Chapter 149 I am still loyal to Sikong

Chapter 149 I am still loyal to Sikong

Chapter 149 I am still loyal to Sikong

Heavy rain poured down and began to wash away the bloodstains in Chang'an City.

The night's slaughter was over.

More than 15,000 imperial guards, 20,000 able-bodied civilians, and more than a thousand of Shao Xun's private soldiers advanced along the gates, firing crossbows from a distance and arrows from close up. Then the heavily armored infantry led the way, followed by the lightly armored warriors, cooperating with each other, nibbling away step by step, and searching and killing every place where the enemy might hide.

After dawn, the battle was basically over. Only occasional screams were heard, as the Xianbei people hiding in civilian houses were caught by the people of Chang'an and hacked to pieces.

Shao Xun left the city in the early morning and met with the governor Mi Huang.

Mi Huang didn't want to pay attention to him and didn't give him a good look.

There was fighting in the city all night, and he could hear the sound of crossbows being fired from outside the city.

Dense groups of soldiers blocked every entrance, and a small number of cavalry were stationed outside the city to ensure that no one could escape.

Is this a warning? He is not stupid, how can he not see it?

Shao Xun didn't care. He just held Mi Huang's hand and said ashamedly, "The Xianbei bandits resisted fiercely. The soldiers couldn't stop themselves and killed them all. In the end, they killed all the bandits. When I found out, it was too late. In the end, I only picked up Qi Zhubu's head."

After saying that, he untied the cloth bag, took out a bloody thing from it, and placed it on the table.

Mi Huang found it an eyesore and simply swept the head to the ground.

"Do you know that after this battle..." Mi Huang looked into Shao Xun's eyes and said.

"After this battle, Sikong has no choice." Shao Xun said without any concealment.

"You!" Mi Huang widened his eyes.

"The Duan tribe of Xianbei is surrounded by powerful enemies, so they may not come to seek revenge on me." Shao Xun said calmly: "And without the Xianbei cavalry, what does Wang Jun have to fear? He is far away in Youzhou, so I am afraid he will have to find a way to clean up the mess for the Duan tribe of Xianbei and help them resist the hostile tribes on the grassland."

"You...want to rebel?" Mi Huang said anxiously, "Young Master, I'm not saying anything bad about you. You are a family general of the Yue Mansion. Even if you leave the mansion, you can't rebel against the Minister of Works."

"Why do you say that, Commander?" Shao Xun said with a smile, "Sikong selected me from the ranks, how can I betray him? The reason why we slaughtered the Xianbei is because they went too far. The famous city of Chang'an was slaughtered by the Xianbei for more than 10,000 people. How are these beastly soldiers different from Zhang Fang? What's wrong with slaughtering them?"

"Don't worry. I have already informed the soldiers last night that this is an order from the military commander. Anyone who sends troops to quell the rebellion will be rewarded."

"Today, we will issue a notice to the whole city. Sikong has always loved the people. How could he sit by and watch the Xianbei massacre the city? Don't worry, Governor. Find a good time in the next few days to call back the souls of the dead people. When the people hear this, who will blame Sikong?"

Mi Huang was silent for a while, then sighed, "I really fell for your trick! You are so bold, forging military orders. Aren't you afraid that Sikong will make trouble for you later?"

Shao Xun bowed and said, "Please help me to turn things around."

The gesture was very pretentious, but the arrogance was so overwhelming that it made Mi Huang dizzy.

"Tell me the truth, how much wealth do you have?" he asked in a low voice.

"Three thousand Silver Spear Soldiers, two thousand Long Sword Soldiers, and five hundred Cavalry Soldiers, a total of five thousand five hundred infantry and cavalry. In addition, there are fifteen thousand Iron Armor Soldiers and tens of thousands of armors and weapons." Shao Xun said.

Mi Huang was shocked and confused.

With this strength, Sikong was afraid that he really couldn't do anything to him.

The left and right guards of the imperial army and the cavalry were not so reliable to Sikong. They had a close relationship with Shao Xun. During the Xuchang armory case, Shao Xun only took the armor, and the money and silk were rewarded to the left guards and the cavalry.

In the battle of Chang'an, five thousand Xianbei cavalry were killed. So what happened to the looted property?

Considering Shao Xun's personality, he would probably divide it up.

The Left Guard will take the lion's share, while the Right Guard and the Cavalry, who have not yet arrived, may also be able to share some of the profits.

He is such a good fighter and has a great reputation. He has been in the royal army and the imperial guards for four or five years. Would Sikong dare to use the imperial guards to deal with him?
Yes, at least half of the generals of the imperial guards are still loyal to Sikong.

But being loyal to Sikong does not necessarily mean that they are willing to kill Shao Xun. Although they may reluctantly go out if forced to do so, it is hard to say what the effect will be.

Similarly, if Shao Xun intended to harm Sikong, the generals of the imperial guards would also oppose it.

This is the reality of the Imperial Guards, at least the reality of the more than 16,000 Left Guards.

Mi Huang frowned and thought, if Shao Xun did not consider his reputation and the consequences and now surrendered to the emperor and the empress and mixed up with Zhou Fu and others, Sikong might not even dare to enter Luoyang.

It is indeed impossible to move him for the time being.

This young man, unknowingly, has become somewhat similar to Zhang Fang of the past.

Sima Yong was afraid to use a large army to attack Zhang Fang, fearing that the soldiers would turn against him in the battle, so he could only resort to assassination to get rid of this thief.

Alas, Zhang Fang of the East Sea Kingdom has become a powerful figure.

Mi Huang was in mixed emotions and didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Don't worry, Commander. I won't make things difficult for you." Shao Xun said sternly, "I am still Sikong's family general. I am still willing to fight for him. I have no second thoughts."

After saying that, he silently added in his heart: I just don’t want to end up in a situation where the dog is eaten after the rabbit is dead.

In fact, since the beginning of this year, it has become difficult to kill Sima Yue.

Shao Xun didn't know whether Sima Yueqi had ever had this idea.

Regardless of whether there was any, Hebei was in turmoil at the time, and the troops of King Fanyang and Duke Pingchang were trapped inside. Sima Teng, the governor of Bingzhou, could not spare any troops. Sima Lue of Qingzhou was defeated by the religious rebels, and the 30,000 troops that Sima Yue had accumulated were wasted. It was indeed difficult for him to mobilize foreign troops to deal with him.

After Sima Yue returned from Xuchang, he directly stationed in Wen County, perhaps this was a factor.

After entering Luoyang, he would have to enter the palace, right? What if someone took a risk and used his position as the general of the palace to kill him in the palace? He was a man who was good at conspiracy and intrigue, and he liked to judge others by his own standards.

Perhaps his real thought at that time was to decide to relax and use Shao Xun to attack Sima Yong and squeeze out the last value.

No one would sit and wait for death. This time Shao Xun suffocated all the Xianbei cavalry in Chang'an City. I wonder what Sima Yue thought? Another strong army is gone.

To be fair, if he wanted to deal with Shao Xun, five thousand Xianbei cavalry would definitely be a trump card and would play a huge role.

Now that he is gone, Shao Xun can’t figure out how Sima Yue will deal with him.

Next, I will use the food, money, horses from Chang'an and the armor from Xuchang to expand my army.

You don't dare to touch me now, and you will definitely not dare to touch me next year...

People who are full of rebellion are so arrogant.

"How did it come to this?" Mi Huang looked at Shao Xun with a slightly reproachful look and sighed, "Sikong recommended you as a filial and honest official, and I did not let you down."

Shao Xun was silent for a moment and said, "Yes."

Sima Yue really did not do anything wrong to him.

The restrictions imposed on him are just a means of checks and balances commonly used by those in power.

The key to the problem is that after the Battle of Dangyin, Sima Yue was absent for a full year and seven months, creating a huge power vacuum in Luoyang.

Not to mention that Shao Xun seized the opportunity, even the royalists became more and more powerful, and Wang Yan reaped the benefits.

When Sima Yue appeared again, he was faced with an unfamiliar Luoyang.

If there had not been the Xuchang Arsenal Case, Shao Xun and Sima Yue might have been able to maintain a considerable level of trust, but Shao Xun took the initiative to give up this trust because he wanted to get that batch of armor.

The reason for killing the Xianbei this time was, on the one hand, that the Xianbei were massacring the city. It would have been fine if he hadn't seen it, but he really couldn't tolerate it if he knew about it.

Secondly, the benefits are real.

Before meeting Mi Huang, Chen Yougen reported that more than 8,000 horses were gathered outside the city last night and this morning.

A rough count was made in the city, and it was found that there were still about 3,000 intact horses.

How much is a horse worth? It depends on what type of horse it is.

Draft horses are the cheapest, pack horses are slightly more expensive, riding horses are even more expensive, and war horses are extremely expensive.

The horses of the Xianbei people were at least trotting horses for riding, and war horses accounted for about half of them.

During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, a man sold a horse for 15 coins and made an illegal profit of 500 coins, for which he was dismissed from office.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, a horse cost 20 coins.

During the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, the price of post horses plummeted to 7000 coins.

Ma Yuan of the Eastern Han Dynasty once gave Du Lin a horse, and the other party paid him back 5 coins.

During the reign of Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty, horses were conscripted from wealthy families. The wealthy families deliberately challenged him and demanded 200 million coins for a horse - this was not a normal price.

During the Three Kingdoms period, an ordinary horse cost about 10,000 coins, while the price of a war horse soared to 100,000 coins.

After the Three Kingdoms were unified under the Jin Dynasty, there was a rare period of peace and the price of horses began to fall.

But over the years since the Eight Kings Rebellion, the price of horses has skyrocketed year by year. Now, the price of a military horse with pure bloodline, high speed and strong endurance has exceeded 50,000 coins.

Of course, people on the grassland don't pay much attention to the breeding of horse bloodlines, but allow them to mate freely, so the quality of the horses is very average.

Not many of the Xianbei people's horses could be sold for 50,000 coins, but there was absolutely no one that was sold for less than 10,000 coins.

Tens of thousands of horses means more than 100,000 strings of cash; no one can resist it.

Of course, it would be very stupid to sell these horses at a price, and Shao Xun would never do that.

The best pasture in Henan is in Guangchengze. If you don't ride them into battle, there is no need to feed them food, you can just graze them in the wild.

Among the seized horses, almost all were male horses, and most of them were castrated. Horses that were not castrated had relatively bad tempers and liked to kick people and even chase mares.

There are only about 200 horses, and I don’t know if it’s because their owners like to ride wild horses or for some other reason, but they are not castrated.

These more than 200 horses were sent to Guangchengze, and then some mares were found to breed them slowly.

Of course, it is not easy to recruit mares, so you can first find a lot of donkeys to serve as "harem" for these stallions.

Mule Army, isn't that good? I'm not afraid of being laughed at.

Heavy armored infantry riding mules can move quickly on the battlefield. Isn't that faster than two legs?

"You go down first. I still need to think carefully about things here." Mi Huang waved his hand and sighed.

"Governor, please do not let Sikong's reputation be damaged." Shao Xun said sincerely.

"Go away. You are taking advantage of me and still acting like a slut." Mi Huang scolded.

Shao Xun lowered his head, saluted, and left the tent.

Mi Huang knelt down silently and remained silent for a long time.

Some things, once they cross the line, will gradually become strangers, alas!

He still wanted to salvage it and tried to repair the relationship between Shao Xun and Si Kong. His nature as a good guy was deeply rooted.

(End of this chapter)