Tiger Guards

Chapter 716 The Ten Generals of Liaodong
In Jinyang, after the spring chill has faded, it is the busy season for farming.

Xu Huang rode swiftly to the capital, passing by a farm thirty li north of the city, outside the Tingyi post station.

Any place named after a farm or estate is necessarily a place of collective labor.

This estate was no exception, mainly staffed by government slaves and supplemented by government tenants, cultivating approximately 120,000 mu of land, including mulberry, hemp, and pasture.

Since taking charge of the defense of the six eastern garrisons from Yunzhong, Xu Huang no longer needed to sit in the camp to manage the troops. His daily work mainly consisted of military affairs and mediating disputes between various thousand-household units.

So over the past year, Xu Huang began to grow a beard, and his demeanor became more composed. He lost the fierce and ruthless aura he had accumulated during his time with the White Wave Army, and he resembled more of a dignified governor who was in charge of both military and political affairs.

Outside the estate, Xu Huang merely stopped his horse to observe. He disliked the atmosphere inside the inn, which was why he came to stroll around outside.

I saw government slaves working in the farm using oxen and horses to pull plows; oxen were quite useful.

Horses are more difficult to diagnose, perhaps because their hooves don't grow as fast as cows', or perhaps because their hooves are less durable.

Therefore, the horses used by government slaves would have a wooden board placed on their hooves. The board was trimmed to the appropriate size, and after holes were punched in it, it was tied to the hooves with hemp rope.

Some veterinarians will clean the horses' hooves beforehand and glue wooden boards together to attach artificial hooves.

Xu Huang frowned deeply. He was well aware that this was an alternative method adopted by some retired and demobilized Tiger Guards when governing.

Previously, when the Tiger Warriors were transferred to local posts, the matter of the horseshoes would be kept secret.

Now, the incentive to keep horseshoes secret will be greatly reduced, and the possibility of deliberate leaks will increase.

We cannot delay any longer. If we cannot quickly equip ourselves with horseshoes and launch a long-range raid... it will be a huge loss.

If we wait any longer, the horseshoes will be leaked, and we will not only lose the initiative, but we may also be vulnerable to a large-scale swarm attack from the enemy.

The plans for each of the thousand households outside the Great Wall have been completed, but they have not been tempered by time and have not formed a stable inertia.

Therefore, the towns and garrisons outside the Great Wall are currently unable to withstand large-scale attacks.

Only after this system has been in operation for a period of time, forming a common understanding and a mindset ingrained by the system, can it have the resilience to resist invasion wars.

The most troublesome aspect of wars on the border is not logistics, but the vastness of the grasslands and hills. If one intends to avoid the enemy, it is difficult to accurately strike their military forces.

The fatal flaw of horseshoes lies in their ability to provide cavalry units with astonishing endurance.

Given the vast area under our jurisdiction, if the Donghu cavalry that launch a surprise attack are equipped with horseshoes, they can sustain themselves through warfare until the winter snows.

Conversely, if our side equips itself with horseshoes this year, it can inflict additional damage on the frightened Donghu, forcing them to retreat further northeast to the more frigid and harsh Daxianbei Mountains.

At the same time, if horseshoes were put on the road earlier, then horses used for civilian production could also be freed from restrictions and have their horseshoes put on them.

Horses with horseshoes are more efficient than oxen.

Although horses eat more than cows, they also do more work.

Now the land is vast and sparsely populated, with large areas of abandoned farmland and fields waiting to be developed, and there is no shortage of fodder for horses.

Xu Huang took everything in mind and silently devised a way to persuade Zhao Yan.

As for the Empress Regent... Xu Huang had no intention of paying her a visit.

Having achieved this stage in his career, he was responding to the call of the Xu Du court. Even if he betrayed them and beheaded Zhao Yan and Zhao Ji, he would not have a good end.

There are certainly many people who want to avenge the Zhao family, and the Xu Du court will not trust him like the Zhao family grandfather and grandson did, nor will it regard him as a member of the same clan.

Therefore, Xu Huang always kept a clear head... As a native of Hedong, he even thought Zhao Ji had acted too late.

If it were him, he would immediately begin arranging for Pei Mao's death after the campaign against the Hu people ended.

Pei Mao, who died young and whose ambitions remained unfulfilled, was in the best interests of the Pei clan and the vast majority of people in Hedong.

Many of Pei Mao's former officials and followers had no choice but to follow him in his rebellion, influenced by personal relationships, favors, and universal beliefs.

If we had cut it off at the source from the beginning, there wouldn't have been so many problems.

However, Xu Huang could not easily express his opinion, after all, the Pei family was a relative of the Zhao family. Not counting the Pei family's minor branches that had migrated out one after another, the number of people in the Pei family's manor alone was dozens of times that of the Zhao family.

If they had not experienced this upheaval, the able-bodied members of the Pei family in the present day could have studied part-time and entered officialdom; not to mention their next generation, who received a large amount of resources to support them, the Pei family population would have exploded and they would have generally received an education.

Women could marry into other countries, strong men could join the army, intelligent men could study literature and enter officialdom, and honest but not very capable men could try to have children... This was a fortunate and terrifying force.

Fortunately, the Pei family's growing ambitions were nipped in the bud; otherwise, Xu Huang would have had to carefully consider his attitude and stance towards the Pei family.

When resources are plentiful, a family can expand very quickly.

In the Zhao family, both Zhao Lian and Zhao Ji are working hard to have more children. Zhao Lian has a grand idea similar to saving the country through indirect means: as long as he has many children, he is sure he can raise them to adulthood.

With Zhao Yan watching from above, even if Zhao Ji lived a normal life, he could still produce a large number of healthy and high-quality offspring. But it was impossible for the father and son to have a thousand children in twenty years, bring them to adulthood at the same time, and then arrange marriages to expand the clan's influence.

They can't, but the Pei family can!
Twenty years later, the Pei family will have three to five thousand descendants who will grow up to adulthood, and these descendants will emerge in batches, directly impacting their official careers.

Once someone enters officialdom, under the powerful Pei family, those who diligently accumulate seniority can retire as county magistrates.

Fortunately, this trend was nipped in the bud before it could erupt.

Xu Huang also wanted to expand his family's influence, but military life would take a toll on his body. The more wars he experienced, especially the more dangerous battles, the more his physical strength would be severely depleted.

For example, Xu Huang currently has five wives and concubines, but in the past four years, they have only had one son and one daughter.

Not everyone has the high productivity of Zhao Lian and Zhao Ji; this is a powerful ability that no family can envy.

Moreover, Xu Huang's son was frail and sickly after birth, which led him to consider asking Zhao Ji to adopt a son through Zhao Yan.

Without an heir, Xu Huang wouldn't even have the patience to strive.

He couldn't be sure his son would grow up healthy, so he wanted to sound out his son's intentions before returning to Jinyang.

As night fell, Xu Huang returned to his residence after entering the city. After taking a bath, he first went to see his two children.

His daughter was healthy and lively; Xu Huang could even feel her heartbeat when he held her in his arms.

As for his son, in the early spring when the temperature difference between day and night is so great, he can only stay obediently in the warm house.

We only dared to let him go out to play after the weather warmed up.

He didn't even have time to eat. After playing with his daughter for a while, Xu Huang took his gifts and went to pay his respects to Zhao Yan in the old city in the northwest corner of the city.

When Xu Huang arrived, he heard loud, continuous cries of infants coming from the Grand Tutor's residence.

Zhao Yan's old servant led Xu Huang into the backyard, where they saw some maids leading a group of wet nurses away quickly.

Xu Huang could tell the difference between a maid and a wet nurse at a glance, and couldn't help but sigh, "The Grand Tutor has many great-grandchildren to enjoy his old age; it is truly a wonderful thing in life."

"Lord Xu, you have no idea how mischievous these young masters are."

The old servant spoke mischievously, but his smile stretched to his ears. As he passed a small bamboo grove with doors on all four sides, he gestured with his arms: "This way, Lord Xu."

"Ah."

Xu Huang smiled and agreed, following the old servant more than fifty paces in before the cries of the children subsided considerably.

Inside the attic, Xu Huang presented his gift: "Grand Tutor, this is Korean ginseng."

Zhao Yan picked up the wooden box and examined it for a moment, then nodded: "Gongming is very thoughtful. Yuan Si always says that Korean ginseng is better than Codonopsis pilosula, but he regrets that he can't see it. The Donghu are arrogant and have blocked the trade routes, so it must have been hard-won."

"It's not difficult; it was a gift from Gongsun Du who sent an envoy."

Xu Huang watched as Zhao Yan handed the wooden box to the old servant and said, "The Donghu ambushed our spies and caravans. Gongsun Du is quite prestigious, and his envoy came from the east. The various Donghu tribes dared not intercept him."

"That's quite a capable official."

Zhao Yan sighed and gestured for Xu Huang to sit down: "Did Gongming come to court to rescue Gongsun Zan?"

"As the Grand Tutor predicted, he came for this very reason."

Xu Huang composed himself: "Gongsun Zan must be saved, otherwise we will lose faith not only with him, but also with Lü Taibao and the likes of Zhang Lu in Hanzhong."

"Yes, Gongming, please tell me anything else."

"Yes, I believe we should equip ourselves with horseshoes and launch a full-scale attack on the Xianbei and Wuhuan in Liaodong."

Once Xu Huang started speaking, he couldn't stop: "This humble general would like to request Zilong and Wenyuan to be the left and right wing generals, each leading 10,000 cavalry to rescue Yijing. After forcing Yuan Shao to retreat, we can gather the troops of Youzhou and have Gongsun Zan and Xianyu Fu lead them respectively, dividing the army into five routes. Even if we cannot defeat the Wuhuan of the three commanderies, we should still inflict a great defeat on the Xianbei of Liaodong. In this way, Gongsun Du will have no choice but to surrender and become our vassal."

"not enough."

Zhao Yan had also been studying this issue recently, saying, "The five armies of Gan Ning, Wei Xing, Zhu Ling, Zhang Xiu, and Duan Wei will act as a backup army to provide support."

Xu Huang was greatly shocked: "Grand Tutor?"

"We cannot take risks like we did in Liangzhou. Yuan Si's secret mission to Liangzhou caused such a huge internal strife, and I am deeply worried. If you ten generals still cannot succeed in this campaign against Liaodong, then retreat and wait for the right opportunity."

After Zhao Yan finished speaking, he saw the old servant bring over food and said, "Let's not talk about state affairs for now. I suppose Gongming must be hungry."

"Yes!"

Xu Huang also deliberately went hungry; the more he ate at Zhao Yan's place, the happier Zhao Yan would be.

(End of this chapter)