Chapter 968 Zhang Yan Wants to Form an Alliance
Hearing Huangfu Chaobo's inquiry, Magistrate Xie quickly bowed and replied: "Reporting to the general, after receiving the notification from Li Yang, I have already started preparations. I estimate that I will be able to arrive in the evening, so I have already arrived at General, please rest assured that there are meals prepared in the military camp outside the city.”
"Yeah," Huangfu Chaobo nodded, stopped talking, and started eating. Seeing that he had already started eating, all the civil and military officers also started eating silently.
Soon everyone finished eating. Huangfu Chaobo put down his bowls and chopsticks, picked up another bowl of tea, drank two large gulps, and then stopped with satisfaction. Seeing that Huangfu Chaobo had finished eating, everyone put down their bowls and chopsticks regardless of whether they were full or not.
Seeing this, several children were about to put down their bowls and chopsticks. Huangfu Chaobo quickly said: "You continue to eat. If you want to be full, don't worry about me. I guess you have never been so tired before!" As he said, he turned to Everyone in Wei Jun looked at them and motioned for them to continue eating. Everyone expressed that they were full, and Huangfu Chaobo did not insist.
After resting for a while, Huangfu Chaobo then said: "This inspection of Hebei has no other meaning, just because in the past two years, our Anton Army, oh, now it should be said that the Eastern Expedition Army has been in constant war, and the internal affairs will not be the same. I don’t have much time to take care of it, so I am using the period before and after the year to inspect the situation in various places, so you don’t need to be nervous. If you have any problems or difficulties, you can raise them to the general and we will solve them for you as appropriate. , I will give you a reason if it cannot be resolved.”
The prefect of Wei County is Zhu Hao. After Cheng Huan was transferred to Beihai Prime Minister, he took over the post of prefect of Wei County. It has been a year or two now, and he has handled the government affairs of the entire county in an orderly manner. Wei County was originally the capital of Jizhou. The county, coupled with the fact that Han Fu withdrew hundreds of thousands of people from other parts of Jizhou during his previous battles with Yuan Shao, so although there are only eleven cities, there are a full population of 1.5 million.
After hearing what Huangfu Chaobo said, he shook his head and replied: "There are no other major affairs in the county. After Wei County separated from Jizhou and came under the rule of our Eastern Expedition Army, and after the big battle with Yuan Shaojun, both sides There is no big conflict between them, but there are constant small frictions.”
"Are the soldiers suffering heavy losses?" Huangfu Chaobo asked;
"The soldiers did not suffer much loss, but the people in the four outer cities were slightly affected."
Huangfu Chaobo discovered that too much population was also a troublesome thing. However, except for Donglai in Qingzhou and Hongnong in Sizhou, which had a small population, the other counties under his rule had a population of about one million. It seems that the population of the two counties cannot increase much anymore. It seems that it is time to speed up the pace of expansion.
Thinking of this, Huangfu Chaobo looked at Zhao Yun again: "How is the situation of the army?"
"In the Longxiang camp, the deputy general Zuo Xiao led a school of soldiers to garrison in Handan. Another captain, Liao Du, led a school of soldiers to garrison in Wei County. The remaining three schools of soldiers were led by the general to garrison in Yecheng. They thought they were backup, but Liao Du was unable to do so. The general is not afraid that he will not be able to defeat Yuan Shaojun's attack alone, so he wants to ask the general to send another deputy general." Zhao Yun said;
When Huangfu Chaobo heard this, he knew that this Liao should be a transferred general trained by him, with limited abilities. That's why Zhao Yun said this. After thinking about it, Lu Zhi's eldest son Lu Zhong happened to be under Xu Shu now. In terms of abilities, Not bad, the commanding force and intelligence have reached 70 plus, so he said: "Shi A, send an order to Luoyang to transfer Lu Zhong to Wei County and appoint him as the deputy general of Long Xiangying. Let him guard Wei County."
"How's the situation with the guards?"
Geng Wu, the captain of Wei County, stood up and replied: "Report to General, considering that Wei County is close to Yuan Shao's army, the garrison force of Wu'an, Handan, Cuiqiu and Wei County are all 5,000 infantry and 200 cavalry. The garrison of Yecheng, the county town, is There are 20,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, and the remaining garrison troops are 3,000 infantry and 100 cavalry.”
After thinking about it, Huangfu Chaobo said: "The cavalry in the four cities of Wu'an has been increased to 1,000, and the infantry in the other cities has been expanded to 5,000. The expansion must be in place before the end of this year.
"
The people present, except for Zhu Hao, Zhao Yun and Jushou who knew it well, were all shocked. Could it be that Jizhou is about to start a war again? Thinking of this, everyone's expressions changed, but Huangfu Chaobo didn't. He said that the others didn't have the guts to ask.
Huangfu Chaobo could see the changes in everyone present, but there were many people here and it was not the time to tell everyone.
"Is there anything else? If nothing happens, everyone should retreat and rest. We will start patrolling the cities tomorrow."
After everyone heard this, they all stood up and accepted the promise. After bowing, they all left the hall. Zhu Hao, however, was the last to leave without revealing anything. When Huangfu Chaobo and Pang Tong were the last military advisers left in the hall, he said to Huangfu Chaobo: "My lord, I still have something to report!"
Huangfu Chaobo was about to look at the children and wanted to ask them how they felt during the past two days. After hearing Zhu Hao's words, he quickly turned back to look at him and said, "Brother, what else can I do?"
"Back to my lord, yesterday I saw the envoy from General Lin who was in trouble, and wanted to invite my lord to come to Wei County to make a report. I heard that they wanted to form an alliance with our army, because they have received news that my lord will inspect Hebei. Therefore, the official did not report the matter to Luoyang. I wonder if the lord is willing to meet Zhang Yan? "
When Huangfu Chaobo heard this, Zhang Yan wanted to see him and form an alliance?
Thinking of this, Huangfu Chaobo looked at Guo Jia and said, "What's Zhang Yanjun's situation now?"
As a military strategist in charge of intelligence, Guo Jia was relatively clear about the situation of the major forces in the world. When he saw Huangfu Chaobo asking him, he quickly signaled Shi A to help open the map of Jizhou and introduced it to Huangfu Chaobo: "Zhang Yan's army is currently backed by the Taihang Mountains in the north, defending Zhending, Gaoyi, Luancheng, and Bairen. As for Jiumen and Pingji, they have been constantly changing hands between Yuan Shao's army and Zhang Yan's army, and they have almost become a wasteland."
"Now Zhang Yan's army has nine cities with a population of about 1.5 million, of which the number of soldiers and horses is Between 50,000 and 200,000. "
"Nine county towns can support 1.5 million people and 200,000 troops?" Huangfu Chaobo couldn't help but ask in surprise: "Fengxiao, are you sure?"
Huangfu Chaobo couldn't help but wonder, you know, these county towns of Zhang Yan are basically located in the foothills of Taihang Mountain, except for the four cities of Zhending, which are in the plains, the other five cities are basically in the hilly areas, and the four cities of Zhending are behind the battle lines of the two armies, and they will be covered by the flames of war if they are not careful. I really don't know how Zhang Yan can support so many people and troops.