In mid-March, Sima Tao said goodbye to his cousin Sima Shang and prepared to return to the command of King Zhao Jiang of Yan.
When sending Sima Tao out of the city, Sima Shang said gratefully: "Tao, you have worked hard these past few months."
It turned out that since Sima Tao accompanied his brother to Changyi in November last year, he helped Sima Shang take over the affairs of the city and trained the local county soldiers, which was a great help to Sima Shang.
Until two days ago, Sima Tao received a letter from King Zhao Jiang of Yan, urging him to go to "Xindu" immediately, so Sima Tao had no choice but to say goodbye to his cousin.
This made Sima Shang quite reluctant to give up. If his cousin Sima Tao was not the favorite general of Yan King Zhao Jiang, and Zhao Jiang refused to let him go, Sima Shang sincerely hoped that his cousin could stay and help him.
"After arriving in Guangchuan, remember to correspond with Brother Yu."
After Sima Tao got on his horse, Sima Shang warned.
Perhaps the environment he was in had changed, which caused Sima Tao's mood to change greatly. Even though the burn marks on the left side of his face were still obvious, he didn't care at this time and deliberately said: "We'll see when the time comes. Master Zhao Jiang recommended me as "Captain Xin", I'm afraid I will have to work hard for a while..."
"Bastard!"
Sima Shang laughed and cursed, and then warned: "Be careful on the road. I heard that some Chu soldiers here in Song County fell into trouble and became bandits."
"How can a little thief be a match for a foolish brother...Brother, I'll take my leave then."
"Well, be careful on the road."
Watching Sima Tao and several of his guards riding away on war horses and gradually disappearing from sight, Sima Shang sighed with emotion, and then returned to the city with the guards behind him.
When returning to the city, Sima Shang ran into his general "Zhonggu" head-on.
Zhonggu was an old pawn from Daijun heavy cavalry.
When Sima Shang was replaced by generals Zhao Cong and Yan Ju under the instruction of Li Hou Han Wu, due to the stupid behavior of generals Zhao Cong and Yan Ju, the 25,000 Daijun heavy cavalry accidentally fell into the Wei army's siege. The losses were heavy, and in the end there were only seven or eight thousand people left, who were taken in by Han Pu, the Marquis of Yuanyi.
At the end of last year, under the instruction of King Zhao Run of Wei, Han Pu, the Marquis of Yuanyi, returned the seven or eight thousand Daijun heavy cavalry to Sima Shang - the same was true for the Shanggu Army under Xu Li.
However, considering that the Shanggu Army and the Han soldiers from the Daijun Army may not all be willing to come to Song County, King Zhao Run of Wei did not force this, and only asked Yuanyi Marquis Han Pu to send the Han soldiers who were willing to go to Song County to Song County. Those who were unwilling were eventually incorporated into Yan Kui and Le Yi's subordinates.
In February this year, Sima Shang received a letter from Han Pu, the Marquis of Yuanyi, and learned that there were more than 5,000 Daijun soldiers and more than 4,000 Shanggu soldiers who were willing to rush to Song County to join him and Xu Li, and Zhonggu was one of them. First, after he learned that Sima Shang was appointed the governor of Song County by King Zhao Run of Wei, he was very happy. In early February, he rushed to Song County from Hebei with hundreds of people and defected to Sima Shang, relieving Sima Shang who had no one available at the time. Awkward.
"General Tao returned to Hebei?"
When he met Sima Shang, Zhonggu asked with a smile.
"There is no way. Firstly, King Yan refuses to let him go. Secondly, Atao is also willing to serve under King Yan..." Sima Shang shrugged. Although he felt a little regretful, thinking about it carefully, his cousin Being under the tent of King Yan Zhaojiang is actually the same as being under his tent.
In fact, it is better to serve under the command of King Zhao Jiang of Yan. After all, King Zhao Jiang favors Sima Tao very much, so everyone in the Hanoi army will take more care of Sima Tao. Unlike Song County where he is located, they may respect each other. Due to the unfamiliar relationship, the Song people here seemed to reject him a little.
Fortunately, the king of Wei, Zhao Run, was appointed as the governor of Song County, and he had the highest official position in Song County. Both Xu Li and Huan Hu were regarded as generals under him, so the local Song people did not dare to offend him. Otherwise, Sima Shang's
The work may be more difficult to carry out.
In late March, Ma You of the Shang Shui Army led the Shang Shui cavalry to Changyi.
After learning the news, Sima Shang personally went out of the city to greet him.
When handing over military power, Ma You seemed a little unswerving.
Sima Shang could also understand this. After all, what Ma You delivered to him was the Youma heavy cavalry among the Shangshui cavalry. It was the backbone of the Shangshui cavalry and even the Shangshui army. But now, this heavy cavalry actually
How could Ma You be calm when he was handed over to Sima Shang, a surrendered general from South Korea?
Thinking of this, Sima Shang could only solemnly promise Ma You that he would treat the five thousand horse heavy cavalry like his own brothers and would never sacrifice his cavalry for greed of merit.
.
Ma You was stunned when he heard this.
After a long time, Ma You nodded and said: "I believe that General Sima's character will not treat these soldiers badly..."
Having said this, he took a deep look at Sima Shang and said in a deep voice: "When I was only a teenager, I was fortunate enough to be recruited into a cavalry, named Dang County Youma..."
As he spoke, he told Sima Shang the story of Yuma in Dang County, and after telling the story, he solemnly said to Sima Shang: "General Sima, please do not bring shame to the name "Yuma".
"
If he had never heard the story told by Ma You, Sima Shang might have thought that Ma You was provoking him, but after hearing the story of "You Ma from Dangjun", he no longer had such thoughts.
"I promise General Ma You that the "Songjun Youma" under my command will run wildly on this land like the Dangjun Youma back then. No matter who it is, no one can defeat this cavalry!"
It turned out that the cavalry under Sima Shang was named "Songjun Youma" by Wei King Zhao Run. This reminded Ma You of the former "Dangjun Youma", so he deliberately warned Sima Shang.
After receiving Sima Shang's guarantee, Ma You was very satisfied and ordered his light cavalry to escort the heavy cavalry to station outside the city. Then he followed Sima Shang into the city. After all, Sima Shang had already ordered people to prepare a banquet for Ma You.
You and his subordinates meet the wind.
However, during the banquet, soldiers suddenly came in and reported: "General, there is an urgent report from Suiyang!"
"Suiyang?"
Both Sima Shang and Ma You felt a little puzzled. The former took the urgent letter, opened it and read it, and immediately frowned.
Seeing this, Ma You asked curiously: "What's wrong with Suiyang?"
"It was a letter sent by Huan Hu of Suiyang, saying that the Chu State not only stationed hundreds of thousands of troops in "Bo County", but also sent 30,000 soldiers to try to attack Dang County..."
After that, Sima Shang handed the letter to Ma You, and immediately ordered his guards to get a map of Song County and search for the locations of "Bo County" and "Dang County" on the ground.
It can be seen that Sima Shang really didn't know much about Song County, so it was only after Ma Youzi carefully read Huan Hu's letters that he found the locations of Bo County and Dang County - which made him a little embarrassed.
At this time, Ma You, who had read Huan Hu's letter, also came to the map and frowned while looking at the map.
He knew that Sima Shang didn't know much about Song County, so he pointed to the map and explained: "The border between Song County and Chu State, starting from Yangxia, the western section was first divided by the "Huihe River", Guling, Kuxian,
Bo County once belonged to the Chu State, but last year Bosile occupied Guling, and this division was a little confusing... The eastern section starts from Bo County, including Yongcheng, then Fuxian County, Linsui, and Xiangcheng
, Zhuyi and Fuli are the boundaries between Song County and Chu State. Originally, Pengcheng and Xiapi were also owned by Song County. However, during the last war, Lord Shouling Jingyun, Lord Xinyang Xiangpei and others led the defeated army.
They retreated to Pengcheng and Xiapi, so these two areas are still in the hands of the Chu State."
"Hmm." Sima Shang nodded, looking at Pengcheng and Xiapi on the map for a while.
As the saying goes, in his position, he will seek his own government. In the past, no matter how Song County fought with the Chu State, he did not care about Sima Shang. But now, since Wei Wang Zhao Run has made him the governor of Song County, then he will naturally find a way to control him in the future.
Pengcheng and Xiapi were recaptured from Chu.
Otherwise, I would really be sorry for the position of governor of Song Dynasty, and I would also be sorry for the regard that King Zhao Run of Wei held for him.
At this time, another soldier hurriedly walked in outside the house and whispered a few words in the ear of Sima Shang's general Zhonggu.
Sima Shang caught a glimpse of this scene from the corner of his eye, raised his head and asked, "What's wrong? Is there any problem with the city defense?"
After hearing this, General Zhonggu clasped his fists and said: "General, some soldiers said that there was a group of broken soldiers and refugees outside the city trying to escape into the city. They claimed to have escaped from Zhuqiu."
"Zhu Qiu?"
Sima Shang secretly rejoiced that after he took office, he had visited the cities under his rule several times and had some impression of Zhu Qiu. Otherwise, the magistrate of a prefecture would not even know the name of the city under his rule. This is really unreasonable.
So embarrassing.
Unfortunately, although he had an impression of this county seat in his mind, Sima Shang was unable to find out the location of the county seat from the map for a while. In the end, it was Ma You, the general of Shangshui County, who led Zhu
The location of Qiu County was pointed out.
Seeing that Sima Shang seemed to be sweating on his forehead, Ma You was secretly amused, but when he was not laughing at the moment, he reminded Sima Shang: "General Sima, why don't you summon those defeated troops first and ask what's going on."
"Yes, yes."
Sima Shang responded repeatedly.
To be fair, Sima Shang is by no means a fool. The reason why he seems to be a little in a hurry is because he is not familiar with Song County.
After a while, several defeated soldiers came into the house under the leadership of the soldiers. When those few people saw Sima Shang sitting on the main seat, they thought that this general must be the city guard of Changyi, so they quickly knelt down and said:
"General, a group of Chu troops have captured Zhuqiu County again. I beg the general to send troops to rescue them."
After hearing this, Sima Shang first calmed the defeated soldiers with kind words, and then asked: "What is the banner of this Chu army? How many people are there?"
One of the defeated soldiers replied: "That Chu army was under the banner of "Three Pillars"..."
"Three Pillars?" Ma You was stunned when he heard this.
"General Ma You, what's wrong?" Sima Shang asked in confusion.
Ma You frowned and said: "The three pillars of Chu, the three tiger commanders under King Chu, used to be Lord Shouling Jingshe, Lord Xiling Qu Ping, and Lord Diyang Xiong Shang. These three people
They all passed away. As far as I know, the three pillars of Chu today are General Xiang Mo, Lord Shouling Jingyun, Lord Pingyu Xiong Hu... According to Huan Hu, Lord Shouling Jingyun is currently
In Bo County; Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu has been confronting me in Shangshui County in Pingyu, Xiangcheng, Xu County and other places. The remaining Xiang Mo died in Yongqiu last year..." At this point,
He sneered and said: "It seems that the King of Chu moved very quickly. He appointed the Three Pillars so quickly."
After that, he asked the defeated soldiers: "Are there any other flags?"
The defeated soldiers looked at each other for a few times, and finally someone said: "You seem to have seen a flag with the words "Xin Yang Jun Xiang"..."
Ma You knew who the other party was as soon as he heard it, and turned to Sima Shang and said: "It's Xiang Pei, Xinyang Lord Xiang Pei. It seems that after Xiang Mo's death, Xinyang Lord Xiang Pei, who is also a descendant of the Xiang family, took over the throne.
The reputation of Tianzhu..."
"Xin Yangjun Xiang Pei?"
Sima Shang touched the beard on his chin and asked Ma You: "Is this person... powerful?"
Ma You chuckled and said: "Compared with Jingshe, Xiang Mo and others, Xinyang Lord Xiang Pei is naturally far inferior. Otherwise, when he attacked Lu State, he would not have been defeated by Huan Hu. But...
He can be considered a capable person."
Having said this, there was a hint of doubt on his face, and he frowned and said: "Over in Bo County, Lord Shouling Jingyun has stationed more than 100,000 troops to attack Dang County again. Over here, Lord Xinyang Xiang Pei has sent out troops again.
Attacking Zhuqiu...this matter feels a bit strange."
Sima Shang nodded, he also felt that this matter was quite strange.
Because as far as he knew, in the war between the Wei State and the coalition forces of various countries, the coalition forces of various countries ended in a disastrous defeat, and the one with the most serious losses was the State of Chu.
But who would have thought that just after the New Year, the State of Chu would send troops to attack the State of Wei menacingly. To be honest, Sima Shang was a little confused.
You must know that when Korea was in Korea, with all the elite troops of Li Mu, Le Yi, Bao Yuan, Yan Kui, including Sima Shang, Korea was wary when it started the war with Wei. In terms of combat strategy, the main thing was
Adopt a "defensive counterattack" attitude.
When Korea was like this at that time, where did the Chu State have the courage to send troops to attack the Wei State even when allied countries were defeated in a crusade against the Wei State?
Sima Shang really couldn't understand it.
However, although he could not figure out Chu State's intentions, it was necessary to send troops to rescue him. After all, he, Sima Shang, was the governor of Song County and should protect the people under his rule.
Considering that there are currently not many troops under his command, Sima Shang turned to look at Ma You and implored: "General Ma You..."
However, before Sima Shang finished speaking, Ma You guessed the former's meaning, nodded and said: "General Sima, don't worry, it is our duty to expel the Chu army. Ma and the soldiers under Ma will help Sima Commandery."
A helping hand."
Sima Shang was overjoyed when he heard this and immediately ordered his general Zhonggu to prepare for sending troops.
Since the intention of Chu State was still unclear, Sima was not ready to expose the 5,000 Youma heavy cavalry he had just taken over, so when he sent out troops the next day, he only brought 800 Changyi troops who had just been recruited with him.
Two hundred heavy cavalry, and at the same time, they also persuaded the guards temporarily stationed in Changyi to send two thousand troops, for a total of three thousand troops.
As for Ma You, he also took 2,000 of the 5,000 light cavalry he had brought to Changyi to escort You Ma's heavy cavalry, and joined forces with Sima Shang, with a total of 5,000 troops and horses.
Go to Zhuqiu.
Go east from Changyi and pass "Dongmin", then go straight east to "Fangyu". From Fangyu, turn south and you can reach "Fengxian".
Further south from Feng County is Zhuqiu.
Feng County was once one of the strongholds where the Beibo Rebel Army gathered. However, nowadays, most of those Beibo Army Rebels have become local county soldiers and made great contributions to resisting the invasion of the coalition forces of various countries last year.
, but it also caused heavy damage.
After the fall of Dingtao, Chengling King Zhao Shen led these righteous soldiers and the local county soldiers from Song County to retreat to Daliang.
Nowadays, the surviving Song County soldiers and former Beibo Army martyrs have been classified as volunteers by the imperial court. Tiance Mansion intends to select the best among these people to re-create the Daliang Imperial Guard.
It is worth mentioning that although the Beibo Army was banned by the Wei State, and all the former generals of the Beibo Army also defected to the Wei State, most of them joined the Huling Navy, but in Feng County, Fang County
There are still some former Beibo Army martyrs in action in Xiaopei and Rencheng. However, the purpose of these Beibo Army is no longer to resist the Wei State, but to target those who are rich and unkind - mainly the Wei State in the Song Dynasty.
The aristocratic forces in the county.
It’s no wonder, after all, during several wars in the Wei State, although there were Zhao Shen, the King of Chengling, Zhao Tan, the Marquis of Anping, Zhao Anding, the Marquis of Shangliang, and other noble nobles of the Zhao family who were loyal to the country, this could not cover up the aristocratic class of the Wei State.
There are still some people who are rich and unkind and oppress the common people.
Although the clan government is also supervising matters in this area, there are always oversights.
But in general, the threat of these New Taipei Bo Army martyrs is not great. They are somewhat similar to the knight-errant forces that once defended the country. Therefore, the court turned a blind eye to this, as long as they did not cause too much trouble.
.
No, on the way to Feng County, Ma You told Sima Shang about the past of Song County, mainly about the Bei Bo Army, a civilian force, which made Sima Shang feel quite troubled.
Come to think of it, who would want such an uncontrolled civil force lurking under the rule?
When Sima Shang and Ma You arrived at Feng County, they happened to encounter the Chu army attacking the city.
The strength of the Chu army is estimated to be around 10,000 men.
Seeing this, Sima Shang and Ma You immediately dispatched their troops. Under their command, two hundred Youma heavy cavalry, no, it should be said that they were Song County Youma heavy cavalry, were immediately fully armed, and under the command of eight hundred Changyi troops,
The soldiers, accompanied by two thousand guardsmen, launched an attack on the Chu army outside Feng County.
Ma You, on the other hand, led two thousand light cavalry to support him, preparing to wait for an opportunity to split the Chu army's formation.
However, what puzzled both Sima Shang and Ma You was that before the two thousand Shangshui Qingqi could dispatch, the Chu army of over ten thousand was defeated by a mere three thousand cavalry under Sima Shang.
Although the two hundred heavy cavalry played an important role in this battle, Sima Shang and Ma You still felt that the Chu army's defeat was a bit incredible.
"Recruit?"
Because he was too surprised, Ma You did not even send out his cavalry, but only looked at the Chu soldiers who were beaten to a terrible state by Sima Shang's army.
More than 10,000 Chu soldiers were beaten to the ground by Sima Shang's 3,000 cavalry. How weak could they be?
You must know that the three thousand soldiers under Sima Shang's command, except for the two hundred heavy cavalry, are not the regular army of the Wei State. They are just two thousand guardsmen and eight hundred Changyi soldiers who have not been trained for a long time.
A moment later, Sima Shang was so surprised when he saw the Chu soldiers escaping in a hurry that he almost forgot to pursue the enemy army.
"Chu's army...is it so weak?"
Sima Shang was a little confused.
But no matter what, the battle was finally won and it was worth celebrating, so Sima Shang and Ma You happily entered Feng County, preparing to temporarily garrison the county and find a way to recapture Zhuqiu.
What I didn't expect was that at noon the next day, another Chu army of about ten thousand people came to attack Feng County.
In the end, this Chu army was defeated by Sima Shang.
On the third and fourth days, this was the case. Every day, between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers came to attack Feng County, and each time they were defeated by the Wei army, leaving hundreds of corpses behind.
As time passed, Sima Shang and Ma You felt that something was wrong.
On the fourth day, when the soldiers of Chu State retreated, Sima Shang asked Ma You with a strange expression: "The army of Chu State is really persistent... By the way, are the soldiers of Chu State so weak?"
After hearing this, Ma You looked at the retreating Chu army in the distance and slowly shook his head.
Although the secular world generally believes that the army of Chu is the weakest, in fact, this evaluation is only based on food and recruiting troops. The real Chu army, even if it is not as brave as the Wei soldiers, will definitely not be as brave as Qi, Wei, Lu
The army of other countries is weak.
For example, the famous Shang Shui Army of Wei State was essentially an army composed of Chu people. But was it weak?
"These should be the new soldiers of Chu State...the regular army of Chu State will definitely not be like this. It's just..."
Ma You frowned. He really couldn't figure it out. The Chu State attacked his Wei State again, but they only sent some new soldiers with little battlefield experience. What does this mean?
On the fifth day, Sima Shang's general Zhonggu, who was staying in Changyi, sent someone to forward Huan Hu's battle report to Changyi to Sima Shang.
When looking through Huan Hu's battle report, Sima Shang and Ma You were shocked to discover that it was not only Feng County, but also the Chu army in Zhuqiu that had such strange behavior. They were in the southwest of Song County, that is, Suiyang and Dang.
In the county area, the soldiers under the command of Lord Shouling Jingyun of Chu State also made similar moves, that is, they sent new soldiers who were defeated in one battle day after day to attack the city of Song County.
Since both Shouling Lord Jingyun and Xinyang Lord Xiang Pei of Chu State made similar actions, it is not a coincidence. It is obvious that this was premeditated.
"You don't want to lend me Song County to train troops, do you?"
Sima Shang frowned and said.
Ma You was stunned when he heard this. He thought it was a bit funny at first: Training? The new soldiers of the Chu State asked him to train with the army of the Wei State? Isn't this a way to die?
But after thinking about it carefully, Ma You suddenly felt that this matter was very possible.
After all, Song County's defense force is not actually strong. After the Luoyang Imperial Guards led by Wei Jiao, Mu Qing and others were transferred back to Luoyang, the only remaining troops in Song County were Weiguo's troops.
Wei's volunteer soldiers, plus the troops under Huan Hu, cannot be said to be elite soldiers.
After discussing with Ma You, Sima Shang became more and more sure of his judgment, so he immediately wrote a letter and sent someone to deliver it to Luoyang day and night, and delivered it to the king of Wei, Zhao Run.
Sima Shang believed that if the Chu State really tried to use Song County to train its own army, then this would be a very difficult matter.
After all, unless elite troops are mobilized to devour these Chu troops in one go, small-scale wars like this day after day will only serve the purpose of Chu and train one or several long-lasting troops for Chu.