Chapter 171 – Hulukou Chukinguan

In addition to Xu Fenian and Xu Weixiong in the hall, the four people who have the highest official position and the most power are Chu Lushan (褚禄山), Yuan Zuozong (袁左宗), the commander-in-chief of the cavalry army, Zhou Kang (周康), the vice marshal of the cavalry army, and Gu Dazu (顾大祖) the vice marshal of the infantry army, for the time being, Chu Lushan (褚禄山) and Yuan Zuozong (袁左宗), the four people who are the highest official position and the most power are the most power. The latter in the Spring and Autumn wars, the world’s situation theory, as well as the South Tang must be fought outside the country as the “protection of the country” policy and is known in the world, but it seems to be a strong sense of offense Gu Dazu disagreed, do not agree with the North Liang border troops to pour the strength of the border to help Liu Yunu’s Hutou City to the end of the death, but instead of the partridge old battalion of Zhou Kang agreed with the point of view of Xu Fengyen, Gu Dazu did not even care about the scene Xu Fengyen. Without mercy, he said: ”This kind of strategic change made in haste is more of a scourge to the Northern Liang Border Army than changing generals on the battlefield! Military and state affairs are not child’s play?”

Zhou Kang also said: “The water is not constant, the soldiers have no solid formation, wait for the opportunity to move, what’s wrong?”

In addition to the rhetorical question, Zhou Kang also said some meaningful words, “think of my Northern Liang when the formulation of the military strategy of the Youliang Liangzhou, General and Li Yishan are still there, the original intention of that time was only to envision that the Northern Mang will be through the two routes of the Northern Liang and Jizhou south of the Central Plains, the Northern Mang barbarians will only be treated as a big city as solid as gold, even if it is not possible to go directly around the city, but also just here! Even if it is not possible to pass directly around the city, they will only place 500,000 to 600,000 troops to restrain my Beiliang border army, rather than the bad situation of today’s national attack on the three states of Youliangliu. Strategies and rules are dead, while my Northern Liang generals are alive! The more than 100,000 border cavalry in Liangzhou are not vegetarians!”

Zhou Kang’s “I, Northern Liang”, as well as mentioning Northern Liang’s early years of military administration and border cavalry, this old general’s implication is clear, you, Gu Dazu, are a late outsider, but you’re only the second-in-command of the infantry army, Northern Liang is honored by the cavalry, and Liang Zhou is even more so, so you, Gu Dazu, are here and now! The first thing you need to do is to be a little bit more “smart”. In fact, the military and the court is almost the same, not only according to seniority, but also pay attention to the origin, in the northern Liang like those from the infantry system into the cavalry camp of the lieutenant generals, will not be able to avoid the eyes and a long time to grind. In the Northern Liang Border Army, it was naturally impossible for Gu Dazu, who was promoted by Xu Fenian, not to have a little bit of criticism.

Xu Fengnian frowned, but did not speak. Gu Dazu also did not turn his face on the spot, but his face is not much to look at, coldly said: ”This will be just a matter of fact, no one denies that my Beiliang Border Cavalry battle force is not good, but has a strong battle force, does not mean that we lead the army to lead the army of the people can be wantonly squandered, the battlefield, just like the chessboard killing, will only be able to play the power of chess of the state players, even if a moment of a place to rule the lone or even a dragon slaying! Successful, in terms of the overall situation, it is still not worth the loss. I don’t want the Northern Liang Army to be a chess player who has the power of a 10-dan player but only the vision of a 6-dan player. Now that Northern Liang holds four states in its hands, and there are hundreds of cities, military towns, strongholds, and majestic passes in the four states, is it not necessary to weigh the survival of over a hundred pieces by taking a single piece of Tiger’s Head City?”

Zhou Kang tsked, “This tone, why do I sound like Chen Zhi Bao is talking?”

Gu Dazu finally colored angrily, “You Zhou Partridge! Today, I, Gu Dazu, will put my words here in front of Great General Zhou and the King of Northern Liang, the Northern Liang Army should not have rejected Chen Zhi Bao wholesale at all, even the King of Northern Liang has clearly stated that ‘A Compendium of Military Preparations’ should not be banned amongst the Border Armies, so why is it that a copy of the one volume shall not be allowed to appear only amongst your Zhou Kang’s Liang Zhou Cavalry Army? Zhou Kang, do you want to follow Zhong Hongwu’s example and be the head of the border army? You’ve been looking at me unfavorably for so long, and I’ve been looking at you unfavorably for not much longer!”

If it were usual, the cavalry commander Yuan Zuozong would be a peacemaker, and even slightly help Gu Dazu as an “outsider”, which roughly means that for the sake of family reunion, he, as a mother-in-law, helps his son when he quarrels with his daughter-in-law, and it is only helping his son that he really helps his daughter-in-law. But today, since Xu Fengyen is here, Yuan Zuozong is also practicing closed-mouth Zen, relaxing and recuperating. Chu Lushan this guy is even a bellyful of bad water, smilingly watching the two vice marshals there face to face, watching with interest the hilarity.

Xu Fengyen calmly said: ”Qualified to deliberate here, the head of the official hat also have three products and two products, it is time to say all the words. However, the matter of Tiger’s Head City can be checked and filled, but the decision to die for a year will not be changed.”

This sentence was said to Gu Dazu, then Xu Fengyen said to Zhou Kang: “Chen Zhi Bao’s that 『Compendium of Military Preparation』don’t ban it, General Zhou after you go back, take the lead in copying a volume, including the captains, the lieutenants and generals can’t be exempted, after copying it and sending it to Beiliang capital, I’ll personally review it, whoever gets someone to write it for him or whoever refuses to copy it, I’ll go directly to your army to have a good talk with him, if there’s still no deal, I’ll go directly to your army and talk with him. I’ll go directly to your army to talk to him, and if you still can’t reach an agreement, then let him go to Youzhou to become a foot soldier.”

Zhou Kang had a bitter look on his face, and cautiously bargained: “Your Highness, that book has more than 100,000 words, and a volume has nearly 10,000 words, the war is in full swing now, why don’t we talk about it when we have the time?”

Xu Fengyen smiled but didn’t laugh and said, “Then let’s have a good talk first? Do you want to have a little drink and let my second sister cook some food? After eating and drinking, General Zhou can also go on his way to Youzhou.”

Zhou Kang hurriedly waved his hand and laughed: “No need, no need, I’ll stay up all night copying the book, those lieutenants under my hand, I’ll make sure to finish it word by word within a decade.”

When the two deputy commanders of the foot and horsemen left the capital to go to the city where their respective tents are located, Yuan Zuozong smiled and said, “So it’s 50 sticks each.”

Xu Fengnian worriedly said, “Zhou Kang was given fifty sticks, but Gu Dazu might feel like he was given five hundred sticks.”

Yuan Zuozong asked, “Then do we need to call out to him and have a private talk. General Gu is not that kind of obstinate character, as long as the reasoning makes sense, the old general will listen.”

Xu Fengyen was a bit helpless, “But the problem is that I’m not confident that I can make sense of it, when the time comes, I’ll instead add fuel to the fire, and will only make Great Ancestor Gu even more adamant about his views, it would be better if I make a show of it like I’m doing now, and if Great Ancestor Gu isn’t sure if it’s a magic elixir I’m selling in my gourd, or if it’s dog’s skin, and if he pinches his nose he’ll just follow it.”

Xu Fengyen looked at the only three people in the hall, Second Sister, Second Brother Yuan and Chu Lushan, and laughed bitterly, “Now that it’s all our own family, we can finally not have to work so hard to pretend to be a high ranking person.”

Chu Lushan, in addition to watching the jokes of the two old generals of Zhou Gu, his sight was more on the sand table. In fact, this Beiliang capital guardian adults, the two things have been for the heck of martial arts to cover up the fierce reputation, has always been the entire Central Plains court is belittled and underestimated, especially in the Central Plains older generation of figures have died, Chu Lushan only occasionally because of that thousand horsemen open Shu and be talked about, compared to Yan Wenluan, Chen Zibao are much inferior, even worse than the Princess Tomb in the battle of the Yuan Zuozong, at that time, for the official but the fourth rank of Chu Lushan! The Northern Liang capital guards were very shocked. However, the Northern Liang army itself and the mortal enemy of the Northern Mang are not surprised, which can be seen, the Liyang court generally on the Northern Liang is how indifferent, is how its eyes do not see the heart does not bother. Chu Lushan has a sentence in the northern Liang border army in the senior widely spread, from the first time this fat man saw the sand table, he was intoxicated, no matter whether there is no war, like to stare at the countries around the sand table in a daze, no one knows that this thing what to look at, or once Princess Wu asked him, Chu Lushan only give the truth, said a sentence, “with a book a reason, read a hundred times! The meaning of the self-expression”. Later, the tripod, Xu Zhao “separation”, Chu Lushan home in Beilang, there are no less than a hundred pieces of the size of the sand table, rumor has it that the largest one occupies the entire building, the first floor does not have a foothold, want to see the sand table, you have to go straight up the stairs to the second floor to overlooking.

Chu Lushan looked at the sand table on the Liangzhou northernmost tiger city, and glanced at the southernmost xiaguang city of the gourd mouth of the Youzhou, softly opened his mouth: “tiger city is not impossible to keep a year, I thought of a reason, perhaps can convince Gu Da Zu.”

Chu Lushan said to himself, “From the moment North Mang chose Dong Zhuo as the South Court King and mobilized a million troops to knock down the Northern Liang Dao in three lines southward right from the start, it means that North Mang completely eliminated the idea of going southward from Jizhou and the two Liao, which also means that the strategy we formulated back then is bound to have loopholes. What we need to do is not just to patch things up, but to overturn the whole thing in some places. We Bei Liang also had this worst case scenario prediction at first, just that at that moment it was like going against someone, well …… let’s say it was like going against the old sword god Li Chun Gang, we guessed that the old senior might come up with a direct move of two sleeves of green dragons or a sword to open the gate of heaven.”

Xu Weixiong softly said, “Back then, I only thought that it was one of the two strongest hands, but it turns out that I didn’t expect to come up with two moves at once.”

Chu Lushan continued, “This is good, the more gruesome the battle in Hutou City, the more Liangzhou’s defense line looks critical, then the more chance we have to win by surprise. Back then ……”

Yuan Zuozong suddenly smiled and took over the conversation, saying, “Back then Chu Lushan was quite dissatisfied with the strategy set by Li Yishan, feeling that it was too ‘positive’, only thinking about not losing, rather than thinking about how to win.”

Chu Lushan laughed, “now in retrospect, at that time was to do that, without more than twenty years to cover up the ‘fill in the blanks’, which has today’s ‘leeway’.”

Chu Lushan slowly raised his head and looked at Xu Fengnian, then bloomed a brilliant mess of fawning smile, he said, “This is also the king gave me inspiration, otherwise with this little bit of brain, break the brain can not think of it.”

Probably only this kind of time would remind people of the Luqiu’er who competed with Li Gongde for the title of the number one person in the Northern Liang Slippery Realm back then.

Xu Fenian laughed and scolded, “Speak seriously.”

Chu Lushan continued without a serious look, “Didn’t the king think of this a long time ago, only that the risk was too great and he knew that Gu Dazu wouldn’t agree to it.”

Xu Fengnian nodded.

Xu Weixiong looked at the area around Hulukou in Youzhou on the sand disk, “Difficult to attack.”

Xu Fengyen said in a deep voice, “As for whether it will be difficult to defend even after it is captured, or easy to defend, we have given Northern Mang a chance.”

Yuan Zuozong narrowed his eyes and said, “Therefore with all the fortresses centered on Wolu Bow City and Luanhe City, the kind of dead guard that they looked like they were waiting for death with folded hands made Beimang themselves give up this opportunity.”

Fortunately with Yuan Zuozong Chu Lushan the same as one of Xu Snapdragon’s righteous son Qi Dangguo was not present, or else he would have a headache why he was so stupid.

Xu Fengyen said to himself, “North Mang is at first aiming to flatten Beiliang and then go straight to the Central Plains, those civil officials of the Taiping Order are going to be used in Jizhou, Hezhou and the next Huainan Road, and are not going to be wasted in Beiliang. In this case, Youzhou Hulukou’s not surrendered to death and the North Mang itself is not willing to surrender, so that the lying bow Luanhe two cities around the fortresses are in Yang Yuanzan’s army to spend a huge price to break through, nearly damaged. Of course, at the moment, it seems that the pros and cons are half and half, the benefit is that it makes it easier for the North Mang cavalry to come and go within the Hulukou, but if we place the North Mang’s most potent counter-attack in Youzhou, then Yang Yuanzan’s entire army of thirty-five that has just been resupplied with troops will have a bitter headache to eat.”

Chu Lushan added, “If we want to reverse the battle situation at Hulukou in Youzhou and force Yang Yuanzan to have to retreat, then we need to invest at least 50,000 of our most elite cavalry troops in a single battle! Directly beating up Yang Yuanzan’s elite cavalry army at the critical moment! Therefore, Hutou City must not be lost, the loss of Hutou City means that the two cities of Willow Bud Poria will also be lost, Huaiyang Pass will also be lost, once the battle line is contracted to the Qingyuan Heavy Mound area, so that Dong Zhuo’s army can comfortably advance to the south to spread the front, then not to mention that we have 50,000 cavalry troops on hand to spare, or even 5,000 will be difficult. So, for the sake of Hutou City, it may take 40,000 to 50,000 more people to die in just this one year of Xiangfu 2, but at Hulukou, they’re going to die many, many times!”

Chu Lushan smiled sorrowfully, staring at the gourd mouth on the sand table, “Three hundred and fifty thousand people, all die here, we have built up a great capital view!”

Yuan Zuozong sneered, “It’s no worse than the Western Basement Wall.”

Xu Fengnian took a deep breath, “Second Brother Yuan, but in that case ……”

Not waiting for Xu Fenian to finish, Yuan Baixiong, who always gave the impression of being unsmiling, actually broke through and said in a soft voice, “A family doesn’t talk about two families.”

Chu Lushan suddenly fawned and wanted to hook shoulders with Yuan Zuozong, but the result was that Yuan Zuozong nonchalantly reached out and slapped off that paw, “Not familiar with you.”

Chu Lushan scolded, “I’m not just a little fat, the king is not just a little handsome, you’re so judging people by their appearance?!”

Xu Fengnian laughed: “Stop stop stop, you are not just a little bit fatter, I am not just a little bit more handsome.”

Xu Weixiong looked at the aggrieved and rambling Lord Gu Dazhu, looked at that smiling and gentle Beiliang King and the heroic Yuan Baixiong, she also laughed.

Surprisingly, Gu Dazu and Zhou Kang did not leave Huaiyang Pass right away, but instead drank at a restaurant in the Pass that did little business.

Zhou Kang had a stern face as he waited for the wine and food to be served, ”What, you think you didn’t argue enough in the capital residence and want to continue? Surname Gu, if the king drinks and talks with me in his spare time, I, Zhou Kang, will be happy to do so, but I can’t pee in the same pot as you, Gu Dazu, and I can’t drink in the same pot.”

Gu Da Zu laughed: “That is, this time is different, you Zhou Partridge if the South Tang generals back then, dare to talk so chirpy, early to me a punch down. Waiting to beat down you can’t say it, then again no sense words, also the old man alone to speak.”

Zhou Kang heard this brown words, but instead of anger, smiled, “Noisy to noisy, I see you Gu Da Zu not good eyes also belong to not good eyes, but you do things in the South Tang is very manly, I Zhou Kang also never denied, otherwise you when this infantry deputy commander, even if I can not stop, but also to lead to go to the king’s side of the trouble, after all, to let you when the disturbing. But to be honest, you are just lucky, it is Gu Jiantang that guy attacked the South Tang, replaced by my Northern Liang, even if you really give you war in the country to defend the country, the same useless!”

Gu Da Zu poured himself a cup of wine, laughed softly, “Whether you believe it or not, in Bei Liang when this vice commander, no matter how you set of old generals how the old mountain is not to be treated, but compared to the year in the South Tang imperial enemy, or to be a lot more comfortable. Because I am clear, outside the sand field, you cavalry may not see eye to eye with me, but really fight the war, need for me Gu Da Zu this infantry deputy commander to die 10,000 people, you certainly will not only die 9,000 people. As far as being a general is concerned, there’s nothing under the sun that’s more comforting than this kind of thing. So the harder you scold me, the more I want to buy you a drink to save whoever clears who’s grave one day in the future.”

Zhou Kang couldn’t help but laugh, “After all is said and done, you, Gu Dazu, are just trying to make yourself happy?”

Gu Da Zu laughed, “If I wasn’t happy with myself, or else you’d scold me, I’d really be willing to put a hot face on a cold ass, ah? You, Zhou Partridge, are the Vice Commander, so you are a bigger official than me, Gu Da Zu?”

Zhou Kang froze and sighed, “Today we will only drink and not talk about military affairs, anyway, we definitely can’t talk about it. Can’t piss in a pot, but according to you after this, I think drinking a pot of wine, or no problem.”

The two old men drink to the end, are drunk, during the Zhou Kang and Gu Da Zu and scolded for a long time, which let know the two prominent identity of the restaurant shopkeeper, that called a fear, afraid of the two big shots a word on the fight, when the time to lead to the outside of the building of their respective soldiers on the battlefield, but not to his small restaurant to easily demolished? But the cold sweat at the same time, so far is still a military shopkeeper restaurant also has a feeling of some fluffy, but this is the two Beiliang army vice commander ah, who does not know that any one of our Beiliang vice marshal, to go to the court of Liyang as a general that is more than enough?

In a small courtyard where Xu Weixiong temporarily resided in the capital residence, Xu Fengyen took out the two chess boxes from his traveling bag, but Xu Weixiong didn’t want them, saying that she couldn’t use them. Xu Fengyen could only put them away unhappily.

After a moment of silence, Xu Fengyen squatted next to Xu Weixiong’s wheelchair and softly lamented, “After three trips to the rivers and lakes, I realized the bitterness of your unwillingness to let me pounce in the rivers and lakes back then.”

Xu Weixiong asked, “How so?”

Xu Fengnian laughed, “A jianghu person is someone who wants to live an interesting life on his own. As Xu Snapdragon’s son, it’s probably about having to live a meaningful life on your own.”

Xu Weixiong shook his head, “Don’t put gold on my face, and don’t give yourself good and big words. From beginning to end, I just want you to live well, it’s as simple as that. Our mother, father, and your master, and even Yuan Zuozong and Chu Lushan, none of them let you die meaningfully, preferring you to live meaninglessly.”

Xu Fenian lamented, “That’s so.”