Chapter 342: Take Down One City First
Chapter 342: First Victory (Additional chapter for the leader, the blind sniper)
It has been several days since the Spring Festival, but the impact has not yet dissipated.
Because of the harsh conditions, the offerings on the community day were just some simple grains and a pitiful amount of dried fruits. After being distributed to the people of the community, everyone only got a little.
But it was enough to make them happy.
Community Day is a traditional festival, which is divided into Spring Community Day and Autumn Community Day. In terms of importance, it is definitely ranked among the top few, perhaps only slightly inferior to the Winter Solstice and New Year's Day, and similar to other festivals such as Cold Food Festival and Double Ninth Festival.
This festival reached its peak during the Tang and Song dynasties, and declined during the Yuan Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, due to policy suppression, private associations were no longer allowed, and it declined even more than during the Yuan Dynasty, and was gradually removed from the list of major festivals.
According to tradition, hundreds of families form a community to worship the land god together and share the sacrificial wine and meat.
Chen County collected and resettled refugees, with 100 households forming a camp, which was also a community. The camp leader presided over the sacrifices, and the team leaders were responsible for organizing the communities and maintaining order. After the whole process, everything was in good order.
What does this mean? It means organization.
The households came from Ji, Bing, Yu, Yan, and Yong states, and were originally relatively loose. However, with the annual spring and autumn sacrifices, as well as collective activities such as the winter solstice, the twelfth lunar month, and New Year's Day, each camp or each community gradually gained cohesion and became less scattered.
After a long time, the grassroots order that collapsed due to war and natural disasters was restored bit by bit.
After the Spring Festival sacrifice, the busy spring ploughing season begins.
When Shao Xun arrived in Chen County, he caught the end of it.
Without saying a word, he changed into a rough linen suit and went to work in the fields. He even helped a family whose husband had just died with hard ploughing.
There was only one woman left in the family, with three children, helpless and alone.
Shao Xun plowed the land from beginning to end, and managed to sow all the thirty acres of land in her family with his personal soldiers.
Before leaving, he asked the team leader and battalion commander to take good care of them and left a few bags of food.
On the seventh day of February, we headed north to Yangxia and stayed at Yuan's manor.
The Yuan family finished their spring sowing early. At this time, some of the farmhands were at home tending to the vegetable plots, repairing farm tools and houses, while some of the farmhands were organized and training in the wilderness.
The armed forces of the gentry can be roughly divided into two parts.
The largest group of people are naturally ordinary farmers, who practice during the slack season.
Don't practice martial arts or anything like that, just practice military formations, that is, arrange the troops in battle formation, then go up with spears and poke around randomly, don't worry about too much.
The soldiers of the Silver Spear Army also conducted some training.
They have been practicing assassination techniques for many years and have formed muscle memory. Even if the opponent is not wearing armor, they will still subconsciously stab in places that are not covered by the armor. Their movements are precise and fast, and they cooperate with each other.
Compared with them, the assassination skills of the nobles and farmhands were simply horrible. Not only were their movements slow, but they were also very chaotic, with no sense of rhythm, let alone any technical moves.
Comparing the two, the gap between professional warriors and farmers is very obvious.
The second part of the aristocratic armed forces was the retinue.
This group of people is relatively small and relatively elite. Sometimes, Zhuangke is also called Buqu, but there is a huge gap in combat effectiveness between the two.
These people more or less had some basic martial arts skills, ate relatively better, and trained more frequently, so they could be considered qualified soldiers.
Take the Yuan family of Yangxia as an example. There were severe disasters for two consecutive years and many farmhands starved to death, but none of their 800-strong army died. This shows the difference in treatment.
Of course, the fighting power of the troops is still inferior to that of the Silver Spear Army.
Yuan Chong watched the drill for a while and felt a little jealous. But this was not the time to talk about these things, because there was another guest today: Xincai King Sima Que.
"Your Majesty, don't worry. Marquis Chen has no intention of taking your fiefdom." After the two men got off the platform, Yuan Chong said slowly, "It's just that the Xincai Internal History died suddenly, so someone has to take over, right?"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" A long and powerful roar came from the Silver Spear Army soldiers not far away. Sima was startled and his momentum was not so strong anymore.
He knew that Yuan Chong was right.
There are more than ten counties and states in Yuzhou, all of which have governors, and the position has just been vacated by the sudden death of the Internal History of Xincai. In this way, the resistance to placing a new person will be much smaller.
But he was also a little annoyed. So he didn't consider me as a resistance, right?
"Besides, Lord Chen has no intention of taking over the king's fiefdom." Yuan Chong quietly observed Sima Que's expression, not missing the slightest change, and said, "If the king wants to recommend the Nei Shi, he can do it himself. Lord Chen said that it is not uncommon for the prefect and Nei Shi to coexist. He recommended the prefect, and the king recommended the Nei Shi. The two are unrelated."
Sima didn't know whether he should be angry or not.
Xincai was a small country, with four counties under its jurisdiction: Xincai, Baoxin, Yingyang, and Gushi. The title he inherited had five thousand households on the books, which were managed by the kingdom's internal historian and spread across the four counties.
If there was no governor, the kingdom's internal historian could completely control the entire territory of Xincai and turn it into his own private domain.
The Marquis of Chen wanted to recommend the Internal Historian, but when that failed, he decided to appoint a prefect. This was to settle accounts with himself, making a clear distinction between which areas were under the jurisdiction of the royal palace and which areas were under the jurisdiction of the prefect.
This made Sima really unhappy.
But what can I say? What if I am unhappy? Shao Xun is just asking you to endure it.
Sima Que was indeed furious at first, but only for a short while. He then inquired about Shao Xun's itinerary and rushed to Yangxia.
But when they met, this was the scene, which was really a show of power.
"Your Majesty, I heard that there are bandit cavalry heading south from Xingyang, Chenliu and Puyang. The governor of Xuchang has the responsibility to defend Luoyang. If we want to repel the enemy, we have to rely on the help of Lord Chen." After seeing Sima Que's expression relax, Yuan Chong continued to persuade him.
"They are just a few cavalrymen, at most a hundred or a few hundred cavalrymen, mainly for harassment, and they dare not go deep into the enemy." Sima Que said. "Your Majesty is right." Yuan Chong said patiently: "At present, they are indeed just cavalrymen, but what about the future? If the bandits move south in large numbers, can the troops in Xuchang resist them?"
Sima Que was speechless now, but he was angry in his heart and walked forward with his head down.
"Si'an." A crisp voice came from the front.
Sima Que looked up and immediately bowed, saying, "Aunt."
The person who came was Princess Pei of Donghai. Chen Hou Shao Xun lagged behind her, guarding her by her side with a sword in hand, loyal and devoted.
Crown Prince Sima Pi was also there, chatting and laughing with the Marquis of Chen.
After seeing Sima Que, he became reserved for a moment.
After being glanced at by Shao Xun, he reluctantly stepped forward to greet him and said, "Cousin, you are so depressed, why? There is really nothing fun in Yangxia, it is very boring."
Concubine Pei gave him a stern look.
Sima Pi's heart skipped a beat and his face fell.
Concubine Pei glanced at Shao Xun again, her eyes full of reproach.
Shao Xun couldn't resist, cleared his throat, and said: "The King of Xincai must be worried about state affairs and worried that the Huns will march south in large numbers."
"Ah?" Sima Pi was startled and asked, "Didn't Wang Yifu send news that the Xiongnu were collecting food, grass, cattle and sheep from the tribes under his rule and were planning to march into Guanzhong? Why are they heading south to Yuzhou?"
"Your Highness, you don't know that even if we attack Guanzhong, the Xiongnu will definitely go south to Luoyang and Yuzhou." Shao Xun explained: "Maybe the troops won't be many, but they are worried about the court's rescue, so the necessary diversionary forces will not be small."
"I see." Sima Pi looked at Shao Xun with admiration.
The expression on Sima Que's face was no longer so admiring, but rather a little pale.
The soldiers under his command could only fight against Li Hong and his ilk, and it would be very difficult for them to fight against the Xiongnu. Once the enemy army marched south in large numbers, he would have no other choice but to retreat to Xuchang.
But although you are safe if you hide away, other places in Yingchuan are not safe. If those noble families sue you, you will forget about being the governor.
This is not sensational.
You know, he got this position of governor with the help of the former King of Donghai. Now the King of Donghai has passed away, and the emperor hates him very much. Is the position of governor of Xuchang really stable?
It’s not stable at all!
Once the governor is gone, he will have to go to Luoyang, and all the officials of the fiefdom will probably be transferred as well. At that time, you will be given fifty guards, which means that your country is no longer a country and you have no power at all.
He had no ability to resist.
"Si'an." Concubine Pei looked at Sima Que and said, "This year the Xiongnu will definitely move south. The people of Yuzhou have suffered for two whole years. Bones are exposed in the wild, and no roosters crow for a hundred miles. Countless people have died of hunger and unrest. Now that things are just getting better, if the Xiongnu invade, they will definitely not survive, and the number of deaths may be even higher than in the past two years. In this situation, I am afraid that Si'an will not be able to take responsibility, and it will not be good if he is investigated."
Concubine Pei frowned and looked worried when she said this.
Sima Que was terrified.
Concubine Pei continued, "There are not many people left in our group. The emperor doesn't like us and wants to eliminate us at any time. Chen Hou is from Yue Prefecture and is the bravest of the three armies. If you join hands, you may have a chance of survival. At this time, you must not make enemies. Otherwise, your father and uncle will be worried in the afterlife."
At this point, there were already tears in Concubine Pei's eyes.
Sima Que's eyes also turned red.
Some words may not have a good effect when spoken by outsiders.
Yuan Chong had just tried to persuade him for so long that Sima Que was just shaken in his heart, but his anger still existed.
After hearing what his aunt said, the last bit of worry in Sima Que's heart disappeared.
He had no reason to confront Shao Xun emotionally or logically.
For him, the biggest threat now is the Huns, followed by the emperor.
What a huge force the four brothers Sima Yue, Sima Teng, Sima Lue and Sima Mo were in the past? Now only Sima Mo, the King of Nanyang, is still alive.
The emperor might not be able to touch the King of Nanyang, but it would not be difficult to take down a governor of Xuchang who had little prestige.
He now needs external aid and needs to stand in line.
"Aunt, please stop talking." Sima Que sighed and said, "I understand now."
Concubine Pei looked at Sima Que with relief and said, "The world is so chaotic, we all have to survive."
After these words were spoken, Sima indeed could no longer hold back, and tears began to flow down his face.
The nightmare of Yecheng still lingers in the midnight.
His father, three elder brothers, and many of his staff were all killed by the Jisang bandits. He was the only one who managed to survive.
The three words "survive" struck directly into his soft and terrified heart - a fatal blow.
Shao Xun was stunned watching from the side.
In this day and age, is there really someone who can rally an army of 20,000 just by talking?
Shao Xun felt that he had greatly underestimated Concubine Pei.
Suddenly, he felt that it might be difficult for him to have affairs with other girls in the future.
(End of this chapter)