Wei Ni

When Xuchang welcomed its first snow, Liaoxi County was already covered in silver, with snow three feet deep on the ground. Even the Jieshi Mountain became white, and most of its outlines merged with the sky.

This weather is not suitable for going out.

But Xiahou Hui still braved the heavy snow and headed to the barracks outside Guzhu City with his simple luggage.

He will live in the barracks from now on.

The reason was that the angels who went to Liaodong to recruit Gongsun Yuan to the court returned empty-handed again.

Well, this is the third wave of angels.

In order to have a legitimate reason for his attack, Emperor Cao Rui sent three waves of envoys to Liaodong within a month. They went directly from Luoyang to the sea via the river and then took the sea route to Liaodong.

The frequent summons and urgent imperial edicts made it impossible for Gongsun Yuan to find any excuses to delay, and it also completely confirmed his reputation as a traitor who did not obey the emperor's orders. Needless to say, both the Wei court and the Liaodong people knew that the imperial edict that designated Gongsun Yuan as a traitor would soon be announced to the world and the war between the two sides would soon break out.

Gongsun Yuan was not surprised at all.

Because before the first wave of angels arrived in Liaodong, the spies in Liaodong had deduced from the various details of Qingzhou and Youzhou's active preparations for war that the imperial court was going to use military force.

For this reason, he had previously submitted a report to test the waters.

He claimed that the vassal state Goguryeo had accepted Sun Quan's enthronement and betrayed the State of Wei, so he asked for permission to personally lead troops to attack it and show the power of the country.

But the Wei government officials only gave him a few words of praise and that was all.

This also confirmed his guess and he began to actively prepare for the battle.

The Wei spies hiding in Liaodong also sent back news that when he summoned his subordinates to work together, he seemed to have the intention of reconciling with Sun Quan of Jiangdong, and was looking forward to the two sides forming an alliance again and forming a pattern of north-south cooperation to fight against Wei.

Of course, this news is a bit unreliable.

Given what he had done before, it would be difficult for Sun Quan to let go of his grudges easily. Even if Sun Quan was magnanimous, the officials and soldiers of Jiangdong might not be able to swallow this anger.
There is one piece of news that is confirmed.

He sent envoys to Goguryeo to stop fighting and form an alliance, agreeing not to offend each other on the grounds that they would jointly attack Han Ye in the southeast.

You know, since Gongsun Du, Liaodong's attack on Goguryeo and Jiangdong's attack on Shanyue were of the same nature, and were as common as eating and sleeping.

Now Gongsun Yuan has taken the initiative to stop the war, and his purpose is self-evident.

For the State of Wei, it was a welcome sight that he had stopped fighting with Goguryeo and was actively preparing for war.

Firstly, this move meant that the "food consumption" tactics of Liaoxi Governor Fu Rong had already had a basis for implementation - after making peace with Goguryeo, he would inevitably gather more troops to station in Xiangping and Liaosui, which would intensify the loss of food and fodder.

Another is that this move may cause internal discord in Liaodong.

In November of mid-winter, Xiahou Hui, with the idea of ​​knowing both himself and the enemy, came to Guzhu City to seek advice from the school lieutenant Wang Qi on the status of the troops of Liaodong County. Wang Qi, who was usually taciturn, did not refuse and told him the intelligence he had collected one by one. Among them, he mentioned a Goguryeo troop that he served.

That was acquired during the reign of Gongsun Kang.

In the 209th year of Jian'an ( AD), Gongsun Kang launched a massive attack on Goguryeo, destroyed its capital, and burned its villages. Baqi, the brother of Goguryeo King Yiyimo, was not allowed to ascend the throne because he was the eldest son, so he led more than of his own people to surrender to Liaodong at that time. Gongsun Kang then settled them in Xuantu County as a vassal state, and selected able-bodied men from them as soldiers. Under the pretext of restoring Baqi's throne, he attacked Goguryeo and recruited people from various villages of Goguryeo.

Although it has been nearly twenty years now, the vassal army still maintains a size of more than 3,000 people.

Gongsun Yuan's peace talks with Goguryeo will inevitably lead to the separation of this army.

Of course, Xiahou Hui had no intention of sending envoys to sow discord or invite accomplices.

After all, its leader, Baqi, is now very old and perhaps has become depressed and no longer has the desire to regain the throne of Goguryeo.

Firstly, Bachi's son Boweiju remained in Goguryeo, and the children he had after fleeing to Liaodong were left behind by the Gongsun family and settled in Xiangping City. In a sense, there was no suitable heir.

Another reason is that his brother Yi Yimo has passed away. Because he has no son, Goguryeo nominated his brother Yeonyu as king. Later, Yeonyu died of illness, and his son Weigong (originally named You Weiju, but called Weigong because he looks like his grandfather Gong) ascended the throne. The throne of Goguryeo has changed hands several times, so the battle for the throne is a thing of the past and no one cares about it anymore.

In this case, it is very likely that Bachi will be content with the status quo and naturally will not care about Gongsun Yuan's actions.

The most important thing is that the geopolitical structure determined that the truce between the four counties of Liaodong and Goguryeo was only temporary, and war would eventually break out.

If Goguryeo, whose territory was in the mountains, wanted to ensure that its people could continue to have enough food and clothing, it would inevitably have to get its hands on the two counties of Xuantu and Liaodong, which had plains. And for Gongsun Yuan, it was a matter of not allowing anyone else to sleep soundly beside his bed. If Goguryeo, which coveted the fertile land on the west side of the mountains, was not conquered, Liaodong would never have peace.

This is proven by the fact that Liaodong and Goguryeo continued to attack each other from the time of Emperor Shun of Han to the present.

Bachi must have known this too.

Perhaps Gongsun Yuan also appeased and compensated him on the grounds of expediency when he was making peace with Goguryeo.

If Xiahou Hui had sent someone to secretly talk about it, Gongsun Yuan might have taken advantage of his trick! Therefore, when Wang Qi mentioned the vassal soldiers of Goguryeo, he only suggested that the soldiers of Liaodong came from a variety of sources, including the Wuhuan, Xianbei, Goguryeo, and Han Ye vassal soldiers. Therefore, if he could find an opportunity to fight against these subordinate soldiers with low fighting spirit with elite forces, he might be able to win the battle in the way of "Tian Ji's horse racing".

Xiahou Hui came to the military camp outside Guzhu City now, not to discuss with Wang Qi how to play Tian Ji's horse racing.

There is nothing to discuss about this matter.

No one can predict what the future battlefield will be like, so just be mentally prepared.

He was not preparing for the attack on Liaodong, but wanted to get acquainted with the soldiers as soon as possible, because the Zhenhu Department and the border troops of Youzhou would not be able to gather here until March!

He did this because the Jieshi Mountain outpost was to be withdrawn.

The war against Liaodong was about to start, and this outpost was no longer meaningful. It was the end of the year and winter, and there was nothing to do. By then, the White Horse Volunteers who were going to join the expedition would have already returned home on their days off. If we continued to stay there, we would have to trouble the governor Fu Rong to send people to deliver food and fodder, so it would be better for us to come to Guzhu City now.

We trudged through the snow and arrived at dusk.

Now, in the barracks outside Guzhu City, there are only Wang Qi and two or three hundred soldiers on duty.

Needless to say, the border troops under his command also took turns to rest on a large scale.

However, as a native of Donglai, Qingzhou, he did not take this opportunity to return home to visit his relatives, even though his direct superior Guanqiu Jian was considerate and gave him two months of rest.

Although they had only met once, Xiahou Hui could roughly guess why he did not return.

In other words, he, like other generals of the Youzhou border army such as Gong Zun, Liu Mao and others, did not dare to be negligent in the battle against Liaodong that would determine their future careers.

You know, as the Xianbei border threat is no longer a problem, the Youzhou border troops are now called "useless men". If it weren't for the expedition to Liaodong, Wang Qi and other generals might have been disbanded with their troops long ago, and then transferred to guard border passes or become county lieutenants in the heartland, which would have completely bid farewell to their ambition to be awarded a title for military merit!
Of course, if the war against Liaodong fails, these generals will also be transferred to other positions.

There is no other reason.

The government thought they were not up to the task.

But if the war against Liaodong goes smoothly, it will be different.

After conquering Liaodong, the imperial court would certainly station troops there, and would certainly regard Gongsun Du's early actions as "the forerunner of the king." They would continue to annex the Wuhuan and Xianbei tribes, attack Goguryeo, and make Buyeo a vassal, and their Youzhou border troops would be the first choice.

The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, and the Wei Dynasty inherited the Han system.

Being awarded a title for military merit is a man's unchanging sentiment. Nothing is more exciting than conquering new territories for the king and having the opportunity to leave your name in history.

Wang Qi, who was in his prime, cherished this opportunity very much.

Wang is a big surname in Donglai, Qingzhou, but it has many branches and his family status is not high.

As he had no chance of being selected as a filial and incorrupt official, he chose to join the army at the frontier. It has been more than ten years now, and he finally had the opportunity to change his destiny and improve his family's status.

Moreover, compared with Gong Zun and Liu Mao who were stationed in Yan State and Youbeiping County, he, who was stationed in Liaoxi County, had an opportunity to get acquainted with the main general of the Liaodong expedition in advance.

Although the imperial court had not yet denounced Gongsun of Liaodong, nor had it announced to the world that it would use military force against Liaodong.

But Wang Qi is not stupid.

The contacts during these days were enough to make him realize that if the government wanted to attack Liaodong, Xiahou Hui would be the main force and Guanqiu Jian would be the auxiliary force.

Xiahou Hui is the descendant of Qiaopei's hero~
Moreover, in terms of their military experience and offensive achievements, Guanqiu Jian could not compete with Xiahou Hui.

Therefore, when he learned that Guanqiu Jian had ordered a large-scale rest for the border troops in Youzhou, the withdrawal of the Jieshi Mountain outpost, and that Xiahou Hui would come to the barracks soon, he had been thinking about how to leave a good impression on Xiahou Hui.

It's not an act of fawning or flattering.

Instead, he wanted Xiahou Hui to see his talent in commanding the army and feel that his troops were capable of fighting, so that in future battles, he could use his troops as the vanguard, rather than leaving them in the rear to supervise food and fodder, fortify the camp, or form a siege or demonstration.

This concern is very likely.

After all, as the commander of the central army in Luoyang, Xiahou Hui would naturally have more trust in the combat effectiveness of the Zhenhu Department.

Inevitably, among the 30,000 soldiers and horses gathered by Guanqiu Jian, excluding the conscripted Wuhuan and Xianbei tribes, at least half of the border troops of Youzhou would be reduced to supporting roles, waving flags and shouting slogans.

Wang Qi didn't want to be just a foil.

Therefore, he not only repaired the barracks in an orderly manner, but also strictly prohibited his soldiers from being negligent in the slightest.

That is why Xiahou Hui and his party were pointed at by dozens of powerful crossbows when they first arrived at the gate of the barracks. (End of this chapter)