Chapter 844 Know yourself and the enemy

Chapter 844 Know yourself and the enemy

Chapter 844 Know yourself and the enemy
On the third day of July, there was nothing else to do except cutting wood, setting up fences, and setting up camp.

On the fourth day, with nothing else to do, they began making siege equipment.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Shao Xun arrived with civil and military officers and tens of thousands of soldiers. They set up camp again and adjusted the deployment of troops. He also took people to observe the terrain - this was the second most important task in marching and fighting besides food and fodder.

Pingcheng is surrounded by mountains on three sides.

To the east are Baideng Mountain (now Mapu Mountain) and Hegan Mountain (now Cailiang Mountain).

To the north is Fangshan (now Fangshan, the location of the Northern Wei imperial tombs).

To the west are Wuzhou Mountain (now Wuzhou Mountain) and Leigong Mountain (now Leigong Mountain, with the Leigong Temple on the mountain).

Only the south is open land.

From a military perspective, they should set up camps on the three sides of the mountain, station troops and horses, and support Pingcheng, so that the attackers will always feel like a thorn in their side before they capture these mountain strongholds. But at present, the enemy only has 2,000 troops on Baidengtai and Baideng Mountain, and they are not the core troops of Tuoba.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Shao Xun ordered Jin Zheng and Yu Ju to lead more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry to attack Baidengtai and Baideng Mountain to eliminate the flank threat first.

If the mountains would be a threat from behind, then the rivers and lakes near Pingcheng would hinder the mobilization of troops.

There is Tianyuan Pond in the north of the city, and as the name suggests, it is taken from Tianyuan Pond in Luoyang.

During the time of Tuoba Yiyi, his mother Feng (the legal wife of Tuoba Shamo Khan) was buried near Tianyuan Pond. Two hundred thousand people from far and near attended the ceremony, and a stone inscription was erected.

When two hundred thousand people come to a funeral, it is no longer just a funeral but a political rally.

To put it bluntly, Tuoba Yiyi wanted the tribes and powerful people in the central region to recognize his rule. Whoever did not come was rebellious, and whoever came was a political statement.

From then on, Tuoba Yiyi had strong control over the Pingcheng area and managed it for ten years.

As Tuoba Yiyi's legal wife, Qi, who came from the east, naturally regarded this place as her base.

There is also "muddy water" to the east of Pingcheng, also known as "Ruhun Water", which is today's Yuhe River.

This river is not far from the city and could actually be used well. Unfortunately, the Xianbei people were not very good at building cities or utilizing city defense facilities.

Pingcheng was simply repaired and slightly expanded. After all, Pingcheng (county) in the Han Dynasty was just the garrison of the eastern commandery of Yanmen County. It was larger than an ordinary county town, but not up to the level of a county town.

Moreover, the old Pingcheng had long been in disrepair and could not bear the status of the Southern Capital without repair. The Xianbei people had turned Pingcheng into a city of the Han Dynasty's county level. There were no moats outside the city, and there were no useful guards or other city defense facilities on the city walls.

In short, the Xianbei people did not know how to defend the city.

After reading it, Shao Xun felt relieved and laughed to himself that if the Xianbei people had a group of good fighting infantry and practiced the ability to defend the city, it would be difficult for him to defeat them.

After observing the terrain, what remains is the deployment of enemy and our own forces, and this still depends on the guide.

On the sixth day of July, Shao Xun built an earthen platform on the west bank of the Hunshui River southeast of Pingcheng.

Wang and Shi Yijian, mother and son, came on stage.

Shi Yijian sat in the middle and Wang sat on the left, accepting congratulations from all officials.

Their system is similar to that of Tuoba Yilu's era, emphasizing the word "mixed".

Dai Gong Shi Yijian was the supreme monarch, but the actual power was in the hands of his mother, Wang.

Under the Duke of Dai, there were four assistant prime ministers, namely Wang Feng, Changsun Rui, Su Zhongyi and Wei Xiong of Dai County.

Among them, Wang Feng and Su Zhongyi were both Wuhuan people. Wei Xiong had lived in Dai County for generations and had close relations with Wuhuan. He had a deep friendship with Wang Feng. Overall, the Wuhuan power was growing, which well reflected the background of the current regime.

The four assistant ministers assisted in managing state affairs and held great power.

Wang Feng was the eldest brother of the Wang family. He controlled Daijun, Guangning Wuhuan, Jin people and other miscellaneous Hu people. Although he had experienced many wars, he nominally controlled no less than 50,000 people.

Wei Xiong was actually counted as one of Wang Feng's followers, but he was very independent and secretly paid tribute and pledged loyalty to Shao Xun. He had served as prime minister during the Tuoba Yilu era and held a high status.

Su Zhongyi had nothing to say. He only had 8,000 followers left. This time he was supplemented by some Wuhuan and miscellaneous Hu captives. The population of the entire tribe suddenly exceeded 20,000, and he became the leader of a medium-sized tribe.

There is no doubt that both he and Wei Xiong were sand mixed in by Shao Xun, representing his will.

Chang Sun Rui was the leader of the Baba tribe of the Ten Clans of Tuoba. As the first Tuoba tribe to surrender to the Wang family, it was normal for Chang Sun Rui to receive such courtesy. Moreover, his tribe was not small. After absorbing some of the defeated Wuhuan and scattered small tribes in the east, its population was no less than 40,000.

Under the leadership of the Four Assistant Prime Ministers, the remnants of the previous generation, the Left and Right Wise Kings, were completely abolished, and generals were appointed in accordance with the style of Liu Han.

Liu Lugu, Yu Ju, Pu Gulu, Da Xi Heruo and others were appointed as generals guarding the east, west, south and north, and the word "Da" was added to their titles to honor them.

Under the four generals, there were leaders of various tribes, all of whom were granted seals and official positions.

In addition, at the suggestion of Zhangsun Rui and "Yang Zhen" (Three Dukes) Duan Fan, Wang planned to appoint county governors, but was rejected by Shao Xun, who asked her to wait.

Wang was now both happy and worried. After a proposal was rejected by Shao Xun, she became anxious and frightened, and started to waste her energy on herself.

After the group knelt down to pay homage to Wang and Shi Yijian, Shao Xun came to the high platform.

Wang led her son to pay respect to him. Shao Xun nodded slightly, sat on a chair below Shi Yijian, and asked, "How many thieves are there in the city? Have you figured it out?"

The three sons stood behind Shao Xun, and Hu Tou glanced at Shi Yijian from time to time.

Shi Yijian felt his gaze and felt a little scared and angry. He had had many contacts with the three of them recently.

From the perspective of appearance, the second prince, Hulang, doesn't care about him much. This man is always worried and no one knows what he is thinking about every day.

Nian Liu was the most polite and courteous to him, and on the surface he respected him the most. Shi Yijian also liked to interact with him.

Hu Tou was the youngest of the three brothers, but he always had vague malice towards him, and even grabbed his collar, wanting to beat him up. If he hadn't taken some factors into consideration, that fist would have hit him in the face.

Shi Yijian hated this person the most.

Just as he and Hu Tou were confronting each other with eyes and sparks and lightning were flying, his mother Wang had already looked at Duan Fan.

Duan Fan stepped out of the line, bowed to the three men, and then said, "There are at most 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers in the city."

After that, he explained in detail: "Although the Dai Kingdom is large, the tribes are scattered everywhere. Although the Yanmen, Pingcheng, and Guangning areas have been fighting for several months, in fact, more than half of the tribes have not participated. Most of those involved in the fighting are the ten Tuoba clans and various large tribes. The situation of Qi's mother and son is critical, and many people have abandoned them, and the number of soldiers is getting smaller and smaller. These more than 20,000 soldiers are the number after all male adults are conscripted, and perhaps less than 20,000."

"There are still some soldiers lingering outside the city, but they may not be willing to fight to the death for He Li. If the King of Liang sends a small army, perhaps he can force them to flee. The court (Dai State) will also send people to pacify them, so it should not be difficult."

Duan Fan’s words hit the nail on the head.

What is the most significant feature of this war? A civil war among the upper classes for power and profit.

All the participants were descendants of the Tuoba clan, and theoretically it didn't matter which side they were loyal to. This made most of the tribal nobles lose the will to fight to the end. This was reflected on the battlefield, where after one or two key battles, one side's forces would quickly collapse, while the other side would recruit surrenders and rebels, thus securing victory.

When the descendants of Tuoba have decided the winner, other tribes will go through the process and swear allegiance.

Sometimes, when an incompetent Tuoba descendant died, another Tuoba descendant would be recognized by everyone. Even if he was a commander without troops, he would quickly gain the loyalty of many tribes and have an army of more than 100,000 overnight.

This is the characteristic of grassland politics: the game of bloodline aristocrats.

In fact, it was not just the Tuoba Xianbei. Other Hu regimes had more or less similar situations. The most typical example was that after the collapse of the Tubo Empire, the princes scattered everywhere. Some of them really had nothing and were only surrounded by a few followers. When they arrived at a certain place, princes and nobles married their daughters, gave land, swore allegiance, and after their death, they handed over all the territory and power to the princes.

Because his blood was not as noble as the prince's, he could not compete with him and could only crawl on the ground and serve him.

The saying that grassland seeds are very expensive is not said in vain.

"Today, we climbed a height to see the mountains, rivers and valleys. It is obvious that He Li and his people are not good at defending the city." Shao Xun said, "We have to give their troops a try. Just now, Mr. Duan mentioned that there are still many bandits near Pingcheng. This is not false. When we besiege the city, we can send people to pacify them and not let them be used by Yihuai. We can also send people to search the surrounding valleys. There must be many old, weak, women and children grazing there. We can take their cattle, sheep and horses to support the military supplies."

A siege is a military battle, the others are political battles.

In Shao Xun's opinion, this political battle is more important and must be fought with all efforts.

Moreover, the political battle has now accumulated from quantitative changes to qualitative changes.

Shao Xun was also thinking, if the Wang family was allowed to continue to expand like this, would it get out of control?

He knew very well that many of the people who came to him did not surrender for his sake. In fact, there were not many such people.

If he didn't have Wang's mother and son in his hands, many of the surrendered people would still be fighting with him.

Wang is a smart person. She may have keenly noticed this and knows that her bargaining power has increased and she is no longer a puppet with no say.

But she hasn't made any resistance yet, which is intriguing.

"We will start attacking the city early tomorrow morning. We shall follow the old rule of surrounding three parts and leaving one behind." Seeing that no one objected, Shao Xun made the decision.

The generals who came with the expedition responded in unison.

The Xianbei and Wuhuan leaders all looked at Wang.

Wang looked up at the crowd, and noticed Shao Xun's direction from the corner of her eyes. Seeing that he had no other intentions, she said, "Starting tomorrow, each unit will select men and women to follow the orders of King Liang."

"Yes." The adults responded one after another.

Two distinct systems.

Shao Xun looked forward.

At this point, the enemies in the open are actually dead bones in the grave, not worth mentioning. The most challenging post-processing work is about to come, which is the real test.

The accumulated evils of the Hu people left over from the late Han Dynasty had now reached a critical point.

History has proven that the policies towards the Hu people during the Eastern Han, Cao Wei, and Western Jin dynasties were fraught with problems. The old path was no longer viable and was a dead end.

What is needed now is innovation in the system for time travelers.

This innovation cannot be copied directly because times have changed and the social environment is different, so adjustments need to be made.

For example, if you were to implement a system like the Ming and Qing dynasties, where the six ministries were directly responsible to the emperor instead of to the prime minister, that would be nonsense, a step too big, and purely courting death.

However, if we adopt the system of multiple prime ministers, divide power among two or three prime ministers, and let the six ministries be collectively responsible to the prime minister, it will be somewhat feasible.

War is the continuation of politics, and political issues are at the core.

(End of this chapter)