Starting from the east of Tongguan and traveling along the Yellow River, it was also a nostalgic journey full of memories for Li Tai.
When he first came to this world, he was a defeated soldier of Mangshan who was escaping from Hengnong. He fled westward to Tongguan along this road.
This is really not a good memory. Even when Li Tai recalls it, the most profound impression is still the strangeness of entering this situation, the hasty and chaotic roars of the defeated soldiers, and the pain in the buttocks.
On the back of a donkey, if I think about it too deeply, I can't help but shudder a few times, trying to drive these scary scenes out of my mind.
This time I revisited my hometown. No matter the status, situation or future purpose, it was completely different. I felt very grateful and excited. There were thousands of infantry and cavalry soldiers before and after, plus nearly ten thousand soldiers and soldiers. It was no longer the same as before.
A defeated army team that was completely outnumbered.
At that time, he was only focused on escaping and was not in the mood to observe the scenery along the way. This time, either because of his old journey or because of his mood, Li Tai felt that the scenery along the way was quite beautiful.
The south bank of the Yellow River between Tongguan and Hengnong is a large plateau with open and flat terrain, much higher than the river. There is a large jungle on the plateau, and untamed vegetation grows wantonly. There are only roads that are constantly trampled by pedestrians.
The vegetation nearby is slightly sparse.
It is already midsummer in May, and the vegetation on the plateau is becoming more and more dense, and there are also mature wild peach groves. The peach blossoms have been beaten by the wind and rain, and have been crushed into mud. There are many equally green leaves hanging on the branches.
Peaches. These peaches are far from ripe and have thick velvet on the surface. After being rubbed and chewed, the taste is sour, bitter and astringent.
The name of this plateau is called Peach Grove. It is said that "Yanwu practiced martial arts, returned to the sun of Huashan Mountain, and herded cattle in the fields of Peach Grove." However, in today's troubled times after the Three Kingdoms, this can only be a fantasy.
There were no people grazing cattle on the plateau, but wild beasts such as foxes and wolves were not uncommon. Some boldly wandered on both sides of the road, but were shot through by the soldiers with arrows, while many more fled deep into the dense forest.
Hengnong City is located on the Piyuan on the south bank of the Yellow River. After the Battle of Mangshan in the ninth year of Datong, Wang Sizheng returned to Hengnong from Yubi to guard the retreat for the defeated troops who returned to the pass.
Due to the defeat in the Battle of Mangshan, the Eastern Wei forces advanced to the west of Henan Province, and even the area of Hengnong was exposed to the sword of the Eastern Wei army.
After Wang Sizheng returned to the town, he began to overhaul the city defense. After more than two years of management, Hengnong City was fully defended and the city size was expanded several times. It became an easy-to-defend but difficult-to-attack majestic city in the west of Luoyang.
Isolated from outside.
Although Wang Sizheng has outstanding military talents, he is not a core member of the Bafu after all. Therefore, when he was guarding Hengnong, Daxingtai Yuwentai also arranged for a confidant to stay here, that is, Li Yuan, who was responsible for taking charge of the Yi of Western Henan.
Prefecture, Hengnong and other twenty-one defense armies.
In the twelfth year of Datong, Wang Sizheng was transferred away from Hengnong, but Li Yuan still stayed here. There were many righteous and powerful people among the governors of Yiluo. When Li Tai led his troops to Hengnong, Li Yuan had already attracted the crowd.
This has been a long wait.
Li Tai rode his horse to the front of the team, then dismounted and strode towards Li Yuan. He clasped his fists and said with a smile: "Mr. Yang Ping, it's been a long time. We were separated from Huazhou a few days ago. I miss you a lot. Now we will fight side by side. It's really doubly true."
It’s an honor!”
After hearing this, Li Yuan also laughed in response, stepped forward and took Li Tai's arm and said: "I received a message from the messenger in the palace, telling me that Duke Xihe will be the vanguard of the army, so I laughed with the people here and said that the East bandits are unfortunate, and Duke Xihe is a young leader.
The reputation of his former achievements has not faded away, and now he is leading a powerful force to travel boldly. The disaster of thieves is not far away!"
The two exchanged brief greetings, and Li Yuan introduced several generals behind him to Li Tai. Several generals also had official positions such as governors, county guards, etc., but because western Henan was the front line of the war with the Eastern Wei Dynasty, many states
A county is often just one city and one place, so these official positions often have more symbolic meaning than practical significance.
After Li Yuan's introduction, Li Tai also met with these generals one by one. The names of the generals were Li Yisun, Wei Fabao, Chen Xin, Han Xiong, etc. Basically, they were not Beizhen warriors, but were from Xiaowu West.
After the relocation, local tycoons around Heluo or people from Guanxi successively joined the Western Wei Dynasty through rebellion.
Among them, Li Yisun was from Yichuan, Luonan, and his family had been a local tycoon for generations. His father, Li Changshou, even colluded with the barbarians to invade the area south of Hangu Pass when he was a boy. Later, he was recruited by the Northern Wei Dynasty and appointed as a governor to fight against the barbarians.
Later, Xiaowu moved westward, and many of the clan dignitaries who were stranded in Luoyang had to seek refuge with Li Changshou and were supported by him to escort them to Chang'an. Even Li Tai's aunt, Princess Feng Yi, Li Zhihua, was able to enter Guanzhong because of this.
Li Changshou and his eldest son Li Yansun died in the war one after another. The imperial court took charge of his tribe with his youngest son Li Yisun and continued to be active in Yiluo against the Eastern Wei people. This is somewhat similar to Quan Zhongzun, whom Li Tai had met before.
Wei Fabao is the son-in-law of Li Changshou and the nephew of Wei Xiaokuan. Now he serves as the defense chief of the upper reaches of Luoshui River. He is a very important general in western Henan. However, he is able to command troops and sit in important places, and more depends on it.
own heroic fighting.
Whenever he fought with the enemy, Wei Fabao took the lead. During a battle with the Eastern Wei army in Guannan, Wei Fabao was shot in the neck by a stray arrow, and the arrow came out of his mouth. He was rescued by his troops and was unconscious for a long time before he regained consciousness.
.To this day, he still has a huge arrow scar on the side of his neck, which shows his bravery.
As for Chen Xin and Han Xiong, they are also powerful locals in Henan. Chen Xin followed Li Yuan to Hulao to meet Gao Zhongmi and his party in the old years, but Li Tai had not yet come to this world at that time, so he did not have a deep impression of them.
If Li Yuan hadn't mentioned it specifically, he wouldn't have been able to remember it at all.
Han Xiong's name alone is not surprising, but his name is very memorable, which means Mulan. But what is even more memorable is his son, Han Qinhu, a famous general in the Sui Dynasty, who is of course even more famous.
The one is Han Qinhu’s nephew Li Jing.
Although Li Tai's official position is much higher than that of the generals here, he is not arrogant in front of them. There are many Beizhen veterans in Guanxi who are just hanging around on their old merit books, but these righteous generals in western Henan
But they were at the forefront of the war with the Eastern Wei Dynasty, especially in the past few years after the Battle of Mangshan, the country's strategy had shrunk. It was only because of the hard work of these generals that the Eastern Wei Dynasty's various probing attacks were blocked outside the country's borders.
.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Bafu of the Western Wei Dynasty has been able to fully recuperate and recuperate in recent years, which shows that the new Bafu army, including Li Tai, who has risen rapidly through the creation of the government soldiers, is all due to the hard work of these generals in western Henan.
Expansion capacity.
In fact, not only in western Henan, but also in other areas of the Western Wei Dynasty, local people were mainly responsible for defense work, such as the Battle of Yubi last year. In some offensive operations, Beizhen warriors were often the main ones.
This point is not enough to extend the argument of which one is stronger or weaker in combat effectiveness. It is just that compared with these Beizhen samurai who are sent to Kansai, the local feelings and sense of responsibility are stronger. The Beizhen samurai are professional soldiers.
Being accustomed to obtaining resources through war, we need to be more motivated to engage in external expansion operations.
A group of people entered the city and sat down, chatting and discussing military aircraft while having a meal.
Although the Hengnong City built by Wang Sizheng was grand and solid, because it was on the front line of the war, the material base was never sufficient. Therefore, even the generals only had enough to eat and drink, and nothing else.
Request. In order to entertain Li Tai who came from afar, an old cow was specially slaughtered today. It was already an extremely rich meal.
Although Li Tai has often led troops abroad in recent years, he has not eaten coarse rice for a long time. Looking at the piles of rice in the pottery bowl, he can't help but feel a little embarrassed. It's not that he is squeamish or pretentious.
In fact, this sudden change in diet directly affects physical recovery.
So he used the excuse of extra food for the masses, and sent his troops into the camp to get more than a dozen grain cakes. When the grain cakes were carried into the hall, the governor Li Yisun couldn't help but said: "This is not something."
The refined grain cakes in the bandit army? I didn’t expect that the Xihe army was also prepared.”
Naturally, this grain cake does not have any high technical content. As long as the materials are solid and the process is guaranteed, it is not difficult to make. But after hearing what Li Yisun said, Li Tai couldn't help but curiously said: "The East Thief Army also has
Do you always keep this as food?"
After hearing this, Li Yisun shook his head and said: "Although the East thieves have more money than me, such exquisite food is not something ordinary soldiers can enjoy. There are many thieves here, but none of them are seen with them.
According to the people of Yubi City in Hedong Province, this grain cake is harder than iron and stone. It can be stored in a dry place for several years without rotting. If you scrape some hot water and soak it in food, you will not be hungry all day long. Yubi City was able to hold on last year because of this material resource.
Quite a few, it is said that they were left over from the defeat of He Liuhun's army in the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Datong. They must have been used only to feed his elite troops.
We, the people in western Henan, only know the shape of this thing but not its taste. We imagine that such a treasure must be a secret treasure of a thief. If we eat it for ordinary consumption, it will be a bit extravagant!"
"It's a luxury for us, but not for Duke Xihe. It should be noted that last year, Duke Xihe directly attacked the Jinyang Palace of the thieves. What kind of precious materials were not allowed to be collected? Today, fortunately, thanks to the generosity of Duke Hui Xihe, I can taste the east thieves.
The taste of wonderful things!”
Another general spoke up, flattering Li Tai while looking expectantly at the dozens of grain cakes, some of which could not help but make swallowing movements.
When Li Tai heard their sighs, he couldn't help but feel a little dumb. These guys didn't know the truth at all and relied entirely on guessing. Maybe he heard about the existence of such refined grain cakes but didn't understand its meaning. He subconsciously felt that this kind of high-end
Food must be obtained by wealthy thieves, which is why this misunderstanding arose.
This naturally made Li Tai dumbfounded, but it must be said that people's thinking inertia is really great. Not to mention the medieval era when information spread very slowly, it was also very difficult for later generations to reverse some concepts after they were formed.
Especially when people's knowledge is shallow but they want to interpret the profound issues being discussed, their simple brains cannot handle the ever-changing new information, so they can only remain conservative. The more ignorant they are, the more stubborn they will be, and they can use bluff to cover up their lack of knowledge.
.
Of course, these generals in western Henan are different from those ignorant and brainless generals. They are on guard against foreign enemies and struggle on the edge of life and death every day. They have no time to look back and take a closer look, so they are unaware of the emergence of new things in the country.
In order to avoid the embarrassment of these generals in court, Li Tai simply did not explain the origin of these grain cakes in detail, but just ordered his soldiers to go forward, scrape them, prepare them and distribute them to everyone.
Each of the generals carefully held the pottery bowl in their hands, blowing on it while sipping it carefully, smacking the taste in their mouths and feeling endless aftertaste. Even the residue on the inner wall of the pottery bowl was scraped clean with bamboo chopsticks and fingers.
His brows were full of contentment and exclaimed: "I wonder when the men in the city will be able to enjoy such delicious military rations every day? If they have such delicious food to satisfy their hunger, how can they show off their bravery without beheading a few more thieves in each battle?"
When Li Tai heard these discussions, he couldn't help but look at Li Yuanfa and asked: "Is it so difficult to supply the army here?"
After hearing this, Li Yuan sighed and said: "In the past, the situation in Heluo was not so bad. Although there was no lack of harassment from thieves, the men in Yiluo were busy farming and fighting, and the women were busy weaving.
Although it is not abundant, there is always a supply.
But now that Yiluo has been lost, all defenses can only survive in dangerous places. The mountains and fields are rugged, and the road is difficult to travel. How much harvest can be gained by just harvesting wood in the ditches? So this time Hou Jing caused chaos, and the people here also
They are all eager to fight back and regain the Iro Valley and the Kinki Plains."
After hearing the words, the generals all nodded in agreement. Although the central government has given them some funding in recent years, most of the material needs still need to be raised by themselves. But now the advantage between Heluo and Heluo is not with me, they and other people.
Suppressed among the mountains and hills in western Henan, one can imagine the poverty of life.
"Now that the bandits from the east are in chaos, and the army from the country is coming out one after another, I am a pioneer, and I must fight bravely to restore Heluo and live up to the expectations of the people!"
Li Tai saw that the generals were still full of determination even though they were worried, so he couldn't help but speak.
There were not enough supplies here, and there was no wine to entertain the guests. After the generals had eaten and drank enough, they began to discuss the military situation again.
Long before Li Tai arrived, Li Yuan had already formulated a counterattack plan with his generals, and listed all the important Eastern Wei strongholds between Yiluo as combat targets. He only waited for an order from the Tai government to attack Yiluo.
launch an offensive between them.
Unlike Wang Sizheng's troops who sent troops without permission and entered alone, Li Tai's arrival meant that the Western Wei Dynasty's hegemony officially intervened in the war in Henan. The generals in western Henan, who had been troubled for several years since the Battle of Mangshan, were gearing up and eager to try.
Since Li Tai was not a subordinate of Li Yuan, as the vanguard of the Bafu army, he had the right to fight independently. After he understood the battle plans of Li Yuan's armies, he quickly selected his own marching route.
and combat objectives.
There are maps involved in this plot in the book review area, and the fortification locations that appear in subsequent plots. I have tried my best to use the signs on these maps to mark them. I hope everyone can understand them and understand the development of the plot...