Chapter 400 The Former Capital of Han and Zhao
It looked like an ordinary and not very wide valley among the mountains. Liu Aqi led his men to ride into it for inspection. Sure enough, they found traces of Hu people living in the valley. After another search and persuasion, Lu Aqi found out that One after another, Hu people came out of the valley and stood on the flat ground outside the valley, waiting for reorganization.
"General Han is really eagle-eyed. How did he discover that there are people from the Hu tribe hiding here?"
Li Tai saw the Jihu men and women walking out of the valley, and couldn't help but look at Han Guo and asked with surprise.
With reinforcements arriving and no worries about his retreat, Li Tai's first plan was to muddy the waters so that those left behind in the Eastern Wei Dynasty could not accurately control the exact forces and specific goals of their party.
To achieve this, his troops alone are obviously not enough, and if tens of thousands of troops really come out to advance and retreat on the borders of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, it will not be regarded as confusing the opponent, but dancing on the grave.
The scattered Lishi Hu tribes in this area are a very good choice. Since the army's attack the year before last, the Zhu Hu tribes have suffered heavy losses. Except for the Zuoxian King tribe who fled, the rest are hiding in Tibet and living in Tibet. The darkness is dark.
If we can collect and recruit all these Lishi Husbands, it will definitely be a considerable force. Not to mention how much destructive power it can explode, at least it can conceal the power and goals of Li Tai's troops. , making it impossible for those left behind in Jinyang to make accurate judgments.
When they started this plan, Han Guo, a veteran of Wuchuan, gave Li Tai another big surprise.
The terrain here is complex and changeable, and the remaining Jihu tribesmen are hiding in Tibet and living in no fixed place, so they can survive the encirclement and suppression by the Eastern Wei army. Li Tai wants to search out these people, but there is no accurate conclusion. Targets can only be searched in a carpet-like manner, and the efficiency is inevitably low.
However, Han Guo took the initiative to volunteer and accompany the team to perform this task. He could discover the area where the Hu people were hiding just by observing from a high position. If he searched wherever he pointed, he would be able to find something in nine out of ten cases. Liu Aqi, the former confidant of King Zuoxian, stepped forward to persuade and persuade, which greatly increased the efficiency.
Li Tai saw that he had recruited two to three thousand Jihu people in just over a day. He was in a happy mood and couldn't help but be curious about what signs Han Guo used to judge.
It should be noted that he was still thinking about whether to bring the big eagle domesticated by Diao Yin Liu to use as a scout, but now it seems that those big eagles that can soar in the sky and look down are probably not as efficient as Han Guo.
After hearing this, Han Guo smiled reservedly, and then said: "Sometimes it is indeed discovered based on some subtle signs, but sometimes there are no traces at all, but there is something in the heart. It is not that I deliberately concealed it from Kaifu, I just can’t tell myself.”
After hearing this, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh to himself. He didn't think Han Guo had any secrets that he didn't want to reveal. Some talents were so unreasonable that people couldn't understand them, but they were real.
At this moment, he finally understood why Yu Wentai chose Han Guo as his partner. This super memory coupled with the ability to detect every detail, is simply a human map and human radar, which is very suitable for such an environment behind enemy lines. Something happened!
"Then I will entrust the next matters to General Han first. If there is any latest situation, I will inform the envoy immediately."
Seeing that Han Guo was so qualified for this task, it was meaningless for Li Tai to continue accompanying him, so he left the matter to Han Guo to take full responsibility, and he went directly to the next target.
Since the Southern Xiongnu migrated inland at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Lishi area has become one of the areas where these Hu tribes settled. Liu Yuan of Han and Zhao, who ushered in the Five Hus era, proclaimed himself emperor here, which marked the beginning of hundreds of years of chaos. The mountains and rivers were in turmoil and all life was in ruins. To this day, the world has not been unified and stable.
Liu Yuan's base camp is the Lishi area. After years of changes, his southern Xiongnu tribe merged with other miscellaneous Hu tribes to form today's Jihu tribes. Therefore, many Jihu tribesmen still regard Liu Yuan as their leader. As one of the spiritual totems of their tribe.
The next target that Li Tai will attack is Zuo Guocheng, the capital established by Liu Yuan at the beginning of the uprising.
Zuoguocheng is located in the north-central part of Lishi area, on the banks of Lishi River. The Lishi River is the Sanchuan River in later generations. The Sanchuan River runs through the entire Luliang Mountains and is the most important river in the Luliang Mountains. It is so called because it has three main tributaries. The Lishi River is the Beichuan River among them. The northward flow flows through the Luliang Mountains, connecting this area with the Xiurong area.
The first reason why Li Tai chose Zuo Guocheng as his next target was naturally because of Liu Yuan of Han Zhao Dynasty. This city had extraordinary significance among the Jihu group. If he could call on the Jihu tribes based on this city, the appeal would be great. will increase significantly.
The second reason is to use Zuoguocheng to control the Lishi River Valley, so that the Eastern Wei army cannot enter the Lishi area from the north. Only in this way can it have greater initiative and start writhing with confidence.
Zuoguocheng is not far from the Lingshui River Basin. Even if there is a section of the journey that requires a detour to the south, the whole journey is only more than 150 miles.
On the way, we can see many docks and villages scattered among the valleys, ridges and plateaus. There are also farmers busy harvesting crops in the fields. When they see Li Tai's men and horses galloping past, they are naturally panicked and run away in a hurry. When he returned to the wall of the dock, he did not dare to take the initiative to offend, which made Li Tai enjoy the feeling of roaming the countryside.
When the people and horses entered the Lishi River Valley, the rolling mountains on both sides compressed the view between the valley, which was a bit depressing. Moreover, there are also many garrison walls along the river, which are crowded with people, as if they are facing a powerful enemy. There is no joyful scene of welcoming the king's master at all.
The existence of these dock walls was also a hidden danger, so much so that Li Tai had to leave a combat team of about ten or twenty people at every stretch of the journey to prevent the Eastern Wei people from being blocked in the valley out of righteous indignation.
Fortunately, he arrived near Zuoguocheng shortly after entering Chuangu, which prevented Li Tai from dividing his troops too much.
Zuoguo City is located on the east bank of Lishi River, with mountains behind it. The layout of the city is somewhat similar to that of the previous Wutu City and its scale is larger. Its outer city circle occupies most of the valley, so that Lishi River is nearby They all circled a large arc to the west. It can be seen that Liu Yuan also put great effort into building the city, and may have also used the method of opening mountains and moving water.
But compared with the majestic structure, Zuoguo City as a whole is in a dilapidated state. Most of the outer city walls have been damaged, and there are many traces of earth and stone repairs that were later weathered and collapsed.
Looking inward from the gap in the wall, we can see that the inner city is divided into several parts of buildings. A pavilion with eaves on the hillside is also in dilapidated condition. It is probably the building of the Han and Zhao palaces in the past. The residents who lived in those days have long since become bones, leaving only the ruins and broken walls to endure. The mountain breeze blows.
The city at the bottom of the slope is a long and narrow strip adapted to local conditions. A wooden watchtower stands on the south side. It looks a bit old, like some ancient cities in later generations that were poorly managed, with few tourists and lack of maintenance. Although the layout is there, it is no longer glamorous.
At this time, the sound of trumpets also sounded in the city, and many soldiers could be seen walking around the city. There seemed to be a lot of them, but because the city frame was too large, it could not effectively defend.
There are ruins everywhere here, which is not suitable for cavalry to run at high speed. After waiting for a while, Li Tai led Zhu Meng to lead hundreds of soldiers to dismount and put on armor, and entered the city in formation along the gap in the outer wall. He himself led the remaining soldiers through the river valley to the west side of the city, and used bow and arrow attacks to suppress and expel the defenders.
As the distance got closer, Li Tai could see clearly the situation in the city. There were about two thousand defenders, but they were in a mess and lacked effective command and control.
According to what Pi Jinghe said, Zuoguocheng did not officially station troops, because according to this, Xiurong City, several hundred miles away, was where the heavy garrison was located.
However, after autumn comes, there will still be a lot of people gathered here, mostly powerful tribes from around Jinyang, taking advantage of the autumn harvest to come in and raid the area. After all, mosquitoes have meat on their legs. For these leaders of the army, civilian households that are not under their control are their nourishment. If they don't take action, others will not let them go, so there is no need to be polite.
"You thieves, you are the slaves of which family. When you see me coming here, why don't you quickly open the city gate and come in to serve wine and food!"
Seeing that the soldiers in the city were like headless flies and had no rules for defending the city, Li Tai couldn't help but feel evil in his heart, and shouted loudly into the city.
After he shouted, someone actually had the courage to ask loudly about their identity, which shows that there is still a sense of luck. Li Tai was too lazy to respond. Seeing that Zhu Meng and others were approaching the gate of the inner city, he ordered the knights to shoot arrows into the city. Although the casualties were not large, the chaos was considerable, and even the city was destroyed. The head guard fell down directly after being pushed and dodged. It seemed that not all soldiers in the Eastern Wei Dynasty were like wolves and tigers. These domestic slaves in front of them were vulnerable to attack.
"Turn to the north of the city to besiege and kill all these thieves and slaves!"
Officer Li Tai shouted threats in the valley outside the city, and at the same time pretended to ride his horse north to surround the city.
Before they could get around the long and narrow city from north to south, some of the soldiers in the city couldn't help but rushed out and fled north. The soldiers here had no intention of holding on. Since some people fled outwards, others followed suit, fearing that they would fall behind and the city would soon be empty.
It was another boring victory. Li Tai led his troops to chase for more than ten miles, killing some of the fleeing people on the way, and captured another hundred or ten people. With the important town of Xiurong City, I wonder if the elites of the Eastern Wei Dynasty are already on their way to this place.
By the time Li Tai and others returned, Zhu Meng had already started to lead people to clean up the city.
After walking around for a while, Li Tai understood why the soldiers were unwilling to stick here, not only because of timidity, but also because this former capital of Han and Zhao, the glorious city in Jihu's mind, was really a capital both inside and outside. It was severely damaged. Only the city wall in the inner city is still intact, and almost all other functional buildings are gone. People who live here have to set up tents.
However, there are still a lot of materials such as cloth, silk, grain, and millet left in these tents, which shows that these powerful slaves who fought against the autumn wind also gained a lot.
Although the amount is not impressive, it is still Li Tai's first harvest since entering the country, which can be regarded as a good start. Although there were some supplies stored in Wutu City before, they were all divided up by the Lishi Hu people who entered the city first, and even Liu Ah Qi could not restrain them.
Li Tai didn't bother to pursue those three melons and two dates. Zuo Guocheng, the old capital of Han and Zhao, had already been occupied. Is Jinyang City still far away from the Overlord of the Eastern Wei Dynasty? What treasures and treasures can’t be found then?