chaos.
Chaos comes from being unprepared, and being unprepared comes from unexpected things.
Xiaoxiankou is still 700 miles away from the border between the two countries. It is desolate and inaccessible. It can be regarded as a hidden place. In such a remote place where there are no people or smoke, in the middle of the night, an enemy army suddenly appears. How could it be expected? How can one be on guard? How can we avoid chaos?
Shatuo Kingdom has a vast territory, nearly twice that of Dahua, but its population is less than 30% of Dahua. The land of Shatuo Kingdom is vast and flat, with few hills and mountains, making it very suitable for farming. Therefore, all dynasties have emphasized agriculture over industry. There are only three salt mines within the country, and the salt production is extremely limited, far from enough for civilian use. The shortfall depends entirely on the imperial caravans purchasing it from Dahua and Jue Kingdom salt merchants. Fortunately, Shatuo produces a large surplus of rice every year, so selling rice and buying salt is not considered a loss. For a long time, the Dahua grain merchants bought rice from Shatuo, while the Shatuo court bought salt from the Dahua salt merchants. There were frequent exchanges with each other, but they were harmonious.
The incident happened last year.
At the beginning of last year, the Shatuo court suddenly discovered that the major gangs in Dahua's private salt trade no longer sold salt to Shatuo's caravan. I tried so hard to buy it, but the amount was pitifully small, and the price was more than twice as high as usual. This surprise was so serious that the imperial court hurriedly sent people to investigate. Only then did we find out that it was the newly appointed Salt Transportation Secretary who had blocked the supply of private salt. The major Dahua gangs that engaged in private salt trading were no longer able to buy salt from the Salt Transportation Secretary at low prices. For a time, the volume of illicit salt sales was greatly reduced, and the price naturally increased. The Shatuo court sent several groups of people, using both soft and hard tactics, but none of them could defeat Mei Siyuan. So much so that he did not hesitate to send killers frequently to kill him, but he never did so. As a last resort, the Shatuo court had to turn to purchase salt from Jue, a further country. Although the journey is twice as long and the price is much more expensive, fortunately, the supply is sufficient and it can finally be used by civilians.
However, at the end of last year, Jue State suddenly stopped selling salt privately, citing a shortage of domestic salt, and stopped selling salt to Shatuo State.
The domestic production of salt was hopeless for a while, and outsourcing was repeatedly blocked. Salt for the whole people was at risk, and the emperor of Shatuo Kingdom, Pu Bayin, panicked.
It should be noted that salt was the most important commodity in circulation in various countries at that time, and its importance was far greater than that of rice, silk, porcelain, spices, etc. Rice can be produced by one's own, silk and satin can be worn, and porcelain and spices can be dispensed with. But no one can live without salt, and there is currently no substitute for table salt. Salt deficiency can cause illness, and long-term salt deficiency can lead to death.
At this time, envoys from the three kingdoms of Jue, Xue and Xian came to lobby. As long as the Shatuo Kingdom sends troops to capture Anxian County, the Jue Kingdom will send troops to Binan County to contain the southern army of Great China; the Snow Kingdom will send troops to Baoguo County to contain the northern army of Great China, making it unable to take care of them. It was agreed that in the end, the Shatuo Kingdom would occupy Anxian County and Zhubei County, the Jue Kingdom would occupy Sheng County and Binan County, and the Snow Kingdom would occupy Binghu and Baoguo counties. There would be no conflict with each other. Once the Shatuo, Jue, and Xue Kingdoms are established, the Xianma Kingdom will also send troops from Chunan County to occupy Chunan and Qingxi counties. All the three countries knew that Shatuo was trapped in a salt shortage, which was the most pressing issue, so they instigated Pubayin to take the lead in sending troops. The reason why the Xian Ma Kingdom sent troops last was because the Xian Ma Kingdom was the weakest among the four countries and would not dare to take risks easily. It had to wait until all the Chinese armies were restrained and weakened before it dared to lead troops forward.
For more than three hundred years, Dahua has been the overlord here, and the power of the four countries is far beyond its reach. Over the past hundreds of years, Dahua has fought countless wars with its neighboring countries, and without exception, all wars have ended with Dahua winning. It can be said that the Four Kingdoms and Dahua all have an old feud and have never been able to retaliate.
In the past twenty years, Emperor Yonghua was too busy with political affairs, and the three princes fought openly and secretly to restrain each other, causing the country's power to decline rapidly. Neighboring countries took advantage of the situation to recuperate, their politics became clear, and their national strength increased. One thing fades and the other grows. For the four countries, this is an extremely rare opportunity, which is really rare in a hundred years. There was a country that was pulling strings and instigating it, and the three countries all had different interests, so the negotiations were really smooth. In order to finally encourage the Shatuo Kingdom to send troops, the Jue Kingdom even did not hesitate to send people to the capital to attack and kill the important ministers of Dahua; they sent people to dig up the Pingzhou Dam, artificially causing the unprecedented flood in Pingzhou City; they attacked and killed the food soldiers at the Pinan Post, The army was short of food and the generals mutinied. In addition, Jue Guo also sent large sums of money to secretly bribe the generals of the Great China Army.
Although Pubayin is unwilling to take the lead, the lack of salt in the country is difficult to solve and may cause disaster soon. It just so happens that Anxian County has two major salt mines that produce the most salt among the five countries today: Blind Mountain Salt Field and Fuzhou Salt Field. With one disadvantage and one temptation, coupled with the help from Jue State, Pu Bayin finally decided to take the risk and gathered half of the country's troops to attack Anxian County.
Chihedan, the right general of Shatuo Kingdom, was Pu Bayin's nephew. He had always had a high prestige in the army, so he accepted the post of general in this Eastern Expedition.
Chihedan's choice of the Xiaoxiankou in Kartatu to store military supplies was considered very conservative, and he thought it was a safe decision. Unexpectedly, the Shatuo Army's food convoy met the escort team of the Yufeng Escort Bureau on the way to deliver food, and the escort team secretly sent people to follow the grain convoy all the way and found this place. What was even more unexpected was that the escort team informed the Dahua government of this important information, and the government actually sent a team of people to rush thousands of miles to burn and loot the granary.
All this is really unexpected.
Chi Hedan didn't expect it, nor did the four thousand grain and baggage soldiers guarding the camp. Seeing the fire all over the sky and the raging flames swaying in the wind, all the guards panicked. At this time, there was a faint spicy smell in the air. The guards did not pay attention, and they all inhaled the poisonous gas released by Zhan Tong and the other three people. The poisonous gas entered the throat, and the trachea was as hot as burning for a moment, which was extremely painful. Some of the guards who were slightly poisoned finally reacted and hurried to the granary to put out the fire. He ran to the fire pool and picked up a bucket to carry water, but found that the buckets had been broken one by one and could not hold any water.
However, outside the camp, there was another ferocious cry of killing. The guards didn't know what was going on? He hurriedly ran to find horses and weapons. When he searched, he found that the manger had been emptied, the horses were nowhere to be found, and the armory was tightly locked. How could it be opened in a hurry?
A general can't find a thousand men, a thousand men can't find a hundred men, a hundred men can't find a leader, a leader can't find soldiers, but the enemy is getting closer and closer.
"Kill! Kill"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The cry of killing came from all directions, and Mei Yuanchen's thousand cavalrymen traveled more than two thousand miles just for this moment. Each of these one thousand people was like a world-destroying god of death, ferocious and fierce, holding long swords in their hands and slashing at the soldiers of the food guarding camp. And how can the hasty guards still have the slightest resistance? This was destined to be a night of one-sided slaughter.
The howl of a person before death pierced the void and spread for many miles.
