The Jagged Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 728 Chapter 727 Abolition of the Army
After several struggles in Zhuge Liang's heart, he finally chose his family relationship with Zhuge Jin, and decided not to report this matter until he figured out Zhuge Jin's secret.

In the next few days, Zhuge Liang officially took office and began to actively prepare for moving the capital. On the other hand, he sent people to secretly monitor Zhuge Jin's every move, hoping to find any flaws in Zhuge Jin.

But ever since Zhuge Jin was accidentally discovered by Zhuge Liang, there has been no abnormal behavior, and everything is normal.

After Zhuge Liang received these reports, he felt that he might be too suspicious, so he gave up on it, and focused on dealing with the issue of moving the capital.

But what Zhuge Liang didn't know was that it wasn't that Chen Qun and the others didn't take any action, but that they couldn't come up with any good plans, and the whole country hadn't yet been unified.

Five days passed in a flash. During the five days, the war in the southwest area was in full swing. Although the troops of Ma Chao, Pang Tong, and Xu Huang took the Jiameng Pass, they were still unable to break through Zhang Fei and Fazheng on the road to Shu. Set up layers of defense.

At first, Ma Chao and Xu Huang's attacks went smoothly, but when they advanced almost eight miles, the form of the war suddenly turned sharply. , Even on the cliffs on both sides there are soldiers active, as long as Ma Chao and Xu Huang start an attack, they will encounter stubborn resistance, and because of the narrow mountain road, even if Ma Chao, Xu Huang and others have all kinds of abilities, It can't be deployed here either.

Because of being blocked here, the Han army tried several attacks, but because of the narrow road, they were unable to break through this place, and instead lost troops and generals.

In the past few days, the two armies have fallen into a stalemate.

But fortunately, Zhang Yan has ordered Zhang Liao and Gan Ning of Jingzhou to lead the army to attack Yizhou.

According to Zhang Yan's instructions, Gan Ning served as the vanguard and sent troops directly from Wuling County where Gan Ning was stationed, and marched towards Yizhou.And Zhang Liao led his army up the Shuo River in Jiangling, and attacked Yizhou by water through Zigui.

The two men divided into two groups, one south and one north, advancing by land and water, and met at Jiangzhou City in Berkshire.

Since Jingzhou belonged to the Han Dynasty, Sima Yi has contributed a lot. Zhang Yan also attaches great importance to Sima Yi, so he directly appointed Sima Yi as the governor of Jingzhou, responsible for the entire government affairs of Jingzhou.Although Sima Yi is very young, he is extremely talented, and he is more than capable in politics. Instead of feeling a little strenuous, he feels very relaxed.

Who is Sima Yi, Zhang Yan certainly does not know.Therefore, while Zhang Yan reused Sima Yi, he was also wary of Sima Yi.In Zhang Yan's view, Sima Yi can take charge of the entire Jingzhou government affairs, but there is only one thing that must not be given to him, and that is the army.

Since returning from the Southern Expedition, Zhang Yan dispatched Zhang Liao to garrison Jiangling in Jingzhou, and was responsible for commanding all the soldiers and horses in Jingzhou. This was equivalent to taking Sima Yi's military power over at once.

At the beginning Zhang Liao came to Jingzhou alone to take up his post, without bringing any soldiers, nor did he have any cronies to use.But Zhang Liao was able to gather all the military power in Jingzhou into his own hands in a short period of time. It has to be said that Zhang Liao is not an easy person.

At least, in Sima Yi's view, Zhang Liao is not a reckless bastard, at least but since Zhang Liao was able to establish his prestige in Jingzhou in such a short period of time, and firmly hold the military power in his own hands, it is not ugly It can be seen that Zhang Liao is actually a very skillful person.

Jingzhou, Nanjun, Jiangling.

In the barracks outside the city, Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Wen Pin, Li Tong and others were all sitting in Zhang Liao's big tent, quietly waiting for Zhang Liao's arrival.

Everyone present was once a member of the Jingzhou Army, even Gan Ning was no exception.Gan Ning was a fierce general under Huang Zu's camp at the beginning, but it was a pity that Huang Zu had no ability to recognize people and was headstrong. During the battle with Zhang Liao, because Zhang Liao's men killed Huang Zu's son Huang She, he also got involved. After talking about Gan Ning, Gan Ning finally surrendered to Zhang Yan under Zhang Liao's persuasion, and has since become a fierce general under Zhang Liao's subordinates.

However, among the five people, the most famous one is Huang Zhong. Huang Zhong is a veteran general. He has been a general in Jingzhou for more than ten years.It's a pity that Liu Biao didn't reuse him at that time, and sent him to be his nephew Liu Pan as a subordinate. As a result, Liu Pan was hit by an arrow and died, Huang Zhong was also implicated, and he has not been supported by Liu Biao for many years.

And Wei Yan, Wenpin, and Li Tong are all rising stars, they can't be compared with Huang Zhong, and they can't be compared with Gan Ning, but the three of them are the kind of people who are not afraid of tigers when they are newborns.

Since Zhang Liao seized the power of Jingzhou, he has taken over the Jingzhou army of more than 14, and the navy and army are under his control.After Zhang Liao took over all the Jingzhou army, he made some statistics on Jingzhou's army. Since Jingzhou was captured by Zhang Yan's soldiers without bloodshed, and during the southern expedition, Jingzhou's army was not the main force and suffered very little loss. Therefore, Jingzhou According to Zhang Liao's re-statistics, there are [-] navy troops and [-] army troops, totaling [-].

Zhang Liao reported this fact to the Ministry of War, and then the Ministry of War reported it to Zhang Yan. Zhang Yan only felt that there were too many soldiers in Jingzhou after looking at them, so he ordered Zhang Liao to abolish the troops in Jingzhou and control them within 7.

This also means that Zhang Liao will lay off half of the Jingzhou soldiers. For this reason, Zhang Liao also feels distressed, because if this matter is not handled well, it is likely to trigger a mutiny.Therefore, Zhang Liao did not rush to abolish the army, but first invited Zhang Yan to ask for a grace period of one year.

Zhang Yan was not too tough, and agreed to Zhang Liao's request to give Zhang Liao a year.

The letter came back and forth, and a lot of time was wasted on the road. In a blink of an eye, more than a month had passed, and Zhang Liao did nothing for more than a month. He did not receive a reply from Zhang Yan until three days ago. Only then did he summon Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Wen Pin, Li Tong and others to Jiangling to discuss how to disband the army.

However, the matter came very suddenly, and before the disbandment of the army came, it was urgent to discuss with everyone, and the imperial decree ordering Zhang Liao to lead the army to attack Yizhou disrupted everything.

Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Wen Pin, Li Tong and the others had been waiting in the big tent for a long time, and they hadn't seen Zhang Liao come out yet, so they couldn't help showing some displeasure on their faces.

Just at this time, Zhang Liao walked in from outside the big tent wearing armor. As soon as he entered the big tent, Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Wen Pin, and Li Tong stood up immediately. He got up and bowed to Zhang Liao at the same time: "See General Zhang!"

Zhang Liao waved his hand and said, "Excuse me, everyone, sit down."

While speaking, Zhang Liao had already reached the top position of the large tent, sat down, glanced at the crowd, and opened his mouth and said: "I invite all generals to come here today. There are two matters. The first one is about the disbandment of the army. The second thing is about sending troops to fight, which one do you want to hear first?"

Zhang Liao cut straight to the point, and spoke crisply, without beating around the bush.

After Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Wen Pin, and Li Tong listened to Zhang Liao's words, they all felt like a muffled thunder in their ears. Whether it was abolishing the army or sending troops to fight, it was a big event.Especially the abolition of the army, in their ears, is simply unbelievable.

Ever since, almost everyone said in unison: "General Zhang, what's the deal with the abolition of the army?"

Zhang Liao immediately took out a document issued by the Ministry of War, showed it directly in front of everyone, and said loudly: "This is an official document from the Ministry of War. Within a year, reduce the Jingzhou army to less than [-]!"

"Within 14?" After hearing this, everyone couldn't help being surprised. You know, there are [-] soldiers and horses in Jingzhou now. If you want to abolish the army to less than [-], wouldn't you have to withdraw half of the army?
"Why do you want to abolish the army?" Huang Zhong asked cautiously, frowning.

Zhang Liao said: "I only obey orders, but I don't know why the army should be abolished."

In fact, it's not that Zhang Liao doesn't know, but he just doesn't want to talk about it.Jingzhou currently has 14 troops, plus the 15 troops brought by Gan Ning, the entire Jingzhou has a total of [-] troops.

Such a huge number cannot be owned by any state. You must know that after the Southern Expedition, Yangzhou only had 5 people, Guangzhou only had 2 people, and Jiaozhou had the least army, only 1 people. The total number of troops in the prefecture is only 15 troops, but Jingzhou alone has [-] troops. Such a huge number, no matter who it is, will feel scared.

That's why Zhang Yan asked Zhang Liao to withdraw his army and control Jingzhou's army to less than [-].

Seeing that Zhang Liao didn't answer his question, Huang Zhong didn't ask any more, because no matter how much he asked, it was useless, and he would never say what Zhang Liao didn't want to say.

"General Zhang, if we want to control all the troops in Jingzhou to less than [-], wouldn't we have to lay off half of them? Then how will these laid off personnel live and work?" Wen Pin asked.

"Then what about sending troops to fight?" Wei Yan suddenly changed the topic.

Zhang Liao unhurriedly took out an imperial decree, showed it in front of everyone, and said loudly: "This is the imperial decree. I am ordered to lead an army of [-] people to go up the Shuo River by water and attack Yizhou. Tai Shici led the army and horses of the headquarters, as the vanguard, and attacked Yizhou by land."

(End of this chapter)