Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 325 Conspirator

After Gao Huan allowed his soldiers to rob Zhuolu, he returned to the camp with a few personal soldiers. Dou Tai, Sima Ziru, and Gao Huan's brother-in-law Wei Jing all surrounded them.

Sima Ziru and Gao Huan were old acquaintances. Seeing Gao Huan in low spirits, he asked:

"He Liuhun won the battle, why aren't you happy?"

Because of Gao Huan's performance against Yuan Shen, Du Luozhou promoted Gao Huan again, but Gao Huan was unhappy in private.

Seeing that he was surrounded by his trusted followers, Gao Huan said:
"When I fought with General Li, the government troops were not like this. How come they have reached this point in just a few years?"

Dou Tai is relatively young, and his ideas are relatively simple and plain. He said directly:

"Isn't this better?"

Dou Tai's father Dou Le was once the deputy general of Huaishuo. He died for his country after Wei Ke Gu conquered Huaishuo.

Dou Tai was originally unwilling to join the rebels and vowed to kill Wei Kegu with his own hands and wipe out all the rebels to avenge his father.

But now Wei Kegu is dead, Lian Po Liu and Han Baling are all dead. Dou Tai has witnessed the enslavement of the people of the Six Garrisons by the Wei court along the way, and the oppression of the remaining people of the Six Garrisons by the wealthy families in Shanggu County. Now he stands on the side of Du Luozhou. He might as well rebel against him!

However, Gao Huan was knowledgeable. Although Du Luozhou was powerful, Gao Huan believed that it was because the government troops were equally matched.

Not to mention the elite troops under Su Ze, even the imperial guards he saw in Luoyang that year would definitely be able to defeat Du Luozhou as long as they fought normally.

Sima Ziru also sighed and said:
"Since ancient times, at the end of a dynasty, those who first raised an army were the forerunners of the true king."

Dou Tai asked in confusion: "What does it mean to be the vanguard of the True King?"

Sima Ziru was the one who read the most in the small team. He also started out as a recorder (a grassroots clerk) in the Six Garrisons. Dou Tai practiced martial arts since he was a child and had not received much education.

Sima Ziru said:

"The first to rise up in arms usually do not gain the world. They are often powerful at the beginning, but may be defeated in a blink of an eye, becoming a stepping stone for the rise of the true king."

Perhaps fearing that Dou Tai would not understand, Sima Ziru added: "Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, and the Yellow Turban Army, are all like this."

Dou Tai then nodded, not quite understanding.

Gao Huan sighed and said:

"Du Luozhou has no goals in mind. He only cares about immediate benefits in everything he does. Wherever he goes, he indulges his desires and robs and kills. This cannot last long."

Sima Ziru also nodded in agreement.

Being the leader of a group doesn't just mean eating, drinking and robbing with your brothers.

The boss of any force must give his subordinates a future.

This future can be said to be a pie in the sky, but there must be a pie in the sky.

In Gao Huan's opinion, Du Luozhou is not as good as the real king Po Liu Han Baling.

At least Po Liu Han Baling has a program and a slogan. You can say that the ideal world in his mind is too idealistic, but you cannot say that he has no direction.

Therefore, after Po Liu Han Baling was defeated, so many believers of the True King jumped into the Yellow River to be buried with him.

Du Luozhou had no target, and attacking Zhuolu was Gao Huan's suggestion. After taking it, he was busy looting and did not pursue Yuan Shen's government troops.

Du Luozhou had no plan as to how to fight next.

How can subordinates see a sense of belonging and a future by following such a person?

As for loyalty? The most common character in the Northern and Southern Dynasties was "loyal and filial sons".

You can ask Xiao Zong, the son of Xiao Yan who fled to Northern Wei, and then ask the group of Northern Wei royal family members who fled to Southern Liang what loyalty is.

Gao Huan added, "Fighting in Hengzhou is completely different from before. There is no waterway to attack Pingcheng, so we have to rely on land transportation. Do we have the conditions to do this?"

Now everyone was silent.

It is no exaggeration to say that large-scale army operations are the jewel at the top of the national organizational system.

The difficulty of transporting food by road is described in Sun Tzu's Art of War, which states: "In the art of war, one must have a thousand chariots, a thousand leather chariots, a hundred thousand soldiers, and a thousand miles of food supply. The expenses for internal and external affairs, guests, glue and paint, and chariots and armor will cost a thousand pieces of gold a day before an army of a hundred thousand can be raised."

To transport food to the front line, it is necessary to organize a large number of people to engage in logistics work, a logistics system to supervise the transportation of food, and stable and reliable logistics routes.

Du Luozhou's army was said to have 100,000 soldiers, but in reality there were only more than 30,000. The food and drink for these people every day was a huge expense. It was impossible for tens of thousands of people to go out to fight relying solely on robbery, right?
This only takes into account the issue of food, and does not include logistical supplies such as weapons and equipment, war horses, and siege weapons.

In Gao Huan's opinion, Du Luozhou was just the commander of the Six Garrisons Army, which was about the level of commanding a thousand soldiers to kill the enemy on the front line.

Even if Du Luozhou is a genius and starts studying now, he does not have enough officer system and bureaucratic system to support him.

Gao Huan doesn't have any ambition to "compete for supremacy" now, but he is not willing to be the vanguard of the king. Even if he has to be a younger brother, he wants to be a younger brother of a real dragon. What's the point of being a younger brother of a fake dragon like Du Luozhou?
Moreover, Du Luozhou was from Rouxuan Town, and his confidants were also from Rouxuan. In fact, Gao Huan and other generals from Huaishuo Town were excluded.

At this time Sima Ziru said:
"How about we go to Wei Wang Ge Rong?"

"Prince Wei? Ge Rong?"

Sima Ziru said: "Ge Rong served in Wuchuan and Huaishuo successively. Before he started the rebellion, he was the deputy governor of Dingzhou. I also had some contacts with this King Wei."

Gao Huan did not speak. Ge Rong was the second largest faction in the rebel army, second only to the "true king" Xianyu Xiuli.

Moreover, Ge Rong was born in the Western Six Towns, so he would naturally be close to Huaishuo people like Gao Huan.

But Dou Tai and Wei Jing were a little hesitant.

At this moment, a personal soldier suddenly came to the tent and said that Du Luozhou summoned Gao Huan to attend a military meeting.

Gao Huan looked at his confidants in the tent and said:
"Let's go see what Du Luozhou has planned first."

Everyone had to suspend the discussion. An hour after Gao Huan went to Du Luozhou's tent, they saw Gao Huan coming back angrily.

Dou Tai asked quickly:

"He Liuhun, how is it?"

Gao Huan said angrily:

"Du Luozhou is crazy about becoming king! He even wants us Huaishuo people to be the vanguard and attack Pingcheng now!"

Everyone was shocked.

A few days ago, Xianyu Xiuli announced to the various rebel forces that "whoever enters Pingcheng first will be the king." Now among the rebel forces, besides Xianyu Xiuli, the "true king", there is only Ge Rong, the "King of Defense."

In order to be crowned king, Du Luozhou asked Gao Huan to lead his troops to attack Pingcheng.

Gao Huan continued:

"There is no logistics, and we are not given any horses or weapons. Are we, the Huaishuo people, going to fill the city with our flesh and blood?"

Dou Tai and Wei Jing also stood up and slammed the table. They said angrily:

"Du Luozhou is such a bastard! He doesn't even treat us Huaishuo people as human beings!"

Gao Huan immediately said:

"I am going to leave today, what do you think, brothers?"

At this time Sima Ziru said:
"If we go to Ge Rong with just these few people, we will be looked down upon even if we go."

Gao Huan thought for a moment and said:
"Since Du Luozhou is so heartless, let's rob him of his weapons before leaving!"

After Dou Tai and Wei Jing left, Gao Huan changed his expression and said to Sima Ziru:

"Zi Ru, I don't know whether this plan is right or wrong?"

In fact, Du Luozhou did not ask Gao Huan to lead the Huaishuo people to die. He just asked some simple questions. Today, Gao Huan and Sima Ziru performed it for Dou Tai and Wei Jing.

If any key business personnel wants to change jobs, they will definitely take as many technical personnel as possible with them.

Sima Ziru could only comfort Gao Huan and said:
"Du Luozhou is not a wise leader. Good birds choose good trees to roost in. The general did the right thing."

During these days, Gao Huan and Sima Ziru also established a master-servant relationship. Sima Ziru no longer called Gao Huan "He Liuhun" as before, but called him by his position in Du Luozhou's army - "General Yongyi".

Gao Huan nodded slightly, and went with Sima Ziru to personally contact the middle and low-level military officers to discuss how to snatch a group of people from Du Luozhou's camp and leave.

It’s just that Gao Huan thought that Du Luozhou was a makeshift team, and in fact, the Huaishuo people he recruited were also a makeshift team.

The news that he wanted to rob Du Luozhou and run away spread, arousing Du Luozhou's vigilance, so Gao Huan had to speed up his plan.

On July 2nd, Gao Huan raised torches and started a hasty chaos in the camp in the dark. Because time was too tight, many Huaishuo soldiers had not received the plan, and Gao Huan was unable to find out the location of Du Luozhou's warehouse where the ordnance was stored. A group of people fought in Du Luozhou's camp but failed to grab much weapons and food.

Du Luozhou was also a makeshift team. He was almost killed by Dou Tai who had lost his way and entered the camp. If Dou Tai had not retreated on his own, Du Luozhou might have been killed by Dou Tai.

The angry Du Luozhou ordered an interception. Gao Huan saw that he could not bring all the people of Huaishuo out, so he could only take Sima Ziru, Dou Tai, Wei Jing and other trusted members, as well as Lou Zhaojun and other family members, and led less than a thousand people to break out from Du Luozhou's army and defect to Ge Rong, the leader of another rebel army.
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At the same time, after occupying Lingqiu, Xianyu Xiuli followed the advice of Wei Wang Ge Rong and did not go deep into Hengzhou, which was surrounded by rivers and mountains. Instead, he left a small number of troops and led them back to Dingzhou to occupy more fertile land in Hedong.

Xianyu Xiuli withdrew his troops, and Du Luozhou's army was in internal turmoil. Yuan Shen, who fled back to Pingcheng, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Those who stayed behind in Pingcheng were the Heba brothers who had killed Wei Kegu.

At that time, Yuan Shen requested credit for Heba Duba who died in battle, and posthumously awarded him the title of General Anyuan and Marquis of Longcheng County. He also let Heba Duba's eldest son Heba Yun inherit the titles of General Anyuan and Marquis of Longcheng County, and promoted his second brother Heba Sheng to General Fubo and his third brother Heba Yue to commander of the army.

From then on, the three brothers followed Yuan Shen and were left behind in Pingcheng by Yuan Shen.

The Heba brothers were the only ones among all the people in the Six Garrisons who transcended their original class and entered the ranks of officials, so they were very grateful to Yuan Shen and vowed to serve him until death.

Yuan Shen was able to send troops to Zhuolu this time, and many of the soldiers were recruited from the remnants of the Six Garrisons thanks to the prestige of the three brothers.

After Yuan Shen returned to Pingcheng, he immediately called a meeting with his confidants. After explaining the critical situation, Heba Yun immediately said:

"Don't worry, Commander! With my brothers here, Pingcheng is like an iron wall and will never fall into the hands of the enemy!"

(End of this chapter)