Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 161: Marching East
"In less than a day, Shang Yanxin completely destroyed Hezhou?!"

On July 26, the seventh year of the Dazhong period, when the light cavalry of Linzhou handed Zhe Buhui's letter for help to Lu Ruyue, Lu Ruyue could not believe it after learning what had happened.

He was short and strong, about forty years old, and occupied four counties in Weizhou. The place where he was currently located was Xiangwu County, the seat of Weizhou, which was located in the center of the four counties.

In his hand was a letter for help sent by Qilibenzhebuhui of Linzhou, which described in detail how Shang Yanxin abandoned Hezhou and fled to Linzhou.

Linzhou has three counties: Didao, Daxia and Changle. Among them, Daxia County is located between the Daxia River Valley. It is the first city faced after walking out of the East Valley in the direction of Hezhou. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Now Zhe Buhui and Shang Yanxin are stationed together in Daxia County, with two thousand armored soldiers under their command.

Facing their Daxia County where two thousand men were stationed, Lu Ruyue couldn't figure out how many troops Liu Jilian had on the opposite side.

"These two guys...are they trying to trick me into going to Linzhou and take advantage of the opportunity to annex me?"

Lu Ruyue felt uneasy and stood up and paced back and forth.

But he thought about it and realized that among the three states of He, Lin and Wei, Shang Yanxin was the strongest, followed by him, and finally Zhe Buhui.

If Shang Yanxin and Zhe Buhui have joined forces, there is no need to lure him, just fight them directly.

What's more, Weizhou is adjacent to Qinzhou of the Tang Dynasty, which is not a good location.

If the Tang Dynasty really intends to recover Longxi, Weizhou will be the first to bear the brunt. They have no reason to target their own Weizhou.

Thinking of this, Lu Ruyue also believed what Zhe Buhui said in the letter.

“Qiliben, do you really think that Liu Jilong will conquer Hezhou in one day and plan to take Linzhou before winter?”

Several centurions were afraid to believe it, and Lu Ruyue said, "The Han people have a saying that it is better to believe it than not to believe it."

"Pass on my military order, mobilize the troops, and I will lead them tomorrow to rush to Daxia County to help!"

Seeing him give the order, the generals worriedly said, "Qiliben, if you go to Daxia, what will we do if the Tang generals from Qinzhou invade?"

"Hold on and wait, I will come back to help you." After saying this, Lu Ruyue stood up and walked towards the inner hall.

The next day, he led a thousand armored soldiers to Linzhou Daxia to provide assistance.

At the same time, Liu Jilian also led 800 elite cavalrymen and rode back to Baohan County from Fenglin County.

In just a few days, the dirty streets of Baohan City have been completely transformed, and the strange smell in the air has disappeared.

The eyes of the people became bright, and when the children saw the elite cavalry from Longxi, they could not help but cheer and jump for joy and tried to chase them.

Soon, eight hundred elite cavalrymen went to the military camp, while Liu Jilian and more than ten others rode their horses to the Baohan Yamen.

"Xu..."

"Governor, the foreign soldiers at Fenglin Pass have surrendered. There are 500 foreign cavalry in total. Their armor and horses have been handed over."

"In addition, when the Tangqi were chasing Shang Yanxin, Shang Yanxin was frightened and left more than 400 grain carts to block the East Valley. These grain carts contained more than 2,400 dan of grain, which have all been stored in the government warehouse."

Chen Jingchong had already learned the news of Liu Jilian's return, so he was waiting at the gate of the yamen early.

Seeing Liu Jilong rein in his horse, he immediately stepped forward to hold the horse for Liu Jilong and told him two pieces of good news.

"it is good!"

Hearing this, Liu Jilong couldn't help but shout "good", and Chen Jingchong saw this and hurriedly asked: "Governor, should we use this opportunity to expand the army?"

"No hurry, wait a moment." Liu Jilong gestured to him to tie the horse first, while his mind was racing.

The surrender of the foreign soldiers at Fenglin Pass did not surprise him. After all, if those 500 people did not surrender to them, their only outcome would be starvation to death or surrendering to Shang Bibi, who was more than a hundred miles away.

In a moment, Liu Jilong made a decision, and led Chen Jingchong and the others towards the government office, saying:
"Calm down these foreign soldiers and tell them that we will attack Linzhou after we have rested and rescue their families who were taken away by Shang Yanxin."

"If they want to look for Shang Yanxin, give them food and let them walk to Linzhou to look for Shang Yanxin."

Liu Jilong talked as he walked, and said something that shocked Chen Jingchong and the others.

"Governor, if we let them go like this, they will definitely help Shang Yanxin and his men deal with us when they go to Linzhou."

"Yes, Governor, isn't this like letting a tiger go back to the mountains?"

"Governor, kill them all and put an end to it all!"

Zhang Chang, Li Ji, and Cuo Ben hurriedly tried to dissuade Liu Jilong, but Liu Jilong did not rush to answer. Instead, he walked into the main hall, sat in the main seat, and motioned for them to take their seats:

"Without armor and horses, what can they do in Linzhou?"

"Think about it carefully. The number of Fan people in Longxi is nearly twice that of Han people. If we only rely on butcher knives, can we kill all the hundreds of thousands of Fan people in Longxi?"

"If we kill them all, what will we do when there is no one to farm or mine?"

"Don't always think about killing when you encounter something. They did follow Shang Yanxin to deal with us, but we can't kill all those who are our enemies."

"Let them go. I don't need them to remember our kindness. It is enough to let them know that our army does not kill prisoners or treat them harshly."

"When they go back, they'll tell their fellow soldiers about their experiences, and that's what I want."

After educating everyone, Liu Jilong turned his gaze to Chen Jingchong and asked, "How is the registration of the population and cultivated land of Baohan going?"

"It's not finished yet. It will take at least ten days to finish." Chen Jingchong responded quickly.

Seeing this, Liu Jilong continued, "Take advantage of the gap between registration and registration to harvest the grain outside the city and store it in the warehouse."

"Select 500 men from the 2,000 civilians brought from Wuquan and train them into a new army."

"In addition, the army will rest for half a month, and then recruit civilians and attack Linzhou from Donggu."

The smooth recovery of Hezhou caught Liu Jilong by surprise, so he had to put the attack on Linzhou and Weizhou on the agenda.

The food they brought with them was only enough to last for one month. While they were registering, the two thousand civilian laborers who came with the army were able to harvest the food and make rations.

The mountains in Longxi were closed due to heavy snow at the end of October, so they still had three and a half months.

After he finished speaking, Liu Jilong stood up and walked towards the inner hall, while Chen Jingchong and others left the yamen and prepared to retake Linzhou.

In the next few days, Chen Jingchong and his men were busy registering the people of Hezhou, harvesting grain, counting livestock, and measuring farmland.

The results of Liu Jilong's literacy campaign in the army over the past year or so emerged at this moment. All 2,500 soldiers were literate and knew simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Because of this, in less than half a month, the situation in Hezhou was put before Liu Jilong.

"Baohan County has 5,653 households, 23,816 people, and 7,852 males."

At noon in the yamen, Liu Jilian read out the population situation of Baohan County, and then took a look at the overall situation of Hezhou.

"The population of Hezhou is just over 30,000, which is nearly 6,000 fewer people than a hundred years ago."

"There are more than 143,000 acres of arable land in Hezhou, and nearly 100,000 acres are abandoned."

Looking at the population and farmland statistics in the documents, Liu Jilong felt very sad.

The drought is certainly terrible, but if people like Lun Kongre and Shang Yanxin had managed the business well, cleared the water conservancy facilities left over from the Tang Dynasty, and built more water wheels, so much arable land would not have been abandoned.

Sometimes he wondered if these people had nothing else on their minds except fighting and having fun.

"Provincial Governor..."

At the location, Chen Jingchong took the initiative to speak: "Outside the city, there are more than 2,200 oxen, more than 1,600 oxen, more than 7,000 draft horses, and nearly 30,000 sheep and camels."

"In addition, after the autumn harvest in the two counties, the government warehouses stored more than 126,000 shi of millet and wheat, more than 14,000 shi of beans and more than 10,000 jin of hemp."

"These things have just been stored and have not yet been processed into grain, soybean oil, soybean meal, or linen."

"It will take at least two months to deal with them."

"But I have led the people to produce 3,000 shi of military rations, and the subsequent food will be produced continuously."

Chen Jingchong explained in detail the livestock herds in Hezhou and the situation of the government warehouses after the autumn harvest, so that the generals could have a clear understanding of the situation in Hezhou.

In a state with a population of 30,000, there are only less than 40,000 herds of livestock. This shows how serious damage the drought has caused to Longxi.

You must know that when Liu Jilian and his men recaptured Changsong, which had a population of more than 20,000, the number of livestock in Changsong exceeded 50,000. Although Hezhou had a larger population than Changsong, it was still not as large as Changsong.

While thinking, Liu Jilong also began to give orders: "Ma Cheng will serve as the governor of Hezhou and the chief clerk, and Cuo Ben will serve as the deputy governor of Hezhou, and stay at Fenglin Pass."

"You two need to recruit 2,500 civilians and follow the army to march east to Linzhou in three days."

"I left a group of 200 elite cavalrymen to guard Fenglin Pass. The 500 new soldiers recruited half a month ago will be stationed in Baohan City temporarily. The group of soldiers at Fenglin Pass will not be moved for the time being."

"Three days later, our army will select 1,100 elite cavalry, 1,000 armored soldiers, and 4,000 civilians to march east to Linzhou."

Liu Jilong first arranged for the people to stay in Hezhou, namely Ma Cheng, Cuo Ben, and Zheng Chu, and the soldiers and horses left behind were 400 veterans and 500 new soldiers. The remaining troops were not strong, but Donggu was only a hundred miles long. If Hezhou was attacked, Liu Jilong could also send elite cavalry to withdraw to Hezhou first, without worrying about Hezhou's fall and the army being in a dilemma.

After arranging the matters concerning the Eastern Expedition and the remaining garrison, Liu Jilong began to give instructions to Ma Cheng and the others.

He looked at Ma Cheng and saw that he was a little embarrassed, so he said softly:
"Hezhou is very important to our army. I promoted you to be the governor of Hezhou because you have experience in governing Shandan, conquering Liangzhou, and recovering Hezhou."

"After I leave, Hezhou's top priority is to dredge the canal, build a water-turning wheel, the Fenglinjin ferry, and reclaim wasteland."

"There are a lot of things to do. It doesn't matter if we can't finish them. The most important thing is to repair the Fenglinjin Ferry and those boats."

"Don't worry, I believe you can manage the Five Springs well."

Liu Jilong stood up and walked to Ma Cheng, patted him on the shoulder, then turned and looked at Cuoben.

"Provincial Governor..."

Cuo Ben nodded and bowed. Liu Jilong came forward to hug him and patted him on the back: "Guard Hezhou well, and wait for my victory report!"

"Yes!!" After receiving a hug from Liu Jilong, Cuo Ben couldn't help but straighten his back and spoke in a more serious tone.

Seeing that they were all in high spirits, Liu Jilong nodded with satisfaction, and then looked at Chen Jingchong, Zhang Chang, Li Ji, Shang Duoluo and others.

"Three days later, we will march east to Linzhou. I want to recapture Daxia County before Lu Ruyue of Weizhou can react!"

"The last general takes command!"

All the generals bowed and saluted, received the military orders, and then went on to do their work.

Three days later, a team of more than 6,000 people gathered to the east of Baohan City.

One thousand one hundred elite cavalry, one thousand armored soldiers, and four thousand civilians lined up on the official road, and the team was more than six miles long.

There was no exciting pre-war agitation. As soon as the whistle sounded, the army crossed the Li River and marched towards the East Valley.

At the same time, Lu Ruyue led a thousand armored soldiers and arrived at Daxia County on the same day.

"Set up your camp more securely, you bunch of pigs and dogs!"

"Hurry up and set up camp and cook..."

In the east of Daxia City, when the commotion broke out, thousands of slaves conscripted from Didao and Daxia counties had to expand their camp one mile eastward.

Of the 4,000 soldiers and horses in Linwei, 3,000 were gathered here.

The city wall on the west side was raised and thickened again and again during this short half month.

The three-meter-high and four-meter-thick city wall looks like a small hill, stretching across the northern bank of the valley.

Since the south bank could also be reached through the river valley, in order to prevent Liu Jilian from going around and cutting off the food supply, Zhe Buhui and monk Yanxin also built an earth wall on the south bank of the Daxia River.

The advantages of rammed earth city walls are thus reflected: not only is it fast, but the cost is also low.

Not only that, they built a two-meter-high and thick stone wall with stones and clay at the entrance of the valley leading out of the East Valley, and set up a camp there for garrisoning.

The attitude shown by Zhe Buhui and the monk Yanxin made Lu Ruyue, who led his troops to the place, believe the contents of the letter even more.

Therefore, when he walked into the Daxia government office, he simply nodded to the two of them, then took the initiative to sit on the right and asked:
"They lost Hezhou in one day, and then they put on such a big show to defend it. How many troops did Liu Jilong have?"

Seeing him asking, Zhe Buhui also cast his gaze towards Shang Yanxin: "Shang Yanxin, you kept saying that you would wait until we are all together before you tell us, can you tell us now?"

Facing the two's questioning, Shang Yanxin's greasy face showed an ugly smile: "At least five thousand people!"

In order to avoid making his escape look shameful, Shang Yanxin deliberately exaggerated Liu Jilian's military strength.

In fact, during the entire Hezhou battle, he had no idea of Liu Jilian's military strength. He just felt that Fenglin Pass might have been lost, so he hurriedly led his troops to flee.

"Five thousand armored soldiers?"

Lu Ruyue continued to question, frowning slightly.

Five thousand armored soldiers were not a lot, at least in his opinion. If Shang Yanxin defended Fenglin Pass and Baohan City to the death, it would be enough to consume 30% of Liu Jilian's military strength.

But it is no use saying this now. Fortunately, the Donggu Pass and Daxia City gave them the opportunity to organize defense. It is impossible for Liu Jilong to cross this place!
"I set up a stone wall camp at the East Valley Pass and stationed a thousand armored soldiers and two thousand civilians."

"If Liu Jilong and his troops show up, we can send elite cavalry to rush to the pass to support it. If we are defeated, we can also retreat to Daxia to hold our ground."

Shang Yanxin's eyes, which had become as big as soybeans, revealed a hint of shrewdness. After hearing this, Zhe Buhui and Lu Ruyue showed expressions of understanding.

The East Valley is long and narrow, and the army cannot maneuver freely. If catapults are deployed, it is easy to accidentally injure the soldiers in the main camp.

In their opinion, Liu Jilian's plan to break through the pass of Donggu was simply a pipe dream, not to mention that Daxia City was waiting for him behind.

Thinking of this, Lu Ruyue also felt a little tired, and couldn't help but stand up and said:
"In that case, then we should guard the pass well until winter comes, and Liu Jilong will naturally withdraw his troops."

"If we lose here, we will be completely helpless!"

Lu Ruyue's words were not alarmist. There were only a few places in the three states of He, Lin and Wei that were easy to defend and difficult to attack. Fenglin Pass and Fenglin County had already been lost. If even Daxia County was lost, the entire Linzhou would not be far from being lost.

Once Linzhou was lost, all they would have left was Weiyuan City in Weizhou.

But the problem is that if they suffer heavy losses here, they will not have the strength to defend Weiyuan City afterwards.

Thinking of this, Lu Ruyue looked at Zhe Buhui and said, "There are too few civilians in the city. At least recruit 2,000 more civilians to come to Daxia to defend the city!"

Zhe Buhui frowned upon hearing this: "Linzhou's population is small to begin with, and recruiting 6,000 civilians is already the limit. If we want to recruit another 2,000, we will have to call all children over the age of twelve to fight!"

He called the civilians "babies" instead of "slaves", indicating that these people were the sons, nephews, and brothers of the foreign soldiers.

But Lu Ruyue didn't care about all that. He only knew that if he was defeated in Daxia, both Linwei and other states would be lost.

"If you want to hold on, do as I say."

"I'm tired. It's up to you whether to do it or not..."

Lu Ruyue turned and walked out of the government office. Zhe Buhui's face turned pale, and Shang Yanxin gritted his teeth and said, "I will offer five hundred men!"

"Hmph!" Zhe Buhui just felt disgusted. If Shang Yanxin hadn't lost Hezhou so quickly, there would be no need to send people from Linzhou now.

He stood up and walked out of the yamen without giving Shang Yanxin the slightest face.

Shang Yanxin clenched his fists when he saw this, but when he thought of Liu Jilong, he silently loosened his fists.

"You pig-dog guy, how come you have become such a coward!"

He cursed himself in his heart, but was powerless to make any changes.

Now he can't ride a horse, can't draw a bow, and even walks too far before getting out of breath, let alone fight in battle.

He stood up and walked towards the inner hall, ready to vent his dissatisfaction with the current situation on the women he had brought with him.

But while he was venting his anger, the Longxi army had already advanced into the Donggu Valley, and the long and narrow valley also made the Longxi army feel uneasy.

"This place is really a Jedi..."

On horseback, Liu Jilong looked up at the cliff that was over a hundred feet high, and then at the Donggu Valley Road whose average width was less than two feet, and his mood couldn't help but sink.

"The governor!"

Shang Duoluo stepped forward with an unmistakable look of worry on his face.

"Governor, if Shang Yanxin and his men set up a pass at the entrance to the valley, then we..."

He didn't continue, but Liu Jilong understood what he meant.

If Shang Yanxin and his men really did that, the Longxi army would have to pay with human lives to break through the pass.

The width of two meters is just enough to accommodate a catapult.

It is simply impossible for a mere trebuchet to break through a pass...

Faced with reality, Liu Jilong looked calmly at the long and narrow front, his mood gradually sinking.

The terrain of East Valley was far more dangerous than he had imagined. There was no possibility of circumventing it, and the only way was to break through by force.

If they retreat now, they can still preserve their strength, but once they retreat, Linzhou and Weizhou will inevitably continue to strengthen their defenses, making it even more difficult to attack Linzhou.

Thinking of this, his eyes became fierce:

"Once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. I don't believe that a small pass can stop us!"

(End of this chapter)