Chapter 144: 2nd Army Advance

Chapter 144: Two-Way Advance
A large army cannot move so quickly.

Because Sima Yue wanted to gather more troops and wait for the soldiers recruited from Chenliu, Xingyang, Henan and other counties to gather before launching a large-scale attack.

Some people from Jingu Garden even rushed to Xin'an and said that officials had come to recruit soldiers, but they were pushed back. The minor officials nodded in agreement and dared not say anything.

This is the important reason why self-cultivating farmers invested in manors and forts.

When recruiting soldiers, the military officials of each county would give priority to recruiting self-cultivating farmers because they were easy to control and required little effort.

When there were not enough self-employed farmers, they would look for powerful people who had no family background or official positions.

If that is still not enough, then look for poor scholars or those with minor surnames.

Difficulty levels range from low to high.

No one is a fool, and it is their instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm. If the war continues, there will be fewer and fewer self-employed farmers, more and more forts, and even some manors will try to transform into forts - many manors are holiday villas, such as Jingu Garden and Pan Garden, which are relatively easy to break through.

Also coming to Xin'an were the managers of various forts and manors.

Shao Xun listened carefully to the farming matters in Jingu Garden, Pan Garden and Shao Garden. After learning that the wheat seedlings were growing well, he felt relieved.

The wheat harvest is in June and all the wheat will be taken to Jingu Garden for processing.

Luoyang has been stable for the past two years, and a small number of the escapees from Jingu Garden have returned one after another. The water mills in more than 30 districts can handle too much grain. Now only a few are barely open. If they continue to operate, Shao Xun feels that he can take on the business and help others pound rice and grind flour.

Among the four major docks, Kinmen Dock is the most important and must be completed this year.

After the beginning of spring, Yanggongwu, Yiquanwu and Heshuiwu delivered part of the "balance payment" of grain, totaling about 60,000 to 70,000 hu.

The owner of the building, Wang Que'er, reported that a man named Yang Ming sent a batch of money and silk to Jingu Garden.

After making a rough estimate of the prices of the many brocades, silks, gold and silver articles that he had received as a reward at the end of last year, he bought food, livestock, farm tools and daily necessities in Luoyang and sent them to various forts.

Once the money is received, it is basically spent and even left in debt.

Shao Xun was not panicked at all. What a joke, how can a big boss not be in debt?

In mid-May, the first batch of young men from Sizhou and Yanzhou arrived in Xin'an, and auxiliary troops were finally available. It was also at this time that the order to advance was issued.

On May 18, the army marched westward.

Their group was mainly composed of the Left Guard of the Central Army, and except for a small number of people who stayed behind, a total of 15,000 people were dispatched.

The Cavalry Corps dispatched 1,500 cavalrymen, and used all their strength.

Since the reconstruction of the Central Army in April and May last year, the Cavalry Army has been expanding with great difficulty. The main method is to recruit lost personnel and a small number of new soldiers. Now it has slowly accumulated to about 1,800 or 1,900 cavalry.

The famous Youzhou Tuqidu was also rebuilt.

As the armored cavalry within the central army that did not belong to any army, there were once more than a thousand cavalrymen, but now they have gathered some veterans, recruited more than a hundred new soldiers, and looted the horse armor from the Luoyang armory, and only managed to gather more than 400 cavalrymen. This time they also followed and accompanied the infantry.

Shao Xun is quite concerned about this unit.

Because this is a force that can pose a great threat to the Silver Spear Army. Although there are only more than 400 cavalrymen, they are really deadly when they charge. The inadequately trained Silver Spear Army may not be able to withstand it.

Fifteen thousand infantry, two thousand light and heavy cavalry, plus more than twenty thousand able-bodied men, adding up to nearly forty thousand people, can be claimed to be an army of one hundred thousand.

It took the "hundred thousand troops" seven or eight days to cross more than a hundred miles of mountain roads, which was extremely slow.

This northern road is commonly known as the "Xin'an Road" and is the key road from Tongguan to Luoyang, along with the "Yi Yang Road" in the Luoshui River Valley in the south.

Shao Xun and his companions set out from the two ancient cities of Qin and Zhao, more than ten miles west of Xin'an County. In history, the two countries of Qin and Zhao held a meeting here and each occupied a city, hence the name. It is also called "Juli City" because the meeting was beneficial to both sides.

Cross the river valley and enter the Xiaoshan Mountain Road.

At that time, the narrow place was only wide enough for square tracks, and countless people and vehicles had to queue up to pass through, which was extremely inefficient.

After walking along the slopes of the East and West Xiao Mountains, we entered the territory of Shan County, Hongnong County. The road became only slightly easier to walk on, but it was still difficult and hesitant in the mountainous area.

In the past, Cao Mengde hated the danger of the southern route, so he opened the northern route. However, the northern route also had its own dangers and was really difficult to travel.

Luoyang's geographical advantages are evident from this. However, every time foreign troops attacked Luoyang, no one volunteered to set up fences and guard these dangerous places, and no one defended the outer checkpoints. In the end, the enemy troops always swaggered through various dangerous places and entered the city of Luoyang.

At the end of May, the army arrived in Hongnong, and Shao Xun met Mi Huang after more than a year.

******
At the end of May, on the Yi Yang Road, there were the sounds of horse hooves and fluttering flags, and an army as long as one could see was marching westward through the river valley.

After a while, several scouts with more than ten horses rushed to a simple ferry.

There were three boatmen, one old and two young, sitting under a tree to rest near the ferry. When they saw the messenger, they immediately took action.

The two young men went to untie the ferry tied to the tree, while the old man stepped forward to greet them.

"I want to cross the river, quickly!" shouted the leading scout.

The old man didn't waste any time. He walked quickly to the riverside dock and prepared to row the boat.

He was from Taiyuan and was originally a boatman on the Fen River. After arriving at Yunzhongwu, he got a good job, ferrying people across the Luo River to facilitate travel.

But he couldn't do this job for long. He subconsciously looked to the west, where a floating bridge had spanned the north and south banks, gradually becoming the main way for the people of Yunzhongwu to go to the north bank of Luoshui. As the number of people in the fort increased, the fort was no longer satisfied with farming on the south bank of Luoyang and the east and west sides of Qugushui, and began to expand to the north bank. Many of the fields planted this spring were on the north bank.

The scouts quickly boarded the ferry, while the others led the horses and galloped towards the floating bridge on the west side.

After a while, a dull bell rang in Yunzhongwu.

The people who were busy working in the fields immediately packed up their things and retreated to the south bank.

Some people even wanted to run back home to get their belongings and then leave, but they were soon beaten and scolded by the village head, and they had to follow the main group and leave in shame.

Several other village leaders organized more than a hundred strong civilians, armed with spears and bows, and occupied a high ground, intending to block the enemy for a while - if there really was an enemy attack.

The people who have experienced troubled times have long lost their innocence, and they all understand very well the cruelty of this world.

In order to facilitate farming, some people now build shacks in the fields and live in them during the busy farming season. If they live in a dock, it is easy if the fields are nearby, but it is more troublesome if the fields are a little far away, and they don’t know how much more distance they have to walk every day.

There must be valuables in the shack, such as bedding, cooking utensils, etc. For these residents, these are actually very important properties, so it is normal for them to want to take them away.

But the military situation was urgent and there was no room for carelessness. Otherwise, we might be captured and killed because we didn't have time to escape after taking something.

Sure enough, when the last group of civilians retreated to the south bank and the rear guard retreated to the pontoon bridge, the figures of a large group of cavalry appeared in the distance.

The village head picked up an axe, cut off the bamboo knots connecting the floating boats, and released several boats to the south bank. At this point, one-third of the floating bridge had been broken. If the enemy wanted to cross the river using the floating bridge, it would be impossible - in an emergency, they could even set fire to the floating bridge.

The cavalry was getting closer.

The surging herd of horses crossed the post road, trampled through the farmland, and headed west.

Zhuangtou's heart bled when he saw this.

If we wait another three months, the millet on the north bank can be harvested. Now that it will be trampled by the cavalry, it is unknown how many grains of rice can be harvested.

"Xianbei people!" Because Jin San led the troops to join the expedition, the fourth battalion of the Silver Spear Army originally stationed in Jingu Garden moved to Yunzhongwu for garrison. The battalion leader, Wang Que'er, climbed up a tree and looked at the opposite bank.

Endless troops and horses marched westward along the river valley.

Some people are concentrating on getting on their way.

Some people stopped and pointed at the fort with whips, bursting into laughter from time to time.

It's easy to tell that these people must be commenting on the embarrassing retreat of the fortress.

Yes, they have more people and horses, they can fight when they want to, and leave when they want to, free and easy. Even if you want to take revenge, you don't even have the qualifications to follow them and eat dust.

The Xianbei people, who had burned, killed and looted in Yuzhou, now did not take the clumsy and weak Central Plains people seriously at all.

Once upon a time, they also looked up to the great country of Central Plains.

During the Later Han Dynasty, the Xianbei invaded the border repeatedly. The imperial court organized a mixed force of armored cavalry and sword and shield infantry, recruited light cavalry from the tribes along the border, and conquered the grassland several times, establishing supreme prestige.

Even after experiencing a hundred years of chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty and the founding of the Jin Dynasty, the Xianbei people could only look up to the Central Plains and put away their various little thoughts.

However, with the fighting among the kings in the past decade or so, the Xianbei, Xiongnu and Wuhuan were constantly attracted to the south, which gradually allowed these grassland men to see the inner situation of the Central Plains clearly.

Especially when they rode on their horses, carried bows and swords, and defeated the Central Plains army time and time again, there was no need to look up to them anymore.

Some people may not be able to come to terms with it yet, and are still accustomed to being respectful to the Central Plains - although this does not prevent them from burning, killing and looting in the mainland.

Some people are really inflated, thinking that the Central Plains is nothing special and will sooner or later become a pasture where they can run rampant.

But the sad thing is that things are probably developing in the direction they imagine.

Some people would rather continue to live a romantic life and a life of drunkenness and dreams after moving south, "looking up at the vastness of the universe, looking down at the abundance of species", "wandering around and indulging their thoughts", and "enjoying the visual and auditory enjoyment", rather than stay in the north and, like a man, protect their wives and children, drive away the enemy, and rebuild their homes.

After staying for a while, the Xianbei people rode away on horseback.

Wang Que'er led the soldiers of the fourth building to deploy defenses along the river to prevent small groups of cavalry from crossing the river to burn, kill and loot.

They held out until dusk before retreating back into the fort.

It was at this time that the troops of the Right Guard of the Luoyang Central Army appeared.

There were also about 15,000 infantrymen, plus more than 20,000 peasant soldiers and teachers, driving large and small carts, marching hurriedly all night.

Zhang Fang is dead and the situation is very good.

The army has already gathered, so we should speed up the march and quickly attack Guanzhong. If Sima Yong is given time, he might be able to stabilize the shaky morale of the army, and then it will be difficult to fight.

Therefore, General Pei Kuo of the Right Guard decided to march overnight to not give the western bandits a chance to breathe.

Sima You, King of Runan, also joined the army and saw this rather large fort at a glance.

He found several officers of the imperial guards and asked them whether he could conscript men and collect grain in the fortress, but everyone hesitated and tried to dissuade him.

Sima You understood that this fortress had some background, so he secretly took note of it.

(End of this chapter)