Chapter 123: Move out!
Chapter 123: Move out!
On the morning of the second day of September, the sound of orderly footsteps left Jinyong City.
"Huang Biao."
"exist."
"Lead the soldiers of this battalion to the horse market and seize all the horses. War horses, draft horses, and running horses, seize them all and bring them all to Jinyong City."
"Yes." Huang Biao was about to tell the soldiers to leave when Shao Xun stopped him again.
"If the horse merchants complain, write them a note," Shao Xun ordered.
"Yes, sir." Huang Biao immediately led his 500 soldiers away.
"Zhang Gu."
"exist."
"Search all vehicles in the city and seize them. Remove the harnesses and use the horses, donkeys and mules to pull them away."
"Yes." Zhang Gu left with 500 soldiers from his unit.
"Li Chong, Yu An."
"exist."
"You two take our soldiers and go to the manors outside the city to ask for horses, donkeys, and mules."
"Yes." Yu An agreed immediately. Li Chong hesitated for a moment and also agreed.
A thousand soldiers marched away in formation.
"He Zhong, Zheng Dong."
"exist."
"Defenses must be set up on the Imperial Street inside Dongyang Gate. Not a single horse or mule is allowed to escape."
"promise."
After the order was issued, Shao Xun had someone bring a Huchuang, and sat in Jinyong City with his horse and sword in his arms, with a smile on his face, revealing four small symmetrical canine teeth - if you look closely, they look more like fangs.
Yes, this general in the palace who always abides by the rules, at this moment, showed his crazy fangs.
We follow the rules only because the benefits are not big enough and not worth getting angry about.
When the benefits are big enough, who do I care who you are?
"Haha!" Shao Xun suddenly laughed.
Some people actually think he follows the rules.
You haven't seen how crazy I was when I killed Li Yi, Meng Chao, and captured Sima Yi, right?
I became so abnormal that I couldn't control myself.
The sun gradually rises, and the September sunshine is warm.
Shao Xun squinted his eyes and enjoyed the warm sun.
Tang Jian brought the guests of Shao Garden, which had expanded to fifty people, and they stood on both sides wearing helmets and armor and holding weapons.
Angry curses gradually rang out on the streets, and that was only the first wave of victims.
Shao Xun closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
In the horse market east of the city, soldiers waved their spears and smashed down on the horse merchants who came to stop them, pushing away all of them.
Some guards were indignant and planned to pull out weapons from the bottom of the carriage and the corners of the shops, but they were quickly stopped by the leader.
They followed their leader's gaze and looked at the rooftops on both sides.
Fifty imperial guards archers had already climbed up, drawing their bows and arrows, staring eagerly.
"Bah!" Someone spat and hid the ring-handled sword again.
Everyone can still fight back against the bandits, but the archers' deterrent power is too great.
Even in a bandit camp, archers have a very high status and often get more when the spoils are divided.
Don't be impulsive when you are not wearing armor.
"Hi, hi, hi!" The horse neighed in pain and was roughly pulled out of the stable by the soldiers.
They swung their hooves hard, trying to attack the humans who made them uncomfortable, but all failed.
After a while, a groom came and slowly calmed the horse. The horse's irritable mood calmed down and it was pulled away obediently.
The entire "borrowing a horse" process was peaceful and harmonious, without any conflict.
Before leaving, Huang Biao asked someone to write a simple note: Wang Rong, the lieutenant of the Northern Army, borrowed 733 horses.
Wang Rong is already dead, so I'm afraid I can only ask Wang Yan to settle the account.
Well, Wang Yan didn't know what was going on when the door was opened. After a stalemate, ten horses were taken away.
Zhang Gu, the leader of the team, didn't say much to him, just pulled his horse and left.
"What's the difference between you and Shangguan Si!" Wang Yan's wife was so angry that she touched her chest and almost couldn't breathe.
Wang Yan looked at his wife sympathetically.
Guo, who would not let go of even a piece of manure on the road, had ten horses taken away today. She was considered strong enough not to faint.
Sisters Wang Jingfeng and Wang Huifeng hid in the house, looking outside through the window, and then looked at each other in surprise.
"It would be better if these soldiers died as soon as possible." Wang Jingfeng said with a snort.
She has a pretty face and is full of charm. When she stands with her sister, she looks like a beautiful white swan.
The younger sister Wang Huifeng was not bad looking, but she always went out without makeup, did not like to wear any clothes, and was cold and had an expression that kept people at a distance. Naturally, she was not as eye-catching as her sister.
But she was smarter than Wang Jingfeng, and was carefully analyzing the soldiers' purpose of doing this.
My father told me that after the disastrous defeat in Xiao County, Sikong ordered the Luoyang imperial army to be mobilized and march south to Yuzhou to attack Liu Qiao and his son.
Then, these people who were collecting horses everywhere should be the soldiers who were going to go to the war.
But what are we going to do with so many horses?
Wang Huifeng had several guesses in an instant, but unfortunately he couldn't confirm any of them now.
The Palace of Prince of Wu, the Palace of Prince of Yuzhang, the Palace of the Supreme Court, the Palace of the Minister of the Court... Everywhere was filled with scenes of people shouting and horses neighing.
One horse after another was taken away and gathered in Jinyong City.
When Shao Xun woke up from his nap, several groups of people had been blocked outside.
In the afternoon, the military commander Cao Fu hurried over in a ox cart.
"Quan... Young Master, what are you doing? Why is the whole city looking for horses? He Lun didn't dare to show up and hid himself, so everyone came to my house to make trouble, and even the emperor was alarmed." Cao Fu said anxiously.
In early September, Cao Fu had a layer of oily sweat on his forehead, which looked very funny.
"Military commander, please be patient." Shao Xun welcomed Cao Fu over and asked him to sit on his Hu bed. He then asked, "Has the emperor issued an edict to reprimand you?"
"Not really. The emperor has important things to do." Cao Fu said.
"What's the matter?"
"Turn a private toad into a public toad."
Shao Xun couldn't help laughing.
It's September now, how many days can the toad still jump? The emperor's efforts are doomed to go down the drain.
"You haven't told me yet, what exactly do you want to do?" Cao Fu asked again.
"Rush to help King Fanyang."
"Is it so urgent? Do you need so many horses? Luoyang is not far from Xuchang."
"The military situation is urgent, and I am also very worried." Shao Xun smiled and said, "Don't worry, Commander, I will leave soon."
"when are we leaving?"
"Tomorrow noon at the latest."
"How many horses did you get?"
"There are no less than a thousand horses, and more than a thousand donkeys and mules. When all the people come back, the number may exceed three thousand."
"You... you are really messing around." Cao Fu breathed a sigh of relief and said angrily, "I thought you were rebelling."
If the chips are enough, I don't mind doing it.
Shao Xun silently said in his heart, "The military commander is so unreasonable. I fought for Sikong and was willing to bear the blame. It would be fine if you didn't praise me, but why slander me?"
Cao Fu wanted to say something but stopped.
You are all alone, without a wife or children, and without any ties, so it is not surprising that you really rebel.
In more than seventy years, he has seen a lot of things, and nothing is impossible.
"Military commander, please help me take care of Wang Pushe. When I return victorious, I will definitely apologize on my back." Shao Xun said.
"How did you harm Wang Yifu?" Cao Fu asked curiously.
"He owes me some debt." Shao Xun said vaguely.
Cao Fu was too lazy to ask more questions.
He could still handle today's turmoil. After all, he was just borrowing the horse, not robbing it, and it was said that the horse would be returned to its original owner after the battle.
Whether you believe it or not, with this as a basis, many things will be easier to handle.
Furthermore, as Shao Xun said, he was trying to help King Fan Yang and was loyal to the end. Could Sikong really be angry?
After suffering such a great defeat and with almost no soldiers left to fight, your most capable general is searching for Roman horses for your great cause and rushing to Xuchang for quick support. What's wrong with getting some horses?
Cao Fu stayed until the afternoon and left, but did not return home. Instead, he went to the palace to petition the emperor and try his best to suppress the disturbance.
That evening, He Lun brought a thousand carefully selected warriors to Jinyong City.
When Shao Xun saw that there were many familiar faces among the soldiers, he immediately smiled.
"Where is the general?" he shouted suddenly.
Among the thousands of soldiers, some were confused, but someone immediately shouted loudly: "The general is here!"
"Haha!" Shao Xun laughed.
If you break up my old unit, who knows if my reputation won't spread?
My fellow generals, your golden-armored general is back.
Needless to say, these one thousand people were temporarily organized into two groups, with the group leader Gao Yi leading half and a former central army officer named Zhang Jin leading the other half.
"Bring all the weapons you are good at, and each person should prepare five days of dry food and four days of horse feed (usually beans and chaff)." Shao Xun ordered.
"Yes." Gao Yi and Zhang Jin responded in unison.
Shao Xun calculated that if mules were included, the number of rideable tools might eventually reach more than two thousand.
One thousand generals, plus his fifty personal soldiers, are almost enough.
As for the main force, it was handed over to Li Chong and Huang Biao to lead, and they slowly followed behind.
As pioneers, they usually have to set out three days in advance.
As pioneers of the pioneers, they will leave tomorrow.
This time, I will show you what it means to rush hundreds of miles.
On the third day of September, just as the sky was getting light, the gates of Jinyong City were opened.
One thousand and fifty soldiers all mounted their horses in unison.
Behind them, there were about two hundred people following with more than two thousand horses, donkeys and mules.
Some carried luggage on their backs, while others ran on empty legs to maintain their strength.
"Let's go!" Shao Xun waved his hand and ran out first.
More than a thousand cavalrymen followed closely behind and exited through the Ximing Gate.
After they left, the remaining two hundred people carefully drove a large group of horses and mules and slowly galloped towards the city gate.
(End of this chapter)