Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 103: The Protector General's Grace and Power over Kirby

After exchanging a few pleasantries with his cheap father-in-law Hu Yanhe, Zhang Yu proposed that Hao Zhao lead fifty cavalrymen to escort Hu Yanhe back to his unit.

How could Hu Yanhe not know that the fifty riders were the ones guarding him, but due to the current situation, Hu Yanhe had to agree.

Not to mention that Hu Yanhe returned to the tribe under the escort of fifty riders led by Hao Zhao, sorted out the tribal roster, and prepared to present him and his daughter to Zhang Yu.

After Hu Yanhe left, Yang Zan gave a look that all men understood, and said, "Hu Yanhe's daughter Hu Yanyu has a good reputation in Yanbei, and I don't know how many people have been eyeing her. Now Ji'an not only returned victorious, but also has a beautiful woman to serve him. It can be said that it is a double happiness!"

Zhang Yu raised his eyebrows slightly and said with a smile: "I hope you won't report this!"

Yang Zan understood and said, "The situation in Yanbei is complicated. If the captain does not accept Hu Yan, it may be difficult to use the power of the Xiongnu to deter the other Hu people."

Although the laws of the Han Dynasty did not prevent border generals from marrying the Hu people, they strictly prohibited local officials from marrying local forces. If Yang Zan reported to the prefecture and county, and his words were provocative, Zhang Yu would be reprimanded at best, or dismissed and transferred to another position at worst. After all, although the Eastern Han Dynasty was weak, its dynasty's bottom-up order still existed.

"Thank you very much!" Zhang Yu looked at Yang Zan and bowed.

Yang Zan returned the greeting with a smile, saying: "Now Yanbei is full of tigers and wolves. Whether Zan can plan to govern Pingcheng, he still needs to rely on Ji'an!"

"Gong Tan and I are classmates, and we are far away from each other on the frontier, so we should support each other." Zhang Yu said modestly, "Now that I have won a great victory, I can intimidate the Hu people. Gong Tan may send someone to Wuchen Di to ask for the Hu bandits. If Wuchen Di refuses to hand over the people, you only need to let them know, and Yunzhong will follow!"

"it is good!"

"it is good!"

Yang Zan laughed several times and said, "Rong Zan borrowed the power of Ji'an to punish the Hu people in Pingcheng."

The two chatted for a while, and Yang Zan took the initiative to say goodbye and leave because he had something to take care of in the city.

"Ji'an, how should we deal with Chief Hu?" Li Song looked at Kebineng and asked.

Zhang Yu looked over and saw that Ke Bineng looked haggard and listless. Because he could not understand Chinese, he sat alone at the table and kept looking at Zhang Yu.

"What does Bosong think?" Zhang Yu asked.

Li Song thought for a moment and said, "Ke Bineng is well-known in Yanbei, near the Great Wall. It would be better to kill him to enhance Ji'an's reputation; or to present him as a captive to Luoyang so that Your Majesty can commend his merits."

"Kill him?"

Zhang Yu frowned and thought, considering how to deal with Ke Bineng.

Seeing that Zhang Yu remained silent for a long time, Li Song asked, "Does Ji'an have another plan?"

Nodding, Zhang Yu boldly said, "How about if General Kebi can stay?"

"Leave?"

Li Song was surprised for a moment, then thought for a moment and said, "Kebi Neng is famous for his bravery, and the Xianbei Hu people are convinced by his integrity and justice, so the Xianbei people have joined his tribe. Judging from his talent alone, Kebi Neng can be a help, but judging from Kebi Neng's temperament, he is like a wild horse and difficult to control."

Although Li Song didn't know what the future would hold, he could see that Ke Bi Neng was definitely not an ordinary person. If he wasn't controlled well, Ke Bi Neng would easily run into problems.

In fact, according to normal logic, as Kebi Neng was the future overlord of the grassland, in order to eliminate hidden dangers, Zhang Yu should have executed Kebi Neng instead of keeping him. After all, it was too bold.

Zhang Yu wanted to keep Ke Bineng, and he had his own ideas about this.

You asked Kebi Neng if he wanted to be Chanyu now, or if he wanted to unify the grasslands?
The Xianbei Chanyu belonged to the lineage of Tan Shihuai. At that time, the Xianbei were in a state of chaos due to the coexistence of two countries. Unless Kebi Neng was crazy or a time traveler like Zhang Yu, it would be difficult for him to have such an idea.

Since he is not a born ambitious person, it is not that he cannot be used. However, in order to prevent Ke Bineng from becoming resentful due to being captured, it is better to place him according to the situation.

In particular, there is the Chanhebi (now Daihai) Salt Lake to the north of Pingcheng. During the Han Dynasty, salt officials were set up at Chanhebi to circulate the produced salt to the border and the desert, earning huge profits.

If Zhang Yu wanted to achieve something in Yanbei, he couldn't rely solely on horse trade. If he could control Chanhebi, wouldn't the benefits he would gain be huge?
Having the income from the salt pond means that Zhang Yu will have a steady cash flow, which can not only support his own army, but also use money to win over the border Hu.

As for why Kebi Neng was left behind, it was because Kebi Neng was famous in Yanbei. He was not only famous among the Xianbei people, but also among the various Hu people in Yanbei.

Using Kebi Neng's reputation to maintain the stability of Yanbei, making him his agent to open up trade routes with the Xianbei for him, isn't this more valuable than directly executing Kebi Neng?
Apart from this, Zhang Yu had other ideas. He wanted to see if he could subdue Kebineng.

This seemingly crazy idea actually hides Zhang Yu’s ambitions!
Since we are participating in the struggle for hegemony, let's do it vigorously. If we can't even subdue Kebi Neng in front of us, how can we control the grassland? How can we establish a unified dynasty?

Life is always a trial and error. If you can't control Kebi Neng, you can find a reason to kill him later. Even if Kebi Neng rebels, Zhang Yu is confident that he can defeat him again.

Ke Bineng looked at Zhang Yu and Li Song with a complicated expression. Since he was brought into the tent, Zhang Yu had been chatting with Hu Yanhe and Yang Zan on the way. He was ignored for more than an hour. He didn't know how Zhang Yu would punish him.

"Kebi Neng, if you had won the battle of Aobao that day and captured me, I wonder how you would have treated me?" Zhang Yu asked in Xianbei language.

Ke Bineng didn't speak Chinese, and he didn't understand what they were talking about just now. When he heard Zhang Yu asking questions, Ke Bineng almost didn't react.

"It's impossible to know!" Ke Bineng thought for a moment and said dejectedly, "But considering the bravery of the captain, it would be as difficult as climbing to the sky to capture him!"

Zhang Yu pointed to the people around him and said, "Several people have advised me to kill you before, so as to avoid any more trouble and further plundering of the border. I wonder if you have any rebuttal?"

Hearing that Zhang Yu seemed to be willing to spare his life, Ke Bineng immediately bowed and said, "I am willing to lead my troops back to the border to surrender, and I will never dare to plunder the border again."

Zhang Yu shook his head and smiled faintly, saying: "Your tribe has been dispersed and there are no soldiers left. Why are you talking about leading your people to surrender?"

"My people are scattered?" Ke Bineng's expression changed, and he asked, "Captain, how are my people and my family?"

Zhang Yu told all he knew about the disintegration of the tribe, and especially emphasized that Kebi Neng's people and subordinates had split up his tribe.

Upon hearing that his brother and his tribesmen were nowhere to be found, Kebineng looked extremely sad. He never expected that after he was captured, those people in the tribe would stab him in the back. He was filled with resentment and had an extremely strong desire to survive and seek revenge.

"I hope the captain can spare my life. I will do my best to repay you in the future!" In order to survive, Kebineng pleaded.

Zhang Yu hesitated for a moment and said, "It's not impossible to spare your life now, but you have to work for me in the future!"

For the sake of his life and his family, Ke Bineng knew that he had no bargaining chips, so he said without hesitation: "I am willing to serve the captain!"

"good!"

Seeing Ke Bineng's attitude, Zhang Yu felt bad and said, "Since you are working for me, you must use a Chinese name when dealing with Han people in the future."

"Your foreign name is Ke Bineng, so why not use Ke as your surname, Bi as your given name, and Lai En as your courtesy name? From now on, Ke Bi will be your Chinese name, how about that?"

"Thank you, Captain, for giving me the Chinese name!"

Although Ke Bineng did not know why Zhang Yu changed his surname, he knew that he had no bargaining power and could only obey Zhang Yu's wishes.

"good!"

Zhang Yu did not relax because of Kebi Neng's temporary surrender. Apart from placing Kebi Neng in the army, there were no other changes, and there were still people keeping an eye on Kebi Neng.

Moreover, Ke Bi surrendered temporarily to Zhang Yu because of his family. After he left, Li Song said worriedly: "Now Ji An has recruited Ke Bi to surrender. I don't know how to report it to the court."

"This is not difficult!"

Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Yan Kebi was defeated by me and was afraid of the prestige of the Han Dynasty, so he led his trusted followers to surrender to me. If you report this to the emperor, you will not only gain military merit, but also the credit of persuading them to surrender."

"Then where does Ji'an want to place Kobe?" Li Song asked.

Zhang Yu pondered for a moment and said, "There is a salt marsh two hundred miles northwest of Pingcheng. I want to set up a salt official at Chanhe Pond, so I can ask Ke Bi to sell salt and buy horses for the army and communicate with the various tribes on the border. By the way, let him recruit old troops to protect the border."

"Kobe's troops have been broken up by our army, I'm afraid they won't be able to serve with all their heart!" Li Song said worriedly, "And if the remnants of his troops join Kobe, I'm afraid Kobe will want to defect to the grassland."

"I said before that the Xiongnu tribe of Zuonan should move north to Chanhebi. Now we should follow the old words and order them to move north." Zhang Yu thought and said, "The salt pond is an important thing and cannot be interfered with by others. Bosong will lead the troops to the north with Zuonan and be responsible for the production of the salt pond, and will protect Hu Yanhe."

"As for Kobi, I will place him in Pingcheng. I will lead my troops to garrison at Baideng, and with the Xiongnu in the north, it will be difficult for Kobi to cause any trouble!" Zhang Yu said.

Zhang Yu's strength in Yanbei is still weak. If he wants to control the salt lake in Chanhebi, he must rely on the power of the Xiongnu in the left south.

Dividing the benefits of the Salt Lake with the southern left wing was a combination of kindness and force on Zhang Yu's part. Otherwise, if he had only used the big stick to intimidate others, it would have easily led to disunity.

"Then let's do as Ji'an wishes!" Li Song said.

"Ok!"

Zhang Yu nodded and said, "There are not many soldiers in my school now, so I can't go north with Bosong for the time being, so Bosong can study the salt production and salt sales first."

"promise!"

It is not easy to develop the salt profit of Chanhebi. It is winter now and the weather is too cold to develop the salt pond. We need to wait until the spring when the Zuonan Xiongnu tribe and Li Song's troops will go north together. As for making salt from the salt pond, it will probably take some time.

Everyone left one by one, and Zhang Yu sat down at his desk with a pen in hand, writing a military report about the march out of the border.

Zhang Yu was not under the jurisdiction of Bingzhou, but of Wang Rou, the General of the Guards against the Xiongnu. When reporting his military achievements to his superiors, Zhang Yu could actually bypass Wang Rou and send him directly to the court in Luoyang, but this would undoubtedly anger Wang Rou.

Because of Wang Rou's psychological state as an old friend, Zhang Yu planned to have someone deliver the battle report to Zuocheng, so that Wang Rou could get credit for the planning, thus showing his attitude.

In addition to Wang Rou, Zhang Yu wrote letters to Wang Hong, Wang Yun, Madam Cheng, and Yuan Shu to announce the good news, and also implicitly expressed his intention to help with the operation.

(End of this chapter)