Hanzhong Mansion, a thousand-year-old city.

The geographical conditions of Hanzhong made it a battleground for the Han dynasty change, but it was not a necessary place for the Northern Barbarians to invade, so this thousand-year-old city is excellently preserved.

Under the antique blue-black city wall, Shan Si and others rode more than 30 horses, and the momentum was not small, which attracted the attention of the guards at the city gate, and they were all nervous, and someone had already gone to report to the city gate guards.

Compared with the rivers and lakes, the means of dealing with officialdom are not sufficient, so when it comes to the city of Hanzhong Mansion, the leadership of the team has been handed over to Zheng Xiao.

Zheng Xiao rode away from the team alone and arrived at the city gate first, and the city gate guards had already hurried over.

This is a hundred households, wearing armor, Zheng Xiao has already taken out his deputy thousand households waist card, and when he arrived at the city gate, he turned over and dismounted, and the waist card was already lost. The other party didn't dare to take it in person.

The hundred households took the waist card, their faces changed suddenly, and they approached with a smile on their faces, and arched their hands:

"It turned out to be the master of the Thousand Households of the Fu Military Guard, the commander of the Shaanxi Han Zhongwei, and the Hundred Households of the Thousand Households were together."

In Zhengyang, in addition to the five military governors' offices, each of which received five military horses, military departments were also established in various provinces. The province has set up a command department, and the department has set up a guard command department, a thousand households, and a hundred households. There are 5,600 people per bathroom, divided into 5 thousand households in the front, back, left, right and middle. The 1,000 households are divided into 10 100 households, and each 100 households are full of 112 people.

The guards were stationed in peacetime, and were ordered to attack and defend in wartime. In wartime, the imperial court temporarily ordered generals, and not the capital commander commanded the battle. Therefore, on weekdays, the commander is concurrently served by the governor of a province, the highest governor.

The governor of Shaanxi Province, the Yamen, was set up in Shaanxi Prefecture, but Han Zhongwei of Hanzhong Mansion was the strongest under the command of the Shaanxi Commander.

One of the reasons is the existence of the Hanzhong Military Horse Farm.

Most of Zhengyang's military horse cultivation is here. It can be said that the most important place for the Zhengyang cavalry. In the military horse farm, a separate guard post was also set up, and the command, supply, and drill were all attributed to the northern army of the Duke of Qin and Yunhan.

As a result, the Duke of Qin concurrently served as the governor of the four northwestern provinces, and his authority was still above the governors of the provinces.

When they learned that Zheng Xiao and the others were appointed by the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and killed the leader of the bandits in the mountain in Raptor's Mountain, and obtained the head of the enemy chieftain, the flattery on Baihu Gou's face was even better.

"Oh, what a twist and turn today. First, General Gan failed in his campaign against the mountain bandits and retreated. We thought that the mountain bandit force had been entrenched to such a strong point, but the officials and soldiers reported that the cavalry leader of one of the mountain bandit chieftains was killed and came back with his head. You know, it was this thief chief who caused General Gan's defeat. Now that Lord Qianhu has returned with the head of the leader of the mountain bandits, if General Gan knows that the group of mountain bandits has no leader, he will definitely be ashamed and sweep away the group of mountain bandits. ”

Zheng Xiao was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then asked sharply: "You said that the cavalry leader of the mountain bandits was killed and the head was brought back?" ”

Gou said: "Yes, those officers and soldiers have just entered the city, and they showed off to me before." ”

Zheng Xiao looked up at the city gate, hurriedly got on his horse and went back, and Shan Si said these things, and then the two of them ordered people to go into the city to find a place to rest, and the two of them quickly entered the city, and it didn't take long to find the four officers and soldiers, they drove more than a dozen horses, the target was very large, and it was very easy to find.

Riding forward, identifying, the four officers and soldiers immediately respectfully respected.

Zheng Xiao learned everything from them, and after entering the city, Liu Xin and the three of them went in another direction.

Zheng Xiao said to Shan Si: "I vaguely know who those three people are!" ”

Shan Si's eyes lit up, he was able to hedge more than a dozen horses with three horses, and he was still the master of the first horse in Liangshan, and he was very interested in knowing the other party's name.

Zheng Xiao saw Shan Si's expression, and couldn't help but smile bitterly when he saw the three treasure horses in the stable: "I guess these three people did this, but unfortunately I couldn't meet them at that time." However, I originally thought that the owner of the three horses was at least a high-ranking official in the imperial court, or a veteran in the army. Unexpectedly, it was three young people. ”

Shan Si showed a yearning look: "If it is a young person, it is even more amazing, now is the time for the rise of our young generation, there will be the best of the same generation in all parts of the world, I already feel the blood in my body, eager to see!" ”

Zheng Xiao looked at Shan Si speechlessly, the leader of his peers in Shan Si, should not include him.

Zheng Xiao still has some envy in his heart, although he works hard, he is still not strong enough, the enthusiasm and pride of his youth have long been worn out in reality again and again, and there is no such blood at this moment. The envy of people like Shan Si is naturally that they have always maintained their pride and can feel the feeling of blood boiling.

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After entering the city of Hanzhong, Liu Xin and the others separated from the four soldiers. Of course, it was a military merit, but it was not received at this time.

With Leng Peijun's help, they found a secret stronghold planted here by Dongchang, found a place to live nearby, and when they returned to this stronghold, it was already getting dark.

Take out the Dongchang token. Liu Xin met the person in charge of the East Factory here, a stall leader. Dongchang is distributed in the provinces, and there are eunuchs from all over the country, and they are also supervising the governors who assist them. Under the eunuchs, there are thousands of households and 100 households on the surface, which is the same as the setting in the imperial capital. However, Dongchang will only open a Dongchang yamen in the provincial capital in each province, as an office for guarding eunuchs, punishing thousands of households, and punishing hundreds of households.

In a city like Hanzhong Mansion, the highest governor of Dongchang is the head of the class, and the head of the class is at the same level as the official position of the 100 households, but in terms of status, the 100 households are far above the head of the class. Under the foreman is the foreman, and under the foreman is the stall head. Corresponding to the position of 100 households, the general flag and the small flag.

As for the East Factory in the imperial capital, it was because it was close to the Admiral, and its status had risen, which led to the stall head of the East Factory being able to talk to the hundred households of Jinyiwei on an equal footing.

In the land of Yifu, the Dongchang spies will not appear in the sun, but hide under the water, becoming one of the two swords hanging over the heads of officials everywhere at all times.

The other is Jinyiwei, but in recent years, the wheel has secretly used methods, and the East Factory has surpassed Jinyiwei.

The head of the Dongchang stall in Hanzhong Mansion certainly did not have the status of the imperial capital, so he treated Liu Xin and others very respectfully.

"The foreman and several foremen are on official duty, and I ask for your forgiveness."

Liu Xin waved his hand lightly, full of official authority: "It's okay!" ”

Liu Xin came this time, mainly to secretly enter the Hanzhong Military Horse Farm in the way of Dongchang, but to his surprise, this stall directly said that it was impossible!

Can't do secret entry.

After talking carefully, Liu Xin knew the reason.

Administratively, the Hanzhong Military Horse Farm does not belong to Hanzhong Prefecture, or even to Shaanxi Province, but is subordinate to the military and directly under the Northern Military Governor's Office. Therefore, all the rules in the military horse farm are set by the Northern Army Governor's Office, and Tuoba Yunhan, as the Northern Army Governor, has absolute control over the military horse farm. With the power of Qin Guogong, he even reformed the system of the military horse farm, which eventually led to a situation where even intelligence agencies such as Dongchang could not easily send people in.

It's not that you can't send it, but if you send it in, you will be found immediately.

The system of the military horse farm is a rotation system, and now the guard post responsible for the protection of the military horse farm can only be stationed in the military horse farm for half a year, up to the commander of the guard station, down to the low-level officers and soldiers, during this period, they can not leave the enclosure of the military horse farm one step.

Even the Duke of Qin specially recruited a group of young and powerful people, gave them extremely high remuneration, and exempted their respective families from taxes, just so that they could cultivate between the two hills within the scope of the military horse farm.

Except for the food for the horses, which was personally escorted by Tuoba Yunhan's pro-army, almost all of the food eaten by the rest of the people was produced and sold by themselves.

Even if there were occasional supplies needed, Tuoba Yunhan personally appointed subordinates to temporarily escort them.

It can be said that the Hanzhong Military Horse Farm is an iron bucket, don't think about the people inside, and the people outside can enter, but they can't enter quietly.

After Liu Xin learned about it, he felt that Tuoba Yunhan's emphasis on the military horse farm seemed to be a little too much, but he listened to Leng Peijun explain:

"Qianhu, Zhengyang's biggest problem is the Northern Barbarians, and we have to compete with the Northern Barbarians, especially on the grassland, we don't have the solid city walls, and the iron cavalry in the face of the Northern Barbarians can only be beaten passively. Therefore, Qin Guogong once made a remark of "Immediately Fu" five years ago, that is, if Zhengyang wants to completely solve the Northern Barbarians, he can only divide the victory and defeat on the horse. ”

Liu Xin snorted, he understood, glanced at Leng Peijun, he found that the latter was more and more like his staff officer, and it was estimated that Yuan Dongxiang sent him for this purpose.

His qualifications are too shallow, and Leng Peijun makes up for his shortcomings very well.

Liu Xin pinched his eyebrows, feeling that he was too bitter, if he couldn't secretly enter the military horse farm in this mission, he could only startle the snake, but in that case, it would be too difficult to investigate.

"Who's going to enter the racecourse lately?" Leng Peijun saw Liu Xin's confusion, so he asked tentatively.

The military horse farm can enter, but it must be applied for in advance, and it must be approved by the Northern Military Governor's Office, if someone enters recently, then they can go in together, but this is just Leng Peijun asked with the attitude of giving it a try, and he is not hopeful.

But the result was unexpected, and the head of the stall said without thinking: "There really is!" ”

Liu Xin's eyes lit up and asked, "Who is it, when will you enter, and what is the matter?" ”

The head of the stall faced Liu Xin's three consecutive questions, first stunned, and then thought about it and said: "I received the news half a month ago, saying that a group of sons and brothers in the imperial capital were going to come to the military horse farm to choose mounts. ”

Liu Xin and Leng Peijun glanced at each other, isn't this the second generation of the honorable nobles they met at the post station, they didn't care when they said they were going to choose a horse, but then they forgot about it, and now that they think about it, Liu Xin suddenly has an idea.

"Help me check, the current location of the second generation of Xungui, they set off earlier than us, and they may have entered the city!" Liu Xin commanded.

"Yes!" The head of the East Factory said respectfully.

Hanzhong Military Horse Farm is located in the south side of Hanzhong Mansion outside the city of 30 miles, there are two mountains, one east and one west, separated by forty miles, the southernmost side has a river that eventually joins the Yangtze River, named Hanjiang.

The Han River is wide, spanning nearly 100 meters from north to south, and is a natural barrier, plus two mountains in the east and west, the location of the military horse farm is a natural fortress, the kind that cannot be opened by one man.

The military horse farm needs to be responsible for the horses used by the royal family and the official office, as well as the transportation horses of the national army and the war horses of the cavalry, so the officials or groups in charge of the horse administration often have strong political power.

The military horse farm is generally under the military department, but the Hanzhong military horse farm is special, directly subordinate to the Northern Military Governor's Office, and belongs to the Qin State Duke Tuoba Yun Han moderation. Moreover, the Hanzhong Military Horse Farm is not responsible for the cultivation and training of horses such as government offices, transportation, etc., and the Hanzhong Military Horse Farm only breeds one kind of horse:

Steed!

Today, there are more than 20,000 horses in the Hanzhong Military Horse Farm, and the number of miscellaneous servants who are responsible for taking care of these horses exceeds 30,000, not including the two guards on the outside of the military horse farm and inside the military horse farm.

The establishment of the guard post of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies is different from that of the pro-army, and the people of the world do not know the details of the Guards, but in fact, the establishment of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies is a army, a town, a battalion, a sentry, a team, and so on.

The first army was about 20,000 men, and the commander was the deputy commander-in-chief, all of whom had the rank of commander. There are about 5,000 people in a town, and the commander is a general, and the commander is the commander or commander with the rank of governor. A battalion has about 1,000 people, and the commander is a guerrilla general, also known as garrison, general, thousand households or commander. One sentry is two hundred and fifty people, and the commander is the sentry officer, with the rank of one hundred households. A team of fifty people, the commander is the captain, and the rank of general flag or small flag.

The two guards of the Hanzhong Military Horse Farm are actually the garrisons of the two towns, of which the outer defense is increased by Hanzhong Mansion and Shaanxi Prefecture. The internal defense of the military horse farm was guarded by the Northern Army on a rotational basis. The garrison of the Northern Army was led by a commander who had been in the army for many years and a commander who had rotated the army.

The commander in the military horse farm left the military horse farm, and the command was automatically handed over to the original commander of the army.

In the eleventh year of the rising sun, in the early morning of July 24, it was rainy and the weather was sultry.

Shan Si left Hanzhong Mansion with a kind of noble second generation, they were a group of six people, plus a group of guards, three of them did not know if they had eaten bad stomachs at last night's celebration banquet, and they were bedridden and even collapsed, so they could only choose mounts for others.

Just when they came to the Hanzhong Garrison Mansion with the head of the thief chieftain, the commander who had suffered a defeat heard the news, but he didn't want to wait, and went directly to the military camp to point the general, and marched towards Raptors Mountain in the night, looking like he was ready to go to the snow before the shame.

And the prefect of Hanzhong Mansion personally met with several nobles of the second generation, these people are all future powerful nobles, so they naturally have to make good friends. The banquet that night was even directly renamed the Celebration Banquet, and it seemed that the mountain bandit who took the Raptors Mountain was already a sure thing.

Several noble second generations naturally accepted all this, except for Shan Si and Zheng Xiao, who were more restrained, the rest of them went back to the room to rest in the middle of the night, and these people were still languishing at the moment.

A prefect led the way, and everyone went to the military horse farm. Because he had already said hello, Shan Si had an official certificate to enter the military horse farm, and only with this official certificate personally issued by the military department Shangshu could he enter the military horse farm. None of the official positions are issued with this qualification.

Ten miles away from the military horse farm, there was a post station, and Shan Si and the others wanted to pass by directly, but Zheng Xiao's eyes were sharp, and he suddenly saw the three treasure horses in the post station stable.

"Stop!" Zheng Xiao stopped Shan Si and the others, Shan Si looked at him strangely, but Zheng Xiao pointed to the stable of the post station, Shan Si's eyes lit up, and he immediately understood what Zheng Xiao meant.

"Let's go, let's go to the post station to rest for a while!" After Shan Si finished speaking, he and Zheng Xiaoce turned around and went to the post station. The rest of the second generation of Xungui were puzzled, but they had no opinion.

In the post station, Liu Xin and Leng Peijun were eating, and the food here could only be regarded as improvised, and the three of them were not hungry, just eating and chatting over there.

Shan Si and Zheng Xiao entered the post station first, the two glanced at each other, and Zheng Xiao walked straight to the three people in obvious positions.

Liu Xin raised his head and looked at Zheng Xiao curiously, his acting skills were first-class, and it didn't seem like he was waiting for the other party here on purpose.

Zheng Xiao was born in a famous family, and his etiquette is naturally impeccable, he wears a tight-fitting robe, which is the favorite of the sons and daughters of the imperial capital's noble family, but the hem of Zheng Xiao's robe does not have those complicated decorations, such as jade pendants, waist cards and the like.

"Forgive me, my name is Zheng Xiao, because of some coincidences, I know that the three of them did a big thing near Raptors Mountain yesterday, and I have been looking forward to seeing them, and today I happened to see the mounts of the three brothers at the post station, so I came in with a cheeky face, if the three brothers don't mind, can my brother and I get to know you?"

Zheng Xiao behaved very decently, and his words were good, and when he saw Liu Xin's agreement, he summoned four or five people who were not good at officialdom to sit down, and under the drive of Zheng Xiao, the communication between several people was very smooth.

"It turned out to be the son of the Liu Governor of Qingyang Mansion, no wonder he has such a ability, three horses against more than ten horses, which is only for you generals stationed in the frontier dare to do it." Zheng Xiao sighed.

Qingyang Mansion is one of the three major prefectures of the governor of Yansui, which is an important province in the north of Zhengyang, and there are many families of military generals. The generals in the north and the nobles of the imperial capital are the two mountains of the military. Although Tuoba Yunhan is a nobleman, he is also one of the families of military generals, so he can have the momentum he has in the military.

Although the other party is only the son of the prefect, the prefect of Qingyang Mansion and the prefect of Hanzhong are not the same thing at all, so Zheng Xiao treats Liu Xin and others as equals. Besides, the other party's actions are not something he can do, Shan Si next to him may have this ability, but he hasn't actually done it, and no one knows the result.

Shan Si's vision of people is very accurate, he judged at a glance that among the three people opposite, Liu Xin is the strongest one, don't ask why, ask is accurate.

Therefore, after Zheng Xiao and the other party exchanged greetings for three hundred rounds, the straightforward Shan Si asked directly: "How many of you are here, are you also going to the Hanzhong Military Horse Farm?" ”

Liu Xin's heart moved, and when he came, he didn't have to take the initiative to speak.