Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 250 Liangzhou Mutiny
"General Wang Ya, don't worry. The court knows that doing this would be unfair to you, so it has sent money and food."

"The 100,000 strings of cash and 3,000 pieces of silk outside the city are all rewards from the court. In addition, the military pay is also paid as usual."

In the Guzang government office, Suo Zhongyi thought he had seen through Wang Shouwen's greed for money, so he proposed a reward of money and silk.

Sure enough, after he offered a reward of money and silk, Wang Shouwen smiled, but then he said seriously:

"Liangzhou has nearly 8,000 soldiers and horses. If we want to divide them up, I don't know..."

"That's not right, General Ya. These money and silk are rewards from the imperial court to the Chishui Army. Naturally, they have the orders of the two generals."

Suo Zhongyi said this, and continued: "In addition, I, Suo, am willing to give 20,000 strings of cash to the brothers in Tianping to appease their homesickness."

"Thank you very much, Envoy Suo and Governor Suo." Wang Shouwen smiled happily when he heard the words and bowed to them.

At the same time, he looked at Wu Wei and said, "Old Wu, what are you still standing there for? The two envoys have used their family fortunes to appease the brothers, why are you putting on airs?!"

"Thank you, both envoys." Wu Wei also forced a smile, but in the eyes of everyone, Wu Wei was obviously a little reluctant.

With Wu Wei's support, Wang Shouwen could be said to be willing to do too much.

Seeing this, Suo Xun was a little impatient, but Suo Zhongyi smiled and said:

"Good good..."

"I will send someone to deliver the money to General Wang Ya's residence later, and General Ya will take people to distribute the money tomorrow."

"But will the court's actions make the brothers..."

"No!" Wang Shouwen patted his chest and promised:
"The Libra brothers are considerate and considerate. With me to comfort them, there will definitely be no trouble."

"As long as the brothers of the Libra are not in chaos, the others will not be in chaos."

"Okay!" Suo Zhongyi nodded and said:
"In that case, General Wang Ya will take more care and ask the brothers of the Chishui Army to stay for another three years."

"Three years later, Defense Envoy Suo and I will report to the court and send you back home!"

Suo Zhongyi stood up and drank tea instead of wine.

Upon seeing this, Wang Shouwen and Wu Wei immediately poured tea instead of wine to toast Suo Zhongyi.

After that, everyone exchanged a few pleasantries, and then Suo Zhongyi asked Wang Shouwen and Wu Wei to go back.

After they left, Suo Xun narrowed his eyes and asked, "Could this be a trick?"

"No!" Suo Zhongyi was very confident:

"Wang Shouwen is a greedy man. We have given him so much money, so he will definitely not cause trouble."

"As long as we keep them stable, we will be able to raise funds for the 2,800 soldiers under my command next year with the harvest from Liang Province."

"What's more, the imperial court has already escorted 1,200 prisoners to Liangzhou. By then, if we train them a little, we will have 4,000 elite soldiers."

"By then we can recruit another thousand Fan troops. Even if the Chishui Army wants to leave, we can still defend Liangzhou City."

After Suo Zhongqi finished speaking, Suo Xun and Wang Duanzhang also breathed a sigh of relief.

In their view, the three-year garrison mission of the Chishui Army was basically over.

However, when they were feeling self-righteous, Wang Shouwen and Wu Wei were chatting and laughing all the way back home.

They arrived at Wang Shouwen's house, and then Wang Shouwen's face changed. He immediately ordered more than ten old brothers from Tianping to guard various places, and he took Wu Wei into the main hall.

"Old Wu, do you want to continue guarding the border and making money, or return home?"

Wang Shouwen sat down and asked Wu Wei. Wu Wei had not yet recovered from Wang Shouwen's transformation, so he was stunned.

When he reacted, he said with an unpleasant expression:
"We agreed on three years at the beginning. Now three years have passed and three years have passed, three years have passed and three years have passed..."

"God knows how many three years are left. What if the imperial court never sends anyone? Are we all going to die in a foreign land?"

"I have made enough money, now I want to go home!"

Wu Wei didn't want money, he just wanted to go home. After all, he was nearly 40 years old, and would be 42 in three years.

If the imperial court lasts another two or three years, he will really have to be buried in a foreign land.

Seeing him like this, Wang Shouwen nodded and said:

"You're right. I thought so too."

"Besides, the brothers are not like us two. We two are alone, but the brothers' families are all in Yunzhou."

"If they are unable to return home, even if we use money and food to appease them, some brothers will inevitably be dissatisfied."

"I don't want to be beheaded by my own brothers one night."

Wang Shouwen did love money, but he also knew the character of the Libra old man.

If they really stood on the side of the Suo father and son, the old brothers of Tianping would not take their previous friendship into consideration and would be lucky if they did not kill them in the middle of the night.

Thinking of this, Wang Shouwen gritted his teeth and said, "If we want to go back, there are only two ways."

"The south is Liu Jilong's territory. Even the imperial court is afraid of Liu Jilong. We naturally cannot go to the south."

"To the north is the Guannei Road where the eight garrisons in the northwest of Beijing are stationed. After passing through the Guannei Road, we will go into Hezhong and Heyang, pass Yicheng, and return to Yunzhou."

"You saw us coming here. The eight towns in the northwest of Beijing are vast and sparsely populated. It's not easy to encircle and suppress us."

"As long as we don't go through Jingyuan, Bining, and Fufang, but go through Shuofang and Xiasui further north to enter Hezhong, the court will leave us alone."

"We can go on our way and send someone to petition the court, saying that we just want to return home."

"If the court doesn't want to make things worse, they can only let us go back home!"

Wang Shouwen had a good idea, but Wu Wei was not good at making plans, so he nodded and said:

"Although that's what you said, there are only 3,000 brothers in Yunzhou."

"Are we going back with 3,000 people? Can we go back?"

Wu Wei was a little worried, but Wang Shouwen said:

"Back then, the Jingyuan Army was able to capture Chang'an with only 5,000 men. Now we have 3,000 men. Can't we return home?!"

Hearing this, Wu Wei gradually calmed down, but in the end he still said:

"I need to discuss this matter carefully with my brothers in the army."

"That's easy to say!" Wang Shouwen nodded.
"You put on the armor of the brothers and take the two brothers to the military camp. I will stay behind to receive the money and food and confuse the father and son of the Suo family."

"If the brothers in the army are willing to return home, you should send people to Jialin, Changsong, and Fanhe at night to gather all the brothers in Yunzhou."

"As soon as the brothers arrive in Guzang, we will immediately burn the flags of the Chishui Army, change our name to the Tianping Army and return home!"

"If you brothers don't want to, then just pretend nothing happened and we'll continue guarding the border for another three years!"

After Wang Shouwen finished speaking, Wu Wei nodded in response, then found a brother of similar body shape to him to exchange armor, and took the two of them through the back door to the military camp.

Half an hour later, hundreds of Huining soldiers arrived at Wang Shouwen's house with money. Wang Shouwen ordered people to bring the money into the house to deal with Suo Zhongqi who was escorting the money.

When Wu Wei arrived at the military camp, he immediately summoned five hundred Tianping brothers to the Yamen.

When the captain of a platoon or above walked into the yamen, Wu Wei immediately told everyone what had happened.

Before he finished speaking, he heard someone shouting;

"I'm already thirty-six, if I delay any longer I'll be forty!"

"Yes, I haven't seen my wife and children for six years. If I stay any longer, I'm afraid my wife and children won't recognize me and will run away with someone else!"

"We don't want money, we want to go home!"

"Yes! We want to go home! We want to go home!"

For a moment, everyone was noisy, but fortunately, the white wind and flying snow today did not alarm anyone.

Wu Wei calmed everyone down, then said:

"If we want to return home, we will not be strong enough with only 500 of us. We must unite with the other 2,500 brothers from Yunzhou."

"Pass on my military order. After nightfall tonight, select three people to ride fast horses to the three cities of Changsong, Fanhe, and Jialin. Order the brothers from Yunzhou in the three cities to plunder the horses from the other cities and rush to Guzang overnight."

"Brothers who arrived first should wait outside the city for the time being and bring enough warm cloth."

“When the brothers from the three cities arrive, we will raise our troops together, burn the Red Water Army flag, change our name to the Tianping Army and return home!”

After Wu Wei finished speaking, he glanced at everyone:
"Starting tonight, no one is allowed to leave the barracks. I will personally guard the camp gate."

"If any brothers do not want to go back, they can just pretend they don't know about this."

"Liangzhou lacks Han people. Even if we suffer, you can still stay in the future. Don't worry."

"But if someone tries to tell on me..."

"Bam—"

Wu Wei got angry and cut the table with his sword: "The informer is just like this case!"

Hearing this, everyone's heart trembled, and then they all calmed down.

Afterwards, Wu Wei put on the armor of an ordinary soldier and went to guard the camp gate with a cold look in his eyes.

He covered his face with a rough cloth, so the Huining Army and the Chishui Army soldiers from Guannei Road could not recognize him. Everyone was as usual until midnight, when three fast horses rushed out of the city and galloped towards Fanhe, Jialin and Changsong.

After galloping, the first to arrive at Jialin.

The fast horses selected by Wu Wei were all veterans who had served in the army for more than 20 years, so they were very cautious.

They waited until daytime to enter the city in the name of Suo Xun. After arriving at the military camp with the token of the Chishui Army, they immediately found the old soldiers from Yunzhou.

The old soldiers were all indignant after hearing this. When they heard that an old soldier from Tianping was leading the mutiny, they immediately raised their hands to support him.

Upon seeing this, the old soldier of Tianping ordered them to keep a close eye on the camp gate and not let anyone inform on the situation, and then wait for the garrison troops of Fanhe to take the first action.

Fanhe is adjacent to Ganzhou, and there are one thousand veteran soldiers from Yunzhou and five hundred veteran soldiers from Huining stationed in the city.

Because of this, when the light cavalry arrived in Fanhe with the news the next day, the old soldiers from Yunzhou in Fanhe city started to make a fuss.

The commander of the army, Suo Yu, did not dare to stop them and could only lead the Huining Army to guard the government office and granary.

A thousand old soldiers from Yunzhou robbed thousands of soldiers, chariots and draft horses in the city, looted thousands of stone military warehouses in the military camp, and under the leadership of the old soldiers from Tianping, they left the city and retreated towards Jialin.

After they had gone far away, Suo Yu immediately sent people to ride on the ten or so horses in the government office to go to Guzang via a detour.

On October 30th, a thousand veteran soldiers from Yunzhou led an army to surround Jialin at night, causing chaos in the city of Jialin.

Eight hundred Huining soldiers guarded the government office, and five hundred old soldiers from Yunzhou instigated five hundred Chishui soldiers from Guannei Road to plunder all the horses and grains, carry them out of the city, and meet up with the old soldiers from Yunzhou outside the city, and rush towards Guzang.

That night, 2,500 Chishui soldiers arrived outside Guzang City, burning the Chishui flags and making a lot of noise.

Wu Wei and Wang Shouwen took the opportunity to open the city gate. The rebel soldiers supported Wu Wei and Wang Shouwen as their leaders, changed their name to Tianping Army, and took the opportunity to plunder Guzang.

"The court is unjust! It doesn't keep its promises!"

"Take all the horses and provisions!"

"Screw rustle..."

That night, the rustling sounds of armor could be heard in the city, and two thousand Tianping troops and two thousand Chishui troops were scattered throughout the streets and alleys.

Suo Zhongyi was the most vigilant. After the incident, he immediately summoned all the Huining troops he could to gather at the yamen, and woke up Suo Xun while wearing armor.

"The Red Water Army is causing chaos! At least three to four thousand people!"

Suo Zhongyi's words made Suo Xun, who had just gotten up, widen his eyes: "Hasn't it been discussed?!"

"We've fallen into a trap!" Suo Zhongyi said angrily:
"Now we can only defend the government office and negotiate with Wang Shouwen and the others!"

"Suo Xun! Get out! Get out!!"

Before Suo Zhongqi finished speaking, overwhelming shouting and cursing came from outside the yamen.

Seeing this, Suo Zhongyi calmed Suo Xun down and said, "Put on your armor first. I'll take someone to take a look!"

After saying this, he walked out with more than a dozen armored soldiers.

When Zhang Yichao built the Guzang Yamen, he also built the Yamen as a city.

Because of this, the rebel soldiers did not attack the government office, and Suo Zhongyi also walked up to the wall of the government office and asked from a high position:
"Wang Shouwen, why don't you keep your promise?!"

"It is the court that does not keep its word!"

Wang Shouwen's voice came from a distance, the firelight illuminated everyone, and a figure wearing fine scale armor was hidden behind the chaotic soldiers.

The wind and snow were so strong that Suo Zhongyi couldn't see clearly whether the man was Wang Shouwen or not. He could only judge by his armor.

At this moment, outside the yamen, there were thousands of armored soldiers surrounding it in three layers, while there were only less than 600 Huining soldiers inside the yamen. The rest of the Huining soldiers were either in the military camp or in the city defense, and most likely they were under control.

"Suo Zhongyi, I see that you are quite respectful to us, so I will not beat around the bush with you any more!"

"Open the government granary right now. We only want to return home and have no intention of occupying Liangzhou."

"You open the granary, and we will only take half of the food."

"If not, more than 4,000 of us will start fighting right now and see who dies first!"

Wang Shouwen's threatening words continued to be heard, and Suo Zhongyi's eyes flickered after hearing them.

At this time, Suo Xun also came to the wall wearing armor.

When he saw so many armored soldiers outside the palace, he immediately asked, "Wang Shouwen, what did you do to Jialin and Fanhe?!"

"We only take the food, the city is still in the hands of your generals!"

Wang Shouwen's voice came, and before Suo Xun could digest it, he continued:

"Suo Xun, I'll give you another cup of tea. If you don't open the warehouse and release the grain, we will attack in a cup of tea!"

Wang Shouwen's words made Suo Xun angry and annoyed. He turned around and looked at his father: "I said at the beginning that we should just kill him!"

"This is not the time to argue about this." Suo Zhongyi responded impatiently, and then said:

"There are still more than 17,000 dan of grain in the government's granary. How about giving them 7,000 dan?"

"No!" Suo Xun was unwilling to give in. Seeing this, Suo Zhongyi questioned:
"Then how do you pacify these three or four thousand chaotic soldiers?"

"I..." Suo Xun had no choice. Seeing this, Suo Zhongyi said directly:

"Wang Shouwen, there are only 14,000 dan of grain in the palace. I am willing to send someone to drop off 7,000 dan of grain for you."

"You can take the mule-drawn cart in the city if you want. I hope we will never see each other again!"

There is a military warehouse in the military camp, and the food in the warehouse is enough to feed the rebel soldiers for more than half a month. Therefore, Suo Zhongyi did not think that Wang Shouwen and others would occupy Liangzhou after they handed over the food.

If they wanted Liangzhou, there was no need to cause trouble at this time.

From this, it can be seen that they probably really want to return home, and asking for food is just a way to get home.

"it is good!"

In the wind and snow, Wang Shouwen's voice was heard, and the chaotic soldiers gradually calmed down.

Seeing this, Suo Zhongyi turned around and ordered: "Take out half of the grain in the treasury and throw it over the wall!"

He spoke very loudly, on purpose so that Wang Shouwen and others could hear.

After he finished speaking, he immediately added in a low voice: "Only take 7,000 stones!"

"Yes..." Upon seeing this, several Suo generals bowed and retreated helplessly. Then they sent people to transport bags of grain out of the granary and threw them down from the horse path around the wall.

The chaotic soldiers below retreated, and when the food was almost thrown away, they brought a horse-drawn cart and loaded the food onto the cart.

The commotion lasted from midnight till dawn, and the people in the entire Guzang city did not dare to go out.

It was not until dawn that the 7,000 dan of grain was loaded onto the trucks, and Wang Shouwen shouted in the snowstorm:

"We are leaving the city now. If you dare to send fast horses to the imperial court, don't blame us for being ruthless."

"Also, tell Angel Wang that we just want to return home. If the court stops us, don't blame us for being ruthless!"

As soon as Wang Shouwen finished speaking, the horse-drawn carriage was driven away, and then the armored soldiers in the wind and snow gradually disappeared.

“You bastard!!”

Seeing Wang Shouwen retreat, Suo Xun started to curse, and then looked at Suo Zhongyi:

"Father, gather the troops from all the cities. I want to kill Wang Shouwen and Wu Wei!"

"Calm down!" Suo Zhongyi gritted his teeth and warned, then pointed at Guzang City and asked:

"Do you want to fight for your dignity, or do you want to be the master of Liangzhou?"

"We only have 2,800 armored soldiers. How many men can you take to chase them?"

"If the barbarians learn of the news and head south, can you defend Liangzhou?"

"The most urgent task now is to wait for Wang Shouwen and his men to get away from Liangzhou, and then quickly go to Huizhou to pick up the 1,200 death row prisoners."

"Only by training them well can we defend Liangzhou!"

Suo Zhongyi scolded Suo Xun severely, and Suo Xun gradually came out of his anger.

Looking at the vast expanse of white hair, Suo Xun couldn't help but roar: "Ugh!!!"

The roar was muffled by the white-haired wind, and Suo Zhongyi looked at the pale-faced Wang Duanzhang.

Wang Duanzhang never imagined that something that had already ended would turn into a mutiny.

"Angel Wang, please write a memorial for my father and me, saying that the rebel generals Wang Shouwen and Wu Wei led the Chishui army to rebel and were expelled by my father and me."

"The rebels have gone to Huizhou. Please send troops to encircle and suppress the rebels, and send money, food, and troops to support Liangzhou, so as to prevent the barbarians from moving south and Liangzhou from being lost!"

As soon as Suo Zhongqi finished speaking, Wang Duanzhang quickly agreed, and then went to the main hall of the yamen to write a memorial.

After calming down, Suo Xun also began to follow Suo Zhongyi's arrangements and sent people to follow the rebels to see where they would retreat to.

A day later, Wang Shouwen and others went to Changsong and looted the military warehouses, horse-drawn carriages and horses of Changsong from the 1,000 veteran soldiers from Yunzhou in the city. The 3,000 Tianping troops and the 2,000 Chishui troops from Guannei Road thus set out on their journey home.

Suo Xun sent light cavalry to follow them, but they took no notice.

They followed Wang Shouwen's suggestion and passed between the Shuofang Army and the Huining Army. When Suo Xun learned the news, he immediately sent light cavalry to spread the news of the Chishui Army's rebellion to Huizhou and then to Chang'an...

(End of this chapter)