Chapter 868 It Just Looks Slow

Lü Bu was beaten to a pulp, and his men were scattered everywhere. He had no power anymore, and he was the only one left. Especially after he became a soldier under Huang Zhong, he had in-depth contact with these grassroots soldiers and felt their extremely fanatical worship of Wang Yan, and he was even more determined to make a comeback.

With his mind at ease, he was better integrated into the army and felt the difference of Wang Yan's army. He was brave but not wise, but after all, he was a general commanding tens of thousands of troops. It can only be said that his strategic awareness was poor, but his basic military literacy was still very strong, and it could even be said that he was better than most of the people under Wang Yan.

After a period of careful understanding, he felt that Wang Yan, the great rebel, could really win the world.

When enlisting, he was issued with cotton clothes, cotton boots, gloves, hats, and a set of standard armor, and the quartermaster apprentice helped to tailor and adjust it to the appropriate compactness. In terms of food, it was also rich, with all kinds of pickles, eggs, duck eggs, goose eggs, broth every day, meat every week, and plenty of oil and water. Basic training is two meals a day, and high-intensity training is three meals a day. There is a perfect rest and leave system, as well as a retirement system.

All these show one thing, that is, strong logistical capabilities.

Another point is that these soldiers are quite tough, especially the soldiers in Liaodong. They have been with Wang Yan for the longest time, and they have been in formation for the longest time. They train to death during training, not to mention that they are very strong in combat during war.

Even the Youzhou soldiers who have been in formation for a much shorter time have been integrated into the army after two years and have become a tough member from the bones.

That's not all. The army forced literacy, from the top-level marching Sima to the most basic team leader, one layer after another, forcing ordinary soldiers to learn to read and study every night. At the same time, a group of more than ten people also have to practice the way of combined attack in battle formations and work closely together. According to Lu Bu's estimation, in a desperate situation, Wang Yan's group of soldiers can beat 20 to 30 of his former Bingzhou troops.

And reaching the level of chief and deputy team leader is not easy. They have to read well, understand policies well, and participate in tactical training organized by military deacons. They must learn tactical awareness, learn to cooperate with each other, and learn how to reorganize themselves and enter the battlefield when there is no leader of the hundred generals.

The higher-level hundred generals must learn higher knowledge from the military chief of the Duwei Department, cultivate more advanced combat literacy, tactical awareness, and ways and means of commanding the army, and start management and ideological classes.

This is a strict military promotion channel and also a method of selecting officers. Military exploits are definitely a consideration, but other factors are even more important.

Lu Bu evaluated himself that if he couldn't fight, he wouldn't be able to stand out under Wang Yan. But those who can fight can definitely stand out. After all, it is an army, and now it is the era of cold weapons. If you can fight, you can fight with others and play a greater role, then you can stand out.

All these made Lu Bu honest in the army and obey the leadership of the captain who could be kicked to death by him...

Wang Yan also saw Lu Bu's wife and children, and of course Diao Chan, who was really beautiful, charming, and charming. It's no wonder that Lu Bu couldn't forget her.

Of course, he was just looking at it, without any other thoughts, just pure curiosity. Although concubines were also tools for communication at this time, General Wang was a gentleman. Although he had done a lot of bad things, he could not do such bad things. He was not a noble family.

Besides, he had many wives, one a day from the beginning of the month to the end of the month, and they were all women trained by big families. They were all beautiful and cultured, but Diao Chan had a different style.

After meeting Diao Chan, Wang Yan also talked to Lu Bu about Wang Yun's chain plan. The answer he got was a little unexpected, because Lu Bu knew.

Lu Bu said that after killing Dong Zhuo and Wang Yun, Diao Chan told him about the matter. And after Lu Bu killed Dong Zhuo, he had reacted. But he did not pursue Wang Yun, let alone blame Diao Chan. Because he also wanted to kill Dong Zhuo.

When Li Su, a fellow villager of Lv Bu, persuaded him to kill Ding Yuan and surrender, Lv Bu worshipped Dong Zhuo as his adoptive father, and he wanted to kill Dong Zhuo since then. The reason for killing Ding Yuan was the same as ambition. Of course, he didn't want to have a father above him.

But now Lv Bu's ambition has been hammered down, and he respects Wang Yan very much. Wang Yan is pleased about this...

Dong Zhuo's death did have a great impact on the situation in Bingzhou, just as Wang Yan had expected. Han Sui and Ma Teng, who were going to fight Wang Yan before, learned of Dong Zhuo's death and Li Jue and Guo Si occupied Chang'an, so they stopped moving and went to Chang'an.

After that, Han Sui was sent to Jincheng County, and Ma Teng led his troops to station in Mei County, where Dong Zhuo built Meiwu.

In fact, they also saw that Wang Yan did not expand further. After taking Yanmen, they stopped moving. They just built roads and bridges, built water conservancy projects, recruited refugees, and carried out production activities.

This made them feel that they were not a threat. After all, they had not occupied a large area of ​​land with overwhelming force, and they had not reached their doorsteps. Therefore, although they attached great importance to it, they would subconsciously relax.

It was because Wang Yan's expansion speed seemed very slow, which made them think that there was still a lot of time. Without a real fight with Wang Yan, the soldiers had not really fought a war, and they did not understand the specific combat effectiveness.

On the other hand, Wang Yan's expansion was indeed very slow. It has been more than eight years since the rebellion, and he has only conquered Youzhou and part of Bingzhou. For a force that can recruit 300,000 soldiers, it is indeed not enough.

Of course, this is what the princes saw. They did not count the land outside, or in their view, those were barren places, useless, and they did not pay attention to them at all.

But in fact, the Northeast has now been completely included in the rule, and the northernmost has reached the southern side of the Greater Khingan Range two thousand years later, and the entire Northeast Plain has been taken.

Fuyu and Goguryeo were driven to the east side of Changbai Mountain to make a living in the mountains, and people continued to escape and live under Wang Yan's rule. Their lifestyle, in addition to finding a place to grow a few acres of thin fields, is fishing and hunting, or collecting mountain products, herbs, hunting wild animals, exchanging them for general money in the market specially opened to them, and then using the money to buy daily necessities.

Their savings are all general money, which is controlled very tightly.

In this process, they also have to pay tribute and pay a lot of various materials every year. The two parties dare not say a word of nonsense. They know very well that they can survive because the investment and benefits of killing them are not matched, not because they cannot be killed. In other words, Wang Yan did not like them.

In fact, the population of these two parties is not much. There were not many people in the first place. They have been killed, driven away, absorbed and annexed in recent years. Basically, the nobles of the two parties and the slaves under strong control are left. It is good to have 20,000 to 30,000 people together. At this time, Goguryeo was not able to cause trouble to the Central Plains Dynasty four hundred years later. Goguryeo, which has an army of 600,000, is really too easy to deal with them.

From the beginning to now, Wang Yan has not had a decent battle with Buyeo and Goguryeo. They are trembling with fear and dare not surrender. Because they also know Wang Yan's policy, there is no place for them at all, otherwise they would have surrendered long ago. Who wants to live in fear?

It was also by absorbing the population of the two families, coupled with the continuous migration of people there, that the territory was able to expand to the entire Northeast Plain.

In addition to the Northeast Plain, there is also the territory of the grassland. For the attack on the grassland, after two years of dealing with Goguryeo and Buyeo, Liao Hua has been attacking the grassland in winter.

Over the years, more than a thousand miles have been fought, and half of the grassland is under their control.

The strongest unit under Wang Yan is actually the Xiaoqi Battalion controlled by Liao Hua, which has always maintained a full complement of more than 6,000 people. In high-intensity battles, a batch of people have to die every year, ranging from a few hundred to thousands.

The service system of the Xiaoqi Battalion is also the most special. To this day, the Xiaoqi Battalion no longer directly recruits militia, but selects and supplements from other departments. After serving for three years, they will return to the original unit to continue serving, constantly driving the cavalry combat effectiveness of other units.

The reason why the scale was not expanded is mainly because so many cavalry are useless, and he is not in a hurry, and does not want to fight an annihilation war against the Xiongnu like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Of course, the current Xianbei is not as good as the Xiongnu. Even if they were still lingering, most of the Southern Xiongnu entrenched in Bingzhou were not very good, and Liao Hua had already driven them away.

Now all the cavalry under his rule are about more than 20,000, accounting for less than one-third. This number of cavalry is enough, and there is no need to have so many cavalry, which is also costly and not cost-effective. In order to deal with cavalry, he also has corresponding weapons such as sickles, and even excavated people to train some heavy infantry. Multiple arms work together and restrain each other, which is the basic quality required for using troops.

And his overall grand strategy is to build high walls, store up food, slowly claim the throne, slowly plan the world, and take steady steps. There are probably only a few large-scale wars, because that is the enemy's desperate fight. So he doesn't need a lot of soldiers, he wants enough, and he wants to be able to keep the fruits of victory.

To attack the grassland, it is enough to have Liao Hua and the Xiaoqi Battalion to fight guerrilla warfare. Now Liao Hua is fighting guerrilla warfare, that is proficient, and he is well versed in harassment. The Xianbei also knew that once winter came, Liao Hua would definitely attack, and they would of course organize the tribes and prepare for defense in advance. But it was useless. Liao Hua was more familiar with the terrain than them and had too much combat experience. The Xianbei people were really bad at tactics.

They knew Liao Hua would come and did organize a counterattack force, but they just couldn't win. Every winter, many Xianbei tribes disappeared. Their food was destroyed by Liao Hua, their men were killed by Liao Hua, and the remaining women and children either died or had to flee to other tribes.

In contrast, the Xianbei people who were completely under the rule of Wang Yan had fixed large grasslands, and grasslands specially reserved for silage. There were doctors of agronomy who specialized in studying grass seeds. There were cattle and sheep stables built with bricks and tiles to shelter the livestock from wind and rain. There were special veterinarians who studied livestock diseases. There was a market in each pavilion where they could buy what they needed, and they could afford it.

There were also schools, and children in a county learned to read, read, and practice martial arts together. They only had to pay some money every year to feed the children, and it was not expensive. They only had to sell some sheep.

Now they have also developed milk powder. Cow milk can be made into powder and brewed with hot water, just like cow milk. If a woman has insufficient milk, milk powder can replace part of it, which makes milk powder very popular. Anyone who raises dairy cows at home can get a lot of money by transporting the milk to the factory.

Not only that, every winter, when the snow blocks the road, the army on the grassland will patrol everywhere. They will help the families affected by the disaster and drive away the ferocious wild wolves on the grassland.

They can eat the meat they raise themselves, and they can stay on the hot kang in the house with bright large glass windows in winter, without worrying about how to spend the long winter.

Of course, the Xianbei people over there definitely don’t know what the situation is here. But Wang Yan is so thief that he ordered a caravan of Xianbei people to go to the opposite side to do business, sell the good things here, and publicize the good things here.

At the beginning, there must be deaths. This is the disgust of the tribal leader, and Wang Yan’s selection of people is to die. If he is the tribal leader, he will kill him.

After all, I was beaten so badly by Wang Yan. I heard that the surrendered leader could not live. As a result, Wang Yan dared to send people here to say how good it is over there and how bad it is here. How can that be? How infuriating? If I don’t kill him, my thoughts must be unclear and I can’t sleep well.

People must not be killed in vain. After the caravan was wiped out and the goods were robbed, Liao Hua killed the tribe and several surrounding tribes in the winter of that year. The means were quite cruel and they would not accept surrender.

It will be completely fine next time, and the caravan will be very safe.

On the other hand, it was also because Wang Yan blocked the grassland, and only his family went there to do business, and the grassland was short of supplies. In addition to the deterrence of killing, the caravan walked smoothly in the depths of the grassland, selling goods while promoting policies, talking about how good life was, and making maps of the grassland, which made a considerable contribution.

With their propaganda, many herdsmen of the tribe, or slaves, because they were all the property of the tribal leaders. These people directly killed the tribal leaders and then came to Wang Yan.

Others waited until Liao Hua came to kill them and chose to surrender.

As for the remaining Xianbei leaders of the tribes who united and sent troops to attack Wang Yan, they did not have a leader and could not organize such a huge force. Moreover, because of the blockade by Wang Yan, their logistical capabilities are very weak, and their weapons and armor are not sufficient, so they cannot organize such a force.

Moreover, Wang Yan has many Xianbei men left, and they all have weapons and horses. If they are really mobilized, Wang Yan does not need to mobilize troops from other places. These surrendered Xianbei soldiers can pull out 50,000 cavalry. This is still after screening, and those who are not qualified are not allowed to go to the battlefield. After fighting for a while, Liaodong can send out 100,000 troops, and Youzhou can send out 100,000 troops. This is the power that can break through the grassland.

Of course, this is idealistic. After all, we have to consider the supply line of thousands of kilometers, the attacks of other enemies, etc. But the meaning is very clear. Wang Yan is not afraid of large-scale battles. It's just that he cherishes the people's strength and food.

So he also has a large piece of land on the grassland.

Combining the large tracts of land in the Northeast Plain, Youzhou and the grassland, from the start of the army in 184 to today in 192, eight years have passed, and the steady development and actual control of these places have actually controlled these places. Wang Yan's development speed is not slow.

But the princes didn't know this. Their caravans couldn't reach such a vast area, and they didn't dare to ask around. The people under Wang Yan's rule had a high sense of defense. If they talked too much, they would be tied up and sent to the officials. The people's fighting power was strong. If they shouted in the village, dozens of men with weapons would come out at once, which was very scary.

The change in the situation brought about by Dong Zhuo's death did not lead to a big war, which made Guo Jia a little disappointed. He had a dragon-slaying skill, but he had no place to use it. He could only do the work of Yanmen Taishou every day. It would be better to work in the general's mansion. After all, there was access to all the information there. A comprehensive look at all kinds of data showed the extent of the development under his rule.

However, he also thought about it when he was free. He found that the nodes of the general's use of troops were very critical, and the place he chose was also good.

At first, he started his army and ran to Liaodong to secede. At that time, the Yellow Turbans had not been pacified, and Liaodong was remote and had no time to take care of it. Although the Liaodong tyrants, officials, and Wuhuan people organized a resistance, they were too far behind in hard power. Two night raids of 5,000 against 20,000 laid the foundation for dominating Liaodong.

After Liu Hong died, Wang Yan decisively marched to Linyu. When the princes were fighting against Dong, they took all of Youzhou. This time, they marched to Bingzhou again. It was thought that there would be a multi-party battle, but in fact, only Taishi Ci took Yanmen Pass for a month.

To this day, General Wang's operation can be described in two words: smooth. It seems that he has not encountered any obstacles and has not fought a hard battle.

Wang Yan didn't know what Guo Jia was thinking. If he knew, he would probably just laugh it off.

Because it was not easy. If he was not strong, the first wave of night raids of 20,000 would have ended. Later, the coalition organized by Gongsun Du attacked from multiple directions. If he was not strong, it would have been a complete failure. Earlier, if he was not strong, even if he could pull up a team of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, he could not maintain it for a long time and would have collapsed long ago.

It was all thanks to his own efforts that he laid the foundation, and only then did he get to where he is today, with a few civil officials and military generals at his disposal...

On this day, Wang Yan was handling various affairs in the study of the general's mansion. Now that winter has arrived, various statistics need to be carried out, various winter tasks need to be done, and production activities need to be coordinated. It is not easy at all, and it is not as simple as having a wife and children and a warm bed.

The personal guard reported and interrupted General Wang's work. After a while, Zhen Sheng, a key figure in the early days who had not appeared for a long time, walked in.

"Sheng greets the general." Zhen Sheng saluted respectfully.

Wang Yan waved his hand, motioning him to sit down and talk, and asked with a smile: "Where is Meng Guang?"

Zhen Sheng took a letter and put it on the table and pushed it over: "Han Sui sent an envoy to write to you, wanting to trade and make peace. He also mentioned the cotton planting in Gumo many years ago. He said that the cotton has been harvested a lot, and the armed army has used it for warmth. It is very warm. He wants to sell the excess cotton and asks the general whether he will keep his promise."

While he was talking, Wang Yan also finished scanning the letter, thought for a while and asked: "Where is the envoy?"

"He is staying in the inn temporarily."

Wang Yan nodded and ordered: "Bring him to see me."

"Yes, general."

Zhen Sheng bowed his hands and turned to go out to arrange matters...

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