Two months ago, on the road to Daijun from Yecheng, Lu Yao met Dingshao, the assassin of Jizhou, who led the army south to fight Shile. In that meeting, Lu Yao, Shao Xu and others persuaded Ding Shao to support them to go north to pacify Dai County, one of the most important of which was the friendship between Shao Xu and Dai Ren Wei Cao.

Wei Cao was born in the Daijun clan, and when he was a teenager, he was known for his talent, and when the famous minister Wei Qian served as the general of the expedition to the north, he was used as a tooth gate general and a confidant to deal with the conflict with the Hu people in northern Xinjiang. After the death of Wei Xuan, Wei Cao stayed in the territory of Tuoba Xianbei, and his companions Wei Xiong, Ji Tang, etc., served as the assistant minister, and the clansmen Wei Xiong, Wei Le, Wei Chong, etc., and the villagers Ji Tang, Duan Fan, Fan Ban, etc., also held considerable power. As a Jin person, he can control the authority of the Hu clan, which is really a rare anomaly in modern times.

The foundation of the Wei clan is in the Dai Land. When Shao Xu was the envoy of the king of Chengdu to the northern Xinjiang, he became acquainted with Wei Cao, and the two sides exchanged letters over the years, and they had a good relationship with each other. Therefore, when Lu Yao conquered Daijun, he originally planned to borrow the power of the Wei clan in the north. However, after the Jin army entered Dai County, after many searches, they got the news that the Wei clan had already moved north to the dam. This invisibly made Lu Yao's military operations a lot more difficult. At least, if Lu Yao had the help of Wei Cao in the decisive battle between Murong Longcheng, it would be impossible for Lu Yao to hide the whereabouts of the troops sent by Tuoba Luguan.

In fact, Lu Yao himself did not put the key to victory or defeat in Wei Cao, but the dilemma when fighting with Chang Shan did give him a major reminder.

Although he has the memory of later generations, the reality is so chaotic that the Liao Liao characters in Lu Yao's memory cannot be fully described after all. In order to maintain this innate superiority to the greatest extent, Lu Yao has always attached special importance to the work of detecting the enemy. During the battle against the Xiongnu, several victories before and after were the result of effective reconnaissance. After arriving in Daijun, the scout cavalry in charge of Zhu Sheng shuttled back and forth. The cavalry observed the meandering direction of rivers, roads, and mountains, verified the distances and elevations between the key passes, asked the herdsmen about the size of the tribe to which they belonged, the extent of the pastures, and the character of the leader, tracked the movement of the forces of each tribe, verified the number of military horses in each route, and finally summarized all kinds of information on the increasingly detailed geographical maps in the hands of Lu Yao and Shao Xu.

This is a rare tool in modern times, but it is far from sufficient. During the decisive battle with the Changshan bandits, Tuoba Lu Guan attacked with a light cavalry of 3,000 long, and he actually avoided all the scouts within a radius of 100 miles, almost making Lu Yao in a desperate situation. This situation proves that there are huge gaps in the existing reconnaissance system when faced with the complex environment of Hu and Han mixed places.

In the art of war, it says: "Therefore, the wise and virtuous generals will win the people so much, and the success will come from the people, and the prophets will also." He who is a prophet will take from men, and he who knows the feelings of his enemies. He also said: "Therefore, the affairs of the three armies should not be close to each other, the rewards should not be generous, and the affairs should not be kept secret." This is to emphasize that in order to win a war, it is necessary to ensure a full understanding of the enemy's situation. And there is no more effective way to provide enemy information than spies.

After this battle, Lu Yao dismissed Zhu Sheng, who was originally in charge of scouting, and many soldiers thought that this was a punishment for Zhu Sheng, but it was not. Lu Yao learned from the pain and began to set up an espionage agency in the true sense. After Zhu Sheng lost his position as team leader, he received unprecedented support.

In July and August of the first year of Yongjia, Shao Xu was busy with farmland and water conservancy, Hu Liuniang was buried in the account books, Ding Miao and Xue Tong and other generals organized the military camp on the one hand, and on the other hand, they paid close attention to the training of soldiers and horses, and Lu Yao was also very busy. Together with Zhu Sheng, he screened competent candidates who were familiar with northern Xinjiang, met with them one by one, personally settled their families and dependents, ensured their loyalty and reliability, and then sent them to various places. In the process of exterminating the horse thieves in Daijun, the materials seized by the Jin army were not only grain, money, and silk, but also various gold, silver, pearls, and jade treasures. Those were treasures that the thieves had treasured for decades or even hundreds of years, but Lu Yao did not hesitate to squander them and used them to support the actions of the spies.

It is not so easy to choose special talents suitable for this kind of task, in the two months before and after, Lu Yao sent a total of twenty-two people, the main direction of dispatch is the northern grassland, out of precautions, but also to the east, south, and west of Dai County. These spies have no military status, are not in the military ranks, and do not need to be very skilled. Like ordinary people, they will either work as a herdsman, or travel from place to place as merchants, or disguise themselves as homeless people and settle in suitable places. Nor do they need to roam the battlefield to obtain information, but listen to the messages that circulate among the ears of the common people, or bribe high-ranking officials and chiefs to get more tangible information.

The information they obtained was brought back to Luochuan by the caravan formed by Zhu Sheng, and Lu Yao personally compared, checked and sorted it out. The burden of these affairs is not light, but there is really no suitable candidate at the moment, so Lu Yao can only do it himself. Finally, he has watched a lot of spy war dramas, so let's just operate it the same way.

In mid-August, the spies who first went to the Daibei Grassland began to send local messages to Luochuan. The person who summoned him was surnamed Ma, and his real name was very ugly, and he was usually called Ma Er by others. This gentleman is a distant relative of the Luochuan thief Koma, who was originally the deputy of Gu Er, the leader of the fox society in Licheng, Guangchang County, Dai County, after Gu Er was ruthlessly cleaned up by Hu Liuniang, this horse was so shocked that he immediately changed the court, and was introduced by Hu Liuniang to Lu Yao. Because he has been in northern Xinjiang for many years, he has rich experience in dealing with Hu Er, and he is more familiar with various black and white methods, so Zhu Sheng told Lu Yao, gave his family 200 acres of farmland, and appointed his son as the acting county official. Therefore, he was repaid by his dead heart, and he was willing to go to the Daibei grassland to investigate. Before leaving, Lu Yao talked with him and encouraged him, and saw that his appearance was quite obscene, similar to a certain comedian in Lu Yao's memory, and he happened to be surnamed Ma, so he gave him the name "Bond" on the spot.

This was really a rare favor, which made Ma Bond weep bitterly on the spot, and swore that he would do his best to investigate the movements of the Hu people in detail, so as to repay General Yingyang's kindness. This gentleman has a cunning and treacherous talent, and sure enough, after more than a month, he successfully settled in Daibei, and was regarded as a guest by the Hu clan commanders as a wealthy fur merchant, so as to check the local truth one by one.

To Lu Yao's surprise, in the first secret letter sent back by Ma Bond, important news was brought:

Since Liwei, Tuoba Xianbei has been friendly with the Jin family for several generations, and the border is stable. The Jin people in northern Xinjiang were forced by the harsh government of the imperial court, and many of them fled to the grassland to survive. Border officials are constantly prohibited. Although the Tuoba clan returned to the fugitives several times, over the decades, the number of Jin people living in the Tuoba clan's sphere of influence increased, reaching tens of thousands. They make a living from farming where conditions are suitable, and many of them rely on the skills of blacksmiths and carpenters.

After Yi's death, tens of thousands of Jin people who originally belonged to the central part of Tuoba Xianbei were in dire straits, and their situation was declining, they were bullied and blackmailed, and their survival was extremely difficult. Although the Wei clan in charge of this group of displaced people was once trusted by Yiyi, they were hostile to the Lu officials. The Lu official accused them of being born in Xianbei, but they had the Jin family in their hearts and made plans at both ends of the first rat. Even if Wei Cao, the patriarch of the Wei clan, dragged his old and sick body to mediate, he failed to achieve any effect.

After the ceremony, the eastern part of Tuoba Xianbei fell into a great chaos, and the tribes either attacked and fought with each other, or migrated and fled, and many frenzied Xianbei people took the opportunity to attack the Jin people who were more scattered. These Xianbei people behave like wild beasts, plundering, committing adultery, and killing indiscriminately. The Jin people were originally weaker and unprepared, and they were killed and injured heavily, and it is said that even the water was dyed red in just a few days. The remnants fled to the treacherous mountains at the source of the water under the leadership of the Wei clan. Although it is safe for the time being, it is still a precarious situation by the Xianbei Puliuru clan and the Qiluo clan who are eyeing each other.

The massacre of the Jin compatriots by the Hu is not good news in any way; But this is a rare opportunity for Lu Yao's Daijun regime!