Chapter 143 Meeting Gao Huan Again (4k)
While Su Ze sent people to support Li Chong's army, he advanced towards Wuchuan Town. Not far from Wuchuan Town, he saw flames and thick smoke rising from the city.
He ordered Yu Jin beside him: "Stop marching and send someone to check the situation in Wuchuan."
After a while, the [Yu Lin scout with superb riding skills] returned to the army and reported to Su Ze: "Captain! Wuchuan Town Warehouse is on fire!"
Upon hearing the news, Yu Jin looked at Su Ze in shock, but Su Ze's face was calm, and his expression did not change at all because of this incident.
"Fire dragon enters the warehouse, this move really never gets out of date."
Yu Jin still didn't understand the trick, Su Ze said:
"Ever since Minister Yuan Huai went on a diplomatic mission to the Six Garrisons ten years ago and returned to Luoyang to propose that the court set up a warehouse in the Six Garrisons, this fire was destined to start today."
"Yuan Huai's original intention was to use the town granary to store food, so that when war or disaster relief was needed, the food in the granary could be used. By setting up a town granary in the town, the Xiongnu Gaochejiang tribe scattered in the north could be controlled."
"The court's original intention may not be bad, but the court's influence on the Six Garrisons is weakening day by day. The generals who have been entrenched in the Six Garrisons for a long time have no hope of being promoted to Luoyang, so they will naturally focus all their energy on managing their own power."
"The court hasn't sent important officials to inspect the six towns for several years. The officials who were sent to inspect the six towns usually just took a cursory look and never carefully checked the conditions of the town granaries. Over the past ten years, how much grain is left in the town granaries? Not only the court, but even the town commanders appointed by the court don't know."
"Our army is coming, and there are still a large number of refugees outside the city. If General Li asks Wuchuan to open the warehouse, things will be difficult to handle."
"It's better to just burn it down. Anyway, the situation on the border is urgent now, so we can just say that it was a Rouran spy who sneaked into the city to cause trouble."
After listening to Su Ze's analysis, Yu Jin felt that his three views were shattered. He did not expect that the people in Liuzhen could achieve this.
Su Ze sneered. Although the Six Garrisons were seen as a whole in the court, in fact their internal interests were completely different.
The garrison commanders sent by the imperial court were nominally the highest leaders, but their goal was to be transferred back to Luoyang as soon as possible, and they rarely asked about the specific affairs of the six garrisons.
The military leaders of the Six Garrisons, that is, the class of heroes and generals, such as the Yuwen family and the Heba family, have been rooted in the Six Garrisons for a long time and are the upper class of the Six Garrisons. They are the real rulers of the Six Garrisons.
The warlords of the Six Garrisons were also dissatisfied with the imperial court. They were dissatisfied that they had lost the path to promotion to the imperial court and had completely become local tyrants on the border. However, the Yuwen and Heba families had thousands of servants and herds of horses, cattle and sheep at home. If they were placed in other states and counties, they would also be upper-class military tyrants.
Finally, there are the ordinary townspeople at the bottom of the six towns; those are the ones who really can’t survive.
Su Ze looked up and saw that he had no way to solve the problem of the Six Towns.
Li Chong's army was also short of food supplies and had to rely on transportation from Pingcheng in the rear. The support from the court was also getting weaker and weaker.
If the army lacks food, it will collapse immediately. Therefore, even if General Li Chong arrives in Wuchuan, he cannot use military rations to relieve the people.
Yu Jin said angrily: "I want to report to the general! Find out who set the warehouse on fire!"
Su Ze shook his head and said, "Investigate? How? We are in wartime now. Although the general is the chief commander appointed by the court, we only have so many people. To conquer Rouran, we also need the cooperation of the local commanders of the six towns."
"A powerful dragon cannot defeat a local snake. Wuchuan belongs to someone else. We are outsiders. How can we investigate?"
"Even if you find a flaw, if someone throws one or two people out to take the blame, you won't be able to investigate the case any further."
"If I were the general, I would pretend that this incident never happened and let Wuchuan handle it himself."
Yu Jin said bitterly: "Aren't these people afraid of retribution?"
"Retribution? Maybe. The way of heaven is clear. All results have causes. What happens today will be the result of the future."
Yu Jin looked at Su Ze in confusion, and Su Ze shook his head and said, "Let's wait for the general here."
The result of Li Chong's handling was the same as Su Ze expected. After hearing that the Wuchuan town warehouse was on fire, Li Chong ordered the entire army to stop advancing, and then found a camp near Wuchuan and did not even enter Wuchuan City.
The attitude of Wuchuan was the same as Su Ze had expected. Military leaders such as Yuwen Gong reported to the commander of Wuchuan that there were Rouran spies who had infiltrated the city and it was these spies who set fire to the town granary.
Wuchuan Town General Lou Po Qiang was furious and ordered the execution of the soldiers guarding the town granary. He also confiscated a batch of grain from the homes of several Wuchuan generals including the Yuwen family on the charge of failing to defend the city. Then he personally sent people to escort the grain out of Wuchuan Town and delivered it to Li Chong's camp.
After Li Chong accepted the grain, Wuchuan Town General Lou Po Qiang brought his military leaders and Heba Yun, the military leader from Huaishuo who came to support, out of the city to meet Li Chong in the camp.
In the commander's tent, Li Shizhe was putting armor on his father and tying a red cloak on Li Chong. Then, Li Shizhe said:
"Grandpa, these Wuchuan people dared to burn the town warehouse before the army arrived. Why didn't you take the opportunity to enter the city, seize the power of Wuchuan Town Commander, and stay in Wuchuan?"
Li Chong glanced at his son who was almost fifty years old. If his son was a teenager and said such stupid things, he would probably whip him directly and make him think it over carefully.
If his son was twenty years old, he would probably explain the trick to him after caning him.
If his son were 30 years old, he would probably just scold him and then explain the ins and outs to him.
But his son was already fifty years old, and Li Chong didn't even have the thought of opening his mouth to reprimand him. Instead, he was filled with endless worry about the future of his family.
This is probably a worry that only comes with a long life.
Li Chong looked at his son and was too lazy to scold him.
Seized the power of Wuchuan Town Commander?
Lou Poqiang, the general of Wuchuan Town, was from the Lou family, one of the eight Xianbei clans, a noble family of the Jia clan. Today, the Lou family has declined. Although it has the title of one of the eight clans, there are no important officials from the Lou family.
Due to the continuous Sinicization reforms from Emperor Xiaowen to Emperor Xuanwu, the noble families with the surname Jia who were unable to adapt to the trend of Sinicization would gradually decline because their family members were not outstanding enough.
Lou Poqiang had no hope of a career in Luoyang, so he was appointed as the commander of Wuchuan. He came here to live a leisurely life and to get promoted as soon as he got the chance. What power did he have in Wuchuan? He had no power to begin with, so what power could he seize?
If Lou Poqiang really had power, then the town warehouse would not have caught fire when he led the army to arrive. This was a slap in the face of him as the town commander!
After being slapped in the face, Lou Poqiang had no choice but to confirm the statements provided by those heroic generals and military leaders and report the matter to Li Chong.
Besides, Wuchuan is a mess now. The siege of the Rouran people has just been lifted, and the town's warehouse has been burned down. Li Chong deliberately did not enter the city just to avoid this mess. How could his stupid son still want to seize power?
This child must look like his mother, not his father!
But when he saw that Li Shizhe's face was similar to his own, Li Chong had no choice but to acknowledge this son.
Li Chong asked his son, "When we return from this expedition, which state do you want to be the governor of?"
Li Shizhe was stunned for a moment, and he said without hesitation: "Of course it is the states in Hedong!"
Today, in the entire Northern Wei Dynasty, the richest area is naturally the Hedong region, which includes Bingzhou, Jizhou, Xiangzhou and other states. It is now a first-class prosperous region.
During this era, the southern states along the Yangtze River were in confrontation with the Southern Dynasty, and the situation was tense due to long-term war preparations.
Moreover, Hedong is not far from Luoyang, and can also control the situation in Luoyang without cutting off contact with the center of power.
Li Chong shook his head and said, "Hedong cannot last long. You should go to Qinzhou."
"what?"
Qinzhou is the Guanzhong region. Although the prosperous Tang Dynasty in later generations had Guanzhong as its base, and Chang'an was the capital of many dynasties before that, Guanzhong is not a good place today.
The reason is very simple. The Guanzhong region has not yet recovered from the chaos of the Sixteen Kingdoms period. Because of the war, the water conservancy facilities were destroyed and the population decreased significantly. Qinzhou often needed relief from the court.
Therefore, although Guanzhong was very close to Luoyang, it was considered not to be a big or superior province, not to be a good place, and even not as good as Jizhou, which had just suppressed the Mahayana uprising.
Seeing his son like this, Li Chong was even more disgusted for a while. He waved his hand and said, "Go to Qinzhou. If you are willing to go to Qinzhou, I will do my best to promote your posting outside after returning to Luoyang. If you want to go to the Hedong states, then you have to find a way yourself!"
After saying this, Li Chong threw off his cloak, walked out of the general's tent, left Li Shizhe behind and went to greet Wuchuan and his group.
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Su Ze stood behind Li Chong and looked at the Wuchuan generals in the tent.
I have never heard of the town commander Lou Po Qiang, and there is no record of him in history books. I am afraid he died before or after the Six Towns Uprising. His control over Wuchuan can be seen from the fire in the town warehouse. He is a waste of the noble family named Jia, so he can be ignored.
The old general in black armor is Yuwen Gong. The three tall young men behind him should be his three sons, Yuwen Hao, Yuwen Lian and Yuwen Luosheng. The fourth son, Yuwen Tai, is too young and has no military position, so he was not brought along.
The curly-haired general on the other side of the garrison commander was Heba Yun. Heba Yun also had an extraordinary bearing. In history, after he defected to Erzhu Rong, he was deeply trusted by Erzhu Rong and was entrusted with important tasks by Erzhu Rong. He was particularly good at fighting tough battles.
Apart from these young faces, the rest are veterans. At this time, the heroes of the Six Garrisons are still in a dormant period. For example, the representative of the Wuchuan Li family is an old man with white beard. Li Hu, one of the Eight Pillars of the Western Wei Dynasty, should not have come out to do things yet.
The head of the Houmochen family was a name that Su Ze had never heard of. Another important general of the Western Wei Dynasty, Houmochen Chong, was only five years old. They were not yet qualified to attend such occasions.
Li Chong met with the generals of Wuchuan and introduced the generals around him to everyone. Among them, Su Ze's military exploits in Pingcheng were also highly praised. When the generals of Wuchuan heard about Su Ze's military exploits, they all showed respect for him.
In the Six Garrisons, those who can fight will naturally receive greater respect. Wuchuan was often harassed by the Rouran people. Su Ze was able to annihilate so many Rouran people, which won him the admiration of everyone.
After meeting the people from Wuchuan, Li Chong did not mention his mission at all, nor did he talk about what had happened recently in Wuchuan. Instead, he asked his men to bring tables, food and wine, and directly hosted a banquet for the generals of Wuchuan in the general's tent.
Su Ze noticed that the faces of the heroic generals in Wuchuan looked much better. Li Chong's indifferent attitude made them feel at ease. It was obvious that Li Chong was not going to pursue the matter of the fire in Zhencang.
Li Chong pulled the town commander Lou Poqiang to the table. After a few drinks, the two seemed to have become good friends who could talk about anything. Lou Poqiang pulled Li Chong to complain about everything, from the food and customs of Wuchuan to the domineering local military leader.
Li Chong just drank and listened, occasionally saying a few words to Lou Poqiang.
Su Ze also joined in the banquet. The atmosphere in the general's tent gradually became heated. Even Su Ze, who didn't drink much, was pulled by Heba Yun to drink. As their relationship became closer, Su Ze also asked him about Huai Shuo's situation.
"Gao Huan? Haha! He Liuhun is in our army!"
Hearing Heba Yun say this, Su Ze looked at him in surprise. Originally, Su Ze just wanted to inquire about Gao Huan's recent situation, but he didn't expect that Gao Huan also came to Wuchuan?
After hearing the whole story, Su Ze could only sigh at the magic of fate. However, this was reasonable. There were many military exchanges between the Six Garrisons. Otherwise, it could not explain why Gao Huan, a grassroots officer in Wuchuan, knew so many military leaders and commanders in Wuchuan and Huaishuo after the Six Garrisons Uprising. The history books were vague about Gao Huan's interactions before he started his career. After all, not every emperor was like Zhu Yuanzhang, who was willing to have his opening be recorded in history books.
For example, if Gao Huan once served in Heba Yun's army, later history books would not write about it, because in the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, Heba Yun was killed by Gao Huan out of suspicion.
Of course, Gao Huan is in Wuchuan now, which may also be the butterfly effect before Su Ze traveled through time. After all, history has been changed a lot by Su Ze.
Upon hearing that Su Ze and Gao Huan were good brothers, Heba Yun immediately sent his personal guards to call Gao Huan to the general's tent.
After the banquet began in the general's tent, Li Chong also sent people to give wine to the people brought by the Wuchuan generals. Gao Huan, Sima Ziru, Hou Jing and others also came with Heba Yun, so they also drank in a small tent.
Hou Jing was still young, and after drinking a little he started to act careless. He pulled Gao Huan aside and asked, "Brother Gao, the imperial army is coming. Should we go back to Wuchuan?"
At this time, Hou Jing did not have such great ambitions as he did later. Having gained military merit and rewards this time, he wanted to return to Wuchuan as soon as possible and did not want to continue fighting on the battlefield.
Sima Ziru also looked at Gao Huan. Unknowingly, the three of them had formed a small group with Gao Huan as their leader.
Gao Huan put down his wine glass and said, "No, the imperial army is coming and will definitely suppress the Rouran people in the Six Garrisons. I want to continue to serve in the army and gain greater military merits!"
Just as Gao Huan and his two companions were drinking, a guard of Heba Yun walked into the tent and said to the three of them, "General Heba wants General Gao to lead the tent!"
Sima Ziru and Hou Jing looked at each other, and hurriedly followed Gao Huan to the general's tent.
I owe you six chapters. I will go back to pay it back on May Day!
(End of this chapter)