In the afternoon of the next day, Yang Ji's team arrived at Zhangxian County. The family members and convoys were still arranged into the city as yesterday, and two thousand soldiers took over the city defense. The main force still lives in the military camp.
Yang Ji was currently receiving Weizhou state-level officials who came from Xiangwu County. He was wearing a purple royal robe embroidered with gold cloud patterns and a jade belt around his waist. He glanced indifferently in front of the Weizhou officials. Nor spoke.
Everyone bowed their heads humbly. Cui Shi, the governor, took a step forward, clasped his fists and saluted, saying: "For this humble duty, please see King Wei."
"Chief Cui is exempt from the courtesy." Yang Ji glanced at Master Cui coldly, without the slightest hint of intimacy in his heart.
Ever since he learned about the official environment in Weizhou from Zhang Chuan, he had no good impression of these inactive Weizhou officials.
In the local official system of this dynasty, the highest levels are the General Manager and Shangshu Xingtai, and the chief officers are the General Manager and Xingtai Shangshu Ling respectively; the state-level administrative units below them include the governor, chief minister, and Sima , Recording events, participating in military affairs, participating in military affairs, and Liucao. Each county under a state has a county magistrate, a county magistrate, a chief registrar, a county lieutenant, a recorder, an assistant historian, etc.
Who is managing the local people in a county? That is the respected local elders.
The planning of each county of the imperial court is that four families are one neighbor, with a neighbor chief; five neighbors are one bao, with a bao chief; five bao is one li, with a lizheng; five li is a township, with an elder. In some places that are relatively remote, a village is used as a unit, and the head of a village is called the village leader.
From this point of view, the so-called elders are actually the township heads of later generations. They are the local governors who directly control the county. Although they are not local officials, they are closely related to the lives of the people. They are the most powerful and prestigious in the local area. .
The scope and population managed by the elders, Li Zheng, and Baochang all belong to the villagers. They are almost all elected representatives. Some people may be stronger in the local area, but once the hometown is invaded by "foreign enemies" and bandits, they will still The meeting will issue interest appeals on behalf of the people and lead the villagers to compete with "foreign enemies" and bandits.
Weizhou Zhang County was originally a relatively prosperous middle county, but in recent years, horse thieves have become more and more serious, causing the county's population to drop sharply and people's livelihood to decline. However, these state officials in Weizhou only wanted to serve their term safely, so they were transferred elsewhere. They did not care about the lives of the local people at all.
It is precisely because of the inaction of the state officials that in order to protect the city and the people, the county officials had to secretly negotiate with the horse thieves and give them a certain amount of money in exchange for the safety of the city and the people. However, the horse thieves are all wild dogs that cannot be fattened. , when the people gave him one coin, he asked for ten coins; when they gave him ten coins, he asked for hundreds of coins, thousands of coins, ten thousand coins... Such endless oppression made the natives old, upright, and conservative. The elders were intolerable and filled with righteous indignation.
They had nothing to do with the Weizhou officials, and when they heard about Yang Ji's crossing, they all came to beg Yang Ji to make the decision. On the more than seventy-mile road from Wushan Town to Zhangxian County, there was an endless stream of elders, village leaders and village leaders in the places where Yang Ji met. Both of them were sallow and skinny, and even the beggars in the capital were stronger than them, and those beggars were more like local officials than they were.
When Yang Ji asked, he learned that apart from paying taxes to the court, most of the remaining grain was given to the horse thieves to ensure safety. Everyone is poorly fed and clothed, and barely surviving is a very lucky thing. How can one be strong?
Now that he knew the actual situation on the border of Weizhou, and now he was facing some corpses and fat men with wine bags and rice bags, how could Yang Ji be polite? How can we be greeted with a smile? He changed his armor into a royal robe with the intention of talking to these bastards as a prince. If it were the armor and battle flag that represented the identity of the general manager of Liangzhou, I am afraid that these people would not be able to be controlled or dispatched at all. He forced down the anger in his heart and said calmly: "Sit down!"
"Thank you, King Wei!" Master Cui and others took their seats one after another.
Yang Ji looked at the officials of Weizhou and asked teasingly: "Cui Governor, Li Changshi, and Yan Sima have so much to do, how come they have time to come to Zhang County?"
Master Cui smiled awkwardly, cupped his hands and said, "Reporting to King Wei, I heard someone said that someone intends to harm King Wei in Weizhou, so I discussed with Li Changshi and Yan Sima to bring all the government soldiers and state soldiers in Weizhou. ”
"Thank you very much." Yang Ji said in a deep voice, "Actually, I received this news a few days ago."
The purpose of the horse thieves' attack in the hilly areas was almost certain. However, in order to avoid being ambushed on the road, Yang Ji followed Song Zhengben's suggestion: hurriedly dispatch Taozhou soldiers to respond, and at the same time asked Fang Gongyi to come from Lintao County, Hezheng County mobilized thousands of young and strong men to follow the state soldiers, thus creating a huge momentum. Therefore, if these horse thieves do not storm the prepared military camp tonight, they will have no chance to attack this team.
As long as the soldiers' families and supplies arrived in Taozhou successfully, Yang Ji, who was free from restraints, would have many dirty tricks to deal with these bastards.
Master Cui breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's also a coincidence. I also received a warning from the flying swords of the righteous soldiers. That's why I made these preparations. As long as King Wei gives an order, everyone in the Weizhou army will obey."
Yang Ji nodded and asked: "I heard a lot of rumors along the way. Everyone said that Weizhou's state officials and horse thieves are integrated into one, regardless of you and me. The troops in the territory are soldiers during the day and thieves at night. Everyone We rob and kill passing business travelers together, and distribute money together. And you state officials are the masterminds behind the rebellion and bandits, and are also the biggest profiteers. Some even say that you are planning to rob my team halfway, and then pass the crime on Dangxiang Qiang.”
Master Cui was immediately shocked and stood up and said: "Who did King Wei hear that we robbed a group of businessmen? Not only did we not rob a group of businessmen, on the contrary, whenever a businessman was in trouble, we tried our best to help. King Wei must not listen to rumors."
"Really?" Yang Ji was noncommittal. He stared at Master Cui for a long time and said, "I'm afraid the Governor of the Yuan Dynasty misunderstood the Governor Cui. When he was in Qinzhou, he not only sent troops to escort me all the way, but also reminded me repeatedly to be careful of Wei. The state army disguised itself as horse thieves and attacked my king’s team.”
The eyes of Master Cui and others flashed with anger and fear. If Yang Ji went to the court to sue them, and Yushitai officials came to Zhang County to investigate, they would definitely be bastards.
Master Cui bowed to Yang Ji and said: "King Wei, Yuan Shan has asked us many times to let the Yuan family caravan pass and allow them to trade freely. We were worried that they would bring prohibited items into Weizhou, so we kept checking carefully. Unexpectedly, He actually sows discord in front of King Wei, which is really the behavior of a villain."
As he finished speaking, a rush of footsteps suddenly came from outside the tent. Li Dabian stepped inside and handed over his hands to report: "General manager, there is an urgent military situation."
Yang Ji said calmly: "Speak!"
Li Dabian glanced at Cui Master and others, and could only say: "The scouts came to report that about 20,000 troops were coming from the southeastern foothills of Niaoshu Mountain to Zhangxian County, which is less than thirty miles away from Zhangxian County."
"This..." Master Cui turned pale and asked stammering: "King Wei, what's going on?"
Yang Ji snorted coldly and said, "This is the Weizhou army that Yuan Shan said was going to attack my king."
Master Cui was so anxious that he was sweating profusely and said in fear: "But the four thousand soldiers brought by Bei Gong and others are all in the northeast of Zhang County. They did not get orders from me and Yan Sima, so they did not dare to act without authorization. "
He suddenly thought of the contents of the flying knife letter and said loudly: "This must be framed by Yuan Shan as a 'horse thief' for us."
Seeing his quick reaction, Yang Ji couldn't help but secretly nod in praise. He thought for a moment and then asked, "Can the four thousand troops you brought with you be able to fight?"
Master Cui quickly replied: "Report to King Wei, I am worried that horse thieves will attack you, so I brought here elite soldiers, all of them are warriors."
"Okay! You follow my arrangements." Yang Ji was worried that they would not try their best, so he analyzed Master Cui again: "As long as we work together to kill this powerful horse thief, not only will I be safe, but Zhang County in Weizhou will also be safe. The situation here will also suddenly become clearer. When the time comes, you will no longer be controlled by the horse thieves within the territory, and you can do whatever you want to deal with these horse thieves. This is a great achievement."
"I understand that this is a humble position, so King Wei can arrange it." Master Cui is also an outstanding general of his generation, how can he not have the ambition to make contributions?
It's just that he, the governor of Weizhou, has been in office for less than a year and a half, and he can't clean up the mess left by the previous governor. In addition, the army in the territory is inextricably linked to various Qiang tribes. He didn't dare to make any big moves. If he couldn't kill the horse thieves in the territory, the people of Weizhou would be the unlucky ones.
This time, if they can use the powerful external force of Yang Ji to quell this huge number of "horse thieves", then the biggest stubborn problem that troubles him will be solved without any problems, providing the most basic and basic foundation for rectifying Weizhou's army and officialdom in the future. The most favorable conditions. Therefore, tonight's battle will be a cooperative relationship that benefits both sides. Master Cui and others have no reason to object.
After roughly arranging their combat tasks, Yang Ji appointed Li Dabian as the guard general of Zhang County, responsible for tonight's defense tasks.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The people in Zhangxian County seemed to have become accustomed to all kinds of dangers. Although the tense atmosphere of war was getting stronger and stronger, the residents in the city remained unmoved and hid in their homes consciously, without causing any trouble to the Sui army.
In fact, this is also a rule set by the horse thieves. As long as the residents in the city do not resist, they will not kill anyone. Compared with the Sui soldiers who are actively preparing for war, the people in the county are more willing to believe in the rules of the horse thieves because they all know this Sui army. The army is just passing through Weizhou's army. If the battle is unfavorable or they retreat, then the horse thieves still have the final say here. If there is a stalemate with the horse thieves, the locals like them will still be unlucky in the end.
Zhang County is a central county. There are no city gates in the north and south of the county. There are only two east and west city gates. The two city gates can be shattered with just a slight collision of giant trees. There are no moats or suspension bridges outside the city. The only fortunate thing is that the city wall is still intact, but even this only fortunate city wall has been demolished in several sections, so on the one hand, there is no need to enter the city through the city gate during the invasion.
Li Dabian saw that the people in the city were unwilling to come out to help, so he mobilized the family members of the soldiers, cart drivers, and laborers who came with the army, and asked everyone to use sacks filled with soil to block the gaps in the city wall layer by layer, as those most likely to be attacked. The west city gate is also blocked and clean.
At dusk, the setting sun dyed the western sky red. Yang Ji climbed to the top of the city to inspect the defense situation in the city. Although it was far from the standard of a solid city, it could barely resist the attack of horse thieves. Besides, there were also people outside the city. The military camp is the first line of defense. If the military camp is also lost, Zhang County will face the attack of the horse thieves.
He stood at the top of the West City and stared at the distant horizon. Under the afterglow, he could clearly see a narrow river outside the city, large fields of freshly harvested wheat, and a few ruined houses. But further away, a road A thick line like a black ribbon separates the sky from the earth, and there is the horizon.
Yuchi Gong walked up to Yang Ji and asked in a low voice: "Master, why don't we bear this breath for the time being? I think it is better to send the supplies to Taozhou first. Then, we will go back and deal with these bastards. The odds of winning are better.”
Yang Ji shook his head: "If we rush westward, we are likely to enter the ambush of the 'horse thieves'. If it is just the army, the army will not be afraid, but if the 'horse thieves' attack the family members of the soldiers, our soldiers will worry about their relatives. We will definitely defeat the enemy without a fight, and we will definitely be defeated when the time comes. We now have two defense lines of military camps and city walls, as well as sophisticated weapons and equipment, so what is there to be afraid of?"
Yuchi Gong said worriedly: "But if we resist the city and fight, it is easy to hurt innocent people!"
"I believe our army can hold the barracks." Yang Ji was silent for a while and then said to Yuchi Gong: "Jingde, putting two thousand soldiers in the city is a bit of a waste. You can take over one thousand soldiers from Li Dabian." , and then go to the southeast of the military camp to ambush."
Yuchi Gong asked with some confusion: "Aren't the enemy troops coming from the west? Why should they ambush in the southeast?"
"I'm worried about Yuan Shan!" Yang Ji explained: "Although the scouts said that the Qinzhou army has retreated, I'm worried that Yuan Shan will send another person to come around from Fugu River. And the Yuan family has been operating in Qinzhou for dozens of years. Years later, there must have been several thousand private troops. If while we were fighting the 'horse thieves' in the West Camp, this private army that might have existed suddenly attacked the East Camp or captured the city, and the soldiers who were worried about their families would definitely collapse without a fight. "
Yuchi Gong nodded and said, "I understand."
"Jingde!" Yang Ji turned his gaze from a distance to Yuchi Gong and said solemnly: "In addition to these one thousand soldiers, I will give you another five hundred soldiers. This is already the maximum strength I can give you. , so your responsibility is very heavy, don’t let everyone down.”
"Don't worry, Young Master." Yuchi Gong said solemnly, "I will never let an enemy soldier come over."
"That's good!" Yang Ji carefully recalled the path he took, and then said: "If Yuan Shan's private army comes, then they must pass through the official road three miles to the southeast. That section of the official road is blocked by two Sandwiched between gentle mountains, the jungle on the mountain can be fully utilized. Bring more arrows."
"Here."
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