In December of the sixth year of Zhongping, in the cold winter, water dripped from the north and turned into ice.

With the power of forcing the Huns rebels to surrender, General Gongsun of Wei carried out a series of rewards, punishments, appointments and dismissals in Yinguan City, Yanmen County, and then continued southward with the rested troops.

There were no unnecessary losses, and there were even more than a thousand Yanmen disciples, more than 20,000 soldiers, more than 10,000 auxiliary soldiers, plus tens of thousands of newly acquired war horses, and tens of thousands of pack horses. The troops were divided into two groups, and carefully walked from Yanmen Pass.

They went south together from Loufan Pass (also known as Ningwuguan), and then rejoined Guangwu and Yuanping counties in the southernmost part of Yanmen County.

Although this area is also located in Yanmen County, it is already in the upper reaches of the Hutuo River. From a geographical point of view, it is actually the middle zone between the Datong Basin and the Taiyuan Basin.

In fact, the tens of thousands of people in the three counties in this area originally belonged to Taiyuan County and were assigned to Yanmen County for only a few decades.

"Yanmen County is named after the Yanmen Ancient Fortress, and the Yanmen Ancient Fortress is named after Yanmen Mountain... The terrain is indeed majestic and steep. No wonder even the wild geese flying south and north can only go here." Although it has already passed.

The dangerous pass came to the plains and camped near the city, but the Xi Zhong on the wall of Yuanping County still sighed with emotion when he looked to the north in the direction of Yanmen Mountain.

"Isn't it a pity that Zhicai didn't see the wild geese when we passed there?" It was the middle of winter, and Lou Gui didn't bother to twirl his beard. He just smiled with his hands tied. "That kind of grand scenery can only be encountered but not sought..."

"I'm afraid that's not the case." Tian Feng, who was also wrapped in fur, frowned slightly. "Mr. Zhicai must be worried that the road is difficult to travel, and the bitter cold in winter will make the logistics unsustainable, right?"

"What the two military advisors said is right." Xi Zhong tightened his clothes, but he imitated Gongsun and used a unique title. Instead of calling them the lieutenants and generals, they called them military advisors. "Now that I was thinking about it, Yan Yan

The majesty of the gate is also thinking about logistics... If we have to continue to push forward in the middle of winter, I am afraid it will not be an ordinary hardship. I saw a document from Ju Gongyi yesterday, saying that we are starting from the Yin Pavilion, and there are many obstacles along the way.

Due to ice, falling rocks, and frostbite, the number of troops has been reduced by over a hundred. We fought a big battle in Mayi before, but this was the number of casualties."

"That's right." Lou Gui couldn't help but become serious. "When we were in Yin Pavilion before, Han Zhuo, the governor of Yanmen County, discussed with the rich people in the county. Because Yanmen border county was poor but good at martial arts, he was willing to send three thousand troops to help, but the prince only

More than a thousand of them were selected and organized into cavalry after the counties of Youzhou... This was certainly because Yanmen had been fighting for more than half a year and they wanted to be stingy with the people's strength, but why were they not worried about the lack of logistics? Therefore, it would be better to have fewer people.

Some of the soldiers should also be left in Yanmen County to ensure logistical security."

"Is that why the monarch is stationed here?" At this moment, a man suddenly spoke from the city. Then he spoke and walked. After saying this, he suddenly appeared on the city wall. He was an important member of the army.

When Juzong Jugong came to the city, he quickly raised his hands to say hello to the three people above him. "Two military advisors, playing with Sima... May I ask you, what will happen if you stop here?"

Why? Do we really have to wait until spring starts in the first month before marching?"

"That's not necessarily the case." Tian Feng didn't care about the other party's proactive gesture, but frowned again. "In my opinion, as long as the logistics can be guaranteed, the general will definitely march. At this time, stopping here is a bit of a wait.

What does the news mean...I guess, maybe it's Feihu Trail? When he was in Yin Pavilion before, didn't the general send an order to Changshan, and Changshan County sent a force of thousands of troops to garrison in Lucheng to guard Guardsman Mountain?

Really? You should be waiting for this, and then continue heading south, right?"

Everyone was startled at first, but then they all nodded.

It turns out that the Hutuo River goes around the Wutai Mountain area of ​​the Taihang Mountains, but it occupies two of the eight mountains in Taihang. One is Jingxing in the south of Wutai Mountain, facing Changshan County; the other is Feihuxing in the north of Wutai Mountain.

Opposite Daijun and the junction of Changshan County.

At this time, the Youzhou Army was stationed in Guangwu and Yuanping counties, and further east, it happened to be Feihuxing.

It is said that when Gongsun was a Sima of Yanmen Pingcheng, when he was newly married, he went to Wutai Mountain and passed the Guardsman Mountain in Feihuxing. He was so moved that he turned back halfway... But that was already more than ten years ago.

thing.

But back to the present, Feihuxing is actually not a simple and dangerous passage. Just because the territory at both ends of it has belonged to Gongsun, it does not mean that this passage is completely safe. After all, the millions of Taihang bandits are not vegetarians!

In fact, those bandits are living people who need to eat, and they went into the mountains because they couldn't survive. If they were really hungry, how could they stop grabbing the military rations just because the surname was Gongsun who passed through the mountain pass?

Woolen cloth?

As for the commander-in-chief Zhang Yan, who was the co-leader of the northern section of the Taihang Mountains, although he gave way to Gongsun for some reasons, the number of bandits reached one hundred thousand or one million levels. The so-called quantitative change leads to qualitative change... and

Not to mention how he can restrain bandits in every place, but if there is a famine in the mountains, believe it or not, he will be the first to lead his troops down to attack the old master?! This kind of thing is not something he can decide at all, okay?

In this case, it is natural that Gongsun stopped for a while and sent people to set up a garrison point in an attempt to ensure the smooth flow of Feihuxing, thus greatly reducing the logistical pressure.

"Millions of Taihang bandits are a nuisance!" On the city wall, Lou [m.] Zibo, who had turned to look east, paused for a moment, but suddenly made a decisive conclusion.

"That's right!" Tian Feng nodded in agreement without hesitation. "If Taihang is not equal, Hebei will not be able to unite as one."

"This is a sincere statement." Xi Zhong also agreed.

"As early as in Changping, Lu Changshi, the Zhonglang General (Wang Xiu) of the town army, and the two prefects Du Bohou and Chang Bohuai all talked about this matter." Juzong also interjected. "

At that time, everyone said that if Taihang could be cleaned up, not only would You and Hebei become one, but more importantly, millions of ownerless people could be obtained, whether it was military or civilian settlements, or re-registering households to bring the people together, then we would have no worries about money, food and military strength.

! However, after challenging Dong, I thought we should first take Jizhou, Qingzhou and Yinfu. There are millions of people in one county there. If we can annex it, the world is in sight. Here in Taihang, if Zhang Yan knows the interest, he can still slow down.

Slowly."

Lou Gui, who is loyal to the drama, has many words.

Tian Yuanhao, on the other hand, still did not give face to his friend and brother. He shook his head slowly and retorted directly: "I just thought that after challenging Dong, no matter whether he succeeded or not, if he wanted to surrender, he should first take Taihang... Because if it is Bingzhou, Taihang,

With Youzhou in our hands, we can control the plains north of the Yellow River and take whatever we ask for from a high position; on the contrary, we should go straight to Hebei regardless of what is behind us, fearing that we might miss something."

Juzong was quite polite to Tian Feng before today, but after hearing these words, he was very disapproving: "What can a group of bandits do? The Huns still have the word "bow and horse", but these Taihang bandits have nothing!

If you are really in a hurry, just send a general and lead 10,000 side troops to slowly remove them from north to south."

Tian Feng originally wanted to ridicule him, but he remembered the embarrassment he encountered when dealing with the Huns before, so he stopped talking about quarreling.

However, Tian Yuanhao didn't want to talk, but someone wanted to talk.

"What's the use of talking about this now? At this time, there are nearly forty princes in the world who are challenging Dong, and we can only challenge Dong!" Gongsun said that he was coming from the nearby city, but he also laughed for a moment. "Why are there so many people?

Are you all here blowing the wind? Don't you think it's not cold enough? Let's go down quickly and go to the room to warm up by the fire and play cards to take a rest. Otherwise, if we go on the road tomorrow, several military strategists are weak...especially Zhicai...maybe it will be easy

Going to get sick."

"Junhou." Xi Zhong quickly raised his hand and asked, "But the soldiers of Changshan County have arrived from Feihuxing to Lucheng?"

"We have arrived a long time ago." Gongsun replied casually. "We have already arrived when we passed Yanmen Pass. It's just that this matter belongs to the logistics. After I received it, I directly asked Youxi to forward it to Shuzhi, so you didn't know it."

Everyone on the top of the city looked at each other in shock.

"Go back to your room quickly to keep warm!" Gongsun urged again, then turned around and went down. "Come with me, Gongsun, let's go find Uncle Zhi, and then inspect the camp outside the city together to see if the soldiers have enough heating...

"

Ju Zong naturally had nothing to say.

However, Tian Feng, who was confused in his heart, couldn't help but ask one more question: "May I ask General, who are you waiting for when you stop here this time?"

"Waiting for an old friend from Hutuo River." Gongsun replied quietly as he walked down. "But if it hasn't arrived in three days, you can't blame me... Not everyone in this world is as confident as Zhao Ping.

…”

At the end of the story, the sound came from below the city, and several "strategists" on the top of the city thought about each other. After a while, they decided to go down to the city to keep warm.

In fact, as Gongsun said, in the midwinter of the sixth year of Zhongping, although I dare not say that the whole world, almost the entire Guandong was seeking Dong!

Just when Gongsun conquered Yanmen and prepared to brave the severe winter cold to continue southward in order to capture Taiyuan, a large county in the heart of Bingzhou, far to the south of the Yellow River where information was cut off, the Kwantung Allied Forces organized by Yuan Shao finally completely disappeared from paper.

It turned into a real coalition... Among them, more than 100,000 troops from the Central Plains princes have gathered in the territory of Chenliu, or at the junction of Chenliu, Dongjun, Hanoi, and Luoyang.

Suanzao County is preparing to swear an oath to challenge Dong!

The initiator of this unprecedentedly large coalition was Cao āo. The one who actually issued the invitation in the name of the imperial official was Qiao Mao, the current prefect of Dongjun. The main coordinators in the early stage were the brothers Zhang Miao, the prefect of Chenliu, and Zhang Chao, the prefect of Guangling.

The two of them were friends with Jibei, but there was no doubt that the actual leaders were brothers Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, who had killed the eunuchs and gained great reputation among the scholars.

Among them, the most popular one is undoubtedly Yuan Shao.

After all, most of the scholars in the world, especially those in the Central Plains, were involved with the party members of Ruying and Wanluo, and Yuan Benchu ​​was the leader of the party, and was the actual commander-in-chief who killed the eunuchs that day. His reputation in Suanzao,

status, no doubt about it.

However, what is really interesting is that although Yuan Shao's position as leader of the alliance is like something in his pocket, although the Suizao coalition has more than 100,000 people, and they are still gathering one after another, although Henan Yin, which Luoyang belongs to, is only a dozen miles away from Suizao.

Outside the ground, no one organized an organization to swear blood, elect an alliance leader, and then immediately send out troops.

The reason is very simple. The two brothers Yuan Benchu ​​and Yuan Gulu didn't even come!

You read that right!

The two brothers Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, one of whom is the most famous and the other is the most powerful, did not even come to the Jujube Alliance!

Then go one step further, why not come?

The reason is simpler. Yuan Shao's position as leader of the alliance is unshakable, but Yuan Shu refuses to accept him. Therefore, Yuan Gongdao is too lazy to join in the fun. He only sends an envoy to identify himself in Nanyang, as well as General Polu, whom he declares to be the governor of Yuzhou.

Sun Jian was willing to join the coalition, and then he stayed in Luyang...According to his words, it was the matter in the south of Luoyang, and I took care of it myself!

When Yuan Shao heard that Yuan Shu himself was not willing to come, he also put on airs and was not prepared to show up at Jujube, which was only across the river. However, he was unwilling to come. Han Fu, the Mu of Jizhou, and Wang Kuang, the prefect of Hanoi, who were also in Hebei,

Zhang Yang, the governor of Shangdang, was even more lazy to go there.

Now, not to mention Cao, even the prefect Chenliu and the local advocate Miao were going crazy!

More than 100,000 troops gathered here, and it was the dead of winter. Who could survive it? So after several discussions, it was decided not to wait for the two Yuan Dynasties, but the princes like Suizao directly pledged their blood to form an alliance.

At worst, Yuan Shao, the 'General of Chariots and Cavalry', will be the leader of the alliance.

Moreover, according to Cao's military plan, it was to attack on three sides. Let Yuan Shao lead several princes in Hebei to occupy three crossings on the Yellow River; let Yuan Shu and Sun Jian attack from Nanyang and attack the three passes south of Luoyang; finally,

The princes of the Central Plains, driven by Cao Cao himself, went directly to Xingyang and Chenggao to inquire about Hulao Pass!

Attacked from three sides, even if they are unable to break through and enter Luoyang, as long as they maintain the offensive and cut off traffic, it will be enough to oppress Luoyang, force Luoyang's people to shake, and collapse without a fight.

However, even if it is decided to leave Yuan Shao behind and join the alliance and send out troops, there is still a big problem...who will chair the alliance instead of Yuan Shao?

Logically speaking, it should be Cao āo. The governor and the governor also felt that Cao Mengde, a fugitive, was the most suitable person to do this. However, Cao āo knew that he really couldn't do this!
To be continued...