sweeping the world

Chapter 452 Another Hundred Years' War?
Once the barbarians were in chaos in the Central Plains, scholars rushed to the cowards and wept. This is indeed the most true portrayal of the Central Plains today.Against this background, the Han army's insistence on going north has a sense of mission to save the people from the water and fire and reconcile the people to the downside.

Ran Min led his army to besiege Yecheng, and countless people from the surrounding areas came spontaneously.

After the racial vendetta provoked by Shihu this time, the survivors of the Central Plains finally understood one thing. Endurance is not a long-term solution, and self-protection cannot guarantee safety.

Shihu didn't flee without a fight for no reason. It was because the food and fodder of the Zhao Kingdom in Shijie could no longer meet the consumption of the army, and then the hundreds of thousands of coolies in Yecheng were angry. Is it necessary to fight an absolutely passive war to escape?

Yecheng was originally built as a palace, and the number of people forced to work in all directions has been increasing. Their rise was naturally encouraged by the people sent by Ran Min.Ran Min made it very clear to those people that there were no innocent people in the great vendetta. If they did not rise up and cooperate with the Han army, they would only die. The hundreds of thousands of people who had been holding their breath for a long time could not remain silent when they saw that the Han army had really arrived. reason.

The Han army was staring at the outside, and hundreds of thousands of hard laborers were angry inside. Ran Min only took seven days to conquer Yecheng. On the one hand, he sent a victory report to the Linzi center, and on the other hand, he recruited the young and strong in Yecheng, and only rested for three days. Just keep going north.

To the north of Yecheng is the core area of ​​Zhao State in Shijie. In the past, the core population of Jie, Qiang, Di and other ethnic groups gathered here. If the Hu people did not have the habit of choosing sites to build settlements, there must be many villages and towns. .

Hu people have no pursuit of cities, they are used to migrating around. There is a Linshui city in the north of Yecheng, and sixty miles to the north is the ancient city of Handan.

Linshui City was built on the north bank of Fu River, one of the tributaries of Zhang River.

After Ran Min led the army to continue northward, when they arrived at the edge of Fushui, they were greeted by a fleet of Han troops rushing in from the direction of Jizhou, and the banner of the Han army was flying on the head of Linshui City.

Ran Min, who is already General Zhengbei, has the right to ask about many things, including the recent movements of Lu Tai's corps.

The battle in Jizhou has not changed much. The two sides are still confronting and stalemate along the Zhangshui River. However, Lu Tai has reported some relatively special things to the center, such as discovering that there are signs of great activity behind the confronting enemy forces. .

"Shihu wants to manage Bingzhou and Shuozhou, so it is inevitable to move the population to fill them." Ran Min is satisfied that the war in the direction of Jizhou has not changed. If they want to continue going north, the Lu Tai Corps in Jizhou will become their flank.He said to his men: "Our next step is to capture Handan and then take the entire county of Guangping."

If it is said that Lu Tai's troops are now Ran Min's right guard army, Xie An's troops located in Shangdang County are Ran Min's left guard army. The three armies form a trident arrow in a large area. Relatively speaking, it was Ran Min's headquarters that could decide the Northern Expedition.

Realizing that Shijie's Zhao army and many barbarians were retreating, Ran Min showed his aggressive side. He only left 3 troops behind and dispersed the rest.

Everywhere the Han army went, they were supported by the local people. Scenes of scenes of eating pots of pulp to welcome the king's army not only greatly encouraged the fighting enthusiasm of the Han army soldiers, but also greatly boosted the morale of the Han people.

Liu Yan, who was in Linzi, received battle reports from the front line every day. It was no surprise that Ran Min kept advancing at a high speed, and he was mentally prepared for the consumption of supplies.

Everywhere the Han army went to help the local people, medical treatment would consume a large amount of medicinal materials, and grain distribution would also consume a large amount of grain. This was something that had been anticipated before the decision to launch the Northern Expedition. Even though the materials were consumed in large quantities, it was Land and population were acquired.

The court meeting in the main hall is over, and the core meeting in the inner hall has just begun.

"General Zhengbei has conquered Handan, and the next step is to advance directly to Xiangguo." Ji Chang didn't feel happy when he said this, but seemed a little worried.He said to Liu Yan thoughtfully: "Seeing that Shijie really wants to retreat in an all-round way, this situation has really formed..."

Bingzhou is not all grasslands, there are large areas of mountains and water systems, plus a Shuozhou can really allow Shijie to accumulate strength after shrinking.

Liu Yan clearly issued the order to kill all the barbarians, not only to encourage people from all over the country to resist the barbarians, but also to reduce the overall number of barbarians.According to the collected information, the population evacuated to Bingzhou was no less than 150 million, and Bingzhou and Shuozhou originally had a population of 200 million. He calculated that Shihu probably had a population of about 400 million.

For the development of the situation, the center of the Han Dynasty has a prediction. Once Shihu no longer pays attention to the struggle for territory, and really intends to keep the population and give up the land, the overall situation may really develop in the direction of the former Han Empire against the Huns.

Ji Chang was worried about the withdrawal of Shi Jie to the grassland. Although the Han Dynasty was opening up territory and expanding its territory, which showed that the situation was very good, the large-scale expansion of territory in a short period of time would definitely make the internal situation more unstable. Furthermore, it would be impossible to eliminate Shi Jie from the terrain. The complex Central Plains region.

If there is a map, you can see that the territory of the Han Dynasty is a bit like the size of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty. What is missing is the land of Bingzhou, Youzhou, Liaodong, and Guanzhong Sanqin.

The Han Kingdom occupies most of the Central Plains. South of the Yangtze River is the small imperial court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the land of Bashu is the Li family's Chenghan Kingdom. Liangzhou and the Western Regions are the Zhang family's Liang Kingdom. Aren't they surrounded in the middle?

Liu Yan’s situation in this period was much worse than that of the Han Empire during the period of Emperor Han Jing. Although the south during the period of Han Jing was a foreign country, it maintained a relatively good diplomacy. The country has actually faced Shijie Zhao and Murong Yan.

"Yes..." Liu Yan was also a little worried: "Once the stone tiger enters the grassland, it will not be wiped out in a short time."

"There is news that Shi Hu has ceded Youzhou to Yan State." Sang Yu returned from Yuzhou not long ago, accompanied by Lu Yi.Most of the original members of the Sang clan were officials in Zhao State of Shijie, and had more sources of information. He said: "Youzhou belongs to Murong Yan State, and we formally border them in the northeast."

Speaking of it, Shihu's courage is really too great. Not only did he ignore the large territory being captured, but he also took the initiative to cede Youzhou to Murong Yanguo. The huge Shijie Zhao Kingdom only wanted to keep Bingzhou and Shuozhou, and it seemed to be collapsing trend, but in fact, because of the loss of those territories, it revitalized the overall situation.

From the map, the northwestern direction of the Han Kingdom is the Shijie Zhao Kingdom, the northeast is the Murong Yan Kingdom, the unowned Guanzhong Sanqin Land and the Li Family Chenghan to the west, and the small Eastern Jin court that cannot coexist in the south. To the east is the sea, and Han is surrounded by hostile countries or forces in several directions.

Once the Han State fails to destroy the Shijie Zhao State in this war, the Han State will be involved in various hostile countries in the future. Which country the Han army wants to attack will inevitably attract siege from other countries.

One thing that Liu Yan didn't know was that Shi Xuan originally wanted to enter Guanzhong, but fortunately Xie An blocked him to the north of Huguan, otherwise Han would have added another weakness.

At the right time, Lu Yi said, "Dai Guo has been very unfriendly to big men recently."

Liu Yan has already learned about the situation in the Tuoba Dai Kingdom. After he ordered "to kill those who are not my race", Xie Ai was expelled by Tuoba Shiyijian, and the dowry troops under his command also left and returned to Tuoba The establishment of the Dai State means that the friendship between the Han State and the Tuoba Dai State is gone forever, and the relationship between the two parties has entered a period of ice.

Since he dared to issue such an order, Liu Yan had to be mentally prepared, and it was even expected that Li's Cheng Han would start sending troops to harass Yuzhou.

"It is worthwhile for us to be able to win the hearts and minds of the adherents of the Central Plains." Ji Chang had a rough statistic in his hand, and said: "In this Northern Expedition, only General Ran, who conquered the North, recruited 17 youths on the spot. General Xie Lang and General Lu Lang each recruited 300 to [-] young adults, and the number of people rescued should be more than [-] million."

There is no precise data on how many Hu people were wiped out. The number gathered by all parties is that there are 80 million. Relatively speaking, this catastrophe also killed nearly a million survivors.

In less than a year, nearly 200 million people were killed if there were statistics, and there must be more if there are no statistics. If you have to guess, it is conservatively estimated that there are 300 million people, and this is still Racial vendettas in non-Han territory.

There are more accurate data in the territory of the Han Kingdom. The number of Hu people eliminated and captured reached 80. In addition to some tyrants who came from the same line but were hostile to the Han Kingdom, the total number was close to one million.

Three or four million people were killed within one year, which is really a terrifying thing. Generally speaking, the total population of the Central Plains is only 400 million, which is a sharp drop of almost a quarter.

In history, Ran Min called for the killing of the Hu people. Within half a year, the Central Plains lost more than 400 million people, and the Hu people subsequently fled and killed more than 150 million people. Because of the outbreak of the plague, and even the subsequent drought and locust plague, within two or three years The population of the Central Plains dropped sharply, and it was after Murong Xianbei went south that the census was carried out. The total population of the Central Plains was actually less than 700 million.

There are quite a few differences between Liu Yan's period and that of Ran Min in history. First of all, Shijie did not go through repeated internal consumption, which means that they are facing the Jie clan in its heyday, and they can make it into the current situation. In fact, it is very good. The situation has also evolved into a situation where Shihu at least has full control over the Jie people, and only then has the Jie people retreated to Bingzhou and Shuozhou.

"General Zhengbei's mission is the Northern Expedition." Liu Yan raised his hand to stop the ministers from gossiping, and once again showed his will: "My orders have not changed, and we will fight wherever we go."

If there are any of the above, it is because some people are worried that the military force in Ran Min's hands is expanding too fast, and they suggest canceling the recruitment of young and strong soldiers on the spot and limiting the number of soldiers in Ran Min's hands.

Liu Yan didn't believe in Ran Min unconditionally. The key was that there were [-] imperial guards as the backbone of defense. The regular army of Han would not go with Ran Min, and the logistics were completely in his hands.He knew that Ran Min was a very sharp sword that could injure the enemy as well as the enemy, but at this stage, he needed Ran Min to keep going north, and he would definitely get strong support if he wanted to enter the grassland.

"Maybe we can stir up Dai, the Huns, and Zhao?" Sang Yu didn't say much just now, but when he opened his mouth again, he focused on the conflicts among the Hu people: "The generation of Shuofang, who has been inhabited by the Huns for a long time, although they nominally obey Zhao The country is actually self-governing. The Dai country has always wanted to eliminate or annex the Huns to capture Shuofang. Now Shihu wants to fully control Shuofang and become the way out, and their contradictions are very acute."

The Huns are now fully weak, with constant internal vendettas and long-term crusades by Tuoba Daiguo externally.In addition, the Xiongnu tribes are not all Huns. Liu Yuan established the Pseudo-Han and absorbed a lot of Jin people. During Liu Yao's period, he also absorbed many miscellaneous people. This means that although they are still called Xiongnu, the real situation is that multiple ethnic groups live together. Only then can there be constant internal vendettas.

"What Prime Minister You said is absolutely true." Ji Chang first affirmed Sang Yu's opinion, and then changed the topic and said: "Winter will enter in more than a month, and the scale of the war on the northern front will decrease. Is it necessary to treat the puppet imperial court again?" Hit it once?”

It is no secret that the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty has recently started to jump up and down. It is no secret to the Han Kingdom. The Han Kingdom has accepted quite a lot of people who migrated from the south of the Yangtze River. Chu Po's relationship network can be said to be very clear about Chu Po's jumping up and down.

"The war on the northern front will last for a long time. At such a juncture, instability on the southern front cannot be tolerated." Ji Chang is no longer a suggestion, but an extreme need. To fight back, my minister's opinion is to transfer Huanwen to the south and organize a conquest army to attack Bashu."

Liu Yan fell into silence for the time being. The conflict between Hu and Han in Han Dynasty was no longer in crisis due to proper handling. The northern line should definitely maintain steady advancement, and the stability of the southern line really became the key.

Emperor Xiaowu of the Western Han Dynasty focused on the northern front only after comprehensively resolving the troubles in the south. Once the war with Shijie Zhao and Murong Yan became protracted, whether it was the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty or the Li family of the Han Dynasty, they really needed to be eliminated first. object.

The reason why the South needs to be dealt with first is simple.Behind the hostile country in the north is the vast grassland. Whether it is Shijie or Murong Xianbei, as long as the Han army cannot be wiped out at once, they can still retreat deep into the grassland.Behind the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the south was the sea, and behind the Li family and the Han Dynasty were dense mountains and swamps. Once they couldn't hold the frontal battlefield, they had no place to retreat.

"We..." Seeing Liu Yan contemplating, Sang Yu hesitated before saying, "If the war lasts longer, the follow-up must be to fight while building the country. In this way, we can only give priority to solving the troubles in the south."

　Happy holidays folks!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)