Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 106: The Lost Han Cavalry
"Watch your left and right when marching, be careful of falling rocks!"

"No loud noises allowed. Violators will be punished with thirty lashes!"

"We must get to the foot of Sifang Peak today!"

Inside the Yanzhi Mountain, as the Three-Star Flags fluttered in the mountain valleys, Zhang Huaishen on horseback looked at the map again and again, marking one place after another that needed attention.

At this time, a team consisting of two thousand Zhangye elite soldiers and eight thousand civilian laborers was advancing in the mountains.

On the march, each group had four carriages, including two for food, one for passengers, and one for transporting armor and tents.

Each group of ten soldiers corresponds to forty civilians. The soldiers only need to walk and take turns riding in the carriages.

In comparison, the tasks of the laborers include paving roads and bridges, taking care of carriages, setting up tents, etc.

Five soldiers sat on the carriage to rest, while the other five walked on the side, changing positions every half an hour.

In this way, they can march fifty miles a day, and even in Yanzhi Mountain, they can march thirty miles a day.

It is nearly 200 miles from Shandan to Fanhe, with Yanzhi Mountain occupying more than half of the distance.

The army set out two days ago and has just entered the territory of Yanzhi Mountain.

I want to cross Yanzhi Mountain and reach Fanhe smoothly.

Including today, it will probably take three more days, which is the same date agreed with Liu Jilong.

"Governor, there are no signs of ambushes in the valleys and ravines thirty miles ahead!"

In the mountains, Jiu Juyan rode back to the central army and reported the news of the front army to Zhang Huaishen.

Zhang Huaishen was not surprised after hearing this. After all, Liu Jilong dared to propose to go to Yanzhi Mountain, which naturally showed how much he knew about Yanzhi Mountain.

There were not many Fanhe soldiers to begin with, and since Liu Jilian went out of Longshou Mountain to attract attention, it was likely that Fanhe's garrison commander Moli did not deploy any scouts in the direction of Yanzhi Mountain.

Thinking of this, Zhang Huaishen looked at Chen Jingchong, Li Yizhong, and Suo Xun behind him and said:

"The laborers' team must not be in disarray. These 8,000 laborers are crucial to whether we can harvest the rice and wheat. We must not be careless."

"The front army continues to march. We must set up camp at Sifang Peak, which is thirty miles away, today."

"According to the time, Liu Jilong should have already led his troops to Liangzhou grasslands. I just don't know whether the people of Bai Tinghai will keep their promise."

Zhang Huaishen showed a worried look on his face. Suo Xun took the initiative to say, "Although the people of Wumo are descendants of the former Hexi soldiers, they have long since stopped admitting that they are Tang people."

"It's probably unrealistic to expect them to lead the charge. If they get scared, Liu Jilong will have to shoulder the responsibility of attracting the foreign soldiers from Changsong."

After Suo Xun finished speaking, Chen Jingchong and Jiu Juyan both showed worried looks on their faces.

In order to stabilize the morale of the troops, Zhang Huaishen could only pretend to be calm and said, "Don't worry about him, he has his own rules."

"We just need to follow the agreement and leave Yanzhi Mountain in three days to attack Fanhe City."

After saying that, he looked up at the sunny sky above Yanzhi Mountain and couldn't help squinting his eyes.

It is not easy to confuse the enemy in such clear weather.

"That being said, the walls of Fanhe Castle are very thick. If we want to attack, we have to storm them."

Suo Xun frowned and spoke. He had always disagreed with using military force at this time.

He shared the same opinion as most of the generals in Hexi, that is, it would be safest to wait until the number of soldiers and armored personnel in the five states of Hexi exceeded 10,000 before marching eastward.

Fighting in the wild is not like sieging a city. You can use strategies and tactics in a wild battle, but not in a siege.

Even if Fanhe suffered heavy losses, it could still mobilize a thousand armored soldiers to defend the city, or even more.

Since there were more foreigners than Han people in the city, they could only fill the gap with human lives if they wanted to break into the city.

Thinking of this, Suo Xun turned his horse's head and glanced at the Hexi soldiers who were laughing in the carriage.

"After this battle, how many people will survive?"

Thinking of this, Suo Xun couldn't help feeling sad.

He was not sad about the lives of his soldiers, but he was sad about how many years it would take for them to accumulate strength and move eastward after losing these soldiers.

"It is not necessary to attack Fanhe, as long as we can harvest the millet and wheat in Fanhe."

Zhang Huaishen did not regard the recovery of Fanhe as the goal of this battle. As long as they could harvest the millet and wheat in Fanhe, they would win the battle.

Although the cities in Liangzhou had stored a lot of food and fodder, the millet and wheat in Hexi could only be stored in the warehouses for five years.

If the millet and wheat in Fanhe are harvested by them, how many years can Fanhe's granary last?
The five cities in Liangzhou are independent of each other, and the other cities will never lend food to Fanhe. Therefore, when the Hexi army comes out of Yanzhi Mountain, it will be much easier to recapture Fanhe.

But Zhang Huaishen didn't know why Liu Jilong dared to say that he could conquer Fanhe, and...

How could he be sure of holding on to Fanhe after taking it? What did he rely on?
"Liu Jilong, what on earth are you going to do..."

For a moment, Zhang Huaishen suddenly felt that he was beginning to understand Liu Jilong less and less.

“Gee…Gee…Gee…”

When Zhang Huaishen was curious about how Liu Jilong was going to fight this battle, the dull and dense sound of horse hooves suddenly came from the northern part of Liangzhou grassland, hundreds of miles away from them.

A huge herd of horses swept down from the north, almost covering the sky and the sun.

Thousands of light cavalry wearing fur coats and carrying scimitars on their waists explored in all directions, while under the banner of the army was a thousand cavalrymen, some riding two horses, some riding one horse, and some carrying armor.

With scouts on the periphery keeping watch, these one thousand elite cavalry can go into battle lightly, placing their armor on the backs of their horses behind them and moving with the army, only dismounting and putting on their armor when it is time to fight.

It was clearly not even noon, but the troops slowly stopped.

A young man rode his horse to the bottom of the banner and saw that his own side had begun to build a tent.

Curious, he dismounted, walked to the side of the tent, saluted and said, "Yeah, why did we stop?"

Hearing this, Dugazhi turned around and looked at the young man: "Haha, I said that a mere 5,000 kilograms of iron can't satisfy my appetite at all."

"Don't those Tang generals think they are brave? If you have the guts, let them attract Changsong's foreign soldiers themselves."

"We will set up camp here. Unless they raise the price, I will never send troops!"

Dugazhi wanted to raise the price, but the young man didn't say anything after hearing this, but continued:
"But if we wait here, what if they really go to rob Changsong?"

"Impossible!" Dugazhi sat on a stool beside him with a big golden sword:

"Changsong is in the easternmost part of Liangzhou, and Ganzhou is in the western part of Liangzhou."

"If they attack Changsong, not only will they be easily cut off, but they won't be able to take anything away. What are they trying to achieve?"

"What if they don't care about us?" the young man frowned and asked, but Dugazhi laughed:
"It's just right that they don't care about us. When they are fighting with the monk Mo Ling and getting beaten to a pulp, we will immediately head south to plunder Changsong, and we won't even let Guzang go!"

Dugazhi wanted to be the oriole and treated the Ganzhou army and the Liangzhou foreign soldiers as the mantis and the cicada.

At this time, the distance between them and Guzang and Changsong was about eighty miles. Once the foreign soldiers of Guzang were transferred to Fanhe, they would only need one day to raid the city of Guzang or Changsong.

By the time their army gathered and left the city, I would have already harvested a large amount of food, and even if I retreated, I would still be able to make a fortune.

Thinking of this, Dugazhi was in a happy mood.

Under his command, more than 13,000 Umu troops set up camp on the spot, waiting patiently for Liu Jilian and Shang Moling to fight.

In just one hour, a camp was erected on the grassland.

Dugazhi took the young man to his tent and sat down, then poured himself a glass of kumis.

Seeing him drinking leisurely, the young man couldn't help but say, "Yeah, we were once Tang people too, why can't we join forces with Zhang Yichao and the others?"

The young man's words made Dugazhi pause. He looked at the young man with complicated eyes: "Dulun Xiga, do you know our origins?"

He called his youngest son by his name, and Du Lunxijia nodded and said, "We are the descendants of the soldiers who lost Hexi in the past. Our ancestors' surname was Du, so we call ourselves the Du tribe."

"Then why do you think we are nomads in Baiting Sea?" Dugazhi continued to ask him, and this time Du Lunxiga remained silent.

It's not that he doesn't know the answer, but he doesn't want to say it.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Dugazhi took a sip of mare's milk and wiped his mouth: "It was because the Tang Dynasty didn't want us, so we grazed in Baitinghai and Xiutuze for a living, and later summoned Cao, Yang, Liu and other tribes, and finally formed the current situation."

"It is the Tang Dynasty that has let us down, not us."

"We keep our Han surnames to show that we have not forgotten our ancestors, but the Tang Dynasty has wronged us. Why should we still be loyal to the Tang Dynasty?"

"I don't know what kind of people Zhang Yichao and his group are."

"If they are all treacherous people, they will secede from Hexi in the future. At that time, they will only deal with us, not pacify us."

Hearing this, Du Lun Xijia said in a deep voice: "What if they are all loyal and righteous people?"

"Loyalty?" Dugazhi laughed, "Then their fate will be miserable, even more miserable than ours!"

"..." Du Lun Xiga was silent. He wanted to convince his own Ye Ye, but reality told him that his own Ye Ye was right.

"The closer they get to the Tang Dynasty, the worse they will be. It's us who will..."

Dugazhi drank another sip happily and burped: "We will be able to become stronger by then."

He did not say why, and Duryodhana did not ask.

After a long time, the camp was completely set up, and Dugazhi also ordered Dulun Xiga to send out 3,000 light cavalry to search 50 miles south and keep a close eye on the situation in Changsong and Guzang.

Once the defenders of Changsong and Guzang left the city to rescue Fanhe, Dugazhi would order his troops to march south without hesitation.

Now they need to wait for the Tang army in Ganzhou and the foreign army in Liangzhou to fight.

As long as they fought, the Umo tribe would receive a fortune from the sky. However, while they were waiting for the two sides to fight, a troop of soldiers arrived near the Macheng River, more than 60 miles away from them.

The fluttering Three Stars flag revealed their identities, and Liu Jilong dismounted from his horse and asked Huke Guang to take his mount to drink water.

Since Liu Jilong's literacy education also included some hygiene education, none of the Shandan elite cavalry went directly to drink water.

In the Shandan Army, no matter how hungry and thirsty they were, they would not drink fresh water directly from the wild.

Many Shandan soldiers held water bags and drank water carefully.

More than 600 herdsmen and more than 200 captives were organized into four regiments by Liu Jilian, who were slaughtering cattle by the water at this time.

Among the captured herds, there were quite a few horses and oxen, but Liu Jilong ordered all the sheep to be slaughtered.

Hundreds of sheep were slaughtered, and some difficult-to-handle internal organs were thrown into the Macheng River, rushing towards the Baiting Sea in the north.

They were still more than twenty miles away from Guzang City at this time, and it was no surprise that the scouts of Guzang City would discover them if they lit a bonfire.

Even so, Liu Jilong did not hide it, because he wanted to tell Shang Moling openly that he was going to fight Changsong.

As for whether he believed it or not, that was not something Liu Jilong needed to worry about.

Soon, the smoke from the bonfire attracted the scouts of Guzang City. They approached the main camp of the Shandan elite cavalry, but were driven away by the Tang cavalry on the periphery of the Shandan army.

After discovering the Shandan army, these scouts immediately withdrew to Guzang City and prepared to report the intelligence to Zhe Buluo.

Correspondingly, the Tangqi of the Shandan Army also reported the intelligence to Liu Jilian who was eating roasted lamb.

"Zhechong, we found the Guzang City's foreign army scouts twelve miles southwest. They are retreating towards Guzang City!"

"Oh, I see……"

In response to Tangqi's report, Liu Jilong smiled and nodded, picked up the roasted lamb on the wooden rack and handed it to him.

"Take it back and eat it with my brothers."

He handed over the end with the stick, and Tangqi bowed excitedly: "Thank you for your help!"

After saying that, he took the roasted lamb on the stick and returned to his group with the roasted lamb.

At the same time, Zhang Chang, Shang Duoluo and others beside Liu Jilong had bitter expressions on their faces.

They looked at Liu Jilong's back, not knowing what to say.

"What do you think Zhechong is for?"

"It would have been fine if he had just told Shang Moling that we were going to attack Changsong, but why did he bring us here to cook openly less than 20 miles away from Guzang City?"

Zhang Chang really couldn't understand what Liu Jilong was trying to do, and Shang Duoluo and others were also very confused.

"Although we want to attract the attention of the foreign soldiers, we don't have to go to this extent."

This time even Ma Chengdu sighed, and Li Ji could only eat a mouthful of mutton and said with a smack in his mouth: "Anyway, just listen to Zhechou."

"That's what I said, but..."

"What are you talking about?"

Ma Cheng wanted to say something, but he heard Liu Jilong's voice behind him and shuddered.

He licked his face and turned back to say with a smile: "Zhechong, we are saying that the mutton here is not as delicious as the one in Shandan."

"Yes, yes, yes..." Zhang Chang and Li Ji also smiled.

At this time, it was Shang Duo Luo who stood up and bowed, saying, "Zhe Chong, we are talking about why you told Shang Moling so obviously that we are in Changsong!"

"it is good!"

“Spirit!”

"Shanduo Luo, you are a real man!"

Seeing that Shang Duoluo spoke directly to the point, Zhang Chang and the others silently praised Shang Duoluo in their hearts.

In response to Shang Duoluo's question, Liu Jilong glanced at everyone and then smiled and said, "Are you all curious?"

"Yes!" This time they didn't pretend and responded in unison.

Seeing this, Liu Jilong sat on the lawn with a scorching gaze: "I just want to tell Shang Moling that I am in Changsong, and see if he dares to deal with me!"

"But if Shang Moling leads a large army, then we..."

Zhang Chang couldn't help but speak, but he didn't dare to say anything that would undermine morale.

Liu Jilong didn't care. He only revealed a little of his thoughts now.

"Where do you think Shang Mo Ling is now?"

"It's definitely not in Guzang City, otherwise we would have encountered it this morning."

"That's right!"

In response to Liu Jilian's questions, all the generals expressed a unified opinion.

They all thought that Shang Moling would not be in Guzang City, and Liu Jilong nodded and said, "If it's as I expected, he should be on his way to Fanhe City now."

"What?!" Zhang Chang and the others were stunned, and then asked anxiously:
"If he is in Fanhe City, what will happen to Governor Zhang and his men?"

"That's why I have to tell him blatantly that I am going to attack Changsong City!"

Liu Jilong's eyes were burning: "He thought I was making a feint to the east and attacking in the west. He said he was going to attack Changsong, but in fact he was going to attack Fanhe?"

"But I want to tell him that I'm going to fight Chang Song!"

After saying this, he looked towards the direction of Guzang City, and the generals also looked in that direction.

"Just now our Tangqi and Guzang City's scouts have met. In less than half an hour, the guards in Guzang City will know that we are here."

"Do you think Shang Moling will come back after knowing this?"

Liu Jilong asked everyone, but no one could answer.

After a while, Shang Duoluo spoke first:

"Last time we pretended to attack Fanhe, and then made a detour and launched a surprise attack on General Mang Luo."

"Shang Moling was a famous general during the reign of the previous Zamp. He should not ignore this point."

"Generally speaking, the military tactics used by generals are fixed, and there are very few people who can use military tactics in different ways."

"So in my opinion, Shang Mo Ling will at least go and check and confirm it, and then decide based on the situation."

After all, Shang Duoluo had fought with Shang Bibi for more than ten years, and his knowledge and experience were much richer than Zhang Chang and others.

As he explained clearly, Liu Jilong was satisfied and said, "That's right, so we need to make a bigger splash in Changsong."

"As long as Changsong asks for help, our goal will be achieved."

"At that time, either Shang Moling will withdraw to Guzang and rush to Changsong for support, or the garrison commander of Guzang will lead the cavalry and infantry to rush to Changsong for support."

Hearing this, Shang Duoluo couldn't help but ask:
"Zhechong, what happened after Shang Moling and the others came to Changsong's rescue?"

"After that?" Liu Jilong chuckled: "You will know what happens next tomorrow."

"Inform the troops that after they have eaten and drunk their fill, take the remaining mutton with them."

"After this meal, our army cannot light a fire. I want to see the tower of Changsong City before dawn tomorrow!"

"Yes!!"

As Liu Jilian gave the order, all the generals bowed in response, and the military order quickly spread throughout the army.

Everyone in the army knew that it would be difficult for them to spend a comfortable night.

At the same time, as Liu Jilian had expected, in the direction of Guzang City, as a large number of Tang cavalry withdrew into the city, Zhe Buluo in the yamen also learned the news that the Shandan elite cavalry were spotted in the northeast.

Upon hearing the news, he paced back and forth in the yamen.

"Are they really going to attack Chang Song?"

"No...what good can they gain by attacking Chang Song?"

"But if they don't attack Changsong, why do they take the route to Guzang?"

For a moment, Zhe Bu Luo felt like his head was about to explode.

He turned to look at the light cavalry standing in the main hall: "Did you see their main force?"

"No, we were chased away by their Tangqi before we even got close."

The Qingqi shook his head in response. Zhe Buluo rubbed his brows when he heard this, and then looked at Jie'er who was waiting for military orders beside him.

"Send five hundred light cavalry to the outside of the city to see what tricks they are up to and where they are going."

"Once you get the news, send it to Qiliben immediately. The news must be delivered before tomorrow morning!"

"Yes!" Jie'er bowed and responded, then turned and walked out of the yamen to give orders.

Looking at his departing back, Zhe Bu Luo sat back in his chair in annoyance, but he just couldn't calm down.

"Liu Jilong, you pig and dog, what on earth do you want to do!"

(End of this chapter)