Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 358: The Southern Barbarians Retreat

"My lord, the barbarian army has captured Jiazhou and Chengdu is in danger. Now Gao Pian, the governor of Dongchuan, is leading his army to rescue Chengdu. Hope..."

"The decree is as on the right. Please obey it and implement it. I'm very careful."

"Your Highness Gao Pian accepts your order and bows down to wish you a long life!"

On the seventh day of the seventh month in the sixth year of Xiantong, the third day of the siege of Chengdu, the court's express horses delivered the imperial edict to Gao Pian's Baidao City.

Faced with Dali's surprise attack on Jiazhou, all the officials in the court and the public believed that Dali would attack Chengdu later, so they prepared to dispatch Gao Pian to lead the army to rescue Chengdu.

Four days after the imperial edict was issued, Chengdu was indeed besieged by You Shilong's army, and now is the sixth day after the imperial edict was issued.

Gao Pian accepted the imperial edict calmly, and then arranged for someone to escort the angel to Yin Hotel to rest.

After the angel left, General Lin Ruzhen, who was transferred back to Baidao City, bowed to Gao Pian and said:
"General, the five thousand elite cavalry are all outside the city. However, after these five thousand elite cavalry are transferred, there will only be more than twelve thousand soldiers and horses under the command of Liang Zun, Lu Ruyue and others in the south."

"If the Nanman mobilizes troops for a surprise attack, I'm afraid..."

"No problem." Gao Pian comforted General Lin Ruzhen, then picked up the imperial edict in his hand and said:

"It seems that the imperial court has not yet realized how critical the situation is. At this time, they even asked me to rescue them in the name of the governor of Dongchuan."

General Lin Ruzhen did not speak. Seeing this, Gao Pian looked at him and said, "The court is probably going to take action against Liu Jilong. What do you think?"

"I..." When mentioning Liu Jilong, Lin Ruzhen's mind inevitably flashed with the scene of Shang Yanxin being killed by him, but what he felt more was fear.

"If our army were to conquer Longyou, we would need at least an equal number of troops to have a 50% chance of defeating them."

"If the imperial court mobilizes troops from other towns, it will probably take at least three times as many troops to defeat them."

Lin Ruzhen hesitated for a moment before speaking out, but Gao Pian shook his head and said:
"With an equal number of troops, I may not be able to defeat them, but at least I can double their numbers."

As soon as he finished speaking, before Lin Ruzhen could refute him, he spoke first: "The current situation is chaotic, and the court has already shown signs of decline."

"If I can take over Jiannan, if the imperial court declines by then, I can still come to Jiannan to escape the disaster."

"If the imperial court and Liu Jilong come to blows, I am worried that Jiannan may be targeted by Liu Jilong. At that time, I will have no choice but to transfer to another place and find another place to survive."

Gao Pian could still see clearly the situation in the world.

It would have been fine if the problem of refugees from the Yellow River and Huai River had not been solved, but now the court has increased taxes in order to protect the Jiannan gateway. This will only lead to a surge in the number of refugees from the Yellow River and Huai River, and eventually lead to bigger problems.

If the imperial court could hand over Jiannan Road to him, Gao Pian was confident that he could resist Liu Jilian, but he could not say such words.

Now Wang Zongshi and Wang Zonghui have become old men, and he is not familiar with Qi Yuanshi and others.

If he spoke rashly, the officials in the Northern Department might suspect that he was trying to split Jiannan and seek independence.

He had to make the situation in Xichuan appear to have deteriorated greatly, and when no one else could be found to take over, he had to let the court take the initiative to hand over the affairs of Xichuan to him.

The situation in Xichuan was already bad enough, and he had summoned five thousand elite cavalry, but the court had no intention of giving him full authority to handle the affairs of Xichuan.

If the matter continued to drag on, Gao Pian was worried that the imperial court would go to war with Liu Jilian ahead of time. By then, with his own strength, even if he could repel Liu Jilian, he would probably be seriously injured. This was not in line with his plan.

Thinking of this, Gao Pian said to General Lin Ruzhen: "Tomorrow I will personally lead the elite cavalry to Xichuan. Chengdu Prefecture cannot be lost, but the crisis in Xichuan cannot be easily resolved."

"You don't need to worry about this matter. Just lead your elite cavalry and obey my orders."

"Yes!" Lin Ruzhen bowed decisively in response, and Gao Pian also exchanged a few words with him and then went to rest.

The next morning, Gao Pian personally led 5,000 elite cavalry and galloped westward.

Instead of rushing to Chengdu Prefecture's aid, he prepared to cut off You Shilong's retreat route.

At the same time, Liu Jilian, who was in Wuzhou, was always paying attention to the developments in Chang'an.

"General, Chengdu has been under siege for the fifth day!"

Chen Ying walked into the Pandi County government office holding the military report. A sand table about ten feet long and wide had been placed in the government office, on which were the topography of Longxi, Guanzhong, Guannei Road and Jiannan Road.

It is also clearly marked where each army is fighting.

"See if there are any changes in the armies. If there are, make some changes yourself."

Liu Jilong gave the order and Chen Ying quickly responded. He then picked up a brush, selected a red flag, wrote the word "Gao" on it, and then planted it in Rongzhou.

"Gao Pian moved?"

Liu Jilong narrowed his eyes slightly, and Chen Ying nodded and said, "There is news from Chang'an that the court has sent Gao Pian to rush to Chengdu for assistance."

"I have calculated that Gao Pian should have received the imperial edict in the next two days. He should move his troops to Rongzhou and wait for an opportunity to rescue Chengdu."

Chen Ying's words won Liu Jilong's nod of approval.

However, after nodding, Liu Jilong still said: "Gao Pian has been conserving his strength over the years. I don't think he will easily clash with You Shilong. The most likely possibility is to go to Jiazhou to cut off You Shilong's retreat."

"After all, You Shilong is young and frivolous. When the army was advancing straight into the hinterland of Xichuan, he only left a few thousand cavalrymen behind."

"If he can quickly take Chengdu, the court's arrangements in Xichuan will probably be in vain."

"But now he failed to take Chengdu quickly, and instead gave Cui Xuan and Gao Pian time to react."

"If he withdraws his troops immediately, the results of this battle will be enough for him to recover from the defeat at Niutou Gorge last time."

"If he is greedy for Chengdu's wealth and doesn't want to leave, then it depends on whether Gao Pian is willing to let him go..."

Liu Jilong's words confused Chen Ying and asked, "General Jie, do you mean that Gao Pian might let You Shilong go?"

"It's possible." Liu Jilong nodded in response, then stood up and pointed to Zhuti in Rongzhou.

"Last time, after Gao Pian defeated You Shilong at Niutou Gorge, although the Dongchuan army suffered many casualties, there were more casualties under You Shilong's command at that time."

"If Gao Pian takes advantage of the victory to pursue the enemy, it won't be a problem to recover the lost territories in Zhuti and other places, or even snatch Tangxing from Dali."

"In the end, Gao Pian did not pursue the victory, but chose to eliminate the old and weak soldiers of the Dongchuan Army and trained 35,000 elite troops."

As he said this, Liu Jilong couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Today, Longyou can only support an army of more than 63,000 people with the help of the Silk Road trade and a population of one million. However, if the imperial court simply allocates some resources, Dongchuan can support an army of 35,000. This shows the strength of the imperial court.

But then again, after the Silk Road was opened, Longyou certainly obtained enough money and grain, but the imperial court also gained a lot of benefits from collecting taxes.

Although the current Silk Road cannot recover to its heyday during the Kaiyuan period, it can still easily bring in an income of 800,000 to 900,000 strings of cash to Longyou every year. The imperial court can also take the opportunity to obtain more than 100,000 or 200,000 strings of cash in taxes, while Hexi can make a profit of 200,000 to 300,000 strings of cash at the source.

The profits brought by the Silk Road from the three forces combined are no less than 1.3 or 1.4 million strings of cash.

The only problem is that 200,000 strings of cash in taxes are just a piece of slightly fat meat for the imperial court. If Longyou threatens the imperial court, the imperial court can still be ruthless and cut off trade with Helong.

Without a market for the spices, Liu Jilian would have to stockpile them, but Longyou's finances would lose 800,000 to 900,000 strings of cash.

Without this money, the government could only survive for two or three years with the money and grain stored in the treasury.

It was for this reason that Liu Jilian wanted to wait and see the court's attitude for the time being, and did not cut off the grain trade between the court and Longyou.

It would take three months for the spices to be transported from Hexi and sold from Longyou to Chang'an.

If he could sell all of this batch of spices, Liu Jilian would no longer have to wait and see the court's attitude.

He must occupy the six states. He has paid so much and cannot just end up with nothing.

If the six states were captured, if the imperial court and Longyou fell out, it would be a good opportunity to seize Qin and Long states, gain the main road into Guanzhong, and then go north to capture Shuofang Town.

As for Bashu, it can be temporarily placed behind these important places.

Bashu is flat, while Dongchuan is hilly and full of lakes, which is very disadvantageous for Longyou, which is good at using cavalry and infantry.

Anyway, as long as he could take over the six states, the three passes and five cities of Bashu could be easily broken. He could completely take over Shuofang and Qinlong and then cut off the important roads from Guanzhong to Shu such as Xing, Feng, and Xingyuan Prefecture, and then close the door and fight the dog, and slowly clean up the three rivers in Shu.

However, judging from the current situation, Liu Jilian suspected that Gao Pian seemed to intend to occupy Bashu.

If this is the case, then retaking Sanchuan will inevitably involve a tough battle.

While thinking, Liu Jilong said, "Send a message to Ma Cheng, order him to lead a town of troops to Lanzhou in the north, without any mistakes."

"I obey your orders!" Chen Ying accepted the order first, regardless of whether it was right or wrong, and then asked, "General, the imperial court has nearly 100,000 troops stationed in Sanchuan. Given the current situation, why should we withdraw troops and horses to the north?"

Liu Jilong said without hesitation: "Longxi is still too empty. If we send a garrison to Lanzhou, we can attack Huizhou or support Linzhou and Weizhou. The location is just right."

"Counting these 5,000 people, there are 15,000 soldiers stationed in Longxi, which makes me feel a little relieved. However, there are less than 8,000 people in Liangzhou, which still makes me a little worried."

"But Liangzhou has the help of Hexi, so there probably won't be any problems."

After Liu Jilian's explanation, Chen Ying gradually guessed that the imperial court would most likely use troops against Longyou, and the probability was very high, otherwise his own general would not have divided his troops before entering the six states.

"The court does need to wait and see, but for now we can slowly intervene in some of the counties in the six states."

Liu Jilong looked at Chen Ying, thought for a moment, and then gave the order: "Send a message to Hu Siguang and Li Ji, and have them lead a town each and go to Fuzhou and Jizhou."

"In addition, I wrote a letter asking Shang Moyan to give up Fuzhou and Jizhou."

"Yes!" Chen Ying nodded in agreement, knowing in his heart why his commander-in-chief chose these two states.

The population of these two states is not large, so it is not difficult to check whether there are spies from the court. Moreover, the two states are no longer bordering the court. Even if Longyou sends troops to take them, the court will not know about the affairs of these two states.

While thinking, Liu Jilong picked up a pen and wrote a letter, sealed it with sealing wax, stamped it with his private seal and handed it to Chen Ying.

Chen Ying took the letter, bowed and left the Pandi County hall, and then sent someone to deliver the letter to Maozhou.

Since the imperial court had previously assembled troops from various towns at Gutaoguan, Shang Moyan transferred his troops back to Maozhou.

The distance from Wuzhou to Maozhou is 700 miles, which would take seven days even for light cavalry.

Because of this, while Liu Jilian was waiting for news, Gao Pian in the south took action first.

"Gao Pian...it's you again!"

Outside the city of Chengdu, veins bulged on You Shilong's forehead as he listened to the shouts of siege outside the tent.

Today is the tenth day that he has led his troops to besiege Chengdu, but Chengdu has not fallen. Dali's army has only broken through the two camps on the south bank of Jinjiang River, Zaoqiao and Wanliqiao. As for the camp on the north bank, it is still standing on the north bank of Shiqiao.

This situation was not good in itself, but something even worse happened in the early morning.

Gao Pian led his elite cavalry to harass You Shilong's elite cavalry left in Jiazhou and Meizhou. However, within one day, no less than 400 elite cavalry were killed or wounded.

You should know that the horses these elite cavalry ride are all military horses bred by the late emperor and king who bought them at high prices from Tubo during the period when Tubo occupied the Western Regions.

How could You Shilong not be heartbroken after losing more than 400 military horses and more than 400 riding horses at once?

Of course, compared with the losses, what is more important is that the army’s retreat route was harassed by Gao Pian and it was unknown when it would be cut off.

It was no longer realistic to capture Chengdu, and You Shilong had to consider whether to withdraw his troops.

"Your Majesty, I, Duan Zongbang (Zhao Nuomei), request to see you!"

Outside the tent, the voices of Duan Zongbang and Zhao Nuomei were heard, and You Shilong said with a gloomy face: "Enter!"

At his signal, Duan Zongbang and Zhao Nuomei walked into the tent and immediately knelt down to pay their respects, saying:
"Your Majesty, we are so incompetent that we are unable to break through the fortifications outside the city, and we have not even reached the outer city walls."

"Hmph!" You Shilong snorted coldly. Although he knew that it was not the fault of the two men, but that the Tang army returned to defense too quickly and did not give them a chance to take advantage of, he naturally would not admit that this was a problem with his command.

"Forget it. The merits and demerits of this matter have been offset. The army will prepare to withdraw."

You Shilong's words surprised the two, but Duan Zongbang quickly reacted and said, "Your Majesty, could it be that Gao Pian sent troops to harass our army's rear?"

"Um……"

You Shilong threw the general report to the ground, and Duan Zongbang stepped forward to pick it up and check it.

After learning about Gao Pian's actions, Duan Zongbang handed the military report to Zhao Nuomei, and You Shilong took the opportunity to speak:

"We are unable to capture Chengdu, and our rear is being attacked by Gao Pian. Our army has no choice but to withdraw."

"But before that, I want you to capture all the people within 50 miles outside Chengdu."

Although the gains from this expedition were considerable, they were not enough to satisfy You Shilong.

There are two million soldiers and civilians in Dali, but not many of them are good at farming.

Even ordinary Han people, as long as they knew how to farm, could help Dali reclaim enough arable land to ease internal conflicts, not to mention craftsmen.

"I accept the decree..."

Duan Zongbang bowed in response, and Zhao Nuomei followed closely behind.

"Go back!"

Seeing that the two men understood, You Shilong did not try to keep them and immediately sent them to abduct people.

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

Suddenly, the sound of bugles rang out continuously, and the large army on the battlefield began to withdraw like a tide.

Before withdrawing, they took away the bodies of the armored soldiers, while the bodies of the barbarians and the Han people who were forcibly captured were left on the battlefield.

In the Jinjiang River, which is relied upon by the city of Chengdu, corpses floated on the surface of the water, as densely packed as fish scales, and the stench of blood was everywhere.

On the stone bridge, mutilated corpses were piled up against each other, and there were corpses with broken limbs everywhere, making it impossible to tell who the dead were.

Behind the rammed earth wall that had collapsed many times and was constantly being repaired, Suo Xun, with half of his body covered in blood, breathed a sigh of relief, sat exhausted among the pile of corpses, and gasped heavily.

On the city gate tower, Yang Fuguang, the military supervisor, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw the barbarian army retreat.

"Almost, this last stronghold is almost breached."

He secretly rejoiced in his heart, then looked towards the Nanman military camp in the distance.

He found that after these barbarians retreated, they did not return to the barracks immediately, but scattered in all directions, leaving only the armored soldiers stationed outside the city.

Time passed little by little, and in the next three days, You Shilong did not order an attack.

Most of the bodies in Jinjiang were fished out by the civilians in the city under the command of Suo Xun and buried on the spot in a corner outside the city.

Three days later, as a large number of people were captured by the barbarian army, just when Yang Fuguang was feeling anxious and worried that the barbarian army would continue to drive the people to attack the city, the barbarian army chose to withdraw.

Hundreds of thousands of people outside Chengdu were captured by the Nanman army and taken southwards. Yang Fuguang could not help but punch the parapet: "How dare the Nanman insult my people!"

Having said that, Yang Fuguang and the surrounding generals also knew that it was already good enough for them to defend the city of Chengdu, and they could not care about the people outside the city.

Everyone could only watch the barbarian army retreat with the civilians, and Yang Fuguang sent the victory report to Chang'an a moment later.

For the nobles in Chang'an City, defending Chengdu City was a great victory, but they did not care about the people suffering from the disaster outside the city.

Two days later, You Shilong led his troops to withdraw to the south bank of the Yangtze River (Minjiang River), and forced the people to retreat southward.

The Tangqi sent by Gao Pian also quickly found out the information and rushed to Ji County in the east which had not been lost.

"General, Chief Long is withdrawing his troops and has just crossed the Pengshan River and reached the south bank. Should we march south and cross the river to Qingshen County to intercept them?"

In the military camp outside Ji County, General Lin Ruzhen walked into the tent and told Gao Pian the news that the scouts had found out.

However, Gao Pian shook his head after hearing this, and looked at General Lin Ruzhen calmly: "If this battle severely damages the Nanman, do you think the court still needs me to stay in Dongchuan, and will let me control Jiannan?"

"I am..." General Lin Ruzhen bowed hastily upon hearing this: "I was inconsiderate, please forgive me, General!"

Gao Pian didn't argue with him. He just looked away from the map and said:
"I said that the situation in Sanchuan must get out of control before the court will allow me to control the troops in Jiannan and other towns."

"After the Nanman withdrew their troops, the matter entrusted to me by the imperial court was resolved. Now we need to make sure that Xichuan makes another mistake, and then the imperial court will make up its mind to transfer Cui Xuan away from Xichuan."

As he spoke, Gao Pian raised his hand and moved it on the map. Soon he placed his finger on the location of Gutao Pass.

After thinking for a moment, Gao Pian raised his head and walked to the table. He picked up an unmarked letter from the table and wrote:
"Pass my secret order and send this letter to Zhang Lin. After he sees the contents of the letter, he will naturally know what to do..."

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)