Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 135: Countdown to the Chicken Dinner Contest

"Your servant Gao Shun greets the captain!"

In the tent, Gao Shun was seen walking in steadily. His face was stern and his expression was serious, making it difficult for ordinary people to approach him.

Seeing that Gao Shun was serious and had a solid military style, Zhang Yu could not help but nodded and motioned for Gao Shun to sit down.

"Why are you called a king?" Zhang Yu asked.

Gao Shun said briefly, "My name is Zixun!"

Zhang Yu stood up from his chair, poured a glass of water for Gao Shun, and said with a smile: "It's just you and me now, Zixun, don't be restrained. I called Zixun here to ask about the situation of the troops."

"Thank you Captain!"

Gao Shun took the cup with both hands, his expression relaxed a lot, and said: "I don't know what the captain is asking, Shun will tell you everything he knows!"

Zhang Yu sat back on his chair and asked, "Is Zixun good at training soldiers?"

Gao Shun hesitated for a moment and said, "According to the county's chief official, Shun is good at training soldiers."

"What if we follow what Zixun said?" Zhang Yu asked with great interest.

Gao Shun hesitated for a moment, then cupped his hands and said, "The vassal army has not yet trained soldiers that meet Shun's wishes, and I don't know how much stronger the soldiers they used to be compared to the imperial army."

Zhang Yu smiled and said, "I have 800 soldiers in the left school, 300 cavalry and 500 infantry. I want to appoint Zixun as Quhou to train 200 infantry for Yu. I want to have enough weapons and armor. I wonder if Zixun can train elite soldiers for Yu?"

Hearing this, Gao Shun stood up and bowed, saying in a deep voice: "I am willing to obey the orders of the Captain. With the bravery of the soldiers now, if there are enough soldiers and armor, I will definitely be able to train strong soldiers for the Captain."

"it is good!"

In order to encourage Gao Shun, Zhang Yu said with a smile: "If Zixun can train strong soldiers for me, I will appoint you as the acting Sima and let you be responsible for supervising the training of the left school infantry."

"promise!"

Gao Shun's stern expression was slightly moved. He could hear from Zhang Yu's words that he respected him.

Because Gao Shun was a man of few words, Zhang Yu chatted with him for a few minutes, managed to build a better relationship with him, and then let Gao Shun leave.

Looking at Gao Shun's back as he walked out of the tent, Zhang Yu seemed to be thinking about something. After a conversation with him, he could conclude that the Gao Shun in front of him was probably the Gao Shun who served under Lu Bu in history.

He was not impressed by Gao Shun, probably only for three reasons. First, Gao Shun was good at training soldiers. Because he was invincible, his infantry was named Xianzhen Camp. It was true that Gao Shun was good at training soldiers, as he left such a name.

Second, Gao Shun defeated Liu Bei and Xiahou Dun, and captured Liu Bei's wife and children. Defeating Xiahou Dun was not a great feat, but defeating Liu Bei at least proved that Gao Shun had good military skills; third, Gao Shun was willing to die with Lu Bu, which may show that Gao Shun was a reliable person.

Now that Gao Shun has been accepted by mistake, Zhang Yu naturally wants to make the best use of his talents and maximize Gao Shun's ability to train soldiers. As for Gao Shun's level of military command, he needs to observe more in the future to avoid underestimating, let alone overestimating.

Zhang Yu sat back in his chair and picked up his pen to review the documents.

Although Liu Hong funded the army, Jian Shuo established strict approval procedures to prevent corruption. In addition, the Xiyuan Army was newly established, and Zhang Yu lacked subordinates, so there were too many documents for Zhang Yu to handle.

Among them, the statistics of military baggage supplies gave Zhang Yu the most headache. If Zhang Yu wanted to relax now, he could only hope that his old subordinate Yu Yi could arrive in Luoyang earlier and share the chores with him.

In the list of Zhang Yu's old subordinates transferred south, in addition to Yu Yi, there were four other people: Zhang Yang, Zhang Liao, Kirby, and Meng Ningzhi.

Needless to say, Zhang Liao has become an aid to Zhang Yu in commanding the cavalry since he joined the group. The reason why he transferred Kobe to Beijing was purely because Zhang Yu was worried that Kobe would cause trouble in Yanbei because of his departure.

Uncle Zhang Yang's words were based on his consideration that he could not lead the troops in Xiyuan without someone he trusted. Besides, Zhang Yang's talent was wasted at the border for many years, so it would be better to transfer him to Xiyuan Army to cooperate with Zhang Yu in commanding the troops.

Meng Ningzhi is easier to say. Zhang Yu now needs a general to command the infantry for him. Meng Ningzhi is good at infantry, and can form a competitive relationship with Gao Shun. He will see which one of them stands out and then promote that person to be the military commander, in charge of two groups of 400 infantry.

As for why he did not transfer his deputy Li Song, the reason was very simple. Zhang Yu needed to keep Li Song to look after his remaining troops and the Huns in Yanmen and Dingxiang counties.

After a while, Zhang Feng walked quickly into the tent and said happily, "Captain, my uncle has led his troops to the outside of the military camp."

"go!"

Hearing this, Zhang Yu was overjoyed and quickly walked out of the tent to welcome the people who had traveled thousands of miles south.

The military camp was not very big because there were only about 800 people living there. Zhang Yu walked a few steps and could see Zhang Yang, Zhang Liao and others leading hundreds of cavalrymen at the entrance of the camp. Gao Shun seemed to be worried about accidents and led his men to gather at the entrance of the camp.

"Outside the camp are my old troops, Zixun, don't worry."

Zhang Yu called out to Gao Shun, who then felt relieved and ordered his troops to disperse.

"Jian!"

"Your Majesty!"

Everyone was delighted to see Zhang Yu and started to greet him.

"Thank you for your hard work, uncle!"

Zhang Yu greeted Zhang Yang first, and helped the people who were saluting to their feet, and said with emotion: "We have traveled thousands of miles from Pingcheng to the south. You have all been busy and tired."

"Fortunately!"

Zhang Yang said with a smile: "Thanks to Ji'an's prestige in the state, the counties and prefectures that my troops passed through on their way south all provided a lot of convenience, especially when we arrived in Hanoi, Wang Hanoi even personally ordered people to entertain us."

"That's good!" Zhang Yu greeted everyone and said with a smile: "The camp has just been built and the facilities are lacking. Now we need to let the soldiers build the camp."

Zhang Liao cupped his hands and said, "In that case, I will lead the troops to settle down first."

"it is good!"

Zhang Yu patted Zhang Liao on the shoulder and said with relief: "I have prepared a banquet. Let's get drunk tonight."

"promise!"

Zhang Liao led the cavalry into the camp and started working, while Zhang Yu had something else to communicate with Zhang Yang, so he went to the tent with Zhang Yang first.

"Uncle, what's the situation in Yanbei now?" Zhang Yu asked.

Zhang Yang said with a smile: "Jian's old troops are now under the command of Guo Yanmen, but Guo Yanmen has no intention of using his troops, so he only sent people to the army to keep in touch. Now, the hundreds of cavalrymen will obey the orders of the officers, and the officers will obey the orders of Ji'an and wait for Bosong's instructions."

With the help of Yuan Shu, Zhang Yu's former subordinates were temporarily under the management of Guo Yu. Guo Yu knew that Zhang Yu valued his subordinates and had no intention of swallowing them up for the time being. Instead, he continued to maintain the status quo and let the Chief Secretary Li Song manage Zhang Yu's former subordinates.

After a pause, Zhang Yang added: "When I went south to Luoyang, I wanted to call Lü Bu to go with me, but Ding Yuan, the governor of Bingzhou, had already recruited Lü Bu as his chief clerk. It's a pity that Lü Bu can't be used by my Zhang family."

Seeing the timeline rewinding, Zhang Yu smiled and said, "A blessing in disguise. Although Lü Bu is brave, he is greedy and I am afraid he will not be able to be used by our Zhang family. Now Ding Yuan has recruited him as the chief clerk, and I am afraid Lü Bu will cause harm in the future."

Zhang Yu's predictions were accurate many times, so Zhang Yang did not refute them. He just said, "Lü Bu is greedy for money and fame. If Ding Yuan's power declines in the future, Lü Bu will abandon Ding Yuan and leave."

As he spoke, Zhang Yang seemed to remember something, and took out a letter from his bosom and gave it to Zhang Yu, smiling and saying, "There is something that Ji An may not know."

"What's the matter?"

Zhang Yu took the letter and asked.

"Shu Lan is pregnant!" Zhang Yang said.

"what?"

Zhang Yu was pleasantly surprised and said, "Is what my uncle said true?"

Zhang Yang pointed at the letter and said with a smile, "The letter was written by Shu Lan. Ji An will know it at a glance."

"Congratulations to Ji'an today!"

Zhang Yu opened the letter and found that Wang Ji mentioned her pregnancy in the letter. She said that not long after he left, Wang Ji felt unwell and asked a doctor to feel her pulse, who immediately diagnosed her as pregnant. Fearing that Zhang Yu would worry, he kept delaying the news until Zhang Yu's official position was clear, and then asked Zhang Yang to take the letter to Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu put away the letter and sighed, "Shu Lan is pregnant, and I can't be by her side. It's really unfair to her."

"Ji'an is now working in Luoyang, why not bring Shulan to Luoyang?" Zhang Yang suggested.

Zhang Yu shook his head and said, "Luoyang is not a safe place. If we bring Shulan to the capital, if Luoyang suddenly becomes chaotic, Shulan will be in danger!"

Zhang Yang was shocked when he heard this. He said, "Luoyang is an important place in the capital, how could there be a sudden turmoil?"

"Unless the world is in chaos, or someone attacks Luoyang? Could it be that Ji An wants to..."

Seeing Zhang Yang's random guesses, Zhang Yu was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, and said, "The reason why I said Luoyang is not a safe place is because the current political situation in Luoyang is turbulent."

"Luoyang is in political turmoil?"

When Zhang Yang first arrived in Luoyang, he had no idea of the situation and his face was filled with confusion.

Zhang Yu pondered for a moment and said, "The matter of Luoyang is a long story. If I have time in the future, I will talk to you in detail. Luoyang is not like Bingzhou now. Uncle, please do not tell the soldiers or outsiders, so as to avoid disaster."

"Don't worry, Ji'an. I know the pros and cons!" Zhang Yang said.

Zhang Yu had never forgotten the great turmoil in Luoyang in the sixth year of Zhongping. If he brought his family to Luoyang and was affected, Zhang Yu would regret it. Moreover, his family in Luoyang would restrict Zhang Yu's actions and hinder his ability to accomplish great things.

In hindsight, there are signs of a coup in Luoyang City. Previously, the court was a struggle between eunuchs and scholars, and the struggle was not too fierce. However, since Liu Xie and Liu Bian started to compete for the position of crown prince, the atmosphere in Luoyang City has become more subtle.

In particular, in order to support Liu Xie to ascend to the throne, Liu Hong appointed Empress Dowager Dong's nephew Dong Chong as General of Cavalry a few days ago, ranking above all the other officials and commanding more than a thousand soldiers. This promotion was obviously intended to compete with He Jin.

It is not difficult to imagine that if Liu Hong died and there was no one to suppress the conflicts among the crown princes, a coup would inevitably break out in Luoyang.

After chatting with Zhang Yang for a few words, Zhang Yu stood up to see him off. After a moment's hesitation, he reminded him, "Uncle, I am currently in charge of the army. I am in the army now. Please address me according to my position. If you address me by my courtesy name, I am afraid I will not be able to convince others."

Zhang Yang understood and said, "Please rest assured, Captain. I know the importance of leading troops."

"Thank you uncle!"

Zhang Yu escorted Zhang Yang to the tent gate and said, "The left school camp has two divisions and four bends. Uncle is good at commanding cavalry, so you can be the military commander, and Wenyuan will be the cavalry commander. He will come to assist you."

Seeing Zhang Yu treating him so kindly, Zhang Yang was delighted and said, "I will address Ji'an as the lieutenant, and Ji'an can address me as Lord Zhang from now on!"

"Book of Tang·Biography 9": "Gao Shun, courtesy name Zixun, was a native of Yongqiu, Chenliu. He was honest and dignified, taciturn, and read military tactics when he was young. He was appointed to the prefectures and counties for his bravery. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Shun led his troops to the capital and was well received by Emperor Taizu. He was initially appointed as Quhou and later promoted to Sima. When he started to raise troops..."

ps: There is one more chapter, but it will be late, you can read it tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)