Hexi County of Wei State, which starts from Pubanjin in the east, ends at Yueyang in the west, connects Liangshan Mountain in the north, and Dahe River in the east. It is the smallest county in the Wei State except Liang County, with an area of ​​only half

It is a defensive state, but its strategic significance is very important - it is Wei's first line of defense against Qin.

More than a hundred years ago or even earlier, this land west of Hexi was occupied by the Hu Rong. The Qirong people built a city on this land and named themselves "Dali", which became the "Xirong" as the early Wei people called it.

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Of course, more than a hundred years ago, these Hu Rong people living in the land west of Hexi were no longer the pure Dali Rong people. As the years passed, more and more Hu Rong people lived here, so the Wei State later became known as

"Hexi Zahu" refers to generally.

Going back a few decades, the conflict between the Wei State and the Hexi Hu Rong was not serious. Although there were occasional instances of the Hexi Rong people invading Wei State's Hedong County and looting, it was not frequent.

Because at that time, Hu Rong in Hexi had two strong opponents, one was the Jie people of Sanchuan, and the other was the Qin State.

In the Jie tribe in Sanchuan, half of the Hu slaves in the tribe were Hu Rong from Hexi - and the rest were basically Wei, Chu, or Ba people.

For the powerful Jie people back then, they owned the vast and fertile land of Sanchuan, and they only needed to capture slaves, whether it was to herd sheep for them or to fight.

But unlike the Jie people in Sanchuan, Qin's desire for Hexi is the land of Hexi - because Hexi happens to be on Qin's "eastward route" and is a must for Qin to achieve its strategy of "setting foot in the Central Plains"

road.

However, because the Qin State was caught in the quagmire of the "Western Border Battlefield" at that time, it did not use large-scale troops in Hexi for the time being.

The so-called Western Battlefield is the battle between the three forces of "Longxi Wei Clan", "Xichui Qiang" and "Qinling Kingdom". This is a war that has lasted intermittently for nearly twenty years.

In the end, the Wei clan in Longxi was the first to be defeated by Qin. The remaining Wei clan in Longxi, with the help of Wei in the Central Plains, moved eastward to the territory of Wei, and then took root in Wei, such as the kings of Yao, Zhao Sheng and Lintao.

Wei Ji, Jiang Bi, Hou Dan and other Wei generals all came from the Wei clan state in Longxi.

After the Wei clan in Longxi was destroyed, the Qiang in the western border were also quickly defeated by the Qin State. Since Qin's strategic goal was not to "advance westward" but to "advance eastward", Qin decided to take advantage of the victory to fight against the Qiang in the western border.

The Qiang people agreed to make peace and focused their efforts on the east.

When there was no threat to the western border for the time being, the Qin State began to use troops against Hexi.

It is worth mentioning that when the Wei family in Longxi was on the verge of collapse, the Qin State had already made preparations for the "Eastern Expedition". The current Qin Concubine Yingying of the Wei State also met during that time when she was spying on the intelligence of Sanchuan and the Wei State.

She married Zhao Run, the then King of Su, who was her future husband.

A few years later, after the Qin State had completely digested Longxi County, it immediately sent its army eastward.

At that time, the Qin State chose a two-pronged tactic. The Qin State's then crown prince "Qin Shaojun Ying Ying" and Qin General Wang Lu and others led the army to attack Sanchuan, while Changxinhou Wang Jian attacked Hexi, trying to capture Hexi and Sanchuan in one go.

The two places laid a solid foundation for the "eastward march into the Central Plains".

Unexpectedly, Qin Shaojun Yingying's advance was blocked by her future husband-in-law Wei Gongzi Run. A "One-day Battle of Hangu" stunned the Qin State and completely destroyed 200,000 Qin troops.

The first strategy of advancing eastward was shelved.

At this time, in Hexi, Qin general Wang Jian surrendered to the Hexi Hu Rong who lived on that land through force, and was about to attack Wei's Hedong County. However, due to the defeat of Qin Shaojun Ying Ying's entire army, Wang Jian's army stopped midway.

In order to end the attack on Hedong County, he returned his troops to "Dali City".

Soon after, Xianyang, the capital of the King of Qin, was renamed "Dali City" as "Linwei" and vigorously fortified the city, treating it as a bridgehead for future attacks on Wei.

This made it possible that during the second confrontation between Qin and Wei, that is, during the "Five Parties Conquer Wei", the Qin army quickly attacked Hedong County of Wei State, making Hedong County present the three forces of Wei, Han, and Qin.

The chaos of fighting.

On the other hand, the Qin State sent Wuxinhou Gongsunqi, Changxinhou Wangjian and other generals to massively attack Sanchuan.

However, no one expected that in this war in which Wei was at an absolute disadvantage, Wei Gongzi Run and his then deputy general Sima An quickly wiped out the Jiejiao tribe in Sanchuan at that time, and later fought with the Qin Dynasty.

war of the army

During the battle, in the winter of that year, he attacked 800 miles in three days, got rid of the army of Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi, and fought all the way to the capital of Qin, forcing the King of Qin to return. At that time, he almost mobilized the whole country to start a war with Wei Gongzi Run.

An endless war.

Fortunately, in the end, due to the overtures of Zhao Si, the monarch of Wei at that time, and the reconciliation of Qin Shaojun Ying Ying, Qin and Wei ceased war and concluded an alliance.

Later, when Zhao Run led the Wei and Qin coalition forces to return to the mainland, they passed by Hexi, and the Hu Rong in Hexi surrendered one after another.

During this period, Zhao Run reached an agreement with the State of Qin to divide the Hexi Corridor into two parts, with "Yueyang" as the dividing line, with the west going to Qin and the east going to Wei. At this point, the land from Liyang to Pubanjin

, belongs to Wei State.

A few years later, the State of Wei transferred Sima An to serve as the governor of Hexi, and took charge of "Linwei". From then on, Hexi County not only became the transit point between the State of Wei and the Hetao area, but also became the first line of defense for the State of Wei against the State of Qin. Although the county was small in size

It's not big, but it is of far-reaching significance from strategic considerations.

At the end of November in the second year of Wei Zhaowu, it snowed heavily.

At this time, the Central Plains returned to peace again. Wei general Zhao Jiang had not yet attacked Qi due to the weather. On the other side of Daliang, the old capital of Wei, the war between the Wei army led by Wei King Zhao Run and the allied forces of other countries had ceased.

Compared with the two battlefields, Hexi County is more peaceful, which makes Sima An, the defender of Hexi, seem a little idle.

Speaking of Sima An, in recent years some people have joked that the three richest people in Wei must be these three: the first is Wei Wang Zhao Run, the second is Anling rich man Wen Shaobo, and the third is Sima An.

The reason why such a joke occurs is because when Sima An followed Zhao Run to conquer Sanchuan County, he gathered a group of slaves from the Jie tribe and the Wusu tribe because of the anecdote of "a hundred sheep destroyed the enemy".

Thousands of people.

Later, after Sima An was transferred to Hexi as the county guard, these slaves followed him to Hexi and helped Sima An jointly build Hexi. Because of this, Sima An was jokingly called the largest slave owner in Wei. Who let Wei

Apart from the imperial court, he has the most slaves under his command.

A few years later, after the Wei court ordered to gradually reduce the local army's military pay and asked the local army to raise money and food on its own, Sima An relied on tens of thousands of slaves to herd cattle and sheep for him, not only easily supporting the Hexi army, but also

He repeatedly spent money to purchase various war weapons and standard armaments built by Yecheng, which made other local armies in the Wei state hate him.

However, there is no other way. Who will let the military-rich land in Hexi leak oil?

After the Wei State divided the areas of each army, even the elite troops in the first echelon of the Wei State gradually widened their distance.

The Hexi Army in "Hexi", the Wei Wu Army in "Hetao", the Beiyi Army in "Anyi", the Shangdang Army in "Shangdang", the Shangshui Army in "Shangshui", and so on, these are the elite armies of the Wei State

, almost all have their own land for farming and grazing, but due to regional differences, the income of each army will inevitably differ.

The richest is of course the Imperial Guard, whether it is the Luoyang Imperial Guard or the Daliang Imperial Guard. After all, it is the king's division and directly subordinate to Wei Wang Zhao Run; and secondly, it is Sima An's Hexi Army, Shao Hu's Wei Wu Army, and Wu Ji's Shang Army.

After all, the Shuijun has the convenience of two natural pastures in Hexi and Hetao respectively, while the Shangshui Army has the profits of Shangshui City.

These three local armies are all regular customers of Yecheng's arms orders, making other armies jealous.

Therefore, over the years, some people may have slandered him in front of Zhao Run, but Zhao Run did not take it seriously because he knew Sima An's character too well.

According to the inquiries of Gao Kuo, the Zuodu Lieutenant of Tiance Mansion, although Sima An inexplicably became one of the few richest men in the country, his original intention has not wavered at all. He still wears armor every day and eats three meals a day.

It was a simple meal, but when placing orders for the Hexi Army, the general was very willing, and almost every weapon was on par with the Imperial Guards.

The leader of the Lun tribe, Lu Balong, gradually lost his warrior physique because he enjoyed a luxurious life after getting rich suddenly. But Sima An was different. He was a strict self-discipline. Not only did he never wear luxurious silks and satins, but he also

His sons and even the soldiers of the Hexi Army were prohibited from wearing these luxurious clothes.

In his opinion, a soldier must wear armor, keep his sword close to his body, and be ready to sacrifice his life for the country at any time. Only then can he be called an outstanding Wei soldier.

It has to be said that among the armies of all countries in the world, the Wei army has the strictest military discipline, and among the Wei army, the Hanoi army has the strictest military discipline - this is an army that has completely inherited the military discipline of the Dangshan army.

In early December, it snowed heavily. However, outside Linwei City, the Hexi Army stationed in the city braved the severe cold to train outside the city.

I saw the expressionless Hanoi soldier, crawling and rolling in the snow without any care. Even though there were thousands of people here, no one complained.

As the commander of the Hexi Army, Sima An was standing in the snow with his arms folded, staring at the training of his soldiers with a stern face.

I don't know how long it took, but a group of cavalry came from a distance. The leader, General Wei, smiled and greeted Sima An.

This man was called "Ji Yan", and he was an old man of the Dangshan Army - the two most relied-upon cavalrymen under Sima An at that time. One of them was Ji Yan, and the other was named Le Kui.

At that time, Ji Yan and Le Qu jointly took charge of the Dangshan Army's only 2,000 cavalrymen. But today, due to the convenient location, the Hexi Army's cavalry battalion has expanded to 5,000 men.

The soldiers served as generals and were very powerful, no less powerful than other cavalrymen in Wei.

"Ji Yan?"

Noticing Ji Yan's approach, Sima An turned his head and glanced a few times, nodded towards Ji Yan and asked, "What's going on?"

At this time, Ji Yan had already turned over and dismounted, shrugged and said, "Nothing unusual."

Seeing Ji Yan's behavior of shrugging his shoulders, Sima An was a little displeased and immediately scolded in a low voice: "Don't imitate Bai Fangming!"

Bai Fangming, like Pu Ban Wei Wen Xu, was Sima An's most valued lieutenant. However, compared to the more stable Wen Xu, Bai Fangming had a frivolous and willful personality, which made Sima An very unhappy. Therefore, he recommended Wen Xu to serve as Pu Ban that year.

He was ordered to be transferred to Hedong to guard Wei Ji as deputy general.

Ji Yan had long known the character of his old boss. He immediately complained after hearing this, and then changed the topic to what he had seen today: "At the end of the journey, I learned that in the pasture to the north, a row of huts had collapsed due to snow.

It caused a group of cattle and sheep to freeze to death..."

Hearing this, Sima An frowned and said, "Is this happening? What do the guards here do?"

It's not that he feels sorry for those cattle and sheep, but he knows that his country, Wei, has not yet met its demand for cattle. Therefore, as one of the few natural pastures for cattle in Wei, Hexi County contributes a lot of farmland to the country every year.

Cow, even Sima An felt distressed after losing one.

Of course, what he was most worried about was the war horses, so he immediately asked about the loss of the war horses.

"The war horses are not bad... so far, as far as I know, only a few dozen horses have been lost."

Ji Yan rubbed his hands, then took a breath of air and said, "I don't blame those people. Who knew that this year's snow would be heavier than in previous years..."

"snort!"
To be continued...