The geographical concept of Shuofang refers to different places in different historical periods, sometimes the scope is larger, sometimes the scope is smaller, but the basic scope is mainly in the Hetao area.

Nowadays, Shuofang mainly refers to the area where the Yellow River tributary Haoyanshui flows, and Shuofang County is located in the middle and lower reaches of Haoyanshui, which is part of Dongxia Prefecture.

Although Shuofang County is administratively subordinate to Dongxia Prefecture, due to the fact that there are almost no large-scale households in the territory, some county and county officials are mostly feudal officials, which are held by Hu chiefs from all walks of life in the territory.

"This is Wei Ping City? Didn't lead the way?"

In the wilderness, Li Mu pointed to a city in front of him, half surprised, half suspicious and asked, "It's also a county, why, why is it so ......?"

Li Tai, who was traveling with him, also felt a little funny when he heard this, who are you asking? You yourself are the assassin of Dongxia Prefecture, and Wei Ping is the city under your governance, and you don't know it yet?

It's no wonder that Li Mu couldn't believe it in surprise, it was really the city in front of him that was too shabby. It was more of an earthen enclosure than a city, and the outer walls of the rammed earth had long since weathered and collapsed nearly halfway, leaving only a half-man-high bottom wall.

The buildings in the city are also dilapidated, and there are hardly any intact buildings of considerable size that can be seen at a glance. The whole city revealed a strong smell of ruin from the inside out, and there was no human population at all.

"Gong Wu An, this is indeed Wei Pingcheng. The earthen dam in the north of the city was built when the river flooded in the old days. In the seventh year of the Great Unification, the last general once traveled with the army, and also camped here to rest and replenish supplies. In the old territory of this city, the great chief was ruled by the Nu clan, but now the Nu clan seems to have moved into the vicinity of Tongwan Town to make a living."

Li Zhi in the team replied after carefully examining the surface of this terrain and land that his family was also from the Hao chief of Xiazhou, and he was no stranger to the geographical situation here.

Li Tai was secretly slandering Li Mu, this guy was a little derelict in his duties, and after listening to Li Dao's answer, he couldn't help but laugh out loud. This thorn history is really delicious, not only do you not know where the cities under your rule are, but even the subordinate officials and people directly run to the neighboring states.

Hearing Li Tai's laughter, Li Mu couldn't help but blush, and explained stubbornly: "The situation here is different from that of Neizhou, where the people are gathered into tribes, and Enwei is from the chieftain, and I don't know that there is an official government in addition. Yuwen Xiazhou is a heroic man in this township and is widely supported by the masses. I had not been in the state for a long time, and I had no intention of competing with it, but the Gongbo Mountains were complemented by the banks of the Heishui River, so I really didn't know much about the people in the north......

Li Mu's explanation is not unreasonable, but seeing his embarrassed old face, Li Tai still can't help but be secretly happy, although this guy is a lot older, but his face is not as thick as his son Li Ya.

The territory of Dongxia Prefecture is vast, and the situation is very different in different regions. Since Li Mu entered the state, he mainly only operated in the south of Qingshui, and the north of Qingshui was mostly managed by Yu Wengui in Xiazhou. ….

However, due to the lack of local horses, the two of them felt a little blind after leading the army to this realm, just like the dilapidated Weiping City in front of them, which was originally an important garrison after their planned northward advance, they could garrison here and wait for accurate news from the other two states, and then they could attack and clear it all the way along the luxury water.

But at the moment, this city does not even have a single person with smoke and bird feathers, and it is obviously not suitable as a base camp for this attack. Fortunately, there were not many vanguard troops they brought, only more than 2,000 light cavalry, if the real army was sent together, it would inevitably be even more blind, of course, Li Mu also knew his own affairs, but he would not let this happen.

Although Weiping City has long been abandoned, but I have to say that this geographical environment is really good, located in a flat valley, luxury water flows around this slope valley, of course, the river has long been frozen at present, but you can see the traces of a large area of land reclamation around the city.

It can be seen that a few months ago, this realm must have been a picture of abundant water and grass, diligent cultivation and grazing, but after the winter, the environment became harsh, and there was no strong tribal organization to considerable martial arts

The people had to move out of this realm and will not return until the spring of the next year.

"It's a pity, if we can occupy the development......

Li Tai is now thinking about the idea of farming and developing and strengthening his strength, and when he sees that such a large area of land in the river valley with good conditions cannot be continuously and effectively developed and utilized, he feels a little tyrannical. The Hu people in this realm are a little in the blessing and don't know the blessing, such a good geographical environment is not based on the steady development, what kind of bicycle do you want to go to other realms?

A team of scouts first entered the city to inspect and clean up, frightened away and shot some beasts lurking in the city to rest, and also searched out dozens of Hu men and women, and after a little interrogation, they asked some of the residence directions of the left near the Hu department, but whether it is accurate can not be guaranteed, after all, a few days ago, there were a large number of thieves in this realm, and the army was defeated, which will inevitably bring some impact and changes to the personnel in the realm.

Hu Bu, who contacted the left side, had his own scout operation, and after the brigade entered the city, he swept out an area and used the supplies he carried to cook in a pot.

In the evening, scouts returned, some finding nothing, while others brought back some local tribesmen.

Knowing that Li Mu, the assassin of Dangzhou, had crossed the border, those Hu chieftains were also enthusiastic and attentive, and while they were busy coming to visit, they also brought a lot of materials from the pastoral area, including some cattle and sheep livestock, which finally gave Li Mu a little respect.

Li Mu was quite satisfied with the attitude of these people, first inquired about some regional information, and then talked about the hope that they could send troops to cooperate in the pursuit of the thief army.

When Chief Hu heard this topic, his expressions were unnatural, some of them were embarrassed and said all kinds of excuses to shirk, and some of them directly wrote their reluctance on their faces. It can be seen that although Li Mu's assassin history has face in them, it is also limited, and it is just a matter of entertaining a meal and drinking, and going further, he will have an interview.

Seeing the many prevarications of these people, Li Mu felt uncomfortable in his heart, and he was too lazy to worry about these Hu chiefs, but after retiring from everyone, he couldn't help but complain to Li Tai about Yuwen Guilai in Xiazhou: "Shuofang all the people and horses, more than Yuwen Xiazhou snorts, Fangjin realm is uneasy, thieves are rampant, Yuwen Xiazhou is really to blame!" Our army has advanced bravely to this point, and if the Xiazhou side does not take proper measures, so that the thieves go astray, I will definitely tell the Lord and never decorate their mistakes!" ….

Yu Wengui also didn't talk casually, and the next morning, before the team had time to set off, the messenger from Xiazhou had already found this place, rode into the city, and sent Yu Wengui's reply.

Yu Wengui agreed with the pursuit plan discussed by Li Tai and Li Mu, and also hoped to take this opportunity to rectify and purge the Shuofang Hu people in the Haoyanshui Valley, and said that the material consumption of their two troops after entering the country would be raised by the Xiazhou side to compensate for the losses caused by the Hu thieves who went south before.

Seeing Yu Wengui's attitude, Li Mu's mood calmed down, but when he was led by the messenger to the next camp arranged by Yu Wengui, his mentality suddenly became a little unbalanced.

This is a large tribe of tens of thousands of people, located near a tributary of the Luyan River, in order to welcome the arrival of Li Mu and others, almost all the tribes went out to welcome them, and prepared a rich diet. It's just that the chief's emotional intelligence is a little anxious, and he is hinting that he hopes that they can say a few good words for him in front of Xiazhou Yuwen Envoy, but he ignores that Li Mu is their nominal official.

In his own land, he actually had to rely on other people's names to eat and drink, no matter how thick-skinned Li Mu was, he couldn't hang it anymore, so he got up and left the table directly on the grounds that he was tired.

Li Tai was holding a roasted leg of lamb that was charred on the outside and tender on the inside and cut it with a knife, and when he saw Li Mu get up and leave the table, he sighed in his heart, you didn't know about this situation on the first day, why can't you see it? If Yu Wengui really goes to Yuanzhou to be an official one day, doesn't it depend on your brother's face?

The state officials officially appointed by the imperial court and the overlord were not as prestigious as the local powerful chieftains in the territory of governance, which is also a reality of the current Western Wei politics.

Although Li Mu was a little resentful, he also had to admit that with the help of these local snakes, their next things went much smoother. Soon a local Hu sent them information about the route of the defeated soldiers of the bandits.

Li Mu was eager to make meritorious contributions, and did not wait for the people to catch up, even if he led the pioneers under his command to chase all the way

After killing, he soon encountered the thief army in the wilderness, and successfully sniped and captured more than a thousand thief soldiers, swept away the previous decadence and depression, and raised his eyebrows with a big exhalation.

Li Tai didn't have much of a strong desire to fight, things had developed to this point, the threat of Sanfang City had been lifted, and his purpose of going north had been basically achieved, and the next thing was to lend the troops to Li Mu, in order to continue to expand the results of the war.

Yu Wengui on the Xiazhou side has also sent troops, and he has unified Wancheng all the way to the east along the upper reaches of the Luyan River, and while marching, he has eliminated those Hu forces who have not been very obedient along the way.

Although the river is long and winding, it cannot withstand the full advance of the east and west, and after ten days, the people and horses of the two sides converge in the territory of Huazheng County in Xiazhou.

After several sieges and pursuits against the thieves and several Shuofanghu tribes who colluded with Shihu, Li Mu swept away the decadence of being besieged before, and after the two armies converged, he ordered his subordinates to put all the captured people and materials in a row, and there was still a little bit of a sense of competing with Yu Wengui in his heart.

Compared with Li Muna's mighty capture, the troops led by Yu Wengui were much simpler, with only a few thousand strong soldiers under his command. ….

When Li Mu saw this scene, he couldn't help but be happy, and pointed at those captives with a mocking meaning and smiled at Yu Wengui: "These thieves are indeed rampant thieves, but if they blindly make up and kill, it will inevitably hurt the heavens and the peace. Therefore, under the torture knife, the legal net is open, and those who are too vicious must not be left, leaving these cowardly and begging thieves, hoping that they can change their ways. Whoever you have encountered as you go all the way east, has there been no one who can make you feel mercy?"

After hearing this, Yu Wengui smiled and said, "All the battles are in the realm, and the captures in the battle are directly distributed to the tribes that help the war, so that the military aircraft can not be delayed. Wu Angong is indeed not known for his bravery, and the number of thieves he has captured is also quite impressive."

After saying this, he crossed Li Mu and clasped his fists at Li Tai and said with a smile, "Li Zhi, don't come unharmed! This time, thank you for leading the army northward and giving the thief army a head-on blow, so that the people and horses of our two states can calmly pursue and suppress Yu Kou. When all the thieves and thieves in the realm are swept away, I will definitely say that the Lord and the grand performance will perform meritorious deeds!"

Before Li Tai could answer after hearing this, Li Mu next to him had already said with a smile: "Boshan is coming north for me, and when this is the time of the triumph, I should praise it for it, but I don't need to treat Yuwen Xiazhou Jiayan."

Li Tai knew that Li Mu had accumulated a lot of resentment against Yu Wengui along the way, and he didn't want him to continue to entangle and make enemies, so he looked at Yu Wengui and asked, "Everyone else can talk about it later, I have something to be curious about, may I ask if Yuwen Envoy Jun has received a message from Yang Envoy Jun in Xi'an Prefecture?"

As early as when he sent troops north to rescue Li Mu, Li Tai had already written to Yang Zhong to tell him about his dynamics, hoping that some echoing cooperation between their realms could be reached. When Guangwu City was resting, he sent a letter to tell him about his plan to pursue Li Mu to the north, and invited him to go along.

But they traveled all the way here, but they never received news from Xi'an Prefecture, what kind of attitude and how Yang Zhong acted, Li Tai didn't know anything, making it seem like a black hole of information there.

This inevitably made Li Tai feel strange, although he and Yang Zhong did not have a deep friendship, but because of the medium of Duguxin, he was not completely speechless. After sending letters repeatedly, what kind of idea did Yang Zhong have, and he should have informed him.

Yu Wengui also shook his head when he heard Li Tai's question, saying that he had not received any information from Xi'an Prefecture.

But this is nothing, with the purge of the disobedient Hu in the territory, Yu Wengui's authority in the territory was once again established and propagated, where the requisitioned orders, the ministries dare not disobey, and can gather most of the people at any time. Coupled with the men and horses commanded by Li Tai and Li Mu, it is enough to have a big battle.

At present, several people and horses involved in Shuofang Hu and the rest of Lishihu have gathered on the bank of the Yellow River in the northeast of Huazheng County, and there are still tens of thousands of Hu people. Even if Yang Zhong couldn't arrive in time, they would be able to attack the remnants of the thief army.

But Li Tai was still a little uncomfortable in his heart, he didn't expect that the first time he cooperated with Yang Zhong would be so unsmooth, if the other party deliberately distanced himself and did not respond to him, then the relationship after that would really have to be carefully weighed.

After the men and horses of several parties met, they took a short rest in the territory of Huazheng County to prepare for the final encirclement and suppression battle. However, at this time, the scouts under Yu Wengui introduced the Xi'an Prefecture messenger into the camp, and when they saw Li Tai, they announced: "The lord received a message from Li Lang after breaking the thieves in the territory, and immediately led his relatives to this place, and the thieves' nest has been explored, just waiting for Li Lang's army to arrive."

Dress well