Chapter 1,229 Returning Victorious
Five days later, the dusty Dong Zhao appeared in Zhang Yan's general's mansion again. Seeing Huangfu Chaobo's appointment letter, he breathed a sigh of relief. After respectfully accepting the king's order, Zhang Yan personally entertained Dong Zhao and asked his son to send people to secretly find all his trusted subordinates in front of Dong Zhao.
A few days later, all the trusted generals of Zhang Yan's subordinates secretly rushed to Zhending, and Zhang Yan asked Dong Zhao to read Huangfu Chaobo's king's order in front of everyone.
Although the Black Mountain Army, no, it should be called the Flying Swallow Army, was surprised, no one objected. Some of them were Zhang Niujiao's subordinates in the past, and some were Zhang Yan's own confidants in recent years. No one could object to his decision.
When everyone learned that Zhang Yan had surrendered to the Tang army, everyone breathed a sigh of relief from the bottom of their hearts. After all, the strength of the Tang Kingdom was obvious to all. In addition, when they besieged Luoyang, the surrendered Yang Feng and others were already in high positions, but they were still in danger, so they had no objection to surrendering to the Tang Kingdom.
Next, Zhang Yan ordered the Feiyan Army to reorganize according to Huangfu Chaobo's requirements. Originally, they had 40,000 combat soldiers, plus the 40,000 guards under their control, so Zhang Yan selected 25,000 soldiers from them and directly organized them into five schools and one battalion.
Among the five schools, there are 5,000 Yellow Turban Warriors, which Zhang Yan has reorganized little by little in the past few years. At the beginning, Zhang Yan wanted to establish his prestige with Huangfu Chaobo's Luoyang, but he failed to establish his prestige. Instead, Huangfu Chaobo became famous in one battle, while the Yellow Turbans suffered heavy losses. Even Zhang Yan's 10,000 Yellow Turban Warriors were only left with more than 2,000 people.
Except for one school of Yellow Turban Warriors, the other three schools of infantry were ordinary combat soldiers, and the other school was cavalry. As for personnel, Qing Niu Jiao, Zhang Baiqi, and Huang Long were recommended by Zhang Yan as Zhonglang Jiang, while Ping Han, Feiyan, Bai Bo, Da Ji, and Fu Yun were appointed as school lieutenants.
A few days later, Dong Zhao left Changshan State. Before leaving, Dong Zhao repeatedly told Zhang Yan to go to Luoyang to meet him as soon as possible. Zhang Yan also understood the importance of this matter, and immediately said that he would wait until the first heavy snow of this year, and after arranging the military affairs of the Black Mountain Army, he would immediately rush to Luoyang to express his gratitude in secret.
When Dong Zhao was about to leave Changshan State and return to Luoyang, Huangfu Chaobo also began to return to Luoyang. At this time, all the generals and officials of Shangdang County had already arrived at Changzi, and the government affairs of Shangdang County began to operate normally. Huangfu Jianshou had personally led 5,000 combat soldiers and 10,000 guards to Nie County. At the same time, he began to build a pass in the Taiyue Valley Road. There were 10,000 civilians sent here alone, plus 5,000 combat soldiers and guards, a total of more than 20,000 people here.
The place where the pass was built was in a valley more than ten miles northwest of Nie County. It was located in the valley south of Moze Mountain more than ten miles southwest of Nie County, so Huangfu Chaobo simply named this pass Moze Pass. According to Huangfu Chaobo's requirements, a small pass must be built here before the end of this year, and it will be upgraded to a medium-sized pass by next year to ensure the safety of Shangdang County.
After arranging these things, Huangfu Chaobo led his army to leave Shangdang, and the rest of the camps and horses also pulled up their camps and returned to their garrisons. The four young generals who had gone with Huangfu Chaobo were left in Shangdang by Huangfu Chaobo and handed over to Huangfu Jianshou for training.
At the end of October, Huangfu Chaobo led the guards back to Luoyang. Seeing the familiar Luoyang City, Huangfu Chaobo couldn't help but feel relieved. It has been eight or nine years since he led his troops into Luoyang City. It seems that only this year has the shortest time for the expedition.
Some years are even in war all year round.
This year, from the beginning of the expedition to the return of Luoyang, it took only two or three months. The real war lasted only one month, but he also won a county for himself, no, it should be two counties. Now that Zhang Yan has surrendered, it means that he has completely suppressed Hebei in terms of strategic position, but now is not the time to fight with Yuan Shao, otherwise, Huangfu Chaobo really wants to destroy Yuan Shao first.
Well, it seems a bit arrogant to say this. So far, Yuan Shao is also ranked second among the princes in the world. Although the area is not large, it has a lot of money and food, and many soldiers and generals. There is no way, who can tell him that he has a good background.
If there is no external interference between the two families, Huangfu Chaobo can destroy it, but it will take a lot of effort. But now the environment around the Tang Kingdom is not very good. If the loss is too great in the fight with the Wei Kingdom, then it will be dangerous.
Thinking of this, Huangfu Chaobo turned his eyes to the west again. Now the three families in the west have started the war, but I don’t know how serious the situation is now.
While thinking, the dock outside the south gate of Luoyang has arrived. Huangfu Chaobo turned his head to look at the dock and found that there were already crowds of people there. From the outside of the city gate to the dock, it has long been filled with Luoyang soldiers and horses. In fact, Huangfu Chaobo doesn’t like such a ceremony, but the current situation is not up to him personally. The army goes out and returns victoriously, and necessary ceremonies are indispensable.
As early as when the Guards set out from Changzi City, the people who stayed behind in Luoyang had already begun to prepare for this moment. Along the way, there were cavalrymen paying attention to the whereabouts of the army and reporting it to the Shangshu Tai every day.
As the ship Huangfu Chaobo was on approached the dock, the sound of drums and music was heard on the dock. When Huangfu Chaobo appeared at the bow, the officials and soldiers on the dock and the ordinary people in Luoyang who were watching on the side all knelt on the ground and shouted loudly: "Long live the king, long live the Tang Dynasty!"
For a while, there was only the sound of uniform cheers on the entire dock. After Huangfu Chaobo accepted the kneeling of officials and people at the bow, he quickly got off the boat. The three dukes and nine ministers headed by Zhu Jun, the officials of the Shangshutai, and the main generals of various departments who stayed in Luoyang all came forward to pay their respects.
"Congratulations, Your Majesty, for returning victoriously!"
"Congratulations!" Huangfu Chaobo said to everyone with a smile; "Although there were some twists and turns in this expedition, we finally achieved our goal. Fortunately, the soldiers fought bravely and the ministers helped me plan."
Next, Huangfu Chaobo held a ceremony to offer sacrifices to the sky under the arrangement and guidance of Cai Yong. After all the trouble, it was not until noon that he led a group of civil and military officials and generals back to the inner city.