Chapter 407: Reckless
Hanzhong, Nanzheng.

In the middle of the night, Zhang Lu woke up with a start.

He came to the study wearing a brocade robe and lit a few lamps.

He took out the registration list and compared it with the mobilization list, and couldn't help but sigh.

His wife also got up and lit the brazier for him, and boiled hot water to make tea.

Seeing Zhang Lu's worry, he said, "My lord, the Grand Marshal is a great warrior, and now he may have caught a chance to win."

“That’s not the only thing I’m worried about.”

Zhang Lu gathered his collar, clenched his fists to warm his palms, lowered his head and looked at the two rows of bamboo slips, contemplating: "The victory or defeat of this battle will not cost much vitality. What I am worried about is that the Grand Marshal is impulsive in his use of troops. Although he can catch the enemy by surprise, it is inevitable that something unexpected will happen sooner or later. The Shu Road is difficult and dangerous. If he rashly marches forward with a light force, what will he do if he encounters a large Shu army?"

Seeing the flames leaping up in the brazier, Zhang Lu grabbed the two bamboo scrolls and moved to the side of the brazier, raised his legs and feet to warm the soles of his feet, and lowered his voice: "Haven't you seen the old story of Sun Wentai and Sun Bofu? The fault of the King of Chen was that he was not prepared for the people and acted rashly."

His wife was silent. Zhang Lu sighed and said, "The Grand Marshal has few relatives and no children. If there is no one to carry on his great cause, he will be entrusted with the trust of millions of officials and people, but he is still so frivolous. I am deeply worried."

The worry is not just this, but the mentality of not taking the foundation and the people under one's rule seriously.

After experiencing Liu Zhang's seizure of the throne and killing of his entire family, Zhang Lu had an instinctive sense of crisis about relying on other people.

It is obvious that the person now does not take the foundation seriously; if he takes action against the internal affairs in the future, he will definitely be very ruthless.

The most terrifying thing is that the enemy has almost wiped out all the Hu people, and they have become frightened and willing to be their minions.

He used the servants of the Hu people as swords. Once this sword, which did not recognize any relatives, was unsheathed, it would surely cause a river of blood.

This reminded him of the past of Emperor Guangwu. With the background of the Zhang family in Lu, they were naturally aware of the dark and secret history of Emperor Guangwu when he restored the Han Dynasty.

General Deng Feng returned home to visit his relatives. What did he see?
Seeing the Han army looting and slaughtering the officials and civilians in Nanyang, Deng Feng could no longer tolerate it. Without bringing any troops with him, he gathered together the local friends and soldiers to unite against the enemy and swept away the evil Han army around him.

The Han army then launched a suppression operation, but was unable to defeat Deng Feng.

It was not that Deng Feng was so strong, but that the villagers and officials gathered by Deng Feng hated the Han army so much that they fought to the death.

It was not until Guangwu personally led the army that he indirectly defeated Deng Feng by defeating his friendly forces.

Guangwu knew he was in the wrong and wanted to let Deng Feng go, but the generals in Hebei, especially Youzhou, strongly opposed it, so he killed Deng Feng.

The generals from Youzhou were determined to kill Deng Feng because the main force that plundered Nanyang was the Wuhuan cavalry.

The Han army at that time was plundering as a whole and military discipline was poor.

Even when he arrived in the imperial capital of Nanyang, he still did not restrain himself.

The source of this trend was the Youzhou border troops and the Wuhuan cavalry, the main force and fist troops of the Han army.

Without severely punishing these troops, it will be impossible to restrain other troops.

However, there were no conditions to severely punish the main force, so they could only let it go and reward the honest and dutiful troops.

The army was so careless and lax, so after the founding of the country, there was naturally no talk of strong regulation of the counties.

Therefore, although Guangwu's revival of the Yanhan Dynasty seemed to be the beginning of a new dynasty, he still inherited many historical baggages from the Former Han Dynasty and the Wang Mang period.

The Hu vassal armies lack reason to begin with, and now only the Grand Marshal can control them.

If the Grand Marshal encountered an accident on the front line, or if there was a conflict with local big families or surrendered generals in the future, then the Hu vassal armies would become knives and he would not be able to resist at all.

It’s not that he is pessimistic by nature, but aren’t there any worried people around Black Bear?
Of course there are, but these people can't persuade Black Bear. He is so stubborn and domineering. If he disagrees with the group in the future, it will be difficult for him to compromise.

I can see this situation, but what about other wise and strategic people?
Rather than passively taking the blow, it is better to take the initiative.

Once this kind of sign appears, a crisis of trust breaks out. It seems that Qin is now strong, but if a civil war breaks out, it will end up being torn apart.

Compared with the future prospects, attacking Yizhou at the moment is a trivial matter.

This time, Black Bear only allocated 5,000 mobilization quotas to Yizhou. Even if these 5,000 people were wiped out, it would not affect the stability of Hanzhong.

Zhang Lu warmed the soles of his feet and looked down at the register.

If Black Bear continued to distribute the troops, he could mobilize 30,000 veteran soldiers within a month, and send 20,000 soldiers to the battlefield in Brazil. However, due to road restrictions, subsequent supply was difficult, and these 20,000 soldiers could not fight for a long time, and had to retreat when the military rations were running out.

Anyway, the Dongzhou soldiers in Brazil had already lost their nerve and dared not pursue.

The cocks crowed in unison, and Zhang Lu told his wife, "Have a light breakfast. I want to see the chief priest today."

"Yes."

The wife bowed, moved forward, unbolted the door, and led the maid away.

There were footsteps again, and the guard on duty outside the door asked, "Master, Yang Jijiu wants to see you."

"please."

Zhang Lu retracted his legs and stood up. His feet felt uncomfortable stepping on the cold leather shoes. He put away the two bamboo scrolls and placed them on the shelf beside the table.

Yang Song came in, his crown slightly askew, holding an urgent letter in his hand: "Master, the Grand Marshal has sent a victory message."

Zhang Lu didn't take it seriously, thinking that he had defeated the Shu army's scouts and small troops. But he smelled a faint smell of blood and immediately became alert: "What victory report is this?"

"Yesterday at noon, the Grand Marshal sent the Grand Historian Wen Gong to lead 500 elite troops to cross the Baishui River to the south and storm Jiameng Pass. The defending general Xi Su was killed by the Grand Historian Jin in battle and his head is sent here."

Yang Song's teeth chattered as he spoke, and he looked terrified.

That is Jiameng Pass. Taking over Jiameng Pass would mean cutting off the huge garrison at Baishui Pass!

Even if we do nothing now, we can still kill more than 10,000 regular troops stationed at Baishui Pass.

It was also because Black Bear's action of entering Hanzhong was too swift and decisive, and Yizhou was unable to react in time, otherwise the size of the garrison at Baishui Pass would have been more than 20,000.

Whenever Hanzhong deployed troops, the garrison at Baishui Pass would expand to more than 20,000 troops, and would make threats and attack Yangping Pass in order to tie down Hanzhong's forces and share the pressure on the Baxi side.

The fall of Jiameng Pass almost meant that Liu Zhang was halfway to defeat.

And the other half is Mianzhu.

By capturing Mianzhu, we could gain a stronghold on the northern end of the Shu Plain. Given the current state of the Shu Army and Dongzhou troops, they might not dare to engage in a field battle, let alone join forces to counterattack Mianzhu.

Zhang Lu was also stunned: "Xi Su was killed?"

"Yes, I have inspected the head and it is Xi Su himself."

Yang Song handed the opened victory report to Zhang Lu again. Zhang Lu took it woodenly, turned sideways to the candle, and lowered his head to read the victory report written in golden calligraphy on silk.

After taking a few glances, Zhang Lu signaled to Yang Song and glanced at the door.

Yang Song also turned around and looked at the door: "Bring him in."

A guard of Zhang Lu came in at the door carrying a wooden tray. Yang Song raised his hand and took off the cloth on the wooden tray, revealing a clean head that had been washed and dehumidified with lime.

Zhang Lu recognized Xi Su at a glance. Since he was able to guard Jiameng Pass, Xi Su must be Liu Zhang's trusted general.

Zhang Lu was actually glad to see Xi Su's lifelike face.

For a moment, he didn't know what to say.

Not only him, Yang Song was also speechless.

After a while, Zhang Lu regained his composure and said, "Send the head to every place in the city, and spread it to all cities in the afternoon."

"Here."

Yang Song agreed and wanted to suggest something else, but it felt a bit redundant.

Just looking at Zhang Lu, Zhang Lu also had a similar feeling and just nodded to Yang Song.

Yang Song tactfully left.

(End of this chapter)