Sizhou. Binh Duong County.

In the first year of Guangxi, the main army of the Xiongnu Han led by Liu He, the king of Zuoxian, was attacked by the Jinyang army and the Tuoba Xianbei iron cavalry under the city of Jinyang, and tens of thousands of Xiongnu men died on the battlefield, and the corpses piled up like a mountain, which cut off the flow of Jinshui several times. For the Xiongnu Han State, which had a total number of men in the country of no more than 200,000, that defeat really hurt the vitality of the regime, so that for a whole year after that, the five Xiongnu tribes shrank in a narrow area with the Xihe Kingdom and the Shizuo Kingdom City Wang Ting as the core, relying on the complex terrain to defend, and no longer dared to have the slightest offensive. On the contrary, it was the division of Liu Kun, who was the assassin of the state and constantly crossed the key passes of the Sparrow and Mouse Valley to invade the Xihe country, giving the Xiongnu tribe a strong threat.

Later, the court vaguely heard that the Huns did not live in peace in this year, and Liu Yuan, the great Dan Yu Liu Yuan, crossed the Yellow River with Liu Cong, the king of Zuoguli, and Liu Yao, the general of Jianwu, as the commanders, and waved the army to capture the hometown of Shangjun in the Han Dynasty, and all the local miscellaneous tribes were wrapped up for their own use. Immediately, the Xiongnu royal court moved from Lishi to Puzi in the northwest of Pingyang County, forming a high-rise trend for Pingyang, Linfen and other cities along the Fenshui River. This news made the Luoyang court nervous for a while, so they selected the brave and usable people in the forbidden army to be led by Xiao generals Song Draw and Lu Shu, and stationed in Pingyang and Hedong as a precaution.

Although Song Xuan and Lu Shu were not famous before, they were both generals who had gone through the Central Plains and died many times, and this army was also one of the few mobile troops that the Luoyang Imperial Court could control. It was precisely because this Suwei force was mobilized to the northern defense line of Luoyang that when the county lord of Jingling County led the subordinate soldiers of the King of the East China Sea to enter the palace of Luokong at the end of the first year of Yongjia, the emperor had no power to fight back. This was unexpected by the senior officials of the DPRK and China.

After Song Xuan and Lu Shu served as the two guards, they relied on the unique terrain of undulating mountains and rivers in Pingyang County to set up dock walls and barracks for defense, and also recruited the children of the local wealthy families as county soldiers, and expanded the army by more than 10,000 since the autumn of the first year of Yongjia, plus the forbidden army from Luoyang, a total of about 23,000 troops were trained every day. In March of the second year of Yongjia, the two generals of Song Drew Lu Shu wrote to the imperial court respectively, saying that the armaments of the two places were beginning to see a scale, although it was not enough to be aggressive, but it should be more than enough for self-protection.

There is certainly a reason for this. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that cattle and horses are tired in spring, and every spring and summer is the weakest time for the Hu people. Last year's snowstorm, which spanned most of China, had a huge impact on the southern part of Bingzhou. Due to the lack of water and grass, the cattle and horses grazed by the Huns were very depleted. The older and weaker ones and many of the cubs died of starvation, and the rest were too weak to fight. Once the spring begins, the Huns' primary concern must be to raise fat for cattle and horses, if they are forced to fight, the process of marching alone will make the war horses dead and wounded, and the price will be heavy, which will be difficult for the Hun court to bear. In this case, the second general of Song Lu had ample time to continue to improve the defense; During this period, it was necessary to write to the imperial court about his own merits, in order to be promoted and make a fortune.

In order to make their military exploits more glorious in the eyes of the princes of the court, the two generals Song Xuan and Lu Shu even took the initiative to attack repeatedly, penetrating deep into the enemy's territory with a force of 35,000 people, and burned the flames of war to the area controlled by the Xiongnu and Han States. The Jin army was mainly foot soldiers, and the march was slow, so it was not suitable for going deep into the enemy's territory; However, the Xiongnu have been in the fortress for many years, and many of the tribes have forgotten the nomadic skills of their ancestors, and usually work for people to help the fields work, so the Jin army has gone deep several times before, and has never returned empty-handed. Although there were few major gains, this act of bravery itself was enough to boost the morale of the soldiers after all, unlike the stupid local officials who had feared the enemy like tigers before.

On this day, the second general once again led his troops to attack, intending to search and attack north along the sorghum water, and cut off a few Hu people's heads. About 30 miles away from Pingyang County, a scout cavalry Pegasus came to report that about 1,000 Hun light horsemen were driving this way, calculating the speed, and they would arrive nearby by this evening at the latest.

"About a thousand?" Song Yan frowned. It's not a lot, but it's not easy to deal with.

Seeing that the scout had galloped so far, he was already panting like a cow, so he comforted him again before turning back to Song and said, "Out of nowhere, such a cavalry army suddenly ran out of nowhere?" At this time, the one who can use the cavalry must be the famous king of the Huns who holds real power, but I am afraid that it will be difficult to deal with. We are only here to intimidate the scattered Hu people, not to fight the elite of the Hu people...... Why don't you avoid it?"

Song smoked: "Is it too cowardly to leave without a fight?" What's more, the enemy rode on our feet, and the speed of the march was very different, and if the Hu cavalry caught up with us when we retreated, the situation would not be easy to control. In my opinion, you might as well have a fight. ”

Song Xuan was known for his bravery in the Luoyang Forbidden Army, otherwise he would not have been entrusted by the imperial court with the important task of resisting the front line of the Hu people; Since the soldiers of the forbidden army he brought came to Pingyang, they only saw the Huns retreating into the mountains, so many people were full of confidence and were a little eager to try: "General Song is right!" There are only about 1,000 Hu'er, and they have to fight to divide them! ”

Song Xuan looked at Lu Shu again: "What does Lu Taishou think?" ”

Lu Shu pondered for a moment: "We have entered and exited the territory of the Xiongnu several times, and we must have attracted the attention of the Xiongnu chieftains, so this group of men and horses must be coming for us." If you want to go, you can't go lightly, you have to fight. As for how to fight, I have an idea: about ten miles to the south, on both sides of the official road we passed by, there are two dirt mountains between them. I see that the slopes of these two mountains are very gentle, and the slopes are densely wooded, and they are ready to be annexed. We might as well ambush the crossbowmen on these two hills, and hide the army behind them...... Wait until the Huns come, and stop the drums, and let him march. When they walked through the middle of the two mountains, the crossbow arrows on the mountain were fired in unison, and the men and horses under the mountain were killed together, taking them by surprise! What do you think? ”

"Good! Good plan, that's it! ”

At that moment, the army retreated ten miles first, and then ambushed separately according to the arrangement of the road.

Lu Shu was thoughtful, and sent out all the few light horsemen, asking them to inquire about the specific situation of the Huns from afar, and report any changes at any time.

After waiting for about half an hour, looking up at the sky, half of the sun had already sunk behind Luliang Mountain. The sunlight and the swarthy mountains reflect each other, and the remnants of the sun appear like blood. Under the sunset, the Hun cavalry really came in a hurry, and the number was indeed about 1,000 people, which was the same as the previous investigation. These light horsemen are not wearing armor but carrying bows and arrows, sitting on bareback horses, looking at their clothes and facial expressions, they are not like the troops of the Southern Xiongnu headquarters, but like the Qianghu in Hexi.

Seeing that about half of them had entered the two mountains, Song Xuan roared loudly, and led a number of personal horsemen to rush out of the woodland at the top of the slope. And the crossbowmen who had been hidden in the woodland for a long time also rained down arrows, and suddenly shot over dozens of horsemen.

At the same time, Lu Shu urged the soldiers behind the slope: "Up! Above! Fast! Fast! ”

Lu Shu was much older than Song Xuan, and ten years ago he was subordinate to the Anxi general Xiahou Jun under the western expedition of Qi Wannian. That experience made him know how fierce and tenacious the Hu warriors were, and the young and vigorous Song Xuan might just care about plundering his merits, but as a colleague, he knew that this battle would be a vicious battle. Even if you are waiting for your own work and attacking the crowd with outnumbered, as long as there is the slightest negligence in the command in the process, it may lead the battle situation to develop in a completely different direction!

Thinking so, Lu Shu did his best to direct his subordinates to bypass the hillside and outflank the past.

However, as soon as he crossed the hillside, before he could launch a siege, he saw several scouts he had sent out from the north of the battlefield rushing back. The scouts were wounded on their bodies, and even arrows were swaying on their bodies. There were a few horses that had no knights in the saddle at all, but they ran back with the instinct of gregariousness.

"What's going on?" Lu Shu asked sharply.

He didn't need an answer from the scouts, he could already feel the ground shake like a drum beneath his feet. The wild grass trembled, as if frightened by the murderous aura, and wanted to pounce on the ground; Herds of small beasts fled frantically. At this time, the battle between Song Draw and the Hun cavalry was no longer important at all, and Lu Shu passed by the corner of his eye, and he had already seen the blue and white face of Song Pump, who had always boasted of being brave; When I looked up again, I saw that on the vast field in the distance, countless riders and horses were surging like a tide.

Three days later, two urgent reports flew into Luoyang at the same time.

One reads: Xiongnu Kou Pingyang, Pingyang Taishou Song abandoned the county, and Hedong Taishou Lu Shu died in battle. The Xiongnu army of 100,000 pressed directly to the river. As soon as this urgent report entered the court, it immediately caused an uproar, and many people were so frightened that they couldn't possess their bodies.

The content of another urgent report is even more concise and even more shocking: the king of the East China Sea migrated from Xuchang to Juancheng.

Juancheng.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Gongdong took Tao Qian from Xuzhou, and Zhang Miao and Chen Gong rebelled against Lu Bu, and the counties responded. Only Xun Yu and Cheng Yu defended Juancheng, and Taizu had to lead the army back. After the Han and Wei dynasties, Emperor Wen took Cao Zijian as the king of Juancheng, and built palaces, reading platforms and other buildings to make him live.

The temporary residence of the king of the East China Sea was rebuilt on the site of the palace built by Cao Zi, although it was a temporary renovation in a hurry, but there were also gorgeous carved beams and paintings, strange flowers and trees that were not thanked at all times, and all kinds of furnishings and decorations were even more innumerable. If these are converted into money and grain, I am afraid that it will be enough to supply tens of thousands of horses and horses for the whole year. In a large hall in the mansion, melodious music and the sound of men and women laughing came out from time to time, and Pan Tao, Pei Miao and other important officials of the palace waited outside, occasionally exchanging glances with each other, and then bowed their heads deeply. Behind Pan Tao Pei Miao was Liu Yu, who looked older than a few months ago, barely standing firm with a wooden cane, as thin as dry wood.

I don't know how long they waited, but the county lord of Jingling, who was dressed neatly as a knight in men's clothes, suddenly came from the other end of the garden, his eyes swept over the group of wingmen, snorted coldly, and walked towards the main hall.

At the gate of the palace, the two armor soldiers hurriedly came out of the queue and crossed the halberd to make a gesture: "The king has an order, today is only a feast, and there are no guests." ”

The county lord of Jingling didn't stop for half a step, and his chest was about to hit the two halberds, so he shouted: "Get out!" ”

How can the soldiers be the county lord, and suddenly they retreated.