After Transmigration: Building a Kingdom in Turbulent Times-Chapter 544 - 538 Qihu Army

Shi Le was intercepted around Hedong County, which is north of Luoyang and not far from Shangdang.

After discovering their tracks, Xun Xiu immediately sent someone to relay the news back to Luoyang.

The three thousand troops that Wang Mi dispatched successfully bypassed Shi Le’s forces and headed straight to Bingzhou, intending to secure Bingzhou before Shi Le received any information.

Therefore, Shi Le was still unaware of the situation in Luoyang, and the Qihu Army that was holding Shi Le’s main army in check knew even less.

They merely thought Shi Le was a barbarian and that his troops were all Hu Soldiers. Seeing this stance, they believed he meant harm to Luoyang. Even though they themselves had no food or drink, they still clung fiercely to Shi Le, not allowing his troops to go to Luoyang.

While Xun Xiu sent the messages back, he also followed Zhao Hanzhang’s orders to pass the news of Luoyang to their army.

But before they could, Shi Le’s army had already received news from Luoyang; Ji Yuan was slightly faster than him.

Thus, the message they sent arrived later to Shi Le’s army but quickly reached the Qihu Army’s camp.

The Qihu Army was a combination of officials and civilians, fierce and brave in battle, but... they were poor!

Poor enough to not have food; they were originally military and civilians who fled from Bingzhou with Sima Teng, fleeing all the way until, for survival, officials and nobles of Bingzhou gathered refugees to form an army to beg for food in the Jizhou area.

At such a point of begging for food, officials and nobles naturally could not maintain their status and decency anymore, doing everything for survival; their wide-sleeved robes were replaced with narrow ones, and due to poverty, they were patched upon patches, barely covered by armor.

As they moved from battle to battle, begging through more places, fewer and fewer officials and nobles survived in the army, and eventually, except for a few scattered individuals, all others were constantly enlisted refugees, making them alike to the refugees.

With the majority being refugees, the army dragged their families along. Besides a few leading figures, there wasn’t a complete set of battle armor in the entire army, clothing was layers upon layers of patches, and most wore grass shoes they made themselves.

Their only goal was survival! So they were called the Qihu Army.

No matter who, except the Xiongnu and Xianbei, Jiehu, and other foreign forces, whoever could pay them money and food, they would fight whoever they were asked to.

Thus, today Prince East Sea paid them to seize some territory from Gou Xi, so they fought Gou Xi; tomorrow, Gou Xi then offered grains to have them hit Prince East Sea, and they turned to hit Prince East Sea.

So their target was very clear, money and grains.

Because of this, many people hired them but looked down upon them, and to date, no force fully accepted them.

Once the work was done, they would be driven out after settling money and grains, and the Qihu Army would wander around, occasionally volunteering against Liu Yuan Shile and other Hu armies to block their plundering.

It was heard that a Jin Army had arrived next door, so General Chen Wu of the Qihu Army immediately called Chen Chuan and Feng Long Li, asking them, "Who wants to go scout the situation? There’s not much grain left in the camp, we need to find a temporary food supplier."

Feng Long and Li immediately said, "We’ll go."

Chen Chuan didn’t want to go groveling and suggested they go, "Let them go, I’ll stand guard in the front."

"Alright, you two go then."

Thus Feng Long and Li took off their armor, exposing their patched clothes and were about to leave, but Chen Wu thought they didn’t look miserable enough, so he called two bodyguards and had them exchange clothes with them.

"There are a lot of cavalrymen over there, plenty of armor as well, they seem wealthy, act pitiful enough and maybe you can get some grains."

Feng Long and Li agreed with him, it was a group of soldiers who didn’t bathe for a dozen days at a time, none minding the other’s dirtiness.

Thus, the two ragged Assistant Generals stood before Xun Xiu.

"Qihu Army?" Xun Xiu frowned slightly but still forced a smile, asking warmly, "What brings you two here?"

"In front is Shi Le’s main army, is General Xun here to intercept Shi Le?"

They already heard coming into the camp that the leader was Xun Xiu of Yu State, although Yu State was quite far from here, they didn’t know why he came here.

Because they were all Jin Army, although Xun Xiu looked down on them somewhat, he still exchanged some information with them, sharing mutual insights, as they also wanted to know about the conditions of Shi Le’s army.

Thus, Xun Xiu learned they had been blocking Shi Le for five days here, and Shi Le had even executed quite a few Jin Ministers for sport, forcing the Qihu Army to retreat.

However, the captured Jin Ministers couldn’t offer the Qihu Army money and grains, and they meant less to them than Luoyang, so Chen Wu let them kill, they just wouldn’t retreat.

Feng Long asked, "Isn’t Wang Yan the Grand Commandant in there, is General Xun here to rescue Grand Commandant Wang and them?"

Li implied from the side, "We have over five thousand soldiers, all brave and skilled, able to lend the General a helping hand, except we have been starving for days, our strength is somewhat lacking."

Xun Xiu pretended not to hear, although they had brought grain, it was only enough for half a month, bought forcibly from the hands of the noblemen in the Imperial Palace, how could they give it to the Qihu Army?

There was no grain to be had, but he disclosed quite a bit of information.

For example, Wang Mi had died, perished at the hands of their Governor Zhao Hanzhang!

For example, Liu Cong had been defeated, lost to their Governor Zhao Hanzhang!

For instance, the Emperor was rescued, their Governor Zhao Hanzhang was ennobled as Ru Nan County Duke!

Finally, currently, Luoyang was governed by their Governor Zhao Hanzhang!

Xun Xiu withheld information about the Emperor moving the capital with Gou Xi, merely stating that their Governor had instructed them to rescue the Jin Ministers captured by Shi Le.

Feng Da and Li returned to the Qihu Army and said to Chen Wu, "Very stingy, not willing to give even a single measure of grain, claiming to rescue the Jin Ministers, but I see he has no intention of rescuing at all, just garrisoning nearby, General, isn’t he trying to make us work for free?"

Chen Wu pondered for a while and shook his head, " Wang Yan is inside, Wang Yan’s fame is widespread and he’s very talented, if he returned to the Emperor’s side and rallied support, half of the noble families of the world would heed his command, I’m afraid that Zhao Hanzhang doesn’t want him to return alive, perhaps the Emperor doesn’t either, so..."

"So are they trying to force Wang Yan to death?" Feng Da spat contemptuously and said, "These people truly have filthy minds, then General, should we stay here?"

Chen Wu asked, "Are they really unwilling to give even a single measure of rice?"

"Li asked three times, and he ignored it every time, clearly unwilling to give money."

Chen Wu sighed and said, "Forget it, since they’ve come, we’ll leave Shi Le to them, we’ll depart tomorrow."

He continued, "There’s not much grain left in the army, saving any more will bring trouble, we’ll head west and have a look, heard the Xianbei occasionally raided Chang’an, see if Prince Nanyang would hire us."

"Yes."