"My lord, there is still one and a half months until the Chinese New Year." Cheng Jushu rode beside Prime Minister Li: "When I go south, my mistress asked me to ask you, when will you go back?"
Cheng Jushu and Cheng Jurong had just gone south from Jiuyuan County, and they happened to catch up with Prime Minister Li who was heading to Pearl City.
When they set off, Wu Yating specifically told the two of them to come and ask. Li Xiang and the Xiliang army have been in Liangzhou from the beginning of the year until now.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been back to Jiuyuan County.
"I will go back after driving the prairie people back."
Li Xiang looked at the snow-covered land around him: "If it weren't for these prairie people, I would have been on the boat back to Jiuyuan City by now. I have to scare them this time, or else they will come after a while
The next time I went south, it was really disgusting."
"Lord, why don't we just wipe out these grassland tribes?" Cheng Jurong suddenly asked from the side.
Li Xiang smiled and said: "There is no way this year but to wait for next year. Do you feel cold now?"
"It's a bit cold." Cheng Jurong replied naively.
Cheng Jushu patted his younger brother on the shoulder: "We are in Liangzhou now. It's so cold in Liangzhou. How high can the temperature on the grassland be? And our army just had a fierce battle on the Fufeng Plain.
Moon, even people made of steel need rest.
Our mission this time is to drive away the invading prairie people, then go back to rest and wait until next year to deal with them."
Cheng Jushu has been with Prime Minister Li for so many years, and his IQ has improved somewhat, but Cheng Jurong is still as naive as ever.
"That's it!" Cheng Jurong nodded, not sure whether he really understood or was pretending to understand.
Cheng Jushu continued on the side and said with some embarrassment: "Master, you see you have put me in the academy to study for so long, can I..."
The reason why Cheng Jushu didn't stay with Li Xiang all the time was because he was scared by you and sent him to study at the Officer Academy in Jiuyuan City. Of course, Cheng Jurong also followed.
But the results of the two people are high in the sky and the other is low on the ground!
"Starting next year, you will lead 4,000 troops to temporarily follow me!" There are still too few generals in Xiliang, so Li Xiang wants to cultivate generals belonging to his own faction.
Many of the officers who joined Xiliang learned military skills from their own families or from other places. They were quite useful, but they were not very suitable for Xiliang soldiers.
Because Xiliang soldiers could do many things that ordinary soldiers could not do, Li Xiang trained a group of Xiliang officers himself.
Cheng Jushu and Cheng Jurong were among the first batch of officers to study.
Cheng Jushu passed with full marks, and Cheng Jurong said it was no different from before he went.
If you don't have the ability to command troops, then just be a guard captain by your side.
"Thank you, Lord!" Cheng Jushu knew that the four thousand people Li Xiang mentioned were not the soldiers under his father, but the real soldiers from Xiliang headquarters.
Only someone like him, who has led the Guards, can understand the strength of the Xiliang headquarters soldiers. If he has 4,000 Xiliang headquarters soldiers, he can attack the 10,000 troops under his father.
The soldiers under his father are about one in a hundred. Those who can serve as soldiers in Xiliang are not simple people. The selection of Xiliang soldiers is very strict, and they also have very high military pay, otherwise they would not be able to attract so many
people went to join the army.
"Is this what I promised you before? But remember that every soldier is extremely precious, and you need to be responsible for their life safety." Li Xiang said to Cheng Jushu very seriously.
"Lord, don't worry. I am with them. If they die, I will die." Cheng Jushu also said with a serious face.
After hearing this, Li Xiang didn't say anything. He looked at a war horse galloping on the snow in the distance. The soldier responsible for delivering military orders ran to Li Xiang and stopped in front of him.
"Lord? A letter from the front."
The soldier dismounted and handed a well-preserved envelope to Li Xiang. Li Xiang opened the envelope and wrote a few large characters on the paper.
"The grassland people knew that our army was coming, so they launched an attack."
"They unexpectedly launched an attack in advance!" Li told Cheng Jushu, "Send me the order to speed up the advance of the whole army and give way to the second general to lead the infantry. I will go with the cavalry first."
"promise!"
Cheng Jushu rode his horse and ran towards the rear? Li Xiang said to Cheng Jurong: "Follow me!"
"yes!"
Cheng Jurong's face is full of smiles? He stayed in Jiuyuan City for too long? His body feels like it's getting rusty? He doesn't like the things he learned in the academy, and he would rather follow the master? Along with
Together with the Lord, we fight in the north and south.
It had been a long time since he had fought side by side with his lord, and he really missed it.
Thinking of coming to Xiliang? Will you definitely be able to fight side by side with your lord again? I thought it would take a while, but I didn't expect the opportunity would come so soon.
Boom!
The cavalry army led by Li Xiang rushed towards the direction of Pearl City in a mighty manner. Heavy snow was still falling in the sky, and the thick layer of snow on the plain was getting thicker.
For any race in Liangzhou, the best way to cope with this cold weather is to go home and stay well at home.
Instead of running and fighting on this vast and boundless plain.
The grassland people are riding a tiger and it's hard to get off. They can't come back empty-handed this time!
A lot of cattle and sheep have been spent. If they run back without getting some supplies, it will be difficult for them to get through this winter.
Because it will take at least four months from when it snows now until the snow melts next year. The food and grass they stored in the tribe before can barely last three or four months.
But because they went south, the tribe provided them with supplies they had stored up, just to let them obtain a large amount of materials from the south and feed them back to the tribe.
Now they have found nothing in the south, and they have to spend a lot of supplies on the way back. How can they have the nerve to return to the tribe?
The chief chanyu of the Qiang tribe knew that he would return with nothing this time and his position would be over, so he cooperated with the Xianbei tribe and began to attack Pearl City and surrounding cities.
Isn’t it just to get more resources and let everyone go back with their chests high?
What happened was counterproductive. They originally thought that Xiliang would not care about Pearl City, but when they launched the siege operation, they had already received news that Xiliang's army was heading north.
They had no choice but to launch an attack on Pearl City and surrounding cities without making adequate preparations.
These warriors from the grassland tribes also know very well what will happen to them after the Xiliang army arrives. If they return to the fortress without obtaining a large amount of supplies, the old people in the tribe will probably die because of them.
die.
Those old people have their elders!
The old people on the grassland, when the cold winter comes and there is not enough food and other supplies, they will walk out of their tents and walk towards the vast sea of snow.
In the past, when they were still following the Daqian Dynasty, they had enough food for winter every year. However, over the past few hundred years, the situation has become worse and worse. With no other option, they could only go south to plunder.
Every time they go to the south to plunder, their tribe will have a fat winter. The senior leaders of the Dagan people in the south will not stop them as long as they do not touch their interests.
Therefore, whenever the prairie tribes felt that it was difficult for their tribe to survive the winter, they would go south to plunder and plunder a large amount of supplies and slaves from the south.
Those slaves can also be used as food in the cold winter. For them, in that severe cold situation, they will eat as long as there is food.
They don't care whether the food they eat is human, as long as it's not one of their tribesmen.
Anyway, in the extremely cold winter, they had no extra food for the slaves to eat, and these slaves would starve to death themselves. Instead of doing this, it was better to let them eat and let more people survive.
Therefore, every time they go south, they will get a large amount of supplies and winter food and grass. One trip south can almost allow them to survive the winter without worries for three years.
At the same time, two or three years will also allow the civilians in the south to develop for a while, store more food at home, and get more things when they plunder!
These hungry wolves from the grassland frantically launched attacks on the cities around Pearl City. Pearl City was high and deep, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. The generals of the grassland tribes did not attack the city immediately, but The first step is to capture the surrounding small cities.
You wouldn't know it if you didn't fight, but a dozen of these grassland tribe generals were attracted by the surrounding small cities, and plundered a large amount of materials and people in these small cities.
When Anding County was attacked by Xiliang's army before, the surrounding cities transferred most of their supplies to Pearl City, because Pearl City had a large number of military protections.
At the same time, this was also an important place that the Han family considered a counterattack, so they accumulated a large amount of supplies here.
These materials are hidden very deep, and not many people know about them except the senior leaders of the Han family.
When the prairie tribes captured these small towns and searched for supplies, they discovered these sealed supplies. In one fell swoop, they obtained a large amount of grain, grass, and various weapons and equipment.
The senior officials of the Xianbei and Qiang people surrounding Pearl City were shocked by the news coming from everywhere, because they had obtained so many things that they could not believe it.
Among the materials they obtained, there were very few gold, silver, and jewelry, and most of them were weapons, equipment, and food.
Prairie people don't have much shortage of things like gold, silver, and jewelry, and they have no need for these things.
On the contrary, weapons, equipment, food and other supplies are the most urgently needed things on their grasslands.
Cart after cart of grain and grass were delivered to the camp. All the prairie people were attracted by the harvest in front of them. The more things they obtained, the more violent they attacked the surrounding small towns.
At the same time, the civilians who were staying well at home were also captured by them, but now these prairie people did not burn or kill them.
Their most urgent thing is to transport these materials to the north. The Xiliang army is already approaching Pearl City quickly. They need to transport these materials to the north as quickly as possible, otherwise when the Xiliang army arrives, They won't have time to transport these supplies.
The young and middle-aged men captured by them were all used to transport supplies, but the women were in dire straits!
In the prairie people's camp, women's screams can be heard at night.
The defenders in Pearl City naturally saw the carriages leaving one after another and a large number of civilians. They knew that the surrounding small cities could no longer defend themselves.
"What a shame, these Dagan people are so rich. We just conquered so many small cities and we harvested so much."
The great Chanyu of the Qiang tribe no longer has a sad look on his face. The supplies he has now obtained are enough for the entire tribe, and the warriors of each tribe can get the promised amount.
The surrounding small cities can harvest so much materials, so what kind of wealth does Pearl City, the largest city in this area, have!
Unfortunately, the defenders in the city are very tenacious, and a large number of militiamen can be seen on the city walls. The opponent has gathered a large number of people in the city, and it will be very difficult for them to attack the city.
Before they had no choice, they would only think of attacking this city. Now that they have obtained what they want, they naturally have no desire to attack the city in front of them.
"Military advisor, what do the Xianbei people say?"
The military advisor respectfully said to Shan Yu: "The Xianbei tribe also believes that the supplies currently obtained are enough. The Xiliang army is only two or three days away from us. The weather is getting colder and colder, so we should go back first."
"It would be great if there were no Xiliang army. I really want to know what kind of wealth there is in this Pearl City!" Shanyu still couldn't forget the treasures and material things in Pearl City.
The military advisor smiled and said: "Chanyu, I believe that what you get this year will definitely make the people of the tribe very satisfied. When you go south again next year, you will definitely gather more warriors in the area.
We arrived too late this year. If we had gone south while the horses and sheep were fattening, we would have harvested several times more than we do now.
This year's harvest is enough for you to establish a strong prestige, and next year there will be more warriors brave enough to join your command!"
"That's right. I will lead more warriors next year. I must break this Pearl City and take a good look at how many things are inside."
The Qiang dandan, who had obtained a large amount of supplies, were very high-spirited at this time, and their fear of the southwest army was almost gone, if it weren't for the fact that the weather was getting colder and the snow was getting thicker and thicker.
