Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 307 Dugu Xin Comes to Surrender

"General Su is here at the camp!"

These days, Su Ze goes to the military camp every few days.

Prestige can be an abstract form of loyalty to a certain nation, a country, an organization, or even a family.

But none of the above is as good as being solidified in the individual.

Napoleon's old guards, who could carry Napoleon from the island of Elba into Paris.

Caesar's legion soldiers could also carry Caesar into Rome.

Compared with the gentry, wealthy families, and Northern Wei officials under Su Ze, these survivors of the Six Garrisons are much easier to please.

There were many generous and tragic people in Yan and Zhao. The Six Garrisons were the Yan and Zhao of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

The people of Liuzhen value heroes over life and death, they admire the strong and are willing to follow the strong.

In the eyes of the bigwigs of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Six Garrisons were an unstable factor on the border and a burden that required subsidies of money and grain every year.

But in Su Ze's opinion, the Six Garrisons are the best source of soldiers and the only powerful military force in this era that does not have a master.

Ownerless, that's the most important thing.

It is easiest to build up gratitude when a person is down and out.

What Su Ze had to do was to bring some food and cloth to the refugee camp every day, show his face, and find some old soldiers to talk to.

In those days, Su Ze had led troops to fight in the Six Towns, and had been to the two towns of Wuchuan and Huaishuo, fighting alongside them.

Every time Su Ze came to the camp, he would select some soldiers with good military qualities and incorporate them into the Six Towns Camp.

At the beginning, the people of the Six Garrisons were a little hesitant. They had finally managed to escape from the military, and now they were going to be recruited again. Of course, they were unwilling to do so.

But soon, Hou Mochen Shun's followers came forward to tell about the treatment they received in Su Ze's army.

Houmo Chenshun was from Wuchuan. Although his army might have fought with the remnants of the Six Garrisons, he was one of the Six Garrisons and the people of the Six Garrisons still believed in his words.

If one person joins the army, the whole family can be exempted from military service, and the rent and taxes can be reduced when fighting on the battlefield.

The treatment that Su Ze gave to the soldiers of the Six Garrisons was actually the same as the treatment given to the soldiers under his command.

However, for the people of the Six Garrisons who had not been treated as human beings by the Northern Wei Dynasty for a generation, this was already a very generous treatment.

Su Ze sat casually on a stone, with his personal bodyguard holding the Great Xia Dragon Bird behind him. Hou Mo Chen Shun stood on the right, and a strong man walked up to Su Ze.

"What's your name and why do you want to join the army?"

"My name is She Digan, and I joined the army to eat!"

Hearing the strong man's words, everyone around burst into laughter.

Su Ze also suppressed his smile and said:

"Being a soldier and eating food is not bad! Where are you from?"

Shedigan said:
"I'm not from Liuzhen, I'm from Shuofang. I heard that if I join General Su, I can have enough food."

Everyone laughed again, and this time even Su Ze couldn't hold it back. He just thought that this strong man was honest and cute.

“Don’t you have enough to eat at home?”

Shedigan said honestly:

"There are many brothers in my family. My grandfather wanted to send me to Luoyang to serve as a guard, but he couldn't go because of the war. In order to let my brothers and sisters eat more, I heard that the general was recruiting soldiers in Xiazhou so that I could have enough food, so I followed him to the camp."

Shuofang is just south of Xiazhou. This place had little presence during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but in the middle Tang Dynasty, Guo Ziyi, the governor of Shuofang, made Shuofang the most powerful vassal state in the northwest.

"What are you capable of?"

Shedigan said:
"My horse archery is better than my grandfather's, and I am also the strongest in the tribe!"

Su Ze smiled and said:

"Will there be a wrestling match?"

Jiaodi, also known as sumo wrestling, was a military martial arts show during the Qin and Han dynasties.

Shi Di nodded.

Su Ze pointed to a close follower behind him and said:
"If you can defeat this subordinate of mine, I will let you eat meat every meal!"

Shi Di wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth and said:
"General, you are not kidding!?"

"Of course!"

Su Deng (a vanguard warrior who is strong enough to lift a tripod) was named by Su Ze. He took off his armor, revealing his muscular body.

She Digan also took off his shirt, revealing his strong muscles. The remnants of the six towns around him left a space for the two to fight.

"Ah! Hi!"

She Digan rushed forward and hugged Su Deng's thighs tightly, but Su Deng stood firmly on the ground and hugged She Digan's waist with his backhand.

Su Deng pushed with his back feet and exerted force from his waist, lifting She Digan up, and then threw him heavily to the ground.

The onlookers from the Six Garrisons all exclaimed in surprise. Hou Mo Chen Shun also looked at this mediocre colleague in surprise. No wonder this Su Deng was promoted from a vanguard officer to a captain in just half a year.

Shi Digan stood up unsteadily, and said to Su Ze dejectedly with his arms crossed:

"I lost."

Su Ze asked:

"Want to have a full meal?"

Shi Digan's eyes lit up and he said:

"Of course I do!" "In our army, although we can't eat meat every meal, we will always have enough food to keep us full!"

"If you are willing to join Suden's vanguard camp, you can eat meat every two days."

Hearing this, She Digan quickly said, "I do!"

Su Ze nodded with satisfaction:

"If you join our army, you must change your Chinese surname. From now on, you will be called Di Gan."

With the example set by She Digan, many young and strong people from the Six Garrisons wanted to sign up to join the army. Su Ze asked Su Deng to check their physical fitness and assign them to different armies according to their abilities.
-
After Su Ze finished his inspection, Hou Mo Chen Shun dragged his tired body back to his camp.

If it weren't for Su Ze's treatment, Hou Mochen Shun would have died from the subsequent infection instead of dying in the Yellow River.

After recovering, Houmo Chenshun became Su Ze's personal bodyguard in order to repay Su Ze's kindness.

Su Ze also knew that he missed his younger brother, but after the Six Towns Rebellion, Su Ze's intelligence network in the northern border was destroyed, and he was unable to help him find his younger brothers and sisters.

Houmochenshun also comforted himself and agreed with Li Chong that day that he would arrange for his younger brother and sister to evacuate to Pingcheng. Houmochenshun planned to repay his gratitude to Su Ze first, and then go to Jinyang to inquire about the news of his younger brother and sister in the future.

But just as Houmo Chenshun returned to his camp, he heard an old friend asking to see him.

An old friend?

Hou Mochenshun called his old friend into the camp. When he saw the handsome Dugu Ruyuan and the little kid behind him, his eyes suddenly became red.

"A Chong!"

"Brother!"

Dugu Ruyuan did not interrupt the touching scene of the brothers meeting. After Hou Mochenshun asked about the hardships his brothers and sisters had gone through, he bowed to Dugu Ruyuan and said:
"Thank you, Brother Dugu, for bringing my brother and sister to Xiazhou!"

Dugu Ruyuan smiled and said:

"Brother Hou Mochen, you don't need to thank me. This is just a coincidence. Before I came to Xiazhou, I didn't know that Brother Hou Mochen was under General Su's command."

"I brought your brother to Xiazhou because I wanted to seek refuge with General Su."

Dugu Ruwu came straight to the point. It was indeed a coincidence that he was able to find out the news about Houmo Chenshun in Xiazhou.

However, the fact that Houmo Chenshun was able to get close to Su Ze also gave Dugu Ruyuan a surprise.

When Su Ze led his troops to the Six Garrisons that day, although he tried to recruit Dugu Ruyuan, the situation had changed.

At that time, Su Ze was just a captain of the imperial guards, but now he is the son-in-law of the imperial court, the General Pingxi, and a high-ranking official in charge of the military affairs of five states and one county.

Now that he has come thousands of miles with his troops to surrender, if he can get Houmo Chenshun's recommendation, Dugu will be able to get a higher starting point as he wishes.

Houmo Chenshun said decisively:
"I know Dugu Lang's abilities. I will introduce you to the general tomorrow!"

As Houmochenshun said, Dugu Ruyuan was summoned by Su Ze the next day, and even Houmochenshun's younger brother Houmochenchong was summoned by Su Ze.

After Dugu Ruyuan bathed and changed his clothes, he put on the clothes of a military general and followed Hou Mochen to meet Su Ze.

Su Ze was not wearing an official robe, but casual clothes. He met Dugu Ruyuan in the inner hall of Baichi Tower.

"Dugu Lang, it's been so long since we last met in Wuchuan."

Dugu Ruyuan thought of the day when he rode alone into Huaishuo to ask for help and the first time he met Su Ze. Although not much time had passed, the world had changed so much.

"I haven't seen you for many years, but you are still as handsome as ever, General."

Su Ze was also looking at Dugu Ruyuan.

Now he has many capable ministers and brave generals under his command, and he does not have the habit of collecting famous generals. Su Ze's mentality has become relatively calm about Dugu Ruyuan's surrender.

Things are different now.

Back then, I recruited Dugu Ruyuan. He was the leader of the Wuchuan Haoshuai, and I was just a captain of the Yulin Army.

Now he is the General of Pingxi, the Six Garrisons have been destroyed, and Dugu has come all the way with his troops to surrender as he wished. This is a cooked duck that cannot escape.

Su Ze was calm and he was also observing this "strongest father-in-law in history".

The fact that he decided to bring Houmochen Chong to join him instead of following the court to resettle the remnants of the Six Garrisons shows that Dugu Ruyuan had a vision that surpassed that of the other people from the Six Garrisons.

However, Su Ze still needs to observe how capable Dugu Ruyuan is now.

Moreover, Dugu Ruyuan in history was also a charismatic and terrifying character.

Among the senior generals of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Dugu Xin was a semi-independent figure of his own and had great influence among the nobles of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Otherwise, his son-in-law Yang Jian would not have been able to replace the Zhou Dynasty with the Sui Dynasty.

Dugu Xin used his extraordinary charm and outstanding military and political talents to win over a large number of old subordinates.

Later, during the Tang and Sui dynasties, the influence of the Dugu family also played a role behind the scenes.

People like Dugu Xin are quite troublesome, whether as enemies or as subordinates.

However, just like Wang Sizheng who just debuted and failed in his advice, Su Ze also didn’t know what level Dugu Ruyuan was at now.

He asked tentatively:

"The Six Garrisons were pacified, and the imperial court relocated the remaining people of the Six Garrisons to Ding, Ying, and Ji to seek food. What do you think of this, Dugu Lang?"

Dugu Ruyuan knew that Su Ze was testing him, but he had been thinking about this question for a long time on the way. He said firmly:
"The three states will be in chaos!"

In comparison, Houmo Chenshun was a pure military general. He looked at Dugu Ruyuan in confusion. Hadn't the Six Towns been pacified?
Su Ze nodded, and did not ask Dugu Ruyuan about his deduction process. Instead, he directly determined the conclusion and asked:

"What shall I do if the three states are in turmoil?"

Dugu Ruyuan said:

"We will completely block Guanxi and defend ourselves, and wait and see what happens."

(End of this chapter)