The Most Romantic of the Three Kingdoms

The two counties of Pengcheng and Langya are located in the northwest of Guangling and the other in the north of Guangling. Pengcheng is a little closer and Langya is farther away.

On the day when Liu Bei, Guan Yu and others returned, Cheng Jia, who went to see Zang Ba, had just arrived outside Kaiyang County.

Kaiyang is the county seat of Langya, and it is also where Zang Ba's troops are now stationed.

Zang Ba and other Taishan soldiers are called one part, but in fact they are divided into several battalions below.

Zang Ba was a battalion, and Sun Guan, Wu Dun, Yin Li, and Chang Xi were each a battalion.

Sun Guan, like Zang Ba, are from Taishan County. The reason why they are not in Taishan County, but in Langya County, has its own reasons.

Subdivided, these people can be divided into two categories.

One is like Zang Ba, a desperado wanted by the imperial court. In order to avoid arrest, he absconded here.

Once people in Taishan County commit crimes and are wanted by officials and temples, most of them will flee to Langya County.

This is for two reasons.

One is the geographical reason: Langya is on the east side of Mount Tai, and the two counties border each other, but they belong to two prefectures. That is, the officials of Yanzhou cannot manage Xuzhou. At the same time, Langya County is close to the sea. You can escape again, and you can still float into the sea and hide on the island.

One is for humanistic reasons: because the two counties border each other, although they belong to two prefectures, the scholars and commoners in the counties communicate closely. The former, only the latter. In the past few decades, there have been two major rebellions in Mount Tai and Langya, one is the rebellion of Dongguo Dou and Gongsunju in the second year of Yongxing, and the other is in the third year of Yanxi. The Lao Bing Rebellion was huge, especially the former, which had as many as 30,000 people. It took more than two years to be defeated by Duan Jiong, and these two major rebellions were two counties together. It can be seen from this that these two How close is the relationship between Jun Qingxia and Haoqiang.

Therefore, once the light chivalrous and powerful people in Taishan County committed a murder case and were hunted down by the court, they would often flee to Langya County.

Another category is Zang Ba's old friends. Some of these people are close friends that Zang Ba met in his early years. After Zang Ba fled to Langya, they also came and landed here.

Whether it is the same as Zang Ba, who was wanted and fled to Langya, or who took the initiative to follow Zang Ba to Langya, because they are both from Taishan County, in this Langya area, they are good friends with each other, and they are connected with each other. Among the crowd, Zang Ba was the best from the background, had the highest reputation, and was the most convincing. Therefore, after starting the army from Tao Qian, they all took Zang Ba as their commander.

These few people, including Zang Ba, even though they raised troops in Xuzhou and are now stationed in Xuzhou, but among the soldiers under their command, there are not many people from Xuzhou, but most of them are from Taishan County. There are two sources. Some of them were desperate people in Mount Tai who hid in Langya because they violated the law.

This place in Taishan County, "the county connects the mountains and the sea", has always had a fierce folk customs and a lot of thieves. The two rebellions mentioned above were both during the time of Emperor Huan, but in fact, during the earlier Shundi era, that is, fifty years ago, There are a large number of thieves in Taishan County. "There are always a thousand soldiers in the county, and there is no way to punish them."

Since the folk customs of Mount Tai are like this, after Zang Ba and the others raised their army, they were called by the name of Zang Ba, so they did not worry about no one coming to defect. Those who came from Mount Tai to Langya to defect to Zang Ba and others, there were a lot of thieves, and some successful ones. A group of local light knights.

It is also for this reason that most of the soldiers under Zang Ba and the others are desperate, thieves, and chivalrous men. Therefore, although they are lacking in training, military discipline, and battle formations compared to Xun Zhen's works, their combat effectiveness is comparable to that of Xun Zhen. not bad.

Langya was at the northernmost point of Xuzhou, and was the northern gate of Xuzhou. If the soldiers of Mount Tai under Zang Ba were not strong enough to fight, Tao Qian would not dare to put them in Kaiyang.

Seeing Kaiyang County in front, Cheng Jia and others temporarily stopped their horses and watched from afar. They saw that the county was towering, and there were many camps around. The flags were fluttering in the camp. Although they were far apart, they could not see clearly. The qi also rushed into the sky.

Cheng Jiagu turned to the left and right of Congxing, pointed to the camps in front, and said: "Hebei is one of the best places in the world, Danyang is one, and Taishan is also one. I have heard the name of Zang Xuangao for a long time, when he was eighteen years old. He dared to take dozens of disciples, violated the orders of the prefect, blocked the mountain road, and kidnapped his father from the army soldiers, but there were no soldiers who dared to move. Xiong occupies Kaiyang, and it is the north gate of Xuzhou. It is the north gate of Xuzhou. It will definitely be better than the past. After entering Kaiyang City, when you see him, you should not be arrogant. Once you annoy him, it will ruin your own life, and it will be a big deal if you miss the plan of the prince!"

Although there were no big thieves in Xuzhou, there were also many thieves. The knights on the left and right who came here to protect Cheng Jia were all warriors selected by Xun Zhen from the personal guards. They had followed Xun Zhen for many years, and they had made great achievements in battle. The old folks in the village will inevitably be a little proud. Even the military officers/generals such as Chen Wu, Chen Dao, He Yi, etc. are always respectful to them, so Cheng Jia reminded them before entering Kaiyang City and seeing Zang Ba. They said a few words so as not to miss Xun Zhen's important affairs.

These have turned from riding pride to pride, but they all know the importance of things, and they all promise at the moment.

After Cheng Jia's instructions were completed, he rode on horses, followed by the cavalry.

Going forward not too far, I saw two or three horses galloping from the side road in the distance.

Although there is no war at the moment, but since Kaiyang is the base of the camps of Mount Tai, naturally there will be no rangers guarding the surrounding area. The two or three cavalry galloping from the side roads should be the patrols sent by the Zang Ba people. ride.

Cheng Jia knew that Zang Ba belonged to Tao Qian. When he came to see Zang Ba this time, the task might not be easy to complete, so he was very cautious. When he saw two or three horses coming from a distance, he would stop his horse. Stop and wait for them to come.

Speaking of which, although Langya is in front of Qing and Yan, it is regarded as the front line of Xuzhou, but there is no war at the moment. Kaiyang is the county seat of Langya, and there are still quite a few merchants and pedestrians coming and going. These rangers sent by Zang Ba and others are usually I paid little attention to those merchants and pedestrians, but at this moment, there were several horses galloping from a distance, but it was because Cheng Jia and his party were all riding horses, and besides Cheng Jia, they were all wearing armor and holding weapons. They were very conspicuous on the galloping road. , At first glance, it is not an ordinary traveler, so since they see it, they must come and ask.

Not long after, the two or three riders came to the front, ran from the small road to the main road, and turned to the front of Cheng Jia.

Cheng Jia watched and saw that these knights were all sturdy children. Although they were not wearing armor, they each had leather armor on their bodies. Two held iron spears, and one carried a bow and a sword. The one carrying the bow should be in the lead.

Cheng Jia said in his heart: "Looking at the patterns of clothing, armor, and weapons of these people, they should all come from the arsenals of the prefectures and counties. Tao Qian urges food to the limit. Although he is strict with the counties, he is not stingy with Zang Ba, and he has given him a lot of money. Ordnance." He glanced at the mounts under the crotch of these three knights, they were all good horses, not the usual bad horses used for ploughing the land and pulling carts, and thought, "Maybe not only gave weapons, but also gave Zang Ba a lot. war horse."

Horses are hard to find, but war horses are hard to buy. The cavalry is not as good as the infantry, but Xun Zhen has worked hard for many years. He now has only a few hundred cavalry. , these two counties are not places for horse production. He alone can't get too many war horses, and now he can release more than one cavalry for patrolling, so it is obvious that the cavalry under his command is not enough If there are too many, there must be one or two hundred riders, and ten of them will have the help of Tao Qian.

Not only did he help him on the horse, Tao Qian must also be very generous to him on the ration.

The cavalry was difficult to maintain. One was that war horses were rare, and the other was that the consumption of cavalry was too great. Xun Zhen had four thousand cavalry on foot, less than a quarter of the cavalry, but in terms of military supplies, it accounted for almost half of the cavalry. After all, Zang Ba was a guest army. Without Tao Qian's strong supply, it would have been difficult for him to support thousands of infantry soldiers and have the spare energy to support expensive cavalry.

The knight with the bow hit the people of Rongjia and asked, "Who are you waiting for? Where did you come from? Where are you going?"

Cheng Jia smiled and said: "In the next Cheng Jia, at the order of Xun Jun, the prefect of Guangling, I came here to see the captain of the Tibetan capital."

Hearing that the person in front of him had come to see Zang Ba under the order of Xun Zhen, the knight's disdain, suspicion and vigilance suddenly disappeared. They are all fierce warriors. Suspicion is because they don’t know their origin and purpose, while contempt is because Cheng Jia is short and ugly. "As soon as the name came out, the knight's face immediately became solemn. He hesitated and asked, "Is there a letter talisman?"

Cheng Jia took out a talisman and a letter from his bosom, and said with a smile, "This is the talisman that Guangling County Office opened for us, and this is a handwritten letter from Xun Jun to Commander Zang, with Xun on the envelope. You've lost your name, can you watch it with a single step?"

The knight motioned for the person behind him to go and catch the pass, and UU read www.uukanshu.com to pass it on to himself, hold it and look closely, if it was the road guide opened by the Guangling County, his face became solemn, and he jumped off the horse in a hurry. , kissed a few steps forward, returned the talisman to Cheng Jia, saluted and apologized, and said, "I don't know if it is an honored guest from Guangling. I have offended you just now, please do not sin!"

As for Xun Zhen's letter, the knight didn't read it. Although he knew two characters, he didn't know Xun Zhen's handwriting, so it was useless to read it.

Cheng Jia put away the talisman and the letter, and also got off the horse. He smiled and said, "Those who don't know are not guilty, and they are dedicated to their duties, what is the crime?" He thought, "From the armor and mounts of the horses, we can see Tao Qian. When Zang Ba is very generous, I thought that this time I might return without success, but looking at the behavior of this knight, I may still have a few chances for this trip."

This knight was vigilant, suspicious, and contemptuous of Cheng Jia and others, but when he heard the name of Xun Zhen, he immediately looked down, and when he was sure that Cheng Jia and others were indeed Xun Zhen's messengers, he immediately dismounted and returned the message with his own hands. Fu, and saluted and apologized, showing his respect for Xun Zhen, but he was only a knight among Zang Ba, and he did not know Xun Zhen Su, but where did this respect come from? Needless to say, it must be because of Zang Ba, that is to say, Zang Ba must have respect for Xun Zhen, so it affected the soldiers under his command.

With this "respect", Tao Qian treats Zang Ba well, but Cheng Jia's purpose of this trip has a chance to be achieved.