Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 122: Shan Soldiers Make a Noise
"Sorry..."

"Tie the ropes tighter, it will be bad if it rains!"

"Push harder over there!"

At the end of September, as noises arose in the west of Shandan City, a team of more than 10,000 people stretched from the city gate to a mile away, and it was very long.

There were two thousand Zhangye soldiers and four thousand Zhangye civilians, plus nearly ten thousand foreigners, captives, etc.

After staying for many days, this team of more than 16,000 people finally chose to continue their journey home.

"You need to build more siege equipment, and when the snow on Yanzhi Mountain melts next year, you can send the siege equipment to Fanhe first."

"I know, Governor, don't worry!"

At the city gate, Zhang Huaishen and Liu Jilian were explaining things to each other, and Liu Jilian also gave a response.

Apart from the siege equipment, Zhang Huaishen had nothing else to say. He just chuckled and said, "We'll have a celebration banquet after we recover the entire Liangzhou!"

"Okay!" Liu Jilong responded with a bright smile on his face.

Seeing his appearance, Zhang Huaishen was amazed and said, "You are so good-looking. When we recover Liangzhou and open up Helong, I will ask my uncle to send you to Chang'an to report the victory. Let's see how many daughters of prime ministers and high officials you can kidnap!"

Hearing this, Liu Jilong sniffed awkwardly, and Zhang Huaishen also smiled heartily: "Okay, I won't tease you anymore!"

He turned his horse's head and looked at Liu Jilong for the last time: "See you next spring!"

"See you next spring!" Liu Jilong bowed in return, and then saw Zhang Huaishen riding away.

After he left, Wuzhen, Suo Xun and others also rode on horseback to say goodbye to him.

Suo Xun looked at Shandan City and sighed, "If it weren't for you, Shandan wouldn't be so good, and we wouldn't have mobilized troops to retake Liangzhou so early... See you next spring."

"See you in the spring!" Liu Jilong nodded in return and looked at Wu Zhen.

Wu Zhen smiled slightly, and after staring at Liu Jilong for a few breaths, he slowly said, "If you have the chance to go to Dunhuang, remember to find me at the cave south of Dunhuang City."

"I will definitely go!" Liu Jilong chuckled and nodded.

After he finished speaking, Suo Xun and Wu Zhen shook their reins towards Zhangye and walked away from him.

"Beep--"

"set off!"

With a shrill whistle, the team finally started to set off.

Watching them go away, Liu Jilong turned his horse around and returned to Shandan City, and immediately began to deploy.

He summoned Shang Duoluo, Chen Jingchong, Zhang Chang, Cui Shu, Ma Cheng, Li Ji, Hu Siguang, Zheng Chu and others, and they filled the main hall of the yamen.

After a quick glance, Liu Jilong began to give instructions:

"Shang Duoluo, you lead the elite cavalry of Shanzhou to escort 30,000 shi of grain to Shanzhou for delivery, and the excess grain will be exchanged for military horses."

"The last general takes command!"

"Zhang Chang, you take the Seventh Regiment to Qilian City and take over from Geng Ming for a month."

"The last general takes command!"

"Chen Jingchong, Ma Cheng, Li Ji, Zheng Chu, Hu Siguang..."

"You guys should prepare to recruit new soldiers, start with 2,000 people. I think the Jiedushi will definitely allow Shandan to expand its army. Even if he doesn't allow it, you can transfer the troops to Zhangye at that time."

"The last general takes command!"

In a few words, Liu Jilian explained the military affairs of Shandan clearly, and then looked at Cui Shu.

"The more trebuchets the better. Build as many as you can. Also produce and collect armor and asphalt so that we can expand the army later."

"I obey your command!" Cui Shu bowed in response, and Liu Jilong glanced at everyone when he saw this.

"Pay close attention to the snow season trends in Yanzhi Mountain, and report immediately when it snows and when it melts."

"Next spring, we will leave Yanzhi Mountain, recapture Liangzhou, and make great achievements!"

"Yes!" Everyone was enthusiastic, and Liu Jilong also clenched his fists.

After regaining Liangzhou, he had to seek Helong and take root in Longnan.

Once he succeeded in taking root in Longnan, the Tang court would react by, at most, taking away the five states in Longxi, thus cutting off his direct connection with the Guiyi Army.

By then, if I can make good use of Shang Bibi, I will be able to achieve something in Longnan.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong felt a little excited, but also a little reluctant.

Zhang Yichao, Zhang Huaishen, Zhang Huairong...

These people had been very kind to him, and he should have repaid them. However, if he continued to stay in Hexi, he would only be restrained by them and would have to watch the Guiyi Army go to defeat.

Only by jumping out of Hexi can he save everyone.

As he was thinking this, the entire Ganliang area fell into deathly silence.

Shang Moling, Mang Longhua, Zhe Buluo, Xilunqin, Zheduosibie and others were all strengthening the city's defenses in preparation for next year's war.

Zhang Huaishen, Liu Jilian, Suo Xun, Jiu Juyan and others were also training soldiers, making armor, and manufacturing siege equipment.

What lay before them was not how brave the Tibetans of Liangzhou were, but the solid city walls of Liangzhou.

Fortunately, in the Battle of Fanhe, Zhe Bu Luo and others did not witness the power of the Shandan catapult, so their city defense reinforcement was still based on the old thinking, by thickening and raising the height.

Only Liu Jilian knew very well that after the appearance of the counterweight trebuchet, the historical process of city defense would need to evolve from rammed earth walls to rammed earth covered with bricks.

Only such a city wall can withstand the counterweight trebuchet, otherwise the fate will be the same as most cities when the Southern Song Dynasty fell, and it will be impossible to stop it at all.

Only a city like Xiangyang, which was built with rammed earth and bricks and had an excellent geographical location, could stand firm in the face of the counterweight trebuchet.

Because of this, Liu Jilong began to speed up the construction of catapults, and Fanhe's Jiujuyan was also constantly collecting boulders.

Time passed little by little, and by mid-October, the first snow finally fell in Hexi.

Later on, the snow began to fall heavier and heavier, and even the Dan River near Shandan City froze. The people stopped reclaiming the land and instead stayed at home to rest after turning over the land once during the first few days of snow.

In late October, the Dunhuang silk book was delivered to Ganzhou, which undoubtedly caused a sensation.

"Zhechong... No! It should be called governor now!"

"Geng Ming, Ma Cheng, you guys should stop being generals now."

"You've become Guoyi, and you still have the nerve to tease us?"

Inside the Shandan government office, the brazier in the hall did not dispel the cold. Everyone present wore cotton coats and cloaks, and white mist filled the air as they talked.

Liu Jilong sat in the main seat, poking the brazier in front of him with a wooden stick, and couldn't help missing the heating and air conditioning of later generations.

"Okay, don't be happy anymore."

Liu Jilong put down his stick, looked at Chen Jingchong, Ma Cheng and the others and said, "There's a letter from Zhang Chang saying that Shang Duoluo won't be back for the time being."

"Can't come back?" Chen Jingchong and the others were stunned for a moment, and said in astonishment: "Isn't this Shang Bi Bi going to turn against us because she sees that we are so powerful?"

Hearing this, Cui Shu, who was sitting next to him, also frowned and said, "It's hard to say. After all, Shanzhou is close to the Huangshui River, so there will definitely be no shortage of water."

"It's autumn harvest now. If the grain harvested in Shanzhou is enough for a year, I'm afraid he really won't want to release Shang Duoluo and the brothers in Shanzhou."

"Damn it!" Li Ji cursed, "I knew this guy was not a good person!"

For a moment, everyone was cursing Shang Bibi, obviously treating Shang Duoluo and the elite cavalry of Shanzhou as their own people.

Liu Jilong was really happy about this scene, but he shook his head at their guess: "Probably not."

"Although Shanzhou has been resting for more than a year, the farmland destroyed by the heat wave cannot recover that quickly."

"In my opinion, Shang Bibi probably wants to leave Shang Duoluo and his men to attack Kuzhou..."

"Attack Kuzhou?" Everyone was surprised, and Liu Jilong continued:

"Shang Bibi is not a person who keeps to himself. Now the people of Helong are alienated and he has our help. Maybe when we march eastward, he has recruited a lot of tribes and soldiers."

"If that's the case, he would naturally want to expand his territory, and it's not surprising that he kept Shandorro."

After he finished speaking, Chen Jingchong couldn't help but worry: "But if he doesn't release Shang Duoluo and the brothers in Shanzhou, then when we march east next year, we will be one thousand fewer elite cavalrymen, and our strength will inevitably be weakened."

Chen Jingchong's worries were not unreasonable. After all, without the thousand elite cavalry from Shanzhou, Ganzhou could only mobilize fifteen hundred elite cavalry at most.

Although Liangzhou suffered heavy losses, the foreign soldiers had been trained in horse riding since childhood, and Liangzhou had no shortage of military horses, but it could not maintain too many elite cavalry.

With life and death at stake, Shang Moling and others would not do anything to sacrifice their lives for the sake of money and food.

In this way, it would be very easy for them to train hundreds or thousands of elite cavalry.

By then, there will be two thousand armored soldiers defending the city, and three thousand elite cavalry waiting for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack outside. This battle will be difficult no matter how you look at it.

More importantly, Ganzhou’s light cavalry were not as numerous as Liangzhou’s, and their sentry range was not as far as theirs.

If they wanted to attack a city, the target location was too fixed and could easily be attacked by surprise.

Although the losses of three thousand elite cavalrymen in a surprise attack on five or six thousand armored soldiers would be heavy, it would be enough for them to suffer a heavy loss.

If the casualties of the armored soldiers were too heavy, it would obviously affect Liu Jilian's strategy of attacking Helong.

Faced with this situation, Liu Jilong was silent for a moment, and then slowly said: "Don't worry, even if Shang Bibi doesn't want them to come, it depends on whether he can keep them!"

After he said this, everyone's eyes lit up.

You should know that every time the Shanzhou elite cavalry went to Shanzhou and returned to Shandan, the first thing they did was to complain about the bad food in Shandan. After staying in Shandan for a long time, it would be more painful to let them go back and eat corn rice without oil and water than to kill them.

Thinking of this, everyone felt relieved, and Liu Jilong also took the silk book and explained: "Ganzhou previously had 25 regiments of soldiers, and now it has been increased to 45 regiments."

"Inspector Zhang has been appointed as the military governor, and he has told us to recruit 3,000 soldiers in Shandan. In this case, the 2,000 men I assigned to us previously are too few."

"Pass the order down, recruit another 1,000 men to join the army. Those who join will be given three oxen and 20 dan of grain!"

Liu Jilong did not distribute any more land because there was no cultivated land in Shandan. He could only give out oxen to the soldiers and let them cultivate the land themselves.

After giving the instructions, Liu Jilong signaled everyone to retreat and go recruit soldiers.

However, when they were busy, people in Shanzhou and Shancheng, where it was snowing, were complaining.

"Damn it! What kind of life is this?"

"Look, what is this food!"

"If you keep eating like this, my horse will be too skinny to run!"

"Where's Shang Duhu? Go find Shang Duhu!"

"go!"

In the military camp outside Shanzhou City, as a soldier threw the corn porridge in his hand to the ground, the soldiers around him also started shouting.

Soon, more than 800 soldiers who returned from Shandan gathered together and rushed into Shancheng in a mighty force.

The captain of the city gate was shocked when he saw this. He quickly ordered the gate to be closed and ran to the top of the city wall to ask, "What are you guys doing?!"

"You big-nosed bitch! Open the door for me!"

"Open the door, damn it!"

"Call Shang Duhu and Qiliben to come out!"

"Call Chiliben out!!"

The elite cavalry from Shanzhou, who had been behaving well in Shandan, now put on armor and held weapons in their hands, surrounding the north gate of Shancheng.

The captain was sweating coldly at the scene and quickly tried to comfort everyone: "I'm going to find Qiliben now, don't do anything rash!"

After saying this, he hurried down the horse path and rode a slow horse to the yamen.

While he was rushing to the yamen, Shang Duoluo was quietly practicing martial arts in his own yard not far from the yamen, wielding a spear and stabbing.

In the main hall of the courtyard, a woman in her thirties and two teenagers in their early teens were watching him practice quietly.

But this silence did not last long, and the door of the yard was knocked violently.

"Tuk-tuk-tuk-"

"Protector Shang! Protector Shang!"

"Hmm?" Shang Duoluo stopped, took a breath and looked towards the door.

"coming!"

A young man trotted towards the door and opened it soon.

I saw a head of ten households standing anxiously outside the door. When he saw the door open, he immediately walked into the courtyard and saluted to Shang Duoluo, saying:

"Shang Du can't protect him anymore. Xi Jie and his men have surrounded the north gate!"

"What did you say?!"

Shang Duoluo's heart sank. Even though he had been prepared, he was still a little panicked when things broke out.

"Xijie and his men have surrounded the North Gate. Qiliben is calling you to go to the North Gate!"

The head of the ten households said anxiously. Upon hearing this, Shang Duo Luo immediately put his spear back into the weapon rack and told the women and young men behind him, "Stay at home, I will be back soon."

"Yes," the woman and the young man nodded in agreement. Seeing this, Shang Duoluo walked out of the house.

In less than a quarter of an hour, he and the ten heads of the households rode their horses to the north gate, and the sound of drums outside the north gate could be clearly heard.

Shang Duoluo hurriedly dismounted and trotted up to the city gate tower.

In front of the city gate, Shang Bibi and Tuoba Huaiguang looked down at the elite cavalry outside the city with gloomy faces. When they saw Shang Duoluo coming, Shang Bibi frowned and said, "Look at the soldiers you brought with you!"

“This…” Shang Duo Luo glanced at the more than 800 elite cavalrymen outside the city and quickly shouted, “What do you want to do?!”

Hearing this, Xiaojie Xijie, who was leading the elite cavalry, rode out and said in dissatisfaction, "Protector General, we agreed to come here to deliver food, but now the mountain is blocked by heavy snow and you won't let us return to Shandan. Please give us an explanation, Protector General and Qiliben!"

"Yes! We are going back to Shandan!"

"We want to go back to Shandan!!"

The soldiers' clamor made Shang Bibi's face look even uglier. He didn't expect that the elite cavalry of his own clan would rather surrender to Liu Jilong than stay with him.

You know, a few days ago he was still mocking Lun Kongre for not being able to control his subordinates, causing them to flee in all directions.

Now, less than three months have passed, and he has ended up suffering from heat phobia.

"Shanduo Luo, look at the soldiers you lead!"

Tuoba Huaiguang spoke with a cold face. After all, most of the 800 elite cavalrymen who were noisy outside the city were once his soldiers.

It’s only been a short time since they arrived in Shandan, and yet they don’t even recognize themselves!
"I……"

Shang Duoluo had no way to express his grievances. Could he say that the treatment in Shancheng was too bad, not as good as in Shandan, so the elite cavalry were making a fuss?
"Humph!" Shang Bibi snorted coldly: "I asked you to cooperate with him, not to submit to him. Explain yourself!"

Shang Bibi thought that she had met the wrong person, but Shang Duoluo had her own grievances.

Seeing that Shang Bibi's face was getting uglier and uglier, he said helplessly: "It's not the brothers' fault..."

"Brothers?" Tuoba Huaiguang taunted, "Shang Duhu has actually started to treat them as brothers."

"..." Shang Duo Luo's face changed and he said sternly: "They fought with me on the battlefield, so why can't we be called brothers?"

"What's more, they can't stand Shancheng. Isn't it because you don't feed them fine food and don't give them oil and water?!"

"When the brothers were in Shandan, although they trained every two days and exercised every three days, they were able to eat meat during the daily exercise, so they had fat in their stomachs."

"Even if I don't practice, I can eat some mutton soup with pancakes or some soaked rice at noon every day."

"Since we came to Shancheng, we have been eating either porridge or porridge every day. The horses used to eat dry food and beans, but now they can only chew hay. Tell me how you deal with us!"

Shang Duoluo became angry and told all the injustices he had suffered during this period.

Shang Bibi and Tuoba Huaiguang looked unhappy at what he said, and the soldiers around them were even more stunned by what Shang Duoluo said about the treatment of Shandan.

They always thought that going to Shandan was a way to die. After all, every time the elite cavalry from Shanzhou came back, at least one or two out of ten people would die.

I just never thought that Shandan would be treated like this.

The soldiers couldn't help but swallow their saliva when they thought about being able to eat meat during daily training, and having mutton soup and bread even when they didn't train.

They almost forgot when they last ate meat. Although sheep were delivered to the city every day, the mutton was only for generals above the rank of centurion. Soldiers like them did not get such treatment.

Now, upon hearing that Shandan was being treated so well, the soldiers in the city couldn't help but understand the clamor of the elite cavalry outside the city.

"Protector General! Give me a clear answer, when will we return to Shandan!!"

Outside the city, Xi Jie shouted and questioned Shang Duolo, but Shang Duolo just looked at Shang Bibi and Tuoba Huaiguang without saying a word.

Seeing this, Shang Bibi gritted her teeth and said in order to avoid causing more unrest: "Tell them that I will send them to Shandan when they take Guzhou in the spring!"

"Yes..." Shang Duoluo responded with a dark face, but did not break up with Shang Bibi. After all, Shang Bibi had done him a favor.

After accepting the offer, he walked to the women's wall and said to Xi Jie outside the city: "After the spring, if you take over Guzhou, you can go to Shandan."

"Okay!" After hearing Shang Duoluo's words, Xi Jie nodded and said:

"We trust you, the Protector General, but we ask you to escort our family members out of the city now. We are worried about them staying in the city!"

Xijie's purpose was exposed. He was not just clamoring to return to Shandan, but wanted to take his family to Shandan.

After this purpose was exposed, it immediately aroused the dissatisfaction of Shang Bibi and Tuoba Huaiguang.

Xi Jie was originally a subordinate of Tuoba Huaiguang. When Tuoba Huaiguang heard that Xi Jie wanted to surrender to Liu Jilong, he immediately leaned against the parapet and cursed:

"Xijie, you ungrateful pig, have you forgotten my kindness to you?!"

"Bah!" Xi Jie spat, "During the famine, you ate rice and we drank porridge, that was fine, but now that the famine is over and you have meat to eat, you still let us drink porridge, is this your kindness?!"

Xi Jie's words made Tuoba Huaiguang not know how to respond. He glanced at Shang Bibi and saw that Shang Bibi also wanted to get angry, but in the end Shang Bibi gritted her teeth and said, "Let their families go..."

"Chiliben!"

Tuoba Huaiguang was very reluctant, but Shang Bibi signaled him not to speak with her eyes, and then looked at Shang Duoluo: "Let them return to the barracks first, and then take their families out of the city."

"Yes……"

At this time, Shang Duoluo had calmed down, and he couldn't help but regret his impulsiveness just now.

In response to Shang Bibi's order, he lowered his head and agreed, and then began to appease the soldiers outside the city.

At the same time, Shang Bibi signaled Tuoba Huaiguang to follow.

Seeing this, Tuoba Huaiguang could only follow his footsteps with frustration, and finally glared at Shang Duoluo fiercely.

(End of this chapter)