The three of them talked deeply for a whole day, not only limited to the situation in Jizhou, Ma Chao also carefully introduced the matter of merging the state to Tian Feng, and wrote a letter to Tian Feng to hand over to Ma Xiu, who was sitting in Jinyang, so that he could take office immediately, and persuaded the Wei County judge to judge the match by the way.

Tian Feng was resolute, and the next time he packed up, he took his family and was escorted by two hundred Xiliang elite soldiers to Wei County.

Ma Chao stayed in Yecheng to rectify the military horses, and the son of Fu Hu also came as promised. He was only eighteen years old, with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, powerful martial arts, and although his strength was not high, he was quite resourceful. In history, Frustrated Hu guarded Handan for Yuan Shang, and Cao Ying clashed with Zhang Liao when he attacked Yuan Shang, but the battle was not three, and Hu was defeated. Zhang Liao chased after him and hurriedly took a bow to shoot him, and the frustrated Hu fell off his horse and died.

Frustrated for a long time, he admired Ma Chaoming, and he was also a die-hard fan. Ma Chao talked with him, and personally tested his strength, then arranged for him to be Huang Zhong's deputy, and allocated him 2,000 Xiliang elite soldiers.

Five days later, Huangfu Song and Fu Zhu raised 200,000 grains and grass, 100 million yuan, 100,000 catties of refined iron and 3,000 pieces of cloth as the first batch of materials.

The affluence of Jizhou is far greater than that of Jizhou, and it is still effortless to raise this material. After Ma Chao received the supplies, he suddenly felt a little more confident, and the big tent of the Chinese army was raised that night, and his subordinates Huang Zhong, Dian Wei, Xu Huang, Wang Shuang, Chen Dao, Zhang He, and Fu Hu all arrived.

Ma Chao said: "The Black Mountain thieves are now Gu, Tao Sheng, Yang Feng led the crowd to surrender to the general, and at the beginning of the year, there were 300,000 displaced people out of Taihang Mountain, Zhang Yan, Yu Poison and others Although their strength was greatly damaged, there were still more than 100,000 people in the army of thieves. Now Zhang Yan has a heavy army to take the Snow Wolf Valley of Taihang Mountain north of Huguan as the base camp to plunder Guangzong, Handan, and Zhao Guo, but Yu Poison and Bai Huan occupy the territory of Zhenggu and others, and take the Cangyan Valley of Geluchang Mountain in the south of Taihang Mountain as the base camp, and the nearby four counties of Shangdang, Hanoi, Chaoge, and Wei County are often harassed, and the troops are approaching Yecheng! Ben wants to divide the army into two ways to ask for it, what do you think? ”

Huang Zhong said: "What the lord said is reasonable, it is now the end of August, and it is less than two months before the autumn harvest, and if our army wants to buy the hearts of the people, it must ensure the autumn harvest of the local people!" ”

Xu Huang also nodded and said: "The Black Mountain thieves are a rabble, and now their strength has been greatly damaged, it is not difficult for us to break it, dare to ask the lord whether he wants to surrender or destroy it with strong soldiers!" ”

Ma Chao said: "More than 500,000 refugees from Montenegro have joined the general, and most of the rest are stubborn!" When the strong soldiers are the mainstay, the surrender is supplemented, the strong people who take the initiative to surrender can supplement the military losses, and the rest can go to the Taiyuan County collective tuntian, and those who are forced to surrender are all reduced to slaves and sent to the mountains of Bingzhou to dig coal, and those who resist will not be forgiven! (Coal at that time was called graphite or charcoal)"

Huang Zhong and Xu Huang have not shown their achievements since following Ma Chao, and they both asked for battle when they heard the rumors.

Ma Chao had already formulated a strategy, got up and said, "Huang Zhong listens to the order!" ”

"Mo will be!"

"I will give 3,000 Xiliang cavalry, 3,000 Montenegrin sword and shield soldiers, 2,000 Xiliang infantry troops, 2,000 archers, and another 100,000 grains and grass, 50 million money, 50,000 catties of fine iron, and 2,000 cloth, a total of 10,000 troops rushed to Chaoge, and subdued the fallen county from south to north, and it is necessary to drive the Black Mountain thieves back to Taihang Mountain within two months to gather and annihilate them!"

"The last general obeys!" Huang Zhong was a little excited, Ma Chao asked him to bring 10,000 elite soldiers to stand alone, which shows the importance and trust he has in him.

Ma Chao said again: "Hansheng's visit is very important, this will not only want to get rid of Yu Poison and Bai Huan, but also have another purpose, you may not be able to do without Chaoge in two to three years, you can recruit another 10,000 troops near Liyang, you must master all the military towns on the north bank of the Yellow River, and you will be able to let Wang Shuang, Chen Dao, and Fu Hu help you!" In the future, Ben will continue to increase troops in this area! ”

Chaoge is close to Hanoi, there is Muye in the south, crossing the Yellow River is Guandu, there are Liyang, Baima, Yanjin, Wuchao and other places to the east, if Yuan Shao wants to seize Jizhou in the future, Huang Zhongbu is the first line of defense. At the same time, this area is also a necessary place to attack Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Jingzhou from Jizhou, and it is necessary to plan in advance.

There are not many black mountain thieves south of Huguan, and there are many leaders, each of them has its own politics, it is not difficult to have Huang Zhong and others lead 10,000 elite soldiers to annihilate it, and Zhang Yan north of Huguan is the highlight. Ma Chaoci said that he led Dian Wei, Xu Huang, and Zhang Hesan to lead 20,000 troops with baggage from Wei County to the north to clear the past.

After more than a month, the army passed through Handan, Maocheng, Guangping, and Guangzong to reach Zhao State, and the Montenegrin thieves who occupied the county seat fled when they heard the wind and all hid in Taihang Mountain, and the same was true of Huang Zhong's southern war. The Black Mountain thieves evolved from the homeless people, equivalent to guerrillas, and the officers and soldiers withdrew into the mountains when they came, and the officials and soldiers came out to make trouble as soon as they left, which made people have a headache, not how strong their combat power was.

Ma Chao was not in a hurry to fight with Zhang Yan's main force, because it was about to be harvested in autumn, and first of all, it was necessary to ensure that the people of Jizhou could harvest the grain smoothly. The 20,000 troops were divided into Ma Chao, Dian Wei, Xu Huang, and Zhang He, and were distributed in the key counties between Handan and Zhao, but they wiped out many local thieves and small groups of black mountain bandits, and Zhang Yan's main force never appeared.

The state army is strictly disciplined, never robs the local people, and even often helps the local people who have been robbed of food to help them tide over the difficulties. For this reason, Ma Chao asked Huangfu Song and Fu for 200,000 yuan of grain and grass in the name of disaster relief, and if it was not enough, he directly borrowed grain from local landlords.

Ma Chao, who did not borrow, sent someone to check their details, as long as he had done something that violated the law of the Han Dynasty and had the evidence of their crimes, he immediately ordered the local government to punish the crime, and then the state army came forward to raid the family. In these years, which powerful landlord doesn't do something, and he can make up something for them if he has nothing to do.

Of course, the people who can annex the land in the local area must have some background, but Ma Chao is not only a powerful person with heavy troops, but also a hussar general of the court, a big man and a horse, even He Jin and the ten permanent servants can't do anything about him, how dare some little people intercede with him!

In October, the autumn harvest has begun in the north, and although this year is not smooth or smooth, there are no disasters and no difficulties. Whether it is a powerful family that keeps domestic slaves, or ordinary people, they are all busy with the autumn harvest. Ma Chao was afraid that Zhang Yangou would jump over the wall and send troops to join the state, so he specially transferred 10,000 Xiliang veterans from Ma Tie in Shangjun to Ma Xiu. Zhang Liao, who was stationed in Yanmen, personally sat in Leping and firmly blocked the southwest of Taihang Mountain.

At this time, the Montenegrin bandit army, which had been hiding in the valley for two months, finally could not hold back, and there were many small bands of bandit armies attacking Maocheng, Handan, and Guangping, ranging in number from a few hundred to several thousand. Xu Huang sat in Handan, holding 3,000 cavalry, Maocheng had Zhang He's 2,000 county soldiers, and Ma Chao transferred him 2,000 Montenegrin cavalry in order to strengthen his mobility ability. The two cooperated with each other to stick to the two-hundred-mile-long area, and successfully repelled several small groups of black mountain thieves who were desperate to take risks several times in a row.

Ma Chao was in charge of Zhao State, but there was nothing to do, and thousands of troops became professional bandits.

Unlike the north, Yu Poison and Bai Huan in the south of Taihang Mountain are not so calm. At the end of October, as soon as the autumn harvest came to an end, the two gathered an army of 30,000 thieves to plunder Wei County.

Huang Zhong personally led 10,000 troops to meet the enemy in Peiguo, with Wang Shuang leading the cavalry to charge into battle, and the 3,000 archers who had been trained for more than half a year made their first move, with the advantages of equipment, individual soldier quality, cooperation between arms and excellent command, Huang Zhong was defeated by the poisonous white coalition army, beheaded more than 5,000, surrendered and captured nearly 10,000, and the rest retreated to Cangyan Valley.

Huang Zhong's army had 3,000 Black Mountain troops, who were extremely familiar with the terrain in this area, and immediately took advantage of the victory to pursue and besiege Cangyan Valley with Shangdang Wenpin's army. Yu Poison and Bai Huan led more than 10,000 remnants of the army and 70,000 or 80,000 old and weak women and children to defend against the danger. In order to reduce the casualties of his subordinates, Huang Zhong adopted the tactics of encircling but not annihilating, and stubbornly held several valley passes to consume grain and grass for each other, and was in a stalemate for a while.

At the end of November, all the grain from the autumn harvest had been put into storage, and the main forces of Montenegro in the south still did not move. Ma Chao sent a lot of Montenegrin troops to go back to their old profession to go into the mountains as spies in advance, and it turned out that the Montenegrin refugees also cultivated a lot of land in the valley, although they did not produce much grain, but after the number of people was greatly reduced, they could barely make a living. Therefore, Zhang Yan only wanted to preserve his strength, and was not willing to fight with Ma Chao, and more than 100,000 people, including 50,000 or 60,000 combatable soldiers, were all stationed in the area of Snow Wolf Valley to prepare for the winter.

After Ma Chao learned about it, he suddenly realized that there were about one million displaced people in Montenegro, and he had absorbed nearly 600,000 people to leave Taihang Mountain. Although Zhang Yan, Yu Poison, and Bai Huan have also lost a lot of people, the living space of the remaining people has undoubtedly become larger, and the food produced in the valley can be eaten for a longer time.

Understanding the whole story, Ma Chao immediately called Xu Huang, Zhang He and Dian Wei to Zhao Guo to discuss countermeasures. The three of them were relieved when they heard this, looking at the situation, Zhang Yan would not go out of the mountains to fight in the short term. Dian Wei held back for several months, his heart was extremely unhappy, and he said quietly: "Lord, this Zhang Yan staying in Taihang Mountain will be a scourge sooner or later, since he is a turtle with a shrunken head, we will break his turtle shell, why not kill into the Snow Wolf Valley and never suffer in the future!" ”

Ma Chaoda was moved and asked, "What do you think of Gongming and Junyi?" ”

Xu Huang said: "What General Dian said is reasonable, the Black Mountain thieves only have 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers to fight, and our army has 20,000 elites, if General Ma Xiu, who is guarding Jinyang, leads 10,000 elites to attack from the east, and Zhang Liao, who is stationed in Yanmen, attacks from the north, and attacks the Snow Wolf Valley in three directions, Zhang Yan's main force can be destroyed in one battle!" ”

Zhang He shook his head and said: "Zhang Yan has always avoided fighting, thinking that he does not want to be an enemy of the lord, if our army rashly attacks, even if it can win, it will lose a lot of soldiers and horses." In addition, Zhang Yan is not a brutal person, as far as the last general knows, this person's direct subordinates specialize in raiding the government and the powerful Wu Fort, never plundering ordinary people, the real plundering of the people are those small leaders who are attached to Zhang Yan, as the main hussar general, why not try to recruit this person? ”

"There is such a thing! How do you know? ”

Zhang He said: "The last general had followed Lu Shangshu to crusade against the Yellow Turban four years ago, when Zhang Yan recruited a group of teenagers in Changshan Zhending to cause trouble, and then defected to the Yellow Turban Qu Shuai Zhang Niujiao, and the two joined forces to attack the gall pottery, and the army passed through the place where the people were not guilty. Later, Zhang Niujiao was shot by a bow and arrow, and died of injuries, and before he died, he asked his subordinates to follow Zhang Yan. After Zhang Liang's army was defeated and the Jizhou Yellow Turban was pacified, Zhang Yan fled into Taihang Mountain with the rest of the army, and many displaced people who lost their land went to defect in the past few years. (To be continued.) )