Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 294 Urgent Report
As the sky was getting light, the cavalrymen galloped on the official road, passing by the vast salt lake and heading straight for Anyi, the capital of the prefecture.

At noon, the riders arrived at Anyi City, exhausted.

"Urgent news from Wudu!"

Seeing the figure of the cavalryman carrying a red flag, the soldiers guarding the gate did not dare to stop him and allowed him to pass through the city gate and directly to the station for sending and receiving official documents at the city gate.

"Where are the clerks?"

"Shut up!"

The waiting rider stopped his horse, looked at the quiet station and shouted.

"here!"

The clerk on duty stepped out of the room and asked, "Where is the urgent news?"

"Urgent news from Wudu County!"

The cavalryman took out a letter from his bag and said, "The cavalryman in Wudu said that the enemy is coming from Bashu, and their number of troops is unknown. This letter was sent by General Man."

"promise!"

Seeing that a military action was taking place, the clerk's expression suddenly changed. After verifying his identity with the scout, he ran towards the Cavalry Mansion holding the military report sealed in a bamboo tube.

"Snapped!"

Zhang Yu slammed the table, stood up from the couch, and sneered, "Liu Yan and Ma Teng are so bold! I didn't raise an army to attack the two thieves, but they dared to join forces to attack Wudu!"

After returning to Anyi from the northern border, Zhang Yu first rewarded and punished the officials of the prefecture, and then discussed with Jia Xu and Xun You about attacking Longyou. But to Zhang Yu's surprise, Ma Teng joined forces with Liu Yan to attack his Wudu County first.

According to the military intelligence reported by Man Chong, Ma Teng gathered tens of thousands of Qiang people and, together with the five thousand old soldiers sent by Liu Yan, took the Qishan Road to attack Wudu County from the north and south. However, due to the small number of soldiers, Man Chong withdrew his troops to Xiabian to defend it and urgently asked Zhang Yu for help.

After reading the letter, Xun You and Jia Xu looked at each other, and then they looked at Zhang Yu who was indignant.

Since Jia Xu was from Liangzhou and had traveled to Longyou when he was young, he knew a lot about the terrain of Longyou and he spoke first.

"Sir, Wudu County is a strategic point for communication between Bashu and Longyou. Now Ma Teng and Liu Yan are attacking secretly because they don't want to see your troops stationed in Longnan. So what the enemy doesn't want is what I want. So according to Xu's opinion, since Captain Man is firmly defending Xiabian, we need to send troops to rescue him."

The concept of Longshang is very broad, and can be roughly regarded as the area around Longshan Mountain. Longyou and Longxi have the same meaning, referring to the area west (right) of Longshan Mountain, namely the so-called Hanyang (Tianshui) and Longxi counties. To distinguish it from Longxi County, it is called Longyou.

Wudu County and Guanghan vassal state (Yinping County) are located in the south of Longshan Mountain, so they can be called Longnan. Longnan area is the only way for Bashu to connect with Longyou area. In history, when Zhuge Liang went north, he had to control Longnan first before he could go deep into Longyou area.

Longdong is opposite to Longxi (Longyou), located in the eastern part of Longshan, roughly the three counties of Beidi, Anding and Shang, that is, the territory occupied by Qiang and Hu in the northern part of Guanzhong; Longbei is located in the northern part of Longshan, roughly the two counties of Wuwei and Jincheng.

Zhang Yu had previously appointed Man Chong and You Yin to Wudu, in addition to seizing territory, to control the traffic in Longnan. Controlling the two passages would make it easier for Zhang Yu to contain Bashu in the south and conquer Longyou in the west.

Liu Yan and Ma Teng suddenly joined forces to raise an army, but it was not for no reason, but to squeeze Zhang Yu's power out of Longshu. Therefore, if Zhang Yu did not want to lose his power in Longshu, he had to send troops to Wudu.

Xun You pointed at the map and looked at the locations where Zhang Yu's troops were stationed. He said, "Yang Qiu is stationed in Anding, Zhang Ji is stationed in Fufeng, Zhang Liao is stationed in Chang'an, and Cheng Pu is stationed in Lantian. If we are to send troops to rescue Wudu, we can let Zhang Liao lead the troops south to Chencang."

"The Qiang and Hu in Fengyi are in rebellion, so we should not send out all the troops from Guanzhong. We need to transfer troops from Hedong to Guanzhong!" Zhang Yu said.

Guanzhong was hit by a severe drought and locust plague. Except for the wealthy Fengyi, which had a little surplus food, the other two counties were seriously famine-stricken. Even the three prefectures were suffering from famine, not to mention the mountainous areas outside Guanzhong. The Qiang and Hu tribes entrenched in the north of Fengyi had no food due to the approaching winter, so they had to go south to plunder Fengyi. Now, if there was no military information from Wudu, Zhang Yu was preparing to dispatch troops to conquer the Qiang and Hu who were plundering Fengyi.

"Xu Gongming's troops have been resting for two months. Your Excellency may wish to dispatch Xu Gongming and Zhang Liao to the south to relieve the siege of Chencang Road." Xun You pondered for a moment and said, "Leave Zhang Ji or Cheng Pu with an army to fight against the Qiang and Hu in Fengyi."

Zhang Yu thought about it and said, "Demou has led the army for a long time but has not made any outstanding achievements. Let him lead the Xi'an army to fight against the Qiang and Hu, and suppress them at the same time. Don't do anything cruel. Zhang Liao will lead the army to Wudu and supervise Xu Huang and Man Chong. At the same time, let Zhang Ji divide his troops to Zhang Xiu, and let Zhang Xiu visit Zhang Liao and go to Wudu together to lift the siege."

"Send a message to Zhang Liao. If he cannot lift the siege of Wudu, he should station his troops in a strategic location, and I will personally lead the troops to attack Ma Teng."

"As ordered!"

The military situation was urgent, and Zhang Yu could not plan for too long. He needed to dispatch troops to rescue the city as soon as possible. Zhang Liao, who was stationed in Guanzhong, was the closest to Wudu, so he had to let Zhang Liao go first to rescue the city. If Zhang Liao could not deal with Ma Teng, he would have to lead his troops southward himself.

While Zhang Yu was arranging his troops, Jia Xu said, "Ma Teng and Han Sui have a brotherly relationship, and we need to prevent Han Sui from raising an army to help him. Therefore, in my opinion, you should order Zhang Ji and Yang Qiu to guard Longdong to prevent Han Sui from sending troops to Anding County." "That makes sense!"

Zhang Yu nodded and said to Zhao Zi, who was writing the military order, "Notify Generals Yang Qiu and Zhang Ji to be on alert, and send scouts to investigate the movements in Longyou."

"promise!"

Zhao Zi quickly wrote a military order and submitted it to Zhang Yu. Zhang Yu reviewed it, then stamped it with the order of the Cavalry Bureau and ordered the waiting cavalry to pass the message to the generals.

"Yuan Chang?"

"exist!"

Upon hearing the military situation, Zhong Yao had hurried to the meeting hall, waiting for Zhang Yu's orders. When Zhang Yu called his name, Zhong Yao did not have time to sit down, so he went to the hall and bowed to receive orders.

"Now Ma Teng and Liu Yan have invaded Wudu without reason. I have ordered General Zhang Liao to lead Generals Xu Huang and Zhang Xiu to rescue them. There is no food in Guanzhong, so I'm afraid you may need to prepare food and fodder for the army." Zhang Yu said.

Zhong Yao said without hesitation: "The grain and grass will be allocated from Bingzhou and the people in Guanzhong will be asked to transport them. Sun Zi, Dong Zhao and Chang Lin can be asked to send people to supervise the transportation in sections. So although the Chencang Road is difficult to travel, it is not difficult to transport the grain and grass for tens of thousands of soldiers and horses."

Zhong Yao added, "Yao and Yuan Shu have reached a deal. Our army will provide Jin salt and he will provide Chu grain. The two sides will exchange salt and grain, which will solve the food shortage in Yongzhou."

"Thank you, Yuanchang!" said Zhang Yu.

"It's your job!"

Although Yuan Shu was not good at governing the country and often allowed his soldiers to plunder civilians, compared with the war-torn and disaster-stricken Central Plains, Jingzhou under his rule not only had regular rainfall but also was never plagued by locust plagues. As a result, there were bumper harvests year after year, and Yuan Shu lived a very comfortable life.

The only problem in Jingzhou under Yuan Shu's rule might be salt. Now that Hedong Jin salt is controlled by Zhang Yu, the two are temporary allies in the fight against Yuan Shao, so it is normal to reach a trade agreement. Moreover, the people of Bing and Yong states alone cannot digest so much Jin salt, and other markets are needed. Therefore, Zhang Yu and Yuan Shu had written to each other many times before, all for the purpose of transporting Jin salt to the south.

Of course, Zhang Yu's control of Jin Salt not only enabled him to trade with Yuan Shu and use it as strategic materials to support Lu Bu, but also enabled him to deeply control Zhang Yan.

Since Zhang Yan was driven back to the Taihang Mountains by Yuan Shao, he needed to import salt from outside in addition to food and fodder. In order to win over Zhang Yan, Zhang Yu, who controlled the salt of Jin, sent salt to Zhang Yan every year. As a result, the relationship between the two Zhangs gradually changed from an ally to a vassal, with only Zhang Yan having a high degree of autonomy.

After the military arrangements were completed, Zhang Yu thought of his plan with Jia Xu and deliberately said, "Today, the emperor is suffering in Luoyang. I want to send an envoy to the court to see if the emperor is willing to temporarily take refuge in Anyi. What do you think?"

"Your Excellency once welcomed the emperor in Luoyang according to the story of Ji Zhou's eastward migration. Now you want to welcome the emperor again in Anyi, but I'm afraid the emperor will not agree." Xun You asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"It's not that I want to welcome the emperor to Anyi, but I can't bear to see the emperor suffer from the disaster in Luoyang, so I want to invite the emperor to Anyi for food. When spring comes next year, the emperor will return to Luoyang to show Yongzhou's respect." Zhang Yu smiled and said.

Xun You shook his head and said, "I'm afraid the court will not understand your good intentions. They will think that you want to use the emperor to control the world. Moreover, Yuan Shao has troops stationed in Henei. If he hears that you want to welcome the emperor to Anyi, he will definitely raise troops to block you and will definitely not let you do what you want."

Zhong Yao nodded in agreement and said, "Although Luoyang is poor, the emperor can still make his own decisions. If he goes to Anyi, he will know that he will be controlled by you, so he will definitely be rejected. If you want to welcome the emperor, it is better to lift the siege of Wudu and order Zhang Jun to secretly send troops to Henei to welcome the emperor to Anyi."

"nothing!"

Zhang Yu and Jia Xu looked at each other, smiled knowingly, and said, "It is almost the beginning of the new year, so we can send an envoy to Luoyang with gifts to pay homage to the emperor. Whether the emperor is willing to take refuge in Anyi or not, it will show Yongzhou's respect for the Han Dynasty."

Zhang Yu had no intention of welcoming the emperor to Anyi, but if he did not do so, he was afraid that Yuan Shao would not take the bait. And if Yuan Shao did not cooperate, how could Yuan Shu have the pretext to send troops?

Jia Xu knew Zhang Yu's plan and said with a smile, "Your Excellency only wanted to show your respect for Han and had no intention of welcoming the emperor to Anyi. The envoys may mention this when they go to Luoyang."

Seeing that Zhang Yu's sending of envoys was purely for show, Xun You and Zhong Yao thought that Zhang Yu's behavior was strange, but they did not say much.

"Sir, intelligence from the Central Plains will arrive soon!" Zhong Yao said.

"Please say!"

Zhong Yao presented the letter and said, "According to the investigation of spies, Yuan Shao knew that Tao Qian had died and Xuzhou was to be taken over by Tao Shang, so he recommended his nephew Gao Gan as the governor of Xuzhou and stationed troops in Beihai. In order to seek cooperation with Yuan Shao, Gongsun Zan sent his hostage Yuan Xi back to Xindu, and the Gongsun family became attached to Yuan Shao."

"Not only that, according to the military report from Yanzhou, Cao Cao asked Yuan Shao for help and gave up Yanzhou and the cities in Hebei to Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao provided 5,000 soldiers and baggage and food. If Yao's prediction is correct, Lu Bu and Cao Cao will fight in Yanzhou next year!"

(End of this chapter)