Chapter 371 North Mansion
The third year of Wude in the Tang Dynasty was the fifth year of Taixing in the Dayan Dynasty.

This year, Dayan's Hebei province was also working hard to recover.

Last year's battle of Jinyang had a greater impact on Dayan than on Tang. This was because Tang could rely on the Yellow River and Fen River to transport grain, but Dayan relied on civilians pushing wheelbarrows through the Jingxing Pass. Even after repairs, the road was not easy to travel, and the loss of grain was great.

This is also thanks to Liu Daohe, a top internal affairs management talent, and the full support of various tribes in Daibei, which ensured that the 200,000 Yan troops had sufficient food and supplies.

But after the war last year, all parts of Hebei also needed to recuperate and recover.

Therefore, during the five years in Taixing, the most important thing for both sides was agricultural production. Without food, nothing else could be discussed.

Wang Sizheng, the strategic master, presided over the repair of the entire Jingxing defense system after carefully studying the terrain of Jingxing. At the same time, Wei Xiaoju was also strengthening the defense systems of Huguan, Shangdang and Fukouxing.

After falling into an overall disadvantage, we had to make some tactical adjustments to make up for the strategic shortcomings.

Liu Xuanji himself basically focused his energy on one thing - training troops.

After the troops were withdrawn last year, they were pulled back from Bingzhou. As soon as the New Year came, Liu Xuanji began to reorganize his troops.

The complexity of the composition of the Dayan army was similar to that of the Tang Dynasty.

Even any large force will inevitably have numerous factions within it.

The cavalry from the Tuoba tribes in the north of Dai, the miscellaneous Hu cavalry who surrendered, the powerful armies from the counties and prefectures of the two states, the surrendered soldiers from Jizhou, and the elite troops from Youzhou.

Among them, the Youzhou headquarters has the strongest combat effectiveness, followed by the Jizhou surrendered soldiers, which together are about 50,000 people.

The powerful armies of various places have the largest number of people, but their combat effectiveness is the most uneven.

For example, the more than 10,000 people led by Su's father and son were well-trained. But most of them could only be called "guarding the house".

If the siege did not require a large number of troops, Liu Xuanji would not even have recruited so many people.

Therefore, at the most tense moment of the Jinyang battle, when both sides sent out their best troops and the situation was most tense, Liu Xuanji did not use the powerful armed forces besieging the city.

Firstly, the level of trust is not enough, and secondly, they may be a hindrance if they go into battle.

But the good thing is that these powerful armies do not need his support except when they are fighting. In essence, these people are private soldiers, tenants and slaves of the powerful, not registered in the imperial army, but "local troops". Therefore, there is no way to make any claims on their combat effectiveness.

But Liu Xuanji knew that although these people were not good enough to accomplish things, they were more likely to cause trouble. In the current situation where Tang was strong and Yan was weak, when the Tang Dynasty sent troops to Hebei, these fence-sitters would be easily bewitched and join the anti-Tang camp.

After the war, Youzhou and Jizhou had less than 70,000 regular troops, including more than 30,000 Youzhou troops and more than 20,000 Jizhou troops, and even included garrison forces in counties and prefectures across the country.

Selected from the hundreds of thousands of surrendered soldiers under Liu Huzhi and Wang Xuba, after another round of selection, only 10,000 of them were used by Liu Xuanji as regular troops, and the rest were garrison soldiers.

Although their fighting capacity is acceptable, they are still not strong enough to fight against the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, the biggest thing Liu Xuanji did in the fifth year of Taixing was to expand the number of troops. According to his ideas and the current level of wealth in Hebei, it would be easy to support an army of 110,000 or 120,000.

So Liu Xuanji extended his hand to the powerful troops.

If Liu Xuanji asked them directly for people, it would cause trouble. So Liu Xuanji granted them official positions.

This official appointment was not the same as in the past, where an empty title was given, but it was to allow the Hebei tyrants to bring their elite soldiers and generals to join the central military system of Dayan.

This is equivalent to joining the regular army from local armed forces.

This was also a good thing for the powerful, because it meant that they were qualified to enter the court and the army in a real sense. Liu Xuanji did not recruit too many people, and Su Dingbian, Lu Qinzhi, Murong Jing, Wang Yong and more than 20 others led their troops to join the central army, with a total of about 10,000 people.

At the same time, the Youzhou Army, Jizhou Army and Guide Army, which were organized as regular armies, were reorganized, and the cavalry of the Daibei Tuoba tribe and the various Hu cavalry were recruited to rebuild the central army.

After the reconstruction, the Central Army had 80,000 people, divided into 12 armies and the palace guards. One army had 6,000 people, and the palace guards had 8,000 people. Because they were mostly northerners, they were called the "Northern Palace Army". As for why it was called the "Southern Palace Army", Liu Xuanji explained that "after we have recovered the Central Plains and Huaibei areas, we will re-establish the name 'Southern Palace'."

The commanders-in-chief of the twelve armies of the Northern Palace were Dongfang Di, Han Gui, Lou Daiwen, Liu Changmin, Tuoba Tianmu, Su Dingbian, Hulu Mingyue, Zhang Shiwu, Zhao Xiang, Fu Hongzhi and Zhu Lingshi, all of whom were granted the title of general.

The so-called Royal Guards were led by Liu Xuanji himself, and he appointed eight Lieutenant-Generals, all of whom were brave and fierce men, such as Mao Xiu, Zhu Chaoshi, Jing En, etc.

In addition to these 80,000 central troops, the cavalry that surrendered from Daibei and outside the Great Wall, after the selection of elite troops, still had a scale of tens of thousands of cavalry, and could be recruited immediately before the war.

In October, Liu Xuanji held a grand review in Xindu, with tens of thousands of elite troops participating. The troops were well-disciplined and looked intimidating.

Li Yuanhui, who was in Luoyang, naturally also received the news of Liu Xuanji's military review. He could not hide the developments in Hebei over the past six months.

Ever since Li Yuan received the letter from Chang'an, Li Yuanhui has been preparing to go to Chang'an at the end of the year.

As the highest military and political chief east of Shan County, Li Yuanhui had jurisdiction over a vast territory, including Qingzhou, Henei, and the Yellow River along Yanzhou, all of which bordered Northern Yan.

The Tang army deployed nearly 100,000 troops at strategic locations along the Yellow River, including Hanoi, Chaoge, Liyang, Baima, Puyang, and Jibei.

Li Yuanhui issued a clear military order early in the morning, strictly prohibiting all units from provoking and attacking without permission, and requiring them to strictly guard their defense zones and not move rashly.

Afterwards, he handed over Luoyang's government affairs to Li Baishi, and its defense to Zhu Yuanzhang.

The information about Liu Xuanji's inspection of the army in Hebei and the previous reorganization of the army were presented to Li Yuanhui's desk in detail and handed over to the generals in the hall for circulation.

"This old Liu is a restless person. He keeps making trouble. In my opinion, there will be another war next year, or the year after next at the latest. The Northern Yan army is capable of fighting, but after training, it will definitely be more difficult to deal with. We should be careful in future battles."

After reading the military newspaper, Lao Zhu expressed his thoughts. He predicted that Hebei was making such a big move and must be planning to send troops.

Zhang Jian, who was usually taciturn, said: "Liu Xuanji is learning the system of the Tang Dynasty."

When everyone heard this, they were all a little surprised, even Li Yuanhui, who had not thought of this. But think about it, the establishment of the Twelve Armies of Northern Yan is not imitating the Twelve Guards of the Tang Dynasty? From this point of view, there are indeed many similarities.

In addition, Liu Xuanji also learned the strategy of military farming that had been carried out in Jianghuai, and he learned it very well.

After Liu Huzhi and Wang Xuba were eliminated, Liu Xuanji selected the elite warriors from the more than 100,000 surrendered people and used them to cultivate land. If it weren't for these people's cultivation, he might not have been able to fight the battle in Jinyang last year.

"What is there to be afraid of Liu Xuanji? Give me five thousand cavalrymen and I will go to Hebei to capture him." The person who said this was Gao Ang, who currently serves as the commander-in-chief of Zuo Xiaowei and is in charge of five military offices.

When Li Yuanhui heard this, he was immediately happy. Compared with his father Gao Huang, this kid was too unstable. He was very fierce in fighting, but also very reckless. During the Battle of Jinyang, he beheaded many people.

Although Gao Huang led his troops to the defeat at Le'an, he was indeed a rare all-rounder. He was a tactical master who was proficient in water battles, cavalry battles, infantry battles, and siege and defense of cities, and he even had experience in naval battles.

Gao Ang was good at using cavalry, and with a lance, he could defeat ten thousand enemies. But the upper limit of his ability was to command a few thousand cavalry, because he liked to rush to the front in battle, and such a person could not be the commander of a large army.

But you can't suppress his enthusiasm too much, you also have to take into account the morale of the army, so Li Yuanhui directly encouraged him, saying that it is not appropriate to send troops now, the weather is cold, and you will naturally have the opportunity to make contributions in the future.
For such a stubborn and fierce person, you have to coax him to come and give him enough face, then he will really work hard for you.

As for who you are going to catch with your five thousand men? It's just a joke. This is as outrageous as drinking too much fake wine.

We three brothers had 200,000 against 200,000, and we had to rely on the Turks to backstab us. In a head-on battle, we could only draw. Are your 5,000 a Gundam? Or are they Xiang Yu per capita?

(End of this chapter)