Chapter 484 Robbery
Chapter 484 Robbery
It's already mid-February, but snow has fallen again in Hanoi.
In the vast white wilderness, sheep bleated, dug through the snow with their hooves, and happily pecked at the dry grass and even the grass roots on the ground.
Among the many livestock raised by herders, sheep are probably the ones with the strongest ability to adapt to the environment.
The unique structure of their mouths allows them to eat plants that cows and horses cannot eat - in a month or two, when those low bushes sprout and grow leaves, you will be amazed.
They also dig the ground, dig out grass roots that are difficult for other animals to eat, and chew them up.
In some arid grasslands, they are the main culprit causing grassland degradation.
This is truly an amazing animal.
Just as the sheep had eaten for the whole morning and had filled their empty stomachs a little, the sound of horse hooves could be heard in the distance.
The shepherd was shocked and immediately ran to the horse, jumped on it, and subconsciously drew out his horn bow and quickly strung it.
The old man and the young man also mounted their horses. They wore round hats and fur coats, and looked towards the south with serious expressions.
The person is getting closer.
They seemed to be wearing brown - leather armor?
"People from Jin!" the experienced old man shouted and ran forward first.
The adult shepherds looked at each other and rushed forward.
The young men hurriedly drove the flock of sheep towards the tribal gathering place.
One of them rode back on a fast horse to report the news.
The two sides soon met in the wilderness.
The arrows shot from the Jin army on the opposite side were so fast and sharp that they knocked down two people in an instant.
The horses whinnied as they galloped by, then stopped in the distance, snorting.
The herders also fought back.
The old man drew his bow and arrow, and without taking any aim, he raised his hand and shot.
The arrow flew through the air and knocked a Jin cavalryman to the ground. His screams were heard far away in the wind.
But more arrows came from behind, and before the old man could shoot the second arrow, he lost his balance and fell to the ground. After struggling for a few times, he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
The dull sound of horse hooves sounded not far away, and lasted for a long time.
The old man's eyes became moist and a sad look appeared on his face.
With his experience, he didn't even need to look up to know that more than three hundred riders had just rushed over.
He knew very well how much damage more than 300 fully armed cavalrymen could cause. Because just a few years ago, when the late emperor was still alive, he was ordered to follow the army and attack Liyang in Jin. At that time, there were many refugees gathered there. They were only 300 to 400 cavalrymen, who circled around the Jin people and shot arrows, directly defeating thousands of soldiers and civilians, and finally drowned in the river and killed no less than a thousand people.
People who are not organized are just a group of scattered sand and have no deterrent power.
More than three hundred riders passed through the white snow and soon saw tents one after another.
Without anyone's orders, each team rushed into the Hun camp on horseback.
A woman was milking a cow. Seeing the cavalry approaching, she hurried back to her tent. Just as she took out a gun and rushed out, an arrow flew and hit her forehead.
A young girl was holding a newborn lamb, and when she saw the ferocious warrior, she froze in fear. The warrior laughed, stretched out his hand, threw the girl onto the horse's back, and rode away.
A man was mowing grass and hurriedly led out his horse. As soon as he turned over, he was hit by a horse lance. A moment later, the body fell to the ground with a thud, collapsing a tent.
No one knew who had set the fire, but the fire, fueled by the wind, burned fiercely and soon engulfed the entire camp.
Outside the camp, there were Huns everywhere trying to steal horses and escape.
They took almost nothing with them, abandoning their wives, their cattle, their sheep, their belongings, everything.
Under the threat of the fierce Jin cavalry, they were disorganized and had no thought of resistance at all. Only the instinct of survival drove them to escape, escape, and escape again.
No one chases them, and it is not certain that they can be caught up.
All the Jin cavalrymen repeatedly ravaged the camp, and only stopped killing when they killed the last herdsman who dared to resist.
The prisoners were quickly gathered.
They cried as they packed up everything that remained in the camp, gathered the livestock that were frightened by the fire, and under the supervision of the Jin cavalry, drove the carriages and herded the livestock south.
After almost everyone had left, the cavalry officer in charge ordered a fire to be set, completely burning the entire camp.
Looking at the column of smoke rising into the sky, he laughed.
In early spring, when the grass has just turned green and sprouted, the herders are mostly scattered around, busy with various things, and have not been called up.
People who are not organized are just a mob and will be defeated at the first blow.
After this experience, the Huns will probably have to think carefully about how to spend the spring in the future.
Hanoi is a place that is long from east to west and narrow from north to south. If you want to graze in peace, you have to recruit a group of people in the spring. Let's see if you can hold on, haha.
Similar situations continued to occur throughout Hanoi.
The capture troops would go out at night, wander around, launch surprise attacks, capture people alive, and torture them to interrogate the Huns about their inner workings.
The Yicong Army acted during the day, with groups of three to five hundred cavalry, fully armed, and directly raided the nest.
Some succeed and some fail.
But overall the losses were not great because the Huns did not gather on a large scale at all.
For a long time, they were the only ones who plundered the Central Plains, and there was no case of people from the Central Plains plundering them, let alone at a time like spring - aren't they busy with spring ploughing?
Blind spots in thinking lead to the inability to cope with the situation.
From now on, they have to think carefully about how to deal with it. If it really doesn't work, just move away?
******
When Wang Yan arrived at Jingu Garden, he saw a herd of running horses, which made him a little dazed.
Although there are only three or four hundred horses, it looks quite spectacular.
But this is not the point. The point is that this style of painting is quite incompatible with Jingu Garden.
A famous place for scholars to gather should be associated with pine wind, bright moon, sea of flowers and bamboo forest, lotus pond and stream, but now it is full of smelly wind and horse manure, which makes people feel very disappointed. The number of people outside Jingu Garden has increased to nearly 200 households.
They cleaned up the abandoned houses outside and began to cultivate the fields.
By this time, the spring ploughing was over and the millet in the field had even sprouted. Next to the millet field, there was an unknown crop planted. Wang Yan even squatted down to take a look, but finally gave up.
He really couldn't tell.
When we went up the mountain, we saw more than ten young men who were looking out from a high place.
When they saw Wang Yan coming with a entourage, they immediately stepped forward to ask him. When they heard the name of General Wang, they immediately bowed and made way.
"The Queen has ordered that this is the residence of a prince, and we are only borrowing it temporarily." Leader Ding Zhuang said respectfully.
"Queen? Which queen?" Wang Yan asked.
"Empress Hui, Lady Yang."
"Oh, it's Queen Yang." Wang Yan nodded and continued to climb the stone steps.
Wang Xuan stole a glance at his two sisters.
Wang Jingfeng was still admiring the scenery, but Wang Huifeng lowered his head, then shook his head and smiled indifferently, as if he had eliminated all distracting thoughts. He followed closely behind his father and climbed the stairs.
After entering the Jingu Garden, everyone went straight to the Hundred-foot Tower.
The accompanying servants tidied up the place roughly, brought some snacks and made some tea.
The four members of the Wang family stood in the wind, climbed up to look into the distance, and at the same time took in all the scenery near and far.
Two hundred households settled at the foot of the mountain, farming and grazing, and were managed by a special person.
Once encountering the enemy, they would retreat into Jingu Garden and hold their ground relying on the mountain roads.
Of course, with such a small force, they would be defeated if they encountered a large enemy force. But if it was a small group of thieves who didn't want to cause too many casualties, then they would be safe.
However, I heard that Xu Lang, the commander of the three divisions of the Left Guard, was about to send a part of the imperial guards to station at the foot of the mountain. From now on, Jingu Garden would probably be a relatively safe place.
Unconsciously, the security situation around Luoyang improved greatly, and the only exposure was the direction of Xin'an.
"A lot of people left Luoyang this spring." Wang Xuan suddenly sighed.
Speaking of this matter, Wang Yan felt a little heavy.
Luoyang is short of food, how can people not leave?
After the Battle of Fangtou last year, the Huns invaded Henan in September and the grain transport in Gaoping was completely stopped. The route through Chenjun was also affected. Even though the superiors urged them to do so, the transporters below did not listen, and in the end the transport was intermittent and had a great impact.
The amount of grain transported from Jiangnan was already small, and affected by the war. Even though an emergency batch of grain was later transported, it was still greatly affected.
It was okay during the Chinese New Year and they were barely able to hold on. But by mid-February, food prices soared and many people who relied on buying food for a living had exhausted their family savings, so they all went south and poured into the counties of Luonan.
Among these people, the craftsmen were absorbed into Xuchang, Xiping and Chen County, but no one knew what happened to the others who had no special skills. I heard that they were gathered together by Mr. Chen, who probably forced them to learn how to farm, or sent them to serve as soldiers in the government.
"Meizi, you are the Minister of Finance. You can let your subordinates handle small matters, but you still have to go there in person for big matters." Wang Yan turned around and said, "You should go to Xuchang and meet Mr. Chen."
"What can I say when I go there?" Wang Xuan said in distress, "Duzhi, among the six ministries, Duzhi is the hardest. If I continue to do this, I will be exhausted and I am afraid I will lose ten years of my life."
Wang Yan turned a deaf ear to him and said, "We'll talk about it later if it succeeds or not. We have to make the trip anyway."
"The emperor is still unwilling to issue an edict?" Wang Xuan asked.
"He will do it." Wang Yan said.
"I don't think so." Wang Xuan disagreed: "The emperor may agree with you on other matters, but not on this one. Besides, Liang Fen may not be obedient. He has Liang clan members in Guanzhong, leading the army, and at the very least, he is also a vassal. He is stationed in Wancheng, and they can support each other. Isn't it wonderful? If he goes to Guanzhong, he will fight for power with his clan members and in-laws, and he may be conquered by Liu Han at any time. No one wants to do that."
"We don't need to worry about this." Wang Yan said: "If Mr. Chen wants to accomplish great things, he can't just rely on others, but mainly on himself. If he can't suppress Liang Fen, everything is over, and he has no face to blame us."
"Will they fight?" Wang Xuan asked subconsciously.
Wang Huifeng had been preoccupied with something, and at this moment he could not help but look over.
"It shouldn't be that serious." Wang Yan sighed and said, "Du Tao's rebellion has never been put down. The court has already sent troops from Jiangdong to help. If Nanyang is in chaos again, Jingxiang will be ruined, which will be a disaster for the people."
"Well, let's go for a trip." Wang Xuan said helplessly.
"The angel will come south with the imperial edict a few days later." Wang Yan added.
"How can we get the emperor's approval?" Wang Xuanqi asked.
"The court officials submit memorials with proposals, the cabinet drafts the edicts and approves them, and the emperor uses the seal," Wang Yan said vaguely.
Wang Xuan was shocked.
This is a matter of concern!
If the emperor was angry and accused someone of forging the imperial edict in front of the envoys from various local counties at an important court meeting, his reputation would be completely ruined.
At that time, what kind of celebrity would it be? No celebrity can do this.
"I won't take this step unless it's absolutely necessary." Wang Yan glanced at his son and said with a smile, "I will join forces with my colleagues to persuade the emperor. Alas, the food shortage is so severe, what else can we do?"
Wang Xuan nodded slowly.
Wang Jingfeng sat by the window, staring at the bamboo forest in the garden in the distance without blinking.
Wang Huifeng withdrew his gaze and continued to think about his worries.
Several riders came running outside Jingu Garden, pointing at the farmers and saying something loudly.
After a while, the farmers assigned some people to climb the stairs, enter the Jingu Garden, and start to tidy up the stables and livestock pens.
Others began patrolling the vegetable plots to see how the turnips planted last fall were doing - food that also serves as an excellent feed.
Everyone in the Wang family watched silently and said nothing.
It seems that Taibai got a batch of livestock from somewhere else, but no one knows where they came from. Could they have been robbed?
(End of this chapter)