Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 682 Deep in the Mountains
Yuan Xi and Tian Yu rode out. In the distance were Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and other generals, each leading his own cavalry and waiting.

The imperial border defense before the Chinese New Year was also a training exercise. The reason why the Liangzhou Bingzhou soldiers and the Youzhou soldiers were better at fighting than the Central Plains and Jiangdong soldiers was due to the fighting environment.

Take the experience of Youzhou soldiers after Yuan Xi left as an example. Although there were no major wars during this year, small-scale conflicts occurred every ten and a half days. Accumulated, there were more than ten or even dozens of encounters a year. Fighting is also an excellent exercise for soldiers.

And although Yuan Xi may not lead many troops at a time, he often adopts a rotational battle system, and often adds rotating troops so that everyone can have experience in large battles.

Over the past few years, Yuan Xi has purposefully consolidated his strength and not brought everyone to the battlefield at the same time. On the one hand, this is to guard against barbarians outside the customs, and on the other hand, it is not the time to go all out. After all, this is This approach is similar to fishing for nothing, at the cost of overdrafting the future.

If the fist punched with all his strength cannot hit the person, it will be meaningless no matter how powerful it is. Now Yuan Xi is waiting for an opportunity. When the enemy cannot avoid it, that is the best time to punch.

He rode over and said to everyone: "This time we are sending troops here. The purpose is to train troops and at the same time deter the surrounding forces."

"When we fight, the simpler the process, the greater the outcome, and the better we can achieve the desired results."

"This time, because Gongming Wenyuan was leading troops in Youzhou for the first time, Gongming cooperated with General Yan Rou as the left army to intercept the Xianbei Rangers in Liaoxi County."

"Wen Yuan cooperated with General Xian Yufu as the right army to fight in Liaodong County."

All the generals took the order, and Xian Yufu said: "There is a cavalry army from the Gongsundu family in Liaodong. What should we do if we encounter them?"

"What if they learn the tactics and weapons of the Youzhou Army?"

Yuan Xi said: "If they want to steal the teacher, let them see if they can learn it."

"This operation is just to let them know the majesty of our Youzhou cavalry, so as to prevent them from thinking that we are easy to deal with."

Yuan Xi was very confident. Gongsundu's forces could indeed imitate things like saddles and stirrups. But from tactics to mobilization to execute orders, the deeper core this time was behind a system specially built by Yuan Xi. The opponent could not God, he can only watch the excitement.

Xian Yufu showed an understanding look and said with a smile: "Don't worry, this time the general will definitely make the Youzhou Army's reputation spread far beyond the Great Wall!"

He and Yan Rou were also eager to give it a try. Last year, because of the defense of Dai County, Zhao Yun was the commander of the assault on Xianbei. He shocked Xianbei in the first battle, but this time Yuan Xi did not send Zhao Yun, obviously to give the generals a chance to perform. .

Seeing everyone leading their troops away, Yuan Xi and Tian Yu led their troops from Piaoyuyi to the east along the coast of Yuyang County.

After joining forces with the Gongsundu family, Yuan Xi used some goods and technologies that were insignificant to him in exchange for the coastal area from Liaodong to Lelang ceded by the Gongsundu family.

Yuan Xi asked Tian Yu to prepare a fleet and prepare to march both by land and water. The ultimate goal was to clear out the Dongyi Hu tribe who had taken advantage of the harsh terrain and climate to occupy Lelang and make trouble, and began to recover this gray area that the Han Dynasty had lost for hundreds of years.

Of course, because Yuan Xi had to go back to Jicheng to plan for the coming year, he only walked half the distance to inspect Liaodong. After selecting a few port locations, he left the rest to Tian Yu.

Zhao Yun was assigned to Dai County by Yuan Xi, and went west to Bingzhou to expand his territory. As a subordinate of Youzhou Mu and Yuan Xi, he contacted Bingzhou Governor Gao Gan to plan matters related to the Southern Huns.

This time, except for Gao Shun who defended Jicheng, all of Yuan Xi's famous generals came out in full force, making a gesture of comprehensive expansion.

This kind of layout and arrangement involves a wide range of things. The news will soon spread to the Central Plains. Strategists from all sides will definitely infer from this that Bingzhou and Liaodong will be the strategic targets of the Youzhou Army in the next few years.

This will undoubtedly give them a signal that at least within the next year and a half, Yuan Xi will not intervene in the battle for the Central Plains. After all, he has been fighting for several years, and Youzhou has consumed a lot of money in terms of military strength and manpower and material resources. It’s time to hide one’s capabilities and bide one’s time for a while.

Yuan Xi's ultimate goal is to make everyone in the world form such a misunderstanding, because only he understands that he has retained a lot of accumulation in the previous wars.

This is what he relies on to deceive everyone in the future and punch with all his strength by surprise!

He and Tian Yu walked side by side, talking about the situation in Youzhou. After Lu Xun went south to Jianghuai, the intelligence system of the North returned to Tian Yu's hands. What he was talking to Yuan Xi was about the Gongsundu family.

"This time I was ordered by the young master to clear out the coastal areas of Lelang County, but in fact, Gongsundu's forces had already invaded Lelang."

"The local Goguryeo savages were outmatched, and many of them ran to the coast to escape. So this time we went to conquer the territory that belonged to us, and the resistance was actually not small."

"It's easy to talk about what happened on the battlefield, but what if the entire clan surrenders?"

He was afraid that Yuan Xi would misunderstand, so he added: "People like Goguryeo are very dishonest. They often surrender immediately when they see the situation is not right. Once they leave, they immediately start a rebellion. The border generals of the Han Dynasty were unable to do anything."

"The Gongsundu family also knows this, so this time they attacked Lelang with a lot more ruthless methods. Do we want it?" Yuan Xi heard this and thought that this is indeed a problem. The Korean sticks in later generations also have this style. , then said: "Let me think about it again."

The two men led the troops on horseback, and within a few days, they entered the boundary of Xu Wushan from Piaoyuyi. Yuan Xi smiled at Tian Yu and said, "I remember mentioning Tianchou to you last time. I have not been here until this time. I came here specifically to visit him.”

Tian Yu suddenly realized that Yuan Xi still remembered this matter!

Most of the area from Yuyang to Youbeiping and then to Liaodong is a barren land with extremely difficult roads. If you want to conquer Liaodong, you must establish a reliable logistics channel.

Although Yuan Xi later vigorously developed sea-going ships, relying solely on sea routes was not enough. Fortresses also needed to be built along the way. Therefore, Yuan Xi's plan was to persuade his people to live in seclusion in Tianchou in Xu Wushan and let them be used for his own use.

Tian Yu and Tian Chou were both from the Tian family in Youzhou. Although their relationship was far apart, they were still considered relatives. He thought to himself that no wonder Yuan Xi brought him here. He had really considered everything.

As everyone entered the boundary of Xu Wushan, they found that the road became increasingly difficult to walk. Many times, Yuan Xi and the soldiers had to dismount and walk, and sometimes they had to drag their horses forward.

There are basically no roads, so we can only find places where the forest and weeds are not so dense. But as we walk, there are large bushes and weeds in front of us, making it impossible to pass.

The soldiers had to use long knives to cut it into pieces, barely make it flat, and then trample it with horses and horses before they could pass through.

This is actually not the most troublesome thing. After all, as long as there is ground, a road will be slowly opened sooner or later.

As a headache, there are still swamps and mire everywhere.

At this time, Youzhou had an extremely rich water system, and because there were few people living there, the rotten trees and weeds for thousands of years formed silt covering the ground, with undercurrents below and new shrubs and weeds above.

This kind of ground is extremely dangerous. If people and horses are trapped in it, without other people's help in time, they will soon suffer disaster.

Even though Yuan Xi was extremely careful and asked the soldiers to tie ropes on their bodies and move forward in groups, they were still in danger many times. The people who were pulled out were covered in mud and had a terrible stench. Fortunately, they handled it properly and no one was injured or killed.

This kind of swampy ground is not a minority, but is everywhere. If you want to transform these terrains, you need to dig ditches to release water, and then set fire to the wasteland. After a few years, the land can be initially formed.

But that's not enough. We need to cut down trees in the surrounding areas to identify areas suitable for at least village habitation, and then renovate the land several times before it can be suitable for planting.

However, the pH of the soil is difficult to measure, and the seeds sown may not yield any harvest. If this happens for consecutive years, it is basically a complete failure of land reclamation.

Limited by time and science and technology, the most difficult thing in ancient times was to reclaim wasteland, so that successive dynasties gave seemingly generous rewards for reclaiming wasteland. However, if there was really no food to eat, few people would be willing to reclaim wasteland.

As a result, in the Youzhou area, many local residents in later generations chose a more secure life of fishing and hunting, so until 2000, this area was still deserted.

In fact, now is not the worst season. After all, many ferocious beasts hibernate in winter. In summer, the ground is full of mosquitoes and sewage, and diseases occur frequently. In addition, ferocious beasts appear from time to time, and dangers are everywhere. Even soldiers holding weapons dare not be careless. Not to mention ordinary people.

Yuan Xi has now personally seen the troubles in these places, and has just realized the hardship of people's livelihood. This is not a matter of just talking, but food can be grown in the ground, but a cruel world where death can occur if you are not careful.

After wandering around Xu Wushan for a few days, everyone finally found the mark left by the spies previously sent, and thus found the secret passage into Xu Wushan.

Fortunately, it is winter, and the grass that originally covered the entrance to the passage has turned into low withered grass, exposing the road, otherwise it would be almost impossible to find it in summer.

A group of people walked along the path covered by trees for a full day and night before entering Xu Wu Mountain.

As the road gradually widened, thatched huts began to appear along the way. Yuan Xi looked through his telescope and saw that there were already residents inside.

He thought for a while and asked the soldiers to stay where they were. He took Tian Yu, Sun Li and others on horseback. After a while, they came closer. When the residents saw strangers coming, they all showed fear on their faces.

Yuan Xi comforted him by saying that several of his people were lost. He and Tian Chou were both wearing leather robes and looked like businessmen on the outside. This gradually made the residents lower their guard. After some conversation, they discovered that these people indeed had land. Clan people.

Thinking about the difficulties when he came here, Yuan Xi couldn't help but admire that Tian Chou could lead his tribe to survive in such a place. His experience in reclaiming wasteland was definitely very impressive.

Putting aside his other abilities, he is an extremely useful talent just for reclaiming wasteland!

(End of this chapter)