and rise through the ranks by fighting.

"What's up with him?"

The guards then told Li Chong what they had learned from the escaped cavalrymen.

Upon hearing that Lu Zhong, with a hundred or so men, had been killed by a mere caravan guard, Li Chong was furious!
But he quickly calmed down. Judging from the description of the defeated soldiers, they were not ordinary caravan guards. Each of them was armored and carried a bow. To be able to fight against a larger force with such composure must have required well-trained and battle-hardened elite soldiers.

They are most likely from the border troops, and only the border troops can maintain such combat effectiveness!
Army units like the Central Army, situated in the prosperous city of Luoyang, had long been lax in their military preparedness and training, and had not experienced warfare for a long time. This is why they were slaughtered like livestock as soon as they entered the battlefield.

Li Chong stroked his beard, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Keep a close watch on Lu Zhong's soldiers and strictly forbid them from spreading this matter! If anyone asks, say that Lu Zhong died after encountering the Rouran tribe while on a reconnaissance mission!"

"Here!"

The guards turned and left the tent.

Inside the military tent, a middle-aged man who looked like a scholar sighed, "I never imagined that after the Battle of Zhongli, the military preparedness of our Great Wei army would be so neglected."

This man was Wei Langen, the chief clerk under Li Chong.

Upon hearing this, Li Chong couldn't help but smile wryly, "Living in the bustling city of Luoyang for so long, yet far from the battlefield, how can one not become idle?"

The Northern Wei dynasty conquered the country on horseback. After unifying the northern border, it dispersed various tribes and began to transform from a nomadic tribe to a central dynasty. In particular, under the sweeping reforms of Empress Dowager Wenming and Emperor Xiaowen, the entire upper class of the Northern Wei had already become fully Sinicized.

Although Emperor Xiaowen listed the Cui, Li, and other four families as 'high-ranking families' and granted them high positions in the court.

But there is one thing that the Han people cannot touch!
That is the army!
The Northern Wei army consisted of three parts.

The central army guarding the capital, the foreign troops stationed on the frontier, and the regular garrison forces of various prefectures and counties.

The entire central army consisted of Xianbei and people from tribes such as the Gaoche and Xiongnu who had previously surrendered to the Xianbei. The outer army also had the Xianbei as its absolute core. Only after the capital was moved did Han criminals who had been exiled to the Six Garrisons join the army, but they were mostly assigned to logistical tasks.

The ruling class of Northern Wei always kept the armed forces firmly in their own hands and never relinquished power to the Han people of the Central Plains.

The problem is that the Xianbei, as the ruling class, enjoyed privileges, especially the Xianbei tribes that followed them to Luoyang, where they enjoyed wealth and luxury in fertile lands. Who would be willing to endure the hardships of training every day?

Endure hardship!

Their great-grandfather's generation had already endured all the hardships they were supposed to suffer along with Tuoba Gui!

Wei Langen was about to speak.

But then he saw the guards enter the tent again.

"What's going on?"

"Reporting, Grand Commander, Commander Duan of Huai Shuo Town requests that you meet him outside the camp!"

Li Chong sighed inwardly, "This is bad."

His worst fears have come true.

But since things had come to this, he had no other choice but to ask, "Besides the section chief, is there anyone else?"

"Several hundred armored cavalrymen followed, and an old man stood beside the section chief; judging from his attire... he didn't seem to be a soldier,"

"I see."

Li Chong looked somewhat helpless, stood up and said, "Come with me out of the camp to meet them. Strictly prohibit the soldiers in the army from watching and order them to return to their camp!"

The guards then asked, "Should we send a squad of armored soldiers to accompany us out of the camp?"

Li Chong waved his hand and said, "No need."

"Here"

(End of this chapter)