Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 187 The troops are divided into two groups
"Xilulu!"

On September 28, the eighth year of the Dazhong period, when Gao Pian hurriedly retreated to Shanggui and sent urgent reports to Chang'an, Xingyuan Prefecture (Hanzhong), and Chengdu Prefecture, Liu Jilian was already on his way south to Dangzhou.

After dividing the troops among Li Ji, Liu Jilong, Shang Duoluo and Hu Siguang led 800 elite cavalry, 1,500 armored soldiers, 3,000 civilians, and 4,000 horse and mule carts to continue marching south.

To go from Chengzhou to Dangzhou, one must pass through the natural barrier "Hanxia" south of Shanglu County, and then go to Lianggong County of Dangzhou at the fork.

The ninety-li road from Yanjing to Shanglu is mostly the Xihan River alluvial plain between gullies. The road is smooth and easy to walk.

It only took Liu Jilong and his team a day and a half to reach the outskirts of Shanglu County.

Shanglu County is located next to the alluvial plain of the river valley at the foot of the mountains. There is not much arable land around the city. Fortunately, the road to the north for more than 30 miles is a wide alluvial plain that can be easily cultivated.

Unfortunately, the problem in the local area is the same as that in the Helong area. The water conservancy facilities were damaged and collapsed due to the poor protection of the Tibetans.

Fortunately, the original canals and dams are still there. As long as the government provides grain and the people contribute their labor, it will only take a few months to repair these water conservancy facilities.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilian continued to lead his army southward.

As they continued to move south, the road ahead became narrower and the mountains on the right became higher.

When they walked into the cold gorge, they felt that the valley was deep, the mountains were overlapping, the peaks were surrounding, and the mountain road was steep.

It was sunny in Shanglu County, but as they walked into Hanxia, they saw clouds and mist surrounding the valley, which was deep and secluded.

The West Han River flows southward, rolling away with the chilly autumn wind.

The official road is less than ten feet wide, with a steep cliff on the right and a cliff more than ten feet high and the turbulent West Han River on the left.

In the deep and cold valley, not even the sunlight can penetrate. The thick fog in the air turns into dew, making everyone's hair turn white.

"The sun is shining quietly, and the mountains and valleys are full of twists and turns. The cloud gate turns to the cliff, and the accumulated haze makes the sky cold."

"The cold weather is unbearable, and I am wearing only a few clothes. Moreover, it is mid-winter, and the sea is turbulent..."

On horseback, Liu Jilong thought of the "Hanxia Tie" that he had seen when he was studying and practicing calligraphy in Linzhou, and he couldn't help but recite its verses.

"Governor, is this the poem you wrote?"

"Good poem, good poem..."

Hu Siguang behind him couldn't help asking, while Shang Duoluo agreed, "Good poem," without quite understanding what he meant.

Liu Jilong rolled his eyes at the two of them and explained, "This is "Cold Gorge" written by Shaoling Wild Old Man Du Fu when he passed by this place nearly a hundred years ago. It is not my poem."

After the Anshi Rebellion, Du Fu resigned from his official position and went south, passing through Qinzhou and then from Chengzhou to Chengdu.

On his way south, Du Fu wrote dozens of travel poems, and "Han Xia" is one of the most brilliant ones.

In the previous life, a national highway was built in Hanxia, which was more than 70 miles away. For a car, it was only half an hour. Therefore, Liu Jilong, who passed by this place in his previous life, did not think that this canyon was very dangerous.

Now that the national highway is gone, there is only a dangerous road less than ten feet wide. Even if you ride a horse, it will take a day to carefully get out. Naturally, he has more feelings.

In fact, he still had many aspirations for the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but most of them were to see celebrities like Li and Du.

There were many famous poets in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, such as Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, Liu Zongyuan, Du Mu and Li Shangyin, all of whom were his favorite poets.

Liu Jilong heard from Chen Ying that Du Mu had died when they arrived in Chang'an, and the only poet of the middle and late Tang Dynasty that he liked was Li Shangyin, who was twenty years older than him.

However, because he was involved in the Niu-Li factional struggle, Li Shangyin was not valued by the court and wasted a long time. Now he serves as a military officer in Zizhou, the seat of the Dongchuan Jiedushi of Jiannan Road.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong's mind gradually became active.

Although Li Shangyin was not successful in his official career, it was not due to lack of talent, and he was also quite famous.

Although Longxi today has the basic textbooks compiled by Liu Jilong to support the situation, there is undoubtedly a severe shortage of teachers.

If he could persuade Li Shangyin to come to Longxi to take up a post, he might be able to attract some frustrated scholars to Longxi and contribute to Longxi's education.

However, there are problems with doing so. If these scholars mix their own ideas into the process of teaching and educating, it can easily lead those immature children astray.

Fortunately, Liu Jilong did not hesitate for too long and came up with a solution, which was to let this group of people teach the mature military officers under his command and to read directly.

This group of people followed me from Hexi to Longxi. Their values and ideas have been fixed by themselves. No matter how the scholars from outside try to brainwash them, it is not easy for them to side with them.

As long as they learn the knowledge, I can send them to teach the children when the time comes.

After thinking it through, Liu Jilong focused his attention on getting on the road. After preparing to recover the three states of Min, Dang and Wu, he sent someone to invite Li Shangyin to Longxi to serve as an official.

At the same time, the fast horses sent by Gao Pian delivered to Chang'an the military information that Liu Jilian had led his troops south to capture Chengzhou but had his retreat route cut off by him.

The three ministers and four nobles of the Southern Court and the Northern Court soon gathered in the Purple Palace.

Linghu Tao, Cui Xuan, Pei Xiu, Wang Guichang, Ma Gongru, Wang Jufang, Wang Zongshi and seven others had just finished reading Gao Pian's urgent report when Li Chen slowly spoke:

"Liu Jilong led his army southward and recovered Chengzhou for the imperial court, but his route was blocked by troops sent by Gao Pian."

"Gao Pian requested the court to send troops from Jiannan Road and Shannan West Road to recapture Wuzhou and Dangzhou. What do you think?"

Li Chen set the tone for this matter, that is, Liu Jilian recovered Chengzhou for the court, which means he did not want to make a big deal out of it.

However, Gao Pian cut off Liu Jilong's retreat, which was a good time to control Liu Jilong.

Of course, it was impossible for Li Chen to say openly that he wanted to control Liu Jilong, so he needed someone to help him say this.

"Your Majesty!" Linghu Tao, who was usually taciturn, stood up immediately after hearing this, bowed and said:

"Since Liu Jilong recovered the three states, he has been arrogant. This time he has provoked a border conflict. If he fails to recover Wu and Dang states, won't he invite the Tibetans in the two states to invade the border?"

"I think that Liu Jilong started the border conflict without authorization, and Governor Gao cut off his retreat in the hope that he would come to his senses and return to the right path."

"Although he has recovered Chengzhou, the Tibetans in Wuzhou and Dangzhou are still there."

"I think that Shannan West Road and Jiannan Road should send troops to recapture the two states, and then we can determine the crime of Liu Jilong for provoking the border conflict without authorization!"

Linghu Tao's meaning was very clear: the land must be taken and the people must be punished. Otherwise, if Liu Jilian was allowed to expand like this, the situation in the west would sooner or later get out of control.

His meaning actually coincided with Li Chen's.

Li Chen had never liked Liu Jilian in the first place, and now that Liu Jilian had just acquired Chengzhou, if he continued to leave things alone and watched him annex the seven prefectures in Longnan, wouldn't that mean that another powerful vassal would emerge in Longyou?

Therefore, it is necessary to send troops to recapture the two states!
"His Majesty……"

Suddenly, Pei Xiu stood up and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, I also support sending troops to the two states, but the court no longer has extra money and food to supply the two states with, so we can only let the two states raise money and food on their own."

Pei Xiu supported the recovery of the two states, but it was impossible to get the Ministry of Revenue to pay for it.

After he said this, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly dropped to freezing point.

If we don't give money, even if the two armies go out to fight, they won't contribute much. If they fail to recapture the two states, wouldn't that be making things difficult for Liu Jilong?

"There is no money or food in the national treasury?" Li Chen's voice was neither sad nor happy, but his tone was not very good.

"Your Majesty." Pei Xiu was not timid, but spoke directly to the point:
"The autumn harvest has not yet ended, and the money, grain, and silk from various places have not yet been deposited into the treasury. The national treasury does not have much money, grain, and silk to begin with."

"The Ministry of Finance just allocated military pay for the Shen Ce Army at the beginning of the month, and there is no extra money or food in the treasury."

Pei Xiu laid out the facts, which left Li Chen helpless.

The court's annual revenue was more than 14 million strings of cash, the military pay for the whole country was 12 million strings of cash, and the maintenance of the army was nearly one million strings of cash.

Of course, there is no way of knowing how many vacancies there are in this so-called million-strong army.

The Tang court tried twice to reduce the number of troops in the world, but it did not have enough strength and had to give up.

The problem of redundant troops grew larger and larger. By the time it came to Li Chen, the court could not even fill the vacancies in the Shence Army, let alone reduce the number of troops in the vassal states.

Thinking of this, Li Chen could only reluctantly say: "There are still more than 200,000 pieces of silk in the inner treasury. I want to allocate 50,000 pieces to reward the army."

Most of the money in the Inner Treasury came from tributes from various states. After the Anshi Rebellion, Hebei and Helong basically paid no tribute, so the money, grain and silk in the Inner Treasury were not much.

Fifty thousand rolls of silk was already a considerable amount for Li Chen.

"If there were 50,000 pieces of silk, the soldiers from Shannan Road and Jiannan Road would surely fight bravely against the enemy. Your Majesty is wise!"

Pei Xiu bowed and praised Li Chen, but Li Chen could only wave his hand and said, "Hurry up and pass the order. Don't let the Tubo in Wu and Dang states have a chance to invade the border!"

"I obey your order!" Pei Xiu accepted the order and left, while Linghu Tao, Cui Xuan, Wang Zongshi and others also left the Purple Palace one after another.

Seeing them leave one after another, Li Chen sat on the golden platform for a long time without leaving. He knew the harm of redundant soldiers, and he was even more aware of the fact that the Northern Division took up a lot of vacancies in the Shen Ce Army and placed their own men.

If he wanted to fill the vacancies in the Shence Army, he had to first deal with the eunuchs. To solve the eunuchs, he had to deal with the four nobles and several major families among the eunuchs.

If we don't deal with them, we won't be able to get a strong army, and naturally we won't be able to reduce the number of troops in various towns across the country.

Thinking of this, Li Chen paced back and forth, and then said to a eunuch in the hall: "Send the Imperial Academy Scholar and Jingzhao Yin Wei Ao to bring the poetry book!"

"This slave accepts the order..."

Upon hearing this, the eunuch left the Purple Palace. Less than half an hour later, the eunuch walked into the Purple Palace with an official in his forties.

Seeing Wei Ao coming, Li Chen was not in a hurry, but looked at what he was holding: "Did you bring the poetry book?"

"Your Majesty, the poetry book is here."

Wei Ao presented the poem with both hands, but Li Chen did not take it. Instead, he nodded with satisfaction and said, "I have been confused about many poems recently. I would like to ask Wei Hanlin to help me solve my doubts."

"I am very pleased."

After Li Chen finished speaking, he walked towards the side hall, and Wei Ao and the eunuchs followed closely.

The three of them came to the side hall, but Li Chen looked at the eunuch and frowned, "I am discussing poetry with Wei Hanlin, what do you know? Stay here!"

"I obey your orders..." The eunuch quickly retracted his foot and stood in place to keep watch for the two of them.

At the same time, Li Chen took Wei Ao into the side hall.

The two began to discuss poetry aloud. The eunuch looked into the side hall from time to time. Seeing that there was nothing wrong, he immediately felt relieved and gradually his mind drifted away.

However, when he was daydreaming, Li Chen in the side hall looked at the palace door. After making sure that the eunuch was not paying attention, he lowered his voice and said:

"Wei Hanlin, I want to get rid of the eunuchs. Do you have a good plan?"

Wei Ao was stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect that the emperor summoned him just to get rid of the eunuchs.

Fortunately, although he was stunned, he reacted very quickly and quickly said, "I think that if we discuss this with the court officials, it may be difficult to keep it secret, and it will inevitably lead to the disaster of the ninth year of Taihe (the Ganlu Temple Incident)."

"I think it would be better to select a talented eunuch among the eunuchs and conspire with him."

"Not appropriate..." Li Chen frowned and rejected it, and then explained: "I have tried it, but among the eunuchs, it is difficult to find loyal ministers!"

Seeing that Wei Ao couldn't come up with any good ideas, Li Chen could only shake his head and then concentrate on chatting with him about poetry.

A few hours later, as it grew darker, Li Chen let Wei Ao leave with the album of poems.

Seeing him leave, Li Chen frowned, feeling anxious, and couldn't help thinking of the long-term medicine, so he waved his sleeves and said:
"Send the imperial physician Li Yuanbo to bring long-term medicine into the palace!"

"This slave accepts the order..."

The eunuch gave the order and soon brought the imperial physician Li Yuanbo.

As he took the medicine for a long time, Li Chen's anxiety was somehow alleviated a lot.

Gradually, he calmed down, and the angels from Chang'an also rushed towards Xingyuan Prefecture in Shannan West Road and Chengdu Prefecture in Jiannan Road.

At the same time, Gao Pian, who retreated to Shanggui, also sent 2,000 armored soldiers to Luomen Road, as if to completely block Liu Jilian's way back to Weizhou.

When Dou Jingchong sent soldiers on horseback to tell Liu Jilian about this, Liu Jilian had already led his troops through the steep and dangerous Han Gorge and arrived at the fork in the road heading south.

There were three roads in front of him, one went east directly to Fengzhou, and one went south, passing through Qingyang Gorge and arriving at Jiangli County in Wuzhou.

The last one is the Cheng-Dang official road heading west.

Among the three official roads, the one leading to Fengzhou has many collapsed parts that are visibly visible and has fallen into disrepair due to years of neglect.

The official road leading to Wuzhou had messy traces of horse hooves and wheel tracks, which should have been left by Li Ji and Wang Sifeng leading their troops passing by yesterday.

Therefore, the only way left for them was to go west along the Biyu River to Lianggong County, Dangzhou.

Without hesitation, Liu Jilian turned his horse and headed for Dangzhou, and he did not consider it difficult to recapture Dangzhou.

"During the Kaiyuan period, the population of Dangzhou was no more than 7,000, and the number of men was no more than 3,000, and it was divided into two counties, Lianggong and Huaidao."

"When our army reaches the city, we will deploy our forces and try to persuade them to surrender."

Liu Jilong explained this to Shang Duoluo and Hu Siguang beside him, while Hu Siguang asked curiously:
"Governor, isn't Dangzhou rich in bran gold, realgar, cinnabar, musk, and tea?"

“Why is there only such a small population?”

Hu Siguang was very curious. Logically speaking, a place with such abundant resources should not have only 7,000 people.

"This place has many mountains and ravines but few rivers and valleys. It is not easy to feed so many people."

"You've seen along the way that neither Hanxia nor Luomen Road is an easy road to travel."

"If we want to relocate people here, let alone how to resettle them, just the blocked roads alone will scare away countless people."

Liu Jilong finished speaking, and then continued to add: "From here to Lianggong County, it is about sixty miles away, and it will take at least two days to walk."

"I'm afraid Gao Pian has already submitted a memorial to the court, accusing me of provoking a border conflict."

"Then what should we do?" Hu Siguang was a little anxious when he heard this, but Liu Jilong smiled and said:
"It will take at least four days to send the letter from Shanggui to Chang'an. Even if Chang'an makes arrangements, the troops in Jiannan Road and Shannan Road will not have enough time to react."

"Today's Xichuan is no longer the Xichuan that Wei Nankang (Wei Gao) was in."

"By the time they reorganized their troops and came, Dangzhou had already been recaptured by us."

Since the peace agreement between the Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao, the military preparations of Jiannan Road have been in disarray. It has not experienced war for more than 20 years and is no longer the powerful force it was during the times of Wei Gao and Li Deyu.

Those guys in Chang'an, once they spread out the map, thought that the world was a flat land and they could recover lost territory with just a simple click.

The actual situation is that attacking Dangzhou from Jiannan Road is no easier than attacking Shibao City during the Kaiyuan period.

By the time the troops from Shannan Road and Jiannan Road advanced together, he would have already recovered Wu and Dang states and would be able to attack Minzhou calmly.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong said to Shang Duoluo: "You lead your elite cavalry to Lianggong. If you can persuade him to surrender, that would be the best."

"I obey your command!" Shang Duolu nodded in response, then rode his horse to the front army and led 800 elite cavalry to Lianggong County.

Soon, the sun was setting and Liu Jilong also ordered to set up camp.

More than 5,000 people stretched for six miles and camped in the Jade River Valley to rest.

Huke Siguang released enough soldiers to seize the high points of the mountains on both sides to prevent the army from being attacked.

Nothing happened that night, and the army continued to march towards Lianggong the next day, but Shang Duoluo had not sent back any news.

It was not until noon (11 o'clock) that elite cavalry returned to report the situation ahead.

There were 200 foreign soldiers in Lianggong City who refused to surrender, hoping to rely on geographical means to hold on.

Shang Duoluo tried to persuade Liu Jilong to surrender for a whole night, but found that it was impossible to do so, so he sent someone to inform Liu Jilong.

Upon hearing this, Liu Jilong immediately looked at Hu Siguang and said, "Order the army to hurry. We must reach Lianggong City, which is fifteen miles away, in two hours and capture it before dark!"

"I obey your command!" Huke Siguang responded, and then ordered the soldiers and laborers to feed the draft horses with fine feed and urge them to gallop to Lianggong.

In less than two hours, Liu Jilian led his army and saw Lianggong City ahead.

Lianggong City was built on the north bank of the Jade River. The terrain was steep, like a pass blocking the way forward.

There is a ferry bridge at the west gate of the city leading to the south bank, where there are large tracts of arable land. Liang Gong is the only one who can build a ferry bridge along the entire river section, so the Longxi army must capture Liang Gong.

Lianggong City is not big, only a hundred steps wide from north to south, so there must not be many people living in the city.

"The governor!"

Shang Duoluo rode back to his camp and bowed to Liu Jilong, saying, "These killers are unwilling to surrender!"

"If they don't surrender, they won't surrender. If they don't surrender now, they won't have a chance later."

Seeing that Liang Gong still refused to surrender, Liu Jilong glanced at Hukui Guang, who understood what he meant and immediately drew his sword and ordered:

"Move the catapults forward, deploy the troops, dig the stones, and operate the soldiers. We must capture Lianggong City before dark!"

　Sorry for the delay in updating due to making the map.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)