Chapter 163 God-given Advisor
"You can slow down a little. You are a young man and can withstand the hardship. I am not young anymore and can't stand this." Jia Xu sighed helplessly and spoke from behind Yan Xing.
In name, he was taken along by Yan Xing when he was fleeing from Jincheng County because he happened to be nearby.
As a hostage with bad luck, he also acts as a shield.
Qiao Yan would not let Yan Xing go while he was fleeing from Jincheng County, but because of the delay in information, he could allow him to rush out under the name of Jia Xu, or else people would be cautious because Jia Xu was still in the team.
But he was not a hostage in the true sense of the word.
When Jia Xu spoke, Yan Xing immediately slowed down his horse.
They had reached Hanyang County. After passing Shanggui in front of them, they would reach Youfufeng, which meant they had entered the territory of Sili.
As brave cavalry were not uncommon in Liangzhou, if Jia Xu and Yan Xing's team did not deliberately act alert and hurried on their way, people would not have thought that they had escaped from Jincheng County.
Yan Xing turned his horse around and saw Jia Xu waving his hand.
He said that he was too old to withstand this, but he was born in Liangzhou after all, and had received special training for a period of time under Qiao Yan's rule of strengthening both the civil and military aspects of his subordinates' physique, so he was not to the point where he could not even ride a horse to travel.
There's no need to worry about him getting into any accidents due to the bumps and bruises.
It seemed so good, but Yan Xing couldn't help but ask again: "With your ability, why do you only serve as a deputy under the command of the Lord, and not get promoted? You have to suffer such a punishment."
Yan Xing had fought with Jia Xu at Kuiyuan Gorge.
Although the people who actually took action were Chu Yan and Qu Yi, if Jia Xu hadn't been advising them behind the scenes, Yan Xing felt that they would not have been able to gain a foothold so quickly.
According to this statement, there would be no problem for Jia Xu to be a military strategist.
Think about Yan Zhong, the famous scholar who was almost pulled out by the Liangzhou Army to be used as a signboard, and then think about Jia Xu in front of him. It is easy to tell who is strong and who is weak at a glance.
Jia Xu was the kind of talent that the people of Liangzhou were eager to worship.
But in fact, in Bingzhou, Jia Xu was only a fake assistant.
This made Yan Xing feel that this was a case of unclear rewards and punishments.
Jia Xu looked at the confusion on the young man's face and said with a smile, "Do you think that you are the kind of person who dares not employ me because of my background?"
"no."
Yan Xing can draw this firm conclusion.
The number of people from Liangzhou under Qiao Yan's command was not too small. Qu Yi, Jia Xu, Fu Gan and others were all from Liangzhou. It was heard that there were also Zhang Xiu and Xu Rong who were captured from Dong Zhuo earlier.
Even though these people were once surrendered generals, they all protected their own areas under Qiao Yan, and some even held important positions.
General Huangfu, who also came from Liangzhou, was also respected by Qiao Yan during the period after Yan Xing was freed.
She didn't seem like someone who would be narrow-minded.
"Then do you think that you are a mediocre ruler who dares not employ people because of fear?" Jia Xu asked again.
Yan Xing shook his head.
This is obviously not true either.
In the dungeon that day, Qiao Yan asked him which one he should choose between loyalty and filial piety, and mentioned that his parents were asking about his life and death outside the prison. Yan Xingben was not loyal to Han Sui, unlike Cheng Gongying who owed Han Sui his life-saving favor. After careful consideration, he decided to switch sides.
But before surrendering, he asked Qiao Yan two questions.
First, he once commanded quite a few subordinates. If Qiao Yan gave him the power to command troops, why didn't she worry that he would instigate these old subordinates to cause trouble for her?
Secondly, he was persuaded by Qiao Yan to surrender because of his parents, but in fact, in Liangzhou, the ties of kinship have always been very weak, and this is not just the case between Ma Chao and his son. Why doesn't she be wary of this?
But Qiao Yan just said: "If I dare to use Ma Teng and his son, why can't I use you? Han Sui is dead, and the waves you can stir up are minimal. If I want everyone to interrogate their loyalty and make them cut out their gallbladders to prove their sincerity, then I will have no one to use. Not only do I dare to use you, I also dare to use you in a most special place."
The most special and boldest use of this is to let him take Han Sui's letter to Chang'an and go undercover to Dong Zhuo!
And Jia Xu was his military advisor on this trip.
This way of employing people made it impossible for him to say that Qiao Yan could not and dared not employ people.
Jia Xu replied: "To judge a person's effectiveness under the lord, we don't need to look at his current official position, but how much real power he has. Sometimes, having only the title of assistant is an advantage."
If his official position was too high and he looked too much like Qiao Yan's confidant, that would easily arouse suspicion.
On the contrary, in the current situation, it is just right as a bait and a sharp blade.
"Then if we fail, wouldn't this trip be in vain, sir?" Yan Xing thought for a while and asked again.
He believed in Jia Xu's vision.
If he judged that Dong Zhuo was not fooled by their actions, judging from their previous response when they escaped from the pursuers under the command of Bingzhou Mu, it would not be difficult for them to successfully escape from Dong Zhuo's men. But this back and forth is a waste of energy.
An unsuccessful deception would also damage Qiao Yan's reputation.
Jia Xu replied: "Do you really think so? If you put yourself in the shoes of Han Sui's other subordinates and look at this matter again, how would you feel? Just for this reason, this operation is worth it."
Hearing what Jia Xu said, Yan Xing couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
Because Qu Yan opened the city and surrendered to the enemy so quickly, a considerable number of people who responded to his action did not encounter any difficulties at all and directly completed the process of switching camps.
The city was broken, the people surrendered, and they were somewhat aware of the military deterrence of the Bingzhou army, but they still lacked respect for Qiao Yan.
From a short-term perspective, in the entire battle to quell Han Sui's rebellion, the only casualties occurred in the battle at Kuiyuan Gorge. This was a good thing for Bingzhou, whose population was not very abundant.
But in the long run, this lack of majesty is bound to pose a hidden danger!
Therefore, there must be a process that allows them to go through a cycle between life and death and be released, in order to fill this gap.
Yan Xing's apparent surrender and subsequent rebellion served as the perfect excuse for this outburst.
Before Qiao Yan arranged these people to "perform their respective duties", he actually had a plan to mobilize troops and capture them all in one fell swoop. However, he did not make this choice because he did not want to implicate everyone because of the fault of one person.
This thunderous shock that was about to happen was enough to make people realize that if she wanted to capture the city by her own ability, it was only a matter of time.
They shouldn't have any intention of underestimating Qiao Yan!
Qiao Yan has already made a good fortune by achieving this goal!
Then whether or not the task on Dong Zhuo's side could be completed was not that important.
Of course, it is always better to let things develop along the established trajectory than to fail.
According to Qiao Yan's explanation to Xun You and other uninformed people, Jia Xu and Yan Xing went to Luoyang in order to have an insider for their subsequent attack on Chang'an, in order to prevent any life threat to Xun You, Lu Zhi and others when Dong Zhuo was at the end of his rope.
But Jia Xu knew clearly what responsibilities he had to bear.
He looked up at the sky.
Because of the need to hurry on their journey, it was already early in the morning and the sun was about to rise.
He looked at the dawn in the sky and suddenly thought of the autumn harvest that year when Qiao Yan invited him from Suiyuan City on Baidao River to Wufeng Mountain.
At that time, Qiao Yan said that this was "a time when China is full of vigor", so why not give it a try.
But now, I am afraid that "the world will be shaken by wind and rain".
According to Jia Xu's idea of not wanting to cause trouble for himself, he should not have agreed to the task assigned to him by Qiao Yan.
But since he was already on board and knew her ambitions, why should Jia Xu do anything foolish like not getting involved in anything?
It would be better if——
First, achieve a feat that others cannot match.
Their group went straight into Sili, but they had not gone far when they were stopped by Duan Wei's followers.
After Qiao Yan captured Gaoping, Dong Zhuo completed the deployment adjustment of his generals, fearing that Qiao Yan would attack Sili directly from Gaoping City.
If at that time another army came to the city without anyone noticing, Dong Zhuo would have no way to retreat.
Therefore, since Duan Wei took over the defense west of Mei County, he also used all his careful planning skills from his previous farming in Huayin to deploy defenses here.
If we ignore the situation where a large army directly crosses the border and crushes us, Duan Wei's arrangement at this time can be described as an iron barrel.
As soon as Yan Xing entered the country, he was discovered by the patrolling sentry.
Even though Yan Xing and his "subordinates" were all brave, after having been besieged by two waves of troops, they were now in a desperate situation.
If Yan Xing had not quickly announced his purpose, he would have ended up dying here.
At this moment, Jia Xu was not feeling as comfortable as he had been along the way.
If you want to act, you have to act thoroughly.
As a hostage, no matter how the people of Liangzhou always respected celebrities, he could only be tied up tightly and thrown into a small cart loaded with food in the rear.
He looked outside through the grain bags that Yan Xing had looted from the wealthy families in Hanyang, and had some idea of Duan Wei who was guarding this place.
Dong Zhuo's subordinates suffered heavy losses in Luoyang, but they still left him with a few talented people.
This is Dong Zhuo's luck, and also... Qiao Yan's luck.
A subtle smile flashed across Jia Xu's eyes for a moment, and then he heard a noise coming from the front.
After Yan Xing fought with Duan Wei's subordinates and introduced himself, Duan Wei himself rushed here in person.
When Duan Wei heard Yan Xing say that Qiao Yan had subdued Ma Teng and defeated Han Sui, he was shocked and quickly asked about the whole matter.
The lag in information transmission these days is even more so due to the isolation of Liangzhou's poor mountains and bad waters.
Not to mention, after the defeat in Luoyang, when Dong Zhuo was defending Chang'an, in order to strengthen the defense of the new capital, he also transferred back his old subordinates who were originally stranded in Liangzhou, leaving only a few spies scattered in Liangzhou.
Originally, due to Dong Zhuo's good relations with certain Qiang tribes, he could have been informed of the changes in Liang Province.
However, Longxi and Jincheng were originally counties close to the west of Liangzhou. Under Qiao Yan's solicitation and suppression of the Qiang people, some information channels were interrupted and Dong Zhuo was completely unaware of it. There were even cases where Dong Zhuo's spies in the tribe were killed when they surrendered to Qiao Yan.
As a result, more than ten days had passed since Qiao Yan captured Han Sui, but the news was still blocked in Jincheng County. The news would not be known to the outside world until she pacified Huangzhong first and then began to implement the fourth strategy proposed by Jia Xu and massacred the old subordinates related to Han Sui.
Duan Wei was shocked by the speed of the Bingzhou army's attack. After confirming that what Yan Xing said was true and not a lie, he immediately sent someone to inform Dong Zhuo.
This is really terrible news.
After finishing this task, he turned to look at the team led by Yan Xing.
According to Yan Xing, these were Han Sui's former subordinates that he brought with him when he escaped from Jincheng by chance.
It’s a pity that after dealing with the pursuers along the way, there are only these few people left.
From the first glance Duan Wei saw, these people all had a lot of wounds on their bodies, and they could tell at a glance that they had the aura of people from Liangzhou.
There were also three or two Qiang people among them, which further confirmed the fact that they were Han Sui's followers in Jincheng.
Duan Wei looked back again and saw Jia Xu lying in the grain cart. "Who is this?"
Yan Xing replied, "This man was previously assigned by Bingzhou Mu to confront me at Kuiyuan Gorge as a military advisor. I was able to successfully escape from Liangzhou and meet the general thanks to this man as a hostage, otherwise I would have died on the road. This man works for Qiao Yan, and I wanted to kill him as soon as possible, but he said he was from Wuwei County and was an old friend of you, General Duan, so I kept him for now."
"Why, according to what the general said, you don't know this Jia Xu?"
Before Yan Xing finished his words, he had already drawn the machete at hand and chopped at Jia Xu without hesitation, looking regretful for having been fooled.
However, upon hearing the name, Duan Wei hurriedly shouted, "Wait a minute!"
If Yan Xing had not stopped chopping, Duan Wei would have almost stopped him with a knife.
The purpose of rescuing people was achieved. Duan Wei quickly asked someone to open the grain bag that covered most of Jia Xu, and helped him up. Sure enough, he saw that the person lying there was indeed Jia Xu.
He subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
Jia Xu...
Although he was not familiar with Jia Xu, when Jia Xu was recommended as a filial and incorrupt official, Duan Wei was still in Wuwei County and had some understanding of him.
However, I only heard that he first worked as a clerk in the Taiwei Mansion, and then when Qiao Yan was the governor of Bingzhou, she asked him to be an official. He didn't know anything more.
But who is Jia Xu?
That is the existence that was described as the talent of Zhang Liang and Chen Ping by Yan Zhong, a famous scholar in Liangzhou!
What would happen if he died here?
At most, he teased Yan Xing, Jia Xu and others on the way to Chang'an: "More than 20 years ago, Mr. Wenhe lied that he was the grandson of Duan Gong in order to survive the Qiang people. Today, Mr. Wenhe lied that he was my old friend in order to let this young general spare your life..."
"Sir, although Mr. Duan and I are somewhat older, we are of the same generation. You have raised yourself by two generations with just one sentence today. This is really taking advantage of my Duan family."
Jia Xu brushed off the grass ash on his clothes and replied, "Times have changed."
Duan Wei asked, "But I heard from Captain Yan that you have been following Bingzhou Governor for nearly three years, and you are still just a fake assistant?"
This is not a case of times changing.
Jia Xu was not angry when he heard this, and only replied: "If it weren't for my bad luck, I would have succeeded in Kuiyuan Gorge and Han Sui was killed. This achievement would be enough for me to be promoted. Why did Duan Zhonglang use this to make a fuss? Duan Zhonglang, following the thief Dong and running around, it's not very comfortable, right?"
Duan Wei did not respond to this. He just smiled at Jia Xu's stubborn attitude and had him settled down after entering Chang'an.
Jia Xu’s current situation is not important. What is important is the situation when he was brought back by Yan Xing.
Qiao Yan's Bingzhou Army now has the capital to attack Chang'an!
“How can it be so fast!?”
Even though Yan Xing was present in the hall at that moment, Dong Zhuo almost lost his composure and slammed the table.
He, Huangfu Song, Zhang Wen, and Sun Jian can all be regarded as people who are good at commanding troops in the world.
However, they all suffered defeats when facing the situation in Liang Province, which inevitably allowed Han Sui to successfully take root in the heart of Liang Province.
So even though Dong Zhuo knew that Qiao Yan had successfully established herself in Gaoping City and that she had joined forces with Huangfu Song, he never expected that she would complete the elimination of Han Sui and Ma Teng in June.
One surrendered, the other died—
This news was like an approaching knife at his neck, making him suddenly feel breathless.
After the rear of Liang Province is pacified, it will not be possible to raise a force comparable to Han Sui in the short term.
Even if there is, it won’t be his foreign aid.
But at this moment, the young general Yan Xing from Liangzhou seemed to be completely unaware of his predicament. He placed the blood-stained letter in front of him, looking like he wanted to avenge his old master. He said loudly: "General Han placed high hopes on the Prime Minister, but he died before the letter of request for help was sent. Shouldn't the Prime Minister send troops to seek justice for General Han?"
send troops?
Dong Zhuo is now eager to recruit soldiers in Chang'an and continue to strengthen the defense. What kind of troops should he send?
But looking at Yan Xing in front of him, he obviously couldn't say this directly.
He couldn't help but think of what Duan Wei said to him yesterday.
Duan Wei's subordinates fought with Yan Xing when he entered the country and tested Yan Xing's strength very clearly.
According to Duan Wei, Yan Xing is as brave as Sun Jian, the only thing he lacks is age.
Han Sui died, but he sent Yan Xing to him, so it was not completely useless. This is especially good considering his current shortage of generals.
What made Dong Zhuo feel that there was good news in the bad news was that Jia Xu, who was deliberately mentioned by Duan Wei, was also sent to him because of Yan Xing's request for help!
A civil official who had served under Bingzhou Mu for nearly three years and was only given the title of assistant.
The famous scholars of Xiliang highly regarded him. His talent was evident in the Battle of Kuiyuan Gorge. Moreover, he himself was a native of Liangzhou!
No matter how Dong Zhuo thought about it, he felt that this was a counselor gifted to him by God!
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