Chapter 356 Ghost Chapter

Chapter 356: Nonsense
The Huns had retreated from Xin'an, and Luoyang returned to peace.

The caravan, which had been stranded in Liang County for a long time, headed north again and headed for Luoyang via Yique Pass. The imperial court seized the time to collect taxes to replenish the increasingly empty treasury.

The wheat seedlings in the farmlands of Luonan counties are growing well, which makes people feel at ease.

Everything seems to be going in a good direction.

At this time, wave after wave of troop movements arrived near Liang County.

All the remaining old horses in Guangchengze were transferred away, and even a batch of new horses were requisitioned. As for donkeys and mules from the people, they tried their best to requisition them, and sent out as many as possible.

In the northern border of Puyang Suanzao County, troops have been gathering continuously since a few days ago.

All of the more than 2,000 cavalrymen of the Yicong Army were mobilized, and about 1,200 infantrymen who could ride horses also arrived.

On the seventh day of June, a total of one thousand soldiers from the government arrived.

On the ninth day of June, following an order from the headquarters of the General Zhenjun, the begging soldiers from Chenliu and Liangguo gathered more than 700 cavalrymen, carrying bows, and gathered at Suanzao.

On the tenth day of June, two hundred soldiers from Yangcheng Prefecture arrived.

On the 11th, 300 soldiers from Liang County arrived...

The lineup was extremely large. By the 16th, they had assembled 2,000 palace soldiers, more than 3,000 volunteer infantry and cavalry, more than 700 Qihuo Army Wuhuan light cavalry, and more than 200 personal soldiers of the Shao family, totaling more than 6,000 people, more than 9,600 horses, more than 4,000 mules, and 3,000 donkeys, almost emptying the family's assets.

More than 6,000 people have no auxiliary soldiers, all of them are combat soldiers. In other words, combat soldiers must complete the work content of auxiliary soldiers themselves.

On the 17th, the soldiers loaded various luggage onto the backs of pack animals.

In addition to weapons, there are also a large number of vinegar cakes - Hu cakes are soaked in vinegar and then dried, which can be preserved for up to more than 60 days.

Horse feed is also indispensable, mainly cooked beans and salt.

When on a military expedition, the military situation is urgent. Replenishing the horse's energy by grazing is too slow. You may have to herd the horses for most of the day. You can't afford to delay, so you can only feed them grain directly.

Do not bring unnecessary things, such as cooking utensils, whetstones, etc., and try to reduce the load on draft animals as much as possible to free up space to carry more dry food and horse feed.

Even so, after the final calculation, the food was still only enough for twelve or thirteen days.

If you eat sparingly, you may be able to consume two or three more days, but it won’t be much.

People can go hungry for a day or two and persevere, but horses cannot. They cannot even go hungry for a meal and will not run if they say they will not run.

At the same time, Suanzao County also organized manpower to pull out small wooden boats prepared in advance from the ditch and began to build a floating bridge on the river.

On the other side of the river is Ji County. Although it is crumbling and seems like it will be captured by the Huns at any moment, it is still under our control and there will be no main enemy forces coming to harass us.

Therefore, when Shao Xun set out with a large force on the night of the 17th, the pontoon bridge had already been built.

It took the entire night and half a day for the entire army to cross the river to the north and reach Ji County. After a short rest, they roared eastward and disappeared into the vast wilderness.

******
The army advanced almost parallel to the north bank of the Yellow River.

On the night of the 18th, we stayed in the farmland in the countryside between Jixian and Chaoge.

On the afternoon of the 19th, it passed north of Yanjin, and after nightfall it did not stop, crossing the river directly and passing south of Fangtou.

At this time, the Huns suddenly woke up from their dreams and immediately went to Yecheng and Changshan to report the situation to Shi Chao and Shi Le.

Seeing their performance, Shao Xun sneered inwardly, saying it was nothing special.

You went south and I was caught off guard. I went north and your performance was also very poor. Did you never think that someone would gather so many horses, donkeys and mules and gallop north of the river?
However, since the Huns did not cause trouble, Shao Xun was too lazy to care about them.

After all, only a few of the government soldiers were good at cavalry warfare, and most of them were just mounted infantry.

However, mounted infantry could not defeat the Hun light cavalry in a horseback battle, so there was no need to use one's own weakness to attack the enemy's strength.

On the afternoon of the 20th, the entire army occupied Liyangjin and drove away more than a hundred Hun soldiers guarding the ferry.

The entire army rested for a whole night.

That evening, when Shao Xun looked at Baimashan on the other side of the river, people had been organized at Baimajin and ferried some provisions over in small boats to replenish the consumption.

At this time, many Xiongnu cavalry had appeared in the wild, and it was unknown whether they were Shi Chao's troops or Shi Le's soldiers. However, they were few in number, with no more than a hundred cavalry at most, and they did not dare to get too close to the Jin army that occupied Liyangjin and had cavalry and heavily armored infantry.

Their top priority should be to gather the scattered cavalry together so that they can have the strength to fight.

But no one would wait for them.

On the 21st, the army continued its march eastward.

At this time, Shao Xun discovered that the troops were not marching as fast as they had in the first one or two days.

This is normal, even if one person rides two horses, the speed of the raid will slowly decrease over time. After all, fatigue accumulates, and a night of rest is not enough to relieve it all.

On the afternoon of the 22nd, the entire army arrived in the south of Dongqiu County and rested as usual.

The number of Hun cavalry cruising in the wild gradually increased, with the largest group reaching two thousand cavalry, and they began to approach and harass.

Shao Xun ordered the palace soldiers to dismount and form a battle formation, using crossbows to disperse the bandits. He then ordered the large horses from Liangzhou to charge directly into the battle formation, while the light cavalry from Wuhuan surrounded them from both sides and scattered the bandits.

In fact, the Xiongnu light cavalry was very fast and not many people died. But after discovering that the Jin army's combination of infantry and cavalry was powerful, they knew they had no chance and quickly dispersed.

They couldn't handle this Jin army of more than 10,000 people, so they had to ask Da Hu to come in person. In the evening, Shao Xun brought Yu Liang to a fort in the southeast of Dongqiu.

"Yuan Gui, why are you here?" After the fort commander Li Shou came out, he was shocked to see Yu Liang.

"I came here to fight with Lord Chen." Yu Liang bowed and said.

Yu Liang had one wife and two concubines. His wife was Xun, and his two concubines were from the Shang family of Jijun and the Li family of Dongqiu respectively, both of whom were local small and medium-sized aristocratic families.

The main branch of the Dongyu Li family had already followed the prefect Le Mo to the south and settled in Nandun and Xincai, but some people stayed behind, such as Li Shou.

"Is it an attack on Hebei?" Li Shou looked at the general stationed in Gaopo in the distance with uncertainty and asked.

"It's inconvenient to say more about this matter. Now I just want some food and water, and to change to a horse or mule." Yu Liang said.

Li Shou hesitated for a while.

Yu Liang was a little anxious and said, "If you hesitate during the rest period, you will benefit from fighting back to Hebei in the future."

Li Shou was silent for a while and sent someone back to the fort.

After a while, a group of people pulled a cart and left the city via the suspension bridge.

There was a lot of "food" on the car, but when Yu Liang took a look, it was actually bran and chaff.

This is not for human consumption. Bran and chaff mixed with salt water are just right for feeding horses.

"The kitchen is making steamed buns. They will be served here in a moment." Li Shou said.

After saying that, he sighed, looking a little hesitant.

He didn't know whether this was right or wrong, but since he had done it, what could he do?

He looked at the general, who was pointing into the distance.

And following his instructions, a group of cavalry would rush out from time to time and disappear on the horizon.

After giving the instructions, he asked people to collect some horses and send them to the fort.

Li Shou took a quick look and saw that most of the horses had cracked hooves and had not been trimmed, so he accepted them with confidence and then replaced them with a few horses, donkeys and mules to maintain their mobility.

Soon, baskets of steaming buns were brought out...

******
In the suburbs of Fan County, Dongping State, Gou Xi took a sledgehammer and smashed Sima Yue's tombstone into several pieces.

After smashing it, I felt much better.

He ran away in such a hurry that he didn't have time to pack anything. His wife and family were all trapped in Qingzhou, which made him very angry.

After sitting down panting, he took the letter handed to him by his staff, glanced at it and sneered.

"…You have been listed in the list of honorable men at an early age, and have offered many good advice. You have fought hundreds of battles in the north and south of the Great River. Your victories have shocked the three armies, and your cheers have spread to the six counties…You have the spirit of the mountains and rivers, and the energy of the universe. You are truly the guardian of the country and the shield of the nation. I have had a long-standing spiritual friendship with you, and now I am willing to offer you 100,000 grains, thousands of armors and weapons, and 500 war horses to strengthen the army."

"...Qingzhou is occupied by thieves and wolves, and is causing trouble for Henan. I am not at ease. Now there are Xiongnu in the north and rebels in the south. I also have the important task of supervising the grain transport, and I cannot split my time. You can use Dongping, Jibei, and Taishan as bases, select soldiers, firmly guard the borders of the state, cut off the way for the bandits to spy, and comfort the rebellious people."

"…I have long known your talents. You have occupied the strategic points of the mountains and rivers, and have been well prepared with weapons and spears. You have secretly accumulated a strong army, and have built deep trenches and high fortifications. Given time, the rebels will be frightened and the bandits will flee on their own. This is all your merit."

"…Some say that you had a small rift with the former Minister of Justice, but now that he is gone, all is over. The successor king of Donghai and the Queen Mother also know that you have a far-reaching vision for governing the country and a sincere heart for the country. They respect you and are willing to use your prestige to pacify the counties. Don't doubt it."

Gou Xi read the two pages of paper, crumpled them up and threw them away, saying, "Shao Quanzhong is lying to me, thinking I'm a three-year-old kid."

Gou Chun picked up the letter from the ground, read it silently, and said, "Brother, it is true that Shao Xun cannot split himself. I heard that Shi Le and Shi Chao repeatedly sent troops to the south, and Nanyang was in chaos. He also had to bear the responsibility of grain transport, so he really couldn't spare any troops. In addition, the Xiongnu would usually go south during the autumn harvest to rob millet and wheat. Would Shao Xun not be prepared? If he led his troops to the east, if he failed to win quickly, he would be attacked from all sides and would be defeated. Now he should not dare to offend us."

"Stupid!" Gou Xi scolded, and then said: "Even if Shao Xun is temporarily unable to start a war with me, can he not be prepared? Does this look like a war?"

Gou Chun was speechless.

"Send out all the cavalry, go west deep into Puyang and Jiyin, and investigate the movements of Shao's troops. Remember, you must not slack off, and report immediately when you see Shao's troops mobilized. Especially the Silver Spear Army, they are the top priority." Gou Xi ordered.

"Okay, I'll arrange the staff right away." Gou Chun said.

"How many people do you have?" Gou Xi asked again.

"We have recruited 5,000 refugee soldiers, and now we have more than 8,000."

Gou Xi nodded and said, "Tomorrow we will go south to Gaoping to recruit soldiers and collect food."

He had several old acquaintances in Gaoping, who were the old generals who had followed him to defeat Jisang in Dongwuyang. They agreed to help him recruit new soldiers and expand his army.

Yanzhou is still a comfortable place where everyone knows each other.

He has old subordinates and the title of commander-in-chief of the military forces of Qing, Xu, Yan, Yu, Jing and Yang. As long as he has soldiers, there are many things he can do.

To be honest, he is not willing to go to war with Shao Xun now, but that doesn't mean he completely believes Shao Xun's lies.

Even if he had to go south to Gaoping to collect money, food, and soldiers, he would keep one eye on Kaocheng and would never dare to slack off.

On June 25th, Gou Xi led more than 15,000 new and old soldiers southward and headed straight for Gaoping State.

(End of this chapter)