Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 135 Frankness

"how come?!"

"How could the Jiedushi be willing to let you go?"

"Are we going to Longxi?"

"Wherever the governor goes, I, Li Ji, will go!"

The generals couldn't help but speak out, and Li Ji expressed his opinion directly.

Among all the generals, only Ma Cheng had a calm expression, obviously guessing what Liu Jilian was going to say.

Facing them, Liu Jilong also said calmly:
"Although I have told you about this before, we will recapture Guzang within a few months, and after Guzang is recaptured, it won't take Changsong much time to recapture it."

"By then, our army will not have much time to rest. Besides, how many soldiers in the army are willing to follow us south to Longyou? You will need to attack them indirectly."

His eyes kept scanning the crowd, fortunately everyone's eyes were very firm, no one's eyes were wandering, which made him feel a little relieved.

There is no need to say much about Shang Duoluo and Ma Cheng, and Li Ji has already expressed his position, so the only people who have not expressed their position are Zhang Chang, Geng Ming, Zheng Chu, and Hu Siguang.

"Don't worry, Governor. Just leave these matters to us!"

Zhang Chang bowed to express his opinion, and Zheng Chu also bowed and said: "I have a concern, please help me, Governor!"

"Go ahead." Liu Jilong responded promptly, while Zheng Chu frowned and said:

"How should we ask the soldiers?"

He pointed out the difficulty of the matter. After all, the army was now preparing to attack Guzang. If Liu Jilian spread the news, threatening to march south to Longxi after recovering Liangzhou, it would probably undermine the morale of the army.

In response, Liu Jilong also said: "I have discussed this matter with the Jiedushi."

"You just need to tell the soldiers whether they are willing to go south to attack Lanzhou and move their families to Lanzhou."

"After we take Lanzhou, we will then be frank with the soldiers. If anyone is unwilling to go south, we will leave them in Lanzhou and our army will go south."

After Liu Jilong finished speaking, Zhang Chang responded, "Governor, do you mean that Lanzhou will not belong to us?"

"Yes, we are going to attack Lanzhou, but after we take Lanzhou, it will not belong to us?" Li Ji also reacted.

Faced with their surprise, Liu Jilong could only explain:

"Lanzhou is, after all, an important route to Hexi. If we occupy it, the Jiedushi and Xiao Zhang Jiedushi won't say anything, but they will be instigated by others."

"Hezhou is where we will settle down..."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone looked at each other, and Zhang Chang looked directly at Shang Duoluo: "Shang Duoluo, you have fought in the three states of He and Wei, do you think Lanzhou should be given up?"

"This..." Shang Duoluo pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said:

"If Lanzhou is given up, our army will have few flat areas left."

"You haven't been to Longxi, so you don't know."

"Longxi is not like Hexi. Longxi has many rivers and mountains, but few plains. So once a severe drought hits, famine is likely to occur."

"Wuquan County, the seat of Lanzhou, is located in a river valley plain. Although the area is small, it can reclaim hundreds of thousands of acres of irrigated land."

"If we give up Lanzhou, it would be like giving up a major granary in the future."

"Although Hezhou is a populous state, it has many mountains and rivers and little flat land. There are only a few hundred thousand acres of arable land. It is difficult to feed the people, let alone the army..."

Shang Duoluo's voice gradually became quieter, and Zhang Chang immediately looked at Liu Jilong after hearing it: "Governor, listen to this!"

"Governor, if this is true, then Lanzhou cannot be given up." Li Ji said in a deep voice.

Obviously, as Liu Jilong spoke frankly, Zhang Chang, Li Ji and Shang Duoluo had already begun to think about the problem from their own perspectives.

In the past, they would definitely not have mentioned staying in Lanzhou. After all, Zhang Yichao and Zhang Huaishen had been very kind to them.

Liu Jilong did not answer their questions, but looked at Zheng Chu and Ma Cheng: "What do you two think?"

"Lanzhou... we really can't give it up, or we can't give it up for the time being. Why don't we keep Wuquan and give up Guangwu?"

Zheng Chu didn't want to fall out with the Guiyi Army over Lanzhou. After all, he had received favors from Zhang Yichao's uncle and nephew, so he chose a compromise and gave up Guangwu and kept Wuquan.

Liu Jilong looked at Ma Cheng, but Ma Cheng said, "Why don't we make a three-point agreement with Xiao Zhang Jiedushi, take Hezhou and then give up Guangwu, take Linzhou and then give up Wuquan?"

"Why do we have to give it up?" Zhang Chang said dissatisfiedly: "Wuquan must stay, don't you think?"

He looked at Shandor, but Shandor did not stand by him this time. Instead, he stroked his short beard and said:
"If we take Linzhou, we really won't need Wuquan. After all, Didao, the seat of Linzhou, is also a valley with more than 100,000 acres of farmland irrigated by water, and we can rely on the Tao River to attack Taozhou and Weizhou."

"If we can take over the three states of He, Wei, and Lin, and then take over Longnan, the governor will have at least 200,000 troops under his command, and it will not be a problem to raise 10,000 soldiers."

Shang Duoluo painted a good picture for everyone. At this point, Zhang Chang no longer said anything. He just stared at Liu Jilong, waiting for his decision.

Liu Jilong hesitated for a moment before saying, "After we take Liangzhou, I will discuss this matter with the governor."

"Yes!" Seeing him say this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and then began to discuss how to select people.

In the eyes of everyone, those lone soldiers were undoubtedly the easiest targets to win over, but there were only seven or eight hundred such soldiers in the entire Shandan Army, which was not a lot.

But for Liu Jilian, seven or eight hundred people were enough.

Anyway, when attacking Lanzhou, he was still a general of the Guiyi Army. The worst that could happen was that he would just spend time training the troops after taking Lanzhou.

What he was more concerned about was the issue of armor.

Because of this, the armor of Guzang and Changsong became the supplies he needed to fight for.

After instructing everyone to collect the armor after the war and not hand it in for the time being, Liu Jilong dismissed them. After returning to the camp, the generals began to try to win over the soldiers in an indirect way.

Fortunately, what they did was not obvious, and people who didn't know thought they were just preparing to recapture Longxi.

After spending the night like this, at daybreak the next day, Zhang Huaishen ordered his elite cavalry to protect the civilians and collect stones. He and Liu Jilian and others led more than a hundred elite cavalry to observe the defense of Guzang City.

It has to be said that Guzang's terrain is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The Macheng River flows down from Qilian City, passes by the east of Guzang City and flows towards Baiting Sea.

The water from the Macheng River filled the water of the Guzang moat, making the Guzang moat nearly three meters wide and nearly two meters deep.

With such width and depth, it is not easy to fill a road. Moreover, Shang Moling also arranged a thick rammed earth camp on the other side of the city gate, which is as easy to defend as a small city and difficult to attack.

This small town only needs to hide a few hundred soldiers to resist tens of thousands of troops, so the small town must be destroyed and the stone bridge must be seized to cross the river.

However, after crossing the river, what they had to face was the seemingly ordinary Guzang City.

Such a city must have a barbican, so taking the city gate as the main attack direction is undoubtedly asking for trouble.

After riding and observing Guzang for half a day, Zhang Huaishen and his friends had a plan in mind.

When everyone returned to the tent, Zhang Huaishen said in a deep voice: "We should send troops to surround the north gate and the west gate."

"The east gate is on the other side of the Macheng River. The Macheng River is more than 10 feet wide. Fortunately, the water is shallow and not deep. We can send elite cavalry to cross the river and stay in the east of the city to prevent Shang Moling from breaking out."

"The small town outside the west gate must be captured. After taking it with the trebuchet, we will continue to attack the city wall. After the wall collapses, we will use the cloud chariot to attack the city."

After Zhang Huaishen finished speaking, no one raised any questions because this was the best way.

Although the Macheng River is next to Guzang, Guzang is located at a high altitude. Even if water is stored in the high places in the south and trenches are dug to the foot of Guzang City, the river water will flow back into the Macheng River.

Since water attack is not possible, we can only attack by force.

"Suo Xun, you lead 2,000 armored soldiers to surround the south gate. Li Yizhong, you lead 3,000 light cavalry to patrol the north and guard against Shang Moling coming out of the north gate."

"Liu Jilong, you lead two thousand elite cavalry to cross the Macheng River upstream and go to the east of the river to prevent Shang Moling from breaking out through the east gate."

"I will personally lead 3,000 armored soldiers to attack the west gate. Ma Cheng, you lead the civilians to collect slingshots!"

"Yes!" All the generals stood up and bowed. Zhang Huaishen also comforted them after hearing this:

"Our army has sufficient food and grass. We can use catapults to knock down the city walls before attacking. All units are prohibited from attacking by force."

"Remember, retaking Liangzhou is just the beginning. Afterwards, our army will have to send troops to retake Huizhou and Lanzhou. If the casualties are too heavy, this plan will have to be abandoned, so don't be reckless!"

"Yes!" Everyone responded again, and then at Zhang Huaishen's signal, they walked out of the tent one after another and led their troops to block the city gate.

The army could not attack too quickly. After all, all the useful stones within a few miles of Guzang had been dug up. Zhang Huaishen could only send Ma Cheng to lead the laborers to look for useful stones in more distant places.

Once the battle starts, it will be impossible to stop, so we must accumulate enough catapults to capture Guzang with lightning speed.

Liu Jilian commanded two thousand elite cavalry in the army, marched seven or eight miles to the south, found a shallow section of the Macheng River, and led the elite cavalry across the river to the plain east of the city.

After crossing the river, he did not approach the east gate, but waited in the southeast direction, creating an illusion of being surrounded on three sides and missing one. At the same time, Li Yizhong led the light cavalry to the north of Guzang City, Suo Xun led 2,000 armored soldiers to the south of Guzang City, and Zhang Huaishen in the east of Guzang City did not launch an attack, but was still waiting for the civilians to collect enough slingshots.

A day passed in a daze, and behind the catapults in the west of the city were piles of stones dug out by the laborers and transported by horse-drawn carts.

A small number of laborers were grinding the slingstones, smoothing out the sharper corners to avoid damaging the leather straps used for throwing objects.

These leather belts are basically made of cowhide. Although there are spare ones in the army, one less will be needed if one is used.

Because of this, the Guiyi Army delayed launching an attack, constantly wearing down the patience of the defenders in the city.

However, such wasting time often wears out the patience of ordinary soldiers, but Shang Moling doesn't care at all. He hangs out with Hu girls and maids in the inner hall every day and is very confident in the city defense of Guzang.

Zhe Bu Luo was very worried. He inspected the cities every day and ordered five hundred elite cavalrymen to take off their armor and gave the armor to five hundred new soldiers to guard the camp in the north.

Time flies, and it is April.

Zhang Huaishen also sent people to collect stones and deliberately exposed them to the sight of the foreign troops.

The piles of stone pestles that almost formed a city wall, combined with the fifty catapults, brought pressure to the foreign troops defending the city.

Not only the defenders were anxious, but also the Guiyi Army.

Although Liu Jilian was not in a hurry, Suo Xun, Li Yizhong and others were very anxious.

They sent people to the camp almost every day to ask Zhang Huaishen when he would attack, but Zhang Huaishen just said that the time had not come yet.

Although he said so, the laborers no longer dug or threw stones, but instead leisurely started to plant the land outside the city.

The available arable land was burned down, and with the seeds and farm tools sent by Jiujuyan Jialin, six thousand laborers began the spring planting slowly, sowing one field after another.

Seeing their land being cultivated by the civilians of the Guiyi Army, many defenders clenched their fists.

The Guiyi Army's posture clearly showed that they were prepared to engage in a protracted war with them.

Even though the foreign soldiers knew that there was plenty of firewood, food and fresh water in the city, they still felt guilty.

"Damn it! The peasants have already planted tens of thousands of acres of farmland west of the city and are heading towards our side!"

A captain of the Suo family rode his horse to the front of the South City camp, cursing.

Suo Xun frowned when he heard this, and after glancing at him, the man shut up.

Seeing that he kept silent, Suo Xun looked to the west and saw the peasants working in their direction.

Because of the threat of crossbows, they farmed one mile away from the moat.

There are more than 300,000 acres of arable land outside Guzang City. Even if they cultivate it one mile outside the moat, there are still more than 100,000 acres of arable land that can be used by them.

These days, Jialin kept sending laborers to transport food to the front line, and most of the laborers were retained by Zhang Huaishen.

At present, the number of civilian laborers has already exceeded 10,000, and with thousands of draft horses, it is a bit difficult to cultivate more than 100,000 acres of land. However, once these crops grow, the Guiyi Army will have more military rations. Although Suo Xun is impatient, he also understands this truth.

"Tell me immediately if there is a military order!"

Suo Xun turned his horse around and returned to his headquarters' camp. Such a scene was not only happening in the south of the city, but also in Li Yi's troops in the north of the city.

Even in Zhang Huaishen's main camp, there have been many restless voices these days.

The only place that was calm enough might be Liu Jilian's troops on the other side of the Macheng River, in the southeast direction.

Every day Liu Jilian took his elite cavalrymen to graze their horses outside, and occasionally hunted some game to satisfy their hunger. Life was very peaceful, and there was no impetuous voice in the army.

After all, most of the elite cavalry under his command were from Shandan and Shanzhou, with only 200 elite cavalry from Zhangye.

The elite cavalry from Shandan and Shanzhou had long been trained by him to be as skilled as his own arms, and they never questioned his military orders.

Since Liu Jilong told them to wait patiently, they naturally waited patiently.

Compared to them, the foreign soldiers in the city gradually became restless, shouting and cursing at people from the top of the city walls every day.

But the distance was too far, and the soldiers of the Guiyi Army could not hear what they were cursing.

Even so, there were still many Guiyi Army soldiers outside the formation shouting and cursing at them.

Since they couldn't hear any sound, they pretended to be foreign soldiers in front of the battle line to wash them off.

"You bastard soldier, if you don't dare to come out, just crawl under Grandpa's crotch!"

"Just drill!"

Outside the city, the soldiers standing under the banner of the Guiyi Army pointed at the people in front of them. The soldier who was acting as the foreign soldier in front of them waved the Tubo banner twice, then threw it on the ground, stepped on it a few times, and then knelt down to beg for mercy, and even crawled directly through the crotch of the Guiyi Army.

This scene made the foreign soldiers furious and they started shouting and cursing.

If the parapet had not prevented them from doing their best, they would have retaliated in their own way.

While the soldiers were mocking the foreign soldiers, Zhang Huaishen also walked out from the tent.

"Jiedushi!"

The captain on duty bowed quickly, but Zhang Huaishen covered his forehead with his hand and glanced at the sky: "How much land outside has been planted?"

"It should be at least 50,000 to 60,000 acres." The captain was stunned for a moment, then quickly answered after he reacted.

Hearing this, Zhang Huaishen nodded and said, "In that case, call the civilians back and prepare to throw stones to attack the city."

"Ah?" The lieutenant thought he had misheard. It was not until Zhang Huaishen looked at him in surprise that he bowed and said, "I obey your command!"

After the ceremony, he immediately sent someone to pass the message, and the entire camp came alive.

The soldiers hurriedly put on their armor, and the laborers returned to the camp with their draft horses and farm tools.

Before noon, three thousand armored soldiers were lined up behind the catapults, and the civilians were ready.

More than twenty civilians came to the trebuchet array and began to mechanically pull the mechanism and place the stones.

"Beep--"

"Smash!"

“Bang bang!!”

As whistles and shouts rang out, the soldiers immediately swung their hammers and smashed the mechanism.

In an instant, fifty catapults were launched one after another, and stones weighing more than 60 kilograms flew across the sky and smashed towards the camp on the west side of the Guzang moat.

"Everyone squat down!"

"Get away!"

"boom--"

The foreign soldiers who realized the situation later dodged hastily, but their speed was nowhere near that of the stones.

The heavy stones hit the top of the West Camp and smashed down the city wall. At the same time, many of them flew over the moat and hit the sheep-horn wall and the city wall.

All the foreign soldiers were stunned at this moment, and hurriedly dodged after they realized what was happening.

Dust was rising in the West Camp. Many foreign soldiers were wailing, while others were brushing off the dust on their bodies.

Three crossbows on the city wall were destroyed, more than ten people were injured because they were not wearing armor, and a lot of the wall of the west camp collapsed.

"What kind of trebuchet is this?!"

Looking at the huge stone in the ruins, Xiaojie, who was on duty at the West Camp, was stunned. After realizing what was happening, he quickly ordered two soldiers to "send the stone to the government office and let Qiliben take a look!"

Although they were prepared, it was the first time that the young men of Guzang faced the power of the catapults in the hands of the Guiyi Army.

A trebuchet that could throw a stone weighing sixty to seventy kilograms a mile away was so powerful that even the giant trebuchets in the city could not match it.

What Xiaojieer is thinking about now is not to defend the West Camp, but to let his own Qiliben realize the power of the Han slaves' catapults outside the city.

Soon, the slingshot was laboriously lifted out of the ruins, placed on a cart, and transported into the city.

At the same time, Zhang Huaishen outside the city had walked out of the camp and came to the front of the battle.

Looking at the dusty West Camp, he smiled, then looked seriously at the captain beside him: "Why are you still standing there?"

"Pass on my military order. Divide the civilians into four shifts and work day and night to capture the western camp first. Then move forward and capture the ram-horn wall beside the moat and the city wall behind!"

(End of this chapter)