Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 252 Hindsight
"Hurry up! Get out of here!"

On November 12, the 12th year of the Dazhong period, when the light cavalry entered Chang'an, they brought not only news from Liangzhou, but also urgent news from several other states including Liang, Hui, Qin, Ling, and Yan.

There are countless urgent requests on Li Chen's desk, each of them is heavy.

"Asshole..."

Looking at these hurriedly written contents, Li Chen gritted his teeth, but his expression remained calm.

Anyone in the court could cause chaos, except him.

Thinking of this, he took a deep breath and looked up at the civil and military officials in the Xuanzheng Hall.

"Hexi Governor Suo Xun reported urgently that the 5,000 Chishui troops stationed in Liangzhou had mutinied, looted warehouses in various counties of Liangzhou, and marched eastward."

"Huizhou Governor Zhang Zhifang reported urgently, and 5,000 Red Water troops bypassed Huizhou and entered Lingzhou."

"The Chief of Lingzhou Grand Military Governor's Office, Tang Chi, the governor of Shuofang, has submitted an urgent petition. The rebels have 3,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry. They crossed Mingsha on the 5th and entered Yanzhou on the 10th. The Shuofang army requests assistance."

"The rebel generals Wang Shouwen and Wu Wei reported to the Hexi Defense Commissioner Suo Xun that he treated the soldiers harshly and deceived the garrison troops. The two generals had no choice but to lead their troops back east."

Li Chen roughly stated the contents of each of the urgent memorials. Upon hearing this, all the officials looked at each other in bewilderment.

Three thousand elite cavalry and two thousand infantrymen, this is a considerable combat force in any place.

In the whole world, except for the four towns of Longyou, Hexi, Youzhou and Chengde, it is hard to say that other vassal states can gather so many elite cavalry on their own.

Of course, this does not include Gao Pian, who led several thousand elite cavalry south.

"Your Majesty, the soldiers of the Chishui Army are homesick, so they are marching east. Their feelings are understandable. Why not recruit them and let them return home?"

In the Xuanzheng Hall, calls for surrender and submission were soon heard.

Li Chen thought about this at the first moment, but he then realized that the rebellion of the Chishui Army was different from that of other guards.

Other guards were causing chaos in the south and could use the excuse that the emperor was far away, but the Chishui Army was causing chaos in Liangzhou and was threatening to pass through the eight defense zones northwest of Beijing.

If the Chishui Army really succeeds, doesn't it mean that the defenses of the eight towns northwest of Beijing are useless?

If the imperial court appears in front of other vassal states in this image, will these vassal states have other thoughts?
Thinking of this, Li Chen's face darkened, and Linghu Tao quickly guessed what he meant, and immediately spoke up to stop him:

"Ridiculous! The Chishui Army's actions are tantamount to treason. If they are not stopped, the garrison soldiers in various towns will probably mutiny and return home in the future, claiming they are homesick!"

"That's right!" Xiao Ye also echoed:
"The imperial court has allocated more than 100,000 strings of money to reward the Chishui Army, but the Chishui Army has not given up after receiving the money. They have even looted warehouses in various counties in Liangzhou and want to return to Yunzhou in the east?"

"If the imperial court ignores this, then the garrisons all over the country will follow suit, and the whole country will be in chaos, right?"

As the two finished their words, Xiahou Zi stood up and bowed, saying:

"Your Majesty, although the bandits claim to have 3,000 elite cavalry, the horses from Liang Province were taken away by Deputy Protector General Zhang of Anxi to the west. Even if there are many horses left, the number will not be large."

"In my opinion, the so-called elite cavalry of the enemy soldiers are probably riding horses and draft horses used as military horses to increase their momentum and intimidate the various towns."

"I think we can mobilize the Qinlong Tianxiong Army, Jingyuan Army, Fengxiang Army, and Bining Army to encircle and suppress the rebels, but we must not let them do as they wish!"

"In addition, we must order the Shuofang Army, Tiande Army, Zhenwu Army, Huining Army, Fufang Army, and Xiasui Army to defend the city with all their might, clear the fields, and not give the rebels any chance to get supplies!"

The towns that Xiahou Zi proposed to encircle and suppress basically had a military force of more than 10,000, while the towns that were defending had a military force of less than 10,000.

Obviously, he was also worried that if the towns with weak military forces were attacked and suffered heavy losses, they would easily be unable to defend the cities and towns of the states and counties.

It was for this reason that he suggested dispatching four large towns with over 10,000 troops to launch an offensive.

But Li Chen was a little hesitant about this.

"To mobilize so many troops, is there enough money and food in the imperial treasury?"

Upon hearing this, Xiahou Zi bowed and said, "The autumn grain has just been collected and stored in the treasury. There are still 600,000 yuan of money and grain in the treasury that can be used."

"Your Majesty!" Xiao Ye continued to bow and said:

"I think we can call upon Tuoba Qianhui of the Dangxiang Pingxia tribe to come south to provide assistance."

As Xiao Ye finished speaking, many officials from Hedong also submitted memorials:

"Your Majesty, I recommend Zhuxie Chixin, the governor of Yunzhou!"

"Your Majesty, Shatuo is strong. Zhuxie Chixin has thousands of elite cavalry under his command, which are extremely powerful. A mere rebel army can be easily defeated!"

If you fight in wars, you will gain military merit, and if you have military merit, you can be promoted.

Faced with the emperor's determination to use military force against the 5,000 rebels, the ministers made suggestions one after another, all trying to get a piece of the pie.

In this situation, Li Chen gradually relaxed, but in the end he still looked towards a corner of the temple.

"What do you think, Situ Zhang?"

Li Chen asked about Zhang Yichao, which made all the ministers quiet down.

In response to this, Zhang Yichao, who was wearing a purple robe, frowned and stood up. His calm voice gave people a sense of security.

"Your Majesty, I don't know much about the Pingxia and Shatuo tribes, but there are many horses in Liangzhou. Even if they are riding horses, they are better than the military horses inside the pass."

"In addition, Wang Shouwen and Wu Wei's 3,000 veteran soldiers from Yunzhou have been stationed in Liangzhou for six years. They are proficient in riding and shooting, and they miss their hometown very much."

"I believe that among the five thousand men under their command, two thousand are from the Guannei Dao."

"We should not rush to encircle and suppress them now, but should wait for the 2,000 soldiers from the inner pass to leave the team, and then we can launch an encirclement and suppression."

There was nothing wrong with Zhang Yichao's proposal, but he asked Li Chen to wait, which made Li Chen feel a little uncomfortable.

The rebels were rampant in Guannei Road. If we delayed their suppression by one day, some local governors would think that the imperial court was unable to control them.

Because of this, Li Chen didn't want to wait for these 5,000 rebels at all.

He nodded slightly, then slowly said: "Xiahou Zi, the co-prime minister, will be appointed as the governor, inspector, and recruiter of Bining, Xiasui, Shuofang, and Dangxiang. He will receive the order to go out and quell the rebellion today!"

"I have received your order, and I wish you a life of tens of millions of years..."

Xiahou Zi didn't expect that the task of suppressing the rebellion would fall on his shoulders, but he didn't take it seriously.

As long as the eight towns in the northwest of Beijing cooperated and the Dangxiang Pingxia tribe sent troops, he would not be afraid of destroying Wang Shouwen's 5,000 men.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yichao and Zhang Yitan sighed and shook their heads in their hearts, feeling that the imperial court was going to suffer a great loss.

At the same time, Li Chen continued to speak;

"Hexi Surveillance Commissioner Suo Xun petitioned the court to send reinforcements to the garrison troops to prevent the barbarians from advancing southward. What do you think?"

"Your Majesty, I think Governor Suo is exaggerating!"

"How dare a mere barbarian become an enemy of my country?"

"Inspector Suo was unable to control the chaos of the Chishui Army. This is a crime and he should be punished!"

After Li Chen spoke, all the ministers began to denounce Suo Xun, who caused the Chishui Army mutiny.

Li Chen nodded in satisfaction upon seeing this and said, "In that case, then I will dismiss Suo Xun from his post as the Hexi Surveillance Commissioner and temporarily retain him as the Governor of Liangzhou."

"In addition, order the Right Shenwu Army General Zhang Huaiquan to lead 200 Right Shenwu Army soldiers and 1,200 garrison soldiers into Liangzhou and station the Guzang Army in Guzang."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Yitan's pupils shrank and he subconsciously looked at Zhang Yichao.

Zhang Yichao was seen frowning, obviously he did not expect that the imperial court was still thinking of sowing discord among the Hexi tribes at this time.

If Zhang Huaiquan really led his troops to station in Guzang, he would definitely have a conflict with Suo Xun.

Obviously, the emperor did not want to give Suo Xun the opportunity to integrate Liangzhou while dealing with the Chishui Army mutiny.

Zhang Yichao remained silent. Seeing that he was not moving, Li Chen announced the adjournment of the court soon.

When the court was dismissed, many officials looked over, but Zhang Yichao took Zhang Yitan away from the Xuanzheng Hall.

After they left, Zhang Yichao spoke up, "I'm going to the Right Shenwu Army. Brother, send someone to tell Dalang not to rush to Liangzhou."

"Why?" Zhang Yitan was puzzled.

In this regard, Zhang Yichao looked at him with a complex expression: "There are changes in Liangzhou, and it is time for Liu Jilong to take over Liangzhou."

As soon as he finished speaking, Liangzhou at that time finally welcomed the troops heading south from Emo.

"Screw rustle..."

"Xilulu!!"

Amid the howling north wind, hundreds of thousands of horses were heading south. Even through the white wind and at a distance of several miles, the moving herd of horses could be clearly seen.

Suo Zhongyi and his son Suo Xun, wearing armor, were guarding the top of Guzang City.

In the huge city of Guzang, there were only a thousand armored soldiers stationed there, and they couldn't even defend the city walls.

"Conscript all men to the city walls!"

Suo Xun spoke in a stern voice, and several captains hurried down the horse road to take charge.

Suo Zhongyi's face was not looking good. He said to Suo Xun:

"We have 2,800 armored soldiers, and now 1,800 of them are scattered in the other three cities."

"Under such circumstances, I'm afraid we won't be able to defend the other cities. We might as well just defend Guzang and wait for reinforcements from the imperial court!"

"That's too late!"

In terms of scheming and tactics, Suo Xun is not as good as Suo Zhongyi, but in terms of marching and deploying troops, Suo Zhongyi is far inferior to Suo Xun.

Because of this, when faced with such a magnificent formation, all of Suo Zhongyi's methods lost their effect.

Suo Xun looked at the Umo tribe in the distance, and as they gradually approached, he took a breath of cold air:

"They are heading south in droves, and the scale is even larger than the previous two times they headed south."

The more than 100,000 Umu tribesmen who covered the sky and the sun gradually gathered together and then surrounded Guzang City.

They camped 200 steps away from Guzang City, and Suo Xun saw this and immediately said:

"Set up all the catapults in the city, and let all the women and children build new catapults." Suo Zhongyi arranged all the men, women and children in the city according to his plan, but then bad news came.

"Your Majesty!"

A lieutenant came hurriedly, bowed a few steps away, and said breathlessly: "There are foreigners causing trouble in Shenniaofang, and they have been suppressed by the people sent by Governor Suo!"

Suo Xun frowned upon hearing this, and then ordered, "Tell Aye that anyone who causes trouble will be beheaded!"

"This..." The captain hesitated, then said hesitantly: "The governor said that with foreign enemies in front of us, we should appease the foreign invaders in the city."

"Who is the Inspector?!" Suo Xun asked him angrily, and the captain quickly bowed and retreated.

"Your Majesty!"

Soon, another captain came to report. Suo Xun looked at him coldly, and the captain also bowed and said:
"The barbarians surrounded the north, south, and west gates of the city, except for the east gate."

"Humph!" Suo Xun snorted coldly, "How can a bunch of idiots surround three people and miss one?"

"Don't worry about it. I want to see how they take over Guzang City!"

"Yes!" The captain withdrew, and the Umu camp outside the city took shape over time.

More than thirty small catapults were built on the top of Guzang City, and sixty counterweight catapults were built on the streets inside the city.

Not only that, most of the city defense equipment such as wolf-tooth mace, gate-blocking knife cart, etc. were used by Suo Xun.

Many of these were left by Zhang Huaishen. After all, they were too heavy and difficult to disassemble, so they were not taken away.

Now he has made a wedding dress for Suo Xun, but Suo Xun would rather not have this wedding dress.

"Uuuuuu——"

Time passed, from the afternoon of the 12th to the early morning of the next day. As the horns sounded outside the city, the Umer people cut down trees from the southern valley and built siege equipment.

They lacked technologies such as catapults and ballistas, so they could only use cloud chariots and battering rams to attack the city.

Soon, dozens of ramming trucks began to move forward, and hundreds or even thousands of people, carrying sand wrapped in animal skins, hid behind the ramming trucks and approached.

Suo Xun did not use the catapult rashly, but instead called out to the defenders on the city wall:

"When they fill the river, use bows and arrows to attack them!"

"Trebuckles, wait for the whistle. Once the whistle sounds, counterattack immediately!"

After the arrangements were completed, Suo Xun walked to the north gate. The north gate was the main attack direction of the Umo people, and there were more than ten thousand Umo people organizing the siege.

However, their armor was incomplete, and there were only a thousand armored soldiers among them, and even fewer armored soldiers at the other city gates.

Suo Xun summoned 200 members of the Suo family to gather in the corridor of the north gate, preparing to launch a counterattack after defeating Umo's attack.

"Uuuuuu——"

"kill!!"

The sound of horns and shouts of killing rang out outside the corridor, and the armored soldiers on the city wall began to use bows and crossbows to attack the U.S. troops outside the city.

The foreign soldiers in the city were supervised by Suo Zhongyi and 200 armored soldiers who transported supplies for defending the city and operated catapults for counterattack.

For many Umu people who were not wearing armor, the bows, crossbows and arrows of the Liangzhou Army were undoubtedly deadly.

Dugazhi ordered the old and weak to bring sand and soil to fill the river, but most of them died from bows and arrows.

Their bodies were also thrown into the moat, and in an instant a path was filled up to cross the river.

"Woo-"

The horn sounded longer, and the crash vehicles and cloud vehicles outside the north gate began to move, heading towards the road made of corpses and sand.

"Beep--"

"kill!!"

The whistle sounded, the catapults began to counterattack, and the north gate suddenly opened.

Suo Xun led two hundred armored soldiers out of the city gate, aiming directly at the road that had just been filled.

The catapults kept throwing stones, and every time a stone fell, it would kill two or three people, causing the people around to retreat in fear.

“No retreat!!”

Du Lun Xiga led a thousand elite cavalry to supervise the battle from behind. Anyone who retreated would be slaughtered by them.

Under such circumstances, everyone had no choice but to rush towards the only crossing channel, and Du Lun Xijia also ordered others to take the opportunity to fill the river and try to create several crossing channels.

Suo Xun led 200 armored soldiers to guard the only river crossing passage at present. The 200 men formed a formation to fight back. The armed Umu people were chopped down and stabbed, and their blood dyed the moat red.

Facing two hundred heavily armored soldiers, the only role of more than two thousand old and weak ones was to consume their physical strength and attract their attention.

Gradually, the 200 Liangzhou soldiers felt exhausted, and seeing this, Suo Xun immediately ordered a retreat to the city gate.

"Retreat to the city!"

Suo Xun saw that the Umu people were filling up the river in many places, so he knew that the area outside the city could not be defended.

They began to retreat, and Du Lunxijia saw this and immediately said, "The Tang army must retreat back to the city, hold them tight!"

Under his command, elite cavalrymen kept delivering military orders back and forth. Flags were not waving, but horns and whistles sounded one after another in a very rhythmic manner.

For the Umu people who have been begging for food on the grassland all year round, these flag signals, commands and sentry orders have long been engraved in their minds.

They all rushed to the 200 armored soldiers led by Suo Xun and tried to follow them into the city.

But for Suo Xun, everything is under control.

As they retreated into the corridor, the heavy gate fell down in a breath, crushing three or four Ugly People to death.

The other dozens of Umu people only felt a darkness before their eyes. Before they could react, they saw Suo Xun and his men retreating from the corridor, while the foreign soldiers in the city began to push the knife carts that blocked the door and quickly approached them.

"Eh!!!"

Pushed by dozens of militiamen, the Saimen knife cart, which was covered with thick long knives, was pushed into the corridor.

There were constant screams, begging for mercy and the sound of a long knife being inserted into the body.

Blood flowed all over the ground, slowly flowing in and out of the city gate like a river.

Some of the Umoths tried to lift the gate, but before they could take any action, a black, sticky and pungent liquid began to flow out of several gaps above the gate.

Without waiting for the Umoths to react, a fire started from the gap, igniting all the Umoths contaminated with liquid in the blink of an eye.

The shrill screams and the firemen running for help forced countless Ummoths to retreat. They tried to escape but were met with the supervision team who executed them.

The cloud chariot pushed by the Umo people arrived at the foot of the city. The ladder was placed on the parapet. The barbs on the ladder were stuck tightly, making it impossible to push the ladder down.

The Umo people climbed up the ladder along the cloud chariot and tried to rush to the top of the city more than once.

Suo Xun and his men did not have time to rest for too long before they had to rush onto the horse trails to help their comrades on the three sides of the city walls fight off the Umu people.

There were constant shouts and cries of killing, and from time to time one could see corpses falling from the top of the city walls like rain inside and outside the city.

Facing armored soldiers, the unarmored Umu people are as thin as paper, but they can consume the armored soldiers' physical strength.

Seeing the old and weak dying one after another, Du Lunxijia raised his hand and ordered: "Go ahead and prepare!"

As soon as he finished speaking, three hundred armored soldiers suddenly appeared outside the north gate. While blowing horns, they launched an attack on the city wall.

Suo Xun chopped left and right on the horse path, killing several Umu people in a breath.

Before he could catch his breath, he saw three hundred armored soldiers trying to climb the ladder.

"Throwing stones and rolling logs, cold water and greetings!"

As his voice rang out, hundreds of foreign soldiers walked up to the top of the city wall and began to pour the ice water in the buckets in their hands onto the Umota armored soldiers.

Being poured with a bucket of ice water in such cold weather, the feeling made the vanguard soldiers of Umu couldn't help but scream.

With stones, rolling logs and cold water constantly hitting him, Du Lun Xiga could only watch his vanguard being driven back.

He remained calm and not upset because the vanguard was repelled. Instead, he calmly watched the Umoth people continue to attack the city.

At the same time, there were cavalrymen riding horses from a distance, galloping to the front of Dulun Xiga.

"The Khan has ordered that the attack be suspended today. Please lead your troops to attack Changsong instead!"

"it is good!"

Obviously, Dugazhi realized that Liangzhou was not so easy to conquer, especially the stone walls, which were much stronger than those of other cities.

He planned to capture Changsong first and then fight a protracted war in Guzang.

When Du Lun Xijia received the military order, he immediately sounded the retreat and waited for the next day to move camp and attack Changsong.

"Dang-dang-dang-dang..."

The horn sounded, and the Umu people retreated like a tide, leaving behind countless corpses.

Since it was winter, there was no need to worry about an outbreak of plague, so Suo Xun had the bodies thrown out of the city and not to be taken care of.

He stood in front of the city wall, his hands were cracked and wrapped in gauze, and his whole body was shaking due to exhaustion.

His eyes were fixed on the mobs outside the city and his breathing was heavy.

At this moment, he seemed to have figured something out.

That is why Zhang Yichao willingly went to Chang'an and why Zhang Huaishen moved his capital to Ganzhou.

Liangzhou has become a dead end, far beyond the reach of someone like him with insufficient resources.

Thinking of this, Suo Xun stretched out his hand to hold the parapet, and without turning his head, he called out to the people behind him:

"Call my father over here. I have something important to discuss with him..."

(End of this chapter)