Chapter 993: Western Tour
Chapter 993: Western Tour
Outside Yewang City, spring sowing had already been completed.
Peng Ling brought 500 soldiers to the Di Pavilion on the west bank of the Qin River and supervised the laborers in collecting food supplies.
On the other side of the river is a flat grassland, with some tender sprouts already growing on it, which is pleasing to the eye.
Beyond the grassland is a large area of farmland. The wheat seedlings are growing well, which seems to indicate that this year will be a bumper year - even if the luck is a little worse, it will be an ordinary year.
The governor Lu Rong and the county magistrate Wei Xiao stood at the junction of the grassland and the farmland, pointing and talking.
Lu Rong was a disciple of the emperor. He joined the army in his early years and later switched to literature. He started as an assistant clerk in a county and eventually became the prefect of Henei, guarding this key place between Luoyang and Shangdang for the emperor.
Wei Yu's background also became known to everyone.
He was the Imperial Court Assistant Minister of the Liu Han Dynasty. After entering this dynasty, he was demoted several levels and transferred from Chang'an to Yewang to serve as the Magistrate of Henei County.
However, Peng Ling was still very grateful to him. This was because Wei Yu opened a private school in Yewang, where his sons and nephews taught literature, and Peng Ling's two sons studied in this private school.
In this situation, he felt embarrassed to scold Wei Yi again.
There is a manor vaguely visible on the eastern horizon.
A team came out of the manor, with about 500 people, all able-bodied men, driving oxen, horses, carts, and even donkeys, mules and other beasts of burden, crossing the river and heading west and south.
When they reached the ferry, the leader dismounted and bowed to the ground.
Peng Ling wiped his eyes and took a closer look. It turned out to be Zhang An from the Zhang family.
The Zhang family was quite famous during the Jin Dynasty. They were from Pinggao, Henei, and later moved to Yewang.
There was a woman named Zhang Chunhua in the family who married Sima Yi. After Sima Yan founded the country, she was posthumously named empress.
Of course, I heard that during the Later Han Dynasty, their family background was even more extraordinary, with a succession of Si Tu and Tai Wei, three dukes in two generations.
Since they were from the same hometown and were wealthy families, it was normal for the Zhang family of Hanoi and the Sima family to marry.
However, what is ridiculous is that the Zhang family gradually declined during the sixty years of "prosperity and peace" in the Jin Dynasty, and was even worse than at the end of the Han Dynasty.
By the end of the Jin Dynasty, Henei was occupied in turn by Wang Mi, Shi Le, Liu Ya and others. Although Zhang tried his best to protect himself, he also paid a huge price.
After the founding of Daliang, there were only one or two sons of the Zhang family who served as county-level assistant officials in other counties. If the genealogy was re-recorded one day, the Zhang family in Henei might have fallen into poverty - the speed of their fall was a bit too fast.
The prefect Lu Rong seemed to have no patience. After saying a few words, he waved his hand and asked the man to leave.
Wei Yi also stood aside with his hands in his sleeves, not saying a word, just looking at Zhang An with a smile.
When Sima Yi was in power, could Wei treat Zhang like this? Obviously not.
But now it works.
Zhang An was not annoyed. He led his horse to board the boat and crossed the river. He soon arrived at the west bank. Seeing the movement at the palace, he thought for a moment and came over and laughed, "It turned out to be Mr. Peng. I heard that you have been promoted to the leader of the palace. Congratulations."
After the establishment of the Xin Dynasty, the imperial guards also gained many benefits.
For example, Du Bo and Zhuang Zhu both had official ranks, the former was of the ninth rank, and the latter was of the ninth rank. This had never happened since the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
In other words, Peng Ling is now an official, but Zhang An, the descendant of Zhang Chunhua, is not.
If we ignore their background, fame, wealth and followers, Peng Ling and Zhang An are now a perfect match, which is laughable.
Of course, in real life, how can we not consider these factors?
It takes more than one or two generations for a family to succeed. Even if the Zhang family in Hanoi was so poor that they had to eat one meal a day and Peng Ling was promoted to a sixth or seventh-rank official, if other families were asked to choose a marriage alliance, they would only choose the impoverished Zhang family instead of the upstart Peng family.
But Peng Ling doesn't care.
He didn't have too many thoughts. When he saw Zhang An, he just said, "Don't delay. Hurry south and obey the order. The emperor will go west soon. If you miss the deadline, your fortress will be demolished."
Zhang An's face changed when he heard this, but he quickly returned to normal and said with a smile, "Master Peng is right, I'm leaving now."
After saying this, he retreated back to the ferry, waiting for the people in his fort to cross the river one by one with their carriages, horses, and draft animals.
In the suburbs of Yewang City, the villages are scattered and stretch out for a long distance.
Zhang An watched quietly, feeling mixed emotions.
These are the places where the families of the soldiers from the Heiliang Left Camp live together. Each family is allocated 50 acres of land and works from sunrise to sunset.
Their husbands, brothers and sons served as soldiers in Yewang, guarding the north gate of Luoyang.
The existence of such an army has profoundly changed the pattern and even the atmosphere of Hanoi.
Everywhere you look, you can see country kids playing and laughing happily with sticks in their hands by the river.
Some older children even grabbed the five or six-year-old children and forced them to line up while leaning on wooden sticks.
This might make others laugh, but Zhang An couldn't.
Today they are snotty-nosed urchins standing in formation; in ten years they will be young men with a basic skill; in twenty years they will be qualified soldiers. If the frontier military garrisons want to recruit strong men for the army, they can choose from among them.
As long as there is fame, wealth and status to be gained, there will always be people willing to go among the tens of thousands of children.
If this is the case for one county, and it is expanded to the whole world, tens of thousands of people can be easily controlled.
******
After Lu Rong made a round inspection, he crossed the river and returned to the west bank.
Wei Yu followed behind him, following closely. "Sometimes I really envy them." On the country road, Lu Rong suddenly felt emotional.
Wei Yu's eyes rolled and he understood what it meant.
Lu Rong's seniority is so senior that he can be compared with Wang Que'er and Jin Zheng.
One of them was the Grand Protector of the Chanyu, and the other was the General Zhenxi, neither of them could compare to the prefect Lu Rong.
Lu Rong's eldest son was named Lu Xin. He could enter the newly opened Imperial College this year, or he could enter the martial arts school. Perhaps unwillingly, Lu Rong sent his eldest son to the Liang County Martial Arts School.
"Forget it, it's all old news." Lu Rong shook his head again and said, "At your age, why do you still think so much? Xian Dao, the matter of transporting grain to the north will be your responsibility."
"Yes." Wei Yi replied.
The emperor is going to send troops to attack Xiliang.
If nothing unexpected happens, there will be three groups of people in total.
The Northern Army set out from Yinshan Mountain, bypassed the Juyan Lake, and attacked from north to south.
The troops along this route were mainly Tuoba Xianbei cavalry, but it was impossible for the imperial court to send no one at all.
In fact, the Northern Army was led by the Chanyu Grand Protector Wang Que'er, who led——
Gaoliu and Wuzhou had three thousand mounted infantrymen, led by Tao Bao, a military officer of the Chanyu's Palace;
Five thousand Hu cavalry from the four counties of Kelan, Xinxing, Yanmen, and Dai, led by Liu Zhao, the governor of Kelan;
The Left Cavalry Guard had 3,000 cavalrymen and 1,500 Youzhou cavalry commanders, led by General Shao Shen of the Left Cavalry Guard.
The Shangdang Jie cavalry numbered 5,000, but because Liu Runzhong accompanied the emperor on his journey west, they did not go out to fight again and were led by their tribe member Da Maqiu.
Finally, there were the Tuoba Dai cavalry of more than 40,000 soldiers, led by the assistant minister Wang Feng;
The entire army consists of more than 50,000 cavalrymen, and including the elderly, the weak, women and children who are grazing and camping, the total number will exceed 60,000, which is quite impressive.
To this end, the imperial court ordered the mobilization of 200,000 pieces of silk and 3 million hu of grain as rewards and sent them to Pingcheng.
Silk was mobilized from Henan, part of the grain was allocated from the three nearby counties of Taiyuan, Leping and Xihe, part was transported from Jizhou, and part was mobilized from Henei, Jijun, Xingyang, Puyang and other places.
What Wei Yu needed to be responsible for was the transportation of 300,000 hu of grain and beans allocated to the county.
In addition to the Northern Army, there are also the Central Army and the Southern Army.
The Central Army is said to have set out from Anding.
During the period when Liu Can ruled Guanzhong, in order to govern the northwest, he successively established three counties under Anding County, namely Sanshui (now in the east of Tongxin County, Ningxia), Quyan (now in Dingbian, Shaanxi and Yanchi, Ningxia), and Queyin (now Shuiquan Town, Pingchuan District, Baiyin City, Gansu).
A month before its demise, the Han Lingzhou County was restored. Because it was located on the sandbar of the Yellow River, it was called "Lingzhou". It was probably located near Wuzhong, Ningxia today.
Among the four counties, Sanshui and Quyan were established after the Xiongnu conquered local tribes and forced them to submit.
Chuanyin County is located on the east bank of the Yellow River. At that time, Liu Han and Liangzhou had a small-scale war, mainly in the area of Longxi in Qinzhou. Chuanyin was the "second battlefield" opened up by the Xiongnu, but before it could play a role, Liu Han perished.
After Chang'an fell, Queyin County surrendered along with Jiuquan King Shiwu. Shiwu rebelled again, but Queyin County did not follow him.
Lingzhou County was the result of the Xiongnu's expansion into Beiyi Mountain and a further achievement after the establishment of Sanshui and Quyan. Similar to Queyin County, it surrendered after the fall of Liu Han.
However, although these four counties had appointed county magistrates and other officials, the local area was still basically self-governing and the submission was only in name only.
During this western expedition to Liangzhou, Yongzhou and Anding Commandery recruited young men from various counties and stored up provisions in Chuanyin, which served as the starting point for the central army.
The route was led by Jin Zhun, the General of the Central Army who protected the Xiongnu, who led 30,000 Xiongnu and other Hu cavalrymen from Jingzhao, Beidi, Anding, Fufeng, Shiping and other counties.
There is no doubt that the Southern Army set out from Longxi County in Qinzhou and headed north to attack Fuhan and Jincheng. The main force was the Hu and Han troops under Jin Zheng, totaling about 10,000 people. In time of war, a part of the emperor's entourage would be assigned to their command.
From last year to this year, a full half year's worth of food and military supplies were stockpiled.
The three armies advanced in parallel, with Wang Que'er as the commander of the north, Jin Zhun as the commander of the middle, and Jin Zheng as the commander of the south.
The emperor stayed in Xiaoguan and took charge of the overall situation - this was the place that Emperor Wu of Han passed through during his western tour.
Judging from the composition of the troops, most of them were actually miscellaneous Hu soldiers, and a part of the palace soldiers and imperial guards were recruited. There were not many real elite soldiers of Daliang, and most of them guarded the emperor. At most, only a part of them participated in the war.
In this battle, we used both force and appeasement to promote surrender. After defeating Xiliang, the prestige of the Daliang Dynasty will surely rise to a higher level, and the foundation of the dynasty will become more solid.
Regardless of surrenderers like Wei Jue, Lu Rong sincerely hoped to win, because his personal and family honor and disgrace had long been tied to the emperor and Daliang.
It was not just him. Thousands of families of soldiers from the Heilongjiang Left Camp in Hanoi, as well as ordinary people who were given land and houses, did not want Daliang to lose the war. This was because no one wanted their own interests to be damaged, and no one wanted to see the powerful families counterattack.
By the end of February, soldiers, carriages and horses were everywhere outside Luoyang City, and food and military supplies were piled up like mountains. The time was ripe.
On the first day of March, Shao Xun, the emperor of Daliang, appointed Wang Yan, Zhu Huo, Zhang Bin, Chen Yougen, Mi Huang and Pei Kuo as the "ruling officials" who stayed behind and temporarily set up a "government hall".
During the emperor's western tour, all military and political affairs were discussed by the six officials in the Council of State. If there were any undecided matters, the Empress Yu Wenjun would make the decision.
After the Western Tour ended, he was dismissed from office and the Political Affairs Hall was abolished.
There is no doubt that this is a preview of the elegant politics of the new dynasty.
(End of this chapter)