Chapter 1323 Different Situations

Chapter 1323 Different Situations
Yang Bao felt it was dangerous, and Murong Huang was also extremely anxious.

On the 21st, he arrived outside the city of Anshi.

"These scholars from the Central Plains came to us for help when their families were bereaved. My brother was kind enough to take them in and entrusted them with important tasks. I didn't expect that they would repay my Murong family like this." Duke Xiping Murong Yun was a little furious and spoke without thinking.

There were many Han scholars beside Murong Huang, and their faces all changed.

"Shut up." Murong Huang scolded.

Murong Yun realized that he had said something wrong, so he stopped talking.

Murong Huang knew that he should comfort them now, but he was not in the mood and just stared at the battlefield.

Anshi County is a nice place.

The county is located outside the edge of Liaoze Lake, with fertile soil. It has been developed since the Western Han Dynasty, but there have been some setbacks. Since the end of the Jin Dynasty, many people from Hebei have been settled here, and wasteland has been reclaimed, dams have been built, and irrigation canals have been dug, so agriculture has flourished.

In the past, Goguryeo repeatedly invaded Xuantu and Liaodong. Anshi County, located in the rear, provided a large amount of millet, beans, hay and even draft animals, making a huge contribution to repelling the enemy.

When my father was alive, he asked my eldest brother and fourth brother to garrison Xiangping and Pingguo respectively, so Liaodong was no longer owned by the imperial court.

If I hadn't acted decisively and detained my eldest brother, the war would have been even more intense. It's a pity that I failed to detain my fourth brother as well.

It was too late to say anything now. The messenger sent to persuade the enemy to surrender was shot dead by an arrow by the guards on the city wall. The remaining people collected the bodies and fled back with pale faces.

One chieftain was furious and stepped forward with a horsewhip, wanting to beat these people, but was stopped by Murong Huang.

He rode forward and looked at the city quietly. After a long while, he said, "Send someone to keep a close watch on it."

After saying this, he rode away.

Prime Minister Feng Yi followed - Murong Huang still uses Jin Taihe as the reign title. After he was named King of Yan, he founded the country and called himself regent. Feng Yi was the prime minister, and at the same time there was a shogunate, with two teams in parallel.

Murong Huang looked back, pulled the reins lightly, stopped, and said, "I know exactly what the Prime Minister wants to say. Don't worry, I won't be careless. I have sent all the captives back to Jicheng."

"Your Majesty, that's not what I'm talking about." Feng Yi said, "Renzhong has been defeated again and again, and has fled in all directions. Only a few isolated cities remain. This battle cannot be lost. What I'm worried about is that the siege will take too long and the army will run out of supplies."

Murong Huang was silent for a while, then said, "Didn't they rob a lot of livestock?"

"If the king still wants to pacify Renni's tribe, he must return the cattle and sheep. You can't kill them all, right?" Feng Yi asked in return.

Murong Huang sighed and said, "What do you mean?"

"Anshi, Pingguo and Wencheng cannot be taken even if we besiege them for another month. I think it is better to withdraw the troops and return to Jicheng now that we have seized a lot of livestock and are not suffering from too much loss." Feng Yi said, "I am willing to stay in Xiangping and pacify the people of Ren Ni."

In fact, the work of appeasing the captives was not that simple, because Murong Huang had killed captives before.

Maybe he was too angry, or maybe he was short of food and grass. Anyway, he had killed the surrendered. After the news spread, unless Murong Ren died, everyone had no other choice. Otherwise, who would dare to surrender? Moreover, even if Murong Ren really died, many people would not dare to surrender. It would be better to flee east to Goguryeo, or simply go south to Ma Shijin and join the Liang people.

Among those who dared not surrender, there might even be Murong Huang’s younger brothers.

But this could not be said. Feng Yi could only try his best to persuade the King of Yan not to kill the surrendered soldiers in large numbers, so as to avoid an unmanageable situation.

Seeing that Murong Huang was still hesitant, Feng Yi said, "Your Majesty, I predict that in April, after the spring planting, Goguryeo will definitely send troops to attack Xuantu. The Emperor of Liang is so aggressive that he has sent all his troops to attack Xuantu. The momentum is unprecedented. The people of Liucheng and Jicheng are afraid. I ask Your Majesty to return to Jicheng and leave the affairs of Liaodong to the generals."

"Goguryeo..." Murong Huang repeated in a low voice.

To be honest, from the Xianbei people's perspective, they simply looked down on those people.

The reason is that the Goguryeo army is not good at field battles and can only rely on mountainous areas to defend. If he finds a loophole one day, he will definitely attack the Maru City.

However, these people were not very good at direct fighting, but they were quite good at stealing. They often invaded Xuantu and Liaodong counties like a whirlwind, plundering the people and stealing cattle and sheep. What the prime minister said was not without reason. The Goguryeo people had been to Xuantu frequently in the past two years, and Xi'anping County in Liaodong had also been plundered many times. If it were not for the desperate resistance of the local Lelang and Daifang counties, it might have fallen.

Thinking of this, he felt quite annoyed. Why were there so many enemies?
Feng Yi quietly looked at his master's expression and knew what was going on.

For some things, we should not look at what he says, but what he does. If he is not afraid of the Liang people, just ignore him. Why did he send envoys south? Isn't it because he is worried that he can't defeat them?
But no matter how afraid he was, the Prince of Yan was certainly unwilling to surrender. This was evident from the fact that he sent troops to attack Murong Ren - this was his third attack on Liaodong.

"Prime Minister, please come back to the capital with me. As for Liaodong..." He paused, and said, "Order Prince Jun to come to Xiangping to take charge of military affairs."

Murong Huang stayed in Liaodong for more than ten days until the fifth day of April, when Murong Jun arrived with more than 3,000 people, and then he set out to return.

I was a little anxious waiting because there was a rumor in the west: the Wuhuan tribe grazing in the area of ​​Pinggang Ancient City had lost the first battle and might surrender...

******
At the beginning of April, Shao Xun had already left Leling and arrived in Wudigou for many days.

News came one after another from all directions. Among them, the one that interested him the most was undoubtedly the news that Ping Gang Wuhuan killed Xianbei officials, supported the young ruler Xiluo Teng, and sent envoys to negotiate surrender.

Shao Xun asked someone and learned that Xiluo Teng's father, Xiluo Hou, once led a group of Wuhuan and was a vassal of the Yuwen clan. He grazed near the ancient city of Pinggang. Later, he was defeated by the Murong clan and surrendered.

A few years ago, they rebelled again, but Murong clan sent troops to suppress them, and Xiluo Hou died. This time, when Prince Yu of Yan was advancing north, the two sides met on the road, and Xiluo lost hundreds of people, so they decided to surrender, killed the fake officials appointed by Xianbei at night, and led 4,000 people to surrender.

The war was progressing faster than anyone imagined.

After reading the letter, Shao Xun asked the female official to put it away. He had already decided to go north to Zhangwu to supervise the battle nearby.

Before leaving, he wandered along the banks of the Wudigou River for the last time.

Needless to say, this is not a very good port. The reason is simple: the upstream river carries a lot of silt, which can easily become clogged over time and must be cleaned regularly.

However, it also has advantages that ordinary seaports do not have, that is, it connects with the inland hinterland through the extensive water system, and can transport goods in and out at a relatively low cost. But the question is, who are you going to sell Hebei's goods to?

Shao Xun investigated here for a long time but still had no clue.

If there was a big country with several million people in the Northeast at this time, like Goguryeo and Bohai in history, perhaps the Liaohai commerce could have developed, but there is none now.

There are only some administrative needs, but people would rather cross the Liaoze and take that bad road.

"Slow down, slow down." A shout came from the other side of the river.

When Shao Xun looked up, he saw a large number of young men loading supplies and equipment onto the ship.

These were all transported from Qinghe and Bohai counties via Qingshui, and then changed ships at Wudigou, ready to be shipped to western Liaoning.

There were many officials in the county who were secretly in collusion. There were no less than ten letters forwarded from Huangsha Prison, including those from both civil and military officials.

Shao Xun originally had no intention of asking them to surrender now, he wanted to wait, but Li Chong said that Murong Huang was still attacking Liaodong and would most likely not come to Liaoxi. There was no point in keeping him, it would be better to accept his surrender and then drive the Youzhou miscellaneous Hu troops eastward, march along the coast, cross the swamps, attack Tuhe, as a detachment.

Shao Xun thought about it for two days and finally agreed. He also felt that Murong Huang would most likely not dare to come to Liaoxi.

Many of the materials loaded on the ship were collected by the relatives of the Bohai Shi family and the Leling Shi family. When Shao Xun thought of this, he looked at the beautiful lady Shi who was beside him and said, "Shi Cong from your family is the attendant of Murong Huang."

Shi looked at Shao Xun with some resentment and said, "I have already written a personal letter."

Shao Xun nodded slightly and said, "If he surrenders, he will not lose his high position and generous salary."

Shi Cong was one of the members of the Shi clan who fled to Pingzhou to avoid the chaos in the late Jin Dynasty.

Murong Huang was the King of Yan, and he set up a group of officials just like Shao Xun had done when he was the King of Liang. Shi Cong's official title was "Chang Bo", which was an attendant official in the Zhou Dynasty. He was a close minister of the emperor and participated in decision-making. It was similar to the "Shi Zhong" of the Jin and Liang dynasties. Therefore, when the Liang Dynasty analyzed the officials of the Murong family, they often referred to them as Shi Zhong.

Shi Cong originally held a military post, and had served as a captain in Tuhe and Liucheng successively. He was mainly responsible for dealing with tribal conflicts. He had many military merits and good abilities, and was highly trusted by Murong Wei and Murong Huang, father and son, to the point that he could assist in matters of confidentiality.

Seriously speaking, the Murong Xianbei regime valued Han scholars more than the Xiongnu Han, and had always regarded Sima Jin as the legitimate ruler, and it still does so today.

Their friendly and respectful attitude towards the Han people may very well become the key to their downfall.

Seeing that there was no one around, Shi begged in a low voice, "Your Majesty, I have accomplished this feat. Please do not humiliate me in the future."

Shao Xun asked with a smile: "Are you willing to give it up?"

Shi blushed and said, "We can do whatever we want in private, please."

Shao Xun was silent for a moment and said, "Okay."

Shi seemed a little unconvinced and was stunned.

"I really like your service, and now I am a little reluctant to see you sad." Shao Xun gently stroked Shi's face and said, "But sometimes I can't control myself, you have to remind me more often."

Shi nodded blankly.

She thought about the two recent suicide attempts.

The first time was that night, she collapsed and really didn't want to live anymore.

The second time was two days later. That time it was fake because His Majesty had been coaxing Zhuge Wenbiao for two days and did not comfort her much. So she half-seriously and half-pretended to want to commit suicide. His Majesty first scolded her and then finally agreed to comfort her.

Now he said that he couldn't bear to see her sad, so it must be true...

Shi actually felt a little happy in her heart. It was worth it for her to take the initiative to say that Shi Cong was her relative and to write a letter to persuade him to surrender. At that time, the civil and military officials accompanying the emperor were all speculating about Shi Cong's identity, and some even said that he was a Jie.

Of course, some people speculated that Shi Cong was a descendant of a scholar from the Central Plains, because he and Song Gai and Liu Mu, two sons of aristocratic families, were all ministers. So they began to look for the Shi family genealogy, but they could not find any in Bohai County. Leling City had been captured, and all kinds of documents had been destroyed long ago. The elders of the Shi family were either dead or gone, and the genealogy was lost. Few people knew that Shi Cong was from the Leling Shi family.

But she had met Shi Cong when she was a girl, and they even exchanged letters when they were in Jianye. If she didn't say it, who would know?
Shao Xun didn't know that Shi had already thought of a lot in an instant. After he stood on the embankment of Wudigou, his mind was still on future development.

I wonder if there is any use for sea animal skins? Before the Little Ice Age reached its worst, sea animal skins were better at keeping warm than land animals, and they were also lighter and more resistant to the cold in the humid coastal areas. So they should be very popular, right?
It seems worth trying to use Liaodong as a distribution center to transport seal skins, sea lion skins, sea otter skins, fur seal balls, walrus skins, beaver skins, etc.

(End of this chapter)