Chapter 401: Changes in Chang'an, sudden vigilance
Author: Soy Sauce Mixed History
Chapter 401: Changes in Chang'an, sudden vigilance
Because of the urgency in his heart, it didn't take long for Cao Zhen to return to Guanzhong.
However, after returning to Guanzhong, he did not rush to Liangzhou immediately. He directly entered Chang'an City.
Chang'an was one of the two ancient capitals as famous as Luoyang.
It has an indelible place in the hearts of contemporary people.
If owning the imperial seal can symbolize that a person is the true Dragon Emperor, then owning both Chang'an and Luoyang is the best symbol of a dynasty and the Zhengshuo of China.
This concept has already penetrated into the hearts of everyone alive.
Precisely because Chang'an had such important political significance in the world, after Cao Pi proclaimed himself emperor and established the Guanzhong Dudu District, Chang'an naturally became the seat of Cao Wei's Guanzhong Dudu District.
However, Cao Zhen was not a man who could live idle. Although he was the governor of Guanzhong, he rarely lived in Chang'an City in the past.
Therefore, the current commander in chief of Chang'an City is General Xiahou Mao of Anxi.
This time Cao Zhen returned to Guanzhong and entered Chang'an first in order to find Xiahou Mao.
Xiahou Mao, named Zilin, was the son of Xiahou Dun, the founder of Cao Wei.
Because his father was Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Mao had an unusual position in Cao Wei since he was a child.
When Xia Houmao just came of age, Cao Cao married his most beloved daughter, Princess Qinghe, to him.
After Cao Pi became emperor, Xia Houmao ushered in a period of rapid development in his life because he had a very close relationship with him since childhood.
He first worshiped Shizhong and Shangshu, and was soon promoted to General of Anxi. Finally, Cao Pi granted him the power of holiday and was granted the title of Marquis.
This series of promotions were completed within half a year after Cao Pi became emperor.
This kind of promotion speed cannot be matched even by Cao Zhen.
At the beginning, the governor of Guanzhong was originally Xiahou Mao, and Cao Zhen was just the governor of Liangzhou.
Later, as the Han army gradually grew stronger, in order to strengthen Guanzhong's war readiness, Cao Pi merged the Liangzhou Dudu District into the Guanzhong Dudu District and made Cao Zhen the Guanzhong Dudu District.
It can be seen from this that Cao Pi did not know that his brother-in-law had no military talent.
Of course, Xia Houzhen no longer had any military talent. Based on his background, his status and power in the Guanzhong Governorate were only lower than Cao Zhen.
The reason why Cao Zhen wanted to look for Xia Houmao non-stop was not because of his good personal relationship with Xia Houmao. On the contrary, Cao Zhen looked down on Xia Houmao.
Cao Zhen was a famous general in the world, and a person like Xia Houmao, who had no military talent, could not get into his eyes even if he was related.
But after all, they were related, so Cao Zhen couldn't really say he disliked Xia Houmao.
Especially now that Cao Zhen still needs help from Xiahou Zhuxiang.
Although Xia Houmao had no military talent, he had the ability to manage and raise funds.
Cao Zhen came specially to look for Xia Houmao this time, because he valued Xia Houmao's talent.
But when Cao Zhen saw Xia Houmao, the scene in front of him made his eyebrows frown deeply.
In an attic, Xia Houmao was seen lying on his back on the legs of several concubines with a contented look on his face.
Perhaps due to the influence of the wine, Xia Houmao was already a little confused and infatuated at this time.
His hands were restlessly moving around the bodies of the concubines, causing them to let out bursts of shy and teasing laughter.
Xia Houmao's identity is not ordinary.
Not only was he the guard of Chang'an in public, but he was also the husband of Princess Qinghe in private. Regardless of whether it was public or private, Xia Houmao's current behavior made Cao Zhen unhappy.
However, Xia Houmao's status was very different from his, so even though he was unhappy in his heart, Cao Zhen suppressed his anger and coughed several times to remind Xia Houmao of his arrival.
After Cao Zhen deliberately reminded him, Xia Houmao woke up slightly from his confused state.
After seeing Cao Zhen suddenly appear in front of him, Xia Houmao guessed some clues no matter how much he enjoyed himself.
So Xiahou Mao reluctantly asked his concubines to leave first.
After the concubines left, the disheveled Xia Houmao did not pack his clothes first. He stood up from the bed and came to Cao Zhen to help him sit down.
But Xia Houmao's kindness was rejected by Cao Zhen stiffly.
Seeing Cao Zhen acting like this, Xiahou Mao was not angry at all.
He was not too surprised that Cao Zhenhui suddenly appeared in the attic.
Cao Zhen's character has always been resolute, and coupled with his status, if he wanted to come directly to see him, no one in Chang'an City could stop him.
However, Cao Zhen is not a person who lacks courtesy, so Xia Houmao knew that Cao Zhen came to see him in such a hurry, and there must be something important.
With the inference in mind, Xiahou Mao sat back on the couch and asked Cao Zhen:
"Zi Dan, if you have anything you want me to do, just say so."
Because they are both descendants of Cao Wei, their identities are similar, so when no one is around in private, Xia Houmao and Cao Zhen always address each other by name.
After hearing Xia Houmao's inquiry, the unhappy look on Cao Zhen's face dissipated a little.
Although Xia Houmao was not well versed in military strategy, his own wisdom was not low, otherwise he would not have been able to manage the government affairs in Guanzhong in an orderly manner.
Under Xia Houmao's questioning, Cao Zhen told him what he wanted him to do.
But as soon as Cao Zhen finished speaking, Xia Houmao immediately showed a confused look on his face.
Do you need to prepare the weapons and supplies for a hundred thousand troops within three months?
This Cao Zidan really doesn't care about logistics and doesn't know how difficult it is.
"Absolutely impossible."
Xia Houmao's faint reply instantly made Cao Zhen's face look even uglier.
"Does Zilin know the importance of the Southern Expedition?"
Cao Zhen thought that Xia Houmao didn't understand this, so he was evasive in his words, but he misunderstood Xia Houmao.
Xiahou Mao looked at Cao Zhen and replied: "Because I know the importance of the Southern Expedition to our army, I don't want to deceive you with lies.
Once the 100,000-strong army sets out, it will require a huge amount of supplies.
Now Guanzhong is planting winter wheat again, and no matter how good I am at coordinating, I still can't do it within three months."
There is one more thing that Xia Houmao did not say, that is, the southern expedition to Hanzhong was not fought in the Central Plains. The transportation in the Central Plains is convenient and the transportation of materials is also very convenient.
But Hanzhong is full of steep mountain roads. With such geographical conditions, the materials consumed are often much higher than those in the Central Plains.
Xia Houzhen's answer made Cao Zhen fall into silence for a moment.
Cao Zhen was a well-known general in the world, but Cao Zhen, who relied on the entire Wei Dynasty, was mainly responsible for marching and fighting in the past, and he did not know much about logistics.
There is no way, Cao Wei has too many talents.
In this case, in the past, there were naturally many talented people taking care of logistics matters for him, and Cao Zhen often only needed to know a rough idea.
However, even though he didn't know much about logistics, Cao Zhen believed in Xia Houmao's judgment.
Because in this aspect, Xia Houmao is the professional.
During the Battle of Hexi, it was Xia Houmao who continuously supplied him with weapons, food and grass, which enabled him to quell the chaos without any worries.
If he didn't know Xia Houmao's talent, Cao Zhen wouldn't go out of his way to look for Xia Houmao today.
After Cao Zhen was silent for a while, he asked Xia Houmao:
"How long will it take Zi Lin?"
Faced with Cao Zhen's inquiry, Xia Houmao gave the answer he had in mind.
"At least five months.
Give me five months, and I will be able to prepare part of the supplies for a hundred thousand troops to fight.
This part of the supplies is enough for you, Zidan, for your early campaign.
And five months is enough time for the supplies His Majesty transferred from Kanto to reach Guanzhong."
After hearing the time given by Xia Houmao, Cao Zhen thought about it carefully and then agreed.
"Okay, then I'll give you five months.
I will wait for your good news in Chencang."
After saying these words, Cao Zhen was about to leave.
But before leaving, Cao Zhen looked at Xia Houmao, who had cooperated with him very well in the past, and he couldn't help but remind him:
"It is normal to keep concubines, but Zilin needs to be careful not to spread the news to Princess Qinghe."
After making this reminder, Cao Zhen left the attic.
The reason why Cao Zhen reminded Xia Houmao of this was entirely because of his relationship with Xia Houmao.
After all, even if he looked down on Xia Houmao in his heart, relatives were still relatives, and he did not want Xia Houmao to be reprimanded by Cao Pi because of personal matters in his life.
But after hearing Cao Zhen's reminder, Xia Houzhen showed a look of disdain on his face.
How could he give up this hobby in his life in vain just because his wife was jealous?
Instead of worrying about Princess Qinghe's jealousy, Xiahou Mao was now more concerned about how he could prepare supplies for a hundred thousand troops to go on an expedition within five months.
Thinking of this, he quickly summoned his officials.
Before the official arrived, Xia Houmao was thinking about a series of things he would do next.
Just when he was thinking about those things, a name always appeared in his mind from time to time.
Zhuge Liang.
Everyone is good at different things, so based on what they are good at, they will have different objects of admiration.
For Xia Houmao, the person he admired most in the world was Zhuge Liang.
In the decisive battle of Hanzhong that year, Zhuge Liang supported Liu Bei with the national power of one state, and defeated Cao Cao, who had the support of the national power of nine states. This feat can be said to have opened the eyes of everyone in the world.
I knew Zhuge Liang could breastfeed, but I didn't expect him to breastfeed like this.
At that time, Cao Cao was not essentially defeated by Liu Bei, but was actually defeated by the golden combination of Zhuge Liang and Fazheng.
And how could Zhuge Liang, who had such a heroic feat, not be admired by Xia Houmao?
With Guanzhong's national strength, it was possible to raise the advance supplies for a hundred thousand troops within three months. Only Zhuge Liang could have accomplished this in the world.
Thinking of this, Xia Houmao suddenly looked forward to the southern expedition in the coming days.
If Zi Dan can win a big victory in the future and capture Zhuge Liang, he will definitely write to His Majesty to let him use Zhuge Liang again.
With Cao Wei's national power and Zhuge Liang's talent for managing the world, how difficult is it for Cao Wei to restore the glory of the great Han Dynasty in the past?
As the most important city in Guanzhong, Chang'an is bound to have spies from all over the place.
And among the spies from all sides, of course there were those from Liangzhou.
Under Mi Yang's reform measures, Liangzhou's spies gradually became regularized.
They have a famous name in Liangzhou - Siwen Engagement.
When Mi Yang established Si Wen Cao, considering the needs of the war, he divided Si Wen Cao's organization into two parts.
One part is the Jing'an Department, which is in charge of domestic intelligence work, and the other part is the Military Consulting Department, which is in charge of overseas intelligence.
The office of Secretary Wen in Chang'an City is subordinate to the Military Planning Department.
Because compared to the Jing'an Department, the work the Military Planning Department is responsible for requires higher professionalism and loyalty.
Therefore, after the Mi clan came to Liangzhou, many Mi clan members were arranged by Mi Yang to join the army.
Later, naturally, many members of the Mi clan took on the important task of lurking in Chang'an to spy on the military situation.
Mi An is one of those members of the Mi clan.
Mi An is an old man in his fifties, but according to seniority, he is Mi Yang's clan brother.
A large part of the reason why Mi An was valued by Mi Yang and sent to Chang'an was because Mi An was old enough.
The age of about fifty means that when Mi An was young, he followed the ancestors of the Mi family to travel around and do business.
This is a necessary condition for becoming an excellent spy in this world.
Spies without rich experience and knowledge cannot guarantee their own safety, nor can they detect any useful military information.
Mi An has not been in Chang'an for a long time, but it is long enough for him to settle down in Chang'an.
Before coming to Chang'an, Mi Yang gave a large amount of money to his Mi clan members in order to ensure the smooth progress of intelligence work.
No matter in any era, money is a good thing that can help people settle down quickly.
It's just that compared to other tribesmen, Mi An's way of using money is more special.
He did not spread all his money around to expand his connections.
On the contrary, he used the money Mi Yang gave him to open a medicine shop in Chang'an City.
And he changed his name to Hua An.
The official pharmaceutical industry in the Han Dynasty was not developed, but this underdevelopment created an excellent business opportunity for private traders.
After all, in ancient times, medicinal herbs were not valuable in terms of cost, as long as they could hire manpower to go into dangerous mountains and forests to pick them.
However, the reason why Mi An chose to open a medicine shop was not to make a profit.
The traveling business life in his early years greatly enriched Mi An's experience and knowledge.
Mi An knew that Mi Yang sent him to Chang'an to spy on military intelligence.
Since Mi Yang sent him for this purpose, then all activities he carried out in Chang'an must be carried out based on this basis.
And Mi An knew that if the Wei army was about to have large-scale military activities, there would be one necessity that they would definitely need to collect in large quantities, and that was medicinal materials.
Ordinary people would think that if they want to detect the enemy's military intelligence, the most important thing is to pay attention to local grain, grass and ordnance. This is actually wrong.
Because food and ordnance are the most important strategic materials, any government will hoard large quantities of them in granaries and arsenals in peacetime.
Unless necessary, the government will generally not collect these two strategic materials from the private sector.
In addition, granaries and arsenals are often heavily guarded, so it is not easy to detect military conditions from both food and ordnance aspects.
With the current medical conditions, it is impossible for doctors in the army to take care of every soldier.
It's just that once the war begins, there will definitely be a lot of wounded soldiers, and it's impossible to completely ignore those wounded soldiers.
Therefore, when there are wounded soldiers in the army, the general practice of the army is to distribute primitive medicinal materials for treating trauma to the wounded soldiers.
Under this situation, compared with food and ordnance, during the preparations for the war, the medicine shop was the only place where civilians could detect major military information.
Mi An's judgment was not wrong. With the help of his medicine shop, he quickly noticed the recent anomalies in Chang'an City.
This abnormality instantly made him alert.
(End of chapter)
This chapter has been completed!