Dunhuang County in Guazhou has always been an important town in the west of the Central Plains Dynasty, and it was also the first stop for Hu merchants to enter the Central Plains Dynasty. Since the Han Dynasty opened the Silk Road, merchants from the Western Regions, Sogdia, Tocharia, Persia, Tianzhu and other places have The clouds gather here. Some shrewd businessmen even settled here directly, specializing in transit business. After hundreds of years of reproduction, some Hu merchants have developed into large and prosperous families.
In the afternoon of this day, a group of more than a thousand cavalry appeared on the official road. The leader was Yang Ji, the governor of Liangzhou and the general manager. Accompanying him were the prince's Sima Li Jing, Li Datong, the chief Bo Song Zhengben, Su Quan, who was consulting to join the military, and Bing Cao participated in the military history Xue Ju, Cavalry Cao participated in the military history Huaiyi, Chronicles participated in the military Li Daliang and Liu Tongren, and participated in the military Dugu Pingyun.
Compared with the assistant officers of the Liangzhou Grand Manager who belong to the imperial court, these talents can be regarded as the private team of the Wei Palace, and the thousand cavalry they brought are also the palace's personal soldiers; as for the imperial army, they are all resting at Yumen Pass in the northeast of Dunhuang County. If they conquer Yi For our country, we only need to start from Yumen Pass.
Zhang Chuchen, Liu Rumei, Murong Xianyue and others served as Yang Ji's close bodyguards. Like ordinary soldiers, they also wore eagle-edge helmets, thin scale armor, swords at their waists, spears in their hands, and rode on horses. , looking heroic.
Although female generals and soldiers are not allowed in the army, generals in border towns actually have maids and concubines accompanying them pretending to be soldiers. The court has always turned a blind eye to this phenomenon, as long as they are not in the army establishment Within the family, the court generally would not care.
But after all, it is strictly prohibited by the imperial court. Once a major national event is missed, the behavior of bringing women's dependents is often magnified and attacked by political opponents. Therefore, ordinary generals consciously abide by this prohibition, but ordinary generals can do so with peace of mind.
Near Dunhuang City, the generals from Guazhou were already lined up to greet him.
Seeing that Yang Ji and others slowed down, a burly and dignified general came with the crowd and saluted: "Guazhou Governor and General Manager Mai Tiezhang respectfully welcome His Royal Highness King Wei."
Mai Tiezhang was a native of Shixing. He was brave and powerful. According to legend, he could travel five hundred miles a day and could catch up with a galloping horse when running. In his youth, he was rough and wild, loved to make friends and valued his faith. He usually made a living by fishing and hunting without owning any property. During the Taijian period of Chen Guo, he collaborated with others to become thieves. After being captured by the government, he became a servant of the imperial court, specializing in holding an umbrella for Chen Shubao.
After leaving the court, Mai Tiezhang often walked to South Xuzhou, a hundred miles away, to steal, and the next morning he still held an umbrella for Empress Chen. So many times, even the owner recognized him and finally sued Chen Shubao. Seeing Mai Tiezhang appearing as scheduled every morning, the officials in the DPRK simply did not believe that he had gone hundreds of miles away to commit thief at night. Later, there were too many people accusing him, so Cai Zheng, the minister, offered a reward of a hundred gold to recruit people who could deliver the edict to the governor of Southern Xuzhou overnight. Mai Tiezhang didn't know that this was a plan against him, so he recruited the person who would deliver the edict. mission, and responded in time the next morning, only then did the truth come to light.
After the fall of Nanchen, Mai Tiezhang transferred to the army of General Yang Su. He fought bravely and made many military exploits. He was awarded the title of Yitong Sansi. In the 16th year of Kaihuang's reign, he used the rank of Chariot and Cavalry General to conquer the Turks in the north. Yang Su made full use of his talents and specially assigned him to be responsible for reconnaissance. He was awarded the title of Shangkaifu for his merits.
At the beginning of the year, Yang Jian asked all over the country, but no one was willing to take up a post in Guazhou, which was a complicated situation, infested with thieves and extremely dangerous. Mai Tiezhang responded and took over the job left by the former general manager He Ruohuaikuo on the grounds that he had been a thief and understood the thief's heart. mess.
It's just that although Mai Tiezhang is agile in mind and brave in combat, he is an illiterate scholar and cannot read official documents at all. He was also worried that outsiders would leak the secrets in the official documents, so he took his eldest son Mai Mengcai with him as an interpreter.
"General Mai, please get up." Yang Ji dismounted, helped this legendary man up, and joked: "Did General Mai go to Gaochang Palace or Yanqi Palace last night?"
Mai Tiezhang laughed loudly when he heard this, and said: "The general wanted to steal Queen Yanqi as a greeting gift last night, but halfway through, the wind and sand blew the general back again. It was also in front of His Highness. I won't tell other people. "
Everyone laughed.
After greetings, the group entered Dunhuang City.
Dunhuang City is the seat of Guazhou and the front line of defense against enemies in the west. The city has a circumference of twenty miles and the city walls are tall and wide. However, getting closer, Yang Ji found that many places were in a dilapidated state, and there were even several sections of walls. All collapsed, and many people were digging away the ruins and re-laying the foundations of the walls.
"This is one of the messes left by He Ruohuaikuo." Seeing Yang Ji looking at the broken wall, Mai Tiezhang said with a bitter smile: "It's pretty good here. More than half of the west wall to defend against foreign enemies has collapsed. In the end, we will see The first thought when I went to Dunhuang City was that the people were lucky. If hundreds of horse thieves attacked Dunhuang City at night when He Ruohuaikuo was the governor, the people would not even have a place to take refuge. The second thought was fear, fear of horse thieves at night. I took over the lair of the general, so I organized the people to repair the city wall before dawn the next day."
Yang Ji smiled and said: "What can the General Manager's Office do for Guazhou?"
"The general has no big request. The only request is to expand the number of troops." Mai Tiezhang, whose little trick was exposed, said with a smile: "Guazhou is the west gate of the Sui Dynasty, and it is also the most complicated place in the Sui Dynasty. However, the Five Thousands of garrison troops not only have to defend Tuyuhun and other countries in the Western Regions, but also shoulder the mission of suppressing horse thieves and rogue bandits. These five thousand men cannot complete the heavy task at all. Tuyuhun garrisoned 20,000 troops in Shanshan, four times as many as Guazhou; if a war breaks out, "Fat, with the hundreds of thousands of people in Dunhuang City dragging down the defenders, they dare not even leave the city, let alone defeat the enemy."
"So?" Yang Ji smiled and asked.
Mai Tiezhang said with a smile: "So it is necessary to increase the number of troops."
"I also want to increase troops. But the imperial court also has considerations. On the one hand, the officials in the court believe that a large increase in troops will cause panic in the countries in the Western Region, which will make the west uneasy and war-torn; on the other hand, there is a very real supply problem; It is possible to transport it from the mainland, but the journey is long and far away. When a stone of rice arrives here, only three or four buckets are left, and the other six or seven buckets are eaten by the grain transport team. This is considered a waste of people and money. Nowadays, in Jingping in the Western Region, many people Officials who are content with the status quo feel that adding more troops is not worth the gain."
Yang Ji said that the Central Plains Dynasty has believed in a passive defense policy since ancient times and has never thought of taking the initiative. The Han's attack on the Xiongnu and the Sui's conquest of the Turks seemed to be proactive attacks, but in fact they were forced attacks in lieu of defense and were not proactive wars initiated to annex the grasslands.
Once the threat is eliminated, they will retreat to engage in internal fighting, causing the good country to panic. When the aliens rise again, they will launch another counterattack. This cycle repeats itself from generation to generation. If internal and external troubles and natural disasters continue, it is time to change dynasties, and then the cycle begins again.
Occasionally, one or two kings and generals who could be regarded as radical appeared, but they were suppressed by the trend of a nation that was content with the status quo. In the end, they were unable to even go out of East Asia.
Just when Yang Ji was sighing, Mai Tiezhang, who heard the hidden meaning behind his words, smiled and said: "If His Highness can persuade the imperial court to increase troops, the general will have a way to raise troops."
Yang Ji asked: "How do you raise them?"
"Fields." Mai Tiezhang said: "All the sweet spring water basins can be turned into fertile fields, and the defenders can get supplies from them. Even if it is not enough, the general can use other methods to supplement it."
"Robbery and kidnapping?"
"Let His Highness see it." Mai Tiezhang saw that Yang Ji's followers were far away, so he laughed softly: "You don't know, after the general arrived in Dunhuang, he suddenly became addicted to thieves. , and only wants to rob the surrounding countries... Hehe, if there are enough troops, the general can defeat the horse thieves; he can also pretend to be horse thieves to rob Tuyuhun and other countries in the Western Regions, turning their land into the land of the Sui Dynasty, and their money into the Sui Dynasty. With money, their women became the female slaves of the Sui Dynasty, and their men became the war slaves of the Sui Dynasty."
"Okay, Lao Mai!" Yang Ji couldn't help but look at him differently and laughed: "Heroes see the same thing."
"Are you agreeing?" Mai Tiezhang asked in surprise.
"How many soldiers do you think is appropriate?" It was rare to meet a guy who was full of thieves, and Yang Ji felt that he had to support him so as not to dampen his enthusiasm.
"Ten thousand more troops!" Mai Tiezhang saw Yang Ji frowning and thought it was too many, so he quickly added: "Five thousand will do, too."
"Too few." Yang Ji shook his head and said: "Tuyuhun deployed 20,000 troops in Shanshan, which seriously threatened the peace of Guazhou. I think the 20,000 troops stationed in Guazhou is very reasonable; if Tuyuhun increases his troops, it will be very reasonable for us to increase our troops accordingly. It is reasonable. If Tuyuhun forces the whole country to station in Shanshan, he can take care of them all, and the civil servants appointed by the imperial court will not even have to fight, but can directly go to govern the plateau, which is simple and saves trouble."
Mai Tiezhang was frightened by Yang Ji's evil intentions and stammered: "You, you, are you serious?"
"Is that still false?" Yang Ji said calmly: "If we fight a war to destroy the country in Shanshan, we will save a lot of trouble."
"The truth is correct, the problem is..." Mai Tiezhang said with a bitter smile: "The problem is that none of us can make the decision."
"Prince, it's okay!" Yang Ji pulled Yang Guang out without hesitation: "Prince, let us worry about it. The credit belongs to us, and he will take the responsibility if anything happens."
"Don't lie to me, will I take it seriously?" Mai Tiezhang rubbed his hands in surprise, joy and excitement.
"You are so smart, can I deceive you?"
"That's true."
"..."
When everyone saw the young and old talking and laughing, they burst into evil laughter from time to time. They were both horrified and amused. They had no idea what they were talking about and were so happy.
Sometimes men's friendship is so simple. Two people who have never met each other quickly become good friends because they talk about a common topic.
The same is true for Yang Ji and Mai Tiezhang. The two of them have the same chemistry, and it seems that they cherish each other and regret meeting each other late.
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Thanks to book friends for "Locked by Ice, Promises or Lies, Flying Pig Heads, People in the Village Don't Know How to Farm, Zhang Zeyuan, People from Foreign Countries Will Not Fall into the Clouds, A Woodcutter in Wuling Mountain, Autumn Knows When Flowers Fall, Sword Soul Platform," You can only love yourself, the vf of others, and reward those with evil thoughts.
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