Chapter 174: War Smoke Rising Again
On the Chang'an city wall, Black Bear stood with his hands on his hips, looking into the city.

It was very different from the first time he came here, but the city was too big, and so far all he had done was collect the corpses and use the ruins as building materials to build a school.

The Imperial Academy is located in the city center. To the north are the ruins of palaces from the Western Han Dynasty and pre-Qin period, many of which have not been excavated.

Now the school palace has been repaired, and a circular dormitory area has been built around the square area where lectures are given. In the future, the ruins outside this circular dormitory area will be cleared and used for planting trees and farming.

These hard labor jobs will fall on the future students of Chang'an University.

Chang'an University currently has only a name and a rough outline of dormitory and lecture areas, but it lacks a mature team of teachers and students.

Even so, there are many men who want to be principals.

Under Black Bear's gaze, he saw that the square area was undergoing the final separation work, with more than 20,000 soldiers and prisoners working together to transport soil and build walls.

Looking down from a high place, you will find that as the wall construction progresses, the core area of ​​the academy looks like a Tai Chi, and the circular dormitory area looks like a Bagua.

A small Bagua city with Tai Chi in the center gradually took shape.

The dormitory area will be rebuilt in the future and transformed into a Sihetu building, a fortress that black bears like very much.

Such Sihetulou are used to form tiny management units to enrich Bagua City.

The Bagua Academy in Chang'an City is only used for training. For the future New Chang'an City, Black Bear plans to build a huge Bagua City.

There are no city walls, only a series of quadrangular earthen buildings, which are used to form a huge Bagua shape.

Outside the new Chang'an Bagua City, the towns were reorganized into workshops, and even smaller ones were village communities with various types of quadrangular earthen buildings.

Sihe Tulou can enhance defense and population management efficiency while also improving fuel utilization efficiency in winter.

This is very important, as the population that Guanzhong can support is limited.

When the population is overloaded for a long time and the ecological environment collapses, it becomes a common disaster for both humans and nature.

Black Bear watched for a moment, then sighed and said, "With the wealth of Jingzhou, we can help Guanzhong recover. But gold is limited after all, and I urgently need food, cloth, and tools from Jingzhou. What should I do?"

Zhong Yao and Wei Ji, who were following on the left and right, looked at each other, and Liu Ye and Chen Zhen were also confused.

Guo Tai and Li Feng, the two Taiping Dao spokesmen, also looked at each other tacitly, while Duan Wei and Yang Qiu remained silent.

We can't just go and rob Jingzhou, right?

How can it be as efficient as the other party actively producing and gathering if you just grab them yourself?

Guo Tai seemed to be one of them. He took two steps forward and asked, "Will the commander punish the Hu people?"

"There's no need to be so tactful. We are short of gold. Our allies in Jingzhou just need gold. They are even more short of war horses. The Hu people have both gold and war horses."

The autumn rainy season in Guanzhong has passed, and the climate will become increasingly colder, with nothing more than snow and blizzards, with a very small probability of heavy rain.

The army is not afraid of heavy snowstorms when fighting, but they are afraid of heavy rainstorms.

Black Bear turned his head to look at Duan Wei: "I have reached an agreement with Yuan Shang. If we can send Yuan Tan to Jingzhou, then our army can join forces with the Bingzhou army to wipe out and conquer Pingyang, Hexi, Shangjun and the various Hu people in the north."

As long as Yuan Tan was sent away, the army would lose its vigilance and combat objectives.

As for Han Sui of Liang Province, this old guy will not cause any trouble for the time being.

Especially at present, when Wei Duan, governor of Liang Province, and Zhong Yao are extremely friendly and harmonious, if Han Sui dares to jump out and cause chaos, he will most likely be suppressed by a joint crackdown.

Besides, he did not kill Han Sui's son. He only captured the other party's troops and allowed Han Sui to redeem himself. He did not say that he would annex all of it.

The Chang'an Academy City was almost completed, so the army finally stopped. If we didn't want to keep it idle, we had to disperse them to various counties to suppress bandits and eliminate security risks.

Thanks to the power of unifying Guanzhong, bandits and mountain people from the mountains around Guanzhong have returned one after another, but there are still common people in the deep mountains.

This will take time to transform and will require more military victories to crush the other side's stubborn ideas.

Duan Wei had already prepared himself for this, so he asked, "Where are you going to conquer, General?"

"Xihe County."

"We will dispatch troops in mid-October. I will lead 3,000 cavalry as the vanguard. I need a deputy general to lead 5,000 infantry. Who is suitable?"

Black Bear turned around and observed the eight people in front of him. Duan Wei asked, "General, are these five thousand infantrymen the soldiers who were trained in the Lantian camp before?"

"Yes, this infantry is only responsible for escorting food and fodder, and is mainly for defense. It does not participate in combat, so I hope you can recommend someone who is calm and steady in commanding troops. Even if I am besieged by the barbarians, he can remain unmoved."

This is an army of 5,000 people, and Black Bear cannot appoint them just based on collective recommendation by everyone.

Therefore, the first condition to be met is to gain trust.

Chen Zhen said, "General, why don't you use Gan Xingba?"

"Xingba is guarding Tongguan to protect my throat. I will not let him go. Xingba's troops cannot move this winter."

Black Bear looked around and saw Liu Ye clasping his hands. He stepped forward and clasped his hands to ask for the order: "I am willing to lead it and be the general's successor."

Five thousand soldiers from Guanzhong were under Liu Ye's command when he attacked Weibei.

No matter before or now, the combat mission that Black Bear gave to these 5,000 Guanzhong infantry was the same, which was to advance steadily and avoid all kinds of battles.

Seeing Liu Ye volunteered, the others gave up the idea.

Zhong Yao looked at Liu Ye's tense face and sighed in his heart. He probably thought that at this moment Liu Ye's resentment towards him had deepened several levels.

Otherwise, they would be allowed to go out to fight, and the 5,000 Guanzhong infantry would continue to be supervised by Liu Ye. "Since the military advisor is brave enough to ask for orders, I will trust him once more."

There was no tiger talisman or other token of command. Black Bear went to see Chen Zhen and said, "When I and the military advisor were fighting against the Hu people in Xihe, the chief historian was stationed in Xinfeng to manage all matters in the rear."

"Take orders."

Liu Ye and Chen Zhen both bowed in response, and Liu Ye also returned to his original position. He felt his heart pounding and his mind was difficult to calm down.

Black Bear looked at Duan Wei again: "Old General, you are leading the northern route. I don't ask how your offensive is. If the Hulu tribes gather together and want to attack Sanfu, please defend Niyang to the death. If the Hulu tribes don't enter Sanfu, it will be a great achievement for you!"

"Yes, I dare not let you down."

Duan Wei did not ask anything else, as he had already made it very clear to him that he should not think of gathering the Qiang and Hu servant troops to fight recklessly, but his achievement would be to defend Niyang and stop the Hu troops from retaliating and taking advantage of the situation to rob.

No matter how many troops you, Duan Wei, mobilize, your mission is to defend Niyang to the death, which is vaguely similar to Gan Ning's.

Black Bear went to see Yang Qiu again and said, "I will select 2,000 soldiers to follow the general to Ganquan Mountain and serve as the deputy army of the North. If we cannot stop them, we can retreat to Chiyang."

Yang Qiu allowed the elite troops to be retained, and with the addition of two thousand troops, even if they could not defeat the hastily united army of the various Hu tribes, they could still protect themselves.

Black Bear believed in Yang Qiu's fighting ability, as he was one of the winners after more than ten years of fighting in Guanzhong.

After hearing this, Yang Qiu asked, "Are they stationed at Ganquan Mountain or in the surrounding areas?"

"General, you can decide, even the ruins of Ganquan Palace are fine. You don't have to defend it to the death, just delay the advance of the Hu people. I will defeat the Hu people in Hexi as quickly as possible, turn west, and attack Shangjun. When you attack, the old general will send troops north."

Black Bear looked at Duan Wei as he spoke, and Duan Wei immediately replied, "This is something I should do, and I dare not refuse."

Black Bear looked at Yang Qiu again and said, "After clearing out and severely damaging the various Hu people in Beidi and Shangjun, I will continue to advance westward. General, you must not pursue us, just keep the people of Sanfu safe. I will send Pang De to garrison Chencang and Yongxian, and work with you to resist the invasion of the various Hu people."

After looking around, Black Bear's eyes fell on Zhong Yao again: "The university city will be built soon. When Lord Wei of Liangzhou arrives, you can open Lord Cai's collection of books and concentrate on studying the culture of ancient sages. I will withdraw my troops and return in the second half of winter."

The troops were dispatched in mid-October and returned in late winter, and the campaign lasted about forty-five days.

Zhong Yao frowned after hearing this. Based on the average horsepower of the cavalry, it would be difficult for Black Bear to completely wipe out and severely damage the northern Hu tribes within forty or fifty days.

He saluted and said, "As winter approaches, the mountains are covered with snow. General, you are responsible for the people of Guanlong. If you advance thousands of miles and encounter heavy snow, what will the people of Guanlong rely on?"

"Don't worry. My first target is the Xiongnu in Xihe, and I'm asking you generals to defend against and guard against the Qiang and Hu in the north. They are different species, and I can use my troops quickly. When the Qiang and Hu unite, I should be able to destroy the Xiongnu in Xihe."

After explaining, Black Bear looked at Duan Wei again: "I will cross the Yellow River to Hedong in mid-October and lead my army north to join forces with Qian Zhao. So I have 3,000 knights from my own army, Qian Zhao has 3,000 knights from Bingzhou, 5,000 knights from Wuhuan, and several thousand from the Chanyu army. With more than 10,000 knights, we will raid Xihe. I'm afraid the Xiongnu tribes in Xihe will never expect that the Chanyu will cooperate with us to launch an attack."

Duan Wei nodded. The Qiang and Hu people in the north were a semi-new Hu people, mainly Qiang people who migrated eastward, and a fusion of miscellaneous Hu people and Han border people.

The Qiang people's living environment was already harsh, and they had no choice but to move eastward as the climate changed, so they had a very strong ability to adapt.

In order to survive, these Qiang people were distributed in the intricate mountain valleys of Anding, Beidi and Shangjun. They cultivated land if they could, and lived on grazing and gathering if they could not.

The Qiang and Hu people in the north have been blocked here. To the east are the Southern Xiongnu who occupy Xihe, Pingyang and Taiyuan. The Hetao area in the north is fertile and is a great hunting ground that is fought over by all parties. The Qiang and Hu people in the north do not have the strength to fight for it now.

To the south is the fertile land of the Three Auxiliary Provinces. A small-scale infiltration by the Qiang and Hu people in the north is okay, but if it arouses the vigilance of the ten tribes in Guanzhong, it will lead to a decisive battle that concerns the survival of the ethnic group, and the Qiang and Hu people in the north have little chance of winning.

In the west, wave after wave of Qiang and Hu continued to spread eastward. The further west the Qiang went, the more untamed they were. The tamed Qiang were afraid of the untamed Qiang. They had just started to live a good life, and no one wanted to go back and provoke those barbarians.

Therefore, Black Bear would keep most of his cavalry to guard the north of Sanfu to prevent the Qiang and Hu from causing chaos.

And he actually led only 3,000 knights to fight...Liu Ye's 5,000 Guanzhong infantry would not cross the river, but would march along the Chidao to Gaonu and Fushi in Shangjun, with Yulin near Fushi as the final meeting point.

By the time Black Bear defeated the various Hu people in Xihe and arrived in Yulin, even if the Qiang and Hu people in the north wanted to cause trouble, they would have to reconsider.

So if the plan goes according to plan, the fighting will mainly break out in Xihe and Pingyang.

The main force of this battle was the 3,000 knights where Black Bear was. As for the ace troops, the Qingzhou soldiers, they stayed in the north camp of Mount Li for the winter. Like Gan Ning's troops, they stayed in the camp this winter reading books and practicing literacy.

There is no need to learn any profound concepts, just simple literacy and basic math education.

While chatting, Black Bear and the other eight people made plans for the expedition.

As long as Yuan Tan cooperates and goes to Jingzhou honestly, it doesn't matter if he doesn't cooperate. When Black Bear arrives in Hedong and goes to Pingyang, he will kill Yuan Tan.

This time we are joining forces with Qian Zhao to achieve our respective goals.

If you want to jointly govern Hedong and Hongnong, you must try your best to disintegrate the surrounding armed forces, such as the Chanyu of the Southern Xiongnu.

The black bear had his eyes on the enemy's war horses, the women he had stolen, and the gold and silver; and the trick was simple, he needed a group of servants who were more loyal than the Wuhuan servant knights.

If the Xiongnu tribes in Pingyang and Xihe are not dealt with, Bingzhou, which can nominally mobilize an army of 50,000, will always be just a bloated state.

After defeating and inflicting heavy damage to the Southern Xiongnu this winter, Qianzhao's military prestige soared, and he could naturally easily mobilize a large army to reinforce the Liyang battlefield.

The size of the garrisons and the amount of stored grain in the two cities of Liyang were fixed, so a decisive battle would have to break out with Cao's army near Liyang before the grain was eaten up.

Qian Zhao had no better choice but to defeat the Southern Xiongnu. Only then would the people of Bingzhou... that is, the people of Taiyuan and the descendants of the garrison troops of the four counties of Yunzhong who had migrated inland, support him in sending troops to Liyang!

The situation in Hebei is stagnant. As long as Bingzhou is revitalized and Liyang is rescued, it will be possible to assist Yuan Xi in suppressing Xianyu Fu.

After Xianyu Fu was killed, Cao Cao would not need to send troops from Taiyuan across Taihang Mountains the next time he attacked Hebei, and the Youzhou knights would be able to actively participate in the battle.

So when it comes to dividing the spoils, Qian Zhao is also very easy to deal with.

After all, it was Guanzhong that was asked to send troops, so it was normal for Guanzhong to get a higher share.

(End of this chapter)