Chapter 257 Difficulty
"The Western Expedition Office sent us an official document, asking us to contain the rebels in the direction of Qinzhou."
After Su Ze finished speaking, everyone present chuckled.
All we can say is that Xiao Baoyin had a good plan, but everyone present was a smart person and saw through his plan at a glance.
Why did they contain the rebels in the direction of Qinzhou instead of repairing the Chencang Road and allowing Su Ze to lead his troops to Yongzhou to stop the rebels?
Xiao Baoyin's thoughts were obvious.
If Su Ze led his troops out of Chencang Road and really defeated the rebels in Yongzhou, then what kind of bad battles has Xiao Baoyin fought since he entered Guanzhong?
So is this Grand Commander of the Western Expedition Xiao Baoyin or Su Ze?
But now the war situation in Guanzhong has really reached a stalemate. If the Qinzhou rebels and the Jingzhou rebels really join forces, Xiao Baoyin will be under great pressure.
So he ordered Su Ze to send troops before this summer to hold back the rebels in Qinzhou.
This order that wanted everything naturally aroused everyone's disgust, and everyone laughed disdainfully.
Su Ze was very satisfied with the reactions of the generals. Now that Xiao Baoyin had been made a target, the next things would be easy.
As a group, we must first identify who our enemies are, and then identify who our friends are, so that we will not waver in our strategy.
Su Ze announced Xiao Baoyin's order, which pushed Xiao Baoyin to the opposite side of his own group.
Let yourself fight the most difficult and fruitless battle, this is the order of the Western Expedition Office, this will also cut off the luck of many people - no matter what your previous position was, as long as you are regarded as a part of my Su Ze Group, you will be suppressed by Danyang Duke Xiao Baoyin.
Su Ze looked around and his eyes fell on Liang Zhao, the leader of the Baohan Army.
When Su Ze first took office as the General of Protector of the Qiang, Liang Zhao, as the leader of the Baohan Army, often held Su Ze back.
However, the Liang family had been guarding the border in Baohan for decades, and originally they were competing with Su Ze for the position of General Protector of the Qiang. As Su Ze's territory and career grew, this contradiction disappeared.
Being one step ahead will make people jealous, but being dozens of steps ahead will only make people respect you.
Moreover, Su Ze had been promoted to General Pingxi, and Liang Zhao saw hope again. He fought several battles with the Tuyuhun people in Hezhou and achieved good results.
This is the kind of person we can unite with.
Liang Zhao's son Liang Lan worked in the Xingtai under Danyang Duke Xiao Baoyin, and because of Su Ze's relationship, Liang Lan was alienated by Xiao Baoyin.
Su Ze said:
"We still have to follow the order of the Western Expedition Office. Launch an attack from Xincheng to Qinzhou. Appoint Li Cunzhen as the general and Liang Zhao as the deputy general. I will give you 5,000 soldiers and horses. We don't ask you to attack Tianshui City, but only to hold back some of the bandit troops in Qinzhou. Can you do it?"
"only!"
Li Cunzhen and Liang Zhao stepped forward to receive the order.
Naturally, they mobilized the troops of their own headquarters. Li Cunzhen led 3,000 Ganliang troops trained in Dunhuang. These were elite soldiers selected from the new Ganliang army that had returned.
Liang Lan led two thousand Baohan troops from Hezhou, all of whom were troops organized and trained by the Baohan nobles.
Su Ze said:
"Juqu Xilai, you lead a thousand light cavalry to harass Qinzhou together."
"only!"
Juqu Xilai was a Liangzhou hero who defected to Su Ze in Wuwei. His tribe was good at raising horses and had superb riding skills. Under Li Tong's training, he became a Yulin Light Cavalry.
After deploying the war on the western front, Su Ze said:
"The Grand Commander ordered us to contain the Qinzhou rebels from the west, and we have done so, but the Chencang Road still needs to be repaired. If the situation in Yongzhou deteriorates, we can provide support from Liangzhou."
Everyone smiled.
General Su has carried out the order of the Western Expedition Office without fail, but now he has the spare capacity to open up a second battlefield. You, General Xiao, can't refuse our support, right?
"This general is stationed in Wuxing, and will lead his troops northward once the Chencang Road is opened."
Su Ze led the government soldiers brought from Longxi County and the government soldiers who were allocated land in Liangzhou.
Wei Xiaokuan, who was sitting behind Su Ze, nodded secretly.
Su Ze used soldiers from Hezhou and Liangzhou to fight in Longxi County, and used soldiers from Longxi to fight in Liangzhou, and the main force he used were soldiers he had trained personally.
This is completely different from Xiao Baoyin's style.
Using foreign soldiers to fight in a different place can better execute military orders, unlike the local noble soldiers who all have their own little calculations.
These soldiers from powerful families are very brave when defending their own homeland, but they are very unenthusiastic when faced with adverse circumstances. When they encounter a battle where it is easy to achieve success, they will compete for military merit.
This is also why during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, so many small separatist regimes were able to fight brilliant battles in their own territories, but would suffer defeat once they pursued the victory and left their own borders.
This is because the armies of these small countries are actually a larger-scale coalition of local private soldiers. It is no problem to ask them to defend their territory, but it is difficult to ask them to go out and fight.
Su Ze used foreign troops in various places, which showed that he was not trying to defend the territory, but really wanted to achieve results.
But there are also difficulties in fighting in this way. Foreign troops must rely on perfect logistical supplies to fight, otherwise they will become bandits and cause trouble to the local area.
In addition, using foreign troops to fight requires strict military discipline and a clear system of rewards and punishments.
Cui Yanbo's defeat was actually related to the poor quality and corrupt military discipline of the imperial guards brought into Guanzhong by Xiao Baoyin.
Hou Jing looked left and right, but Su Ze did not call his name. He looked at Su Ze anxiously. Could it be that the general would not let him go to the battle this time?
When Hou Jing thought about this, he scratched his head.
His good friend Murong Shaozong led his troops to Gaoping County and fought several battles with Gaoping County Magistrate Yu Jin. Although most of them were small battles to suppress rebellions in Gaoping County, at least he had some fun, right?
But ever since he defeated the Yang family in Hanzhong, he has been idle in the military camp. Now, because he rides horses too little, the flesh on his thighs has grown. As Military Advisor Su said, "the thigh flesh has grown back." If this continues, Hou Jing feels that he will become suffocated and moldy.
Seeing Hou Jing scratching his head, Su Ze smiled in his heart. He paused deliberately and said:
"Hou Jing."
"The general is here!"
"You lead your own troops, plus Wuxing's white horse cavalry, and station them in Nanjiang."
Hou Jing raised his head and went to Nanjiang?
He looked at Su Ze in confusion, but didn't dare to ask, so he could only accept the military order obediently.
After Hou Jing received the military order, Su Ze asked:
"Are you wondering why you were sent to Nanjiang?"
Hou Jing scratched his head for a while and said:
"I have a guess. General, do you think Nanliang will take action?"
Su Ze said with great joy:
"You monkey, you have mastered the art of war!"
All the soldiers burst into laughter.
Wei Xiaokuan, who was standing behind him, also smiled. From this simple military discussion, one could see Su Ze's level of commanding troops.
He is able to strike a balance between leniency and strictness, and can handle laughter, anger and scolding with ease. This is several levels better than Xiao Baoyin.
Wei Xiaokuan noticed that once Su Ze issued a military order, even the most rebellious Hou Jing did not dare to object and would always receive the order first.
Don't underestimate this point. In Xiao Baoyi's military tent, Xiao Baoyi couldn't enforce orders like Su Ze did. His prestige couldn't force the generals to obey orders willingly, so Xiao Baoyi would first let his confidants propose a proposal, and then everyone would argue based on the proposal, and finally Xiao Baoyi would come out to make the final decision. This kind of discussion efficiency is very inefficient, and there are countless disputes and exchanges of interests during the process.
But with Su Ze, it was always Su Ze who made the decisions and then explained the strategic intentions to everyone.
This is probably the difference between Cao Cao and Sun Quan.
When Cao Cao led the army, his generals were all his direct subordinates and the soldiers were all trained by him, so Cao Cao basically had the final say in deploying troops.
When Sun Quan was fighting, even in a war as life-and-death as the Battle of Chibi, he had to haggle with his subordinates for a long time. In the end, he had to rely on an alliance with Liu Bei to subdue the Jiangdong nobles and strengthen his determination to fight against Cao Cao.
Wei Xiaokuan sighed that things in this world are either easy at first and difficult later, or difficult at first and easy later.
When Su Ze started his career, I don't know how much effort he spent on training soldiers and generals to have such prestige as his current one.
Xiao Baoyin could easily gather a large army and mobilize the resources of the entire Guanxi, but his control over the army was superficial.
Wei Xiaokuan felt that joining Su Ze was a wise choice.
Su Ze said to Hou Jing:
"Xiao Wei, the governor of Yizhou in the Southern Liang Dynasty, has always had the ambition to capture Hanzhong and will not let go of this opportunity."
"When the spring ploughing is over, there will be a battle in Nanjiang."
Hou Jing immediately became excited when he heard Su Ze's judgment.
Su Ze is an expert at strategic planning, and this is something everyone in the army knows.
Up to now in the war, Su Ze can be said to have made every possible plan. This trust runs through the hearts of all the generals who follow Su Ze, so that they will not doubt Su Ze's "predictions".
Since General Su said that the Southern Liang army would take action to attack Nanjiang, there would definitely be a battle to fight if we stayed in Nanjiang.
Hou Jing accepted the order and left with peace of mind. The meeting that decided Su Ze's group's strategy for the year ended just like that.
It was so efficient that Wei Xiaokuan found it incredible!
-
At the same time, in Xiao Baoyin's tent, his subordinates were arguing endlessly about how to fight next.
Xiao Baoyin asked Liu Kai, the leader of the Guandong scholars, to lead the Guanxi army to attack Yongcheng, the capital of Qizhou.
But the result was that Liu Kai led his troops with many setbacks. When he arrived near Chencang along the Wei River and was ready to rest and march north to attack Yongcheng, he received news that the entire Jingzhou had also revolted.
As expected, Xiao Baoyin's military order came, asking Liu Kai to stop advancing and station troops near Chencang to await further orders from the governor.
As to whether to fight for Yongcheng or not, there were two different opinions among Xiao Baoyin's subordinates.
Before the troops were dispatched, the Guanxi soldiers were opposed to taking the initiative to attack Yongcheng, because the leader of the troops, Liu Kai, was from Guandong, but it was the soldiers from Guanxi who would go into battle to kill the enemy.
They would rather build a defense line in Yongzhou and hold it, rather than use the blood of their own children to gain military merit for the people of Guandong.
This time the quarrel was reversed.
Instead, the samurai in Kansai advocated fighting, while the samurai in Kanto advocated retreat.
The scholars in Guanxi believed that although Jingzhou was in rebellion, Mozhe Tiansheng's main force was still in Qinzhou, and now was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attack Yongcheng.
If Yongcheng was occupied, then Yongcheng and Chencang would block the exit down the mountain from the Longxi Plateau, and block the rebels in Qinzhou and Qizhou, so the government troops would not have to fight the rebels on the Qinchuan Plain.
However, the scholars in Guandong believed that the Qinzhou rebels had suffered heavy casualties in Liangzhou and Longxi, and were no longer the biggest threat.
The Jingzhou rebels were very powerful and had begun to attack Huazhou under the slogan of "True King".
If Huazhou is lost, the army will lose contact with Luoyang and lose support from outside the Great Wall.
The scholars in Guandong believed that they should gather in Chang'an and be ready to support Huazhou at any time.
Xiao Baoyin had a splitting headache. The rift between the two factions under his command was getting bigger and bigger. Now it had reached the point where whatever the people of Guandong supported, the people of Guanxi would definitely oppose.
There are endless cases of both sides tripping up and holding each other back.
Liu Kai sent out troops years ago, but they dragged their feet until today and have not been able to fight a battle under Yongcheng.
The final result of this military meeting was that Liu Kai's army continued to remain stationary in Chencang, waiting for reinforcements from the court.
-
April, the second year of Zhengguang, the second year of Tongguan.
Yizhou, Chengdu.
Since the Shu Han, Yizhou has been relatively stable compared to other places.
Since Huan Wen's conquest of Shu in the late Eastern Jin Dynasty, Shu has been under the control of the Southern Dynasties.
The fierce internal strife in the Southern Dynasty in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River rarely affected Shu.
Therefore, Shu has always been much more stable than other regions.
However, this stability is relative.
When Huan Wen was conquering Shu, he entered Shu and met a centenarian official from Shu. This old official had once worked as an official under Zhuge Liang.
Huan Wen once asked him:
"Is there anyone who can compare to Prime Minister Zhuge now?"
The clerk said:
"When Zhuge Liang was alive, no one thought he was that great; after his death, no one has ever seen anyone who can compare to him."
This is enough to show that Shu has not had a good life since Zhuge Liang ruled Shu Han.
Now the one guarding Shu Han from Southern Liang is Prince Nanping Xiao Wei.
Generally speaking, the royal family of Southern Liang is just as difficult to describe as that of Northern Wei.
The reputation of this Prince of Nanping is quite good.
However, this reputation is mainly the reputation of scholars towards him.
Nanping King Xiao Wei was sincere and forgiving, and he sought out virtuous people and respected scholars. When he was in Jiankang, he had more than a thousand retainers.
After he entered Sichuan, he made great efforts to build a mansion, and his retainers exceeded two thousand.
Of course, these guests were not all literati and warriors. Among them were also a large number of businessmen and rich farmers who took refuge under Xiao Wei.
The Northern Dynasties also had a system of retainers, which meant that the retainers of noble ministers could be exempted from taxes, but overall it was within a controllable range.
Except for top princes like Prince Qinghe, few ministers would keep too many retainers.
The Southern Dynasties were generous to the royal family and ministers, so they had many retainers under the protection of the princes and ministers. Moreover, they could enjoy the privileges of tax exemption and exemption from military service under the protection of the powerful. Therefore, the princes and ministers of the Southern Dynasties loved to keep retainers. For example, Zhu Yi, the minister most trusted by Xiao Yan, had 3,000 retainers and 10,000 slaves.
The followers under Chen Qingzhi were all his kept guests. Although Chen Qingzhi was only a court official of low rank, he could keep 300 guests. This is enough to show how serious the custom of keeping retainers was in the Southern Dynasties.
April 5th.
Xiao Yan's order was transmitted to Shu, and he ordered Xiao Wei to lead the Yizhou army as a detachment to attack Hanzhong.
(End of this chapter)