Chapter 172: Arrangements before Leaving
Chapter 172: Arrangements before Leaving (Additional chapter for the leader to look back after getting on his horse and leaving the city)
Since I have to risk my life to go into battle again, I naturally have to deal with a lot of things before leaving.
The Changjian Army currently has more than 900 people, and 300 of them have been sent to Liang County.
The settlement on the southern edge of Guangchengze had been taken under control, and Shao Xun privately called it "Ruyang".
There are seven or eight hundred households in Ruyang, half of which are locals and half are refugees. In early April, more than a hundred refugees from Hebei moved in, and they plan to resettle three hundred soldiers here, and they are currently in the process of resettling them.
The third batch of 300 soldiers will continue to be settled in Liang County, and the entire work will be completed before the autumn harvest in the second half of the year.
The commanding organization of the government soldiers was originally planned to be called "Zhechoufu", but this involved restructuring and had too great an impact, so the plan was abandoned and the name "Xiangtuan" was used instead.
The soldiers of Liang County were temporarily organized into two rural garrisons.
One of them was stationed north and south of Bohou Bridge, called "Shiqiao Defense", with a strength of 300 people. They were usually scattered at home, and in time of war, each of them would lead a soldier to go to war, for a total of 600 people, almost a whole army.
The second one is located near Yongxing Temple on the eastern border of Liang County, called "Yongxing Defense", with a staff of 300.
Ruyang has only one township militia station, called "Nanshan Defense", with a staff of 300.
All of them will be resettled this year, and the details will be further adjusted, and the soldiers will be allowed to become familiar with new ways of life, production and warfare. In the future, they will become a low-cost, high-efficiency garrison force in the local area, greatly reducing the financial burden.
He would take as many soldiers as he could because after the initial cost, the maintenance cost was very low and the combat effectiveness was very good. If he didn't take advantage of this time when refugees were running around, the troops were easily captured, and the land resources were relatively abundant, it would be difficult to deal with them later.
On April 15th, Chen Jing returned from Yingchuan, bringing back more than a thousand carts loaded with grain and beans.
"This is..." Shao Xun made a rough calculation and thought that there might be about 80,000 or 90,000 hu of grain.
"The elders of the clan said that the price of horses is high now, and they don't know how much a horse is worth." Chen Jing said a little embarrassedly: "Here are 90,000 bushels of millet, wheat and beans. My dear, you can give it as you see fit."
It turned out to be buying horses! Shao Xun nodded.
There are still more than 7,000 horses in Guangchengze, most of which are released into the wild, with extremely low costs.
Wild horses spend most of the day eating grass and cannot fight. If they want to fight, they must be fed with food. Considering the appetite of horses, Shao Xun has never dared to use these horses extensively.
But it's not a good idea to just leave it like this forever. Horses can get sick, get injured, age, and wear out. If you don't use it, it will slowly depreciate day by day. It's better to use it as a favor.
"I'll give you 600 horses." Shao Xun didn't want to haggle too much, so he just gave a price.
"Okay." Chen Jing agreed immediately.
The Chen family of Yingchuan is not as powerful as before. There are less than two hundred horses in the family. They have to ride horses when going out to show off and not be looked down upon by other families. They also have to provide horses for their children and elite troops to practice riding, archery, and horse combat. It is really not enough.
Furthermore, these are the horses of the entire Yingchuan Chen family.
The Chen family is a large family with many branches that have split off. For each family, the number of horses is even smaller, so they all want to buy some to make things look more impressive.
Of course, everyone says so, "ride for fun", but the world is so chaotic, the military significance of horses cannot be underestimated. Those who understand will know what to buy them for, so there is no need to explain more.
"The Yu family in Xinye is an old friend of my family, and they also want to buy a batch of horses." Chen Jing said a little embarrassedly.
"Xinye...Yu family?" Shao Xun was a little surprised.
Yu Liang's family was one of the local tyrants in Yingchuan County, and was known as the Yingchuan Yu family.
The Xinye Yu family is in Jingzhou.
The two Yu families might have separated during the Later Han Dynasty. Now they were two completely different families. It was a bit beyond Shao Xun's expectation that they came to buy horses. Why were they not the Yingchuan Yu family?
"What's their reason for buying horses?" Shao Xun asked.
"There are many refugees in the areas of Nanyang, Yiyang and Shunyang, and thieves are rampant. In order to protect themselves, they buy horses."
"Okay, I agree." Shao Xun said, "But you can only sell 200 horses. Or, let them send someone to Guangchengze for a face-to-face meeting. Forget it, I'm afraid I don't have the time, so just 200 horses, and let them send 40,000 hu of grain to Liang County for delivery."
"Okay." Chen Jing breathed a sigh of relief and responded.
"General Chen." After talking about the horse trade, Shao Xun put on a smiling expression, took Chen Jing's hand, and said with a smile: "General, you have been a general in the imperial army for many years and have many old friends. Can you persuade some elite soldiers to come south? I like warriors the most in my life. As long as they can fight, I will accept them and give them all land. Each person will get at least 100 acres, or 150 acres. How about it?"
Chen Jing thought about it and immediately nodded, saying, "This is easy. I will go back to Luoyang in the next few days to gather my old subordinates."
"Okay." Shao Xun was overjoyed.
In fact, he has recently been using his connections to recruit veteran soldiers of the imperial guards to move south to serve as palace soldiers.
The biggest advantage of the government soldiers is not their ability to fight or their low cost, but that they are not prone to rebellion.
They are usually scattered in various villages and are not easily summoned.
If a meeting is to be held, a complicated procedure must be followed.
The management agencies of the Fubing, such as Zhechoufu and Zhuwei, have no military power. They are just management agencies and will not contact the Fubing officers and soldiers unless necessary.
Shao Xun planned to set up an institution in Liang County to take charge of the military affairs, which would be jointly managed by Chen Yougen, Wu Qian, and Mao Er, who was a student of Donghai University.
If you want to recruit soldiers, three people must sign and seal together, no one can be missing. Then at least two people must come together and bring the token to each defense to recruit soldiers, no one can be missing.
Before going to war, he would summon all the soldiers in the palace and make an announcement about this matter in public.
The Long Sword Army soldiers believed in him, and no one could replace his prestige for the time being. In this way, he was not too worried that some confused people would take the opportunity to cause trouble.
He trusts Chen Yougen very much and does not believe that Lao Chen will cause trouble, but necessary checks and balances are indispensable, and this is also a kind of protection for Lao Chen.
******
By the end of April, Shao Xun had completely moved to a side hall of Guangcheng Palace to work - he was a general in charge of supervising the construction of Guangcheng Garden, and this was justified.
Yang Xianrong hasn't suffered from insomnia for a while. Her face has become more and more beautiful, and the haggard look she had when she first came has disappeared.
The only thing that made her unhappy was that Le Lanji always came to "visit" her and stayed overnight in a side hall.
At this time, Yang Xianrong was feeling very upset.
She would get up in the middle of the night and sometimes sneak around the side hall where Shao Xun lived. She could always hear the sobbing that was suppressed deep in his bones. Finally, when she heard the man yelling, she would usually flee in panic.
On the last day of April, Le Lanji came again with wine and food, but she vomited outside after eating half of it. Yang Xianrong was stunned, sat there for a long time, and then left the palace in a daze.
Shao Xun, who rushed over after hearing the news, hugged Lan Ji in his arms and laughed non-stop.
The wonderful thing about Lan Ji is that she is fertile and easy to give birth to. She will definitely add many children to the Shao family in the future.
Le Lanji's face was like a ripe red apple. She buried her head in Shao Xun's arms with a smile on her lips.
After experiencing so many chaotic days, she didn't want to lose anything anymore.
Her husband was very good to her and doted on her in every way, and she wanted to live a peaceful and stable life like this.
She hadn't even thought about King Chengdu for a long time, and the past days seemed as distant as the previous life.
Shao Lang took her out for an outing, he held her in his arms and cared for her, and he manipulated her into various positions. Every day she wondered if this was just a dream.
"Okay, go to the palace and have a good rest." Shao Xun patted Lan Ji's buttocks and said softly.
Lan Ji frowned. There were several bruises on her buttocks, which were caused by the slapping just now.
King Chengdu didn't dare to do this to her before, because she would really get angry, but now, she was tormented in a daze, as if she was used to it and didn't feel any resistance.
Her face turned red, and she went to the side hall to rest without saying anything else.
Shao Xun also stood up, only to find that he was holding a few pieces of paper in his hand.
This is the roster of the sixth Silver Spear Army that is being formed.
Most of the personnel are ready and will be stationed in Yushanwu for training later.
This year, Yushanwu dispatched a thousand guards to travel east to Xuzhou and Yuzhou to help search for and move the families of officials of the Shao family’s military and political group.
After the Long Sword Army was disbanded as palace soldiers, Yushanwu lacked defense force, and the newly formed Sixth Branch of the Silver Spear Army just filled the gap.
The fifth battalion of the Silver Spear Army was divided into three groups, stationed in the three forts of Yunzhong, Kinmen and Tanshan.
Buildings one to four will be taken away and follow Shao Xun into battle.
The Yamen Army originally had 500 men stationed at Guangchengze Ranch, and would send another 1,000 men there next.
A total of 1,500 Yamen soldiers, plus 1,000 men recruited from Liang County, helped him guard the ranch - in fact, the main garrison force was still the outer palace soldiers and their followers.
Two hundred men stayed behind in the camp.
Another five hundred men were left stationed beside the Green Willow Garden.
The remaining three thousand men, together with the more than 2,400 Silver Spear Army soldiers, formed the main force heading north.
As for the auxiliary troops, they will be recruited from Sizhou in accordance with the imperial order, and the number will not be less than 5,000.
As for cavalry, we request the court to send a part of the cavalry to accompany the expedition.
The army has more than 10,000 people, which is not a big force in Hebei, but it is not something that anyone can underestimate.
At most, I could sell my life to Sima Yue for half a year, and that was about it. If possible, I could get more benefits and accumulate capital.
After putting away the roster, Yang Xianrong walked over gracefully.
"Are you going to war?" she asked softly.
"Well, I will come back. The soldiers' homes are here, and my home is here too. Where else can I go?" Shao Xun said.
Yang Xianrong wanted to say something but didn't know where to start.
She felt her heart, which had been calm for a while, begin to feel uneasy again. She had become accustomed to Shao Xun patrolling inside and outside Guangcheng Palace, even though the court had sent more than a hundred palace maids and guards to serve him.
"When the Queen is bored at home, maybe she can find something to do," Shao Xun said.
"What's the matter?" Yang Xianrong asked in surprise.
"The Yang family is a big family with many talented people. For example, Yang Ming, whom I met before, is very capable." Shao Xun said, "The queen is kind and gentle, and she is a wise and intelligent person. If she is willing to work, how can ordinary officials compare to her? Guangchengze has planted more than 1,300 hectares of millet this year, and it can be harvested in July and August. After the autumn harvest, winter wheat will be planted, no less than 2,000 hectares. These things are mostly done by the five county masters, and I am not very reassured. If the queen can participate in this matter, there will be no worries."
Yang Xianrong lived in Guangcheng Palace, which was very close by. She was also the Empress Hui of the previous emperor. It would surely be a good thing for her to supervise the farming work in Guangcheng Lake.
It is true that the output of Guangchengze Xintian will be very low, but it will gradually increase in the future. Shao Xun attaches great importance to it, even more than Liang County.
He didn't want this to be messed up.
"Do you think I can do it?" Yang Xianrong asked.
"Of course." Shao Xun answered without hesitation.
Does Yang Xianrong have the ability to govern? Of course she does.
Historically, when she was the Queen of Han Zhao, she "was quite involved in political affairs" and "participated in court affairs."
I received a strict, excellent and systematic education since childhood, and others simply don't have this opportunity.
Perhaps Yang Xianrong's real level is not as good as that of ministers of other dynasties in later generations, but at this moment, compared with the worst, she should still be okay - even if she is really not good enough, she still has many people to command.
Furthermore, finding something for her to do might help divert her attention and stop her from thinking too much, causing her emotions, which had finally stabilized, to collapse again.
In a way, Shao Xun was redeeming her.
Non-vegetation, ruthless Practice makes perfect.
Yang Xianrong helped him a lot, and he sincerely hoped that she could be better and more normal.
"Then I'll try." Yang Xianrong hummed, then raised his head and said, "I'll only help you."
Shao Xun sighed and nodded slightly.
(End of this chapter)