Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 392 No Yuwen Hu
A strong wind blew up, blowing up sand and hitting the marching troops.

Looking around, there was yellowish sand everywhere, and nothing else could be seen except the sand.

An army of thousands of people walked slowly in the desert.

Quan Jingxuan rode a warhorse and walked laboriously to the front of the army, cursing under his breath, with cold eyes and a look of anger on his face.

The warhorse's hooves sank into the sand, making it difficult to move forward.

The wind was howling, and the road in the distance was blocked by dust. The soldiers lowered their heads and advanced painfully against the biting wind and sand.

Suddenly, a soldier shouted, and ran to Quan Jingxuan's side in a strange posture while stepping on the sand, "General! It's bad! Another seventeen people are lost!!"

"what?!"

Quan Jingxuan reined in his horse and looked behind.

The soldiers formed a long line behind him and were advancing slowly, but due to the climate and terrain, he could hardly see the troops in the distance clearly.

Quan Jingxuan became even angrier.

"I knew it! I knew it!!"

"I told Yuchi Jiong at the beginning that there are too many deserts around Lingzhou. If we want to attack from multiple points, we have to brave the cold wind to force our way across the sea of ​​sand. Most of the soldiers died before they even reached their destination!!"

"But this guy refused to listen to me and deliberately took revenge on me, leaving me to do the hardest job!!"

"Yuchi Jiong doesn't manage his troops! He is conceited and arrogant. Sooner or later, we will be defeated by him!"

Quan Jingxuan roared angrily, and the soldiers around him lowered their heads even more.

The sergeant didn't dare to say more, he just looked around and said, "General, should we send someone to look for him?"

"Why, do you want to send some more people out?"

Quan Jingxuan gritted his teeth and looked at the weather again, "Let's rest here today! Set up a bonfire so that the soldiers can keep warm."

The soldiers were shocked and said, "General, tomorrow is the arrival date that the Duke of Shu has given us."

"So he wasn't the one leading the army across the desert within the specified time limit? Can I fly over there?"

"If he wants to punish me for this, then just chop off my head! What military law? When he was defeated in Heluo, why didn't he see any military law?"

"Stand! Repair!"

The soldiers had no choice but to obey, and the marching soldiers were very happy. Marching in such an environment was truly the most difficult thing in the world.

Everyone rested on the spot, set up sentries, and made fires to cook.

Quan Jingxuan sat in front of the campfire, the firelight shining on his face, making him look even more gloomy and terrifying.

Several trusted generals sat beside him, and they were not in a good mood either.

"General, if I had known earlier, I shouldn't have rushed to Chang'an."

"We are living well in the south, why do we have to endure such humiliation from the old villain Yuchi Jiong?!"

"Those who were close to him all got good jobs, but we were ordered to take a detour to attack the enemy's rear. We were also given a time limit. Not to mention whether we can arrive, even if we do, if the other armies are one step behind, won't we have to fight alone?"

"By then, we will be unable to advance or retreat, and the enemy will be able to annihilate us completely!"

"I think Yuchi Jiong might really have such an idea. If he is late, he will punish us by military law. If he arrives, he will deliberately slow down the attack speed of the other armies and let us die in the hands of the enemy!!"

"Yuchi Jiong wanted his son to be the chief steward before, but you got the position through your military achievements. Since then, he has been somewhat dissatisfied with you. When you recommended several of us brothers to the military office before, wasn't it him who interfered?"

"And that Yuwen Xian."

"He seems fair, but everyone knows that he is closest to Yuchi Jiong. He regards him as a teacher and learns fighting skills from him. He will employ anyone recommended by Yuchi Jiong. It is clear that the two are in the same group!"

Everyone was talking about it.

The more Lao Quan listened, the angrier he became.

Quan Jingxuan had previously opened up the situation in the south and made several provincial governors surrender without a fight, which was the greatest achievement he had made without any effort. However, because his main force was defeated, he had to abandon the captured areas and evacuate with prisoners, food and fodder.

Although he did not actually occupy any area, he was the only one among several armies who managed to preserve the entire army and brought back many prisoners, supplies, and people. He also got the opportunity to have his own faction thanks to this battle.

Among the military leaders of the Great Zhou Dynasty, a big military leader was followed by a large group of small military leaders, and several big military leaders could unite to elect a super-big military leader.

The reason why Yuwen Hu tried his best to kill all the generals in the past and why Yuwen Yong was obsessed with separating the generals from the upper and lower levels after he came to power was because of this.

This also shows a shortcoming of the local military system, which is that it is easy to create a group of military leaders who hold heavy troops and can compete with the imperial court. If the imperial court has always been strong, it would be fine as long as the imperial court slightly reveals some shortcomings. However, this has been the case with local armies in all dynasties. When the imperial court is weak, no matter what system or method is used, things will turn from good to bad.

Because there are limited places in the military government, but there are so many generals, there are some conflicts of interest among the military leaders.

This conflict exacerbates mutual distrust, leading to even greater consequences.

Quan Jingxuan suddenly spoke.

“No need to say more!!”

The generals fell silent immediately.

Quan Jingxuan looked up and said, "Yuchi Jiong used to be Yuwen Hu's confidant and was very close to him. Will Your Majesty punish me because of him?"

"Yuchi Jiong was very prominent in the past, but now he is no longer the same as before."

"When a wise ruler ascends the throne, he will no longer be able to show off his power."

Quan Jingxuan stared at the bonfire in front of him. The flames were burning and jumping.
The flames were blazing.

The entire tent was on fire, and the flames that shot up into the sky lit up the entire sky red.

The soldiers' roars were heard, and the war horses with their masters galloped past the soldiers. The soldiers fell one after another, and the masked knight raised the spear in his hand, which was stained with blood.

Duke Dou Chi of Deng held a long sword in his hand, and his personal soldiers on both sides roared and fought with the knights who rushed up.

The entire camp was set on fire, and the screams of the soldiers continued to come from all directions.

Dou Chi's face turned red and the hand holding the sword was shaking.

"Where is Quan Jingxuan?!"

"Why is Quan Jingxuan not here yet?!"

"Quan Jingxuan?!"

Dou Chi's beard trembled because of his roar. The appointed time for attack had arrived, but there was no movement in the enemy's rear. He did not dare to act first, so he had to evacuate a section of the road and camp and wait.

After waiting for two days, there was no news of an attack on the enemy's rear, but Gao Changgong's elite cavalry arrived.

Gao Changgong led a large-scale cavalry and attacked with almost all his strength. Dou Chi's infantry had to face an equal number of cavalry, fully armed cavalry. It was a desperate battle.

Dou Chi watched the enemy burn his camp and his generals, sons, and soldiers die tragically at the hands of the enemy.

He raised his head and roared, his voice was sad.

"Duke! Retreat! Retreat quickly!!"

The generals rushed up from both sides, looking very embarrassed and shouting loudly.

Dou Chi, however, clenched the sword in his hand with a determined look.

"How can we outrun the cavalry?!"

"Before we set out on the expedition, I warned Yuchi Jiong: If the generals are not united, it will be difficult to accomplish anything."

"I have fought for my country my whole life, but am I going to end up like this because of a villain?!"

"Lead my horse!"

The guards immediately brought the warhorse over, and Dou Chi mounted the horse swiftly, not looking old at all. He threw away his sword, replaced it with a long weapon, and pointed at the enemy in the distance, "There is no way to retreat today. If you want to survive, you have to fight!"

"kill!!"

Dou Chi personally led his troops to charge towards the cavalry that outnumbered his own number by several times.

Dou Chi is already sixty years old this year, and his beard has turned gray, but his martial arts skills are still the same. He attacks left and right on the front line, and the spear in his hand is like a poisonous snake, attacking quickly and with one blow being fatal. He can even stab the throat of a fully armed knight, not lightly or heavily, and with just one strike, the enemy will fall off his horse and be motionless.

The armies on both sides were excited and rushed forward with roars.

Some people even threw away their long weapons and tried to exchange short weapons with the enemy.

Gao Changgong looked at the enemy army that suddenly exploded, and did not want to fight anymore. He ordered people to blow the horn, and the knights attacked and retreated quickly, coming and going like the wind.

After destroying the enemy's camp and making the enemy pay a heavy price, the knights quickly disappeared into the distance.

Dou Chi panted, holding a spear, and roared angrily. "Rat! Where are you escaping?!"

But the rats obviously didn't want to pay attention to him and quickly withdrew from the battlefield.

Dou Chi did not even dare to send anyone to clean up the battlefield. After making sure that the enemy had temporarily evacuated, he immediately led the rest of the troops to abandon their tents and defenses and left quickly.

After Gao Changgong evacuated the range of the battle, he quickly stopped and asked everyone to rest here.

The generals on both sides were very confused.

"General, you could have wiped out the enemy and beheaded their general, so why did you retreat?"

Gao Changgong took off his mask with a smile in his eyes.

"Our goal is to repel the enemy and protect the many towns from Lingzhou to Shuozhou."

"It is not necessary to kill the general and seize the flag."

"Just to kill the enemy general, we have wasted too much of our own forces, which will be disadvantageous to our future defense."

"After inflicting heavy damage on Dou Pifu's army, he no longer has the energy to attack again. Kunlong Fort will be safe for a short period of time. Our goal has been achieved, so there is no need to force anything else."

The generals looked at him with admiration in their eyes.

What a great opportunity this is. Killing a duke of the enemy. Such an achievement will make countless generals jealous. Even Your Majesty has only killed one duke so far.

He was able to suppress his desires, give up such a great military achievement, and retreat decisively.

He is truly worthy of being our general.

Gao Changgong let the knights rest here, summoned many officers, and began to discuss the post-war summary with them.

Gao Changgong never kept anything to himself. He was open-hearted with his subordinates. He not only shared his military knowledge with them, but also gave them a summary after each battle and told them where they should make improvements. He also told them about some general strategies to cultivate their overall awareness and try to make them become talented people who could rule a region as soon as possible.

"This time, Yuchi Jiong wants to use multiple fronts to pull our cavalry and cut off our front and rear connections."

"Yuchi Jiong is a veteran general, and the enemy can attack from many directions. If it weren't for the people's denunciation, we might have been in a situation where we couldn't take care of both ends."

"This time, it seems that there is a problem with the coordination of their generals, otherwise Dou Chi would not be able to stay here alone."

"But we cannot expect to win by allowing the enemy to make mistakes."

"My idea is this. Right now we are at a disadvantage in terms of military strength. We have many places to garrison and many civilians to protect. We cannot passively fight a defensive battle. Once Yuchi Jiong adjusts and attacks from multiple directions, there are many sandy areas, and our cavalry cannot rush back and forth to fight. Therefore, I think we can play to our strengths and push the battle to the enemy. It would be best if we can move around the enemy and force them not to dare to send troops, but to passively defend us."

“These areas are the most critical.”

"The enemies are not in harmony with each other, which is more beneficial to my strategy."

Gao Changgong spoke seriously to everyone. The officers formed a row around him and kept nodding their heads.

Zhou army camp.

Yuchi Jiong sat in the upper seat with a gloomy face.

Many generals were sitting on both sides, and Quan Jingxuan was among them. He had a stern and calm face, as if nothing had happened.

The tent was silent, no one spoke, and the atmosphere was so quiet that it was a little eerie.

The next moment, footsteps were heard outside the door.

Then Wei Xiaokuan was seen supporting the blood-stained Dou Chi into the tent.

Dou Chi's armor was badly damaged, and many parts of his body were bandaged, even his face had obvious wounds.

When he walked in, he immediately saw Quan Jingxuan sitting next to him.

"Ah!"

Dou Chi suddenly pushed Wei Xiaokuan away, drew his sword, jumped forward, and was about to chop at Quan Jingxuan.

"No!!"

Yuwen Xian was the first to react. He jumped up quickly and grabbed the old general's arm. Several young generals around him rushed up and controlled Dou Chi.

Dou Chi yelled, "I'm going to kill you, you bastard!!"

"How many of my men have been killed because of your delay?!"

"let me go!!"

Quan Jingxuan sat there, feeling cold all over. Just now, Dou Chi's sword was almost about to hit his head. If Yuwen Xian hadn't reacted quickly, he would have been killed.

Quan Jingxuan realized it later and was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat.

"you"

Yuchi Jiong also stood up in a hurry, "Duke, please don't be angry. I will definitely give you an explanation for this matter."

Dou Chi's eyes were red. Thinking of his subordinates and sons who died in battle, there was unspeakable pain and endless resentment in his eyes.

Yuchi Jiong ordered Dou Chi to be taken away, and also sent his famous military doctor to treat him.

After doing all this, Yuchi Jiong looked at Quan Jingxuan coldly.

"General Quan, you came back so brazenly, disobeyed military orders, and harmed your colleagues. Don't you have anything to say?"

Quan Jingxuan shook his head and said, "I have already informed His Majesty of everything I need to say. I don't need to tell you."

"If I really listened to you and took a detour to reach the destination, it wouldn't just be Dou Chi who would be helped in now."

"Your strategy is wrong. I took my men on a detour, but we only got halfway and already suffered hundreds of casualties. The weather is so cold that at night, people can be frozen to death. Many of my generals are from the south and have never seen sandstorms, let alone sandstorms in the cold winter!!"

"You deliberately asked me to do this. You are sending my men to their deaths!"

Yuchi Jiong had a stern face and extremely cold eyes. He looked at Yuwen Xian who was standing beside him. Yuwen Xian also had an ugly expression on his face.

Because Quan Jingxuan did not arrive at the specified time and even retreated halfway, Dou Chi was forced to fight alone and was later defeated by Gao Changgong. His troops suffered heavy losses and even his own son was killed.

Yuchi Jiong spoke up, "Come here, arrest Quan Jingxuan, and wait for the imperial order to arrive, and then deal with him!"

“How dare you?!”

Quan Jingxuan stood up and the warriors behind him immediately drew their weapons.

Yuwen Xian was no longer fooled by his tricks. He walked out slowly, his face no longer showing his usual modesty and gentleness. He said coldly, "I hold the emperor's seal and command all military affairs."

"Are you planning a rebellion?"

Quan Jingxuan looked at him, then looked at the warriors behind him and asked them to put down their weapons.

A soldier immediately stepped forward and grabbed him, but Quan Jingxuan was not afraid, "Just wait! Your Majesty will do justice!!"

Quan Jingxuan was also taken away.

Wei Xiaokuan looked at what was happening before his eyes and sighed again.

He stood up and slowly walked to Yuchi Jiong's side.

"Duke."

Yuchi Jiong looked at the duke in front of him and felt even more troubled.

Wei Xiaokuan said seriously: "The current situation is indeed not suitable for implementing the original strategy. Should we make some slight changes?"

"I think Gao Changgong will not miss this opportunity. He will try to push the front line forward so that we can't go all out to capture his city."

"General, you can lead the army to attack his city. I am willing to take the rest of the troops and stay in the rear to prevent Gao Changgong from achieving his goal."

Yuchi Jiong sighed again, and said seriously: "If all the generals could be like the Duke of Yun, how could we be so unlucky?"

Wei Xiaokuan did not answer.

It is a terrible thing that Yuwen Hu is the commander-in-chief, but what is even more terrible is that there is no 'Yuwen Hu' to be the commander-in-chief.

Although Yuwen Xian also had a high status, he obviously did not dare to kill the Duke like Yuwen Hu did. Well, it’s not that he didn’t dare, but he really couldn’t do it.

Killing the Duke privately would come at a heavy price, and it might even be a one-for-one fight.

May God bless the Great Zhou.

ps: Quan Jingxuan was given a high position and became arrogant and self-indulgent. He often boasted about himself and accepted bribes. He ordered the military governors to change their positions every day, which angered the officers and soldiers and made them unwilling to obey his orders. - "The Biography of Quan Jingxuan" in "The History of the Northern Dynasties"

I'm not making this up. In history, this guy became arrogant after receiving a reward. He started to disobey imperial orders and acted on his own. He was then beaten up by Huang Fachi from the Southern Chen Dynasty and almost killed.

(End of this chapter)