After Wu Xin agreed happily, his firm tone aroused Liu Yu's curiosity. He couldn't help but wonder how capable these refugees from Changshan County in Jizhou were, so that Wu Xin could be so confident?
Liu Yu quickly arranged for the guards to go to the refugee camp outside the city. Many refugees who had been allocated land but had not yet had time to get to the land were still temporarily living around Linzi City.
When Liu Yu arrived with hundreds of guards, Wu Xin and others had already assembled their migrant militiamen.
Most of these people lacked armor, and the weapon in many of their hands was just a crude spear. But when they formed the formation, the aura of command and prohibition was definitely not comparable to that of Qingzhou's powerful tribes. These refugee troops under Wu Xin It is obvious that there is a lot more murderous energy, and it seems that he has experienced a real life-and-death fight.
"General, someone's son is ready and can practice for the general."
Wu Xin came to Liu Yu and said with confidence.
Liu Yu's gaze towards Wu Xin had changed from curiosity and suspicion to appreciation. However, he did not want to simply watch them practice the march and change of military formations, but wanted to verify the authenticity more closely.
After seeking Wu Xin's consent, he ordered his guards to mobilize a troop of troops and let them confront Wu Xin's refugee army with bamboo qiang wrapped in white cloth.
The result was far beyond Liu Yu's expectation. Although the Qingzhou Army eventually won, the Jizhou refugee army, under the command of Wu Xin, was only defeated at a slight disadvantage.
The numbers of these Jizhou refugee troops were superior, and if most of them were not exhausted from the long journey, they might have had a better chance of winning.
After seeing this result, Liu Yu felt that the new Qingzhou Army just needed to practice hard. It only won by a slim margin against the migrant army. The leader of this Qingzhou Army was under Liu Yu's scrutinizing eyes. , blushing again and again to plead guilty.
On the other hand, Liu Yu was very pleased. Changshan County Wu Xin and his refugee army were indeed capable. Changshan Zhao Zilong seemed to have a solid martial arts foundation from the same county.
As long as these people train a little, they will be as strong as the Qingzhou Army, and there are more than a thousand strong among them. They are definitely the seeds of a strong army with great potential.
However, in Liu Yu's historical memory, there is no impression of Wu Xin and Wu Bocheng at all, and there is no impression at all of these refugee troops who are worthy of praise.
Liu expected that Wu Xin and these refugee troops must have been classified among the many refugees who fled in the original history. In the hasty migration to escape the Hulu bandits, these people may die at any time from famine, disease or attack.
If they can escape the Huru ravaged Central Plains alive, their final outcome will either be to flee to the north and eventually be absorbed by the Murong clan and become vassals of Xianbei; or they will go south to Huaiyang and become refugees from Beifu who defend the "Wangma Court" in Jiangdong. .
When the hoofbeats of the Xiongnu and other barbarians resounded throughout the north, these people were stirred up like dust and scattered in the wind. Their origins, conduct, and deeds were unknown, and even their names were not left. No one paid attention to all the life, death, and humiliation they suffered. In the end, these flesh-and-blood Han ancestors were all refined into the word "refugee" in the history books.
Their lives ended in wandering. For history, their greatest role seems to be death, adding more bragging rights to those Yixia careerists who killed ordinary people.
Liu Yu stared blankly at the refugee army in Changshan County in front of him, his thoughts already drifting far away.
For a moment, he didn't even notice that Wu Xin came to speak to him. Finally, he came to his senses only after being reminded by the guards around him.
Liu Yu apologized slightly, and then happily said to Wu Xin, "Brother Wu's sons are the best examples of generous men in Yanzhao. Today I win Wu Bocheng, which is comparable to half of Jizhou."
After listening to Liu Yu's words, this greatly exceeded Wu Xin's expectations. He originally thought that he had the numerical advantage, but he was defeated by the Qingzhou Army. In this case, Liu Yu might be underestimated. So Wu Xin and the others thought Yao's request to be the sole leader of the troops will come to nothing.
In that case, Wu Xin and the others would either join the ranks of the Qingzhou Army separately, or go to the assigned fields and become miserable peasants.
Just when Wu Xin pretended to be calm on the face and was in a dilemma in his heart, he was pleasantly surprised to find that Liu Yu actually valued them quite a lot.
Even he himself was favored by Liu Yu. In this way, Wu Xin's previous request seemed to be mostly satisfied.
Wu Xin only felt that his side was defeated, but he did not know that the Qingzhou Army that had just faced them was a new army, but it was an army under strict management of daily drills, three days of small competitions, and ten days of large competitions. It is not a shame for the refugee army to lose to these Qingzhou army.
"Wu, I am ashamed that my general was defeated and I dare not take him so seriously as a general."
Although Wu Xin was happy, he was still a little embarrassed.
"Brother Wu deserves it, he deserves it. Brother Wu just led his troops to attack and defend, and he already has the style of a general. If he has good armor and soldiers, he can definitely turn defeat into victory."
Liu Yu intended to win over Wu Xin and had already won the previous confrontation, so he did not hesitate to praise Wu Xin and his refugee army in words.
"Haha, thank you for the compliment, General. To be honest, even if we have good armored soldiers, my son may not be the opponent of the general's elite soldiers."
After all, Wu Xin was a generous-minded person. Seeing that Liu Yu's words were not sarcastic, but sincere praise for him, Wu Xin readily agreed, and then Wu Xin continued.
"However, if you give me five hundred horses, then one of my sons can support five people."
After listening to Wu Xin's words, Liu Yu became interested again.
"Oh? Are all of Brother Wu's men skilled in horseback riding and archery?"
The cavalry of this era did not just need horses. Without rich riding experience, even if they learned to ride, they were still far from being qualified cavalry.
"A few of us have been horse traders for generations. After so many years, all the children in the clan are good at riding horses. The swords, guns, bows and arrows on the horses are not something I, Wu Xin, can boast of. Even if we fight against the Huns in Bingzhou, we may not be able to do it. Worse than them.”
After saying this, Wu Xin's face was full of pride. It could be seen that Wu Xin was very confident in his own strength and was not afraid of the Bingzhou Huns who were now in full arrogance.
However, Liu Yu still had some doubts. If this was the case, why didn't Wu Xin and others migrate with a large number of horses?
"Since Brother Wu comes from a family that is good at horses, why didn't he bring horses with him during this migration?"
After listening to Liu Yu's words, Wu Xin's face darkened obviously.
He smiled bitterly and said, "Originally, we still had a lot of horses at home, but after the attacks by Gongshifan, Jisang, Shile and other rebel armies, all the horse farms were looted, and after nearly a thousand miles, all the horse farms were looted. The people were running out of food, and the horses were losing weight. When we arrived in Qingzhou, the families that originally raised thousands of horses only had less than ten horses left."
Wu Xin mentioned the lost horses as if he had lost a beloved child.
Liu Yu was overjoyed after hearing Wu Xin's words. He has been focusing on cavalry training all the time, but the progress has been slow until now. There are still only two to three hundred cavalry available today.
If Wu Xin's men are really as he said, at least 500 of them are not weaker than the Huns cavalry in Bingzhou, then for Liu Yu, this is a big reinforcement in vain.
For the improvement of the strength of the Qingzhou Army, the role of these five hundred cavalry is far greater than that of more than a thousand infantry.
Liu Yu immediately invited Wu Xin and others to his horse garden in the east of the city to compete with Wu Xin and others in equestrian riding and shooting.
When Liu Yu returned to Linzi City, it was already dark and evening.
When Liu Yu returned to his mansion, he didn't bother to take a bath or change clothes. He immediately called for a close official to write a letter in person and asked him to set off tomorrow to Youzhou to meet Liu Yu's father-in-law, Wang Jun, the governor of Youzhou. As for the purpose , nothing else, even if you want to buy horses, you need at least 500 horses.
Liu Yu repeatedly emphasized that the horses he wanted were horses capable of charging into battle, rather than ordinary horses that could simply be used for riding and shooting guerrillas.
In this afternoon's cavalry skills competition, the riding skills of Liu Yu and other Qingzhou professional warriors impressed Wu Xin and others, and the riding and equestrian skills of Wu Xin and others amazed Liu Yu even more.
Under Wu Xin's inspection and suggestion, almost half of the five or six hundred horses that Liu Yu originally thought were treasures were unusable in Wu Xin's eyes. They were either in bad shape or had old teeth. In short, Liu Yu wanted to really If you want to build a strong enough cavalry, at the very least, you must replace these unqualified horses, and then talk about training the cavalry.
Therefore, Liu Yu immediately thought of his father-in-law Wang Jun. Although Liu Yu knew that Wang Jun's in-laws and allies were not very reliable, Liu Yu expected that Wang Jun should not have any reason to refuse such a transaction. , and Wang Jun has the support of Xianbei of Duanbu in Liaoxi County, with only five or six hundred horses, which is a big problem for Liu Yu, but it should not be a problem for Wang Jun.
The next day, Liu Yu summoned Wu Xin and others early in the morning. Not only did he agree to Wu Xin's request to lead the army alone, he also immediately arranged for officials to distribute a lot of food to Wu Xin and others. , salt and cloth as settlement expenses.
Wu Xin and other militiamen were organized into military soldiers, and the land assigned to military soldiers was around Linzi. This was originally the official land of the Qingzhou Governor's Department in the Western Jin Dynasty, and they were all fertile and good land.
After becoming military soldiers, Wu Xin's subordinates were no longer farmers, but small lords with land. According to the number of refugees under Wu Xin, five hundred people were eventually allocated to a riding capital. In this way, Later, almost every household had a military soldier, and each household only had to farm.
When it comes time to be recruited into the army, the military soldiers need to buy their own rations, robes, shoes and socks, saddle accessories and other common sundries. The remaining items such as swords, guns, armor, arrows and other items are provided by the army.
In this way, without the high taxes imposed by ordinary households, these military soldiers only need to practice regularly in accordance with the requirements of the county military government. They do not need to take care of the fields themselves, which can satisfy Wu Xin and others. People have the desire to take the lead.
Moreover, through yesterday's exchange, Liu Yu also discovered that these refugees from Jizhou do need the original heroic commanders such as Wu Xin, because these ordinary people are different from those wealthy scholars and poor tycoons like Wu Xin. The poor noble families all basically speak Heluo Yayan, which is the lingua franca of the Western Jin Dynasty. Although they have different accents, they can basically understand it. However, ordinary people in these various states and counties do not understand this. Anyway, yesterday Liu It was difficult to understand the dialect of those Jizhou boys.
Liu expected this. It seems that in history, those large families who migrated to Liaodong with their families and fled to Xianbei, although they lost their land, could still continue to control the population and obtain official appointments from the Xianbei people. This difficult language problem may also be caused by the Xianbei people. One of the reasons why people have to rely on the powerful.
After arranging the troops of Wu Xin and others, Liu Yu kept Wu Xin with him for several days, constantly asking about the situation of the Huns in Bingzhou, and Wu Xin's various experiences about the Huns' cavalry. and views.
After all, although Murong Xianbei who occupied Liaodong and Tuoba Xianbei who unified the grassland were the most ferocious Hu people in history, the Huns who slaughtered various tribes in Bingzhou were the most powerful force at this time. According to Liu Yu's memory, only two In the year, these Huns who merged with the state will conquer Luoyang, and the first act of the barbarian invasion will also appear.
Thinking that he would have to face these ferocious Bingzhou Hu people in the future, Liu Yu had to hurry up and learn all the information about the Huns from Wu Xin.
After a few days of contact, Liu Yu and Wu Xin became more and more speculative. Liu Yu valued Wu Xin's heroic spirit of Qin and Han scholars who valued righteousness over death. Wu Xin felt that Liu Yu, as a border general, was actually like this. He valued himself as a refugee from a poor family, and many of the things Liu Yu said opened his eyes to Wu Xin, who couldn't help but feel a kind of congeniality in his heart that he wished the scholar would die for his confidant.
By the time the officials Liu Yu sent to Youzhou to buy horses came back, Wu Xin had been appointed by Liu Yu as the governor of the left department of Yamen and became a branch of his personal guard.
However, contrary to Liu Yu's good expectations, the officials who came back from Youzhou at this time all looked disgraced, and they did not complete their proposal to buy horses from Wang Jun.
Liu Yu's original plan to purchase enough horses and train cavalry was quickly shattered.
Liu Yu thought that Wang Jun was afraid that his Qingzhou army would become stronger, so he refused to sell this batch of horses to him.
He couldn't help but feel angry. This Wang Jun was really just like in history. He was arrogant and didn't know how to look at the situation. Did he really think that he could threaten himself with these five or six hundred horses?
However, the words of the official who had just returned from Youzhou made Liu Yu feel that he had misunderstood Wang Jun.
Wang Jun did not agree to sell the horses to Liu Yu, not because he did not want to give them to Liu Yu and was afraid that Liu Yu's Qingzhou army would grow bigger, but because Wang Jun had already clashed with Liu Kun, the governor of Bingzhou, and the two sides were at war with each other.
Another internal fight among the feudal officials of the Western Jin Dynasty is about to begin.
The snipe and the clam competed for the fisherman's profit, and Liu Yu felt that this was a great opportunity for him.
