Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 361 Second Emergency

"Damn it! Run faster!"

"You murderer, come down and let me take a ride. I can't run any more!"

"You two, you guys are so weak when it comes to playing with girls!"

In the dark night, a team of more than 4,000 people composed of the Fengxiang Army and the Shannan West Army were fleeing eastward in the dark holding torches.

The team stretched for three or four miles, with many people but few carriages and horses, and the carriages and horses were all loaded with armor and food.

Even so, there were still some soldiers who were tired of running and cursed, trying to take a bus, which caused them to be scolded by the captain and the colonel.

"The guy who eats dog shit has been running for two hours, and he has only run more than 30 miles. He still has 50 miles to run to Guankou. He will definitely not be able to run before dawn."

In the light of the torches, Li Changyan, sitting on horseback, couldn't help cursing. He then looked at the not-so-wide official road, and then at the Yangtze River (Minjiang River) and the woods beside the official road.

"Damn it, leave the extra horses to the rear army and tell them to cut down trees along the way to block the road, otherwise we won't be able to reach Guankou at all!"

"Yes!!"

As soon as Li Changyan finished speaking, many generals and lieutenants began to arrange personnel.

They started fleeing at midnight, and Gutaoguan was more than eighty miles away from Guankou. In addition, the official road in this section was only two or three feet wide, so it was not easy to force a march.

Because of this, they could only use this method to stop the Tibetan army behind them.

Under Li Changyan's arrangement, the rear army left behind hundreds of people and hundreds of draft horses, and then continued to retreat.

After an unknown amount of time, the mountains gradually became brighter and the air became colder.

The moisture brought by the rolling river water filled the valley with thick fog.

As the thick fog gradually turned white, Li Changyan estimated the distance and shouted to the exhausted soldiers: "There are less than thirty miles left. Once we enter Guankou, you can have a good rest!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Changyan and Wang Fuyan continued to retreat until the thick fog gradually dissipated. After running for five hours, the Fengxiang Army and the Shannan West Army finally saw the open terrain in the distance.

The river water rushes down from here, and although it is only five or six miles, there is a drop of hundreds of feet. As a result, this place was called the Yangtze River Irrigation Mouth by the craftsmen who built the Dujiangyan Irrigation System as early as the pre-Qin period.

The Yangtze River (Minjiang River) is divided into several large and small rivers such as the Yangtze River and Tuojiang River by the Dujiangyan Irrigation System here. This solved the problem of river flooding into lakes and swamps, and made Chengdu inherit the reputation of Guanzhong Land of Abundance in the late Western Han Dynasty.

It was precisely because of the existence of Guankou that Li Changyan and his men dared to abandon Gutaoguan and instead come to defend Guankou.

After running all night, only less than two thousand people out of the team of more than four thousand people kept up with Li Changyan and his team.

Guankou had not seen war for many years. When the people working in the fields saw them from afar, they thought that Tubo had invaded, so they dropped their farm tools and fled to Guankou Town in panic.

Soon, a large number of armored cavalry emerged from Guankou Town. If it weren't for the fact that both sides were flying the Sanchen flag and had identical armor, chaos would have probably broken out.

When the Tangqi from both sides met, they got to know each other's identities.

The cavalry was the reinforcement sent by Chengdu Prefecture, a thousand elite cavalry under Chen Qiqian's command.

"Damn it, if you had told us earlier that reinforcements were coming, why would we have retreated!"

The exhausted Wang Fuyan kept cursing, and Li Changyan next to him also looked unhappy.

Fortunately, the two of them kept in touch along the way and were not afraid of the other party betraying them.

While they were hesitating and regretting, Chen Qiqian rode his horse to the front of the battle. Looking at the soldiers from Fengxiang and Shannan West Road who were sitting in place to rest, as well as the stragglers who came from afar from time to time, Chen Qiqian frowned slightly:

"May I ask you two, why was Gu Taoguan lost so quickly?"

Facing the question, Li Changyan bowed and said, "We two have led the troops to do our best, but there are too many foreign bandits, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of them."

"The foreign bandits have a large number of troops and can attack day and night for five consecutive days. However, our troops are not many to begin with, and there is no reinforcement. This is why we had to withdraw to Guankou after six days of defense."

"That's right!" Wang Fuyan also chimed in, but Chen Qiqian couldn't judge and could only bow and say:

"In that case, I will mobilize the people from Guankou and nearby to build trenches and station troops here."

"Thank you for your help." Li Changyan bowed and said, "We have a rear army to stop the bandits. I think it will be no problem to stop the enemy for a day."

"We also ask General Chen to lead the people to repair the old pass at Guankou and ask for troops from Chengdu."

"Of course." Chen Qiquan did not delay. After agreeing, he sent someone to lead Li Changyan and the others to set up camp near Guankou Town.

At the same time, he mobilized tens of thousands of people from the surrounding areas to repair the old pass of Guankou.

The old pass of Guankou has not had any soldiers stationed there for more than ten years, and the rammed earth walls, which are several feet high, are covered with vegetation.

In order to clear the vegetation, Chen Qiqian had to send people to dig up part of the wall and then tamp it down with gravel and clay.

Although the old pass was repaired before dark, the quality was not satisfactory.

Li Changyan and Wang Fuyan came to check after resting for a few hours, only to feel that this pass might not be able to stop Shang Moyan's army.

In addition, throughout the day, some of the Fengxiang Army and Shannan West Road troops who had fallen behind fled back to Guankou Town, which made Chen Qiqian doubt the truthfulness of what Li Changyan and Wang Fuyan said.

He counted carefully and found that the number of soldiers and horses in Fengxiang Town and Shannan West Road was no less than four thousand, while their total strength was no more than seven thousand.

The current situation does not seem like they are trying to defend Gutaoguan Pass to the death, and have to retreat to Guankou, which is more like abandoning the pass and fleeing.

Because of this, Chen Qiqian later sent several light cavalry units back to Chengdu to report. However, before Chengdu could respond, Shang Moyan's army finally arrived at Guankou on the second day after Li Changyan and his men escaped.

"Xilulu——"

In front of Guankou Pass, hills nearly a hundred feet in diameter were covered by the Duokang Tubo army, stretching for several miles.

The hastily repaired Guankou Pass was not solid, and the rammed earth city walls had not yet completely dried, but the troops from Fengxiang, Shannan West Road and other places had to climb back up the city walls and garrison there.

"Dad, this barrier can be broken in the blink of an eye!"

Mei Ludanzeng, who was following behind Shang Moyan, just glanced at the situation at Guankou Pass and drew a conclusion directly.

Although it is also built on mountains and against the Yangtze River, Guankou Pass is only about ten feet high and two feet thick at most, and the city is built entirely of rammed earth.

With the catapults in their hands, they can break through the pass before dusk at the latest.

"Okay, I'll leave this battle to you. I didn't expect the Tang army to abandon Gutao Pass and come to defend this low earthen pass."

Shang Moyan sneered, turned his horse around and retreated to the central army, while Mei Ludanzeng took over the command of the front army.

"Build the trebuchets. I will lead you to attack the heart of Xichuan before dusk!"

“Roar, woo, woo—”

The cheers from outside the pass made the soldiers guarding the pass from Fengxiang, Shannanxi and other places feel uneasy.

They had originally abandoned the pass and fled because they could not bear the casualties, but now they were captured and forced to guard the pass. Although the reinforcements include a thousand elite cavalry, what role can these thousand elite cavalry play?
Thinking of this, everyone could only hope that Chengdu would send troops to help, but the Chengdu direction was shaken because they had lost Gutaoguan.

"You pig-dog fellow, why couldn't seven thousand men defend Gutao Pass for six days? It's only one day away from a thousand elite cavalrymen stationed there!"

Inside the Xichuan government office, Yang Fuguang clutched the military report presented by Chen Qiquan with trembling hands, unable to believe that Gutaoguan, one of the three passes, was lost just like that.

You must know that Songling Pass and Jiangyou Pass were handed over to Dongchuan, and they in Xichuan only needed to defend Gutao Pass.

Jiazhou was lost, Chengdu was besieged, and the Lizhou line was unable to recover Hanyuan and Tongwang counties, and now Taoguan was lost again.

Xichuan is so vast, but it is leaky on three sides, and there is no way to report victory to Chang'an.

Thinking of this, Yang Fuguang felt that both he and Cui Xuan would probably be held accountable or even transferred elsewhere.

"Military Supervisor, we need to lead our troops to Guankou urgently!"

"Yes, the Guankou Pass is old and low, and it can't be defended for too long."

"If we fail to defend Guankou, the elite cavalry of the foreign bandits will enter Shu!"

"Military Supervisor..."

Inside the hall, countless officials began to give advice and remonstrances, and Yang Fuguang knew no other.

But You Shilong is eyeing Jiazhou covetously. There are only 9,000 soldiers left in Chengdu, including more than 2,000 wounded soldiers. If they rush to rescue Guankou, what will happen if it forces You Shilong to go north for the second time?

In a short period of time, his expression changed, and finally he said: "The soldier and horse envoy from Qianzhong Road is less than 30 miles away from Guankou. Let's wait for the military report from the soldier and horse envoy before we speak."

After hearing Yang Fuguang's words, everyone remembered that there were still Suo Xun's three thousand soldiers.

Although they did not have any expectations for Suo Xun, they still hoped that Suo Xun could join forces with Li Changyan and others to stop Shang Moyan's troops.

"Okay, I will report this to the court. Before that, I need to recruit at least 10,000 soldiers in Chengdu. Even if it's just a few days of training, as long as they can defend the city, it will be fine."

Yang Fuguang's words made everyone feel uneasy. It was obvious that Yang Fuguang thought Guankou was difficult to defend and had turned his attention to defending Chengdu.

Indeed, as long as the city of Chengdu was not lost, the situation in Xichuan could still be controlled.

Even if the imperial court wanted to convict him, the most they would do was to transfer officials from Xichuan one after another and replace them with a new group of officials to try to recover the lost territory.

Thinking of this, everyone gradually felt relieved, and Yang Fuguang also urgently sent light cavalry to Chang'an to deliver the news.

As soon as he sent out the light cavalry, some people went south from Nandi and headed all the way to Lingzhou under the jurisdiction of Dongchuan.

"Are you sure that the light cavalry came from Guankou in the west and then headed north from Chengdu to Chang'an?"

In the government office of Renshou County, Lingzhou, Gao Pian, who was dressed in casual clothes, spoke in a slow and unhurried tone, with General Lin Ruzhen standing next to him.

The light cavalry in the hall stood in place, bowed and reported while carefully choosing each word: "General, this is indeed true!" "Okay, you go down and have a rest." Gao Pian didn't say much, but dismissed the light cavalry.

After the other party left the hall, General Lin Ruzhen said, "General, it seems that something went wrong at Gutao Pass."

"Hmm..." There was no expression on Gao Pian's face, but Lin Ruzhen still felt that he was smiling.

"This matter was reported to Chang'an. Given the Supreme's character, Cui Xuan and Yang Fuguang would both be transferred away."

"Even if Yang Fuguang could stay, the position of Xichuan Jiedushi would still be vacant."

"Wang Shi is organizing the troops in Shannan West Road, Kang Chengxun has been transferred to Huainan, Song Ya is stationed in Qianzhong to prevent any trouble, and Li Chengxun is in Qinzhou to guard against Liu Jilong..."

"There is no one available in the court right now. If you don't want Xichuan to be in trouble, you can only think of me."

"But before that, we still need to do some work..."

Gao Pian narrowed his eyes and finally said to General Lin Ruzhen: "Have you arranged things in Chang'an?"

"It's arranged!" Lin Ruzhen said without hesitation: "Although Prime Minister Lu Yan does not accept bribes on the surface, people deliver gold and silver to him through the back door of his mansion every day as gifts."

"With five hundred taels of gold, there's no problem in taking him down!" Lin Ruzhen was full of confidence, and Gao Pian felt relieved after hearing that.

"In that case, just wait and see..."

As Gao Pian finished speaking, more than 30,000 troops of Duokang Tubo also began to attack Guankou Pass.

More than fifty catapults destroyed the thin rammed earth wall of Guankou Pass in just half a day, and six or seven large gaps became its fatal points.

Thousands of armored soldiers led nearly ten thousand troops and charged towards the gap, with countless stones flying over their heads from time to time.

The elite cavalry of Xichuan were roaming behind the pass, fully prepared for the charge.

The troops from Fengxiang and Shannan West Road also gathered at the gap and formed a battle formation to wait for the enemy.

Soon, the foreign soldiers with ferocious faces rushed to the gap and formed a formation that collided with the Tang army's six-flower formation.

"kill--"

"Oh!"

"Um..."

The sound of shouting and killing continued, and the sounds of long spears breaking, short weapons colliding, and the screams of the soldiers in the front row filled everyone's eardrums.

However, Chen Qiqian, a general of Xichuan's elite cavalry, rode his horse onto the bridleway and looked at the foreign soldiers outside the pass.

"Damn it, there are only about 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers and horses, how can there be a hundred thousand?"

Chen Qiqian cursed and swore. He could clearly see that the number of foreign soldiers outside the Great Wall was not as many as Li Changyan and Wang Fuyan described.

By now, he understood everything. Judging from the appearance of the soldiers from Fengxiang Town and Shannan West Road, these guys might have abandoned the pass and fled. They were afraid of being discovered by him, so they were willing to stay in Guankou.

Thinking of this, Chen Qiqian became angry.

Gutao Pass is extremely strong. If they were currently guarding Gutao Pass, they would never have been in such a mess.

If Li Changyan and the others were not needed to help guard the pass, Chen Qiquan would have probably attacked them long ago.

Chen Qiqian suppressed his temper and rode down the bridleway. He asked the two lieutenants beside him, "Where are the troops of the military commander Suo? Has there been any news to report?"

"The general and his men are resting in Tangchang, thirty miles away. They will arrive here before dusk tomorrow at the latest."

The officers bowed in response, but Chen Qiqian could not wait any longer and said directly: "Send a fast horse to urge them to arrive here before noon tomorrow to assist in the defense!"

"I obey your command!" The officers had no choice but to agree. However, the defense line was in danger because of the cowardice of the soldiers in Fengxiang and Shannan West Road.

Fortunately, the elite cavalry of Xichuan continued to charge and stabilize the situation in several gaps.

However, in this way, the news of the elite cavalry from Xichuan also reached the ears of Lu Danzeng.

"You said that Xichuan sent thousands of elite cavalry to help?"

"Yes, Dong Ben, they have at least a thousand elite cavalrymen charging at our positions behind the pass!"

In the front army tent, Mei Ludanzeng frowned slightly when he heard the news, but still gritted his teeth and said, "All troops, move forward!"

"If we can't take Guankou today, we will definitely face more Tang troops tomorrow. Even if only 50% of the front army is dead, we must take Guankou today!"

"All slaves who capture Guankou will be granted citizenship and an additional slave will be given as a reward!"

"Yes!!" Upon hearing the words of rewarding civilians, Qianjun Jie'er immediately agreed, and then returned to the front of the battle to command the army to attack.

More than 7,000 armored soldiers and nearly 10,000 troops pressed forward. The seven or eight gaps in Guankou Pass were crowded with armored soldiers in formation. Both sides climbed up the ruins of the collapsed city walls and continued to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

The pressure faced by the troops in Fengxiang and Shannan West towns suddenly increased, and many soldiers wanted to retreat.

If they could abandon Gutao Pass, they wouldn't mind abandoning Guankou Pass.

"Commander-in-chief, this place is impossible to defend. Let's retreat to Qingcheng County!"

"That's right! We can't defend this place at all. There are still 20,000 to 30,000 foreign soldiers outside the city. We are no match for them!"

The generals and officers were all afraid, but Li Changyan cursed: "Xichuan's elite cavalry is still watching from behind, how can we retreat?!"

"Damn it! They only rush to kill the fleeing soldiers. How can they understand the pressure we are under?"

"The Ayes came from afar to help them defend the city, and they sent their elite cavalry to pick off some of the scumbags!"

The generals of Fengxiang Town cursed at the officers, but did not think about the fact that they had abandoned Gutaoguan.

The shouting and killing continued and the front line was in jeopardy.

"kill--"

As a new round of foreign troops pressed forward, the Fengxiang soldiers, who had long been thinking of retreating, were the first to abandon their comrades from Shannan West Road and retreated from the front line, exposing the flank of Shannan West Road's formation.

Naturally, the foreign soldiers would not miss this opportunity and attacked the flank of Shannan West Road.

"Li Changyan, damn your head, how dare you kill someone with someone else's knife?!"

Wang Fujian, who had only a thousand men left, did not expect that the Fengxiang Army would suddenly push him to the front. For a moment, the Shannan West Road army was surrounded on three sides by foreign soldiers, and it was too late to retreat.

"You bastards, who told you to retreat?!"

Behind the formation, Li Changyan also widened his eyes, watching the Fengxiang army retreat, pushing the Shannan West Road troops to the front, and watching the Shannan West Road troops being heavily surrounded by foreign soldiers.

"kill--"

Shouts of killing rang in his ears, and Chen Qiqian led his elite cavalry to attack, barely protecting the rear of the Shannan West Road army.

"General Li, who told you to order the troops to retreat?!"

Chen Qiqian rode his horse up to Li Changyan with a livid face, only to see that Li Changyan also had an angry look on his face. He immediately understood what had happened.

"Damn it, these Northern soldiers are not easy to deal with!"

Chen Qiqian glanced at the generals and lieutenants of Fengxiang Town, cursing in his heart, and at the same time he became wary.

If you don't be more careful, you'll probably still be counting money for them even after you've been sold out by them.

"Li Changyan, I'm going to cut off your mother's head!!"

Angry curses were heard. It turned out that Wang Fujian, who was being helped by the elite cavalry from Xichuan to retreat, broke out of the encirclement, rode his horse and came towards them with a sword in hand and glaring.

"This is my fault!"

Without waiting for Wang Fuyan to approach, Li Changyan immediately admitted his mistake and looked at Chen Qiqian:
"We have already lost two or three gaps. It is certain that the foreign troops will break into the interior of the country. We can only retreat to Qingcheng County, Tangchang County, or Daojiang County, which is more than ten miles away."

"Damn it..." Chen Qiqian cursed in his heart, but in order to avoid internal strife, he could only nod and look at the officers behind him:

"Send light cavalry to Qingcheng, Chengdu, Daojiang, and Tangchang, and tell them to defend themselves and beware of attacks by foreign troops!"

"Yes!" The officers behind Chen Qiqian bowed in response, and then sent someone to deliver the message.

Seeing that Chen Qiqian agreed, Li Changyan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and Chen Qiqian looked at him with a dark face and said:
"My elite cavalry will cover the rear, and you guys will retreat to Tangchang first!"

"Thank you, General Chen!" Li Changyan hurriedly expressed his gratitude, and then under the murderous looks of Wang Fuyan and Chen Qiqian, he hurriedly led Fengxiang Town to retreat to Tangchang step by step.

The foreign soldiers who tried to pursue saw that the elite cavalry had plundered their formation, so they had to line up and try to seize Guankou Pass. Wang Fuyan also led his troops to retreat to Tangchang County with the permission of Chen Qiquan.

Chen Qiqian led his elite cavalry to confront the increasing number of foreign soldiers until the foreign soldiers opened the city gates and their elite cavalry began to pour into the pass. Only then did he lead his elite cavalry to retreat to Tangchang County.

Half an hour later, Shang Moyan and Mo Ludanzeng led the army to enter Guankou Pass.

Looking at the corpses inside and outside the city, Mei Ludanzeng bowed and said, "Dad, we have too many casualties. Do you want reinforcements from the rear?"

Shang Moyan nodded and looked towards Guankou Town several miles away.

"Send a message to Weixi, except for farmers, all males over fifteen years old should gather here."

"The rich Xichuan is right before our eyes. How much you can grab depends on your ability!"

(End of this chapter)