Commander General Guo Shao and guest envoy Zan Jurun led their army from Tokyo and marched more than a thousand miles. It was not until near October that they arrived at the border of Qizhou, today's northeast of Shijiazhuang City.
Look at the Hutuo River. Zhou Duan pointed to a quiet river in front of him. On the barren plain in autumn and winter, the river was very conspicuous.
Guo Shao was surprised to see Zhou Duan's agitated expression, and asked if there was any allusion about Hutuo River. Zhou Duan said: There is no allusion, but this Hutuo River is one of the three major rivers in Hebei. In Youyun, once you pass Yanshan, the north-south direction is flat and there is no danger to defend, but it is not entirely true. The three rivers running east-west are actually the three barriers of Hebei. The first is Juma River, which is controlled by Liao State; the second is Hutuo River, which is this one, and it is the barrier to protect the central road of Hebei; the third is Zhangshui, which is the last line of defense in Hebei. If Zhangshui is lost, there is almost no danger to defend in the Central Plains. The Later Jin Dynasty lost Beizhou, and the country was destroyed, which was actually the loss of Zhangshui.
The strategic locations of these places were not seen, but were summarized from countless wars in history. Guo Shao had read few history books, and those famous history books only recorded major events, without going into detail about specific places. If he hadn't listened to Zhou Duan's explanation, he wouldn't have known what was so important about the Hutuo River.
Zhou Duan was able to explain the situation in the north clearly. He must have read a lot of books that ordinary people could not see. People from aristocratic families, even if they were poor, seemed to be able to borrow books from relatives in the family. They were indeed more knowledgeable than ordinary people. Zuo You listened attentively at the side without saying a word. It was estimated that he could not understand these things, and there was a bit of envy on his face.
No wonder the Privy Council asked us to patrol the border and chose Qizhou. Guo Shao suddenly realized, I was a little puzzled before, Qizhou seemed not very famous and I had never heard of it, why did they choose this place? It turned out to be because of the Hutuo River. According to what you said, the northernmost Juma River was in the hands of the Liao people, so the Hutuo River became the frontier of Hebei's defense line.
That's right, but there are still important cities and towns ahead to defend, which are the frontier strongholds. Zhou Duan said, isn't Dingzhou in the hands of the Zhou army
After hearing his clear and logical speech, Guo Shao became more respectful in his words and addressed him as "Sir" instead of calling him by his name as before.
At this time, Li Chuyun rode up and said: There is no bridge on this river. We need to send people to Qizhou to find the local governor and ask them to bring things to build a pontoon bridge so that the army can cross the river.
Guo Shao thought it was a good idea, so he asked Zuo You to write a letter, stamp it with his seal, and send it across the river to contact the local officials.
He was talking to Zhou Duanzheng excitedly, but was interrupted just now, so he brought up the topic again, wanting to hear more of the civil servant's opinion. He casually said, "Foreign invaders are rising in the northeast, and the Central Plains has lost Youyun. We can only rely on this barrier for defense. Fortunately, we have more people."
Unexpectedly, Zhou Duan did not give Guo Shao any face at all, with a sneer on his face: There are too many people
The companions nearby also watched with interest to see how Zhou Duan would end up. It seemed that everyone had had enough of the journey. This guy had nothing and came here alone. In fact, he was caught at the beginning, but he always looked very arrogant.
But Guo Shao was not angry and did not do anything to Zhou Duan. Instead, he looked humble and asked curiously: Aren’t the Han people the most
Zhou Duan sneered: If we compare them by tribal bloodline, the Han people are probably the most numerous. However, can Dongjing command the Han people in Shu, Tang, Beihan and other places? Even in places like Wu, Yue and Ping, it is not certain that they can be used whenever they want. There are also many Han people in places like Youyun and Bohai in Liao. Who are those people helping
I am not wrong. Before the Huainan Campaign, there were only 900,000 households in the Zhou Dynasty. Even if some people were not registered, they were not that many. There was a hundred years of chaos at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and several decades after the fall of the Tang Dynasty. The number of people in the world was only this number. The current Zhou Dynasty emperor is good at civil and military affairs, and the government is clear, but the emperor and his ministers cannot create more people. Instead, they have been fighting for years and consuming able-bodied men, just like in previous dynasties.
Guo Shao did not refute, because he did not know the specific data, nor did he specifically ask the court officials. He was just a military commander, and those things had little to do with him for the time being. And according to his intuitive assumptions, he never thought that the Han population was a problem. In modern society, there are still too many family plannings; in ancient times, insufficient population was a big problem.
Zhou Duan added: "The Liao Kingdom not only had Khitans, but also many tribes from the Five Kingdoms of Xi, Bohai, Han, Tatar, Jurchen, Daruguo, and most of them submitted to the Liao Kingdom and served it. The number of Khitans alone may not be as large as that of Han people; but if compared with the Liao Kingdom and the Zhou Dynasty, it is obvious that the Liao Kingdom has more people, not just a little bit. Just talking about the old land of Bohai, there should be millions of people in the three northeastern provinces, the Russian coastal areas, and the northern part of Korea. The Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun are also densely populated places, with a territory comparable to the Hebei region controlled by the Zhou Dynasty; but how many Hebei regions did the Great Zhou have
It is rumored that the Liao Kingdom's standing army could immediately mobilize 300,000 cavalrymen, and if it were a long-term battle, it could mobilize tribal soldiers and conscript soldiers. The Liao Kingdom's ability to command a million soldiers was probably not just bragging. How many soldiers did the Zhou Dynasty have
After hearing this, Yang Biao shouted: This fellow is from the Southern Tang Kingdom. The Southern Tang Kingdom has colluded with the Khitan in the past. Is he a spy who is trying to boost others' ambitions and destroy his own prestige
Haha, Zhou Duan raised his head and laughed, pointing at Yang Biao and laughing. What did I just say? The Shu Kingdom and the Southern Tang are all Han people. Can the court of Dongjing Daliang use them
Guo Shao said, "Second brother, don't talk nonsense." He turned to Zhou Duan and said, "You didn't say these things when you came back last time."
Zhou Duan stopped laughing and said calmly: I couldn’t finish talking about Youzhou last time, so naturally I didn’t mention Bohai Kingdom and other places.
Guo Shaodao: According to Mr. Zhou, our Zhou Dynasty attacked the Liao Kingdom, but our strength was actually weaker than that of the Liao Kingdom.
It goes without saying. Zhou Duan said bluntly, General Guo is a general under the emperor. Doesn't he know why the Zhou emperor is so famous? He dared to fight the Liao Kingdom, which is to use the weak to defeat the strong. Think about the battle of Gaoping, Yang Gun of the Liao Kingdom led a detachment of 50,000 troops and the Northern Han army, which was more than the Zhou army; even so, the Zhou emperor still fought to Jinyang. In this northern expedition, the Zhou Dynasty only had a total of hundreds of thousands of elite troops, and it could not have more. The country could not afford to support them; while the Liao Kingdom had millions of troops. The emperor of the Great Zhou dared to attack, which was fame and strength.
Guo Shao couldn't help but feel chilled when he heard this. He was reminded that China's survival pressure in this era has reached such an unbearable level; the rise of surrounding hostile tribes has become unstoppable. He didn't pay attention to these issues before, but now after listening to Zhou Duan's detailed explanation, he suddenly realized that the strength had long been changed, but Youzhou was too far north for ordinary people to see and those with insight were unwilling to talk about it.
I think it is the country's destiny that it has reached the current situation. If the luck was a little worse, it would not be impossible to end up in a situation like the Five Barbarians Invasion of China.
The later Song Dynasty was always on the defensive and was completely unable to control the rise of the surrounding tribes. It was in that unstoppable trend that the Khitan and Jurchen took turns to dominate, and later the Mongols even plundered the world. It was probably because the Central Plains dynasty was powerless to do anything about the situation at that time; otherwise, so many nomadic peoples would not have the opportunity and space to rise, and without development space they naturally could not grow powerful.
Guo Shao felt a little depressed for a while.
Zhou Duan's words may be exaggerated, but his judgment is still credible. Since the Jin Dynasty, the Central Plains has been threatened by the Khitan, and the Jin Dynasty itself was conquered by the Liao Kingdom; the rulers of each dynasty have been like a sword hanging over their heads. In recent years, the Liao Kingdom has been in civil strife, and the Battle of Gaoping also made the Zhou Dynasty feel threatened by life and death. If the Liao Kingdom had no strength, how could it have done these things
When Guo Shao looked back, he saw a large group of people approaching the Hutuo River on the road. The group of people he saw was the left wing of the Tiger Army under his command. He sighed and looked back at everyone and said: I have always thought that China is very large and has a lot of people, but we can see that these 20,000 people are one-eighth of China's elite; these people are part of the whole country's strength to support the whole force. Everyone, we have a heavy responsibility and it is really not to be taken lightly.
After hearing Zhou Duan's alarmist remarks, all the generals looked serious and clasped their fists in agreement. Dong Zunxun said loudly: I am willing to follow Uncle Guo and fight hard to become stronger.
Guo Shaodao: When I think of the glory of the Qin, Han and Tang dynasties, all nations came to pay tribute to my country. China has always been a powerful and civilized country that all nations admire. It was said that the whole world belongs to the king. But today we have fallen to this state. I hope that one day our country can regroup and regain its former glory.
Zhou Duan and Zuo You were impressed by what Guo Shao, a military general, said.
Soon, Qizhou sent people to the army, saying that a floating bridge had been built upstream to wait for them. Guo Shao sent the general of the scout camp to ask, but he said that he had not found anything.
He immediately asked the local officials of Qizhou to lead the way, with the vanguard army going first and the main army following behind to cross the river. There was only a narrow bridge, and it was impossible for 20,000 people with baggage to cross the river on the same day. Guo Shao had no choice but to order them to set up camp by the river and wait.
In the afternoon, the governor of Qizhou came to the central army to pay his respects, bowing and nodding in a very respectful manner. Guo Shaogua's official position was the Jiedushi, and below him there were the Defense Envoy and the Tuanlian Envoy, and then the governor level. In terms of rank, he was indeed several levels higher than the governor of Qizhou.
The governor said: "There are few houses in Qizhou City, and there are not enough vacant houses for the imperial guards to live in. According to the order of the superiors, we mobilized local county militia to build ten camps on the north bank of Hutuo River near the mountains. We can only let General Guo and his brothers in the imperial guards stay outside the city. The place where the camp was chosen has a mountain in the northeast, which can block the northeast wind and can avoid the cold in winter.
After hearing this, Guo Shao thought that the local officials might not be willing to station a large army in the city; especially since there was no one to control the imperial army, they were afraid that the people in the city would be bullied and cause conflicts and troubles. At the moment, it was not convenient to argue with the governor of Qizhou and other officials, so he agreed to station in the riverside military camp first. ..