Chapter 148: A Fight with the General

Lou Quan, wearing only a dandy shirt, was desperately chasing the warhorse a few steps ahead. His hands were tied to his chest and connected to the saddle bridge of the warhorse with a hemp rope.

Lou Quan, sweating profusely, did not dare to stop at all. There were as many as three or four hundred children of noble families who were abducted this time, and many of them could not keep up and were dragged alive for hundreds of steps.

When he thought about his handsome face being rubbed by the sand and gravel on the ground after he fell down, the soldier from the royal palace ran with more energy.

"Lou Quan, tell me how I can capture the counties of Changshan and Zhao."

General Li, sitting firmly on his horse, leisurely looked back at the sweaty prisoner. This Lou Quan was said to be a military officer of King Chengdu and a low-ranking but powerful military aide.

"Conquer them one by one, grant land to the people, recruit able-bodied men, and divide the land to become the hegemon."

Lou Quan was panting, but still spoke out his answer four words at a time.

These noble families were all robbed outside Yecheng City. Before that, they were tied to General Li's warhorse one after another according to their official rank. From this, Lou Quan guessed that the rebel leader must have considered selecting talents.

Giving advice and suggestions is his forte, and although running consumed a lot of energy, it was no problem for him to deal with this problem.

"Too broad." Li Hao was quite dissatisfied. "Give me a specific strategy for Ma Zheng."

He was indeed selecting talents. Some of the officials in the palace were quite talented, and it would be a waste to send them to Jingxing Coal Mine to dig coal.

General Li plans to find some consultant-type scholars to fill in the gaps.

"Jinchang County once had a large number of horse farms in the border counties of the Han Dynasty. The general can follow the example of the Han Dynasty and open a horse farm here."

Some counties of Jinchang County originally belonged to Shangjun of the Han Dynasty, and it was one of the main counties where the 36 border official horse farms were distributed.

"What about raising horses besides the stables?" General Li asked again.

Lou Quan took a deep breath and ran forward a few steps before catching up to the horse's butt. "We can follow the example of Chao Cuo's horse restoration order, raising a horse can exempt a number of people from corvée. Or we can follow Du Ji's policy and order every household in a county or prefecture to raise horses, mules and cattle, and punish thin ones and reward fat ones."

During the Cao Wei period, there was a governor of Hedong named Du Ji who vigorously promoted the policy of taxing cattle and horses to the homes of diligent farmers, and the effect was quite outstanding.

At that time, part of the government's huge number of oxen were raised in this way, and the other part was raised together by the government and the Qiang and Hu people by sharing grain.

General Li pondered over these two methods and felt that they should take both approaches simultaneously.

In the late Ming Dynasty of the previous generation, the practice of common people raising government horses could not be implemented because officials were negligent in their duties. For hundreds of years, they had not conducted any thorough investigations or audits of horse households, and had simply forced horse owners to hand over their horses.

Li Hao did not expect the quality of officials at that time to be very high. The rebel army was still in its initial stage and had strong control over the counties in the territory. The policy of using civilian households to raise official horses could be implemented.

Any official who dared to tamper with the matter would be skinned and stuffed with straw, and made to stand in front of the yamen or the city wall.

The establishment of official horse farms in Jinchang County and other places must also be put on the agenda as soon as possible.

Summer and autumn are the best time to fatten up war horses. After fattening up in autumn, it's time for a big fight.

The number of rebel soldiers is increasing slowly. General Li plans to control at least ten to twenty counties before the New Year this year, and be able to mobilize at least 20,000 armored soldiers.

"The name Jinchang County is too unlucky. We need to change it to a better name, so we can change it to Chang County in the Han Dynasty."

Although someone had reminded him to change the name of the county before, Li Hao had been busy conquering the noble families in Changshan County, Zhao State and other places and had not taken care of it yet.

Hearing this, Lou Quan squeezed out a few flattering words. Before this, he was the only one praised by others, and the number of times he took the initiative to praise others was very few.

When the rebel cavalry returned to the vicinity of Huai River in Gaoyi County, Li Lian led the defeated Jin army soldiers he had gathered to meet them.

"General, in this battle, we captured more than 740 soldiers from both places, and over 200 civilians. We also found quite a lot of armor and weapons, as many as 2,000 to 3,000 sets of light and heavy armor."

The civilians were recruited by the Jin army from Sizhou, Jizhou and other places. The Han people with families had fled long ago, and the rest were private slaves of the gentry, mainly Qiang, Hu, Di and other people.

The Di people had previously followed Qi Wannian in a rebellion. After the rebellion was suppressed, a considerable number of them were sold to places like Sizhou as private slaves. They would rather follow the rebel army than go back to being slaves.

There were not many remaining food and war horses, but there were quite a few military tents. The soldiers in Yecheng did not have time to set fire to the camp, so they were all left to the rebels.

"Great. Have the brothers march directly to Gaoyi County. Let's take Gaoyi and Yuanshi first."

The offensive rhythm of the rebel army has always been to first send a small group of cavalry to raid the forts and fortifications in the countryside, plunder the main nobles, scare away the rest, and then start attacking counties and other cities with few troops.

The gentry in the countryside of Gaoyi and Yuanshi counties have been devastated. It is time to capture the county towns and register the people.

……

Fangzi County of Zhao State.

This place was the capital of the State of Zhao and also the hometown of Zhao King Sima Lun's Zhao staff such as Ma Lang, Guan Xi, Sui Mi, Zhang Wu and others.

Since the defeat of the Jin army at Huaihe River, the last hope of the Zhao gentry for Sima Lun was shattered. It was obvious that the King of Zhao had given up this territory and only wanted to stay in Sizhou.

From then on, the Zhao nobles began to abandon their homeland completely. They hurriedly took with them their main property, money, grain, private slaves, and dependents, and fled south with their families.

It doesn't matter where you escape to, as long as you stay away from the rebel army that specializes in attacking the aristocratic strongholds.

In the farmland near the Ma's Fortress owned by Ma Lang, a servant of the Prince of Zhao's palace, a dozen men in hemp shirts gathered together during the lunch break to discuss their future plans.

"Ma Sheren is a famous scholar in Luoyang. It is said that his chess skills are unrivaled in the world. He doesn't care about the current mess. We had better think of a way out as soon as possible. Just running away is not a solution. Are we going to leave this good land to others?" someone suggested.

The head of the Ma family was still in Luoyang, and the only person in the fortress was Ma Lang's younger brother Ma Jun. Ma Jun was a man who had no ideas and was quite cruel. When he saw that the nearby gentry had all fled south, he forced his tenants to pack up their belongings and move with the Ma family.

They completely ignored the fact that it would take only one month before this year's winter wheat could be harvested.

These men were all tenants. Some were regular households that had to perform corvée labor, while others were Ma's dependents.

But no matter what kind of household registration they had, they had to pay land rent to the master, the Ma family. Even if they joined the rebel army in the north, they still had to pay land rent. If they were lucky, they could get a few acres of land.

If any of them became soldiers of the rebel army, they could get 30 mu of land and not delay this year's harvest. "It's better to join the rebel army. Anyway, Ma Jun is not a good guy. If we follow them south, we will definitely have no food this year and our whole family will starve to death."

A middle-aged man named Zhao Zhong suggested that he was a regular household in the government's yellow books and that he had to pay rent to Ma, as well as hand over three pieces of silk and three kilograms of cotton to the government every year, and also perform corvee labor.

After joining the rebel army, one no longer has to hand over silk and cotton, and it is said that corvée labor will only last for one month, which is much better than the current situation.

This is also the voice of most landless households. They are not like the noble families. They do not have fortresses for the rebels to plunder, nor do they have hundreds of acres of land for the rebels to seize.

As for the tenant farmers of the Ma family, they did not have to perform corvée labor and only had to pay the same silk and cotton taxes as the regular households. So they were hesitant and felt that following the master south was not a bad solution.

"If the rebels are defeated, won't all of us be sold into slavery? We might be able to farm if we flee to the south."

"That's right. Each of the Di serfs is more miserable than the other. Some masters take advantage of the fact that the Di slaves have nowhere to go and make them pull plows all day long. Their lives are harder than those of cows."

Some of the timid ones did not dare to join the rebels, for fear that the imperial court would sell them as private slaves in the future.

The two groups failed to reach an agreement, so they parted unhappily. After eating the wheat rice, they returned to the nearby fields to continue weeding.

Someone secretly informed the master, and before evening, Ma Jun brought a dozen private soldiers to the vicinity of the farmland. He first summoned all the tenants, and then, without distinguishing right or wrong, ordered Ma's private soldiers to tie up all the tenants who participated in the discussion and bring them to his own fort.

"Zhao Zhong, you were the first to propose surrendering to the bandits. There's no need to go to the government. I'll just punish you. Come on, tie him to a tree and beat him to death. Don't let the others go either. Give each of them a hundred lashes, but don't beat them to death. We'll need them to push the carts for the next few days."

Ma Jun is now very angry. His good family business is just thrown away here. His private soldiers cannot defeat the Li family bandits in the north, so he can only vent his anger by beating up the tenant farmers.

Screams echoed throughout the world. Many people gathered around, but no one dared to come out to dissuade them. Ma Jun had been supervising the execution of the private soldiers. After these tenant farmers were beaten half to death and their flesh was torn, the anger on his face slowly subsided, and then he entered the fort humming a tune.

Without the order from the master, naturally no one dared to let down Zhao Zhong and others who were tied to the tree. So this group of tenant farmers starved until midnight, when their families dared to come over, hurriedly untied the ropes, and supported the pillar of the family back home.

The forts built by the nobles were relatively small, and even the livestock had to be raised outside the forts, and the tenant farmers’ homes were not in the forts.

Zhao Zhongshang has other relatives who also heard about their relative being beaten, so they came to his house overnight to deliver herbal medicine and express their condolences.

"Under the current situation, Ma Jun will definitely use my brother as a protest. When Ma is ready to flee south, my brother will probably suffer. It is better to flee at night."

This was suggested by a cousin of Zhao Zhong.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see the situation clearly. Ma Jun will definitely take out his anger on Zhao Zhong before fleeing south.

"Escape? I can't swallow this breath. Ma is still in Fangzi County. This Ma Jun is too arrogant."

The cousin felt something was wrong with the tone of the words and asked in a low voice, "What do you want to do, brother?"

"Come and have a fight with the great general!"

Zhao Zhong had already made up his mind to find the rebels and lead them south to capture Ma Jun and others, so that he could also get credit for the achievement.

……

Throughout May and June, the rebel army continued to capture counties in Zhao and Changshan. The King of Changshan retreated with his troops to Zhongshan in the east, and the rebel army thus captured eight counties in Changshan County.

Although there were no Jin troops stationed on Zhao's territory, in order to keep a distance from the soldiers in Yecheng, the rebel army only attacked Bairen County. In other places in the south, such as Handan County, they only sent troops to attack the aristocratic strongholds and take away able-bodied men and people.

There were both coal mines and a number of iron mines in Bairen County and other places, so the rebel army moved the Yuhengsi, which was responsible for supervising the production of armor and military equipment, to Bairen City and began to steadily produce the armor that the general urgently needed.

Li Hao also personally sat in Bairen County. From time to time, he would take people to the southern counties to show up. He killed so many people that the gentry were frightened and they didn't even dare to stay near Yecheng anymore and moved southward.

The entire Jizhou nobles were in a panic, and each tried every means to request the Jin court to send troops to suppress the bandits, but Sima Ying, the defender of Yecheng, refused to listen to the orders of Prime Minister Sima Lun and refused to go to Taiyuan to be enfeoffed.

Prime Minister Sima Lun sent the eighty-year-old Jizhou Governor Liu Shi to Xindu to divide the Jizhou troops. Sima Ying directly sent troops to invite Liu Shi to Yecheng. The relationship between Luoyang and Yecheng had already broken down.

Zhongshan State and Hejian State to the east of the rebel army's territory respected Sima Ying as their leader, and they did not want to waste their own soldiers on suppressing bandits and rebellions. The two sides strangely reached a balance.

Only Liu Bao, the governor of You and Bing in the north, was considered a normal person. He occasionally sent cavalry to the rebel territory to burn, kill and loot. However, after being chased and killed by General Yuzhou several times, the Youzhou cavalry no longer came to Changshan, Zhao and other places to quell the rebellion.

Under such circumstances, Li Ju, who was on guard against Taiyuan County and managing Leping County, rushed to Bairen County with a few close followers to have a secret meeting with the general.

"Brother, the situation is urgent. I left the defense zone without asking for permission."

Li Ju, looking anxious, met the general at the Bairen County government office.

After the rebel army set up officials and garrison generals in the general's office, they were not allowed to leave the defense zone without the order of the general.

"Are they going to mobilize troops in Taiyuan? Or are the Tuoba Xianbei in the north becoming restless?" Li Hao guessed the possible reasons that were making Li Ju restless.

The Sima family is constantly engaged in internal strife. Perhaps there is no need to wait for the rebel army to take action. The kings of Jizhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou and other places will first fight against Sima Lun in Luoyang City.

"It was Liu Yuan, the governor of the five tribes of the Southern Xiongnu, who returned to Pingyang County and began to recruit Xiongnu. Liu Yuan was on good terms with Sima Ying, and Ju guessed that the Xiongnu troops might attack Leping County from Taiyuan. Sima Lun also appointed Wang Jun as the governor of Bingzhou to lead the military operations against bandits. This man is greedy for life and afraid of death, so don't worry about him, big brother."

General Li stared at Li Ju's handsome face for a while, "Do you think the preparations you made in Pingyang County cannot withstand Liu Yuan?"

Most of the Southern Xiongnu were distributed in the Fen River area and also in Pingyang County. Li Ju had been preparing to attack his hometown, and he recruited some people there who were willing to work for the rebel army.

"There are also many Southern Xiongnu people in the north of Changjun. Why don't you take this opportunity to kill five tribes of Southern Xiongnu and expand the horse farm of the righteous army to a few more counties?"

Li Ju did not deny that his greatest wish was to fight back to Pingyang County.

General Li was thinking about attacking Pingyang.

After taking a rich basin across Taiyuan County, Shangdang County and other places, it is necessary to quickly capture Taiyuan and other places, otherwise the two places will not be connected, and the military pressure faced by the rebels will be greatly increased.

But the good thing was that after taking Pingyang County, the road from Hedong County to the south was opened. There were not many Jin troops in Hedong County, which meant that the door of Sizhou was open to the rebel army.

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(End of this chapter)