Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 318 Clean up before moving in

Su Chuo put these thoughts aside and took note of the logistical work arranged by Su Ze. Finally, Su Ze said:

"It is not difficult to attack Huazhou, but it is difficult to govern Huazhou."

"The bandit troubles in Guanzhong were quelled because there were always rioters colluding with the rebels."

"After we pacify Huazhou today, we must wipe out these insects and clean up the house before we move in!"

Among the civil and military subordinates present, Su Liang, Su Chao, Yu Jin, Wei Xiaokuan, and Dugu Xin probably understood Su Ze's intention, which was to eliminate all the lawless and powerful people in Huazhou in the name of suppressing the rebellion.

Feng Shu, Wang Sizheng, and Murong Shaozong seemed to understand, but they also vaguely felt that Su Ze's attitude this time was different from before.

Li Cunzhen, Yuan Buddha, and Hou Mochen Shun had no idea what was going on. They were just excited about being able to fight.

Yang Kan and Hou Jing were stationed in Liangzhou, but Su Ze still sent people to record the process of the meeting and sent it to them to "study" the spirit of the meeting.

What made Su Ze happy was that, since his subtle influence these days, and with the help of his followers who had mastered a large number of basic positions, no one had stood up and said to him the nonsense of "governing the world together with the literati", and the thinking of his general's office was still unified.

During this period, Su Ze successively summoned more than 30 grassroots administrative officials as his followers, and would deploy these officials after the capture of Huazhou.

These followers are just a drop in the bucket for a state, but with them, Su Ze can grasp the situation of the state and county government offices and specifically eliminate some officials who are not conducive to the implementation of the "Pingwu Order" and the "Equal Field Order".

Of course, Su Ze kept all these thoughts in his heart. Taking this opportunity to enter Huazhou, Su Ze also wanted to test how loyal his subordinates, whom he had painstakingly recruited, could be.
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On April 10th of the second year of Xiaochang, Su Ze finally received an imperial edict from the court, allowing him to replace King Yuan Hao of Beihai and take over the defense of Huazhou.

Naturally, King Yuan Hao of Beihai was dissatisfied with the order. He wrote a letter to protest and at the same time wrote to Xiao Baoyin, the Grand Commander of the Western Expedition, whom he had never taken seriously, asking Xiao Baoyin to support him in continuing to guard Huazhou.

Xiao Baoyin had been at odds with Su Ze for a long time. After receiving the letter from King Yuan Hao of Beihai, he immediately put aside his grudges and wrote a letter to the court. His words implied that Su Ze occupied five states and one county. If he were allowed to control Huazhou, he would be "too powerful to be controlled."

Just when Beihai King Yuan Hao was hoping to persuade Queen Mother Hu to change her mind through a lawsuit and continue to let him stay in Huazhou, he suddenly heard the news that Su Ze's army had already marched south.

Not surprisingly, the King of Beihai of the Wei Dynasty, who had stated in his memorial that he would remain loyal to the Wei Dynasty until the end, quickly packed up the treasures he had looted in Huazhou and headed straight for Tongguan from Huayin City.

King Yuan Hao of Beihai fled so quickly that even Hu Chen of Jingzhou next door could not react. Yu Jin's army had already taken over most of the areas occupied by Yuan Hao.

After Hu Chen received the news, he was immediately frightened and broke out in a cold sweat. He immediately sent an envoy to admit his mistake to Mo Zhe Tiansheng and request a ceasefire with the Qinzhou rebels.

There was no way, Hu Chen was really beaten by Su Ze, and it hurt a lot.

Even Hu Chen felt a little regretful. He shouldn't have beaten Yuan Hao so badly!
The only thing that made Hu Chen feel fortunate was that after Yu Jin took over the government army's city in Huazhou, he did not think of retaking other cities, but instead concentrated on internal affairs.

This at least gave Hu Chen time to organize his troops and prepare for war. He personally stayed in Pucheng, an important town in the west of Huazhou, and built city defenses to resist Su Ze's army.

Hu Chen looked at the porters carrying materials under the city, and a sense of confidence surged in his heart.

People will make progress.

When Hu Chen first started his army, he relied on the loyal tribesmen to gather the Jingzhou rebels. Although they were powerful, they were just a mob on the battlefield.

Those private soldiers of the Jingzhou nobles who joined the uprising because they were dissatisfied with the Northern Wei court were only concerned with preserving themselves. Once on the battlefield, they were incompetent at everything and were the first to run away.

At that time, Hu Chen had to compete for leadership with Jin Wei, another rebel leader in Jingzhou. The recruited soldiers had to be sent to the battlefield, and there was no time for training at all.

Hu Chen originally thought that he would end up like this, but he happened to encounter Jin Wei's death in battle. Hu Chen successfully took over Jin Wei's army. Although he was defeated by Yu Jin afterwards, Hu Chen, who led the main force back to Jingzhou, immediately killed and cleaned up those Jingzhou nobles who were holding him back.

However, Hu Chen did not do as Su Ze did, and did not grant land to the refugees after killing the wealthy families in Jingzhou. He had no ability to organize the granting of land, let alone organize the people to farm.

Hu Chen adopted a simpler method. He organized the refugees entering Jingzhou into tribes and gave the lands of these powerful families to them as pastures. Hu Chen only needed to draft men from these tribes every time he went to war.

In fact, Hu Chen's approach was exactly what the Northern Wei Dynasty did before establishing the Han system. He turned land into tribal pastures, set up tribal chiefs to manage the tribes, and required the tribes to send troops in times of war. This system had a name in the Northern Wei Dynasty - military town.

As a result, Hu Chen's system, which was forced to be implemented, actually mobilized the resources of Jingzhou, and his army became stronger and stronger.

Again, even the worst order is better than no order.

Hu Chen stationed his troops in Pucheng, and as he looked at the increasingly improved city defenses, he finally gained some confidence.

It's just that my makeshift team is making progress, and I don't know how much Su Ze, this terrifying opponent, has improved now?——
On April 10, the second year of Xiaochang, Yuan Shen, the Prince of Guangyang, who was originally sent to Pingcheng to pay homage to the mausoleum of the first emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was appointed by the court again. He was the General of the Cavalry, the same as the Three Officials, and the Minister of the Secretariat. Yuan Shen, the Prince of Guangyang, was the Grand Commander of the Northeast Road, the Commander-in-Chief of the Six Prefectures of Bing, Heng, Ji, Ding, Ying, and Yan, the last imperial guards of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the Yanzhou Army of the Yanzhou Governor Yuan Yanming, responsible for suppressing the rebellion of Xianyu Xiuli.

After receiving this appointment, Yuan Shen did not feel excited at all, but rather felt extremely heavy.

His confidant, Pei Yan, the former secretary of the Xingtai, saw that Yuan Shen was worried, and after sending away the envoy of the court announcing the imperial edict, he came to Yuan Shen's study.

Seeing a confidant like Pei Yan, Yuan Shen also revealed his true feelings and said:
"Wenshu (Pei Yan's courtesy name), a few days ago, the survivors of the Six Garrisons in Hengzhou sent messengers to contact me, wanting to nominate me as their leader and start a rebellion against Wei."

For a moment Pei Yan thought he had heard it wrong?
The remnants of the Six Garrisons actually contacted Yuan Shen and asked him to lead them in a rebellion?

What kind of brain circuit is this?

Don’t they know that Po Liu Han Baling was suppressed by Yuan Shen?
Yuan Shen said:

"The refugees from the six towns are unruly and respect the strong. Since they moved to Hengzhou, the governor of Hengzhou, Yuan Gong, has failed to suppress them, and their influence in Hengzhou has been growing."

Pei Yan was also shocked. You know, Hengzhou was not the place where the imperial court settled the remnants of the Six Garrisons.

The imperial court settled the remaining inhabitants of the Six Garrisons in Ding, Ji and Ying prefectures. Most of the people from the Six Garrisons in Hengzhou fled to Hengzhou secretly.

Just like that, the refugees from the six towns of Hengzhou began to look for a leader to lead them in rebellion. They were even so arrogant that the local troops of Hengzhou could not and dared not control them.

Pei Yan also didn't expect that after he had put down the Rebellion of the Six Garrisons, why did the problems in the north become even bigger?
Yuan Shen sighed and said:
"The number of remnants of the Six Garrisons that the court relocated was 200,000, but the population of the Six Garrisons was much more than 200,000. Du Luozhou, who is raising troops in Dingzhou, and Han Lou, who is raising troops in Youzhou, are also remnants of the Six Garrisons who fled on their own."

Hearing this, Pei Yan also felt his hands and feet go cold.

If the chaos only occurs in the Six Towns, then only the northern border will be affected.

But now the entire Hedong has fallen into chaos, that is, rebellion has occurred in the core area of ​​the entire Wei Dynasty.

This is not a border like the Six Garrisons that can be abandoned at any time, but the most fertile area in the entire Wei Dynasty!
These places are in chaos. If the court cannot quickly pacify them, as long as it continues to drag on, the court will completely lose its tax revenue.

Once something like that happened, the Luoyang court would completely lose its authority. For people in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the once-powerful dynasties of the late Han Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty after the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, and the Former Qin Dynasty after Fu Jian's defeat, all collapsed in this way.

Yuan Shen stood up and said:
"We only have one chance. We must quickly defeat the Dingzhou rebels so that the court can have a chance to catch its breath!"

"You must retract your fist before you can defeat the enemy with one punch!"

Pei Yan thought about it for a while and nodded in agreement with Yuan Shen's plan.

Among the rebel forces in Hedong today, the most powerful one is the one led by Xianyu Xiuli in Dingzhou.

Ge Rong, the deputy governor of Dingzhou, and Du Luozhou of Shanggu County both respected Xian Yu Xiuli as their chief.

The survivors of the Six Garrisons in Yingzhou and Jizhou also responded to Xianyu Xiuli's title of "True King" and respected him as the successor of Po Liu Han Baling.

What is more important is the location of Dingzhou.

To the north of Dingzhou are Hengzhou, Yanzhou and Youzhou, and to the south are Yingzhou, Jizhou, Xiangzhou and Yinzhou (Yinzhou was a state separated from Dingzhou in the second year of Xiaochang). To the west is Bingzhou, which Dugu Xin mentioned as the heartland of the Northern Wei Dynasty and a definitive key point of Hedong.

Yuan Shen knew very well that although the remnants of the Six Garrisons who had just rebelled were strong, they could not be compared with the powerful nobles in Hedong who had rarely seen blood.

Now that they have just started their army, the level of their weapons and equipment and the quality of their troops are still at a relatively low stage.

If the government troops send up a few times and give away the rebels' equipment and experience, then they will really have no chance.

Yuan Shen's "shrinking his fist and hitting the enemy" meant that before the rebels in the Six Garrisons became stronger, he would first gather the scattered imperial troops to avoid them dying one after another, thus giving the rebels experience and equipment.

Pei Yan nodded. The person who knew the most about military affairs in the Northern Wei court was the King Guangyang in front of him.

But he had a vague ominous premonition. Although Yuan Shen’s plan was good, would things really develop according to Yuan Shen’s plan?
Pei Yan had just come up with this idea when one of Yuan Shen's confidants rushed into the study and said to Yuan Shen anxiously:

"Your Majesty! The governor of Hengzhou, Prince Gong of Guangling, has led his troops out of Pingcheng to pursue the Hengzhou rebels!"

(End of this chapter)