Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 112: Defeating the Xianbei Captain

In May, the Lan clan.

After Liu Meng sent someone to inform them, all the leaders knew that Zhang Yu was holding a banquet to summon them. Although they were reluctant to go, they had to come on time out of fear of Zhang Yu's troops and his reputation in the frontier.

In the big tent, even though Liu Meng was the Marquis of Gudu, he could only sit in the second seat because of Zhang Yu's status, and Zhang Yu sat in the main seat alone. Except for Liu Meng's uncle and his relatives who did not come, the other four small leaders sat on the left and right of the tent, and there were other nobles in the tribe sitting with them.

Liu Meng saw that no one was sitting in the seat for the relatives of the deceased, so he reached out and asked his attendants, "Why didn't the relatives of the deceased attend the banquet? Are you unwilling to come and pay a visit?"

"I don't know!"

The attendant said, "I have sent someone to inform Xie Riqi, and according to the report, Xie Riqi has agreed to come to the banquet. I don't know if he changed his mind halfway through."

Liu Meng gloated over the misfortune and hoped that Xie Riqi would go back on his word so that Zhang Yu could send troops to destroy Xie Riqi and he could take advantage of the situation to annex Xie Riqi's followers.

"Sir, the banquet time is approaching, but the relatives have not arrived yet. I wonder if we should start the banquet?" Liu Meng asked.

"Not urgent!"

Zhang Yu glanced at the time and said with a smile, "The emperor will arrive in the afternoon, please wait a moment!"

With Zhang Yu's order, everyone in the tent had to wait patiently. The four leaders were talking to each other, and it was unknown what they were talking about. They just pointed at Xie Riqi's seat and glanced at Zhang Yu. It was obvious that what the four were talking about was related to Xie Riqi.

After an unknown amount of time, Liu Meng could no longer hold back his temper and said, "I am afraid that Xi Riqi will disappoint you, so I have no intention of attending the banquet. It would be better to start the banquet first and discuss matters with the leaders of each tribe."

Zhang Yu took a sip of wine and said with a faint smile: "Don't worry, you will know later!"

Seeing that Zhang Yu still spoke like this, Liu Meng felt bored and tried hard to suppress his inner impatience.

The other leaders were wondering if Xie Riqi was too bold and was unwilling to obey Zhang Yu's orders because he thought he had the most tents. After all, the leaders knew that Zhang Yu asked them to attend the banquet just to solve the problem of the Lan clan's dispersal.

They were weak and could ignore Liu Meng's tribe, but they could not ignore Zhang Yu's troops, so they had no choice but to come to the banquet. However, Xie Riqi was different from them, with as many as seven or eight hundred tents. If they were bolder, they might dare to ignore Zhang Yu.

When everyone was wondering whether Xie Riqi was rebelling against Zhang Yu, footsteps were heard outside the tent.

Guo Huai walked into the tent, leaned close to Zhang Yu's ear, and whispered a few words. Then Zhang Yu gave him an order, and Guo Huai walked out again.

With Guo Yu's consent, Guo Huai went to the army for training. However, Zhang Yu could not let Guo Huai be a soldier, so he decided to let Guo Huai be a gatekeeper, responsible for delivering internal and external information and guarding the tent.

Soon, under the gaze of everyone, Zhang Yang, holding the lacquer box, and Hu Yanle strode into the tent.

"Yang greets you, my lord. Today, the bandit Xie Riqi has been eliminated!" Zhang Yang winked at Zhang Yu and said in a serious tone, "Here is Xie Riqi's head. Please examine it, my lord."

When these words were spoken, the Xiongnu nobles in the tent were shocked and began to talk about it.

Seeing the commotion in the tent, Zhang Yu seemed very satisfied. He looked at Liu Meng and said calmly, "I don't know Xie Riqi's appearance. I wonder if the leader can identify him for me!"

Zhang Yang pushed the lacquer box in front of Liu Meng, and Liu Meng was stunned for a moment. Previously, they had been saying that Xie Riqi would come to the banquet to discuss matters, but now they were saying that Xie Riqi's head had been delivered?

As if he could see the confusion of the crowd, Zhang Yu showed his white teeth and said coldly: "Xie Ri Qi intends to collude with the Xihe mixed Hu people. After I heard the news, I sent my soldiers to cut off his head. Now Xie Ri Qi has arrived, and the people I want to host are all here, so we can start the feast now!"

Hearing this, Liu Meng stared at the lacquer box and couldn't help but shudder. Who would invite someone to a banquet and use a dead person's head as a substitute?
With a skeptical attitude, Liu Meng reached out to open the paint box. Instantly, the stench inside the paint box hit him in the face, forcing Liu Meng to hold his breath.

Through the gap between the lid and the box, Liu Meng couldn't help but widen his eyes and his face turned pale. He had recognized the face of the head. It was none other than the Xie Riqi mentioned by Zhang Yu, the uncle with whom he had a conflict.

Xie Riqi actually intended to attend the banquet, but for Zhang Yu, the existence of more than 700 tribes under Xie Riqi's command would affect his reorganization of the Lan clan, so Zhang Yu could only use his head to make an example of him.

That day, Zhang Yu sent Li Song to find Zhang Yang, intending to have Zhang Yang lead the combined cavalry and the cavalry led by Li Song to attack Xie Riqi's tribe when he was not prepared. Zhang Yang lived up to his expectations and successfully completed the mission, beheading Xie Riqi.

"But are you a relative of the day?" Zhang Yu asked.

Liu Meng swallowed his saliva and said, "My Lord, the head in the box is Xie Riqi!"

With Liu Meng's certification, the four small leaders in the tent became terrified, fearing that Zhang Yu would order their heads to be chopped off.

"Don't panic!"

Zhang Yu pressed his hands down and said, "Xie Riqi colluded with the barbarians, and his crime should be punished. But you have no evil intentions, so why would I harm you?"

With Zhang Yu's comfort, the mood of the people in the tent eased a little. In fact, the impact of killing Xie Riqi alone was not so great, but Xie Riqi's head appeared at the banquet, representing a living person, which was really creepy.

"We are willing to follow your orders!" the leaders said respectfully.

Seeing everyone coming up, Zhang Yu motioned for everyone to sit down and said in a deep voice: "You all originally belonged to the Gudu Marquis of the Lan family, and were responsible for guarding Dingxiang and scouting to drive out the Hu. However, due to the death of the old Gudu Marquis and the Xianbei looting, the tribes were scattered and it was difficult to guard the border counties." "Now that I have invited you here, I believe you all know Yu's original intention. From now on, you must guard the border for the country. If you do not obey, Xiriqi will be a warning to you!"

As he spoke, Zhang Yu looked at Liu Meng and asked, "What do you think, leader?"

Liu Meng nodded and asked expectantly, "I am willing to serve the country, but I don't know who is in charge of his unit now that Qi has passed away?"

Zhang Yu smiled and said, "I will select nobles from the troops under Xie Riqi's command and have them take charge of the affairs."

"this?"

Liu Meng changed his mind when he heard the news. He thought that Zhang Yu would hand over Xie Riqi's troops to him, but he never expected that Zhang Yu would bypass him and choose a nobleman in the tribe to be the leader.

Zhang Yu's actions also attracted the attention of the other four leaders. They thought that Zhang Yu was supporting Liu Meng, but unexpectedly Zhang Yu bypassed Liu Meng, which cheered up the four of them.

Zhang Yu put his hands on his belt and said in a deep voice: "I have been ordered to protect the two Xiongnu tribes of Dingxiang and Yanmen, and you are all Xiongnu people. You will be under my command in the future."

"I have no intention of seizing your people, nor do I intend to replace your leaders. In the past, you have been guarding the frontier without any strategy. From now on, you must obey my military orders, farm and graze on your own in your spare time, and serve as soldiers in wartime. If you disobey me, I will punish you severely!"

"What do you think?"

Zhang Yu's words were so thorough that Liu Meng was completely dumbfounded. He thought Zhang Yu would support him and indirectly control the tribes. But now Zhang Yu did not pretend anymore and told the other four chiefs that they did not have to obey his orders and bypassed him as the nominal leader of the tribe and directly obeyed Zhang Yu's military orders.

At the same time, Liu Meng also realized that Zhang Yu had just asked him to check Xie Riqi's head, not to check it at all, but to intimidate him, implying that if he did not follow the rules, Zhang Yu could easily get rid of him like he did Xie Riqi, and replace him with someone else.

The chiefs were overjoyed, as they had thought that they would be under Liu Meng's jurisdiction in the future. Once Liu Meng took over, their people would be gradually stripped away, and they would gradually lose their rights.

Now they are managed by Zhang Yu himself, who will definitely not take away their people, but only send them to fight in the wars. This is no better than being managed by Liu Meng.

"We are willing to obey your military orders!" The leaders left their seats, knelt down and said in unison.

"good!"

Zhang Yu helped the leaders up and said, "Everyone needs to submit their household registration as soon as possible when they return to their tribe!"

"Bosong, please assist the noble in calculating the household registration. Please be careful."

"promise!"

"I wonder what Mr. Liu means?" Zhang Yu turned to look at Liu Meng and asked in a cold tone.

Liu Meng suppressed his dissatisfaction, looked grim, and said, "I am willing to obey your orders!"

"it is good!"

Zhang Yu saw Liu Meng's dissatisfaction at a glance. However, Zhang Yu did not care. If Liu Meng rebelled, it might be a good thing for Zhang Yu. He would be able to use his means to completely control the Lan clan.

As for registering all citizens, the time is not yet ripe and we need to first gain deeper control over the Lan clan.

After gaining the support of the leaders of various small tribes, the household registration of the Lan clan was sent to Zhang Yu. The total number of tents of various tribes was more than 2,100, with about 12,000 people.

After obtaining the household registration of the Lan clan, Zhang Yu chose to act cautiously and did not interfere with the four clans. Instead, he split the original Xie Riqi into two clans and moved the two clans north to the old city of Qiangwo (now Liangcheng) between Chanhewu and Chanhebi.

In order to prevent Liu Meng from colluding with his tribesmen to cause chaos due to dissatisfaction, his tribe was forcibly moved to Chanhebi by Zhang Yu, and together with Hu Yan's tribe, they were protected by Li Song.

After the decree was issued, Liu Meng, who was unwilling to leave Dingxiang County, was furious and sent someone to meet Guo Yu, hoping that he could help him. However, Guo Yu refused to accept the request because of Zhang Yu's advance notification. Without Guo Yu's support, Liu Meng had to lead his troops to migrate northward under the threat of the Han cavalry.

When the victory report that Zhang Yu presented to Luoyang was delivered to the court in Luoyang, Liu Hong was delighted to hear about his military achievements.

Liang and You states have been in turmoil for two months. Bad news has been coming in continuously, such as loss of soldiers and generals, destruction of counties and prefectures. But now only Bing state can bring good news.

In view of Zhang Yu's achievements, Liu Hong, in accordance with consultation with other ministers, issued an edict to appoint Zhang Yu as the commander of the Xianbei Defeater, promoted him to Duke of Duting, and granted him a fief of 500 households, and also took charge of the border affairs of Yanmen and Dingxiang counties.

In addition, in order to resolve the rebellion in Youzhou, Liu Hong decided to send General Meng Yi to lead his troops to fight.

In addition, considering the bravery of the Wuhuan cavalry, Liu Hong adopted Zou Jing's suggestion, recruited 3,000 cavalry from the Southern Xiongnu, and ordered Yu Fuluo, the son of Qiangqu Chanyu, to lead the troops to Youzhou to suppress the rebellion.

When the imperial court sent the reward edict to Bingzhou, Zhang Yu had already led his troops back to Pingcheng.

At the same time, when Zhang Yu thought that Kobe had broken the contract, news finally came. Under the siege of Qianman's troops, Kobe went through many hardships and returned to Senei.
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ps: I had an emergency at home at noon today, so I was busy until the afternoon. I delayed my writing time and didn't update to 8k. I'm very sorry. I will update three times tomorrow and slowly make up for the 2k difference.

(End of this chapter)