Chapter 2081 Red Wolf

As expected by Su Bingwen and Song Yan, ten days later, the imperial court's transfer order was sent to Liangzhou Military Town, and three thousand troops were mobilized to go to the northwest to suppress the rebels.

In addition, the Liangzhou Prefecture was also ordered to raise thousands of stones of grain and twenty thousand taels of silver for the army.

One stone is equal to one hundred catties, and one thousand stones is equal to one hundred thousand catties of grain.

Sending out troops and food also put Liangzhou itself in danger. Even an upright official like Su Bingwen couldn't help but feel dissatisfied with the imperial court.

Moreover, the imperial court stipulated that the army must set off within five days.

"Ziyu, do you think this soldier can be released?"

In desperation, Su Bingwen could only approach Song Yan to discuss the matter.

"It's impossible not to get out. After all, this is an order from the imperial court!" Song Yan said.

"Then what should we do in Liangzhou City? If the barbarians come to attack, what can we do to resist them?" Su Bingwen said.

Song Yan thought for a while and said: "The only way is to recruit new soldiers for training!"

Hearing this, Su Bingwen felt distressed again. Recruiting new recruits requires a settling-in allowance. Each recruit needs at least two taels of silver in settling-in allowance. In addition, it costs money to purchase weapons and armor. In addition, money also needs to be spent on training. .

If you recruit three thousand new soldiers, it will cost almost twenty thousand taels of silver.

Therefore, Su Bingwen feels sorry for Qianzi.

But he knew that if Liangzhou didn't have enough soldiers, the barbarians might take advantage of them, so it was imperative to recruit new soldiers.

So he nodded and said, "Ziyu, how many new soldiers do you think we should recruit?"

"Let's recruit ten thousand first!" Song Yan said calmly.

"Ten thousand? That's a lot!"

Su Bingwen looked surprised.

Song Yan said: "The military towns everywhere are in ruins, and there is no army at all. Now the imperial court is deploying troops and horses everywhere. It would be good to have 50,000 people. The rebel army is expanding rapidly. We are close to the northwest. Once the rebel army defeats the imperial court, If we don't have enough soldiers and horses, I'm afraid we will suffer disaster in Liangzhou. At that time, we will have barbarians in front of us and rebels behind us. If we don't have enough soldiers and horses, we will either be attacked by barbarians or defeated by rebels. Therefore, if we want to keep the city of Liangzhou, we must We must expand the military strength in the military town!”

"It's not that bad, right?" Su Bingwen's face looked a little ugly.

"Your Excellency, you should have a certain understanding of what the officialdom of our Wei Kingdom is like. Once the Northwest Uprising succeeds, I am afraid that other places will also rise up one after another. Troubled times are coming, and only military power is in hand, otherwise...!"

At this point, Song Yan stopped talking. He believed that no matter how stupid Su Bingwen was, he could still understand the meaning of his words.

He lowered his head and thought for a long time.

Su Bingwen said: "Okay, then we will call for new troops, directly call for 15,000, but we have to ask Ziyu for this matter. I can write an article, but I know nothing about military matters!"

"Please don't worry, sir!"

Song Yan nodded. He quite appreciated this aspect of Su Bingwen and was not greedy for power.

After getting the conscription order, Song Yan summoned Liu Cheng and asked him to post the conscription notice quickly. The conscription requirements were very simple. Anyone between the ages of sixteen and thirty was eligible. Once selected, he would be given a settlement allowance of two taels of silver per month. The military pay is five coins.

Not long after Liu Cheng went down, Wu Jingwei came.

"Sir, what should the general do?"

Wu Jingwei was also extremely reluctant to this transfer.

Song Yan reminded: "These soldiers must go out, but you can slow down on the road!"

The entire northwest territory has reached an extremely bad state, and I am afraid that it will not be long before it completely falls. As long as we go slowly, we may not be able to catch up with the war.

Wu Jingwei's eyes lit up and he saluted quickly: "Thank you, sir, for reminding me!"

Liangzhou is located on the border, and the people are strong but also poor. Therefore, the settlement allowance of two taels of silver after being selected is very attractive. Therefore, in just two days, two thousand recruits were recruited.

At the same time, the three counties under Liangzhou also cooperated with the recruitment.

Five days passed in the blink of an eye.

Liangzhou Mansion recruited 7,600 new soldiers.

More than 3,800 people were summoned from the three counties, and the number of new soldiers exceeded 11,000.

Because Song Yan had specifically warned him, the quality of these new recruits was pretty good.

Also on this day.

Wu Jingwei set out with three thousand soldiers and horses from the military town. After being reminded by Song Yan, he actually only traveled fifteen miles on the first day. After receiving this news, Song Yan couldn't help but laugh and cry. He arrived at his speed. Northwest, I'm afraid it will have to wait until a month later.

The person left behind in the military town was a deputy general promoted by Wu Jingwei, named Sha Tianchen.

Before leaving, Wu Jingwei specifically told him to cooperate with Song Yan.

Therefore, Shacheng's posture is very upright.

Three more days passed.

Fifteen thousand new soldiers were finally recruited, and there were 500 more.

then.

Song Yan directly asked Sha Tianchen to take them back to the military town for training. As for the weapons and armor, they were intensifying their work.

It's impossible to make pure iron armor, and the best you can do is to put an iron breast shield on your chest.

As for weapons, they are mainly spears, because only the spear heads are made of iron.

Even so, the weapons and armor of 15,000 men will cost more than 30,000 taels of silver, and conscription will cost another 30,000 taels. Therefore, before the army is formed, it has already spent 60,000 taels.

To train these new troops into an army and pay them, I am afraid it will cost 30,000 taels of silver.

When they raided Yuanjiabao before, Song Yan brought back more than 500,000 jins of grain, but Wu Jingwei took away 100,000 jins and about 400,000 more.

As for silver.

Excluding this expense, at most one hundred thousand taels are left.

For an army of 17,000, the military pay alone costs about 10,000 taels of silver, and the food consumes more than 20,000 jins a day, and the remaining 400,000 jins of food cannot last even a month.

Therefore, money has to be spent to buy grain. One hundred thousand two kilograms of grain and four hundred thousand kilograms of grain can last for more than two months at most.

Another ten days passed.

Wu Jingwei was still dilly-dallying on the road with an army of three thousand, but the situation in the northwest had reached a precarious level, with only two cities remaining to hold on.

But there are not many soldiers and horses in these two cities.

One is only five thousand, the other is only three thousand.

As for the army mobilized by the imperial court from various places, only 8,000 people came, and the rest were either still on the way or had not set off yet.

On the contrary, the rebel army has reached 500,000 people.

Therefore, the eight thousand soldiers and horses mobilized by the imperial court did not dare to enter the northwest territory at all. Instead, they were stationed outside, waiting for the arrival of other soldiers and horses.

Three days later, one of the only two cities was captured by the rebels.

The army mobilized by the imperial court barely reached 10,000 people.

But they still did not dare to attack the rebels.

Two days later, the last city in the northwest fell, which declared that the entire northwest was under the control of the rebels.

There were three leaders of the rebel army, said to be three brothers.

The eldest is Xue Ping, the second is Xue Cheng, and the third is Xue Shan.

After occupying the northwest province, some scholars who joined them suggested that the three of them should be crowned kings respectively.

But as the boss, Xue Ping directly ordered the scholar to be pushed out and beheaded.

After learning the news.

Song Yan became somewhat interested in Xue Ping.

Regardless of the history of his world or the history of previous worlds, once the peasant rebel army developed rapidly in the early stage, but in the later stage, many leaders were addicted to enjoyment, and many even proclaimed themselves generals and kings.

But this kind of people will usually be defeated and die in the end, but Xue Ping was able to resist the temptation to become the king. This shows that his soldiers are not only satisfied with being an anti-king, but also want to seize the entire Wei Kingdom.

"Sir, urgent report from Xifeng County!"

While Song Yan was browsing the information about the northwest, a government official came to report in a hurry.

Song Yan picked up the emergency report and opened it, his face suddenly darkened slightly. Two days ago, the Red Wolf Clan of the three major barbarian tribes sent out 8,000 people to attack Xifeng County.

Xifeng County is the only medium-sized county in Liangzhou Prefecture. There are only 500 county soldiers in the entire county, while the Red Wolf Clan dispatched 8,000 people. There are only 2,000 veterans in Liangzhou Military Town, and the remaining recruits are still there. In training.

If they were to go to the battlefield and face the red wolf cavalry, they would only be slaughtered.

After pondering for a while, Song Yan went to see Su Bingwen.

After learning the news, Su Bingwen's entire face became bitter.

"Ziyu, what should we do?"

Su Bingwen said with a worried look on his face.

"The five hundred soldiers and horses in Xifeng County can't stop the Red Wolf clan's attack at all, and it started two days ago. Therefore, if there is no accident, Xifeng County has been conquered!"

Song Yan analyzed.

So Song Yan released the spies.

When the spies returned that night, they found out that Xifeng City had not been breached.

"It's fine if it's not broken! It's fine if it's not broken!" Su Bingwen said happily.

"It may not be a good thing!"

Song Yan shook his head.

"Why did Ziyu say that?" Su Bingwen looked at him puzzled.

"Although the Red Wolf clan are all cavalry, do you think it is difficult to break through Xifeng City?" Song Yan looked at Su Bingwen and asked.

"It's not difficult!"

Su Bingwen thought for a while and said.

Song Yan said again: "Since it's not difficult, why don't they break the city? It's simple. Their goal is Liangzhou Military Town. As long as Xifeng City is not broken, we have to send troops to reinforce. We only have two thousand veterans, even if we bring all the new soldiers." They are no match for the Red Wolf Clan. Once the army is wiped out, what can we do in Liangzhou City to resist them? Therefore, the Red Wolf Clan’s target this time is not Xifeng County at all, but Liangzhou Mansion!”

Su Bingwen took a breath of air: "Then what should we do? Not go to reinforce Xifeng County?"

"If we don't go to reinforce, Xifeng County will definitely be destroyed!" Song Yan said again.

"Ziyu, I'm confused by what you said. Just tell me what I should do!" Su Bingwen said helplessly.

"Sir, I am willing to lead a thousand veterans to relieve the predicament in Xifeng County, and all the remaining troops will be transferred to the capital to ensure that Liangzhou Prefecture is safe!"

"No, I don't agree! You are not going to rescue the siege, you are going to die!"

Su Bingwen said loudly that there was no need to think about the outcome of a thousand infantry against eight thousand cavalry. Therefore, in his opinion, Song Yan was simply going to die.

Song Yan smiled confidently: "Sir, since I dare to propose this method, I am confident!"

"But……!"

Song Yan thought about what Su Bingwen said: "Sir, is there any other way besides this?"

"Ziyu, you are still young and have a bright future. I can't let you take risks!" Su Bingwen said still firmly.