On the second day of the twelfth lunar month in the ninth year of Wei Xing'an, Zhai Huang, the general of Luoyang Tiance Mansion, arrived at "Luyi" in Taishan County.

Except for General Yi Hu who was not in the camp at this time, the other three generals of the Wei Wu army, namely Shao Hu, Long Ji, and Zhao Bao, all came out of the camp to greet him in person, which gave Zhai Huang enough face.

It's no wonder, even though Zhai Huang's position in Tiance Mansion is only "General", while Shao Hu, Long Ji, and Zhao Bao all have the rank of general, but you must know that Zhai Huang's "General" is a "General"

But Zhao Run, the unique "Heavenly General" in the Wei Kingdom, can it be the same?

Speaking of Wei Wang Zhao Run’s self-proclaimed ‘Heavenly General’, there is an interesting anecdote during this period.

In fact, at the beginning, King Zhao Run of Wei also proclaimed himself a general, and his full title seemed to be "the general who commanded all the soldiers, carriages, and cavalry of the Wei Dynasty." However, before the appointment, Du You, the Minister of Rites, who was already very unhappy about this matter, proposed

He objected, because in his opinion, it was too easy to confuse Zhao Run, the general, with the general positions of Shao Hu, Sima An, Wu Ji and others - how could a monarch and his ministers be equal?

This is not Du You's intention to find fault. After all, this era pays attention to the importance of being honest. If Zhao Run, as the monarch of the Wei State, must declare himself a general, then the generals of the Wei State will have no choice but to petition for demotion - because

They are one level lower than the monarch no matter what.

In order to avoid this kind of thing that might become a joke in the world, after deliberation, the inner court added a touch to Zhao Run's "Great General" and changed it to "Heavenly General" to avoid the general situation of the Wei generals in the country.

The embarrassment of being demoted to a lower level.

In this way, everyone was happy, except for the old minister Du You, the Minister of Rites, who was still thinking behind his back.

It is worth mentioning that in this matter, the most excited person was not the King of Wei Zhao Run himself, but the generals of the Wei State. After all, Zhao Run took the position of General Tiancefu, which was from a certain point of view.

In a sense, he became the great supporter of the military personnel of Wei State. Under such circumstances, who would dare to say that military men are inferior to literati?

It has to be said that because King Zhao Run of Wei valued martial arts, the status of Wei's soldiers and generals was very high, higher than that of literati of the same level. Although it cannot be said that they emphasized martial arts over literature, at least it had greatly changed the status of military men.

A social phenomenon in which people are looked down upon due to their generally low level of education.

"I have asked several generals to come out of the city to greet me. The last general, Zhai Huang, is really unworthy."

On that day, he saw Shao Hu, Long Ji, and Zhao Bao coming out of the city to greet him from a distance. Di Huang, the counselor of Tiance Mansion, was also very knowledgeable. He got down when he was still dozens of feet away from Lucheng, and then met him.

When Shao Hu and others were greeted with courtesy, they also used the courtesy of juniors, which made the three veterans, Shao Hu, Long Ji, and Zhao Bao, very satisfied.

After a few words of greeting, Shao Hu, Long Ji, and Zhao Bao took Zhai Huang into the city, saying some kind words such as "Zhai Shen will have a hard time coming all the way."

But in fact, Zhai Huang braved the freezing weather to come to Taishan County from Luoyang, and the journey was indeed difficult.

When entering the city, Zhai Huang also paid attention to the buildings in the city. According to his observation, the city seemed to have been set on fire, so that traces of fire could be seen everywhere on the buildings in the city. In addition, the soldiers of Wei Wujun

Many military tents and wooden houses were also built in the city to house the soldiers.

"Tian Dan from Qi State is really decisive..." Zhai Huang said with a smile.

"you do not say."

Wei Wujun general Shao Hu shook his head, turned back and pointed at the city wall of Luyi, and said with a wry smile: "The walls of this city are three or four feet high. Before they arrived here, I told Long Ji and the others,

The capture of Wuyan is certainly worthy of celebration, but the next step in Lu County is a tough battle. Unexpectedly, when we arrived here, Tian Dan of Qi State had already retreated with the people in the city, and before leaving, he even released a handful of

The fire burned the city to the ground..."

"The most regrettable thing is the fields outside the city." Long Ji, the general of Wei, interjected: "At that time, there was only one month before the autumn harvest. Who would have thought that the fields would burn the crops that were about to mature without saying a word...

…”

"This is exactly his brilliance." Shao Hu said with some emotion: "If he is greedy for the rice outside Luyi City, our army can arrive in time and block him in the city..." After that,

, he shook his head regretfully.

It has to be said that Qi Jiang Tian Dan decisively gave up the defense of Lu County around September. This was indeed beyond the expectations of Shao Hu, Long Ji, Zhao Bao and others. In their view, Tian Dan was only interested in Lu County.

For the sake of the rice that is about to mature in the fields outside, we have to wait until around mid-October, right?

However, the fields were delayed, and even the fields outside Luyi and the city were set on fire. So when the Wei army arrived more than ten days later, they only saw a scorched city and a scorched land outside the city.

This completely broke Shaohu's original tactical arrangement, so that in the next half month, he could only ask his Wei Wujun to restore the buildings in the city as much as possible, and at least prepare houses for the soldiers to spend the winter - after all, this time

His opponent was Tian Dan, the famous general of Qi State. Even Shao Hu did not dare to boast that he could defeat the latter a year ago.

It is no exaggeration to say that Tian Dan's move cost Wei Wujun at least a month.

Afterwards, Zhai Huang followed Shao Hu, Long Ji, and Zhao Bao to the commander's residence in the city - a temporary wooden house.

In the wooden house, Shaohu had already prepared some dishes and several jars of spirits produced in Shangdang in order to welcome Zhai Huang.

Perhaps seeing that Zhai Huang was a little dazed, Shao Hu blinked his eyes and said, "Today is just for General Zhai Shen. Normally I don't drink at all."

Zhai Huang smiled slightly when he heard this and didn't care.

In fact, the fact that the army does not drink alcohol is not necessarily all beneficial. After all, alcohol can activate the blood and make people excited. It is said that alcohol strengthens people's courage. If you drink two sips of alcohol before a battle, even new soldiers can risk their lives to kill the enemy in blood.

; And on weekdays, especially for soldiers patrolling in freezing weather, wine is even more important than cotton-padded clothes.

Therefore, as long as they are not too drunk and delay the official business, Wei's army basically does not prohibit alcohol, and will even issue an extra water bag to the soldiers to hold the wine - of course, if it is the other way around.

Once it is discovered that drunkenness has delayed business, Wei Jun's military discipline will never condone it, and it will range from whipping to expulsion.

Because it was before the battlefield, the food and wine served to Zhai Huang were not very rich. They only had some common military dishes such as pickled meat, pickled vegetables, and dried meat. In addition, Shao Hu also ordered people to kill a few animals.

The game caught in the nearby mountains and forests made this feast look a little more sumptuous.

After drinking for three rounds, Shao Hu began to test Zhai Huang's purpose by making subtle insinuations: "General Zhai Shen, when you come to the front line this time, do you have any instructions from His Majesty?"

After hearing this, Long Ji and Zhao Bao both looked at Zhai Huang intentionally or unintentionally, looking a little nervous.

It's no wonder, because since they 'taken over' Lu County, which was burned down by Tian Dan around September, there has been almost no progress. In this case, of course they will be nervous, after all

His Wei Wujun was the nominal "first elite" of his Wei state, and his reputation among the Wei people was even higher than that of the Shang Shui Army.

"Your Majesty?" Zhai Huang smiled and said: "Hasn't His Majesty's instructions been sent to the generals long ago?..."Take Mount Tai"!"

"..." Shao Hu, Long Ji, and Zhao Bao looked at each other and smiled rather coquettishly.

I don't know whether it was to avoid the "defeat of Shangdang" caused by Wei Wang Zhao Kang urging the frontline troops to step up the attack decades ago, or because Wei Wang Zhao Run was well aware of the disadvantages of "commanding the front line from the rear". Anyway, Tiance Mansion

They never formulate any specific tactics for the front line, only a general strategy. For example, recently, Shao Hu received an order from Tiance Mansion, which was just four words: Take Mount Tai!

There were neither specific tactical arrangements nor specified dates. The looseness made Shao Hu and others feel a bit strange: Does His Majesty really want to attack Qi? Why doesn't it seem like it?

"General Zhai Shen." Shao Hu personally poured a glass of wine for Zhai Huang and said in a low voice: "If you don't mind, can you give Shao a thorough explanation? Your Majesty, is he...really planning to attack Qi? Or is he?

, I, Wei Wujun, am actually just a cover?"

After hearing this, Zhai Huang asked in confusion: "Why does General Shaohu ask that?"

Shao Hu, Long Ji, and Zhao Bao looked at each other, and then after a slight hesitation, they whispered: "Shao just told the truth. General Zhai, Shao doesn't know your majesty's intention, but

Just using my Wei Wu army to attack Qi... we don't have enough troops."

Having said this, he motioned to the guards to get the marching map, and simply laid it flat on the wine table.

Then, he pointed to "Chi County" about forty miles east of "Lu Yi" on the map, and said seriously: "Right now, Qi General Tian Dan is stationed in this county. To be honest, General Zhai Shen said,

Around late October, Shao once thought about attacking with troops, but after inquiring about the terrain conditions nearby, Shao had no choice but to give up his original plan..."

At this point, he saw a puzzled look on Zhai Huang's face, so he explained: "There are three roads to the east of Chi County, towards the direction of Qi State, one of which leads to "Lixia Yi" and Jinan (south of Jishui).

, and then go east, passing "Pingling", "Yuling", "Changyi", and finally to Linzi; the second route is to take the mountain valley road to "Yingcheng", and then pass "Laiwu" and "Bayang"

”, “Changyi”, and finally to Linzi; the third route is to go through the valley south of Mount Tai, passing through “Bo County”, “Tai’an”, “Mouxian County”, and then go north to “Laiwu” or to

Go east through "Gaixian" and then north to "Laiwu"... These three mountain roads are quite dangerous. If I attack one of them, all the way will be destroyed, but I am afraid that the other two roads will intercept my return when our army moves eastward.

However, if we divide our forces to attack three routes, our army will not have enough strength..."

After listening to Shaohu's explanation, Zhai Huang finally understood that there was a reason why Wei Wujun had not moved his troops in the past two months - because Shaohu had not yet figured out a strategy for capturing "Qixian".

"Why didn't the generals take Chi County first?" A young guard who followed Zhai Huang couldn't help but interjected, but was scolded by Zhai Huang.

However, Shaohu didn't care and explained with a smile: "What this little brother said is reasonable. Why don't we capture Chi County first? There is a reason. For example, our army is stationed in Luyi at the moment, and we need to face the enemy.

What we are facing is only the direction of Chi County; but if our army captures Chi County, then our army will have to guard against the northeast, east, and southeast at the same time. Shao also said before that these three directions

We, Wei Wujun, are sure to defeat the Qi army in any direction, but we are afraid that the other two groups will take the opportunity to cut off our army's retreat... Once they cut off our return route, we will be able to fight with Qi.

, let’s see whose food runs out first.”

These words made the guard who followed Zhai Huang blush with embarrassment - he was not stupid enough to think that Qi, a large and wealthy country, would run out of food and grass before Wei Wujun.

After glaring hard at the guard who interrupted, Zhai Huang said to Shao Hu: "According to what General Shao Hu said, this Tian Dan is stationed in Chi County at this time. Isn't he not well-intentioned?"

"Haha." Shao Hu laughed, and before he could say anything, he saw Zhao Bao, a veteran who was old but still arrogant. After taking two sips of wine, he stared at his eyes and cursed: "That little kid Tian Dan, you have such a bad heart."

They are very bad. Since late October, they have been provoking our troops in every possible way and trying every possible means to lure our troops to Chi County..."

Listening to Zhao Bao cursing there, Zhai Huang laughed secretly in his heart and nodded secretly.

Although Shao Hu, Long Ji, Zhao Bao and Yi Hu are old and no longer as powerful and brave as before, they are really steady. Take the current matter as an example, Zhai Huang can also see it

Leaving Chi County was a bait deliberately thrown by Tian Dan, with the purpose of changing the active and passive situation of the Qi and Wei armies in Chi County, but Shao Hu just didn't fall for it. Although he stationed troops in Luyi for two months, he still couldn't do it.

The leadership will not be taken away by Tian Dan.

"...a wise choice."

Zhai Huang secretly praised in his heart.

In the early morning of the next day, Shao Hu, Long Ji, and Zhao Bao first took Zhai Huang to visit the Luyi Wei Camp and gave a general introduction to the various departments. Zhai Huang also learned about the division of labor among these veterans.

As the Zongwei and former subordinates of the late Yu King Zhao Yuanji, the four veteran generals Shao Hu, Long Ji, Yi Hu, and Zhao Bao had a clear division of labor: Shao Hu was in the center of the army and was mainly responsible for strategy, Zhao Bao was the vanguard, and Long Ji was the rear.
To be continued...