Chapter 726 Intermission and Accumulation Period

Chapter 726 Intermission and Accumulation Period

Chapter 726 Intermission and Accumulation Period
The heavy rain in Bingzhou stopped for a while in late June and early July, and then started again in mid-July. The clouds and rain gradually cleared up at the end of July.

The center of rainfall has shifted to Taiyuan, Shangdang, and even parts of Hebei at the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain.

Shao Xun came to the mountains east of Jinyang City and weeded the farmland he had claimed.

When it comes to farming, it all depends on how you grow it.

When there was little farmland per capita, such as in the Qing Dynasty, a family with only a few acres of land had to cultivate it intensively, otherwise there would not be enough food. So the approach of high output value per acre was taken.

But in an era with vast land and sparse population, such as in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, one adult male was theoretically granted 70 mu of land, or in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, a family was granted 100 mu of land - if the land was of poor quality, such as slightly saline-alkali land, they would be given 200 mu.

Can a family cultivate one or two hundred acres of land? Yes.

Divide it into two parts, leave one half fallow and the other half cultivated, sow a lot and harvest a little.

If you just do a sloppy job on field management, it doesn't matter if the seed-to-harvest ratio is low, since there is plenty of land.

Moreover, with more fields, you can plant mulberry trees in the fields, or grow pasture for grazing, so there are many options.

This is not about high yield per mu, but about high per capita output value.

Shao Xun grows black beans.

There was a shortage of farm tools and livestock, so they just cut the ground with knives, dug a hole and sowed some seeds - the seeds were not carefully selected.

Now more than half a month has passed, and the bean sprouts have grown quite tall, and are emerald green and translucent, very pleasing to the eye.

The only drawback is that the weeds are too lush and compete with the bean sprouts for nutrients, so he hurried here to hoe the fields today.

"Huh?" Shao Xun looked at the bean field and asked in surprise, "I weeded three acres the day before yesterday and two acres yesterday. There should be five acres left. How come there are only two acres left?"

The military supervisor Yang Qin smiled awkwardly and said, "Team leader Tong Qianjin weeded the wrong field and weeded the weeds in Minggong's field."

Shao Xun shook his head and laughed, without further ado, he picked up the hoe and started weeding.

Yang Qin left for a while, set up the sentry post, then took off his Ming Guang armor, picked up the hoe, and went to the other side to hoe the ground.

The two of them worked together and quickly finished hoeing the two acres of land.

Shao Xun looked up at the scorching sun above his head, wiped the sweat off his face, went to the stream, took off his shoes and socks, washed his feet, and cooled down.

In the distance, white clouds float by and the sky is blue. Above the mountain peaks, clouds are rising.

There's a gurgling stream nearby, and it's clear and pleasant - if you ignore the pair of stinky feet that just entered.

Cicadas are chirping in the trees, and the river banks are planted with green vegetables, melons and fruits.

On the riverbed where the flood had receded, grass began to grow at an astonishing rate.

Dirty cows and sheep roamed the grass, feasting on the food.

From time to time, the shepherds carried wooden buckets and squeezed out buckets of white cow and sheep milk.

The hungry victims looked eagerly at the cow and sheep milk, hoping to drink some to quench their hunger.

This is Bingzhou after the war and disaster.

There is a peaceful and tranquil side, a difficult and hard side, and even a bloody and brutal side.

"Mingsir." Zhang Bin got off his horse and walked over quickly.

"Mengsun, you have worked hard." Shao Xun lay down with his hands on the ground, his feet moving back and forth in the stream, splashing water, and he looked extremely comfortable.

"My lord, you are so comfortable." Zhang Bin also sat on the grass and said with a smile, "General Liu from the Foreign Army has renovated the Yangchang Warehouse."

Yangchangcang is located in the mountains about eighty or ninety miles northwest of Jinyang.

"In the 196th year of Emperor Gaozu of Han ( BC), Jin Qiang was granted the title of Marquisate, and later he established a farming village and stored grain here, which was called Sheep Intestine Granary."

It was inherited by successive dynasties. It was gradually abandoned after the Three Kingdoms War, until the Northern Wei Dynasty when a warehouse was built here again.

Liu Ling led his men to renovate the Yangchang Warehouse, of course, in order to store military supplies to facilitate the western expedition.

Yes, Shao Xun has decided that when he attacks Pingyang again, he will advance in three directions. One direction will attack Lengquanshui and go through Queshu Valley; one direction will go west to attack Xiurong City and then turn south; another direction will continue to attack Chenguan and strive to break through to Hedong and threaten Pingyang from the flank.

He himself marched westward from Jinyang to supervise the attack on Xiurong. Therefore, Yangchang Warehouse was still very important, and at least 500,000 hu of military rations had to be stored.

"The troops on the Wuguan route have been defeated and retreated." Zhang Bin continued to report.

The Wuguan Road, which is hundreds of miles long, makes the transportation of supplies more difficult than the Eight Passes of Taihang Mountain.

It would be fine if there was no obstruction on the opposite side, but since there is Lantian Pass, it is still difficult to break through and failure is inevitable.

"It doesn't matter if we lose," Shao Xun said.

There were six armies going out to fight. The one that attacked Wuguan was defeated, and the one that attacked Chenguan was also defeated.

The result of the imperial army can only be described as a draw. They captured Xishi Fort, but suffered heavy casualties. After resting for a while, they are currently preparing troops and equipment to attack Hanminchi County.

The real winners were actually the three armies in the north, who advanced rapidly all the way until they captured Jinyang.

In the second phase of the battle, there will be at most four routes of troops, namely Guanjuejin, Luliang Mountain, Wangwu Mountain, and Xiao Mountain.

"There is unrest in Qingzhou again." Zhang Bin added, "General Liu's five thousand soldiers left in Guanggu are also in turmoil."

"After this battle, I will set up military bases in Jibei and Leling." Shao Xun said, "These two counties have been fighting for many years and are sparsely populated, especially Jibei, which is a good place to distribute land and troops. Let Qingzhou stabilize the situation and there should be no major problems. Huaiyin Zuti doesn't have time to send troops north now."

Zhang Bin nodded, took out another military report, and said, "Qinzhou may be in danger. Chen An is becoming more and more arrogant, and the King of Nanyang cannot control him. It is rumored that he may surrender to Liu Can."

"Where did the news come from?" Shao Xun asked.

"We captured a Xiongnu military school at Lantian Pass, and obtained it through torture." Zhang Bin replied, "There has been enough rain in Guanzhong this year, and the grain harvest is good, especially in the six western counties of Fufeng, Anding, Xinping, Shiping, Beidi, and Lueyang, which can be called a great harvest. Liu Can has abundant supplies and may continue to attack Tianshui. Chen An will surrender if he can't get them together." "Liu Cong is in such a critical situation, but Liu Can still wants to expand the territory. He is really a filial son." Shao Xun laughed and said, "It's too far away. Don't be distracted by the western affairs. The main focus now is the battles in Hedong and Pingyang counties."

Facts have proved that sending troops from Nanyang cannot pose much threat to Guanzhong.

After walking hundreds of miles along rugged mountain roads, do people really fear you?
Once Lantian Pass was blocked, the road was cut off, so they had to attack violently. The other side only needed to send thousands of brave warriors to defend it, and behind them was the Guanzhong Plain, with sufficient supplies, which was a huge advantage.

Shao Xun no longer planned to give himself up in this direction.

Naturally, King Nanyang could no longer care about anything and could only wish for the best.

"Anything else?" Shao Xun asked again.

"No more." General Zhang Bin put the report into the wooden box and said, "Liu Cong attacked from the north road of Wuling again and entered Changzi, trying to cut off the north-south post road of Shangdang. General Hou of the rear army has repelled him. He may have surrounded Changzi County by now."

"The tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop. I don't want to fight anymore, but Liu Cong is still harassing me." Shao Xun snorted coldly and said, "Let him be. Come on, Mengsun, go fishing with me, and we'll have fish soup tonight."

******
A new batch of cattle and sheep arrived outside the sheep intestine warehouse.

Liu Ling squatted on the hillside, glanced at him and said, "So thin?"

The man who brought the sheep was named Xiahou Cheng, with the courtesy name Xiaochong, and was from the Xiahou family of Qiao State.

His grandmother was Yang, the daughter of Yang Dan of Taishan (his wife was Xin Xianying); his aunt Xiahou Guangji was the biological mother of King Langya; and his other aunt was the wife of King Zheng of Langya - in other words, Xiahou Cheng was a cousin of Sima Rui and the current prefect of Lujiang, Wang Yi.

"After a long journey, I'm naturally skinny." Xiahou Cheng didn't care about Liu Ling's attitude at all. He bowed and said, "May I ask if the foreign troops belong to General Liu?"

"I don't have a general title." Liu Ling said stiffly.

Of course, one cannot be called a general without a general title, but as is the way of the world, just as modern people like to call someone "General So-and-so" casually, so too will they like to call middle-level and above military officers "generals", regardless of whether they have a general title or not.

"Mr. Liang promised me yesterday that the rank of foreign soldier was too low, and he wanted me to be a foreign soldier." Liu Ling stood up and said, "Are you from the Xiahou clan? Do you have an official position?"

"White body." Xia Houcheng replied while holding back his laughter.

Liu Ling suddenly became proud, coughed, and asked, "Who sent this sheep? The Yang family or the Wang family?"

Xiahou Cheng couldn't help but look at him again.

I have heard that Liu Ling is extremely brave, but I didn't expect that he is actually quite smart. He knows that the Xiahou family is facing attempts to win over the Wang family of Langya and the Yang family of Taishan.

Xiahou Cheng smiled but said nothing. Of course, he came on behalf of the Taishan Yang family.

In fact, he first went to Yecheng to meet Queen Yang, and then took her family guards and herdsmen, drove hundreds of thousands of livestock from Jingxing to Bingzhou, and then to Jinyang.

They walked and stopped along the way, and stopped many times to graze, and the food that was finally delivered to Jinyang was still so thin - but fortunately, this "food" has its own legs, and it can pass through narrow mountain roads that horse-drawn carriages cannot pass, and it goes very fast, so there is not much loss along the way.

After grazing in Jinyang for a month or so, I almost recovered.

"I'm asking you a question." Liu Ling yelled, somewhat dissatisfied.

Xiahou Cheng shook his head and laughed, saying, "I came here on the orders of Lord Liang."

"A cunning guy." Liu Ling snorted coldly and ignored him.

Xiahou Cheng enjoyed the quiet time and climbed up a high slope to overlook the west.

On the mountain post road, there was actually a troop of soldiers marching westward.

"We are going to march now?" Xiahou Cheng pointed at the bumpy road in the mountains and said, "We are marching before the road has been repaired?"

Liu Ling looked at him with a smile and said nothing.

Xiahou Cheng smiled secretly and said, "General Liu, when I left Bianliang, I took a few jars of Bianliangchun with me."

"Oh, that's right!" Liu Ling was overjoyed and ran over, saying, "It's okay to tell you. These are my soldiers, a total of 3,000 people, marching west to the old city of Loufan, setting up fences to guard against the Xiongnu, so that we can build a road later."

Loufan is the name of an ancient country, a branch of the Northern Di. At its peak, it developed to the vicinity of Taiyuan, where they grazed in the mountains northwest of Jinyang and were good at riding and shooting. Later, they were defeated by King Wuling of Zhao, who incorporated their people and made them an important part of the Zhao army's cavalry.

In the Tang Dynasty, three ranches were set up nearby, so it was known as "Loufan's horses are the best in the world". During the Kaiyuan period, Loufan Pasture City was built, and it had become the main source of military horses for the Hedong Jiedushi's shogunate.

There have been very few Han people in the area since ancient times because the land is not very suitable for farming. However, the continuous mountains are extremely good pastures and have always been loved by the Hu people.

The old city walls of Loufan City still exist today, but no one knows in which dynasty they were built.

Liu Ling was ordered to send 3,000 soldiers on a journey of 100 miles to the west, which served as a forward base and also as a cover for the rear to prevent harassment by the Xiongnu cavalry.

For example, the cattle and sheep brought by Xiahou Cheng were grazed in nearby river valleys, basins, and hillsides.

All kinds of livestock that had walked hundreds of miles were like starving ghosts. They cried out in joy and pounced on the fresh and juicy grass by the river, chewing it in big mouthfuls.

After being raised for more than a month, they will become food for the army on the Western Expedition - at least a large part of the source of supplies.

Of course, this is the foresight of the time traveler.

In later generations, the Tang army and Tubo fought fiercely in Guanxi. The Tubo people grazed in Qinghai in summer, and in autumn the able-bodied men went to the front, with cavalry charging forward, and the old, weak, women and children following with cattle and sheep, and arrived at Jingyuan (Guyuan and Pingliang areas).

After winning the battle, we will rush towards Chang'an.

If you lose the fight, run away immediately. If you can't run away, I'll leave my wife, children, cattle and sheep to you, do you want that?

This is also the main reason why there were so many Tibetans in this area at the end of the Tang Dynasty - most of them were descendants of the captured elderly, the weak, women and children.

The people of Jin did not know about this method of logistical supply, or were too disdainful to learn it, and still used the routine of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty of pushing large and small carts all the way to the Western Regions and the desert, but the cost was too high.

In the eyes of many people, Mr. Liang is becoming more and more "nonsense" by doing this.

(End of this chapter)