On the afternoon of the third day, Yang Ji's team entered Longxi County, Weizhou. He did not plan to march along the Wei River to Xiangwu City, the prefecture's northwest, but planned to advance due west along the Zhang River in Longxi County. After arriving in Zhang County, we officially entered Taozhou. Compared with going to Xiangwu City, we saved at least two days of travel.
The scouts had brought information about the horse thieves. Yang Ji sat in the car and opened a map to watch. While listening to the scouts' report, he determined the location on the map.
The scout said: "General Manager! More than fifty miles to the west of us is the junction of Longxi County and Zhangxian County. There is not only convenient water transportation there, but also a road to Chengzhou in the south, where there are many hills and dense jungles. We found a large area of grass flattened to the ground there, and many rice dumpling leaves for packing dry food. The number of horse thieves was about four to five thousand. This morning we explored the west and south respectively, and no more thieves were found. There are traces of the horse thieves, so it can be inferred that the horse thieves are mainly concentrated in those hills."
"Yeah!" Yang Ji looked at the map carefully. The place the scout was talking about was the northern foothills of the Qinling Mountains. The jungles there are very conducive to infantry combat. It is also a perfect place for ambush warfare. Although he has There are more than ten thousand elite soldiers, but this army is a battle-hardened army that has returned from the north. It is easy for them to fight on the plains, but if they go into the mountains to fight in the jungle, they may not be able to match the Qiang people. What's more, this team is not just an army, there are also soldiers' families and grain trucks, which will become a big burden to the army.
He pondered for a while, stared at a town with relatively open terrain, and asked, "What's the situation in Wushan Town ahead?"
The scout replied: "Wushan Town is more than 20 miles to the west of us. It is twelve or three miles in circumference. It used to be a military fort, but now it has developed into a town. There are four to five hundred families settled in it, and there are three hundred state soldiers." Half of them are stationed in the town, and half are stationed in Zhangchuan garrison ten miles southwest of Wushan Town."
"Did you find anything behind us?" Yang Ji added: "I mean the Qinzhou Army."
"They retreated when they arrived at Shiguya in Jicheng, Qinzhou."
"Oh!" Yang Ji's eyes froze as he glanced over Shigu Cliff. At the western foot of Shigu Cliff is Fugu Mountain, which flows into the Weishui River from south to north. Its upper reaches coincide with the intersection of the official road mentioned before. Wushan Town sandwiched between the two just forms a big "V" shape.
"Pass my order and the team will enter Wushan Town."
"Here!"
The order was conveyed and the troops moved on.
At dusk, they drove into Wushan Town in a mighty manner, crowding the small town to the limit. The two crisscrossing streets were crowded with grain trucks. Hundreds of households each vacated their houses for the families of the soldiers. live.
Yang Ji arranged for two thousand soldiers to enter the city and take over the defense of Wushan Town tonight. The main army built a huge military camp in the open space south of the city.
He entered the main tent and took off his armor, and was about to take a shower when Dugu Pingyun brought an officer to see him.
This person's name is Zhang Chuan, and he is the captain in charge of the soldiers in Wushan Town. He nervously stepped forward and saluted: "Zhang Chuan, the captain of Wushan Town, is here to see King Wei."
"Commander Zhang, please wake up. You're here just in time. I also have some important things I want to know about." Yang Ji took him to the front tent.
The front tent is a hundred steps away from the back tent. It has just been set up, and the soldiers are still beating wooden stakes to make the tent stronger. Song Zhengben, Hao Yuan, Wei Zheng, and Ling Jing were busy packing various documents.
Generally speaking, civil and military officials above the governor, Sima, and above have some staff. Some of them handle official affairs on behalf of the master or exercise part of the power. This kind of staff usually has a false position; the other part is purely a counselor. .
Song Zhengben was a person arranged by the imperial court to be the prince's chief minister. He was in the sixth rank in the imperial bureaucracy. Hao Yuan was in the seventh rank and joined the military in Prince Wei's palace. The two of them belonged to the former, while Wei Zheng, Ling Jing, and Yuchi Gong were It's the latter.
Yang Ji walked into the tent and asked the dozen or so soldiers who were helping him to temporarily retreat. He sat down and asked Zhang Chuan, "Captain Zhang, are there horse thieves in Longxi and Zhang counties?"
Zhang Chuan hurriedly said: "Report to King Wei, there are several groups of horse thieves in the territory. Most of them are Qiang and Hu. At most, there are about three to four hundred people in one group, and at least there are dozens of people."
Yang Ji frowned and said, "Why didn't the Weizhou army annihilate the horse thieves?"
"Annihilation? Easier said than done!" Zhang Chuan saw that Yang Ji did not put on the airs of a prince, let alone be aggressive, and his speech gradually became smoother. He licked his dry lips and said with a wry smile: "These so-called horse thieves are honest during the day. There are farmers and herdsmen in Majiao, and some are from the Qiang tribe. These people transform into horse thieves at night and attack merchants everywhere."
"What do the Weizhou troops do for food?" Yang Ji asked angrily: "Is it true that the military pay given by the imperial court every year is just for feeding pigs?"
Zhang Chuan shook his head and sighed: "The Weizhou Army has five thousand people, more than half of whom are Qiang and Hu. It is basically impossible for them to attack their own people. In addition, many horse thieves have been passed down from generation to generation, and the boss is in the army." The soldiers, the second oldest and the third oldest are robbing merchants and travelers, and generally speaking, as long as they don’t go too far, the higher ups won’t bother them.”
"What does not go too far mean?" Yang Ji asked coldly: "What is the bottom line of not going too far?"
"The first is that the caravans are not killed, and the second is that they are not allowed to touch the caravans of certain aristocratic families. As long as these two conditions are met, the higher-ups always turn a blind eye." Zhang Chuan said bitterly: "For those big families As far as officials are concerned, they are just outsiders. After serving one term, they will be transferred to other places by the court. How can they be willing to do thankless things? Rather than doing this, it is better to restrain these horse thieves within the rules. As long as they are so messy It won’t matter in a few years. As for the life and death of the people, what does it have to do with them? Moreover, the people and soldiers are also afraid that these horse thieves will retaliate against their relatives, so everyone dares to be angry but dare not speak out."
"So that's it." Yang Ji and Song Zhengben exchanged glances, and then asked, "Where are the horse thieves with four to five thousand people in the territory?"
"That's not true." Zhang Chuan shook his head: "If there are so many horse thieves, the imperial court will definitely deploy heavy troops to annihilate them."
"What if it's Dangxiang Qiang? Will they cross the border in large numbers?"
"It's possible that the Dangxiang Qiang people fought a bloody battle with the Qiang and Hu people in Weizhou in the upper reaches of Zhangshui River last year, and hundreds of people died." Zhang Chuan sighed and said, "The Qiang people all live a life of half herders and half farmers. Life, and Dangxiang Qiang was afraid of the power of King Wei and did not dare to graze in Taozhou, so he turned around and competed for the pastures of Zhangxian County. If there was no conflict, everyone would be more restrained. However, once things such as the loss of cattle, sheep, and horses happened, there was a high probability that There will be fights.”
. . . .
Zhang Chuan answered some questions from Yang Ji and then left. Yang Ji frowned and said nothing. The matter was much more complicated than he imagined.
First of all, Weizhou officials are occupying the latrines and letting the thieves roam the territory. How is this different from indulging local bullies? And on the surface, it seems like they are doing nothing and making a compromise for the sake of local tranquility, but who knows if they have any shady deals secretly? And in such a Weizhou, will Cui Shi, the governor, send troops after receiving the "Flying Knife Pass"?
Secondly, the thousands of "horse thieves" discovered by the scouts may be Weizhou people and herdsmen, they may be local Qianghu or Dangxiang Qiang, they may be "horse thieves" sent by Yuan Shan to attack them, or they may even be a combination of them. Yes. The question now is where will the horse thieves attack them? Tonight's Wushan Town and tomorrow night's Zhangxian County are unlikely. If he is a horse thief, he would prefer to attack in the wilderness without city protection. This means that the hilly areas we will travel in the next few days may be attack points for horse thieves.
After a while, Yang Ji smiled bitterly and said: "Everyone, it seems that Yuan Shan is not as stupid as we thought. Weizhou is really suitable for an ambush."
"Yuanshan has controlled Qinzhou for so many years. This kind of killing and frame-up must be carefully planned. Perhaps it is precisely because he knows that chaos will occur in the grassland in the southwest of Weizhou that he wants to use chaos to cause trouble for us. I don’t know who the attacker is, but if I guess correctly, the thousands of people discovered by the scouts should be Party Xiang Qiang, while the ‘horse thieves’ are still waiting for the opportunity.”
Speaking of this, Song Zhengben suggested: "Sir, if we don't have grain trucks and military dependents, we are not afraid of them. But now we are just big fat sheep moving forward, and they are a group of wolves who go into battle lightly. We are really Too passive. I suggest sending people to Taozhou immediately and asking Governor Fang and General Manager Dugu to send troops for reinforcements, thereby disrupting Yuan Shan's deployment."
7017k
