Prancing Horse Xiliang

Chapter 71
Luoyang, Jiade Hall.

Dong Zhuo was playing with his concubine when he suddenly saw Li Ru rushing in.

"My lord, Chen Cang urgently reports!"

Li Ru rushed forward and handed a secret letter to Dong Zhuo.

"Chen Cang?"

Dong Zhuo's heart skipped a beat, he quickly took the secret letter and opened it, and after scanning ten lines at a glance, he heaved a long sigh of relief.

Li Ru asked: "My lord, has Chen Cang changed?"

Dong Zhuo said casually: "There is nothing wrong with Chencang, it is the express report sent by Luo Zhengju, saying that Ma Teng will extort [-] shi of military rations from him, otherwise the army will not be allowed to pass through Hanyang, so he wants to go north by way of An Ding, turning from Wuwei Going to Lingju, but the army rations are not enough to support the army to reach Lingju, so please take the opportunity to destroy the rebellious Qiang army along the way to replenish the army rations."

Li Ru was startled at first, and then his eyes froze.

He had expected Ma Teng to block the way, but Luo Zheng would go north to Anding to make an excuse, but he didn't expect it.

Dong Zhuo asked, "What do you think of Wen You?"

Li Ru pondered for a while, and said: "It should be true. Although Ma Teng and Han Sui were attached to the imperial court, they obeyed the imperial edict and refused to listen. At present, Ma Teng's army is short of food, and the idea of ​​collecting grain and grass land is also reasonable. It will be easy for Luo Zheng to borrow."

Dong Zhuo frowned and said, "The truth is not this."

Li Rudao: "The lord is worried that Luo Zheng will take the opportunity to occupy the two counties of Anding and Beidi?"

Dong Zhuo nodded, and said meaningfully: "The truth of this matter has been miscalculated, so I have to worry about it!"

Li Ru's heart skipped a beat. He had acquiesced in recommending Luo Zheng at the beginning. If Luo Zheng really came to support the separatist regime, he would not be able to escape his responsibility. He immediately said: "My lord, don't worry, General Luo Zheng is sincere, forgive me for not doing so Outrageous."

Dong Zhuo took a deep look at him, and then said: "That's good, that's good!"

Li Ru secretly wiped off his cold sweat, thought about it for a while, and felt that the possibility of Luo Zhengyong's separatism should not be high.

At this time, for Luo Zheng, there are only disadvantages and no benefits for Luo Zheng.

Li Ru believes that with Luo Zheng's scheming strategy, he should not do such a stupid thing.

Half a month later, news came from Anding that Luo Zheng led an army of [-] troops from Anding into Wuwei. Only then did Dong Zhuo's doubts disappear, and Li Ru, Niu Fu and others secretly breathed a sigh of relief.Fortunately, nothing went wrong after all.

Wuzhi, the camp of the Chinese Army.

Just as Luo Zheng set up his camp, his own soldiers came to report.

"General, An Ding Taishou Huangfu Songzhu sent a hundred stones of rations."

The soldier had a disgruntled look on his face, and he seemed to have the urge to stab someone with a knife.

"Hundred stone rations?"

Luo Zheng couldn't help frowning when he heard it, it was too bullying.

Either don't give it at all, or give more if you want to give it.

What kind of thing is it to send a hundred shi of military rations? It's really a bit of a bully.

Xun Yu said: "This is expected, the general need not worry about it."

Luo Zheng made a 'hmm' sound, and said: "Forget it, Huangfu Jianshou is only two hundred five, far worse than his old man, he should not intentionally provoke this general, and I don't know who gave him this bad idea, Don't argue with him."

Xun Yu said happily, "The general is wise."

Luo Zheng said again: "[-] shi army rations, [-] troops plus [-] civilians, can only eat for three months at most, and should barely be able to persist until the army arrives at Lingju. However, it is impossible for Lingju to have food and grass left for Ben General, so we have to make preparations early."

Xun Yu said: "There are many Qiang and Hu people in Xiliang, and they are repeated endlessly. The general can go in and suppress them, and collect their food and grass to supplement the army's rations."

"This general has exactly that intention."

Luo Zheng nodded, and immediately shouted outside the account: "Come here."

"What is the commander's order?"

The soldiers outside the tent entered in response, and stood by with their hands folded.

Luo Zhengdao: "Go and call Li Meng."

The soldiers agreed, and immediately went to call Li Meng.

Not long after, Li Meng came in a hurry, cupped his hands and said, "I don't know what orders the general will have at the end of his call?"

Luo Zhengdao: "Go and find out, on the way from Wushi to Wuwei, there are Qianghu people's cottages, all of them have been inquired carefully by this general, and those poor people can't afford to eat."

"As ordered."

Li Meng accepted the order loudly, and rushed out quickly.

Three days later, the news came back.

Ten miles west of Wuzhi, in Fanting Mountain, there is a Qiang village.

Li Meng arrested a few Qiang people and found out that there were no less than [-] Qiang people in this village. They were all Qiang people who followed Beigong Boyu in the early years to rebel. Later, Beigong Boyu was killed, and this group of Qiang people fled to Fanting Mountain. Fallen grass is bandit.

After Huangfu Jianshou, the prefect of Anding, took office, although he recruited more than a thousand soldiers, he was completely powerless to fight against thieves.

Not to mention bandits with thousands of people, even if there are bandits with tens of hundreds of people robbing Dao, the soldiers of Anding County and the country will have nothing to do.

Without further ado, Luo Zheng ordered Zhao Yun to lead 2000 cavalry to guard the food and grass, and personally led [-] northern troops to Fanting Mountain, and leveled the Qiang village with more than [-] people, but the capture was not satisfactory.

The food, fodder and grain are only a thousand stones, and there are thousands of cattle and sheep, and two hundred war horses.

The Qiang people were originally nomadic people. After moving to Liangzhou, although they learned how to farm, they did not lose the habit of grazing. They attached great importance to the breeding of cattle, sheep and horses.

However, the reputation of the Qiang people for being tough is really not in vain.

More than half of the [-] Qiang people died in the battle, hundreds of them fled, and only more than [-] people were captured.

Luo Zheng organized all the captured Qiang people into the civilian camp, and ordered Zhao Yun to lead five hundred cavalry to guard them strictly.And in order to prevent these Qiang people from rebelling, they are only given one meal a day, and they are not allowed to eat enough.

After resting overnight, the army continued to go northward, passed Chaona and Gaoping, and smashed more than ten bandit villages along the way, paid the army's food and grass, drove thousands of cattle and sheep, crossed the river westward after half a month, and arrived in Wuwei.

Here, there are two official roads to go.

One is to go south to Naowei and enter Jincheng County from Yuzhong.

The second is to continue to advance westward, from Cangsong to the south, and arrive at the Zhiling residence of Weifu, the school of Huqiang.

Although this road is a bit far away, and it takes hundreds of miles to detour, it can avoid Han Sui's army.

Without discussing, Luo Zheng ordered the army to continue westward and head to Cangsong.

At this time, it has entered the grand season, the northwest is extremely cold, and the north wind is blowing on the face, cutting the earth and causing pain like a knife.

Fortunately, the weather is beautiful, although there have been a few snowfalls, but there are only a few scattered snowflakes, and the snow is not as deep as the bare feet, which has little impact on the march of the army. Otherwise, if there is a heavy snowfall, the consequences will be disastrous .

Today, the weather is gloomy again.

The north wind howled, rolling up dust all over the sky, but there was no snow for a long time.

Luo Zheng scolded his mother while riding his horse slowly on the uneven official road.

Zhao Yun led 2000 cavalry, supervised [-] peasants and more than [-] Qiang people from the captive area to escort grain and grass, and mules, donkeys, and oxen pulled the carts, jolting along the official road, spitting white gas. fog.

In the back, Wu Xi, Lieutenant of the Northern Army Academy, led [-] Northern Army infantry into the formation.

At the end, Li Meng and Wang Shuang led five hundred cavalry each, drove thousands of cattle, sheep and horses, and followed the convoy slowly.

Gan Qian, Ren Yan and other women's family members were traveling in a bumpy carriage, and the women's intestines were almost protruding.

Luo Zheng looked up at the sky. This damn weather caused great trouble for the army to march. It took almost an hour to stop and rest for a while. At the end of the day, it is already very good to be able to walk fifty miles.

The captain of the scouts suddenly rode forward and said loudly: "General, the scouts sent to the north have not returned yet."

Luo Zheng immediately narrowed his eyes, reined in the horse and asked in a deep voice: "How long has it been overdue?"

The captain of the scout replied: "The time for three sticks of incense has passed."

Luo Zheng just wanted to speak, at this moment, there was a faint thunder in the north.

"There are cavalry."

Luo Zheng has been fighting on horseback in recent years, and he reacted immediately.

Xu Chu was more professional, and said in a muffled voice, "At least no less than a thousand riders."

Luo Zheng immediately shouted loudly: "The army set up camp on the spot, drove the cattle, sheep and livestock to the rear, ordered Wu Xi to lead [-] infantry to keep an eye on the grain and supplies, and Li Meng and Wang Fang to keep an eye on the animals. The rest of the cavalry quickly assembled and followed the general Meet the enemy."

"As ordered."

A few cavalrymen responded loudly, scattered away, and quickly passed on the military order.

(End of this chapter)