Chapter 366 General Affairs

Chapter 366 General Affairs

Chapter 366 General Affairs
The Huns have already moved south, and Luoyang was the hardest hit area.

The reason was simple. They successfully built a floating bridge in the Mengjin area, allowing a large group of people to pass through smoothly.

However, the bridge-building operation ended in failure in Puyang and Xingyang areas.

On the seventh day of August, Shao Xun was cutting millet in the field while listening to the report from his younger brother Shao Fan.

As the saying goes, one should not avoid relatives when promoting talented people. After all, my third brother Shao Fan also has a degree from the Imperial College (in name only).

After several years of study, he could write articles with "very simple style" and "basically fluent meaning", and understood the common formats of official documents. In addition, he was very meticulous, sensitive and patient, so he was given the position of a staff member of the governor-general who assassinated traitors.

The governor-general of assassinating traitors was not literally responsible for spying and catching spies.

That is indeed their job, but only part of it.

The governor-general was also responsible for judicial work, which was similar to the position of "law official" in the shogunate of the Jiedushi in the Tang Dynasty. If a soldier was dissatisfied with his officers, he would directly report it to the law official of the shogunate and ask for justice.

However, what Shao Fan reported today was serious content related to spies.

Cousin Liu Fang stood respectfully by the side.

He was the left law enforcement officer under the command of the traitorous governor, and had about a hundred men under him, most of whom were strong and elite guards selected from Yushanwu.

As the saying goes, when one person succeeds, the whole family will prosper. The guards in Yushanwu never thought that they would one day become soldiers and eat food.

Liu Fang led his men north to Puyang and went to great lengths to capture two Hun scouts. After interrogation, they compiled the information and reported it - in the past, these tasks were done by scouts and cavalry in the army, but now that a government office has been established and everything has been regularized, the Governor-General of the Imperial Guards began to take over this part of the work.

The governor of assassination was roughly equivalent to an official of the seventh rank.

Theoretically speaking, all staff positions are not formal official positions and have no rank, just like the staff positions of the Jiedushi Shogunate in the Tang Dynasty were all regarded as temporary assignments - purely in theory, the Jiedushi were all temporary assignments.

But after the government was established for a long time, each staff position had its own conventional rank. After all, if they wanted to pay salaries, there had to be a standard.

The governor-general of the imperial court was required to collect 360 hu of grain, 50 pieces of silk, 30 jin of cotton, 4 hectares of official land, and several laborers every year. This was the standard for a seventh-rank official.

Under his command were two law enforcement officers, one on the left and one on the right, both of whom were of the ninth rank.

There were also a number of unranked servants and more than 200 soldiers.

"After interrogation, the bandit cavalry told Shi Chao to lead his troops north to Changshan to resist Wang Jun. Shi Le led his troops to the river with the intention of advancing south. They all followed Shi Le's orders to cross the river and go south to spy on the military situation and see where the defenses were empty and where they could build a pontoon bridge." Shao Fan said.

Shao Xun gathered the harvested millet and piled it on the ground, saying, "Wang Jun went south?"

"Last year, three counties in Jizhou were taken away. Wang Jun was furious and anxious, so he led his troops south. Shi Chao was the fake governor of Jizhou, and he went north from Yecheng to fight the enemy. That's all we got from the interrogation."

Shao Xun nodded, then looked at his brother and smiled, "How do you feel after talking so much in one breath?"

Shao Fan looked embarrassed and lowered his head.

Yesterday, Chen Yougen complained to Shao Xun that Shao Fan always liked to sit in the corner and didn't talk. In the evening when the sun was setting in the west, he seemed to be hiding in the shadows, but he would peek at them from time to time, which was creepy.

Shao Xun laughed so hard that he was out of breath after hearing this.

His younger brother would rather talk to animals in the stable than chat with outsiders.

It got a little better after he got married, but it was only limited to people he was familiar with. He didn't pay much attention to people with whom he had a general relationship. His brother's wife, Cao, was introduced by Cao Fu. She was his great-great-granddaughter and was from Luoyang.

"The water level of the Yellow River is rising now, and several convenient ferry crossings in Xingyang and Puyang have been occupied. If Shi Le wants to cross the river, he can either change places and cross the river from Gaoping or Jibei, or just go to Henan, otherwise he can just wait." Shao Xun said.

"General Li has taken all the horses that can be taken away." Shao Fan reminded again.

"I know about this." Shao Xun waved his hand and said, "In fact, there are not many horses left, alas."

It is fun to rush thousands of miles, but the loss is also considerable.

On the way, Shao Xun saw an old horse that had stumbled and was lying on the ground with tears in its eyes.

The requisitioned horses, donkeys and mules have been returned. He currently has only more than 6,000 horses on hand, of which only more than 2,000 are truly "young".

Li Chong was entrusted by Shao Xun with an important task, namely, governor of the river defense in Puyang.

He did not ask for anything else, only that the more than 4,000 infantry and cavalry of the Yicong Army be handed over to him, and that all the old horses of Guangchengze that were fostered in Xingyang and Chenliu be transferred over.

Shao Xun agreed and gave him more than 2,000 old horses for the Yicong army's infantry to ride on to enhance their mobility.

There were 20,000 squatting troops stationed at the four major ferry crossings, and Li Zhong brought more than 4,000 highly mobile troops to reinforce everywhere, which made Shi Le very frustrated.

Send a small group of troops to cross the river. They cannot break through the fortress occupying the crossing.

They made up their minds to collect a number of ferries and ferry more people across the river, but they were attacked from both inside and outside by the ferry defenders and reinforcements.

If a floating bridge is built directly from the north bank, it will be easily destroyed.

When fighting for the ferry, you cannot deploy too many troops and cannot deploy them.

As it stands now, the Dahu can no longer cross the river directly from Wenshijin, Baimajin, Puyangjin and Lingjin, and must take a detour upstream or downstream.

Of course, there are also some small ferry crossings among the four major ferry crossings. If you are not careful, someone may secretly build a floating bridge over them.

The only way to deal with this was to have each county send people to patrol along the river. Once they made any discovery, they had to report it immediately. Li Chong would then lead his troops to intercept them.

If the Yicong Army was not enough, the Chenliu Qihuo Army and the Jiyin Qihuo Army (formerly the Liang State Qihuo Army) sent reinforcements. A total of nearly 40,000 people were mobilized just to defend the Puyang section of the Yellow River. The cost was high, but the effect was really good.

The ridiculous situation in the past where we were completely defenseless and allowed the Hebei cavalry to march south in large numbers must never happen again.

Shao Xun appointed the Xingyang section next to Puyang to the prefect Pei Chun.

He had proven himself at Hulao Pass, and Shao Xun trusted him, so more than 10,000 soldiers from the Xuchang garrison who were already under his command - stationed in Guancheng, Xinzheng and other places - were also temporarily under Pei Chun's command.

Now that his territory is larger, it is no longer possible for him to fight every battle personally.

Previously, Jin Zheng was asked to lead the Silver Spear Army to escort the grain ships into the capital in order to train his abilities.

There is another grain boat escort mission this month, and he plans to give it to Wang Que'er.

There may be one last escort before winter, and he will hand it over to Lu Heigou or Zhang Daniu of Luoyang Phase II.

Doing everything yourself will only make you exhausted, and you will eventually be unable to make ends meet and unable to continue.

War is not a matter of one person, it is a test of collective strength.

"Continue to look for spies, not only from the Xiongnu, but also from Luoyang." Shao Xun whispered, "We should also send people to keep an eye on the Jingzhou direction."

"Then you need to add more manpower to me." Shao Fan said.

"I'll give you more." Shao Xun looked at the golden corn all over the ground and said, "We can finally take a break this year. Report to Pei Changshi how many people you want to add."

"Okay." Shao Fan was relieved.

Seeing that his brother stopped asking questions, he took Liu Fang away.

Shao Xun handed the sickle to Cai Cheng, then bent down and used the long grass to bundle the millet that had been cut on the ground.

His movements were very skillful, as if he had done farm work countless times, which made the people admire him very much.

The bundled millet was piled on the cart and taken away one after another.

"My lord." Military officer Yu Liang was waiting by the roadside. When he saw Shao Xun coming, he quickly saluted.

Yu Liang was a military officer, but he was in charge of three areas: warehouse, household and thieves. He did not participate in the specific implementation of the battle or tactical planning.

Each Cao had a Lingshi, and the Cang Cao was in charge of warehouse and grain affairs, mainly managing the stored grain.

The Hucao is in charge of the people's households, agriculture, and sacrifices.

The Zeicao is in charge of catching thieves.

To put it bluntly, Yu Liang, as a military officer, was responsible for military logistics.

Judging from the establishment of the general's and his assistants, it was actually a large-scale encroachment on the power of the provincial governor.

If the governor does not have the title of general or does not hold the imperial seal, he will easily become a vassal of the governor.

After all, the governor holds the imperial seal and can kill officials with justification.

Shao Xun was a military governor with the power to execute officials below 2,000 shi in wartime. In today's situation, almost half of the year is wartime, or even most of the time, so it is reasonable and legal for him to kill officials.

Lu Zhi was a single-vehicle governor and had no way to confront Shao Xun, not to mention that he had no intention of doing so and had always been doing his job with all his heart - he had a bunch of people from Hebei and Shu under him, did you really want to go against the local military leaders in Yuzhou?

"What's the matter?" Shao Xun asked.

"I checked the archives and found that the warehouses in Yuzhou have been in disrepair for many years. We need to allocate money and grain to repair them," said Yu Liang.

"No money." Shao Xun said, "Let's repair the important ones first."

"Which mansion should be renovated?" asked Yu Liang.

"Try to repair the old warehouses along the river." Shao Xun said, "Pack your luggage, take your people, and follow me south."

"Okay." Yu Liang responded immediately, and then asked: "Where are we going south?"

"Your home, Yanling!" Shao Xun looked at him with a smile and said.

"My lord, it is not appropriate for me to meet my sister before getting married." Yu Liang stammered.

"What are you thinking about, Yuan Gui?" Shao Xun laughed and said, "Follow me along the Wei River and Suiyang Canal. You may meet some people then."

"So should we go to Yanling or Chen County first?"

"Well, let's go to Chen County first." Shao Xun said, "Almost everyone is here."

"The Huns went south to Luoyang and we just left them alone?"

"The Xiongnu march south every year, so what can we do?" Shao Xun said dissatisfiedly, "Go and prepare quickly."

"Yes." Yu Liang left in a hurry.

After Yu Liang left, Shao Xun called Cai Cheng and said, "Take all the guests to Fugou. I will set out to meet them tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)