Chapter 130 Guang Chengze

Chapter 130 Guang Chengze

Chapter 130 Guang Chengze

After He Lun and Sima You went to Xuchang, Shao Xun stopped procrastinating and began to speed up his march.

To be fair, he didn't waste much time throughout the battle.

When Liu Qiao had just defeated Sima Yue, there was no one in the entire Yuzhou who could threaten him. According to common sense, he would be safe for at least two months. However, Shao Xun's unexpected attack of hundreds of miles directly defeated the grain collection team sent by Liu Qiao, and then went straight to Xiaoxian and Xiangxian, with unparalleled power.

Liu Qiao lost his son and didn't know how many people Shao Xun had brought with him, so he was already discouraged. In addition, he heard that Liu Hong of Jingzhou was going to send troops and that the Xianbei cavalry had already marched south in large numbers, which made him even more panicked. The outcome was self-evident.

Liu Qiao now regrets forming an alliance with Sima Yong.

Yes, after seeing Sima Yue defeated in the Battle of Xiaoxian, Sima Yong sent an envoy to the east to get in touch with Liu Qiao, and the two of them agreed to form an alliance to fight against Sima Yue together.

Honestly, this was a bad move.

The alliance with Sima Yong directly prompted the governor of Jingzhou, Liu Hong, to side with Sima Yue.

Zhang Fang's reputation was so bad that it was unbelievable that the Prince of Hejian still used him. Liu Hong was unwilling to associate with such a person, so he ordered Liu Pan, a military officer of the shogunate, to lead an army northward under the command of Sima Yue.

King Fanyang recommended Gou Xi as the governor of Yanzhou, and asked him to lead the army to quell the rebellion in Hebei. He then led a small force back to Xuchang to join the attack on Liu Qiao.

The more Sima Yue was defeated, the more soldiers he had.

Politics is really hard to explain and may be even more important than military capabilities.

Unless you are a general who always wins, and makes those who have scored full political points cry without tears, and finally give away all the soldiers and horses that were your own, given by others, borrowed, or obtained by various other means, how many such people are there?
Of course, Sima Yue's political ability was also average, at least he had no sensitivity and made many stupid decisions. Unfortunately, there were only a few famous princes left, and they either voted for Sima Yong or Sima Yue. What should he do?
Just accept it and support Sima Yue. This is the common idea of ​​all the paperhangers in Jin who are still somewhat loyal.

The fall of the Sima family and the collapse of the world were not good things for the vested interests. After all, most people had no ambition and just wanted to keep their wealth.

Therefore, in such a background, Sima Yue's momentum grew stronger and stronger. After being beaten to only a thousand soldiers, he was full of vigor and said that he would crush Liu Qiao, return to Luoyang, march west to Guanzhong, and bring Sima Yong to the emperor to be punished.

He's doing it again!

Well, he is fine, but Liu Qiao is not.

On the ninth day of October, Liu Qiao reviewed the troops outside the city of Xiaoxian, issued generous rewards, and vowed to fight to the death.

As a result, that night he fled south with his confidants, and no one knew where he was going.

This guy is so fucked up, but also so terribly calm.

The siege from all sides was inevitable. No matter how hard we struggled, we could only hold out for a few more months. We would definitely be defeated in the end. But then it would be difficult to escape. It was better to run now. There might still be a way to survive.

The news of Liu Qiao's disappearance brewed for a day or two and then spread in all directions.

Sima Yue was a little surprised when he received the news, but he didn't lose his composure too much.

After a series of blows, the morale of Liu Qiao's troops had been shaken. Coupled with the gathering of troops from all directions, defeat was inevitable.

Haha! All the heroes in the world are at my disposal.

When Shao Xun received the news, he was still on the march and stopped immediately.

A day later, he received news that the Minister of Works ordered the Left Guard General He Lun to lead his troops to the east to welcome the Xianbei. The rest of the troops were to withdraw their troops and return to their respective towns. Shao Xun and Liu Pan would of course withdraw their troops, but the Xianbei had been heading south for almost 20 days. Would it be easy to ask them to return at this time? It would probably cost a lot of money.

As for why Shao Xun was not sent to meet them, the apparent reason was that Hejian King Sima Yong gave some troops and supplies to Lou Quan, Shi Chao and others, and ordered them to advance eastward to Hongnong, and they must return as soon as possible to suppress the rebellion.

The reasons were sufficient, but perhaps there were other meanings, but Shao Xun was too lazy to care about them.

On October 18th, he ordered Li Chong to lead the army back to Luoyang, and he himself led his personal soldiers and General Tu with nearly 800 cavalrymen to march west, passing through states and counties along the way, and arrived at a place in late October.

Most people stayed in the grass at the foot of the mountain to herd horses, while Shao Xun led Tang Jian, Gao Yi, Yu An, Zhang Gu and others to continue climbing the mountain. When they climbed to the top of the mountain and all the scenery came into view, they were all speechless.

Shao Xun had deceived them. He had actually noticed this place a long time ago, not just when he went south.

He took out a thin booklet from his arms. In the corner of the back of the cover was a small signature: Pei Lingyan.

He turned to a certain page and said: "It is surrounded by rivers, with three hills on the right, Songyue on the left, Hengyin in the face, and Wangwu behind..."

What the hell? Tang Jian and others looked at him blankly.

Shao Xun failed to show off, so he could only explain to these rough guys seriously: "This is the Guangcheng Garden in the Han Dynasty, where the emperor reviewed military affairs, lectured on military matters, and hunted. The area is vast and the mountains and rivers are beautiful."

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

Tang Jian asked: "General, what does it matter if it is beautiful or not? They are all used for cutting firewood."

Shao Xun was helpless.

Fuck, I have to finish pretending today, even if it means having to do it forcibly.

"Do you know what is in Guangcheng Garden?" he asked.

"There are wild animals." Zhang Gu, who was a butcher, said as he spotted the herd of deer active in the water and grassland.

"Not bad." Shao Xun glanced at him approvingly and said, "Guangcheng Garden has mountains, water, and fields, with lush vegetation and many birds and beasts..."

He gave a brief explanation.

Guangcheng Garden has a vast territory, surrounded by mountains and traversed by four rivers, namely Bo, Luo, Ying and Luo. It also has "divine springs and elixir pools", and abundant water resources. There is also a huge natural lake wetland, Guangchengze.

In other words, if this place is renovated, a large amount of fertile land can be opened up. If it is not renovated, some of the land can be used for irrigation with natural river and lake water, because the emperor of the Later Han Dynasty "viewed the plains and watched the wheat growing here." Mountains, hills, plains, wetlands, grasslands, rivers and lakes intersect to form the vast Guangcheng Garden.

The Han emperor reviewed the troops, held military lectures and went hunting here.

During the Sui Dynasty, water conservancy projects were built here and a large amount of farmland was opened up.

Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, hunted a wild boar here and bathed in the Guangcheng Hot Spring. Later, the Guangchengze Ranch was opened up here to raise a large number of military horses.

After the Song Dynasty, it was gradually occupied by common people and villages began to appear.

"Look over there!" Shao Xun pointed to a hillside in the distance.

The crowd, who had not yet digested the information, looked up and saw what seemed to be the remains of pavilions and terraces among the trees.

Hmm? Are there still people active?

Tang Jian looked at Shao Xun with admiration. He had noticed the ruins long ago, which might be a corner of the Guangcheng Palace of the Later Han Dynasty, but he really didn't notice anyone inside.

Is this the eyesight of a sharpshooter?

"Is that a fort?" Tang Jian asked.

"It's not a fort. No fort would be so shabby. It's more like a settlement." Gao Yi said.

"At least the settlement still has decent walls." Yu An shook his head, looked at Shao Xun, and said, "General, I thought they were foreign civilians who had fled here and found a few relatively intact palaces and rooms to shelter themselves from the wind and rain."

Shao Xun nodded.

Most people are not willing to visit the emperor's palace.

The Qingshu Palace was built here in the Tang Dynasty.

It was originally intended to be a place to escape the summer heat, but the location was wrong. In order to enjoy the scenery, it was built in a place where the sun shines on the west mountain. It was very hot in the summer, and no measures were taken to prevent snakes, so snakes often appeared in the palace.

Finally, Li Shimin ordered the palace to be abandoned and the palace property was distributed to the palace servants to be spent as they pleased.

Until the end of the Tang Dynasty, no one moved into the Qingshu Palace and its surrounding areas to live, except for the occasional people who went into the mountains to collect firewood or hunt.

Shao Xun also didn't want to move into palaces that hadn't been repaired for a hundred years and had long since decayed and collapsed - the last large-scale renovation of the Guangcheng Garden was probably during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Later Han Dynasty, more than a hundred years ago.

But he was very interested in the resources of Guangchengyuan.

This may be the best pasture in the whole of Henan Province, and it was also an extremely important source of military horses for the Eastern Capital in the Tang Dynasty.

Many people in the Central Plains choose mountainous and hilly areas to raise horses, because horses do not like heat, hilly areas are relatively cool, and there are abundant vegetation resources, which is conducive to expanding the population.

If you want to raise horses, you can always find a place. Qian Liu could raise 30,000 horses outside Hangzhou, so Henan, further north, would be even more suitable.

"I want to occupy this place." Shao Xun said suddenly.

"Since the general wants to occupy it, then go ahead and occupy it. It would be a shame if such a prime place was invaded and reclaimed by refugees."

"There are tens of thousands of hectares of land."

"Not that much. If you want to have thousands of hectares of fertile land, you have to spend a lot of effort to clean it up. Fill in the swamps, dig ditches, and build ponds. How can it be that simple?"

"That's true, but it is indeed a good place. The emperor really knows how to enjoy himself."

"This good place can only be given to you, my dear. If anyone comes to grab it in the future, we will work together to chop it off."

Shao Xun listened to what everyone said and felt satisfied. The morale was good and the army was willing to work.

He analyzed it carefully with several core subordinates last night.

They don't lack weapons now, but they lack people who can use these weapons.

It takes a training process for people to learn how to use weapons, recognize drums, gongs and flags, and fight in formation.

They are given armor and weapons without any training, and their combat effectiveness is not even as good as that of the soldiers in the fort. After all, they have trained and even fought in wars. They are purely transport captains.

Now the question is, how much money and food do you have to feed them?
This involves the issue of needing more people and land to engage in production, and the establishment of "branch bases" is inevitable.

This "sub-base" cannot be too far away, otherwise it will slowly get out of control. Then, in the case that Luoyang itself is a dead end, we can only think of ways around Luoyang.

Taking all these factors into consideration, Guangchengze is indeed the best choice out of desperation. At least Shao Xun can come here once every few days.

If the Xiongnu moved south, they might not come here. Even if they did, they could retreat to the fortress on the mountain and hold on.

Farming and war are two sides of the same coin.

Starting a business is really not easy.

Accumulating strength is also a long process.

Before the Yongjia Rebellion broke out, he did not dare to act blindly. He could only farm quietly and use his official status to shelter the fortress from wind and rain, thus avoiding many troubles. That was all.

(End of this chapter)