The captain of the transport brigade and the captain of Sosu Cao Ying strode into the camp gate, and just wanted to break inside, a wall suddenly appeared in front of him, based on the intuition cultivated by years of gangsters on the streets of Luoyang, he subconsciously jumped a step back, and at the same time pulled out the Baiwan Qinggang ring knife on his waist, held the knife in both hands, and looked vigilantly at the red-faced man in front of him who was a little ridiculously tall.

Guan Yu looked at Cao Ying very calmly, touching the beard under his chin with one hand, and holding the long haul borrowed from Hu Benlang with the other, his nine-foot-tall body stood there, his thick eyebrows raised, his phoenix eyes narrowed, and he had a bit of momentum that was not angry and self-threatening.

"Who?" The two asked in unison.

Guan Yu smiled arrogantly: "I am the general of Beizhonglang, supervising the military of the three states of Youyou and Liang, leading the state assassin Liu Xiu Liu to guard in front of the tent of Lord Liu, Hedong Guan Yu Guan Yunchang, who are you, dare to trespass on the camp of adults?" ”

When Cao Ying heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief, put away the knife, and smiled: "I am Cao Ying, the commander of Sosu, Cao Mengde, and I am here to send rice to Lord Liu this time." Wow, you are such a big man, at first glance, you are a rare fierce general, Liu Deran is really a waste, he actually asked you to be a halberd guard? As he spoke, he stepped forward and stood with Guan Yu, compared, and shook his head in amazement, saying that he was really speechless about God's injustice.

When Guan Yu heard that he was Cao Ying, he didn't dare to slack off, he heard Cao Hong, the commander of the military city, say several times that his brother Cao Ying and Liu Xiu were good friends. He didn't expect Cao Ying to be so short, and he didn't expect such a short Cao Ying to have such agile skills and a wide mind, he didn't feel that he was a halberd guard at all, and praised him as a fierce general.

These actions were like a feather scratching Guan Yu's itchy flesh, Guan Yu immediately liked this little man, and hurriedly entered the account to report. Liu Xiu was discussing this year's capital test with Jia Xu, Cao Hong, Guo Yi and others, and when he heard that Cao Ying was coming, he couldn't help but slap his hands and smile: "Okay, the problem of food is solved." He got up and greeted him.

"Hard work Mengde." Liu Xiu laughed, stepped forward and pulled Cao Ying's arm, looked left and right: "Meng De, you are dark, but your spirit is more vigorous, this trip to Jiaozhou seems to be going well." ”

"If it's going well, I'm not going either." Seeing that Liu Xiu was so polite, Cao Ying was very satisfied, and while walking in with Liu Xiu, he said half-jokingly: "I don't want to transport grain for you, I want to fight with you." How about making me a military marquis or a Sima? ”

"What are you kidding, your dignified Captain Sosu is here to be a military marquis and Sima?" Liu Xiu smiled and invited Cao Ying to take a seat, "I think it's at least a school captain." ”

"Captain?" Cao Ying didn't have a straight shape, and said with a smile: "That's okay, I'll be a captain under you." ”

"Not under me, but the Changshui Battalion." Liu Xiu took out a newspaper from the case next to him and pushed it in front of Cao Ying, and gave him a mysterious look: "Yuan Benchu Changshui Lieutenant doesn't do it, and Zhongshan is too guarded outside." ”

Cao Ying's eyes flashed, he didn't speak, picked up the newspaper and looked at it carefully, pondered for a moment, and shook his head helplessly: "Yuan Kui was reinstated as Situ, Yuan Shao was promoted to the rank of Shaofu by the captain of Changshui and Zhongshan Taishou, Yuan Feng was promoted to Shaofu, Yuan Shu became the general of the Tiger Ben, and the Yuan family is menacing." I went to Jiaozhou for half a year, and so many things happened in Luoyang. ”

Liu Xiu also shook his head a little helplessly, when Yuan Kui was dismissed, the strength of the Yuan family in the court was greatly affected, and many of the Yuan family's protégés and former officials were demoted. Now that Yuan Kui is back, they are making a comeback, with their support, Yuan Kui's "political achievements" are definitely better than others, coupled with Yuan Hui's pillow style, the Yuan family's current strength is even further than before.

Son of Heaven, what's wrong, doesn't he know the threat of the Yuan family? Liu Xiu couldn't figure it out and was very frustrated. However, he couldn't show these emotions in front of others, so he could only put all his energy into trying in October.

The Han Dynasty originally had a system of all tests, that is, exercises were conducted in each county in October, but Emperor Guangwu was worried that others would do the same because of the rebellion of the capital test, and in order to save military spending, the system of the test was canceled. Now Liu Xiu is in charge of the state, if he wants to confront the Xianbei people, he must have enough troops, but his economic strength does not allow him to have so many troops, in order to reduce the pressure on military spending, he only has 10,000 standing troops on hand, and 20,000 people are distributed in various counties, which are supplied by each county itself. These people are usually trained by the county lieutenants of each county, and it is impossible for Liu Xiu to run from county to county, so he can only gather all 20,000 county soldiers for a drill in October to test their combat effectiveness.

Twenty or thirty thousand people need a lot of materials to carry out the exercise, especially food, 30,000 people have to eat nearly 60,000 stone of grain in a month, plus war horses, it cannot be solved without 200,000 stones. The most scarce thing in Bingzhou is grain, the one million stone given by the Son of Heaven last year has been consumed for a year, and now there are only about 300,000 stone left, and Liu Xiu does not dare to use up the 300,000 stone at once, otherwise once there is a war, he will not have sufficient food reserves.

Cao Ying arrived with rice from Jiaozhou, which just solved Liu Xiu's urgent need.

Liu Xiu immediately sent a letter to all counties, and the soldiers of each county and county must rush to the Duliao general camp in Manbo in mid-October, report to Zhao Yun, the governor of Duliao, and the leaders of the Xiongnu tribes should take their own guards and report to Tian Yan, the general of the Xiongnu Zhonglang, to participate in the one-month capital test.

For a time, the smoke and dust were billowing from Bingzhou, and a team of foot soldiers and knights rushed to Manber along the official road, and in ten days, Manber gathered 15,000 foot soldiers and 5,000 knights, and Meiji gathered 20,000 Hun knights.

The drill was then carried out between Manber and Meiji, the first was the drill of the infantry and cavalry, after the basic formation drill, it was a simulated offensive and defensive battle, for the foot soldiers, their main practice was to defend the city, how to hold a city is the subject they usually practice the most, because their main task in the future is to rely on the dangerous terrain of the state, hold all the barriers, and ensure the absolute safety of the southern part of the state.

The people who participated in Tuntian also participated in the exercise, and they practiced how to retreat to the nearest city as quickly as possible after receiving the warning of the Xianbei invasion and participate in the defense. After planting wheat in the field in the first month, most of the people went back to the city to prepare for the cat winter, until April and May of the second year came out to harvest the wheat. When the Xianbei people invaded, most of the people were in the city, except for those who were herding herds, and some were outside. At this time, they had only two tasks, one was to engage in various handicrafts, and the other was to train, not only men but also women and children.

Liu Xiu was very busy, he first had to watch the drill of the attack and defense of the county soldiers, then watch the drill of infantry and cavalry confrontation and infantry and cavalry, and finally deploy cavalry to conduct a long-distance attack exercise, and at the same time check the defense of dozens of border fortresses along the border, and the schedule was arranged tightly.

In mid-November, the exercises of the county soldiers and the Xiongnu divisions were completed, and before they returned to their own counties, Liu Xiu invited them to drink wine to celebrate. In front of the commanders of the counties and the representatives of the outstanding soldiers, Liu Xiu spoke impassionedly, praising them for their hard training and outstanding skills, and praised the leaders of the Xiongnu tribes, saying that they understood the righteousness and thanked them for their strong support for him.

The Huns did not think so, and many people laughed very reluctantly. They are now deprived of the right to lead troops, except for the guards who have no more than a thousand, as little as one or two hundred, they are no different from ordinary Han lieutenants, but in name, they are still the hereditary leaders of various departments, and they can also receive some rewards from the Han court every year, but because of the sharp decrease in strength, the rewards of the court have also shrunk greatly. In this regard, those leaders who were originally strong had the greatest opinions.

Liu Xiu knew that they were dissatisfied, so he invited them to watch a play.

With an order, Guan Yu stood in front of everyone with a hundred heavy armor soldiers. Everyone was wearing heavy armor, even their faces were covered by face armor, they couldn't see each other, holding a two-handed sword with a full length and a blade of four feet, like a hundred black towers, standing there silently, and the boundless murderous aura spread, making the originally lively open-air banquet suddenly silent.

Guan Yu pulled down his armor and stood tall in front of the team.

The audience was silent.

With a sound of drums, Guan Yu raised his right hand, and the armor soldiers behind him spread out in turn, each with a distance of two zhang, uneven before and after. After everyone was in place, Guan Yu shouted, and danced the sword with both hands, and suddenly the cold light flashed, and the cold air was fierce, everyone only saw the sword light and sword shadow in front of them, and only heard the howling sound of the big sword splitting the cold wind.

Jia Xu gave an order, and fifty empty saddle war horses galloped over.

Guan Yu danced his sword with both hands, roared down, and slashed the head of a war horse that rushed to the front with a sword, and then the big sword reversed, cutting the belly of another war horse, and then forward, the big sword easily cut the saddle like cutting paper, cutting the war horse in two.

In a moment, Guan Yu's black armor was stained red by the splatters of horse blood.

The heavy armor soldiers danced their big swords and killed more than a dozen war horses in an instant, so frightened that the war horses behind them neighed and turned around and ran. Although there is no knight on the horse's back, the reins are tied together, and they can only rush forward together, and it is not so easy to retreat. The horses huddled together, kicking and biting each other, neighing one after another.

Guan Yu waved his hand, and ten heavy armor soldiers lined up in a horizontal row, stepped forward, the big sword flew over, chopping melons and vegetables, and the remaining war horses were cut to the ground, until the head of the last war horse was cut off, they retracted the big sword, and they retreated in unison, stood together again, contracted the formation, bowed to Liu Xiu and the others, slammed the ground with the hilt of the sword, and roared loudly:

"Use me in the first battle, use me to win!"

The neat roar shook everyone's hearts, but the Han people were excited, and the Huns were trembling, they all knew that these heavy armor soldiers were sharp weapons to restrain knights, and for the Huns, who were mainly leather armor bows and arrows, these heavy armor soldiers were killing gods.

Cao Ying was so excited that he looked at Guan Yu, who was standing in front of the formation, majestic and majestic, and couldn't help but shout out with a "whoop", raising his arms and shouting: "The great man is mighty-"

The Han soldiers, who were stimulated by the performance of the heavy armor soldiers, were so excited and stunned that they also came back to their senses at this time, and raised their arms together and shouted loudly: "The Han is mighty!" ”

"The Great Han is mighty!"

The soldiers in the distance did not see this amazing scene, but when they heard the roar of the Chinese army, they were not to be outdone, and shouted together: "The Han is mighty!" The roar of twenty or thirty thousand people pierced the sky, making the Huns feel terrified, their legs trembled, and the dissatisfaction and grievances in their hearts were shaken away.

"Your Excellency...... Good majesty. Shan Yu Qiang said with a smile.

"Hahaha......" Liu Xiu was in high spirits, looked around with a wine glass, and said loudly: "Thanks to the support of Shan Yu and the leaders, Han and Hun are united, I can stabilize the situation in just a few months. Thanks to the generosity of the gentry of the state, I was able to have the financial resources to form such a weapon. But please rest assured, please rest assured, the leaders of the Han Dynasty are rich all over the world, and they are all over the world, and they are benevolent and righteous in everything they do. For friends, we will never do anything sorry for them, such a sharp weapon is used to deal with the enemy, not against friends, let you take a look at it today, just to tell you that we have enough confidence and strength to ensure the stability of the state, anyone who wants to destroy this good situation is just an ugly person who is beyond his own strength, and will be knocked to the ground by us, and then step on one foot, so that he will never be able to turn over. ”

Qiang Qu and the others were silent, knowing that Liu Xiu was threatening them, but they couldn't raise the courage to resist.

Cao Ying looked at the decline of the Huns, and his heart was surging: "It's enjoyable, it's really enjoyable." ”

"It's enjoyable, my flesh hurts." Cao Hong's face was very ugly, and he was about to cry. "Do you know how much money was spent on this exercise? Not to mention anything else, if these fifty war horses are sent to Luoyang, they will be at least three or four hundred gold. Even if the state horse is cheap, it can't be paid without fifty gold. ”

Cao Ying looked at Cao Hong's appearance of slamming the door, and couldn't help but laugh, "Zilian, you are still in charge of Hu City, and the daily market rent is a few gold, and it is actually a small amount of money, three or four hundred gold, for a family, it may be a lot of money, but for a state, it is nothing." You only know that these fifty horses are worth a lot, and you know how much it costs me to transport a grain shipment? ”

Cao Hong looked at him and didn't say anything. It's not that he doesn't know how to settle accounts, it's just that he is used to his surname and is reluctant to spend so much money on Liu Xiu. Although Liu Xiu successfully persuaded the wealthy families in Bingzhou and won their support, but now his income is not enough to spend, and he is in debt to show off his prestige. According to Cao Hong's statement, this hundred-heavy armor soldier is purely burning money, and a patchwork of things means equipping a hundred people, and it is too wasteful to use in small wars, and it is not worth being of great use in big wars.

But Cao Ying didn't think so, he felt that the money was worth spent, and using this powerful method to crush the dissent in the hearts of the Huns would be of great benefit to the stability of the state, and it would also be beneficial to further squeeze the Huns in the future. Liu Xiu was afraid of irritating the Huns too much, so now he only requisitioned 5,000 standing knights from the Huns, which is far from the bottom line that the Huns can bear, and there is still a lot of space.

After the completion of the capital test of Meiji, most of the county soldiers returned to their own county, and only the 5,000 knights from Shangjun and Xihe remained, and then participated in the cavalry training. Within a month, they had to work with 5,000 Hun knights and 10,000 standing troops to carry out a series of subjects such as long-distance raids, breakthroughs, and cavalry battles according to the hypothetical situation of the Xianbei people's full-scale invasion.

At this time, it was time for Lu Bu, Zhao Yun and others to play, they took turns as the forward and the rear, meticulously carried out the exercises according to the plan, tempering every soldier on the already yellow grassland, and building them into an invincible elite.

At the end of November, Liu Xiu arrived at his last stop, Guanglu City, and brought greetings and New Year's rewards to Xu Huang and his soldiers. Although Guanglu City is not small, it is still a little crowded with 20,000 troops at once, so it has become very lively.

"Komeito, how has this year been?" Liu Xiu, accompanied by Xu Huang, walked up to the city tower and looked at the north in the cold wind. A few days ago, there had been a light snowfall, and the remnants of snow on the grass stretched all the way to the horizon, merging into a gray earth, blending with the same gray sky.

"It's fine." Xu Huang said with a light smile: "The adults forced the Hongyue tribe to surrender, and they didn't come again this year, however, I heard that the north is unstable, and the Niutou tribe is ......" He glanced at the wind and snow behind Liu Xiu, and did not say any more.

"Except for the Hongyue tribe, the Wild Wolf tribe and the Wild Sand tribe have all gone, and almost all of the Western Xianbei have been dispatched." Liu Xiu didn't think so, he knew all these situations, and there was no need to hide them. "And it is said that it is commanded by Helian, and the trick of Danhan Mountain is used well, no matter who wins, Danhan Mountain has only benefits, no harm."

Xu Huang laughed silently, it seemed that Liu Xiu had guessed the intention of Danhan Mountain.

"How about the soldiers, are you still at ease when you are stationed outside the Saiwai?" Liu Xiu asked with concern.

"There is no problem, most of the family members are in Shuofang, and they go back every three months for half a month, and it only takes two or three days to come and go, and they can be reunited with their families for seven or eight days. After the autumn, the people of Shuofang all went to live in the city, trained during the day, and worked at night. By your grace, the families of the soldiers stationed here can receive an additional reward, and they are very grateful to your lordship. ”

"It's all as it should be." Liu Xiu exhaled softly: "If the soldiers who throw their heads and spill their blood to defend the country and are willing to face the empty grassland every day here can't live with dignity, then who wants to come here?" Liu Xiu turned around and looked at the soldiers standing straight on the city wall, "Are all the winter clothes in place?" ”

"It's all here." Xu Huang said with relief: "The people in the three cities of Xi'anyang, Shuofang and Guangmu are backed by, and there are enough leather goods, and all the winter clothes are in place as early as the beginning of October. The soldiers wear it on their bodies, and it warms their hearts. ”

"Hahaha, who did you learn this from? Wang Lie? ”

"Lord Wang just left last month, he personally escorted the winter clothes over, and then lived in the city for half a month, explaining the "Book of Filial Piety" to the soldiers, which was quite popular with the soldiers."

"Oh? And what's going on? Liu Xiu nodded with satisfaction, it seems that this Wang Mingshi is still a little responsible. "The Book of Filial Piety" is the most commonly used textbook in the army, literacy is one thing, and the most important thing is to instill the concept of loyalty and patriotism to the soldiers and increase cohesion. Although Liu Xiu opposes education based on empty talk and wishful thinking, he is not opposed to ideological education, and while providing the soldiers with due material benefits, they should also have a certain amount of ideological education. Education without material interests is built on sand, and education without ideological guidance cannot last long. Conscription has proven that mercenary does not create a true elite.

It is not only necessary to let them have enough to eat, but also to let their brains not be empty and pursue something, which is a qualified education.

After inspecting the city defense, having a conversation with some soldiers, and understanding the thinking of the soldiers, Liu Xiu returned to the official office, and asked Hao Zhao to spread out the map, first Xu Huang made an introduction to the recent collection, and then Changshi Jia Xu stood up, walked to the map, and drew a circle in the direction of the Beihai where the Niutou tribe was located.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why Bingzhou was able to be so stable in the second half of this year, and the reason why the Tuntian military training was able to proceed smoothly is of course inseparable from the planning of the adults, and there is another important reason, that is, the Niutou tribe has restrained the attention of Danhan Mountain, especially the vast majority of the troops in the western Xianbei."

Han Sui and the others looked at each other, and heard a strange taste from Jia Xu's words.

"The Niutou tribe has been able to support until now, on the one hand, because of the unique terrain of the North Sea, and on the other hand, because Feng Crack, as a rare famous general among the Xianbei people, can still remain undefeated even in the face of enemies three times as large as before." Jia Xu pointed to Beihai like a crescent moon: "Beihai is thin and long, the Niutou tribe has lived in Beihai for a long time, and is very familiar with Beihai, in the summer, they use the water to attack the enemy back and forth, so that He Lian and others have superior forces, but they can't concentrate their forces to fight." But now it is different, the North Sea has formed a thick ice, the North Sea has become land, and the Minotaur tribe has lost the space to move, and their situation is very difficult. ”

Jia Xu's calm gaze swept over the faces of the generals one by one, and said loudly: "If we want to continue to have time to gather strength next year, we can't sit back and watch the Niutou tribe be crippled by Helian. Your Excellency has an order, we must take advantage of the main force of the Western Xianbei to attack them in the northern frontier, relieve the pressure on the Niutou tribe, and give them a chance to breathe......"

"Great." Without waiting for Jia Xu to finish speaking, Lu Bu jumped up, slapped his thigh hard, and said with his eyebrows fluttering: "You should do this, go and sweep at this time, and you can have a fat year this year." ”

Everyone couldn't help laughing, Jia Xu was talking about strategic arrangements, in order to give the Niutou tribe a chance to survive and attack Xianbei in the west, but Lu Bu wanted to rob Xianbei people and have a good year. This seems to be the same, but the realm is too different.

Seeing that the expressions of the others were wrong, Lu Bu also felt a little embarrassed, and sat down with a wry smile.

Jia Xu waved his hand and signaled everyone to be quiet: "Although Lu Changshi's purpose is not pure, the method is exactly what we want. He smiled slightly: "Please remember, we are not going to fight, we don't need to care how many enemies we kill, what we want is to attack quickly, kill people when we see them, burn tents when we see them, and let the Xianbei people have no food, no shelter, starve to death, and freeze to death." Don't be dragged down by a little cattle, sheep, and population, delay the fighters, and don't fight hard with the Xianbei people, and fight head-on, if you encounter the main force of the Xianbei people, then lead them to the side and annihilate them with superior forces. ”

"This kind of thing, Lu Fengxian is still the best at it." Han Sui said seriously.

The crowd laughed.

"You don't understand, this is what adults call guerrilla tactics." Lu Bu waved his hand and said very calmly: "Only by saving yourself can you kill and injure the enemy......

"Bongxian, shut up." Liu Xiu stood up, pointed at Lu Bu, and motioned for him to sit down. "I'm most worried about you, last time in Shaling, you single-handedly picked up the 100-man team of Xianbei people, I know you are very brave, but this kind of thing can only be done as a last resort, and it must not be taken as a routine. As the saying goes, the brave are afraid, and those who can know their fears are the real braves. You are not a man now, nor are you the leader of dozens of horse thieves, you have two thousand soldiers under you, and you are responsible for their safety. ”

"Whoa." Lu Bu bowed in response.

"For the general, wisdom is the first, courage is the fourth, when the enemy is encountered, the enemy is the first, if you can fight, you will fight, and if you can't fight, you will go. Please remember. Although Liu Xiu's voice was not loud, his tone was very serious: "It is impossible to fight without dying, but please cherish the lives of the soldiers and let each of them die worthwhile, not because of your stupidity." ”

"Whoa." The generals stood up and responded with a bang.

(To be continued)