Chapter 377 White Goose Warning
At the old Hangu Pass, with the setting sun hanging over the pass, Cao's army filed past, attempting to advance at night.

Cao Ren stopped at Ma Pass, raised his hand to block out the last rays of the setting sun, and watched the changing terrain in the distance.

In terms of steepness, Hangu Pass during the Qin Dynasty was the most dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

After the Han Dynasty, Hangu Pass was moved westward. The new Hangu Pass was located in the heart of the empire and served the purpose of catching thieves, so there was no need to consider military defense.

Therefore, the new Hangu Pass is only in name only and does not actually have any key influence.

While Cao Ren was thinking, an army arrived from behind. The leader, Han Hao, rode up to Cao Ren and bowed, "Commander-in-chief."

"Yuan Si arrived just in time."

Cao Ren turned his horse's head to face the old Hangu Pass, holding the whip and pointing diagonally to the west: "Gan Ning moved eastward from Hongnong to Shan County, and then moved east again to Mianchi as the forward base. This is to restore the old Hangu Pass."

Han Hao thought about it and nodded: "If that's the case, then it makes sense. If they can take over and repair the old Hangu Pass, how can the Heluo area be at peace? It is clear that it is imperative to suppress this bandit. Lord Cao has a far-sighted vision that is beyond the reach of ordinary people."

Cao Ren just smiled and said to Han Hao: "Since Yuan Si is here, let's leave this to Yuan Si."

"Yes, please, Overseer."

Han Hao stretched out his arms, and Cao Ren turned his horse and advanced along the Hangu Road, followed by more than 300 riders.

After Cao Ren walked away, Han Hao dispatched the various troops of the central army under his command, and they advanced in sequence according to the planned marching order.

In this battle, Cao Ren was still the vanguard; but Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu, Xiahou Shang and others had already completed reconnaissance at the front line.

Therefore, when the troops advanced, Cao Ren stayed behind the vanguard. This way, when he arrived at the front battlefield, he could gather as many officers and soldiers as possible who had fallen behind, and also gain a grasp of the actual information on the military strength.

Cao Ren was the vanguard, Cao Cao himself led the central army, and Shi Huan was in charge of the rear army to provide support.

After handing over the imperial seal and leaving Xu Du, the military system of Cao's army also changed.

It was no longer an advanced system of staggered service, but a practical system of officers and soldiers.

No longer able to control the grassroots, Cao Cao had to make concessions in order to strengthen the enthusiasm of middle and high-level military officers such as officers to control the army.

By acknowledging the control of his officers over their own soldiers, Cao Cao naturally degenerated into the leader of the alliance.

It weakened the absolute authority, but also gave middle-level military officers the enthusiasm and courage to fight.

It was getting dark inside Mianchi City.

Gan Ning sat upright on the wooden platform in the parade ground, wearing a golden helmet, golden armor and a white cloak. Behind him stood a row of majestic personal soldiers wearing the same golden helmets and golden armor.

On the parade ground, the chief priest assigned here was leading more than 20 Taoist priests and Taoist children to bathe and change clothes, and then they were slaughtering white geese in an orderly manner.

Because the black bear was in the west, the chief priest in charge of the slaughter rolled up his sleeves, and the wings of the big white goose were held down tightly by a Taoist boy, while the chief priest pressed the goose's neck and head, which were as thick as his arms, on the altar.

The goose's head was facing west, but the priest was worried that the goose's spirit might come and complain, so he took the initiative to pull out the goose's tongue and bite it with its beak.

He was chanting relevant scriptures from the "Taiping Shidao Jing" in his mouth. The content was that Huang Taiyi was praying for the big white goose, hoping that the big white goose could be reborn into the upper world.

After the recitation of the scripture of less than a hundred words was completed, the chief priest cut the throat with a knife to let the blood.

After four or five breaths, the amount of bleeding decreased, and a Taoist priest immediately came forward to take it away, holding the big white goose to pluck its feathers.

The goose down is collected and twelve narrow, hard feathers are picked out from a large white goose.

Other Taoists would come forward to take the set of twelve hard feathers and go to the parade ground to distribute them to the other armored soldiers who were sitting cross-legged and waiting.

Twelve coins were distributed to a team of ten, and the sergeant and senior corporal received one extra coin.

When the Taoist priest distributed the feathers, he wrote the numbers, affiliations and ranks of the sergeants and squad leaders on the goose feathers with gold lacquer. Another ten hard feathers were distributed to each person, each with their place of origin and name written on them.

Most people had two-character names, but the names of the officers and soldiers who were rescued and made contributions during the subsequent victorious expedition against the Huns generally had three-character names.

Most of the names are such as Po Lu, Ping Hu, or names with beautiful meanings such as Strengthen the Country, Establish a Fan, Jianping, Rich and Strong, and Ankang.

The soldiers in the team got the goose feathers and fixed them on their helmets, replacing the original feathers and tassels. The senior sergeants and senior corporals inserted two white feathers, one on the top of the helmet and one on the left side of the helmet; the captains of hundreds and the team officers inserted three feathers, one on the top of the helmet and on both sides of the face.

Gan Ning's golden helmet is the most special. There are four clusters of white feathers on the helmet, on the left and right sides of the face, on the top of the helmet, and on the back of the helmet. In particular, the top of the helmet uses an extended copper tube of a ruler in length.

As long as it was not dark at night and there was a little light, Gan Ning could be identified from all directions.

Gan Ning's personal guards also had four white feathers on their helmets.

Using the white goose feather decorations, Gan Ning reorganized the armored troops participating in the battle.

Twelve hundred heavily-armored elite soldiers are the reason Gan Ning dares to move his stronghold forward.

After the white goose feathers were distributed, they began to feast on beef and mutton; as for the white geese, they were an important supply during combat!

After dark, Li Yi led more than a thousand people from Hu County to Shan County; Zhang Sheng's troops on the north bank also began to gather at Dujin on the north bank of Shanjin.

The black bear, who was far away in Hexi, noticed that something had happened to Gan Ning.

Without wasting any time, he immediately randomly summoned more than a thousand geese from Ganquan Mountain.

As for how to fight the war on the Hongnong front, it can now only be left to Gan Ning.

We can't act rashly here in Hexi, the situation has already been set.

If you want to kill someone with a borrowed knife, you have to be tough enough.

Otherwise, you will have to waste money, food and manpower to do the dirty work.

When it comes to causing sabotage, the tribal Qiang alliance has greater potential.

Ganquan Mountain, Zhen Mi had already gone to bed after nightfall, although she tossed and turned on the couch and found it difficult to fall asleep.

In order to save fuel, she did not light the lamps, setting an example for the officials in the Grand Marshal's office not to be too wasteful.

If the shogunate's officials can save on work costs, it will also affect the counties, and the indirect savings in oil and fuel will be considerable.

Many things require leaders to set an example for their subordinates.

She would not waste the supplies in the treasury, so no matter how envious others were, they would be able to restrain themselves to some extent.

However, she was extravagant and extravagant, and no matter how harsh the criminal law was, it could not extinguish the resentment among officials at all levels.

She set an example herself, and there was no bad comment from officials and common people, which was the greatest recognition.

She was particularly alert while dozing off, and could hear the sound of steel boots stepping on the ground from afar.

As soon as she stood up, the serving lady blew the fire stick to light the candlesticks, followed by several oil lamps.

More maids woke up in the bedroom to change her clothes. Soon, a female official in leather armor strode up to the wooden building and said, "Madam, many white geese have disappeared."

"Don't panic."

Seeing that the female official was trying to be calm, Zhen Mi tried to comfort her and then looked at her personal female official: "Go get the secret box."

"Yes."

The female official turned and left. Zhen Mi took out her waist badge and handed it to the female official in leather armor: "Take this token to see Xicao Sima Zihua, and he will bring the chief clerk and Sima Zhang to see me."

"Yes!"

The female official stepped back holding the badge, took a few steps back, turned around and left.

Several of Zhen Mi's personal maids also followed.

(End of this chapter)