SWDnovel Chapter 1369: Leaving the Fortress
Chapter 1369: Leaving the Fortress
Chapter 1369: Leaving the Fortress
In the last month of the ninth year of Yan Xi, the Han Dynasty, from south to north, Jiang Wei and Liu Yin in Luoyang, Jiang Bin and Wang Han in Hedong, Shi Bao and Hu Zun in Shangdang, were all busy mobilizing troops and ready to launch a siege on Hanoi at any time.
Sima Feng, who was stationed in Jinyang, sent out the vanguard troops, heading straight for Jingxing, without concealing his intentions at all.
For a time, the Han army was pressing forward from Luoyang in the south to Jinyang in the north, putting great pressure on Hebei.
Although we were about to enter the coldest winter season, heavy snow completely blocked the mountains, causing great difficulties for the Han army to pass through Taihang Mountains.
At the same time, it also provided great help and convenience to the defending Wei army.
However, the shadow cast by the Han army on the Wei State over the years still makes the people of Hebei panic.
However, relatively speaking, the Han army, as the attacking party, seemed to be at a disadvantage.
In fact, there is an unexpected benefit.
That is, after the heavy snow blocked the mountains, the Han army could completely conceal the battlefield and block the news, making it impossible for Hebei, east of Taihang Mountain, to know the next move of the Han army.
If the spies wanted to send a message, they had to go through Luoyang.
In this case, not to mention the numerous checkpoints, even if the journey was successful, the news sent to Yecheng would have been out of date.
In other words, the news that Sima Yi received about Feng's arrival in Jinyang was most likely the last news before the beginning of next spring.
Sima Yi even had some suspicion that his opponent chose to send troops at this time, which was against common sense, and this factor might be the reason.
So, does Mr. Feng still want to take advantage of this time difference to plot some conspiracy?
Sima Taifu was somewhat worried.
Of course, the good news is that because of the heavy snow that blocked the mountains, it was also difficult for the Han State to get news from Hebei.
The Taihang Mountains are like a huge fog of war, obscuring the vision of both sides.
Next, it depends on how the commanders of both sides deploy their troops.
It has to be said that as the last hope of Wei State, Sima Taifu is still a competent opponent.
He not only made arrangements at every checkpoint in Hebei where the Han army might break through.
I can even guess some of Feng Dasima's thoughts.
Just as the vanguard sent by Sima Feng arrived at Jingxing and was about to try to find a way to pass through Jingxing, attracting most people's attention, General Ji Han Zhendong had quietly arrived in Pingcheng.
In addition to Zhao Guang, who led the Tiger Cavalry, he was accompanied by Liu Hun, Tufa Tianli, Budugen, Liu Bao and other Hu cavalry leaders.
The one who came to greet him was Zhang Yuan, the chief officer of the Pingcheng Protector of the Xianbei Commandery and also the chief senior brother of the academy.
"This humble general pays homage to General Zhendong."
"No need to be polite, get up!"
General Zhendong had a cold expression on his face. He simply replied with a faint voice. He did not stop but continued walking towards the residence of the Protector of the Xianbei.
Zhang Yuan quickly stood up and followed General Zhendong.
After entering the Xianbei Guard Captain's Mansion and asking irrelevant personnel to leave, General Zhendong asked again:
"How are you preparing?"
Following the General Zhendong into the hall of the Xianbei Guard Commandant's Mansion, Zhang Yuan heard the question and quickly answered:
"General, please rest assured that everything has been prepared."
General Zhendong sat down in the main seat without any hesitation, glanced at the generals who followed him in, motioned them to sit down, and then looked at Zhang Yuan:
"What about the situation outside the Great Wall?"
Pingcheng has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over the hundreds of years since Emperor Gaozu was besieged in Baideng. It has always been the dividing line and contention zone between Han and Hu.
Even not far to the north of Pingcheng, there are still remains of the fortress built during the Western Han Dynasty.
Starting from Pingcheng and crossing the mountain pass, you won’t have to walk far before you enter the grassland.
"Before winter came this year, the Commandery sent people to sweep the area again. At the same time, our people stationed in the Meiluhui tribe sent back news that everything was normal there."
Zhang Yuan answered and glanced at Liu Hun, Tuoba Tianli and others.
The two people in charge of the sweep were exactly these two.
In the past few years, Pingcheng has used both sticks and dates to turn the area from Pingcheng to Juyongguan near the border into a no-man's land.
As for the Moluhui tribe mentioned by General Zhendong, it was a relative tribe of the Suotou tribe, the core tribe of the Tuoba Xianbei.
The current leader of the Meiluhui tribe is Dou Bin.
It is said that the Dou in Dou Bin has a very close connection with the Fufeng Dou family, a political family that spanned the Han Dynasty.
Because Dou Bin's father is said to be the son of Dou Tong, the prefect of Yanmen in the Later Han Dynasty.
And Dou Tong is said to be the son of Dou Zhang.
Who is Dou Zhang?
A direct descendant of the Fufeng Dou family, and the great-great-grandson of Dou Rong. (Note: Dou Rong was a founding hero of the Eastern Han Dynasty and one of the twenty-eight generals of Yuntai)
As for why Dou Bin's superior Dou Tong gave up his position as the prefect of Yanmen and ran to the grassland to become the leader of a Hu tribe, it was said that it was to avoid the trouble caused by Dou Wu.
Dou Wu was a general during the reign of Emperor Ling. During the "Party and Faction Persecution", he was known as one of the "Three Lords" together with Liu Shu and Chen Fan. They wanted to get rid of the eunuchs, but failed and committed suicide. They were then beheaded at Duting in Luoyang.
After Dou Wu's rebellion was defeated, all his clan members, guests, and in-laws were executed.
Even Dou Miao (Dou Wu's eldest daughter), who was the empress dowager at the time, was placed under house arrest in Yuntai.
Therefore, it makes sense that Dou Tong fled to the grasslands in the north to seek refuge.
If all this is true, then Dou Bin, as the son of Dou Tong, may indeed have an extraordinary identity.
Of course, rumors are just rumors after all, and no one knows whether they are true or not.
The Fufeng Dou family had already declined after the Dou Wu incident, and at that time, the government was in chaos and the eunuchs were in power.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion soon followed, and the whole country was in chaos. Guanzhong was naturally not immune to the chaos, and warlords were fighting everywhere.
Under such circumstances, it was a rare opportunity for the Dou family of Fufeng to breathe a sigh of relief.
If you want to restore the former glory, just dream on. Everything is possible in dreams.
So when it comes to the fact that there are Hu Yi people in the northern grasslands claiming to be descendants of the Dou family, the Fufeng Dou family said, "I don't know, I haven't heard of it":
As long as you don't go to Fufeng to forcibly claim your kinship, it doesn't matter if you say you are a descendant of Liu Han.
At that time, Emperor Xiaomin (also known as Emperor Xian of Han, Emperor Xiaomin was posthumously named by Liu Bei) returned to Luoyang from Chang'an in the east, and the Hu leader Liu Qubei made great contributions in escorting him.
This Liu Qubei, after telling Emperor Xiaomin that he was Emperor Guangwu, Emperor Xiaomin did nothing to him.
(Note: Liu Qubei's ancestor was General Liu Jinbo, who was captured during the expedition against the Xiongnu. His son Shili was made the King of Guli by the Xiongnu Chanyu and was named Dugu.)
Of course, it is not impossible that Dou Bin wanted to curry favor with the famous Dou family and use the name of the Dou family to expand his own tribe.
After all, after Tan Shihuai's death, the Xianbei split and were in constant internal strife. The big tribes annexed the small tribes, and the small tribes became dependent on the big tribes. These were things that happened every day on the grassland.
At that time, the Suotou tribe, which had almost no foothold, relied on the Moluhui tribe to fight against the Western Xianbei.
Later, Dou Bin was defeated in a battle with the Western Xianbei. Fortunately, he was rescued by Tuoba Liwei and was able to escape back to his tribe.
In order to repay Tuoba Liwei, Dou Bin not only married his daughter to him, but also allocated the land of Changchuan to Suotou.
After years of hard work, Tuoba Liwei not only strengthened the Suotou tribe, but also led the Tuoba Xianbei, becoming the largest force on the grassland today.
At the same time, he is also the most likely to become the third powerful leader in the history of the Xianbei people - the first two being Tan Shihuai and Kebineng.
Logically speaking, given the relationship between the Meiluhui tribe and the Suotou tribe, the two should get along very well.
Unfortunately, Dou Bin might have had a good relationship with Tuoba Liwei, but he was already old.
The people who are now in charge of the daily affairs of the Muluhui tribe are Dou Bin's two sons, Dou Suhou and Dou Huiti.
In contrast to Dou Bin, Dou Suhou and Dou Huiti had many complaints about their brother-in-law Tuoba Liwei, and could even be said to hate him.
In their opinion, the reason why the Suotou tribe can be as prosperous as it is today is because of the support from the Luhui tribe back then.
If we really want to get to the bottom of it, the Suotou tribe is still a subordinate tribe of the Luhui tribe!
Now that the Suotou tribe has risen, not only has Tuoba Liwei not repaid the Moluhui tribe, but in order to show his fairness and selflessness, he has never favored the Moluhui tribe in disputes between tribes.
Not a trace of partiality!
This meant that the Meiluhui tribe not only failed to gain any benefits from the identity of a related tribe, but also lost face several times in front of other tribes.
That would have been fine, but as Han power continued to advance deeper into the grasslands, the Suotou tribe, feeling threatened, actually wanted the Meiluhui tribe to join the Tuoba Xianbei.
In other words, Suotou wanted to make the Meiluhui tribe a subordinate tribe.
Sure enough, what the Han people said makes sense: A peck of rice brings gratitude, a bushel of rice brings hatred.
You were really blind back then, raising a ungrateful wolf to ride on your head.
At that time, the adults even thought about giving half of the land to Tuoba Liwei, but I don’t know why.
So it was only natural that Tuoba Shamo Khan was harassed by the Moluhui tribe at the mountain pass when he first arrived in Pingcheng a few years ago. (Chapter 1169)
Since Dou Suhou and Dou Huiti took over the tribe, the relationship between the Moluhui tribe and the Suotou tribe has become increasingly distant.
Especially after Tuoba Liwei formed an alliance with Sima Yi and received Sima Yi's promise to give him the Liaodong land, Tuoba Xianbei began to consciously migrate eastward.
The Meiluhui tribe was attracted by the market in Pingcheng. Instead of following Suotou to migrate eastward, they kept moving closer to Pingcheng.
As the chief senior brother of the academy, Zhang Yuan stayed in Pingcheng and served as the chief officer of the Xianbei Protectorate. In addition to his job, he also had a secret identity.
Then monitor the grassland and collect intelligence on the Hu people tribes.
Zhang Yuan had long known that Tuoba Xianbei was a thorn in the side of the mountain chief.
This thorn in the eye was not caused by the collusion between Tuoba Xianbei and the bandits, but could be traced back to more than ten years ago.
When Shanzhang was in Longyou, this Hu tribe sent people to ambush Shanzhang without knowing the consequences, in an attempt to snatch the "Wu'an Jun's Art of War" from Shanzhang.
Zhang Yuan was still with the headmaster at the time, and experienced the whole thing. (Chapter 0711, When history meets fiction)
Others may not know, but as the headmaster’s student, don’t you know what it means to be cruel and ruthless?
I wonder if Tuoba Xianbei regretted what he did in the past when facing the great Sima of the Han Dynasty who is famous all over the world today?
This is probably one of the reasons why they would rather form an alliance with the Wei bandits than befriend the Han Dynasty?
Therefore, Zhang Yuan will not let go of any intelligence gathering on the head of Suo.
Naturally, the feud between the Meiluhui tribe and the Suotou tribe gradually surfaced during the investigation.
As a student personally taught by Feng Guiwang, even if he could not learn the essence of his teacher's foresight, he could at least learn a thing or two through observing and listening.
The plan to directly plant a stake in Tuoba Xianbei through Tuoba Shamo Khan has failed.
But using the Meiluhui tribe as a springboard soon became the second option.
The last time Zhang Yuan cleared out the Hu people from Pingcheng to Juyongguan, concealed the battlefield, blocked the news, and prepared supplies. This is what he did for the past six months.
After listening to Zhang Yuan's report, General Zhendong's expression eased a little and he nodded:
"Well done."
Then he turned his gaze to the others and gave the order without question:
"We will only have three days to rest in Pingcheng. Within these three days, all of you must make all preparations for the departure."
When the generals heard this, they all stood up in awe: "Yes!"
Three days later, Liu Hun and Tufa Tianli served as the vanguard and led the army ahead.
General Zhendong, the main commander, stood outside the camp and watched the auxiliary soldiers tying all kinds of supplies to the sled.
The sled is like a car without wheels, like a couch without legs, with a mat covering it like a niche, a rope pulling it like a drubbing, and a flat bottom like a plow, making it easy to travel on ice and snow.
The sled was originally a toy of Miss Feng from the Feng family.
When General Feng was the governor of Liangzhou, he took in many Hu tribes that migrated south from the grasslands.
Among them was a small tribe called Suohui, who were forced to wander from the Great Xianbei Mountains (i.e. the Xing'an Mountains) to Liangzhou because of the internal strife among the Xianbei. (Chapter 949)
The reason why this small tribe attracted the attention of the busy governor Feng was because they had deer in their tribe.
Deer used to pull carts.
This kind of deer was brought out from the Daxianbei Mountains.
It can withstand severe cold, is strong enough to pull a cart, and can see as clearly at night as in the daytime.
During the Little Ice Age, even the large rivers could freeze, not to mention the climate in the north.
Therefore, the deer that originally lived in the area of the Great Xianbei Mountains can now live normally further south in this era.
Because this kind of deer is large, strong, and can pull carts like a horse, people call it red deer.
The Han Dynasty retook Henan (i.e. Hetao) as its territory, and the sika deer artificially bred in Liangzhou could also be moved to Jiuyuan for breeding.
As for getting from Jiuyuan to Pingcheng, that's even simpler.
In the north in the dead of winter, thick snow covers every inch of bare ground.
The deer cart that was originally used for the young lady of the Feng family to play in the winter has now become the main tool for the army to transport supplies.
A heavy-duty sled can even be as big as two sedan chairs and can easily carry thousands of kilograms (Han jin) of materials.
Don’t worry about the deer not being able to pull the cart. If one deer is not enough, use two. If two deer are not enough, use three.
The people of the Suohui tribe were born to live with deer and are good at training them.
For example, the deer cart that General Zhendong rode in was equipped with a sleeping tent made of deerskin, with small windows on each side and a brazier inside.
It can be used to stay overnight and withstand wind and snow when traveling long distances.
Of course, not every general had this treatment. For example, Zhao Sanqian's sleeping tent was made of dog skin...
Seeing the auxiliary soldiers tying up the supplies tightly, the leader shouted again:
"Have you applied the oil? If you haven't, apply it now! Otherwise, you will freeze to death when you go out to the frontier, and no one will care about you!"
The so-called oil is certainly not cooking oil, the Han people are not so extravagant as to be able to afford it to that extent.
Most of them are made of tung oil produced in central South, and castor oil that Feng Dasima's concubine had someone find and bring back in her early years. These two kinds of oils are extracted from them.
Castor oil, in particular, can be applied to the skin in winter to prevent frostbite and cracking, and can also be used as antifreeze.
During the cold winter months, most oils and fats would freeze, but not castor oil.
It is a must-have item in winter.
Today, after years of promotion, castor oil is grown in the Han Dynasty from Nanzhong to Guanzhong.
Because the oil extracted from castor seeds is not only a strategic material, but the plant itself can also be used to make hemp.
For this reason alone, Hua Xiaowu can be said to have made great contributions, and it is not excessive to confer the title of marquis on her son.
As for the frozen tung oil, it is also very good for burning fire for heating.
The booming textile industry in the Han Dynasty in recent years has provided the army with sufficient warm clothing.
Some of them are even made of cotton produced in Liangzhou.
"Hats on, gloves on, let's go!"
"Bah!"
The whip made a hollow sound in the air, and the sika deer, which was much taller than ordinary deer, began to walk, pulling the sled towards the mountain pass north of Pingcheng.
The sled left a deep mark in the snow.
But the snow was very slippery, and the elk could pull the cat a long way with just a little effort.
This is much easier than a horse-drawn carriage.
There were dogs following the sled, each of them was very fat, especially the lead dog, which was almost as big as a calf.
This is the second echelon pulling the sled.
These dogs are a breed that was bred by Duanmu Zhe, the Han dog manager, after years of hard work.
The third echelon is horses, which should not be used unless necessary.
It can be said that General Zhendong’s expedition to the border this time was supported by a powerful system that the Han Dynasty had painstakingly built up over the years.
If there is any lack of logistical support, even if Feng Dasima is in charge, he will not have the courage to lead the army out of the border in the dead of winter.
(End of this chapter)