Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 146 Conquest of Zhang Zuo

The soldiers under Huan Xi's command can also be regarded as a private army to a certain extent.

They only obeyed Huan Xi's orders and received Huan Xi's kindness. As for the imperial court, they could not recruit these people.

As the largest private soldier in the Guanlong area, Duke Huan, in principle, did not encourage his generals to form their own private soldiers. He liked the feeling of being in control of everything.

In fact, as Huan Xi implemented the land equalization system in Guanlong, the hermit households one after another terminated their dependence on the gentry, and instead applied to the government for land grant, registered and registered, and became private households under the government.

This phenomenon has already had a huge impact on the private military system.

At the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the reason why there were still a large number of private military groups in the north on the basis of the equal land system was because the current situation was turbulent and the people had to stick together and attach themselves to heroes to protect their family and property.

During Guan Long's years of peace, everyone had a choice in their minds as to whether he should serve as a private soldier or apply to the government for land allocation.

Of course, private soldiers still exist in the Guanlong area. After all, in addition to hermit households, slaves are also one of the important sources of private soldiers.

However, as the private military system was impacted by the land equalization system, it was destined that there would no longer be the grand occasion when Huan Xi came to Chang'an and the three auxiliary heroes came to welcome him with thousands of troops.

Currently, there are two main private soldiers in Guanzhong. One is Qianbubu recruited by Shen Jin to guard Gaowang City with him.

The other group was the private soldiers of the Du family in Jingzhao. There were also thousands of people, guarding Tongguan together with the state and county soldiers from Huayin County.

As for the rest of the noble families, each family can only maintain a scale of several hundred, or even one or two hundred people, which is difficult to achieve.

After the hermits left, it was difficult to maintain a large-scale tribe with slaves alone, because the family members also needed slaves to drive them.

In today's Guanlong, it is considered good for a family to have thousands of slaves.

After all, not everyone is like Du Yu, who can be entrusted by Huan Xi with the important task of guarding the border, and must maintain a certain number of troops.

Ever since Xie Ai returned to surrender to Huan Xi, Zhang Zuo had been on tenterhooks. It snowed heavily and the roads were difficult to travel. He finally lived a peaceful life for a while. As the weather warmed up, Huan Xi finally sent out troops.

Since Huan Xi accused Zhang Zuo of having an affair with Zhang Chonghua's mother and wife in his letter, Zhang Zuo has now restrained himself a lot.

Although he would still go in and out of the Liang Palace frequently and have secret affairs with the Queen Mother Ma and the Queen Mother Pei, for the time being, he did not dare to take any chances with Zhang Chonghua's other concubines, his sister, and his daughter Zhang Yu'er.

In fact, if he hadn't taken the position of Lord of Liangzhou and had to coax the Ma family, Zhang Zuo would have already wanted to kick the Ma family away.

Zhang Zuo had been having an affair with a woman over forty years old, and the novelty and excitement brought by her status had long been worn away.

Of course, Ma didn't know Zhang Zuo's true inner thoughts, and thought that as long as he thought about his lover in everything, he would think of her best.

As Huan Xi sent troops, Wuwei County was shrouded in the haze of war.

Wuwei County is one of the eight counties in Liangzhou and is the administrative seat of Liangzhou. It governs seven counties: Guzang, Xuanwei, Yici, Cangsong, Xianmei, Liqian and Fanhe.

The seven county towns are all concentrated in the northwest of Wuwei County, which is the eastern end of the Hexi Corridor.

In the vast southeastern region, only a few forts exist.

Huan Xi said he was marching westward, but Wuwei County was located to the north of Jincheng County. Since he sent troops from Yuzhong and went north, Huan Xi had made rapid progress. He defended forts along the way, and Xie Ai persuaded him to surrender.

After all, Xie Ai had defeated Hou Zhao three times. Especially in the second and third battles, Zhang Chonghua handed over almost all the elite troops of Qian Liang to Xie Ai.

Xie Ai commanded them to fight, repulsed powerful enemies, and turned Liangzhou into danger. It can be imagined how much prestige he accumulated among the soldiers.

This was also the reason why Zhang Zuo had to remove him. Leaving Xie Ai in Jincheng County, Zhang Zuo could not sleep well. It was precisely because Huan Xi knew this that after receiving Xie Ai, he joked with others that it would not be difficult to capture Liangzhou.

The Jin army marched straight in and soon arrived at Huangyangchuan.

Huangyangchuan is located in the southeast of Gulangshui, a tributary of Gushui. It is surrounded by mountains and has Pingchuan in the middle. It is dotted with many large and small lakes and grasslands. Even in the Qing Dynasty, Huangyangchuan was still an important horse herding land. Together with Hanyang Dacaotan, Baiyangrong and Huahaizi Paidai Lake, they are the four major horse farms in Hexi.

Of course, now that all the livestock grazing in Huangyangchuan have been driven away, how could Zhang Zuo leave the livestock to Huan Xi if he expected Huan Xi to retreat when all his supplies were exhausted.

Huan Xi was in the Huangyang River and sighed with other generals:

"Liangzhou produces fine horses. It's true. There is such a vast grassland in Huangyang River. I really don't know what the grassy beach in Hanyang is like."

As he spoke, Huan Xi couldn't help but sing the Huns' lament:

"If I lose the Qilian Mountains, my six animals will lose their vassal status; if I lose the Yanzhi Mountain, my women will lose their color."

What the Huns were sad about was not that they lost the Qilian Mountains and the Yanzhi Mountains, but that they had to leave the large grassland between the Qilian Mountains and the Yanzhi Mountains.

After everyone heard this, they all looked at Xie Ai.

Those who can follow Huan Xi must be trusted generals.

We are all outsiders, so of course this kind of question needs to be answered by Xie Ai, a local.

Xie Ai was born in Dunhuang County, Liangzhou. He ran away from home since he was a child and traveled from Dunhuang to Wuwei. Naturally, he had to pass through Dacaotan. He introduced:

"Hanyang Dacaotan has a vast area and rich water and grass, which is enough to breed millions of livestock."

When the generals heard this, they all took a deep breath. They took a trip to the Hetao Plain and brought back tens of thousands of livestock.

Of course, what Xie Ai said is enough to reproduce does not mean that there are really so many livestock on the grassy beach in Hanyang.

But Huan Xi was also fascinated by it. After all, as long as he could seize Liangzhou and set up pastures in major pastures in the Hexi Corridor, the livestock would be able to prosper.

In the future, when going to the fortress to fight, there is no need to transport food and grass. You can directly imitate the nomadic people, transfer livestock from Hexi, and drive the army to fight.

Huan Xi did not stay long in Huangyangchuan, and then led his army across Gulangshui and approached Cangsong County.

Previously, upon learning that Huan Xi was heading north, Zhang Zuo detached three thousand soldiers, led by general Yi Cui, to garrison in Cangsong County.

Huan Xi's army came to the city, but he was not in a hurry to attack the city. He camped outside the city, held a military meeting with the generals in the commander's tent, and expressed his thoughts:

"Soldiers are valuable and quick. I don't want to attack each city one by one. I hope I can divide my troops and keep an eye on the defenders.

"When my light troops advance quickly and capture Wuwei, the rest of the cities will fall without a fight!"

After hearing this, everyone expressed their agreement, including Xie Ai.

In fact, Zhang Zuo's foundation in Liangzhou is not stable. As long as Huan Xi can capture Wuwei City, not many people will fight for Zhang Zuo.

　There are only 5,000 words today. I will make up for the missing 5,000 words tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. I am going out. I hope everyone can have a happy New Year's Eve.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)