Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 160: Ruined Hezhou
"Damn it, this guy can really run!"

"Running away again?!"

"I haven't seen you for two or three years. How come Shang Yanxin has become like a bear?"

At noon the next day, looking at the emptied Fenglin government office, the generals of the Longxi army who hurried into the government office could not help but curse.

Shang Duoluo couldn't help but sigh: "This is unlike Shang Yanxin's style. Why is he so timid now?"

At dawn today, Liu Jilian sent troops to attack Fenglin, which is only forty miles from Baohan to Fenglin.

Liu Jilian's original intention was to send elite cavalry to chase and block them to prevent them from harvesting the grain outside Fenglin City.

As a result, when they arrived at Fenglin, the city gates of Fenglin were wide open. Except for a few thousand slaves, all the foreign soldiers and civilians in the city had disappeared.

Shang Yanxin's escape speed was still as fast as ever.

"The governor!"

There were shouts outside the yamen, and Hu Siguang walked into the yamen and bowed to Liu Jilong from a distance:
"Just now Baohan sent a message that Shang Yanxin and his men ran towards Donggu and had a conflict with our Tangqi early this morning."

"Based on the time, they have run at least fifty miles. Should we chase them?"

Hu Siguang asked Liu Jilong, and Liu Jilong shook his head and said, "It's not easy to pass through Donggu, and there is no news from the foreign soldiers at Fenglin Pass. It won't be too late to capture Hezhou first and then plan for Linzhou."

Liu Jilong wanted to take over the three states in one go, but Donggu was indeed dangerous, so he did not want to go to Donggu to attack Linzhou.

"Governor, do you want to repair the Linlan Road?"

Shang Duoluo thought of the abandoned official road between Linzhou and Lanzhou, so he asked Liu Jilong.

However, Liu Jilong shook his head and said, "The Linlan official road was blocked by mountain torrents, so it will naturally need to be repaired in the future. But now we are short of manpower and cannot allocate so many people to repair an official road."

After he finished speaking, Liu Jilong glanced at the main hall of Fenglin Yamen and couldn't help but say:
"Although I had a feeling that we could take over Hezhou soon, I didn't expect Shang Yanxin to not resist."

"Power is indeed fatal. It has corrupted Shang Yanxin into this state without him realizing it."

"We have to be careful. If we stop at nothing because we are greedy for power, people will die."

Liu Jilong glanced at everyone and couldn't help but remind them, and everyone nodded in response.

Seeing that they had all listened, Liu Jilong then gave the order:
"Call all the slaves in the city to the parade ground and prepare to register them!"

"Yes!" Everyone responded one after another, and then began to mobilize the people of the entire city.

It was quite easy for a thousand elite cavalry to mobilize thousands of slaves. In less than an hour, Liu Jilong met all the people in the city at the parade ground of Fenglin City.

After the severe drought in Longxi, many people fled to Hexi, Longnan and even Duomai area.

During the Kaiyuan period, Fenglin County had more than 12,000 people, but now there are only 5,000 or 6,000 people left, not even enough to fill the parade ground.

Liu Jilong stood on the school platform with a hundred armored soldiers standing behind him.

Below the stage, thousands of people looked at him with fear, fearing that he would order their massacre.

"Today, Liu Jilong, the governor of the Longxi Guiyi Army, led his troops to recapture the entire Hezhou!"

As Liu Jilian opened his mouth to say this, the soldiers behind him spoke in unison and told their words to the people of the entire city through word of mouth.

When the people heard Liu Jilian's words, their fearful looks lessened a little, but Liu Jilian continued.

"From now on, Hexi will implement the new law!"

"All slaves in Hezhou will be liberated and become civilians, registered and incorporated into the household register!"

"From now on, Hezhou will implement a rationing system. Adults will be given two kilograms of food per day, and minors will be given one and a half kilograms of food!"

"For every ten households in the city, there is a group, five groups form a team, two teams form a brigade, and two brigades form a regiment..."

"Outside the city, we will implement the household contract responsibility system to distribute the land equally among the people. Each regiment will issue tasks, and the households will be responsible for carrying them out!"

"The registration of all households in Fenglin County... begins now!!"

When Liu Jilong finished speaking, his words were sung out piece by piece by the armored soldiers, echoing throughout the entire training ground.

The numb eyes of the people below the stage gradually brightened up as Liu Jilong spoke.

"Woohoo!!!"

All of a sudden, the school field was filled with cheers. Whether they were elders, children, or adults, they all jumped for joy, shouted, and vented their excitement.

They didn't understand a lot of what Liu Jilong said, but they heard one thing...

From now on, they are no longer slaves!

"Okay, let's start registering!"

Looking at the sea of people celebrating, Liu Jilong had a bright smile on his face and turned his head to look at Shang Duoluo and the others.

Next, Fenglin County became the home ground for Shang Duoluo and his team.

Although they were still wearing armor, they did straightforward work.

They asked the people to go back home and wait, and then led the soldiers to the door to register the people in every street and every house.

They were registered as civilian households, but were temporarily organized as a military unit because it would be more convenient to lead them to resume production and build Fenglin County.

From afternoon to dusk, thousands of elite cavalrymen transformed into Zhibai and quickly counted the population of Fenglin County.

At night, under the dim light of an oil lamp, Liu Jilong also obtained the latest population register of the city.

"There are currently 1,467 households and 6,245 people in Fenglin County, 1,832 adult males and 1,956 underage male children."

"According to what I said this day, we will organize them into eight regiments, and all the officers above the rank of captain will be appointed by the literate soldiers in the army."

Liu Jilong was talking about his thoughts, and Shang Duoluo couldn't help but ask, "Governor, are these people paid?"

"No." Liu Jilong explained: "You choose one person to take note of my words and execute them in Wuquan, Baohan and other places we recover in the future until I change the system."

Upon hearing this, Huke Siguang quickly stood up, took the brush and blank book from Liu Jilong's desk, and took on the role of note-taker.

Seeing that he was ready, Liu Jilong said, "Production in Longxi has been destroyed by drought and war. What we need to do now is to restore production, so we need to implement two systems."

"The first set is the original military system. These people will still be paid, and their literacy and training will not be neglected."

"The second system is what I'm talking about today. I call it the militia system."

"Although the organization is the same as that of the army, only the soldiers we sent to serve as officials receive military pay, while the mess leaders and ordinary people do not."

"The reason why I want to establish a militia system is to restore production."

Liu Jilong explained why he wanted to establish a militia system. After giving Hu Siguang enough time to record, he continued:

"You are all soldiers. You know the difference between civilians and the military without me telling you."

"When the military issues missions, it means responsibilities are assigned to individuals."

"The current militia system puts responsibility on every household."

"The mission of the military is to educate, train, and fight."

"The militia's tasks are to plant crops, harvest crops, weed, dig canals, build water wheels, reclaim land, etc."

"It's actually no different from corvée labor, but we can't do anything that would put the people at a disadvantage."

"There is a severe drought and food is scarce, so we have to implement rationing and everyone has to work."

"Once the drought is over and Longxi's production returns to what it once was, we will switch back to the normal system."

After Liu Jilong's explanation, everyone finally understood what the militia system he was talking about was.

But after his explanation, new problems arose.

Shang Duoluo raised his hand to ask a question, and Liu Jilong nodded for him to speak.

"Governor, our entire army is only 2,932 men, and these are the only ones wearing armor."

"After the enemy troops at Fenglin Pass surrender, we should be able to recruit a few hundred more people, but the total number will be no more than 3,000."

"According to what you said, one brother should be left for every fifty households to lead them in restoring production. Together with the military officers at all levels of the militia, a lot of people will be needed."

"This trip will require at least three or four hundred literate men from the army."

"You know better than us how difficult it is to train literate brothers."

"We still have to recover Linzhou and Weizhou. Shang Yanxin escaped this time because he was not prepared, but now that he has gone to Linzhou, he is naturally prepared."

"Their military strength is no less than 4,000. We are already small in number, and we have to allocate 200 to 300 people to lead the people to do things. This..."

Shang Duoluo did not continue speaking, but his words won the approval of everyone in the hall.

Liu Jilong was not anxious about this. Instead, he remained silent for a moment before continuing, "Hezhou has iron, gold and copper mines. The iron mines can be used to make armor, and the gold and copper mines can be accumulated and used when doing business with the court in the future."

"If we only think about using more than 3,000 people to fight and are reluctant to govern the people, then our team will only be this strong and will not grow stronger."

"Only by spreading our people out and letting the people know our purpose can we gain their support."

"As long as we have the support of the people, we can make a comeback quickly even if we lose the battle."

Liu Jilong educated everyone, then stood up and ordered, "Director Zheng!"

"I am here!" Zheng Chu stood up, and Liu Jilong also spoke:

"I now promote you to be the Magistrate of Fenglin County and concurrently the Commandant of Fenglin Zhechong Prefecture. I will leave you a regiment of troops to govern and guard Fenglin."

"Half a month later, I want to see you hand over Fenglin's population and farmland records to Baohan."

"I obey your orders!" Zheng Chu bowed and Liu Jilong nodded, "Okay, everyone go down and rest."

At his wave of the hand, everyone stood up and went to rest.

While everyone was resting, Shang Yanxin, who was fleeing for his life, was having a hard time.

Although the road from Fenglin County to Donggu to escape to Linzhou is an official road, it is not easy to travel.

Shang Yanxin's 1,300 elite cavalrymen and their more than 5,000 family members almost all survived the ordeal on horseback or in carriages.

More than 20,000 dan of grain from the Fenglin County government warehouse was pulled by more than 4,000 horse-drawn carriages and driven by the families of elite cavalrymen to Linzhou.

Shang Yanxin was sitting in the carriage, and behind him were several luxurious carriages loaded with the gold, silver and valuables he had obtained in Hezhou in the past few years.

When he began his escape, he was worried all the time that Liu Jilian would catch up with him, especially after he ran into the Tangqi of the Longxi Army at the entrance of the Donggu Gorge. He was so scared that he dropped hundreds of carts of food to block the Donggu Valley Road.

I don’t know if the hundreds of carts of food had an effect, but in the next two days, it seemed as if there were no pursuers behind them.

The East Valley is long and narrow, located between the mountains. It is no more than two meters wide on either side and cannot be climbed.

Not only is it difficult to pass, it is also difficult to set up an ambush.

The only way is to set up camp at the entrance of the valley, so that the number of soldiers can be several times greater.

“Gee…Gee…Gee…”

On the afternoon of July 24, as a dazzling light appeared ahead, the coachman hurriedly shook the reins.

A quarter of an hour later, the fleeing team led by Shang Yanxin rushed out of the light, and the view ahead suddenly became clear.

“Finally we’ve arrived at the valley!”

Opening the car window and looking at the wide river valley, Shang Yanxin breathed a sigh of relief, then said sternly: "Let General Lin Ruzhen lead 300 elite cavalry to cover the valley entrance, and wait for my news before heading to Daxia County!"

"Yes!"

Outside the carriage window, the elite riders guarding Shang Yanxin's carriage turned their horses around and went to inform General Lin Ruzhen.
As for Shang Yanxin, he rode non-stop with a thousand elite cavalry, his family, and grain carts towards Daxia County, which was more than thirty miles away.

Daxia County is located in the hilly and gully area of the Longxi Loess Plateau. The local area is crisscrossed with gullies and densely covered with hills. Only the Daxia River in the central part has washed out a river valley alluvial basin that runs through the area, and the terrain is relatively flat.

Daxia County is located in the middle of such a river valley alluvial basin. The city is backed by the Loess Plateau Mountains in the north and the Daxia River in the south.

The city is oriented east-west, three hundred steps wide from north to south and one mile long from east to west, with a population of no more than two thousand people.

It can be said that rather than being a county town, it is more like a pass where people live.

Before dusk, Shang Yanxin's troops arrived at the city of Daxia, and the sounds of bells, drums, and arrows were heard in the city.

"Who is outside the city?"

On top of the west gate, a centurion questioned Shang Yanxin's troops outside the city.

While he was questioning, the few armored soldiers in Daxia County also climbed up the city wall one after another.

"Hezhou Qiliben Shang Yanxin is here, why don't you open the city gate quickly!"

A young officer rode his horse to the foot of the city, holding Shang Yanxin's big banner tightly in his hand.

"It is really Shang Yanxin's great banner!"

Seeing the big banner, the soldiers at the gate of Daxia City were talking about it, but the captain said with a stiff upper lip: "Put the certificate in the hanging basket!"

He ordered his men to lower the hanging basket, and Xiaojie'er outside the city put the certificate given to him by Shang Yanxin into the hanging basket.

Soon, the drawbridge at the gate of Daxia City was lowered and the city gate opened.

Shang Yanxin's team, which was blocked outside the city, began to march into the city in a mighty manner, and the captain also brought people to the city gate to welcome them.

It's a pity that Shang Yanxin had no time to pay attention to them. After he led his troops into the city, he immediately ordered his elite cavalry to take over the city defense. He also asked the captain of Linzhou to go to Didao with his handwritten letter.

Two days later, a team of elite cavalry rushed into Didao City from north to south and headed straight for the government office.

Soon, Shang Yanxin's handwriting was delivered to Zhe Buhui.

"You pig-dog fellow, is Shang Yanxin deceiving me?"

"You lost Hezhou in one day, but you were able to escape to Daxia with 1,300 elite cavalry and thousands of family members?"

At the main seat, a thin Tibetan general was holding a handwritten letter, unable to believe it.

Not only him, but even the dozen or so captains under his command showed surprised expressions.

"Qiliben, is this true or false?"

"Could it be that Shang Yanxin is committing fraud? After all, he has already seized Daxia City."

"Qiliben, we have to be careful."

"Yes, don't let this guy take over your position."

For a moment, no one believed that Shang Yanxin would lose the entire Hezhou in one day.

That's the Helong Province with a population of 30,000 to 40,000. Even if pigs were used to guard the city, they wouldn't lose the entire territory in one day, not to mention that if they wanted to enter Hezhou, they had to break through Fenglin Pass.

This pass once blocked the Tubo Empire for decades at its peak, and countless people were defeated at the gates.

Now Shang Yanxin suddenly ran to Linzhou, not only seized Daxia City, but also said that he lost Hezhou in one day?
It’s not that people don’t believe it, but it’s really too unbelievable.

Zhe Buhui read Shang Yanxin's handwriting over and over again, and finally said: "Shang Yanxin said that it was Liu Jilong from Lanzhou who called."

"Liu Jilong? The one from Hexi?"

The generals looked at each other, obviously they had all heard of Liu Jillong's reputation.

"Who else could it be but him?"

Zhe Buhui said angrily: "Shang Yanxin is such a loser that he actually left Hezhou to Liu Jilong."

"Even if Liu Jilong bypasses Fenglin Pass to attack Baohan, as long as he sends Tangqi to inform me in time and then defends Baohan City, Hezhou may not be lost."

"Now he has left Hezhou and come to Linzhou with thousands of people. My Linzhou cannot support so many people."

Facing his words, everyone nodded in agreement, and Jie'er in the hall couldn't help but say:
"Qiliben, if Liu Jilong really comes to attack as Shang Yanxin said, what should we do?"

"What should we do?" Zhe Buhui frowned and said, "Shang Yanxin has lost his spirit and his legs became weak after being frightened by Liu Jilong, but we are not like that!"

"If Liu Jilong really comes to attack Linzhou, Daxia City will be his burial place."

Hearing this, another Jieer continued, "But what if he doesn't take the Donggu official road, but repairs the Linlan Road and attacks Didao from Wuquan?"

"Lin Lan Dao?" Zhe Buhui couldn't help but sneered:

"Linland Road has been abandoned for many years. Without tens of thousands of people working on it, it is impossible to repair it in the short term."

"It's already the end of July. In three months, the mountains will be closed to snow and the official road to the East Valley will be cut off."

"If Liu Jilong wants to invade Linzhou, he will definitely take action within these three months."

"Before the heavy snow comes, we must defend Daxia to the death and never give Liu Jilong the opportunity to get involved in Lin and Wei!"

"Pass on my military order. Harvest the grain from today. Transfer 200 armored soldiers from Changle to Didao to garrison. When they arrive in Didao, I will personally lead 500 elite cavalry to Daxia to support them."

"In addition, I will send a handwritten letter to Weizhou later and ask Lu Ruyue to send troops to aid Daxia."

"If Linzhou falls, his Weizhou will be next!"

With just a few words, tens of thousands of people in Linzhou were mobilized.

At the same time, his letter for help was sent to Weizhou by dozens of light cavalry.

In order to defend Linwei, he decided to fight Liu Jilong to the death in Daxia City...

(End of this chapter)