Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 357: Chengdu in Danger
"Crackling——"

In the early morning, thick smoke continued to rise in Longyou County, the seat of Jiazhou in southern Xichuan. Countless soldiers wearing ceremonial armor were forcing the armored civilians to leave the city.

The barbarians were in groups of three or five, with two holding swords in the front leading the way, two holding guns behind to drive them away, and another barbarian soldier in the middle of the team, watching over the civilians who tried to escape.

But there were only five barbarians, but they were able to drive over a hundred people like dogs and sheep.

If the civilians in the team did not move forward, they would be kicked and beaten by the soldiers at best, and whipped at worst.

The men had their hands tied by the barbarians, and the women had their necks tied with long ropes. Many of the women had tattered clothes and pale faces, and most of them were insulted by the barbarians.

They were dragged by the ropes, falling repeatedly, and covered in mud.

When they were in a panic, they looked at the men of their own tribe, but found that the men turned their heads away and did not dare to look at them.

Some women, when they saw a familiar man, wanted to ask for help, but the man started to insult them: "Why don't you jump into a well and hang yourself to save your body?"

"Now that we have been insulted by the barbarians, how can we face our brothers?"

"We..." The women who asked for help turned pale when they heard this. They didn't know how to explain and could only sob softly.

Seeing these men shouting, the barbarian didn't care what they said, he picked up the whip and hit them hard, cursing in a language that the people couldn't understand:

"Who told you to talk? Shut up and get on with your business!"

The men who were originally arrogant suddenly shrank like quails, and the women also faced the reality and lowered their heads to try to keep up with the team.

The team walked out of the street and came to the nearest city gate.

The city gate was filled with a foul stench and mutilated corpses were everywhere.

At the foot of the city wall, corpses of government troops and barbarian troops were piled up, with hands and feet lying together. Blood flowed into the water, turning into colorful bodies, which was very strange.

The barbarians were collecting the bodies of their own soldiers, while many of the officers and soldiers who survived hid among the corpses, smearing mud and flesh on their bodies in the hope of avoiding the attention of the barbarians.

However, the barbarians were also very skilled. While collecting the corpses, they would occasionally stab the pile of corpses with their spears until the people inside began to squirm like animals and blood flowed from their wounds. Only then did the barbarians leave the city gate with satisfaction.

The team walked out of Longyou County. Outside the city were tens of thousands of civilians and tens of thousands of barbarian soldiers, forming a huge crowd with no end in sight.

Many barbarian soldiers carried backpacks or single-shoulder bags made of coarse cloth or silk. The bags were bulging with stuff. The barbarians were smiling happily and discussing their gains.

The people of Longyou County had dull eyes and numbly allowed the barbarians to pull them away.

Half an hour later, the barbarian army began to drag the captured people towards the mountains in the southwest, and the team stretched for more than thirty people.

If the people needed to relieve themselves, they would shout "go to the bathroom", and the barbaric soldiers would come cursing and untie the ropes in their hands, and watch them relieve themselves on the side of the road.

Time passed, gradually from early morning to afternoon.

It was relatively cool in the mountains, but the common people did not know why there was a dirt road two or three meters wide in the mountains.

"Screw rustle..."

Suddenly, an army appeared in front of the team escorting the people, but to the disappointment of the people, this army was still the barbarian army of Dali.

"Everyone, stay close to the wall and make way for His Majesty!"

There were cavalrymen galloping past on horseback, speaking a language that the people of Longyou could not understand.

The next moment, the barbarian soldiers seemed to have received a military order. They immediately whipped their whips and shouted at all the civilians to stick to one side of the dirt road, leaving a dirt road about ten feet wide for the barbarian army on the opposite side to pass through.

The people clung to the side of the dirt road while crying and wailing, and then watched the barbarian army on the opposite side pass by them.

Many barbarian soldiers saw those ragged women and, although they had no time to relieve themselves, they still reached out and kneaded them.

The women turned pale with fear, but dared not move. The men lowered their heads, pretending not to see what was happening.

I don’t know how long it took, but when it seemed that even the sky was gradually turning dim, the team coming from the opposite direction gradually disappeared.

The barbarian soldiers in charge of escorting them began to shout and curse, and under their supervision, the people walked along the dirt road deep into the mountains.

People in the team kept sobbing quietly, but what they got in return were the curses from the barbarians, until the team gradually disappeared at the end of the mountain path and the sky gradually turned from dim yellow to dark.

On June 27th of the sixth year of Xiantong, Zhao Nuomei, the official in charge of Dali Qingping, opened up a mountain road and led his troops to capture Longyou, Suishan, Emei, Luomu, Pingqiang and other counties under the jurisdiction of Jiazhou, and looted tens of thousands of craftsmen and civilians and returned to Shizhou.

You Shilong led his troops to withdraw from the battlefield of Qionglai City, and turned to attack Chengdu Prefecture via Jiazhou.

When the news reached Chengdu Prefecture, the noble and commoner families in various counties and prefectures fled in panic. Many people thought it was a misunderstanding. It was not until the soldiers from various counties and prefectures withdrew their families to Chengdu City that the people realized what was going on and fled north.

The barbarian army marched northward along the Yangtze River (Minjiang River), and the news reached Qionglai City two days later.

"What did you say?!"

In Qionglai City, Cui Xuan, who was sitting in the main seat of Yamen, stood up shakily, his face full of disbelief.

The general standing in front of him said anxiously: "Prime Minister, Jiazhou has been lost, and the barbarian army has reached Meizhou, less than 200 miles away from Chengdu."

"Please ask the Prime Minister to allow me to lead the elite cavalry in the army to rush to Chengdu to rescue it, so as to prevent Chengdu from falling!"

"Send an envoy to the Prime Minister!" Hearing the general's words, the generals whose relatives were in the tent in Chengdu bowed to Cui Xuan and urged him.

Cui Xuan was in a trance for a moment, his whole body shaking like an eggplant hit by frost, and then he gradually came to his senses.

"Send an order to transfer Yang Fuguang to lead the army to withdraw from Gutaoguan and rush to Chengdu."

"The Fengxiang Army and the Shannan West Road troops are still stationed at the old Taoguan Pass..."

At this point, Cui Xuan seemed to have thought of something, and looked at several generals and asked, "Where are the troops from Qianzhong Road now?"

"According to the Chengdu military disc, they should have left Chengdu in less than three days. However, the military discipline in Qianzhong Road has been corrupted. If we leave them to defend the city..."

The generals would inevitably worry about their relatives, but Cui Xuan couldn't care less. The most important thing now was to defend Chengdu.

"Pass on my military order. Order Suo Xun, the commander of the left army of Qianzhong Road, to lead the army back to Chengdu and defend the outer city."

"Use Yang Fuguang to withdraw to Chengdu and defend the inner city."

"In addition, have Chen Qiqian personally lead the two thousand elite cavalrymen from Lizhou back to Chengdu, and I will lead the rest of the troops and march forward."

"If we can recover Hanyuan and Tongwang counties, we will surely be able to force the barbarian army to retreat and defend."

"The last general takes orders!!"

The generals had never been so united before, which made Cui Xuan very angry.

If it weren't for the fact that the generals arranged by the Northern Division in Xichuan pretended to obey orders but actually disobeyed them, he would have led his army to recapture Shizhou long ago.

They usually pretended to obey but actually disobeyed, but now that their own families were threatened, they became united as one.

Before he could laugh at them, Cui Xuan immediately sent out light cavalry to pass on the message, and at the same time sent out Tang cavalry to investigate the number of troops and horses of the barbarian army in Hanyuan and Tongwang counties.

The result was just as Cui Xuan had expected. You Shilong only left behind the 5,000 elite cavalry led by Fan Cuixie, and recruited nearly 10,000 barbarians from Shezhou, Lizhou and other places to defend the city. The rest of the troops had been taken away by You Shilong.

Upon learning that the barbarian army was in a bad condition, Cui Xuan immediately mobilized troops from Lizhou and Yazhou, preparing to recover the lost territory of Lizhou and Shizhou in one fell swoop to force You Shilong to return to defend.

All of a sudden, troops from all over Xichuan were mobilized.

Cui Xuan's original plan to counterattack Weizhou and Maozhou also failed, and he changed his plan to attack the lost territories of Lizhou and Shizhou.

When the troops in Xichuan were mobilized, You Shilong led his troops all the way north, and Chengdu Prefecture gathered troops at the mouth of the river in Pengshan, Meizhou, trying to prevent the barbarian army from crossing the Yangtze River (Minjiang River).

You Shilong ordered the three armies to build boats to cross the river, which delayed the journey for three days. At this time, Yang Fuguang had already led his troops to withdraw to Chengdu from Gutaoguan, 150 miles west of Chengdu.

The city of Chengdu, which already had a population of 200,000 to 300,000, saw an influx of countless people.

The streets were crowded with people, and the 8,000 infantrymen led by Yang Fuguang had almost no place to stay.

"Suo Xun, the Left Military Commander of Qianzhong Road, greets General Yang!"

In front of the Xiaoxi Gate in the outer city of Chengdu, Suo Xun, who was in his thirties, wearing Ming Guang armor, bowed to Yang Fuguang. He looked as mature as a forty-year-old, and his words were not as arrogant as before.

After the defeat in Liang Province, Suo Xun was abandoned by Wang Zongshi and sent to Qianzhong Road to serve as a governor of a province.

If it weren't for the Dali invasion of Qianzhong Road, which gave him the opportunity to lead troops again, he would probably still be a governor of a lower state until now.

The environment in Qianzhong Road was not good. Nearly a hundred members of the Suo clan moved south, and many of them died due to acclimatization.

Even Suo Xun's father, Suo Zhongyi, died of illness in the southwest of Qianling when he was defending Dali with Song Ya a few years ago. He was only 52 years old. Although the court posthumously awarded him the titles of Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War, Silver and Green Guanglu Doctor, and Prince of Qingzhou, the dead cannot be resurrected, and Suo Xun suffered a great blow.

Today, he no longer has the vigor and arrogance he once had, and is now only silent and indifferent...

"I heard that there are only 8,000 soldiers in Qianzhong, and the imperial court has mobilized 7,000 soldiers. May I ask how many new soldiers and old and weak soldiers are under the command of General Suo?"

Yang Fuguang did not have time to play cozy with Suo Xun. He needed to find out the number of troops he could mobilize as soon as possible, and all this was because the city of Chengdu was not strong.

Since Zhang Yi began to build Chengdu City in the Qin Dynasty, until today, more than 1,200 years later, Chengdu’s city defense has mainly relied on the Qin Dynasty city walls.

Although it underwent two large-scale expansions during the Western Han Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty, it was not as solid as the Qin City and gradually fell into disrepair shortly after it was built.

Although Qinchengtan had high engineering quality and solid buildings, it was a rammed earth city after all, and was actually unable to bear the responsibility of city defense.

If there are not enough soldiers and horses, it will be impossible to defend the city of Chengdu.

"I have three thousand elite veterans under my command, and the remaining four thousand are all new recruits who have been trained for less than three months."

"In addition, the four thousand new soldiers do not have complete armor and need to be replenished urgently."

In response to Yang Fuguang's inquiry, Suo Xun did not hide anything, but told Yang Fuguang the specific situation of the Qianzhong Army openly.

Yang Fuguang frowned slightly when he heard this, but still said, "Three months of training is better than no training at all."

"There are a lot of armors in the Chengdu arsenal. I can take them all out and hand them over to the military commander."

"The barbarian army will attack from the south and will certainly attack the Wanli Bridge Gate in the south of the city first."

"Chengdu is full of stone bridges. It is better to guard the bridges than the city."

"That is why I plan to give the Zao Bridge, Wanli Bridge, Zao Bridge Gate and Wanli Bridge Gate in the south of the city to the Qianzhong Army to build fortifications and destroy the other five stone bridges."

"In this case, the barbarian army will have no choice but to attack the Zaoqiao Gate and the Wanliqiao Gate."

"At present, Minister Cui has led his army to attack Hanyuan and Tongwang. Once the two cities are captured by Minister Cui, the barbarian army will surely be defeated."

"In addition, I have also asked the court for help, and Envoy Gao of Dongchuan will also take the opportunity to recapture Rongzhou, Zhuti and other counties."

"There are no less than 200,000 men in Chengdu. Although the granaries are not sufficient, they are enough to last for several months. There is no need to worry."

In just a few words, Yang Fuguang told Suo Xun many things in order to stabilize the morale of the army.

If Suo Xun was timid and led his troops to break out and escape, they would certainly not be able to defend Chengdu with only the 8,000 soldiers and horses under his command and the 2,000 provincial soldiers in the city.

"I will obey the orders of the military supervisor."

Suo Xun did not offer any opinions, but just respectfully accepted all the tasks.

Yang Fuguang was very satisfied with this and nodded, saying, "In that case, I will ask the military commander to recruit strong men from the outer city to build the camp. I will also lead the army to destroy the other five stone bridges immediately."

"I obey your command!" Suo Xun bowed in response and then returned to the Qianzhong Army.

Yang Fuguang arranged for his troops to destroy the five stone bridges outside the outer city of Chengdu, and then went to the government office and told the officials in the government about his plan in order to calm the people's hearts.

In just three to five days, when You Shilong led his troops across the Yangtze River (Minjiang River) and reached the city of Chengdu, the Chengdu he faced was already a fortified city with 17,000 troops led by Yang Fuguang and Suo Xun and complete fortifications of all kinds.

Twenty thousand armored soldiers and more than forty thousand barbarians gathered outside the city of Chengdu, with flags flying, almost forming a continuous line that seemed endless.

On the gatehouse of Wanli Bridge, Yang Fuguang and Suo Xun stood side by side holding the parapet. The former had a solemn look, while the latter had a blank expression.

After all, Suo Xun came from the Guiyi Army. He admitted that Dali's armored soldiers and elite cavalry were not inferior to those of Tubo and Uighur, but the number of Dali's armored soldiers was only 40,000 to 50,000, and the number of elite cavalry was less than 10,000.

In addition to dealing with the Tang Dynasty, they also needed to garrison various places in Dali to guard against surprise attacks from the Pyu Kingdom, Linyi Kingdom, Annan, Lingxi, Qianzhong Road and Dongchuan, so they did not have many armored soldiers that could be mobilized.

In Suo Xun's opinion, although the Dali army outside the city was powerful, the only ones that could pose a threat to them were those 20,000 armored soldiers.

Thinking of this, Suo Xun looked at the camp outside the city that he had set up.

I saw that there were fortifications on both sides of Zao Bridge and Wanli Bridge outside the city. The fortifications were made of rammed earth and stones, about ten feet high and two feet thick, with a circumference of no more than three hundred steps.

There are trenches, chevaux de frise, ram's horns and other defensive traps outside the camp, which are not easy to break through.

Even if they were breached, the two camps would be enough for them to garrison for more than half a month, and there were still the outer city and the inner city behind them.

With these means, it will be no problem to hold out for two or three months.

If reinforcements came, Suo Xun could even lead his troops out of the camp to kill the enemy.

While he was thinking this, You Shilong in the Dali Army also took a brief look at the situation in Chengdu City.

"You destroyed five stone bridges, leaving two for us to attack, and set up fortifications for defense. Do you think you can stop the brave and warlike Dali soldiers with these means?"

You Shilong snorted softly on horseback, then turned to look at Zhao Nuomei and Duan Zongbang behind him.

"Ten days, take Chengdu within ten days!"

"Yes……"

You Shilong gave the order confidently, but Duan Zongbang and Zhao Nuomei complained in their hearts.

If one wants to capture Chengdu within ten days, the only way is to use the lives of the barbarians and armored soldiers to build a ladder made of flesh and blood.

But the emperor had already given the order and they could not disobey.

After taking a deep breath, the two of them waited until You Shilong walked away before they began to direct the camping.

Dali's army did not have much food and supplies, so they relied entirely on looting along the way.

While setting up camp, Duan Zongbang sent troops to plunder the villages and towns around Chengdu Prefecture, abducting men to serve as laborers and women to serve as military prostitutes, and killing the elderly and the weak.

With the help of the barbarian soldiers' search, Duan Zongbang quickly obtained enough food from the rural villages around Chengdu Prefecture to feed the army for half a month.

Seeing that there was enough food, Duan Zongbang only sent out the unarmored barbarians to plunder the surrounding villages. On the next day, he dispatched 20,000 armored soldiers to be divided into three armies, with the 6,000 armored soldiers in the vanguard leading tens of thousands of captured men from Xichuan to attack the city.

The men had no choice but to push the Yuncha, Chaocha and Lugongcha to attack the city, and continued to advance towards the camps in front of Zaoqiao and Wanliqiao.

Soon, they encountered the trenches set up by Suo Xun.

The flat ground suddenly collapsed, and the towering Chaoche and Lu Gongche fell down, causing many civilians to be implicated and covered in dust.

"Send these people to explore the way!"

Duan Zongbang of the central army had a blank expression on his face, as if he had known that there would be trenches ahead.

Under his military order, nearly 10,000 men were driven towards the camp, knocking on the ground with wooden sticks in their hands, trying to find hidden trenches.

Seeing this, many men tried to run towards the camp, hoping to be rescued by the government troops, but what they faced were arrows attacking from both sides.

They fell down after being shot by arrows, blood all over the ground, and there was still a hint of disbelief in their eyes.

On the tower, Yang Fuguang wiped his hands with a hot towel and said without raising his head, "The barbarian army may have put spies among these civilians. We must be on guard. We would rather kill the wrong ones than let them go."

"Yes!" Suo Xun agreed with Yang Fuguang's opinion. After being stabbed in the back by the Uighur and Umu tribes, he even hated and loathed these "aliens" even more.

"Are these the trebuchets of Helong?"

Yang Fuguang looked towards the horse path not far away, where there were a number of newly built counterweight trebuchets.

Compared with the human-powered trebuchet, the counterweight trebuchet is more advanced, but due to the lack of information, only those in the Tang army who had come into contact with these trebuchets knew how to build them.

Gao Pian and Suo Xun were both part of it, but the counterweight catapult they used was still the one Liu Jilian used in Hexi, not the winch-type counterweight catapult used in Longyou today.

Although it is just an additional capstan, it can save more manpower and free up more people to use more catapults.

However, Suo Xun and his men naturally did not know about this news. They were only concerned about when the barbarian army outside the city would launch an attack.

As time passed, the young men sent by Duan Zongbang gradually found out the location of the trenches. The generals drew maps of these trenches and handed them to Duan Zongbang in the rear for inspection.

After a quick look, Duan Zongbang quickly devised a route to attack the camp.

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

As the drums on the drum carts were struck by the barbarian army, the soldiers defending Chengdu could not help but tighten their weapons...

(End of this chapter)