Chapter 41: Making Friends and Reorganizing

Chapter 41: Making Friends and Reorganizing

Chapter 41: Making Friends and Reorganizing (Additional chapter for the leader Kui Yuange)

After the family dinner, the guests dispersed.

Concubine Pei saw her cousin Pei Xia off and said a few words to her.

"Since Shudao is working as Fourth Brother's aide, why don't you convey a few words to him for me?" Under the dim moonlight, Concubine Pei's face seemed a little sad.

Pei Xia did not dare to be careless and immediately said, "Sister, please speak."

"The royal army has defeated the Ji army many times, and it is indeed majestic. However, I am worried that the people of Ye will bear a grudge and will seek revenge if we are defeated in the future." Concubine Pei frowned.

"Aren't we fighting well now? How could you think of defeat, my dear sister?" Pei Xia asked.

"If you don't think about the future, you will have immediate worries." Concubine Pei sighed and said, "The food stored in the capital is no longer a secret. I heard from the king that it will be enough to support us until February. If we can't win in the next few months, I'm afraid the king's army will have a hard time continuing."

Pei Xia was silent.

This problem is indeed very tricky.

To besiege a city, you don't need to put your weapons under the city walls and leave no gaps. In fact, you only need to control the main traffic routes.

Transporting grain requires vehicles, and the vehicles must go on the post road, so all you have to do is cut off the post road.

If it is shipping, it is actually simple, just cut off the water transport. Moreover, winter is coming soon, the rivers are frozen, and shipping can't continue.

As for carrying it on people’s backs or on horses or donkeys, the efficiency is too low and we don’t consider it - in fact, this trick is also easy to defend against.

Now the Jizhou soldiers are in the east of the city, and the Guanzhong soldiers are in the west of the city. Although they have suffered repeated defeats, they have persisted and not retreated.

There were camps of the Ye army in the area of ​​Mangshan (Mangshan) to the north of the city, and Xianbei cavalry were looting in the south of Luoshui to the south of the city. Luoyang was actually still under siege, and supplies from the outside world could not be brought into the capital.

To be honest, if the enemy had not arrived after the autumn harvest, the situation would have been even more difficult.

"Sister, if you want to say something, just say it." Pei Xia thought for a moment and said, "Although you are a girl, you have talent and intelligence. We all admire you. It's okay to say it."

"If the King of Changsha fails in the end and the foreign troops enter the city, many unspeakable things will happen." Concubine Pei said, "Let's not talk about the common people. Just talk about the nobles and aristocrats inside and outside the city. If they are harassed, robbed, or even--"

At this point, Concubine Pei looked sad. After taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she said, "For now, we still have to unite, otherwise we will be manipulated by others. I think Sima Ying is not a wise man, and he doesn't listen to good advice. If everyone unites together, he will see that he can't succeed, so maybe he will be satisfied with just the title of Crown Prince."

"Luoyang cannot fall into the hands of others. At least it cannot fall entirely into the hands of foreign troops." Concubine Pei said finally.

That makes sense! This was Pei Xia's first thought.

It’s hard to say about others, but what kind of beasts are under Zhang Fang’s command?
Once they enter the glamorous world of Luoyang and indulge themselves, there's no telling how much trouble they will cause.

Therefore, even if we cannot protect the entire city, we still have to protect some areas, and this requires everyone to work together.

"Sister, what do you think we should do?" Pei Xia asked sincerely.

"Wang Hu killed sixteen generals from Hebei and gained great reputation. Gou Xi also fought well, and even Mi Huang occasionally won small victories." Concubine Pei said, "If we keep in touch with them, and work together to keep each other warm, we may be able to protect our families."

Pei Xia nodded and glanced at his cousin.

She worked so hard probably to win over the imperial guards for Sima Yue.

If he failed in the end and the generals united around the King of Donghai, he would have the capital to bargain with Sima Ying.

Sima Ying would probably not be willing to leave his old nest in Yecheng.

He did have limited intelligence, but he was not stupid. Once he left Yecheng and came to Luoyang, his fate was no longer in his control, just like Sima Yi back then - he initially brought an army of 200,000 to kill Sima Lun, but most of these 200,000 men were hereditary soldiers or temporary conscripts, not professional warriors. You couldn't keep them by your side for life, and they had to be dismissed.

And since Sima Ying refused to come to Luoyang, he was destined to be unable to control the court for a long time. It would be a bit difficult to dominate the government here as the conditions were not ripe.

As time goes by, the government will most likely fall into the hands of the King of Donghai, right? If he gets the support of the imperial guards or the noble families.

What a good plan, what a good strategy!
Huanu is truly a good wife. Sima Yue is lucky to have such a wife.

After the two talked for a while, Pei Xia said goodbye and left.

Concubine Pei put away the sad expression on her face and stood quietly for a long time.

What she did was indeed worthy of the Pei family and her husband, and was of great benefit to them. As for those incidental effects, they were all trivial matters and not worth mentioning...

******
The mornings in late autumn are crisp and cold.

The mist was like a veil, floating in the air, covering the devastated battlefield.

Deep in the mist, a fiery red figure shouted loudly, and swung his heavy sword with great force, slashing down with almost every blow at the same place.

Shao Xun got up before dawn to practice his martial arts.

He would feel particularly at ease when listening to the commands of the soldiers on duty and the footsteps of the patrol team coming and going.

People who have been in the military camp for a long time may have this hobby. If the world becomes more chaotic, the military camp is the last place to settle down, which can provide people with an unparalleled sense of security.

After practicing the heavy sword, Shao Xun threw the weapon to Wang Que'er and thought about his own things.

In the battle with Meng Chao's troops, their small group suffered nearly 300 casualties. When the battle just ended, there were only about this number of soldiers who could fight, if the children were not counted. Among the wounded, there were probably dozens who could return to the team, but that was all.

Shao Xun felt a little emotional.

Many familiar faces are gone, such as Liu Tong, the team leader under Yang Bao, and Zhong Huaner, the team leader he appointed himself, who died of his injuries.

Many of the seedlings he once thought highly of died or were damaged, and all his hopes and efforts were in vain.

Many officers and soldiers who had gained his initial trust withdrew, and in the future they will have to go through the same process all over again to train new people.

In short, half of the troops that were built up with great effort were lost in one battle - not only the people were lost, but also their energy.

After defeating Meng Chao, many scattered soldiers came to surrender in groups of three or five, and their total number was quite large, so that the total strength of their group exceeded eight hundred.

However, these soldiers came from complex backgrounds, some even spoke different dialects, and their morale was low, which in turn lowered the average level of the entire building.

There is no doubt that he still needs to spend a lot of energy to rectify the situation.

Of course, the more important point is: cultivate more of our own people.

Shao Xun was sure that Wu Qian, Chen Yougen, Huang Biao and others could be trusted. There were probably dozens of such people in total. Some of them could even run away with him, that is, if the court wanted to arrest him, these people would not stand on the side of the court.

Apart from these dozens of people, others can obey military orders, but they cannot become his private servants.

Our future efforts will be to train more individuals and place them in suitable positions.

Outside the military, his network of contacts also began to expand slowly.

Not to mention Mi Huang, people from the Yingchuan Yu family, the Donghai Xu family and even the Runan Zhou family began to realize his value. They no longer relied on their status, ignored him, and looked down on him in various ways.

This is a good start.

Because of his family background, he had no good feelings towards these aristocratic families, but he was also a pragmatic person and knew that it was impossible to eliminate the aristocratic families as a whole. So there was only one trick: divide and disintegrate them, win over those who were willing to cooperate, and exclude or even attack those who were uncooperative. To put it bluntly, it was united front work.

If you think carefully, you will find that you still have a long way to go. The most important thing is to continue to accumulate capital, make friends with noble people, establish achievements, and gain fame.

Otherwise, given his family background, to put it bluntly, he can't even eat hot shit.

After finishing his self-reflection, he saw Mi Huang changed into a dark brown official uniform, which meant he was about to go out.

"Let's go back to Luoyang." Mi Huang smiled and said.

"The inspector looks so happy, could there be some good news?" Shao Xun joked.

"It's really good news." Mi Huang thought about it and decided to reveal the truth: "I received news that Sikong wants to reorganize the Kingdom Army."

"Why?"

"Wang Bing suffered a great defeat, didn't he? Only a few of his 1,500 men are left." Mi Huang smiled until his mouth was about to split open. He continued, "He Lun also has less than a thousand soldiers. Sikong decided to recruit new soldiers and rebuild the Wang Guo Army in Luoyang."

“How many people to recruit?”

"Two thousand men in the upper army and one thousand men in the lower army."

"This is the organization of a sub-country."

"It's the organization of a sub-country."

"What kind of soldiers are you going to recruit?"

"I'm from Luoyang."

"How can we recruit people from Luoyang?" Shao Xun was shocked and asked, "Can they fight?"

Mi Huang said helplessly: "Now that business has stopped, there are many people in the city who have no food or clothing. If we don't recruit them, who else can we recruit? Besides, I have seen those people before, they are not thin, so they should be able to do it."

"What the Inspector doesn't know is that the people in the city are fickle and cunning. If they enter the military camp, they will only bring a bad atmosphere. Let me be frank, they are worse than the servants of the rich." Shao Xun advised.

"Is it really that bad?" Mi Huang thought about it and it seemed to be true.

There were shops in his hometown in Donghai, and he often went to the market. The people he saw were really not good. It was absolutely right to say that they were snobbish and cunning. The people in Luoyang, the capital, should be even worse, right?
"If we really recruit the people in the city to form an army, I will lead our soldiers in a head-on battle and beat them to their knees and beg for mercy, and even hand over their parents' coffins - they will really hand them over." Shao Xun said seriously.

Mi Huang was amused, shook his head and said, "It's done, there's no point in saying more. In fact, everyone does this. No matter if you are a city dweller, a farmer, a servant, or a barbarian, anyone over thirteen years old can be conscripted. If you are given a wooden spear, you are a soldier. Isn't it the same to fight in wars?"

"If you want to win the battle, you can't be so careless." Shao Xun said, "We didn't fight much before, so we didn't know much. But since the uprising of the kings, there have been many battles in various places, and there will always be people who learn how to fight. Over time, we will slowly figure out what kind of soldiers are good, how to train, and how to improve combat effectiveness. Let's put it this way, I think the current battle is a bit of a joke, but in five or ten years, the level will definitely improve. While everyone is making progress, we are regressing. Using people from Luoyang as soldiers will lead to defeat."

Mi Huang didn't expect the problem to be so complicated and was a little hesitant.

"Forget it, I'll go check it out first." Mi Huang sighed, "Maybe things are not as simple as you and I thought. I suspect He Lun and Wang Bing have taken a fancy to our troops, so I'll go check it out first."

When Shao Xun heard this, his expression turned serious.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing." Mi Huang said comfortingly, and said, "I'm leaving first."

(End of this chapter)