Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 265 Guzang Fireworks
"Sorry..."

"Save me... I am willing to surrender, I am willing..."

"Pfft!"

The setting sun was blood-red, and countless corpses of the Umu people fell on the way back to Baiting Sea.

The blood gathered into a pool of blood and finally flowed into the Macheng River, completely dyeing the river red.

"Envoy, that bastard Du Lunxijia ran away very quickly. He refused to take care of so many people and ran to Juyan Lake with thousands of people."

A familiar voice was heard, and Jiu Juyan rode his horse to a Umulele carriage.

In the car, Zhang Huaishen, his armor stained with blood, was holding a piece of Hu Bing, chewing it and looking at the map.

"It doesn't matter. The remaining Uighurs will flee to Juyan Lake anyway. We will have another battle in Juyan Lake."

Zhang Huaishen's words caused Jiu Juyan to sigh: "It would be great if we could finish the battle in one battle."

"Haha, it's just a matter of fighting two more battles." Zhang Huaishen chuckled.
"There are more than these Umu people. I guess the rest have been intercepted by Liu Jilong."

"Yes!" Jiu Juyan nodded, then asked curiously: "How did you know that General Liu Jie would send troops in early March?"

"Isn't he always like this?"

Zhang Huaishen asked Jiu Juyan in return. Jiu Juyan was stunned when he heard this. After a moment, he smiled and said, "That's true."

Seeing that he knew, Zhang Huai took a deep breath and said, "We have taken advantage of him."

"The hundreds of thousands of captured cattle and sheep can solve the urgent need for military supplies this year."

"After we defeat the Uighurs, we will send troops to Juyan Lake. By then, the only enemies around us will be the Tuhun in the south and the Uighurs in the west."

"After we recover Xizhou, we can rest and recuperate and restore the population."

Zhang Huaishen told his plan, and Jiu Juyan immediately said:

"The east is in such chaos. I heard that Wang Shouwen and others rebelled and caused refugees all over Hedong and Henan. I don't know if it's true."

"If we can relocate those refugees to Hexi, we will only need a few years to recover the four towns in the Western Regions and solidify your status as the governor of the four towns."

Jiu Juyan felt a little regretful, just like the generals in Longyou back then.

For areas that are in urgent need of population, refugees who are not regarded as civilians by the court are something they can only dream of but cannot obtain.

If tens of thousands of people from Hexi could move to Hankou, Zhang Huaishen could use these people to recover the former Anxi and Beiting.

Unfortunately, they had conflicts with Longyou over the population issue.

In addition to geographical issues, they could only obtain population from Longyouyou and could not obtain population on their own.

Fortunately, Liu Jilong was ruthless in relocating people. Even though those people were corrupt officials and criminals, for Hexi, they were not afraid of these people committing crimes, but they were afraid of having no people.

Anyway, most of these people won’t live for more than a few years after being exiled.

They were not given the chance to serve as elite cavalry or armored soldiers, so they could only serve as civilian laborers.

"Your Majesty!"

While Zhang Huai was deep in thought, a captain came riding towards him from a distance, bowed and said:

"One hundred and thirty-two brothers were killed in this battle, and two hundred and forty-six brothers were injured, leaving two thousand six hundred and twenty-two brothers."

Hearing this, Zhang Huai took a deep breath, feeling a little regretful, but finally made a decision:

"Send 122 brothers to escort the wounded brothers and corpses, as well as the captured Umu people and herds back to Ganzhou."

"The remaining brothers will camp here, kill 500 sheep to reward the troops, and head south tomorrow to find out the situation in Jialin and Fanhe."

"Yes!" The captain bowed in response and turned his horse around to make arrangements.

After he left, Zhang Huaishen looked at Jiu Juyan and said, "Send a group of brothers to Guzang and tell Liu Jilong about the situation here."

"If he wants to recapture Jialin and Fanhe, then we will cut off the Uighurs' retreat in the north."

"In this way, even if the remaining Uighurs flee to the Juyan Sea, not many people will escape."

"If he stops advancing, then we will return home and digest the results of this battle."

After all, Zhang Huaishen didn't know the population situation in Longyou. Even though he was confident in Liu Jilian's governance methods, in his opinion, the population of Longyou was only 200,000 or 300,000.

The number of civilians needed to send troops here from Lanzhou is not a small number.

If the recovery of Jialin and Fanhe fails, Longyou is likely to suffer losses.

The purpose of sending troops to Hexi this time is mainly to cooperate with the battle in Longyou, and must not take over the main task.

Compared with Longyou, Hexi is smaller in size and can withstand less casualties.

Therefore, if Liu Jilian did not fight, he had no choice but to retreat to Hexi.

"The last general takes command!"

Jiu Juyan bowed in response, turned his horse around and left.

Watching him leave, Zhang Huaishen also looked at the hundreds of thousands of herds in the distance, and a smile appeared on his face.

Ever since Suo Xun came to power in Liangzhou, he hasn't felt so happy for a long time.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look to the south.

"Liu Jilong, don't let me down..."

Obviously, he still wanted to inflict heavy damage on the Uighurs, and this required Liu Jilong's help.

Liu Jilong also has the same plan.

"Send a group of elite cavalry to Ganzhou and tell Envoy Zhang that we have sent troops to recapture Guzang and Changsong in Liangzhou."

"If he wants to attack the Ganzhou Uighurs, now would be a good opportunity for him to send troops to the Juyan Sea to wait for their opportunity."

On the morning of March 8th, the first thing Liu Jilong did after getting up was to arrange for elite cavalry to notify Zhang Huaishen.

The war went so smoothly, far beyond his imagination.

This is not because Longyou is too strong, but because Umu and Ganzhou Uighurs are too weak.

Whether it is the quality of the soldiers or their training and discipline, they are too weak.

Because of this, Liu Jilong didn't need to use any strategies at all. He could just use his magnificent formation to overwhelm the enemy and win the battle.

But then again, Guzang City is still a bit tricky for the Longyou Army.

If Liu Jilian was willing to sacrifice the lives of his soldiers, he could have captured the enemy quickly.

However, every soldier in Longyou was the result of his careful training and cultivation, so he naturally would not exchange the lives of the Longyou soldiers for time.

To him, even if he called upon the Leju tribe to come, they would be nothing more than a clay chicken and a clay dog.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong walked out of the tent and looked at the clear and blue sky of Liangzhou.

The whole military camp was filled with the aroma of food. The sheep bones that were not used yesterday were used to make soup. The Hu cakes were broken into pieces and soaked in the soup and sprinkled with some spices. It tasted so delicious.

"General Jie, the food is here!"

Cao Mao and Li Shangyin arrived with several armored soldiers, who also brought hot meals.

"Good thing you came. I'm a little hungry too."

Liu Jilong walked back to the tent with a chuckle. When he took the mutton soup and Hu Bing from the soldier, he couldn't help but thank him with a smile.

The soldiers' faces turned red after hearing Liu Jilong's words of thanks. They wanted to rush to Guzang City and kill a few Umo people to serve as wine for Liu Jilong.

After all, for the entire Longyou, Liu Jilian's prestige is equal to the beliefs of many people, or even higher.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been rumors on the plateau and in the Hehuang area that Liu Jilian was the King of Wisdom and the King of Elephants.

"How is it, have you looked around Guzang and Changsong?"

In the tent, Liu Jilong asked Li Shangyin, and Li Shangyin nodded:

"I've seen a lot. Liangzhou is not as desolate as I thought. Instead, it has lush grass and beautiful water. It's not only suitable for grazing, but also for farming."

Relying on the snow water from the Qilian Mountains, the population of Liangzhou is bound to be large.

Unless something like the Mongols massacring the Western Xia occurred, Liangzhou could at least support 200,000 to 300,000 people relying on the Qilian Mountains.

Of course, if the local water conservancy can be managed well, it would not be surprising to feed four or five hundred thousand people.

Liu Jilian was eager to recover Liangzhou in order to facilitate the resettlement of the population of Jiannan Road in the future.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong couldn't help but ask Li Shangyin: "Is there any news from Linzhou today?"

"Indeed!" Li Shangyin responded without hesitation, and then explained:

"Chapter Gao sent someone to deliver the news that Wei Mo died of illness not long after Xiahou Zi entered Xichuan."

"Compared to Wei Mo, Xiahou Zi is in charge of everything, but he doesn't keep a close eye on things."

"Because of this, many horse dealers appeared in Songzhou, Dangzhou, and Wuzhou half a month ago."

"The three states have acquired more than 700 people through trade, and now Gao Changshi has sent people to move them to Liangzhou."

Xiahou Zi was from the Xiahou clan of Qiao County. Although he served as prime minister in the court, it could be seen from the fact that he was defeated by Wang Shouwen that he did not have any outstanding talents.

Now that he had been deposed and exiled to Xichuan, he was even more depressed and handed over the military and political affairs to Yang Fugong and others to help handle.

In the whole Xichuan, except Yang Fugong who still had some ideas of restraining Longyou, everyone else was thinking about doing business with Longyou.

There are too many illegal residents in Xichuan. As long as Liu Jilian can afford the money, they will hand over someone.

After thinking this through, Liu Jilong said in a deep voice: "No matter how many horses those horse merchants in Xichuan have, I will take all of them in Longyou." "Yes!" Li Shangyin agreed first, and then said:
"These horse merchants are probably backed by the officials of the Northern Division in Xichuan..."

"Don't worry about it, we just want people." Liu Jilong didn't care.

The Tang court is now focusing all its attention on Jiangnan and Henan. Unless they deal with Wang Shouwen and Qiu Fu, there is no way they will be able to turn their attention back to Helong.

While they are not paying attention to him, he will first capture Liangzhou, and then join forces with Zhang Huaishen to expel the Ganzhou Uighurs and Liangzhou Umots, temporarily drive away the enemies in the north, and make the surrounding environment peaceful.

As long as the environment becomes peaceful, and Zhang Huaishen recovers Xizhou and opens up the north-south routes of the Western Silk Road, he will be able to use the spice trade to purchase population and food, and then expand his army.

Twenty thousand troops are enough to defend Longyou, but if Liangzhou is added, it will not be enough.

Once the spice trade gets on track, military expansion will be imperative.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong had almost finished the food in the bowl.

After chatting with Li Shangyin and others for a while, he walked out of the tent and went to the west to watch the battle.

At three quarters past three in the morning, when Liu Jilian arrived at the front line, Zhang Chang was already ready with two thousand armored soldiers.

Thirty catapults stood in front of the camp, facing the Guzang City 250 steps away.

The counterweight box of each trebuchet was filled with stones, and Zhang Chang planned to test the situation first by throwing 50 kilograms of stones.

Seeing Liu Jilong signaling him to attack, Zhang Chang immediately looked at the captains beside him and said, "Attack with the catapults. After the bricks on the wall are broken, the shield carts and gunpowder bags will move forward to deal with them."

"The last general takes command!"

Several captains bowed quickly and then began to direct the soldiers to operate the catapults.

"put!"

"Boom bang bang-"

Fifty kilograms of stones flew across the sky and basically hit the east wall of Guzang City.

Although the catapult was heavy and sturdy, it did not pose much threat when it hit the city wall.

"Aye, they're attacking!"

In front of the city wall, Du Lunqilu hurriedly saluted Dugazhi.

Seeing this, Dugazhi stood up and said, "Let's move the town to the North Gate Tower and let them fight a few rounds to see if the smoke and thunder of yesterday will appear again."

"Yes!" Upon hearing this, Du Lunqilu hurriedly escorted Du Gazhi to the north gate tower.

As they were heading towards the North Gate Tower, the Longyou Army's catapults fired two more rounds, and after entering the North Gate Tower, Du Gazhi instructed Du Lunqilu:

"Call the 72 catapults on the city walls to fight back and force them to use the same tactics they used yesterday!"

"Yes!" Du Lunqilu agreed, turned around and told someone to pass on the military intelligence.

A quarter of an hour later, the seventy-two catapults on the East City Horse Road began to operate.

Compared with the winch-counterweight catapults in the hands of the Longyou Army, their catapults also had counterweights, but lacked winches, requiring more manpower and a larger area.

"Smash!"

"Boom bang bang-"

The mechanism was smashed down, and then the 40-jin catapult wrapped in a leather belt launched an attack on the catapult position of the Longyou army outside the city.

For a moment, the stones crossed in the air and hit Guzang City and Longyou Army respectively.

"Dodge!"

Zhang Chang spoke in a stern voice, and all the armored soldiers jumped into the trench beside the catapult and stuck close to it.

Fortunately, the stones thrown from Guzang City did not hit the position, but hit about ten steps away from the position.

Zhang Chang in the back saw this and immediately said, "Replace the engine and fly!"

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, the soldiers immediately became energized. They placed the launching engines on the catapults, wrapped them with leather belts, lit them, and threw them towards Guzang City.

Because someone ignited the fire too early, several rockets exploded before falling into the city.

"Boom boom boom——"

The sound like thunder rang out again, which made many Umo people realize that yesterday's thunder was not the help of gods to Liu Jilong, but a means of attack by the Longyou army.

But before they could discuss this, the remaining twenty or so rockets flew into the city and exploded one after another.

There was a continuous roar of thunder, and the flying iron sand and wood chips injured or killed many of the Umu tribesmen who were hiding on the streets.

Not only them, but several catapults on the horse trail were also severely damaged, and many armored soldiers suffered serious facial injuries.

"continue!"

Seeing that the combat was effective, Zhang Chang immediately ordered the soldiers in his formation to continuously use their machine guns to fly fire.

"Replace the thirty-jin slingshot, replace the thirty-jin slingshot!"

After the stunned Governor Umo came to his senses, he immediately ordered his soldiers to switch to lighter slingstones in an attempt to hit the target farther.

The two sides attacked each other, one side dodged falling rocks, the other side dodged flying fire from engines.

The thunder never stopped in the East City of Liangzhou, and people were getting hurt all the time.

At the same time, some of the armored soldiers under the Longyou Army were injured or killed by stones.

Seeing the soldiers being carried back to the camp on stretchers, Liu Jilong thought for a moment and then looked at Cao Mao:
"Order someone to tie the black powder bag and the fine flour bag together, weighing 50 kilograms and leaving enough tinder."

"Yes!" Cao Mao didn't understand why Liu Jilong had to tie precious flour and black gunpowder together, but when faced with Liu Jilong's military orders, he always had no choice but to execute them.

In this era, flour is still precious.

Coarse flour is often used to make flatbread, while fine flour can be used to make thin noodles.

Except for festivals like New Year's Day, even the relatives of martyrs in Didao City found it difficult to obtain fine flour.

Even on New Year's Day, each household could only receive two or three kilograms at most.

This is the case even for the families of martyrs, let alone ordinary people.

For this expedition, the army only brought ten stones of fine flour, which was only 1,200 kilograms.

The battle lasted from Chenshi to Weishi (13:), and as the sun was shining brightly, sweat appeared on many people's foreheads.

At the same time, sixty simply made gunpowder and flour bags were placed in front of the formation.

"Zhang Chang, move the trebuchets forward fifty steps and throw these sixty gunpowder bags into the city!"

Liu Jilong spoke in a deep voice, and Zhang Chang immediately raised his whip and said, "Move the catapult forward fifty steps!"

Although moving forward at this time would risk being pelted with stones by the Umu people, Zhang Chang still obeyed the order firmly.

"Boom bang bang-"

In a quarter of an hour, three waves of stones flew in from the top of Guzang City, killing more than ten people on the spot and injuring more than thirty people.

Liu Jilong held his breath and watched the position move forward and be secured. He then immediately ordered Zhang Chang to use these gunpowder and flour bags to attack.

Of the thirty trebuchets, two were destroyed during the advance, but the remaining twenty-eight were still usable.

As twenty-eight catapults threw bags of gunpowder and flour with lit fuses, they streaked across the sky and fell into Guzang City.

Countless Umoths looked up, and at this moment the fuse of the gunpowder bag burned out...

"Boom boom boom!!"

There was a louder thunder than before, but the difference was that this time, no iron sand flew out after the explosion. Instead, more than twenty mushroom-cloud-shaped flames were produced in an instant.

These flames ignited the thatched roofs of the houses in Guzang City in the blink of an eye, and several streets were on fire at the same time.

"The fire broke out! The fire broke out!!"

"Firefighting..."

The raging fire spread in an instant, and the city was suddenly engulfed in flames.

"Damn it, adding just a little bit of flour can cause a fire?!"

Zhang Chang cursed, but his face was very excited. He turned around and shouted: "Go on, throw out the remaining gunpowder bags!"

"Yes!!"

The armored soldiers were also very excited, but Cao Mao looked at Liu Jilong and said excitedly: "General, is the power of gunpowder and fine flour so great?!"

"Yes!" Liu Jilong nodded in agreement. After all, many people in later generations used firecrackers to blast flour, which resulted in "little mushroom clouds".

Firecrackers can produce that kind of effect, not to mention thirty kilograms of black gunpowder.

It’s a pity that fine flour is not cheap, otherwise it would be very effective when used in combination with black gunpowder to attack cities and capture strongholds.

Looking at the fire in Guzang City, Liu Jilong couldn't help but sigh at the productivity.

"Come on!"

At the same time, a group of elite cavalrymen came on horseback from a distance and hurriedly stopped in front of Liu Jilong.

A lieutenant bowed to Liu Jilong on horseback and said, "General, more than 9 Uighurs and barbarians have gathered in the Jialin direction and will march towards Guzang at o'clock. They may be less than miles away from here!"

Liu Jilian sneered and did not take the so-called more than 100,000 Uighurs seriously.

"You're just in time. We can clean it up together!"

(End of this chapter)