At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

If you don't take the Stone Cow Road, there is no other way for tens of thousands of troops to reach Chengdu directly. Those mountain trails simply cannot carry tens of thousands of troops through and transport food and grass.

The Yinping path is too dangerous, it was Deng Ai's dangerous move when Zhong Hui was completely helpless, and the sword was slanted, it was a real helpless move.

Zhong Hui just wanted to take a gamble, and Deng Ai was also taking a gamble. They were all betting, and they had to choose between winning and losing. Guo, who was in control of the overall situation and could only win but not lose, would not choose that way at all.

So we must follow the way of the stone cow.

If you want to walk the way of the stone cow, the natural danger that you must face is the Jiange.

The Jiange is tall and tall, but Cui Wei, one man guards the gate, and ten thousand men cannot open it. The guards or bandit relatives will turn into wolves and jackals.

This is the danger of the Jiange presented by Li Bai's personal experience and artistic rhetoric.

In terms of artistry, from a historical and military point of view, Zhong Hui led more than [-] troops. After breaking through the Yangping Pass, and under the situation where the hearts of the people in Shu were shaken, he was stunned by Jiang Wei's persistence. Break through the sword pavilion.

That was an army of 10 troops, without water, such a huge number, with an absolute superiority in force, even [-] troops could not overcome even one level, Zhong Hui was almost in a desperate situation, the army's morale was shaken, and food and grass were scarce.

At that time, there were still three strongholds of the Shu army in Hanzhong, and Zhong Hui hurried south without taking those three strongholds, which made the advance of the Wei army unstable, like a thorn in his back.

Zhong Hui wanted to make a quick decision, and quickly entered Chengdu through Shiniu Road, but Jiang Wei drifted away Deng Ai and Zhuge Xu with a move, and forced his army to Jiange to block Zhong Hui, preventing him from advancing an inch.

In that case, once he retreats, Jiang Wei, Zhang Yi, and Liao Hua will be in front of him, and Liu Yin, Jiang Bin, and Wang Han will be in Hanzhong. It is conceivable that his way of retreating is not safe, and he may face even worse conditions than Cao Shuang back then. situation.

At that time, if Deng Aiou hadn't succeeded in smuggling to Yinping, and Zhuge Zhan's tricks were not true, and he had given up the important town of Fucheng in vain, then it was still a question of whether the war of destroying Shu could be fought. years, or even longer.

It can be seen that the danger of Jiange is beyond anyone's imagination.

It wasn't that Guo Peng couldn't get an army of [-] to attack Jiange, but he felt that it was meaningless to do so. With Jingzhou under control, the difficulty of entering Shu from Jingzhou was obviously lower than that from Hanzhong.

This is also the reason for the formation of his strategic guiding ideology of attacking Jingzhou first and then taking Yizhou.

Therefore, he arranged [-] troops from Hanzhong and [-] main forces from Jingzhou, in order to set up suspicious formations in Hanzhong and disperse Liu Zhang's forces so that they could not arrange more troops to guard against the main force of Wei army in Yufu.

Liu Zhang's army suffered heavy losses. If he hadn't entered Hanzhong, he might have brought out more troops.

But after the Hanzhong Northern Expedition, Liu Zhang lost [-] to [-] soldiers, and several years of self-cultivation were not enough to restore his vitality.

Now it is very difficult for Liu Zhang to come up with more than 6 troops. Although he is still expanding his army, the efficiency is questionable, and whether the expanded army can take on big responsibilities is also questionable.

On the whole, it is not that no one on Liu Zhang's side thinks that the Wei army in Yufu's direction is the most dangerous, so the Shu army in Yufu's side is the most, a total of [-].

But despite this, facing [-] Wei troops is still a little insufficient. Once Yufu County is broken through, the natural dangers of Jiange and Mi Cang Road will lose their greatest significance.

Relatively speaking, the Wei army in Hanzhong is only [-], which is only on par with Wu Yi and Zhang Ren's troops.

The troops deployed by the Shu army in terms of Yufu obviously cannot compete with the Wei army. Therefore, the breakthrough in Yufu has become the main breakthrough direction of the Wei army.

Guo Peng never expected that the Hanzhong Front Army could break through the natural dangers of Micang Mountain and Jiange.

As long as they can play the role of dispersing Liu Zhang's forces, that's fine.

And Liu Zhang's resistance is also in line with Guo Peng's wishes. At least there is a reason to clean up the rich and noble families in Shu, and then openly inject the genes of the Wei Empire into Shu.

It also lays the foundation for the future development of Nanzhong to obtain more abundant mineral resources.

Chapter 822 - Guo Peng made a wish for unification

The army has not yet marched, and the war has not yet started. Guo has already made clear arrangements for the fist industry in central Sichuan in the future.

Not only that, he is also preparing to widen and build the Shiniu Road, open up the Shu Road, and strengthen the transportation capacity of Shu.

This can also reduce to a considerable extent the occurrence of rebellions that may occur in the future.

All inconveniences in governance can be resolved by improving the transportation environment. The more convenient the transportation, the more stable the governance. This is Guo's creed.

After the plan to enter Shu was finalized, the new year was approaching, and before he knew it, Guo found that his first year as emperor had passed like this.

Overall, the first year of Yande was a very successful year for Mr. Guo.

Not only did he set up the administrative structure of the Guowei Empire, but he also took over Jingzhou, taking another big step forward on the road to unification, which is equivalent to swearing to Quan Tian that he is a qualified unification ruler.

The legitimacy of the Wei State has been further enhanced, and the national cohesion has been further enhanced.

It is conceivable that after conquering Yizhou, such legitimacy and cohesion will be further improved.

Victory, continuous victories, victories from scratch, such victories can establish Guo's supreme prestige.

And such prestige is an important factor for the stability and firm foothold of the Wei Empire, and it is also an important support for someone Guo to launch changes in the future.

No one dared to oppose him.

All enemies will become stepping stones for someone Guo to ascend to the high platform.

In the Luoyang Imperial Palace, Guo is facing southwest, and it seems that he can see the affluent land of abundance that will soon belong to him across thousands of mountains and rivers.

For nothing else, even if it is only for the coming Little Ice Age, the existence of Shu is very important.

This reserved commercial grain production base must be properly managed and developed, which will be of great help to the large-scale grain production reduction that the Guo Wei Empire will face in the near future.

Let's unify as soon as possible, unification can accomplish great things.

At the end of December in the first year of Yande, someone Guo made such a wish in Luoyang Palace.

Throughout the first year of Yande, the newly promoted Wei officials and Wei generals each had their own expectations. As the New Year approached, they also rarely relaxed their nerves and planned to have a good family reunion.

The Shangshutai, the Yushitai and the staff desk are all busy holding a year-end summary meeting.

Soon, the year-end summary meeting of the entire imperial court will be held in the Hall of Qinzheng. Guo Peng will personally listen to the annual summary of each department and make an evaluation.

If you do things well and make few mistakes, you will naturally be rewarded, and the year-end bonus is very promising.

He is not good at handling affairs, makes many mistakes, and always has his colleagues to wipe his ass for him, so he has to worry about whether he can continue to be an official.

Wei Tianzi's administration has always valued the ability of officials the most, and those who lack the ability want to stay in the officialdom?

Especially Luoyang, the place where officials are paid the best and living conditions are the best.

But not everyone can stay.

The meeting was held on December 24, and the participants were all the heads of various departments, the big guys in charge of power.

Nearly a hundred people all gathered in Guo Peng's Qinzheng Hall, and they were divided into several seats, and the monarch and minister played in pairs, telling each other about their work summary this year.

The meeting lasted for several days, from December 24 to December 28, and the meeting ended two days before the New Year's luncheon.

The promotion decisions of a large number of officials are already in Guo Peng's hands. Out of the idea of ​​giving everyone a good rest, they decided to announce it after the next year.

After December 28, the busiest thing in the court was the New Year's lunch.

Guo Peng stipulated that the rule of the Wei Empire was that at noon on December [-], the emperor invited all the officials to have dinner together, and then in the evening, they went back to their respective homes to reunite with their families.

The emperor will give benefits and money to the ministers at the luncheon, thanking the ministers for their hard work over the past year.

Then give five days off, from the first day of the first month to the fifth day of the first month, except for the necessary rotating officials, most officials can get valuable rest time, and the emperor can also rest.

Guo Peng is undoubtedly a hard-working emperor.

Since the founding of the country, for a whole year, I only took one day off on my birthday, and had dinner with other important relatives on their birthdays, and used all the rest of the time to work.

So these five days of rest are also very meaningful to Guo Peng himself.

He's not a robot either, and he wants to rest, too, and these days are just the time to relax and prepare for a more intense war in the coming year.

So Guo Peng rarely put down the government affairs in his hands, and chose to let Su Yuan take him to visit the imperial garden that had been repaired for several months but he rarely had time to visit.

The imperial garden, the imperial garden, was built under the presidency of Xun You.

Based on the original foundation of the Eastern Han imperial palace, the imperial garden was refurbished, adding a lot of flowers and plants and rare animals, and special personnel were sent to breed them for the entertainment of Guo Peng's family.

However, Guo Peng himself prefers animals like dogs to rare plants.

In this era, domestic cats and dogs have basically lived together with humans, so Guo Peng also raised six dogs in the imperial garden, all of which are the most common rhubarb dogs in the most common farms.

The yellow dog is one of the oldest dog breeds in China, with a domestication history of 500 years.

The yellow dog has a docile personality and rarely attacks people or animals. It is mainly used for guarding the house. It also has the function of a hunting dog and is not picky about food. favorite.

Before his death, Li Si lamented to his son that he could no longer accompany him to hunt with a yellow dog, and Su Shi once wrote such words as "leading the yellow on the left and Qingcang on the right".

Guo Peng also likes dogs very much. In the past, he had no time to keep dogs during the war. After he ascended the throne, he felt that the Imperial Garden was a good place to raise dogs, so he sent someone to raise six rhubarb dogs.

Usually, when Guo Peng and his courtiers were tired of fighting for power and gain, they would go to the Imperial Garden to see the six big yellow dogs, feed them, and tease them for fun and to relieve their nerves.

Sitting in his position, it is even more understandable why some people say that the more in contact with people, the more they like dogs.

Guo Peng likes dogs, but he is not interested in the game cocks that people prefer in this era. There have never been any game cocks in the imperial garden.

Soon, news spread from the palace that the emperor liked dogs but not cockfights.

So in a short period of time, fighting cocks disappeared in Luoyang City, replaced by an upsurge of raising dogs.

All the rich and official families basically kept a few big yellow dogs for their glory.

It is the so-called good from the top, and the bottom must follow, because of Guo Peng's own special hobbies, there is an upsurge of raising dogs in the whole capital.

When Guo Peng heard about it, he just smiled helplessly. This kind of thing is not what he wants to see, but people's willingness to follow his hobbies is itself a manifestation of his power.

Now, he is sitting in the pavilion in the imperial garden, holding a pot of meat bones in his hand, watching the appearance of six big yellow dogs surrounding him, then staring closely at the meat bones in his hand, his tail wagging like a flower blooming Same, very interesting.

Picking up a bone and throwing it to Rhubarb on the right, Rhubarb opened his mouth and bit the bone in his mouth, then immediately lowered his head and began to chew. The other five looked greedy, but did not move.

Well, well trained.

Guo Peng was very satisfied with feeding the meaty bones one by one, watching them chew and chew, he smiled happily.

The little servants in charge of raising and taking care of these yellow dogs couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when they saw the emperor's satisfied smile.

As long as the emperor is happy.

Chapter 823 830 The second emperor also needs a vacation

In addition to walking the dog, Guo Peng did not give up exercising under the pressure of daily heavy government affairs.

He has always believed that building muscle is an important way to maintain physical fitness.

After becoming emperor, he further realized that his health was related to the stability of the entire empire and the advancement of his overall plan, and he could not make fun of his body.

So when he has time, he will carry out systematic aerobic and muscle training. If he doesn't have time, he will take advantage of the gap between business affairs to do Wu Qinxi and move his stiff body.

He asked the eunuchs of the Weaving Superintendent to polish the barbell for him with stone materials, and made professional exercise tools such as parallel bars and horizontal bars for him, as well as a woven cushion for him to do planks and leg lifts, so that he could practice the whole body Muscle, so that the physical fitness does not decline.

After all, he is already a four-year-old. In this age, he can no longer be considered young, and he is even considered middle-aged and elderly.

Years ago, Guo Jin accompanied Cai Wan to find out she was pregnant. Now that Cai Wan's belly has grown, Cao Lan is very happy.

Although Guo Peng hasn't reached forty yet, he is about to become a grandfather, so he can't look at himself as a young man.

It should be practiced, otherwise the foundation laid by Lu Zhi in the early years will be wiped out.

Guo Peng has always paid great attention to fitness and has a high degree of self-discipline in his daily life. He also pays attention to a high-protein diet in his daily diet, rarely eats heavy oil and meat, and strictly controls his diet.

Chicken, especially chicken breast, is his main ingredient.

Even in order to make it easier for the emperor to eat chicken, the Supervisor of Shangshan specially chose a remote corner in the palace to raise chickens.

In fact, the eunuchs in charge of management and cooks in charge of cooking in Shangshan Prison also felt very strange. They didn't understand why His Majesty always liked to eat hard and woody chicken breasts?

Don't eat delicacies from mountains and seas, don't eat the emperor's treatment, and prefer to eat that kind of unpalatable meat?

And also specifically asked to boil, cut into small pieces of diced chicken, put it in and boil it, sprinkle some salt, add some vegetables in by the way, or beat the chicken breast, then rub it with egg white, grab it, Then sprinkle some salt and steam.

This bland chicken breast was actually the food that the emperor ate the most every day. He could eat a lot of these chicken breasts in a day. The emperor didn't even eat much food, and only drank a bowl of porridge in the morning.

As far as other snacks are concerned, at most it is to eat some tonic desserts cooked by the queen, or to eat eggs. The emperor only eats egg whites, not egg yolks, and asks people to make egg yolks into porridge to nourish the women and children in the harem. .

The emperor basically didn't drink alcohol and seldom ate those stir-fried dishes carefully cooked by the old fire.

That is to say, when holding banquets during festivals, or when everyone celebrates birthdays, the emperor will eat some fried vegetables and some rice. More often, the emperor will eat boiled chicken breast and egg whites as meals, and sometimes he will eat beef.

Then there is fruit.

Seasonal fruits were indispensable in the emperor's daily diet. He could eat whatever he had, such as pears, grapes, peaches, plums, and citrus specially brought in as tribute from Yangzhou.

It's cold in winter and there are no seasonal fruits, so that's okay, Luoyang has hot springs.

In the early years, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu named Luoyang Hot Spring as Guangchengze, set up Guangcheng Garden as a royal garden, and left Luoyang from time to time to bathe in the hot spring.