In February of the fifth year of Zhongping, after several rounds of court discussions, the ancient Han Dynasty finally decided to formally send troops to take back Bingzhou, which had been taken away and occupied by Xiutu tribes.
In fact, He Jin did not take any action before this. He ordered Ding Yuan to serve as the governor of Bingzhou, recruit troops in Hanoi, and stationed them in Taiyuan, Shangdang and other places. While resisting the Xianbei and Huns who continued to move south, he waited for opportunities to regain the lost territory.
This was the emperor's previous order. Originally, He Jin hoped to force the emperor to confirm the position of crown prince early at that court meeting. However, due to Xiutu's invasion, the plan failed and aborted.
It's nothing originally. We'll discuss this issue later.
But during this period, I don’t know why the emperor went crazy, and issued a death order to regain Bingzhou.
This made all the neutral ministers, including the uncoordinated prince, feel baffled, and even the low-level officials in the court were a little unbelievable.
What they didn't understand was why the emperor wasted so much effort on a piece of land that was dispensable and almost useless.
If we are people from later generations, we will definitely shout the slogan "National territory must not be violated".
However, although the Han people also have the cry of "anyone who offends our strong Han will be punished no matter how far away", they actually do not have a clear concept of territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Moreover, Bingzhou is indeed a piece of cake now. Not only does it have a small population, most of its population centers are still in the hands of the imperial court.
Outside Yanmen Pass, there is a grassland, which is later known as Hohhot and Baotou in Inner Mongolia.
Grasslands were important to the Xianbei and Huns because they had to graze their cattle.
But for the Han people, there was no way to farm here, and secondly, it was flat and there was no dangerous terrain to resist the attacks of the grassland peoples.
There are no strategic resources to compete for, and they are fighting nomads on the grasslands.
This is equivalent to a tiger on the shore jumping into the sea to fight a shark.
So everyone thought the emperor was crazy.
After all, this is no longer the era when the Western Han Dynasty was seriously threatened by the Huns.
Even if the national strength is exhausted and the grasslands are captured, there will be no benefit except to show the majesty of the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, in everyone's opinion, even if Bingzhou is to be recaptured and Ding Yuan is left to recruit troops, there is no need to spend so much money and energy. The elite Central Army must be dispatched.
But what everyone didn't expect was that the emperor went his own way and not only released Huangfu Song, who had been imprisoned for more than half a year, and ordered him to go to Bingzhou, but also gave him the tiger talisman of the Northern Army and asked him to mobilize most of the troops.
The Han Dynasty was the most frequently used dynasty of tiger talismans. Due to the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, local troops obeyed the orders of the vassal kings to cause rebellion without the deployment of tiger talismans. Therefore, the Eastern Han Dynasty's supervision of tiger talismans was even more serious. Without tiger talismans, it was impossible to mobilize troops at all.
For example, during the Three Kingdoms period, after Cao Cao was defeated in the Battle of Chibi, there was a situation where Zhuge Liang obtained Chen Jiao's tiger talisman, used the tiger talisman to defraud Cao Cao's soldiers, and took the opportunity to seize Jingzhou.
Therefore, the tiger talisman was very important at that time, and there were even cases where people only recognized the tiger talisman but not the person.
This is why Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty felt confident that the Northern Army would not betray him, because half of the tiger talisman was in He Jin's hands and the other half was in his hands. Even if He Jin wanted to mobilize troops, he would have to obtain the consent of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty.
Now that even the tiger talisman has been given, it can be seen that the emperor attaches great importance to Bingzhou, which is really puzzling to the people of the world.
For this reason, memorials of opposition from all over the imperial court flew to the Chancellery like snowflakes.
Chen Mu had known about Emperor Ling's plan for a long time, and he was the one behind this plan, so he didn't even bother to present these memorials to Emperor Ling of Han, and kept them all suppressed.
However, the three ministers and nine ministers had the power to bypass the chancellery and submit a letter directly. They themselves held a small meeting and went to the palace to meet the saint to persuade him.
It's a pity that Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty seems to have become determined after eating the weight, and must stop the slaughter. He really can't persuade him.
Everyone thought that the emperor might have felt that after pacifying the Yellow Turbans, Liangzhou and Liaodong rebellions, he believed that his civil and martial arts should make the world surrender, so he was dissatisfied with Xiu's move south to massacre various tribes.
In desperation, we can only let it go.
Fortunately, the world has been at peace for a few years, and the internal situation is relatively stable. It is just a matter of merging states. As long as it is not like the war of annihilation in the Han Dynasty, when there were more than 200,000 soldiers on the front line and more than 500,000 auxiliary troops in the rear, such as the expedition to Mobei.
With the current national strength, we can barely sustain it.
At the end of February, Huangfu Song led 30,000 Northern troops and marched north from Hanoi into Shangdang County. Ding Yuan also recruited 5,000 troops at this time. The two sides merged into one place and entered Taiyuan, preparing to leave Yanmen Pass.
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Just when most of the Northern Army was taken away, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty used the emptiness in the capital as an excuse to form a new army with a strength of 20,000, restore the old system of the Han Dynasty, and call it the Southern Army.
This reason is not untenable, because the Northern Army does not stay in the barracks all day long. They also need to take turns to garrison at various passes. Such as Zihangu Pass, Dagu, Guangcheng, Yique, Fuyuan, Xuanmen, Mengjin,
Xiaopingjin and other Kyoto passes need to be guarded by troops.
Therefore, despite the fact that Huangfu Song only transferred 30,000 troops, in fact the Northern Army was basically empty.
For example, when Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty died in history, why Yuan Shao could only lead Xiyuan's troops to attack the palace was because most of the Northern Army was in the hands of Huangfu Song of Chang'an.
The rest of the Northern Army guarded various passes, leaving Luoyang as empty at that time as it is now. The palace guards were in the hands of the eunuchs, and Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu were forced to set fire to the palace gate before breaking into the palace.
Therefore, Chen Mu's plan to mobilize the tiger away from the mountain was actually to take advantage of the situation and take advantage of the situation in Bingzhou to temporarily transfer the Northern Army away to achieve the empty situation in Luoyang in history.
This is not to restore history, but to trigger this condition and give a reasonable explanation for forming a new army before proceeding to the next step.
Otherwise, the princes in the court will definitely oppose this matter.
In fact, even if a reasonable explanation is given, there is still a lot of opposition.
It's not that the courtiers saw any conspiracy in it, but they felt that there was no need to do such a thing.
Raising the Northern Army is already very hard, and raising a new army will cost more than just a little money.
However, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty overriding all opinions, formed the Southern Army in Xiyuan, put Jian Shuo as its commander, and issued a recruitment notice in the land of Three Rivers. He did not care about the court's criticism at all.
The courtiers who didn't know the truth saw that Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty insisted on doing this, and finally stopped trying to dissuade him.
Only He Jin and his party realized later, when Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty ordered the formation of a new army, that they understood why the emperor suddenly went to war and sent the Northern Army north to attack Xiutu's tribes.
But it was too late to wake up at this time, and the deal was already done. Even if He Jin's party members wrote again to request the withdrawal of the New Army, there was nothing they could do and they could not be shaken.
Fortunately, Xun He was reminded by Chen Mu and had already prepared, so he suggested that He Jin recommend Yuan Shao to the emperor to join the Southern Army.
When Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty set up the Southern Army, he did not set up eight lieutenants as in history. Instead, he set up five lieutenants based on the military system of the Northern Army, which were divided into upper, middle, lower, left, and right schools. Currently, there is only the upper military academy lieutenant Jian Shuo.
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According to the suitable candidates in Han Ling Emperor's mind, an edict was issued to recruit Cao Cao, who had been idle at home, to return to Luoyang and serve as the commander of the lower military academy. In addition, Feng Fang and Xia Mou served as the left and right colonels.
Because these people are from the eunuch faction, generally speaking, they are the so-called imperial party.
Needless to say, Jian Shuo was the new favorite of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. After Cao Cao became a eunuch, Feng Fang was the son-in-law of the great eunuch Cao Jie, and Xia Mou came from the Hongdu School.
Considering that it was not good to have all his own people, Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty finally agreed with Yuan Shao to join the Southern Army and take charge of the Central Army out of the intention of appeasing He Jin. His status was second only to Jian Shuo and was controlled by Jian Shuo.
For a time, a vigorous new army was formally formed.
Recruiting troops, armor, equipment, and standard weapons, the Shaofu and Guang Luxun were in full operation, and the training of new recruits was also in full swing. Amid the commotion, the Southern Army replaced the historical Xiyuan Eighth School Lieutenant's military horses, and restored the Northern and Southern Armies of the former Han Dynasty.
of establishment.
By May of the fifth year of Zhongping, all the troops of the Confederate Army had been recruited, and they were training in Xiyuan every day with great momentum.
In this case, since the Northern Army troops and horses were transferred, He Jin no longer had military power in his hands. Even He Jin was controlled by the Southern Army and did not dare to make any rash moves.
By August of the fifth year of Zhongping, the army had been practicing for more than three months, with some results.
At this time, the general Sima Xu Liang and the fake Sima Wudang thought that the emperor was very martial in attacking Han Sui Bianzhang in Liangzhou in the west, Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju in the east, and Xianbei in the north. If the emperor could be invited to review the military affairs, the emperor would be very happy.
This would satisfy the emperor's desire to show off his national power to the world with his cultural and military skills. Secondly, it would show goodwill to the emperor and show his obedience. Thirdly, it would repair the increasingly rigid relationship.
After all, with the transfer of the Northern Army, He Jin lost his military power and his position was very embarrassing.
Although there was still Queen He in the court to support him, the general's own status was also placed here, which was enough to make Jian Shuo and other eunuchs afraid.
However, He Jin already had some gaps with the emperor because of the matter of establishing the crown prince, and the two had some unpleasantness. It would be a good thing if they could repair it.
He Jin thought it made sense, so he reported the matter to Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was indeed very pleased and decided to hold a military parade next month in Xianyang Garden, north of the White Horse Temple.
At this time, Liu Bei had also arrived in Luoyang and accepted the appointment from the imperial court as the Yin of Henan.
Henan Yin's rank is two thousand stones, which is equivalent to Jiuqing according to his rank.
In the entire Eastern Han Dynasty, at the level of prefect, only the chiefs of the Sanfu region and the chiefs of the Luoyang and Jingji regions, namely Henan Yin, Jingzhao Yin, Zuo Fengyi, and You Fufeng, had the rank of two thousand stones.
If you don't understand, you should know by comparing the corresponding official positions in other dynasties.
In the Western Han Dynasty, this official's name was Jing Zhaoyin.
In the Song Dynasty, he was called Kaifeng Prefecture Yin.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was Shuntian Fuyin.
It seems that he has a high position, but in fact this official is not easy to hold.
As the saying goes, if you did evil in your previous life, you will be attached to it in this life; if you are full of evil, you will be attached to the provincial capital.
Those who have watched "Iron Teeth and Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan" should know that every time something happens in the capital, the unlucky one is Shuntian Prefecture Yin.
The Ninggu Pagoda is almost too full to hold, is it possible?
Therefore, Liu Bei seemed to be promoted, but in fact he still had to be cautious.
Otherwise, if he accidentally offends any prince or minister, he will be treated as a scapegoat and thrown out as a victim.