Wang Ju, Shi Hu and others led their troops to travel thousands of miles to the banks of the Lushui River to support the remnants of the Khitan troops heading south. The arrangements at that time were relatively hasty, but in the past two years, the system (Chushan) seemed to be much stronger, but the situation it faced became more complicated.
, sinister, there are too many things to do, it is inevitable that everything will be missed, and it is difficult to be thorough.
However, after the armed merchant group set off, the production department also wanted to study the problems of the barbarians in the northwest and southwest in a more systematic way.
The preliminary work was mainly focused on collecting historical materials, which did not occupy the limited manpower of the Military Intelligence Department, but was mainly focused on the main office.
Of course, Han Gui and Shi Zhen usually have heavy affairs and cannot take care of too many things at the same time. At this time, they heard Xu Huai mention that the Qingqiang people in Shijuli, Ya and other prefectures had long had relations with Dongnu Kingdom, Bailang Kingdom, etc.
In order to find out the records of Fan Bang’s contact, Han Gui called the two clerks accompanying Zhu Boyuan to the camp and asked them if they had come into contact with relevant historical materials.
Regarding this question, someone has actually seen it mentioned in the Shu Gazetteer recently that Lizhou, located in the upper reaches of the Ruoshui River, is the place where the Qingqiang tribe has lived for generations. There is a Dazhai named Jiuxiang City, and there is another mountain crossing the Yak Ridge to the north.
The place is called Dajian Furnace, and it is said that it was the place where Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu in the late Han Dynasty, cast armor and arrows.
It is a pity that since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, the Qiang and Tibetan tribes in the neighboring areas have mainly recruited people, and actual exchanges have been extremely limited, let alone appointing officials to the vassal Tibetan areas.
Therefore, Jiuxiang City, Dajianlu and other places were not officially included in the territory of Dai Viet.
However, the White Wolf Kingdom during the Qin and Han Dynasties and the Dongnu Kingdom, which was destroyed by Tubo in the early years of the previous dynasty, are both good at smelting and forging, and their smelting places are consistent with the rumored arrow-making furnace.
At present, the Chief Registrar has collected some trivial historical materials. Not only can it be roughly inferred that the Jiaqu River in the east of Duogansi and Ruoshui that crosses the Qionglai Mountains and enters the Shu area are probably the same river, but also found that the Qingqiang people in Lizhou are used to
The shape of the envoy's long sword is similar to the Fan sword passed down from the previous dynasty, but it is very different from the swords produced in Shu at that time.
In addition, the Qingqiang people of Lizhou are not good at forging, and their tribe also claims that these knives were purchased from the Tibetan people with good blades.
"Qiucheng also wants to collect more local chronicles for verification, but he doesn't want you to know about it..." This clerk named Su Qiucheng had only been selected as an official for the recording department for three or four months, and he had already heard about Xu Huaibo.
This is the first time I have witnessed the ability of hearing and knowing everything with my own eyes. I bowed and praised him.
Xu Huai's memory, judgment of the situation, and analysis of various strategic possibilities are certainly beyond the reach of others.
Facing Su Qiucheng's compliment, he just smiled and asked:
"Are you willing to lead a group of people to Lizhou and Yazhou in the name of the Zhufengtang caravan to explore the passage through Qionglai Mountain and into the Tubo Highlands?"
In addition to sending messengers to the foothills of Shenyu Mountain, Xiao Linshi and Xiao Yanhan sent people to the western foothills of Qionglai Mountain to explore the passage. Shi Zhen and Han Gui also suggested that the production department send people to Lizhou and at the same time search for a road from the southeastern foothills of Qionglai Mountain, a two-pronged approach.
, find a new path as quickly as possible.
In this way, the subsequent whereabouts of the remaining Khitan troops can be clarified as soon as possible.
The Chief Registrar is headed by Han Gyu, who specializes in handling various confidential letters, orders, and other matters. The clerk's office, manager, and other official positions have been strictly selected and reviewed, and their abilities are not weak.
However, going deep into the Qionglai Mountains, where the roads are dangerous, the mountains are dangerous, the miasma is deep, and the people are fierce, is definitely a hard job.
Otherwise, being exiled in this world would not be a severe punishment.
Xu Huai had to ask Su Qiucheng for his own opinion on whether he was willing to go on this trip.
"Although Qiucheng has no power to restrain a chicken, and he has little talent and little virtue, he can only do his best to live up to his expectations." Su Qiucheng agreed to take up this position without any hesitation.
Xu Huai asked Han Gui to make detailed arrangements for this matter.
When Wang Ju comes back this time, he will naturally continue to assume the important task of commanding the vanguard army; Xiao Chunyu, as well as generals such as Xiao Xuun and Wu Sanrong who are leading their troops on the way to Jingxiang, will also officially join Jingxiang as generals. Xiao Chunyu arrived in Jingxiang first.
Xu Huai arranged for him to serve under Wang Ju and first familiarize himself with various situations in Beijing and Xiangzhou.
As for the more than 200 military guards who escorted Wang Ju back to Biyang this time, in addition to a small number of Khitan warriors, most of them were trainee military officials from warrior houses.
This group of trainee military officials, headed by Sun Yanguan, were mainly selected from the Dongjing Allied Forces that surrendered. In the autumn of the previous year, they followed the caravan westward to Qinshui in the name of trainee, and then accompanied the Khitan advance troops and horses from Taoyuan southward. There were a total of
More than forty people fell on the wasteland forever.
Including Xu Guanshan, this time it can be said that the losses suffered by the generals in Beijing and Xiangyang were extremely heavy.
Regardless of whether they died of illness or in battle, all military officials who fell on the westward journey were promoted to two levels and provided with pensions, and other military officials who returned to Biyang were selected for meritorious service.
Front Army.
Sun Yanguan also became the second rebel general to serve as the senior general of Du Yuhou after Jiang Ang.
As the most elite cavalry unit in Beijing and Xiangzhou, the Xianfeng Army not only has to bear the most arduous task of charging and fighting on the battlefield, but also undertakes various special operations tasks such as security, reconnaissance, and raids in peacetime. In addition to the need to supplement a large number of elite military officers,
In addition to strengthening the warriors, they also bear the responsibility of transporting military officials to the combat troops, garrison troops and even the garrison troops.
Like this time, a total of nearly 200,000 troops were mobilized to garrison troops to participate in the defense of Rucai and other places. Basically, they were assembled by the inspection departments and inspection departments of each capital. The inspection departments and inspection departments were also responsible for the usual duties.
Military officers in training directly serve as commanders, and they all hold equal positions to ensure the orderliness and integrity of the command structure.
Of course, the production department also focused on selecting the vanguard army, and deployed nearly two thousand additional elites to strengthen the leadership and command of this part of the army.
Otherwise, the combat effectiveness of this part of the army is not worth looking forward to, and may instead become a weak point that the enemy can exploit.
This was also the key to Wang Ju's eagerness to lead his troops back to Beijing and Xiangzhou.
Beijing and Xiangzhou had only 50,000 to 60,000 elite troops before, so they expanded their army on a large scale. They also wanted to ensure that the battles of the battalions and capital troops were above a certain level. The demand for grassroots military officials was too great.
After deploying a large number of elites from the selected vanguard army to make up for the shortcomings of the new troops and horses, the focus of the next phase of the production department is also to do everything possible to make up for the gap in the selected vanguard army - the three thousand elites led by Shi Hu, Xiao Xun, and Wu Sanrong
The impact of being unable to return to Beijing and Xiangzhou in time on the subsequent war cannot be underestimated.
Sun Yanguan and other generals were only known for their bravery when they were in the Dongjing Allied Forces. Even after a short period of training as a samurai warrior, by the standards of Beijing and Xiangzhou, he was far from being a qualified military commander.
However, this long journey, which lasted nearly two years and totaled more than 10,000 miles, not only truly opened their horizons, but also completely tempered their will.
At this time, if there is still some distance between them and qualified military commanders, it is purely due to flaws and shortcomings in some technical details.
After the places of Sun Yanguan, Xiao Chunyu and others were arranged, Xu Huai looked at Xu Zang again and asked:
"Where do you want to go when you come back this time?"
"Let him stay in Guangcheng and be controlled by Wang Xian," Xu Wuqi did not let Xu Xian pick and choose, and directly decided for him, "Starting from being a commander, he should also be able to calm down and lead a group of people.
The troops are in camp!"
In the later stages of recruiting the Dongjing coalition, Xu Huai sent Xu Pang and Su Micong to join the rebel army, each picking two thousand Jianrui who were skilled in riding and archery for training.
An armed merchant group was formed and went to Lushui to support the remnants of the Khitan troops going south. At that time, in addition to some military guards from Zhufengtang and a thousand elite soldiers selected from the front army, some generals from Su Miqi's tribe were also eliminated and 1,500 were selected.
Famous horse infantry were organized into armed merchant corps.
There was nothing wrong with Xu Zang at first.
Xu Teng expected that there would be no battles when he stayed in Beijing and Xiangxiang, so he volunteered and stalked him. Finally, Xu Huai agreed that he would take dozens of elites to join the armed merchant group - Xu Teng had led the team to train for nearly a year, so naturally he
Transferred to another general.
Xu Wuqi was annoyed that he could not concentrate on leading the army, so he wanted to keep him in Guangcheng this time and obey Wang Xian's control.
"Then you stay in Guangcheng!" Xu Huai laughed, and without giving Xu Tan a chance to argue, he kicked him to Wang Xian's control.
"You're not going to ask me to lead the new guards again, are you?" Xu Tan cried bitterly.
In the Ru, Cai, Shen, and Xichuan theaters, in addition to a small number of elite vanguard troops, the main force is divided into two levels: combat troops and garrison troops. When necessary, in addition to dispatching state troops from the hinterland to the battlefield, the nearby troops can also be further mobilized.
Troops are stationed and transport troops are organized into camps, but these are all included in the garrison (preparation) sequence.
Compared with the sequence of combat soldiers, the combat effectiveness of defensive (preparation) soldiers is naturally much lower.
The production department has already formulated a defense-focused strategy. Although this does not mean that they will purely stay in the fortress and not launch counterattacks against the enemy, but generally speaking, even if the garrison sequence has the opportunity to leave the fortress, it will basically be the main force.
The side and rear wings of the soldiers are responsible for secondary combat tasks such as protection and cover.
Xu Tan had been leading new recruits for a year, and now he was afraid that he would be forced to start over again. Especially since there were many new military camps in Rucai and they were not even equipped with soldiers and armor. He might not get the chance to charge into battle and kill the enemy within a year or two.
"Yuan Lei has a battalion under his command. During the previous battle across the river, the commander and the first general were severely injured. Even if they recover from their injuries, they may have to withdraw from the battalion and go to serve in the township. Is this battalion still alive?
Why don't you rest?" Xu Wuqi asked Wang Xian.
"The commander originally had a candidate, but Xu Fang wants to command this battalion. The originally selected commander can be arranged separately." Wang Xian said.
"Okay, I want this battalion," Xu Zan was afraid that the cooked duck would fly away in a blink of an eye, so he hurriedly finalized the matter, "I also have to bring Wei Tong and the others into the new camp..."
"Wei Tong was a general before. He has made great achievements and returned. This time he is qualified to lead a battalion on his own. How can I help you lead the troops?" Xu Wuqi glared at Xu Tan and said, "Don't think about everything.
A trick!"
"You can't be too harsh on Xu Zang," Xu Huai smiled and asked Xu Wuqi not to be too harsh, and then said to Xu Zang, "Wei Tong, Zhou Yiang and other generals will be given to you. Except that there are not enough war horses, armor
All weapons and equipment will be provided to you according to the standards of the vanguard army!"
Xu Tan was warlike, so just asking him to lead a battalion of ordinary soldiers into battle would not only fail to bring into play his characteristics of bravery, but would even bring unnecessary danger.
In the next two or three years, Xu Huai considered that Beijing and Xiang should insist on focusing on defense. Since the sources of war horses in Beijing and Xiang could not be greatly compensated in a short time, he considered focusing on establishing some heavy armored infantry battalions to strengthen local battlefields.
