Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 376: Bi Ma Wen Gao Huan

Although there were some frictions between the people of Wuchuan and Huaishuo, Heba Sheng was still very happy to see Sima Ziru, who was sent by Gao Huan.

Heba Sheng has always been known for his heroic spirit.

When he was in the Six Garrisons, Gao Huan once served under his brother Heba Yun. When the Rouran invaded the Six Garrisons, he led troops to lift the siege of Wuchuan. At that time, Gao Huan's desperate fighting style was admired by the Heba brothers.

The father of the Heba brothers, Heba Duba, died. They had to move around several times before they finally joined Erzhu Rong's army. They were all people who had fallen into the Six Garrisons, so Heba Sheng also sympathized with Gao Huan and his party.

Sima Ziru took on Gao Huan's mission and said to Heba Sheng sincerely:
"My general has been concerned about the Wei Dynasty all along the way. It took him many years to get this opportunity to return to the right path. I hope General Heba can help introduce him."

Sima Ziru praised Heba Sheng again. Heba Sheng was very happy with his praise and said:

"General Erzhu is a man who loves talents. Brother He Liuhun is well-known in the Six Garrisons for his bravery and fighting skills. I will send a trusted messenger to General Erzhu to discuss the matter of Brother He Liuhun's conversion."

Sima Ziru was overjoyed and presented Heba Sheng with another round of great gifts.

Heba Sheng let Sima Ziru stay in his military camp, and then wrote a letter and sent it to Erzhu Rong by express horse.

After Erzhu Rong occupied Sizhou and controlled Yanmen Pass, he did not expand further.

After the fall of Hengzhou, the rebels did not rashly attack the strategic Yanmen Pass. Erzhu Rong stayed in Sizhou for a while, but found it very boring, so he returned to Xiurongchuan.

After receiving the letter from Heba Sheng, Erzhu Rong was not as excited as when he first met the Heba brothers. Instead, he frowned and asked Heba Yun beside him:
"Did Gao Huan fight under your command? Did he help to relieve the siege of Wuchuan?"

Heba Yun quickly praised Gao Huan's performance in the war.

Heba Yun, like Heba Sheng, was also a respectable man who valued heroes. In order to give Gao Huan extra points, he added:

"Gao Huan once traveled between the Six Garrisons and Luoyang as a messenger, and he also had an acquaintance with General Su. Later, General Su followed Li Piaoqi to the Six Garrisons, and General Su also tried to recruit Gao Huan."

Unexpectedly, this sentence did not give Gao Huan any extra points. Erzhu Rong frowned and asked:
"The General Su you are talking about is my sworn brother?"

Heba Yun nodded quickly, but Erzhu Rong said:

"Since Gao Huan is an old acquaintance of my brother, and was promoted to a higher position in the Six Garrisons, why didn't he follow my brother back then?"

"Hou Jing, who was with Gao Huan back then, is now the vanguard general under my brother's command, right?"

Heba Yun was speechless for a moment and didn't know how to answer.

All we can say is that Erzhu Rong is a person who is morally upright when it comes to employing people.

Although the Heba brothers surrendered to the rebels first and then submitted to the government army, Heba Duba attacked and killed Wei Kegu, so their surrender at that time was understandable.

The Heba brothers turned to him after their former master Yuan Shen was defeated and killed.

In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, after Erzhu Rong came to power, he was very determined to kill Gao Aocao and Xing Gao.

The reason for calling for Gao Aocao to be killed was that his family was a second-class noble family in the Wei Dynasty. After his family was squeezed out of Jizhou, the court gave his father the post of Governor of East Jizhou. Under such circumstances, Gao Aocao still had to surrender to the rebels.

The same goes for Xing Gao. What Erzhu Rong despised most was this kind of fickle villain.

Therefore, Erzhu Rong did not have a very good impression of Gao Huan. Instead, he felt that Gao Huan was an ungrateful person.

Who is his sworn brother Su Ze?

It was Gao Huan's blessing to be favored by him!
Hou Jing, who was favored by Su Ze, has now become a general commanding tens of thousands of troops, and his reputation has spread to Bingzhou.

But for the sake of the Heba brothers, Erzhu Rong still said:
"Since my sworn brother thinks Gao Huan is a talented person, then allow him to surrender with his troops."

Heba Yun was delighted, and Erzhu Rong said:

"Now that you mention it, I remember that when we were in Luoyang, my brother mentioned Gao Huan. Is he good at raising horses?"

Heba Yun didn't know whether Gao Huan had this ability, he just said:

"The people of Liuzhen were born on horseback. Since Gao Huan was a messenger, he should be proficient in this."

Erzhu Rong nodded and said:
"In that case, let him surrender and become a horse breeder for this general."

"what?"

Heba Yun did not expect that Gao Huan's treatment after surrendering would be so low.

He originally wanted to help Gao Huan, but seeing Erzhu Rong's impatient look, he had to swallow his words.

In fact, if Liu Gui was with Erzhu Rong, he would have spoken for Gao Huan, but Liu Gui was left in Sizhou by Erzhu Rong to handle civil affairs.

Just like that, when Gao Huan happily surrendered to Heba Sheng with his troops, he heard that his troops were going to be disbanded, and Erzhu Rong only appointed him to be a minor official who raised horses. He almost fainted with anger. Dou Tai, who was outspoken, pointed at Heba Sheng and cursed:
"It must be you, jealous of my brother He Liuhun's talent, who made slanderous remarks! That's why General Erzhu looks down on us so much!"

Heba Sheng was unable to lose his temper when he was provoked by this scoundrel. He knew that Erzhu Rong did not value Gao Huan and even persuaded Gao Huan to surrender with his troops. It was indeed his fault.

But Heba Sheng also had his own ideas. Once Gao Huan surrendered, the exit of Jingxing would be safely opened, and he could leave Jingxing at any time to earn some military merits.

Otherwise, if Gao Huan was stationed in Jingxing, Heba Sheng would not know how much effort it would take to take it.

Gao Huan finally stopped Dou Tai from throwing a tantrum. He bowed to Heba Sheng and said:

"I was able to turn from evil to good this time thanks to Brother Heba's help. I am very grateful to you!"

Gao Huan had also grown up several times. He knew that the Heba brothers were now the favorites of Erzhu Rong, and it would be disadvantageous to him to offend them.

Gao Huan himself was of humble origin, so naturally he was more flexible.

Heba Sheng also felt a little guilty, so he reminded:
"Doesn't He Liuhun have an old acquaintance, Liu Gui? He is now General Erzhu's think tank. Now this Lieutenant General Liu is in Sizhou and has not returned yet. When he comes back, you can ask him to help He Liuhun say a few good words in front of General Erzhu. Maybe he can make the general change his opinion of you."

Gao Huan secretly took note of it and expressed his gratitude to Heba Sheng. Then he took the remaining few confidants to the Erzhu family's ranch and started to look after the horses.
-
September, the third year of Xiaochang.

The King of Anle of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Governor of Xiangzhou Yuan Jian, the General Zhendong Pei Yan, and the General of the Central Army Yuan Ziyong, each led their troops to support Xindu.

Since the rebellion in Jizhou, Xindu has always been in the hands of the imperial court.

The first person to enter Xindu was General Pei Yan, the Zhendong General. Since Yuan Shen's defeat, some of Yuan Shen's former subordinates had joined Pei Yan's arms. In addition, Pei Yan gathered the troops of the wealthy families in Hedong who were unwilling to surrender to the bandits. He led a total of 20,000 troops and finally fought his way to Xindu.

However, Pei Yan's 20,000 men were all covered in dust and their equipment was in tatters.

The second person to rush to Xindu was the General of the Central Army Yuan Ziyong.

The Yuan surname is also a big surname in the Northern Wei Dynasty. The original surname is Tuoba, which is also a branch of Xianbei. It was once able to compete with Tuoba within the Xianbei.

Yuan Ziyong was born with the surname Yuan, but he was also one of the few generals in the Northern Wei court who was proficient in military tactics. The troops he led this time were the 30,000 newly recruited imperial guards from Luoyang, which was considered the last wealth of Luoyang.

The closest and largest group of troops was the 50,000 Xiangzhou troops led by the Xiangzhou governor, Prince Anle Yuanjian, but they were the last to arrive in Xindu.

The reason why Prince Anle Yuanjian was appointed as the commander-in-chief was probably because of his status as a prince.

Yuan Jian has only had one experience of leading troops, which was the battle when Yuan Faseng and his son occupied Pengcheng and surrendered to Southern Liang.

Yuan Jian was the governor of Langya at the time. The court ordered him to send troops to Pengcheng. Yuan Jian first defeated the army of Southern Liang, and then was defeated by the troops led by Yuan Faseng. The entire army was wiped out, and Yuan Jian fled back to Luoyang alone.

Despite such a record, Yuan Jian was not punished by the court. Instead, he was granted the more important position of Governor of Xiangzhou.

At this time, the entire Northern Wei Dynasty had lost its talents, and Prince Anle Yuanjian was unexpectedly appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Expedition to lead the remaining troops of the Northern Wei Dynasty to fight against Ge Rong.

The biggest characteristic of Yuan Jian is that he has no self-awareness. After receiving the appointment from the court, he was ecstatic and thought that the opportunity to display his talents had come.

When these three generals arrived in Xindu, the first thing they did was to quarrel.

Pei Yan hated the rebels deeply and had the most experience in fighting against Ge Rong's troops.

At this time, he was only thinking about revenge for his old master Yuan Shen. He believed that although the court's 100,000 troops could not match Ge Rong in terms of numbers, the government troops were far superior to the rebels in terms of food, weapons, and personal quality. Now he should take advantage of the opportunity while the rebel Ge Rong was still gathering troops and take the initiative to march from Xindu to Yecheng and recover the entire Jizhou.

Yuan Ziyong was terrified after hearing this. Although he had never fought against the rebels, he had read the art of war.

You say the rebels are not good enough, but the government troops are not good enough either!
The Luoyang armory had long been empty. The armor and weapons of the 20,000 Luoyang Imperial Guards he brought were all made during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen, and some were even antiques from the reign of Emperor Taiwu. Many of the weapons were just for scare purposes and would be shattered with a single blow on the battlefield.

Although the government troops had some food, they had to send envoys to the various prefectures and counties of Qi and Lu to collect and transport the food. The food from Xiangzhou alone could not support 100,000 people fighting for a month.

You know, the food consumption during the march and war is three times that of the defense period.

This is normal. Soldiers defending the city can eat less, but if soldiers on a quick march eat less, then there is no need to fight the battle.

Finally, the two of them looked at Prince Yuan Jian of Changle. The prince waved his hand and said:

"Fight! Of course we have to fight!"

"The court asked us to come to Xindu, not to hide in the city and waste military rations!"

Yuan Jian looked at Pei Yan and Yuan Ziyong, thinking that he couldn't let them snatch away the military merit, so he said directly:

"You two stay in Xindu, I will personally lead the troops to wipe out the bandits!"

(End of this chapter)