Three days later, after General Qin Lang and Yulin Superintendent Xia Houxuan swore an oath and offered sacrifices to the flag at the Xuanwu Field in the northern suburbs of Luoyang, they led the 8,000 elite soldiers of the Imperial Army and the 500 royal Yulin towards Bingzhou, the northern border.
"Marquis Changling, is this your first time leading an army on an expedition?"
Qin Lang, wearing a pair of gorgeous fish scale armor and a purple cloak, slowly riding a jade horse, asked Xia Houxuan with a smile.
When Xia Houxuan saw Qin Lang's gentle smile, his nervous mood instantly relaxed a lot, and he nodded.
Qin Lang smiled and said:
"Don't worry, Marquis Changling. After this battle, you will be considered to have achieved military success!"
Xia Houxuan nodded again and said with a smile:
"Okay! If we win a big victory then, Xuanding and General Xiaoqi will get drunk!"
"good!"
Speaking of Qin Lang, the heroic general, he was also the adopted son of Emperor Wu Cao Cao.
Qin Lang, also known as Yuan Ming and nicknamed Asu, was originally the son of Qin Yilu, a subordinate of Lu Bu, a great warlord in the former dynasty. After Qin Yilu's death, his mother, Mrs. Du, remarried Emperor Wu, so Qin Lang became Emperor Wu's adopted son. He was deeply loved by Emperor Wu.
Speaking of Emperor Wu's three adopted sons, they all had different personalities.
The prince-in-law, He Yan and Uncle He Ping, were wild, talented, and sharp-edged people. When they were young, they disobeyed the crown prince's clothes and therefore had an enmity with Emperor Wen Cao Pi who was still in the East Palace. This is why he has nothing to do until now. Serious and practical reasons.
The late Da Sima, Shaoling Yuanhou, Cao Zhen, and Cao Zidan were men of strong character, wisdom and courage. Even so, although he had meritorious service, he was not proud of himself. He was very kind to his soldiers and served his country loyally until his death.
Although the heroic cavalry generals Qin Lang and Qin Yuanming were highly regarded by the three kings of the Wei Kingdom: Emperor Wu, Emperor Wen, and his Majesty today, and he is considered quite talented, his temperament has always been quite gentle and low-key, without any trace of He Yan. Such a sharp edge.
It is precisely because of this that he has won the trust and respect of His Majesty today.
In the first year of Taihe, when His Majesty had just ascended the throne, Qin Lang was promoted to the general in charge of the Valiant Cavalry Battalion, one of the five battalions of the Forbidden Army, and concurrently served as the Chief of Staff, so that he had to be in charge of the Valiant Cavalry Battalion, one of the five battalions of the Forbidden Army, as well as Chang. The power to accompany the emperor and participate in major political planning.
However, when Qin Lang was in his position, he did not seek power at all, did not form cliques and friends, and often followed the emperor's wishes without disobeying the emperor's wishes at all, so he was very favored by the emperor.
People also bribed Qin Lang more because he was a favored minister of the emperor. Although Qin Lang was not a party man, he did not refuse money, so he became very rich. People in the Luoyang market often commented privately on various influential figures in Luoyang. General Qin Lang, everyone generally has the same idea, that is, General Qin is very rich.
Although he was not awarded a title, due to bribes from people in Luoyang, the wealth in his mansion was compared to that of the serious Marquises of Shiyi, such as Changling Marquis Xia Houxuan, Changping Marquis Cao Zhao, Shaoling Marquis Cao Shuang, and Dingling Marquis Zhong Yu. , much higher.
Not only that, the emperor also built a large mansion for Qin Lang in the most prosperous area of Luoyang, which is enough to envy others.
However, although Qin Lang was rich, he did not squander the money at will. Instead, he used his assets to improve the weapons and equipment for the soldiers of the Xiaoqi battalion under his account. Because of this, Qin Lang's Xiaoqi battalion was among the five camps of the Forbidden Army, compared with the Nawuwei camp. The four camps, namely, the main camp, the middle base camp and the guerrilla camp, appear to have more appearance.
The nearly 10,000 troops of Xiaoqi Camp and Yulin Camp crossed the river from the north and marched northwest along the Taihang Valley Road.
After the troops arrived at Shangdang County in Hebei Province, Qin Lang and Xia Houxuan led their troops to rest for a while in the nearby marching camp and replenish their military supplies and food supplies before continuing northward.
The five hundred high-spirited Yu Lin, as the vanguard of the army, took the lead in exploring the road along the way. When Xia Houxuan was young, his family's residence was located in Yedu, Jizhou. Later, after Emperor Wen accepted the abdication of the Han Dynasty, his father moved the residence to Luoyang , Therefore, except for the time during the early Huang Dynasty, when he came to the northern border to offer advice on the order of the king of Pingyuan, who was the current king of the country, this was the second time he came to the northern border of Bingzhou.
Along the way, up and down the Taihang Mountains, there were herds of cattle and sheep; and in the valleys between the mountains, wheat, beans and other green crops were planted.
Since the imperial court at the end of the Han Dynasty allowed the Huns and Xianbei people from the north to move inward, Bingzhou and Jizhou in the north have become the scene of intertwined agriculture and animal husbandry as they are now. After the various ethnic groups in the north moved inward, in the past few decades, it has He has always lived in harmony with the people of Middle-earth. By now, everyone is as close as one family, regardless of each other.
Since Emperor Wu Cao Cao unified the north, he could not completely trust the Xiongnu in Bingzhou, so Emperor Wu divided the foreign people in Bingzhou into five tribes, appointed nobles from each ethnic group as commanders of each tribe, and also selected Han Chinese from the Central Plains As a Sima, I came to supervise all clans.
The various tribes were not subordinate to each other and were divided and ruled. It was also through this method that the Wei Dynasty controlled the chanyus of various ethnic groups under the jurisdiction of the court.
For example, the five tribes of the Southern Xiongnu are all scattered around Jinyang County, the capital of Bingzhou Prefecture:
More than 10,000 people from the left part live in Zishi; more than 6,000 people from the right part live in Qixian County; more than 3,000 people from the south live in Puzi; more than 4,000 people from the north live in Xinxing; and more than 6,000 people from the middle part live in Daling.
As a result, the Huns' original herding life gradually turned to the farming life in the Central Plains.
At the same time, nomadic groups such as the Wuhuan, Xianbei, Jie, Di, and Qiang who had previously had close relations with the Xiongnu also moved in large numbers to the Fenshui River Basin, and the Taihang Mountains were also full of Zahu.
Therefore, Jinyang in Bingzhou, north of the river, became the place where the Hu people were most concentrated in the Cao Wei agricultural area.
The army marched all the way north from Shangdang for more than half a month, and finally arrived at Jinyang, the first county of Bingzhou and the prefecture's capital.
When Bi Gui, the governor of Bingzhou, heard that the reinforcements sent by the emperor of the capital had arrived, he immediately led the officials and generals of the state to the outskirts of the city to greet them.
"The two generals have been working hard all the way. I have prepared a banquet for the two generals. I have also invited the two generals to take a bath and change clothes in the post house before coming to the banquet."
Bi Gui looked at the Imperial Imperial Guards with dazzling armor and majestic appearance who were rushing from thousands of miles away from the south. He bowed and saluted from a distance and greeted them loudly.
"Bi Shijun is so polite."
Qin Lang, the general of cavalry, returned the salute from a distance on his horse, handed the weapons in his hands to the soldiers in front of the horse, turned over the armor and skirt on his legs, made a clang, turned around and dismounted, and at the same time waved an order for the entire army to dismount and enter the city.
The troops of Xiaoqi Camp and Yulin Camp were stationed in the camp prepared by Bi Gui in advance. Generals Qin Lang and Xiahou Xuanzhong, led by Bi Gui, the governor, came to Jinyang Mansion. After having a good meal and wine, Qin Lang thought We need to understand the battle situation in the north as soon as possible.
After Bi Gui understood this, he ordered people to withdraw from the banquet and brought the terrain defense map of the northern border of Bingzhou.
"General, please look at this. This is the defense plan for the northern part of Bingzhou."
Bi Gui stood up as he spoke, pointed at the map and began to tell the generals at the table about the recent battle situation:
"I feel ashamed to say that a few months ago, I sent generals Su Shang and Dong Bi to the north in an attempt to defeat the Xianbei Division. However, unexpectedly, I was ambushed by Ke Bineng and Bu Dugen in the Loufan area. , the troops were lost and the generals were lost, so during these days, I have withdrawn my troops and returned to the defense, just waiting for the general to come, so as to avenge our army's previous humiliation."
"As for the Xianbei leader Ke Bineng, please tell me in detail about his habits and the strength of the enemy and our troops."
Qin Lang asked while looking at the topographic map of the North.
Although Xia Houxuan had studied military books with his father and uncle since he was a child and had gone to the battlefield, he had never led an army in actual combat. This time, he did not know much about the situation in Bingzhou, so he did not say anything, but just observed carefully. The terrain of the northern border was explained by Bi Gui about the course of the previous battle.
"Report to General Qin."
Bi Gui pointed at the map and said:
"Na Kebineng is an outstanding leader of Xianbei. He is brave in battle. It is said that he has always enforced the law fairly and is not greedy for money. Therefore, he was elected as a tribal leader by the Xianbei people. The tribe to which Kebineng belongs is close to me and the central part of the state, so he He also vigorously promoted restructuring, so his tribe, culture and customs are quite similar to our Han people.
The tribesmen under his command follow the law in battle, and their combat power cannot be underestimated. Since the Northern Expedition of Emperor Taizu Wu, Kebineng has been paying tribute to our court year after year to show his loyalty. As the Marquis of Changling knew, by the time of Emperor Wen, Ke Bineng was granted the title of King Fuyi.
However, later, due to Wei's interference in his ambition to unify various ministries, he once again had second thoughts about Wei.
Among the Xianbei clan, the Kebineng tribe is the most powerful, with a total of more than 100,000 riders under its command. Because every time it plunders property from the northern border of the Wei Dynasty, it distributes it openly, transparently and evenly, so it has won the trust of its tribe. The soldiers were so powerful that they were all in awe of him.
This time Na Kebi was able to invade our Bingzhou with about 10,000 Mobei cavalry troops. At this time, they were stationed at the border between Mobei and our Bingzhou. This is exactly the situation in the north. "
"According to what Bi Shijun said, this Ke Bineng is really not to be underestimated." Qin Lang couldn't help but frowned after hearing what Bi Gui said: "Then, how many soldiers are there in Bi Fujun's account who can fight? ?”
"Reporting to General Qin, we have more than 20,000 infantry troops and more than 2,000 cavalry troops that can be mobilized by the state army."
"More than 20,000, plus the 8,000 Xiaoqi Camp Imperial Guards led by me and the 500 Yulin Lang led by Changling Marquis, it is enough."
Qin Lang smiled confidently, raised the wine bottle and said:
"Tomorrow I will lead the troops north with the Marquis of Changling to have a showdown with Kebi Neng. I will rely entirely on Bi Shijun for the transportation of food and supplies in the rear. Come, let us drink from this cup!"
"Okay, do it!"
As they spoke, everyone raised their wine bottles and drank them all in one gulp.
