This is the third year of Jianxing, and at the beginning of the year, the Chang'an court really sent an edict to allow Pei Gai to inherit the title of Duke of Julu County. This time, Pei should not push back again, nor did he send someone to greet Jiankang first, one is that it is his own thing, even the governor of eastern Shaanxi can't control the matter of attacking the lord, and the other is that it is enough to greet him once, but if he has more, he shows a weak and flattering attitude, and may make people suspicious.

went to Xuzhou in the autumn to ripen, and Pei should explode again. He also recruited a large number of displaced people from the north bank of the Yangtze River, and kept the number of military camps at about 10,000, but he converted a large number of peasant soldiers who had been trained for a whole year into professional soldiers—of course, it was impossible to completely cut off production, and if the farmers were busy, they still needed to work in the fields. The name of the four battalions of the wind forest volcano remains the same, but the number has been tripled, and each battalion is divided into left, middle and right, and there are three deputy governors in charge of the camp.

In this regard, the number of soldiers reached 10,000, and the auxiliary soldiers were also 10,000.

The production of the four counties under its jurisdiction has basically recovered, and with the profits of salt and iron and coinage, it is really the second richest place in the world - the first is Jiankang City, which is crowded with hundreds of wealthy families after all, and it cannot be compared for the time being. Originally, every autumn harvest, the princess Pei of the East China Sea would take out a part of the royal family's taxes, and Pei should transport the income from the industry next to Danhu Lake to Huainan.

According to the statistics of Zhou Zhu, as long as there is no catastrophe in the future, an army of about 20,000 can be maintained every year - it refers to the soldiers who are basically out of production, not the peasant soldiers.

Of course, this is calculated based on the general supply level of soldiers in those years, but Pei Gai is from two thousand years later, and he is really not used to seeing more than half of his soldiers and horses have vegetables, and even if it is not wartime, it is often difficult to even fill his stomach. Pei's soldiers, the staple food was almost open-supplied—even if it was often coarse grains mixed with barnyard bran—in order to give them the strength to participate in training, and there was no shortage of salt, vegetables, and occasionally meat. Bian Yan once reminded Pei Gai, saying: "If the king treats the soldiers too well, even the slaves of large families, they may not have such food and clothing." They are full of food and worry, how can they still have the heart to fight? ”

Pei Caixin said that your theory is strange, do you have to be hungry to be willing to rush to kill? Oh, that's right, then after winning the battle, you can grab money, food, and women to make up for the lack of weekdays...... smiled at the moment and said to Bian Yan: "But if they know how to win, they can keep food and clothing for a long time, and if they lose, they will gain nothing, so how can they not care?" Besides, if there is no one in the world who raises troops like me, he will not disperse, let alone join the enemy. ”

He estimated that if Shi Le and other warlords were here, relying on the land of these four counties, about 30,000 or 40,000 victorious soldiers and 60,000 or 70,000 auxiliary soldiers would be able to pull up—of course, there must be enough men to become successful—but he would never be able to learn from them. The elite soldier policy is not only to win the battle, but also to not harass the place as much as possible, otherwise, the soldiers are like locusts, am I saving the world, or did I deliberately travel through the troubled times?

Last winter, Pei Gai once again led a battalion of soldiers north to take Donghai County, but because he did not have enough men to stay in the town, he finally had to follow the rogues, captive more than 10,000 people, and then turn back - he did not encounter any strong enemies, it was just an armed parade.

Then turned the year, in early summer, it was still the busy agricultural season, and it should not be easy to use soldiers, but Pei should have ordered the two battalions of wind and fire, as well as the two hundred cavalry led by Wen Lang - to paraphrase the words of later generations, it can be regarded as Pei Gai's "family ding" - 5,000 soldiers and horses, leaving Huaiyin County and going west along Huai - just more than half a month before Tao De led Pei Wei and others back.

The reasons for Pei Cai's mobilization are very complex, and they can be roughly summarized into the following three points:

The first is to go to reinforce Zu Ti.

It is said that in June and July of last year, Liu Yao led Yin Kai, Zhao Ran and other generals to attack Beidi County, and Sima Ye made Shangshu Zuo Servant, leading the general, holding the Jie, Xirong Captain, Lu Shangshu, and led Yongzhou Assassin Shi Liyun to lead the army to resist. Lu Yun won the first battle and captured the Han general Yin Kai, but then was violently counterattacked by Liu Yao's main force and was forced to retreat, not daring to fight again. Not only that, Lu Yun also wrote to Chang'an for help, and suggested giving up Chang'an City and going to Shangqi with Sima Ye to attach himself to Sima Bao.

Suo Qi naturally refused to agree, but asked Sima Ye to issue an edict, severely reprimanded Lu Yun, and summoned all the surrounding departments to gather in Chang'an, thinking that he was stubborn - but after a long call, almost no one responded. In winter, Liu Yao's army approached Chang'an City, and Suo Qi was forced to send an envoy out of the customs to ask Zu Ti for help.

So Zu Shizhi went west to Xiangcheng, and also contacted Chen Wu of Pengguan to coordinate the dispatch of troops. Chen Wu ordered his uncle Chen Chuan to lead the army to help, but when Zu Ti encountered the main force of the Hu Han army led by Liu Cang, Jin Ming and other generals near Jiaxian, and the battle was unfavorable, Chen Chuan was less than ten miles away, but he sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight, and did not move. In the end, Zu Ti won the hard battle, Liu Cang and Jin Ming were only spared, but the elite of the Jin army also suffered a lot of losses, and the grain was burned by the Hu army, so they were unable to continue to advance, so they had to return to Qiaocheng.

So why did Chen Chuan refuse to rescue Zu Ti? Later, I learned that in the battle of Richen Pavilion, Chen Wu sent Li Tou to lead troops to help, Li Tou fought bravely, and was quite courteous to Zu Ti, so after he went back, he often sighed and said: "If I can get Zu Yuzhou as the master, although I die without hatred!" When Chen Chuan heard this, he was extremely angry, and when he sent troops this time, and Li Tou was also under his command, he simply found an excuse to execute Li Tou, and the garrison waited and watched, wanting to see Zu Tou out of trouble. Li Tou took out more than 400 people led by Feng Chongxuan, surrendered to Zu Li, and told him about Li Tou's murder.

Zu Ti was very angry, so on the one hand, he wrote to Chen Wu to ask about the matter, and on the other hand, he also sent a messenger to Huaiyin, saying that I have recently suffered a setback, it is difficult to move forward, Chang'an is in danger, you should hurry up and send some more soldiers and horses and supplies over.

After Pei Gai received the letter, he said in his heart that I have a lot of supplies, and I can transport some of them to you first, but the soldiers and horses can't be given away so easily - okay, I'll go on a trip myself, at least I can help you with your prestige.

The second reason for Pei Gai's westward march was to demonstrate.

After the future uncle Yu Yin went to Jiangbei to gild for just one year, he carried more than ten carts of cages and returned to Jiankang proudly, and Linhuai Neishi was replaced by Yu Bing. Yu Bingzi Ji Jian, is Yu Liang's brother, when he first came to meet Pei Gai, his posture was very low and his attitude was very sincere, but once he took office, even if he dismissed Pei Gai's previous county commanders, he was replaced by his own cronies - this is obviously that the Yu family wants to make a move in Jiangbei and dig into the corner of his Pei Wenyue!

Almost at the same time, the caravans sent by Pei Gai to Jiangdong to sell salt, iron and other special products were also often subjected to unreasonable exploitation, and the profit margin fell to 40% of the past. Jiankang even sent people to Huaiyin, saying that the war in Xiangzhou was raging, and he hoped that Xuzhou could help supply some grain, as well as equipment and horses.

If this was a year ago, Pei Gai would have endured it, and he had to knock out his front teeth and swallow it in his stomach under the low eaves, but now that his treasury is full and there are tens of thousands of soldiers, there is no need to look up to Cheng Jiankang's face anymore. He was hospitable to the envoys sent by Jiankang, but he shirked his requests, and in the end he only paid a tribute of 10,000 grains of rice, 10,000 pieces of cloth, and four carts of ordnance—exactly twice the amount funded by the Jiankang court when he crossed to the north that year.

That means: I have paid back everything you gave, plus interest, what are you waiting for?!

But for the Linhuai problem and the caravan problem, it is not so easy to solve. Pei Cai just didn't want Wang Dao, Yu Liang and others to hinder or demand behind their backs, and he didn't plan to officially turn his face with the Jiankang regime in a short period of time, so it was impossible to expel Yu Bing, and it was inconvenient to arm the merchants...... After much thought, the idea of a demonstration arose.

Pei Gai's plan was to first lead the army to Yanzhou to help Zu Ti, and then cross the Huai River to the south, return to Xuzhou along the north bank of the Yangtze River, and hold another armed parade. The most powerful army in Jiankang is Wang Dunbu of Jiangzhou, when the time comes, it will roar across the Yangtze River, and then invite Wang Maohong to meet him, so as to observe the prosperity of our army and the abundance of grain - in June and July, when the green and yellow are not available, I will be able to wave thousands of miles, how much money and food are sufficient, do you need to say - wait for Wang Dun to report to Jiankang, Wang Dao, Yu Liang, you must weigh it in your heart.

The third reason is not demonstrations, but exaltation.

Pei Gai deeply hated the backwardness of the level of communication in these years, although he studied the history books of later generations, but firstly, many details were often omitted in the history books, and secondly, after his own stirring, the trend of history gradually deviated from the right track, and if the situation outside Xuzhou was blackened, it was categorically unable to gallop the Central Plains. So he personally trained and sent a lot of meticulous work, scattered everywhere, and used business travel to collect all kinds of intelligence - although he was not engaged in intelligence professionalism, but relying on the knowledge from later generations, he thought that he would not be much worse than the intelligence masters of this era.

According to the intelligence summary, it is known that there has been a conflict between the Chang'an regime and the Jiankang regime, and the focus of the dispute is Jingzhou. Chang'an sent the fifth Yi as the general of Annan, supervising the military affairs of Jing, Liang, Yi, and Ning, and the history of Jingzhou, and led the army south, wanting to enter Jingzhou, but was blocked by Sima Rui's Jingzhou Assassin Wang Xuan, and temporarily stationed troops in Nanxiang Zhixi County. Pei should plan to go to Xixian County to meet the fifth Yi for a while, ostensibly to help Jiankang political authority suppress him, but in fact, he brought a message to Chang'an through the fifth Yi:

Dongfang is not only Zu Shizhi, but also my Pei Wenyue! Do you want to extend an olive branch to me to restrain Jiangdong? Then hurry up and come out with some good conditions.

Moreover, in the north of Jingzhou, in addition to the fifth Yi, there is also Xun Xiang of Wancheng. This Xun Jingyou was originally the acting general of Pingnan in Heyin and the governor of the Jiangbei military in Jingzhou, but for some reason, he did not merge with the Fifth Yi, but on the contrary, he was more inclined to the Jiankang side - but it seems that he has not really caught up with the line, and the Jiankang regime has no clear signs of recruiting him.

The Xun family is the Yingchuan family, a large family in the Central Plains, with a long family lineage, and above the Pei family, Xun Xiang is the great-great-grandson of the famous Xun Yu Xun Wenruo. Pei Gai was short of people at hand, so he wondered, since you Xun Jingyou are not inclined to Chang'an, but you have not yet thrown into the arms of Jiankang, are you willing to come to me?

This is the real golden horse bone, if Xun Song is obtained, maybe in the future, the Xun group of Heyin will not survive, and they will all run to Xuzhou instead of Jiangdong.

When it comes to Xun Xiang, Pei Cai can't help but think of the famous daughter Xun Guanniang in the legend - to be honest, he knew Xun Guanniang earlier than Xun Xiang in his previous life. However, at the age of thirteen, he can break through and ask for help to save his father and family, how unreliable it is to listen to - Pei Gai, a contemporary aristocratic girl, has also seen a lot, and he can't imagine a junior high school with excellent martial arts at all...... It's even just a tall girl. Especially in a scholarly family like Xun's, there have only been scribes and military generals for several generations, how can it be genetically mutated to this extent?

It is often ridiculed as "filthy", and the materials are not selected at all, and all the gods and ghosts, absurd things are willing to record. Oh, and maybe it's the other way around, a lot of the chapters may have been copied directly.

Either this matter is not empty at all, or there is such a Xun Guan Niang, but it will definitely not be only thirteen years old. However, when I went to see Xun Xiang, I could ask and explore the truth of history, which was also quite interesting.

Because of the above reasons, Pei should go west in the summer. But he didn't expect that he would really see that Xun Guan Niang on this trip!