Towards the end of September, Zhao Hongrun led the Shang Shui Army and the Yan Ling Army that arrived in Yucheng to officially attack the hinterland of Sanchuan. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Before moving his army westward, he summoned his staff member Jie Zilu to him, entrusted the city to the latter, and let the latter temporarily take charge of the city.

In order to facilitate Jie Zi Ou's actions, Zhao Hongrun also left Zong Wei Gao Kuo, Chong Zhao, Mu Qing, He Miao, Zhu Gui and half of Su Wangwei in Ruocheng to protect Jie Zi Ou's safety.

It's not that Zhao Hongrun doesn't trust the entire Sichuan Alliance, in fact, Zhao Hongrun still trusts the Lu tribes governed by Lu Balon, Meng Liang and other tribesmen, as well as the Northern Sichuan Tribal Alliance led by Gu Yigu.

What he doesn't trust is the tribes.

Although he said that he had used deterrence and inducement to temporarily succumb to the tribes of the Sichuan Alliance, it was difficult to guarantee that there would not be a few hot-headed guys among them.

This time to the west, the city is a vital defense, Zhao Hongrun does not want the backyard to catch fire.

Of course, in fact, Zhao Hongrun had a better way, for example, as the commander of the Weixi battlefield, he transferred Zhu Hai, the general of the Gao army, to Luocheng and let him temporarily take over the city defense.

But in the end, Zhao Hongrun still chose Jie Ziyu, he wanted to see if this staff member who was not inferior to Kou Zheng in talent and learning could stabilize the entire Sichuan Alliance.

Of course, the stability mentioned here does not refer to whether there will be a rebellion, but to the public opinion of the Sichuan people, as well as the views and evaluations of the Sichuan people on the Wei State - with this invincible guest, who can cause trouble in Luocheng?

This is the first thing that Zhao Hongrun entrusted to Jie Zi Ou, as for the second thing, it is to let Jie Zi Owl continue to eat and drink well, and cater to Lian Jiu in every possible way, Zhao Hongrun wants to let Lian Jiu eat and drink in vain to his own heart.

After instructing all this, Zhao Hongrun took the Shangshui Army and the Yanling Army to go on the expedition.

Of course, the troops he went out to fight were not only the 100,000 soldiers and horses of the Shang Shui Army and the Yan Ling Army, except for the Wei army, he strictly ordered that all tribes under the Sichuan Alliance must send troops to participate in the war.

In this matter, he brought out the rule of advancing and retreating together in the alliance of the water and water that year, as long as those tribes did not want to withdraw from the alliance and did not want to be regarded as enemies by the Wei state, then they must cooperate with the Wei army to send troops to crusade against several tribes such as Wuxu, Qian, and Ling.

However, what surprised Zhao Hongrun was that the patriarch of the Aries tribe, who was still strongly opposed to the war against the Wusu tribe a few days ago, did not resist again after receiving Zhao Hongrun's order that he must send troops to coordinate, and honestly gathered 5,000 warriors of the Aries tribe, which made Zhao Hongrun a little surprised.

Five thousand tribal warriors, which is already a remarkable number for a single tribe, at least half of the young and middle-aged men of the Aries tribe.

Don't look at the Lun tribe of the Lun tribe of the Shan tribe dispatched 6,000 warriors, but in fact, half of these 6,000 warriors were slaves of other tribes, after all, relying on the young adults of their own tribe alone, the Lun tribe could not make up 6,000 warriors.

Of course, these slave-born Lun warriors are completely different from slaves, they are strong warriors who were personally selected from slaves by Lu Balon and have undergone strict training, and Lu Balon, as the patriarch, personally granted them the status of the children of the Lun tribe - this is also a helpless thing, after all, the Lun tribe of the Lun tribe has grown rapidly with the support of Zhao Hongrun, this is only a matter of the past five years, relying on the fertility of the women of the tribe alone, the Lun tribe cannot develop to such a scale in just five years, therefore, It is necessary to absorb strong men of other people.

In addition to the Lun tribe, the rest of the Lun tribes have also adopted this method to a greater or lesser extent. It can only be said that the Qiang people do not always talk about the glory of their ancestors like the Qiang people, and they do not mind supplementing the tribesmen from slaves, after all, going back hundreds of years, the ancestors of the Qiang people were the slaves of the Qiang people.

This is the reason why the tribes of the Qiang tribe under the Sichuan Alliance have grown rapidly and have faintly caught up with the Shan tribe.

Whether it is coercion, inducement or personal charm, the total number of troops under Zhao Hongrun's expedition has reached 170,000, plus the vanguard army led by Sima An, the general of the Dangshan Army, and Bo Xile, the commander of the cavalry in northern Sichuan, Zhao Hongrun's troops have exceeded 220,000 in this expedition.

This is not the most extreme number, as long as Zhao Hongrun is willing, he can gather at least 50,000 soldiers, as well as as as more than 100,000 slave soldiers, and increase the number of troops to 400,000.

Of course, this is not necessary, after all, in Zhao Hongrun's eyes, slave soldiers cannot be regarded as combat power at all, they are just consumables on the battlefield, rather than wasting these slaves on the battlefield in vain, Zhao Hongrun should let them build roads. What's more, 220,000 troops are enough to sweep the entire Sanchuan.

The opening of the 170,000 army is undeniably spectacular, because it does not affect the march, Zhao Hongrun divided the 170,000 army under his command into three parts, namely the Shangshui Army, the Yanling Army, and the Sichuan-Yu Coalition Army.

Among them, he personally led the Sichuan-Yu coalition army, while Wu Ji and Qu Cheng led the Shang Water Army and the Yanling Army respectively as Zhao Hongrun's deputy generals.

On the way to the march, the Sichuan-Yu coalition army was also in the center, and the Shangshui army and the Yanling army were on each side, so as to maximize the deterrence against the Sichuan-Yu coalition army.

In order to facilitate the command, Zhao Hongrun took the patriarchs who participated in the dispatch of troops with him, among these patriarchs or representatives of the patriarchs, he trusted the most was undoubtedly Lu Balon and other patriarchs of the Qiang tribe, as well as his brother-in-law, the young patriarch of the Qingyang tribe, Wuwu - the old patriarch of the Qingyang tribe, and also Zhao Hongrun's father-in-law, Amutu chose to stay in the Sichuan Alliance, and asked his son Wuwu to lead the warriors of the Qingyang tribe to follow Zhao Hongrun to defeat the Wuxu tribe.

Looking at those Sichuan Coalition soldiers riding horses and carrying bows, Zhao Hongrun was really a little surprised.

Even if he didn't expect it, half of the Sichuan-Yu coalition army, which numbered 70,000 people, was actually cavalry, and it was also a cavalry that was not inferior to the cavalry of northern Sichuan.

Therefore, he was glad that he had come up with the suggestion of Wei Chuan Trade and encircled these tribes, otherwise, wouldn't he have lost the assistance of tens of thousands of cavalry?

You must know that the Qiang people in the Sichuan Alliance, not only do they not resist the Wei culture, but they are also very keen to learn, so in a sense, after a few years, the Qiang people and the Wei people will actually no longer be different, and at that time, the Qiang cavalry is actually equivalent to the local cavalry of Wei, this situation will greatly change the embarrassment of the lack of cavalry in Wei.

The merger of the tribal people into the Wei people may make the people feel uncomfortable, but I believe that the people of the Yi people will not resist too much, at least not Lu Balong, this once muscular warrior, now a fat man full of fat, is said to be thinking about letting the people take a surname, so that it is convenient to completely integrate into the nobility of the Wei State.

Because for now, Lu Balon is very rich, but he can't become a nobleman of Wei, because he is from a different race, but if he changes his surname to Wei, although it can't be said that he can immediately integrate into the nobles of Wei, but it has reduced a lot of obstacles.

Of course, like this kind of thing, Lu Balon himself change it has little effect, it is best to be given the surname by Wei Tianzi, even if it is not given the surname Zhao, even if it is given by another name, it can greatly change the image and status of Lu Balon and these Sichuan people in the aristocratic circle of Wei State.

Zhao Hongrun was very supportive of this matter, so he hinted to Lu Balon that as long as they did a good job this time, he would not mind playing the Vertical Arch Hall and speaking for them, which made Lu Balon, Meng Liang and other tribal patriarchs of the Yi tribe very excited.

Just by looking at the nouveau riche dress on their bodies, you can see that these Sichuan patriarchs are very yearning for the status of the nobles of the Wei State - after all, they are the nobles of the alliance country.

"Report!"

A group of Sentry Cavalry of the Lun tribe returned from a distance, and one of the horsemen came to Lu Baron and whispered a few words in his ear.

Lu Baron frowned, pulled the horse closer to Zhao Hongrun, and whispered a few words in Zhao Hongrun's ear, and Zhao Hongrun also frowned slightly when he heard it.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Hongrun shook his head and said, "Don't detour, keep moving forward!" ”

What is it that makes this mysterious?

It turned out that according to the marching direction of Zhao Hongrun's army, about four miles further ahead, there was a tribal garrison that was destroyed by the Wei vanguard army.

After the attack of the cavalry of the Dangshan Army and the cavalry of northern Sichuan, the tribe that I don't know whether it was the Qiang or the Qiang tribe has become a ruin, except for the charred corpses everywhere, there is not a single living mouth.

If it was a few years ago, Zhao Hongrun would have chosen to avoid it, trying to avoid the Sichuan-Yu coalition army from seeing the violent side of the Wei army, after all, slaughtering civilians is really not a martial art.

But today, Zhao Hongrun didn't mind taking this opportunity to let the patriarchs under his command recognize the reality and let them completely understand the fate of being enemies of the Wei army and the Wei state.

The army, silently passing through the ruins of the tribe.

It can be seen that the faces of the patriarchs such as Halegoh are not very good-looking.

In fact, these patriarchs already knew that when they gathered warriors in Yucheng, the 50,000 cavalry of northern Sichuan led by Bosil, followed by the butcher Sima An, had already taken the first step to the hinterland of Sanchuan and slaughtered those tribes who were unwilling to submit to the Wei state.

However, hearing about it and seeing it with your own eyes are clearly two different things.

The Sichuan and Yu coalition forces, only twenty zhang away from the ruins, slowly passed by.

At this distance, you can clearly see the charred corpses all over the ruins of this tribe, and the human head that has been pecked by vultures and crows on the banner of the Dangshan Army in front of the tribe is almost a skeleton.

"Quack, quack—"

A few crows perched on the only preserved building in the ruins of the tribe, a wooden frame that looked like an archway.

This kind of archway-like building in Wei culture is mainly used to distinguish tribes in Sanchuan - each tribe will depict the totemic sketch of its own tribe on this kind of building, and hang some ornaments made of sheep bones.

In front of me, there is a whole piece of sheep's skull hanging in the center of the gate-like building.

"Tribal ......"

Lu Baron muttered as if gloating, which aroused Zhao Hongrun's curiosity.

Zhao Hongrun was very outside, and Lu Balon saw through the race of this tribe at a glance.

"It's simple." After hearing Zhao Hongrun's inquiry, Lu Baron explained to Zhao Hongrun in a low voice.

It turns out that although both the Qiang and the Qiang will use the sheep's skull as a totem, there is a slight difference between the two: the Qiang people generally only use the whole sheep's skull, while the Qiang people will add the sheep's horns and make a fuss on the horns.

After all, there are many kinds of sheep in the Sanchuan grassland, and the shapes of the horns of these herds of sheep are different.

And the sheep skull on the gate in front of me, only to see that the skull does not have horns, so it is obvious that this is a tribe of the Qiang tribe.

I see......

Zhao Hongrun suddenly realized, and then glanced back at the behind him, and looked at the faces of the tribal chiefs such as Halegohe.

Sure enough, these tribal patriarchs also recognized the belonging of this tribal ruin, and their faces were very ugly, and their eyes were full of anger, sadness, helplessness and other complicated looks.

But in the end, the patriarchs either bowed their heads, or looked away, and said nothing.

……

After taking a few deep glances at these patriarchs, Zhao Hongrun continued to ride forward.

And when he turned his head, Halegoh of the Aries tribe turned his gaze to Zhao Hongrun.

Including Halgohe, several patriarchs of the Qiang tribe knew that His Royal Highness King Su in front of him could have ordered the army to divert and avoid this ruin, but His Royal Highness King Su didn't, and the meaning of this is self-evident.

After this war, I, Sanchuan, will become a vassal of Wei......

Halgoh clenched the reins of his horse tightly in both hands and sighed gloomily.

It is undeniable that His Royal Highness King Su in front of him is still relatively mild in his means of "recovering Sanchuan", but even so, Halegoh still feels a little unwilling.

But there is no way to be unwilling, just like the patriarch of the Qingyang tribe, Amutu, said, the only thing they can do now is to try to make the young people of their tribe remember the culture and traditions of their tribe during the period of assimilation by the Wei State, and leave the inheritance as much as possible.

What else can they do?

When they bit the bait of Wei Chuan trade, which was thrown by the Wei State, they had already lost the confidence to resist the Wei State.

In a sense, after His Royal Highness defeated them by force, he used money and wealth to create a shackle that made them willingly restrained.

With a heavy heart, the patriarchs of the Halgoh and other tribes continued to follow Zhao Hongrun and follow the army to the hinterland of Sanchuan.

As they went deeper and deeper into the hinterland of Sanchuan, the traces of slaughter left by the Wei army were exposed to them one by one.

Even Zhao Hongrun was startled, and he realized that the scene of scorched corpses everywhere in the ruins of the tribe was nothing at all.

For example, when they passed through a forest, the branches of the forest were hung with ropes from the corpses of the cavalry.

A flock of croaking crows pecked at the corpses to the bone.

If you pass by at night, you have to be scared to death......

Looking at the chrysalis-like corpses in the forest from a distance, Zhao Hongrun frowned secretly.

But when he secretly looked at the patriarchs of the Qiang clan in his team, he found that these people were not a little annoyed.

What's going on? Is it because the other party is not a Qiang people?

A hint of confusion flashed in Zhao Hongrun's eyes.

It wasn't until he asked Lu Baron that he suddenly realized that there was a custom called celestial burial on the grassland, that is, the dead were placed on a high place, such as the top of a mountain, and the birds were deliberately pecked at the corpses.

The steppe people believed that in this way, the birds would carry the soul of the dead man and return the latter to the arms of the gods of the plateau.

Because of this, it seems that this kind of deterrent method that makes the Wei people feel uncomfortable actually can't scare the Sichuan people.

It seems that General Sima An didn't do his homework......

Zhao Hongrun shook his head secretly.

He originally thought that Sima An's methods were the only way, but it turned out that he misestimated Sima An's cruelty.

No, in the afternoon of the same day, Zhao Hongrun saw a Jingguan along the way, that is, a high mound made of corpses and heads piled up and sealed with soil.

Looking at those dense corpses from afar, especially those heads with dead eyes and desperate faces, even Zhao Hongrun felt a little churning in his stomach, but because of his majesty, he could only forcibly endure it.

And the patriarchs of the Qiang tribe such as Halegoh almost stared out their eyes - they were also violent corpses, and the difference in culture made them not mind that the birds would peck at the corpses of the corpse warriors, but they couldn't bear the corpses of the Sichuan warriors being built into a Jingguan to show off their martial arts.

It's a bit too much, General Sima An......

Looking at the seeping Jingguan, Zhao Hongrun thought secretly in his heart.

He had long known that Sima An, the general of the Dangshan Army, was a person who was not inferior to Tian Tan, a famous general of Qi State, in terms of commander and cruelty, but he did not expect that Sima An would build the corpses of the Sichuan people into a Jingguan.

After all, Jingguan, a thing that shows off martial arts and doesn't know whether to call it a building or what, has long disappeared in the Central Plains, because it is so cruel that the people of the Central Plains can accept the slaughter of the city, but they can't accept Jingguan.

"Your Royal Highness King Su, please allow me to bury him."

The patriarch of the Aries tribe, Halgohe, came to Zhao Hongrun and pleaded with a complicated expression.

Although Zhao Hongrun is also a little resistant to the Beijing Temple built by Sima An, but from the overall situation, he does not object to Sima An's violence, after all, there are indeed many people in Sanchuan who do not shed tears when they do not see the coffin, and sometimes, cruelty is necessary, but it can minimize casualties.

Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun said lightly: "These people are rebels, Halegohe. ”

"Yes......" Listening to Zhao Hongrun's cold tone, Halegoh hesitated for a while, and said sincerely: "Even so, these heroic warriors should not be treated so cruelly, I beg you, Your Royal Highness King Su." ”

Zhao Hongrun pretended to think for a moment, and in the end, he nodded and agreed.

After all, in the end, he didn't have a good feeling about this Jingguan, and it was strange and infiltrating, which made him feel creepy.

"For the sake of thy supplication......

"Thank you, Your Royal Highness King Su!" Halegoh said with a happy face.

The army moved on.

After marching like this for three or five days, they encountered many traces of deterrence deliberately left by the Wei army along the way, such as the forest full of corpses, the forest of guns formed by poking the corpses with spears, and the Jingguan that made Zhao Hongrun feel creepy.

After Zhao Hongrun's approval, Halgoh would send someone to bury the corpses every time.

But in the following days, the traces of the Wei army's slaughter of the Sichuan tribe gradually decreased, and even, the army led by Zhao Hongrun encountered a migrating tribe, only to see that the tribe's clansmen protected the two flags like treasures: a Wei flag and a Sichuan alliance flag.

"I have heard that this tribe is preparing to move to my Sichuan."

The warriors of the Lun tribe, who had been sent to inquire about the situation, said this when they returned.

Zhao Hongrun nodded and didn't say anything, and the patriarchs of the Halgoh and other tribes looked much better when they saw that tribe - the Wei army was not a senseless slaughter.

But when they thought of the Sichuan people who were slaughtered by the Wei people, the patriarchs such as Halegoh still felt quite uncomfortable.

In this regard, Zhao Hongrun just said lightly: "The destroyed tribe is a pity, but the Sichuan people who can survive are actually more ......."

Halgoch thought about it and felt that Zhao Hongrun's words were not untargeted.

After all, the more ruthless Sima An killed at the beginning, the more frightened the Sichuan people became, and they did not dare to fight against it, so they could only choose to surrender, and surrender would be able to survive, according to this calculation, the population loss of Sanchuan was indeed much less than that of these tribes who all leaned on the Wusu tribe.

Sure enough, in the days that followed, when the army continued to advance towards the hinterland of Sanchuan, there were gradually no more tribal garrisons destroyed by the Wei army, and some of the tribes that survived the massacre of the Wei vanguard army chose to move to Yucheng, and some decided to continue to live on the original land, but in any case, these tribes kept the two flags intact and hung them high on the highest part of the tribe.

At this time, Lu Balon looked at the surrounding environment and said to Zhao Hongrun: "Your Highness, further forward is the Lu clan, and it is not too early, so it is better to repair here first, so that the soldiers can recuperate enough...... Although the Flamehorn Army of the Wusu Tribe is not as good as our warriors, it is not to be taken lightly. ”

Zhao Hongrun glanced up at the sky, nodded and said, "Well, then let's rest here today." ”

Hearing this, Lu Balon hugged his fists, and then ordered several warriors behind him: "You go to that tribe and ask the patriarch of the tribe to prepare food for His Royal Highness King Su." ”

The Lun warriors were about to leave according to the order, but they saw Zhao Hongrun shouting to them and said, "No need, this king will rest in the army." ”

"This ......" Lu Baron was stunned, looking a little hesitant.

As if guessing Lu Balon's thoughts, Zhao Hongrun shook his head, pointed to the two flags hanging high in the distance, and said: "Since this tribe chooses to submit to Chuan Yu and surrender to my Great Wei, then in the eyes of this king, it is no different from the people of my Great Wei, and this king has no reason to disturb them." …… Pass the order, the whole army must not disturb the tribe, and those who violate the order will be beheaded! ”

His words made the expressions of the Clan chiefs such as Halegoh even more strange.

But no matter what, they must admit that His Royal Highness is a very principled person.

That night, Zhao Hongrun, like the rest of the coalition army, fell asleep with a campfire and a sheepskin blanket.

The next day, the 170,000-strong army left the place and continued to advance towards the Lu Clan's grassland, which was controlled by the Wuxu royal court.

From beginning to end, the Wei Yu coalition army did not commit any offense against that tribe, and not a single soldier came to disturb the tribe, so that the tribesmen of the tribe were very surprised to see the 170,000 army coming and leaving.

On that day, when Zhao Hongrun led the army to the Lu clan, he was surprised to find that the Wuxu tribe that originally lived here had actually moved away.

At this time, Zhao Hongrun also received news about the Qin army, and learned that the Qin army garrison and Hangu did not step into the hinterland of Sanchuan at a single step.

What's going on? I feel that the momentum of the Qin army this time is a little weak, or ......

"Go and find out, who is the commander of the Qin army this time!" Zhao Hongrun instructed the accompanying green crows.

After waiting for the few green crows to leave, Zhao Hongrun frowned and looked in the direction of Hangu.

He was not afraid of a field battle with the Qin army on the Sanchuan grassland, after all, according to the information he knew, the Qin army only dispatched more than 100,000 troops this time, although I don't know what the combat strength was, but in terms of troops, it was inferior to the Wei and Yu coalition forces - a total of 220,000 troops.

What's more, of the 220,000 troops of the Wei coalition army, there are still 70,000 or 80,000 cavalry, and Zhao Hongrun doesn't think that he will lose to the Qin army in the field battle.

But on the contrary, the Qin army garrisoned Hangu and put on a posture of wanting to fight a decisive battle with the Wei army there.

Is it because of the last loss of school?

Or did the Qin army have other plans?

Zhao Hongrun couldn't think of a reason, he just felt that the Qin army, which was no weaker than the Wei army in terms of battlefield momentum, should not be so cowardly.

Delaying Tactics...... Is it?

Zhao Hongrun frowned, this was what he was most worried about.