Chapter 2885 Sudden, wind and frost and military stronghold
Shi Bazhi exchanging bacon for lamb is actually not a big deal. As the leader of a military stronghold, he not only has to be the commander of the military stronghold militarily, he also has to plan the military stronghold on weekdays.
It is not easy to be a father and a mother at the same time, such as trivial matters such as food, clothing, housing and transportation for soldiers.
"You said those herdsmen were affected by the disaster?" Zhang He asked.
Shi Bazhi nodded and said: "Yes, I heard that the desert in the north was hit by another disaster, and then they started fighting over some mountain and some river... General, I can't remember the places they were chattering about...
…These guys, at first, they pretended to be descendants of princes and wanted to cheat people out of food and drinks…”
Shi Bazhi smiled and told Zhang He that in the beginning, these barbarians were all flattering themselves. I don’t know if it was from the ears of their older generation, or from that place where they heard that Han people were stupid and rich.
, are willing to believe that the barbarians who come here are some kind of princes, so even if they are a small and poor tribe, they all claim to be the bloodline of the Khan of such-and-such mountain, such-and-such cave, or such-and-such forest, and Chanyu
The descendants expressed that they were coming to establish diplomatic relations with the Han Dynasty and to deliver letters of credence to each other.
At the beginning, Shi Bazhi was doubtful, but later he saw through it after seeing more. After all, no matter how much he pretends, his daily words and deeds, as well as his daily habits of eating, washing, etc., can still show whether a person is moral or not.
cultivated...
So when Shi Bazhi encountered his first scam and found that these guys were like hungry ghosts eating almost everything they could eat, and then couldn't help having diarrhea in the middle of the night, he almost understood it.
For example, a guy who likes to rob sheep and steal things said that he was a prince of a certain kingdom. Can you believe it? So later on, Shi Bazhi basically didn't believe these barbarians who always said that he was a descendant of some kind.
Zhang He was not surprised by this situation. And to be honest, in the desert, various tribes are constantly conquering each other. If we talk about the tribes that have been in chaos in the desert for hundreds of years, the sons of wandering chiefs, etc.
, they are just like the stones in the grassland, there are too many to count.
"Those Hu herdsmen in the north of Junzhai," Zhang He asked, "are they also here during this time?"
Shi Bazhi nodded and said, "Yes, they all came one after another during this period. I have sent people to check out the bottom. These people are small tribes under Xianbei before. They can't offend the Xianbei people, and they can't offend us either."
, so when the Xianbei people fought with us before, these guys stayed far away... Now that the Xianbei people have fallen, they dare to come back... Speaking of which, they are closer to us than to the Xianbei people. After all, the Xianbei people
People will rob their cattle and sheep and capture their men and women, but we don't do such things... So if there is any trouble over there in the grassland and desert, they will rush over and send us a message. How much is the exchange rate?
Some salt tea or something..."
In fact, Shi Bazhi did not tell the whole story.
This piece of land originally belonged to Xianbei, but later became the tentacles of the Han people, and the Hu herdsmen in the distance may actually be the ones who have lived here for a long time.
But without strength, in any era and in any place, it is the original sin.
"What is most of the news they sent? Is it credible?" Zhang He asked.
Shi Bazhi shook his head and said: "Basically, they are just messy rumors in the desert... Sometimes they themselves know only a little bit about it and can't explain clearly. But I think they are more or less sources of information, and they are helping us shepherd sheep, so there is not much."
I’m thinking about it..."
Zhang He nodded, "Do these herders know the people in the military stronghold? Do they graze around the military stronghold all year round?"
Shi Bazhi replied: "The soldiers in the military camp were sent here after the training in the camp. They are not familiar with the herdsmen here... As for those herdsmen, they came last winter and never left...
...The pasture in the north is full of rocks, the grass is not fat, and it is not easy to raise livestock. Originally, these herdsmen only came here in winter, and they still go north in spring. There is a water meadow about thirty or forty miles away, and the grass is fatter.
But last year it was said to be a white disaster, and a lot of pastures were destroyed... But this one has more rocks and less water, so the disaster was not serious..."
Zhang He nodded, thoughtfully.
Shi Bazhi said: "The herdsmen also sent some bird feathers, cattle, sheep and women..."
Zhang He stopped and looked back at Shi Bazhi, "So...you accept it?"
"How dare you?" Shi Bazhi laughed loudly, "General, I am not a new recruit. The military discipline is here... I sent people to send bird feathers and other things to the back to give them peace of mind...
…all the cattle, sheep, women, etc. were confiscated and returned…”
The bird feathers mentioned by Shi Bazhi are actually some eagle feathers shot by nomads in the desert, or the long feathers of swan feathers. These feathers not only have military purposes, but also represent submission. The Xiongnu also
Xianbei people like to use this bird feather as a large banner, which represents authority.
Cattle and sheep represent wealth, and women are generally regarded as items for family reproduction in the desert. Offering cattle, sheep and women is also a custom that represents the surrender of tribes in the desert.
Zhang He nodded and did not sit on the tattered mat at the head of the table, because he could tell that it had been specially cleaned up, and there were even some wet marks on it that had just been wiped off. As a desert place with wind and frost, it was actually ordinary.
I don't sit on the mat all the time. For no other reason than sitting on the mat makes my buttocks feel cold.
Zhang He casually pulled up a bench and wanted to sit on the edge of the fire pit. Unexpectedly, as soon as he pulled it over and put it down, he saw that the stool got stuck, one leg fell off, and it lay crookedly on the ground.
Shi Bazhi suddenly felt a toothache.
The legs of this bar stool became loose some time ago and I forgot to nail them.
Shi Bazhi hurriedly stepped forward, only to see Zhang He turn over the bench by himself, put the loose leg back on, then lay it flat, stretched out his hand and pressed it twice, and then sat down as he thought there was no problem.
Come down, then look up at Shi Bazhi.
"Sit down," Zhang He called Shi Bazhi, "What are you doing standing there? Isn't there a stool over there?"
Shi Bazhi grimaced, "General, why don't you... change your stool?"
Zhang He waved his hand and changed the topic, "No, it's not that you can't sit. When we are marching and we can't find a suitable place, what's the point of sitting on rocks and lying on the grass? By the way, I see that there are less than half of them in your village.
It's the Hu soldiers... When I came here last time, there didn't seem to be so many Hu soldiers. Why are there so many now?"
Although in this vast desert, the Hu people also have black hair and eyes, and their skin is as tanned as the Han people, but their face shape and hair texture are somewhat different, and there are still some obvious differences.
Following Zhang He's instructions, Shi Bazhi also picked up a barbarian stool and sat on the side. Then he said, "The main soldiers couldn't be replaced, so we recruited some servant soldiers first... These barbarian soldiers are actually not bad, they are just for stuttering."
, but they are obedient... Alas, they are all barbarians who are fleeing to avoid disaster... It is indeed bitterly cold here... These Han soldiers from the mainland can't stand it sometimes..."
Shi Bazhi told Zhang He something that happened not long ago.
It is not a good job to guard a military stronghold in a place like the desert. Many soldiers are not used to it. At the beginning, they were somewhat unable to bear it. After passing the initial stage, some soldiers were able to
After getting used to it, some soldiers reacted more...
After all, apart from facing these brothers and comrades of my own, I rarely see outsiders all year round. In addition, there are some differences in personality. It is inevitable that some soldiers will suffer from hysteria. No, in the military camp
Among the recruits who came last year, one of them went crazy not long ago. He screamed in the middle of the night and was hung up and whipped ten times. As a result, the madness was not cured and the whiplash was not healed. He sneaked out again in the middle of the night and waited until dawn.
When they searched again, they only found half a corpse, and Shi Bazhi was fined for it...
Zhang He nodded silently. He seemed to remember this incident and saw it in the military newspaper, but he couldn't connect it with the military camp in front of him for a while.
Because it was a dead person, someone was sent to verify it later. After all, in the military, there are many cases where superiors suppress and bully subordinate soldiers. If a colleague is killed by mutilation and the corpse is destroyed, it is not a trivial matter, but it is being verified.
During the process, there was no difference between the situation reported by Shi Bazhi. The only thing that can be criticized is that Shi Bazhi did not send anyone to watch the soldier when he fell ill...
However, who would have known that this guy would dare to run away? This can be considered a crime of desertion. You must know that even if he is not eaten by a wolf, his head will be lost if he is caught alive!
Furthermore, anyone who disturbs the military camp in the middle of the night should be killed according to the law.
Shi Bazhi only whipped him according to the noise, which was considered a lenient treatment.
It's hard for people, and it's hard for beasts too. There might have been a pack of wolves staring at the pile of stones in Junzhai, wondering where to start, but in the middle of the night a piece of meat was delivered from the pile of stones...
Under such circumstances, these relatively remote military camps and those Hu soldiers who are more accustomed to desert life have become better choices, and not all Hu people can accept them.
Shi Bazhi said, "There were a few remnants of Xianbei before, and later there were some in the Northern Desert, but...it seems that more Hu people have fled to us during this period...some of them are still lustful people, and it makes me sick to look at them."
Yes, so I didn’t even stay..."
Zhang He nodded.
Different from the Xiongnu and Xiqiang, these barbarians in the desert have now clearly become two different types. One is similar to Wuhuan or Jiankun, and they still maintain a certain organizational structure.
There are nomadic tribes, while others are very sparse small tribes, like the Junzhai tribe not far from the Junzhai.
Zhang He has been thinking about one thing, which is what kind of responsibility the Northern Territory Protectorate has.
If it is to defend against the invasion of nomads from the north, the Xiongnu has collapsed, Xianbei has been torn apart, and Wuhuan is half-dead. In addition, these desert herdsmen, large and small, are gradually surrendering. It can be said that the threat to the north has gradually decreased.
Heavy defense is needed. If it is to check and balance Cao's army in Youbei, the Northern Territory Protectorate already has enough strength to resist or even destroy Cao's army in Youbei. At least Zhang He thinks so, so why not send troops?
But one good thing about Zhang He is that he can think, rather than wantonly venting his unformed complaints. After all, he has been with Cao Cao and understands the consequences of speaking casually.
Very early on, the Northern Territory Protectorate began to use salt, tea, and some iron tools to win over and alienate the tribes in the grassland and desert, and recruited the barbarians from these tribes to become servants. Therefore, Zhang He had great influence on the military camp.
Shi Bazhi admitted a small number of herdsmen to graze sheep in the northern pastures without much objection.
As Shi Bazhi said, these scattered herdsmen could serve as spies to inquire about some sporadic information, but their role in promoting the progress of the war was very limited.
The grassland and desert are really too big. Those nomadic tribes scattered everywhere are like water drops on a lotus leaf. If they don't gather together, nothing will happen. But once they gather in one place, sooner or later the lotus leaf will become wet.
lost balance.
As he was talking, soldiers suddenly came to report that some herdsmen had come to the military camp and wanted to see the Han general!
Shi Bazhi thought that the herdsmen wanted to see him for something, so he called him a general, just like how everyone in later generations would call him a leader or boss when meeting him. He glanced at Zhang He embarrassedly and said quickly:
"Who are you going to see? These guys who spend all day in the lake!"
The soldiers confirmed again, saying that it was Zhang He who the herdsmen wanted to see.
Zhang He was stunned and immediately frowned, "How dare you peek into the military camp?!"
When Zhang He and others came, of course they did not hide any traces, but they did not publicize it so loudly that the whole world knew about it. Therefore, these herdsmen arrived here not long after Zhang He arrived, which means that these shepherds may have been watching.
Military stronghold!
Shi Bazhi suddenly trembled, and then blood came to his head. There was faint blood rolling behind the scar on his face, as if blood would spurt out in the next moment, "The thief is so brave! General, please give the order, I will go and kill him"
Cut off that thief’s head!」
Zhang He pondered for a while, waved his hand and said, "No need, let him come and see what he has to say..."
Zhang He's guard soon brought a grassland herdsman wrapped in a black leather jacket.
As soon as he entered the command post, this man immediately crouched down on the ground, curled up and kept kowtowing. Even after being scolded several times by Shi Ba, this guy still did not dare to raise his head and speak.
Zhang He looked at the man carefully, looking at the man's leather robe and his tattered linen clothes, and then listened to him talking intermittently, even some incomprehensible nonsense, "Huh? What? He said he was the commander-in-chief? What?"
Commander-in-Chief?
Zhang He had no idea that the guy in front of him, who was wearing rags and had sunburn marks on his dark face, was actually the commander-in-chief of more than a dozen tribes! And what Zhang He couldn't figure out was that...
How could such a dull guy who could even speak gibberish be able to integrate herders from more than a dozen tribes into one place to form a new large tribe...
Could it be that these nomadic herdsmen in the desert, who were used to being unruly and unruly, suddenly changed their temper and turned into obedient little lambs?
The translator asked, while the old herdsman, the commander-in-chief, stumbled as he spoke.
Then Zhang He finally understood in general, in fact, this is actually somewhat related to the Northern Territory Protectorate...
In the past, the Northern Territory Protectorate and Xianbei and Wuhuan fought several battles, defeating, defeating, and defeating the structure of these alliances. This reduced the threat to the Han Dynasty, but it also
These tribes, which were originally gathered in the south of the desert, fled to the northern end of the desert.
Some of these fleeing tribes were really frightened and fled all the way without returning. Of course, some gritted their teeth and remembered this hatred and vowed to fight back again.
Since we want to fight back, we can't do it without men and horses. So just like the Huns finally whipped Rome, these fleeing nomads, whether they are the remnants of Xianbei or the Wuhuan tribe, have at least practiced with the big Han, more or less.
Of course, there is no problem for the practical faction to bully the small grassland tribes in the north. These small grassland tribes who originally did not want to participate in the war and stayed away from each other have now suffered disasters. Almost all the men have been killed, and the women have also been killed.
Not many survived, and an unknown number of cattle, sheep, and livestock were robbed...
These small tribes that were maimed and disrupted fled again. In order to survive, they reintegrated into the so-called "grand alliance" of tribal groups, which is the group of old herdsmen in front of Zhang He.
"So, these so-called dozen tribes are actually all old, weak, sick and disabled, and there are not many people left?" Zhang He raised his eyebrows and said. No wonder this so-called commander-in-chief can't even speak well, and only met with
Know how to kowtow.
Zhang He said to the translator: "You ask him to stand up."
The translator spoke several times in succession, but the old herdsman seemed not to hear, curling up on the floor and kowtowing.
The translator had no choice but to call two soldiers over and pull him up, but the old herdsman still didn't dare to raise his head. He seemed to have no muscles and bones, hanging loosely on the arms of the two soldiers, and his legs were limp.
He didn't use any strength. As soon as the two soldiers let go, the guy immediately collapsed again.
Zhang He looked at it and was slightly sure that this guy was no longer pretending.
If you can pretend to be so natural and realistic, that's a skill.
Zhang He waved to someone to bring some wine and drank some for the old herdsman.
The alcohol carried by the army is distilled high-strength alcohol. On the one hand, it can keep out the cold when necessary, and on the other hand, it can also be used to clean wounds.
After drinking a few sips of strong liquor, the old herdsman's fragile nerves finally recovered a little. He ignored the residual liquor still flowing at the corners of his mouth and neck, and put his hands above his head, chanting like a song.
The old herdsman's speech was unclear, and the translator on the side was struggling to translate, "...the condor flying high in the sky, I hope to accept...accept allegiance, become a slave, and graze life and death...Pray to the condor, that is, we
Can help him get revenge..."
Although the translation is not very clear, the general meaning can still be understood.
"What he means is..." Zhang He pondered, "Some people from his alliance were attacked?"
The translator asked again, and the old herdsman nodded repeatedly.
"Please ask clearly, who was attacked? Was it the Hu people or Cao Jun!"
Zhang He suddenly felt that he seemed to vaguely hear the sound of a battle horn...
