Chapter 145

Chapter 145

Can a strategist not ascend the throne? Volume 5: The Two Han Dynasties, The Battle for Hexi, Chapter 145: Only Lacking the East Wind

The three treasures of cavalry: the saddle, the stirrup, and the horseshoe.

Bingzhou has a natural environment for training cavalry. If the military provisions are sufficient, the generals and soldiers are elite, and the battle strategy is correct, equipping these three items properly will undoubtedly provide an overwhelming advantage.

Further improvements to the stirrup ensure that it won’t trip soldiers while mounting or dismounting, which isn’t difficult for Bingzhou to achieve.

From the governor to the subordinates, everyone in Bingzhou needs to engage in mounted combat, especially the relatively younger ones. Qiao Yan’s transition from ordinary saddles to high-bridge saddles didn’t face much trouble, as it wasn’t a technical issue.

However, the horseshoe gave her a headache.

It’s not as simple as drawing an arc and nailing it to the horse’s hoof.

Historically, in Europe, there were instances where nails from horseshoes fell off, causing commanders to fall from their horses, leading to misunderstandings and defeats.

Although nailing horseshoes to the horse’s hooves doesn’t cause pain, the tools required for replacing and installing them, such as nail clippers and hoof shovels, were unknown to Qiao Yan. She could only vaguely describe the mechanism, hoping for specialized personnel to handle the production.

Bingzhou has many warhorses, but the number of people engaged in related care work is pitifully small, giving off a very amateurish vibe. This inevitably made Qiao Yan consider retraining her subordinates.

Mi Zhu’s gift-giving truly hit the mark!

The Donghai Mi Clan’s ability to accumulate such vast wealth is undoubtedly linked to their high emotional intelligence and keen insight.

Qiao Yan stood up and said, “Take me to meet these people. You’ve done well in selecting them, Zizhong.”

Mi Zhu was naturally pleased to hear this.

Qiao Yan even brought out a warhorse from the prefectural stables for the Dingling people brought by Mi Zhu to trim.

As they used tools to remove the excess “nails” grown from long-distance running and applied hoof oil for care, Qiao Yan casually asked, “With many rocky paths in Liangzhou, I’ve heard that in Jiuquan, Dunhuang, and Zhangye, they used animal skins to wrap camel hooves to protect them. Could we use wooden or iron pieces nailed to horse hooves to ensure their safety?”

The Dingling man trimming the hooves stopped and looked at Qiao Yan. Although, as Mi Zhu said, they had intermarried with Han Chinese for three or four generations, the man still retained some Hu people traits.

However, his Chinese was quite standard, “Under the horse’s hoof? Are you talking about something like this?”

He pulled out a piece of cowhide from his bag, on which was drawn a diagram of a wooden horseshoe.

What is a wooden horseshoe? It’s a wooden board shaped like a horse’s hoof, with four holes drilled into it, corresponding to four holes drilled into the horse’s hoof, fixed with wooden wedges or ropes.

According to the diagram, the materials used for the wooden horseshoe are similar to those used for wagon wheels. With iron being relatively expensive, this was naturally the optimal solution.

This item hadn’t appeared in the Central Plains because the conditions for horse riding there weren’t as harsh as in the border regions, making such troublesome methods of limited protective use.

But Qiao Yan wanted efficient operation of her cavalry. With her control over the salt and iron monopoly in Bingzhou, she indeed had the capital to produce a sufficient number of iron horseshoes.

She looked at the end of the diagram and asked, “If it were made of iron, could you do it?”

The man, maintaining the straightforward demeanor of a Liangzhou native, replied, “If the prefect needs it, I can give it a try!”

“Good!” Qiao Yan clapped her hands and laughed, immediately having him taken to the iron tool workshop to cooperate with the blacksmiths to try making the horseshoes as soon as possible.

However, she didn’t favor one over the others.

The other two groups brought by Mi Zhu were also important.

The group making chain mail was escorted by special personnel to take measurements for the generals stationed in various commanderies.

The one making mountain carts, and even whimsically applying sails to deer carts, was directly sent by Qiao Yan to cooperate with Ma Jun.

Their only goal was to perfect the mountain pushcarts to the most suitable level for combat transport before this winter.

After arranging these two tasks, Qiao Yan signaled Mi Zhu to walk with her.

After taking a few steps, her tone softened from the decisive arrangements she had just made, more like a casual chat, “Zizhong, I know the purpose of your congratulatory gifts, but aren’t you worried that if the Donghai Mi Clan encounters any trouble, being in Bingzhou, I might be too far to help?”

“Merchants must get used to losses,” Mi Zhu replied frankly, “As long as a deal has more than a sixty percent chance of success, it’s worth investing more. What I see with Marquis Qiao is more than sixty percent, so it’s worth the extra effort.”

Qiao Yan smiled, “Since you’ve offered peaches, how could I not return plums?”

When Mi Zhu returned to Xuzhou, there were more people in his entourage.

In Bingzhou’s current official and personnel arrangement system, there was one person who seemed out of place.

If he were to be used, being one of the eight commandants under Emperor Ling of Han, he should at least be given a position of commandant or higher, otherwise it would be inconsistent with Qiao Yan’s persona of following Emperor Ling’s will.

But Qiao Yan’s current military plans didn’t include him.

So rather than leaving him in an awkward position during the western expedition to Liangzhou, it was better to send him as an external bodyguard to ensure the Donghai Mi Clan’s escape if necessary.

This person was none other than Bao Hong.

Bao Hong had once been reported by He Jin for embezzling military provisions, and Qiao Yan had also inquired about it. According to Bao Hong, he did take a little, but it was within the unwritten rules of current generals, nowhere near as severe as He Jin claimed. After being reprimanded by Liu Hong, he dared not do it again.

But given Qiao Yan’s caution regarding the Liangzhou campaign, this made him even less suitable as a commandant in the western expedition.

Instead, going to the Donghai Mi Clan as a hidden bodyguard leading a team, and enjoying the offerings of a large merchant family, was a good placement for him.

Bao Hong was well aware that as a leftover from Emperor Ling’s reign, in today’s situation, it was safer to stand on Qiao Yan’s side, so this external assignment didn’t give him a chance to choose another master.

“Speaking of which, he might have another use,” Qiao Yan said to Xi Zhicai as she watched Bao Hong escort Mi Zhu away.

“Does the Marquis want to use this slightly greedy person to observe a figure in Xuzhou?” Xi Zhicai asked in return.

“More accurately, I want to see if such a person, after seeing the scene in Bingzhou, could still be swayed by Ze Rong’s talk of a Buddhist kingdom on earth,” Qiao Yan said, “This is not just a problem in Xuzhou.”

As Mi Zhu had noticed, Ze Rong rose from Xia Pi, deeply trusted by Tao Qian, the governor of Xuzhou, but he was definitely an important destabilizing factor in Xuzhou.

This man recruited followers through preaching, acting even more recklessly than Zhang Jiao, but in this almost fanatical Buddhist propaganda, he still managed to gather five to six thousand loyal households.

Even though he later repeatedly betrayed and killed those he pledged allegiance to, it didn’t change his followers’ devotion to him, showing a religious frenzy in the face of collapsing order, even more so than Zhang Jiao’s healing and preaching during the great plague.

In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Ze Rong was by no means an isolated case.

Although she had earlier used sophistry to break Zhang Jiao’s legend, fundamentally because Zhang Jiao had the intention to save people, Ze Rong did not, making his defined divine kingdom within his own scope impeccable, unless, like Liu Yao, he was crushed by military force.

But this was only a temporary solution.

The people and Buddhist followers driven by him had already, with the collapse of social order, regarded Buddhism as a refuge for their emotions.

The final act of killing Ze Rong was less about realizing the unreliability of this religious belief and more about wanting to save their own lives.

And the impact of his grand Buddhist temple constructions in Xuzhou and Yangzhou spanned almost the entire Northern and Southern Dynasties, sounding somewhat terrifying.

Although Qiao Yan’s short-term plan was still to attack Liangzhou, her vision couldn’t just stay within the boundaries of Bingzhou and Liangzhou.

“Fortunately, Mi Zizhong has a dislike for Ze Rong. If Bao Hong behaves inappropriately, timely remedies can be made. Of course, I hope he won’t need to be used in such a way,” Qiao Yan added.

She temporarily set aside her considerations of the situation in Xuzhou and turned her attention back to the internal construction of Bingzhou.

After the autumn harvest, Bingzhou was clearly transmitting the joy of the harvest and a strong sense of belonging to the newly relocated residents, creating a boiling atmosphere.

From autumn onwards, the lifestyle shifted from primarily farming to mining open-pit coal and engaging in various production lines, also drawing in the new residents.

This year, several new production items were added, specifically the equipment needed for the expedition.

Budugen also completed this year’s material exchange with Bingzhou, taking back the winter supplies Qiao Yan had reserved for him.

However, after he left, the first batch of organized…








The Xianbei people who entered the open-pit coal mine in Yanmen County were also put to work under Zhang Liao’s supervision.

Who knows if Zhang Niujiao would have much in common with these Xianbei people. After all, on their first day of arrival, regardless of other thoughts, there was one thought they all shared—Is this the food in Bingzhou?

If digging coal and working could get them this kind of food, they wouldn’t mind recognizing the Governor of Bingzhou as their Chanyu.

If Budugen found out that the subordinate he entrusted with such an important task not only failed to properly observe Yanmen County but also quickly switched sides, he might be furious when he returned to the Xianbei Royal Court.

But Qiao Yan obviously wouldn’t care about his feelings.

She sent letters to Zhang Liao and Zhang Yang, instructing them to show the military strength of Yanmen’s garrison to these Xianbei people when necessary, so they would have something to say when they returned to the grasslands next spring. Meanwhile, in mid-September, she opened the “Bag of Tricks” again, treating it as a distraction from her busy schedule.

[You have obtained leader intelligence – Han Sui]

[Rumor has it that although Han Sui is a somewhat educated scholar, he’s decent at fighting but terrible at arguing. He was once scolded to tears by Gai Xun, the Chief Clerk of Hanyang Commandery. It’s said that his fallout with Beigong Boyu was also because he couldn’t win an argument. The specifics are probably only known to the two of them.]

Qiao Yan: “…”

This piece of information, compared to Yuan Shu’s earlier evaluation of Xu You and He Yong, fits the definition of a rumor even more.

However, one person mentioned here could actually be useful in the Liangzhou campaign—Gai Xun, the Chief Clerk of Hanyang Commandery.

Gai Xun—he wasn’t the Chief Clerk of Hanyang Commandery at this time.

Liangzhou has ten commanderies: Beidi, Anding, Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, Dunhuang, Jincheng, Longxi, Hanyang, and Wudu.

During the Zhongping era, Gai Xun first served as the Prefect of Hanyang Commandery, then as the Prefect of Wudu Commandery, and was currently in the latter position.

But what kind of place is Wudu Commandery?

If Ma Teng and Han Sui from Jincheng and Longxi Commandery wanted to attack the Three Adjuncts, Wudu Commandery would be the first to fall.

Thus, Gai Xun was rescued by his subordinates and fled to other parts of Liangzhou, secretly observing and planning to retake Wudu. However, when Dong Zhuo tried to win over Ma Teng and Han Sui, he had already stripped Gai Xun of his position as Prefect of Wudu Commandery.

The edict issued in the name of Emperor Liu Xie undoubtedly deprived Gai Xun of any chance to return to Wudu.

For this, he couldn’t help but complain to the Prefect of Hanyang Commandery: “If the Son of Heaven can only issue such orders, I might as well recognize the eastern court. Who cares about distance?”

It was after this complaint that he received a letter from Qiao Yan, delivered through Huangfu Song, expressing her intention to invite him to Bingzhou to discuss the campaign against Ma Teng and Han Sui.

If anyone knew the rebel forces in western Liangzhou best, it wasn’t Jia Xu from Liangzhou, nor even Huangfu Song, who frequently fought against them, but Gai Xun, who had once served alongside Han Sui in Liangzhou and had scolded him into retreat.

If Qiao Yan hadn’t been seen as a key figure by Emperor Ling in his final years, this upright Liangzhou official would have been summoned to the capital by Liu Hong and appointed as the Governor of Jingzhao, leaving behind a legacy of refusing Dong Zhuo’s gifts after his death.

But now, being used to fill one of the final gaps in Bingzhou’s preparations for the campaign against Xiliang, it wasn’t too late!

So, after being reminded of Gai Xun’s existence by this “rumor,” Qiao Yan immediately sent the invitation.

“Qiao… Bingzhou?” Gai Xun held the invitation in his hand.

The fact that he was hiding in Hanyang Commandery to avoid Ma Teng and Han Sui’s pursuit wasn’t known to many, but Huangfu Song was one of them.

Huangfu Song’s decision to deliver this letter meant that, in his judgment, Qiao Yan was trustworthy.

Her plan to attack Liangzhou might be worth a try in Huangfu Song’s eyes.

Gai Xun was not one to tolerate humiliation and was determined to retake Wudu Commandery. How could he miss this opportunity to attack?

“Are you planning to go?” asked the Prefect of Hanyang Commandery, who was with him.

This Prefect of Hanyang was from the Zhang family of Jiuquan, a relative of Zhang Huan. After the previous Prefect of Hanyang, Fu Xie, died for his country, he was appointed to the position by Emperor Ling.

But now, with the combined forces of Ma Teng and Han Sui being so powerful, even though they had been repelled by the combined forces of Dong Zhuo and Huangfu Song, they still frequently pushed the frontlines to Hanyang.

With Fu Xie’s lesson in mind, this Prefect of Hanyang didn’t directly assume his position but instead relied on the four major families in the area to issue political orders, which allowed him to shelter Gai Xun, who had fled here.

“Why not go?” Gai Xun slammed the table and stood up. “The Governor of Bingzhou isn’t afraid of my reputation for bringing bad luck to my superiors and dares to invite me. Why shouldn’t I go and be her guide?”

“Cough…” The Prefect of Hanyang nearly spilled his tea at these words. “Let’s not talk about bringing bad luck to superiors.”

Gai Xun wasn’t wrong. His time in politics wasn’t very long, but he had already outlasted five Governors of Liangzhou. In a way, he was even more fitting of the “bad luck to superiors” label than Lü Bu.

But everyone in Liangzhou knew that the frequent changes in Liangzhou’s Governors couldn’t be blamed on Gai Xun.

The first Governor of Liangzhou he worked under, Liang Hu, was a neighbor of Qiao Xuan’s in Yanxi Lane. While Liang Hu was a decent calligrapher, he was too timid to be a good Governor, so he was quickly recalled by Liu Hong.

The second Governor of Liangzhou, Zuo Chang, who took office in the seventh year of Guanghe, actually embezzled military funds during conscription. It was because of Zuo Chang’s delayed reinforcements that Han Sui and Bian Zhang were forced to join Beigong Boyu as rebels, so the court quickly dealt with Zuo Chang.

Gai Xun soon welcomed his third superior, the newly appointed Governor of Liangzhou, Song Xiao, who was even more of a character. He came up with a “brilliant” idea: since Liangzhou was always in turmoil, it must be because the people here weren’t well-educated. So, he proposed that every household should copy the “Classic of Filial Piety.”

Even Liu Hong knew this idea was nonsense, and Song Xiao’s fate was predictable.

The fourth Governor of Liangzhou, Yang Yong, faced a famine during his tenure and was soon dismissed.

The fifth Governor of Liangzhou, Geng Bi, mishandled the suppression of rebels and not only lost his own life but also got Fu Xie killed.

Looking at the kind of people these five Governors were, it’s clear that Gai Xun couldn’t be blamed for their failures.

However, in the Han Dynasty, where prophecies and omens were盛行, Gai Xun could indeed use this as a self-deprecating joke.

“Alright, let’s not talk about that. Lend me two people first, so I can actually make it to Bingzhou,” Gai Xun changed the subject.

Before the Prefect of Hanyang could respond, Gai Xun had already turned to a young man standing nearby and asked, “Zhongyi, would you like to accompany me on this trip?”

“He’s a member of the four major families of Hanyang. What’s the point of him accompanying you to Bingzhou…”

Jiang Jiao, the Registrar of Hanyang Commandery, whom Gai Xun addressed as Zhongyi, quickly replied, “I am willing to accompany Prefect Gai!”

Gai Xun’s decade-long service in Liangzhou wasn’t for nothing. Before becoming the Prefect of Wudu Commandery, he had also served as the Prefect of Hanyang Commandery and had a good relationship with the Jiang family, one of the four major families of Hanyang.

During a famine, he used all his savings to feed the people of the commandery, earning their gratitude. At that time, he was serving as the Prefect of Hanyang Commandery.

Jiang Jiao, being young, was naturally impressed by Gai Xun’s actions and didn’t hesitate to leave his new superior behind.

Gai Xun didn’t stop him, only laughing heartily, “Good lad, good courage! Let’s go meet the Governor of Bingzhou!”

Let’s see if she truly has everything ready, as she claimed in her letter, and only needs a favorable wind to blow her into Liangzhou.

Gai Xun received the letter at the end of October.

In November of the first year of Guangxi, the craftsmen sent to Bingzhou by Mi Zhu finally managed to produce a complete set of horseshoes and their accompanying tools, which were quickly put into mass production under Qiao Yan’s orders.

This was when the benefits of Bingzhou’s bountiful harvest this year became apparent. Seeing that the state government had issued a call for labor to mine coal and iron, the people of Bingzhou, confident that they would be paid, eagerly signed up.

Meanwhile, the Xianbei people sent by Budugen to work, not wanting to be outdone by the enthusiastic Bingzhou people, had to work even harder.

As a result, in what should have been a winter of Xianbei raids in Bingzhou, there was instead the strange sight of two groups of people working side by side and competing with each other.

Although not many people actually witnessed this scene.

Qiao Yan, cloaked, walked through Yanmen Commandery and looked down at the bustling scene from the high ground of the open-pit mine, saying to the Prefect of Yanmen, Guo Yun, “Let them stop work in half a month. It’s too cold to continue after that.”

Guo Yun asked, “What about these Xianbei people?”

They couldn’t just let them eat and live for free all winter, could they?

That would make Bingzhou sound like a charity!

This loss-making business couldn’t be done.

Qiao Yan calmly replied, “They won’t be idle. Send them to Wuyuan, to Yuan Zhi’s command.”

Of course, she couldn’t let these people enjoy Bingzhou’s food and then stop working in winter. They still had to do something.

Unfortunately, these people were clumsy and unsuitable for work in the workshops.

But there was one place that was suitable.

Now that the world was divided into two, and she had already clashed with the Yuan family of Runan, following the principle of securing the interior before dealing with external threats—

Couldn’t the General Who Calms the North, Han Fu, be removed from Bingzhou now?