"Uncle." In the woodshed, Chen Yougen hurried over, looked around, then lowered his voice and said in a mysterious tone: "There's going to be a war."
When the soldiers who were wiping the equipment heard this, their hands and feet slowed down subconsciously.
Shao Xun signaled with his eyes, and soon two people stood up and came out of the woodshed with weapons to take charge.
"Go ahead." He nodded.
"Someone received a letter from Yecheng family saying that the King of Chengdu had gathered more than 200,000 troops and marched south in batches in order to capture Luoyang." Chen Yougen said.
"More than two hundred thousand?" Shao Xun shook his head helplessly.
The Jizhou metropolitan area has a maximum of 40,000 to 50,000 troops. It suffered some losses in the past few years, but now it would be good to have 30,000 troops.
The so-called more than 200,000 soldiers and horses are more likely to be more than 200,000 temporarily recruited men. This is actually the mainstream method of war at this time: novices pecking each other.
Of course, this does not mean that the Yecheng army does not have elites.
In fact, the combat effectiveness of Jizhou Dudu District's soldiers is considered to be in the first echelon among the "Eight Military Regions", which is not bad.
Moreover, he was not sure whether Sima Ying had reorganized his troops, recruited elites, and formed a new army - as a careerist in troubled times, he should have done it, otherwise he would still be fighting for the world.
Alas, after all, his status was still low and he could not obtain effective information, and others might not tell him. So, he actually had to rely on Chen Yougen to obtain such information from the street.
"How long does it take to get from Yecheng to Luoyang?" Shao Xun asked.
"If you go fast, it will take about a month." Chen Yougen said.
"How do you know?"
Chen Yougen was a little embarrassed and mumbled, "I've been there."
Shao Xun didn't ask why he went to Yecheng. He closed his eyes and thought for a while, then said: "We can't stay there anymore in Pan Yuan. We must retreat to Luoyang City as soon as possible."
"That's right." Chen Yougen nodded repeatedly: "Those old men with sticks can't go into battle at all. Children and teenagers are only worthy of being eaten. If we don't retreat to the city, we will be in danger."
"You're eating people now?" Shao Xun was a little surprised.
The troubled times were just beginning, and he could understand that there were sporadic cannibalism, but according to Chen Yougen, cannibalism was already happening on a large scale?
"Uncle, I admire your outstanding martial arts skills and your fairness in dealing with things. But you should go down there more. There are some places where even thieves and bandits are not willing to rob you." Chen Yougen said.
"Why not rob? You are too poor? Can't you rob people and sell them? I heard that most Xiongnu and Jie people in Bingzhou were captured and sold by officials." Shao Xun asked.
"The people in some places are poor and unruly. They have nothing, so they die." Chen Yougen shook his head and said, "When the bandits come, they may not be able to defeat them. I was almost unlucky. They caught them and sold them as slaves." Slaves, or reduced to food for food. The refugee armies in Bingzhou and Jizhou have 'beef', and there is a lot of supply. In fact, how can there be so many cattle? I'm afraid it's one to two parts beef and eighty-nine parts human meat."
"The chaos is worse than I imagined." Shao Xun sighed.
My life is indeed too simple.
After coming to Luoyang from Donghai, he was either on duty in Sikong Mansion or guarding Panyuan. His life was monotonous, he had little contact with the outside world, and his information was indeed blocked.
After all, he has only seen a small corner of this troubled world, a relatively "gentle" corner.
"Yougen, I heard that there are many desperadoes in the mountains, forests and rivers, do you understand?" Shao Xun thought of what He Lun and Wang Bing said before, and suddenly asked.
"How could you not know?" Chen Yougen grinned, as if he wanted to smile. When he saw Shao Xun's serious face, he held it back and said instead: "From Chang'an to Luoyang, from Hanoi to Xiangyang, there are many thieves and bandits. There are countless mountains and forests for them to stay. As far as I can tell from chatting with my brothers, there are thieves on every small dirt bag. Maybe they are not real thieves, because they also farm, but they have definitely done a lot of thieves. "
"What are the habits of these people?" Shao Xun asked.
"Uncle Du, I know what you mean." Chen Yougen said: "Actually, it's mostly because the troops in the various states were defeated and couldn't go home, so they fell into trouble and became bandits. It's okay to get used to it, but it's hard to tell after a long time."
"Yes, I understand." Shao Xun nodded and asked: "We are going to fight, are you afraid?"
"It's a lie to say you're not afraid." Chen Yougen sighed and said, "But now there is no way to survive, so what's the use of being afraid? It's better to give it a try, maybe you can get ahead."
"If everyone is like you, morale will go up." Shao Xun smiled and said: "Okay, this time the Yecheng and Chang'an armies are coming to kill, we have no way to avoid it, we can only act according to the situation. If we really can't If I don’t go into battle, I’ll be the one to make ugly remarks, and if I don’t follow military orders, those who run away from battle will die.”
"No." Chen Yougen responded.
Shao Xun turned his attention to the remaining people, and everyone agreed.
****
Concubine Pei didn't stay in Luoyang for long, and returned to Panyuan two days later.
While escorting them all the way, Shao Xun found an opportunity to give his own suggestions.
"I came to Luo this time for this very reason." Concubine Pei sighed, her expression dimmed a lot, and she was not as energetic as before.
War is something everyone is afraid of, especially women.
Don't think that the officers and soldiers of the Jin Dynasty were very disciplined. In fact, few armies in the late dynasty had good discipline. Rape, robbery, and all kinds of evil were the norm.
As for the clan members, Wubao private soldiers, refugees begging for work, etc., they are all the same.
The chaos among the kings caused serious damage to the local order, and they took the opportunity to cause trouble. They killed a lot of people and captured countless slaves, not to mention the "things" they ate.
"The princess is wise." Shao Xun praised.
It's great to work with a superior who has such a clear mind. He knows what to do when and how to do it, and he doesn't mess around. This is a very good character.
"Uncle, aren't you afraid of death? I remember you only went into battle twice, right?" Concubine Pei asked.
Shao Xun was slightly confused and didn't know how to answer.
Who is not afraid of war?
This is not a game. Just click the mouse and the soldiers will rush over. This requires you to take risks, stand on the edge of a sharp edge, bet your life, and fight with all your might.
In fact, despite his impassioned speech to the people below, it was to strictly enforce military discipline and boost morale. In his heart, his mood swings were not small. After all, time travelers are also afraid of death.
Moreover, this kind of emotional fluctuation cannot be exposed to the outside world, and can only be endured silently.
"The princess is kind to me, I have no right to be afraid." Shao Xun said slowly.
These words silenced Concubine Pei.
Shao Xun looked at the blue sky and white clouds in front of him.
Some things cannot be said to outsiders.
When he was a child, he wasn't very courageous - no, maybe he just thought he wasn't very courageous.
When he was five years old, an old man in the village passed away, and his parents took him there. The body was already cold, its face looked a little ferocious, its hands and feet were dull and blue, and had a deep purple color. He thought he was scared, but when he stood in front of the body, he found that he was calm.
When I was in middle school, a fire broke out at a relative's house and someone was burned to death. When people pulled out the unrecognizable charred corpses from the rubble, he watched from a distance in the crowd. He thought he would be scared because the belly of the corpse was burned and exploded, the internal organs were exposed, and the fingers and toes were fused together, but he found that he was calm and even clothed a corpse of his own age at the request of his parents. A new dress. At that time, pieces of rotten meat were falling down, and he found that he was not afraid at all.
After time travel, at the age of fourteen, he suppressed the civil uprising. In this life, his father was old and his siblings were young. He went to war on his father's behalf and killed a rebel with his own hands.
He thought he would be scared, but when his face was covered with blood and he personally cut off the head and tied it around his waist, he found that he was very calm.
In the dead of night, when he was analyzing his heart, he didn't know where his lower limit was.
When fighting in the battle formation, he would even abandon all distracting thoughts and rush forward as soon as his head gets hot.
He felt like a terrible person.
He even once suspected that he was a pervert and suffering from mental illness.
In today's cannibalistic world, he was really worried that he would slip step by step into the abyss of perversion.
Therefore, you must find something positive to dilute your negative emotions.
Make great achievements, end the troubled times, restore peace to the people, abolish many of the appalling systems of the Jin Dynasty, and make society more progressive... and so on.
Without these lofty and lofty ideals to illuminate his path and act as an anchor, he felt like a lonely traveler walking in the darkness. He would eventually lose his way, be swallowed by the darkness, and become a cruel person like Shi Hu. Bar.
"Can I believe what Shao Jun said?" Concubine Pei asked softly.
"Princess, we can wait and see."
"Okay, I believe you."
There was no talking all the way, and the driver returned to Panyuan in the evening.
The order to retreat was quickly communicated to everyone, causing a small commotion as expected.
But retreat is not today, nor tomorrow. There are still many things to do in the manor.
It will take another day or two for the harvest to be completed, and tonight many people will be wielding sickles under the stars.
The harvested grain should be dried in the sun while the weather is good, otherwise it will easily become moldy.
The property and tools in the manor need to be packed up, and the livestock need to find a place to house it, preferably within the sheep and horse wall of Luoyang Waiguo. If it is not possible, you can also move it to the city, but you have to find a good place.
Finally, where do thousands of people live? This is a problem that needs to be coordinated in advance.
In short, there are a lot of things that need to be dealt with as soon as possible. After all, the enemy will not wait for you.
On June 15, Mi Huang arrived at Pan Yuan, and his retreat was imminent.
