In May of the sixth year of Yuankang, in 296 AD, Sima Shu, who was far away in Xincheng, soon received the imperial court's order to send troops to Guanzhong to assist King Liang in quelling the rebellion. At this moment, Sima Shu was very anxious in his heart, he knew that the situation in Guanzhong was very tense at this time, and the Qi Wannian rebellion took advantage of natural disasters.

In this year in history, there was a large-scale famine in Guanzhong, coupled with King Zhao's wanton exploitation, so that the middle and lower class people at that time had no way to live. And Qi Wannian took advantage of this favorable situation to instantly gather an army of 100,000 people, successively breaking through Luoyang County, Anding County and threatening the hinterland of Guanzhong such as Fufeng Kingdom, and the Hu people distributed in Beidi and Fengyi counties also took the opportunity to raise troops in response.

In addition, the rebels have just defeated the Yongzhou Thorn Shi Xie system, and their morale is booming, while the imperial army is still on the way to Guanzhong. Since Sima Shu knew that the commander of the army was still Sima Tong, the king of Liang in the original history, he accelerated the pace of pre-war preparations.

Sima Shu took Zu Ti and others to the barracks quickly, and at this time, the school field was already full of soldiers waiting to go out. Sima Shu planned to bring 9,000 soldiers with him on this expedition, including 6,000 princes' troops and 3,000 Xiang troops, and the rest of the soldiers would stay behind to be responsible for garrisoning the new city.

"Your Highness, you must be careful of the conspiracy from the family on this expedition."

Zu Ti stood behind Sima Shu and reminded the prince in a low voice, to be honest, Zu Ti was very opposed to Sima Shu putting himself on the opposite side of the family at first, but later after Sima Shu repeatedly enlightened Zu Ti to let go of his inner worries. However, over the years, he has been worried that the family will secretly hurt Sima Shu, so in the past five years, he has broken his heart to protect the safety of the prince.

"Shizhi, don't worry! Lone has never underestimated the family, and although this expedition is full of dangers, it is not without opportunities. Back then, the reason why Lone resolutely broke with the family was, on the one hand, because Lone's ideas had a fundamental conflict with the family, and on the other hand, Lone had some secrets that he didn't want the family to know. ”

"Back then, Lone came to Xincheng almost alone, and except for a few staff, there was no one to rely on. In this case, what do you say those families will do? They will definitely send the best of the family to Lone, do you say that Lone can refuse their 'kindness'? But in this way, wouldn't Gu have to be fully controlled by those families!? ”

"With those family officials, Lone's every move is under the control of the family, can the glass, vegetables, new steel-making methods, etc., even including muskets, be a secret? This is something that Gu will never allow, and once Gu accepts help from the family, can Gu still win the support of all the people of Xincheng County like he is now? ”

Therefore, it was clear to Gu at the time that he could not accept the manpower support from the family, because Gu's foundation was too shallow, and the time was not yet ripe to accept the family. But the situation at that time was that as long as Gu rejected the family, they knew that Gu must not be willing to act as their agent, and the relationship between us would break down sooner or later. ”

"In this case, it's better to make a big fuss, at least force Empress Jia to stand on our side, you see that we didn't succeed back then. Jia Hou gave us a county to let Gu experiment with the new policy, five years have passed, you look at the current new city, is there a comparison between the past and the present? ”

Zu Ti fell silent when he heard this, and the prince secretly handed a letter to the court without telling everyone, which caused great dissatisfaction among everyone. But looking at it now, the prince is indeed far-sighted, and he suddenly got rid of the shackles of the family. Without the interference of the family, the prince used just five years in Xincheng to accumulate the foundation for world domination.

When Sima Shu and Zu Qi were muttering quietly, Sima Ya stepped forward, "Prince Qiqi, the soldiers have been prepared for the review, please review it with Your Highness." ”

Subsequently, Sima Shu, accompanied by Sima Ya, inspected the soldiers preparing to go out on the school field. Everyone present knew that the purpose of this military dispatch was to quell the rebellion, and at the same time, in order to increase the enthusiasm of the soldiers, Sima Shu promised the soldiers present that all soldiers who died in the war would be exempted from all forced labor.

In addition, if there are direct children in the families of the war dead, they can get the opportunity to go to school for free. In addition, there were rewards for beheading and killing the enemy, and in short, after Sima Shu's encouragement, the morale of the entire army became high.

After reviewing the troops, Sima Shu gathered his staff together for the last pre-war meeting.

"Master Jiang, you read the military situation to everyone, so that everyone has a bottom in their hearts!" After Sima Shu saw that everyone was done, he said first.

This is the military machine hall of the Prince's Mansion in Xincheng, and the officials who came to the meeting were all sitting around, including Zu Ti, Zu Cai, Zu Yue, Jiang Tong, Du Xi, Sima Ya, Xu Chao, and Li Fang (the head of the Li family, since the Li family surrendered, Sima Shu has included him in his staff). All of them were summoned together by Sima Shu to discuss the situation in Guanzhong in order to make appropriate countermeasures.

Jiang Tong, who was temporarily in charge of the Intelligence Bureau, cleared his throat and began to talk with a few rolls of cloth and silk.

It is said that since the defeat of the army, the imperial court appointed Sima Tong, the king of Liang, to replace the king of Zhao in Guanzhong, responsible for commanding the army to quell the rebellion. With the support of the family, Liu Yuan finally got the general order to go on the expedition, and at the same time, the imperial court also sent the crossbow generals Meng Guan and Zhou to rush to Guanzhong with 15,000 soldiers.

"According to the information we have received, the army sent by the imperial court this time belongs to four factions: among them, King Liang and Meng Guan belong to the faction of Jia Hou; Liu Yuanming, the leader of the Xiongnu, belonged to the queen's faction on the surface, but in fact he had an unclear relationship with the family; The old general of Zhou was independent of the other two factions because of his upright temperament; The last one left is ourselves. ”

"Among these four factions, Empress Jia's power is the largest, in addition to the 50,000 Chang'an defenders controlled by King Liang, plus the 10,000 Su guards led by Meng Guan. The other party has an absolute advantage in terms of troops, so after we arrive in Guanzhong, we must win over the old general Zhou, so that we can strengthen our own power, don't forget, the old general Zhou has 5,000 direct troops in his hands. ”

Speaking of this, Jiang Tong put away the cloth and silk, bowed his hand to Sima Shu and everyone, and then sat down.

"Okay, after listening to the military situation, let's talk about our opinions!" Sima Shu clapped his hands and said.

"Jiang Xima is right, we must win over the old generals of the Zhou Division, but we also can't ignore the Hun Liu Yuan. Although his troops are not large, only 5,000 people, because they are all cavalry troops, Liu Yuan's strength should not be underestimated. The families sent Liu Yuan to Guanzhong, no matter what the other party's purpose is, we can't take it lightly! Du Xi said with one hand stroking his beard.

"How many troops does the rebel Qi Wannian have in his hands now?" Zu Ti is still concerned about the rebels.

"Master Zu, according to the intelligence, except for the 50,000 elite Hu cavalry in Qi Wannian's rebellion, the others were outcasts, and their combat strength was not strong. But after the baptism of the battlefield, these displaced people have transformed into veterans with actual combat experience. Therefore, now Qi Wannian still has at least 70,000 troops in his hands. Moreover, the cavalry troops in his hands did not suffer much losses, and after the infantry was trained, the current Qi Wannian was only stronger than at the beginning. Jiang Tong replied loudly.

"In this way, although the rebels in Guanzhong have suffered some casualties, they have not yet been injured." Zu Ti groaned.

"Yes! This does not include the other Di tribes, and once the other Di tribes join the rebellion, the rebels will only be even more powerful. Coupled with the fact that the various armies of the imperial court had their own thoughts, it was somewhat difficult to quell the rebellion in the shortest possible time. Jiang Tong frowned and agreed.

"Hehe, everyone is right, in fact, we don't have to worry about the situation of the rebels at all, Lone hopes that the Di people, Qiang people, and Huns in Guanzhong will all rebel, which just gives Lone an excuse to rectify them. If we can't solve them as soon as possible, sooner or later they will become a big problem for the imperial court. Lone's biggest worry is internal worries, if there is internal strife among the armies of all walks of life for various reasons, that is the most terrible thing! ”

Sima Shu knew that fortresses were often breached from within, and in history, Sima Tong sacrificed 5,000 troops in vain because of his personal vendetta against the communiqué. Since Sima Shu is here, of course he doesn't want this kind of thing to happen again.

"Your Highness is reasonable, the court is not going on, knowing that the old general of Zhou is not in harmony with King Liang, he still got the two together! In case of infighting at a critical moment, wouldn't it affect Your Highness! Du Xi was very dissatisfied with the imperial court's arrangements for the counterinsurgency army.

"Regarding this matter, we can only avoid it as much as possible, and if someone insists on going their own way, then don't blame the lonely and ruthless." Speaking of this, Sima Shu's eyes shot a fine light, and seeing the silence in the military machine hall, he then spoke: "Now let's calculate our family background." In the second year of Yuankang, in 292 AD, after the census, Xincheng County had a total population of 250,000 people. ”

"This is also the reason why Lone insists on sending troops to Guanzhong, do you know? There are more than 2 million people in the entire Guanzhong, although this includes half of the people of Di and Qiang, but once we control Guanzhong, we can become a strong Qin, and we can be invincible by this. Therefore, no matter how great the difficulty is, Lone must send troops to Guanzhong. ”

In addition, Lone believes that another reason for sending troops is to train an elite army, and fighting a war is not something that can be won just by having a large number of people, and 100,000 weak soldiers are not as good as 30,000 elites. However, the elite is not trained by drills and drills, but must be tempered with blood and fire. Sima Shu looked at everyone and said word by word.

"In the past, we fought in Xincheng to quell the rebellion and suppress the bandits, and we thought we were invincible in the world. However, we have never fought with the real defenders at all, and only in Guanzhong have fought with the elite real swords and guns of the Hu people, can we know how much gap we have with the Hu army. In the future, when the Hu tribe is in the Northern Expedition, they don't have to touch their eyes in the dark, and they don't know if they are beaten all over the ground to find teeth. ”

Sima Shu continued to say to everyone: "In this entry into the customs, we first trained the troops, then implemented the new policy in the Guanzhong area, and the third is to make Guanzhong our most solid base!" Once these three tasks are completed, we have the capital to run rampant in the world! ”

Everyone nodded yes when they heard it, so everyone began to discuss the details. After a day of discussions, the entire action plan and detailed steps were finalized and the candidate was chosen.

The crown prince Sima Shu personally served as the chief general, Zu Ti, Sima Ya, and Zu Yue served as deputy generals, and Jiang Tong, Li Fang, and Zu should serve as the army, responsible for handling logistics and documents. Mobilize a fleet of infantry troops, and then mobilize two battalions of the prince's army, one of which is a musketeer, a total of 9,000 people.

Du Xi and Xu Chao led the remaining troops to defend the new city, and the rest of the soldiers were on guard.