Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 264: Lanling King's Battle Song
Jundushan Great Wall.

Military flags fluttered.

The soldiers stood on the Great Wall, holding bows and crossbows, in neat battle formations, looking outside solemnly.

The Great Wall stretches endlessly, rising and falling one after another, forming an impenetrable barrier around the mountains.

The three generals were standing on the city wall at this moment, looking into the distance.

Bao Xian was wearing thick armor. Even though he was old, his temperament was the most outstanding among the crowd. His big beard and square face gave him a temperament similar to Yang Zhong. Most people didn't dare to look him in the face and they only dared to stand behind him.

Behind him were two generals, one was Yao Xiong and the other was Lanling King Gao Changgong.

The Jundushan Great Wall is the junction of three states, where Yan, You and Andu all meet.

Bao Xian came as the boss of Yanzhou, while Gao Changgong came as the boss of Youzhou.

Despite having the bonus of a royal title and being born into a royal family, Gao Changgong still did not dare to act arrogantly in front of the violent old general.

When this man followed the Emperor Shenwu to mount a horse and kill people, Gao Changgong had not yet been born.

Bao Xian said nothing, just looked at the distance calmly. Yao Xiong waited for a long time before he asked cautiously, "Old General, do you want me to go and check it out?"

Bao Xian ignored him. He looked at Lanling Wang and asked with a smile, "What do you think, Your Majesty?"

Yao Xiong glanced at Gao Changgong and lowered his head sullenly.

Gao Changgong was wearing a mask, and his mood at the moment could not be seen. He looked into the distance. In the distance, he could vaguely see many Turkic tents. The cavalrymen were moving back and forth, making a lot of noise and raising a lot of dust. It was difficult to judge the number of the enemy for a while.

"Old General, this is directed at me."

Bao Xian burst into laughter.

As soon as February arrived, the Turks began to station troops on the border. More and more knights gathered and stationed at the border between Yingzhou and Beiheng.

Bao Xian immediately led Yao Xiong out of Yanzhou and came to the military capital, and at the same time ordered King Lanling to lead his troops there quickly.

Gao Changgong did not act rashly. After receiving the order, he immediately came to join them.

Bao Xian pointed to the camp in the distance and said slowly, "They wanted to attack Yingzhou at first, but they were afraid of Pi Jinghe who was stationed in Anzhou. Pi Jinghe was responsible for contacting these outsiders in the past and demonstrated his riding and archery skills in front of them many times. Pi Jinghe was not so good at fighting, but in terms of martial arts, he could compete with General Wei. People outside the Great Wall knew his reputation and did not dare to invade Yingzhou for fear of being attacked by Pi Jinghe."

"The same is true for Beiheng."

Bao Xian pointed at Yao Xiong who was standing beside him and said, "Although this guy is not good enough, he was very brave when facing the Turks before. He took the initiative to attack several times. The Turks called him 'Long-handed General' and were a little afraid of him."

"But this year, the snow outside the Great Wall is too strong, and the things they looted last year were forcibly intercepted by General Wei. They are very short of food."

"This is the border of three states, and the defense is the weakest. The Great Wall is in disrepair and severely damaged. Moreover, the governor of Youzhou is you, a young man with no reputation. Therefore, this is their main attack location."

"Look, they are building a camp here. What does this mean?"

"Xiong! I'm asking you!"

"Does this mean they are prepared for a long-term attack?"

"Ha, have you ever seen a Turkic people who could not be conquered for a long time?! This is clearly because they need to transport food and grass here. The food that horses and knights eat is very expensive. Can horses be directly put on the grassland to graze? If we want to launch a large-scale expedition, don't we need to transport the food, iron, and craftsmen here first?"

"This is a massive invasion, possibly with more than 100,000 troops. And unlike last time, this time they're going to actually start a war."

"understand?"

Yao Xiong nodded, feeling quite aggrieved.

Gao Changgong listened to his words and slowly looked into the distance, "Among all the generals, I am indeed the weakest."

Bao Xian glanced at the army in the distance and shook his head. "You are not weaker than the army you brought. The morale is high and they are charging forward. The formation is always consistent. You are very good. You just don't have the opportunity to fight."

"This time, the opportunity has come. How about making those who looked down on you pay a price?"

Gao Changgong clenched his fists.

He hesitated for a long time before coming to the border.

Gao Changgong is a gentle person, but he also has his own pride in his heart.

As a young man, he was not able to go directly to Liu Taozi and serve as a lackey for the subordinate he had once promoted.

This is not because he looks down on Liu Taozi, but he will always feel a little uncomfortable in his heart.

Because his mother was of humble origin, he was not looked up to very much from childhood to adulthood. Among his brothers, he was the last to be crowned king. Although he was not the youngest, when his younger brothers were crowned kings, he was only a county duke, not even a county duke.

It was only after Gao Yan came to power that he was crowned king.

When he first met Liu Taozi, he liked her very much and admired her very much. Over the years, Liu Taozi had made great achievements time and time again, and his achievements became bigger and bigger, but he himself was still the same, going around in circles.

This time, he submitted a memorial to the imperial court and came to Youzhou. This place was not within the jurisdiction of Liu Taozi's governorship, and he was not Liu Taozi's minister. However, because of their personal relationship and the distance between the two places, he could cooperate well with Liu Taozi.

He wanted to accomplish something here, so even if he was a subordinate who defected to the past, he at least had to come up with something convincing so that he could be treated as an equal like General Bao, rather than as a subordinate.

Bao Xian couldn't see his expression, but he could see his clenched fists and his slightly trembling body.

"how?"

"kill."

"Hahaha~~"

He burst into laughter. He liked this young royal family member very much. He was brave, kind, humble and generous. He possessed all the qualities that could not be found in most royal family members. He was beautiful from the inside out. He didn't seem like someone who could appear in this era.

Bao Xian waved his hand, signaling Yao Xiong to come forward. Yao Xiong came over on tiptoe, and Bao Xian grabbed his sleeve and said, "The border troops of Yanzhou are now in your hands. If you dare to let a Turk in, I will kill you first and report later!"

"understood"

"This time I am leading the troops from Beiheng to attack the western camp of the Turks. They have not attacked yet because they are wary of me and are waiting for me to make the first move. As soon as I make a move, they will attack from here. I am old and can't fight for many more years. I still have to rely on people like you in the future. I will create an opportunity, and you will just close the door and beat the dog. Whether you can kill it depends on your ability."

Yao Xiong hurriedly asked, "Old General, aren't you going to stay and lead the army?"

"I've done all the work, what are you going to do? Go home and herd cattle?"

"Besides, this is Youzhou's defense zone. It's not my responsibility. I'll let you guys do it on your own."

Gao Changgong asked again: "General, how should the two of us cooperate?"

Bao Xian's attitude became gentler again. "That depends on you. If you feel that you may not be able to win if you unite, then fight on your own. War does not necessarily require close combat. Sometimes, it depends on what tactics suit you best."

Yao Xiong asked, "Old General, can I split up my forces and attack individually?"

Bao Xian glared at him and said, "Go read the military strategy I gave you! If you want to go out alone and get killed, there's no need to go through so much trouble. Just jump down from here!"

He turned and left, leaving only Yao Xiong and Gao Changgong, who looked at each other.

Yao Xiong couldn't help but complain, "My king, although you are of noble birth, the discrimination by old man Bao is too obvious. Can such a person be considered a famous general?"

Gao Changgong chuckled, "Chang Ying, don't complain. I think General Bao thinks highly of you."

"Respect? He wants to scold me a hundred times a day, and make things difficult for me. He asks me questions for no reason, and if I can't answer, he will deduct my salary. I am really unlucky to follow him. When I was in the law school, I was not made difficult to this extent. He gave me a book on military strategy, asked me for strategies every day, and even played lance with me. You don't know, this old man is really good at playing chess, I have never beaten him once."

As Yao Xiong spoke, he began to feel aggrieved.

"Everyone around him is either Xianbei or Han. I am the only Qihu who cannot fit in, so he treats me like this."

"Chang Ying, if that's the case, why don't we have a big fight. The Turkic people's supplies are over there, stored in large quantities."

Gao Changgong suddenly pointed to the distance and said, "There are enough supplies for more than 100,000 people to go on the expedition. How rich it is. If we can't take them back, even if we burn them, we can still weaken them by 40%."

Yao Xiong's eyes lit up, "Attack?"

"But the old general just told us to wait for him to take action first, and then we can do it later."

"He also said that Youzhou is not his defense zone, so let us fight."

"The Turks mostly come as cavalry, and they come and go as they please. Even if we let them enter Jundu Mountain first and then attack them, at most we can leave more than 10,000 of them. The rest can still run back to the wilderness. There is no end to them, and we can't stop them at all."

"Why don't we take action first? If we can destroy their temporary camp, burn their supplies, and then start to defend ourselves, this will be more successful than killing tens of thousands of them. They want to invade on a large scale because they are short of supplies. Isn't this adding insult to injury?"

Yao Xiong rubbed his hands excitedly, "Your Majesty's idea is very good, but can it be realized?"

"Their camp has at least 40,000 to 50,000 cavalry. How many people can we gather?"

"How many people do you have under your command?"

"I have more than six hundred of the most elite knights under my command."

"I have five hundred people here."

"Is that enough?" "Yes."

"kill?"

"kill!"

Outside Jundu Mountain, there is the Turkic camp.

The tent was very large, and the guards stood around it, holding torches in one hand and knives in the other.

The firelight illuminated the entire tent.

Ashina Shetu sat in the upper seat, holding a wine cup in his hand, looking around thoughtfully.

On his left and right sat leaders of all tribes from all over the place.

He gulped down the wine and slowly said, "Everyone, the food in the Khan's tent is running out. Many of our livestock have frozen to death in this year's snowstorm. This time, the Khan has entrusted me with the task of conquering Youzhou and gathering enough food and grass."

"Not only food and fodder, but also people, those who are educated, those who can forge iron, and those who can make wooden tools, must be captured alive."

"After being defeated by the Qi people twice in a row, the Zhou people have begun to look down on us. The previous Zhou people died in the battle, and the envoys came to question us. This time, let the Zhou people see what it means to be the overlord of the grassland."

The leaders cheered and raised their wine glasses.

Shetu added: "However, Qi has many brave generals, such as Liu Taozi of Shuozhou, Bao Xian of Yanzhou, and Pi Jinghe of Anzhou. We cannot underestimate this attack on Youzhou. We should be more worried about these people. We should fight quickly and return in time after they come."

"The Zhou people's intelligence said that the person guarding Youzhou was a kid, a relative of the former emperor, and had no military merits. The Zhou people were not able to do anything else, but their information was always accurate."

"So, we will attack their capital first, destroy their capital first, then plunder the surrounding cities, and finally leave quickly. The specific arrangement is as follows."

"Buhun, after you attack Jundu, you lead your troops there."

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!"

The sound of violent war drums came from outside. Shetu suddenly jumped up and dropped the wine cup in his hand, "What happened?!"

Soon, a warrior rushed into the tent in a hurry, "Khan! Enemy attack!!"

Everyone was shocked.

Shetu hurriedly gave the order, "Protect the food and supplies! Put on armor for me!!"

The generals rushed out of the big tent and saw flames rising from the direction of the front camp, shouts of killing, and the sound of war drums, accompanied by shouts of killing, constantly penetrating towards this side.

The camp here is extremely large. Because it needs to store a lot of troops and supplies, it is almost equivalent to building a city here. It takes half an hour to ride a horse at full speed from the front camp to the back camp.

The camp was indeed built very solidly. According to the custom of the grassland, Shetu made sufficient defensive preparations in various places and did not underestimate the enemy.

But even so, he could still see the flames spreading forward at an alarming speed.

Shetu was furious, "Go back quickly and appease your respective tribes! Gather the Condor Guards! Follow me to the front camp!!"

At the same time, in the Turkic front camp, Gao Changgong charged forward with a horse lance in hand. As the lance was waving in his hand, the enemies rushing towards him fell one by one. The heavy cavalry directly destroyed the fence in front of them and charged forward. They did not take a detour, but chose the simplest road, moving forward all the way, destroying everything they could. Yao Xiong, who was following at a distance, could not keep up with Gao Changgong's charge.

Gao Changgong was wearing a scary mask, and he looked so brave!!!
"Pfft~~"

Yao Xiong saw him raise his lance high and swing it out, knocking away the oncoming Turkic officer with his horse. He seemed very angry, and all his anger was vented at this moment. He changed his usual gentle and humble appearance and roared like a real Xianbei, crazy and violent.

Seeing their commander's bravery, the knights were also in high spirits. They shouted and charged forward continuously.

Yao Xiong was left far behind and chased after him with a roar.

In the night, torches flickered, and Gao Changgong's mask looked particularly terrifying under the firelight. His whole body had long been stained red with blood. The warhorse under his crotch had been changed twice, and the weapons in his hands had been changed countless times. He seemed to never feel tired, and his hands seemed never numb. He chopped melons and vegetables all the way, rushing around. One fence after another was pushed down by him, and one tent after another was crushed to the ground.

Faced with the Qi people's increasingly powerful charges, the Turkic troops stationed in the front camp collapsed directly. They fled in all directions, causing a great shock.

They fled shouting from all directions, filling the entire camp with shouting, and it sounded as if they had already been surrounded.

Before Shetu arrived at the front camp, the enemy had already reached him.

In the chaos, he couldn't see the number of the enemy at all. He only saw people everywhere in the mountains, torches were knocked down, and flames were burning everywhere.

At this moment, the photographer felt cold all over.

It was like being suddenly thrown into an ice cellar.

The strong liquor he had just drunk was now gone, his whole body was cold, and he was a little stiff for a moment.

Looking around from his middle camp, it was no longer the original situation where only the front camp had fire. Now, the flames were spreading all around, and the fire was constantly rushing forward.
Even if the enemy is repelled, the camp and supplies cannot be protected.
Shetu slowly drew out his knife, and remembering the instructions given by the Khan before he left, he couldn't help but shudder.

He pointed his knife at the enemy in the distance. The only way to survive at the moment was to kill the enemy's main general.

"kill!!!"

Shetu roared, and then he led his most elite Shooting Guards and rushed towards the enemy.

The entire camp was shaking, screams were heard along with flames burning everywhere, and in the raging fire, the two groups of people officially met.

Gao Changgong led the knights out of the flames with their lances raised high.

Shetu roared and stabbed the enemy in front of him with his spear.

"Bang~~~"

The moment the two men fought, their weapons collided, and both of their weapons fell out of their hands at the same time, and they both fell off their horses.

Shetu got up, picked up the spear tremblingly, and looked at the enemy again.

Another rider came galloping.

Yao Xiong raised the knife high.

The knife reflected a charming light under the firelight, and the photographer's pupils continued to dilate.

The whole time seemed to be frozen at this moment.

The blade slashed through, and blood splattered.

The next moment, Yao Xiong flashed past and raised his left hand high.

On his left hand is the head of the person who took the photo.

"kill!!!"

A headless corpse stood in front, and suddenly fell down heavily.

Juyongguan.

Bao Xian was resting in the inner room, drinking tea and looking through the documents in his hand.

The next moment, the scout rushed in hurriedly.

The scout's face flushed, and he was shaking all over. "Old General! Victory news!!"

Bao Xian was stunned and frowned immediately, "Did Yao Xiong take the initiative to attack?"

"It was Lanling Wang and General Yao who attacked together. Two days ago, they attacked the Turkic tent at night, killed the Eastern Khan Ashina Shetu, destroyed their tent, defeated their army, and killed more than 24,000 people, and captured countless food, livestock and supplies."

"what??"

Bao Xian's eyes widened. "Break it? How did you do that? Where's the victory report?!"

“Here!”

Bao Xian took the good news sent by the other party and looked at it carefully.

"A thousand people??"

"One thousand people against forty thousand??"

"Did you win?"

"How did you win?"

"Someone come! Prepare the horses!"

ps: In the third year, the Turks invaded Qi Youzhou with a force of more than 100,000 people. They entered the Great Wall and looted a lot before returning. ——"Zizhi Tongjian"

After the defeat at Mangshan, Chang Gong was in the central army and led 500 cavalrymen to attack the Zhou army again. They arrived at Jinyong and were surrounded. The people on the city wall could not recognize him. Chang Gong took off his helmet to show his face, and the crossbowmen came down to rescue him. Then a great victory was won. The warriors sang a ballad about it, which became "Lanling Prince's Battle Song". - "Book of Northern Qi·Biography of Lanling Prince"

(End of this chapter)