Dong Zhuo looked at Liu Xiu more and more pleasing to the eyes, and he was reluctant to leave after drinking, so he continued to chat in the Assassin's Mansion, although he had only done the history of the Assassin of Bingzhou for more than a year, but he had fought with Zhang Huan in Bingzhou before, and he knew more about the situation in the northern Xinjiang of Bingzhou. Hearing Liu Xiu say that he was going to Tuntian in the Sanfeng area, he knew that the imperial court's determination to reorganize the northern frontier defense was not small, and the difficulties faced could not be underestimated, so he told Liu Xiu in detail about his worries to the best of his knowledge.

Liu Xiu was grateful and humbly taught. The more the two talked, the more speculative they became, and in detail they talked about the second half of the night, Dong Zhuo didn't leave, so he slept with Liu Xiu, and only set off for Hedong to take office the next day.

Liu Xiu personally sent Dong Zhuo out of Jinyang for twenty miles, and did not stop until the camp under Longshan.

The camp has been stationed under the arrangement of Duan Xuan and Zhang Ji, Liu Xiu entered the camp, and immediately found Zhao Yun and others, on the one hand, he relayed the situation that Dong Zhuo said to them, and on the other hand, asked them who would like to go to Sanfeng to check the terrain, and then to garrison troops in Tuntian in the area of Sanfeng, what is the situation there, what preparations need to be made, there must be someone to find out first. Liu Xiu has to go to a lot of places next, and it may take a while to wait for the three seals.

Yuan Shao's face was not very good, his expression was very tired, and his eyes were still a little bloodshot, it seemed that he received guests late last night, and he didn't react for a while. Han Sui hesitated for a while, and was about to speak, when Zhao Yun opened his mouth: "My lord, I'll go." ”

Liu Xiu was very satisfied, Sanfeng was a critical place, not only to be able to attack, but also to be able to defend, it was necessary for someone like Zhao Yun to go. He immediately reappointed Zhao Yun as the Sima of the other department, and immediately set off with the people of his headquarters. Although Sima of the other department is also Sima, he has the right to read and lead the army, which is relatively more important.

Wang Yun quickly rushed to the Longshan camp with some of the Peng subordinates of the Assassin Mansion, after yesterday's battle, he now knows that Liu Xiu is not the kind of person who easily admits defeat, and Liu Xiu also said that his purpose is to expel the Xianbei people and keep the state safe, which is somewhat consistent with Wang Yun's own ambition, but what Liu Xiu plans to do specifically, he still needs to ask clearly.

Although Liu Xiu didn't like Wang Yun, he didn't show any unhappiness, he told Wang Yun about his difficulties. I now have only 2,000 men, and the Son of Heaven has given me 5,000 men, and I will recruit at least 3,000 men in Bingzhou. The Changshui battalion is cavalry, so the soldiers to be recruited should also be mainly cavalry, and more importantly, I don't want to turn the Changshui battalion into a cavalry battalion dominated by nomads, I want to levy a large number of Han people as cavalry.

Wang Yun was very satisfied when he heard this, and he immediately said, Don't worry, my lord is adjacent to the border, and there are not many people who are good at riding and shooting, and it is not too much of a problem to recruit 3,000 people. I also think that if all the Huns or Wuhuan people are the cavalry, there will inevitably be trouble in the future, and we must have our own Han cavalry. Although he didn't say it explicitly, the meaning revealed in his words was that he didn't even believe the people of Liangzhou, because there were a lot of Qianghu among the people of Liangzhou, including Dong Zhuo himself, who had Qianghu blood, and they were barbarians in their blood, and they were restless lords.

Wang Yun also said that Taiyuan goes north to Yanmen, Yanmen has a Loufu County, used to be Beidi people, now after hundreds of years of culture, they are already the people of the Han Dynasty, they are still half farming and half herding, good at riding and shooting, when Emperor Gaozu fought the world, although the number of people is not as good as before, but recruiting a song should be more than enough.

Wang Yun then explained to Liu Xiu the situation in Bingzhou, such as what the situation is in each county now, where there are salt ponds, where there are iron officials, where the people are suitable for being soldiers, where the people are basically thieves now, and there are only a few dozen households in a county. He has read a lot of books and thinks about things more carefully, which is more comprehensive than Dong Zhuo's focus on military affairs. Liu Xiu was greatly inspired after hearing this, and felt that although this was a bit screwed, his ability was indeed not small.

Liu Xiu proposed to build a school in Jinyang, set up two departments of civil and military, and asked Cai Yong and Duan Cheng to serve as Mr. Wenwu respectively, Wang Yun was a little disapproving, but he did not object. He was more enthusiastic about Liu Xiu's request to select some people from the prisons in each county to enter the barracks, and immediately set about it.

At noon, Hao Zhao rushed to the camp. Liu Xiu and Wang Yun understood, Hao Zhao's grandfather Hao Jie turned out to be a famous celebrity, because of opposition to the general Liang Ji, forced to flee, Liang Ji sent people to chase him, he estimated that he could not escape, so he carried the coffin to Liang Ji's mansion to write a book, and when the book entered Liang Jimen, he committed suicide by drinking medicine. Liang Ji did not kill his whole family later, but the reputation of the Hao family was lost, and Hao Zhao's father died of depression not long after. At that time, Hao Zhao had just been born, and there were no adult men in the family, so the Hao family was naturally defeated.

Liu Xiu asked Hao Zhao to demonstrate, and saw that although he was young, he had a lot of strength, not only was he proficient in bows, but he could also shoot bows left and right, and he was indeed a good seedling, so he decided to accept it. The Hao family was defeated anyway, there was nothing to be nostalgic for, Liu Xiu asked him to sell the old mansion and take his mother and younger siblings to live in the Thorn History Mansion, his younger siblings could just study in the school, his mother could wash the pulp and earn some pocket money, plus Hao Zhao's salary, it was no big problem to support the family.

Hao Zhao was grateful.

Time flies, in the blink of an eye, it has entered the wax moon, Liu Xiu saw that the matter of Jinyang School was going on, and there would be no result for a while and a half, so he decided to take a trip to the frontier, on the one hand, to see the situation in northern Xinjiang, on the other hand, to comfort the soldiers guarding the border, especially to the Huns' pasture. Wang Yun felt very reasonable and decided to accompany Liu Xiu on a trip.

So Liu Xiu took Yuan Shao and Han Sui, plus more than 300 newly recruited, and embarked on the road to the north. Dong Zhuo said that he counted, and as soon as he arrived in Hedong, he sent iron ingots, plus the inventory in the arsenal of Jinyang County, Liu Xiu finally had 5,000 people in hand to use iron for armor, but it would take a while to complete the construction, and now he could barely equip the existing personnel.

Entering the territory of Yanmen, Wang Ze, the Taishou of Yanmen, rushed to greet him, he and Wang Yun are considered to be the same sect, probably because he had been notified by Wang Yun before, knowing that this new assassin is a soft and not hard, so his attitude is very good, and there are five hundred floors with him, these people are fully equipped, Liu Xiu only knew when he asked, this was ordered by Wang Yun, and a large part of the money was raised by Wang Yun.

Liu Xiu sighed secretly, the strength of this Wang family is really strong, half of the more than 300 people recruited in Taiyuan were recruited by Wang Yun's face, and now they have sent five hundred floors of annoying knights at once, and they are fully equipped. Is this the Northern Army or the Wang Army?

Go west from Yanmen, cross the Yellow River in Junzijin, and arrive at Xihe County, not far from Meiji, the grazing place of the Southern Xiongnu, which is already the southern boundary of the Inner Mongolia Plateau, and the location of Meiji is equivalent to the Jungger Banner of later generations, which is a river valley with abundant water and grass, and has been a shelter for the Huns in the Han Dynasty for hundreds of years.

The Xiongnu Zhonglang sent Tian Yan to Anji Pengshi Zhang Xiu to greet Liu Xiu, accompanied by the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu sent Zuo Xian Wang Hu Zheng, Hu Zheng is more than forty years old, it is the prime of life, and the two hundred horsemen under his command are also fat and strong, majestic. In contrast, Zhang Xiu and the fifty Han troops under him were a little shabby, not only the clothes and armor were old, but even the war horses under the crotch were thin and weak, and they had no spirit, and walking with the Huns was like a flower child.

Liu Xiu had long heard Wang Yun say that the situation in northern Xinjiang was not optimistic, but he didn't expect it to be so miserable. The Huns came to the Han land to take refuge, and now it is good, the host's family is worse than the guests, no wonder the Huns will despise it later.

Wang Yun watched coldly, but Liu Biao frowned, a little uneasy. Liu Xiu only took the Changshui battalion to the expedition as a captain of Changshui this time, and the Son of Heaven did not send him a special supervisor, so he also took the identity of the supervisor. Along the way, he has always maintained neutrality, neither getting too close to Yuan Shao, nor helping Liu Xiu deal with Yuan Shao, after Wang Yun appeared by Liu Xiu's side, he also dealt with it in the same way.

But now seeing such a big disparity between the situation of the Han army and the Huns, he couldn't help but be a little worried. The Huns are now all over the northern frontier, when the Han is strong, they are the watchdogs of the Han, and when the Han is weakened, will they become man-eating wolves?

Liu Biao disagreed with Wang Yun's attitude, and for the first time he felt that Wang Yun, as a famous man in Bingzhou and a son of a family, lacked due vision and insight in this matter.

After arriving in Meiji, Tian Yan and the Southern Huns Tu Teruo corpse chased the corpse to greet him, and he was a Hun man of nearly sixty, who was very strong, and his movements on and off the horse were very neat, and he could see that he was in good health. He was dressed in thick fur, but his arms were open, revealing his strong chest, and he laughed very loudly.

"Adults have come from afar to work hard, please sit inside!" After Shan Yu saluted, he stepped forward enthusiastically, ready to hold Liu Xiu's hand. Liu Xiu raised his arm in front of his mouth and coughed lightly, quietly letting go of Shan Yu's hand, Liu Biao took a step forward, stopped in front of Shan Yu, and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty has an edict." ”

Shan Yu was stunned for a moment, and the smile on his face became a little unnatural. Tian Yan knew it, immediately lifted his armor, knelt down without hesitation, separated his hands, and fell to the ground. It is now a cold winter wax moon, and Meiji has already had several snowfalls, and the ground has been trampled into slush by the chaotic horses' hooves, dirty and cold. Shan Yu was wearing a beautiful leather jacket and leather pants, and he was a little reluctant to get dirty, but when he looked at the knot in Liu Biao's hand, and then looked at Liu Xiu's expressionless face, he hesitated for a moment, but still picked up the hem of his clothes and knelt down.

Liu Biao breathed a sigh of relief, read the edict of the Son of Heaven rewarding Shan Yu, and encouraged him to cooperate with Liu Xiu's actions to fight back against the Xianbei people, and at the same time gave some royal items.

Shan Yu Daxi, at this time, he didn't mind whether his clothes were dirty or not, changed his smiling face, and said very actively: "The emperor is really polite, we Huns are blessed by the emperor of the Han Dynasty, and can live in Meiji, the emperor has to reward so much money and gifts every year, we should share our worries for the emperor." My lord, my son was already going to the capital to meet the emperor, but it was because he heard that the lord was coming, and he must meet the lord, so he delayed the time. ”

There is a custom in the Han Dynasty that the Huns will send a waiter at the end of each year, and the Huns will send one to escort them into the court, and this waiter will stay in Luoyang for a year until the next year is exchanged for another waiter, which is actually a hostage. The servant who is about to enter the court this year is Hu Zheng, Hu Zheng is the eldest son of Shan Yu, and it is likely to be the next Shan Yu.

"I'm ashamed, I'm ashamed." Liu Xiu really didn't pay much attention to Hu Zheng along the way, he only felt that this guy was quite strong, but he was also very proud, he didn't expect that he was about to enter the court, and it was only because of Ying Yang himself that he delayed the time. As for how much of it is true and how much of it is false, he is not too sure.

Shan Yu laughed, and stepped forward again to invite Liu Xiu into the camp, this time Liu Xiu did not refuse, and entered the big tent with Shan Yu holding his arm. Shan Yu set up a banquet for Liu Xiu to catch the wind. He said in the banquet that since the time of living in the Sai, we have always been good friends of the Han people, countless times together to attack the Xianbei people, my son Hu Zheng and Huaizong have fought each other, and he admires Huaizong very much, and he heard that the adults captured Huaizong, he felt a little incredible.

Only then did Liu Xiu understand, he laughed, pulled Lou Lu to him and said to Hu Zheng, I captured Huaizong alive, but the hero who really killed Huaizong was this hero from Baishan, you should admire him. He is the son of Lord Wuhuan in Shanggu, and now he is my personal guard riding Sima.

Lou Lu was both proud and a little embarrassed, blushing and humble. Hu Zheng was shocked, Lou Lu is the son of Lord Wuhuan in Shanggu, and he actually made Liu Xiu a personal guard horseman? Shan Yu was also a little surprised, and couldn't believe Liu Xiu's words, until Lou Lu took off the helmet on his head, revealing his hair, they were skeptical.

Lou Lu was a little excited, and said that the battle of Ningcheng was a battle, and he praised Liu Xiu, and the Huns were stunned when they heard it, especially for Liu Xiu's killing of Dou Gui in battle, they felt very incredible. Dou Gui's grandfather Dou Tong was the Taishou of Yanmen, and he fought side by side with Shan Yu, Shan Yu had a very deep impression of Dou Tong, and always thought that the children of the family were high and invincible, but he didn't expect to be beaten by Liu Xiu.

The Huns looked at Liu Xiu with a little more awe in their eyes.

After the banquet, Liu Xiu invited Tian Yan to tea and asked about Meiji's situation. Tian Yan shook his head again and again: "It's too difficult, I can't hold it anymore." ”

Liu Xiu motioned for him to elaborate.

Tian Yan said, you have also seen today's situation, originally, the Huns were the guests who came to flee, and we are the masters here, but now, the host is so poor that he has no food to eat, and the guests who come to flee are getting fatter and fatter. Do you know how many people are in the state? The total population of Bingzhou is less than six or seven hundred thousand, and almost all of them are concentrated in the three counties of Shangdang, Taiyuan, and Yanmen. Meiji belongs to Xihe, there are only 20,000 people in Xihe County, and there are more than 50,000 Huns in Meiji alone, and the total number of people they are stationed in Wuyuan and Shuofang counties is nearly 500,000, which is only a lot more than the Han people. The reason why I can still suppress the Huns with these thousand soldiers is that on the one hand, there is the Duliao general camp of Manbo, and the 2,000 people led by the Xihe Changshi sent by Xihe to assist, and on the other hand, it is also because the Huns can't figure out the details of our Han Dynasty, if they know that the Han Dynasty has weakened to this point, they will change sooner or later.

According to the news I got from Zhang Xiu, the history of Anji Peng, Shan Yu's son Huzheng seems to have heard some rumors, and he is very unkind to Zhang Xiu, if he is allowed to go to Luoyang for a walk, and when he understands the actual situation in Luoyang, will he still take us in his eyes at that time?

Tian Yan was worried and sighed.

Liu Xiu touched his chin and was silent. When he arrived in Meiji, he had only walked half of the state, but the situation had already made him very frightened. He came all the way from Shangdang, Taiyuan, and Yanmen, and he didn't feel that there were so many Huns, but when he arrived at Xihe and heard Tian Yan say this, he knew that the situation was very serious. To put it mildly, from this to the north, it is not so much the territory of the Han as the territory of the Huns, who have actually controlled those places.

"Tell me what you think." Liu Xiu said to Wang Yun and Liu Biao, Yuan Shao, Han Sui and others. All four of them have read books, and they are relatively more knowledgeable, so they may be able to inspire them.

Wang Yun was silent and drank tea calmly. Liu Biao didn't speak, but his face was relatively heavy. He was already worried, but now that he heard Tian Yan say this, his worries deepened. Yuan Shao and Han Sui lowered their heads, each thinking about their own thoughts.

Liu Xiu's gaze turned around, and finally landed on Wang Yun's face, and he was very unhappy in his heart. Wang Yun has been a state driver for several years, and it is impossible for him to be unfamiliar with these situations, and if he didn't remind him before, he didn't say anything now, which means that he has been testing himself, and it can even be said that he has been watching his jokes. As for Liu Biao, although he is a master and only manages some clerical exchanges, in fact, he is still a prisoner, and it is reasonable that it is inconvenient to make speeches. Yuan Shao and Han Sui probably also have their own thoughts, Yuan Shao's thoughts should be similar to Wang Yun's, and Han Sui is from Liangzhou, he should have some ideas, but he doesn't want to say it in front of so many people.

"It seems that everyone has no mature opinions, so let's think about it first, and when you want to talk to me again." Liu Xiu didn't force them, waved his hand, and signaled them to disperse.

Wang Yun was a little surprised, and glanced at Liu Xiu in some surprise, just to meet Liu Xiu's cold gaze, he subconsciously flashed, and looked back like a demonstration, the corners of his mouth picked intentionally or unintentionally, and then bowed, turned around and went out.

Yuan Shao and Liu Biao went out one after another, Han Sui stayed at the end, he thought for a while: "My lord, I have some foolish opinions, but I haven't thought it through yet, please allow me to think about it for a few days, and then I will dedicate it to my lord." ”

"Well, fighting tiger brothers, going into battle father and son soldiers, it seems that there is nothing wrong at all." Liu Xiu smiled and patted Han Sui's shoulder, signaling him not to worry. Han Sui's heart was hot, and he hurriedly bowed again, saluted Tian Yan again, and turned around and went out.

"You Sima, each with a ghost." Tian Yan sipped tea and said to Liu Xiu jokingly: "Scholars just have too many eyes, and none of them are fuel-efficient lamps." Unlike those rough men under us, as long as they punch and kick, they are all honest. ”

Liu Xiu smiled and didn't speak, and said in his heart, you are simple, but you didn't want Duan Cheng to be so majestic in the army, but when he arrived in the court, he was almost played to death, of course the knife can't be put down, and the fist must be hard, but it can't be done with fists and knives alone.

"I'm going to be conscripted, how do you think it's suitable?" Liu Xiu said bluntly.

"Conscription, can you feed it?" Tian Yan asked rhetorically.

"Since I dare to come, of course I am sure." Liu Xiu said quietly: "However, I don't want to recruit soldiers like Yanmen and Taiyuan anymore, I can't figure out whether those people can listen to me in the end." ”

Tian Yan also smiled, Liu Xiu had 800 newly recruited soldiers under him, but in his opinion, these people probably listened to Wang Yun more than he Liu Xiu. He tugged at the messy beard under his chin, and said lightly: "It's not simple, go to Wuyuan and Shuofang to conquer, there are no big families there, and no one will seize power with you." ”

"With such a small population over there, can you recruit soldiers?"

"Hahaha......" Tian Yan couldn't help laughing, he patted Liu Xiu's shoulder and said: "Over there, there are not many people who farm the land, but there are many horse thieves, if you can take these horse thieves into account, let alone 5,000 people, even 10,000 people are no problem." These horse thieves rob on the grassland all the year round, not only robbing the passing merchants, but also the lonely Xianbei people they dare to rob, riding skills, martial arts are nothing to say, the terrain is also familiar, as long as you can restrain them, can afford to raise, these people are good soldiers. ”

Liu Xiu thought of Yan Rou, and said in his heart that this was indeed a method. Now the remaining problem is money and food, the Son of Heaven gave one million stone rice, and let Cao Ying be the captain of the transportation brigade, but it is not a matter to rely on foreign transportation after all, how to solve it locally is the right reason. It seems that this time I went to the north not only to see the situation on the border, but more importantly, to find a suitable location for the tuntian.

When he thinks of Tuntian, there is one thing he is very pleased with. In his impression, Shanxi is the Loess Plateau, full of loess and ravines, but so far, the scene he has seen is far from what he remembers. Although there are many mountains and hills, and the land that is really suitable for cultivation is limited, the soil erosion is far from being so serious, there are green mountains and green waters everywhere, there are very few deserts, only a few scattered points, many places are very suitable for grazing, and it is a good place to raise horses.

It's a pity that such a nice place has now mostly become a horse ranch for the Huns.

Shanxi has always been a place where soldiers must fight, the left controls Hebei, the right controls Hexi, Guanzhong, backed by the Mongolian Plateau, facing the Yellow River natural danger, easy to defend and difficult to attack, before the Jin State rose up, the Chu people did not dare to go north, the three families were divided into Jin, Wei Zhao has always been the confidant of the Qin people, and later Li Yuan started from Taiyuan and established the Tang Empire. The Central Plains mastered Shanxi, that is, choked the throat of the nomads on the grassland to the south, and once the nomads captured Shanxi, it would be easy to take Luoyang.

How to control such a good land in his own hands, for Liu Xiu, this is not only an imminent issue of survival, but also a strategic issue related to future generations.

"Call Cao Hong." Liu Xiu said to Hao Zhao.

Hao Zhao answered, turned around and went out, and after a short time, he hurriedly ran back again: "My lord, Lord Cao and the Huns quarreled. ”

Liu Xiu was stunned, Cao Hong has always been a person who seeks wealth rather than anger, although he is stingy, he rarely quarrels with others. Why did he first clash with the Huns when he arrived in Meiji?

(To be continued)